Dead of an MCE

Verdorie ... mijn Media Center PC is dood.
Start niet meer op - duidelijk een voeding probleem.
Helaas bevat dat ding geen enkel standaard component, dus dat wordt zoeken naar een vervanging.
Wat lezen op dit forum leert me dat het blijkbaar een veelvoorkomend probleem is en dat je - hoe kan het ook anders - niets moet verwachten van ACER support.
Zonde, ik was enorm tevreden over toestel. Misschien haal ik van't weekend mijn soldeerbout wel boven om er zelf een standaard voeding aan te plakken. Tags: in 't Nederlands, Media centerGeef je reactie (0)

Ikea versus engineering

I'm not a very good developer, you know: I have little or none traditional developer training, there are tons of coding techniques I have never heard of, and probably I'm doing all sorts of things completely wrong.
All the things I know and use everyday are born from my common sense and with trial and error.
That being said, it's nice to find that some of the so called "inferior" concepts I keep using sometimes pop up at other software minds, advocating they are not that inferior at all!
Some examples:
Everybody knows you have to normalize your database, right? I mean, if Ted Codd said so, it's a law!
But do you?
Maybe not always, as Hank williams points out: Normalized databases don't scale
Ah, that's nice to read :-)

Another thing I welcomed is the new Access 2007 database format that enables "multi-valued fields"
Not a new concept, and considered harmful by many, but I use them all the time because they are soooo flexible and easy.

My focus is on "getting things done fast and flexible"
Some people call that the difference between engineering and hacking something together.
So be it!
But does an engineer always have the resources to do that? Resources like time, budget, a proper project description, and even interest?
I certainly don't !
A hollywood example: The way an engineer like Michael Scofield escapes from Sona, wouldn't you call that "hacking something together until it works" ? :-)
(Sorry about that - I spend half the night watching Prison Break 3x08 till 3x13: Yeah! he gets out!)

Peter Christensen compares this to the difference between Ikea and quality design furniture. I like it!
Is there a house in this world that is Ikea free ? :-)

On twitter there was some talk to have a (un)conference on this - or a session on an existing conference - or even a little competion !
I don't know: On a subject I rant that easy about, it's hard to keep my cool :-)


Tags: in English, Programming, ScriptingGeef je reactie (0)

Voie 6

Daar had iemand een zwarte viltstift EN een creatieve bui op perron 6 van Brussel Noord - Taken at 2:51 PM on May 14, 2008 - cameraphone upload by ShoZu
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Dark Dungeons

This must be the weirdest story I have read in a loooong time. haha. It took me completely off guard (evidence that one doesn't read or even notices the top 3 inches of a website anymore, since its mostly useless anyway: it contained a clue though: it's GOSPEL !)

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

It's like eating an apple when after the third bite you suddenly realise it's not an apple but a piece of soap.
LOL! Tags: in English, PulpGeef je reactie (0)

Hij komt, hij komt die langverwachte Waits Part 2

Hehe, de kogel is eindelijk door de kerk. Hij komt dus toch ... Europese data en plaatsen zijn nog niet bekend, maar de geruchten vliegen ons weer rond de oren. België is onwaarschijnlijk, maar wie weet.
www.tomwaits.com Tags: Cultuur, in 't NederlandsGeef je reactie (0)

Half pipe

5 jarige dochter tekent een half pipe met skater op haar tekenbord in de auto. Waar heeft ze dat nu weer vandaan ? "zelf bedacht" zegt ze. - Taken at 11:32 AM on May 01, 2008 - cameraphone upload by ShoZu
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Trip

And I'm off to the Eifel region in Germany.
Like every average belgian in every average family, I'll be spending this long weekend abroad.
The perfect oportunity to geotag some pictures.
See you all next week! Tags: in English, LifelogGeef je reactie (0)

Twistory with a twist

For some time now, I was looking for some fine decoration to enlighten our freshly painted white walls.
I'm a DIY-guy - and that includes the things I like to put on the wall. (Next to the sometimes huge paintings of the kids)
I don't want to call it art - and most certainly not ART - but more like "expression"
But what?
It should be abstract - yet meaningful
It should be playful - yet not too swirly
It should be colorful - but not too much
It should be about me - yet not too geeky in an obvious way
It should be about the idea - not the craft of making it.
a bit like Conceptual Art - but without the big theories, after all .. I hardly take myself seriously that often.

Returning from mobilewebcamp with a head full buzzing ideas - I was fiddling around with the excellent Twistory from Tijs Vrolix.
I made a quick and dirty iCalender parser in asp/VBscript last year to display an Outlook year schedule on a school website, so I tweaked the script somewhat to display the twistory iCalendar output.
Great! an overview of all ones tweets of a full year on one calendar page. Maybe interesting for some future project.

And then it hit me: that's it!
I really like twitter, and it's the perfect not-too-serious input for some graphical views.

The plan: After 1 year of twittering, I'll collect the whole bunch in a 1-year calendar view.
The number of tweets a day get a color, the more tweets, the darker the color.
So you get a grid of colored blocks that represent a full year of your life.
If I would look at it - I'll see that dark spot and remember - Ah yes! that was the webcamp-day - great fun!
Or that was the week I didn't twitter because I was walking the nevada desert .. or something.
Perfect! Geeky, but only if you know what it means and - very important - not to be taken too seriously.
Twitter Art !



Of course twistory has to run for some time to collect data, and mine is only 4 days old. Tijs' twistory goes back 1 month so let's take that as example: week-view, month-view, week-view with less detail, coloured view (which will grow in time)
It's there for your enjoyment - works with all twistory accounts, or with any other iCalendar data for that matter (so you could graphicalise your outlook) - or, as it was meant to do: view your entire twitter backlog on a simple page.

http://www.stef.be/twistoryviewer/



I'll post the iCalendar parsing script after I cleaned it up (a bit)
Any nice ideas for other usages? lemme know! Tags: Cultuur, Graphics, in English, Scripting, Twitter, Web 2.0Geef je reactie (1)

Slides Mobilewebcamp Hasselt

Presentation:
User Generated content for and on Mobile Devices *Flash Lite*
Mobilewebcamp
April 26th 2008
Hasselt


Demo: A drawing application for your blog that also works on your touchscreen mobile phone.


Presentation slides and example files are available at this location.
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Mobile webcamp demo

Hieronder tekenen en als antwoord posten!

(Demo van een tekenapplicatie in Flash Lite 2 dat ook op je touchscreen telefoon werkt)

Steffest - 26/04/2008 14:00:01

Tags: Gadgets, in 't Nederlands, Mobile, ProgrammingGeef je reactie (3)

 

Mobilewebcamp

Tot morgen allemaal op Mobilewebcamp ! Tags: Blogging, in 't Nederlands, MobileGeef je reactie (0)

Second Life Mobile

The most exiting Second Life news in AGES!



I can't wait to try this one out! I really hope Vollee can deliver what it promises. Tags: in English, Mobile, Video, Virtual WorldsGeef je reactie (0)