BlogMusik

Heh :-)
This is some great use of search-engine result mash-ups:

http://www.blogmusik.net/

Do some clever google-querying (for example -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3) +”artist name” )
Slap on a nice flash interface, and Wham:
you got a streaming music app that makes a HUGE music-libary instantly available, while using other peoples bandwith, and without doing something illegal ...

Brilliant !

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Second Life issues

Ouch!!
Massive security breach in Second Life.
As a result they have reset over 650.000 account passwords.

Man, that's a developers nightmare! I hope they have deployed an extra army of support personel ...

They call it "a zero-day exploit of third party web-software"
If it was a zero-day exploit, why took it 5 days to discover and fix the problem?
Web based exploits are nearly impossible to predict, but once known, they should be fixed in a few hours. Especially in huge online environments like Second Life. Geef je reactie (3)

Zoooo leuk

Citaat van de dag:

Het is hier zo leuk dat ik er bijna niets van zie.

Dixit - Tommy van Sesamstraat

En wie meer wil weten moet het cd-tje maar beluisteren: het blijft geniaal. Geef je reactie (0)

Zune

An article in Wired predicts the failure of Microsofts' forthcoming Zune Media player.
While they probably are right, the Zune won't be succesfull, it will be for all the wrong reasons ...
The dominance of the Ipod wont be broken, and why? because no single player can compete with the complete control Apple had over the whole line: content - distribution - store - player.
and ... worst of all: complete control AFTER the sale.
a quote from the article: "New features, no matter what's promised, will likely not convince people to abandon their little white boxes -- especially since none of the billions of purchased iTunes songs will play on whatever Microsoft releases."

As a matter of fact: no Itunes song will play on any other mobile player then an Ipod.
I can't wrap my mind around the fact that this doesn't seem to bother anyone.
Apple wants it both ways: They sell you the song. But do they? no, you can only use it with their hardware ... That's not selling, that's giving it in license ... as long as you want to listen to your songs on the go, you'll have to have an Ipod. The lifespan of an Ipod is something around 4 years, so if you want to keep listening to your songs and be mobile, you will have to keep buying new Ipods once a while ...

this is bad ... very bad.

And people are shouting that Microsoft is evil ...

I completely don't get this. This is one of the reasons I really really really dislike Apple. Even in such a way I will never ever buy an Apple product in my life ...
(And for people wondering, I can easily give heaps of other examples why Apple is yuk.)


Smal updaten in 15/09/2006:
Hmm: Zune appears to have some drooling features ...
look at this and this...
VERY slick !!! Geef je reactie (0)

Virtual Vega

a perfect combination:
On the 3th of august, Suzanne Vega will perform live in Second Life !!!
Really really cool !!!!
Just an example of the power of Second Life.
I'm telling you: things like this wil get more and more common: Virtual worlds will get richer and richer: Meetings will be held there, E-learning courses will be deployed, games will played, inventions will be caressed ...

It won't be long before the big media-companies will jump on this: allready there are people streaming their live TV-signal into Second Life, using a slingbox or wathever ...
I watched the Prison Break finale in Second Life with a friend, in real time !!!
the USA cable-companies will get nuts over this ... Geef je reactie (0)

This will cool you down !

Man ... It's hot ... really ... 34 degrees Celcius ... few ...

A good thing there's Ze Frank !!!!
This guy is so cool ... instant refreshment !
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OMG - flash is skyrocketing again

The last few months I slacked a bit in following the most recent flash-developers.

Shame on me: I missed out on some major cool stuff !!!
http://blog.andre-michelle.com/
Flash player 9is available ... Action Script 3 promises developers-heaven ... (check out the Commodore 64 emulator written in flash ... drooooool !!!)



Ouch .... After installing flash player 9, the framerate of most cpu and script intensive routines dropped with 50% Geef je reactie (0)

Finally a word towards my first online life :-)

If you are wondering where I'm wandering these days: come and meet me at second life!
I've been active for about a year now in Second Life, but things are really shifting into 5th gear.
I teamed-up with the lovely Miss Tanith Newt to do some virtual photography.
Great stuff! check her out at www.tanithnext.com or come and find us in Second life.

Lots and lots and lots is allready being said about that platform, but it still isn't enough: this world is truely and deeply amazing! I honestly am in awe over the creativity and "realness" being unleashed by the residents.
This world has almost no rules, and almost no consequences of ones actions, so you would expect this to turn sour very fast and very bad, but think again ... resisdents are finding a admirible balance between freedom to do what you want, and self regulation. With minimal top-down interference, this is one fine example of how thousands of people automatically form a social network that keeps itself floating: lazy people are getting bored and leave after a few days, the most annoying people get banned and find an island for themselves to do their thing ... Content creators keep their intellectual property and make some money ...

Brilliant !!!!



@17.54: I just missed my train home ... Luckely there's a Wireles network signal flaoting in the air in this tiny trainstation :-) I'm typing this on my new(ish) samsung Q1 UMPC , on my also newish Thinkoutside foldable bluetooth keyboard.
Man ... this is geek-heaven !!! Geef je reactie (0)

Zomermedia

tijdens deze warme komkommermaanden wordt er vooral veel hersampled op de radio en tv, en dat is niet altijd slecht!

Heel de zomer lang op woensdagmiddag: herhalingen van 'De Sample Minds': Staat mee aan de top van de beste radio ooit gemaakt!

Het traceren van covers interesseert me altijd wel.
Doet me eraan denken dat ik nog altijd mijn jaaroverzicht van "My Funny Valentine" covers eens online moet zetten (jawel: 365 verschilende versies !!!) en natuurlijk het archief Tom Waits covers ... Geef je reactie (0)

A few more weeks

Expansys is taking pre-orders for the Samsung Q1 UMPC - the price for Belgium seems to add to €1,184.95.
The eo UMPC v7110 is scheduled to ship in the last week of April for $999

I tend to opt for the Q1 because of its onboard VGA-out and Ethernet, but we'll see if some more devices will appear in the next few weeks.
I have to admit the Q1 won't win any design prices and battery life will be disappointing, but heck ... These kind of devices will take a few years to mature, but in the meantime the Q1 will do.

A few more weeks, not only for the Q1, but also for the "prison break" finale. Man - that show is really awesome. I watched the first 16 episodes almost non-stop, but now I'm stuck ... the show airs on Monday, so I know allready how my Tuesday breakfast will taste the next 4 weeks :-)
episode 16 was available on the net a few days BEFORE it was aired! But I don't think to finale will be leaked this way, especially because season 2 is allready in production. (Season 2 will follow the "Man Hunt" after the break-out) Geef je reactie (0)

Sad Sad Sad

I always try to see the postive side of things, I really do, but I really hate the huffing and puffing "look-at-me-can't-you-see how-great-I-am" twats that will try everything to get some attention without ever delivering something usefull.

OK, I'm talking about this Micheal Robertson guy (yeah yeah: mp3.com, Lindows, ...) launching an online MS Word-killer ... ajaxwrite (Firefox only !)
Yeah right, come on ...
This is a very very basic online texteditor, there are heaps of better alternatives available. People who know me also know I'm somewhat of an online word-processor developer geek, and I know what I'm talking about: ajaxwrite sucks donkeyballs.
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Software patents supposed to be a good thing?

Ok, The IE7 quircks are fixed, and thank god you can turn that cleartype rendering off, so IE7 beta2 is back on my system.

Great shock: All the flash objects are inactive by default, you have to click on them to make them active! WTF????

Turns out this is due to a software patent by eolas which sued Microsoft for embedding objects directly into the html ...
Jeez, yet another example of the brainless stupidity of the software patent system.
Wasn't that supposed to be a good thing?
It seems that most software patents are used to slow down technical progress.

Luckily, there's a quick fix available, but it still requires me to update about a thousand webpages ...
No Fun ! Geef je reactie (0)