OMG OMG OMG my theme was hacked!
For fun I was checking out my statistics and discovered that my theme got hacked: the footer and header were replaced, inserting spammy URLs into the outputted page, together with some Google Adsense code.
Yay.
As a result I am now delisted from Google’s index.
Apparently, this has been going on for a couple of months, [...]
Why is Skype hogging my CPU?
I noticed Skype is utilising the CPU varying between 7 and 15 %. That’s insane, for a chat app ffs!
….wanted….game….so….&^%$#…bad….
 by in Consoles & Games |
…so I ordered the Japanese title, Minna No Golf for the PlayStation 3 from Hong Kong today (as have so many others).
Me and my girlfriend enjoyed the PS2 version a lot and, as I’m reading lots of good things about this new one, and because I am the impatient type, I couldn’t resist ordering it [...]
The C64 rocked!
| by in Computers & Hardware, History |
Retro, Commodore 64
PS3 + big-ass HDTV = OMFG
So a buddy of mine bought himself a big-ass, 46″(full-) HDTV earlier this week. He asked me if I wanted to take my PS3 with so we could check it out it’s full capabilities.
And in awe we were! Damn, that shit looks sharp.
I had downloaded a few high-definition movie- and game-trailers from the [...]
Nice kit…
With the current iPhone hype it’s cool to see an open device like the Neo1973. There’s even an edition that includes a special screwdriver so you can really take that to the literal level.
So I was trying to Google a telephone number…
| by in Computers & Hardware, Freedom & Repression, Internet & Technology, Music Industry & DRM, Random Rantings |
…when suddenly Google suggested the following search term:
09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0
Now what the fuck is that?
WTF!?
| by in Internet & Technology, Software |
More software patent craziness…
Quote Of The Week #48
Marcus Brigstocke once said (and this is a pretty well-known quote I believe),
“If Pacman had affected us as kids we’d be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.”
Quote Of The Week, QOTW
Things that make you go ngggggggggg
| by in Computers & Hardware, Software |
So last week, the hard-drive in my MythTV box started acting up — it was happily transcoding when all of a sudden, it showed an empty Recordings-list. I’ve had that before, so knew that MySQL was having problems due to not enough diskspace. Checking the logfiles however, I noticed more scary stuff was going [...]
I just bought a Playstation 3…
The thing I least expected happened: buying the Playstation 3 the same month when it got available here in the Netherlands.
Yeh, well, what can I say — it can run Linux, dude.
My first Apple Dashboard Widget
| by in Computers & Hardware, Software |
This weekend I wrote my first Apple Dashboard Widget because of a number of reasons;
- I wanted to get acquainted with the OS X Dashboard Widget stuff,
- I needed something to control my MythTV front-end because I wanted to be able to control it from my laptop because I so often loose the remotes and [...]
I hate cripple-ware!
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have now got an Apple MacBook Pro to work on, which obviously has its pros and cons. Sure, the machine supports X11 to a certain extent but I don’t want to basically run 2 different window managers that look and act a bit differently. I have been [...]
Yay I got a new Mac!
| by in Computers & Hardware, General |
First post from my new Mac!
Stranger things have happened: a proprietary operating system has entered my household once again. I didn’t pay for it, mind you, my boss did.
*sniff* It may be some weird fetish, but the smell of new hardware is just… well… there is just something about it..
So I’m all happy discovering [...]
Flash player v9.0 for Linux (oh yeah, beta)
I today incidentally discovered the Penguin.SWF blog, which details the development of version 9 of the Flash Player for Linux.
Lucky, because I was just beginning to feel like a handicapped person not being able to reach some information over the last few weeks so.
Shows you how much I care about plugins — this [...]
myth_system(): Error, fork() failed because Cannot allocate memory
| by in Computers & Hardware, General |
Something tells me I need some more memory in my MythTV machine — it was happily transcoding earlier recorded programmes when suddenly all queued transcoding jobs seemed to fail. Checking the backend’s logfile I noticed a lot of these errors:
myth_system(): Error, fork() failed because Cannot allocate memory
There’s 512MB in it at the moment — and [...]
Linux distro timeline
I just discovered the linux distribution timeline.
Cool graph…
Flaming one company and praising the other — while both companies are trying to accomplish the same goals — really makes you look like an idiot.
| by in Computers & Hardware, Conspiracies, Internet & Technology, Music Industry & DRM, Random Rantings |
So, a lot of negative stuff about the PS3 I read this morning. Lately there was some rumours about stacks of PS3s at numerous stores, like as if nobody wants them. Today another story on Slashdot about PS3s freezing up — reportedly.
Anyways, I wouldn’t have given this any more attention if I didn’t catch somebody [...]
Samba developer resigns from Novell
Gloklaw has an article about a software developer’s resignation from Novell as a result of Novell’s deal with Microsoft, yesterday.
Jeremy Allison, a Samba developer, thinks the patent deal between the two companies will be “damaging to the Novell’s success in the future”,
Whilst the Microsoft patent agreement is in place there is *nothing* we can [...]
Want to own a filesystem?
| by in Internet & Technology, Sad Stuff, Software |
I just caught this Wired article through Slashdot. Hans Reiser, the creator of ReiserFS — a computer file system — is currently in jail because he’s suspected of murdering his wife. (Yeh the tough reality is that the moment somebody dies or disappears, the spouse is the number one suspect.)
He was actually already arrested on [...]
The ‘joys’ of computerisation…
Things can go wrong — about 800.000 times.
Forgive my sarcasm, but wasn’t making this type of stuff illegal supposed to cure all of this? *very deep sigh*
The ‘industry’ really should stop lobbying to criminalise crackers and direct their ammo at the ones that are really responsible: the companies that allow for these type of fraud [...]
Force feedback: did I see prior art in `The Incredible Hulk’?
I don’t know where exactly that I read it, but some time the previous year I read this bit about a boat that sunk, in the 1960’s or 70’s, and that it was recovered by transferring ping-pong balls into it. Yeah, it made me think of the Discovery programma MythBusters as well, but it seems [...]
Yay — my patch is in the mainstream kernel now
| by in Software |
A couple of months ago, I had bought the SmartJoy Plus adapter to connect my two Playstation 2 controllers, via USB, to my PC.
Initially, it didn’t work like I expected (it presented itself as 1 joystick rather than 2). After some tinkering and debugging I discovered that there is some blacklist defined in hid-core.c which [...]
VoIP (SIP), XS4ALL and Asterisk
My ISP (XS4ALL) is currently providing its clients with 1 or 2 optional VoIP numbers. I would’ve never imagined I would be setting VoIP up at home, but the mythical convergence box in my living room has VoIP capabilities — so why the hell not? (Why does a dog lick its balls?)
As VoIP calls are [...]
MythTV + MythStreams + lastFMProxy = fun too :)
Yesterday, one of my new colleagues pointed my attention to last.FM, an internet radio station. Well, there are plenty internet radio stations, but what sets this one apart from the rest is the fact that you can specify what songs you like, so that some kind of profile is created. I had already heard of [...]
Pictures of my spanking new `convergence box‘
| by in Computers & Hardware |
OK this was the old set-up, the first three images being the devices then responsible for my entertainment.
The back-end (IBM300GL), the frontend (Compaq Presario R3000) partly visible on the left.
The DVD player, stereo receiver, VCR and additional radio tuner.
My old desktop upstairs as a storage node.
Combined — they looked kinda like this. You’ll note the [...]
My new toy is fun :)
| by in Computers & Hardware |
Well, finally the most important part of my PVR project, the casing, arrived Saturday at about 15:00. Having some other obligations that day, sadly I couldn’t get around to it until the next day, last Sunday. The new kit should replace the MythTV functionality that is now spread over 3 boxes (a backend to record, [...]
Not having anything to hide; rather fearing other peoples interpretation of the facts…
| by in Computers & Hardware, Conspiracies, Freedom & Repression, Media, Religion & Politics, Security & Privacy, Software, Visions |
The title of this post has always been my biggest fear about Big Brother watching everybody’s move, registering everything they buy, et cetera.
See, I really have nothing to hide. I fear that ‘The Man’ only wrongly interprets the information and I get Red Flagged for nothing.
People always thought I was kidding when I said that, [...]
Ordered a new system for my MythTV set-up
| by in Computers & Hardware, General |
I recently ordered a new system to upgrade my MythTV setup. Currently, the back-end (i.e. the machine doing all the recording) is an IBM 300GL. Yeah it’s almost antique, I know, but it works. The drawback is that the hard-drive it records on, is actually an NFS mounted drive that physically resides in another system.
The [...]
Quote Of The Week #21
Usually, the Quote Of The Week section is ‘reserved’ for quotes from famous and/or historical characters, fictional or real. This week, however, I’m making an exception to this.
Last weekend while installing some new hardware in my home-network, innocent to terms like ‘proprietary API‘ or ‘vendor lock-in‘, my girlfriend made the following remark noticing that, as [...]
Web2DNA: Convert your website to a ‘DNA-like’ image.
| by in Arts & Poetry, Humour, Interesting Links, Software |
Through Sean’s site, I discovered this neat thingy that converts your websites’ HTML to a DNA-like sequence:
WEB2DNA will take you website, analyze it, crunch it to little bits and spit it out as a graphic representation of a human DNA.
The brightness of the lines is determined by the importance of the tags in terms of [...]
The Mythical Convergence Box
So, a Slashdot-post links to this article on the mythical convergence TV / PC that seems just that: a myth.
Obviously, the guy has never learned about MythTV: I got a PC running that in my living room — and it works like a charm.
The technology is already there, and peope are ready for it [...]
Amarok: Re-discover your music
Introduction
Yesterday I was upgrading the KDE and noticed the media player ‘Amarok‘. I did look at this a long time ago but forgot all about it. Actually, when I saw the package I initially mistook it for the Amusing Mis-use Of Resources….
Amarok’s main screen while playing media; the right panel showing the playlist and [...]
Sysadmin Appreciation Day!
From sysadminday.com:
If you can read this, thank your sysadmin.
A sysadmin unpacked the server for this website from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went [...]
Knowing Microsoft, their iPod-killer will probably be released “too zune”… :P
…and I couldn’t withhold this User Friendly cartoon:
Humour, Zune, iPod
McKinnon to be extradited to America after all
| by in Computers & Hardware, Freedom & Repression, Internet & Technology, Media, Religion & Politics, Sad Stuff, Security & Privacy |
Seems like the pleads didn’t help Gary McKinnon at all. Because of a dumb extradition treaty he’ll be extradited to the US. For, according to the media,
[..] the “biggest military hack of all time” [..]
Which in itself is absolute bullshit because the ‘biggest military hack’, at least strategically, is the forced usage of Microsoft Windows [...]
Hardware: SmartJoy Dual Plus USB adapter
Yesterday, the SmartJoy Dual Plus USB adapter arrived by snail-mail. I ordered that thing so I could use the good old PS2 controllers in stead of buying a new set of joysticks to play games on the PC.
The adapter with 2 pads plugged in. If you’re wondering about the semi-transparent white plastic wrapping around the
controllers’ [...]
Programming the Cell Broadband Processor
A colleague just pointed me to this post linking to some articles on programming the Cell Broadband Processor (the technology that powers the Playstation 3). If you’re into that stuff you might want to check it out.
I also noted that, although Sony’s marketing machine is slowly being put into motion, there’s quite a bunch [...]
On Bluecasting…
I read this article about a Dutch shop that sends messages to Bluetooth enabled devices. Apparently — this is not spam. Because, by its definition, spamming is only spam if you are abusing some ’service’. As Bluetooth is not a communication-service, i.e. one doesn’t have to subscribe or pay to use it, you can spam [...]
One third of Europeans lack basic computer skills
As reported by The Register yesterday, a third of the EU citizens lack basic computer skills:
Eurostat found that 37 per cent of people aged between 16 and 74 had no basic computer skills and were unable to complete tasks such as using a mouse to copy a file or folder.
I find the action of ‘copying [...]
Sure, telephone numbers, etcetera, will all be replaced by a single email-address
| by in Computers & Hardware, Ideas & Concepts, Internet & Technology, Random Rantings, Software, The Netherlands |
Some Dutch researcher suggests that, in the long run, (mobile) telephone numbers will disappear and will be replaced by one email-address.
Although we can put people on the moon and make money of prolonging the problems of sickness, the spam problem most probably still won’t be solved. Not even touching the privacy-related issues there arise if [...]
Native Google Earth for Linux — beta, of course ;)
A colleague send me a link to this post telling there’s a (beta) Google Earth for Linux now!
Finally, no more tinkering with Wine, which doesn’t really enhance stability and stuff….
You can download it here.
Google Earth, Linux
Windows Server more reliable than Linux?
LOL this (Dutch) is what you get if journalists simply repeat other peoples words and don’t do their own research. The article compares UNIX and Windows servers, and somewhere it says that ‘the reason for the longer downtime on Linux servers is caused by the lack of proper documentation.
Lack of proper documentation?
Ever compared Windows API [...]
MythTV + PVR150 + PVR350
| by in Computers & Hardware, Software |
So, to experiment with MythTV, I bought this relatively cheap Hauppauge PVR-150 to see if the software works on the relatively old hardware I had lying around — an old 530 Mhz, Pentium III IBM 300GL machine seemed to suffice.
Using a laptop, or other machine, as a front-end I could happily watch TV.
But, after having [...]
MythTV and Internet streams (MythStream)
Lately I’ve been actively using MythTV, the open source PVR. Because my FM tuner is broken, and one of my favourite radio channels is available on-line as well, I decided to look around for something that would enable me to listen to that stream.
Enter MythStream, that does exactly that job.
First problem was, getting it [...]
The broken laptop Amir sold…
A colleague pointed me to this site about a guy that bought a laptop over the internet through eBay, finally received a broken laptop.
The fun thing is, although broken, the laptop contains a gem of personal information. Information that this new owner now has happily posted on the internet as a form of pay-back.
The seems [...]
Nike ‘iPod’ sneakers?
The Register reports on Apple and Nike teaming up to create a new iPod accessory: a pair of sneakers that talk to your iPod.
I have serious doubts about the story though (the wireless dongle, the text-to-speech), will that work on a default, non-upgraded iPod?
Anyways, it’s interesting to note that now, not only people will pull [...]
Old Commodore 64 game ‘De Sekte’
While reminiscing on some old Commodore 64 games (excellent reference site by the way), I noticed this 1985 game called De Sekte (tr. The Sect).
Of course, I couldn’t resist reading more information about the game and I noticed this screenshot:
You don’t have do understand Dutch to see who’s referred to in that screen-shot and [...]
PS3: Pretty impressive stuff
I was just reading this transcript of the Sony E3 press conference where the new PS3 is presented.
It must have been great for people to actually have been there, when I read that:
he’s controlling a plane on-screen by wiggling the pad with his hands, using the buttons to fire and nothing else. It looks like [...]
Dutch Texting Championship WTF?! — HOW TO CHEAT
OK I just read this hilarious insane of an initiative to make lots of money.
Telfort, one of the many local mobile communications companies in the Netherlands, together with Radio 538 radio station, are organising this stupid championship.
Wow.
See, the whole idea here is that, somebody on the radio, reads out loud a Dutch sentence, and [...]
MythTV is fun!
For the last couple of days (you might’ve noticed the lack of new posts here), I have been playing around with MythTV, the open source PVR. It is a very decent implementation too, allowing plugins for various additional functionality, such as an image gallery or the possibility to play your downloaded pr0n, err I mean, [...]
Kill Bills Browser
| by in Humour, Interesting Links, Random Rantings, Software |
A colleague pointed out this site and this one, in order to convince more and more people to switch from the bug-ridden and vendor-lock-in-causing Internet Explorer browser.
If you know me in real life, you must have heard me say that I have always thought ‘Mozilla‘ to be the ‘Explora Killa‘.
Any self-respecting technician, which ought not [...]
Deniable filesystems
Bruce Schneier, on his blog, mentions the project Rubberhose that implements a ‘Deniable Filesystem‘.
The whole idea about these ‘deniable’ filesystems is, that, and I quote Bruce here:
The basic idea was the fact that the existence of ciphertext can in itself be incriminating, regardless of whether or not anyone can decrypt it. I wanted to create [...]
A Boot Camp you can’t get out of…
| by in Computers & Hardware, Humour, Software |
I noticed this news on Mac users being stuck with Windows XP after installing the Boot Camp boot-loader that allows Mac users to boot an alternative operating system. Incidentally, I have seen this running on a friends’ laptop yesterday.
Honestly, other than compatibility or inoperability issues I can see no real reason why one would want [...]
Enigma sold for €55.050
I caught this one on eBay earlier this week, when the last bid was about 12K, but it is now sold for roughly €55K. That’s a lot of money for an old piece of machinery like this.
Then again, it is probably worth it, too. If you totally ignore what it was used for, the thing [...]