Sunday, November 5, 2006 at 14:58 Yesterday we got back from Africa. The trip was great, but kinda different, because of the things we ran into (literally at one time). Anyway, we made about 3000 digital photos, and shot about 5 hours of film. Here are some samples:
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 at 14:46 Just a couple more hours, and we're off. Off to Africa for a well deserved vacation. This time for something completely different (NOT). We'll be going on safari in Kenya (been there, done that :)), and Tanzania (been there, and done that too :)). After that we'll be resting our asses off in Zanzibar on the beach for a couple of days. When we get back, I'll post the photo's (and a summary of our adventures) here, and on my Flickr page. So stay tuned. Hakuna Matata
Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 12:54 Yesterday we went to Cirque du Soleil in Bruxelles, Belgium. The occasion was a company outing. We had tickets, which included free snacks, and (unlimited) drinks. That helps a lot to get into the mood :D. The show wasn't that great (compared to the acrobatics shows we saw in China last year). I guess we're getting spoiled or something. The acrobatics were good, but the 'intermezzos' with clowns were annoying. I definitelly wouldn't have paid the 60 euros by myself to visit it.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 21:22 After the unfortunate, and premature ending of "Star Trek - Enterprise", I needed a a new series to put my teeth in. A couple of days ago, I discovered "StarGate - Atlantis". A far better series than the older "StarGate - SG1" series (starring "MacGyver") in my opinion. I almost finished season 1. It's as addictive as the "Taken" mini-series from a while back. By the rate I'm watching this series I'll be back on track somewhere next week (somewhere in season 3).
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 20:13 Earlier, Google announced that it had bought YouTube (the site where you can upload your personal videos, and stuff). The amount of money paid was around 1.6 BILLION dollars.... (in Google shares). Since YouTube was founded in February 2005, that makes way over 2 million dollars a day... There are days that I don't make that kind of money :( /me calls his manager for a raise.....
Friday, October 6, 2006 at 21:57 Since the combination of iSync (for synching stuff on your Mac) and .Mac is expensive, and the performance is poor (slow network, limited space), I was looking for an alternative. A while ago (during my PowerBook days) I found a webpage describing a modification of the Apache webserver on FreeBSD Linux. This combo made it possible to simulate the .Mac servers. Therefore, making it possible to 'run' .Mac on your own Linux server. The main drawback is that I don't have the knowledge, or resources to run a proper linux server. So that was a 'no-go'. After that disappointment I didn't bother to look any further. I didn't use any syncing stuff and just made regular backups, untill I listened to a PodCast from the MacObserver. They mentioned the problem again, and it made me start looking for an answer again. I ran into a program called SyncUpX, which supports syncing to WebDav (which uses iSync as well), and lots of other media (network, local disks, etc.). The fun part of this was that I ran a bit later into an advert for SyncUpX on MacObserver.com. So it seems that they had the answer right under their noses :)
Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 19:04 The default TinyMCE rich editor for WordPress lacks a lot of functionality (IMO). I wanted to use other fonts, and be able to change font sizes in posts. At first I started to look for an alternative rich text editor for WordPress, but I didn't find any usefull alternatives. Most of them are suitable for older WordPress versions, and are not compatible with the latest WordPress releases. While I was developing my former blog in Coldfusion, I used FCKEditor. This editor had the possibility to add extra functionality by editting the source files. So I started digging through the sources of the WordPress files, and found the file where the TinyMCE configuration was stored. Although the changes are not that hard, it would be nice to have a more user friendly interface for changing the capabilities of the rich text editor. The following paragraphs explain the changes I made to add fonts and font sizes to the editor. The file for displaying the editor is called "tiny_mce_gzip.php" (located in wp-includes/js/tinymce/). Open this file in a texteditor (BBEdit/Notepad/UltraEdit), or a HTML editor (I used Macromedia Dreamweaver). Find the string "mce_buttons" (without the quotes). It's located near the end of the file. The line that holds the string also defines the buttons / options for the TinyMCE editor. The default line is:
$mce_buttons = apply_filters('mce_buttons', array('bold', 'italic', 'strikethrough', 'separator', 'bullist', 'numlist', 'outdent', 'indent', 'separator', 'justifyleft', 'justifycenter', 'justifyright' ,'separator', 'link', 'unlink', 'image', 'wordpress', 'separator', 'undo', 'redo', 'code', 'wphelp'));This line can be editted, to add extra functionality. The problem is that the file doesn't mention all possible options, so I had to do some reseach on the TinyMCE editor itself. On the website are some examples showing the capabilities of the editor. The TinyMCE website has an overview of the available buttons / options which can be used with the editor. Note that not all options may work with WordPress. I added "fontselect", "fontsizeselect", and "forecolor" to the editor;
$mce_buttons = apply_filters('mce_buttons', array('bold', 'italic', 'strikethrough', 'fontselect', 'fontsizeselect', 'forecolor', 'separator', 'bullist', 'numlist', 'outdent', 'indent', 'separator', 'justifyleft', 'justifycenter', 'justifyright' ,'separator', 'link', 'unlink', 'image', 'wordpress', 'separator', 'undo', 'redo', 'code', 'wphelp'));After editting the file, save it and launch the WordPress admin page and start creating posts with the newly added functionality. UPDATE: it seems that the added functionality removes the TinyMCE functions if you use Safari as a browser :( (this is probably a "feature"). No problemo if you use FireFox UPDATE 2: This won't work with Wordpress 2.1 :(. You have to do the following if you want extra functionality in Wordpress 2.1:
Friday, September 29, 2006 at 19:17 As many might have heard (or not); Microsoft is going to launch a mp3/movie player. It's supposed to be THE Microsoft answer to the iPod, and it's called 'Zune'. BBSpot did a rather rather weird comparisson/benchmark of the two. BBspot - Digital Music Player Showdown: Apples iPod vs. Microsofts Zune For those who don't care to read the test: the iPod wins :)
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 20:48 The reasons for not switching to the Mac platform completely are gaming for my regular PC, and some typical Windows software that I use on my server. I use NewsLeecher on my server to download linux distro's and other stuff ;) from the Internet. There is no (Mac) application that comes even near it in terms of usability etc. The last couple of days I heard, and read some good reviews about CrossOver. This application emulates (or whatever you call it) a Windows environment for that single application. So no virtual machines etc, where you need to install windows first, and then the application in that Windows OS. When installing the application in (or with) CrossOver it looks like the Windows application is actually running on OSX. So it was time for an experiment.... I needed to check if NewsLeecher would run in CrossOver (note: NewsLeecher has not been tested according to the compatibility database on their website). The installation process of newsleecher was quite simple. You get all the same screens etc. After the installation I tried to launch NewsLeecher, and the application crashed with an error stating that "gdiplus.dll" was corrupt or missing. After adding this DLL (copied it from a Windows machine), NewsLeecher started :), BUT crashed a bit later on a OLE error :(. Next thing was to copy all OLE related DLL's from my Windows\system32 directory to my Mac. After this the application actually ran (it started with a warning). I could add newsservers, and subscribe to newsgroups. The only downside was that SuperSearch wouldn't work, and downloading news articles crashed the application :(. Eventhough NewsLeecher wouldn't run without crashing, the CrossOver application itself is wonderful. It supports most of the normal Microsoft applications like Office etc., and lot's of other apps. I guess it's just a matter of time before (almost) every application for Windows can run on a (Intel) Mac. This also means that I need to save me some money to buy me a new server (Mac Mini) first, and after that a new workstation (iMac 24", or a Mac Pro).
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 20:20 A while ago, I mentioned that my ISP is XS4ALL. I also mentioned that they do a lot off things for their users. OK, they are a bit more expensive than most other ISP's, but they offer more and more additional (free) services. Today I received a letter (good oldfashioned snailmail) from XS4ALL, mentioning that I'm able to upgrade from Fast ADSL (1024kbps up/12Mbps down) to Ultra ADSL (1024kbps up/20Mbps down). Well, more speed is allways welcome, but the nice part is..... it doesn't cost anything. The upgrade is completely for free, and to make it even more interesting they also give (!!!!) a new ADSL2+ modem/router with WiFi (worth about €90). The only "downside" is that I need to renew my XS4ALL account for a full year. Well, since I've been using them for the last 6 years, that shouldn't be to much of a problem. An other thing might be that my IP address changes with this upgrade (it happened in the past with upgrades etc.), so expect downtime in the near future.
