Podcasting Pearshaped and a row over Madge.

Jan 14

To start of today : A little bit of internet history. …"Linus Benedict Torvalds Oct 5 1991, 8:53 am show options
I'm also interested in hearing from anybody who has written any of the utilities/library functions for minix. If your efforts are freely distributable (under copyright or even public domain), I'd like to hear from you, so I can add them to the system. I'm using Earl Chews estdio right now (thanks for a nice and working system Earl), and similar works will be very welcome. Your (C)'s will of course be left intact. Drop me a line if you are willing to let me use your code. Linus"… Cool huh πŸ™‚ Talk about modern history. Today Google featured a flashback into their news archives digging up some historic news posts. Like this one from Linus Torvalds announcing the beginning of Linux. Its funny to think that the internet has its own milestones in history (such as these ones) Perhaps someday kids in schools might get a historty assignment to find out who invented peer to peer file sharing and stuff like that. Its a cyber world :). ***

In other new my own podcasting adventures are apparently jinxed. Still no luck this weekend in getting the whole setup working. First I had big recording problems (not being able to record the audio comment and the background tunes and jingles together), then the Pc that had the whole setup installed suffered a main board blowup, NOW the new main board won't accept the Sempron Processor. So its off to the shop tonight to get me a new main board and reinstall the whole shit. Alternatives (like recording it on my new Ibook) have been canceled due to lack of Ibook (still no word from apple, its been 2 weeks). Needless to say I'm going hunka bunka with all this crap. But we will prevail. ***

Had a riot over Madge Weinstein when her comment on Adam Curry's daily source code was a bit over the line. She thought Cancer was something small compared to an itch in the groin. When replying on that comment on the Adams Forum all hell broke lose and I had to seriously defend myself against accusations that I was a 'narrow-minded right wing conservative bush-pusher 'To those who are interested : read the THREAD , listen to the SHOW or visit MADGE's site. ***

In other news the world around me seams to be going crazy as people with promising relationships suddenly split up, and people who have been together for ages suddenly call it quits and walk out the door.
You know these things happen all the time but when it hits so close to home its bone charring. We find ourselves caught between the two parties and have a difficult time choosing between diplomatic neutrality and our own feelings and convictions. When family's you think that will stay together forever suddenly fly apart (and it happens so close to you) its very disturbing. Trying to glue the peaces back together will result in getting cut by the flying shrapnel. However, taking cover is not an option either because everyone around you wants you to pick a side. Its ugly and I’m afraid this turmoil around us will only get worse. Our island of stability is surrounded by conflict and we do not want to pick somebody's side or make a stand. I know it all sounds pretty cryptically but I can't be clear about it all just now. Those who know what’s going on will recognize the situation.To top it all off I got blown of 2 times in a row by a friend of mine with the quasi same excuse for not coming over. I’m seriously disappointed. I don’t know what the hell is going on with the world around me these days but … It never rains…

But to cheer you all up , this cute movie about the cleaning lady we ALL want to have. She's cute she's innocent and she's a bit dangerous when you have a lot of silverware or electronics .. But you want her : BO ! CLICK HERE FOR THE MOVIE.

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Giant colliding clouds and itsy titsy computers.

Jan 14

Just a Tidbit of techtalk today, Cause basically its been all techno-blabb all week long. As said in yesterdays podcast : The Minimac is out. I've found this hilarious review http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/mac-mini.ars/1

with some excellent quotes : " A 1.25 or 1.42 GHz G4 (pathetic 167 MHz FSB included), and, sure it would have been nice to have a G5 inside, but it would be nice to have a PowerBook G5 and a flying car too…." "… in the real world, the Mac mini, with the included software, does everything people need, while not doing things they don't need, like becoming infected with mall-ware…" The funniest thing is that TODAY a company released a special PC for older people called SYMPC http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/11/new_pcs_for_old_people/ I'm wondering if this is the beginning of a trend. The trend that computers should be made simple enough to USE. So you don't end up spending hours of your time MAINTAINING and DEBUGGING. Going back to the principle that the computer is a TOOL you use, just like a fork or a knife, without the hassle and the crap that comes from owning a computer system these days. In other news my own Ibook has been set back a WEEK ( frustrated moan ) so I’ll have to be patient some more.

 

Syl and Pretorian have been on a sleep-over adventure yesterday, and I must say it's pretty weird having those teenagers around the house. They are very well behaved and we have no trouble with them whatsoever and we have a lot of fun. Personally I just love the constant bitching and bickering Pretorian and Nyana do ALL THE TIME. I'm always waiting for an all out fight between them, its hilarious. Yesterday there mom called and asked what they where doing. Syl's reaction was very typical : " We're at Uncle Joe's, what do you THINK we're doing : We’re on the computer of course ". It made me smile πŸ™‚ Are we an obsessed cyber-household ? yes we are :).

Outside the weather is very pretty these days. Clouds are coming in from the east right now, and they are these big ass cumuli-clouds. They are kind of low in the sky so you can look 'over' them and see how they tower in the sky. Its like looking at a giant mountain flowing by. One can imagine just lying on one of these gigantic slopes.. Skiing down.. Or just sitting in the sun.. Coasting miles above a busy world. The view must be awesome up there. Seeing the slight curve of the horizon slide away into nothingness. Gazing at the other gigantic clouds colliding and flowing by. Just look up into the sky and daydream from time to time. I wish I had more time to do that. More time to dream from time to time.. Or just watch the clouds go by. I think we should all do that some more

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Freewared Friday :)

Jan 14

Ok , Its been my new years resolution, and so far I’m totally diggin' it. I promised myself to use as much open source software and freeware as i could. And so far that promise has led me to using products like : FreePDF, Firefox, Thunderbird, AVG Antivirus, Freecommander, Deepburner, Openoffice and soon : Firstclass. Its amazing what you can find on the internet if you look for it. Take Firefox for example. I started using it about two months ago, and now i'm SOOOO hooked on the tabbed-enabled-ultrafast-googlesearch-barred superbrowser, i NEVER EVER wanna quit it. Played around with MS office 2003 yesterday and I’m soooo sick of it all that i decided to make the invoices for my company in Open Office this year. Enough MS based crap. Now I know i should not bitch MS around all the time , Its like Swift said : "ANY operating system that we work with as intensively as we do, will give us a hard time". True, but still its nice to know there IS an alternative. Ok , I still use MS a lot (maybe to much) and I still haven't made the big step to Linux as yet. ( using it for ALL my needs) The thing that keeps me on the MS box is that I'm just no good on the Linux Shell. But when i think of it : Who the hell says I can't use Linux from the Guy. Let's say I want to become a Linux DESKTOP user. not yapp around in the shell all night long, BUT actually USE Linux as a desktop alternative. And so far I’ve tried that often and surprisingly it works very well. So why the hell don't I start making' the switch. I'm already gearing op to hop onto OSX (when my Ibook eventually arrives) and i'm not going to go command line on OSx, So perhaps i'll explore Linux as a Desktop system a bit more. Meanwhile I’m getting ready to switch from my exchange mail server to FIRSTCLASS mail and 'Tuuke' was gonna come over and help me out. So I’m pretty exited about that too. The way it looks like right now is that for more and more proprietary MS products, I’m finding better and free alternatives. The list so far ?

Internet explorer Mozilla Firefox.

MS Media Player BSplayer

Outlook Express Thunderbird

MS office OpenOffice

MS Exchange Firstclass

MS Desktop search Google Desktop search

MSN Hotmail Gmail (duh!)

MSN Messenger Jabber/gaim (ok, no webcam-coolness, but it works)

Nero Deepburner

Photoshop The Gimp

Norton Antivirus AVG Antivirus

Adobe PDF writer Free PDF

Winzip Powerarchiver

And it goes ON this way , all these programs have been personally tried , tested and approved. So if you're looking for some MS-alternatives ? Time to make the SWITCH !

Ok , I’m on a computer rant again, but the last couple of weeks have been SOOOO stressful in dealing with this whole PC shit. I'm so fed up having to spend hours and hours in a row just updating, repairing, securing, debugging the whole PC park at home.. I've just about had it. I want to work WITH the damn things, not FOR them. To those of you who are wondering just how many computers i have at home (counting EVERY pc ? ) That would be around 10

1 firewall

1 server

3 laptops (one lame ass 486 laptop)

4 desktops

1 test system

Ow f*** I'm such a geek.

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www.knightwise.com beats Slashdot to the story :)

Jan 13

Oh yes ! A quick update : SLASHDOT http://www.slashdot.com has JUST posted their article about the Mini Mac (Posted by samzenpus on Thursday January 13, @08:00AM) : That means that you could HEAR about the Mini-Mac HERE, YESTERDAY. So we BEAT SLASHDOT IN A HEADLINE !!!! How Geeky is THAT πŸ™‚

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Another day.

Jan 10

Ok , got the first podcast up yesterday evening. Finally got around to
reinstalling the damn thing and scheduling it to boot up every morning
to download my Podcasts, Sync my Ipod and Download my appointments
from an to my PDA (something I just don't get around to manually
everyday). So this morning it worked out nicely and I have all the
stuff i need by the time the cappuccino machine does his thing. Upped
the first podcast last night (thanx Marco, for helping me test it) and
am kinda nervous how people are gonna react. Nyana laughed (of course)
but also gave me some pointers (she is SOOO sweet) and I’m gonna take
it into heart next time I do a cast (probably this afternoon on my way
home in the car). But enough about that. This website is not about
this website and our podcasts aren't about our podcasts.. Now are they
? Ps : my ambition in becoming the first podcasting site in Belgium ,
http://www.podcasting.be/ Don't think so :§. But hey : THEY didn't
invent the PRINCE OF THE POD title now did they :). Ps : To those who
gave nice feedback to the site : Thank you , but don't hesitate to
tell me what you think of the CONTENT.

 

Got an email from my former work buddies at HH-Hasselt ( from the
no-marriage/no-kids club i was a member of). Of course they where
surprised to find out me and Nyana where going to tie the knot. And
I’m kinda mulling this over in my mind as to why we are getting
married.. and its very hard to explain. Perhaps that is just enough
reason. "Because it feels right". I might be a big blab on the outside
but on the inside I’m one soft hearted romantic. We might appear very
skeptical on the outside but between me and Nyana there is a very
subtle and sensitive romantic connection that we hardly ever show to
others. On top of that we give our own interpretation to the whole
'marriage thing'. Those who are thinking 'classic stuff , white dress,
lots of similar cars and rice throwing : think again) We'll do this
our own way ( Invitations will probably be E-mailed, those who have
not been invited can probably follow the on line web-cam-cast over the
internet). Not only the 'procedure' but also the 'meaning' is
something that is unique to us. Its a duality. Its about telling
each other we are ready to tell the outside world we have chosen our
mate. Am I making any sense here ? Guess not. The bottom line is , Its
because we don't need to get married , we want to get married. And its
more about the "bond" between the both of us, then about what the
world around us makes of it. (I can tell you , those are two TOTALY
different things). People who start to push us into parties, dresses,
and confor-mality will meet a very defensive Knight and Nyana ! (So
don't even TRY !) Perhaps this union is about something we cannot put
into words or explain. And that is reason enough : We can't say why..
It just feels soooo right. ( And don't worry Katleen , of COURSE you are still my back-up πŸ˜‰ )
To rest worried minds assured our opinion about children STILL has not changed. Whenever somebody wishes us : 'lots of baby's in the future' , for us its the equivalent of ' we wish you both an itchy annoying skin disease' Not that we don't like children , but its just not our thing. So if you don't want to insult us when giving your new years wishes : Don't mention uterus-related-prophecy's.

 

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Happy new year, site is up !!

Jan 06

Well, she's up ! The new site i mean. I am pretty pleased with the layout and the result. ( Good work D'Shek) However I do wish I had a bit more time to add some more content. But that will follow soon. Its an incredibly busy week ! Haven't had a free night at home all week long. So updates and podcasts I had in mind ? No show just yett. But still , I hope I get around to it. News today ? Well it seams LIVEJOURNAL has been sold to another owner. I used to host my blog there (Swifts blog is posted at livejournal) and it was kinda a recurring problem that the whole thang went down about 6 times a day , I do hope it gets better. I still hit the page from time to time : Especially THIS page where you can see everybody's latest post chronologically πŸ™‚ Its great reading.For those of you who want to check their email everywhere, but don't want to use webmail : THIS is cool , The Thunderbird portable mail client. Runs from anywhere , just install the beasty on your USB stick and you have your POP mail around everywhere. For those of you using FIREFOX , you can even speed up the beasty some more with THIS As always the guys from hackaday.com came up with the tweak. Although it would not try THIS with my ibook !Speaking of my Ibook πŸ™ Still no news from Apple πŸ™ I do hope they can ship the baby out by tomorrow , so i can race up to Aachen to go-and-get-it. My old Toshiba Laptop is sold and its time to pass on my Acer to Nyana. I'm realy curious as to how I’m gonna handle the adjustment. Since Nyana is hot on the (lap)'top'every evening I won't have the option of dragging along 2 laptops when I’m on the road (one Win one OSX) So I’m gonna have to make due with the choice I’ve made. Nyana is also going through a MAC Craze, after she saw the 17" E-mac in the store , she went like , 'mmmmmmm'. So
I just put my bid on a second hand Emac that’s for sale on Ebay. (perhaps the dude will swap it for one of my old pc's) And when you look at it , its indeed a way cool thang πŸ™‚ But i'll let you know how the whole thing turns out in the chronicles of : Newbie in Pantherland. New years resolutions. Well , in Africa people have made the resolution to eat more. In Iraq to fight less, In middle Asia to LIVE more and Drown less and here we have petty things like stop smoking and stuff like that. So I’m gonna refrain from new years resolutions that handle petty things (stop smoking, drink less, exercise more) cause i think we have all our harts desire down here. Its not right claiming to give up peaces of your elaborate wealth while in other countries people are starving. Is that cynical ? perhaps. But in these matters I don't handle stuff lightly. All this Tsunami news makes me even more sad when you hear the 'aftermath' stories. Stray dogs who are feeding on the corpses are running wild and attacking people. And even worse Pedophile tourists roam the ravaged towns in search of orphan children to abuse. It makes me sick ! And on the other hand, the disaster that happened has made me see a side of humanity that I have not seen often, the power to stand together. The whole world appears to unite these days and rush to the aid of the victims. Everybody's making a donation, every country is rushing to the aid. In Belgium you can even send a text message to 3108 , and you donate one euro by doing so (telecom operators are offering this service FREE) We'll also do our peace, visit the Belgian 1212 website http://www.1212.be/

FOR MORE VISIT WWW.KNIGHTWISE.COM

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Wonderfull banana.

Jan 02

Just to point out my thoughts on all the new years wishes : a dutch poem.

Chiquita

Duizend hongerbuiken in Rwanda
Miljoenen Hutu-Tutsi’s gaan eraan
In China loopt de allerlaatste panda
En Chiquita is een prachtige banaan

Vliegtuig stort in zee vlakbij Biskaje
Daarbij zijn er honderd doodgegaan
Een deel is opgevroten door de haaien
En Chiquita is een prachtige banaan

Palestijnen gooien steeds met stenen
Het milieu lijkt steeds meer op de maan
In België zijn kinderen verdwenen
En Chiquita is een prachtige banaan

Tornado eist zo’n zesenvijftig doden
Bij Fokker verliest duizend man zijn baan
Le Pen haat alle negers en ook joden
En Chiquita is een prachtige banaan

U ziet het nieuws dankzij de reclame
Ziet u hoe we naar de donder gaan
Van alle doden vergeet u alle namen
Behalve Chiquita
want Chiquita is een prachtige banaan

Youp Vant Hek.

Dit lied komt uit de theatershow Scherven.

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Hey , your source is open !

Dec 29

Out shopping today i hit the local bookshop/software store and went browsing around in the software section. Found a copy of Windows XP pro and was amazed at the price : allmost 400 euro's ! When i picked up the home edition I saw that that was 300 euro's. A quick calculation , adding office ( 350 euro's) Nero (50 euro's) and an antivirus program (50 euro's) , made me realise that using non open source software legaly is quite an expensive hobby. When you think of the misery we encounter when using Windows / Office and other programs sometimes cause us (misdesign, flaws, buggs) its amazing that people put up with it. A: they buy the soft and put up with the shit , B) They use the soft illegaly and put up with the shit. Now the second group has no right to complain. But the first group ? I would be shitfaced if something that cost me a 1000 euro's all together would be so buggy !. Lately i've been thinking about what a Linux-geek-friend of mine said. "The best thing that could happen to open source software , is that people would REALY HAVE TO PAY for all the non – open source software they are using right now." And thats true. People use windows cause its easy. But imagine you would REALY have to pay for it . It would be worth your time (not to mention over 200 euro's in software-money) to try to use Linux, Openoffice and Tha Gimp. Cause software is so easy to copy and distribute illegaly, people stick to using things like Windows, and for example an illegal copy of Photoshop. But if you where to make them pay for it , they would switch to open source in a flash. I'm not one FOR buying all your stuff legaly, If i look at the quality of programs like XP and so on I think its an outrage to spend that amount of money on it. But I do think that IF there is a way to use an open source program instead of using a pirate version , one should do that. In the past I used adobe Photoshop. Not because I needed the advanced functions of Photoshop, no just because I needed a program to do some image editing. Now I found out THA GIMP, the open source Photoshop alternative, and its available on Windows too. Cause pirating software is to easy , people use overkill software for their basic needs (using photoshop to resize a pic) Plus they stick to what they know as long as they don't have to pay for it anyway. Who needs open source when you don"t pay for your software anyway. Its not right is it. In a way Windows IS open source, because they let you ! Otherwise they would lose their high percentage of the market like that. I for one have made my new years resolution to go "as straight as possible" . Not because I want to kiss MS's butt, NO , because I want to find out as many open source alternatives that I can find and USE them. Letting the world know you can survive on open source ! Firefox, The Gimp, Open Office, Firstclass, Jabber, etc.. you name it , you can find it . FREE !

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White power !

Dec 28

Have I gone fachistic ? not to worry my friends. But I must say I have wondered of the beaten path today. It was time for a change, time for something new and unexperienced as yet. A time to make a drastic choice. It was once again time for that one moment I have once every few years : What laptop am I gonna get for next year ?. As you know , every two years I switch laptops. I sell my old one and get me a fresh one. And since I have had this little Acer travelmate 660 for over a year and a half , it was time to shop around. Before disclosing the new candidate let me just point out how happy I have been with my good old Acer. Its been a great laptop, with a 15 " screen it was a bit on the large size but nice and flat. The screen resolution however was 1400 by 1024 and THAT my dear friends is a luxury you will not have on any laptop. Its great to fitt a lot on your screen. Its fantastic when you want do do website design and so forth. Surfing is a charm with a whopper resolution like that . So to anyone who wants to get a PC/laptop : GO ACER !. And yess ! I have spilled the beans : my next laptop is going to be 'different'. Looking for a smaller laptop with a more limited budget to spend , Its hard to find things that meet your needs. The new top had to be small, compaqt, multimedia capable, light and … a challenge. Now what better challenge is there then to .. BUY AN IBOOK. Yess my friends you have heared it right. In the light of eclectism it is important to widen ones view of the computer industry. So inspired by how pleased I am with my Ipod, driven by the enthousiam of fellow Podcasters and blown away by the sheer beauty of the baby ( I am gonna get LOOKS with this one) I chose to go for a 12" Ipod. Small in size, light in weight and versitile in possibilities. Ok , it cannot be compared to my ACER when it comes to desktop publishing (screensize) but its something I can drag around anywhere (the Ibook is about the size of an A4) Powered by OSX (linux on the inside , mac style on the outside) it should present the most stable and versitile OS yett. When a pc is used to mess around with , you use a Mac to do your work. I know , that is hyped up mac-fanatic talk. But hey check out this example. I've spent months browsing the internet for the right MP3 player, read tons of reviews, browsed 100's of websites , compared , checked prices, filtered out unworthy candidates etc… It took me a long time to find the correct mP3 player. Had a creative, had a muvo, had a Rio , they where all lacking in some way. And then I bought an Ipod. And all discussions where closed. End of story. When I opened the box and stared using it , its like i heard : You have chosen the ultimate product , further discussion does not apply. And its true. Once you buy an Ipod you don"t NEED to discuss it anymore. You have the ideal product. Period. And being so pleased with my pod-buddy, I took the next step and put my money where my mouth is and bought an Ipod. Its not so expensive HERE is the price and configuration i payed for my Ibook. As you can see 512 megs of ram and everything. HERE is the pc price-equivalent. Now let us not compare processor speeds and all that. The one thing I AM pointing out is that for the same amount of money , the IBOOK is head and shoulders above its PC cousin in terms of quality. I will take 2 weeks for the Ibook to get here ( I bought it in Germany to catch the VAT on the rebound ) and i'm very curious how it will turn out.

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May all of us find peace of mind.

Dec 24

All over the world people are starving and getting killed in some war. Peace is a distant speck of light in a dark night of blood and humanity is racing towards its own oblivion within the next 200 years. Merry Christmas everyone ? If you can sit and pat your belly tonight, actually believing that Christmas is a time to think of your fellow man and all that then I hope you know who you are kidding. Once more the clock is ticking down on one of the saddest, most hypocritical and most disgusting nights of the year. Yes I don't like Christmas. Why ? because its become an orgy of presents and "getting". Under the all seeing eye of Santa clause (invented by Coca cola) we spend tons of money on useless crap, give it to each other and pretend that you are pleased with what you get. Christmas is no longer about sharing with your fellow man. We stuff our face with food as others starve, we give expensive gifts as others are poor. And we pretend to sit around the table with the people we love (or the ones we can 'stand') while others are lonely. Christmas is no longer the feast of peace. We are almost at war with each other fighting to get those presents bought. And peace is the farthest from my mind. Peace of mind that is. Why ? Not because I have the troubles of the world on my mind. Not because I’m thinking of 1000 starving children in refugee camps.. No .. They don't touch my soul the way 'she' does.

Who is She ? She is a little old lady, a little old grandmother with sweet eyes and a lovely smile. She is the one i always walk by whenever i go shopping in Aachen. I see her sitting there, At the base of the Aachen cathedral. All her belongings in plastic bags, huddled against the cold .. but ALWAYS , ALWAYS smiling at the people that pass by. Gentle but proud eyes. A warm smile when you put your change in the turned over hat she has before her. She never begs, never asks. She just sits there and smiles. And somehow I can't bear the thought of her sitting there. I can't banish her eyes from the back of my mind. Can't get rid of the thought that with the money we spend on gifts and presents, this lady would be able to survive for months to come. And I cannot sit and eat and feast .. knowing there is ONE person that cannot share what i have. I can banish the thousand children from my consciousness. But I cannot escape her smiling eyes.

So i refrain from wishing you a merry Christmas. You who are well fed, warm and covered in comfortable clothes. I will not wish you peace and happiness, for you have it all… More then you know. If if have my wishes to give it will be to her. That she may find peace in her struggle for survival. That she might find joy in these dark days. That she might find company when loneliness cuts like a knife. And that the good luck might pass us by and walk straight into her arms. In these days when everything is so unfairly divided, I can only pray for one peace to come to us.. Peace of mind.

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