brain tags Je Maintiendrai

In the Jukebox: PoelsGiessen

There is new music available in the jukebox: Allermooiste Fout from Poels & Giessen. You have 96 hours to download it. Enjoy it!

200 Things

Yet another meme. It came here via Realization, Big Pink Cookie and Jay Allen. I have highlighted the items that apply to me.

N.B.: Why am I the first to make this an Ordered List?

• Bought everyone in the pub a drink
• Swam with wild dolphins
• Climbed a mountain
• Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
• Been inside the Great Pyramid
• Held a tarantula.
• Taken a candlelit bath with someone
• Said ‘I love you’ and meant it
• Hugged a tree
• Done a striptease
• Bungee jumped
• Visited Paris
• Watched a lightning storm at sea
• Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
• Seen the Northern Lights
• Gone to a huge sports game
• Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
• Grown and eaten your own vegetables
• Touched an iceberg
• Slept under the stars
• Changed a baby’s diaper
• Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
• Watched a meteor shower
• Gotten drunk on champagne
• Given more than you can afford to charity
• Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
• Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
• Had a food fight
• Bet on a winning horse
• Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
• Asked out a stranger
• Had a snowball fight
• Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
• Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
• Held a lamb
• Enacted a favorite fantasy
• Taken a midnight skinny dip
• Taken an ice cold bath
• Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
• Seen a total eclipse
• Ridden a roller coaster
• Hit a home run
• Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
• Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
• Adopted an accent for an entire day
• Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
• Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
• Had two hard drives for your computer
• Visited all 50 states
• Loved your job for all accounts
• Taken care of someone who was shit faced
• Had enough money to be truly satisfied (money != satisfaction)
• Had amazing friends
• Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
• Watched wild whales
• Stolen a sign
• Backpacked in Europe
• Taken a road-trip
• Rock climbing
• Lied to foreign government’s official in that country to avoid notice
• Midnight walk on the beach
• Sky diving
• Visited Ireland
• Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
• In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
• Visited Japan
• Benchpressed your own weight
• Milked a cow
• Alphabetized your records
• Pretended to be a superhero
• Sung karaoke
• Lounged around in bed all day
• Posed nude in front of strangers
• Scuba diving
• Got it on to “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye
• Kissed in the rain
• Played in the mud
• Played in the rain
• Gone to a drive-in theater
• Done something you should regret, but don’t regret it.
• Visited the Great Wall of China
• Discovered that someone who’s not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
• Dropped Windows in favor of something better
• Started a business
• Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
• Toured ancient sites
• Taken a martial arts class
• Swordfought for the honor of a woman
• Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
• Gotten married
• Been in a movie
• Crashed a party
• Loved someone you shouldn’t have
• Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
• Gotten divorced
• Had sex at the office
• Gone without food for 5 days
• Made cookies from scratch
• Won first prize in a costume contest
• Ridden a gondola in Venice
• Gotten a tattoo
• Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
• Rafted the Snake River
• Been on television news programs as an “expert”
• Got flowers for no reason
• Masturbated in a public place
• Got so drunk you don’t remember anything
• Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
• Performed on stage
• Been to Las Vegas
• Recorded music
• Eaten shark
• Had a one-night stand
• Gone to Thailand
• Seen Siouxsie live
• Bought a house
• Been in a combat zone
• Buried one/both of your parents
• Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
• Been on a cruise ship
• Spoken more than one language fluently
• Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
• Bounced a check
• Performed in Rocky Horror
• Read — and understood — your credit report
• Raised children
• Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
• Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
• Created and named your own constellation of stars
• Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
• Found out something significant that your ancestors did
• Called or written your Congress person
• Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
• …more than once? - More than thrice?
• Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
• Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
• Had an abortion or your female partner did
• Had plastic surgery
• Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
• Wrote articles for a large publication
• Lost over 100 pounds
• Held someone while they were having a flashback
• Piloted an airplane
• Petted a stingray
• Broken someone’s heart
• Helped an animal give birth
• Been fired or laid off from a job
• Won money on a T.V. game show
• Broken a bone
• Killed a human being
• Gone on an African photo safari
• Ridden a motorcycle
• Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
• Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
• Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
• Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
• Ridden a horse
• Had major surgery
• Had sex on a moving train
• Had a snake as a pet
• Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
• Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
• Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
• Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
• Visited all 7 continents
• Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
• Eaten kangaroo meat
• Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
• Been a sperm or egg donor
• Eaten sushi
• Had your picture in the newspaper
• Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
• Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
• Gotten someone fired for their actions
• Gone back to school
• Parasailed
• Changed your name
• Petted a cockroach
• Eaten fried green tomatoes
• Read The Iliad
• Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
• Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them.
• …and gotten 86—ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
• Taught yourself an art from scratch
• Killed and prepared an animal for eating
• Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
• Skipped all your school reunions
• Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
• Been elected to public office
• Written your own computer language
• Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
• Had to put someone you love into hospice care
• Built your own PC from parts
• Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
• Had a booth at a street fair
• Dyed your hair
• Been a DJ
• Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
• Written your own role playing game
• Been arrested

In the Jukebox: Green Day

Nick Bradbury likes them, so I put Green Day in the jukebox. For your ears only: Extraordinary Girl. As usual, you have 4 days to listen.

Using my PalmOne Zire 31 as flash drive

The PalmOne Zire 31 comes with a SD slot and a default —small— card of 16 Mb. It’s basic use is to put MP3 songs on it, to be played with the RealOne player. Putting files on the SD card is very easy; you only have to drag the file to the QuickInstall icon, and the next time you synchronize it will put the file on the card.

However, you can only access the file from the Palm, there is no way to copy it back to a PC. I would like such a function, to keep some important documents with me, which I can access from any PC.

Therefore I was really happy when I found Card Export II. This little application emulates a USB mass storage device on the Palm, so you can access it as a flash drive. But after installing it, I received an error message when connecting to my PC: Cannot open USB port 0307. I e-mailed the Softick support department, and two days later they presented a new version, which also works on the PalmOne Zire 31. Great!

Video editing problems

The past few weeks I have been working myself into a completely new world: video editing. It all started with the camera we received this spring. Of course we took it with us on holidays, and back home we wondered what to do with the tapes. They contained some nice material, but also a lot of ‘crap’ produced when trying out the functions of the camera. I wanted to edit the video, and copy the result to a DVD for easy play back.

So I installed the tools that came with the camera on my PC, and connected it to an USB port, only to find out that the software is useless and that USB only supports low quality video. After looking around on the internet a little bit I ordered Pinnacle Studio DV, a software suits that comes with a FireWire (IEEE-1394) PCI-card.

After installing the card, I set to work: I copied the tapes to my hard disk, and selected the scenes to be included. I made some dark scenes a little bit lighter, and adjusted the audio levels. After adding some smooth transitions and background music my video was ready for DVD. I set my PC to render for a few hours, and the next morning I had… an error message! I figured that it must be a full disk, so I cleaned up the disk and set it to render again. The next morning, I found the same error at the exactly same scene; a photo I included in the video.

After a little bit looking around, I found a log file, giving me a more detailed error message: Max Video Bitrate:8494000 for disc output. Mmmm. bit rate, that must have something to do with data throughput. Since the problem appeared in a photo, I decided to increase the JPG compression of the file and give it another try. Half a day later I found the same rendering error again. I was getting frustrated, and started to search on the internet, without results. Then I looked in the configuration of Pinnacle Studio, and saw that you could configure the bit rate for DVDs. It was set at automatically, which gave me 60 minutes of video per DVD. Since the error message mentioned a bit rate a little bit above 8Mb, I fixed the bit rate to 8Mb, and let my PC work again… with the same result as before. Now, I lowered it to 7Mb, and pushed the Create button again. In a few hours I will know whether that has solved the problem, but I have a bad feeling about it…

[Update 2004.10.06]: I was right, the error is still there. I did a short test with a project containing only the photos involved, and it rendered correctly. It’s time to see how good the support department of Pinnacle is.

In the Jukebox: Heideroosjes

To get you all through the weekend, I placed some Dutch punk rock in the jukebox: We’re All Fucked Up from De Heideroosjes. Enjoy it!

Dooie Donders Club

The Dooie Donders Club is an infamous club in Harmelen, formed by four self proclaimed brothers. Until some years ago, they had a nice web site with plastic ducks and other toys as decoration. I made this site using Microsoft Frontpage, and maintained it for some years. It contained stories about the activities of this club, which had its highlight in 2000, with an appearance in the Dutch men magazine the Panorama and the production of their CD Dagobert, de heerser hier. Shortly after, the site disappeared, and the club became dormant.

Last week I accidently found the text published in the Panorama, and thought that it was a pity that the history of the DDC is not available on the internet. But wait, maybe the Internet Archive Wayback Machine has saved something of that site. Indeed, it was all there. I quickly installed Mambo Open Source on my server, created a new subdomain, configured Mambo and copied the texts into new entries. And there it is: the DDC is back!!!

At the moment is a pretty default Mambo site, but I plan to make some custom templates to give the site some Dooie Donders sauce.

Desktop Search

Just a few weeks after Microsoft acquired LookOut to provide advanced search for Outlook, Google released Google Desktop Search. LookOut is mainly focused on OutLook, but also does a little bit with other files, while Google focuses on Office files and also does Outlook.

At the moment I have both tools installed, to see which one I prefer. Of course I expect Google to expand their application very soon, while an upgrade from Microsoft might take a while.

Censorship

Today I ran across three situations related to censorship. They are not related to each other, but the coincidence struck me.

First, I found out that my hosting provider bloghosts closed their support forum. Bloghosts gives excellent service and support and I recommend them to everybody looking for a reliable hosting provider. A few weeks ago they had some internal technical problems with their servers, resulting in lost support tickets. While normally support tickets were answered within a few hours, in that period tickets got lost and were not answered. To get the attention of the support staff, some customers started complaining in the support forum. Since normally this forum is very, very quiet —about one post a day—, these few people completely took over the forum. The forum is now closed….

Directly after that, I read the comments on Robert Scoble’s Are you afraid to blog?, which suffer from a troll called J.Toran. Some commenters requested Robert to remove these comments, but until now they are still there and I expect them to stay there.

And finally D. Keith Robinson wrote about Comment Moderation and Censorship after having to remove a whole thread.

As for censorship on this site, until now I only removed commercial comments —spam—, but I reserve the right to moderate comments in some other situations as well, as is explained in the Comment posting policy of this site.

In the Jukebox: Beastie Boys

The latest CD I bought is “The Sound of Science” from the Beastie Boys. I was thinking of ripping a song and putting it in the Jukebox, when I saw that Lijn had put them in her jukebox. A download and an upload later, Intergalactic is available.

Video editing problems continued

After all problems I encountered last week, I laid my little video project to rest for a while. Until yesterday; when I felt the itch of an unfinished project. In the mean time I found on the internet how to get around the rendering problem: I simply created another project that contained the problematic scene plus some footage before and after, rendered it to an AVI file, and included this file in my project. A few hours of rendering later I had my DVD!

Happily I inserted the precious disk into our DVD player to admire the result. But… all sound editing —sound levels and background music— I had done in the project had disappeared and in some scenes the sound was out of sync. Once again I was very dissapointed! :-(

I got back on the internet, and search the Pinnacle support forums. There was a huge thread about this problem, which lead me to the FAQ. I have to update my software to version 9.0.8 to fix this problem. On the download page I found a huge patch —46 Mb— to update to version 9.1.2. What bothered me most is that this fix is from June, while I purchased the software in September. They simply sold me a defect product, while they had already solved these problems!

I am downloading the patch now, and this afternoon I will buy a DVD+RW disk to try to burn my project again.

Google knows it

After CasaSpider and Dudesh Ramadhin.

Bloghosts

This site is hosted by Bloghosts, and I am very happy with their service. They are very cheap, and Jace —who runs the company— always gives great service. But lately they are having some problems. Not that it affects me, since my site has already been set up and runs fine. Fortunately, Jace has build up a lot of credit, and most existing customers understand the situation, and are willing to wait until the problems are solved. I also hope that bloghosts gets their things together before I need them.

Video editing problems solved

One month after buying the Pinnacle Studio software, I have finished my first DVD project. The update to version 9.1.2 solved my problems. Now that the work is done, is is time to complain to Pinnacle, since they sold me a broken product while they already had the newer version for three months.

Sorry guys

I just looked into the log files, and found out that people got blocked for trying to open old MP3 files from the jukebox.

The jukebox is supposed to handle all requests for MP3 files on Brain Tags. If the requested file exists and the time-out period has not passed yet, the file is served; in all other occasions a list of currently available files is presented.

However, after forwarding MP3 requests to the jukebox, all requests for old MP3 files got redirected to my spamtrap, effectively blocking visitors looking for MP3 files. Of course, I immediately fixed the problem.

MTSimpleComments error

I just installed the latest version (1.32) of the MTSimpleComments plugin, but receive the following error when scheduled posts are being built:

Undefined subroutine MTPlugins::simplecomments::SimpleCommentCount
at lib/MT/Builder.pm line 139

The strange thing is that all files —both from index templates as archive templates— are created correctly, except for the main index.

In the Jukebox: Bettie Serveert

Another one for the jukebox: Satisfied from Bettie Serveert, a dark track with lyrics like, Callous on the soul/ There’s a tale untold/ About how you spend your life/ In a place where no one goes. I like this track a lot, and used it for the DVD about our holiday in Thailand that I am still trying to render.

Movable Type 3.12

Movable Type version 3.12 was released today, and as usual I immediately installed it. The feature I wanted was the promised fasted build times, but I also encountered some undocumented new buttons in the edit screen:

I uploaded the image above using the Upload File button, but was a little bit disappointed that this feature did not copy the corresponding <img> element into my entry. Shall I wait for version 3.13?

In the Jukebox: R.E.M.

Five minutes of R.E.M.: The Great Beyond

Do you have a DVD player?

Now that I have burned my first DVD with material we recorded last summer, I want to show it to our friends and family. But I notice a great difference between the people here and in Holland. All our family and friends here have a DVD player. Videotape is dead; DVD is the current device to use. It is almost impossible to rent e recent movie on tape. However, none of the Dutch people I have recently spoken have a DVD player! This includes my parents and my sister, probably the persons that are the most interested in our recordings. This weekend I will have to spend some time to copy the DVD contents to tape, so I will be able to show them our adventures in Thailand when we visit them in November.

I am wondering whether Spain really is more technically advanced than the Netherlands —who would have expected that?—, whether my friends and family here are more gadget freaks than the people we know in the north of Europe, or whether I simply did not speak to the right people in the Netherlands. Do you have a DVD player?