sneakyBlog

At 03:37 I’m writing this post. I must be crazy! I got home after a very pleasant night at Inneke’s place, where she cooked an entire meal (not the right word I guess: it were multiple courses!) that was heavenly delicious! We watched two movies in-between. Maybe a bit onorthodox, but I had a great time and isn’t that what matters? Too bad my mum got up and got mad because I was writing this post. Hence the delay…
Well… I wish a very happy 2006/year of the Dog to you. Enjoy it!

Today I noticed Google had released its Google Pack. Most of the software included in that pack was already installed on my system (Firefox) or was simply unnecessary in my eyes (Ad-aware, Norton AV, etc.). Only one application (if you could name it that) could please me: Google Pack Screensaver. It creates a collage of pictures. I tried it and I really like it! Only one thing annoyed me: the Google logo in the upper right corner…

ResHack to the rescue! I’ve attached a modified version of the Google Pack Screensaver that does no longer have the Google logo.

download
Just copy the file to %windir%\system32, right click it and install it. That way you won’t need the Google Updater or anything else of the Google Pack if you don’t want it. I’ve updated it: now you are downloading a .zip file instead of a .scr, which might hold back some users because .scr files are executable files on the Windows platform, which makes them a possible security problem. In that .zip file I’ve a

And it also works superb on a dualscreen setup: it won’t just clone! A screenshot to show it:

Technorati Tags: google, google pack screensaver

What’s an Intel chip doing in a Mac? A whole lot more than it’s ever done in a PC.

Apple’s tagline for the newly (yesterday) released MacBook Pro and updated iMac. I hope to buy the 15.4″ model with the most powerful CPU (currently the 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo) before starting my studies at the university. (Yes I know, I’m not yet graduated… ). Why Apple? Several reasons: stability (which is in general alot better than ‘generic’ laptops), Mac OS X (which just WORKS when you need it, and it’s more fun to use for everyday use), durability (they last for long) and of course design. I don’t think I have to explain that one! At the university, I’d need a laptop anyway. And though I’m not yet annoyed by my current system’s speed - thanks to NOT installing anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall and anti-whatever - I DO notice that my system is taking just too long sometimes. So if I’d get myself such a laptop, I’d have ONE platform to work one, both at school and at home, which is always more favorable - at least that’s what I think.

But before I will really try to figure out how to collect the nice sum of 2500€ to buy it, I’d first like to see an extensive review of the MacBook Pro and more specificly about its performance in comparison with the previous generation: the PowerBook G4. And of course head-to-head comparisons with ‘generic’ laptops that use the same hardware platform. When I come accross them, I will certainly let you know more about it here at my blog.

Already published MacBook Pro-related (p)reviews say that the performance is very to extremely good but it seems that the battery time is actually alot lower than it was with the G4…

AnandTech - Intel Core Duo (Yonah) Performance Preview - Part II
ArsTechnica - Jade at Macworld: MacBook Pro battery life meh

Technorati Tags: apple, macbook pro, core duo, intel

This time the devil is EFI, while the angel is Core Duo. Funny, if you know both technologies come from the same multi-billion dollar company: Intel. EFI, short for extensible firmware interface, is the same what the well-known BIOS does for almost every pc. Previously, Apple used Open Firmware, but now it moved to Intel for supplying its processors (and chipsets and…), it also moved to that company’s technology that’s built to succeed the ordinary, inflexible BIOS system. The largest difference for the end-user is a faster boot time.

Now what’s the problem? Well, Windows XP does not support this… Only 64-bit Windows XP does! Okay, no problem. But currently the Core Duo (Yonah, Intel’s latest CPU for use in laptops) is only 32-bit! Damn damn damn! Byebye Mac OS X + Windows XP dualboot (just to make a smooth Switch possible) on that blazingly fast, breath-taking - simply astonishing - MacBook Pro…

I keep telling myself it’s just not meant to be… :’(

Technorati Tags: efi, bios, macbook pro, windows xp

Yet another year has passed… and today it was my birthday again! Yes, I’ve become what people in our Western society like to call an ‘adult’. Beside the many obvious advantages, there’s one not so obvious, yet huge disadvantage: I can’t rob any banks anymore without letting my parents pay . Time for something bigger, I guess? I’m open to suggestions!

The previous 24 hours there have been some serious troubles with the uptime of the server where this site (along with DriverPacks.net and others) is being hosted. In fact, the last few weeks, and not just yesterday. The admin told me there was one abusive user and as soon he had tracked him, he’d get kicked. Do you hear it coming? Yes, that ‘abusive’ user was me. But basically I wasn’t doing anything abusive… only I didn’t know that at some times during the day, there were 50+ concurrent downloads of large files (the DriverPacks)… That’s indeed alot of load. As you can see, everything is up and running again now.
We’ve agreed I’d buy another ‘bandwidth-hosting‘ account (the second) somewhere else, to offload the server that also serves the webpages. I had been looking for something like that already the last two weeks, since I was already sensing that the server had become alot slower… My choice was DreamHost.com, not because of great uptime, speed or service, but simply because of the enormous amount of bandwidth offered for an incredibly low price (no, they did NOT pay me to say this ). 7.95$/month for 1TB/month when you buy a bi-annual contract is not bad, not at all. Some quick math, and that’s 190.80$. Well… not! If you use the promo code ‘BEST‘, you’ll get it for 93 and something… Now THAT’s cheap!
I was about to pay and then I noticed another hit in my search results… Now my mouth was litterally touching the floor…
It seemed that you could get the L3 account, which includes 1.6TB of traffic, for a staggering 76.08$. That’s €64.30 when you pay through PayPal (at the current exchange rate).
Yet it’s not a hosting provider I’d recommend for high reliability, quality support and such: huge discounts are often symbols of products for the mass, which are seldomly solid products! Another example for its lack of credibility: when using Firefox and signing up, the referer ID input field is hidden!!!
name=webid_referred type=hidden value="bweeb" (These are the values of one of the input elements.)
Shame on you, Dreamhost!
Technorati Tags: hosting

Here it is… 24 hours of experience with Dreamhost… and they suck already!

As I explained in my previous post, I had used the ‘888′ promo code to get 88% off of my bill (76$ instead of 382$). Yesterday, wen I bought the account, I paid the 76$ immediately through Paypal. Now, almost 24 hours later, my account still isn’t activated… So I checked my billing section of the control panel. Yes. ‘Amount due: 306$‘. I’ve just submitted a support request and they better reply soon…

UPDATE
At 20:49 GMT+1 today I got this e-mail:

Hi Wim,

My apologies for the delay in setting up your account! It had been
flagged by our automatic fraud checking system for manual review, and so
didn’t get automatically approved over the weekend!

I’ve manually approved the account now and you should be receiving your
approval emails soon.. if you have any questions at all, please let us
know, and I’m very sorry your first experience with us was less than
perfect.

Please let me know if you need anything else at all..

Thanks!

Josh

So Dreamhost seems to have a pretty good service, so far (it’s yet to see if that’s also the case when you’re a customer there for one year or more…)! Let’s give them the advantage of the doubt…

Did that suck!

Did you know that a domain transfer actually WORKS as advertised?! It said: ‘A domain name transfer will take between 5 and 7 business days‘. For once, you get even more than asked for, completely for free: I got eight business days… Almost two weeks…

Finally back online…

Technorati Tags: domain transfer

Yesterday (Friday), on the 10th of February 2006, the time had finally come: it was our chrysostomos, where we celebrate that it’s only 100 days left until graduation. And celebrate we did! It started around 07:00, at the Grote Markt (Large Square) in Hasselt (that’s in Belgium…). Someone was allowed by his parents to bring their car, to play some music while we all got our whistles. Then at 07:15 we left for breakfast: every class went to have it somewhere in Hasselt. While walking there, we continuously kept on whistling, as we would do the rest of the day (and night ). Our class, the VI-7, went to the Orangerie (be ware, sucky website). The food was great, though maybe not so much for the price. At 07:30 we left for a ceremony in Hasselt’s cathedral with several music performances of students (of which some of a lesser, though funny level).
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The World of Smartboards, Sympodiums is about to change

The technology is multi-touch screens, developed at NYU (as per post on the Cult of Mac blog). And the interesting part is that Apple has patented these interactions, which means… a TabletMac?

This is one of the most amazing technologies I’ve seen in the past 5 years or so! Watch it and be amazed!

Technorati Tags: future technology, multi-touch screen, smartboard