I'm annoyed with the new Windows Live Messenger

The Windows Live Messenger conversation window is too big. It's taking a huge part of the screen. Compare it to the Google Talk window, and see what I mean. BTW, this is after I decreased the default size a bit.

Crysis Warhead game play yesterday

Wow, I'm so tired because of playing CW until after midnight, when I have to wake up at 6:30. Anyway, I played an advanced stage, at the airport, before the VTOL ride. The game crashed because of the video graphic driver, right before taking control of the VTOL. Afterwards I started a new game, right from the beginning, and that's what took time. I'm trying to perfect my hit & run technique, using the cloak a lot, and also a silenced weapon (yes, I'm using some weapon cheats). It was quite fun!

Crysis Warhead is too addictive

Wanted to go to sleep early, but played until now.

Back to work

After a long vacation. Hope it's not too busy today…

Theater

Ever been to a theater show where the lead actor forgot his lines?

Woke up at 10am today

These last two days have been a wonderful way to start the week!

Eyes closing

Tomorrow is another free day from work. Going to wake up late (hopefully). Go to the theater at noon.

Another day out of the office

I'm working a bit from home, and spending the rest of the time with my son.

Saturday morning bicycle ride

Rode for the longest I have ever (considering I have 3 weeks of experience). About 12km. Nice, cool weather. It was fun!

Survivor 2 Israel

Last night I watched the first episode, and I’ve decided it is going to be the last episode as well. Why? One reason: BORING!

Each standard American version of an episode of Survivor lasts 45 minutes, in which you get two challenges, and a tribal counsel. In the Israeli version, each such episode is split into 2 episodes, which are both over an hour! How do they fill the time? Talking, talking, and talking. During challenges as well.

So, there is no way that I’m going to spend two hours of my life each week, watching that boring s___.

Boring!

Haven’t slept good at night. Washed dishes (not too bad). Rode the bikes a bit. Played Crysis Warhead. Checked Google Reader to see that nothing has changed. Tired now. Still need to go out to buy a present for a birthday we’re going to today. Bored right now.

Too many dishes

Too bad we don't have a dishwasher, other than myself...

Let this work day end

Got to stay until 6pm for my workout.

Christmas is great!

Most of our customers are on holiday, so without all the incoming emails, I have time to work!

Windows Live Movie Maker Beta - personal experience

I just installed it to see this for myself, and indeed, it is a very crippled version of Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Since WL MM is intended only for Vista users, which already have WMM, I fail to see why anyone would want to use this version. Although you can crop videos, there are no Titles, no timeline, 4 (four!) transitions, limited effects, only two presets for save quality, and probably more things missing. I don't see the Ribbon as having any added value, and so, I have no plans of installing it on my main computer.

Windows Live Movie Maker Beta

Why would anyone want to use it? It's missing many important features that the standard Movie Maker has. I wouldn't even release it without these features.

 

http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2008/09/17/windows-live-movie-maker-beta.aspx

 

 

Good night

Really late. But I don't have to wake up too early tomorrow! I'm not expecting much work, as my contacts are probably celebrating Christmas, and I don't have to take anyone to kindergarten or school. On the weather side, it's raining now, which is good, but the weekend is supposed to be dry, which means I'll have time to ride the bike!

Good night now...

Rain is good

But I miss riding the bike. I also miss playing Crysis Warhead. Today is the first episode of Survivor 2 Israel.

Winter morning

Not snowing (at least not here), but a lot of rain throughout the night and morning. Going to be another short day at work. A lot of plans because of the holidays.

The rain is finally here

After a cold and windy day, it has started to rain. Really tired now. Got to do some shopping for a dinner tomorrow night (luckily, over the internet).

Bolt 3D

Just returned from seeing Bolt in 3D. Simply amazing! It's a whole different experience seeing a movie in 3D. The sound was also very pinpointed, which added to the whole effect.

Nice but cold this morning

The sun is shining. Woke up later than usual. Good way to start our vacation day.

Good night

Tomorrow I'm on vacation with my son. Got tickets to see Bolt in 3D.

Too early for my mid-day coffee

But I'm tired nonetheless.

The rain has come

Finally looks like winter!

Cold, gray morning

All we need is rain, and it'll be like winter. But that will happen only tomorrow. Today I have a short day at work (getting the kids out school/KG). More candles to light. Work looks easy currently, but things can change…

Lifehacker: BitMeter Monitors Your Bandwidth

What a cute app. Of course, now I'm not downloading nothing (almost), but come January, and I'll know how much I download.
Featured Windows Download: BitMeter Monitors Your Bandwidth

File Extensions Google Should Deindex

Scary stuff about what type of files Google are archiving...
File Extensions Google Should Deindex

Happy Hanuka!

One of these days...

Pressure building up again. I thought it was going to be an easy one…

Outdoors morning and noon

Went to the local park with the family. Got back and took a short 5km ride on the bike. I'm really getting the hang of it now!

A gray morning

Slept until late. Plans to go out this morning. Too bad it looks gray outside. And cold.

Had a good bike ride today

I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Google Earth Blog: New York City in Photo-Realistic 3D Now in Google Earth

Google Earth Blog: New York City in Photo-Realistic 3D Now in Google Earth

Saw it yesterday. Quite amazing! I have relatives in NYC, so I've sent them a picture of their house, and they were blown away by how realistic it looks.

Good night

Haven't seen any bikes. Bought a helmet. Played Crysis Warhead for almost two hours. Now it's time for some Asimov.

It's that time of day

For a cup of coffee…

Almost lunch time

I'll try to get out of work not too late today, to look at some more bikes.

Going to bed

Rode for almost an hour today. Getting the hang of it. Just need a better saddle.

I'm so tired

It's this time of day, after lunch… The warm sun isn't helping. Perhaps I need to close the shutters and turn the air conditioner on.

I'm thinking about the evening, perhaps I'll try to ride the bike again. I need to practice riding in a straight line… If all goes well, I'll check another bike store tomorrow evening. Try some cheap bikes. See if they are as bad as they say they are.

Geni.com enables merged trees and profiles

I don't know how new this is, but I accidently found out about it. I'm in two trees, and I was waiting for some time for this feature to kick in. Good that they enabled this. Saved me some time in entering new people in.

Good morning!

We have a huge bicycle in our living room :-)

More bicycle

Got a pair from a friend today, on loan for a few days. Barely rode them home... I'll have some time to practice on Saturday. Now, off to bed.

Very tired

Didn't fall asleep until 1:30am because I was thinking of bicycles...

Survivor 17 season finale

What an ending. Sugar did the best thing possible for the production, voting for Matty. Bob is really the most deserving person there, but I think Sugar should have gotten votes instead of Suzy.

Went bicycle shopping today

Seen three models. Got one in mind. Will try other places this week.

The pressure!!!

I'm under pressure at work right now. Hope it'll finish by 5:30pm. I've got an important task to complete then!

 

Back to my 22'' wide screen LCD screen

For the last 3 weeks, my previous screen was in and out of repairs, and I settled for a regular 20'' screen. Now I got a brand new Viewsonic VG2230wm, and it's simply brilliant!

Bicycle

It's a problem purchasing your first pair. A lot of factors to take in. Going to be doing some reading and foot-work, checking stores.

Peace and quiet

After entertaining four kids all afternoon.

Short day at work today

Now for the fun part!

Good morning!

Got up at 6:30. Got to work now. 101 unread emails in my Inbox. Short day at work. Let's see how well it goes.

Survivor 17x12

Ah, how come all the older guys in recent seasons beat the young strong guys? And Bob doesn’t even look strong. But he is, and he’s smart as well, and that’s a deadly combination. Sugar is sweet, and know how to play the game. Matty looks a bit naive, but he’s one of the good guys. Good that Crystal is gone. Suzy should be next. Kenny make look like the bad guy, but he’s playing rather good. So out of the remaining five, Suzy is the only one who doesn’t really belong there. Hope she goes soon.

Got to ride the bicycle again

I'm starting to get the hang of it. Rode in the city (as opposed to the usual parking lot). Quite fun.

Full moon yesterday

Here is a picture I took of it.

Heavy dinner. Too tired. Going to sleep.

Busy morning

Some shopping, had my hair cut, and now off to the swimming pool.

Getting better at Crysis Warhead

I'm playing and replaying the game from the beginning, trying new methods to attack. I'm starting to use the suit features (strength, shield, etc) more efficiently, and I'm using the terrain to my advantage. I kind of prefer the first chapters, and not the alien ones, but I'll get to these later on. I'm playing more with the environment, blowing up buildings with grenades (it's fun). It appears you can also swim to the submarine base, but you still have to open the submarine.

Good morning!

Got caught up in the game again

Played Crysis Warhead for over an hour. Going to bed now.

Google Reader is on 0 items

Now it's time to watch some TV, or play Crysis Warhead.

Goodbye work

Let the weekend begin!

Pressure went down a bit

Now I have the time to complete the remaining tasks for the day. Perhaps I won't leave too late today. Looking forward to the weekend already…

Crazy day

1.5 hours conference call. Another one hour for a meeting. Can't get work done, and am too hungry!

Got to work

Not too many emails. Got some things I know I need to do today. Probably will get some surprises. Got to restart machine because of Windows Update. My elbows still hurt from yesterday, after a minor accident during work-out.

 

Now it's time for the morning coffee.

 

Prison Break 4x14 – Just Business

What a great episode! Full of suspense! I haven’t noticed the time, and thought that it was going to end any minute. It’s amazing, considering that I didn’t like the idea of the season in the first few episodes. An additional plus is my new graphics card – Radeon HD 3450, 512MB memory, which seems to do a better job at handling HD content (after a short reinstall of the codecs).

That’s it, got to wake the kids up!

Reading a book is better

Good night.

I'm tired.

Should I go to sleep, stay online, or read my Asimov?

Why I don’t like iGoogle’s new look

A while back I was writing how I’m waiting for iGoogle’s new look, and now when it’s here, I’m a bit disappointed.

The main Google applications that I use are Gmail and Reader. Using Gmail in iGoogle for reading email is OK, but when writing I miss some of the features that are in the standalone Gmail (e.g. the paragraph direction). With Reader, I find the lack of left navigation bar a bit of a problem. It takes just too many clicks to get to the RSS feed that I want. So I usually just use the standalone apps instead of the iGoogle integrated ones.

Picasa Web Albums People Tagging Experience

Picasa Web Albums have a new feature – Name Tags. All you have to do is enable this feature from the Settings page. Picasa Web will then process your albums and identify people’s faces. That sounded exciting, as I am spending a lot of time tagging my pictures in a photo cataloging software. I had some albums in Picasa Web, so I decided to try this feature.

After a few minutes of progress bar Picasa Web completed the identification stage. It found around 800 faces. Picasa Web will try to identify the same faces and place them in a group, so that you can easily tag several faces at once. For me it worked great for around 120 faces. Afterwards the matching got worse, but still the tagging process is easier than other cataloging software that I previously used.

Picasa Web also caused my son to laugh hysterically a few times, when it placed wrong faces in some groups (for example, a girl from his kindergarten with several pictures of him). There were also a few cases of faces which weren’t faces, and faces which were faces, but not of real people. Here are the top face “failures”:

Psychedelic face:

Foot-face 

Cat jacket face

Puppet face

Airline face

And at number one:

Lego fireman face

Flying from Israel to Australia in FSX

I’ve completed the long journey of flying from Israel to Australia in MS Flight Simulator X (or FSX in short). I flew using the Beechcraft King Air 350. You can see the route in Google Maps, here. Overall it was fun. Most of the flight was using the autopilot, except of course for takeoff and landing. Most of the flights were at night, as I set the clock to the current time at the departure airport. I also flew using the current weather (FSX does that), but the weather was generally good. I could have made fewer stops, but I only had limited time. My next project would be with the Learjet. I’ve already made a few practice flights (I usually don’t fly jets), and I’m just looking for a destination :-)

HTC Diamond, a month later

About a month ago I got the HTC Diamond Smartphone. After a month I can say that this is the best Smartphone I have ever had. First, for the battery issue that I had, I replaced the battery and the battery life is much better now (around a day and a half of moderate use). The best way to measure success is if it replaces my regular, old cellular phone, and my old phone is resting peacefully in the car for almost a month now! The phone is small and a perfect fit for the pocket. As a phone it works great, and I hardly missed a phone call (Smartphones tend to delay the ring), and it’s not too slow at all. I use it regularly for push-mail, and I haven’t had any hiccups at that end as well. While its camera is not that great, it is certainly enough for a phone. So bottom line, I wouldn’t mind keeping it for a while (that is, until the next hot gadget arrives!).

Paul McCartney in Quebec

Just got a look at the bootleg video of the concert (recorded from TV). It’s the closest thing we have for the concert in Tel-Aviv, as they were only two months apart, and both were outside. If Paul wants to make money out of his recent concerts, it would be a good idea to combine Quebec, Kiev, and Tel-Aviv in one DVD. Only if he does that, I really hope he doesn’t produce the DVD the same he has done lately. All his recent concert DVDs show more audience then Paul & band, and it’s quite annoying.

Anyway, here is a nice video from YouTube of Live and Let Die, from Quebec. There’s a part there where he misses a few notes, and bursts up laughing.

Survivor 17x01 – Gabon in HD

Finally, the moment has arrived! Survivor is a show begging for High-Definition, and finally, after all these years, it has gone HD. The reason was the lower cost of HD equipment nowadays. Apparently, in the harsh territories of Survivor, video equipment doesn’t survive long, so up until now it was too expensive to use HD.

After seeing the two hour special, I can only say WOW! Survivor has never looked better. The scenery, grass, wildlife, insect bites, stitches, never looked better! I’m already looking forward to seeing more gruesome views!

So, you want to see the difference for yourself? Check out these two screen captures (click on the picture to get the original size).

 

Survivor Standard Definition

Survivor High Definition

So, which one you like better?

Paul McCartney – Friendship First – Tel Aviv

I saw Paul on the 25th of September in Tel-Aviv. What a great performance! Even my wife, who is not a known Paul fan loved the show, said it was the best she has ever seen!

The Israeli media was all over him these last few days before the show. News, newspaper, internet, everyone was excited. To the non-Israeli fans, I wanted to show the newspapers the day after the show. A small explanation – as our weekend is Friday-Saturday, and there are no newspapers on Saturday, the Friday newspaper is in a larger format. So enough talking, and let’s see some pictures!

Pic 1: The front page of 3 major Israeli newspapers. The titles read (from left to right"): “Bye Paul”, “Yesterday in Tel-Aviv”, and “Tel-Aviv, Yesterday” (yes, the last two copied from one another :-)

Pic 2: Yediot Aharonot – pages 2 + 3. The title reads “Paul-Mania”

Pic3: Ma’ariv – page 3. “Ahalan Jude” (what Paul called “Hey Jude” in the show)

Pic4: Ha’aretz – page 10 (boo!!!!). “Once in a life time: Tens of thousands watched Sir Paul with sparkling eyes”

Hope these pictures give you some sense on the interest this performance got from the Israeli media.

Windows Live Writer Beta

I just installed the new betas for Windows Live Writer, and Messenger. Messenger looks a bit like a mess. A bit too cluttered. Writer has a cool look, but it looks like not too much has changed. At least it’s now easier to insert YouTube videos, like this one:

Speedtest.net has just found its match

Lifehacker had a post regarding a new DSL speed test site - speed.io. In the past I've been a fan of speedtest.net but after checking out speed.io I think I found a better speed test site. It seems to be less heavy, and more eye pleasing. It lacks the option to choose a test site, but it chooses the closest to you anyway, and that's what matters to me.

Google Chrome

I really wanted to try it. I love Google products. Unfortunately I get this nice error:

The application failed to initialize properly (0x0000135). Click OK to terminate the application.

The first result I get searching Google suggest that the problem is with a Symantec application, and other results suggest that as well. Unfortunately I don't have that (or any other) Symantec application, so that's not the case. The workaround that is suggested (try running Google Chrome with –no-sandbox) works, but why would I want to run it without the sandbox mode (same question here)?

Update 1: Found the problem! It was an incompatibility with Zone Alarm ForceField, although it wasn't running at the time. Since I don't use it anyway (slows down the system), I uninstalled it.

HTC Diamond

Just got this beautiful one from work:

You can get all the details in the HTC website, but the quick and short details are that it's small, light, and has a cool 3D UI which IMHO gives iPhone a fair fight. Oh, and the telephony part is much better than my previous one, the Samsung Blackjack.

The downside is that it's a tad slow, and the battery life is not that great (probably a little more than a day, but mine is not a new device, as it's from work). I do however charge it during the day, when it's connected to my PC, and I also have a car charger, so it's not a problem so far.

The last issue is that it also takes time from the time the call comes in, to the time you hear the ring (2-3 missed rings), but this is the case with my previous Smartphone as well.

My recommendation? I think I'll wait a few days to decide. I only had it for about two days...

Paul McCartney to perform in Israel

In 2003 I flew to London to see Paul McCartney in Earl's Court. This September, Paul McCartney is flying to Israel to see us!

The only thing I am sorry about is the poor organization in terms of ticket prices and location. The venue is a huge park (Park HaYarkon) which can accommodate up to 70,000 people. There are only three ticket types.

• Grass - these are not marked, so the earliest you come, the closer you are to the stage. These cost 490 Shekels (~137 USD).
• Marked sits - elevated marked sits at 1500 Shekels (~420 USD).
• VIP sits - 5000 Shekels (~1402 USD).

There are two things that annoy me here. The first is that there are too few options for tickets. Assuming the VIP tickets are not for most of us (and you really can't purchase them without knowing someone on the inside), you've only got two options, one three times the other. They should have had something in the middle, perhaps dividing the area into several areas, and price them according to how close they are to the stage.

The second thing that annoys me is that they didn't provide a sitting map of the venue! So yesterday I paid 3000 Shekels for two tickets without actually knowing were the sits were! In fact, according to the map in the Internet ticket office, the marked sits were right in front of the stage (I already knew they weren't, based on articles that I read).

Anyway, today I grabbed a screenshot from a video article on a news web site, and finally I saw the map of the venue, and here it is:

 

The quality is not that good, but it's better than what we had before! The marked sits (which are elevated) are the two blue areas in the middle of the compound. They are 125 meters from the stage (that's quite a lot for such pricey tickets). The VIP areas are the two smaller blue areas. They are 75 meters from the stage (also too far for 1400 USD!). The grass is... well.... all the green stuff.

Anyway, that's all for my complaints now. I'm going to see Paul on Sep 25th, and I'm happy about it!

My living room in Photosynth

Here is my second try:

 

My first Photosynth!

Photosynth is a really cool technology from Microsoft! I've just created my first one. I photographed the Saitek X52 78 times from different angles, and the result is here:

 

My FSX flight to Australia update

Today I arrived at Kandahar, Afghanistan. Again, a night flight, and a short one, as I didn't have a lot of free time for the flight (it's real time, remember).

Date / Time	From	To	Flight Time	Distance (Miles)
16/08 - 18:40	UTAA - Ashgabat, Turkmenistan	OAKN	2.2	692

DharmaWantsYou update

Just got an email that sent me to DharmaWantsYou to get an update on the test date. A new test is coming on Aug 19th. Well, so far it has been a disappointing ARG.

Flying from Israel to Australia

Now that I have a new joystick, I decided it's time to use it. I've started flying from Israel to Australia (no firm destination yet) in FSX (Microsoft Flight Simulator X). My instrument of choice is a Beechcraft King Air 350. I'm flying "real time", and also in real local time, i.e. if I'm at 8pm (GMT+2) and I'm at an airport located at GMT+3, I'll set the time to 9pm. So far I'm flying only at night, but I expect it to get lighter as I head east.

Here is what my progress looks like so far:

Date / Time	From	To	Flight Time	Distance (Miles)
11/08 - 21:14	LLHZ- Herzlia, Israel	LTAI	1.7	393
13/08 - 20:34	LTAI - Antalya, Turkey	LTCO	2.4	682
15/08 - 20:41	LTCO - Agri, Turkey	UTAA	2.9	830

 

I'll continue to update my progress as I go,

UTAA is in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

BSOD at the Olympics

It appears that during the Olympic opening ceremonies, a BSOD made an appearance. Gizmodo has this story.

Saitek X52 Joystick - the continuation

First, one thing I forgot about the software setup. This wonderful message appeard in the beginning:

"Setup will:" not work...

So, got a profile for Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Works great! probably have some more tweaking to do, but basically works very well with tons of buttons to configure.

Saitek X52 Joystick - Setup

Following my last post about the X52, I finally got it today!

My first thought: it's big! They're big! They are taking a lot of space on my desk, and they are too high for comfort, but I will find a solution for that. So, I plugged them in, and the lit up like a Christmas tree. I've already downloaded the driver and software for Vista (I knew I should avoid the ones from the CD), so I setup the driver, which worked great. Next I ran the Profiler software setup... and nothing happened. I ran it again, and got a message that it was overwritten the same files, but nothing happened. After digging up in some forums I understood that the files were just being extracted, and the setup hasn't actually run (and this software is supposed to support Vista). I tried to find the folder where the setup was extracted to, but couldn't find it in Windows Explorer. I only got to it by opening an elevated command prompt, and navigating to c:\windows\temp, a folder which I couldn't get to in an elevated explorer! I copied the setup files to C, and got the software installed.

Next, I tried to load the profiles for IL2 and FSX that I've downloaded from Saitek's web site. Surprise surprise, they only had .dat files which are for the old software. The new software supports another format.

So basically, Saitek's Vista support really sucks!

Tomorrow my task would be to create profiles for IL2 and FSX.

Battlestar Galactica 2x16 - Sacrifice

Sacrifice - BattlestarWiki

The Cloud 9's lounge is under attack by terrorists who are convinced that Sharon Valerii is playing the military. The leader of this quartet, Sesha Abinell, demands that the invaluable Valerii be brought to her -- otherwise Ellen Tigh, Anastasia Dualla, Lee Adama, Billy Keikeya and others will be executed.

Ah, what can I say about this one? It looks like the main purpose of this episode was to provide a glorified way out of the show to Paul Campbell (Billy). Other than that we see again how Lee / Kara (this time Kara) are used as SWAT team leaders, which to me looks kind of silly, as the skills of SWAT personal and fighter pilots are quite different. The episode itself could have happened anywhere in the world (i.e. not in space), in our own 21st century, but BSG has always had this current, down to earth feeling around it, which is great most of the time.

Common Windows performance tweaking myths

There's a new article on Lifehacker regarding common Windows performance tweaking myths. This is a nice follow-up on the Microsoft document on how to improve Vista's performance. The only advise that clashes with Microsoft's advise, is that you shouldn't disable services, but their idea is that disabling services you don't know much about can cause a problem if this service is needed.

Facesaerch - finding faces

Facesaerch is a new search engine for searching faces. You enter a name, and Facesaerch comes up with images of faces, and a cool UI to browse the images. This is something that I truly need for my work. I get to work with new people from time to time, and usually they come from different parts of the world, so I cannot tell if they are male or female (in order to avoid calling someone Mr, when they are in fact Mrs!). I used to search their first name in Google Images to determine if they are male or female, but Facesaerch seems to be doing a much better job!

 

But, it doesn't always help...

Source: Lifehacker

Google Street View live in Australia and Japan

Google Street View is now live in Australia and Japan as well!

Check it out here:

Australia

Japan

Source: Blogoscoped

Make Vista faster

Microsoft published a document located here, with tips on how to speed Vista up. Nothing very new there, though there is one thing that I would like to try, and that's ReadyBoost, which uses a USB disk for the page file cache. I have 2GB of physical memory, and usually it's enough, but it'll be interesting to try.

One tip that I've used before Vista SP1 was to put the computer to sleep, which shorten the time it takes the computer to turn on (as it is already on), but since SP1 my computer doesn't always wake up after sleeping, so I've stopped using it.

So, if you want to make Vista faster, get the document directly from Microsoft - Windows Vista® Performance and Tuning

Southwestern Bell DSL commercial

This is an hilarious TV commercial showing the difference between Cable Internet and ADSL. Yes, you can tell by the contentit's pretty old, but it's still funny!

 

iGoogle's new look

iGoogle has a new look, currently only available for developers, but soon to be out for everyone. As a heavy Google user, the new look is a welcome improvement as it allows to work with Reader and Gmail inside iGoogle, which is pretty comfortable. More here, from Lifehacker. Hope it comes out soon!

Fireworks photo tips

Lifehacker gives you tips on how to Get Better Fireworks Photos This Fourth of July (or any fireworks holiday...). Sadly I'm reading it too late. I had a great view on a fireworks display site, but a tall building was built between the house and the site, so no more convenient fireworks viewing place for me.

DharmaWantsYou.com

DharmaWantsYou is a new Lost ARG (Alternate Reality Game), to keep us busy until Feb 2009, when season 5 comes back. It's supposed to be a Dharma Initiative recruiting site, and so far there has been one quiz to determine if you're eligible to work for Dharma. I passed (probably everybody did), and so far there is nothing new there. Hope it'll be interesting, like the last ARG.

Saitek X52 Flight Control System

Saitek X52 Flight Control System

I purchased this after my previous Joystick started misbehaving. It looks pretty cool, with it being a throttle and stick combo. I hope to get it this week, and let you know how it goes.

BSG 2x15 - Scar

Scar - Battlestarwiki

An ace Cylon Raider, nicknamed "Scar" by the Viper pilots, has been causing problems for the Fleet. Starbuck and Kat compete to hunt it down while Starbuck pines for "a dead guy".

Watched this episode last night. First DVD set I'm actually watching, and not just buying (hint Babylon 5 hint). It's one of those episodes where you don't get a lot of action. The action is mostly one fight scene, broken up throughout the episode. There is however some good acting, especially on Katee Sackhoff side, although I think Luciana Carro's (Kat) acting is a bit overdone. Anyway, it's one of those things that I like a about BSG, that it's more then just your standard "sci-fi" show, it has more "real" people, and very good acting by most of the cast. So that "lack" of action is not really something you miss here. You just enjoy looking at the characters go at it.

Windows SteadyState Creates a Wreck-Proof Space for Kids, Experiments

Windows SteadyState Creates a Wreck-Proof Space for Kids, Experiments

Windows XP/Vista only: SteadyState, a free Windows utility offered by Microsoft, is a handy tool to have if you've got kids, friends, or just a program or two that could possibly wreak havoc on your system.

Seems like a really cool app. I always thought I could "kid-proof" or "babysitter-proof" my machine by simply using a more restricted user in Windows, but this sounds much better. I'll probably try it sometime and see how it goes. I just hope it doesn't leave a large footprint on your machine.

Fraps - a totally cool way to capture your gaming

Long time no...

I wanted to share my experience with Fraps, which has a really nice way to capture gaming video without to much of a burden on your machine. I have used it successfully while playing IL2 Sturmovik 1946. It helps that that the game is a bit old and that it runs with frame rates in the upper 60s on my machine, although for some reason, with the free version the frame rates didn't drop during recording, but with the purchased version they dropped more. I'll have to check that.

Anyway, here are two examples of my videos. I hope there's going to be more!

''Lost'': Dr. Jack spills secrets | Entertainment Weekly

A very informative interview with Matthew Fox on the fourth season of Lost. Of course, he doesn't tell us anything, but still it's nice to read.

''Lost'': Dr. Jack spills secrets | Lost | Cover Story | TV | Entertainment Weekly | 1

'Survivor: Micronesia': Jeff Probst's Scouting Reports | Photos | EW.com

A nice article in Entertainment weekly about the new (and old) contestants of the latest installment of Survivor, coming to us in February. Jeff talks about each survivor, giving his honest and true opinion.

Photo 1 | 'Survivor: Micronesia': Jeff Probst's Scouting Reports | Photos | EW.com

Battlestar Galactica - Bastille Day & Acts of Contrition

This week I've watched episodes 3 and 4 of season 1. I won't go into them in detail, you can read the details in battlestarwiki, but the highlight of episode 3 was Tom Zarek vs. Apollo. Zarek is played by Richard Hatch, who was playing Apollo on the Original Series. We now also have a very interesting election to wait for... Other than that, a very standard prison riot episode, with some political drama (freedom fighter vs terrorist).

Cally was shot in the in the stomach on the prison ship, but it didn't take her long, and she is back up for the next one, although Lee Adama still looks pretty banged up from his prison ordeal. In this one Bill Adama finds out that Starbuck is responsible for Zack's death. That scene is one of the strong ones in this episode, as it looks like he is really holding himself from hitting her (...walk out of this cabin...while you still can... ). So we learn more about Zack's death, we get new cadets (with one, Bodie Olmos, son of Edward James Olmos, a.k.a. Bill Adama), and we get one Starbuck, ejecting to a foreign planet.

Desperate Housewives - 4x09

As episode 10 is coming up this week, I've hurried up to see the last two episodes that were waiting for me. In episode 8, the most memorable moment is the one where Victor grabs Gabby by the throat, and says that he remembers everything. It was very creepy. The funny thing is that my wife said at first that he won't remember anything, and then when he said that he doesn't remember, she said that he probably does.

Episode 9 was a very strong one. At the beginning we are promised that one of the four friends would loose a husband. At the end it turns out to be a good thing, as Victor is killed. That was a very nice twist. However, Carlos's money is lost. At the beginning we are also promised that all of them would loose a friend. It's not clear what they mean there. The end is most shocking, when Lynette sees that Mrs. McCluskey's house is gone. That's a very strong finale. I'm glad I've seen it only today, and I don't have to wait for long for the next episode. I am willing to bet though, that nothing will happen to her family.

Find 815

I saw a few more emails today on the official 815 site, as well as a new site, but the next part is coming in just 4 hours, so I'll have to wait a little longer. I do want to recommend some sites about Find 815:

The Find 815 page in Lostpedia. They have a summary of the progress so far.

A Find 815 blog which is an interesting read.

The new official site is The Maxwell Group. It requires a user and password to log in, which we should receive in the next chapter. BTW, no asterisks for the password? Amateurs!

So, just 4 hours to go. Good hunting!

Lost - Oceanic Air and Find815.com

In preparation for the coming Season 4, ABC is giving us something to play with :-) As I never watched the previous live, I've missed on all of the web additional stuff, so this is quite nice.

The first web site is http://www.flyoceanicair.com/ which leads to http://www.find815.com.

You should register on the find815 site so that your progress is saved.

The only clue I can give you, after spending all evening on this, is wait for the clip on find 815 to end. And then wait more. This is true for the other clips as well. If you have a slow connection, it takes time for the second clip to play.

The game is going to continue until January 31st. I hope the rest isn't so difficult, now that I know the secret is to wait.