August 2004 Archives
August 30, 2004
VLC progress
It's been quite some time since the last release, but I can assure you that VLC is strong as ever. We have just been so busy over the summer that it was hard to get VLC back into a stable state again. However we are very close now, and you can expect a new test1 version of 0.7.3 any day now.
Some of the new functionality can be found here. You see? A lot of new stuff to play with. It will be quite some fun for everyone.
Posted by The DJ at 09:18 PM
| Comments (163)
| TrackBack
Posted in
VideoLAN
August 28, 2004
Quickie
Been fairly busy, but i just love this one... http://mercola.com/test/only.htm
I had to share it..
Posted by The DJ at 12:43 AM
| Comments (120)
| TrackBack
Posted in
Random
August 22, 2004
Life on the internet
My friend uchuu just pointed me at this brilliant tutorial of life on the Internet. It was created by Red vs. Blue.
Posted by The DJ at 07:42 PM
| Comments (112)
| TrackBack
Posted in
Webbing
August 21, 2004
Alienation
Lance Armstrong, a month ago, said something that the French (or was it European?) supporters would rather cheer for the number 2 and boo at the number 1. I think this is not entirely true. I think that Europeans overall care more about the battle than the victory. It's the struggle that makes the fight of a sportsevent interesting and not the records. Because it is the struggle that shows how difficult it is to achieve success. This is exactly why Armstrong was so popular just a few years back. It was because of his struggle with cancer and how he became victorious. So they definetly like to cheer the number 2.
Americans are very different in this. They want to quantify every result, they care about being in the recordbooks instead of being victorious. Not that Europeans cannot appreciate or be amazed at what Armstrong does. I mean look at Schumacher in Formula 1 racing. He is a lot like Armstrong in his sport. And he is quite popular. We are not boo'ing at the number 1. What Armstrong has felt is the increased impopularity of America, we were boo'ing at an american. I understand that this might be difficult to see this through the eyes of an American. In recent years though America has made some (mostly) political decisions that have alienated them from a large part of the world including Europe.
The following things need to be considered in this.
1: America is the strongest, most powerful (military and economical) country in the world and basically superior to all. The rest of the world is in essence at their mercy. Do not forget this, it is very important. The rest of the world needs to have a lot of trust in this country. That it will do the right thing and protect the world (not only its partners).
2: America likes to show of. In commerce, in products, in sports and in war. It's a chauvinistic thing that any other country in the world would probably do. However this emphasizes the above mentioned superiority. People like to defy superiority because everyone wants to be superior.
3: That America is refusing to sign something like the Kyoto protocol has had a big impact on what people think about the intentions of America. This protocol wasn't about nature. It was more about the world joining in their fight to save nature. In forgoing this protocol and instead choosing for their own (already strong compared to most) economy has made some people doubt how much America is about protecting the world and the american/human ideals and if it's not more concerned about protecting it's own interests.
4: This was only strengthened by what many perceive as the big deceit that was the war on Irak. Noone doubted that Hussein was a cruel dictator and posssibly had Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, there was no Al Qaida in Irak, America should have never used that as an excuse. And America SHOULD have known that there were no WMD in Irak. And in fact large factions of them did. It was this small group around President Bush that kinda pushed this issue by using misinformation (even of ministers of state and senate members). The worry that was among the world before has now turned into distrust because of this whole situation.
Now all of this seperatly might not seem such a big deal. But together they have had a huge impact on the image of America. Up untill about 1998 America was just fine. The Kuwait invasion (1st gulfwar), the Baltic wars, the peace attempts in Israel/Palestinia, everything they did from the late 80s up untill that point in the late 90s was good for their general image and made the people trust the USA.
After that things went down hill. I won't say it was all Bush his fault (even Mircrosoft is an example of what hurt America's image), but he was the katalyser that made things worse.
The big thing was of course the 9-11 attacks. A terrible and horrific event. America was hurt, physically and in their pride. The people demanded a response and were right to do so. However the people don't directly govern a country and with a reason, it is because they are not good at.
The president and other governers are the ones that we trust to make the right decissions for us. Bush's media and carreer consultants told him to strike back hard. Up untill here everything was still good. But then the implementation of this came and things went wrong.
The USA was provoked and didn't turn the other cheek as Jezus had preached. It declared war on Terrorism (and though unspoken also on Muslimism). They took on the role of 'protectors' of the world and went on a crusade. The way they did this was stupid. They could have combatted terrorism effeciently and with a lot less rethorical wording then they did. In this they themselves created or should I say physically shaped, the enemy, made it HAVING to work together to survive. It has made the enemy more visible, but also more vivid and more 'connected' than ever before and giving them more advertisement then they could have ever created themselves. They didn't realize it at the time but the USA's actions made them the bully of the class and not the teacher, the avenger and not the superhero with a secret identity. They forgot that it is not what you do, but how you do it that shapes your image.
So what next... there are only two possible outcomes.
1: The issue bleeds to death and in time everyone forgets and starts to trust eachother again.
2: A cataclismic and definitive war with one of two outcomes. A total collapse of the great USA (probably economicallt as a sideeffect of this war) or the utter destruction of terrorism. The latter is almost impossible because terrorism is everywhere.
Let's hope the first is the path that we (as a planet) will end up upon. It will take a lot of expertise and vision to achieve that. However trust is required for this and unfortunatly the world is largely gouverned by fear (look only at what Michael Moore showed in the last part of Bowling for Columbine). Slowly more and more people start to see this, let's hope we will be wise in our choices in the future.
P.S. By writing this I'll be picked out by Echelon or something the likes and probably end up on some sort of list. Let's hope I'll still be able to enter the USA :)
Posted by The DJ at 10:53 PM
| Comments (169)
| TrackBack
Posted in
Philosophy
August 18, 2004
Useless license
So the idiots from the Olympics Comittee always trying to make as much money from their material as possible, have decided that by linking to someting on their website www.athens2004.com, you will be agreeing to this license.
Are they completely insane? Last time I checked, deep linking and definetly normal linking, was perfectly legal and one of the most common procedures on the Internet. However they state that in order to link I actually need to write them a letter explaining WHY? And beyond that, the whole document is just rubbish. It has clearly been written by Americans, because such a license just isn't legal in the European Union. It's like the procedure where by opening a box, you agree to a legal document that is inside a box and which you therefore could never have laid your eyes on before agreeing with. Such a thing is legal in the US, but has been repeatedly kicked out of court in the E.U.
I say that everyone should post as much links to their site as possbile !!!!
By way of Ome reet
Update 21-9-2004 1:00 AM: Well looky here. They think they have the right to prevent you from your 1st amendment rights.
Posted by The DJ at 12:03 PM
| Comments (99)
| TrackBack
Posted in
Webbing
August 17, 2004
Making introductions
Today the univeristy's introduction period for the first year students has started. A hot day with most of them looking around, browsing, exploring. This has always fascinated me since the first year that I wasn't participating myself. Everybody starts out a bit cautious. Intimidated you might even say, some even overwhelmed. They receive their goodie bag with the 2 week program and an insane amount of advertising. Some are completely alone, others in the company of a friend from high-school or something.
And it's high school all over again. A lot have a big mouth, trying to make a good first impression, making friends or they just seem to attract them naturally. Others hide in the furthest corner of the complex. Scared perhaps.
And then it starts. Everyone of them starts to make the rounds. The event area is covered with stands of sports, student and study clubs. Activities, music, food and beer. A small terras to sit down and read the insane amount of folders and flyers everyone keeps pushing in your hand. As an active member of two large clubs, me and my friends try to meet them and talk them into participating in a workshop or have them join up right away. For us this is just as important as for them. You need to make sure your club is interesting to them and at the very least have them remember you. This is the time to pick up those new members who are still looking around and haven't decided what they want to do with their time after college hours.
One by one they loosen up. The weather is definetly helping making the atmosphere very gemütlich. And all of a sudden everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. This is what it is all about. Starting over. Popularity, grades or skills it doesn't matter anymore. This is a fresh start and that is possible because you don't know anybody (well 3 people perhaps).
And that is just perfect. It's the way it should be. It allows you to be yourself and redefine yourself at the same time. You will make new friends, perhaps with people you had before never thought you would hang out with. That is what will make you ready to face the rest of the world. It is what makes you grow as an allround person. In my eyes it will teach you more than you will ever learn in the college benches.
Posted by The DJ at 09:29 PM
| Comments (150)
| TrackBack
Posted in
Random
August 15, 2004
New VLC artwork
Many people know, that the VideoLAN artwork hasn't been the best in the world.
Gradius is proposing the following
I really like it. I think it would even make a great new look for the website.
Posted by The DJ at 10:49 PM
| Comments (150)
| TrackBack
Posted in
VideoLAN
Bethany Joy Lenz
In endless discussions between me and my friends, many a time it was concluded that beauty isn't determined for the full 100% by the looks. Just as often it's that little thing, a gimmick, a look of the eyes, the way someone speaks. Many nights with lots of beer were spent trying to define this better and the only thing we could come up with in the end was "charm". A beautiful girl needs to have charm.
And this girl definetly has charm. In my eyes she has that ultimate 'not so innocent as she looks, girl nextdoor"-vibe. Her big breaktrough was The WB series One Tree Hill. Her name is quite uncommon: Bethany Joy Lenz. And this is her.
You can also download her as a fullsize poster and the other ladies of the cast definetly are not ugly either.
Posted by The DJ at 06:09 PM
| Comments (221)
| TrackBack
Posted in
Beautiful Women
Move to Sidequest.org completed
With some great help from my providers (Primerelay) my domain sidequest.org is now up and the migration from my old server to the new server and domain is complete. After all those years I finally am a true netizen.
For the migration I used a MT plugin called TypeMover. Though I did run into some problems, I managed to make the move with the assistence of the postings on the TypeMover website. I think I even solved one of it's bugs. I think the utitlity has great potential when these small bugs get fixed, and then I would recommend it to anyone..
Well, it's bedtime now, another day tomorrow and lets hope it will have exciting Olympic Games.
Posted by The DJ at 01:40 AM
| Comments (377)
| TrackBack
Posted in
News
August 13, 2004
Mac OS X on your phone
Or at least the next best thing !!!
This site hosts a slew of mobile phone themedesigns for Debian, Mandrake, SuSE, Redhat, BSD, YellowTab Zeta and various Mac OS X versions. I own a Sony Ericsson T610 phone, and it now looks like this.
Posted by The DJ at 02:33 AM
| Comments (154)
| TrackBack
Posted in
Technology
, Webbing
Flying a hornet
This is my first entry in my "Webbing" category, which will feature general stuff I stumble upon on the net. Today I found this great FA/18 Hornet Flash game. It's even fast as hell for a flash animation. As Top Gear's presentor Clarkson said: [accent: british] "This is really good fun!!" [/accent]
Posted by The DJ at 02:08 AM
| Comments (332)
| TrackBack
Posted in
Webbing
August 12, 2004
Amanda Righetti
OK someone most of you haven't seen yet I suppose. There is one word for her beauty and it is "Stunning". She had done some guest roles before (o.a. in C.S.I.), but her career really took of when she made an appearance on the new FOX hitseries The O.C. last year. She was so popular, that she ended up in 10!! episodes.
Since then she has gone on to be one of the main stars of the Fox series North Shore where she again shows great acting combined with great looks. Now the big problem... She's is so NEW on the scene, there just aren't that many good pictures of her... However, I think you will understand my enthousiasme with this photo.
Posted by The DJ at 01:56 PM
| Comments (121)
Posted in
Beautiful Women
Get VLC banner
As one of the developers of VLC media player I wanted a VLC banner on my website. Unfortunatly I didn't like the current 'banner' at all.
I decided to create one myself.
It is licensed under the same Creative Commons license as my website. It will be on the main VideoLAN site soon, along with the code for embedding it in your website. So help spread the word on the great Movie Player and Streamer that is VLC.
Posted by The DJ at 12:26 AM
| Comments (68)
Posted in
VideoLAN
August 11, 2004
Jennifer Love Hewitt
To start of my new site the first official article. One of my categories will be "Beautiful Women". And there is of course only one way to start of this great category and that is with the ever painfully beautiful Jennifer Love Hewitt.
I can't say I know anyone who doesn't find here beautiful. Next to modelling and acting she also sings... (well maybe we should forget that last).
IMDB entry
Posted by The DJ at 06:23 PM
| Comments (151)
Posted in
Beautiful Women
Progress
Progress has definetly been made. The layout is largely done now. The left side contains some links to websites I visit a lot (daily). There are also some links to people I know. I would very much like to extend this list, but I have noticed that only very few of my friends have proper websites/blogs. I'm sure the list will grow though in the times ahead.
The right side contains the archives, recent artices and other shit that you just NEED on a blog, but that are of less importance.
The top has a menu, which the more exploring visitors among you have already noticed, doesn't work. This is a more longterm part of my project and I will make does additions at a later time.
In the meantime, i'm waiting for my Domain registration and account setup to be finished, at which time the site can be hosted on it's own domain. The old http://sidekick.student.utwente.nl/ root now has a simple overview of my Sidekick server (the stuff that was previously hosted at this location).
If you have suggestions for my site, please leave your comments.
Posted by The DJ at 06:11 PM
| Comments (75)
Posted in
Random
August 10, 2004
Starting SideQuest
So everybody has been bugging me as to why I don't have my own domain and a proper website, with a blog and pictures and other shit. Well until now the DNS wasn't worth the money to me. I just used my machine http://sidekick.student.utwente.nl on the University Twente Campus.
Besides that I also didn't really have any content to publish i thought, so why would I need it.
Well finally people talked me into it, and my new domain will be sidequest.org, where I will regurly make postings about all kind of things that bug/haunt/entice me.
Posted by The DJ at 11:27 PM
| Comments (2)
Posted in
Random