| Overkill! |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|09:28 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | games, wii | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bloodthirsty | ] |
We're having way too much fun playing 'The House of the Dead: Overkill', which we borrowed from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gertvr and xaviar_nl. The Wiimotes are perfect lightguns, and the splatter-movie quality of the game (which even includes film grain!) is really something.
After playing through the whole game, you unlock the "Director's Cut" which includes "deleted scenes" (which means extra passages with extra zombiesmutants). And if you play through that, you unlock the "Dual Wield" mode -- with the shotgun in one hand and the handcannon in the other, you're all set to slaughter any comers! :) |
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| New system |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|10:48 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | hardware | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hopeful | ] |
Keen followers of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) kliktikfix will have noticed that the past days it's been slow to update. This had two reasons.
One was that ingiechan was away on a business trip from monday to wednesday evening, so I had to select a photo from the set that's been selected already and upload it. The other reason was that her machine, which contains the harddisk that has the photos on it, has broken down.
Of course, I started to debug the machine, but no matter what I disconnected from the motherboard, it just wouldn't get through the POST. It couldn't be any of the peripherals (because I removed all those), so it had to be the mobo itself. Now, that's an old Asrock socket A motherboard, so it's not like we didn't get its money's worth through all these years. Definately time to upgrade to something else.
The housing (a Coolermaster Centurion), DVD burner and harddisks all still worked, so all we had to do was get a new motherboard and CPU and some memory. And since space was running low, I thought this would be a good time to convert the main disk to something bigger.
Of course, I browsed through the offerings of various webshops, and I found the Intel D945GCLF2 offered in a local shop. It's a mini-ITX sized board sporting a dual-core Atom. Calcifer has 'only' a single-core Atom, and that is sufficient for me -- surely a dual-core Atom would suffice ingiechan too. Complete with 2GB of RAM, she has now twice the processing power and twice the RAM that I have at my disposal. :) I also got a 640GB harddisk to replicate the system disk on (8 times as big as the original one, I might add).
Unfortunately, Windows refused to boot with such radically different hardware. I tweaked things around for a bit, but to no avail -- I had to run an Automated System Recovery from my WinXP CD. The CD that has only SP1 included...
I wanted to follow this procedure once again to replicate the system disk onto the larger one, but the shadow services are part of SP2 and later. So I first needed to do an intensive session of Windows Update (again) to get the machine up to date before doing the mirroring...
All in all, it's been a lot of work (and it's not even finished yet!), but I'm about to swap out the system disk to see if the replication went OK. At least Photoshop (the most important application for ingiechan) still starts up. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|10:03 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | festive | ] |
Happy birthday, ashi! |
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| Linux on Netbooks |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|09:56 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | linux | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  nerdy | ] |
It is almost impossible to buy a netbook with Linux pre-installed in the Netherlands anymore. Acer installs Windows XP on all their netbooks because 85 to 90% of all sold Netbooks had WinXP on it. Meanwhile, Google announced a Linux-based 'Chrome OS', which will be their 'attack on the domination of Microsoft'. Lots of nay-sayers crawled out of the woodwork to tell everybody that people just don't want Linux because it's not Windows. And that may be true for a lot of people.
But in the past week, I installed Ubuntu on a netbook. Twice. At the request of the owner. And I had to wipe the WinXP install to do it. They didn't want a dual-boot.
Both of the netbook owners (you know who you are!) are staunch Windows users on their desktop. But on their netbooks, they didn't want Windows. I'm still not entirely sure why you'd want Windows on one place and not on the other, but I'm not arguing. :)
In both cases, connecting to the wireless network was the biggest challenge because of router weirdness. But the second time, we went from the first boot off the USB-key to "I can't think of something I want my machine to do that it doesn't already do now" in two hours. Pretty good score.
And so far, I haven't had any panicked phonecalls. I guess things are going well. :) |
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| Cutting stamps is infectious |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|11:40 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | happy | ] |
A week ago, ishtar and her husband came for dinner. I made Japanese curry & tonkatsu, and we talked about a lot of different things. One of the things I showed her was how I cut stamps, and the difference between stamps cut from erasers and from PZ Kut.
Apparently that provided some inspiration! I don't think there's any eraser left at their house, ishtar ordered slabs of PZ Kut too, and a few days later I got this postcard:
The effect of the watercolors together with the stamps is really pretty! Thank you! |
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| New anime |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|11:46 am] |
The new season is upon us!
Umi Monogatari: Marin and Urin are some sort of mermaids -- but without the fish tail. One day, Marin finds a ring floating down, and the two of them go to 'the sky' to deliver the ring back to the person who lost it. It turns out that Kanon, a highschool girl, was dumped by her boyfriend and threw the ring she got from him into the sea in a fit of rage. Naturally, she isn't interested in getting the ring back!
Great character designs (with just a little fan servce...), a soothing soundtrack and a great water-color feel to it. And the story promises to be interesting as well, what with the Big Bad being released!
Aoi Hana: Akira and Fumi were friends when they were little, but then Akira moved away. Now ten years have passed, and Akira's family has returned to Kamakura. Without realising it, the two meet on their first day of highschool in the train. That evening, they re-connect, and slip back into the roles they had ten years ago: Fumi being a bit of a crybaby and Akira supporting her.
Slow-moving yuri romance story, with lots of attention to details -- in animation, background and character designs. Set in Kamakura -- we recognised some of the scenery.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni: The fabulously wealthy Ushiromiya family convene on their own island. There's a legend that the current family head, grandfather Kinzo, got ten tonnes of gold from Beatrice the Gold Witch -- in exchange for his soul. Now he has three months to live, and already his children are circling like vultures around the family fortune. Meanwhile the grandchildren try to have some fun. And then a typhoon traps them on the island...
"Horror"-anime of the 'closed environment where people die off one by one'-variety. The backgrounds are dull, the character designs really basic and both the voice acting and animation is really overacting.
Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!: In a parallel dimension, there's a task force that travels to our world to help people who are depressed. They use electricity (tapped from the transformers that are hung on the eletricity poles on the streets) to 'charge their souls' back up! Plug is one of them, and she gets in all sorts of trouble when a human can actually see through her stealth camouflage!
Ecchi fanservice fest with lots of random violence, passed off as 'comedy'. And the creators seem to have an unhealthy obsession with girls peeing in their pants. |
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| Even more words! |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|09:49 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hot | ] |
babarage gave me these:
1. Bernheze
We had fun for three days, but it convinced me that traditional series are just Not My Thing. I'd rather do a nice multi than hop in and out of cards on non-descript places. The reviews on the gc.nl forum and the logs of the final mystery were enthusiastic, but I didn't share the feeling.
2. Snakes
Not too fond of 'em, but I hardly encounter one -- so I guess that's good. :)
3. Slowcooker
Ever since I bought it (after looking around for it for ages), I try to make a stew every week. In fact, tonight we had left-over ajam ketjap. It was so delicious, and it was so easy to make! It really fits well with my love for stews and my preference for 'fire-and-forget' cooking.
4. Meme
I tend to participate in any non-stupid meme. It gives this blog a semblance of liveliness. Sometimes it also makes it seem like there's actual thought-out content on here.
5. Christmas
Christmas doesn't mean much to me, I much prefer Sinterklaas. But ever since my sister emigrated to Denmark, we've been celebrating Sinterklaas at Christmas, because they're only in the country at that time.
I dislike the travelling that is expected of us during that time, but luckily we can rest up at work afterwards. ;) |
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| More Words! |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|08:42 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  good | ] |
I still owe xaviar_nl some Words!
1. Ponytail
I dislike getting my hair cut. And when I moved out, I resolved to let my hair grow out -- to my amazement my mom (who still cut my hair back then) agreed to cooperate. I had long hair from '91 on. People stopped recognising me. I liked my hair-do. Some days, my hair was longer than ingiechan's (who still had long hair back then, too).
Then I graduated and started work. I wore suits to the office every day. And I had long hair -- a bit of a novelty then. At least for some people.
Then I started to get a bald spot. It had to be cut. My boss came to ask me if this meant I would become a conformist -- but he found out there wasn't much chance of that happening.
For a short while, I had some sort of in-between hair-do, but after a few months we took a set of clippers to my head. Now there are people who don't believe I ever had long hair.
2. Ghibli
The Ghibli movies rank a cut above the rest. The detailing, the subject matter, the stories... They're very 'human', but show a larger whole as well.
I think that one of the things that make a Ghibli movie a Ghibli movie is the hand of the masters. A single person writes the scenario, storyboards, directs and oversees the voice acting. That makes for a very consistent work -- and because there's ample budget, there's enough room to manoever the thing until it is just right.
3. Semergy
The big unfulfilled promise of the year 2000.
4. Cargo pants
I've been wearing those almost exclusively since... 2000. They're cheap, comfortable, come in a variety of colors, and they are oh-so practical (what with the pockets).
Speaking of Semergy, I remember B. mentioning that I always looked the same (cargo pants, colorful T-shirt, striped smock). I retorted that he always looked the same too: always in dark suit with white shirt. He didn't really have a reply to that. ;)
5. Amber
I like amber-the-material. Light-weight, shiny, with lots of structure.
But I also like Amber-the-roleplaying-game. The first diceless RPG, which a really creative crowd of players around it. Even though it hasn't been in print for years, there's still conventions dedicated solely to the playing of Amber. We went to a few Ambercon UKs -- great fun. |
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| Shinto for your electronics |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|08:24 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | japan | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  energetic | ] |
The Kanda Myoujin shrine is located in Akihabara, the electronics shopping district in Tokyo. It's a bit off the main drag, but the influence of the otaku is making itself felt.
So the shrine went with the times and now offers services targeted to gadget freaks! It all started out with the shrine selling charms to stick onto your PC against system crashes seven years ago, when Windows XP was released. And now they have services to bless your mobile phone! Because every animist knows that everything has a 'kami', and electronic gadgets even more so -- and purifying the machine and treating it with respect will make it run so much smoother. Full story here, all in one page.
Also, I want one of these IT Info Safety Blessings. I'd totally stick it on my work laptop! |
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| Benzaiten community |
[Jun. 28th, 2009|03:03 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | benzaiten | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
I've just created the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) benzaiten_dev community for announcements and discussions about Benzaiten. More and more people are finding out about it, and I needed a centralised place to discuss it with others. Now people can keep up to date without having to check my LJ every time.
I've also released Benzaiten 0.5.1 -- now it has a formatting toolbar with a few neat tricks. Details are in the community. |
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| Increased WAF |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|09:30 pm] |
Any hobby worth doing has to contend with the Wife Acceptance Factor. As reported previously, ingiechan doesn't want me to build a Gundam model in the back yard -- so that plan had a too low WAF.
But perhaps this model has a sufficiently better WAF... |
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| More words! |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|08:00 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
vleeg gave me:
1 IT
I've always worked in IT. Long before I got my own computer, I have been interested in them, and writing programs. I did my first paid programming work when I was 17 -- it was an ordering information system, which I wrote in Turbo Prolog. I paid my way through university by writing software for the video digitiser my dad was marketing at the time. It's the only thing I can do really well.
2 RPG
See the entry on roleplay in this entry.
3 Computergames
Of course you can't have a computer without playing a game now and then. I spent nights and nights playing Elite (on the MSX-2, not the wimpy PC version). But I also played a lot of games in the arcade with friends on saturday afternoon. There were times when I could finish Space Gun with a friend with only one guilder each.
4 Macross
Macross is the reason I love anime. I've told the story in this entry.
5 Stamps
See the entry on stamps in this entry.
bouncie gave me:
1. Japan
My favourite vacation destination. The contrast between the ultra-modern urban lifestyle and the traditional ceremonies, side by side, is absolutely fascinating. Seeing a woman in kimono in the subway of Kyoto, with her high-tech mobile phone tucked into her obi. Seeing three upper-management types climb the mountain at Fushimi to pray for success for their business.
Some of the people you meet are shy. Some are more outgoing and willing to talk to you. People are friendly, you receive great service wherever you go, and the food is delicious.
2. Internet
My life-line to the world. When selecting a vacation home this past vacation, having an internet connection was definately a requirement.
3. Balance
I try to find a balance between rest, play and work. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I do get stressed out, but often I'm able to relax a bit and leave the work at work. (As an aside, my work is not my hobby. I work for the money -- if I didn't get paid, I wouldn't be doing it! Sure, I like my work, but I don't love it.)
4. Age
As happens ever so often, I am now at an age that I once considered old. People call me "sir", though one German grandma called me "young man" a few weeks ago.
I guess I can value experience much more than before. On the other hand, I work with a lot of young people (students or recent ex-students), and I find that that goes quite natural. At least, that's my take -- I'm not sure what they think of it. ;)
5. Religion
I'm an atheist. I have no patience for people who would use religion as their reason for doing certain things. And I get angry when people try to use their religion to forbid or force others to do something. |
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| More Words! |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|08:47 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  okay | ] |
nathreee gave me these five words:
1.gadgets
I used to love gadgets. I had a PalmPilot 1000 when they were still being made by US Robotic -- took the damn thing with me everywhere. Upgraded to a Palm III later on. And then I started to notice that I felt... oppressed. Because I always had to have that thing with me, and I felt not in control over how i used it anymore.
Since then, I make it a point to not carry too much technology on me, and to choose which technology to use and how. I keep forgetting my cellphone, and my resistance to getting a Blackberry from work is the stuff of legends. ;)
2.roleplay
I started playing RPGs when I was 14. I still have the session report that one of the players typed out that evening. I still have the session report that I typed out of the second session. RPGs have been with me ever since. Not always as much on the foreground, but it's always been there.
3.ingiechan
The love of my life. I don't know what I would do without her. According to a friend of ours, we "deserve" each other.
4.distance
Physical distance doesn't mean much to me. There's email, there's phone, there's blogs -- there are ways to keep in touch over vast distances. But I do take sharp notice of the distance to the next waypoint when we're out geocaching. ;)
5.communication
Most of my work consists of communication these days. There have been times that I've been a pretty bad communicator, but I'd like to think I learned. The most important thing I learned is to listen before speaking. And when I can get people in touch and good things happen as a result of that, I feel great. |
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| New icon |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|07:55 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  geeky | ] |
Made myself a new icon. Because I could. |
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| Totem pole stamps |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|09:46 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | craft | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
I wanted to do something with multiple colors in stamps again. But instead of having multiple impressions in the same spot, I thought it would be fun to make one thing consisting of multiple stamps, and combine those stamps in several different ways.
And then I thought of totem poles. They're pretty modular in the sense that they consist of multiple (mythical) animals that are placed on top of each other. I'm pretty sure the (vertical) order is important if there is to be a particular meaning to the pole, but as an outside observer the order in which the totems must appear is not immediately apparent. So stamps of totems would serve my purpose well!
( The result... ) |
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| Not as smooth |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|08:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | linux | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
It turns out that the 'reboot into Windows'-thing that I posted about earlier doesn't work. There's a bug in Grub's savedefault option, so that doesn't work properly. So much for that plan. :(
Also, I installed XMAME to (re)play some of my arcade favourites. However (and I noticed this before), I couldn't get Vasara (either 1 or 2) to run properly, even though I had no problems with running it when I was still using MAME under Windows! Digging through various forums yielded the information that XMAME compiled with gcc 4.3 (the current version) has problems with these games, but that XMAME compiled with gcc 3.4 (the 'old' version) works quite well.
So it wasn't harder than to install gcc3.4, a 'apt-get build-dep xmame' and an 'apt-get source xmame' to get everything set up. All I had to do then was to tweak the Makefile a bit -- and then I had an XMAME that worked with these delicious schmups!
OK, so it's not a real solution in that it isn't 'fixed', but I can play these games now without a hitch -- which certainly solved my problem. Sometimes I love open source. (At other times, I merely like it a lot.) |
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| Words! |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|07:54 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | okay | ] |
Words:
Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you. My words given to my by greybeta:
1. Stamps: My current creative obsession. I've been working on my fine motor skills and cutting techniques, and I can produce stamps with pretty fine detail if I put my mind to it. It's fun to do make something (a stamp) that can be used to make something else (a card, for instance). Having to concentrate on cutting the stamp clears my mind.
2. Circuits: My previous creative obsession. It was/is a way that I could create physical things -- up to that point, all my creations have been stories, text on paper. I could use my skills of logical deduction and programming to make something that did something. I guess my current love for making stamps has the same drivers behind it.
3. Dutch: I'm Dutch. There are many things about the Dutch (both people and the language) that irritate me, but I can't be not-Dutch.
4. Anime: Anyone who reads my LJ knows that we watch an ungodly amount of anime. I've told the story of how I got so into it elsewhere.
5. Management: I'm now in a position that I can tackle the things that, as an employee, I thought needed someone's attention. So far, I'm pretty pleased with what I have achieved -- but there is a surprisingly large number of issues that need my attention that I haven't been as effective as I had wanted to. I'm still catching up with what needed to be done. Once that's out of the way, I want to take a few steps ahead.
I'm having a good time, my boss is pleased and my people are happy they have someone to complain to -- everyone wins. ;) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|08:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sore | ] |
While going to the Ikea is bad enough, once you've left the store your trouble only begins. Now you have to spend a disproportional amount of time assembling the furniture as well!
The good news is that a 80cm Billy bookcase fits in my car. Barely, but it fits. |
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| NIMBY |
[Jun. 15th, 2009|12:02 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  Can I keep him? | ] |
ingiechan agrees with me: this is cool. But I'm not allowed to build one in our back yard. :( |
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bitchy