NewInfo2Day

Nexus One

TheAce — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:43:40 +0000

I’ve decided to start posting here again. Lets see how much longer I keep this up.

A random fact, I have an AT&T Nexus One with ClaroPR. I bought it full price and it’s awesome.

If anyone has any questions about it or android, feel free to ask. Right now I have it rooted and I flashed CyanogenMOD on it (: …

KDE 4.3 “Caizen” is out!

climatewarrior — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:27:05 +0000

Plasma on KDE 4.3

The KDE team has released the latest iteration of their famous cross platform desktop environment. KDE 4 is a desktop environment that has great potential as it has embraced some really powerful and state of the art technologies as its pillars e.g. nepomuk, akonadi, Plasma, Qt4 and others. Also its creators have a really good vision of where they are heading and how they will keep the desktop from becoming obsolete in this Web 2.0 world.

I’ve been using KDE 4 on and off since its highly controversial 4.0 release. The 4.0 release and its subsequent 4.1 release were very immature and definitely weren’t ready for mass consumption. Although the developers claimed that these releases were not meant for regular users maybe they should have advertised that fact better and maybe they should have the 4.0 numbering. The 4.2 release was widely regarded as finally something for “regular users” and “what should have been the 4.0″. In my opinion not even the 4.2 release was ready for prime time. Many annoying bugs were still present, some caused by distributions, others due to driver issues and others were just plain KDE bugs. Also many KDE 3 apps still weren’t ported to 4 which caused a void that had to be filled with GNOME or KDE 3 applications, not a pretty thing. But with this 4.3 release things are looking pretty good. I’ve been using this 4.3 release since this first beta and I’ve seen it grow and mature. And I have to say that this release is what I would finally label as a good release for mass consumption of general users i.e. not developers, hobbyists and enthusiasts, as long as the distributions don’t screw it up. I’m not saying this release is without problems or bugs, but they are not that noticeable and prevalent as before.

Something that has impressed me a lot about the KDE developers its the speed on which they develop the KDE environment. If you compare the 4.o release to this 4.3 release they are worlds apart. The things they have achieved in such a short amount of time is astonishing. Maybe it is due to the technologies they are using or maybe its just due to growth in the community and energetic developers.

The KDE community has fixed over 10,000 bugs and implemented almost 2,000 feature requests in the last 6 months. Close to 63,000 changes were checked in by a little under 700 contributors. Read on for an overview of the changes in the KDE 4.3 Desktop Workspace, Application Suites and the KDE 4.3 Development Platform.

Although the initial releases were somewhat half baked this 4.3 release is in my opinion a demonstration that the platform is starting to mature and that from this point on we will start seeing even more great innovations and progress on the desktop. 4.3 was released and I already can’t wait for 4.4. I’m sure 4.4 will rock big time. The GSOC student’s work will be merged in, some of the new ideas thought up on the GCDS will be implemented and this will be the first release using gitorious for development. Some of the things to look forward in future releases are the materialization of the “social desktop” and the “semantic desktop” within KDE.

Learning Japanese with Firefox

climatewarrior — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:40:18 +0000

kawaii!!!

Like I had mentioned before I’m once again in a quest to learn Japanese, but this time its for real, I promise Anyway I’ve been looking at the different resources and methods to train oneself in Japanese and found a couple of Firefox add-ons that can help you learn Japanese while surfing the net. These are the one’s I thought would be the most helpful but by no means its an exhaustive list. To see more options visit the Mozilla add-ons page.

Furigana Injector: “Looks up the readings for kanji words and inserts them as furigana.”
Kanji-li: “What the program does is simple. It replaces the first letter of a word with a kanji of similar meaning. For example, the word read might appear as 読ead.” Unfortunately this add-on is only available for older versions of Firefox.
FetchImi: “FetchImi is an English to Japanese pop-up translator. Read English web sites with pop-up translations just by moving the cursor over the word you want to lookup. ” This add-on is till “experimental”.
Ubiquity: Ubiquity is wonderful “do it all” tool for Firefox. It comes with a translation command that can be very handy.

This add-ons are definitely helpful for intermediate and advanced Japanese students but not so much for beginners like me.

For all those Windows 7 fans – We have RTM

Scorpus — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:57:19 +0000

It was only yesterday that we said when various people would be getting the final RTM copy of Windows 7. Well today, Microsoft has announced via the Windows Team Blog that Windows 7 has been Released to Manufacturers (RTM) and that the final build is 7600.16385.090713-1255, one build version up from the leaked copy of 7600 we saw last week.

OEMs should be expecting the RTM copy in around 2 days, with all TechNet and MSDN subscribers having to wait until August 6 to try out the final build of Windows 7. Keep tuned at The SDF to hear their thoughts on the final copy of Windows 7 when they can get it.

(Post taken straight from The PC Report)

NBC’s Chuck

LeifErikson — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:27:16 +0000

Thought I’d tell you guys about a series called Chuck that airs on the NBC network. Chuck is an action packed TV show that airs on NBC, along with a ton of action there’s a ton of comedy. Created by Josh Schwartz (The O.C., Gossip Girl) and Chris Fedak (Chuck is Fedak’s first TV credit), this is one kick-ass tv show.

The series is about a twenty-something year old computer geek that receives a ton of encoded images of classified government secrets via an email sent to him by an old college friend and the images get downloaded into his brain. He literally has classified government secrets in his brain. The copy of the secrets in his brain is the only remaining copy of the world’s greatest spy secrets, and Chuck is walking around town with them.

Currently, there are 2 seasons. NBC recently announced it will be renewing Chuck for a 3rd season which will premiere this fall. I highly suggest you watch Chuck on hulu and if you like what you see, buy season one on Blu-Ray or DVD and while you’re at it, pre-order Season Two on DVD or Blu-Ray

And most importantly, Enjoy!

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

kev4naru — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:01:19 +0000

Gurren Lagann

Commonly known as “Gurren Lagann”, it is the most epic anime EVER!!! It was released on 2007 and won several awards at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, Animation Kobe, and Japan Media Arts Festivals. Produced by the animation studio Gainax (Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL), the series is 27 episodes long (though is divided in 2 parts, but it is 27 in total).

Personally, I don’t like animes about giant robots (Mecha) but I started watching the show cause a friend recommended it (didn’t shut up), and said that it was “different” from other “Mecha” animes. Well, she was right. What have I been missing? I can say right know that, even though I don’t like mecha animes, this is one of my favorite shows ever. It is about doing the impossible, fighting the power, and piercing the heavens. It has comedy, action, epicness that defies the laws of physics…and it ROCKS!!! I don’t know how to describe it but it makes you feel awesome! So if you’re bored or feeling a little down, this is the best cure there is.

I won’t spoil anything, not even the beginning, just watch the first episodes for yourself and you’ll get hooked. You can watch it on Youtube here. (Or you can watch it by other means, and in High Definition) If you watch it on youtube, add “&fmt=18″ after the address to watch in better quality (though the video loads slower). If the address already has a “&” symbol delete everything after the “&” and then add “fmt=18″.

WARNING!!!! Don’t read the comments in Youtube! People are spoiling big events in the comments even in the first videos so don’t read any comment. Finish the series first if you don’t like big spoilers. You’ve been warned…

Drumline Meets Revenge of the Nerds

TheAce — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:23:20 +0000

I was chatting it up with a friend, and she sent me this video.
Which I thought was damn impressive, to be quite honest.

You can find the video here.

Basically, it’s a video of a drumline doing lots of classics. Such as Pokémon, Zelda, Tetris and Mario.
And it’s awesome.

Go in. Check it out. Comment what you thought.

I was blown away by the coordination they showed. It couldn’t have been easy.

People with rare genetic disorder called “Duke Nukem’s disease” start a support group

climatewarrior — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:04:54 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is so sad, I wish them well. I think I’ve always had a little bit of “Golden’s Eye disease”

Folklore: Robert Johnson and the Crossroads

Nosferatu Zodd — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:58:51 +0000

There are other ways to learn a guitar beyond books and lessons, but they have a price beyond money. A price that can be paid only with the common coin shared by all men, whether they be beggars or kings, their immortal soul. A price that was said to be paid by the legendary Blues musician Robert Johnson around about 1930.

According to the legend, as told by Son House another early Blues guitarist, Johnson used to follow him around, attempting to imitate his playing style with little success before disappearing for a few months. Upon his return he was a master musician. When House asked him how he gained his skills he replied that he had sold his soul to the devil.

Over the years more details were revealed and now we have the legend in it’s current form, Johnson is said to have travelled to a crossroads with his guitar around about midnight. While he was sitting there attempting to practice a large black man appeared before him and offered to tune his guitar. Johnson accepted the offer and the man proceeded to tune it and then played with incredible skill before returning it to Johnson and vanishing into the night. When Johnson started to play on that guitar afterwards he found his skill to have increased beyond measure and he went on to carve out his own legend as a blues musician.

Of course while there is little real evidence for this story there is one interesting fact, Robert Johnson died aged 27 in 1938 leaving behind only 29 recorded songs with 12 alternate takes. The site of his death? A country crossroads near Greenwood Mississippi.

Robert Johnson, Crossroads

Folklore and Mythology: Kelpies

Nosferatu Zodd — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:02:16 +0000

Imagine yourself to be walking along a dark road one night near a river or loch, you may have had a wee dram too many and it’s still such a long way until you reach hearth and home. All of a sudden you spy a fine horse in the middle of the road unattended, it couldn’t hurt to borrow him to see you home could it? You can always return him to his owner in the morning, and perhaps even receive a little compensation, for surely the owner of such a fine animal will be both wealthy and relieved to be reunited with him. So you mount the beast not even wondering why his mane is wet when it’s a dry night, then all of sudden he’s off racing towards the water. In desperation you try and throw yourself off but you can’t, you’re stuck on his back and nothing you can do will see you free. He gallops into the water, and as your lungs fill and all goes black you realise that it was no ordinary horse you’d chosen to ride, but a kelpie looking for its next meal.

: A kelpie dragging a fresh meal to it’s watery lair.

The kelpie is an evil creature said to haunt the lochs and rivers of Scotland and Ireland where it lurks, ever waiting for the chance to lure a foolish mortal into its lair and devour them, leaving behind only their heart or liver depending on the story.

The kelpie hunts by taking the form of a fine pony or horse, usually black in colour though variations have been known, it waits on paths near rivers and lochs for its prey. It casts a glamour to conceal its unnatural nature, appearing for all the world as a rare and beautiful member of the equine family, so that any who see it are tempted to draw near and mount. The only discrepancy is its mane and tail which are always dripping wet no matter the weather. Its skin is said to be smooth like a seal’s, but once you touch it you’ve fallen into its trap for the skin suddenly becomes more adhesive than glue. The kelpie then gallops down into the depths of the river or loch it calls home drowning the poor unfortunate who fell for its spell and then devouring them.

While the majority of kelpies take the form of a horse to hunt there are stories of some who prefer the form of a handsome young man with damp hair adorned with water reeds. The each uisge is one such and I found a little story I’ll add at the end of this post.

A brave man could manage on occasion to get a bridle on a kelpie, and if he did he was truly blessed for as long as it remained bridled, for kelpies are said to have the strength of ten normal horses capable of pulling vast loads. A nobleman, one Graham of Morphie, once managed to bridle a kelpie and used it to help build his castle. However once freed the kelpie cursed his line for its forced indenture and the Grahams were dogged by tragedy from then on.

So if you’re ever walking near the shores of a river and or loch in Scotland and spie a fine horse withotu a rider keep your distance for it may be a kelpie out hunting.

A Tale of the Each Uisge

‘A maiden, tending her father’s flocks, met a ‘lasgaire loinneil’, handsome young man, on the lone hillside. The man pressed his suit upon the maiden; but though pleased with his appearance, and charmed with his manner, she kept shy of him, and tried to evade him.

He asked her to lift some of the sheep droppings rolling down towards them, and to satisfy him she did so, and lo! they became balls of glittering gold, shining and sparkling in the bright light of the sun, like the fireflies of night. The youth told the maiden that this was only a small part of what he could do for her; and, pressing his suit the harder, asked her to meet him again.

But through her long downcast eyelashes the girl thought that she could discern what seemed like hoofs instead of feet, with clay in their crevices and earth on their edges, and there appeared also to be fragments of ‘rabhagach’, water-reeds, in his moist hair, and she feared in her heart that he might be the ‘each-uisge’, water-horse, of which her mother had warned her. The maiden was sore afraid, and, fearing to say ‘No’, tremblingly promised to meet the man again.’

When the maiden got home she told her mother about the strange young man with water-reeds in his hair. The maiden’s mother told her father and her father told the priest. The priest decided that he would go with the maiden to meet the young man.

The priest took a Bible and made a sanctuary ‘in the name of the Sacred Three, and of the sanctified saints, and of the sinless angels’. Presently the young man arrived, clothed from head to heel in finest garb and gaudiest array, and right full of seductive smiles and enticing words. He tried to come near them, and went round and round three successive times, but could not come through the ‘caim Chriosda chaoimh’ – ‘sanctuary of Christ the kindly’.

And again, and again, and yet again the prideful young man tried to come near, but again, and again, and yet again failed because of the blessed ‘caim’. Then the big cock crowed, and the young man, defeated, fled with a roar, flames of forking fire more deadly than the fangs of the serpent issuing from his ears, eyes, nostrils, and heels, and showing his form anew.

The affrighted girl, trembling like the leaf of the aspen tree, looked in her hand, and lo! the erstwhile pellets of glittering gold were become filth, and in disgust she threw them away.’

‘Ortha Nan Gaidheal, Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations’ by Alexander Carmichael, 1900