Bye Linux, hello Windows

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Jun 182012
 

On a side note, my desktop PC no longer runs Linux (OpenSuSE). I’ve had it with it. There’s always something that doesn’t work. Or that keeps crashing. Or that suddenly stops working until a reboot. Sound support sucks. After every kernel update I had to do a manual install of the NVidia drivers to get X running. Always waiting for the X64 versions, since the Linux community still thinks we all run 32-bit computers (same on Windows, but at least that let’s me run 32-bit programs without problems).

I bought a new videocard (a Sapphire HD7970 to be exact), bought an SSD (OCZ Vertex4 128GB) and switched to Windows 7. Everything works. Period. And I can now use Adobe software, so I bought Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to finally being able to organize my pictures (lastest count: over 26000) the way I like it (F-spot and Picasa are nice, but not more than that).

Main reason for the videocard was gaming of course. Racing in the first place, FPS as a close second. Bought Deus Ex Human Revolution (FPS-ish) today, more to follow.

2012

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Jan 122012
 

A belated Happy New Year!

Lot’s of stuff going on. New phone, new year, new start of running/skating activities. Hopefully I’ll also blog about it. Great to see you here again. Thanks for listening 😉

New network storage: MyDitto

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Oct 302011
 

I’m in the process of replacing the faulty Western Digital MyBook World Edition II. It was slow from the beginning, and it doesn’t start up from time to time now since it has a faulty disk. Yesterday I bought a MyDitto (by Dane-Elec) and installed a 1GB Seagate Barracuda (7200.12) in it.

The MyDitto is much faster. Probably because it has a gigabyte LAN-port. Copying to it while viewing pictures on it with F-Spot is a no-brainer, just like the viewing is the only thing being done. Pretty impressive for a (for now) 1 disk setup.

One thing that I would like to share. I’m copying my backup DVD’s of pictures to the MyDitto now. I found that a lot of DVD’s have unreadable files on them. No faulty disk, since the access to it is no problem, the files are just empty. So gotta review my backup strategy. Backup AND VERIFY! Or backup twice. Not sure yet.

UPDATE: it seems that my BluRay drive is the problem. I am now copying the DVD’s from my laptop (normal DVD-rewriter) without errors.

The Interpreter

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Oct 292011
 

The first time I watched The Interpreter it was a different time. I was different. Watching it for the first time made me look different. Made me look at Nicole, and forget about the movie. A blond Nicole, and for the first time I think I loved it.

This evening I watched The Interpreter for the second time. On bluray, which I bought this week for only 4 euro’s. A strange price for such a movie.

Second times are different. Or maybe I am different. Nicole was as beautiful as ever, that will never change. But this time I got it. This time I did cry. You don’t always get a second chance. Some things only happen once in you life. I guess that’s what made me cry.

Assassin’s Creed – Brotherhood

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Aug 262011
 

Yesterday, I bought Assassin’s Creed – Brotherhood for the XBox360. One of my best friends plays it, and I watched it, and liked it. It’s from the same people that made Prince of Persia – The Forgotten Sands: Ubisoft. That’s a pro and a con at the same time. A pro, because I like the gameplay (way of storytelling, the puzzles, etc) and the graphics are equally superb. But it’s a con too, since the same annoying auto-shifting camera that haunts you in Prince of Persia is even more present in Brotherhood. Sometimes in the middle of a jump the camera is repositioned, effectively altering the way the stick moves you (forward becomes move to the right for instance). It will definitely lead to some frustrating moments where you fall of some building or just missed a latch, even though you know what needs to be done there.

I’ve never played the other Assassin’s Creed games, but Brotherhood is a nice mix of present and past (around the year 1500), using the present (future to be exact, it’s 2012 in the game) to re-live memories from the past. Once you’ve re-lived a memory, you’re one step closer to solving the game. But for me that’s still a long way to go!

Prince of Persia – Forgotten Sands

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Aug 112011
 

The game Prince of Persia – Forgotten Sands does not get the highest ratings in the world (Gamespot gives it a 7.5/10), but I bought the game after playing it on the Wii (and liking it) for only €7,50. That’s a bargain, since most shops still sell the title for about €20!

Apart from the sometimes annoying camera (you can’t see what you want to see) the game is very beautiful and nice to play if you like to puzzle. Sure, there are enemies, but so far they are not a real problem, and certainly after some upgrades (earned in the game) they are not. For the price: highly recommended. If you are a die-hard gamer, just skip it 😉

Renewed

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Aug 012011
 

Just to be sure, I did not only renew the “switchbl8.nl” domain, but also “rare-it.com”. Not “rare-it-services.com”, since I did not use it anyway. But I’m not sure what stuff on the web uses my rare-it.com email address, so I now have another year to figure that out.

RaRe IT Services is coming to an end

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Feb 282011
 

Last weekend I finally filled in the forms to end my company RaRe IT Services. Yes, it has been in existence for more than 10 years, but I’m not using it for over 6 years now. But keeping it does cost money and a lot of (taxes) paperwork. So I decided to call it a day, and sent in the forms. It’ll take a while before everything is processed, but the end is near…

Update 14-03-2011: last Thursday I got the confirmation from the Chamber of Commerce (KvK) that per 1-1-2011 RaRe IT Services ceased to exist.

switchbl8.nl

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Feb 162011
 

It seems that switchbl8.nl now resolves to the correct IP-address. Probably for some time now, but life distracted me from the important things like setting up a new domain!

I’ll try to setup the new domain later this week, and redirect the blog to the new domain.

WordPress 3.0.4

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Jan 312011
 

Finally did some work for switchbl8.nl. I modified the hosting options at DirectNIC, so it knows I host the domain. Changed the domainname-server to point to me. Modified the nameserver here to serve switchbl8.nl too. Downloaded the new WordPress (3.0.4) and extracted it.

More later.

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