New Blog

So I started a new blog, yes it’s lame I know. I started it because I wanted to have a pure dev/tech blog and make this blog more about random stuff. Here is the site itself:

Stuff And Tech

Also I like blogspot much better then wordpress. So far anyways.

Then it’s Øya Time

Me and turk oversleept for Jagajazzist, but we still have the rest of the day in nice sunny Oslo weather to enjoy the first real day of Øya. In techno related news I am really loving the HTC Hero, I will be coming back with a real review this week. First impressions are: genius, nice, usefull, finally a smart phone (it’s my first)

Browser Wars 2009

In 2009 there are several excellent browsers fighting for a user base in the world of OS X. The contenders are diverse and confusing. The newbie Chrome stands to win or loose it all. There can be only one system prefered browser, who will it be?

Wich one do you like for this?

More Google Stuff

Google I/O keeps on truckin and new stuff and old new stuff keeps popping on my reader radar. As I result I made “The Wall” site simply by adding this thing from Google Web Elements, kinda cool and also kinda 1998 but what the heck huh? Also this nifty maps thingie. Very handy for “I live here” statements.

The One To Rule Them All?

Will this replace everything? Or will it act as a hub for everything? Will it change the way people communicate? Only the future and Google knows.

Spotify + Android = Brilliant

I love Spotify and I really want a Android phone as soon as I can afford one, this video does not make the waiting easier. Offline support you say?

I want Android on my Mini v10 Netbook to!

Just saw this sweet little video from Dell that shows of the Dell Mini v10 running Ubuntu, Ubuntu Netbook Remix and friggin Google Android! I want one with touchscreen asap!

Trends Are Cool

I love Google Trends, so fun to compare weird stuff in trends on the web, like flu seasons or festival seasons. Here is one cool example, courtesy of Google Trends Gagdet.

It’s kinda sad to se how Quart dies if you view the total stats when pressing max (for all years back to about 2004)

Back It Up

Backup is important. Having used computers for over a decade (man I’m getting old) one of the biggest lessons I have learned is that harddrives are a real softspot. You’r computer is nothing more then a calculator (a really nice and shiny one) that does cool stuff to you’r data. If you loose you’r computer but have you’r data, you are fine. If you loose you’r data (screw the computer) you are screwed. I use google docs and gmail to back up most of my important documents and schoolwork, but I still need some real backup for a couple of important things:

• Digital music collection
• Digital photos
• Assorted files and school projects (code and the like)
• This server

The first 3 are safe with external usbs and TimeMachine, this server is not that easy (not hard, but try to beat TimeMachine) to back up. It’s not a fancy server, but I want a nice set-up that would allow the following:

• Hourly (or say every 6 hours) backup
• Full system restore in 1-3 hours
• Reboot restore (a dream where the backup is a backup system that the computer boots from if the other disk dies)

With TimeMachine I experienced full system restore in about 1-2 hours (from the time I started to recover the backup, not the time it took to get Apple to give me a new hdd for my MacBook). It was painless and when I booted up it was as if I had just turned my computer off for a really long time, genius. With my Ubuntu I’m thinking a second drive that mirrors the original, this should be possible, but I’m no genius with Linux (yet at least) and it may be impossible to get a another hdd that is the excact same that is in there now, this can get hairy. Anyways the backup of this server/site is important and I will post as I work something out. In the meantime, always remember to back it up!

My serverpark that hosts this singel blog (is joke yes)

Xbox360 Streaming

I use my Xbox360 to access my videofiles from my iMac. That way I just have a bunch of movies and tv-shows in a folder on my iMac and I can watch those in my living room. It’s a nice, simple and relatively hassle free solution. Here is my basic setup:

Xbox360 (unhacked, running latest version of dashboard etc.)

iMac 2.16 ghz 2006 model

Connect360 running on the iMac

Wireless router

As long as the files are in a .avi container and coded in mpeg4 or xvid (I mostly use xvid) it all works nice and simple, until lately. Recently I have downloaded several tv-shows and movies that work fine on the iMac (I use VLC) but on the xbox they go blank after 5-10 seconds and the index is broken to bits. The reason is simply put that there is no index but most OS X/Windows/Linux players deal with this just fine, but not the xbox player. Fortunately I found the solution.

It was a small post on a forum and it simply said to download avidemux2, open the avi file and save the file with a new name. I go to http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/, I download the gtk version (nice to see both gtk and qt versions btw.) . I fire it up, open the file. The program tells me that there is no index so it suggests to build one. Then it wants to sync with the bitstream. Then I save the file with a new name. And boom it works on the 360 again. Nice and simple. Here is step by step:

1. Download http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
2. Open the avi file that doesn’t work on the 360
3. Say yes to the two questions asked
4. Save video