B10[mg]

I have a tendency to ignore certain bands for total unknown reason. Examples are Naglfar, Thy Primordial, and also Mörk Gryning. All good bands, yet for some reason I never pay too much attention to them.

That's rather a shame, for the new album (didn't the guys quit already) of this Swedish band deserves credit! It blasts on with nice riffs and I can't complain about the production either. Quite a pleasant album that might even make it high in my "best of 2005"-list.

So ok, I'll listen to it some more and dump Maelstrom Chaos, Return Fire and the other albums in my car to force myself to listen to them. This way I can safely ignore them again, starting next week ;-)

Label: Black Lodge

I upgraded to Nanoblogger 3.3 RC3 today.Installation took as long as usual. But that's mainly due to my personal hacks to get stuff to work the way I want it (postblog plugins, for instance, to get my Swish-E index updated etc.)

Bugfixes are always nice though and now I have the drafting option, something I might like in the future.

The Freshmeat RSS Feed is a nice way to keep up to date with the last software releases. Unfortunately, the feed has suffered from a nasty spam'ish act by Spriteworks Development

This "company" deemed it necessary to post 27 horrible projects within a very short time frame. But fair enough, they apologized Nevertheless, let's look at (and criticize) a few of their "projects".

The first project I'd like to show you is Link-box v1.0 This gem will cost you just $7.95, but is it worth it? Of course not! Here you go, I'll give it to you (note, I have not seen the actual software, so I'm merely making something similar).

Code

<style type="text/css">
div#linkboxdiv {
   width: 175px;
   border: 2px solid #000;
   background-color: #0052AD;
   color: #FFF;
   text-align: center;
   font-weight: bold;
}

ul#linkboxul {
   list-style-image: url(/blog/images/posts/16dot5a.gif);
}

a.linkbox {
   text-decoration: none;
   color: #000;
}

a:hover.linkbox {
   border-top: 1px solid #F00;
   border-bottom: 1px solid #F00;
   color: #F00;
}

</style>

<div id="linkboxdiv">Our Products</div>
<ul id="linkboxul">
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product One</a></li>
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product Two</a></li>
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product Three</a></li>
</ul>
</code></pre>

Result

• Product One
• Product Two
• Product Three

Now that saved you $7.95! It's a shame someone actually dares to charge you for that. This is such a common technique used lately, that it cannot be hard to find something similar for free (like on this blog ;-).

But wait, we forgot to look at the "Features and benefits" of Link-Box v1.0 (please, never let there be a version 1.1, let alone 2.0). Besides the regular crap that you see everywhere (easy install, customizable, yada yada yada), we see this:

• Professional design.
• Attractive display.
• Professional-looking design.

Obviously, there aren't many benefits to this wonder of the web. Why else would you list the looks of it three times? And if that is the biggest selling point, I don't even want to see the code. To me, this looks very 90's GeoCities-ish. Definitely not professional, nor attractive.

Ok, more than enough about Link-Box, let's move on to the next marvel: Arrow-Bar v1.0

This is based on the same principal as Link-Box. Just apply some simple CSS definitions to a unordered list and you're done. Again, the author had to list that the looks were attractive and professional three times, and yet again, it looks very poor and far from professional. Why oh why pay $4.95 (yes, it's somehow cheaper than Link-Box), when you can have a way more professional looking menu created for free (or another 1000 places on the web)?

I will spare you the other projects. They are as simple and expensive as these examples.

So, remember, if you want a professional, attractive and professional-looking design, go get your CSS widgets at spriteworks.com (and pay for things that should be free (as in beer)).

After seeing some Photoshop tutorials (SPAM-torials, rather; there are more banners and other crap than useful information), I wondered if there weren't any GIMP tutorials, plugins, etc.

That quest lead me to camotruck.net, a site that offers you a GIMP plugin. I didn't really see the need for such a plugin (nor the usefulness), yet it turned out to be fun! GIMP my ride!

So here we go. I initially used an online image of my car (Toyota Avensis):

Then I applied the camouflage options (and altered the background slightly, showcasing camouflaged cars on a greenish background isn't going to work too well.)

But of course, you don't have to limit yourself to cars, so here we go, G.I. B10m!

All in all, a fun plugin!

After numerous bug reports, I released version 1.04 of HTML::BBCode (Changes)

Once again, my perpetual laziness paid off. For a long time now, I have longed for an extension (or greasemonkey script) that would disable target="_new" kind of crap in links.

Luckily I wasn't the only one who disliked this behavior and Clemens Fuchslocher wrote his TargetKiller.

Good stuff™!

As usual, I buy devices/hardware before checking the Linux compatibility. And usually that results in a lot of horror to get stuff to work good.

Unlike usually, my Mio 168 PDA, was quite easy to get up and running (with regards to syncing).

I barely use calendars, yet always find myself forgetting stuff, and always find myself thinking: I have to use a calendar. So with my new toy, I'd better get it to work.

The syncing process is done through Multisync and its SynCE plugin.

I just followed the HOWTO and within minutes, these lines were dumped in my /var/log/messages:

 Serial connection established.
 Using interface ppp0
 Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/tts/USB1
 local  IP address 192.168.131.102
 remote IP address 192.168.131.201
 Connection from 192.168.131.201 accepted
 Talking to 'Pocket_PC', a PocketPC device of type Mitac, Mio DigiWalker

Awesome! Let the syncing begin!

The problem is that I don't really use Evolution. It's overkill for my needs and I'd rather keep on using Plans.

So there we are ... now I need to create a system to sync my PDA with my Plans calendar on my webserver. Might get tricky, and it's not like I have time left, but oh well, if that would work, it'd be completely awesome.

As of yet, I have to put one task in my PDA: donate to SynCE.

As usual, I buy devices/hardware before checking the Linux compatibility. And usually that results in a lot of horror to get stuff to work good.

Unlike usually, my Mio 168 PDA, was quite easy to get up and running (with regards to syncing).

I barely use calendars, yet always find myself forgetting stuff, and always find myself thinking: I have to use a calendar. So with my new toy, I'd better get it to work.

The syncing process is done through Multisync and its SynCE plugin.

I just followed the HOWTO and within minutes, these lines were dumped in my /var/log/messages:

 Serial connection established.
 Using interface ppp0
 Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/tts/USB1
 local  IP address 192.168.131.102
 remote IP address 192.168.131.201
 Connection from 192.168.131.201 accepted
 Talking to 'Pocket_PC', a PocketPC device of type Mitac, Mio DigiWalker

Awesome! Let the syncing begin!

The problem is that I don't really use Evolution. It's overkill for my needs and I'd rather keep on using Plans.

So there we are ... now I need to create a system to sync my PDA with my Plans calendar on my webserver. Might get tricky, and it's not like I have time left, but oh well, if that would work, it'd be completely awesome.

As of yet, I have to put one task in my PDA: donate to SynCE.

"Finally" I now have car navigation via GPS too; like 90% of the cars on the Dutch roads (or so it seems).

I went for the Mio 168 because, well, it was rather cheap and it has the GPS antenna integrated (so no extra cables).

So yep, I finally have MS Windows (albeit CE) at home again! And of course I use tomtom software, which is just awesome.