Rage against the Machine (reloaded)

I would like to express my deepest, lowest and most degraded feelings about a real ball breaker I have to put up with while dealing with computers!

Once in a while my Vista just BSOD's due to a display driver issue.

First...
Why the Fu** does my OS have to crash "just" because a device driver is crap? Is it really not possible to recover without ending in a real show-stopper? I reckon the drivers are handled at a really low level in the system, but to depend on a display device for stability is utter nonsense.

Second...
Why does ATI have to make such crap drivers? When decent ones come out, their distribution is handed over to the computer hardware company, in this case HP.

Third...
Why does HP take so f'in long to put out DECENT drivers that ATI just released?

There is no good solution, only an acceptable workaround - to install the latest ATI drivers using the Mobility Modder utility.

Here's the story:

1. ATI has new drivers that are not "made for" my display device (remember, HP should be handing them out)
2. HP is VERY SLOW at releasing them through their Support site
3. along comes Mobility Modder which modifies the ATI Installation program and allows it to detect the laptop display device
4. the new driver is installed BUT... it's not the best one, I reckon it is not performance optimized, my laptop's fan does not stop blowing ever
5. it does not CRASH anymore though

In the end, reliability outweighed battery performance and computer noise.

It's a shame and a disgrace that THIS is the situation that MANY people have to go through. No wonder Vista has so many problems and such a bad reputation - the OS is much better than how it is publicly known.

n.-

How to display facebook pictures out on the streets for EVERYONE to see (and admire?)

It's Sunday, voting day in the city. It's time to decide who can influence Bavaria and Munich.

I don't know anything about the local or national politicians. What I do know is how odd (ie. stupid) some billboards are. I picked out this example. Who in his right mind would vote for someone using a facebook-worthy picture (ie. stupid again) as an official picture?

I wonder if I'm missing some hidden message or just lacking the humor to eventually like this left-winged candidate's photo. The stuff I usually find around here is corny, but this is beyond that... it's the s-word again.

Probably (eventually?), the urge to search for more details about this guy's political program would be triggered by his grimace.
It feels to me like the urge to search on Wikipedia for stupid (here comes the word again) subjects (quite a pass-time and time-waster) - here's one of the best Wikipedia-related videos I've ever seen - link.


n.-

PS: the punch line reads "because other politics for Bavaria are possible and needed"... as if "we" need more buffoons

I just dumped some unknown songs onto my ZenStone and walked down the street

I never thought that as an adult, I would actually like this song...

They're called The Social Services, they're a 2/3 Scottish and 1/3 Swedish cocktail and before releasing their album, the label just let a couple of songs out, one of them being - The Final Countdown by Europe. It's very Nouvelle Vague-ish but they did a good job here - download.

The other pre-released single The Baltic Sea is a funny ode to Sweden - download.

source: http://coast-is-clear.blogspot.com/2008/09/social-services-baltic-sea.html

I feel I just made peace with this 1986' song. I still remember when I heard it in a club, it was in Switzerland during one of our school ski trips.


n.-

PS: I made sure these downloads are legal, the links are from the Record Label's site.

nothing much to report?

... well, not quite.

Jonny 5's sneakers... yeah, Lacoste for the insurgents, now!!!

Flobots...

The Flobots concert last Sunday (the 14th) was absolutely great. There are several reasons for this.
Munich is quite a conservative/classical city, hence any small gig turns into a family/friends event. We (me and some CSers) ended up hanging out with the band after the concert. Among the HUGE amount of pictures I took, a good bunch were taken by me as the official photographer for a group of 3 Germans and some other folks - we just walked from one member to the next to take group pics. The members were really cool, too bad for them that it was a small crowd, but as an attendant, I loved it!

The concert videos are online.


Wies'n...

Oktoberfest has started and so did all the crazyness. The city changes its face during this period, year after year after year... I'll make an effort to go there the least possible though:)


The summer...

Is coming to its end, the cold is here to convince us. I am happy about the home parties I am organizing and attending until we all close ourselves in our comfortable homes and hibernate socially.


Job...

I'll soon be starting at my new job, it's time to refresh that precious IT knowledge. Nothing like starting with networking, messaging and security. It sounds like fun, it is fun, but only if there are some breaks in between - after I get myself a decent guitar, I'll keep the one I have at home in the office. Let's see how it goes.


Upcoming...

Gotye will soon be in town.
Camille too, but the tickets are way too expensive.
Femi Kuti (Fela Kuti's son) would be a good oportunity to dance to afro-beat for the first time. I heard his son (Fela's grand-son) would play on stage too.
CSS is cheaper and promises to be a party.
Tindersticks, could be something to check out too!


Munich, as a toytown (or Little Big City), still has something going on, even with the narrow sight I have at the moment.


n.-

Guitars, guitars and some more guitars...

My 7/8 guitar is only quiet when she waits... until someone picks it up and jams (even if only strumming in a random fashion).

I try to differentiate the time I spend online (which is a LOT) and the one doing practical stuff, like playing the guitar - it's the ever ongoing plan to get a life and learn something that doesn't require the use of a computer.

But then, more and more online resources are made available to help get better at this so called "practical life"... and I just can't resist them all...

Let's see:

• A free alternative to Guitar Pro - the best music tabs software around - TuxGuitar
• An online guitar tabs stuffed with lots of cool songs (heck, even Dave Brubeck's Take Five is there) - Songsterr
• An online alternative to Guitar Hero - it's cooperative, it has lots of songs and it's FREE - JamLegend
• Guitar tuition videos (Karma Police is brilliant) - Video-Tabs

I got some invitations for JamLegend left, let me know if you want to coop or challenge me! One of the gains from this GuitarHero-alike is the left-hand finger practice - on a guitar, just try to switch from an Amin to an F chord (the latter is a barre) and let me know if it's that easy!

** UPDATE **
Well, I just stumbled on a VERY GOOD tuition site, it's free for those with no money to pay. The author loves contributions though... - www.justinguitar.com


n.-

it's sunday and it's raining

one...

Google Chrome definitely needs to mature. The latest issue is a "Save As" operation that could trigger Remote Code Execution - here's the Bugtraq link.

Quoting the description:

• The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error when handling the "SaveAs" function. On saving a malicious page with an overly long title (TITLE tag in HTML), the program causes a stack-based overflow and makes it possible for attackers to execute arbitrary code on users' systems

OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!!!
I'm dropping Chrome for a while. It is a Beta version after all and nobody can expect miracles.


two...

Other than that, I searched for my name on a couple of websites commonly used by HR Recruiting people:

• www.123people.de
  
• www.yasni.de
• www.cvgadget.com

The good news is, I am not THAT famous! Besides my profile on LinkedIn, there's a politician in Portugal and another guy on Facebook (living in Toronto) serving as a distraction for people inquiring about me.


three...

HOWTO: make company videos


n.-

I can't ride my Mac with no Chrome-bars

Isn't Chrome just THE latest little trendy (and fast, cool, fancy, functional... but still buggy) tool Apple users would give their right lung for?

** UPDATE **
And here's a port for Linux and Apple that CodeWeavers just released, a Proof of Concept of Chrome's: http://www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium/
As these guys write, do NOT use it as a main browser, it's a "...proof of concept, for fun, and to showcase what Wine can do..."

n.-

it's a question of software

Rocketdock, Objectdock, Google Chrome, Digsby, Expression Web, PuTTY, KMPlayer, Opera, FileZilla, SyncToy, Internet Explorer 8 Beta2, Skype 4 Beta, Word, Firefox, Ubuntu, OpenSSL, Squid, Sidebar, Mediamonkey, OpenSSH, Live Writer, Notepad++, Picasa 3 beta, Expression Design, Live Photo Gallery, CopyHandler, PureText, CDBurnerXP, Yahoo! Widgets, VMWare Player, Process Explorer, Xobni, Outlook, Metapad, KeePass, Secunia PSI, VLC, Adobe Reader, ... all on Bitlocker'ed Vista x64

Chrome is sooooo cool and fast... even with its little quirks... and the 2 (disclosed) security bugs

I need to enable Compatibility Mode in IE8Beta2 too often :(

Rocketdock is free and lighter than Objectdock

Digsby fills my IM needs

Opera is too different for me to like it

Live Photo Gallery is my new fav Photo Album

CopyHandler, my file copy mate

PSI, tells me (almost) all about which software is not up-to-date

Xobni is a great help in finding mails and people in my mails

Yahoo! Widgets are so much better than I thought

Ubuntu is my home server

Mediamonkey, the best music manager, ever

Ubuntu, OpenSSH (updated), Squid and PuTTY are part of my home SSH server project

Firefox is crashing/hanging too often

Word with the ExportAsPDF plugin does NOT work if Firefox is running... investigation in progress

PSI just reported that VLC, VMWare and Winamp (?) need to be updated...

Looking at this list, my second worst fear, in case my Windows gets compromised and I have to install it from scratch... is to reinstall every little application I (almost) can't live online without.

** UPDATE **
I have since reinstalled Vista in x32 (drivers, drivers and drivers are pure utter crap on x64...). Give or take some exceptions, the same amount of software should be present but the whole system is running sooooo smooth now!

n.-

give me please, 10 minutes of Mikko Hyppönen...

"Mikko Hyppönen discusses the various motives of Crimeware in a follow up to Re:solution."


n.-