No Smoking!

As of today, smoking is prohibited in all close space public places in Greece*. That includes work space, public transportation, public service buildings, etc. There’s a lot of talk going on about the law, whether it is too strict or too elastic, there’s speculation that it will fail, there’s theories that the “politicians do not care about our health, but are only interested to collect money from fines”.

I am a smoker. I am a heavy smoker (2 packs a day, you can’t call that casual smoking).

I have absolutely no problem with not smoking where I cannot smoke. I respect those who don’t smoke, I understand that they are not obliged by anyone or anything to inhale my smoke, but as they claim they have rights, so have I.

I have the right to be protected from all you stupid non smokers who think it’s funny to laugh at my face just because someone thought to pass a law for something that derives out of pure logic!

Till now, I have been pestered by numerous people who claimed victory over smoking, who wished they would force me to quit smoking, who made jokes at me…

All of you, FUCK OFF. You will die of cancer anyway…

*It is the third or fourth time someone passes a law like that, but every time they “make a fresh start”.

Internet explorer 8 and Flash…

I use Firefox. Let me say that again. I USE FIREFOX!

However, there are people who still use IE, either because they don’t know of any other browsers* or because they like it. It’s not my job to convence them otherwise. So, when somebody asks me to help them update their laptop, I will not change any of their programs, including browsers.

So, to set True Story Mode on, I was given an ACER laptop and I was told to check it a bit, see if there’s anything wrong with it, you know, the usual process. One of the things I generally tend to do, is updating the machines people give me for two reasons: a) There are some critical updates that will make a windows box a bit safer and more stable and b) because someone who has paid for an OS should enjoy all the services provided by the developer (sic). When it asked me to install IE8, I did what I had to do: I asked the owner…

Yes, of cource I want that! A collegue installed it and said it is fantastic! 

Whatever… I’ve had problems of my own with IE8, but it was on a Vista Buisness machine, this laptop was with XP, so I did what I was told. Well, some time later, the laptop was updated, the owner had the brand new browser that was supposed to be fantastic and I was done.

Well… almost done… One of the firtst things the owner did when I gave the laptop back, was visiting mySpace, to check out some hot new band or something. In order to view the mySpace music player, you have to upgrade your flash player. No problem, it’s been done many times, piece of cake, right?

Wrong! The standard procedure, to install flash player 10 from within IE, will not work. At least it did not work in my case, to the point that IE froze and I could only kill the process through Task Manager. A little bit of Google search shows that many more have the same problem. To tell you the truth, I did not bother to look for a tried solution, to see what others did, I did what seemed to me more logical:

I downloaded the stand alone installer from Adobe’s site. I closed IE, run the installer and presto. Flash player was updated to version 10.

Not sure what the problem is. I really don’t care, I just wanted to get my job done and frankly why should anyone care? The average user will only follow instructions provided by the developers (in this case Adobe) and when he sees his browser freezing, will not know what to do.

So, let me say this once more: I USE FIREFOX!

PS: This is not a FF vs IE post. I know that FF has problems too, I know there are other browsers as well, I know that IE will be patched sometime soon. I just don’t like being called again because someone cannot update their flash player…

DVI Blank Screen Fix

For most people, buying a new screen is a simple task. Take it home, unplug the old one, plug tne new one, turn it on and there you go. For most people…

For me, it meant a whole decluttering operation*, desk cleaning, throwing away needless stuff, dusting, all sorts of things to make room for my brand new LG W53 22” monitor. I had already decided to keep my old monitor ( a 17” Philips) and use it as desktop extension, so I needed even more room.  After hours of sweating and sewaring, everything was in place and I only needed to push a couple of power buttons. Imagine my disapointment when the only thing I could see on the screen was black… Now really… I already knew that I could connect the LG through D-Sub connection and it would work fine, but I wanted to use DVI. I am not even sure that the picture quality is better with DVI, but I just could not settle for D-Sub.

I called a friend of mine, who said that he never had problems with his DVI screen. He thought that maybe there was a setting on my screen that I should change in order to force DVI input, and proposed the all time classic: RTFM. As you can imagine, the problem was not solved, so I started searching for a solution on the vast depths of the internet. It turns out that it is a common problem, affecting various combinations of screens and graphic cards, with no pattern of appearance. The solution that some people had tried and the one that worked for me was the following:

My radeon has two DVI outputs. I plugged the DVI cable to the main one, plugged the other end on the monitor. Then I plugged a D-Sub cable on the secondary output (with the use of an adapter) and plugged it on the D-Sub input of the monitor. So, I had the monitor connected to the PC with both cables at the same time. When I turned on the monitor, it first received analog signal (the OSD read “D-Sub”) but switched soon to digital. I disconnected the D-Sub cable and the monitor loched on digital signal. That was it. I have absolutelly no fucking idea why this was necessary, but it worked, so I don’t care.

In case you have the same problem, give this solution a shot. For some people it has all that was needed, for some others it only solved the problem temporairily, for others it did not work. But you never know…

The horror in the toilet

Some people tend to spend much time in the toilet, turning nature’s call into some sort of ritual. Newspapers, magazines, crossword puzzles, portable gaming devices, are some of the items employed to make this happen. I personally know people who, when in lack of reading material, turn to the labels of the bathroom products! What about you? Have you ever been in dire need of something to read while in the toilet? If you answered “yes”, fear no more!

Or should I say fear more? The fans of J-horror will be able to enjoy their favourite genre, even in the toilet, coming June. The idea of having toilet paper with something printed on, is not new, however, having Koji Suzuki write a horror story and then print it on toilet paper is, well, unusual. The product is called DROP and has been dubbed as “Japan’s scariest toilet paper”. And scary it should be, since Suzuki is none other than the one who wrote Ring, Spiral and Dark water (to name a few).

[via Bouncing Red Ball and AltJapan]

Konami Code at Facebook

If by reading the title you already know what to do, well done, you have my respect! For the rest of you, here’s a little tip, that is completely useless but might earn your friends’ awe:

1. Log into your facebook account.
2. On your keyboard, press: [UP] [UP] [DOWN] [DOWN] [LEFT] [RIGHT] [LEFT] [RIGHT] [B] [A] [ENTER].
3. Scroll up or down, press a link, do something.

You noticed something different, didn’t you? You got yourselves Facebook with lens flare! It will stay there until you log out. No go impress your friends kids!

PS: The Konami Code (or Konami Command) is probably one of the most famous cheat codes used in many Konami games.

[via Geeks Are Sexy]

EDIT: Try it now (stupid typo…)

Muscle March: Out next week!

Simple is nice, sometimes genious, but when it comes to games, simple can be highly addictive. The history of gaming is full of such examples and today, I have one game to show you that fits the description:

Muscle March, the latest game from Namco/Bandai will hit the virtual shelves (WiiWare) on May the 26th, unfortunately only in Japan. You control a bodybuilder, whose proteins are stolen by a football player. Your purpose is to catch the thief. Watch the video below:

When the thief runs through walls, he takes a body building pose and you have to take the exact same pose, in order to pass through the wall and keep following the thief (no, I have no idea why a football player can smash a wall, while a body builder can’t). Among the characters you can select, is a polar bear, which makes the game even weirder.

Let’s hope that Namco will hear all those who want the game available internationally.

[via Offworld]

TATU go Berzerk

A quick Friday post, hopefully one that will make your day, as it did with mine.

Some of you migth have heard of  The Berserker, a metal band from Australia. Can’t say that I am a fan, but this is something elese…

In the following video, they perform a cover of  “All the things she said” by TATU. Do you remember TATU? Do you remember when everybody was wondering whether they were a couple or not?

Boots, chains, crops… What more do you want?

The best part is the one with the two schoolgirls, that are influenced by the video clip and start “experimenting”…

PS: I personally find the brutality of the music and the “intimacy” of the girls to perfectly complete each other, however, if you are not into this kind of music, you can still enjoy the video on mute…

Link to Youtube

Asus eeePC 900 – Bios Update.

Today’s post, is a bit technical I’m afraid. I have to apologise if some of you find it boring, but I think it is a useful piece of info that might help some people.

The story: I have an ASUS eee PC 900, which I bought with windows XP. I worked just fine, save from the short battery life. It supposed to last about 2 hrs, but in my case it lasted no more than an hour with the wlan turned on. While searching through forums, asking around and taking wild guesses, I decided to install linux on it, since it was supposed to treat batteries better. On a whim, I decided to go with SuSe, since I had seen it at a colleague’s computer and it looked nice.

The problem: After I had installed SuSe, I learned that the latest BIOS update, could help with my battery problem. I should say though that SuSe helped a lot, but I had to try that too. Asus supplies tools to perform the update through Windows and Xandros (the Linux that comes with eeePC) but offers little or no help with other OSes. Reading through forums, where everybody suggested all sorts of things, I reached…

The solution: You need a USB stick formatted as FAT16. FAT32 did not work! Then you will have to download the ROM file from ASUS website and rename it to something like 900.ROM (if your model is eeePC 1000, that would be 1000.ROM). Copy the ROM file to the USB stick, plug it in and restart your eeePC. While at the BIOS screen, press ALT and F2 simultaneously. This loads the built in updater. If all goes well, it should detect the USB stick, read the ROM file and start the update procedure. It didn’t take a long time, just a couple of minutes. Then, it will prompt you to restart the machine, and everything will be fine. Remember to re-enable some devices that will be turned off by the new BIOS.

PS: Needless to say that, updating the BIOS could result in damaging your machine, if something goes wrong…

Proud to be, what?

I intended to write another post, but I stumbled upon this one here, and could not resist…

There’s this on line shop that sells “Memorable Gifts”. Among their product list, there’s a doll series called precious moments (with a f****ng trademark) and one of the items this line has is the Millitary Doll.

The product description is as follows:

Proud To Be An American From Precious Moments™

Representing the men and women who proudly serve in our military forces, these classically-styled vinyl dolls wear a camo uniform, boots, and carry a miniature U.S. flag.

State boy or girl.

Now, don’t get me wrong, despite what I personally might believe, I will not accuse anyone who is proud to be a soldier, or an American, or whatever. But representing that pride with an image of a child, I think it’s absolutelly horrible. Why on Earth would we want our children to wear “camo” ? Being prepared to fight for what you believe and actually looking forward to it, are two different things, but when you project that to the children, you commit a crime.

The purpose of it all…

My blogging experiments go rather well. I am finally getting close to what I originally had in mind when I started all this, a couple of years back. I am getting to like twitter, I think that I have concluded as to what kind of posts interest me (though mettablogging still seems a bit unfair) and I do like the way this blog looks.

I am still in search of a few answers, but I think I am getting there^^

No promises, no commitments, no big words. Thank you all for everything so far. Stay tuned!

PS: The HK tag is another experiment