Without electricity blogs equal thin air..

Do you want quick access to your hidden icons on your system tray?

2007-05-18T17:01:00.000+03:00

If you have multiple programs running in your Windows system tray and you get fed up trying to hit the "Reveal all" arrow on the far left of the tray, try hitting Win+B and then Enter.
Win+B activates the system tray and since the reveal all arrow is selected first a simple Enter will expand your system tray.
After you hit Win+B you can use the Right and Left arrow keys on your keyboard to cycle through the running programs, hit Enter for a double click effect or the AppsKey or Shift + F10 for right click menu.
I have some 30 small apps on my tray ( resource hog I know, but I use them all..) and having access to all those icons can be a pain, even more since I'm running an app that makes the Start bar transparent. So Win+B is a lifesaver..

Looking for a way to recreate a folder structure in Windows ?

2007-05-12T01:56:00.000+03:00

try this command in a DOS box :
XCOPY (source) (destination) /E /T
That is open a command promt by hitting Win+R ( Run menu ) and giving CMD at the promt and Enter and on the command window.. well you can imagine the rest if you've gotten so far..
Don't forget to replace the (source) and (destination) with your actual folder names, oh and don't try to create a loop by recreating the folder structure inside it.. it won't work anyway.. yeap, I actually did that by mistake..

Are you tired of your HP Pavillion quick launch buttons starting up the ugly media apps ?

2007-05-12T00:55:00.000+03:00

Well then all you have to do is create an empty text file named empty.bat ( not empty.bat.txt, be aware ) open up "Control Panel", choose "HP Quick Launch Buttons" and on the first tab (Media) click the "Add" button next to the action button you want to reset. From there click the "Browse" button and point it to where you saved the empty.bat file. Oh, and don't forget to select the "Launch the media application listed below" tab.
That's about it. If you want to reset the action all you have to do is hit the "Delete" button next to the action you want to reset.
I hope this helps some of you that are annoyed by accidentally pressing them.

My most favorite apps for 2006 ( a short review )

2006-12-22T13:09:00.000+02:00

It's been six whole months since my last post, my dear friends I have sinned.. No wait this is just a blog. So here's my rundown of my most favorite apps for 2006

== System Helpers ==

Servant Salamander :
Remember Norton Commander ? Well this is the program that not only brings the original idea of the two pane file manager to the 21st century it surpasses it by a million times. Besides the basic one button copy,rename, make folder actions it contains a slew of plug-ins, a multitude of shortcuts (I was stunned), command line user helping features, a file renaming engine and best of all once you select random files from a folder you cannot accidentally deselect them by clicking anywhere.

Unlocker :
So you want to erase a file and Windows gives you an error message instead ? Get unlocker and all those problems will fade away. This program was the answer to my question "why can't I unplug my usb drive since I closed all the dialog boxes and programs that were using it ?", it appears that a process was keeping it busy and unlocker simply took notice and killed it.

Freemeter :
A free system monitor that gives you a real time graph of your processor usage along with hard disk free space and other basic counters. Best of all it sits on your system tray so you get cpu, page file and memory usage stats in less than 30 pixels of space.

== for Shortcuts lovers ==

Autohotkey :
If you love shortcuts than this is the best of show. Essentially autohotkey is a scripting language that helps you create custom Windows shortcuts along with a string replacing engine, so you open Notepad and write "gtd", hit Tab and that is substituted with "getting things done" although that's not all. Many code experts have written full Windows apps with this simple yet powerful language, just visit the autohotkey forum and you'll be amazed.

Colibri :
Stop using the start menu now! Get Colibri hit Ctrl+Space and write a few letters of the program that you want to start, Colibri will give you a list of programs that contain those letters, press up or down, hit Enter and your selected program starts. As an added bonus you can launch web pages, web search and control the system volume.

Slickrun :
As far as Windows program launchers go this is my favorite one. You create keywords that launch your favorite program along with special keywords that launch multiple programs at once, so once you reach the office you can start your email client, your browser and your podcast fetcher all at once.

DM2 :
If you have a few hard disks ( or partitions ) and every time you want to open or save a file you find yourself navigating up or down the windows tree just to find your favorite folder then dm2 is the product for you. It creates an extra icon on the open and save dialog boxes of your windows programs ( except office ) and you can simply click it to select your preconfigured favorite folders. As an extra bonus it adds a minimize to tray (or to floating icon) feature for your open programs along with window opacity and process priority. It also allows you to define custom hotkeys that control the system volume and a bunch of other things. It's free although a donation would be welcome.

TaskswitchXP :
Are you a multitasker ? Is Alt-Tab your favorite key combo yet you feel that the interface is not giving you enough ? TaskswitchXP gives you a full blown Alt-Tab interface that has a picture of your program along with a slew of features like the use of the up and down keys to choose your app along with scrollwheel and mouse pointer selection. It's free so why not give it a try..

Volumouse :
Use your scrollwheel once you have your mouse pointer over a program titlebar and your system volume will play along.

== Download manager ==

Free Download Manager :
The title says it all. It works in Firefox with a plug-in and it's a must if you download large files over a slow line.

== Health ( avoiding RSI ) ==

Workrave :
Do you spend more than 7 hours per day on a computer? You are bound to get RSI ( repetitive stress injuries ) so here comes workrave, a free program that reminds you to take short brakes and stretch. I have been using it for a week and apart from the few laughs I get in the office I must say it has done me some good.

== Dual or large monitor helper ==

Gridmove :
If you are using a large monitor (or two) and you find yourself constantly moving and resizing windows just to do your work on more than one programs, then gridmove will become your best friend. This autohotkey script (and standalone program) helps you resize and place your programs, with the touch of a shortcut, on predefined areas ( kinda like the windows cascade command although much more powerful).

DM2 creates shortcuts on all open and save dialog boxes

2006-08-25T14:49:00.000+03:00

I've recently discovered yet another time saving app called DM2. This nifty little app creates an icon on all Windows open and save dialog boxes and through that it gives you instant access on your favorite folders.. But that's not all, you also get custom shortcuts for your volume controls, a menu with constant access to your favorite folders and a host of plug-ins that come preinstalled.
If you find yourself always looking for some specific folders in your 5 hard drive system just to save a screengrab than this app is for you, or buy a mac..
This app along with Colibri are my 2 most favorite time savers. GO open source..

Photo restoration needs time and patience above all..

2006-08-03T04:17:00.000+03:00

If you're about to start restoring some of your old family photos, be prepared. Knowing the tools is only half of the skills required. Patience and trial and error are the other half.
This image took me some 6 hours to fully restore, I know it sounds silly but the level of damage cannot be represented in a small thumbnail.

A few Photoshop lessons can get you a long way..

2006-08-02T02:38:00.000+03:00

I've been watching PhotoshopTV for quite some time now and I have been developing a greater respect and a wider variety of knowledge about Adobe's flagship product.
I recently bought a book on photo restoration by Katrin Eismann called "Photoshop Restoration and Retouching".
So after some reading I decided to put my knowledge to the test and here are my first results.

Watch IPtv shows on your standalone DivX player while saving up bandwidth.

2006-06-27T13:23:00.000+03:00

So, you just got into video blogs and video podcasts, you want to watch them on your TV through your standalone DivX player while you want to save bandwidth by not having to download the huge XviD (or DivX) version of the show ( if that is even available.. )
Here's a quick tip : Simply download the H.264 version ( .mov) and convert it to .avi in no time with Pocket DivX Encoder using the Home Theater profile it offers. This way you download a file that has a fraction of the size of the XviD (or DivX) , you convert it in a flash ( I've been getting 90fps compression ) and finally record it on a disc or pass it through USB on your iZak or hard disc enclosure and enjoy it on your TV.

lackluster releases under digilog (net)label.

2006-06-16T16:48:00.000+03:00

Finnish born electronic music composer lackluster has released his lax ep on digilog.gr (net)label.
The 7 track ep is a gathering of ambient and summer chill out tunes that will give your relaxing moments a soothing soundscape.
Head over to digilog.gr and grab it. Being a (net)label release means you can download it for free and enjoy it as much as you want without looking behind your shoulder for the MPAA. With that in mind it's your obligation to download it..

Pocket DivX Encoder gets the job done!

2006-06-13T12:13:00.000+03:00

I've been using divx encoding software for more than 7 years now and the one piece of software that I discovered just recently was the one I was looking for, for quite some time now.
I was out and about looking for a transcoder that would compress videos so that I could watch them on my PDA and on the "The Core Pocket Media Player" page I found some reference to PocketDivXEncoder.
This encoder not only did the job right, it recompressed the video in blazing fast speed. Be aware though that not only does it have compression profiles for PDAs and hadhelds it also has profiles for home cinema use, now that comes in handy in all the cases you want to view a vidcast on your stadalone or hard disk enclosure player.
I've had all sorts of industry approved software crash on me over the past few weeks and PocketDivXEncoder got the job done just right.

digilog netlabel is a go!

2006-06-01T00:55:00.000+03:00

Sometimes all it takes to get you excited is a little drive from some close friends and you end up with designing your first fully CSS compatible website, wich in turn happens to be a netlabel promoting music created by other friends and artists.
I am talking about the launch of digilog a netlabel started by some of my buddies and coded by me ( don't get me started on Internet Explorer CSS support.. ). All I have to say is pay a visit and download our first release, it will get you pumpin' in no time.
More on the subject later..

Just joined listal, a site that helps you create a list of dvd's books and music that you own.

2006-04-19T16:21:00.000+03:00

Head over to listal.com and check it out. My list has just started and it is available at alexk7110.listal.com . I am hoping of finding the time to upload most of the stuff that I own and somehow someday get a clear view of my collections.

Aardvark Firefox extension is a must for prints

2006-04-05T12:42:00.000+03:00

Lately I've been printing CSS tutorials and general articles found on the web. The authors of web tutorials create CSS files that make printing a breeze (big fonts, no menus or advertising etc.) general information sites like CNN money and others take little care of the way they come out in print. That's where Aardvark Firefox extension comes in really handy. In short it enables you to delete or isolate parts of a webpage while you view it, thus keeping only the stuff that you want to print. You should visit the website and just try it out to believe. It is somewhat buggy though but one you print it's shortcuts on paper for later use you are all good to go. No more waste of paper..

Web Developer extension for Firefox is a lifesaver !

2006-03-02T15:43:00.000+02:00

I might be the last web developer on earth to find this extension but just in case you haven't discovered it yet do yourself a favor and go install it immediately. Not only does it display any possible form of information on your pages STRAIGHT ON THE PAGE, it is a serious helping hand on CSS and JavaScript debugging, it has validators for all sorts of stuff, it even resizes the browser to 800x600, now if you don't find any of the above a tad useful clearly you're not in the business.
Go fetch boy, go!

Despite AOL's influence, winamp is still my No1

2006-02-13T14:14:00.000+02:00

I work 8 hours every day and I constantly listen to music, so that makes more than 40 hours of playback during a week. I've used almost all of the popular players out there and Winamp is still my favorite one. To all the critics I have to say "Global Hot Keys" ( control Winamp while using any other program ) and " Smart Views" for organizing everything in manageable portions. The only thing missing from winamp is the "Genre" tab on the Library that iTunes has since searching by Artist or Album can be tough if you need a quick change of rhythm. Guess nobody's perfect, go Winamp!
P.S. get Justin back dammit..

Panasonic cordless phone needs unpluging for caller ID to work..

2006-02-12T18:06:00.000+02:00

It's been a week since I had a new phone installation at the new place I rent with my fiance. I asked the local phone company to enable caller ID on my standard PSTN phone line. A week after the line's initiation no caller ID displayed on the phone and I was going nuts believing that it was the phone companys fault since they must have forgotten to enabled the feature. Well it turns out that all I had to do was unplug the phone from the electric mains and replug it for the feature to work. Just thought of mentioning it since I was about to search the web if no logical solution came to mind.

Dusting your PC can reduce noise dramatically!

2006-02-12T13:42:00.000+02:00

I recently moved to a new house and the room I decided to put my PC is quite big and quite empty thus any sound coming out of my box multiplies by many. So I decided to follow an article I read a few days ago on Lifehacker on how cleaning the inside of your PC can have some great results on noise reduction.
I grabbed a can of air duster from my local hardware computer store, a clean dry cloth and I got down to business. I also found a couple of cables that went along with my Zalmann fans that reduce the speed of the chassis fans to make them less noisy. A few hours and a whole lotta dust later the results were overwhelming. I can safely say that I have achieved a 40% noise reduction and I can once again hear the keyboard click and work nights without waking the neighbors.. Do yourself a favor, if by any chance you have an old PC sitting on the floor, find some spare time, open it up and dust it, you'll be amazed by the results.

Windows launcher Colibri is amazing !!

2006-02-03T17:09:00.000+02:00

Being a shortcut freak I found through Lifehacker this amazing new Windows launcher called Colibri. Basically it's a keyboard interface that launches programs on pc the way quicksilver does on Macs. The whole idea is quite simple, you hit clrl+space an interface comes up and you start typing the name of the app you want to use, a search list is formed and you get to choose the one you want from a list underneath your search box. Simple yet quite effective. 5 Stars from me.

European HP support on iPaqs is ultra fast..

2006-01-25T13:17:00.000+02:00

My HP iPaq pocket pc broke about a week ago and this past Thursday I called HP for support. They sent UPS the next day, delivered it to Holland ( that's where iPaq service is ) during the weekend, it reached Holland on Monday ( according to the UPS website ) and it was delivered back to me Tuesday evening. I don't know what happens in the rest of the world but in my country this is blazing fast. I'm just writing in to say thank you to HP support in Europe. Concerning the fact that my pocket pc did break down in just 6 months, that's a different subject. I carry a HipsterPda since then, that one will never break..

Thanks to my blog I know it's been almost a year since it last snowed over my city.

2006-01-24T10:31:00.000+02:00

I had a flashback today when I walked out of my home and took a picture of the snow that had fallen on my city. I remembered that it was last year that I started this blog and that I had taken a picture of the first snowfall the day it happened. A quick background check on my blog showed that it was February 3rd . Boring story I know but it answers a question I wouldn't otherwise be able to answer..

I just bought my first on-line music album from Tycho

2005-12-22T16:35:00.000+02:00

I visited a website called iso50 ( the visual work o Scott Hansen ) and there a soundtrack by a guy called Tycho was playing that I liked immediately. I clicked a link going to www.tychomusic.com on the bottom of the page and there I found that I could buy the cd in mp3 format for just 10$ through paypal. Now that's what i call convenience to the max. I became an instant fan and I bought the music the minute I wanted it. No proprietary format, no iTunes DRM and stick to an iPod crap, just press here buy and listen wherever and on whatever machine or player you prefer. Give Tycho a try and you might like it yourself.

My Digg and del.icio.us accounts.

2005-12-14T12:07:00.000+02:00

Being a reader of Digg for quite some time now I decided to register and create my own account, hell I've been claiming internet firsts in my hometown for some time now so it was mandatory to have one. My dug stories can be found at :

www.digg.com/users/alexk7110

In other news I also created a del.iciou.us account with my precious bookmarks some time ago and I really started getting the whole social bookmarking trend once I installed the del.icio.us extension on Firefox. My account along with my bookmarks can be found at :

del.icio.us/alexk7110

The lack of news on this blog can be substituted by the above accounts, although anything seriously worth mentioning will be posted here.
I will be moving to a new home in January and my blog postings will pick up heavily by then. Pictures will be posted..

Squeezebox V3 : Network music player is added to my wishlist

2005-12-02T11:20:00.000+02:00

Besides it's great looks the new Squeezebox V3 lets users stream music from a PC or directly from the Internet via the Squeeze Network. As a trendy goody, the Squeezebox V3 can display news via RSS feeds. More info on Slim Devices website ..

My big fun Greek Engagement Day

2005-11-28T11:39:00.000+02:00

This past Saturday I had the most enjoyable day during my formal engagement to my lovely Anta. Here are the pictures to prove it.

My Lovely Anta

The happy new couple getting ready for the ceremony

The best man and best lady ( koumparoi ) George and Maria.

the ceremony itself ( our koumparoi give us the rings )

Family photo op

Friends photo op

Mother's photo moment

The engagement cake

The happy couple ( that's us ) cutting the cake

Our dog Rubby looking festive and all

Don't we look darling ? Of course we do, we just got engaged !!

SkypeOut calls to Greece improved heavily.

2005-11-21T13:47:00.000+02:00

A few months ago I opened a Skype account and added some SkypeOut credits just to test the service. I was interested in the voice quality of the SkypeOut service ( calls to landlines and cell phones ) for Greek lines since I have no real interest on International calls. My first impressions were quite bad since I would encounter some heavy lagging and my voice would sound as if it was processed through a time distortion filter and it came out sloooow. My connection was a 384Kb ADSL one and although it seemed adequate enough for the job the final result was bad.

Last week my SkypeOut credit was about to expire and I thought of using them up and give the service a second chance. I was completely blown away. The quality of the calls had sky-rocketed, there was no lagging ( except some mild lagging on a cell phone ) and the overall experience made a 180 degrees turn. I have to mention though that my current connection is a 1Mb ADSL one and that might have contributed too. In any case I can now recommend using Skype for your International calls to Greece and for your local needs as long as you have a fast connection.

Must See Photoshop TV. New iptv project about Photoshop seems quite promising.

2005-11-01T13:29:00.000+02:00

I found out about this one by searching through the various weblogs.inc sidebar and finding a special Photoshop weblog and RSS feed . On that page I saw a listing named PhotoshopTV and I thought of giving it a try. The program is in .mp4 and .m4v video formats so you might want to download vlc media player to play it on Windows. If you have a Mac or iTunes try a search on the video page on Photoshop, it's bound to come up. All around a quite informative show with the extra feature of video tutorials ( that way you can see what they are talking about ). If you happen to be a photoshop user with a fast connection give it a try.

I got engaged in Amsterdam, here are some lovely photos..

2005-10-31T15:00:00.000+02:00

Episode 13 of THE.SCENE is the best one so far.

2005-10-14T12:24:00.000+03:00

I just watched episode 13 of THE.SCENE, the online only drama series and I must say that this time the crew really nailed it. The episode had everything from relationship problems to ftp exploits to new twists in the plot and to top it all off it was some 30 minutes long. I am sensing some backing behind this production that was much needed. I can now safely say that this series should at least be given a serious try by anyone that's mildly interested in the computer underground scene, although the plot and the behavior of the characters should be viewed with a grain of salt and not as an exact depiction of real life situations.

Peerflix seems like a great idea but..

2005-10-13T16:24:00.000+03:00

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon Peerflix but while the whole concept sounded fishy at first my second guess is that I would use it to get rid of the movies I didn't want anymore and renew my collection with new favorites. Apparently you list the movies you no longer want and then the ones you do want. Then once someone requests one of your movies you print an envelope and you send your movie to that individual and vise versa. Unfortunately the system as with Netflix is US and Canada only, as if the rest of the world like say EUROPE is a tough nut to crack.. Oh well no regrets, one day we might get a piece of the modern pie, hell we don't even have cable or fast affordable Internet here in Greece. One thing at a time..

Gmail and general attachments is a tough match..

2005-09-16T14:07:00.000+03:00

Only today I came upon this little annoyance on Gmail, I tried to send a legal .exe file to a friend and then a .rar file to my own account and both messages returned with an "Illegal attachment" notice. The only file that Gmail accepted was a .zip file. I'm guessing it's all done for security reasons but it could n00bs a hard time sending some basic attachments on e-mails.. I know I was pissed the second time around. Oh well I still love my Gmail account as much ..

My Threadless Tees arrived in super fast..

2005-09-15T10:03:00.000+03:00

It was just last week that I was reminded of the kickass t-shirt design promoting and producing website we all know as threadless.com . Well just 3 days after posting the goodies arrived in mint condition and might I say they all look fabulous. Well without further ado here are the 3 designs I chose to buy :

By the way the whole difference between the Dollar and the Euro made the prices seem quite cheap, just to make a point it seems that I paid the $ amount of the t-shirts in Euros with a 2 Euro postage fee, nice. Anyone in Europe looking for bargains off the US now is time to do it..

iPod nano is out and I WANT IT SO BAAADLY!!

2005-09-08T12:40:00.000+03:00

Head over to Apple to check out the new ultra sleek nano. Using flash memory and a color screen this one makes the iPod mini weep..
The title of the post expresses my feelings on this little gadget so well..

If you thought podcasting was cool vidcasting will blow your socks off..

2005-09-08T09:46:00.000+03:00

Well you pretty much guessed it, my latest craze appeared in the form of mostly techshows that exist only on the internet. Living in Greece means no TechTv or any other form of tech programming so once I discovered the shows I was excited as hell. So if the topic seems interesting enough to you head over to Vidcast and learn more about the great shows on offer.
My top 5 favorites are as follows :
01 Hak.5 ( Tech and hacks, way funny and informative )
02 From the shadows ( Tech, hacks and everyday life stuff )
03 Systm ( Tech with Kevin Rose from TechTv fame )
04 Diggnation ( Top stories from digg.com )
05 The Scene ( Drama series )

The first 3 shows are a great reason to get into (for lack of better word) vidcasting.

My holidays in Milos Greece have ended, long live my holidays

2005-08-16T12:23:00.000+03:00

My guess is that images should always speak for themselves so here we go..

One of the great beaches on Milos island

The view from our lovely room

Yet another great beach

Perhaps one of the few stylish villages on the island

The view plus me and Anta of 'course from our friends' rented room

The whole view from our balcony

This is the Tsigrado beach, you have to climb down from the top to get there..

A lovely sail spot called Kleftiko where you can cruise between a rocky area

Me and Anta enjoying our holidays..

Well that's about it, I suggest you give Milos a visit, the nightlife isn't mad but the scenery and the beaches will amaze you.

I want my holidays back dammit, I had such a great time that once I realised it was time to return home I could barely believe it. We spent 10 days on the island and I thought we were there only for a few hours, that's quite reverse once you get back home.. I am looking forward to the possibility of an October week off, we'll see..

Make Firefox's Bookmark Toolbar useful and sexy ! ( for a browser that is.. )

2005-07-22T13:08:00.000+03:00

You can have all your everyday shortcuts on your toolbar presented in this small and convenient way ( pictured above ). All you have to do is make a shortcut on the shortcut toolbar and erase the description. In case the site you want doesn't have a favicon ( the little icon presented left of its name on the browser ) you can use an extension called favicon picker found on updates.mozilla .
I hope you enjoy this one, oh and in case I won't post anything till my holidays coming late July, HAVE A NICE HOLIDAY EVERYONE, I promise to return with more ( and more frequent ) posts on the middle of August. The new season seems promising enough..

This is the coolest keyboard ever, right after a complete touchscreen one..

2005-07-15T11:43:00.000+03:00

Apparently the Art Lebedev Studio in Moscow has designed the most I GOT TO HAVE YOU NOW keyboard ( up to date that is you never know ) that has OLED keys that change appearance according to what program you are running. Go to T3 website for more info..

Established paid products always give us trouble yet we are being negative on free ones..

2005-07-13T10:56:00.000+03:00

Since the day I started using Skype I realized that whenever I am about to use a new technology ( especially a free one ) I always face it with a grain of skepticism and I am being negative when I encounter the first glitch, while what I should do is complain about the paid counterparts bad service ( e.g. Cell phone usage ). I do acknowledge that Skype for instance has its problems, but then again it’s free, while my cell phone carrier costs me a ton of money and cell phone reception is on occasions as bad as a Skype call can get.
On the other hand you have people complaining how hard it is to use a Linux distro and that using it can lead you to frustration all the while forgetting that using Windows can be the biggest pain in the a$$. So unconsciously we seem to forget all the faults of a paid program or service because we face those problems every day and we know they are there for sure and we seem to bitch whenever we hit a small problem on free and open source products. Perhaps we should think twice the next time we are about to curse on free stuff and instead we should turn that negative energy towards the more established cash draining resources.

Totally hooked on Linux.

2005-07-07T11:19:00.000+03:00

After years of ignorance the Knoppix Live Linux CD showed me the path. Today I’ve loaded Linux from the aforementioned CD on my home machine for the fifth time and I must say I am getting totally hooked. I remembered the days I used to log on to the Internet through a Unix front-end along with all the basic commands I used to type. Then I realized that nowadays the distros with KDE can be fully customized at will (themes, icons and such) and to top it all off there’s WINE that helps you run Windows apps on your Linux desktop. Now that was the turning point to me. As long as shrink runs correctly I’m happy. Now if only I can make my winmodem work and I am off to new adventures, open source and community driven.
To all the people that believe Linux is hard to learn, I beg to differ. I felt at ease using it in just 5 one-hour sessions without any help from friends or gurus, although I would greatly appreciate some..

Join www.one.org now ! Each minute that passes we are given a chance to change the world.

2005-07-01T12:12:00.000+03:00

I strongly suggest you pay a visit.

Mobile Weekend Fun !

2005-06-30T14:12:00.000+03:00

This past weekend I finally realized how much the mobile entertainment industry has changed the way we enjoy content. I was at the Porto Carras Hotel in Halkidiki Greece and I managed to enjoy all my favorite content at the time I found most appropriate, all this thanks to my iZak and my iPAQ ( lot’s of iSomethings nowadays, don’t you think ? ). Anyhow, all I wanted was to show off these two great pictures I got from the event. Next week, the actual beach and the fun around the premises, or not..

Wanna try Linux without getting wet ? ( installing anything that is .. )

2005-06-23T09:56:00.000+03:00

This is my second posting regarding the Knoppix Live Linux CD based on Debian GNU/Linux and I must say I was quite surprised with the idea of running Linux without installing or partitioning anything on my computer. As it turns out one of the main reasons behind the release of this CD is exactly the one mentioned above.
I never really planned on running Linux on my PC and after a quick session with Knoppix I am having some second thoughts. If I will buy a new machine in the future ( something that is bound to happen ) then my old one will turn into a Linux box for sure, if not a MythTV one.
I am quite glad that this alternative OS exists and even more glad that enthusiasts and great programmers keep on adding features to it.
On another note the European Software Patent directive should NOT PASS 'cause open source software is the best thing that happened to both Windows and Linux running machines, and if some cheap bastards over at moneycentral software county want to stop open source's chance of survival then they should rethink their future sales 'cause such a move would piss all the tech savvy ( the one's that influence the industry ) people off. Being a Windows user myself I find that more than 40% at work and 80% at home of the software I use is open source. If the European bill passes and extinguishes this kind of software then I would consider dropping out of the tech industry altogether, it would be as rotten as the entertainment industry has turned out to be, the executives not the performers that is.
Seems like the globalization that the activists are fighting against is all about decisions like this one gathered together to form a negative climate over our everyday lives like the one the major industries are trying to force down our throats ( calling people pirates with every chance they get).
Trying to get filthy rich is what drives this planet to doom. Damn, I'm totally off topic..

Knoppix Live CD and Bart's Preinstalled Environment live CD are the top recovery tools to consider.

2005-06-22T16:37:00.000+03:00

I recently had yet another Hard Disk failure ( well it was a complete crash to be exact ) so this time around after having to setup Windows for the 3rd time in a few months I got my act together and decided to have a look around for solutions. Two of the best are the Knoppix Linux Live CD , a bootable cd that loads a full Linux installation along with major products like the open office suite and such. The second more popular to Windows users solution would be the Bart's Preinstalled Environment bootable cd. The later needs a Windows installation disk and using that it creates a bootable cd that loads a windowed environment along with most of the popular recovery utilities ( as long as you have them installed on your original machine and transfer them to the installation directory of the app ).
I suggest you give both choices a try and see which one fits your needs.
What I expected to find with my search was a utility like Norton Ghost that would make a bootable DVD that would copy my recent state of Windows to a new hard drive if my current one stopped working. This procedure can be done through Ghost as long as you have the Symantec Recovery CD but I still have my doubts if it can be done with a new different hard disc than the one used to make the backup.

Are you absent-minded all the time? Get an ipaq! Period.

2005-06-16T13:43:00.000+03:00

It’s been 9 days since my birthday and on that very day I received a wonderful present from my girlfriend, well you guessed it, an HP ipaq (handheld computer).
I am a forgetful person, not as in I don’t pay attention to things but I have a seriously small attention span and I keep forgetting things, mostly to-do stuff.
All that has changed with the arrival of this little gadget. I find myself more productive at work; I manage and organize my projects more fluently. I always remember my home tasks and I actually get to do them. I program my time more efficiently, I manage my expenses, hell just 10 days later I wonder how I managed to get by all this time without it.There’s an interesting survey over at Lifehacker on how most Americans never seem to organize their time, especially at work where it’s most needed.

Happy birthday to me! I'm turning 31 today..

2005-06-07T12:21:00.000+03:00

I almost forgot to mention this one. It's true I am turning 31 today folks and for most people birthdays are fun, for me on the other hand my birthday usually makes me frown since it's that specific day of the year that makes me realize my life passes by and I haven't managed to do anything worth mentioning in human history. My guess is that 99.999% of all human activity falls into that category so I guess I should cheer up.
I hope this year I will keep receiving the love and attention of my friends and family and especially my girlfriend and I wish everyone I know good health and happiness, all the rest is easily bought.

DVDDecrypter is no more.

2005-06-07T11:16:00.000+03:00

According to this news page from CDfreaks LIGHTNING UK! the creator of DVDDecrypter was contacted with a cease and desist letter from an unnamed company ( rumor has it that Sony might be the one ) and he was asked to deliver all his source code and his website to that company and to stop all development of his famous software. Truly a sad day for all DVD enthusiasts and a day that fair use is crippled.
My guess is that a new tool will pop out but on the other hand MPAA's actions to stop the so called piracy seem to work, all they had to do was turn the planet against them in order to do that. Sometimes you have to loose some in order to win, you should take a lesson from Microsoft's products, if they weren't pirated that much would it be number one today ?

Sometimes a chkdsk is all it takes.

2005-06-07T00:46:00.000+03:00

As I've reported earlier my main Windows setup managed to freak me out today since it appeared to have been wiped out from my hard disc. The only thing I could find in that drive was an empty Windows folder. Apparently one of my hard drives decided to f*&^ around with me and found a pretty nasty way to do that since a simple scandisk from the prompt made all the files in that Windows folder magically reappear, something about orphaned files was all I could read from the error report.
Should I trust that hard drive and continue working off of it or should I go for yet another Windows setup on a new drive I have on standby. Such is the magic of machines based on Windows.
What I tell most of my customers every day is that if they switch a PC on and it works flawlessly throughout the day, they should start to worry.. I guess I should be thankful that I managed to avoid yet another setup just by running a simple chkdsk.

Windows folder completely wiped ?

2005-06-06T13:08:00.000+03:00

I've been experiencing some issues with Windows over the past few years but this one is well over the top. I switched my home computer on today and I got no response at all, it wouldn't boot from my primary windows setup. I happen to have another setup on a secondary drive just in case something like this would happen so I booted from that only to find out that my primary windows folder of the first setup was completely empty.
If anyone has any suggestions on how something like this could happen please post a comment. I have Kerio Personal firewall and AVG antivirus on that machine so an Internet attack seems less likely than possible.
I am as confused as I could ever be on how something like could happen..

Do you forget where you park your car? Here’s a tip..

2005-06-03T10:02:00.000+03:00

I never seem to remember where I park my car so a few months ago I came up with a pretty easy solution to this major problem. If you happen to have a cell phone with voice recording capabilities all you have to do each time you park your car somewhere is record yourself stating the exact location. One thing you should take notice though is that this procedure should become a reflex otherwise if you forget to erase the previous spot or to record the new one, you end up frustrated because your cell says that it’s there while you end up looking around for it yet again.
The voice recording way is the easiest one I could come up with ‘cause my first try involved writing the location on a cell note. Later I found the whole procedure boring so I stopped it, then I thought of taking pictures and the downside was that a mobile usually doesn’t have a flash so night shots were out of the question. So take my word for it and start recording, you might thank me some day..

this WEEK in TECH podcast makes the whole experience worthwhile.

2005-06-01T10:44:00.000+03:00

I've been reading so much hype on podcasting that I decided to give it a try myself. For those of you who don't know what a podcast is, well it's a radioshow, mostly talk radio, that you can download and sync with your mp3 player, mostly ipod, hence the name, and listen to it whenever you feel like. The whole process is automated so all you need is a program that does the whole thing for you. A great start would be iPodder, it's open source and quite easy to use, all you have to do is choose which shows you want to listen to and just let it do it's job. You have to have broadband of 'course since most of these shows are about 40Mb and I believe they will get bigger as more listeners tune in.
A show that made me realize what a great thing a podcast is happens to be tWiT aka "this WEEK in TECH", it's funny and informative on all the major tech news of the week, plus a slew of quests ( that joined through Skype ) make it quite enjoyable, an all round great show if you're into tech stuff that is.
A good starting point for podcasts would be Podcast Alley where you can find listings of podcasts in categories.
Well that's all for now, I'll keep you updated with my favorite shows once I hear something interesting.

Silent Bob Speaks ! New book by Kevin Smith is out.

2005-05-31T16:28:00.000+03:00

Looking for a funny and quick read ? Something for the toilet perhaps ? Well look no further because Silent Bob aka Kevin Smith has released his collected writings ( short articles published in Arena magazine and others ) titled Silent Bob Speaks ( as the image above suggests ).
The stories range from mildly to extremely funny and are mostly autobiographical. You'll get to read about Ben Affleck, Mr Smith's s#*ting problems and lot's of Hollywood inside scoop, although expect to read a lot of knows facts.
I'm not your average book reader, hell I only read manuals, but this book makes a good and quick read ( line spacing is a bitch on this one ) , I'm sure the hardcore fans will enjoy, the rest of you can actually skip it or snatch it from a friend.. need to know more ? click here ..

2005-05-26T15:51:00.000+03:00

The Yamamoto VOIP phone is one of the coolest ( or geekiest ) gadgets that can accompany your Skype account. All of the program tabs are accessible through the phone's top buttons ( in, out and two arrows ). The whole experience of Internet telephony becomes more natural and doesn't draw any attention if you are in an Internet cafe ( I've tried that myself ). Seems like if you are talking through a phonelike device people don't pay attention, while talking to thin air ( on a handsfree device ) draws all the attention you can get and makes people believe you're nuts, well in Greece at least..

Skype in Greece ? Well yeah !

2005-05-25T19:42:00.000+03:00

After the initial drawbacks I finally got Skype to work as promised, well almost.. I managed to set up Skype along with a Yamamoto USB Skype compatible phone on an internet cafe with an 8 Mbps connection ( a standard home connection for the Northern Part of Europe, a luxury for the Greek folk.. ) and I managed to make crystal clear phonecalls through SkypeOut which seems to be the most useful function of Skype since most of my friends are not willing to install the software, yet. I am hoping that Skype will become the standard since it's dead easy to setup and use and with a larger following my guess is that prices will drop. My second hope is that rates for Greek landlines and cellphones will drop even more making Skype an affordable solution for geeks (ahem), Greeks like me.

Got Skype ?

2005-05-23T16:56:00.000+03:00

I tested Skype today ( free internet telephony through a p2p network ) and more specifically I tested SkypeOut which is a service provided by Skype for making calls to standard land and cell phones all around the globe, through the internet.
I'm quite sure SkypeOut works fine in the States but what about Greece I hear you say. Well let's just say that it needs 4 to 5 years of evolution ( unless of course someone fixes something on the Greek side ).
I made 3 phonecalls ( 2 on cell and one on a standard land connection ) and in all of the cases the voice on the other side was coming in slow motion, I know that sounds weird but that's exactly what I was listening to, a slow motion version of the speakers original voice. My voice was heavily distorted making it not recognizable, all in all a major fix on SkypeOut for Greece is needed. I won't compare charges made by Telcom companies and Skype because the latter's product is still far away from complete, the day I manage a decent call to a land phone then I'll revise my review.

Calling another computer on the other hand was flawless. I called a PC in my own office thus doubling the bandwidth used and everything worked fine. My guess is that Skype started as an Internet only phone and now the company is trying to move into the more common land phones area.

Skype will be a top choice in some 3 to 4 years time ( in my country that is ).

EDIT: Just to be fair I tried SkypeOut over my 56k modem line @ home and I called my girlfriend at her house number and things were a lot better than my first try this morning. Both our voices sounded ok and there was but minimum lag so communication was quite possible so my guess is that a 56k can also do the job and the best use for Skype would be to call relatives and friends abroad, especially in the States and in the UK, since rates there are crazy cheap.

If you are interested in contacting me through Skype my nick is " alexk7110 " .

Please sign in ( this Hotmail header makes me laugh ).

2005-05-17T19:39:00.000+03:00

Do people still sign up for Hotmail accounts ?
It sounds like such a joke nowadays. 25 megs of space ( HELLO ? ) and 250 if you live in the states ( ahhhhh .. wtf ?).
Microsoft being the dominating force in the computer business for so long kinda makes you wonder how it managed that, cheap bastards.
I don't remember giving a penny at Google yet it offers me a great e-mail solution ( Gmail ), a great picture archiver ( Picasa ), this very blog ( Blogger ) not to mention the obviously great search engine that started it all FOR FREE, yet Microsoft is still number one. My guess is that you have to be a prick to get the top notch in business.
Who knows maybe in some 10 years time the picture will change.

Yahoo Calendar

2005-05-17T19:16:00.000+03:00

Yahoo Calendar
Originally uploaded by alexk7110.

Did you know that every yahoo e-mail account also has an appoinment calendar built right into it? Well, I have been using my Yahoo e-mail account for years now and I never thought of clicking that calendar tab on top of it. Today while looking for a currency converter I stumbled upon yahoo calendar only to realise it was built in my e-mail account. Nifty.. if you have an account check it out. Amongst other things it displays your city's current and near future weather ( as long as yo choose your city that is.. ) Have fun with it.

Essential PIM on a USB stick, try all your contacts and your schedule on any computer.

2005-05-06T13:54:00.000+03:00

Looking for a free Personal Information Manager, and one that runs on a USB stick that you can plug into any computer and keep up with your schedule ? Look no further Essential PIM is here, in two flavors, standalone and USB powered with no setup required. My money is on this little app, the filofax has been dead for years now, your palm is next, well maybe not, still go try Essential PIM at http://www.essentialpim.com/index.php

The coolest skin for Winamp !!

2005-05-06T12:04:00.000+03:00

This has to be the coolest winamp skin ever, packed with features and goodies, you have to try it out. You can find this wonderfull skin over at deviantart, it's called Avalon. http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13506806/

Why wasn’t I informed earlier on? [A shortcut monologue.]

2005-05-06T11:51:00.000+03:00

Did you know that Winamp had global keyboard shortcuts? All you have to do is enable this feature in it’s properties and then press Ctrl+Alt+Home for pause, Ctrl+Alt+Insert for play C.+A.+Page Up, Down for Pev Next, and of course you can customize those settings to suit your own needs. Now why wasn’t I informed of that the day it came out, this could be a month or 4 years for all I know. It’s pretty clear that I am a shortcut freak and since I work 8 hours everyday with headphones on and winamp playing throughout my day this nifty feature is a major plus. If only Justin returned back to the winamp team to secure the growth of this wonderful player..

By the way I haven't smoked for 1 month, 3 weeks and 19 hours, saving 1,847.52 cigarettes and 249.41 Euro ( information courtesy of Quitomzilla, a firefox extension try it over @ update.mozilla.org .

2005-04-23T17:59:00.000+03:00

The logo on top of the great player, read review below

Unibrain's iZak is simply brilliant!

2005-04-23T17:54:00.000+03:00

iZak from Unibrain, hard disc based multimedia player. I was quite skeptic about this little piece of hardware, but then again I was right in the middle of the potential buyers market. I am an internet and computer freak with a special love for movies and series. I bought this little device a couple of days back and after some heavy beta testing I've turned into a huge fan. I might consider starting a website for this player if no one else has done so, yet.
Before I get into the few technical details needed for the iZak ,let me tell you that it passed all my needy tests with flying colors. DVD, DivX, XviD ( same thing if you ask me ) jpeg and mp3 all played with crystal clear image and sound and with NO ANNOYING DRIVE SOUNDS THAT DVD PLAYERS PRODUCE. It's like watching cable television with your favorite programs and movies played right when you need them. Simply amazing. Well truth is that we don't have cable tv here in Greece so I have nothing to compare it to but my guess is that this must be how it looks like.
The device gives extended information during all media playback. You get bitrates, chapters, time, angles, subtitles and audio plus a whole lot more info that only computer geeks have actual knowledge of. During XviD playback for instance you get FPS width and length and kbps. ( see picture with blurred image, you don't need to know what I watch.. although my guess is that you got it already ).
Playback of my 5 megapixel images was flawless and full image info was displayed, like full name path, size etc.
Full name path is displayed throughout all the menus ( no more 8 letter names standard DVD with DivX playback machines usually give.)
I could go on for a few more pages but believe, if I take the time to write a few sentences about I and go through the trouble of a mini review this thing is good. Get it while stocks last..
Images follow..

2005-04-23T17:53:00.000+03:00

iZak alongside my SE mobile

2005-04-23T17:51:00.000+03:00

iZak on my 32inch TV, Goliath and David style

2005-04-23T17:48:00.000+03:00

iZak movie info during playback

2005-04-23T17:47:00.000+03:00

iZak alongside of a Pronto 1st Gen

Do your earbuds cause you trouble ?

2005-04-18T19:56:00.000+03:00

I was over at iPodlounge for no apparent reason ( since I don't own an iPod nor am I willing to buy one.. not soon anyway.. ) and I discovered this little fella

Apparently this little design thingy wraps your earbuds cord and keeps it tidy. It only costs $5 so don't give it a second thought go fetch one. I am expecting mine in 15 days. I'll post the results after some heavy beta testing..

Armin van Buuren @ Venue Thessaloniki Greece ( 9th of March 2005 )

2005-04-11T11:12:00.000+03:00

This past Saturday I went to Armin van Buuren’s set in my homecity of Thessaloniki at club Venue. I had great expectations for this show. There are about a handfull of DJ’s that I enjoy and on my top spot lies Armin.
The first letdown of the show was that Armin appeared around 4:30 in the morning after a quite dissapointing DJ that played some 180 Bpms of craaaaap right before Armin’s set thus giving Armin a much faster pace to start with. Secondly the club’s soundsystem was clearly setup for techno and hardcore ‘whatever’ that seems to be popular in my country only. The bass and the kick were loud as f%&k and you could only hear about 10% of the melody. The thing that makes trance so great is the melody that follows the rhythm and clearly NOT the extreme and pointless fast repetitive bass. Strike three was the people in the club. It seems to me that trance is kept alive in my city by high school dropouts but on the verge of being extremely caustic for no reason I might leave this argument as it is.
On the bright side I have to say that Armin was a real sport. He would sign all the autographs he was requested, he would constantly smile for the camera and he would not stop dancing while he was playing his tunes. If only we could actually hear what he was playing. It’s a shame we are only relying in two clubs in my city for our trance needs and we always seem to get twisted versions of hardcore and techno parties. No worries for me though, I listen to Armin’s show every week and I get much more than my weekly trance fix.
Thanks Armin for dropping by but I must admit I enjoyed the last time ( at club decadence couple of years back ) a whole lot more.. I hope to see you again in my city, this time with a well setup sound system..

Armin van Buuren coming to Thessaloniki @ Venue on 09-04-2005

2005-04-05T16:03:00.000+03:00

Finally some news worth mentioning, it's been some 2 weeks since my last post simply because I couldn't find any good news to report. Well here it is. Armin is coming to town AAAAAArmin is comin' to town A A A A Armin is comiing to toooown.. ( sing in jingle bells tune )YEAH BABY YEAH. Thessaloniki will be blessed by the presence of non other than #3 in the world and #1 in our hearts dj. I'm gonna get down and boogey.. I would take some pictures to post in this blog but my guess is that I'm gonna be shaking all night long so no time for pictures.. see you all at Venue on Saturday night..

More than a week without smokes, coffee and sugar..

2005-03-23T14:59:00.000+02:00

More than a week has passed since I had a smoke, a Cola light or coffee with sugar.
First thing I notice is that my teeth are getting whiter by the day. You only get this little damage if you are deserted on an island ( I've seen this in Survivor ).
As far as nicotine or sugar craving is concerned, all I can say that it's just a myth. I didn't use any patches, chew any gum, read any books or ask for medical help. I just finished my pack and decided not to smoke again, ever. That's it. Well I did have a lot of chest pains and I wouldn't get any good sleep so deciding to quit only came natural. All I am saying is that quitting everyday delights is easy, it's all in your head..

An iPod installation screwed my Win machine..

2005-03-18T10:28:00.000+02:00

I hate to be the negative guy when it comes to iPods because simply enough they look amazing. My first encounter though wasn't good, in fact it was quite damaging to my windows setup and ever since I tried to install my buddy's iPod on my machine all hell broke loose. What it left me with was a boot sequence that gave the message " A file is missing or corrupt in windows\system32\config\system , use original windows cd and type r for recovery ". A few hours later I managed to get my pc to work again. If I was a novice I would be cursing' at iPods for the rest of my life. I know it's a million things that could possibly go wrong and that it might not even be the iPod's fault but ask yourselves whom would you blame since it was the setup I did and after the request for a restart my machine would stop booting up.

I've quit smoking, caffeine with sugar and fast food, all in the same day..

2005-03-15T21:01:00.000+02:00

I might be going for a world record here but lately I realised I was doing some serious damage to my body by almost doubling my smoking ( 2 packs a day ), eating nothing but junk whenever I was out ( ribs on bbq sauce )and drinking three cups of coffee with 3 teaspoons of sugar each and to top everything off I work in front of a computer all day long. So this past Sunday I decided I should do something about all of this. I started of by watching the excellent documentary called " Supersize me ", 20 minutes into the film and you're having some second thoughts on fast food altogether, by the end of it you're wondering how come these food chains remain open. Secondly I smoked all my remaining cigarettes and simply stopped buying ( the last 2 times I decided to quit I had smokes lying around, that is a tricky part ). Last but not least I realised that I must have been addicted to sugar since I was drinking 3 cups of coffee per day only to have the sugar that goes along with it, and during the weekends I would drink between 1,5 to 3 litres of Cola light. PURE MODERN DAY ADDICTION.
The reason I am writing this post is to let the world know that I belong amongst the millions that realize everyday that we are getting screwed by modern living while all our bodies need is some attention, some exercise, natural food and plenty of fresh air. Hell if I cannot have all of the above I will try to get as much as I can.
I sure hope that one year from today I will be looking back to this post thinking " damn I really did it"....

Firefox and Thunderbird have revolutionized my web experience.

2005-03-09T17:14:00.000+02:00

Today I realized that the 2 flagship Mozilla products, Firefox and Thunderbird, have seriously revolutionized the way I use the web nowadays. I just had a quick flashback realizing that I was barely scratching the Internet's surface with the MS counterparts.
Tabbed browsing along with extensions ( weather data, countdown clocks, color picker etc. ) have turned Firefox into a powerful tool that speeds up my Internet experience multiple times. RSS reading, address auto filling and secure connecting make Thunderbird a complete client instead of a crippled e-mail product.
I know the hype around these products leaves no space for my praise so all I can say is that if you haven't used the above products give them some serious consideration, you might get a flashback in a couple of months yourself. I am a web designer, I know..

Has the internet taken a bad turn ?

2005-03-09T12:51:00.000+02:00

Canada's Big Brother Net : During the Internet boom of the late 1990s, Nortel Networks ran an advertising campaign that featured as its slogan, 'what do you want the Internet to be?' The implications were obvious ? the Internet was a technology of unlimited possibility that could be whatever we wanted it to be.
More than five years later, Nortel's vision is becoming reality. The Internet has become so essential to the every day lives of millions of people — a pillar of communication, information, entertainment, education, and commerce — that at times it seems as if the Internet really is anything we want it to be.

Notwithstanding the Internet's remarkable potential, there are dark clouds on the horizon. There are some who see a very different Internet... ( go to p2pnet for the full story, quite an interesting read.. )

A State of Trance with Armin van Buuren got canceled ( again ).

2005-03-08T22:01:00.000+02:00

I just read over at Etn.fm that Armin van Buuren's radio show called "A State of Trance" will have to stop once again. The show has been picked up by a syndication service called 'The Radio Department' and they won't let Armin provide the show directly to the 2 online stations that broadcast it over the net. That's sad news ( once again ) since that show provides me and hundreds of other listeners around the world with a weekly trance dosage. Etn.fm is currently talking to TRD to get back the rights to broadcast the show, I sure hope they succeed.

Got Hypertag ?

2005-03-08T20:42:00.000+02:00

Hypertag : It seems that there is a new trend in the U.K. called hypertag. It is a spot on a street advertisement where you point your mobile phone turn on your infrared connection and a message, a tune or a game uploads to your phone. Apparently it has been utilized in the latest album campaign of the U.K. based band New Order ( as our correspondent georgek has pointed out to us ).

Markus Schulz " Coldharbour Sessions 2005 " available for pre-order

2005-03-08T13:12:00.000+02:00

www.markusschulz.com : Miami based trance DJ and producer Markus Shulz has finished his much anticipated 2nd trance compilation CD named Coldharbour Sessions 2005 ( Miami '05 ). The CD is available for pre-order through Amazon US and it's out on Armada ( Armin van Buuren's label ). The full tracklisting is as follows :
CD1
1. Blue Tubes (Intro Mix) - Hydroid
2. I Found You (Harry Lemon Remix) - Interstate
3. '3579 KM' - Kalafut & Fygle
4. Baltic Sea - Hammer & Bennett
5. Soul Dimension - Fluid In Motion
6. Close Enough (Noel Sanger Mix) - Keo
7. Heaven Drops - Jose Amnesia presents Tiffany
8. Let The Light In - Lens
9. Free Yourself - Aronek
10. In The End - Ave Mea
11. Quarter Century - Jagermaestro
12. I Know You're Gone - Max Graham featuring Jessica Jacobs

CD2
1. Fanatic - Bakke & Ljungqvist
2. Sublimate - Steve May
3. Sorrow - Sundawner
4. Eighties (Original Remix) - Yilmaz Altanhan
5. A Dream Came Through - Nikola Gala
6. What - Attention Deficit
7. Electro Hairspray - Markus Schulz
8. Yael - Jellisimo
9. Connected (Santiago Nino Remix) - Ozgur Can
10. Space Guitar - Mike Foyle presents Statica
11. A Little Hazy Morning - Progresia presents Sokaya
12. Language - Hammer & Bennett

Markus also produces the excellent weekly radio show " Global DJ Broadcast " on party931 in Miami also available at www.etn.fm.
Judging from his previous CD ( Coldharbour Sessions 2004 ) this one should not be missing from any trance fan's collection.

Forecastfox has been updated to ver 0.7

2005-03-08T10:26:00.000+02:00

Forecastfox has been updated to ver 0.7. With this great firefox extension you get up to date weather forecasts from weather.com displayed right on your toolbar in firefox.

Google Desktop Supports Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird and Netscape ( from MozillaZine )

2005-03-08T10:21:00.000+02:00

Google Desktop Supports Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird and Netscape - MozillaZine Talkback: Search giant Google has released the first non-beta version of its Google Desktop application, which now includes support for several Mozilla-based applications. The desktop search tool lets you find Web pages you've visited with the Mozilla Application Suite, Mozilla Firefox and Netscape 7 and locates emails received with Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups, Mozilla Thunderbird and Netscape 7 Mail & Newsgroups.
Although I haven't installed it yet, all of the things Google has offered so far are quite usefull and working great, so consider giving it a try.

Netscape Browser 8.0 Beta Released ( from MozillaZine )

2005-03-04T10:48:00.000+02:00

Netscape Browser 8.0 Beta Released: ( Download Netscape 8 Beta ) Based on Mozilla Firefox 1.0, this beta of Netscape's newest browser offers support for both the Gecko and Internet Explorer rendering engines. A new Site Controls feature lets users enable and disable features like ActiveX, JavaScript and cookies on a site-by-site basis (the browser includes self-updating whitelists and blacklists of safe and dangerous sites). The new Multi-Bar functionality lets users have more on-screen widgets than ever before, including Live Content like RSS feeds, weather forecasts and map searches.

2005-03-03T09:48:00.000+02:00

Third day is a charm. This is what the weather is like today, just one day after the small snowstorm. All this makes me think of what we have done wrong so the weather behaves like this. It seems that there are no news worth mentioning this week so I give you guys weather pictures.. Oh, I bought a Philips Pronto LCD remote yesterday, I'll see how that turns out.

2005-03-02T10:07:00.000+02:00

Just one day later, everything in my city has come to a stop due to the snow. If my friends from Finland are watching this I expect them to laugh out loud.

2005-03-01T09:57:00.000+02:00

Snow in Greece for the second time around.. Last week we had some form of an early summer, all sunny and warm. Today I wake up and face this, snow all over again. I know it doesn't look much in this picture but don't forget this is Greece we're talking about..

Digital Photography, my own experience..

2005-02-25T18:34:00.000+02:00

Some six months ago I bought my first digital camera, a Sony DSC W1. I chose this particular camera because of the 2.5 inch display ,the amazing price and the fact that it seemed an all round good personal camera.
Today I got back my first prints and finally I can admit that this little piece of hardware was worth every penny. The story was not all bells and whistles though. Couple of weeks back my girlfriend gave a CD full of images on a local photoshop run by a single individual. The prints we got back seemed fair to an inexperienced eye but left me quite disappointed. Sunlit faces seemed orange, indoor images and some outdoor images were 15% more green then they should be, all in all it was a disaster. The pictures seemed great on a computer screen but the best thing with photographs is that you can print them and show them to relatives without the need to boot up your machine. So I decided to visit a photoshop franchise called Photo Experts ( in Greece ) and give them a try. The results were simply amazing, my faith in digital photography was restored.

So rule #1 : Print your images on a good photoshop, they are worth it.

Great assistance to my whole image archiving process was Google's free software called Picasa. This piece of software is well thought out and it gives a great experience on managing photos even to a novice. You can quickly give your snapshots captions and labels for easy retrieving, it has a great search engine ( it is a Google program after all ), it has the ability to print multiple images on one A4 premium photo paper ( if your printer gives you good quality prints, it's worth it ) and to top it all off it has some imaging filters to fix your images and the ability to make slideshow cdroms to give away to relatives.

rule #2 : use some good archiving program or else you might easily get lost.

It's fairly easy to understand that digital photography is here to stay because of it's flexibility, ease of use ,cost cutback on film and most importantly the ever increasing quality of images snapped by modern cameras. Cellphones were made for phonecalls not photography so if you are planning a trip make yourself a favor and buy a real camera. Sooner or later you'll love it too.

IZak (portable DivX player) from Unibrain picked by LaCie

2005-02-25T12:47:00.000+02:00

Several months ago the Greece based company Unibrain introduced a revolutionary device called iZak. It is a hard disc based multimedia player that you plug in at your PC and upload movies songs and images and the plug it to your TV and view all of the above content. Well it seems that LaCie has picked up this great player and OEM’d it. You can find more info at LaCie’s page..

Lokitorrent lawsuit , a hoax ? ( from Earthreactor )

2005-02-25T11:46:00.000+02:00

LOKI TORRENT LAWSUIT :: THE FACTS: At the end of December 2004, the RIAA and MPAA began an international rampage in efforts to close down major bit torrent and ed2k file sharing sites. During the turmoil, one such MPAA targeted Bit Torrent site claimed it was willing to stand up against the evil powers of motion picture media thugs by fighting the legal issues in a court of law. LokiTorrent.com began accepting donations from the p2p community to support what they called "necessary legal fee's".
Some weeks later as the article suggests the whole thing was proved to be a scam on behalf of the lokitorrent owner to collect money from it's users and p2p supporters.
My guess is that this guy was smart enough to pull something like this, especially on tech-savvy and quite smart people. Is he going to pull this off without any punishment by the community ? I'm sure the goverment is not willing to help as much as in other cases of fraud but then again time will tell.. ( click the article's opening sentence to view the original post ).

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 Released ( from Mozillazine )

2005-02-25T11:24:00.000+02:00

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 Released : Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 has just been released. A minor update, this version fixes a few security holes and some other bugs. If you're using Firefox 1.0, you want this release. The official download link is http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
. Go fetch !

Charamel theme for Firefox updated

2005-02-24T17:06:00.000+02:00

Here's charamel theme in it's full glory.. read previous post for more info

2005-02-24T17:02:00.000+02:00

Like my Firefox Theme ? It's called Charamel and it has been recently updated. The Url to get it is http://members.shaw.ca/lucx

MediaGate MG350HD coming soon...

2005-02-24T14:08:00.000+02:00

I am so buying this.. It's the Mediagate MG 350 HD, wireless network, DivX and other media playback, slick, that should make my buddies quite jealous..

ExplorerXP - Freeware file manager for Win2K/XP

2005-02-23T15:34:00.000+02:00

ExplorerXP - Freeware file manager for Win2K/XP Looking for a great alternative for Windows Explorer that comes along with tabbed browsing, shortcuts to folders, a renaming engine and a split file engine along with a huge bundle of little helping modules and on top of all that a free license ? Well look no further ExplorerXP to the rescue. I've been using this little app for the past 2 hours and since I am a shortcut freak I must say this one is a lifesaver. Tabbed browsing is the best, case sensitive renaming one of my favs, wildcard selecting oh boy.. I could go on forever but I suggest you give it a try and come up with your own opinion.

The 25 movies that made a difference in my life..

2005-02-22T21:05:00.000+02:00

Having to list the best movies one has enjoyed is a hard task for every film fan. After some serious thought (and a sneak peak at imdb) I managed to collect the list below in no particular order. If I had to say thank you to the movie industry for the good stuff it has provided us, here are 25 reasons why..

01 Fight Club
02 Requiem for a Dream
03 The Shining
04 American History X
05 American Beauty
06 The Usual Suspects
07 Se7en
08 Donnie Darko
09 Platoon
10 The Game
11 Magnolia
12 Groundhog Day
13 12 Monkeys
14 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
15 Being John Malcovic
16 The Big Lebowski
17 Clerks
18 28 Days Later
19 Narc
20 Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind
21 Lost in Translation
22 The Fifth Element
23 The Silence of the Lambs
24 Kairo
25 Battle Royale

Having to limit my list on just 25 movies I had to leave some real gems out, but then again this isn't the Oscars, it's just my personal list. If you believe that a flick was wrongfully listed here, feel free to comment..

HUNTER S. THOMPSON: 1937-2005

2005-02-21T17:34:00.000+02:00

HUNTER S. THOMPSON: 1937-2005 / Original gonzo journalist kills self at age 67 / 'Fear and Loathing' author, ex-columnist for S.F. Examiner dies of gunshot wound ( from SFGATE.com ): Hunter S. Thompson, the counterculture writer credited with creating a new form of journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," was found dead Sunday from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Aspen- area home, authorities said. ( click title for the rest of the article )

Collateral did me damage.

2005-02-21T10:30:00.000+02:00

I think I’ve had enough of bashing Hollywood, it’s about time I praise it. Hell I’ve never actually took the time to make a movie so my guess is that I should stop mentioning the bad and try to only mention the good, this approach is actually constructive.
This past Saturday I rented and watched a movie that should set the new standards in Hollywood filmmaking. The movie as the title suggests was Collateral.
My guess is that Tom Cruise amongst an elite of actors is playing in and producing some of the best movies the studios produced in this past decade. Direction from Michael Mann was a key point in this movie, his use of DV cameras made a huge impact and gave the movie the extra realism that made it stand out amongst other action – suspense films. Jamie Foxx’s excellent acting needs praise too. The plot of the movie was somewhat simple to digest but photography, direction and acting was what made it top notch in my book. Although the movie has been out for some time now, if you haven’t rented it yet go and get it now.
Just to be fair I will post my Hollywood top 10 list in the coming days..

UK Leads Illegal TV Downloads Market ( from Neowin )

2005-02-18T13:31:00.000+02:00

Neowin.net - UK Leads Illegal TV Downloads Market: More and more Brits are turning to the web to download their favourite TV shows, research has revealed. A report found the country was at the head of a "worldwide explosion in internet TV piracy". Nearly a fifth of all downloads come from the UK, compared with 7% from America. ( click the starting title for more .. )

Well, well, it has been reported, now it will be hunted, next thing you know TV eps sites will go down 'cause of this report and five years will be lost until the studios realise they can actually sell those episodes and have built the infrastructure to do that. I for one am more than willing to pay for my weekly episodes ( a reasonable fee that is ), one of the few entertainment pleasures left in my weekly schedule, as long as they encode these episodes in the same quality as the groups do and as long as I don't have to buy extra equipment to play them back. Oh, one more thing they don't have to be DRM laden. I quess all this is too much to ask but my guess is that it will happen sooner than later.

DVD Copy Protection Strengthened ( from BetaNews )

2005-02-16T16:02:00.000+02:00

BetaNews | DVD Copy Protection Strengthened: "DVD Copy Protection Strengthened"
Content protection software maker Macrovision announced Tuesday a software solution that could help curb the problem of illegal copying of DVDs.

The software, called RipGuard, plugs up a hole created by the popular DeCSS software. DeCSS allows the user to break the already present copy protection and make near-perfect copies of the discs for uploading to P2P networks or re-burned onto recordable DVDs. ( click on top link to read more..)

They just don't give up now do they.. They managed to shutdown all of the big torrent sites now they are back to where the trouble began. IF ONLY HOLLYWOOD STOPPED PRODUCING CRAP BY THE DOZEN THEN WE WOULDN'T BE TRYING TO GET CHEAP COPIES WE WOULD BUY THE REAL THING. God I'm so pissed off by this nonsence.

Tv-swarm.com closed permanently.

2005-02-15T10:19:00.000+02:00

Yet another excellent torrent site with TV episodes was closed down today by it's operators. They mention that judging from the latest happenings in the torrent scene they don't want to get shut down by the MPAA ( or any other association for that matter ) and get sued afterwards like lokitorrent and co.
These news make my day all the more miserable. In my country we rarely ever get good US TV shows, not to mention that we get them about 2 to 3 years later. So far I found comfort in downloading my favorite shows and after the season ended I bought them on DVD. While there are still some sites that share episodes my belief is that they will go down along with the bunch.
I so wish there could be some way of purchasing those episodes for a reasonable price since I don't want to get left behind only because I live in a far fetched European country. If the studios are reading this consider coming up with a solution fast. Instead of suing people charge them a minimal fee and milk them of their precious salaries if they are willing to pay for their entertainment instead of waiting some 2 years to watch a tv show for free on their over the air TV.

eXeem dumps Cydoor spyware ( news from p2pnet.net )

2005-02-09T10:42:00.000+02:00

eXeem dumps Cydoor
eXeem Drops Cydoor
By Tom Mennecke - Slyck

When SuprNova closed its doors on December 19, 2004, many believed this event spelled the end of BitTorrent. Quickly capitalizing on this panic, news began to spread regarding the advent of a new decentralized BitTorrent effort named "eXeem." Curiosity and anticipation over this purportedly revised BitTorrent protocol began sweeping P2P forums.

However, the initial buzz that surrounded eXeem would ultimately give away to disappointment. News quickly began to circulate that Cydoor would accompany this client. Cydoor is a thrid party advertising program designed send targeted advertising to the end user.
Visit p2pnet for the rest of the article..

Sunbird 0.2 ( Mozilla Calendar ) released

2005-02-08T20:28:00.000+02:00

Mozilla Calendar home > Although it was news this past Friday, my weekend holidays got in the way, anyhow the excellent new calendar from the Mozilla organization is out on it's first public release, I have been using it for some time now and I must say it's a great start for a promising product. It is compatible with the Apple iCal, that means that you can share and import public calendars of holidays and such widely available at Apple servers for iCal. The GUI still needs some fixes but it's quite promising. All in all a great app, I will be looking forward for future releases.

Spontaneous Weekend Holidays continued 2..

2005-02-08T10:10:00.000+02:00

spontaneous_005
Originally uploaded by alexk7110.

Same as below..

Spontaneous Weekend Holidays continued..

2005-02-08T10:09:00.000+02:00

spontaneous_006
Originally uploaded by alexk7110.

Read comments below..

Spontaneous Weekend Holidays are the best part2

2005-02-08T10:08:00.000+02:00

spontaneous_004
Originally uploaded by alexk7110.

Here's what me and Anta have been up to this past weekend, amongst other things we visited the waterfalls of Edessa and here are some of the best pictures..