Lode Runner was my favorite game on the Commodore 64. (I got used to calling it Loderunner though) A long time ago I managed to find a copy of the Nintendo DS version of Lode Runner. It wasn't cheap, but I figured it was worth it. And it was, when it comes to game play. The only problem? All screens are in Japanese, and I can't read any of it. So any extended play became a guessing game, no fun at all. It isn't good when I can play for hours at a time, but don't know how to save so I can continue next time.

I no longer have a reason not to play this great game anymore: over at NTSC-uk they have a page that has images of all screens, with English translations! All this thanks to “Charlesr, David Teixeira (arada392) and Sum Hau (Venom743)”. Who ever they may be. I didn't want to sign up to their forum just to post a thank you in a thread that is over a year old, but I'll say it here: thanks guys, this is awesome!

Since January of this year, travelers to the US under the Visa Waiver program are required to apply for authorization online, using the Electronic System For Travel Authorization Experience (ESTA). This is just to travel to the US, no guarantee of actually making it into the country. Basically, this simply lets you fill out the green I94W form online. It really has all the same questions (except that it asks for date of passport issuance in addition to expiration date, details like that) and even the screen has the same kind of green color. I guess they don't want to confuse people.

Visiting the actual ESTA site the first time is ... well, mind boggling, really. It shows a warning message/EULA that fills half the screen and that basically says you have no rights. Best thing? Your only option is to click OK. Hm, weird. But oh well, I had to use it anyway. After that it's just filling out the info. The system then tells you whether or not you are authorized to travel. In my case, it told me this right away, but the site implies it may take some time before you know for sure.

ESTA forms are valid for two years, or until your passport expires, whichever happens first. One would think this is all there is to it from now on, but I have also read stories that claim I'll still have to fill out the paper version next time I fly. That seems like a waste of time, but perhaps not all US border checkpoints are fully connected to the ESTA system yet.

As for the experience itself, filling out the form is easy, as long as you have your passport and travel info at hand. It takes about five minutes (including printing) if you're confident, probably longer if you want to double-check everything. No big deal to do this before a trip, you just have to remember. And remembering all you need to do for a trip isn't always so easy.

It was just a matter of time, but now it finally happened. Google Street View is a available for three Dutch cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Groningen (and for a bunch of English cities as well, including London). I haven't been able to find myself yet, although I have seen a Google car passing by at least once in recent months.

Checking out some spots in Amsterdam, I am impressed by the amount of automatic blurring of faces and license plates. At least I expect it is automatic, I sure hope there aren't thousands of underpaid employees painstakingly blurring faces. I am sure all these new images will lead to some interesting discoveries. Me, I'll just bore you with an image of a bike taxi in Amsterdam.

Edit: it seems Firefox doesn't like the code to embed the map view, so I'll just give you a link for now and you can check it out for yourself. After a dozen tries (preview version help) I figured out the problem is caused by the link to Google's full page. I converted it to a tinyurl URL and now it works. No clue why, but I'm not in the mood to look into this right now.


View Larger Map

It seems there is some good news in the area of rechargable batteries: batteries that may be charged in just a few seconds. Hey, I'd be happy with batteries that can be charged in just a few minutes.

So many of my gadgets require some kind of battery to power them on the road. Most of the time I remember to charge the gadgets in time for any road trip. Not all trips can be planned for though, so sometimes I end up with a gadget that is not fully charged. (plus, ok, I'll admit it, sometimes I forgot to charge a gadget) Having the option of literally last-minute charging a battery would be great. Now I just need lithium-ion batteries for my Wii controller. Since I don't use it very often, I usually end up with empty batteries, scrambling to find a couple that still have some juice left.

It all sounds like something too good to be true, right now, but perhaps this will be available sooner than thought. Science is happening at impressive speed these days. Speaking of science and technology, the compact disc turned 30 this weekend. I didn't realize it (or I, for that matter) was that old already. For the record (no pun intended) I still love compact discs.

It was time for another Nucleus update. No major security issues this time, so it could wait a few days, but today I finally got around to installing the latest version. As usual, if you happen to notice something no longer working, feel free to contact me.

Since I was looking at updating anyway, I also checked out some possible hosting alternatives, since I managed to go over my bandwidth limit last year. Although I found some interesting providers, it seems I will need more time to decide on one for sure. Meanwhile I will stay with the current hosting provider, since it has served me well for years. I just have to make sure I don't post anything popular enough to make it to digg. No worries there, eh?

In situations where several people share the same computer, problems can arise when people prefer to use different screen resolutions. What is too big for some, is too small for others. Constantly switching the resolution using the Windows settings is quite annoying. Thankfully there is a little utility program you can run to make life easier.

QuickResXP is a tiny program that, once installed and run, sits in your system tray. If you want to change your screen size (resolution), open the program and select from a wide range of preset values. Even better, you can create a shortlist of favorite settings. This is very helpful if you have, say, three different preferences on one computer. Each user can just select his or her favorite resolution.

I seem to remember setting up several accounts for people using the same computer a long time ago, each with its own resolution. Perhaps my old mind is playing tricks on me and I just remember this wrong. It seems Windows XP certainly does not remember resolution settings per user. So whenever one account switches the resolution, the other accounts are affected as well. This is why QuickResXP is so useful. Whether you use separate accounts for each user, or several users share the same account, they can all have their own settings.

Navigation and use of QuickResXP is easy enough so even elderly people can use it. The only problem I see, is if they can't get to the tray icon in the first place, because of a small resolution size. In which case screen magnification software may be useful. QuickResXP is written by Bryan Berns and is freeware for non-commercial use.

This weekend I watched The Mist for the second time, on dvd. This is a movie adaptation of a Stephen King story, done by Frank Darabont, who also did The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. The first time I watched it, I wasn't sure what to expect. Quite a few of the movie adaptations of King stories have been rather unsatisfying, or plain disappointing. Not this one though. Regardless of how well it follows the novella the movie is an incredible watch all by itself. (I understand it follows it closesly, except for the ending, which Darabont improved to King's liking.) It has been too long since I read the story, so I can't say anything about that.

The video is one of the songs used in the movie, and even without the movie, it sets a very dark mood. The clip (not related to the movie) does so as well, but that is rather unrelated to my post or the movie. A little more about the movie after the clip, possibly with spoilers.




Here be possible SPOILERS ... be warned. [Read More!]

Or is there just something wrong with my computer or Google's service?




[Edited to add: for those who wonder, it lasted 15 min or so and then all was normal again. My guess is a Google hiccup.]

The latest hype in social networking gadgets land is Poken, a usb device that lets you connect to other users carrying a poken. Why? Well, because it is an easy way to exchange your social networking information when you happen to be somewhere without access to a computer.

If you carry a Poken and happen to meet someone else carrying one, you make both devices touch (yes, that may sound dirty, but if you look at the pictures of the Pokens you'll see it's rather more innocent) and have them exchange information. In other words, I can set up my device so it knows I'm ThisPerson on Flickr and ThatPerson on Hyves. As soon as our pokens touch, your poken will download that information and store it, while my poken will download your profile information and store it. At home I can plug it into the computer, and have all the info, so I can click through to your social network profile page.

Something like this is kind of like an electronic business card. It would come in handy at parties or conferences, where you may run into interesting people you'd like to add to your network. Instead of trying to remember their aliases or entering their info in your phone/write it down, the poken just stores everything.

Right now, Poken supports a number of big networks, but is sadly lacking Myspace support: badoo, bebo, facebook, flickr, hi5, hyves, linkedin, netlog, ning, plaxo, skyrock, spoke, studivz, twitter, usgang, viadeo, xing.

For those a little reluctant to share information, the poken has a 'ghost' option that only shares very limited information. If I understand it correctly, a poken can store up to 64 contacts, but I doubt I will ever meet that many people in a single day. Pokens are sold at some online stores, through its own website, or by people all over the world. (Like me, so feel free to contact me.) There are four different kinds of pokens, and online store prices start around € 15/$20. Sales are done through viral marketing and they work kind of like the online referral schemes: selling pokens earns you points for discounts, and any poken you sold that connects to a new poken makes you points too. I wonder if it is a coincidence that the Dutch verb 'to buy' (kopen) is so similar to poken ...

[Edit, Feb 15: here is a Poken coupon or promo code (or if you prefer in Dutch, kortingsbon) for a 10% discount on your purchase: PL3PKSL8NSDOYUWTMSLP just enter it when you purchase yours.]

For years I have been taking pictures, which I then store in folders, grouped by year. Not a very advanced way to organize my pictures, but it served me well. Recently I decided I should try and set up some kind of slideshow option of the most interesting pictures. This can be a nice way to show off some pictures when people come over. It is a great conversation starter, or can just serve as moving scenery, for people who don't want to participate in any conversation. However, this would require sorting my pictures and organizing them into better groups.

It seems unlikely that anyone will be interested in shots of my new gadgets. There are also plenty of pictures I took just because I found something interesting at the time, but I have no wish to share those pictures. And last but not least, I don't like displaying pictures of people, if those people have objected or have never been asked for permission.

I wanted a way to look at all my pictures and to move them into different folders, without having to use the thumbnail view of windows. That feature just blows with 200+ pictures in a folder. I figured it would also be nice if I could create actual albums and slideshows. If a slideshow can show randomized pictures, even better. Once I am done sorting my pictures, I also plan to make them available over my network so I can display them using my Xbox. For starters though, a slideshow on my desktop will be good enough.

A brief search led me to MyAlbum, which is presented as “Simple Image Cataloger and Slideshow”. It seems the “simple” refers to its ease of use, not its functionality, since this program can do a lot. This is my choice for photo organizing for now, especially since it allowed me to organize four years worth of pictures in an hour or so.

I created four kinds of folders, based on subject. (If you let MyAlbum create actual albums, you don't have to create folders, but since I want to use these folders with other software as well, this seemed to make sense.) I then opened one of the folders-by-year in the program, waited for the thumbnails to load, and selected photos that matched one of the subjects. Which I then simply moved (using the program's menu option) to the right folder. Going through the images three times left me with four folders (including the one I started with). I repeated this for the other years. Sure, I could have loaded all folders in one go, but that would have been way too many photos and that would make things slow and annoying.

Yes, I only used MyAlbum to actually organize the photos in the most basic way and this doesn't really do the program justice. This program will let you add keywords, create albums and slidehows (even self running ones), add transitions, and much more. A powerhouse for your local photos, but also just an amazing tool to quickly organize your photos into folders.