Archive for June, 2009

Facebook Usernames – Finally!

By On June 13, 2009 In Archived, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to Facebook Usernames – Finally!Permalink

The clock ticks at 5:59, 6:00 and then reaches 6:01AM. What a thrill! The adrenaline pumping, the eyes flickering, the fingers rapidly pressing the keyboard trying to get that special username…

After trying /douglas and actually getting a message that the name was available – miliseconds later chaning status to taken – I finally rested my mind on /dstridsberg. Not too bad, but perhaps /douglas.stridsberg would have been better?

I don’t know, and I sure was way too fired up to think about anything else at the very moment…

I did, though, have a chat with the Douglas that received /douglas and in his timezone (6 hours behind mine) he only just had to stay up till 12AM (which isn’t that late considering its a Friday night). Life’s unfair – isn’t it?

Anyway, I’m still rather happy with my new facebook username, Douglas Stridsberg! Perhaps this will in some way or another favor my Google search rankings?

My First Google Error Ever

By On June 13, 2009 In Archived, News With 1 Comment Permanent Link to My First Google Error EverPermalink

On the 1st of June 2009 at around 6PM GMT I received the following Google Server Error:
Google Server Error
I was rather tempted to mail error@google.com…

Have you ever encountered such an error on Google?

Mac MSN Messenger Loses Focus – Solved!

By On June 4, 2009 In Archived, Technology With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Mac MSN Messenger Loses Focus – Solved!Permalink

The problem with MSN losing focus after sending a message derives from the latest beta of Safari, believe it or not. Safari Beta 4 installed a version of WebKit which apparently caused the text-area inside MSN Messenger to behave erratically.
Just uninstalling Safari from Applications does not resolve the problem, nor does an uninstall of WebKit nightly builds do the trick. What you need to do is download the Safari .dmg file and run the uninstaller – here’s how:

#1

Download the Safari Beta from Apple’s homepage and mount it or unpack it anywhere.

#2

Safari 4
Open the Safari4.0BetaUninstall.pkg file and complete the steps necessary to uninstall the software. Note that after the uninstall, you will not have a working web browser unless you install another browser!

After these steps and a restart your MSN Messenger should be working fine!

Satellite TV on your PC – Does It Work?

By On June 3, 2009 In Archived, Technology With 6 Comments Permanent Link to Satellite TV on your PC – Does It Work?Permalink

This guide involves acquiring a piece of software (PCSatelliteTV) that is not free – either you buy it or you get hold of it in some other way. I will not be held liable for your choice.

Satellite TV to PC logo

Introduction

This guide will cover just how easy it is to play TV on your computer using nothing but software and internet. I was amazed at how well it worked, and although the quality could have been better the choice of channels makes up for it.
This guide involves, as stated above, an acquisition of PCSatelliteTV and you may choose in which way you do this.

Install

Install the program using custom or standard settings, either way works well. No crucial configuration is needed during the installation process. I found some trouble with NOD32 giving virus warnings however I found that the warnings were only issued to the temporary files that were extracted – not the final product.

Scan for channels (optional)

Before opening the program you may want to scan for channels. This extremely slow process (can take hours) scans a directory for any channel available. I have as of now not fully completed a scan like this, so I can’t tell you whether it’s useful or not.
Scan for channels
To start the scan, open the Scan Channels.exe file in your installation directory (the one you specified during installation), press the Scan For Available Channels and let it sit for a long time. A progress bar will tell you how much is left.

Conclusion

After all of this it’s time to enjoy your TV! Open up the main PCSatelliteTV application and doubleclick on any channel to start playing. The quality could be much better and some channels fail to work entirely, but at least it’s TV – and not only free channels but also paid ones.
It does its job – it works, but of course it can be made much better.

Screenshots

ESPN Nascar
Al Jazeera