Oh my world... it this amazing or what? Superb work of art created by "Daniel Rozin", an artist who's art responds to the people viewing the art. More info here. Thanks to this guy for the link.

Labels: Amazing, Art, Creativity, Electronics, Technology

Finally updated my OPML. Here it is:

http://opml.Aasemoon.com

[You can see it in your browser, I've created an XSL for it so it looks like something other than just code...]

Labels: Data Portability, OPML, XML

And I am not the least bit surprised. After all, we all saw this coming... didn't we.   

About a year ago I came across Evri. After I played around with it a bit and did some inspection, I realized it was simply not interesting. It doesn't do anything special that hasn't already been covered by another 10,000 more complete and useful services out there.

With everything that went down with Twine in the past year, it was predicted by a lot of people that I spoke with, that Twine.com had pretty much always been for sale, if you catch my drift. The only thing is, I guess a part of me was always hoping that some big cool company would come along and acquire Twine, and perhaps that way Twine would finally be made into what it was originally supposed to be [or at least what the pitch was!].

Well, the Radar Networks finally got bought today. Twine.com finally got owned today, and as a result we now have a combination of 2 completely lame projects. On one hand I find this very disappointing. On the other hand, I find it very laughable. =P  What I find even more amusing, is the little "Evri + Twine" logo that they've stuck on the top of the Twine pages. It looks to me like it's saying "here's how you know we have successfully made a bloody mess of things".

I can not believe where Twine started, and where it is now, truly and finally, ending.... 

More info here and  here.

Labels: Grotesque, Semantic Web, Twine, Web

A few months ago, a neighbour's cat walked right into my bedroom when I opened the flat door to come in. After inspecting my bedroom for a bit, he found himself a comfy place on a mini table under my window, and that was that. The cat didn't seem to want to go out! =) I tried picking him up and putting him on the floor and leading him to the door, but he just turned around and went right back to where he was. Then I sat down and started doing some work on my notebook, and the cat would just circle around my chair and rub his fur to my feet. =)) Any attempts of getting him to get out was completely unsuccessful. Until finally after about an hour of playing around in my bedroom, he finally "accepted" to go back home.  

If you know anything about raccoons, you probably know that they never let you get close to them. They raid people's backyards and if one of them finds its way to your kitchen, you should probably say goodbye to any food you had in there. =) And they seem to detect human presence from kilometres away, 'cause the only thing you get to see of them is their cute behinds jumping up and down running away from you with the speed of light. =) And then, once when I was sitting under the rain, in my aunt's backyard, I noticed one of these cute creatures slowly walking towards me... I was expecting it to just turn around and go away at some point, but that didn't happen. It walked right to the spot where I was sitting, and then it climbed up my jeans all the way to my knee, so that it's eyes were looking directly into mine. It was extremely odd! I even petted the raccoon's back a bit. So it was just sitting there on my knee for some minutes.. I don't even know how long. And then it decided to leave..... it was a very cute encounter. =)

Yesterday, I noticed that a couple of pigeons were in the balcony again... up to some mischief. I love them really, but they make a bloody mess in the balcony that seeing how I'm on the 23rd floor, is slightly difficult to get cleaned. ;) Anyway, I knocked a few times on the glass door to the balcony... quite certain that they would be scared and leave. Well, that didn't happen! So I stepped in the balcony, excepting them to fly away any second now. That didn't happen either. At some point, I found myself face to face with the pigeons... close enough that I could see all the shiny pretty colours in their eyes. And I was laughing my head off too, seeing how they were just.. standing there watching me! =D So at the end I gave up... and walked back in.... it's as if they knew the threat was simply non-exiting! =P I swear, one of them was totally giving me the "yeah, right" look! =)))))

And these are just a few..... so... what is it with animals and me anyway? Any theories? =)))

Labels: Aasemoon, Animals, Funny, Life, Nature, Thoughts

Today's Garfield strip.... awwwwwwwwwwwwww... hehehehe.... =D

Labels: Comics, Cute, Funny, Garfield

A while ago I wrote here that I was no longer certain whether or not MS Courier is still going to come to reality. Well, happily, I just saw this article on Engadget, with some new news on Courier. Apparently this very neat gadget is very much in development, and below you can get an idea of how it will look like. =) YAAAAAAY! Honestly I'm impatiently looking for this one to arrive, I totally want [well, more like need! =))] one!

Labels: Electronics, Gadgets, Kool, Microsoft, Technology

As I've been going through yet another one of those extremely busy periods, I've been out of the loop with some of the latest developments in the world of social networks and legal patents. So I hadn't read or heard about FB's recent work of art till today. Today I had a conversation with a Good friend, Twain, who kindly brought me in the loop with what's been going on. Apparently, Facebook has been awarded the patent for "Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network". Check this link, and this link for the full story.

Well, I'm honestly shocked at what they seem to be getting away with. Actually, on a second though, I basically don't think they'll be getting away with this. As I told my friend, I think this is very much like stealing a piece of the ladder that everyone is, or wants to be climbing. And a good number of online services out there have in fact been climbing this ladder as long as Facebook has, if not longer. Orkut is an example of a social network that's been providing the news feed for a long while now. There are also services with a more specific purpose that do the same.. Last.fm and Goodreads would be examples. And I could bring a dozen other examples just of the top of my head.

So, exactly how does Facebook think that they have a right to be doing this? How is it that they managed to get this patent? Oh well, I think there are reasons I don't get too close to the worlds of business and law. I'm better off with engineering, math and code. Things that make some logical sense...

But even though I don't have much of a view on the topic, I have a firm belief that other online services are just not going to accept this. I have a feeling that Facebook has just brought together the ingredients for an upcoming fiasco. Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.....

Labels: Facebook, Technology, Thoughts, Web, Web Development

Multiple desktops on Windows is something that I've wanted [well more like needed] for pretty much ever. Well actually what I really want is an all connected scrollable workspace, but getting my hands on an app that does this, has proven even more difficult than something for multiple desktops. There is only a single working application out there that creates a scrollable workspace on Win, and it's way too old. Doesn't really work on Win7 at all. I had come across virtual desktop apps that create multiple workspaces in the past, but that was long time ago and I didn't really like what I saw then. So recently, I started searching again.... And here's my findings:

Lets just say that to my experience, out of the bazillion virtual desktop apps out there, and I mean including the free and commercial ones both, I've only found 1 that works on a 64-bit Win7. The application is called "Desktops", it's free, and it's available through Microsoft TechNet. It gives you 4 desktops that can be reached via shortcut keys or the tray icon. It has some limitations, including the fact that Aero style only runs on the main desktop, and you cant drag application windows from one desktop to the other, and a few other small issues. But at least it works, it's NOT buggy at all and it uses a rather negligible amount of memory and other system resources.

So for the moment, this is what I'm going to be using.. until either me or one of you finds something better. You can download the app here.

Every once in a while I come across a demo that I can watch an unlimited number of times, and enjoy it. This would be one. Diatom by Andr00:

Labels: Amazing, Art, Coding, Demoscene, Music

Seeing how there's now about a good 2000 photos  in my Lothlorien gallery, I decided it was time for a "favourites" album.. which was in fact suggested by a few friends already. So I asked a bunch of my friends to vote for their favourites, the photos they think should be placed in the favourites album, a few weeks ago. And now I finally got a chance to sit down and go through all the suggestions, pick them and collect them in the new album. And here it is, check out our Favourites album. =)

Of course new suggestions are always welcome, so if you think that the album is missing something, let me know. There are no rules, the photo can be from any album on Lothlorien. The only semi-rule is: it's best if your suggestion hasn't already been posted to the "Me" album. But if you absolutely have to, then it's ok. =))

Labels: Aasemoon, Art, Friends, Photography

Look what I came across... I find this video absolutely brilliant. I'm a huge fan of both the movie and the soundtrack, and I just LUV this! =D

Oh and here's a very kool "For Your Consideration" poster! ;)

And you can now see a larger version of the poster as well as more Holmes related stuff on Verse.. my friend just created a page for it. =)

Labels: Entertainment, Kool, Motion Picture, Movies, Music

Silly little thing I recently fell in love with, and purchased from eBay... ah... I just had to show you this! =D I'm not really into iPods or other advanced MP3 players since I usually simply use my Palm for my portable music needs. But I also felt the need for something extra small and lightweight to run around with easily [and no, I didn't consider iPod shuffle. I don't like Apple hardware at all, honestly.] ... and here it is. Introducing, my cute little Mickey player from Walt Disney. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee it's so cute! =D

 
This is actually the night we went to see Avatar. It was snowing like MAD! =P

Labels: Aasemoon, Cute, Electronics, Gadgets, Music, Pictures

I just felt the need to quickly mention here that I LIKE this! I've been trying out the Office 2010 Beta for a few weeks now, and so far I find it to be quite a nice bundle. Nice features, not all of them new of course but everything somehow appears to be smoother.

I'm mainly impressed with OneNote 2010. It's lovely... try it.... trust me... ;)

Labels: Microsoft, Software, Technology, Thoughts

"They weren't you, honey!" =D

From my list of belated movies to watch, last night I finally got to see the latest Indiana Jones movie. And boy oh boy did I enjoy it! =D Having been a huge [and do I mean HUUUGE] fan of Indi for my entire childhood [including now =D], I was worried that this new one was going to not reach up to my expectations and let me down. Well, it did no such thing! I LUUUUUUUVED it!

I really liked the general character reunion, and all the pointers to the past adventures. It was aaaaaaaaaaaaawesome to see "Marion Ravenwood" againe. =D The cute and goofy humour of the movie was great. I also totally loved the plot for this one. I guess it was about time Indi finally met with aliens from other dimensions, right? And of course it had to happen either in Atlantis or Eldorado. I mean do you know of any more appropriate place? ;)

I'm sure glad to see Indi's son has turned out to be as much of a bad-arse as himself. ;) That also makes me wonder, is it possible that there are now going to be sequels with new adventures for the son?? I would sort of dig that! =D I suppose my movie-buff friends would probably have an answer for that already.... ;)

P.S.: I suppose I should also mention that last week I finally watched "The Dark Knight". Seeing how I haven't posted anything about it, I guess you can tell exactly how impressed [↓] I feel by it. ;)

Labels: Entertainment, Motion Picture, Movies, Sci-Fi, Weeee =D

Lovely. This is just lovely. I'm a huge fan of the track, and now here comes the new video for it. It's amazing how the 2 voices mix... and the mood and the melody and the lyrics and everything about it is just fantastic. =)

Labels: Amazing, Art, Beautiful, Music, Sleepthief

I love OpenID. =) I really do... I guess it's obvious by now. I've always been intrigued by the idea, so much so that a couple of years ago I started serving my own OpenID on Aasemoon.com.

Recently I decided it was time Verse supported OpenID, and after a few evenings of playing around with the PHP OpenID libraries, now it pretty much does that. The thing is, I have no idea how well this works. A lot of testing has to be done and I'm certain that there are still tons of bugs... but I guess I'll perfect it in time. =) Also, you can now use your Verse profile as your OpenID, in other OpenID enabled website. So yes Verse serves OpenIDz too now. =) Or at least as far as my testing of it goes....

Labels: Aasemoon, Coding, OpenID, Programming, Projects, Web, Web Development, Website, Weeee =D

Not only do I have a terrible chocolate addiction, but it's also quite well known to everyone... and who'd know that better than my mom? Here's what she did recently.... Need I say more? =P

Labels: Aasemoon, Baaroon, Chocolate, Weeee =D

I just saw a commercial about a cell-phone company on TV, and the supposed "high-light" of the commercial was that some of their cell-phone models are made partially of recycled plastic. And some teenager girl was shouting about how using the recycled material can help us "save trees". And this was the part of it when I felt a rush of blood to my brain....

So the bloody cell-phone company sells cell-phones that boil human brain cells, and they pride themselves with recycled plastic and saving trees? Giving people cancer and supposedly saving trees?

Is it just me, or is this completely bizarre.....

Hmmmm.....

Labels: Bizarre, Electronics, Horrible, Technology, Thoughts, TV

Oh come on! I mean... seriously? You have got to be joking!

For the life of me, I cannot believe how fast Google is jumping from one useless project to the next! It feels as if it was just yesterday when Google gave us all a not so sweet surprise with the half baked and hardly usable Google Wave. Now here they go again, this time with the Gwitter. How many of the same thing do we need anyway?

There's about 50-billion micro blogging services out there right now, but of course Google has found a way to make the Gwitter stand out. You know what it is that all the rest of those services are missing? Well, they DON'T SUDDENLY MAKE YOUR PERSONAL DATA INTO PUBLIC DATA!! Haha, oh yes! Google's new ridiculous Twitter clone is the only one out there to have a security hole / privacy breach of such magnitude! Upon activating Da Fuzz on your Google account, your connections list is the first to go public, followed by another load of data apparently. And even though you have the option to change that, the default makes your connections list and other pieces of data public without actually asking / waning you.

Of course at the first glance you may not notice the gravity of the situation.. in that case, I suggest you read this pleasantly straight forward article, nicely titled "F*ck You Google", and you'll suddenly get a better view of exactly what's going on.

So, we have a brand new Google service, that doesn't do anything new, doesn't look anything particularly appealing, doesn't involve any sort of innovation in anything except for magnificently breaching your privacy, and yet, people are, and will be, using it. Yay to the brave new world!

Cheers! =)

Update: Thanks to my good friend Knarfoo for sharing this interesting article. Another good description of the current state of Gwitter.

Labels: Google, Horrible, Internet, Reviews, Web

Nice, really really nice! =) Facebook finally did it. FB chat supports XMPP now, and with the latest Trillian release, you can now use Trill's Jabber / XMPP plug-in to connect to FB chat. All you have to do now, is to first make sure you have the XMPP plug-in added to your Trill, then introduce a new Jabber account, and log on with yourusername@chat.facebook.com. And by the way the username part is case sensitive... as in you have to enter everything in lower case for it to work. I set this up yesterday, and it works like a charm. =) Yaaaaaay!

Labels: Facebook, Internet, Messengers, Trillian, Web