Author: rolfje

Flip4Mac 2.0.2 does not install on Intel Macs

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Flip4Mac 2.0.2 does not install on Intel Macs

Bummer, I was hoping to be able to open those wmv files I get mailed in the Quicktime window. Although OS X claims to be supporting Flip4Mac since 10.4.5 (I have 10.4.6), the Flip4Mac installer exits with a message about not being able to install on Intel based hardware.I guess I’ll have to live with -gasp- Windows Media Player 9 for OS X for now. I tried to install it, but it requires mee to enable the Microsoft Office testdrive kit, which I am definetely NOT planning on doing, wmv files are not worth those troubles. I am hoping on a universal binary Flip4Mac soon…

Funny thing is, that the Windows Media player for OS X is actually only 7 MB in size. I seem to recall that Media Player 10 for Windows XP took quote some time downloading, and ate nearly all of the free space on my harddisk, which I was really pissed about. But then again, since they require me to enable the Microsoft Office testdrive, they have probably allready sneaked part of the player into the OS X distribution, the bastards.

Comment from Antonio on how to solve this: You can get Flip4Mac to work through Rosetta, but Telestream is a couple weeks away from releasing a public Universal beta version. Check this blog for some details and other info bits: http://flip4mac.blogspot.com/

My response: Great, just used the tip on blogspot, and it worked! I can now view wmv files nicely. Thanks for the tip!

Apple, Software

Getting iChat to work with Googletalk

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Getting iChat to work with Googletalk

This is probably the 1001st post about this subject, but I can’t help thinking that some people actually give up on this. It is a simple protocol, simple program and should be simple to get working. I spent a few hours (!) before I finaly found the solution. I searched the internet but this answer never seems to be given on forums. I’ll try to be complete, so here it goes:

Configure iChat as described by Google. If you still can not connect, there is a good chance you have started the firewall on your mac, and it is blocking iChat. Open the system preferences, and in the “Internet and network” section select “Share”. You will notice a firewall tab in the middle. Select it, and make sure there is a thickmark next to “iChat Bonjour”, like in this screenshot:

iChat settings

(Sorry for the Dutch layout, I’m sure you’ll find it with this pointer.)
This action solved my iChat connection problem. I also installed Adium, which also had connection problems. The firewall setting solved the Adium problems aswell.

I’m not sure which chat client to choose. iChat is more integrated into OSX, and imported my google contacts without a problem. Adium did not import any contacts. I’m sticking to iChat for now, hoping that the integration with the rest of the system will give me some pleasant surprises.

Oh and yes, you’ve noticed correctly, I’ve bought a Mac. The desktop PC at home crashed one time too many.

Apple

Want those CD boxes back?

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Want those CD boxes back?

When I used iTunes on XP, I was jealous of the terrific plugins for iTunes running on OS X. Now that I have a Mac Mini, I was looking for a plugin to update the album art automatically. Pim showed me an even better alternative: Clutter! Not only can it search and update album art automatically for you, it also gives you the option to put your albums on your desktop. This is the best virtual alternative to having CD’s lying on your desk. A must have for iTunes users I think. Very nice.

Sidebar: My file server still runs Windows, and it has been working flawlessly for the past 5 years, being constantly “on” and storing family pictures and music. My laptop is an XP machine and works quite nicely too. So maybe it’s because I don’t need to, but for now I don’t want to install XP on my Mac. It feels like a step back, it adds a sour taste to your strawberry icecream :-). XP is nice, but not as a desktop. Too much bloatware.

Apple

Pully party

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Pully party

Party today! The rotor puller I ordered last month finally arrived after being in transit for over a MONTH, “thank you” United States Parcel Services! They probably sent somebody to swim accros the ocean with my parcel on his back. Judging by the shipping costs, the swimmer had enough food luxury during his trip. I really hope that Pit Posse selects a different shipping company for international orders soon. I took the torch and heated the rotor until water drops put on it boiled, to soften the retainer (lock tight) between the axle and the rotor. Then I re-tightened the rotor puller, smacked it with a hammer, re-tightened it, and so forth. The fifth hit did it, the rotor popped out. As you can see in the first picture, I had a fire extinguisher close by, because oil and fire do not play well together. I also used gloves so I could grab hot metal parts if needed, and I used aluminum plates to protect the magnet from direct heat of the torch.

Kawasaki KLR wrenching fanatics will notice the missing balancer chain tensioner (or “doohickey”, as they are sometimes called). Don’t worry, it’s still in one piece, I took it off to straighten it. It was bent and worn by the holding bolt, and I don’t want the bolt to sit or crawl to it’s former spot.

I also checked the valve fittings by putting petroleum in the head. They do not seem to be leaking, and show now signs of abnormal wear. Next week I will be checking the old oil for metal splinters, and putting it all together.

Workshop

Airbus 330 Entertainent system

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Airbus 330 Entertainent system
I recently went to Vegas, which is a very long trip (about 20 hours including stopover). I don’t like flying that much, my ears hurt and it is very boring to be crammed in a chair for 10 hours, with a headrest that makes your chin touch your chest no matter how you adjust it. However, on this flight (and the one back) there was a nice personal entertainment system installed in each chair.Below are some images of the personal entertainment system which is installed on the Airbus 330’s of Northwest Airlines. These are a real treat on long distance flights. There is a fair selection of on-demand movies, music, some simple games and flight information. It lets you choose a movie, and you can pause and skip as much as you like. You can use your own 3.5mm jacked headphones, no more of that adapter-buying-if-you-are-lucky-you’ll-get-stereo crap you see in the older planes. The menu even contained an item called “email”, but it was not functioning at the time I tried it. Besides you had to swipe your credit card for it, which I didn’t find worth trying even if it would work.

Bejeweled Controller Flight information Movies
Nice little game, Bejeweled The controller (has to be turned 90 degrees sometimes, confusing!) Guess where we are? Travelling at 950km/h there 🙂 Watched Chicken Little. It does not live up to it’s commercial by a long shot.

Funny thing is, that my wife’s entertainent system actually crashed during flight. It got stuck for about 5 minutes, after which it automatically rebooted, and guess what? I saw a Tux! It is actually a Linux system. A bit of googling revealed that a few people even have seen the system crash on all monitors at the same time. Good thing they aren’t using this system for the flight controls yet. 😉

But it does make sense. It doesn’t cost anything, and being open source, Panasonic (the manufacturer of the system) has full controll on getting all the glitches out. Now they actually do need to do that still, but I bet they got a nice (remote?) update procedure for that. After all, they also need to upload new movies every now and then. Maybe they use the same connection as they use for email? 100% remote update would be nice. No “downtime” for the planes!.

I for one liked the system very much. It actually has games which let you compete with other passengers, but that didn’t seem to be popular on my flights to Las Vegas. I didn’t even had to get my PSP out of my bag 🙂

Now if they only could make those stupid headrests removable so I can put my head back when I want to sleep (like most normal people), flying wouldn’t be all that bad.

Fun, Games, Hardware, Software

Soybean racer

Posted on By rolfje No Comments on Soybean racer
The big car manufacturers could have done this, but they didn’t, because they are sponsored by the big oil companies. And your local governement is swimming in taxmoney that’s added to your oil price. And no, they don’t want to get rid of the cars, despite of what they say. The nicest thing for governements would be the complete population sitting in single-seated, gas guzzling cars in a traffic jam accross the country!

Now that a few school kids have proven that you don’t need oil to race, and several American race series run on methanol (no that’s not an oil product), can we please stop making cars that run on gasoline? And by the way, also stop pumping money into the super-dangerous liquid nitrogen cars? All that is purely to keep the oil companies in the same place: monopoly. Do you really think they do it for the environment? What if I told you that your current petrol car can run on bio-degradable methanol, with almost no changes? If you have a very modern car, the fuel system will even auto-adapt! But noooo, they won’t tell you that, because the oil companies and governements want to keep the monopoly intact!

Not that you can really do anything about it though. Except maybe not buying liquid-nitrogen or hybrid cars. There are better technical alternatives, although not on the market yet. Boycot the “environmentally friendly” car, force them into making a *real* environmentally friendly car.

Yes, I’m driving a diesel, and a motorbike. And no, I’m not worried about oil-shortage. It’s all bullshit from the oil companies, who could have come up with alternatives a long while ago, but chose not to. If there really was an oil shortage, we all would have been driving on methanol for quite some time now. And co2 emmisions would have been reduced to absolutely 0.

Hardware, Racing

How to replace the headlights on a Citroen Xsara

Posted on By rolfje 23 Comments on How to replace the headlights on a Citroen Xsara

Recently my left headlight broke. I thought I’d change it quickly, but after half an hour of fiddling I decided to ask my dealer to do it for me, while I was looking. That was not a bad idea. It turned out to be not so straightforward after all, and you actually need tools (which you don’t get when buying the car) to do this! This lead me to write a “small” article on how to replace the headlights of a Citroen Xsara. Enjoy.

Read More “How to replace the headlights on a Citroen Xsara” »

Hardware, Workshop