Video: bored dolphins like robot toy

You're a dolphin in a zoo. You now the daily drill. Another day of people behind the glass. If you've seen a few, you've seen 'em all. But what's that? Never seen that before?! Hey, it looks cute! It is moving. Is it alive? Hey, move over, i want to see it! ... Have a look at this clip. At about 1:30 minute, see how these dolphins are interested in this Pleo toy!

Yeah, another threat to mankind: Nitrogen!

As if the number of probable problems for mankind in the near future (carbon, global warming, fresh water, energy/oil) weren't enough, up pops another scientist with a new problem: build up of Nitrogen... I guess the real problem is we are with too many. But how to regulate that? The Chinese one-child-policy?
(image from kidsgeo )

What is phpbb_search_wordmatch for?

A friend of mine, assuming i know all these things ;-), sent me a message she got from her provider. She received a message from her hosting provider stating things like "database problem ... Some of the tables are very large ... indexing your forum stressess our servers". So you wonder: what is phpbb_search_wordmatch for? How do you clean the file or make it smaller? How to make a backup? How to move the file when you switch providers? I searched around, and found the following:

* at http://www.phpbbdoctor.com/blog/2007/01/26/how-does-search-work-part-i/ it is explained how search works in phpbb and what the role of the mentioned table is
* at http://www.phpbbdoctor.com/blog/2007/03/04/rebuilding-search-index-performance-results/ you find an explanation on how to tune / backup /optimize the table
* at http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=329629 you find a mod to help you manage the table
* at http://www.phpbbdoctor.com/doc_columns.php?id=16 i found a small definition of what the table does

(Dutch version). Waar is phpbb_search_wordmatch voor? Hoe schoon je het op? Hoe maak je een backup? Een vriendin vroeg het me, nadat ze een melding van haar hosting bedrijf kreeg met teksten als "database probleempje ... Het één en ander is een beetje te groot geworden ... indexeren van uw forum op uw account zorgt voor overlast op de server ... Wij verzoeken u hierbij daarom om uw database op te schonen". Ik zocht en vond het volgende:

* op http://www.phpbbdoctor.com/blog/2007/01/26/how-does-search-work-part-i/ staat uitleg over search in phpbb en de rol van de genoemde tabel "phpbb_search_wordmatch"
* op http://www.phpbbdoctor.com/blog/2007/03/04/rebuilding-search-index-performance-results/ staat hoe je "phpbb_search_wordmatch" kunt tunen (ze verwijzen daarvoor naar een eerdere post)
* op http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=329629 staat iets over een mod (progje? phpbb-taal?) om die tabel op te schonen (en er staat bij dat het ook handig is als je "You want to transfer your db to another server")
* op http://www.phpbbdoctor.com/doc_columns.php?id=16 vind je nog een 1-regelige beschrijving van wat die tabel nu is/doet

(image from http://www.massrelay.com/_Lib/images/userImages/img057.jpg )

Being (greener) by following the moon?

Companies delivering services to large companies or specialised companies running their business on a 7 * 24 hours schedule, have used the 'follow the sun'-principle: they deliver services 24 hours a day, shifting service-delivery from location to location on the globe, following the sun rise. This weekend i read follow-the-moon might be better: while most of the country is asleep and out door temperatures are relatively low, a data center might puts its computers to good use for customers on the other side of the globe! With ever increasing network-speeds, this is becoming possible. Energy costs might be lower in the night, cooling equipment might cost less energy... So following the moon might deliver some benefits!
(picture taken from nightskyinfo.com)

Upgrade lesson: wait some time!

(before turning people off: i recommend you try Ubuntu: it's great! But like with any OS-upgrade: be sure you have a backup. The newest Ubuntu has a great feature: Wubi: you can install Ubuntu on top of Windows, like any usual application: a great way to try it out (and see if all of your hardware already is supported with the right drivers))
My Ubuntu (version 7.10, Gutsy) told me a new version of Ubuntu was available: 8.04 (Hardy Herron). Since i loved Ubuntu, i thought: lets try it, it can only get better, right? Wrong! Having done lots of operating system upgrades before and knowing you can get lucky with a smooth install, but more often you'll run into problems, i should have known better. Why would ANY OS be any better than another when doing upgrades?

You guessed it: upgrading my Acer Travelmate 4001WLMi (with Ati Mobility Radeon 9600 / 9700 graphics card) ran into some problems :-). First of all i had problems with graphics (like an almost completely white screen where you couldn't see the mouse anymore). I managed to solve that, but i wanted at least a system doing what i had gotten used to: Ubuntu with Compiz (Vista Aero effects etc) and Cairo Dock (Mac OSX dock effect). But i was unable to get both running. I looked around the internet, tried al kinds of tricks, reinstalls, de-installs etc, but finally ended up with a system which didn't even boot the GUI (X) anymore, whatever i tried...

So i wanted to downgrade to Gutsy, which worked perfect for me. But how, when you're on a machine with broken DVD drive? Looked around and found this article about booting Windows (my laptop is dual boot, which by the way is great, especially when you screw up one of the 2 ;-)) and running the Ubuntu installer (and other flavours) from within Windows. The 1st worked for me. So i'm back on Gutsy, waiting for Hardy to get better in supporting my config (apparently Ati and Nvidia configurations can run into problems).

Combining a PVR and a NAS

With 4 tech-savvy people in the house using computers, we've got data scattered across some computers. Would be nice to have it all in 1 place. Since the online storage business s still in development, i was looking around for current solutions: get myself a NAS (Network Attached Storage). And while i was at it: why not get myself a PVR (Personal Video Recorder). That made me wonder: why get 2 boxes who both need to be 'always on' (for recording video or serving files)? Wouldn't it be nice to combine them in one device?

I would like such a device to be 'green': use as less energy as possible. But it needs to serve files fast, which is kinda a dilemma, i guess (high performance, low energy). And while reading about solutions (MacMini, MythTv (PVR), FreeNAS (NAS) and lots of others) you find out there are lots of (other) choices to be made. Like: how much storage? In Raid0 or Raid5 configuration (Raid enables you to have a HD crash and replace it with a new drive without the unit going down, in theory ;-)). I found the Synology product line has earned a lot of good reviews. But at a cost. My conclusion until now: a high performance low energy consumption NAS doesn't come cheap (1 TB Raid might cost as around 900 dollars). And i haven't found an easy NAS & PVR-solution... Maybe a PS3 with PlayTV? Or the Neuros OSD-box?

Anybody reading this with tips: let me hear please :-)!

Update May 3rd: just found this ARS Technica building a green PC-guide.

Best GTA4 video review?

Grand Theft Auto 4: sure, you might discuss what this game does to certain individuals. But as a former amateur programmer, i must say i think this is a nice piece of work from the team that build it! With GTA4 you basically get many games in one: a shooter, a racer, bowling, flightsim, darts...

Articles: ethical hack & web 2 and education

The editor of the NGN magazine LanVision asked me whether i could write articles about two things: an ethical hack in a school environment (PDF) and about web 2.0 in Dutch (secondary) education (PDF) (articles were published in LanVision 1 and 2 respectively of 2008). For the ethical hack i took the initiative (goal: awareness for the importance of IT security) when i worked for Kennisnet and, amongst others, was involved in a lot of security related projects (also tests of web filters, getting the Suske & Wiske-album (de Sinistere Site) to the Netherlands etc). Security firm Montelbaan did the ethical hack.

And for Web 2.0 i combined what i knew about Web 2.0 and secondary education in the Netherlands with reading up on the latest developments and interviewing the projectleader at Kennisnet, Leo Bakker.
(Source of the picture used in this article: Margreet's blog about ict and education)