your man on the ground

Google Dashboard - See What Data Google is Storing about You

Log in to the Google Dashboard to take a look at what data Google is storing about you in different accounts (gmail, blogger, picasa, documents, calendar, search history, etc.).

I appreciate this move by Google - it's certainly an improvement in transparency, since you can now log into one place and see (almost) everything Google knows about you.

From the Official Google Blog: Transparency, choice and control — now complete with a Dashboard!: "Today, we are excited to announce the launch of Google Dashboard. Have you ever wondered what data is stored with your Google Account? The Google Dashboard offers a simple view into the data associated with your account — easily and concisely in one location.

via: Metafilter

Acer Aspire AS 1410 / 1810t 11.6" Notebook Review

I received my Acer 1410 (aka 1810t in Europe) from Amazon a few weeks ago. So far I've been very pleased with it, and have no complaints. I had shopped netbooks in the past, but the undersized screens, low resolutions, underpowered processors and small keyboards had always turned me off. The idea and price of the netbooks were right, but the execution was lacking.

The 1410 addresses all of the problems of the typical netbook while maintaining an affordable price - it's truly the best of both worlds. As soon as I saw it, I knew I'd found the machine I was looking for.

The 11.6" screen with a full high definition (1366x768) resolution makes a real difference in screen landscape. 11.6" may not seem that much bigger than 8.9" or 10.1", but the difference is remarkable. No more side-scrolling and less vertical scrolling is required when viewing most web pages.

The Intel Core2 processor is much quicker than the Atom processors found in most netbooks. I bought an extra 2GB of RAM, for a total of 4GB of RAM. I'll install 64 bit Windows 7 soon, to take full advantage of the RAM.

The machine's footprint is a little smaller than an 8.5"x11" (A4) sheet of paper, and it's just over an inch tall at its thickest point. Its size, along with the weight of just a over 3 pounds makes it truly portable.

I'm also very pleased with the keyboard. Acer's stuffed a full-sized keyboard in this tiny package. The keys are completely flat, and there's not much space between them. This means it might take a little time and practice to get used to the keyboard completely, but after a couple of weeks, I'm touch-typing just as quickly on it as I do on a normal PC keyboard.

I haven't gotten a full 6 hours of life out of the battery. I'm getting closer to 5.5 hours in my informal testing, but that's also while performing some disk-drive intensive operations or playing games that tax the system. I imagine I could get 6 hours out of it with Wi-Fi disabled and performing less taxing operations.

I have no problem with the glossy screen, nor with the trackpad. The glossy case does attract lots of fingerprints, and the internal speaker is pretty quiet but that's a small price to pay for such a great little machine.

I give this machine five out of five stars - the current price at Amazon.com is $399.99. I'm pretty sure there's nothing else on the market that comes close to the 1410 anywhere near that price.

Further information, check out the customer reviews at Amazon.com, check out this giant discussion thread at netbookreview.com, and if you purchase this PC, check out the Acer 1410 Tips and Tweaks discussion at notebookreview.com for tips on increasing performance, updating drivers and fixing known issues.

Buy the Acer Aspire AS1410-8000 Series 11.6-Inch Laptop from Amazon.com

Facebook asks to install Quicktime on Firefox

What: Maybe you've experienced this when you have Facebook open in Firefox - every once in awhile the "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page" bar pops up and prompts you to install Quicktime. You think to yourself, "why would I need to have Quicktime installed in order to view Facebook, and what can I do to make it stop?"

Why: You know the Facebook chat notification sound - the one you hear when someone sends you a message over Facebook chat? Well, Facebook sends that sound as an .mp3 and asks your system to open it with Quicktime. The .mp3 file that Facebook is sending as I write this post is located at http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/sound/pop.mp3 . If you don't have Quicktime installed on your system (and I refuse to install it, since there are better, less intrusive options to Quicktime out there), Firefox will prompt you to install it.

How to make it stop:

Firefox:

Option 1. If you want to hear the chat notification sound: Install Quicktime. Personally, I prefer not to install Quicktime, and I don't really care about the sound. If it's important to you to hear the chat notification, this may be your only option.

Option 2: If you don't want to install Quicktime, don't need the notification sound, and you have the AdBlock Plus Add-On nstalled, you can simply add a new filter for http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/sound/pop.mp3 . You won't hear the sound any more, and you won't be prompted to install Quicktime. If you want the nuclear option, which will block all potential future sounds from that Facebook directory, add the following filter to AdBlock Plus: http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/sound/* . I chose the nuclear option :)

Google Chrome:

If you're having similar problems in Chrome, you can install the AdSweep extension / user script and add a filter either for the individual file or for the entire /sound/ directory, as I showed you for Firefox.

Other Browsers & Other Methods:

If anyone has tips for dealing with this annoyance in other browsers, or has other methods for dealing with the annoyance, please feel free to share.

Hope this was helpful for someone.   

Easy fix for "SVN: Delta Source Ended Unexpectedly" Error

I tried to update one of my subversion working copies today and got the following message:
"Delta source ended unexpectedly"

Here's how I solved the problem:
Step 1: I identified the file that was causing the problem.
Step 2: I made sure that all changed files in the problem file's directory were committed to the repository.
Step 3: I deleted the problem file's directory from my working copy (not the repository!)
Step 4: I updated my entire working copy

Easy! I spent around half an hour searching for an answer and reading through several message board threads on the topic. The  fix took me about three minutes to complete. Hope this is helpful for someone.

My environment info:
TortoiseSVN 1.5.0, Build 13316 - 32 Bit , 2008/06/21 07:55:29
Subversion 1.5.0,
apr 1.2.12
apr-utils 1.2.12
berkeley db 4.4.20
neon 0.28.2
OpenSSL 0.9.8g 19 Oct 2007
zlib 1.2.3

Getting images back online

Update 10/04/2009: YAY! Almost 2 years after I started my "get the images back online" project, I'm almost there. I took another look at my script today and found the problem that was causing it to miss the majority of my images. I fixed the problem and am in the process of uploading just under 1000 images to the site! I still have another 300 to find and upload, but I think I'll have most of those online by the end of next week. With my pictures back online, and my motivation back, you can look forward to some new content soon!

Update (sometime in 2008): that link spider didn't work so well for my purposes. I ended up using a free tool called Xenu's Link Sleuth to generate my list of broken image links. Great little tool!

I wrote a script that steps through the list and looks for the missing images on my PC. I was able to find around 100 from 1300 missing images using this process, and those are already uploaded to my web server. Unfortunately, that means I'm still missing another 1200 images. They're somewhere (some on CD's, I guess). 1300 is way too many to process by hand, so I'm looking for some reasonable ways to automate the process. Maybe this summer...

I'm using a free dead links spider to help get my missing images back online ASAP. I'd like to have them on sometime in November.

Visual Studio 2005: Web Site Projects vs. Web Application Projects

Introduction
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (VS05) offers two models of web projects to its users. The project models are appropriately named – the Web Site Project (WSP) is suitable for web developers building web sites with (perhaps) some application functionality included, while the Web Application Project (WAP) is more suitable for application developers focusing on applications that happen to have web-based interfaces. Microsoft is committed to supporting both models into the future.

Continue reading "Visual Studio 2005: Web Site Projects vs. Web Application Projects"

Helsinki Looks

Yeah, I haven't been around for awhile. I've been, well, busy. Here's a little eye candy that I find interesting: Hel Looks. Lots of good photos and interesting quotes from folks who live in Helsinki. Found via Metafilter.

I'll try to get some more stuff online soon, but I can't promise anything.

HC Strache - Vienna's Blue Eye

In German, one doesn't walk away from a fistfight with a black eye, rather with a blue one -- a blaue Auge. At least one Vienna newspaper calls Heinz Christian (HC) Strache "Vienna's Blue Eye", a clever triple wordplay on Strache's steel blue eyes, his political party's chosen color, and his unexpected (to his rivals, embarrassing and bruising) success in the October 23 Vienna city government elections.

His supporters fondly call him HC (pronounced ha-tseh and sometimes written "Haze"). Many call him the new Jörg Haider. One journalist asked him directly in a recent interview whether he is a Nazi. Whatever one chooses to call him, there's no denying that HC Strache is the political man of the moment in Vienna, and perhaps in all of Austria.

Although Strache's FPÖ (Freiheitliche Partei Österreich / Freedom Party Austria) came in third in the October 23 election with just under 15% of the vote, the party's performance tripled pre-election predictions.

I was at the FPÖ's post-election celebration at Adam's Gasthaus and Restaurant on the 23rd (strictly as a photographer) and managed to get a few good pictures of him at the event. Pictures and commentary follow:

Heinz Christian Strache is a 36-year-old trained dental technician and born politician.

The FPÖ is a right wing, nationalist party, and according to some Austrian newspapers (and a few Austrians with whom I've spoken), its membership includes avowed Nazis, retro and neo. (Note: I'm not accusing anyone in any of these pictures of being a Nazi. On the other hand, a recent print version of Falter claims that some of the people in attendance at this post election party are known to Austrian police as having Nazi backgrounds).

Strache ran a divisive campaign in Vienna, with placards and radio advertisements that have been characterized by many as "Ausländer feindlich" (anti foreigner).

Strache has an electrifying presence, a boyish smile and an excellent speaking ability.

Continue reading "HC Strache - Vienna's Blue Eye"

Wien Wählt (Vienna Votes)

On October 23, 2005, the citizens of Vienna voted for a new city council. I was out most of the day and into the evening taking election-related photos, and I plan to get several series online today. During the day, I visited a few polling places and took some pictures of various campaign posters around town. In the evening, I visited the post election celebrations of two political parties (SPÖ and FPÖ) and got some great pictures.

Take a look at my article and pictures from the HC Strache (FPÖ) post election celebration. I'll get something about Michael Häupl (SPÖ) online this week.

Now, the election results:

Party	% Votes	% Change	Voters
SPÖ (Socialist Party)	49	+2.1	329,000
ÖVP (Peoples' Party)	18.8	+2.4	126,000
FPÖ (Freedom Party)	14.9	-5.3	100,000
Grüne (Greens)	14.7	+2.2	98,000
KPÖ (Communist Party)	1.5	+0.9	8,000
BZÖ (Future Federation)	1.2	n/a	10,000

Approximately 472,000 eligible voters did not vote in this election.

Now, some pictures: (I'll add a little election analysis after the pictures)

Despite nice weather, there wasn't much visible activity at the Josefstadt (8th District) Amtshaus (district government services building).

Wählen wir Häupl (Let's choose / vote for Häupl). Michael Häupl has been Wiener Burgermeister (Mayor of Vienna) since the last city elections, held in 2001. The most recent election handed him his second term as city mayor.

In addition to voting centers at each of the district Amthäuser, polling places were set up in several of the major rail stations. There was a little activity at this polling place, located in Wien Westbanhof (Vienna West Rail Station).

A few voters checking out the official party candidate lists.

Continue reading "Wien Wählt (Vienna Votes)"

Mélange (Light Espresso with steamed hot milk)

Mélange

n.

1.     Light Espresso with steamed hot milk served in a classic coffee cup. (from Julius Meinl "Vienna's leading coffee roaster for 140 years")

Notes: "Mélange" is borrowed from French, and is used in English, as well. The English definition is "a mixture; a medley." The Mélange is probably the most popular coffee order in Vienna cafes, and is also the coffee I usually order when I am visiting Viennese cafes for review in my Food and Drink section.

Mélange at Cafe Eiles