Present Perfect

Dave/Dina

It's incredible - Jeroen likes his Dave/Dina system. He's sending mails every few days about suggestions and problems and so on. That rocks. Making stuff can be fun; making stuff that gets used is rewarding. There's a pretty big difference between the two and I like it.

Kristof worked on the video recording backend some more. It's starting to look really good. In the screenshot, you see descriptions of the show, plus icons to schedule recording this show once, every week, or daily.

Needs some polish, but Jeroen is going to love it ...

GStreamer

The 0.5.0 release was actually rather good, even without as much testing. It's funny how much people resist change - people get all confused about having a "development" and a "stable" version even though it's been talked about for months. I see the same behaviour in myself, though it's more of a mechanism to not have to put time and effort in things that can be avoided.

When I started out with Linux everything was new to me and things went by quickly. After some years you come to realize how much time things take regardless of what it is you do.

Work

Busy designing our i-mode website. i-mode seems to be the replacement for wap and has taken over Japan by storm, I've been told. Not sure if it's going to work over here, but it's fun doing something different for a while.

On the other hand, i-mode websites are like websites halfway through the nineties. 256 color at the moment (but of course with a different color palette than websafe colors, duh), no tables, and so on. I feel old-school.

Apparently a health inspector stopped by yesterday. The first thing he noticed was a Destiny's Child poster attached to my network cabinet. He seems to have said the poster might be deemed "offensive". Somehow I think this is very funny ;) I work at a radio station, the poster promotes their latest album, and Kristien from right across me has pictures of A1 and perfume commercials portraying men, but my very work-related poster is offensive and might induce sexual intimidation.

I asked our secretary to arrange his next visit on a day when I am at work so I can discuss his concerns. That ought to be fun.

Playstation

Funny how I haven't played any major game over the last three years (except for Metal Gear Solid, bought on a whim when it came out), and now I find myself playing quite a bit on the Playstation. What is striking is that it shows that the world does progress, technically speaking. If you leave any technology alone and don't see it for a few years, you're bound to be surprised when you pick it up again.

For example, the faces in the Getaway look really good. This was one of my major gripes with Metal Gear Solid - it all looked really good but the faces were ugly bumpmapped affairs that stuck on. It was as if everyone was wearing mountain-scape masks.

I haven't even finished GTA: Vice City yet, and Kristof is already on to the next game. He seems to like being unemployed a lot. I'm partly jealous. As for GTA, got to Vigilante level 93 using a tank. I got busted when I got cornered by three other tanks. I must have tried doing Vigilante with a regular police car a hundred of times, only getting to level 10. Should've realized this earlier...

Music

Had four consecutive nights of concerts. It would have been five if I hadn't forgotten to wind my watch's day dial at the end of November, so I missed JJ72. I'm too unorganized.
Thursday, I went to see Mambo Kurt. He's an oldish German guy who plays old classics and current pop tunes on his Hammond organ, and mainly making a fool of himself in a good way. Did an amazing version of both The Cure's Killing an Arab (you have to imagine it with a techno-y chorus) and Faithless's Insomnia.
Friday was Arid, a band from Gent. I've seen them over ten times, and each time they amaze me at how well they play and how good Jasper's voice is. Other than that no, big surprises, except at the very end when they played "Last Goodbye". That's probably the closest I'll ever come to having a Buckley experience.
Saturday I went to see The Gotan Project. Good concert, too short though, and no place for dancing, sadly. Before the concert we cooked some great rice tortillas with red cauliflower from the Mexican cookbook. It was wonderful. One of the best things about cooking is the day after: great food, zero effort.
And on sunday, it was Richard Ashcroft from the Verve. Started the concert with my second favourite, Sonnet. Liked the concert for it's craftmanship. I only have his new album and I already lost it so I wasn't able to listen to it beforehand.

Life

Got a haircut, not sure if I like it. It's weird having to go back to a barber's after such a long time. Got new shoes, not sure if I'll like them. I'm walking them in today. The funny thing is I wanted shoes that were better for dancing, but at the store I realized I didn't really know what that meant. And it's not like you can ask the girl in the store to dance to try out the new shoes, can you ?
Tried doing Christmas shopping over the weekend, failed spectacularly. Started reading Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. Why I never picked up on it before is beyond me. I wonder what it'll be like. Right now it feels like I'm a Rebel pilot reading Stormtrooper diaries.

Xander and Anya not getting married ? Boo ! I need TV to tell me the world is a safe and romantic place. I feel cheated.

Dave/Dina It's incredible - Jeroen likes his Dave/Dina system. He's sending mails every few days about suggestions and problems and so on. That rocks. Making stuff can be fun; making...