First there were wireless networks, then there was WEP. WEP was the protective layer for wireless, so that your data was (kinda) secure when it traveled through the air. This layer was compromised rather quick, so alternatives were needed.
The initial alternative was WPA. This new layer of protection was a lot stronger (there still isn't a way of hacking this quickly). Downside was that it took a while to become a standard, so every vendor was free to use it as they saw fit. This could result into incompatibility issues when you used different vendors in your wireless environment.
The final WPA standard became WPA2, and was to overcome the incompatibility issues with the earlier WPA.... NOT!!!
Most consumer wireless products in my vicinity just won't connect properly using WPA2 (with either AES or TKIP). The only thing that keeps working is WPA. When connecting to a wireless network which is protected with WPA2, everything seems to go fine, but when you want to transfer data, nothing happens. Also, the wireless base station doesn't show any association with the client.
What is wrong with this picture? Does this mean that there are also different implementations of WPA2 among vendors?
A quick WPA2 configuration with a 32 character (or 16 character) WPA2-PSK key just won't work, while the client devices all support at least WPA2-PSK with TKIP.
My old tripod were a pain in the @ss. The slightest wind made the camera rock like it was on a boat in heavy weather. The need for something a little more stable was there.
The original idea was to get a tripod which weighed about half a kilo. Could hold a weight of 10 kilos, and had the most comfortable ball bearing head available. And (not to forget) wouldn't cost more than 100 euros..... Well, that wasn't about to happen :-( .
So I bought a Manfrotto 718B tripod (99 euros). It's small, weighs about 1.5 kilos and can hold about 2.5 kilos of gear (which is about the combined weight of my Nikon D200 and Sigma 80-400 OS lens).
So my old tripods [1,2] are for sale as of this moment. You may start your bidding. If you're interested, you should ignore the first paragraph ;-) . There's absolutely nothing wrong with the tripods.....
UPDATE:The tripods have been sold (sort of), so please stop bothering me :-)
And again a ridiculous law in the United States. The land of opportunities, and lame laws.
Starting in August 2007, you can't be in one place for more than a half hour to make (scenic) photographs or shoot some video. This includes the setting up of your tripod etc.
So no more waiting for that special sunset, or waiting for the sky to clear for that one special shot of/for your sweetheart. To make it even more ridiculous, you also need an insurance of 1 million USD if you need more time (which means you need a special permit).
No doubt that this is initially intended for the professional movie makers or photographers, but there's the fear that this will be abused to harass the common man/woman/tourist.
It must be very handy to have very general laws/rules, which the government can interpret as they see fit. Why don't they just pass a law which is states "It's illegal to....". In this case they can fill in the blanks whenever they want... Oh wait, they already did... The Patriot Act.
Last night, I watched the latest Michael Moore documentary about the US Health System called Sicko. And, he does it again.
For an average European, it's hard to imagine that people are left without proper medical care. It seems that the only thing that counts is making vast amounts of money, with an obvious disregard of human life.
Sure, the United States is the land of opportunity, but at what cost? How can those medical insurance executives live with themselves? I guess that the millions earned are keeping them happy.
There's a saying that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but in this case it's barren rotten wasteland.
Things are not as bad in Holland as we might think, so if you have any doubt about our medical system, you should watch this movie.
Last week, I watched a new episode of House M.D. It was an episode in which a patient dies (which doesn't happen a lot in House). In the final scene there was an awesome piece of music by Mazzy Star called 'Into Dust'.
Yet another band with a great sound for my iTunes library.
Too bad that their latest album is a over a decade old....
A couple of day's ago, I tried to play an episode of Painkiller Jane on my Nokia E61i. The original format was in the DivX format, so I used VisualHub to convert it on my Mac to the MP4 format (320 pixels wide).
This part was relatively easy. The next step was a bit harder; trying to get the 100MB file from my Mac on the Nokia. Somehow, there's no way of transferring the file from a Mac to the Nokia via USB. The USB connection works file with iSync, but this has no option of synching files. When connecting, the phone gives you the option of using the 'PC Suite' or 'Data Transfer'. The first is using iSync, and the latter gives you an error that the devices can't be recognized.
Nokia does have an application for the Mac to transfer files to, and from the phone (Nokia Media Transfer). BUT, the Nokia E61 is NOT supported
This means you're left with Bluetooth, or using a web server and download the file. If you don't own your own webserver you're stuck with Bluetooth (which is terribly slow b.t.w.). Both are a pain in the butt in getting large fils on the phone. I had to resume the download via the web server about 10 times before I had downloaded it, and Bluetooth... well don't get me started on that.
My advice; don't use a Mac to transfer large files to the phone, but use Nokia PC Suite with the USB cable on a PC to do that.
B.t.w. the Nokia E61i played the episode just fine.
A couple of weeks ago, a non-commercial TV station BNN announced that they would air a live kidney donor show. The idea was that a terminal ill patient got to decide which kidney patient could get her kidney. Lot's, and lot's of people (from all over the world) thought that this was an outrage.
Yesterday the show aired (even though lot's of government officials were against it). At the end of the show, it seemed that it was just a hoax. The terminally ill patient was an actrice, but the needy kidney patients were real.
Reason for airing this show was to make people see that organ donation is needed (a lot). It seems that Holland has to lowest rate of organ donors in Europe.
Well, they surely succeeded in raising attention to the subject. The news travelled all over the world.
Personally, I've been a registered donor since 1998. They may harvest my body, when I'm dead of course, for the good of mankind. After which they may burn what's left behind.
My opinion on organ donation is that someone who is a donor should have a much higher priority for receiving a donor organ. Live isn't just about taking/consuming. It's also about giving.
If you're not registered as a donor... click here, and make sure you become one as soon as possible.
I've been to Africa three times now. I've seen lot's of animals. Even fighting elephants, but unfortunately I haven't seen any real action.
Some tourists in Kruger Parc (South Africa) captured some awesome piece of action between buffalo's, lions, and a couple of crocodiles.
Oh boy, this makes me want to go back to Africa right now.....
The MPAA will have serious problems removing the key from the Internet. Even Google has received a letter to remove the links from their databases. Somehow, these retards have the idea that you can copyright a number.
As the word spread yesterday the articles started showing up on Digg.com. Digg.com is a popular website where you can submit 'news', and others may rate it and comment on it. Within minutes the stories about this key got thousands of 'diggs'.
This resulted in the fact that the moderators on Digg removed the posts. Result: Mass uproar.
Kevin Rose (the Digg founder) wrote the following on his Digg blog:
But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
I think that's the right attitude towards this. Hopefully, the MPAA will come to its senses (not likely), and stops harrassing the consumers with their lame-ass copy-protection.
It would even be better to abandon the 'turn every consumer into a criminal' DMCA bill completely, but that's another story....
Just to be sure you got the right key:
