kahunaburger

Months ago I toyed with the idea to switch my DNS settings over and use OpenDNS. I’m not sure what stopped me from doing the switch, but it did not happen then.

A few hours ago I went into my main router and plugged in the OpenDNS servers as my two DNS hosts. The router distributes those addresses via DHCP to all computers in the house. As soon as the router was reconfigured, I refreshed my DHCP lease on my main computer and verified that I saw the new DNS servers.

Holy cow! Things are a lot snappier now! OpenDNS has a huge database of cached domain-name-to-IP translations, which means when I type something like “www.google.com” in the browser, I get an answer immediately from the first DNS request with no need to forward the “name” to the other DNS servers (which slows down the resolution and slows down the browsing experience).

On top of that OpenDNS also allows for shortcuts: for example, I assigned “kb” to “www.kahunaburger.com”, which allows me to just type “kb” in the browsers address-bar and I end up on the kahunaburger.com front-page. Yes, you can do this by modifying your hosts-file, but you have to do that for every single computer in the house independently. With OpenDNS I create the shortcut once and it immediately applies to all computers.

Nice job there OpenDNS-guys!

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I think I was one of the few million people who saw “Fitna” on liveleak.com. I watched it last night. You may have heard that the movie was pulled from the site after liveleak’s staff received death threats.

I’m not surprised at all. It’s almost like Geert Wilders (the film’s producer) is asking for trouble. He’s like a little kid who pokes a hornet nest with a stick, while standing right under it.

The documentary is a publicity stunt at best. It’s not even worth to talk about the details.

Expect to hear about Wilders’ assassination in the next few weeks. Public suicide, just as I said in the title.

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Last night it was warm enough to sit on the front porch for dinner. Pia started playing with water outside and, of course, was wet in no time.

Dinner on the front porch

Dinner on the front porch

Dinner on the front porch

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Since late yesterday the Adobe Share service has been updated to a new release. We decluttered the user interface, fixed some bugs/issues, made the system more robust and also added some new features.

The most notable feature addition is the “Create PDF” functionality. This feature was already present in the previous version of the software, but it was operating behind the scenes. If you login to share.acrobat.com now, you will see a new tab labeled “Convert to PDF”:

You can either use a file from your library (files you uploaded to Adobe Share before) or select a new file from your computer, upload it to the service and create a PDF rendition of it. Cool - isn’t it?

Oh, and in case you’re wondering what’s up with all those recent web-service (SaaS) offerings from Adobe: Sarah over at ReadWriteWeb seems to connect the dots correctly …

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I laughed pretty hardy here …

(Credit: “Weee!” by Jeff Gill)

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Adobe just announced the availability of Photoshop Express. Photoshop Express is a browser-based photo management tool and photo editor. Without having to install anything on your system, you can upload, manage, edit and share photographs right in your browser.

No, it’s not the “full” Photoshop, but a reasonable subset of functionality that makes it really useful for a lot of quick photo manipulation tasks. I don’t know how often I was at a computer (friend or family) where a basic photo editing tool was not available and I wished I would have had something that would allow to me make some quick edits, without having to download and install some freeware/shareware package first.

After uploading a few photos to the web-service, you get the “My Photos” view as shown below:

Photoshop Express Gallery

This view allows you to group photos into different Albums, rename photos, rate them and add captions to your shots. Double-clicking on a photo switches over to the Edit Photo screen:

Photoshop Express Editor

All the tools on the left side allow you to perform some basic touch-ups of your photographs. Pia loves the “tiny head” distortion.
Every operation is performed on the client-side (your browser) and for most operations you get “previews” of what the photo would look like after performing an edit-step: for example, clicking on “Saturation” will bring up a view that shows 7 thumbnails with more or less saturation than the original. Just hovering over one of the thumbnails shows you what the photo would look like with increased or decreased saturation. Once you commit a modification, the result is sent back to the server.

Photoshop Express preserves a history of all your edit-operations and it’s easy to go back to undo any operation that you may have applied to a photograph.

If you happen to have a Facebook/Picasa/Photobucket account, you can also directly manage your photos on those services from within Photoshop Express. Modifications are immediately “written back”.

Give it a try - I’m sure you’ll like it …

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Imagine for a moment: you, your wife and your two kids are driving at a nice pace on the German Autobahn, returning home from your Easter vacation. Just as you pass under a bridge, a 6 kilogram wood log enters the passenger side of your car and kills your wife instantly. A scene from a horror movie? No, I’m afraid not. Exactly this happened just a few days ago near Oldenburg in Germany.

Some thrill-seeking nutcase was standing on the bridge and decided to drop the 13 pound log at the right moment from the bridge, hitting the car and killing the woman while the rest of the family was sitting around her. A massive police task force is looking for the killer. Just today “Der Spiegel” reported that some 350 people are being investigated.

And, not surprisingly, the first copy-cats appeared as well: over the last few days there were a number of incidents where teenagers threw a big bottle-container and hardened chunks of mud from various bridges in Germany.

I can’t even begin to imagine what a shocking experience this must have been for the family. Despicable …

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Yesterday morning I noticed some noise in the bathroom next to my bedroom. It sounded like a bird was sitting on the cover of exhaust pipe that leads from the fan in the bathroom to the roof. I didn’t pay more attention to it until Pia and I heard it again this morning. I waited for a while in the bathroom and, sure enough, a bird had managed to squeeze himself into the pipe and he was trapped in there.

I had encounters with rotten critters in the past (when I did not notice it immediately) and decided to get that bird out before it was too late, for his and my own sake.

After dropping Pia off at school I drove back home and saw the birds partner sitting on the roof next to the exhaust chirping at the trapped husband/wife.

My first attempt was trying to get the bird from the top. After removing the “roof” of the exhaust I saw that it would be more than difficult to get him out that way: the pipe was way too narrow for my arm, way too deep and to make matters worse, there was a sharp screw half-way down the pipe. I tried it with a sling, but the bird would just disappear at the bottom of the pipe, where there was a 90 degree curve.

The second option was to remove the fan and try to get the bird out that way. After 30 minutes of cursing, trying to remove the three screws that hold the fan in place (one of the screws was a dud, which made it more difficult than necessary), I finally had the fan out and it was dangling from the power cord from the ceiling. Behind a moving flap at the beginning of the pipe, I could see the bird. I did not want to stress him more than necessary, so I used the screwdriver to pry the flap open, open the window in the bathroom and hide with my camera at the door. About 30 secs later I saw this:

bird trapped above fan

The white stuff on his feathers is most likely from all the poop that the poor bird was sitting in for the last two days. He sat there for a while and looked at me. I don’t think he was scared at all, but more surprised that he was finally free.
A few minutes later he jumped to the window still and rested again. He chirped and received a response from his partner who was sitting in a nearby tree.

It was borderline heartbreaking to hear the two of them talk to each other for a little while and then he finally flew off to the exact same tree where the other bird was waiting.

Where are my tissues?

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Let me repeat, 4000 US troops have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war (source [icasualties.org]). According to the LA Times, four soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad yesterday, which officially raises the number of casualties to the figure above. I guess this does not require any more comments.

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The following appeared on craigslist’s “Phoenix Area / Politics” forum on 2/20/2008 under the heading “How to be an American citizen” (original link here - will disappear soon).

I found it interesting to read and, as it has local relevance, decided to preserve it here, before it disappears from craigslist.

I have lived in New Mexico for over 40 years, and 18 of those years in Santa Fe County. Most of my friends are self-created types who work for themselves, as this is also my lifestyle. Having made a living since the age of 17 as a sign maker and graphic designer has enabled me to appreciate the freedoms my lonely schedule affords me, and I have attracted similar life-styled friends who are fiercely independent and curious as to the workings of our government and encroachments upon their rights. It is my impression that individuals who remain employed throughout their lives are less likely to have the time to study, question, or oppose authority. The true reality of the original intent of our nation is that We The People are the authority. All agents, officers, and officials of this nation are our servants, but because it is human nature that a government unchecked will grow into an abusive and dangerous entity, the servants of this nation must pledge an oath to defend and protect the Constitution, which is the foundation of all law and the guarantee that your Rights will remain inalienable.

(more…)

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