Naturelich

I have finally managed to upgrade my MovableType installation to v3.32. Although I was already using the Tagwire plugin for Naturelich Games, I decided to have a closer look at the standard v3.3 tagging features. Naturelich Games is fully up and running now, including the tag cloud (modified layout) and a new Recent comment Widget.

It took a couple of hours to get there. In the beginning, the whole standard tagging did not work at all. I was already afraid to have permanently broken my MT installation. But all of a sudden, I thought about turning off Tagwire. What an easy fix....
After this, the operation went pretty smoothly. I have already modified my previous hacks to work with Cache-enabled MT-XSearch, beautiful tag search link URLs and the new syntax of standard MT Tags. I can totally recommend Everybody loves tags! by Jay Allen with an in-depth look at some of the tagging features.

So, althogether, I am pretty happy with MT 3.3. Happy and proud to finally have finished and anxious to see what additional new features this release has to offer:

The tagging is nice and adds some minor improvements to Tagwire. Particularly the auto-complete AJAX feature is wonderful. It will probably take a couple of days (weeks?) until I have decided on my "new" stylesheets (actually, I am basically copying here any styles from The Style Contest or Style Catcher.

In addition to tagging, the widgets seem most promising. Although, ATM, the set of available widgets is not too big, but I hope for the real experts to create something to excite me. For now, let's call it a night...

Posted by Naturelich at 3:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The XBOX 360 game Project Gotham Racing 3 has a great new feature. Photos can be taken in the racing game and uploaded to the PGR 3 Photos website. More about this can be found on Xboxic. Below you can see some of the pictures I have taken during the game...

Continue reading "Project Gotham Racing 3 Photos" »

Posted by Naturelich at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have now installed the RateIt plugin on Naturelich Games. It allows you to rate entries on a scale from 1-5 (5 being best). Feel free to rate the articles you like and dislike. It will be interesting to see which articles readers like and which ones they don't like. So based on your feedback I will probably adjust my writing habits a little bit...

Posted by Naturelich at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new online game featuring integrated GoogleMaps all over the place is Brewster Jennings Protects America, available at: http://www.brewsterjennings.com/.

Currently two scenarios are available:

• Nuke a Tourist Attraction


• Biological Attack on America

These are the most realistic ones. I guess. Thanks to GoogleMaps, all terrorists can now see directly into your yard. How bad a scenario is that????

Posted by Naturelich at 3:20 PM | Permalink

Here is a collection of hyperlinks to the new buzzword:

Web 2.0

• Edgeperspective with John Hagel has a first definition and description
• Techcrunch.com - Tracking Web 2.0 profiles and reviews every newly launched Web 2.0 business
• Dion Hinchcliff's Web 2.0 Blog - provides a lot of links plus a long Web 2.0 blogroll
• Kiko - a web calender in Web 2.0 technology - making heavy use of AJAX
• inetWord - Word editing on the internet
• NumSum - Spreadsheets on the web
• Basecamp - The iPod of project management
• Pixagogo.com - Photo maps combining your pictures with Google Maps

This is the tip of the ice-berg. After having seen all this, the Web 2.0 - as nebulous as the term and it's definition may still be - brings some cool new innovations. Gradually, this is going to change the way we work on the web.

Posted by Naturelich at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) invented the internet. This year, the DARPA held the Grand Challenge: 5 autonomous ground vehicles successfully completed a touigh 131 mile course in Nevada's Mojave Desert. The Stanford University's vehicle called Stanley won the robotics challenge in 6 hours and 53 minutes. The next two vehicles - Sandstorm and H1ghlander were only 10-20 minutes behind.

Continue reading "DARPA Grand Challenge 2005" »

Posted by Naturelich at 7:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It took me a little bit of time to re-design the style of Naturelich blog. Hope you like it?

Posted by Naturelich at 2:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Google displays another logo due to their 7th anniversary.

Kuckstu hier

Posted by Naturelich at 11:28 PM | Permalink

Due to the release of Movable Type 3.2 this blog will be redesigned. I have decided to create a separate blog for my all things board games. This way, those of you who are mainly interested gaming are no longer bothered by my personal stuff. On the other hand, those interested in personal Naturelich stuff won't be bothered by all the session reports and game reviews. I am currently making all the necessary arrangements to move everything back and forth. I will let you know when I am finished!

Posted by Naturelich at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

w.bloggar is a weblog editing tool, currently available in v4.0. I have decided to give it a shot. Actually, I am currently using w.bloggar to write this entry. Let's call it a test drive. It promises to work 100% with movabletype (and other blog providers). In addition, it supports offline writing and publishing when re-connecting to the internet. I hope this makes weekend and holiday blogging easier. But let's see if Naturelich likes this tool!? At the minute I guess it is at 75% chance of succeeding - IF I get this blog entry published properly.

But I probably did, didn't I?

Posted by Naturelich at 1:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Friday, Microsoft released a beta version of the next Windows operating system to the public. We are looking at: TOSFKAL - The Operating System Formerly Known As Longhorn. Longhorn was the codename for their new OS - apparently named after a after work bar in the Sierra Nevada. Microsoft has decided to name this public beta Vista. Along with the new OS comes IE7. The IEBlog has released the news here. A short list of new features (as I have heard/read, but not seen - yet):

The official site MS site is here.

Posted by Naturelich at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have added an abbreviated index view for my category archives. Those category archive pages have become really long. As many entries in this blog contain one or more images, these archives cause a lot of network traffic on the server. In addition the site rebuild process takes a while.

I have used hints by jotsheet blog who provide an optimized the category archive template.

Posted by Naturelich at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bill Gates has published a new Executive E-mail. Gates points out that information-worker software needs to evolve to a point where the software adapts and helps the user to cope with the ever changing work-environment. The key words to overcoming these challenges are pattern recognition, smart content, visualization and simulation. Since a company's competetive advantage heavily relies upon the ability and speed at which ideas are transformed into value, the new era of software tools need to:

If you now think the next version of MS Word or MS Outlook will optimize your supply chain, you better click here to read the entire article...

Posted by Naturelich at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another Link of the day (found on the Amazon webservices blog): Amaztype runs a query against Amazon web services. Enter a word like U 2 and Amaztype generates the word from product images found via web service at Amazon (com, uk, ca, jp). Very cool. Click on the background to zoom in and hover the cursor over any art cover to view more details. Currently you can query books, music and DVDs. Below you can find one still image example.

Continue reading "Amaztype" »

Posted by Naturelich at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This site is now making use of Movalog's MT Blogroll 2.0 which is currently in Public Beta. I've had absolutely no problems installing the application and already created a very short list of entries in three different categories:

I hope you find this feature helpful - I certainly love it...

Posted by Naturelich at 1:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have changed the design of naturelich.com using a template from movablestyle.com. I prefer this design over the previous one as this one uses the full width of the screen. If you're unhappy with it or would like to see something else, let me know...

Posted by Naturelich at 2:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Zealand's Simon Janson has made an incredible Star Wars movie which is available on his site: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/. Enjoy!

Posted by Naturelich at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am very happy with the Now playing feature and tend to re-load my site every time the song changes. No, seriously, it really works surprisingly well and finds album covers regularly. If only I were able to get the MT-Location plugin to work. Better luck next time (maybe).

It is time to go to sleep now. Enjoy reading the rest of this blog!

Posted by Naturelich at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This site is now equipped with Now playing (an iTunes for Windows plugin) by Brandon Fuller. Together with Brandon's MT-Now Playing plugin you can see whatever I am listening to in iTunes (when I am online). I really like this little tool! It's make this page even more interactive!

Posted by Naturelich at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Naturelich has just added a few new plugins to improve this blog's feature set. MT-Amazon is used to retrieve Amazon content in this blog while BookQueueToo is used to manage a media list and keeping the status of what I am reading up to date. These tools are really cool, although they do not seem to work Amazon Germany. I have not yet found time to read through all the documentation. But if you have any information on how to configure these tools for Amazon Europe/Germany please leave a comment. It would be highly appreciated!

Posted by Naturelich at 1:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to the Countdown plugin for Movable Type this blog now features an uptime statistic on the sidebar.

Posted by Naturelich at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seen today on Google!

Posted by Naturelich at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Due to a mis-configuration in the blog's config section users were not able to leave a comment. This has now been fixed (I guess). It always helps to RTFM. ;) Look who is talking, here. To comment on this site you need a Typekey account which allows you to comment on zillions of other blogs (powered by Movable Type). The policy is that comments are moderated in order to avoid spam and other illegal activities...

Posted by Naturelich at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you know about iPod's dirty secret?

Posted by Naturelich at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The keyboard issues have now been resolved. I am typing these lines and all future blog entries on my new Microsoft keyboard. It is again wireless but it is not as freaking incompatible as Logitech. At least that's what I hope!! We shall see. The keys have a nice touch and there's some additional multimedia keys on it. I was used to those on my previous keyboard, so I figured it would be nice to have them again! There's one diadvantage which I didn't realize when looking at the keyboard in the shop: the Delete, Home, End, Page up, Page down keys are different from regular keyboards. This still causes me trouble but I hope to get used to it sooner or later.

Posted by Naturelich at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After having lost (or was it stolen?) my iPod I have just received my new iPod Photo 40GB! Cool thing with my email address engraved on it. This hopefully protects me from loosing it again. I believe it is definitely time to do something about the keyboard situation!! I need to get my music library onto this device! I have even bought an iPod car connector in order to listen to that stuff when on the road. Media Markt - I am coming!

Posted by Naturelich at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Naturelich - it had to hit me one day! I am experiencing keyboard problems on my main machine. So the posting frequency and length is obviously slowing down a little bit as I am unable to get the advent calendar pictures from that machine onto my laptop. Or: should I take the chance and get a new keyboard - one which again has a cable connection to the hardware?! Not too bad an idea, I can tell you...

Posted by Naturelich at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PureJPEG - Filter Unnecessary JPEG Data

PureJPEG filters unnecessary data from your JPEG files, without changing the image. Some JPEG files are accompanied by additional information for classification etc. All this is removed by PureJPEG, thus minimzing the bandwidth requirements on your website. Maybe you have noted, the speed on Naturelich has increased, as I have treated all photos and images with this wonderful tool...

Posted by Naturelich at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A spamhole has tried to put spam comments onto this site. Dumbass, I have therefore increase comment-policy on this site to only accept comments from people registered at Typekey. Sorry, folks, but I do not want to look through all this garbage. Spam sux...

Posted by Naturelich at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

QRIO from Sony

Have you seen the movie I, Robot recently? Sony research has now developed a robot called QRIO [Kirio] that/who can walk on two legs (even on different surfaces), climb stairs, recognize people's faces and carry on conversations. When falling, he protects himself from negative impacts by trying to absorb the energy with his arms. Sony has some great - but marketing-oriented - movies on their webpage. QRIO knows body language and tries to cheer humans up. He shows his own emotions. He wants to be friends with people.

Or so they claim... Still, one can or should be doubtful: what does being friends mean? He is programmed to be "friendly", i.e. behave in a way that his programmer considered to be friendly. I am not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just not sure trying to atribute these very human emotions onto a machine is sensible. Maybe it is: QRIO is a great toy, it may even be fun (a lot of people - including Naturelich - play The Sims, right?) and is definitely a technical masterpiece that I would really love to get a hold on. After all, it has conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra! Look 4 yourself...

Posted by Naturelich at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The next release of MS Windows is currently in development. As this was planned as a major major re-release of the world's most popular operating system. Non-Microsoft developers have put up Longhornblogs to feed us with more information. Microsoft has obviously released information on the product. Visit MSDN for more details. It's very interesting to see comments of how the release schedule was recently adjusted. Some say Microsoft is coping with major challenges when developing the new Windows file system (WinFS). The implications for application developers will be severe and are not so easy to predict. This, I will leave to the guys at Longhornblogs who have Naturelich a far better understanding of things. But it's interesting nonetheless...

Posted by Naturelich at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Naturelich has participated in the ultimate psychology test. Now, it is official. If Naturelich were a pre-1985 video-game character, he would be Kung Fu Master. Here is the official certificate:

I am Kung Fu Master.I like to be in control of myself. I dislike crowds, especially crowds containing people trying to kill me. Even though I always win, I prefer to avoid fights if possible. (If I were not Kung Fu Master I would be a Gauntlet Adventurer.) Check this to get to know yourself better: What Video Game Character Are You?

Posted by Naturelich at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally - I made it. Naturelich is back online again. Got a DSL modem as a present from one of my colleagues at work (true friendship, brother). Savior of Naturelich's soul. I also just recently downloaded Norton Internet Security with Antispam and Antivirus - cool stuff. Now, I am not only online but also better protected than ever before. What a day. See you in a bit...

Posted by Naturelich at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few days ago, my DSL modem broke down. As you can imagine, these are troubling times, my friend. Naturelich without a DSL modem is like waves without a surfboard. It's just not the same. Well, a colleague has promised to bring me his tomorrow, so hopes are getting up again. For the time being, expect only limited updates to this site.... :-((

Posted by Naturelich at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You have to see what-happens-at-night-on-your-desktop.

Posted by Naturelich at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Naturelich, we had to check-out the latest version of Movable Type. Today, the day of migration has come. Since everything went smoothly, we are proud to announce that this site is now powered by Movable Type 3.11. Check this announcement for more details.

Posted by Naturelich at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have had some interesting ;-) discussions about Schlichtheit and 2D vs 3D-ness in a user interface design, naturelich already a few months ago. I just found an interesting article on The Old New Thing blog for your reference.

Posted by Naturelich at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is a very interesting article about passwords and suggestions of how to improve yours (mine). Although mine is naturelich never ever a target for attacks... Voice from the off: Or that's what he thought, as hackers wrote this blog entry... ;)

Posted by Naturelich at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Naturelich at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)