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How to set up a streaming media network | News | TechRadar UKSoftware streaming
What if you only want to stream to a laptop or another PC? All you need is some software.
A dedicated media streamer is all well and good, but most of them cost in the the region of £100 to £200, which certainly doesn't make them the cheapest solution. If you want to view pictures or listen to audio on your laptop, or another PC in the house, then all you need to do is set up a shared folder, then browse to it on the network and open the files in the same way that you would do on the local machine.
As long as your network has the range, taking your laptop into the garden and plugging in some external speakers, is possibly the simplest way of getting music to your garden party. However, Windows networking is notoriously fickle, especially if you are mixing operating systems, so a dedicated software solution may be better.
Windows Media Player 11 is built into Windows Vista and can be downloaded for XP and once set up for sharing, WMP11 turns your PC with the media library into a media server. A Vista laptop will usually automatically detect a shared library and ask whether you want to connect to it. You can also share your iTunes library, and then access it from another PC or laptop running iTunes.
However, one of our favourite solutions for sharing media is Orb, which enables you to share music, video, pictures and documents, not just across your local network, but across the internet as well. It's a great way to listen to your music collection when you're at work, a friend's house or anywhere else that you can get a respectible internet connection.
Not only is Orb free, but you can use it to stream your files to the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and even some handhelds, like the iPod touch and mobile phones. An alternative is TVersity, which will also work with any internet connected device that has a web browser that supports Flash.
Xbox 360
Got an Xbox 360? Then there's no need to buy yourself a separate media streamer. It's not just a games console you know.
While the Xbox 360 might have enjoyed phenomenal success as a games console, it has some other rather nifty tricks up its sleeve. Although the Xbox 360 has no built-in wireless, it does have an Ethernet connection, and there's a wireless adaptor available, although it does only use the 802.11g standard.
The Xbox 360 is designed to connect to a PC running Windows Media Center, and if you have a PC running that (either Vista, or Windows XP MCE) then the system works very well. The Xbox's interface is pretty much the same as Media Centre and it is slick and easy to use. If you don't have a PC running any form of media centre, then you can use Windows Media Player 11 instead.
Once sharing has been setup, the Xbox is able to connect and browse the folders in much the same way as any other media streamer. It's not nearly as good as the Media Centre Interface, and it has a nasty habit of failing to connect to our shared library, but when it works, it's pretty good. Since Microsoft updated the firmware, the Xbox is able to play Xvid and DivX content, but cannot play some other file formats. In this case, you can use a program called Tversity which can transcode incompatible file formats on the fly, into ones the Xbox can play.
Using Tversity, the Xbox can even stream live video feeds, which is a pretty unique feature. An alternative is to use Orb, which enables you to view almost any content you wish to share, by using folder sharing. You may not think that the Xbox is a natural contender for streaming audio and video to your TV and stereo, but after testing a large number of media streamers, we have to say the Xbox is actually one of the best devices we've ever used, especially when you decide to use it with Media Centre.
Playstation 3
Playstation 3 owners rejoice! You too can stream all your media with ease. Don't let the Microsoft fanboys have all the fun.
The last few months has seen a number of significant updates released for the PS3, all of which have increased the console's functionality. Like the Xbox 360, you can use Windows Media Player 11 to share your media and view it using the PS3. However, just as with the Xbox, Windows Media is a temperamental beast and can cause irrational anger and the urge to chuck the controller at the TV when it stops working properly.
In our expericene, you are much better off using Tversity, which also works with the Xbox. However, you will need to configure your router to make it work correctly, but it's a two minute job and is pretty simple. First of all download Tversity and leave all the settings at the defaults.
You may want to download FFDShow and any other additional codecs you use regularly. You'll need to change your Windows or third-party firewall settings to allow mediaserver.exe, which is found in the Tversity folder, access to the internet. Configure your router, by typing its IP address into your web browser's address bar, it's usually 192.168.0.1, but if it isn't, run ipconfig from a command prompt to determine your PC's IP address and use the first IP in that range for your router.
Within your router's control panel you find that you'll need to edit the section for virtual servers or port forwarding, and allow access to port 41952. In addition, just as with the Xbox, you can use Orb with the PS3, although instead of using the folder sharing, you use the built-in browser and navigate to mycast.orb.com.
Lucene: Escaping Special Characters | RealJenius.comThankfully, the necessary code to fix this isn't all that difficult. There are two scenarios at this point: 1.) You are using Lucene 1.9 or newer., or 2.) You are using Lucene 1.4 or prior
If you are using Lucene 1.9, the task of escaping user input for the query parser is very straightforward:
Lucene 1.9 Escaping
String userQuery = // ...
String escaped = QueryParser.escape(userQuery);
Query query = QueryParser.parse(escaped);
// ...
Domain of the Bored » Blog Archive » How to use svn mergeHow to use svn merge
2006-10-29 23:49:10 UTC
A number of my fellow Adium developers have observed that svn merge is hard to use. I think the main problem is that the command is quite general (it can be put to several different uses) and the documentation not particularly clear. In order to promote better understanding of the svn merge command, here's what I know about it.
The command in a nutshell: svn merge is essentially svn diff $ARGS | patch -p0; the only real difference is that svn merge will handle addition, movement, and deletion of files, whereas patch won't.
This now having been stated up front, let's get into details.
Summary of tasks and how to do them
1. svn merge sourceURL1[@N] sourceURL2[@M] [WCPATH]
2. svn merge sourceWCPATH1@N sourceWCPATH2@M [WCPATH]
3. svn merge [-c M | -r N:M] SOURCE[@REV] [WCPATH]
*
To apply changes from another directory (branch, tag, trunk): Use format #1 (or #2 if you have a checkout of it), supplying at least the first revision (N), and the second (M) if it is not HEAD. With format #1, you should not need to be using the same repository URL as the CWD for either one or both; you should be able to merge between two URLs, or between a single URL into your checkout of a different URL.
*
To travel back in time to a previous revision: Use format #3, with -rHEAD:THEN. For example, -rHEAD:42000.
*
To cherry-pick a changeset (apply only that changeset, not any others): Use format #3, with -cTHEN.
*
To undo a particular changeset without disturbing things that happened after it (hopefully): Use format #3, with -c -THEN. Note the minus sign. For example, to revert r42000, use “svn merge -c -42000 .”. You can also use the -r flag: “svn merge -r 42000:41999 .”. This may be advisable, for clarity reasons, if you have a script that must always revert a particular revision.
In both examples, note the “.” and the space before it. “.” means the current directory, and is used here as the SOURCE argument to format #3. It's a separate argument from the revision, so you need the space.
*
All formats apply their changes to the CWD by default. I don't know what happens if the CWD is not a WC. You can specify a different destination for the changes by specifying a different WCPATH (the last argument in all the formats above).
*
In format #3, the first path that it accepts is a URL or local WC path to the object you want to diff. (Remember my initial statement about svn merge being essentially svn diff | patch -p0.) The second path is a local WC path to the destination for the changes that are observed.
Updated 2007-07-12: Fixed error in traveling back in time (I had the revs backward); added cherry-picking technique.
svn help merge, in RTF
The “svn help merge” text is an invaluable summary of the command's operation, but it's plain-text, and therefore somewhat hard to read on a screen. To that end, I created an RTF version and printed it out, and decided to put it up here in case anyone else wants to do the same.
Nearly 53,000 Chinese children sick from milk - Yahoo! NewsOver the weekend, the Chinese territory of Hong Kong reported the first known illness outside mainland China — a 3-year-old girl who developed kidney stones after drinking Chinese dairy products. She was discharged from the hospital, the Hong Kong government said.
Singapore said Sunday that it had found traces of melamine in another Chinese-made dairy product, milk-based White Rabbit brand candy.
Blackberry Freeware - Free SoftwareThe people from Gwhizmobile just released a really great task management or todo list software. It so rich with features I'm having a hard time believing that its free. Got-2 enables you to create list and even sub-list of the things you have to do. You can cross of the list you have completed with the 3 different views you can use. I usually use the agenda view which I think makes things even more simple. But the list view and even the geographical view is great.
What makes Got-2 even more unique is its GPS integration or location base alerts. Imagine being alerted to get the dry cleaning since your near the area. Its a feature a lot of people need if you want to save time and maybe save you from making a second trip with your car.
- One easy to read screen with collapsible lists, subtasks, and agenda items.
- Choose your preferred view: simple list or week agenda.
- Get alerts based on time or location
- Share tasks and lists via email
- Prioritize-as-you-go by moving items up/down
- Keep track of progress by marking off tasks, appointments, agenda items, and subtasks.
- Stores data in BlackBerry Tasks and Calendar - sync with Outlook and Google calendar.
- Location integration with Google or BlackBerry maps.
download: Got-2 Task Management
Newsvine - Configuring[Ubuntu] Postfix and Gmail in 10+1 Easy StepsStep 6:
Now we can go back to our postfix configuration and make some changes to the main.cf file and create some other needed files. From this point out, all the things we are checking are meant to make sure Postfix itself is operational and has nothing to do with the certificates we created above.
Check your computer's hostname by looking in the /etc/hostname file. If you are using another Linux system this may be different (/etc/sysconfig/network or the like). To check the hostname file you can simple type $cat /etc/hostname and it will display the information in the terminal. Using this information, we want to make sure everything knows what the hostname is so run the command $sudo hostname bob.com replacing "bob.com" with what ever your hostname file says. This simply makes sure we are in a known state off wellness for the rest of the configuration.
Next move to the /etc/postfix directory, back up main.cf $sudo mv main.cf main.cf.old and open up the main.cf file in your favorite text editor (I think HowTo writers are suppose to say vi to sound cool but you can use gedit or nano if you like):
$sudo gedit main.cf
Copy the following lines to the bottom of your main.cf. Being at the bottom, it will override any settings made at the top that have the same name.
## Add these lines to the bottom on main.cf
##
##
## TLS Settings
#
# For no logs set = 0
smtp_tls_loglevel = 1
#
# smtp_enforce_tls = yes
# Above is commented because doing it site by site below
smtp_tls_per_site = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_per_site
#
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtp_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-cert.pem
smtp_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-key.pem
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:/var/run/smtp_tls_session_cache
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-cert.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-key.pem
smtpd_tls_received_header = yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:/var/run/smtpd_tls_session_cache
smtpd_use_tls = yes
tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom
## SASL Settings
# This is going in to THIS server
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = no
# We need this
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtpd_sasl_local_domain = $myhostname
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
#smtp_sasl_security_options =
smtp_sasl_tls_security_options = noanonymous
smtpd_sasl_application_name = smtpd
## Gmail Relay
relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
## Good for Testing
# sender_bcc_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/bcc_table
# Disable DNS Lookups
disable_dns_lookups = yes
#
# Great New feature Address Mapping
# for example may mchirico@localhost to mchirico@gmail.com
smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic
#
#
transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport
One of the key entries in this stuff is the GMAIL RELAY section. This is the setting that turns our postfix system into a smarthost configuration. This is what we need to use use gmail's SMTP servers. More importantly. we are using port 587 which is not the SMTP port. This is why using gmail to send our outgoing mail is beneficial... ISPs do not block this port. Also notice that we have what appears to be repeated lines for our certificates. If you look closely however, one is smtp the other is smtpd. One is the configuration for the service, the other is the configuration for the client. Finally you can see a number of 'hash:' lines. The top of your config file will have some hash lines as well. Do not worry about those since the initial setup took care of those. The hashes we refer to need to be created still. Lets go do that now.
Step 7:
Setting up the sasl_passwd file and hash is necessary to log into gmail. Remaining in the /etc/postfix directory issue the command:
$sudo gedit sasl_passwd
This creates a new file in /etc/postfix called sasl_passwd.
Place into that file the following:
[smtp.gmail.com]:587 bms@gmail.com:password
The smtp info needs to remain, but you must change the email address and the password to match your own.
Next we need to make a hash file out of this. Enter $sudo postmap sasl_passwd
That is all we have to do to make the sasl_passwd. Equally exciting is that the other hash files are just as easy to make.
Step 8:
Next create the generic file and hash using the same methods in the last section with this inside:
bms@squeezel.bob.com bms@gmail.com
replace bms@bob.com with your username on your linux box before the '@' sign and your hostname after the '@'. Similarly, replace 'bms@gmail.com' with your gmail address.
Step 9:
Now we need to make the transport file and hash. This is the file that tells postfix how to rout emails it gets.
Open a new text file called transport and enter into it:
# This sends mail to Gmail
gmail.com smtp:[smtp.gmail.com]:587
#
# Except mail going to the tape and closet server
comp1.bob.com relay:[comp1.bob.com]
comp2.bob.com relay:[comp2.bob.com]
What this tells postfix is to send all mail to gmail except for two cases. On my network I have two other computers. One called comp1 the other called comp2. I am telling postfix to send email meant for those two computers directly to them.
Remember to make the hash for the transport file.
Step 10:
We now need to create the tls_per_site file and hash. This is possibly the most important file to create after the main.cf. This file will protect us from "man-in-the-middle" attacks by forcing a secure connection to the remote machine BEFORE we send any passwords.
Create the file tls_per_site and enter:
smtp.gmail.com MUST
comp1.bob.com MUST
comp2.bob.com MUST
p>
Replacing my domains with your domains and making the hash with postmap.. yada yada. The 'MUST' keyword tells postfix to establish a secure connection with those domains before doing any password hanky panky. If you do not want to worry about your local network because it is small like mine and does not rely on wireless networking, then you can use the keyword MAY. Gmail is a MUST however.
Step 10 + 1:
Open master.cf using $sudo gedit master.cf and find the line that reads relay unix - - n - - smtp. It will be a little ways down. Beneath that line, you will probably see a few settings that start with '-o', we will be adding one more. Enter -o smtp_generic_maps= right below the relay line. This entry tells postfix to send out your emails with your gmail address as the originating address rather than your Ubuntu account and domain. When ever you edit the master.cf file you need to reload postfix. To do this simply issue the command
$sudo postfix reload.
That is all there is to it. Make sure your postfix server is started by typing $sudo postfix start. You should now have a working postfix server that sends messages out through gmail's smtp servers. Test it out and make sure it works.
Note: If you check the mail.log file you might notice that your certificate is not validating with gmail. I have not found a reason for this yet but it doe snot seem to impede the function
To fix the errors in you mail.log file follow These Instructions. However, replace Thawte_Premium_Server_CA.pem with Equifax_Secure_CA.pem
Stocks soar as officials confirm gov't rescue plan - Yahoo! NewsTo help limit the freefall in financial stocks, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced it is temporarily banning the short-selling of nearly 800 financial stocks. Short-selling is the common practice of betting against company stocks by borrowing its shares, selling them, and pocketing the difference when they fall.
"The federal government has been petitioned by Wall Street to take evasive action in the money markets, the stock and bond markets, to avoid a complete meltdown of the credit system," said Joe Battipaglia, market strategist at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. "Once the credit system melts down, the economy falls. We can hand-wring about if this is the proper thing for the government to do, or if Wall Street pulled the panic button too soon, but that's something for the historians to sort out."
These be updates, folks. | The Dojo ToolkitSpeaking of the CDN
Google has started their own Ajax library delivery system, offering Dojo >= 1.1.1 as a cross-domain build: Give it a try just like you would the AOL CDN:
Note, there a some minor differences between the AOL and Google CDN, at least regarding this initial release. The theme CSS on the Google CDN has not been compressed or otherwise optimized, namely. Most examples you see using the AOL CDN, however, can simply be run by substituting the new URL for your dojo.xd.js - all the same X-Domain nuances still apply ...
More on Google
To follow up on Shane's recent Google dojo.data stores, I took the liberty of creating SMD's defining all the available Google Ajax API's: web, book, local, news, books, images, and videos, demo'd as a single test file, and a wrapper for the Google Translate API. Accessing the entire Google datacenter is as easy as:
dojo.require("dojox.rpc.Service");
dojo.require("dojo.io.script");
dojo.addOnLoad(function(){
var goog = new dojox.rpc.Service(dojo.moduleUrl("dojox.rpc","SMDLibrary/google.smd"));
goog.webSearch({ q:"Dojo Toolkit "}).addCallback(function(data){
/* first group of results */
});
});
The google.smd library will be available in Dojo 1.2, though you can use the SMD with 1.1, and probably 1.0 versions as well.
Copy Or Rename A Space - Confluence 2.9 - ConfluenceCurrently Confluence does not support renaming or copying spaces through the user interface. You may wish to vote towards these feature requests:
* Feature request to clone an entire space - this will enable duplication of every page, news item and comment plus space themes and colour schemes.
* Feature request to copy a page hierarchy between existing spaces.
Use The Copy Space Plugin
The best option is to install the Copy Space Plugin.
Note that this plugin is still in beta release, and is not officially supported by Atlassian.
Read the developer's notes in the Atlassian blogs.
Manually Clone Or Rename A Space
Alternatively, it is possible to manually clone or rename a space by modifying an XML backup of the target space.
Notes
* May require manually updating external links to that space.
* The instructions have been confirmed for Confluence 2.2 onwards. Users running older versions are recommended to upgrade Confluence before continuing.
* Where examples are given, they involve changing oldkey:Old Space Name into newkey:New Space Name. You need to substitute your own keys for oldkey and newkey, and your own space names for Old Space Name and New Space Name.
* When importing a space export for a space that already exists, the previous space content will be overwritten.
* Read the process in full before beginning.
Stage 1: Rename Space
1. Select a new, unique space key and name for the second space. Space keys may only consist of ASCII letters or numbers (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) and no empty spaces are allowed in the key.
2. Clone your production Confluence instance to a test server on another computer now. (For instructions, see Migrating Confluence Between Servers.) You should now have a production server and test server both containing the same data and can avoid the risk of corrupting your production Confluence instance.
3. On the test server, login as an administrator.
4. Go to Browse Space -> Advanced -> Export Space and export the target space as XML including attachments.
5. Save the space backup.
6. Open the space backup file with a zip file editor and find the file entities.xml.
7. Edit entities.xml in a text editor.
8. Do a 'Search & Replace' on the old space name as shown below. Swap out Old Space Name and New Space Name for the actual names.
Search For Replace With
[CDATA[Old Space Name] [CDATA[New Space Name]
9. Do a 'Search' for any occurrences of the old space name that occur in user content. You may wish to replace some or all of these references with the new space name. Replace Old Space Name and New Space Name with the actual names.
Search For
Old Space Name
New iPhone Chip Will Cost an ARM and a Missile - Bits Blog - NYTimes.comWhile it’s a minor revelation, Lien’s statement would confirm what many have expected ever since Apple acquired chip start-up PA Semiconductor in April for close to $300 million.
PA Semi had assembled an all-star cast of chip engineers, including Lien, and Apple confirmed that it bought the company for that talent. In a June interview with The Times’ John Markoff, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs went one step further, saying the PA Semi team would work on designing brand-new processors for future iPhones and iPods. The only question was which kind of processors.
Curve keyboard shortcuts list - PinStack.com ForumsI found these very useful after getting my Curve the other day.
First of all, in order to use these, you must go into Phone Options and turn OFF dialing from home screen.
Key shortcuts:
A or C = phonebook
S = search
F = phone profiles
W or B = browser
H = help
K = locks the keys
L = calendar
V = messages
M = messages folder
R = alarm
T = tasks
U = calculator
I = applications
O = options
P = phone
Some new additions thanks to the contributions in this thread:
T - Top of page (in browser)
B - Bottom of page (in browser)
Space - Page down (in browser)
ALT + Right Shift + Del = hard reset
D - Memo pad
U - Switch between hide/unhide in title bar (in browser)
ALT + NMLL = numbers instead of bars for signal strength
High Scalability | Building bigger, faster, more reliable websites.Don't have a CDN? Why not let Google and Yahoo be your CDN? At least for Ajax libraries. No charge. Google runs a content distribution network and loading architecture for the most popular open source JavaScript libraries, which include: jQuery, prototype, script.aculo.us, MooTools, and dojo. The idea is web pages directly include your library of choice from Google's global, fast, and highly available network. Some have found much better performance and others experienced slower performance. My guess is the performance may be slower if your data center is close to you, but far away users will be much happier. Some negatives: not all libraries are included, you'll load more than you need because all functionality is included. Yahoo has had a similar service for YUI for a while. Remember to have a backup plan for serving your libraries, just in case.
The JavaScript Library World Cup [JavaScript & AJAX Tutorials]Well, the short answer to this question is that there is no real stand-out solution that excels in all situations.
Prototype is the most comprehensively documented -- albeit in a splintered way. It is also seemingly the most widespread library at the moment, possibly because it really excels at the kind of tasks developers complete most often, like selecting nodes and working with lists. Of course, it's going to be the natural choice for Ruby developers because it sticks to many Ruby idioms. One other great thing about Prototype is that it has the mighty weight of Rails behind it and, as a result, there are many developers providing bug fixes and patches to Prototype. Finally, it offers a wealth of add-on libraries such as scriptaculous, Rico, and Behaviour that make it a good, solid choice for many developers.
On the other hand, Prototype has a very under-developed event handling framework, which is a major problem for an otherwise powerful library. Also -- and this is purely a matter of taste -- Prototype's super-pragmatic approach to things (like the heavy use of the innerHTML property) can seem a little "dirty" sometimes.
For smaller projects, the decoupled design and fully-featured components of YUI may well be a big plus. It's very easy to drop in the Connection Manager or the Event library and get going on some basic tasks without having to traverse too much of a learning curve. On the whole, though, it doesn't have much to offer in terms of cool or powerful features.
Dojo is definitely the daddy of the bunch -- you can almost always rely on it for the most powerful implementation of any feature. And Dojo's focus on performance is an absolute godsend if you're planning a very JavaScript-intensive application. The widget implementation also has enormous potential for building complex UIs. However it really is quite big -- both in terms of its file size and the size of the API -- so I wouldn't recommend it for smaller projects.
In my opinion, Mochikit is by far the most well designed and well thought out of the four, and Python/Twisted/Nevow developers will definitely find its API very familiar. However, its documentation is a bit thin in some places (for instance, I'm still a little unsure as to which version of the Mochikit distribution to put in the script tag). Also, some of the idioms and functional techniques that it uses may be confusing for beginners or those who aren't well versed in functional programming techniques. However, it really is worth a look. Mochikits's capabilities will probably surprise you -- the createDOM function, iteration tools and the asynchronous architecture are a work of art.
Welcome to s3sync.rb -------------------- Home page, wiki, forum, bug reports, etc: http://s3sync.net This is a ruby program that easily transfers directories between a local directory and an S3 bucket:prefix. It behaves somewhat, but not precisely, like the rsync program. In particular, it shares rsync's peculiar behavior that trailing slashes on the source side are meaningful. See examples below. One benefit over some other comparable tools is that s3sync goes out of its way to mirror the directory structure on S3. Meaning you don't *need* to use s3sync later in order to view your files on S3. You can just as easily use an S3 shell, a web browser (if you used the --public-read option), etc. Note that s3sync is NOT necessarily going to be able to read files you uploaded via some other tool. This includes things uploaded with the old perl version! For best results, start fresh! s3sync runs happily on linux, probably other *ix, and also Windows (except that symlinks and permissions management features don't do anything on Windows). If you get it running somewhere interesting let me know (see below) s3sync is free, and license terms are included in all the source files. If you decide to make it better, or find bugs, please let me know. The original inspiration for this tool is the perl script by the same name which was made by Thorsten von Eicken (and later updated by me). This ruby program does not share any components or logic from that utility; the only relation is that it performs a similar task.
Karolyis' sour grapes makes bad whine - Olympics - Yahoo! SportsThis was a nightmare for Marta. She had to watch Sacramone, a 20-year-old woman, crumble under the pressure and stumble off a beam. Meanwhile, the Chinese kept sticking their landings.
“Little babies,” she barked.
It was too much to bear. The little babies had gotten her. The little babies were driving her and her husband nuts.
The little babies were winning gold.
How To ConcentrateConcentration is the Most Important Intellectual Habit of Man."
Not one person in ten thousand can really concentrate. Some realize that they do not know how—others drift along the line of least resistance and let their minds vegetate, apparently never suspecting their weakness or realizing that they are an utter failure at concentration. To Cori-centre—bringing all your mental force and faculties to bear steadily on a given center with-out deviation from that exact point—whipping into line all wandering fancies—stray ideas or thoughts that go off on a tangent—to hold steadily all your power on the central thing under consideration without an instant of wavering—that is Concentration.
Thomas Kho’s Blog » Learning Mandarin Chinese with Mac OS XLearning Mandarin Chinese with Mac OS X
April 19, 2008 at 9:09 pm · Filed under Computers, General, OS X
I use a Mac probably 90% of the time, so I wanted to share some tips for OS X I picked up that (I hope) are really helpful to the Mandarin Chinese learner.
As a bit of background, let me tell you where I’m coming from: I went to Chinese school for years as a kid and didn’t really learn much of anything. I was never fluent, never really learned enough characters to sufficiently read (let alone write), and then I just stopped caring for some amount of time. Now, I’m back for more learning.
So, here are the tips:
* ITABC Input Method
I haven’t really used Windows in years, but last time I tried, I don’t think it had the pervasive Unicode support to even display Chinese characters in most apps. That said, I was nicely surprised when I found OS X 10.5 comes with a slew of Traditional and Simplified Chinese Input Methods built in. The one I use, ITABC, is dead simple. You just enter pinyin without tones and choose from candidate matches. There are plenty of places online (here’s one at Yale) that can walk you through setting it up.
* CEDICT for Apple Dictionary
Apple includes a dictionary application in OS X. No big deal, right? Well, it’s actually pretty cool, because you can add your own custom dictionaries that integrate as seamlessly as the built-in dictionaries. CEDICT is a Chinese-English dictionary project (here’s an online dictionary based on CEDICT) that’s available as a user dictionary for Dictionary.app. Even better, it also has pronunciations (little sound bites you can play) embedded in dictionary entries.
Here’s CEDICT for Apple Dictionary at Apple Downloads. Just download it and drop it into your /Library/Dictionaries (or ~/Library/Dictionaries).
* Dictionary.app integration throughout OS X
I mentioned seamless integration in that last bullet point. Well, in the Apple way, the dictionary is integrated throughout the system. Hover over some text, hit a hotkey (defaults to Cmd-Ctrl-D, but might I suggest F1), and a little panel pop up (inline, in your application) with the definition.
This hint at Mac OS X Hints reminds us that we can hold down the dictionary hotkey to continuously get the definition of whatever word is currently under the cursor. Say you’re scanning news.google.cn and there are a handful of words you don’t know. Just hit that hotkey, the dictionary entry panel pops up in Safari, and it moves with you as you move the cursor across the sentence.
If the default popup panel is too small for your tastes, this post has a link to a modified DictionaryPanel.app (drop it in /Applications/Dictionary.app/Contents/SharedSupport) that enlarges the popup panel window. Alternatively, you can open up DictionaryPanel.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/PopupWindow.nib in Interface Builder and just need to change the size of both the popup window and its content. Be sure to make a backup first!
* ChinesePod on iTunes
Alright, so this last one might be a strech, but I found out about ChinesePod, which is a podcast with lessons in spoken Mandarin. It helps that the podcasters are pretty amusing. How does this tie in? Well, iTunes is setup to scrape the newest lessons and syncs them automatically with my iPod, so I can listen on my way to work. Zero effort necessary!
Alright. That’s it for now. If you know of any other tips, please do share!
Note: This might seem like one big rave for OS X, but I tried really hard to keep that to a minimum. Apple’s just too cool :)
Chinese Music Forum / [Completed] ~Translation~ Jay Chou- 爱我别走I just heard one of Jay's song in his 2005 concert..
and it's quite a nice song..Check it out!!
周杰伦- 爱我别走
Jay Chou- Love me, don’t go
我到了这个时候还是一样
Wo dao le zhe ke shi jian hai shi yi yang
Having arrived at this moment, I’m still the same
夜里的寂寞容易叫人悲伤
Ye li de ji mo rong yi jiao ren bei shang
Loneliness of the night easily makes people hurt
我不敢想的太多
Wo bu gan xiang de tai duo
I don’t dare to think too much
因为我一个人
Ying wei wo yi ke ren
Because I’m all by myself
迎面而光的月光拉长身影
Ying mian er guang de ye guang la chang shen ying
Facing moonlight, it draws out the silhouette
走在漫无目的的街
Zou zai man wu mu di de jie
Walking by the boundless and endless street
我没有你的消息
Wo mei you ni de xiao xi
I don’t hear your news
因为我在想你
Yin wei wo zai xiang ni
Because I’m thinking of you
Chorus:
爱我别走
Ai wo bie zou
Love me, don’t go
如果你说你不爱我
Ru guo ni shuo ni bu ai wo
If you say you don’t love me
不要听见你真的说出口
Bu yao ding jian ni zhen de shuo chu kou
I don’t want to hear you really said it
再给我一点温柔
Cai gei wo yi dian wen rou
Give me a bit warmth again
--------------------------------------------------
就在今晚抹去对方的肯定
Jiu zai jin wan mo qu dui fang de ken ding
And at this night, erasing the other is for sure
夜里的寂寞容易叫人悲伤
Ye li de ji mo rong yi jiao ren bei shang
Loneliness of the night easily makes people hurt
我没有你的消息
Wo mei you ni de xiao xi
I don’t hear your news
因为我一个人
Ying wei wo yi ke ren
Because I’m all by myself
迎面而光的月光拉长身影
Ying mian er guang de ye guang la chang shen ying
Facing moonlight, it draws out the silhouette
一个人走在漫无目的的街
Yi ke ren zou zai man wu mu di de jie
A person walking by the boundless and endless street
我没有你的消息
Wo mei you ni de xiao xi
I don’t hear your news
因为我在想你
Yin wei wo zai xiang ni
Because I’m thinking of you
爱我别走
Ai wo bie zou
Love me, don’t go
如果你说你不爱我
Ru guo ni shuo ni bu ai wo
If you say you don’t love me
不要听见你真的说出口
Bu yao ding jian ni zhen de shuo chu kou
I don’t want to hear you really said it
再给我一点温柔
Cai gei wo yi dian wen rou
Give me a bit warmth again
Eel Drink Goes On Sale For Japan's Hot Summer, `Energy Boosting' Eel Drink Goes On Sale For Japan's Hot Summer - CBS NewsA canned drink called "Unagi Nobori," or "Surging Eel," made by Japan Tobacco Inc., hit the nation's stores this month just ahead of Japan's annual eel-eating season, company spokesman Kazunori Hayashi said Monday.
"It's mainly for men who are exhausted by the summer's heat," Hayashi said of the beverage, believed to be the first mass-produced eel drink in Japan.
Many Japanese believe eating eel boosts stamina in hot weather.
The fizzy, yellow-colored drink contains extracts from the head and bones of eel and five vitamins _ A, B1, B2, D and E _ contained in the fish.
How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball | BlackBerryInsightToday it was enough! The problem is, I cannot afford to loose that phone for maybe several weeks while it will be repaired. So I searched forums, googled (even yahooed) and found a lot of stuff which had not really an answer to my question. I remembered an article some months ago which mentioned the coloring the of the Pearl’s trackball by coloring the LED beneath the trackball. Finally I realized that removing the pearl’s cover would the best way to get access to its sensor and clean it. By the way, this should work for all BlackBerry devices that carry a trackball around like BlackBerry Pearl, Curve, 8800 and 8830.
The silver ring which covers the trackball can easily be removed if you use a small screwdriver to lift it at the outer side of the ring. Be careful here! Like you should be during the whole process as all parts have very small plastic nipple which can break very easy. When the silver plastic ring is removed you will see the inner trackball component which can be removed completely. Before doing this you should carefully remove the silver metal ring that holds the trackball component in its position. The trackball component itself can also be carved. For every direction the ball can roll to you’ll find a sensor wheel. Those wheels are mostly carrying some gunk you should clean them from. Once this is done put everything back together to the place the pieces came from and secure the trackball with the silver plastic ring you removed in the first step. Your BlackBerry’s trackball should be back working now.