Karekiet 39

Big news : Google had released the Android 2.2 update for the Nexus One. The mobile operating system that bore the name ‘Froyo’ (Frozen Yoghurt) for its 2.2 incarnation, would bring dozens of upgrades, but two in particular were interesting to me

• Faster, less processor usage, which translates in a longer lasting battery
• Adobe Flash 10.1

One big problem: my Nexus One is a European model. The US version is sold with system software version EPF27, the European one is known as EPF30. The Update by Google was only for Nexus One models with EPF27 installed. No luck for me as a European.

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Blendernation has a video with Big Buck Bunny ‘Outtakes’ -- Bloopers. Quite hilarious, and much too short. This reminds me a bit of the Jacky Chan movies, where all the failed shots get added to the end. In some movies, that was the most entertaining part (sorry Jacky).

I accidentally got to 7Digital while looking for the new CD by Arno without having to go through iTunes. Looking at his newest album, I saw the current single (Brussels) can be downloaded for free. You only have to create an account. I did just that, and their MP3s are of perfect quality (320 Kbit/sec for those ‘in the know’).

Arno BrussId : http://nl-be.7digital.com/artists/arno/brussld-1/

In een vorige post was ik spijtig dat het concert van Sweet Coffee was uitverkocht. Tegen beter weten in had ik me ingeschreven op de wachtlijst van het concert van Sweet Coffee, en je raadt het nooit: er kwamen tickets vrij! We zijn dus gisteren gaan meegenieten van de voorstelling van het nieuwe album ‘Face 2 Face’, samen met een goed gevulde zaal in de AB. Read the rest of this entry »

I put it in my planning for today, but the other Sweet Coffee fans were faster it seems: the gig in the AB on thursday 25 February is sold out already. I hope there will be a second change, because I’d like to see them live. Otherwise, we’ll have to keep an eye on the festivals this summer to see if they’ll surface somewhere.

The new single is just great:

Ons nieuw stadsmuseum M vierde de laatste dagen van de openingstentoonstelling rond Rogier Van Der Weyden met laatavondopeningen. We moeten dus niet teveel verschillen van de doorsnee Vlaming, aangezien ook wij bijna vergeten waren dat de einddatum eraan kwam. Dan probeer je natuurlijk nog een vrij moment te vinden, met als resultaat dat we op vrijdagavond 4 december 2009 om 22u nog naar het Museum gegaan zijn (de nocturne in M was tot 24u).

Nocturne

Het fenomeen van de museum nocturne is in België duidelijk aan populariteit aan het winnen. De grote tentoonstellingen maken er meer en meer gebruik van, en recent was er ook de ‘Nocturne van de Brusselse Musea‘, waar een hele reeks musea in onze hoofdstad een aantal opeenvolgende donderdagen in de herfst openblijven tot 22u00. Een mooi initiatief van een niet onbelangrijke groep musea, dat ook weer dit jaar een enorm succes was, als we de kranten mogen geloven.

Wij hadden onze tickets online gereserveerd, wat vlot ging. Het is hetzelfde ticketing systeem dat ook door Het Depot gebruikt wordt, dus het systeem kenden we al. Wat meeviel is dat je bij de reservatie moet melden in welk uur je zal toekomen. Dat geeft je een volledig uur om binnen te gaan, maar zorgt er ook voor dat het museum de toegang kan spreiden over de dag. Zo krijg je niet dat de volledige dagcapaciteit van bezoekers opeens om 14u00 tegelijk het museum binnen wil, met klachten en een slechte reputatie tot gevolg.

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Patrick Stewart, best known by the public for his appearances as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in television series Star Trek : The Next Generation and more recently as Professor Xavier in the X-Men movie trilogy, is scheduled for knighthood.

Way to go Sir Patrick!

The article is on CNN.

Joke spent last night almost 4 hours in her car to do 30km due to heavy snowfall here in Belgium. This made us reconsider our planned christmas shopping trip to Reims, as more snow is promised in the following days.

There were more than 500 km of traffic jams in Belgium yesterday evening. Not bad, considering that a traversal of Belgium is approximately 300 km.

At least, the rate I booked in the Holiday Inn Express (which is perfectly located in Reims if you come by car) allowed me to cancel without charge, so it didn’t cost us anything.

Can you imagine it’s kinda difficult to grasp the concept of global warming when you’re getting more than 20cm snow in a few hours, in a country that sees snow for maybe two weeks a year.

Update 19 Dec 2009 00:05 – It seems it was a smart decision. Everywhere, there have been loads of problems until late at night. The Ring around Brussels was a good imitation of a parking lot , like yesterday, with cars blocked for several hours.

And things are predicted to get even worse. Now a good part of the snow has melted thanks to the tons of salt that have been dispatched, and all that liquid (i’m hesitant to call it ‘water’) is now happily freezing again. You could say we created the largest ice skating in Europe : every single road in Belgium. The kids around here will love it Their parents might be less enthousiastic.

Update 2 – 19 Dec 2009 00:21 – And yes! It’s snowing again

Bohemian Mupsody?

The current issue of 3DWorld (dec. 2009) has an interesting article about Blender 2.50. It covers the growing presence of Blender in the commercial artistic world. Next to that, it covers the changes forthcoming in release 2.50 and what that means to the end-user.

No Blender Tutorial

Unfortunately there’s no Blender tutorial in this issue (Andy wrote Blender tutorals and articles some time ago). As always though, the issue is chock-full tips and tricks that aren’t tied to any specific application, and could be used on Blender.

CD Content

The CD contains an impressive amount of hi-polygon models, to be used at your discretion.