The Crow

Recommended Listening: “To Infinity” by missFlag

In the “Recommended Listening” series on this blog I will write about bands and albums that are not too well-known but deserve more attention. Don’t expect elaborate reviews but short and to-the-point descriptions and characteristics of the bands and their music.

The first album I would like to present to you is the album “To Infinity” by missFlag: an alternative-rock-pop band from Jerusalem, Israel. I stumbled upon this band when browsing artists on MySpace and I immediately liked their sound. I ordered their album “To Infinity” right away and it has been a keeper ever since. Their style is related to Coldplay and Keane but these guys have definitely their own sound and quality that distinguishes them easily from both bands.

Continue reading Recommended Listening: “To Infinity” by missFlag

How to Hard Reset the HTC Desire – Know Your Cell

I am very happy with my HTC Desire. That is, until the next super-duper-extra-special-mega-fantastic model comes out that I must have. In that case, this URL can come in handy to reset and clear my phone.

Link : Know Your Cell – How to hard reset the HTC Desire

A Detailed Opinion Piece on the Oracle vs. Google Lawsuit

People who are following the news on the big tech companies may have heard already about Oracle’s patent lawsuit against Google Android. I have read quite a few articles and blog posts on this subject and shared quite a few on my Twitter page in the last week.

One post by Daniel Eran Dilger on RouglyDrafted.com deserves special attention in my opinion. He knows what he is talking about when he carefully dissects every aspect of the lawsuit, the history of Google’s Android, the talks between Google and Sun, Apple’s and Microsoft’s position and lots more angles. Daniel explains everything in such a way that anyone is able to understand what’s happening. And if you want to know more details and delve deeper, then you can follow the links that are scattered around in the text.

Getting Rickrolled on Last.fm

In an earlier post I mentioned a blog post I found with tips on getting more productive and to focus better on the task you want (or have) to do. One of the tips in the article is to listen to lyric-free music so the lyrics won’t distract you. I figured that listening to some death metal qualifies as well since I don’t understand any of the lyrics these guys are singing, grunting or shouting.

So I fired up my Last.fm player and selected the genre “Brutal Death Metal” to have some background noise while banging away on the keyboard to get some work done. You can imagine my surprise when after about 30 minutes I suddenly heard the intro of “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. What. The. F*?|<!

See the screenshot below and notice the station.

Nice one, guys! 🙂

Two Important Reasons Why Android Developers Are Losing Money

In my previous post I asked your attention for Loic Le Meur’s opinion on what an average app developer can earn. The conclusion of that story is that for the majority of developers it’s not profitable enough (yet) to live from app development only. (For his detailed analysis, please refer to my previous post.)

Within 24 hours I stumbled upon a post at Royal Pingdom that is even more bad news for app developers. This time it is focused on the Android platform. According to the post, piracy levels are very high on the platform. But this is not the most important the Android developers are losing money.

Loic Le Meur’s Take on App Developer Earnings

People who are familiar with Seesmic, a company that is specialized in creating third party clients for Twitter, may have stumbled upon the name Loic Le Meur, the founder of Seesmic. Because Seesmic creates apps for all kinds of platforms, both desktop and mobile, I think that his opinion matters on this subject.

Recommended reading! (And don’t forget to check the comments for opinions of other people that operate in this business.)

Amplify’d from www.loiclemeur.com

How much can you really make developing mobile apps?

There is a huge buzz around mobile applications and app stores such as the AppStore and the Android Market which look more and more as a new Eldorado. Of course everybody starts dreaming when an app like Angry Birds shares that 6.5 million units have been sold generating $4.5 million for the developers after Apple’s cut. But how many Angry Birds are there?

Read more at www.loiclemeur.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/8rmp

TeamViewer: My Program of Choice for Remote Access

Ever needed to connect to a different PC in your network for a remote session or to transfer some files? Or wished you could control the computer of a family member over the Internet without too much fuss because they called you for the umpteenth time for your much needed support? There are numerous applications to choose from that can support you doing these kind of tasks. One of them is TeamViewer, and I like it very much. It runs on all the major platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and even on your iPhone or iPad.

Continue reading TeamViewer: My Program of Choice for Remote Access

Tips for Better Productivity and Training to Focus

“How to Focus” is an interesting article with useful tips to help you focus better and train to lengthen your attention span.

Now everyone close your Twitter clients, shutdown your email, disconnect that second monitor and get to work!

Amplify’d from infovegan.com

Continue reading Tips for Better Productivity and Training to Focus

Tips for Loyal Windows XP Users That Want to Stick with This OS for As Long As Possible

I was in the same camp actually as the audience this article is addressed to. My current opinion is: move to Windows 7 as soon as you can.

Or buy a Mac… 😉

Microsoft’s support for Windows XP may be fading, but a loyal horde of XP users plans to stick with this venerable OS for as long as possible.

If that’s your long-term goal, there are a number of steps you can take now to ensure a finely tuned XP system for months — possibly years — to come.

Link : Windows Secrets – Preparing Windows XP for the long haul

Reading on an iPad: My Experiences

A couple of weeks ago I became the happy owner of an iPad. One of the many ways to use an iPad is for reading. Electronic books, web pages, PDF files, Word documents, you name it. It is all possible with the help of a couple of apps. In this blog post I will discuss my experiences I had with reading on an iPad. I will focus on reading bigger documents like e-books and PDF files.

The apps I have been using the last few weeks for reading are iBooks (which is installed on your iPad as a default app), Kindle for iPad and GoodReader for iPad. I’ve been using the first two for reading e-books and GoodReader for reading PDF documents and Word documents.

Continue reading Reading on an iPad: My Experiences

DVD/BD Review – Porcupine Tree in Great Shape on “Anesthetize”

Porcupine Tree – Anesthetize – DVD/Blu-ray Disc (2010)

In the past few years I have seen Porcupine Tree perform five times. One of these shows was the show in 013 in Tilburg (Netherlands) that took place on October 15th, 2008. At the beginning of that show the announcement was made that the show would be recorded for a future release on DVD. Lucky me!

“Anesthetize” is the second official DVD release by Porcupine Tree: the progressive rock outfit led by versatile and productive musician/producer Steven Wilson. The concert film is in fact a mix of the recordings of two nights: October 15th and 16th, both recorded at 013.

Strangely enough the band decided to release the DVD more than half a year after their latest album “The Incident”, which was released in September 2009. Usually the pattern is that a DVD is released right after the tour that takes place in support of an album, which was in this case “Fear of a Blank Planet”. For some reason unknown to me the band decided to ignore this pattern.

Continue reading DVD/BD Review – Porcupine Tree in Great Shape on “Anesthetize”

My Favorite Alternative Twitter Clients on the Web

As you may know there are dozens, maybe even hundreds of Twitter clients available. Lots of them work on the desktop and need to be downloaded and installed. Tweetdeck is a very popular example of a desktop client. (Tweetdeck also offers versions of their client for the iPhone and the iPad.) I prefer using an alternative webclient for Twitter though that offers more functionality than the standard Twitter webpage. Advantages are that I don’t have to install anything on the computer I am using and that my settings are remembered and stored with my account that I have created for the webclient. Some of the webclients don’t even need separate accounts and only need you to login with your Twitter account to be able to work with them.

In this post I give you an overview of my favorite alternative webclients for Twitter. Please note that this post does not give you an exhaustive list and details of all the features of the webclients. I have tried to focus on the most important aspects and features that are in my opinion interesting to the user. For more information on a services, please visit their websites.
Continue reading My Favorite Alternative Twitter Clients on the Web

Getting an iPad on Launch Day in the Netherlands Not Hard At All

Today Apple launched the iPad in seven countries including the Netherlands, the country where I live. As a person who likes gadgets I was looking forward to getting an iPad myself. But I would never have thought that I would hold one in my hands on launch day.

In the morning various news sites on the Internet talked about long lines at the doors of the Apple stores and other official Apple resellers like MediaMarkt. But around noon, Dutch site Bright mentioned that numerous stores still had a lot of iPads in stock. So I decided to drive to Amsterdam to try and get one. It turned out that Bright was right: the store where I bought my iPad had dozens in stock. iPads of every type were still available. And I didn’t even have to get in line to get one! Lucky me!

Now if you will please excuse me. I have some apps to check out…! 😉

A New Beginning

The idea for me to start a blog is definitely not new. A dear friend and co-worker of mine, Patrick Barel, knows what I am talking about. I think I talked with him about this at least five years ago. At that time we maintained a site called OracleDeveloper.nl (which is out of service now unfortunately). On that site I was actively writing message about Oracle-related news and technologies. After doing this for a couple of years I realized that I was actually blogging. That was the first time I was thinking about starting a blog.

Continue reading A New Beginning

Revisited: Dream Theater’s Images and Words 15th Anniversary Performance

When I picked up my mail from my mailbox last Friday I was pleasantly surprised to find a package from Voices UK, the UK based Dream Theater fanclub. Since the previous issue was sent to me more than a year ago I thought that they had stopped existing or had totally forgotten about me.

As soon as I stepped into my apartment I ripped open the envelope and I found a brand new fanclub CD inside and the new issue or the fanzine. When I checked the label of the CD I just could not believe my eyes. The CD contained the 15th anniversary performance of the Images and Words album which I attended last year in Bonn, Germany. I jumped with joy! Wow! Fantastic! What a great souvenir of this fantastic concert!

Because it was already late I decided to give the CD a spin on Saturday. I played it at concert sound level and I loved it from start to finish! The sound quality of this fanclub CD is great and the performance is very good, just as I described last year in my review of the event.

What a great way to start the weekend!

(Originally posted on my Last.fm journal)