Attention-grabbing paraphernalia

Lets cut the ribbon!

Alexander Jansen — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:40:09 +0000

Hello all!

Well, I’ve been trying to get this blog-thingy sorted out for me. I’ve tried to be abit creative in many ways when writing. I have lots of things going through my mind 24/7, but then again; It’s hard to get something down on the “paper” (Keyboard?).

But today I finally had a moment of zen (Or opertunity.) when getting some ideas whilst having an conversation with an old school-mate.

So therefor I am hereby going to start blogging REGULARLY, and I promiss that I will plunder and reflect upon whatever might be current at the time.

So fortunatly you, the visitor, will be checking back! I surly will have some cool stuff to post (Not only boring gibberish!) and I’m sure there is plenty enough for every single one of you.

So, therefor – I cut the red ribbon, and I announce this blog to be “open” !

Sincerely,

Alexander Jansen

Xbox-fans, it helped to pray!

Alexander Jansen — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:53:10 +0000

This is a brand new feature I've decided to start with. The "Pick the of week!". A little newsflash from my own point of interests. This time it's all about the new features of the Xbox 360. I own one, and I can't wait to see the new stuff in action!

The E3 might not be the same as it was two years ago, but the news sure aint lacking! Check out this HUGE list of new GREAT things to come in the autumn of 2008. Finally the Xbox 360 will support higher resolution for gamers playing on a computer-screen (As in achieving 1440×900 and 1680×1050, and support for 16X10 via VGA og HDMI. This is huge news!

New menu-system, buy and download movies and games DIRECTLY to your xbox, so you dont need to listen to the damn noise it makes whilst having the cd spin at full strength!

Take a look of the official press-release from Microsoft:

Xbox 360 releases over 125 new features to enhance next-generation gameplay and entertainment

NEW FEATURES

“Download manager” – Marketplace items now download in the background, queue up to six pieces of content
DVD bookmark support will remember the film’s timing and location when resuming viewing
Fast-forward and rewind now offered at 2x -16x for any videos saved to hard drive
“Boot to Dashboard” setting will bypass the loading of any disc in the drive and open directly to Dashboard during power-on
Begin slideshows from any photo
Music player saves “shuffle” setting
Much player save “repeat” setting
Music player now displays which file is currently playing in the playlist
Music volume level persists between game / reboots
8 new locales added (Chile, Brazil, India, South Africa, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia)
Separate settings now offered for Game and User volume controls
Themes can now be set from the “System” blade on the Dashboard
User-selected music continues play when switching from Dashboard to game or game to Dashboard
“All Arcade Games” added as a selection in the Xbox Live Arcade area
Personal gamer pictures allowed as Gamertiles – displayed only to those on your Friends List
Added support to disable sound effects when navigating Dashboard
Instantaneous “Change Theme” option added upon downloading new Dashboard themes
Preserve folder structure of source when viewing photos
A / B labels now provided to identify memory units in Dashboard
Online status set to “Away” when screensaver becomes active

SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS

DVD Player

Improved audio/video sync after extended pauses
Improved visual quality
DVD player outputs at native resolution over VGA connection
Improved playback smoothness
Improved fast-forward and rewind smoothness
DVD play continues to attempt to read a disc after “disc read” error
DVD play à Pause à Play jitter / out of synch issues improved
DVD play à Slow Play à Play jitter / out of synch issues improved
Repaired issues with missing menu selection icon from DVD disc menu for certain films
Improved Xbox 360 Guide efficiency during certain films
Repaired playback stutter during certain films

Music Player

Player now populates music data (Title, Artist, etc.) when no track information is available
User music is now pauses, instead of stopping, when games override user-selected background music
Selecting an artist’s album no longer displays albums for all artists
Improved performance when retrieving playlists from a Windows Media connection
List music tracks in track-order when viewing albums by specific artist
Unified music controls for music player in Dashboard and pop-up Guide
Improved playback for Mono AAC-encoded files
Improved connection timing between console and CD database over Internet
Player no longer allows hard-drive selection when no hard-drive is connected
Removed handling of MTP/USB devices when playing music from them more robust
Improved error codes / messaging associated with unplayable content

Localization Improvements

Fixed partially truncated strings in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian
Korean clock / date format corrected after initial set-up
Fixed system hang when changing the language of the console immediately after signing out
Korean virtual keyboard “down” navigation now works for lower-right button
Korean virtual keyboard caps disabled for input mode
Fixed overlapping characters for pre-paid Gold membership card (Japanese localization)
Removed extra spaces in several translated words (French localization)
PC name displayed properly when containing Japanese characters
Support single apostrophe character for Japanese virtual keyboard

Memory Area Improvements

Streamlined selection – no profile selection required
Improved overall performance, allowing quicker access to content
Improved content views including name, file type, size, profile owner and location
Faster identification of file types and fewer steps for actions such as copy, move, delete, etc.
Capacity (or percentage-full) of storage device now consistent between select-a-device and storage scenes
Device selection now shown on each screen to improve usability

Miscellaneous System Improvements

Time elapsed now displayed when playing music files
Enhanced categorization of media library
Accelerated scrolling of large music lists
New “shuffle” icon
Repeat / Shuffle icon now operates as toggle button
Default button for manual IP address is now “A” instead of “Done”
Hidden and system folders are no longer displayed from MTP / mass storage devices
Difficulty levels for gamer profiles ordered correctly
Added additional line and word-wrap to “Publisher” in video area
Shuffle / Random no longer skips last image in list when viewing photos
Improved handling of Friend Requests between Gamertags that have changed names
No longer asked “Exist to Dash?” when switching between areas in the Dashboard
New error messages for when Windows Live ID requires password change
Unlocked Achievements now displayed first in Game Summary page
Selecting an Achievement now shows the specific Achievement details
Updated messaging for deleting arcade games purchased by different profiles
No longer launch music CD in disc-tray when moving from Live sign-up to Dashboard or Network Troubleshooter
Improved voice quality when connected through wired gamepad
Show “Last Played Game” selection in Xbox Live Arcade first before enumerating all games (when Arcade game was last game played)
Improved performance of picture enumeration from iPods formatted for Mac
Adopt latest updates to Cero-based ratings for Family Settings
Show videos downloaded from Marketplace in the Video area of the Media blade
Improved usability around “Play Now” when downloading demos, trailers and videos
Added support for South Africa-specific Family Settings
Updated support for Japanese game ratings
Video area changed to include game trailers and entertainment videos
Improved robustness of Gamerscore when doing account recoveries
Improved messaging around handling corrupt or non-fully recovered profiles
Improved download performance for popular content being downloaded through Marketplace
Total USB keyboard support
Testing Live connection while streaming music from PC works correctly
Next item / Focus sound not played when scrolling past the bottom of the video list
Handle profiles on memory units inserted into system while enumerating profiles from other storage locations
Warning / Alert icons now show as part of deleting items in Memory area
Repeat rate for remote control matches game controller repeat rate
“A” button disabled when in a list with no items available
Wireless battery level added to mini-pop-up guide over backward-compatible games
Pop-up guide / Dashboard now supports USB keyboard
Console no longer enters “charge” mode when shutdown and the battery has been removed from wireless controller
System no longer waits indefinitely when attempting to contact Windows Media Connect service on XP PC
Improved Marketplace storage device selector
Correctly set focus on selected item when back button pressed on “select a game” scene
Notify users when multiple wireless SSIDS with identical names are within reach
Provide Gold membership information when trying to join a session or accepting game invites with Silver accounts
New text to highlight the ability to clear the passcode for Live account signing
Photo slideshow no longer resumes when pressing “previous” or “next” from paused state
Improved handling of corrupt profiles when deleting them
No longer turn off wireless gamepads after system update reboot
More robust handling of initial setup experience for memory unit users
Improved handling of backward-compatible update experience, reboot back into Xbox v1 environment instead of Dashboard
Improved handling for “block communications” from other players
Improved keypress sounds when using USB keyboard
Improved usability and performance of content enumeration for storage devices
Show visual location for where Xbox Live Arcade games reside
Improved user messaging when overwriting content while copying
Improved consistency of messaging between “sign out” and “switch profile”
Updated troubleshooter text for connection to Windows PC’s joined to domain
Better support for Xbox 360 game disc recognition
Improved initial setup text messaging
Improved overall error message terminology
Game updates downloaded to memory unit no longer show “please reinsert” notification when memory unit removed
More robust support for handling game deletes from memory unit and simultaneously removing memory unit
Improved system performance between console and affiliated Windows Media Connect PC

Logo for the blog ready!

Alexander Jansen — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:24:19 +0000

Finally starting to get my computer back to normal after the formating it! So, I launched photoshop and made a neat (quick) logo for the site.

Check it out:

Jeff Dunham – Ventriloquist like none other!

Alexander Jansen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:59:53 +0000

Jeff Dunham is probably one of the funniest ventriloquists I’ve ever seen! There’s no doubt you should check this guy out.

Jeff and Peanut.

The well-known Achmed The dead terrorist!

Jeff and Bubba J

Jeff and Walter.

Navy ship with radars + microwave popcorn = Hilarious

Alexander Jansen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:17:16 +0000

This is a must-read. A really hilarious story about a guy that worked on a Navy ship!

Check it out here HERE

Your daily dose of design-related links.

Alexander Jansen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:55:39 +0000

If you’re either a photoshop-user, fan of keeping your computer stylish or maybe you like art in general?

Then click “Read More” ! Over 40 icon-sets! Truly awesome.

“Better fonts” – LOTS of awesome fonts for your next project!

Sxc.hu – Free stock-images!

Incredible selection of photoshop brushes.

23 incredible photoshop tutorials.

Enjoy, and don’t forget to post your work!

QOTD & JOTD #2

Alexander Jansen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:43:53 +0000

QOTD:

“ Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. ”

Judy Garland

JOTD:

A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the
ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!" The woman goes to the rear of
the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The
driver just insulted me!" The man says: "You go right up there and tell
him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you."

If you got a strong stomach..

Alexander Jansen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:29:40 +0000

I found a picture-series, featuring probably one of the last on this earth to practice the Chinese secret way to a happy marriage;

From wikipedia:

Foot binding (literally “bound feet”) was a custom practiced on young girls or females for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century.

According to a study conducted by the University of California at San Francisco, “As the practice waned, some girls’ feet were released after initial binding, leaving less severe deformities.” Some effects of foot binding are permanent. In the 1990s and 2000s some elderly Chinese women still suffered from disabilities related to bound feet.

The custom is commonly cited by sociologists and anthropologists as an example where an extreme deformity (by the standards of both contemporary societies and from a medical viewpoint) can be viewed as beauty, and also where immense human suffering can be inflicted in the pursuit of a beauty standard.

Click “Read More” for pictures.

Deezer – Free music

Alexander Jansen — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:03:11 +0000

Sometimes you might get the lust to listen to some rock-classics from the ’80′s or maybe the new Britney-song (Guess not.).

Well, anyways, the best place to do such a thing would be to use Deezer.com.

They have a HUGE selection of songs, recommended songs, playlists and such!

And you probably will find artists there, that you wouldn’t have found other places.

Apple-fans, you might experience a stroke now.

Alexander Jansen — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:41:23 +0000

Found this great site, called the TechEBlog.com. They recently featured a “Ultimate Mac setup”-article. Some really sick stuff there, that’s worth a check!

I’m so jealous.

Check more out here.