Annoying Google Chrome “Sync Error”

For a while, a “Sync Error” message has been sitting on my Google Chrome browser. I haven’t had the time to do anything about it till now. So, when I clicked on “Sync Error”, it took me to “Personal Stuff” in “Options”. I entered in my password and waited.

And waited….

And waited some more….

You get the picture. Nothing was happening. The little Ajax loader graphic was spinning but, that was it. I solved this by clicking on the button “Stop syncing this account…”, then I pressed the “Stop syncing” button in the “Stop syncing this account” pop up window and lastly clicking on the “Set up sync” button and entering my log in information.

A little stupid and annoying but, at least it works again.

Topfield .Rec Files – Two Useful Tools

I own a Topfield 500 PVR hybrid (cable/terrestrial). The machine comes with a 320GB hard drive. When a TV show or movie is recorded, it saves a file in .REC format. Which is, in my experience, a little difficult to work with. You can watch these files using VLC but, if you want to watch them somewhere other than your computer… enter in these two tools: rec2mpg and TFRecToTs. 

Rockstar “Announces” Grand Theft Auto V

With trailer coming at the beginning of November. Anyone want to take a stab at what it’s going to be about? Personally, I would like to see a return to San Andreas with CJ and the gang. But, that’s just one man’s opinion.

Oh, and satellite radio with Vladivostok FM on it! 😀

“Always Online” DRM… When Men Cry Like Babies

A little over a week ago, several executives with GSC Game World – including Sergei Grigorovich mentioned that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will have the “always online” DRM scheme. All hell broke loose. GSC Game World then tweeted that the scheme was only mentioned as a “possibility”. With the scare of this DRM scheme gone, we all can look forward to purchasing and enjoying the next chapter in the Zone.

HTML5/CSS 3 Test Page Update Adventures

Been doing some updating to my HTML5/CSS 3 test page lately. I added Mobile Opera (as of this post – version 11) to the test list. Mobile Opera is now my default browser on my n900. It’s a real joy to use. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support contenteditable – which would be really nice if it did. I have Maemo’s browser and Mobile Firefox on there. I would be using FF but it’s painfully slow – like splinter in the eye death slow (NSFW) from Lucio Fulci’s Zombie (it’s October, that’s means it’s Halloween time!).

MOL.fi’s CV-Netti “Julkaiseaika” Issue Part 2

An attempted rebranding? They should redesign the CV-Netti application first.

So, the other day I was in the local employment office (työkkäri/työvoimatoimisto). While we were talking with a rep. she looked at my online CV which is listed on MOL.fi’s CV-Netti system. She showed us that an alert window had popped up saying that my CV was not published (offline, unsearchable to potential employers). The problem was that I renewed my CV’s “Julkaiseaika” (online publish time) the week before. This is mandatory for everyone looking for a job and receiving unemployment money. If this is not done, you could lose your money for two months. This is something that I cannot afford to have happen to me.

I was angry and I did not understand why this had happened. When I came home, I looked at my CV and sure enough, the fields to list “Julkaiseaika” were blank. So, how did this happen? I figured it out real quick.

“Evermore? … Evermore?” What Happened To Erin Evermore?

Update (09.03.2016)

Well it looks like she did move on to other things. Thanks to commenter Kenn Guilstorf for for doing what I should have had the brain power to do myself. Erin’s a photography and makeup blogger now and you can see what she does at www.erinevermore.net. And hey… she likes Game of Thrones, Dragon Age and Tomb Raider! Female rockers (former in this case) who game are tops. Like Cristina Scabbia.

Erin Evermore! Represent! Rock on. \m/

Original post

This is a rather off-topic posting for my blog. Who is Erin Evermore you ask? I digress…

I have a one-year old daughter who I give nightly baths. I bring my iPod Touch and we listen to music while bathing. I decided to select Erin Evermore’s music. So, it got me thinking, what happened to Erin Evermore?

Using Technology To Protect Your Rights

We are in the six month of 2011. Within the last year, we have seen social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook being used to help organize and inform others of mass protests against regimes in the Middle East. Dubbed the “Arab Spring”, these protests have taken down several regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. These movements have also turned violent as other Middle Eastern autocrats refuse to let go of power and have turned their armies and internal security forces on their own people. There is internationally backed (disputed) armed rebellion [civil war] in Libya. Meanwhile in Syria, citizens are being slaughtered and tortured for protesting and gathering in public (i.e. funerals). It’s citizens are being chased into Turkey and Lebanon. In Bahrain (home to the United States’ 5th Fleet), mass protests have sprung up several times resulting in violent crackdowns, mass arrests of participants and the hospital workers treating the victims and show trials.

Also in use during the turbulent times around the globe, mobile phones. Not only are mobile phones good for sending mass text messages, informing people of protests, they have also become the electronic eye – showing the rest of us what people are witnessing and experiencing themselves. Video recorded via mobile phone has become the proof that we all need to see in order for us to wake up and say to ourselves, “What the hell is going on in this world?” (You can see Al Jazeera’s collection of video from Syria here)

Changing Your YouTube.com Interface Language

For a while now, I have been incredibly annoyed with how YouTube.com automatically displays the user interface in a certain language. What makes this even worse is that you cannot change the setting anywhere in your YouTube.com profile settings. I thought that this was because detected the country that I live in (Finland) – a noobish mistake on my part. While I can speak a bit of Finnish, and read even more, it takes me a lot more time to read each word carefully so I fully understand what is written.

HTML5 Part 5: Forms

In the years since I started web development, my use of Forms has evolved from writing a simple email form to making a complicated Resume/CV form driven by JavaScript, AJAX and PHP. When making forms, the one thing we always have to remember is that we developers are the ones pointing the users in the right direction. Forms give us the tools to create a good user experience while making sure that the user stays on the right track.

Unfortunately, when validating forms, we had to rely on using JavaScript and/or a server-side script. However, HTML5 Forms have built-in validation tools which do not require scripting. But, don’t get too excited, you will still have to write some scripts to validate some things.