Month: March 2008

180° flips with and without help

The last two days I went skiing (well, actually snowboarding) with a friend with which I haven't before and learned some new tricks. Now 180° turns aren't a problem. First the training started with doing (trying to do) turns without jumps (this is really exhausting because a jump alleviates the whole thing - rises you in the air), then little by little I started testing steep jumps with low speed (rises you high without being fast) and it worked.

Some of the turns (when riding on the back edge of the board) can be done in an easier manner when part of it is touching the snow while turning - it looks like doing half a circle. This way if there's some unevenness it can be used to help lift the board.

The whole thing took a lot more energy than usual, because of all the jumping and falling down. Now I have muscle aches all over my body, but it was worth it.

There are no pictures because it's hard to take some with two pairs of gloves and wrist-protectors in the middle.

Some Google services do not work today (in firefox only?!)

Since yesterday there are problems connecting to Google:

Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=152ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=150ms TTL=9
Request timed out.
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=152ms TTL=9
Request timed out.
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=150ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=151ms TTL=9
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=150ms TTL=9

There are time-outs connecting even from the states.

Really strange. Search and Calendar work fine, Gmail does not even load:

Loading…
This seems to be taking longer than usual.
...

Google reader does not load.

It all on periods - it works, it doesn't, ...

Update: Gmail, calendar work in IE, they do not in firefox - no idea.
A friend experieces the same issues but with different services (Docs)...

dasBlog, medium trust and pingbacks

I had an issue for quite a while with pingbacks in dasBlog:

Error:
System.Security.SecurityException:
Request for the permission of type 'System.Net.WebPermission, ...
failed.

at ...
at newtelligence.DasBlog.Runtime.Proxies.WeblogUpdatesClientProxy.Ping(String weblogName, String weblogUrl)

at newtelligence.DasBlog.Runtime.BlogDataServiceXml.PingWeblogsWorker(Object argument)

The action that failed was:

Demand

The type of the first permission that failed was:

System.Net.WebPermission

It comes up that medium trust allows opening connections only to originHost (I guess localhost).

Here's how I solved it:

go to

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\{version}\CONFIG\web_mediumtrust.config

and find

<IPermission class="WebPermission" ...

and add some additional URIs:

<IPermission
    class="WebPermission"
    version="1">

    <ConnectAccess>
        <URI uri="$OriginHost$"/>
            <!-- [Mihail Stoynov] dasBlog needs it for pingbacks START -->
            <URI uri="http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2"/>
            <URI uri="http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping"/>
            <URI uri="http://ping.blo.gs/"/>
            <URI uri="http://rpc.pingomatic.com/"/>
            <URI uri="http://ping.feedburner.com"/>
            <URI uri="http://api.feedster.com/ping"/>
            <URI uri="http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/"/>
            <URI uri="http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2"/>
            <!-- [Mihail Stoynov] dasBlog needs it for pingbacks END -->
        </ConnectAccess>
</IPermission>

These addresses were in %dasBlog%\SiteConfig\WebServices.xml

Stunning change (Laptop overheating, part II)

I had some free time today (just trying to avoid studying) so I decided to dismantle my laptop (due to heating problems).

With some help from my roommate (a lot more experienced than me in that area) I finally found the screw that stopped me the last few times and opened it.

Everything was fine until I settled my eyes on the fan. But first to explain - the fan gets fresh air from beneath it and blows it through a radiator. The radiator itself is connected with a heat pipe to the processor, graphics card and some other stuff. So back to the story - I'm seeing the radiator and the fan and between them I see a "block" of dirt - it was like a chocolate bar - thick and shaped like a rectangle. (Sadly enough I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures).

So after an hour of cleaning and few attempts of assembling it (one of the times nearly until the end until I saw the fan standing outside), we tried it.

Amazing.

The temperatures before the cleaning:

The processor:
65-85 depending on the usage and access to fresh air (being on a couch for example)

Graphics card
65-80 depending on the usage and access to fresh air

HDD
No thermometer, but generally quite hot.

After the cleaning:

The processor
40-55 The fan doesn't even start, but when it does start it could drop it to 39 (previously a number I could only dream for)

Graphics card
~55; After I watch a movie I could say more.

HDD
mild to warm

I'm having ~20 degrees drop in temperatures.

That's amazing. It was undreamed of.

Update: pictures of the dirt in the radiators:

  
 

Spell checking software for MS Office 2007 (for Bulgarian language)

Look at this:

The message boxes are from a software that's supposed to be a spell-checker for Bulgarian.

Can this software fail at displaying Bulgarian characters?

The software is called Cyrilla Correct 2007 - it is intended for MS Office 2007 and this is a clean install of the trial version. This happens on first use.

A crap, I'm disappointed. And this is supposed to be the best thing on the market.

Does anybody know anything better? (Something that would work as seamlessly as Firefox's spell checker)