Blog

  • FireSync

    Just an hour ago or so I tried to set up a backup to my NAS for some of my folders. I found the tool FireSync and its description sounded promising. I tried to find some reviews but since it has been published just today. So I gave it a shot.

    I should have been more careful and try out the backup in a dummy folder, not my main application collection. During the first run of the backup there was an error that "Disk is full" at the backup source. As if that’s not strange enough a retry just found 4 or so changed files. Hm… After some moments I checked back the source folders. The folders were still present, but not the files which were contained within them. WTF? I made sure I didn’t check the "delete after sync" checkbox and it wasn’t. Nevertheless, the files were gone.

    Currently I’m busy with recovering the deleted files with NTFS Undelete. So far everything looks good and it seems that I can restore all of my files.

    So, if you ever want to try out the backup/sync tool FireSync, test it out in a dummy directory.

  • Yes, we can!

    The dream and wishes of so many people all around the world now finally paid off.

    Obama is the 44th president of the united states

    Light in the dark

  • Codelist for the universal remote MD 41666

    Just because I’ve been searching for it quite some time, here is a link where the codelist for the Medion universal programmable remote control MD 41666 is available as download.

    http://www.chrisgott.com/medion_41666.php

  • Stressful time

    Yes, the promised additional photos are still lacking presence. Yes, there are still blog-updates happening every two to three weeks. Yes, I know.

    Sorry for that. I’ve been trying to keep up with work and the stuff we have to do this semester for the university. This time we’ve got a project assignment in almost every subject also with some quit tight schedules.

    Also at work there have been some interesting changes as we have made significant changes to our Scrum development process. We changed the teams completely and also mixed up all of the upcoming tasks which means that the new teams have to adopt to the new areas they’re working on now. But so far I think it works even better than expected and we’re producing results faster than we hoped. I’m quite positive that this will advance even more in the near future. Exciting times ahead…

    What has been some sort of a setback in the last weeks were some expenses I had to take for my car. A big regular maintenance, some rust removal (rust has been no surprise but the amount was unexpected) and a change of my handlebars. New winter tires were also necessary. Bye bye, last months salary 🙁 At least it’s cheaper than having to purchase a new car (with more unexpected sidecosts) and I’m dependent on being mobile. But I think my car is now prepared for some more years to come.

  • Metroid SR388 website up

    Finally! After some delay the website for Metroid SR388 is up and available. vonRichter announced it on his (now deprecated?) blog. Currently the website contains only few new information but more is announced and can be expected.

    Furthermore, vonRichter has given a target date for the first playable demo of Metroid SR388: November 1st.

    It’s really hard to wait for the time to go by…

  • As promised: Holiday photos

    As promised I’ve begun to sort and upload photos from our holiday in Egypt. You can view the photos in my Egypt photoset.

    This photoset is not yet completed, so check back from time to time. Maybe there are additional pictures uploaded 🙂

    Nicely carved melon

  • Back from the holiday

    Yes, it has been quite some time since my last posting. Almost a month, what has happened in the meantime? Well, most importantly we have been on our holiday. We spent ten days in a Magic Life resort at the coast of the Red Sea in Egypt, namely the "Kalawy Imperial". The time there was great and you may expect some pictures and more soon.

  • How mobile provider A1 pulls the money out of your pocket…

    Some time ago I received a short message on my mobile where I was offered to extend my binding to A1 (my mobile provider) for another period and receive some credits for that. At that time I did as I was told in the message and answered with "Yes" via SMS.

    Last month I got the bill from A1 with a ridiculous amount of payment and immediately called the call center. There I was told that my contract was canceled because I didn’t extend it back when I was notified. The lady on the other side of the phone said, that I had received a notification that my contract was exceeding via short message on my phone and that I didn’t respond to that. So my old contract was converted into a standard contract. When I responded to the lady that I indeed did answer the SMS to extend my contract she replied that I either had to call into the callcenter for that or send a response by mail, not by SMS.

    After a bit of back and forward between the callcenter agent and me I became stressed out and agreed to add some options to my new contract and lower my costs. It was impossible to return to my old contract as it had already been canceled and a new similar offer is limited by customer age (youth tariff) so this was also ruled out for me.

    What still bugs me is, that I opted out of receiving account-critical notifications from my provider via electronic communication and still my contract change was only announced via SMS. Also, the conversion of my contract was not stated anywhere and if I didn’t have a look at the payment amount on my bill I wouldn’t have noticed.

    The call center agent was quite friendly and can’t be blamed for how its employer treats customers which are not part of the majority customer base where cash margins are already quite slim so that it has to try everything to press money out of the minority of customers with nonstandard conditions. I’m still with A1 because I doubt that the other providers will treat customers differently. After all it’s the same market with the same conditions for those companies…

    Lesson learned: If you receive any notification about your account from your provider, even if you have told him NOT to notify you over this channel, call the callcenter and check back.

  • Stressing

    Yes, it’s been again quite a while since my last posting. What has happened in the meantime? My term at the university is over, I had the last two exams for which I learned quite a lot and for some of which the results are still not available. After the last exam we had a BBQ with our study-colleagues which was quite nice and lasted all night long. Stayed overnight in a tend there… At work I’ve been the replacement for my group leader and so had more stuff to do and organize than usual. This has been challenging as in terms of know-how I’m still not experienced enough in the area so that I could replace my colleague completely. And last weekend my brother celebrated his 25th birthday with three other people who grew 25. We were invited to a remote location to stay overnight, eat, drink and have fun. It was a great place there although until we were able to find it we had to ask for the way and survive lightning, thunder, extreme rain and hailstorms. Sadly my darling had to fight with tooth-problems for some days already and couldn’t enjoy the party 🙁

    And between all that I’ve been attending a Swedish-course. It’s interesting to learn that language but with so little time it’s really a rarity when I’m home and the sun still shines. Most of the time we don’t even eat at home, but on the way and when we arrive home it’s already bed-time. Quite some stuff at home which waits to be done at some time.

    I really should try to get more sleep…

  • Full retro ahead

    After last weekends exams I had some time to spend on my Wii. Besides giving Super Smash Brothers Brawl a try, which ended with a mixed impression as I didn’t read the manual and was overwhelmed by the different game-modes and moves, I also installed the Homebrew Channel and added ScummVM and Snes9X.

    I spent a few relaxing hours with some of the LucasArts games (especially DOTT). As I have also read that Chrono Trigger will be rereleased for the Nintendo DS this winter and that Mega Man 9 will find its way to the Wii this fall, I’ve also played a few hours of SNES Chrono Trigger.

    Now if just Metroid SR388 could give me a bit more than this outdated trailer or this more recent anti-spoiler… my joy would be perfect 🙂

    Update And a new Mega Man 9 Trailer is out… I think I feel young again 🙂