Got tired of the Mac-look

I got a bit tired of the Mac look.

So I completely changed the look of my desktop.

• I switched to Cairo dock
• I started using Emerald theme manager. This enables you to modify the window borders exactly how you want them to be. In my case partly transparent for the active window, fully transparent for inactive windows.
• Icons are Faenza.

A lot of Windows users

By the way: I was just checking the visitor stats. Many Windows and IE users. Did I convince any of you ti try Ubuntu or XBMC? Pageviews by Browsers

Internet Explorer (65%) Firefox (26%) Safari (3%) Chrome (2%) Opera (1%) (FlipboardProxy (<1%) Mobile (<1%) PicMorphSearchToolbar (<1%) Ubuntu (<1%)

Pageviews by Operating Systems

Windows (79%) Other Unix (15%) Linux (2%) Macintosh (1%) BlackBerry (<1%) Nokia (<1%) iPhone (<1%)

Choppy playback XBMC solved

A couple of weeks ago I switched from an internal HDD in my HTPC to a NAS.

Some time ago the HDD in my HTPC broke down (it was a WD 2TB EcoGreen disk). I replaced it with a Seagate 2TB drive. But even though I backed up all of my photos and music and most of my movies it was still a lot of work (and time) to copy everything from the USB drive to the (new) internal HDD.

So I decided to get a NAS with two 2TB HDD's in RAID1 configuration. I chose the Synology ds211.
I read some positive reviews on the dutch site tweakers.net (these reviews are for the DS211J). I chose the DS211 because of the slightly faster processor and more RAM.

Especially the many possibilities that the included software offers is a big PRO (among other things: newsgroup downloads, torrent downloads). Another big improvement is the low power usage: 22W when both discs are spinning, 10W when both discs are idle.

But that isn't what this post is about: after reinstalling XBMC to a small SSD I used to replace the internal HDD I experienced choppiness while playing some video files. It was especially visible during panning. (by the way: the SSD reduced the boottime to about 25s!)

It turns out that this is caused by a mismatch in refresh rate of the TV and framerate of the video file. Many video files have a framerate of 24fps, the refreshrate of the TV is 50Hz. Luckily the XBMC crew has solved this problem: you just have to know what options to turn on. Well here it comes:

• Go to "Settings"
• Go to "Video Settings"
• Go to "Playback"
• Turn ON both "Adjust display refresh rate to match video" and "Sync playback to display"

Especially the first one is important: It sets your TV refresh rate to 24Hz. What happens otherwise is that the video frame rate of 24fps does not "fit" on the TV refresh rate of 50Hz which leads to a jitter in the video about 2 times per second.

Now playback is as smooth as silk. Enjoy!

My videogames history

Don't know what got me thinking about this. But here's a list of the most memorable video games I played the last 25 years. I added the systems on which I played 'm.

And by clicking on the image below, screenshots of all belowmentioned games can be found (well that's a work-in-progress).

2011 - Game_images

Commodore 64

• Snoopy (1984, C. Kramer)
• Pole Position (1983, Atari)
• H.E.R.O. (1984, Activision)
• Donald Duck's Playground (1984, Sierra)
• Donkey Kong (1981, Nintendo)
• International Soccer (1983, Commodore)
• Pac-Man (1983, …)
• Pitfall (1982, Activision)
• Pistop (1983, Epyx)
• Wonderboy (1987, Sega)
• Dr. J vs Larry Bird (1983, EA)
• Decathlon (1983, Activision)

First PC (Tulip x86, monochrome screen, NO HDD, NO extended RAM, only 640KB base memory)

• Test Drive (1987, Accolade)
• Blues Brothers (1991, Titus Software)
• Prince of Persia (1990, Broderbund)

Nintendo Entertainment System

• Super Mario Bros 1,2 & 3 (1985-, Nintendo)
• Super Off Road (1989, Virgin Games)
• Gremlins 2 (1990, SunSoft)
• Nintendo World Cup Soccer (1990, Nintendo)

PC (486DX 33MHz, 4MB ram, 40MB HDD). Around 1990.

added a 512MB HD, Soundblaster and CD-ROM later on.

• Space Quest 3 (1989)
• Stunts (1990, Broderbund)
• Mortal Kombat 1-2 (1992-1993)
• Grand Prix Unlimited (1992, Accolade)
• Grand Prix (Microprose, 1992)
• Dune II (1992, Virgin Interactive)
• Wolfenstein 3D (1992, id software)
• Doom (1993, id software)
• Beneath a Steel Sky (1994, Virgin Interactive)
• Under a Killing Moon (1994, Access Software)
• The Need for Speed (1994, EA)
• FIFA Soccer 95 (1994, EA)
• Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994, Apogee)
• FIFA 96 (1995, EA)
• Discworld (1995, Psygnosis)
• Discworld II (1996, Psygnosis)
• Syndicate (1993, EA)
• Micro Machines II (1996, Codemasters)
• Simcity (
• Railroad Tycoon (
• Worms (

PC (Pentium II, 266 MHz, ?? RAM, ?? HDD). Around 1998.

• Command & Conquer (1995, EA)
• Duke Nukem 3D (1996, 3D Realms)
• Grand Prix 2 (1996, Microprose)
• Need for Speed II (1997, EA)
• Colin McRae Rally

Playstation 1

• Crash Bandicoot (1996, SCEA)
• Several FIFA games (1999- , EA)
• Formula 1 97 (1998, Psygnosis)
• Gran turismo (1998, Sony)
• International Superstar Soccer (1998, Konami)
• ISS Pro Evolution (1999, Konami)
• Metal Gear Solid ( , Konami)
• Syphon Filter (1999,
• Tekken
• Tomb Raider (1996, Eidos)
• V-Rally (1997, Infogrames)

PC (Pentium IV HT, 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD). Around 2003(?)

Not really used to play games.

Wii

• Mario Galaxy
• Call of duty ??
• more to add later on
  

PC (AMD Athlon II X4 620, 4GB RAM, 60GB SSD, 500GB HDD)

Only Torpia (www.torpia.com)