If you own one of Thomson / Speedtouch routers, and the router restarts itself from time to time (you will see “Kernel warm restart” in the events log of the router), try setting a fan to blow at the router.

I used to have this problem. I tried upgrading the firmware, I tried disabling services (wireless, Dynamic DNS .. etc), but none worked. However, setting the fan on it worked. It wasnt even hot to the touch before trying this out, so it might be a solution that many don’t think of. Give it a try if you have this problem, it might work for you too.

Set the router on it side so that the fan can blow at the bottom side of it.

عندك مشكلة مع المودم يقطع كل شوية؟ جرب وجه عليه مروحة!

عندى واحد من SpeedTouch / Thomson  و كان يقطع معاى كل نص ساعة (يكتب لك “Kernel warm restart” فى اللوق حق المودم). سويت تحديثات، تعديلات ما نفع. جربت أوجه عليه مروحة مع إنه ما كان حار لما أمسكه. أشتغل زى الحلاوة لأكثر من 30 ساعة الان. جرب هذا الحل إذا كان عندك نفس المشكلة (ممكن تحطه على جانبه عشان تنفخ المروحة فى المنطقة السفلية، أو حطه قريب المكيف).

Sometimes the Stars from The Audreys on Vimeo.

“Sometimes the Stars” is a gorgeous new song from Adelaide, Australia band The Audreys, taken from their 2010 album of the same name. The accompanying short animated film, produced by Luke Jurevicius and directed by Ari Gibson & Jason Pamment, is about a lost girl’s journey through a surreal landscape, and her yearning to make a connection in this distant yet strangely familiar world.

Produced by Luke Jurevicius

Directed by Ari Gibson & Jason Pamment

Production Designers: Luke Jurevicius, Shane Devries, Jason Pamment, Ari Gibson

Story by Luke Jurevicius, Ari Gibson & Jason Pamment

2D Animation: Ari Gibson

Background Art: Jason Pamment

Compositing: Ryan Kirby & Jason Pamment

Colouring: Jarrod Prince & Joshua Bowman

Executive Producers: Stu McCullough, Taasha Coates, Tristan Goodall

Special Thanks: Sarah Macdonald, Makoto Koji, Jeremy Hill-Brooks

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Info on the full exhibition of art that includes animation and figurative works visit: www.conteanimated.com

Behind the scenes rough cut here: http://vimeo.com/16330140 and final cut here: http://vimeo.com/21096567

Reason

this is a test to try out  Windows Live Writer that I just installed.

continue reading "Testing Windows Live Writer"

Oh man, I’m having so much fun it should be illegal (don’t worry, NOTHING I do is illegal). So last time I was talking about get a bike …… and that what I did! I search online for a place that will rent a bike and I found one, but I have to go there by cab (around 7 miles in Google Maps). So I went out, got a cab and went there (by the way, the guy was from Eritrea and we talked a bit about Jeddah and stuff). So I entered the shop and 3 min after I signed the papers, it rained. It rained so bad …… well, it was BAD. At first, it was a little rain, so I put my backpack in plastic bag and took the biked in the hotel direction. Then its start pouring hard, so I took shelter at the entrance of a planet museum (I guess). I spend there like 45min before the rain stop a bit and I got on my bike again. Armed with a map that I got from the hotel, I kept biking and looking for a place where I can have lunch. I was lucky to find Popeye on the way. I took my lunch and then biked again. I was lucky to miss by a bit (the map was small) and end up near the Hyatt hotel, which gave me the chance to clock the trip from there to the hotel. A 45min walk turned into a 10min bike ride, which was very good. After that I got out to get some food from the nearby Denny’s. And that was the end of Wednesday. On Thursday, woke up & breakfast around 9 am, Then I went to the hotel again (again, 11 min biking and the exercise was great). They were setting up for the convention and told me that the badges will be given to pre-registers at 6 pm. Ok; I got some time on my hand now. So I explore the hotel for a bit, and then decided to go to lunch. I have left my bike and helmet at the hotel lobby and I didn’t want to take out just to return it after 30 min. So I walked around, and wondered into Union Station. I couldn’t find the train schedule to Austin so I got out of there looking for a place to eat. Quinz Subs was around the corner so I went there. Luckily they had a wireless access, because by the time I finished my sub *BAM*, another hard rain. I stayed inside the place until the rain stopped and walked back to the hotel. I got my badge and hang around a bit ……. Nothing interesting happened, so I returned to the hotel. The next day (Friday) was the opening day …. And I have to say, Anime conventions cannot be described by words! Basically, when they started, the first thing they opened was the “Dealers Room”, this is where they sell all things Anime. I browsed around, bought a few gifts for the family, took a few photos here and there (one of the reasons anime convention cannot be described by words, is the amount of people in customs and *cough* lots of hot girls *cough*). Then I went around exploring the recent of the convention (This thing is HUGE!). There is video gaming, board gaming, artists, movie theaters, panels and workshops. I spent some time in the board gaming room (it’s actually called Table-top gaming, because it’s different than your regular “Monopoly” board game), then it was about time to the main event. There they introduced the guests, talked about the events and then a group from Japan gave 2 -3 songs. And that was JUST the first day. It was 10 pm and I’m not going to stay up all night (it’s a 24 hour convention, I’ll stay up on the last day), so I returned to the hotel. Today I came here and attended a few panels. The people who give these things are funny as hell! I tried to video some of the workshop but I keep laughing. I continued to brows around and going to panels ……. This time that I’m writing in is actually a break I took because the panels at this time are not of interest to me. There will be a main event tonight that is sort of a customs party. Well, that’s raps up what I have been doing so far, so until next time, have a nice day :D

Even though it’s called the dining room, I just had my breakfast. It’s now 10 am.

3 days ago I wrote my last post. Nothing much happened on the 26^th. I took the plan from Boston to Wichita and went to the hotel. The hotel looked good and the room was clean and big, yet in it was this big leather chair that you could even sleep in! I still don’t know what the deal with that. I left my bags and went outside for a quick tour. Around the hotel were Panera, Pizza Hut, MacDonald, Subway and the Wesley Medical Center (one of the 4 biggest hospitals in Wichita). Unlike the Pizza Hut back home, this one serve BBQ chicken wings under the name of “Wing Street”. I took a meal back to the hotel with me and that was my dinner (it was lovely!). The next morning I called Ms. Tonya Witherspoon around 9 am and she drove by the hotel and picked me up (a very nice lady, and I’m not saying that because she might read this :P). We went to Wichita State University Engineering College, which is located in a historical building by some famous architect (I already forgot his name; I’m never good with names). Over there I met Ms. Karen Reynolds (Another nice lady :) , Hi Karen!). We talked for while about collaboration plans and what am I doing and what are they doing. After that it was around 11:30 and it was time for lunch. Tonya and Karen took me to this nice Antique/BBQ place; there we exchange some cultural difference and the like. After lunch, they took me to the “MindScape”, a great ….. (I can’t group it really with a store type because it’s not really a store; it’s more like a lab with a couple of Macs and Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii). Anyway, it’s a GREAT place and there they showed me a couple of the projects kids did (like a clay animation short movie which was really awesome), and frankly, I want to create a place just like it back home so I will talk about in the next staff meeting. Tonya and Karen then took me back to the hotel (Thank you again for a wonderful day :) ). I forgot to mention that I got to play with the Wii for the first time and before I also forgot, they asked me to say hi to Saeed, so ….. Hi Saeed !. After a quick rest in my room I went to Panera for coffee and to meet with a friend from the #gamedev chat channel (SteevR). We had a fun time talk about game development, Tabletop games and such, so much fun that we stayed like an hour in the place after the closing time (and they were nice enough to let us stay). I wanted to get another dinner for Pizza Hut Wing Street, but they said that you cant order after 9 pm (even though it says on the door “Open from 11 am to 11 pm”). Anyway, there was a Walgreens next to it and I had a microwave in the room so I thought “I’ll make some TV dinner” you know, try America. So I bought some chicken with corn and mash potatoes side dish, at first I wasn’t sure about this but a large hospital was next door so I thought what the heck and tried it anyway. It turned out to be a lovely meal (Lucky for me) and that was the end of my day. Yesterday I took my breakfast at Panera and then went to the airport to take my trip to Dallas. I went about 2 hours early and luckily Wichita had the only free wireless internet I found in all the airport that I been to so far. The trip was around 50 min and I was in the Quality Inn in under 2 hours from the time I was on the plan in Wichita. The first thing I did was to put my bags in my room and try to walk to the where the Anime convention is (to see how long it will take). It took about 45 min walk, but since Texas is almost as hot as Saudi Arabia, I must find a better mean to go back and forth. Renting a motorcycle (first choice) or a car was not possible cause I need to co-sign the lease if I’m under 25 (and I’m 23). Taxi will take too much money seeing that a trip from the airport to the Inn (about 20 min) cost 40$. So I am going out today to rent a bike (100$ for a week). I don’t understand, I rented in this Inn because it was close to the convention place (within 1 mile). But checking the Google maps it says 3 miles. So next time I’ll double check with Google first before trusting the Expedia.com numbers. Moving on, after the walk back I got me some dinner from Denny’s and went to bed. Woke up today around 8 and I sat down for breakfast and to write this so ….. THE END! :D . Have a nice day and see you soon (That is, if I was going to meet you soon, if I never met you then there is a slight chance I won’t see you soon but then again …… ANYWAY! BYE!).

I just called my dad and he asked me why I stopped writing blogs. Sorry dad, just taking a short break :) .
Well, to tell the truth nothing much happened during the last 3 days (I am writing this at 10 am, so the 26th doesn’t count yet). On the 23rd I just sat in the mall for the entire day, enjoying their free wireless internet in the food court (the hotel I was in didn’t have “free” internet; it was a mistake that I didn’t repeat when I picked the hotels for the rest of my trip). I browsed through the mall for a while then returned back to the food court and reserved the rest of my trip hotels and tickets. I returned back to my hotel and that was it for that day. On the 24th I woke up around 9 am and walked to the mall to have breakfast from Dunkin’ Donuts. I then called a cap and went to the nearest metro station. I needed to get to Needham (when Olin University is.) so I followed a map that was in a booklet I had. Jumping from the metro to a commuter train, I finally reached Needham. I asked in a shop where the college is and it turned out I was 2 miles away from it. I looked around for a taxi or bus but didn’t find any; so I decided to walk (Being from Saudi Arabia, Boston noon heat was nothing! Plus there was a little breeze in the air). After about a 20 min walk I reached there, it was a small college but with really cool buildings. I followed the signs to the admission office where they start the tours for the new students. I asked a girl at the admission office for Emma Goodman (whom I was supposed to meet), turn out she was Emma and we agreed that we will meet after I go with the next tour around the campus. Following the tour, they showed us a video created by one of the students about the college (so far they just had 2 graduation classes). All the students with all the teachers was about 300 people with ratio of 8 students to 1 teacher (they had their own joke about them going to war against the Persian, it’s a reference to a movie released this year called “300″). Anyway, they took use to the dorms and showed us the rooms (around double the size for a room at KFUPM). They also had suites where 6 people can share a suite, each person gets his/her own room and all share 2 bathrooms (if I remember right, maybe it was one bathroom). Every floor has a large living room in the middle with flat screen TV and a big kitchen. They also have an “Honor Code” and that’s why they can leave their laptops and stuff in the living room and not fear of it being stolen. Next was the academic building and the class rooms. A 4 floors building with a huge glass side and design classes with couches in them. We returned to Admission building and passed by the library and that’s where our tour ended (it only got 3 buildings). I then met with Emma and told her what we do and why I was here. All my questions was about the teaching methods or about the plans of the college to host a summer camp, so she couldn’t help me much with these questions, but she did gave me the email to a senior teacher, so that helped. I said goodbye and walked back to the train station and luckily, the train just arrived. I took the train back to the metro station, but then decided that since the train goes to a station farther into the city, I’ll just walk in Boston for a while then use my metro ticket to get back to the hotel. I stopped by Back Bay station, walked to about Arlington station then back to Chinatown station and then to South station. I took a Big Mac lunch at the South station and then took the metro from there back to the hotel. I was dead tired by then so I just took a shower, did my daily prayers (I always do them, in case you are wondering, dad!) and went to sleep. Having nothing to do on the 25th, I just went to the mall and sat at the food court, again enjoying their free internet and doing some drawings and reading a book. On the 26^th I woke up around 6:30 am, checked out and took a cap from the hotel to the metro and from the metro to the airport …… And that was it. I think I’ll upload the images of the trip soon; I don’t want to try my luck with the Saudi internet.

Take care, and have a nice day.

Oh man did I sleep late today…

Well, yesterday at MIT Media lab was a dream come true to me, as I always was dreaming to visit there (more like study there, but its close). Let’s see, at the last post I was at the airport …. Well, they kept delaying the flight from about 5pm to 7:30pm, during that time I was setting at a table near and electricity plug when a black woman asked me if she could share the table (it’s the plug she want!). I said yes and time went on as we both were waiting for our flight. After a while we started talking and I explained why I’m here and where I work and such. She turned out to be from the army intelligent and was going to Chicago (needless to say I didn’t ask any question about her job so that I won’t be killed afterward!). Her plan call came and I continue waiting for my flight. Finally it was here and we flew to Boston. I took a cap to the hotel I’m currently in. No complaint about the hotel, except its wireless internet is not complimentary. I went to sleep because I had a visit to the MIT the next day. In the morning I asked the front desk for a cap and took that cap to Cambridge (Where MIT is). At first I couldn’t find out where the media lab is because I didn’t have internet and the MIT campus internet didn’t work right away with me. I went to the Student Union building, there I asked one of the desks about the location but they didn’t know so they gave me a map of the place. Walking around a bit didn’t help me in figuring out where I want to go. I asked a Japanese lady who was working at a parking booth there and she showed me where I need to go. I walked to that location (only 10 min away) and I enjoyed the scenery until I reached there. I got into the building and reached Ms. Jacqueline Karaaslanian office. It was 10 am and Dr. Arnan Roger Sipitakiat was not in his office so she invited me back to her office to wait and talk for a bit. I told her the talent center story and what we do (and she was impressed  ). She (learning what I am here for) started to give me information and guidance on what to improve and what can we do here and there (even if I didn’t met with Dr. Arnan it would have been a great visit because of her). She showed me around the lab and we returned to her office to talk some more. During the conversation the topic of that if I have a master or a phD I can easily get funding from companies and such. She agreed and told me that I would be an ideal candidate to study at MIT thanks to my work with kids. She told me to ask Dr. Arnan about what it takes to enroll and how. At 11am we checked again if he was in his office because that’s the time for our meeting. Turn out he wasn’t there and she told me that I could go to lunch then call her to see if he is back in the afternoon. I took that time to brows to the campus (it seems like this day was the information day so there were lots of families there). Before I had the time to get lunch she called me again and told me that …. Well… The Doctor is in!(she didn’t say that exactly XD ). I went back and talked to Dr. Arnan (turn out he received his PhD the day before, or at least, he finished the day before ). We talked about his work with children and stuff (most of that Ms. Jacqueline told me in the morning), then we talked about enrolling and what it takes (Turned out to be freaking easy! And its funded by MIT itself!). While, that was the end of my visit to MIT so I return to the Student Union and had lunch. I then took a cap to return to the hotel. On the way I saw “The Museum of Science” so I told him to stop and I went in. It didn’t look like there is anything special about it (I’m not a big fan of science museums if they had nothing new or high-tech). I grabbed a cookie and coffee and sat down for a while reading some material Ms. Jacqueline gave me. On the way out of the museum there was the place for the “Boston Duck tour” where the take you around Boston historical places in a boat-car like thing (as it goes in the Charlie river in the end of the tour). I passed but then when walking I heard how funny the “Ducktor” of the boat is, so I turned back and bought a ticket. I ended up with “Colonel Duct Tape”, a funny old man (rumors has it that he duck taped the boat together, no screws or nails XD). We went around Boston as he explained what’s here and there (two times he asked people in the street if they were the last runners in the Boston marathon, which was 4-5 months ago!). Also, people in the street “quack” us as we drive by. After that tour ended I took another cap back. At first he asked me in English where do I want to go, but in the middle of the trip he picked up the phone and went “Ay ya Zool” and went on speaking on the phone in Sudanese. I started laughing to myself and didn’t say anything. He then asked me something and I answered in Arabic. He started to reply in English when *I guess his mind just processed that* he noticed I replied in Arabic. He asked me where I am from and what I’m doing here. I explained the idea of talents center to him and he liked very much. We arrived to the hotel and he wished my good luck with my job and the work we do. I was tired so I thought I could take a shower then write this blog, but I was still tired after the shower so I decided I would sleep and do it tomorrow (today… um yeah!). flipping through the channels of the TV on my bed “The man of the year” by Robin Williams was on. So I watched it and then slept. Today I woke up and walked to the nearest mall for breakfast and to write my reports and this blog ….. and that was it! Now excuse as I’m going to meet a man about a horse. Take care 

Apparently Baltimore is not a good city to write blogs in, I keep missing a day and had to include it in the next day blog (or maybe it’s the Sheraton). Anyway, on the 20^th of August, I woke up around 7 am so I can get some breakfast and head out to John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). I called Ms. Linda Brody to confirm that I’m coming and she gave me quick directions. I took the hotel shuttle to the light rail then took that to the nearest stop to CTY. I walked about 5 min until I reached the building I am going to visit. I called Linda from the front desk and she came down to greet me and guide my to the conference room. I spent the next hour with Linda and Ms. Carol Blackburn (I think, unless I mixed my business cards) talking about why I’m here and the story of the Talents Center (I told it so good I was proud that I was working there and not anywhere else! And they were impressed too). Linda then took me to meet Ms. Susan Collins (Senior Program Manager – Distance Education). We talked for a bit about distance learning and then she showed me “The Cove”, a game developed for CTY. It’s a game like Myst with math problems/puzzles, and it’s suppose to let children learn math by solving problems to get them out of an island (it looked really fun, even though it was a math game!). She then gave me a copy of the game to try it (Thanks Susan!  ). Susan then introduced me to Sook Fong Chang (Program Manager – Distance Education) where we inquired about the Arabic language distance learning program and if it will be implemented in the near future (Answer: it will take a while). Then I met Mr. Ben Reynolds (Senior Program Manager – Distance Education). We talked a bit about the writing course CTY covers and how it relates to scientific research papers. Linda then took me to lunch with Susan, Carol and ….. (Forgot the name, Sorry Maim. She is in charge of the summer camps at CTY). We talked through lunch about the Talents Center and the recent summer camp we held (again, they were very impressed with the “companies” idea) and also the education system in Saudi Arabia. After that I went back up to the conference room where Ms. Kristi Birch and …. (She didn’t send me the contacts info yet, so I don’t recall the name. Sorry!) explained to me what Cogito.org is about and we talked a bit about our participation at ISEF2007. I then went back to Susan’s office (I left my bag there) and she was having a talk with Mr. Thomas Forese (Director of Academic Partnerships – Link-Systems International, Inc.). She introduced us and then mentioned that I am a videogame programmer. Thomas asked me how I think a learning material can be a game. I gave him my view on the subject and how I would approach such a task. I think he liked what he heard as he immediately offered me his business card. I stopped by Linda’s office to say goodbye and then I got out of there. I returned to the light rail station where the hotel shuttle dropped me and I went to the nearby bookstore before calling them to pick me up. Brendan turned out to be the driver so we chatted along the way back to the hotel. I went to my room to take a quick nap but like always it ended up being a 4 hour nap! I forced myself to go to the nearby mall to get dinner then came back to my room. I arranged my bag (I bought a lot of books!) and then went to sleep. On the 21^st of August (Today) I woke up and took my breakfast before going to the front desk and checking out. I took a cab to the Baltimore train station. The driver turned out to be from Senegal and his name was “Ahmad”. He has been to Saudi Arabia before (Jeddah and Riyadh). At the train station I bought the ticket and waited for the train. From that point it just was a smooth trip to the Washington Union station where I toured the station first then road the subway to the airport (Union Station was beautiful). I am now sitting at the terminal waiting for my plane to get to Boston. Like every airport I’ve been to recently there is NO free internet, so I’ll post this once I reached the hotel in Boston. Take care and have a nice day 

Yeah I know, another late blog.

But anyway, I’ll be blogging yesterday and today. Nothing much happened, my last blog ended with me waiting for Amr to arrive from Washington DC. After Amr showed up, we took the hotel shuttle to the “Light line”, a train/bus thing that stop on server stations throughout the city. We went to Phillips at the Inner Harbor for a sea food lunch. After that we were planning to visit the Aquarium and the science museum, but since there was a long line and the fact that they both close around 6 pm, we decided to call it a day. I took the light line back to the station we started at, but then I didn’t have the phone number for the shuttle, so ….. I walked! On my way I found a shop called “Game Workshop” where they sell …. Ummm tabletop fantasy games, I guess (Special shout out to the guys there. They were really nice and explained everything to me). It’s the games where each side has a couple of figurines and according to the rule book they have special abilities that allow them to defend and attack the other side. After that its part strategy part luck as dice is involved in the game. Here is how the site puts it:

“It’s all about two people facing each other across a battlefield, each attempting to move their models into position to fire upon their opponent’s force or attack it in hand-to-hand combat. The victor is decided by a combination of skill and luck with the players rolling dice to determine whether an arrow hits or a foe is struck down.”

I bought the one they recommend for “educational value” with regard to math and number crunching. I continued my walk back to the hotel, it was a bit of a long walk, but I made it. Looking at the watch it was 7 pm and looking online I found that the nearby Barns and Noble closes at 11pm, so I was out the door again. It was a short walk to the store, and I spent the time there trying to find good art and computer graphics books, sadly they were shy when it comes to the computer books. There were a couple of digital drawing magazines that I wanted to buy, but I thought the price was ridicules for such things I can find online (spread out, but still can be found). I bought a coffee from the in-store Starbucks, and I also took the autographed cup (I will write a post about them later). On my way back I pass “UKAZOO Books”. There was still an hour before they close so I went in. The staff was REALLY friendly and the girl at the desk explained to me that it’s a used books store. She pointed to me where the computer books are and what’s the general story pricing policy. I browsed around, sadly nothing excited me in the computer books or the art books, but I took a book from the marketing shelf (it looked really great and I thought to myself “That guy knows how to market his book, let’s check it out. And hey! It’s cheap!”) And I also took 2 Cowboy Bebop manga books. I had a quick chat with the front desk staff and then I went back to my room and went to sleep. I woke up today and went out to get me some breakfast and to check out a book store Google maps pointed out. I didn’t find the bookstore but I found “Towson Diner”. I had an Omelet breakfast, orange juice and coffee then I went out again. It was about to rain when I got in and by the time I’m out its started to rain. Luckily the hotel was close by and I hurried back before me and my laptop were soaked. I talked with Josh Petrie on the gamedev chat room and check with him when is he coming by (I arranged to meet with him the day before) and I went to wait down in the lobby. I had a good chat with Branden McCarthy (works at the hotel) about politics back in the middle east and the Iraq war (he is a political science major so … yeah, that’s what we talked about) and we also talked about videogames and the game I bought the day before (turned out he is a fellow geek! GO Geekdom). 5 min after the conversation was over Josh showed up. He was shorter than I expected (Frankly no image was in my head, I just thought he was taller than me at least). We went to a coffee place and talked about a few things here and there (mostly game programming and chat/forum related stuff). I mentioned that I couldn’t find the books he recommended so he suggested that we go to the nearby Borders book store. There we continue talking about programming while looking for good books (sadly, they too had a shy collection when it comes to graphical/game programming). I bought one book Josh said was good. He drove me back to the hotel and I got back to my room to leave my book and go out to the next mall to get lunch. I passed by Radio Shack and got me an AC plug for my music player and also a small backup battery that can charge devices that rely on USB charging (like the music player and my cell phone). The shop lady asked if I wanted to have an extended replacement warranty and I had to again tell the story that I am not from here and count the stops that I am taking in the US. I went back to my room and ate my launch and I sat down to write this blog. So that’s take this day out of the way, and now I have to go meet a guy about a horse. See you tomorrow, and have a nice day.