Apple iTunes Match: problem with many copies of same playlist

2012-05-31 19:21:00

Sadly, not all things Apple are awesome. 

While I love the idea of the iTunes Match service, it's wrought with problems. One of the most commonly seen problems is when Match creates dozens if not hundreds of duplicates of a playlist. In my case there are over 500 copies of a "On the go" playlist. This kills performance on iTunes and occasionally also on your iPod / Music iOS application. 

Luckily it's easy to clean up these copies using an Applescript:

with timeout of (45 * 60) seconds
          tell application "iTunes"
                    delete (every playlist whose name is "NAME OF PLAYLIST")
          end tell
end timeout

With many thanks to Apple Support Forum member TRujder who explained the script here.

kilala.nl tags: apple, meh,

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Accessing Photstream without using iPhoto

2012-05-19 17:22:00

Finally! I've been searching for this for quite a while now and I finally found the solution!

Question: "How can I access iCloud Photostream without using iPhoto?"

Answer: "By accessing ~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub/ and searching for all images."

Here is the source for this information. The best thing: you can obviously store this procedure as a Saved Search in the sidebar, so you'll always have a shortcut to your Photostream. 

kilala.nl tags: apple, awesome,

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iPad 2 sound issues: headphones work, speakers do not

2012-05-16 09:57:00

Apparently, there are plenty people who experience problems with their iPad2 pertaining to the internal speaker. Specifically: the iPad refuses to play audio and the volume slider does not work. Thanks to some troubleshooting and help from the Apple support fora I've fixed our iPad.

Symptoms:

• The builtin speakers are inactive. Audio does not play through them.
• Audio does play through the headphone connection.
• Plugging your iPad into a USB port does give the connection bleep! noise.
• No amount of toggling the mute button helps.

A lot of people hypothesized that the problems are linked to the upgrade to iOS 5, or that you need to flip the hardware switch settings between "mute" and "rotation lock" a few times.

It's none of that. As forum member Val E Um notes, it's the dock connector: something is causing glitches, causing the iPad to think that it's dock-connected to external speakers. By wiggling a dock cable in the iPad I could make the volume slider appear and disappear. If I wedged the dock connector in at just the right angle, sound kept on working.

The solution: take an alcohol wipe, wrap it around a stiff piece of cardboard and scrape the dock connector on the iPad. Of course, first power down the iPad! After cleaning the dock connector, my sound problems are over :)

kilala.nl tags: apple, meh,

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A tale of two dou

2012-05-12 12:14:00

I felt a bit guilty about going to practice today (having cost us the chance of a nice party last night), so I hesitate to say this: what a great session! /o/

Aside from the fact that my messed up breathing left me winded for 2x2 minutes it went great! We started practice together with the bogu-less kouhai: warmup and kirikaeshi. We then quickly split up to practice basic drills: oki-men, hayai-men, kote-men, ai-men and then the lovely kote-men-taiatari-hikimen-aimen! The biggest reason why my ai-men is failing, is because I pull the shinai waaay too much backwards. I often make the same mistake with a vanilla hayai-men.

And that was that! The rest of class was shiai!

Tomorrow, three teams from Renshinjuku will participate in the annual Edo Cup in Amsterdam. Nick, Bob and Charel sempai will represent the Almere dojo, while Amstelveen will send two other teams. Because of this tournament, Ton-sensei and Kris-fukushou wanted to run through competition preparation again. After the basic etiquette, we got things on the road. For every team member there were two opponents, or three in Bob's case and I went up against him.

• I was designated two half-points against for going out of bounds (jogai) twice. 
• I scored two points against Bob, using the same technique. Because we'd been practicing ai-men so much, I wanted to trick him into ai-men but instead I went for his dou. That worked twice :)

They weren't the cleanest hits and I believe that Kris was reluctant to count one of them, but at least I'm happy to be showing some progress. ( ^_^) My fight against Kris went pretty well and I lost because of a stupid mistake: I thought he had landed a valid blow, so I dropped my whole guard, so he hit me again perfectly. Apparently the first blow was in fact not good enough, so that was a valuable lesson I learned: do NOT stop fighting until you are told to do so. 

The biggest problem that Ton-sensei and Kris pointed out is that nobody was 'talking' or building tension with their opponent. Just about everybody just leapt in there, trying to hit stuff. I had very conciously been trying to avoid doing that, but I need more! "Take your time and explore your oponent! Get to know him!" was the big take-away.

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

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Exchanging blows with colleagues

2012-05-11 08:00:00

Misleading title FTW. /o/ For once I'm not writing about another colleague I pissed off :p

Yesterday was the annual field trip of my department at $CLIENT. After a last-minute change of plans due to the weather we all gathered at a far-away gymnasium to partake in an introductory class in fencing. Sabre fencing to be specific.

I enjoyed it, fencing's cool! :) If I weren't into kendo already, I would've probably picked up fencing especially because Almere has a rather large club. Reminds me of another company outing, which led to me trying a new sport.

Here's some observations based on my kendo experience:

• Aside from the fact that the back leg is at an angle, the footwork is actually comparable, it's just like okuri ashi: never cross-step, always start with the foot of the direction you're going and quickly pull in the other leg.
• Unlike rapier and floret fencing, sabre fencing uses cutting and slashing movements. The targets, with sabre fencing, are all above the waist, just like in kendo.
• The en guarde position is comparable to basic kamae: hold the center, blocking access to most targets. Oddly, the tip of the sabre is at the top of your opponent's head, not at their throat.
• Like in kendo, big movements will be punished. Keep your strikes small and your blocks even smaller. Else you will leave yourself wide open.
• Holding the sword is the absolute inverse of kendo: with your thumb and index finger, where in kendo we use the other two/three fingers. In both, the full grasp is only used to "snap" the sword when making a strike. 
• When it comes to stance, fencing is killer on my neck. The muscles in my neck have always been a problem, but constantly looking hard-right was messing me up!

kilala.nl tags: sports, work,

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Mitori geiko, round two

2012-05-09 05:59:00

Last night was a valuable class in Amstelveen. From the side lines I might not have been able to hear every single line from the senseis' explanation, but I did get a good hard look and I got the chance to ask questions later. Here's a bunch of things I wrote down.

• When doing suburi, don't swing back so far that you whack your tush. When striking, try to keep your position as long as possible without losing the group's pace (aka Kris' challenge).
• Any time that you do diagonal striking, be it in suburi, be it in dou strikes, be it in strikes to the side of the head, always swing straight over your head on the upswing. Over the class' last kirikaeshi, Heeren-sensei specifically pointed out that he saw a lot of people doing lateral swings behind their heads when going from left to right, right to left. No. Swing up straight, strike down diagonally.
• I asked Roelof-sensei about breathing. He confirmed my suspicion that, in suburi (and in everything we do) it's best to breathe in on the upswing and out on the strike. This does indeed mean that you'll be breathing like a madman in suburi! However, given the proper lung capacity one could also breathe in on the upswing and out on strike,swing,strike.
• I've finally learned the Japanese terms for "big men" and "fast men", which actually applies to all techniques: oki (large) and hayai (fast).
• An interesting practice for coordination and fast thinking: kote, men, blocked men to the side, blocked men to the side, men, run through. All including fumikomi.
• In hayai men, never raise the kensen of your shinai above your head. Move the tip past your opponent's face and over his head, then strike. Remember the fight over the center line! In hayai men stay low and maintain the center line! That way you can always switch to other techniques, like dou or a parry strike.
• To receive taiatari slightly step in, or sink down, with your right knee. Do NOT step backwards on your left. Also keep your center of gravity low, in your hara, by keeping your hands low.
• When performing hiki waza, don't swing your shinai backwards over your head and away. You will lose your balance. You have to feel that you're "stabbing the ceiling". By punching upwards and slightly backwards you're giving yourself momentum. Think of the movement being made in kata #1, by the receiving partner.
• With hiki kote, before the strike do not move the shinai upwards a lot. Keep it a bit higher than in kamae and keep the center line. Do not try to swing around the opponent's shinai, but instead wait for enough clearance to strike from the center.
• After your opponent has struck it is your chance to retaliate! So when he's done a hiki strike, chase after him! Especially be ready to strike when his sight is blocked by his own kote, when going back to kamae after a hiki men. This routine can be practiced as follows: hayai men, tai atari, hiki waza, ai men (both strike men at the same time).

I also got a chance to talk to Heeren-sensei about some of the stuff I've been working on. Apparently the badges are on their way to the Netherlands now (200x Amstelveen, 100x Almere) and they will be sold at 1 euro a piece!

He also asked me to work with one of our dojo's sempai to improve the kanji writing on the back of the grey shirt. Supposedly my attempt at the kanji looks too Chinese and sensei was asked by a few Japanese whether he was advertising for a new restaurant :P

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

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Airport Extreme custom DNS setup issues

2012-05-07 17:55:00

Tonight, it seems that UPC are having DNS issues. I was startled that we even noticed it, because I thought we were using OpenDNS. Not so apparently. When I went to change the configuration of our Airport Extreme I found the DNS IP boxes to be greyed out. WTF?

Turns out that, in the new Airport Utility one needs to do the following:

• IP settings are set to DHCP.
• Switch to manual setup.
• Enter the OpenDNS IP addresses (shown above).
• Switch back to DHCP setup.
• Apply config and restart.

And presto! It works. No idea why the DNS boxes work that way, but they do. Oh well. At least our DNS problems are over :p

kilala.nl tags: apple, meh, internet,

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Mitori geiko at Renshinjuku Almere

2012-05-05 16:48:00

Today Marli and I decided against me joining kendo practice: I'm still aching from my wisdom tooth extraction and the medicine they prescribed me is doing me in (diziness, messed up stomach). So today was an ideal moment for mitori geiko: "learning by watching". I've got to admit that, from the sidelines, it's a whole different view! Now that I'm not actively fighting, I have all the time in the world to drink in all manner of small details. 

For starters, because I was the third one to enter the dojo, I got to watch Ton-sensei take Ramon through some of the precise details of kata #2 and kata #3. I have to say that I've always been mightily impressed with Ramon's control of the bokken: he strikes precisely and very fast and of course he stops on target :)

• On kata #2, the evasion and the retaliating strike should be a fluid movement.
• In #3, the stab against the attacker should have a diagonal blade, not a level one (as I learned in february).
• In #3's counter attack, the first two steps should be noticably individual, while the latter three are one whole. So, don't rush into a 1-4 pattern, nor should you do something like 1-1-1-2. It's 1-1-3: stab, stab, threaten.

After that I invited kouhai Sven to learn the first kata, after Ton-sensei suggested he ask someone to show him. He learned the shidachi-side of the kata pretty quickly and I hope to take him through #1 and #2 next week. Very impressive: Sven got the eye contact thing down from the get-go! Many starters focus on feet, hands or bokken, but he kept looking me in the eye! Very good!

Once class started I relegated myself to the sidelines. It's funny, the things you notice from there.

• How in suburi Aaron has the same problem I do, where the upswing isn't straight but angled to the right.
• How Martijn keeps his back nicely straight when sitting down into sonkyo, where others are slouched a bit.
• How Hugo missed a floor-pot cover by a hair. Ouch! I quickly raced in to close the cover properly.
• How splinters were flying from Jeroen's shinai, which we quickly replaced with one from the dojo's collection. 
• How Aaron's self confidence appears to suffer from the fact that he can't properly put on his uniform and bogu. Simply because he's not comfortable in his gear he gets distracted so much.
• How Hugo's self confidence seems just fine, now that he's started wearing bogu. Initially I was a bit worried, thinking he'd back out, but it looks like he's taken a shine to it! Great to see!
• How Ramon shows pretty nice, leaping footwork when practicing fumikomi.
• How none of us are yet capable of building proper pressure on our opponents and how Kris-sempai thus becomes an indomitable brick wall.
• How important it is to step in, while attempting maki waza. The fact that your body is pushing the shinai forward is actually a driving force in spinning your opponent's blade away. If you don't step in, you're simply trying to twirl the tip of the shinai, instead of the whole blade.
• How I'm not alone in needing to learn that I should practice kihon at my own pace: it's not a race! Compare Lucas-vs-Aaron and Vincenzo-vs-Peter. Lucas is almost running trying to whack Aaron, while Peter is forcing Vincenzo to hold back so Peter can practice his strikes properly. 
• Speaking of Peter: I love the precision in his strikes.

There's just so much :)

Tuesday I'll do mitori geiko once more in Amstelveen and by next Saturday I hope to be back in armor again. I'm also planning a social night for some of the guys from Almere, to talk but mostly to do maintenance to our equipment. I'm sad to say that many people never take their shinai apart and only do rough checks along the edges once every while. It's for our friends' safety that we have to check our swords very regularly. 

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports, health,

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