Month: November 2005

With the introduction of iTunes 6 you can now store lyrics in the ID tags of your songs. If you have an iPod it can then display the lyrics when you are playing the song.
Pretty cool. But I have several thousand songs!
going to google and typing “[songs name] lyrics” and pasting it into iTunes is going to take forever.

One solution is Sing that iTune!, a widget for Konfabulator.
Konfabulator is a JavaScript runtime engine for Windows and Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to.

Sing that iTune! is a widget that finds out what song iTunes is playing, goes to the net, retrieves the lyrics, and inserts them into the MP3 or AAC file that is playing. All this is done without human intervention!

Kongabulator is owned by Yahoo and can be found at http://www.konfabulator.com/download
Sing that iTune! is found at:

http://blog.livedoor.jp/widget236/archives/9489848.html (Japanese)

There are also several other iTunes related widgets, just do a search for iTunes widgets.

So you have the lyrics, now you need the album art:
ITunes Companion – Grabs the album art for the currently playing song.

Cute bike –> https://stephenhucker.com/blog/wp-content/bike.swf
In korea it is very crowded, so space is at a premium 🙂

Read more

How much RAM is enough? the more the merrier.

Two weeks ago I upgraded my RAM from 1GB to 2GB.
Cost? Around 104,000 won (@US $104)
Was it worth it? The answer is yes,
Before when I was swapping between large applications the system would hang for a second or two. That is now gone.
I can have Photoshop CS2, Dreamweaver, Word, and Opera open and swap between them with ease.
So it looks like 2GB is the perfect amount of memory for a heavy user. I wonder how Windows Vista will handle 2GB ?
It is a 64 bit operating system designed to run on modern hardware so it should use if well, but it is a hudge beast. Only time will tell.

The Melbourne Age had an article on online photo printing services. I think I will use one of these to print my digital photos and send them to mum.

1. AgfaPhoto (www.agfaphoto.com.au)

Print quality: Acceptable

Cost per print: 45c (plus $3 delivery)

Delivery time: Five working days

Two methods of uploading files are offered, either directly through an online form or indirectly via downloadable “client” software. We chose the former method. The three images were uploaded smoothly, however, when it came to choosing the method of delivery (pick-up from a retail store or by post) it became very confusing. It took a phone call to Agfa’s head office in Victoria to sort out, where we struck a very helpful if slightly confused tech (“How did you get my number?”). After that it was plan sailing.

2. Fujicolour (www.fujicolor.com.au)

Print quality: Good

Cost per print: 49c (plus $2.50 delivery)

Delivery time: Four working days

“Get real photos by simply uploading your digital images,” promised the Fuji site, however, the uploading process was anything but simple. Cumbersome and problematic would be nearer the truth. Halfway through uploading our files the site simply froze and when we initially returned was unavailable. Finally, after waiting about an hour we were able to get back into the site and this time the process was painless.

3. Megapixels (www.megapixels.com.au)

Print quality: Outstanding

Cost per print: 19c (plus $3.95 delivery)

Delivery time: Three working days

As well as uploading files via its website, Mexapixels allows you to email your images and even to post your memory card, which is returned along with your prints. We chose to upload our files, a process that was pleasantly glitch-free. One gripe, however, was that the “free” trial print of five images came with a hefty postage cost of $3.95. Call us old-fashioned, but $3.95 isn’t free!

This week at School

Tuesday was practise day for exams. The Korean government loves comparing schools. They do this by making the students do multiple choice tests (A to E answers).
Unlike Australia where education is state based, in Korea it is based on your local board of education.
So the Ulsan Board of Education makes the test which all Ulsan schools then have to take.

So on Tuesday we had a a practise test for the real test on Thursday!
So two tests in one week 🙁

Friday was Sports Day! … well it was going to be, but it rained 🙁
So we wimped out! It is now set for next Tuesday.
But unlike Australia there is virtually no track and field events. No high jump, long jump, shot put, javelin, etc.
A full report will be forcoming with pictures and videos.

collecting waste paper


Pressian has an article on old people collecting wastepaper to earn even a tiny income. one old man earns almost 10 000 won a day by collecting paper. As the price for waste paper is 50 won a kilo, it means he collects about 200 kilos a day

Makes me wonder how little people earn for recycling bottles, etc
It’s hard work. I often see old people (60+) pulling big carts full of cardboard. At my house around 12:20 am an old man comes around collecting cardboard, bottles, etc every night.