Thragor's Blog

Create WebDAV Connection via Batch File

2011-01-21T21:31:00.001+01:00

If you find any documentation how to create a WebDAV connection on Windows (Windows Vista, Windows 7 and alike) it will always come to a bunch of dialogs you have to fill in. But as soon as you don’t want a persistent connection but only a connection on demand you will hate this procedure.

Instead it is much simpler to create a WebDAV connection via net use. And if you put it into a batch file you could easily execute it any time you need the connection. Having it linked to your desktop the WebDAV connection is even only a click away — "WebDav on demand" so to say.

The following Batch file can be reduced to one simple line but for convenience I made it more chatty and I skipped specifying a password as this is (for sure) a security risk.

Alternating Prayer as Evening Ritual with Children

2010-12-04T23:32:00.000+01:00

Deutsche Version in meinem deutschen Blog.

Early on I learned as father that evening rituals are important for children to calm down before going to sleep. With our two sons we have two rituals: We read to them and afterwards we pray with them. So does my wife – so do I. Each of us in his own way.

The prayer is always the finish. First I always spoke the prayer – but at some point in time our son wanted me to do an alternating prayer: First word spoken by him, second word by me, third he again.

We keep this ritual up for years now and today also our youngest son wanted me to speak the prayer in this alternating way. It is an incredible beautiful experiences that creates a nearness for us. Sometimes even a cuddly toy has to take part in the prayer – as third person, sometimes spoken by me, but much more often by our sons.

The prayer – are actually two prayers. How did it happen? I do not remember. But our both sons like it this way (prayer translated from German – don’t know if there is an English equivalent):

I am small, my heart is pure, no one should live in them as Jesus alone. Amen.
Dear God, make me religious, I come to heaven. Amen.

Intercession and Wetten dass..?

Sometimes we complete the prayer with an intercession: usually for a sick relative. Today was a special day. Today an accident happened in a well known German TV show named “Wetten dass..?”. An 23 old man named Samuel K. fell to the ground in a very difficult bet and it was not clear at all if he was still alive (current news say that he is alive but his state is not yet clear). The TV show stopped – the first time ever. And so our son had to go to bed.

I thought about how I could help him to come to a rest and I remembered the intercession. And so we did: I spoke an intercession so he could believe that he was able to do something. I hope it helps and that he has a peaceful night. And for Samuel K. I hope that he is soon up and well again – without consequences.

World Cup 2010 in South Africa: Enjoy!

2010-06-11T00:08:00.001+02:00

Die deutsche Version findest Du hier.

I just want to tell everyone: Enjoy the Fifa World Cup 2010 in South Africa. And as a tribute to South Africa I embed their national anthem in here, which is really great to listen to (I especially like the following version I found on YouTube):

Oh, and I cannot stop listening to K’naan’s song “Wavin’ Flag” especially the version with Nancy Ajram:

Tips using Magix PhotoStory on CD & DVD, Issue 1 - Zooming

2010-06-06T21:39:00.000+02:00

Hinweis: Du findest die deutsche Version dieses Postings in meinem deutschen Blog.

I like to create photoshows from different events. Recently based on some days vacation on Wangerooge, Germany. Since some years I am using PhotoStory on CD & DVD by Magix. I take nearly every second version step, so the latest were 5, then 7 and this time I updated to 9. It was a great step forward and a major enhancement.

One of the major enhancements – introduced earlier but now near to perfection – is the generation of paths through an image. You can make a picture alive as if it is a video – at least this is the feedback from audience watching my videos who asked: “Is this really only a photo?”

Today I will tell you about zooming images. One of the things you will use most when you generate your paths through the images manually (that is not using the wizard). You can get a picture to zoom with just a few clicks (mind that I use the German version and have to guess how menu entries are called in English):

Insert an image into the timeline.
Go onto the effects-tab.
Open “View & Animation”
Go to “Clipping & Zoom”
Click on “Zoom In”

That’s all – and you already have a very nice effect. But actually there is a problem when you define a changeover effect like for example fading out: Your zoom will even continue when your image is nearly not visible any longer.

The first simple approach would be to stop zooming before the image fades out. Therefore you just have to move the diamond marker at the end of the zoom just before the dotted line. But: With this you will have a boring freeze image.

The better solution is: Slowing down. This works perfect with Magix PhotoStory on CD & DVD:

Find the zoom-timeline on the effects tab.
Click on the timeline near the end of the zoom.
Move the marker until you see the image section marked (on the right) which is the image section where you would like to slow down.
Now create a new waypoint with the icons above the timeline.
To slow down: Just move it a little to the left. Of course to speed up: Move it to the right.

Now you can ensure that before the fading starts you have (nearly) the image clipping you wanted to reach – and you still have no boring freeze image while fading.

The following screen shot shows the (German) User Interface of Magix PhotoStory. The blue markers mark the diamonds which control the waypoints. The penultimate waypoint is the one I used for slowing down the zoom. The orange markers mark the time-indices where the crossing over starts/ends. This is automatically shown by Magix Photostory with a dotted line:

Hope you like the tip. And here is the resulting video (with Music from Unheilig “An deiner Seite”):

Example Video for Zooming

The Dinosaurs Song

2009-11-04T23:26:00.002+01:00

Hinweis: Du findest die deutsche Version dieses Postings in meinem deutschen Blog.

Already in May I mentioned in my German Blog the Dinosaurs Song by Bernard Derriman. I was not the only one who was wowed by this song, but also Martina and her son. Martina replied to my blog-post about my crafted Emma-Dragon-Costume via mail and told me that she had crafted it, too – in Australia. Here the video we both like that much:

Some time ago I already tried to write down the lyrics. But I failed because I could not identify some words in the song as I am not a native speaker. I was totally happy that Martina helped me and wrote down the lyrics for me. And she allowed me to publish them here in the blog. So here we go:

The Dinosaurs Song
They used to walk
They used to swim
They used to fly with a toothy grin
Some ate plants and
Some ate meat
Some walked around on just 2 feet
Refrain:
Oh the Dinosaurs, big as trees
The Dinosaurs, brains like peas
Jaws and claws and teeth and bone
That used to growl and groan and moan
Some had feathers
Some had scales
Spikes and clubs and whip like tails
They fought like dragons
The earth sure shook
The volcanoes sizzled and the lava cooked
Refrain
Tyrannosaurus was a terrible king
The stegosaurus’ tail could really swing
Brachiosaurus liked to stomp
Trachodon would chew and chomp
Refrain
They roamed the earth for a 100 million years
Without worries, cares or fears
Then one day, they hit the soil
Now they’re fossils, gas and oil
2x Refrain

News from Morrowland: Emma in Australia

2009-10-12T00:15:00.002+02:00

Hinweis: Du findest die deutsche Version dieses Postings in meinem deutschen Blog.

On Saturday, I was incredibly happy and shared my joy on Twitter (including a typo I made): I received an email from Australia.

In Australia a mother read my craft instructions for a dragon costume for the locomotive Emma (Title: “Happy Birthday, Jim Knopf!”; sorry no English translation available for this blog post). She crafted the costume by herself then. She did not make the costume for the Lego locomotives Thomas or Percy but for the original loco from Lego Duplo. The argument of her son: “She looks more like Emma.” And he's right!

Then I was completely fascinated by the photos that she had sent to me. It feels strange to see how it is that Emma's costume suddenly made it to Australia.

Oh, and a tip she gave me: The dragon costume holds even longer if it is laminated. But I have to add: The two dragon costumes for my kids are still fine, too.

True Rocket Science - A Children's Experiment

2009-10-11T18:08:00.011+02:00

Hinweis: Du findest die deutsche Version dieses Postings in meinem deutschen Blog.

Today we got a call from my wife's parents. They found a guide how to craft a a small rocket. It was that simple that it could be transmitted via a simple phone call. You need:

a small film container (color negative), the lid will be the underside
three small fins for stabilization made of thin cardboard
a missile nosecone, also made of thin cardboard
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons vinegar
glue (I used a glue stick ... that was enough)

Structure

First, I made a small strip at half height of the film container. I placed and glued this around the rocket, so that it was easy to fix the fins afterwards. When tinkering, It is important that the lid of the film container was closed to fix the fins at the correct height.

Then I had to cut the fins: small triangles with adhesive flaps at the end... equal in height as the previous strip. Recommendation: Cut the previous strip a little longer than needed and then cut the fins from the rest. Fix these fins with the glue to the strip which is already around the rocket's body.

Then the missile nosecone: Cut out a circle (use a cup to draw it) and once cut it toward the middle. Then shape and glue the cone. I made it a little wider than the film container. The remaining width I cut in several times to have small flaps which I bent and glued to the film container.

The experiment

In the garden, I ensured to have a flat surface on the lawn using a flower plate. Then I poured the baking powder into the rocket. And now I needed three hands. Fortunately, I had the best wife of all to the side, which assisted: She poured three teaspoons full of vinegar (pre-filled in a cup!) into the rocket body. Do not be irritated by the powerful foaming - simple fasten the lid fast, shake the film container and quickly place the rocket to the ground. Seek some safe place.

Even if it started to foam immediately: It still took a few seconds... but then the rocket shot up into an impressive height. I guess about three meters. At least so much that the video only showed the launch of the rocket.

Have fun crafting! You can reuse the rocket some times.

Iran: Cyber Revolution - The Power of 140 characters

2009-06-19T00:54:00.003+02:00

Hinweis: Die deutsche Version dieses Postings findet sich in meinem deutschen Blog.

The last few hours, I have the feeling to experience something really special. Since the elections in Iran on Friday and the announcement unbelievable election results in Iran is seething with rage: Where is my vote?

The accusation: election fraud. And that resonates not only through the streets of Tehran - no, it echoes through the vastness of the Internet with thousands of voices. The echo has a name: “Retweet”. And the medium of the echo is an invention which especially in the past days I would like to call: “revolution of the Internet”.

A small blog – a “micro blog”

Twitter is a so-called micro blog. 140 characters to put your thoughts, feelings and expressions in. And who would have thought that such a small amount of characters can awaken so much emotions. For an company internal micro blog called Trillr I once answered the question what Trillr is good for. My answer: You are at the heartbeat of the company. And that's true – true for Trillr and for Twitter.

Twitter in the news

For some days, Twitter is also constantly mentioned in the news of German television. Isabel Schayanis, Islamic scholar and editor of Monitor – a German telecast, put it very well on June 17th in a commentary in the telecast “Tagesthemen”: “And what are their weapons? They hold their cell phones up into the air!” - Because that's all you need to send 140 characters around the world through Twitter.

Retweet waves

To make this all work you need Retweets. That's because your message only goes to all those who said they want to receive updates from you – your followers. Some have 20, others over 1000 followers. But your followers might do some magic: They can retweet – they copy your message, place a “RT <yourname>” in front of it and send your message to their followers. The rest is known as snowball effect.

So Retweets go through the Internet like the waves of an ocean. Some with short messages like “I am on a demonstration right now”, some with links to pictures, some with links to videos like for example in Youtube.

Hashtags

And to ensure that all information can be found, the so-called Tweets are provided with Hashtags. In other areas you would just call them keywords or tag like it is used in social bookmarking services for example. The keywords all begin with a double cross, the “hash”, so that services such as Hashtags.org can filter the messages. The best known Hashtags about Iran-election are:

#iran
#iranelection
#gr88 - stands for "Green Revolution 1388" and was invented by the Twitter user @iran09 - Iran Election 2009. “1388” is the year 2009 in the Iranian calendar.

It's also impressive to see how these hashtags raised in usage counts in the past days – here using the example for the hashtag #iranelection:

I am feeling with you!

For me these short messages from Iran raise a lot of emotions. Of course I don't feel as if I am there, part of the demonstrations – how could I? But I feel with the Iranians who are concerned about their votes which seem to be lost. I really wish that this “Cyberrevolution” - the revolution boosted by the Internet – will be a success. A great success with hopefully not more blood beeing shed – a peaceful revolution with the mobile phone raised to signal the protest!

Berliner Morgenpost – Der Iran twittert Morgenluft

The newspaper Berliner Morgenpost published a great article on 16.06.2009. One quote is a German word-play is: “Der Iran twittert Morgenluft” - roughly translated as “Iran scents the morning breeze” - translated but loosing the word-play.

The article explains in easy terms what Twitter is and that we might just experience the “revolution of the revolution” with the protests in Iran. Having written this, the article puts in words my deep feelings inside my heart.

Home - Your Home

2009-06-14T23:07:00.007+02:00

Hinweis: Die deutsche Version dieses Postings findet sich in meinem deutschen Blog.

I just have seen one of the most impressive films ever. His name is easy – simply “Home”. The film goes to all of us. It is personally, it is talking about you! You, the wise Homo Sapiens!

Our Earth is beautiful

After a few minutes of the film, it was clear to me more than ever: Our Earth is beautiful. Nature has created such beautiful things, which never could have been created by man. Nature has paved our way throughout trillions of years, so that we can be here today.

She wears our wounds

The body is battered. Deep wounds were torn into her body. The elixir of life flows from these wounds. No, she will not die – she won't. But that who have caused these wounds to her. And I am one of them. I am one of those who is causing the earth's wounds every day.

It is too late to be a pessimist

The film is beautiful, it's depressing, it awakens hopes. All in one. The most important sentence for me is: “It's too late to be a pessimist.”

I got pessimistic watching this movie. A desperation grew in me. The desperation is with me every day – but I am successful ignoring it. But the movie won't let you stay in your pessimism. It shows ways out of the crisis, paths which are already taken at some places in the world. But: We must all go them:

“It's up to us to write what happens next - Together!”

Just another quote from the movie. Perhaps efforts like Global Commons are exactly the right way. It is a nice way to connect the people so that together we create what the individual, and even the individual nation is not able to create.

One and a half worthwhile hour

Not a good movie on TV? A little time to sit back? Then you must have a look at this movie and recommend it to your friends. You will learn a lot about the earth, our climate and what can be done.

Tears in my Eyes: Jeff Dunham

2009-03-14T18:35:00.007+01:00

Hinweis: Die deutsche Version dieses Postings findet sich in meinem deutschen Blog.

A friend of mine just sent my a link to a YouTube-video called “Achmed the Dead Terrorist” (with German subtitle). It was fun watching it... and it was the starting point of becoming a fan of the ventriloquist Jeff Dunham just within minutes — well, better: hours.

The next hours I spent watching other videos by Jeff Dunham and finally I stumbled across my most favorite one. I got tears in my eyes laughing. The video entitled “Jeff Dunham and Walter 2/3 Arguing With Myself” (again with German subtitle).

Watch the man at time 1:30... he will return at time 4:20. He's Mike. Mike, the medical transportation guy. How do I know? Well, Walter and Jeff take their time just to wait for this guy while he is being at the toilet. It's sooo great! Just watch:

And just in case you became a fan just as I did you might want to watch my Jeff Dunham playlist (well, I collected videos I found with German subtitle):

Flash Game: Grow Island

2009-03-14T18:24:00.002+01:00

Hinweis: Die deutsche Version dieses Postings findet sich in meinem deutschen Blog.

If you liked my posting about the solution of Grow Cube you will also like this one: Grow Island. It's from the same author as Grow Cube. It's simply fun and my son even likes Grow Island more than Grow Cube.

To solve the puzzle you just have to take the tools in the correct order. The tools are:

a battery, which, well, will give some power

a chip, will do some calculations...

a pike, human tool-activator embedded

a boiling flask, don't let it break!

a wheel, to open a secret door...

some logs, to build

a chimney to burn the waste

a screw for some mechanics

It's great fun to see if the selection fails as some things just might go wrong. So try yourself. But just in case you are tired of doing so: I have embedded so solution into the IPTC Data of the image. Have Fun!

Just found today: Found a blog post with two possible solutions. Just visit roque-mirengo.com/.

Flash Game: Grow Cube

2009-03-14T18:15:00.003+01:00

Hinweis: Die deutsche Version findet sich in meinem deutschen Blog.

I just stumbled across a posting pointing to a nice Flash Game. It's called Grow Cube. I was curious solving this puzzle. It took me a while to get the rules of growing but finally I got it and won (see screenshot at the top of this posting).

Want to try it yourself? Just play Grow Cube. It's really fun. You just have to use the tools in the right order. They are:

Bone, which will grow to a turtle

Water, required for ponds, creek and waterfalls

Ball, will roll down the tube

Dish, will grow to a building

Fruits, will grow to trees

Pot, will be used to cook something inside

Tube, where the ball will roll through

Spring, will transport the ball further on

Person, will dig, cook and so on

Fire, required for cooking and lighting a cave

Tired of trying by yourself? Download the attached Screenshot and look at the EXIF data (or sent a mail to me). Hopefully this is hidden enough. I didn't want to take away the fun.

Matt is back...

2009-03-14T18:01:00.002+01:00

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

This is the English version of the Blog Post I wrote June 2008 in German.

Matt is finally back! The dancing wonder who builds bridges among cultures with ease. While I already enjoyed Dancing 2006 and Matt's Outtakes this new video is even more breathtaking: So many people who join dancing. What politicians cannot acchieve: Matt just does it!

folderico - Setting Folder Icons via Batch Script

2009-03-14T14:48:00.005+01:00

My script folderico.bat was the topic of my first blog post on my German Blog “Thragors Blog”. And now it's the first blog post which I translate to English.

Put to start right off with the script: My target was to let CD covers of my ripped CDs appear right in the Windows Explorer. Of course you can do so by editing the properties of your folder right in the Windows GUI. But if you have many folders to change this a laborious work.

So I thought of a way to modify the file Desktop.ini which is responsible for changing the icon via a MSDOS-Batch-Script. I wouldn't call myself an expert in writing Bash scripts but thanks to Rob van der Woude's Scripting Pages I finally accomplished the mission.

While my first post on this issue was on March 21st, 2007 (wow, nearly two years ago now) there is meanwhile a version 1.1 since December 6th, 2007.

Version 1.1 fixed some problems I detected. I am mentioning them in here just in case you also stumble across them in your own scripts:

When I called V1.0 of the script without arguments I got an error message. Now it shows the usage guide. Problem was that
```
set IMG=%IMG:"=%
```
worked perfectly well for non-empty IMG: It deleted the quotes. But for an empty value of IMG the new value was “=” and so the check
```
if "%IMG%"=="" goto HELP
```
failed because it got expanded to:
```
if "="=="" goto HELP
```
and raised the error message "="=="" goto HELP" ist syntaktisch an dieser Stelle nicht verarbeitbar. It's a syntax error message (in German). Sorry, I don't know the English error message.

And I added a check that ImageMagick (which is required by this script) is really available. Otherwise the convert command will fail with an obscure error message — just because there is another convert-command in Windows System32 directory.

Reading the script you might also learn:

how to deal with errorlevels,

how to write multiline if-then-else clauses,

how to work with setlocal and endlocal (here: for enabling extensions) and

how to create a multi-resolution ICO-file with ImageMagick's convert.

Now you may want to download the script... first of all mind that you have to install ImageMagick. And then you can download the batch file from box.net:

folderico.bat