StudiesPosted by Atanas Wednesday, January 28 2009 22:59:48As part of my thesis I am planning to conduct a number of telephone interviews. To better capture the conversation I thought I might use recording in addition to taking notes. That is, of course, with the acceptance of the interviewee.
I am planning to either use skype for free calls or use a softphone such as Ekiga to conduct the interviews.
I googled for options of skype recording and there were a couple of software available. One was requiring compilation of the code, which I am not familiar with. I chose the second one, which was a straight forward install from a .deb installation file -
Skype Call RecorderThe software is super simple to use. After the installation you can find its icon under Applications -> Accessories. Once activated it stays as system tray icon from which you can change the preferences.
I have set it up that for each call it asks me whether to record or not. For me it worked from the first time without any headaches,
Next would be to find software to record from VoiP (softphones).
A.
GeneralPosted by Atanas Wednesday, December 31 2008 16:52:55After long time of investigating the netbook market I finally set my sight on the Samsung NC10.
Today I received the computer and started right away the installation process.
With the WinXP pre-installed I only had to create the recovery partition and install some win updates. right after that I stated the Ubuntu 8.10 Interpid installation.
It took me some 20min to boot from the USB flash key and install the OS. One thing I had adjust several times was the booting sequence - it turned out that the correct one to place on top of the list is the USB HDD device.
I am currently typing from my old laptop as I am running the updates on the small netbook.
This is going to take a long while as there are tons of updates to be downloaded (>200MB). I would say this really sucks but the process is recommended in the
guide for installing the Linux distribution.
I will give more updates once I have it fully running.
First impression though is very positive. The looks are stunning but not intimidating it runs very quite and cool
So far so good :)
StudiesPosted by Atanas Saturday, November 22 2008 15:34:30Before I started my final project in the MSc Development Management (TU874) I decided that I will do it completely in a open source environment. For that reason I borrowed a small laptop from work (although I am on the hunt of mini notebook) and installed Ubuntu Hardy (8.04).
There were a few glitches to make the wireless, video card and sound work (acer computers are not the easiest to get on linux but it's not a big drama either). Actually the only thing that seems to come and go is the microphone. I made it work at some point but then something went wrong and now it's dead. I don't need it for the project so it still suits me well.
Here is the bundle of tools which I use for the project:
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy)
Firefox 3 browser
Zotero 1.0.7 add-on for Firefox for the bibliography and also project diary. It serves me as one-point resource management tool. There I keep all literature source, all my thought and notes and also links to the other programs files.
OpenOffice.org - office suite - almost as good as MS Office. It is a wonderful piece of free software
Planner Project Management - use it effectively manage time and human resources. I list my to do tasks, deadlines and I can see whether I can meet them based on the resources allocation.
FreeMind - a good mind mapping software, which I previously used under Windows. It's excellent to organise your thoughts; notes taking when reading articles; all purpose mapping tool.
That's about it.
I can highly recommend this setup as it is very powerful, yet free of charge!
A.
GeneralPosted by Atanas Monday, February 04 2008 18:03:34Ok, I know that I am biased, but Ferrari is just beyond compare.
Driving it is a real experience, so pure, so raw...
The car was
temperamental, emotional, and so real. One really feels in connection with it.
The response of the throttle, the breaks... oh the breaks that was
astounding. You go down the straight with 130mph and just hit the breaks and it
stops in an instant. I felt so confident in the car's response.
The clutch
was so hard that I really had to work on it and muscle it it down. Unbelievable!
Such a temper did this car have.
The gears we a bit tricky to change but with
more experience I would have gotten the hang of it. The problem was that when
you do 7000revs you have to be very quick to shift gear in order not to loose
the momentum. I got a few hiccups in the beginning but improved by the third
lap.
The engine... just incredible. I only used 3rd and 4th gear. This engine
just wants more and more revs, and sound it made... I am smiling wide each time
I think about it :)))))))))))
There was
absolutely nothing that I did not love, no ADORE about this
car.
So
after the Ferrari I drove an Aston Martin Vantage V8. A nice car, but that is
all I can say about it.
It was
funny to see how different British engineering is from Italian. The Aston is a
great car - good looks, ticking like a clockwork, balanced, smooth, a real
machine, and I am sure there are so many people out there that love it for that.
However, that was not I was looking for - I wanted emotion, character,
excitement, feel, a car that was a being in its own right.... a
Ferrari.
GeneralPosted by Atanas Wednesday, January 30 2008 13:32:38Not much of an update but adding some pictures (they say pictures speak for 1000 words) and video so enjoy.
Photo Gallery: click hereVideo: click here
GeneralPosted by Atanas Monday, January 21 2008 23:05:59Well, i must be the happiest man on earth, as I just had one of my biggest dreams come true - I drove a Ferrari.
It all started with the unfortunate event of getting 30 years old ;) As a gift my lovely wife gave me a drive in a ferrari on
racing track in England. I was so happy when I found out. I had no idea what was it going to be really like.
It was great to go back to England with Dilyana after all these years, and what a better occasion...
19.01.2008 We arrived early on the track and were greated by the roar of the super cars already charging on the circuit. Ferraris, aston martins and lamborghinis were storming by. It was a very positive beginning of the day.
Once I signed up and went through the briefing, I was boarded along two other enthusiasts on a bmw3 (alpine tuned) to be shown around the track - approach points, exits, etc. Once this was over I had to sign up for the actual ferrari drive. They had three models running the 550 Maranello (grey :(, the 360 Modena and the 'old' F355. The 360 was with paddle shifting - I would say the best looking car on the track. In general one could not choose which car to drive as they call you out when your turn is up. I knew I wanted a ferrari with a rear engine, which meant either 360 or F355. I have always liked the F355 and there I was presented with a bit of a chance to choose - the F355 was left-hand drive which did not make it a preferred option for the Englishmen around. So it was the perfect choice for me and I asked for it. There was no problem. Before I knew I was sitting inside....
Stay tuned for more.
GeneralPosted by Atanas Sunday, November 11 2007 23:42:48boy, have had some problems recently. It was silly, I know, but made me sweat for a week.
It all started with me installing and subsequently removing one power saver app on the phone. after I got rid of it, my original power saver wouldn't start. I thought of it as not a big deal but my battery life considerably deteriorated.
I tried everything to activate it and all seemed to be fine but still did not work.
I decided to reset the phone to the original setting and here the real problem started. I could not figure out what the bloody phone lock code was (or had i ever set one?) it took me a lot of time and finally after trying over 20 possible combinations I gave up. But then, I started looking for what could be the default code and found it on nokia honk kong site - 12345 ( i tried previously 1234 and 123456 :)
i never really reset the phone - the power saver worked after i changed the code.
well also tried a windows like tricking by setting the saver time to 2sec and later back to 1. maybe that helped too.
bye
GeneralPosted by Atanas Saturday, November 03 2007 22:08:54bought a new telephone recently. i never liked nokias but have to say this one is a really good device. it has good features, although there is always something to ask for. (why on earth there is no possibility to schedule a recurrent alarm; how difficult is that?)
the application everyone should install is
fring. it is an absolute must. it converts your phone into a voip-mean-machine by bridging skype, googletalk, msn, icq and any SIP application into one. very handy.
the phone itself has a internet phone feature, but I could not possibly configure it to work with my voip application (internetcalls.com) for SIP calls.
i also installed opera mini. not a bad browser but there is still a lot to ask from a mobile browser.
one thing i could not understand was that it seemed there is no application manager feature. until i read on the web that if by pressing and holding the 'menu' button you call a sroll-menu with all active applications, something like alt+tab in windows. it is so useful.
i tried for some time a winmobile5 device (HTC trinity) but i would go for a symbian powered machine anytime. ms just make sloppy OS.
nokia e65 - best phone since my ericsson t39.
