Setting The Language Option In Gimp 2.6.9

I really should be using the latest version of Gimp, version 2.8. But unfortunately, I do not have the bandwidth to download the installation file. Thus I have to settle with Gimp version 2.6.9, for the moment, which is about a quater of the size of version 2.8.

Upon firing up Gimp version 2.6.9 after installation, the first thing that greeted me was a flashscreen and a user interface in my local language. I would very much prefer using Gimp in English. But like I have mentioned in my previous blog post, I have a need to set my regional location to "Malaysia" as otherwise I will have problems tuning in to my local TV stations with my K-World PCI Analog TV Tuner with VirtualDub.

Here is what I did to configure my Microsoft Windows PC so that Gimp will startup in English ("en_us" in this case):

My Contribution To The 2014 MY Garden Birdwatch Survey

This is my third year of participating in the MY Garden Birdwatch Survey. There are actually more species of birds in my neighbourhood than what my bird count shows. I know because I was keeping tab, and capturing with my digital camera sometimes, on the variety of birds since the last survey in June 2013. Hoping to get the result that best depicts the variety of birds within my neighbourhood, I counted twice this year: on 7th June 2014 between 7:45am and 8:15am, and on 8th June 2014 between 12:30pm and 1:00pm. But unfortunately the birds have other plans. They seem to come around at different hours of the day, and for some only on certain months of the year.

Below is the count that I did on 8th June 2014 which I submitted to My Garden Birdwatch as my official count. I find the results to be more or less the same as last year's.

RavenPlus: Javascript Error With Amazon Affiliate IFrame Ads

I never had this error message before. This only started happening about 2 weeks ago. A dialog box will appear as show above for my blog posts that contains Amazon Affiliate IFrame ads in RavenPlus. This error message will appear 'n' times if I have 'n' number of Amazon Affiliate IFrame Ads for any particular blog post. The Amazon ad still gets displayed correctly though, but this error message is annoying.

To prevent this error messages from popping up, what I did was to disable Javascript in Internet Explorer (IE). RavenPlus WYSIWYG editor is actually a Microsoft COM based object that is borrowed from IE and embedded into RavenPlus, by the way. To disable Javascript in IE:

RavenPlus: Source Code For Version 1.0.503

I think I am required to distribute the source code for RavenPlus as required by GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, the license under which Zoundry Raven is distributed. So, I have uploaded the source code for RavenPlus version 1.0.503 to my Google Drive and it can be downloaded here.

The Living Stream's 1978 Interview With Bro Ultan Paul

I just found this 1978 copy of "The Living Stream" within my home recently. I must admit, I have completely forgotten about it and now, I can't even remember how I got it. "The Living Stream", by the way, is a magazine that is published, once every two years by the 6th Form Arts Council of the St. Michael's Institution (S.M.I.), Ipoh. I think they are only distributed to the Arts Stream students in the Upper Secondary in S.M.I., which makes this a mystery as I was in the Lower Secondary in 1978.

When I flipped through the pages, I seem to have some recollection of the cartoons depicting life at S.M.I. back then. But I don't think I have actually read the rest of it, which is a pity actually as there is an interview with Reverend Brother Director, Bro. Ultan Paul about the history and background of S.M.I. that is not found anywhere else, as far as I know - not even in the pile of school magazines, "The Michaelian", that I have. Hats off to the 1978 Editorial Team of "The Living Stream" for filling this void.

Below is this interview, conducted by Denise Teh Swan Teen and Choong Mee Yong, both of Lower Six Art 2 1978. See what you think. There are some typos. So, my corrections are in brackets and in blue.

There is no mention of a tunnel of any kind by the way. With all that piling in the school hall at that time, is building a tunnel possible?

A High Climbing Snake

Many birds will come flying around when it is feeding time for my ducks and chickens. This usually happens at around 11AM everyday. Not much of an eventful occasion, except for one fine sunny morning on 23rd April 2014. A fluttering sound caught my attention, and when I look up, I saw a sparrow with its head trapped between the jaws of a slender greenish/yellowish snake with dark shades. The snake must have launched a surprise attack from the hollow section of the pipe that makes up the orchid stand. With the snake's tail firmly gripping onto a bolt, it is impossible for the sparrow to escape. I would have never imagined that this is possible - a bird with maximum mobility being caught by a creature that has no limbs and slithers on the ground. This is a first for me.

A Little Heron Makes An Appearance

And there it was, resting on a branch of my durian tree one late morning last month, March 2014. The time was about 10:30 AM. I caught sight of it by accident actually while I was in the house. It was totally unexpected. It just stood there quietly on the branch.

Standing at about 1 feet tall, this bird, a Little Heron, is one of the largest bird that I have ever seen in my garden. As far as I could tell, it was alone as no other bird of this species was spotted.

This is actually my second encounter with a Little Heron. The first was a month before this on February 2014, also in my front garden. Back then, it was perching on the telephone wire above my front gate. I cannot be sure if this is the exact same bird though.

A long legged bird with a long beak would suggest that this is a waterbird. Its natural habitat should either be a mangrove swamp or a wetland. But my house is in the suburbs of Ipoh city. And I have lived in this neighbourhood all my life and this is the first time that I have seen Little Herons in this area. I do wonder if this has something to do with the local drainage system that has, in my opinion, turned into mini jungles at certain sections. The drains were not like this before but only in recent years.

This bird was aware of my presence while I was taking these photographs. Most birds would take flight, especially when they see me pointing a camera at them. Little Herons, though, seems to be unperturbed, even while I was plodding around them, looking for the perfect angle for the perfect shot.

These pictures were taken while I was standing at about 15 feet away from the bird with my compact camera. My camera was set to 16MP with maximum optical zoom at 5x. I think they turned out quite alright, for an amateur photographer like me.

RavenPlus Version 1.0.503 - A Fix For "Empty Blog Content Upon Posting"

My last blog post actually had empty blog content upon posting. I never had this problem before since I started using Raven some 5 or 6 months back. And neither did this problem occurred after I made modifications to Raven, that is until the last blog post.

RavenPlus - My "py2exe" Build Of Zoundry Raven

Since there has been no development with the offline blog editor Zoundry Raven (Raven) since 2008, I have been fixing and customizing Raven to fit my own needs for something like 8 months now. I am no expert in the Python programming language (I only have less than 8 months experience). But luckily I find the Raven's Python source code to be quite easy to follow and understand. I have a background in computer programming, by the way.

Since the beginning of February 2014, I have been trying to package my customized version of Raven into a MS Windows .EXE executable so that it can be run like any other Windows program without the need of installing the Python compiler or any other libraries that Raven requires. After trying for something like 3 weeks, I have finally succeeded.

Downloading BBC WS "Top Of The Pops" With "rtmpdump"

I would have preferred if I could download it off the BBC's Podcast web-page but unfortunately I can't. Below is the command that I use to download the BBC World Service radio programme "Top Of The Pops" to my desktop computer, thanks to the software rtmpdump.


rtmpdump.exe -r "rtmp://wsondemandflash.bbc.co.uk/ondemand/mp4:48502/worldservice/css/latest/topofthepops" -o "topofthepops.flv"