JAB - Just Another Blog

Philips PF9831 series: ClearLCD and Aptura

2006-01-08T11:39:00.000+01:00

I'm in the market for buying a big LCD TV. Being from Einhoven, I ofcourse digg the Philips brand :)

Philips just announced last week at the CES 2006 the new Ambilight Full Surround, so it seems I just have to wait a big longer for my new TV, also because according to other sources, "Philips will release new PF9831-series LCD screens between May and July. These will have ClearLCD™ [featuring Aptura, JPD] for a far higher contrast ratio, Pixel Plus 3HD technology and full surround ambilight.".

Other sources mention August as a launch date. So I probably won't be able to watch the World Cup Soccer on HD TV this year :(

See this link for more pictures and see Clear LCD - What does this mean ? for an explanation of what I'm waiting for!

Waar zouden we zijn zonder de trein.

2005-12-30T11:03:00.000+01:00

How Women and Men Use the Internet

2005-12-29T16:22:00.000+01:00

According to a review of the the Pew Internet & American Life surveys, women now outnumber the men on the internet, using it a bit different.

We already knew that ofcourse :)

Strange eBay auctions

2005-12-17T16:03:00.000+01:00

Way Out Auctions and Bayzarre have overviews of strange eBay auctions. Some really are strange, very strange....

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller - RTFM

2005-12-14T21:38:00.000+01:00

Darn, spent a whole lot of time to get my second wireless controller working.
After some searching, I discovered a page with the information. Seemed that somewhere in the controllerpack was a guide, which I ofcourse had thrown away (like everybody does...)

Note to self: RTFM next time. But first KEEP TFM...

PGR3 ++

2005-12-04T11:29:00.000+01:00

Just been playing PGR3 all weekend, driving the Ferrari Enzo and then I read:
"Ferrari managed to make the Enzo look like a Golf GTI compared to their new Ferrari FXX".

Darn, that's a cool car. If I only could afford it...

Blackberry may get ax on E-mail

2005-12-01T11:54:00.000+01:00

Just when I more or less made up my mind on getting a Blackberry, the news broke that the federal judge ruled that a proposed patent settlement isn't enforceable... Which basically means that the so-called Crackberry won't be worth getting to me.

Did read about the trial before, but was hoping they would come to a settlement, but it seems it's not going to be that way.

Don't know how it's going to influence the European version though.

1 down, 1 to go.

2005-11-29T19:46:00.000+01:00

Just bought Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, so I have atleast 1 game for sure on friday. The game got quite some good reviews, but my main game will be Project Gotham Racing 3.

Now the only thing else I need is the Xbox 360 itself ;)

Xbox 360 Launched. eBayers go wild!

2005-11-22T19:48:00.000+01:00

Today, the Xbox 360 launched in the US.

I just checked eBay to see what people would bid on systems. I'm stunned: some people are willing to pay over $2000! Just to illustrate, the two systems in the screenshot are now up to $1375 and $1802, with 14 minutes to go....

Glad I pre-ordered mine with a garuantee to get it on launch date. But if you really want to get it on launch date, and have 2000 EUR ca$h to spent, you can always contact me!

Lynx: Command Injection Vulnerability

2005-11-22T18:55:00.000+01:00

Just found out that the good old lynx has a security flaw. WTF ?!

(yeah, IE has a zero day exploit as well today. but that's not news)

World Wide Television

2005-11-16T22:20:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned before, I sometimes "preview" episodes of TV-Series that are not broadcasted in the Netherlands for months. Biggest issue is keeping track of all the episodes, which you have watched and which you haven't watched yet.

Today all my problems were solved when I found TVTAD, an RSS feed reader with support for unlimited feeds. It will automatically download newly released TV episodes that have been added to your favorites. Try it yourself!

Project Gotham Racing 3 on Xbox 360

2005-11-15T18:36:00.000+01:00

While I still won't be able to play most of my current xbox games on the Xbox 360, I noticed the first reviews coming in for 360 launch titles. Seems my personal favorite is becoming the overall must get title. The only game with a 10 sofar.

"If you're getting only 1 game at launch, this should be that game..." See you online in Xbox live on december 2nd!

Original Xbox Games on Xbox 360

2005-11-12T15:07:00.000+01:00

Darn, Microsoft just announced the compatibility list for the Xbox 360, and my most recently bought game, Burnout Revenge, is not playable on the 360 yet :(

I have a pre-order for the 360 so I can pick it up on December 2nd.
Halo & Halo 2 are ofcourse playable, Project Gotham 2 isn't. Seems I need to keep the old Xbox attached for a while.

Lost: Have they lost it ?!

2005-11-11T07:58:00.000+01:00

Damned, I'm soooo disappointed this year with the new season of Lost...

Last year, I couldn't hardly wait to download^* new episodes of Lost, and I really enjoyed the tension building up, the development of the characters, the cliffhangers etc. I loved the various characters, and while wondering how they could wave everything back together I came up with a lot of possible explanations for the island. I though it was the best series in a long, long time.

This year, I feel I'm watching a terrible accident: You don't want to see it anymore, but you can't stop yourself from looking at it. I get annoyed with some of the characters (e.g. Locke/Michael/Jack), the plot is beginning to feel way too much constructed, they haven't answered a single question we had last season (except for the hatch), and only have given me more questions. Last episode (206- Abandoned) was the first time this season I felt a bit good about watching it, though it only set in in the last quarter of the episode...

I think they had a great idea for a single season, but somehow, due to the success, they had to come up with a lot more episodes/story than they originally anticipated, giving me shitty episodes right now. Wonder if the original storyline is still the same.

Too bad. No DVD box for me if they don't come up with decent episodes soon. I might even stop downloading the new episodes and wait for the end of season to watch them all at once. Especially since they are quite good at taking breaks of OVER A MONTH mid-season. Twice.

This year, I'm into My name is Earl, CSI (as always) and, above all, Prison Break. The last one once was promised to be a single-season story, so I hope they keep up to that (like 24: each story is a single season). I don't get my hopes up, but please, let me keep the dream...

--
^* Yeah, I download television episodes, as I have to wait for months (or even more than a year) before they come over the the Netherlands. Given my DVD Collection, I feel I'm entitled to sometimes take sneak previews :)

Google Sitemaps

2005-11-08T17:30:00.000+01:00

How the hell did I miss this ?!

Google Sitemaps, an easy way for you to help improve your coverage in the Google index. Seems to me one of the more hidden features on Google, so, coming to a game-site near you soon :)

Play an online game, win a ride in space?

2005-11-08T08:22:00.000+01:00

This autumn, SpaceShot will be offering a skill game where players can win a suborbital trip into space.

We offer a highscore-table, now others begin to offer flights in space. Oh great :)

Wedden......?

2005-11-05T09:39:00.000+01:00

I'm usually not the guy that goes around in pubs making bets with other people, but when somebody claimed that PSV did not beat Volendam with 10-0 a couple of years ago, I was into it. So we wagered 2 bottles of Schrobbelèr on it.

Well, ofcourse they did, so, after waiting for more than 3 years, yesterday I finally received the wager.

*grin* Tonight is PSV-Sparta, so we might be up to a new 10-0 :)

IE7 fixes gzip- bug :)

2005-11-02T08:03:00.000+01:00

As I wrote before, IE is having problems with gzipped content. I notified them quite some time ago, and every now and then pinged them about it in the blog. Today, when reading the IE7 blog, there was a new article about IE7 improvements in content caching.

Ofcourse, I asked them once more if the gzip-bug was fixed. Well, to my suprise I got a positive reply!

This will finally allow for sending the "HTTP/1.0 304"-response on gzipped pages to IE users as well, so: reduced serverload, less traffic out! w00t w00t!

Sick People :)

2005-10-31T19:05:00.000+01:00

Sometimes when I'm bored I read bash, the Quote Database. 9 out of 10 times the quotes are pretty lame, and not funny at all.

However, sometimes, out of the blue, you find a new diamond in the rough. Please read it (don't get hold back by the long text), it soo true...

Mohito - Part 2

2005-10-30T19:23:00.000+01:00

Next time, please remind me not to advice a Black Russian to someone when asked what they should drink (atleast, not as their starting drink), as that might influence stability of that person :)

Once again, I enjoyed the Mohito's myself very much @ the thaiphoon.

GMail: Lockdown in sector 4!

2005-10-29T11:12:00.000+02:00

Oops... While configuring and tweaking our newsletter-mailserver, I decided to test the newsletter tool by sending out 100 mails to my gmail account. Within 1 second, I was locked out of my gmail account.

For a moment I was pretty scared, as I switched all my private mail over to my gmail-account... Luckely enough, one minute later I was granted access again. *phew*

Note to self: Don't use your private email-address for testing mass mailservers. But I'm happy that with the current configuration we can send 8 million personalized messages with images/day, so I can always start a career in spamming after this :)

I Go Chop Your Dollars

2005-10-24T16:24:00.000+02:00

The LA Times already mentioned it, and you now can see the video online of the Nigerian top hit "I Go Chop Your Dollars".

A hit about 419 scams. Well, that certainly is a different way to make money.

WSYP project

2005-10-20T18:19:00.000+02:00

WSYP project: Leverage customer feedback for software reliability

Feel the pain! See the Microsoft TechNet video linked above. If only this could be true...

Let's give the man a hand

2005-10-15T18:14:00.000+02:00

Easily available body parts which don't cost an arm and a leg.

Fake ? I think so. Though cleverly done.

Checkout doesn't work.

From there you go to c1d1t1.com, where you can see a vlog with a dead body.

They link to BennyAgra "for any animal you want in 30 days". Later on, they have photo's with a monkey online.

All domains linked above are created in august or september 2005.

Make up your mind yourselve. Hoax or not, the internet keeps amazing me...

$$$$GETRICHNOWEVERYBODYDANCE$$$$

2005-10-12T08:19:00.000+02:00

*grin* Had lots of fun reading Jeff's $$$$GETRICHNOWEVERYBODYDANCE$$$$ blog about getting rich fast on the internet.

Faking to be naive, he discusses the various get-rich-quick scheme's, showing the huge checks he gets (lots of zero's, in fact, all zero's). Wonder if it's a clever marketingcampaign or just somebody fed up with all the get-rich-quick scams.

Stumbled upon it by pressing "next blog" on blogspot, will see if this one will pick up like the MillionDollarHomepage. Wish them luck :)

NewNova.org - SuprNova v2

2005-10-08T13:57:00.000+02:00

Interesting, just found out that yesterday NewNova.org has been opened. NewNova is built upon the old script from SuprNova, the old mega-BitTorrent public info site.

Looks like The Pirate Bay might be getting serious competition again!

I like it, as HBO currently is attacking BitTorent downloads.

Cogent vs. Level 3

2005-10-06T14:47:00.000+02:00

Seems that right now, Cogent and Level 3 are no longer peering with each other.
Lots of (single-homed) people got disconnected. Cogent is known for its cheap, very cheap bandwidth. Not that high quality, but, well, cheap.

As somebody said on slashdot :

Cogent fancies itself a Tier 1 provider [...], and L3 IS a Tier 1 provider.
[..] Whichever company blinks first .. loses. If L3 blinks, they re-peer with Cogent, which gives Cogent more political power when it comes to other Tier 1s. If Cogent blinks first, they either send their packets via other Tier 1 providers to get to L3 or buy transit from L3. If Cogent blinks .. other Tier 1 providers are going to look at it and say 'hey, we could be making money too' and multiple instances of today will replay themselves out across the net.

Cogent's sells bandwidth for cheap ... too cheap to actually make any money at it, and now the house of cards is folding.

Wonder if this is the start of bandwidth prices increasing. I do remember the prices from 4 years ago, just after the Internet bubble bursted. On one moment we had to pay 900 EUR/Mbps... Compare that to today. Will certainly keep an eye on this!

AIBO's Mind 3

2005-10-03T08:19:00.000+02:00

w00t w00t, Sony has anounced Mind 3 for the AIBO. It seems this one has blog-capabilities, so I'll no longer be (one of) the only one who has an AIBO with a roblog...

Lots of new (software) features on a new 128 MB Mind 2 stick! Seems the upgrade will cost around EUR 100, so Brenda, prepare thyself for an upgrade!

Casuality Europe

2005-09-28T12:10:00.000+02:00

Together with a number of Casual Game companies from both the US and Europe, the company I work for, Zylom, will be organizing a fully dedicated 2-day Casual Games conference named 'Casuality Europe; to be held in Amsterdam early February of next year! You can expect all the top game developers, publishers and distributors from the US and Europe to be there

For more information on content and registration please visit: http://www.casuality.org/.

The Million Dollar Homepage

2005-09-13T17:17:00.000+02:00

Darn, I wish I still had some sites to promote. See The Million Dollar Homepage, an Uber Cool idea.

If I hadn't spent all my money in Vegas, I would have bought a 100x20 spot :( Good luck to this guy, he already made $8,700 of it!

Why don't I get these ideas...

Las Vegas - Very soon...

2005-08-30T18:52:00.000+02:00

In 3.5 days I'll be heading to Las Vegas.
Can't hardly wait, it's my first real vacation in 4 years. Got a lot of information from the TripAdvisor forums, highly addictive!

TheHOUSE

2005-08-20T18:54:00.000+02:00

Visit TheHOUSE if you dare... Very creepy!

The Sith Sense: Darth Vader

2005-08-19T21:37:00.000+02:00

OK, first evening @home on a friday in, well, a year, so surfing the net for stupid things and drinking Pere Ventura. Suddenly found the mind-reading Darth Vader.

Not that he was able to guess what I was thinking of (Brenda), but I noticed that after around 25 questions I could submit what I was thinking of.

Seems like a very sneaky and nice way to build a great guessing system, because you can choose between 6 answers each time, so (in a perfect world), the system could "guess" 6^25 items, which is around 28,4 * 10e18, which seems large enough to me :)

Finding warez using Google

2005-08-19T20:55:00.000+02:00

Someone wrote a guide about finding warez using Google. Google China, to be exact. Seems the chinese are coming, and fast.

Saw some cracks for our games, as usual. Not that you can't find the anywhere else... :(

Google Ads: ouch

2005-08-15T08:46:00.000+02:00

Was just reading a (Dutch) news article about somebody falling to death during a parachute jump, and then noticed the google-ad below it: An advert for skydiving. *ouch*

The Aristocrats

2005-08-13T15:16:00.000+02:00

Finally, the infamous South Park version of The Aristocrats has it's own website. See Cartman the Aristocrat now!

MSN Virtual Earth vs. Google Maps: Vegas

2005-07-25T14:57:00.000+02:00

MSN has just launched their mapping service, Virtual Earth, a direct competitor to Google Maps.

As I will be heading to Vegas early September (w00t w00t!), I checked out the Bellagio Hotel on both services.

See for yourselve:

MSN Virtual Earth: Bellagio Hotel

Google Maps: Bellagio Hotel

Not only is the google one "full" color, it also is much more up to date^*, in fact the MSN one is showing the Bellagio when it wasn't built yet.

On the other hand, MSN's Virtual Earth is much more responsive, and my scrollwheel works nicely inthere.

^* Based upon a sample with n=1

Zylom Games Player: not spyware

2005-07-19T16:16:00.000+02:00

*sigh*
Due to Microsoft basically removing Java from their browser, nowadays most browsergames are ActiveX (don't get me started about Flash). This however requires you to install an ActiveX object, to allow downloading the games and play them in your browser. We spent quite some time creating a good loader object which works onder IE and Firefox (Wintel). This loader object is required to play (our) ActiveX games.

However, each and every day I get google alerts regarding postings on forums with hijackthis logfiles, and other people suggesting to those people to remove the Zylom Games Player. Then afterwards they contact our support that "suddenly the games stopped working", when ofcourse they never changed a bit (except for removing our player).

So if you see a line like
O16 - DPF: {BFF1950D-B1B4-4AE8-B842-B2CCF06D9A1B} (Zylom Games Player)
in you hijackthis log, don't worry, it's not spyware. It's our game-extension and is required to play the games.

See the zylom help as well.

Survived Extrema Outdoor 2005

2005-07-17T11:22:00.000+02:00

Just back from Extrema Outdoor 2005, an outdoor dance festival. Sun was shining and hot, beer&wodka was cold :) Spent WAY too much money (4 EUR/bottle of beer), but it was (once again) good.

Went to a private afterparty after that, partying till my brains shut me down.

Have fun!

GMail Phishing Protection

2005-07-07T16:38:00.000+02:00

Just noticed the GMail Phishing Protection.

Everybody will have received those phony eBay, Paypal and Citybank emails every once in a while, and I must admit that sometimes it's hard to tell if they are real or not (just look at the source).

Today I got my first phishing email on my gmail-account, which is kinda strange as I keep that email-address kinda secret, I only use it for webshops / orders and registrations on (to my believe) trustworthy sites. Somehow however they got to my email (or are just randomly spamming).

But what suprised me most was the big, red bar above the message, warning me for a possible scam. All links where disabled, no picture-load button. Very nice, as ofcourse it was a scam (looking at the original message), but this really will help all nitwits (i.e., > 90% of the public). I'm impressed.

LIVE 8

2005-07-02T20:33:00.000+02:00

Have been watching LIVE 8 all day, didn't expect to watch it. Was zapping around this day, and saw the first minutes. Haven't turned my TV off since then, though must say I'm not that actively watching, but more a background music screen.

Raised my head a bit ago, when Madonna said 'fuck', wondering "Is this broadcasted live in the US ?" Who the fuck cares, btw.

Pac Man turns 25

2005-06-17T11:30:00.000+02:00

As has been noted in various media, Pac Man turns 25 this year!

As I like these old arcade games, I build a MAME cabinet myself, reliving my yought. I however was quite pleased and astonished when I found out that somebody has created Pacman for Excel. Try it yourself!

Mohito!

2005-06-11T13:37:00.000+02:00

Just came back from a few days in London.
Did drink a bit too many raspberry mohito's at Henry's Bar + Cafe last night, I'm afraid.
But I must say that you can have a really good time in London, a lot of bars/pubs to attend! Will be back, as the flight costed 70 EUR, of which 50 EUR where taxes...

I Hate That Crazy Frog

2005-06-08T14:56:00.000+02:00

No comments.

P.S.: I still don't smoke!

I will use Google before asking dumb questions.

2005-05-31T19:49:00.000+02:00

Yeah, I'm talking to you!

A Gamers' Manifesto

2005-05-30T17:41:00.000+02:00

Ever played console games ? Then read the Gamers' Manifesto, a perfect rant against all stupid things in games.

IE: still broken with gzipped content.

2005-05-26T20:13:00.000+02:00

Due to my work at Zylom, I read the IEBlog a lot to stay informed about the development process of IE, the major browser. Firefox is nice, and not to be overlooked, but as long as our userbase is >90% IE-based, IE is on top of my attention-list.

Too bad however that IE still has the ETAG bug with gzipped content, as I already reported early 2003!. I discovered this bug when I was working on jpcache, the lightweight php cache. Internet Explorer basically ignores the ETag headers on these pages (it does not send a If-None-Matched header back), so you will retrieve the same page over and over again on subsequent hits, which you can test yourself.

I know they are aware of this, as the Channel 9 Wiki mentions it in the IE Bugs overview.

*grumble grumble* It basically removes all the advantages of sending gzippped pages :(

P.S.: I still don't smoke!

Download your brain onto a computer

2005-05-23T15:50:00.000+02:00

A British futurologist believes that it will be possible to download your brain onto a computer in about 50 years.

Well, what movie(s) does that remind me of? Would be neat someway, but in 50 years I'm (if still alive) 80, and I don't think I want to remember everything, let alone back it up.

Star Wars: Episode III

2005-05-19T16:49:00.000+02:00

Just less than 2 hours left, and I'll see Star Wars: Episode III. Yeah, I'm a nerd :)

Rest assured that I WONT dress up with a lightsaber etc., and that I did not sleep in front of the cinema to see it, in fact, I only decided to go this afternoon.

Google News - Sci/Tech

2005-05-13T13:58:00.000+02:00

My new startpage: Google News - Sci/Tech. News for nerds, stuff that matters now, not like in 4 days (yes slashdot, that's you I'm talking about).

MPAA targets TV download sites

2005-05-13T10:55:00.000+02:00

Damn. Today I found out that my favorite Torrent site, btefnet, was down. Quickly googled it, and found out that the MPAA targets TV download sites, among which btefnet.net.

Very sad to see it go, as it was my primary resource for TV torrents, and I used it a lot to follow the US seasons os the Simpsons/Lost/Numb3rs/CSI etc. Oh well, back to usenet for now.

Quit Smoking

2005-05-12T11:59:00.000+02:00

I (am trying to) quit smoking since last monday.

Had been partying 5 days in a row:

Wednesday: PSV - AC Milan

Thursday: Bevrijdingsdag

Friday & Saterday: Moulin Blues

Sunday: PSV Kampioenen

On thurday I already felt miserable in my throat, on monday morning I smoked my last cigarette, as I couldn't speak anymore and my whole troat was feeling thick.

For the first time in years I managed to quit for more than 1 day, and right now I do not even have the need for a smoke. Wonder how long I'll manage to be clean this time, though I'm now more and more convinced that this is the last time I can stop myself (if not, smoking will stop me).

Stay tuned for more no-smoking updates :)

My MAME Cabinet

2005-04-21T18:36:00.000+02:00

Picked up work on my MAME Cabinet again. Haven't used it much since the PC has gone up in flames, but as it's a fully JAMMA cabinet, have played a bit with the various JAMMA-boards I have.

Decided to go for an ArcadeVGA and J-PAC from Ultimarc, as it seems the quickest way to get this done.

Spent some time on the Dell website, and could get a Dimension 2400 (Celeron 2.6 Ghz, 80GB HDD) for 322 EUR, incl TAX & delivery... Seems a very cheap solution to me :)

Check out the MAME website for more information on playing you old time favorite games!

Wonder pill, w00t w00t!

2005-04-19T22:57:00.000+02:00

A new 'wonder pill' that helps patients lose weight and give up smoking. Sounds like a deal to me!

Where can I order these thingies ? Money is no objection :)

Only YOU have the power to Save Toby!

2005-04-12T14:02:00.000+02:00

WTF ?! Savetoby.com | Only YOU have the power to Save Toby!.

Right now it's at 25.000$... What are these people thinking ?!

I would say: EAT THE F*CKING RABBIT!

Brenda's roblog: Aibo #2

2005-03-29T21:19:00.000+02:00

Brenda, my new toy, is the 2nd AIBO with an own roblog. Pedro was the first and inspired me to setup the roblog.
See Brenda taking pictures at random intervals and uploading them.

Yahoo! Search - Creative Commons Search

2005-03-28T13:51:00.000+02:00

Yahoo is fighting back! Instead of Google coming up with something new, this time it's yahoo with their Creative Commons Search.
This search engine allows you to search for media files (either text/images/sounds/whatever) which are under the Creative Commons License.

In short, this license often allows you to use the media for own use, and sometimes even commecially. Which is why it got my attention :)

Happy hunting!

Play PriceWatch : v2

2005-03-19T22:53:00.000+01:00

Just hacked some more things together at the Play PriceWatch, so it's now up to version 2. It's now much more intuitive, and also much nicer on the Play servers :) So if you regularly but DVD's at Play.com or PlayUSA.com, you better should have a look at the pricewatch!

New mantra: Capitalism

2005-03-15T09:02:00.000+01:00

I came to the conclusion that the mantra of capitalism is a 100% fit with me :)

I even ordered a bumpersticker (customize your text) of this for on my new car, but also sold a couple stickers to some colleagues.

Toys for boys!

Study: Consumers Delete Cookies at Surprising Rate

2005-03-14T12:57:00.000+01:00

According to this study, 40% of the consumers delete their cookies. This is suprisingly high for me.

People seem to do this because of 'privacy issues', however, I wonder how many people realize that they need to relogin on their favorite websites too when deleting these cookies. The risks of cookies are overhyped, I for one never delete them. It really screws up your surfing experience when you delete them that often...

Smart Roadster!

2005-03-12T19:50:00.000+01:00

Yipee! Today, after a wait for over 4 months, it finally arrived, my new Smart Roadster!

Very cool, seems I'm getting all the gadgets in 1 week :)

AIBO !

2005-03-06T09:22:00.000+01:00

I just ordered an AIBO! Was really wanting one to buy for over a year now, and the price kept helding me back.

Last friday, while talking in the bar with come colleagues about it, I got convinced and decided to buy one! I really can't wait for it to arrive!

Thaiphoon - something to do in Roermond ?!

2005-02-28T10:38:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday I was going out in Roermond. The city is not known for it's ambiant clubs and bars, in fact, I really dislike most of the bars overthere (but hey, some friends of mine live there, so you do what it takes) :)

However, I was pleasantly surprised when I visited the Thaiphoon - Bar | Restaurant | Club. Seems whole hip & trendy Roermond was visiting that place, though I must say that they tried a bit too hard to be hip & trendy.

They should have removed the tables earlier from the dancefloor, and though it might seem hip to let people wait 15 minutes for their drinks, it's not!

But overall I recommend it, atleast I'll be visiting Roermond a lot more often.

Carnaval!

2005-02-04T09:12:00.000+01:00

Signing' off for a 5 day experience of carnaval. It's 100% fun, booze & women, but in the end you'll always end up drunk somehow.

I'll end in Ospel, but till that time you can find me with a frog on my head (see left picture) somewhere in Brabant & Limburg :)

Jailed for using a nonstandard browser

2005-01-28T09:24:00.000+01:00

Yeah! Somebody got jailed for using a nonstandard browser. You 're gonna get what's coming to you, *nix hippies!

*grin* I use lynx too sometimes, but will not use it for making donations.

Online ordering

2005-01-11T13:24:00.000+01:00

Darn, spent a couple of hours to get a bottle of Champagne delivered to a friend of mine on her birthday, but all online stores either only deliver during daytime (while everybody is working ofcourse, and I don't want her to have to pick it up from the post office) or don't carry Champagne.

I could however send her a box of coca cola, but I think that's even less preferable :)
So much for customer experience with online shops when you want to have something delivered to somebody else's home.

Sorry Yfke, no champgne for you today :(

New year...

2005-01-03T16:30:00.000+01:00

Guess I will have to become a member of the AA after last new year celebrations...

Started drinking at around 16.00 and last thing I remember is going to the bar at around 00.30. After that, I know I was awake at 10.00, but as I always only sleep for 2 till 3 hours (even after going out), I'm probably missing like 6 hours of that night :( Hope I didn't make a real ass of myself, but I already was told that I was harassing some girls that night, so I guess I did...

Anyway, happy new year! (and sorry everybody).

WeirdPier.com - offline

2004-12-28T17:15:00.000+01:00

I finally took forum (and chat) on WeirdPier.com offline, after many years of struggle with both local authorities as forum-users.

I already took the Anarchist Cookbook down some time ago, and so now the forum too. I didn't feel like any need to keep it up anymore.

It was fun while it lasted!

nerd

2004-12-14T01:19:00.000+01:00

Oh god, I'm a nerd... I waited till 0.00am hours to order the Minas Morgul, only to find out they use PST instead of GMT. This really suxx, as I now have to wait till 08.00am tomorrow morning.

Thing is that I already have the Gollum statue, so I really need to have this one too :)

And on a personal note: Y!

Play PriceWatch

2004-11-28T20:09:00.000+01:00

Had some sparetime this afternoon, so I wrote the PPW: Play PriceWatch. I order a lot of DVD's at Play.com, but sometimes I just want to wait till the price drops.

This will be a lot easier for me :)

Back from Istanbul!

2004-11-23T07:29:00.000+01:00

Just came back from a 4 day vacation in Istanbul, where I had a good time with a couple of friends from my old student-club Demos.

Istanbul is very cheap (like €2 for a beer), hotels are cheap too (and quite nice), and you can pick up real imitations of Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger for around € 8 :)

Halo 2

2004-11-10T13:21:00.000+01:00

Yipee!!!! Just picked up a copy of Halo 2 at our local store, one day before it officially is for sale. Just asked if it was in, and it was :)

See Bungie.net : Stats : Halo 2 for an overview of all kind of stats.

Firefox - Rediscover the web

2004-11-09T17:27:00.000+01:00

Firefox 1.0 has been released! Though I mostly surf using IE 6, this is a very good alternative.

Too bad it does not support ActiveX at all (out of the box), which gives problems with our newest games like Zuma, AstroPop and others...

Theo van Gogh...

2004-11-02T10:57:00.000+01:00

This morning we got the news that Theo van Gogh, a Dutch moviemaker, has been murdered in Amsterdam. Nothing is clear yet, though right now it seems that he might be murdered due to his recent project,
Submission, part ONE, a short movie about the Islam and the most women-unfriendly texts in the Koran.

DAMNED, where is this heading to when you no longer can say what you want, and get shot down for this...

Electronic voting machines in Florida

2004-10-25T16:01:00.000+02:00

Electronic voting machines in Florida :)

Boston Red Sox: Cool!

2004-10-22T10:02:00.000+02:00

Just came back from a businesstrip to the US. While normally I don't give a sh*t about the US sports, I must say that I was very much taken away with the NYY versus the Boston Red Sox games.
I did see all 4 games, and was very much in favour of the underdog, which eventually was the right choise :) See the Boston Red Sox Official Site for more info!

Smart coming to America

2004-10-09T15:06:00.000+02:00

I drive one myself, but untill recently they weren't allowed in the US. But now the Smart is coming!

Read about it on Wired!

Phone home

2004-10-07T11:25:00.000+02:00

Always wondered how much radiation your mobile is emiting ?

Look at the SAR Information-page and find your phone, and find out if your brain might get cooked!

(Though I suspect that phones which don't comply to the standard as not listed)

SpaceShipOne captures X Prize

2004-10-04T18:02:00.000+02:00

w00t w00t! SpaceShipOne has done it, two succesfull space flights in a week!
The X Price is a $10 million prize for the first commercial spaceship that goes into space.
This means that consumer space-flight is coming soon to a location near you!
(well, if you have a) A lot of cash b) Are willing to move to the states c) Are not too scared).

But it's nice this has been done. The Wright brothers where also the first, but it took quite some time before commercial flight took of.

Read more about it on CNN

JPEG Exploit in the wild

2004-09-28T09:20:00.000+02:00

Everybody, please update your Windows-PC's. Last sunday, the first JPEG Exploit was found in the wild.
It seems this one is going to cause major havoc, as it is now possible to get infected by just looking at an image...

Ofcourse, right now it are not exactly images of houses you are looking at :)

Rising Star!

2004-09-24T09:59:00.000+02:00

Yeah! The company I work for (Zylom) has been given a Rising Star award, a price for most promising young technology company.
Read more on the Deloitte Technology Rising Star competitie 2004 (dutch)

A Short History of Nearly Everything

2004-09-24T07:00:00.000+02:00

Recommended reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything. Very good book, love his writing style.

ESV Demos

2004-09-23T06:38:00.000+02:00

Stumbled upon Martin, a member of my former student association, on my way to work, when he just came out of the bar (note: 6am). God, I miss being a student every now and then.

Spent the first 3 to 4 years of my study practically living at ESV Demos, not doing much studying :) Then suddenly decided that it was time to start studying, and started (and finished) my Masters Thesis in Computing Science in the two years thereafter.

But after graduating, you get a job and everything changes. Almost everything is now crammed together into the weekends (which start on friday-night), and I live by my agenda ("no, already have something then. 3 weeks from now ?").

Damn, I miss being a student sometimes.

OMG!

2004-09-22T19:54:00.000+02:00

Oh My God! I'm afraid this won't pass through customs overhere, but it's a definite must have:

KoreanDVDs.com is pleased to announce the strictly limited edition Bourne Supremacy DVD collectors pack. Released on 7th Decemeber this package will be housed in a fully authentic 110x40cm long crate containing the special edition DVD, Various paper cut out targets from the film (including the popular Julia Stiles), and a fully functional limited Edition Bourne Supremacy M24 Sniper Rifle with display stand and display sign.

RRP:$699
Released:7th December

(BTW: I think it's a fake, but just the thought of it is good enough for me)

Philips - Sense and Simplicity

2004-09-22T07:14:00.000+02:00

Did see the new Philips campaigns last week, promoting their new slogan 'Sense and Simplicity'. While they are correct in that most electronics might be too hard to operate for the average guy, they feature the HDRW-720 in the campaing.

This is absolutely nuts, as I own one, and it must be the single most complex piece of electronics I ever bought. "When in recording mode, press and hold the red button to delete the scene. Just quickly press it to save". WTF ?! If you hold the red button too long, it deletes instead of saves. Who ever came up with this interface ?

I absolutely love the HDRW, but simplicity ?! No way! I still recommend it to everybody, but it has a steep learning curve.

More info about the HDRW 720 here.

Which OS Are You?

2004-09-22T06:58:00.000+02:00

Found today: Which OS Are You?.

Yeah, geek humour, but what OS are YOU ?!

I can up being

Well, considering it's the best OS Microsoft has released for now, I could have scored much worde (like Windows ME) :)

Pac-Man!

2004-09-21T16:03:00.000+02:00

Isn't this the most beautiful thing ever ?

Pac-man.

More on the Paper Arcade itself.

Thanks to Cas for the link!

Star Wars DVD's

2004-09-21T14:04:00.000+02:00

God, how do I hate this...

Fond memories of the Star Wars trilogy, and suddenly Greedo shoots first.

Steven Spielberg messed with E.T., and now Lucas is doing it again.

Glad I have some 'less legal' copies of some original episodes.

First entry, second try

2004-09-21T06:37:00.000+02:00

Ramble Ramble. Welcome to my blog.

It's 6.40am, just spent 2 hours updating our gameservers in a nice, synchronized order so our players won't notice, and just felt like publishing a blog, as the whole world seems to do.

Expect a random collection of thoughts, sites, bookmarks etc. (kinda like everybody), but this time they are mine!

Have fun!

[ afternote: Also just detected that blogspot doesn't like sea-surfing, as I had to rewrite this, because I had 2 windows open, saving my profile and publishing this post at the same time. Post was lost.That is so 2000... ]