Dreams Unlimited©

Diary

archives

A list of recent thoughts, things I saw or things I spotted on the Net, things that excite me (Uuh, baby!) or upset me, stuff I hate or love or in any other way find worth the trouble of blogging right here for your entertainment or interest and my archive. ;)

	Monday, September 29 Christian is Master of the World! #Posted by Dreams on 21:57 Breaking News - Top Story: "It's official, Christian is the new king of masturbation. In a stunning feat of endurance and determination, Christian achieved 36 orgasms in a 24 hour period! " I just want it to be known... so no more shit about my size or anything... I'll see your prick and raise you mine! Eat that! hihi :)
	Sunday, September 28 The Borg Megacube #Posted by Dreams on 20:10 The BorgMegaCube: "Paramount have just released full details of their November 3rd release of The Borg Megacube. This set will include every single episode from all seven seasons of the highly acclaimed Sci Fi TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Containing no less than 48 DVDs and boasting a £449.99 RRP, this could be the largest and most expensive commercial DVD box set released to date." Wooooow! That would be sooo cool! Extremely expensive too, but soo cool! hihi
	Fanimatrix #Posted by Dreams on 20:05 Fanimatrix: "'The Fanimatrix - Run Program' is a collaboration between over a dozen professional actors, stuntpeople, special effects artists as well as an amateur filmmaking crew (all based in New Zealand)"... read the details to find out more. Cooool! The actual movie is already in the download section (73MB low-res DivX).
	Saturday, September 27 mini-itx.com - what is mini-itx? #Posted by Dreams on 13:45 What is mini-itx?: "Mini-ITX is a motherboard form factor created by VIA. Motherboards are available from VIA, and other manufacturers such as Lucky Star. Mini-ITX motherboards have a processor soldered to the board and a rich supporting chipset providing networking, graphics and sound. This means that by adding just some memory, a hard drive and a power supply, you have a full computer. You might want to add a case, but this is optional ;) Mini-ITX motherboards are very cheap. But they are powerful enough to play back full screen video through their monitor or TV output. Mini-ITX motherboards are very small. The specification requires that the boards are 170mm x 170mm (6.75' x 6.75')" Imagine what you could do with that... Take a look at their projects... People have built mini-itx PCs into glove compartments, inside a Commodore 64, in cardboard, inside old network routers, in helmets and so on and so forth... Some people are really clever and realyl creative and have way too much time on their hands! ;) :respect:
	Friday, September 26 Restaurant "De Pakschuit" #Posted by Dreams on 18:16 Discovered two wonderful restaurants in The Hague (Den Haag) yesterday! One really isn't: "de paas". It's more a Belgian beer and Whiskey pub. Also excellent, and I'll surely try it out at least once... But the other is great cute cozy tapas place! "De Pakschuit" is located on the Dunne Bierkade, near tram stop Bierkade, and really cute. I made some pictures there to give you an idea of the place. The food is excellent but they don't have a huge selection. Instead everything is fresh and home made. Service is mega friendly and the place feels really cute and romantic. I highly recommend it!
	Thursday, September 25 New Spin for Electronics #Posted by Dreams on 18:27 Computerworld writes New Spin for Electronics: "Imagine a data storage device the size of an atom, working at the speed of light. Imagine a microprocessor whose circuits could be changed on the fly. One minute, it would be optimized for database access, the next for transaction processing and the next for scientific number-crunching. Finally, imagine a computer memory thousands of times denser and faster than today's memories. And nonvolatile, so it retains its contents when the power is off." Interested? Read on! It's too cool for my words... :9
	ThinkGeek :: R/C Shooting Battle Tanks #Posted by Dreams on 18:18 ThinkGeek :: R/C Shooting Battle Tanks: "Direct from Japan, this R/C battle tank is ready to bring your childhood battle simulation dreams to life in the comfort of your home or office. Like any childhood battle simulation dream, however, the Battle Tank is not appropriate for children." But it's perfectly safe for children of 30 and older! ROFL Gimme gimme gimme! Cooool, I'd love to fight things out with friends on, during or before a BBQ! Haha, MrVanes, you better be ready! And Mleen, you can learn to kick Michel ass!
	EU Parliament Votes for Real Limits on Patentability #Posted by Dreams on 18:10 EU Parliament Votes for Real Limits on Patentability: "In its plenary vote on the 24th of September, the European Parliament approved the proposed directive on 'patentability of computer-implemented inventions' with amendments that clearly restate the non-patentability of programming and business logic, and uphold freedom of publication and interoperation." Pfffew, there is a god after all. Either that people suddenly appear to have some commen sense left in them after all. ;) I haven't read the new patent law in details, and I haven't spoken to people who really either (yet, I'll be back at work next week)... but it seems not all is lost and the new directive (more) firmly defines what is not patentable. That's a great help to me personally. :)
	Wednesday, September 24 Wonderful Indian Summer #Posted by Dreams on 18:32 Despite the accident we had today, I can still appreciate life. Perhaps even more...! But it's a gorgeous day and the sun is shining, blue skies and fall just lingering around the corner... sigh Here is a picture of the Rijswijkse park near where I work, on my way to the sauna, so we can shake off the stress from the car crash...
	Car Crash part 3 #Posted by Dreams on 17:58 All pictures of car crash that Petra and I had today are now online... It looks like the car is totalled and can't or won't be repaired. Est. damages are €3500 or more and it's a 7 years old VW Polo... :(
	Car Crash part 2 #Posted by Dreams on 14:20 Now drawing up insurance papers do getting ready to go home, get temp car, settle things and go to sauna! Was the plan anyway!
	Car Crash part 1 #Posted by Dreams on 12:45 Had big fender bender on highway A13! Happened at 12:3x or so. All is well but need to get new loaner etc. Pics soon!
	Secure Linux packages not so secure after all... #Posted by Dreams on 11:44 Using Linux with certain security packages to make your system completely secure? Think again. Turns out it's possible to create insecure 'security' products just as readily with open-source as with closed-source software. Be careful what you do and verify your results before trusting them 100%... Read a message by cryptographer and security expert Peter Gutmann: cryptography@c2.net mail archive"
	Roberto's public listening tests #Posted by Dreams on 11:40 Roberto's public listening tests: "The recent developments in perceptual audio coding, including new formats like AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Musepack and Windows Media Audio (WMA) , have brought competition to an arena formerly completely dominated by MP3. Users want to check out these novelties, but frequently stumble over the doubt of 'What to choose?'. The purpose of this page is hosting the public tests I conduce from time to time. This includes hosting instructions, results, graphs, etc."
	The Fastest Man on Earth or "Murphy's Law" #Posted by Dreams on 11:34 The Fastest Man on Earth, or better "Why Everything You Know About Murphy is Wrong". It lists and documents the origin of Murphy's Law (really).
	Tax in MMORPG "Second Life" #Posted by Dreams on 11:29 If you know what RPG means and you play or have played things like Neverwinter, Diablo, DeusEx, Everquest or so, and are interested in the greater scheme behind these games, rather than just play a game... read this review on the Second Life Tax Revolt: "Second Life chose to deal with this problem proactively by imposing a tax on all objects, payable in in-game currency. The 'Linden tax,' named after the game's developer, gives players an incentive to get rid of things they don't really want any more. The itself tax is somewhat complicated, measuring both an item's 'cost' in terms of processing time, and also something of its 'value' to players. Big things, prominent things, things with scripts -- they cost your more in tax to hold onto."
	EU Parliament On Software Patents #Posted by Dreams on 10:59 Today is a big day in politics... Time will tell if capitalism and power and lobbying rules or if common sense is still at least somewhat present in the minds of the people who rule the EU... (insert Jaws sound here) Today the EU parliament decides about changing the laws on Software Patents, in which computer programs and software-implemented business-methods can from hereforth be patented in the EU as they can in the US and JP (in a way). Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux) and Alan Cox have already sent an open letter to the members of the European Parliament. They ask for strict limitations to software patents, argue for open standards and ask the members of the parliament to follow FFII's voting recommendations. It's a tricky business, but I have to agree with the people who really know what they're talking about (politicians don't). I think we shouldn't allow for it. It's too tricky and creates too much room for companies to act counter-productive to the whole idea of patents, innovation and competition. Until we can formulate a clear and unambiguous way to describe and claim software inventions and business methods (which is highly unlikely), we should not give it the benefit of the doubt because it will be impossible to turn it back. There's no test case (the US already is one and it's gone sour years ago). So I hope the good guys win, for once. Otherwise I will completely swear off politics forever...
	Tuesday, September 23 :::MECCA strandpaviljoen::: #Posted by Dreams on 23:42 LOL Fuck me! :::MECCA strandpaviljoen:::, one of my two favorite hangouts this past summer has "stolen" most of my PINK pictures. :) hihi I mailed them a link and told them it was okay, but please include a reference. They didn't, that's not nice, but still... you can see me and Petra when you go to their site, click 'pictures' and then select PINK on August 10th. Enjoy! PS: I nicked their logo and posted it on this site with all kinds of tags for search engines to pick up on... so anyone searching for Mecca will find me first! hihi :devil:
	W32/Swen.A@mm virus spreading (update568.exe) #Posted by Dreams on 23:18 This is getting on my nerves... I am getting more and more messages with viruses attached to them. That's no news, I know, but these are looking very authentic. Especially as if they're coming from Microsoft and contains anti-virus stuff such as fixes, patches, updates and so on. Please, PLEASE, be careful when getting these! Never run attachment straight from mail, not even from people you know and trust!!! Always save them first. This will force your anti-virus software to scan the file and prevent infection of your computer, because it will intercept your attempt to run it, after it has been saved. Here is a screenshot of a mail message with the W32/Swen.A@mm virus (update568.exe) attached to it, as well as the text of message: "Microsoft Customer, this is the latest version of security update, the 'September 2003, Cumulative Patch' update which eliminates all known security vulnerabilities affecting MS Internet Explorer, MS Outlook and MS Outlook Express as well as three new vulnerabilities..." and so on
	DFILM - Personal Flash Movies #Posted by Dreams on 18:21 I think I blogged this before... (Yes, I really need a good search engine for my blog, I know.) But just in case... DFILM lets you send an "E-card" to friends, but not only an E-card, more like an E-movie of E-flick. :) Really simpel to put together some items and props into a flash movie, add some text or lines you want to say to your friend, and voila... a custom-made Flash E-Flick for your friend or loved one. :) Cool! (y) Recommended!
	Comments activated! #Posted by Dreams on 18:07 I've added comments to my blog, so should you feel the need to say something about my post, feel free. No registration or anything required, just a name. Your Email and site are optional, but much appreciated. :) Anyway, if you think what I posted is really good or bad, very usefull and absolutely terrible, lemme know! :D Fire away!
	Denk Producties: coaching courses with (a devilish) twist #Posted by Dreams on 17:13 Here's an interesting company that gives provocative coaching sessions: Denk Producties. Got this from a friend of mine. Courses like "Negotiating for women". Hmmm, I get some really interesting pictures with that title! :) Or "How do I survive my project". LOL What about "Manipulating meetings"? Man, I wish I'd had that when I was working at KPN Research... hehehe :devil:
	Monday, September 22 languagehat.com: RDIAENG. #Posted by Dreams on 16:39 "Sdnous lkie smoe lgnisiuctis gard sdnetut has jsut been hdnaed a gaert tihses tpioc." :D It's going all over the net... and there even are Perl scripts to scramble your site/blog/mail. Cool! :nerd:
	Iiinteresting, iiisn't iiit?! #Posted by Dreams on 15:48 Subject: The Eye Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Got this from my friend Sjoerdski... It's soo cool I thought I'd blog it right away... :) Thanks, Sjoed. (y)
	Saturday, September 13 My smug: Birthday Imro #Posted by Dreams on 23:51 13 september marks the birthday of my friend Imro. This year on a Saturday, so very convenient. We slept there too and went straight to the airport on Sunday morning to go to Ibiza. :) Woohoo! Great great weekend...
	ZANDhap Seastar Awards 2003 #Posted by Dreams on 21:38 My favorite dinner-gathering site, ZANDhap, presented today the first annual award for the best food for a beach club in the The Hague area: The Seastar (Zeester). Beach clubs Wij, Zuid and de Waterreus, all in Scheveningen, were nominated. Beach club Buiten received an honorable mention because they had great food but no saté. And the price and quality of the saté. a typical trendy thing to eat on the beach, was what it was all about... See my gallery for the pictures and the winners... :)
	Hands-on test of the Nokia N-gage #Posted by Dreams on 12:06 Finally, a hands-on review... Nokia N-Gage: "It looks and feels like an Game Boy Advance on a diet, and although it's large by modern mobile phone standards, it fits comfortably in an average trouser pocket and is light enough to carry around comfortably. To look at, it's an attractive piece of technology - curvaceous and shiny, it's got a fashionable 'high tech' feel about it which contrasts strongly with the original GBA design, if less so with the new clamshell GBA SP."
	Canon DIGITAL IXUS i #Posted by Dreams on 11:42 Canon has launched a new digicam, the DIGITAL IXUS i . It's a small (like the Sony DSC-U20/U30 and Pentax Optio S/S4) and leight weight cam, 4 Mpx but no optical zoom. It does, however have 5.7x digital zoom. That may seem bad, but with 4 Mpx to spare, it is not as bad as it sounds. Trust me. The cam is super stylish. Worst thing, in my opinion is that it used SD cards. :frusty: :S Go figure? They all use CF cards, and now this one switches. Prolly to do with the compact size. SD is much smaller than a CF card... but still... Don't understand it. :(
	Friday, September 12 Microsoft TechNet #Posted by Dreams on 14:32 Uh Oh! Better get patchin' again! Buffer Overrun In RPCSS Service Could Allow Code Execution
	P2P file sharing... interesting! #Posted by Dreams on 14:27 Wired reports BigChampagne is Watching You: "...he can see in astonishing detail when, where, and what Internet users are sharing on peer-to-peer file-swapping services like Kazaa, Morpheus, and Grokster. He searches for cities where downloads of the band's single are outpacing its exposure on radio. He likes what he sees. In Atlanta, sharing of the group's new album is up more than 1,200 percent over the previous week..."
	Thursday, September 11 Hilarious T-shirts #Posted by Dreams on 16:21 OK, one more quicky then... Cash'nCarrion have great T-shirts for sale. OK, they're highly nerdy and most people prolly won't understand... but those who will make your day! ROFL Check these out, for example if you're a geek, linux user to plain old nerd. (I'm one and not ashamed to say it!) :D
	You're too stupid to own a computer... #Posted by Dreams on 16:16 The Register reports that City&Guilds did a study of people using computers: "A staggering one in seven technologically challenged employees needs help even switching their computers on and off, according to research commissioned by City & Guilds. The UK vocational awarding body's study of 405 random UK financial directors revealed that, despite the fact that PCs have been around for over thirty years, getting to grips with the devices is totally beyond many British office workers. A fifth were found to struggle to save a document, more than one in five need assistance printing, while a quarter cannot understand a spreadsheet. " As George Carlin said in 1999: "Just think about how stupid the average user is, and then realise that half of them are stupider than that!!!" Or as we used to say in Quake: "Morons, I've got morons on my team!" :(
	New groupie #Posted by Dreams on 13:48 Just explained to Pawel, my colleague, what blogging was... Now he can read it on my blog! ;) Hi Pawel! :p
	Wednesday, September 10 BLOGGER :: Announcing Several New Features for Free Users #Posted by Dreams on 23:44 This is the Email I was talking about... The free Blogger is getting most features of the Blogger Pro version (which cost money).
	Blogger's changing... #Posted by Dreams on 23:36 Got an Email from the founder of blogger.com: "We're no longer offering Blogger Pro as a separate product and we're folding most of the features into regular (free) Blogger." :( But I'm curious to see what happens next. they've been really bbusy at Google on this thing, I know that... but what.... Good news is I got a free Sweat shirt from Blogger. Woohoo! (Hey, I'm Dutch, so sue me!)
	Canon EOS 300D Full Review #Posted by Dreams on 13:41 Digital Photography Review has a full, in-depth, technical review of the latest cheap DSLR by Canon, the Canon EOS 300D aka "Digital Rebel". It's main cost saver is its plastic housing and firmware crippling (less features), but otherwise, overall it's a pretty decent digital camera if you want to switch to digital photography. The 6 Mpx resolution is surely enough! Read the full review for more details.
	Tuesday, September 9 More Microsoft security problems... #Posted by Dreams on 16:37 Slashdot reported on Thursday that "Microsoft on Wednesday issued security bulletins for five new software vulnerabilities, including a flaw in Visual Basic for Applications that the company rated as critical. The company has posted patches for each of the flaws on its Web site. Four of the problems affect Microsoft's Office desktop software."
	GSM encryption code vulnarable to hacking... #Posted by Dreams on 16:34 "A team of Israeli scientists have uncovered a possible means of cracking the GSM mobile phone network encryption code, opening the door to attacks that could enable eavesdroppers to listen into calls. The GSM Association, a trade group for suppliers and mobile network operators, is downplaying the problem. It admits a potential vulnerability exists but argues that this would be very difficult to exploit in practice."
	SpecialBite, your guide to special dining #Posted by Dreams on 16:14 Great site! Excellent restaurants ONLY! Must read and must go! Trust me on this one! Teh site is very good as well and easy to use and navigate through. A service with a toast!!! ;) SpecialBite, your guide to special dining
	Sony teaches Aibo new tricks #Posted by Dreams on 16:09 Sony has launched a new Aibo: "the ERS-7 model of Aibo is more responsive to voice and touch commands than are previous models. And with improved infrared sensors, it is better able to avoid walls, obstacles and edges. The digital pup also features a faster CPU (central processing unit), a higher-resolution camera and twice as much memory as have its predecessors."
	Saturday, September 6 Isabelle got married! #Posted by Dreams on 23:45 Going to a chapel aaand, gonna get married!... LOL :D Today, my little sister got married! It was great day and even though I was very busy with all the MC business, I had a great day too and enjoyed it very much. Many friends of mine were invited too, so I knew many people. Of course, all my family was present and it was just good to see everyone again. :) I've been to about 15-17 weddings so far, can't remember them all, but I've never been witness nor MC before. So it was all new for me too. I would prefer making pictures or video that day, but MC is also good. Just a guest is too boring! Congratulations Isabelle and Rob, my now brother-in-law! I can't wait to see your pictures from Iceland (the honeymoon), but I guess I have to wait... we are all going on vacation to Ibiza on Sunday... Woohoo! :bounce:
	Friday, September 5 smugmug - Dreams's photo galleries #Posted by Dreams on 00:20 I've updated my photo galleries again... go check it out. Too much to mention. Additional ENIAC pictures, new office pictures, some beach pics...
	ZAHARA - Cocktailbar #Posted by Dreams on 00:03 ...:::ZAHARA:::Cocktailbar:::Website::: Interesting... I gotta check this out. ZANDhap told me about this, but I forgot again until now.
	- = - Loenatik ETEN (LOENATIK-4U) - = #Posted by Dreams on 00:01 LOL... I've been spotted... :) - = - Loenatik ETEN (LOENATIK-4U) - =
	Thursday, September 4 Reinventing the Transistor #Posted by Dreams on 23:30 This is soooo cool1 You gotta read this, but you better have your University Math and Physics ready... Reinventing the Transistor: "Williams’s group faces a monumental task: trying to make computers whose functionality rests on the workings of molecules. To do so will mean reinventing the transistor. While silicon and other inorganic semiconductors have always been the basic building blocks of microchips, it turns out that organic molecules can also have some potentially useful electrical properties. Indeed, over the last few years, researchers have learned to synthesize molecules that can function as electronic switches, holding binary 1s or 0s in memory or taking part in logical operations. And molecules have one significant advantage: they are really small." :respect:
	Fuel Cells in your laptop - Fill'r up, leaded please #Posted by Dreams on 23:26 iWon - Computers and technology: "Fuel cells that can run laptops for 10 hours or more without plug power have captured the imagination of computer junkies. But first, backers must prove that they are as safe to fly with as a cigarette lighter or a duty-free bottle of vodka. Japanese companies are pushing ahead with prototypes of miniaturized fuel cell technology that use methanol to create power, even though experts say limited-life batteries are here to stay for several more years. Methanol, a type of alcohol, is flammable, but fuel cells typically use less than 24 percent methanol in water, said John Goodman, president of the fuel cell division at Entegris, which makes fuel cell components."
	SourceForge.net: Project Info - TightVNC #Posted by Dreams on 23:21 Another tool you either don't know at all, or can'r live without! LOL :D SourceForge.net: Project Info - TightVNC: "TightVNC is an improved version of VNC, great free remote-desktop tool. The improvements include new bandwidth-friendly 'tight' encoding, local cursor support on the client side, enhanced GUI, many bugfixes, and more."
	SourceForge.net: Photo Gallery #Posted by Dreams on 23:19 There's a cool tool on SourceForge to make Web Galleries. "A slick, intuitive web based photo gallery with authenticated users and privileged albums. Easy to install, configure and use. Photo management includes automatic thumbnails, resizing, rotation, etc. User privileges make this great for communities." B)
	Wednesday, September 3 Yet another CamBlog (YACB) #Posted by Dreams on 18:48 Here's yet another CamBlog... "CamBlog (Camera Weblog) is a service that enables you to publish photos from your cell phone, HipTop, mobile device or any email address to your own "CamBlog"! After signing up for CamBlog, you'll receive a special email address to which you'll send your photos. Those photos will automatically be posted to your weblog in mintues."
	PiXfr.com #Posted by Dreams on 14:37 PiXfr.com is nice little "no database needed" photo gallery tool, should you need or want one. It runs on both Windows and Linux, as long as PHP3 or 4 is present. It is also possible to use it as a module in PostNuke or PHP-Nuke, small, free, portal and web content management software.
	jdbgmgr.exe aka "Teddy Bear" virus hoax #Posted by Dreams on 12:00 Appearantly, there is an old hoax coming around again. If you get a mail or other message which says that a Windows file (jdbgmgr.exe) is infected and a virus has been detected... don't worry. It's a hoax. Do not replace or delete any files and most of all, do NOT forward the "warning" to your friends. I know you mean well, but please check these things first. If you don't know how or where to check, ask someone who does. For instance, read all about this virus on F-Secure Hoax Information Pages concerning this particular hoax.
	Monday, September 1 Interstella 5555 #Posted by Dreams on 23:39 If you like music by Daft Punk and cartoons in the Manga style... check out Interstella 5555. Already a classic and hyped by media (way back when), it's now still there and homping with the music pomping... :bounce: Gotta get it! "One more time... we're gonna celebrate..."
	Dell's Software License Policy: Dude, you're getting screwed. #Posted by Dreams on 13:23 Bought a Dell computer or laptop lately...? They have pretty good deals, don't they? Did you get the startup screen when you first booted the computer? If so... Dude, you're getting screwed! Read this report about a guy who tried to get information on the weird deadlock license agreement from Dell. Be warned!
	Networking From the Rooftop #Posted by Dreams on 13:02 Who said you need a broadband subscription? You can always use the MIT Chimney Protocol! "MIT’s Roofnet is a project to create a self-organizing wireless network in which an amorphous, unmanaged collection of cheap Linux computers equipped with Wi-Fi cards collaborate to efficiently route data packets. Each computer and roof-mounted antenna at students’ apartments and MIT buildings is a node on the network and the arrangement in which they are connected to each other—the topology of the network—is constantly changing... The network has now more than 30 nodes in a 4-square kilometer area surrounding the MIT campus." Coool!
	How to Make Lava Lamps? #Posted by Dreams on 12:40 Brilliant! I've always wondered about this! But here's an easy list of things to do when you want to know: How to Make Lava Lamps?
	Is your boss an idiot? #Posted by Dreams on 12:32 CNN has a great little article on Is your boss an idiot? with examples and tests... ROFL!
	Open Source for the people #Posted by Dreams on 12:23 The Nordic countries have launched a website to promote open source software to consumers and small businesses. People can submit open source software links as well as exchange information in the forums section. "nordicos.org is a project of the Nordic Ministerial Council, and addresses the need for a comprehensive overview of open source software available for consumers".