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. ;)

 

Sunday, November 30

Going off-line...

#Posted by Dreams on 13:08  

den haagDen Haag, part 1 is about to end... this is the last time I'll be blogging from my own computer for a while. KPN will move my phojne number ove next week, but ADSL will take few extra days. Grrrr :( Hopefully, 8-10 dec it'll be back... See y'all!


 
 

Rose

#Posted by Dreams on 11:00  

Rose in PannonicaWent to Pannonica the other day and saw Rose. :O OMG! Wow!
She is amazing! What a voice! What a woman! :) Highly, highly recommended to go see if you can.


 
 

Saturday, November 29

Shurgard Self-Storage Nederland

#Posted by Dreams on 15:10  

shurgardPfffew, half way through the day and half way packed. I'm moving today, well packing today and moving tomorrow. My job ended so I had to move anyway, but my lease wasn't renewed either. However, I found a room with a view ;) at a friend's place in Scheveningen. (Too bad it's winter!) Most of my stuff is going into Shurgard Self-Storage in Rijswijk. A few things I take with me (CDs, HiFi, wines and so on).


 
 

Friday, November 28

EU postpones decision on Software Patents

#Posted by Dreams on 13:42  

heiseHeise News-Ticker (in German) reports that the EU is postponing a decision on Software Patents. Too many countries have revised their opinions and most want to talk with their Industry first.Nobody wants to make these far-reaching decisions too quickly.


 
 

ADSL faster yet again

#Posted by Dreams on 11:13  

There is a fantastic battle for broadband services going on here in the Netherlands. KPN, the largest provider has to upgrade speeds (link is in Dutch) to keep up with smaller competitors. This is the 4 times in little over 3 months or so that speeds have increased.
As of 15th of January next year, I'll have a downstream of 2Mb/s and an upstream of 320Kb/s and I still pay the same I did last year! W00t!


 
 

Thursday, November 27

iwilldare.com

#Posted by Dreams on 10:05  

Another example of a really fine blog: "iwilldare.com::meet me anywhere or anytime or anyplace". A girl with a pen... Excellent! Hope to reach these levels some day too...


 
 

PhotoDude's WebLog & PixelPile

#Posted by Dreams on 10:02  

PhotoDude's WebLog & PixelPile is a great example of a blog that really is a blog. Lots of text, thoughts, images, ponderings and links all over... :respect:


 
 

Google changed PageRank

#Posted by Dreams on 09:26  

ggogle"Starting on the 16th of November, a major shift in results was seen on Google. Veterans recognised that Google appeared to be doing a major update, not seen for many months, as reported first on WebMasterWorld who named it "Florida", continuing the tradition of naming updates rather like hurricanes."
Search Engine Guide (cool site, BTW), has a detailed report of the updates Google did a week ago on its search engine to crack down harder on sites optimized for Google and others. In Been Gazumped by Google? Trying to make Sense of the "Florida" Update! they provide a chronological overview of what appears to have been done and how this affects sites and searches. Must read!


 
 

Wednesday, November 26

Review of the ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro

#Posted by Dreams on 12:19  

VIPERLAIR.com reviews the new ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro for us... extensively. Should you be interested in watching TV on your PC, recording from TV onto your PC (and making DVDs) much like with available PVRs like Tivo, look now further. Compared to the good old All-in-Wonder cards from ATI, this latest one really is an All In One Wonder!!! :respect: :drool:


 
 

Lord of the Rings logistics

#Posted by Dreams on 12:13  

Interested in what it takes to make the digital effects and scenes in a movie like LOTR? Read the Wired article on the infrastructure and logistics of LOTR.
"The Return of the King, which opens in theaters December 17, will feature almost 50 percent more f/x shots than The Two Towers and will be composed of more data than the first two movies combined. Churning out scenes like the destruction of Barad-dûr and the Battle of Pelennor Fields (with thousands of bloodthirsty CG Orcs) took 3,200 processors running at teraflop speeds through 10-gig pipes - that's one epic renderwall."


 
 

World's Fastest Laptops

#Posted by Dreams on 12:00  

ExtremeTech has reviewed two of the world's fastest laptops aka notebooks . In Attack of the Mega-Notebooks they test a PC Notebook Panther 4HR and a Voodoo PC Envy M:855, with resp an Intel P4@3.2GHz and a Mobile Athlon64@3200+. Check the article for complete specs. But wow... they're screamingly fast. So if you need serious number crunching, check out their review!


 
 

Tuesday, November 25

Blogger Forum

#Posted by Dreams on 17:16  

Blogger Forum is a great community around blogging tools like Blogger, MovableType, Pivot, Radioland and others. Now that Google has kind of crippled user support at Blogger, others are jumping in the void that created. There are also (at least) 3 Yahoo groups, where you can get support. But this one site/forum looks pretty promising. B) Check it out!


 
 

.Lomography 3.0~ / _homesDeLuxe

#Posted by Dreams on 16:33  

Petra scanned 3 lomos for me yesterday and uploaded them to her smug. I finally managed to log back into my lomo home and upload them. B)


 
 

Top 250 films

#Posted by Dreams on 16:04  

Have you ever ran into the videostore to get a movie and last week at friends', you knew 10 great movies to see, but now you have no clue whatsoever anymore?! Well, happened to me tons of time. Just print out the IMDB Top 250 films of all times and always have a great list ready when you need it! You can even mark off the ones you already saw... ;)


 
 

Finding Nemo, revisited

#Posted by Dreams on 10:03  

finding nemoOn Sunday, I was in Amsterdam with Petra to buy presents for Sinterklaas and get an outfit to a party, when we walked by Tuschinski and saw the Finding Nemo was showing! Originally, it wasn't to be released until the 27th, but appearently someone heard my prayers released it early! :D So we booked a love seat (highly recommended, BTW) in Tuschinski's main screen and saw Finding Nemo. Cooooool! It is soo coool! :respect: Definitely a must-see!


 
 

A first look at Nikon D2H image quality

#Posted by Dreams on 09:48  

Rob Galbraith has a lengthy and in-depth review of Nikon's latest DSLR, the D2H. It is fitted with a new kind of CCD with faster transfers from the CCD to the storage cards. This makes it ideal for sports photography because you can take upto 8 pictures per second! Take a look at Rob's test pictures, or read the comparison with the Canon 1D. Recommended read!


 
 

BenQ DC C50

#Posted by Dreams on 09:42  

DP Review has a review of the BenQ DC C50, I reported of earlier... It has 5 Mpx and a slew of manual overrides with many exposure controls and white balance settings. It looks very nice, has 3x digital and 4x optical zoom and seems a generally fine digicam... Hmmm *insert pondering noises here*


 
 

The 123 of digital imaging

#Posted by Dreams on 09:38  

Are you curious about digital imaging? How it works? What's a CCD? How can it an ISO rating if it is not film? What about focal distance? All these questions can be answered by The 123 of digital imaging, a book from one of the contributors of DP Review, *the* site for the best in-depth technical details about digital cameras. Oh and you can download a demo of the book to see if you like it!


 
 

Sunday, November 23

How Not to Get Fired Because of Your Blog

#Posted by Dreams on 11:08  

bloggerBlogger has posted helpful hints and tips, dos and donts about blogging about yourself and your work. There are some cool tricks, the Web Fire Escape. B)


 
 

Saturday, November 22

AT&T sues eBay, PayPal over patent

#Posted by Dreams on 12:30  

paypalCNET News.com reports AT&T sues eBay and PayPal over patents.
Boo-fucking-hoo! :( (n)


 
 

fotografie pagina

#Posted by Dreams on 12:26  

There's a guy in the Netherlands who runs several photography related websites, more like directories, actually. Today, I submitted my Gallery to him for inclusion. Hopefully it'll get some more exposure and fame (and fortune) :D LOL But the guy had a great idea, I must say. Only thing missing is a logo (hint) to link to. The pagina.nl is one of the best directory-based search engines in the Netherlands and he can make extra money by doing a good job. (y)


 
 

Friday, November 21

Warning to PayPal users

#Posted by Dreams on 10:51  

paypalThe NCC warns us that PayPal users are receiving fals account warnings. The mails says the account is expiring but contains a .pif file that is a virus. A second article confirms the warning!


 
 

Wednesday, November 19

Welcome to the world of Wolford

#Posted by Dreams on 23:20  

wolfordWolford has a new collection online... :drool: OMG If I walked past their store everyday, it would be a nightmare! I couldn't help myself sooner or later... Wow, amazingly gorgeous stuff... Drives me insane! Go look!


 
 

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

#Posted by Dreams on 11:46  

News-Images.com is a service that gives you the most important or hot images of the news at the moment. Instead of Google's News page which presents you with summaries, this site just gives you the pictures... Excellent! :)


 
 

Biometrics

#Posted by Dreams on 11:39  

Biometrics are an upcoming form of indentification. In addition to using your PIN code, a password you chose or your passport or drivers license (with picture), you could let someone or something scan your fingerprint, your iris or your voice. However, this form of ID, while undeniably tied to you specifically, is also and somewhat unexpectantly succeptible to fraud and illegal copies.
USA Today has a great story on the possible use of this technology. However, some experts like Ton van der Putte warn of the possible dangers and point at flaws in current systems. So before you sign any agreement or couple your bank account(s) to your voice or fingerprint, please read their warning. I'd hate to tell you I told you so... ;)


 
 

Tuesday, November 18

Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo

#Posted by Dreams on 21:06  

finding nemoPetra gave me the SVCD for "my birthday" and I just watched it: Finding Nemo. It's a brilliant moview!!! Must see! Highly recommended! I can't wait for the 27th when I can go see it in theaters... :D


 
 

ZANDhap indestad - Scallywags

#Posted by Dreams on 12:41  

scallywags den haagNovember 30th is the last ZANDhap indestad of this year. Throughout the summer, every month, we were pleased with culinary delights and cooled rosé in some of Den Haag's finer restaurants. All good things must come to an end, is the saying. Same goes for ZANDhap (they'll be back next year!). So reserve Sunday, November 30th in your calendars and join me in ZANDhap goes Scallywags! You won't be sorry.


 
 

SPAM: Don't get mad, get even!

#Posted by Dreams on 12:20  

Ever wished you could get back at someone who sent you a Nigerian scam spam message? Whished you knew who it was? Well, join the 419 Eater gang and your wish may come true!!!
419 is a group of "scambaiters", people ganging up on these spammers. They use false names and addresses and lure the person to come forward. LOL "So what is scam baiting? Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources, and hopefully make them look like complete idiots in the process."


 
 

infoSync World : Wi-Fi Memory Stick in time for Christmas

#Posted by Dreams on 12:07  

infoSync World tells us PalmOS-on-Sony's-CLIE-fans: "The world's first Memory Stick 802.11b card has been slated for a launch date of December 1st 2003, just in time for the holiday buying season. The card, which is designed by Hagiwara Sys-Com, is compatible with all CLIEs running Palm OS 5, unlike Sony's own wireless card, which in its Compact Flash form-factor will not work with the majority of the CLIE line. "
So now owners of a CLIE can comfortably browse the WiFi networks in their offices, just as the stupid winCE aka PocketPC (PPC) user can... (the loosers). ;)


 
 

BenQ Europe - PB2120 Specifications

#Posted by Dreams on 12:00  

Martin also alerted me to a very nice beamer for home use... the BenQ PB2120. Priced at only 1198 euro it's a very good beamer with DLP, 800x600 native resolution (scaled, upto 1280x1024), 1200 luminen and 2000:1 contrast ratio. It has a 50" screen at 2m distance, so you don't need a huge livingroom either. It displays true color (16.7 million) and makes < 34dB noise, so it's pretty and quiet. But most importantly, it displays 4:3 and 16:9 images and handles PAL as well as NTSC sources!!!


 
 

BenQ Europe - DC C50 Specifications

#Posted by Dreams on 11:30  

BENQ DC C50Martin refered me to this digicam (via Gizmodo) from BenQ: The DC C50. It has the retro looks of an old 35mm cam with all the digital goodies from now. 5 Mpx CCD, F2.8-4.7 zoom lens, full exposure controls like a (D)SLR, built-in flash and shutter speeds from 8- 1/1500 sec. It stores on SD cards, which is not my favorite but fine otherwise.


 
 

Monday, November 17

The Flu

#Posted by Dreams on 18:34  

OMG am i sick! My party on sat was ok, but the frisbee game on sun gave the bacteria a chance. They had me down at once...
High fever, burning up but kinda cold, head filled with cotton balls and nose dripping like a Jurasic Grotto. :( I went to bed on Sunday at 5pm and woke up Monday at 1pm! Guess I needed that. ;)


 
 

Sunday, November 16

Dutch Indoor Ultimate Frisbee Competition

#Posted by Dreams on 16:38  

frisbeeThe morning after... Party yesterday was fine, good crowd, nothing major. But the head was not feeling super... the drinks, the flu or just a cold? Well, either way, Petra had borrowed a D60 from a friend to shoot pictures at our matches using her new lens. And Madou and I were joining Force Elektro for the first time (and in the 1st division!) so I figured I had to be there and at least try to play and show support. So we went to the first series of games in the Dutch Indoor Ultimate Frisbee Competition.
Well, I tried I really did, but eventually as soon as people moved, I forgot who I had to mark, what was going on and where we were going... so I called it a day after 3 games. Sadly, we lost all games, but we learned a lot and got a few good tips and ideas of where to improve our game. Petra drove home and stayed at her place because I was not able to do anything anymore...


 
 

Saturday, November 15

How to give a fabulous cocktail party

#Posted by Dreams on 14:44  

Tonight I'm giving (once again) a cocktail party. I started doing it in 1991 or so, because I was sick of all the beer you always get. I'm not a big beer drinker, although I like them, so I thought of an alternative: cocktail parties!
It a triple reason to party... I had my bday last october and couldn't get it together in time then. I will loose my job end of this month, so I need to get over that. ;) And I might have a new job, but it's not sure yet, so there's reason for hope. :D Well, if that doesn't do it, I don't know what will... LOL


 
 

Friday, November 14

ThinkGeek :: Electra Lamp

#Posted by Dreams on 17:01  

cool plasma lampAh damn... I never understand why they can't ship these totally cool items across an ocean. :S Check out ThinkGeek's Electra Lamp, an ultra cool plasma lamp. Not like the stupid boring :yawn: round ones.


 
 

Blog Statistics - Length of Stay

#Posted by Dreams on 15:47  

livingroom blogLivingRoom did a pragmatic survey to find out about Blog Statistics: "How long does the average blog reader stay on a blog on any given visit?" The survey was limited to blogs using the Sitemeter stats option, but is interesting nevertheless. :)


 
 

What do you do if mom reads along?

#Posted by Dreams on 15:41  

bloggerIn responds to the blogger who's mom discovered his blog, Blogger now has an official stance on the issue. Hihi, funny but helpful here and there, I guess.


 
 

Creative phonecam use

#Posted by Dreams on 10:09  

Mobile Asses.com, I think you can figure the rest out for yourself... Interesting is this article about the use of phones with digicams in South Korea.


 
 

Thursday, November 13

The Onion | Mom Finds Out About Blog

#Posted by Dreams on 18:21  

Bloggin like I am?
Happily detailing things about yourself, no matter who finds out?
What about mom, though?!
Read this funny story about a guy who's Mom Finds Out About His Blog. :D


 
 

The Dictatorship of Dreamszz

#Posted by Dreams on 16:23  

I got my own state! :D Couldn't resist! LOL Check it out...


 
 

Gates Says Linux Best OS Ever

#Posted by Dreams on 16:06  

Seeing is believing...! Miracles never cease to exist, God or no God. ;)
BBspot reports that Bill Gates Says Linux Best OS Ever: "At a hastily convened press conference Bill Gates announced that he personally thinks that 'Linux is the best OS ever.' "


 
 

Jennifer Government: NationStates

#Posted by Dreams on 15:16  

nationstatesJennifer Government: NationStates is a nation simulation game. You create your own country, fashioned after your own political ideals, and care for its people. Either that or you deliberately torture them. It's really up to you. And they've had 485,000 nations since Nov 2002! WOW! :O


 
 

smaller, simpler way to archive data

#Posted by Dreams on 14:50  

Science Blog writes that engineers at Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard have invented a combination of materials that could result in a single-use memory card that permanently stores data and is faster and easier to use than a compact disk. The device could be very small because it would not involve moving parts such as the laser and motor drive required by CDs. It's made possible by a previously unrecognized property of a commonly used conductive polymer plastic coating.
Postdoctoral researcher Sven Möller made the basic discovery behind the device by experimenting with polymer material called PEDOT, which is clear and conducts electricity. It has been used for years as an antistatic coating on photographic film, and more recently as an electrical contact on video displays that require light to pass through the circuitry. Möller found that PEDOT conducts electricity at low voltages, but permanently loses its conductivity when exposed to higher voltages (and thus higher currents), making it act like a fuse or circuit breaker.


 
 

Vote count marred by computer woes

#Posted by Dreams on 14:46  

dieboldThe elections in the US last time were a disaster. Prime example of the effect of stupidity and the human factor. However, to err is human, to really fuck things up you need computers! The US has been experimenting with Internet voting, electronic voting and the like. Recently they held a small test in a small county somewhere to see if it could work... Well 19000 voters were able to generate 144000 votes! So it seems, bush can win again with 137% of the votes!!! ROFL


 
 

Battery Technology

#Posted by Dreams on 14:41  

ExtremeTech has a really good and interesting article about Battery Technology. No matter how fast computers are, in about 2 hours the batteries are dead and your left with an overheated lap but a black screen... what can we do to overcome this? Read the article. Especially fuel cells (using Methanol or Oxygen and Hydrogen) seem promising.


 
 

Wednesday, November 12

Nokia's N-Gage mobile gaming device has been cracked

#Posted by Dreams on 17:05  

n-gageCD Freaks.com tells us that Nokia's N-Gage mobile gaming device has been cracked. Like we are supposed to be surprised! :) It was only a matter of time, of course. However, I *am* impressed they did it so soon. :devil:


 
 

Homeworld 2

#Posted by Dreams on 17:01  

homeworld2I am sooo gonna buy this game!!! :D
:drool: I played part I many many times, even on the train between Den Haag and Groningen. :p Oh man it is soo great! Stunning even! :bounce:


 
 

European Patent Office

#Posted by Dreams on 14:04  

The EPOEuropean Patent Office has a completely new overhauled website... Looks much better and clean than before. (y)


 
 

Print Your Own Greeting Cards

#Posted by Dreams on 09:54  

DoodleLabSo now we have a great digicams, take oodles of pictures of everything around us and make better and better shots. :) So you're happy, right?! But now, someone you love *really* likes the one picture you took of her and it would be great to send it to her on her birthday, or for chrismas or with Eastern, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Liberation Day, Independence Day... sooo many great pictures and sooo many occasions. If only you could take on of your pictures and print it as a greeting card... You can, you dorks!!! Check out the outstanding service by My Card Maker and start printing your own greeting cards using your own digital images! Recommended!


 
 

TenderCoach best start-up of year according to Haagse Start

#Posted by Dreams on 00:06  

tendercoachHaagse Start is a local competition in The Hague for Best Start-up of the Year. My friend Jessica (from ZANDhap) entered it together with her 2 partners. They have a company, TenderCoach, that helps SOHO companies (called 'MKB' in Dutch) to enter the tender offers of the (local or national governements) for contracts. This is often complicated and requires great patience, finess and experience. TenderCoach give you all three at once! Jessica won €5000 for her company.


 
 

Tuesday, November 11

Elise's first attempt to crawl!

#Posted by Dreams on 14:43  

eliseIsa made some really cute photos of my neice Elise and her attempt to crawl around the room. :) She's only 5 months old, but eager to get out and about *insert Canadian accent*... but wait until she does... there'll be no stopping her. And by then it's too late! :) Hahaha *insert evil laugh*


 
 

Monday, November 10

Especially for Martin

#Posted by Dreams on 16:11  

C|NETThose of us who already have mp3 players, still droole over the Apple iPod. Those of us who don't are seriously tempted by it. Well, for all of us who don't have one, here is an article by CNET with 10 reasons *not* to buy it. And it lists alternatives. :)


 
 

'Star Wars' goes animated tonight

#Posted by Dreams on 16:04  

The US has the premiere 20 episodes of the animated version of Star Wars tonight: "The first of 20 animated Star Wars: Clone Wars episodes, each about three minutes long, premieres at 8 ET/PT. A new episode of the Lucas-approved series airs each weeknight through Nov. 20, repeating at midnight. Another 10 will air next spring."
Guess it's time to use those contacts in the US to drab, DivX encode and ftp them over here asap! ;)


 
 

Tangible Computing at MIT

#Posted by Dreams on 15:51  

MIT Tangible Media ProjectThis is too cool to explain... Read about MIT's SenseTable youself and find out how new computer interfaces much like the ones created for Minority Report, could change the way we work with computers...


 
 

Moon Eclipse

#Posted by Dreams on 15:46  

moon eclipseAh damn... while we were dancing the night away, most the Northern hemisphere was able to see a full moon eclipse. I checked the US Naval computer, and found out we had a full eclipse in Amsterdam at 02:18:05 in the morning. That was just the time when DJ Tiësto had started... Oh well, can't have it all.


 
 

smugmug - Dreams : Revolution

#Posted by Dreams on 15:28  

Saturday was Revolution in HMH, as I said before. Now, revolutionthe picturesare online. But Petra went more crazy than I did and shot some 200 pictures that night, of which she (after scrutious selection) she posted the 50-odd best on her smug. Martin also has a few other pictures on his site. :) Busy night with great friends and good music.


 
 

Shrek 2

#Posted by Dreams on 13:14  

The "Coming Soon! Film Database" informs me that shrekShrek 2 is scheduled to be released on May 21st, 2004... :D Wow, I'm curious! Here is a plot summary (from that site): "After returning from their honeymoon and showing 'home movies' to their friends, Shrek and Fiona learn Fiona's parents have heard their daughter has married her true love and wish to meet the husband and invite him to their kingdom, called Far Far Away. The catch? Fiona's parents are unaware of the curse that struck their daughter and assumed she married Prince Charming so are a bit shocked to learn their son-in-law is a 700-pound ogre with horrible hygiene and friends with a talking donkey."


 
 

Something cute

#Posted by Dreams on 12:08  

milkMy girlfriend complained today at 1030am that I hadn't blogged anything fun yet. Well sorry.. I'm feeling a bit sick and was still in bed. But I just came down, made some tea and cookies and here it is. It's a shot I found on the Net somwhere and the image is called "Milk". :D Hmmm, I sure as hell ran to get cookies as soon as I could! :p


 
 

Saturday, November 8

Revolution

#Posted by Dreams on 19:06  

Today... 8 hours of dance music... Revolution in Heineken Music Hall (HMH) in Amsterdam... Woohoo! With DJ Tiësto, DJs Remy and Cross... I'm soo psyched! :)


 
 

What Is Bluejacking?

#Posted by Dreams on 09:48  

bluejackingWhat Is Bluejacking?: "Now, using a phone with Bluetooth, you can create a phonebook contact and write a message, eg. 'Hello, you've been bluejacked', in the 'Name' field. Then you can search for other phones with Bluetooth and send that phonebook contact to them."


 
 

Friday, November 7

Miss Digital World

#Posted by Dreams on 15:47  

The search is on for the most beautiful woman of the digital realm. Lara Croft, Evil Residence or beach bunnies... Who will the title Miss Digital World?


 
 

Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)

#Posted by Dreams on 15:44  

The register has some fo the first design pictures of Sony's upcoming portable game console, much ike the Nokia n-Gage.
PSP"Sony has already said that the PSP will be powered by a 90nm processor built from a MIPS 32-bit R4000 core. The chip will feature a SIMD vector processing engine along the lines of Intel's SSE 2 and PowerPC's AltiVec. It will feature 8MB of embedded memory clocked to 333MHz and operating at 1.2V. The memory bandwidth is quoted as 2.6GBps."


 
 

BlogShares

#Posted by Dreams on 14:13  

blogshares"BlogShares is a simulated, fantasy stock market for weblogs where players invest fictional money to buy stocks and bonds in an artificial economy where attention is the commodity and weblogs are the companies. Weblogs, or blogs for short, are valued by their incoming links from other known blogs."
LOL I got to try this later on... Reminds me of HSX, the Hollywood Stock Exchange I traded in years ago...


 
 

smugmug - madu

#Posted by Dreams on 09:22  

My friend and colleague finally managed to get himself a smug too... In the end he was amazed with how easy it was to sign up and how easy it is to upload pictures, and captions and so on... Duuh! I've been telling him that for ages now. :) LOL
Anyway, glad to have him online too. Check out his beautiful Amsterdam pictures...


 
 

Thursday, November 6

SOHO Hot Shot: X-whatever Flare!

#Posted by Dreams on 17:38  

This year's solar activity has been a record-breaking one... Not only in numbers but also in magnitude. SOHO Hot Shot reports that the Nov 4th flare was an X-28, the biggest yet.


 
 

Tuesday, November 4

Vroom, vroom, vrooooom

#Posted by Dreams on 23:22  


DSL Line Status
Item Description
Line State Enabled
Speed (Kbit/sec) 320 up / 1024 down
Duration 12:50:01

As of 10am today (approx), I am a happy camper at 1Mb downstream! :D B)


 
 

Nikon Coolpix 3700

#Posted by Dreams on 09:35  

NikonDigital Photography Review tells me Nikon has a cool new, ultra-compact digicam: the Nikon Coolpix 3700. And from the looks of it, this is a great little thing! Packed with options (15 scene modes!) and manual selects as well as a 3x optical zoom and 3Mpx CCD... :9 Excellent!
"The COOLPIX 3700, with its precision 3x optical Zoom-Nikkor lens and 3.2 megapixel resolution delivers superior optical performance and photo-quality (2,048 x 1,536-pixel) images packed with natural looking colour and sharp detail. The new COOLPIX camera utilises Nikon technologies and imaging expertise to ensure faithful colour reproduction, sharp contrast and clarity in virtually all shooting conditions."


 
 

Monday, November 3

Shutterline: Photo of the Day

#Posted by Dreams on 23:04  

ShutterlineOne site, many contributors, one jury... a new photo every day. Nuf said...


 
 

MADSHRIMPS - Hardware Reviews, Crazy Projects, Modding Tutorials and Overclocking

#Posted by Dreams on 21:59  

MADSHRIMPS deserves the award for best tweaker of the year! He made "A step by step guide on how to get the most out of your AMD setup. Overclocking tips and BIOS tweak settings discussed, as well as an overview of the more popular overclocking tools". Dude! let's get busy! B) (y)


 
 

Citizen Unveils Concept credit-card sized PDA

#Posted by Dreams on 21:52  

Citizen PDASize does matter! Or does it...? Citizen (you know, the watch maker from the 80s) introduced a concept PDA that's only as big as a credit card. So you simply put in it your wallet. Cool! B)
It weighs 70g (about 2.5 ounces), has a decent 240 x 320 LCD and uses a 48MHz ARM720 CPU. The communication ports are IRDA, USB 2.0, and an SDIO slot that supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi adapters. Damn! :respect: The price is $200 but they don't announce a release date.


 
 

MIT's LAMP music network shut down over licensing issues

#Posted by Dreams on 12:07  

Just a few days ago I reported that MIT had a brilliant idea to broadcast music in analogue form to its student on campus. This way, they didn't need license fees. Of course, now arstechnicaArsTechnica reports that with all the publicity they were getting, they were sure to atract some legal heads how thought otherwise. Surely, MIT now removed 30000 songs from their jukebox and is looking into other means of filling the system with songs.
"MIT has stated that they remain committed to providing the LAMP legally. What's to stop LAMP and other similar services from going out and buying regular CDs, and encoding them manually? Certainly not common sense, but since when has common sense had anything to do with the music industry?"


 
 

Up, up and awaaaaay

#Posted by Dreams on 10:12  

Almost forgot! As of today, may ADSL line is blasting at 1024Kb downstream and 320Kb upstream! And all for free! KPN has upgraded its network and servers to maintain its lead in the DSL market over here in the Netherlands and keep competing with ISPs that offered almost twice the bandwidth for a lower price... Excellent!


 
 

The Curious Tale of Asteroid Hermes

#Posted by Dreams on 10:07  

NASAThe Curious Tale of Asteroid Hermes is a little nerving story of a comet that was discovered in Germany in 1937. It was close to Earth (about twice as far as the moon) and named by its discoveror Karl Reinmuth of Heidelberg. He tracked it for 5 days and then lost it... Lowell Observatory astronomer Brian Skiff re-discovered Hermes on October 15th 2003. It turns out Hermes has been passing Earth regularly, approx once every 777 days. It regularly has "near misses" with Earth (1937, 1942, 1954, 1974, 1980 and 1986) that could result in dramatical dinosaur-type events that we only see in movies... scary, kinda.


 
 

SPAM and using cookies seriously controlled

#Posted by Dreams on 09:38  

European Commission onlineCommission Press Room: "As from today EU Member States must comply with the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications, which sets EU standards for the protection of privacy and personal data in electronic communications. The Directive includes basic obligations to ensure the security and confidentiality of communications over EU electronic networks, including internet and mobile services. It sets out specific conditions for installing so-called 'cookies' on users' personal computers and for using location data generated by mobile phones. Notably, the Directive also introduces a 'ban on spam' throughout the EU."


 
 

Sunday, November 2

DJ MEA

#Posted by Dreams on 14:27  

DJ MeaFollowing a thread on PartyFlock about female DJs (you won't believe how many there are (smug to follow soon), I followed a random link to DJ MEA. She's American (can't have it all, I guess :) and seems to do vocal trance. Not sure yet. She's kinda like Anastasia doing dance music! :D Best of both worlds, eh? Curious...


 
 

Saturday, November 1

Microsoft adds blogging to Longhorn

#Posted by Dreams on 18:55  

Microsoft may add native blogging to the next release of windows, codenamed Longhorn.
"Chang demonstrated a research project called Wallop that includes Web logging capabilities, document and image sharing, and other interactive features. Chang said parts of Wallop will find its way into the Longhorn operating system. The software will automatically associate people, groups and data in Longhorn."
I guess that will be end of the blogosphere then... remember when teeny-bobbers started using MSN to chat instead of the cool ICQ? Blah! I'm getting old. ;)


 
 

Spire Cooling Solutions

#Posted by Dreams on 18:50  

Well, turns out old cooler was dead. It just wouldn't spin anymore so my BIOS shut down the PC automatically. Went out today and got a new one: Spire SPA07B2 and all is fine. Now if I only could disable the GeForce2 fan as well, coz it a noisy little critter! Blah! :puke:


 
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