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. ;)

	Saturday, October 30 Tiësto in Concert in Arnhem #Posted by Dreams on 21:58 Last year, we were at the world's first. Of course, we also had to be there at the world's second and third concert by a single DJ in a football stadium! Just got home from working in our new house. We had dinner in Leiden and took a shower. Now we're almost off to Arnhem to join friends for a night of dancing with Tiësto in Concert! Woohoo! :bounce:
	Home Improvement, Appliances and Tools #Posted by Dreams on 21:53 Today, Petra and I started work on our new house. Isa, Rob, Arjen, Heike and Michiel came along to help out. More will follow, I hope. Work went fast as lightning! We did almost all walls and removed wall paper. Sometimes 3 layers thick! Rob broke away all the tiling in the bathroom and the kitchen. A huge round of applaus for him. Awesome. We also managed to take down the plastic tiles on some ceilings. Something that will save a bundle because workers can start right away. Picture will follow later.
	Friday, October 29 I have a new best fiend: Gamma #Posted by Dreams on 21:49 As of today, the new house is really ours!!! Petra and I signed the agreement last afternoon at 17:20 hrs in Warmond. :) So that means redecorating, rebuilding, home improvement and more. For that you a friend, a good friend: GAMMA!!! Want de echte doetutzelver ken nie' zonder de gamma!
	Thursday, October 28 Sony Ericsson introduces new Quad-band EDGE / WiFi Combo PC Card #Posted by Dreams on 11:00 If you're on the road a lot and need to stay online whereever you are (and who doesn't?), then this card is for you (and me): Sony Ericsson introduces a new Quad-band GSM/EDGE/WiFi Combo PC Card for the ultimate connectivity! Woohoo! Gimme gimme gimme! It does all: "The GC89 card delivers connectivity through EDGE, GPRS, CSD, SMS over the GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 bands world-wide. And, for those areas covered by wireless local networks: homes, offices, and hotspot locations such as airport lounges, coffee shops and hotels, the GC89 provides 802.11b and g connectivity with speed potential in excess of 50 Megabits per second."
	Tuesday, October 26 Coolest network cable ever #Posted by Dreams on 17:02 I read this on BoingBoing: the coolest network cable ever, and I have to agree. True, it's for nerds only. Everyone else will "WTF?" but those of us who undestand do agree... It's a 7" cable, CAT5e with RJ-45 connectors. So far so good. It's rolled up in a spring-loaded container (auto-retract) and comes with a set of snap-on ends to convert it to a phone cable, a cross-over or an extension cable. Coool! B) :nerd:
	Laser Technology Helps Track Changes in Mt. St. Helens #Posted by Dreams on 16:47 Using sophisticated laser scanning technology, NASA and LIDAR together determined that Mount St Helens has risen 110 meters and grown 130,000 m2 in size. Also local fishermen are keeping a radio or GSM contact with friends or family. A 76 year old local said that a week before the first eruption, his favorite fishign river the Kalama, turned milk white. So all this billion dollar equipment still may be outsmarted by good old experienced bipeds equiped with binary lenses calibrated for visible light (i.e. old humans with 2 eyes and possible glasses!).
	Sunday, October 24 Robo GrandPrix #Posted by Dreams on 14:10 So coool! Build a small robot with some tracking mechanism, make a track and hold a robot GrandPrix.
	Build Your Own DIY LCD Video Projector #Posted by Dreams on 11:38 $20 buys you a guide: Build Your Own DIY LCD Video Projector. It tells you how to build an XGA projector using readily available off-the-shelf hardware that you buy online or in your local electronics store. "The bulb for a Lumenlab Projector costs $16 and lasts for 20,000 hours." That was enough for me... Lumenlab seems too good to be true!
	Saturday, October 23 Alvin retires #Posted by Dreams on 20:42 Alvin is dead. Long live Alvin!!! BBC reports that Alvin, the submersible, is retiring. Alvin is a deep sea submersible, in service for 40 years. It discovered the black smokers, the Titanic and more. In 2008, the new Alvin will go into service, diving upto 6500 meters, 40% deeper, putting 99% of the world's ocean within reach.
	Digital watermarking your JPEG photos, pictures or images #Posted by Dreams on 20:29 Funny, Photoshop can add a digital watermarks to your pictures, but many people still don't do it. Perhaps because it's hidden away in menus no one ever looks at. And what if you have a ton of images already? Going through them one by one is not an option. :) Enter the JPEG Disk Optimizer software. It runs under Linux, Unix and Windows and will not only batch-wise compress and optimize a bunch of images for uploading to websites, but also add a hidden, digital watermark inside the JPEG image. Users that steal the image off of your site can't see it, also can't easily find it inside the image, but you can readily prove that it is your picture of photo! JDO uses Digimarc's software, which is widely used in many other applications.
	Adobe Acrobat Speed-Up utility #Posted by Dreams on 19:21 I've blogged this before, but now I've been using it for a while and it is absolutely must-have! The Adobe Acrobat SpeedUp (ARSU) utility (only 175 KB) sets some things in your registry and from then on Acrobat loads in a few seconds by ignoring all the plug-ins, or at least most of. Excellent, even works with the browser.
	Software updates: Skype 1.0.0.94 #Posted by Dreams on 19:10 Tweakers.net let me know that there's a new Skype version (VoIP aka internet telephony application). Lots of fixes and new features, none world-shocking though. So you be the judge if you need to upgrade or not.
	Friday, October 22 Make your own ISO 12233 camera test target #Posted by Dreams on 22:04 Have you ever wished you could test your own camera like the professionals? Here at dpnow when we test digital cameras we use a variety of test targets, including the standard ISO 12233 resolution target for testing electronic cameras. It's a pretty standard test used by a lot of reviewers. Digital Photography Now has a link to a research project leader at the Cornell University's Light Measurement laboratory, who's made a PDF replica!
	Damn Small Linux #Posted by Dreams on 15:33 Damn Small Linux is Linux version that can be installed on a USB stick and can then be used to boot any PC with a USB port into Linux... your Linux, because you created the installation. Your desktop, config, browser, mail reader, wallpaper and... let's say "tools". ;) If yaknowwhatimean... So cool, especially since I saw 512 MB USB sticks at MediaMarkt for less than 50 euro... Run, Forest, Run!
	5 Mpx camera phone by Samsung #Posted by Dreams on 15:25 Just one year after the introduction of its first 1-megapixel (Mpx) camera phone and 3 months after its first 3.2 Mpx camera phone, Samsung introduces the world's first 5 Mpx camera phone. There is a picture of it too. Read the press release for more details... :drool: B) I'd buy one just fo the heck of it. Lately, I've walking in so many stores that won't let you take pictures or so, how in the world are they gonna stop from bringing your mobile phone...? :S I dunno...
	Do you think you're complex, difficult or hard to understand... you're not! #Posted by Dreams on 15:18 If you think that you're a complex individual, a difficult person or hard to understand... well, scientists have established: you're not! CNN reports that the human gene count, the genes that make up your DNA and determine everything that you do and that make you a human(oid-like person) instead of a dog (which is what you are), is only 20,000-25,000 instead of the former estimates of 44,000 or even 100,000! "By comparison, the tiny roundworm C. elegans, a favorite research subject, has around 19,500 genes. A small flowering plant in the mustard family, Arabidopsis, has about 27,000." It's not so much about how many genes you have, most of it might be the legacy inheritance of millenia of evolution, but how you use them. Dr. Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said: "Humans benefit more from genes that turn out multiple proteins rather than one, and from complex proteins that do more than one job. And anyway, lots of biological complexity is based not on individual proteins but on combinations, which can create lots of variety from the proteins found in people."
	Thursday, October 21 Birthday dinner in Scallywags the restaurant in Den Haag #Posted by Dreams on 23:55 Today was a great day! I don't know why, nothing really special happened, but it just was a great day! It was sunny and warm, great autumn weather, good presents. When I got to Den Haag, central station, Petra called and said she'd taken the day off. So we went out together and looked for a bathroom in our new house. We found a great one! So that's ordered as well and taken care of. Then we had a coffee and cake in de Bijenkorf, which was delicious. And at 20:30 hrs, I had reservations in Scallywags, the Restaurant in Den Haag, my favorite place, for a great fusion dinner! To my surprise, another regular - whom I didn't know yet, was there too: Adrian and his lovely friend Evelien. Adrian is a professional cocktail mixer and bartender. He is from the UK and much like me. Same height, same style, same jacket, same stories, same opinions on many things... the same obnoctious person as I am, basically! But also pleasant to be with! ;) After dessert, Adrian made us all a cocktail with what was available and we all got comfortably buzzed for the rest of the evening. Awesome day, great evening and a terrific night! Thanks, Petra!
	Wednesday, October 20 Why I dumped IE #Posted by Dreams on 11:30 If you are still using IE for your daily vitamin WWW, you may soon be one of the last. Read a fascinating story of diehard IE user at C\|Net about his switch to FireFox and perhaps you'll understand what the fuss is all about. "Okay, I'm a wimp who takes the path of least resistance. I'm also less interested in creating the ultimate computing experience known to mankind than in making sure things work the way they should." :D
	Transistor radio turned 50! #Posted by Dreams on 11:25 "Ladies and gentlemen ? please raise your glasses and toast the Regency TR-1. On 18 October, 1954, this revolutionary device was announced in America." ZDNet UK let me know that on Oct 18th, 50 years ago, the world's first transistor radio was born. Thomas Watson Jr., head of IBM, gave his senior managers each a TR-1 to kick-start the company's transition from valves. The TR-1 had 4 transistors! Today's household Intel P4 has a billion, more than they used for the production of all TR-1's put together. :D
	Tuesday, October 19 Adobe: Digital Negative (DNG) #Posted by Dreams on 12:24 In the age of readily available 6Mpx digicams and serious photographers shooting RAW images, it makes sense that Adobe had to think of a cunning plan ;) to corner yet another graphics market. So they've come up with the Digital Negative (DNG). Where RAW images are produced according to camera manufacturer's mood-of-the-day, DNG promises to be neutral and true every single time. And they can be shared between people, printers, art departments and so on where all applciations can read then in. With RAW, that's not always true. Canon RAW is different from Nikon RAW... Adobe also has a DNG converter, which converts about 60 files to DNG.
	Monday, October 18 Wearable LCD Display #Posted by Dreams on 15:39 In a bold move to get totally wired to the computer and always carry a screen with me too, I need to get a Wearable LCD Display from Mitsubishi! Est price on $400. That's only €320! That's like a month without food, with my appetite. And I need to loose weight anyway... 'nuf said. Off ordering sugar and nutrition drinks now... ;)
	Bibble 4.0: for serious RAW images #Posted by Dreams on 14:52 DPreview pointed me to Bibble 4.0, RAW image conversion software for serious photographers. I know at least one! ;) There is a Pro and a Lite version... "Bibble 4.0 is a ground up redesign of our flagship raw workflow software and sets new benchmarks for speed, quality, and ease of use. We?ve spent a lot of time and effort listening to photographers and then trying to turn their needs into reality."
	ESA Portal - Global air pollution map #Posted by Dreams on 14:47 Turns out the Netherlands may not be so healthy to live in. At least according to aglobal air pollution map produced by Envisat's SCIAMACHY. Appearantly, the close proximity of Belgium's industry to Holland and Germany results in a nice "thick" patch of NO2 concentration. And the shit from London also blows our way... Hmm, maybe we should ask some former East-German KGBers what it will cost to erect a 1 km high wall around our country to keep the dirty air out?! Or I might know a good spin-off for the construction workers over in Isreal... ;)
	Not all road marks are easy to understand #Posted by Dreams on 14:36 What's a road? A slab of asphalt, shoulders left and right, road signs and some markings on the road to help you figure out which side to drive on. Easy right?! Well... Not all road markings are easy to follow. ROFL
	Sunday, October 17 DeepBurner - Powerful (free) CD and DVD burning package #Posted by Dreams on 14:56 Tired of Sonic, Nero, Easy CD Creator or the built-in CD burning tool in Windows XP? Don't get what you need or don't want to install 60 MB just be able to burn a CD? Me neither! Tweakers.net informed me about DeepBurner, a free, powerful CD and DVD burning package, capable of those things you do 98% of the time. ISO images, bootable CDs and DVDs, DAO, SAO, TAO, CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM... even buffer underrun protection "Burn-proof"! I'm impressed! And since I bought Nero 5.5, which can't burn DVDs, when I buy one, I'll definitely try this one!
	Saturday, October 16 Google Desktop Search Functions As "Spyware" #Posted by Dreams on 16:00 If you're running the new Google Desktop Search or thinking about it, beware! The Google Desktop Search Functions As Spyware. That is, it indexes all files on your PC, irrespective of who's logged on. So if you have a family PC and four people can log in, the software will index and display any hits it finds, regardless of who's currently using the PC. It'll show you your kids' Email, papers and secret dairies, as well as your tax statements to visiting guests...
	Review: Seagate's Savvio SCSI hard drive #Posted by Dreams on 15:52 Soon, it'll be my birthday and what I want is a 1U rack server with 5 of these: Seagate Savvio SCSI hard drive. OK? Thanks! You're my best friend ever! ;)
	Yelp! #Posted by Dreams on 15:50 Yelp! Let's just say: interesting isn't it? You have a questions about where to get good flowers for your mom's birthday? You go to the site (sign up needed), you enter the question, you enter Email addresses of your friends, they get your question Emailed, they answer (or forward it or delete it), the type the answer in (no sign up needed) and you receive an Email with the answers. Simple and effective, if people cooperate, of course... But I can't help feel a little uneasy with all the information they'd potentially log...
	Rexx is now Open Source #Posted by Dreams on 15:34 The The Rexx Language Association annouced that Rexx is now Open Source! IBM has turned over the lanuague. What's Rexx? Well, remember batch files from good ol' DOS days? How'd stick things together, combines several programs or steps into one script? Do know Perl? How hard it is to learn and harder to understand? Rexx is a simple, clear, object-oriented scripting language from OS/2 and it's extremely powerful!
	Friday, October 15 Birthday of Imro and Roos #Posted by Dreams on 17:04 Imro (13th of Sept) and Roos (26th of Oct) celebrated both their birthdays in between their real dates. I also saw their new house for the first time and had a great time, especially with giant twister! Saw old friends again and caught up with most people. Good to see them again! :hug:
	Google Desktop Search #Posted by Dreams on 16:01 160 GB harddisks, two of them... 1 GB Gmail account, 6 POP accounts, each between 50 and 200 MB. Dozens of old files, archives and project files... How do you organize it? Where? Simple: Google Desktop Search! It's free, indexes all Office files, text files, AIM logs and... Outlook (Express) accounts too! Of course, having text means you'll basically get anything that has text in it. So I assume Mozilla Mail and Thunderbird archives too, as they're in old Unix-based mbox (plain text) format. :) Cool! Go go go!
	Grando - Keukens #Posted by Dreams on 15:57 We've bought a kitchen! It's in the style of the one shown on the picture, but different setting, composition, price, of course. :) So cool! I've even got myself a huge 6 burner stove and oven. Can't wait to use it! Sadly, delivery times of kitchens sucks... :( So we will get it about mid January, at the soonest... oh well. I guess we'll do a lot of visiting friends' for diner! ;) hihi
	To Mars and Back in Ninety Days #Posted by Dreams on 15:38 The University of Washington has developed a new way for space travel. This will allow a crew to get to Mars and Back in Ninety Days using "magnetized-beam plasma propulsion, or mag-beam". I couldn't get details yet, their site of being slashdotted by thousands of nerds like me. ;) Very cool though. I guess there'll be an Mag-Prize soon, instead of the X Prize. ;)
	Thursday, October 14 Rose try-out in Panama Club Amsterdam #Posted by Dreams on 16:10 Tonight, I'm going to see Rose again in Panama in Amsterdam (now under new management). I got free entrance as a member of her fan mailinglist... Ever since I heard her sing in Pannonica in Den Haag (now closed), I'm smitten with her... voice. ;) Her music and style are Jazzy, Bluesy and Funky and resemble Trijntje Oosterhuis' style a bit, but her music also sounds like Erikah Badu and R&B (aka hip hop) at times. She's excellent and whatever it is, it's a great mix of it all! Anyway, Petra and Katie (a friend from Petra's photography class) went together and had a great time.
	Wednesday, October 13 Digital Deluxe Toolbox: free photoshop actions #Posted by Dreams on 14:26 A friend of mine pointed me to this fine collection of Photoshop actions to help you improve the quality of your prints. It consists of several actions, denoise, blur, (de)grain, masking, etc. and all actions are documented in detail so you know what's happening and you can learn something, if you want to. I haven't tried them myself but my friend has and he's converted good safari photos to excellent safari photos with these actions...
	Germans demo working quantum register #Posted by Dreams on 14:04 OK this is for a select few to whom I'm not sure if I even belong! :) But Germans demo working quantum register. This is the new kind of computers we can expect in 10 years or so, I estimate. using quantum technology, bits are the size of atoms or molecule, resulting in nanocomputers. A single spec of dust could potentially hold terabytes of data and computing would occur at the speed of light instead of speed of electronic currents. Best of all, there is no radiation, no interference, no harm done to animals... :) It's really cool. Ah... stuff that Dreams are made of... ;)
	Microsoft Security Bulletin: 21 security threats patched #Posted by Dreams on 11:36 While setting a new record, Microsoft's latest Security Bulletin patches no less than 21 leaks! Most affected are various versions of Windows itself, from NT all the way to Windows Server 2003. But also Excel and Exchange are affected. However, one threat is similar to the recent JPEG-bug but includes WMF and EMF file vulnerabilities! 7 of the 10 issues bulletins are marked critical, therefore I recommend everyone to immediately check WindowsUpdate for patches and install them! Last time you didn't, you got the Sasser worm... remember...?!
	It's all about Photography #Posted by Dreams on 03:15 My friend Werner is finally converted his gallery into a blog: It's all about Photography. He has some guest writers and plans to document his photography work in progress. :) And I'm a moderator/editor for the content, when needed. ;) Cool site, built with Mambo, a free PHP-based content management system.
	Lava almost at the surface on Mount St Helens #Posted by Dreams on 03:13 CNN reports again the Mount St Helens is active: Molten rock reaches volcano's surface. The buldge on the mountain has risen 330ft (approx 100m) since the end of september. The increase in lava below the surface is causing more and more steam and water to escape, as the rocks reach boiling point.
	Monday, October 11 SANS Top 20 Vulnerabilities - The Experts Consensus #Posted by Dreams on 14:30 If you are ever worried about having fixed all the security holes in your system and network, and you're sure nothing can ever get through again... check SANS Top 20 Vulnerabilities - The Experts Consensus and be ready to cry, sob and blabber because you've problably only covered 10%, maximum. :) Excellent resource for information regarding the top 10 most threatening and known security holes for Windows and Unix. Neatly organizes them into categories such as browser, server, instant messaging and others. So you can neatly drill down to whatever you want to know more about.
	On the Analyst's Couch With Ecstasy #Posted by Dreams on 13:55 After years of controversy over XTC or MDMA, suddenly a light at the end of the tunnel seems to appear. Peter Jennings' video on prime time TV in the US may have had some effect after all. Alternet reports on an interesting story: On the Analyst's Couch With Ecstasy: "'MDMA has a fantastic ability to scan through the unconscious, lock onto areas of emotional tension, and then allow the patient to talk about themselves in spite of any defensive walls they've created.' Like her patient Melissa, the Utah doctor has her own description of MDMA-assisted therapy: 'Feelings of self-love and self-acceptance suffuse the session and, frequently, they can endure long after the drug has left the body'." It seems there is a small underground movement going on to legalize the drug for therapeutic use, because XTC has a very positive effect on someone suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD). For instance, child abuse cases, rape victims or perhaps war soldiers who've seen inhumane things happen or participated in them and can't forgive themselves. I think it's a good thing that these studies take place. All this earie talk of the dangers and simultaneous heavenly stories from party people don't do any good to those who made be inclined to try it. Solid medical facts are much better.
	Blogs being used to advertising campaigns #Posted by Dreams on 13:15 RedAssedBaboon.com has a story about blogs being used to spread rumors about new games. So far, so good. Nothing new. But these blogs were actually made the company and the marketing company to spread rumors, false memos, screenshots and even videos from beta testers. The videos were made by the producers from the Blair Witch project... now do you get the picture?! Blogs are common and some companies also use them to annouce news, releases, problems&fixes and so on. But since people trust bloggers/blogs a bit more than traditional news stories or items, putting advertisement in them suddenly seems to make sense. Of course, it will kill the blog... eventually. The blogosphere is too small still...
	How to defy Murphy's Law #Posted by Dreams on 13:08 Experts commissioned by British Gas - a psychologist, a mathematician and an economist have able to put Murphy's Law into raw mathematical terms that we all can understand. (You can, can't you?) ((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10)) If anything can go wrong, it will happen at the worst possible moment and do the most possible damage. After tests of the experiences of 1000 people, they were able to factor in urgency (U), complexity (C), importance (I), skill (S) and frequency (F), and each given a score between one and nine. A sixth, aggravation (A), was set at 0.7 by the experts. Now having the formula doesn't mean it won't happen anymore. But it does mean you can try to avoid it from happening. If you don't have the skill for something, leave it alone. If something is complex to do, try solving it in a simple way. If a fault can cause much aggravation, make sure you know what you're doing. So now you why the water heater breaks down in cold weather, why you always say something terrible when you shouldn't and why traffic is at its worst when you're already late! LOL
	Mount St. Helens lets off more steam #Posted by Dreams on 12:34 CNN says Mount St. Helens lets off more steam. The mountain vented some steam a couple of 100 feet into the air after earthquake activities the last two days. Earthquakes with 2.4 on the Richter scale occured every two minutes until Sunday when they fell off to 1 or less. It seems to indicate the magma is slowly but surely pushing it's way to the top, building up pressure, melting rock, the rocks breaks, earthquake and so on. Exactly where the magma now is, people can't say äs we don't have any visuals". :D LOL
	Christopher Reeve died yesterday #Posted by Dreams on 12:12 Christopher Reeve aka Superman, died yesterday at the age of 52. I don't know details, yet, but I guess someone found a secret kryptonite stash somewhere... He died of a heart attack. I'm sad though, he was a great Superman actor and had some terrible events in his young life. :'(
	Saturday, October 9 NASA Mars rover plots crater 'escape' #Posted by Dreams on 12:07 NASA's rover on Mars has been working much longer than expected. But they're are stuck in a crater and can't really see anything outside of it. Already, 50000 pictures have been taken and many new things discovered. However, it's time to move on. So NASA is helping Mars rover to plot crater 'escape', CNN reports. "'The rovers have lasted longer than expected, but as long as we have them we're going to keep them busy'"
	A month with a Mac #Posted by Dreams on 11:54 If you are a diehard PC user and always make fun of girly gay colored iMacs out there, you might want to read this article on AnandTech : A Month with a Mac. It is an in-depth review of working with a Mac and all the pros and cons that you, as a normal PC user, run into. Highly interesting and highly recommened for anyone who has ever thought of switching or just buying one to impress chicks... ;)
	New diamond form harder than regular diamond #Posted by Dreams on 11:49 The Carnegie / DOE Alliance Center has created a form of diamond that's harder than normal diamond. At a pressure of 75 GPa (about 750,000 atm, 1 atm being normal sealevel pressure) the carbon atoms formed "a superhard hexagonal carbon polymorph that has a different structure than hexagonal diamond".
	Friday, October 8 EX PORNSTAR #Posted by Dreams on 11:35 As a small protest against our Prime Minister "Captain of the Dorks" Balkenende, I'm posting the banned promo poster for the EX PORNSTAR party in Panama, October 16th. The said it was too obvious who it was... Duuuuh, that was the whole idea! sigh
	Thursday, October 7 TrusttheDJ: Bora bora on Ibiza closed for good #Posted by Dreams on 21:17 TrusttheDJ News: "Following weeks of speculation, Bora Bora was shut down for good after complaints from police and local residents over noise levels. The Playa d'en Bossa bars resident DJ Gee expressed his frustration over the matter in a statement on the Bora Bora website." insertgraveyard tune here :sad: :crying: :sob:
	Wednesday, October 6 Vent - the get it off your chest portal #Posted by Dreams on 16:56 Sometimes you just have to say something and let it all out. The truth needs to be spoken, no matter how immoral, offending or impractical it is. But saying it out loud can cause serious problems. Your girlfriend doesn't understand and women generally take everything seriously. Your boss certainly won't understand because he expects understanding and total cooperation on his ideas. Relationships... Ex-relationships... don't even go there. They sure as hell don't understand because they broke up with you, after all! There are 100s of situation where venting your thoughts and emotions may actually relieve tension and stress, and allow you to continue the problem solving process in a more rational manner. That's what Vent - the get it off your chest portal - is for.
	WiFi - The Next Generation: WiMAX #Posted by Dreams on 13:05 I think I've said it before here, WiMAX is WiFi on steroids. This IEEE 802.16 standard (in progress) operates at very high frequencies (11-66 GHz), offer subchannels and might be used for covering the Last Mile problem many Telcos face when trying to deliver broadband access to every home. They can't replace all the copper in the ground, so going wireless could be a great solution or circumvention, whichever you prefer. :) WiMAX is not ready for common use yet, and WiFi already handles 100 Mbps connections, but the range of WiFi is far less. Check out some White Papers to get a better understanding of the subject.
	Lawn Mower Biker #Posted by Dreams on 11:14 Sometimes the sheer genius of ideas humbles me to the bone: Homebrew Riding Lawn Mower. I think this would also make for a great new article on TelSell or the home shopping channel. LOL "...If you order now, we will also send you big threaded tires for rough weather and spikes for when the going gets tough!"
	Tuesday, October 5 Wolford #Posted by Dreams on 21:06 Oh lord, please help me! I've been tempted and I can't resist! I don't want to, it's too beautiful! Wolford has a new fall/winter collection. Please god give me strenght... And show me the way... to the nearest store! :) :drool: Get yourself some napkins before you enter the site. And whatever you do, DO NOT click on "Trends"...
	Mount St. Helens eruption soon? #Posted by Dreams on 17:23 CNN has a story on Mount St. Helens which has been active again since Monday. On Monday, it let out a 40 minute steam burst. It may have been enough to lower pressure in the mountain or it may have created more room for lava to pile up under the crust. We'll see. The steam reached a height of about 10,000 feet (3.3 km). The mountain has been active again since September 23rd with thousands of tiny shakes and mini earthquakes. Of course, we all remember the 1980 eruption...
	SpaceShipOne captures X Prize #Posted by Dreams on 17:16 It looks like the X Prize has been won! SpaceShipOne flew its second mission on Oct 4th, 2004. If the flight is certified to have reached 100 km, it will win the $10 million prize. Sooo excited! This has the same potential as the flight by the Wright brothers in 1907. After that private and later commercial airpanes became a reality... Just think about that for a second! And then visit the Virgin Galatic website and think some more... Remember, you were here to witness this now! BTW, the X Prize has now been turned into an annual competition. Like an F1 for flying machines. :)
	palmOne - Tungsten T5 Handheld #Posted by Dreams on 16:37 palmOne introduces the Tungsten T5 PDA! Woohoo! :drool: I'm sorry but there still no phone which let's me do this. The Palm is just sexy. Not as sexy as a Clié but sexy enough. 320x480 color screen... 416MHz XScale Intel CPU... built-in speaker & headphone jack. The Treo 600 would do the trick, but it's not as sexy nor as compact. I don't understand why they can't built what I want? ;) I think IrDA should be optional and BlueTooth should be standard. WiFi simply an option. And a PDA needs two expansion slots. They got the message when they built laptops but now they somehow seem to forget...? Helllooo? One slot for storage and one for functionality (GPS, WiFi, Ethernet, whatever)
	DOOM III for Linux released #Posted by Dreams on 15:33 Linuxgames reports that DOOM III has been released for GNU/Linux. So now everyone can join the fragfest! Version 1.1 is compatible with the Windows version so y'all can see each other, no matter what the client! Server ops who still run Windows game servers (yuck!) needs to drop the Linux pak file in their installation. Then Linux gamers can also play on their servers. Ftp and BitTorrent downloads available
	Do It Yourself Monitor Calibration - Test Card #Posted by Dreams on 12:54 If you're looking at photos and pictures regularly on your PC monitor, be aware that red may not be red! The older the monitor, the more the phospor used to make each pixel will have faded. Different colors fade at different rates. Each pixel is created using Red, Greeen and Blue phosphor dots (hence the acronym RGB!). There is also a big difference between CRT monitors and the new flat screen also known as LCD monitors. There might even be a difference between two identical LCD monitors, one connected by an analog VGA cable and one using a modern digital DVI connector... I'm not sure. Either way, it's about time you used Roy Reed's Test Card to quickly calibrate our monitor at least a little bit. Instructions are clear and easy to read and follow. If you're a graphics professional, you probably already know about tis anyway. ;) (Right?)
	Vacation London #Posted by Dreams on 00:41 I finally managed to edit my pictures from London. Petra and I went there the last weekend in September. Didn't have time until now. We visited Jelte and Linda their home in Blackheath. Jelte took us to the heath and showed us his acrobatic kite, a Revolution kite with 4 control lines. It flies backwards and sideways! :respect: So coool! B)
	Monday, October 4 Scientists find coffee really is addictive #Posted by Dreams on 13:41 And for today's most shocking news: Scientists find coffee really is addictive. Noooo... really?!? :shock: How did that happen?! "...the more caffeine consumed, the more severe withdrawal symptoms will be, with some people even reporting depression, nausea, vomiting or muscle pain." Actually, I notice it myself when I don't drink my coffee in the morning. I get dizzy and a bit of a headache. But after two days, that nauseus feeling is gone and I don't get it again. Until I start drinking coffee again, of course. LOL And today's funniest quote: "I usually only bring one gallon of morning coffee in my car, otherwise my driving can become erratic."
	Clusty the Clustering Engine #Posted by Dreams on 13:33 There is a new search engine out there: Clusty the Clustering Engine. It will take on Google with a clustering technique that tries to cluster hits in related subjects. That way, when you get 3000 hits, most clusters will automatically be eliminated by you and allow you to narrow your search down more quickly. The engine is fed by Overture but adds its own intelligence over the returned hits...
	Sunday, October 3 Linea Recta Anniversary Weekend #Posted by Dreams on 15:09 Just got back from the reunion and anniversary weekend of my old university gymnastics club: Linea Recta. We all gathered the 25th anniversary on a camping farm in Epe. I spent the whole weekend there with a party on Friday, serious training on Saturday followed by a BBQ and more partying. After a "good night's sleep" I finally got home today and fell apart on the couch. ouch These bones are made for walking, not gymnastics. ;)
	Friday, October 1 Linea Recta weekend reunion #Posted by Dreams on 13:52 This weekend, I'll be in Epe for the Linea Recta weekend reunion and celebration. My old gymnastics club from university celebrates their 25th anniversary this year. So old and new gymnasts have gathered to give form to a good ol' slugfest in white tights and tanktops... :)
	Red vs Blue, the next generation #Posted by Dreams on 13:47 The guys from Red vs Blue (RvB) have come up with a new thing. Instead of using the Halo engine to film comical discussions, parodies and events inside a game engine that's usually meant to slaying things (go buffy!), they're now using the Sim2 engine. For the same thing, of course. Download some of the DivX or QuickTime movies and see what I mean. It's bit of a cult thing, so don't expect episodes from Friends or any other sit-com...