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. ;)

	Thursday, June 30 How to get a Free Copy of SUSE LINUX Professional 9.3 #Posted by Dreams on 08:50 I thought SuSE required you to pay for it. That was the price for better and up-to-date hardware detection and drivers. However, much to my surprise, Novell posts an artikel: How to get a Free Copy of SUSE LINUX Professional 9.3. Go figure! Anyway, apprarently, just download the DVD image (4.3GB!) or CD iso files or a network boot image, burn or mount the .iso files and off you go! All's well that ends well, I guess.
	Wednesday, June 29 Blogger fixes weird lay-out problems of existing blogs #Posted by Dreams on 14:51 I noticed that Blogspot was doing weird things with my lay-out. As all markup is in CSS and I hadn't touched it, Blogger or BlogSpot must have changed something. Turns out I was right! After adding image uploads for everybody, it seems the CSS was broken for some templates but they weren't sure which ones. There is a fix now posted.
	Liebrand&co #Posted by Dreams on 13:26 Just found out my old friend Jelte is moving in with Linda! :) Hehehe Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks! ;) He's moving just up the hill and will have a place right on the heath in Blackheath! :respect: Congrats you guys! It's about time! :D
	Canon EOS 20Da #Posted by Dreams on 08:49 Also on DPReview (great, those newsletters aren't they?) is the announcement of availability of the EOS 20Da in US and Europe. What's new, you ask? Why I'll tell you! It's basically the same 20D but the IR (InfraRed) is not artificially cut off. So it's mainly suited for astrophotography as an add-on to your telescope and such. Or, of course, for IR photography. You can also take regular pictures with it, of course, but you'll need to add a seperate IR filter... not too much trouble I think. So what's the catch? The price: €2550!!! :shock:
	Adobe Photoshop CS2 Review #Posted by Dreams on 08:43 If you're a digital photographer, you may be interested to read the review at DPReview about the new Adobe Photoshop CS2. They reviewed the new features from the viewpoint of a digital photographer...
	Microlearning #Posted by Dreams on 08:37 Beginning of this year, I was asked to speak at a conference in Innsbruck on microlearning. Not that I'm an expert, but I am one who's always microlearning. You read this, try that, learn here and there and combine this in an everyday on-the-job, last-minute lecture to yourself. Sadly, I couldn't go because I had to pay the whole thing myself. :( But my old colleague Arnaud Leene did go and my other friend and ex-colleague Gerrit Visser blogged about it and Arnaud. ;)
	50 Coolest Websites 2005 #Posted by Dreams on 08:32 Got some time on your hand? Need something to get you through a couple of minutes or so? Here it is: the 50 Coolest Websites of 2005 by time.com... 5 categories, 10 sites each. I can't tell you my favorites... I'm still checking them out! :) If you're inpatient, try the entire list.
	Tuesday, June 28 arjen's photo galleries #Posted by Dreams on 23:17 LOL Arjen got a smug too. Hope they get around to posting their Mexico photos soon...
	Neural Networks train computer game characters #Posted by Dreams on 18:37 NERO has used world's first actual neural networks to help the Non-Player Characters evolve during the game and over time. Using a technology called rtNEAT (real-time NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies), the game's robots are trained for combat.
	Neopets - Pet Central #Posted by Dreams on 14:15 I totally, TOTALLY, missed this: Neopets. :shame: 70 million (!) virtual pets have already been created. Like the Tamagochy and Creatures but different and online. It's very teeny-weeny and so but kinda cool, still.
	Monday, June 27 Wikimedia servers #Posted by Dreams on 01:23 Want to read about a huge server cluster that runs entirely on Linux and hosts one of the internet's most popular sites? Read Wikimedia servers about how Wikipedia hosts 68 (and growing) servers on Fedora Code 2 or 3, Debian and a few SuSE Linux computers. Together, they serve the million+ page views a day. Yahoo and Google are supporting this hardware fanfare, BTW. Very interesting.
	Friday, June 24 TT Circuit Assen #Posted by Dreams on 13:22 Today, Petra and I are going to Assen, to witness the famous TT in Assen first-hand. I've been planning on going for quite some time now, but never made it. This year, my brother-in-law Rob managed to get tickets and we're adding a weekend of peace and quiet onto it. So tonight, it's off to Assen to Marleen; party at the "Nacht van Assen"; sleep; go to the TT madhouse on Saturday; flee to Emmen and relax for the rest of the weekend.
	Petra Oldengarm -- fotografie #Posted by Dreams on 12:26 My baby got back yesterday, after two weeks on a business trip. Pff, I managed fine without her all the time, missing her a few times but nothing major... however, when she got back, I realized I'd missed her much more than I thought! :D Great men are only as great as the woman by their side. No woman, no fuss, but that comes at a price! Lgad Glad to have back, anyway. :hug: (L) (K)
	Wednesday, June 22 Microsoft RAW tools #Posted by Dreams on 12:34 DPReview told me that Microsoft posted their freeware RAW thumbnailer and viewer. It lets you view Canon (CRW, CR2) and Nikon (NEF) RAW files as well as TIFF (plus the usual image stuff). It's a shell extention in two parts: one RAW preview, edit, print utility as well as a RAW viewer. And it's only 47 MB! Pfff, Irfanview can do it too in about 4 MB... guess it's all user-friendlyness in the other 40 MB. "Morons. I've got Morons on my team!"
	Allway Sync: Free File Synchronization #Posted by Dreams on 11:27 Allway Sync! It is a Free File Synchronization, Backup, Data Replication, PC Sync Software, Freeware, File Sync, Data Synchronization Software! You have a USB key? Isn't it a pain to have to manually copy and drag&drop stuff onto of from it? Sure it is! So you should te freeware Allway Sync!
	Linux on a roll in mobile phones #Posted by Dreams on 11:03 LinuxDevices reports that Linux is on a roll in mobile phones. Trolltech, maker of the Qtopia user interface used in many of the Linux phones, claims 2005 will be there year of the Linux phones. While China, world's largest cell phone market, already sells 10% of all mobile phones with Linux on it, the rest of the world is still waiting. Motorola, NEC and Panasonic all have Linux phones in their current lineup... Motorola has been doing so since 2003, even!
	Petabyte storage at the Internet Archives #Posted by Dreams on 10:28 Linux Devices reports that the Internet Archive received their new hard disk array. The IA's PetaBox installation comprises about 16 racks housing 600 systems with 2,500 spinning drives, for a total capacity of roughly 1.5 petabytes. The system by Capricorn runs on VIA mini-ITX boards that boot either Debian or Fedora. The whole system is monitored by nagios, an open source system monitoring and managing tool.
	Tuesday, June 21 Patent absurdity #Posted by Dreams on 08:49 Richard Stallman (aka Mr. GNU) has posted a commenta on the EU parlement's decision to favor Software Patents. "If patent law had been applied to novels in the 1880s, great books would not have been written." Although a French proposal was written that states that software patents are only allowed if the software is necessary for the invention, Stallman comments that "All usable software can be 'loaded and executed in a computer, programmed computer network or other programmable apparatus' in order to do its job." Duuh! Once again, politics sticks its nose where it should not be, seeing that it is too far up the ass of the lobbyists. Sigh
	Monday, June 20 Google Mobile #Posted by Dreams on 09:57 Google has released something: mobile users need mobile interfaces. So they introduced Google Mobile. It's Google but not as we know it, Jim!
	Will Mac OS X threaten Linux? #Posted by Dreams on 09:39 Geeks are funny! Now that Apple announced it will start using Intel's x86 processors to run the cool, slick Mac OSX, geeks and nerds fear for Linux. OSX is a sexy user-friendly OS and people fear that others will start to choose OSX instead of Linux when it comes to getting rid of WinXP on the desktop. And I believe they have every right to be scared. Although OSX will take you months to get used to if you've only ever worked with Windows, the OS is stable and consistent. Applications work and hardware is detected properly. Although Linux is also stable enough, the entire integration still needs some polishing for main-stream users to be tempted to work with it. Then there is a the whoel psychological effect of Mac vs Linux. A Mac is sexy whereas Linux is nerdy. So given a choice, Jeo Average will most likely choose the Mac, I'm sure...
	Open Solaris LiveCD #Posted by Dreams on 00:35 Just a few days the Open Solaris kernel was released to the open source community, they've already made a LiveCD: Project SchilliX. Bare in mind that this the first release, so don't expect a fully working environment yet. However, if you're up for a real OS, one that made Internet to what it is today... get ready and let the CD (178 MB) bootstrap your PC!
	Friday, June 17 Agile Web Development with Rails #Posted by Dreams on 12:17 Agile Web Development with Rails If you don't know what this means, don't worry, it's not for you anyway. If you do, I hope it helps.
	The Importance of RSS #Posted by Dreams on 11:54 Are still not using RSS? Why not? Read The Importance of RSS and think again.
	Spyware Floods In Through BitTorrent #Posted by Dreams on 11:52 If you use BitTorrent to get your daily dose of Torrents (my mom always makes me take two torrents a day!), beware! Recently, BitTorrent has been hit by a massive spyware load. "This is the first time I've seen a definite money-making campaign with affiliates, distributors and some pretty heavy-duty adware names," Chris Boyd, a renowned security researcher who runs the VitalSecurity.org non-profit resource center, said. "This is the marketing campaign to end all marketing campaigns!" if you use BitTorrent, check your system for three files: nail.exe, aurora.exe and... btdownloadgui.exe. You should have the last one, because that's a GUI you use. The two other files are spyware.
	Google's SiteRanking - How it works #Posted by Dreams on 11:07 Ever wondered how actually Google uses its Site Ranking algorithm? I mean really, precisely how it works? Well now you can! Google filled a patent application to protect its idea. Getting a patent means you also have to reveal exactly how it's done. In exchange you get 20 years of protection for precisely what you claimed you've invented. You can read the USPTO patent file or the article on buzzle.com.
	Thursday, June 16 Shichinin no samurai (1954) #Posted by Dreams on 15:08 Oops, forgot to mention Akira Kurosawa also made Shichinin no samurai (1954) aka "Seven Samurai", which is rated 8.9 (!) at IMDB and #5 in the top250 of all times!
	Rashômon (1950) #Posted by Dreams on 15:03 Last night, I went had dinner with my friends Karin and Richard and after dinner we wachted the movie "15 minutes" with Robert de Niro. Excellent movie, I thought, perhaps a bit slow in the beginning but nothing too bad. Afterwards, we started talking about great movies and they mentioned they had just downloaded the movie Rashômon by Akira Kurosawa and that I must see it. IMDB rated it at 8.5!!! :respect: So I quickly got a DivX copy and headed home. I haven't seen it yet. It's old (1950), in black&white, in Japanese (with subtitles) but internet is just raving about it.... can't wait! I'll let you know later.
	Wednesday, June 15 Linux on Laptops #Posted by Dreams on 17:22 Looking for a laptop is hard. Prices are high, features are sparse and the good ones cost lots. In addition to that, through my job at RealOpen IT, I've had to install Linux on all our laptops. So an additional complication was that Linux does nto always run well on all laptops. To make it worse: not all Linux distributions run equally well on the same laptop. For that reason, they created Linux on Laptops. Check by make and model which laptops worked and read the person' account of what they did. Awesome! My 2 cents: All version of Linux run well on the HP/Compaq nx9030. But the new nx6110 will give you problems. The latter refused to accept any USB mouse I threw at it... until RedHat released FC4 this week! now it runs fine!
	Californian earthquake #Posted by Dreams on 10:26 Today, at 4:50am CET, northern California was hit by a 7.0 earthquake, just off the coast. They feared for tsunamis but called that off pretty soon. The weird thing is, just before this one - last week - there was an approximately 5.0 earthquake East of San Diego. If you look at the earthquake for that region... you get scared. That's a lot of quakes, little ones sure, but still...
	Monday, June 13 Tor: An anonymous Internet communication system #Posted by Dreams on 23:08 Here is something the international spy agencies won't be too happy about but was only a matter of time before it happened: Tor: An anonymous Internet communication system. Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and more. Tor uses a bunch of so-called "onion routers" to bounce messages around a couple of times so that traffic analysers get confused and it become harder to track the messages. The more people participate, the harder it gets to track anything. Gotta love the net! Of course, one last thing to do is Torifying the software you use to make use of the onion routers... Like your BitTorrent application. Goodbye RIAA, BSA and BUMA. insert evil laugh here
	Lexar LockTight #Posted by Dreams on 22:58 If you are a photographer and use a digital camera with CompactFlash cards, do you need to protect your photos from snooping? With the Lexar LockTight you can encrypt the CF card. The images are stored on a slightly modified CF Type I card, using the SHAH-1 algorithm with 160 bit keys. The data is protected and communication is encrypted. The reader is modifed to read the CF cards and decrypt the data. Accidental formatting is avoided by the card itself. Sadly, the cards only run in Nikon DSLRs so far, the D2X and D2Hs, but they're working on broader camera support.
	THE ZOOMQUILT \| a collaborative art project #Posted by Dreams on 22:44 THE ZOOMQUILT is a collaborative art project with infinite zoom. Very cool use of Flash, finally. You have to see it to know why it's waaaay cool B) I haven't checked until the end yet, have you? What's there? Anything...? ;)
	Convert Image to CSS #Posted by Dreams on 22:04 Seeing is believing! You can actually Convert An Image to CSS. Go to the site, upload an image and sit back and be amazed!
	New versions of Skype #Posted by Dreams on 21:31 There's a new version of Skype for Windows. Version 1.3.x is now current. Linux had a new version recently too, but it's still lagging in features. Server-based contacts, luckily are supported already.
	stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site #Posted by Dreams on 20:59 I've been looking for decent photos to use on websites. There are tons of stockphoto sites but they always charge for the pics. Granted, their photos are usualy better and clearer, but I simply don't want to spend $100-200 for some image on a site. Thankfully, there is stock.xchng and openphoto.net. For now, be assured there are great photos or pictures out there that you can use for free under the CreativeCommons license. :respect: (Mental note to self: upload images for free in return!)
	Fafinette... #Posted by Dreams on 20:48 Fafinette... You gotta see it, too cute for words. They have T-shirts too but I don't like this collection. Wait for the next. Fafinettes rock though! Too cute, so sexy and so grrrly. ;) hihi (y) Waiting for the Summer party line...
	Sunday, June 12 Life after Zirk #Posted by Dreams on 13:10 Well, it was a memorable evening! Sjoerdski got here as predicted, we had coffee, listened to some pre-party Goa trance to get into the mood and off we were to Delft. Found the place in one go and were off to a great party. Very good music, small place, nice crowd. Could have been busier but it was enough for a great night. And Sjoerdski was a He-man for staying awake after that monotenous long drive back down here from Friesland... :respect: Got home at 4am, as dawn was dawning upon us. Kinda cool feeling. ;) Slept late and went to Almere to Elise's birthday. Thanks for mentioning it, Sjoerdski! (y)
	Saturday, June 11 Danger, Will Robinson! #Posted by Dreams on 23:01 NASA says it has discovered A New Kind of Solar Storm. Possibly a danger to astronauts, it bombarded the Earth with solar photons after the storm developed in only minutes... Scary.
	Busy day #Posted by Dreams on 23:00 Had a cool, busy day today. Petra left yesterday for a business trip, so I hve the place to myself! Had wild plans for Friday night, with two cool parties I could go to. Sadly, I guess I'm getting older after all, I fell asleep on the couch around 830pm and stumbled to bed at 930pm or so. Petra woke me a few times with SMSes, but that was fine. I zombied right back to sleep afterwards. At 830am I woke up, fresh and well rested! Had a leisurely breakfast, watched some TV, had coffee, and did shopping. By 2pm I went to my old friends from frisbee and played (board)games all day. Stayed for dinner too. Just now I did some newsletters for ENIAC and am about to have coffee. Sjoerdski is coming over soon and well go to a Zirk party in Delft. Goa trance... cool! B) Hope Sjoerdski can stay awake: he is driving here all the way from Friesland! Pfff. Let you know later! Bye!
	Geek Code #Posted by Dreams on 12:15 -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS/S d--(+)>+ s-: a C+++$ UC++(+++)>+++ P+ L++$>++++ E---> W+++>+++ N+++ o+>++++ K-?> w+>++++ O+ M>+ V+ PS+?>++ PE? Y+ PGP t++ 5+ X++ R- tv+ b+ DI++ D++ G e+++>++++ h-->- r++>+++ y+>++++ -----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
	The Da Vinci Code movie #Posted by Dreams on 10:34 Wow! Of course, it is somewhat obvious, The Da Vinci Code is being filmed and will appear in movie theatres May 19th, 2006. That's next year, I know. Ron Howard is the director. You know, Richtie Cinningham. ;) But he's a good director. Better than he was an actor, IMHO, so I have faith in this project. :)
	Friday, June 10 IE6 Gets Pseudo Tabbed Browsing #Posted by Dreams on 11:08 Should you wish to use tabbed browsing in IE6, now you can: IE6 Gets Pseudo Tabbed Browsing!
	Happy birthday Elise #Posted by Dreams on 09:02 Today is Elise's Birthday! She is turning two today! Happy birthday Elise! We'll see you on Sunday.
	Thursday, June 9 Wanna buy a real Rail Gun? #Posted by Dreams on 12:20 Slashdot reports that scientists at Sandia National Labs have created a magnetic pulse gun (rail gun) that can accelerate small aluminum plates at 34 kilometers per second. It only takes 11 km/sec to escape Earth's gravitational pull... :respect:
	Mexico Colima vulcano of fire errupts #Posted by Dreams on 12:15 CNN reports that Mexico's Volcano of Fire (officially called "Colima") has errupted for the past two days. Ash has been shot upto 5km into the air. The lava has started some forrest fires. Some villages are being evacuated. "Officials called it the strongest eruption in decades at the volcano that straddles the line between Colima and Jalisco states, 690 kilometers (430 miles) west of Mexico City." Colima has erupted violently three times during the past 450 years. About 2,300 years ago, it produced a cataclysmic avalanche much larger than that of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
	Wednesday, June 8 DownThemAll #Posted by Dreams on 15:02 Did I mention downthemall already? Did I? Really?! Well, if I didn't, it's a cool tool (extension) for Firefox and it allows you to right click on a webpage and download all (or any that you select) downloadable items from it. Say, for instance, a software package where you need to get 3 ZIP files. Or a webpage with 12 pictures of your favorite party... really handy tool, if you regularly get more than one file/picture/object from a webpage.
	Running Skype from a USB key #Posted by Dreams on 14:05 The Register writes that U3, a start-up of Palm veterans, will support Skype running on Flash-based systems from this Fall. Mozilla has also already pledged to port Firefox and Thunderbird to the U3 platform. So soon, you can make Skype calls from anywhere on the road where there's a PC with a USB port.
	Evolution for Windows #Posted by Dreams on 13:55 Tor Lillqvist writes on tml's blog that Evolution for Windows is almost built. That is to say, it compiles but doesn't do anything really yet. Now he can start debugging...
	Tuesday, June 7 DARPA Grand Challenge #Posted by Dreams on 09:44 The DARPA Grand Challenge: "Ten years ago this would have been considered unthinkable, and ten years from now it will be considered easy." The first team who's robot autonomously crosses approximately 150 miles of the Mojave desert using only onboard sensors and navigation equipment to find and follow the route and avoid obstacles within 10 hours wins $2 million... It sounds easy. But the last time they held the challenge (2003), the "winning" team only crossed 7.4 miles. This year, 118 teams entered the race, and yesterday 40 teams advanced to the semifinals (PDF) ... These teams will compete end of September on a 200m section of highway and try to qualify for the finals on October 8th... When the going gets though... :) The qualifying high-school (!) team is using a normal Honda MPV car that packed with high-tech equipment to become autonomous. :respect: Cool idea!
	Monday, June 6 The Art of RAW Conversion: Digital Photography Review #Posted by Dreams on 14:16 If you are serious about digital photography, you shoot all your pictures in RAW format, of course. You may also convert them into DNG, for added platform independence, but do you really know how RAW works? Do you know how you should convert RAW into other formats, if at all? Do you understand how white balance in encoded into RAW files? Well, if you want to learn more about all of these topics, check out The Art of RAW Conversion and read the Digital Photography Review
	Sunday, June 5 Le Mans 24 hours #Posted by Dreams on 13:59 W00t! In just over 12 days (June 18th-19th) it will be time for another 24 hours of Le Mans! Can't wait. I used to study for my finals when this race was on Eurosport. This day and age, I hope I can tune in to some TV stream somewhere. If you know of one, lemme know! B)
	Friday, June 3 Samsung shows 82in monster TV #Posted by Dreams on 22:22 I'd like a room to fit this TV in: Samsung shows 82in monster TV!!! Or perhaps I'd take a 62" LCD TV instead...? Nah! Size matters! LOL
	Google Sitemaps reads your server's access log files #Posted by Dreams on 22:17 Google Sitemap gives webmaster a chance to tell Google how to efficiently search their websites. How often do pages change? Which pages, etc.? But it can also discover which pages to scan by examining your server's log files. Of course it can! But it can also track exact usage of your site that way!!! What does it do with the rest of the information in those files,m while scanning for paths in the log?!? Does it discard them? Ignore them? Or not...! "There are three methods of generating Sitemaps: * by listing all URLs * by reading the directory paths of your webserver * from certain types of access logs"
	Notepad++ #Posted by Dreams on 16:14 Oops, I did it again... Every now and then I reinstall my machines and discover I did forget that one must-have utility even though I took precautions to save the install files. And I did it again... I don't really use bloated IDEs anymore. I used to use Homesite a lot, then it became too big. So I switched to UltraEdit, then that became too big. Then I used vi and notepad, but they lacked very useful features like syntax highlighting (which makes code infinitely more readable) and global search&replace. So I discovered NOTEPAD++. Open Source, free, full featured, no bloatware, does all I need. Recommended!
	HOWTO: crack WiFI WEP keys in 10 minutes #Posted by Dreams on 13:57 Moosy blog shows you how to crack anyone's WiFi WEP encryption key in 10 minutes using the Whoppix 2.7 LiveCD. Whoppix is a stand-alone penetration testing cd based on Knoppix. With the latest tools and exploits, it is a must for every penetration tester and security auditor. Whoppix includes several exploit archives, such as Securityfocus, Packetstorm, SecurityForest and Milw0rm, as well as a wide variety of updated security tools. The new custom kernel also allows for better WiFi support, for tools such as Aireplay.
	Single Molecule Transistor A Reality #Posted by Dreams on 09:44 I know most of you won't care, but... The Single Molecule Transistor Is A Reality. The transistor! Imagine what that means for a second... insert pauze here Computer chips can decrease an order of magnitude in size (nanometers to Å). Batteries can shrink in size. Light switches, car switches, calculators, phones, mobile phones, digital cameras, video cameras, CD players, DVD players, refrigerators, microwaves... freaking everything! I'm impressed! :nerd:
	About the problem of the world and a solution for it #Posted by Dreams on 09:19 My colleague at work, AJ, refered me to this site with the best chat transcripts: bash.org. If you've ever had regular IRC chat sessions and gotten a bit carried away from time to time, using all of the nifty features to express yourself fully in cyberspace, read the site! There is a brillant quote from someone, summing up the problem of the world in one sentence and also delivering a cure right after it: "The problem with America [the world - ed.] is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"
	Thursday, June 2 Alumni KPN Research unite! #Posted by Dreams on 13:47 LOL :D Not to be outdone by LinkedIn, OpenBC, Orkut and tons of other alumni network organizations, PTT Research aka KPN Research aka TNO Telecom aka TNO ICT (full name: TNO Informatie- en Communicatietechnologie) has formed an alumni organization: ConnectD. If you were one of the 5000 former R&D employees of Dr. Neherlab or PTT/KPN Research, sign up and stay informed of state-of-the-art research and development. You will also be elligible for an informal reunion this fall!
	La Luna Club #Posted by Dreams on 13:00 Den Haag has a new club: la Luna Club! And conveniently located in the center at the Buitenhof square (right next to ther Pathé movie theatre) So far it's still student nights only, which are fun but kinda of so last decade (for me at least)... But DJ Miss Monica is excellent! Who knows what it'll bring...
	Europe home to majority of zombies #Posted by Dreams on 10:49 It's even been established already! :D LOL Not only is Holland stupid, Europe has the most zombies! Of course, they mean zombie PCs rather than people, but the parallel is easily made. ;) 26% of hacked zombie PCs are in Europe now, with the majority being in Germany, UK and France. Until last month, the majority was in China or the US. I rest my case...
	Netherlands screams NO to EU constitution #Posted by Dreams on 10:45 Well, it's official: the average Dutch citizen is even stupider than I thought! We are all so afraid that we'll loose our self in a big Europe; that we'll have to agree on Spanish bullfights; Russian beardancing and Swedish traffic laws, that we are totally ignoring the big picture... The only way Europe can go forward is by uniting forces more closely than before. After WWII we united, combined forces, helped each other rebuild factories, houses and countries and supported each other when threats were near. However, as threats disappeared, economies developed just fine, prosperity spread across Western Europe and cooperation really started to pay off, someone thought rules may be needed to put the gentleman's agreements into writing and ensure that they would continue when times were not so nice. Others thought that cooperation could be enlarged and treatees should exist in other areas as well. Soon, a jungle of ad hoc rules and treatees were in place, Brussels had a central role and no had any clue anymore which regulations were valid nationally, cross-European or world-wide. So to me, a new EU constitution seemed like a godo idea. Take all the rules, iron them out, consolidate them into some clearer ones and leave loop holes for excentric countries and individuals like those drunken English, the perky French and the stubborn Dutch. Tricky issues can be agreed upon and settled officially in all EU states (citizenship, work permits, taxes, criminal laws, etc.) and all others things can be left to the inidivual countries like we have been doing for the past 1000 years. But nooo! "We'll loose gay marriage rights!" "I won't be able to grow weed on my backporch!" "The Red Light district will become illegal!" And all kinds of other really important national rights will have to be abolished... sigh I had expected as much from the French, for they have enough shit going on in their own country. From England I can also understand, they're on an island and perhaps will always be. But I thought the Dutch had some common sense left in them... were able to distinguish facts from fiction and see the light at the end of the tunnel instead of being distracted by the pretty lights on the cars on the way... :stupid: I guess I was wrong.
	Microsoft slammed over XML patent #Posted by Dreams on 10:20 It seems, MS has been granted a (US) patent on converting any programming object into XML. Naturally, anyone who knows anything about or does anything with software, outraged. "As applications will often need to convert between programming objects and XML files, this patent could cover virtually any application that uses XML to transfer data." And even though patent life in the EU is much harder, don't think that software conversion methods have not already been patented (EP1267277)... sigh I'm just wondering when and how this aircastle will collaps. It's simply not workable in the long run...
	Wednesday, June 1 Why guys go to the E3 #Posted by Dreams on 17:34 LANManiac is a handicapped computer gaming nerd that went to the E3 2005 in LA and basically didn't do anything but take pictures of the booth babes and see how he could get away with... OMG! thanks dude! Saves me a $$$ trip. ;)0 Of course, seeing the latest, greatest games is also totally w00t!
	W3C Tenth Anniversary Celebration in Europe #Posted by Dreams on 15:36 "Fifteen years ago, the World Wide Web was born in Europe (at CERN), and made its way around the globe. And while W3C was born in the US, its success is also linked to its extension 10 years ago to Europe. At W3C10 Europe, we'll look at how those early days have impacted the current European experience, and how Europe may influence its future." :snif: sigh Ah, those were the days of Mosaic browsers by Andreessen, blinking tags and, a little later, support for the `<IMG>`. The Web as we know it was born...
	ofjeworstlust.com #Posted by Dreams on 14:40 ROFL If you speak or understand Dutch and are up with current events in Holland, that rules out 99.5% of the world's population I know, check out ofjeworstlust.com. :D Brilliant! :respect:
	Canon digital cameras loose some images #Posted by Dreams on 13:15 Canon has discovered a flaw in its firmware. Under certain conditions, Canon DSLR cameras will loose all images in their buffer! the warning has been issued for owners of the high-end 1D & 1Ds Mark II as well as for the more common EOS 20D, 300D, 350D and the US Digital Rebel series. The latter bug affects only users of high-speed Lexar Compact Flash cards. Please read the full story on Canon's site. A quick check at DPReview informed me that Canon has already released updated firmwares for the affected cameras. There are updates for the EOS 20D, for the EOS 350D/Rebel XT, the 1D Mark II and the 1Ds Mark II
	IBM unsheathes Cell blade server #Posted by Dreams on 09:53 Remember the PS3? With that screaming Cell CPU doing 2 TeraFLOPS? Well, IBM unsheathes Cell blade server! W00t! :nerd: The board carried two Cell processors running at up to 2.8Ghz, as well as 1GB of DRAM split across two chips, according to Nikkei?s TechOn service. The demo box ran on Linux.
	Google Code: Summer of Code #Posted by Dreams on 09:28 Google launches Google Code: the Summer of Code. Students can win a $4500 (roughly, €1000, hehehe) at the end of the program, when they complete an open source program. By pairing up young and eager programmers, who'd otherwise let their skills lie around and chill all Summer, with proven and succesful Open Source Organizations (OSO), 1 plus 1 can equal 87... perhaps... :) Python, Apache, Mono and Google itself are participating. Check the site for more info and details. Deadline is June 14th, so go go go!
	Truely erasing hard disks directly from a boot disk #Posted by Dreams on 09:18 Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction. As a matter of fact, DBAN is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration suite of security tools. Really? Really! No kidding! Nope. :respect: