Juni 2001

And the Internet Purity Test » "You answered "yes" to 35 of 62 questions, making you 43.5% Internet pure (56.5% Internet corrupt); that is, you are 43.5% pure in the Internet domain (you have 56.5% Internet in you)." I had thought I'd end up higher than that.

Movie Nerd Purity Test » my results: You answered "yes" to 194 of 400 questions, making you 51.5% movie pure (48.5% movie corrupt); that is, you are 51.5% pure in the Movie Nerd domain (your Nerdiness is 48.5%). According to the scoring guide, your Movie Nerd experience level is: Hey, doing fine! Either you cheated or you've been doing your homework. Good show!

I'm quite tired. Having a cold always seems to take the life out of me. Maybe it's all that sneezing and coughing. I don't know. Think I'll go to bed shortly. Just wanted to check my e-mail before I did that. Ofcourse I got distracted again. Ended up at a review page for the movie Memento. So, I thought I might aswell add a link, you can file it under "movies I really want to see in the near future". Oh, almost forgot. Here's the link. Everything you wanted to know about "Memento".

Einstürzende Neubauten are a very cool band, I've only recently discovered. I was thinking of a way to describe their sound, but nothing really comes to mind. Perhaps industrial is the best way to go. But that doesn't really cover it.

As Louise Grey wrote in a review of the album '2x4' for The Wire: "A few months ago a tower block near my home blew up. Now, air moans through the abandoned building, the structure groaning as it sways in the wind. Like that of Einstürzende Neubauten, it's a subtle sound and it suggests the perversity which lies at the hearts -die schlagende Herzen- of all things. As an album this is, among many things, an exercise in listening that sensitises you to the noises all around you. Absolutely essential."

Another review, this time by Jon Pareles for The New York Times, 1998: "Einstuerzende Neubauten (which means collapsing new buildings) got started in the late 1970's as a punk band, went broke and sold its instruments, turning instead to industrial detritus that made plenty of noise. The shows in the 80's were known for their debris-slinging spectacle and the potential for disaster. In one New York show, at the Ritz, the band set the stage on fire.

Now, the band is calmer, willing to show more contemplative and more melodic sides; one of its new songs even uses cascading string-orchestra chords. But Einsturzende Neubauten was never exactly anarchic. Its music has always proceeded at a measured pace, rationing materials with Minimalist asceticism; the band presents itself with the discipline of a performance-art project."

Just go and listen to their music. Some of my favourite songs are "Sabrina" (there's also a very cool video for this song » unfortunately I have only seen it once at some ridiculous hour, on MTV), "Stela Marie" and "Der Schacht Von Babel". Also take a look at this or this unofficial site.

I was watching a documentary on tv this morning on astrology, which was part of BBC2's Open University programs. At one point there was a mention of Stardust, and how we are all made of this. Interesting idea, if you think about it. "Every element on earth, except for the lightest, was created in the heart of some massive star. And the heaviest elements -- such as gold, lead and uranium -- were produced in a supernova explosion during the cataclysmic end of a huge star's life, says LSU physicist Edward Zganjar. 'Those elements were ejected into space by the force of the massive explosion, where they mixed with other matter and formed new stars, some with planets such as earth. That's why the earth is rich in these heavy elements. The iron in our blood and the calcium in our bones were all forged in such stars. We are made of stardust', Zganjar said." For more info go to ScienceDaily Magazine, Krysstal, Elsbeth or Guardian.

Yet another blog you should take a lookt at » Follow me here.

Powers Of 10 » "View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons."

Boy Testifies Dog Raped Him » what a world we live in....

Computer Stupidities » a large collection of stories and anecdotes about clueless computer users.

Heavybias.com » interesting to say the least.

News: Computer passwords reveal workers' secrets "Family-types, fans, and the self-obsessed all give themselves away with easily guessable passwords. Only the cryptics are safe..." » Phew! Fortunately I'm a cryptic. (via Slashdot)

This morning I watched Living in Oblivion (1995), which I taped from Canvas yesterday night. I believe I had already seen it ages ago, but the details where missing in my memory. It's definately an excellent movie, worth seeing. "Recapitulating the movie-within-a-movie concept, here Nick Reve (played by Steve Buscemi) is directing an independent movie with a shoestring budget and a film crew with at least as many neuroses as goatees. When the action spills outside of the scenes and everything goes all wrong, (real-life) writer/director Tom DiCillo throws tragicomic jabs at the strange, and painfully human, process of making movies."

EuroTv » My Guide, cool service.

Saturday again. The week seems to fly by. My parents left for Spain this morning at, I believe, 6:00 o'clock. To avoid traffic. It feels like the entire country is packing up and leaving for a few weeks. Anyhow, they'll be back in four weeks. One whole month of peace and quiet. ;-)

"Back in 1995, two Danish filmmakers named Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg stepped back from their industry, took a hard look, and decided it was time for a change. The film business, they concluded, had become overly dependent on special effects, fancy camerawork, and other techniques of production. Rather than being built on the bedrock foundations of drama - actors playing real human beings in a story - movies were becoming more and more dependent on gratuitous action, special lighting, impressive sets, optical effects, audio engineering, and all the other gee-whiz paraphernalia of showbiz. The vital essence of film, dramatic narrative, was in danger of being submerged in glitz. And as if this weren't enough, they also concluded that the cult of personality surrounding the film director was detrimental to making good films. Movies are not the work of a single visionary, they argued, and too many directors spend time making 'artistic statements' to gratify their own egos when they should be concentrating on characters and story.

Von Trier and Vinterberg devised an outrageous challenge to the film business: a set of ten rules, called the Vow of Chastity, which would place certain limits on filmmaking technique. Directors who took the Vow of Chastity would become 'brothers' in a new movement called Dogme (the Danish spelling of 'dogma') 95 and their films could be certified as 'Dogme' films."

Ik vergeet het gewoon steeds. Echt verschrikkelijk, hoe dementie toch al kan toeslaan op mijn jonge leeftijd. "Met het ezelsbruggetje DING FLOF BIPS kun je de landen onthouden: Duitsland, Ierland, Nederland, Griekenland, Frankrijk, Luxemburg, Oostenrijk, Finland, België, Italië, Portugal en Spanje." Met dank aan het Penningkabinet.

Slashdot | Usenet Co-founder Jim Ellis Dies » "Jim Ellis, one of the cofounders of Usenet, has passed away. Usenet is considered the first large information sharing service, predating the WWW by years." He was 45 years old, and died after battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma for 2 years. Usenet of course began in 1979, and is the 2nd of the 3 most important applications on the net (the first being email, and the third being the web). Truly a man who changed the world." » alt.rest.in.peace.

The place I call home.

Smarttags? No thank you!

Took the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young - Reed Test. Interesting. Check out this page for the results.

Just visited Doteasy.com, which offers "bannerless free web hosting for individuals & small businesses". I don't get it. How do they do it? I'm definately thinking about joining this. 20MB and only the cost for the domain, which is $18 per year.

Just because I'm going to see them play in Den Bosch on September 29th, here's a link to the Slayer story.

"The Gods made Heavy Metal and they saw that it was good.

They said to play it louder than hell, and we promissed that we would.

When losers say it's over with, you know that it's a lie.

The Gods made Heavy Metal, and it's never gonna die"

» Quoting Manowar can never be a mistake.

I heard that mtnsms.com is a good service for SMS. I must remember to give it a try when my phone finally arrives. I got a call last week that it is due in week 30. I can't wait. Oh god, I'm a yuppie now. Help!

A different definition for Blog.

Superweb begint opnieuw vanaf 1 september » Voor mij hoeft het in ieder geval niet meer. Vriendelijk bedankt.

I was just browsing the Python Tutorial. For those of you who don't know it, "Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. It is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme or Java. Python combines remarkable power with very clear syntax. It has modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types, and dynamic typing. There are interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various windowing systems (X11, Motif, Tk, Mac, MFC). New built-in modules are easily written in C or C++. Python is also usable as an extension language for applications that need a programmable interface.

The Python implementation is portable: it runs on many brands of UNIX, on Windows, DOS, OS/2, Mac, Amiga... If your favorite system isn't listed here, it may still be supported, if there's a C compiler for it. Ask around on comp.lang.python -- or just try compiling Python yourself. Python is copyrighted but freely usable and distributable, even for commercial use." If this takes your interest, you should definately take a look.

E-Commerce News: Report: Four Web Sites Control Half of Surfing Time » If this is true, it really scares me. Has the entire Web really come down to America Online, Microsoft, Yahoo and Napster?

Dumb Laws » I thought this could be an interesting site, but onfortunately I keep getting a time out. Must remember to check it at a later time.

Great idea » NewsIsFree. You can check out news and other kinds of articles and post directly to your Blogger or Manila account.

Washingtonpost.com | With the Right Song, We're All 17 Again » "By a small plurality of votes, your Great Radio Song is "Radar Love," a 1973 rocker by Golden Earring, the best thing to come out of the Netherlands since Rembrandt and the stock market."

We all love it, but where did it come from? » Verdana.

LOL » Joke A Day's AOL Virus Hoax.

Minitel Hangs On in Internet Age » I even remember having lessons called "Introduction to Videotext" (the Dutch version of Minitel). This was... umm.. 1996, I think. Yes. Even then is was completely obsolete. By the way, I must say that the International Herald Tribune is a very nice site. Very calm, soothing, and also a very good navigation within articles.

Bellen in regio wordt duurder » "De Opta denkt dat het de meeste consumenten uiteindelijk niet duurder uit zullen zijn, behalve mensen die veel internetten." En bedankt :-(

You should really know this by heart, but a reference will always come in handy » Color Specifier.

If the Great Movies Had Been Websites » "What if every potentially great new medium had been filled with "content" like this? What if, instead of actually making Citizen Kane, Orson Welles had simply published a Web diary?" I wonder what would happen to Pulp Fiction...

I'm still convinced we (the Dutch) where right. I say f*ck Gutenberg, long live Coster! » The Gutenberg Years: 1640, Celebration and Controversy » "German scholar Mallinckrodt’s main aim was to defend Gutenberg’s reputation as the inventor of printing against Dutch claims that Laurens Jansz. Coster of Haarlem had first perfected the art. A ‘Coster v. Gutenberg’ debate continued for generations, becoming particularly intense in the nineteenth century. Although the modern consensus has come down in favour of Gutenberg, in the Netherlands Coster was long celebrated as the true inventor of printing and 1428 given as the date of his breakthrough. Commemorative medals were struck bearing his likeness, monuments erected to him and, of course, books published celebrating his achievement (and belittling Gutenberg’s). In this engraving from a 1726 publication the scroll superimposed on the church spire may be intended to reflect the shape of an early press."

Step aside, Butch Flash. Here's Smil, or Synchronized Multimedia Interface Language. Check out the tutorial at Webmonkey.com, called SMIL 2.0: Codeless Animation in HTML. See also the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.0) Specification at the W3C.

Last week we (mum, dad an I) were talking about the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. My dad was going to go there, but he couldn't get his passport within time. Sigh. Such a shame. Even I would love to see some of the bands now, let alone at that time. Among loads of other bands, he could have seen The Doors, The Who, Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, Chicago, Free, Procul Harum and Supertramp. Read more about the festival here and here.

Translate words, paragraphs or entire webpages at WorldTranslator.

Who needs Napster? Why not search Google for "parent directory" and mp3. You'll find loads, I promise. You can even add more words for a specific search. And if you use something like Getright, you can even resume your downloads at a later, more convenient time.

Really Bad Country Song Titles » what do you think of "I'm Gonna Hire A Wino To Decorate Our Home", "Get Your Tongue Out Of My Mouth, Because I'm Kissing You Goodbye", "You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly", "You Were Only A Splinter As I Slid Down The Banister Of Life" and "If Fingerprints Showed Up On Skin, Wonder Whose I'd Find On You".

Take a look at the Aeclectic tarot website, which has a listing with reviews of loads of Tarot decks. Very nice.

Paraskewhat?! You probably didn't know this, but "Paraskevidekatriaphobia is a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th. The term was coined by therapist Dr. Donald Dossey, whose specialty is treating people with irrational fears. He claims that when you can pronounce the word you are cured. Paraskevidekatriaphobia is related to triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13." Cool site by the way.

Why can we put a man on the moon, yet are unable to find a cure or prevention for the common cold? I just don't get it. Take pity on me, I feel like crap.

Last night I watched Secrets & Lies (1996), about "Cynthia who lives in London with her sullen street-sweeper daughter. Her brother has been successful with his photographer's business and now lives nearby in a more upmarket house. But Cynthia hasn't even been invited round there after a year. So, all round, she feels rather lonely and isolated. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hortense, adopted at birth but now grown up, starts to try and trace her mother." Definately a movie worth seeing again.

Thankfully I can report some positive news » I noticed that a new version of one of my favourite utilities, Moony, has been released. "Moony is an ISDN call monitor program. The basic purpose is to show the phone number (and names) for incoming calls. Other highlights are telephone answering machine, fax (send and receive), SMS notification and network support." If you have ISDN, it is definately something you should download.

"Burnt the flowers in my hand, I was almost there

Your denial my demand, I was already there

Now I’m losing who I am

Save me now cause all is black...

Black is back

Turned the water into salt, it was almost dead

Ever tried and lost it all, I was already dead

Almost there..."

Drain S.T.H. - Black

I would also like to thank tonight's busdriver (you know who you are: you drove the 186 to Gouda passing the Korevaarstraat in Leiden at 17:07 this very evening), who deceided it wasn't necessary to stop at the busstop. The same busstop where I was standing (running nose, headache and all), hoping that the bus would arrive soon, so I could go home and sink into a coma. But since you didn't stop, I had to wait another 15 minutes at the busstop for the 169 to Alphen. Which was late, by the way. And the sun was shining right in my face. Which, as you may or may not know, doesn't do much good for a bursting headache. So. Now you know. I know there are people way worse off in the world. I do. But I have a right to feel sorry for myself once in a while, now don't I?

Hurah, I'm blessed with the common cold. Thank you, Tjerk, for giving it to me. Although it appears I have some weird mutation of his lame-o cold. He only had a bit of a sore throat. Where as I feel like death warmed up. Thanks again. According to Britannica.com the common cold leads to "pathologic changes occurring in the mucous membrane that lines the nose, the nasal sinuses, the nasopharynx, and other upper respiratory passages may include tissue swelling, congestion of blood, and oozing of fluids". You're damn right it does. I feel like my head's going to explode. My nose is constantly running. And especially at night this is very annoying, because you won't get a lot of sleep, resulting in being even more tired the next day. Sigh. Take pity on me...

You should read this. Go on. » Ask Doctor Web: Help for Web Makers. Jeffrey Zeldman rules.

This is totally absurd! News: Win XP gets $1B marketing blitz.

What do you mean we're in Italy? I've only got pesetas! » "The dangers of booking flights online have been revealed thanks to the efforts of Michael Brown (25) and his girlfriend Kate Rogers (23). Having decided to take advantage of Ryanair's dirt-cheap online offer for flights to Europe, Kate booked her and Michael a holiday to Gerona, near Barcelona in the top right of Spain. Sadly, it was only when the couple were kicked off a bus for trying to buy a ticket in Spanish pesetas that they realised something was wrong, the Mirror reports. As it turned out they had in fact arrived in Genoa in northern Italy. You'll note the similarity between the two place names. Sadly, Kate didn't and selected the wrong one from Ryanair's drop-down menu"

Very interesting. And even The Netherlands is featured! Take a look at Ray's List of Weird and Disgusting Foods » "I have a theory that many (all?) cultures invent a food that is weird or disgusting to non-initiates as a sort of a "marker." The kids start out hating it, but at some point they cross over and perpetuate it (perpetrate it) on the next generation. Then they nudge each other when foreigners gasp."

A new lists of blogs I recently discovered, some pretty, some interesting, but all unique » Weblog Wannabee, Diary of a Battle Angel, Gengoid and Silence in the Darkness.

W3Schools CSS Quiz Test » my result: "18 of 20 = 90% - You can be proud of yourself! Time Spent: 2:53." Damn! I was aiming for 100%.

Can I say 'Duh!' » Napster users plummet: "Last night the number of users using Napster was sharply down, with only 18 gigabytes of songs being traded, down from a regular pool of over 80 gigabytes just weeks ago, which was only a fraction of the songs being traded freely on the service months ago. At 10.30am this morning, there were about 7,000 people swapping about 30 gigabytes of music. In February this year the number of simultaneous users was 1.57 million, although that number dropped to 840,000 in May."

De Laatste Gulden (The Last Guilder) » I wonder what will happen when we get the Euro. At first chaos probably. But in the long run? I really don't know. I'm not sure. Wait and see.

The weather changed. From extremely hot yesterday, we've gone to clouds, thunder and rain. And believe it not, I definately prefer the latter. I was waiting at the busstop for, you guessed it, the bus, when I noticed the clouds gathering and getting darker. Then I saw lightning across the skies. Then the bus arrived. Shame, I would have liked to have had more time to observe it. As the bus was driving on the rain started pouring down. I know, it sucks for the people on bikes, but I love the sound of the rain on the roof. Definately way better than that awful damp, moist heat you get here on some days. For images of lightning you can take a look at this Corbis search » Lightning.

Misheard Lyrics » Tool

Last night Tjerk and I watched the classic Platoon (1986), which is a "gritty and emotional look at the lives of a platoon of American soldiers as they patrol, fight and die in the jungles of Vietnam as seen through the perspective of a young recruit. Two veteran sergeants clash when one of them precipitates a massacre of villagers. The first movie in Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone's Vietnam trilogy." I hadn't seen it in a few years and noticed that I was able to appreciate it even more now, than a few years ago. The movie features the beautiful Adagio for Strings (by Samuel Barber and George Delerue), which I played just before I fell asleep. See also the Platoon page at HistoryInFilm.com.

I've always wanted to do this » The Illustrated Guide To Breaking Your Computer.

Did you know that today is my 57th workday on this project? I have to go untill number 105. Which means August 31st. And that means that I have entered the second half. Hurah!

I've just added an open in new window script, I've found in the Blogger howto section, under "How to toggle new window linking". I hope this will work better than a simple which I had before. This way, you can do it the way you like. Now, is that a feature or what?

"While man is growing, life is in decrease;

And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.

Our birth is nothing but our death begun."

Edward Young

Take a look at "The Death Clock, the Internet's friendly reminder that life is slipping away... second by second. Like the hourglass of the Net, the Death Clock will remind you just how short life is." I've got untill Sunday, May 26, 2058. Hmm. I wonder.

Slashdot | Are Computer Graphics A Fine Art? » "Salvador Dali once said something like, 'Whatever you do, begin by painting like the old masters. After that, no one will ever question what you do.' An astute observation (and an approach that worked for him; he began his career as an Impressionist) but like any brilliant insight it's obvious in retrospect. If computer graphics are not yet a medium for fine art, it's mostly because there are no established artists who say it is. It's easy for critics to dismiss any new movement composed soley of newcomers to the art world; it's more difficult to do so when it's participated in by artists who are more well-known and respected. I think you will need to gain acceptance for yourself first, by working in more traditional media. Once you're already known for your fine art, it will be presumed that anything you create is also fine art. That will be the time to introduce computer graphics into your corpus of work."

Back to work today. Another birthday, so cake again! I like it. I just don't like the fact that it is getting very warm today. I definately prefer winter. Fortunately I've got a fan for the necessary cooling. At the moment I'm reading the information for the ColdFusion custom tag CF_CurrencyGrabber. Hope this will do what I'm looking for. Did I mention my parents are going on holiday for a month starting this saturday? They're going to the inlands of Spain. This means a little peace for me and my brother ;-) Have to try to keep the cleaning to a minimum, without turning the place into a pigsty.

"Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together." - Georg Lichtenberg (1742-1799)

What Christ really died for...

As I mentioned Friday, I have today off. A warm and sunny day it is. Can't stay online for much longer, it costs way too much during the day. Just enough time to check my e-mail and to write this. Oh, and to give you some links to other interesting blogs I recently noticed » Drunkenstyle.net, tranquileye.com, whereveryouare.org, Perceptions, dutchbint.org and Life goes on.... And don't forget to have a nice day.

Everybody in Holland knows the first two lines of the following nursery rhyme, but I for one didn't know the last three. Last night I wondered why, and wrote down that I should look for it online. Which I did. So here they are. »

"Naar bed, naar bed", zei Duimelot

"Ik zal het verklappen!", zei 't Kleine Ding

I was just browsing the Yahoo! Astrology pages » Pisceans alternate between reality and non-reality in keeping with their introspective natures; their voyage between consciousness and an unconscious dream state says much about their intuitive, almost psychic natures. For this reason, Pisceans can be hard to pin down, prompting some to call them the chameleons of the Zodiac. The Fish are happy to be considered hazy, since there's a certain sense of safety in that self-proclaimed netherworld." and "Pisceans who fear that their pleas aren't being heard tend to lapse into melancholy and, worse, the kind of pessimism which leads to procrastination and lethargy. At times like this, Pisceans are well-served to take some time for themselves, the better to find their center once again". Read more about my astology.

Did another PO box check for the availability of ADSL, at the Mxstream website. Once again I got a negative response. No ADSL for me, any time soon. "Mxstream zal in 2001 niet in uw buurt beschikbaar zijn. De plannen voor het gereed maken van centrales worden continu uitgebreid. Indien u persoonlijk geïnformeerd wilt worden wanneer Mxstream in uw regio verkrijgbaar is, kunt u het volgende formulier invullen. U kunt natuurlijk wel gebruikmaken van een van de alternatieven die KPN Telecom u te bieden heeft, zoals een snelle ISDN-verbinding." Even though I already knew it in advance, I'm still shocked and depressed every time. Sigh.

I was just checking out the information for the game "Tropico" » "As the newly installed dictator of an obscure Caribbean island, build a path of progress for a nation mired in poverty, civil unrest and infighting. Oh, and uhh... stash a few million in your Swiss bank account just in case you need to take early retirement. Tropico takes the addictive building-oriented gameplay of hits such as SimCity 3000 and Railroad Tycoon 2, combined with a healthy dose of Latin American political intrigue, and bundles it up in an easy-to-learn, hard to master, utterly addictive package." Maybe I'll download the demo from PC Gameworld. It's only 172.65 MB. My god, why do these things have to be so huge?

A few days ago I was scanning the tv channels for something decent to watch, when I came across "God, the Devil and Bob" (2000) on BBC2. It's an animation, with the following background: "God has made a bet with the Devil: if one human of the Devil's choosing can't prove that humanity is decent, God will scrap all of creation and start over. The Devil chooses Detroit car assembly line worker Bob Alman. Now Bob has to live a decent life with no hints from God and constant temptation from the Devil." The voice of Bob, by the way, is done by French Stewart, who you may or may not know as Harry from Third Rock From The Sun. Though not as good as say, The Simpsons or South Park, it was definately quite entertaining and I'll keep an eye out for it in the tvguide. Take a look at the official site at www.godthedevilandbob.com.

A new addiction is presenting itself on the horizon » The Sims Online. "Similar to the origins of SimsVille, the motivation for creating a new game based on The Sims comes from a widespread demand for other sims to be controlled by other people rather than just the computer. The Sims Online accomplishes exactly that as in it you're able to go online with your sim and interact with other sims controlled by human players. While The Sims Online may seem just like a glorified Internet chat room, the game actually has many layers of depth, making the entire experience of controlling a sim much more exciting."

Baroeg Online » Do 13 September: Opeth (S progressive rock/death/doom/black/folk) + support

Entree Fl ??. Zaal open 20:00 uur. Aanvang 1e band 21:00 uur.

Slashdot | Five Years of Quake » something to celebrate, even though I prefered Castle Wolfenstein.

Today is Graspop day. Sigh. I'm not sad about missing the line-up, but I am sad about not having a visit to one of the summer festivals this year. It has been for the first time since seven years that this has happened. Doesn't feel like summer without it. Sigh again.

Last night I watched the Mexican movie Como agua para chocolate (1992), which I had already seen about a year ago. But it was still a very entertaining movie the second time around. If you ever see it mentioned in your televisionguide or happen to notice at the videostore, it's definately one to consider. » "In a forgotten Mexico Tita and Pedro fall in love, but are forbidden to marry. Mama Elena sees Tita's role as her caretaker for life - no youngest daughter has ever married and her daughter will not be the first to break tradition. Tita's heart breaks when her mother instead offers to Pedro her other daughter, and he accepts. Now they live in the same house, and Mama Elena cannot forbid their love as she did their marriage."

According to What is your Political Ideology, I'm #1 Socialist, #2 Leninist, #3 Progressive, #4 Marxist and # 5 Anarchist. In that order! Hmm. How should I respond to this?

Yet another list of Blogs that fascinate me » Fairvue Central, Keithbrown: personal log, Groovetheory.net, Girls Are Weird, Viscerate.com, So She Says and Play for Today.

I watched Picture Perfect (1997) on television yesterday. I didn't have any expectations and was pleasantly surprised. As one of the IMDb reviewers stated, the movie "can best be described as cute but forgettable". How true. Anyhow, it's the story of "Kate, who's working on a career at Mercer Advertising, but she is passed up for promotion because she is 'not stable enough', still being single and having no ties to the company. She makes up a story about being engaged to Nick, a guy whom she just met at a friends' wedding. All seems to work out well for Kate. She even gets the attention of a colleague she had always wanted, but then events take a dramatic turn forcing her to 'present' her alleged fiancee to her boss..."

OMG! Monty Python and the Holy Grail 12" Figures » These 12" figures are based on the characters from the Monty Python comedy 'The Holy Grail.' They have over 20 points of articulation and come with themed accessories which include chainmail outfits, shields and weapons. These figures contain sharp points and small parts and are recommended for ages 5 and up.

Had today off from work, and the same goes for monday. I have to use my 2 free days a month, don't I? At first I wanted to have a computer free day, but the thing kept drawing me closer and after a few hours of very many annoyances, I deceided my current Windows installation was through and it was time for a fresh one. So I did the whole "format c" thing and installed Windows 2000 again. Sigh. It's getting a bit tiring to keep doing that every few months. Maybe a shift to Linux wouldn't be a wrong idea. Anyhow, haven't done anything much, besides that.

Oh, I read in the newspaper that Slayer, Cradle of Filth, Pantera and Biohazard will be performing in the Brabanthallen in Den Bosch on September 29th under the name "Tatoo the Planet". Definately something to consider.

And something else worth mentioning before I start tweaking my fresh Windows, is that on the news this morning I saw » Actor Carroll O'Connor Dies At 76 and Veteran Bluesman John Lee Hooker Dies At 83. May they both rest in peace.

"We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment

We are choosing to be here right now.

Hold on, stay inside this holy reality, this holy experience.

Choosing to be here in this body.

This body holding me.

Be my reminder here that I am not alone in

This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal

All this pain is an illusion."

Tool » Parabola » Lateralus

I'd like to have my archive in Calender format too. Hope someone posts a reply soon. Or maybe I can make it myself with this week number javascript.

Main Entry: apoc·a·lypse

Pronunciation: &-'pä-k&-"lips

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, revelation, Revelation, from Late Latin apocalypsis, from Greek apokalypsis, from apokalyptein to uncover, from apo- kalyptein to cover - more at Hell

Date: 13th century

1a: one of the Jewish and Christian writings of 200 B.C. to A.D. 150 marked by pseudonymity, symbolic imagery, and the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life in a messianic kingdom

b capitalized: Revelation 3

2a: something viewed as a prophetic revelation

b: Armageddon

» Check out this excellent website on Apocalyptic Ideas in Old English Literature.

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death." - Revelation 6:8

J. Haynes Death on a Pale Horse Etching, 687 x 476 mm, 1784, London, British Museum.

So many beautiful blogs. I really enjoy watching everybody doing something very personal with those few Blog tags. Take a look at Virtual Theory, Bluetterfly blog, This is my DNA, Nothing or Once I Noticed I Was On Fire, I Decided To Relax And Enjoy The Fall.

Altijd leuk om een open deur in te trappen » Breedbandverbindingen zijn te duur in Nederland » "Breedbandverbindingen zijn in Europa vier keer zo duur als in de Verenigde Staten. Daardoor wordt uitbreiding van e-commerce hier fors beperkt."

Today is Summer Solstice (also known as Litha). People around the world have observed spiritual and religious seasonal days of celebration during the month of June. Most have been religious holy days which are linked in some way to the summer solstice. On this day, typically June 21, the daytime hours are at a maximum in the Northern hemisphere, and night time is at a minimum. It is officially the first day of summer. It is also referred to as Midsummer because it is roughly the middle of the growing season throughout much of Europe.

"Solstice" is derived from two words: "sol" meaning sun, and "sistere," to cause to stand still. This is because, as the summer solstice approaches, the noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky on each successive day. On the day of the solstice, it rises an imperceptible amount, compared to the day before. In this sense, it "stands still."

The seasons of the year are caused by the 23.5º tilt of the earth's axis. Because the earth is rotating like a top or gyroscope, the North Pole points in a fixed direction continuously -- towards a point in space near the North Star. But the earth is also revolving around the sun. During half of the year, the southern hemisphere is more exposed to the sun than is the northern hemisphere. During the rest of the year, the reverse is true. At noontime in the Northern Hemisphere the sun appears high in the sky during summertime, and low during winter. The time of the year when the sun reaches its maximum elevation occurs on the summer solstice -- the day with the greatest number of daylight hours. It typically occurs on, or within a day or two of, June 21 -- the first day of summer. The lowest elevation occurs about December 21 and is the winter solstice -- the first day of winter, when the night time hours reach their maximum.

Check out general information, my Wicca info page or a ritual (also here). Find more with this Google search.

Sounds interesting » The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers, by Tom Standage.

Gates wades into open-source debate » "While he has no objection to open-source development efforts, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is concerned about the "Pac-Man-like nature" of the license that governs the distribution of such software."

Did a re-take. That's better. » "Mirthe, your match is Dylan McDermott. Order in the court! Yeah, we mean you. We know it's exciting that Practice hottie Dylan McDermott is your celebrity match, but for heaven's sake, calm down. After all, the TV lawyer may be tall, dark, handsome, smart, suave... Actually, on second thought, woo hoo! Celebrate all you want; this brainy babe (and ex-fiancé of Julia Roberts) is exactly the right kind of guy for you - you love men who sweep you off your feet with their words, not just their biceps. We can just picture the two of you on a date: candlelight, a vintage wine, a deep discussion about literature or foreign film. Definitely swoon-worthy. He may be married (and a daddy!) in real life, but in the TV show in your head, we the jury find that this bright East Coast hunk is all yours."

Did The Celebrity Matchmaker test at Emode.com » "Mirthe, your match is Matthew McConaughey. Yee haw! Congratulations, y'all - Texas charmer Matthew McConaughey is your celebrity match. Blond and beautiful, this laid-back good ol' boy has a melt-your-heart smile and soulful eyes. He's a fast-talker who sees himself as a salesman - doubt he'd have to try very hard to sell himself to you! You can't resist his down-home twang or rugged good looks, not to mention his wild side. This bongo drum-playing bad boy likes to live life to the fullest, something the two of you have in common. He's all about living "in the now," a spontaneous, easy-going dude with plenty of moxie. So what if he's a little dazed and confused? You just know you could make him sit up and pay attention. Good luck!" Nope, that's not what I'm going for. I don't like him, at all, not in his movies, and probably won't in real life. Sorry.

Here's my Emode Horoscope (for June 19th to July 9th) » "Decisions, decisions, whatever is a Pisces to do? How about nothing…that is, until you feel the right moment. Imposed deadlines for major purchases and relationship decisions are more than stressful; they have a way of tuning out your gut instincts. Here's a tip: If you're getting pressure this week to come up with a yes or no, choose maybe and face the consequences later. You'll be glad you did."

Remember Mahir? Way popular back in 1999. Wow, time does fly!

I was going to mail one of my teachers, but on the site I found the ColdFusion server was not running. Sigh. Think I'll check the exam archive to see if the answers have been posted.

I'm working on a ColdFusion page that isn't quite doing what I want it to do. Looking for an answer I'm browsing through the Advanced Cold Fusion 4 Application Development book, by Ben Forta. I stumbled across the chapter on WDDX. Which is a 'Web Interface Definition Language' and stands for 'Web Distributed Data Exchange'. It's a free, open XML-based technology that allows Web applications created with any platform to easily exchange data with one another over the Web. Now, if that isn't cool, I don't know what is. So now I'm totally side-tracked from my project and reading up on it.

Follow me on my quest for information and go to OpenWDDX.org, Allaire's WDDX FAQ or read the article on Exchanging Data with WDDX at webmonkey. Or take a look at this Google search.

Just added this blog to Yahoo! Social Science > Communications > Writing > Journals and Diaries > Online Journals and Diaries > Web Logs. Hope I get a mention. There are so many great sites on there. I'd be honored. Well, we'll see what happens.

Apparently I'm in the clear. Sigh.

Links now open in a new window. Tell me what you think of that. I must remember to check whether or not is deprecated. If it is, it'll have to go. Because we can't have that now, can we?

Pretty, yet fascinating » Textism.

I'm also reading » Kottke.org and Openbrackets.com

Ulysses for Dummies » it's such fun to read!

Yesterday I watched Supply & Demand (1998), which was a rather confusing programme. Or maybe it was just me. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a programme like that. I don't know. Anyhow, the one thing I did notice is that amongst the cast, I spotted Stella Gonet, who I remember best as Beatrice Elliott in The House of Eliott (1991). I loved that show! As I did a search for it on the IMDb, I came across a link to the videotapes on Amazon. So I added yet another thing on my ever-increasing wishlist. I loved the costumes, what an era for clothing, if only we could have a revival of that, instead of the ever-returning 70s and 80s.

Deep Thought Music Server » you've got to keep your modem busy, haven't you?

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Leave it to Discovery, to produce something excellent. Take a look at one of their features, called "A Village Possessed: A True Story of Witchcraft".

I'm not sure if I've linked to it in the past, but I sure should have. Because the Mystica is an excellent site. "This on-line encyclopedia has entered its second year with its own domain name. There are over 450 articles presented. This volume may seem small to other on-line encyclopedias, but the encyclopedia's objectives are not small, they still are universal. The first objective is to objectively describe past and present ideas, concepts, beliefs, and practices in the worlds of the occult, mysticism and paranormal. By doing this, the Mystica hopes to achieve its second objective which is to educate. To many people the regions of the occult and mysticism are strange, and often even thought to be sinister. But when the truth about these phenomena is revealed they are usually seen and understood differently. Also the practitioners of such phenomena may be seen differently too. They usually appear to be ordinary people holding different ideas." Check it out, it's way up there with Pantheon.org.

Check out my cool Mars Exploration Rover-2003 Mission Participation Certificate. » "In 2003, twin Mars Rovers will be launched towards the Red Planet. Once on the surface, the Rovers will be able to travel significant distances and use several instruments to help scientists determine the climate and water history in Mars' present and past. Everyone on Earth who has ever dreamed of being an explorer on an alien planet will want to go along for the ride as we explore the surface of Mars" invites Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Science. So please join us on this exciting journey of learning and exploration by including your name on the Mars Name Disk!" Read more on Slashdot | [Your Name Here] Goes To Mars.

Hmmm. Interesting, to say the least. Plastic | Bill O'Reilly's Alternative To The Death Penalty -- Labor Camps In Alaska » "Killers, rapists, drug kingpins and terrorists should all be subjected to life in prison without parole in a federal work camp. This special prison system would be run military style and be located on federal land in Alaska. It would be in effect a gulag. Here the worst criminals in the country would be banished and forced to labor eight hours a day, six days a week in the harsh climate. They would be denied television, computers, exercise equipment (as if they'd need it) and most other 'comfort' items. Their mail would be screened, and they would only be allowed a few visitors per year."

"Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do." - Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Just went to 5 Mei Petit Restaurant Snackbar for lunch. Frites with mayonaise. Jummie. I know, it's not healthy, but you've got to live dangerously once in a while.

FreeTranslation.com » free Translation from English to Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian. "Dette stedet regjerer", "Este sitio gobierna" and "Ceci le site gouverne". So check it out.

Just one more link and then I'll get back to work. If you haven't already, you should check out the Devil's Dictionary. It's excellent. We used to have a little book version of it at home and I was very pleased to see that it resides online to. "The Devil's Dictionary was begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and was continued in a desultory way at long intervals until 1906. In that year a large part of it was published in covers with the title The Cynic's Word Book." It has been published online since April 1993.

As you may or may not know, I am currently working on the Channel4Cars website, the maintenance shell, that is. As it turns out I've been working with a rather old version of the site on the local test server. It apparently has been mixed up with an older version right after the move. But that has been fixed and I can continue. I'm glad, because I was having a few problems, as I couldn't find some bits of information. That has been solved now. Hurah! I've just ordered a Alfa Romeo Spider 2.0 T.Spark 16V Lusso 2 doors Cabriolet. I haven't a clue what it looks like, but it sounds nice. Unfortunately it's only on the local test server. Darn. Well, as long as I don't have my driver's license it's of no use to me anyway. Sigh.

Some interesting and surprising links can be found at Best of the Web » "Brill's Content editors and writers scoured the Internet for new favorite sites. Ranging from the obscure to the famous, these online destinations informed, challenged, and surprised us."

Like Slashdot, only without the nerds. Plastic » "Operating somewhere between anarchy and hierarchy, Plastic is a live collaboration between the Web's smartest readers and the Web's smartest editors, a place to suggest and discuss the most worthwhile news, opinions, rumors, humor, and anecdotes online. Drawing from the best material posted to Plastic's sections by editors from SPIN, Modern Humorist, The New Republic Online, and other top sites, Plastic homepage editors Joey Anuff and Tom Dowe give you a summary view of what Plastic is talking about at any given moment. Without your contributions that won't be much, so the next time you run across something worth sharing, keep Plastic in the loop."

VisiCalc rules! And we're both from 1979. Scary, huh?

Jeez, it's already 10:12. And I haven't even begun anything work related whatsoever. Why is it that some days are like that? I just wanted to check my email. This usually doesn't take very long. Root out the spam and glanse at the interesting bits, which I then save for later, to fill my daily four o'clock depression (there's always a price for getting up early). Anyhow, today I got a few interesting mails, with some interesting things. One thing led to another, I added stuff in my blog, went to the Blogger.com home, and got completely side-tracked. Don't you just love the Internet?

I just read the Triumph of the Weblogs by Kevin Werbach » "In the beginning, there were the voices: people expressing themselves, communicating with one another, offering their perspectives on the world and sharing their passions. By lowering the barriers to publishing, the Web can make those voices, whether representing individuals or their organizations, more powerful than ever before. But that requires the right tools, metaphors and platforms. Through a gradual process of evolution and technology development, the voices have finally found a native online form through which to express themselves: a new kind of Website called the Weblog."

Check out the article in The Standard about The Brief History of @. Fascinating stuff.

"It's a problem Web designers face every day. Your pages look great, they exploit the latest cutting-edge Web technologies, and they even offer simplified versions for the older browsers still in use today. You've reached the holy grail of Web publishing - a shining example of an intelligently designed Web site. Then version X of browser Y featuring technology Z comes along. Suddenly, you're faced with the unenviable and all-too-common task of retooling the dozens (or hundreds, or thousands) of pages on your site. 'We're falling behind!' reads the frantic email from some vice president of Big Words. 'Go look at www.we're-cooler-than-you.com. They've completely redesigned!' » What do you do?" Read it in the article Designing for the Future with XML.

"Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin." - John von Neumann (1903-1957)

Took the Are You High Maintenance? test at Emode.com. Here are the results »

Material Upkeep: Although you definitely appreciate a first-class lifestyle, you don't feel a constant need to indulge yourself. Sure, it's fun to spoil yourself with fancy dinners or designer clothes every once in a while, but you probably don't need everything in your life to be top of the line all the time. Congratulations! You know how to indulge yourself the right way - in moderation.

Emotional Upkeep: You like being a top priority in your partner's life, but you also respect his/her independence - good for you! Sure, it's important for you to feel valued and appreciated in your relationship, but your expectations for your significant other tend to be realistic and attainable. You definitely know how you want to be treated, but you don't think the only fulfilling relationship is one filled with constant doting.

Personal Upkeep: It's a safe bet that you don't spend much time grooming yourself. Your lack of concern about your appearance means you're either physically blessed or a little messy. The fact that you don't always feel like you have to look your best could be the result of either a super-healthy level of self-confidence or a disregard for others' opinions. Either way, it's no skin off your nose if you're happy with how you look.

Go to the excellent Bibliomania (Free Online Literature and Study Guides) for Bram Stoker's "Dracula" » "Dracula surely needs little introduction, being the most famous tale of vampirism and the one to which all since it was published in 1897 have aspired to. However, with the numerous adaptations and cinematic rejuvenations and rejiggings of the legend (from Nosferatu to Blackula) have come many bastardisations of the original tale and character. The novel is told via the diary entries of the young solicitor Jonathan Harker, his fiancée Mina, Lucy Westenra and Dr John Seward (who is in charge of a lunatic asylum in Essex). We travel to the Transylvanian abode of Count Dracula, a strange and disturbing castle. His purpose is to settle a land deal for Seward but he is drawn into bizarre and horrifying experiences within the castle walls. The action then passes to England as the Count travels in amongst fifty large wooden boxes and on board ship finishes off the entire crew before disappearing at Whitby in the shape of a wolf. Back on land, Lucy is vampirized by Dracula and dies despite the intervention of the wise and knowledgeable Professor Van Helsing. Mina too is in danger and has to be protected from Dracula’s advances. The adventure concludes with a thrilling and conclusive return to Transylviania. Dracula is not Stoker’s only novel, and he also wrote short-stories and dramatic criticism but this tale stands apart. It was influenced by the story ‘Carmilla’ in Le Fanu’s In A Glass Darkly (1872)."

I was hoping for something more arctic, but I'm sure this is acceptable » Private-island.com.

De Grote Oebiedoebie en het konijn dat Immers en Daarintegen zegt » need I say more?

I have to try this out next weekend. I've been looking for a tool to create fonts with. » Font Creator. "The Font Creator Program puts font creation within the grasp of the average PC user, would-be typographers and graphic designers. With this application you can create and edit TrueType font files."

This cracks me up » Sjef Hoelenpapers' website.

Another one of those coincidences. I just mentioned Willem Barentsz the other day, and now I read the following on the UselessKnowledge.com website » On The Way To Today... June 20th: 1597 - William Barentsz, the Dutch explorer who tried to search for the north-east passage, died in the Arctic in the attempt when his ship became trapped in ice.

Also » 1624 - France and the United Provinces (Netherlands) signed a treaty of non-aggression at Compiegne. | 1819 - The 320-ton paddle-wheel steamship Savannah became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. It arrived in Liverpool after a journey from Savannah, Georgia, of 27 days 11 hours. | 1837 - Upon the death of her uncle, King William IV, Princess Alexandrina Victoria became Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland. During Victoria's reign Great Britain expanded to include new territories becoming the 19th century's most powerful empire. She remained on her throne and in power until her death in 1901. | 1891 - Britain and Netherlands defined their boundaries in Borneo. | 1963 - The United States and the Soviet Union established a hot-line to serve as an emergency communicationns system between the two superpowers during the Cold War. While the system was tested, it was never used. | 1969 - For his time, guitarist Jimi Hendrix earned the biggest paycheck ever paid for one concert performance. Hendrix earned $125,000 to play a single set at the Newport Jazz Festival.

I've just posted on the ColdFusion Support Forums - automatically downloading currency info. Hope someone can help me.

By the way, I really enjoyed the movie Elizabeth (1998). It's "the story of Elizabeth's ascendency to the throne, the plot of the movie is full of palace intrigues, attempted assassinations and executions. The movie starts with England divided by faith, Protestant vs. Catholic. The queen, Mary Tudor has no heir and her Catholic supporters fear the succession of her half-sister Elizabeth, a Protestant. They convince the queen to have Elizabeth arrested and put in the Tower of London but the queen hesitates and eventually refuses to sign her death warrant. It is announced that the queen is pregnant but it turns out to be a tumor and she dies of it a while later. Her Catholic supporters are forced to give the throne to Elizabeth. Elizabeth's first few years are shaky as she is not versed with the art of realpolitik and "rules from the heart instead of the mind". There is also the question of her succession as she is yet unmarried and her death without heir would mean the throne falling back into Catholic hands. She has many suitors but she eventually rejects them all. And aided by Sir Francis Walsingham she manages to kill all her enemies and ascends the throne as the Virgin Queen."

Is it a coincidence how things always appear to occur in cycles? Even something random like movies. I mean, a few weeks ago I watched 'La Haine' which we have on tape. One of the actors Vincent Cassel, who played Vinz, was suddenly appearing in loads of movies I watched in the time after that. For instance Guest House Paradiso, and now Elizabeth, which I watched last night. A different example. In this blog, I keep referring to the upcoming release of The Lord Of The Rings movies. And now suddenly loads of movies I watch star people, who will also star in that movie. Yesterday for example, I mentioned a Catherine Cookson mini-series, which stars Sean Bean. He will play Boromir in The Lord Of The Rings. Elizabeth in the movie with the same name is played by Cate Blanchett. She will play Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings. I can give you loads of other examples. I'm sure you have some aswell. Is this all a coindidence? Like mentioning someone you haven't seen in ages. Nine times out of ten, you will bump into them in some obscure place within a week. Very strange.

"Your Highness, I have no need of this hypothesis." - Pierre Laplace (1749-1827), to Napoleon on why his works on celestial mechanics make no mention of God.

Lees verder

Dutch sailer Henk de Velde is currently sailing the northeast passage. For more information check out Henk de Velde's Sea and Ice adventure.

A few days ago I received the following email » "Hello, as I know you are a fan of dark metal, I invite you to come to our new website (available this evening) on luxincerta.com: we are a french dark/metal band and we hope you'll like our music. With the hope to see you soon on our guestbook, Agone / Lux Incerta". So I paid a visit to the (nicely done, by the way) website and downloaded an MP3 for the song "Miserabilis Miserabile", and I must say, I like it. So everybody, remember this name and check it out.

Shit! I only just remembered. I was supposed to tape South Park, which airs at 19:30 hours. I have alll episodes that aired so far on video. But now I forgot. I was browsing and playing some music with Winamp and time got away from me. Damn. I believe they air the same episode again tomorrow on some ungodly hour. Have to remember to check the televisionguide though.

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Whilst searching for Willem Barentsz on Britannica.com, I somehow came across an article from the Christian Science Monitor entitled "A letter from Amsterdam". "For weeks, debate has raged over who will succeed Queen Beatrix, after a group of members of parliament said they would not endorse a marriage between Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his Argentine girlfriend, Maxima Zorreguieta. Maxima's father, Jorge, was a civilian minister during the military 1976-1983 dictatorship of Gen. Jorge Videla. During General Videla's rule, thousands of Argentines were jailed, tortured, and killed for their alleged leftist sympathies. The Dutch prime minister's social democratic party, Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA), says Mr. Zorreguieta shares responsibility for those human rights violations". It's not often I've seen non-Dutch articles about this subject, even though it was a big issue here. I wonder what people think. Let me know, if you have an opinion.

"The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head." - Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)

Hmm, I noticed I mentioned Nova Zembla in my previous post, but that I have never posted anything about fellow Dutchman Willem Barentsz. Shame on me, because he rules! Check out A voyage through time, the story of Barents' wintering hut.

"Fifteen Dutch seafarers lead by Jacob van Heemskerck and Willem Barents attempted in 1596 to sail to Asia across the North Pole. In August 1596 this dearing endeavor ended near the northcape of Novaya Zemlya when the vessel was beset in sea ice. The Dutch decided to build a wintering shelter from drift wood and parts of their ship. They named it Het Behouden Huys (The Saved House) upon completion. The account of the subsequent wintering was published by crewman Gerrit de Veer in 1598. 'The greatest treasures of all are the hardest to find', so reads the introduction to this tale and this motto gained new meaning with the archaeological research at the site during the 1970s and 1990s.

Norwegian harpooner Elling Carlsen discovered the remains of the Saved House in 1871. The roof of the hut had collapsed, and Carlsen went ashore to take a closer look at a site. Inside the House was a mass of snow and ice, keeping a treasure trove of historical objects. Inspired by his findings, Carlsen wrote in his log that the winterers 'had been equipped in a war-like manner'. Not surprising - considering the violent years the Dutch Republic experienced during its rebellion against the powerful Spanish king. The explorers were sent out looking for resources which would keep the young state alive. Carlsen took all the obvious treasures, including some one-of-a-kind experimental navigational instruments, back to Norway and sold them to an English trader, who presented the collection in Amsterdam in the same year." Check out more on Willem Barentsz at this Google search.

Oh, by the way, Tjerk didn't buy a DVD player. As it turned out, his television doesn't have a scart entry and this is required. So he probably has to buy a new television first. Sigh. That was something we hadn't expected a put quite a damper on the day. The fact that it was raining most of the time and still about 25 degrees Celcius, didn't really help. I hate the Dutch climate. Hopefully I can move to some very cold island somewhere someday. Maybe Nova Zembla or something.

Another thing I'll never forget is "The Flying Doctors" (1985), which follows the lives of those in the Australian outback flying doctor service. I remember how I used to watch this on sunday nights with my mother and brother (my dad always used to, and still does, watch sports on that hour). It was always on just after we had taken our obligatory showers and were all fresh and dressed in bathrobes. Excellent memories. I am telling you this because I found an old videotape at a video rental place, which was having a sale. It contains 2 tapes of 3 hours each. And it cost only fl. 4,95. As you understand, I couldn't just leave it there. So I bought it. Don't you just love nostalgia?

I was just paying a visit to the IMDb website to look up some stuff, when I noticed the "Movie of the Day" bit on the main page. At a glance I caught the words "Venus" and "Beauty" and instantly I thought of a French movie I had seen about two years ago. And indeed, this item was in relation to that particular movie. Strange how some movie are instantly forgotten and others stay with you a lifetime.

"From the outside, the Venus Beauty Institute looks like a pretty fishbowl, its stacks of pink and gold tubes glinting with the promise of physical perfection. Inside, things aren't quite so idyllic: Angèle (Nathalie Baye), teetering on the brink of middle age, has given up on love affairs in favor of anonymous flings; salon owner Nadine (Bulle Ogier) struggles with the shrewd businesswoman/human being balance; and young beauticians Samantha and Marie spend their days massaging egos, tempers, and varicose veins. Like Cecilia Roth in All About My Mother, Baye carries Venus Beauty Institute--her character is smart, vulnerable, and magnetic, proving once again that charisma and sex appeal are not reserved for the under-thirty crowd. While it never received a wide international release, Venus toured the festival circuit and took home four César awards (including Best Film and Best Director)."

Sound Crazy » Wish I had this much to spend. Sigh.

I think I'll join PayPal. I'm still doubtful, however, as I'm not sure anyone will use it. Maybe later.

I've finished Stephen King's 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' (for more information read this post). It was a great book, definately something I'd recommend.So I've started Faye Kellerman's 'Stalker'. Although I'm not quite far into it yet, I think I'll like it. Let's see. What else was I going to share with you today? Well. Not a lot has happened since yesterday. I'm glad it's saturday though. Got to sleep in for a change, even though I still woke up at the crack of dawn. Habbits die hard, don't they. I watched the first part of Intensity (1997) on television last night. It is a mini-series based on a novel by one of my favourite authors, Dean Koontz. Have to say I was pleasently surprised by it. Oh, and this morning I watched the second part of Catherine Cookson's 'The Fifteen Streets' (1989). They are currently showing loads of her stories on the Belgian tv. And I know, it's predictable and sobby, but I enjoy watching the paupers of the late 18 hundreds. It's such a different life than nowadays. So. Now you know. Later today I'm going into town (Leiden), with Tjerk. He is going to buy a DVD player and I am going for company, and my wisdom ofcourse. ;-)

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means." - Clarence Darrow, Scopes trial, 1925

"If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Pretty and good content. My favourite combination! » Mythography | Exploring Greek, Roman, and Celtic Mythology and Art "Explore mythology and art with information about the classic stories of heroes and gods...from the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, to the legends of the Celts. Mythography also presents resources and reference materials about mythology - including recommended books, and lexicons that explain Greek, Roman, and Celtic terms and words. Share your views about mythology on the message forum."

I noticed that I'm still in the queue for both the "blogs by women" and the "webloggers" webring. Hope this changes soon. The links look quite sad, when they say "member not found".

"Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches." - the Duchess of Windsor, when asked what is the secret of a long and happy life.

Read this » Cheaper over Better? Why businesses will settle for less. Why clients hire bad designers (and what good designers can do about it).

Went to check the site for my grades yesterday (the 14th). Unfortunately I got a 5. I hate that. I need a 5.5 to make it. So not enough. Damn! But on the site I read that the discussion meeting would be held the 13th. Which means I am too late to change anything about my grade. Sigh. I must remember to send an email to the teacher. Maybe (hope, hope!) something can be arranged. But I doubt it. Sigh once more.

I was reading the bio for Stanley Kubrick at the IMDb, and noticed the following, which amazed me » "Known for his exorbitant shooting ratio and endless takes, he reportedly exposed an incredible 1.3 million feet of film while shooting Shining, The (1980), the release print of which runs for 142 minutes. Thus, he used less than 1% of the exposed film stock, making his shooting ratio an indulgent 102:1 when a ratio of 5 or 10:1 is considered the norm."

Study: Web fails to impress most people » "The Internet may seem all-pervasive, but billions of people around the world are not surfing the Web because of a lack of interest, need, money and equipment, according to a survey released Thursday." Also "the study showed that on average, 98 percent of respondents had a television, 51 percent a mobile phone, 48 percent a home computer, and 36 percent home Internet access." Take a look at the details for the Survey » Why aren’t more people online? No need, no interest, no money, keep billions away. Only an estimated 6% of the world is online."

I was in a deep sleep this morning when my radiio alarm clock woke me, by playing the excellent "Winona's Big Brown Beaver", by Primus. A great way to start your day. So I jumped in the shower, had some breakfast and left for work. The weather had cooled down, it had apparently rained last night. So I deceided to wear my light brown suede jacket. And left for work. Just as the bus was pulling in at the busstop, the heavens opened and rain poured down. Thank you. Completely soaked I arrived at my work. Sigh. Isn't life grand in The Netherlands? Well, I imagine things could be worse, but I'm still very pleased it's friday already. Have a good one!

I want this. (I know, I have to many posts about things I want. But what the heck.) » "Taking Your Talent to the Web: Making the Transition from Graphic Design to Web Design" by Jeffrey Zeldman. "The book's purpose is to guide traditional art directors and print designers as they expand their existing careers to include the new field of professional Web Design."

"I have often regretted my speech, never my silence." - Xenocrates (396-314 B.C.)

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." - Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

As I am revamping the code for The Lyrics Archive, I must remember that I should do more validation. For more information read Security Best Practice: Validating Browser Input. "An underlying problem with many web applications is that they dynamically generate HTML pages containing non-validated browser input. If browser-submitted Cookie, URL and Form variables are not validated, malicious users can potentially embed web browser-executed scripts within the input. If a server-side script then re-displays this non-validated input, the script runs on the browser as though the trusted site generated it." See also: the Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-05) Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability and Tutorial 8: The guide to ColdFusion error handling at CFvault.com.

Useful » CFVault.com - The Allaire Information Source.

Groovy. Since1968 :: Sites » check it out, it's a great resource.

It's probably me, but I don't get it » Fun fun fun.

"So you want to be a hero? You've decided to take the plunge. You're going to become... a super-hero! Congratulations, but have you worked out the details? What will you call yourself? What weapon will you use in your fight against crime? What kind of transportation will you have? How will you get your powers? Who will your enemy be? What team will you be a part of?

Well, stop worrying! All the answers are right here. Let Lee's (Useless) Super-Hero Generator set you on the right track. Simply answer the questions on the form below and keep at it until you find the perfect name for yourself, your team, or your foe(s). Good luck, hero!"

Had a busy morning today. Didn't get much work done though. Some people from the UK came over to view the way we worked. Had to show the system. Brushed of my English and got to it. Then some lunch. Why is it getting so warm now? Is summer actually kicking in? I wish it wouldn't. Don't feel like doing much today. Sigh. Wish it was weekend. But it's not.

Good job! Operation Clambake - The fight against Scientology. "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away". Philip K. Dick

I want this! NEC to Begin Sales of 61-inch Jumbo Plasma Display Monitor.

What a day. I've only just gotten around to checking Slashdot. I've been working on a quick solution for a local problem here. To save time I deceided on Access instead of SQL Server. I now remember why I hate Access. Anyhow, most of the system works. Finishing touches will follow. God, I'm tired now. Think I could sleep for a week. And I've totally had it with this system too. Think I'll do some browsing now.

Sigh. Some people just don't get it. I own the DVD and the more you see it, the better it gets. Even though you think it can't get any better. It does. Epinions.com » Pulp fiction "This movie is nothing but pure trash. The whole movie revolves around drugs, shootings, sex and extremely foul language. The movie doesn't seem to really have a plot and mainly just hangs on a thread of slime.

I've seen other movies involving similar topics, but this movie goes way over the edge with the violence, drug abuse and vulgar language. In fact that is what the whole movie consists of in every scene.

I'm glad I rented this movie on video and didn't pay top dollar to see it in the movie theater! The amount of scummy offensive filming and lack of a plot caused my husband and I to just turn off the movie before it was even finished! Save your money and time and rent something else!"

Epinions.com » Lateralus: Tool's latest opiate for the masses. I'd have to agree. Definately one of their best. I was afraid it would be more commercial, but it totally isn't. Wonderful. Truly an album you've got to buy!

The Specification is Your Friend » "One of the promises I made to you, the readers of HTML with Style, is that I would teach you proper HTML. Some of this has been made obvious so far, and if you've read other tutorials on HTML you will have noticed that the HTML with Style Tutorials take a different approach.

Some people consider what I'm about to tell you useless information for Web authors. In my opinion this information is the most important information you need to know in order for you to author good Web pages. In this tutorial I'll use what you've learned so far to show how the theory and concepts behind HTML can be used to make you Web pages better." I reckon he's spot on. How can you run when you can't walk yet?

You can find really useful thing on the Internet. Some more useful then others though. On Bookmarklets I found a script that prints the lyrics for "99 Bottles of Beer". Is that useful or what?

HTML with Style Tutorials at WebReference.com. Elementary, my dear Watson. "The HTML with Style Tutorials start by assuming that you either know nothing about HTML and CSS, or that all that you know is wrong. No matter where you are between these two extremes, you'll probably find them enlightening, informative and entertaining. Start from the top, or hop in somewhere along the way - it's your choice."

Illusions By Zigmont » I've seen a lot, but this could quite possibly be the ugliest site I have ever seen.

The code Yahoo! inserts on my pages is totally NOT valid according to the almighty W3C validator. So I've deceided to post on the Yahoo! Experts messageboard.

Script galore at DHTML Lab » Dynamic HTML Tutorials, DHTML Scripts, Programming, Tools, Code, and Examples.

"Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do." - William Ellery Channing

"It is much more comfortable to be mad and know it, than to be sane and have one's doubts." - G. B. Burgin

I use to many quotes. But that's okay. I know to many people who don't use any. One of my favourites of the moment is from the movie WarGames (1983), "Greetings, Professor Falken. Would you like to play Global Thermonuclear War?", whenever something war and/or technology related is shown on television. Does this make me strange? Others originate in Blackadder, SouthPark, Pulp Fiction, and loads more sources. What do you say to often, or who do you like to quote? Mail me.

Very interesting » The Battle to Define the Future of the Book in the Digital World. "Commercial publishing interests are presenting the future of the book in the digital world through the promotion of e-book reading appliances and software. Implicit in this is a very complex and problematic agenda that re-establishes the book as a digital cultural artifact within a context of intellectual property rights management enforced by hardware and software systems. With the convergence of different types of content into a common digital bit-stream, developments in industries such as music are establishing precedents that may define our view of digital books. At the same time we find scholars exploring the ways in which the digital medium can enhance the traditional communication functions of the printed work, moving far beyond literal translations of the pages of printed books into the digital world. This paper examines competing visions for the future of the book in the digital environment, with particular attention to questions about the social implications of controls over intellectual property, such as continuity of cultural memory."

Oklahoma City Bomber McVeigh Executed » "Silent and unrepentant but making eye contact with each witness to his execution, Timothy McVeigh was put to death by lethal injection on Monday for exploding the bomb that killed 168 people in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995". Read the reactions. I'm not quite sure where I stand. I don't think two wrongs make a right, however. Sigh. I don't know. This isn't the darkages anymore, is it?

"Today every living person who was hurt by the evil done in Oklahoma City can rest in the knowledge that there has been a reckoning", Bush said at the White House. Although he made no final oral statement, McVeigh left behind a written one -- a word for word copying of 19th Century British poet William Ernest Henley's poem "Invictus", a celebration of the triumph of the human spirit, that ends the lines: "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul." Light is thrown on the Oklahoma City bomber's state of mind and conditions in the federal death row buildings in the small Indiana town of Terre Haute by diary entries posted on a website that is called Death Row Speaks.

Another one! VBXML.COM: Building Dynamic WAP Applications with ColdFusion by Charlie Arehart.

I found an interesting article on my WAP meets CFML crusade at the ColdFusion Developer's Journal » Wap Revisited - The challenges of wireless development.

I'm thinking of making a WAP version of The Lyrics Archive. So I'm reading up (I've completely had it with my work for today) on the combination of WML and ColdFusion. A quick search on Google, resulted in this excellent tutorial. "... And all this makes WAP and WML very appealing to ColdFusion developers (and makes ColdFusion appealing to WAP developers too). After all, WAP applications are written in WML which is just another set of tags, and ColdFusion excels at working with tags."

"Browser Statistics are always interesting for website developers. What we can read from the current statistics, is that Internet Explorer is dominating the browser war, and that most users are displaying 800x600 pixels or more, with a color depth of at least 65K colors."

Why is min-height not supported by any browser? Damn.

I'm sure you've received it in the mail from some joker who's got you in their adressbook, but I'd like to share it with you anyway. If restaurants functioned like Microsoft on The Register. ("Waiter: Maybe the soup is incompatible with the bowl; what kind of bowl are you using?")

I just found a flash version of the classic arcade game Asteroids. Where could you possibly find anything cooler? I don't know. Oh, maybe 5k Pong. That was pretty cool to.

This is a very nifty idea » StorTroopers, which "is a small drag-and-drop java avatar-creator that can be embedded into a webpage (normally a member-profile page) with the idea being that a site user can upload an image to represent his or herself without the site owner having to moderate (as the case would be with photographs). Each version of storTroopers contains one wardrobe of approximately 130 items, with seven different body types to choose from. Custom wardrobes can be commissioned for any type of community."

Ravished dot net - for the time being » hmmm. Interesting.

Will they never get it? Slashdot | An End-Run Around Region-Free DVD Players » "Warner Home Video has devised a new regioning mechanism called RCE (Regional Coding Enhancement) to fight back against "region-free" players. The disk itself is unregioned (region 0) but contains a script which checks the player's native region instead".

"Isn't it just fun watching content providers declare jihad on the very people they're trying to sell entertainment products to and the hardware manufacturers they rely on to allow those products to be viewed? Talk about not getting the message. You'd think the studios were involved in Operation Foot Bullet or something."

"The only certainty is that nothing is certain." - Pliny the Elder

Daily horoscope: pisces (monday june 11 2001) » "You must learn a safe investment strategy if you're going to get out of the rat race. An office feels like prison to a dreamer like you. Unless you start putting money into savings, you'll be forced to stay on the treadmill indefinitely. Sign up for a class or meet with a financial consultant whilst you're in this material mood." Spot on. I want to work only as much as is necessary. And then buy my own island. That would rule. Sigh.

It's about time! Slashdot | EU To Investigate DVD pricing » "At this address, the BBC says that the EU's competition commissioner, Mario Monti, is about to lauch an investigation into DVD pricing policies on the European side of the Atlantic. He is unhappy with the fact that EU consumers pay about 25% more than their US counterparts. He will also be asking Hollywood about the regional coding system."

Hurah! I found a new mouse on my desk this morning. Finally, no more RSI. Well, not as much anyway. It's the Logitech Cordless MouseMan Wheel, which "combines cordless freedom of movement with a sleek, comfortable shape that offers unique soft-touch sides. Logitech's advanced digital radio technology eliminates the struggle with cords, works in a six-foot range without being pointed at the computer, and performs on crowded desks".

"There is no knowledge that is not power." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery

I've been having some problems with the archive bit. I still would like the links to show up in the righthandmenu. I tried using this Javascript. But that doesn't work. So I posted it on the Discussion board at Blogger.com. Hope someone can help.

Great reference: The Jargon Dictionary » "Linguists usually refer to informal language as 'slang' and reserve the term 'jargon' for the technical vocabularies of various occupations. However, the ancestor of this collection was called the 'Jargon File', and hacker slang is traditionally 'the jargon'. When talking about the jargon there is therefore no convenient way to distinguish it from what a linguist would call hackers' jargon -- the formal vocabulary they learn from textbooks, technical papers, and manuals.

To make a confused situation worse, the line between hacker slang and the vocabulary of technical programming and computer science is fuzzy, and shifts over time. Further, this vocabulary is shared with a wider technical culture of programmers, many of whom are not hackers and do not speak or recognize hackish slang"

This saddens me » Executed Offenders. Especially the last statement bit.

BBC News » Thinking 'drains the brain'. "Scientists have come up with proof that too much thinking can be exhausting. The impact of straining the grey matter is likely to be more pronounced in older people. A team from the University of Virginia in the US carried out research on rats. They found that increased memory load drains glucose from a key part of the brain in the animals."

I found another one on my quest for nice blogs everywhere » Brainsluice.

Fokke & Sukke rule! And so does Kamagurka.

Nice sites I've stumbled onto » Mr. Green and Tessa Online. I think this is also a good moment to link to Weblogger.nl. Oh, and maybe one to this great initiative: letmestayforaday.com where Ramons writes: "On this website you can follow my tracks as I travel around the world on a low budget and on invitation by websurfers like you." So, that should be interesting.

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears this is true." - James Branch Cabell

2view VHS. "Buena Vista, masters of customer revenue extraction, are experimenting with a new retail style VHS cassette in Holland which allows consumers to view a film twice before rendering the experience unwatchable. Costing end users around £4, they don't have to return them afterwards and even get a reusable blank tape afterwards, surely just what every good clean living family wants." What a terrible idea. But ofcourse plenty of workarounds have been released.

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930)

Okay, I've joined. But it stops here. I promise. No more rings.

A webring for bloggers. Maybe I'll join. Don't know yet. But for now, it's just nice to browse.

I was checking out the statistics for my blog when I saw that about 2% of the visitors came from an adress which was unknown to me. After taking a look I ended up at the Idiot Fillings blog. Which was kind enough to link to me. Isn't that nice? Thanks!

The second was Snatch (2000), about "Turkish and his rather strange accomplice Tommy who get pulled into the world of match fixing by the notorious Brick Top. Things get complicated when the boxer they had lined up gets the shit kicked out of him by Pitt, a 'pike' as they call him. They then try to convince Pitt not only to fight for them, but to lose for them too. Whilst all this is going on, a huge diamond heist takes place, and a fistful of motley characters enter the story, including 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Franky Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony'. Things go from bad to worse as it all becomes about the money, the guns, and the damned dog!"

Yesterdays trip to the videostore resulted in the following two movies, which I had both wanted to see for quite some time. The first was Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), which is the story of "four Jack-the-lads who find themselves heavily - seriously heavily - in debt to an East End hard man and his enforcers after a crooked card game. Overhearing their neighbours in the next flat plotting to hold up a group of out-of-their-depth drug growers, our heros decide to stitch up the robbers in turn. In a way the confusion really starts when a pair of antique double-barrelled shotguns go missing in a completely different scam."

I've just joined the Blogs by Women webring. I've seen it on a couple of sites online. And at first I was a doubtful whether it would be for me, but then I thought "What the hell". Nice concept, so why not. So here it it. You can find a link at the bottom of this page or in the menu on the right. And in this post ofcourse. Links o'plenty I'd say.

"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome." - Isaac Asimov

"Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." - George Eliot (1819-1880)

I recently downloaded the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus, and already knew the excellent cover by Opera IX. However I didn't know who on earth Bela Lugosi was. But fortunately a quick trip online gave me the answers I was looking for. On Britannica.com I read the following: "Lugosi, Bela » born October 20, 1882, Lugos, Hungary [now Lugoj, Romania] died August 16, 1956, Los Angeles, California, U.S. Original name Blasko Béla Ferenc Dezso, Hungarian-born motion picture actor famous for his sinister portrayal of the elegantly mannered vampire, Count Dracula". Ofcourse he can also be found at the IMDb website.

Finally found the Gladiator script. I was wondering what on earth that brutal guy from Germania is calling out just before the first battle. Haven't found it yet, though.

I love reading the goofs and trivia bits on my favourite movies over at the IMDb website. Unfortunately not all movies are mentioned. But don't worry, there are plenty of sites out there with the same subject. Take a look at the Nitpickers Site, Movie Bloopers Online or Movie Mistakes.

This guy rules » Slashdot | Nasubi - The Ultimate Survivor. "Although it was broadcast in 1998, I don't think many people outside of Japan have heard of Nasubi. In this reality program a young comedian was locked naked and alone in a tiny apartment with a stack of magazines ,postcards and pens. He then had to survive solely living off prizes he won in competitions (hence the magazines and postcards). It took him over a year to reach his goal of a million Yen worth of prizes. He received no help from the producers and went long stretches (sometimes 2 weeks!) without eating. Compared to this Survivor is like Club Med."

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" - H. M. Warner (1881-1958), founder of Warner Brothers, in 1927

Cool! A feature at CDnow.com about the movies ("Face it, there are films you see to enjoy the film, and there are films you see to enjoy the actors. From the chiseled looks of Tom Cruise in full Maverick flight gear to computer-created Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science, '80s stars had it goin' on.") and music from the eighties. Check it out!

"Maybe this world is another planet's Hell." - Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

This morning I watched The Edge (1997), which I had taped earlier this week. I love it when you still have something cool on video and no real plans for the weekend. Just a relaxing saturday morning. Anyhow, I had rented this movie about a year ago and remembered that it had been rather good. So definately worth seeing again. It's the story of "billionaire Charles Morse who accompanies his supermodel wife Mickey to a photo shoot in Alaska. The shoot is to be made by fashion photographer Robert Green. To find a specific Indian for the shoot, they fly to an even more distant location, where their small plane crashes into a lake. To survive in the woods full of man-killing bears they need each other, but the smarter of the men -Charles- is suspicious that Robert is having an affair with his wife." The movie stars Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. Definately one to consider next time you're at the videostore.

"I begin by taking. I shall find scholars later to demonstrate my perfect right." - Frederick (II) the Great

Another one I've downloaded is Heavenly Voices » "The title said "A Collection of the Finest Female Vocals in Ethereal, Darkwave and Gothic." When I read "gothic," such bands as The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Psychedelic Furs immediately came to mind. But when I listened to the album, I discovered the music was closer to Dead Can Dance and Enigma than any of the other (rock-oriented) bands just mentioned. This album blends enticing vocals with drifting and subtle melodies. It's a great album to sit back, relax, and drink a glass of wine to."

And they thought they could stop us by closing Napster. ;-) Now, don't get me wrong, I buy loads of CDs in the store, but at those prices, I just can't buy everything I want. I recently bought Tool's 'Lateralus' and Monster Magnet's 'God Says No' and spend almost 80 guilders (about 30 US dollars) on those two CDs. Well, I don't know about you, but I think that that is way to much.

Finally. An excuse for my melancholy. Yahoo! DailyTips Mind & Spirit » "Don't Worry, Be Sad. Sadness isn't always bad. In fact, it serves as a vital emotion that can inform and enrich every aspect of our lives. Sometimes in our pursuit of happiness, we forget that melancholy forms a valid and important part of our emotional spectrum. In fact, it's a necessary part of growth and of life. How could one be considered "alive" -- much less sensitive, honest, and intelligent -- without responding to the often cruel and confusing world we live in with some sorrow. So rather than try to pretend that sad feelings don't exist, learn to recognize, honor, and even celebrate your blue emotions."

My horoscope: Pisces » "Although your first instinct is to spend a quiet evening at home, it's better to socialise with friends. Being a loner can take a toll on your happiness. Spend the next few weekends mixing with others. If your list of pals has dwindled, join a club, group or gym. This will force you to interact with a variety of folks and make a new set of mates." Ohh, I don't know, you guys. Sigh. Once a loner, always a loner.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates in 1981

"How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself." - Anais Nin (1903-1977)

Ampersand : an american girl in london » Nicely done site. I'm especially impressed with the way the Blogger archive looks. Maybe I can do something like that. Atleast, when I have written for a couple of years. Otherwise, it'll just look sad.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)

SvC: cijferoverzicht » still no news about my grades. Sigh. I have to be patient. Anyhow, I've been working on a status/noticeboard type application for the C4C website I'm working on. So I'd better get back to it, before I get totally distracted. Why does friday seem like the longest day of the week? Well, maybe I can just check Slashdot.org now.

I've found an obscure Russian FTP server with a few cool albums on it. I've downloaded The Boatman's Call, the 1997 album by Nick Cave. Haven't listened to it completely. But what I've heard, I like. "On The Boatman's Call the singer-songwriter finds room for the personal, the spiritual, and even the hopeful in his grey psyche. With only the sparest accompaniment--often just a piano or organ, light percussion, and violin (care of Dirty Three's Warren Ellis)--Cave employs traditional folk song structure and simplicity to weave tales saddened less through tragedy as through emptiness. [..] Where Gothic meets cathedral, there resides, for better or worse, our dark saint Nick."

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." - George Washington Carver (1864-1943)

I haven't uploaded it yet, but I've had to remove a couple of features from The Lyrics Archive. I have, unfortunately, only a limited amount of space. So the voting system had to go down. So did the survey and the poll. They were dispensable and not worth the space in the database. Lyrics come first after all. To freshen things up, I've deceided to give the whole site a new design and take a fresh look at the code. The source, ofcourse, will be W3C valid, and completely with CSS. Also my ColdFusion knowledge has increased since I first set up the site, so I'm making thing more efficient, and hopefully faster and more userfriendly. If you have any ideas, please mail me.

Sometimes Flash is really cool. Check out the Death By Jargon website.

Spooky. Slashdot | Where Does Microsoft Want You to Go Today? » "in this Wall Street Journal story about Microsoft's new "Smart Tags" - auto-linking to Microsoft websites in any web page you visit. "From the article: "In effect, Microsoft will be able, through the browser, to re-edit anybody's site, without the owner's knowledge or permission, in a way that tempts users to leave and go to a Microsoft-chosen site -- whether or not that site offers better information." My web site is about margarita recipes....what is Microsoft going to do...offer a visitor to my site a better recipe on their site?" See also this CNET article on the same subject.

I am concerned about this myself. Slashdot | Will Browser-Neutral Web Soon Become Thing Of Past? Psychotic Venom asks: "I do ASP development as a part-time job during school. ASP's not my first love or anything, but I don't have a great deal against it. I recently went to an ASP site and got this message and I just wonder what's really going on. I mean, I LIKE Netscape. I like having an option...and I thought that was part of the reason behind a server side scripting language. So are we all slowly being pushed out to the point that we really DON'T have a choice if we want to really do Web surfing? Are we going to have to keep IE on our machines to view anything Pro-Microsoft and Netscape for everything against it?" And after reading this, I suddenly found the words "Netscape-specific tags" on the tip of my tongue. Yes, the bad karma finally catches up with Netscape, but the browser market is a hell of a lot larger now than it was in 1995. Pretty soon we may see e-Commerce sites silently echoing this sentiment, upgrading perfectly valid HTML forms to ones that depend on client-side components that will only work on Microsoft (or Microsoft sanctioned) operating systems. If a few major players on the Web adopt similar practices, the standards-compliant Web, as we know it, will die. Can this be prevented?"

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

Excellent resource » yourDictionary.com - Language Dictionaries. "There are 7,327 known languages and dialects spoken in the 191 countries in the world. Fewer than 2,000 have writing systems (the others are only spoken) and currently over 250 are represented by on-line dictionaries. Here are the ones we currently list. New languages and dictionaries are constantly being added to yourDictionary.com; as a result, yourDictionary.com has the widest and deepest set of dictionaries on the web."

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

This game still rules and according to the users, this Linux version is excellent. Doom for Linux. According to Alex L: "I love this game. Every thing about this game was made right, the music is very catchy and the sound blends well with this game, the graphics give the game a classic look, it's a very stable game as well, the reason why other people have problems is because many people have messy systems, old drivers, conficts in hardware, unused software whatever." and Lord Downey: "A combination of all the best features. Doom was one of the firsts of its day. Combining superb playability with a stable fully customisable engine was a stroke of genius. The only thing in the past few years that has even come close to that has been the fully customisable and free linux kernel. A combination of the both provides a suberb platform for stable gameplay!"

R. 'Bud' Philson and his course on how to Learn to play the Air Guitar » this rocks!

You can never see to many Elvis websites! Therefor, check out ElvisFind.com, which is "the Elvis Presley Search Engine & Site Directory. On this site you can find your way around the Elvis Internet, in various ways. You can use the search engine, by typing any keyword(s). ElvisFind will show you which Elvis sites contain your search criteria. Or, you can use the extensive Site Directory below. By clicking on a category you'll get a list with all sites.

Besides that, ElvisFind also contains in-depth reviews of all sites listed, with a description of the layout and the content, a screenshot, some general information and even a rating. This way you'll know exactly which sites are worth your visit. And finally there is also the "ElvisFind Scores" page. You can vote for every site listed here, and they will be compiled into a 'Most Popular Sites' list."

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire (1694-1778)

No surprises here » the Alltime Popclassics Chart.

"Talent does what it can; genius does what it must." - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)

Full moon tonight. Have to remember to take a look. It's always such a beautiful sight, don't you think? And now some scientific information to brighten up this page: "The Moon and the Earth presently orbit the barycentre in 27.322 days, the sidereal month. Because the whole system is moving around the Sun once per year, the angle of illumination changes about one degree per day, so that the time from one full Moon to the next is 29.531 days, the synodic month. These periods are slowly changing with time owing to tidal interactions. Tidal friction slows the Earth's rotation, but the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system remains constant. Consequently, the Moon is slowly receding from the Earth, with the result that the month and the day are both getting longer. Extending this relationship back into the past, both periods must have been significantly shorter hundreds of millions of years ago, and this hypothesis is confirmed by measuring the diurnal and tide-related growth rings of fossil corals." What are the effects of the full moon on us? And what do the skeptic's say?

Do you use too many buzzwords? Want to stop, but don't know what to do? Help can be found at Buzzkiller.net.

What is everybody searching for? Always interesting to see. Check it out at The Lycos 50 with Aaron Schatz. Today's top ten consists of Dragonball - SULFNBK Virus - Pearl Harbor - Britney Spears - Tattoos - Napster - Big Brother - Pokemon - Final Fantasy - Pamela Anderson.

"Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe." - H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

Just arrived back at the homefront. Don't really know what to say about my final. Think it went okay, but I'll probably get another 5. Sigh. Anyhow, I had my final at 10:30 this morning, but because my public transport connection is dreadful, I had to take the bus at 8:32. So I arrived at school alomst 45 minutes early. Unfortunately I had forgotten my login password for the school network, so I couldn't get online. Sysadmin wasn't available, so I couldn't get them to reset my password. This resulted in me spending the time outside on a bench in the sun. Fortunately I had stuff to read. So it was quite pleasent. But then I went into the classroom and all the people there where taking it for the fist time. They knew each other and were talking and stuff. In the end I wasn't very happy. You can imagine. I'm getting old. Fortunately I finally saw somebody who used to be in my class and after a few minutes of conversation, it was time to get started. And now I am back home again. Work again tomorrow. I think I'll check my email now.

"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance." - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Ik word gek van Investeringen in communicatiesystemen! Kan geen gemiddelde boekhoudkundige rentabiliteit of functie punt analyse meer zien. Dus effies een kleine pauze. Mailcheck en dergelijke. "Maar wat houdt het nou in?", vraag je je misschien af. Nou, op de site lees ik het volgende: "Investeringen in communicatiesystemen hebben in het algemeen tot doel de effectiviteit van de organisatie te verbeteren. Tijdens deze module zullen daarom een aantal hulpmiddelen aan de orde komen om de effectiviteit van de te ontwikkelen, c.q. in te voeren communicatiesystemen, te waarborgen. Tevens wordt aandacht besteed aan het kwalificeren en kwantificeren van de kosten en baten van communicatie systemen. De cursist krijgt daarbij tevens een aantal selectiemethoden aangereikt waarmee hij in staat moet zijn investeringsselecties uit te voeren."

"Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

Goodmorning! The sun is shining and I am ready for a nice day of study. Sigh. Just went to the library on my bycicle. As I mentioned yesterday I've finished my book and the new one I'd started ('King Hereafter') is way to heavy to be carried everywhere. So that will have to wait for another time. I now got Stephen King with 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon' and Faye Kellerman with 'Stalker'. Now I atleast have something to read whilst in public transport. First, some breakfast and then I'd better get started. Oh, and as hard as it is, I'd also better turn off the computer. To much of a distraction.

I love this site » The Alphabet Julen. It's one of the first ones where I ever saw a blog. And it fascinated me. So now I have one myself. Hope I inspire others. I'm glad I found it again, as it got lost in my Bookmark jumble.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson (1874-1956), Chairman of IBM, 1943

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else." - Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman (1813-1887).

This is one of my favourite utilities of all time! Girder » "Girder was originally designed as an InfraRed Receiver program. With the advent of version 3.0, it can be driven by any input device. Like a keyboard, joystick, TCP/IP. But of course it still supports the UIR/Irman. Via the new plugin interface anyone can add input plugins. It's also possible to write plugins to extend the actions that Girder supports. So there is no limit to what can be done with Girder."

I think it's a disgrace that Pinkpop is shown on television and played on the radio, while Dynamo Open Air is cancelled without any media reaction. Commercialism sucks!

I watched the Spanish movie Thesis (1999) last night. I was pleasently surprised. Unfortunately the IMDb doesn't have any information, but a quick search on Google resulted in loads. Anyhow, it's "an American-style thriller from Spain''s newest director sensation Alejandro Amenabar (Open Your Eyes). Thesis (Tesis) is the story of Angela (Ana Torrent - Spirit Of The Beehive, Cria), a university student who is writing a thesis on violence in the media. During her research she discovers a "snuff movie," a film in which a murder has actually been committed in reality. She finds out that not only has the film been shot on campus, but that the university administrators may be involved, leading her to the ultimate find: she might be the next victim. A superbly constructed thriller that generates an edge-of-your-seat suspense through the final scene!" For more information check out this or this site.

After finishing In the Name of the Father by A.J. Quinnell, I am currently reading King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett » Back in print by popular demand -- "A stunning revelation of the historical Macbeth, harsh and brutal and eloquent." -- Washington Post Book World.

"With the same meticulous scholarship and narrative legerdemain she brought to her hugely popular Lymond Chronicles, our foremost historical novelist travels further into the past. In King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett's stage is the wild, half-pagan country of eleventh-century Scotland. Her hero is an ungainly young earl with a lowering brow and a taste for intrigue. He calls himself Thorfinn but his Christian name is Macbeth.

Dunnett depicts Macbeth's transformation from an angry boy who refuses to accept his meager share of the Orkney Islands to a suavely accomplished warrior who seizes an empire with the help of a wife as shrewd and valiant as himself. She creates characters who are at once wholly creatures of another time yet always recognizable--and she does so with such realism and immediacy that she once more elevates historical fiction into high art."

I've only just started, so haven't deceided if I like it or not. But we'll see.

I want this! DVD Empire » Blackadder: The Complete Collector's Set. "Many great dynasties, strong and brave, have played a part in shoping Britain's heritage. The Blackadders are not among them. From cowards to cads and back again, the Blackadders have managed to seriously lower the integrity of every era through which they have wended their serpentine way."

I know, everybody links here. But it's a good cause. The Hunger Site: Donate Food for Free to Hungry People in the World » "The Hunger Site focuses the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need - the eradication of world hunger. On average over 220,000 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the "donate free food" button and help feed the hungry. Founded in June 1999, The Hunger Site was the first "click-to-donate" site on the Web. To date more that 101 million visitors have donated more than 198 million cups of staple food."

Hmm. Interesting. On Dutch humour » The idea of a national sense of humour does seem kind of absurd but maybe it is possible to generalise. The British, for example, have their years of repression to keep them amused while Americans just have to elect a new president any time they get bored with the old jokes. But the Dutch? Where does their society throw its banana skins?

"The reformation," says Sutton, sure now that he's on the right track. "I definitely believe that. The Dutch have always had this wonderful way of being the chosen people of the first world and in that sense I would compare them to the tribes of Israel. Because for first world democracy the Dutch were first; the mapmakers, the telescope and microscope builders. The Dutch brought that to the rest of us. So maybe they feel a little bit aloof towards humour. Maybe they feel they don't need humour. They are the chosen ones. They are the light. Liberal humanism, that's where it's at, man."

Clearly a feature. Convert It! » conversion tables o'plenty!

I was browsing Epinions a few days ago and read some reviews on The Netherlands as a holiday destination. Although quite interesting, most people only talked about Amsterdam and our liberal drug policy. Why is that, I wonder. Anyhow, on my quest for information I ended up at the website for Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, which has a very excellent dossier on Holland in English. Maybe you'd like to check it out.

I was watching a quiz on television a few days ago and there was a question about one of the former prime ministers of The Netherlands. Then it occured to me that my knowledge of that area was very limited. And now seemd to be a good time to look this up online. Isn't is always so that everything (even cleaning up your desk) seems more interesting when you have study to do. Anyhow, it took me a while, but I've finally found some pages about this subject. The best one is Geschiedenis.net. Now I have to choose whether to read it, or get back to my books. Sigh.

I'm always interested in more statistics, especially about the Internet and its usage. A great site for this is the Computer Industry Almanac or as they call it "the complete resource to the Internet, PC and workstation industries--past, present and future". For more check out this Google categorie.

I hadn't done this in ages: looking for my name in a search engine. But I found the weirdest things. Quite odd.

I watch way to many movies. And everytime I watch one, I want to vote for it at the IMDb. This means I have to remember all the titles of all the movies I see. And I have to remember to judge them. I'm heading for information overload at full speed. But that's okay, because my vote history at the IMDb is very interesting and provides me with all kinds of cool statistics. The only thing that annoys me is that I don't remember all the movies from my pre-IMDb era. ;-) Oh, and I have to cut down on the use of smileys. They annoy me. Anyhow, back to movies. The last few days I've seen The Associate (1996) starring Whoopi Goldberg, Killer: A Journal of Murder (1996) with James Woods, the mediocre Kidnapped In Paradise (1999), No Way Back (1996) with Russell Crowe, the entertaining Angie (1994) starring Geena Davis and, last but certainly not least, the excellent Se7en (1995) which is ofcourse with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. And I have yet to see A Clockwork Orange (1971), which is waiting for me on video.

I was watching television last night and on one of my many rounds through the local cable network, I stumbled upon an IT program on CNN. After watching some interview for a few minutes, they started a new item, about a new 'hype', called blogging. They ofcourse mentioned Blogger. I spend to much of my time here, and now I'm even confronted with it on tv. Is this some sort of cosmic a message for me to stop? :-)

As you may or may not know, I am addicted to the Arthurian Legend. And quite often Great-Brittan is called a different name in those books. But I can't I remember this name. Why is that? I keep forgetting and torment myself for days whilst trying to remember. But now I know where to look. In my blog. It's Albion » " the earliest-known name for the island of Britain. It was used by ancient Greek geographers from the 4th century BC and even earlier, who distinguished “Albion” from Ierne (Ireland) and from smaller members of the British Isles. The Greeks and Romans probably received the name from the Gauls or the Celts. The name Albion has been translated as “white land”; and the Romans explained it as referring to the chalk cliffs at Dover (Latin albus, “white”)."

The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia » this scares me. "The object of the game is to start with any actor or actress who has been in a movie and connect them to Kevin Bacon in the smallest number of links possible. Two people are linked if they've been in a movie together. We do not consider links through television shows, made-for-tv movies, writers, producers, directors, etc." I have yet to find people in the IMDb who are not linked in some way.

I just noticed that my site has been listed on the Web Nouveau website. Number 0117 of the 'table-less sites list'. Is that cool or what?

Okay, just one more thing, before I get to it and open my books to study for my finals. Last night A Clockwork Orange (1971) was aired on tv. I had never had a chance to see it before, but it's a classic so I've taped it. Plus, how can you go wrong with Stanley Kubrick? Maybe I'll watch it as a reward for doing so much study today ;-)

What's it about? "In a futuristic Britain, a gang of teenagers go on the rampage every night, beating and raping helpless victims. After one of the boys quells an uprising in the gang, they knock him out and leave him for the police to find. He agrees to try "aversion therapy" to shorten his jail sentence. When he is eventually let out, he hates violence, but the rest of his gang members are still after him."

Comment at the IMDb: "Stanely Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" is one of the first movies that proved that cinema can be the most enlightening and amazing art form around. Movies have always been a true love for me, but it wasn't until this film challenged me that I fell deeply in love. The first viewing left me speechless, unable to describe how weird and terrible I felt. I thought it was the film that left me in this mood, so of course that was the easy target to blame. It was just a bad movie, overrated and stupid and a waste of time. But upon further thought, I realised the film did exactly what it was supposed to. It showed how the world can be a weird and horrible place, and how this young man who goes around torturing people and being a wicked person ultimately doesn't have to pay for what he does. And it's funny too. So this film brilliantly satirises this world, showcasing pure evil and people who ordinarily do not perform such evil are forced to laugh and observe what we all hate to admit is the truth. It's sick, but at the same time brilliant. And when one gets down to the core, you can't really explain it. It just is what it is. It's real. No one really sees it very often, but it is out there and everyone knows. And no one does anything about it. In essence, "A Clockwork Orange" is the ultimate satire, and one of the ultimate film experiences. It's art, it's life, and in a funky way, it's entertaining."

For more details go to Filmsite.org or search Google.

I noticed that, even though, I mentioned tv show "Get a Life" (1990) in this previous post, I never actually included information on that show. So here we go. "The misadventures of a 30-year-old paper-boy (played by Late Night alum Chris Elliot) and his wacky parents. Such show topics included the eating of a space alien, a robotic paper-boy and numerous beheadings. Get a Life was also one of the first television shows that featured the killing of the star of the show." What a show! Check out some quotes, the scripts, the episode guides or buy the DVDs.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum rules! Operating Systems: Design And Implementation. "An update of the 1987 edition providing coverage of fundamental operation systems concepts such as processes, interprocess communication, input-output, virtual memory, file systems, and security. These principles are illustrated through the use of a UNIX-like operating system called MINIX that allows students to test their knowledge in hands-on system design projects. The CD-ROM contains the full MINIX source code and two simulators for running MINIX on various computers."

Excellent! A List Apart: Greatest Hits.

We don't want this. The Register: "Windows XP will make Internet unstable » According to top security expert Steve Gibson, Windows XP threatens to make the Internet unstable as it will allow large numbers of people to launch uncontrollable denial-of-service attacks to whichever IP address they see fit."

Nicely done: this Internet Timeline.

Computers Will Save Us, The Future According to James Martin. "In 1977, Elvis died, Gerald Ford left the White House, and Bill Gates still banged out business correspondence on a typewriter. Most Americans had never seen a personal computer, much less a laptop. Meanwhile, James Martin looked into the future and saw the Internet, as well as computers in everyone's pockets." Reactions at Slashdot.org.

Read the transcript of the speech by Richard M. Stallman (entitled "Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation") at the New York University in New York, New York on 29 May 2001, or download the audio recordings in OGG format.

Do you notice the changes I've made? Probably not. But the text and links in the footer are now no longer black, but the same colour as the background (the BODY). Also the margin of the content bit is a bit bigger, which I feel gives a more spacious look. I've deceided to make the doctype changes at home, as that works better. The latest version of a few files are not online now anyway. So that will have to wait. I have included a couple of new links on my projects page. One to my epinion member page and one to my 'Get A Life' petition. I have started the latter to get people to sign a petition to bring back the comedy 'Get A Life' on Dutch television. I was addicted to that and want to see some reruns. Please, sign it. Thanks.

Still can't access my files on the LAN today. Hope this will be fixed next week. Meanwhile, I think I'll download CuteFTP. ("CuteFTP is a file transfer application that's easy for beginners to use and has enough features to be useful to power users as well.") That way I can download my site of the Geocities server and continue making it valid. I still use the transitional doctype now, but I'd like to make a start on making it XHTML valid with the strict.dtd. That should be interesting. I'm sure there are still plenty of errors in the source. For one, I have yet to close all the image tags. And this is required by XHTML.

Function Point Analysis (FPA) is horrible! And I have to be able to read AND make one for my final this wednesday. I hate them, but I'll share it with you anyway. You might wonder "What on earth is she talking about?". Well I'll tell you. "FPA is a method to measure the functional size of an information system. FPA measures the functional size by looking at the (functional) transactions and (logical) data files that are relevant to the user in the business. The unit of measurement is "function points"; the functional size of an information system is expressed by a number of function points. Function points are a good measure of the functional size of an information system; the unit of measurement "function points" can be utilized in various ways.

FPA is often used to budget a system development project. The development costs for an information system are related to its size: the bigger the system, the more expensive the development will be.

Based on experiences in earlier projects an organization knows, how many hours (on average) one needs to realize one function point: the productivity rate. Size (number of function points) x productivity rate (hours per function point) is a basis for the project budgeting process. FPA can be applied for development, as well as for enhancement projects. FPA is a simple, fast method, which does not require knowledge of computers. Assuming suitable documentation, it does not take much time to perform an FPA. It is estimated that for a system which needs one thousand development hours, an FPA can be performed in about one hour."

Doesn't that sound nice? Something you could use in your everyday life, and make the world a better place? Sigh.