Augustus 2001

Only one more hour! Did you know today is Friday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2001. There are 122 days left in the year. There are only 123 days to go before the introduction of the Euro. Just so you know.

That didn't hurt one bit, now did it?

I've finally found a moment to test blogBuddy, the Windows Application, which allows you to post to Blogger. Too bad you can't save your posts offline, untill you're ready to publish online. But maybe in a next version. Who knows.

Today is my last day on the job. I've placed all my files in a directory, which will be burnt to CD later. That way I have everything right at hand. Smart eh? I'm just tidying up some loose ends now, cleaning out my mailbox. Making sure Outlook sends everything to my Yahoo! account. Backing up my favourites. That's about it really. Strange idea. But I'll be back at the end of October, early November. I bought vlaai this morning, to celebrate the successfull ending of my working days.

Well, let's see how and if the publishing will work with this here blogBuddy. Here we go. Hold on!

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, I've got a secret. Lean in, click here, and download to your hearts content. Just don't tell anyone. Our little secret, okay?

The Evolution of a Programmer. LOL.

Low's Weblog is pretty.

Denial and the Ravaging of Cyberspace » "Back in the summer of 1993, 'cyberspace had remained practically free of advertisements, but marketers were beginning to eye the medium.' Eight years later, Weber wrote, 'it's difficult to remember that quaint, commercial-free Internet. Marketers didn't just eye the medium -- they conquered it.' He added: 'The Internet has been transformed largely into a place of commerce.'" (via Slashdot)

How many people with my surname, Valentijn, are there to be found in The Netherlands? Click on the link to find out. (via Geonea).

All Look Same » Test your Asian aptitude. My score was hopeless. Damn it's hard! I wonder how I'd do in a test with people from the northern parts of Europe.

I've added a new style to the site, this one is called Evolt, because it is based on the style from the Evolt website. What do you think?

Watched Fargo (1996) yesterday. As always, the Coen brothers did a good job. It's all about "Jerry Lundegaard, who is in a financial jam and, out of desperation, comes up with a plan to hire someone to kidnap his wife and demand ransom from her wealthy father, to be secretly split between Jerry and the perpetrators. Jerry, who is not the most astute of individuals, hires a couple of real losers from the frozen northern reaches of Fargo, North Dakota for the job. Then things begin to slip from bad to worse as Jerry helplessly watches on."

Excellent art » Gladys Dwindlebimmers Ralston Gallery of the Unidentifiable and Bagasse & Gematria Mumblestoats' Museum of Depressionist Art.

CGI Script.net :: Free JavaScripts » "We offer a comprehensive array of free JavaScript code snippets that will make it easier for webmasters to build their web sites." Take a look, there's loads.

Volgende week maar eens informeren bij de ANWB hoe dat precies in zijn werking gaat met een versnelde cursus voor je rijbewijs. Het wordt toch onderhand tijd dat ik dat papiertje ook op zak heb. Ik zie overal van die kinders achter het stuur en ik ben snotverju ook al weer 22. Tijd om maar eens met geld te smijten. Misschien kan ik gelijk mijn motorrijbewijs halen. Dat lijkt me ook heel erg cool, namelijk.

Super Greg. Sigh. He's not so super really.

Pinstruck » digital voodoo.

What an excellent shop this is » Despair, Inc. From The Pessimist's Mug to the Underperformance Awards. Check it out!

I know, you''ve seen it a thousand times before. But it's still funny. The Mirco$oft Hate Page.

Ik werd eerder vandaag trouwens ook gebeld door Pieter, mijn begeleider vanuit school tijdens mijn afstuderen. Hij had net mijn verslag gelezen, want ik had gister een voorlopige versie van het geheel opgestuurd. Hij was erg positief, op een paar kleine wijzigingen na. Hoera! Daar ben ik dan nu dus mee bezig. Leuk hoor. Vervolgens zou door school een assessor toegewezen worden en dan krijg ik een go of een no go. Heel fijn dat dat zo laat in het traject gebeurt, maar goed. Als ze dat na een week nou al kunnen zeggen. Dat zou zeker niet leuk zijn. Maar ik ben wel positief, en deze positieve feedback was in ieder geval goed. Dus ik ga nog maar even vlijtig verder.

Shall I or shall I not? I'm talking about whether or not I shall install Internet Explorer 6. Hmm. Not sure.

XML and PHP continued. Very cool. Check out PHP and XML: using expat functions. Also » The PHP Resource Index, "currently 842 PHP resources listed in 192 categories". So that should be enough. Right?

Yesterday evening was spent installing Slackware Linux with the K Desktop Environment (KDE) on my computer. I was already running Windows 2000 and have been wanting to install Linux for ages now. So I did. I have had Redhat in the past, but that never semmed to work very well on my system, or atleast I couldn't get it to work properly. Slack shows more promising signs. Though I'm not on our LAN yet, I could get into XWindows straight away. KDE 2 looks very cool, by the way. Quite slick.

Note to self » remember to experiment with Colored Scroll Bars tomorrow. I know, this can be very tacky, but who know what I can come up with.

Pistolen Paultje is cool.

My last week at e-Vision started today. Strange realisation. In my mind it seems like only last week, that I started. Anyhow, I've got six weeks off starting from next week and want to get started with my driver's license. Also I've got a dental appointment. Other than that, I don't have any plans. Oh, and I've got to prepare for the presentation in November about the work I did here. I'm still trying not to think about that, because I really hate presenting. And then I'll be back at work mid October, early November. I'll probably work for a few months, while doing my last two exams and my presentation ofcourse. And after that, I can start thinking about a holiday somewhere. Don't really know yet. And then... who knows?

I've been checking out CafePress.com » "CafePress.com allows sites of any size to sell a variety of merchandise at absolutely no cost. No need to pre-print products or deal with shipping hassles, credit card orders, or customer service - CafePress.com takes care of everything. We work with some of the leading brands on the Internet and have over 100,000 stores online!" I wonder if this would work for The Lyrics Archive. It would be a nice service to offer. Let me think about it some more.

Some interesting tips for the bloggers umong us at "This Old Blog: Home Improvement for the New Home Page". Also info on how to use counters with CSS. Which is very cool.

I wonder how may 'famous' people are keeping blogs. I recently noticed Roger Avary's Blog.

"The dragonstorms flew away the starwinds...

Towards the realm of nights... into the dark where dragons ride...

Come forth thou glorious night, embrace me in your triumphant grasp

I crave for darkness... I crave for the dragonstorms to come again"

» Covenant - Dragonstorms «

Anyhow, I thought you might be interested in this site, which is about Estimating the Distance from a Thunderstorm » "Because light travels much faster than sound, lightning flashes can be seen long before the resulting thunder is heard. Estimate the number of miles you are from a thunderstorm by counting the number of seconds between a flash of lightning and the next clap of thunder. Divide this number by five for miles or 3 for kilometres."

Finally the weather has changed. It has been over 30° Celcius since thursday night, both outside and in my room. The heat really didn't go anywhere. I hate it when that happens. Sleeping is nearly impossible, you can't go anywhere because you'll start sweating and you have difficulty thinking. But fortunately the rain and thunder have finally arrived from Britain. I was watching Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which I had taped earlier this week. (By the way, as I was checking the IMDb for the link, I found info on Terminator 3. Did you know they were making that? Because I didn't.) My curtains were open, after being closed for most of the day in a vain attempt to keep it cool (which, ofcourse, didn't work). But I have a rather big window on the first floor and I could see the lightningbolt strike above the houses across the streets. The sky had gone all dark in about fifteen minutes. A very cool thing to watch. I can only imagine how the people in the days of old most have felt, when they were dealing with similar weather and didn't have such safe environments as we do today.

Everything's uploaded to my new address! Even my brand new, still shiny, guestbook is online. Hurah!

Okay people, I've done it. I've started the move! I've been working on it for the better part of the day, but the PHP version of this site is ready. Menu, header and footer functionalities on this site are now all handled by PHP. Hurah! I still have loads of other plans, but that'll have to wait. I'm uploading the stuff I've got and will probably move my Blog tomorrow. Are you guys as excited as I am? Well, maybe not. But you can check out the progress at my new URL, http://www.mirthe.f2s.com.

I'm watching a bit of Norway's Royal Wedding. Crowns and tiara's o'plenty. I wonder what the Dutch Royal Wedding, this February 2nd, will be like. Drizzle fails to dampen wedding fever "'She's a lovely girl', said Beverley Madsen (55) about Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby. 'She's apologised for what she did in her youth and seems to have adapted well to her new role.' She wasn't the only Mette-Marit fan I met. Mari, Lena and Anne Lise, aged 14 and 15 thought she was sweet and were delighted the crown Prince was marrying an 'ordinary' girl just like them."

This is so bizar. The Guide Horse Foundation » "Our mission is to provide a safe, cost-effective and reliable mobility alternative for visually impaired people and to deliver trained Guide Horses at no cost to the recipient. We also have the goal of helping the tiny horses by providing them with a higher-purpose in life." I thought I had already mentioned it in my blog before, but a quick search showed me I hadn't. Quite strange.

"So, you think you're a pretty good person: you call your mom on Mother's Day, you always try to give your employer two week's notice and you make a conscience effort to control your spending habits before filing bankruptcy. You think of yourself as a person who loves children and who is always kind to the elderly. Think again. Take the Death Row Serial Killer Quiz to examine your true American Pie potential. You will either find that your thinking is right on the money - or possibly - a bit skewed." I got 6 points » "Not to worry -- you're not a threat to society. Although a few quirks in your personality may present some challenges in life, those same idiosyncrasies may very well explain the reason your name continues to appear on 'A' party lists."

Find out What's Your Pirate Name? My results » "Your pirate name is: Black Grace Kidd. "Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!"

Check out this site, where you can download all kinds of Heavy Metal Ringtones. Very nice! I'm thinking of getting Iron Man by Black Sabbath. That would be cool.

I've been going through this PHP programming tutorial, which is by James N. Hitz. A good place to start.

Nice idea, StemWeb, vote on all kinds of issues.

So now I'm back on track and can start the day with a clean slate. "Hey Ho, Let's Go!", to quote the late Joey Ramone.

You remember the Opeth concert is was going to go to, don't you? Well, at first it would be September 13, then November 8. But now I read it has been cancelled. Sigh. I was really looking forward to it.

Slayer Censor "God" » "Slayer were recently faced with claims from various retail chains that their latest recording, God Hates Us All, featured inappropriate cover art and would not be sold. In an attempt to appease these outlets without compromising their vision, the band has designed a cover that will be placed on top of the original one, allowing all fans who purchase the record to have essentially the same product." (via the Soundbites.nl newsletter) I can't wait for the release of the album. I've read some good stuff about it and the track "Bloodline" is really one of their best in ages.

Yesterday I posted a few bits and pieces, but somehow they didn't appear after publishing. I was amazed, but not quite awake enough to realise that I was posting to the wrong Blog. Somebody shoot me. Well, I'll blame it on the heat. But I recovered the afore mentioned posts and will repost them today.

From the Kevin Mitnick Interview Transcript, Part 1 over at TechTV »

"Mitnick: They wouldn't even give me the bail hearing, but also I was held in solitary confinement for 8 months, because a federal prosecutor told the judge that I could start a nuclear war by whistling into the telephone.

Laporte: (laughs) Could you?

Mitnick: (laughs) Well, you have a phone on you? Let's try it out. (laughs)"

"One of PHP's greatest strengths happens to be one of its greatest weaknesses as well: PHP is easy to learn. A lot of people are attracted to the language because of this, not realizing that it's a lot tougher to learn how to do it right." Here are the Textbook Mistakes, read it and learn.

This rocks! Expression Builder for PHP » Turn HomeSite or ColdFusion Studio into an intelligent PHP editor.

Here are some more PHP resources. Google directory, PHP Startpagina, PHP Beginner, PHP Freakz. I'm having some excellent new ideas for my site. This is going to rule. Can't wait to get home and get started. Unfortunately I still have three more hours to go yet :-( Well, since my report is practically finished, I'm going to reward myself by allowing me to read up on PHP some more.

I'm updating my PHP knowledge. God, most of it seems to have avaporated from my brain. Why does this happen at such a rate? Anyhow, I've found some excellent resources. Try PHP.net » The PHP site - with the online manual. ; PHP Builder » Loads of useful articles on using PHP ; PHP Developer » Good round-up of the latest PHP articles, news etc. ; Web KnowHow » A webmaster resource guide. ; Alba Software » PHP Link directory ; PHP Essentials ; Devshed ; FAQTS » A large collection of PHP FAQs. (Via Users.f2s - Links)

Taalpuristen o'plenty in het forum van de Volkskrant.

http://www.mirthe.f2s.com has been activated! Shall I move or not? Give me your opinion, especially if you have previous experiences with Freedom2Surf.

I watched The Perez Family (1995) yesterday evening. I didn't have any expectations when I put it on, but was very pleasantly surprised. Good cast, acting and story. If it's on tv, you should tune in.

"In an attempt to secure a sponsor, an unlikely group of Cuban refugees become a "family" as the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service gives families priority over others. In the process, a political prisoner who hasn't seen his wife for twenty years and a disaffected sugarcane cutter fall in love. An excitable brother and a lovestruck cop contribute to the general confusion. The inevitable humorous romantic entaglements ensue as a final confrontation is set up."

"De stichting BAM streeft naar afschaffing, dan wel sterke beperking van alle ongewenste storende geluiden. Specifiek richt BAM zich tegen alle opgedrongen aanhoudende muziek uit luidsprekers op straten,pleinen en alle andere voor iedereen toegankelijke ruimten.

BAM wil niemand zijn plezier aan TV, radio, video, CD-speler, enz. in de privesfeer ontnemen. Wel vindt zij dat het gebruik van geluidsapparatuur in de publieke ruimten moet worden afgewogen tegen de overlast in de vorm van irritatie, stress en gehoorschade, voor diegenen die eraan worden blootgesteld." Ik ben het hier zó mee eens. Die eeuwige muziek in liften, stations en winkelcentra en dergelijke. Erg vermoeiend. Het is trouwens wel een lelijke site. Kan daar niet eens wat aan gedaan worden?

Take a look at this info on customizing Mozilla. Quite interesting. Oh, and here is another cool quote »

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." - Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Now showing "The absence of tomorrow". Check it out.

Barth's Distinction » There are two types of people: those who divide people into two types, and those who don't.

The Bad Fads Museum » "Browse through the fun and fascinating fashion, collectible, activity and event fads of the last 100 years."

Okay, just one more link and then I'll get back to work. I still have to write my conclusion, and then I'm funished. Hurah! Well, finished with the big parts anyway, then I still have to spell check and add some lines to increase the flow of the document, but that's all a piece of cake. Anyhow, the link I wanted to add was StreetPhotography, which features all kinds of beautiful black & white photos of street tableaus.

"Life is like an analogy."

Windows » The Really Good Edition. LOL!

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." - Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Ik lees net in de nieuwsbrief van Baroeg dat het concert van Opeth, waar ik heen ga, van donderdag 13 september verplaatst is naar donderdag 8 november. Effies onthouden dus.

LOL! The Pocket President » "Just slip The Pocket President into your shirt pocket, jeans or purse, and you'll instantly take your place among America's rich and powerful, knowing that the President is totally in your pocket!" (via Snotverjeppie).

I'm reading an article in de Volkskrant about the banks in the Netherlands, who are loosing their faith about the so-called m-banking. This allows you to use your mobile phone and it's WAP functionalities to access banking tasks. My phone does support this and I've used it to check the amount I have on my account. But not much more. It's a bit too early in time to transferring money with it. Also, it's quite expensive, since WAP is slow and phonecosts aren't exactly high. But it's a nice feature nonetheless. Meanwhile, I'm also reading the Softsteel WML Tutorial » "This tutorial takes you through the basics of WAP, and provides all the information you need to create your own WAP pages using the Wireless Markup Language (WML). A WMLScript tutorial is in the pipeline - this will allow you to make more complex, interactive WAP pages."

Choosing the right server-side scripting language » "This article compares five prominent scripting tools (Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, and Java servlets) by applying each to the same six common server-side tasks. You can look at the syntax side-by-side and evaluate how each language handles specific jobs. If you are new to server-side scripting, or if you have used only a few of these languages, you can see what they look like. Even if you already have a favorite, you can see how the other languages stack up in terms of usability, functionality, and code readability." Shame there is no mention of ColdFusion, but still an interesting read.

Mobile Phones: Europe's Next Minitel? » "Europe's cellular phone system is far superior to that in the United States. However, telephones will not be the platform for the mobile Internet. Given this, Europe's advantage may in fact be an obstacle to real innovations, as France's experience with Minitel shows." I'm afraid Jakob's right again.

First Rule of Usability » "To design an easy-to-use interface, pay attention to what users do, not what they say. Self-reported claims are unreliable, as are user speculations about future behavior." I actually learned this at school. They must be doing something right then.

Wauw, I also found the script for The Godfather on the site where I found the script for Full Metal Jacket, which I linked to in my previous post. Great. I've been looking for this one. Here's one of my favourite scenes »

Luca Brasi: (after kissing the Don's left cheek) Don Corleone, I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daugh-- ter's wedding... (then, after realizing he messed up his rehearsed lines, he fails to recover) ...on the day of your daughter's wedding. And I hope that their first child be a masculine child. I pledge my ever-ending loyalty. [Playing kids run into the room and then are escorted out by Tom] (then, as Luca hands Don Corleone a cash-filled envelope) For your daughter's bridal purse."

I was reading about the introductiondays for the new firstyear students on my school. Shivers went down my spine. I had such a bad time at my introductioncamp. We went to this awful place in the middle of nowhere, called Heino. It seems like a millionyears ago no, but I still remember how lost I felt. I didn't click with anybody I was talking to, the activities annoyed me and basically I really wanted to go home. Only on the way back home, in the train, did I meet people I could like. And it took me a few weeks to feel at home in the schoolbuilding. Finally I did meet a lot of people I could get along with and ofcourse made friends. But I really wish I hadn't gone to the introductioncamp.

Reading the text on the site made me think of the scene from "Full Metal Jacket", where Gunnery Sergeant Hartman introdoces himself. Remember? It goed like this » "I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your Senior Drill Instructor. From now on, you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be 'Sir!' Do you maggots understand that?" What an excellent movie!

I'm currently reading "The Hollow Man", by Dan Simmons » "Jeremy Bremen has a secret. All his life he's been cursed with the ability to read minds. He knows the secret thoughts, fears, and desires of others as if they were his own. For years, his wife, Gail, has served as a shield between Jeremy and the burden of this terrible knowledge. But Gail is dying, her mind ebbing slowly away, leaving him vulnerable to the chaotic flood of thoughts that threatens to sweep away his sanity. Now Jeremy is one the run--from his mind, from his past, from himself--hoping to find peace in isolation. Instead he witnesses an act of brutality that propels him on a treacherous trek across a dark and dangerous America. From a fantasy theme park to the lair of a killer to a sterile hospital room in St. Louis, he follows a voice that is calling him to witness the stunning mystery at the heart of mortality." I'm not vey far yet, but I like what I've read. I'll have to share my opinion with you on a later date.

PHP Basics » as it says, very basic. But still an excellent place to start if you'd like to learn more about PHP.

I've just joined Freedom2Surf. I'm not that unhappy with Geocities, but that ad is really starting to annoy me. Also, they don't support any sort of cool language, like PHP or even SSI. And that makes it quite hard to create cool features. F2S offers the following with their free service » "20 Mbytes Web Space; Frontpage 2000 extensions; Advanced PHP4 scripting; Perl cgi scripting; Webalizer website statistics; Website Search Engine; Password Protected Web Areas; Website Management Interface; MySQL Database Engine; PostgreSQL Database Engine". And that is a lot! I'm not quite convinced yet. Not sure how stable their service is. And it is a lot of work having to move all the files and redirect all the secundairy functionalities, like search engines, counters, blogger, and loads more. I'm going to have to think about it.

LOL! Take a look at The Visible Barbie Project.

I was talking to Tjerk on Yahoo! Messenger this morning and he suggested at about 12:15 that we could do lunch together at the McDonalds. What an excellent idea for the tuesdayafternoon. So I agreed and took the bus at 12:32. We met at the central station and walked to the Mac from there.

Afterwards I took the bus back to work and was back at my desk at 13:43. A bit of a long lunch, but I deserved it. Atleast that's whay I think. ;-) So now I'm back at my desk, working on my report again. I've had it with the thing, but I'm not quite there yet. It'll happen. The main elements are there, the strucure is good. So I'm rather positive. All in all a quite successfull day.

Also, I got an e-mail from Marko Saarelainen from Statik Majik, which I blogged about yesterday. He thanked me for the compliments and in return complimented me on my site. Isn't it great how blogging, a completely solitary act, puts you in contact with complete strangers. Absolutely wonderful.

Creating RSS files for your Web site - exploring XML - webreference.com » "Recently I have received more and more questions about the Rich Site Summary (RSS) format and its use for Web masters. The short answer is that RSS is a great way for any Web site to advertise their content in an always up-to-date fashion." Wouldn't it be great it every site supported this? Searching and indexing the web could be so easy. Sigh.

Israeli scientist shapes a young 'Hal' » "We can have a personal assistant, a slave, a friend who doesn't really suffer by being delegated these tasks," he said. You will not need a mouse or keyboard to operate the computer as it will function when you converse with it.

"It is going to be the next user interface, the last user interface," Dunietz said, explaining that it will replace the mouse, computer pointing devices and the Microsoft Windows environment. "Machines will be extremely human-like in many respects and particularly the most important respect which is the ability to communicate like humans," Dunietz said.

WebWereld » Adam Curry: muisjes op hun reet. "Adam Curry wil dat we televisie gaan kijken op onze pc. [...] Maar Curry, luister eens, ik wil niet dat het beweegt op mijn pc. Ophouden nou. Die lullende paperclip van Microsoft daar heb ik dagen tegen zitten schreeuwen. "NEEEEEEEE, FUCK OFF!!! JE KAN ME NIET HELPEN, NEPPUNAISE!! Die laat zich niet meer zien."

I've infected my brother with the blogging virus. Read his blog Tempus fugit (not!).

Added a submenu feature to the "elegant" stylesheet. It's hidden in all the others. I'm talking about the 11 squares in greytones on the righthand side of your screen. Though it looked excellent on my PC at home, with IE55, it looks awful in IE50 at work. It appears to remove all the space between the squares. Bummer. Guess I'll have to tweak that a bit more today.

Statik Majik is very pretty. I wish I could be a bit better with graphics.

"For myself, I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the results of this evening's experiments. Astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever." - Sir Arthur Sullivan, message to Edison, 1888

Momenten van verwarring, which is Dutch for Moments of confusion. This site shows screenshots of movies and television shows, but only shows the subtitles. In Dutch, sorry. Strange how things are so weird when they're taken out of context. Quite bizarre, yet interesting. Check it out.

LOL! "waferbaby » fusion" The game is simple: I start a comic, and pass it on to nine other people, who only get to see the previous panel."

Duck Tape Guys » don't ask me why, but they're crazy about the stuff!

The Diva Test at Sweetcherrie.com » which rock diva were you in a past life? » "You were PJ Harvey in a past life! You're can be somewhat reserved, but when there's an issue you feel strongly about you're not afraid to share your opinion. You're the walking definition of sophistication and people admire you for your strength and composure. You are highly artistic and enjoy creating masterpieces any way you can!"

Botched Executions » I really don't know how to comment on this.

NASA Fakes Moon Landing!

DaveNet: Google upgrades the Web » "I call it a JIT-SE or Just-In-Time-Search-Engine. The JIT-SE feature is particularly suited to weblogs, which are time-oriented websites. The Google crawler notices that I update my site every day, so it knows it should come back and re-index my site every day. It finds lots of links to new stuff. Presumably it indexes those pages too.

They incorporate knowledge of past behavior in the algorithm that determines how often they index sites. We use the same technique in several UserLand Web services, and it's a good heuristic, it offers a reasonable tradeoff between scaling and currency. Beautiful."

It's scary when there are people you can have full conversations with, without saying more than two words. One of the people I have this with, is my brother Tjerk. Yesterday we were watching Space on the BBC and there was talk on Biosphere. He said "Just like...", I glanced over, said "Yeah" and we both laughed. Each of us knew exactly that we were talking about the lame movie Bio-Dome, starring Stephen Baldwin, we had seen about a year ago.

XML European Day 2001: Amsterdam » this would be cool to visit. Shame only the exhibits are free. The conference itself is no less then fl. 495 (€ 224.62). I'm afraid that's a bit too much for my budget.

Watched Quiz Show (1994) this afternoon. It's about "an idealistic young lawyer (Rob Morrow) working for a Congressional subcommittee in the late 1950s discovers that TV quiz shows are being fixed. His investigation focusses on two contestants on the show "Twenty-One": Herbert Stempel (John Turturro), a brash working-class Jew from Queens, and Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), the patrician scion of one of America's leading literary families. Based on a true story." A good movie, especially for a lazy sundayafternoon. Note to self » rent Barton Fink as soon as possible. Coen brothers and John Turturro, what else could one want?

I'm looking for a host. I want my own domain, but it shouldn't cost me too much. So I'm just browsing 'round a bit. Stumbled upon the Web Host Directory » "hosting services on a budget".

I've also uploaded the most recent version of my site this morning. The biggest changes are the redesign of the links page and the Tolkien page. I've also added a page on the Trojan War, because that has also fascinated me.

Take a look at Wapblogger, which is a WAP interface to the popular weblog tool Blogger. Post to your Blogs with a WAP enabled cell phone! Wapblogger's WAP address is http://wap.waplog.ch/blogger/. Enjoy!

I received an e-mail this morning from Walter from "Home is where the log is", which I visited yesterday. He found my URL in his log and complimented me on my site. That's always nice to hear. Especially on a not so bright sundaymorning. He also pointed out to me that Hermit (as in the name of my site, The Hermit's Tower) is actually an anagram ("A word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as satin to stain." » Dictionary.com) for my first name, Mirthe. I was blown away by this. Never even thought of it. Is that dumb or what. Or maybe I already knew subconsciously, I don't know. Anyhow, thank you Walter.

Hermitage on the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Main Entry » her·mit·age

Pronunciation » 'h&r-m&-tij

Function » noun

Date » 14th century

1a » the habitation of a hermit

b » a secluded residence or private retreat: hideaway

c » monastery

2 » the life or condition of a hermit

Renamed this blog from 'My Thoughts And Notes' to 'The Hermitage'. I've been thinking about doing that for a while now. The old name was just not unique enough, too generic. Also 'The Hermitage' is more inkeeping with the site, which is called 'The Hermit's Tower' after all.

I've just visited BlogStart, which claims to be 'the weblog resource'. Nice idea, but I'm not sure about the categories though. What about my blog, where does it go? 'Non-English', well sometimes. 'Personal', when I want to be. Also under 'Resources', 'Computer Related', 'Internet and Web' and 'News'. So I'm not sure that that will work out pretty good. Also personal contains almost 600 blogs, whereas the rest only contain about 50 each. Not a very good subdivision then is it?

I've joined BlogHop, so you're now able to rate this site and compare it to loads of other blogs. I have changed the code a bit, the bright icons aren't really in tune with the current style of the site. So I've chosen a series of plusses and minusses (is that even a word?). Hope you all will vote positively for me. Cheers.

Just some random things to get you through the weekend » Learning the Tarot - an online course, Disinformation, So You've Decided to be Evil (A Step-by-Step Guide to joining the Forces of Darkness), News of the Weird and also some blogs I recently bumped into » Home is where the log is, Hall of nihilism, Wherever you are, An entirely other day. Enjoy.

"When you know a thing, to hold that you know it and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it: this is knowledge." - Confucius (551 BC - 479)

So you'd better take a look at Beginners.co.uk, which features hundreds of online tutorials. And two other sites, which I'm sure I've blogged before, but deserve to be added once more » FindTutorials and ITpapers.

You might want to take a look at Jeffrey Zeldman's latest two articles called "CSS in the Real World" and "Much Ado About Web Standards".

"blogBuddy is a small application written in Delphi which enables remote control of blogs on blogger.com. Using blogBuddy you can post new entries as well as edit existing post. Template control is also available." » Very cool. I've been waiting for something like this to arrive. There are other services, other than Blogger, that do offer such programs. However I want to continue using Blogger. Shame you can't use it offline yet, and I would really like on of those "WinAmp is playing bla.mp3" features. But who knows what will happen. As the community of Bloggers grows, I'm sure more initiatives like these will see the light of day.

LOL Peter's Evil Overlord List » "The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord"

Anyone up for miniature golf?

PDAs increasingly vulnerable to hackers "Handheld computers are increasingly vulnerable to hacker attacks and should not be trusted to store 'any critical or confidential information', security experts warned Thursday." » but isn't that what they're for?

Ik ben nog steeds druk bezig met mijn afstudeerverslag. Gelukkig komt het einde inzicht. De grootste hoofdstukken zijn aanwezig en naar mijn tevredenheid uitgewerkt. Alleen het kleine grut rest me nog. Maar dat is misschien wel het vervelendst. Ik heb zo'n hekel aan het schrijven van inleidingen, samenvattingen en voorwoorden. In feite zeg je gewoon drie keer hetzelfde, maar met een andere mate van detail. En toch moeten alle zinnen uniek, en het liefst ook nog verfrissend, zijn. Erg vervelend. Daar komt nog eens bij dat ik met Dirk voorheen een perfecte taakverdeling had, waarbij hij het merendeel van dit soort vervelende dingen deed. Maar ja, die tijd is voorbij.

In het begin, toen ik net hoorde dat hij besloot te stoppen met de opleiding en dus niet gezellie mee ging afstuderen, was ik behoorlijk teleurgesteld. Maar achteraf moet ik toegeven dat het misschien nog niet eens zo slecht voor me geweest is. Ik was onderhand denk ik iets te afhankelijk geworden. En dat gold voor hem natuurlijk ook. En dat is niet goed, dan ga je ook aan jezelf twijfelen enzo. Nu weet ik gewoon dat ik het kan. En dat ik dus dat verdomde diploma verdien. Mocht ik het ooit nog eens in mijn handen krijgen althans. ;-)

Nou ja, ik ga maar weer eens verder. Wist je trouwens dat mijn samenvatting (de zogenaamde "Managerial Summary") maar vijftig woorden mag zijn op mijn fijne school. Erg leuk. Hoe kun je een opdracht van 5 maanden en een verslag van 100zoveel kantjes nou fatsoenlijk in vijftig woorden samenvatten? Moeilijk hoor. Zucht.

An excellent way to start the friday morning, is to start it with humor.

Top Ten Blog! is a collaborative weblog featuring the ongoing creation of Letterman-style top ten lists.

The plural of virus is neither viri nor virii, nor even vira nor virora. It is quite simply viruses, irrespective of context. Here's why. What's the Plural of 'Virus'?

With only 45 more minutes in my working day, I almost missed this info! But fortunately I was still on time. Phew! According to Yahoo's On This Day » On Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn., U.S., at age 42.

And for those who don't know what I'm talking about » "Elvis Aaron Presley or Elvis Aron Presley. Born Jan. 8, 1935, Tupelo, Miss., U.S. American popular singer widely known as the 'King of Rock and Roll' and one of rock music's dominant performers from the mid-1950s until his death."

I never knew. Molecular Expressions: The Silicon Zoo » "Ever wonder what's lurking within the dark corners, nooks and crannies of your computer? Is some gremlin responsible for all those crashes---you know, the ones that happen when you are trying to save that critical document you've been working on so diligently for the past three hours? We wondered too, so we took a look to see what we could find. And guess what? When we put the computer chips under the microscope we found some very interesting creatures hiding there."

You Paid How Much For That Domain Name? » "Selling domain names - that's the business to be in. It's a licence to print money. We're talking telephone numbers here; the domain name Business.com was recently sold for a staggering $8 million. That makes it the most expensive domain name in the world. Previous record holders include Compaq who paid nigh on $3.3 million for the Altavista.com name."

The Intranet Journal is an interesting resource for you designers out there.

By the way, I've added a page with all kinds of unit converters to this site, last week. I'm always searching for a place to do this, and keep loosing the adress once I've found a good place. So I've deceided to add this page. That way, I always know where I can find it. Smart eh?

I really want this! Stanley Kubrick (Box Set) (DVD) » The definitive Kubrick collection: Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut and Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures. Only £81.89 at Blackstar or $159.86 at Amazon.

I'm thinking of adding a "send me some SMS" feature on my site. I'm amazed at how rare it is to find code that let's me do this, for free. I've found Free SMS 4U, and will try it out this weekend. Unfortunately it doesn't send the text, but a link to a site where the text can be read.

Okidoki. Don't quite know what to make of this, but here we go. Find A Grave » Be the first to place 'virtual flowers' on your favorite celebrity's grave!

I've updated the My Favourite Movies part on my site. Added a whole bunch of new movies. At first there were only 30, but I've added 35(!) new ones, for your viewing pleasure. Isn't that nice of me? Hope you like it.

Video crypto standard cracked? » "Noted cryptographer Niels Ferguson says he's broken Intel's vaunted HDCP Digital Video Encryption System, but fear of U.S. law is keeping him silent on the details." Kudos for Niels!

A reaction on Slashdot » "I've uncovered the secret ingredients in the Colonel's spices and McDonald's Special Sauce. I figured out where Amelia Earhart has been all these years. I know whether or not the moon landings were faked, who shot Kennedy, and how many stones there are in the Washington Monument.

I have decrypted the secret code in the Bible, correlated it with the secret codes of the Baghavad Ghita, Talmud and Qur'an and now now the inner thoughts of all gods. I have unified field theory and quantum theory and will soon have a device that will bend all matter to my will. I know the secrets of teleportation, telekinesis, telepathy, and how to get women to want me. I know the secrets of every three-letter agency in government, the Psychic Friends network, and the US Postal Service.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the DMCA, I am unable to share my findings with others. I suppose I'll have to get on my FTL spaceship and find a more genial planet. Ta-ta!" LOL.

We rented the movie X Change (2000) on sunday. It was good. Not excellent, but certainly entertaining. Original idea, good acting. I gave it 7 points over at the IMDb. "In the near future, a company called Xchange owns a mind transference technology that enables instantaneous travel by swapping bodies with someone at the destination. A member of the privileged corporate class ('Corpie') Xchanging for the first time unwittingly switches bodies with a terrorist. Forced to hide in a limited life span cloned body with just 2 days remaining, he races against time to stop the terrorist and regain his body."

Just some interesting sites » Nobodyhere.com, Watnou.com and Kortingsbon.nl.

Excellent! Faking UFOs » Several ways of letting people believe they have seen an UFO.

"A pair of souls become undone

Where were two now one

Divided by this wall of death

I soon will join you yet

With my blood I'll find your love

You found the strength to end your life

As you did so shall I"

» Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses «

I was just checking out the site for Eurotransplant. My brother started working there on monday. I was just curious. He's working on the website and contentmanagement, if I'm not mistaken. Have to ask what he does exactly. I'm not sure.

Anyhow, things are warming up in here. The sun has turned and is now shining right into my office. Sigh. My raport is coming together quite nicely. Now if only the people at school feel the same. They have to grade it. I have had it with the thing for today, though. I still have to make some screenshots. I can do that later today. That doesn't require any brainactivity, so that's good.

Weather update » "Maximum temperature today between 27° and 33° Celcius." Why, I ask you? How much longer untill the winter begins again?

Technology Review - Taming the Web » "The world may well be on the path to a more orderly electronic future - one in which the Internet can and will be controlled." Can I stand up and scream "Nooo!"

Viewable with Any Browser: Campaign » "Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network." - Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996

If you like, you could read "The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual" on this website.

Get your info at OurFavoriteSongs.com.

Tales For The L33t » the famous Shakespearian tragedy "Romea & Juliet" in modern language.

Damascus steel's lost secret found » "For hundreds of years, some of the keenest minds in science sought in vain to tap the secret of how blacksmiths in ancient India and the Middle East fashioned a supremely tough metal known as Damascus steel. Legend had it that the metal, stronger and sharper than some steels produced even in industrial times, may have helped Islamic armies repel European crusaders with inferior weapons during the Middle Ages. The search for the shimmering alloy may now be at an end, thanks to an unlikely alliance between a materials science professor at Iowa State University and a Florida blacksmith who crafts shoes for racehorses." (Via Slashdot)

Excellent! » FindTutorials.com: The Tutorials Search Engine.

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." - Western Union internal memo, 1876.

I'm currently working on a WAP version of The Lyrics Archive. You should then be able to read songlyrics on your mobile phone. That would be cool right? But I'm still working on the code for the moment. And I'm looking for a new WML Browser, because the one I'm currently using isn't very good. So I did a search on Google and came up with a few relevant pages. » WAP Software Development Kits, Wapulous.com, WAP, WML and Wireless articles and Preparing Your Site for WAP, by Steve Franklin.

The JavaScript Source: Forms: Resize Form Elements » "Tired of making all those beautiful, complex HTML forms, only to have them be destroyed when switching between browsers? This script eliminates the frustration by dynamically up-sizing the form elements in Internet Explorer by a specified percent. Use Netscape sizes for your formfields and this script makes them the same size in IE. Sweet!"

Wie had dat gedacht? » Nu.nl/economie | Nederland wordt het beste land om zaken te doen.

Nice to have a day off. Watched The Godfather, part I, yesterday evening for the xth time. And I'm now halfway through part II. Why don't they make movies like that anymore? I still need the DVD by the way.

I've also done some work on my report. Mostly on the flow off the chapters and some introduction texts. I've also taken out my crayons and started on the storyboard, which I'll have to scan and include in the text.

Tjerk is back from his travels also. We picked him up from Schiphol airport on saturdaynight. He started work this morning. That must have been nice, with the jetlag and everything. :-)

What else did I want to say... Can't really remember anything. Oh, I've made a few more changes to this site and added a few pages. But that is all only local. Will upload the pages from work tomorrow. That saves me some time. I want ADSL! But it doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon. Sigh. Anyhow, enjoy your evening. Think I'll watch another bit of The Godfather, part II, untill dinner is served.

You might also like to take a peek at the Obsolete Computer Museum.

20 years of the IBM Personal Computer » "Twenty years ago this summer, the IBM PC was introduced to the world. It was an event that launched a revolution and changed the way people did business. The industry definition of a personal computer at the time was: any machine inexpensive enough for one person to own and use, whether at home or work. While the personal computer started as a device for the computer hobbyist, its major market has turned out to be small business users and professionals." (via Slashdot, it was 20yrs exactly yesterday.) Check out the Timeline at IBM.com.

Some great reactions on /. by the way, that bring back memories for me. "Gosh, this brings back memories. I remember having a 5.25" as my only floppy disk drive, using DOS. Hell, I'd never even heard of a mouse back then. Ah, and good ol' WordStar. That sure as hell didn't have a stupid paperclip. I see all the people today complaining: "Oh, Windows is too hard. AOL is complicated. I'm confused!". And I think back to when I was 5 years old, using a CLI and installing my first SoundBlaster, configuring IRQs and DMAs. And today, some people need help installing a keyboard." LOL.

Shooting Stars! Viewer's Guide to the Perseid Meteor Shower » "Cosmic dust, some of which has been wafting through space since the American Civil War, is renewing a summer ritual by slamming into Earth's atmosphere, lighting up the night sky with shooting stars whose numbers are building to a peak on August 12."

Humanclock.com » a different person every minute. Cool idea!

The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness » I'm actually in a very darkred area. Not very good.

Here's a link to the Converter's Paradise » because you'll never know when you might need one of these.

I got a mention over at The ageless project. If you scroll way down to the end, you can see "Name: Mirthe Valentijn Date of Birth: March 14, 1979 Site: The Hermit's Tower".

Civ O'plenty today. Just visited the Civilization III website, which is all about the new version which will be released soon (or is it already out there? I'm not sure). On Slashdot I read that FreeCiv 1.12.0 has been released. I instantly feel like playing the game again. Maybe I'll lookup the classic version later today.

DVD Easter Eggs - The Matrix » Who doesn't own The Matrix on DVD? So it's a cool site. Take a look.

I've taken the day of, and monday too. Wow. Don't have any plans for the day. Just relax, do some reading, a bit of work on my site. Just enjoy the nothingness of it all. Tjerk is coming home tomorrow evening. That will be strange. Maybe I'll go to Schiphol airport to pick him up. Or maybe not. I'll think about it. Well, I'd better get offline. ISDN costs way too much!

Yesterday evening, I've uploaded all the pages of The Hermit's Tower. So you're currently watching the most recent version of the site. Hurah! Please don't forget to take a look at the alternative styles by clicking on "Change the Style" on the frontpage. I think you'll like it. I'm still working on a few more alternatives, but you'll have to be patient for that.

I want this! » the Samsung NewQ Platinum.

I feel inspired by all that talk of case modding. I'm now browsing the ModdingZone. Maybe I'll take out my crayons and brew up some designs. That would be a cool thing to do.

Information Please: 1979 » my birthyear.

Okay, I couldn't resist. I've added yet another style. This one is called 'Elegant'. Hope you like it.

I've just added three (3!) more styles to the Change the Style page on this site. I've had some ideas and thought I'd better act on 'em while they were fresh. I've worked on my report quite hard this week, so I deceided I'd give myself this break. It's the "Another Blue", the "Minimal" and the "Alternative for Default". I'm sure they''re not completely foolproof, but it'll have to do for now. Let me know what you think.

Is copy protection dead on arrival? - Tech News - CNET.com » Ofcourse, if you can play it, you can copy it.

Though nicely done, it's a bit to much bother for me. » A G4 PC How-To Guide from SystemLogic.net. (Via <a href'="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/08/08/1346225&mode=thread">Slashdot) You might also like to check out the Cool Case Gallery over at Virtual Hideout. Or this case, which is very cool!

"I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half-empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth." - Janeane Garofalo.

I'm totally addicted to the excellent BBC drama "Hearts and Bones" (2000), of which I've seen the first season on the BBC last year. I'm currently watching those episodes on monday nights on the Dutch network. I'm also watching the new episodes of the second season on the BBC on thursday nights. Just so you know what my life is like. ;-)

Anyhow, it's a "seven-part on-hour drama which explores the lives, loves and careers of a group of friends from Coventry who all move to London. Emma is in a seven year relationship with Mark Rose, with whom she has a son Sam. She marries him although she loves his brother Rich - a butcher. Rich lives with his girlfriend Louise who is a hairdresser but he finds the temptation of a dalliance with Emma hard to resist especially when his relationship with Louise comes under strain when Louise's mother becomes ill. Also there is Emma's best pal Amanda who's single since splitting up with her investment banker boyfriend Michael; Romance novel writer Sinead is besotted with Mark but turns to the Internet for love when he marries Rose and Rich and Mark's younger brother Robbie who comes to London for the wedding and stays to pursue his hobbies of beer and women."

"I see the sadness in their eyes

Melancholy in their cries

Devoid of all the passion

The human spirit cannot die

Look at the pain around me

This is what I cry for

Look at the pain around me

This is what I'll die for"

» Iced Earth - Melancholy «

I've made another post on the A List Apart forum. I've been having problems with the Change Style page on this site. Hope somebody can help me. Because I'd like to get it working on most, if not all, platforms and browsers.

"May you be as strong as the oak, yet flexible as the birch; may you stand tall as the Redwood, live gracefully as the willow; and may you always bear fruit all your days on this earth." - Native American prayer

I've been busy today, haven't even had time to post anything untill now. Do you believe it? I've been working on a chapter on system development methodologies. And I can tell you that I'm going insane!

Anyhow, just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and to say that you should check out the CSS Reference Chart over at Visibone.com. Very nice.

Oh, by the way, I received an email from Tjerk this morning that he is having a good time in Chile and is coming back on saturdaynight. Apparently he's been into the mountains on horseback and almost got to do a commercial for an insurancecompany. Don't ask. ;-)

Took the What's Your Celebrity Look? test over at Emode. Mine is the Mysterious Look. "Who can say what goes on behind that Mysterious Look? No one for sure, because you love to keep them guessing. Your secretive ways are as intriguing as your exotic beauty. Maybe it's your deep, dreamy eyes, or maybe it's that elusive smile that hides something more. As a nonconformist by nature, you tend to fuse different fashions into unique combinations that express the real you - marrying the vintage with the modern or the classic with the eclectic. Like your celebrity counterparts, Winona Ryder and Juliette Binoche, you're always open to intelligent discussion and experimental jewelry and makeup. By playing up your intense features with deep lipsticks and an alluring eye shadow, you're both captivating and unpredictable."

Slashdot | New Language CURL Merges HTML And Javascript » well, I had my doubts, but if Tim is behind it, it should be okay.

Oh, and from that same newsletter I learned, that today in 1961 » "the German city of Berlin was divided by a barbed wire fence. The East Berlin government was adamant in its effort to keep those in the eastern sector from moving into the non-Communist western sector. Even regular telephone and postal service between the sectors was stopped. Several days later, the barbed wire was reinforced with a concrete wall between official crossing points. The Berlin wall stood as a barrier to freedom for the East Germans until November 9, 1989." And born today in 1926 » Fidel Castro Ruz (Cuban leader).

Finished an entire chapter. Hurah! Rewarded myself with checking my e-mail. The only thing interesting was the uselessknowledge newsletter. Did you know for instance that "elevators rank as the safest form of transportation, boasting only one fatality every 100 million miles traveled. Stairs, in comparison, are five times more dangerous." I bet you didn't. But you do now. Anyhow, back to the saltmines.

Counterfeiters Consider New Euro

I usually use the word Dutch, when I talk to you about my language. But I only recently found out that isn't the official term. It's actually Netherlandic. So I'll try to use that in future. Strange that I never knew this.

"Dutch language, the Netherlandic (Netherlandish) language as spoken in The Netherlands, together with the same language in northern Belgium, which is popularly called Flemish. In the European Middle Ages, the language was called Dietsc, or Duutsc, historically equivalent to German Deutsch and meaning simply "language of the people," as contrasted with Latin, which was the language of religion and learning. The official name of the language is Nederlands, or Netherlandic."

I remember being captivated, as a kid, by this painting by Pieter Breughel, which shows a variety of Netherlandisch proverbs. Also, you might want to check out this listing of Dutch painters.

Watched a large part of "Zomergasten" last night. Quite interesting. Nice site. Don't know what else to say right now. Writers block. O no! Well, maybe it'll pass. I have to get back to work anyway. I only want to mention that I received my first phone call on my mobile this morning. Wow. The sudden ringing actually startled me. Where will this lead?

I deceided to post my list in the forum. And I couldn't hold that out on you, now could I? So here it is.

On 1. Civilization classic; 2. Commander keen I; 3. King's quest I; 4. Blood I; 5. Duke Nukem (the original Jump 'n' Run - none of that fancy 3d stuff!); 6. Age of Empires; 7. The Sims; 8. Roller Coaster Tycoon; 9. Leisure Suit Larry I; 10 Prince Of Persia 1; 11. Paratrooper.

GameSpy's Top 50 Games of All Time » I just don't understand why Sid Meier's Civilization hasn't gotten higher than the fourth place. And, as someone mentioned on Slashdot, where is Maniac Mansion?

This has to be a joke. Otherwise, it's just plain sick.

Mega-search.net » a search engine for CD covers.

Nederlandsch.Net » Search articles from Dutch newspapers.

Added a new style option to my Change the Style page. This one is called "Linespline" and is blatently stolen from linesandsplines.com, because I really liked the look of that site. What do you think?

Just so you know: Today in History » In 1892 Sunday school teacher Lizzie Borden arrested in Fall River, Mass., U.S.

The Death of the Internet As We Know It » "What began as a deliberately decentralized network to promote the exchange of research ideas and data became a poor network for commercial applications." Can I just say 'Duh!' to this? It's quite an interesting article nonetheless.

"The meek shall inherit the Earth, the rest of us will go to the stars..." - Dr. Isaac Asimov

"Why Worms Like Code Red Are Good For You". Some good points here, people. "Because what we're preparing for is not the Code Reds of today, but the Code Deep Purples of tomorrow. [...] I'm talking about vast and malicious super worms. If you could create something that attacked Cisco router software, for example, you really would cause a global Internet meltdown."

Something nice for you to browse on this friday afternoon, when you've had it and don't want to do any 'real' work » Portraits of Open Source Pioneers.

"In the IT community, a White Paper is an informational brief offering an overview of a technology, product, issue, standard, policy, or solution - its importance, use and implementation, and business benefits." And ITpapers.com has loads of 'em. For free!

Coldfusion Links » When I'm feeling brave, i'll check these out.

Oops! » Virus Leaked Ukrainian Secret Docs.

I love the show "Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends". Here is a nice website about it. Now I'd better get on with it, have a lot of writing to do for my report and the clock is ticking. Did you notice, by the way, that I haven't posted anything yesterday? well, I was rather busy in the morning and in the afternoon Blogger was down. Sigh. Also, I believe that it was the first day since I started my blog that I haven't posted a single word. Don't know whether I should be sad about that or wheter I should be sad that I apparently don't have anything better to do than write stuff and link to things on my website.

LOL » Mission Statement Generator.

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"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spent it for you." - Carl Sandburg

I completely forgot to mention that I've been asked to stay on at e-Vision, after my project for school is over. I've agreed. Wow, soon I'll be all grown up and working and stuff. Is that weird or what?

MTV » 20 years old today. "Music Television, a cable network owned by Viacom which started in the early Eighties playing music videos in a manner similar to a radio station, but which, by the early Nineties, had become a generalized young-adult entertainment network, with shows such as 'The Real World', 'Road Rules', 'Beavis and Butt-head'." Also quite interesting "Why does MTV suck?".

"I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need." - Francois-Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), when asked how he managed to make his remarkable statues.

MSTD » or Microsoft-Transmitted Disease. Why have I heard so much about Code Red, and hardly anything of the whole thing? Was it panic, or are all kinds of disasters waiting right around the corner? I really don't know.