So it's New Year's Day 2002 and the Dutch guilder is history. If I'm not mistaken I have cleared out all my wallets, pockets and other places which could possibly contain coins. Onwards with the Euro from now on. I'd better get to the ATM soon, because I have no cash whatsoever. It will be the first time to actually see the notes. I have ofcourse seen the coins in my Eurokit. But not the notes. More Euro related stories on the Eurotrash weblog, also the BBC has a rather good In Depth look at the whole situation.
Even Slashdot is discussing the Euro. By the way, I've seen and held some of the notes. I am one of 300 million. The lucky few. ;-) But they feel weird. Strange. Unknown. But I'm sure that will only be a matter of weeks or maybe months. I hope. The important thing is to stop calculating back the the Guilder as soon as possible.
Damn, it's early! I need sleep! But I'm not going to get it for a few more hours, since I'm at work. Sigh. Atleast I'm finally going to Lord of the Rings tonight. Hurah! And I did get a chance to upload my new blog template. What do you think?
"An ancient Ring thought lost for centuries has been found, and through a strange twist in fate has been given to a small Hobbit named Frodo. When Gandalf discovers the Ring is in fact the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, Frodo must make an epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it! However he does not go alone. He is joined by Gandalf, Legolas the elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Aragorn, Boromir and his three Hobbit friends Merry, Pippin and Samwise. Through mountains, snow, darkness, forests, rivers and plains, facing evil and danger at every corner the Fellowship of the Ring must go. Their quest to destroy the One Ring is the only hope for the end of the Dark Lords reign!"
What can I say about this movie, that hasn't been said already. This one rules. Big time. Whether or not you've read the books, you'll love it. Check it out! Also, here's a link to my Tolkien page, which I've updated with some fresh links recently. Or maybe you'd like to buy the Lord Of The Rings (Collector's Edition) at ThinkGeek.
According to the Useless information of "important dates" page at timeanddate.com, I will be exactly 200000 hours old tomorrow at 12:10:00. Reason for a feast perhaps?
I went to the library about an hour ago with Tjerk, when we noticed that a lot of older and unwanted books were on sale. So I counted my Euro's and spend some of my first. My harvest includes Marion Bradley - "The Firebrand", Jonathan Weiner - "The Next One Hundred Years: Shaping the Fate of Our Living Earth", Clive Barker - "Books of Blood" (all volumes in one, possibly the best save. The hardcover version at Amazon is $200 and I paid €0,45 for the second-hand one. Cool huh?) and his "Cabal", Pauline Gedge - "The eagle and the raven: a novel" and the first two parts in Tom de Haven's "Chronicles of the King's Tramp" series, entitled "Walker of Worlds" and "The End-Of-Everything Man".
Also, my latest order from Displeased Records arrived today. So I'm the proud owner of the Autumn Tears album, "The Garden of Crystalling Dreams" and Maudlin at the Well's two latest albums, "Bath" and "Leaving Your Body Map".
I'm just browsing some of the movies in the villa-achterwerk video overview. Very cool. Some excellent youth sentiment with Purno de Purno and ofcourse Rembo & Rembo. But I'd better get back to work. Sigh. Only a few more things to finish and then I can go home and enjoy my weekend. Not to mention my media exposure :-)
There. I've just uploaded the archive files and republished everything. It's not quite as perfect as I would like it to be, but it will have to do for now. I'm going to the local Greek restaurant in a while and won't have time to fix other errors. I'll hopefully have more time tomorrow.
It's friday, so time for the FridayFive. However, I don't like this weeks questions very much. They're all about smell, which is of no interest to me. So I'm going to answer last week's questions, since I didn't get around to it then. Okay? Here we go.
What do you have your browser start page set to? My own startpage.
What are your favorite news sites? For the Geek news, Slashdot ofcourse. And for Dutch news, I use both Nu.nl and de Volkskrant.
Favorite search engine? Google. What else is there?
When did you first get online? That would have to be 1995. Yep. Early 1995, I guess. First with the restrictions of Compuserve and then later on I discovered the web. I was reborn.
How do you plan to spend your weekend? I'm going to see the new theatre show of Arjan Ederveen tomorrow night, in Gouda.
I was just checking out the website for Poelmo, slaaf van het zuiden, a new tv program by Hans Teeuwen, Pieter Bouwman and Gummbah which aired last night. Very insane.
I've had enough. I want ADSL and I want it now! So I've made a page where people who feel the same can e-mail my local government. Check it out at ADSL voor Rijnwoude. Hopefully enough people will respond and those in charge will finally act.
I've been working on a relatively new project today. I like the initial fase of a project best. I think. You can decide completely what can be done and how it should look. But I'm not in a mood for serious stuff anymore. Sigh. Why is the monday always such a difficult day?
Tjerk called me about an hour ago, to say he'd bought a DVD player for his PC (check out this test - he's got the LiteOn, I've got the Aopen). Not region-free anymore, because apparently they aren't allowed to sell those anymore. Which surprised me. I did not know that. I've bought mine (an Aopen) a little over a year ago, and it's completely regionless. But he shouldn't worry. There's firmware available.
I'm just looking at the specs for the, hopefully soon to be released, new version of CSS. Which is version 3. It should be quite cool, because it contains stuff like Multi-column layout, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) (to create round edges!) and Behavioral Extensions. Can't wait for the release.
Today I'll be working on a subproject for the NIGZ website. I think this could be something quite cool to do, because I can start from scratch, with the database design.
I've also received an e-mail from school this morning, because I still have one exam to do before I can get my diploma. Fortunately I don't have to wait around, but I can do it next week, because it's my last hurdle. So I'd better dive into my books this weekend. Sigh.
At the moment I'm reading Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge. This is one very cool book. If you love SF, you'll love this one.
"Vernor Vinge picks up on the milieu he created in an earlier book and expands upon the use of 'bobble' technology. The bobbles are stasis bubbles that can be set for durations ranging from hours to centuries. Since nothing inside them experiences the flow of time, they can be used as a kind of one-way time travel ticket to the future. Simply set the parameters as desired, pop up a bobble around you, and see what the world's like in two centuries.
This is what a group of men and women are doing on a deserted future Earth, slowly making their way up the timestream to see what lies ahead, and hoping to come back into synch with the rest of scattered humanity."
Husband for sale » A Swedish man is auctioning himself as a husband over the internet. (via Ananova). I don't get it. Why do people think of actions like this one?
I'm famous! No, just kidding. But the radio interview went okay. I got my message across. Now hopefully people will use the form. Anyhow, back to the order of the day. I borrowed the DVDs for Shrek and Mario Puzo's The Last Don today, both movies I had been wanting to see for quite some time now. So that should be good. Not much else planned for the weekend. Catch up on some sleep, hopefully.
The following is taken from the sub-trivia newsletter earlier this week » "They call me a man, but I'll never have a wife. I was given a body, but not given life. They made me a mouth, but didn't give me breath. Water gives me life and sun brings me death. Who am I?" To really annoy you, I''ll tell you later. If I remember, that is.
"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I'm reading an older article on winterspeak.com, entitled The Joy of Plaintext. It's all about the benifits of plaintext e-mail versus the ever more used HTML mail. I couldn't agree more. There are way to many problems with safety, plus it's simply not necessary. I'm constantly waiting when I'm downloading my mail. Simply because there are images and all kinds of other HTML trickery in my inbox (mostly from spam). Please people, just don't.
I've just watched the DVD for Shrek. The movie is the story of ogre Shrek and his newfound donkey friend on a quest to free princess Fiona. It truly is a wonderful fairytale. Can't wait for part 2!
Ik zou wel graag naar Winters van weleer willen gaan. Dit is een tentoonstelling met ca. 40 schilderijen uit binnen- en buitenlands bezit, over het Hollandse winterlandschap in de schilderkunst van de Gouden Eeuw. Tot en met 24 februari in het Mauritshuis in Den Haag. Even onthouden.
I have the Abit BP6 dual processor motherboard, and I just received a link to a tutorial to put two pentium III CPU's on it. That would be a very cool thing to do. However, I'm a bit anxious to get out my soldering iron and go wild. So I'd better not.
Also, I just received an e-mail from school that I can't do my exam this thursday, because the schedule in not yet known. Now I have to wait. Hopefully that won't take to long, because I would really like to finish things off. Besides, I've still got about 6 books from the library, which really need to be returned. I was hoping to do both on the same day, since I'm hardly ever in Utrecht anymore these days. Now I have to think of somthing cunning to solve this matter. Sigh.
Anyhow, I just wanted to link to this books site, which is very cool. I really want a reader for e-books.
Clicking on some links and then some more, I ended up on v-2.org | beauty utility balance, which has a cool "search by relevance" feature. Very nice. I was thinking about how on earth you'd implement something like this. Must be a real nightmare. But still very cool. That would be something they could use at MP3.com, to help you find more songs in you favourite genre.
"What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books." - Thomas Carlyle
I'm just checking out the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 at the W3C website. I wonder how my site is doing. I do have ALT tags for my images. And I use a stylesheet for just about everything. But I think there still is room for improvement. But I do think I'm better than a lot of sites out there.
Digital lifestyle on display » "'The important thing with this is that the web becomes the hub', explains Mr Burwood. 'So the information is supplied to us where we want it, when we want it, how we want it.'" Cool idea, but not at the current speeds. Once again I'll comment, I want ADSL! Sigh.
Het Leidsch Dagblad heeft een artikel over mijn actie "Geen snelle internetverbinding in dorp" » Ik weet het ook niet meer hoor. Mail sturen naar de gemeente lijkt dus geen zin te hebben. Naar KPN ook niet. Bij wie moet ik dan zijn? Moet ik dan de landelijke overheid maar lastig gaan vallen? Waarom kun je in bijvoorbeeld Zweden in iedere uithoek wel een goede verbinding krijgen? Ik snap het echt niet hoor. Help!
Public annoyance about the Eurocent. Finland is talking about no longer accepting the one and two cent coins. More information in this Dutch article, entitled "Eurocenten onder vuur". I wonder what will happen. And should individual countries be allowed to decide?
Interesting » "What The World Wants and how to pay for it using military expenditures" has eighteen strategies for confronting the major systemic problems confronting humanity. From the World Game Institute, which is "a Non-Governmental Organization affiliate of the United Nations. Dedicated to providing the perspective and information needed to solve the critical problems facing global society as we move into the 21st century."
I'm just reading the archive for the Worthless word for the day site. Some nice additions for your vocabulary here.
By the way, the new e-Vision intranet I made just went live. Quite satisfying. Unfortunately I'm getting some surprise error messages on the Mac. Sigh. I'm going to call it a day in about 45 minutes, so it'll have to wait till tomorrow, because I'm working on some other stuff right now.
Here's a tutorial for cooling your PC with liquid nitrogen! I'm not sure how practical this is, but it sure looks awesome. And here's a discussion with Jakob Nielsen and Vincent Flanders » "Two Web design gurus square off about how websites should look." Cool photo's, guys.
Records are always interesting and I got into a conversation about placesnames. So I wanted more info and found this page, about long words and place names.
Maybe I'm over-zealous, but I would like to see more websites with better use of the W3C standards. Particularly the bigger (corporate) sites out there. No more font tags, frames or lay-out tables, please! That's so not-done. Lose the JavaScript dependance and please include ALT information for your images. Especially if it's for navigation.
But I'm glad to see I'm not alone in this mission. Especially the blogs that keep popping up everywhere, they tend to use good standards. Also, I was reading the article Raise Your Standards, which has an excellent explanation of the facts. Check it out. (via, this one is also highly recommended, Accessibility Lockout for Olympics 2002 Site)
Very cool! Supertram test to ease traffic » "A test track for a revolutionary new transport system is being launched in Cardiff Bay on Thursday. The ULTra (Urban Light Transport) scheme involves driverless cars taking passengers around the capital on a dedicated track." (via Slashdot)
Aestiva HTML/OS » they say it's "a Web-friendly, full-featured engine for creating powerful, Web-based, run-anywhere applications." I don't know, I haven't used it yet. But I'm getting curious. I'd better remember to try it out next week.
The magazine also features an article on the D-Link Roq-it 10 GB, which is "a hard drive based MP3 jukebox with a storage capacity of 10 Gigabytes, as well as an external USB hard drive. It is portable and provides over 150 hours of non-stop music." And I want it.
Which Goddess Are You? "The Greek goddesses have been inspiring women's self-awareness and touching their lives for thousands of years. How do the seven female divinities affect you?" » I'm 33.3% Athena, 25% Artemis, 25% Persephone, 16.7% Hera, 0% Hestia, 0% Aphrodite and 0% Demeter.
China struggles to preserve ancient ruins at dam site. "Ancient tombs and prehistoric campsites are also to be excavated before the floodwaters arrive June 2003. These could hold clues into the origins of one of the world's oldest civilizations - and human evolution itself. Beijing is calling it the biggest historical salvage operation ever. But many experts still fret it is too little, too late." Such a waste. Sigh.
The Mirror Project is "a growing community of like-minded individuals who have photographed their likenesses in a variety of reflective surfaces." Cool idea. Check it out.
Speaking of photograph, this reminds me that I haven't even blogged about the Sony Mavica CD, I currently have lying on my desk at home. Unfortunately it's only borrowed from my dad's work, but it's very cool nonetheless. A very nice toy to experiment with, anyway. You can not only make photo's, but record sound and even video. And everything is stored on the CD. What more could you want? The problem now will be to part with it.
Very interesting article at O'reilly, all about how the Wayback Machine Works » "a book is a megabyte, which is about what it is, and the Library of Congress has 20 million books, that's 20 terabytes. This is 100 terabytes. At that size, this is the largest database ever built. It's larger than Walmart's, American Express', the IRS. It's the largest database ever built. And it's receiving queries [...] at the rate of 200 queries per second." (via EvHead)
This website now features a Blank Page according to the recommendations of the TPILB-Project » "[...] the primary reason is to offer internet wanderers a place of quietness and simplicity on the overcrowded World Wide Web -- a blank page for relaxing the restless mind."
If found this one yesterday, but didn't have time to blog it right away. If you're interested in a Project Gutenberg like archive, but with different works, go to the Sacred Texts Timeline and browse away.
I'm hoping to find some time in the coming days to read more about the Blogger API. I have been wanting to do that for a while now, but never got around to it. More info can be found at DaveNet Connecting with Blogger.
Slayer Launches Drummer Search » "Slayer are offering aspiring drummers the opportunity to fill in for Paul Bostaph, who recently left the band because of a chronic elbow injury. [...] Until they find a replacement, Slayer will be on the road beginning January 24th in New Haven, Connecticut, with original drummer Dave Lombardo behind the kit.
In other Slayer news, the group is nominated for a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for 'Disciple', a track from last year's God Hates Us All." Too bad I can't play the drums. Otherwise it would have been cool, I'm sure.
Donderdag alweer. De week gaat toch hard. Wat is er allemaal gebeurd? Oh, de chatsessie natuurlijk. Hoe zou ik dat kunnen vergeten. Behoorlijk naief van de KPN dat ze dit niet aan zagen komen. Vraag je je af waar ik het over heb? Nou, aldus de Telegraaf » "Een groep van acht zeer ervaren hackers, luisterend naar de naam Down Under Crew (DUC), voerde een massale aanval uit op de computers van KPN. In enkele seconden tijd bezweken deze onder de grote hoeveelheid data die via internet aankwam." Volgens mij is dit trouwens de eerste keer dat ik naar de Telegraaf link. Wow. Dat kan toch eigenlijk niet als trouwe Volkskrant lezeres. Maar goed. Oh, op nu.nl staan uiteraard ook enkele items over het gebeuren. Onder andere KPN schatte chatsessie verkeerd in, wat natuurlijk een beetje een understatement is.
Er was nog iets wat ik vandaag wilde zeggen. Ik word echt oud, mijn gedachten blijven niet meer zo lang hangen. O ja! Ik wilde zeggen hoe jammer ik het vind dat er geen fatsoenlijk metal programma meer op de Neerlandse televisie te vinden is. Ik keek namelijk dinsdagavond naar Superrock op MTV, dit neem ik namelijk wel eens op om de boeiende dingen over te nemen op een aparte band (op die manier maak ik maar mijn eigen programma), en ik heb zo ongeveer het hele programma door gespoeld. Het was enkel Limp Bizkit en andere middle of the road rotzooi wat de klok sloeg. Melancholisch herinnerde ik mij hoe ik 'vroeger' altijd keen naar HeadBanger's Ball met Vanessa Warwick. Daar hadden ze aan het eind zelfs een blok 'Into the Pit' met de echt extreme dingen. En ook vaak goeie interviews. Dat waren nog eens tijden. Neen, dat is nu ver te zoeken. Zucht. Snik.
Ik voel me (nog) prima, maar dat kan natuurlijk altijd veranderen. Ik lees namelijk net het volgende, Griep rukt op in steden » "Deskundigen vrezen vooral voor het uitbreken van een wereldwijde epidemie met een veranderd virus, die in Nederland alleen al mogelijk 15.000 slachtoffers zal eisen." Dit wordt vooral leuk als er een builenpest-achtige mutatie ontstaat. Of een herhaling van de Spaanse Griep die aan het begin van de vorige eeuw nog woedde. Dat zal ons leren. We hebben moeder Natuur immers lang genoeg lastig gevallen.
I can detect a theme in today's post. ;-) Anyhow, I just visited The Hobbit Name Generator, and my Hobbit name is "Tigerlily Gamgee-Took of Bywater". (via A Digital Girl)
"Who are you most like? Will you be brave like Aragorn, or do you have the perseverance and courage of Frodo Baggins? Perhaps you possess Gandalf's magical powers, or the vision and wisdom of Galadriel? Or maybe you see yourself as Boromir, the valiant warrior?" » find out at the Lord Of The Rings game at Lifesupportal
I'm most like Saruman » "Saruman is a wizard who became corrupted by the ring.
A Wizard, leader of the White Council, and the highest of the Istari. He is very wise in ring lore, and has made study of the One Ring his life's work.
The Free Peoples (including the Elves) have long considered Saruman the wisest of the wise, unaware of the darkness in his heart created by his lust for the One Ring and its power. His ambition overcame him and he created his armies to capture the fellowship and bring him the ring.
He is a master of manipulating the minds of men, which he bred with orcs creating a horrible half-breed. Once a great and powerful wizard, the secretive Saruman may have been corrupted by the Dark Lord, Sauron."
I'm browsing Eyetricks.com at the moment. (It's friday, give me a break.) This site contains some cool images. All kinds of optical illusions, 3D Stereograms, and other stuff. Take a look, if you like that sort of thing. Also, I read an article entitled "Boy would kill to use the Internet". Sigh. What is the world coming to?
I'm currently listening to by "Velvet Darkness They Fear" by Theatre Of Tragedy. Definitely one of my favourites. In particular the song "And When He Falleth". But I've always wondered where the conversation in the end originates from. And now I finally had the time to look it up. It's Vincent Price and Jane Asher in Masque Of The Red Death. So now I know. Here's my favourite bit » 'It offended no one. No, it simply appeared to me to be discourteous to wear the symbol of a diety long dead. My ancestors tried to find him, to open the door that separates us from our creator.' 'You need no door to find God. If you believe...' 'Believe? You believe your god. Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a god who wills it? Famine, pestilence, war, disease and death! They rule this world.' Truly beautiful, with the instrumental stuff going on in the background. Wow.
I've checked my profile on The Political Compass » Economic Left/Right: -2.38 and Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.90. I'm actually quite near to Ghandi. I'm surprised. That must be my Liberal Dutch mind showing itself.
"Excessive cravings do not necessarily involve physical substances. Gambling can become compulsive; sex can become obsessive. One activity, however, stands out for its prominence and ubiquity--the world's most popular leisure pastime, television. Most people admit to having a love-hate relationship with it." » read more on Television Addiction at Scientific American.
It's monday again. I just heard writer Astrid Lindgren, creator of Pippi Långstrump, died at age 94. This saddens me. I enjoyed watching Pippi very much. What else? Uhm. Well, ofcourse we've only got one week to go before The Wedding. And today has been the warmest January 28th ever recorded in The Netherlands, with over 12° Celcius. And also one of the wettest. Apparently the water is getting dangerously high in our southern provinces.
You've probably seen it, I sure have. I'm talking about that documentary on the Discovery Channel, about the Oceanic Conveyor Belt and it's impact on our climate. This could be the cause of the coming Ice Age. Very cool stuff. And as I felt like browsing right now, I searched for it on Google. This lead to this article and this one. Just in case you're interested.
I'm reading up on the possibilities of DHTML Filters. I'm looking for a way to display all images on a site with a certain palette. And I was hoping to use the Mask Filter. But that seems to work on transparant images only. So I'll have to look for a different solution. But what?
Bij Lars lees ik het volgende » "Band of Brothers op SBS6. Ik ben blij dat ik de serie op de BBC heb gevolgd. Het commerciële SBS6 zendt het uit, dus dat betekent minstens vier reclame-onderbrekingen per uur." Ik ben het er totaal mee eens. Schandalig. En het was net zo'n prachtige serie. Er was trouwens nog iets wat ik wilde zeggen, maar dat ben ik inmiddels alweer vergeten. Ik word echt oud.
