En nu ben ik het zat! Ik stap over van de ING bank naar ASN Bank. Ongeacht alle nostalgie over de postbank (kent u deze nog?) en merkentrouw en afkeer van gedoe. Ben niet de enige, zoals onder andere in dit artikel te lezen valt. Heb de overstapservice aangezwengeld, ben benieuwd hoeveel gedoe dit gaat zijn. Idioot trouwens dat je bankrekeningnummer zo vast zit aan een bank. Dat zou een hoop gedoe schelen. En de hypotheek, die moet ook maar eens over. Nou ja, eerst deze stap..
Veel gedoe over de nieuwe plannen van de New York Times om geld te vragen voor delen van de site. Zo zouden er zijn teveel verschillende abonnementen zijn, en de mogelijkheid om eerst 20 artikelen per maand gratis te kunnen lezen zou gevoelig voor fraude zijn.
Readers who come to Times articles through links from search, blogs and social media like Facebook and Twitter will be able to read those articles, even if they have reached their monthly reading limit.Toch ben ik benieuwd hoe dit uitpakt. NYT is immers een grote partij, en het vraagstuk of men bereid is voor nieuws te betalen blijft natuurlijk nog wel even relevant. We gaan het zien.
Zie bijvoorbeeld What the NYT Pay Wall Really Costs en New York Times paywall: wishful thinking or just crazy?
Wilde trouwens Kiva.org nog even onder de aandacht brengen. Was al een tijdje gecharmeerd van het idee, je kunt via deze site specifieke projecten naar keus elders in de wereld geld lenen (vanaf $25), na het terugbetalen kun je het geld weer aan anderen uitlenen. Erg direct en wat mij betreft dus erg aantrekkelijk vergeleken met al die grote Goeie Doelen. Tip van de dag.
And then it's 2009. The year I'll turn 30. Where on earth has the last decade gone to? Anyhow, enough melancholy. It's back to the salt mines tomorrow, which has me pondering the past 2 weeks of freedom. I treated myself to a Facial yesterday, which was a new experience for me. Must say, I really enjoyed it. And my skin feels great to. It was hard though, when it was over and I had to ride my bike through the freezing wind. Bit of an anti-climax.
We're going to see the new Jan Jaap van der Wal show tonight. Looking forward to that. Let's see, what else? Oh, I wanted to plug the project I've working a bit during these past few weeks. It's for the Dutch audience only, I'm afraid. It's an interface for the bank transfers from the Postbank. I've made the source available, so if you want to add stuff, be my guest. Oh, and it contains pie charts! Goodie!
Just watched a documentary on America's national debt on the BBC. I know, sounds really boring, but in fact it was quite interesting.
The budget deficit of the US has risen to an eye-watering $9tn; its trade deficit is $738.6bn; its political leaders are casual about waste, and its feckless, want-it-now citizens buy stuff on credit and have abandoned the habit of saving, drummed into them by their provident parents and grandparents.If you get a chance, you should check it out. The Guardian has a review or watch the trailer here.
I went to get a new Strippenkaart a short while ago, as I'm visiting my parent on Christmas and need one for the bus. Went into the small shop down the streets that sells them. Surprisingly it was quite crowded, which I've never seen happen there before. Apparently the amount of people buying tickets for the New Year's Lottery had become so large, that all the electronic transactions in the country were suffering from delays. On the other hand our government is doing such a great job that food banks are popping up all over that place. Sigh. I'm quite shocked actually. Ignore me, it's been one of those days.
Had the second appointment for my crown earlier today. This was basically just making sure it fit and then glueing it in place. No anesthesia or anything needed, so all-in-all quite a relaxed experience. Plus I got to keep the mold they made of my jaw last time. Pretty cool ornament to have on display. ;-) Now let's see if I'll be smiling when the bill's arrived. I'm still not quite sure what percentage will be paid by my insurance company.