Wednesday, November 30, 2005
BOFH - The Archives
There you go; the complete Bastard Operator From Hell-archives.
Enjoy... And please don't strangle you systemsoperator the moment you see him. Please?
Enjoy... And please don't strangle you systemsoperator the moment you see him. Please?
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Rants, Raves and Reviews
Over 30 years old and feeling nostalgic? Try this...
Eat my shorts du-u-u-de! Well like gag me with a spoon, that is soooo RAD, you studmuffin!
Aaaah, memories...
Eat my shorts du-u-u-de! Well like gag me with a spoon, that is soooo RAD, you studmuffin!
Aaaah, memories...
Annoying phonecalls...
Read Dave Barry here. I can't seem to link directly to the article so here goes...
Lesson in futility just a phone call away
Today, I want to CLICK. Excuse me. Okay. Today, I want to talk about CLICK.
Excuse me again. Okay, where were we? Oh, yeah, I was saying that CLICK. Never mind, just ignore it. I was saying that I want to CLICK about this major stride forward in CLICK phone technology called "call waiting," which is such a big CLICKing convenience that I'd like to find the CLICK who invented it and. ...
No, wait, let me just calm down here. Some readers may not even know what I'm talking about. Some readers are probably living in backward, soybean-infested regions that don't even have the incredible convenience of "call waiting." So let me explain how it works: If you're on the phone with Party A, and Party B tries to call you, both you and Party A will hear an interruption noise, which alerts you to press your disconnect button so you can talk to Party B, who, trust me, has absolutely nothing important to tell you, so you say you'll call back and resume talking with Party A for 10 full seconds, until you hear another interruption noise indicating that you have a vitally unimportant call from Party C, and so on down the alphabet until Party A decides to drive over to your house and strangle you.
Doesn't this sound terrific, soybean people? Doesn't it sound modern? To give you a clear picture of what you're missing, let me compare "call waiting" to an everyday domestic situation. Let's say I'm having dinner with my wife and 8-year-old son, and my wife and I are discussing the kind of important issue that normal, mature, married adults discuss at dinner:
ME: It does WHAT when you flush it?
MY WIFE: It makes kind of a banging sound.
ME: A banging sound?
MY WIFE: Yes. And there are these little like electric sparks coming. ...
OUR SON (interrupting): How come. ...
MY WIFE: Robert, please don't interrupt.
ME: Sparks? MY WIFE: Yes, and they're. ...
OUR SON (interrupting): But I was just gonna ask you. ...
MY WIFE: Wait, Robert!
ME: There are sparks?
MY WIFE: Yes, they're coming from. ...
OUR SON: But this is IMPORTANT!
MY WIFE: ALL RIGHT, Robert. What IS it?
OUR SON: How come my left arm tastes saltier than my right arm?
"Call waiting" is very similar to this. It's kind of like an electronic 8-year-old who is simply incapable of shutting up while you are conversing with somebody else. The differences are that 1.) an 8-year-old does not have the gall to charge you a monthly fee for this service; and 2.) an 8-year-old can interrupt you only if he's in the same room, whereas with the incredible capabilities of "call waiting," your conversations can be interrupted by everybody in the entire world who has access to a telephone. It doesn't even have to be a person. A computer can interrupt you. In fact, through a combination of "call waiting" and "auto-dialing," it is now technically possible for your telephone conversations to be interrupted by a trained chicken.
It's just so darned convenient that I can hardly wait to see what exciting new services the telephone people will come up with next. Maybe they'll offer "call fabricating," wherein your phone becomes bored and rings for no reason; or "call misrepresenting," wherein your callers' voices are electronically altered so that you hear the OPPOSITE of what they actually said.
But what I, personally, would like to see - call me a dreamer - would be some kind of service wherein if you were talking to somebody and a third person tried to call either of you, your call could not be interrupted.
Instead, the third person would hear a special tone - we could call it a "busy signal" - telling him that a conversation was already in progress, so he'll have to try again later. But I doubt we'll ever see this come about.
The concept is far too complex to be grasped by a certain type of telecommunications consumer. I am thinking primarily of the chicken.
This is a classic Dave Barry column.
Originally published on November 26, 2005
Lesson in futility just a phone call away
Today, I want to CLICK. Excuse me. Okay. Today, I want to talk about CLICK.
Excuse me again. Okay, where were we? Oh, yeah, I was saying that CLICK. Never mind, just ignore it. I was saying that I want to CLICK about this major stride forward in CLICK phone technology called "call waiting," which is such a big CLICKing convenience that I'd like to find the CLICK who invented it and. ...
No, wait, let me just calm down here. Some readers may not even know what I'm talking about. Some readers are probably living in backward, soybean-infested regions that don't even have the incredible convenience of "call waiting." So let me explain how it works: If you're on the phone with Party A, and Party B tries to call you, both you and Party A will hear an interruption noise, which alerts you to press your disconnect button so you can talk to Party B, who, trust me, has absolutely nothing important to tell you, so you say you'll call back and resume talking with Party A for 10 full seconds, until you hear another interruption noise indicating that you have a vitally unimportant call from Party C, and so on down the alphabet until Party A decides to drive over to your house and strangle you.
Doesn't this sound terrific, soybean people? Doesn't it sound modern? To give you a clear picture of what you're missing, let me compare "call waiting" to an everyday domestic situation. Let's say I'm having dinner with my wife and 8-year-old son, and my wife and I are discussing the kind of important issue that normal, mature, married adults discuss at dinner:
ME: It does WHAT when you flush it?
MY WIFE: It makes kind of a banging sound.
ME: A banging sound?
MY WIFE: Yes. And there are these little like electric sparks coming. ...
OUR SON (interrupting): How come. ...
MY WIFE: Robert, please don't interrupt.
ME: Sparks? MY WIFE: Yes, and they're. ...
OUR SON (interrupting): But I was just gonna ask you. ...
MY WIFE: Wait, Robert!
ME: There are sparks?
MY WIFE: Yes, they're coming from. ...
OUR SON: But this is IMPORTANT!
MY WIFE: ALL RIGHT, Robert. What IS it?
OUR SON: How come my left arm tastes saltier than my right arm?
"Call waiting" is very similar to this. It's kind of like an electronic 8-year-old who is simply incapable of shutting up while you are conversing with somebody else. The differences are that 1.) an 8-year-old does not have the gall to charge you a monthly fee for this service; and 2.) an 8-year-old can interrupt you only if he's in the same room, whereas with the incredible capabilities of "call waiting," your conversations can be interrupted by everybody in the entire world who has access to a telephone. It doesn't even have to be a person. A computer can interrupt you. In fact, through a combination of "call waiting" and "auto-dialing," it is now technically possible for your telephone conversations to be interrupted by a trained chicken.
It's just so darned convenient that I can hardly wait to see what exciting new services the telephone people will come up with next. Maybe they'll offer "call fabricating," wherein your phone becomes bored and rings for no reason; or "call misrepresenting," wherein your callers' voices are electronically altered so that you hear the OPPOSITE of what they actually said.
But what I, personally, would like to see - call me a dreamer - would be some kind of service wherein if you were talking to somebody and a third person tried to call either of you, your call could not be interrupted.
Instead, the third person would hear a special tone - we could call it a "busy signal" - telling him that a conversation was already in progress, so he'll have to try again later. But I doubt we'll ever see this come about.
The concept is far too complex to be grasped by a certain type of telecommunications consumer. I am thinking primarily of the chicken.
This is a classic Dave Barry column.
Originally published on November 26, 2005
Saturday, November 26, 2005
New layout
This is the new layout. The main change is the links-section.
There are some quite creative people out there, thanks for the help!
There are some quite creative people out there, thanks for the help!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Right, Left, Up, Down. The complete bankrupcy of the debating-culture in the Netherlands.
More and more often people sigh(and I'm one of them) : "Any feeling for proportions and nuance that the Dutch had is completely gone". People compare Pim Fortuyn's openness with the bluntness of a 'professional' footballplayer who calls the referee 'a retard with Down's syndrome'. All this carefully protected by the right to 'Freedom Of Speech' of course... They continuously confuse Pim Fortuyn with Theo van Gogh because, hey, they were both murdered and that forges a bond between them... We don't look any further back than three years because our attention span isn't that long anymore and we don't look into the future more than one day at the time. We only have time for soundbites - and only if they are under 5 seconds long and involve naked women.
The Netherlands has moved to the right of the political spectrum the last few years. And that is not such a bad thing; I personally think we needed to. What IS a bad thing, is that 'The New Political Right' almost constantly proves that the 'Elitist Leftwing' is correct in their assessment. Their prejudice that the new Right Wing dutchmen - especially the LPF-voters(Lijst Pim Fortuyn) and the LR-voters(Leefbaar Rotterdam) - are mainly anti-intellectual, non-empathic, egotistic and slightly racist xenofobes is confirmed time and time again.
So yes people; revv each other up some more, get the fire burning! Swear at the 'Old Left' a bit more, although 'Old Left' dissolved itself into more mainstream political parties years ago and only the Socialist Party is still true to their old (and misconceived) political ideas. Keep on criticizing! Keep on swearing at 'The Government', although the current government is a right-wing coalition... Keep on having a go at the policeforce, The State, The Green Left party, Bureaucracy, and so on. And if you're really out of ideas you can always bash the U.S.A. and its leader(s). Hit 'em on the Left, hit 'em on the right. Just hit them where you can.
And by all means; don't do anything about it yourself, because criticizing is so much more fun. And the moment that the 'New Right' has won the elections for a second time they can repeat history! What a great idea! They can deform the party that won to such an extent that it will again explode, preferably two months into a new term so the shit and the fall-out can keep polluting Holland until yet another election in about 46 months. Let's film it and release 'LPF : The Downfall of the Legacy of Pim Fortuyn - The Sequel".
And to think that the hero of all people who never went to the university was an absolute and pure intellectual and a former Labour Party member!
God, sometimes I get so tired of the superficiality in this country.
I would have never guessed that I would one day have something nice to say about the 'Right Wingers' of The Olden Days. But even in those days, every now and again, you would find a Right Wing Politician or even voter who would actually support his or her story with solid arguments. Yes, those were the days! It's no wonder that people like Hans Wiegel are still popular among a significant part of the population. That is just the nostalgic feeling, the nostalgic longing for the days of 'The Old Right Wing'.
Unfortunately, that section of the Right Wing was murdered some time
ago. In the Hilversum Mediapark. Together with Pim Fortuyn.
The Netherlands has moved to the right of the political spectrum the last few years. And that is not such a bad thing; I personally think we needed to. What IS a bad thing, is that 'The New Political Right' almost constantly proves that the 'Elitist Leftwing' is correct in their assessment. Their prejudice that the new Right Wing dutchmen - especially the LPF-voters(Lijst Pim Fortuyn) and the LR-voters(Leefbaar Rotterdam) - are mainly anti-intellectual, non-empathic, egotistic and slightly racist xenofobes is confirmed time and time again.
So yes people; revv each other up some more, get the fire burning! Swear at the 'Old Left' a bit more, although 'Old Left' dissolved itself into more mainstream political parties years ago and only the Socialist Party is still true to their old (and misconceived) political ideas. Keep on criticizing! Keep on swearing at 'The Government', although the current government is a right-wing coalition... Keep on having a go at the policeforce, The State, The Green Left party, Bureaucracy, and so on. And if you're really out of ideas you can always bash the U.S.A. and its leader(s). Hit 'em on the Left, hit 'em on the right. Just hit them where you can.
And by all means; don't do anything about it yourself, because criticizing is so much more fun. And the moment that the 'New Right' has won the elections for a second time they can repeat history! What a great idea! They can deform the party that won to such an extent that it will again explode, preferably two months into a new term so the shit and the fall-out can keep polluting Holland until yet another election in about 46 months. Let's film it and release 'LPF : The Downfall of the Legacy of Pim Fortuyn - The Sequel".
And to think that the hero of all people who never went to the university was an absolute and pure intellectual and a former Labour Party member!
God, sometimes I get so tired of the superficiality in this country.
I would have never guessed that I would one day have something nice to say about the 'Right Wingers' of The Olden Days. But even in those days, every now and again, you would find a Right Wing Politician or even voter who would actually support his or her story with solid arguments. Yes, those were the days! It's no wonder that people like Hans Wiegel are still popular among a significant part of the population. That is just the nostalgic feeling, the nostalgic longing for the days of 'The Old Right Wing'.
Unfortunately, that section of the Right Wing was murdered some time
ago. In the Hilversum Mediapark. Together with Pim Fortuyn.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Update on the crime-stats.
Some time ago I 'announced' that I was fed up with the ambiguity about the roots of criminals in Holland, and that I would start to count the 'autochtone'(white dutchmen) and the 'allochtone'(immigrants with usually darker skin) crimes in the Netherlands. I haven't done so until now but I haven't forgotten. The reason for my reluctance is that most of the 'allochtone' crimes tend to be high-profile-newsworthy and the crimes of the white dutch are not reported so severely and extensively. There is - simply said - a bias in the newsmedia.
As soon as I come up with a way to circumvent this bias I'll publish it. Don't hold your breath though, as I think that there are other people searching for the answer too.
As soon as I come up with a way to circumvent this bias I'll publish it. Don't hold your breath though, as I think that there are other people searching for the answer too.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Deserter in the war against the West
This is probably the best letter-to-the-editor I have read in at least 15 years.
"It was frontpage news; 'Europe, it's war!', a war against the Western Culture.
I am a traitor in this war. I desert. Cowardly I leave the battle to the martyrs, the saints and the heroes of the land ; Pim F., Theo van G., Jan Peter B., Ayaan H.A., Rita V., Wouter B., Gretta D., Samir A., Jan T., Geert W. and Jan M. and the thousand thousands who battle for the freedom of speech. The "big Say", without saying what you will do, without saying what you think.
I am tired of this war. I cease battle and wish to work. I wish to work on a house built from books of wisdom. A house where everyone is welcome who wants to search for wisdom. A house where everyone can say what you think, and where everyone does what they say; the home of wisdom.
I collaborate for this wisdom.
I am a traitor, a deserter and I cowardly leave battle to the thousand thousands, the horde."
W.H. Eek
"It was frontpage news; 'Europe, it's war!', a war against the Western Culture.
I am a traitor in this war. I desert. Cowardly I leave the battle to the martyrs, the saints and the heroes of the land ; Pim F., Theo van G., Jan Peter B., Ayaan H.A., Rita V., Wouter B., Gretta D., Samir A., Jan T., Geert W. and Jan M. and the thousand thousands who battle for the freedom of speech. The "big Say", without saying what you will do, without saying what you think.
I am tired of this war. I cease battle and wish to work. I wish to work on a house built from books of wisdom. A house where everyone is welcome who wants to search for wisdom. A house where everyone can say what you think, and where everyone does what they say; the home of wisdom.
I collaborate for this wisdom.
I am a traitor, a deserter and I cowardly leave battle to the thousand thousands, the horde."
W.H. Eek
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
A Sky Of Honey, A Sea Of Honey...
The only woman who can sing 'washingmachine, swooshie washingmachine' and sound bloody erotic...
Anyway ; I only heard the second CD so far and it is beautiful but quite hard to get into at first. So I'm now listening to the first CD("A Sea Of Honey") and I can only say that Kate is back to where she was 20 years ago on that disc. And I mean that only as a compliment.
I'm going to play this album a whole lot...
UPDATE : And if you don't think 'The Coral Room' is beautiful well...your loss... God wat ken dat weif zinguh...
"It's a marvellous, complex work which restores Kate Bush to the artistic stature she last possessed around the time of Hounds of Love."
Indeed. I'm impressed.
Anyway ; I only heard the second CD so far and it is beautiful but quite hard to get into at first. So I'm now listening to the first CD("A Sea Of Honey") and I can only say that Kate is back to where she was 20 years ago on that disc. And I mean that only as a compliment.
I'm going to play this album a whole lot...
UPDATE : And if you don't think 'The Coral Room' is beautiful well...your loss... God wat ken dat weif zinguh...
"It's a marvellous, complex work which restores Kate Bush to the artistic stature she last possessed around the time of Hounds of Love."
Indeed. I'm impressed.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Ahmed Khatib
Jeruzalem, november 7th 2005.
The parents of the 12-year old Palestine Ahmed Khatib, who was accidentally shot by Israeli soldiers, have donated his organs to medicine for transplantation. Ahmed died last saturday from injuries sustained on thursday, when he was shot in the town of Jenin by Israelis who suspected him to be an armed extremist. The boy was carrying a toy-rifle.
Ahmed's organs have been transplanted into the bodies of three Israeli girls...
The parents of the 12-year old Palestine Ahmed Khatib, who was accidentally shot by Israeli soldiers, have donated his organs to medicine for transplantation. Ahmed died last saturday from injuries sustained on thursday, when he was shot in the town of Jenin by Israelis who suspected him to be an armed extremist. The boy was carrying a toy-rifle.
Ahmed's organs have been transplanted into the bodies of three Israeli girls...
Thursday, November 03, 2005
My wife says I'm the second smartest. She claims there are 80 guys tied for first...
Every now and then you stumble onto some website dedicatated to a single person or project. I found this one recently and I'll tell ya; I now know things about the good luitenant that I really did not have to know...
Awesome in its scope, "The Ultimate Colombo Site".
"There are a couple of loose ends I'd like to tie up. Nothing important you understand."
Awesome in its scope, "The Ultimate Colombo Site".
"There are a couple of loose ends I'd like to tie up. Nothing important you understand."
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