Just a small follow-up of the webkit benchmark results. I ran it in Webkit 28949 on my Powerbook G4 667MHz Gigabit Ethernet and it appears to be 10 times as slow as webkit on my Mac Pro. The amazing thing is however, that those 10 times still not make it unusable. So I'm still not convinced I should buy a new laptop.
Zaaf
Webkit.org, the open-source rendering engine behind Apple's Safari browser and KDE's Konquerer Browser release a javascript benchmark the other day. It's called SunSpider and you can try it out yourself here. Naturally, I could not resist to try it on the few browsers I have lying around here. And to my surprise the fastest one was the webkit version running under Parallels.
Here are the details:
So IE7 is horribly slow, mainly due to their text handling. Firefox is faster than IE, but consistently slower than Safari. But it really surprised me to se that IE was so much slower (27x) than webkit. Granted, it is a webkit benchmark so they should do very good in there. I only hope that they cover all javascript areas and did not leave out any where they perform poorly. Not because that it skews these results, but mainly because when left out of this benchmark, the webkit javascript team won't notice that they need to improve this area.
But all in all Webkit looks like it has IE beat.
Zaaf
Someone past me this link of the Saint Nicolas welcoming parade in the town where we live: Piet Overboard.
Zaaf
Last week my seven-year-old participated in the school chess championships for primary schools in our town. This was a cross primary school event where 24 teams of eight different schools bested their chess playing skills against each other. Each team consisted of four persons. My son's team was the on average youngest team with an average age of 7. And although they ended 23th of the 24, I still think he did a remarkable job: 4.5 of the team's 9 points where his. Of his 7 games, he won 4 and drew only one.
But the most remarkable feature was that he only played 10, 11 and 12 year olds. Giving away only 2.5 out of 7 points to kids that are at least 50% older than you is reason enough to make me proud. And the first time ever he came in contact with a chess board was two months ago.
Yes, I'm a proud parent,
Zaaf
Last weekend, on Sunday morning, the 7-year old crawled into our bed and told me what he had been up to that morning. Turned out he was just playing with figures and doing some "double counting" as he called it. He basically calculated the powers of 2 up till 256. So he went 1 + 1 = 2; 2 + 2 = 4; 4 + 4 = 8, et cetera. But the interesting part of this was that instead of starting from 1 he started from a quarter.
He must be destined for a life as a programmer (or an accountant)
Zaaf
A few months ago Fake Steve Jobs posted a blog about todays music. Here he waxed lyrically about listening to an album of Robin Trower called Robin Trower Live. I immediately searched for it on the iTunes Store, but it was not available there. Luckily, after a few weeks I found a similar album called Bridge Of Sighs it on bol.com.
After it arrived, I immediately popped it in the CD player. The moment I heard the first beat, I was sold. This is a classic guitar power trio from the early seventies, reminiscent of Jimy Hendrix and Fatal Flowers. The music is raw and pure and somehow strikes a nerve that most modern music misses.
Give it a try,
Zaaf
Since long I've been enjoying the podcast delivery of the radio show Andermans Veren. However, they decided to stop this due to rights issues. In short, they need to pay BUMA/STEMRA (Dutch ASCAP/BMI) a license fee, but they don't know how much.
This is the letter I sent them (in dutch)
Re: Podcasts stoppen.
Naar aanleiding van uw bericht over het stoppen met podcastweergaves van ondermeer Andermans Veren, zou ik u het volgende willen meegeven.
De afgelopen twee jaar heb ik met heel veel plezier gebruik gemaakt van de podcastservice van de AVRO om uw programma Andermans Veren te beluisteren op een tijd die mij wel schikt (namelijk 's middags in de trein naar huis). Mede hierdoor ben ik in aanraking gekomen met een keur aan kleinkunstartiesten die ik anders nooit zou hebben gekend, of waarvoor mijn waardering veel lager zou zijn dan nu het geval is. Hiervoor mijn hartelijk dank.
Dankzij uw podcast heb ik ondermeer CD's aangeschaft van Mylou Frencken, Alex Rouka en Boudewijn de Groot. Tevens heb ik door het enthousiasme meerdere theatershows bezocht van artiesten waar ik anders nooit naar toe zou zijn geweest.
Door te stoppen met uw podcastservice, verliest u mij als luisteraar. Dit zal voor u als organisatie waarschijnlijk niet een heel groot verlies zijn. Voor mijzelf is het ook geen groot verlies daar er genoeg podcasts zijn om het Andermans Veren-gat op te vullen. Degene die wel verliezen bij het stopzetten zijn de artiesten, daar ik nu niet meer blootgesteld word aan nederlandstalige kleinkunst.
Om Kasper van Kooten te citeren:
"De artiesten verliezen en dat moet jullie een rotzorg zijn." (uit "De Ziekte van Download").
Ik hoop dat u een en ander in overweging neemt bij het besluit om weer door te gaan met podcasting. Wellicht is het goed om te bedenken dat podcasting, net als radio, bijdraagt aan de populariteit van een artiest.
Hoogachtend,
Zaaf
I just discovered a shortcut for getting back to the All Events view in iPhoto when you're in a specific event view. Just press Escape and you're back! It's that simple. Now you don't need this specific hint to do it.
Zaaf
Well, Apple suprised me again. The did refresh the iPod Nano and the iPod Classic to something much more visually appealing. I did not expect that. Nor did I expect the inclusion of WiFi and Safari in the iPod Touch. And neither did I expect the iPhone price to be cut so drastically. $200 of from $600, that's 33% price cut.
But what about the total cost of iPhone ownership? The AT&T subscription? Did that come down too? I just checked, but I could not find any information about it. The cheapest rate is still $59.99 per month for a two year contract. So that's $1439.76 for two years. Add the $599 iPhone to it and you get $2038.76 which is now down to 1838.76, which is slightly more than 10%.
You might argue that all iPhone buyers already have a mobile telephone that would cost them something similar, but I disagree. I'm currently paying €10 per month for my mobile telephone contract and I still have minutes left after each month. So the price of the iPhone has not come down significantly enough for me to buy it. The iPod Touch on the other hand, that's a different story. There are a few things about it that I need to further investigate before I will invest in it.
First of all, it's only 16 GB in capacity, minus the storage for OS X. Currently I've used 53 GB of the 80 GB available on my iPod. And given my preference for album shuffle, I'll only buy one when I'm sure that it will pick out whole albums at random for me to listen to. Although I'm very tempted with the built in browser.
So in the end, the Steve's Reality Distortion Field, which I alluded to in the previous post, did not prove strong enough to wipe out my credit card and buy an iPod Touch.
Zaaf
September 5th 2007, what will Apple show the world? And will the rdf prove strong enough for me to buy it?
I've seen speculation on Apple bringing out a new iPod, or even an new iPod line, based on OS X. Some even speculate that Apple brings out an iPhone without the phone part and the main reason given is that such would both be cool and technically feasible. However, Apple has a tradition of focusing on its customers, instead of focusing on the Apple Geeks that want everything. Just compare the features of an iPhone to a Nokia N95 and see that the N95 is a much better phone feature wise. However, having played briefly with both phones, it's clear that the iPhone is way more attractive than the N95.
Or look at the video iPod. It does pictures really well, but you cannot store them directly onto your iPod. It does video very well, but it only supports one video format. And it does audio very well, but you cannot record on it. And the same goes for the AppleTV. All lack things that to a geek would seem basic functionality, but that most Apple customers don't care about.
So far this year, Apple had special events for both the iPhone and the iMac. Neither the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, nor the iPod were the centre of attention this year. And since the MacBook was refreshed in May and the MacBook Pro in June, it is time for Apple to focus on its iPod business.
Keeping the above in mind, I predict here that Apple will announce
One of the software products we use at work is ARIS. It is an business modeling suite of tools written in java. To activate it, you have to enter a 256 character license-key. Why would you need a license-key that has more possible combinations than there are atoms in the universe when you have only tens of thousands of licenses sold? A possible answer is that it is incredibly safe.
But is a 256 character license-key more safe than, let's say, a 10 character one? A 10 character key is something you might be able to remember, which with a 256 character key it is virtually impossible to do. So that means it is safer to use right? Well, a 10 character key can be typed into the license-key registration box by hand. For the 256 character key you'd need either a highly accomplished and very unimaginative touch typist, or use cut-and-paste. And when using cut-and-paste, it means that you've already stored the key electronically, so it is easily swapped with co-workers. This really diminishes the value of the license-key since you now need only one instead of many. It really feels penny wise and pound foolish.
Zaaf
Rosetta, named after the famous Stone of Rosetta, is the emulation layer that allows applications written for the PowerPC architecture to run on an intel processor. And every emulation layer is more code to process for the processor, so most of the time the emulated program runs slower than the native program.
However, on switching from a 1.42GHz DP PowerPC PowerMac, to a Quad-core 2.66GHz intel Mac Pro, the rosetta applications run noticeably faster on the Mac Pro than on the PowerMac. In fact, I would even say that their performance is screaming. (Now I know what Steve Jobs meant when he said that the Intel macs are 'screamers').
Zaaf
Last night, I was working on transferring some data from my Powermac to my new Mac Pro, so both my computers were on. And only when I shutdown my Powermac to see if all was transferred correctly, I was engulfed by this quiet sensation, which washed over me like a warm blanket. This new Mac is so much quieter than the previous one, it is unbelievable.
Zaaf
Friday morning I finally received the phone call that my Mac Pro is ready. I spent most of the afternoon remodelling the desk to fit the Mac Pro. To make it fit I had to mount the shelf above it after the Mac Pro is mounted on the desk. This means that I have to unmount the shelf when I have to move the Mac Pro. Next to the computer is a new 23" Cinema display. Because a bigger computer needs a bigger screen and since I was in a spending mood I threw caution into the wind and decided to replace my new 20" Cinema display.
After finally fitting and connecting everything I fired up my brand-new computer. I was greeted by the Tiger intro and the setup wizard which asked me to pair my bluetooth mouse and keyboard. After entering my Apple / iTunes ID, most of my personal details were filled in. Next it asked whether I wanted to transfer information from my previous mac. I booted the PowerMac, as per instructions, into Target FireWire mode and connected the two together. The setup wizard found all my accounts and asked me what I wanted to transfer. Selecting everything, it seemingly went ahead to transfer information. Hereupon I went downstairs to provide lunch for the kids. After lunch I went back to check, only to see that the Mac Pro had gone asleep without tranfering anything. Mmm. Having tried it one more time I just booted into the new admin account to take care of things manually. Here the Migration Assistant worked well. All four accounts were set up correctly and e-mail et cetera worked flawlessly.
However, I noticed that somehow too much PowerPC architecture information was transferred to the intel Mac Pro. After rebooting twice, it stopped working. So I did an Archive-and-Install from the setup disks. The installer showed that there were too many kernel extentions without intel code in them. And after a few more hours, it died on me too. While going through the errors, I noticed that I had only 2GB RAM available where I had bought 4. System profiler told me that there was only one module installed. But when I looked at the memory there where two banks inserted, only the faulty one had a big red marker dot on it. By this time it was 2 'o clock at night so I called it a day.
The next morning I was awoken at seven by our lovely kids. Seeing this as a good sign, I decided to install Tiger from scratch, apply all updates and sent it back to the store to have them look at the memory. The store opened at 10, so there was plenty of time to do it. At the store, they immediately swapped both memory banks for new ones, tested them and handed me the computer back. There techician told me that since a Mac Pro is supposed to have two equal banks of memory side by side, the source of my problems could well lay in the fact that one of the banks was faulty. Well, we'll see.
However, we had already decided to spend the weekend at my in-laws so, here I am, somewhere in the middle of nowhere with a powerful Mac Pro in the back of my car dying for a change to get back home to re-create the mess I had on my PowerMac. The only consolations I have are that the weather is nice and warm and that my father-in-law has broadband internet and an Apple eMac which I'm now using.
Zaaf
When seeing that the special Apple event of last Tuesday did not yield anything about Mac Pros, I decided to order one. It is due later this week. All I need to do now is to prepare the computer corner in my home-office and prepare the data on my Powermac for transfer to the Mac Pro.
Currently my desk houses a Powermac and it just fits on the desk, under the shelf above it. The Mac Pro is, with its 51 cm in height, almost 9 centimeters taller than the Powermac and it will not fit. So some remodelling needs to be done there.
In the three years of its life, my Powermac acquired a lot of applications. Most of them I do not need and some of them I've never used. Moving towards a new computer is a nice moment to do some belated spring-cleaning. And since the Powermac uses ATA-100 drives and the Mac Pro uses S-ATA drives, I can't just put the drives of the old computer into the new one. So we'll see how it will go.
Zaaf
In medieval times celibacy was introduced into the Roman Catholic church. The main reason was to keep the riches aquired by the church, in the church. Otherwise it would be inherited by the children of the bishops and cardinals and the like. Preventing them to get children made sure that the riches of the church were kept intact.
A side-effect of this was that the Roman Catholic church made sure that a lot of smart people could not spread their genes, thus preventing the population of the whole of western Europe to become smarter. Of course this unintended effect helped the church in staying on top of the population. By telling The People to do what the Church wanted the Church needed The People needed to be kept stupid. Celibacy was a means to more than one end.
Zaaf
Cars are weird things. After spending quite some time in our car during the past three weeks, I've come to the conclusion that cars are overengineered. The killer application of a car is of course bringing a person from A to B. Why is it then that it takes 1100 kilograms to move 80 kg? This feels overly complex, a bicycle of 20 kg performs the same function only you have to put in some effort yourself. So to remove the effort and add some comfort like a roof, 1000 kg is needed. If this would be halved, then a lot would be gained. The car would most likely be smaller, so it it would take up much less parking space. Because of it light weight it would have less impact on the infrastructure. And since a lot of energy is taken up into accelerating a lighter car would be much more fuel efficient, thus greatly decreasing its carbon footprint.
The things you think about when camping,
Zaaf
Everything shown on TV is done for its entertainment value. If it's not entertaining you, then you most likely won't watch. Even documentaries are broadcasted firstly because they might entertain you. It might be the filmers idea to teach you something, but the broadcasting company airs it because its entertainment value might attract viewers.
Because everything is done for entertainment, it should come as no surprise that what is shown is spiced up to increase its entertainment value. That's why Formula 1 races need a mixture of fast and slow cars. Drivers overtaking each other is more entertaining. And that's why you need car crashes every now and then. And it might be the same reason that professional cyclists are forced to take drugs to increase their performance. Its more entertaining to watch someone go up a mountain very fast than it is when a group of cyclist are taking it easy.
Since the entertainment factor required of TV shows is such a big issue it is very strange to me that people fall over confessions like these, where the BBC has a short list of things they've edited for entertainment purposes.
Please take the blue pill and relax. Let the TV entertain you and be informed via other means.
Zaaf
Have you ever had the problem where you're busy walking around with your hands full and the task you're doing becomes even more complicated? Just let it go. Drop the stuff you hold in your hands and place it somewhere safe. Finish your task and pick it up again.
It happens to me all the time. Say, I've just picked up the mail of the doormat and as I walk back to the living room, I notice that my shoelace is untied. First I start to retie it with the mail still in my hands, but after a couple of exasperating tries I give up, let the stuff go and finish tying my shoelace. And it's not just me, almost everyone in my surroundings has the habit of not letting go of the stuff in your hands. The other day my wife went to the supermarket by car. She picked up the car keys and came back to get the recyclable glass in order to dump in the glass recycle container. She grabbed a plastic bag and proceeded to put the glass in. All this time the car keys where still in here hand. And just as I was starting to tell here that it might be a good idea to let go of the car keys, the inevitable happened and a glass jar shattered on the ground.
From personal experience I know it's hard to force yourself to let go of the things in your hands, but doing one thing well is so much easier that, to me at least, it's worth the extra effort of putting down and picking up. So now I'm always remembering to let it go.
Zaaf
This morning, Tuesday, I listened to Adam Curry's Daily Source Code podcast and one of the songs he played was called Lost Opportunities by The Mob Stories. A six person band with two funky ladies. Give 'm a listen if your into funk.
Zaaf
Three weekends ago I, together with some other musicians recorded the music to 6 choir tracks. Two weekends ago, the choir voices where recorded. Last weekend, amids the busy kids, I edited the video clip for one of the songs, called "Maak het Stil", or "Make it quiet" / "Silence is Golden". With two video cameras and spread over two weekends, I took 71 minutes of video with 171 separate clips. The bulk focussed on Maak het Stil. It took me 10 hours to learn Final Cut Pro and edit the clip into something worth viewing. It is still in draft, so don't be too harsh.
Zaaf
The holidays are upon us. The kids are off from school for the next six weeks and, boy do they need it. Last Friday afternoon marked the end of this school year and my kids were in a hyper-active frenzy. Shouting and yelling and not a moment of peace and quiet in their buts. On Saturday we had friends over for lunch and they brought their kids so the four of them could release a bit of their penned up activity.
But since the kids are off for six weeks and we poor adults can take only three weeks, we have some weeks to take care of. So that's why my in-laws came on Sunday morning. They have abducted our two precious kids for the coming week. Luckily, they had a good nights rest and their frenzy had worn of a bit. Now my eldest is on a 4-day knights course with is grandpa and my youngest is on a 4-day Dame course with her grandma. That left us with a whole Sunday-afternoon at our disposal.
So we went to an outlet centre to buy some clothes for the coming holiday where my wife completely astounded me by buying both a pair of jeans and a pair of shoes in less than half an hour. Apparently, we are so tuned to do everything very efficient that when the moment is there to relax, we have to do that quick. And always, in the back of our minds, we keep a look-out for the kids. Even dinner went quick. We went out to a pizzeria where we had both a pizza and a desert. And at eight 'o clock, we were home again. Which would be almost in time to put the kids to bed.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see how we will cope with being childless again for the rest of the week.
Zaaf
Just a small observation.
Say you walk around a crowded area, let's pick a train station during the morning commute, did you notice that when you have eye-contact with someone and you pull up the corners of your mouth to a "smile" position, that in most cases the other person is smiling back at you? It brightens my day every time I do it. It's so nice to be smiled to. :-) And I can't help but think that I've, in a very small way, brightened up the day of that other person.
Zaaf
(Or why there is nothing on TV anymore.)
For quite a few years now, the amount of television programs we watch at home as dwindled to the point that we now only watch the evening news. And even that gets skipped now and then. It is the same with almost everyone I talk to about it. My colleagues don't watch television and neither do most of my friends.
So if you don't watch TV, then why buy a new set you ask? Good question. Our kids use it to watch movies and play GameCube, we use it to play Wii.Currently we have 36 different channels on our cable to choose from and that is where the main problem lies. In our small country, with less than 17 million inhabitants there are about 10 different channels vying for the advertising euros. The way they do this is by targeting that audience that is most likely to spend their money on advertised goods. And the way to do this is of course by having programs that appeal to this audience. So if one channel has a hit on its hand, the others copy it and try to innovate on it to the point that all channels run the same program on the same day on the same time. And if you happen not to like that program, there is no other channel to go to, because they are broadcasting the same thing. It's all Dancing With The Stars and Ice Dancing With The Stars and I Want To Be A Celebrity Pop Star. And it's all with people famous for being famous.
Since a few weeks I'm the proud owner of a 720p HD television. And I have to say, the images look marvelous compared to my old CRT. Especially when watching HD content. The big question however would be whether or not it enhances the viewing experience. Does it get you into the story of the movie quicker? Are all those extra details adding to the movie, are they just distracting or won't you notice them after a while when you're entranced with the story.
For me it's the latter. And as a test, I put an old movie into my VCR to watch it. The first thing I noticed is that I really hated the picture quality. It looked so incredibly bad when compared to a good DVD that it almost made me cringe. But after watching it for a few minutes, the story took over and I was forgetting that I was watching an old VHS cassette tape. I really enjoyed the movie.
So if watching a less than Standard Definition movie is enjoyable in spite of the picture quality, a High Definition movie should be equally enjoyable even though the picture quality is much higher.
To HD or not, for me there is no question.
Zaaf
This is a small message created from my couch by using my Wii. It is a bit slow entering text with the Wiimote by pointing on the screen, but it seems to work ok. There is a qwerty-keyboard displayed on the screen and all I have to do is point and click. The highlighted key zooms out for easier typing. I'm estimating that I can type at a speed of about 90 characters a minute with an accuracy of 98%, or two mistakes per hundred letters. The Wiimote vibrates on passing every key to help you guide the pointer. The A-button I need to press for every letter gives tactile feedback, and each pressed key makes a keyboard like sound. They even gave the space bar and the shift-key separate sounds, just like a normal keyboard would have.
For the past twenty years or so, I've been carrying my music with me. First I had cassette tapes on various walkmans, then I carried CDs with me on portable CD players. Five years ago I bought my first iPod. The big change was that in the years BiP (Before iPod), I had to choose which music to take with me. AiP I could have it all. Every morning BiP I stood in front of my CD collection, or my cassette collection before that, and chose the albums to take with me. I've always been an album person and I rarely bought best-of albums. The main reason for this is that I like to hear all the numbers in the context the artist intended them to be. That's also the reason why I do not like shuffle mode on CD players. It messes with the artist intent. And so, BiP, I listened to complete albums sequentially before changing them in my player. AiP, after I switched everything to my iPod, I continued to listen to complete albums, manually selecting them from the menu. That is until I discovered that I could select shuffle per album. Now the tedious task of standing in front of my CD collection was taken over by the iPod. When I now click shuffle songs on my iPod, I get a randomly selected album which I then can enjoy. And because I have only my music on my iPod, its all good music. So it doesn't matter what album it selects.
Why would Apple Inc. make their web-browser Safari available for Windows? Apple is a hardware company that makes great software. Their income is from the hardware they make. So when Apple releases software it is with the expectation that it will sell them more hardware and thus make them a bigger profit. That is why they created Mac OS X: to sell computers. That is why they created iTunes: to sell iPods. That is why iTunes is a windows programme, so they can sell iPods to Windows users.
So if Apple creates software to sell more hardware, the question is then: "Why do they release Safari for Windows?" Do they have a new hardware product that will sell better because of the fact that Safari is available for Windows? The only new hardware on the horizon is the iPhone and one of its key selling points is that it runs the full version of Safari. However, the biggest problem with Safari is compatibility with some websites. This is because the web and especially the corporate web is geared towards Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. My guess is that by releasing Safari for Windows, Apple is trying to get a higher market share for its browser. This will then cause companies to hopefully make their website more standards compliant, so that it runs perfectly in Safari.
Because it would be great if you could use your Internet Banking site straight from your iPhone while walking in the Mall?
Zaaf
When my router died (see here), I phoned my ISP. Unfortunately they wouldn't replace it, telling me instead to buy a new one. A colleague overheard me and immediately offered one of his spare routers for which he didn't have any use anymore. Luckily it was meant to be used for the same ISP so it connected directly. The only thing that I changed was the userid / password to access the ISP part of the network. I also protected the router with a userid / password to prevent accidental changes to its settings.
It's good to be connected again!
Zaaf
The bank I work for is still for sale. The highest bid currently is roughly € 71 billion. I have a lot of emotions regarding the bank being sold off. One of them is pride. I'm very proud to be part of an organization that is being valued so highly. And the value is because of the assets the bank has. Part of that is because we have money on our balance sheet and that needs to be paid for, but mainly it is being paid for the way we do our business. And that is due solely to the employees of the bank. At the end of 2006, the latest released figures, there were 105,000 of them. If you were to apportion the bid of € 71 billion per employee, you'd get:
7.1 * 1010 / 1.05 * 105 = 6.8 * 105Or roughly € 680.000,- per employee. If you deduct the group capital of € 45 billion from the offer, which is a questionable thing to do because the group capital is needed to perform the business done by the employees, you get:
(7.1 * 1010-4.1 * 1010) / 1.05 * 105 = 2.5 * 105Or roughly € 250.000 per employee.
Two weeks ago, my son broke my Nintendo DS. Last Friday, I finally had the time to send it to Nintendo and yesterday, only four days later, I received it back, for free. And the L and R buttons aren't coloured slightly pink like mine and I'm missing a few familiar scratches on the outside. So it seems I got a brand new DS from Nintendo, for free. It was replaced under warranty. I'm impressed both by the fact that I got a replacement and by the speed of their service: I sent it on Friday, they received it on Monday and I received a replacement unit on Tuesday.
Now I need to teach my kids how to use it without the screen opened up completely. And I need to take it with me more for my daily commute. Practice a bit on my Starfox Command.
Zaaf
By the way, what is it with all these DSL companies calling their Wan / Lan routers a Modem? Modem is short for MOdulator - DEModulator after the way it translates analog sounds send over the phone line as speech, to digital signals understandable by a computer and vice-versa. A DSL connection utilizes a different part of the available spectrum on the phone line and it uses digital signals all the way. There is no modulation going on at all. The thing just connects to separate networks and it works at the OSI Network Layer. Therefore it is a router.
Zaaf
Last night while I was happily surfing along, my router, an Alcatel SpeedTouch 510, lost its connection. This happens every now and then and it's a simple reboot of the Wan / Lan router to get going again. Last night was a different story. The router was very hot to the touch and instead of rebooting, one of its green led lights started blinking red. This morning, the router had cooled down considerably, but it did not reboot at all. A call to the ISP helpdesk confirmed what I already thought. The router is bereft of live, has ceased to exist and has gone to meet its maker.
So now I need to get myself a new one and hopefully I can recall the settings, especially the password that allows access to the DSL network of my ISP. I'll find out tomorrow.
Zaaf
I'm the proud owner of the iPod game LOST, which I bought because my wife and I are watching the series. We've currently finished watching season 1 and The Hatch has just been blown of. The game starts on the beach and pretty much follows the plot of the series, meaning that the tasks you get set to perform in the game are those that Jack has to do in the television series. This also means that you can get ahead of the game story by advancing in the game.
Up till now, the game has been pretty straightforward because I've seen the episodes. Now, however, I'm getting to the point where the game play is getting ahead of the TV play and it's decision time. Do I play the game ahead of the TV or not? I guess it all boils down to what holds more entertainment value:
I just tried to install Firefox 2.0.0.4 and because me being me, I read the License Agreement. The interesting part here is section 4:
4. PRIVACY POLICY. You agree to the Mozilla Firefox Privacy Policy, made available online at http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/privacy/, as that policy may be changed from time to time. When Mozilla changes the policy in a material way a notice will be posted on the website at www.mozilla.com and when any change is made in the privacy policy, the updated policy will be posted at the above link. It is your responsibility to ensure that you understand the terms of the privacy policy, so you should periodically check the current version of the policy for changes.In this they refer you to the web to read their privacy policy before you can accept the terms in the Licence Agreement which lets you install a browser with which you can read the privacy policy.
Yesterday while I was out driving the old TV to the local dump site, my wife took the kids to the toy store to fetch the Wii. This is something my wife promised me to get me for Fathers day, which we celebrate Sunday, June 17th. When they got back, I was already at home doing something in the attic and it was interesting to see and hear what story the kids had come up with to keep the Wii a secret for me. It turned out that they were out buying lots of batteries for their toys and that the large packet they brought home was for someone else.
At diner my son asked how long our GameCube would last and I said that it would be at least two years before I would replace it with its successor, the Wii. Whereupon my son said that he could live with that.
Strange how we lie and cheat to our children, all in the name of raising them.
Now the aggravating wait begins. It's three weeks before I can open the box and connect my Wii to our new TV set. In the mean time, I think I need a new wireless router so I can connect the Wii to the internet. And when I buy one, I think I'm going for the Apple Airport Extreme in combination with the Apple TV.
There's a lot to look forward too.
Zaaf
Last Friday morning, I bought ourselves a new TV. It's a Panasonic LCD-TV of 66 cm viewing diagonal (26"). It's only HD-ready and it did cost more than the € 700,- I specified in my requirements
However, it does have enough inputs to capture the whole range of input devices we have on our media side. And I just noticed that we tend to buy what looks best at the time. We're not partial to any specific vendor. Here's a list of things we have:
Yesterday I spent an informative 15 minutes in the TV-store looking for a new set. I had all my requirements with me (see here). I noticed that all LCD-TV's had two extra properties that sounded interesting: brightness and contrast-ratio.
The brightness varied from 400 Cd/m2 to 650 Cd/m2. The contrast ratio varied from 500:1 to 6000:1. The lady from the store informed me that the contrast ratio is the amount of colour differences you're able to see. And the higher the better. It turned out that the philips screen I'd been eying has a contrast ratio of 1200:1 whereas a similar looking (design-wise) Samsung set has a 4000:1 with the newer model having a 5000:1 ratio. These are big differences which has its impact on the price. The Philips costs €449,- where the Samsungs cost € 649,- and € 749,- respectively.
Food for thougth,
Zaaf
I just noticed on the iTunes Store that there is a Lost game available for my iPod. I've made a mental note to self: Self by that game.
It's odd that I can buy the game, but can't buy the series from iTunes. The series is available with subtitles in my language, because they were broadcasted here. And even if they weren't available, I'm perfectly capable of understanding the series in English. I know, because I've seen the first 23 episodes of season one in English without the subtitles.
Zaaf
Today I've got a song planted in my head from my youth. I know the tune. I know part of the lyrics and I've got a desire to add that song and the album it comes from to my music collection. The only problem with this is that I cannot find that album in the stores anymore. So I can't get the cd. It is not available in the few second-hand stores in my town, which presumably comes from the fact that it's a good album. The online stores do not carry it because the music label it was on does not provide it to iTunes c.s.
This leaves the p2p networks as a last resort. However, since the album was released only on vinyl, there are almost no ripped to .mp3 versions of it. I can find a few songs from it, but this particular song is unavailable.
This is exemplatory of a lot of music of my youth. The international artists are often available online, but the local artists aren't. The music industry must have a huge back-catalog of music available only to them and to no-one else. And all they do with it is letting it rot in a cellar, where they could make some money out of it by selling it online via iTunes. On the one hand they talk about how p2p networks are killing them and stealing their profit, but on the other hand, they cannot provide the music to the soundtrack of my life. This feels like very inconsequential behaviour from the music industry. Could we please change that?
Oh and the song? It's "Later is allang begonnen" by "Het Klein Orkest".
Zaaf
Last weekend we had my nephew sleep over. He brought is black Nintendo DS with him so he could play against my son. When his father first heard about the DS he immediately thought about the Citroën DS. Here the letters DS are spoken in the French way and sounding like (la) Deèsse, or the goddess. At the time, it seemed fitting of such a beautiful car. And in a way that's what the Nintendo DS is as well, a beautiful designed little handheld console. However, like the original DS, this DS can break as well.
My nephew and my son really got some quality time out of their DS's. And even after my nephew left, my son kept on playing. He has the habit of folding the screen completely open, instead of stopping at the first click. Perhaps he can view its contents better this way. He even has that habit when the screen is already completely open. And on Saturday evening, the cumulative force of all those openings became too much: the right hinge broke off completely.
So after he broke my G4, he broke my DS. Poor boy. He was so upset about it that I did not dare punish him.
Zaaf
Our 10 year old Standard Definition 4:3 CRT Magnavox television set is aging fast now. And with age come those small nuisances that make life a bit harder. In the case of our tv-set, it's things like the tv-text not working at the moment you need the traffic jams report, sound quiting suddenly, or the picture freezing with the sound continuing, or the picture getting distorted. We even had the tv snowing. The cure to this is a quick re-boot. Just push the on / off button twice and everything is OK. The only problem with this is that the cap of the on / off button has fallen into the TV-set and now you need a screwdriver to push the actual button in order to it off and on again. And no, I cannot open the TV set, because the screws have some strange outlandish format (USA most likely) and they are un-turnable.
So we set out to find a new TV. And before we get it, we need a set of requirements that it has to fulfill:
Here at the office, we use a nice HP color printer. It comes with three trays for paper, labeled 2, 3 and 4. (Now here is a nice Obi Wan error.) The printer complained that tray 4 was empty and my colleague needed a print. So she got a whole box of printing paper and used a pair of scissors to remove the plastic binding. Then she took a pack of paper, opened it, took roughly one-third of the paper and started counting the trays. It is a good thing that they are numbered, because there are only three of them. When she finally put the paper in tray four, the printer started complaining that tray three was empty, so she put in the remaining paper from the pack in that tray. While this way of filling a printer with paper works, it has several drawbacks. To do it more efficient I'll note them here so I can refer my colleagues to them when they are in need of printer paper filling instructions.
Today, for the third time this year our department was moved to another spot in the same building. I'm sure that the ultimate motive behind these moves is that our company as a whole works more efficient thus benefiting our shareholders, but packing and unpacking boxes everytime does make you wonder if that really can be true. It is not only this year that we've moved a lot. Last year we moved four times over the whole year. And every move costs at least one day.
This means that this year we've spent the following amount of hours not working because of work:
| year | times moved | people | lost hours |
| 2006 (whole year) | 4 | 9 | 36 |
| 2007 (ytd) | 3 | 7 | 21 |
| Total | 57 | ||
My G4 desktop computer is back and working fine. And although the technician working on it promised the repair would be a €560,- logic board replace, it turned out to be a €120,- power supply swap. I was so happy with this result, that on a whim, I decided to buy myself a 23" Cinema display. Unfortunately, the customer just before me had the last one, so I settled for a 20" display. And let me tell you, even though it is the smallest of the Cinema Display line, at 1680 x 1050 this is a grand display! It swaps out the old 17" CRT I have had for the last nine years and whose screen at 1280 x 1024 was definitely getting blurry. The machine looks so good and fresh now that I think I can live with it for at least another year, maybe even two. By then it is 5 years old and it will for sure need to be replaced with something bright and shiny. So the PowerMac G4 gets a new leash of live: G4 Encore!
By the way, the screen is much bigger than I expected when put in its place on my desk. I don't think that the 23" display would have fit. This showed me again that everything in the shop looks smaller than it is, getting you to buy bigger than needed. Which is something to keep in mind when we replace our TV-set.
Zaaf
something you get sent.But please consider writing it more like:
Incoming Mail is Mail you get sent via the postal services.The components of meta data obviously vary with its usage, but for a normal business person, the following components should be described:
Out Tray Mail is Mail that is processed and that should be archived.If you now receive a mail you and you want to put it in the out tray, then you could run it by the definition of the Out Tray Mail and check if it matches. It probably doesn't because you still need to process it. So you put it somewhere else. Once you've processed it, you make a mark on it to that effect and then it passes the definition of the Out Tray Mail. So now it can be part of Out Tray Mail.
Subject Area is a <more generic concept> that <conditions that make it Subject Area>.
Processed Timestamp is a Timestamp that records the date and time at which the Mail was processed.This refers to a generic concept (Timestamp) and relates it to the subject area by explaining the role the data item plays for the subject area.
A descriptor is a <[Name|Text|Date|Time|Timestamp|Number]> <role it plays for the Subject Area>.
Stock Price is an Amount denoted in US Dollars that denotes the price of the Product when it is in stock.This refers to the generic concept Amount and its unit of measure, US Dollars. The subject area here the is called Product. It is also possible that the unit of measure is stored in another data item to which you can refer in your definition.
Stock Price is an Amount in the currency of Stock Price Currency that denotes the price of the Product when it is in stock.Here the unit of measure is hold in another data item, presumably in the same data item.
Mail Processed Indicator distinguishes Incoming Mails between those that have been processed and those that have not been processed. Possible domain values are:This is a simple indicator example. For larger sets this would still hold:
- Unprocessed Mail
- Processed Mail
Mail Processing Urgency Type distinguishes Incoming Mails on how urgent they need to be processed. Possible domain values are:Here the last value had to be put in to make sure all possibilities are covered.
- Before Yesterday
- As Soon As Possible
- Within a week
- Within a month
- No urgency whatsoever
Customer is the Customer who signed the Mail.This definition tells us that the data item Customer is a link to the Subject Area Customer and that the role it plays for the Mail is that it identifies the customer who signed the Mail. This is also how you would go about finding the Customer in your filing system: you'd look for the signature on the mail and then look that up in your Customer file. If you feel that this definition doesn't tell you anything about who or what a Customer is, then you're right. This is part of the definition of the Subject Area describing Customer. There is no need to repeat that information here.
<Data Item><[is|identifies]> a <Subject Area><how to select the right instance of refering Subject Area><role it plays for its Subject Area.>
Finally, after what must be at least three years, We've started watching the TV-series Lost. I borrowed the DVD-set and everytime my wife and I are both in the livingroom and have time to watch TV, we pick the next episode. We've been doing this since early March 2007 and we've just covered episode 20. Only four or five to go before we're done with it.
It's a nice way to spend 42 minutes together, where my wife and I both comment on things that seem a bit improbable. For instance on last nights episode, Jack wanted to do a blood transfusion, but he couldn't find a needle. However he did have the tubes to transport the blood through. Odd.
And the way peoples hair is always orderly and they way their clothes are much neater than ours would be after two months in the jungle without much change of clothes. That's odd too.
But I'm sure that these are all old criticisms.
In related news there was a note in the local TV Guide that the ending of Lost is now known and that it will take at least three more seasons before the end. This means that after we've finished watching season 1, we have to sit through seasons two to six before we're done. I don't think that we can hold out that long. To put it a bit stronger, I hereby predict that we will not watch season two or later as our feeling is that it will get weirder and weirder. In a way it's a bit like Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks was a nineties TV show where everyone had some dark secret. Season one was interestingly entertaining, but season two became just weird. This is our main reference point as it is the previous series my wife and I watched together. The big difference is that we watched Twin Peaks when it aired, and we have time-shifted Lost.
I've always understood the Bob Marley lyric "No Woman, No Cry" to mean something like: "Please dear woman of mine, don't cry, everything will be alright." So now I'm without a real desktop I'm testing to see if this can be extended from women to computers.
First of all, I'm happy to report that my G4 is undergoing some major surgery and is supposed to be up and running end of next week with a complete new logic board. So the "everything will be alright" part of the lyric should turn out just fine.
However, currently I'm using my rather ageing TiBook G4 667MHz (aka Gigabit Ethernet), which I purchased in March 2002 and there are things I sorely miss on this setup, so there is some reason for prolonged sadness. For starters, I can't take it with me, because my wife is now using it too. She brought home some Excel files from work and proclaimed that this computer was faster than the one she uses at work.
The main reason for my sadness though, is iTunes. I have a large list of podcasts that I listen to on a weekly basis and I have my subscriptions tuned just so that I can listen to (or view for that matter) all podcasts during the four days I commute to work. I sorely miss watching Happy Slip, or GeekBrief. And I miss listening to Anji Bees multiple podcasts, CC Chapmans Accident Hash and Adam Curry's Daily Source Code. I provided me with ample opportunity to listen to my own music catalogue. I cannot wait to get the play count and skip count synced with iTunes again to do some music library re-factoring on it. I don't know how other people do it, but every time I listen to a song and I find something is wrong with it, I make a mental note to update it in iTunes. And in at least 10% of the cases I do something about it. Here's a list of mental notes I've made:
To the tune of "House for Sale" from Lucifer with Margriet Eshuijs and Henny Huisman
Bank for sale.
You can read it on the sign.
Bank for sale.
It was yours and it was mine.
And tomorrow some Scotsman will be doing some sort of deal
In the office filled with memories, we used to share.
So sad.
Zaaf
As we all know, LOL is a bit overused these days on the web and related parts of the internet. Just Google for "LOL Inflation" and you'll get about half a million hits. In fact LOL is so overused that it is almost meaningless. However in real life it is still possible to laugh out loud. And one of my colleagues just did.
Picture this: Your sitting at work in a large open office space without any noise reduction measures. It is just after lunch and all the talk has quite down with people focussing on their immediate task, like wilfing. Suddenly, someone burst out in a real LOL session. And first thing you see is lots of angry glances being thrown at the source of the laughter. Perhaps we here are feeling too important to be disturbed by laughter?
The second thing most of us wanted to know was the source of the laughter, so we were treated on a very stupid blonde joke. I guess you'd have to have been there.
However the main thing I took away from this is that it is not really appreciated to LOLAW .
Zaaf
Yesterday afternoon, my son came down to call me to the family computer which was acting weird. And sure enough all his running programs (Safari and Finder) were showing me the Spinning Pizza Of Death. Nothing worked. No Command-Option-Eject to put it into sleep, no clicking anywhere, no Command-Tab, nothing. And then, suddenly, the computer shut itself down.
The weirdest thing was that nothing could persuade it to turn back on. The only thing happening was that the light in the power button started to glow. No problems, thinks me. I've had this before. It is just a matter of opening this machine up and pressing the PMU-reset. So disconnect everything, move the PowerMac G4 to another table for easy access, open it up, press the button, wait a full minute, close the computer reconnect everything and then presto: Nothing, only the light in the button.
Hmm that's weird. Try disconnecting the battery. Without battery same results. But the battery in after 12 minutes and try again: Same result, nothing happens.
So now the machine is at the Macintosh repair shop and I'm hoping it is nothing too serious. But you know the thing I miss the most is my iTunes library of which I have no backups. (Backups, come-on this is a consumer machine, why should I need backups). No iTunes library means no new podcasts and how am I going to get my daily podcast fix now?
The shop will call me Monday or Tuesday with the results of their inspection. I hope they can fix it. Then I'll donate the machine to someone else and buy myself a brand new 24" iMac.
Zaaf
Just this morning when sitting at my desk at work, a colleague dropped by and started to ask me something. Now, I completely forgot the question, but what I do remember is that I had to turn off my iPod to hear him out. During our conversation, the song that I stopped in the middle off, kept on playing in the back of my brain, repeating itself over and over. It was (and still is) a happy sounding song and so I told my colleague about it. Somehow he was unhappy with the fact that I mentioned the song, because just mentioning it made sure it stuck in his brain too.
Half an hour later, with the song still firmly planted in my head, I head down to the coffee corner where I overhear my colleague saying: "I have this song in my head which I cannot get rid off. Someone sang to me "I'm crazy like a fool. What about daddy Cool?".
Let's hope that by tonight the whole company is singing Boney M.
Zaaf
Is it art if you create it yourself? Or does that apply only to artists? And how do you become an artist? Is it so that one day you wake up with the idea fixed in your head that whatever you are, whatever your profession is at that time, from then on you will be an artist?
My father-in-law is a retired teacher and he creates ceramic statues. When shown to random people like my colleagues, it is art. The artist however had a bit of an internal struggle when deciding that he now was to be known as An Artist.
But judge for yourselfs at <http://www.nicocornelisklomp.nl>.
Have fun!
Zaaf
By the way, the title of this post, "No art on" is a direct translation from a dutch expression meaning that things are to simple to be worthy of thought.
