Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

Hunter. Survivor. Prey.

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:03:53 -0600

I've always been a huge fan of the Predator films. The first one (1987) featured Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Predator 2 (1990) featured Danny Glover and Gary Busey and a young Bill Paxton. Predator 2 gave some cool background information about the Predator character and their code of honor. I.e. the scenes in which the predator leaves the pregnant detective alone and the scene in which a predator rewards Glover with an antique gun to honor his bravery.

Now, in a similar sense I liked the Alien quadrilogy. Set in a distant future (as I understand it some 150 years from now) where mankind is doing some kind of space exploration, it is a lot different from the Predator series that had planet Earth as their backdrop for all the action. Where Predator is about action, I think Alien is more about psychological suspense. I found Alien to be a lot more scary than Predator.

Both franchises met in a 'crossover' in the 2004 movie Aliens vs Predator (or AVP), which I thought was ok, but definitely not a big hit. And the sequel to that, AVP2 (or "Aliens vs Predator: Requiem"), in my opinion, was a totally redundant movie.

At the same time we have seen a load of video games in the spirit of AVP. I felt lukewarm to most of them and never ~~bought~~ downloaded any of them. But this year (2010) a new installment of the game came out. Made by SEGA, and developed by Rebellion studios, it looks ~~a whole lot~~ better than the previous versions (although a lot of gamers bash the game for having way to much old-school textures, and I have to agree on that).

I got my hands on the game, installed all 17gb of it, and since yesterday I am enjoying my cool predator moves, trophy kills (i.e. rip the spine out of a marine) and last but not least the predator sound effects and predator vision. I love it!

Having said that, I know for sure that in a week or two the novelty will wear out and I will delete the game again. It is far from ground braking or original. There are many more FPS games out there that are way more engaging.

Anyway: this is just some pastime for me, because - drum roll please - there is going to be a new Predator movie!

I am exited about this in many ways. First: the fact that movie director Robert Rodriquez is going to produce it. I like many of his movies and the way he approaches action scenes in it. Second: it is a sequel, not a prequel or a cross-over. They will ignore Predator 2 and the AVP series.

It's called "Predators" just like the sequel to Alien was called "Aliens".

The plot sounds simple and easy: "a bunch of people get abducted to a planet to be hunted by Predators". Sweet!

Only one thing might spoil the fun for me: the fact they casted the whimp called Adrian Brody for the lead character :-( I wonder how he is going to pull off being a bad mofo like "Dutch" Schaefer was in Predator?

I can't wait till it comes out later this year (rumored to be July 7th this year).

In the mean-time: check out the AVP 2010 game video:

Practice makes perfect...

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:59:14 -0600

Just a quick video of me practicing at the range using my Viridian X5L. Works like a charm. Still need to work a bit on my tendency to jerk the trigger after going through half a box of ammo.

Oh well, they say practice makes perfect...

Obama tells it like it is

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:44:00 -0600

News sometimes trickles down kind of slow here in Holland, but this was a bit too good let it pass even though it happened a week ago. What is it that I would like to share here?

Well, on Friday Jan. 29th Obama visited a House Republican retreat in Baltimore to answer questions from republicans in, what The Huffington Post calls "The Lions Den".

At the end of the session there was a Q&A session that wasn't supposed to be broadcast, but the White House pressured the Republican party to bring the cameras in. And Obama got a sterling opportunity to defend his policies against a whole audience full of Republicans.

As The Huffington Post describes:

What resulted was what one Democratic strategist described as "amazing theater" -- certainly for cable news. Standing on a stage, looking down at his Republican questioners, Obama assumed the role of responsible adult to the GOP children, or, at the very least, of a college professor teaching and lecturing a room full of students.

The event was aired live - among others - by Fox News (known as "the voice of the republicans"). What is interesting about that, is that Fox News choose to cut off the live feed from the broadcast 20 minutes before it ended. I wonder why.

Anyway: here it is. Obama at his best.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If you feel like reading it, here's the complete transcript:

Continue reading "Obama tells it like it is"

Hope for Haiti telethon vs Holland Helps Haiti

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:03:29 -0600

Ok, what is wrong with this picture? €83 million euros equals $117 million dollars. That's the amount of money raised in Holland with a the Holland Helps Haiti telethon this Thursday Jan. 21st.

This Friday, there was a telethon in the USA (and some other countries) organized (among others) by actor "George - do good - Clooney". The telethon was aired simultaneously on more than 25 networks, including CNN.

So far that show raised... $58 million dollars...

What? That must be wrong?

Let me get this straight: Holland with only 17 million people, raises $117 million dollars and the US (and other countries) with an estimated 308 million people, only raise $58 million?

I hope those are preliminary figures, because that would be a shame and disgrace in my book. It can't be right can it? The Funny thing is that CNN writes in it's article about the telethon:

"The preliminary figure is a record for donations made by the public through a disaster relief telethon, according to a news release from telethon organizers."

Wow. I surely hope that this is a mistake and they can't really count all the donations fast enough.

See also: Hope for Haiti telethon vs Holland helps Haiti

Adventure is just bad planning

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:49:19 -0600

With the winter hitting several parts of the European mainland and the UK hard, we see an increase of people getting stranded. They either get snowed in or find themselves trapped at the airport or train station. I find it amazing how bad people are prepared for these winter conditions. In several parts of Europe people have already died from accidents and/or because of the cold or - as I see it - a lack of preparation.

If people would just think a few steps ahead, they might save themselves (and other people) from a lot of problems.

So, for those of you out there that do want to prepare, have a look a the video below by YouTube user USNERDOC. He prepares for wintertime by putting a box with some basic tools and survival gear in the back of his car.

I highly recommend you prepare such a box yourself as well and put what ever gear in there that you think is useful. I think the video will help you come up with some ideas on how to go about that. I myself have a big backpack in my car filled with blankets, tools, a sleeping bag etc.. Anything I might need if I get stranded somewhere. There is really no need for you to become a sad statistic because of a lack of preparation. You can make the difference yourself.

Or, in the words of Norwegian Arctic & Antarctic explorer Roald Amundsen (1872 - 1928): "Adventure is just bad planning".

Winter kit

Welcome to the (Joli)Cloud

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:33:00 -0600

As an Asus Eee Pc 900 netbook user (the 900 model that came with 20gb), I use a homemade, slimmed and trimmed down Windows XP Professional version as my main OS. I installed over the dorky Linux version that came with my Eee PC. I prefer XP because I can get all the apps that I need for it, but still I think it’s too bloated. Thats why I also installed EeeBuntu (EB for short) on a 8gb SD-card as an alternative. It’s real easy to do and it works – so far – like a charm. But Eeebuntu is based on Ubuntu 9.04 and we already are at 9.10. Until EB 4.0 is coming out, I experimented with Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but that had way too many little glitches. Mainly my mousepad not working correctly and very poor battery performance i.e. my battery time was almost cut in half. Eeebuntu is doing a little better as it comes with a tool that helps with battery life, but still it’s not as good as XP. So, this weekend I tried the Kubuntu Netbook Edition 9.10, but it performed like crap and the interface just sucks.

But here enters Jolicloud. Jolicloud is what I consider a competitor for Google Chrome OS. It’s a lightweight, Linux based operating system (Debian/Ubuntu) that is aimed primarily at netbooks. Just like Google Chrome OS. It is currently in it’s beta phase, but so far it looks promising. The interface is fully modeled after the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which isn’t bad to start with, but leaves a lot to be desired for more seasoned users that (also) want a regular desktop.

The idea, just as with Google Chrome OS, is, that users store a lot of there work online on the servers of Google. It’s no surprise then that Jolicloud works mostly with Google apps. But you can install many other apps as well, including Skype.

At the moment I am trying to install it on a 8gb USB stick so I can run it from there, just like I did with some other Linux alternatives, but it seems that the version of Grub that comes with the latest version doesn’t like this, so my first attempt ended in a Grub error.I am, however, able to run it from a USB stick without installation. This is off course not a persistent install (i.e. I loose my settings with every reboot).

So far it looks good, responds snappy – as far as my 900Mhz Intel can be called snappy – and just works. I just need to figure out if I can get it working (persistent) from a USB stick (or maybe SD-card). That might require an email to their support department, but I guess it’s worth it.

Anyway: I will keep testing this puppy a bit more and will report back here on my findings.

Without Rule of Law website launched

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:09:11 -0600

Without Rule of Law.com

A new year marks a new beginning. Also for me personally, as I have taken on a new, personal project: starting Jan 1st 2010 I launched the "Without Rule of Law website: survival in WROL situations".

The last few years I have become more and more aware of the fact that "we", the general public, take our comfortable lives for granted. The more we are surrounded by technology, the more we depend on it. It is a bit contradictory because I - for one - am a great "tech-head". At the same time I try to imagine what life would be without all my high-tech gear and modern comfort.

What happens when we have a real pandemic on our hands? A flooding occurs, or something more basic like a power outage that lasts for a week?

Even in a stable country like Holland it is a good idea to prepare for situations like these. In fact, our own Dutch government cautions people to prepare for the unexpected.

Since I always have been interested in survival and anything that comes with it, I started to read more and more about the subject of survival and preparedness. And boy, there is a lot out there. But it's hard to find a good global starting point or general website that combines all the subjects that I have an interest in.

Hence the "Without Rule of Law website: survival in WROL situations" website. Here is a short snippet from the obligatory "About" page that explains more about my reasons and goals behind the website:

If you are lucky enough to live in a democratic country you probably are used to living under relatively comfortable circumstances. You live your life like anyone else. Work, eat, sleep, relax. You have electricity, mobile communications, public transport and stores to shop. You enjoy what is called the privilege of “Rule of Law”: everyday life under protection of your countries law, military and emergency services like the fire department and medical care.

But the world we live in is far from perfect.

Conflict may be right around the corner. It may be the result of a breakdown of society (economical), riots, natural disaster, political conflict or just plain war.

When it happens we have a situation called: “Without Rule of Law”, or WROL for short.

In such an event you will find there is no police to call to help you out. Medical care may be non-existent. Electricity and gas may not be available. The streets may be have become too hazardous for you to venture out.

A WROL situation may last a few hours, days, weeks or months depending on the cause. When hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the WROL situation lasted for many weeks. Reports of carjacking, murders, thefts, and rapes in New Orleans flooded the news.

If you are realistic you will agree it can happen any moment. And if you are not prepared for it chances are, you will become a sad statistic. A victim of your own survival inadequacy.

But how do you prepare for such a situation? You can search the web and you will find hundreds of websites with information.

The “Without Rule of Law” website will assist you in gathering information to prepare you for the moment you find yourself in a WROL situation by gathering useful survival information for you and putting it on one handy website. No need to surf hundreds of different sources of information.

You will find reviews on various things and instructional information that can help you out when you need to protect yourself, your loved ones and your property.

So if you think you want to know more about how you can prepare for the unexpected, I invite you to go over to the website and see if you can learn a thing or two.

You can also follow WROL on Twitter and YouTube.

Welcome to 2010

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:51:58 -0600

Hapy New Year to you all!

2010 here we come

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:22:15 -0600

2010: Almost here

It's the last day of 2009 and we are at the doorstep of a new decade. This past year has seen many ups and downs, but instead of looking back, we should look forward to all the chances the new year will have to offer us.

2010 will bring me a few new projects, both professional and personal. More about the personal projects tomorrow when it's 01-01-2010!

For now, I would like to wish all my readers a very nice New Years Eve and a safe an beautiful start of 2010.

Henk van de Goor
Bloggers@large

Snowbound

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:04:31 -0600

Monday morning. Most people have vacation for at least 1 or even two weeks. Not me, and obviously not all the people around me that tried to leave Almere. As soon as I drove around the corner I was stuck in traffic. I tried a small detour, but it didn't help. All in all it took me 45 minutes just to get to the highway (less than 3 miles from my home). After that another 30 minutes to get on the A1 highway. From there it was a smooth ride even nice and sunny.

Anyway, caught a slice of my life again on camera. I ♥ Holland?

2012 a distaster (of a) movie

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:30:00 -0600

I just saw the new Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow) movie "2012" and I just couldn't resist blogging about it.

So what do I have to say about it? Well, if you are into special effects, this is your movie. In fact it is the mother load of all special effects. Ninety nine point nine percent of the movie is about special effects. Should you expect something else from a movie that is about the end of the world? I guess not. Now, there have been many movies - also by Roland Emmerich - that deal with some catastrophe that results in the annihilation of the world as we know it. But this one, too me was a total let-down. An insult to human intelligence.

Instead of a disaster movie, this is a disaster of a movie.

None of the other movies (for example The Day after Tomorrow) are in any way scientifically accurate. Which is ok; if you wanted to watch a documentary you would turn on National Geographic or Discovery Channel. But I would say that about ninety percent of the other movies at least try to tell some convincing story. And the director at least tries to draw you into the movie by helping you with the "suspense of disbelief". That ingredient is essential to me: I have to be able to forget about unrealistic plots, any plot holes and the outrageous action going on. If a director succeeds in that, I am willing to forget and forgive a lot. Usually it works, but sometimes it doesn't. And obviously when it doesn't, it ruins my movie experience.

Before I go on with 2012 and why it didn't work for me, let me give you one (other) example of how directors can ruin a movie for me with just one plot hole.
Continue reading "2012 a distaster (of a) movie"

Google bashing the new fashion

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:42:00 -0600

Google

This week Google launched yet another service to enhance the experience of Internet users in general and Google users in particular; they came up with their own public DNS services. For those who are not tech-savvy: when you type in an address in your browser, your PC sends of a request to what is called a DNS service (Domain Name Server). This will translate the easy to remember name (i.e. www.cnn.com) into a not so easy to remember IP-address like 157.166.226.26. You could look at DNS services like a postman; he knows where to put your mail - well, most of the time ;-). DNS services are provided automatically (and for free) by your Internet provider (ISP) or you would not be able to surf the web or do things like emailing. Anyway; chances are that you, until you read this, didn't even knew about the existence of DNS.

This new Google service immediately sparked some debate among myself and some of my co-workers. I was amazed at some conclusions they drew and some of their reasoning behind it. The same - negative - attitude was also reflected on many Dutch websites (like Tweakers.net) and internet fora. And even a post on "Digitalrendezvouz": a blog of a friend of mine was very critical. It triggered a lengthy response (and discussion) by me and I decided to also post about the same matter on my blog.

First: I am amazed at how much negativity Google is getting lately when they announce new services (Wave, ChromeOS, Google Maps with turn-by-turn navigation) or business ventures. And much of it is unfair - in my opinion. It is almost seems like people are looking for a new “Microsoft” to bash.

As long as Google was small and independent it was fine because they we’re kicking the establishments ass. But now Google has gotten big and main stream (i.e. part of the establishment), they suddenly are perceived by many as a threat to privacy? As if Google has some evil master plan.

I don't know if this is just a typical Dutch attitude - but I have a feeling it is. In the US people respect success more than they envy it.

Let me say this: unlike Microsoft, Google has not showed any signs of any intentional (notice the word "intentionally") abuse of their market position whatsoever. Like buying competitors and then killing of their products or blackmailing hardware companies into selling their products with Windows pre-installed for instance – to mention just a few documented court cases against Microsoft.

But let's analyze the criticism more in-depth and have a look at some facts and fiction.

Continue reading "Google bashing the new fashion"

Steven Seagal: Lawman

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:50:00 -0600

Ok folks. This had me laughing out loud. Has been action-hero Steven Seagal (57) is getting his own reality show. As it turns out Seagal has been a deputy sheriff of his home community, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana for 20 years. Supposedly he was on active duty in between all the films he shot and the US TV-network A&E picked up on that. Last year announced they begun filming "Steven Seagal: Lawman", a reality show that follows Seagal's on- and off-duty work in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

From the previews you can already see that there is hardly any real action that involves Seagal personally so I expect that an average episode of "Cops" will be better than this show. Still, I'm kinda interested in seeing it. I guess I am a bit masochistic :-) LOL.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Semper Fi!

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:25:31 -0600

Back on my feet again after that nasty A/H1N1 hit me. But enough of that. Thursday night I downloaded Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Now, I am a great fan of the previous installment of the game (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), but I skipped Call of Duty 5 ("World at War") as it was set again in the Second World War. COD4 to this day remains the game I play the most (multi-player). Before that I played SOF2 (Soldier of Fortune 2) almost religiously and I even was in a "clan" for a while. Anyway: the single player storyline of COD4 was is still one of the most immersive I ever played. It was is as if I was am in the game. The characters and the missions you play are great and the AI is though enough to enjoy (i.e.: no easy kills).

I didn't pay much attention to the announcement that there was going to be a sequel to COD4 MW. Last weekend however, I noticed how Usenet got flooded with posts of COD MW2. This last week I was to sick for it anyway, but Thursday night I picked out one of the pirated copies that seemed to work, downloaded it and installed it. I have been playing it (single player) for hours since then.

There is a lot of controversy around the PC version (which I will get) and it's mainly aimed at the multiplayer part. From what I gather there is a lack of dedicated servers, lack of support for matches larger than 18 players, and inability to vote towards kicking or banning cheating players immediately.

The game uses Valve's (Steam) anti-cheat system instead of PunkBuster. But - low and behold - it already got hacked the day after it came out. Which is off course one of the main reasons I don't like playing online that much as I used too. Cheating is one of the most annoying things when it comes to games.

Anyway: I love the game so far. Many twists and turns in it. One of the levels - "No Russian" - made my jaw drop. It is the only level in the single player mode you can actually skip. It - reportedly - was also cut from the Russian version of the game as it involves a very nasty terrorist attack with a twist.

If you're into spoilers, watch the video below and you'll understand what the fuss is about. Personally I didn't fire a shot in this level except when being shot at.

Conclusion: not revolutionary new gameplay, but a damn good sequel. Loads of new weapons and yet again an immersive - and controversial - storyline. I am definitely going to buy this game (just like I did with COD 4 MW). I just love the fact that I have a chance to play it first before spending my money.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: "No Russian"

Down with the flu

nospam@example.com (Henk van de Goor) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:39:40 -0600

Oh yeah my friends, I have been writing about A/H1N1 for some time and now I am down with it. I rarely have the flu and I knew something was wrong the minute I woke up Saturday morning with bad muscle aches all over. That and the feeling of a fever and the fact that I have a dry cough. Normally when I get the flu I get a big headache, sore throat etc. but not with this flue. Which is why I am convinced it's A/H1N1. It just really feels different than any other flu I have had in the last years.

The thing is, that I know I have a fever, but I have no idea whatsoever how bad it is: the batteries on my thermometer turned out to be empty :-(

Anyway, I'm sleeping for hours having those annoying repeating fever dreams where my mind just goes in circles all the time and where I am tossing and turning in my bed. I am taking into mind the "Home Flu Treatment Advice for the Laymen" (page 24) from the PDF called Preparing for the Coming Influenza Pandemic I posted before. Drinking lot's of fluids etc.

For now: I'm signing of and sleeping some more.