Queen Beatrix Today it’s officially our Queen’s Day when we celebrate Queen Beatrix’s birthday, even though it’s not really her birthday but her (late) mom’s, Queen Juliana. Complicated? Yeah well, not only that: we didn’t celebrate her birthday (known as “Queen’s Day or Koniniginnedag”) today because it’s Sunday, and not on Monday because it’s May 1st, but we did it yesterday, on a Saturday. Usually people like to go out on Queen’s Day and sell their rubbish from their attics and there are also a lot of free concerts. I myself hate Queen’s Day because I just hate large crowds […]
I stand corrected
Like I wrote yesterday: it is hard to bitch about something that is for free right? So when YouTube was down again – so far I have never seen them announce it or bother e-mailing me about it – I was disapointed. And when they were up and running again later yesterday, I did not see anything special. But when I checked my blog today, something was different. Low and behold: they changed their player. It now contains some more controls and it just looks more appealing in general: Old interface New interface You definately see they are improving here. […]
NoTube
YouTube or NoTube? I guess that you should not bitch about stuff that is “free” (if there is such a thing), but It is getting really annoying that YouTube is down about every two weeks or so for maintenance. What’s worse: it seems like they do not announce when they will be down. Especially if you use their service to put some movies in your blog etc. it is annoying as hell. I’m sure that thousands of other people who blog experience the same frustration. Also, the quality of YouTube (interface as well) isn’t really that great. If you compare […]
Beam me up Scotty
Today I was at the TINE 2006 tech show in Amsterdam to check out our competitors and scope out new trends in IT. While doing so I bumped into a booth run by what appeared to be the Dutch company that imports the I-Jam smartphones. As you might know (and if you didn’t: you do now) these phones are made by a Korean company called HTC and are sold under numerous names (I happen to own a Qtec S100 which is also a HTC made phone). Anyway, they also had some prototypes of new phones there – working! – and […]
Nothing like a good meal
Last night I had dinner in Amsterdam with a good friend who I have known since highschool. We always go to the same Indonesian restaurant: Kantjil & De Tijger and we always order the same food: “Nasi Goreng Rames” (fried rice with pork kebabs, stewed beef, pickled cucumbers, and mixed vegetables). It contains everything we like about Indonesian food on one plate and it is reasonably priced. Funny enough there was what seemed a Japanese camera-crew filming the food in the restaurant (unfortunately for some weird reason my video of that event is corrupted, so I can’t show it here). […]
The format soap continues
Obsolete? As you might have noticed the consumer electronics world is eagerly awaiting the mass introduction (probably later this year – Sony already ships some devices) of the successor of the DVD. But the problem is that the ‘powers that be’ can not decide among each other which format should be leading (unlike with the DVD). The consumer is off course the one to suffer. Off course I was happy when some manufacturers announced they would produce some models that would play both formats. So I decided that when the time will come, I will play it safe and get […]
Plastic surgery – uhm no thanks
OMFG. I just caught a glimpse of Oprah on Dutch TV with of one of my favourite actors: Meg Ryan. OMG what did she do to herself? What the hell is wrong with people? They are afraid of getting older and then decide they need plastic surgery? People: we all get older and then we all die! Get over it! This is so wrong: she looks like a duck! Anyway: more horror can befound here: http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com. Man, I’m so disappointed here. “Vanity is definitely my favorite sin.”— Lucifer, aka Al Pacino, from “The Devil’s Advocate” Before After
To HDTV of not to HDTV
Just fake it! With the World Soccer Championship coming up this June, a lot of people are buying have found an alibi to buy a spanking brand new TV. And of course this means people are going from the old fashioned analog CRT TV to that new flatpanel digital LCD or Plasma TV. But finding and buying a good TV is not so easy. There is a lot of technical mumbo jumbo involved and it seems everyone is trying to dazzle and confuse us with tech terms. It starts of course with the question, which is better: Plasma or LCD? […]