What a phenomenal stunt by my favorite TV-show – ever – about cars: Top Gear. This Sunday they started their 13th season with a great publicity stunt. They finally ‘revealed’ who the infamous “Stig” is. After driving a Ferrari FXX supercar around the track in the best time ever (1.10.7), the Stig came into the studio and took of his white helmet, showing the world his face for the first time. And no – it wasn’t Susan Boyle. It was Michael Schumachers face. But before you run out the house and start shouting “I see dumb people” because you “knew it […]
Speednames? No they are not.
Here’s a true story in the category “customer support hell”. It is one of those stories where you would swear that people are actually instructed to do anything but assist you and get a kick out of that. A prime example of customer harassment instead of service. So what’s the deal? Back in 2003 I decided to register my last name as a domain name. Because the .NL domain name was already taken, I decided to register the .COM domain. I used a Danish company for this called “Speednames” (part of Ascio which is part of the UK Group NBT […]
Mashup the music
Ok, this post is actually a blatant excuse to try out a WordPress plugin called “µAudio Player” that I just installed and enables me to attach MP3 files within my postings here at Bloggers@large. One could use that for Podcasting or, like I have done below, attaching audio files that I would like to share with you readers (or should that be “listeners”?). In this case I have inserted one file from the famous (or infamous) “mashup” artist who calls himself “Mighty Mike” and made a bootleg mashup of Duffy’s “Mercy” and the classic Police song “Roxanne”. I think that […]
Heckler & Koch P30L review
I recently bought a Heckler & Koch P30L 9mm pistol and decided to make a Youtube video about it. The gun is pretty nice (or at least I think so) and so far it works pretty well for me. Heckler & Koch P30L 9mm pistol with V3 triggergroup. Semi-automatic 9mm handgun. 9mm x 19 Modified Browning locking system 4.45″ barrel (11,3 cm) 15 round capacity (or 16: 15 +1 in chamber) V3 triggergroup: Conventional SA/DA trigger without cocking piece in the hammer with spur and centrally arranged de-cocking latch Exchangeable backstrap inserts and grip shells (S/M/L) fiber-reinforced polymer receiver Ambidextrous […]
Funk it up with Maceo Parker
Just came back from Amsterdam, Paradiso concert hall, where my friend Sander and me went to go see “funkmaster” Maceo Parker. Boy, can that guy still play the sax! Although he’s 66 now, he’s still touring like crazy. When you visit Maceo Parker’s website, and check his schedule, you’ll see what I mean. As usual when he visits Paradiso, Dutch Saxophone diva Candy Dulfer came over to play some numbers with Maceo. Not a big surprise, because when we arrived we both saw her walking out the building with her boyfriend.
Express yourself with Linux
I love computers. I love to experiment with Linux. And I love it when people create something that expresses both their technological knowledge as well as their aesthetic abilities. Linux is so diverse and gives you the unique opportunity to completely mold a system to your liking. So when I was surfing the web, reading about all new Linux distributions, I came across this video for “Elive”, a Debian based Linux version, using the Enlightenment window manager. As always with Enlightenment you can control the smallest parts of it. Some say that’s the problem with Linux because you can lose […]
Do the Google Wave
Forget about Bing. Do the Google Wave! While the evil forces of steve Ballmer were introducing their feeble attempt to regain control over the Internet with their search engine ‘answer machine’ Bling Bing, Google had their own party. While Steve was trying to do his best to convince the press why Bing will be important, Google VP of Engineering was rocking with his own keynote speech. The same developers that gave us Google Maps (it’s just brilliant), came up with a new technology called “Wave”. And yes, as with all Google products, its going to be available for everyone and there will […]
Bing?
Seems like Microsoft is still trying to get back in the race for dominating the Internet. Or should I say: trying to beat Google? I haven’t been following too much of this, as I have been quite busy lately, but it seems that Microsoft is working on a new search engine technology called… “Bing“. That’s right folks; not ‘bling bling’ but ‘Bing‘. Last Thursday (May 28th), Steve Ballmer (yes, him again) revealed this latest attempt to catch up with Google and make good on their completely failed “Live” search engine. Bing is based on the technology from a firm called […]
Bye bye Leno!
Last night a legacy of 17 years ended when Tonight Show host Jay Leno aired his last talk show. I have always been more of a Leno guy than a The Late Show with David Letterman, guy. I guess it is essentially a ‘East coast’ versus ‘West coast’ thing (or republican vs democrat). For a while both shows where on the Dutch TV, but then suddenly stopped. So I always tried to watch a couple of his shows whenever I was visiting my girlfriend in the US. It will be interesting to see how Leno will keep up with his […]
Terminator Salvation (for the franchise?)
I remember it like yesterday. It was 1984 and I was 17. I was skipping class to go see this movie called “The Terminator” with this guy called Arnold Schwarzenegger, who’s two previous movies – Conan the Barbarian (’82) and Conan the Destroyer (’84) – I had seen as well. So, me and this friend of mine, head out to the theather in Amsterdam, got us some popcorn and sat back to enjoy the ride. And what a ride it was. The storyline was provocative and intelligent. The action was non-stop. The characters where cool. What else would one want? Afterwards […]