What if: Steve Jobs and his iPad in Dragon’s Den

Here in Holland (and in many other countries) we have a series of reality television programmes called “Dragon’s Den“, featuring ‘wannabe’ entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas in order to secure investment finance from a panel of venture capitalists. It is quite a fun format: the contestants always (think they) have a very profitable business idea, but just lack funding (one can wonder why). So they pitch their idea to five (very) rich, successful entrepreneurs: aka the “dragons”. Before each show the contestants name an amount of money that they need to get, and the rules are that if they do not raise at […]

2011 here we come

Here we go again: yet another year has past us by and we’re all still here. Given all the problems we had in 2010 it’s a small miracle I would say. Hopefully 2011 will be the year of recovery. Recovery from the economic crisis. Recovery from the natural disasters. Recovery after a year in which Holland suddenly turned into a  right-winged, prejudiced, short-sighted country bringing a frustrated nut-case to power. So, on the threshold of a new year it is good to leave all that was bad about the past year behind us and move on. So, to all my readers: a happy new […]

Information wants to be free

Todays arrest of Julian Assange the infamous journalist, internet activist, whistleblower and WikiLeaks frontman, shows exactly why citizens of so called democratic countries should mistrust their governments. You don’t have to believe in conspiracy theories to see that this case is the perfect proof that the US Government  will stop at nothing to keep their dirty secrets from leaking out. And somehow they have Sweden on their side: a very strange ally. Something extraordinary is going on. The allegations – that’s all they are right now – against Assange would normally never have lead to Interpol issuing an international arrest […]

TEDx Amsterdam started

One of the cooler events on this planet – the TEDx conference – has started in Amsterdam. TEDx is a spin-off from the famous TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) conferences that are held regularly in the USA. As TED gained massive popularity due to the interesting speakers and subjects, it is almost impossible to get a ticket. As an alternative TEDx is an independent program that offers people to enjoy a TED-like experience with TEDx Events they organize, design and host themselves. For those that can not attend the TEDx Amsterdam, here is a live stream so you can follow […]

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

For those that don’t speak French: the title of this post is based on the national motto of France (and Haiti) and means: “Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood)”. The origins lie in the French Revolution (1789–1799) and I always found it a very nice motto. Men and women are all equal – regardless of age, race or country of origin. The reason I bring this up is that I was amazed to find out that in the USA there is no law that says you have to pay women an equal amount if they perform the same work as their male […]

Occam’s razor

Here’s how you spark a true Internet meme: you spot something funny in an old B&W 1928 Charly Chaplin movie, post it on the Internet (YouTube) together with a ridiculous explanation. And with this simple post the guy gets over 4 million hits and a lot of debate, varying from plain stupid to intriguing. Just watch this video from this guy called George Clarke  (if you can make it past the annoying self-promotion – just skip it if you need) and hear and see what the fuzz is all about: So, did that make you go “Hmmm”? Don’t you think, […]

One light bulb

Say you are a landlord, and you rent out apartments. One day you walk by the building you own and you see that one of your tenants has left on a 1000 watt light bulb in one of his rooms, consuming an extraordinary amount of electricity, dimming the lights in all other appartments. Now, would you turn of the electricity to his whole apartment, knowing that this action will also turn of his fridge, aquarium etc., or would you try to notify the tenant first and let that tenant turn the light off himself but risking that it might take a while before that […]

In a Galaxy far, far away…

This June I wrote about getting a new smartphone.  I was about to buy an HTC Desire, when I (fortunately) decided to wait and see what Steve Jobs had to present on the Apple event that was taking place later that week (June 2010) . It happened to be the launch of the infamous new iPhone 4. I really got stoked about the iPhone 4 and so I decided to wait for it before I would buy an Android phone: I wanted an iPhone 4 badly! However: a few days after the official launch of the phone, reports started to […]

Dutch Skies

Yesterday I had the privilege to hop along with our CEO in a Lancair Columbia 300 airplane. Together with two fellow co-workers we made a very fun trip from Lelystad Airpoirt to Eelde (doing an instrument approach) and then flying back – on visual navigation – to Lelystad Airport via the city where I work: Purmerend. The weather was pretty nice, although we had some low clouds and overcast on the way to Eelde. However on our way back we flew towards clear skies and enjoyed the whole experience. Man, there is nothing cooler than seeing our own country from above. It’s so interesting […]