Bloggers@large

Oh yes: 8mb! Oh yes. These are the moments I do not regret getting my 8mbit ADSL and leaving behind the shitty service of UPC cable Internet 🙂 As I have mentioned before I do experiment a lot with Linux. I find it a fascinating OS because – in general – it’s rocksolid, has hardly any pesky virii (yes, that’s spelled correctly) and the best of all: it’s FREE! To experiment with my USB 2.5″ harddisk (40gb) I needed the latest CD version of Knoppix: a Linux distribution that runs straight of the CD. So I looked up a mirror […]

Free calls? Common wisdom states that “there is no such thing as a ‘free’ lunch”. And I firmly believe that. For instance, take “Airmiles”. In essence you just pay more for whatever products you buy. That money goes into a big marketing scheme that tells you you can save for “free” products. Yeah right. You payed for them yourself. Now here is an interesting pitch: call around the world to regular landlines or mobile phones, using your PC… And it’s for free!? Sounds like a scam? Well, it seems not. This company calling itself “Voipbuster: the free calls phone company” […]

“Use the Open Source Luke!” According to C|Net, the Open Source movement is gaining momentum. Or so people were told at the Orlando Florida Gartner’s annual Symposium/ITExpo conference on monday. Personally I think that a lot of organizations are not fully using Open Source to their advantage. To me it would make a lot of sense if – especially – the many non-profit organizations would use it more! For instance: take office environments. They would benefit from using Open Office (either on Linux or Windows). If I had to run a non-profit organization, I would make sure the desktop OS […]

Love or chemistry? I stumbled upon some interesting articles about the chemistry of ‘love’. As people have struggled for years to classify and explain what love is, there now seems a scientific explanation for it. It does take away the magic a bit. But it is rather fascinating when you read it. It may even explain why some couples remain faithfull and why others don’t. (If you want to skip the rest of my excerpt, you can go straight to the whole story by following this link to the story called “I get a kick out of you”). So what’s […]

Blogcast #6 2005-10-13 19:00 approx. 20 min. show. The Apple “1 More thing” Special Today’s shownotes: Act 1: the new iMac Act 2: the new iPod line-up Act 3: the new iTunes 6.0 1 more thing… See Steve Jobs presentation in streaming video format.

Insane ideas When I first read about the movie “What the #$*! Do we know?!” I was rather exited to get the DVD and go see it. Like most people I have been looking for some time to explain the world and my part in it. According to reviews the ‘indie’ film “What the bleep” attempts to explain this by focusing on quantum physics. Oh my. Where the film starts out by simply pointing out some of the extraordinary things that have emerged from the study of matter at a quantum (sub-molecular) level, it goes soon into unscientific (and utterly […]

G.W. “Dumbass” Bush Now here is some good news: the US Senate voted overwhelmingly for an amendment to a Pentagon spending bill that sets standards for the treatment of prisoners in U.S. military custody. The measure, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, will require American troops to follow interrogation standards set in the Army Field Manual and bar “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” of prisoners in U.S. custody. The amendment also standardizes how service members detain and interrogate terrorism suspects. On Wednesday night, senators voted 90-9 to include the provision to the $440 billion Defense Department spending bill. Earlier, White […]

Chris Walken – dancing! If I had to make a top ten list of actors I admire and like, Christopher Walken would definately be in it. Although he is in his 60’s now (d.o.b. March 31 1943) he still packs a great screen presence. So I was pretty suprised to learn he used to be a tap-dancer once and displayed his dancing abilities in a videoclip by Fatboy Slim in 2001! Anyway, you can check that out for yourself, here is the url for the Astralworks website and the videoclip called “Weapon of Choice”. If you like skip that and […]

Human Rights Now! Ladies and Gentlemen, if this news turns out to be true, it is the stupidiest thing ever! Yesterday the US senate, in an extraordinary move, passed the measure forbidding torture by 90 to nine, with most Republicans backing the measure. Most senators said the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and similar allegations at the Guantanamo Bay prison rendered the result a foregone conclusion. Ok, that sounds good right? Well, according to the British Newspaper The Telegraph Bush “plegded” yesterday that he will veto the law. The vote, according to the Telegraph, was one of the largest and best […]

One more thing? Yes! This must be the big thing we all have been waiting for! After Apple put us on the wrong path with the iPod Nano and the Motorla ROKR last time, they have now extended an invitation-only event for October 12th! Will it be to let loose some new iPods—perhaps more capacious and featuring Bluetooth/A2DP headphone support? Or will it be for some new high-end Macs? Or both? Or neither? Looking at the invitation itself (click on it for a larger image) it does suggest that maybe – really maybe – finally the video iPod will be […]