Now here is something you don’t see every day: a guy (at least we think it’s a guy) robs a bank in Long Island (NY) dressed as… Darth Vader. What? Yeah, I laughed at it as well. Makes you wonder: is Darth Vader trying to rebuild his Death Star? According to anonymous sources, Darth Vader explained himself to the bank employee saying: “I find my lack of money… Disturbing.” 🙂 Darth Vader really must have been low on cash: his getaway vehicle was a bicycle instead of a Tie Fighter. Anyway, here is a video report on the whole deal.
Anatomy of a song
Here is a little lesson in pure ’70’s pop-history that I came across and was fascinated with. As such I like to share this with you all. The British pop-group 10cc (known mostly from their song “Dreadlock Holiday“) released a song called “I’m not in love” on May 31st 1975. A time when synthesizers where not that common – yet. When you listen to the song however, it sounds very much like a modern day synthesizer was used. But it wasn’t. The unique sound the song has, was completely conceived using the technology available in 1975 – which included a moog synthesizer – and pushing […]
Don’t buy an iPhone 4 – yet
The soap surrounding “the best iPhone ever”, is nearing it’s climax. Apple is holding a press conference later today to address the problems with the iPhone 4. Rumour has it that Apple might appease customers by offering the “bumper case” (a flimsy plastic cover) to disgruntled buyers for free. Analysts do not expect Apple to announce a recall as that would probably be more damaging to the company even though a poll at the Wall Street Journal Online shows that about 60% of the readers think Apple should issue a recall. Analysts estimate that such a recall would cost Apple around […]
A heroes welcome
Holland may have lost the World Cup Soccer, but that’s not how the 800.000 people perceived it when they gave our National Soccer Team a heroes welcome this Tuesday. As I wrote before, the national team that won the European Soccer Cup back in 1988 received the same kind of welcome. To be honest: it gave me – and many of my fellow countrymen some closure. It also showed that we backed up our team, no matter what. And like in 1988 it also gave us some unique footage of literally hundred thousands of crazy Orange fans celebrating 🙂 As […]
National trauma number three
Normally three times is a charm, but for Holland it has become more like a curse: again we failed to win the Holy Grail of Soccer, the World Cup. After ’74, ’78, now 2010 goes into the Dutch history books as the third national soccer trauma. We all knew it was going to be a tough match against Spain – the ruling European Soccer Champions – but nothing in this world could have prepared us for this match. Until the final, the tournament went very well for Holland: our National team won 14 straight games, counting the qualifying matches and […]
D-Day for Dutch soccer team
Today is the chance for the Dutch national soccer team to write soccer history (in more than one way) by becoming the World Soccer Champions for the first time in Dutch history. In order to get this privilege we need to defeat the current European Soccer Champions: Spain. And that is going to be a very difficult task. It has been 32 (!) years since we played in the World Cup finals. We lost in 1978 (against Argentina) and our whole nation is eager to see us all win the World Cup this time, for the first time. Although everyone is […]
Apple’s response to Grip of Death: you’re holding your iPhone wrong
My initial enthousiasm for the iPhone 4 has faded within a week. Yes, once again Apple has lived up to it’s reputation of delivering bad crappy 1.0 products. No kidding: as long as I have been following Apple (basically since 2002) they have been delivering their new products with some sort of problem. So it’s no surprise that the beautiful iPhone 4 has problems as well. For starters the special glass casing (advertised as “…20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, the glass is ultradurable…”) seems to not nearly as scratch resistant as Steve Jobs wants us to […]
Home improvement Amazon.com style
If you ever ordered something from Amazon.com, or you have an account there, you know that Amazon likes to spam mail you with a lot “special deals” and such. Usually you receive them after you searched Amazon for something or just looked up a product or two. Anyway: the recommendations are usually spot on and do trigger users to buy more stuff (which is the whole idea off course). I think I heard somewhere it works automatically and somewhat along the lines of Google ads, that are triggered by your searches or – in Gmail – by keywords in your mail. This […]
Damn, I’m converted
Ok, <insert confession mode here> this is a big step for me, but I confess that I have been converted. I just saw the new iPhone 4 revealed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs as only he can do. It’s gorgeous – and – I want one. There, I said it. I want an iPhone. Finally iPhone is up to par – and now even trend setting – feature-wise – with other phones. They finally added multitasking (my phones did that 4 years ago already) and a front cam (both my Nokia E71 and HTC Diamond Pro have that already). But also a gyroscope, dual-mic […]
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated by the Orange Fever!
There is no escape. If you live in Holland you will get caught by the “Orange Fever” that currently sweeps our country. It happens every year on Queens Day, but even more so during any national or international sporting event that involves fellow Dutchmen. May it be soccer, cycling or – our national pride – skating. The phenomenon manifests itself very visually as people start wearing orange clothing, like T-shirts, hats, shawls etc.. Some people even paint their hair orange and decorate walls, rooms. Even whole houses and or the streets are adorned with orange beams. What most people do […]