As of yesterday the Dutch government, together with the RIVM (the Dutch equivalent of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC) have decided they will no longer test all people with flue symptoms for the A/H1N1 virus, or give them anti-viral medication, such as Tamiflu. According to a spokesman for the RIVM they have decided to adopt this new policy because the number of infections in Holland has become so large, the labs that test for the virus can’t handle the work. Excepted from the new policy are pregnant women, people who have a lowered immune system and […]
A/H1N1 underestimated?
Scientist are now publicly debating the fact that they have underestimated the swine flu (A/H1N1). One wonders what this means. After all: the WHO has already declared A/H1N1 a pandemic. What else would they need to understand the severity of the situation? Are we being kept in the dark by authorities on purpose? The news is getting more unsettling recently: so far the virus has been fatal for people that had a previous illness where in a weak condition already. But in England two three previously healthy persons have now died of A/H1N1. One girl, aged 6,died within 48hrs after […]
Google Chrome OS hype
Big news in IT land today. Google announced officially it’s working on Chrome OS. As usual the press immediately translated this news into something like “Google declares war on Microsoft Windows”, which is complete and utter nonsense. I used to be a journalist myself and I find it increasingly annoying how the press nowadays is just giving a twist to news that is besides the truth. Just another hype then? Don’t get me wrong: I love competition and the choice for consumers that comes with it. But Chrome OS is not intended to compete with Windows per se, simply because […]
12 Monkeys part 2
The World Health Organization has declared the swine flu officially a pandemic (or alert phase 6) on June 11th. The first flu pandemic in 41 years and infections continue to climb in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere. The spread of the swine flu contagion has not yet reached scary “Resident Evil” like proportions, but I really think things will get pretty hairy out there! Even the famous Wimbledon tennis tournament is effected now, with a total of 28 staff that have been asked to stay at home with suspected swine flu! Surprisingly enough it is getting quieter […]
About Dilbert and Engineers
If your in the IT or technology business, you gotta love the Dilbert cartoons. Dilbert is a cartoon evolving round perfect office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring engineer Dilbert. There are many, many very recognizable situations in the cartoon and I am 100% sure that anyone that ever had a job will recognize several character trades in their colleagues and – especially – their management. What I didn’t know, is that there were also Dilbert cartoons on TV and on the Dilbert Website. I didn’t know this until I came across a posting on another blog that featured […]
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 […]
Twitter shitter
It’s funny how people think very different about using Twitter. After all the new social networks like MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and Hyves (most popular in Holland), one might think the market for these kind of initiatives would be full. So when Twitter came out in 2006, I did not see the relevance of it. I mean: who wants the restriction of posting within 140 characters – including spaces? It is like SMS for the Web. Needless to say, I wasn’t convinced that there was a need for ‘micro-blogging‘ as it was soon dubbed. Also: who is interested in all this personal […]
12 Monkeys
12 Monkeys I don’t know about you, but ever since that ‘swine flu’ broke out in Mexico, I can’t help thinking of that 1995 movie “12 Monkeys”, by Terry Gilliam. The movie is set in a grim post-apocalyptic future. In 1996-1997, the Earth’s surface was contaminated by a virus so deadly that it forced the surviving population to live underground. If you have seen the movie, you probably remember that it turns out that the virus was spread by an evil scientist, set on a tour of cities (by plane), which turned out to be the path of the worldwide viral outbreak. A real bioterrorist attack, […]
Mobile me
So, as of this week I have 6 mobile phones in my ‘collection’. But I have owned exactly a dozen cell phones so far. And it all started in late ’95 or ’96 (I’m not 100% sure) when a Dutch company called Libertel started to compete with KPN (the only Dutch mobile phone provider at that time). They offered affordable rates at 0,25 (Guilders) cents a minute. So I got my first cellphone; an Alcatel HB100 or as I called it; “my litle brick”. Because that is what it looked like. It wasn’t the best phone and it had a fairly poor […]