Bloggers@large

So there I was. Unemployed. But the twist is bigger than you expect. In the previous weeks I had been looking for a new job. And guess what: the same day I got fired, I got hired! How did all this happen? Well just read on.. It all started when I got back from my vacation on July the 18th. I just started working 1 day and we had a sales meeting on the 19th. Our CEO announced there that our figures were off the scale (in a negative sense), so technically speaking we were bankrupt. However, there wasn’t any […]

What a day it has been! Yesterday they announced at my work that we’re going to fire 33 people. Since I survived the previous 4 reorganizations, I did not really expect that they would try to fire me as well. I mean: I’m one of the few (if not the only one) at my work that has any knowlegde of Internet and Internet applications in general. Then again: the way they announced it kind off made it look like a lottery. So low and behold: they fired my complete department (“solutions”) and sacked 35 people in total (2 of them […]

Ok, so I am a bit late with this subject, but the fallout of Katrina (no pun intended) occupied most of my blog the last weeks. Anyway: afterall there was something stirring at Apple. But it wasn’t the big one (it has been rumoured that Apple will come with it’s own video iPod or iTunes Movies). Instead the hoopla was about yet another iPod, the Nano, and the Motorola Rokr, the first Phone with iTunes. Just weeks before that Apple tried to create a stir by claiming they “reinvented” the mouse by introducing “the mighty mouse”. Now, it so happens […]

Some pretty surprising news today, when eBay announced its plans to buy Skype, the peer-to-peer VOIP enterprise from the same guys that launced Kazaa some years ago. The deal has the makings of the kind of bilion dollar deals that were made at the highpoint of the Internet hype in the end of the ’90’s. Like many others I do not get the deal at all. However, according to eBay’s own justification of the deal, “markets are conversations” and “enabling the conversation” enables the market and eBay is the new market. And if trust is king, then being able to […]

Blogcast #5 2005-09-11 19:00 approx. 30 min. show. Today’s shownotes: 4 years after 9/11 Katrina music: “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp Dutch judicial scandal

While Katrina was dominating the headlines all over the world, another scandal has occupied the Dutch media: the story of an innocent man (31) that was convicted to 18 years imprisonment for the murder of a 10 year old girl. A murder that he did not commit. A fact wellknow by the district attorney and the NFI (national forensic institute, the Dutch equivalent to CSI). Still, they put him in prison. More disturbing: there is evidence that this happens more often than we all think. As it turns out the DA knew all along that the person he was going […]

Since I wrote about Katrina’s aftermath, the looting, raping, shootings etc. a lot has happened. For starters, Bush got of his ass and kicked everything into gear. Now the storm has passed, stories keep pouring out and videos from tourist that got trapped are also published on the net. It is mind-boggling that more than 1 million people were evacuated and at least half a million – if not more – are homeless, jobless and left to their own devices. Amidst all this one photo that I saw on flickr struck me in particular. It shows the whole drama in […]

Dear Mr. President: New Orleans is angry An open letter to the president from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, published Sunday NEW ORLEANS — Dear Mr. President: We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, “What is not working, we’re going to make it right.” Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism. Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and […]

Friday, September 2nd, 2005 Vacation is Over… an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush Friday, September 2nd, 2005 Dear Mr. Bush: Any idea where all our helicopters are? It’s Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag. Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the […]

A few days before Katrina hit land, I told my girlfriend Carrie that I had a bad feeling about this storm. Not only was it one of the most powerfull in decades, it was heading straight for some heavily populated areas. But what is happening now, in the aftermath of it all, is really ridiculous. The situation is just completely out of control. CNN reports that people are literally dying in front of them. Where the hell is National Guard, the military the government? Where the hell is Bush? I am outraged by the situation. I was just roughly one […]