Bijlmer by night
Bijlmer by night; taken 3 nights ago. This is the entrance to the underground car parking.
Jan 1, 2004 @ 16:24 » no comments » Photo
First snow
Snow's a good start of the year I think. It's been snowing lightly all day, but now it's getting colder, the snow is finally taking hold on colder objects such as cars. Hopefully tomorrow morning, we'll have more snow and we can go for a walk.
Jan 1, 2004 @ 16:34 » 1 comment » Photo
Crack
Soon...
Jan 7, 2004 @ 13:23 » 2 comments » Sitestuff
Markup
Say, you covet a certain product that is manufactured somewhere and sold worldwide. Simplifying matters somewhat, the price of such a product is determined by the cost of materials, manufacturing, shipping, plus a markup that is the manufacturer's profit. So why are we paying so much more for electronics that come from Asia here in Europe, compared to the US? Some examples:
The 40 GB iPod sells in the Dutch Apple Store for €548,99, while the American Apple Store lists a price of $499. Now, if €1 would be worth just as much as $1, it might be different taxes, or something like that. However, something that costs $499, should sell for €397, effectively a price markup of €150. To put it differently, €548,99 is $703. Would Americans cough up 700-plus dollars for a 40GB iPod? Few would I recon...
Another example: the Canon Ixus 400 (which I recently bought). Amazon lists it for $400, prices in Dutch stores range from €440 to €580. However, $400 would have to mean a price of €318; and conversely, €440 would have to mean a price of $564.
Apart from other issues such as different voltages and power plugs, Apple won't ship stuff from their American store to Europe and neither will Amazon ship electronics across the Atlantic. Sigh... it's not fair.
Jan 8, 2004 @ 10:30 » 3 comments » General
Lord of the Rings research
Did you go see the third part, The Return of the King, of the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Help out some of my colleagues and fill out the Lord of the Rings Research Questionnaire. Dutch participants can use the Dutch version of the questionnaire.
Feel free to spread the news of this research :)
Jan 8, 2004 @ 12:28 » no comments » Research
Crack 2
I'm rediscovering black and white; but there is a lot to learn about doing b/w digitally.
Jan 12, 2004 @ 13:24 » 1 comment » Photo
Flotsam and jetsam
I love language(s). Flotsam and jetsam are two wonderful words with an evocative history. Always good to know a little more:
Your colleagues at work may jokingly refer to the flotsam and jetsam in your office but, technically speaking, they would be wrong unless you were truly adrift or sinking. Flotsam in maritime law applies to wreckage or cargo left floating on the sea after a shipwreck. Jetsam applies to cargo or equipment thrown overboard (jettisoned) from a ship in distress and either sunk or washed ashore. The common phrase flotsam and jetsam is now used loosely to describe any objects found floating or washed ashore.
Jan 13, 2004 @ 11:11 » no comments » General
Barst
I've started a new blog, Barst, in Dutch. Just in case you're wondering, "barst" is the Dutch word for a crack or a fissure.
There will be some changes around here. This English weblog will move to another directory and there will be a new index page for the whole domain. Also, the content and direction of this weblog will be changing, but more about that later.
Jan 13, 2004 @ 19:27 » no comments » Sitestuff
FreeBSD
Well, you could wait for it. First he starts obsessing over achieving the best high octane espresso, then he installs Linux on a spare partition, and now he starts mumbling about FreeBSD. Well, this is just a "for future reference" link, but let's hope it doesn't get any worse soon...
Matt Fuller wrote a nice BSD for Linux Users article, detailing the differences in the philosophies behind the various BSD and Linux flavors. I discovered that BSD is the "origin" of the "Ports" system for managing and keeping up to date the additional installed software. This is very similar to Gentoo's "Portage" system that initially drew me to the Gentoo distribution, which I abandoned when the installer wasn't very clear about how it would deal with my Windows partition. Anyway, it seems that at some point I will have to check out FreeBSD.
Jan 18, 2004 @ 15:53 » 4 comments » Software
The Internet is English
It's time again for the 2004 Bloggies weblog awards (via Liz). There are only four non-English weblogs nominated. Three Spanish weblogs and one Portuguese weblog in the "Best Latin American weblog" category. All the European weblogs are in English. Four token "ethnic" weblogs then. Where are all the other languages?
I don't know how exactly the nomination procedure went, but it seems we could have submitted non-English weblogs between January 1 and 12, but there appears no system in place for dealing with those non-English weblogs. I wonder how the "three panels of 50 voters" could judge Dutch, Norwegian, and Polish weblogs on their merits, had they received enough nominations. The result is that, judging from the 2004 Bloggies, the Blogosphere, and by extension the internet, appears overwhelmingly English.
In order to receive some recognition for your weblogging efforts, you either have to blog in English, or you will have to depend on a localized version of the Bloggies, such as the Dutch Bloggies (2002 and 2003). There is no subtitling for weblogs and nobody likes subtitling much anyway. Language is a better barrier than any, ever so porous, geographical border, and, I guess, online more so even than offline, because online we lack both our physical bodies — to wave, point, grunt, and raise eyebrows — and the necessity to make ourselves understood in a surrounding where nobody speaks your language.
Jan 20, 2004 @ 17:57 » 1 comment » Blogosphere
Unfortunate naming
Google quietly launches an online social network... eh... thingy. Kind of like Friendster. They call it Orkut, after the first name of the lead programmer on the project. Now, maybe "orkut" doesn't sound all that great in English, but in Dutch (translated back into English) it sounds pretty much like "orc cunt". Hmm...
Jan 23, 2004 @ 16:05 » no comments » General
Ikea walkthrough
IKEA is a fully immersive, 3D environmental adventure that allows you to role-play the character of someone who gives a shit about home furnishings. In traversing IKEA, you will experience a meticulously detailed alternate reality filled with garish colors, clear-lacquered birch veneer, and a host of NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS (NPCs) with the glazed looks of the recently anesthetized.
The Ikea walkthrough, brilliant! Scary too, because I can walk to the nearest Ikea from home in about 15 minutes. I'm probably revealing too much, but we even go there occasionally for a cheap dinner of swedish meatballs or gravad lax when we don't feel like cooking (via BoingBoing).
Jan 25, 2004 @ 23:25 » no comments » General
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