geekdinner pictures

Geekdinner pictures

Belgisch internet register

Vandaag ontving mijn BVBA weer een brief van het belgisch internet register. Blijkbaar zijn deze oplichters nog steeds bezig om alle bedrijven jaarlijks voor 958 euro op te lichten. Nota: Er bestaat geen belgisch internet register!!
Voor meer informatie over deze flagrante oplichters, lees gerust Clickx (december 2005), DiskIdee (maart 2007), of anderen. Het staat ook op dns.be en je kan luisteren naar een gedupeerde vrouw op radio 2.

Kan iemand me vertellen waarom deze firma nog steeds bestaat ? Waarom zitten die oplichters niet achter tralies ?

dierenleed

Raymond blogt over de schande genaamd stierengevechten in Spanje.

Awel Raymond, ik hoop dat je dan ook in Belgie geen eurocent opdoet; De "jacht" op fazanten is weer begonnen. Ken je dat fazanten ? Dat zijn van die lieve (neen niet uitgezet hoor!) beestjes die uit mijn hand komen eten als ik met de hond ga wandelen. Met "jagen" als werkwoord heeft dat al lang niets meer te maken.

"Jamaar Paul, er zijn toch teveel everzwijnen, die mag je dan toch afschieten ?" Ja, er zijn ook teveel politiekers. Ik ken trouwens niemand die al ooit een levend wild everzwijn heeft gezien.

"Jamaar Paul, jagers zorgen toch voor een evenwicht in de natuur ?" Neen, de natuur heeft miljoenen jaren lang voor een evenwicht gezorgd, zonder het bestaan van jagers.

muziek

Geachte muziekindustrie,

U bent weer bezig met een nieuw project. Verspil deze kans niet, en luister naar uw klanten. Uw klanten willen hun muziek overal in elk toestel kunnen afspelen. Uw klanten willen betalen om muziek te bezitten, niet om deze te huren of te 'licensen' voor beperkte duur. En uw klanten willen keuze, geen CD's met drie goeie en acht slechte songs.

Beste muziekindustrie, u weet hopelijk dat sinds Napster eind jaren negentig het technisch makkelijk is voor al uw klanten om CD's zelf samen te stellen. Dit is misschien illegaal, maar we mochten in den tijd toch ook cassettekes copieren ?

Beste muziekindustrie, ik zou graag deze CD bestellen:

Bill Wyman - Je suis un rock star
Carly Simon - You're so vain
Doobie Brothers - Listen to the music
Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue sky
Gerard Lenorman - Voici les cles
Janis Ian - Fly too High
John Fogerty - The old man down the road
Juice Newton - Queen of Hearts
Kim Carnes - Bette Davis eyes
Kinks - Come dancing
Matt Bianco - Get out of your lazy bed
Michel Sardou - Les Lacs du Connemara
Squeeze - Cool for cats
Starship - We built this city
Steely Dan - Do it again
Stray Cats - Runaway boy
The Sweet - Ballroom Blitz

Hoe kan ik deze CD legaal kopen ? Liefst met de audio in 1983 topkwaliteit, niet in 2005 remastering kak !

Slashdot party

The root of all evil was at our Slashdot party in Antwerp (Kulminator). Kris is paranoia: the Borg drone was there by accident! Anyway, i don't believe in conspiracies. Philip thinks we upset him...i don't think so.

Imho we should have offered him a beer and a CD to open his eyes.

What ? Too many links ? ;-)

C-spot

Jawatte, mijn C-spot is niet zo poetisch als die van Peter of Vera.

De conclusie is ook niet juist, want ik ga niet met tegenzin naar cultuur. Als ik geen zin heb, dan ga ik niet! Of ik een doorzetter ben is ook al twijfelachtig, maar concentreren kan ik wel goed. En ja, ik probeer inderdaad alles te doorgronden...soms lukt dat zelfs ;-)

tegels & tiles

ENG: 95 percent of the greenhouse is covered. Just finishing up the corners (yes i left the tile cutting as the last thing to do). This pic shows the pipes from the floor heating.
VLA: 95 procent van de veranda is betegeld. Nu alleen nog de kantjes en hoekjes (het lastige werk op het einde). Hier de collector van de vloerverwarming (achter het aanrecht).



ENG: Some cutting required (and done hehe) here.
VLA: Hier kwam wat snijwerk aan te pas.


VLA: Deze was een mooie snij-uitdaging (voor een beginner).
ENG: This was a nice cutting-challenge (for a rookie).

Apetrots op Antwerpen

Hey kijk, een blog voor Antwerpen(aars) over Antwerpen(aars). Merci Koen.

(on)veilig internet bankieren

twee jaar geleden heb ik een mini-kraak-de-bank demo gemaakt samen met CC.
http://www.cobbaut.be/hackingthebank/hackingthebank.html

Nu braagt de VRT (Terzake) om dit ne keer uit te leggen op TV, met een mooie demo. Uitleggen wil ik wel doen, maar om een mooie TV demo te maken heb ik nu geen tijd. (ik ben trouwens veel te weinig met web-development bezig)

Iemand zin om de VRT te helpen met een simpel scenario. (bijvoorbeeld email sturen met fake link naar mooie werkende phishing website)

Dit om aan te tonen dat mensen voorzichtig moeten zijn.

Via Via borrel 3

Gisteren naar de derde Via Via borrel in Antwerpen geweest. Er waren een kleine dertig mensen voor een gezellige babbel, en voor mij een kans om de sfeer in Antwerpen nog eens op te snuiven. De meeste aanwezigen zijn couchsurfers, (ben hospitality club niet vergeten) de bloggers waren zwaar in de minderheid.

Vorige keer was er sprake om de namenlijst te linken naar hun blogs...bij deze een poging:
Anne en Vera
Peter
Serge (waar zat ge ?)
Monique (gaat beginnen aan een blog met filmrecencies)
Anamcara

huis en Waarschootse bloggers

Mijn huis staat nu op immoweb, era, vlan, en wie weet nog andere...

De bloggers uit Waarschoot en Waarschoot hebben het weer zitten...

The final frontier

Space, the final frontier...another controversial subject ;-)

Why does our country have borders ? It used to be to defend against evil invaders, enemies and thieves, looters and vikings. But ask the question today...Why do countries like Belgium, France or Germany have borders ? There are no enemies to keep out, no armies serving napoleonistic kings, and the vikings are no longer a threat.

What would happen when there are no borders ? A lot of immigrants would come, because there is a lot of wealth here. Our wealth would be distributed among more people, this means less money for us...and there is the magic word...we would lose money without borders. Borders protect our wealth, and we don't want to share our wealth with strangers from other countries.

Think about it, the only reason for the existence of European borders (and this includes paper/passport/permit borders), is because we don't want to share the wealth in which we are by sheer luck born.

So start feeling guilty, start sharing some of your wealth.
Get a plan child : http://www.plan-international.org
Get a decent bank account : http://www.triodos.com
Learn about Fair Trade

House for sale

My house is for sale.
It is located near Tienen, about 20 minutes from Leuven/Bertem on the E40. It has 110m2 downstairs: living room 8x4, buro 4x4, hall 4x2, stairs, toilet, veranda with kitchencorner 8x7; and 60m2 upstairs (three large bedrooms with straight walls, bathroom with bathtub), and an attic of 60m2 (nothing there yet, but possibility to create three more rooms) and a cellar of 60m2 (five caves). Ah, and a huge garage measuring 20x10m!
According to the immo's Era, Aldimo and Century 21 the house is worth around 255.000 euro. I will sell it for 235.000 if you contact me (0478/222.686) before i sign a contract with any of these agencies.

Linux trainer wanted

Looking for a Linux teacher to teach basic System Administration next week!

If you can teach Linux System Administration (intro philosophy, hardware, install from cdrom, managing disks, boot and init, ps, top, nice, rpm, users, groups, file security, tcp/ip, intro to services like apache/samba) next week in Evere (Brussels), then please contact Birgit or Veronique asap on this phone number 02 745 58 40.

suicide

I know, suicide is a very controversial subject. In Belgium suicide is the first cause of death for people between 24 and 35 years young. Every year more than a hundred Belgians jump in front of a train to end their life.

Why do they do it ? Because they want to end their suffering ? Because their life is more suffering than joy ? But why jump in front of a train, traumatizing the driver and blocking public transportation ? Is there no easier solution ?

I guess killing oneself is not so easy. People in general don't like pain. So they search for a painless death. This makes me wonder whether Drion's Pill is a viable solution.

Drion's Pill would allow people to end their life in a painless way. It would prevent people from jumping of buildings, jumping in front of trains or hanging themselves for some traumatized person to find them.

So why does this pill not exist ? Why is it not available ? Because people that want to die need to be cured ? This is indeed the general conception among the living...people that want to commit suicide are sick and need help. Well i have to disagree there...if they want to die, let them, and give them a normal and clean solution to end their life.

...i told you it was a controversial subject.

Driving a car (Ka or Kia)

Driving a car in Belgian traffic equals taking a risk. Thousands of people die in traffic, tens of thousands get hurt badly.

When i was driving my little purple Ford Ka the past two years, i was getting really afraid. Other cars were always trying to pass me, anywhere, sometimes doing dangerous maneuvers. A couple of times, a big Mercedes or BMW takes a highway exit only centimeters before my bumper...i guess the little purple car acts like a magnet on big cars...they *have* to take any exit *before* the little purple car (even though it would be a lot easier to just stay behind).
Another example are roundabouts, very often big cars would enter the roundabout right before the little purple car, so i had to break to avoid an accident.



So i changed cars, sold the Ford Ka, and bought a big black Kia Sportage, to feel safer in traffic. But guess what ? Nobody tries to exit a highway centimeters before the Kia. Nobody enters a roundabout so i have to break.

After two months with the Kia Sportage, it is clear to me. This car gets a lot of room on the road. I feel a lot safer in this big car, but i also notice a lot more respect from other cars.

poor silly hedgehog

A couple of nights ago, Wolf was barking strangely in the garden. I went out, and noticed a rare growling and jumping...not her regular-it-is-dark-so-i-bark bark.

So i put her inside, and went back, only to discover a big rolled up hedgehog. I kept her inside till morning (as always). The hedgehog was gone.

Until a couple of minutes ago...the "i have a trespassing hedgehog in my mouth so i growl" growl was there. (I didn't see her actually biting it a couple of days ago, but now she was holding it in her mouth). I immediately tried to get her away from it, hoping she didn't hurt the animal. When she-Wolf "why can't i play with trespassers?!" was inside the house, i went back to investigate. The hedgehog is wounded, hopefully not too bad.

If it is still alive (and in my garden) tomorrow, then i will take it to a vet. Picture taken minutes ago...

Poor hedgehog, because it is hurt. Silly hedgehog, because it came back to the big-bad-Wolf.

Click the picture for a bigger view.

update 28/8/2007 : Hedgehog was not there this morning.

dog pictures

Let's start with two pictures of my little Wolf chewing on a bone (click the picture for a larger version).




And finish with Bull Terrier Puppies. (got these pictures from a friend).

dogsitting

I like dogsitting for Max, besides the nice pictures, Max is also good company for Wolf.Wolf is becoming very good at listening to sit and stay, whereas Max still needs to figure out what stay means. But we're making progress!

open standards

Open standards are a very nice thing to have. Open standards enable easy communication between different computers.

In 1969 some intelligent people decided to write down these open standards. They decided that all information necessary to support (read program) an open standard would be written down in a clear way (in plain text).

In 1981 they wrote an open standard for internet communication named IP (or Internet Protocol). This open standard enables all computers to connect to the internet.

In 1982 they wrote an open standard for using names on the internet (DNS or Domain Name System). Everybody uses the same open standard for names.

In 1982 they also wrote an open standard for sending e-mail. All computers can send and receive each others e-mail, because they all use the same open standard.

In 1984 they wrote an open standard to share and copy files between all computers on a local network. It enables all computers to share and copy files.

During the eighties, a lot of companies (Novell, IBM, Microsoft, DEC, ...) tried to impose their own undocumented systems for communication. They all failed, except one... Microsoft.

In 1987 Microsoft wrote an open standard describing their way of sharing and copying files.

Standards are a nice thing, since they enable everyone to communicate. Except for the 1987 Microsoft standard. People noticed, that the standard was incomplete, and they asked Microsoft about that. Microsoft never completed the standard.

So today, we have thousands of open standards that everyone can use, and we have near-monopoly-Microsoft refusing to co-operate with an open system that worked well for over thirty years.

All computers can communicate with each other in every way possible (names, internet, e-mail, www, sharing files, opening documents...). Only Microsoft keeps their standards secret.

Microsoft fooled the world more than once already...and they are at it again!
Help maintain real open standards (avoid the fake ones).