The bird has landed

Finally OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been released.
Go and download at http://www.openoffice.org/

Open the fridge and feel the Breezy

Finally, it is October the 13th, which means that today the new release of Ubuntu Linux is there.
Version 5.10 codenamed Breezy Badger has finally arrived.


Yesterday some people of Ubuntu opened the Fridge, "Got something to report?" "Stick it on the fridge."

I am sorry for this short post, but my Ubuntu Linux CD has just finished burning, so I am heading for an install, I'll keep you informed.

(A picture of my fridge will follow when my sister returns from Rome and brings the digital camera back.)

OpenOffice.org into the water

I just read an announcement on OSNews.com linking to an article telling us that the OpenOffice.org team has decided to develope a port of their great office suite for Apple Mac OS X.
This is great news, now Macintosh users finally have a good alternative to Microsoft Office for the Mac and AppleWorks.
NeoOffice.org already took a shot at this goal with NeoOffice/J based on the old OpenOffice.org 1.x series, but seeing the OpenOffice.org developers giving a shot at it, is a bright perspective. If I understood it correctly it will look like the average ordinary Aqua application, which is a real improvement compared to NeoOffice/J which was only partially Aqua style.

Keep up the good work OOo.

CPUs designed for Operating Systems

That Linux and MS Windows are two opposites most of you will already know. When downloading a Linux distro one can choose between multiple CPU compiles, one for x86 CPUs, one for 64bit CPUs, one for PowerPC CPUs and probably a few others.
This is because different CPUs have different instruction sets and the Operating System needs to be compiled the right way to use these instruction sets.

Now what if we could turn this concept around and design the CPUs so they have the instruction sets the Operating Systems want? Sounds strange doesn't it.
Well let me tell you it does exist apparently. I received an old Compaq PC from a neighboor, he didn't need anymore and he knew I could probably use some parts, so he donated it to me. I was getting all the still useful parts out of it, floppy disk drive, cd-rom drive, sd-ram, cables, etc.
The CPU was passively cooled and had a nice heatsink, which a friend of mine was looking for for some time, so I decided to pull it of the CPU. And there it was a nice AMD-K6 looking me right in the eyes.

Nothing special about that, but when I examined the CPU a bit better after disposing it of the coolpaste I noticed something very strange. This CPU was designed for a specific Operating System, apparently AMD designed these CPUs for a specific Operating System.

Retro musicvideo's

Saturday a friend of mine visited and he had recorded some oldschool early 90s Eurodance musicvideo's at home. They are just great, he had one or two video's of 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor which were awsome.
But total nostalgia came when I saw the video from Twenty 4 Seven (Dutch Wikipedia only) called Slave To The Music with performers Nance (Dutch Wikipedia only) and Stay-C.

Oktoberfest

I just wounded up on a site searching for a GIMP plugin, and it had a webcam of the Oktoberfest in Bavaria Germany.

This website has got some pictures, and I must say one day I hope to go there to taste the atmosphere and the beer (of course).

Minor before major

I just read that Firefox 1.0.7 has been released and can be downloaded from the Mozilla homepage. It finally fixes the IDN bug, it is a good thing that the Firefox developers still have time to patch the 1.0.x series, and are not spending all their time on the upcoming 1.5.x series.

Because quick patches are important!

Erdinger

Today I was strolling around the Internet for half an hour when I decided to look for a place to buy Erdinger beer glasses. It is one of my favourite beers and I am used to drink these in a nearby club, in the original 0.5 liter glass.

So I was looking for a place to buy them and wounded up in the official Erdinger webshop.
On the 0.5 liter glass page I mentioned two links to other sized glasses, a 0.3 liter one and a 3.0 liter glass. And for a moment there, I thought it was a typo. So I clicked the 3.0 liter link and guess what they sell massive 3.0 liter beer glasses.

To get an idea of the size I searched for a picture, and found one using Google. To get a good illustration of the size the glasses are depicted next to a Pringles can.

Officer: "Why are you driving so reckless sir?"
Driver: "I don't know officer."
Officer: "How many beers did you drink sir?"
Driver: "Just one glass officer."
Officer: "I bet it was an Erdinger, now was it?"



Thanks go out to http://www.white-russian.nl/ for letting me use this picture.

Mini action by XS4All

Today I saw something really cool. The dutch internet provider XS4All always had nice actions to draw their attention.
The difference here is that most do this because their services are poor. But with XS this is not the case. I am already three years XS customer and very very very satisfied, never had a connection drop in these three years (well once when lightning struck our neighboors house). This is how a ISP should perform, and they also have real skilled technical helpdesk employees and all kinds of nice services.

The cool thing however is that they currently offer you a modem for free (nothing special), they do not charge any enrolment fees, and you get a technician at your door who installs everything. Or you choose not to get the technician and instead get a 130 euro discount on a Mac Mini, now how cool is that.

Most XS4All customers are either geeks or people who got told to go for XS4All by geeks, this because they are not the cheapest in The Netherlands, but one of the few that are actual ISP's. Well geeks don't need a technician, and geeks love MacMini's (mostly), what a coincidence.
I just love this ISP, and am still waiting for an analysis that tells us XS4All customers have a bigger life expectancy compared to customers of other ISP's.

Jack Bauer is well trained

Some days ago I finally started watching 24. I must say I am enjoying it.

As you all know Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is one of CTU's best agents, and he quickly sees the difference between friend and foe. In the first episode from 1.00 am to 2.00 am Bauer is escaping a building together with his superior Richard Walsh (Michael O'Neill).

Bauer improvises a bandage for a shot wound Walsh has, he walks up to a door with Walsh following. Bauer opens the door and looks to the right, he doesn't shoot, he continues by looking to the left in one swift move.
Walsh follows him and he too looks to the right, doesn't shoot either, but we suddenly see two crew members standing in the corridor. Are they lucky Jack and Richard got the very best training available, otherwise they would have been shot.
As we can see the two are a little bit tilting away from Bauer and Walsh the moment they see Walsh approaching, they clearly trust Bauer more.

First post

Well now, my very own blog. At least I have the first post ;)
I hope my following posts will be more entertaining.

Cheers.