Software Patents (cont.)
Wednesday, March 2, 2005, 08:24 - The News


The Register reports that the European Commission is refusing to restart the legislative progress of the controversial European software patent directive.

In January, the Parliament - which unlike the Commission is elected, rather than appointed - voted to scrap the Commission's proposed Computer Implemented Inventions Directive (CIID).

But those silly bastards have turned this item into a game of proving who in the end has the most power.
That's one way to get the people to dislike 'Europe' even further than they already do....


Rest In Peace, Penguin
Tuesday, March 1, 2005, 11:07 - Personal
Tonight, after about six years of good service, there finally came an end to the life of my oldest server, Penguin. Penguin was a Celeron 333 machine with 160MB memory running (off course) Linux.

He has hardly ever had any physical issues, apart from some noisy fans in the power supply. But either swapping the entire PSU or just the PSU fan helped alleviate the problems. I even once replaced the PSU fan while the machine was still running to preserve a record uptime.... DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME YOURSELF. Some parts of the PSU carry high voltages and are therefore dangerous. At the time I thought I knew what I was doing.

Over the last few months most of the tasks of Penguin have been moved to my new linux server Raven (which has been online for a year now; my migration plan slipped a little...). But until tonight two main applications where still running at Penguin: my personal web portal and my personal stock portfolio web tool. I finally have moved both applications to Raven as well, as I can no longer wait for having time to do the modifications to both tools that I have in mind for so long now.

So at 22:20 today I finally pulled the switch for the last time, but not after having said a few thank you words.... It has been a great server.

As soon as I hit the switch I realised what deep down I always had known: Penguin was a very loud server!! He left a deafening silence for a few minutes. But now I can hear the next noisiest machine in the room: my old desktop Eagle. Thankfully I am migrating that one to my new desktop Condor which indeed is very very quiet! Just that friggin' high speed VGA fan is bugging me!

Once I am fully working on my new desktop, the old one will become a server and will be moved to my server room (yes you read that right...). Then my room will be really quiet. Finally!

And for those of you that are counting: I didn't even mention my fifth computer. Na na na na na.
No wonder I'm still single.


Small parking footprint
Thursday, February 24, 2005, 04:52 - Humor
This way you even need less space to park your Smart...




IT Party next Friday
Wednesday, February 23, 2005, 08:11 - Humor
Like every year at the end of February, we, at the Information Technology - (IT) department, are celebrating the new year and we organise the most crazy party in the city.

Leave all your taboos at home and come join us in the craziest, funkiest, out-of-limits party of the year.

Take your time to prepare youself for the wild, bombastic night that will free your deepest instincts.

We do it IT-style, so get in the mood!

We are attaching a picture of last year's party, so you get an idea of what you should be expecting...

Nicolas Erd


German zoo tempts gay penguins to go straight
Thursday, February 10, 2005, 10:29 - Humor, The News
A German zoo in Bremen is trying to get their male penguins to go straight again. They didn't know that they only had male penguins. Several couples have formed by now and one couple even adopted a stone as an egg. The zoo now has imported female penguins from Sweden in an attempt to straigthen the gay penguins up....


Ingrid Betancourt
Monday, February 7, 2005, 03:00 - Reflections, The News
Imagine being held hostage for three years somewhere in the jungle of Colombia! Three years of hardly any contact with the outside world, of being watched all the time, of constant relocation.

It is the fate of the now 43 year old Colombian former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt who was kidnapped in February 2002 by guerrilla organization FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
Her impassioned calls for an end to political corruption and Colombia's vicious civil war had made her a popular public figure, but a dangerous instigator to many within her country's political machine.

Even in captivity she hasn't stopped protesting: she nearly died in the course of one of at least three hunger strikes while in captivity.

On Feb. 23, 2005, the anniversary of Betancourt's kidnapping, a book will come out titled "Searching for Ingrid", written by her husband Juan Carlos Lecompte.

The book delves into a dirty truth about Colombia: more than a thousand human beings are kidnapped here every year and bartered for ransom. But even a king's ransom cannot get Betancourt and some others out.

The rebels call them "exchangeables" and say they will be freed only in a swap for rebels held in Colombian prisons. Some of the exchangeables - including politicians, soldiers and police - have been captives for eight years.


Frogleap
Saturday, February 5, 2005, 22:49 - Games
Here is a small Flash game: move the green frogs from the left to the right and the brown frogs from the right to the left.



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