Microsoft's Virtual earth

Another cool application from Microsoft. By the way I will not use the dollar signs anymore when I write Microsoft. I've done a lot of reading about Microsoft lately and I looked at their research pages and stuff. Respect, respect, respect! From now on I am going to pay for the MS software!

So I wanted to tell something about this virtual earth project. Well it looks a bit like Google earth, etc. But a feature I really like in there is the locate me button, when you press it shows where you are on the map.

All you need is actually a WiFi capable device (laptop, PDA, etc.), this will then pick up the signals of the wireless access points in your neighbourhood and with triangulation they calculate where you are. It's actually a nice idea, I don't always have my GPS with me, but my PDA with WiFi card I have.

The only downside is that for the moment it isn't working for us Europeans. So Microsoft open up this AP database that I can put in the ones I know of :-)

It's a small ad!

Some of my colleagues are really good in doing small (amateur) video productions. One of them is Hendrik, together with his group of friends they've made a parody on the Carlton beer's Big Ad!. They called theirs Small ad!, it is really funny.



Have a look at their web site as well, it's great !

Network blues part II

I am convinced that computers have a mind of their own... or is it just bad engineering that we put into these machines? Today I am again struggling with my network, the wireless part now. I have a wireless router at home which just works fine with my personal laptop, desktop PC and my Palm Zire. But when I want to hook up my laptop from work onto it, the connection works for about 2 minutes and then it breaks down. Windows XP tells me that it has found some wireless networks and asks me if I want to connect to one. Again I pick my wireless router, and everything works just fine for... again 2 minutes and the whole scenario start all over again.

I am at the point of ripping the damn wireless out of the laptop, but then my boss certainly will look mad at me. So I plugged in a 3Com PCM-CIA wireless card into the laptop and now everythings works just fine. So is this just bad communication between the built-in wireless or does it prevent me to do some work when at home? Think I'll write that report tomorrow morning when I am at the office.

Spam on this blog

Spammers leave my blog alone !

On my previous post I've got a comment, actually it wasn't a comment but some bloody spam. I am already a bit used to the spam I get in my mailbox, actually I filter it out so I don't even notice it. I only see mails in my inbox from people that are in my address book or from people to which I've already sent an email to. But what can I do about it on my blog. I can make sure people can't post comments to my blog entries, but hé what's the purpose of blogging anyway. It's meant in the first place, I think, to share opinions and feelings with others, so if I don't let people place comments on my blog postings there is no use in blogging anyway. Maybe I should give my friends and relatives only access to my blog to post comments, but I don't want to keep track of some kind of ACL list for my blog.

So I ask all bloody spammers to change their attitudes and stop spamming, leave us bloggers alone if you don't have something constructive to say.

Yours truly,
The anti-spammer dude

Network blues

This morning I thought to quickly scan my e-mail before having breakfast. What a terrible thought to have, I was unable to connect to my router although Window$ told me that I was connected. When I did an ipconfig nothing was shown, no network adapters, nothing. Even the device manager wasn't of any help, all network adapters working fine he told me. I've been into network hell ever since I've installed Window$ XP service pack 2. I really have no clue why it stops working after a while. The only thing I can do is go back to a restore point where I know the adapters were working, but even this isn't consistent, because I just take my previous restore point and it works again.

I thought service packs were created for solving glitches in the OS, but they seem to create even worse problems. Hopefully my network adapters will keep working until the end of this day ... .

Trip to Rotterdam

Last week we went on a short trip to Rotterdam, and no ... not for the coffee shops ! During our stay we did some window shopping, we actually didn't buy anything except for some yoghurt we don't have here in Belgium and also for some peanut butter, unfortunately without pieces.

The Dutch are also known for their "patatje oorlog", so I was looking for a place to eat some. I don't know if you know this but "patatje oorlog" are french fries, mayonaise, ketchup, onion and peanut sauce. So it's a rather strange combination, at least for Belgians. Finally I found a place where they were serving some, but when I looked at it, it was really disgusting, it looked like they've put some feaces on top of the fries. I really wanted to try it but my eyes told my stomach not to do it. It was so disgusting that I completely forgot to take a picture of it. We ended up eating chinese food which was actually very good.

We also went to The Hague, which is about 30 to 40 kilometers from Rotterdam. We went to visit Madurodam. In Madrodam you can see some important places in Holland in miniature. I think it's a fun place for Dutch people because they know these places very well, so they must enjoy it more than we did. But it was nice to see little trucks, plains and boats moving around between the miniature houses and buildings.



And finally we went to the zoo of Rotterdam, because our little daughter really enjoys looking at various animals.



By the way we drove to Holland in our brand new car a Renault Grand Scenic, which uptil now is a really great car.

CD's to buy

Below are some fine CD's I am going to buy. Is this to put in your blog I hear you say ? Yes, because I have to remind the titles and I cannot write it down anywhere except here. But maybe you like them too.

Green Day - American Idiot
Coldplay - X & Y
The white stripes - get behind me satan
Barenaked Ladies - all their greatest hits
hootie & the blowfish - hootie & the blowfish
3 doors down - seventeen days
U2 - City of blinding lights

By the way, listeners of the radioshow "De Afrekening" from "Studio Brussel" can download podcasts of the show from now on.

Silicon Graphics high-tech technology for looking inside a mummy

Ever since I was a kid I was interested in mummies and the history of Egypt. My interest started during a history course where we saw pictures of king Tut and Nefertiti (don't really know how to spell it). I always wanted to know how the inside of a mummy's coffin looked like. Now at SGI they looked into a coffin of a young mummy child. It's really impressive what they can do nowadays with technology. Want to see inside a mummy's coffin click here.

Website against terrorism

Say no to terrorism ! If you support this, which you should, please click on the image below which will direct you to the website against terrorism.



Don't forget to put the graphic on your website if you have one !