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June 30, 2006

The Mexico

My friends know that, on top of an Internet addiction, I've got a crush on old German cars. Sometimes I wish it wasn't so, but as I'll never outgrow this habit, I enjoy the times it's all working and driving.

Maybe I should write a book about it, reminiscences and anecdotes galore. Like the time when I had to cripple up my VW Pick Up (a.k.a. Dorus the Ute) in reverse onto a ferry mooring a Greek island, clutch cable broken, hopping foot by foot on the overheated starter engine. While Greek and Turkish seamen and circus artists were shouting abuses at me, an enormous seasick elephant bull, who was yanking his chains so fanatically that the ferry moved like a roller coaster, emptied his bowels - into the back of my little pick up.

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

Nothing ever shitted on my computers, but apart from that old cars and new computers sing the same song: sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

In a classic car belongs an antique radio. Finishing touch in any old Mercedes is a Becker Mexico from the fifties or sixties, the older models with tubes inside, the later ones transistor innards.

Once upon times I owned two or three, but - not old and wise enough yet - swapped them for something new somewhere in the eighties. Forgotten about it, until I received the bimonthly Mercedes Benz Veterans Club magazine, (my two other Germans - w180 220A, w124 300D - carry the star on the hood). Carrying an article about the Becker Mexico 7948, outside a replica, but inside . . . . Since I've read it and checked out the Koenigs Classic website, I'm (almost) sold.

The front panel of the 7948 Mexico looks like, well . . ., a Becker Mexico from the sixties or seventies: black and simple, two big turning buttons, four push buttons, under the tape cassette lid (do you know what a cassette is?)

Junks peeking inside a parked Mercedes, seeing a radio like that, rumble on; damning the owner; money enough for a car like that, but not for a decent radio.

Spoofed, because behind that sixties front the Becker has everything a nerd driving old junk could wish or imagine. Gigabytes fat flash cards, mp3, talking navigation dialogue system n whatever language you like, sim card, so the radio becomes it's own telephone, but you can also use the build in bluetooth for communication with any other mobile device or with your iPod. Much, much more, and of course a healthy Becker Surround Sound system to begin with.

After all this beautiful news the big bummer is the price; 1500 Euros, 1900 dollar. By cripes! Should I?

 Posted: June 30, 2006, 11:47 AM | Comments (3) |

June 26, 2006

SP@Mmed!!!!!

Click on the image for a view of my activitylog

Beginning bloggers will probably love them. But those who, either for work of for fun, are confronted daily with hundreds of spams, and stupid or rude posts and reactions, is wondering it might be time to start looking for another job - and hobby.

Beginning bloggers will probably love them. But those who, either for work of for fun, are confronted daily with hundreds of spams, and stupid or rude posts and reactions, is wondering it might be time to start looking for another job - and hobby.

My own blog has become such a mess that Í was forced to start moderating all comments. The good thing is that spam postings concerning porn, Viagra, online casino's and mortgage sellers are no longer published automatically, the bad news that I have to check, read and click around, at least a couple of times per day.

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

If the increase of spam was corresponding with visits and page views I probably wouldn't mind that much, but all spam on my blog is dumped there by the bloody bots of the spam posters.

From a tech point of view an interesting duel between the spammers bots and the new patches or new anti-spam measures for different content management systems, but I'm afraid this is going to be a never ending draw for years to come.

Our newspaper content management system - knock on wood - isn't pestered at all by spam postings. Not because it's such an intelligent system, but because it's too rare, compared tot the blog systems used by millions of bloggers. Spammers write scripts for those systems, and don't bother to tailor them for a system that's used for a few portals.

Having said that: I have to spend an ever growing part of my valuable time at the hundreds of portal postings put there by humans every day. They all have to be read, and validated or rejected.

I guess about fifty percent of them meets our requirements: a valid (which means valid-looking) email address, real name, decent use of language, a least some comprehensible content.

The other half is mainly crap, hogwash, garbage, junk, trash or litter. Tirades, verbal onslaught, cursing, e-mail address bull@shit.com, postings completely in CAPITAL, which on the web is the equivalent of screaming and shouting.

Remarkable: a space after a punctuation mark is hardly ever used. Not very surprising is that number one of most used marks is exclamation: !!!!!!

 Posted: June 26, 2006, 12:58 PM | Comments (7) |

June 16, 2006

Reckless clicking in the dark room

Some people, not infected yet with HIV, apparently kick on either excitement or relaxation– or the two of them, the second state of mind after the first – in dark rooms.

For those who secretly would love to live dangerous, but don’t want to play fast and loose their own healthiness, here’s a good alternative.

See the Internet as one big dark room, and your machine as your own backdoor. Like Steve Knopper who bought a brand new Dell, and started clicking around like a lunatic in the dark room.

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

He describes in the latest publication of Wired what happened to the virgin Dell in '18 days of Reckless Computing'.

After disabling his firewalls and virus-protection software Knopper starts clicking on all forbidden fruits in cyberspace. On all the nastiest-looking spam that friends and relatives sent them on his request. On pop-ups, attachments, on ‘Gain Spyware’ advertisements, offers form the ‘Free Smit Club’, MP3s in Arabic, pirated copies of Tom Raider and every possible .xxx, .gif, .rar, .pif and .exe file he could find on Kazaa.

Wherever his cursor accidentally stuck, or got sucked into, Knopper clicked.

His conclusion? ‘It seems our Internet overlords are sanitizing spam. If I were to treat my body the way I treated this computer, I’d have yellow fever, bird flu and Alzheimer’s.’.

The Dell? Somewhat worse for wear. On the eighteenth day of its ordeal it had to be taken to the Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

The owner told the techs that he had ‘a bit or trouble with it’. A couple of hours later he got a call: the software was declared a total loss. When they ran a virus scan it started beeping and kept beeping until they turned it off. The hard disk had to be formatted and restored with the system disks.

I love stories like this and I hit myself on the shoulder again because It looks I made a good decision (for a change :-)

Since November 2005 I’m working at home on an iMac and OSX. What I sometimes– almost – miss at home are the troubles and irritations I have to live with every day on my job at the Internet desk of the newspaper.

I’ve got the fattest Dell over there, and I don’t blame the machine, but the XP that’s installed on it. I constantly need a program or ten, like PhotoShop, Escenic Web Studio, Escenic Content Studio, an FTP client, Hermes editorial suite, Dreamweaver, TextPad, Outlook Exchange, AutoPhelix, which is based on Microsoft Access, and some more tools.

One of the results is that I have to hard reboot the machine three to five times a day because the one gigabyte memory is full, one way or another and everything just stops.

My iMac at home is a bit boring: it’s has been quietly for eight months what I bought it for: quietly doing its job.

 Posted: June 16, 2006, 10:12 AM | Comments (8) |

June 12, 2006

No signor, no pinpas por favor

Apple Quick Take, 1995

On march 23, in broad daylight, four pickpockets robbed me from my Ixus 400 on Plaza San Francisco in La Paz, capital of Bolivia. Maybe they were inspired by president Evo Morales who at the very moment was delivering a three hours speech on the same Plaza, in front of 100.000 Bolivianos, about Bolivia's legal and eternal right to a part of Chilean Pacific coast.

After all it was water - though not salt - that number one sprayed in my neck, and when I felt it running down my back, number two pointed to the sky. When I looked up where the hell rain on a cloudless day came from, number three knocked me down, running into my left shoulder, and at the same instant number four ran off with my camera.

Because number two helped me on my feet, and pointed into the direction where number four had disappeared, I didn't realise that number two in fact was, well, number two.

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

That information was handed to me later that spoiled day in the office of the Policia Touristica by sergeant Wilfredo Rivas, when he made up my statement for the insurance company back home. At which point I got even more pissed than I already was; stupid simple me, that charming and smiling guy was one of the bloody robbers!

'Si', officer Rivas pointed out smiling, while he collected ten Bolivianos (one Euro) from me, which he deposited in a locker under his desk, 'that's the way they work'. Maybe he's saving the money for a new type writer, as my statement shows that the lower case l (for London) had failed on the one he was using, replaced by a capital I (for Itaca) over the document.

Feeling forlorn without a digital camera in my breast pocket, especially during the wonderful bike trips over the last couple of weeks, I've been web- as well as window shopping for a while for a new Ixus. As the old one was three years old, Canon has issued a number of new releases in the meantime, so which one? After reading some reviews I decided for the Ixus 800 IS, to be released 'in spring 2006'.

Spring came, but Amazon Deutschland (cheap shipping to Holland) had no Ixus 800 on stock until june, and when I finally wanted to place my order I found out I had to live in either Germany or Austria. Scheisse, back to a Dutch web shop.

Some things don't get easier over the years. I bought my first digital camera, an Apple Quick Take, over the Internet in September 1995. Things were pretty simple then, because there was only one web shop: Cyberian Outpost, who delivered fast via DHL. I still have the Quick Take, in pristine condition, in the original box, might be a good idea to put it on eBay, maybe it will pay for my new Ixus.

These days you have more web shops than camera models, and even with websites specialized in checking websites for prices, you need a lot of time to find a combination of right prize and trusted shop.

At first I went back to to the same web shop where I bought the one now probably being used somewhere in Bolivia. It turned out that the shop had gone broke in the meantime, according to a very fast and friendly guy over the phone, only minutes after I've filled in a mail form. He's taken over the complete database form the liquidator, and he's very helpful, but he can't find my original bill. I'm in dire need a peace of paper, any piece of paper, for the insurance company, cause I can't find a paper trace in the rummage in the attic.

One of the reason is some kind of idiot customer mismanagement in Dutch post offices. Because I didn't know the web shop three years ago, I'd chosen for carriage forward, in hindsight a wise decision, regarding the bust. Under this form of delivery (rembours in Dutch) the mailman calls at your door, and you have to pay him cash, although every DHL delivery man in Europe is accepting digital cash for as long as I know.

Anyway, when you're not home, he slips a ticket in your mailbox, telling you he will be back the next day. You can't choose to collect your packet yourself, you have to wait at least one extra day (or three over the weekend, no rembours on Saturday). If you're not home for his second coming, you'll find another red slip, and with that one - and a valid ID, like drivers license or passport - you can go the post office to collect your order, but only the next (next) day.

Finally there, after standing in a cue for ten or fifteen minutes, my camera was there all right on a shelve, but the post office guy - I swear he was ashamed - tells me I can't use my pinpas (Dutch for digicard) for rembours. The Dutch post office (TPG) is owned by TNT, their Postbank (Postbank/ING) is part of ING (Postbank/ING), and my credit card as well as my pinpas are issued by Postbank/ING. Nevertheless I have to leave the cue and the building, to put my Postbank/ING bankcard in the Postbank/ING ATM at the wall outside, pull cash out, go back into the building (I admit they did not force me back into the cue) and hand the money issued by the Postbank/ING ATM to the Postbank/ING guy behind the counter. While I wonder if they've put the money straight back into the very same ATM later that day, I tell you this is The Netherlands, and not Wladiwostok.

I remember the case because I can't find a receipt three years on. My Internet banking shows a withdrawal of 700 Euro on that day and that place, but the camera was only half the price of that, so I must have needed some cash for a constructor or something.

All things are coming to good end now. The insurance company showed up the other day with a was very surprising piece of customer care treatment: the old Ixus- I'd sent them the original box and some spare parts - is completely covered. Only a minor write off. Maybe I should sent Wilfredo Rivas a card from Holland, as his statement, even with all the I's, surely has been of some help.

Which reminds me of his smile when when I asked if I could pinpas the one Euro, payment for the statement?

He seemed to like the word pinpas for digicard, pronouncing it a few times, but alas: 'No, signor Krijnen, no pinpas por favor, only one Boliviano or American dollar'. As the statement was already made up that moment, I've forgotten to include the one Euro at the insurance claim (as well as the brand new one gigabyte flashcard inside the old Ixus), but I'm not going to bother them anymore, being a satisfied customer.

I'm expecting my new Ixus 800, and as the mailman has called on Friday while I was out for lunch, I know when to collect it: tomorrow, Tuesday. He'll be back today, but as I'm not home now, I'll find the slip from the second coming on my doormat tonight.

As I'm not as stupid as you might expect after reading until here, first thing tomorrow morning I'll be pulling cash from the ATM outside the building before entering the cue inside the post office.

Come back in a few days, and you'll find new pictures.. To begin I'll produce some images of my Apple Quick Take, shot with the new Ixus.

P.s.

Two hours later: In the end more luck. While driving back into to my home town on this beautiful summer day, I noticed the driver of a big red TPG van, just hopping out of the drivers seat. Should it be possible?

'Excuse me sir, do you happen to have a delivery for the Van G. 52'? Not surprised at all: 'Yes sir, if you have an ID and the money, I can hand it over to you right now'.

Beautiful, fair dinkum! The new Ixis is much smaller than the previous one, while the display is much bigger. The battery pack is charging, which will take, according to the manual, 2 hours and five minutes.

Two hours and five minutes? Now what?

Does it mean you have to send the battery back when it's fully charged charging after two hours and six or seven minutes instead?

 Posted: June 12, 2006, 01:17 PM | Comments (7) |

June 02, 2006

Look, look, don't buy!

You've bought a digital television set so you can watch the Soccer World Cup in digital quality? Enjoy, the next four weeks. You haven't bought one yet? Congratulations, because there won't be much to enjoy after the last whistle of the World Cup.
On the Bright Blog (also available on paper at your local newsstand) Tonie van Ringelestijn has written a very readable article about the (im)possibilities of digital television. Thank you very much Tonie, because I too have been browsing through numerous screaming advertorials that were dumped on my doormat over the last months. They were all in eye-hurting orange (as you may know Holland is playing in our ugly national colour) and they were all about television; flat, lcd, plasma, hdtv or hd-ready.

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

Now you don't have to know a lot about (digital) television, you only need a a bit of common sense to realise it's better to exercise some patience. By the way; the bloody color, apart from being ugly (I'm an active member of the anti-monarchist New Republicans :-), is so persistent that they rather say Orange over here instead of Holland, or National Team.

Anyway, if Orange survives the first three matches (Ivory Coast, Serbia-Montenegro, Argentina) it might take a week or so longer. But inevitable - with or without Orange hysteria - the final will be history, and the very next day - in a country either totally drunk or in mourning, the big digital television dump will be on.

Be aware of the fact that the very same flat television set will be half the price at the beginning of summer, so wait, wait, and wait.

Wait a little more, because for an unknown time, there won't be much broadcasting in digital quality. Fans of niche channels like Discovery hd, National Geographic hd, hd1-nl (a Dutch non-stop channel streaming Dutch and Flemish channels in digital quality), will be alright, but that'll be mainly it for a long while.

Do also realise that long-term subscriptions will be more expensive than the ones that cover the World Cup. Currently there's a shortage of decoders, so it might be tempting to buy some available box that you'll have to replace in a couple of months.

The first time you see a digital television set showing digital quality your mouth will fall open and you will want one. Heavenly quality indeed. But he big question is if the biggest problem will be solved: standardization.

As there's no standardization yet (will it ever come?), you might buy an expansive kit and caboodle with a lot of gadgets build in, with the risk that you'll never be be able to use or see a lot of these options.

The conclusion of my blogging colleague (thanks again): enjoy the flat sets in the shop, but wait, don't buy.

But then again, that won't be too difficult for a lot of my compatriots. After all, salesman all over the world know what the Dutch are very good at, and they even know this classic Dutch sentence: kijken, kijken, niet kopen.

Very well, you got it: look, look, don't buy.

 Posted: June 02, 2006, 12:19 PM | Comments (1) |