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December 31, 2006

Her name is Wikipedia

As I haven't produced any predictions at the beginning of this year, we don't have to settle anything. But I have to admit I was wrong about Wikipedia. I've written with at least some scepticism about the online encyclopedia - and all open directory systems - but in 2006 I've been converted: Wikipedia has become my favourite website.

If you haven't discovered the online encyclopedia yourself: find out the differences yourself. Go Google, enter a keyword that has anything to do with what you're searching, and start searching.

And start searching all over again, within the results produced by Google. Most of the time, it's takes a while before you've found what you're looking for, that is if you find it.

Now do the same in Wikipedia. Right, that's what I mean.

Of course there will remain things that Google does so good and fast that there's no need at all to try somewhere else.

Valuable tip for the visitors of the website of BN/DeStem, looking for an article published in our newspaper: don't try this at our own search engine, but use Google instead.

Using the question 'breda site:bndestem.nl' Google comes back within 0.3 seconds with 87.900 articles in our database containing the term 'breda'. Here Google is besting us everywhere, in quantity as well as in quality.

But if you're looking for dedicated information about any certain subject, nicely put together in a well-organized summary, linked to other relevant articles, Wikipedia isunbeatable.

It's getting even better. As the search in Wikipedia is already performing up to - well, Wikipedia - before long Wikiasari will be on the air.

It's gonna be a 'human-editable search engine-project', with Amazon as partner.

It sound very promising, and I think they will deliver, although to Wikpedia: 'Wikiasari is not and will not be the name for the free search engine we're developing'.

Whatever the name, the first three results will come straight from Wikipedia, and I think those will do in at least nine out of ten. After fifteen years I'm in love with the net again, but now her name is Wikipedia.

 Posted: December 31, 2006, 11:59 PM | Comments (0) |

December 25, 2006

Where does Santa live?

Every Dutch kid knows where Sinterklaas is living, but where does Santa Claus reside?

Your answer doesn't have to be the right one, because there are quit a number of different Santa's and Xmas cultures. In the US the most given answers will be that Santa lives in Alaska or on the North Pole, but in Finland they know better.

Thanks to a worldwide, very secret society of postmen, who forward every letter addressed to Santa Claus, to Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland.

All letters that have a return to address on the back, are answered by Santa Claus, written by volunteers for the Tourist Board in Rovaniemi. Nobody in a right state of mind goes there between November and may, when everything is covered by at least three feet of snow, but in summer its time for return of investment.

If only a percent or so of all people answered by Santa visit Finland, and only one percent of those go north to Rovaniemi, all camping sites, hotels and guesthouse are full during the midsummer nights. It does help that Fins are hard rock and goth metal fanatics, as we all know since the last Euro Vision Song Festival; in summer it's also time for the Rovaniemi Rock Festival.

While they're working hard over there to keep alive the dream of their most famous hard rocker - the one with the red hat and the long white beard - letters to Drobak in Norway, Dalecarlia in Sweden, or to Greenland and Alaska are probably answered too.

Then there's yet another Santa, but this one hates cold feet, and writes back from Caesarea Mazaca, somewhere in Turkisch Cappadocia, but he signs as Saint Basil.

I think that L. Frank Baum's Santa is the real one. The writer of 'The Wizard of Oz' tells us in 'The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus that he's living in 'The Laughing Valley of Hohaho'. That must be the real one, because it's the only place - and I've tried them all - where Google Earth leaves me in the cold.

 Posted: December 25, 2006, 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

December 19, 2006

The biggest rubes, boobs, and noobs of 2006

The year 2006 is almost history, so this is the time for awards. I like this one, presented yesterday by one Robert X. Cringely in Cringeville: The MOONies, honoring the most Morally Obtuse, Offensive, and Noxious behavior in high tech.

This year’s MOONie winners will receive a handsome statuette of Steve Ballmer bending over and dropping his trousers, affectionately known around Redmond as The Google Salute. Along the way a few tips of the Cringely fedora to deserving folks who made the tech world a better place.

So without further ado ...: The biggest rubes, boobs, and noobs of 2006, tirelessly seeking out new lows in high tech

 Posted: December 19, 2006, 09:57 AM | Comments (0) |

December 18, 2006

Was it The Fool, speaking Dutch?

Real (Dutch) Beatles fans know the answer to the question: in which song, written and recorded by The Beatles a sentence is spoken in Dutch? The answer is 'I Am The Walrus', where someone says 'Dat zouden ze wel willen' in the dying seconds of the song.

In English that would haven been 'they should (have) want(ed) that', or something similar. Play a bit with the settings of you favorite MP3 player and you will find it.

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

As far as I 'm concerned the complete text of I Am The Walrus might as well be Dutch - or Swahili - as I've never really understood what John Lennon is telling us there. Might have been due to a favorite hobby of Lennon, who sometimes knotted words together at random, for fun. To keep busy those who came up with all kinds of explanations, even for the simpler things, like She Loves You (Yeah, right, yeah, yeah).

The Dutch sentence came back to my memory in the process of selling my old albums and singles on Marktplaats. I did not sell the Beatles albums, because I'd like to frame those sleeves, and I kept a few rarities like a pristine 'Autobahn' from Kraftwerk, the very first album of The Golden Earring(s), Just Earrings, and some more.

In the process I was listening to The Magical Mystery Tour, and heard the sentence again. Would it also be on the 'new' version of The Walrus, on the 'Love' album, mixed and remastered by George Martin?

Sure enough! When I fired up Google I found out I'm not the only one in Holland who's interested in the whereabouts of Dutch words in a Beatles song. There are some questions on the forum of a Dutch Beates fan club, but while nobody seems to know the answer, I think I do.

I remember I've read who it is, way back in the beginning of the seventies: Simon Posthuma.

Wikipedia: Simon Posthuma: Dutch artist and founder of The Fool, a Dutch design collective who were influential in the psychedelic style of art in British popular music at the end of the 1960s. The colourful art draws on many fantastical and mystical themes. According to Wikipedia the name is a reference to The Fool tarot card, according to other sources The Fool is named to the Beatles song 'The Fool on The Hill'.

Original members were Posthuma and Marijke Koger, who were discovered by photographer Karl Ferris among the hippies of Ibiza in 1966. He took photographs of clothes designed by them, and sent them to London where they were published in The Times of London and immediately caused a sensation.

Ferris took The Fool back to London, and together they opened a studio, with the Dutch artists producing clothes and art, and Ferris pursuing photography. Barry Finch, and an artist recorded only as Josie, joined later.

There's much more on Wikipedia, but nothing about The Walrus.

Google however does find a Simon Posthuma website, and more about The Fool over there: John Lennon and Paul McCartney came to visit the couple in their apartment in Saint Stephen's Gardens, in early 1967. They sat down on the ground and stared at all those outrageous colours and arabesques. 'I want to live in it,' Lennon said.

(At the end of the sixties, beginning of the seventies I'd painted my bedrooms (in Helmond and in Breda) completely in The Fool colors and designs. My parents thought it all horrendous, but my friends loved it, and I did some walls at friends rooms).

Wikiepedia agaion: Later in 1967, during the 'lovest' summer of them all Simon and Marijke formed art collective The Fool, with Josje Leeger and Barry Finch. The quartet visualised the mind expanding spirit of the time so meticulously - a style later to be called psychedelic - which resulted in the orgasmic mural of The Beatles' Apple boutique in London (1967) and culminated with the extensive painting of the Aquarius Theatre (1969) on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, where rock-musical Hair was staged.

I seems Simon Posthuma if the one to answer the question about Dutch talking on The Walrus.

So I've send an email to an address I've found on his website and asked if . . .

An hour or so later a reply came from the webmaster of the site, who is also a writer, together with Simon working on a biography. Joost Goosen tells me he never heard Simon talk about, but he will ask him, and If Simon says so, I will receive an answer.

Was it The Fool, speaking Dutch?

 Posted: December 18, 2006, 02:24 PM | Comments (1) |

December 17, 2006

Leo 50 (!) (leeftijd, niet slaggemiddelde :-)

Nu de rook om mijn hoofd weer een beetje verdwenen is, zijn de foto's en de video van het mooie feest in Cafe D'n Inval in Raamsdonskveer naar het web verhuisd.

Kijk, lees, luister, huiver en geniet: Leo 50! (zijn leeftijd, niet zijn slaggemiddelde)

Allemaal bedankt voor het lachen en graag tot de volgende keer:

Foto's: Leo 50!

Video: Leo 50!

 Posted: December 17, 2006, 07:17 PM | Comments (1) |

December 12, 2006

WiFi as The New Danger

A little more than a year ago, I wrote a column ('Stralingsangst'), for the newspaper I'm working at, about Fear of Elector Magnetic Fields. Publication resulted in a number of angry letters to the editor. Written by those readers who are very busy with all kinds of sickness and disease, te result of EMF caused by GSM, GPR and UMTS networks in The Netherlands.

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

In the discussion aftermath, I repeated a prediction I'd made earlier, when Google started to build its WiFi networks in Mountain View and San Francisco.

My prevision was: 'So far we haven't heard anybody complaining about WiFi, but we can wait until the people that are so busy with GSM, GPRS and UMTS, catch sight of WiFi.

The moment has arrived.

Today, Wired published an elaborate article: Wi-Fi as a Health Hazard

Opening: Riding in on peer-reviewed research, but flunking every major test, the idea that wireless technology amounts to a modern health threat presents a conundrum to proponents and skeptics alike. With Wi-Fi networks blanketing homes, schools and even whole cities, they've become the latest flash point in a struggle that's arced from power lines to microwaves, cell phones and even computers, spanning decades of debate.

Coincidental over here in The Netherlands transmission of 'free to air' analog television ended last Monday, Holland becoming the first nation to switch completely to digital signals, a fact that made a headline even in Australia.

Which leads to the question: might it be the case that there's less EMF in our Dutch air now that analog television is killed? I haven't got a clue, as I haven't read anything about it yet, but if you think you know it, tell me please.

I'm afraid that the if you're afraid there's only one thing to do to protect yourself, for the time being: buy or make a tin hat or cap.

Those really afraid go to LessEMF.Com if you also want to wear tin underwear.

 Posted: December 12, 2006, 02:03 PM | Comments (0) |

iPod in Space

PHOTO NASA

If you look carefully at the large version of this image you will see an iPod attached to a Belkin external battery pack on the equipment rack directly in front of European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter.

According to Sydney Morning Herald: the iPod doesn't appear to be used as part of the experiment - it's more likely that it's used for recreational purposes.

SMH: Also pictured near the iPod are two IBM laptops, a Sony television and numerous Nikon cameras.

The iPod was first spotted by the spaceref.com website. The photo was posted on the NASA website on November 29.

This isn't the first time an iPod has made its way to space. Anousheh Ansari, the first female space tourist, wrote in her blog that she took an iPod on her September space trip.

"I was able to locate my iPod in my bag and I was a happy camper ... I put on my headphones and went to sleep in my Bat sack," Ansari wrote in her blog, the first to be published from space.

 Posted: December 12, 2006, 10:44 AM | Comments (0) |

December 11, 2006

@ The Market Place

During the renovation (initially a one year project, for a number of reasons finished in 3 years and 3 months), and after moving back into our little 1895 house we've become fanatic Marktplaatsers. Marktplaats means MarketPlace, it's the original Dutch eBay, as a matter of fact taken over by eBay, but still running on the original platform, same layout, same name, even while eBay operates in Dutch at eBay.nl.

We found our moving boxes at Marktplaats, sixty good boxes for thirty Euros ('only one time used'), en we've sold three quarters of them for the same amount after the removal, on Marktplaats again (yes: 'only one time used').

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

During the renovation (initially a one year project, for a number opf reasons finished in 3 years and 3 months) , and after moving back into our little 1895 house we've become fanatic Marktplaatsers. Marktplaats means MarketPlace, it's the original Dutch eBay, as a matter of fact taken over by eBay, but still running on the original platform, same layout, same name, even while eBay operates in Dutch at eBay.nl.

We found our moving boxes at Marktplaats, sixty good boxes for thirtu Euros ('only one time used'), en we've sold three quarters of them for the same amount after the removal, on Marktplaats again (yes: 'only one time used').

The fourth quart, filled with all kinds of junk, is still seeking space somewhere in the house, and if we can't find sufficient spots, we'll move them to Marktplaats as well, contents and all.

One of the vacuum cleaners is sold to a lady in Groningen who came to collect it all the way in the far south, for het daughter studying in Breda. The old Ikea wardrobes are sold on Marktplaats, and we've made an offer on an oak kitchen table in Kaatsheuvel. Long live the new economy, that I'm beginning to understand, even though I still have to read - en review - The Long Tail from Chris Anderson, lying next to my Mac.

There's more money to make on eBay. After e-maling, calling and visiting at least ten Dutch shutter dealers and importers, one thing is clear: it's about time that de NMA, the Dutch kartel watch dog, starts keeping an eye on that sector. Whoever you call, write or ask, the square meter price is approximately 400 euro's, and you have to wait at least six, eight, ten weeks. Which means that the stuff is China made, just like the teak furniture you find all over Holland these days: much too expansive, way too long delivery times.

Should be cheaper, somwhere, in this new economy, so we searched on eBay and we e-mailed to China and the US.

A day later we've got a nice offer from East Coast US, shipping included less than half the price in Holland, delivered in Rotterdam in four weeks.

The reviewing system on eBay looks reasonable trustworthy to me, and this shutterman is honoured with flying colors, by his customers as well as by the guys who deliver his shutter materials.

I think we're going to take the risk, and if they don't fit after delivery we'll throw them on Marktplaats, asking Dutch prices.

While I was writing this, I received a phone call: a teacher of the Music School in Tilburg who begs us to remove the ad with our old LP and single albums: he is on his way, and he will pay our asking price . . .

We've placed the ad in question less than five minutes earlier!

It was accompanied by a complete list of all the albums and (maxi) singles from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. The music is no problem, cause I've got almost everything covered on the iMac in iTunes, as well as on an external back up, but the big question is if we missed one hidden valuable jewel that we've sold for almost next to nothing.

 Posted: December 11, 2006, 02:52 PM | Comments (0) |

December 09, 2006

Phones for sale

I'm gonna say bye bye to my collection of old black phones. Until 1997, when ISDN arrived, followed by ADSL a few years later, five or six of them were still working in our little old house.

A telecom guy who walked in once shook his head and said that it was impossible to hook more than two of them one standard line as they were dragging to much energy, but they were always working.

But that was, and this is now: for sale, twenty different old black phones, most of them black bakelite, some white, a white Ericofoon.

Desktop models, wall models, most of them complete, three without a cord.

Whole kit and caboodle: 150 euro, thats 193,60 dollar,

Update feb. 05 2007: sold on Marktplaats, total 150 Euro I'd already sold three phones solo when a mail arrived: I want them all!

Delivered to a fellow in Arnhem who owns a call center.

My old collection is part of the designer interior over there now, which is a comforting idea.

 Posted: December 09, 2006, 10:02 AM | Comments (0) |

December 08, 2006

Fifty percent of Google users do not scroll

Almost half of all users of Google in The Netherlands rather enter a new search word than bother to scroll. Google hits and ads that don't show up in the very first result screen are becoming futile.

That is, according top the results of a survey presented by Ronald Verschueren from NetMarketing at a meeting for members of NIMA (Nederlands Instituut voor Marketing) in Baarn.

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

The effect of less scrolling: ads getting more expensive.

'The trend is less scrolling, and we're expecting to see more and more of less scrolling'. It's something also happening on homepages and landing pages, where visitors also tend to scroll less.'

According to Verschueren, director of NetMarketing Usability Experts, 'the effect is that the price of highest ad positions in Google shall rise. To earn back their investments, it will become more important for advertisers to optimize their sites. Optimised sites will result in a higher percentage of sales, while the ad sense costs will remain the same, so that costs and assets will be kept in balance.

While viewing search results, 48% percent of users do not scroll anymore.

In the Netherlands Google is the by 90% of all Internet users the most used search engine.

The behaviour of Google is the most important factor in determining the success of Google ads.

NetMarketing did the survey regarding insurances, loans, travel and consumer products.

 Posted: December 08, 2006, 10:32 AM | Comments (0) |

December 04, 2006

How to handle Internet Errata?

How to handle errors published on a website? I'd never thought about it until 1995, when an evident error caught my eye, while reading The Daily Planet, then still King in the Land of the Blind Men, those who'd not seen the Internet light yet.

I mailed the webmaster, listening to the remarkable name of Francisco van Jole, and I remember I was very surprised when a reply arrived in the very same minute I'd send my remarks. Not only the webmaster, but even the man really existed, in that tenderly awakening digital world!

in Dutch at @ DutchCowboys

His answer learned me something about the Internet. "Thank you very much", Francisco wrote, "But I'm not going to change it, because that would mean I'm forging history. I'll add a note to the article, and I'll be back on it in the next newsletter.

Eleven years on, while couple books have passed about net- and email-etiquette, at the Internet desk of our newspaper website we're still waiting for rules or regulation regarding website errata. What to do when errors are published?

A level up, where rules nor regulation are not made yet, the official advise is to handle practical, with some pragmatism. Translated into daily practising that means: do as you like, until we decide different.

Which means that every once in a while, an article disliked by someone somewhere, for whatever reason, is changed, edited, or simply killed. Even worse: on a number of occasions I've received the marching order from the brass to purge an article from our online archives.

Disregarding the fact that I'd understood the arguments, in all cases I stood my ground - in all cases in vain - , pointing out to Fransisco's lesson: we're forging history if we do so. Once published is published forever.

Apart from the ethical questions and answers, my point is the pointlessness of purging something published on the Internet. If it's really something worth while, it has spread out over the web the moment it's published. By means of theRSS feeds, the newsletters, the caches of search engines, together forming an immediately starting, unbreakable chain.

Those who have blundered in a royal way are rewarded with screenshots on WebWereld, ReteCool or GeenStijl, and will see his errors again and again, also published on paper.

Don't, is my advice, just add a footnote to the blunder, freshly published or archived, with explanation and humble apologizes. Fair, sportsmanlike, elegant, and no fussing with history.

Erratum #1: changed 19951 in 1995 after a comment from Pieter. Gracias.

 Posted: December 04, 2006, 10:54 AM | Comments (2) |

International Passport's Record Bureau

You gotta see it to believe it: the World Passport Record Bureau web site - where you can search the online database. They have over 6 Billion Passports currently on file, and everyone can check them all.

According to the site: under the recent International Passport Act (INPA - enacted on Nov 2, 2003), every country in the world is required to make available to the public a digitized copy of each and every valid passport issued, in their respective country.

While the big question is this is all true and legal, the site works for sure. I tried my own name and sure enough my passport came up, complete, number, photo, all. Now what?

See for yourself: www.scrolllock.nl/passport

 Posted: December 04, 2006, 09:13 AM | Comments (1) |