What do you think ?

D-day minus 61

2009-03-31T14:00:00.000+02:00

Two months left to go & I'm already in need of a new pair of shoes. On Sunday I did a 10 mile run (16 kilometers) & although it was sunny, it had rained the days before. As the run went through the forest, there were a few muddy tracks scattered around waiting for some runners to fall into them like a carnivorous plant looking at flies getting closer…

My Adidas sneakers have succumbed to the acid rip of those muddy jaws & I only bought them in January. I've tried to clean them but it just isn't the same. They will be sorely missed & my wallet already feels lighter. :-/

D-day minus 75

2009-03-18T21:55:00.002+01:00

Things have been going steady as far as my training goes but of course every now & then there's a little glitch. After pushing it a bit too much on the bike on Monday, my upper thighs felt really painful on Tuesday but got even worse this morning. I ended up not going to work & staying in bed most of the day. Huzzah!

Things should get better by tomorrow which is always a day off anyways (training wise at least) . We'll see if I can slowly start things back up on Friday.

The gift that just keeps on spending

2009-03-05T12:30:00.000+01:00

Look into my oddly positioned eyes!

I'm a big fan of the GOINCASE cases & once again they give me a reason to go broke on their store. They've just released the Steven Harrington Slider Case & I want it! Ever since they've announced it I've been noticing more & more scratches on my regular Slider case. :-P

It's easy being green when you're not

2009-03-04T09:31:00.003+01:00

Do not smoke!

I remember not so long ago when Nokia announced its greenest cellular phone, the Nokia 3110 Evolve. Nokia took a jab at many other cellular phone manufacturors & presented itself as a leader in green or environment friendly devices. The announcement was hailed all over the Internet but a lot of skepticism could also be felt on Nokia's true dedication to the ecology. I myself think that these doubts were justified as this phone is almost nowhere to be found be it here (Belgium), France & frankly I doubt there's stock piles of it in any country.

It's really a shame as my office cellular phone seems to be in its dying moments & I thought I could get one that wasn't too expensive & that wouldn't generate too much extra waste at the same time.

Thank you Nokia, your half-assed attempt is really appreciated.

D-day minus 90

2009-03-01T16:57:00.005+01:00

I wanted them in Leopard skin but they were on back-order.

This could sound like the day by day (or week by week depending on my motivation) log of a catastrophe just waiting to happen. But just like the captain of the Titanic, I shall keep the course. What course ? Me running (& finishing in bloody, agonizing pain) in the 2009 Brussels half-marathon.

It's scheduled to take place on Sunday May 31st & I have the next day off so the circumstances are perfect, right ? We shall see how my preparation comes along. & for those laughing in the back, I've started training since last year though. It won't be a last minute joke. ;-)

Still weak

2008-11-01T20:02:00.005+01:00

Still waiting...

After downloading & installing the game, it has to update. Those updates are as big as the game itself. :-/

I am weak

2008-11-01T13:52:00.002+01:00

This must be a virus because I didn't agree to this, I swear.

I've already seen countless friends succomb to the evil know as World of Warcraft yet once again I prove to myself that I'm a sucker for anything free. Pray for me.

It's cheaper, faster & much much safer

2008-07-29T09:44:00.003+02:00

One of these three laptops might have a virus, which one is it ?

Sometimes (geeky) dreams do come true & so I finally got a laptop with a convenient Tribbes pouch to go with it. As usual in the technological kingdom, once you have something you notice something better & instantly, you must have it.

It's no different this time since Tribbes decided to unleash some new pouch designs. I MUST HAVE THEM ALL!!!

Conference of the Font Syndicate

2008-07-23T19:36:00.003+02:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

No, I'm not ashamed that I laughed. ;-)

Simple is the new pimpin'

2008-07-03T23:45:00.000+02:00

MacBook not included, at least not at the default price point.

There's a growing trend in the high tech world these days, one that I don't mind at all. Instead of all kinds of blinking overflowing lights & artifices, devices are adopting a rather sober clean look. Maybe it's a security measure to lower tech gadget thefts.

Who said Knight Rider ?

But speaking of storage, it's only recently that I've noticed the threshold the computer world has reached where terabytes of data capacity are becoming common to even regular users. I can now imagine how my teachers felt when they used to say "in my days we had computers with storage measured in kilobytes!". ;-)

Pictured devices:
Packard Bell Chroma
iRiver Domino

Does it blend ?

2008-06-18T18:30:00.000+02:00

Yes you can get lost on the Internet.

I've installed Firefox 3 on my Mac & PC but I must admit that I appreciate its visuals much more on the Mac side of things. The default theme on the Windows build is a step back from the 2.x theme in m eyes.

I'd have to look what the resource footprint is but I didn't really have much problems with the 2.x versions. I have 4GB of ram on all my machines & if you have ram, you're supposed to use it, right ? ;-)

A download a day keeps the malware away

2008-06-16T16:34:00.001+02:00

If the download record is broken, do I get a Guinness ?

Tomorrow is the scheduled release date for Firefox 3.0. On that occasion, Mozilla will attempt to set a record for the most downloaded software in 24 hours. Make sure to help in if you have the available bandwidth. :-)

Current Windows desktop

2008-05-04T11:48:00.003+02:00

I give it some water every day.

Yes I still run a Windows machine & I have proof! I haven't made the move to Vista though, I don't see it as a necessary thing for the moment.

Current Mac desktop

2008-05-04T09:33:00.002+02:00

Roar!

I'm not really in a dark mood but I like a nice dark background every now & then, it's easier on the eyes for me. Anyways click on the image for more information (yes, you too can have the same wallpaper!). ;-)

Clichés are thicker than blood

2008-04-23T00:39:00.000+02:00

Today at work we had the opportunity to donate some blood to the Red Cross & I didn't hesitate for a second. Having never donated before I was asked to fill a form giving information about myself, my current health status, whereabouts & the places I've been to recently.

My first hesitation came when I was about to fill in the place of birth. I wondered how the doctor would react when seeing one of the famous 4H, in this case Haïti. You're also asked which tropical country you've visited in the recent months & of course I've been back to Haïti last year around the same time so there would really be no way to avoid the subject with the clearance test doctor once I was done with the form.

The "interview" went quickly & we spent most of the time talking about my recent visit to the dentist. Oddly enough she asked me to enumerate the tropical countries I had been to, the same ones I had written down in the form. I'm still not sure why, maybe she thought I had written down Haïti as a joke. Nevertheless I recited them & she didn't show the slightest reaction when I mentioned Haïti. She just asked if I had ever done the Malaria to which I replied no & then I was off to bleed.

I wondered if she was trained to avoid the subject or if it was just me having all these thoughts in mind for nothing. Maybe I should work on putting all those clichés behind rather than getting ready to jump at someone's throat for mistakingly bringing them up.

PS. the needle was huge! But I survived & now I can't feel my arm...

A scarf & a bikini

2008-04-19T01:42:00.000+02:00

There's also a volcano eruption scheduled for two weeks from now.

This month of April certainly had a few common points with a roller coaster as far as the weather goes. Certain days were cold in the morning yet had you sweating in the afternoon under the sun. But even in those sunny afternoons, the temperatures were still between 10 & 20°C (closer to 10 though) but it seems that starting Sunday, things will really start to get warm.

Maybe I should start ironing my Hawaiian shirt...

Portishead is back!

2008-04-06T12:55:00.001+02:00

It shall be mine!

It's been a while since the last Portishead album & now the their Third album has been put on sale on their official website. Of course there was a super nice collector's edition & I couldn't let it pass. I'm all excited as this is the first time I've ponied up for a collector's edition, I hope I won't be disappointed but the 1GB Portishead USB key alone makes me believe I won't be (I'm so geeky, it's ridiculous). Now I just need to find a portable vinyl player. :-P

In the meantime here's an old video for your viewing & listening pleasure:

Kick ass!

2008-04-01T09:50:00.000+02:00

Getting a clue isn't the most common thing in the world, even more so when it involves the Internet. When creators of a cartoon show that I show do indeed get a clue, I believe there's matter for a celebration. South Park Studios is now open & offers every single archived episode of the show directly available for viewing. The new ones also get added but I'm not sure how long after being aired on television. What's the catch ? Well there are 3 ads of about 10/15 seconds in each episode but I see worse every day.

In the words of the great Cartman: "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"

Globalization farts in your general direction

2008-03-21T12:35:00.001+01:00

Of course multinationals certainly won't admit it that way, but in practice that's what they do. With the Dollar & the Euro drifting further apart, the price discrepancies between the prices on both sides of the Atlantic is really moving into the domain of the ridiculous. I'm amazed major news outlets haven't written about it but now lemonde.fr has done so:

Le consommateur français profite très peu de la baisse du dollar face à l'euro
LE MONDE | 20.03.08

One part I really liked was the example of Adobe, selling their Creative Suite for $1200 (~€800) in the US but the price almost quadruples to €2500 (~$3925) in Europe. I've checked with the article's author & apparently the Adobe representative didn't laugh while justifying the price difference (I could've sworn...). I'm sure it's all because Eastern European translators ask for more than 50 cents an hours since last year. :-P

Environmental terrorists

2008-03-17T23:45:00.000+01:00

The environmental subject is often in the headlines probably because it's the new fear inducing subject in the news. I believe that it's important subject because of certain affinities I have with the subject but I can't help but think that it's being used by the news outlets as a fad.

None the less it has probably given some people ideas like a group of former employees from Lenoir-et-Mernier. They decided that to get what they wanted they should hold a river for hostage, in this case the Meuse river in Belgium. Instead of attacking the material assets of the CEO responsible of the closure (or so the story says), they believe it to be a safer bet to screw around with nature instead, threatening to dump some acid in the river.

What's next ? Forests on fire because of raised taxes ? Freaking geniuses.

Article links: Google News

Why does this button say "do not touch" ?

2008-03-13T00:30:00.001+01:00

It's not always easy for me to find my around the Mac keyboard, the layout is very similar but the shortcut keys are different. For example the CTRL key on Windows doesn't quite work the same way on a Mac (copy is done with CMD+C rather than CTRL+C for example). There are of course unique possibilities on the Mac (CMD+CTRL+D comes to mind) but without a guide it could take a while before you "stumble" on them.

I've found a great link which covers almost all the shortcuts in Leopard & has really helped me make the most of that wonderfully thin aluminum keyboard: Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts by Dan Rodney.

Movie recommendation: The Orphanage

2008-03-09T23:58:00.000+01:00

Guillermo Del Toro produced & Didou recommended

I've just gotten back from The Orphanage & really liked it. Even though it wasn't directed by Guillermo Del Toro, it reminds me a lot The Devil's Backbone. The movie really shows what can be done when a director has to come up with ideas to instill fear rather than simply relying on special effects. Suggest a few thoughts & the people in the audience will imagine a million things way more frightening than you could show them.

What I would also recommend is for people to go see the movie without knowing much about it. I've had the bad idea of reading a critic of the movie (the critic was said to be spoil free) & although it didn't talk about the plot per se, it just couldn't help but say when something-that-I-can't-talk-about is going to happen. Here's an example of what these geniuses can come up with:

"I won't spoil anything but a big surprise happens in the middle of the movie which changes the rest of the story." (*)

Man do I hate that, just shut up about everything! Don't tell me when a surprise happens because even though you don't say what it is you've ruined it already. I sure hope this kind of "chilling" movie making stays with us for a while as I think the serial killer side of things is productive enough, we need some alternatives.

Trailer links: The Oprhanage

(*): I haven't ruined the plot timeline, no worries it was only an example. :-P

Morbid side picking

2008-03-08T20:10:00.000+01:00

The war I'm talking about is of course the one involving Blu-Ray & HD-DVD. I didn't find it necessary to pick sides up until now as I don't have a HD television set & my monitor is not HDCP compliant. The last few weeks has seen a few big turn of events after which the chances of having HD-DVD emerge as a victor were getting smaller. Of course being a soon-to-be dead format always helps bring the prices down & that's how I found an Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive for a few peanuts. :-D

I can finally watch my Pan's Labyrinth HD-DVD well at least I can try as my monitor is still not HDCP compliant.

Feeling steamy... punk ?

2008-03-05T23:50:00.001+01:00

Exclusive first look at the Apple Nautilus. ;-)

I've been introduced to Steampunk through the books of Jules Verne at a very early age. The novel "20.000 lieues sous les mers" not only made me terrified of traveling by boat, it also stimulated my technical curiosity & probably sealed my fate as a geek before I even knew it.

The time where Steampunk really made an impression on me was with the game Thief Dark Project, a classic game that should be on any gamer's shelf provided you can get working on current operating systems.

It has really become a genre that I enjoy exploring but it is so vast that it deserves its own elaborate post. In the meantime, admire this steampunked jewel of a computer system. ;-)

ps. wow I sure am obsessed by the Mac Mini it seems...

Motionless travel device

2008-03-02T17:05:00.000+01:00

That was then...

One thing I've always like about pictures is the ability to make you travel to places or even times where you've never been before. I feel like I've visited all the places my parents knew thanks to all the picture albums they've shown me throughout the years. They're always happy to tell you stories or anecdotes explaining why they were there or took that picture.

I've always thought it would be nice to see these places & their evolution after all the years. Someone has done that but also decided to re-take pictures along the way. This themed exercise called then/now by its author is very interesting & should probably inspire other photographers.

It has certainly given me ideas...

ps. yes I realize this post's title is very inspired by the Jamiroquai album.