Ghetto-Net :: The dump

Fried chicken breast with a champignon de Paris veloute:: DONE!

2009-01-14T21:20:00.005+01:00

Poach the chicken.

Rest the chicken, while you sautee mushrooms, shallots and garlic

Fry the chicken in olive oil - and baste in butter at the end

Final result! It was gooooood!

Chicken:
-----------
- chicken
- carrots
- leeks
- celery
- salt & pepper
- olive oil
- butter
- sprig of thyme
- bay leaves
- garlic
- fresh black pepper corns

Veloute:
------------
- champignon
- shallots
- garlic
- sprig of thyme
- dry white wine
- double cream
- chicken stock

Homemade pasta with shrimps fried in Pastis and a light red pepper sauce:: DONE!

2009-01-04T22:39:00.003+01:00

- flour
- eggs
- shrimps / prawns
- pastis
- half a lemon
- Red bell pepper
- sour creme
- salt & pepper
- shallots
- garlic
- butter
- olive oil
- fresh basel

We are back!

2009-01-04T13:00:00.002+01:00

After a long hiatus - I've decided to start blogging again. Mainly about food and other good stuff - so hang tight.

Also - I've invited a new author, Peter, that will write some interesting (hopefully) posts.

Happy New Year everybody!!

Microsoft Silverlight - on mac

2008-03-19T15:07:00.005+01:00

So decided to give Silverlight a try.. Installed it on my macbook pro (with Safari as my primary browser).

I'm already surprised when downloading the plugin:

Why the need to lie? Don't write 1MB download, when it is, in actual fact, closer to 5MB.

After installation, a quick restart of Safari - and off to try this new Flash, air, QT "replacement" - tried out the 80th Oscar Awards Ceremony - which starts by resizing my browser window (UGH!) - and then after clicking on one of the video previews - goes on and crashes Safari.

Nice try, Microsoft - but I think I'll stick with Flash (or whatever else is there) a bit longer.

Honey-Roasted Duck With Green Beans in Vinaigrette, Sautéed Potatoes And Garlic And Onion Confit:: DONE!

2008-01-27T20:56:00.000+01:00

- duck breast

- salt & pepper

- olive oil

- honey

- soy sauce

- green beans

- white wine vinegar

- sherry vinegar

- ground-nut oil

- lemon

- potatoes

- shallots

- garlic

- sugar

- butter

- sprig of thyme

- water

The recipe is from Gordon Ramsay's F-Word series.

Watercress Soup with Poached Egg:: DONE!

2008-01-27T16:01:00.000+01:00

- watercress

- eggs

- potatoes

- butter

- water

- vinegar

- salt & pepper

- olive oil

The recipe is from Gordon Ramsay's F-Word series.

Scrambled Eggs on Toast:: DONE!

2008-01-19T23:31:00.000+01:00

- eggs

- butter

- cherry tomatoes

- mushrooms

- olive oil (extra virgin)

- salt & pepper

- chives

- creme fraiche

The recipe is from Gordon Ramsay's immaculate repertoire.

Fragrant Orange Slices:: DONE!

2008-01-17T20:05:00.000+01:00

- oranges

- honey

- orange blossom water

- cinnamon

- walnuts

The recipe is from Gordon Ramsay's "Fast Food".

Pumpkin Risotto with Parmesan:: DONE!

2008-01-17T19:58:00.000+01:00

- pumpkin

- olive oil

- chicken stock

- risotto rice

- salt & pepper

- butter

- parmesan

- sage

The recipe is from Gordon Ramsay's "Sunday Lunch".

Mackerel on Toast with a Warm Potato Salad:: DONE!

2008-01-16T22:21:00.000+01:00

- charlotte potatos
- spring onions
- chives
- lemon juice
- creme fraiche
- mackerel fillets
- bread rolls
- olive oil

the recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Heaven".

Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Croque Monsieur:: DONE!

2008-01-16T22:17:00.000+01:00

Man this is a good sandwich:

- smoked salmon
- cream cheese
- chives
- lemon juice
- gruyere cheese
- (optional) caviar
- salt and pepper
- sliced bread

the recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Heaven".

Bumper stickers

2007-06-29T16:51:00.000+02:00

We need a couple of those:

Lovely surprise

2007-05-11T09:55:00.000+02:00

So last night, my cat decided to come home and dump a dead bird in my couch.. Lovely..

Democracy: Definition

2007-05-09T10:28:00.000+02:00

To all of those uneducated idiots who are rioting in France against the new president, here's a little reminder:

de·moc·ra·cy

n. pl. de·moc·ra·cies

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

2. A political or social unit that has such a government.

3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.

4. Majority rule.

5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

So...

All the anarchist/socialist/anti-sarkosist manifestants in the streets of Paris
have to stop their stupid, useless, boring- ass shit.

The majority has voted. We won, grow up and deal with it.

Vive Sarkozy!

big breakfast

2007-05-08T12:50:00.000+02:00

big FAB

and big breakfast

week end chic

2007-05-08T12:23:00.000+02:00

hôtel luxe à Deauville, quel pied de jouer les riches!

Ségolene à Poitiers, Sarkozy a l'Elysée

2007-04-30T10:57:00.000+02:00

Our office, today.

No political inclination AT ALL...

Friday Night Mojito

2007-04-30T10:37:00.000+02:00

I made myself a fat mojito on Friday night, in a 50cl Weiss beer glass. It was a beaut, so I took a couple snaps of it.

I should probably go see a doctor now - I'm blogging my drinks...

Boz est là

2007-04-27T22:38:00.000+02:00

Un nouveau venu ça va dech dech dechirer

Enough said!

2007-04-23T13:32:00.000+02:00

The two leading candidates..

France has spoken

Media Players - Why is it so hard to find a decent player for OSX

2007-04-04T15:44:00.000+02:00

I hate iTunes. Really.. I hate it.. almost as much as I hate public employees in France..

Since I've changed my workstation from FreeBSD to OSX, the only real problem I have had is finding a decent media player. I only have a couple of requirements:

- A small footprint (in terms of resources) - I don't want my media player eating up +1GB of system memory, like certain other *cough* iTunes *cough*

- The ability to queue a song (without building a new playlist) - How is this not a feature in ALL players?

- Tagging! I want to tag my music collection, with fx. tunepimp.

- It should be fast!

I'm a huge Amarok fan, and frankly I can't wait for a native OSX version (I know I can run it through X11, but that's not as cool as native) - currently, I'm using Songbird, which shows potential - but still far from fulfilling the above mentioned requirements.

I've tried (and discarded): Cog, NexTunes, Audion.

No, I do not want to join fucking WAYN!

2007-04-03T11:20:00.000+02:00

.. and frankly I don't give a rats ass where you are now, or where anyone else is for that matter..

STOP SENDING ME INVITATIONS TO WAYN!

www.odometre.fr

2007-03-22T14:32:00.000+01:00

Well, I've decided to get into shape again. Mostly seeing Dimitri there feeling damn good about his running routine - I thought, what the hell.. I could stand to drop a few pounds..

Anyway - went up to the local sports-gear-and-stuff store Decathlon, and picked up some nice running shoes, and some other gear - yay!

Been out a few times already - it hurts like hell; but damn it feels good.

To measure my route, I put in place www.odometre.fr (heavily inspired by Kristian's site.. - hey, no point in re-inventing the wheel) - I've added a few niceties - and there will be more to come.

Anyway - give it a try!

[www.odometre.fr]

PS. Oh yeah, we're not dead. Just too busy to blog...

Yes, I concur

2007-01-18T11:14:00.000+01:00

I just got my spanking new MacBook Pro 17" the other day, and I must agree with Lasse - it is probably the nicest laptop, I've ever owned.

OSX is great. So far no problems, except it does take a little getting used to, installing application by drag'n'drop.

I have a few issues getting Finder to show me the content; the way I like it - but I guess I'll get it working eventually.

More to come...

technorati tags:apple, mac, osx, switcher

I'm a Lunatic

2006-12-12T16:26:00.000+01:00

Man, I just realised that I completely lose my marbles when serving drinks. I mean take a look at this pic...
That's my conception of a "whisky on the rocks".... Holy Crap!
I mean I remember those drinks being for a couple buddies, myself and mich, but still, there are limits... at least I thought there were. I'm pretty sure I went through that bottle in 4 glasses....

PS. It's like searching for Waldo - mich is actually hiding in the picture below...

found him yet? go on, look closer - it's the dude with the 2 drinks (soon to be 3) in front of him ;)

Another night of anthology at the Long Hop!!

Microsoft - They really do suck

2006-11-17T10:47:00.000+01:00

One thing the web is full of is Microsoft flames. This shall however not deter me from writing another. (On the same token, Indeed the web is full of bad software, this has not detered Microsoft from making more).

Recently Microsoft has put in a "clever" feature in windows that verifies if the version on your PC is genuine before you can install new software and updates. I personally think that I am doing Redmond a favour by running their OS on a PC in my home when there are some many other great OS'es out there. For instance in the desktop space I run pretty much nothing but OS X (from Apple... you know?) and it kick Microsoft's "ass" (sorry kids). In the server space my company uses FreeBSD and Gentoo Linux (the later because a few drivers for something we do doesn't work on FreeBSD - if it wasn't for that fact everything would be daemonised). So no win in desktop space and no win in the server space for Microsoft. Anyhow, back to the Windows Geniune part. So as you are upgrading your Windows OS they take the opportunity to sell you a copy of the software. Isn't this exactly the wrong time to do it? I mean first you see a list of 23 new flaws (discovered in the last 3 days or so) in their broken, written by a 17 year old, over priced, slow, featureless, unstable, ugly operating system (which take the total up to 14347 serious flaws) and then they have the audacity to ask you money for it.

How about this. If Windows runs for 365 days, without crashing, without having to be rebooted, without any serious security flaws being discovered and exploited, without being paid a visit from Dr. Watson (or whatever his new replacement intern is called), then a dialog could pop up and say: "Hey we arn't that bad - say why don't you send us a check?"

It's almost laughable the last thing the "Microsoft Update" refused to install was IE7 - I don't even want it, nor do I want to pay for it and isn't it free anyway? And also, has Microsoft not be asked in pretty much every legal juristiction in the world not to automatically install it?

You should really switch to Apple's OS X. It is soooo much better. More secure, faster, genuinely innovative, smart, pretty, userfriendly and durable. And now you can even (if you absolutely must) run Windows either in bootcamp or in parallels so you get the best (and in one cast) worst of both worlds. Go on.... buy one of Steve's Macs - they're great - (like Kellogg's Frosties).

/Lasse

our new techcam

2006-11-15T16:45:00.000+01:00

one of our offices decided it didn't need its webcam anymore, so we got our hands on it before they could change their minds. We are therefore now the proud owners of an Axis 2100 Network Cam.

For lack of better use, we have placed it between our two desks, which allows people to see the massive amount of work we do everyday:

Notice the nice 7960 Cisco phone on the left, qnd my rubber ducky (hi ducky!)

Noon Food Products

2006-10-27T09:44:00.000+02:00

Hello!

Recently, mich and I have been boycotting the local (eurest) cafeteria for personal reasons (ie. we don't appreciate eating slop). To fulfill our midday fiesting habit, we know buy a bunch of grub on monday, and live off that for the week.

One of our main dilemnas when choosing food at the local store is (of course) quantity - most of the dishes sold in france offer ok food, but the quantities wouldn't satisfy a midget on a diet. I'm talking 200 to 350 grams (yes you read it right) - GRAMS (!!!) of food. Now I weigh in at a svelt 122kg (I've lost weight...), so 350 grams of food is pretty much a hors-d'oeuvre for me.

Thankfully, our local 'Monop' stocks a British brand of food called Noon, and their dishes offer 450 grams of delish indian and thai food. I mean the stuff is actually made with real ingredients, and tastes pretty damn good, and the quantity is nice (when complemented by our chicken wing platter as an 'entrée'). The only damn problem with the Noon products is the plastic film covering the dish- When you take the scorching dish out of the microwave and try (I insist on the verb 'try') to peel that film off, you know you're in for a disaster - In nine out of ten cases, either your white shirt or the whole kitchen gets sprayed with Chicken Masala.

Being fond admirors of Noon products, we decided to put ourselves to use for once and send them an email, complementing them on their food, whilst also telling them about our plastic film issue. Here's the email:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

We are in Paris, France, and (almost) happy consumers of Noon products. We very much enjoy the actual food, but we have "issues" with the packaging. The number of times we have scorched ourselves (and our
shirts) whilst handling your products is innumerable.

Please continue to provide good quality/quantity food - but please put some more money on the packaging R&D budget.. It will be very much appreciated.

On another note, do you sell the products directly to end-users ? We only have two of your dishes available at our place of purchase, and they always carry a low stock. Perhaps we could purchase directly with
you ?

Best regards,

Michael & Dimitri
Paris, France
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We haven't got a response yet, but we'll keep you posted. And if you are looking for some decent lunch food, try Noon, it's good stuff ;)

ciao!

Wookie !

2006-10-12T17:35:00.000+02:00

So had this message from Dimbo on my answering-machine today. The guy is seriously demented...

Oh, and on another note - Asterisk kicks ass !

Free - French ISP suck ass

2006-10-06T11:55:00.000+02:00

So... My ISP (or soon to-be-ex-ISP) have done it again.. They've manage to screw me over.. again.. It blows my mind how any semi-serious business can function - with a "screw the client" principle... First off, it's next to impossible to reach any living creature on there so-called "hotline" - second, if you should be one of the 5 people-a-day that manage to get through to their "hotline" - the "person" that greets you, is there to do anything but to help you..

I've been exploi^h^h^ha client with Free (this time around) since September 2004 - so over 25 months - and order to get a new ADSL modem (Freebox v5) - and not getting ripped - I should be subscribed for at least 25 months (the swap will cost me 30EUR - instead of the usual 90EUR)..

Great.. I access their site to order the new box.. I'm greeted with a nice message, saying the swap will cost me 90EUR.. now hold on - why is this ?? Well, according to the "hotline" I changed my subscription to "degroupage total" a couple of months back - and they reset my service level..

Now what _really_ pisses me off, is the fact that when doing the subscription changed, I carefully read the information on the page whether or not be subscription would be reset - and it was not stated ! Again according to the "hotline" this is specified in the "Terms and Conditions" which I have obviously not read..

So - what to do ? I can either just bleed the full 90EUR for the modem swap (and have my subscription reset again) - or I can cancel my subscription and choose another ISP (this will also ending up costing me around 90EUR - as my subscription has been reset, and you cannot cancel without charge before at least 12 months or so)...
Last but not least, I can keep my current modem, and current subscription.. and just have the bittersweet taste of Free once again getting away with raping me in broad daylight..

This is far from being over...

Here we go again

2006-10-03T14:45:00.000+02:00

La Poste has decided to raise the prices on stamps again... A couple of years ago it was 40 centimes for a stamp for France and Europe (20g).. Here are the new prices:

Principaux tarifs pour 20g:
* France: 0.54EUR
* France économique: 0.49EUR
* International zone 1: 0.60EUR (CEE + Suisse)
* International zone 2: 0.85EUR

It's a bloody travesty..They keep raising the prices, and their service level remains the same: useless

I loathe La Poste - from the very bottom of my heart... May each and every postman meet a vicious rottweiler on his route.

Who got the last drink?

2006-10-02T11:29:00.000+02:00

Well well, I guess we finally have the results!

Lasse capitulated pretty early in the game, leaving mich with the "rough" task of finishing his drinks alone! Here are a couple pics from Friday night. As you all can see, Lasse is looking a bit "tired", probably from the long train ride over....

before:

after:

I've got one word: FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!

New warehouse

2006-09-28T15:10:00.000+02:00

Went out to Villepint (near CDG airport) this morning to scope out our new warehouse location.. in order to determine where to setup my laptop - look into network connectivity and stuff.. What I hadn't been told; was that the previous proprietor was one of the money transporting companies (e.g. Brink)..
Holy cow, they had some cool stuff there.. Alarm systems up the wazoo, cameras a go-go and old shitty coaxial ipx/spx network..

I managed to grab a few shots of the safe.. I could smell the money !!

One of (the many) alarm systems

A cool note telling you how to
enter the main safe. I grabbed one
and attached on my office door

The inside of a vault door

Big-ass vault

A note explaining the personal how to handle
used (and new) rounds for their guns

"Kevlar can save your life"

How much money can each truck carry ?

Gun control ?

Extra curricular activities..

2006-09-26T16:32:00.000+02:00

A few pics of me from this weekends festivities..

Protect & Serve

Preparing a Serbian Ice Tea

Friday traffic mess

2006-09-25T12:11:00.000+02:00

What happens when you block Charles de Gaulle Etoile at friday afternoon rush-hour ?
People get pissed off !

My wife took a couple of pics of the mess:

The Long Hop Staff - "Au Complet"

2006-09-25T11:58:00.000+02:00

hello!

Just thought I'd post a pic of the staff I work with on the weekends. This is to accustom Lasse to the people he will be spending next weekend with...

from left to right: Me, Charlotte, Guillaume, Olivia, Marko, Alice, Arnaud, and Eric.

Don't you just hate

2006-09-23T18:27:00.000+02:00

people that post pretentious pictures of themselves. Let me tell you this. If you want to post flatering pictures of yourself, don't settle for a picture of yourself in a suite you bought in Marks & Sparks in front of that nice Mercedes down the road you don't own.... Go all the way.

Do you know what I mean?

The 17' Macbook Pro

2006-09-23T17:27:00.000+02:00

Recently I did a few favours for a friend in the broadcasting business and in return he bought me a new Mac. That was nice as my girl friend had been wanting my old 15' Powerbook for a while. That's how things work in my house, at some stage my girl friend wants my laptop and so either I can stop having sex or buy a new one. I suspect I'm not the only one where things work like that at home but we'll leave that subject for another posting.

So firstly let me tell you that I have some experience with Macs. I have owned 12' and 14' iBook and several 15' Powerbooks before getting the new Intel based 17' Macbook Pro. I first came in to contact with Mac OS X at a FreeBSD conference in Brighton (South UK coast) I was attending with FreeBSD hacker Michael Hostbaek (Mich) that also blogs here. Anyhow what I liked about the operating system is the fact that it is based on Unix/BSD and so I was familiar with shell etc + I thought the GUI was nice and you could even run your office apps etc. Interestingly enough Steve Jobs also mentions Creative Professionels and Education customers but never spends much time on IT/Telecoms people for which the Mac OS X system is perfect.

After having run Mac for many years (pretty much since the first versions of OS X) I have always been extremely pleased with the performance and stability of the OS. Apps rarely crashed and configuring network stuff is easy. I am btw working in the Telecoms sector and I do a lot of technical work on the network level (around layer 2-5 if that means anything to you) and so the Unix tools that are available off the shelf leaves windows in the dust. Sure you CAN run Ethereal and other diag tools on windows but it's just not as nice and integrated as Unix.

Anyhow, back to the Macbook Pro. Firstly let me say that although I have installed bootcamp and Windows XP (as I wanted to play Red Alert II with my neighbour a while back - let me assure you I don't own a license for either) I'm not going to show you a screenshoot of that as it seems every other review does exactly that. Rather let me sho you the laptop with Expose.

Overall the Macbook Pro is a great Laptop. Mine has nice specs:

2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo
2 Gigs of memory
7200 spin 100GB disc
+ Mac niceties iSight, Apple Remote DVD drive that reads and writes every (current) format

As a network guy I btw like the fact that it comes with auto crossing (or whatever its called) gigabit capable NIC. I.e if you connect to another host or switch the mac will cross the connect or provide straightthrough connectivity regardless of the cable you use.

It also runs fast, noticeably faster than my old Powerbook (which was the fastest when they discountinued the Powerbook range).

The OS is still new on Intel and it is NOT AS STABLE as on the G4 processor. This is a shame. I'm sure it's not the processors fault, rather Apple has yet to clean up all the bugs.

So overall I think it's a great piece of hardware. It's very expensive - I paid £2000+ for mine, but if you don't care about money it's great. Really it's like a good bed or a nice car. If you use it a lot it makes sense to buy something nice.

The look and feel is also great. It's pretty and the design is clean and pleasant.

I would recommend it to anyone that's serious about their hardware.

Laptop thief gets screwed...

2006-09-19T14:36:00.000+02:00

Saw this video on google earlier today !

A Berkeley professor gets his laptop stolen by some useless student on campus.. An act I'm sure he'll live to regret..

Watch it ! It's absolutely fabulous !

Police Water Truck - Up close and personal

2006-09-18T11:42:00.000+02:00

Was walking around yesterday close to Bastille, and spotted a sweet vehicle
that most people don't get to see up close.

This fine water-blaster truck was sitting on the curb, probably in standby, waiting for shit to hit the fan at the Techno Parade happening in Paris on Saturday.

and up close:

Voila!

Free BSD (!) Magazine in France!

2006-09-14T16:38:00.000+02:00

Yes, it has happened! The very first FreeBSD (sorry, it's FreeBSD, not Free BSD...)
magazine has hit the kiosks in France. Well, calling it a magazine is maybe a bit
"too much", as basically it's just a copy of Freebsd 6.1 and a light installation manual.
Nevertheless, it's a step in the right direction. Let's hope some people buy it,
to keep it going, although at around 10 euros, it's pretty steep for something you can download for free...

Congrats anyways!

Here's the cover:

I took this at the Chatelet RER station - the dude behind the counter was looking at me pretty weird...

I want my lyrics..

2006-09-14T15:57:00.000+02:00

Had some issues with lyrics fetching in Amarok for the last couple of weeks.. Haven't given it a lot of thought, until today - when I actually wanted the lyrics for a track.. (go figure..)
Some hunt it turned out to be..

When clicking the lyrics tab in Amarok, it would bitch about no script would be running.. When attempting to start lyrc - would give me the following error:

      /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:560:in `initialize': Connection refused - connect(2) (Errno::ECONNREFUSED)
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:560:in `open'
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:560:in `connect'
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:48:in `timeout'
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:76:in `timeout'
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:560:in `connect'
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:553:in `do_start'
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:542:in `start'
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1032:in `request'
          from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:769:in `get'
          from /usr/local/share/apps/amarok/scripts/lyrics_lyrc/lyrics_lyrc.rb:122:in `fetchLyrics'
          from /usr/local/share/apps/amarok/scripts/lyrics_lyrc/lyrics_lyrc.rb:187
          from /usr/local/share/apps/amarok/scripts/lyrics_lyrc/lyrics_lyrc.rb:172:in `loop'
          from /usr/local/share/apps/amarok/scripts/lyrics_lyrc/lyrics_lyrc.rb:172

Basically, how the lyrc script works - it's by looking up a song (title and artist) on www.lyrc.com.ar - and the parsing the lyrics.. (simplified..)
So started out by verifying that I could access the website - which I could.. So it's not a network problem...
Next - check proxy settings.. From #amarok on EfNet, I learned that Amarok gets its proxy settings from the KDE controlpanel.. No proxy settings were specified - as it should be.

Next - I managed to launch the script from Amarok scriptmanager (without actually looking up any lyrics) - and attach truss(1) to the PID - from which I could see that it would trying to connect to localhost on port 8888.... Interesting...
Looking over the lyrics_lyrc.rb source - more specifically the fetchLyrics function - I noticed the following:

    if ( @proxy == nil )
     @proxy = `dcop amarok script proxyForProtocol http`
 end

Running, the above command - would yield:

http://localhost:8888

Back to KDE control panel and double-check the proxy settings.. still no problems there..
Finally, I did a recursive grep for localhost:8888 in ~/.kde/
Bingo.
The file ~/.kde/share/config/kioslaverc
had ProxyForProtocolHttp="http://localhost:8888"
I have absolutely no idea how it came to be there.. and I don't care.. I removed the file, and restarted Amarok - and voila.. lyrc works again !

Though, now I can't remember which lyrics I was looking for..

And a not so sober picture

2006-09-14T10:43:00.000+02:00

Just to prove the last post... this is one of the not so sober pics...

Drinks at the Hop

2006-09-11T11:29:00.000+02:00

dsc00080.jpg
Originally uploaded by mich_bsd.

Went out Saturday night for a couple of drinks at the Hop..
The Long Hop is a nice pub/bar in the 6th (right next the metro Maubert-Mutualite).. oh yeah, and that useless slacker buddy of mine, Dimbo, is working there on weekends..

On the pic: the incredible bar duo - Marco & Dimbo (rare photo, both of them conscious at the same time)

Spelling 101

2006-09-08T13:32:00.000+02:00

dsc00077.jpg
Originally uploaded by mich_bsd.

"MAC DONALD'S" - wtf ?

I mean, the huge McDonald's building is *right* there.. All they had to do, to get it right, was to turn their heads... fools..

Do as we say, not as we do

2006-09-08T13:29:00.000+02:00

dsc00078.jpg
Originally uploaded by mich_bsd.

French cops setting a good example as always....

(The license plate is not really fulfilling the requirements...)

Amarok 1.4.3

2006-09-05T16:29:00.000+02:00

Yessir - Amarok 1.4.3 was just released.

Mainly bugfixing - but a couple of nice new features; such as:

- DAAP Music Sharing with ZeroConf/RendezVous support
- Amarok File Tracking

Amarok - rediscover your music

What is he selling..

2006-09-05T13:28:00.000+02:00

pot.jpg
Originally uploaded by mich_bsd.

On the way home from work yesterday, I saw this conspicious van parked close to my street.. "pot-mand.nl"....
I wonder what the pot man(d) from the Netherlands are delivering..

Flickr adds geotagging

2006-08-30T17:32:00.000+02:00

Flickr just introduced geotagging for photo collections. Pretty neat, and quite easy to use - I've just added geotags for my photos:

Read the announcement here: FlickrBlog

Spring Cleaning (in August)

2006-08-22T16:49:00.000+02:00

Ahh, spring is a great time to clean up and get things back on the right track, and as mich and I are always on time for everything that we do, we got around to cleaning our office once and for all (until next spring) a couple days ago.

What did we do? We pulled out our desks (and everything that was behind them), flipped them around, cleaned everything, threw away half of all the crap we have sitting around, recabled (kinda), and stole a plant from another office (our boss') for decorative purposes.

Here are the pics!

mich's side:

front side:

my side:

Voila! We're pretty happy with this new 'work' environment! The only thing missing is a fridge and a pool table... more to come.

Is Ryanair the real “overcharging rapists?”

2006-08-17T17:41:00.000+02:00

According to The Economist newspaper Ryanair's chief exec Michael O'Leary uses the term "One big monopoly" on some days when he describes BAA the operator of the major airports in Britain in positive terms and on other days "Overcharging rapists" in, well, not so positive terms.

As most of the world is aware currently in the UK, the government has increased the security checks in airports to the frustration of carriers such as Ryanair. Also the allowance for hand luggage has been reduced. I guess to make security checks quicker. It all makes sense.

On Ryanair's website Ryanair makes a passionate direct appeal to the Bristish government to amongst other things "send in extra army or police personnel to help the BAA to carry out these checks." and to "also ban these items (hair gels etc) from being carried on potential targets such as the London Underground and Eurotunnnel" to reduce delays and cancellations.

In case you were not aware as part of a new supposedly fairer(!!) way of charging flight costs Ryanair has recently started charging passengers for checking in baggage. So whereas before you could check in one bag per passenger you now have to pay £5 for the same priviledge.

So where am I going with this?

Well it seems to me that Ryanair actually profits in part because of this new reduced allowance on hand luggage. I don't know about you, but rather than bringing less things on holiday, I plan to put things I would previously have held in my hand luggage in my checked in baggage instead.

Ryanair has not increased the allowance on checked baggage (just came off the phone with their 10p-a-minute customer "service" center) so they stand to win revenue from the extra checked in baggage. Am I wrong?

Surely the variable cost for Ryanair must be the weight of cargo. Only before what I didn't have to pay for it in the cabin, I do now have to pay for it in the hold - at £5.50 per kilo no less.

Perhaps Mr. O'Leary would be willing to share some of his hard earned terror-profits with the Bristish government to pay for more security personel?

I would suggest to Ryanair that they quickly raise the checked baggage allowance to whatever weight has been taken out of the hand luggage allowance. That shouldn't cost a penny extra. (and it might make people resent them less for not blatantly taking advantage of the missery and fear of others).

Oh, and Michael, stop having brightly coloured signs printed complaining about every bit of regulation you don't like.

You may not be out of rocks, but your glass house is out of windows.

Sweet sound of Bosch PBH-160R

2006-08-03T14:34:00.000+02:00

Lasse has been so kind, as to provide us (and all the avid readers of this blog) with a video-clip of his fine powertool...

Listen/See it here...

Inspired by "Da Workshop"

2006-08-03T14:12:00.000+02:00

The other day I was on the phone with my friend Lasse, and we entered into a discussion about powertools (e.g. Binford2000.. ) which we both are absolutely fascinated about, but know little about how to use in practice.. Anywho, I bragged about our fine "Tech Workshop" anno 2005 - which, for some strange reason, inspired him to and do some real work himself..

The project - wall-mount a switch under his desk.

First - get the powerdrill:
Well.. Lasse is living in London - and have been for a number of years now - the avid reader will notice that the drill do not have a UK powerplug - probably because Lasse acquired this fine tool whilst living in Denmark.. Goes to show you how often Lasse is using his powerdrill......

Fixed:

Here's the wall with the four (more or less aligned) freshly drilled holes:

The final product (not too shabby, eh..) :

The aftermath - cleaning:

As always, Lasse is available - together with the rest of the team of handymen on 1-800-MORONS-AT-WORK

Squeezebox

2006-07-19T15:35:00.000+02:00

Squeezebox
Originally uploaded by mich_bsd.

and here's a nice picture...

SMOKIN'!!

2006-07-19T15:23:00.000+02:00

Jesus-holy-mom-of-a-goat it is scorching hot over here right now... Check out my Forecastfox...

Needless to say mich and I are sweating like newborn baboons right now...

cheerio!!

Squeezebox arrived

2006-07-19T14:51:00.000+02:00

My squeezebox just arrived a couple of hours ago - oh boy, this is a super nice little gadget..

I installed audio/slimserver from the ports collection, and turned the squeezebox on.. I took me about 30 seconds to get the little sucker connected to the network, and recognized by the slimserver (running off my laptop) - everything works like a beaut.. Now I'm discovering all the cool functions and features..

I also installed the last.fm plugin that soft of works.. seems the squeezebox reboots every time I initialize a last.fm stream.. I looked briefly on the slim devices forum, and it seems that I not the only one experiencing this problem.. hmm...
Haven't tried out the scrobbler plugin yet, but it is installed - so it should work.

I've just finished setting up the squeezenetwork account, and I'm just now discovering pandora - holy crap - this thing just ROCKS !

Looking forward to listening to Danish broadcast streams tonight on my stereo... Also, I will have to connect the squeezebox to my WLAN at home.. That should be interesting..

Enough for now, I will play some more..

PS. UPS Express rocks - I put in my order Monday afternoon, and the package arrived at 11am today !

Squeezebox - en route !

2006-07-17T14:38:00.000+02:00

Weeee.. after Stig's excellent post about his squeezebox - I got kinda hooked on the idea, so I just ordered one. I got the one with both Ethernet and wifi connectivity.. It's actually quite affordable, something like $340 (with shipping) - I'll probably have to pay local tax on it, but even then it's still cheaper to buy it directly from Slim Devices than a France-based webshop - where it would be well over $450 (what the hell is wrong with those guys... don't buy your shit from softline.fr !)

So what can it do ?
Well.. pretty much anything - stream a shitload of online radio stations - I will finally be able to listen to danish broadcasts from my stereo.. also, I will be able to stream my own music. In addition, squeezebox can function as a wifi bridge for my WLAN - pretty neat !

Go read the Slim Devices : Squeezebox : Overview here !

No shit, Sherlock

2006-07-13T15:01:00.000+02:00

Snippet from Danish newspaper Politiken:
"Foreign Ministry: Nobody should travel to Lebanon"

Geeee, you think ?

----
Udenrigsministeriet: Ingen bør rejse til Libanon

Forholdene i Libanon er nu så alvorlige, at Udenrigsministeriet fraråder alle at rejse til landet.

Shit is hitting the fan

2006-07-12T14:00:00.000+02:00

It is not looking good in the middle-east...

Israel calls Hizbollah capture of soldiers act of war

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (Reuters) - Hizbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed up to seven Israelis in violence on either side of the Lebanese border on Wednesday, further inflaming Middle East tensions.

Racism & Soccer

2006-07-12T11:29:00.000+02:00

Just got this postcard the other day.. and in light of Materazzi's poor behavior during the Italy vs. France worldcup final, I thought it would be worth posting.

It says: "Do not let racism invade the stadiums"

- nuff' said !

France Italy

2006-07-10T11:47:00.000+02:00

GODDAMNIT! Damn lenguini-eaters!

Well, at least we still royally kick their asses at rugby

See you for the World Cup in 2007, slackers!

Au moins on a battu le Portugal..

2006-07-10T11:25:00.000+02:00

Rendez-vous dans 2 ans pour la coupe d'Europe !

Ahhhhhh...

2006-07-07T10:59:00.000+02:00

I'll do anything to kill that thirst !

France:1 Portugal: 0

2006-07-06T11:07:00.000+02:00

Ils sont ou, ils sont ou, ils sont ou les portugais!

I am SOOOO happy those losers are out of the competition, especially that Cristiano Ronaldo, what a little jackass that one is...

Cry your heart out, you pansy.

France 3: Spain 1

2006-06-30T07:17:00.000+02:00

I think this pretty much says it all...

Australia vs Italy

2006-06-27T13:15:00.000+02:00

I feel sorry for the Australians...
Italy did *so* not deserve to continue in the world cup.

via http://users.on.net/~billt/italianjob.gif

Tom Cruise's M:I:III promo at la Défense

2006-04-27T10:16:00.000+02:00

I learned from a "20 minutes" article yesterday that Tom Cruise would be at La Défense on his European promo tour for M:I:III to inaugurate the "Dôme" cinema, so I trudged over there after work and waited around, to see what would happen.

Well, our favorite scientologist came down in a big ass helicopter, and people (especially chicks, but a lot of 'guys' too) went APESHIT! I mean, these people were moshing, just to get a pic of jerry mcguire!

First impression of Brian Flanagan - man is he short - I mean I knew he wasn't 6ft, but he is literally 5ft tall. Seems like a nice guy though, as it took his time signing autographs with pretty much everyone there (around 2000 people) I managed to get the following snap.

Apart from Ethan Hunt, Jamie Foxx was there too, didn't see him though, as I got the hell out of there, I needed a beer.

Navigo Integral - A bunch of retards!

2006-04-20T17:24:00.000+02:00

I am in the process of changing my bank, cause BNP sucks ass... for multiple reasons, don't get me started..
Anywho, part of the process is to move all your services that is automatically charged from your account.. One of them, is for me, Navigo Integral. This the "new" public transportation division of RATP. It's actually quite neat, too bad the employees are like all other French public employees, retards.

Knowing that I'm dealing with retards, I called in advance and asked them how I should proceed with the change.. I was told, send the following (per snail-mail obviously):

- Bank identification paper
- auto-charge authorization (signed)

Ok, great.. My new bank had provided me with templates for these letters, so I simply have to add my contract# and my signature. Filled in the stuff, and sent it.

Yesterday I received a letter from "the retards" - well in fact they need the information (the exact information I already sent) filled into a special form.. *sigh* Not any additional information, no no, just a stupid form that differs very little from my original letter.. except I have to fill all numbers, address etc etc manually..

Called them up today, and sure enough, they insist on me resending the form.. fucking hell.. I've made the same change with countless of other companies, and obviously the only ones creating trouble are publicly held organizations.. such as the tax office, and RATP.
Actually my ISP even allowed me to change the thing online, without any hassle...

I can't wait for the day they will be privatized, all these companies, I swear to god, heads will roll ! They do not know the first thing about company care..

I hate them all..

Quote of the day

2006-04-14T11:07:00.000+02:00

If you wanna feel funky, feel free - but please don't spread that funk on me.
Chris Rock's demented uncle

Just like the picture

2006-04-13T09:34:00.000+02:00

Hey,

It's too early for chitchat. I just like the picture.

Oh yeah, I figured mich has been putting up jackass pictures of me, so basically - "right back atcha"

Ciao!

Da Nikon D70S - yeah baby!

2006-04-12T14:04:00.000+02:00

Ahh, after a month or so of craving a new digital camera, it's here!

We opted for the Nikon D70s kit with a 18-70mm lenses, and were right - it's a pretty sweet beast ;)

What is there to say - Boys and toys...

Now I have to learn how to use it!

ciao!

Post a picture (or two) day

2006-04-12T13:34:00.000+02:00

The phrase "useless slacker" springs to mind ;)

Bike !

2006-04-11T13:26:00.000+02:00

Went yesterday to pick up a bike in Decathlon - it's amazing how cheap it is to get a bike these days.. It's a sweet ride, and as of now I'll be riding it to and from work every day.

Here's how I've shortened my daily commute, so far:

With car: 25-30 minutes
With bus: 20 minutes
On bike: 9 minutes
I'm expecting that to go slightly down once I get into the routine (and shape).

Here's a couple of pictures of the beast

Obviously I also picked up a bicycle "computer" - with loads of nice functions..

Pimpin' Ride .... and Pimp My Ride

2006-04-11T11:32:00.000+02:00

Yo! A buddy of mine just gave me a car (yes, gave)! Ok ok, it's not the most recent thing, but it rolls, and gets from point A to point B (I think).

It's a Renault 25 GTX from 1986 - totally an 80s car, but it's got some cool specs (rofl) - 2.2 liter engine, electric windows and sunroof (yes! a fucking sunroof!), and basically everything is working. I have to change a couple tires, and fix the radiator (well, someone has to fix the radiator, I don't know anything about damn cars), but apart from that it's in relatively good shape - Oh yeah, we need to clean it too, it hasn't driven for 2 years, and has been sitting in a garage, so there's 'a bit' of dust.. check out the pics!

We're thinking about getting in touch with MTV's Pimp My Ride Europe, because this is totally the kind of car in need of a Pimpin'.

Anyways, I'll get this thing out of the garage, fixed and cleaned up, and post some 'After' pictures soon. Ciao!

Dimbo

What the hell ?!

2006-03-30T15:36:00.000+02:00

I was just reviewing my fine post earlier, when I notcied the Google ad in the right pane :

Feminine blogs ?!? What in the living crap is that about ?

Easter is coming..

2006-03-30T13:57:00.000+02:00

Enough said.

Picture of the Day

2006-03-29T15:33:00.000+02:00

I think this picture says it all.... at least for today...

ciao!

4000W AC Power Supply!

2006-03-29T14:15:00.000+02:00

Hello!

I just loved the look of this little beast!

This is a Cisco Catalyst 6000 chassis 4000 watt power supply. I would just loooove to plug this baby in.

(rest assured, there is absolutely nothing, I mean NOTHING sexual about me liking this thing... nothing I tell you..)

Anyways, tata, laddies!

Sunday at the Sorbonne

2006-03-27T15:03:00.000+02:00

We were walking around yesterday in our neighborhood, and decided to go over to the Sorbonne University to check out the damage the recent anti-CPE riots have bestowed up it, and of course we took a couple pics.

Here you can see they have severely barricaded the university:

Suddenly I noticed this dude dressed in orange in front of the barricades. I decided to get closer...

Look at this DUFUS! This "Syndicalist" from FO (Force Ouvrière - a workers union) was standing there, on a SUNDAY, dressed in ORANGE, with a GREEN FLAG, and you know what, he was happy about it (look at him smile)!

This is a snap I took over the barricades, at the CRS trucks in front of the university:

This is Rue St. Jacques, which is usually a really busy street...:

Tomorrow the anti-CPE riots are pretty much taking france as hostage, as all the workers unions are going to block up ALL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, which mean I'm going to have a hell of a time going to and from work, and mich is going to have a HELL of a time getting back from Denmark.

I hate them all...

Münich re-visited

2006-03-23T11:28:00.000+01:00

So I'm back in Münich as part of my upgrading corporate firewalls world-tour. The weather is pretty shitty, I could swear I saw snow falling down this morning. It's cold, grey and boring.

On the upside, had a couple of brewskies last night, I have got to give it to the Germans, they do know how to serve a tasty beer:

Spend a considerable amount of time on the phone with Deutsche Telekom... my god, what an ordeal. Apparently very few employees with T-Kom are able/willing to speak English - and, unfortunately, the ones that say they do, are complety incomprehensible.
We are converting our Office-Connect line, to a T-DSL business line - not a big deal, right ? Wrong !
They are obviously removing the Office-Connect router, and setting up some DSL equipment. Only they installed a DSL-modem (without router functionality) - so in order to get it working, we would have to install a Windows XP box directly on the modem... *sigh*..

Had to find a T-Kom store, and go fetch a DSL-Router... Sinus 154 DSL Basic SE.. With integrated WiFi and configurable by a "nice" web interface.. that basically only works with IE... *sigh* *sigh*

Obviously this beautiful web interface is only in German, and completely illogical. Anyway, managed to disable WiFi, NAT, and the builtin firewall - and in addition, point the fixed IP that we've purchased , directly on our own firewall (running FreeBSD naturally).

Today, tidying up - cleaning out the old firewall, and helping the sales staff here, with their small tech issues...

Back tonight, and leaving for Denmark on Sunday...

Attention to detail...

2006-03-18T21:42:00.000+01:00

Hello!

I was watching a concert on tv, and realised that some jackass working at W9 had misspelled the artist's name...

The dude's name is Gérald de PALmas, not PLAMAS, you jackass!

The mistake was up for most of the concert, then the whole line disappeared. Obviously it left me enough time to take a picture...

BTW I played some rugby this morning... and scored a try!

It doesn't happen often, so I had to mention it...

plus I didn't get hurt, which is pretty exceptional as well...

ciao!

Snippets for vim(1)

2006-03-09T11:59:00.000+01:00

For a week or so, I've started to look into Ruby on Rails for web application development - it's very nifty and has a lot of potential !
Watching the online tutorial videos, I'm becoming increasingly jealous of the OS X users and their super cool TextMate editor ! Being a vim(1) man myself, I set out trying to reproduce some of the textmate behavior - specifically the snippets functionality. After searching a bit around on google, I found the snippetmagic project, which does exactly that ! It add snippets not only for rails projects, but also:

actionscript
asp
c
css
django
f-script
gri
haskell
html
java
javascript
latex
logo
markdown
mips
movable type
objective c
ocaml
odcompletion
perl
php
phpdoc
propel
python
rails
ruby
setext
slate
smarty
source
symfony
tcl
template toolkit
text
unixshell
xhtml
xml

Pretty friggin' awesome !

Cool 7940 phone.. and real cool ringtone

2006-03-06T14:58:00.000+01:00

Hello!

Mich is currently checking out a VoIP solution using the world renowned Asterisk, an Open Source PBX.

Well he got Asterisk installed on a "server" (aka - spare parts sitting around the office thrown into an old Compaq Deskpro chassis), and in order to test this fab solution, we got ourselves a couple Cisco 7940 IP phones:

Now these babies are hot - real hot! I don't know if you've recognized them, but they're practically the same suckers they use on "24" - and guess what? We have the unofficial "24" ringtone! Yes sir!

We are such geeks...

ciao!

Danish Muslims

2006-02-22T14:57:00.000+01:00

So the aftermath of the whole drawing the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, is resulting in an Imam in Denmark trying to organize all Danish Muslims to burn their Danish passports on the central square in Copenhagen.

Well, go ahead... a new passport costs 500,- DKK (roughly 70,- EUR)

I think there are more intelligent ways of showing discontent with the publications..

Charlie Birdy - Revisited

2006-02-08T16:36:00.000+01:00

Back in the 90s when I first arrived in Paris, my usual hang out would be Chesterfield Cafe on rue Boetie, in the 8th. It was a pimpin' place, with lots of cool people and taking the party to the max until the early morning. There was actually a rumor going around, saying that at that time - Chesterfield Cafe was the busiest bar in Europe. I do not know if it is true, but there sure used to be a lot of folks.
At some point in 2000 or so, Chesterfield got sued for the Chesterfield trademark - probably by Philip-Morris or some other lame-ass tobacco company. So they changed the name to "House of Live" - I do not know if management changed as well, but the place just wasn't the same. I've only been there a few times since then.
Yesterday, I found out that they had changed their name (once again) to Charlie Birdy - and a friend of mine got a job as bartender there - so we went their last night for a drink and some food.

The place has been cleaned up, and do put it a lot of nice deco - and I'm happy to see that they kept that huge cool-ass mahogany bar. They are definitely going with a more upscale look, than their predecessors.
The food was ok, and the drinks too (has some Mojitos) - but the waitress was slow as hell, and the hostess was not too friendly. Also, I did not have a chance to visit the restrooms, but both Chesterfield and House of Live were notorious for their absolutely disgusting restrooms..

Go check it out:
Charlie Birdy

Today is post a picture day

2006-02-07T16:55:00.000+01:00

Dimitri, on the whole "work" thing:

Agilent N2X

2006-02-07T16:44:00.000+01:00

The other day, my esteemed colleague and myself went out to the Agilent Technologies HQ in Massy, France - for a demonstration of their N2X product, and I must say - it kicks ass !

Only downside is the price... it is priiiiiiiicy...

Selling my car

2006-02-03T15:13:00.000+01:00

I'm selling my wheels..

It's a Peugeot 307 XSi 2.0 - it's in excellent condition.. well, more or less.

Drop me a mail if you are interested.

La Defense

2006-02-03T11:23:00.000+01:00

Took this picture on my way home from the "Solutions Linux" expo at the CNIT.

It's a nice building, huh?

Nike Airmax 360 - Running on Slaves?

2006-01-30T16:58:00.000+01:00

I was coming back from the FNAC on Friday evening after a nice cold beer at the 'Relais Odeon', when I noticed an ad for the new Nike Air Max 360.

This is how the situaiton went through my head.

- Nike, huh, cool
- shoe kinda looks nice, although i don't really like Nike
- Airmax 360 - alright.
- Nike Airmax 360 - Running on Slaves - that's a bit of a bizarre ad.
- Running on Slaves? huh, what the...!

Well apparently some anarchist losers had been there before me, taken apart the lit billboard, added a bit of their own to the ad, and put it back together. This is what it looked like:

As you can imagine, this ad really got a crowd quick.

I wonder how long that was up before someone was notified and it was 'cleaned up'?

In any case, I got the pic!

ciao for now,

dim

Useless parking

2006-01-26T10:49:00.000+01:00

In my building (where I live) I have a parking, so I can basically just take the lift down to the basement, and I'll be by my car..

The other morning when I went to work, a couple of cars looked like this:

click for a larger picture

Apparently, during the night a bunch of thieving bastards had gained access to the parking, and managed to run off with 12 tires. In addition, they broke a couple of windows to get inside to steal gps equipment etc..
Amazingly, they did not touch my car, though they broke windows on the cars in front and behind mine - I guess it's because mine has a nasty alarm.

In light of my previous blogpost, about the price of tires and whatnot, I'd like to stress the point - that I did not, I repeat, *not* have anything to do with this little operation.. really....

Tired of tires

2006-01-20T15:09:00.000+01:00

Evidently I have to change the two front tires on my car.. (being that they skid every time I accelerate, and don't even get me started on the breaking.. or lack thereof)

This is where I get screwed for driving with 17" rims..

So the other day I went to my local Midas for an estimate. It was a most unpleasant surprise.. with the cheapest tires, it would cost me around 550 EUR for both tires ! Sweet mother of all that holy !!! For crying out loud, it's rubber we're talking about - not plutonium.

Spent some time yesterday, calling around to find a cheaper solution. Here's my findings:

All places are 15 minutes or less away from my home. Classed from cheapest to most expensive.

Tire reference: 205/50 ZR 17 89W

1. Jumbo Pneus (Genevilliers)
Cheapest tire: 150 EUR / tire
Medium tire: 170 EUR / tire
Michelin/Pirelli: 210 EUR / tire

So a couple of average tires (including "montage"): 340 EUR TTC

2. Euromaster (Levallois-Perret)
Very nice service - on the phone, anyways.
Cheapest solution (including "montage") : 388 EUR TTC

3. Speedy (La Garenne)
Cheapest solution (including "montage"): 463 EUR TTC

4. Midas (La Garenne)
Cheapest solution (including "montage"): 550 EUR TTC

5. Peugeot (La Defense)
This is where I purchased the piece of shit car I have.
First off, the service was absolute crap - I was transferred 3 times, and had to call back
another number, because he didn't want to transfer the call.
Montage: 60 EUR HT
Tires: (263 EUR HT/ tire): 526 EUR HT
Cheapest solution (including "montage"): 700 EUR TTC

Perhaps I'll just find another 307, and "walk off" with a couple of tires in the late night hours..

New digital camera

2006-01-18T14:48:00.000+01:00

I had the misfortune to turn 29 a week ago or so.. We "celebrated" the occasion with lots of booze and whatnot - once I get a scanner working (cough, cough Dimitri) I'll scan and post the ticket from the police for "Tapage Nocturne" (Nightly commotion) as proof for the festiva.

Anywho, people gave me a bunch of money so I could finally get one of them modern digital cameras. So last weekend I went to Fnac to pick one out.
I settled for the Fuji Finepix F11 (holy crap there's a lot to choose from). It's a nice little beast.

6.7M pixels (whatever the hell that means) and best of all - it came with battery, charger, XD memory card and a carrying case.

Pretty sweet..

Meet the colleagues

2006-01-18T10:37:00.000+01:00

Say hello to Pietr and Carlos:

Hard hitting journalism

2006-01-13T14:14:00.000+01:00

Roughly translated it goes :
"26 year old survives death-jump"
"A 28 year old man from Odense survived.... bla bla"

So is he 26 or 28 - or are they talking about two different people ?

Real smooth Bt

Happy New Year

2006-01-03T12:03:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year everyone.. Let's hope 06 won't suck ass like 05 did.

I'm just about getting over my new years hangover..

The Great Canadian

2005-12-22T10:42:00.000+01:00

I was walking around my neighborhood of the 6th Arr.of Paris last night, looking for a place to have a beer. Now having been a bartender in the same area, I pretty much know all the bars, and was pretty much getting sick of all of them. I mean you can go to a place only a certain amount of times before you just get bored.

So I was walking down Quai des Grands Augustins, from Rue Dauphine to Saint Michel, and came across a place I didn't know - The Great Canadian Pub. Now this place looks cool - from outside you see the multiple flatscreens alongs the walls, the bar is nicely lit up, but the place in general is quite dim, which is great - Most bar managers have issues with lighting a place properly. Most of the time you'll walk into a pub or bar, there'll be too much or too little light. The general atmosphere appealed to me, so I walked in.

Well the place lived up to the expectation - I took some Stella on tap - nice, cold beer. The atmosphere is great. The guys behind the bar are authentic Canadians (It's good to see a place that has bartenders which fit into the environment). I ended up knowing the owner/manager quite well, from my days as a bartender. He had already opened a place some 7 or 8 years ago in the 6th, called the Moosehead, which mich and I are quite familiar with. The Great Canadian was his own place, and he told me they had just opened, at the end of summer 2005. There is mucho space in front of the bar, so the summertime terrace there will be great, and he told me they serve Sunday brunch ALL DAY - which is not an easy thing to find in Paris. The menu looks good, I saw some stuff that I'm definitely going to try, and the prices are pretty decent for central Paris.

I took this picture whilst leaving the place:

and this is a picture I found here of the same place during the summertime:

In any case, I think I'll be going back to this place. I like the general feel of it, and it's good to have a new place to go to. Plus the bar is beautifully located - I mean you can see Notre Dame from the terrace! Oh yeah, there are also flatscreens just above the urinals - just a detail, but it's pretty damn sweet (I think only men can understand that)

Here's the place's business card!

Closest subway is St. Michel, but Odeon or Cluny-La-Sorbonne should be good as well.

Voila! If you have a chance to drop by, check the place out!

Soekris net4501

2005-12-21T13:56:00.000+01:00

Got my soekris boxes the other day.. they are nice little things..

Obviously I forgot to buy some CF (compact flash) cards, so I had to score a 64MB cards from one of my Cisco routers.. I've ordered 256MB CF cards, as 64MB and 128MB might be a bit too tight.. but hey, if 64MB is all I have for the moment, I'll make it work.
I used PHK's nanobsd shell-script to build an image, that I could dd(1) to the CF. Only problem: I do not have a CF reader/writer. So how to get the image over on the CF-card...
Fortunately, the network adapters in the soekris can PXE boot, so I simply setup a diskless FreeBSD environment - and booted up the soekris on the NFS share (granted it took a little while, to make all the things play along).

After booting up the diskless system, I could do the following from the box (connected via console):

# ssh myhost 'cat _.the-disk-image' | dd of=/dev/ad0 bs=64k
(ad0 being the CF card in the soekris)

Et voila:
I will rollout these babies as firewalls in all our office locations.

Opening hours

2005-12-19T15:57:00.000+01:00

So I just popped out for lunch to pick up a couple of bottles of wine.. I usually eat my lunch at around 1pm, so I drove over to out local Nicolas wine pusher at around that time. To my big surprise they were closed..
After closer studying the "opening" hours, it seems that they close everyday for lunch !
How incredibly stupid is that ?!?!
So they open from 10am to 12pm (where normal people are at work, so cannot go an shop) - then they close from 12pm to 15pm (where everyone has they lunch breaks, and are able to spend money in the shop) - and open from 15pm to whatever (when people^h^hconsumers are back at work)

On top of that these shops have the audacity to complain about:
1) Their work hours
2) The fact that they work too hard (*cough*)
3) Their turnover

I'm bustin' a vein here, people !

Da "Tech" Workshop

2005-12-13T16:15:00.000+01:00

A little project of ours for a while now has been to put up a piece of plexiglass in order to close up the gap left by the aircon exhausts in our server room. This of course was a relative pain in the ass, considering that it let scorching hot air in during the summertime, and rain in the rest of the year.

Well we finally did it. We had the equipment - jigsaw (called a 'bouncing peepee' by the Danes..), drills, screws, and a big piece of plexiglass.

After several hours of head-scratching, jigging, drilling, erasing, gluing and drilling again, here is the result - which i might add, isn't half that bad for a couple of morons..

We're available if you need handymen, just give us a call on 1-800-MORONS-AT-WORK

ciao!