Friday, December 31, 2004

Happy newyear !

Wishing all you suckers an excellent new year - with plenty of booze and (subsequently) lots of hangovers..

stay beautiful..

Friday, December 24, 2004

Tartiflette

Went up to the christmas market at La Defense, and had Tartiflette and sausage from Savoie today... goooooooood !!!!!! It's not christmas without it ...

Merry xmas, have a good one everyone !


Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Chunky Monkey

Last time I went back home, my mom had gotten me an icecream maker. Tried it out this weekend, and ended up with a pretty damn good result..

In my efforts to boycott US products, I've been forced to stop buying "Ben & Jerry - Chunky Monkey" - Chocolate-chip/banana flavored icecream..

Recipe for "Chunky Monkey ala mich":
5 egg yolks
100gram of sugar
1/2L of Cream
1Tbsp of Vanilla Sugar
2 Bananas
50g of dark chocolate

Whip the egg yolks together.. and the sugar, vanilla sugar and the cream. Whip it together, and take your time to make it completely liquid.
Chop the bananas into smaller pieces and add them to the mix, and whip it together with a blender - until there are no "pieces of banana" left. Finally, chop or grate the chocolate into small pieces, and add it to the mix.
Pour the mix into the machine, and let it do its magic for about 20 minutes - and voila !

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Citrix

We are currently migrating old our users from Citrix Metaframe 1.8 to fast'n'dandy Citrix Presentation Server 3.0 Load-Balanced serverfarm - it's good stuff.. Hopefully, the increased processor power, will accommodate our users and all their excel/outlook/word shit..

On the old setup we used Uniprint, to handle printing - and apparently this is no longer needed on Presentation Server 3.0.. Normally using the generic Citrix printer drivers, should we sufficient - however one of our HP printers has addon stuff (such as extra trays) - and the generic driver can't handle that. So, it looks like we have to install the HP driver.. Last time I installed a HP driver on a Metaframe server, the thing blue-screened, and we were without metaframe for over a week...

Friday, December 03, 2004

Lazy..

Just ordered a bunch of new domains for work.. I just looked at the price we are paying for Worldcom to handle our domains... Jeeez, you'd think they were handling plutonium.
What a waste of money.
I really oughtta install our own DNS server, though I've really got plenty of stuff to do...

FreeBSD 5.3

Just ordered my complimentary copy of FreeBSD 5.3 on DVD-ROM.

Now I just need a linux install-party to crash ;)

Pick up your copy HERE

Firefox

Just made a group wide policy at work - no more IE for anyone. All employees are getting Firefox installed, and are required to use it.

(I've setup a bogus proxy server in IE, so when opening IE it is unable to connect to any site)

Let's hope we'll see less spyware, hotbars and shit.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Busy as hell

I'm neglecting the blog a bit, but I'm just too damn busy to write something semi-interesting. We are still struggling with our new CRM system. It's like an onion, the more layers you peal off the more it stinks !

Also, we are setting up a new citrix server farm.. It's actually coming along nicely. Doing last configs now, and hopefully tomorrow or Friday people will be able to logon..

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Sweet mother of all that is good and pure..

Woke up an hour earlier than usual this morning, and went out for a small run. I am sooooo out of shape.. I ran for about 25 minutes, and when I came back I was about to go into cardiac arrest..

Anyway, who would have thought.. Me, waking early up and going for run.. ? Perhaps, this is the beginning of a new era ?

Friday, November 12, 2004

Jesusland

Jesusland

[via ledanois]

(Experiment to check out visitor increase)

Good French products

Successful non-US products evening:

Start out with fois gras and champagne.

Continue with well-seasoned grilled chicken, and oven-grilled potatoes - with a nice bottle of Saint-Emilion.

Finish the dinner off with, coffee and Hennessy (Cognac)

Who needs US products ?

Day off

Went into the office on my day off, as we had a server crash.. Fucking hell..

Nanterre / La Defense looks pretty deserted on the morning of a national holiday:


Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Sticking with it

Oh, in case you were wondering.. Dim and myself, are still sticking with the US product boycott. It's actually easier that I had anticipated. Besides from the coke and the jack - I was not buying too many US products.

Good news for those following our program, I've been in contact with the customer relations department of Cadbury/Schweppes - and they assured me that they were a 100% non-US organization. So go ahead and drink:
* 7up
* Orangina
* Snapple
* Dr. Pepper
* Oasis


Paris

Off this morning to a meeting about VoIP at place Saint-Augustin in the 8th. I checked out the itinerary on Mappy last night, it suggested that the trip would take about 14 minutes.

The meeting was scheduled at 8h30, so I thought I'd make great time by leaving at 7h35. Until I saw this: [200 meters from my street]



I arrived at 8h45!
70 minutes to drive a distance of 6km.. Holy crap !!

I am so glad I don't have to drive around in Paris every day.. The traffic is getting worse and worse..

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

That's it

Well - it looks like we're in for another 4 years of crap with that JACKASS George W. Bush - I am soooo happy I do not live over there !

So what I do, to show them that I oppose their election ?
Well, I'll boycott US products over the next four years. No more:
* Coke
* Jack Daniels (Yup, it'll hurt)
* McD (That might actually be good for me)
* Mars, twix, snickers etc etc
* Levi's, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein..
* Motorola, HP, Cisco, IBM..
* etc etc etc

It'll be rough.. but I'll try to stick with it for as long as it takes.. if we all (us non US-residents) boycott US products, it will have a huge impact on their economy - and that is (in my opinion) the best way to punish them.

Friday, October 22, 2004

The boys are back in town..



'nuff said

That guy with the ponytail..

On the way over to the MCI arrangement (previously mentioned) - we saw Karl Lagerfield (Is that how it is spelled ?). We had just parked the car in parking Place Vendôme - while "en route" to Boulevard de la Madeleine, we saw "that guy with the ponytail" (as Dimitri called him) snapping some pics of a model posing on Place Vendôme..

Who the hell wears sunglasses at around 9pm, when it's dark.. what a jackass..

I snapped a pic with my phone, but the quality sucks - so I'm not even going to bother uploading it..

Wine pop quiz

Last night Dim and I went to a wine tasting arrangement at Lavinia. The arrangement had been organized by MCI (our ISP) - and since we've been loyal clients (before-, during- and post-chapter 11) we were invited. It was great fun, and Lavinia is a cool shop, they have a vast selection of wine and booze of all sorts.
During the evening, a "wine trivia pop quiz" was held.. Jeez, that's stuff is not easy. First off, we tasted 6 wines (2 white, and 4 red) and we had to map down where in the world they came from. I believe, there were wines from Chili, Argentina, Italy, India, Australia and South-Africa. I think my favorite was the redwine from Italy (Tuscany).
The last part of the "quiz" consisted of 20 questions, about wine and its origins. Fx.:
Q: Who was Petrus?
- A famous chef
- A General under Napoleon the third
- A sommelier under King Louis the XIV

We tried to cheat, and looked some of the questions up over GPRS on my phone, but it was taking too much time, so we tried calling some wine-savvy person we know - whom helped us with a few answers..

We didn't win... (surprise surprise) - well, actually we believe that MCI "fixed" the winners, as the winners were all big accounts (such as Renault)
We were #1 of all the small companies, and we won a book about wine ! Yay!

We finished our glasses, grabbed our "prize" and headed for the exit.. Stopped by a pub and a couple of pints and a shot of Jack...

All in all a nice evening, though we both feel a bit busted today !

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Peerio

Exit skype - enter peerio..



Pure p2p - no server - no hazzle !

Monday, October 18, 2004

A sign from god

Engaged in the extreme sport of Tennis this weekend.. big mistake.. I had played for about 6 minutes, when I lost my balance and slammed into the ground while running... Result: big wound on my right knee, and a fucked up right arm. I also seem to have a "pressured" rib. Which is the result, of me not being able to sleep very well, nor sit up, stand up, walk, cough, laugh, sneeze etc etc etc without an agonizing pain in my upper chest..
I suppose it's a sign from above, that I should not practise sport of any kind, I should just sit tight on the couch with my pint of lager while watching TV ?

Friday, October 15, 2004

Gmail

I've got invites.. anyone wants one ? Drop a message, or send me a mail.

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

SalesLogix BLOWS

We've been changing CRM systems. Before we used some semi-home-developed stuff called SuperOffice .. it blew. We had more and more trouble with it over the last 12 months, so some months ago we decided to switch system.
We chose SalesLogix developed by Sage. This was an obvious choice, as our financial systems are also Sage - this would in theory enable us to only have customer information one place. A "bridge" between the two systems have been setup, and we are able to synch the accounts. Excellent, in theory that is.

The salesrep from SalesLogix told us, that installation and import of data from the old CRM system would take approx. one day.... We've been in the process of getting it working for about one month now. Go figure..

Considering ditching it all together and go back to SuperOffice...

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Ever noticed...

So... I'm trying get a new phone.. I've been looking at the Sony-Ericsson T630. Yes I know it's not state-of-the-art, and it cannot anticipate my toilet needs, do my groceries, and feed my cat - but it seems like a nice phone to me - in addition it is no too big, nor to pricy.

OK, I know which phone I'd like - the rest should be piece of cake, right? Not really.. I've been looking into the different operators in France, and also the subscriptions they offer.. jeeez.. you have to have a phD or something to understand that.. Apparently you need to know how many calls you place and receive and where they go to (national, local or international) how many MB you'll download with GPRS etc etc.. I have no fucking idea, alright ?

So, I call a "diagnostic service" with Orange... First off, when you call them, before getting connected to a "real-live-person(tm)" you need to tap in your phone number (the one you are calling from) via DTMF tones.. and what is the FIRST thing they ask for ? The number I am calling from ! Are you kidding ? I just entered that into the voice-service-system.. god damn it.. they are fucking with our minds..
On top of that, they weren't very helpful..

More to come..


Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Think McFly, Think !

Well, well, well.. today I received another good proof that city-officials have had their head replaced by their ass.
My street runs into a main road, that leads directly to central-Paris, and the other way the street heads to a bigger city, and the motorway network around Paris (A86) - I don't really need to get on this main road, but I need to cross it, in order for me to come to work... Thus this morning, late as usual, I'm going about my business and half-asleep on my way to work.. When I discover that the city officials have decided to make major road-work EXACTLY where I need to cross the main road ! Goddamn it ! I sat there and waited for 12 minutes, hence making me late for work.. AGAIN !

Now you might go, "ohh.. well road work needs to be done, and that does not make city-officials stupid.. bla bla bla".. well, yes.. yes it does.

Anyone knowing France (Paris more specific) are aware that the month of August is dead - because of school vacations and what-have-ya.. so why, oh why, can't they make their stupid-ass road work in August, thus not bothering a shitload of people ? Noooooooooo... we'd rather wait until the first day of September when everyone's back, and where we can annoy a bunch of people !

Argggghhhhh !!!!!!!

That's it ! I'm not paying anymore taxes.. they have fucked with me for the last time !

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Fired for blogging..

As I was traveling through my daily load of blog feeds, I discovered that someone at Friendster got fired for blogging !! Even though, no formal policy on blogging was present in the company.

I find this outrageous, and urge everyone with a Friendster account to cancel immediately - this sort of behavior should not go unpunished.

(and no, the person in question did NOT blog corporate secrets)

via [Jeremy, Kasia, Dina, Chasing coffee]

Friday, August 27, 2004

Getting there...

Well well well... Dim and I are getting there... seems that the alcohol will not escape us tonight... At least we are not driving home.. so be IT !
We are hanging out at my new crib, having good food, good drinks and life in general is GOOD - for fuck's sake it's FRIDAY !

aka Dim speaking...

My legs hurt, my ass hurts, well basically everything part of my mortal body hurts [not for what you think... rugby guys, rugby], yet i feel light as a feather, giddy, happy, frank sinatraish, in other words, vunderfullll. Yes yes amigos, bring it on, it Friday night, we are on the Old Defender gunboat, and we are attacking hardcore.....

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Need a medic please...

So I started playing tennis again.. It's been over 10 years (and many beers) since last time I played - so obviously, I suck. Not to mention, my incredible stamina and good shape - which can be compared to that of a dong beetle.
I played an hour and a half on sunday, and two hours last night. My arms/back/shoulders/legs and feet are KILLING me!!!
- It's great fun though, and hopefully I'm get into shape at one point (if I'm not dying trying)

As you can see, Dim is back.. Being his usual pissed-off-self.. It's nice to him in pain, and frankly, it's better to share the misery with someone.. hehehe..

Fuck AHHHHHHHH! I am sooo PISSED OFF

Well there you have it, as expected my vacation went by way to fucking quickly, and before i know it, here i am again, sharing this office with Abraham and the incredible Throat-noise Girl! I was on the beach, like 5 minutes ago... what the FUCK happened!! So yeah here i am, back at work, yipee, really looking forward to working my ass office for another year... not that i can afford any other vacations anyways... fuck.....

Well back to extracting files. I need a smoke.. and coffee, overpriced coffee... will write later, when i've managed to quiet down.


Ciao!

Thursday, August 12, 2004

Prefecture woes (or not)

Since we've moved to another flat, I've been obliged to change the address stated on my car registration form (carte de grise). The rules state that you have one month to make the change after you have moved.
I've been putting it off, cause anyone who've tried to deal with French administration will agree with me, it is a royal pain in the ass. You need 40 forms completely correctly filled out, and each of those you need in another 40 copies etc etc..
This time we had cheated a bit, and printed out the form of their website (They actually have a website.. wow) - so when I finally went there I had all needed papers and copies.

Normally when I go there (I've been there a few times) I wait over 2 hours.. but this time I actually managed to get it all done in less than 40 minutes !! Perhaps it's because everyone is on vacation or something, anyway I'm happy as hell that it all went that painless.

To conclude.. go at the prefecture in august.. or don't move - I don't really care.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

FreeBSD

Finally got some time to get some long overdue FreeBSD work done.. I had a couple of ports that had been broken for quite a while.. They were primarily broken on 64bit platforms (amd64 and sparc64) - arved kindly gave me access to his amd64 box - as I have none :-(

First problem was easy enough - some gcc 3.4.x compatibility problem.

The other wasn't quite so simple - this due to the fact that the port is written in C++ - and I am no expert (far from it - I'm a C kinda guy). It also seemed to be a problem with the gcc 3.4.x import. Managed to fix it (with some help from some C++ savvy people) and in the process found a typo-bug in source - which I reported to the author.

Also managed to catch up on all my mail - it has been a long time since I've had a clean inbox.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

DSL

Yesterday I signed up for DSL with Free- they seemed to have to best offer :
  • Up to 5Mbit/s down
  • Possibility for WiFi on modem box
  • TV (Don't know which channels, but it can only be better than what I have)
  • Free phone in France (and competitive rates for international calls)
  • 29.99 EUR/month
  • No cancellation fee

Hopefully I'll get the gear next week.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

I knew it !

First day Dim is not here, and our backup solution is not working as expected.. well .. perhaps as expected.. it did not back up anything last night.
We are using ARCserve on MS - and to no surprise, it blows. Every other day we are obliged to kill some its processes as it fails to shut them down properly. Today was no exception, and on top of that the tape would not eject.. Useless crap.

Managed to drop by castorama in my lunch break, to pick up some wood pillars I need for support in my closet (as the shelf is heavily overloaded, and about to fall down) - wood is good..

Going out to Ikea tonight to look for a small furniture for our kitchen, so I imagine that I'll enjoy myself putting together something tonight - I totally suck at it though. It's kinda like a jigsaw puzzle - but for adults..

On a side note, I'm happy to report that GDF dropped by today and opened for the gas to our apartment, so we are actually able to cook some real food tonight !!

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Long time no hear..

Well.. It has been way too long since I've bitched about one thing or another, but truth is, I haven't had much to bitch about... Imagine that.. It's a sad state of affairs !
I've been off to Denmark on vacation, and we have moved to our new apartment as well.. I guess I've simply been to occupied to complain.

Anyway, now I'm back at work (damn it), and already now various things are starting to make my piss boil - that coinciding with Dimitri leaving for vacation tonight is not exactly helping out the situation. I know.. yes.. I know shit will hit the fan as soon as his dumb ass has left the building.. Printing problems, vira shit, and general PC hardware problems. I've got to be honest with you guys, I'm not one bit too happy about him requiring vacation...

Moving.. god I hate moving. Actually I like it once all boxes/furniture have been moved - but moving heavier-than-titanic furniture (fridge) three floor down is a no-go.. that, all while it is 35 degrees Celsius outside in the burning sun just kills me. It's all done now though.. and I love the place! We just miss a few furniture for the kitchen and then we are all set to go.

Alright, I'd better get back to work.. gotta write that code.. doesn't make much of a difference..

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Another juicy vacation

Yeah yeah yeah... We are not writing here as much as we want to. If only we could come up with a way where we can blog and do real work at the same time.. oh well, perhaps someday..

Anywho, my ass is outta here.. going a couple of weeks to Denmark to chill out and see family and friends. (and maybe have a beer or two)

"If this blog is rockin' - don't come knockin'" - I'll leave it to Dim..

So, seee ya - adios - ciao.. or as Cartman might put it :

Screw you guys, I'm going hooooome !

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

We has gotta get our hands on thees burgas!

Big Burger Challenges Gustatory Gladiators

POSTED: 12:42 pm EDT June 30, 2004
UPDATED: 1:01 pm EDT June 30, 2004
CLEARFIELD, Pa. -- Denny's Beer Barrel Pub has a challenge -- the six-pound Burger Challenge.

The Clearfield, Pa., eatery this week invited big eaters from around the country to take on its biggest burger.

Here's the recipe: six pounds of beef, one large onion, two whole tomatoes, ½ head of lettuce, one and ¼ pounds of cheese, top and bottom buns, and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish and banana peppers -- all topped off with some pickles.

The folks at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub says no one has been able to eat the six-pound burger in the required three hours.

Competitive eater Eric "Badlands" Booker has tried it three times. On his last attempt, he stayed at the restaurant for seven ½ hours and ate the whole thing.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

Info taken from NBC51.com

StarPutz

I hate this, this is plain stupid.

This morning i wake up feeling like shit as usual, because i have to get my sorry ass out of bed and to work by nine am. So I take the shower, throw some clothes on, and head out, still half asleep, thinking how horrible this day is going to be. Oh yeah, by the way, I was woken up not by my already annoying alarm clock, but by guess what? a JACKHAMMER rattling away outside my window. GOD DAMN IT!

So anyways, I'm walking to the subway feeling like shit, when i remember that Starbucks is opening today at Odeon, I remember because it was posted on the store yesterday. So I look over and sure enough, the place is lit up, all ready to go. And what better than a nice Mocca Frappuccino to start up the day! So i walk over there and step in, 10 euros at hand, when some Dorky bastard comes up to me and tells me they ... ARE NOT OPEN YET! It's 8:15am, and they open at... 8-fucking-30!!!! So I bitched at him, well I mumbled something obscene at the guy, cuz i was still asleep, and walked away PO.

Here's what i don't get. They open a Starbucks in a prime location right in the middle of the Latin quarter, and the fuckers open at 8:30, when about half the fuckers craving coffee at that time have already taken the subway to get their sad asses to work.. Wouldn't it be a little more logical to open at like 7:30, so they could attract the full monty? I mean jesus! what the hell! Maybe Starbucks, that good old US corporation, has had to deal with our Socialist way of having unions, who knows. In any case I am pissed off. Fucking pissed off. Maybe I'll go over there and bitch.

That's it ! We're moving !

Signed the papers today, and 1st of august we're outta here.. yes-sir-eeeeee bob !

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Gmail....

I've heard a lot of rumors out there on gmail and it's manner of setting up advertising according to email content, and a lot of people have been bitching about privacy etc. Granted it's a bit less privacy than we're used to on other mail services... or is it? I mean at least Google is honest about how it's planning to sell advertising, but no one can say that Hotmail, or Yahoo, or any other web-based mail hasn't been doing the same for years. I mean do you really think that your hotmail account is for your eyes only? Don't you think there are a couple techies having the time of their lives looking at your private life! Come ON! God knows I'd be looking at inboxes all the damn time - if I could. So I think this whole polemic on gmail and how it's so "bad" for us is full of shit. If you're stupid enough to put your CC information in a banal email, then you deserve to get riped off. I figure email is about getting a message from A to B as efficiently as possible, and gmail does this better than any other web based email I've found. I've had a gmail account now for a week or so, and i find the interface user friendly, efficient, and I actually haven't noticed the advertising yet, so screw it. To me, A) I can send an email in a couple of seconds; B) I've got shitloads of space to store those emails; C) it's free, and; D) the interface rocks.

And to all those not happy about gmail, here's some advice - DON'T get a gmail account!!! It's that fucking easy! and stop bitching, you're fucking annoying me.

Naps..

I think that we should have a designated nap time, like in Kindergarden. Do you guys remember those? I mean work should be like kindergarden, you come in, spend a few hours and play with toys, learn a new letter and number, eat, take the NAP and go home. I just remember how damn good it was, to be laying down in that big classroom, with all the blinds down so it was nice and dark, and laying there on your damn rubber mat, you would just dose off for an hour.. that was nice.

I think it would be pretty damn sweet if you could have an hour nap after lunch. I mean you're full of Flamkeuche or Cote de Boeuf, had a bit of wine, some coffee.. your body needs a bit of time to absorb those calories - I mean it's healthy damn it! For our own HEALTH, we should demand a nap time at work. The way it is right now, we're forcing our already fucked up bodies to digest fast (a cigarette doesn't help, you need da sleep), and we still have to pretend we're actually doing something useful. I mean no one is efficient after lunch, I for one am drousy and wouldn't mind curling up in the space under my desk. I mean technically I could do it and not get caught, no one would notice... apart from the occasional snoring...

Plus they just added a new tint on our office windows, so if you turn off the lights and close the blinds a bit, it would be just perfect for you know what ...

fuck.. here we go, back to work.

Friday, June 25, 2004

Ding-Dong - The Brits are gone !

Congratulations Portugal.
Looking forward to meeting you in the semi's..


ps. Yeah, yeah - I know I said that soccer is a lame-ass sport.. and that still stands, however Euro cup and World cup excluded.

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Metallica

Went to the Metallica concert at Parc de Princes last night.. kinda spontaneous, as we drove out the venue without tickets.. The concert had just begun, and we were told that we could not buy any tickets.. Then this small hustler came along, and asked if we wanted to purchase a couple of tickets..
Moments later, we are having great seats in the stadium ! Class..

Metallica, as always, ROCKED ! I haven't seen them since back in the mid-nineties at Gentofte, Denmark. I stopped buying their albums after "The Black Album" - luckily for me, they played a lot of old stuff (eg. Seek & Destroy, Master of Puppets, Battery) - The best track, was clearly "Enter Sandman" the whole stadium just went at it - crazy fucks dancing pogo like there was no tomorrow..

Monday, June 21, 2004

Search queries

I was looking at our site statistics.. (not much to look at really) and found the top search queries for our blog:

* Google zubrovska vodka
* Google ghettoclock
* Google treat turret syndrome
* Google jours ouvres jours ouvrables week days
* Google dvdchezvous
* Google nomatica comments
* Google chicken cacciotore

Personally, I like "treat turret syndrome" and "ghettoclock" - I hope they found what they were looking for..

Gmail

I got some Gmail invites, if you want one - leave your email addy in the comments..

Update: That being said, I don't trust any mail where I don't have root on the incoming mailserver ;)

I still got a couple of invites left.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

It's been a while

Sorry there old Ghettoblog, i've been neglecting you as of lately. I promise i will post some goo on you more often from now on.

WHASSUP everyone! well it's the SAME OLD SHIT! sleep, work, eat, sleep, etc, etc, but we can't complain, we could be growing turnips for .20cents a day in a remote village of Zaire.. Things are a lot more supportable when put into perspective.

Anyways, just wanted to say, I found a pretty good Tech forum, it's really more of a little community, and you can get some useful help off it. If you don't know it, go check it out at www.tek-tips.com, get yourself a login and password, and start posting.


Taking a couple days off next week for "Fete de la Musique" - usually quite a bit of fun in Paris, seeing people high on X and Coke dancing to some crossbreed techno/deathmetal reggae can only be fun. Planning on having a couple drinks, and walking around the city, providing it doesn't pour down.

I'll be back on here some more, don't get lonely blog, we haven't forgotten ya (fucking fad these blogs).

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Friday, June 04, 2004

Ghetto^2

They salesreps at our office are using these headsets with their telephones, and recently we ran out.. We purchase batches of them every now and then.. Those industry standard don't come cheap though.. They are about €100 a pop ! Yeah, a ridiculous price for something pretty basic..
The last couple of months, we have changed a lot of them around the office (I don't know what the hell those salesreps are doing with them). Last week, we ran out of new headsets..
We requested upper-management to purchase some new.. Bad call.. When our CEO saw the price on those headsets, he made an unpredictable move.
6 months ago (or so) we tested out Skype for inter-office calls, and for that purpose we bought a shitload of cheapo pc-headsets (those for a couple a euros a piece) -
Yeah.. That's right.. I trip to Castorama later, and Dim and I are sitting and removing mini-jacks from the pc-headsets, combining the them with the connectors from the other headsets.. Electrical-tape, choc blocks (thanks Lasse) and a lot of patience.. A real MacGyver solution..

Result: A working headset for our phones, ugly as hell - for less than 2 euros a pop.

Pictures to follow....

Arrived !

Well, what do you know. My SD-512MB flash card from Nomatica arrived yesterday.. Well, actually "La Poste" tried to deliver it last Saturday, naturally the office was closed, so they failed in their attempt.
We called them Monday; they told us that since they couldn't deliver it on Saturday - the package would be shipped back to the expediter.
[Enter rage]
After calming down (with beer and food - the only thing that works) - I decided to have Dim calling them again (I was not calm enough) - this time, we actually stumbled upon a savvy postal employee (apparently they *do* exist) - and he opened a "reclamation" with the sorting center etc etc.. That got things moving, so all is good now. Actually they even called me this morning, to confirm that I did indeed receive the package. Bravo Mr. Postal Employee..

Vacation time, what the HELL.

Ahh the summer is coming, and that means vacation for the lucky few of us who : a:) still have some dosh in order to do something other than sit in the apartment and b:)have the days off.. So it is with great joy that i am going (ceterus paribas) to the south of France in August for 2 weeks, and bringing my chick there.

Well check this out, when she went and asked for her vacation time, they told her they would count the Saturday she was taking off (yes, that saturday, the WEEKEND day) as a vacation day...... So lets get this straight:

- She works Monday through Friday, 7 hours a day, for a grand total of 35 legal working hours.
- On her paychecks, she gets 2.5 something days off a month, for a grand total of 30 days off per year - the legal 5 weeks vacation in France.
- and no, she doesn't work and hasn't worked any Saturday.. and has not had any absences for not being at work on saturdays.

So this is beautiful! I just imagine myself in this situation, where i work all year, monday through friday, and when it comes to taking vacation, they count my saturdays in my vacation days! Isn't the weekend supposed to be free time where you don't work? WTF! When asked about this little rule they have (which in the end helps them out, because you can take less work days off, hence work more for SHIT pay), these people said that it was an internal rule that the director (that bitch) implemented, so they couldn't do shit about it. Well guess what..

I've been investigating the French Law.

And you know what, what they are doing is LEGAL.
You see, French companies can actually calculate your vacation time two ways: 1) by the days you actually worked (jours ouvrés) 2) by the days you COULD HAVE WORKED (jours ouvrables). the latter means that even if you don't work on saturday, they can count the saturday in your vacation time...

NOW THIS IS FUCKED UP.
The only day they can't take off you is Sunday..... I mean i know this is a lot of fuzz over one day, but imagine how PO you would be if you have to take your saturday as a day in your vacation, when usually it's your weekend anyways and you don't work. And I mean you could try to just take the week days, but you are FORCED take your saturday as well, you have no fucking CHOICE.

I am really starting to hate this fucking place..

But then I looked at my paycheck and saw there was a slight difference.
I get 2.08 days off a month for a total of 25 days off a year. Those days are
Monday through Friday (5 days)
She gets 2.5 days off a month for a total of 30 days off a year. My assumption is that from the beginning, they gave her vacation time on her saturdays, which would make the extra day vacation she gets a month (25/5=5 days of work/vacation; her 30/5=vacation based on 6 working days, hence Mon - Sat.)

I still don't understand why they do this, whatever, fuck it, it's Friday and I don't care, I'm on my weekend in a couple of hours.

That's my bitching for today. I'll have more later - the fumes are still hot.




Thursday, June 03, 2004

Busy..

Very busy pretending to work, so not much happening here... I'll write some stuff tomorrow.. I swear.. (I really do)

Also, I'll kick that lazy boy Dim, so he'll hopefully write something tomorrow as well !

Btw, Ben is back !!! FB here we come..

Friday, May 28, 2004

It's that time of the week !

Exactemundo ! That's right ! We are almost homefree, just another couple of hours to go. This time the weekend brings us another small surprise: Monday is a bank holiday ! Yes, sir-eee-bob! A cool three days of not going to work.
So, what are my plans for these work-free days ? Nothing much !
I think I'll try and cook some traditional Danish food, as it has been a long time since I got some of that - and our kitchen closets could need some cleaning up as well.. Exciting, isn't it ?
Furthermore, I'm on the lookout for a wet-stone for sharpening my global knives, anyone know where I can get those around Paris ?

That's it for me, have a good one.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Soccer sucks

So, Portugal won over Monaco in some lame soccer match last night - big fucking deal ! People go on the street and yell of joy, they disturb a normal peaceful neighborhood with their noise and spectacle. Police, apparently, let them be - because, you know, their team won a stupid match. They get to drive their cars up and down Champs-Elysees hanging out the window, while honking their horns.. on any other day, you would get a ticket for that - but again the cops let it slide...
So here's my question..
Next time Tiger Woods bring home the PGA trophy, would it be acceptable for me to drive down Champs-Elysees, while honking my horn and screaming like a madman out of the window ? Can I walk around small streets in normally quiet neighborhoods yelling and screaming ? Can I light up flares in the middle of street, and sing songs about Tiger ?

I hate soccer, it's a lame-ass sport - and big part of the audience are a bunch of uneducated morons ! Let's ban this sports once and for all, along with religion and tofu-food !

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Spam control

Good news ! Apparently Microsoft has decided to integrate the MS 'Called ID' system, into the efforts of the SPF project (Sender Policy Framework). This a major win for the project, that has already been recognized by big players like Google, AOL and Earthlink.
Perhaps we can finally start to fight the ever increasing spam problem..

Read more about the SPF project here.

Slow ass delivery

Recently (well actually something like 3 weeks ago) I decided to purchase a Secure Digital 512MB expansion kit for my iPaq. So I browsed around on the net, to figure out where I could get a good deal. FNAC and DARTY were both well over 200 EUR for the card, and being a cheapo as I am - I found that a bit steep. I found sweet offer through Kelkoo with Nomatica; basically I could get it for something like 160 EUR.
Well.. wonderful, good, great, etc etc... Though, I've been waiting 3 weeks for those fuckwits to ship it to me !! I've sent a couple of emails, querying them - only one of them got a reply, and it was useless..
I called them a couple of times, each time they promise me that it is being shipped pronto.. Damn it!
It's not rocket-science do put an item in a box, and ship it - I mean, am I being too demanding ?

I'll give them until Monday, if not the card is on my table by then - I'll start a holy war with them..

ps. Yes! I did choose the more expensive shipping facility, not "El Poste" where only 40% of your packages are being delivered.

Chicken Cacciotore

Here's what you need:

2 Tablespoons of olive oil
4 Chicken filets
3 Thinly sliced, skinned, seeded tomatoes
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 Tablespoon on of Balsamic vinegar oil
2 Tablespoons of brown sugar
Half an onion (Thinly sliced)
A couple of fresh shredded basil leaves

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and cook the filets until cooked through, and browned on the sides.
Place the filets on some absorbent paper, and cover.
On the same pan, add the garlic and cook until soft; then add the sliced tomatoes, onion, vinegar and brown sugar. Cook, while stirring until the sugar has completely melted. Then, leave simmering for about 5 minutes or until the tomato-sauce thickens.
Serve the chicken with the sauce on top, spread a bit of basil over the sauce.

Can be served with rice, pasta or potatoes. Bon appetit !

Ah.. that'll be the day..

One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the
White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where
he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.
S. Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to go
in and meet with President Bush."

The Marine looked at the man and said, "Sir, Mr. Bush
is no longer president and no longer resides here."

The old man said, "Okay" and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White
House and said to the same Marine, "I would like to go
in and meet with President Bush." The Marine again
told the man, "Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is
no longer president and no longer resides here." The
man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White
House and spoke to the very same U. S. Marine, saying
"I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point,
looked at the man and said, "Sir, this is the third
day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr.
Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer
the president and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?"

The old man looked at the Marine and said, "Oh, I
understand. I just love hearing it."

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said,
"See you tomorrow."

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Damn it !

After a nice (short) vacation, and a shitload of cold brewskies - I'm back at the what-have-ya, work.. As Dim clearly states, why the hell do time pass by soooooo fast when you are not at work ?

So I'm sitting here typing like a jackass on my keyboard, waiting for Friday to emerge.. Physically I know it's only Tuesday, but mentally I'm way off into the weekend - needless to say the weather is awesome, which makes it so much harder to sit at a desk - obviously it'll change for monsoon or snow-storm by the time we hit Friday afternoon.. Crap..

Oh, by the way, I signed up for my one-month free trial period with DVDchezvous, so it'll be interesting to see how it works out - I'll keep you updated..

An this is how it's like...

Got this from a buddy, and it shows you the hell IT can be..

****
Costello Wants to buy a Computer from Abbott
****

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?

COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den, and I'm thinking about buying a computer.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.

ABBOTT: Your computer?

COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.

ABBOTT: Mac?

COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.

ABBOTT: What about Windows?

COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?

ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?

COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look in the windows?

ABBOTT: Wallpaper.

COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.

ABBOTT: Software for Windows?

COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What have you got?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?

ABBOTT: I just did.

COSTELLO: You just did what?

ABBOTT: Recommend something.

COSTELLO: You recommended something?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: For my office?

ABBOTT: Yes.

COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?

ABBOTT: Office.

COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!

ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.

COSTELLO: I already have an office and it has windows! OK, lets just say, I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?

ABBOTT: Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: Word in Office.

COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?

ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W."

COSTELLO: I'm going to click you're blue "W" if you don't start with some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?

ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.

COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your business. Just tell me what I need!

ABBOTT: Real One.

COSTELLO: If its a long movie I also want to see reel 2,3 & 4. Can I watch them?

ABBOTT: Of course.

COSTELLO: Great, with what?

ABBOTT: Real One.

COSTELLO; OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?

ABBOTT: You click the blue "1."

COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?

ABBOTT: The blue "1."

COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue "W"?

ABBOTT: The blue "1" is Real One and the blue "W" is Word.

COSTELLO: What word?

ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.

COSTELLO: But there's three words in "office for windows"!

ABBOTT: No, just one. but it's the most popular Word in the world.

COSTELLO: It is?

ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.

COSTELLO: And that word is real one?

ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even part of Office.

COSTELLO: Stop! Don't start that again. What about financial bookkeeping, you have anything I can track my money with?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?

ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.

COSTELLO: What's bundled to my computer?

ABBOTT: Money.

COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?

ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.

COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?

ABBOTT: One copy.

COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?

ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.

COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?

ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!

COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off??

ABBOTT: Click on "START"..

Monday, May 24, 2004

How I make a Flaming Doctor Pepper

As per Camel's request, here is the way I make a Flaming Dr. Pepper. This is another one of those fun little drinking that tend to hurt quite a bit the morning after...

Now there are quite a few ways to make this, and I've added a recipe for a similar drink at the end of the blog as well.

For this conconction, you will need:
Amaretto
White or Dark Rum (I prefer dark)
Beer.

There is a couple steps in this, so be attentive..
- Fill a pint glass just over half way with some cheap-ass lager (aka beer, normal beer). Leave aside
- Fill half a shot glass with Ameretto, and float the rum to fill the glass. (to float an alcohol, use the back of a spool or anything that will slow the speed of the alcohol pour, hence making it easier for it to float on a heavier alcohol) <- repeat that twice if you didn't get it.
- With a lighter, take your time and light the rum in the shot glass by holding the flame to the side of the shot glass, and turning it slowly, therefore heating the top layer or alcohol. After around 20 seconds, the rum should light.
- Once the rum is lit, tell the dude getting canned to hold the half full pint glass, and drop the flaming shot into it. He has to shoot both the beer and the shot glass in the pint glass. Voila! Flaming Dr.Pepper!


Another drink, same principle, less burning. It's called an Irish Car Bomb.

instead of beer, use guinness
instead of amaretto, use baileys and irish whisky (like Jameson's)
You don't have to light it, just drop the shot in the guinness and chug.

voila! Cheers!

"The hard part about being a bartender is figuring out who is drunk and who is just stupid."
- Richard Braunstein

Friday, May 21, 2004

T.G.I.F.

Ah well here we are again, it's that wonderful day, Friday, the day when almost anything can go wrong, and I wouldn't give a crap, simply because I know, I KNOW, that in a handful of hours, I'll be homefree. The only real problem with today is that I also know, yes I KNOW, that the weekend will go by way to fucking quickly (as usual), and it'll be Monday before I know it. Damn! Why is that? Why is it that work days usually take ages, and the fun times like the weekend go by way to damn quickly? I mean what was that supreme being thinking when he put that algorithm in our stupid human heads: 'Hey I know, lets make these beings' brains function so that when everything is ok, it doesn't last long, but when things are fucking SHIT, we'll double the amount of time they percieve!' Way to go on that one G, yippee! But I'm still pretty content it's Friday, I mean it's not like it's been a hell of a week (we lazy French people had Thursday off, something to do with Jesus flying in the sky), and this last week has been the first time the weather was decent enough, so I can't complain. Plus, I haven't had to deal with mich's constant complaining, bitching, whining, so it's been pretty quiet. But as I said, it went by fast, and GUESS WHAT! Mich is back on Monday, so we're in for a hell of a next week, I'm telling ya.

Yesterday was good, was invited to a nice little BBQ in Paris, yes, Intra muros.. Some say it's not too legal, but we did it anyways- damn good merguez too - compliments to the Embassador, Roger Hobby. after a couple pint glasses of Pastis (heavily dosed), and listening to Ryan bitching about me not being sexual enough for him lately, we went home, and chilled. Overall a very good little afternoon. Well that's all I have to say for now, have a good Friday and weekend, and goddamnit ENJOY IT, cuz you know it'll be monday soon... DAMN!

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

The Sweet Bite of a Summer Mojito.

Ahhh, the summer has finally decided to be present in France this year - I was starting to worry we'd be wearing heavy leather jackets all of 2004, damn it. The summer is good, it's the time when you can enjoy the sun, the heat, and show off the fat you accumulated when you were stuffing yourself this past winter - yay! I'll see YOU by the pool- walking aruond in your Hawaiian swimwear, looking like a toasted aspirin, with your 30 pound beer gut hangin' out - ROCK ON! But no matter what, it's the summer, fuck it, let's have a drink and chill.

What better beverage (apart from Jack of course) to accompany this festive heat wave but a cold Mojito, made the RIGHT way.

Before you start, here are the magical ingredients..

- White Rum (get some Bacardi white rum, or Havana Club should do the trick)
- fresh mint leaves (not mint syrup or anything but real chlorophyll-filled leaves)
- some nice little limes (not lime juice, or sour mix- real LIMES, thank you.)
- granulated brown suger (sugar cane sugar is the best way to go, although it works with normal sugar, although it's not as good)
- if you really want to make it properly, have some angostura handy..
- some ice, yeah, frozen water works.

OK

In a NICE glass, preferably something with a large base (whiskey glass, lowball, etc) put about 2 teaspoons of brown sugar. Next squeeze in 2-3 wedges of lime, and add about 6 nice mint leaves. Mash the three ingredients using something like a pestle (What is a pestle? go to www.dictionary.com, and search for pestle)
Once all of this has become a gooey pulp, you're ready for the next step - adding the crushed ice.
- here's a method for crushing ice which work and isn't too much of a hassle. Take a couple ice cubes, place them in one of your cupped hands, and swing the pestle at them. This should give you some uneven crushed ice, which is perfect for the mojito. I don't like real crushed ice, because as i've said before it tends to melt too quickly.

Fill the glass up to the top with crushed ice. Add a couple drops of Angostura. Pour the white rum over the crushed ice up to the top of the glass.

Before serving, make sure the person mixes the beverage up, otherwise all the good stuff stays at the bottom, and the person gets a hard kick of really cold RUM (which is ok too)

Serve with a little straw, and you're golden! Go sit by the pool, chill in the sun, and sip away!

BTW, there are quite a few other drinks you can make with the ingredients i gave ya, including a ti punch, caipirinha. They are all based on the same principle: sugar and limes. For the Ti punch, don't add any mint, and for the caipirinha, you have to have some Cachaca handy... More drinks to come. CHEERS!

"The hard part about being a bartender is figuring out who is drunk and who is just stupid."
- Richard Braunstein

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Successful 'Xtreme' Fondue-ing

Yes, Mich, myself, and our two lady friends had a wonderful fondue session last night, although as always, we had a hard time doing things in a civilized way.

Everything started out much like any adult thing, a little aperitif with olives and saucisson, nice little semi-educated chitchat, etc etc. We had a couple civilized drinks, and everything was fine and dandy - Until the Jack started hitting the few tired neurons we have left.

The Fondue was a big success - it was the first time we tried making one at home, and the result was very very nice.. I think the Jack, plus the 3/4 of a bottle of white wine and the Kirsch in the Fondue.

We played some Taboo in Frenglish (props to us though, the chicks were constantly cheating, and plus they're sour losers) and the next thing we knew, it was 3am and we were all starting to feel very very very "Tired", so mich and Karima got a cab home.

Drinks consumed: 2 bottles of Jack Daniels Old No.7 (That's a bottle each for me and mich)
Half a bottle of Zubrovska vodka (The chicks)
1 bottle of white wine.

Mich, you have to come over soon, we've got to nail that Kahlua in some nice White Russians dude.

Friday, May 14, 2004

Vacation

I'm gonna be on vacation next week, hence none (or very little) blogging from me - Dimitri will put forth all our bitterness in my absence.

Godspeed, until we meet again.

I wanna be a cop

Sure.. I'll be a cop - as long as you'll promise me this patrol car !

Royal Wedding

Ok, so the future King of Denmark is getting married today.. Big deal. Denmark and Copenhagen especially has turned in to a huge media frenzy, and everyone thinks it is soooo great ! I wonder if all the Danish tax payers would be as happy about the whole shebang if they saw the total cost of the wedding - let alone the cost of the monarchy all together.. Sure, they do some PR for the nation, but is it really worth it ?

Anywho, I'll be "celebrating" the wedding with some nice Jack D. and fondue at my buddy Dim's palace, and let's see for how long the Danish royal family will be on our minds as soon as the Jack starts to flow..

Thank god it's Friday, and GUD BEVARE DANMARK - and God save the queen etc etc etc...

User support

Gotta love my user support skills:

(11:08:57) Jurgen xxx: hi michael
(11:09:05) michIcom5412: hello
(11:09:31) Jurgen xxx: Every applicateion on PC is extremly slow
(11:09:40) Jurgen xxx: have we got a general problem
(11:09:48) michIcom5412: no
(11:09:48) Jurgen xxx: or can i do something
(11:10:11) michIcom5412: must be your network connection
(11:10:16) michIcom5412: cause all is good here..
(11:11:00) michIcom5412: Give it 10 minutes and let me know if it is better, ok ?
(11:11:07) Jurgen xxx: ok
(11:15:15) Jurgen xxx: its ok now
(11:19:39) michIcom5412: goodie

Another happy customer..

Thursday, May 13, 2004

I knew it...

UFO sighted in Mexican airspace - and this time, it is not some stupid fanatics that claims to have seen them - but the Mexican Air Force (I don't know if they are much better ?)

Well, I, for one, welcome our new superior saucer flying overlords ! Stop in, have a taco..

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

How I make... a Cucaracha!

Here's a shot that usually put people on the floor or facing a bucket pretty fast. Most of the people I've served this to have been either stupid teenagers that thought they could drink, or full out boozers such as mich. If you really want to put someone over the top, try this shot... Here goes.

The Ingredients:

Tequila.
Triple Sec or Cointreau.
Kahlua.

In a coffee mug (or something that resembles it, like a teacup, or one of those gay little tea or milk pots) pour 1.5 centiliters of each ingredient. Place the mug in
a microwave oven for about 15 seconds (just so the liquid is hot- not boiling, unless you hate the fucker your serving). Once out of the microwave, pour the nectar into a shot glass. Now since a normal shot glass is around 3.8 centiliters (although bars say it's 4 centiliter shots, they're actually cheating you out of .2cl of booze- an outright scandal), you'll have about half a shot too much left in the mug once you've filled the shot glass. Pour the rest of the liquid around the shot, or make a small line with it on the bar leading up to the glass. Give the sorry bastard a straw, and light the bit you poured on the bar around the shotglass. This shit will ignite like Napalm, so be careful. The bit on the bar should lead up the shot glass and light that as well. Once lit, tell the bastard to shoot it through the straw. Tada! you have a Cucaracha.

Note: if the poor individual drinking has had a few before the cucaracha, have a bucket handy.. trust me.

Cheers!!


"The hard part about being a bartender is figuring out who is drunk and who is just stupid."
- Richard Braunstein

Food good..

Alright, you guessed another one of my passions is good food. I like preparing food, unfortunately I don't get around doing it as much as I'd like to - probably because I'm a lazy bastard.. Oh well..
Anyways, my wife recently purchased a nice little book with a few simply dishes in, that I will try and experiment with.. I'll post the recipes and conclusions on this blog.

Pork Chops Valenciana:
A couple of not too thick pork chops
175g Orange marmalade
2 Tablespoons chili sauce
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
1 Teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 Teaspoon ground cumin
2 Green Onions

Heat some oil on large pan, and fry the pork chops until brown on each side and well cooked inside. Meanwhile, add orange marmalade, chili sauce, vinegar, ginger and cumin into a sauce pan/pot and cook while stirring until the sauce thickens a little bit. Add the thinly sliced green onions to the sauce, and serve the pork chops covered with the sauce.

Can be served with any boiled/steamed vegetable, fx. Potatoes or asparagus.

The whole thing shouldn't take more than 20 minutes.

I prepared the dish last night, and the sweet'n'sour sauce really went very well with the pork chops - it is definitely not the last time I make this.. ;)

DVD rental in your mailbox

So yesterday I received a new offer from my bank - through the Premier service I can sign up for DVDchezvous service for € 28 / month. It works pretty much like the NetFlix service in the US. It's a great concept, but I still think that the price is a bit steep.
Here's how it works:
1. You go and choose a film from their website, or place a call to their call center.
2. They send the movie(s) to an address of your choice. (Meaning you can still get your movie(s) while being on vacation)
3. After watching the movie(s) you put them in the envelope (pre-stamped) and post it.

You can keep the movie(s) for as long as you desire, but you can only "rent" two movies at a time.

The Premier service offers me a 1-month trial period, so I might try it out.. With a bit of luck the price will go down in the near future.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Social behavior

How come whenever you are in a shop/service-center (or something like it) and you are standing in line or getting served - and if the telephone will ring they will ALWAYS answer it and make you stand and wait like a jackass. How come clients sitting on their fat behinds making a telephone call, will be priorities over the clients that have actually gone through the trouble to show up ? I don't think it makes any sense, and I believe that whenever you (the consumer) will experience this, it should NOT be frowned upon when you smack the idiot up over it..

Just my 2 cents..

Chain Letters

I recieved this email from my friend Paul R. I find it so true and so in synch with what i feel that I have left it untouched - so here you go.

PS: Lewis, don't think I'm plagiarizing, this is for the good of everyone.

Hello, my name is Lewis and I suffer from the guilt of not forwarding
50 billion fucking chain letters sent to me by people who actually
believe that if you send them on, a poor 6-year-old girl in Arkansas with a
breast on her forehead will be able to raise enough money to have it
removed before her redneck parents sell her to a traveling freak show.

Do you honestly believe that Bill Gates is going to give you, and
everyone to whom you send "his" email, $1000?

How stupid are we?

"Ooooh, looky here! If I scroll down this page and make a wish, I'll
get laid by a model I just happen to run into the next day!"

What a bunch of bullshit.

Maybe the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my house and
sodomize me in my sleep for not continuing a chain letter that was
started by Peter in 5 AD and brought to this country by midget
pilgrims on the Mayflower.

Fuck 'em.

If you're going to forward something, at least send me something
mildly
amusing. I've seen all the "send this to 10 of your closest
friends,and this poor, wretched excuse for a human being will
somehow receive a nickel from some omniscient being" letters about 90 times.

I don't fucking care.

Show a little intelligence and think about what you're actually
contributing to by sending out these forwards. Chances are, it's our
own unpopularity.

The point being? If you get some chain letter that's threatening to
leave you shagless or luckless for the rest of your life, delete it.
If it's funny, send it on.

Don't piss people off by making them feel guilty about a leper in
Botswana with no teeth who has been tied to the ass of a dead elephant
for 27 years and whose only salvation is the 5 cents per letter he'll
receive if you forward this email.

Now forward this to everyone you know.

Otherwise, tomorrow morning your underwear will turn carnivorous and
will consume your genitals

Have a nice day.

P.S. Send me a 100 bucks ASAP.

Lewis

Monday, May 10, 2004

How I make a White Russian..

I really get pissed off when i go into a bar and see the bartender making a White Russian - 95 percent of the time, the bastard behind the bar does not know what the hell he's doing, and being a former bartender, that just makes me want to jump over the bar and beat the shit out of him/her with a cocktail shaker. So I've decided to post a series of blogs concerning this issue, entitled "How I make a..." I figure you should trust me, if not in anything relatively important in life, at least in my ability to make/drink a beverage. So here goes.

A White Russian has three ingredients (well, 4 if you include the ice)

Vodka.

Kahlua.

Milk/ Cream.

Contrary to what the bastard bartender (mentioned above) believes, a white russian is a built drink, not a shaken one. DO NOT SHAKE a White Russian damn it! It's fucking blasphemy. Thank you.

This is how i do it.

Take a lowball glass - this is what you would refer to as a whisky glass i believe - a short fat glass. Add a couple of nice big ice cubes in there - not crushed ice.. crushed ice melts too quickly and renatured the taste of the ingredients.
Over the ice, pour about 3 to 4 centiliters of white, unflavored vodka (like absolut or smirnoff - not something like absolut curant or zubrovska). Over the vodka, pour about the same quantity of Kahlua. You still with me?

OK

Now float the milk/cream over the now mixed vodka and kahlua. You should get a layer of brown (kahlua/vodka) and a layer of white (da milk/cream). Throw a couple coffee seeds on top of the milk/cream, and Voila! there's your White Russian.

Now I tend to like my drinks steep - I just think they taste better that way (and they do). But if you're a sissy, a loser, you can lower the amount of booze per drink.

Also do me a favor, the next time you go to a bar, ask for a white russian. If the bastard doesn't know how to make it, wack him across the head, and show him how to do it.. Cheers!!

"The hard part about being a bartender is figuring out who is drunk and who is just stupid."
- Richard Braunstein

No more getting lost..

So I finally did it ! I purchased a GPS navigation system for my car. I had been on the look-out for a quite a while now - but I always thought that it was a bit pricy.. (It still is, but less.. )
Since we are going on a little vacation next week, I figured that I might as well get it now.. It also didn't help that Henrik has just been visiting me, and he works for Pioneer and loves to tease me with all the cool features of a navigation system.
So saturday morning (or noon) when I woke up, I went to Darty in Ternes to purchase my TomTom Wireless GPS system. Unfortunantly they were sold out! But that didn't stop me, I drove out to Darty in Montparnasse where they had 4 left!
The pack contains: 1 HP IPaq PocketPC, 1 GPS receiver (Bluetooth) and 1 car installation kit.
We took it out for a test drive sunday afternoon, and it worked perfectly !
Now I just need to get someone to intall all the cables nicely in the car, or else it'll end up looking like my office with cables everywhere - so I am going up to Peugeot in La Defense where I bought my car tomorrow !

New template

Blogger have added a lot of new functionality and templates to the system, so I decided to update the blog layout. I hope you like it !

Comments are now also part of the Blogger features, so I have removed the old comments - and added the comment functionality. This, however, means that the old comments are gone.. Yeah, that's right - deal with it !

Friday, May 07, 2004

Peer to Peer and the Music Industry

Once again, the whole polemic over downloading music, and the music industry trying to brainwash us into thinking it's not morally right...
What i don't find morally right is that when i buy a CD, such an infinitely small amount of my hard earned cash is actually going to the artist.
The rest of my dosh is going to some bastard sitting in an office bigger than my apartment at EMI or Universal. Well I say it was about time something rocked the boat. This is putting the majors at risk (-20% sales in france since January), and it's created a time when the whole chabang has to be rethought.. They are trying to tell us it is wrong to download, yet they haven't yet figured out that as a whole, p2p users (in the millions) are a lot stronger then them, and that users will always find an alternate source to download from, which has happened in the past (napster - gnutella - kazaa - kazaa lite - edonkey - emule, etc, etc).

This is good for everyone, the internet is causing a revolution in this industry that was much needed. Wouldn't it be good to be able to download directly from the artist, and either donate/buy their tracks? Wouldn't the artists also prefer not being tied down by the majors? And what about all those artists that don't have a contract with EMI, Universal, etc? Won't they now, thanks to the internet, be able to have their music played out there?

Let's wait and see, shit has already hit the fan, and they can't arrest every mp3 downloader. They've got to learn to live with it one way or the other, so things are going to change.

Hype



A nice response to the SNEP anti p2p campaign.
Perhaps if the artists were actually making good music, and not just cover tracks of cover tracks, and "best of.." releases - then consumers would probably buy more albums !

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Not so easy..

I took the Cisco ICND course a couple of years ago (I also attended the CIT course) - but it is just recently I thought it could be "fun" to actually take the certifications - first the CCNA, and in time the CCNP. I have contacted a few Cisco learning partners here in France, to find out whether or not I can take the exam in English (it is hard enough without me worrying about the language barrier) - while I'm waiting feedback, I have begun preparing for the test, and I found an online service that can give me a CCNA test (find it here) for free.
The test is harder than I thought, and I'll probably have to read up on a lot of stuff -and it is not helping that the margin for error is very thin - you need 9 correct answers out of 10 !!
Wish me luck..

The Official Unofficial Serbian Ice Tea Recipe.....

Ah, I couldn't resist the need to make an Ode to my good old friend the Serbian Ice Tea and his creator the one and only Marko Jovanovic.
If you haven't had the chance to try this baby out, print out the following cocktail recipe, and stumble on over to your local bar (which i'm assuming is decent enough to have the ingredients needed) ASAP, because this is a legend.

The Details:
- concocted for the first time sometime in mid to end 1997 at the Chesterfield Café (now The House of Live) by Doktor Marko - As I remember it was a Friday or Saturday night, or maybe a Wednesday... or, well..
- I got to knowing the recipe well because i later worked with Marko in 1999 at The Long Hop.

Here it is:

In a Pint Glass filled with ice:

1centiliter (cl.) : Malibu
1cl. : Southern Comfort
1cl. : Peach schnapps
1cl. : Kahlua
1cl. Triple Sec or Cointreau
4 wedges of lime squeezed.
dash of Grenadine.

- fill to about 3/4 of the glass with Cranberry Juice.
- shake furiously.
-top the concoction with some 7up/sprite and enjoy.

Now i have a second recipe... the one i make, which is killer - this is meant for monsters who can take the alcohol, cuz there is a lot of it.
It is the same as above, except you add: 2cl. of dark rum, 2cl. of vodka, and another cl. of Triple sec, which brings the alcohol content to 20cl. of alcohol....

More recipes to come - if you have any questions, post your comments and i'll get back to ya. CHEERS!



orkut.com

Seems to me that Orkut are having some difficulties...


mich@ ~> host www.orkut.com
Host not found, try again.

I hate the euro

"Oh... The euro will be so smart - cause you can go around to all countries in Europe without having to worry about currency exchanges etc etc.." Bullshit !!
When I travel around Europe, I usually go to either the UK or Denmark - none of them have signed up for the euro (good for them) - and whether they have or nor it wouldn't matter, as I always pay with my visa card.
So let's look at the flip-side on having the Euro...
On the day "they" introduced the euro, all prices sky-rocketed.. And I mean _all_ prices.. The consumers (you and me) were having trouble doing the exchanges in their head when they did their groceries, so by the time they realized the increase - it was too late... And now.. Well now we're just stuck with it !

An example:
Back in the good old French Francs days, I would be able to go to my local brasserie and have a couple of pints of Heineken for about 45,- FF (max). Now, it'll cost me 12,50 EUR - let's see.. (12.50 x 6.56) = 82,- FF - that's an increase on almost 82% - I mean, what the hell ?

I miss the French Francs...


And what the fuck is up with the garbage trucks in rush hour traffic ? One would think, that they have the whole god damn day to collect garbage, why mess with people between 8h00 and 9h00 when they are already late for work... I mean... what's up with that ?
</rant>

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

amavisd-new with clamav & SpamAssassin

Another on of those days.. *sigh* (Is it Friday yet ?)

Put our new spam-filter/antivirus mail gateway online today.. Seems to work pretty well - Up on until today we used Trend Interscan VirusWall for Linux. I have been pretty happy with the VirusWall, but a have wanted to change it for a long time, because:
1. It runs on Linux
2. It costs money

We did not have any spam filtering until now, and frankly, it was about damn time.. Spammers were hitting our mailboxes by the thousands every single day..

Anywho.. I found a nice HP server for the purpose, spent yesterday afternoon installing FreeBSD and doing the basic configuration... Followed by amavisd-new, clamav and p5-Mail-SpamAssassin from the ports collection. Did some testing this morning, and finally put it into production at noon.. After running for 20 minutes, it had already caught 29 spam messages !

My friend Henrik is visiting from Denmark, and tonight we are all going out for a nice dinner at Anatole - a small restaurant close to where a live. They make traditional French food, and they make very well ;)

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Loving Open-Source

I recently discovered a little util named kblticker. It is a tray-icon application for KDE. Basically what it does, is it contacts BlogLines every x minutes, and checks to see whether or not I have any unread posts on the blogs I am subscribed to.

This is all good and nice, however I would have liked a feature that would have enabled me to override the x minutes interval-check, and verify the status of my subscriptions immediately. I wrote the author, who told me it was a great idea, and he, himself, would like such a feature as well - but unfortunately he was leaving for vacation - but he promised me to add on return... Since the program is open-source, I had access to the complete source code, and after a few changed source files, I could recompile the program with "Poll Now" functionality. Yay ! Even trying to imagine such an operation on a Microsoft application (or other closed-source project) already gives me a headache..

Before:


After:

Monday, May 03, 2004

Of Work and the Weekend.

Well well, it seems like just 10 minutes ago when i last left this office.. and here i am again! WTF. I mean you leave on Friday saying "I am SO going to take advantage of these two days off", and no matter WHAT you do, it just seems like the weekend is compressed into just a couple minutes, and there you are, your dumb ass sitting in your stupid blue chair, looking at a dirty screen full of crap.. yay!

But what'd ya want to do, that's the way it is. The weekend was good although short as usual. For once my sorry self was invited to a birthday party, which was pretty sweet (yeah i got myself a couple of drinks with mich there) We went and shot some pool for a couple of hours (although we probably shot more heinekens then balls really) and then headed off to Hogans, where we sat, bullshitted, and ate Rota's very own bar-made sandwiches... yum. I got sick of mich after about 60 minutes of listening to his constant moaning and bickering, so we f**ked off to the VD, had a shot with Marko there, and went home to pass out.

Saturday, did nothing (another birthday that evening); Sunday, walked around paris and bought some stuff, went home, had sushi and passed out.

SO here we go for another week of bloggin' excitement!! Go Enterasys! And what about this Sasser virus... i want to see some of these people's computers reboot when they're in the middle of a HUGE document they haven't saved.. heheheheh

Tada!

Stupid Enterasys Matrix E1

Trying to test a Matrix E1 switch today.. That was lots of fun ! We weren't able to figure out how to get console access.. Spent some time trying to search on google for some answers.. But apparently everyone that owns such a switch have not experienced any problems..
We tried connecting a normal rollover console cable, a straight-through cable and a crossover cable - all without success. Figured that it might be hyperterminal that was choking, tried with another terminal program - still without success. Unfortunately the com port on my Unix box is dead, so I am forced to use the windows box - that kinda limits our debugging options..
Finally gave up, and sent it through the system - I can see only two options:
1. Both console ports have been nuked
2. We (Dim & I) are too stupid to get it working.

Since we experienced the same behavior on both switches, I am tempted to believe in the second option... I don't know what it says about us.. Except I hope I'll never have to work with such a piece of crap again.

Friday, April 30, 2004

Work killer..

Why work, when you can play miniature golf..
Tee off

Remember to read the "Howto play" first..

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

iTunes 4.5

New version of iTunes (for Win & Mac) is out.
Featuring new Party Shuffle, iMix (for sharing your playlists) and Apple Lossless Encoder..
Pick it up here!

Caution - To all those here for the first time, BEWARE!

Whether you have come here intentionally (which would be quite surprising), or completely by mistake and have decided to read on, I have to warn you that once in a while, my cheerful amigo there mich, will produce an unlimited amount of uncomprehensible psychobabble which sounds something like this::

"The `vacuum` command (or the vacuumdb shell script) will garbage collect your db.
If you run it together with the analyzer option, it will calculate statistics for use by the
optimizer... As an example, I just gained a factor 30 of increased query speed on a table
in one of my databases"


This is due to a condition which has surfaced in the last couple of years, closely associated with Turret's syndrome and manic depressive confinement. It is not dangerous at first, but is utterly USELESS to most people who have enough neurons to make that whole 'hand-eye coordination' thing work.

I suggest that when you see this gagababble, simply run to the next paragraph, basically, to what I have to say. (unless of course mich has a moment of lucidity and writes anything about jugs, sex, beer, dumps, blogs, ghettos and hoes.

You've been warned

Tada

postgresql

If you are a postgresql user/admin and you've never used `vacuum analyze` - then you are in for a treat. The `vacuum` command (or the vacuumdb shell script) will garbage collect your db. If you run it together with the analyzer option, it will calculate statistics for use by the optimizer...
As an example, I just gained a factor 30 of increased query speed on a table in one of my databases...

All hail postgres..

Comments

Now with comments..
The title really says it all - now go away.
Yo, speaking of the music industry.. they are having some trouble.. EMI France just laid off a couple singers - Ophelie Winter, etc. I say this is doing the music industry some good! at least we don't have to listen to shit like Ophelie anymore.. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST! Deal with it you BASTARDS! But seriously, do they think they're going to convince us to give them any MORE money? I mean why pay for the music that is already free.. hmmm.. I don't get that logic at all.

For once we're showing those greedy bastards at the top that they, too, can experience the well known sensation of SHIT HITTING THE FAN, which all of us normal earthlings deal with daily. I say "long live the internet" .. and beer
so here's my first post on our much-loved blog.

yeah, work as usual, the weather's great, and I'm really looking forward to getting some food, although i get that feeling all the time... I love food.. mmm fooood.

I think i'm going home, I'm sick of work for today.. that's it, I've had enough.
Oh.. increasing the price for online music - that's going to help the improve sales..
According to Macworld five of the top labels are pushing for the increase - and a song from iTunes could increase from 99 cents to a whopping $2.49 - making it (alot) more expensive to download the songs, than to purchase the album.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

The blog is online and ready for abuse.. so here goes..
Well, today was another one of those days, where I wished I could stay home and sleep.. They seem to follow each other closer and closer every day.

Convinced 'da boss' that we need to do major upgrades in our test lab.. The home-built table on which we test fairly expensive network equipment, needs to be changed - one of those roller-tables is what we need.. Also need a couple of TFT monitors, so we can move the monitors around without breaking our backs !!
FREAK!
Welcome

I was here first...