Tuesday, December 12, 2006

I'm a Lunatic

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!!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

our new techcam

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!)

Friday, October 27, 2006

Noon Food Products

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!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Wookie !

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

Oh, and on another note - Asterisk kicks ass !

Friday, October 06, 2006

Free - French ISP suck ass

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...

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Here we go again



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.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Who got the last drink?

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!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

New warehouse

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 ?

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Extra curricular activities..

A few pics of me from this weekends festivities..


Protect & Serve

Preparing a Serbian Ice Tea

Monday, September 25, 2006

Friday traffic mess

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"

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.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Laptop thief gets screwed...

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 !

Monday, September 18, 2006

Police Water Truck - Up close and personal

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!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Free BSD (!) Magazine in France!

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..

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

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

Monday, September 11, 2006

Drinks at the Hop


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)

Friday, September 08, 2006

Spelling 101


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


dsc00078.jpg
Originally uploaded by mich_bsd.
French cops setting a good example as always....

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

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Amarok 1.4.3

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

Read more:

Amarok - rediscover your music

What is he selling..


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..

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Flickr adds geotagging

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

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Spring Cleaning (in August)

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.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Sweet sound of Bosch PBH-160R

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"

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

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Squeezebox


Squeezebox
Originally uploaded by mich_bsd.
and here's a nice picture...

SMOKIN'!!

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

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 !

Monday, July 17, 2006

Squeezebox - en route !

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 !


Thursday, July 13, 2006

No shit, Sherlock

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 alvorlige, at Udenrigsministeriet fraråder alle at rejse til landet.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Shit is hitting the fan

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

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 !

Monday, July 10, 2006

France Italy

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..

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

Friday, July 07, 2006

Ahhhhhh...

I'll do anything to kill that thirst !



Thursday, July 06, 2006

France:1 Portugal: 0

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.

Friday, June 30, 2006

France 3: Spain 1

I think this pretty much says it all...

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Australia vs Italy

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

Thursday, April 27, 2006

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

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.



Thursday, April 20, 2006

Navigo Integral - A bunch of retards!

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..

Friday, April 14, 2006

Quote of the day

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

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Just like the picture

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!

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Da Nikon D70S - yeah baby!

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!