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01 Mar - 31 Mar 2008
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Raymond Poort's OPML blog
Raymond's photos (Flickr)
GSE 2004
Promotie Op Maat
Jaap Dekkers Trainingen
Rob Kouwenhoven

CURRY.COM
Scripting News
The Jason Calacanis Weblog
Scobleizer
The Dawn and Drew Show!
The MacCast

Miscellany

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31 January 08 - 18:14

Visitors from...Indonesia!!

Today our friends Axel & Beike came over...all the way from Indonesia!! Wow!

Great to catch up with them and it's just perfect to see them, after we went visiting them in Libya last year...and after they got married in October 2006...hehe, maintaining a social life with friends ain't all that easy for expats! ;)



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30 January 08 - 23:28

New life

Our best friends in Norway, Willy & Katka, got their second son yesterday, his name is Andre!

We went to see them in the hospital tonight, Andre was really sweet (as in not crying ;)) and truly a beautiful baby boy.

Hehe, it's the second baby in a week time...2008 is becoming a real baby-year! ;)

Being in the hospital reminded me; The Netherlands seems to be one of the very few countries where children are born at home...it's always interesting to hear the surprise in peoples voices when you tell them that most of the children in NL are born in the parents bed.



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29 January 08 - 23:04

iPhone, myPhone!

Guess what? I own an iPhone!! Yay, it's a total geek fest out here!! :)

Of course it came with the latest and greatest software on it (v. 1.1.3), for which a jailbreak has been released last weekend, just in time dudes! ;)

I followed the instructions from iPhone Atlas...easy, complete and it did the trick for me!

So, step 1 is done!

Am now waiting for the software unlock (or other information related to a SIM unlock option).

Anyhow...the iPhone is myPhone, I *LOVE* IT!!!



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28 January 08 - 23:18

Pivot image-tag replacement, done!

Max Roeleveld checks in!

He wrote the Pivot-to-WordPress import script I used to migrate and thx to the useful information in his comment I was able to get the links to all my images up again using this script, yay!

I just started to change the image links manually (aaahhhh!) so, the comment came at the right time...thx dude, you saved me an hour or 2!

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27 January 08 - 23:36

WordPress is up, in beta

The .com-blog is up! It turned out to be very easy to set up WordPress (the 5 minute install indeed), however…importing my older (Pivot-based) posts turned out to be a bit harder…:(

The easiest method for importing is to use a RSS-file containing all posts. Unfortunately the server of my hosting provider didn’t allow me to get all my 800+ posts into one RSS-file (the server wasn’t able to allocate enough memory to do so?!?), so I ended up using a script I found while poking around the Net.

The script did most of the work, so far, so good…some things are still broken though; links to older posts, all images, and I can only embed YouTube videos when using the classic theme. The much nicer Kubrick theme breaks cause the width of the page is not wide enough to support the vids.

As you can see, I’ve got some work to do on the layout, so I’d call the site still in beta.

I will manually cross-post on the .nl and .com blogs until everything here is fixed.



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26 January 08 - 18:58

The piano playing cat

Everyone knows I *love* my cats...if only I had a piano, they would rock da house! ;)




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25 January 08 - 16:37

I am an UNCLE!!

As mentioned yesterday, my sister (Martine) was due to deliver any day...well, she 'decided' to pick her own Birthday as THE day!

Yesterday evening at 20.30h she and my brother in law (Arjan) got a baby boy, named Tygo! Everything is good with mother and son...and father...and grandfather/grandmother (this is a first timer!)...:)

Long live Skype, as I was able to see the baby live last night, wow! I'll put up a picture later.

Sjeez....I am uncle Raymond now! :)



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24 January 08 - 09:29

Happy Birthday sis!

My sister has her Birthday today, 30 no less...as 'we' say in Norway: Gratulerer med deg!!

She's also (very) pregnant and due to deliver any day...the doctors calculated the baby to come on the 25th, that IS tomorrow! Wow, I'm gonna be uncle!!



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23 January 08 - 19:55

WordPress it will be!

OK, thanks for all the advice and tips; I made up my mind and have decided to go with WordPress as blogging tool for my .com domain!

Basically I feel like learning something new and since WordPress has a lot more features and development going on, it will bring me more.

To be honest, the main reason I choose Pivot back in 2005, was the fact that I didn't have a MySQL database in my hosting package...and I am WAY too cheap to pay extra for something I think should be standard! ;)

Well, I'm not leaving Pivot entirely (yet?), but am interested in getting cross-posting working for both domains, so, between Pivot and WordPress that is. I should have the time coming weekend to work on things and go live!



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22 January 08 - 22:03

I might have an iPhone in a week!!

My baby is flying to Houston coming weekend and....might come back with an iPhone!!! That would be soooo cool!

If things go as hoped, I expect the phone (sorry, the iPhone!) to come with the latest and greatest software (v 1.1.3, released during last weeks MacWorld)...that means I'm up for two challenges:

1. jailbreak it; in order to use all its functionalities except the phone

2. SIM unlock it; so I can use it with a different carrier than the U.S. based AT&T

All information I found on the net so far shows that the v 1.1.3 jailbreak is done, but will only be made available in February. :(  The SIM unlock might require some additional hardware, but I expect that software solutions will be available soon...right, developers??

Am wondering if I could downgrade the software to the previous version (v 1.1.2) for the time being, it would make things a lot easier!

Woo-hooooo, am thrilled! (yeahyeah, I *do* realize I sound like a geek hehe;))



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21 January 08 - 23:18

Cultural differences NL-N (2)

Here's another 'cultural difference' between The Netherlands and Norway;

In Norway most water taps in public buildings (toilets of bars for instance) use a mixer tap with a single valve, allowing you to mix the water temperature as you like.



In The Netherlands most of water taps in public places are just single taps, supplying only cold water.


I often see the mixer taps in Norway (in houses too) set in the middle position, providing a nice mix of warm water.


So, people here wash their hands generally with warm water, while most people in The Netherlands wash their hands with cold water...hmm, could it be that Norwegians warm up their hands this way in order to protect them from freezing off in the generally colder temperature in Norway??


Hehe, and I thought I emigrated to the land of tough Vikings! ;)



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20 January 08 - 21:22

Commencement speech by Steve Jobs

In 2005 Steve Jobs delivered a commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford University...it's less then 15 minutes and I recommend everyone to take this time and listen to what he has to say...trust me, you will learn from it.

...everything happens for a reason!



The transcript of this great speech can be found in the Stanford University News Service Archives.



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19 January 08 - 16:47

QOTD January 19 2008

Mark Twain: "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."



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18 January 08 - 17:55

Balkan Beat Party

TGIF!

Am pretty knackered after an intensive week, but still have some energy left to go to the Balkan Beat Party tonight in Oslo!

It's becoming very popular and I'm sure it's an interesting experience when Vikings are mixing with people from the Balkan, topped off with a cheesehead twist! ;)

Hey, hey...it is party time!!!




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17 January 08 - 21:21

To Wordpress or Pivot

Will be working on the .com domain and weblog coming weekend (it's still a re-direct to the .nl website).

Did not make up my mind yet on what weblog tool to use...I'll either give Wordpress a try (it seems to be the most popular tool out there), or stick with Pivot...can use some advice here, anyone?



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16 January 08 - 20:35

Air, I want Air

Still having 'Airy' thoughts crossing my mind...this notebook ROCKS!



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15 January 08 - 23:10

MacWorld 2008 Keynote announcements

I know some people are expecting a blogpost from me on Apple's latest announcements as made by Steve Jobs today at MacWorld. :)

I just watched his Keynote speech so, here we go!


Steve said he liked to talk about four things today:

1. Time Capsule. It's a companion product for Time Machine, basically an Airport Extreme basestation with a 500GB or 1TB hard drive enabling backing up wirelessly

2. New iPhone features; Maps with location (a great, innovative way to find your actual position by triangulating signals from WiFi Hotspots and GSM celltower information!)...Webclips...Customize home screen(s)...SMS multiple people at once...Chapters, subtitles, languages...Lyrics support

The iPod touch got the same new features as well as some new apps; Mail...Maps...Stocks...Notes...Weather

3. iTunes movie rentals, Every major studio is on board offering over 1,000 movies already. You'll be able to start watching instantly within 30 seconds on all Macs & PCs, iPods and iPhones.

And, as for content on your TV at home...a new version of the Apple TV software allows movie rentals directly on your widescreen TV! This is Apple TV, Take 2 which doesn't need a computer allowing you to rent movies in HD quality with Dolby 5.1, play Podcasts and view photos from Flickr & .Mac, watch YouTube movies, buy TV shows and music and of course still play all iTunes content from Macs & PCs


The tagline for this years MacWorld was; There's something in the Air...well, there is...and it is called:

4. MacBook Air! World's thinnest laptop. The features: 3.0 pounds (around 1.4kg), measures 0.16 - 0.76 inches (thinnest to thickest part), 13.3" widescreen display, Full size and backlit keyboard, multi-touch gestures trackpad, iSight camera built in, 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB memory 80 GB hard drive, 64 GB Solid State Drive as option, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Magsafe.

There is no optical drive, options are either a MacBook Air external optical drive or new software that allows you to "borrow" a Mac or PC's optical drive over a Wi-Fi network. The battery life is a stunning 5 hours.

Just look at the pictures below, and be sure...this is what I wanna have!


Steve didn't end with a 'oh, and one more thing', instead he mentioned that all of the above is introduced in the first 2 weeks of 2008, and there are still 50 more weeks to come. :)




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14 January 08 - 21:13

Birthday dinner & visit to NL

I just finished an EXCELLENT Indian dinner prepared for Andrea's Birthday, our dutch friend who decided to celebrate this event with us up North in freezing Norway...uhh, freezing? The temperature skyrocketted to a stunning +3 dgr Celcius today. Melting the fresh snow as only snow can, even without sun! :)

Not much too time for late night Birthday festivities though...am flying out to The Netherlands tomorrow early morning, business meetings until Thursday...hehe, I hope I'm able to tune in to Steve Jobs' Keynote speech tomorrow!



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13 January 08 - 18:55

QOTD January 13 2008

Sholem Asch: "Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence."



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12 January 08 - 23:51

Coming week: MacWorld week

MacWorld, the yearly event where Apple kicks off the New Year will be held in San Francisco coming week.

This years tag-line is: '2008 There's something in the air':


 


Last year the iPhone was announced...so, what will be BIG this year? Tune in to Steve Jobs' Keynote speech, Tuesday January 15, at 18:00h CET...it's a great experience to see him on stage!



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11 January 08 - 17:17

Dutch / Norwegian New Years dinner

Am off to have dinner celebrating the New Year at a small restaurant close to the ski-area Trollsvan near Oslo. As the place is owned by a dutch guy (Robbert) I expect a nice Dutch/Norwegian combination of food, drinks and entertainment!

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10 January 08 - 22:21

A way to save YouTube vids

As you might know it is not possible to download the movies directly from YouTube. There are however some sites that have a workaround making it possible to save the Flash Video (FLV-file) on your harddrive.

The process is itself fairly easy, just paste the link to the YouTube video you want on to one of the following sites and download!

Since the downloaded file will be a Flash video file (.flv), you will need a Flash Player to play them. The 'all-media-files' player VLC will play them too, converting the file with a flv-to-mpg converter and then play it in Winblows MediaPlayer is another way :)

http://keepvid.com/

http://www.savetube.com/   (& tutorial: http://www.savetube.com/tutorial.htm )

Flash Video Player & Converter:

http://www.flvconverter.org/

http://www.onlyfreewares.com/Audio-Video/Video-Converters/Free-FLV-to-AVI-Converter.php

http://www.videolan.org/



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09 January 08 - 23:06

Migrate raymondpoort.com domain, part 4

The process is completed, my .com domain is now transfered and hosted via GoDaddy!

Have to admit, the pudding was sweet and contained just one tiny sour part; Email remained up sweet as honey, the website however was down for some hours :(

And it's still not up as it should. All is caused by the domain forward not working properly. For now the domain is html re-directing to the .nl website and I guess it will remain that way for a while...hardly any time to work on it the coming days.

Am also thinking of changing the weblog tool from Pivot to Wordpress, what do ya think?



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08 January 08 - 15:21

Rock on with 'Air Guitar Hero'

I'm still a big fan of Guitar Hero (am saving up for a PS3 to rock at home!). At CES 2008 Veronica Belmont shows us 'Air Guitar Hero'...yeah, this thing ROCKS!



Check out Mahalo Daily with Veronica Belmont for your daily shot of geek stuff.



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07 January 08 - 23:45

Migrate raymondpoort.com domain, part 3

As said before, 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'...so, let's eat!

I just finished the last steps of the .com domain transfer and set up the hosting account. Have to admit, the migration process so far went really smooth, it just took some days (and the weekend inbetween didn't help I guess).

Current status for the domain hosting is 'Pending DNS', so by the time the new location for this domain (with GoDaddy) is propagated through the root nameservers (appr. 24-48 hours) I should be good to go!

The MX-records are already adjusted for Google Apps and I have set a domain forward to the .nl domain (actually matching what it is today). This means that opposite to what I thought earlier, there should be no downtime for the website nor email...fingers crossed!



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06 January 08 - 14:28

Boeing Dreamliner...a Hackliner?

Oh man, this better be fixed before the airliner is used in commercial flights...and let's just hope they don't run any Microsoft Windows! ;)

Wired: "Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet may have a serious security vulnerability in its onboard computer networks that could allow passengers to access the plane's control systems, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

The computer network in the Dreamliner's passenger compartment, designed to give passengers in-flight internet access, is connected to the plane's control, navigation and communication systems, an FAA report reveals."



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05 January 08 - 23:48

Cultural differences NL-N (1)

One of the cultural differences between The Netherlands and Norway is the social behaviour on the streets. Everbody has a phone to his ear, nobody is noticing anything anymore, or looking at eachother, or saying 'hei' when passing another.

It's clearly related to the mobile age we're living in, the mobile society where the 'device' seems more important than the one-to-one contact with the guy/girl sitting next to you. The fact that Norway/Scandinavia has a much longer tradition in mobile phones than other countries probably made this behavior a cultural thing which also prevails when people don't have their cellphone at their ear.

Perhaps this situation is also different in Norway compared to NL due to population density.

Since your neighbor could be literally far away, the Norwegian culture has historically developed itself to be much more oriented on the individual and family, living in your own house and minding your own business (although one will ALWAYS help another when asked...Norwegians are far from a-social and of course I have been generalizing!)


Have to admit that I'm the kind of guy who always tries to greet the people I pass, make eye contact and smile...it's just amazing to see what happens to the other person if you just smile, you should try it too! :)



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04 January 08 - 18:48

QOTD January 4 2008

Marilyn vos Savant: "To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."



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03 January 08 - 14:32

Proof, pudding, eating & GoDaddy

I learned today that the proverb phrase 'the proof is in the pudding' actually originates from the proverb 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'.

The proverb is especially applicable today since I just ordered the domain transfer and hosting package for my .com domain, all with GoDaddy...so, since it turns out that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, it'll be interesting to see how smooth the migration process will be. Go daddy, satisfy me! :)

24h - 48h downtime for website and email is unavoidable, expect it somewhere coming week...the .nl site and email will stay up though!


PS. Obviously I have been using the GoDaddy Promo Code from Adam Curry's Daily Source Code (dsc2)! It gave me an additional $5,- off the order, yay!



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02 January 08 - 22:52

'everyday choices' on DSC#703

Am doing pretty good in my podcast catch up project...managed to listen to four Daily Source Codes today! :)

Pity Adam missed my audio comment congratulating him with DSC#700, there was however another ;) great piece of audio in DSC#703: 'everyday choices' by Colin Mutchler, his spoken words start around 6 minutes into the show.

The original lyrics are on Colins ccMixter page, the audio file played in DSC#703 can be found on his Podshow page.
The transcript:



the markets are starting to question themselves
the bloggers exposing our blisters
as the everyday words of everyday people
are shifting the tone of the televised speeches

and the artists are starting to question themselves
and the poets are speaking like leaders
and the everyday choices of everyday people
are facing the storms and curing diseases

so go skype an ipod, premix some wages
but don’t forget to make a version for the sages

because when we look beyond our next meal, our next post,
we are responsible for our everyday votes,
the ones we use to buy our shoes,
to buy our homes, to buy our tunes.
Yes I'm talking about our dollars, our euros, our pesos, our yen.

because what if the next 20 years are happening again?
what if we've already arrived...it's 2025.

and the doomsday duos, the war and peace heroes
haven't avoided the global cooling, the flu grown zeros
and the forgotten people

Yes the markets are starting to question themselves
and the bloggers exposing our blisters
as the everyday words of everyday people
are shifting the tone of the televised speeches

and the artists are starting to question themselves
and the poets are speaking like leaders
and the everyday choices of everyday people
are facing the storms and curing diseases.



And the embedded track from the Podsafe Music Network:


Yo...Mr. Adam Curry...*that* was deap shit indeed, I love it! Thanks for sharing this dude!



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01 January 08 - 20:29

Catching up on podcasts

Having friends over and enjoying time off in the holiday season is very nice and relaxing, it does however set me back on listening to podcasts I'm subscribed to...the current unplayed showcount is 47, consisting of:

- Adam Curry's Daily Source Code

- Steve Gilmor's The Gang

- MacBreak Weekly

- The MacCast

- Dave Winer's Morning Coffee Notes

- No Agenda with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak

- The Science Show

and TWiT (This Week in Tech)

...I plan to catch up in a week time orso, hehe, it's over 30 hours of listening pleasure...my earbuds will be on fire!! :)



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