VBasic

Tuesday, April 29, 2003:

Sigh. I just realised that I'm coding in a dead language. It makes me sad, and I realise that I should move on to bigger things than Microsoft: the traditional coding (or hacking).
Haggis // 7:23 AM

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Smokes kill. Smokers smoke smokes. Smokers kill. Kill smokers.
Haggis // 3:55 AM

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There's much more to Google than you would expect. And it's all good. Take a look at this page, for example. I betcha that there are one or two things on there you'd never seen before. And something that isn't on there, but equally cool: A 20 year Usenet archive. If you want a brief history of the Internet, and how it influenced 'pop culture', you should browse through that. So, next time when someone asks you what search engine to use, answer: "What do you mean? There is only one. [and you say the next word with feeling:] Gooogle... yeah, baby."
Haggis // 2:17 AM

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Monday, April 28, 2003:

Support your local PA! Vote for Penny Arcade in the Webby Awards.
Haggis // 4:13 AM

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Things are looking up. It won't be more than a couple of months (three at best, six at most) before I can stop working. And start learning. Every day I am more looking forward to becoming an English translator. English is the language of history, much like French is called the language of love. I am already picturing myself in five years, working from home, walled in by dictionaries and thesauri. Related to the future, I have decided that life is beautiful even without a woman. Women are strange creatures (but if it weren't for them, mankind wouldn't exist; men would have slaughtered each other), and unless I can find one I can really relate to, I'll stay single. And another thing came out of my proverbial crystal ball: about computers... In a couple of decennia, I think we'll have trashed the desktop computer, mostly. I don't see much future for the Tablet PC either, I think we will move to a whole new level of computing. People will, at some point in time, realise that computers don't make life easier, but more complicated. They'll turn to nature, books, real music, and stuff. Other people, even. Computing won't disappear, of course; especially in business. But personal computing will be more like uh... essentially, we'll be cyborgs. Built-in keyboards in your clothes, advanced mobile phones, special display goggles, earphones, built-in chips even. We'll log on to a huge network, but it will still have buggy software, I'm afraid. Oh, and robots. Things will move away from IT, and the focus will shift to Artificial Intelligence. A lot of programmers and network administrators will lose their jobs, and robots will take over more and more functions. We are seeing it already, in Automated Teller Machines, E-mail, car assembly, advanced kitchen equipment. Will this all make life easier? No. We went wrong at the Greeks and Romans. They focused on developing technologies that would improve our lives, in stead of looking for solutions to the real big problems in the world. In stead of concentrating on philosophy and science, they should have made an effort of socialising, and setting up extensive aid programs for less developed regions. Yeah, you heard me right. What those guys did two-thousand years ago, is still affecting us. We've mostly inherited our views on the world from them, and the more people are added to the world, the more this becomes the mainstream idea. Unless we will invent a time machine with which we can redo that crucial part in the development of modern thinking any time soon, the world won't change that much.
Haggis // 3:57 AM

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Saturday, April 26, 2003:

Recently, I have come across an ancient scroll when digging up archaeological stuff in Rome. It wasn't much, and I suspect that the remaining pieces of this publication were somehow destroyed in the great fire that Nero started. I have posted the surviving part for future reference by me and other scientists, for I believe that someone (the writer is not known, but one of my theories is that it's written by Babylonian or Chinese wise men, the predecessors of economists) has intended for a future generation to read this. Without further adue, I bring you the Royal Scrolls of the United Chambers of Commerce and Pollution (this is the name that Xenophobius, a little known Greek economic philosopher gave the mysterious scroll):
Oh, how blessed we are! May the people of the Earth rejoice, and thank Capitalism for its greatest blessings. We, the people of the Planet called Earth, be benefited with the blessings of multi-layered tissues, extreme peppermint toothpaste, and, above all, the joys of plastic crisps bags and candy-bar wrappers. Let us all thank the gods of Industry and Commerce, for they have been too generous for us. And let us take this moment, brothers of my blood, flesh, and water, to curse the gods that have brought us in the deepest and darkest period of this World. Woe is the People who do Well (who do not deserve the Capital letter of our great Alphabet), for they try to bring Peace, Prosperity, and Goodwill for All. Cursed are they! Doomed even! Why, oh why, great American, British, and Tokelau Civilisations; I ask, why, oh why, great gods of the Merchant Ships of Days beyond memory, oh Mercury, oh FedEx, why do they not put their Energy and Spirit (Greek: psuche) into Creating a better and more rich World? Those People are not worthy to walk this Earth, they spoil it with Good. Let us, on the other hand, stay Calm, and let us put our Power Of Life into creating tissues with Even More Layers, toothpaste with Peppermint As Well As Xylitol, and Recycable Plastic That No One Returns To The Great Factories Of Our Merchandise Demigods. Above all, Woe is the Reader who does not see the Sarcastic Message and Mocking of our modern world. [Some translations put in the following phrase, others, like "Xenophobius' XII Translation of the Royal Scrolls of the United Chambers of Commerce and Pollution", leave it out: No, I'm not drunk.] Bill Gates is great, and Steve Ballmer is his Prophet. Mao says: wise cockroach buys plastic cups and throws them on red ants of the Third World. Do not mock the Words in this Scroll, or you will be sold for thirty pieces of eight.
Haggis // 11:20 AM

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Wednesday, April 23, 2003:

Oh yeah, reason d was: d) It's friggin' hot here, and the other 4 guys in the office (3 of which are in the same room as I am) smoke. One and a half hours to go until 5 PM. Thanks for listening, I feel much better now.
Haggis // 6:24 AM

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I just got back from the water cooler, and there's two and a half hours of hell (=work) to go. It's hard to concentrate when you a) don't have a bloody thing to do; b) two guys in the same room are just talking and playing Moorhuhn; c) the radio is playing with bad music (currently Can't Stop by the Peppers, which is extremely good, but 99% of the time it's RnB and bad pop. And rap.); d) I forgot reason d, but I wanna go home. I don't have anything to code :( so I'm blogging. And you should read Joel on Software, and after that Joel's forum. Don't believe people when they say angryCoder is a good site. It's funny, because it is ridiculous. Sigh. I don't wanna go home, I just want to feel at home in here. Give me some work! Oh wait, boss is on vacation. Oh well. Two more days until weekend, yay.
Haggis // 5:42 AM

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I was just thinking: it's strange that Catholics use a Roman torturing device as an essential part of their religion.
Haggis // 4:36 AM

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Tuesday, April 22, 2003:

Another update: I had to re-install Winamp. Oh yeah, and Blogger sucks. It doesn't do what it's supposed to, most of the time. Okay, it's free, so what? GeoCities is free, and it sucks too, but not as much as Blogger. Free e-mail services don't really suck (well, Lycos Mail doesn't). But Blogger is like... Windows 95! Meh.
Haggis // 7:53 AM

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Update on the whole computer thing: I almost freaked out when Winamp wasn't working; it's essential for my (un)productivity. Turned out that when they had to replace my hard disk, they reconnected the cable from the speakers into the computer wrong. It was in the wrong hole. Heh. It works now.
Haggis // 7:38 AM

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So, yesterday I saw a heron, looking for some ducklings to eat. I scared him away, and the ducklings were happy. I know that it's nature, but no ducklings are being eaten when I can help it. One of them might have been eaten anyway when I was gone, but that's life. Um... yeah. Life isn't fair. Oh well, it's Earth Day today. I found an interesting line in an article about that: "Maybe Earth Day should be a global call to stop work, stop driving, stop killing, to sit quietly at home, use as few resources as possible and teach our children that the plundering of the Earth in the name of economic growth has taken us to the brink of disaster." I agree. Oh, and this is my first work day after two weeks of not working, and it wouldn't be too bad, if my C disk hadn't burnt up during my vacation. I do have most of my stuff on harddisk D, but the new C disk is missing lots of components and personal settings. Oh well.
Haggis // 5:59 AM

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Thursday, April 17, 2003:

Sometimes you see the coolest nature things where you don't expect it. Like water birds. And ducks. One mother duck was early with the ducklings, but I don't care. Five ducklings, so cute. And the mother duck really paid attention to the (squeaking, cute) ducklings, quacking and pushing them gently with her bill. It reminded me of this bible text: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37). This shows that Jesus appreciated these little things in nature too. Also, when I look into the sun, or into the sky on a bright day, I sometimes have to sneeze. Somehow, the sun irritates my eyes to the degree where the irritation kind of transfers to my nose. My father has it too, so it must be inherited. Ah wait, I found some information about this.
Haggis // 5:29 AM

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Friday, April 11, 2003:

I'm just seeing Crank Yankers for the first time, and it's funny. Also, Roger, who quit with the Dutch Idols, is not only in his band Intwine, but also in Orange Grove. I downloaded a song of that last band before this whole Idols programme even started. Only interesting for the Dutch readers, but worthy of notice.
Haggis // 11:14 AM

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Wednesday, April 09, 2003:

I saw how the Americans brought down a statue of Saddam today. It was actually pretty pathetic. First they did something with this rope, and it broke. Then they put the American flag on the statue's head, but they quickly took it off again. Whew. Finally, it came down. Seeing those happy people was cool, but it doesn't justify the war at all. One live lost is one too many, let alone thousands of lives. Bush sure got his revenge on the Arab world for 9/11. Also, I miss the comedian guy, the minister of Information, al Sahhaf. He's my hero, and he should replace Saddam. Also, I like the series they show at the time I normally come home from work. Like Cosby, To the manor born, and now my current favourite (it's great): My Family. Also, someone should kill Eminem. Heh.
Haggis // 12:59 PM

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Friday, April 04, 2003:

That's it, I'm going to where my heart is. And I'm taking my homebrew Yahtzee game project with me.
Haggis // 6:57 AM

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Talking about manipulation and propaganda. Take a look at the bottom picture in that page that just opened in a new window when you clicked. The caption talks about a suicide bomber, making you believe that it was his van. However, this was the van that American soldiers fired at, killing women and children. Ever since 9/11, CNN has changed into a crippled news provider, manipulated by its own government.
Haggis // 6:20 AM

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Okay, so less than two hours until I'll have two weeks off. During those weeks, I'm not even going to think about work. So it's time for some reminiscing and reflecting. I take wrong breaks. We can take half an hour whenever we like, and I take this lunch break every day at noon. Twelve-hundred hours sharp, whenever I can help it. It's just one of those weird things about me, once I have something clearly defined for myself, I hold onto that. Sometimes it's called discipline. Now about music. Whenever I can, I play my own music. And it's finally beginning to look like something. I currently have 821 tracks in my WinAmp (version 2 of course, 3 sucks big time) playlist, adding up to over 52 hours of music. That's better than most of the radio stations out here, considering that I don't do commercials. The audience is not very big (about one to three people, including myself), but I like my music. I store my files in wma-format, as opposed to mp3, because it takes up a whole lot less space this way, and the quality is just as good. If you want some good stories about work in general, check out Joel on Software and jwzrants, and click on links that appeal to you there; you won't be disappointed. Tales from the Helldesk is classic, and good fun to read. Note that these sites are great even if you aren't in IT. Well, so much for my recommendations. Haggis out (yay). Oh, 1 hour and 40 minutes to go (if Blogger will actually post this when I click 'Publish').
Haggis // 5:19 AM

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Thursday, April 03, 2003:

There's this song that's kinda popular in Holland now (and probably elsewhere): Shined on me by Praise Cats. The lyrics are clearly: "I've got peace deep in my soul, I've got love making me whole, since you opened up your heart and shined on me." The thing is, a lot of websites list the word 'whole' as either 'hope' or 'roll'. Which is stupid, and shows that lyrics sites blindly/bluntly copy from each other. Yes, I accuse lyrics sites of being copy-cats. You hear me? You stupid copy-cats! Not all of them, of course. But if you have a lyrics site, you better listen to the song yourself, and if you're not sure, then don't post it.
Haggis // 1:31 PM

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Wednesday, April 02, 2003:

I want to work here. Somewhere out there, the world is much cooler than I could ever imagine or hope for. That's why I recently took a subscription to National Geographic Magazine; just to not lose sight of the beautiful things in life. You'd almost forget sometimes that there is more to this world than a keyboard and a monitor. Like blue skies, the Serengeti, Australia, nice people, beverages, the bible, cats, cartoons, books, music, and you.
Haggis // 4:04 AM

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This invokes bitter hate. And Bush washes his hands.
Haggis // 1:28 AM

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Tuesday, April 01, 2003:

Well, today went like this. But not because I couldn't get in the zone; I just had no zone to get into. No work. No bloody customer feedback, no boss, no nothing. It can be very boring... I ended up creating my own Yahtzee programme in Visual Basic. Well, I started working on it; created the beginning of the random dice throw thingey. Took me about an hour or so, or less. Oh well, only three days to go and I'll have two weeks off. I also hope that Salam Pax is alright, although I don't really know him.
Haggis // 12:52 PM

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Oh, great. Now they're killing children as well.
Haggis // 1:59 AM

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