VBasic

Saturday, May 31, 2003:

Pringles crumbs + blackbird + camera-equipped Palm Zire 71 = photo + photo
Haggis // 12:29 PM

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Friday, May 30, 2003:

Yay. So, today I bought a Palm Zire 71. Woohoo! Also, I decided to (nearly) complete my collection Asterix comics, so I bought 11 albums. Yes, eleven. The young lady behind the counter must have thought that I'm crazy or something, but I don't care. This is a once-in-a-lif... mont... okay, weektime opportunity. But still, I'm happy enough. Not much other news right now.
Haggis // 11:55 AM

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Wednesday, May 28, 2003:

I just wanted to say that I quit officially today, and in two months from now I will have my last work day. I only have two more leave days though, but that's okay. I'm just excited about starting a new phase in my life.
Haggis // 2:05 PM

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Monday, May 26, 2003:

Sometimes, pop-up ads on news sites are inappropriate.
Haggis // 3:49 AM

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Wednesday, May 21, 2003:

There is a way to legalise downloading illegal music and games on the Internet. I'm thinking about something I'd like to call Internet tax, only not for the government. We all know that ISPs are pretty expensive these days, right? Why not charge - as an ISP - a couple of bucks a month extra, and give part of your revenue to the... music and gaming industry! That is a lot of money, if you multiply it with the number of people on the Internet, and it would easily make up for the damage done by downloading illegal mp3s and 'abandonware'. I wonder if the RIAA would be happy about that.
Another issue: extraterrestial life. I do not believe in outer-space aliens at all, but I still think that science fiction is creating a wrongful view of them. Suppose that a human being landed on another planet. And let's suppose that he or she ran into a hypothetical alien civilisation. What would it be like? Most people would say something about cities... but we must remember that cities are an Earthly concept, and I don't know if alien civilisations would even be organised at all. We simply cannot know what it would be like. And if those aliens were 'evil', as they are often portrayed in SF films, the film would be over after 2 minutes, because the automatic destruction system would kill the intruder instantly. One might wonder if there would even be life at all - the 'civilisation' could consist of just robots. Or the aliens don't have brains, and cannot think. This is all so incredible, that it becomes impossible. And this is exactly the reason that I don't believe in evolution either. Think about it: how can an atom think where he should look for other atoms to form a molecule? How did those atoms form things like silver, gold, oxygen, water, and DNA? How did the DNA know how to organise into cells? Why is it that the circumstances for life were just right? How did those cells react with each other to form more complex life? Where do fish come from? Why did they form legs? Why was there water and land? Why did the fish become curious about what it's like on land? How did the reptiles evolve into mammals and birds, or the other way round? Why did some cell combinations become plants, and others animals? Why the variety in species - wouldn't you think that one type of tree and bird would be hard enough to exist on Earth after evolving? Indeed, how did all those species survive? Were there so many 'fittest' survivors? How did monkeys and apes become aware of greater things? Why did the brain evolve into something more complex - wasn't being able to eat, sleep, breathe, and mate enough? Where does intelligence come from? Where do fundamental natural concepts like gravity and electricity come from, and why was electricity incorporated into the brain? Why do the organs work so well together? Why all the different types of cells, and how? Why did the need for a Higher Being come into existence? Could it be that self-evolved matter invented all these interesting concepts? Where did the monkeys get these ideas? From looking at the world? And why evolve being able to have pleasure in mating? Why did the flowers evolve taste, and the animals taste buds? They couldn't have told each other - so why are there colours anyway? And how did the monkeys know which cells to develop to be able to see colours? I could go on and on, and saying that I'm being rediculous is denying the obvious: there is an intelligent Creator. That's the reason we ask these questions. Job asked himself a lot of questions like these. Read the bible book about him, it's interesting.
Haggis // 12:00 PM

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Monday, May 19, 2003:

More about that customer. Since Windows XP was installed on that PC, this bug-ridden (users withhold data I need; it's as if they do this on purpose) program of mine got some other bugs. Tomorrow, my boss will go there with a fellow programmer to talk. I sent another update (I keep sending those, because they never clearly report what the problems are), and they refuse to install it until they've talked to my boss. If you still understand them here, you can do more than I can. These people obviously can't tell one bug apart from another. They think 'hey, this program still has a bug, so that guy is probably not doing anything about it'. On the contrary, I'm stressing my butt off, trying to figure out what the heck they mean, but it's no use. I can't seem to please them. No one can. The spoilt bastards.
Also, for information on the next Windows, go here. And to keep this blog moving (hehe, pun = phun, whahaheehohey): yesterday I cleaned up part of my room. It's amazing what you keep hidden away and never look at. There's a lot more to be thrown away, but that will come, in time.
Haggis // 5:00 AM

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Friday, May 16, 2003:

My Music Personality
Haggis // 7:10 AM

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I hate customers, especially a particular one. I was there last Monday, and afterwards I felt good about fixing a persistent bug (we had to go up there, because the way they report errors is very unclear, and you have to go there to see for yourself). Wednesday, Windows XP was installed. Yesterday, a new error popped up, presumably connected to the date settings in Windows. Now they are bitching about how I haven't solved that error yet, while they reported it on Wednesday! Apparently, they can travel through time. I don't feel like doing anything for these guys anymore, but I'm getting paid for it, so what can you do?
Along those lines, I will likely be able to quit my job on August 1. After that I have to "work" for two more months (notice the quotes) and then I'm a free man, leaving this customer stranded in the desert. Muwahahahahahahaaaaa! My revenge will be sweet. Sweet for me, bitter for them.
Haggis // 5:05 AM

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Sunday, May 11, 2003:

This is an artist impression (cute name) of how I want to paint my new room. Only with straight lines. But you get the general idea.
Haggis // 1:31 PM

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I'm going to make a documentary about moving. Just going to film everything, hehe. I don't have the technology to upload movies though, but maybe one or two screenshots will slip through. Can't promise anything though. I have a LAUNCHcast station now - too bad IE is very buggy on the launch.yahoo.com site. That's one of the reasons why I decided to download Mozilla, which I'm quite happy about so far.
Haggis // 11:26 AM

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Friday, May 09, 2003:

Today I coded. I had planned on forcing myself to get in the zone. And it worked. I worked almost all day on the dBASE conversion program, and it's nearly finished now. It has to be debugged, and then it will be done (it even has a progress bar; hooray). Another thing: Social Security owed me about 40 Euros in vacation money. That's from the period when I came from school and was looking for work - almost three years ago now. A couple of days ago, they sent me the money. Wow. Think of all the interest I could have gotten if I put that on a savings account (which they have done, no doubt). Oh well, I guess I should be happy that I got the money at all, since many people are waiting for their money, so I hear.
Now, on the future of handheld computing. I currently have a Palm handheld (the m105 model). I mostly use it for reading books, actually, and for my appointments I have a Claude Monet diary from Taschen (I still live in 2003). I want to upgrade it some time, but why buy a Pocket PC if you only read books on it? And I'm not going to buy a Tablet PC either, just because it's easy to take notes on. What do I need then? I want to read books, and take notes. That's all I want. The answer: e-Ink (be sure to check out the sexy colour scheme... look familiar? ;-). I'm going to skip all future releases of any handheld devices, and I'm going to just wait for this baby to be sold in stores. Some links about this very cool and promising technology:
* A ZDnet article
* e-Ink got coverage on Wired
* Another ZDnet article
* A recent giant leap in this technology (but one small step for paper)
Haggis // 2:14 PM

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Thursday, May 08, 2003:

I have this annoying pain in the knuckle of my left index finger right now. At first, I thought it might be related to typing. And maybe it is, since I'm typing right now, and entering text just isn't very fast with a mouse. But, it also happens that I crack my knuckles. That page says that it probably doesn't cause arthritis, but it certainly isn't healthy. It's so bloody damn addictive though, and it feels good. I crack my fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, back, knees, ankles, and toes. Maybe it is dangerous. But for now, I blame computing (not that I'm going to quit doing that). Ah well, as long as my fingers don't fall off before we're moving, I'm okay. I'll just work less hard... oh wait, I'm already doing that.
Haggis // 1:43 AM

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Wednesday, May 07, 2003:

#$#@%#$#@^@#$@#^#$!!!! Windows XP is breaking my computer. I got a blue screen saying something about memory shortage, and immediately the laptop rebooted. Apparently this is Microsoft's way to ensure that you don't see a BSOD. Luckily, when the computer restarted, I got the option to send an error report. After analyzing, I got this very useful reply:
Error Caused by a Device Driver
Thank you for submitting an error report to Windows Online Crash Analysis. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with specific information about how to resolve this problem at this time. The information that you and other users submit will be used to investigate this problem.
Analysis
A device driver installed on your system caused the problem, but we cannot determine the precise cause.
Getting Help
Depending on which situation is applicable to you, do one of the following:
- If this problem occurred after you installed a new hardware device on your system, the problem might be caused by the driver for the device. If you know the manufacturer of the device, contact the manufacturer's product support service for assistance.
- Some software, such as firewall and anti-virus software, also installs drivers. If this problem occurred after you installed new software, the software might have installed a driver that caused the problem. If you know the manufacturer of the software, contact the manufacturer's product support service for assistance.
- If you don't know the driver's manufacturer and need help diagnosing and resolving this problem, contact your computer manufacturer's product support service.
- Updated drivers might be available on the Microsoft Windows Update Web site. At Windows Update, you can have your computer scanned and, if there are updated drivers available, Windows Update will offer a selection of drivers that you might be able to use. To learn more about updated drivers that might be available, visit Microsoft Windows Update.
- For information about Microsoft support options, visit Microsoft Product Support Services.
You can track this error report by clicking the Track this error report link. If you choose to track your error report, you will be notified of resolutions to this problem as they are identified.
What arrogance! Microsoft just blames this problem on someone else! And this BSOD situation happened to me before, too. Alright, so it might not be Microsoft who caused the error, but handling this error happened in a very user-unfriendly manner. If only the system would just recover, in stead of rebooting. If only... if only I had installed Linux... I will. Some day.
Another thing: I finally had something to do at work, but I can hardly get motivated because of getting used to doing nothing. Anyway. It's about converting data from a dBASE table to a Microsoft Access database. This in itself isn't hard, but it's checking the values that have to be overwritten, and whether a new record has to be added or an existing one updated, or... et cetera. Oh well, only a few more months, yay. I promised that I'd give you some info about moving, but that'll have to wait. Oh yeah, we're probably going into the new house on June 1, to do stuff. Painting walls, placing the kitchen, you know it. I already have an exciting colour scheme in my head for my room, but I'll leave you in the dark about that, for now.
Haggis // 3:51 PM

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Tuesday, May 06, 2003:

For want of anything better to do, I'll dedicate my blog to the difficulties of moving to another house for a while. Yes, I am. Not very far away though, as you can see here. I hope it will be a fun ride, and interesting for you. The reason I'm doing this is because most of my time will go into it, and I can't really be bothered with anything else for a while. I can't promise it will be a day-to-day account (or weekly even), but I'll try to update it once in a while. Who knows, maybe a non-moving post will sneak in eventually. Oh yeah, and thanks for being with me during this exciting period in my life.
Haggis // 4:01 AM

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Friday, May 02, 2003:

Things suck at your company? See if they're any better somewhere else. Things don't suck for you? See if you're up there with the best. The thing is, I was never really interested in business news and that sort of thing. But my education is coming closer and closer, it's coming to get me within this year. And in the translating business, you normally work for yourself. So it'll be like... five years or so (?) when I'll have to start worrying about raising my own money. I'm thinking of also creating free software, because coding is in your blood and never lets you go. But first, I'll have to deal with my own translation office, and I'm already looking around for information on running a business, although I'm not likely to hire another employee. =P And what the hack (er... heck), I'm still young, so I really shouldn't worry too much about all this. Just a little though. Thus the link.
Haggis // 6:33 AM

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"Tachtig meter viel ik diep, mijn hart stond stil, maar mijn Pontiac liep." Dutch readers (if you don't speak Dutch, just ignore it) will probably get that I'm hinting at Wim van Est here, who died yesterday. It's really a shame that such a great cyclist didn't live to see the next, 100th edition of the Tour de France. I'm already getting excited about it, with the mountain stages as a highlight, of course. I was going to say something else, but I forgot. See y'all later.
Haggis // 12:07 AM

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Thursday, May 01, 2003:

Just when I thought I'd run out of ways to express my love for all things Google, I discovered the Google Store. Oh, and did I tell you I love Google?
Haggis // 5:12 AM

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I've added a Google search box to my blog (thank you, Google!). Scroll all the way down and try it. Seriously.
Haggis // 12:24 AM

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