Beatboxers ... some of 'm are awesome

Chrome 2

OK, the bookmarks remark was stupid because not true but I'm still not really convinced. I don't imagine myself switching like I did with FF. I hardly use IE anymore. Good marketing though ... Google rulez the world, time we start treating them as harshly as we did Microsoft because this is worse. Not monopolizing but being Big Brother. Who needs that?

Chroming the web away

Nothing but great comments and reviews so far on the beta version of Chrome. I'm not (yet) convinced, there is some annoyance due to the fact that Chrome imports only IE bookmarks in its tabs (while I use FF) and that it takes a lot of effort to try and remember all these different log-ins I have that I now need to refill in. But let's give it some time ... 

Snow White's mirror says ...

I'm not sure this is such a good idea. In principle, yes. Upload an image of yourself and get advice from well-meaning, impartial surfers who will comment on your appearance ... the idea was probably generated in a male set of brains. Logical. Rational. But isn't the web the place where people prefer bashing others? And according to folk lore, women are not really inclined to say something positive about their sisters (not that I know such women, but àla). Great idea with lots of but's.

Always respect your pc

Variation on the theme of biting laptops and other agressive computers ...

Olympic Frenzy

Listening to Olympic reporting on the radio is something completely different than watching the telly the whole day. Whether it is the hair raising finish between the French and the Americans 4x100 freestyle swimmmers with a O,O8 seconds difference for the winning Americans or Van Tichelt who very closely misses his fights and with it the first Belgian olympic medal. Difficult to keep my mind focussed when that happens.

More blogging hygiene needed

... how do some of us do it? Discipline, focus, never experiencing that the day has ended and gone by without a posting ... Should make that an integral part of a lunchbreak but I don't really have lunch breaks. Something to think about ;-)

With thanks to adrants and their article on Budweiser Beer Girls becoming Belgian Beer Girls.

yassas to you all

yes, back in the chaingang, after 2 weeks of heavenly Afissos. 35° in the shade, 24° in the water, great food, nice people, old house, great view, .... and a long-time-no-see getting back together with friends living in nearby Volos. It should have been 3 weeks instead of 2. Or 4. Or 5. Or why don't we emigrate? I can work from there as good as from here! Sounds like a plan!

hot hotter hottest

Why am I always checking out Volos, the City of the Argonauts, when it is nearby Afissos where we will be staying? 37° this weekend ... let's prepare for a hot summer :-) ... and luckiliy the 200 year stone house we rented has airco. We'll be leaving an ecological foofprint large as hell but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!

e-waste indeed

Research by Gartner shows that the number of computers in use around our globe has surpassed the legendary mark of 1 billion. So yes, that means in a world where 2.7 billion people live on less than $2 a day, there’s a computer for every six persons. Moreover, thanks to growth in emerging markets, the number of pc’s will probably have been doubled in 2014. As a result from these growing markets, more mature markets will then only count for about 30 percent of the next billion computers. Now that percentage is 58 percent.

When I read these first lines of the Reuters report, I immediately thought of e-waste. When I worked for a press agency in the United Nations headquarters last year, I covered this important issue. With the ever growing amount of mobile phones, iPods (see the Greenpeace manifest), flat screens, and … computers, the world slowly becomes one big dump place for electronic waste.

Something to think about
for full article, read this

yes, still alive

... but having too much work and spending too much time on Facebook. Holidays are very close now and by the time I get back, almost everybody else will be leaving - I'm taking off in what is normally considered a not-done-period. But when I get back, pressure will really be on, as my project will actually have started! Meanwhile I will be spending 2 glorious weeks in this house, near my old and dear friend Frieda who lives in Volos and has no plans on ever coming back :-). Don't be scared off by the Volos site, it is touchingly insufficient in ways to be expected.

Obama soundtrack

These things .... depress me

Thanks to Springwise -again- I stumbled on this site, 'A fully customized calendar planning service that will simplify your life while adding a ton of fun to your child’s day'. For an annual membership of USD 499, BusyBeesNYC will create a schedule of classes and activities for a family's children that combines free, paid, scheduled, drop-in and sometimes lesser-known events while accommodating the kids' eating and sleeping routines. Thank God for that! Dzjeeses.

seems a no-brainer but why isn't everyone doing this?

What do you do with a mobile phone when you have no electricity? Not much. In Uganda, a country with almost no electricity resources available, Motorola is installing solar powered recharging stations for mobile phones. The service is, of course, free. The solar sations are manned by local, entrepreneurial, women. Now where is the catch? These women also sell (Motorola) handsets, sim-cards etc ... Actually I wouldn't call that a catch: you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours and in the end these women create the foundations to start a sustainable business and gain their independence. Check it all out on Springwise.

Yess! I have an e-ID

Weird. Got my e-ID card almost 3 years ago and never ever had a use for it: no-one ever asked me for it, I never got around to getting a reader and I never really thought much about other applications besides tax on web ... but now I do have a reader and I found out about a website detailing e-ID usage and applications in every Belgian city. Cool :-)

Smart domains

Almost one month since last posting. Stuff has been happening, most important of which was changing jobs. Let's pick up this habbit again.

Starting with an amazing exercise in finding a number of domains for a big e-gov project. All the relevant ones (ok, the boring ones actually, the ones you'd expect because they say exactly what they mean) ... have been taken!

You'd expect government services to claim as much domains they need, the ones they might use, the ones you'll never use but you don't want them used by others and the ones with a certain appeal or potential? In my former company we had over 200 domains, a lot of which we'd probably never activate but didn't want to see appear with the competition ... Maybe I should refer again to Hawaiian terms, like Wiki and Mana'o!

Eat This / Bis

(she probably is just a Telenet customer .. but even then: well done)

1207: Eat This!

Some mails supporting good causes are really worth sending on ... but even then one still feels ... imposing on others. At least I do. Till last week, when i got one saying you should surf to 1207.be and indicate you don't want to receive either White nor Yellow Pages in paper anymore.

Sounds logical? Remember your street last time your joint telecom operators dropped tons of paper on all doorsteps, most of it being dropped in the waste basket immediately .. because we all surf, don't we?

Well, this mail, sent to me by an old friend, says exactly that: if we all cancel our print editions, we could save 5000 tons of paper on a yearly basis. That's a lot of trees. I support the cause fully. Surf to 1207.be and take action! The funt thing is: the mail was sent out by a .... Telenet employee. Combining good causes and interfering with your competition: well done girl!

Oh: if you don't want to go searching for it: just opt out here!

Confusing

Is this a good or a bad thing for mother nature? It certainly looks nice! And it probably weighs a lot ...

Dzjeezes .... ZD to close down PRINT?

Things haven't been looking too bright these last months for wellknown publisher Ziff Davies but apparantly the Chapter 11 filings mention "Projections for 2009 and 2010 do not include print revenue or costs. The Company and its advisors are currently exploring all options and alternatives regarding the print operations" according to PaidContent.org's Rafat Ali newsletter. Who would have suggested such a scenario a couple of years ago, when ZD was thé leading PCMag publisher? Getting rid of print? Not as much due to the internet but to the recession over there ... European publishers, beware when this blows across the atlantic.

No coloured rabbits in foam city ...