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The cloud, much can be said about it, and much has. Privacy issues, lock in, integrity, whatever. The only thing I know, is that it is freaking awesome! Reason I think so, is something happened today. My pc @ work broke down… Hardware failure, can happen… So, took another pc from the stock, powered it up a bit, you know, extra ram, better video, installed ubuntu, installed dropbox, et voila, back to work!

Ok, not exactly that fast, because I had to install several other programs, fix my ssh keys and setup a static ip, and wait a pretty long time to get all data synced back, but that was about it. Up and running again! I have my mail at google, data at dropbox and notes at evernote. Sadly enough I also have to use m$ stuff to develop on, but ey, got that on a virtual machine running somewhere on the network. And yes, got a dropbox installed there too, so no worries.

So, cloud? Yes please! I know, you gotta take some precautions, because you never know if one of those services will go down or just quits. That is why I like dropbox: I have local copies of all my files! And not just at work, but at all my machines! Mail is backed up trough a machine that does nothing but popping it, so nothing can get lost.

And if you have really, really private files, like some sex tape or whatever, yeah, do NOT put that one in the cloud. But I think that is pretty obvious, right?

Yeah, since I want to make way more use of this blog then I’ve been doing the first half of this year, I changed the theme for one that is a bit more suitable for it now. Yeah, it’s a default theme, but ey, it looks good! Well, that is what I think anyways…

As I mentioned earlier, I want to make this a bit more tumblr style. With some longer posts, some smaller posts, pics and general ramblings. I have no idea if anybody actually reads this stuff anyway, but if you do, please inform me about what you think of this changes…

Yes, finally man, got a new phone! Nope, no iphone, nor an android based device. Got me a nokia n900. Why? Because it’s hella-awesome! Maemo os just rocks! And no vendor lock in! Oh, and REALLY open source! Been playing with it for a few hours now and gotta say: awesomeness man! Writimg this on the device as well. It’s got a qwerty keyboard, which is very convenient to use. And the multitasking is supersweet! Really loving it!

I’ve always liked Nokia actually. Yeah, I know, symbian got a little oldskool. But on the other end, I’ve been able to do everything with it for years. So, a Nokia again. My fingers are staring to hurt from playing with this device for a few hours, so going to make this post a short one… Gotta to give the fingers some rest here!

I’m in the works of changing this blog a bit. I think it should become more of a lifeblog, sort of tumblr style. Why? Because I post too little man… That is due to the use of facebook and twitter I guess. I ramble there all day already, so the urge to post stuff here has downgraded a bit. Anyway, hooked up pixelpipe, so my pictures will be post here too. That does make it a little more lively, instead of weeks and weeks of no action…

Anyway, more changes will follow, as soon as I can find the time to sit my ass down and do some private coding…

Yep, got me a new toy. This one:

Ain’t that sweet? A 27″ Apple Imac i7! Hell yeah! Man, it took a big ass bite out of my savings, but ey, it does look hella nice at my desk! Really happy with this ubertoy! I got it friday and it had me occupied most of the weekend. Still got some exploring to do, but that really ain’t a punishment

Geez, I haven’t been here in months! Kinda sucks that my last update is from early January… Yeah, done loads of stuff in those 4 months! Although I guess nobody has really missed me, because I’ve received exactly zero questions about my absence here… That makes you wonder who the hell you write this stuff for anyways. Not that I really care, I just do for me. So, why this long absence? Beats me man! Just been too damn busy and too overloaded with info/work/cool things I guess.

Anyways, because it seems I cannot find the time to post anything here (which is a load of crap of course. I mean, “cannot find the time”? Please!), I’m going to check if I’ll do better with a client interface. Ey, it does make it easier, because I can start a post in the morning and leave the interface open all day long. This way I can write little pieces during the day and have some nice post by the end of the day. I know, how hard is it to leave some tab open all day and do it there? Well, since I’ve got a shitload of tabs open all day, that is not really working for me. Yeah, I know, I can disconnect a tab from the browser and use that as a client, but I like this just a little bit better.

Man, this is so damn lame! Posting about not posting for a while. Who gives a shit about that? And yes, I’m such a badass, this is NOT the first time I do this… Ah well, we’ll see how it works out. Nobody is reading this anyways.

I started of the year with a citytrip to Paris. It has been 5 years since I was there, when my girl took me for a surprise weekend, because I turned old (30). That was loads of fun! The pictures of that visit are here. The pictures of this little trip will be uploaded soon. Anyways, had a great time there! It was hellacold, but we spend 90% of our time outside anyways. Ey, we ain’t a bunch of wankers, right?

So, what did we do there in Paris? We just wondered around town, checked out the Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomph, Moulin Rouge, Euro Disney, had some drinks and food here and there. All and all really enjoyed ourselves. I’ve uploaded some small impression movies. Just a few, because the cold just drained my batteries like crazy! Here they are:

It really amazes me, how fast a year actually goes by! This is the last day of 2009 man… Time really flies! So, what do you do at the last day of the year? You look back at the previous year. Well, that is what everybody seems to be doing though. Sure, loads of things happened this year, but the really noteworthy have been posted here already, so why repeat those? Another popular thing to do, is looking ahead to the next year. Well… I have no idea what the next year will bring. Sure, do have some things planned, but ey, I cannot look into the future. So, wont do any predictions here neither.

Yeah, I know, it’s boring. All I actually want to do right now, is wishing everybody who actually reads this, an awesome 2010! Hope all your wishes come true and you have a blast! Enjoy new-year’s eve and watch out for teh fireworks!

I find it really intriguing, that the older you get, the more you look like a monkey. Apparently all the hair that disappears at the top of your head, grows back on other places. And not the places you’d like it to grow. The beard gets broader, hair starts to grow on your back and shoulders, your ears get hairy, it grows out of your nose, your eyebrows get huger by the day… Man! It costs a fortune to keep yourself human! I really wonder why it works this way. I mean, what the hell do you need all that body hair for anyway? I’ve got sweaters man! Those will cover me from the cold. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t look like a monkey yet. But it sure as hell is going that way. I’ve got me a tweezerman and waxstrips to keep me monkey-less. But it’s a time consuming job…

This makes me wonder, why all these products are aimed at women. Or do women go monkey as well? I think there is a huge market out there to de-monkey men. Buying de-monkey products is like buying booby magazines. You buy a booby magazine and some used car magazine together, to pretend you need a new car and buy the booby magazine for a “friend”. This happens with the de-monkey products as well. Because they are so feminine, men buy a feminine de-monkey product and rubbers, to pretend the de-monkey product is for their girlfriend. Hmmm, maybe that is why there are no manly de-monkey products! It boosts the sale of rubbers!

It is not something people tend to be talking about easy, the monkey transformation. But it is happening to all of us! Did you notice any really old people lately? They don’t walk around with straight backs, but they are curved. Like a monkey! So my guess is that Darwin was wrong after all: first there was man, then there was monkeys!

Yes, back in town again baby! Back from a week hanging out in Florida. I went there for a Vicidial course. This course was pretty good and it was awesome to see the actual Vicidial building and employees. Really nice and capable people, who taught me quite a bit about the suite. I already knew quite a bit from working with the suite, but it really helps if somebody gives you a bunch of live info. I mean, just reading documents is ok, but nothing beats human interaction. I’m far from a Vicidial master yet, but going to do some really hard work to get up to pace. I have some nifty ideas for some cool features as well. Now all I need is time… :/ Ah well, it will work out! Anyway, if you use Vicidial, I can recommend taking a course with these guys! Not only are they crazy smart, they also know very good spots to have lunch. I know that has nothing to do with learning stuff, just mentioning it…

So, what else did I do there? I started out with not doing that much, because Saint Petersburg appeared to be a bit of a boring town… Almost nobody in the streets and an empty mini-mall. They had a gamestop though, so got me some new games. The prizes are unreal man! I have no idea why we have to pay so much more for a game in Europe. Anyway, did some walking around the town, blistered my feet because of the flip-flops i was wearing and had some nice views. Because it is beautiful there man! The ocean, nice sunny weather, big ass birds. Pretty sweet! I did get me some new open shoes at the mini-mall as well, because those blisters man… they hurt! I lost some blood trough those. Picked up some Birkenstocks to be able to do some more around town walking. I have to say: it can be quite boring, being alone. There were some cool people who worked at the hotel though, who were nice to have some conversations with. And this girl who worked at the restaurant next door, where I had my breakfast every day, was very cool as well. But besides having some nice chats with those people, you are still alone in a big city.

So, that’s when the power of social media kicked in! I’ve did some work/brainstorming for a project a while back, where I met up with a guy, who happened to live at Saint Petersburg! I happened to remember I knew someone there and checked my Brightkite account if I remembered correctly. I did! I found that Matthew was living there. He actually lives 9 blocks from the hotel I was staying at. So, decided to contact him and guess what: had a great time with Matthew and his girlfriend. We started of with a dinner and ended up spending quite some time together. They are awesome people who took a lot of effort to show me around town and did all kinds of cool stuff with me! We visited cool places, did some bike riding, had lunches and dinners, went shopping. They even took me to the airport on my departure day, but not before making me pancakes! It was really awesome and we had a good click together. The meet-up with those guys made my non-course days a lot cooler then if I would have been there all alone. I would probably have been bored and poor, because it was not very easy to get around town without a car. Those distances man! They gave me the all-American experience, by taking me to places I would never have found on my own and telling me about the local food, which I would probably not have ordered if I would have been eating out on my own. So yeah, Brightkite is a very useful product!

So, all and all had a great time at Saint Pete’s. Made some really cool new friends and learned a lot about Vicidial. What more can you wish for, right? And yes, I took pictures, but haven’t had the time nor the energy to put those up yet. After a 16-17 hour journey including transfer time and a jet-lag I have not done anything with them. Yet! Will put them up as soon as I feel like it though. This week will be a bit of a tough one for me, with the jet-lag and all. Hope it will not take more then a day or 3 to get over it. Ah hell, jet-lags are worth it man, just had an awesome time!