Internet Apartheid

Continuing with an old rant.

I was installing a new computer at work. VISTA operating system.

Note: If you are a VISTA user, please turn off your computer, go to a Mac store and buy a Mac. You are a Mac user, not a PC user.

I have been using PC since MS-DOS 3.36. I have used to have every command in English. I think I had Finnish F-Prot back in the day, but otherwise I have used to have all the applications in English. One language in one computer. I like to have it neat. I have if my right-click menu (the shell commands) are in n+1 different languages.

99% of all programs are first in English and then translated into local languages. All updates come first in English, then in other languages. Therefore it is also more handy to have all the applications in English.

Today, with beautiful Internet Exploiter 7 I tried to download FireFox, update drivers and such. Of course our Führers of the internet have decided for me that I speak fluently the language of the country I happen to be currently.

It was impossible to have Live Messenger in English from MicroSoft webpage. It was difficult to find English FireFox from Mozilla site. It is virtually impossible to have English in any huge company's webpages. They think for you and rule that you need to be fluent in the language of the country you are currently in.

What if I visit China and need to reinstall my FireFox? I do not even recognize the letters, little alone find where to change the language, since there is no link saying "English".

All the big companies limit your internet experience to the country you are currently visiting thus creating a new form of apartheid.

International pages are verboten. Everyone should stay in their own countries. No travelling allowed before we have one-world language.

Look at your application window. What is the link/menu on the top right-hand side? Correct, it is Help. How is it impossible for these people to have a simple link "English" on the top right-hand corner of their webpages - right next to the search field?

Since English is the major language in IT business, there should be an option to see the page in that language. At least that way the person who does not speak any of the pre-decided languages well, that person can at least stagger towards his/her own native language.

I can hardly wait to install FireFox and NoScript. At least that way some of the less-sophisticated pages get fooled and show the page in default language (English). But the more sophisticated pages, MicroSoft webpages in the lead, decide the language according to ISP, methinks. Not according to my preferences.

Oh yes, Google has some sort of simple single-search option to change the language to English. It just every now and then decides that hey, you should search pages only from local Google, not the international Google. What if I want to have as wide search results as possible? Can I please search webpages outside the Netherlands?

Google.nl and Google.com do return different results.

And no, I do not want to buy that Dutch product you are offering me.

Google Fisting Japan

Checking something from Google maps. But hey, what's that? ...Do I see correctly? It even has the thumbnail a tad North from Palau! Go check it out.

Greetings from Africa

A friend of mine, Mr. Y went to East-Africa. He brought some souveniers from there:

After applying some vaseline, that little bulge opened up and this one came out:
Tumby fly larvae is apparently not a myth, but actually real. And it left a nasty hole:
A picture of another larva, this one is a big one:

A family portrait:
If you go to Africa, remember vaseline.

Pictures by Mr. J. All rights reserved.

Where's My CDs?!

XPSP3 stable version is out. Decided to download and install it. Then I though, why not integrating the SP3 with my XP CD with no SP.

...copied XP CD to HDD. Fine.
...extracted the files from the SP3 .exe file. Fine.
...extracted the boot image from the CD. Fine.
...slipstreamed the SP3 to the XP files. Fine.
...created an ISO file of the package. Fine.
...opened CD burning software and chose to burn the image. GODDAMN! ¤*&#§¤%€#! I'm outta CDs!

I'm even out of DVDs. Haven't burned a CD in couple of years. I guess it's time to go to a CD-r shop.

Why does it have to rain today?

Rains. On a day when I would have nothing else to do, except to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. Figures.

I guess I'll order in. Cannelloni e birra. And watch the Godfather.

What a Waste of Bomb Threath

Today I finished my work and was planning to take the train, go near Amsterdam Arena and go to see Indy4 (No, not the Fate of Atlantis, but the movie. Crystal skull thingie... I guess there's 13 of them. Ssssh... don't tell me anything about it. Don't want to know before I see it.) Of course the train was late. So was the next one. And one train had stopped right after the station. Something was wrong.

Then I heard there was a bomb threat at Central Station of Amsterdam. I got all exited. To the city centre it is! Panic, chaos and most likely a false alarm! And I had my camera! (Plus, if something would happen, I know first aid. And as a medic in the army we kinda learned how to quickly temporary fix big holes in people.) But how to get there? Bus to Schiphol? Naw, too full and how to get to centre from there?

Finally, after 30mins of waiting, got to train that goes to Amsterdam Zuid, where I was not going. But good enough. Can switch to metro and then to tram and go to city centre. And to Central Station. My ticket wasn't towards there, but that was the only train that wasn't gonna go through city centre, thus it was moving. Got off at Zuid.

But the Dutch are sometimes so Dutch that I have hard time describing how Dutch they are. Of course there was absolutely no information why the trains were not going. But that's normal. If a train is 20 minutes late and another train comes, it is usual not to inform about it and daily there are people in wrong trains. This time it was even more Dutch than that.

Got off from the train, and of course they had put ticket check on the station. Three passages, two guys in each passage, except one of them had only one guy. I though I just explain to the guy that the trains were not going so I took a wrong train. As I was going, the guy in front of me had the same story. Boy that ticket inspector had a devilish smile when he started to ask the guy's ID. But, just the right moment for me to just wave the ticket of mine and pass. The guy was so concentrated on ... ehm ... making the other guy bend over and giving it to him unlubricated that he didn't pay any attention.

I thought that was a bit odd. Considering all trains were on halt because of a bomb threat. But I still paid my metro ticket and was going to the stop. Of course there was the metro company's inspectors! Are you friggin' kidding me? During a friggin' bomb threat they make sure no-one explodes without a proper ticket! Lucky me, I got the ticket.

I saw police officers on the pier where I was waiting, so I asked them what was going on.
- A delay, but it's over.
- Yeah, but what's the reason.
- Just a delay.
- Ok, I heard a rumour that there was a bomb threat.
- Oh, that one... yeah, just a small luggage that was left unattended but it is gone now.

Yeah, thanks for informing the public. Especially if it was a false alarm, and I would read it from tomorrow's paper anyways. I guess you can't trust anyone who's title starts with "Poli". Got to my metro, and surprise, surprise! Ticket inspectors came from the next stop! To a packed metro! Do they enjoy pain? Just what I need when I am crammed into a sardine-tin and have some lady's elbow, size of a Christmas ham, in my mouth.

And all of this because some tourist forgot his luggage on the friggin' pier when he jumped to train to Schiphol. And so very Dutch, who think they are a world-wide power, to think that someone really would like to bomb Central Station. Who? Terrorists? They friggin' live in Amsterdam and their families need the train to go to work! And what kind of message would that be? Dutch soldiers in Middle-East, so we kill a lot of tourists and our own people? Get serious.

Den Haag would be more suitable target anyways for political attack. It's not like there is any separatist movement in the Netherlands to whom an attack on civilians would be of any help.

So:
* Was late coming from work. (But that's more of a rule anyways with NS.)
* No info why the trains were late. (That is their code-of-silence at NS, so it's normal also.)
* Three friggin' times I was checked for the ticket during a friggin' bomb threat.
* And there wasn't even a bomb, but Dutch egoism since they can't see they are not as big and bad as some other countries who are the invading hordes in the Middle-East.

Plus it feels like thunder is coming, so it's moist, hot, pressurised and sweaty.

But I guess it was a good thing the threat was a false alarm and no-one was hurt. I still wanted those pictures.

7 Deadly Sins, Part 1: Pride

I feel proud. One of my photographs was selected as the Reader's Photograph of the Week.


Already a second time in a short while when my photograph has been in a newspaper.

One down, six to go.

Life Is Winning!

It's noon. And I can already think! Might be that my first day at the new job is not going to be a sick day! Yay!

I think I need to stay low today. Still got sour throat (maybe there's a frog inside?) and a head full of fluff. Otherwise I start to be ok.

I have slept most of past 3-4 days now, so it would be worrying if I wouldn't be feeling better.

Just reading my friend's blogs, and noticed the huge winds here have a name. The storm "Emma" is wiping Europe.

Very good name for the storm. Since the real Emma I know reminds me of Neil Young's lyrics...

"You are like a hurricane. There's calm in your eyes. And I'm getting blown away."

Great Way To Finish My Employment

My second last day in this company. Off to newer and better opportunities. Starting in a new company on monday. (Could've kept a holiday, though...)

So now I need to clean my desk, move personal files away from computer, delete work-related... Can't be off, no matter what.

And yesterday evening got a friggin' fever. No voice coming out and head is like a huge cotton ball. It's nice that our "airco" is not really airco. It just rotates the air inside the company. There's been so many people sick in our company lately that I'm sure it's just some rotated bacteria or something. Nice.

It came in couple of hours. 8PM I was fine, 10PM I was in fever. Weird thing.

And my head is full of fluff.

Nightshift

It's 2AM and I'm half way in my work this shift...

Perhaps I'll finish before 5.

Be home before 7.

Then sleeeeeeep.

Update at 4:09. It looks like we're finished with our work before 5!

Getting Addicted To A Website

I mentioned recently I opened a Facebook account. Some of my friends spend way too much time in there. And they started nicely. They added an application, then another one. Then spending most of the time updating it.

Nope. I have no problem with that site. Never gonna add any applications. Checking if there's any news from friends every now and then. (Which reminds me, maybe I have to remember to check it before friday, if there would be a party or something.)

I also mentioned earlier I opened a Flickr account recently. That is getting out of hand. My beer intake is suffering, since the beer I opened yesterday is still almost untouched on my table. I need to cough more, since my lungs are healing as I don't smoke that many cigarettes when looking at the pics there. My legs are hurting because I'm walking a kilometre after a kilometre with my camera.

Damn you Flickr! I want my vices back!

Fear Of Fellow Men

I was having a walk around a lake yesterday. I saw two small islands, and decided to visit them. As a Finnish person I'm used to freedom, which is difficult to understand in modern western society. As many countries advertize themselves as "the land of the free" although they are anything but, we have to redefine freedom, or invent a new word that has the same meaning as the old word, "freedom".

Without giving it much thought, I started to walk straight forward to the shore and after few trees and bushes I bumped into a fence. With barbed-wire on top. Ok... I go around it. After 300 metres, there was a prison complex. They don't call it a prison complex, but a combined gym and swimming hall. People pay for someone to imprison themselves in a small room where they walk in this device without moving at the same time when I walk around the prison complex completely free, and can enjoy the little nature Amsterdam can offer. Same physical effect, but mental effect... that's different.

I went past the prison, following the barbed-wire fence. Saw a double-fenced area for children. The bastards should be locked in, I guess.

After a long walk I managed to get to the end of the fence. And saw a small plank, about 150 metres long, going to the nearest island. And the fence was going through the water to the island. From the prison complex's yard there was a bridge going to the island, I saw. Although it had a gate at both ends. Walking the plank wouldn't be smart either. Not only because I could fall into the water, but the fence also blocked the way.

I came to thinking. What are these people afraid of? That I break in to the gym from the back door and use their facilities for free? If I could walk the plank, swim around the fence, hike through the island, climb over the barbed-wire, swim to the shore and break in, would I really need the gym or the swimming hall?

Why was the water fenced? Do they think I'm gonna nick the water? And why the planks were placed that far away? So that I cannot take a boat, load in a propane tank, go next to the metal fence and cut through the steel pipes just to get to a gym?

Why all the security? Why the fences? These people are not going to use the acres and acres of land anyways. They prefer to imprison themselves into small rooms, instead of any resemblance of nature. The gym doesn't need all that space.

I'm sure these people feel safe only when they go from the gym to their anti-theft cars, drive home to their prison, close the steel vault-door behind them, go to their sleeping chamber, lock all the five locks and barricades the chamber door.

The lack of nature makes Dutch fear anything natural. Shallow country makes what kind of people?

Somebody Put This Guy To School!

I was having a walk yesterday evening with a friend of mine. I don't have a watch, and my mobile phone is configured that I have easy time to put my alarm and I still make it to work, but it's nowhere close to the correct time. He got a bit hungry, so I suggested these filled sandwitches. But the shop closes at 20:00. We were late. Of course. For couple of hours, in fact. In front of that kiosk was Ali and Silent-Ahmed leaning to the wall. (Names invented.)
Silent-Ahmed stayed leaning to the wall silently, but Ali jumped forward and started to push drugs. "Coke, coke... Good quality. Some coke?"

I said naw, me no use drugs. "You can test. Look, good quality." He started to push the bag with some white stuff inside into my face. No man, I don't do any chemicals. Get away. "You can test. Look look." He started to bite open the bag.

Damn. Somebody get this guy to school. He was a teenager. He shouldn't be pushing drugs on the streets in nights. And waving bags of drugs openly on the street is not smart anyways. I'm a total stranger. How did he know I wasn't an undercover cop?

Where are this guy's parents? Do they know what this guy does in the nights? Do they care? Why isn't he doing his homework?

...Ach... This morning they had the ticket inspectors at Metro and of course I had to search for my ticket and missed my metro because of that. Mass transit should be free anyways, and higher tax on people who own a car within city limits. And now my snuss is leaking.

At least I got couple of nice pics in the morning.

Lego In Amsterdam

I saw this loading zone being built for a month. When they finished it, they filled it with Lego bricks. I don't get it. They are not there for weight since they don't cover the whole are, but only to stop from entering the loading zone. Why is that? Perhaps they need to work on it some more? Weird.

Stop Playing With Computers And Read!

I've been way too lazy reader lately. Have to make a mental note:
1a: Turn the computer off every now and then before midnight.
1b: Read your books. They won't bite. As a matter of fact, they are missing you.

I don't know wether it is a good or bad thing, but instead of turning my computer off, I made a desktop background image to remind me. In the style of Despair, Inc. At least this way I'll remember there's a bookshelf as well.

Got Lost On My Way Home

My small pocket camera and me were going home. But I took the wrong ferry to round Ring A10 in Amsterdam and ended up at the rings of Saturn instead.

Here's the pictures.

Joking with Ronsu about these pics:
Me: It's easy to find adventures in your neighbourhood if you just have a good imagination.
Ronsu: Yeah, just like friends, too.

Some Sort Of Carrot-Casserole And Sauce

We didn't have any potatoes. But we had carrots. How to replace potato with carrots?

Carrot-Casserole

Something from carrots... I know! In Christmas we eat carrot-casserole. Why not making mashed-potatoes meets carrot-casserole thingie?

Ok, something like ... couple of carrots less than a kilo? Some broccoli, the rest from the fridge. Steam them. Use about 6-7dl of water. Add some dill. When the carrots are soft, mash them. Use the water to boil about a cup of rice. Boil until the water is gone. Mash the rice, too. Add about half a litre of milk and couple of eggs. 4 gloves of garlic, spices, like white pepper and basil and such. When it's a mush, add in buttered (oiled if you're vegetarian - milk replacement comes later - and instead of eggs, I guess some corn flour works?) oven tray and in ... somewhere between 150 and 200 decrees of Celsius in the oven, until the milk has been absorbed. About an hour I'd say.

Sauce

Big onion. Chop, fry. Add about half a kilo of minced beef. (Potato and/or swede or broccoli or whichever hard veggie you wish can replace meat for veggie stuff. Consistency should be quite hard, though - so no boiling the broccoli too much, you hear?) Spice it up. Pepper mix, white pepper, paprika powder, cinnamon, parsley, chives... what have you. Cinnamon is one of the key ingredients. Add some of that. When it's fried, put it aside. Add butter (or oil if you are vegetarian.) and flour. Do not clean the pan in the mean time. We want all that flavour. When the flour is brown, add water.

Take a sip of beer, and pour some beer in. Chop the rest of your yellow, red and green paprika you find in the fridge in the mix. The couple of red chilies you have left, chopped in to the pot. And about 4-5 gloves of garlic. A tomato pyre can in. Oh, we just used the last of the milk and we have no cream... Hm. Oh, some coconut milk that my housemate didn't use when he made curry yesterday. Let's use that. I guess this goes quite well in the casserole, too, if you don't want to use milk.

A splash of beer, some more spices and a tiny bit more of cinnamon (but don't over-do it), and that's it. Food is ready.

Wow?! That was actually quite good! Have to do this again some time.

Crosses

I went to take the trash out last night and noticed I got stuck in a comic book.
I took a picture of it:

I think it's time to open a Flickr account.

In the morning when I came home, I noticed Ronsu / Ephelant was still doing the same song:

Ronsu Was Doing Music (Again)

My housemate Ronsu was doing some music - again. Too concentrated to even notice I took a picture of him.

Thank You Afrika!

I made some African-style food today.

Sweet potato, fried green banana, rice, white fish and tomato-chili sauce.

Fish:
Chop a handful of red chili in tiny pieces. (I removed the seed, as they are bitter.)
Add a lot of Blair's After Death sauce. (To get the hotness you miss when you remove the seed.)
Soak the fish in it and let it stay a while.
Fry it last.

Leave fish out for vegan food. Works brilliantly without.

Tomato sauce:
Handful of red chili. Without seed.
Add Blair's Possible Side Effects. Just few drops. (I used only 4-5 drops.)
Backbag full of tomato. Peeled.
I cheated. I used also a bit of tomato pyre.
Had some paprika in the fridge. Threw that in, too.
Spices. (Pepper mix, garam masala -the Indian stuff, kurkuma, cinnamon, stuff like that.)
4 gloves of garlic. This one is not that garlicky.
Flour.

Boil until it's sauce.

Green banana is just fried in oil. Sweet potato and rice are boiled. (I steamed the potato.)


And you eat it with your hand. Make a cup with your fingers and use the thumb to make the food in a ball-kinda-form.

Echt lekker!