Kimputer's Weblog

I need money. Lots of it. And all that, just to make even more money. Here are a few ideas:
– Find a bunch of free (open source) software, throw them together, make a nice setup tool, use some YA.. abbreviation (Yet Another .. ..), throw in your logo in a few login and window managers, and pray it works. If it does, in just over 10 years, you’ll be rich !! First you distribute it for free, and when it starts to get good, you sell out on your trusty followers. (SUSE Linux (created somewhere in the early nineties) became Novell’s property for just $210 million)
– Developing a mega successful sit-com. In 10 years, it will blow up so big, a 30 sec ad will take in $2 million (currently for a spot during the series finale (after 10 seasons) of Friends).
– Finding an old genius schoolfriend, suck up to him, let him build a fast minimalistic search engine, give it a flashy name, and it less than 10 years, head to Wallstreet to earn a whopping $4 billion. (Google from 1995 on till its IPO announcement last year)

or…noodles.

Yupz, some 200,000 noodle (or ramen, as it’s originally called) shops in Japan are currently good for $6.36 billion annually. And it’s rising even higher, as the current trend actually makes it chic to eat noodle (from the plain 3 standard flavored shops for construction workers and broke students, to the special flavored kind made by celebrity cooks in stylishly decorated shops, where prices start from $8 a bowl, targeting the richer audience)
So all I need is enough cash to start some noodle shops here and head for a monopoly, and then some more cash to stay ahead so I can continue the monopoly. Anyone want to invest with me ?

Rate 1 (sucks) to 5 (cool). Only rate the latest pictures, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 507 out of 154 votes > Average is: 3.292

For all you unbelievers, here’s the invoice.

Denzel’s star power is still growing, opening nr. 1 with Man of Fire. With $23 million his best opening yet (just $0.5 million more than Training Day). Second place was for Jennifer Garner starrer 13 Going on 30, with $22 million.
A steep decline for nr. 3, Kill Bill Vol. 2 takes in another $10.4 million. An even steeper decline is The Punisher with $6.1 million on number 4.

I never quite liked her style. From the first hits on till the last few. There seemed to be some degree of improvement in the last two songs though, so I thought it might be time to try a whole album of her. A powerful voice notwithstanding, I still can’t bear to listen to a whole album of her songs, so it seems. Even the most catchy one, Left Outside Alone, has a chorus that sounds like an unfinished bridge. There are a few more up-tempo songs to be found, but it’s all too damn generic and simplistic. The slow ones don’t even register with me, sounding like a 72 rpm vinyl LP on a 33 rpm turntable. But that’s what you get with a powerful contrived voice, you’d better not go ballad. I can predict fans will like this album. But for me, I’ll let this cup of tea be, and take a coffee instead.5.

So, here I am, deciding on a Saturday afternoon it’s time to update the firmware of my ADSL modem. Lord knows how stupid that is, especially with no backup in place, AND no replacement within reach for a few days.
*Beeeep* *beeeep* *beeep* *beep* *beepbeepbeep*
My name is Jack Bauer, this is the longest day of my life…
Naah, just kidding, I’m still alive (besides the vomiting, shaking hands and other minor withdrawal symptoms), had a few downloaded TV episodes and a few unwatched DVD’s lying around. So the lesson the be learned ? Always buy more DVD’s than you can watch.

Rate 1 (FR#^&% MESS !) to 5 (how very tidy !). Only rate the latest picture, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Still the same:
Total: 1029 out of 298 votes > Average is: 3.453

No no, I haven’t turned into a lonely alcoholic (well, I have, but I’m not admitting it). Those aren’t powershots you’re seeing. Those are the chocolaty kind. And if someone decides to drop them on my table, who am I to turn it down, and not get drunk ?

It had potential to be a special indepth psychological thriller. It had the birth of a serial killer, and later on an FBI profiler (a very cliche character played by Angelina Jolie). My own profiling session however, showed the characters were quite shallow, and the story nothing more than a few copies & pastes from other movies. From the beginning you can feel the movie losing integrity for the sake of the pace of the story. On top of that, I already knew who did it and the plan of the killer before the movie had a good start. Inconsistencies throughout the movie finally killed my hopes of this movie reaching a satisfying end. The suspense of waiting for a thriller reaching the quality of Se7en is probably the most exciting part for the next couple of years.6-.

UK researchers have completed another ground breaking research project. This time it’s about the annoyance of mobile phone conversations. Money well spent !
So, to maximise the efficiency of that money, we might as well discuss this matter. The outcome is quite surprising I might add. Is it the volume ? Is it the accent ? Is it the subject ? No, probably it’s because we (human beings) are too damn curious. A variety of discussions performed in front of people (mixing volume, subject, between real people and mobile phones), whom later rated the conversation, revealed the mobile phone conversations were most noticable and annoying. Not the loud ones between two persons.

So the question is, are you annoyed by mobile phone conversation ?

I don’t have to answer that, because with my ear-in headphones plugged into my mp3 player, you’d have to be really YELLING 50+dB BEFORE I COULD BE DISTURBED OR ANNOYED.

Oh, one extra question for the females, honestly, are you the sole half of the human race causing this annoyance ? Honestly ?

Rate 1 (sucks) to 5 (cool). Only rate the latest pictures, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 497 out of 152 votes > Average is: 3.270

Those are some pretty darn big flies you’re seeing. Some 3 cm in length, they go off and on, carrying small things, like a bird builds its nest. Maybe they’ll eat through the roof and attack me. Scary.

Controversy galore. UK’s Channel 4 aired a documentary last night called My Foetus, about a woman having an abortion, including very graphic images and footage of the whole procedure.
The two sides are obvious. The contra side says don’t give people any ideas, leave it be, taboohoo. The pro side says better education to prevent it.
Me, as a (failed) scientist at heart, would lean more towards the latter option. What about you ? Or wouldn’t you have watched it in the first place ?

Anyone care to venture a guess how much money I would earn if I were to go public that I’ve had sex with David Beckham recently ? More or less than the 1.sumthing million Rebecca Loos earned ?

So, my ADSL modem is havin’ hickups. For today, that means almost a whole day where my server is not reachable from anywhere except home. More detailed it means:
– Webserver down. My weblog can’t be read, a lot of laughs are lost to, well, uhmm… paradox. Never mind.
– Sites I host for other people are down. They don’t pay anyways, I don’t really care.
– Statistics I keep for some people are not recorded.
– Terminal Server down, can’t play around on my own server. No such things as downloading stuff that will be ready when I get home. No irc, no logs.
– Mail server down. Serves as both backup for other email addresses, as well as direct incoming ones. Bandwidth friendly IMAP or webbased, straight to my work.
– Backup line, unfirewalled, as double check on internet matter like DNS and availibility, checking VPN’s and such. This is actually work related.

So, all day, I practically did nothing at work. Don’t you just love the times we live in ?

Revenge at the box office, with Kill Bill: Vol 2 taking the lead, earning a vengeful $25.6 million, up from the original’s $22.1 million. Runner-up is Marvel Comic’s The Punisher, with $14 million. Johnson Family Vacation stays happily at number 3 with $6.4 million. Hellboy drops to number 4 with Hellboy $5.7 million in its third weekend.

It had a pretty adventurous trailer, but that’s all it is. Nothing more to be found in the movie. No drama, no comedy, not even a tiny bit of romance. There is some action, but as an adventure, it’s pretty tame. The so-called hero character (Viggo Mortensen) isn’t interesting at all, and you don’t really care for the horse anyways. The story isn’t that much either. There’s not much more to do than stare ahead and let the dullness engulf you.5+.

Watch out, it’s not just the RIAA hunting you down. It’s also the artists themselves. A guy was already selling the yet to be released new album (Wilderness) of Sophie B Hawkins on eBay. Best known for her hit Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover, Sophie sued the man, and won. The judge awarded her with, and hold your pants now … $346.
Lesson to be learned ? Don’t be stupid, don’t sell’m on eBay !