View on a disturbed Mindscape...

A new blog started

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:20:48 GMT

Yes yes, I am terrible at sticking with one blog.

This time I have decided to basically run my own blog. This way I hope to have more control over the design and such. Also, I hope this blog will perform a bit better.

The blog is located at http://www.greftek.net/blog (or you go to http://blog.greftek.net/ and it will take you there as well)

Go there, and tell me what you think of it. :)

Planning ahead

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:32:44 GMT

This night I was engaged in a discussion on the general discussions forum on the gaming community boards I run. This discussion and prior observations tickled my curiosity to the question in how far these kids really think in terms of building a future for themselves.

I've started a discussion on the boards, which I hope to get some response out of. I think it's an interesting discussion to have. I hope to get a better understanding of the mind set of these full time hard core gamers. I am rather curious about what will turn up.

In essence I would love to see where this group of your people is eventually headed. From some of the stories I have read over the years I cannot help but wonder if there is a subculture within the gaming community that will turn out to be a rather unproductive part of our western society. The really bad cases - I am talking kids dropping out of high school just to game - are the extremes that interest me most. One can only wonder how they will turn out and where they will be in ten years or so.

The discussion is posted on this forum. Feel free to read and join in. (registration required)

Outlook on project management

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:05:55 GMT

People have asked me repeatedly if I wouldn't mess 'nerding' around when being a project manager. I've reassured them that also having a hosting company together with a good friend I would not be left without things to nerd with. However to a certain degree I am starting to feel I will definitely miss the challenges that come with administrating such a large and complex infrastructure, even if only as a controller (although I do more than a controller should... it's in the nature of the nerd ;)).

Nevertheless there is a large part of me that wants to grow and expand. I feel the desire to stand on a higher level, overlook the problems more and orchestrating the solution. As my function right now I do get involved in some projects, but in its entirety I was too distracted by all the small chores I had to perform. In my new position I hope to be able to focus more on the big picture.

I hope in my future job there will be the room to quantify customer wishes into functionality, possibly making the functional design and be able to guide the process by effectively playing a lead role in the latest web release of ilse media. I ache to put that which I learnt years ago into practice and use this knowledge to bring those ideas that are floating around in this company, which I love dearly, to fruition.

Attack of the clones...

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 19:12:21 GMT

Tomorrow will be weird. I will step into the office and I will find my second me. (again)

No, not a science fiction story but reality. Of course he's not me in sense of DNS strands but in function and such he is my second me. And some time from now he will be my successor.

I wrote before about me making a move for projects. Tomorrow will be the first step in that process and even though I won't do anything for or with projects yet it is still a very exciting milestone.

For privacy reasons (or exposing the true identity behind some more sinister handle he might have on the net ;)) I will not name him yet but he knows I am talking about him. :P We had some idle conversation over IM today (he was still enjoying the last moments of vacation while I was working) which is probably the first casual exchange we've had.

I must say I have a rather positive image of him as a person and fits well in what I think suits the job description, in skills as well as personality. As such I am rather excited to start working with him tomorrow. I feel these will be exciting times.

Why you shouldn't take my designated parking spot

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 14:49:20 GMT

The last couple of days I've been coming to work to find some nitwit has parked his car on my parking spot. These parking spots are reserved for my company and this particular spot is reserved for me.

The company I work for (ilse media, check out their new house style!) pays per parking spot. So aside from it being really inconvenient for me, someone is freeloading at the expense of me and the company I work for.

Today the same car was on my spot again and I had enough. He can park on my spot as early as he want, but I assure you he won't be leaving whenever he wants:

See the set here

A good reason why tail gating is a bad idea.

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:58:28 GMT

This morning I barely averted a traffic accident. It was raining off and on as I was driving along the jammed up freeway. As things started moving again I accelerated as well, only for the car in front of me making a rather abrupt stop.

I hit the break but due to the conditions on the road I just skidded onward. I finally stood still about 2 meters away from the car in front of me.

This situation took me by surprise. Sure it was raining a little and the roads looked wet, but not particularly slippery. Anyway, this shows why tailgating is a bad thing; if I hadn't kept my proper distance I would have lost another car and possibly something even more precious.

Irresponsible dog owners

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:09:16 GMT

What a night I am having.

I was walking my dog loki and was waiting for the elevator. When the elevator came, a guy came out with a dog, not on a leash. The dog instantly flew at loki and started attacking viciously. I tried to get the dog off, but it kept coming after loki. The owner was fucking useless at trying to get the dog off.

Finally, I gave his dog a punch in the face (while it was biting loki's face) which finally seemed to convince him to stop. A rather risky thing to do, since he could have gone for my arm for all I know. At the same time the owner took a swing at me; a pathetic attempt since other than giving me a start it didn't leave much of an impression.

The guy then went off that he was the only one that touches his dog. On my turn I told him off that he should have had his goddamn dog on a leash. Whining something about him having a better grip on his dog than I did (yeah, that's why it was able to continue biting my dog) he sort of hurried off.

It's people like that I really hate. First of all, people should socialize their animal to behave around other animals and do discourage vicious behavior like that. And even if you have a dog that does not like some other dogs you make sure it's on a leash. Anyone that ignores that responsibility and then attacks me for breaking up the fight is a bad dog owner in my opinion.

Speaking of images...

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 08:20:06 GMT

I've built a nice little bit of PHP-code serves a different signature every time you refresh the page.

I came up with the idea when I wanted to make a new signature for my forum on CDG.net. I had collected some quotes in the past from myself (vain as it may seem) that I wanted to share. Unfortunately the amount of quotes made it hard to show all at once, which gave me the rotation idea.

The rotation idea on its own isn't new; I've had forum members (I believe Darkstorn) which had a similar set-up with images of WWII planes that cycled every time you viewed his posts. Being a coder I of course wrote my own 16 lines of code which did something similar.

Getting PHPBB to accept a php file as an image requires a little creativity. I solved that problem by adding a mod_rewrite rule to access the script whenever signature.jpg is requested.

To record the sequence I place a cookie with the sequence number and up the value with every hit. The problem with this is that the cookie comes from a '3rd party', which means a half-decent browser blocks it. In order to make this work I had to make a whole friggin' P3P privacy policy and implement it! Honestly, this was more than writing the code.

Anyway, here's the result:

I've also decided to expand this little script in the near future with a simple web-interface to add and remove images from the image cycle. It might seem meaningless but I just enjoy these simple and small projects, which just give me a break from the more complex problems I face every day.

Giants go boom sometimes too...

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 07:55:31 GMT

This morning one of my co-workers was treated with a sight you don't see very often:

Google go boom

Like I said, we are rarely treated to such events, which makes them sort of fun to collect.

The last 'major' site that I caught dysfunctional was PHP:

PHP.net made a boo-boo

In which case it's even funnier, because not only is the site down but the problem is caused by an error in the php-code. ;)

On a side note...

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:34:02 GMT

Discovery needs to update its web site:

Q: Many concerned fans, including Connie Games and Chris Baird, have heard rumors that you have been bitten by a very venomous snake and have died. Others worried that you had succumbed to a fatal crocodile bite. Are you OK?

A: I've never been bitten by a venomous snake, and I recently heard that I'd been killed. Ha ha! I've been killed by crocodiles, venomous snakes, spiders. I've even had a beetle crawl in my ear and kill me once. Nah! I'm here to tell you: Steve Irwin lives!

Slightly outdated, me thinks...

Unfounded hatred

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:24:18 GMT

Yesterday it was announced that Steve Irwin also known as the Crocodile Hunter died in the process of a new documentary as a result of getting a barb of a short-tail stingray's tail in his chest. Steve Irwin probably is just as well known for his hyper-active personality as his mission to help wild life throughout the world.

Steve Irwin was not the least controversial person on TV. His hyperactive personality was subject to ridicule from a lot of people, some going further than others. In 2004 there was a public uproar when during a performance on TV, he fed a 4-meter long croc with his 1 month old son Bob. He was widely criticized by many people, some saying he was irresponsible others calling it 'child-abuse'.

Now that he is dead people always take time to reflect what such a public figure as Steve Irwin meant to them. As such I can understand, some people might have mixed feelings about his personality on TV. Personally I wasn't always charmed by the reporting method of Irwin as his almost ADHD-style of presenting himself at times annoyed me to some degree. As a person and regarding all he has achieved in life I can only admire him.

What I do not understand is that there are so many that cry out how much they hated him. Wikipedia was the target of vandalism, where an anonymous person posting "Steve Irwin's dead! LOLOLOLOLOL!". Where do people get this feeling of hatred from? They never met the person, nor have any of them been directly afflicted by him in anyway. What posesses them to react in such a vile manner. Steve Irwin probably achieved a lot more good in life than those miscreants which are wasting bytes on my Internet connection excrementing their ill formed opinions all over the world wide web.

Everyone should have the right of speech and the privilege of forming an opinion but why do so many have to use it in such a wasteful and tasteless manner.

War on Terror, according to BASH

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:37:46 GMT

OK, some nerd humor here...

I saw this blog entry and I thought it was hilarious. Warning: some basic *nix knowledge required.

http://blogs.sun.com/ThinGuy/entry/the_war_on_terror_as

It's a tad old, but still funny.

Important things to consider...

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:40:43 GMT

This week I take a job interview of someone what (judging from the resume) is under-qualified for the job. The big question...

Do I wear the "Bow before me, for I am root" T-shirt or the "Die, n00b" one?

;D

Guild wars, muhahaha....

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 09:01:28 GMT

Yes, I finally got the original Guild Wars, too. I had to be weird and get Fractions first, so I went around it the wrong way, but who cares. It's mine now, muhahaha.

Currently listening to the music of GuildWars (the box came with a sound track CD) and that alone makes me wish this damned DVD-ROM player would finish the installation.

It's done! See you in a couple of weeks journal. XD

if (greftek.extremely_bored) greftek.post_irc_stuff_on_blog();

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:08:57 GMT

OK, I am going to prove I am a nerd here. :p
Not only am I posting IRC conversations, but it also contains pseudo code-like writing...

[15:00] <GrefTek> while (fun > GREAT) time.fly();
[15:01] <GrefTek> but fun > GREAT returns false
[15:01] <GrefTek> :(
[15:02] <Tamtamtam> heh
[15:02] <Tamtamtam> 30 more minutes
[15:02] <GrefTek> I wish
[15:02] <GrefTek> 2 more hours
[15:02] <GrefTek> bitch
[15:03] <GrefTek> while (now() < work.quittingtime) time.speedup(10);
[15:03] <GrefTek> there
[15:03] <Tamtamtam> yeah yeah talk to the hand baby
[15:03] <Tamtamtam> ;)
[15:04] <GrefTek> It's not really responsive
[15:04] <GrefTek> In fact, I think your hand is acting like a real cold bitch
[15:04] <Tamtamtam> I will be thinking about you when i get in my car ... 1.5 hours more, 1.5 hours more
[15:04] <Tamtamtam> ^-^;
[15:04] <GrefTek> bastard

In geekness I wallow...

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:46:04 GMT

OMG how could I forget to mention this!

Last Wednesday my order from ThinkGeek came in: 5 brand new T-shirts for me to wear. I was really running low on T-shirts and I've been wanting some of those shirts for a while now. Besides, I am too damn lazy to get out the door and look for clothing. :P

Here's the line-up:

Bought for truth:

Bought for self-protection:

Bought for job-promotion:

Bought for the evenings I am dungeon master :

Bought for my Counter-Strike fetish:

Coming soon: pictures with me in these shirts. :D

Happy birthday PC!

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:19:38 GMT

Yes, today it's exactly 25 years ago that the IBM PC was introduced. Considering the fact that I probably owe my job to the PC and its success I wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D

Preemptive strike of a different kind...

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 11:03:27 GMT

The dutch news paper De Telegraaf reports that the fighting dog is making a come-back (NL). They report that in especially large cities (in the Netherlands) the pit bulls and alike are growing in popularity. Within certain groups in our society owning such a dog would increase one's status.

The police in Amsterdam reports that they have impounded almost 30 of such dogs. All of the animals were destroyed, regardless whether they had attacked or not. According to a police spokesman they are considered contraband and will always be destroyed, saying: "Fire arms are also always confiscated even before they have been used".

Statements such as these really make me wonder whether the Dutch police corps is recruiting from a pool of cold-hearted assholes; apparently they forgo the fact that, unlike a gun, a dog is still a living creature and to destroy them indiscriminately just is plain wrong. Hell, if we decide to preemptively destroy any creature that might be dangerous you might as well start wiping out the whole fucking human race.

hands free calling in traffic deadly... (listening to the radio as well)

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 20:51:18 GMT

Yes, today the results of another brilliant study were released. We already knew that calling on a cell phone while driving seriously increases the chance of a car accident, but the brains of this research now figured out that even hands-free calling increases the chance of an accident in traffic.

I am not saying the results are wrong; their findings is all true. When you are talking on a phone - even when not holding the device - distracts you from traffic. You divide your attention between the conversation and what is happening around you on the road. With this diminished concentration you are more likely to cause an accident than when you sit behind the wheel focussed.

Then of course the obvious next step is to discuss whether to ban them from the car. Driving around calling with a cell phone in your hand was already outlawed in Holland a couple of years back. Now that calling hands-free turns out not to be much better questions are being raised whether car kits and other hands-free calling devices should be banned altogether.

And this is where it gets ridiculous boys and girls. Sure, having a phone conversation in the car is distracting... so is having a conversation with the person next to you, trying to find the right exit, looking at your TomTom or listening to something interesting on the radio. Are we to take out radio's as well or ban passengers from speaking while the driver is on the road? Heaven forbid, he might get distracted. In fact, pretty women should be banned from driving, too.

OK, you might argue banning all women from cars for other reasons, but that's not the point I was trying to make, hmkay? ;)

For me the whole "don't call with a cell phone in your hand while driving" thing made sense; you need two hands to operate your vehicle. Having a cell phone in your hand while you have to make a complex maneuver to avoid a collision doesn't improve your success rate.

Putting up the 'you might get distracted' argument is flawed, however. If that's the case, put the driver in a sound-proof bubble without any radio, navigation gear or any other distractions. Of course your main focus is the road and people shouldn't have 2 hour discussions with their mother while driving around (just drive over and have a chat over some coffee; it would save you a massive phone bill) but the pure essence of the claim is void.

Now for another thing: when hearing this news item was the numbers. The researchers from SWOV claimed that disallowing hands-free calling would have prevented 600 people from dieing in traffic. This fact surprised me a little because I've looked up those numbers for a previous post on my blog.

For the same year I found numbers on the web site of the Central Bureau of Statistics showing that in 2004 about 881 people had died in traffic accidents in Holland; only half of those were deaths of drivers or passengers in cars. Using these two figures you could conclude that 68,1% of all fatal traffic accidents were caused by people calling in a car. Considering alternative causes, such as drunk driving, bad weather or the high density of morons on the roads, which I see on a daily basis, this number isn't very plausible.

But who am I to dispute the research. They are probably right. So I am going to drive in my car with my radio blazing and having a discussion with the people on the back seat and I should be reasonably safe as long as I don't accept any incoming calls.

My revelation for today is...

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 08:29:25 GMT

Spam is not a nuisance; it's a cheap form of entertainment.

Got a new TV

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:32:07 GMT

Well, I couldn't be bothered by staying upset about the broken TV. LdyDragon and I went shopping for a new one. Nothing too expensive but not too shabby either. Good image quality and value for money was a must. So we ended up buying a:

Philips 32PW8651/12

All I can say is: what a picture. The Crystal Clear technology really makes for a sharper and clear picture. Even the JVC (and I am a big fan of JVC) next to it, comparable in specs just didn't cut it to this beauty. And it was 20 Euros cheaper too.

Oh for fuck sakes...

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 16:54:56 GMT

It just so turned out my TV died.

Great... Just fucking great...

Bowling and BattleTech RPG

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:37:38 GMT

In my previous rant about how this day sucked for no particular reason I did mention that yesterday was OK. To keep a bit on the positive side I'll elaborate a little more on that.

Yesterday we went bowling with a group of people and I must say that things went pretty well. To illustrate 'pretty well'; my score average with bowling is about 90 points. Yesterday however it was closer to 110. I finally figured out some things was I doing wrong in the past. Using this I managed to get a rather consistent score every time I launched that ball into the pins. I even scored my first turkey ever. (that's a triple strike-in-a-row, for the people not well-versed in bowling jargon. And in case you live under a rock a strike is when you knock all the pins over in 1 throw)

After we had our fun bowling (we went for 2 hours) we went over to Loki's place (my friend Loki, not my dog :p) to play some Classic BattleTech Role-Playing. I am particularly enjoying playing this session since we've basically been stripped of all the usual resources in the game, which means we have to be really creative in finding solutions to our problems.

The only downside of this game is that the group and LdyDragon's character are separated, which makes it not very much fun for Ldy. We try to work around it, but the only real solution is to reunite with her. Unfortunately that won't happen anytime soon.

Anyway, the game itself is quite a new approach and we all seem to enjoy it very much. When we finished last night I had a good feeling about the day. I won't object to another Sunday like that.

On a more positive note

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 11:29:58 GMT

Jubie got married to her CodeKitty! Congrats! I hope you will have a long and happy life together!

Teh Gerf

Manic mondays

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 11:21:39 GMT

I sometimes just hate mondays for no apparent reason at all. It's not always the case but today I definitely would rather have this day be done and over.

It's not like things are busy at work or I am dealing with particularly tough tasks or something. I don't even have something happening to me today that I could hold accountable for this mood I am in. I am just blah today.

Indeed, work is rather quiet today. I had a small issue with one of ilse media's web sites which was resolved swiftly. Other than that I've helped find and install some Java classes, configured a database server and doing some other minor jobs. Aside from that I spend some time bringing my hour administration for my own company up-to-date and am writing in my journal right now.

What makes a person feel different in similar circumstances. I slept a normal amount of hours compared to other weeks, had a great day yesterday. So what makes me feel so blah. Chemical imbalance? Hormones? What?

Christ I even tire of this train of thoughts. Let this stupid day be over.