Lorem Ipsum or something like it

Writing again... but no here.

2011-10-15T19:15:00.003+02:00

As some of you might know I have been writing this past year in the Tatar2India blog over on the Wordpress side. But brought it to a full stop when I finished my India experience.

Now I have started a new blog called "Endless Blabber". It's not a big project, but rather something to keep me writing, keep me busy.

I will be writing there about life, my own experiences, how I perceive the world, about funny/interesting things that happen to me... about world news that catch my attention... anything I feel like I have a say about and feel that any of you might be interested in.

Hope you will enjoy reading it.

Waiting for you on the other side.

Over and out.

Reading again...

2010-08-30T02:40:00.001+02:00

It has come to my attention for some time now that I haven't read a book for quite a while now... Not that I had a lack of recommendation inputs from people who do read books, but I just didn't quite find any of the recommendations ear-catching, if I can say so.

Don't get me wrong... I like reading, but lately I kind of got closer to reading technical materials, and found it easier to get the materials from the internet rather from printed books. And of course the topic that got me caught up lately, getting to grasp special relativity and quantum mechanics in order to finally get to understand what quantum electrodynamics is all about, is kind of topic that you don't really find too many books that explain it in such a way that an economics graduate would find it easy to understand and the only way to unlock it is to research it thoroughly on the internet (wikis, forums, blogs... even connect with some theoretical physicists and get them to answer some of your questions).
<<Excuse the long and seemingly never-ending sentence>>

Today, no special day in any way, I found myself, after my parents and sister went to sleep, still awake and not feeling quite sleepy as usual.

Popped up the cover of the laptop. Checked my email. Nothing interesting. Signed out. Hit Stumble. A rather funny page appeared. Text only. I was a excerpt from a book of Douglas Adams. Although it was a page-full, I went quite fast through it. I was quite light reading. Cookies it was called. By the end of it my brain was already begging for more.

I researched a bit about the author and the book the cookie story was from. The story was actually part of a posthumous collection of previously unpublished materials of the author. I decided that it would be a good idea to start from the beginning.

I found out that the first book Douglas Adams published was actually a book that was recommended to me in numerous accounts and I actually had it. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Didn't think too much, opened it up. Started reading. I was somewhere at 30th something page realized that I actually enjoyed reading it. Up to that moment I was too caught in the story to notice...

By the time I got to page 66, two hours had already passed. You might say it's a long time (depending on your reading speed)... but I didn't even feel the time pass.

Little side note: When it comes to reading fiction I like to take my time with it... unlike when reading technical books, where I might find myself going through vast course books in less than one hour, although it might seem as half a day to me.

Don't really have anything to do all day these days... so I guess that I could finish this first book by the time I leave the country... (that's another matter to be detailed in another post... might also start a blog for the one year relocation... I'll stop here - too much info already)

Lightning strikes!

2010-07-24T16:52:00.000+03:00

It's good to know how lightning strikes... if you are targeted... or if you might be the one to strike someone with a lightning bolt.

This can be applied in any situation... for hiking to daily business life.

Think about this. You risk getting struck by lightning when ascending fast (both altitude and hierarchy) and having a positive charge (positive electrical charge or positive mind set). But who might hit you with the lightning bolt... negatively charged, descending entities (be it a cloud or a person/entity being low down and having a negative mind set).

Think positive! You don't know when you might accidentally strike someone with a lightning bolt because of a negative thought.

It sucks finishing second...

2010-07-12T14:33:00.000+03:00

Of course every sport is different... but in football ("soccer" for Americans) championship's case, it sucks finishing second. Let's take it from the top.

You finish the championship wining the final match. You get the the gold trophy and medals. Your country has a fiesta (or whatever form of celebration you can come up with).

You finish the championship loosing the final match. You get the silver medals. Everybody is disappointed, depressed. No fiesta, no nothing. Everybody goes home.

No this bit is the interesting part. You finish the championship wining the third place playoffs (or the small final as some might call it). You get the bronze medals. Your country is partying! Everybody is happy. People dancing naked in the plaza. Party lasts till morning. One party girl said: "It would have been cool to beat Spain and go to the final. But even third place is not that bad." Thumbs up for them!

WTF!!?

Is it really not about playing? Not even about the place you finish on? Could it only be about the result of your last game?

And another thing coming to mind when I see the World Cup chart... so... NED beats URU, ESP beats GER, GER beats URU (so URU is last out of the 4), ESP beats NED (so ESP is best out of the 4)... but wait... which is better GER or NED? Single elimination sucks too!

Anyways! I was hoping for The Netherlands to win the World Cup... but hey!... second place is not that bad. So NED loosing the final didn't stop us partying all night!

Playing...

2010-07-08T14:32:00.001+03:00

Yesterday I found out that I really miss playing... and by this I don't mean computer games... playing simple kids' games... While walking down the street with a friend I saw a Nestea Outdoor Ad, mounted in a bus station. It had a sliding puzzle. Solving it, you would get the Ad. (of course you had a scale model for reference)

It was all scrambled up... and at first I thought that it was just a display... and not really a working puzzle. But then I came closer and managed to move one of the pieces... it already had my whole attention. I was compelled to solve it. (although I was running late... the last semifinal of the 2010 FIFA World Cup...) It took me and my friend some 10 minutes to solve it... and it was fun!

It really made my day.

City walls

2010-07-07T12:22:00.003+03:00

I want to share with you a song that I really like

Ianizer & Lemethy - City walls
Ianizer & Lemethy - City walls by Ianizer and Lemethy

The Helmet

2010-07-07T12:08:00.000+03:00

Today I woke up with an urge to write. It's 10 AM and I can't sleep anymore.

I look around and I see my mobile phone. I remember a conversation yesterday about my health. I was being told that alcohol is not quite the best treatment... Maybe I can get the other party to make me quit drinking... and in the process I could make them quit smoking...

You'd think that if you fall down out of the 1st floor window (~4m) strait down with your back on the cement, hitting also your head in the process... with no protection gear (uncontrolled fall, no parkour moves)... you would break your back and die (nope, wrong! been there, done that... but that's not the point).

Now you go to a protection gear seller. You want to engage an activity that (without protection gear) would most probably put your life in danger, but you want to protect yourself. Per say you buy a helmet. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? Instead of avoiding those life threatening activities... humans invented the helmet!... so they can just put their life in danger while having a degree of "protection".

So you say: "I love adrenaline"... Try getting some traditional in-bed adrenaline. I comes with bonus euphoric chemicals. And with a bit of luck you get out of it unharmed (I'm only saying this because reportedly there have been some incidents during the "in-bed adrenaline rush").

I will stop here. It's getting "late" and I haven't even had my breakfast yet...

Google in my home... on the TV screen

2010-05-23T23:15:00.000+03:00

Google is invading my house!!! Help!!!I already have Google in my bedroom... in my PC... Google search, Google Chrome web browser, using Google maps quite often... Gmail daily, chatting in my email account... Blogging right now from their platform... and all of this right from my bedroom.. (even on the road but that's another matter...)
Now Google is trying to "invade" my living room too... They announced Google TV. It is a Intel Atom based platform running a Google Chrome web browser on an Android OS right on your TV screen. What more can you want? Well they enable you to find and organize all your favorite online shows (sports events, music, movies, funny clips you can find on YouTube... and even live shows), in order to make it easier for you to keep track of and watch them.

Can't wait to see what they come up with next to "invade" my kitchen and bathroom...

Synthetic DNA research banned

2010-05-23T22:08:00.003+03:00

So scientist have just created the first living cell controlled entirely by synthetic DNA, and their research has been banned in the US.Yeah... these real world programmers have been stopped in their tracks by some bureaucrats. Thumbs up for the US... NOT!
Read more about the breakthrough on BCC News.

Google PAC-MAN Doodle

2010-05-22T02:22:00.006+03:00

30 years of PAC-MAN...Google celebrated this by changing their home page logo with a fully interactive flash version of the PAC-MAN game. Another thumbs up for Google!
EDIT: For those of you who missed it, you can download it here.

Searching for books...

2010-05-22T01:44:00.006+03:00

There are a lot of books out there that either don't get enough attention or are sometimes out of our reach. We search for them on the internet in hopes that we find it...I have previously posted some more or less shady book download websites. Now I am going to tell you about another website where you can find books (and more), as they say "exclusively in the fact-finding purposes". I guess that stands as their protection against the copyright law. I am talking about AvaxHome.

A very nice and organized website. Each publication has an image, free download link, and details (including ISBN, which is good for quickly searching a book). Books are organized by Language, Skill and Category.

What else can I say? Enjoy!

A time-lapse experiment

2010-05-04T20:23:00.004+03:00

Watch in full screen please!

Photograpy by eXeSS

Music by Steven Gutheinz

Toilet sign fail

2009-11-04T16:05:00.003+02:00

Please keep cleaning our toilets!

On the A2 highway, in a toilet (might just be in all of them... didn't check), you can find this sign...
I'm sure they meant KEEP CLEAN... but translating word by word from Romanian... you definitely get KEEP CLEANING.

Creativity / Experience ?

2009-10-08T18:15:00.002+02:00

I think that experience is closely related with being creative...

How is that? Well... creativity is about solving problems... about finding solutions to a given problem...
Now... let's think of a situation where you have a problem at work... the boss wants you to solve it... You have never encountered that exact problem before... What do you do? You start thinking how to solve it... Unconsciously your brain starts a similarity check with your past experiences... and when it find something... the conscious is like: "Wow! I have this great idea!... let's try this...!" And you solve the problem... everyone says.. "Dude! that was pretty creative of you!"... but no one... no even you... really realize on the spot that it was somehow related to some past experience of yours... even if that experience was you playing with your construction blocks as a baby...

Bar code :)

2009-10-07T10:52:00.006+02:00

I love bar codes...

And I love Google :)

But today I love Google more cause they turned they logo into a bar code doodle!

HTC Magic Stop Motion

2009-08-24T15:02:00.010+02:00

view full post

Vreau putina magie in buzunarul meu.

(Want some magic in my pocket.)

Post scris pentru concursul "Imi doresc un HTC Magic", organizat de Gadgeteer.ro si Vodafone Romania.

Hitchhiking adventure

2009-08-06T19:01:00.002+03:00

Last week I was in vacation as I already told you... I was in the mountains... Vatra Dornei... and on my way back I decided that I want to get home for free... somehow... At first the idea was to make "blatu'" on the train... that is go without the ticket and pass unnoticed by the ticket controllers. So at about 4 pm while everybody else had their tickets ready... me and a friend got on the train with no ticket.. :) Shame on us... (Kids.. never... I repeat... never do this! under no circumstances...) But as the name of the post suggests it... that didn't go as planned...

Even worse... we got face to face with the controllers right after the first station... In order to spare our colleagues, that had paid the ticket, from any problems with the controllers we decided to leave our luggage with them and get of the train at the next station. Said and done...

But what to do next? Well we thought that we might catch the train at some next station and buy tickets... but that wasn't a good (free of charge) idea... Anyways we needed to get ourselves moving... so just as we get out of the train station we see a car waiting at the railroad crossing (train in station... they had to wait a bit longer...) So we started running towards the car... hopefully they could take us closer to our destination... where ever that was...

So we got to the car... asked the driver if they could take us anywhere on the way of the train... they said that they are going in that direction ... but they would stop at village not too far from a train station... That was better than no ride... so we took it. The car was a local old model DACIA 1300 :) But the driver... he was one of a kind... he thought he was playing Need for Speed in real life... with drifts and all... especially that he had nice curved mountain roads (serpentine windings)...
Anyways... we got safely to the destination (free of charge)... So we are here... it's about 5.30 pm ... in the middle of nowhere... we have to hitchhike our next ride... A jeep passes us by... nothing... probably full... it had tinted windows... Look there a truck!... maybe it will stop... (or not... like we have waited only for a few seconds... how lucky can we be?...) And it stops... We ask the driver where is he headed... by the looks of it we could reach faster another train station for the second train our group is supposed to take a few hours later... Said and done... After a few hours of chatting, joking... telling our life's stories... checking train hours with the station, with friends/relatives that were home and had internet access... we end up behind another truck... but me and my friend were to busy chatting to notice that the truck had Constanta plates... good thing the driver had a keen eyesight and notice before we got in front of it... He called up the driver of the other truck on the radio and asked him where is he headed... the driver replied he is heading home... :) but where is home for the driver... lucky for us it was actually Constanta :) The our driver asked if he could take us all the way to Constanta... He said he don't usually take hitchhikers... but this time... as the request came from a colleague... he will make an exception... We have our next ride all the way to Constanta... and it's only about 9 pm.

He said the wants to make a halt to eat something... and we could make the change there. Said and done... after a few hours we made the halt... ate some... good food... and when we wanted to leave... me and my friend thought we could cover the bill so that we'd repay the truck drives for the ride. The truck drivers kindly refused to accept us paying the bill for them and they said that it's their pleasure to help us... and after all having someone to talk on a long trip is also a good thing... So from there for another 2 or 3 hours I rode in the Constanta truck and my friend rode in the first one. After that the first truck came to a halt and we continued the way with the Constanta truck... We arrived in Constanta at about 5 am.

The train with our luggage is due to arrive at the station at 7 am... if it arrives on time. We got to the station... waited a bit... The train is here... it's 7.15 am and I have my luggage... and I have arrived in Constanta free of charge... Weee :)

Then again...

2009-07-31T21:29:00.004+03:00

... some planning is better than no planning ...

There are situations when if you do not plan anything... you shouldn't expect anything to happen. Especially if it's one of those days when you got to bed very late... and all your body wants to do is sleep, sleep and again sleep... (sleeping does not mean you are doing something.. :) ... just in the situation when you have a very tight schedule and you really need to plan sleep too...)

So some planning is good. If you feel that planning makes your life too strict... takes a toll of your freedom... but still you don't want to stay all day in bed... or watch TV with no good reason... then you should definitely do a bit of planning... in terms of things you want done by the end of the day... leaving some flexibility to the time and the way you are going to do those things.

But if you can't handle a flexible planning... as in you still end up in front of the TV... or if you don't get even half of the planned things done by the end of the day... then you should definitely opt for a more detailed planning... assuming you are a person interested in getting things done... especially if you got to read this part of the post...

Also there is the part of long term planning and having a vision of your own... your very own purpose in life... which you should have no matter if you like to do things nicely planned, partly planned or just on the brink of time...

Planning SUX Bigtime! - Vacation

2009-07-30T15:32:00.004+03:00

This doesn't mean that I don't support planning in business... but in my personal life I have come to realize that when ever I plan something... more or less things don't seem to turn out the way they were originally planned...

I am now on vacation... I have planned this vacation 2 months ago... I had it all planed... then boom... I was left alone... the people I was supposed to go with could not get days off from work and other important stuff...
And that's when the "circus" started... since then, plans for the vacation have changed ten times over... from a trip to Paris... to seaside cottage.. to 5 star hotel in seaside resort in Turkey... to a week in the mountains... The last one being the final one... the one where I am right now...
But the decision for it came one day before the departure...
Three days before the departure I was in sitting at home... it was my third day of vacation... and still no viable plans for the rest of the vacation... I think to myself that this vacation is ruined... I go out... meet some friends... it was the birthday of a dear friend of mine... On my way there I stop at a book gallery which was open for the weekend... didn't know about it... but I some how landed there... I met a friend there ... suggested we go that night to a resort and party a bit... that was fun.. almost no planning... by I left the birthday meeting with the friends.. it was to late to go to party ... so we decided that we leave it for the next day..

Two days before departure... sleep all day... wake up... eat... start calling friends... no one is available for a night's party except the friend I met at the book gallery... Said and done... we leave for the resort... party all night...

One day before departure... still no idea what to do with the rest of my vacation... Thought "what the heck" ... let's party again all night... called up the friend.. found online a dear old friend who was also in vacation... asked her to join...
Checking my email... saw that the people in @LC Constanta are going next day to Vatra Dornei, in the mountains for the Motivation Seminar. Called up the organizing committee to check if I can still join them from the first day.. All is OK.. I can join them. No luggage prepared... I still have a night's party in front of me... said and done.. we partied all night... ended the night in the emergency room of the closest hospital... my dear old friend twisted her ankle. Nothing serious the doctor says..

Next day... the day of the departure... I am having a hard time waking up... finally I am up... I go shopping... have some things missing that I would really need on this trip... The organizing committee is calling me to see if I'm awake... :D last time I almost missed the train because I was sleeping .. and didn't hear the alarm :)

Two hours to the gathering at the station... I still didn't get back home from shopping... no luggage prepared yet...
One hour and a half to the gathering at the station.. I get home and start shoving stuff in my backpack... hopefully don't forget something important...
Half an hour to the gathering at the station... I am going to buy some booze... couldn't find absinthe... vodka will have to do the job...
I get in time to the station... Looks like it works fine even without too much planning...

After 15 hours by train we are here... :) bit chill but it's the mountains... Yesterday was all sunny... even though we were so tired after the train trip... we still managed to run around the city for like 5 hours or so.. doing a scavenger hunt... In the evening it all ended with a sharing of the experience of the 3 teams that participated at the scavenger hunt.. and a party!... some weird twister.. "poor man's twister" no colored floor... just a roll of duct tape... and we would throw that around the floor and people would have to put a part of their body on the spot where the roll landed.. :) and other crazy party games... But this is a story for another time...

Should stop here... you got the idea... tried to plan stuff didn't work out... made stuff at the brink of time... and it all worked out quite well... :)

The Elegant Universe

2009-07-11T13:56:00.004+03:00

Don't really know why... but for some time now I am more and more interested in physics in general and more specifically in quantum mechanics and string theory... all though this is far away from my field of expertise.

I have been doing a lot of research on the internet... reading a lot of materials... watching a lot of documentaries on this subject... and the more I read the more I want to find out more... It's quite addictive...

Now you would think... why is this so interesting... well maybe because they (the scientist) over time came up with many theories to explain how various things work... mechanics, therodynamics, electromagnetism etc. ... but why are there so many theories and not one to explain everything... why does it have to be so complicated? So they tried to put up a theory (and to demonstrate it) about everything around us... one single theory that rules everything that is happening around us and within us... from the highest level (universe, galaxies etc.) to the smallest level (atoms, particles etc.).

For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about here I recommend that you start by watching this very interesting 3 hour documentary: The Elegant Universe. I explains some of the theories up to the string theory and the birth of the string theory (the theory of everything).

Well I'm going back to my research... Hope I got you interested on the subject :)

The most effective baby-sitting tool

2009-07-07T15:11:00.005+03:00

You really enjoy the fact you have younger brother/sister, but sometimes feel you just cannot make him/her calm down when you are left "guard" at home while your parents are away at some party? Well there is a very old tool that can prove to be verrry effective in helping you have a quite and relaxed evening...

If you haven't guessed by now... it's the DUCT TAPE!

A few tips...
- never position head pointing downwards...
- regularly check up on the situation... as you don't want wet wall & floor... or worse... brown sticky stuff on the wall...

In the end your brother/sister might get a bit of sticky skin... but it can all be fixed before parents get back with a bit of shampoo :)

Happy baby-sitting!

Long Distance Hug

2009-07-05T19:33:00.001+03:00

For a far away friend:

Feel like a hug? Go to a park...
Stand by a tree and think of me.
I hug a tree, you hug a tree
Pretend it's you, pretend it's me.

FAILED in translation...!

2009-06-15T23:19:00.007+03:00

Well actually the translation might be correct but the sentence chosen... total failure... What the hell am I talking about?
I like Romani... as a language... it sounds... I don't know... different... maybe a little funny to my ear (no offence all you Romani speakers...). So I searched for an online translator... and found this website: Freelang.net. But where's the failure you ask?

Well... while trying to translate some words for a small little project of mine... I ended up searching "clean"... looks like they don't have the word... well at least that's what the dictionary is telling me... whatever... maybe the dictionary is not as complete as I expected it to be...
But wait!!! I see a "random entry from this dictionary"... OMG!!!... It's kind of too... how to put it... sorry... I can not write that here... you'll just have to read it for yourself!

Disclaimer: This post is not intended as an offence to the Romani language or the Romani People, nor do I keep Freelang.net responsible for the mistakes. If anyone feels that this post is offensive in any way to them as part of the Romani community, please feel free to post a comment and I will do my best as to fix the post in order to solve the issue.

Eco idea

2009-06-13T19:32:00.002+03:00

While going through the city yesterday... I got this crazy idea... to make a photo blog about companies that should start their own CSR campaigns... or just give a slap to the companies that do have a CSR campaign... but the results... are not showing any improvement...

How am I going to measure their achievements or the need for a CSR campaign? Well by going every day around the city (already doing this)... and taking a picture of the packages and product wraps I find trashed on the street... one picture with their original position... one picture with it going down the trash can... (photo camera I have.. just have to take it with me and shoot the pictures, upload them on the blog... write a few lines.. maybe say the name of product and producer if the wrap/package is to distorted/damaged... )
My results? Well, as follows:
1. cleaning the city... (it doesn't have to be just one post/product per day)
2. raising awareness on the environmental problem...
3. hopefully convince others to send me their pictures with the "trash" they find... and in this case the second picture is more important, them properly disposing of the "trash"...
With this said... I am taking my camera and heading for my first "victims" (aka trash)...

Gifts Gifts Gifts....

2009-06-13T19:21:00.002+03:00

Well now a days we are so busy... days come and go... and... OMG!!! tomorrow is my best friend's birthday.. and I forgot to buy him a gift... well... if only there was an online gift shop that delivered also in Romania... even better, in my city...

Well there is... a couple of days ago I stumbled upon FunGift. They have some nice stuff there... they are based in Constanta, and also deliver anywhere in Romania. You can use your credit/debit cared to pay your order... so it's very convenient.
Clean website, affordable prices... better then going around the city looking for a gift :)

Romanian Tourism Anthem

2009-05-02T21:56:00.004+03:00

Yesterday the Ministry of Tourism launched The Romanian Tourism Anthem.

The song is composed by Marius Moga and performed by Loredana Groza, Smiley, Felicia Filip si Aurelian Temisan.
Along with the Anthem a new brand of Romania has been launched: Romania the land of choice.
Overall it's a good thing that Romania is working on it's brand image... but I think that there are many more things that should be solved before investing some ten thousand Euro in a new image...

Yildizlar live at ProTV's Happy Hour

2009-04-30T01:04:00.004+03:00

Don't remember telling you that I am part of a dance group... but here it goes: "I am part of a traditional Tatar dance group called Yildizlar (The Stars)" :) and here you can see the footage form the live performance my group had on Monday... If you are wondering.. I am not there... I was working :) ...

For more videos and other stuff about the dance group visit our website.

Put you knowledge to good use

2009-04-21T16:00:00.002+02:00

You have extensive knowledge on various computer related activities. Say you want to share this knowledge with others... but you can't just write a book about it... you want to make it visual... not just text on paper... you want to make a video clip showing people what to do... and how to do it...

You can take a webcam an record your screen or buy an expensive screen capture software... or you can choose the free alternative with no hassle to it... ScreenToaster. It's a nice website where you can record your desktop activity with the push of a button.
It uses a nice Java Applet that lets you select the source: full desktop, webcam, VNC server... and also some other options like audio on/off and playback speed..
Afterwards you get your video online... easy to share... embeddable videos...
What more can you ask for :)
Go on.. have a try... record your mind... :P

Make your website warm and cozy

2009-04-16T22:41:00.006+02:00

There are many places where your website/blog can be hosted... but some are better then others... that's why you need to do a little research before you choose one particular place to call it home for your website/blog...

One good way that you can do this is by going through a lot of reviews... and finally getting a headache... NOT... There is an even better place you'd want to visit.. where you can find some of the best website hosting solutions and deals around... Web Hosting Geeks... it's nice little place that has a list of the best ranked hosting providers. They also list the hot deals offered by the providers.. like free $x marketing credit, free domain names, or for those of you who feel like saving the world from greenhouse gases... Eco-friendly Web Hosting...

They also have a dozen awards for the various hosting providers... so if you're a hosting provider and you're not on their list... well... you don't know what you're missing out...

Also the website is packed with knowledge about web hosting... so those of you who didn't understand a word I said in the first half of the post... you might consider going through the available materials on web hosting first...

Back to work...

2009-03-29T21:27:00.002+02:00

Now now... don't think I forgot to make a post about the end of the Rome trip... just that instead of making it a vacation of rest... I got home even more tired than I was before leaving...

So... the rest of the days I spent visiting Naples and Pompeii. Will post here some photos soon.
Also one of the days we went in the Villa Borghese Park and rented bikes... now this is a side story...
My last "adventure" with a bike was in The Netherlands... went to a club with some friends... and the host said that we should go there by car (this father would drive us there), take the bikes with us... he got us some bikes from his neighbours... and we would get back home by bike in the morning after a whole night of partying and drinking... sure thing... only that my previous bike "adventure" was more than 2 years old... but what the heck... they say if you learn how to ride a bike you never forget right? BS... after a lot of beer and a lot of partying... I couldn't ride a bike if it had the tires 5 inches thick... so I had to double ride a bike with one of the more experienced riders... and someone else pulled my bike along side him...
And now I was renting a bike... you would think... what was in my mind... I figured out that now... not being drunk and all... I would be able to properly ride the bike... one think I was sure about... didn't want a regular bike... as I had one when I was little and I would always have trouble with going uphill/downhill ... and the park was kind of on a couple of hills... so I decided to rent a mountain bike... :) good choice indeed... as I got the hang of changing gears quite fast... :) but wait... already changing gears? Yes :) I was on my way in no time... it really was like I always knew how to ride the bike and never forgot... so it really looks like alcohol was screwing my style back in The Netherlands...
Now back to our story...
So... the end of the stay in Rome... I decided it's a good thing to go and see the Fontana di Trevi again... :) So peaceful place... although very crowded... very peaceful... only being there makes you wish you come back again... and again ... and again... and as they say... be careful what you wish for... it might just happen...
Flight back was nice... fast... and back to my sad country...
Stupid taxi drivers... trying to cheat everybody in sight... not that taxi drivers in Rome weren't "smart" too :) they would tax you 2 Euro "bonus" if you got the taxi from the Central Station... and another 1 Euro "bonus" if you had luggage... But our taxi drivers... when we left for Rome... of course we took a taxi to get us to the airport... it cost around 5 Euro... from the apartment to the airport... from the airport to the apartment with a little detour to the train station... and when I mean small it's like another 3 Euro tops from the apartment to the train station... the taxi driver was asking us 10 Euro each... and we were 3... so that's like 30 Euro.. STUPID TAXI DRIVER!!! and when I told him that he is out of his mind... he almost jumped to beat the crap out of me... good thing there was police all over the place and he didn't dare touch me... of course the police couldn't do a thing about the fees the taxi drivers were requesting for the transport... not that the police in our country is really good for anything... but that's a whole other story that I would rather put in another post...
So... being so tired... the next day I got to work... managed to survive the week... actually half a week cause I arrived in the middle of the week...
Having said these... I have the weekend packed... full agenda... hopefully I will get some rest during next week... I really need it...
All in all... I wouldn't give the trip to Rome for a week's rest... :) It was really worth it...

Still in Rome...

2009-03-19T22:59:00.005+02:00

Today we woke up early... had some breakfast... and went on a city tour... Citta del Vaticano, Colosseo, Museo e Galleria Borghese... again at the Fontana di Trevi...

walked a lot... rested a lot :) ... went for a kebap :) some shopping too... in the supermarket for some ingredients to cook dinner... tryied as much as I could to keep my sister from going into other kinds of shops... :) not that I did a good job of that... a lot of pictures too...

Again in Rome

2009-03-18T22:06:00.008+02:00

Just got to Rome today... I'm on vacation... so the next week I will be looking for new sites to visit around here... and also will keep track of my stay here with daily posts on this blog... so let's start with the begining... I left home yesterday...

Finished work kind of late... Luckly I got the last bus from my city to the capital... before departure the bus driver asked us if we want the heat on... being a bit cold outside we answered yes... little that we knew... on our arrival in the capital city the temperature on the bus was up to 28 degrees...
:) there was no way to stop the heat while the bus was in motion... and the bus driver didn't want to stop the bus just to stop the heat... bummer...
After 3 hours of sleep got a taxi to the airport... stupid driver was making jokes about our plane crash landing in the sea...
Of course our flight got delayed 2 hours... "due to operational issues"... the plane we were suppose to take was the one coming from Barcelona... and it was late...
Flight was quite smooth... some nice shots...
On the arrival in the airport got a bus and a metro and then another bus :) to get to the place I'm staying... (I'll just call it "the flat")
After having some breakfast (around 1pm) I slept for about 2 hours and then went around the city revisiting some nice places... like Fontana di Trevi, Campo di Fiori, Piazza di Spagna... etc.
Now I'm back to the flat and I am waiting for my cousing to cook some dinner :) he's the host here...

that's all for now...

In search of love

2009-03-13T00:18:00.002+02:00

A story about 3 little gummy teddies...
Hope you will enjoy...

For your pleasure...

2009-03-02T21:39:00.008+02:00

Just added a nice little widget to my blog... it's called "Related Posts"... and it will show up when you enter a post to read... You will find related posts that you might be interested in... if you found the post that you are reading interesting in the first place...

It's not a off the shelf widget... nor one I made personally... but rather a customized one... by mixing techniques in Timethy Jones' blog (thanks Timethy) and on Blogging Tips (thanks Amanda).

I know I haven't posted in a while now... but don't worry :) I didn't forget about you people :P I will keep writing... and that's a promise! (until further notice... :P )
Edit: Also Added a little widget that makes expandable posts... as in ... you see the first paragraph of the post on the main page.. if you are interested in it... you click read more.. and continue reading the post... if not.. you move on to another post... (another first paragraph of a post...)... (thanks to ISAAC YASSAR for this widget).

Nostalgia

2009-02-07T00:44:00.002+02:00

It's 1996. Virgin Interactive launches a strategy game developed by Westwood Studios... a prequel of the original Command & Conquer of 1995... Command & Conquer: Red Alert!

That was a hell of a good game!

Wait a second... it still is!... and now... it's FREE!!! Just found out that as of August 31, 2008 EA Games has released it free to download on their website... How cool is that?

Well I am just downloading it now... and of what I read on the website it's good to go on Windows XP too (with Win95 compatibility turned on...)

Looks like I'm going to have some good old strategy game time this weekend...

Google Translate Widget

2009-02-01T11:05:00.003+02:00

Nice little widget... comes in handy when in need of a good laugh :) especially when translating from English to Romanian... didn't really check other languages... but I'd guess that it's about the same... hopefully this will be useful to the ones who don't have an English proficiency and still want to read my posts... :) in a more fun way...
And if the Google guys read this... well no offence intended guys... I use the Google applications every day (translator included)... it's just that our language is kind of weird... the syntax, that is... and is a pain in the **** for the translator... I can only wish you good luck in making the translator better! And try to suggest alternate translations for the text here and there when I have some free time...

Blog surfing

2009-02-01T10:51:00.003+02:00

While checking on my analytics I found a website referral from Condron.us and decided to look into it... Turns out that is a blog surfing website. It randomly takes you from one blog to another every 6 seconds... when you see something of interest you press stop and start reading :) that easy. Looks like someone who has me in it's blogroll submitted his/her blog to this website and so I got a referral from them...

Home made fun!

2009-02-01T10:37:00.002+02:00

In an earlier post I was telling you about how in my country the idea of fun is kind of deformed... And that most people don't really know how to have fun...
Well last night we cooked up a home made party... watched a film (popcorn included), danced on some music, boozing... :) really having fun...
We also had a special guest... a nice girl from Poland who was stunned by our home made party... she said that in her country you won't find this much fun parties... and I thought that Romanians didn't know how to have fun... The good thing though was that she quickly got in to the rhythm of our party and got to taste our Romanian home made FUN party :)

Valentine's Day Notification

2009-01-31T17:55:00.005+02:00

All of you who regularly forget things... we are ~2 weeks away from Valentines Day. Now... I am writing this post just so you don't forget to buy your special someone nice little gifts... or as Phillip J Fry said "Valentine's Day's coming? Aw crap! I forgot to get a girlfriend again!"... you might want to get yourself a girl/boy friend depending on your gender and sexual orientation.

I my case it would be the latter, as I seem to find myself almost every year without a girl friend around this nice holiday.

For those of you in search of a nice gift... I wouldn't recommend you going for the "Best gift ever..." I recommended in a previous post... although you might want to reconsider if you truly want to end the relationship...

On the other hand if you do want to have a nice relationship in the future also... you might want to try a different approach and go for more traditional gifts... Combining flowers with a little something that would stay with her for years to come can be a wise choice.

But what if you are far from your loved one and you cannot meet for this special occasion? Well you might find a flower delivery service to be your friend in need. Also you can buy really nice gifts on-line and have them delivered you your loved one... some even with a special customised message.

You have a lot of options on hand... and now... no reason to say that you forgot that this special day was coming...

Busy Times...

2009-01-29T21:57:00.003+02:00

Lately I have been so busy... full time job and all... seems like everything is going so fast... barely find time to think about me... about my future... about what I want in life...
Taking to a good friend the other day... haven't seen her for about a month or so... she asked me what have I been doing lately... the next second... my mind was blank... couldn't even remember what I did the day before that... all I could think about was... "I went every weekday at work." Looks like somebody has to start keeping a diary... or at least some kind of bullet list with cool/important things I did each day, or events that have some importance to me. For example I couldn't remember that last week I had wrecked my car... although I had to walk across the city to get to her place... when usually I would have taken the car to get there...
But thinking about it now... although I work 8 hours a day... 5 days a week... I still have time to get together with friends and have a drink... or a soda... depending on the circumstances... I hope this won't change... cause I really enjoy those moments spent in their company... e.g. yesterday... had a nice time with friends in a pub... (I think we can call it a pub...) had a few drinks... and still managed to wake up at a decent hour in the morning to get to work in time...
Well I'm still young... still have a lot to live :)... so why not make it fun :)) cause it would be really boring to have a lot to live and not have fun in the process... and after all we really don't know how long this life will really last... so... better have fun now... than never... :) A paradox I know... But that's life for you... you either hate it... or you love it... and if you choose to love it... it will love you back...

So... think the title is gone wrong now... but it's still busy times... busy having fun... busy enjoying life...

New Year...

2009-01-02T18:03:00.002+02:00

So here we are 2009...
(don't mind me... I just woke up from the recovering... that is after all the partying with the new year eve and stuff... )
How is this year going to be? My best guess would be... hard... as we started this year in full economical crisis... which is going to last at least for another full year... if not more...
The Chinese say it's the year of the Bull... so they recommend less red everywhere... if possible totally avoid it... also they recommend that we take action fast in any given situation... but acting in the same time with caution!
I think I'll take some time now and reflect on the things I want to get done this year... and maybe plan ahead a little... cause without planning and proper action, 2009 will just end up as being just another year in my life... which is totally not what I have in mind for it... or any other year for that matter...

White

2008-12-27T19:51:00.005+02:00

So... I believe this is the first day of "real" snow in Constanta (my city that is)... everything is white... people tell me that it snowed while I was away at the beginning of the month... but I believe that it wasn't that "real" :) The traffic is already suffering the effects of the white stuff that is covering the roads... I took my car for a ride around the town and I felt just life after having a joint... uuu... everything is moving so slow... shit!... where are the snow trucks... some salt maybe... something!... Listen to me... if the authorities don't show up tomorrow at TV and say: "The snow fall caught us by surprise! We were totally unprepared for a snowfall..." (for god sake it's December 27th... when are you expecting snowfalls!!? close to Christmas? in June maybe!?... see previous post...)
Anyway... for now the roads are still usable... god knows for how long... as it has been snowing for the last 7 hours... and (... just as I was going to write "it's not showing any sign of stopping"... Wham!!! It stopped... :) for now at least... ) ... so correction... it snowed for the last 7 hours... and it stopped... for now...
We'll see what happens till tomorrow... hopefully the weather will be harsh on the lazy authorities :) and fill the city with snow :)
The thing is that every year the snow takes our authorities by "surprise"... they can't seem to remember the fact that in winter... it snows!...
I'm leaving now... don't feel like talking about the local authorities any more...

EDIT: Surprise! Surprise! Going around the city later in the night I saw a couple of garbage trucks with blades mounted on them... clearing the snow... and another truck spreading salt around on the snow cleared street... Let's hear a big "Good Job!" for the local authorities... :) Looks like this year they handled it well...

Merry Christmas... in June...

2008-12-25T00:00:00.003+02:00

By the looks of it... Jesus was born in June... Astronomers have recently calculated that in the year of Jesus' birth the only bright thing in the sky that could resemble the "Christmas Star" could have been the magnificent conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. But that was on June 17th... and not on December 25th.

So please stop with the Christmas messages and cards in December... send them in June...

Read more about this stunning story at Telegraph.co.uk

Image consultants

2008-12-24T23:23:00.003+02:00

How many of you know the story about Santa Claus and his image consultants?

Tell you the truth, Santa didn't look the way you all know him since forever! It all started in 1931 when The Coca-Cola Company wanted an ad campaign showing a wholesome Santa both realistic and symbolic. So they commissioned illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop the advertising images. They wanted Santa Claus to be "himself" and not just a man dressed as Santa.
The interesting thing is that although many people would want you to believe that The Coca-Cola Company created Santa Claus... they didn't... they just gave him a new image... one that would become a world wide standard for Santa...

Dogs, dogs, dogs... and what do you know... even more dogs...

2008-10-13T13:01:00.003+02:00

Look at this picture...

This is quite a common sight in our country's cities… Lovely, no? Especially when they go around in packs and become very territorial... Sometimes it's a nightmare to go around the streets at night...
OK... so I am not very fond of these dogs on the streets... Don't take me wrong... I love dogs... the ones who behave... Respect me, I respect you... try to bite me... and you're asking for it...
Now thinking from the dog's point of view... I really don't understand how a small animal like a dog (OK... some of them aren't small at all... but there are also small dogs..) has the guts to pick up on a human... who is twice or three times its height... OK... we don't have jaws... or claws... but this doesn't mean we have a "bite me" or "pick on me" sign on our back...
So... getting back to the problem at hand... we have a lot of dogs going around the city... sometimes in packs... and what do the authorities do about it?... Citizens’ would answer... "What authorities? ...what's that?..." They are almost absent when it comes to solving this problem... Of course there are also a lot of groups supporting animals' rights... and they are also a pain in the @$%# when it comes to choosing a "good" way of handling the problem...
So without a gun permit (not that the activists would let you get away with a murdered dog...)... and with the authorities banning the use of tranquilizers within the city perimeter... and with no Animal Service to put the dogs away... we are kind of stuck with them...

Anyone facing the same problem?

Can we find a solution to it?

Project 10 to the 100th

2008-09-25T23:06:00.004+02:00

What is this all about? Google, while celebrating it's 10th anniversary, launched a challenge for everybody to come up with as many "good" ideas as possible in order to make this world a better place by helping as many people as possible. As they say it Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible."
So for those of you who want to help here is what you have to do...
First of all come up with an idea!

Then just click here... and fill in the form with your idea before October the 20th!
Hope your idea will get past the first selection and be between the 100 selected ideas for the voting process. Hope you get enough votes in order to be among the lucky 20 semi-finalists. And then it's up to 5 ideas that will get the funding. Google is committing $10 million to bring these ideas to life!
There are a bunch of categories from which to choose... but in the end you can always get your idea in "Everything else"...
There are a few criteria that will count in choosing the best ideas... and they talk about Reach (numbers), Depth (impact), Attainability (realism in time frame), Efficiency (quality), Longevity (long lasting impact)...
A nice idea is that you can make a promotional video for your idea... and also you may recommend an organization that is capable of executing the plan you came up with... and finally you may give your approval to be contacted in case you don't win the contest but they do find an external organization interested in funding your project.
In my opinion this is a very good initiative and I recommend all of you to think and post your ideas... you might never know how your idea can end up in the final 5... and get some Google funds to get it up and running!

LINK: Project 10¹⁰⁰

So good luck to you all!

Stop Traffic Accidents!

2008-09-17T17:22:00.001+02:00

PC troubleshooting 1-on-1

2008-09-15T21:28:00.003+02:00

So here's a nice little story that happened to me...

So I needed the PC in another room... took it apart... used it in the other room...

Now I come back to reinstall it in it's original position in my room.

The regular extension cord I use is equipped with surge protection and children protection too.

What is children protection? It's a set of plastic plugs that prevent the user to plug in anything if he/she does not apply a reasonable amount of force.

Having that said... I plug all the peripherals into the computer and I am

now ready to plug in the PC. I put the plug in the extension cord and apply pressure as always... but with no result (plug doesn't want to go in!)...

After a couple of minutes of struggle... still nothing... I go take my father's toolbox... he always finds in it the right tool to solve any problem... so I grab the first thing I see... fortunately for me that was the hammer :D ... and with 3 or 4 blows form the

hammer he PC is now plugged in!... Screw that children protection of theirs!...

So the moral of this story... "You can solve any problem using your fathers toolbox! Even PC problems... it's just a matter of finding the right tool..."

LHC and the end of the world!

2008-09-10T13:48:00.002+02:00

Tell you the truth... I didn't even want to write an article on this stupid story...

Yes... maybe some of the fears of the people, saying the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) it's going to precipitate the end of the world, are somewhat founded... but I'm sure those "numskulls" calling themselves scientist working for CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) have already taken in account all of your worries... and of what I heard they are planning to test collisions for the next 10-15 years... so hopefully they plan to be alive to do that...

Now... today... being September 10th... it was just a preliminary test... they just fired up a beam of particles to "run" around at about the speed of light through the tunnel... and they called the today's successful test a "great milestone for mankind"... But the good news for the moment is that today there haven't been any particle collisions... The first collisions had been scheduled for 21st October... but after the great success of the first test... that might rapidly change to an earlier date... Until then there are some more test to be done by the scientist at the LHC...

In the meantime you can all check here to see if they messed up something and accidentally blew Earth into pieces... http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/ (P.S. If it says something like Cannot connect to server... or some other error... don't panic just yet... contact your ISP first...)

Google changes Chrome's EULA

2008-09-09T00:08:00.001+02:00

If at realese date Google Chrome's part 11 of the EULA looked like this... and ticked off a lot of people...

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

Google has now changed it to:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services.

I say it's for the best! Now we can use Chrome without being paranoic...

Google Launches Chrome

2008-09-02T23:14:00.005+02:00

While surfing around I noticed that the Google page has some new text on it... Something about Downloading some Chrome BETA browser...

Looks like the guys(&gals) at Google thought that their websites weren't loading as fast as they wanted on other browsers... so they decided to make their own! That being said... today September 2nd, 2008 they launched Chrome.

As they describe it "minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier".

A friend tested it (I didn't get to test it yet but will add an edit to the post as soon as I do...)... his opinion: "chrome in the house", cannot change the volume in youtube, cannot seek around the video, the program itself loads almost instantaneously, doesn't load pages as fast as ***** (some other browser), has a task manager (it's a browser and it has a task manager!), really likes the way it downloads files, searching directly form the address bar (this is really cool), and also direct google gears... And a very good thing... it's BETA!

As I was typing I downloaded the installer for it... so as soon as I make my own opinion on it... I will return to write my mind... :)

More Free books... or not...

2008-08-28T14:14:00.004+03:00

Here is another nice place where you can find a loooooot of good books to read... some of them very interesting... more over all the books are nicely packed in categories... so it's easy to find what you want... also has an integrated search engine... ISBN search is also possible...

But be warned! I don't guarantee that the site is totally legit... so use it at your own risk!

Enjoy!

LINK: FreeBookCity.com

On vacation!

2008-08-17T12:42:00.003+03:00

Well this might sound stupid of me... but in this very hot season... I am actually leaving my country for a place with a couple of degrees more in temperature... :) So until September the 1st I will have limited access to the internet... so I might not write anything until then... but if I get access and be able to sign in here, I will write something :) ... Otherwise I wish you all a nice break form the nonsense I am delivering to you with every post of mine :)

Bye bye!

Peace for Georgia

2008-08-11T21:24:00.004+03:00

This is a thought of peace!

The next are pure facts:
In the past few days I got notice that the state of war has been declared in Georgia. A friend of mine gave us word about an AIESEC Local Committee office in Gori was bombed. The battle zone is extending and now it's very close to Tbilisi.

Thoughts:
I wish that every reader of mine to take attitude and come up with initiatives that can bring peace to Georgia, or at least make this situation known to as many people as possible and make our position about this clear to the whole world! We want Peace in Georgia and not only... we want peace for the whole world!
Some of my friends suggested we make peace public displays, shoot videos how we support Peace in Georgia, gather around and pray in public places for Peace! Any idea that comes must be for peace and NOT "against war" (for those of you who know the movie "The Secret", you know what I am talking about...)

For all readers of mine... if until now you have read... taken notice and went on reading I ask you to stop... read... take notice... and submit you comment... as any feedback... any idea... any good thought that you have to offer will be welcome in finding a peaceful solution to this situations...

Scan files online

2008-08-02T18:56:00.003+03:00

Have you ever been in need of a virus scan but didn't actually want to install a software to do that? or not even want to download a standalone scanner?...

Oh well have I got the solution for you problems :)

I just received a file from one of my friends... he said it's harmless... but it's and .exe file and for all I know it could very well be a trojan... so I start searching and searching... page after page of download to scan or scan whole hard drive websites... until I found VirusTotal... a nice little place created by Hispasec Sistemas... It allows you to upload your file for online scanning... Once uploaded... it tells you if the files was already submitted for scan before by somebody else... by checking it's the MD5... thus ensuring you that the files has not been altered since the last scan... if you are still unsure... you can request a rescan... it will only take a couple of minutes more... If the file hasn't already been submitted for scanning... it will scan it right away...

The system uses 35 of top virus scanners to assure that your files is indeed infection free.

Even so... they know and warn the user that they cannot guarantee that the file is indeed 100% harmless as there is currently no system out there that can guarantee 100% protection.

All this being said... feel free to use it... as it could be very effective against most know viruses...

LINK: http://www.virustotal.com/

Wordle

2008-08-01T13:25:00.000+03:00

It's like the finger print of my blog created using Wordle, based on my RSS feed.

Actually looks more like a foot print! :)

AIESEC U.S., not quite AIESEC anymore -updates

2008-07-31T20:21:00.005+03:00

Following up on my previous post (View)...

So... a few days ago Sona Hovhannisyan made an announcement, on behalf of the AIESEC International Ethics Subcommittee, that a Research Team has been established to gather as much information possible in order to have a clear view on this situation to be presented in the Global Plenary and also make sustainable recommendations along the way to solve the situation.

I think that all will be good for AIESEC U.S. ...

Keep you posted...

AIESECer humor

2008-07-31T15:49:00.002+03:00

So I get this link in my mail form my AIESEC buddies… I open it… and I see a passport with CHANGE AGENT written on it under Profession… Looks like the Government of Sri Lanka issues you a passport with your profession written in it upon request… That being said… Ahmed Sifaan Zavahir, and AIESEC Alumnus, now works in a company as “Change Agent”… of course that the meaning of the title is different from it’s AIESEC meaning… but that didn’t stop him to submit a letter form work that he was employed as a work agent when he applied for his new passport. So he is officially, declared also by the Government of Sri Lanka through the issued passport, a Change Agent! To see the passport, follow the link.

Link: GoSL says I’m a Change Agent

Umbrela Verde

2008-07-30T00:26:00.006+03:00

So for the last few days you have seen in the side bar a green logo saying "Umbrela Verde" "SA PASTRAM ROMANIA CURATA"
Say what!? First of all it says "Green Umbrella" "LET'S KEEP ROMANIA CLEAN".
It's a CSR campaign initiated by Tuborg Romania (a nice beer company), started somewhere in the summer of 2007. Although I heard about it only a couple of weeks ago... the volunteers joining this initiative have been working a lot all year round trying to clean some important sites around the country. This activities have been very well received by the media and also in some cases even receiving help from local NGOs dealing with ecological issues.
You can visit them by clicking their logo on the side bar or the link on the bottom of the post.
I think it's a very good idea... and after all it's our country... it's our planet... and we should really keep it clean!

LINK: http://www.umbrelaverde.ro/

The last lecture...

2008-07-29T11:09:00.009+03:00

I went online the other day... and on my home page (Google) ... I noticed a link that said "In Memoriam: Randy Pausch (1960-2008)". So I clicked on it :) ... me and my curiosity...It took me to a YouTube clip... Mr. Pausch's last lecture: "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" dated Sept. 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon University. Funny thing... this lecture series used to be called "The last lecture"... seems that was the a reality Mr. Pausch.

Why am I sharing this with you? Well after the one hour and 16 minutes of presentation... I got to the conclusion that this really a very interesting presentation... and it talks about passion of doing things, chasing your dreams :) and finding a way to achieve them, helping others to achieve their dreams... :) All in all how to get in front of the wheel and drive your life the right way...

Enjoy!

Music for film...

2008-07-28T18:04:00.000+03:00

I have this link for a few months now in my bookmarks... I thought I should share it with you guys...
It's the website of a young talented film music composer, Steven Gutheinz, that wants to share his creations with the world... :)
There are some interesting pieces there... so be sure to check them all out before deciding that it's a better idea to close the window... :)

LINK: http://www.stevengutheinz.com/

note: also marked it AIESEC as I know that some of the stuff here will for sure make some AIESECers happy :)

Woopra

2008-07-26T00:48:00.004+03:00

I heard the other day that there's a service out there up and ready, and sound like also able to challenge Google Analytics... It's called Woopra. Launched around May 30th, it's a futuristic way of looking at analytics... From what I heard it has a very nice advanced graphical representations of the data collected with realtime update... Being in beta for the moment... so looks like they are only accepting websites with less then 10,000 page views. More over they have a little desktop application that allows you to get your statistics without having to run the browser, enter the website, login, click click click... save a lot of time...
So I also applied for a Woopra account for me blog :) ... so now I am waiting the next wave of approvals... or the wave that I'm going to be in :D and I will get back with more info on this topic :)

Please Recycle!

2008-07-21T16:40:00.002+03:00

The other day I was out taking some shots in the old harbor... after taking some apparently great shots... I head back home... download the pictures form the card... only to realize that the pictures are kind of compromised... (or not!?...)
See this picture... (full view recommended...)

Please Recycle by Me (being ~eXeSS) on deviant ART

So... Looks very nice... doesn't it? except for those pet bottles floating around...

Looks like even art can't escape pollution anymore... it's everywhere... hope that fires up an alarm for all of you... that we should "Go Green!"... otherwise we'll be covered in trash all over in no time... and that's just an optimistic forecast of what's going to happen if we don't recycle...

Insights

2008-07-18T15:42:00.003+03:00

They say a good way to get you insights on how women (or men, in case you are a woman) think it's to read opposite sex intended magazines...

It's easy to understand how it works... For example if you take the FHM (intended for men) you will immediately understand that men are interested in women, cars, sports (mostly football).. etc. (for more insights please consult issue of FHM...) and if you read the Cosmopolitan (intended for women) you will immediately understand that women are interested in men, shopping, cosmetics, silhouette ..etc. (for more insights please consult the latest issue of Cosmopolitan).

Some people tend to make use of the new info they acquire from different sources... even if they don't apply it word by word... but if something sounds good... they would at least remember it as a guide line... and when they see or hear something related to that.. or find themselves in a situation similar to that described by the info they acquired... they tend to work by the book...

Another good way to get insights... is to somehow end up in a mixed workgroup talking on the topic... what men/women want... the topic is quite interesting... as in the end you can compare the results between what women and men want... and see if and how we can help each-other :) to go further... maybe even see when... and make some plans... :)

What ever your choice... I can assure you that knowing insights in whatever the field of research it's a very good thing! :)

Grab that clip

2008-07-13T18:01:00.002+03:00

Going from music to the video world now... where I found a nice online grabber and converter for flash clips... you can save the online flash clips (Flash Video/FLV) as MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP). Very easy to use... and afterwards you don't have to crack you head open looking for a way to play the .flv files or figure out what to do with the "get_video" files...

Although still in Beta... it works like a charm!

Enjoy

Link: vixy.net

More music for your blog...

2008-07-12T18:47:00.003+03:00

To keep it short... as it's a hot day... PC makes heat... useless consumption of energy... and we want to save the world from Global Warming!!!... I was recommended a new music on demand website... DEEZER ...You can listen to it, make playlists, blog it! etc. ... it has the top singles and many more...

The website is French... but it also has many more languages to choose from...

That's it! Enjoy!

Link: DEEZER

You Can't Cure Stupid

2008-07-10T15:31:00.001+03:00

Well... after a lot of struggle to make some sense of all the weird things happening in the world... and I am not talking here about minutes or hours... I am talking more like days, months... years... I have to agree with the experts... You Can't Cure Stupid... Yes... you can take it as a rage against the system... but it's a lot more than just that!...

First time I heard this of this... was as an advice from someone... he was saying something about being careful while choosing out partners... don't go for the looks... but go for the thing inside the skull :) ... looks can change... and all in all looks will fade away... but you definitely can't cure stupid...

Also stupid people have a lot of different jobs and faces... you come across them everyday... you have to watch you step... cause there's a rumor out there that stupidity is also quite contagious!

Some of the companies on the market are desperately trying to find a cure... Microsoft for example says you can cure stupid by using their MSN search... dumb users that use their MSN search will be cured!... I am not that confident... but if you are desperate... do try it...

I will stop here... because I have a high respect even for stupid people and I don't want to offend anyone... I am only trying to find some way of supporting them... in their desperate search to find a cure...

AIESEC U.S., not quite AIESEC anymore (for the last half decade actually)

2008-07-09T02:23:00.006+03:00

Looks like AIESEC U.S. has some problems at hand!

Recent talks on the internal AIESEC forum suggest that AIESEC U.S. has kind of chosen a slightly wrong path over the past decade... radically changing in the last 5 years... Looks like they have nothing to do with The AIESEC Way... don't think they share the same vision either... and the internal organization of the AIESEC United States, Inc. is different than any MC across the AIESEC network... and when I say different I don't mean just structure... but also the processes involved... Moreover the MC is trying to silence everyone who has different ideas... and event kicking people out of AIESEC for trying to change things (in The AIESEC Way sense of right)...

On 4th of July (nice timing...), 23 US LC's signed a Letter posted on the myAIESEC forums addressed to the U.S. MC & Global Plenary of AIESEC. Reactions didn't wait to appear... as to date there are some what 30 responses posted... including one from the current MCP of AIESEC U.S., Andrew Martin, and the current President of AIESEC International, Gabriela Albescu.

For those of you having access to the myaiesec.net platform go ahead and read the letter and answers here.

Despite the problems there are still a lot of AIESECers in the U.S. who want to put AIESEC U.S. back on track... I think that everyone should support them. The problem will be discussed in the Global Plenary at the International Congress in Brazil. For those of you who wish to bring your contribution and cannot join the IC, talk with your MCs and let them know the ideas you came up with... so they can take them in the discussions at the IC.

Toilet Calculator?

2008-07-06T19:14:00.004+03:00

Ever wondered how many days of your life you spend in the toilet?

Well for some reason I hear many people even read books in the toilet... So I figured out that their time spent in the toilet is quite important for them... so I tried to search the internet for a tool to calculate in a easy way how many hours, days.. years... we spend in that room... :D but didn't find shit... pardon my french... but it's related to the room... :D so I figured out I can make an excel sheet to do just that... so here you are... you put in the blue square the life expectancy in your country... or the overall worldwide life expectancy... and in the red square the average amount of minutes spent each day in the toilet... and the sheet will do the rest...

Enjoy!

Link: Here (Do not click on anything else but DOWNLOAD FILE LINK...)

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)

2008-07-03T14:08:00.003+03:00

Does "somewhere around the world dancing" sound like a good answer?

Well it could very well be true for Matt... :)

This guy had an idea... actually his friend had the idea first... to record a footage of him dancing crazy... :)

Afterwards they posted it on the internet... and he became quasi-famous...

Soon a was contacted by a company to do his dance around the world... and make a short clip out of it... all paid of course...
But as this wasn't enough for Matt, he came back to this company and asked them if they could finance him again to do another trip around the world but this time dance with everybody who wrote him telling him how much they loved his dance :) and of course he got it...

That's a nice way to travel around the world... :) I wish for this kind of experience for myself!...

I will leave you now with Matt's clip...

Enjoy!

New Party Planet!

2008-07-02T15:02:00.005+03:00

Recently, I found that there is a planet where you can party all day and all night...

It's called Planet Vama Veche :)

It's quite a nice place... for those who like music like retro, rock etc... :) But the thing that I like about that place is not really the music... it's the FREEDOM!... hope it will last... as it's already starting to change... just like our planet... (global warming and stuff...) but in this case it's another problem... they are trying to put up rules... and make it more organized... soon it will be bye bye wild Vama Veche... But until then :) we can PARTY!

This picture is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs 2.5 License, for release contact Gramo

Power of Thought!

2008-06-30T19:59:00.007+03:00

Lately I have experienced what you might call wish come true experiences over and over again... but only small things... like take this exam, while only writing only nonsense on the paper... or open the book and wave it a few times and write what I think it's about and definitely not what it was really about... (not that I didn't want to... but I didn't know...) ... (it wasn't quite made on purpose... I just didn't had time to study :) so my last resort was to wish for a miracle...)

But now... I am aiming much higher... I want to raise 2000 Euro in half a month, don't know how... I only know that in August I am going to spend two weeks in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the biggest AIESEC International conference, the International Congress. That's why I need all your support (and I'm not talking about you sending me money)... I need positive thoughts from your side... all of you reading this lines... trusting in me that I can succeed in my endeavor. It's not much... :) I'm not asking you to send me anything... I have everything I need for a normal life... but I just don't have the money go to Brazil... not for the moment at least... I just want you all to be with me in spirit and to help me "move" that money from somewhere... and make them come to me :)

I have my principles so I will not resort to stealing, beggary, credit, loans... etc.

If want to send your thoughts out for my cause :) let me know... and I will help you in return with some positive thoughts when you will be in need... :)

Cheers!

P.S. feel free to encourage others to send me their positive thoughts :)

Portable Applications

2008-06-28T16:17:00.000+03:00

Just found another website providing portable software... easy to use with a USB Stick.

The Website Is Down

2008-06-27T14:53:00.005+03:00

Ever wondered how the guys at the Tech department manage to solve all you problems?...

Here's a video to answer your dilemma... :)

Link: The Website Is Down

Edit: At the time of the edit I found out that the website above is really DOWN! :) funny no? so here is an alternate link for the little funny video: Link

Discover Afghanistan

2008-06-26T21:41:00.004+03:00

Ever thought what you would see on the streets of Kabul?

How about the state of the country? Do they need support? Can we help?

How?

Discover Afghanistan

I recommend the Videos section... it's quite something...

This is a website to learn more about the current situation there and the opportunities open for you to bring your contribution to the development of the country...

If you are a student and you found something interesting there, please contact you nearest AIESEC Office to see how you can put it into action. Even if you don't find a specific need stated there but you have the knowledge and skill needed to improve the educational system, or let's say perhaps you have skills and knowledge on IT&C and you want to help... ask your local AIESEC Office to contact the Afghan AIESEC Office to see how they can find you a suitable eXchange opportunity!

Peace!

Free Books :) or not...

2008-06-21T08:48:00.001+03:00

Someone sent me this link with lots and lots of books...

... they say they are free... but I think they're braking some copyright laws around there...

Feel FREE to check them out at your own risk...

LINK:http://freebooks.hobby-site.com/

readatwork.com

2008-06-20T11:26:00.002+03:00

It's a nice website with some books to read at work. The interface is designed to look like Windows XP and the books when you open them look like powerpoint presentations with graphs and all... :) so if you use powerpoint presentations at work... you're covered :)

Enjoy your reading!

Link: www.readatwork.com

Spore CC Trial

2008-06-19T21:15:00.003+03:00

In a previous post I was writing about Spore the game from Will Wright. Looks like they launched the trial version of their "creature creator" utility a couple of days ago... I will edit with my impressions as soon as I test it! :)

EDIT: quite nice looking :) created a couple of creatures myself... you have many editing options... the trial version only contains ~25% of the body parts that will be available in the full version of the game... all being said... I'm looking forward to see the game on the shelf!...

Cheating exams... part II

2008-06-19T13:54:00.004+03:00

Looks like I have been so blind!!!

Some of my colleagues told me recently of a way to cheat exams that I couldn't even imagine possible... You know those hands free cords for mobile phones?... well looks like there is a way to modify them... so that instead of the earpiece... you have a coil wrapped around you neck... on the T-shirt line... and a magnet on you eardrum... and you can hear perfectly what the person on the other line says... and you have the mic in your hand with thin wire... or on you body somewhere so that you can communicate back with the other person... And from what I've heard... they have been doing this ever since we started university... and I didn't know s@#$, pardon my French.

EDIT: Got some complaints about the technical part of this story... as some of the readers don't know too much about physics... here's how it works: the coil creates a magnetic field around your head... and the magnet on your eardrum starts vibrating... and so you eardrum picks up the vibration as sound... just as the sound waves hit the eardrum.... nifty!

Good to know...

P.S. don't blame me if you get caught! this techniques are for informative reasons only... the ones doing them are PROs! so please DO NOT TRY THEM AT HOME (or DURING EXAMS)!

101st post! Graduation!

2008-06-19T00:54:00.006+03:00

Well pop the champaign I just went over the 100 post fence... :)

So today (or actually yesterday... cuz it's past midnight... but I will leave today cuz I didn't get to sleep yet...) was the university graduation celebration day... the ceremony with the robes and singing "Gaudeamus igitur" and throwing our capes in the air in the end... it was really fun! Sad part... just when we started to get to know each other (the colleagues) the University is finished... and we won't be seeing each other that much (not that during the last 4 years we saw each other too much :) but at least at exams, we did...). After the ceremony we went to a restaurant with the teachers and we spent some quality time together and in the end I went with some of the mates to a drink in Mamaia (a seaside resort close to my city...).

Having said this... I will leave you to see this pictures that kind of speak for themselves... For those of you who want to download all the pictures I took... please click here (link available for the next 10 days...)

Transfer.ro

2008-06-14T13:13:00.001+03:00

Well I had to write about it :)

need to send big, big, big files?

don't want to wait 50 seconds to get a direct link or another hour or so to download another file?

can't read the human test security code because of the cats and dogs? :)

to lazy to open up your browser to send the files?

Nu intelegeti o boaba din ce scrie aici dar totusi vreti sa transferati fisiere pe internet? ("Don't understand anything that I wrote here but still want to transfer files over the internet?" written in Romanian)

Have I got the perfect solution for you!

Launched in 2007, "Transfer.ro" is a file transfer service provided by Webmaker (a Romanian company).

What do they offer?

transfer files up to 1 GB
files are stored for at least 10 days... (anything more than that depends on the space available on the servers...)
easy upload by accessing www.transfer.ro and filling in the form
easy to read human test security code (although don't know if it's foolproof)
for regular use of the service you can register at here and download a little utility, TransferDesktop (right after registration you receive a download link), that adds a entry in your send to content menu >Send to>transfer.ro so you can send your files without opening your browser (TransferDesktop is still in beta)
you receive a direct download link instantly (no waiting don't know how many seconds...)
presence of "Marin", a cute cat that is considered an anti stress factor within the team
website is mostly written in Romanian, but you have the basic info also in English, as in enough to be able to send some files

Ever since they launched this service I have been testing it and gave feedback thru my sister ;) and to be honest I am really excited to see their future releases related to this service. Even if still in beta I never had problems with TransferDesktop (only once, because I kind of forgot my password for the account and after reseting I entered the wrong password in the utility... laugh all you can... but that wasn't their fault...). So I recommend all of you to use it... Noticed that the URL changes when you enter the address in the browser and instead of www.transfer.ro you will have something like s#.transfer.ro, "#" being a number, that changes from time to time... and also when I go abroadf... I guess they have different servers for local (a couple or more in Romania) and external (outside Romania) visitors... In Romania they have metropolitan speeds for most of the ISPs... and I suspect that the external server also has a good bandwidth to properly serve external clients...

So... who is behind all this?

The Webmaker team:

Cristi - the boss
Simina - account manager
Elif - my sister :)
Marin - the cat :)

Links:

Transfer.ro
Register for transfer.ro account and download TransferDesktop
Webmaker (coming soon)

Last thoughts...

TRY IT!

Cheating exams :)

2008-06-13T14:04:00.001+03:00

As I said... I am in my exams period... maybe some of you don't have the time or the disposition to study or just have better things to do... so thinking about this I write to you all my cheating the exam techniques... as in our university it's a wide spread practice to do that... Although the technique shown in the picture is only usable by girls... I assure you that the following ones are totally unisex... so enjoy!

my most favorite: lessons on you mobile phone :) dig this... you can put tons and tons of reading material in your mobile phone... and get away with it... but some of you would say... "I don't have MS office on my phone... or a PDF reader.... well for those of you who still have a Java enabled phone I can recommend you Tequila Cat Book Reader :)
second favorite: white papers written with pen with no paste in it... ;) so don't throw away your pen if it's empty... you never know you need it... after you write the most important stuff on a couple of sheets of paper (don't recommend too many... although I used even 14 sheets for one very difficult exam) you mix them with other white sheets... and prey the teacher doesn't check your sheets of paper before you start the exam... :)
something very useful can be to print "n" pages on one sheet of paper... thus you have all the pages only smaller.... 1/4 1/8 1/16 of an A4 (or Letter) size...
some people think they are magicians... they write with invisible ink... and using a tiny UV Led mounted on a regular pen... they can read what they previously wrote.... you can find for sale here (romanian) and here (in a wider variety...)
and of course writing with the pencil on walls and on the desk (which are both already full of other pupils' writings... so no one will notice if something new appears written there...)
I've also seen some of them really ingenious... printed a nice juice bottle wrap... but instead of ingredients and product details there was the information need to pass the exam... and as I understood it didn't cost him more than one and half Euro.
And of course I you don't have any of this... you can always rely on your mates... they will surely try to help you cheat if you help them in return or if you are generous afterwards... :)

So I hope this helps :P

P.S. don't blame me if you get caught! this techniques are for informative reasons only... the ones doing them are PROs! so please DO NOT TRY THEM AT HOME (or DURING EXAMS)!

SkyEurope AIESEC 15% discount

2008-06-12T12:58:00.004+03:00

I recently found out that SkyEurope is giving 15% discount on all flight for all AIESEC members!

Ask why? Well looks like the Founder and x-CEO of SkyEurope, Cristian Mandl, is an AIESEC Alumnus. And taking in consideration how much AIESEC-ers travel... well I think it's a nice thing for our dear alumnus to do. :)

You can access the discount thru this this link.

Happy flights!

Been busy... still busy...

2008-06-12T12:53:00.003+03:00

well lately I haven't been able to write on the blog due to the fact that I am over my head in exams and graduation project preparation... but I think that this post is required... :)

I want to thank everyone who visited my blog since my last post... :) especially those that visited it 3 to 8 times in the past month :) this means that people really expect me to write here...

so I will not disappoint you guys :) I will keep writing... even if not too often... :)

Trust Fall

2008-04-24T12:11:00.004+02:00

Last week I joined a motivation conference in AIESEC. There I had the opportunity to experience for the first time a Trust Fall. For the ones who never heard of it, it's like this...

You stand blind folded (or with eyes closed) with your back to the edge of a 1,5 to 2 m drop. Down there waiting for you are your team mates trying to find the best way to catch you... When they are ready... you just let yourself drop... hoping that the found the best way... and that they can support your weight. For a fraction of a second you loose touch of the ground and feel like flying... skydiving or something like that. To do this you either must be careless about self, stupid :) or just have trust in your team. For me it was trust, and also a bit of me wanting to show myself that I am not scared of a drop... a fall... as one of the things on my "to do before you drop dead" list is skydiving... and if I can't have the courage to face a small drop like this... how can I jump from a plane :) After this I recommend to all of you to try this with your team, your best friends!

Pen-pals

2008-04-13T21:13:00.005+02:00

Well even though with this internet age I haven't made myself a real pen-pal to send real (paper) mail to... I have many "pen-pals" I keep in touch via other ways of non realtime (non-instant) communication... But I have never thought that dogs can do that to... in their own ways... Yes, even dogs keep in touch with distant friends... :) Here you can see a dog receiving news form his friends...

This happened on my way to the capital city... while stopping at a petrol office... looks like some dogs from my city had some messages for this guy here... or maybe this guy was reading someone else's "mail" ;)

Due to certain policies, I cannot show you a picture with a dog "writing" one of this messages...

Pirates! A present reality...

2008-04-04T22:02:00.000+02:00

Looks like the pirates made the news!... As The Herald Tribune reports, a French luxury yacht was captured by pirates today. The ship's owner and the French government say there are 30 crew members aboard.

Officials with French maritime transport company CMA-CGM report that the three-mast Le Ponant was attacked by pirates as it was returning without passengers form the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea.

The ship was in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia's coast in the Indian Ocean, the ministry said. At least some of the crew members are French. The company declined to identify any other crew member nationalities.

After researching the news... I found out that this isn't a remote incident... and that last year alone pirates seized more than two dozen ships off Somalia's coast.

Anyways... it's crazy news... so I figured out you should all know that piracy nowadays has not moved entirely to the internet and to the digital industry... and that it's not a good idea to take a vacation in that part of the world ;)

Best gift ever...

2008-04-01T21:30:00.003+02:00

You how some people say that just the fact that you are making a gift counts and what you give doesn't really matter...? Well now you can make a gift out of nothing! Even if you don't use it as regular gift... at least it can be useful as April Fools Day's gift :)

You can buy it really cheap here.

Slight Changes

2008-03-27T20:21:00.003+02:00

So as you see... I have made a few changes to the look of the blog... it's just temporary... as I want to try out a few ideas before I settle on one design...

Also this days till the weekend I will be a little bit busy with an exposition I am taking part to... and also with the design of the new looks of the blog... so you might see quite low posting activity from my side :) but for those of you who do want to read something... please feel free to explore the Archive... as I am sure that there are a lot of post that you didn't lay your eyes on...

Things (related to the posting) will get back in order by next week... even if I didn't decide on a final design as yet...

Rome (cuz' I've got to share)

2008-03-24T01:06:00.033+02:00

Well so I have been to Rome a couple (or so) weeks ago...

And after all this time I fell the need to share my impression about that city... and also some pictures that I took there...

The first thing that really got my attention were the transportation... Trains, Metro, Buses... you name it... I found them to be way to cool... compared to other European Capitals... Not only the vehicles... but also the stations...

And their buses... on some lines they had this tiny busses :)

A cool thing about bus transport in Rome was that they had night buses... as in... daytime transport was form 5 or something till midnight... and during the night there were night buses which took you around the city from midnight till morning...

The week I stood in Rome was enough for me to get literally bored of "stones"... (although some of them were very beautiful I might add...)

big stones...

too many stones...

beautiful stones...

sacred stones...

Well that's enough about stones...

This trip for me was somewhat a dream come true...

Fontana di Trevi is one of the nice sites of the city... they say you can make a wish and throw a coin in the fountain... and it will come true... and also if you do that... you will for sure come again to Rome... to revisit the fountain...

After that I visited the Vatican... And why not go to the museums when it's free :) so arrived there the last Sunday of the month... and where it's free... it's a crowd waiting to get in...

not to many you say...? there's more...

... and more...

... and even more...

... and still more...

... and after about two hours...

... we were finally at the entrance....

Another thing that I noticed... there were a lot of foreigners...

One thing that I really loved about that city... were the palm trees...

Some strange things also attracted my attention...

like flying unicorns...

... close up...

... a lock on the neon grill...

... a 1L beer mug... as regular measure...

... metro line works turned into archeological sites...

... cool shaped pasta...

There were also some memorable sights and spots...

Funny thing that happened... while I was in Rome visiting... I hear a woman's voice (a mother calling her daughter) with a British accent... "Where is your brother?" and the young daughter replied with total lack of interest in the matter... with the same British accent... "I don't know. Most probably taking a picture somewhere."

I totally recognized my self in that girls brother... as I was in Rome with my sister... and a really do take A LOT of pictures... and as matter of fact it all happened while I was so concentrated on taking the last two pictures above... Well after all photography is my passion... and wherever I go... my camera follows... :) well almost everywhere... but most of the times when I don't have it with me I regret it... cause I miss a lot of shots... sometimes really great shots... too bad I don't have a way with words... cause I would have opened my very own blog with "photo shots I didn't take" or "photo shots I missed" :) or something... but let's get back and finish the story at hand...

Of course... while being there I also got in touch with fellow AIESECers... joined an Alumni event... had some great time with them over a beer... made some new friends...

And finally... also met some "typical" Italians... (watch the hands...)

So all this being said... and shown... I put an end to this story telling... after a lot of nice memories...

And... as Snagglepuss used to say... "Exit Stage Left..."

Heineken

2008-03-23T00:58:00.005+02:00

A commercial that I find really... touching... I mean... all... those bottles... of beer... why?!

Nice viral by the way :)

Tatarça Firefox

2008-03-22T01:52:00.007+02:00

So what do you know... looks like the guys contributing to Mozilla's Firefox recently released a Tatar language pack for it. I only saw it when I wanted to get the new version and ditch all the add-ons I had have a fresh install... it was written there: Language Packs, Language: Tatarça ... Download :) It needs some getting used to... but if you are a regular user of Firefox... you should know by now where things are... so the language pack is more like eye candy :))

P.S. I am Tatar... that's why I find this interesting :)

7 Bizarre Things to Do After You’re Dead

2008-03-20T22:56:00.005+02:00

Well seems that some of us just can't let go of this world... without making a scene... Here's how you can be sure that your death gets heard of... The guys at HEALTHBOLT came up with a list of 7 things you can to:

Have your body stuffed
Launch yourself into space
Make yourself into the hardest thing on the planet
You and your body could always “go green”
You could go online
Have someone eat your sins
Maybe you’re not going quietly into that good night at all

To find out what each of this means... go to the article at HEALTHBOLT.

Responsible Supply Chain Management

2008-03-20T01:58:00.005+02:00

Well it look like they you can do more with your suppliers than just expect them to get your stuff delivered on time...

As Karl Daumüller, Program Manager at HP Global Procurement Services puts it, with over 400 contracted manufacturers worldwide, who employ more than 400,000 workers at over 1,000 manufacturing locations around the world, HP has one of the largest supply chains in the industry. And they know that it's quite a challenge to have a big supply chain of this size, but also they saw an opportunity in this.

They create a good relationship between them and the suppliers. What good? Well you help me I help you, in turn your help will be better, and then my help back will be even better... you know you scratch my back... I'll scratch yours...

Technically speaking, often the suppliers are unfortunately partly not in a position to develop social and environmental practices themselves as they lack needed resources and skills. This is why HP follows a capability building, education and cooperation approach in their supply chain management.

But how is that CSR? Well you don't only help yourself by helping your supplier... but also helping your supplier might result in new job openings, and of course if the supplier is also suppling other companies as well... those companies too might benefit from your help...

Now that's a good example of CSR...

Context

2008-03-19T02:33:00.002+02:00

Look at the previous post...
Yes without Arabic knowledge you would assume that it is a news about Iraq, about terrorism... bla bla bla...
Well it's about Kosovo... and the situation there with the UN troops retreating and the NATO forces that are moving in...
Why am I writing about it... just to make a point... that the way you write it can influence people in believing that it's something else... that it's the context that matters...
For example if it was a different situation... for sure seeing a text in Arabic wouldn't send you thinking about terrorism...
And for those of you who know how Google Search works as in getting your website to be top of the list without paying... I'm sure you understand that by the same principle our mind associated Arabic, middle east, Iraq etc... with Terrorism... Hear them together everyday in the news, on the radio, in our leaders' speeches... and by the end of the week any kinder garden kid will be able to make the association...
Just as Google tries to protect it's Search Engine form Search Bombs... we should also try to protect ourselves from all the BS that is in the news and in the world that surrounds us... or better yet fight against it... (not talking about hands on weapons kind of fight)
Peace!

شمال كوسوفو تحت القانون العسكري

2008-03-19T02:22:00.004+02:00

وضع حلف شمال الأطلسي (الناتو) بلدة ميتروفيتسا شمال كوسوفو تحت القانون العسكري بعد أعمال شغب أسفرت عن مقتل أحد أفراد شرطة الأمم المتحدة وانسحاب البقية. وفي هذه الأثناء دعت وزيرة الخارجية الأميركية كوندوليزا رايس "كافة الأطراف" للامتناع عن اللجوء إلى "العنف".

Energy!

2008-03-17T02:27:00.004+02:00

There are just a few songs that could keep me up in the night when I have to work... 'keep me up in the night' not in the sense that I can not sleep... but makes me feel like not needing to... makes me feel I have all the energy in the world and that I can make the night without having to sleep :) It really helps to have this kind of songs... especially if you sometimes need to stay awake to do something at night... and don't want to rely on coffee :)
So here is one of my many 'keep me up in the night' songs...
Enjoy!

AIESEC Constanta 15 Years Celebration Event

2008-03-17T02:04:00.005+02:00

Patapon!

2008-03-14T01:29:00.006+02:00

Yesterday I received a link from my sister to a crazy website... crazy I tell you... I opened the link... and I was kind of in the middle of something there... and didn't have the browser in focus... and suddenly I start hearing this war chants... "Pon Pon Pata Pon!" ... WTF!?? I call up the browser... and what do I see... a bunch of weirdos chanting and worshiping dun no who on my browser...
So who are this guys? Well they are the Patapons... :) and they are inhabitants of this nice game called Patapon. There are also a few things you can try over their website... but the best part I'd say is the Demo... but as the games was designed for PSP... you guessed it... the Demo is also for PSP...
But the website is still worth visiting... who knows when and from where a PSP will drop into your hands... :)

Protection

2008-03-13T14:06:00.005+02:00

I have been using Firefox for the last dun no how many years... I can tell you that this is the best browser I have ever used... and I used many... no name as I don't want to put other browsers in a bad light or smth...
Also Firefox make your life so much easier by letting you use all kinds of add-ons... from mouse gestures to keyconfig... form site rating report to dictionaries... you have them all and more... Also bundled with the Google toolbar, it makes your surfing even more pleasant by increasing the speed at which your web pages load...
What can you ask more? :)
Oh and I was saying protection... well for instance it always asks me before opening a pop-up... (feature that was implemented way before other browser even dreamed about it) and also having a rating report add-on helps you decide if you want to continue surfing on a web page or not... or help others avoid entering unwanted dangerous websites.
Now here is protection for you!
You can download Firefox with Google Toolbar from the side bar... see Get Firefox!