Archive for February, 2011

Certified VSAT installer

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Well, well, almost 14 years after I started my career in the satellite industry and thus almost 14 years after I installed my first VSAT, I am finally certified to do so, yayy! πŸ˜‰

Today I completed the ‘Global VSAT Forum Course No. GVF510 – Core Skills for VSAT Installers‘ and obtained my certification, hehe!

Uhh, do I expect to install a VSAT any time soon? Well, actually not, although I am more than willing to go for another trip to sunny Kinshasa, D.R. Congo, or sweet Lagos, Nigeria if I am asked; it was an amazing experience, back in January 2001!! πŸ˜‰

2000 blogposts!

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

If I counted correct πŸ˜‰ , *this* is my 2000th blogpost…yayyy!!

Quite a number which takes some dedication…’the road’ to #2000:

I published my first post on February 10 2005; it was a standard test-post coming from my blogging tool at the time, Pivot. 6 Months later, from early September 2005, I started blogging daily (though weekdays only), the true daily posts came from June 12 2007, coincidentally just before I moved to Norway (I guess the availability of mobile internet also has something to do with that πŸ˜‰ ).

After I changed my main site from raymondpoort.nl to raymondpoort.com in January 2008 (and changed blogging tool from Pivot to WordPress in the process), post #1000 was published on June 13 2008. As I didn’t miss a day since then (March 28 2008 was actually the last day I ‘missed’ a post), so we are now around 1000 days further! (990 days to be exact πŸ˜‰ )

This is my personal weblog (I’m blogging for me, myself & I πŸ˜‰ ) and the 2000 posts became a valuable ‘diary’. The blog gained quite some traffic after I moved to Norway, I guess it provides easy access for friends and family to keep up with day-to-day life!

Well, I have no intention to stop, so expect #3000 on Friday November 22 2013 (or earlier)! πŸ˜‰

http://raymondpoort.com/2008/06/13/1000-blogposts/

The making of Florida One

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

This YouTube clip shows the B737-800 assembly line at Boeing and the painting of Florida One, a Specialty Plane made for Southwest Airlines…cool!

World Championship Ski Jumping

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Norway is going wild these days (even wilder than normal πŸ˜‰ )…the reason? The Oslo 2011 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships; in other words, 12 days of biathlon, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and the combination of those two!
A friend got me a ticket for todays event; ski jumping at the Holmenkollen Ski Jump. I was pretty excited since this would be the very first time for me to see ski jumpers coming down the ski jump or at least, that’s what I thought I’d see…unfortunately it was FOGGY, so there was not much to see… πŸ™ The atmosphere was fantastic though: singing, dancing, drinking, cheering, especially for the sole Dutch participant (!!), Wendy Vuik. She finished 23rd, not bad for someone from the Low Lands…below a picture of her jump, uhh, can you see her?? πŸ˜‰

MacBook Pro updated, with Thunderbolt

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Apple updated its MacBook Pro line of notebooks today with next generation processors (2x faster) and graphics (3x faster), a new FaceTime HD camera *and* the brand new high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology! Once more, Apple sets the standard for other notebook manufacturers by including Thunderbolt I/O which is targeted to become the standard for connecting virtually any type of I/O device such as external drives, displays (incl. HDMI), camcorders, etc.

Uhh…iWant! πŸ˜‰

Well, I promised myself the new 17″ model when the house in NL is sold, so…Mr. Buyer, please come now!Β  πŸ˜‰

Fourth time uncle Raymond!

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

My sister got her second child this morning!! Born at 05:19h, Amber is the first baby girl in the family. Martine & Arjan called me just before I left for work and even though it was a long night for them, both were still filled with lots of energy. Everything is fine with mother, father and son…hehe, Tygo actually slept the entire night, ain’t that a great kid! πŸ˜‰

I can’t wait to see my niece tonight, long live Skype!!

QOTD February 22 2011

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Dorothy Fields: “Love is the reason for it all.”

Automated router upgrade, wtf?

Monday, February 21st, 2011

I got a message from my internet provider informing me that they would start a remote upgrade of my router in order to improve security, and they would start it, NOW! Oh, and the router configuration would be deleted in the process…wtf??

Jeez, ain’t that a great way to satisfy your customer…NOT!

And I don’t want to know what this so called improved security means; I guess that the router software is now filled with sniffing and tracking ‘features’,Β  bye bye bittorrent… πŸ™

Escher’s Waterfall in 3D!

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

Wow!! Finally someone has been able to create M.C. Escher‘s Waterfall for real, check out the YouTube clip below!!

Wow, this means that we are coming very close to the actual creation of an infinite (clean) energy supply!!

Byebye Global Warming / Climate Change / Biodiversite!! Right??

Uhhhhh… πŸ˜‰



Cross-country skiing at Buvannet

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Today was a GREAT day for outdoor activity; extremely nice sunny (yet cold) weather, and with the loads of fresh snow that fell this week, the conditions were perfect for cross-country skiing. We went to Buvannet, a lake ‘around the corner’ (the same lake that I went to with my sister last year, having slightly different weather though πŸ˜‰ ).

The pictures below show it all; a fantastic trip!!
(click for a bigger version)

New passport & driver’s license

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Both my passport and driver’s license would expire later this month so I needed to get myself some new government papers. πŸ˜‰

I already applied for a new passport at the embassy some weeks ago, and arranged a new driver’s license while I was in NL earlier this week. The passport was waiting for me at the postoffice when I came home this week, so within a week, I’m all set for the coming 5 (driver’s license) and 10 (passport) years!

I *did* loose the sweet photo of this youngggg guy though…hehe πŸ˜‰

XBMC on the AppleTV 2g!

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Yessss!!

Finally I had (/took) some time to jailbreak my AppleTV 2g and install the XBMC App on it. The process was pretty straightforward although it took a little while to get XBMC to find and connect to my movie-share located on the Apple Time Capsule…but now it all works, beautifully!! πŸ˜‰

Hehe, I love it when a plan comes together:

After buying the AppleTV early December, and anticipating the release of XBMC (end January) with the untethered jailbreak via Greenpois0n RC6 which was released some days ago, everything comes together…let’s watch a movie!

Happy geek in snowy Norway! πŸ˜‰

Life is a roller coaster

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

The past days have very been intense, experiencing ups and downs and realizing that life is just all about that; without darkness, no light, without downs, no ups.

“Life can be like a roller coaster…
And just when you think you’ve had enough,
and your ready to get off the ride and take the calm, easy merry-go round…
You change your mind, throw you hands in the air
and ride the roller coaster all over again.
That’s exhilaration…that’s living a bit on the edge…that’s being ALIVE.”

Copyright Β© 1999 Stacey Charter

Find your free condom in NYC!

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygienne: “This Valentine’s Day, which is also National Condom Awareness Day, finding free NYC Condoms will be easier than ever. Today, the Health Department launched the NYC Condom Finder, a free smartphone application designed to locate the five nearest New York City venues that distribute free NYC Condoms. The application allows users to determine their location through either global positioning system (GPS) technology on their smartphone or by manually entering an address.”

Haha, brilliant!! I have never been in NYC, perhaps I should go?!? πŸ˜‰

If you are interested in the App, find it here in the App Store!

QOTD February 14 2011, Valentine’s Day

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Osho: “Love, and more love becomes available; use more and you have more. This is the law of life. You can eat the cake and have it also. Compassion, love, activity, whatsoever the dimension, the same rule applies. Whatsoever you want more of, do the same. If you want to become an infinite source of love, then go on sharing love as much as you can.”

AppleTV 2g jailbreak released!

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Yay! As expected for some days, the Chronic Dev Team hero’s released Greenpois0n RC6, which makes an untethered jailbreak for my AppleTV 2g possible! Nice timing (not!) as I am in NL and not at home…it means that I have to wait for a few days to test the jailbreak and then finally be able to install the XBMC App!

Oh well, patience is a virtue, eh? I’ll keep you posted!

Running around in NL

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

We’re having a typical NL trip; running from here to there, picked up by my parents, then visiting Kissy’s grandmother, her mother, her father, surprising Rob on his Birthday party and crashing at Robbert’s place…a pretty intense day, especially due to the family matters, and more to come tomorrow, it’s all good though!

Song of the Day: Maybe Tomorrow

Friday, February 11th, 2011

This is a *great* song, with a serious undertone: The Stereophonics with ‘Maybe Tomorrow‘…it’s for all to realize that it ‘may be tomorrow’, yet the moment is always today, NOW!

House dispute settled!

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Sometimes things move fast!!

We have had a dispute with the seller of our house for the past 1,5 years (indeed, that is basically right after we moved in!!). The dispute seemed to end up in a court case on March 1. However, yesterday the other party requested a settlement…we set the amount and apparently found the sweet spot, as they already today agreed with the settlement amount!

Oof, FINALLY this dispute has come to an end, yayyy!! (so, soon we will have the disputed items fixed: we *will* have floor heating in both bathrooms and get the electricity/cabling in the house properly done!)

Settlement?!?

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

New developments in the upcoming court case: the other party came with a request to settle the dispute out of court today…so, we’ve set the amount for a settlement, now let’s see if they bite! πŸ˜‰

I believe everyone is better off without taking this to court, let’s hope they accept! (we would miss out on an experience though πŸ˜‰ )