raymondpoort.com

I read about Billy Corgans plans for a Smashing Pumpkins reunion last year. Is site isn’t updated since he wrote on June 21, 2005:

"For a year now I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive The Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams. In this desire I feel I have come home again."

Well, earlier this month MTV, Netphoria and others reported that an album in is the make (in some future :))…YESSSS!! Then all we have to do is wait for a tour, for sure I’ll go there!

…or; Thank God It's Friday!!! Perhaps I should also thank Allah, the holy cow and my innerself nowadays? 🙂

It has been quite a week, work is work and killing, there is still no decision on my company car (SJEEZ, that's taking longggggg!!), but we won this weeks volleyball match and are still 4 points ahead of the rest! The numbers 2 and 3 are playing against eachother tonight, am anxious to find out the score!

This weekend is A1 Grand Prix (Indonesia), let's see if Jos Verstappen can repeat his super performance from two weeks ago!!

I’ve got hardly any time to post these days…work is killing, evenings are filled with sports or other activities. Stay tuned though, difficult doesn’t mean impossible, so I *will* find more time the coming days! You bet ya!

We went to the musical Mamma Mia in Utrecht yesterday! Arranged last minute tickets, so only knew late in the afternoon that we could go…great surprise and a nice show. I was a bit disappointed with the musical itself (probably had my expectations up too much!); the quality of the singers wasn’t all that good (even pro’s can sing off-key, huh?!! The band was somewhat low on energy it seemed, overall the sound was not that good. People did their best onstage, but (at least for us) we didn’t feel really part of the musical. After the break though things improved and the end was met the expectations fully…finally some swinging on those ABBA-tunes!!

Dropped by in the ‘Disco’ afterparty for a short while afterwards and decided to go home after a drink (still had to drive an hour orso)…then, AAAHHHHHHHH…we found my car (a temporary VW Passat stationwagon) with the rear glass broken and my beloved ‘Comsmack’ (a slow 4 year old Compaq) gone, not to mention some personal belongings from the same laptop-bag!!!

Stupid ofcourse to leave it in the car in the first place, yeahyeah I know. But what can you do, leaving for this musical from the office without dropping by at home. Apparently it was gang-night last night as over 80 cars in Utrecht alone  underwent the same nasty experience!!!

Those FUCKERS…stay the hell out of my car!!!

First reaction in the office today was to remind me how stupid I had been, as I didn’t realize that myself…thanks man. 🙁

Lesson learned. I guess the world is far from being a nice and social environment, eh? So much for my faith in society (at least this part of it) 🙁 🙁

For the rest things are OK, I’ll survive! 🙂

HeyheyHEYYYY!!

Jos Verstappen won the A1 Grand Prix in Durban, South Africa today!!!
A great race! Check out www.verstappen.nl (in dutch).

For those who don’t know; I play volleyball with Quintus from Kwintsheul (a tiny tiny village in the neighborhood). Not on a very high level (regional competition, 3rd class), but that might change!

We’re currently #1 ranked after 14 out of 22 games and yesterday we made a big step towards a possible championship…we played against #2, Kalinko, who were 2 points behind…after a tough and tight game we won 3-1 (with a last set won by 25-11 !!). He he he, they’re 4 points behind now! I’m sure the other teams in the competition have a difficult nut to crack now! YEAHHH!

For everyone who is interested in the ranking, check out the NEVOBO volleyball site (only in dutch, sorry!). I’m playing in the first men team (Quintus H1).

Happy Birthday sis!

Finally, a bird found his way to our front yard…it’s not ‘just’ a bird…it’s the:

‘Parus major’ in Latin, ‘Koolmees’ in dutch and ‘Great Tit’ in english…?!? Awesome name for a bird! 🙂

It crossed my mind multiple times over the last week, but completely forgot about it when posting the last days:

Last week Thursday was the first anniversary of my own domain!!

This weblog didn’t start till some months after, had to put some thought in setup and design, but it all starts with a domain registration, eh?

Saw a very, very interesting movie tonight;

What the Bleep Do We Know?! (or; What the #$*! Do We Know?!).

A cross-over between Quantum Mechanics, Spirituality, Religion, Emotion, Materialism and above all Unity.

All in all it’s like science meeting spirituality, brought in a conceptial way that will open the eyes of people.

I have always thought that those two were not seperated (like some would like one to believe), the movie proofs it, well…at least that’s my truth 🙂

A great movie, a great movement! Go and rent the DVD (or download it, ssttt…I didn’t tell you :)).

It made me remember stuff that was already inside, but deeper than I thought it was…it all felt like home-coming…amazing stuff!

Well, this is fun (or for those believing in conspiracy theories; scary!)…I heared it on the Maccast:

Apple’s stock price *after* the Macworld Expo Keynote by Steve Jobs, in which he announced the Intel based Macs, was $ 80,86…rings a bell??

For the geeks; the 8086 was the first Intel processor (‘back in the days’)!! From this processor also came the naming x86 for PC-type processors…WEIRD! 🙂

So, following the predictions made last week I now can publish the results as the Expo has ended:

At the same time I found out that I overlooked the possible announcement #5, for the record:

5. Price Increases for iTunes…Odds: 10-1.

🙂

For the record…this did NOT happen.

Well, here we go with the other 'results':

10. Mac OS X 10.5…Odds: 100-1.

Did NOT happen!

9. Intel PowerBook…Odds: 50-1.

DID happen! The name has changed (Macbook Pro) and obviously so have the specs…they did it, surprise the community!

8. iWork '06…Odds: 25-1.

DID happen! Perhaps not a huge upgrade, but still.

7. iLife '06…Odds: 10-1.

DID happen! It includes iPhoto with Photocasting support and iWeb, a great integrated web authoring tool. I saw shitloads of hits on my site for people searching a torrent for iLife 06…sorry, you will not find it here, I suggest you try isohunt.com (I know for a fact that the torrent can be found there…ssstttt! :))

6. Bluetooth remote control…Odds: 10-1.

Did NOT happen.

4. AirPort Ultra…Odds: 10-1

Did NOT happen.

3. 1GB iPod nano…Odds: 3-2.

Did NOT happen.

2. Intel Mac mini…Odds: Even money.

Did NOT happen. Maybe for the best, don't have the real need nor cash, but still would love to have one…in some months perhaps, better timing for sure 🙂

1. Widescreen Intel iBook.

Did NOT happen. Well, there is a notebook, but not the 'consumer' level one!

So much for the odds…number 1 – 6 didn't happen, 7 – 9 did…it's good I didn't put any money on the table for this one! 🙂

Steve Jobs last announcement starting with the famous 'oh, one more thing' brought indeed Intel based Macs, the iMac and Macbook Pro. This is a huge surprise…we knew that Intel based Macs were coming after the announcement last year. 'Promised' was that they would hit the market around June this year, starting with the consumer models, followed by the pro-type of machines mid 2007. Expectations were that the Mac mini would be the first one, together with an Intel based iBook…but no, Apple had to do things just a little different, again! Since everything they touch nowadays becomes gold, I guess there should be no doubt that this path will lead to success.

Slow on posting these days…no worries, it’s ‘just’ the usual crap at work. It’s also the cause that the temporary re-design of my blog holds up a bit longer than expected.

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

My baby has a damaged harddrive, at least that’s what it seems to be.

I cannot put more than 10 songs on it, then it reaches the damaged block and stops.

Boohooooo!

I really hope the built in iPod diagnostics will help me further with this one!

I dropped my iPod some days ago (aahhhh!!!) and tonight I experienced the first problems because of it, one of the songs wouldn’t open.

The previous pictures disappeared, due to the temporary design…I wonder why?

UPDATE: problem solved…and I don’t know why…huh?

You can’t miss it…I’ve got a new design.

Reason is the archive issue I’ve had. As I couldn’t solve it for some reason, I installed a fresh copy of my blogging-tool (Pivot, v1.3b3). As this version is using other templates, it will take some time to change back to the previous design while still making use of the advanced functionalities of the new version…time I don’t have at the moment 🙂

Hopefully I’ve got some time this Sunday!

The archives are down!

Yeahyeah, I screwed up…will fix it tonight!

ZDNet published a Top 10 of things Apple could announce at Macworld Expo (held coming week):

Here we go:

10. Mac OS X 10.5…Odds: 100-1.

9. Intel PowerBook…Odds: 50-1.

8. iWork ’06…Odds: 25-1.

7. iLife ’06…Odds: 10-1.

6. Bluetooth remote control…Odds: 10-1.

4. AirPort Ultra…Odds: 10-1

3. 1GB iPod nano…Odds: 3-2.

2. Intel Mac mini…Odds: Even money.

1. Widescreen Intel iBook.

On one hand I don’t hope that we see the Intel Mac mini introduction coming week, as I will have a hard time explain why I would need one at home…
On the other hand…YEAH BABY YEAHHH, GRRROOVY! 🙂

Allpeers, the Firefox killer app!

Found it via Scripting News (Dave Winers blog), the original post is here.
Very cool stuff, integrating bittorrent in the Firefox browser, it makes our life easier, again 🙂
I’m guessing the internet community will jump on this one and if it works like it is planned it will indeed be a killer app!