Posts

  • The Key to Hell

    The Key to Hell
  • Jewellery with stone

    Jewellery with stone
  • Dart

    Dart
  • Dart board

    Dart board
  • The road to driving, part 5

    Called the Lyon police in the end of November and got an appointment. Unfortunately, the clutch gave in just a few days before the meeting, so I had to postpone it until after Christmas. January 6 I called again, and got a meeting the next day.

  • Catch 22 in an email only world

    After playing through Half-Life 2, I had a look at the Steam forums to check out the pending bugfixes, screenshots, and wallpapers. Some of the posts warranted a reply, so I went to the registration page and submitted the necessary data.

  • The Internet generation

    Sometime when I was younger, I heard that generations normally shift with 30 years' interval. So either I was just on the "old" side of the last shift, or the generations are changing faster now than my parents' lore would have it.

  • Sex & violence on the 'net

    Context: Slashdot recently featured an article entitled "Internet Porn More Addictive Than Crack, Senate Told". As is usual on Slashdot, the most interesting part of the articles are the comments from the readers, often extending to tens of pages of political, religious, and technical debate. Sure, most people seem to be left-leaning nerds, but everyone gets to say their piece. Back to the article, it touches the highly controversial theme of how "computerized" sex and violence influence people of all ages, and whether and how it should be controlled. I started on a new comment at Slashdot, but realized that it had slid into being quite off-topic, so instead I'll post it here. Comments are welcome, but please note:

  • Patent suicide

    Yeah, I know. Everyone's writing about it, so this isn't going to get too original. But I'd like to write some of this down before the Black Monday of patent hogs happens, and the system finally gets the review and revolution it needs.

  • The road to driving, part 4

    Calling the DRIRE was quite fruitless. Close, but no cigar. So I tried calling the Lyon Police again, but it seems that the person I talked to only two days ago must have been from a parallel universe; suddenly nobody knows anything about sound tests! I talked to at least three persons, and all of them seemed to be unable to get past asking me why I needed the paper. I tried my best to explain, but obviously I was not coming through. At the umptieth "Je ne compris pas" (I don't understand), I asked my French office colleague to please explain my situation. After talking to four different persons, she gets a number which, according to the person somewhere else, might be the right one. I don't have the energy to cross my fingers.