Sjaak van den Berg

Video

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:05:46 +0200

New portfolio online

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:56:00 +0200

I am pleased to invite you to check out our new portfolio website, kijkjeindekeuken.com. It features 5 campaigns and is built entirely in XHTML, CSS and jquery. Let me know if you like it!

Video

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:57:18 +0200

On Gaming

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:56:00 +0200

After Okami (I can’t recommend that game enough, it’s right up there with Zelda Windwaker & Twilight Princess in terms of gameplay and depth) and besides Hold’em Poker, there have been some other games I’ve been playing more. A few weeks ago I went to play in a homegame in Amsterdam to play Hold’em but we ended up playing Monopoly and Go! For stakes of course. Every match was handicapped. My odds on Go weren’t that good since I’m new to the game but managed to tie two best out of 5 matches.

Also in cardgames I’ve been playing a lot more Omaha online. I don’t play or like Razz games as much these days, maybe it’s because I like Hold’em strategy better. It leaves more room for creativity and psychological flexibility.

Some final random thoughts: Since paragliding in France last week was so much fun, I’ve bought a Wii Fit as a sort of visual reminder to go out and exercise. Oh, and Capcom needs to make an Okami sequel.

Apple iTunes License Agreement

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:49:00 +0200

A few words to people using iTunes. Since most of us skip reading the license agreement and hit the ‘I Agree’ button without questioning what’s written in there, I took the liberty to highlight some interesting parts from the mighty Apple License Agreement:

10. Export Control. You may not use or otherwise export or reexport the Apple Software except as authorized by United States law and the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Apple Software was obtained. In particular, but without limitation, the Apple Software may not be exported or re-exported (a) into any U.S. embargoed countries or (b) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Department of Commerce Denied Person’s List or Entity List. You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

So you have found a way to create nuclear weapons with your copy of iTunes, please don’t.

Without limiting the foregoing, under no circumstances shall 3Com be held liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from acts of nature, forces, or causes beyond its reasonable control, including, without limitation, Internet failures, computer equipment failures, telecommunication equipment failures, other equipment failures, electrical power failures, strikes, labor disputes, riots, insurrections, civil disturbances, shortages of labor or materials, fires, floods, storms, explosions, acts of God, war, governmental actions, orders of domestic or foreign courts or tribunals, non-performance of third parties, or loss of or fluctuations in heat, light, or air conditioning.

Also, you cannot sue 3Com (which apparently has something to do with iTunes) if God for some reason decides to interfere with the operation of your copy of iTunes. For those still not sure, 3Com is not above God, cannot control the weather, is not liable if their equipment breaks down and if for some reason their employees aren’t happy and decide to go on a strike, that’s not their fault either. In other words, if you can find something they can be sued on, you must be God. I wonder where Allah or any other deity stands in this whole story. Would Buddha sabotage your copy of iTunes?

For those interested, here is a page filled with rules and regulations for those night you just can’t catch your sleep.

Freedom of what?

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:36:00 +0200

Look. And this is pretty much common sense as I see it. You can believe in whichever god you choose, I’m not going to stop you. But I can personally question it, can’t I? Can’t I debate with someone about their faith? You may call me whatever you wish for not believing the way you believe, but then please allow me to retort, ask you why you feel this way and explain my take on it. Not that I’d waste that much time on that but let’s talk hypothetically.

Any subject that concerns the people of a village, town, city, country or cave, should be up for public debate. That seems like common sense, doesn’t it? Just like when the company you’re working for decides to cut your wage, you should be able to discuss this with your co-workers, with management, hell, even with you’re dog if you feel like it. Spill your guts, tell people how you feel about it. After all, this impacts your life. Any change in society impacts your life in some way. Some changes have a bigger impact than others but in any case, you should be able to have an opinion about whatever you wish, and be allowed to voice your opinion.

I think it was once called ‘freedom of speech’. But at its current rate of erosion, the next generation will not be able to comprehend what it was like, to be able to say whatever was on your mind.

The UN Counsil doesn’t appear to agree;

Pakistan Daily Times Article, June 19th 2008:

GENEVA: Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council. Religions deserve special protection because any debate about faith is bound to be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense”, council President Doru-Romulus Costea said Wednesday.

In this article from Radio Netherlands, our prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende is said to agree with the latter of the following two views of freedom of speech:

unlimited freedom of expression
the judicious limiting of freedom of expression in not always saying what one thinks

So sometimes you can say what’s on your mind, but other times you’ll get arrested when you do so. That is not freedom of speech. Here my take:

total freedom of speech
no freedom of speech

I choose the former over the latter and I think people should be stimulated to speak their minds about things they’re concerned about. The only side-effect is that people might get insulted. And people who are insulted are faced with a different opinion than their own and find it hard to accept as a valid viewpoint. I think people who can’t welcome a difference of opinion are a lot more dangerous than the people who speak their mind. And that’s the way I feel about it.

You can agree with it and you can disagree with it. If you want to debate with me about it, my e-mail address is on the right hand side of this page. After all, this is still a free country. Or at least I’d like to think so.

And I think our prime minister is a spineless, narrow-minded asshole, any Muslim who thinks it’s okay to kill a woman because of ‘honour’ should experience castration by scorpions and any Jehova’s Witness who thinks they can get me to join their fruity little club will find themselves having a hard time. Because I can.

Gold and silver recovering..

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:45:05 +0200

After the May 1st crash when silver and gold were respectively $16.11 and $848.90 a share, they’re slowly climbing back. Although gold closed at over $900 last friday, it was $870 before the previous weekend.

Gold Price Close Today : 884.80
Gold Price Close Last Friday: 900.40
Change: -16.50 or -1.8%

Silver Price Close Today : 16.780
Silver Price Close Last Friday: 17.387
Change: 60 cents or -3.5%

US Dollar Index Today: 73.46
US Dollar Index Last Friday: 73.053
Change: 0.41 or 0.6%

The UK Telegraph reported:

“The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.

“A very nasty period is soon to be upon us - be prepared,” said Bob Janjuah, the bank’s credit strategist.

A report by the bank’s research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as “all the chickens come home to roost” from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets.

Such a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century.”

So yeah. Bad sign. I haven’t heard any fat lady sing though.

"I blend, therefore I am."

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:12:33 +0200

“I blend, therefore I am.”

Jesus has.. casinos?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:54:04 +0200

I was watching the New Zealand Poker Champions 08 game, and I noticed something (besides the obviously baby-sized prizemoney compared to the big US tournaments, they’re still getting started :).. Jesus approves of poker! Gamblers DO get into heaven! :D And I almost gave up hope!

I can finally dust off my jesus-chips!

Love @ Threadless

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:57:52 +0200

My submission for the “Loves” Challenge from Fray @ Threadless.com.

Mr. P @ IMDB

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:11:38 +0200

Mr. P @ IMDB:

It seems like Phil Ivey has a job on the side that we didn’t know about ;)

Another show from J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias)! The first episode...

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:46:08 +0200

Another show from J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias)! The first episode looks promising. We’ve got an FBI chick, a DHS guy with information classified ‘above top secret’, a mad scientist released from jail to help contain a virus and his son who also got pulled from Iraq to help out. The FBI chick’s partner got the virus so she tries so save him and a lot more is going on in this first episode. Check it out!

A new constitution for Kosovo

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:45:07 +0200

Kosovo used to be a province of Serbia. Last sunday a new constition went into effect. Up until the NATO intervention in 1999, the ethnic Albanians were being repressed by Serbian president Milosovic. Kosovo declared independence on Feb. 17th, 2008 with the backing of the USA and the EU. On the other side there’s Serbia with Russia as its ally.

In the country are two communities, on the one side more than 100,000 Serbs who live in segregated enclaves, surround by the country’s ethnic Albanian majority of two million people. Peace is at the least extremely fragile, with about 16,000 NATO troops trying to keep the Serbs from getting killed.

What all the politics is about is not about giving Serbs their own country, it’s about who gets to supervise them. In the new constitution it calls for the EU to perform the oversight role from the UN, while Serbia and Russia say the the EU mission is illegal because it hasn’t been approved by the Security Counsil.

So again the political squabble is about who gets to rule the people. In Caglavica, a Serbian enclave about a mile south of Pristina where 200 Serb families live an isolated existence, Zoran Ristic, a theater director, said neither the European Union nor the Constitution would make any difference to his life.

“The new Constitution may be a happy day for some people, but we have constant electricity outages, our water is cut off, and we are living in a ghetto where most people never leave,” he said. “This Constitution is just a lot of blah, blah, blah.”

Megatron

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 05:37:54 +0200

My future cat, named Megatron.

Okami

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:15:00 +0200

I need to buy this. It looks awesome in some of the videos I’ve seen. It’s cellshaded and reminds me of Zelda for the Wii where you could transform in a wolf. I read on GameSpot or some other gaming site that it’s supposed to have around 40 hours of gameplay. I’ve been spending a lot of money on that thing lately. I bought Mario Kart Wii with an extra one of those awesome steering wheels. An older game I’ve had for a while, Need for Speed Carbon, instantly made sense. I only played it a couple of times since I bought it and then never touched it again because the steering was complete bs with a Wiimote. It’s just impossible. Terrible. Oh and ever since WiiWare came out I’ve bought everything that came out on it, they’ve got some good ones. Lost Winds was entertaining. Gotta go, gotta rebuy.

Brands of the World

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:24:26 +0200

Brands of the World

Video

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:31:13 +0200

The Bubble

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:30:24 +0200

The Bubble: How homeowners, speculators and Wall Street dealmakers rode a wave of easy money with crippling consequences.

"Everything we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream."

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:26:18 +0200

“Everything we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream.”

- Edgar Allan Poe

Photo

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:21:36 +0200