Anyway, so far so good. But the TrueCrypt manual is really cool to read. It’s about Plausible Deniability and that kind of stuff, meaning they explain to you how to fuck with the authorities when they use extortion or water-boarding to make you reveal your dirty secrets.

Especially the Hidden Volume is really neat. You can create a hidden encrypted volume within a already encrypted volume. There is no way to know that it is there.  This is a powerful asset together with the plausible deniability. Throw in some awesome cascade encryption algorithms and you’re done (how cool is the AES-Twofish-Serpent algorithm?!).

Having said this, I wonder why there are still for example those sick m*therf*ckers who get caught with a computer full of  “illegal porn”. I guess only these stupids get caught, and that is probably for the best.

While I’m typing this, I’m sitting in some jet flying over Denmark.

I am so bored… This whole flying thing is not my cup of tea. Sure, after paying 30e extra for an emergengy exit seat I’m quite comfortable, but it is so fucking boring. Not only am I completely fed up with my Vrij Nederland magazine, and my headset for music really sucks, there is someone really smelling over here.

So out of boredom I’m typing this on my phone. Hoping that the cute flight attendant will ask me whether I am texting or something and that it is not allowed.

Yes I am that bored.

2010 will be the bomb-shizzle!

Anyway, when will they see that it really doesn’t matter?

It was speculated that all the accelerators producing large amounts of Higgs particles such as the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) would mean that the initial conditions must have been arranged so as not to allow these accelerators to work.

Some smart dudes are on to Marty McFly and its racing Delorean who doesn’t like mini black holes in his universe. I mean, why go through all the trouble of fixing the time line after screwing with his teenage-mom when this Biff-like device will destroy it all?

So I see it as my personal mission to build my own LHC. I mean, how hard can it be? If I start now, and finish before 2012, the Mayans were right (or were they?).

Writers Block cartoon

But hey! Now I’ve a post again. That’s more than most people have! Maybe some other time I’ve something real to say. Maybe my life just boring (… not really actually, but still a valide question).

Edit: Oh btw, with microblogging I mean Twitter (not this post :-) ). Like http://www.twitter.com/biglaurens

… anyway I’m talking about TV. I don’t have TV anymore. Well, I do have a TV, but don’t have TV. Do I make sense?

After my television provider/company (whatever they’re called) was raising the monthly fee (again), I saw the loophole to get out. I unsubscribed immediately without having to sit out my contract for the rest of the year.

Why would anyone who has some 20Mb interwebs flowing through some copper wire into his or her home bother with television? Everything that is on television here in the Netherlands is some crap from the States, or some semi-intellectual talk show from the public channels. The former I can see the day after it aired in the States by downloading it from some famous bay taken over by pirates, and the latter I can (legally) stream form the specific website (if I can be bothered).

It is quite a good thing actually. Everything I watch now is on-demand. I follow half a dozen series now. Each airing one episode a week, so at the beginning of the week I have my media player loaded with a weeks worth of brand spanking new shows. One episode a day. No mindless channel-zapping anymore.

I noticed that some kind of TV-behaviour is somehow  manifesting itself now: I started reading more now, but the short attention span of the TV-generation is still in effect. At the moment I’m reading four books in parallel.

… kinda like zapping …

The great thing about Google Reader  -apart from not having to surf to a gazillion websites-, is that the shared items feature and the ability to follow people allow you to constantly encounter new and cool stuff from the interwebs.

The new features in Google Reader, the Explore section, is supposed to enhance this. Since the day it went live, I’ve been using it. However, there’s something about the Popular Items feature I find disturbing: almost everything it comes up with (ca. 90%) is “old news” (like: read it before on some other feed). It makes me feel I’ve finished the interwebs! I suspect that the “like” feature is to blame. I started to use it heavily since the new features in GR went live, because I figure that it should know my taste in reading?

Then there is the Recommended list feature. This one tends to come up with all kinds of feeds about kittens and other cute and fluffy animals just because I am subscribed to the LOLCats feed (and read every post … come on! kittens with funny captions!!)?

Anyway, maybe all my subscriptions happen to be the popular ones, so that Popular Items is not to blame. And maybe I’m just a sucker for cute kittens? I’ll see where it goes with this Explore feature.

:begin
 if needed product is furniture then
    enter through exit;
    look for furniture in the self service warehouse;
    get and buy;
    exit;
  else if needed product includes non furniture
    you're screwed.
  end if
:exit

You see, you always end up with stuff you don’t need. The only safe way to shop at Ikea’s is when you only need some furniture. This is all exhibited in the warehouse where you can grab it and run to the exit, while not distracted by shiny stuff you do not need. Entering through the exit will immediately bring you in the warehouse, eliminating the need to go through the store.

… because the shortcuts in the store won’t work! They are hidden, strategically placed at some stuff you can’t resit to buy, crowded by crying children and almost, but not entirely, completely too narrow for you’re shopping cart to cleanly pass through.

On the other hand (turning something negative into something positive): It would be a great lesson in learning patience when I go to the Ikea on a public holiday? Let’s do that. Looking forward to it!

“We ship via Hong Kong Post Airmail. Our systems are integrated and we have partnership accounts with Hong Kong Post in order to make free shipping offers possible.”

Right… So let’s do some research: according to the Hong Kong post calculator a simple package to The Netherlands will set you back a hefty 26HK$ (approx. 2.60EUR). Bulk rates to Europe (The Netherlands is not on the chart, so I looked at Germany) will cost you around 60HK$ a kilo. Considering a small package weighing at least some 200g, it will still costs 12HK$ just to fly it over the big pond.

A hell of a partnership they have with Hong Kong post! Not to mention the added value this system integration has given them! Something the Magic Quandrand companies can use in their sales pitches.

I have a simpler explanation: just as everything on the other side of the globe is upside-down, the Chinese have found a way to successfully implement Negative Money.

We’re all doomed … George Agdgdgwngo would be proud.

We see all kinds of alien costumes, spooky servo eyes, and more costumes like this one, or this one, or … these … I think I start to see the fun of it …

What was I saying?