The US Health System

Last night, I watched the latest Michael Moore documentary about the US Health System called Sicko. And, he does it again. For an average European, it's hard to imagine that people are left without proper medical care. It seems that the only thing that counts is making vast amounts of money, with an obvious disregard of human life. Sure, the United States is the land of opportunity, but at what cost? How can those medical insurance executives live with themselves? I guess that the millions earned are keeping them happy. There's a saying that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but in this case it's barren rotten wasteland. Things are not as bad in Holland as we might think, so if you have any doubt about our medical system, you should watch this movie.

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Mazzy Star

Last week, I watched a new episode of House M.D. It was an episode in which a patient dies (which doesn't happen a lot in House). In the final scene there was an awesome piece of music by Mazzy Star called 'Into Dust'. Yet another band with a great sound for my iTunes library. Too bad that their latest album is a over a decade old....

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Transfer Large Files to the Nokia E61

A couple of day's ago, I tried to play an episode of Painkiller Jane on my Nokia E61i. The original format was in the DivX format, so I used VisualHub to convert it on my Mac to the MP4 format (320 pixels wide). This part was relatively easy. The next step was a bit harder; trying to get the 100MB file from my Mac on the Nokia. Somehow, there's no way of transferring the file from a Mac to the Nokia via USB. The USB connection works file with iSync, but this has no option of synching files. When connecting, the phone gives you the option of using the 'PC Suite' or 'Data Transfer'. The first is using iSync, and the latter gives you an error that the devices can't be recognized. Nokia does have an application for the Mac to transfer files to, and from the phone (Nokia Media Transfer). BUT, the Nokia E61 is NOT supported This means you're left with Bluetooth, or using a web server and download the file. If you don't own your own webserver you're stuck with Bluetooth (which is terribly slow b.t.w.). Both are a pain in the butt in getting large fils on the phone. I had to resume the download via the web server about 10 times before I had downloaded it, and Bluetooth... well don't get me started on that. My advice; don't use a Mac to transfer large files to the phone, but use Nokia PC Suite with the USB cable on a PC to do that. B.t.w. the Nokia E61i played the episode just fine.

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Reality Donor Show Was a HOAX

A couple of weeks ago, a non-commercial TV station BNN announced that they would air a live kidney donor show. The idea was that a terminal ill patient got to decide which kidney patient could get her kidney. Lot's, and lot's of people (from all over the world) thought that this was an outrage. Yesterday the show aired (even though lot's of government officials were against it). At the end of the show, it seemed that it was just a hoax. The terminally ill patient was an actrice, but the needy kidney patients were real. Reason for airing this show was to make people see that organ donation is needed (a lot). It seems that Holland has to lowest rate of organ donors in Europe. Well, they surely succeeded in raising attention to the subject. The news travelled all over the world. Personally, I've been a registered donor since 1998. They may harvest my body, when I'm dead of course, for the good of mankind. After which they may burn what's left behind. My opinion on organ donation is that someone who is a donor should have a much higher priority for receiving a donor organ. Live isn't just about taking/consuming. It's also about giving. If you're not registered as a donor... click here, and make sure you become one as soon as possible.

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Lion versus Buffalo versus Crocodile

I've been to Africa three times now. I've seen lot's of animals. Even fighting elephants, but unfortunately I haven't seen any real action. Some tourists in Kruger Parc (South Africa) captured some awesome piece of action between buffalo's, lions, and a couple of crocodiles. Oh boy, this makes me want to go back to Africa right now.....

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German Humor

Anyone who says that the Germans don't have a sense of humor haven't seen the hilarious movie 'Dreamship Surprise' / 'Traumschiff Surprise - Episode Eins'.  The movie is a persiflage on Star Wars, and Star Trek. It's like Naked Gun, and Spaceballs, but then way more hilarious.

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More on the HD-DVD Key

The MPAA will have serious problems removing the key from the Internet. Even Google has received a letter to remove the links from their databases. Somehow, these retards have the idea that you can copyright a number. As the word spread yesterday the articles started showing up on Digg.com. Digg.com is a popular website where you can submit 'news', and others may rate it and comment on it. Within minutes the stories about this key got thousands of 'diggs'. This resulted in the fact that the moderators on Digg removed the posts. Result: Mass uproar. Kevin Rose (the Digg founder) wrote the following on his Digg blog:

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.

I think that's the right attitude towards this. Hopefully, the MPAA will come to its senses (not likely), and stops harrassing the consumers with their lame-ass copy-protection. It would even be better to abandon the 'turn every consumer into a criminal' DMCA bill completely, but that's another story.... Just to be sure you got the right key:

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

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ADSL Technology... wooohoooo (not)

I'm one of those lucky bastards who lives like a gazillion miles from a phone central. This means that the ADSL speed reduces dramatically on high speeds. My older ADSL subscription was an Ultra Fast subscription (20Mbps/1Mbps). Due to the distance I only got about 6Mbps (if the wind was blowing from the right direction). The cheaper version (Basic, 8Mbps/1Mbps) is slower, but I get relatively more speed (around 5Mbps). So for me, the additional <1Mbps more costed about 20 euro's a month..... Damn, it's about time that they start using different technologies to bring the Internet into peoples homes. How the hell will they be able to bring phone, Internet, and TV over the Internet? Currently, it would mean that downloads 'stop' if you pick up the phone, or that artifacts appear on the TV signal when browsing the Internet.

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Scotty Meets His Maker

Scotty, the engineer from Star Trek, has returned to space (for a short time) to meet his maker Gene Roddenberry. Yesterday, James Doohan's (better known as Scotty from the Sci-Fi series Star Trek) remains were launched in to space. Currently, over a hundred people are 'buried' in space. One of the first was Gene Roddenberry. He was the creator of the Star Trek series. I wonder who of the original Star Trek cast will be next to be 'buried' in space....

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What to Get?

The Apple TV box is available at this moment. This devices allows you to stream music, and movies from iTunes on your TV. Downside is that you also need iTunes to host these files, since the Apple TV can only sync with iTunes. This also introduces a limitation. It's not possible to watch videos in a format like DivX, or XviD. iTunes doesn't support those (and therefor, the Apple TV won't support them either. It is possible to hack the Apple TV and add DivX/XviD support (and lot's of other nifty features like installing a hacked version of OSX). To achieve this, you need to open the Apple TV (byebye warranty). The other possibility is to get a Mac Mini, and strip it down mainly for media center purposes. Downside with the Mac Mini is that it's a bit more expensive. Currently I use my MacBook Pro as a media center (whenever I need it). But this is kind of a hassle with power, audio and DVI connectors. So I need a (relatively cheap non Windows based) dedicated setup for watching content on my TV. *SIGH*

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