Cogs can think.

I must say that it does kind of sting a little bit. The King Of Pop is dead.

Yes, he became a weirdo freak, but he didn’t exactly have an easy life. That’s no excuse, but it is important context.

The world lost one of its greatest artists last night.

Beste. Comment. Ooit.

Ik vind ‘t allemaal wel mee vallen. Alleen die zonnebril van Wouter slaat nergens op. Als ik mijn zonnebril kwijtraak, wanneer ik voor de baas in het buitenland zit, dan moet ik dat declareren bij de verzekeraar en niet bij de staat. Oke, sinds de crises is de verzekeraar in handen van de staat, maar dan nog slaat het nergens op.

Wow, a blog post!

Google, please fix this!

Ordered a new computer today, to replace my way-too-loud P4 media centre.

Foxconn L10-S3 barebone, which is a mini-ITX system which comes with a dual-core Intel Atom 330 processor (2x1.6Ghz) with HyperThreading enabled. It uses Intel’s 945GC chipset, which has an Intel GMA 950 graphics processor. The motherboard has two SATAII slots and one low-profile PCI slot. The small case has two 2.5″ bays, and one 5.25″ one. I ordered 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM, and a 160GB hard drive.

Apart from the PSU, the entire system is passively cooled, no fans whatsoever. Technically, you could use boot132 to install Mac OS X on it without actually modifying the Mac OS X disk, which means you’re not circumventing any protection measures from Apple. That will be the first article for OSNews.

I’m pretty psyched about it.

BioWare talks about Mass Effect 2; Mass Effect 1 was probably my most intense video game experience ever.

Fiona Shepard is ready for the story to continue. BioWare, take your time with ME2. It should be perfect.

Sometimes, I ask myself: why do I do it? Why is the first thing I do in the morning to check the web for new stories to clear the submission queue, to try and get any really hot news out there as quickly as possible? Why is that also the last thing I do before I go to bed?

It’s not that I feel underappreciated - oh no - it’s just sad that some people have the apparent urge to deride your work every chance they get. No matter how much you improve things, no matter how much you listen, no matter how much you try to cater to their needs, there is always this small, but very vocal group of people who feel like they’re entitled to more. Like I owe them something. Like they can boss me around and order me to do things because they somehow think they “know” how to run a website.

The problem is that most of the people that read OSNews are silent readers. They don’t have an account, they don’t comment. So this small and vocal group have this delirious idea that they are a majority, because they are too stupid to realise that OSNews’ readership is much, much, much larger than the small group who regularly comments.

And me, I have to accept all their bossing, whining, entitling. I have to suck it, swallow it, and if I don’t smile while doing it, they’ll threaten to shove it down somebody else’s throat.

You know what? If you don’t like OSNews, you are free to go somewhere else. Heck, you can even start your own website. In fact, I urge you to do so. I hope it will be a massive success, that you’ll have lots of visitors.

Then we’ll see how truthfully you can smile.

I never quite understood this.

No matter how much Obama wants it, Turkey has no place whatsoever in the EU. My reasons for being against Turkey in the EU have nothing to do with it being an mainly Islamic country. I don’t give a rat’s ass whatever people believe, and a nation’s prime religion has little to do with what a country might contribute to the EU.

So, what are the reasons? First, the Armenian Genocide. As long as Turkey keeps on denying that it happened, and persecuting those that talk about it, they can suck a big fat EU cocksicle. Obama is a big fcuking hypocrite: so, we are not allowed to deny the holocaust (luckily it’s illegal here to do so), but it’s okay for Turkey to deny the Armenian Genocide? Give me a fcuking break.

Second, the situation with the Kurds. I am a proponent of an independent Kurdistan, as I am of the strong belief that every people has the right to take care of themselves, and run their own country. The way the Turks persecute, oppress, and massacre the Kurds is totally fcuking unacceptable. Again, Obama is a hypocrite on this one.

And, of course, there’s the geographical issue. Turkey = Asia. For all I care, the set up an Asian Union, model is after the EU, so that Asia and the middle east can get their fcuking act together on their own. I dont want MY tax money to go to that total mess.

That’s it. Turkey is a glorified third world country with an opessive regime, a horrible human rights situation, no free speech, and it’s not even a European country. What’s next, rogue state Israel in the EU?

I spent my initial months in Amsterdam under the impression that I was living in a quasi-socialistic system, built upon ideas that originated in the brains of Marx and Engels. This was one of the puzzling features of the Netherlands. It is and has long been a highly capitalistic country — the Dutch pioneered the multinational corporation and advanced the concept of shares of stock, and last year the country was the third-largest investor in U.S. businesses — and yet it has what I had been led to believe was a vast, socialistic welfare state. How can these polar-opposite value systems coexist?

[…]

There is another historical base to the Dutch social-welfare system, which curiously has been overlooked by American conservatives in their insistence on seeing such a system as a threat to their values. It is rooted in religion. “These were deeply religious people, who had a real commitment to looking after the poor,” Mak said of his ancestors. “They built orphanages and hospitals. The churches had a system of relief, which eventually was taken over by the state. So Americans should get over ‘socialism.’ This system developed not after Karl Marx, but after Martin Luther and Francis of Assisi.”

The best article I have EVER read about my own country - and it’s written by an American living in Amsterdam. If you ever want to get a good idea of how a modern welfare state has NOTHING to do with “socialism”, this is it.

Charlie Sheen is fcuking awesome.

That is all.