Cogs can think.

You won’t get this on CNN. Death/wounded toll since Israel declared war upon Lebanon:

Libanese civilian death toll: over 300.
Libanese civilian wounded toll: over 1000.

Israeli death toll, civilian as well as military: 28.

Yup. Besides that, half a million Lebanese civilians have fled their homes. Now, how does that corespond to two soldiers being held captive as trading material for Palestinian prisonders? If this is an acceptable reponse to two kidnapped soldiers… I’m afraid what will happen to my country when the US attacks us over Nathalee Holloway.

I am not a developer, and I do not give a rat’s ass about ideological hippie crap when it comes to software.

So, now that we got that out of the way: GNOME and Mono. For 7 days now d-d-l has been going mental with a completely, utterly pointless discussion on whether or not to include Mono bindings in the vanilla GNOME package. Right-o.

Now, I am a user of GNOME and many Mono applications. GNOME always claims to cater to its users, right? Well then: GNOME developers, get a fcuking clue. I have no idea why on God’s sweet earth GNOME would not include Mono bindings by default. Let’s face it boys and girls: the current decent applications on GNOME are Mono-based. F-spot. Beagle. iFolder. Banshee.

Those are the applications that have turned GNOME from a rather bare, mediocre DE into something that is usable as a home desktop. Yet, you people are STILL debating whether or not to make it easy for developers using Mono?

Seriously, I don’t get you folk. Why don’t you guys just learn to stop being so hopelessly ideological about ones and zeroes, and stop being so compltely out of touch with your general user base and what it wants. Oh, and obviously, you guys need a leader.

It is laughable. At best.

Dear Israeli government,

This is ridicoulous. I am appaled. I am without words.

I have just seen the imagry from Lebanon. The country is in ruins. This is not a war on Hezbollah. This is a war on the Libanese people.

The last form of respect I had for you is now completely lost. You are punishing an entire people for the kidnapping of two soldiers. The people you are bombing and killing, and I just saw the burrial of 31 innocent civilians who got murdered by one of your airstrikes, have no relation in any way to the kidnapping of the two soldiers. Your violent response is completely disproportionate.

Did we, Dutch government, attack Russia when Arjan Erkel was behing held hostage there for months by a terrorist group? Did we invade Columbia when FARK did the same to a few Dutch citizens? Did the US invade the Netherlands (Aruba is part of the Kingdom) after the Nathalee Holloway case?

I hope one of these days, you, Israel, learn to respond to terrorist activities in a way that is proportionate. I do not know what you can do to stop the coward suicide bombers and missiles being sent your way. I understand that you cannot just sit there and watch how extremist idiots kill Israeli civilians. I understand the anger, the hopelessness, the sadness. However, this is not the way. What you are currently doing, will only breed more terrorists who will only kill more innocent Israelis. Is that what you want? Is that what you are after?

I would think not.

Thom Holwerda

We are experiencing the 3rd heatwave this summer, it’s 29 degrees, I’m in relax mode, eating bread with kartoffelsalat, with Sufjan Stevens on.

Oh how good life can be.

GNOME developer Zaheer Abbas Merali:

Who has reigned the most terror in the last few days? I think bombing countries killing many people is more terror than capturing soldiers. Israel has a history of invoking terror on its own people.

[…]

The country in the world, who undoubtedly has the biggest and best weapons are? Guess what, it’s the country you, Ronald live in currently. It is the country who’s weapons and money have killed more people than any other in the middle east and near east in the last 50 years.

[…]

Unfortunately the word “terrorist” is being used by British and American media and politicians in a very selective way. They do not apply this term to their own when they terrorise people, invade countries, destroy contries’ infrastructure etc.

[…]

Seeing (or hearing about) people dieing saddens me, whether Jew, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist or other. I feel more sad when it is done in cowardly acts like using planes bombing countries with no anti-aircraft facilities.

AMEN.

Update: Lebanon has asked for a cease-fire, in order to help the people in South Lebanon. They are currently in a “disaster area”, and the people there desperately need food, etc., because Israel has destroyed all roads and bridges and such. This is a nice test for Israel: will they comply, to help the people there? Of course, stopping the bombing and such also gives breathing room for the terrorist people over there. Tough decision, I’d say.

In the meantime, the Arab League has said that the peace process is dead. Come on, as if it has ever been alive.

Also, Israel claims Iran is now involved in the war as well; they claim 200 Iranese military advisors are helping Lebanon. I give Iran and Lebanon the full right to cooperate. If Israel gets the support from the most powerful nations in the world, financially as well as military, why shouldn’t Lebanon be allowed to seek help too?

I also just saw how Bush and Putin got all comfy-cosy in a pre-G8 meeting between the two presidents. Interesting, how Bush can be all comfy with Putin, basically a dictator, who has killed all non-state owned media outlets, and has silenced various people by throwing them into jail (esp. the big oil oligarg; I forgot his name).

The world is a fcuked up place.

—

I just listened to former Dutch Secretary of Foreign Affairs Hans van den Broek, about the current situation in the Middle East. I was amazed at how clear he brought the entire conflict back to its elemental core: Israel is illegally occupying Palestine territory.

He also said that the international community should stop being so overly supportive for Israel, and start applying pressure to not only the Arab countries, but also Israel. He said he was appaled at how the EU and the US applied little to no pressure on Israel to comply with the various UN Security Counsil resolutions.

I am thrilled to know that this same man today had a conversation with our current Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ben Bot. Let’s hope the EU finally stops being Israel and the US’ lapdog, and starts acting accoprding to what it is: the 2nd biggest economical and militairy force in the world. We Europeans are too humble.

My personal solution would be to recognise neither Israel, nor Palestine, nor the surrounding Arab nations supporting terrorist activity against Israel, as sovereign states, until both parties fully comply with UN resolutions. Trade and other economical activity should be brought to a bare minimum of food and medicinal supplies until complience has been met.

Oh how I may dream. As long as the EU sucks Bush’s dick, none of the above will happen. Sigh.

Oh Zizou… Yesterday you explained why you head-butted Materazzi. Even though you did not reveal his exact words, I do understand you better now; I still highly disapprove of it, but I understand it a little better. A little bit. Because I still believe a man should never lose his temper (physically speaking, that is). Violence is for the weak.

Oh, and how you have to love El Reg.

After much thinking, I have decided to not buy a new (Intel) Macintosh. I have my reasons:

First of all, it seems that hardware quality has been steadily declining the past few years. The various problems with the MacBook (Pro), and apparantly also the PowerMac G5, have made me stop and think twice about paying a premium price for supposedly superior hardware– while in fact it seems Apple computers have just as many problems as other computers do.

Secondly, the number of negative reports concerning Apple’s customer service seem to far outweigh the positive reports. This is a major concern for me; when I pay a lot of money for a product, I demand perfect service, and nothing less.

Thirdly, I seem to be able to live without MacOS X just fine. I sold my iBook a while ago already, and a few weeks ago, the MacBook Pro Apple loaned me also went back to Apple NL. And since then, have I missed OSX/iLife/iWork? I’m sorry, but no. SLED 10 seems to do whatever I want it to do, and I have Windows ready in case I need it. iLife is overrated anyway; Picasa2 outshines iPhoto, iTunes was never my favourite music application due to the pointless iTMS being attached to it (I buy my music in real shops, without weird DRM schemes and the fear of losing all my music), Garageband I have no need for, and iWeb cranks out webpages that refused to load. So, no software reasons either to spend money for a Mac.

And lastly, and this is mostly a culmination of the above: I refuse to pay for design. Because without superior quality, superior customer service, and irreplacable software, what’s left in buying a Mac? Linux is just as secure, and since SLED 10, almost just as slick.

So, I will look out for a nice, used PowerMac G4, and be done with it.

Dutch readers will know the following lyrics from that extraordinary commercial of Nationale Nederlanden, which ran all throughout the World Cup, showing old footage from our national team, the haydays– I think I speak for many when I say that it is one of the more touching commercials in Dutch history. The song is called “Als De Dag Van Toen” of a German singer, who sang a few songs in Dutch, Reinhard Mey. Shivers, people, shivers.

Als de dag van toen hou ik van jou
Misschien oprechter en bewuster trouw
Want toch steeds weer is een dag zonder haar
Een verloren dag met stil verlangen naar
Weer een dag als toen waarop ze zei
“Jij bent m’n leven, staat aan mijn zij”
En wat, wat er ook gebeuren mag
Ik hou meer van jou als toen die dag

Ik weet nog goed hoe alles eens begon
Hoe vol geheimen was de weg die voor ons lag
Een weg waarvan je soms de rand niet zag
Maar wat er ook gebeurde, aan ‘t einde scheen de zon
Ik tel de dagen die sindsdien verstreken
Allang niet meer op de vingers van 1 hand
Maar ook de tijd kan niets meer van jouw beeld verbleken
Al is de weg ook nog zo lang naar ons land

Als de dag van toen hou ik van jou
Misschien oprechter en bewuster trouw
Want toch steeds weer is een dag zonder haar
Een verloren dag met stil verlangen naar
Weer een dag als toen waarop ze zei
“Jij bent m’n leven, staat aan mijn zij”
En wat, wat er ook gebeuren mag
Ik hou meer van jou als toen die dag

Ik heb zo vaak geprobeerd je te doorgronden
Zoals je in ieder boek lezen kan waardoor
En zag na al die lessen toch ‘t doel versomberen
Want vandaag weet ik nog minder dan ooit tevoor
Ik heb honderd maal gezien zonder te begrijpen
Wat jij nu werkelijk wilde en ook elke keer
Als ik verwachtte alles met je te bereiken
Kwam weer de wind en blies me weg als een veer

Als de dag van toen hou ik van jou
Misschien oprechter en bewuster trouw
Want toch steeds weer is een dag zonder haar
Een verloren dag met stil verlangen naar
Weer een dag als toen waarop ze zei
“Jij bent m’n leven, staat aan mijn zij”
En wat, wat er ook gebeuren mag
Ik hou meer van jou als toen die dag

Verdriet en geluk zijn aan elke tijd verbonden
Die in sneltreinvaart en sneller langs ons suist
Nog steeds helen de tijden alle wonden
Al denk ik vaak aan de dag dat ik leefde in jouw huis
Nee, geen enkel uur is er dat ik berouw
Al geldt voor mij als troost slechts een herinnering
Nog meer dan gisteren wacht ik nu op jou
Maar minder nog dan morgen als de dag begint

Als de dag van toen hou ik van jou
Misschien oprechter en bewuster trouw
Want toch steeds weer is een dag zonder haar
Een verloren dag met stil verlangen naar
Weer een dag als toen waarop ze zei
“Jij bent m’n leven, staat aan mijn zij”
En wat, wat er ook gebeuren mag
Ik hou meer van jou als toen die dag

Touching. Watch the commercial at YouTube. Be warned. Orange will prevail. The lion will roar. The melody of Het Wilhelmus will once again sound over the canals of Amsterdam. In two years, in four years, or in 34 years. We have time.

I am tired. Had a great weekend though; Marco threw a party in Hilversum Saturday eve, which is about 1h15m driving south of me. I… Drank enough, had lots of fun, and irrefutable proof was given that I am indeed not very bright (stupid puzzle thing I could not solve). However, as always, my charming personality, kindness, witty humour, and my general likeable character more than makes up for that loss (me? Arrogant? What?).

Anyway, I had to drive back home this afternoon, dropped Levi off in Amsterdam while en route, and then went out with a VW Transportervan from friends of my parents’ to pick up some stuff that had been given to me by an employee of my dad’s; a large, wooden picknicktable for in the yard, as well as a… Drumroll… Table tennis, eh, table! How utterly cool is that?

Just now I of course watched the final of the World Cup. It was an exciting match, and I personally crowned both Ribery (France) and Buffon (Italy) as players of the tournament. Ribery for being a fighter, someone who never gives up; I appreciate that in people. Buffon because he showed such great sportmanship by a) showing his appreciation to Zidane after that impressive header (which Buffon saved so gracefully) on goal by giving him a well-meant hug, and b) because Buffon, instead of going all mental, went to actually talk, calm and peaceful, with that same Zidane after that inexplicable head butt, to ask him what the fcuk was going on.

Oh Zinedine Zidane… Oh Zizou… How you have forever stained your impressive career by that head butt. Inexplicable, highly ungraceful, and completely unjustified in any way. Why did you do it? Why did you choose not to become one of the great, like Abe Lenstra, Johan Cruijff, Pele? Why? Oh Zizou…

And what a disgrace to all that is man to not take it like a man and show yourself during the award ceremony.What pity of a man does not bear the consequences of his actions by facing the whistling crowd? What poor excuse of a sportsman does not dare to show himself? As captain of Le Bleu?

Oh Zizou.