Cogs can think.

Warning: rant ahead.

I don’t give a rat’s ass what all the anti-MS idiots say. Surface is a truly innovative product, and I applaud Microsoft for it. They had the guts, back in 2001, to devote money and manpower to this idea, and now, 6 years later, it is paying off. Surface looks great, opens up a whole slew of possibilities, and, as far as I can see it, is truly a Pandora’s box of opportunities. I’ve seen use cases flash before my eyes like every other minute of the past two days.

Surface is just one of those things the OSS community will never come up with. Let’s face it; Linux, BSD, most of the other OSS projects, they are all followers. They are in it to regurgitate what companies like Apple and Microsoft serve them. The OSS community is supposed to be so great, right? Then why is it that they never seem to be able to come with something truly new, something groundbreaking, something that will make people all around the world go: “wow…!” I showed Surface to some of my computer-illetrate friends, and they were baffled. They all saw new use cases in front of them… Just like I did.

Fact remains, as much as I like the OSS world (I try to use the OSS equiv. when it is at least as good as or better than the closed-source counterparts), they are followers, not trendsetters. So, sure, there is enough to bash Microsoft and Apple about, but at least they have the guts to come up with truly new ideas.

In 2010, we’ll see a marginally different, poor rip-off of Surface. The joy of waiting.

The festivities concerning the Afsluitdijk had a prominent place on today’s television. The closure of the dike was commemorated by ‘re-enacting’ how it took place 75 years ago - at the exact moment the dike was closed (a few minutes after 1pm), the flag of the Maatschappij der Uitvoering Zuiderzeewerken (’Company for the Execution of the Zuiderzeeworks‘) was waved at the point of closure, after which all ships in the area sounded their horns. The man who waved the flag was the grandson of the man who waved the flag 75 years ago. The exact same flag was used. The flag had lived in a cupboard for ages, it survived the war, it had all sorts of holes in it.

In a strange way, I found it a very touching moment.

You see, this particular dike symbolises everything my country stands for. It’s the single biggest symbol of our struggle against the water, and when you walk across it, you feel dwarfed by the immense bodies of water on either side. As a vault falling from the sky, you realise that those bodies of water have claimed 100000s of lives during the past millennia. That water, that looks so pristine and silvery calm today, ought to be treated with the utmost respect and care. Because, you know, fcuk god. It’s the water that ‘giveth and taketh’. That water blessed us with very fertile land, but it has also taken the lives of so many people.

And still, the one word that kept on haunting me today was complacency.

It isn’t terrorists that are the biggest threat to this country. It isn’t war, famine, plague, or poverty. It has always been, it is, and always will be the water that is the biggest threat to not only the stability, but also the prosperity, wealth, and the lives of people living in this glorified swamp. Even though the recent climate hype has re-iginited the fear for our oldest enemy, still, far too many people are complacent. They think the Afsluitdijk and the Deltaworks will eternally protect our swamp; they don’t realise that even though we may have entered the 21st century, the water knows no time, no technology, no nothing. It will kill and cleanse everything in its path.

Nobody saw 1953 coming. Nobody.

And it is not a question of if, but of when the water will strike again. Climate change or not. Those that do not respect the water, are bound to be drowned by it. The struggle against the water remains a struggle by and for man. For all eternity. This is a war you cannot win. And therefore, you cannot ever rest on your laurels.

The water has done a lot of givething lately. The time of takething will, one of these years, be upon us.

Today, 75 years ago, one of the greatest dikes in human history was officially closed, turning an entire sea into a fresh water lake, completely transforming The Netherlands.

Afsluitdijk

75 Years ago today, the Afsluitdijk was closed.

Yesterday, at work, we held our annual “Early Bird” sale. This means that the shop opens at 7am, and from 7am to 8am you get a 20% rebate, and between 8am to 9am, you get 15%. Since the prejudice of Dutch people being el-cheapo (”Let’s go Dutch.”) is actually pretty much true, the first hour is busy as hell.

So, mistakes are made by the staff. Yes, even by me.

At around 10am, I see a man entering the store, and I realise he’s one of the people I helped at the register at around 7:50am. He’s talking to one of my co-workers, I see her pointing in my direction. When I’m done helping my current customer, I shift my attention to the man. “There’s Thom,” I hear my co-worker say. The man is holding the receipt to his purchase in his hands. Shit, I’m thinking at this point, I overcharged him. It’s rare, but it happens.

“I think you did something wrong this morning, son.” No shit. “You forgot to charge me for 78 planks.”

Right now I have to explain to you that I am actually not blind. He didn’t carry those 78 planks with him to the register; he drove his car ’round back, where they were loaded into his car (and since I can’t see through walls, I didn’t know that). He did bring the usual ‘wood note’ with him, on which we write down what kind and how much wood people have bought, so the person at the register can easily enter that into the computer. I did read the note when I helped him that morning, but it said “11x wood poles [product code]”, and, indeed, “78x … “. No product code or description behind the ‘78x’. I asked him what that 78 referred to, and I understood him saying “oh nothing”. That was kind of wrong.

Anyway, those 78 planks were high-quality special wood. Those 78 planks had a total value of EUR 484. That’s USD 651. And this man came back into the shop. Not to complain about being overcharged, but because he could not live with the fact of “robbing” us of EUR 484. His morals and values dictated him to go back, and set the record straight. Even if it cost him EUR 484.

It made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Like I have said so many times before, it are the little things that make me want to live here in East Bumblefcuk.

I do became the laughing stock for the rest of the day, of course. But, I don’t care, since my faith in mankind has been restored. That, or the big bad world just hasn’t reached East Bumblefcuk yet.

When grains of sand collide.

On the National Geographic Channel I’m watching this documentary about how aliens have supposedly sparked the early civilisations of man. Because, how on earth were the Egyptians capable of building those pyramids? How did the large pyramids in South America get built? I mean, they were savage, stupid beings, right?

No, you arrogant morons. The ancient Egyptians were exactly the same as us. They had the same brain size, the same mental capabilities as we have. They were not “dumber” than we are today. A Homo Sapiens Sapiens is a Homo Sapiens Sapiens, whether it lives now, or 4000 years ago. This means that if we can grasp something, so can they. I find it highly arrogant to think that our ancestors were too dumb to build the pyramids.

Imagine 5000 years from now. Archeologists discover the Petronas Towers. I can just see the nutjobs of that era going, hey, how did they build that with their limited technology? Aliens must have helped them!

Pathetic.

There are numerous advantages to living in the countryside. One of them is that you can buy many things straight from farmers, instead of relying on supermarkets.

In my hometown, for instance, we have a ‘cheese farm’. This farm makes its own cheese, and sells this directly to customers, without middle men. His cheese is expensive compared to the (already high quality) cheese in supermarkets (remember, we’re a cheese nation, and I was born in Cheese City), but by god, the taste is so much better. But this isn’t the best example.

The farm that sells strawberries. Dear sweet lord in heaven, his strawberries are the best in the world. Forget that supermarket mushy crap they dare to call strawberries; the ones I buy straight from where they are grown just taste so much fuller and fresher.

It are the little things that remind me of how much I like it here.

I hope you understand how ridiculous your action was

Of all the tenthousandbillionmillion things you could say, this was your choice?

Jesus fcuking Christ.

In a surprise move (at least to me) yesterday evening, I’ve decided to contribute some of my time to help out on the Haiku documentation effort. The first major part of this effort is the API documentation. You all know I know fcuk all about programming, so my work will be limited to grammatical and spelling proofreading. I want to donate even more time and effort into the end-user documentation once we get to that, since I find that a fascinating subject (it fits well into my schism between language and psychology).

Apart from the fact that this will be a good exercise for my m4d English sk1llzz, I’m also doing this because I want to help out an open source project. Seeing my obsession with the BeOS, this was the most logical choice.

Oh I love America. And no, I’m not being sarcastic. I really love America.