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The media frenzy and circus around the latest Mars Rover has reached its climax: apparently NASA wants people to download images like these (opens in a separate window [Original location]). Distributing tile-like images is nice. But thinking that they can get away with images with that much white-space, well… I can’t find a reason for this.

The first thing I tried when going on-line, after say 1 1/2 week, was to log-on at recipes.google.com. Not that it really exists (so don’t even bother trying).

Oliebollen anyone?

Blogger Maciej recently visited The Netherlands and has some interesting notes on the cities he visited: Utrecht, Haarlem and Rotterdam. Plenty of pictures, too, sobering though: the pictures reveal typical Dutch Fall weather to me.

Weird feelings when seeing the Haarlem pictures: the city just looks like my (old) hometown, Deventer. Which is no surprise: back in the days both cities were fairly competitive trade centers and if I’m not wrong, both cities got their ‘city’ rights around the same time (1245).

Sun’s got a problem, just as Alfons already points out in his latest entry: Sun’s Java Desktop isn’t all about Java. It’s a complete package of GNOME, StarOffice, Mozilla, Evolution, Java run on top of an ordinary Linux kernel. Sounds familiar? Yes: it’s just another Linux distribution.

Note this:

   “An IT manager, who asked not to be named, said he could not understand why a user would trade one proprietary desktop for another. “I personally keep Java off my computer because it crashes the system,” he said. “If Sun had the interests of the customer in mind, then the Sun desktop would be written in C and donated to Linux. Sun is no better than Microsoft.”

I never liked Java either, but this particular IT manager should be fired: it’s this kind of ignorance that kills IT. As for Sun: I wish them good luck.

Right in time
for the Wright anniversary, Paul Beard points to Project Ornithopter.

The thing actually flies, as the media gallery proudly shows. Not to mention the recognition the makers got from media and scientists. Make sure you check the Research/How it works-pages.

Compare that with the latest Boeing.

What Americans have with firearms, the Dutch have with identification cards, passports and privacy. For years, probably since the Second World War, there was always a broad opposition against any law that forced citizens to show any ID card in public. I remember that earlier attempts to enforce this kind of law were dutifully rejected by members of parliaments, frustating law enforcement. Eventually the Dutch reached a compromise: ‘could everybody pretty please carry an ID?’. As in “yes, really, pretty please”. I remember the barrage of jokes when people were asked to carry their passports, voluntarily of course. ‘Ausweiss bitte!’ ‘Jawohl, mein Fuhrer!’. Or ‘Look at the pretty picture, that’s me and my dog’. Or ‘Do you want me to have a picture with wooden shoes’. Imagine that in a multicultural society.

So, I’m surprised to find that the current administration wants to enforce the Dutch to carry IDs. As in ‘If you don’t have it you break the law’. Better yet, the current Justice minister says that there is a ‘crucial difference between the obligation to show ID as opposed to having to carry it’. Yes, it is that crucial difference that always made this law not make it through both Legislative branches.