July 2006 Archives
Berlin
I was in Berlin for a weekend. Did the usual touristy stuff. Among other things, had Fabian as our walking tour guide. Instead of the advertised 4.5 hours, the tour took like 5.5, but I absolutely loved it because Fabian was great and so was Berlin. We had walked around a bit before on the previous days, and it was great to have the walking tour take us around the same paths and confirm what we had already seen before, beefed up with funny stories.
Logbook, July 16-18
Here’s my logbook for this time. Mostly for my own future reference, but maybe someone else finds it useful too. The times indicate how long the break took (I marked each break) plus the cumulative distance up to the start of that break and average speed between the two breaks. I measured the distance by the car’s odometer and marked the time myself. It would be cool if the onboard computer had a mark and export function for this stuff so that it would automatically keep a logbook which I could then download through the logbook or something.
July 16, Tallinn, 7:27, 0 km
I set off early morning on Sunday because I anticipated there would be less traffic on Sunday and especially in the morning.
Driving in Poland
My relatives warned me against driving in Poland alone and through obscure sites. From the early 90s when the borders opened up, we know many stories of people getting carjacked by guys in fake police uniforms and all that, plus the appalling road conditions.
Well, I’m writing this here a few days and few thousand kilometers later, both myself and all my belongings and car nicely with me in one piece. So nothing happened, apart from a few small navigation errors. The roads were not so bad at all and there were major reconstruction works throughout the whole country, obviously with “funded by EU” signs posted everywhere.
The story of maps, getting lost and the fuxored bridge
Sometimes, when a sign tells you to turn left, you need to go right to make it there. At least this is how it worked for me when I was looking for the Treblinka site.
It worked fine until I made it to Małkinia Górna, the last spot before Treblinka according to the map. And then there was a left-right crossroads where there was a sign pointing left clearly to the Treblinka site. So I happily turned left and was assured I was already pretty close, as Treblinka was supposed to come “next”.
Never again. Nie wieder.
Data on my vehicle's navigation database DVD
Just out of curiosity, I popped the DVD powering my car’s navigation database into a DVD-ROM and here’s the directory listing. It appears to be provided by NAVTECH who have since been renamed to Navteq. I’m wondering if this is any “industry standard” format or proprietary? And how can I get updates to it? The vehicle dealer said that they don’t really know anything about updates, since very few of navigation systems are sold here.
Volume in drive D is 464210-5362 Volume Serial Number is F5F9-1485 Directory of D:\ 19.06.2004 07:34 15 058 944 LOADING.KWI 23.02.2005 13:37 3 745 939 457 ALLDATA.KWI 17.01.2001 07:25 291 486 DICVCE56.KWI 15.03.2002 05:07 4 556 KGRPDAT.KWI 20.07.2003 05:24 128 METADATA.KWI 07.02.2003 09:38 32 SPEC.KWI 28.03.2003 14:37 460 346 776 STDVCE.KWI 18.12.2004 16:14 17 VERSION.TXT 13.05.2001 15:42 458 752 VIRTUAL0.DAT 12.05.2001 23:42 458 752 VIRTUAL1.DAT 22.02.2005 18:09 163 228 INDEXDAT.KWI 02.03.2005 23:54IDX 11 File(s) 4 222 722 128 bytes Directory of D:\IDX 02.03.2005 23:54 . 02.03.2005 23:54 .. 04.02.2005 03:30 12 528 ARGSR.IDX 04.02.2005 03:30 12 094 ARGSRD.IDX 04.02.2005 03:30 12 158 ARGSRF.IDX 04.02.2005 03:30 12 154 ARGSRG.IDX 04.02.2005 03:30 12 334 ARGSRJ.IDX 04.02.2005 03:30 12 164 ARGSRL.IDX 04.02.2005 01:59 465 496 ARSNC100.IDX 04.02.2005 02:34 1 226 150 ARSNC101.IDX 04.02.2005 02:40 774 752 ARSNC102.IDX 04.02.2005 02:43 70 152 ARSNC103.IDX 04.02.2005 02:45 54 838 ARSNC104.IDX 04.02.2005 02:45 10 004 ARSNC105.IDX 04.02.2005 02:54 185 402 ARSNC106.IDX 04.02.2005 02:59 114 920 ARSNC107.IDX 04.02.2005 02:59 403 950 ARSNC108.IDX 04.02.2005 03:04 91 946 ARSNC109.IDX 04.02.2005 03:09 133 476 ARSNC110.IDX 04.02.2005 03:24 314 508 ARSNC111.IDX 04.02.2005 03:27 66 510 ARSNC112.IDX 04.02.2005 03:28 12 988 ARSNC113.IDX 04.02.2005 03:29 29 926 ARSNC114.IDX 04.02.2005 03:30 43 350 ARSNC115.IDX 04.02.2005 01:35 11 679 236 ARSSR.IDX 02.02.2005 01:12 9 820 920 FMCDT001.IDX 13.06.2004 06:41 199 588 FWYSR100.IDX 13.06.2004 06:42 1 417 600 FWYSR101.IDX 13.06.2004 06:42 1 033 472 FWYSR102.IDX 13.06.2004 06:43 292 746 FWYSR103.IDX 13.06.2004 06:43 374 632 FWYSR104.IDX 13.06.2004 06:43 22 444 FWYSR105.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 308 990 FWYSR106.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 166 370 FWYSR107.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 520 324 FWYSR108.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 151 454 FWYSR109.IDX 13.06.2004 06:45 158 018 FWYSR110.IDX 13.06.2004 06:46 1 036 304 FWYSR111.IDX 13.06.2004 06:46 127 400 FWYSR112.IDX 13.06.2004 06:47 113 430 FWYSR113.IDX 13.06.2004 06:47 9 410 FWYSR114.IDX 13.06.2004 06:47 23 182 FWYSR115.IDX 02.02.2005 01:56 3 174 192 ITSSR100.IDX 02.02.2005 02:41 4 133 042 ITSSR101.IDX 02.02.2005 02:56 3 889 524 ITSSR102.IDX 02.02.2005 02:59 987 484 ITSSR103.IDX 02.02.2005 03:03 1 364 076 ITSSR104.IDX 02.02.2005 03:04 44 240 ITSSR105.IDX 02.02.2005 03:43 940 132 ITSSR106.IDX 02.02.2005 03:46 693 954 ITSSR107.IDX 02.02.2005 03:54 2 605 756 ITSSR108.IDX 02.02.2005 03:57 488 394 ITSSR109.IDX 02.02.2005 03:59 673 780 ITSSR110.IDX 02.02.2005 04:04 1 170 696 ITSSR111.IDX 02.02.2005 04:05 247 270 ITSSR112.IDX 02.02.2005 04:07 491 502 ITSSR113.IDX 02.02.2005 04:08 129 928 ITSSR114.IDX 02.02.2005 04:10 364 570 ITSSR115.IDX 02.02.2005 14:03 60 369 088 POIDT001.IDX 02.02.2005 17:07 57 484 672 POIDT002.IDX 02.02.2005 15:13 57 209 728 POIDT003.IDX 02.02.2005 06:22 9 854 608 POIDT004.IDX 02.02.2005 09:28 24 216 448 POIDT005.IDX 02.02.2005 01:32 311 056 POIDT006.IDX 02.02.2005 06:52 7 981 360 POIDT007.IDX 02.02.2005 05:44 10 619 032 POIDT008.IDX 02.02.2005 12:34 35 301 400 POIDT009.IDX 02.02.2005 04:30 14 397 832 POIDT010.IDX 02.02.2005 06:00 11 178 040 POIDT011.IDX 02.02.2005 07:23 14 599 456 POIDT012.IDX 02.02.2005 02:22 1 883 272 POIDT013.IDX 02.02.2005 03:01 8 633 968 POIDT014.IDX 02.02.2005 01:42 1 355 848 POIDT015.IDX 02.02.2005 02:56 7 982 824 POIDT016.IDX 02.02.2005 01:56 73 205 152 POIDT017.IDX 02.02.2005 02:41 123 665 056 POIDT018.IDX 02.02.2005 02:56 97 307 392 POIDT019.IDX 02.02.2005 02:59 19 560 880 POIDT020.IDX 02.02.2005 03:03 23 817 328 POIDT021.IDX 02.02.2005 03:04 904 888 POIDT022.IDX 02.02.2005 03:43 21 732 520 POIDT023.IDX 02.02.2005 03:45 11 294 944 POIDT024.IDX 02.02.2005 03:54 57 800 536 POIDT025.IDX 02.02.2005 03:57 8 743 216 POIDT026.IDX 02.02.2005 03:59 11 304 616 POIDT027.IDX 02.02.2005 04:04 20 106 736 POIDT028.IDX 02.02.2005 04:05 3 538 264 POIDT029.IDX 02.02.2005 04:07 6 979 288 POIDT030.IDX 02.02.2005 04:08 1 531 384 POIDT031.IDX 02.02.2005 04:10 5 630 536 POIDT032.IDX 13.06.2004 06:41 204 508 POIDT033.IDX 13.06.2004 06:42 1 508 604 POIDT034.IDX 13.06.2004 06:42 1 156 212 POIDT035.IDX 13.06.2004 06:43 315 904 POIDT036.IDX 13.06.2004 06:43 394 540 POIDT037.IDX 13.06.2004 06:43 21 802 POIDT038.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 354 692 POIDT039.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 170 268 POIDT040.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 651 342 POIDT041.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 186 474 POIDT042.IDX 13.06.2004 06:44 170 470 POIDT043.IDX 13.06.2004 06:46 1 210 984 POIDT044.IDX 13.06.2004 06:46 134 844 POIDT045.IDX 13.06.2004 06:47 127 704 POIDT046.IDX 13.06.2004 06:47 8 350 POIDT047.IDX 13.06.2004 06:47 23 102 POIDT048.IDX 02.02.2005 08:47 48 189 732 POIDT049.IDX 03.02.2005 01:56 43 386 286 POIDT050.IDX 03.02.2005 01:57 182 060 POIDT051.IDX 03.02.2005 01:58 134 100 POIDT052.IDX 03.02.2005 01:59 25 112 POIDT053.IDX 03.02.2005 02:00 87 504 POIDT054.IDX 03.02.2005 02:01 72 610 POIDT055.IDX 03.02.2005 02:02 45 440 POIDT056.IDX 03.02.2005 02:03 70 960 POIDT057.IDX 03.02.2005 02:04 102 640 POIDT058.IDX 03.02.2005 02:05 23 638 POIDT059.IDX 03.02.2005 02:06 11 328 POIDT060.IDX 03.02.2005 02:07 26 828 POIDT061.IDX 03.02.2005 02:08 1 572 POIDT062.IDX 03.02.2005 02:09 4 498 POIDT063.IDX 03.02.2005 02:10 668 POIDT064.IDX 03.02.2005 02:11 62 292 POIDT065.IDX 03.02.2005 01:47 73 507 076 POISR100.IDX 03.02.2005 01:58 179 244 864 POISR101.IDX 03.02.2005 01:57 166 166 612 POISR102.IDX 03.02.2005 01:42 34 618 894 POISR103.IDX 03.02.2005 01:43 47 875 796 POISR104.IDX 03.02.2005 01:42 18 746 130 POISR105.IDX 03.02.2005 01:44 50 429 684 POISR106.IDX 03.02.2005 01:45 59 236 316 POISR107.IDX 03.02.2005 01:48 101 207 862 POISR108.IDX 03.02.2005 01:42 25 324 540 POISR109.IDX 03.02.2005 01:42 28 980 280 POISR110.IDX 03.02.2005 01:45 51 969 350 POISR111.IDX 03.02.2005 01:42 22 432 054 POISR112.IDX 03.02.2005 01:42 17 949 234 POISR113.IDX 03.02.2005 01:42 20 293 060 POISR114.IDX 03.02.2005 01:42 19 276 742 POISR115.IDX 03.02.2005 01:56 69 470 562 PSTSR100.IDX 03.02.2005 01:57 314 738 PSTSR101.IDX 03.02.2005 01:58 231 898 PSTSR102.IDX 03.02.2005 01:59 41 304 PSTSR103.IDX 03.02.2005 02:00 143 452 PSTSR104.IDX 03.02.2005 02:01 119 080 PSTSR105.IDX 03.02.2005 02:02 74 568 PSTSR106.IDX 03.02.2005 02:03 116 380 PSTSR107.IDX 03.02.2005 02:04 177 532 PSTSR108.IDX 03.02.2005 02:05 38 892 PSTSR109.IDX 03.02.2005 02:06 20 568 PSTSR110.IDX 03.02.2005 02:07 46 532 PSTSR111.IDX 03.02.2005 02:08 2 784 PSTSR112.IDX 03.02.2005 02:09 7 962 PSTSR113.IDX 03.02.2005 02:10 1 368 PSTSR114.IDX 03.02.2005 02:11 102 144 PSTSR115.IDX 02.02.2005 14:16 124 928 574 SADSR100.IDX 02.02.2005 17:40 232 961 548 SADSR101.IDX 02.02.2005 15:53 391 927 950 SADSR102.IDX 02.02.2005 06:26 40 357 772 SADSR103.IDX 02.02.2005 09:36 44 053 352 SADSR104.IDX 02.02.2005 01:32 2 257 378 SADSR105.IDX 02.02.2005 06:59 29 160 832 SADSR106.IDX 02.02.2005 05:51 27 123 690 SADSR107.IDX 02.02.2005 12:58 253 514 580 SADSR108.IDX 02.02.2005 04:35 16 484 766 SADSR109.IDX 02.02.2005 06:06 25 833 248 SADSR110.IDX 02.02.2005 07:33 79 965 206 SADSR111.IDX 02.02.2005 02:24 18 085 190 SADSR112.IDX 02.02.2005 03:02 8 719 984 SADSR113.IDX 02.02.2005 01:42 3 069 970 SADSR114.IDX 02.02.2005 02:58 9 460 742 SADSR115.IDX 04.02.2005 07:41 2 724 ZONESEL.IDX 04.02.2005 07:41 5 280 ZONEZSRC.IDX 171 File(s) 3 258 575 340 bytes Total Files Listed: 182 File(s) 7 481 297 468 bytes 3 Dir(s) 0 bytes free
Playing with Vox
I’m playing with Vox a bit. Certainly promising stuff. Other niche players have tried to make this “Collections” and “aggregate data from other places and package it up in new nice ways” again, but none that I can think of that are really successful. Perhaps Six Apart will be.
No trackbacks supported in beta though — but I guess it’s more of a geek thing anyway and Vox is more for “my first blog” type of people who don’t understand and care about trackbacks. All fine — gotta segment the tools.
Your staff is volunteers
Treat employees like volunteers | Tidbit. Oh so true. In a sense, you want to work with people who ARE volunteers — they volunteered to work in your organization because there’s something in it for them. It doesn’t matter that you’re paying them and giving them all sorts of options, perks and who knows what — because superstars always have a line of companies and recruiters outside their door who are easily willing to double whatever you’re currently paying them. But you want to make the combination of workplace, job and team such that these superstars find that their work and life is better if they just stay with you.
Handing over
Scoble just deleted a bunch of email. What I’ve done in the past and also appreciate receiving from others is that I have my email at least somewhat sorted across folders. And when time comes, I just write the Outlook PST file to a CD and hand it over. There’s vast historic knowledge captured in such places and it’s a shame if it just gets lost. I’ve seen history as a resource horribly under-utilized and same mistakes repeated, when you could instead learn from it.
Battling the elements
Ah… this post by Seth couldn’t be more topical. A large part of Europe, including Estonia, is undergoing a massive heat wave. And having few tools to battle it, since there was virtually zero air conditioning ever at all during the Soviet times. And even now they’re catching up quite slowly. Generalizations are mean, but some folks think that conditioning still is something luxurious which regular people shouldn’t get, and that you manage to make some sort of point by being uncomfortable, sweating and battling the elements.
Plus my recently built home was constructed in an unfortunate way so that the air somehow doesn’t move there. So that even if it cools down outside, there’s still no air inside. 
Oh well… at least I got a car with climate. So the commute between home, work and other places I need to go is now a real pleasure, when you’re sitting in the traffic jam, enjoying the cooled air and looking at all the sweating people outside 
London, July 7, 2005. I was there.
A few days late, but still.
I was there.
I was in a hotel on Russell Square. The stay itself was pretty uneventful, I was there for just one night. Got up late around 8 as I usually do, had breakfast, packed up, went down to check out a bit after 9.
“Sir, we can’t check you out.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s a security situation outside on the street. We can’t let anyone out.”
“Well… what should I do?”
“We’re assembling everyone in the large ballroom. Please proceed there.”
The adventures of writing a simple Skype API client: Moodgeist Pinger
As I said before, I rewrote the Moodgeist Pinger myself. The objective was twofold.
First, I just wanted a newer Pinger. The one that Kevin wrote worked fine for others, but gave some strange memory errors on my PC. And I just wanted to update it.
Secondly, I wanted to see what it takes to write a Skype API client these days.
Moodgeist revitalized
Moodgeist, the project I’ve been working on as a hobby, was dead for three months. This means the server was up, but nothing else happened and it never got any traction since I never marketed it.
Plus Pinger, the component of Moodgeist that sits on your computer and pings over its mood messages, never saw any updates either. But since I just found Microsoft released Visual Studio Express a while ago (I’m not sure when, but I just found out some weeks ago), I decided to give it a whirl and write a new Pinger for Moodgeist myself. Which I did, and it’s now available for download. Please download and run it if you’re on Skype. If you want to learn more about what it is and does, the page has all the info.
Try Office 2007 without installing it
Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : Try Office 2007 Without Installing It
I tried. It works. You need to sign in with your Live ID (formerly known as Passport), and go over a long survey but fortunately you can just skip it and hit Next. And then eventually you get logged into a “real” remote terminal server with real Office 2007 programs on it and can mess around.
An intriguing function of Word 2007 will be that you can blog with it. Interesting choice of blog providers: apart from MS’s own stuff, there’s Blogger from Google. No Typepad or anything else. And they report it actually produces correct HTML/posts. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl with some old Blogger blogs I’ve left over.
One problem, probably a more general one with terminalserver-type things. I’ve become sort of a font purist and want things to be perfect on my screen. I use ClearType and think smoothed fonts on screen are nice. So if I see non-smoothed fonts anywhere (and here too), they make my eyes hurt.
