Sudoku solver

February 02, 2006 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

For several months, I’ve been walking around with the idea of creating a javascript-based sudoku solver. Something where you start with a matrix with all possibilities in all boxes of a sudoku being available.
Then, when you click on any of the options (numbers) in any of the boxes, all the options that stop being possible are taken out of the matrix. Pretty soon, you should end up with a solved sudoku.

The programming shouldn’t be that hard and, in fact, should be quite similar to the stuff I did for the poetrymatrix, which I worked on late last year. So, today I wanted to start working on this one and checked what was already out there. Well, if you search for it, you’ll notice, like me, that, really, the world doesn’t need another sudoku solver.

Brushes with fame?

January 16, 2006 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

First of all, a belated happy new year.

I know, I know, I’m not that active anymore on my blog. I suppose the main reason is that I don’t have that much to say. Let’s call it a “Blogger’s block”.

Having said that, I *have* been putting my thoughts on paper (well, screen) in relation to my father passing away in November last year. I think it could be interesting enough for a book, were it not that I should put more thoughts on paper or screen to make for a reasonable amount of pages. Then again, maybe I’ll publish it online instead, the big advantage being that, then, I can combine the text with many of the pictures. Pictures I took myself, but also some of the 700 or so I took with me from my father.

Meanwhile, back in Delft, I already knew that Polle Eduard works out at Jan Koster, my fitness hang out for over ten years.
Now, it turns out that yet another ‘famous’ musician from Delft also works out there. No other than Jodie Bernal! The poor guy doesn’t even have a website, even though there’s a totally crappy fan site out there.

Now this is christmas

December 27, 2005 • Blog

World » Belgium » Coo » Le vieux sart

Had a good weekend in the Ardennes. With eight friends, I spent christmas in a vacation home in the ardennes. We made our own 7 course christmas dinner, themed “a l’Orange”. On christmas day, before dinner, Benno’s girlfriend Marleen took us out for a walk to see the cascades at Coo. I fell, ripped my pants and hurt my left leg. The 90 minute walk ended up taking us to the cascades, which turned out to be only five minutes away.
And we had snow on Boxing day.

On the last day, Betsy and I went to Antwerp and did some shopping. A rarity for me.

On the way back

December 24, 2005 • Blog

World » Iran » Tehran » Mehrabad airport

Struggling to get back on the plain to Holland, I had to visit several desks no less than 10 times to actually get on the plane.

In Holland, I’m set to immediately go on another small adventure, spending a weekend in the Ardennes in Belgium, enjoying Christmas dinner and presents.

Very tough times

November 28, 2005 • Blog

World » Iran » Tehran » House of Nader and Parvaneh

The past week has been very tough. I heard on Saturday, last week, that my father had been moved to a hospital. Later it turned out he had had a heart attack and brain damage. I was going to visit Iran in January but decided to go on Saturday instead.
Then, quite suddenly, on Friday morning, he passed away. Very tough times indeed.

Yesterday, we buried him.

I’m staying four weeks. I’m not sure if I’ll be updating my blog much.

Madana

November 01, 2005 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

When we were driving south and eastwards, towards Alsdorf in Germany to enjoy a showing of Rocky (Dr. Scott! Who?! Brad! Janet! etc.), I heard this pop song on the radio which used a sample from an ABBA song.
Knowing that only recently had Madonna managed to acquire the rights to sample ABBA, being the second person to do so, ever, I mentioned that that particular song I was listening too was using an illegal sample from ABBA. Stupid me.

I’ve been waiting to see Madonna’s new video clip for a while. A week or so. Not that I’m into Madonna, but the new clip features a Dancing Stage Fusion machine and I just had to see that. So, just now, I went over to MTV and checked out the new clip.
Of course it’s the song I heard on the radio last week. It’s good and it features DSF. What else can you ask for.

Oh, the title, you ask. The podcaster king uses his thick (fake-ish) American accent.

I can hear you shiver with antica…

October 23, 2005 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

It’s Betsy’s birthday next week, when she’ll be turning a decent 28, I think. So this weekend I took her out to the theatre and not just any theater. The Rocky Horror Show.
Sure, we had to drive to the tiny town of Alsdorf, just across the border from Heerlen, in the far south of the Netherlands, but it was worth it.

If you know anything about Rocky, I don’t have to explain. If you don’t, well, I can’t. We dressed up, got the gear and had a blast. Frank-N-Furter was spectacular and the show was GOOD. Most folks hadn’t a clue what was going on, but some in the audience were dressed in style, including a post-makeover Magenta.
After the show, so tired, we dragged ourselves through a donner place to enjoy, more or less, the spiciest donner EVER, before crashing at our Formule1 hotel room back in Kerkrade.

Saturday, chillin, we started with a tour of ‘de Katakomben‘ in Valkenburg, built by the architect Dr. Cuypers (well known in Amsterdam), and a copy of the most important catacombs in Rome.
After that, beer guzzling at the Alfa breweries in the tiny village of Thull.

Fotomarathon Rotterdam

October 2, 2005 • Photography

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World » Netherlands » Rotterdam » Fotomarathon hotspot

I came back this morning from 24 hours of walking around Rotterdam, taking pictures for a new and hopefully yearly event, the ‘Fotomarathon Rotterdam’. Here, participants get assigned four themes every four hours and asked to shoot one picture for each theme.

Fun, even though it was fresh and rainy. Although near the end I was starting to get too tired to care. 24 hours is a very long time.
It’s a good thing the plan is to, next year, do it in June.

We received the themes in sets of four, every four hours and most notably the first four themes were the hardest. Not so much because of the particular themes, but because of having to ‘change my mindset’ and tune in to the possibilities around me.
Then, the photographers shooting digital (like me) had a major advantage over the guys using analogue. The analogue guys where only allowed to hand over one role of film with 24 images. 24 images in the right sequence, the order in which the themes were handed over.
The guys shooting digital also were allowed to only hand in 24 pictures in the right order, but they were allowed to shoot as many images as they liked, deleting the bad ones. As long as the order of the 24 images they submitted was the same in which they were communicated.

Some of the images I’m really happy about. Only after finishing did I realise it would have been interesting to use my model-of-the-day in every picture, not ‘just’ the 10 he is in now.

+ The open door. The picture is a close-up of the Paulus Kerk, a church where homeless people and junks can find a place to stay and receive support.
+ Different.
+ Tiny exhibition.
+ The end of the world. Taken on the pier in front of Hotel New York, from where, in the past, emigrants would leave for the new world.
+ From 2005.
+ Vegetate.
+ In tatters.
+ A strong (little) steel. The Dutch translation for this is a saying denoting an impressive feat.
+ Deflower. The Dutch translation of this (‘ont-dekken’) can be interpreted as ‘discovery’.
+ Superficial visit.
+ Beyond the city.
+ Feeding time.
+ Against. The Dutch translation (‘tegen’), can be interpreted as ‘stop’.
+ Through the dust. The Dutch translation is a saying denoting someone is taking a lot of (verbal) abuse.
+ Yours is bigger than mine.
+ Wall decoration.
+ 2-10-2005 2:07AM.
+ O.D.
+ This is not your place.
+ Insomnia.
+ On the 7th day.
+ Angel of the night.
+ On the skin. 
+ Waiting to be uncovered. I took ‘uncovered’ in the sense of ‘discovered’. The two guys in the picture are fellow-photographers from the fotomarathon.

Flight

September 27, 2005 • Blog

World » Italy » Bergamo » Airport

An early start to get to the only mildly boring airport of Bergamo.
The end of a very nice week with a very, very nice wedding.

Cecilia took a job in Boston and the plan is for them to move to the US in a month or so. With a bit of luck, our next meet-up will be in New England.

Milano moda

September 26, 2005 • Blog

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World » Italy » Milano » Castello Sforzesco

Back in Milano, we checked out the city a little bit more, before enjoying yet another aperativo.

We first visited the magnificent main train station. Franco had a lot of faults, but his taste for architecture wasn't one of them.
Next, we visited the Castello Sforzesco where that same evening, the season's first major catwalk show was going to be held. Of course, even though we saw them build up the catwalk, we had to read it in our own newspaper back home, the next day.
For some reason, the castello seemed to be a hotspot for marrying Chinese couples.

Later, after joining up with the newly-weds, we checked out the shopping district. That is, shopping for the likes of Paris Hilton. Wallets for 8500 euro, watches for over 20.000 euros and a kilo of mushrooms for only 4500 euros. We laughed, enjoyed the Milano moda and went for food and drinks.

Vino

September 25, 2005 • Blog

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World » Italy » Milano » Pza Piola

A quiet day, hanging in the garden, drinking some vino. Cleaning up and heading back to Milano.

Almost finished with cleaning up, Cecilia's mom showed up with several guests. All the food that was still in the house was prepared and we started off on another enjoyable session of wine and food. Gotta love those Italians.

Il profumo della passion

September 24, 2005 • Blog

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World » Italy » Salice Terme » House of Cecilia’s parents

With some 30 people staying over, some had to sleep in the garden. Luckily, Betsy and I had the privilege of a small room.
The day was relaxing, with everyone slowly building up to another party in the evening, some 30 new guests arriving from all over.

In the evening, the newly-weds had to participate in a game where they were tested on their knowledge and passion for each other. Easily the best part was 'Il profumo della passion', where, blindfolded, they had to recognize their lover by the smell of the other's armpits.

The start of three days of partying

September 23, 2005 • Blog

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World » Italy » Milano » Arena

Today was Giovanni's and Cecilia's wedding. The ceremony in a packed 'Arena' lasted only 20 minutes but that was also not the focus of the upcoming three day celebrations.
Almost immediately, we joined Monica, Giovanni's sister, and Marco for a drive to Salice Terme, where the party would keep us until late on Sunday. A 'family' Friday, a 'friends' Saturday and a recovery on Sunday. It was also the start of a very relaxing, highly enjoyable weekend.

What was to be expected, I suppose, was the food and drinks. Wine or water. Food from 2pm till 8pm, course after course of gooooood fooooood. I'm pretty sure I could live in what can only be god's country.
After Cecilia's sister sang some very good jazz, some friends had arranged for a folk music band with highly catchy Celtic and gypsy tunes. Surprisingly, many people knew, or pretended to know convincingly, how to dance to the ancient tunes.

We met an Iranian photographer working for National Geographic, living only 10km away from our house in Delft. And we met Cecilia's father, something of a rocket scientist who often travels to the ends of the earth for some NGO on nuclear energy. He counts El Baradei among his close friends.

Six degrees

Which brings me to the 'six degrees of separation'. I think the current concept has to go, for when do you 'know' a person? As far as I know, this is required for 'one degree' . I think the concept of 'knowing' has to be replaced by the 'handshake'. Six degrees away means six handshakes away. El Baradei is two handshakes away, Freddy Mercury four, as is the queen of England.

The last suppers

September 22, 2005 • Blog

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World » Italy » Milano » Santa Maria delle Grazie

Strolled around town today and enjoyed 'The last supper' by Leonardo da Vinci. I was not so much impressed. The painting is a popular destination. You have to make reservations to see the painting and when we arrived, asking if we could still get in, we were told to try again on October 1st. Some more questioning resulted in the suggestion to come back after a couple of hours to check if anyone didn't pick up his reservations.
We were lucky and got in.

The next stop was Il Duomo, which has had its facade hidden for renovation purposes for years. The square in front of the cathedral is impressive, with fascist architecture on all sides, most notably the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele where, on the other side of the gallery, you can find the one and only original Scala, the city's famous opera house.

Then, on to Cimitero Monumentale, where some of the dead live in more expansive housing than some of the poor in Italy.

Aperativo

Milan has an interesting custom. Every evening, practically every bar in Milano, serves 'aperativo'. All drinks at one price with all sorts of food included. Needless to say, many Milanese can be found outside from 6pm till 10pm, savouring their drink and filling their stomachs.
Yesterday, when we stumbled upon a bar offering aperativo just an hour before we were set to meet up for drinks with Giovanni and Cicilia, we couldn't believe our eyes (and mouths) with all sorts of pasta, fish, mussels, bread and pastries up for grabs. We had too much. And then, for drinks with the soon-to-be-married-couple, we had yet another aperativo.

An Italian wedding

September 21, 2005 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Eindhoven » Airport

Back in Afghanistan, I threatened Giovanni I would visit him for his wedding if only remotely possible. Bought tickets back in July, so off Betsy and I went.

Ryanair rules and although the cost of parking our car was about the same as one round-trip ticket from Eindhoven to Milano, it was also worth it.

Because the battery of my phone/mp3-player/pocket-pc died halfway through the trip I lost most of my notes so I probably don’t have that much to say. You’ll have to survive on the pictures.

Icecream sandwich

Some weeks ago, after visiting a bookfair in Utrecht, I had an ice cream sandwich at Roberto Gelato, the only place in the Netherlands serving these delicacies. Of course, my friends thought I was crazy for buying something this disgusting.
When we arrived at Milano central station, waiting for Giovanni and Cecilia to pick us up, I went over to a nearby snack-stand to get, well, a snack. Of course, I got an ice cream sandwich. And it was good.

Oh, Eindhoven airport smells like cat pee.

The coolness factor

September 12, 2005 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

Because I’m doing this from home it’s not *that* spectacular, but still.
I’m submitting this post through my PDA using GPRS. I’ve got my wireless bluetooth keyboard folded out and I’m happily typing away.

My provider, T-Mobile has recently started offering ‘Pocket Internet Totaal’. Unlimited wireless internet, using both GPRS AND hotspots for a reasonable 9.50 euros per month.

The next step is to test Skype and see if it works on either Hotspot or GPRS. Free internet telephony, here I come!

Down!

September 03, 2005 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

I just had a thought on why some of my domains haven't been responding for the last couple of days. The thought turned out to be correct.

All of my domains have been registered with a company in… New Orleans. Some are also hosted there.

It appears their servers are online, judging from comments all over the net. However, I can't reach them…

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