Archive for February, 2007

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M3 works!

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Thanks to Stijn’s tips, I managed to fiddle enough around with the M3 to get it working in my GBA micro. After I had begun afresh with Zelda … yes, my fresh savegame is now further than the one on the M3. Would’ve been nice to avoid that though.

In other gaming news, seems that there is a nice m3 light thingy out, for quick & easy fun on the DS. Apparently it’s cheap too. Hmms, might consider that… Then again, showing pics with the M3 is cool enough.

Now cubing: LotR: 3rd Age; now GBAing: Zelda Minish Cap; DSing: Bomberman

Posted in gaming | 1 Comment »

.nl update

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

Well, to keep you all up to date (note: in quite random order):

  • Ania & me found Ania’s bike.
    That was sort of amazing, it has disappeared from (the closed alley next to) OUR place, and we found it back in the city center – locked with the original lock. Weird, but nice.
  • Nout & Naukje can both play piano scarily good.
    Old news to those who know, but I’m still impressed if someone can sit down and just start to play a song from paper…
  • Movie-thon summary
    • Sucky SF with decent special effects is bearable
    • Sucky SF with ancient special effects and ancient acting (think ST:TOS style, but worse) is not bearable
    • Shaolin Soccer is a cool movie
    • Highlander I is a very cool movie
  • Jan-jaap van der Wal is pretty funny.
    Erik had unfortunately gotten sick, and was unable to attend, so Rogier & me suddenly found ourselves in the (newly renovated) theatre. The show is called BSUR. It didn’t drive the socially engaged points home as much as the title implied :)
  • Tv series updates
    • Heroes: somehow after a break in watching, the impact seems to have lessened on me. Still, cool show
    • Naruto: filler time is OVER!!! *dance of joy*. Still, only had one (double) episode to enjoy, which was “enriched” with various “use your secret Naruto decoder ring!! This is a keyword” scenes :S. But on the whole: can’t really wait for the updates :)
  • Dashti’s talk on Nuovo went nice (imho).
    It did cover a lot of things in little detail, so in that respect it will probably differ from the presentation at FSEN07.
  • Meeting the Kiesraad proved interesting.

That’s it for now, write to you later!

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Short but sweet stay in .lu

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

So, turns out I’ll be leaving Lux tomorrow again. How’s that for fast? Still, honestly, the visit was more than worth it. First of all, I got to experience the train ride. Secondly, I met again with all of my new colleagues, including Baptiste Alcalde, who started last Monday. I really feel that our little group (SaToSS – Safety and Security of Software Systems) is rounding out nicely. Speaking of which, 28th of February we will have a kick-off event!

In addition to seeing everyone, there was the wonderful visit on the 15th with Sasa to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg. The tickets (free of charge, courtesy of the UdL cultural programme) said it was in the Grande Theatre, past which I bike every time on the way to work here. So I thought I knew where we should be… turns out there is a second building, about a 10 minute walk from there. Not so nice to discover if you have only 5 minutes until the start!

We made it, luckily enough, and were treated to a wonderful program:

  • Wagner, Tannhäuser, Ouverture and Bacchanale
    Very uplifting, I appreciated it
  • Berlioz, Carnaval romain. Ouverture, op. 9
    worthwile
  • Wagner, Flight of the Valkyrie
    I kid you not! I wasn’t expecting this, because at this point I still didn’t have the programme. I sat there when the first notes hit me, and couldn’t believe it! Here I was, sitting for free in a very nice theater, listening to “What’s Apocalyptica Now Doc?” ;-)
    Needless to say, the music was brilliant and very well played!
  • Debussy, afternoon prelude for a faun
    ok, I guess, but after Wagner… I did have the program by now, next was the piece for orchestra and piano soliste…
  • De Falla, Nights in the Spanish Gardens
    Well, piano was a complete letdown. The piano sucks, the soliste was not that good or the piece itself was less than brilliant – probably a combination of the three. Anyway, not my thing at all.
  • Encore by the soliste
    Superfluous for me. The piano definitely has some issues when played forte, and the soliste definitely liked to play forte.
  • Ravel, Boléro
    Oh… wow… brilliant! Not just one of the most well-known classical works (like the Valkyrie), but also played very well. Incredibly enjoyable!

What is mindboggling to me is how uni.lu students and staff can actually get free tickets. There is only a limited number available, but still. We got the full show for free. Incredible.

So today me & prof. Mauw went by car to work. Had a false start due to some car troubles, but in the end we arrived safely. I managed to finish the BFR finally (PHEW!), check the sportcenter (fitness is expensive, swimming affordable, not really much else there :( ), and in the evening went to check out “Grund” with Sasa, Pieter and Baptiste. Well, Grund is beautiful and boring (resembling the rest of the city), but up from Grund there’s actually a place with some life! We found a bar with people in it, loudish music, drinks, basically, a bar with LIFE!

I was really starting to get worried about that – the whole village seems to work or sleep around here. So I am really glad to have found that place. Anyway, tomorrow Pieter & me will be heading back to .nl, so I might run into you in the next couple of days.

Posted in luxembourg | 2 Comments »

6 hours, uni-to-door

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

Pheweeh! That took forever!! Well, partially my fault – I had decided to take a train that you’ll have to wait for a bit longer, and it arrives 9 minutes later. Upside from that is that it’s direct from Liege to Luxembourg – which saves you 15 minutes of doing nothing, waiting for a train in Namur.

I found new and interesting ways to bore yourself to death for 6 hours. Zelda Minish Cap is a life-saver here, spent quite a bit of time on it. Reading papers for work has benefits, but becomes harder and harder with the steady rhythm of the train, the darkness outside… indeed. Sleeping would’ve been nice, but somehow I never manage – even when the two people talking across from me have left.

Well, that’s basically how I spent my Valentine’s day – traveling. Funny to see lots of people with big bouquets of flowers, or a single rose. It incredibly shouts “valentine!” :)
(I cheat a bit here. Valentine to me has always felt like a hype, pushed by shops to sell stuff. Plus I’ve rarely been in love on Valentine’s day, which facilitates ignoring the whole concept.)

So any tips if you’re coming to visit me? Of course:

  • eurolines.nl has the cheap buses, if you book in advance enough. Travel duration from Eindhoven is not that bad compared to the train, but they almost never go (mon 11:15, fri 11:15; return: mon, wed, fri, roughly same hours I believe). You can get as low as 12 euros for the return ticket, but it’ll cost you two whole working days…
  • By car is by far the best option. A three hour smooth drive, and you’re here. Parking is payed, everywhere in the city. I don’t know if they have transferia are somesuch.
    Melanie had a tip: there are probably people looking for carpoolers, this happens quite frequently. I don’t know, but it’s definitely worth checking out (if you don’t have your own car)!
  • Train: if you have the discount card, get the railplus card too! Only 15 euro’s, and first return ticket you buy will be 20 euro’s cheaper!
  • No matter how you go, take some food and drink. If by public transportation: plenty of food / drink! :)
  • Reading has its limits, it doesn’t work that well if you are tired. Still, bring something to keep you occupied. A good book is of course a prime choice, but a DS or a GBA also works :)

I’ll be in Lux this weekend, so if any of you feel like dropping by, drop me a note!

PS: Forgot to mention this earlier, but they checked my passport (with the somewhat older picture), saw I came from the Netherlands and then wanted to see all my bags and my coat :)
Hilarious! At first I was kind of worried about the alcohol I had brought (I was moving a large part of my stash to .lu, it could be to much, I dunno…). But of course they were not interested in that! It took me a while before I figured they were looking for drugs :)

Posted in travelling | 1 Comment »

I’m not saying bye bye…

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

I’ll be in Eindhoven so often, you’d hardly notice I was gone ;-) So, for the interested parties:

  • Feb 21 (dinnertime) – Feb 24: Ehv
  • March 2nd – March 5th: Ehv
  • March 12th – March 14th or 18th or so: Ehv
  • March 29th or 30th – at least April 2nd: Ehv

of course, all very provisional :)

By the way, speaking of parties: should I give a farewell party? I shall await the reactions to this post to find out :)

Posted in luxembourg | 3 Comments »

M3 might work again?

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

So, I have an M3 adapter for the GBA, which allowed me to show everyone pictures on my micro (which, incidentally, is the main thing I have been using it for. It’s just too flashy for me to withstand it, I just have to show off ;-). The M3 stopped booting about 2 months ago, but since I hadn’t been using it so often, fixing it or getting it repaired sort of slipped my mind. Well, luckily enough Stijn found this link, which explains a solution and then also what the problem could be: apparently the PCB inside the M3 can move around just enough to cease functioning :(

Well, I will definitely try this (unfortunately I have my M3 in Lux and am in Ehv atm, so I will have to wait a bit).

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Snailmail!

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

I’ve received some snailmail (from uncle Sjaak & aunt Jeanne, Peter & Margot and Matthijs & Bianca). Thanks a lot all of you, it’s really nice to have just moved, come home after a day of work and find a nice card :)

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Living on my own, part deux

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

So, I’ve been here for a week, spent a fortune on food (overcautious, I guess…) and of course the inevitable happened: some of it expired :)

Well, I’d say “learned my lesson” except that I am pretty sure I haven’t (yet), but this is kind of funny. Thanks to all those wonderful dinners at friends, I am able to cook without making a complete ass of myself in the kitchen (thanks for that, you all!). Unfortunately, it also means I am used to cook (and hence shop) for more than one person — actually, I am kind of used to buying stuff for at least three people. Well, that’ll leave me with way too much food :) :)

Speaking of that, I’ve found an Auchan near my office (5 minutes by bike), which is a very nice big shopping mall. They have everything (or at least, so it seems now)! And, thankfully, much more decent prices than the Cactus I went shopping on the first day. Still, you have to pay attention… e.g. yesterday I planned to make something with chicken fillet. Turns out that chicken fillet is twice (or more) expensive than what I am used to :S

I cheated and switched to pork :)

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Illegal games for the GBA?!?!

Monday, February 5th, 2007

Just got off the phone with Nintendo tech support concerning my recently acquired copy of Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World. The game didn’t retain its saves after shutting down the computer. Sounds like a battery problem, right? Well, it turns out that SMA2 has a solid-state save memory, so no batteries required. There are apparently quite a number of illegal copies of it out there, which do use a battery. Boohoohoo, I probably have a non-official version of the game.

I even have the box in which it came :S Aaah well, this means I’ll just have to get by without saving (or without shutting down the DS Lite / GBA Micro).

Posted in gaming | 1 Comment »

Une grande BONJOUR de Luxembourg!

Sunday, February 4th, 2007

Bonjour a tous, et bienvenue a mon premier ecrit en Francais! Toutes let fautes sont a moi ;-) J’ai pensee si j’ecrit tout les temps dans une lange etrange pour moi, peut-etre je peut ecrire en Francais aussi — et pourquoi pas?

Trouver les accents est un problem pour le moment — ca explique l’absence de les dans cette petite texte. Mais, on continu. J’ai rencontre quelques gens ici qui sont joli et drole :) Ce me resemble que c’est possible d’avoir un vie joyeuse ici — je n’ai aucune doubte de ca, mais decrouvir ca pendant mon premier jours ici est bonne chance, ne pas?

J’ai essayer de cuire un petit peu (meme végétarien, parce que mon voisin ne veux pas manger de la viande de porc), et pour le moment ce resemble comme je ne doit pas mourir de la faim. Parler en francais n’est pas facile pour moi, mais je n’ai pas un choix ;-)

C’est tout pour maintenant — le soleil a me reve, et je doit prendre un petit voir que’est-ce que ca passe dehors :)

A tout a l’heur!!

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