tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60354338427867792262011-11-28T00:18:41.825+01:00sometimes you are walking down the street or sitting on a bus/tram/train/car/plane and the strangest things go through your head that in some cases may feel profound to you or perhaps (more commonly with me) downright stupid. You continue on your journey and the thoughts have gone, usually for ever. I decided to invest in an iPhone recently and one of the things that I realised immediately is that I no longer have to loose some of these musings, so here they are!Orestisnoreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-45774133891524909852009-05-13T14:01:00.001+02:002009-05-13T14:01:22.452+02:00

For a long time I have felt that the idea that a company can come along and patent a DNA sequence struck me as ridicoulous, unjust and unfair. Sadly, the people in charge at the responsible patent offices did not see it as such and they allowed companies to not only patent sequences that they "discovered" but restricted other organisations from doing any work on those genes. Happily, a lawsuit in

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-34655517670301357442009-03-24T00:36:00.001+01:002009-03-24T00:36:36.005+01:00

Bob Austin, who for many years has worked in major metropolitan fire and EMS departments, had the idea of creating an open source medical dispatch system. Such a system would have numerous benefits. Beyond being a free system, it also would allow best practices to easily bubble up in a way that actively would help save lives. If another EMS department could improve on the system, they easily

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-61419418221786671442009-02-04T22:39:00.001+01:002009-02-04T22:39:36.313+01:00

I was reading an article on line about writers who are able to write short (400-600) word articles for eHow and they get rewarded based on the revenue generated by the article online or by the page views. I did not get in any detail into the exact remuneration process. I was amazed at the contract that these writers sign. Here are some excerpts from the contract which may be found here.You retain

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-53366822443588895812009-02-04T22:01:00.000+01:002009-02-04T22:02:27.046+01:00

Listened to a conversation today about the high costs of medications and the impact they are having on health services all over the world as well as individuals. The argument, as always, was that big pharma was charging way too much for life saving medications and the counter to that was “well, yes, but they do have high R&D costs that they need to cover”, hence the justification that the

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-86565214134849842662009-02-02T23:47:00.001+01:002009-02-02T23:47:48.682+01:00

It is the time of year when I need to start on my tax returns and I was thinking of software that I have used in the past. Of course Intuit came to mind and they have a product right now called TurboTax with the latest changes required to make your 2008 / 2009 returns. What suprised me even more is that Intuit is announcing its figures this week and do you know, they are a 3.1 billion dollar

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-59947723874420857152009-02-01T17:33:00.001+01:002009-02-01T17:33:00.306+01:00

I am sure that 365 days a year you will find people surfing in the English Garden in Munich. This is a canal off the Isar that flows through the English garden and at this particular point the water forms a wave that is great if one wants to practice their surfing technique.These 2 guys were at it this morning and there is a third just out of the picture. A few minutes later a girl joined them

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-22542328193923951202009-01-30T20:46:00.001+01:002009-01-30T20:46:13.829+01:00

What a lovely video. Well made and I love the music.

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-60452002770204335542009-01-30T12:40:00.001+01:002009-01-30T12:40:29.935+01:00

President Obama in a speech called Wall street upper management's behaviour "shameful" based on their spending 20 billion of the bailout money on bonuses, and at a time when most of them are "having" to let people go. There are rumours, which I hope turn out to be fact, that legislation may be passed that will allow the state to claw back some of the bonuses paid to top management in times such

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-29642438321708100262009-01-29T14:02:00.001+01:002009-01-29T14:02:13.715+01:00

The New York Times has announced a Congress API. This is part of their developer network and they are giving access to their database which is in turn fed by a number of other db's such as the U.S. House and Senate Web sites, THOMAS the Library of Congress Web site and the Bibliographical Directory of the United States Congress.The database contains House votes since 1991 and Senate votes since

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-43766018890647976332009-01-29T01:20:00.001+01:002009-01-29T01:20:50.720+01:00

Well, here it is. This is where Obama wants the money to go to. Hope you can stay awake ;-)$650,000,000 for Wildland Fire Management programs$135,000,000 for Indian Health Services$410,000,000 for Indian Health Facilities$150,000,000 for the Smithsonian facilities$3,250,000,000 for Training and Employment services under the Department of Labor$120,000,000 for community service programs for the

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-30099409025823169102009-01-28T23:51:00.001+01:002009-01-28T23:51:15.871+01:00

Wow, what a great tool and I love the logic behind the method. The end product is a little rough (too much feathering for my liking) on the edges but nevertheless for home videos it is ideal. Interactive Video Cutout from pro on Vimeo.

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-10534095363680529292009-01-28T20:07:00.002+01:002009-01-28T20:17:37.311+01:00

I was surprised to hear today that Carol Bartz who is succeding Jerry Yang as CEO at Yahoo has started her job with sending out a really critical email to all staff and has frozen all pay rises, that is of course after she gave herself a really good package. She also said in an internal memo that she'd "dropkick to fucking Mars" anyone whose company gossip ended up on the blogs.Then on friday

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-77969227580998941032009-01-28T14:41:00.002+01:002009-01-28T14:44:34.260+01:00

I woke up this morning to find that it was snowing. I thought great, I will go for a walk in the park which will help me think about a problem I am currently having with ext js.Anyway, I took my daughter to the kindergarten and then put on my headphones and went for a walk in the park. At 9:30 I came across these guys who were already on the ice having a game (what is bowling on ice called?). Now

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-37523246396218015262009-01-25T17:43:00.001+01:002009-01-25T17:43:41.748+01:00

I was coming back home when in front of me I saw this woman walking her dog. She had it on a leash but it was clear that the dog did not like the idea much and was just standing its ground. As I came around the corner I saw the woman pulling at the dog and talking to it. What surprised me is that she was talking to it as if it were a child fully expecting it to understand her logic and start

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-78817487208796505712009-01-25T17:21:00.001+01:002009-01-25T17:22:46.876+01:00

I was putting up videos on vimeo last night that I have taken of my daughter and it is quite a good medium for sharing video content with friends and family without the hassle of your stuff being out there in the public domain, but rather you can select who has access to your content. Anyway, as I was waiting for a particular long video to upload I was browsing around and I came across this short

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-28608635501766060982009-01-24T01:51:00.001+01:002009-01-24T01:51:33.313+01:00

Now I am worried. Watch the following clip and tell me that mobiles phones dont mess with your head. Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondesby sassiere

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-77126784125911719242009-01-23T10:13:00.001+01:002009-01-23T10:14:06.694+01:00

Hang on a minute, where is the bed? I can't believe there is no four poster bed in this baby. And what about the little ones? I can't believe that anyone seriously expects Obama to travel without his kids and wife! OK, this floor plan is from 2002 but Bush has probably added a bar."Air Force One Floor Plan." 29 May 2002. HowStuffWorks.com.

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-10454735898923497672009-01-23T09:42:00.001+01:002009-01-23T09:43:45.393+01:00

I came across this article on wired magazine that lists the World's top surveilance societies. I was very impressed to see that Greece is the only country in the world that has adequate safeguards, on paper at least, compared to the likes of Canada, Germany, Argentina, Italy and a couple of other new states that offer some safeguards but weakened protection. This comes from Privacy international,

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-22435255711102962492009-01-22T20:34:00.004+01:002009-01-22T20:52:13.907+01:00

I subscribe to the TED talks podcast so I see quite a few of them when I am on the go. This was one that I watched today and apart from the fact that Ted Carson has a very easy and funny way of communicating. What I found most interesting in this talk was his impression of People magazines coverage of the 9/11 event and how on a double spread you would see an image of firemen carrying a body and

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-85988849467765386112009-01-20T21:59:00.001+01:002009-01-20T21:59:06.920+01:00

I have often thought what passwords people like to use on their pc's or sites that they join. Well, it seems that the writter of the Conficker virus is trying to access systems using the following passwords, and has managed to gain access to 9.5 million machines. Wow!!!In fact looking at the list below I am surprised to see that letmein is in the list. I am surprised because in my 20 years in the

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-91935172438172141512009-01-20T21:46:00.001+01:002009-01-20T21:46:07.800+01:00

You may have heard in the past days of a virus that has many a sysadmin wetting themselves in panic and with good cause. Some say the hackers have yet to activate the payload of the conficker virus which is spreading through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without current security updates.Some 9.5 million pc's are suspected to be affected and as F-Secure's chief research officer,

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-8413505259139325622009-01-20T20:37:00.002+01:002009-01-20T22:10:16.388+01:00

Unfortunately I did not get a chance to hear the man make his speech but I did come across many sites that carried the full text. I was however saddened while reading it at the time site by their choice of ads. I have left an ad that I found particularly sad at the end of the textMy fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed,

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-84053449565924467582009-01-19T09:37:00.002+01:002009-01-19T09:41:58.996+01:00

A tough, taut, mostly well-executed morality parable and thriller that explores some of todays issues that we as a society currently faces. Very well played in my opinion by both Don Cheadle as a pious and fundamentaly a good man and Guy Pearce as the FBI agent hot on his heels. No spoilers, though it is predictable. There is one little twist in the end which makes one giggle, well made me giggle

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-46113274909602916372009-01-18T22:40:00.002+01:002009-01-18T23:06:34.937+01:00

I really do regret not taking any pictures of this building while it was still standing but I had no way of knowing what was hidden beneath it.Back in the summer the bulldozers arrived and started to knock down this old (30's) building that looked like offices which I thought belonged to some power company, as there was a generator of some sort within its grounds. The bulldozers that were doing

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6035433842786779226.post-50320040780605683712009-01-16T12:53:00.000+01:002009-01-18T01:15:06.896+01:00

I went for my usual early morning walk yesterday and on the way past I walked past the Chinese consulate. As I was walking I suddenly noticed this little extension in the metal barrier around the consulate building. I was a little concerned about pointing a camera at a consulate building. Usualy there are a couple of police vans parked just in front of where I took this picture but luckily they

Orestisnoreply@blogger.com0