Every once in a while, you meet someone that makes one hell of an impression on you. During my volunteer work, I met someone like that. Her name was Maria, and she was employee of the elderly home where we do our volunteer work. She was responsible for organizing activities for the residents. But she did so much more. The “organization” for which we do our volunteer work, which is an unofficial organization of residents helping each other in whatever way they can, was not part of her official job, but she helped whenever she could. We organize a quarterly evening with drinks and snacks and music, and she was there, even after a long work day.
Unfortunately, like it seems to happen with many good people, she got ill. A brain tumor got the best of her. And even in her period of illness she remained positive. She still did all she could to have a good time, and to have the people around her have a good time. Because of her illness, I didn't see her as often as I used to, but luckily just a few weeks ago we met her on the street near my in-laws, who live near her house. Marjolein en I went with her at first just to see some of the pictures she made while attending, as a guest – not an organizer – the quarterly evening. We stayed to talk for the rest of the afternoon.
It is her enthusiasm and limitless care for others that impressed me most I guess. And the way in which, even in the dire situation in which she found herself, she made the best of everything. An impressive person. Unbelievably so.
Last monday, June 19th, she finally passed away, much later than any doctor had expected it. Tuesday evening I heard about it. And since then, it's been lingering in my thoughts. It is sad to have to miss her. It is good that she does not have to suffer anymore.
Even though I don't believe in afterlife or such things, I want to aim my final words to Maria: Thank you for all your caring. You will be missed and remembered.
posted on June 21, 2006 - 0 comment(s) - tags: personal
Being the geek that I am, when I discovered this book in a box of books that I got for free from someone who wanted to get rid of them, this book immediately caught my eye. A book, non-fiction, about such legendary hackers as Kevin Mitnick and the first massive virus/worm author Robert Morris, and a hacker that for some reason I didn't know about called Pengo, who ended up living a spy thriller.
Split up in three parts, one for each hacker, this book is written in a way that it could be read by anyone from complete geeks to complete newbies to computers. Though slightly outdated (the first edition was published in 1991) the book is still very interesting. Of course, this book could be more seen as historical reference on the topic, and as such will never really be outdated. It is mainly in the references to the number of computers connected to the Internet “nowadays” and the speed of modems “nowadays” that the book may sound slightly outdated.
And so Hafner and Markoff have truly delivered a historical reference on a topic which ruled the media for quite a while in it's days. All three hackers are depicted not as hackers with a malicious intent. And if we can trust these stories enough, indeed they do not seem to have had any malicious intent. And that makes all three cases even more interesting. All three, in their own way, were working mainly out of geekery, out of hobby, and/or out of curiosity. So after reading this book, it is hard to blame any of the subjects of the book on what they did. Sure, it was wrong, but their intent was OK. At least that's my feeling, but I somehow relate to them a bit.
Funny enough, this book also immediately triggered me to pull out my copy of Uplink, the multi-platform hacker game where you play a hacker who works for money to copy files, destroy data, etc. etc. I can only guess that this game was inspired either by this book, or by the cases described in this book.
So yes, definitely a wonderful book, very interesting. Though I suspect the easy to understand language was not necessary since the book will probably mainly attract geek-ish readers, the book is so nice and easy to read that it will appeal to a lot of people.
And lastly, another effect of this book is the mentions of other books that I now want to read. The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling for instance. And The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. I guess I'll have to start looking for copies of those.
posted on June 17, 2006 - 1 comment(s) - tags: books
Yesterday was my birthday. My wife bought me a great present!
First, let's see the old situation:
Now, that is a nice watch. But now, let's see the new situation:
Now, *that* is cool! But how do you see the time? Well, that's simple. Just click the top button on the right of the watch, and the led lights (!) will show you the time!
Ain't that cool?
posted on June 17, 2006 - 2 comment(s) - tags: personal
Silence? It seems like that lately here. There's several reasons for this. First of all, for some reason, I seem to be unable to really get inspiration on topics to write about. There are several topics that I'd love to write about (XUL, World of Warcraft, the Zend Framework, hacking (thanks to the book I'm currently reading), music (I've recently started working on some new stuff)). Lots of topics that ask for my attention, and that I'd love to give attention. But when I sit down to write about it (mostly on the train from work) I just can not find the words to actually offer something useful. And thus, I opt to not post anything at all. This may seem boring, and I realize that, but trust me, you'd be bored and annoyed by useless posts otherwise 
But there are more reasons. When at home, most of my time goes to Tomas, Marjolein, and World of Warcraft. Also, lately, I seem to be a bit tired (and not just because of late night gaming, because I don't do that too often). I often sleep on the trainrides to Amsterdam in the morning and also on the way back to Amersfoort in the evening. If I can stay awake enough, I read on the bus from Woudenberg to Amersfoort and from Amersfoort to Woudenberg. I'm not sure why this is. I sure hope it will pass.
posted on June 7, 2006 - 1 comment(s) - tags: personal
17-02-2012: