Individual Eleven – The World's Cyberbrain

I am not referring to the Eurovision song contest either, and no I am not interested whatsoever in a competition that is politically motivated, which also results in potential hearing problems later on.

Actually, it’s more to do with the European and local elections being held across the UK. For the benefit of our foreign friends, the current political situation here is less than tenable. Without going into too much detail, we all know politicians in general cannot be trusted but this goes far beyond that. Senior ministers seems to think it is ethically sound to claim expenses on things such as a new flat screen TV or a toilet seat, using tax payer’s money. Along with our current financial situation, this is going to raise more than a few eyebrows. Apparently, this is within the so-called parliamentary rules, which are undergoing a massive overhaul right now.

Barring the fact that each voting option laid before me is as dire as one another, I am wondering why we cannot have a voting system online. Taking time out of work or disrupting my plans for the week, to vote for honourably questionable individuals, isn’t something I want to be doing. I can say the same thing for the general election next year, there is of course the hazard of voting fraud. Even so, in comparison you also have the potential for vote rigging when using the old-fashioned paper format. Unfortunately, our country is notorious for failed I.T projects costing millions, so I can understand the scepticism when E-Voting was initially trialled a few years ago. The problem we have is accessibility for all and security. Without these two fundamentals it will not work.

On another note, for the people who are au fait with the political turmoil here… am I the only one that feels slightly uneasy that the MPs guilty of the above expenses debacle are the very MPs being judge, jury and executioner for their crimes? We need an independent judiciary or just dissolve parliament altogether and bring the general election forward. Maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part…

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Hello…
To be honest, sponsored links from Google have been redundant for quite some time. As they have stated, their sponsored links policy for Google UK was changed so that any company and/or individual can have a sponsored link… even if it is a competitor or something unrelated to the search criteria. To summarise, if you have the cash you can buy your way into a search so you appear on the right hand side. Last week, Google announced this policy would now encompass across 194 countries. Louis Vuitton has already filed a case with the European Court to dispute this; the outcome will be interesting and will most likely be a landmark ruling for other companies.

I personally never use sponsored links for the above reason, and I have found that US links also appear occasionally even though I did a search within “pages from the UK”. This seems rather pointless, especially when shopping around for a product. The initial introduction of Google paved the way for a better user experience when it comes to web searching. Now, it seems the cacophony created from money grabbing shouts louder than the voice of usability and relevance.


Goodbye…
It is with some sadness that we say farewell to 3D Realms. During my teens, I grew up on games such as Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem. To see a company such as 3D Realms go under after so many years seems such a waste. The game I do remember other than Duke was Rise of the Triad; back then 3D Realms were more widely known as Apogee Software. The multiplayer element was great fun, splattering someone’s innards with one shot always made me chuckle.

However, Apogee/3D Realms are best known for the Duke Nukem franchise. Duke Nukem 3D in particular caused some controversy in terms of game content. Apparently, it is unhealthy for the common populace to be exposed to things such as prostitutes, violent sexual themes and sadistic humour. The game was banned in several countries, but my thoughts on this topic is this; it is a game not reality. If the player cannot distinguish between the two and attempt to re-enact morally unethical elements from a game, then they are beyond hope to begin with.

Unfortunately, with the demise of 3D Realms, the same may befall the completion of Duke Nukem Forever. If you have been monitoring this game, it has been in development hell for the past decade or so. According to an ex-3D Realms employee, the game was in the final stages before the company axe. So near yet so far, the fate of DNF looks grim and I do not hold much hope. Coincidentally, I love how the acronym for DNF also means Did Not Finish…

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If you tried to visit my blog yesterday, you would have been welcomed with a picture of some blonde tart posing suggestively and with the obligatory pointless links down the side. That is because my domain registration did not renew, even though I had made full payment in March. Suffice it to say, I was quite perplexed at how Netrillium manage to operate as a web hosting company, if this happened on their systems across the board. I even made a second payment, the domain information updated with an expiry of 2011, but the domain was still unregistered.

I was furious to the point of throwing random objects. It is astounding that this did not flag up on their systems sooner, if I was a retailer with an online store I could have lost potential earnings. To top it off, I was receiving expiry email notifications. I thought this as odd and I emailed support prior to the expiry, with not a single human response received. The whole situation was so asinine; customer support did eventually resolve the issue. There were no apologies, no explanation, and no thought about the inconvenience to the customer, just an email “Your domain is now registered and does not expire until 2010”. No offense Netrillium, but that date means absolutely nothing because even with that expiry date the domain still expired. I checked multiple times.

The hosting itself is fine, but their billing and re-registration is flawed. I will have to stick with them for now for another year, but after this, I will be moving to another hosting service. Thank you Netrillium for your worthless service, you have just lost a customer.

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As promised, here are my holiday snaps taken on my vacation in Holland. These consist of Amsterdam which is a very historic and wonderful city and DierenPark zoo in Amersfoort. By the way, I absolutely loved DierenPark and the Jurassic Park themed forest was a lot of fun. Enjoy!

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I was killing time on the plane, so I wrote a blog entry ready for posting when I got home. Of course, it would have been nice to have internet access while in the air. This may happen sooner than we think…

As I write this, I am at 24,000 feet over the North Sea, heading for home. Sadly, I had to say my farewells at the airport, but I am sure to visit Holland again.

The nice thing about living in Europe is that all these diverse countries are within easy reach. It took my taxi driver longer to get to the airport than my flight from Amsterdam to London. Although technically the UK is not 100% part of the European Union, we still gain some of the benefits from the EU community.

One such benefit is the ease of entry upon my encounter with immigration. You somehow feel slightly sorry for the Americans and other foreign nationals, as you gaze along the never-ending queue they have to endure at passport and immigration control. Nevertheless, entry into Amsterdam was smooth and stress free for me. Unfortunately, it goes both ways and when I go to Chicago in June, I am sure to experience the lengthy wait for myself.

Along my travels, my friend introduced me to some typical Dutch food and I documented some of these. I have compiled a list of tastiness for you to try, should you ever get the chance to go to Holland yourself.

• Kaassouffle – A delicious cheese crispy pancake. The word “Kaas” is cheese in Dutch.
  

  Kaassouffle

• Kroket – Potato and minced meat wrapped in breadcrumb. You can mash this on a bread bap with mayonnaise.
  

  Kroket

• Frikandel – Sausage-like made from off cut meat.
  

  Frikandel

• Poffertje – Mini pancakes. Lovely with Stroop syrup.
  

  Poffertje

• Pannekoek – Much larger version of the Poffertje, you can have different ingredients to make the pancake. Such as adding mushrooms, cheese or Spek (see below) into the mixture.
  

  Pannekoek

• Spek – How to describe this, I suppose you could call it bacon ham.
  

  Spek

• Stroopwafel – My absolute favourite Dutch delicacy, heavenly when made freshly hot with dripping Stroop syrup.
  

  Stroopwafel

• Zoethout – This is a strange one. It’s a liquorice stick, it looks like a twig. In fact, it looks exactly like a twig or branch from a tree. You chew it to get the sugar from it, but the twig itself is not edible.
  

  Zouthout

• Hagelslag – A typical breakfast compliment, you butter a slice of bread and then sprinkle this on top. Comes in different flavours, such as chocolate and vanilla.
  

  Hagelslag

• Komijnen Kaas – Cumin cheese that is mild (belegen). One of my favourites and Holland is famous for its cheese.
  

  Komijnen Kaas

• Vla – Yoghurt/mousse dessert. Although this is so much better than yoghurt, it comes in a milk carton and you spray Slagroom (see below) on top to serve.
  

  Vla

• Slagroom – Whipped cream.

I need to sort through my holiday pictures, so I will post them over the next day or so. You can do a lot in 4 days…

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With most languages, the first thing you learn are the ofanities. My friend was more than happy to oblige, of course I did learn other things as I went along. I absolutely love the food here, the Stroopwafels especially.

Today is my last day, I am sad to leave such a wonderful country. But it does mean I need to come back, so I can visit my friend again. Although next time I think she will be coming to Blighty, she needs to see outside of London.

I best start packing *gulp*.

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