Curry is not their only export

This video soooo deserves its own post!
Its version with english lyrics is available here.


n.-

My loony bun is fine Benny Lava!

EVERYBODY knows the "crazy indian video" from youtube.
I just had my laugh of the day with its subtitled version (at least, how the hindu sounds in english):

Thinking I've seen it all, I just clicked away to finally spot this video with 10,973,951 views (yup, 10 Million), called "Indian Thriller"(get a glass of water first, my throat dried up really fast from all the laughing...).
This one ranked pretty high in my Top 5 "Psychedelic-SynthPop-JaneFonda-onCrack" category.


n.-

mais uma volta, mais uma viagem

And one more tour at the Hofbräuhaus. It's loud, there's lots of beer and the foreigner population is 10 times bigger than the German one.

We got ourselves a pair of panties from the vending machine located in the "Dame's" bathroom. I guess they come in random colors and shapes but we got unlucky and had in our hands some white ones with a big butterfly motive in the front ornamented by some shining silver decoration.

After a brief discussion, we all agreed about the big mystery: "Why in the name of all that is sacred, are there panties for sale in the toilet?"
Bridget Jones gave the answer a long time ago: If a girl hangs out there, wearing some corny/cheesy/ugly knickers and meets a (drink till they're) cute bloke, there's nothing like a visit to the bathroom to get a decent (if you're lucky) undergarment for the embelishment of the last moments of the night. (at 3EUR each, be sure to take lots of coins, you might also end up with an anti-climax butterfly-shaped G-string...)

Anyway...

Honey! Listen to me! As drunk as you'd both leave the place, he surely will NOT mind about what your underwear looks like. Oh! I get it, it's all in your head... a question of self-confidence!

I agree then, there's very little more important than self-confidence - men should then be able to buy sticker-tattoos from their WC vending machine.


n.-

another techy post

The Pwnie Awards nominees are set. My personal favorite being Windows Vista for proving that security does not sell in the the Pwnie for Most Epic FAIL category:

• The good thing about the Vista debacle is that no other vendor will care to do such a security push, which means that we'll be able to easily own any piece of software for the foreseeable future.

Other than that, the Bloglines Beta news aggregator has been on my RSS reader benchmark ever since Valerie told me about it - great interface, good for reading fast through the news.


n.-

I never thought a smartphone could be all a "connected" person would need

picture obtained from a gizmodo article

I've been living with a Smartphone ever since I joined Microsoft. On a personal and professional level, it's a fab device, small, charges quickly, great autonomy, best Contact Search I ever experienced...

As a professional, such a device should be able to hold all I need to do my work. It just stinks to use its super small keypad and screen. And this is where a laptop-looking smartphone terminal comes into play - the Redfly.
"... with a large screen and full keyboard with no OS, no CPU, and no storage that lets you use your smartphone like a laptop. REDFLY links to your smartphone via a USB cable or wireless Bluetooth connection... "

After reading a Dark Reading story about how this solution could simplify network security management with mobile devices, I reckon its value in its worst-case scenario - the now soooooo popular lost laptops:

• once a mobile device gets lost, the device data encryption will keep data safe and ultimately, wipe out features based on repeated wrong passwords or remote command from a server, will keep data definitely clear of malevolent hands. Laptops have similar features too, but how much easier are these features to implement and manage?

499$USD is a high price... (more expensive than the ASUS eee PC 900) but its features balance this negative side: 8hrs autonomy, weighing 1kg, small as it is, allows to recharge the smartphone...

I loved the concept. Wishing to lower the amount of tech hardware needed to perform what I need/want to, this would one way to accomplish it without relying on pure low-tech brain memory and paper sheets to burn after every information write-down.

By the way, how can anyone lose a laptop? I know I have a bad memory, but I never even managed to lose my umbrella ever since I bought it 5 years ago. I do love my Terra cotta Knirps umbrella! Could love be the reason for this prowess? "Love thy laptop and ye shall not lose it"


n.-

those nasty spammers

The screencap is from a really cool video from the dutch IT Security bureau - www.waarschuwingsdienst.nl.

F-Secure mixed its reporting data with Google Earth. The results? A world map with the reported SPAM (and malware) originators... and let me tell you, it looks reaaalllyyy coooollll!!!
The article - link.

The video:

Besides that, there are some online reports that look more like movie scripts than malware gang reports:

• Dark Reading: Cybercrime, Cosa Nostra-Style
• Securityfocus: Cybercrime gets busy getting organized

As always, be aware

n.-

Ordnung muss sein

This is one of the stereotypical characteristics about Germans - There must be order.
I believe it's actually one of the few ones that is really true.

I have been on a multi-flanked clean-up endeavour myself!

• It started with my music collection (ouch, ouch, ouch...)! It's all fine and dandy to rip my CDs into my MP3 collection, but the TAG consistency is not always the best. XBMC sometimes does not correctly read the data... V1 and V2 are not the same, etc... this is where MediaMonkey comes into play, my new favorite order and consistency enforcer! Thanks to Paulo for being so nagging about this software. It really made my collection easier to sift through (after some serious long and hard-working hours) ;
• Lifehacker is a website always proposing new and innovative software (or tricks) to accomplish stuff. I am FED UP with the amount of software to do all those little things, a vain attempt to organize a life behind a screen (and an increasing hassle to maintain all that softwar). I reckon that only some of the things are useful, I am thus cleaning up the computer and starting to use only the BARE necessary stuff and even then, look for the best online solutions, meaning, I avoid using software installations. Some good examples are Google Reader, MindMeister, Google Notebook... all of which with some little tweaks in Firefox (which has been updated to 3.0.1) do make online life easier;
• not to mention my whole flat, as I am putting everything in 1 room and will start deciding (once again) what to discard, give away or sell;
  

Speaking of tidyness...
... Couchsurfing just got some improvements:

• only 3 types of feedback now: Positive, Neutral or Negative - much easier to decide now;
  
• profile pages show obtained and given references side-by-side - REALLY COOL;

... here's the related news flash - link

I am done with today's tidying up. Time to go outside and get some air, come back, practice some more on my guitar, think about which simple recipe to cook for dinner and eventually go out at night for this weekend's Munich 850 birthday celebrations with some live shows.


n.-

Couchsurfers on TV

T-Mobile did it around May this year, I only caught news about this now. Ain't it just so effin'cool?

What if you don't know what a "couchsurfer" is? Google will have the right answer ranked first.

Still about CS... there's also another pretty decent video news report (in San Francisco) and from this online piece, my favorite quote is:

• As a host, George explains, “I love how the culture comes to me when I am not able to travel myself.”

n.-

PS: I'll let you know when I am famous too... this should happen around September...

Trent for free

The latest NIN album , The Skip, was released online for free.

The complete discography (with the Halo order) is on this cool site - 9inchnails.com.

A taste of Discipline:

am I still tough enough?
feels like I'm wearing down
is my visciousness
losing ground?
am I taking too much
did I cross a line
I need my role in this
very clearly defined

I need your discipline
I need your help
I need your discipline
you know once I start I cannot help myself

Trent rulez (there's really no other way to put it),

n.-

Stephen Hawking reading wikipedia out for you

Back in the not-so-old days, Dr. Sbaitso would be the digital home psychiatrist brought to you by a soundcard developer, ie. the computer would speak with you in this annoying weirdo-tone digital voice.



While searching for a mobile wikipedia, I stumbled on a website that will... take a deep breath... read wikipedia articles for you and save them in MP3 for later appreciation.



This is GREAT, I always wanted to have the most trusted source of biased information read out to me in a digital voice. It's truly, a dream come true...



Pediaphon - the link



I can see so many applications for this, hearing about my favorite musicians while jogging, learning more details about salmonella while cooking or even getting hints about contraception while at home with my girlfriend...



n.-



PS: Jokes apart, the project is an interesting e- and m-learning tool



PPS: I do use a mobile wikipedia, it's always handy to get that little piece of information EVERYONE is wondering about... but I stopped reading articles out loud to people as I had to pay them coffee to keep them awake while holding their arm so they would not leave...

Insert 3EUR and press the right button

Who can explain to me why the Hofbräuhaus' ladies toilet has a vending machine supplying G-Strings?

Want to know what the men's toilet has? A (stainless steel) puke bowl.I guess that management decided on these offers as a reaction to demands.


Was I a girl, would I understand what relationship drinking and a new pair of panties have?I wonder how well these G-strings sell... this stupid curiosity makes me want to investigate.



Servus


n.-

another free hugs day

 ... and there he goes, after getting his first free hug (ie. hug from a stranger on the street) from Nancy, that old man took on trying it by himself.



This time around, we even got ourselves a VIDEO, yeah!!!! Kudos to Paulo for that!

cheerios,



n.-

a birthday thing

Years ago, I would attempt to take the day off on my birthday, it was some kind of self reward on that special (!!??) day.

In the end, it's really only a milestone, just like driving on a long road to somewhere, while those little white stones whizz by on the side of the road, telling you how far you already drove.

Depending on how fast they follow each other, you might be driving too fast



What is today's day made of?

• Setting up and fine-tuning a Powerpoint presentation I am delivering tomorrow as the final part of a job application (important self-reminder: TALK SLOOOOOWLY);


• online tip of the day: You just found a page (a blog, an artist homepage, etc...) with a download link to an MP3 file and you want to listen to it? Install a Greasemonkey Inline Mp3 Player script that will create a little [play] link next to the mp3 file and stream the song directly from the page. note: Largeheartedboy already includes a Yahoo inline player on its page;


• in combination with the previous bullet: CoastIsClear just made my morning a little bit brighter with some great indie proposals;


• welcoming with a big smile all the birthday wishes (thank you all for that);


• watching my much admired security talk presenter, Mikko Hypponen (in the hope I get some inspiration);


• while researching a bit about presentations (and how to deliver them the best way possible), I found the latest Where the hell is Matt video (the scene in Munich is shown at 2:18) .

Who/what is also celebrating/being celebrated today? Canada day, Princess Diana, Dan Akroyd and last but not least, Pamela Anderson (who is canadian btw).



n.-



PS: just in case you're wondering WHERE I found Matt's new video: http://www.presentationzen.com/

PPS: Here's a direct link to Matt's video (FF3 + NoScript + AdBlockerPlus are f'in with the editing of this post)