Sunday, January 30

A touch up

288° 50' NET

Did a small graphical facelift to this blog.
An improvement, at least in my opinion.
That keeps me from changing the whole template...again.

Vector at Sunday, January 30, 2005

Comments 4


Saturday, January 29

Gunner Palace

307­­­° 40' NET

Gunner Palace is a film which tries to give as true picture of what is going on in Iraq as possible throught the eyes of one unit (2/3 FA).

As told by Fury of Operation Truth "There's no politics, no uplifting message, no Pentagon propaganda and no Hollywood ending. Just 400 soldiers trying to get the job done as best they can."

Might be something to watch.


Vector at Saturday, January 29, 2005

Comments 0


Thursday, January 27

ID Cards

286­­° 10' NET

ID-card phobia. This is something I have seen on some pages and I have some difficulties to understand it.

Here in The Netherlands, starting from 1.1.2005, it is mandatory to carry some kind of identification paper with you all the time. It can be a passport, driving licence or the actual ID-card.

I heard some comments against it over here, but not very many. I personally don't have anything against carrying my driving licence with me, I do that all the time anyway.

What I don't get is how in some countries from around the world an id-card or social security number or such can be seen as a thing from the devil himself. At least that's how it sounds like people are thinking. It is the tool for Big Brother and so on and so forth.

Maybe I don't get it because I have been filed in archives and databases for all my life. In Finland you get your ID as you are born and you are stuck with it until you die. Here under is example of social insurance card from KELA. That number in the middle is the id-number.
From that number people see straight out your birthdate and your gender.
This woman was born in 14. March 1975. If she was born after 1999 the "-" sign would be "A".
And if I remember right, the second last number tells you what gender you are supposed to be. Pairs for gals and odds for guys.



All the state institutions and offices have their (regulated) access to the database and it's also crosslinked to other databases so basically everything you do which concerns giving out your ID is registered.

Sounds scary!!

Well, it's really not. It identifies you and follows you through everything you do which is connected to government backed/linked activities. That means healthcare, school, military service, criminal records, driving licences and so on. That's why everyone has their social security number, later known as the personal identification number.

If it's something, it is very handy. I remember when I went to the employment office in a city and county other than my own, they had all my work history and what had been done by them right there on the computer. I didn't have to have any papers with me. Only my driving licence so that they could get my number out of it and also saw that I was who I said I was.

Also your taxation relies on your id number. They get information concerning your income. This makes it possible for you to get a pre filled tax form with all the figures in place, you just have to look it through, see that it matches and sign it and send back. I didn't have to manually fill in my tax form before I moved over here.

Now, all this doesn't mean that I support all forms of identification. For example if I have to start giving fingerprints to some database somewhere, that's too far in my opinion. Iris scan goes barely, that's a passive method, it's done once and there is a record of you going through the scanning point, but that's it. It can't be used for anything else than getting an input of your movement. Fingerprints can be copied which separates your id from you. Basically you are giving away a rubber stamp with your fingerprint on it....yeah, this is my paranoia.


Vector at Thursday, January 27, 2005

Comments 2


Wednesday, January 19

Bush gets his crown

325° 25' NET

Inauguration takes place tomorrow. I am curious to see if G can beat his dad in the cost of the whole thing.

I'm also interested in seeing what kind of 'patriotic' tint it will have and how is the military aspect integrated in it.


Vector at Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Comments 3


BSOD

316° 50' NET

Yeah - couldn't help it. Sorry, B.



Seriously, people who are using Mac or power up with Linux are generally more happier.

Vector at Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Comments 2


Monday, January 10

Talking about games...

252° 03' NET

My next investment in games is going to be a little different than what I normally do.
Actually it is not a game, it's more like a simulation.

I'm talking about VBS1â„¢.

"Virtual Battle Spaceâ„¢ is a fully interactive, three-dimensional training system providing a premium synthetic environment in which team members may practice small unit tactics."

Drooooolllll!!!

It's all based on Flashpoint, which is of course the Numero Uno of the wargames out there. Only VBS1â„¢ is better and more complex and you can get nice addons to enrich the game environment. Like Animal Pack - you can have bunnies hopping around! You can have a road kill laying around if you want!! In how many games do you have that option?!

Only downside of VBS1™ is the price. At 108 € (140$US) for VBS1™ + 38 € (50$US) per addon it is a little expensive, but it is a one time buy.

Anyway, I still got to wait before I can order it since my credit card hit the limit last month...stupid month that December.

Still 3 or so weeks before February....

Vector at Monday, January 10, 2005

Comments 1


Back from the stars

246° 15' NET

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident.

A good enough game for a nice enjoyable game fun for a week or so. Took me away from the internet for almost 2 weeks. That counts for something.

Some things were frustrating - like NPC AI at times. Also the layout of my keyboard made my blood pressure go up. That annoying Start button is next to Control which I needed to use in the game, and sometimes I happened to press Start instead of Control.
That put the game of course on the background and popped up the desktop and usually the game crashed because of this.
My solution to this was to pop that freaking Start button off the keyboard. After that I had no problems what so ever.
Hopefully the cat won't eat that loose button or something...


Vector at Monday, January 10, 2005

Comments 0