ivo.nu :: weblog

Architecture building at my university collapsed in a fire

2008-05-13T18:19:58Z

This is surreal. The building that I looked at for many years sitting in my office on the 14th floor of the EE building is no more. A short-circuit caused a major fire, ending in the partial collapse of the building. Many of my architecture college friends went to college in that building.

Here's the view from the 14th floor (it's the building on the right):

This is a video of the building's collapse:

Chaos

2008-05-08T15:14:50Z

For those of you who think English pronunciation is easy or logical, I present to you this poem "The Chaos" by Dutch writer, traveler and teacher Dr Gerard Nolst Trenité from 1920.

An excerpt:

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger;
Then say: singer, ginger, linger.
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age

A review of the poem notes: Readers will notice that The Chaos is written from the viewpoint of the foreign learner of English: it is not so much the spelling as such that is lamented, as the fact that the poor learner can never tell how to pronounce words encountered in writing (the poem was, after all, appended to a book of pronunciation exercises). With English today the prime language of international communication, this unpredictability of symbol-sound correspond-ence constitutes no less of a problem than the unpredictability of sound-symbol correspondence which is so bewailed by native speakers of English. Nevertheless, many native English-speaking readers will find the poem a revelation: the juxtaposition of so many differently pronounced parallel spellings brings home the sheer illogicality of the writing system in countless instances that such readers may have never previously noticed.

So be sure to read the full poem and the review!

Slashdot

2008-04-10T03:03:57Z

Reading Slashdot these days is like visiting the IT guy at work. He's infuriatingly smug and cares passionately about stuff you don't care about, and views your lack of interest as further confirmation of his intellectual superiority. Enjoy.

-- Time Magazine most overrated blogs

P.S. The other overrated blogs are worthy too
P.P.S. The only reason why Slashdot should survive is so I can point at my 5-digit userid.

Continental!

2008-04-04T15:25:19Z

I'm still convinced that Continental Airlines is the best way to fly domestically.

I flew to San Diego this week, in a nice new 737-800 where they served food and showed a movie. My coworker flew American in an aging MD80, no food, no movie.
I lounged in the Continental President's Club, which has free Wifi and hot bagels during breakfast. Here in San Diego, I'm using a Delta Crown Room where there are no bagels and you have to pay for the Wifi. (I'm looking at a sign that says "Delta voted Airline with Best Lounges" and I wonder how much they paid to Business Travel Magazine for that )

Continental, definitely still the only way to fly!

UPDATE after the last segment: I sat for 3 hours on the runway in Houston because it was raining, waiting for the 29 minute flight to Austin. Jinx!</b>

The $2 Trillion Nightmare

2008-03-04T22:05:58Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/opinion/04herbert.html

On Thursday, the Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Senator Chuck Schumer, conducted a public examination of the costs of the war. The witnesses included the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz (who believes the overall costs of the war, not just the cost to taxpayers, will reach $3 trillion), and Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International.

Both men talked about large opportunities lost because of the money poured into the war. "For a fraction of the cost of this war," said Mr. Stiglitz, "we could have put Social Security on a sound footing for the next half-century or more."

Mr. Hormats mentioned Social Security and Medicare, saying that both could have been put "on a more sustainable basis". And he cited the committee's own calculations from last fall that showed that the money spent on the war each day is enough to enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start for a year, or make a year of college affordable for 160,000 low-income students through Pell Grants, or pay the annual salaries of nearly 11,000 additional border patrol agents or 14,000 more police officers.

Remember, that's per day, and the war has gone on for almost 1500 days now.

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/03/the_cost_of_war_2.php

Few people seem to appreciate it, but it’s quite literally true that al-Qaeda's strategy is to cripple the U.S. economy by dragging us into quagmires abroad. Osama bin Laden himself has said this, and it's the only strategy that makes sense. A smallish number of people with no base of resources can't possibly defeat us unless we shoot ourselves in the foot repeatedly as Bush and McCain propose.

Compact Fluorescent

2008-03-03T17:05:24Z

Now that I'm a home-owner, an energy-conscious one even, I thought it was time to start moving to Compact Fluorescent. However, it seems that there are three drawbacks to CFL that currently prevent me from widespread adoption of these bulbs in my house, in order of importance to me:

Dimmable - I like to be able to create a nice atmosphere in my home at night and currently almost every lamp and chandelier has either a dimmer or a three-way bulb in them. Even the halogen spots that I own use either 110V dimmers or special transformer dimmers.

Color - The color temperature of the bulbs is not the nice yellowish 3000K color that I have come to expect from my table lamps to create an inviting atmosphere in the evening.

Warm-up - It seems CFL bulbs take up to a minute to warm up to their final strength and color, and a lot longer when it's colder than room temperature.

I replaced the outside porchlight and the garage light with CFL, but at this point I cannot see myself adopting CF more in my home.

My question is: Am I just not informed enough? Are there CFL bulbs that do not have the aforementioned downsides? I would definitely like to switch but not at the expense of my comfort.

Texas personalized plate validator

2008-02-20T22:39:25Z

Check here whether your desired personalized license plate is available!

We're moving!

2008-02-13T05:43:53Z

Two and a half beautiful years in Tonkawa Trail are coming to an end, because we're moving back North, to Milwood aka the Cowhouse Neighborhood. After we got back from our engagement trip to the Netherlands in November we started house hunting. We probably looked inside about 10 houses, but in the end we picked the second house we looked at. See, before we started, Chantal and I had drafted a list of about 30 requirements that we wanted in our future home. This place had 26 surrounding "yes", 4 "kinda" and no "nope" answers, so really that's about as close to your dreamhome as you can get. It's the ideal layout for us, in the ideal location, for the right price! 2 story, 2564 square foot (240 m2) on a 40x40ft foundation, 2-car garage, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (2 full bathrooms upstairs and a toilet downstairs) and lots and lots of huge oak trees overshadowing the house.

Buying it took a bit of effort. First, when we were ready to put out a bid back in December, it turned out the house had just gone into foreclosure. So we had to wait a few weeks before the bank who repossessed it, put it back on the market. Then, bidding with a bank requires patience, each bid and counter bid will take about one to two weeks. Finally, on January 19 we had an agreed contract and price so we could start looking for loans. (by the way, got a great interest rate exactly on the day that the Fed cut the rates with .75%!) Closing was scheduled for February 7, and I signed literally a hundred pieces of paper with lots of fineprint. But to our amazement, on the next day, Friday, when we were supposed to get the keys, the mortgage company refused to fund the loan citing some new policies that would prohibit them from sealing the deal. Chantal and I were incredulous, after all, we signed their loan offer already, and the deal was sealed! After an excruciatingly agonizing weekend, we got word on Monday afternoon that the loan had been funded after all and we took possession of the house with a champagne toast.

We'll be cleaning and patching up the house every night this week, and the movers will come in on Saturday. Sunday we'll wake up in our new home.

We're excited!!! Oh, and we have wonderful neighbors!

(more pics and a movie)

The Local Pub and the Bazaar: the demise of the concept of "friend" in the online world.

2008-02-05T17:08:08Z

Metaphors for online interaction are popular these days, and there's a reason for that. So let's explore some of the history, analogies and fallacies of online interaction.

The metaphor hype quite possibly all started when ESR wrote his landmark essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Which by the way, I never really grasped. He compares "building a cathedral" with "getting your ideas in a bazaar-like setting", so the two nouns in the essay's title don't even serve the same semantic function. He's not building an actual bazaar, nor is he advocating a Catholic-type oligarchy for project management. But I digress.

These days, social networking sites have their own broken metaphors. Myspace has a "wall" where --I can only assume-- friends can deface your portal with graffiti. Livejournal has distorted the concept of "friend" to now mean "acquaintance". (the difference? an acquaintance won't mind if you ignore them for a while, a friend will.)

This fallacy that, online, you must always include everyone you know, and everyone they know, into every social activity, has become pervasive in online social networking. Let's re-use a poor metaphor and call this the "bazaar"-style of online socializing: You walk around, and simply chat with everyone you know and don't know, about everything and anything. And everyone thinks that this is perfectly acceptable.

Well, for me this is not acceptable. In real life, I distinguish between best friends, friends, acquaintances, and strangers. These four groups serve four distinct purposes in my life, so I believe there should be four distinct analogies in the online world. Yes, to meet strangers, please go "bazaar": join #efnet on EFnet, or set your ICQ to "free for chat" (yeah, I'm old-school). For acquaintances, let them twitter away or spam you on your Livejournal friendslist. But please, reserve a seperate place in your online life for actual friends.

This brings me to the "local pub"-style of online interaction. When I'm at my local bar, I have beers with friends at a seperate table for just us, opening up about subjects I might not want to talk about in public. Now imagine how you would feel if every time you say something, someone from the next table would lean back, join your conversation, voice their opinion, and jot down everything you said on a notepad. It doesn't even matter whether that person is an acquaintance or a total stranger, this is not accepted in real life and should be unacceptable in the online world as well. I specifically opted to sit at a table with a certain group of people, friends. And nobody else.

It is very important to me to have an online analogy for "friends", where I can feel secure to say whatever I want, without the risk of unwanted people eavesdropping, keeping logs, or chiming in with opinions I didn't ask for. Millions of years of human development have created the "best friends / friends / acquaintances / stranger" hierarchy, and there is no reason to reinvent a different social structure online. The reason why we have metaphors for online social interaction is precisely because we do have an intrinsic need for the online world to reflect real life.

So as an exercise, evaluate your own online interactions, what target group (best friend/friend/acquaintance/stranger) they represent, which target you'd want it to represent, and whether you are OK with any discrepancies. And if you're not OK, speak up. For your own health.

Oh, and my online analogy for "best friends"? For my money, there is no replacement for actually turning off your monitor, blackberry or iPhone, getting out of your house and simply drinking a real beer with them at your favorite pub.

But... please think of the children!

2008-02-04T21:10:30Z

And the list of items for which you must show ID to buy them gets longer:

Sudafed nasal decongestant
Spray paint
and today: Compressed air (I use those cans to clean a computer case)

I guess this "old geezer" can use this information to figure what the kids are doing these days to get high. Never knew you could sniff compressed air...

More on Dutch Freedom of Speech

2008-01-29T18:56:04Z

An (English) interview with Geert Wilders, the Dutch idiot politician who is making an anti-Koran movie:

(previously)

Dutch freedom of speech.

2008-01-26T16:15:56Z

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2905

The Dutch politician Geert Wilders [...] announced that he planned to release a 10-minute film about the Koran in January. Wilders says the Koran must be banned in the Netherlands because it is as intolerant and dangerous as Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Wilders sent the opening shot of the film to De Telegraaf. It shows a Koran accompanied by the text: "Waarschuwing: dit boek bevat schokkende beelden” (Warning: this book contains disturbing images), followed by a beheading in Iraq, a stoning in Iran and an execution in Saudi-Arabia.

The film is not just about the Koran but happens inside the Koran, Wilders told De Telegraaf. The edges of the book remain visible all the time. Inside these edges we will show images of what the Koran verses prescribe. Those who are shocked at these things should not get angry with me but with the people who
perpetrated these things.

the upside:

If the film merely shows what the Koran verses say, however horrible these things may be to Western eyes, it will hardly be “provocative” to radical Muslims.

You know that you're obsessive compulsive when... (part 32)

2008-01-25T05:31:46Z

... you save every single creditcard / debitcard receipt that any store ever gives you over the past 7 years. I just weighed them, it's 5 lbs of receipts, neatly stacked it's about 4 ft of folded receipts, and when they're freed, it's about 3 HEB baggies full. Tomorrow they're going into the secure shredder at work.

4 ft of receipts:	3 Cody volumes worth:
The first and last one in the stack:	Chantal and my first date:

My constitutional right as a Permanent Resident

2008-01-10T18:01:06Z

My first "right" as a Permanent Resident of the US has come through, and I am now legally allowed to carry a (concealed, i.e. hidden on your body) handgun on the streets of Texas. Earlier in 2007 I took a 10-hour course in criminal and administrative law as it applies to firearms and I also took a shooting proficiency test at a nearby range. Yesterday, the license, called a Concealed Handgun License, came in the mail.

Why? "Because" :) I do not actually want to carry a gun, but learning about the various laws in the land where you live is useful, target practice is fun, and hey, you can't do this in the Netherlands! Also, if you get pulled over by a police officer, a CHL tells them that you have never been convicted of a felony (crime) in your life (a prerequisite to getting the license), which will make them less worried about you. After all, law enforcement rather deals with someone who is responsible with weapons than a criminal.

I also found this article an interesting read into why someone would opt to carry a deadly weapon on them at all times.

VoteMatch '08

2008-01-03T19:17:43Z

Do you know whether John Edwards wants to extend the Patriot Act or not? Who do you think wants to use nuclear plants to be energy-independent, Edwards or Clinton? Who is the only Republican candidate who would resume diplomatic talks with Iran? The fact is, apart from the major party-line differences and the "gooey feely" impression of candidates (Obama unexperienced, Guiliani creepy), the general public doesn't really know much on where all the candidates stand on the issues.

At election time in the Netherlands, we've had a non-partisan organization create a "votematch" (stemwijzer) system. You answer agree or disagree on 25 statements, and the system will tell you how well you align with the various candidates. In the Dutch general elections, with its 15-odd parties, such tool is invaluable for the public.

The same organization now put all the US Presidential candidates in the same system, and you can now answer 25 statements yourself, see who you align with.

English version | Nederlandse versie

Caveat: Only 3 Dems and no Ron Paul.

Bargain day

2007-12-27T22:10:12Z

It didn't start out like this on purpose, but today sure ended up being a Bargain Day. All owners of Bose QC2 headphones should read on.

In the morning I got a complimentary tire balance and rotate at Discount Tire for the Thunderbird, they have a life-time balance/rotate on tires that you buy there. After that, I got a free lunch at Chipotle because I had a coupon. So the day started out good.

In the afternoon, I headed out to the outlet malls in Round Rock. See, my Bose QuietComfort2 headphones that I've had for four years started to wear out real bad. The head band had snapped (I had glued it together but it looked crappy) and the leather cups had completely worn down, to the point that everytime I got off a plane, there was black leather confetti all over my head and shoulders. I found out that you can buy replacement cups for $35, but I was going to try for warranty replacement.

I got there all pumped up to put up a sad story and how I loved Bose's customer service and how I was wondering how we could work something out for a warranty replacement. The sales guy listened to my story and then revealed they had an upgrade program where I could trade in my old headphones for a brandnew QC2 model for only $50. So for only $15 more than just new leather cups I now have a brand-new headphone set, latest revision (sturdier, nicer color scheme and improved electronics), worth $300. Now that's a bargain.

To top the day off, I walked into the Levi's store and bought a pair of my favorite corduroys, not for $40 (the list price), not for $31.99 (the sales price) but for $16 (there was another 50% off for some reason).

So the tally is: $7 lunch, $40 balance/rotate, $300 headphones and $40 jeans, a $387-dollar value for only $66!

Engagement/Greencard Party pictures

2007-12-12T03:35:51Z

Pictures of the Engagement / Greencard Party are now online. Thanks all for coming!

Engagement trip '07

2007-11-25T16:45:59Z

Just kidding about the title, hopefully this title doesn't need any sequence or year modifier!! So here are some more details after last week's quick announcement.

So, Chantal and I are engaged! It all started when my dad said he was going to throw a big 60th Birthday Bash. I checked my frequent flyer miles, and it turned out I had enough to actually take Chantal as well. At that moment, I knew that this was the perfect opportunity for the proposal. I kept it a secret to everyone (except a few coworkers in the week leading up to my trip), so it was a surprise to Chantal, my family, everyone.

On Monday 19 November, we first met my dad in downtown Heerlen for lunch and after that I asked Chantal to go for a ride around town to do "some sightseeing". I took her to Castle "Hoensbroek". The significance of this spot is that this is where my parents' formal wedding pictures were taken and I thought it was a great place where I could tie in my parents marriage to our own future. I've always liked their wedding picture and I'm so happy that this spot will now play an important part of my life as well. Not to mention that Chantal had indicated on previous trips that she really liked the castle and the atmosphere surrounding it. A perfect place! So exactly 4 years after we met, in my home country, I asked Chantal to marry me, and in line with American tradition, give her an engagement ring.

And that's not even half of the trip. Apart from celebrating my dad's 60th birthday, we met up with my grandma, took a nice walk in the Voerendaal countryside and attended my sister's fundraising dinner for her Kenya orphanage "Upendo Children's Centre". A packed and most rewarding week!

As always, pictures are in my album.

Can I please introduce...

2007-11-20T16:46:56Z

... my fiancee Chantal!

Yesterday, November 19, Chantal and I went to an area castle, and I asked Chantal to marry me on the same drawbridge that my parents' wedding photos were taken. After she regained composure, she said "yes"!

Shiny!!

2007-11-01T01:25:06Z

(previously)

Work update

2007-10-26T20:54:37Z

As you know, my company United Devices recently merged with a Chicago based company named Univa. So I now work for Univa UD, and our brand-new website went live a few weeks ago.

Part of our combined offering will revolve around open source, and as part of that effort I've started to do a lot more external-facing community work. First public evidence of this involvement is my contribution as an author on our blog "Grid Gurus". So far you can read my first two posts "Does your grid make Fords or Volvos?" and "Dream Big, Dream Grid".

Also, my coworker bovineone has made a little movie of the Austin offices, my office is featured as well.

Current Status: Card production ordered.

2007-10-22T22:47:42Z

This morning, October 22 2007, at 10:02am, on the way to Taco Shack for my daily breakfast taco, my elaborate email forward to SMS scripting paid off and I received the following SMS:

From: USCIS-SRMT@DHS.GOV Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 10:10:40 AM To: Ivo Janssen Subject: Case Status Information for Receipt Number: SRC071145xxxx Application Type: I485 , APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS Current Status: Card production ordered. On October 22, 2007, we ordered production of your new card. Please allow 30 days for your card to be mailed to you.

That's it, folks! My greencard has been APPROVED!

Below's a picture that I took at America's Independence Day a few years ago. Today is my Independence Day!

Update: nugget took a picture of me while I was celebrating being a little bit more American.

Hurricane Ivo

2007-09-19T21:21:08Z

I'm semi-famous (hopefully I won't become infamous).

(previously)

Personal weather station

2007-09-15T23:20:08Z

Chantal got me a weather station for my birthday! The La Crosse WS-2317 weather center has outdoor wind/temp/hygro/rain sensors and internet upload capability. I now have a page hosted at wunderground.com for my own station KAUSTI72 with current conditions, history, graphs and more.

I've also created a page on my own site with more information and pictures of the setup.

These are the current conditions at the Leto Residence:

Pictures!

2007-08-17T21:04:58Z

I'm still in the process of putting captions on all 500-something pictures but I've decided to publish the Chantal And Ivo Europe Trip 2007 album at this point. As you might or might not know, in June, Chantal and I traveled to Europe for 3 weeks to attend a friend's wedding in Greece, visit my parents where I celebrated my birthday and spend some time in Paris. Lots of pictures as you can imagine!!