Haje’s Brain

I lived in London for about 18 months, during the bulk of which I was with Be Internet. You may have heard of them, they offer internet connectivity which is, quite frankly, ludicrously fast. I never quite managed to measure how fast, but it was upwards of 20 mbps download and probably around 2mbps upload. In fact, I frequently had significantly faster internet at home than at work.

Be was fantastic, in that they Just Worked: Blisteringly fast, 100% uptime, and - the one time I had to contact them about something (I needed the IP addresses to their DNS servers) - quick and highly skilled customer service who answered the question you asked, rather than waffling randomly for no reason (yes, BT Internet customer service, I’m looking at you). (more…)

I don’t think anyone but myself has ever seen me with a moustache - and there’s an excellent reason for that: I look like a 1980’s throw-back child molester. But this year, I’m participating in Movember, which means that for the whole month of November, I’ll be growing a mo.

At the beginning of the challenge, I gallantly said that I was going to try for a Clark Gable, but frankly, that’s probably just wishful thinking. My moustache is ginger, for one thing.

So anyway, if walking around with one of these abominations on my face makes me look ridiculous, then why do I bother? Because it’s all for an excellent cause, of course… (more…)

Well, you wonder why my desktop background’s black?
Why you never see bright colors on my Mac?
And why does my crypto-clearance seem to have somber tone?
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I turn on. (more…)

Over lunch today, I was talking to Gwyn and Laurie, two of the Ruby coders from New Bamboo - I work with them on a Top Secret Web Project for work.

We started talking about geeky things, and somehow ended up discussing a compression algorithm, where you would alphabetise each character of a message, and then replacing the number of instances of a character with a number, thereby drastically compressing how much space it takes up. (more…)

(If any of you are MC riders, I’d love your input and opinions on any of this)

So, this week-end, I’ve spent a lot of time riding around on a motorcycle (Honda XR, to be exact, which is a 125cc, road-legal, 5-speed trail bike). This morning I handed it in and stepped straight back onto my scooter (Gilera Runner VX Special – twist and go continuous variable transmission (CVT), 125cc). The difference between the two bikes are so vast that it’s almost unbelievable that they both share some traits (2 wheels and a 125cc engine)… (more…)

iPhone 2.0 (that’s either the original or the 3G version) + BookShelf (£6.99 / $10) = a perfect eBook reader, which also has a built-in repository for public domain works, downloadable for free. Titles include Alice in Wonderland, Anna Karenina, Around the world in 80 days, A journey to the interior of the earth, A tale of two cities, A Christmas Carol… And that’s just the A’s! (more…)

Gone baby Gone is a movie written by Aaron Stockard and Ben Affleck. It was released in 2007, and is an adaptation of a book by Dennis Lehane. It features a star-studded cast-list, including the big-budget movie début of Ben’s brother Casey Affleck, and solid performances from Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris

The movie that wasn’t shown in the UK until recently (or rather, it’s about to have its cinema release) because of its similarities with the Madeleine McCann case, where a young girl was allegedly abducted from a holiday resort in Portugal. The delay, it has to be said, was understandable, as it would probably have been rather insensitive to show it earlier - not least because the actress playing the kidnapped Amanda McCready in the movie is called Madeleine, too… (more…)

I’m trying to do things, but my short term memory… Useless. It’s gotten worse recently. I think. Why is it dark? Is there a light switch around here somewhere? I can hear rain. Slow dripping against the floorboards. There must be a leak.

Is this even my house? (more…)

Having bought an iPhone is kind of like being in an abusive relationship with an extremely attractive martial artist. You just know you should get the hell out while you’re ahead, but you always get lured back for another beating. Except in this case, you’ll be tied in to an 18-month contract, with no chance for reduced time for good behaviour. (more…)

In any conversation the endurance of the first party is inversely proportional with the insistence of the other party to steer the topic to his / her children.

- Kamps / Jacobsen