Oct 31, 2006
Oct 30, 2006
WHAT browser war?
Wouldn't it be great if all "wars" could be like this? Sending cakes and congratulations to one another instead of bombs? I love the camaraderie.Full story (and whether cake was poisoned) here:
Microsoft sends a congratulation cake to Mozilla
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Stop Tricks for Cheaper Chocolate Treats
It's that time of year again. No, I don't mean THAT time. I mean THIS time.
This year, however, it's time to participate in a little electronic activism by signing the petition at petitionsite.com sponsored by the non-profit organisation Care2.com:
This year, however, it's time to participate in a little electronic activism by signing the petition at petitionsite.com sponsored by the non-profit organisation Care2.com:
.What's scarier than ghosts or goblins this Halloween? How about chocolate treats made from child labor?
Almost half of the world's cocoa is produced on West African plantations where widespread instances of child slavery, human trafficking, and forced labor have been reported.
Unless multi-billion dollar candy companies like Nestle and Mars (the makers of M&Ms) take the lead, most, if not all the chocolate in your local supermarket will continue to be made at the cost of human life.
The solution? Chocolate that's Fair Trade Certified. Fair Trade standards do not permit forced labor or child labor and ensure that farmers are paid a fair price for their cocoa.
This Halloween, put an end to "tricks" for cheaper chocolate treats. Ask Mars and Nestle to address these human rights violations by offering fair trade chocolate in their product line!
Oct 28, 2006
Get ready for that warm, fuzzy feeling
Free Hugs Campaign. Inspiring Story! (music by sick puppies)
"You need to be brave in the land of the free"
...or how one anti-Bush quote is considered treason
The movie "Shut Up And Sing" travels with the Dixie Chicks, from the peak of their popularity as the national-anthem-singing darlings of country music and top-selling female recording artists of all time, through the now infamous anti-Bush comment made by the group's lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003. The film follows the lives and careers of the Dixie Chicks over a period of three years during which they were under political attack and received death threats, while continuing to live their lives, have children, and of course make music. The film ultimately presents who the Dixie Chicks are as women, public figures, and musicians.
Above text is from the movie trailer's presentation at Google Video, you can also add your opinion about free speech at the Official Movie Site
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The movie "Shut Up And Sing" travels with the Dixie Chicks, from the peak of their popularity as the national-anthem-singing darlings of country music and top-selling female recording artists of all time, through the now infamous anti-Bush comment made by the group's lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003. The film follows the lives and careers of the Dixie Chicks over a period of three years during which they were under political attack and received death threats, while continuing to live their lives, have children, and of course make music. The film ultimately presents who the Dixie Chicks are as women, public figures, and musicians.
Above text is from the movie trailer's presentation at Google Video, you can also add your opinion about free speech at the Official Movie Site
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Oct 26, 2006
The level of internet illiteracy in Greece: if you don't know what RSS means just confiscate it, dammit!
Blogme.gr is a search engine for Greek blogs via RSS feeds. In non-techie terms, it collects links to OTHER blogs and is in no way affiliated or responsible for their contents.Someone saw a LINK to a blog via blogme.gr that criticized/made fun of him and decided to sue. And suddenly the Greek Internet SWAT team storms the home of blogme.gr's administrator, confiscate his computer's hard drives, handcuff him and take him in custody. He wasn't even the author of the post... it's like suing technorati.com for Pete's sake!!!
The Greek blogosphere is sending out protests against this unprecedented act of censorship and inadmissible behaviour against Mr.Tsipropoulos (blogme.gr's administrator). I add my voice and my blog's support with the greek blogs in this objection.
The story from Greek bloggers in English:
UNPRECEDENTED CASE OF CENSORSHIP IN GREECE
Like suing Google!
Greek aggregation service administrator gets jailed for... linking
And in Greek...
http://e-roosters.blogspot.com/2006/10/blogme.html
List of greek blog links regarding blogme.gr at vrypan.monitor.net
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Oct 25, 2006
Youth IS the future
Teachers, students, parents will hit the pavement today in Greece in a mass rally for education.
The teachers have been on strike for six grueling weeks. The government isn't showing signs of faltering. Personally, I'm proud of the teachers. In fact, I'm OK with any working sector that raises its fist and demands the self-evident right to a decent salary or better working conditions. The media and the government have slung a lot of slandering boolsheet at the teachers and they've been without a paycheck for six weeks. I hope they don't cave in. Teachers are our kids' role-models, if they back down now, society will lose more than a few school lessons, it will lose its dignity.
It's not only about teachers' wages, the demand for a better education has been instigated first and foremost by the students themselves!
When you have a student movement as dynamic as this... then the future looks promising!
Οταν έχεις ένα τόσο δυναμικό μαθητικό κίνημα... τότε το μέλλον μοιάζει πιο ελπιδοφόρο! Μη μασάτε παιδιά!
The teachers have been on strike for six grueling weeks. The government isn't showing signs of faltering. Personally, I'm proud of the teachers. In fact, I'm OK with any working sector that raises its fist and demands the self-evident right to a decent salary or better working conditions. The media and the government have slung a lot of slandering boolsheet at the teachers and they've been without a paycheck for six weeks. I hope they don't cave in. Teachers are our kids' role-models, if they back down now, society will lose more than a few school lessons, it will lose its dignity.
It's not only about teachers' wages, the demand for a better education has been instigated first and foremost by the students themselves!
When you have a student movement as dynamic as this... then the future looks promising!
Οταν έχεις ένα τόσο δυναμικό μαθητικό κίνημα... τότε το μέλλον μοιάζει πιο ελπιδοφόρο! Μη μασάτε παιδιά!
Oct 23, 2006
Sassy Ms.Dewey
If you're searching for a new search engine interface with an attitude, then you might want to check out msdewey.com. The new-age librarian everyone will be talking about.
The first four minutes are cute and if you're into saucy looks and a lot of pouting you'll find this entertaining. Guys, get ready to ogle, she's a looker.
If any of you have simple PSTN dial-up connections, I'm not sure how fast it will work. She not only takes her sweet time to get results back, she's a smart mouth as well. It's good for some laughs but when you're in a hurry, Ms. Dewey can be a pain the ass.
I typed "pain in the ass" for her to search, she responded "I'm sure that you can be arrested in 38 countries and Mississippi for just thinking like that...". Like I said, she's full of sass.
The first four minutes are cute and if you're into saucy looks and a lot of pouting you'll find this entertaining. Guys, get ready to ogle, she's a looker.
If any of you have simple PSTN dial-up connections, I'm not sure how fast it will work. She not only takes her sweet time to get results back, she's a smart mouth as well. It's good for some laughs but when you're in a hurry, Ms. Dewey can be a pain the ass.
I typed "pain in the ass" for her to search, she responded "I'm sure that you can be arrested in 38 countries and Mississippi for just thinking like that...". Like I said, she's full of sass.
Thanks Chris for the heads up.
Oct 21, 2006
Oct 18, 2006
Cherchez la femme on the urban railway
I started taking the urban railway to work recently because luckily a depot near my home was added to the route. It's a brisk 20 minute walk from the rail station to work and vice versa and my rump is in dire need of the rewards of walking.
The morning crowd consists of the usual silent, sleepy-eyed commuters that use mass transportation vehicles all over the world. Confusingly, however, the afternoon train is stocked with a lot of tourists. French ones. Loud, clamorous ones. The train's final destination is Corinth so I'm guessing either they're doing a little Isthmus sightseeing or they're secretly colonizing.
The first time I traveled with the Frenchies I thought them quaint, that they added a bit of old-continent panache on the hum-drum ride home. But, hey, fellas, pipe down, s'il vous plait! Can't you see that most of us are trying to read our books, mellow out with our MP3 players, catch a few zees? Yeah, we're glad you like Greece too; glad you're on vacation while we're not, but keep it down. There's no need to shout from one end of the vehicle cabin to the other where vos amis are seated.
Aside from their loudness I don't mind a bit. Au contraire, one particular French fellow gave me something to blog about:
The other day a couple of pretty young greek lasses made a mad dash into the train that was about to leave. They were very pretty and all male stares followed them. They plopped themselves in the only available seats next to me and between catching their breaths and fanning themselves, they loudly chattered how lucky they were they found what-not on sale in their favorite color and who was dating who.
From the corner of my eye, I realized that one French tourist was about to prowl. He said something in French to his friends and proceeded to "make his move". He was sitting across the aisle from me and had to "go through me" to get to the girls. Indifferently, I kept reading my book as he hovered above me, a whiff of booze on his breath and raised a map in his hand.
- Excusez moi. Do you speak english, peut etre?
- Yes, we all answered.
He ignored me by focusing his eyes on the young ladies. Getting directions was his way of breaking the ice with them. I chuckled at his cliched come-on and tried to maneuver myself in such a way that his drool wouldn't slide on my book while he was making a play for the girls. The tipsy French man was turning on the "charm", while his French friends goggled at his feeble attempt to ooh-la-la them.
-Zis iz ze train for Corinth, n'est pas?
-Yes, said one girl.
-Yes, I echoed annoyingly in his ears.
-You show me, [French gibberish] pleez, pointing to his map.
-I'm sorry, could you repeat that? asked the girl, unsure of his request.
He stumbled around trying to build some form of sentence, with badly accented english words, a lot of french and even threw in a greek hello and thank you. The guy was embarrassing himself pretty bad and I wanted to slap him silly: Shut up already!
Finally he had a brainstorm...
-Parlez vous francais? he asked in an exasperated voice, having used up all his unintelligible English vocabulary.
-No, sorry, replied the girl, shrugging her shoulders.
-Mais OUI! I answered boisterously; glad that I could annoy him some more because his armpit was now directly over my head, seeing as he had glided his arm towards the girl's side. (Ah, yes, ze French invented parfums and now, we all know why).
The girl kept asking him in English what he wanted; he pointed to some dots on the map, pointed to the girl, babbled in French and realized that this wasn't getting him anywhere and furthermore... Mon Dieu! There iz a pesky, middle-aged, plump female unintentionally (?) jabbing him wiz her book. He surrendered, sat back down and finally looked at me with a disappointed frown.
"C'est la vie, n'est pas?" I smiled at him and went back to reading.
His friends laughed. He didn't.
.
The morning crowd consists of the usual silent, sleepy-eyed commuters that use mass transportation vehicles all over the world. Confusingly, however, the afternoon train is stocked with a lot of tourists. French ones. Loud, clamorous ones. The train's final destination is Corinth so I'm guessing either they're doing a little Isthmus sightseeing or they're secretly colonizing.
The first time I traveled with the Frenchies I thought them quaint, that they added a bit of old-continent panache on the hum-drum ride home. But, hey, fellas, pipe down, s'il vous plait! Can't you see that most of us are trying to read our books, mellow out with our MP3 players, catch a few zees? Yeah, we're glad you like Greece too; glad you're on vacation while we're not, but keep it down. There's no need to shout from one end of the vehicle cabin to the other where vos amis are seated.
Aside from their loudness I don't mind a bit. Au contraire, one particular French fellow gave me something to blog about:
The other day a couple of pretty young greek lasses made a mad dash into the train that was about to leave. They were very pretty and all male stares followed them. They plopped themselves in the only available seats next to me and between catching their breaths and fanning themselves, they loudly chattered how lucky they were they found what-not on sale in their favorite color and who was dating who.
From the corner of my eye, I realized that one French tourist was about to prowl. He said something in French to his friends and proceeded to "make his move". He was sitting across the aisle from me and had to "go through me" to get to the girls. Indifferently, I kept reading my book as he hovered above me, a whiff of booze on his breath and raised a map in his hand.
- Excusez moi. Do you speak english, peut etre?
- Yes, we all answered.
He ignored me by focusing his eyes on the young ladies. Getting directions was his way of breaking the ice with them. I chuckled at his cliched come-on and tried to maneuver myself in such a way that his drool wouldn't slide on my book while he was making a play for the girls. The tipsy French man was turning on the "charm", while his French friends goggled at his feeble attempt to ooh-la-la them.
-Zis iz ze train for Corinth, n'est pas?
-Yes, said one girl.
-Yes, I echoed annoyingly in his ears.
-You show me, [French gibberish] pleez, pointing to his map.
-I'm sorry, could you repeat that? asked the girl, unsure of his request.
He stumbled around trying to build some form of sentence, with badly accented english words, a lot of french and even threw in a greek hello and thank you. The guy was embarrassing himself pretty bad and I wanted to slap him silly: Shut up already!
Finally he had a brainstorm...
-Parlez vous francais? he asked in an exasperated voice, having used up all his unintelligible English vocabulary.
-No, sorry, replied the girl, shrugging her shoulders.
-Mais OUI! I answered boisterously; glad that I could annoy him some more because his armpit was now directly over my head, seeing as he had glided his arm towards the girl's side. (Ah, yes, ze French invented parfums and now, we all know why).
The girl kept asking him in English what he wanted; he pointed to some dots on the map, pointed to the girl, babbled in French and realized that this wasn't getting him anywhere and furthermore... Mon Dieu! There iz a pesky, middle-aged, plump female unintentionally (?) jabbing him wiz her book. He surrendered, sat back down and finally looked at me with a disappointed frown.
"C'est la vie, n'est pas?" I smiled at him and went back to reading.
His friends laughed. He didn't.
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Oct 17, 2006
Will daylights saving time please rush this year? I'm drowsy.
The cold set in, here at sunny Greece, land of the Olympian gods yaddah yaddah yaddah. The quilts are on the beds, the jackets hanging in the doorway, the sweaters replaced the T-shirts. Winter is almost official. Almost.
Where's my extra hour of sleep ALREADY?
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Where's my extra hour of sleep ALREADY?
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Oct 13, 2006
This one's for you Chris!
Today is Chris' birthday. Chris is not only a friend, he is also the head of my workplace's IT department. Chris is a great get-together, fun, open-minded, accomodative fellow; he's my PC guru, master of all 0s and 1s, my Gandalf in the realm of computer programming for 17 years.
I was but a a humble typist back when we first met. He had come to upgrade our DOS based Volkswriter word processor to Windows 3.1. and Microsoft Word 2.0. I ooohed and aaaahed at how easy it was to to add headers and footers and by Jove! it could add footnotes! I was the first typist (we were three) to fully appreciate this new innovation by some guy named Gates. (And... it EVEN had minesweeper, awesome.!)
Chris probably realized early on that he would have his hands full with me when I first fiddled with the control panel making the work page AND the lettering white and then freaking out that I couldn't see WTF I was typing. He was called in that day for emergency PC mouth-to-mouth. He looked at the screen, looked at shamefaced me, raised an interrogative eyebrow and mouthed the momentous query that was to follow us throughout our friendship and collaboration. What. did. you. do. to. it?
Many a time he has come to my rescue. Lost files, misguided mouse clicks, unsuccessful OS formats, you name it I've pulled my hair out over it however, my friend waved his wand and made it all better. Chris first introduced me to the phrase "there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers". Encouraged by this motto, I've bombarded him with any silly computer thing that came to mind. He always answers.
So, in light of your birthday Chris (Friday the 13th is a bummer, I assume) I dedicate this post to you. I thank you for all the times you could have strangled me - but didn't, all the the times you could have just told me to "look it up" - but didn't, all the times we've sat over some machine and crossed our fingers it would come back to life - most did.
Happy Birthday!
Work-related posts:
All in a day's work, You any good with computers Part I, Part II, Ummm, my computer won't start, What does your mommy do, little girl?
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I was but a a humble typist back when we first met. He had come to upgrade our DOS based Volkswriter word processor to Windows 3.1. and Microsoft Word 2.0. I ooohed and aaaahed at how easy it was to to add headers and footers and by Jove! it could add footnotes! I was the first typist (we were three) to fully appreciate this new innovation by some guy named Gates. (And... it EVEN had minesweeper, awesome.!)
Chris probably realized early on that he would have his hands full with me when I first fiddled with the control panel making the work page AND the lettering white and then freaking out that I couldn't see WTF I was typing. He was called in that day for emergency PC mouth-to-mouth. He looked at the screen, looked at shamefaced me, raised an interrogative eyebrow and mouthed the momentous query that was to follow us throughout our friendship and collaboration. What. did. you. do. to. it?
Many a time he has come to my rescue. Lost files, misguided mouse clicks, unsuccessful OS formats, you name it I've pulled my hair out over it however, my friend waved his wand and made it all better. Chris first introduced me to the phrase "there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers". Encouraged by this motto, I've bombarded him with any silly computer thing that came to mind. He always answers.
So, in light of your birthday Chris (Friday the 13th is a bummer, I assume) I dedicate this post to you. I thank you for all the times you could have strangled me - but didn't, all the the times you could have just told me to "look it up" - but didn't, all the times we've sat over some machine and crossed our fingers it would come back to life - most did.Happy Birthday!
Work-related posts:
All in a day's work, You any good with computers Part I, Part II, Ummm, my computer won't start, What does your mommy do, little girl?
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Oct 11, 2006
Oct 9, 2006
The Earth's temperature is really rising
credits: Came via e-mail from a friend who loves to forward things.
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Oct 6, 2006
Wikipedia's "evil" twin...
The world needs "balance" to work.
That is why we have yin/yan, day/night, good/evil, fat milk /non-fat milk, Microsoft/Linux, and... Wikipedia/Uncyclopedia.
The greek version of Uncyclopedia is Frikipaideia.
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That is why we have yin/yan, day/night, good/evil, fat milk /non-fat milk, Microsoft/Linux, and... Wikipedia/Uncyclopedia.
The greek version of Uncyclopedia is Frikipaideia.
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Robin Williams as Jon Stewart as Commander-in-Chief movie
I became a Robin Williams fan when I first saw him on the TV series "Mork and Mindy". I've tried to see all his work; his strong suit, of course, is stand-up comedy and he always sends me into fits of laughter, no matter how many times I've seen it. His comedy movies gave me the impression that he couldn't unleash his comedic abyss and I always yearned for a movie with Robin in the form of a cinematic stand-up routine.Today, however, entirely by chance, I came across his new movie advertisement "Man Of The Year". I'm tingling with anticipation. From the looks of the trailer it seems that this will be an all-Williams routine under the guide of Barry Levinson, who's given us great movies. I envy the folks in the US... it's coming out October 13. I have no idea when it will be released in Greece. Hopefully, the wait won't be long. Europeans love political satire (particularly where a US presidency is involved).
I just realized that subconsciously one of the movies Robin Williams starred in may have influenced my blog pseudonym,however I have no affiliation with Disney's Flubber. Really.
Well... except for Flubber's bouncey, roly-poly look.
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Oct 3, 2006
Campaign against legalising "paedophile political party"
in Greek...
Today, I became aware of this campaign by a greek non-government organization and defender of children's rights "To Hamogelo tou Paidiou" (Children's Smile). You can find the Greek text here. The following is my translation from Greek, in hopes of more people participating and not allowing this atrocity pass.
in English...
ΠΑΓΚΟΣΜΙΑ ΕΚΣΤΡΑΤΕΙΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ «ΧΑΜΟΓΕΛΟ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΙΔΙΟΥ» - Όχι στη νομιμοποίηση «του κόμματος των παιδοφίλων»When I first heard about the Dutch having a Paedophile Party I asked myself "What are you people smoking over there?"
Όλα τα στοιχεία και οι υπογραφές που θα συγκεντρωθούν θα αποσταλούν από «Το Χαμόγελο του Παιδιού» στην αρμόδια Επιτροπή Συλλογής Υπογραφών. [αναλυτικότερα εδώ]
Today, I became aware of this campaign by a greek non-government organization and defender of children's rights "To Hamogelo tou Paidiou" (Children's Smile). You can find the Greek text here. The following is my translation from Greek, in hopes of more people participating and not allowing this atrocity pass.
in English...
UNBELIEVABLE RULING: Legalization of the Paedophile Party by the Dutch Government!.
Following the decision of The Hague to allow the founding of such party, based on freedom of expression, freedom of voting and getting elected, the Dutch government formally acknowledged the newly founded Party of Paedophiles (PNVD).
In this case, freedom of expression acts against children’s rights.
Basic goals of the party are:
Legalising sexual contact between adults and minors from age 12.
Legalization of child-pornography material for personal use.
Furthermore, the PVND is opposed to any legislation that forbids sexual contact between humans and animals.
Every aware citizen in Europe, and all over the world, must protest legalization of this political party.
Finland, currently European Union’s Presidency, is planning on petitioning the EU to put a stop to the Dutch Paedophile Party. The request by the Finnish Prime Minister will be rendered to Mr. Franco Frattini, EU Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, at the end of this year.
Within the framework of the informal Meeting of EU Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs, which took place Sept.20-22 in Tampere, the Finnish citizens handed in their first signatures to their Minister of Justice.
The more people all over the world sign this petition, the greater its force will be!
We ask all of you to participate in this universal protest by sending in your name and e-mail.
Click here and add your vote.
