| Date (yyyymmdd) | Comment |
| 20080816 |
Vacation time is nearly over, people start coming back to work but everything is still very slow. Last week we had a consultant to help us with getting started with SOAP messaging from and to PeopleSoft. It was really fun and interesting, I know how to do most things now. I am also confident that I will be able to find out everything else about this by myself. Can't wait for them to finish the design of the process so we can start building. Today I visited a commodore retro meeting with a friend of mine. Starting our own local retro-group is going to take a little more time. We wanted to start with 1 or 2 other people but they are letting us down. If it will take too long to get other people involved, we will go ahead with the two of us. Today at the retro meeting we had a lot of interesting conversations. I am always tempted to get into Amiga hardware and programming when I visit those meetings. I always try not to take home too much stuff or spend too much money. I only spend 3 Euro on stuff this time, but got a lot of stuff for free. The money I saved on stuff, I spend on food and coffee this time. I got 2 books from the series "leren programmeren Commodore 64 Graphics; Phil Cornes". One of the books contains a lot of nice sprites that I might use in my JavaScript Game. I got an old ISA video capture PC card. I took it for the included speakers, but maybe I can get it to work on my Damn Small Linux PC. That would be nice because maybe I can then use the video outs to utilyze the TV in the bedroom more. I hope to use that PC with linux to watch youtube on the TV in the bedroom. I got a c64 Simons Basic cartridge, with some Simons Basic manuals. I got a c128 Tips and Tricks book. I got some storage cubes for 3.5" floppy's. My son immediately confiscated one as a toy. I feel inspired to get coding again after today! My friend spend a lot more money and took home a much larger volume of stuff. His wife didn't complain that much though.... |
| 20080826 | By accident I discovered that the newest versions of the browsers can really zoom; not only text size but graphics as well. I constructed a special sprite 2 for 2 by 2 pixels earlier but this is much nicer for my c64 inspired JavaScript game. (The canvas is 320 by 200 which is very small on large screens) I did al lot of tests on different browsers but IE tends to give you scrollbars to soon. The arrow keys than react by moving the canvas itself instead of the plane on the canvas. For me it was also the reason to download FireFox 3, because the zoom is not standard supported in FireFox 2. My low budget (discount) digital camera of 3,5 years died on me, for good this time I am afraid. I was supprised what I could get for the same price as the old one 3,5 years ago nowadays. In a house with small kids and a clumsy wife i need a robust camera. Battery life is also important, I don't want to spend fortunes on AA batery's or special battery pakcs. connectivity is also something to look at but not that important. I prefer the small SD memory cards. For USB I prefer the more common mini connector to the very small connectors. Also it would be nice to have a tullip video out white and yellow. Can I can show the foto's directly of the camera on the TV in the bedroom and on my parents old TV. For now I will use my wife's camera every now and then. May will try to make foto's with the webcam on the ASUS EEE. All of a sudden a have problems reading SD card with the build in card reader on my vista PC. I searched the internet and the problem seem to be very common Maybe it will sort it self out with one of the updates. Accidently I created some partitions on the HD when I as trying to install Linux on USB stick. I am under the impression that the virusscanner has problems with these partitions. May that is the problem with the card reader too... I will let you know when it is solved. Helped a friend of my wife whit a problem using hotmail. Old PC running Windows 2000. Old version of IE. Installed some windows updates had to reboot a couple of times. Read a suggestion that spyware might be the cause. Couldn't find a free and complete working spyware scanner. I was taking too much time and I didn't have patience to do a virusscan. Instead I downloaded FireFox and that solved the problem. I am still looking for a free spyware scanner for myself though. I still didn't test my JavaScript stuff on FireFox under Xandros linux on the ASUS EEE. I didn't use my scanner a lot lately. But I did start selling stuff on the internet again. Get a few Euro's pocket money and get rid of some clutter. A lot of stuff I didn't sell earlier is till in the archive of www.speuders.nl so I might adjust the text in the add, the category or the price an try again. I also considered buying stuff from the internet and reselling again with profit through the internet. I noticed bikes are in hot demand especially in the city. Some are very cheap to get in small villages. So I could collect the by car and sell the with profit in the city. Maybe do some small repair, take nicer pictures, better description. One of my other selling points is that I usually offer to bring stuff to peoples house so that they don't have to come to mine. I want the people who are selling to me to write a proper receit. That way I can even sell the bikes at the dealer because I have proof the bike i not stolen I use a bike to get to work every day, so I have some tools and spare parts to do repairs. I know people who can give me advice on repairs and maybe help me a little. My wife has a bike too but she doesn't use it that much. My son doesn't know how to ride I bike properly yet. But temporarely having some spare bikes around doesn't hurt. Trading bikes for bikes could also be interessing. My bike is a bit too small for me. Maybe if I have access to a Mountain bike I will grow to like it and use it for excersize in addition to commuting. Lately I notice more and more bikes with trailers on the road. So that kind of peripherals might be good business too. |
| 20080828 |
It is now just past mid-night but don't worry, I don't have to go to work in the morning. The city where I live is celebrating the victory over the bishop of M�nster in 1672. After trying to conquer the city of Groningen for a month using canons, the bishop gave up. The festival is called "Bommen Berend" and most companies in the city give their employees a day off. Maybe I will join the festivities tomorrow, maybe I won't. Been trying to make pictures with the webcam of the ASUS EEE of objects I want to sell on the internet. I got reasonable results, but it was hard. You have to correct the resolution of the still images to get nice pictures. Because you don't have a flash for the webcam, lightning is a problem. Best to take pictures during daytime, outside or close to a window. Small object are best because you can position them in front of the camera and not the other way around. The hotkey to make a still image is CTRL + S and requires 2 fingers on the small keyboard. It is difficult to press CTRL + S in some positions without getting in the picture yourself. One of the advantages of using the webcam is that you immediately have them on computer and you can upload the pictures to the auction website straight away. Maybe I will set the budget for my new camera to the total amount of stuff I sell. While I was playing with the ASUS EEE again, I checked the FireFox version; it was 2.0.0.9 e something. I did a FireFox update with the Xandros updater, because the FireFox update itself was disabled. FireFox was updated, but only to 2.0.0.11, so no browser zoom on the ASUS yet. I believe konquerer is also installed on the ASUS EEE, maybe I give that one a go later. The ASUS is too slow for the JavaScript game anyway, and a 320 by 200 canvas fills a large portion of the ASUS screen already. |
| 20080830 |
I was just wandering about my personality, and if I have what it takes to be a good trader/business man. If I know what I lack then I might be able to work on it. A lot of times I am being put of by the amount of stipulations in this country that makes it hard to start up something big. Another thing is that I might be too carefull, I dont't like uncertainties and risks. I am probably too soft in negotiations. What I am not sure about is wheter I am too patient or not patient enough. Why things like that are on my mind? Everybody is thing about a way to get rich every now and then, I think. A lot of times it is absolutely necessary to think about saving money of making a little extra just to make ends meet. The easiest earned money is money not spend. This frugal living approach is not much fun and I you don't invest the money you save it won't get you far. Even if you apply some sense but start analyzing every small purchase it can be stressfull. If it is therapy for you to spend a little money on luxury just do it if it stops you from feeling blue for days. Sometimes I am so frustrated by searching for something or waiting for it to get in the stores that I am willing to spend more to get it right away. I have a fascination with internet auction sites. It does two things at once; declutter your house and you get some cash. It is also an excuse to use the digital camera (+computer, internet ). I prefer the sites with the 'from the people, for the people' feel to the bigger and too commercial ones. I think 'from the people, for the people' is what the internet should be about. Being fair and customer friendly is paramount for me. I physically move things out of the cupboard or shed, clean them and arrange them for the pictures. Sometimes I deliver with my car, sometimes people come to my house and I demonstrate the stuff. All in all there is quite some phyicall activity involved, which after a day in the office is therapy. Sometimes I deliver stuff to places I havent been to before and would not visit otherwise. You also get in contact with real people and find out a little bit about their lives. I also try to learn what works best. How to advertise, how much money to ask. How to post it as quick and efficient as I can. I also have to selected the stuff that I want to sell. If you sell something that you later need yourself, you are doing something wrong. You might think somethings are rubbish and can't be sold and if you try they do. You just never know. Sometimes you throw away something, or give it for free to someone that you don't know that good, and they throw it away. And later you reget that you didn't try to sell it. What is also nice is that you can keep track of everything you sold or tried to sell, the prices you got, the people you sold it to. Going through the pictures, you get an overview of everything you used to own. What I also learned is, that you can think a lot for a long time but in the end it all comes down to action. Even if the pictures you took are not perfect etc just get it on the internet. I tend to put one or two items on the internet and then wait till I sell them. This passive waiting can be stressfull. After the sell I start to think what I can sell next. It is better to continue putting stuff on the site then checking your mail for bids all the time. If you know what your doing you can also buy and resell from the site, that way you are never short of items to sell. |
| 20080831 |
The art of introspection; am I someone who is too carefull, somebody with a lot of plans who never acts on it, always in doubt wether to take action? Well at least for my latest plan, it paid of to rethink some stuff and do extra research. Instead of going to the villages to pick up bikes, I found the time and place where the bikes confiscated the police are auctioned. It was on the back of my mind that there was sopmething like that, but I couldn't get the exact details right away and forgot about it. It's on my way to work, I only have to get up early to have the first pick because all the local bike-dealers are buying their bikes there too. Next friday I will walk over there with a chain lock, buy a bike, go to the office and return home riding the bike afterwards. I noticed that you can leave a website link on the auction sites. If all goes well I might get up a site for the purpose of being my webstore. The prices they charge are also a good indication. I hope I can make a profit of 15 euro on each bike, the dealers probably have a little bigger margin. This is no big deal of course, but I think it is good to start small and than expand with small steps. The downside is that I have to invest in a bike that I don't need right now, and that I have little space for in my shed. My experiences with selling bikes are very good, they go fast. Another upside is that I can repeat the probable success every month, because there is an auction every month. If I feel confident I might buy more then one bike next month and only have to make some simple arrangements. Worst case scenario; I have a spare bike for a long time and I have gained an experience. I also suddenly realised that the frame number or some other ID is something that should absolutely be on the receipt. The receipt that they give me can be a good template for the ones I might print myself for buying as well as selling. |