Hazard's stuff

What a wonderful day ... NOT

— Posted by hazard @ 10-03-19 12:39
It's been a while I posted something here, so as well it might be a rant.

TODAY:
  • Confortel Atrium hotel in Madrid tried to put 60 EUR worth of bar/restaurant charges on me, ignoring the fact that they were dated BEFORE the date I arrived.
  • Aegean airlines screwed up web check-in Madrid-Athens-Larnaca. I managed to check in for Madrid-Athens, but then the system would not let me check-in to Larnaca.
  • Aegean airlines did not manage to register me to Larnaca even in Madrid airport registration desk. "We use different systems". It should be mentioned that my transfer time in Athens was planned to be just one hour, which is already tight, without having to obtain a boarding pass...
  • ... and then the flight to Athens was delayed.
  • The duty-free in Madrid didn't put the bottle of wine I purchased in a sealed bag. So the bottle was happily confiscated by Athens airport security.
  • My passport got damaged (peeled off) just on the place where my photo is.
  • It seems I caught a cold.


Well, it could be worse, right ??

Karcher RoboCleaner in da house :)

— Posted by hazard @ 08-08-17 16:44
At last I received my Karcher RC 3000 RoboCleaner. My carpet already looks more vibrant than ever :) The thing goes around the apartment collecting the dust, finds the base, dumps the dust into a bag in the base, and then starts again from the beginning... until you stop it. Perfect. As long as it can find the base ;)



MAD Video Music Awards 2008

— Posted by hazard @ 08-07-13 04:34
I caught a glimpse of MAD Video Music Awards 2008 and I must say I was impressed. Greeks managed to stage a world-class show, with a vivid scene setup and excellent camera work.

It was the first time I saw a live production of such quality from Greece. Eurovision 2006 doesn't count as it was supported by European Broadcasting Union.



New era in Cyprus telecoms

— Posted by hazard @ 08-04-18 11:39
PrimeTel is building its own submarine fiber cable landing station and will bring one of the biggest international submarine cable systems to Cyprus. If you think that your connection is slow compared to what people in rest of the Europe get, wait until 2009 :)

Reliance Globalcom to land undersea NGN on PrimeTel station

Did you know ...

— Posted by hazard @ 08-04-01 04:14



Wisteria plant causes brown stains to appear on clothes after washing

— Posted by hazard @ 07-09-12 13:42
Last few washes we had faced a really weird problem: some clothes would come up with dark-brown permanent stains after treatment in a washing machine. At the same time, majority of other clothes would not have any stains. We were thinking of how this could happen, checked the washing machine, the washing powder, all to no avail. We made test runs with pieces of clothes, but they were always coming up clean.

I turned to Internet. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the following post on the Royal Horticultural Society's forum: "Wisteria Growers Beware. The sap stains your clothes. The stains are invisible until after washing". Aaargh!! This is the vine that we are growing on the entrance!! Turns out that the sap which leaks out while pruning makes a chemical reaction together with the washing powder in hot water. My mother does most of the pruning and her clothes were indeed the most damaged ones.

Hail the Internet - it has saved us a washing machine which we started thinking to replace.



b12 vs HIV

— Posted by hazard @ 07-02-17 11:27

Protein b12 attacking HIV virus. For details see BBC article.


Supper

— Posted by hazard @ 07-02-11 13:48

And where are potatoes?

Cooking again

— Posted by hazard @ 07-01-26 12:34
I started cooking again...



New hosting

— Posted by hazard @ 07-01-14 03:27
I have decided to move hosting of hazardous-area.org to a VPS in USA. Before it was on my personal PC situated in my apartment, and was turned off every night. :)

Christmas Season Movies

— Posted by hazard @ 06-12-25 23:10
My main PC was kind of dead and as a result it happened so that I watched lots of movies on LTV during one day.

Finding Neverland: I almost weeped at the end. Brilliant Johny Depp performance. 9/10
The Brothers Grimm: Fun, great camera work, nice fantasy setting, definitely NOT for children. 8/10
Wedding Crashers: Comedy, ending of which you can predict after 3 minutes of watching. A few good laughs. 5/10


OpenMoko phone

— Posted by hazard @ 06-11-12 11:00
Now that's the mobile phone I want. :-) Fully open and Linux-based, built-in GPS. Only WiFi is missing ...

Availability from Jan 2007.


LinkedIn experience

— Posted by hazard @ 06-11-05 02:55
My experiene with LinkedIn for hiring is not impressive so far:
  • Expensive: $95 for one ad for one month
  • Buggy: I managed to purchase "extension" of the ad on the same date as I ordered it - e.g. say I ordered the ad on Sep 1st till Oct 1st, and then immediately purchased extension for the same period Sep 1st to Oct 1st. After I complained I took them one week to reimburse the credit.
  • Not effective: response has been lower than through traditional channels.
I have more credits left, we'll see how other ads will go. :)

Doctors

— Posted by hazard @ 06-10-29 17:56
From my personal experience and experience of my friends I have come to a conclusion that quality of private medical service in Cyprus is not of a high standard. There are good doctors, at the same time you have a high chance of getting in hands of somebody who doesn't know or care much. For example, it seems to be a common thing that a doctor will diagnose you with a virus and prescribe antibiotics ...
Based on this, I have come to the following set of indicators I will use to judge doctors, which should be universal to any doctor in any country:
  • It is a good indication if a doctor spends time to explain his/her reasoning. If otherwise automatically decrease level of trust. Always ask doctors about what he has prescribed, and challenge him/her if you have concerns.
  • It is a good indication if a doctor asks you about your symptoms, your past illness history, whether you have allergy etc. If otherwise automatically decrease level of trust.
  • Doctors working in hospitals/clinics are to be more trusted than those working alone. The reason is that they have a pool of colleagues to exchange knowledge and have second opinion, and they have the hospital itself interested in keeping its image.
  • Increase level of trust to doctors who keep your history in written form when you visit them.
  • If a doctor has many patients, it may be a positive sign in that he/she is trusted by people, at the same time it may mean that loosing one client won't affect him/her much. So it does not mean you will get good service.
  • If a doctor has good equipment, it is better than not, but it doesn't mean that he/she is not a charlatan.


GPS + Google Earth = Wow

— Posted by hazard @ 06-07-19 00:18
Today I went to Larnaca to perform some maintenance in our POP. The problem is, Larnaca is being digged everywhere and there are more diversions than open roads ... and the last time I have been to our POP is a couple of years ago. So, inevitably I got lost. I was on the phone with Dimitry who was trying to explain me where to turn and when, but his instructions were leading me to the same place where I was one minute ago. :)

So, suddenly it struck us - I have GPS in the car and Dimitry has Google Earth. I tell him my coordinates, and voila ! He sees where I am, and starts to give me instructions on the level of a Cyprus Rally navigator - "go until T-junction, turn right, now you'll see a small park, turn left, now turn right on the T-junction, now follow the turn with a 30 degree bend ..." and I'm there!

Fantastic. One of those rare moments when you feel that you live in 21st century.


Something to remember my 25th birthday

— Posted by hazard @ 06-06-18 14:09
Finally the birthday present I made to myself has arrived - a new and shiny Lexus IS 220d. :)



More pictures here.

wiki.cyprus-scout.com

— Posted by hazard @ 06-04-22 19:02
kipr.info wiki has been translated to English and is now part of Cyprus Scout at wiki.cyprus-scout.com. Hopefully it will be more useful there. :-)

Cyprus online road tax

— Posted by hazard @ 06-03-01 09:52
I payed road tax online through http://rtd.mcw.gov.cy and road tax disc arrived into my postal mailbox within 1.5 business days. Cool. :)

Snow in Troodos

— Posted by hazard @ 06-01-15 23:48
Snow in Troodos... At last :)

Happy 2006!

— Posted by hazard @ 06-01-01 03:27
Happy New Year everyone. For me personally 2005 wasn't bad, and I hope that 2006 is going to be better. :)

Offensive Driving

— Posted by hazard @ 05-12-18 00:14
Sometimes the best form of defense is offense... apparently that's true for automobile driving as well. :-)

Cyprus Statistical Service

— Posted by hazard @ 05-12-04 21:06
Some interesting data from the website of the Cyprus Statistical Service:
  • Total population: Total 749.200 people as of 2004; Nicosia 219.200, Limassol 172.500
  • Major offences as of 2004/1990: Against property 1685/824; Against person 926/511; Against public order 502/407; Sexual 27/10.
  • Consumer price index 2004/1998: Total 118/100; Food and non-alcoholic beverages 126/100; Clothing 93/100; Housing, water, electricity and gas 125/100; Health 131/100; Communication 67/100; Restaurants and hotel 133/100
  • Agricultural production index 2004/1998: 112/105
  • Life expectancy male/female: 77/81 years


Iraq Car Shootout

— Posted by hazard @ 05-12-03 13:12
A video shot by employees of a security firm providing services in Iraq showing how they protect themselves by shooting any car which is approaching too close. New Wild West, indeed.

The Country of Pitcairn

— Posted by hazard @ 05-11-27 21:01
Ever heard of Pitcairn? According to CIA factbook, its an island in Oceania with an area of 4.5 sq. km and population of less than 50 people. Britain's most isolated dependency indeed - vessels visit the island about three times per year, so you should plan your trip ahead. :-)

Visitors are welcome to use Pitcairn's facilities:
  • The General Store, open several times a week. Note that flour, eggs, meat and butter are provided only if ordered several months in advance as they must be imported from New Zealand.
  • The Satellie Earth Station, equipped with a telephone and a fax. Open during business hours.
  • The Health Centre, staffed by Resident Nurse, an Assistant Nurse and a local Dental Officer who also doubles as an X-ray Technician. From time to time, doctors visit Pitcairn, usually as part of their own planned holiday, giving their services to the community. The Resident Nurse is usually the wife of the Island Pastor. Pitcairner, Meralda Warren currently serves as the Assistant Nurse. She is also the Island's Police Officer and Secretary of the local Co-operative Store. Steve Christian, who holds the position of Supervising Engineer, swaps his over-alls for the white Dental Officer's Coat to attend to the dental needs of the islanders. He has recently extended his skills to include the manufacture of dentures and has many satisfied clients. Steve is also the X-ray Technician.
  • The Church. Note that The Seventh Day Adventist Church is the only faith represented on the island.
  • And of course, the cosy Hostel, with enough space for eight people.


  • The island has two generators which provide 240 volt electric power for approximately six hours each evening and for three hours each morning. First paved road was opened on 13th of October 2005.

    In October 2004 the economy of the island was stuck by a crisis due to arrest of 1/4th of the labour force was arrested and ships couldn't be unloaded (the island has a labour force of 12 able-bodied men).


Color Bubbles! Yay!

— Posted by hazard @ 05-11-18 01:52
A toy inventor has spent 11 years of his life to invent color bubbles. :) Very cool story (found through Slashdot).

О безалкогольном "пиве"

— Posted by hazard @ 05-11-14 00:48
Купил Becks в магазине, и не заметил, что на нем написано "non-alcohol", пока уже не достал дома из холодильника. Попробовал. Тьфу.

Carrefour in Cyprus

— Posted by hazard @ 05-11-08 23:41
There is an intresting article in Financial Mirror about Carrefour acquisition of Chris & Carry and its plans for domination on the island. My feelings are a bit mixed, as for sure Carrefour will purchase everything abroad if it is cheaper and local business will suffer, while on the other hand they will bring more efficiency and lower cost of living, which in general should be positive for the economy.

"Carrefour took over the Management of Chris Cash and Carry on August 18th 2005 after the resignation of the three Directors -- Mr. Christos Vakis, Mr. Andreas Constantinides and Mrs. Vasiliki Andreou -- and the appointment to the Board of Directors of a) Mr. Jerome Loubere, b) Mr. Michael Hrostoff, c) Mr. Alain Goanvec."

"The policy of Carrefour worldwide is to be 3% cheaper than the cheapest retailer operating in the market."

"The giant has already imported 20 private label products under the Carrefour brand and now they are busy unloading containers of non-durable goods such as washing machines, refrigerators, TV screens, and their arsenal will soon be completed."

"Moving on to Limassol, where Carrefour is aiming for the town’s 28% share of the total market value for Cyprus and CYP 182 mln spent in food and drink per year, market rumours claim that Carrefour is busy with a gargantuan 7,500 sq.m. hyperstore at the Old Lanitis Stores, previously bought by Chris Cash and Carry having obtained a town planning permit already."



New Car Reliability Report from Consumer Reports

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-29 13:31
Consumer Reports released a new Car Reliability Report. Highlights are:
  • Of the 31 cars that earned top rating, 29 were Japanese. Of these, 15 were from Toyota and its Lexus division and eight were from Honda.
  • Of the 48 cars that earned the lowest rating, 22 carry American nameplates, 20 are European, 4 are from Japan.
  • Some European models, which have had poor reliability in our previous surveys, improved slightly. The six-cylinder BMW X5 and X3, for example, earned average Ratings and are now the first European SUVs reliable enough to be recommended. However, most European models still scored far below average.



Linux file-system ACLs

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-27 00:38
Linux file-system ACLs have been available in Red Hat Enterprise/Fedora for some time. ACLs allow you to have more flexible access control to the filesystem than standard UNIX access semantics (user/group/other). Today, I encountered a case where two groups had to have rwX access to the same directory. A quick search on the 'net revealed the following:

Enable ACLs: edit /etc/fstab and add "acl" option to the filesystem. To activate ACL functionality without rebooting, run mount -o remount [mount point]
Add additional group access to a directory: setfacl -R -m g:[group]:rwX [directory]
Check that ACL is correct:getfacl [directory]

Easy.

Miracles of globalization

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-27 00:26
Off-shore programmers... Off-shore support... Off-shore management?

www.offshoreexecutive.com

And before you think it is a joke, apparently Alan Cox is involved.

Hurricane Wilma

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-24 09:56
Below is a picture of Hurricane Wilma which is about to hit Florida, taken by International Space Station crew:



Вах!

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-23 20:59
Я убрался в квартире, и даже вымыл окно на балкон!


Сам балкон мыть я не стал, все-таки зима на подходе и опять все запачкается... ;)

Car Audio

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-23 00:20
Finally I have started to seriously prepare to change my Nissan Pulsar Neo-VVL built-in car acoustics and head-unit. The last part is easy: a few years ago I acquired Empeg Car, a Linux-based MP3 player with 20 GB HDD, but never got to installing it. The difficult part is selection of amplifier and acoustics. And I'm no professional in car audio. So far my selection is as follows:

Amplifier: Clarion APA4320 (review)
Back acoustics: Alpine SPR-694A (review)
Front (door) acoustics: Alpine SPS-171A (review)

Now, apart from reviews, a major role in my selection was the popularity of the brand. Such brands as MB Quart, DLS, Art Sound are not present in Cyprus and I couldn't find them at any online shops. I'm especially concerned with Alpine SPS-171A.

Any suggestions are welcome :)


Turkmenistan - ex-USSR republic

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-21 01:54
"I'm personally against seeing my pictures and statues in the streets - but it's what the people want"
-- Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenbashi, president for life of Turkmenistan since 1991.

From Wikipedia:

Niyazov's face appears on all Manat banknotes and large portraits of the president hang all over the country, especially on major public buildings and avenues. Statues of himself and his mother are scattered all over Turkmenistan, including one in the middle of the Kara Kum desert as well as a gold-plated statue atop Ashgabat's largest building, the Neutrality Arch, that rotates to face the sun. The logo of Turkmen national television is his profile. Institutions that cannot be named after him are named after his mother. All watches and clocks made must bear his portrait printed on the dial-face. The two books he had written are mandatory readings in schools, motorclubs, and homes. They are a central part in education from grade school to university, and knowledge of the text - up to the ability to exactly recite passages from it - is required for passing exams, holding any state job and qualify for a drivers license.

Some of Turkmenbashi's decrees:
  • Banning news readers from wearing make-up as Niyazov had difficulty telling male and female readers apart
  • Banning ballet and opera, describing them as "unnecessary"
  • Banning public smoking in 1997 when Niyazov quit smoking after major heart surgery
  • Banning lip syncing when performing songs
  • Ordering that young people not be permitted to get gold tooth caps or gold teeth, suggesting instead that they chew on bones to preserve their teeth.
  • Closing nearly all public libraries outside the capital
  • Dismissed 15,000 medical workers, replacing them with army conscripts


Impressive huh?

Об "Эльбрусе"

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-20 21:12
Отрадно знать, что команда легендарного Бориса Бабаяна, разработчика отечественных суперкомпьютеров серии "Эльбрус", не только живет и развивается, но и наконец довела процессор оригинальный архитектуры Elbrus E2K до воплощения в железе.



Linus says it again :)

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-19 23:30
"
Gaah. I don't tend to bother about slashdot, because quite frankly, the whole _point_ of slashdot is to have this big public wanking session with people getting together and making their own "insightful" comment on any random topic, whether they know anything about it or not.

[ And don't get me wrong - I follow slashdot too, exactly because it's fun to see people argue. I'm not complaining ;]
"
-- Linus Torvalds

Original post

Lada Revolution

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-16 12:53
Lada Revolution has won Horn Grand Prix 2005 in A1600 class. Surprise-surprise.



1600 cc, 165 HP @7400 RPM, 670 kg weight - all yours for only 49000 EUR. ;)

Что-то давно апдейтов нет...

— Posted by hazard @ 05-10-02 23:40
Я все еще жив. :)

Не смотря на перманентную запару не работе, стараюсь не деградировать. Сейчас изучаю EmbperlObject, Class::DBI со всяческими плагинами, а также vim (предыдущие знания i/dd/:wq не считаются).

Очередной сайт о Кипре

— Posted by hazard @ 05-07-09 14:30
Я наконец активизировал wiki на http://kipr.info - сайт с всякой полезной информацией о Кипре на русском языке. Пополнять его могут все, так что не стесняйтесь. :)

Новый УАЗ

— Posted by hazard @ 05-07-01 22:58
УАЗ 1 августа выпускает новый внедорожник - "Патриот". Визуально от старого УАЗика ничего не осталось. Респект.

More on maps.google.com

— Posted by hazard @ 05-06-28 00:46
Google Sightseeing

maps.google.com rules!

— Posted by hazard @ 05-06-23 11:49
Limassol
Larnaca
Nicosia
Paphos
Paralimni/Ayia Napa

М-да...

— Posted by hazard @ 05-06-20 02:04
Статейка в CNEWS:

"В городе Александрове двое подростков, 14 и 17 лет, решили ограбить знакомую 11-летнюю девочку, которой мама на день рождения подарила новый сотовый телефон. Однако, придя домой к своей жертве, подростки обнаружили там еще ее мать и их соседку, зашедшую по делам. В результате женщин забили до смерти металлической трубой, а девочку задушили. Забрав мобильник, юные убийцы подожгли дом, чтобы скрыть следы преступления."

"В Москве двое школьников зарезали в подъезде жилого дома своего 12-летнего одноклассника. Позже они признались, что пошли на убийство ради новенького мобильного телефона, который тот неосторожно показал товарищам."

"В Выборге 14-летний подросток в городском парке напал с ножом на двух школьниц, 11 и 13 лет. Хладнокровно убив обеих, он забрал у жертв все те же сотовые аппараты."



Open-Source Innovation

— Posted by hazard @ 05-05-28 15:20
Several times I read claims that there is no innovation in open-source projects, everything is a replica of existing proprietary software. Well, how about Perl?

Spam Wars

— Posted by hazard @ 05-05-18 23:39
This week started from a huge flood of German propoganda spam generated by Sober Worm. Messages were coming every few minutes and our current SpamAssassin installations couldn't do anything as the scores were very low. What made matters worse is that this spam was coming to our support addresses handled by Request Tracker (ticketing system), which meant huge waste of time spent on dealing with bogus tickets.
It took me a few days to fight off this spam. Main things I did are the following:

- Enable Vipul's Razor on SpamAssassin installations and increase its score.
- Add "Spam" button to RT web interface to resolve the ticket without further confirmation and feed incoming SPAM emails into SpamAssassin, which in turn would submit it to Vipul's Razor.

Razor seems to be the only method to fight off this new wave of SPAM. Right now most of the spam messages are recognized by the Razor and cut off before they can waste time of our staff.

New Category "Software"

— Posted by hazard @ 05-04-20 20:18
Leonid has been bugging to blog about my adventures with software, for the benefits of Internet. :) Hence, a new category was born...

Motorola A780 is here :)

— Posted by hazard @ 05-04-10 00:40
Last Monday my Motorola A780 mobile phone finally arrived. This is a Linux-based quad-band GSM smartphone. Below is a review of my experience with it so far.

Ergonomics: a little bit bigger than I would like to, but still fits fine into a pocket.
User Interface: Fast. A bit confusing, probably because I'm used to Nokia. All applications have uniform layout and you can copy/paste between several applicatoins running at the same time.
Phone functionality: T9 search in address book is very convinient. However, contact management can only be done in fullscreen, meaning that you cannot use keypad or T9 (only through virtual keyboard).
Web browsing: built-in Opera shows most of the pages, including non-English ones, although Russian font is a bit weird.
Email client: IMAP works, but not very useful when you have 700 messages in your mailbox. :(
VPN: seems to support only IPSEC (not PPTP).
Photo: built-in 1.3MP camera makes adequate photos, however nowhere close to digital camera (out of focus, bad lighting etc).
Media playback: MP3, WMA, mobile MP4 play fine using built-in RealPlayer. RealPlayer can be accessed without use of fullscreen. MP3s can be used as ringtones.
Third-party applications: most of J2ME applications run without problems. MIDPSSH works great as a telnet/ssh client. VNC client is available, but I didn't try it yet.

Now I'm working on synchronization of Calendar with Ximian Evolution. Stay tuned.

Java/Tomcat Braindamage

— Posted by hazard @ 05-03-27 23:56
Just now I spent four hours trying to figure out why after I made some changes to a STRUTS app it stopped working. It turned out that Tomcat keeps cached Java code ACROSS RESTARTS. That meant that it was taking bytecode it compiled for my sessionid four hours ago. To make it more confusing it did partially recompile it, but did cache DynaActionForm settings!!!

Now that doesn't happen often, but now I feel really pissed off. rm -rf to /var/cache/tomcat5 ...

Cleaning

— Posted by hazard @ 05-03-25 20:17
It has happened. I have cleaned up my flat (*).

* It means that dust levels are below the critical threshold and allow close friends to be invited.

About headphones

— Posted by hazard @ 05-03-20 23:30
Yesterday I went to the nearest electrical shop and purchased a pair of Phillips headphones for 15 CYP. I listened to them once. I don't think I will ever listen to them again. It was foolish from me to expect my ears to tolerate cheap stuff...
Probably I'll buy these instead. Good sound requires investment and prior research.

History of metric units

— Posted by hazard @ 05-02-27 11:03
Did you know that kilogram was invented because of French revolution? Read here.

Trip to Troodos video

— Posted by hazard @ 05-02-16 04:24
Today I have publicly released a videoclip regarding trip to Troodos I did about a week ago. The scenery was beautiful and together with Lev we have filmed some nice moments. Of course the clip is nowhere perfect, especially as regards to camera shaking.

This is a milestone as it is the first videoclip which I completely edited under Linux. I'm quite impressed with Cinerella and its capabilities. Video was grabbed using dvgrab, and deinterlacing and MPEG-4 conversion was done using transcode.

Support Unicef

— Posted by hazard @ 05-02-12 21:15
Right now on MTV they are running a show to support UNICEF Tsunami relief effort. People from various countries can send a premium SMS and be charged 2-5 euros, which will supposedly be allocated to help tsunami victoms. Well, some further research shows that only about 50-60% of the collected money will actually go to the relief support fund... the rest is going to the pockets of GSM operators and other middlemen. :-\

If you want to donate more directly, visit UNICEF website, where you can donate through credit card.

Still, what MTV does is a good thing. It has made spend a few minutes and donate, even though I realize that most of the money will end up in the wrong hands.


Fedora Core 3 upgrade bugs

— Posted by hazard @ 05-02-12 14:42
I have upgraded to Fedora Core 3. The following issues appeared during upgrade:

1) If RPM needs to create a directory, but file with the same name exists, it fails.
2) In my /etc numerous files are protected using chattr. RPM fails to upgrade a package if it encounters such files.

Both of these issues are unlikely to happen on an average workstation. The main problem is that the Fedora Core 3 installer does not provide any clue as to why it had failed - it just writes that a fatal error occured and the only choice is to reboot. I had to manually try to upgrade the packages, see what the problem was, fix it and then restart the upgrade.


Chains rule!

— Posted by hazard @ 05-02-05 00:48
It has been reported that finally there is snow in Troodos. We're thinking to go there this weekend. Since the road might be slipery I have decided that the best car must be my 4WD Ferroza. So I googled to find whatever tricks there are for driving 4WD in snow. Here comes the big surprise: 4WD does not have much difference than 2WD when driving. 4WD does provide benefits when starting on a slippery surface, or can go through up in snow in a place where 2WD would spin wheels. However, 4WD does not provide any benefits when steering or breaking. Actually, it is reported that 4WD statisticly have more accidents in snow because drivers are not careful enough.

Only one thing substantially improves driving in a snow - chains. For more information, good set of tips can be found here and here.

Friday

— Posted by hazard @ 05-02-04 21:44
Hooray, it's Friday! :-)

European Real-time Earthquake List

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-24 00:59
Earthquake happened just now. In five minutes there was an update on EMSC regarding it - see here. USGS also updated their earth-quake list, about 30 minutes later.

Hosting with low budget

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-23 20:04
One day after registering my domain at Joker for $12 per year, I find out about GoDaddy - $7.95/yr. With free DNS hosting and mail forwarding.

Now that we have the domain, how about 100 MB PHP/Perl/MySQL webhosting for less than $1/mo? Check out SiteFlip.


Presenting http://hazardous-area.org

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-23 03:13
From now on you can access my blog through the new domain: http://hazardous-area.org

Anti-Terror Polo

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-22 00:34
Definitely not your usual car advertisement... :)

Root access on Motorola A780 confirmed! (sort of)

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-20 21:20
Anybody knows Chinese? :) Here is a HOW-TO on how to connect to Motorola A780 and edit ezx_camera.cfg. Some further search showed that there is a big online community around Motorola's Linux phones (especially E680) in Asia.

Huygens landed on Titan!

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-15 01:04
Huygens had an almost perfect landing on Titan, and is returning a lot of valuable scientific data, including photos. One can clearly see methane "riverbeds" and shorelines. I wonder, is there any fish out there? :-)

Motorola A780 review from Gadgetmanic

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-06 17:26
Gadgetmanic has a nice Motorola A780 review. Still no info whether it has root access open, though...

"Almost Salinas"

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-06 00:39
I hate describing movies I like. I cannot convey the feeling I get while watching them.

So, "Almost Salinas" was quite good. By far most of movies shot for TV are crap. This one is a shining diamond. Or maybe it just fit perfectly into the mood I had.

10/10.


New world record for alcohol content in blood

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-05 13:38
Related to new year celebration:

A new world record for alcohol content in blood has been set by a 67-year old gentlemen from Bulgaria: 9.14 promile (approx 2 litres of vodka). It is considered that concentration above 5 promile leads to death. However, the record-beating hero got into a hospital for another reason: he was run off by an automobile and is now in a safe condition. It is also reported that doctors did blood analysis five times because they couldn't believe results they got...

More details (in Russian) are here.

Happy New Year!

— Posted by hazard @ 05-01-02 00:13
First post of 2005 :)

Blame for The Lake Constance Aircraft Crash

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-29 01:05
In year 2002, a Tupolev aircraft carrying 70 children from Russia on a trip to Spain collided with DHL's Boing. Initially Russian pilots were blamed by Europe for not obeying orders from air traffic controller, but in the end it was discovered that they did and the blame was largely shifted to the air traffic controller himself.
 (More)

Photoshop Phobias

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-26 23:13
"Photoshop phobias" contest - irrational fears, visualized.


New Cyprus-related portal

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-26 22:20
A new Cyprus-related portal has popped up - www.cyprusnet.com. We'll see if they stay updated.

Comedy Central's Last Laugh 04

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-25 12:25
You have to watch it :-)

 (More)

Czech presentation about WISP-Dist

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-19 12:07
It is always nice to see that your software is used around the world. Accidentally I found this presentation about WISP-Dist in Czech.




Motorola A760 kernel sources

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-19 12:05
Things are getting better and better. Apparently Motorola released GPL'd kernel source for the A760. Now they need to do the same for A780 and there will be nothing stopping me from buying it. :)

 (More)

RIPSAW - The Grand Challenge 2005 Contender

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-18 01:58
Forget about 4x4. Introducing the ultimate means of transportation. :) This guys will participate in DARPA 2005 challenge. I definitely need to watch it.


 (More)

Museum of Hoaxes

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-12 10:43
Tons of great hoaxes on this website (the pre-20th century sections are quite interesting).


Harvard Sucks :)

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-12 10:29
Yale students perform a prank on Harvard (check out the video)

And these guys did it first:
The Great Rosebowl Hoax




Bad Luck with Mini-ITX

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-06 23:29
I'm trying to assemble two Mini-ITX PCs - one based on EPIA-M 10000 motherboard, another one on Insight P4-ITX. So far first one continuously beeps (memory?), the other one remains silent, but does not boot as well (red LED turns on the motherboard). :-(

 (More)

A Trackback Post

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-06 21:28
I make this post per Leonid's request with trackback pings enabled, whatever that means. :)

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Motorola Linux phones

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-05 19:30
Apparently's Motorola's Linux-based mobile phones have telnet open and it should be possible to write native applications for them. Cool.




Bruce Lindsay

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-04 18:38
Bruce Lindsay is known as one of RDBMS pioneers. But IMHO the most impressive thing about him is his photograph. :-)

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Java vs Perl

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-02 22:59
Recently there has been a small debate within myself on whether Java is better for large projects than Perl. Some links: Perl Style Guides for Large Projects. P5EE. P5EE Style Guide. There is Something that Java Should Do. Why I am not a Java Programmer. Why Do Java Developers Like to Make Things So Hard?
 (More)

Rock on rock gallery

— Posted by hazard @ 04-12-01 23:24
Wow!(Linux users: use mplayer plugin)




Destructionism-2

— Posted by hazard @ 04-11-23 01:11
Nice game :)


VGA planets

— Posted by hazard @ 04-11-22 01:21
Seeing how people play Drug Wars, I have remembered my old love - VGA planets strategic multiplayer turn-based game. I have spent a few hours spending time and looking at modern clients. Apparently clients PCC and VPA are the bast. I have setup a small page with various link and host interface here. Anybody who is interested is welcome to send me an e-mail with his race. For now you can download turn files from the webpage I mentioned and play with them, as map would be regenerated when we start a new game.  I'll be playing Rebels.
 (More)

'Naked' scanner deployed at Heathrow

— Posted by hazard @ 04-11-15 05:36
Сразу вспоминается фильм "Аэроплан". :-)

Коротко
Подробно

Pokemon

— Posted by hazard @ 04-11-05 16:37
Thanks to Wikipedia, I have finally understood what Pokemon is and these stupid cartoons shown on local TV started to make sense. :-)

Об Америке

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-25 21:56

"Американцы,- процитировал он из письма жены в "Нью-Йорк таймс",- без конца ищут любви к себе в таких местах, где ее быть не может, и в таких формах, какие она никогда не может принять."

- из романа "Колыбель для кошки". Курт Воннегут, 1963 г.



Инструкция, понятная каждому :)

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-25 21:51

Выдержка из инструкции по применению к мази "БИОПИН":

"... Мазь вызывает ингибирующее действие на уровень первичных продуктов перикисного окисления липидов диеновых конъюгантов и малонового диальдегида. Под действием мази увеличивается фагоцитарный индекс, возрастают показатели фагоцитарного числа, характеризующего количество фагоцитированных клеток на один лейкоцит. Препарат усиливает функциональную активность нейтрофильных лейкоцитов крови человека и увеличивает продукцию фактора некроза опухолей.

...

Форма выпска:

- в банках из стекломассы - по 30, 40 и 50 г.

- в банках из полипропилена - по 40 г.

- в тубах алюминиевых - по 40, 50 и 100 г."

Вот это я понимаю - доступно и понятно каждому. :-)



Control Data 6600

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-22 21:47
Here is a page with brief description of Control Data 6600, one of the fastest time-sharing computers of the time. You should visit this page just to look at the last photograph... my jaw almost dropped on the floor when I saw that one.




Хэпи берсдей ту ю

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-22 21:39
Блогу один месяц :)


Real cockpits from Russian Aviation

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-22 13:54
www.worldavia.ru features photographs from various Russian aircraft, both military and civilian. Interesting stuff.




The Ninth Gate

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-21 21:00
Having nothing else to do, I have decided to start watching my movie collection. Ninth gate is one of my favourites. Mysterious, dark and classy, set in beautiful sceneries around Europe. Direction, camera work and Johnny Depp's performance are top notch. I give it 9 out of 10. Unfortunately comments on IMDB show that most people do not understand it.
 (More)

:-(

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-21 18:09
I caught cold, got sick and now spend most of the time in bed. It sucks.

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IM/IRC keyboard

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-21 15:30
Introducing the ROFL-3000 :)


Tremors

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-16 19:04
Где-то пол-часа назад было землетрясение. Длилось секунд 30, достаточно долго, чтобы я решил куда-нибудь смыться из дома после того, как оно закончилось. :)




World pollution map

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-15 00:11
ESA has published world air pollution map (details here). China stands out from all the rest...


Man of Leisure, King George :)

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-09 11:56
A painting of Bush named "Man of Leisure, King George" was removed from display at Washington museum. (More)

Satellite imagery

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-09 00:25
I finally found a website which features a few nice satellite photographs of our beloved island.
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Sample Florida Ballot

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-07 21:14
I think I will have an explanation if Bush wins next time :)



Fool's world map

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-07 01:39
"This is a project visualizing the world map which many fools in the world imagine."


Особенности российского космического PRа

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-06 23:32
Как сообщает vesti.ru, 'Специалисты называют "Союз-2" будущим космонавтики - он способен поднимать грузы гораздо большей массы и объема, чем его предшественники.'. Ну что-ж, посмотрим на грузоподъемность на сайте производителя, www.samspace.ru. Текущий Союз-ФГ: 7130  кг. Новый Союз-2-1а: 7020 кг. Судите сами.



Finntroll - Visor Om Slutet

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-04 13:54
Альбом Finntroll'а "Visor Om Slutet" отличается от всех других. Тем, что black metal'а в нем нет. Скорее это ambient на основе национального финского фолклера. Сами Finntroll'овцы его называют "акустически-экспериментальным". Ну что-ж, эксперимент получился на славу. :) Моя оценка - 9 из 10.




Greenland

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-03 23:20
Меня всегда почему-то привлекали отдаленные острова с небольшим количеством населения. Гренландия соответствует обоим характеристикам. И где еще в ресторанах подают тюленей и китов? Правда там холодно. Зато рок-фестиваль есть, на нем можно согреться :). Есть и Webcam с видом на столицу Гренландии - Nuuk.
 (More)

Troodos Rally 2004

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-03 13:47
Despite very scarce information regarding Troodos 2004, together with Leonid we managed to attend and see last stage of it today - Monagrouli. I'm sure Leonid will post photos and further info about it on his blog very soon. Although nowhere near WRC, it is still refreshing to see something new. :)
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Закрыто на обед :)

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-02 13:22
При попытке захода на страницу "Данные из центра управления полетами" на www.federalspace.ru получаем следующее. :)


Rammstein - Reise, Reise

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-01 23:11
Получил новый альбом всеми любимых парней из Германии. Оказалось не настолько плохо, насколько я опасался. Но и далеко не настолько хорошо, на что можно было надеяться. Заметен рост профессионализма, правда профессионализм оказался обратно пропорционален драйву. "Двумерного" звука раннего Rammstein'а практически не осталось.

Композиция "Moskau" вначале вызывает патриотически-умилительные чувства, которые потом быстро переходят в отрицательную плоскость. Хотя пожалуй это одна из трех песен в альбоме, которые я буду слушать в будущем.

В общем, оценка 5.5 из 10.
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Kin-dza-dza lives!

— Posted by hazard @ 04-10-01 10:38
Кин-дза-дза + Терминатор 2 = Киндзадзатор - 2. Коллекция всяких FAQов, скинов и т.п.



76 Hz submarine communication system

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-30 09:23
Here is a link to a PDF describing USA's Navy ELF communication system, together with some pictures. Basicly it is a set of antennas about 14 miles each which transmit @ 76 Hz. Wow. Another link to a brief description. I wonder if Russians have something like that.
UPDATE:Russians do seem to have it, it is called "ZEVS", located near Murmansk.


Marilyn Manson "The Lest We Forget"

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-29 00:01
Достал сборничек Marilyn Manson'а "The Lest We Forget". Старые-добрые хиты прошлых альбомов + римейк Personal Jesus.




:-)

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-28 23:13
Морской PR:

Из форума novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru: "Вообще эти моряки что-то того... Когда они неделю обещали перед Путиным ракету запустить, а потом она не полетела, то кто-то там из морских шишек на всю страну в телевизор сказал, что её и не собирались пускать, что пуск должен был быть условный..."

Факты, только факты:

Русский BBC: "Американский космический корабль стоимостью в 3,3 млрд. долларов способен вращаться вокруг собственной оси, двигаться задом наперед и выполнять другие сложные маневры."


lenta.ru: "Cassini пришлось выполнить ряд маневров, чтобы избежать столкновения, периодически то включая, то запуская двигатели."

ОРТ: "...Дело в том, что о поверхности Титана - крупнейшего спутника Сатурна, который также является его луной, почти ничего не известно."


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Space scary stories

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-28 17:54
Due to the secrecy of Russian space program some people tend to think that it was very successful. The following links prove that space travel was and still is a dangerous business. Secrets of Soyuz. Mir Close Calls. (More)

NASA TV

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-27 22:55
I found NASA TV to work quite well with RealPlayer 10 on Linux. Sometimes they show interesting stuff, like footage from Russia which you would never see on Russian television. :)




CYCOFOS

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-26 23:50
Not many people know about CYCOFOS, a University of Cyprus-based sea weather prediction service. They make a weekly forecast map of sea around of Cyprus with water temperature, currents, wind speed etc. I was impressed. :)


Massive merger of galaxies is most powerful on record

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-25 01:08
"The clusters smashed together thousands of galaxies and trillions of stars. It is one of the most powerful events ever witnessed."


28 days later

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-25 00:50
Удивительно, но "28 days later" мне понравился. Пожалуй потому, что мне вообще нравятся мрачные фильмы о катастрофах мирового масштаба. Да и сама история достаточно интересная и оригинальная. Hint: после финальных титров показывают альтернативный конец.




Buran Found in Persian Gulf?

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-24 00:52
German television journalists say they have found a Soviet space shuttle in the Persian Gulf, Spiegel newspaper writes(More)

Regarding comfort of space travel

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-24 00:44
"No one wants an astronaut to have some sort of breakdown because his toilet sucked his anus too fast"
Space_Soldier (628825) from Slashdot

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Music update

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-22 13:19
Rammstein выпускает новый альбом - "Reise, reise". Пока что синглы от него не очень впечатляют, но буду ждать в любом случае.

Послушал Prodigy "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned". Упор на ритм и ударные. Две стоящие вещи, причем в двух первых треках. :)

 (More)

25th hour

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-22 03:38
Посмотрел "25th Hour". 10/10. Глубокое кино, при этом не пытается в тебя что-либо запихнуть, нетипично для Голивудского mainstream'а. Много красивых сцен, хорошо продуманные персонажи. Очень понравилась сцена с зеркалом.

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New interface

— Posted by hazard @ 04-09-22 03:33
Today I became dissatisfied with my ugly HTML blog maintained through mcedit. :)




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