Back home

Ik ben goed en wel in De Lage Landen geraakt; met mijn Icelandair vlucht landde ik in Amsterdam, alwaar ik op de 'Oranje Amsterdammer' stapte - de internationale trein naar Antwerpen en Brussel. Tot mijn verbazing was die zelfs redelijk snel (amper trager dan de Thalys - ik weigerde uiteindelijk deze laatste in beschouwing te nemen omwille van de ergerlijk ongebruiksvriendelijke website, waarover later misschien meer).
Heb ondertussen mijn Blogger-template opgekuist (resulterend in een lichtjes gewijzigd uitzicht van de site) en ineens ook een Creative Commons licentie / link geinstalleerd (dat had ik mij al voorgenomen na het schitterende PARC-forum dat Larry Lessig een jaar of zo geleden gegeven had maar waaraan ik wegens verregaande luiheid nog niet toegekomen was - via lvb werd ik er opnieuw aan herinnerd).
Pour les anglophones: I got safely back home; I've cleaned up my Blogger-template mess, hence the slightly new look of the site; and I got hundreds of megabytes of Iceland pics, which I'm going to sort out any time soon...

Icy

Something with my template in Blogger got screwed up; no time to fix it or post more Iceland entries now but here's at least a teaser pic (Jokulsarlon)...

In the Land of Fire and Ice

Live from the 'Blue Lagoon'!
Which is one of the many geothermal power plants in Iceland (serving electricity for about 30000 homes), but with a special twist: some of the hot water has been diverted to create a geothermal spa, including a large natural outdoor pool, steam and mud baths. The water is rich with minerals, silica and algae, making it look turquoise tropical; the silica mud is supposed to have an extremely beneficial and cleansing effect on the skin. As the surrounding land basically consists of solidified and cracked lava fields, the place looks rather surreal, a mixture of Mordor and Cancun comes to mind (I'll post pics when I get my camera gizmo's sorted out and hooked up). As an extra bonus, after a very refreshing spa and silica mud experience, the guests can enjoy free WiFi - for which I'm highly appreciative.
The Land of Fire and Ice acts as my stepping stone en route to Belgium - I'll have a couple of days to check the place out. Initially I had a simple plan: rent a mountain bike and find the best and most technical trails around here - though there is a nice mountain bike club in Reykjavik, it turns out that renting isn't really a good option (at least if you want serious bikes) - plus, cycling is considered here more as a 'touring experience': lots of road and gravel miles are to be digested before any interesting trails are found (AFAIK - if someone knows any good trails, please let me know!); unfortunately I don't have that much time and I do want to check a bunch of things out here, so enter plan B: rent a motorcycle and cruise around! This plan was quickly abandoned as well: too much hassle with gear and rather expensive. So I settled with renting a cage (a rather underwhelming Toyota Yaris), which turned out to be pretty expensive as well but it should allow me to execute plan C: circumnavigate the island - if necessary, I can give up a night of sleep; after all, up north there is daylight all the time these days...

Pixagogo

Pixagogo is blijkbaar heel populair aan het worden in het vaderland; het is een prima geslaagde Flickr-kloon (de gelijkenis is bijna akelig te noemen), een photo-sharing service, gelanceerd door Hypertrust, een Internet-bedrijfje uit Haasrode van (KU) Leuvense oorsprong.
Net zoals bij Flickr (zoals bekend overgenomen door Yahoo) is de site vrij van bloated banner/ad crap, is de user interface sober en eenvoudig, en ligt een sterke nadruk op het sharen/community aspect. Nu alleen nog het gebruik van tags ondersteunen en propageren, en een gratis basis-account aanbieden (ipv free trial) en het kan nog iets mooi worden.
Ook als bij Flickr is de verspreiding van zogeheten (Internet-)memes door de gebruikers een interessant fenomeen; hier is een voorbeeld: een collectie 'spiegel'-foto's - mijn bijdrage is een foto van de mtbsh-ers vorig jaar in Riva del Garda...

Update/correctie: het blijkt Flickr te zijn dat een prima geslaagde kloon is van Pixagogo - naar eigen zeggen staat Pixagogo online sinds april 2003, Flickr pas sinds november 2003. Hm, met gratis basis-accounts en wat meer viral marketing effort / genereren van blog-buzz, hadden mijn landgenoten nu misschien de Yahoo-miljonairs kunnen geweest zijn - uiteindelijk is Flickr ook maar begonnen als onderneming van anderhalve vrouw in Canada...

My fifth summer of Californication...

It is the fourth birthday of my landing here in California and hence, my subsequent slow but steady Californication. So I am entering my fifth summer and for the first time I'm sorry to have to report *rain* in the month of June in the San Francisco Bay Area (this past thursday). Yes, global climate change thoughts aside, this is an unusual freak occurrence; the first rains after May are usually to be observed late October or so, the occasional thunderstorm aside. My friend and co-worker L just happened to embark thursday on a five week transcontinental motorcycle odyssee (he's heading to Maine on his GS100); in the first leg of his trip, he planned getting to Carson City to pick up his riding buddy. As there were snow storm forecasts for the Sierras (rain in the Bay Area usually equals snow in the high Sierra), he made sure he got out of work early. And to add to all this natural drama, a whole series of earthquakes was to be experienced this week (the one in Crescent City being the largest).

Crescent City quake

Zonet was er weer een aardbeving in Californie, met epicenter nabij Crescent City meer bepaald, gelegen aan de (dunbevolkte) noordwestkust. De geschatte magnitude was 7.0; er werd ook tsunami-alarm geslagen (dat snel weer afgeblazen werd). Interessant gegeven is dat Crescent City de enige plaats in de recente geschiedenis is waar ooit Amerikaanse tsunami-slachtoffers te betreuren vielen - net na de 'Good Friday Quake' in 1964 (met epicenter in Alaska en magnitude 9.2, de grootste in recorded US history).
Hier in de Bay Area was niks te voelen.

The Golden Gate

On sunday we went biking in Marin County. Driving back, it's always nice to take a break and hang out near the Golden Gate, the stretch of ocean separating the San Francisco Peninsula from the Marin Headlands, the Bay from the Pacific. Especially this day, as it was gloriously cali-blue and entirely fog-free...

Nog meer Google mapping nieuws

Google, wiens aandeel in een periode van minder dan een jaar na de IPO zowat verdrievoudigde (ben zelf indertijd helaas geen aandeelhouder geworden - grmbl), is nu ook 'mapping trucks' aan het loslaten op San Francisco - daarin allerhande apparatuur (lasers, camera's) teneinde een fotorealistisch driedimensionaal model van de hele stad te genereren. En aldus de markt van context-specific ads voor local businesses verder open te breken - beeld u de missing link tussen Keyhole en Google Maps of Mapquest in; voorbeeld: typ in een zipcode, gebruik zoekterm 'Japanse restaurants' indien u wel iets voor sushi voelt als diner, en u krijgt zoekresultaten met directions *en* foto's van de etablissementen in kwestie - zodat u een ander kan kiezen indien de voorgevel u niet zou aanstaan.
Ik had een soortgelijk idee al een jaar geleden, samen met een paar collega's op PARC (anderen zijn er ook mee bezig), maar in onze implementatie zouden het 'autonomous blimps' (mini-zeppelins) zijn die uitgerust met camera's en GPS losgelaten zouden worden - vooral omdat de hobbyshop op San Antonio Rd die blimps verkocht - 'commercial of the shelf technology', weet u. En ja, wij worden betaald om dit soort ideeen te genereren (hoewel we na elk blimp-idee beter ook afkomen met wat ernstiger werk).

More Google Maps entertainment

3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto
De 'pod'-struktuur van PARC, overheen drie verdiepingen, is hier mooi te bewonderen (zoek de 3 x 6 pods); de blokkendozen bovenaan de foto zijn de gebouwen van Xerox (Hillview campus) en Fuji-Xerox. Voor nog meer satelliet-foto amusement is Keyhole niet mis, hoewel er (een beetje) te betalen valt en het enkel onder Windows draait - tevens valt de resolutie van de foto's voor gebieden buiten de US soms nogal dik tegen.

Ocean Beach

Hierbij nog een paar prentjes van San Francisco, om het af te leren (en om Ann nostalgisch te maken) - het licht zat goed gisteren.



Het uitgestrekte Ocean Beach, met zijn joggers, strandjutters, mooie zonsondergangen en 'sneaker waves'.



Uitzicht over de stad vanaf Twin Peaks, alwaar J een appartement betrekt waarop ik ongelooflijk jaloers ben.

Moab

...and they came into the country of Moab, and continued there (Ruth 1,2)

The land of Moab - pilgrims from all over the world find here the essence of two-wheeled existence... if the greatest invention was the wheel, the second greatest was putting two of them together. The Zen of Moab is found during bombing down and hammering up gnarly rock outcrops in the canyonlands on a mountain bike, amidst incredible scenery.
We (the Ayatollah and myself) went for a three day Memorial Day weekend to experience once again the feeling of cosmic harmony Moab induces (the feeling of burning open wounds and raw flesh is sometimes induced as a side effect as well). Riding the Slickrock Trail, even though it's become as close to a Moab-stereotype that one can get, remains an absolutely scintillating and mind-altering experience; it turned out to also be a bike-altering experience for Ayatollah's poor Giant Reign, that first saw its front brake fail and later its rear derailer being bent into oblivion (by repeated hard landings). The first incident forced us to retrace our steps during our first ride.
But we came back, we saw and we won; we finished the magnificent loop anti-clockwise on sunday night. In the morning we had done some slickrock freeform-riding near Hidden Canyon, a couple of miles north of Moab. A brief visit (tourist style) to beautiful Arches National Park was included as well.
Slickrock isn't really slick, it's sticky in a very tire-friendly way, the reason for its popularity with the mountain bike crowd; it inspires confidence: steep hills and drops that on other days in other places seem unsurmountable are being cleared, with grace. It is also very hard, and unpleasant to fall on.
Later we took off to do some singletrack in the La Sal mountains, but we found hailstorms and snow blocking our path. So we had to 'settle' with the Porcupine Rim trail - in Moab you truly have the 'embarras du choix' concerning trail selection. The Rim is of course a treat on its own, and the vistas on Castle Valley a nice highlight. As usual, there are pictures of our adventures; and the Ayatollah has posted some as well.

The Pixies, live in San Jose

Tuesday the Pixies were in town; San Jose downtown, that is, and of course I had to be there. I had seen them last September in Berkeley as well. They've also done a couple of shows in San Francisco, besides having been on tour in the rest of the US and Europe for the better part of the past year. So I guess some Pixies-fatigue had set in the Bay Area, as the venue didn't seem to be sold out. Unfortunately the first part of their show appeared a bit anemic to me - perhaps the band members suffered from fatigue too as they had played a midnight show the night before in SF.
But soon the magic was back: after scorching renderings of 'Nimrod's Son' (sounding simply amazing live), 'Mr. Grieves' and 'Vamos', I felt once again humble and grateful for being able to witness this wonderful display of raw energy and harmonic chaos. Another highlight was 'La la love you' where drummer David Lovering had to give his vocal chords a rare workout. And the best part came during the encore: an absolutely blistering version of 'Isla de Encanta', featuring a death metal drumbeat, flesh-eating guitars and angelic lyrics. R also seemed to have enjoyed the show (even though she only knew 'Here comes your man' ) and I don't believe she was just being polite.
On another note: I will be very very envious at the folks being able to go to Pukkelpop this year: Pixies, Nick Cave, Sophia, Posies etc, it would almost tempt me to book another plane ticket (a temptation that is quickly being tempered by the outrageous transatlantic ticket prices).

Hello world

Welkom op deze planeet, Eline, het ga je goed!
(Haar naam dankt ze aan de roman van Louis Couperus.)