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The police (part 3): Still no XBOXQuick heads up. I phoned the police office today asking why they hadn't notified me of anything yet (remember, I was heard and promised a week and a half ago they would get on it right away). Apparently the person who was supposed to do it was away last week and only got back today.
So I nagged a bit, etc. etc., and they promised me (again, although I don't know how much their promise is worth) that they would get on it on thursday, because (surprise surprise) the person who needs to do it won't be in until thursday... and it has to be run by the prosecuter, again. Sigh. It's not that I really miss it or anything (I hardly have time to play games right now), but the sooner I get it back the better, obviously.
Then again, I'm really looking forward to playing Viva Piñata, that game looks like so much fun.
Also, for as as far as I'm aware, my old roommate has not yet been released from custody (he had to appear before court 1,5 week ago as well).. and I'm still in my boss' apartment. We're going to look at a new place tomorrow afternoon, which is 10m from the center of Amsterdam. It's a really cool place (what I've seen from the pictures, anyway), and it has a bath tub. It will probably be hired by the company then, and two other employees who work at Oberon will probably also move in (seeing as they are also looking for a new place to live -- I'm the one who needs it the fastest, though). Movies I want to seeQuick list of movies I want to see. Most of them are still showing in the cinemas (in the Netherlands, at least):
I've seen Borat last week, the movie kicked ass (even though it was .. weird, but what do you expect?!). In other news, I've also finally finished reading "Never go Back" (it took a while, but that was entirely my bad). The book was actually quite good, but it took a while to pick up the pace. Now all I have left to read is Deep Fathom, which actually looks really cool (and somewhat similar to Ice Station, but I haven't read it yet, so I can't really be the judge of that). Edit: Add Flushed Away and Stranger Than Fiction to that list. WinterI should know who I am by now
I walk the record stand somehow Thinkin' of winter The name is the splinter inside me While I wait And I remember the sound Of your November downtown And I remember the truth A warm December with you But I don't have to make this mistake And I don't have to stay this way If only I would wake The walk has all been cleared by now Your voice is all I hear somehow Calling out winter Your voice is the splinter inside me While I wait And I remember the sound Of your November downtown And I remember the truth A warm December with you But I don't have to make this mistake And I don't have to stay this way If only I would wake I could have lost myself In rough blue waters in your eyes And I miss you still Oh I remember the sound Of your November downtown And I remember the truth A warm December with you But I don't have to make this mistake And I don't have to stay this way If only I would wake Great song by Joshua Radin. Messenger LibraryWhat is argueably the most complex piece of a Messenger client/library?
Some would answer "challenges", others would say "peer 2 peer transfers". I vote for ABCH that was introduced in MSNP13. The former two are relatively easy, and are very well documented by now. ABCH is barely documented and if you want to implement it it is like being dropped in the middle of the Amazon area with just a compas.
It is not that the SOAP calls or extracting the data is hard (especially when working .NET).
There is however just so much information in the ABCH that when implementing a library or client that uses ABCH (i.e. MSNP13+) one has to be very specific about the data they want. What is really necessary? Which information should be exposed? How much information of the information in ABCH is really relevant for a Messenger client? My guess it's not even half of it.
Even the question of how to expose the data can be a tough one to crack. Would you copy all relevant data you got form the ABCH calls to your own objects, or would you simply expose the objects that were retrieved via the SOAP calls? In the former situation, would you also store the SOAP results (in case you need that information later on) and thus use up extra memory, or would you discard all "unnecesary" information?
Just some things to ponder about when implementing a full fledged library from scratch. Moneys and stuff.2006 must be the year in which I earned the most money in my life, ever. Over the summer I earned a couple of thousand euros, I'm getting some 300 euro a month for my study from the government and I'm earning 500 euro a month for my work-experience job (which is a full time job, mind you).
Right now I'm waiting for...
Of course, I also spent the necessary money this year. I got an XBOX with some games (which I'm still waiting for, by the way), I got a ton of new clothes, a brand new laptop and a new photocamera, I got a new MP3 player in the US and I just recently got a new mobile phone with a contract (ala €25 once, and €30 per month contract). I also haven't shunned from buying software whereas (I honestly admit) I used to use much more cracks, serials, etc. to circumvent having to pay. I bought three copies of WinXP Pro and Visual Studio 2005 Professional for example, and I recently got a license for HTTPAnalyzer (which works like a charm by the way, I recommend it to everyone who has to debug HTTPs traffic). .. And now I also have to pay taxes, hmm. "Yay.". Not that I mind it, mind you, because taxes do have a purpose, I just never paid taxes before (I wouldn't even have the slightest clue what to fill out, etc.) and I wonder how and where I have to pay taxes (if I still have to pay any) over the money I earned in the US last summer. However, all in all I am slowly starting to save more money on my savings account. Whereas the balance on my savings account was still €0 for the past two years, I now know what living on your own costs, and I definitely am going to save up money for when I'm really moving out (right now it's just temporary). Tip: Don't support old MSNP versions.Title says it all. If you're writing a library at the moment, don't try and support every protocol that is out there (i.e. 9-15). First of all, if you want to implement both legacy (legacy meaning that the client does not go to ABCH, i.e. pre-MSNP13) and non-legacy protocols you need to implement address book synchronisation twice. Second of all, if you want to support both pre-MSNP15 and MSNP15 protocols, you also need to implement two forms of authentication (TWN and SSO).
Also, if you are toying around with SSO then let me remind you that the regular RPS tickets do not work for contacts.msn.com. You actually need to request a seperate ticket for the ABCH calls during authentication (you can do it from the same SOAP request as the RPS ticket used for the USR S command) -- you can do this by fetching a good string of uritokens (with the correct site id, etc.) and then set the endpoint to contacts.msn.com. Laat jouw stem tellen.Vandaag zijn de verkiezingen, jouw kans om wat te veranderen aan het politieke landschap van Nederland. Laat daarom jouw stem tellen, en ga vandaag naar je dichtsbijzijnde stembureau om je stem uit te brengen. We bepalen tenslotte ons beleid voor de komende vier jaar. Links, rechts, conservatief of vooruitstrevend, waar je ook voor staat, laat je horen!
Oh, en als je het echt wilt weten, ik stem vandaag GroenLinks.
This is probably the first post in Dutch on my blog, ever. Aha! Found my pen!Huzzah.
I found my Parker pen, and only by accident.
I was rummaging through my Windows Live Messenger bag in search for my Random Reader (something for online banking) and then I found my Parker pen. I haven't used it in like.. weeks and weeks because I thought I lost it. Pah! The guys at the airport could have at least let me know it was in my bag when it went through the x-ray scan thing! :-p New mobile phonePfew, between all the recent events I have forgotten to mention I got a new mobile phone. My old one (SE k700i) wasn't really that old, though. Either way, I had Orange pay-as-you-go and I wanted to switch to a contract (why? because in less than 3 weeks I spent 70 euro!). So I figured that either I took a contract with my existing phone or go with a new phone. Seeing as most phones are free with a contract, I figured I might as well get a new phone :-)
So now I've got the brand new Sony Ericsson w850i walkman phone. It's awesome (and yes, it's a slide phone). I got 1GB memory with it (it can be extended with some sort of SanDisk memory card). It has a 2MP camera, walkman/MP3 capabilities, UMTS support and some other nice gizmos. I got it with a Vodafone 27,5 euro/month contract, and in the end it cost me 25 euro because I didn't want to turn in my old phone (I could sell it to someone, or give it to my parents who are still stuck with a Nokia 3310 or 3410).
Oh, and this one is SIM-lock free (compared to my old phone) so I can take it to the US next time and pop in a new SIM card there. Hooray. The police (part 2): Getting my stuff back, witness!If you read my previous blog post you know what is going on in my life right now. If you haven't, then I suggest you scroll down first and read the previous post first.
So, it is now 2 days (almost 3) after monday when I found my XBOX missing (etc. etc.). In the mean time I have visited the police station several times. At least once a day. Slowly all the pieces start to fit, but I don't know why my "roommate" was arrested yet. Anyway, let me do a recap of what has happened since monday.
First off, I was told to come back on tuesday because the people on the case weren't there monday evening. So I took the whole afternoon off from work and went to the police station. Talked to them a bit, and it boils down to the point that they have to make arrangements with the prosecuter first because the goods have to been taken in connection with their "case".
So I come back today (wednesday) in the evening. I got everything with me, banking history and my original receipts (they needed those to proof the XBOX and stuff were mine). Turns out however that the prosecuter wanted to hear me as a suspect! I was like "uhh, okay...". Apparently most of the stuff that was taken (except my stuff, of course) were stolen goods. The people working on the case however didn't agree with the prosecuter so I was heard as a witness. Told them my story, what I knew about him, etc. I've never seen a police station from the inside out before in my entire life (really!) and in less than one week I've been there 3 times AND I've been heard! Geebus!
So anyway, they made copies of my receipts and again promised to call back when a decision has been made about my stuff. I don't really miss it and it's in good hands, but the sooner I get it back the better, of course. No hard feelings towards the police either, very nice people who really try to help me.
This is probably the most weird week of my life. The police: "We take your stuff, and we won't tell you!"Flashback! It's two hours ago, and I walk up to my shared apartment. Open the door (which I noticed isn't going very easy) and walk into the house. First thing I notice is that my clothes are no longer in the dryer. Weird, my roommate usually doesn't touch my stuff. So I walk into the living room. Biggest shock of my live -- No TV, DVD recorder, XBOX 360, table and desk. Woha. So I go check, and I quickly find that the dryer and washer are also gone.
I didn't know what to think. My roommate was going to Poland today and I couldn't reach him. I knew he was going to move out sometime in the near future, so I didn't know if he and his friends moved stuff or not. And the stuff that was taken isn't exactly stuff someone would steal either (who in their right minds would steal a I-don't-know-how-much-kilogram washer?!). I figured I'd call my parents for some advice and they told me to go to the police no matter what. So I head out to the police office (it's across the street!).
I tell them our/my stuff is gone. "What's your address?". I give them my address. "Oh yeah, that was us". I was like, "what the hell?!". Apparently my roommate was arrested (for reasons still unknown, I guess on the airport) and the police went ahead and took some of our stuff (I guess he didn't exactly pay his bills in time). Great! They didn't touch any of my personal stuff though, except for the XBOX which was in the living room (so I guess they figured it was his, too).
I'm going back tomorrow (during work) because I need to talk to their "detectives" and proof the console is mine to get it back (and to ask what he did). Of course I'm also going to file a complaint. They left no note, did not call me or whatever (while they did know I was living here!).
Right now I'm asking around to see if anyone knows where to find a spare room. I'm so not staying here. Summary of TechEdMonday: Too late for registering. Bummer. Went to bed early enough to get out early on Tuesday.
Tuesday: Registered, got a cool bag. Wrong batch. Nagged registration desk, got a badge with MVP on it. Huzzah. Went to keynote, awesome spots up front. Followed sessions all day. Later dinner and alcohol. Went to a club, had some more drinks. Went to bed too late.
Wednesday: Hard time getting up in the morning. Followed sessions. Met Danny Thorpe, very cool guy who works on some of the dev.live.com stuff. Went out to get drinks with Hans-Peter (from Oberon) and Danny. Then had dinner at some Italian place. After that the Netherlands Drinks night. Lots of alcohol. Too much alcohol. Drunk, and nauseaus.
Thursday: Still nauseaus, pretty much all day long. No more alcohol for me today. Woke up way too late at 10am. Missed first two sessions, followed the rest of the sessions. Unfortunatly missed the first whiteboard session with Nikhil Kothari, repeat got cancelled. Bummer, I was really looking forward to talking to Nikhil IRL.
Friday: The best sessions of all TechEd. Followed one on Vista for developers of Managed code, XNA, one on AJAX/ASP.Net and the final one was about cryptography. Had lunch with Danny Thorpe, and later (after TechEd) we went out and got some more drinks and dinner. Shame the days went so fast. Drying handsRandom observation time.
The toilets around here have those hot air hand dryers. They are pretty easy to use, right? Just stick your hands under them, warm/hot air comes out and your hands get dry. Wrong. Apparently. A lot of people wave their hands under it, it kicks in, and then after a couple of seconds it stops. Everyone is like "huh?", starts waving their hands under it again and it kicks in again, does its thing for a couple of a seconds and then turns off again, etc. etc..
After a couple of times people shrug and use their pants, tshirts or whatever to dry their hands.
Nope. There is nothing wrong with the dryers. What most people don't realize is that the sensor that detects their hands and keeps the dryer running is further to the back. Just put your hands a little bit more forward and voila! Strawberry, Chocolate, Caramel, Fruit or Toffee SauceThe waffels at the Community Lounge at TechEd (Barcelona) are awesome... and with awesome I really mean awesome. I'm still a bit full from the pizza I had with lunch, but I think I'll go take another waffel seomtime soon before the next session starts. I guess I can start thinking about what flavour of sauce to put on it. Hmm.
I had strawberry yesterday. Yousef says Toffee Sauce wins from Chocolate, hands down. First day at TechEdWe arrived at TechEd an hour or so ago, registered and got our goodie bag (containing several magazines and stuff). Great. Now I have three laptop bags. A normal one, a Messenger bag and a TechEd bag. Oh, and we also got our delegate badge. Anyway, we are waiting for the keynote now. We have good spots up front. I'll post again when the keynote is done, I guess. Depends on how much time we have between the sessions. We're not even sure yet which sessions we're going to, although I'm probably going to something with AJAX/ASP.NET/.NET Framework 3.0/WPF-ish. Oh, and Yousef and Frans-Willem said "Hi". Oh and Yousef waved. Just so you know. TechEd in BarcelonaFrans-Willem and me just arrived at our hotel in Barcelona to enjoy a week filled with presentations, demos, workshops and what not more. Yep, that's right we are going to TechEd this week. We are now waiting for Yousef to arrive (he is taking a different flight), then we'll probably go figure out which sessions we want to participate in (and register, of course!) and go grab something to eat (there's a McDonalds and KFC nearby
 ).One of the sessions I want to attend to is with Nikhil Kothari (sp?). He is the author of Script#, a compiler I used this summer when I was an internet at Microsoft. It would be cool to meet him in person, seeing as I've also reported some bugs, and made some additions to Script#. I think he's giving 2 or so presentations and perhaps a hands-on thingy.
In other news, I met a nice girl last weekend. Perhaps I'll blog about this later. Perhaps I won't. Depends on how it turns out, I suppose. |
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