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I'm not dead!

Posted on 2011-06-12 22:10 by rv

Contrary to popular belief I am not dead yet, despite having shown no online signs of life for the past week or so. I've been on holiday to the Seychelles. Most of the time there was no internet connection available, and the rest of the time I felt that I could enjoy the holiday more by being disconnected. This was true. Being on a tropical island MUST be enjoyed without feeling the need to check your e-mail every day. I highly recommend everyone to disconnect themselves every once a while. And yes, that includes your smart phone as well.

(More Seychelles photos and stories soon :) )

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Palermo!

Posted on 2011-04-30 14:03 by rv

We've arrived in Palermo! It was a tougher ride than we expected today, but very satisfying. I'll comment on Palermo later but let's just say I much prefer the beautiful Sicilian countryside. My muscles seem to remember the trip from last year, and I'm finally gaining speed on the uphills. On the downside, I put so much force on the chain that it's now skipping. It started skipping just minutes before we reached our final resting place. I'm slightly sad that my trusty partner had no life left in it. I hope I can fix it...

Also, this is a message to all Sicilian drivers: DO NOT FUCKING HONK YOUR HORN AT US ALL THE TIME! I appreciate the sentiment of saying hello and wanting to cheer us on, but it can be extremely distracting and downright dangerous. I remember one time we were going very slowly up a steep slope and a car decided to honk when it was right behind us, presumably to warn us that a car was coming because the road was not very wide. Not only was the honking useless because we already heard the car coming from miles away, it disrupted our concentration which made us zigzag even more, creating a rather dangerous situation. On another instance there was a long flat road with perfect visibility, yet a car decided to loudly honk just as it was passing us. That's not funny, that's just annoying.

More later!

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Arrived on the north coast!

Posted on 2011-04-29 20:34 by rv

Very sleepy now, so more later. The ride through the mountains was less difficult than we thought, and took us through some extremely beautiful areas of Sicily. Will post some photos as soon as I get back. One more day until Palermo, and then we're flying back on Monday. Tme goes by so quickly. I want to do more cycling...

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Still alive!

Posted on 2011-04-25 14:55 by rv

Cycled ahead of the storm today with huge winds pushing us forward, and sometimes sideways into the path of a passing car. The winds also made it very dusty and sandy which killed my eyes. Here's some other random notes i feel I should blog about before I forget them.

  • I actually enjoyed the uphill/downhills more than droning on the long flat roads.
  • We're fairly on schedule, but according to the weather report every day from now on will be rain and thunder.
  • Accommodation on Sicily seems to be fairly cheap compared to the rest of Europe. For 20eur you can have a very nice room, quite unlike Amsterdam or Antwerp.
  • Tim is a mad cycling monster.
  • Pizza was good.

92km today. Tomorrow we'll either aim for 100 or get stuck in the storm and not do anything at all. More later!

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Bitcoin mining is a lot less profitable than 2 months ago

Posted on 2011-03-31 17:24 by rv

Bitcoin mining is a lot less profitable than before. There's 3 reasons for that:

  1. The increased difficulty factor, which means it takes longer to discover a winning hash that can be turned into a bitcoin
  2. The BTC/USD exchange rate, which dropped from 1:1 to 1:0.8.
  3. The USD/EUR exchange rate, which is slightly worse than before
Admittedly, point 3 was already a problem when I started mining a couple of weeks ago. I think that the current exchange rate is not a realistic measure of the value of money. If you can buy the same things for 1 USD as you can for 1 EUR, which I think you mostly can, then the exchange rate is unrealistic and can be abused. Companies abuse this by making us buy iPads for 500 EUR, which is 700 USD! Not very nice.

The biggest problem though, is the difficulty factor. Although the BTC/USD exchange rate is fluctuating, there seems to be enough demand for bitcoins to keep the trades going. But because the difficulty factor is self-adjusting (and impossible to circumvent!) it's going to get harder and harder for each individual to generate bitcoins as the bitcoin network increases in size. When I started mining the difficulty factor was around 38000. The next week it increased to 50000, and not much later it went up to ~76000. That basically means that it now takes twice as long until a valid hash is found, cutting the profit in half. And the more people join in, the lower the profit will get. The self-adjusting techno-beauty of the bitcoin system is a disaster for people who want to get rich quick.

I'm undecided as to whether I'll keep mining. I think I"ll continue until the next difficulty change, at least. If it lowers, then there might still be value in mining. Otherwise I might as well quit. Perhaps others will quit too and the difficulty will go down again. Nobody knows for sure. It's all just a big gamble. But the beauty of the bitcoin system is that, no matter how you try to use and abuse it, the system is immune to all attempts at tinkering with it. It is perhaps one of the best geek achievements yet.

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Katamari Awesomeness

Posted on 2011-03-13 16:35 by rv

Click here for awesome

(from kathack.com )

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Achievement unlocked

Posted on 2011-03-07 14:05 by rv

Achievement unlocked: total # of bicycle tires replaced: 2

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Random comment test

Posted on 2011-02-24 23:41 by rv

Random comment test: bunnies should fly because their ears are big.

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Reflect extra hard!

Posted on 2011-01-01 01:37 by rv

How strange. No deep reflection this year. No massive new year's eve party either. Just hanging out with friends. It's different from what I had thought would happen, but it's not half bad. Certainly a good starting point for 2011.

To all my friends out there reading this, I wish you a happy 2011. It's truly a new year with new chances, as cliché as it sounds. A lot of interesting things will happen this year, I promise you that.

Extra hard reflection? Did I write that? I'm very sleepy.

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I'm going to be royalty!

Posted on 2010-12-15 18:51 by rv
Dear [my full name], I am writing this letter in confidence believing that if it is the wish of God for you to help me out of this predicaments, God almighty will bless and reward you abundantly am Miss Hendar N Marlene 21 years of age and single, Despite the fact that I am from royal family. I will love to have a long-term relationship with you and to know more about you and build up a solid foundation with you in time coming after I have gone through a profile that speaks good of you. Well, my father was the managing director of Marlene and Associate (Ltd) and was the personal advancer to Mr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide former Head of State of our country ( HAITI ) that was forced out of the Country to exile in 2004, before the Disaster's Earthquake that devastates the cities killing tens of thousand of people with my father, mother and two of my brothers early this year, i was the only member of the family that survived and managed to make my way out of the country as a refugee to Malaysia . My father deposited the some money in a Bank, years back which he deposited with my name as the next of kin and the bank has told me that due-to my status as a refugee that i can not operate the account and they told me to look for a foreigner who will stand on my behalf and claim the money into a foreign account. Now, I urgently need your humble assistance to move this money from the firm into your country I will want to confide some certain things with you and I want you to keep it secret to yourself. I received a letter from my fathers bank that I have been giving 21 working days by the bank to come and CLAME/REACTIVATE my late fathers account in there bank, before there bank inventory activities will commenced, or the money will be declared DOMANT and CONFISCATED by the Government .Please, note that this transaction is 100% risk free and I hope to commence the transaction as quick as possible, I will send you my contacts and other information as soon as I got you well. Yours sincerely, Miss Hendar.

It doesn't really surprise me that these spammers managed to find my e-mail address. I'm slightly miffed as to where they got my full name from, though. It may have been a dodgy job searching website where I posted my CV to earlier. My own fault, I guess. I find myself mildly entertained by this e-mail, yet at the same time want to deny those who are behind this their right to exist. Spammers and scammers are among the most evil things in this world.

(says the person who's working on a tool called the Hedge Fund Information Provider...)

 

 

 

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