New RIFERS blogs entries from Geert Bevin in category life

Back in the saddle, happy New-Year!

2008-01-04T16:02:47+0100

Some people might have been wondering why it has been so quiet on the RIFE front and also why I haven't been blogging more regularly for almost half a year.

First of all, I started working at Terracotta in April 2007 and it has taken me a few months to get comfortable with the code-base, the concepts and the architecture. The technology is truly amazing and my colleagues are extremely smart and friendly. I've been learning a lot about concurrency and clustering and made a couple of friends that are already very close to my heart.

Then, in fall last year, it seems that fate decided to show us that life can't always be smooth sailing. I'm not complaining, we have been surprisingly fortunate for many years but this series of unfortunate events followed up on each-other so quickly that for the first time in history I truly took an effort to write sincere New-Year wishes to my friends and family. Wishing someone 'good health' and 'joy' got a whole new meaning.

First, I had a motorcycle accident and my girlfriend did so too a couple of weeks later. We weren't significantly hurt, but it does shake you up for a while.

After that, our youngest daughter almost lost her eye after hitting her head against the table corner. She has nothing permanent except for a small scar in the corner of her left eye.

A few weeks later, we were all evacuated out of our house with carbon-monoxide poisoning. Our oldest daughter escaped death by a couple of minutes and we had to get intense oxygen treatment to reduce the CO levels in our blood. People, really, get CO detectors! CO poisoning is NOT something that only happens to others! You can die from it in a matter of minutes! I installed the detectors now and had the source of the CO leak fixed.

Just after that, my father was found on the floor of his kitchen by the police. They forcibly entered his house at my request, since he hadn't been seen by anyone for several days. He's got permanent brain damage due to many years of alcohol abuse and will most certainly live the rest of his life in an institution, not remembering 99% of his life and constantly confusing dreams and reality.

Finally, I lost my dog after she escaped from the enclosed field at the back of our house. After calling all animals shelters in the area, alerting the police and putting up many posters, someone finally contacted us saying that they had found her.

All in all, after looking back, I actually consider ourselves lucky. All of these events could have had severe consequences, but finally the outcomes were all much more positive than what they could have been.

Happy New-Year to everyone! I wish you a soothing 2008 with lots of joy and pleasant surprises, and also an excellent health for you and your loved ones!

I'm getting back in the saddle. I will be working on RIFE again and will be blogging more frequently.

Let's not be afraid!

2003-12-08T20:00:12+0100

This post: "Don't be afraid to be wrong by Jim Cushing -- How fruit flies lead to a revelation about software development", is exactly how I feal about these matters. Since many years I've always taken risks and been very flexible towards design decisions and customer requests. I've had the chance to have been wrong many times and will probably be wrong many more times, and all the better! It helped me to advance quickly, to experiment, to learn, to discover, to be productive in many domains and to start my own business.

Admit that you're wrong as quickly as possible when you identify it and, more importantly, take responsability for it! Boldly fix the problems and move towards your new insights. Many small efforts like this will be bearable for your ego and still leave you with enough energy. One huge revelation in the end is often a fatal blow and difficult to accept.

When you're listening you'll feel when new insights and directions appear, be on the lookout for them, but also be alert enough to not jump on another track each time you arrive at a crossroad. When you need to decide you'll know it and the best decision will always present itself if you're patient enough to wait for the signs. It's sometimes as important to resist a temptation as it is to take another turn, but most importantly: don't be afraid since "Fear is the mind-killer" (Dune - Frank Herbert).

Heating again

2003-08-31T17:57:49+0200

At last we were able to take a hot shower. Our landlord's insurance assistance service sent over a heating expert who took the machine apart and cleaned its interior. Luckily it was just very dirty and not broken. Let's just hope that the next rain will not flood it all again.

Shit hits the heater

2003-08-30T12:20:54+0200

Looks like we're in a lot of luck :-/. The warm water heater has been submerged by the flood and refuses to work. Since the sewer contents have probably touched the interior of the heating machine, there's a high probability it's broken.

The landlord came by and contacted their insurance assistance service. They are sending someone over this afternoon to evaluate the situation. Let's cross our fingers since it's already clear that the landlord would have a lot of trouble to free the funds needed to install a new heater in a short notice.

Full of shit

2003-08-29T21:48:43+0200

Last night our beloved municipal sewer system decided that it was time to expand its horizons, to enlarge its kingdom beyond the straight lines of the evacuation pipes. Oh how happy we were to discover at 4am in the morning that our little cellar had been chosen as one of the noble destinations. Floating turds, minced shit, layers of used toilet paper and disposed condoms graceously wrapped themselves around all the objects in the cellar.

We spent the whole day wading through excrements and trying to wash them in an antiseptic way from everything that was worth saving. Sadly Nathalie's Powermac 8500 and my Amiga 1200 were not so lucky and the brown substance covered most of the circuit boards. We decided to dump them instead of trying to wash it all off and being allmost certain that it wouldn't work anymore anyway. An era has thus passed and I'm now left without the computer that so fundamentally changed my life so many years ago. I honestly have to say that I felt a grip on my heart when I tossed the ruined parts on the scrapeyard. I almost bursted in tears, really!

After cleaning for 14 hours we finally got most of the stench out of the house and got everything back into a supportable state again. We however didn't not clean the cellar in perfect detail since it's very possible that the next rain will have the same tasty outcome. Until the mayor decides that the cause is a flaw in their sewer system, they'll probable not do much and just leave us sitting in the shit. Monday we should know more about this and if not, we're preparing with the other neighbours to take legal action.

Below are some links to pictures that show what state the cellar was in after the water had all gone away. Note that this is probably not for the sensitive and easily shocked people, it's quite disgusting : first and second

Protested in real life

2003-08-27T23:47:17+0200

Today I joined the real-life protest action in Brussels against software patents in the European Union even though I'm working very long hours (16h / day) to try to finish a project on time. Software patentability would be so harmful to our entire society that I just had to physically join the demonstration.

I was rather surprised, it was actually quite well organized and even fun. I managed to take some pictures and short movies. They can be seen in my gallery.

Protest against software patents

2003-08-25T14:30:46+0200

As most of you probably know, software patents are coming soon to Europe. If this happens, we'll be in the same mess as the US in no time.

The day after tomorrow there's a real-life protest action in Brussels and I'm planning to attend. To support the action even more, I closed the website of UWYN temporarely.
Consider doing the same if you have that kind of power over a public website, any additional support might maybe change the final outcome. Hopefully :-/

Pirates!

2003-08-24T09:19:02+0200

Spent yesterday's afternoon at my mother's discussing digital photo cameras and health.

Afterwards we had a very nice meal at my usual Brussels Thai restaurant. We had raw shrimps with a *very* spicy sauce as a starter and I was sweating like a pig. Nathalie almost had no physical reaction to it. It turns out that her body handles spicy food very well.

At night we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. While I am a huge fan of Johnny Depp, his great acting performance was not enough to carry the movie. It starts nicely, but after a while it becomes a bit repetitive and dull. It's a shame, they could have developed the story much further.

A bad idea (road story)

2003-08-20T16:41:37+0200

Today I had an appointment with my new accountant firm so that everything could get started to turn UWYN into a real company and not just a business name. I had quite some luck in finding a good accountant not too far from our newly rented house. It's only 8 kilometers away from here.

Now that 'only' is quite relative, for most people this is just around the corner, but ... I have no car and ... no driver's license. This makes be think of that 'only' as a problem.

Last time I went over there, I went by bicycle. I love riding it, but I have a serious sweat condition. In fact, when I sweat it really poors down from me. Soaking my shirt completely and giving me quite a bewildered appearance. I'll never forget the look on my accountant's face when he met me for the first time, looking like this. Therefore I figured that it would be a good idea to call a cab instead this time.
Now you must know that I'm used to big cities, I've always lived in one and this is the first time I'm living in a little village. I'm really used to being able to get almost anything, anywhere and at any moment. I thus called the cab and noticed there were only two in the nearby town (yes two, not two taxi companies, but two vehicles). Instead of speaking to a standardist on the phone, I was talking to the taxi driver's wife who checked the timing with him in real time through the mobile phone in her other hand.
The taxi arrived 15 minutes early (yes, not 15 minutes late) and drove me the whole 8 kilometers. He admitted that he rarely went that far.

After the meeting with the accountant I set off to go back home, but I had wrongly estimate the cost of the previous taxi ride. The fare was 24€ and I had only 25€ in my pockets. Of course, it was totally unimaginable to pay by Visa. I was thus left with 1€ in my pocket, just enough to take the bus. Aaah ... yes ... THE bus. The one that only passes by once every three hours. The one that just has a number sign at the stops without any information about the trajectory or direction. Obviously, I was not lucky enough to be able to take that bus.

I thus walked back ONLY 8 kilometers and really don't think that 'only' is a synonyme for 'not much' anymore. It took me a bit more than 2 hours.

As soon as I have time I'm going to pass the driver's license exam.

Kids and cats

2003-08-16T22:43:40+0200

Hehe, our little girls couldn't wait to come back from their father's to see the new kitten (Nina and Cracotte). Apparently they had been restless for about two days (ever since they heared abour the event) and the hours before their arrival they were just being bored at their father's and anxious to come home as soon as possible.

So, they arrived sooner than planned. I was just taking an awfully long postponed shower when cries of joy whirled up from downstairs. They had arrived !!

Marie was overjoyed but oh so afraid that something wrong would happen with the tiny little beasts. She was even scared when seeing them fight together. Imagine what her reaction was when Droopy came over to give both cats a few very wet licks !

Gaëlle wanted to take one in her arms immediately, but as soon as the little thing pushed out its claws to grab a hold, Gaëlle cried out loud and literally threw the kitten away. It took some explaining to convince her that there was no malicious intent and a little while later everything was forgiven.

The girls spent hours playing with their newly arrived friends and we finished the evening by watching some episodes of an old kid's series. I found this DVD box with the first 26 episodes and since both Nathalie and I lively remember the emotions we had as a kid while watching this on television, I couldn't resist buying the box during a visit to Brussels.