Geeky things

While trying to get my nokia 6120classic sync'ed with Evolution on Ubuntu Linux, I used this howto. Seemed pretty okay, but in the end it didn't work at all...

Recently I discovered it had to do with the bluetooth-port that the device is using (13 instead of 10).

It runs like a charm with the following settings:

<config>
        <bluetooth_address>[your bluetooth-address here (see the howto above)]</bluetooth_address>
        <bluetooth_channel>13</bluetooth_channel>
        <interface>0</interface>
        <identifier>PC Suite</identifier>
        <version>1</version>
        <wbxml>1</wbxml>
        <username></username>
        <password></password>
        <type>2</type>
        <usestringtable>1</usestringtable>
        <onlyreplace>0</onlyreplace>
        
        <recvLimit>10000</recvLimit>
        <maxObjSize>0</maxObjSize>
        <contact_db>Contacts</contact_db>
       <calendar_db>Calendar</calendar_db> 
<note_db>Notes</note_db>
</config>

Well. A little bit of radio-silence on my blog... Time for al little change? First a little update...

I finished law-school a year ago. After several job-applications at law-firms around the country, I realized that I'm not the lawyer-type of man. So I went for something completely different. For a year I'm into ICT and working as a software-tester.

What about that? Well, I guess this blog will be a little more ICT-related, since I'm into ICT for more than 40 hours a week...

that was a rather long time, since I've posted something. Last friday, I finished my internship and I have to say: it was great! It is, since this internship, quiet clear that I want to be a lawyer. Anyhow, I'm using opera mini now, so I'm limited to short posts. Soon, there will be more. see you later!

Yesterday I came up with some crazy theory. It was one of those moments I regularly have on a cozy late night with a decent glass of wine (or two).

It’s about colors. When you see a leave of a plant, you know it’s green. But why do you see it as ‘green’? And how do you know it really is green?

Scientifically spoken, we see colours by the reflection of (sun)light. The amplitude and length of the lightwaves (is this correct English? Well... I guess you know what I mean ) that fall on your eye are translated in your brains to a certain reception of a color.
But... How do I know that you and I see the same thing in the same color? Well, we see the color (lightwaves), we translate it to a certain image in our brains. But how do we know that we both make that translation exactly the same way?

A little intermezzo:
We’re all convinced of the fact that the leave of a plant is green. Everybody says so. But... could it be that I translate the ‘green lightwaves’ the same way as you translate ‘brown lightwaves’? That means that actually leaves aren’t green at all.
Actually, in France they aren’t green at all. They are vert. That brings me to something crucial: The name of a color is just a name of a color. When we all start tomorrow saying the leaves of a plant are blue, that color is blue from then on. Let’s go back to the main story now.


This all means, I guess, that what I see as a green plant, could be translated different in someone’s elses head.
How do I actually know, that green is green? My parents told me that the color of the leaves of a plant is green. And I’m told what generally is regarded as blue and what should be yellow. But that doesn’t answer the question wether or not I interpret yellow or green the same way you do.
Possibly, I interpret green the same way that you iterpret pink. That means that, if you could look with my brains for one day, and I used that time yours, we could be seeïng really strange things. Like pink plants, or yellow water, or green milk. And vice versa when I use yours. Compare it to when you look though those funky colored sunglasses. But we’re so common to what we see, that we actually think that what we all see is the same, all the time.

This all is a really strange idea, isn’t it? When my favourite color is blue, and yours is blue too, we may think that we both like the same color, but maybe we interpret the color different, what results in another image in our minds. Actually, we both like another color. Or vice-versa: when my favorite color is pink, and yours is blue, but in our minds we accidentally interpret those colors exactly the same... do we have the same favorite color? Regardless of the fact that we give it different names?

Yesterday we had elections for the city-council. And God, what a campaign it was! Though it was a local election (for almost all the municipalities in Holland), the national politicians entered the ring for a heavy campaign.

And so it came that our dearly beloved Liberals (VVD) started to campaign against the socialists. Don't make The Netherlands a second Cuba, was the message.

Since we have a political system with, unlike e.g. France or the UK, more than two or three parties (in fact, there are about ten parties), there has to be made a coalition of two, three or maybe four of the biggest parties to get a majority of votes. That is as well on the national level as on the local level.

There has been, in the last four years, only one city with a 'red' coalition: Nijmegen. Or as the Liberals want it to say: "Havana aan de Waal" (Havana on the Waal, where the Waal is a river, that goes through the city of Nijmegen.).

Nobody expected that the 'Havana-coalition' would survive, but instead, the citizens are very happy with it. Nijmegen became one of the most social cities and the citizens give the coalition credit for that.

Anyhow, the Liberal Spokesman, Jozias van Aartsen, warned the Netherlands for more "Havana's": Especially for Rotterdam ("Havana aan de Maas"), where four years ago the spirit of Fortuyn started some sort of mini-revolution.

Today, the elections are passed on. And: No Havana aan the Maas so far. In Rotterdam, the local party of the successors of Fortuyn are still popular, but the PvdA (comparable to Labour in the UK) is back there.

No, not Rotterdam. But Amsterdam could be the next Havana. With PvdA (Labour), Groen Links (more socialists) and SP (even more to the left-wing) will have a majority in the city-council.

And so are even more villages and cities that have made a huge 'swing' to the left, like Groningen.

So... I guess it's time for a more left-oriented time. Every four years, the local elections are somewhat of a 'poll' for the national elections that are the year after (in fact: next years May). That's promising.

Because, of course, Castro isn't all that good, but Nijmegen has proved that a progressive coalition can exist, with good financial politics and a social environment where people can feel happy. There won't get any Havana in Holland. But extra social spirit... that's all good!