Beware...

Grumpy bastard roaming free!

Mobistar & de iPhone - de reservaties

Op een gegeven moment - na de langverwachte, officiële aankondiging van Mobistar - de iPhone reserveren bij één van de 7 Mobistar winkels in België. Na succesvolle registratie kon je je iPhone dan gaan afhalen op 26 juni tussen 7h30 en 8h 's morgens, vergezeld van een bescheiden ontbijt (croissant en drankje) op kosten van Mobistar.

De mail die diende als bewijs van de registratie, zit echter vol eigenaardigheden. Ofwel hebben de ontwikkelaars bij Mobistar een vreemd gevoel voor humor, ofwel hebben ze een heel aantal steken laten vallen.

Het begint al allemaal met een joekel van een schrijffout in de naam van de afzender: "Mobistar IPone launch".

iPone

Tweede eigenaardigheid: Gmail laadt standaard de foto's in mails niet. Hierdoor kreeg je het onderstaande te zien. Wat is in hemelsnaam "camping De Onbegrensde Zomer"? Edit: blijkbaar is dit een actie van Mobistar. Meer informatie vind je op http://www.onbegrensdezomer.be/nl/.

camping De Onbegrensde Zomer

In bovenstaande screenshot zie je trouwens nog een aantal kemels:
  • iPhone is met een kleine "i", niet met hoofdletter
  • In Antwerpen is er voor zover ik weet geen straat die Keyzerlei heet, wel ééntje met de naam Keyserlei.
Klikken we bovenaan op de link webversie, dan komen we op onderstaande url terecht. Toch wel een beetje vreemd niet? Vooral als het userid gewoon deel uitmaakt van de url?

Misschien nog een privacy probleempje: de userid parameter kan je zelf manipuleren om zo te weten te komen wie er allemaal een iPhone gereserveerd heeft. Mooi staaltje van privacy inbreuk, niet? Gelukkig is enkel de naam te zien, geen andere gegevens.

Al bij al lijkt het erop of Mobistar allesbehalve klaar was voor de lancering van de iPhone in België: een persconferentie slechts 2 dagen voor de lancering, winkels die op eigen houtje pre-order lijsten begonnen aan te leggen om nadien teruggefloten te worden door het hoofdkantoor, flaters in de reservatie e-mails... Een echt succesvolle operatie kan je dat toch niet noemen. Misschien moet Apple toch nog maar eens met Proximus gaan praten?

TW Classic 2009

I was at TW Classic this year, the 2009 edition. My first festival ever, and here's what I noticed:

  • Motor (apparently it's a band) sucked. I don't know what these guys were on, but all I could here were the sounds of various electronic devices going haywire. Please never do that again, ever! Get a regular job or something.
  • Why the hell is everyone running as soon as they open the doors? Oh, to get access to the Pit? I walked over there, while ridiculing all of you running lard-asses, and still made it in time to get a green wristband. Oh and that guy that lost all his food while doing something that resembles the act of running: thank you for making me laugh so hard.
  • Toilets at concerts are like real-estate - well, before the crisis hit at least. For some reason these toilets do not have an indication whether or not they're occupied, which had me trying each door to find a vacant toilet. This left me with the picture of a half-naked lady, squatting on the toilet, who obviously forget to lock the door. Splendid, just what I always wanted: a startled, half naked woman grasping for the door handle.
  • You really need earplugs at these things. I had a headache after Motor's so-called performance. There's really no need to play music *that* loud. And to the parents walking around with their children, who's ears were completely unprotected: don't be surprised if they ditch you in a home when you're old.
  • This might be a hard concept to grasp, but if I put a towel or two on the grass, it means that it's my spot. I claimed it and you are to walk around it. That's not so hard, is it?
  • If you're going to get beer, or any other liquid as far as I'm concerned, try not to spill all of it before you arrive back at your spot. Is it such a challenge to hold a plastic cup in your hand and walk several feet with it? Really?
  • Sbarro sucks. Pizza is supposed to be warm, you morons. Also, it's supposed to taste like something, other than utter crap.
  • What's with food- and beverage stamps? I can understand that it helps to speed things up, but why do you need to split them up?
  • Put more trash cans dammit. People are just loitering like they're in the middle ages. Finished a drink? Just throw it on the ground. Done with the French fries? Chuck it somewhere. Savages.
I don't get what people find so special about festivals, at least not from what I've seen. Performances were not jaw-dropping in any way: I always had the feeling that I could just as well have popped a cd in. Perhaps the Basement Jaxx were different, but by that time, I couldn't be bothered anymore and just went home. The only two that made an effort, were Moby and Tom Helsen.

I think we can conclude that I'm not festival material.

It's not just copy and paste - What's new in OS 3.0

There's much ado about the iPhone / iPod Touch's latest firmware upgrade. I'm not even going to try and copy everything that's spread out over the net the last few days. Instead, I'll give you the most interesting links I've found in the meantime, so you can have a look for yourself.
And although it's doesn't really belong in the list of articles above, the iPhone user manual for OS 3.0 is also available for download.

Movies I've seen: The Interpreter (2005)

A less recent movie this time, starring both Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. Although the story was a bit confusing at times - which might have been due to our DVD not being error-free, forcing us to skip several minutes several times - it has all the ingredients of a good thriller that will keep you wanting until the end. Highly recommended (but get an error free version)!

The_interpreter

Movies I've seen: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)

Judging from the ratings this movie received, I was in for a treat. While the first half of the movie is bearable, the second half is just long-winded emotional dribble as far as I'm concerned. 

The_curious_case_of_benjamin_b

This movie's runtime is 2 hours and 46 minutes! If you're going to make a movie that long, at least make it interesting. I think I stopped watching about 20 minutes before the end of it, as I feared my stomach nor bowels could take any more. In my (not so humble) opinion, this is just "Forrest Gump" - the long, boring version. Don't take my word for it though: if you got time to spare (or waste), have a look and see if you like it. After all, I couldn't bear "Titanic" either.