Anybody remember HGCIBM /E?
We used to have a Brother 8088 with a Hercules graphical card. Unfortunately, almost all games only supported CGA mode. So we couldn’t play most of the games, only the text-mode ones.

It was Mieke who —after a long time experimenting— found out how to use the graphical games on our PC. One of the very first computer games I’ve played was Alley Cat. I haven’t played for about 10 years, but the other day in a nostalgic mood I went looking for it… download it here!

A strange story today on MSNBC: clocks in Venezuela are ticking slower than in other parts of the world.

This is because many (simple) clocks take the power-line AC frequency to calculate the current time. Due to the power-crises in Venezuela the power suppliers are not able to garantuee a perfect 60 Hz frequency anymore…

There was a time when climbing the Mount Everest was a huge thing but that’s long ago. Thousands of members of expeditions each year are expected to be using a new internet café, which will be at a height of 5 kilometers above sea-level. The internet connection will be established using a satellite.

I never knew that the song ‘Happy Birthday to You’ is protected by copyright. This story however, describes the history of the song and the copyright transfers.For private use you don’t have to pay royalties but for commercial use you do. The song generates about $2 million in royalties annually. From the article:The next time you hear “Happy Birthday” in a movie — and now that you’re listening, it won’t be long — stay for the credits at the end of the movie.

On Slashdot I found an interesting article about the computer problems that caused the American national TV stations to be so wrong in their predictions of who would be president.”There was not enough collaboration between the networks and the IT people. And, worse, there was nothing we could do about it. You can’t postpone an election.”

Ha! Just found out where our teachers get our examination questions… From the Computer Science Question Generator!
“You have 7 matrices and 4 graphs. Which one has normal form. Use flowcharts. Be
sure to refer to Quantum Theory in your answer.”

My father pointed me out to ‘Pioneers of Computing’. Atanasoff -the Bulgarian inventor of the computer- is 3rd on the list.

On Bieslog there’s a link to an interesting moving face.

It’s always nice to see that other people I know have a website as well. Mirjam started one to keep everybody up-to-date on the daily life of Linda in Suriname. The site is called Mirry’s place.

The VARA has an online competition on your knowledge about polical parties in the Netherlands. You’ll have to play the role of the 8 party leaders and answer a lot of questions about them and their party.The winner of this tournament will get a real (used) parliament seat!