Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist

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travelling

Train through the cows

Tue, 10/03/2006 - 3:46pm

Cows from the train.So it's been nearly two years since I was in a Dutch train, and it's a nice experience to travel from Hoorn to Rotterdam today.

Traveling in this train is a real Dutch experience -- the moment I'm writing this the train is moving through farm fields and there are cows just a few meters from the train, staring and chewing while the train moves by. A few years ago some of our foreign guests enjoyed it a lot to take a train through the flower fields in spring. I understand now why.

I'm traveling on a 1st class ticket, and that is a good thing. It's so crowded! Even in 1st class there are too few seats and a couple of people didn't find a place to sit from Hoorn to Amsterdam. There is no reserved seating so when the doors opened there was a mad rush to get inside and get a good place to sit. The train itself is amazing -- better than any American public transport. Smooth, quiet, very clean and fast.

I briefly saw Amsterdam Central Station, a beautiful trainstation but I had only a few minutes to transfer to the train to Rotterdam. It's an all-service train, so it stops in small places like Abcoude and Woerden. My end point is in a suburb of Rotterdam where I have a couple of meetings for work today.


The train also drove through Duivendrecht and Amsterdam Bijlmer, where I used to live. I heard the familiar sound of the metro doors closing on Duivendrecht. The Bijlmer station has changed incredibly. From being a small, greasy train station it is now being transformed into something like Duivendrecht: huge, open platforms that are long enough to load and unload the large intercity trains.

Yesterday evening I had dinner with Ettie and my parents. I really enjoy being around them, after such a long time! It's especially nice to see Ettie and I hadn't seen her for so long. Gerben is back in Leeuwarden since Sunday evening for his work. We had stamppot andijvie for dinner, which was delicious. When I was little I used to dislike it but not anymore.

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dailylife

Early morning

Tue, 10/03/2006 - 12:34am

Early morning.An early morning again! I woke up, without an alarm, at 5.45 am, ready for a new day in the Netherlands and it's not raining.

My father will bring me to Hoorn at 7.00 am, where I'll take the train to Amsterdam, and from there to Rotterdam.

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dailylife

Around the IJsselmeer

Mon, 10/02/2006 - 3:14pm

Around IJsselmeer.Today I had a schedule with a lot of miles, and it started early when we were quite on time at the consulate. It took a while (lots of waiting), but around 10.30 am after a short interview I was officially granted my renewal. Not surprising, but I'm still glad this is over. I'll get my passport with the visa stamp by mail.



We had lunch in Heerenveen. It was great to see my grandmother again. On the way back we went over the Afsluitdijk, so on my first day in the Netherlands I made a circle around the IJsselmeer already. The weather was pretty awful all day (rain, rain, rain).

Tomorrow I'll get up early again to go to Rotterdam.

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dailylife

Early to the consulate

Mon, 10/02/2006 - 12:16am

My father and I are leaving for the Dutch consulate in a few minutes. I woke up at 5.30 am.

I went to bed at 8.00 pm Dutch time, and I although I briefly woke up at 11.00 pm and 2.00 am, I had a good night of sleep. Pretty cool, waking up at 5.30 and still having slept 9 full hours.

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travelling

In the Netherlands

Sat, 09/30/2006 - 6:00pm

Welcome.Yesterday I left home around 1.45 pm with two large suitcases and my laptop bag. Not that I brought so many things to bring to Holland, but I want to have an empty suitcase here for all the stuff I plan to bring back to the States.

I arrived in Newark some time before m5.00 pm and I had a nice dinner at the airport -- there's a pub called Galahar's that serves good food, surprisingly good for an airport. When I went in the plane I planned to get as much sleep as possible. As soon as I sat in my chair I put on my headphones, eye patches and sleeping cushion to get as many resting hours as possible. By skipping dinner I managed to get some extra rest. It's really tiring to travel eastwards, with the time that you loose.

It was very nice to see Ettie, Gerben, Jaap and Mieke waiting for me at the airport. They waived through the glass. One thing I noticed when I entered the luggage claim area was the staunch smell of cigarettes -- there was a "smoking area" inside the luggage claim that made the whole space smell.

After 10 minutes I found my luggage and went through customs -- back in the Netherlands.

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dailylife

Packing

Fri, 09/29/2006 - 11:10pm

It was a busy evening. Packing, laundry, shopping, preparing some last paperwork, all in preparation for my trip to the Netherlands tomorrow.

My flight is at 3.15 pm from Raleigh/Durham to Newark, and from there to Amsterdam where I'll arrive on Sunday morning.

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guusbosmannl

No Java for Guus Bosman.nl

Fri, 09/29/2006 - 7:00am

Next week I will upgrade the operating system on the server from OpenBSD 3.5 to 3.9. The 3.5 version is two years old, and no longer supported by OpenBSD.

Even thought I am using a good OS, the chain is only a strong as its weakest link and the software I have been using the last few years, PHP Nuke, has a terrible security track record.

It's not that I have a high-profile website, but still I like to keep my website secure and I've been looking for a replacement I can use, preferably written in Java. I am using PHP Nuke, but because of the small development team the amount of new features and updates is small.

I wanted to use (server-side) Java because that's what I use in my work all the time, and I believe it's a more robust solution than PHP. I spend some time on this two years ago also.

However, I have not been able to find a tool that does the job in Java. I tend to agree with this author that (at least for personal use) PHP is the way to go for website development, compared to J2EE.

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dailylife

To the Netherlands

Tue, 09/26/2006 - 6:58pm

To the Netherlands.Next week I am going to the Netherlands! Alrik and Esther are getting married, so this is a nice opportunity to visit Holland again after nearly two years.

I'm leaving Durham on Saturday and on Sunday I'll arrive in Amsterdam at 8.15 am. I'll stay in the Netherlands for a week and of course it is loaded with activities.

The first thing to do, at Monday morning 8.30 am, is a visit to the U.S. consulate in Amsterdam to renew my visa. After that Jaap and I will go to Heerenveen to visit my grandmother, Oma Groen.

I'm really excited to see all my family and friends again! I'll give a party on Saturday October 7: starting at 7.00 pm in In Den Uiver in Haarlem. All readers are invited to join me for good times, Belgium beer and Dutch cheese.

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internet

Blogging from the ISS

Mon, 09/25/2006 - 10:35pm

Space tourist.The first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, has a website where she describes her experiences on the International Space Station.

From her Space Blog:

"It is about 11:30 GMT here on ISS. It looks like my first entry from space made it down there.. Amazing, isn’t it…?"

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plants

Plant revival project (3)

Sat, 09/23/2006 - 10:51am

Last night, after we went our for dinner and a beer with Sasha's colleagues, we saw that the Starfish flower cuttings are not doing very well.

Three out of four have light spots on the stem, a symptom of the disease that affected the original plant.

The largest cutting in water clearly shows the dark spots on the roots. I still have some hope for the fourth cutting though, it seems still healthy and I'm glad I placed them in separate pots.

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