Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist

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travelling

Back on time

Fri, 12/09/2005 - 8:14am


Last night I travelled back to Washington.

I stayed a week in Puerto Rico, longer than I had originally planned, and it's very nice to go back home. American Airlines, the airline that I usually fly with, has a great slogan "we know why you fly". In their commercials they show the various (family) reason why people fly, and the best ads are with people flying home. Most likely I won't go to Puerto Rico this year anymore.

I was later than usual at the airport, the cab driver had to get gas and left the highway to find a low price gas station. That was a bit annoing because I didn't want to have to rush at the airport. The lines were short though, so the check in went quickly. It really is low-season in Puerto Rico now, there are much less people travelling now than a few months ago.

My original flight to Washington D.C. had more than three hours delay, so I changed my ticket to fly to Baltimore instead. I was told that there was no captain for the other flight yet, and the lady at the counter was very nice and give me an exit row seat.

There is a big difference in weather between Puerto Rico and Virginia... it started snowing! Tomorrow morning's I had a meeting, which was cancelled because of the possibility of a lot of snow tomorrow ("inclement weather conditions", as they say in the States).

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travelling

Hurricane Blockers

Wed, 12/07/2005 - 9:42pm

Hurricane Blockers.An intriguing commercial for "Hurricane Blockers" on a power box.

I couldn't find much about this on Google, and I wonder if this company tries to sell something that would block hurricanes, or if it's a call for changes to the building code.

The hurricane season for 2005 is officially over since a week or two. It was a record season, in the amount of hurricanes that were registered.

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travelling

Christmas in Puerto Rico

Tue, 12/06/2005 - 10:25pm

Christmas tree.When we arrived on the airport Thursday morning I was amazed by the amount of Christmas decorations that were put up. The entire airport was decorated in Christmas style.

It turns out that this is what most Puerto Ricans do around Christmas -- everywhere you go, there is an abundance of Christmas trees, Santa Clauses and other decorations. My theory is that this is to compensate for the lack of snow and other natural Christmas-like resources on a tropical island.

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travelling

Mariachi

Mon, 12/05/2005 - 10:10pm

MariachiThere are a lot of commercials for Mariachi on the highways in San Juan.

Mariachi are Mexican-style musicians.

787 is the area code for Puerto Rico.

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Work Arlington 2006

To work

Sun, 12/04/2005 - 9:25pm

To work.It was a good weekend, with work to do but with some free time as well. Today I went with Anup, a colleague, to the Prime Outlet stores about 30 minutes from San Juan.

Back to work tomorrow morning. This picture is the highway we take from the hotel to the customer's premises.

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travelling

San Juan Culinary

Sun, 12/04/2005 - 11:45am

San Juan Culinary.Yesterday we went out in Old San Juan. We had dinner in a place called the Parrot Club, where they had a special drink called the Parrot Special. It was a fun evening.

In the main tourist street of Old San Juan, Forta Leza, there was a culinary festival. Many of the restaurants had tables and bars outside. It wasn't very busy, it had been raining quite a bit so it wasn't the best time for an outside festival.

After we had seen most of the Culinary we went back to Isla Verde. We had a couple of drinks in the Waterclub and I was back in the hotel around 2.30.

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washington

Christmas Tree Wars

Thu, 12/01/2005 - 5:15pm

Rockefeller Plaza's Christmas Tree.There was a nice article in the Washington Post today about the rivalry between New York, the Capitol and the White House about their Christmas trees, and at what time the trees get lighted.

The tree on the Rockefeller center was lighted on Wednesday, and the National Christmas Tree on the Mall will be lighted tonight by President Bush.

The official Christmas tree here in Puerto Rico was lighted yesterday.

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arlington

American images: Clarendon neighbourhood

Wed, 11/30/2005 - 10:32pm

Clarendon neighbourhood.The neighbourhoods in Arlington County are identified by neat signs.

The area where we live is called Court House, and our supermarket a few blocks further down the road, in Clarendon.

On the picture is the sign next to the Starbucks closest to our apartment.

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movies

Wild Safari 3D

Wed, 11/30/2005 - 7:40am

Wild Safari 3D.Sunday afternoon we finally saw Wild Safari 3D in the Imax theater in the Natural History Museum.

Wild Safari 3D is a semi-documentary about a tour through South Africa to spot the "Big Five", the five most spectacular animals in Africa. Over the course of the movie we see a herd of elephants refreshing at a pool, lions eating a prey, rhino's running away from the camera, and we get a close look at buffalos and two leopards.

The visuals of the movie are superb. Of course, the 3D aspect is very nice, but the combination of that with advanced satelite technology really makes for a breath-taking trip from outer space to the parks of South Africa. It's a bit like Google Earth, but with a much better picture resolution and in 3D and on a huge Imax screen. A technical titbit: each frame of the movie is 49 MB, and the total movie would be 5.6 TB if recorder digitally.

It was great movie to watch. The 3D glasses make you tired after a bit, so it was good that the movie wasn't very long, but it was very spectacular and worth seeing.

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dailylife

To the Mall

Mon, 11/28/2005 - 9:25pm

The National Mall.Saturday we went to the National Mall.

We wanted to see a 3D movie in the Natural History Museum, Wild Safari but when we arrived all the tickets were sold out. It was extremely busy in the museum, a lot of out-of-towners visiting the musea. There was another movie we wanted to see instead, that was playing in the Air and Space museum, so we walked to there. We got tickets and spent some time in the museum.

They have acquired a great new addition since the last time I was there: SpaceShipOne. This was the first privately funded manned spaceship to fly into space -- a great achievement, and I liked it a lot to see it in real.

We went into the movie theater to see Magnificent Desolation, but unfortunately the lights went on again after the show had just started. One of the projects was broken, and the movie wouldn't be in 3D. We decided to wait for another opportunity to watch the movie in 3D, and went in line to get a refund. So, we were quite unlucky with the 3D movies, but it was a nice day out.

In the evening we went to Georgetown, where we had dinner in Pizzeria Paradiso -- the best pizza place in D.C. I know.

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