Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist

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Work Arlington 2006

Water

Tue, 02/08/2005 - 10:21pm

I am used to drinking a lot of water during the day. Especially when I'm at work I tend to basically drink non-stop.

I've always had the habit of drinking a lot of water when I'm working at the computer. I think it started in Middenmeer. My brand new 386 computer was installed in my bedroom where I also had a sink. To get water was as easy as pushing the chair to the other side of the room and fill my glass.

At home I drink from a huge glass, and I used to do that at Chess too. Now I don't have a large glass at work, so I have to keep walking back and forth to the water cooler.

The water cooler at work has recently been replaced. We used to have one that worked with large bottles, that were delivered every two weeks. The problem with that, was that all the bottles were empty long before the new delivery arrived. Since a week we have a water cooler. This one is connected to a tap which gives the best of both worlds: a non-stop supply and freshly cooled water.

I like to pride myself that within three months in my new job the water systems had to be replaced because it couldn't catch up with demand.

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dailylife

Monday after the Super Bowl

Mon, 02/07/2005 - 11:09pm

So yesterday was the Superbowl day, and I must admit that we didn't even see the game. Yesterday I was chatting with a close friend in Holland who was watching the game, even though it started at midnight Dutch time.

A big news item after the game are the TV commercials that were played in the breaks. Even the Wall Street Journal had an article about that today. On Petra's website I found an article with many of the commercials online.

Today was a regular working day of course, after a busy weekend. The things I did Saturday and Sunday paid off and I also learned quite a lot about our software in the previous days.

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dailylife

Super Bowl

Sun, 02/06/2005 - 6:37pm

It's been quite a busy weekend. There was something I wanted to finish at work, which took me quite some time yesterday and a few hours today as well.

I like it that Sasha came with me to the office, she was also working and it was much nicer to be together. Tonight we treated ourselves to a very nice meal; we had dinner at Cafe Asia. As an appetizer we had the best dumplings I have ever eaten since our trip to China -- very fresh and with a fabulous soy sauce. I've had lunch there a few times, and the food has always been great.

Tonight is also the evening of the Super Bowl, a big American football match. Most bars have the match on TV screens, but it wasn't as busy as I expected; it was nothing compared to the soccer championships in the Netherlands.

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chess

Goodbye, Chess

Thu, 02/03/2005 - 10:39pm

Leaving Chess.It's about three months ago now that I left my previous company, Chess-iT in Haarlem, the Netherlands. I've had a very nice time there, so it was sad to say goodbye, even though a great adventure was awaiting me.

On one of my last days at Chess there was a small meeting to say goodbye to me and Serge, a colleague who was also leaving Chess per November 1st. We both received nice presents, and there were speeches with kind words.

Chess gave me a great book by Martin Kers with beautiful photographs of Haarlem. I also got a set with coffee, chocolate and a small coffee machine. I brought both the book and the coffee machine to the U.S.

Chess recently put a job advertisement on Monsterboard.nl; they are looking for a software engineer. If you're in that business, know J2EE and live around Haarlem, be sure to check it out.

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dutchusa

Douwe Egberts at Burger King

Wed, 02/02/2005 - 9:50pm

Douwe Egberts at Burger King.Douwe Egberts coffee at Burger King, the third-largest hamburger chain in the United States.

Douwe Egberts is an old Dutch brand of coffee producers, that was bought by Sara Lee a couple of years ago.

Last April we visited the Douwe Egberts museum with my grandmother.

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dailylife

Snowman gone...

Wed, 02/02/2005 - 8:20am

Snowman gone.It hasn't been snowing anymore the last few days, and today will actually be a sunny day.

The snowman that was all of a sudden there, in front of our apartment building last Sunday is disappearing.

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dailylife

Bulgarian dinner

Tue, 02/01/2005 - 10:24pm

Bulgarian dinnerSunday evening we visited Bella, who was hosting a Bulgarian dinner party.

Bella lives in an apartment near Pentagon City, about 15 minutes by car from our place.

It was nice to meet Bella's friends and it was a very cosy evening. The food was great: there was banichka, two (excellent) types of surmi and shopska salad with real Bulgarian imported feta cheese. Saturday evening we prepared our first mlechna in the U.S. and everybody liked it. There were home-made brownies for desert.

After dinner we stayed for real Bulgarian tea. We really enjoyed closing the weekend like this.

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dailylife

It's snowing

Sun, 01/30/2005 - 4:04pm

Snowman in front of our apartment building.Yesterday evening we went to do some shopping, and when we opened the door we were surprised by snow.

It's a very gentle snow -- not so strong as a last week but it covered the world in a nice white layer.

It's been a very productive weekend for both of us. Yesterday I arranged a lot things that I wanted to do for quite some time, such as getting my photo ID, getting a haircut and wrapping up some paperwork. I've also set up a new backup system for my website. All the same it's a very relaxing weekend; a great combination.

This afternoon I went to the office to arrange some things for about two hours. When I left I took some pictures of the "snow world" around our apartment building (see below).

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washington

Virginia Photo ID

Sun, 01/30/2005 - 12:35pm

Virginia Photo IDYesterday I went to get a Virginia photo ID. A photo ID is a state-issued pass, the size of a credit card, that contains your picture and personal data.

Even though it's not mandatory to carry an ID, unlike in Holland, it is still very useful to have a form of ID with you.
There are quite some times that you have to show your ID, such as when buying alcohol. Until now I was always carrying my passport, because that's the only official type of identification I have. But carrying a passport is a bit scary -- if I'd loose it, there would be a lot of paperwork to replace the passport and my US visa.

Most Americans use their driving license for identification in daily life. Since I don't drive a car, I got this "Photo ID". Just like a driving license, it's issued by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, or DMV, that deals with driving and car registrations.

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vu

Goodbye, Vrije Universiteit

Sat, 01/29/2005 - 10:00pm

Recently I discovered that my university computer account no longer works. I graduated a long time ago, but my e-mail account has never been disabled. I didn't really use it anymore, but I regularly read the newsgroups and university news online. Last week I tried to login, and received "Access denied", and my old homepage has also been deleted.

I guess the Vrije Universiteit and I are now completely separated.

The only thing I was still using a VU server for was to create a daily backup of my website. Now I'll have to (quickly) find an alternative for that; I'm now back to my old habit of manually downloading backups on my own desktop. I must say having the script-based automatic backups to the VU felt a lot more secure.

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