As I mentioned in an earlier post, about 2 years ago: Café Vingerhoeds in Oirschot, the Netherlands has amazing tomato soup. I also said i'd go back there sometime in the future. As it happens, I was in the area today, so uh..
Yum!
Last night I attended a concert of the Finnish metal band Nightwish at the ISS Dome in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The performance and pyro show were awesome, the fireworks, sound and venue itself were huge, but unfortunately so was the price of the drinks: € 5,- for a glass of cola
It was totally worth it, though. Awesome concert!
Datacenters are always nice: nothing but servers, switches, cables and a lot of fan noise which is, surprisingly, quite soothing. The only downside is that I'm forced to stand in the "hot alley".
The way it works is this: A datacenter is basically just a huge hall with cages that hold the servers. Back in the old days they also had massive air conditioners to cool that entire hall. Then someone got smart and figured out that they didn't have to cool the entire hall, but just a small section by using cold- and hot alleys.
The way that cold- and hot alleys work is pretty simple: Servers keep them self cool by sucking in air from the front of the server, and blowing it through the inside to the rear. So if you make sure that the front of the server is in some kind of tunnel, then you only have to cool that tunnel. The servers will suck in the cool air, and blow it out the back. The front of the cage holding the servers, is in the tunnel, and the back is out in the open. This saves a lot of energy, due to the smaller air conditioners.
But, yeah... when you have to stand in the "hot alley" for a longer period, it's not so great. It's at least 35° Celsius, and the air humidity is very low. Quite the sauna indeed, except there's no steam and naked people here (I hope )
... Lots of it! I don't mind though, I like snow; it's kind of soothing and gives great scenery that makes me enjoy my little daily hike even more.
The only thing that I hate about snow, is other road-users. It's common sense that with snow you should drive safely by adjust your speed, increase the distance between the cars, etc. Some people, however... ye gods.
Seriously, if you're either afraid to drive with snow, or you see the snowy roads as a playground; Do us all a favor and stay off the goddamn road, will ya?
Friday the 13th; A perfect day to go see ReVamp and Epica, two of the best Dutch gothic metal bands, live in concert!
The video has got a fair bit of noise and some focus issues, but still... I'm very impressed with how well my little Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W350 pocket camera performed in these low light conditions.
While driving home from a little hike out in the woods, I came across this road sign.
I guess someone didn't agree with the traffic rules
I didn't feel like cooking today, so I decided to try something new...
The Germany brand Erasco sells canned "Ready to go" meals. One of them is this spaghetti with tomato sauce; Though I personally think that "Spaghetti in tomato soup" would be a more appropriate term
The flavor is good, it's Bolognese sauce without doubt... But it's just a bit thinner than I'm used to. I've also got a can of Erasco's "Ready to go" Chili con carne in my pantry... suddenly I am very curious about that one
It was 7:00 in the morning, and my alarm goes off; time to get up for work! As I lay in my bed, still somewhat dazed, I suddenly heard some ticking just outside my window. I peeked through my window shutters and was rather surprised to be staring right in the face of a young Jackdaw!
When I came back from the shower about 20 minutes later, it was still there! I opened the shutters and said to the bird "So, what do you want ?". All I got back was a little "caw"-like sound. The bird jumped onto the handle of my window and sat there watching me.
It was a rather awkward, but awesome way to start my day.
During one of my Sunday hikes, I ran across a caterpillar that was rather large and hairy. A bit of investigation told me that it was a caterpillar for a gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar).
It was about 6cm long.. I'm sure glad that it didn't drop in my neck; brrrr!
On a thin strip of land that divides the Maas and Waal rivers, there is a small nature reserve called "de Hogewaard". It's a couple of ponds with swans and geese and some whitebred shorthorn cattle roams the grassy bit.
It's a nice and calm place and I like going there. There's a road nearby, but you don't hear it; and the boats in the Maas river don't make much sound either. But above all, it's not a mainstream area, so you really have some space for yourself. It's a real good place for relaxation and (of course) enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate.