There are some programs which I really like. When I started university, we had on the university mainframe access to something called ArpaNet, some worldwide network between universities, and which would later evolve into the Internet. The university mainframe had an interesting FTP cache of different programs, and one of these was Moria. I just had discovered Tolkien, and quickly I rolled into the world of Dungeons & Dragons, and its kin. Moria was one of the roguelike games, a world where the goal was to plunge into the deep caverns of Khazad-Dhum, and fight the Balrog. Moria had different alternatives, the most common were NetHack, Omega and of course Zangband. I must have wasted thousand hours playing Moria.

Another program was Fractint. In 1988, I received my first computer, an 8 MHz XT machine. It came with a diskette with QW-Basic, and some months later I had written my first fractal generator. It took one minute in high zoom mode to draw a pixel, and delivered head-ache causing green-and-black pictures. Fractint was a freeware program that had the revolutionary idea of using integers to compute the fractals, instead of floating point numbers, which made it blazingly fast. Fractint is called Xaos nowadays.

The program which many people play with first when using a Linux machine, must be XScreenSaver. It has tens of different modes, which are added on a regular base, which produce each a screensaver image with many different tuning parameters, good for hours of fun. Xscreensaver now has 233 modes, and every time an apt-get dist-upgrade brings a new version on my PC, the first thing I do, is check out the new modes. I just discovered Timetunnel, which draws an animation similar to the opening and closing effects on the Dr. Who television show. Very hypnotizing indeed.

Some days ago, I noticed that my computer booted a bit slower than usual. It kept hanging a few seconds in the POST on the "Secondary Master... None" message. I didn't pay much notice to it, because after my last apt-get dist-upgrade, I had my own share of problems. But yesterday when I tried to open the CD-writer lid, it refused. A quick look inside the computer didn't reveal any loose contacts, so I guess the CD-writer is dead. Damn.

Normally, I would just grab another CD reader or writer, and yank in back into my PC, but the fact that my computer is already 5 years old, and that I was planning anyway to buy a new one next year, makes me wait. I have a good idea what type I want for a new computer, so it's time to explore what's out there.

HappyMagpie.com has an impressive range of Star Wars origami, if you want to go for the coolness of a droideka on your desk.

Mr Murphy payed us a visit yesterday; while driving into a sharp road turn, we encountered an old man who was planning to turn his car in the middle of the sharp turn. As his car was positioned vertically over the two road lanes, an accident was inavoidable...
I got away with a few bruises, but Martine had quite some pain in the lower back. We went to see the doctor right away, and she got some prescriptions for painkillers. The car is taken away to the garage, and tomorrow we'll know if it's total loss or not.

We hebben de eerste ontmoeting met de pastoor achter de rug. Niet veel meer dan een opstellen van een huwelijkscontract, en het komt er dus nu op aan om de teksten te kiezen voor de misviering. Hiervoor hebben we al voorbeelden van bevriende koppels, maar een interessante link hieromtrent is Huwelijksvoorbereiding.be, met veel nuttige voorbeeldteksten.

Met een ceremoniewagen of koets vlak voor de kerk parkeren is er helaas niet bij in het Leuvense Begijnhof, maar gelukkig is de parking van de Faculty Club dichtbij. En oh ja, rijst gooien voor de kerk is blijkbaar ook uit den boze...