Rabbit’s hole

… and a history lesson

Continuing my history idea, let me really present myself - I neglected to do it before and now I feel kind of silly (well, at least there were no comments genre “who are you, dude ?”).

I was born in Alexandria, Romania (the only town where all the angles between streets are 90 degrees). I lived for 18 years there, trying to attend school the appropiate amount while following any other interests captured my attention at the moment.

One of these things was the computer, which led me to the computer science department of the “Politehnica” University (that’s college for our american readers). I spent the next few years learning about many things (including people, situations, humanity and such - maybe the most important part of learning) and left for “Ecole Polytechnique”, Palaiseau, France in my third year - 2003.

These last three years I’ve spent in France, finishing my studies in Romania and taking a masters degree in computer science, after which I got a job at Murex as a programmer. From here on, we’ll see !
I won’t bother you with more details for the moment, and to make up for the boring subject here’s one of the funniest web pages I have read : things my girlfriend and i have argued about

A lesson in history …

I was reading today Alex’s ancient blog (from almost 3 years ago) and besides the laughs and the memories it stirred, I realised how many things we forget. Words written in the moment are a lot more involving than a book, sometimes nearer to a photograph album - lost images frozen in time. I wonder what would another civilisation think if they only had access to our blogs - millions upon millions shards of opinions, views and thoughts …
Anyway, here’s the site (sorry, only native romanian speakers will benefit ) - alexbrie.3x.ro .

Sleeping in airports

I found an interesting site today, www.sleepinginairports.net, a sort of airport review place. Stories ranging from normal to weird and amusing reminded me of one of my own.
Well, my story could have been on the positive side if not for a few idiot security guards.

Everything started when my girlfriend had to take an early flight (about 7.30 in the morning, if I remember correctly). Because it would have taken 2 hours with the RER (the Paris’ open air metro), she decided to stay at the airport and I didn’t want to let her stay alone.

At 11 PM almost everything was closing up and people were pretty much leaving. We stayed in the open part of a self-service joint to play some Monopoly and around 2 am decided to try to sleep.

The airport had enough travelers, it wasn’t very cold and the bathrooms were open, so we didn’t have other problems that the stupid chairs : these seemed especially made not to let people sit confortably. After half an hour of listening to the cleaning crew go around us we left for a restaurant in the boarding area. This one seemed almost perfect - long sofas, comfortable, clean and without much noise. We weren’t the only ones, an older couple arranged themselves in a corner and wished us goodnight.

Everybody was almost asleep when a patrol arrived - they woke us up and suggested we move outside of the boarding area. Of course, a little sleepy, I protested and tried to explain that we weren’t annoying anyone. We also assured them the moment the bar’s personel were to arrive, we’ll be more than happy to quit (it wasn’t a closed space but let’s assume the bar had rented the area). This is the point it really got weird - the first guy started saying this isn’t something he cared to discuss indicating me I should take our stuff immediately and quit, while one of his collegues began to excite his dog in my direction.

I found myself trying to explain the first guy that it was only for a few hours (at this point it was already 4 am) while the dog went wild at my side and his “master” continuously letting it get a little close. Knowing a few things about trained dogs I realised he was signaling the animal to act out as to scare me - so I asked him directly what would happen to him if the dog were to bite me.

But, to cut the story short, I couldn’t reason with the two idiots while my girlfriend started to worry about the barking dog - at this point I couldn’t even hear myself speak - so we left the area, followed by the other couple.

The moral ? No matter how great the airport would be, the people working there may require some brushing up on the people skills. I still am sorry for not going to the airport’s administration and filing a complaint, as the older couple suggested.

Compare this with Singapore : “… they have a sauna with swimming pool and massage, but they just had closed. Missed the movie theater mentioned here, but found FREE (only at night so) Internet and TV monitors in the Intl Lounge. Just around the corner from the Internet terminal was a darkened and relatively quiet and deserted “SLEEPING AREA” marked as such! …”

Dreamhost coupon / bon / code

My friend Alex gave me a referral code for joining Dreamhost - and because I think it is only natural for me to do the same

HERE is your 97$ OFF DREAMHOST CODE : BYSERGIU .

Everything you have to do is paste this code when you sign up for the 1 year plan (I think it is the best option for a beginner) and you’ll pay 97 dollars less (it is something like 23 dollars for one year, so no reason to postpone). And just so you know what a nice guy I am : I don’t get any money - it’s all for you

Good luck !

Blogosphere

Or how you can bury yourself in information

I haven’t been too active on this blog (or this site, as a matter of fact). Many ideas, but for the moment I lack the drive to materialise them - plus the small amount of free time that I have I waste it : reading blogs, news, a lot of sites, a little playing, unfortunetly little programming, and generally binding my time (for example, last night I was awake until 3 AM reading a very funny romanian site nasparau).

The impressive flow of information means that when I finally finished reading everything I want to read / see / comment upon other things appear (like going to work, for example ) so generally I still haven’t everything I want.
So, this is my new year resolution (yeah, i’m doing it now, so what ) : no more lazyness and more time for my projects !

Windows & comp

Of course, it was that time of the year - when your computer begins to rebel and the Windows reinstall season is upon us. After a grueling 16 hours marathon (enough time to reinstall the SO twice) I’m finally back. A few pointers ?

- always keep a Linux Live CD at hand - sometimes it may save your computer

(proof ? - my mbr got wacked, so I always got a black screen and then nothing; after the first install, the system wouldn’t recognize or power up the USB ports, so I amost began looking for a new computer - Linux to the rescue! )

- think about installing a firewall and the latest service pack you have downloaded before beginning the install (got you there the first time )

- after everything works, back it up and install the recovery console so the next time it would be easier

Good luck !

… and we’re here !

Hi everybody,

This my first post on this new and shiny blog, so welcome here ! To present myself, I’m Sergiu and I’ll be your host for the moments you chose to visit my site.

For the moment I’m still learning about the web and all the technology that comes with it, so any comments and suggestions will be carefully read (and implemented, time permitting).

I’ll be using a few languages (english and romanian mostly and maybe sometimes french) depending on the mood or whatever the experience better relates with, but I’ll try to keep the “salad” as nice as possible.
So, with these words I close my “Hello World!” post and wish you all a “Happy birthday !” in return