Nuclear Bunker Houses World's Toughest Server Farm

\m/

Nuclear Bunker Houses World's Toughest Server Farm

via Slashdot: Hardware by samzenpus on 11/3/10

Lanxon writes "Deep inside the Swiss Alps, a former nuclear bunker is now the ultimate hiding place for the world's most sensitive secrets — the Swiss Fort Knox. In a lengthy feature, Wired gains access to the server farm designed to survive a full-scale military attack. From the article: 'As we punch our codes at the checkpoint, the yellow door opens into what looks like a city of server towers, their green LEDs flickering as a technician in a white jumpsuit runs diagnostic checks. [Later], we are in a dimly lit tunnel next to what looks like a metal oven door carved into the side of the rock. "These are expansion rooms in case you have an atomic explosion outside," Christoph Oschwald, a retired Swiss paratrooper turned contractor, says. The thinking behind the rooms, he explains, is that if there were a nuclear explosion, the rush of high-pressure air would fill them through vents in the opposite side. Then, the vents would snap shut, trapping the air before it had a chance of damaging the fortress. "There is a lot of protection you can't see," he says. We stroll past an intricate network of insulated pipelines that carry water up from the underground glacial lake to the cooling system.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Recommended Article By diluted: Why newspapers make you stupid

Memorable quote from this article: Thomas Jefferson said: "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." ;)

Why newspapers make you stupid

Twitterizing the blog

Hi!

Blogs are traditionally used to express opinions and thoughts in lengthy documents enriched with pictures and other multimedia elements.

I really respect and admire this practice; that's why I started this blog a couple of years ago. Though, due to my lack of commitment to this noble cause and because of the more than occasional boredom fits, I'm not usually able to compose the up-to-my-perceived-blog-standard documents, rich analyses of the contemporary events (e.g. the upcoming municipal elections) and, most importantly, geeky articles commenting on technological advancements, scientific breakthrough or generic blabber.

So, I have decided to use the blog as a conveyor of short messages, media and links.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

24 hour film "The Clock"

This is a very interesting idea actually. The effort to collect all the pieces and edit all of them into such an amalgamation seems huge to my untrained eyes :P

Barcelona photos

Hi!

Remember that in a previous post I said that I will upload some photos from Barcelona? Well, I "uploaded" them, so here they are :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Apache bandwidth limiting

Hi!

How do you do people?

I am fine! Today I discovered that the web server at my home can consume a lot of my precious bandwidth (probably someone is trying to download some videos I have there :P).

So, since I don't want to prohibit anyone from downloading things from my site, I found this site, which describes the bandwidth limiting module of the apache web server.

This module seems to work, but it remains to see if it is capable to increase the perceived bandwidth. (Let me confide.. perceived bandwidth=the bandwidth that keeps me [and my network's users] satisfied, the bandwidth that gives me all I need)

So, with dust in throat I crave only knowledge :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

apografi.gov.gr

This post is related with the devastating failure of the EU member state of Greece to produce a decent web service.

My mother is a civil servant (a teacher in the public high school to be exact).
The government has required all the civil servants to participate in a census of some kind (in order to find out who is getting paid by it, I suppose).
This can only be done through the web service at the site http://apografi.gov.gr.

But people are not able to access the web service whenever they want until the deadline (contrary to the popular belief that this is a fundamental requirement for every web service). They must do it on a certain range of days, which is defined by their taxpayer identification number (ΑΦΜ, a popular number in Greece, unique for every citizen) [e.g. the 25th of July is reserved for those whose ΑΦΜ ends in 5].

OK, this is shortcoming #1.

Shortcoming #2 is much more important, since #1 can be interpreted by the fact that the government wanted to avoid heavy loads on the day that the deadline expires.
The failure #2:
Let's assume now that Tes is a civil servant with an ΑΦΜ that ends in 2 and she must enter the web service between the 1st and the 15th of July (the numbers, dates and names are random, any resemblance to an actual person is purely coincidental :P). So, being a diligent and hard working lady, she decides to go to the site in the 4th of July (the date is, again, random). She tries to do her chore, but to no avail, as the server doesn't function well (the lists of the prefectures won't load, her address won't be automatically located, the lists of possible public sector assignments won't load). She tries the next days and still isn't able to access the service.

That's all.
Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Barcelona

Hola from Barcelona, Spain! :P

How y'all doing?

I'm vacating in Barcelona for about a week now and it is really cool. The best feature of the city is the proximity of the beach (Barceloneta) to the center of the city.

Photos will follow when I'll get back to Greece.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Zeitgeist Addendum

Hi!

Today I watched zeitgeist addendum for a second time in order to refresh some parts about the monetary system, the IMF and the US of A and correlate that with the EU and the the destruction, demise and total 3rdWorldation of Greece.

I don't agree with every argument in the movie; which by the way is a conglomeration of pretty much reasonable assumptions and obvious observations mingled with a hint of conspiracy theories.

As a matter of fact, I always get really frustrated hearing all the stuff that these Venus Project people are saying; do they forget that humans are animals? That we are genetically designed to compete each other in order to determine the the alpha male, as most of the primates do? (and, as a matter of fact, all the members of the hominidae [orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and humans]) (sorry girls, but -equality apart- have you ever seen a female gorilla or female chimpanzee or another female hominidae be the leader in their respective society?)

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Qik - view from "analipseos" chapel by Elias Polytarchos

Brain Multitasking

Lately, while I was solving a rather difficult problem on IPv6, I read this report about multitasking (on humans, not the iPhone).

(Picture found at http://www.textually.org)

Facts

The article more or less described that human brain is capable of handling two tasks simultaneously, but no more than that (by the way, I think that these tasks resemble processes and not threads, as they don't seem to share a common address space [e.g. texting while driving or watching TV while cooking], but I digress). In order to support more than two tasks humans employ task switching, much like the way single processor (pre-Opteron) computers (and, recently, the iPhone) handle multitasking, but they pretty much suck at it when the tasks become increasingly complex [1] (much like my mobile phone, which I otherwise adore).

Each of these two tasks gets handled by one of the hemispheres of the brain.

Speculations

My thoughts on the brain multitasking are the following:

1. I assume that our brain is something like a dual core processor. Based on my personal observations though [reference is missing here], I think that one of the hemispheres is dominant and handles the complex tasks, while the other is secondary and handles more simple tasks and/or provides aid for the more complex tasks.
2. I also think that the secondary hemisphere is the sub-conscience
• When you are consumed in a heavy-mental (lol) task and someone asks you something: Your secondary hemisphere will probably successfully answer, but your answer was not actually your answer; it's the answer of your sub-conscious brain.
  
• Having conversations while sleeping. This is your secondary hemisphere speaking, who (or which? how much do you value your alter-ego?) is not sleeping at that time.
• The popular "sleep on this". The primary hemisphere sleeps while the secondary can process the pressing issues, free of worries and distractions.
3. One form of multiple personality could be the rebellion of the secondary hemisphere. The sub-conscience does not want to be hidden any more and, thus, once in a while, it gets unleashed from the tethers of the conscious brain (\m/).
4. Ambidexterity is when both the hemispheres are equal and work in harmony towards the completion of every task at "hand".

Multitasking mentioned in all the sections above involves cognitive brain functions. I suppose that lower level functions (such are breathing or heart beating, etc.) are handled by the swarm of living organisms (i.e. the random cells) whose conglomeration forms our bodies via the complex network of nerve fibres that interconnects them using DMA-like mechanisms where needed. This is true old-fashioned fail-safe interrupt-based low-level hardware multitasking (\m/).

Executive Summary-Conclusion

I know that the executive summary is usually at the top of the publication, but this format has recently become very popular in Greece.
In this paper, I have presented my thoughts on the multitasking capabilities of the brain.

License: GPLv3

That's all :)

References

(links to websites have been deliberately omitted, since they are mentioned using HTML)
[1] Margaret Weigel, Katie Heikkinen, "Developing Minds with Digital Media: Habits of Mind in the YouTube Era", Developing Minds with Digital Media Project, Harvard, November 2007

GPL Recipe

Hi!

How y'all doing?

After huge public demand, I decided to open source the recipe that can be obtained at my previous post (http://dilulog.blogspot.com/2010/02/todays-special-dish.html).

So, now it is licensed under GPL version 3. A copy of the license can be found here.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Qik - office by Elias Polytarchos

This is a video that I shared through the Qik using my mobile phone.

Eric Grohe & Greece

Hi!

How y'all doing?

Two days ago I received an email from a friend that contained a PowerPoint presentation about an artist Eric Grohe Miller, who specializes in murals. I was fascinated by Mr. Grohe's artworks, so I googled him using (obviously) his name (Eric Grohe Miller) as the search keyword.

Interestingly, the majority of the results originated from Greek sites (or blog posts from Greeks or sites that are one way or another affiliated with Greece). I was really intrigued by this fact, so I clicked on this link, which, by the way, was the first result. In this page there is a presentation of the mural that has been designed by Eric Grohe for the Miller brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Thus, the whole Greek cyberspace (sic) is literally filled with false information about Eric Grohe. Some exceptions exist, but they are just a handful.

So, reasonably, I started contemplating on various issues:

First of all, the reason why people tend to circulate unverified information. The effect of people acting merely as repeaters of information is tightly connected with rumours.I am using the more general term "people", instead of Greeks, as, I suspect, judging from the rumours concerning the recent H1N1 "outburst" (this is the first example that popped into my head), that this is a global attribute of humans and it is not an indigenous characteristic of Greeks.
The reasons for rumour spreading could be:

• Trust to the fellow human being (who is spreading the rumour)
• Gullibility (from the recipient of the rumour)
• Boredom to verify whether the rumours are just rumours or not
• The inherent need of people to impress others
  

Some solutions: Trust Nobody (cliche) and Verify Everything

Another thought had to do with the addition of the "Miller". Why do people from Greece think Miller is his last name? Some possible explanations:

1. The site is named "Eric Grohe Murals and Design". Someone with insufficient English knowledge and/or poor eyesight could have misinterpreted the Mural as Miller.
2. One of the Grohe's murals being displayed in the site has been designed for the Miller brewery, so a Google search after a conversation for a misheard "Eric Grohe Miller" would have produced acceptable results for a person that doesn't have the time and/or the curiosity to search more.

After this initial mistake, the fallacy propagated to all the other Greeks via chain mailing. So, I began to wonder how on earth didn't the same error appear on foreign articles.

• Did the foreign recipients detect the error and didn't pass the mail on?
• Shame on us (the Greeks)

• No foreigner ever received a mail about Eric Grohe Miller?
• The Greek cyber-ghetto :P

• Do we have to blame the Spanish about it? (I think the original presentation that contains the mistake is spanish and there is a significant number [not significant enough though] of spanish sites after the 4th page of the search)

Either way, the fact that Eric Grohe is known as Eric Grohe Miller in Greece is caused by the recession. :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Today's Special Dish

Hi!

How y'all doing?

Recently I learnt how to cook the best meal ever and now I'm going to share it with the world!

The whole process takes less than 30'! :D

In order to prepare it you need the following ingredients:

• Meat:
• Two pieces of pork tenderloin (assuming each piece is about 0.4kg)
• Spices:
• Freshly ground pepper
• Oregano
• Saffron
• Vegetables:
• 1 green pepper
• 1 chili pepper
• 1 onion
• 1 tomato
• 1 potato (optional)
  
• Appliances:
• A standard stove (electric, gas, coal or whatever makes you happy)
• A Kuhn Rikon Hotpan
  

The cooking process consists of:

1. Prepare the meat (clean it), chop the vegetables and prepare the spices
2. Heat the Hotpan over medium-high flame until the pan is so hot that causes drips of water to evaporate instantaneously
3. Add the tenderloin and let it sear it from the one side until it can be easily be removed using a fork (1-2')
4. Turn it to the other side, add the spices and let that side sear using the same method described above
5. Turn the piece over again and add spices also on that side
6. Turn the stove off
7. Add all the other ingredients
8. Close the Hotpan and let it cook for 20'

Ready! :D

Serve with San Michali Cheese (PDO) (google translate link)

Improvements (still untested):

• Pour 2-4 tablespoons of white wine after sautéing the meat

Well, bon appétit :)
elias a.k.a. diluted

New pc

Hi!

Greetings people!

I upgraded my PC [supercharger]! It's been two-three weeks since I actually upgraded it, but now I got the chance to write about it.

I bought the following things:

• A Gigabyte X58A-UD7 (here's a more detailed description)
• A Core i7-920 (2.66GHz, LGA 1366)
• An OCZ Gold Low-Voltage 6GB DDR3-1600 RAM (PC3-12800) Kit
• An Intel Postville X25-V 40GB SSD
• A Nexus 1000Watt Power Supply
  

So, by keeping the following components from my old computer, I assembled the new supercharger:

• NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT (1GB DDR3) [I can't remember the brand though]
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (160GB SATA) [tell me the reason why this is the best hard disk ever]
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (320GB SATA)
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (320GB IDE)
• Western Digital Caviar Blue (500GB SATA)
• Samsung SH-S183L DVD-RW (SATA)
• NEC (Sony) Optiarc DDU1675A DVD (IDE)
• Razer DeathAdder Mouse
• Logitech NewTouch Keyboard 200
• Samsung P2350 TFT (that's sort of new actually, I bought it a week before buying the other stuff, knowing that I will buy the rest soon ;))
• Creative Live! Camera
• CSR based Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR, class, 1 100m range)
• Cambridge Soundworks 4 point surround FPS1600
• Chieftec Dragon case (black) [this is the best looking case ever. Important: it's the old version, without the transparent left cover]
  

I installed Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) on two 20GB partitions of the SSD and I'm happy playing Left 4 Dead 2 :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

failing to install a phone (continued)

Hi!

How y'all doing?

In a previous post I talked about my failure to install a phone and a home network in a friend's home. A long time has passed since then and I've gone back to his house 2 additional times (as far as the phone and network installation is concerned).

To make the long story short, I've managed to install everything successfully.

The telephone was relatively easy (after the issue with the correct line was resolved), since a call center was not required (if anyone talks to any of the 5 phones and another one picks up another phone, he will just join the conversation).

The biggest challenge that had to be dealt with was the network, since the house didn't have a LAN infrastructure (can you believe it? A 3-storey house with a 100m^2 underground parking and a swimming pool built in 2008 without LAN!). What I decided to do was to install a modem router at the penthouse and then transfer the network to the other floors through the power line using Belkin HD powerline adapters. 4 adapters were needed:

• 1 in order to transfer the network from the penthouse to the rest of the house
• 1 in the 1st floor in order to be connected with a wireless router to provide wireless network-internet access to the three bedrooms located there
• 1 in the ground floor, again connected with a wireless router in order to cover the living room, the kitchen and a most of the pool and garden area
• 1 in the basement, which will be connected to the usual wireless router which will provide network access to the study of the ground floor, as well as the two bedrooms and the living room of the basement

So, we (me and my friend) thought to purchase two HD powerline kits, which contain a pair of adapters each and pair all the adapters together. Though, due to a limitation of the kits (or lack of proper explanation in the manual), the 4 adapters were unable to be synchronized (couldn't understand what was wrong; possibly unable to enter search mode?). When despair and fatigue had evaporated our hope that this could ever work, I thought one last thing that we could do: To return the one of the two kits and buy a single adapter instead (whose manual explicitly referred to pairing with other adapters). I wasn't very optimistic that this idea will bear fruits (and if it did, I though they would be rotten), but this scheme actually produced excellent results and the resulting network was exceptionally stable and fast (the penthouse to the basement link is the slower with 4mbps).

I will end this post here, but I will edit it accordingly with total cost of the infrastructure and further details about the project!

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

PC malfunction

Hi.

Today is a bad day. A day full of sorrow and remorse. My thoughts are (and yours should be) with my beautiful motherboard (or, unlikely, its RAM) that ain't continue the boot process beyond the detection of the graphics' card and the BIOS manufacturer printout. It stops right before the RAM chip detection. I tried to start the PC with only one of the chips (and no drives attached), to no avail, as neither of them seems to respond (thing that increases the possibility of a motherboard malfunction).

The motherboard is the Chaintech Zenith VNF4 Ultra.

Anyone with similar experience?

Going back to resume tryin' and cryin' :p

elias a.k.a. diluted

Self analysis

Hi!

How y'all doing?

I'm pretty good too, thanks for asking.

Today, kids, we're gonna talk about self analysis; not self disclosure, an idea that just popped into my head :p

A colleague at work is very fond of analysis and we've thoroughly discoursed about its merits and advantages. In this post, I will try to establish the notion of self analysis, as that concept has been perceived by me.

In order for one to analyze itself, one should be sufficiently qualified for practising clinical psychotherapy, or even vaguely familiar (that's me) with the concepts of psychology and psychotherapy. One should have read his share of Yalom and Lacan.

After the above requirement has been met, the therapist-patient hybrid should successfully detach the 2 aspects of itself, in order to establish a fictional dialog session. The therapist self should be agnostic of the patient self in order for the maximum objectivity to be achieved.

Enough with my incomprehensible mumbo jumbo.

Ta ta, 
elias a.k.a. diluted

2012

Hi!

Today was the big day that I finally went to see the great blockbuster 2012.

Now, I will write some thoughts. It was an action movie. In an action movie you expect to entertain yourself by watching the awesome (and, may I add, highly unlikely) adventures of some pretty damn lucky people from the United States of America. That's why they are cool :P

The movie sucked in every other aspect (scenario, scientific basis, acting), but all these parameters are sufficiently covered-hidden by a lot of action :P (imagine the dressing that hides the real taste of the food)

By the way, in order to compile vlc 0.9.0 in debian lenny (in order to use it with Gmote), one should first install the packages below and then configure with "./configure --disable-mad --disable-a52 --disable-glx --prefix=/usr", followed by the standard "make" and "sudo make install"
Packages: libhal-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libglib2-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libpostproc-dev libfribidi-dev libqt4-dev libgcrypt-dev libdvbpsi5-dev

That's all boys and girls :)

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

failing to install a phone

Hi!

How do you do? I could be better actually :p Today, one of my best friends called me for help with his new phone connection in his new house. I consider that I have a certain aptitude towards electronics, so I gladly accepted his invitation.

I expected the usual stuff that I deal with in similar situations.. That is: A functional connection to the telephone network at the outdoor station where the line to the house should be connected. In the house, things should be simpler, with a small call center to manage the phones and a router, coupled with some switches and access points to manage the network.

But not at all.. Indeed there was a (working) connection with the telephone network at the outdoor unit, but there were, like, a million telephone wires in the indoor unit without even a remote indication that would denote which of these is connected to the outer world. After countless combinations, we failed to locate the correct line, so we decided to call a technician (as I, the worthless bloke, failed miserably). If the technician does his job well and the telephones start working, I'll go and fix the net (and also fail at that task too :p)

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

HTC Hero!

Hi!

How y'all doing?

I'm ok :P Have I got news for you! I'm the proud owner of an HTC Hero (pictured below)!

The Hero has some advantages and disadvantages.
It's merits are endless and contain, among others (all the features below are out-of-the-box features; using the Android Market or searching in the web, every imaginable feature can be added):

• Tethering
• Flash
• Gmail, Google Talk, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr integration
• Google Maps (street view enabled)

On the other hand, there are some drawbacks:

• Lack of out-of-the-box blogger integration (loved that feature in my Sony Ericsson K610i)
• Lack of data connections for the Bluetooth (e.g. the OBEX profile)
• The Bluetooth sometimes does not connect with my car's hands free
• The USB mounting function does not always function with my car's USB port

I hope that most of the drawbacks above will be resolved with the upcoming Android 2 :P
I can live without tight blogger integration, although such a feature would be awesome (imagine taking a photo of a place and geotagging-uploading-blogging with one keypress). I've found, though, an application for on-the-fly blogging, but it's not as cool as my k610's tight integration ;)

Your opinions for the hero or any other android phone (especially interested in the HTC Tattoo and the Motorola DROID-MILESTONE)?

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Upgrading Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM

Have found this article in lifehacker.com. Very cool. Awesome. Just rip your original Windows 7 dvd, make a slight modification and here you are! :D

@ the kavourotripes beach

Hi!

How y'all doing?

After three days in the 1st peninsula of halkidiki (kasandra), me and my friends decided to visit the 2nd one, sithonia. There, we went to a beautiful little beach, kavourotripes. It is one of the greatest beaches I've been to.

That's all for today! Ta ta,
--
elias a.k.a. diluted

Let the vacations begin

Hi!

How do you do?

Today I will start my vacations, which will last till the end of August.

For starters, I will go at the Polihrono village at the peninsula of Kasandra in Halkidiki for 5 days (from 20090809 to 20090814), along my good friends Stathis and Tasos . We have booked a room at the hotel Odiseas. It is worthy to note that the hotel has free wifi access to the net. Awesome :D

After that, Irene and I will travel to Hania for 8 days (20090816 to 20090824). We will stay in Epimenidis hotel in Agia Marina.

I'll try to post some photos from the hotels.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

mips qemu

Hi!

I created a mips virtual machine using these instructions. What I exactly did was:

• Since I've got a debian, I didn't compile the qemu, but I just "sudo apt-get install"ed it
• Created a hard disk using "qemu-img create -f qcow hda.img 10G"
  
• Then I downloaded the images initrd.gz and vmlinux-2.6.26-2-4kc-malta from http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/dists/lenny/main/installer-mips/current/images/malta/netboot
• After that, I ran "qemu-system-mips -M malta -kernel vmlinux-2.6.26-2-4kc-malta -initrd initrd.gz -hda hda.img -append "root=/dev/ram console=ttyS0" -nographic", in order to install debian
• Then, after the installation was completed, I booted into the system using "qemu-system-mips -M malta -kernel vmlinux-2.6.26-2-4kc-malta -hda hda.img -append "root=/dev/hda1 console=ttyS0" -nographic -localtime", installed a few additional packages (e.g. "apt-get install gcc g++ bison gettext")
• The machine can access the network, but only through TCP, Thus, SMB and TCP-NFS remote mounts are only available.
• The instructions provide a way for full network access, but I don't need it.

It's awesome. :D

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Hi!

How y'all doin'? I am at the beach of Agios Dimitrios near Koropi.
It's not the first time I come here, but today it was special, as I
managed to skip the traffic, which was terrible, using my GPS unit.

Other news include that I booked a room for me and 2 friends of me at
the Kasandra peninsula of Halkidiki and specifically in the Polihrono
village. We'll be there from the 9th of August, till the 14th.

I think that's all :P
Ta ta,
--
elias a.k.a. diluted

Workplace 2009

Hi!

How y'all doin'?

I'm still striving through the hardships of life :P

Today kids, I'm gonna show you my workplace! I know that it's dreamy and extremely sexy; that's why I'm showing it off ;)

Let's start with the right side; in the picture below, you can see the following things there:

1. the XPU board (the thing with the heat sinks and the chips),
2. my old computer (p4@1.3GHz w/ 256MB RAM),
3. my eastpak (black of course; it contains many things, which will be covered in a different post [if requested]),
4. my bathing suit (it's summer, yay),
5. a laptop (it's not mine [my laptop -netbook- is in the eastpak]; it's a friend's where I will install some things; a pentium M@1.4GHz with 128MB RAM),
6. my coffee thermos (espresso roasted @ my home; don't so much like the [otherwise free] filter coffee the company offers; also note the subliminal message that the phallic shape conveys :P),
7. 3 CDs turned-to-coasters (keep the workplace clean),
8. my freddo glass (it's no Serse Freddo, but it's kinda cool :P) and last, but not least,
9. a half eaten apple (in order to complete this dead nature masterpiece with a cliche).

Now it's the turn of the center side, here the main work takes place. Let's see what that contains:

1. My telephone (for old school communication),
2. My new pc (Debian GNU Linux 5.0 Lenny, Core2Duo 7400, 1GB RAM),
3. Two mouses (one for my new pc and one for my windows pc),
4. My two monitors (the TFT is for the new pc; the windows pc handles both the screens),
5. The new pc keyboard (sleek and cool),
6. A brochure for accessories for my car (a rather cool brochure),
7. The keyboard of my windows pc and
8. A DSL modem that is being used as a switch (in order to connect the PCs and the boards to the net)

As for the left side, it is worthy to note:

1. The windows pc keyboard (must figure out how to use one keyboard with two pcs),
2. the windows pc itself (which is a P4 with 512MB RAM btw),
3. another board (named IDU; a rather cool board actually),
4. the power supply for the boards (and an accompanying fan) and, to conclude the tour of my workplace,
5. the MUSIC board.

Now you've seen where I work. Isn't it magical? It sort of reminds me the pictures of Google in Switzerland.

ie8

Hi!

I downloaded (through the windows update) Internet Explorer 8, with blog accelerator. I am now trying it out :P

Sorry for posting so scarcely. :(

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Google

Hi!

What's up children?

I have great news! My "site" (http://dilu.no-ip.info) now appears in the Google search engine! Search for "diluSouthpark" for example. Some of the results point to my site :P

That's all :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

New year's post

Hi!

How y'all doing? My best wishes for the new year to all! I'm just fine, but today my vacations end :(

While trying to get a good night's sleep, some thoughts entered my mind and urged me to change my fundamental beliefs on god and all that supernatural stuff.

I thought that it is very probable for extraterrestrial lifeforms to exist. But I can't prove it. So, if one inquires me concerning my beliefs about alien species, I would answer that it is very probable for them to exist, but I can't say that I believe that they exist. I don't know. And, quite frankly, I don't care.

I then extended this "I don't know, I don't care" theory of mine and realized that I don't believe in anything that can't be proven using science and/or hands on experience. (i.e. I deny any form of dogma) If I am somehow interested in the field of belief in question, then I'll consider the possibilities based on the scientifically proven facts about it and make my selection based on them. For example: If the "extraterrestrial life" topic is under discussion, I will state that my belief is that it is highly possible for aliens to exist. As a footnote I will also add that I don't care whether they do or not, but it is very fun to develop theories and talk about it.

The question of belief always brings to one's mind pictures of god and supernatural stuff and so on. So, here's what I think about god:

It is highly unlikely that god exists. I don't care if it does. (don't get me started about the genre now.. Do you think that the supposable entity that supposedly created the whole universe would have a penis or a vagina?)

So, until now I didn't believe in god. Now, after this revelation, my belief is:
I don't believe that god exists, but I don't have definitive knowledge in order to deny its existence. In other words, I define myself as an Agnostic Atheist (some authors call it Weak Atheism).

You can find some excellent articles on theism in general at the endnotes of the wikipedia link above.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Win7 experience

Hi!

How y'all doing?

I'm just fine, enjoying my Christmas vacations (from the 24th of December 2008 until the 7th of January 2009).

After reading that the beta 1 version of the Windows 7 was released (build 7000), I decided to try them on my PC and see for myself if they are hot or not.

So, I created a virtual machine using the Sun VirtualBox with 493MB of RAM and 7GB hard disk. For the Windows 7, I used the Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000 x86 DVD (REPACK-WinBeta). The installation worked out just fine, even with the petty system I own (Athlon64 3500+ 2.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 120+160+320GB hard disks, Windows Vista 64) and the even pettier setup for the windows 7 installation (493MB RAM, 7GB hard disk; specifications that sound just like a netbook).

The only problem that I faced is that windows 7 and the virtual network adapter of the virtual machine won't work together, as windows don't have a suitable driver. Besides that, the system worked perfectly and the feeling of the interface is ok.

Below you can find some screenshots:

Name meaning

Hi!

How y'all doin'? I'm good, I'm good!

Today I learnt the meaning of my name (elias, for those who don't know). I was curious about it, since a few days ago I was talking with my coworkers during lunchtime about origins of names. I knew that my name was Jewish, but I hadn't a clue what it meant in Hebrew.

So, I did the obvious sinister act.. I Googled it :P

My name's etymology according to Wikipedia is this: Elias' meaning is "My god is Yah" or "Yah is god" or "YHWH is my el" or whatever :P

It's rather lame to be named "Yah is god" I think. It just sounds to me like a 14 year old girl would say: "XYZ-huge-pop-star is GOD, he is sooooooooo hot" or something :P

Obviously El means God.

I prefer El. "Hi, my name is El.. Do you know what 'El' means?.. El means God!" :P

Well, till next time.. Ta ta :D
elias a.k.a. diluted

New shoes!

Hi!

How y'all doing?

My sneakers' post has been updated with my new Adidas Campus ST sneakers!

Take a look at it here.

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Going to Siros

Hi!

How y'all doing? I'm cool (one of the coolest kids on the block, as always :p)

After two weeks of productive developing, my 3rd week of vacations is beginning :p

I'm aboard the 'Nisos Mikonos' vessel, bound to the port of Hermoupolis, Siros! I'll be with Irine in Siros 'till Saturday and we'll stay at my cousin's hotel, the Aegean Star. I hope (and somehow know) we'll have a great time there!

That's all! Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Almost retro battle

Hi!

How you doing?

Today when I returned to my house from work, I found that my mother had left her adorable white Cinquecento in the parking! Since the Cinquecento's name literally means "500", one could argue that the car is a 1991 interpretation of the classic Fiat 500. That's hardly true, but my mother hasn't bought (yet) the new Fiat 500. If she had it would be awesome :P

I took some photos of the cars in order to determine which is the most cute and sexy. Here they are:



The one is black and the other is white. Good vs. Evil and stuff :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Vacations @ mouries.kilkis.gr

Hi!

How you doing? Didn't I tell in the previous post that I'll probably
spend the next week of my vacations at the house of a friend of mine
at the village of Mouries at the Kilkis province? Well, that's what I
did :p I was there from the 10th of August until today, the 16th. I
had a really great time there :D

Now I'm heading to thesaloniki to spend the weekend and I'll travel
back to Athens in the Sunday.

That's all! Ta ta,
--
elias a.k.a. diluted

Kim's wedding

Hi!

How y'all doing? I'm just fine!

The summer has arrived and now it is almost gone :P As for my summer, I have one comment: I finally travelled abroad! (I mentioned that I'll go there in a previous post, but now I've returned from this trip)

My destination were the Netherlands and I was there from the 12th to the 18th of july. Details from this trip on a subsequent post.

A week after the trip was the wedding of my dear friend thanasis
(a.k.a. Kim bo). The wedding was at Mesini, a little town near
Kalamata (a city in the Southern end of rural Greece). I went there by car with 6 friends of mine. We were divided in two cars, 4 in a BMW X5 (which was also used to transfer the bride to the church) and 3 in a Mazda 2. We stayed there for 3 days.

It was fun and we had a great time! In the photo you can see the groom applauding his wife that is dancing for him (you can't see her in the photo). This photo was shot at the party after the wedding that was in a club next to the beach.

Now I've returned to work. My next leave is in the 11th of August till the 15th. I'll probably spend these days at my friend Stathis at a village named Mouries, which is in Kilkis, in the Northern end of rural Greece.

After that I have another leave in the beginning of September. I want to spend this 3rd week with Irene.

That's all!
Till next time.. Ta ta!
--
elias a.k.a. diluted

Netherlands here I come!

Hello!

How do you do? I'm truly fine! The summer has arrived and me and Irene got bored of the sun, the sea and all the things the famous greek summer consists of. So we decided to spend a week with my dear friends Dimitris and Xristos, who are doing their PhD at the TU Delft at the Netherlands. I hope we'll have a great time there!

By the way, I've never been abroad :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

MINI at last

Hi!

How y'all doin'? Yesterday I got my mini cooper :D I went to the BMW dealer after work, payed him a large amount of money and got my mini :P

Here's a photo:
My MINI
You can find more photos (and the one above in its original size) here.

That's all :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

Beach

Hi all!

How you doing? I'm fine :p

Today I'm at a fine beach near Koropi (at Agios Dimitrios), that's actualy near my workplace :p So, as you can probably understand, this will be my hot spot for this year's summer :D I'm also attaching a photo of the beach!

I'm gonna go swimming now, so ta ta :D

Hocico @ gagarin, athens

Hi :D

How y'all doing? Yesterday took place the live we've all been expecting for, by the very aggressive electro industrial group Hocico (which is, by the way pronounced othiko :p). It was fun. The other event that occured lately was my birthday at the 21st of March. I became 27 years old. :(

I'll try to post more photos of these 2 events later. New! 28/4/2008 you can find some photos from the live here :p

Well, till next time.. Ta ta!
elias a.k.a. diluted

Newsfeed

Hi!

How y'all doing? I'm fine, thanks for asking :p

Lately I've been thinking of climbing the corporate ladder :p I found this ladder quote in a book I'm currently reading, entitled 'The good guy'. It's a rather interesting book with lots of action, an interesting plot and finely carved characters. But let's not deviate too much from the ladder thing. So, I've made some rather decisive and firm steps towards the establishment of my status within the corporation. One of the most important steps to my ultimate goal is to maintain a happy attitude and always have a good intention for my actions. I know that this path of "virtue and pure intentions" isn't a popular method to climb the corporate ladder, but I beg to differ and
I somehow have the feeling that I'll succeed.

Other news include that I ordered my beloved MINI Cooper and that it's snowing in Athens. Here's a picture from the backyard :p

That's all! Ta ta :D
--
elias a.k.a. diluted

Intracom anniversary party

Hey all!

What's up? Reporting to you live from the Intracom anniversary party at the galea club :p Intracom is celebrating its 30 years :p whatever

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

1997 - 2007: 10 years of sneakers

Hi!

How's everybody doin' this fine evening?

We have gathered here today to celebrate the 10th anniversary of sneakers in my life :D

The ceremony shall begin with a review of the shoes that have accompanied me these years, starting by the snicker I first bought when I was 16 years old.

1. 1997 - 2002:
Adidas Beta
Note: These are not the actual shoes, but I found a pair on the net that look just like them (I think :P).


2. 1998 - 2003:

Reef Byerly 2
Note: These are not the actual shoes. My sneakers were olive.


3. 1999 - 2008/01/01:

Adidas Lawsuit


4. 2002 - 2009/09/01:

Adidas Superstar II


5. 2004 - 2013/07/29:

Adidas Lawsuit II


6. 2005 - present:

Adidas Superstar II


7. 2006 - 2009:

Etnies Callicut


8. 2007/12/31 - 2012/09/03:

Adidas Superstar 1 Luxury


9. 2008/10/19 - 2021/07/04:

Adidas Campus ST


10. 2009/08/28 - 2014/09/12:

Reef Nutty


11. 2012/09/08 - 2020/01/17:

Adidas Ciero Update


12. 2013/07/29 - 2025/08/09:

Adidas Basket Profi


13. 2013/09/04 - 2021/10/23:

Adidas Superstar II


14. 2015/01/22 - 2019/11/30:

Adidas Basket Profi Black


15. 2015/08/25 - 2025/06/29:

Adidas Gateway 4


16. 2019/11/30 - present:

Adidas Superstar II


17. 2020/01/17 - present:

Adidas Gazelle


18. 2021/07/04 - present:

Adidas VL Court 2.0


19. 2021/10/23 - present:

Adidas Superstar II


20. 2022/08/26 - present:

Stan Smith

The other shoes that I have are two pair of running shoes, a pair of cool nike sneakers and a pair of classic shoes that could be worn with a suit :P

That's all with my concise review of my shoes :P

Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted

1st post of 08

Hi!

Happy new year everybody :p
This is the first post of the year!

Ta ta :p
--
elias a.k.a. diluted

At thes for the new year!

Hi!

How y'all doin'? Happy holidays and the rest well known wishes, which I'm utterly bored to mention :p

This year, I'll be in thesaloniki for the new year's eve! Now that I mentioned thesaloniki (for, like, the bilionth time), I would also like to mention a fact about this city. Did you know that thesaloniki is, like, the co-capital of greece, along with athens? I don't know another country that has succumbed to the provincialism of a city, even one with an undeniably historical importance or whatever. If someone knows another country with a co-capital please tell it. :p

That's all. Till the new year,
Ta ta :D
elias a.k.a. diluted

Long time no see

Hey all!

How you doin'? It's been a long time since I last wrote on the blog. I
won't get into details, apologize or even try to analyze the reasons
behind this fact; I've done that before.

I'll just say hello and then resume reading my book; trace by patricia cornwell.

Till next time.. Ta ta :D
--
elias a.k.a. diluted

Memory leaks

Hi!

How you doing? I'm fine! After an awesome weekend at thesaloniki, I've returned to Athens with my batteries recharged and good to go for another week :p

Though, I'm constantly noticing that I keep forgetting things. I'm not forgetting important stuff though. What I do forget are small things. Things that make people angry :p

Well, that's all!
Ta ta,
elias a.k.a. diluted