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WebHostingDay(s)

Thursday, March 30th, 2006

Day 1:

I took the train from Mancs to London, then then London to Brussels .. from Brussels to Cologne I got to travel 1st class … and it’s true, there is no better way to travel :) .. we even got beer for free.

2006-03-27 10-29-02
yay, wide seats
Upon Arriving at Cologne I was suppose to have a taxi waiting for me, after 30 minutes and no Taxi, I decided to just get a cab myself ad head to the hotel, by then I had no cell phone battery and the laptop battery was dead also, lucly I rembered the hotel/resort name, and luckly, I was right

2006-03-27 15-46-54
they tell me this is some famous church.
I got this Turkish taxy driver, who was bit weird, but pleasant, while driving he was going crazy to find a match for his cigarete .. we even jumped the curb once .. after going the wrong way for a while, we finally made it to the hotel .. and what a nice place .. it’s got this Oriental theme, very classy.

2006-03-28 15-12-32 2006-03-28 15-44-17
China in Cologne
I meet up with the gys from thewhir.com and we made our way to one of the restaurants, there we had a meal and drinks on the house, and entertanemnt by this group called interfi…. err, forgot, .. they were quite funny … overall an excellent night.

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30.03.2006 Computers / Internet, Work No Comments

Out of the shaft.

Monday, March 27th, 2006

Hurray, we are out of the Eurotunnel (we survived).. it was amazingly quick .. and surprise surprise .. it’s Sunny in France (it was poring in England) :)

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27.03.2006 Trips / Places No Comments

One more to scratch off the to-do list: Eurotunnel

Monday, March 27th, 2006

I’m typing this from within the Eurotunnel itself, I must admit, I am not as hap as I thought i’d be, after al, we are hundreds of feet under water and land, I cant help but feel a little uneasy :)

But hey, it beats flying, we entered the tunnel at 11:35(London time) the crossing takes 20 minutes, it’s been almost 10, so we almost 1/2 way there.

I remember when I was living in the US. how I told myself that this is one of those crossings I had to do, you know, the “to-do-before-you-die” list .. I know for some people it’s routine, but for the majority, they will never experienced it.

I’m on my way to Brussels, for a short change over to a train to Cologne for the WebHostingDay conference.

As for the tunnel .. well .. it’s dark :) .. once we enter it I did notice the air smell got moldy.. you see an occasional flash of light here and there, and the ride itself is quite smooth inside it .. thats about it.

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27.03.2006 Trips / Places No Comments

RV Accident on the M6

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

I’m going North on the M6 this morning, when the traffic starts to slow down, after a while of 20MPH speed I notice that for the past mile or two there has been no cars on the southbound lanes, it was quite eery .. a few minutes later I discover why, this car/trailer was overturned in the middle of the Motorway and the cops were not allowing any traffic by

Image 00006
What amazed me is that the car and trailer are pointing North in the Southbound lane, so not only the trailer overturned, it skid around 180 degrees.

I was swearing for not having my camera with me, when I remembered the phone also takes pictures ;)

The people from the car were on the side of the road and looked unhurt.

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23.03.2006 General, Photography, Trips / Places No Comments

Got our New House

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

It’s official, starting today I am in debt up to my ears, but I am also a homeowner in the UK.

2006-02-03 11-13-15
We got the keys to our new home in Sandbach at 5:00 PM EST, we then took a drive to the property to check how the old owners left it, we were pleased, they removed everything they had to and didn’t left a mess to clean up.

My Co-Workers are actually amazed a the speed and efficiency of our purchase experience, 2 other people in the office bought properties the past month, and their experience was allot worst than mine, actually, I cant fault mine at all, I kept bugging the solicitors to get moving, and they did .. so it pays to be a pain i guess ;)

We wont be moving until the 1st of April, we decided to install new carpets and paint some of the rooms in the house first, this way when we move in, we dont have to mess around with furniture in order to pain and re-carpet.

This is the second house we own, the first was a pre-fab in Florida, which was 1/13th of the price of this one (yeah .. split this house price by 13 .. thats what we paid for our Florida one), house prices in the UK are insane .. but what can you do, one needs a place to cal home.

And the amazing thing is, this is the North of england, where housing is actually cheaper .. this place down South and you can double the price… ouch.

But hey, we are ecstatic, we have a place of our own, on a great and safe community, were we can raise our kids and hopefully, just be happy :)

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21.03.2006 Family, General 2 Comments

HackerGardian .. ouch

Friday, March 17th, 2006

One of our new products being developed at Comodo is called “HackerGuardian”

This is a vulnerability scanner based on the Nessus Engine, the product is still in late beta status, but already somebody found a way to use it in malicious ways :)

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17.03.2006 Computers / Internet, Work No Comments

From new to Spyware in 3 seconds

Thursday, March 9th, 2006

This is my Pingz Ep. 2

I work with a new Artist, so the style is different that the first one.

The satire being that as soon as you install XP, spyware floods in … :)

Pinguins-Jpeg-Low
click for larger version

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09.03.2006 Computers / Internet, Toonz No Comments

Going to Germany

Wednesday, March 8th, 2006

I have just booked my train tickets today, I’m off to Cologne (Germany) at the end of the month.

There is a WebHosting Day conference in Cologne on the 28th, this is the sort of conference that’s important for me to attend, so I started to look for the dreaded plain tickets .. after sorting it al out, I decided, just for curiosity, to see if I could get there from manchester by train instead.

Yep, I can, and for about the same price .. so I take off on Monday, 27th from Manchester to London Waterloo, get to the Eurostar train to Brussels at 10:43, arrive on Brussels at 14:05 .. then take the next train to Cologne at 14:28 in First Class (heck, it was just 5£ more) and arrive on Cologne at 16:45

The plain would have taken almost as long due to a long exchange at Frankfurt

I will then stay on a .. err .. Chinese hotel :D called “Hotel Phantasia” on Phantasialand
Images Hotel Hotel1
I then return on the 29th, once again First Class from Cologne to Brussels, leave at 12:14, arrive at 14:32 .. I then decided to take a few hours to check Brussels .. i never been there, so this is a good chance to sightseeing, later at 17:56 I take the train to London and arrive at 19:28 .. the train to manchester follows an hour later.

I’m very excited .. several reasons, this conference is a must be for us (PSoft/Comodo) .. and Serguei Beloussov (SWsoft CEO) will be one of the speakers and they will have a booth, it will be a good chance to rub shoulders with the competition and learn what they are up to :) … and of course, the chance to add Brussels and Cologne to my “Have visited” list.

I started a tradition of buying a Teddy Bear with the country I am on stamped on it somehow a while back, my task while there is to get one from Germany and one from Brussels to add to the French, American and Scottish ones I have … yep, I am missing quite a few :)

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08.03.2006 Computers / Internet, Trips / Places, Work 2 Comments