Today, Andy donated some blood for
finding the cause of Kabuki syndrome. He donated about 22 ml of blood for
detailed analysis of his chromosome and analyzing his DNA. It went rather
smooth. I wonder how long it takes before we hear if he also has the duplication
in the p8.22-23.1 area that was found in Boston.
School report
This evening, I went to the meet the teachers of Andy
and discus with them his school report. This was the very first that I had a
school report meeting for him. His school report is in a A4-sized binder and
contains a lot of information. The were quite positive about Andy. He is very
active and learning new things. Of course, he still has his weak points, and
they matched with what I had expected. They too did notice a
great change when Andy
started to take the Prednison and when he
stopped taking it. His performance dropped again since he stopped taking Prednison.
I thinking about asking our pediatrician about what he thinks about it.
Mild weather
This morning the temperature was 11.9 degrees Celsius. Yesterday a record high
temperature was measured for the time of the year.
Analyzing the game
Today, Annabel has a day of from school, because the
teachers are having a study day. For this reason we could stay a little longer
at the Go club yesterday evening.
We both lost our games in the competition. In the middle of the game it looked
like I was going to win. But then there was a small invasion, which I had seen.
Just a little later I made a big mistake and lost a whole group in the corner,
resulting in a lose with about 20 stones. Then I looked at a game between two of
the strongest players of the club. When the game was over they started to
analyze the game, first with removing some stones to recreate earlier positions,
but then they decided to replay the whole game. Quite amazing that they can
remember the whole game, but of course there is a story behind each move, and
many moves follow each other logically.
Swimming again
Yesterday, I went swimming again. I got a pass for ten times swimming, because
it 15% cheaper. I noticed that at the end I got in this same relaxing mood as
when going down the water slides just by
swimming mindlessly back and forth in the pool. It
seems that swimming is
not only nice for your body but also for your mind.
(follow-up)
Reply from the Google team
I received a reply from "The Google Team" with respect to the suggestion I made
on January 27 about joining the search results from news.google.com with those from www.google.com/. I made this suggestion after I discovered that you often
can find information on current issues through news.google.com before they show
up through www.google.com. They wrote "We especially like your idea". Almost
sounds like I am the first one bringing up this idea. Of course, I should have
applied for a patent. I am really amazed that the had not come up with this idea
themselves, combining the relatively static data from www.google.com with the
very dynamic data from news.google.com. I wonder if they will give me credits.
Going into the city
I went to the city by bike. I first bought some bread at the usual place and
then looked around some bookshops. At Broekhuis
they were having the last day of their annual sale with a 75% price reduction
on selected items. I could not find the book on Linus that I saw last week,
and also the book that I saw two weeks ago appeared
to have been sold. Finally at 13:35, I bought one little book about Hong Kong
with the title Hong Kong: A guide to recent architecture by Juanita Cheung
and Andrew Yeoh, created, edited and designed by Ellipsis and published
by Könemann for € 1.12, original price being € 4.49.
And at De Slegte, I looked at a second-hand
copy of Gerhard Richter: Landscapes again.
Conspiracy Theory
Last weekend, I watched Conspiracy
Theory on television. I did not see the first part of the movie, but jumped
in at the point that Jerry went down the stair in the wheel chair. At first a
little confusing, but nevertheless making it an interesting movie.
This evening, I watched The Third Miracle.
Indeed a very interesting movie. Although I am not a Catholic (anymore), I
somehow felt it easy to identify with Frank Shore. Many of his doubts are also
mine.
The Return of the King
Today, my mother came to visit us. Of course
she stayed for dinner. When I checked the movie schedule in the free city
weekly, I made some remark that we should go soon to "The Return of the King".
Then my mother raised the question why we did not go that night. After some
thinking, we decided that she would stay for the night, sleeping with Annabel
in her two person bed. So, Li-Xia and I went to see
third part of "Lord of the Rings". We both found it a very impressive
movie. Also how the movie ends.
(Seeing part one and
two)
New computer
Yesterday, we got new computers in the office. It took some time before everything
was working again. I named mine Frans.
And of course, you have to get use to many small things that are different, such
as a new keyboard. Also need to get use to the new TFT screen. I am using a
higher resolution (1280x1024) than with CRT I was using. With a TFT you are
always limited with respect the choice in resolution. Again a good example of
legasy. Inside the PC there is a card that translates a digital image into an
analog serial signal (with minimal synchronisation information), and inside the
TFT monitor this signal is converted into a digital image again.
GODMODE
Yesterday in church, there was a short presentation of
GODMODE, the youth church in Enschede. Quite
a number of people from our church are involved with this. Four people were
baptized that morning. We have a baptize service almost every month now.
Tooth
We just have been to the dentist with Annabel. It
looks like her tooth are still doing okay, but it is too early to arrive at a
definite conclusion. Yesterday, I was phoned by a lawyer, who is going to
support me with claiming money from the insurance company related to the
first accident. He thinks that the damage caused by the
second accident will be considered as a result of the
first. It seems that our health insurance has a different opinion. Our dentist has
promised to contact the insurance company. For him it is the first time he
dealing with a two accident case.
(follow-up)
I lost again
Yesterday, Annabel and I went to the Go club. She just played some training games against a 3rd Dan
player. Afterwards he told me that he taught her a corner Joseki. When she was
ready she came over to look at my game and made some very good suggestions for
me. But still I lost the game with about twenty stones. I felt quite terrible
about it. I was having some trouble from the start of the game. Having no idea
how to respond to certain moves. I guess my opponent must have been stronger
than his recorded strength. It was after ten when we arrived home. I doubt
whether we should continue to go there, because I continue losing games, and it
gets too late for Annabel.
From the FFII press release EU Council "Compromising" on Unlimited Patentability:
The Council of the Ministers of the European Union, currently presided by Ireland,
is circulating a Working Paper with counter-proposals to the European
Parliaments amendments. In contrast to the European Parliament's version, the
Council version allows unlimited patentability and patent enforcability. Under
the Council version, "computer-implemented" algorithms and business methods,
as have been granted in large numbers by the European Patent Office against
the letter and spirit of the written law, are by default patentable
inventions. Publication of a description of a patented idea on a web server in
formal language constitutes a patent infringment, and use of patented
protocols and file formats for the purpose of interoperation is not allowed.
This proposal was prepared behind closed doors by the Council's Patent Working
Party, a group of patent administrators who run the European Patent Office.
The Patent Working Party has been encouraged in its uncompromising pursuit of
unlimited patentability by a campaign of letters to top-level politicians,
signed by CEOs of some of Europe's largest patenting companies. These letters
falsely claim that computer-controlled industrial processes are made
unpatentable by the Parliament's amendments and that software innovation is
driven by patents. In the context of another directive, the EU Council is
currently pressing the EU Parliament to mandate criminal sanctions even for
minor cases of patent infringment.
Not only makes this me worry about my future as a software engineer, it also
makes me worry about the EU being a democratic institution. What use is there
for voting for members of the European Parliament when the Council rather
listens to CEOs of large companies? If this law is passed, I think I better
remove some my pages and files related to reverse
engineering of some binary file formats.
(follow-up)
This evening, I watched "Finding Forrester". A rather interesting movie too watch. But not
very believable that this could happen in reality. Especially the idea
that good writers just sit behind a typewriter and write the most fantastic
stories by hitting the keys as fast as possible (while talking to someone at
the same time), is I am afraid, far from reality.
Cold
This morning the temperature was 1.8 degree Celsius below zero and the wind
was blowing from the North-East. The kind of weather that makes you long
for the summer again.
In highschool I have been in love with some girl for many years.
At most we exchanged ten sentenses during that time. I believed
that she too was in love with me, but that she was too shy to
tell me. In reality, I think she was rather annoyed by my continuous
interest in her. Today, I was looking at some pictures of my old
highschool on a Dutch classmate site,
when I found a class picture that had her in it.
Speckles of snow
This morning, there were some speckles of snow
on the ground when I looked outside the window. It was 0.1 degrees Celsius when
I went outside. While biking to my office I was greeted by some more speckles of
snow. Around ten o'clock it started to snow a little while the sun was shining
and while the sky was almost blue. The cloud from which the snow fell must have
been overhead. Just before one o'clock there was some more snow, but non of it
stayed on the ground.
Snow on the cars
This morning there was some snow on the cars and the
grass, but the streets were clear. Must have melted away. When I left from
home the temperature was 0.2 degrees Celsius. Around eleven o'clock it started
to snow again.
Commissioner intervenes in Microsoft case:
Frits Bolkestein, Europe's single market Commissioner, has intervened in
the European Commission's case against Microsoft to ensure that a final
decision is not too harsh on the software giant. Mr Bolkestein's officials had
been worried that the Commission's proposed "remedies" in the case might
infringe Microsoft's intellectual property rights by forcing it to share too
much of its programming code with rivals in the market for computer servers.
Mr Bolkestein, a former Dutch liberal politician, also is one the driving
forces behind establishing software patents in Europe.
It is more than seven years ago that we went to China in the summer of 1996.
Now we are considering the possibility of going this summer again. My mother
would like to travel with us. If we go, we would probably visit Beijing and
Urumqi. While we haven't even made the go/no-go decision yet, we are already
over our neck into things that we have to figure out, because of the health
problems of Andy. Does
his health insurrance allow it? Can we bring the special food he needs? In
liquid form it weights about 20 Kg. What alternatives are there? But we also
wonder how he would respond to the change. The weather will be hot. And what
about infections he could get. Can we bring extra medicines just in case he
would need it.
Blizzards
This morning when I woke-up, I immediately looked outside to check if there
had been any additional snow fall during the night.
There was still some snow, but it was the sam that fell yesterday evening
between six and eight. On the news I heard that the west of the Netherlands had
been struck by blizzards. Around seven o'clock there was already 300 Km of
traffic jams on the highways. Around a quarter to eight this had increased to
529 Km. Only one runway of our national airport Schiphol is open. No trains are
running around Amsterdam. And also the traffic situation around Utrecht and
Rotterdam is terrible. The traffic police is advising people to stay home if
they can. The radar images are showing a
big cloud system sweeping over the country from the West to the East around
a low pressure area in the North of the country. Here we still have sunshine
with a clear blue sky. I wonder how long it will take before it starts snowing.
Of course, it is possible that the cloud system has "evaporated" by snowing.
Just before ten in the morning it started to snow in Enschede as well. Around
eight o'clock the total length of traffic jam on the highways was 738 Km. In
then quickly became lower again. It snowed till about twelve.
Macular Degeneration
Lately, Li-Xia has been complaining about seeing all
kinds of spots in her left eye. Yesterday she was send to an eye doctor. It
seems that there is a great change she is suffering from
macular degeneration. She is scheduled
for Fluorescein Angiography on March 10.
(follow-up)
Around four o'clock in the afternoon it started to
snow a little. Although it was -2.8 degrees Celsius when I left home this
morning, temperatures have risen in the mean time and the snow just melts when
it hits the ground. Yesterdays snow has continued to melt away as well.
Bicentennial Man
Tonight, I watched the movie Bicentennial Man. It really raises some questions about what makes us
human, what makes us different from being a (very complex) machine. It also
raises some questions about free will and the origin of identity if not with
respect to awareness/consciousness. But apart from this, the movie does
not explain why this particular robot became so special, although at the
end of the movie, it seems that the other robot of this kind also has become
human, as she violates the first law of robotics by following an order that
leads to the death of a human individual.
Fourth Birthday
Today, we went over to some friends of us because their daughter was having
her fourth birthday. It was rather busy, because this was the first birthday
she celebrated on the 29th. It seems that most people believe
that when you are born on a leap that you have to celebrate your birthday
on the first of March, but according to the astronomical calendar the 28th
is most of the time the best date.
Today, it the second time that the leap day falls on a Sunday for me. It only
happens every 28 years, and the last time was in 1976.
This months interesting links
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