Slow Days

Well the week of slow posts will continue, I just found out my high speed at my new place won't be connected till late next week. Stay tuned for more EuroRoss... soon ;-)

Net Parooooosings

Blogging these holidays has been light. I have however gotten online for some parooosings:

I love Germany, but sometimes it's fucked up. I moaned when I read that article, one more and I'm out!

This is what my undergrad math exams used to look like:



Next year's Bundesliga rights have been sold. No Bundes for you Premiere! Some of you will care, some of you won't. I just hope there's movement in online games, and don't hit me with $10+ euros/dollars per game crap, $1.99 per. iTunes it damit.

Going to Europe sometime soon? I am. Air France it if you can get in on the deals, I got my tix yesturday.

I got back in Canada just in time to vote in January's election's. Alas there's no point, they're all predicting another Liberal minority gov.

Merry Christmas

I hope you're all enjoying the holidays as much as I am! Merry Christmas everyone! :-)

Merry Christmas / Joyeux Nöel / Shöne Feiertag

To all my friends in Germany, France and London who celebrate on the 24th, Joyeux Nöel, Shöne Feiertag and Merry Christmas!! :-)

Goodbye Symantec (Norton)

That's it, I'm out. My subscription to Norton Anti-virus expires in 10 days and I was already 75-25 going to switch to the free and hopefully less resource hungry AVG for my anti-virus protection. This article just pushed that to 100%.

Goodbye Norton, you used to be relatively user-friendly and useful, now not so much.

Tags: Norton, Symantec, EuroRoss

Waterloo, We Love U2

The only thing that cures a heavy hangover from Friday night/sat morning partying is to set yourself up with some premium suds, greasy fries compliments of Sonny's, a couple sandwhichs from Vinchenzo's and football all afternoon on TV. Boo-yeah! Come to think of it, after hottub, sauna and the required "beach watching", I got to bed at almost 5am in the morning Friday! That preceeds a 8am wake-up to finish thesis reviews (Stuttgart K you SO owe me one! :-) so that it wouldn't interfere with our drinking schedule ;-)

Damn I wish I had finished that earlier in the week! Grumpy morning Ross ready to get back into the groove:



Chris "Dutchman" knew I was hitting town like a tornato sometime this weekend so he was expecting me to show up at some point with a surprise, I doubt he expected us at that exact moment however. And for all you poolies out there, yep he was fast asleep as usual when we arrived, sleeping and smokin' a cig on the can! :-)



After an afternoon of watching my Bucs get mopped all over the field it was time to head out, first stop East Sides for some more grub, beers and football. Some of my friends (Dave) has seemed to get a little soft in my abscence, notice the beer/ginger ale/straw and wine glass drinky he's got... hmm I didn't even know they MADE that type of drink! (wait till you see the videos from that night, which will {hopefully} be posted by the end of the weekend, priceless!)



After East sides it was time for "South Sides" at Julie and Drew's, congrats guys on your upcoming nuptuals! (PS> Steve, Dave and I don't need a hotel room that night, we'll just crash on your comfy couches... just joking... well not really ;-)



Poker anyone? Why do you even bother when you know the outcome from the beginning. Ross rakes it in! :-) I think buying Mel's the next morning was the best use for the proceeds ;-)



As the hockey games wore on, the poker games finished up (along with the rest of the beer), some of us started to pack it in. Big mistake. That just got the creative juices of those left awake more amo.

You can see the prograssion of the game from first strong "X in corner" oppening, to the opposite site "trap" move, to the hook, and finally the winning "X"... BAM! Al you had no chance (wait till the video's Dave, she started it, really!)




Throw me a frickin' bone here! - Dr. Evil, Austin Powers I



Um Al, is that the new style in Oz?



I wanted to get in on some of that action myself, notice the duo-strand technique. Strong.



Alas all good things must come to an end, farewell once again Waterloo, see you soon I'm sure :-) :-)



Full collection of weekend video's later this weekend... once I get them hosted that is!

Tags: Waterloo, Party, EuroRoss

TEAC Watch

It's been 2 months with 5 e-mails and 2 phone calls without an answer or even an acknowledgement from TEAC customer support about the whereabouts of my TEAC USB hard drive and data. This is the second time they've fucked me. So far I've owned the unit for over a year with less than 20 days operation "up" time over that span. Hell I've been writting e-mails and been on support line hold for longer than the amount of time I've actually used the frigging drive!

It's great that the only reason I bought the unit was because I was having Hard Drive problems and I wanted to back up my data. Funny how I've lost ALL my data AND spent even more time trying to track down TEAC customer service than I would have if I'd not even bought the drive.

You suck TEAC, you really REALLY suck.

Tags: TEAC, Hard Drive, Suck, EuroRoss

Blonde Joke

The best blonde joke I've ever read.

Home Canada Home!

HOME AGAIN!

After all that traveling, work, snow storms, gehtto living (more on that to come), etc etc I'm finally getting around to posting the pics (and movies!) of last weekend's reunion in Toronto Canada! What an amazing weekend and it all started with a pick me up in Hamilton for a quick hop on the Q-E to get our butts to T-dot. Look at those rock-star shades! Stylin'!



It didn't take Stevie or I long to "get into the grove", especially since we're true "winners"! When you're warming up for the par-teh ya gotta do what ya gotta do! ...and Stevie did just that ;-)
(click pic below for a quick movie, Apple Quicktime required)



Ahhh, winners for sure... ;-) :-)



We then hit the bar in style. Mix platter + Darts + Pool + Canadian Draft + Drunken Freinds = One hell of a good time!

But once again, Stevie stole the show, rather his HUGE tummy did:
(click pic below for a small video, Quicktime required)



That beer at the beginning of the vid is actually snug right on top of Stevie's belly! Good job buddy, you're belly's almost ready for the Olympics in Turin ;-)

Lots more pics (and videos which I'm going to have hosting for soon) from later that night at the Pizza Pizza where Stevie shows us his belly "workout" and also more from the Saturday night bash in Waterloo with all the MIA's from Friday coming later tonight... stay tuned to EuroRoss :-)

Tags: Toronto, Party, EuroRoss

Every passing minute, every passing day, every passing year, is a chance to turn it around...

(via Doc)

Hand Will Be Back Soon...

No Internet, new contract, new city, Christmas, snow storms, whatever. I'll be back online for good starting x-mas but until then...

I'm a star! This pic was from the Les Blogs 2.0 conference in Paris a couple weeks ago (already!?! wow time flys!). It's actually an interview with the exceptionally bright and talented Anina who combines tech savvy with fashion expertise. My hand looks gorgeous! ;-)



Tags: Anina, EuroRoss

Big Little

There's a ton of stuff from the weekend that I want to post... unfortunatly the TON of stuff to do on this new project is keeping me away :-) Soon though, soon.

I love the creativity of this childrens edu-games store having a "kids" entrance. Just great:



Tags: Big, Little, EuroRoss

Lookout: Here Comes Alex!

In einer Welt
in der man nur noch lebt
damit man tglich roboten geht

ist die grte Aufregung
die es noch gibt
das allabendliche Fernsehbild.
Jeder Mensch lebt wie ein Uhrwerk

wie ein Computer programmiert
es gibt keinen
der sich dagegen wehrt
nur ein paar Jugendliche sind frustriert.

Wenn am Himmel die Sonne untergeht beginnt fr die Droogs der Tag

in kleinen Banden sammeln sie sich
geh'n gemeinsam auf die Jagd.

Hey
hier kommt Alex
Vorhang auf fr seine Horrorshow

Hey
hier kommt Alex
Vorhang auf fr ein kleines bichen
Horrorshow!

Auf dem Keuzzug gegen die Ordnung und die scheinbar heile Welt
zelebrieren sie die Zerstrung
Gewalt und Brutalitt.
Erst wenn sie ihre Opfer leiden seh'n spren sie Befriedigung

es gibt nichts mehr
was sie jetzt aufhlt
in ihrer gnadenlosen Wut.

Hey
hier kommt Alex
Vorhang auf fr seine Horrorshow

Zwanzig gegen einen bis das Blut zum Vorschein kommt

ob mit Stcken oder Steinen
irgendwann platzt jeder Kopf.
Das nchste Opfer ist schon dran

wenn ihr den lieben Gott noch fragt:
Warum hast du nichts getan
nichts getan?

Hey
hier kommt Alex
Vorhang auf fr seine Horrorshow

Hey
hier kommt Alex
Vorhang auf fr ein kleines bichen
Horrorshow!

- Toten Hosen

Tags: EuroRoss, Lyrics, Hier Kommt Alex, Toten Hosen

T-Dot

We're in Toronto, give us a ring and join the crazytrain tonight! :-)

Sunday Afternoon Hilarity

The guys over at Engadget have got the hilarity down with this title and caption:

"Nissan introduces self-healing “Scratch Guard Coat” paint"



Ok so it's not Sunday, sue me it's been busy at work :-)

Tags: Scratch, Nissan, EuroRoss

Home Sweat... Hamilton??

Arrived in Hamilton late last night. Initial impressions are that everything everyone says about Hamilton is true. Today I'm frantically looking for "luxury" appartments downtown so I can subsequently move out of the temporary place I'm staying at which I call "gehtto heights".

Yes, everything they say about Hamilton is true... ;-)

To The Victor...

Goes the spoils. Welcome to EuroRoss Channel 9 guy! :-)



Tags: Channel 9 Guy, EuroRoss

Home Sweet Home (again)

Well the secret's out, I'm home! After a crazy couple months travelling and working all over the place I'm finally back home for the holidays (and to get ready for another contract here). It's retarded but while waiting for my connecting flight to Ottawa, enjoying a custom pickle-filled Harvey's hot dog and a Tim Hortons sugar twist donut I just had to take this pic for the site:



Home! Anyways the flight to Toronto wasn't all that bad at all, especially with my new talkative Mexican friend that helped pass the time with her digital camera pics. She had some great nostalgia to share since she was just finishing a full year of travel which took her all over the place; Britain, Spain, France, Taiwan, you name it! She's also the lucky winner of a 20 euro cent piece :-)



Sometimes having only a short period of time with someone makes it very special and cool, have fun back home in Mexico babe!



Can't wait to hook up with all you retards in Toronto/Waterloo/Ottawa! Just gotta hit some meetings in Hamilton over the next 2 weeks and it'll all be good.

Happy holidays everyone! :-) :-)

Tags: Home, Toronto, EuroRoss

Tunnel

Tomorrow a new chapter begins...



Tags: Beginning, Chapter, EuroRoss

Butcher Kirchberg Goodbye... For Now

Over the course of the last 2 years my studies, experiences and travels in Germany have lived up to every expectation and hope prior to my departure from Canada. I'd like to thank everyone who helped made it as great as it was. Of course before taking off there's always time for some roast beef and a couple (ahem) beers at the butcher:



The Schwabisch gang, having a little fun with the camera :-)


(click pic above for short clip, Apple quicktime required)

Catching one last VFB Stuttgart game:



Enjoy... goodbye Kirschberg :-)



Leaving our mark in a different way:



The sun sets on another chapter...



Tags: Stuttgart, Germany, Goodbye, EuroRoss,
Video

Good-gle Management Practices

Here's a great article over at MSNBC that looks at Google's "Ten Golden Rules" of managing knowledge workers. The article sums up a lot of what we learn as basic new style management techniques, in a nutshell:

Hire by committee.
Cater to their every need.
Pack them in.
Make coordination easy.
Eat your own dog food.
Encourage creativity.
Strive to reach consensus.
Don't be evil.
Data drive decisions.
Communicate effectively.

Check out the article for the full explaination.

Tags: Google, Management, EuroRoss

Choo Choo

After years and hundreds of "bahn" train rides this was the first time I actually sat in the first compartment with a view of the conductor:



Like anything that is first brought to your attention, you then start to see the same thing everywhere, later that day you guessed it, the S-bahn (subway) conductor:



Too bad they cut up my expired bahn 50 card, no more cheap choo choo for EuroRoss!

Tags: Bahn, Train, Conductor, EuroRoss

Online Boyfriend

This is what I imagine all you desperate ladies that go online looking for chat partners and dates are actually getting:



That's right. Do yourself a favour and just call up EuroRoss the "matchmaker", I'll hook you up with someone with more... charisma ;-)

Tags: Online Date, Date, Boyfriend, EuroRoss

J-myster Back

After a bit of a hiatus, Stevie J gets something else in:

I understand that scissors can beat paper, and I get how rock can beat scissors, but there's no f*cking way paper can beat rock....

Paper is supposed to magically wrap around rock, rendering it immobile? Why the hell can't paper do this to scissors? Screw scissors, why can't Paper do this to people? PAPER CAN'T BEAT ANYBODY! A rock would tear that sh*t up in 2 seconds.

When I play rock/paper/scissors, I always choose rock. Then when somebody claims to have beaten me with their paper, I punch them in the face with my already clenched fist and say, "Oh sh*t, I'm sorry. I thought paper would protect you"

Well done Stevie! Certainly I don't want to encourage the forwarding mayham of the past, but if you keep sending me quality forwards like this one and porn then you've definatly gained another fan! Where's your blog anyways dude? ;-)

Creativity

"Because a convept must first be remembered before it can be contemplated, creative people are not necessarily those who have recorded the most in their memories. Rather they are those who can remember the most from their memories

- The Idea Fisher

Tags: Watermelon, Creativity, Square, EuroRoss

Germany-France Friendly Matchup

With the upcoming grouping announcement for the world cup 2006 I'd just like to get in some pics from the Germany-France "friendly" that I went to a couple weeks ago in Paris. The atmosphere was electric, as if France themselves were going to host the tournament! I guess they are cur-a-zee about their soccer!

Here's the big soccer stadium in Paris called... wait for it... stadium of Paris:



As the players practiced on the pitch the fans were already starting to cheer:



I sat in the German fan section (of course) and the fans were going nuts chanting and having a gay old time:



The players coming onto the pitch:



Very cool, I love when they've got huge flags etc. and move them over the crowd, in this case a France jersey:



The game was interesting, unfortunatly like a lot of soccer games it ended 0-0. The good news was that Germany played well defensively, haven't seen much of that lately, here's hoping they can get it together for next years world cup.

Oh yeah, I got an e-mail 2 days ago: I NOW HAVE TICKETS TO WORLD CUP 2006!!!

I rock and you suck. :-) :-)

Tags: World Cup, Germany, Soccer, EuroRoss

You're A Star

Go ahead, as a EuroRoss reader you are certainly worthy, go ahead, take a bow and accept a medal compliments of the Turin Winter Olympics:



They look like frosty Tim Horton's doughnuts if you ask me :-)

Tags: Turin, EuroRoss, Olympics, Medal,

Les Blogs 2.0 - On Commence!

We are here, and in 'T' minus 22 mins it'll start off with opening remarks from Loic and then the first session "Naked Conversations" with Robert Scoble and Shel Isreal. Let's get it on!



Tags: Les Blogs 2.0, EuroRoss

Nokia n90

On the eve of this years Les Blogs 2.0 conference I unexpectedly woke up and was restless so I decided to check out any pre-buzz about the conference. Taking a look at the Les Blogs wiki (which I help maintain in a very small way) I noticed a new entry from Nokia with a promotion idea for the n90 phone:

"Nokia is offering a brand new Nokia n90 to the best contributor to the wiki
summarizing our thoughts on the consequences and future of blogging during the conference."

There was already a response from Netanel Jacobsson which exemplified blogging philosophy:

"How about Nokia, giving all the attendants a n90? That would certainly have an impact"

Which I took one step further with my own wiki suggestion:

"How about giving all the participants a n90 at the beginning of the conference. You've got 400+ of the worlds best read and well known bloggers coming together to talk, share, blog etc. for 2 days straight and you're wondering how to get the message out about the n90? Consider how many at the conference will actually use the n90 to blog during the conference! If you don't believe the marketing impressions and free buzz to be worth the negligible factory cost of the units then you're at the wrong conference!"

So what do you think Nokia? Great promotional avenue, or greedy conference attendees? As always, the correct answer is probably "C", both ;-)



Tags: Les Blogs, Nokia, n90, EuroRoss

Weekender Web Hits

Some hits from around the web to (hopefully) spice up your weekend :-)

Traveling on a budget? Check out Couch Surfers to hook up with others lending a couch/floor/lawn for tent/etc. for fellow travelers. Very sympatico.

The Forbes list of the richest people in the world... the richest fictional characters in the world that is. Love how Mr. Burns chims in at #6.

A really cool Christmas lights show. That guys either:
1 - Has too much time on his hands,
2 - Hasn't gotten laid since the last x-mas season,
3 - Both.

Speaking of people with too much time on their hands... geez.



From Slashdot, an interesting view on newspaper survival in the Internet age. Also via Slashdot this link to an interesting experiment with community vote drawing. And finally, this Canadian ex-minister has one too many Labatte Blue's :-)

Get fit with your iPod, giving yet another justification to buy that video iPod for X-mas :-) Speaking of Christmas, here's a geeky gift - USB powered foam missles. Hilarious.

This weeks creativity award goes to this guy who pasted a bunch of blank cartoon speach bubbles around town and then went back a week later to see what people wrote in them. Cudos, very cool.

Last bit with a touch of vanity, the "Le Mans 24hr. Rollerblading Challenge" which pits almost 500 teams of up to 10 people each against each other in a relay race has pics and video online. Check this video out. Notice the green streak of pure speed that goes by the camera at 4:40 into the vid. Oh yeah baby, Ross reeling in competitors on one of his laps around the track, BOO-YA! :-) :-)

That's all, early to bed tonight as I'm off to Les Blogs 2.0 tomorrow...

Tags: Links, EuroRoss

E-Mail Post Test Final

Final e-mail posting test. Looks like I need to set my e-mails to plain or rich text to get normal sizing, and unfortunately this feature doesn’t support attachments :-(

That’s why I’ll have to manually add in the pic of this cool car “fry holder” that Adrianna called attention to:

Virgin Post (Reborn)

My first e-mail post, well second, but this one’s going straight to be published baby!

Hmmm, I guess I should post something then… how about pull my digital finger!

Gotta work on the text sizing…

Virgin Post

My first blogger post via e-mail unpublished.

4:44 AM+

It's 4:44 am:

I ate too much chocolate earlier when I came home - and am on a caffine high dropoff.
I just went through 100+ saved links - and my eyes want to fall off.
I am posting to my blog at 4:44am - and have no clue why.

Sleeeep... ZZZzzz

First Descent

Lads, I'm totally stoked about getting to see this movie, "First Descent" that just opened Friday! Seriously go to the homepage and check out the trailer, the last scence with the cut through rolling snow is amazing, absolutely amazing!



Rad.

Tags: First Descent, Snowboarding, Movie, EuroRoss

E-Mail Spotty

I'm having problems with my main "safe" e-mail account, all of a sudden I'm getting a ton of returned mails (timing out) and I think some mails (both sending and recieving) are being lost!?!? This sucks, I'll look into it. For now if you haven't recieved an reply from me in the past 3 days please resend the message to my main account and cc my hotmail address.

Thanks, geez that sucks!

And Then It Comes

Ever had one of those BRUTAL days at work where everything seems to go wrong? Plus it's Friday and all you want to do is get to the weekend so you can curl up in a ball and cry like a girl for 2 straight days :-) Well maybe today wasn't that bad but I still loved that I got this totally random e-mail from my sister with the perfect pick me up without her even knowing I needed it.



Thanks sis!

Tags: Funny, Chicken, EuroRoss

Train Time

On an all nighter to Paris after an amazing week in Germany it's sometimes hard to come down from the excitement and high... of course then you start playing with your camera :-) (click pic for a short clip that will waste as much of your time as I wasted filming it, you might have to right click and choose "save as", not sure)



Tags: Train, Bahn, Wasting Time, EuroRoss

Einstein Reads EuroRoss??

Wow, I'm really impressed now. At least Einstein reads (or did read) EuroRoss! :-)



Of course if you want Einstein to write something you can also do it here :-)

Tags: Einstein, EuroRoss

One Lost

It's a sad day in EuroRoss land. One day after asking Scoble for a Channel 9 guy he unsubscribed from my bloglines RSS feed :-( I guess posting is not the way to get a Channel 9 guy nor more readers! Live and learn I guess.

Oh well, life must go on, more Les Blogs 2.0 wiki work and travel preparations for the weekend.



Tags: Scoble, Les Blogs 2.0 Wiki, Bloglines, EuroRoss

Channel 9 Guy

Hey Scoble,

How do us non-geek geeks get a channel 9 guy? I'd ask you to bring an extra to Les Blogs 2.0 on Monday for me but unfortunatly you're already in Ireland eh :-)



Tags: Scoble, Channel 9, Robert Scoble, EuroRoss

Around The Net Smiles

Some stuff I've smiled at today:

This is awesome, this guy proposed to his girlfriend by buying up ad space on the Ask Jeeves search page for the search term of her name, take a look:



Want to get away from the office but can't? Check out the Pyramid cam which overlooks these famous Egyption landmarks. Of course if that's too touristy for you then check out this webcam of an African watering hole by National Geographic.

Here's a great Calvin Klien ad:



I wonder if they have underwear sized for this guy:



That's it for now! Happy surfing everyone!

Tags: Links, Humour, Humor, EuroRoss

RSS Reader Wishlist

In the spirit of Christmas gifting (is that spirit at all, well I certainly have fun giving and getting!), I really, really want these three features implemented into Newsgator Online (anyone know if these features exist in another aggregator?):

1 - With work piling on and a minor tweek in career direction I can no longer keep up with my current 255 feeds (+5 non-RSS-able websites which are soon going to be dropped if they don't get their act in gear and provide full feed RSS), it just takes too much time to go through them and be able to follow up on the interesting posts. The result is a pile of "interesting links" I have saved but never seem to find the time to get to. What I want is to be able to pause feeds whenever I want while still maintaining them in my list so I can easily re-activate them when I later have time or am interested in a particular subject. This also lets me pause some borderline feeds so I can see if I miss em or not :-)

2 - To be able to "vote" or give a "check point" to posts that I actually read or find valuable. This way I can go back over the past week/month/year etc. and see which posts I'm actually reading and find valuable. You'd think this would be intuitive ("just remember which ones you read dude!") but it's actually almost impossible for me now to remember what things I read where and how often I find something interesting on each feed. I have my feeds broken up into different subjects/categories and rarely look at the individual site I'm reading. This would help immensely with weeding out the weak feeds and reducing useless excess posts. An added bonus, let me choose to make my selections public or not, you'd be almost competing with digg at that point, hmmm, there's an idea... Anyways, NewsGator Online has that 5 star ranking system for each post, perhaps there's a way to utilise that to achieve the above?

3 - Standard RSS subscribe button. This is more for my less than technically adept friends and family (well actually I really want this too!) to make things easier. It'll clean up website sidebars, make it easier for customers to subscribe to your content... and it's just better. I'm not saying you need to standardize all aggregators, I'm not even campaigning for a standard location on the website for it, but there should definitely be a common subscribe button guys!

That's my RSS aggregator wishlist... as for my other Christmas desires, go check out my Amazon wishlist ;-) Or just grab me a tablet, xbox 360, treo, oh my it's going to be a great season for gizmo's! :-)

I'm also moving to the regular NewsGator service soon because I'll be working out of Outlook all day at work and because of its sync with NewsGator Online. We'll see how that goes. One of my new years resolutions is to try out more of those software packages that I never seem to get around to trying... more on that resolutions list soon ;-)

Tags: NewsGator, RSS, Aggregator, EuroRoss

BBSC Hockey Pokal

Hockey rocks. Like seriously, seriously rocks. The only thing I could concievably imagine that could pull me away from extending my time in Ireland was this game. Tuesday night was hockey night in Germany, specifically the 3rd round pokal (all national teams tournament) between my 2nd league Bietingheim Steelers and the lolely first league Mannheim Adler ;-) This was actually a rematch of our stunning win against them in last years tournament that knocked them out. The stage was set for another upset :-)



Needless the crowd was pyched!



Three periods and one valient effort later it was all over, Mannheim took it despite a late comeback surge by BBSC. A great game with many highs and lows... ah well there's always next year!



Tags: Hockey, Germany, Pokal, EuroRoss