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11 months ago I wrote about the opening of an Apple retail Store in my home town Almere. I was excited and wanted to support this local dealer by using them as preferred supplier. After they opened, I wanted to buy a Mac Mini and went there twice, but they didn’t have any. When I wanted to upgrade my MacBook Pro with more memory, they didn’t have a 2GB memory module, so I had to order it online. Two weeks after the introduction of the updated iPod Touch (32GB) I went there, but they didn’t get any yet. Yesterday I went again and they still didn’t have any. The Media Markt store in town had them on sale last week (all sold out) and Apple delivers within a couple of days. The sales person of Warnerraven at the iCentre Almere said I could order it and wouldn’t even be required to take it, if I change my mind. But why should I order it there, wait and go back to the store to pick it up (difficult enough with their limited opening hours), while I can order it directly from Apple and have it shipped home for free? This store obviously can not afford to have Apple’s popular products on stock. The main reason for me to go to a local retail store is to get a product directly without waiting and shipping costs. Lately, I usually come home empty-handed and instead order online (often cheaper).
In some areas retail stores still make sense (products you want to try out and feel or where you need service), but otherwise many stores are just obsolete, wasting valuable space in our cities and increasing the price of products.

Update: I ordered it online from Apple and it was delivered really fast on Tuesday already.

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I almost missed it, but today is the official download day for the next major release of Firefox. Of course you could download it any other day but the goal of the special download day is to set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours.

Firefox has been great since the first releases (even before it was called Firefox) and the new version 3 is even better. I’ve been using the version 3 beta releases on and off and am looking forward to get the final version.

Firefox download

If you can’t reach the official site, you can use the FTP server to download:
http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.0/

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October last year, it was announced that our city would be the first fiberglass city in the Netherlands within the next 2 1/2 years. Announcements like this have often been made, also for other cities like Amsterdam and Deventer, so I was skeptical. But it is actually happening. First houses in Almere Haven have been connected and according to the site of AlmeerNet it is our turn in February 2009.

There is no information yet available about speed, services and prices. Currently I have an ASDL connection with 20 Mbit/s downstream and 1Mbit/s upstream for EUR 54,95 per month including VOIP. With a higher upstream speed I could host some sites and services at home and it should also make it more pleasant to work at home.

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Yesterday I received following email scam from Russia, a variation on the common Nigerian and Lottery mails.

Hello,

My name is Elena, I have 31 years old and I live in Russian province.

I have a 6-years daughter, her father abandoned us and we live with my mother. Recently my mother lost job due to old age and our situation became very difficult.

During the last months the prices for gas and electricity became very high in our region and we cannot use it to heat our home anymore.

The winter becomes colder each day, we very afraid and we don’t know what to do.

The only accessible way for us heat our home is to use portable stove which give heat with burning wood. We have a lot wood in our region and this stove will heat our home all winter for minimal charges.

I work in library and after my job I allowed to use computer. I finded your address in internet and may be you can help us.

We need portable wood burning stove, but we cannot buy it in our local market because it is expensive for us. May be you have any portable stove which you don’t use anymore, we will be very grateful to you if you can donate its to us and organize transport of its to our address. This stoves are different, and they weight between 70-150kg.

I downloaded picture of me and my daughter to the free website and you can see it here:
http://mailrus.ru/free/users/elenafed/ourpicture.jpg
It is not very good quality, but it will show you how we look like.

I hope to receive your answer.

Elena.
Russia.

Michaël from Belgium answered her and they directly made some mistakes in the reply. Since then they adjusted the scam message and now directly include the photo link. In another variation she is asking for ‘old sleepings bags‘.

Let’s hope, that there are not too many people who actually loose some money on this, believing they actually help someone.

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When I was just browsing Google Maps again, I was surprised to the little bus and train icons and indeed they represent the bus stops and train stations in our town and even include the correct line numbers.

The satellite images seem to be from 2006 and are in a lower resolutions than the previous ones.

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Mozilla releases major update to Firefox and raises the bar for online experience. Enhancements to usability, security and customization make Firefox 2 a must-have upgrade for all Web users.
Firefox 2 is immediately available for Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems as a free download from www.mozilla.com/en-US/ or www.mozilla-europe.org.

Features include:

• Improved Tabbed Browsing
• Spell Checking
• Search Suggestions
• Session Restore
• Web Feeds (RSS)
• Live Titles
• Integrated Search
• Live Bookmarks
• Pop-up Blocker
• Phishing Protection
• Automated Update
• Protection from Spyware
• Clear Private Data
• Add-ons Manager for Extensions and Themes

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October 25th 2006 Posted to internet, opensource, software

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Necromanc compiled some images of messy networks in his post.

At our old office the situation has been quiet messy as well:

(the situation has improved since then!)

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Flock has reached version 0.7 and is now officially a beta-release. Flock is a new browser for the web 2.0 generation and integrates services like flickr and delicious directly into the web client. You can also read rss newsfeeds and publish to you own blog. Flock is built on fast and secure Mozilla technologies, which are also being used by Firefox.

Technorati Tags: flock, web2.0

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Via the blog of Douwe Habesma I came across a link to online traffic information of our fast growing city.

Have a look at this map on a Monday morning, when most of us are standing still on our way to work in Amsterdam. Sometimes it takes me up to 30 minutes to even get on the freeway. On a good day I can reach the office in Amsterdam within 25 minutes but if the traffic jams are bad, it can take 60-90 minutes. I tried public transport a couple of times but including waiting and walking it takes at least 60 minutes if you don’t miss a train or bus.

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As previously announced, the new web-site of the European Archive is now online.

The European Archive is a non-profit foundation working towards universal access to all knowledge. The archive will achieve this through partnerships with libraries, museums, other collection bodies, and through building its own collections. The primary goal of collecting this knowledge is to make it as publicly accessible as possible, via the Internet and other means.

Technorati Tags: European Archive

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