br23 blog - minsk, belarus

After running out of free space on my 60 GB drive, I bought a new 200 GB Maxtor a couple days ago. Installing it on my PC was quite an adventure (a bit embarrassing too), but at the end we figured it out.

Some websites and main-stream media have reprinted the news that our government wants to design its own Belarusian operating system which is supposed to be a big rival to Microsoft Windows, without really knowing what they are reporting about. The original source of the news was a press conference organized by the Ministry of Information. […]

Just out of curiousity, do you listen to internet radios or podcasts? Which stations do you listen to? Do you prefer live streaming or MP3’s via podcasting? Do you use Windows Media Player or Real Player or some other software? (I temporarily open comments to everyone. You don’t have to register in order to leave […]

An influential Polish newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” reported on Friday that Belarus is planning to buy special hardware and software from China for filtering internet traffic. There’s no doubt, the system will be used for internet censorship prior to the presidential elections in 2006. China already has a lot of experience in blocking internet sites, so […]

I’ve finally bought a new camera, a smooth black 6-megapixel Olympus with impressive lenses (see it on Amazon). What I need now is to read a good introductory book about the art of photography. And I suppose I need an account on Flickr, or are there other cool places to host a photo blog? Any […]

After looking at the more traditional outsourcing venues in Asia, the German bank decided to build its state-of-the-art development centre in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, which is within a two-and-a-half hour flight from Frankfurt. So, just what was the lure? Minsk isn’t the most forward, wealthy or democratic of cities, but hey, it’s safer […]

I enjoyed my first ride on the Intercity Express three and a half years ago, on April 2nd, 2002, when I traveled from Frankfurt-am-Main to Berlin, as an IT consultant going to our Berlin branch:
The electronic tableau over the sliding glass doors shows the speed: 240 km/h. And we were going 255 km/h at some […]

This week I reread some of Stanislaw Lem’s short stories (Tales of Pirx the Pilot) and novels which I enjoyed a lot when I was a teenager. I first read them 16-18 years ago (when I was 12-14 years old), and now I realized that I forgot most of it, having retained just vague memories […]

Worker error kills power to half of L.A.
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — About 700,000 electric customers in Los Angeles lost power Monday afternoon after a worker mistakenly cut a wrong line, triggering a cascade of problems in the city’s power grid.
One of my websites is hosted by a web-hosting company in LA, so as you […]

Last night I played cubeoban, a cute variation of the legenedary Japanese Sokoban (倉庫番). I’ve passed all the thirty levels (on two levels my wife’s given me a hand), and it was fun (but too easy)! There are several other interesting Flash-based games on oos.moxiecode.com, but I liked this one best. Lately, I also have […]