Do you what a kitten needs to catch a mouse?
Cheese? I hear you thinking. No, the cat has to be hungry. She needs the will to win.
Sometimes the cat will win. And get a delicious meal. Sometimes she will loose. But does she gives up? I hope not, she would die from starvation..

Feedback is the breakfast of a champion.
But we’re scared. Scared of not getting accepted. We don’t dare to give feedback. Because we are scared they won’t accept our comments.
The irony is that most complaints are due to the fact that we don’t dare to say things. Important things. The truth.
We should all learn to communicate more. Getting the truth out there is a service point.

But we’re scared. In a conversation we will change our personality so the other person(s) would accept us. It’s a thing we like to call empathy.
Sometimes we need to talk to another person in a correcting way. When that happens we don’t always seek acceptation. But you can say it in a way both persons become a better person out of it. When it happens to you, accept it. Deal with it. Evolve.

—————————————————>
0                                                     10
Popular                                       Respect
Emphatic                                Own Identity
Moving towards 10 is a positive evolution. But do mind the situation, sometimes it’s better to act ‘popular’. “Conceptual Intelligence” is important.

Where are you on the axis?

In a relation with other people or companies sometimes problems occur. That’s normal. If it only happens once in a while, there is no real problem. But when it becomes a structural problem, act! Remember what you already did for them. And tell them. Be aware of the ‘take it for granted’-syndrome.

If you ever get the question from someone who wants you to do something, while you told him you weren’t going to do anything this week(end), maybe you should do it anyway. Just this once. Of course not all the time. But this once, why not? Tell him / her this is an exception, and he / she should be happy you are doing it anyway. Next time he/she asks something, tell them all the things you already done for him. And don’t be afraid to keep on repeating it. You’ve done it to help them. They should be happy about it. And you should get respect.

These are emphatic people: they
* ask questions
* listen
* show mercy
* have a good memory, and remember details
* have intuition

These are projective people: they
* stand out of most people
* are leaders

You should be projective when people are in doubt. Be firm when you want to get something done (by others).
Start with a global intention. Only when they are really interested and promise things you can offer them discounts or other benefits. People tend to like a little mystery. Tell them you can still fine tune your offer when they act fast. But don’t show them your offer in detail till they decided. It can only ruin things. We should all watch things a little longer from a distance before we close in.

Remember, those who are nice go to heaven. Those who aren’t get everywhere.

but I want more o.0

A visa (from the Latin charta visa, lit. “paper that has been seen”^[1]) is an indication that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was “issued”, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant’s passport. Some countries do not require a visa in some situations, such as a result of reciprocal treaty arrangements. The country issuing the visa typically attaches various conditions to the visa, such as the territory covered by the visa, the time that the visa is valid, the period that the person may stay in the country, whether the visa is valid for more than one visit, etc.

Doesn’t sound that bad, does it? So why do I think it sucks then? Well, let me explain the situation.

I know this girl from Egypt via the internet. We something chat and cam and what not. Last week she told me she wanted to come to Belgium, and she already booked hotel and flights. Awesome news is awesome, right? But no, as she is from Egypt she needs a visa.

I do understand that people from certain countries need a visa. Some basic screening of the people who want to visit the schengen area is important. Checks like: don’t they have a criminal record, are they coming back, etc etc. whatever, I can agree with those rules. Apparently she also needs an invitation letter. Don’t ask me why, she has enough money, she has booked everything already, she doesn’t have a criminal record.. . Another thing I hold against that is all the illegal people in Belgium. did they need an invitation letter? I don’t think so.. but apparently tourist people are more dangerous than illegal people.

The law is the law I guess, so I went writing some nice letter that I know her, and I’ll show her some parts of Belgium, so she doesn’t get lost, make sure she will be on the plane back etc etc. I included some personal data of me, that I normally don’t share due to privacy rules, but I know her well enough that I can trust her. So she went with my letter to the Belgian consulate in Cairo, where they told her that the letter isn’t good, because I don’t work for over a year yet. It’s kinda hard for someone who just stopped school to already have a job for over a year, right? And why do I need a job? She supports herself, I don’t need to pay a dime for her?

As I travel the world I know that most people in the world are nice people. The cool thing about me is that I’m European. I don’t need to have a visa to go to most places in the world. And even if I need one, it’s not that hard to get one. Why is it then so hard for non-EU / US people to get into Europe? Does anyone have an explanation for that?

I was wondering if this too could become a Fedora meme? let’s try it!

These are the books I am currently reading:

• Fedora 13 security – enhanced Linux (chapter 4)
• Foundations of IT service management (chapter 3)
• Red Hat RPM Guide (chapter 7)
• Linux Fundamentals (chapter 11) (but because I already know most of it, this one goes lightning fast)
• The productive programmer (chapter 3)

Books laying around here that I still have to read:

• CCNA: accessing the wan
• Getting things done (but maybe I should read this one first )

who’s next?

       a = b
   a + a = a + b
      2a = a + b
 2a - 2b = a + b - 2b
2(a - b) = a + b - 2b
2(a - b) = a - b
       2 = 1

On first sight you might think it is correct, but if you look a little bit closer you can easily see the error!
let’s try it again:

       a = b            //true
   a + a = a + b        //true
      2a = a + b        //true
 2a - 2b = a + b - 2b   //true
2(a - b) = a + b - 2b   //true
2(a - b) = a - b        //true <=> 2a - 2b = a - b <=> a - b = a - b <=> 0 = 0
       2 = 1            //false (should be 0 = 0)

that’s it for my ranting =)

This was the opening of Devopsdays 2009. Quite a funny clip isn’t it? But what is a devop actually? Kris Buytaert is an expert on the subject, and I found a nice presentation of him explaining the concept:

DevOps is not about operators or developers, it is about how to get things done the right way. DevOps is also about how operators talk to developers, but is not about an operator who becomes a developer and visa versa.

A dev team that follows the DevOps principle, talks to the operators during the development of the applications. What do we need? What can we get? Doing you development on the same machines as the ones the production runs on, is always good. You find the bugs faster, you find other issues faster, and you end up with a better product, while you shorten the development time.

I’m already looking forward to the next devopsdqys in Europe. I just might join them to learn more, and share my own thoughts about the subject.

I have one of those ‘I should quit school’ days.. And just today I saw a post on planet fedora from Mel Chua .
She is not alone one of the most awesome geek girls I know, but she also helped me out a couple of times already. (big thank you Mel!)

The title of her blogpost was ‘How to do stuff?‘. While I was reading the post I saw some very familiar things.. I C/P’ed some of her text (I hope she doesn’t mind):

In My Parents’ World – How to Do Stuff (answer: “Get A Job according to these Complex Procedures”)

1. Be interested in something
2. Study (very, very, very) hard
3. Get (very, very, very) good grades
4. Make a resume
5. Buy suit
6. Apply to jobs
7. Get introduced to recruiter
8. Get interviewed
9. Get hired
10. Do Stuff

Except that the “Do Stuff” might be… well, entry-level job, filing stuff, doing thankless gruntwork waiting ’till you could move up the ladder and really Do Stuff, you know…

In The FOSS World – How to Do Stuff (answer: “Do Stuff”)

1. Be interested in something
2. Do Stuff
3. get hired

As she is already working,she must be one of people that know what they are talking about. right? So I told her on IRC I was thinking about quiting school, and start searching a job in open source.. But then she said something interesting:

<biertie> but, I also want to thank you for your blog post :p
<mchua> ah, thanks!
<biertie> because I’m considering stopping school -_-
<MooDoo> biertie: why?
<biertie> because they don’t care about foss
<MooDoo> that’s not a reason to stop is it
<biertie> I wanted to help loupgaroublond out, and do a project for them
<biertie> and it’s not good enough, because I could learn something from it!
<biertie> #wtf
<MooDoo> ?
* mchua wrestled with similar things as an undergrad, would be happy to talk with you about this.
<mchua> biertie: if schools don’t care about foss, and everyone who cares about foss leaves school, who’s ever going to bring foss /into/ schools?
<biertie> so then I send a mail to them, about open source, and the about a changing world and blah blah
<biertie> and he thought I was rude then
<biertie> mchua: good point
<mchua> You may decide that you’ve got better things to spend your life on than fighting that fight for however many years you’ve got left, and that’s fine. It is a long and thankless one, but it does make a difference in the long term.
<mchua> biertie: Yeah, it’s a hard balance to strike, and it’s also hard to know how administrators and profs will respond sometimes.

So maybe I should stay at school, and try to fight the big forces in our school, so we can have lessons in a culture where they DO care about foss, and maybe even work with it!

Let me know what you think about it!

Geeks don’t sleep around. Geeks, through their higher IQ and therefore greater understanding of the tragedy of human condition, know that the dice only seem to have more sides on the other side of the table. Hence, they instinctively stay loyal to their lovers through thick and thin. Their social skills are also not well developed enough to support an affair, and frankly, geeks generally aren’t quite sure how they ended up with the lover they have attracted. When you date a geek, you know the geek will be yours until you are done.

Geeks are good at the things they try. When’s the last time you met a geek who didn’t have some secret skill just simmering below the surface of a simple-seeming life, honed in the wee hours of the night? It could be hacking, playing video games, or the ability to insert and remove those stupid computer power plug things from drives without cursing or breaking a finger. Let sex become their new favorite late-night hobby, and you know that a geek won’t quit until he or she has learned how to hack into your brainstem through specific genitalia interfacing in parallel with general dermal and oral bonding.

Geeks are not interested in status. Geeks became geeks because they chose to spend their time doing things that would not necessarily make them popular with everyone else in school, like sports and fashion. The ability to resist peer pressure is important to a geek. This means that a geek is more interested in their or your happiness than looking good to others, which will come in handy when either (a) you need attention, in any sort ranging from the nurturing to the lascivious, and also, because both of those things are not necessarily unorthagonal dimensions, any combination of the two, or (b) you need to be rescued because it is the climax of a teen 80’s movie. Or both.

Geeks haven’t formed bad habits. After years of serially dating lots of other women, many socially successful guys have become too confident to be intimate, think of women only for sex, and don’t have any intention of letting what in their minds is “just another girlfriend” enjoy the last spring roll. Let us not even pry into the diabolical, dark, twisted, and depraved mind of the girl who has serially dated many men. None of this is true of the geek, however. The lack of past romantic partners allows the geek to approach lovers with the zest of the neophyte. Geeks are not full of romantic confidence; however, once coaxed from their emotional holes like tame bunnies, they are eager to please and enjoy their newfound relationship.

Geeks can concentrate. Geeks can focus their energy on one task with the intensity of a hunting cheetah. Granted, the task they are focusing on may have more to do with hunting orcs with a +1 Sword of Piercing rather than hunting gazelles with claws, but the fact remains that a geek, once set upon a task and given Mountain Dew, becomes a tireless slave to their goal. Put a six-pack of Dew on the bedside table and a geek between the sheets, and you have found yourself one relentless lover. When’s the last time all night actually meant all night? When’s the last time you were with someone who, if they needed more of the night, knew how to get it?

Geeks have excellent finger dexterity. Geeks roll dice. Geeks play video games. Geeks flip pages in books. Geeks type a lot, and use characters like ~ and ^ and | that no one else has any use for. Geeks use calculators in postfix notation. As a result, a geek knows how to use his or her fingers to greatest possible effect. Whether you have a button that needs pushing or a joystick that needs joy, a geek is the person for the job.

Geeks have imagination. Once you have found your amazing lover, you wouldn’t want things to become boring. That is where geeks prove their real worth. Replayability is important to the value-conscious video-game playing geek, and this translates to relationships as well. Wouldn’t you want to date someone who has created a Quake 3 mod? Wouldn’t you want to date someone who has written steamy Everquest fan fiction involving elven incest? Wouldn’t you want to date someone who wished they were Morpheus rather than someone who wished they were Barry Bonds?

There are plenty of other reasons why geeks are the best lovers around, but don’t just take my word for it. Find the nearest sexy geek and coax that person into asking you out, even if you have to do so using instant messanger. Remember: the only non-sexy geek is a single geek.

—–

aaaaa, I”m a single geek
but you can still send your cv in
I got this via @miente

My first presentation was a real presentation, just let openoffice do the work there were about 25people attending, so I was happy about that!
My second talk was about how to use packagekit, but also how to install xchat, go to #fedora.. I was really happy the people started asking questions, that way I could give tips they really care about. My third talk was again different, there were only 7people, and most of them were already enrolled. But I heard Iwan was even less fortunate, nobody showed up on how Fedora community works.

In the evening we went to the Dave and Busters.. it’s a bar, but what a difference with the bars I’m used in Belgium, so huge! I like the Belgian bars more Anyhow, we played some eight-ball and had some food and drinks, so that was nice.. When I went back to the hotel around 11pm, I moved the hospitality room in the hotel, to hack on some things.

I went to sleep around 2am, and now I’m still a bit tired, while I’m writing this blog post