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Viggen

Triumviri
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Blog Entries posted by Viggen

  1. Viggen

    Crossroad

    By Viggen,

    The good news, actually the unbelievable news is, we just had our one millionth visitor to the site for 2007!!!
     
    The not so good news is, our tiny little shared server (with about 40 other domains) that is made for mum and pops site is aching and breaking, sooner or later we have to make a decision to probably upgrade to a dedicated server, which means a server that runs just our site, the even worse news is, that such a dedicated server is only available from 160 dollar a month or more...
     
    We tweaked in the last couple of weeks the coding, images and such to get the pressure a bit off the server but as it seems just more and more people visiting the site, (which is cool of course) but making the server issue an even hotter topic for us right now...
     
    In case you are interested what a dedicated server means, it means we would be the owner of a whole little computer with cpu/memory and harddisk just for us, which means it is scalable (simply add memory if you run out of it, or add a new cpu etc...), it means you have all the resources for your site, which means of course a faster site, to make things short, sooner or later this "empire" called unrv.com will go to the next level...
  3. Viggen

    Comcast...

    By Viggen,

    ...has the biggest share of all network providers that visit Unrv.com
     
     
    followed by
     
    SBC Internet Services
    Verizon Internet Services
    Road Runner
    America Online
    Cox Communications
    BellSouth.net
    British Telecommunications
    NTL Internet
    Charter Communications
     
    It seems there is no world giant in the Internet Service Providers industry, Comcast the Nr.1 (at Unrv) is used by just over 7%...
  4. Viggen
    I had this today in my inbox, and thought its pretty funny...
     
    This was written by a guy... it's pretty damn smart. Girls -- Have a sense of humour! I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and women diffe so much. And I never have figured out the whole Venus and Mars thing.I have never figured out why men think with their head and women with their heart.
     
     
    FOR EXAMPLE:
     
    One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed. Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me." I said, "WHAT??!! What was that?!" So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear... "You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man." She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?" Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.
     
    The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take, so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said, "Lets get a pair for each outfit."
     
    We went on to the jewellery department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you... she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play tennis.
     
    I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey." She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement. Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, "I think this is all dear, let's go to the cashier."
     
    I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't feel like it." Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled,
     
    "WHAT?"
     
    I then said, "Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman." And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?"
     
    Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either....but at least that girl knows I'm smarter than her.
     
    Alright girls. Repost this if you agree. Hell even if you disagree, forward it.
     
    Men, repost this because you have balls.
  6. Viggen
    I recently stumbled over Mark Twains Appendix D from Twain's 1880 book A Tramp Abroad called The Awful German Language
     
    ...being a native german speaker, i found it fascinating how Mark Twain "manages" to learn the german language and how he wrote with his usual wit about it...
     
    Now observe the Adjective. Here was a case where simplicity would have been an advantage; therefore, for no other reason, the inventor of this language complicated it all he could. When we wish to speak of our "good friend or friends," in our enlightened tongue, we stick to the one form and have no trouble or hard feeling about it; but with the German tongue it is different. When a German gets his hands on an adjective, he declines it, and keeps on declining it until the common sense is all declined out of it. It is as bad as Latin. He says, for instance:
     

    SINGULAR Nominative -- Mein guter Freund, my good friend.
    Genitives -- Meines guten Freundes, of my good friend.
    Dative -- Meinem guten Freund, to my good friend.
    Accusative -- Meinen guten Freund, my good friend.

    [*]PLURAL
    N. -- Meine guten Freunde, my good friends.
    G. -- Meiner guten Freunde, of my good friends.
    D. -- Meinen guten Freunden, to my good friends.
    A. -- Meine guten Freunde, my good friends.


    Now let the candidate for the asylum try to memorize those variations, and see how soon he will be elected. One might better go without friends in Germany than take all this trouble about them...
     
    My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing) in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years. It seems manifest, then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is to remain as it is, it ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it.
  7. Viggen
    During my current adventure to become filthy rich, i read lots of books on how to become just that. Those are financial books, self help books, books to get things done, books on making your life filled with purpose, and almost in all of them is at least one quote of Marcus Aurelius...
     
    ...for example;
     
    Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
     
    Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.
     
    Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
     
    Each day provides its own gifts.
     
    Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
     
    He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.
     
    It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
     
    Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
     
    The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away.
     
    Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
     
    You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
     
    ...and i could go on for a long time...
     
    For me, the most important piece of wisdom from Marcus Aurelius is however;
    Our life is what our thoughts make it.
  8. Viggen

    Double Digit again

    By Viggen,

    During the downtime i had with my back I put on some serious weight. The negative highlight was 113kg (249 pounds for my american friends). At that point i really felt uncomfortable and decided its time to get rid of some kilos. I was pretty strict with mostly eating fruits and vegetable. I cut out snacks and sweets completely, use no longer suger in my coffee and after 5 weeks i am now down to 99.5kg (219 pounds), which is when you are 1.86cm (6.1 ft) still too much, but i feel much much better already.
     
    Now that i realized i dont really miss those fattening stuff, i decided to go for 89kg (196 pounds), which shall be my final goal. I keep you up to date....
  9. Viggen
    In 2008 (1st of January till 21st of May) we had 649,837 Absolute Unique Visitors
    In 2009 (1st of January till 21st of May) we had 746,778 Absolute Unique Visitors
     
    ...up by 14.91%!!!
     
    p.s. while the USA makes up the majority of our visitors,
    i would like to share with you exotic places we had exactly 1 visitor
    202. Samoa 1
    203. Gabon 1
    204. East Timor 1
    205. Cook Islands 1
    206. Montserrat 1
    207. Niue 1
    208. Greenland 1
    209. French Guiana 1
    210. Anguilla 1
    211. Aland Islands 1
    212. Tajikistan 1
    213. British Indian Ocean Territory 1
    214. Norfolk Island 1
    215. Sierra Leone 1
  10. Viggen
    Little update; had the hour with a personal trainer, and he put together a program for the gym. Lots of lifting going on now. Every part of my body has muscles that ache now, but its all for a good cause. Weight drops as slow as ever but i am determined. The nice thing is that the one hour CrossStep improved dramatically. A month ago i would manage in one hour 7 kilometers = 4.34 miles, now i get in on hour 9 kilometers = 5.59 miles. Maybe with my next update i will drop below 110 kg, i keep you up to date....
  12. Viggen

    Addiction

    By Viggen,

    An addiction is a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity.
     
    By that definition i am addicted to the internet,
     
    ..due to overload at work i can not log on to the net every day and it sucks, on an emotional and practical level...
    ...how did we manage without it before? (yeah i know we just were more outside sniffing fresh air, engange in recreational activities under something called sunlight and were talking with humans face to face)
     
    If there is something called heaven and paradise it better have an internet connection, cause being without one for just a couple of days already seems aweful, never mind eternetiy...
  14. Viggen

    Call me Director

    By Viggen,

    ...so, i am now proud director of a UK Private Limited, the company is situated in Stockport near Manchester, although i have no idea what i am going to do with that, i feel important for now
    ...i convinced a friend of mine that it would be a good idea to have in his CV a UK Limited company hehe, and it is a rather nice Tax Shelter when it comes to personal income that you do on the side...
     
    so here it goes....
    The Registrar of Companies for England and Wales hereby certifies that
     
    XXXXX
     

    is this day incorporated under the Companies Act 1985 as a private


    company and that the company is limited.
     
    ...but wait, uh, what about Scotland and Northern Ireland?
     
  15. Viggen
    Kraftwerk are one of the most influential bands of the past 35 years. Without them, dance music as we know it today might never have existed. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies, mainly following a Western Classical style of harmony, with a minimalistic and strictly electronic instrumentation. The group's simplified lyrics are at times sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. Kraftwerk were one of the first groups to popularize electronic music and are considered pioneers in the field. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Kraftwerk's distinctive sound was revolutionary, and has had a lasting effect across many genres of modern music...
     
    Autobahn 1975 via BBC

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuEo5IdVUvU
  16. Viggen
    Yesterday was my cousins wedding, i was invited there and although i thought it was going to be a complete disaster, it was bloody cool!
     
    The bride was from Russia and couldn`t speak a single word of german! He met her while he was studying technical physics in ST. Petersburg. Luckily she speaks fluent english, so at least 90% of the guests could have a conversation with her, plus a good friend of the family knew a russian girl that lives now for more then five years here, so we had a translator and a new friend for the bride. It was at times really funny, having this russian-german-english mix of conversations.
     
    ...in any case, one of my cousins classmates who will became a monk was sitting next to me, so I pretty soon got him engaged in a roman history discussion, as he is very knowledgeable in the early church history, can read and write, old greek, latin and hebrew and was pretty relaxed about christianity, we had some pretty interesting hours. I invited him to join our forum, let`s see if he does, once he sobers up! ;-)
     
    btw.
    I learned three things about Russia;
    ...the russian language in action is much more pleasing to the ear then i thought
    ...being a professor in Russia means you are bloody smart, but you wont make a living and
    ...russian girls can drink more then you, don`t try!
  17. Viggen

    One Handed

    By Viggen,

    Itching on my left index finger, scratching it, next day waking up with swollen finger plus blood infection ---> Result; doctor cut it open, giving me a huge bandage, getting sick leave and unable to do the simplest tasks without needing endless time...
     

  18. Viggen
    Now that i got my message out that i will no longer accept the mediocre financial state of mine, i would like to share the how i will do it!
     
    First things first!
     
    One needs a goal, without a goal nothing will work, let a couple of people run in a circle without a goal or purpose, they will eventually loose interest and stop - draw a line (finish) and everything changes! The moment there is a goal, one can plan! So that was my first piece of work, having a goal. At first i was thinking of 1.000.000 million euro, but soon realized that this was not really something my little mind could grasp. I needed something more visual. So i redefined my goal. I would start treating myself as a company, Viggen Inc. if you like, and my goal is to make it a successfull company. So in order to run a company one needs a budget, so i started one, for the first time, and it was not a pretty picture. I spend way too much money on stuff that is not making Viggen Inc. productive or successful. I could locate several areas were i was spending money without thought.
     
    Crap;
    Basically every evening when i got home late from work, i past by the petrol station that is just a few meters away from my home, and bought sandwiches, snacks, cool drinks, etc... EVERY DAY!
    I cut those expenses completely, i havent been to the petrol station in over a month!
     
    Car;
    I go to work now with my bicycle, with the bike i only need 5 minutes to work, so please dont ask me why i havent done it before, i dont know...
     
    at work;
    evey day i went to a restaurant in our mall, and every day i was drinking a cool drink with it, most of the time a coffee afterwards, i cut this completely, drive with the bike home and eat at home
     
    other stuff;
    I do the washing, the ironing, the cleaning, myself, i bought a hair clipper to do my hairs myself (guess thats an advantage for men), no more hairdressers, i buy food once a week with a list, i visit my mother every sunday now (she really cookes good, and she is very happy to see me, she always complained i visit her not enough, low and behold the 5 miles she lives away i go by bike and not with the car, even more saving, so the sunday gets me a free meal, good karma with mum and some exercise)...
     
    ...as you can see i am not a cheap talker on this issue, i mean it! I do not accept money that could work for me wasted on stuff that gives me short time pleasures at best!
     
    ...more to follow
     
    your "soon to be" very wealthy viggen
  19. Viggen
    I am not sure if all people know what a rss feed and a feedread is, so i will explain it a bit first...
     
    more information here ---> What is RSS 
    Now that you know what rss is, and that the Unrv.com Blog has a RSS Feed, you need a RSS Reader to get that info without actually having to go to the site. For example i use Firefox (you should too) and there is a simple Rss Reader extension called Wizz RSS News Reader, just install that and then you get a nice RSS Agregator Toolbar, where you can add categories and Channels. For example, you create a category called UNRV then you create within the category UNRV a channel you give it the name Blogs and add underneath the rss fead of the UNRV.com blogs http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...g&cmd=syndicate
     
    Now what happens is when you switch on your computer and you click on the RSS feader and then click on channels you will see immediately if there are new entries in the blog, just click then on the new entry sentence and you are brought to the actual blog, well it is easy and every one should use it, saves time keeps you up to date and oh btw our main site has a RSS Feed too
     
    cheers
    viggen
     
    p.s. if this is all confusing, let me know and i am happy to answer all questions...
  20. Viggen
    Time for a little bit of statistic...
     
    We have now quite a big list on roman writers on our site, so i thought it might be interesting which ones are visited the most. Below you find the so far top 5 visited Roman Writers on Unrv.com in 2006.
     
    1. Tacitus
    2. Diodorus Siculus
    3. Galen
    4. Cicero
    5. Livy
     
    So, which one is your favourite Writer?
  21. Viggen
    There was always a way to use an integrated spell checker on the forum, however it was only available if you use the rich text editor, and this one had some serious bugs, so i never mentioned it...
     
    With the latest upgrade of our forum software (2.1.4), most of those issues have been fixed, so i am happy to explain it how it works...
     
    First, this only works with Internet Explorer...
     
    You need to install the spell checker software here ---> http://www.iespell.com/download.php then go back to the forum, go to My Controls, there you go to Board Settings, change "Type of text editor to use when posting" to "Rich Text Editor" then save it...
     
    Now you have when you post a new icon on the top bar (says ABC), once you are finished typing your post just click on it and it will spell check the text for you....
     
    cheers
    viggen
     
    p.s. ok the spell checker is not perfect though (it tries to replace viggen to virgin )
  22. Viggen

    coin operated boy (oh boy)

    By Viggen,

    coin operated boy
    sitting on the shelf he is just a toy
    but i turn him on and he comes to life
    automatic joy
    that is why i want a coin operated boy
     
    ...those are the first few lines of a song that i cant get out of my head. I promise, i tried, but it keeps coming back...
     
    It all started with a commercial on austrian TV. The biggest austrian jam manufactorer "Darbo" had a weired (but very interesting) ad, promoting one of their products with this song. (you can see the original version
    ) 
    It is performed by the former street artists "The Dresden Dolls", who describe their style as "Brechtian punk cabaret"...
     
    American`s who name their band Dresden Dolls and their style "Brechtian punk cabaret", what can i say, love it!
     
    p.s. and what about the lyrics hehe, pretty obvious, what the lady is singing here about, isn`t it! ;-)
  23. Viggen
    Something to ponder about...
     
    ...let`s say you want to leave a message to the people in the year 4000. You could write that message onto a USB Memory Stick or a DVD or on a Hard Drive or on a piece of paper. What is your guess what the chances are that (assuming the sealed box would be found and all 4 are in good condition) archaeologists would be able to identify all 4 pieces as some form of a message?
     
    I have a hunch that the archaeologists of the 5th Millenium will have a very hard time to figure out what the heck the USB Memory Stick, the HD and the DVD actually is. Maybe a "gift to the gods?" some sort of jewelry? a primitive craft device? Now assuming there is an experimental archaeologist that thinks that this could be some sort of data storage device. How will he get to the information? I mean i have some floppy disks lying around and have no way of actually getting to this information, first i dont have a floppy drive anymore and second, those operating systems of today kinda dont like old stuff, and when i talk about old stuff i am talking of 10 years maximum, nevermind 2000 years....
     
     
    If the archaeologist of the year 4000 sees the piece of paper, chances are, he will grab it and starts to decipher the writing, right?
  25. Viggen
    Currently H&M`s summer collection is heavely advertised in german/austrian television (anywhere else too?), and it is a beautiful ad. Striking good looking women lying on the beach relaxing to the tune of a song that sounds just wonderful. This song is "Just cant get enough" from Depeche Mode, but in a very relaxing version of Nathan Larson. (you can download the mp3 version on the HM site just wait a bit scroll to the right and wait till download link appears.).
     
    Now i wanted to check out the original version from Depeche Mode on Youtube and indeed there it was. And i was thinking OMG; once i was dressed sort of like that too... Although it was like 100 years ago...
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