As I sit here in my office in Amsterdam this Friday afternoon, my first random blog thought emerges. If the temperature here this afternoon is around +4 degrees Celsius, why is the water in the Prinsengracht outside still frozen?
Category: Amsterdam life
Developed a real stinker
Developed a real stinker of a cold over the weekend. So my plans to muse a while and write something isn’t going to work today. The first cold this year. Nothing to do with the Amsterdam weather (cold and miserable outside right now), more to do with sitting in an aircraft last Thursday night with […]
Amsterdam canal parade – great spectacle!
Crowds lined the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam this afternoon to watch the annual Amsterdam Canal Parade. Part of the gay pride weekend and now in its 9th year, the parade is one of the bigggest visitor events in Amsterdam. My wife and I were there, too, cameras in hand, joining the estimated 250,000+ visitors who crowded […]
City-wide WiFi comes to Amsterdam
Good news if you have a wireless PC in Amsterdam (I live here and have a wireless PC!) – Bink reports that startup firm HotSpot Amsterdam launched a wireless computer network yesterday with a supercharged version of the WiFi technology that is used to turn homes, airports, hotels and cafes into web-connected hot spots. Bink […]
Amsterdam WiFi network roll-out
A follow-up to my post on 31 August re the new WiFi network that’s being established in Amsterdam by HotSpot Amsterdam. As The Register reported on 2 September, Amsterdam is going to be the first European capital where WiFi will be available almost everywhere, not just in hotels or cafes. Startup Hotspot Amsterdam […] plans […]
IBC 2004 entertainment tech event in Amsterdam
The IBC 2004 conference and exhibition takes place at the RAI conference center in Amsterdam from 9-14 September. Growing from its roots in broadcasting, IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) attracts 40,000 professionals involved in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment content worldwide. The IBC Exhibition features over 1,000 of the industry’s leading companies, with every […]
Music to soothe your dog
The ethos of Dutch cool, from Reuters: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Help is at hand for pet owners and their neighbors troubled by barking dogs — soothing recordings of “new age”-style music blended with sounds of nature. “Piano music with twittering birds and murmuring water apparently has a soothing effect on dogs,” said a spokesman for […]
IBC 2004 exhibition photos
Earlier this week, I visited the IBC 2004 Exhibition at the RAI Exhibition Center in Amsterdam. Quite an event (see my earlier post for description). In my wanderings around the 11 exhibition halls, I snapped photos here and there of exhibition stands that caught my eye. IBC 2004 Exhibition Photo Album
Metroblogging Amsterdam
I discovered a great collection of city blogs the other day – Metroblogging.com. Metblogs (as they’re called) are a hyper-local look at what’s going on in a city with bloggers who live in a city providing their perspective on daily life. Currently, there are metblogs for Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New Orleans, […]
Getting up to speed in Holland
If you’re planning a move to The Netherlands, an event next month will help you find out everything you need to know about life in a new country. “Welcome to The Netherlands” is the biggest expat fair in the country, taking place in Amsterdam on 24 October. It offers information from companies and agencies specialized […]
Filmmaker Theo van Gogh murdered
News this morning of the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, gunned down last night in Amsterdam. Police reports said van Gogh was stabbed and then shot dead by an unnamed assailant near the Oosterpark in east Amsterdam. The killer then engaged police in a shootout before being wounded and arrested. The great-grandson of […]
Those Florida voting machines…
With the US elections over and done with, what interest will there be now in anything to do with the electronic voting systems used in many states, eg, Florida? Well, maybe if it’s funny. Humour is always subjective but I bet many of my American friends (especially Democrats, which is most of them, actually) will […]
eBay expands in The Netherlands
eBay is buying Marktplaats, the biggest online buy/sell site in The Netherlands, the Wall Street Journal reports today, for about €225 million. eBay said it wanted to strengthen its position in The Netherlands, where 70% of the population uses the internet (that’s about 11 million people) and there is a strong and historic tradition of […]
Dutch freedoms under real threat
The news this morning of the burning down of a mosque in the eastern part of The Netherlands is the latest worrying development here following the murder of Theo van Gogh, the controversial Dutch filmmaker who was gunned down in Amsterdam on 2 November. There have now been more than 20 incidents like this in […]
The changing face of Dutch society
The Daily Telegraph carries a front-page report today about how an exodus of native-born Dutch in search of a new life abroad has reversed immigration flows for the first time since the post-WW2 era. The report says that, last year, more people left The Netherlands than arrived as migrants or asylum seekers, even though unemployment […]
Car in Amsterdam canal drama
So I’m taking a ten-minute break this lunchtime, catching up with the newspapers (some dead-trees reading for a change) when I hear this loud ‘bang’ from outside along with people yelling. "What on earth was that?" I said to my wife. I jump to the window – and there’s a car in the canal. And […]
Sunrise
Sunrise, 9:30am this morning, looking south-east across the World Trade Center in Amsterdam. A wonderful start to the day.
Netherlands hard line on immigration
The Dutch government is proposing that people applying to live in The Netherlands will have to take an examination to prove that they understand the language and culture, before they get here. Today’s Daily Telegraph carries a report on proposals that were announced in parliament on Thursday, where Rita Verdonk, the Minister for Integration and […]
Firefox extensions add great functionality
One of the great things about Firefox is the vast range of extensions you can add it to. These are little applications that you install into the browser which give you some great additional functionality. My two current favourites are Tab Browser Preferences (adding enhanced control over what you can do with tabs) and Spellbound […]
A chaotic day to travel
It’s amazing what a little snow will do to mess up your best-laid plans. Today I was due to be away in the UK for a couple of days, mixed business/pleasure trip. Things didn’t quite go as planned. Because of the poor weather we’ve been having during the past few days (here are some photos […]