nrc.nl: “Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals”
Archive for the ‘Netherlands’ Category
A nice problem to have
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009It’s electric!
Friday, March 27th, 2009nrc.nl – International – Watch out – electric cars are coming to Amsterdam
Apparently only electric vehicles will be allowed in Dutch city centers. In 2040.
This is proof…
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009…that the Dutch always have the best looking money.
This commemorative €5 coin design was a submission to a Dutch government competition on money and architecture. It was created using Python, the Dutch programming language. 
Found on the website of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, which is very awesome in its own right.
Artifical Nature
Monday, September 22nd, 2008As the saying goes, God made the world but the Dutch made the Netherlands. Of course, no landscape is untouched: walk through the British countryside and what seems to be untouched forests and hills turn out be forests planted several centuries ago and hills continuously molded over the past millenia by human activity. On the road from Haarlem to Schipol I once saw a grass-covered ziggurat-shaped hill with an incredibly straight alley of trees running by it. Rather than pretending that their environment isn’t man-made – the British aren’t the only offenders at maintaining such an illusion though I think they’re some of the worst – the Dutch celebrate the artificialness of their landscape. Building on that thought, there’s a great piece in the Herald Tribune about an MIT professor encouraging a polluted region in Italy to embrace man-made nature.
Holland’s Finest
Saturday, August 9th, 2008Blind Spots
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008What awaits the iPhone in Europe? – International Herald Tribune
Wow. What a stupid article. Don’t get it me wrong, it’s well written and I think the central point, that iPhone sales in Europe have disappointed, is correct. However, I think they completely missed the reason why. It’s simple: many Europeans are buying iPhones in the US. Cracked iPhones are much cheaper (would you rather pay €400 or $400?) and they’re really easy to get. I know lots of people that buy several iPhones when visiting the US, and there are even companies that give them away in contests here in the Netherlands. Consider this:
Fueling speculation about an imminent strategic change by Apple are early sales of the device in Europe. Strategy Analytics, a research firm in Milton Keynes, England, estimates that Apple sold 350,000 iPhones in Europe in the fourth quarter of last year, below what it claims is Apple’s internal forecast of 500,000 devices.
The research firm also estimates that iPhone sales slowed to 300,000 in the first three months of this year.
But we’ve also heard that 1 million US iPhones were never registered with AT&T. Assuming that 2/5 of those unlocked phons went to Europe (which seems to be a reasonable guess to me), that’s 100,000 extra phones ‘purchased’ each quarter in Europe, which means Apple is actually close to its targeted sales.
Banking Thoughts
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008I just got off the phone with Charles Schwab and I’m got some stuff to say.
First, I was shocked when the person helping me didn’t know how to answer my questions immediately. I had gotten so used to solving my problems within a minute of calling Schwab that I was honestly surprised to hear the woman say, “I don’t know. Let me check with someone here.” It didn’t help that she and her colleagues ended up having to wrestle with the system for almost 30 minutes to delete an automatic transfer, disconnecting me twice while I was on hold. That being said, they solved the problem, were very friendly and helpful, and offered me $100 for my ‘troubles’. Now that’s how to ensure customer satisfaction! (more…)
Firemen
Monday, March 31st, 2008
Tell me that doesn’t look a burning book. Little did you know that the Dutch police are actually firemen. Speaking of weird things, the Amsterdam police offer a 360 degree tour of a police HQ.
The Big Three
Thursday, February 28th, 2008While Ford, GM and Chrysler used to dominate American industry, you can’t really talk about The Big Three anymore. But there’s still one set of big three transportation companies: the main Dutch bicycle companies!
First, because I have one:
I can’t say that there are any sort real difference between the companies, though I do really like Sparta’s logo:
MobyPicture Test
Friday, November 9th, 2007
A test from www.mobypicture.com
