Blurb.com photo album software in Dutch
September 10, 2011 - Gyuri van de BiltBlurb.com simply is the only photo album printing service that makes me happy! Last year I did quite some research on what service works nicely if you are a Apple Mac user. After a lot of frustration I stumbled upon blurb.com. In one word: brilliant! And if I can add another word: service! My first album had a page that was printed wrong. At least it was due to a software issue that I thought I was getting a fully covered page but in fact part of it printed blank…. While trying to figure out the issue, they sent me 4 albums until they got it right.
Additionally with blurb.com you can easily publish your own book, without upfront investments and blurb taking caring of manufacturing, shipping and payment handling. So you can just focus on marketing your book!
Now that blurb will also provide their software in Dutch, I think they should be able to gain market share rapidly.
Try blurb? During the month september 2011 you can make a book/album and get their best quality paper for no additional cost. To benefit from this offer choose ProLine Pearl or ProLine Uncoated paper from the “Upgrade to Pro” options, and enter the promo code FREEPRO at checkout.
VPS performance - VPS.net vs. Leaseweb
November 3, 2010 - Gyuri van de BiltI did some testing on both VPS.net and Leaseweb servers to determine which host would be better for I/O intensive jobs. Note that the Express cloud of Leaseweb has not been tested (yet), the Premium cloud is obviously a bit more expensive then VPS.net. For comparison reasons I also included a Leaseweb dedicated server with a SATA disk.
The test: what and how
- Sequential read speed using ‘hdparm -t /dev/sda1′
- Random access speed using a small tool called ‘seeker‘
The results
| Provider | Description | Avg. seq (MB/s) | Avg rnd (MB/s) / (seeks/s) |
| VPS.net | 1 node, London B | 15,05 | 39,63 / 25 |
| VPS.net | 4 nodes, London B | 72,92 | 22,10 / 46 |
| Leaseweb | Express - S | 72,48 | 1,78 / 566 |
| Leaseweb | Premium - L | 16,64 | 13,21 / 75 |
| Leaseweb | Dedicated | 72,48 | 13,22 / 75 |
Clearly Leaseweb Premium cloud servers seem to underperform in sequential reads, however it excels in random reads, which basicly is the most realistic real world scenario.
Update: added details for new Leaseweb Express servers as well, good performance for sure!
Leaseweb VPS cloud
November 3, 2010 - Gyuri van de BiltLeaseweb now has virtualization in 3 different categories: Express, Premium and Private cloud.
The difference is as follows:
| Cloud Specs | Express Cloud | Premium Cloud | Private Cloud |
| Disk Storage | SATA | FC | SATA/FC |
| OS | Any | Any | Any |
| High-Availability | - | x | x |
| Vmotion | - | x | x |
| Data Recovery | - | x | x |
| Hot Add | - | x | x |
| DRS | - | x | x |
| Storage Vmotion | - | x | x |
| vCenter | - | x | x |
| Shared Firewall | - | x | x |
| Dedicated Firewall | - | - | x |
| Load-Balancer | - | - | x |
| Private Vlan | - | x | x |
| Bandwidth Agr | - | - | x |
For price differences please have a look at Leaseweb.com.
Chronopost Macbook pro scam
January 25, 2010 - Gyuri van de BiltBe aware that buying a new Macbook pro for 450 EUR is simply impossible. It will be a scam (or at best a dead machine).
After finding such an ad on Marktplaats.nl I just had to check it out. The response is clear, they fake they are using a trusted third party, but obviously you will never see the money nor a macbook if you try to do business with these people…
Hi,
Are you interested in buying my product?The price for my item is 450 euro,all included.My item is new,in excellent condition and I am the first owner,everything is OK.
Now I am in London / Uk, because here is my family and my university.I want to sell my product because I need money for finish the university.The item is new in box with 12 months of international warranty.
Here’s how I go about the delivery and payment for the product is delivered through the company Chronopost and also give the opportunity to inspect the product before receiving payment for it.
I will explain step by step how this will work.
A. First you have to send me your shipping information (your name and address).
1. After receiving your shipping information, go to a delivery company Chronopost location and leave the product in your name and address as the receiver.
2. Chronopost check the product also the legal papers to see that all is well with him.
B. You will receive a notification of Chronopost as a confirmation that the product is in its custody, and also that the product has been tested.
1.Chronopost verify the transfer of money, and if everything is in order, will deliver the product to your door.
2. After you receive the product and you will be completely satisfied with it, Chronopost to give instructions to release the payment information to me so I can collect my money.
C. If for any reason, you will not be satisfied with the product, you will return to the product without charge Chronopost.
I will pay for shipping and the amount of transfer!!
Please answer me as soon as possible with your full name, address and I will start the operation a.s.a.p.Delivery: 2 days. I look forward to sending detaills like this:
Name:
Surname:
Address:
City / State:
Postal Code:
Country:If you are interested please answer me so that we can make for a good transaction!
Thank you and I`m waiting your reply,
Daniel Sanchez
See also:
A warning from Chronopost
A discussion on the macbook scam, which mentions that such a scam was previously done using the name of TNT as the trusted partner
Monitoring your networks/servers
September 21, 2008 - Gyuri van de BiltJust sharing a list of links and applications you may want to consider for monitoring your network / servers. (more…)
Intrum Justitia - SMS spam!
August 16, 2007 - Gyuri van de BiltVorige week ontving ik een door KPN voorgelezen SMS op mijn vaste lijn: “Bericht van 0704528835. Neem a.u.b. contact op met 0704528828 inzake dossier 53662476 m.b.t. Casema, bijvoorbeeld om een regeling te treffen.” Ik nam aan dat dit niet voor mij bedoeld was en heb in eerste instantie dus ook niet gebeld. (more…)
Vloeistofregeling luchthaven tegen gelegenheidsterrorist?
August 3, 2007 - Gyuri van de BiltTegenwoordig mag je geen flesjes, blikjes etc. meer mee het vliegtuig in nemen. Uitgezonderd zijn verpakkingen waarin minder dan 100 ml. vloeistof zit en See-buy-fly producten die zijn gekocht (en gesealed) op de luchthaven. Maar stopt deze regeling ook de professionele terrorist?
(more…)