Peter's Blog

Within past three months I was called couple of times by my ISP’s (UPC) representatives. They offered me to change my Internet plan from 15Mb/s to 10, of course price would be lowered by 80-100 CZK, but I’ve declined it as I prefer to have faster than cheaper connection. Last call wast a little offensive as guy when I’ve declined his offer became angry and was very close to call me an idiot (at least it’s my feeling). He was trying to daunt me saying that they’re planning to lower rates for everybody in my block anyway, so I would stay paying more for the same what everybody else got. I’ve refused it as I got my contract signed for certain speed. But on Friday they’ve called me again and offered 25Mb/s for 25 CZK more (around 1.20 USD), obviously I’ve accepted it and since Saturday I’m enjoying higher speed. Don’t let anybody fool you, if you have a contract it’s obligatory for both sides, not only you.

Today finally, after three weeks of waiting, I’ve received my Magic Mouse. Christmas gift from my lovely wife. I must say that I’m impressed. It takes a while to switch from MacBook’s touch pad, but it’s worth it. It’s pretty accurate, but it’s not surprise as it’s laser based. At last I have a mouse which is wireless, blue-tooth. My previous mice were wireless, but always radio based, so they got often jammed by other media. Here I got very decent connection and it’s fast. Now I can move precisely and quickly around Mac OS, everything takes less time and is more enjoyable. What is a little bad is the fact that you have different gestures for mouse than for touch pad. It’s not very convenient as I must remember two sets of gestures, but will live. Also for minus is the clicking sound when hitting one of two “normal” buttons, it sounds like in very old mice. I hope I would get used to it. Scroll is amazing, very fast. No problems with gestures, I have a feeling that Magic Mouse is more responsive than touch pad. And of course now I can easily select multiple files and drag and drop them wherever I want, it wasn’t so easy without my rodent. I like it, a lot.

Again thanks to my wife, she always know how to make me happy:)

As we know main sync software on Mac OS X is ITunes. And you’re probably aware of the fact that smartphones based on Windows Mobile (like my Samsung) are not compatible with this sync method. Have no fear! There is great app called SyncMate which will solve all your problems (at least related to syncing). In basic (free) version it syncs calendar and contacts which is really enough for me, but if you’re willing to pay for expert edition you can sync literally everything. Just tested and it’s really working! Love it!

Since yesterday I’m happy owner of MacBook Pro! I’ve waited long time and had many other desktops and laptops in the past, but finally I have it:) And it was a good deal, so double win, or like Americans like to say win win. And guess what? Yes, you’re right I’m writing this message from my new Mac!

As I’m still a newbie everything keeps amazing me. I’m really surprised what Mac OS offers right out the box. I’ve read a lot before I’ve bought it, but still shocked how easy it is to do anything on this computer. From the moment I’ve took it out from the box to be completely operable passed like 2-3, and it was already connected to the Internet! No more drivers. Most programs I need for day-to-day usage was already there, so to customize everything to my needs took me a lot less time than with Windows. And of course my favorite terminal is here! I can now log in to my Linux servers without third party programs. Pretty amazing. Hope everything be so fine in the future of my Mac journey.

Last Sunday in Prague was fantastic! It’s amazing city with a lot of places worth seeing. A little overcrowded, but still has it’s feel. See the pictures!

I’ve recently switched from hosted Exchange account to GMail and had about 100 of contacts in my Outlook data file. Too much to enter manually, but luckily GMail is offering import function using CSV files. Yuppi I’ve said. But it was too soon to celebrate victory. It came out that my Import/Export option in Outlook File menu is grayed (disabled). Have no fear Google is here, I’ve said and started searching. Unfortunately without results. I was mad and still don’t want to enter everything manually, so I’ve left it as is (only few most important contacts on my GMail account).

And today the resolution came to me suddenly (I believe that I’ve finally rested a little, so my brain started to work), there is Polish software company (CodeTwo) which is developing very useful tools for MS Exchange. I was using their products many times. So I’ve visited their website and found what I was looking for. CodeTwo Outlook Export ladies and gentlemen it is. It’s great, but tiny tool, which gives you ability to export every data from Outlook to CSV. And even let you give custom names to the fields you’re importing (useful when you’re using localized version of Outlook (as I did) and want to import exported data to app which doesn’t support your local names). After few minutes of adjustments I’ve gained full list of my contacts on my GMail account. Happy!

As always with delay, but at least, writing. The weekend of 8-9th of November I’ve spent in Vienna with my girlfriend Ariette. As I’ve only about 140 km to there from the place I live it wasn’t long trip. But I was planning it for a long time. And it was awesome. It’s one the prettiest cities on the world, yeah, I know that I’ve written it before. A real must see.

But the best thing was that I was for the first time in my life riding on roller-coaster. That’s pretty fun. Ariette was screaming all the time. And I’ll never forget that first when train was going up she said “oh, how nice” and after that it was only “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and “o fuck, somebody must stop this!!!”. I wasn’t so scared as I like speed, but then came my turn. We were having a ride on a giant wheel. And I was really freaked out, as I have debilitating fear of heights.

Here you can see how I look when scared:

I’ll try to post more pictures from Vienna as soon as I’ll fix my gallery.

I’ve attended company event last weekend in Slovakia. It was in the beautiful village called Cicmany. It was nice, but a little crazy. As we were really overworked we wanted to relax, fully relax. So we’ve drunk everything what was in sight, I mean everything. Well, sometimes a man must just reset his mind. And I did it, successfully:)

Anyway beside of drinking there were also other nice activities such as walking on beautiful hills in great company, bow shooting (no, I’m definitively not next Robin Hood for sure, but it was quite nice), and of course pig killing. No I wasn’t killing the pig myself, people from the pension took care of it. And trust me there is nothing better than meat from fresh killed pig. I was about post here the pictures of killing the pig, but decided that it would be too brutal for some people.

So, here I am. Fresh, relaxed, and ready for the next part of exhausting work.

From now on I’m adding second name to my list of favorite writers. First is of course Stephen King. And now second is Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five and I was amazed. Now I’m reading Cat’s Cradle and I know that this is it. This guy is talking to me. My language. My type of thinking. Wow! Unfortunately Mr. Vonnegut died in 2007 so he would not give me new masterpieces. But there are still so many books and short stories he written and I need to read, that I feel safe. For now. But I know that after I’ll read the last, I would miss something. Like a family member. Unbelievable feeling.

I was so overworked that I forgot to write that I had a very short vacation this year. And yes, I was in Hungary. I’ve seen the most beatiful lake in the world, Balaton. But weather was awful so I haven’t been in the water:( I was also in the capital of Hungary, Budapest. And I must say wow! It’s the most beatiful city I’ve ever seen. The feel when you’re walking on these very tight streets, it’s underscriptable. You must see and feel it yourself. And these buildings, very old, and quite different from the rest of Europe that I know. It was very nice to be there.

Oh, and I was not alone. I was there with my better half and she made many pictures, I mean a lot! She also fell in love at the first sight when she saw Budapest. So we definitively would have to go there again, this time for longer. Maybe even next year.

Of course I’ve eaten many dishes from Hungarian cuisine, which is world famous. I don’t remember the names, but I’ve really enjoyed it. And it was affordable:)

It was really wonderful time. If you want watch a little of Hungary, then I’m inviting you to my gallery. Well, only gallery is mine, cause all photos are made by Ariette.

Hungary