欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

Brexit for me (an EU resident)

What does the Brexit mean to someone like me (an EU resident)?

There seems to be an invisible wall between the Briton and the EU that came to almost visible just recently. I mean that the United Kingdom was part of the EU until recently in terms of the trade tarifs and labor market.I am an EU resident but not EU national.

Anyway, it was easy to buy something from the UK and receive it here in Luxembourg. I once drove there (of course I have use ferries to get across the English Channel) to enjoy the Tour de France when the event started from there (Yorkshire). I could choose trains instead via the tunnel but chose otherwise when I learned that I could not keep gas canisters (butane canisters for my cooking gear) onboard my car (and the train).

Driving on the wrong (?) side of the road in a car that has the driver's cockpit on the left side was noting new to me. I have done that more than a year in my Smart (retrofittingly called FourTwo or just simply the first generation of Smart) in Japan.

Now I have to pay import charges (whatever it is called, a kind of punishment for not shopping locally). First such incident took place just a week ago when I bought a used Dell PC from there. On Monday (Tomorrow from the point of writing) I will get it at the local DHL facility.


A secret eBay purchase

The second such incident will take place soon as I bought something from there via eBay.

I don't want to say that the Brexit sucks and I admire their decision (if they really decided - I mean after the recent US presidential election fraud, anything could have been possible when they had the first referendum).

The object that I won (through the auction) was something I had always wanted to own.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Brexit is taking its tolls (from me)]の続きを読む

テーマ:アメリカ大統領選 - ジャンル:政治・経済

1. 2021/01/31(日) 21:36:27|
2. Diary
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The Whole Truth 2016
(proud to announce that this was written with Mac mini G4 on Tiger 10.4.11 - TenFourFox)

Keanu Reeves!

My first impression when I saw the title of the movie and the starring actor was, " Have I seen it? Isn't it the one with Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron?"

I was wrong. That (the one I saw a long time ago,namely The Devil's Advocate) one was different.

Which was better? Equally entertaining.

By the way, here in Luxembourg, where French is the dominating written and spoken language, we call "avocado (of which guacamole is made)" "avocat" at the same time we call "lawyer" "avocat". Isn't that weird?

Speaking of fruit names, what do you call a pineapple? It seems that most people call it ananas or its spelling siblings. As its scientific name suggests, it is not hard to imagine that its original name was somewhat similar to ananas in its native indigenous places (South America).

I have asked a lot of people I met over the years what they call a pineapple. Most of them called it ananas. Of course Chinese people had different name for it as they normally choose to translate almost all foreign words by their meanings.

In Japanese we call it pineapple. In Japanese there is no article, definite or indefinite.

So far English and Japanese are the only languages I found that use "pineapple" I am very very sure that 99 % of Japanese don't know what a pine means.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [The whole truth 2016]の続きを読む

テーマ:観た映画感想 - ジャンル:映画

1. 2021/01/27(水) 20:34:39|
2. Diary
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Mac mini G4 (PowerPC10,1 1.42 GHz Mac OS X 10.4.11)

Nostalgia for days PowerPC CPUs were still hot (topic-wise) and Today they are still hot (temperature-wise). You know when they say "clockwise" and conterclockwise".

That (being hot) was the very reason Apple abandoned them as they were frustrated when PowerPC CPUs were too hot to get more computing power out of them and could not turn up the frequency clock. Intel CPUs were revving back then.

The PowerPC CPUs were lower clocked RISC CPUs. How about ARM CPUs as M1 chips? Back to where it started?

I wrote most this entry text on TextEdit (on the machine above mentioned) while watching a movie (MP4 H264) played by Core Player on the same machine.

It can handle H264 files while H265 files can not be handled by the PowerPC G4 (in this respect Intel Core Solo can not either).

My Mac mini Early 2009 (Dore 2 Duo 2 GHz) can play back H265 files.

It is only nostalgia for old days that I enjoy finding use out of this tiny beast.

TenFourFox (latest version) works well on it, too. I am uploading this using it.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Nostalgia for days PowerPC CPUs were still hot]の続きを読む

テーマ:Mac - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2021/01/25(月) 00:34:24|
2. MacBooks and Macs
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Need to update the BIOS on Optiplex 780

I realized by looking at one of the pictures that the seller (of my newly acquired used PC) put up that the BIOS version of it was A12.

By looking at the Dell's support page information that the last BIOS update version is A15. I am supposed to update it by using either a Windows environment or DOS environment. I can easily make a DOS bootable USB flash drive to complete the task using Rufus.

OK, I need to run Rufus but I need a Windows environment to run Rufus in the first place. So I need the Windows anyway.

This always plagues me. F*cking Windows problem!

Boss Level 2020

I remember a movie in a theater that I saw back in the days when I was still living in the great United States of America in the early 90's.

As you guessed it already, it was "Groundhog Day" featuring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowel. It is all about the main character trapped in a time loop where he repeats the day again and again until he gets it (dies) waking up to repeat the day again.

Eventually, slowly and steadily, he finds the way to get out of the loop by learning the skills he needs and learning how to make a change in his own like finding what is important in his life.

Is it a remake? Actually, it is not a remake but it may have borrowed the idea from it.

Did I enjoy myself? Yes, I did.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Again DOS/WINDOWS problems and Boss Level 2020]の続きを読む

テーマ:観た映画感想 - ジャンル:映画

1. 2021/01/23(土) 16:53:13|
2. PCs
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Dell Optiplex 780 (No HDD / No Memory)

I am waiting for it to arrive. I have to buy SATA to 6 Pin adapter cable to accommodate a graphics card that requires an additional power source to operate.

SOSUMI

https://github.com/popey/sosumi-snap

I may have a shot at it when this Optiplex 780 is settled.


A camera device is wanted

iPhone 12?

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ
[Sosumi and camera devices]の続きを読む

テーマ:デスクトップパソコン - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2021/01/22(金) 18:33:46|
2. Linux
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Dell Optiplex 780 (stripped) purchased

I placed the order just minutes ago.

It is, I guess, a corporate lease return (or whatever it is, it is not my concern anyway). It does not have the HDD (and its caddy), memory modules or some small parts (PCI slot covers). It has been stripped to bare bones to protect the sensitive data that could have been stored on the hard disc drive. I understand the sensitivity of the matter but they (who stripped the drive) could have left the caddy.

It comes with the CPU but that is the very part I don't need anyway. It comes with one Core 2 Duo.

When it arrives, I will strip the current HP Pro 3120 and salvage its HDD, memory modules, CPU (Core 2 Quad Q9500) and cables.

I have an Nvidia GTX 650 Ti (1 GB) that has been misdelivered a long time ago. It needs additional power supplied with 6 pin connector. It came with an IDE-to-6 pin adapter cable. I need to modify the cable or buy an SATA2-to-6 pin adapter cable to accommodate the card.

Since it does not come with the caddy, I need to tape the HDD somewhere inside the chassis.

I will install Ubuntu Studio 20.10 on it. Currently it has Ubuntu Studio 20.04.

I will see if Haiku OS works.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Dell Optiplex 780 (stripped) purchased]の続きを読む

テーマ:デスクトップパソコン - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2021/01/21(木) 14:53:39|
2. PCs
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Winter Tires on my Mazda MX-5 (ND)

I have not yet changed the tire / wheel set on my car from Summer tires to Winter tires. I have been lazy. I haven't used my car that frequently recently. It has not snowed that much for the last few years. I thought I could get away with not changing them.

Mac mini (Firs Intel version)

I am watching some movies on my Mac mini1,1 (Intel Core Solo 1.5 GHz) that I pulled out of the corner of my room. It has been disused for quite some time (a year? or more?).

It works very well. It is quite a reasonable decision that Steve Jobs decided (probably was forced to decide) to move away from the PowerPC platform to Intel CPUs back then when PowerPC CPUs were going nowhere.

I have more than one PowerPC G4 Mac minis but those are far less zippy than this Core Solo version.

Apple seems to be moving away from the Intel platform to ARM CPUs even for its computer devices. Apple has been using them for their phones and tablets for years.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Winter (Mud + Snow) tires and Mac mini1,1 (Core Solo 1.5 GHz)]の続きを読む

テーマ:Mac - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2021/01/19(火) 22:55:03|
2. Diary
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HP or Dell

My broken (possibly fried mainboard) HP Pro 3120 SFF features the Intel® G43 / G45 Express chipset. It supports Core 2 Quad CPUs.

Since I bought an Core 2 Quad Q9500 after buying the HP Pro 120 SFF that originally came with the Intel Pentium Dual-Core (E5500?? or something). The performance almost doubled in a way.

I would like to get a new "used" PC so that I can use the remaining salvageable parts from it.

I looked around.

Option 1. (Maybe using the least amount of money)
Buying the mainboard (of HP Pro 3120)

Option 2.
Buying a cheap HP Pro 3120 Mini-Tower (because I already know what to expect and also I can use a full height PCI card)

Option 3.
Buying a cheap PC that has the Intel® G43 / G45 Express chipset like Dell Optiplex 780

Option 1. is easy and indeed I pay the least but I won't be able to use a full height PCI card (graphics card) this way.
Option 2. is possible but I haven't found ones that are cheap enough.
Option 3. seems to be the way to go as I found relatively cheap ones sold without memory modules and a HDD.

I would have paid for a stripped Dell Optiplex 780 if I did not have to pay for the import charges. When I include the inevitable import charges, suddenly the deal does not feel like a bargain.

Brexit effects

It was done recently. Until that buying things from the UK involved paying no import charges. Now what happened?

Now I think I have to pay import charges (extra tax) on things that I buy from the UK.


In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ
[HP or Dell and Brexit effects]の続きを読む

テーマ:デスクトップパソコン - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2021/01/17(日) 23:48:40|
2. PCs
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0. Donald John Trump

What is going to happen? What is his next move? I am thrilled to hear from him.


1. Snow in Luxembourg (photos to follow)

Snow! It has been snowing since Yesterday (?), January 13, 2020.

It is not so usual to have snow accumulated more than 4 or 5 cm (2 inches) although it is not so unusual to see it snow a couple of times during one Winter season.

I will take some photos Tomorrow and post them here (for posterity).

2. ebay shopping (looking for a cheap PC)

Currently I am looking for a cheap desktop PC (AMD / Intel CPUs) as my HP Pro 3120 SFF died on me a few days ago. It is not urgent so I will take time to get a bargain.

3. Tenet

I thought it was only me who is struggling to grasp the story. I found many people (on YouTube) explaining the Physics terms (Entropy or Antimatter, or others) or giving detailed timeline schemes to help one understand story.

I want to understand the story.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Snow in Luxembourg (photos to follow)]の続きを読む

テーマ:観た映画感想 - ジャンル:映画

1. 2021/01/14(木) 20:48:52|
2. PCs
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HP Pro 3120 SFF died on me

My cheap used PC, HP Pro 3120 SFF (Small Form Factor) died on me Today. Yesterday, I plugged in the power code for the first time in 3 months. It worked fine Yesterday, Both Ubuntu Studio and Haiku OS booted up and worked fine.

Today, I switched it on and it only gave beeping notes. I think it just died on me.

Originally it came with Pentium Dual Core (E5500? or ) but I upgraded it to Core 2 Quad Q9500.

How or what should I do about it? It is not my main PC so it is not urgent not it it not imperative to make it work.

I have roughly 4 options.

1. Buying a replacement mainboard (ebay)
2. Buying an HP Pro 3120 (SFF) and recycle the CPU, Memory modules and HDD from this dead one
3. Buying a similar LGA 775 PC (used) and recycle (ditto)
4. Other than above, provided it is within my budget limit

Option 1. would cost me 50 to 60 Euros after paying for the shipping charges.

Option 2. would cost me 70 Euros (ditto)

Option 3. (for example HP Pro 3120 MT) would cost me 70 to 80 Euros.

Option 4. (for example HP Pro 3130 MT with Intel i3 540 or 550) would cost me over 100 Euros.

*i3 540 / 550 is roughly comparable to Core 2 Quad Q9500 on the data sheet.

I have an NVIDIA graphics card (used GT6**?) that I got for free. It can go in to a normal PCI slot but not the low profile PCI slot inside a typical SFF case.

Option 3. seems to be reasonable enough.

What is going to happen?

Nancy Pelosi's attempt to impeach the President failed miserably. Where is she, anyway? She did not appeared that day. I assume she was on her way to H*ll where she b*rns in eternal fire.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [HP Pro 3120 SFF died on me and America First]の続きを読む

テーマ:アメリカ大統領選 - ジャンル:政治・経済

1. 2021/01/12(火) 22:49:46|
2. PCs
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President Trump

"What is going on?" Or should I say, "When does it happen?"

Is it happening at all? I am holding my breath. I want to see it happen. He is the rightfully chosen President of the United States of America.

As of January 11th, 2020, those mainstream media tell us (or want to sell) that J. B. is the next president. Who is going to buy it? I don't.

The choice he has by now is the military option. I believe it is happening. He said that he would not be attending the inauguration at the White House. I bet he won't be attending the one with JB. He will be attending the other one later.

Stop the Steal!
Stop the Steal!


COVID-19 Lockdown in Luxembourg

Luxembourg government seems to have announced that the lockdown (closing the business where taking off the masks can not be avoided) would be extended until the end of January.

Mainly restaurants and bar are affected. Some sporting businesses are also affected. Restaurants are allowed to give customers to-go orders or to deliver.

Supermarkets are open so people are not starving, of course.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [President Trump and COVID-19 Lockdown in Luxembourg]の続きを読む

テーマ:アメリカ大統領選 - ジャンル:政治・経済

1. 2021/01/11(月) 16:01:18|
2. Diary
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Tenet

I had to view it so many times to understand the story to feel good myself. You see, if I don't understand the story, I don't feel good.

One of the last missing links (to understand the story a whole) was the following point:

Background: Kat reminiscences a moment in her last vacation (around two weeks ago) in Vietnam when she saw a woman dive off the boat and her husband disappeared when they (she and her son) returned from ashore. She told this story to the Protagonist.

Toward the end of the movie, we (the audience) see Kat kills Andrei Sator (her husband) and dives off the boat and leaves with his dead body.

Wait a moment!!!

The problem: If he had been killed two weeks ago, the whole story that is in front of us would NOT include Andrei Sator at all. What the f*ck?

It did not make any sense at all!! This has been troubling me for some time.

Now I got it I think finally.

The wounded (or healing) Kat returns to her last vacation (after moving back in time in a container) to kill her husband. She comes onboard and waits for him. Andrei flew onboard in a helicopter. He says, "I came back to see you and Max."

This line is subtle and sounds innocent but it means that I came back "in time" after acquiring the last piece of Algorithm to complete the mission of destroying the world to have the last moment of his life.

So the soon-to-get-killed Andrei does not belong to the world as of two weeks ago. Probably the Andrei of two weeks ago left for somewhere on an errand. The Andrei of two weeks later knew it and came onboard the boat in his (himself from two weeks earlier) absence to avoid direct contact with the other himself.

So the moment Kat showed her scar, he knew that this Kat was not the Kat he had expected to see but the other Kat who would be determined to kill him.

Now that this is out of the way, I have to deal with Neil's business.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Tenet 2020, a movie I had to view it so many times]の続きを読む

テーマ:観た映画感想 - ジャンル:映画

1. 2021/01/10(日) 17:07:03|
2. Diary
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Tenet 2020 Revisited

First of all, I was greatly disappointed by what I saw on January 6th, 2021. It is not decided but ...


I watched Tenet again to understand the story. It was my fourth time in a short period of time.

Small conversations among the characters meant a lot in the story and I had missed many of those small strings of words in the first one, second or third viewing. This fourth time, I was careful not to miss them.

Now I am starting to understand the whole story.

Tenet is a palindrome meaning that it can be read the same when read in reverse. I think this word was chosen by the writer/director himself because the story or the concept of inverting the entropy can be seen as a two faced word such as tenet.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Tenet (2020) revisited]の続きを読む

テーマ:観た映画感想 - ジャンル:映画

1. 2021/01/07(木) 23:42:07|
2. Diary
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I wish I could fly to Washington D.C.

... to be part of the history. History is an English word but I am afraid if this word might be history.

You know the political correctness stuff? Some people say that the leftists are pushing the idea to the limit and they are hunting words that suggest gender ideas in general. They want to delete words like man and woman, son and daughter or father and mother.

History is sometimes interpreted as "His" "Story" thus does not reflect the female side of the historical narration. This word must be on their list.

Anyway, what is going to happen in Washington D.C. U.S.A. on January sixth, 2020, a few days from now?

I am hoping that President Trump declares victory and claims the rightful his second term in the office there.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [January 6, 2020 What is going to happen?]の続きを読む

テーマ:アメリカ大統領選 - ジャンル:政治・経済

1. 2021/01/06(水) 23:49:09|
2. Diary
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Tenet (2020)

Confusing. mind-boggling. Complicated. Not easy to understand.

Whatever I may say, it is not easy to give a short comment on the subject. The subject is this movie, "Tenet".

Because it involves so-called time travel with a different angle.

Understanding the concept of time travel in movies, it used to be simple. "Back to the Future" (original, part II or part III, whichever) was an entertaining movie (or series of movies or sequels) and it was relatively easy to follow the story line

Time Cop (Jean-Claude Van Damme) was also an entertaining movie. I went to a movie theater on late evening with a friend of mine (a Swiss citizen) while I was living in the USA (Santa Monica, California). It was a movie theater somewhere near Hollywood area. So we just went to see a movie and decided to watch the movie. We did not know anything about the movie. We just sat in a relatively quiet and deserted place.

The first thing we read on the screen was the actual date so we were really surprised. I don't remember the exact date but if you watch the movie and watch closely the beginning part, you will see the exact date that we watched the movie in the real world as opposed to the fictitious date set in the movie.

Austin Powers movies was also one of them. At some point where time travel was involved, Austin Powers assured us that the concept of time travel was not complicated and that we should just sit back and relax ourselves not worrying about the complication of the entangled time line and enjoy the movie.

I have to stop here because Hannah is here on my lap and I can not continue now.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Tenet 2020, a movie that I had to watch several times]の続きを読む

テーマ:観た映画感想 - ジャンル:映画

1. 2021/01/03(日) 01:11:07|
2. Diary
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Hannah, are you fat?

I am a bit worried if my beloved Hannah is a bit too fat. She likes to have pouched wet food. I give her usually 4 to 5 servings of around 85 grams of wet food. She demands them. I hope she is OK and not too fat.

The failed business model?

The business model that my beloved cycling sport (road bike race) teams are forced to adopt is fatally critically faulty. This was what I wrote about.

Now I write about something about whom I think we should point our finger to responsible for this business model.

In Europe, where most of the riders in the peloton are born, raised and reside, many of the spectators along side the race course and start / finish zones are their family members (including their girlfriends and her family members), relatives, friends and people who live in the same community who regularly see and chat. This situation (phenomenon) is very true for men's and women's sport, I guess.

I am not one of the them, I mean, I am an outsider. But When I go to racing events, I run into them.

For those (people described above) and their supporters (or simply fans), it does not matter whether the rider they come to see wins or loses.

For those it matters more to see the rider come back to the team bus in one piece (safe and sound) where he hangs the bike up and rests than to see the rider finish the race or quit (after their mission is completed). It is not about winning or losing at all. It sometimes happens that the very girlfriend who comes to the race event does not know anything about what her boyfriend does there really. Yeah, she may be aware that he rides a bike for living but she may not be aware what he really does there (riding to win or being a domestic for other riders).

UCI people may think that one winning rider can be more valuable than handful of domestics to attract big sponsors (corporate sponsors) and media especially broadcasting companies. This kind of big money would ultimately make UCI's income sweeter. Money means power, too.

Some teams have enough money to get one or more of those winning riders on their roster. Some teams struggle to get enough money to sign expensive points-loaded riders.

So I say, why don't UCI loosen the point system a bit to let those struggling teams breath, give them some slack.

I know UCI can not ask ASO to give participating teams part of the TV broadcasting profit. ASO is much much stronger than UCI as it organize the Tour de France and la Vuelta a Espana (ASO bought the organizer of the Vuelta). Now they are invincible.

So what should UCI do in order to make ASO listen to UCI? This is the key to solving the problem, namely changing the business models.

There was a talk that some US businesses making a breakaway league hoping ASO's monopoly to end. Obviously the the talk did not come through. Perhaps they tried to come up with the Tour de USA or the Tour of USA.

I think it won't work. Any great road bike racing should take place in Europe, where ... (ditto). UCI is not taking those insider spectators (family members,friends, relatives, neighbors) seriously. They should start making those audience closer to them. Hardcore audience can influence more people and this chain of reaction might reach to the point where businesses (sponsors) come to the side of fans and not to the side of big organizers like ASO.

I am talking about a democratic revolution, here. This is a ground-up movement.

So how specifically? How practically? How??

I am going to write my ideas in future entries.

One very important note: I am not saying that UCI should take control of ASO. On the contrary, I am saying that ASO's powerfulness, its lack of respect for UCI makes my mind peaceful and I sleep sound at night.

Any overbearing bureaucratic organization can become corrupt and when it does, it is very harmful and dangerous. It threatens the well-being of others. FB** is corrupt as to ignore the irregularities that took place in that election and so is CI*. I don't have any assurance that UCI is so. That is why I say this.

In Japanese: 日本語でどうぞ [So-called Business model issue II]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車ロードレース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2021/01/02(土) 22:11:20|
2. Bike Races
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