Having lived in Amsterdam and Rotterdam for over a decade, this list of 82 pictures brought many memories back. Unlike in the USA, where everyone drives their SUV to the shops less than 1 km away, in Holland, they do it differently. The preferred method of transportation is the bicycle or "fiets". Of course, for longer trips there is excellent public transportation and yes, people do own cars as well, albeit smaller ones.

Soon after I learned to walk, the bike was the next logical method of going places...everywhere: to school, the grocery store, library, football games, etc and this in the almost constant rain or freezing, windy, bitter winters of Holland.

"[in Holland] there are many cyclepaths and other segregated cycle facilities. The network stretches to all provinces, and the bordering nations Belgium and Germany. The country values its cycleways as much as any other method of transportation - like a network of roads, these cycleways can take you from any city to a destination of your choice - even on long distances such as from Maastricht to Amsterdam. These cycleways come in many forms, with their own set of rules and systems - including traffic signals (or traffic lights), tunnels and lanes. " (via wikipedia).

Read more:  http://www.ski-epic.com/...

The new Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 is ready to be downloaded.  You can get it here: 

Visual Studio 2008 (formerly called "Orcas") is Microsoft's new flagship software development product for computer programmers. With features like multi-targeting support, Javascript Intellisense, AJAX support and LINQ, it sure promises to be a fully featured and exciting release. You can find the complete feature list in this white paper.

Read more: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/...

Whether you acquire this valuable skill or it is natural in you, it is one that one simply must have to be able to interact, socialize and simply succeed in your relationships with anyone you know or encounter in the future.

Everyone is unique and so are their thaughts. The true art lies in being able to listen properly, communicate accordingly and whether you get your point across or not, whether you convince the other person or not, maintain the relationship intact or stronger than it was, even if no mutaul agreement was reached.

Here is an excellent article that highlights some of these points that one should keep in mind in any discussion.

Read more: http://johnplaceonline.com/...

Visual Studio is a very complex and complete piece of software and I use it everyday. I have very few add-ins for it simply because it really comes with everything I need. However, there is one thing, one key feature that I find is missing. I had written about it before and that is the lack of FTP support for web applications.

Sometimes, you just need to be able to make changes to a file, run it locally to verify that it works and being able to upload it directly to the webserver from within VS. I know there is some support for it, but frankly I think it was placed in there at the last minute...it is unusable. So, I think I have finally found a product that does the job decently exactly as I expect it to. It is an add-in to VS2005 and it is called Dispatch .

"Dispatch is VS plugin that helps you keep track of the files that need to be uploaded - all from within the comfort of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE."

Read more: http://dispatchasp.net/

Of course everyone has some advice on how to remove a stain from the carpet or how to avoid smelly shoes, but some of these 62 little known uses of vinegar just seem incredible.

Most are certainly worth trying and probably very efficient. However, until I try them out myself or see some solid proof I think I am going to remain somewhat skeptical about some of these solutions offered, especially ones like #54...

I just have the impression that the room won't smell as fresh as it says it will...

Read more: http://odyb.net/...

I don't exercise every day but I do wish I was more consistent about exercising regularly. It seems that every morning I decide that, this time, for real, I am going to start exercising every day.  I find myself waking up early and exercising for a few days and then suddenly, one morning I decide to skip a session and it goes downhill from there....until next Monday; then we start all over again.

So, what can we do about it? Here  is a  good article on how to make your exercise session an actual habit, like showering or brushing your teeth. We don't stop and think about either those activities, we just do them....if we could only do that with an exercise routine...

Read more: http://ririanproject.com/...

I read a post somewhere (truly can't remember where...) about the tools one uses to develop software and thought to myself: do the software tools or programs we use identify us?

I think it would it be safe to say that you can tell a lot from a person from what he is wearing or which software products he/she uses. Would you think doifferent of someone who told you they used x application...? maybe because you preferred another one?

Interesting questions, but I'd thought I'd post some of my own tools I use on a daily basis...

Here they are:

1. Visual Studio 2005 (IDE)
   
2. SQL 2005 Management Studio (Database)
   
3. Virtual PC / VMWare (PC Virtualization)
   
4. Winmerge (File/Folder differencing)
5. Fireworks / Paint.NET (Image editor)
6. Dispatch (VS FTP add-in)
7. SyncBack (FTP Syncronization)
8. Fiddler (HTTP debugger)
9. Axosoft Ontime (VS bug track add-in)

"Staying motivated is a struggle; our drive is constantly assaulted by negative thoughts and anxiety about the future. Everyone faces doubt and depression.

What separates the highly successful is the ability to keep moving forward."

There are 3 primary reasons we lose motivation.

1. Lack of confidence - If you don’t believe you can succeed, what’s the point in trying?
2. Lack of focus - If you don’t know what you want, do you really want anything?
3. Lack of direction - If you don’t know what to do, how can you be motivated to do it?

Read more:  http://www.pickthebrain.com/...

You just created your online access account for your brokerage account, just like many other online services you have created accounts for...

Which password did you pick? The same as usual...the same you use for all your other accounts? A different one? You have a different password for each site? Then, how do you remember all of them? Maybe you have some software application that remembers them for you.

Whichever our case, more likely than not, we don't spend much time thinking about the strength of our passwords, even though we are constantly reminded about the threats of not doing so...

Well, here is an article by John P. who shares how he would hack your password. Read it and it may make you want to change your passwords to something stronger...

Read more: http://onemansblog.com/...

"It is incredible, how many things never get their chance to be done simply because we're afraid to be the first ones to even try. We fear rejection and lack of acceptance, we fear a possible failure, and we generally would rather scrap a great idea than be courageous and adventurous enough to be the first. Well, it doesn't have to be this way." 

Excellent article highlighting many things that we all know are true; things that we know we should be doing, but simply don't out of fear of the unknown. 

I remember me as a kid staring up at the Space Mountain rollercoaster in Disney World and finally deciding I was not riding it, because [fill in any reason]. If only that kid knew how much fun he'd have if he had decided to ride... (that kid got to know 20 years later ho wmuch fun he had misse dout on).

Whether it is to do something that hasn't been done before by anyone, or it is something that we as individuals have never experienced, fear is factor that many of us let take control too easily and too frequently. 

Read more:  http://www.personaldevelopment.ie/...

I haven't really given it much though... generally I don't dislike my voice, unless it is recorded.

However, this is an interesting question. that is rarely taken into account. A person's voice tone is just like a facial characteristic. It is an attribute that is subconsciously recorded in the mind and tied to that person. the sound of the voice tells you about the person and the person's state...softspoken, confident, shy, nervous, obnoxious, etc.

Obviously, your voice is also very important when making a first impression. So, in order to enhance the way we come across to others, first time or not, here are some detailed explanations and exercises that anyone can do.

Read more:  Voice and Speech development

"Since Google Analytics was launched in 2005 it has become one of the top analytics packages for small to medium sized websites. Growth was initially slow due to the frustrating waiting list system initiated by Google to avoid over stretching their servers. Now that the waiting list has been removed anybody can sign up to use this great service."

Excellent tutorials on customizing, extending and simply making the most of Google Analytics.  

via BlogStorm: Advanced use of Google Analytics Part I and Part II

Sushi is one of my favourite foods and if it weren't so expensive, I think I could eat it everyday. I had my first sushi about 8 years ago and have since then mastered the art of eating with chop sticks and everything there is to know about the many variety of sushi and sushi rolls.

Only to realize, that I have been completely ignorant about the true etiquette of eating sushi. Sushi is eaten with your hands and not chopsticks! That and much, much more about sushi that you didn't know can be found below.

Read more:  http://www.trevorcorson.com/...

However, if you really want to know the truth about sushi, you will have to watch this undercover video...

Don't compromising your PC. I recently stumbled upon this tools that has received good reviews and its concept seems to make very good sense. It works very similar to the saved state or differencing in virtualization software: the differences are stored in a temporary storage that does not have access to the underlying system. Therefore, if you decide that the software you just tried, is no good, you can just delete the differences and everything returns to its original state.

From the website: "When you run a program on your computer, data flows from the hard disk to the program via read operations. The data is then processed and displayed, and finally flows back from the progam to the hard disk via write operations. Sandboxie changes the rules such that write operations do not make it back to your hard disk. If you run Freecell inside the Sandboxie environment, Sandboxie reads the statistics data from the hard disk into the sandbox, to satisfy the read requested by Freecell. When the game later writes the statistics, Sandboxie intercepts this operation and directs the data to the sandbox.

The transient nature of the sandbox makes it is easy to get rid of everything in it. If you were to throw away the sandbox, by deleting everything in it, the sandboxed statistics would be gone for good, as if they had never been there in the first place."

I have yet to try it, but this will be definitively one that I will check out. Of course, as with every other software I try, I will use Virtual PC to see if it does what it says it does....

Read more: http://www.sandboxie.com/