Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Computer crash

Yesterday, my fileserver crashed. I noticed this when I tried to check my mails and couldn't connect to internet. (The fileserver also serves as DHCP and DNS.)
Because I had an exam this morning, I couldn't investigate why the server had stopped working.
Tonight I had some time to look into it. After some testing I found out the power supply (PSU) failed.
So I can repair my computer by buying a new PSU tomorrow, instead of having to replace the motherboard. So, I'm quite lucky.

Strangely enough I replaced the PSU with a a more expensive one only last year. According to its specs it would last for nearly four years. It turns out that the PSU doesn't comply with its specs. :-(

Sunday, June 03, 2007

And the winner is ...

Anna Vinnitskaya won the first prize of the Queen Elisabeth contest for piano 2007. As I mentioned earlier this week, Anna Vinnitskaya was a strong favorite to win this year's edition of the contest.
Second prize was for Plamena Mongova. Third was Francesco Piemontesi, and Ilya Rashkovskiy, who impressed yesterday, was fourth.
The only Belgian finalist, Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort, got the sixth prize. He also won the Klara-Sternefeld prize, which is awarded by the public and the viewers and listeners on radio and television.

For a complete overview of the laureates and finalists, you can check the Klara website.

It was the first time since 1968 that the Queen Elisabeth contest for piano was won by a woman.
It was also several years ago that a Belgian contestant was able to reach the finals.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

The big donor show

Last night, Dutch television station BNN broadcasted a game show called 'De grote donorshow' (The big donor show). 'Lisa', a terminally ill woman with a brain tumor, who turned out be an actress, was to donate a kidney to one of three contestants during a 80 minute TV-show. She had to choose who was going to get her kidney after talking to them and their families.
At the conclusion of the show, when Lisa had to choose, the moderator revealed that the show was a hoax. The ill woman was in fact a healthy actress. The contestants were really waiting for a kidney to be donated, but they were informed that the show wasn't real.

The makers of the show didn't plan to do an actual donor contest. The goal of the hoax was to draw attention to the lack of organ donors in The Netherlands. Five years ago, BNN founder Bart de Graaff died, because no suitable kidney donor could be found to help him.

The show drew a lot of attention in The Netherlands and abroad. Both CNN and BBC reported about the fake donor show. It seems the producers of the show reached their goal.