Famagusta Gazette reports that a partial Lunar eclipse will be visible from Cyprus tonight.  For the photography fans among you, it’s probably a good time to review moon photography tips.  The thing to remember is that even though shooting at night, the moon is lit by the sun, which means you’ll need to use pretty much the same settings as for the bright daylight - tele-zoom lens, tripod, f/16, 1/80 - 1/100.  Good luck, and don’t forget to share your pictures after!

Point Nine is looking for some talanted people.  They are working in the financial sector, and seeking Python and C++ programmers, as well as Linux system administrators.  They seem to be an interesting company, judging both by their technology stack and hiring techniques.   For example, I’ve spotted their job ad on The Daily WTF.  Cool stuff.  If I wasn’t working where I am working, I would have applied for the job already.

Here is a quote from the latest PrimeTel newsletter:

PrimeTel upgrades for even faster Internet speeds and provides 4Mbps / 512Kbps as an upgrade option for the PrimeHome and PrimeADSL2+ subscribers. The additional monthly fee for the PrimeHome subscribers is EUR65,92 while for the PrimeADSL2+ subscribers is EUR53,33. Read more

Anybody tried that already?

Note to PrimeTel : By the way, I’d much prefer an RSS feed from your site to those Greek emails that you send me. Thank you.

Theodotos sent me a message, letting me know of the upcoming Ubuntu / Fedora release party that will take place in Frederick University on May 17, 2008. Here is a quote from the announcement:

office furniture in Bulgaria

Taking the opportunity of the new releases of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Linux and Fedora 9 sulphur Linux we are organizing a party to celebrate the event. There are going to be Presentations, Installation workshops and pre-installed systems where you can test the new releases. There are
also free CDs with the new releases for everyone. You can bring your own computer too!
The event will take place on 17 of May, to the Campus of Frederick University in Limassol (near the Polemidia round-about) from 4:00 - 9:00 pm, at rooms 304 and 305 in the first floor

Basically, all you need to know is that there are going to be plenty of Linux geeks. If you need to know anything else, it’s in one of these two PDF files : announcement in English or leaflet.

P.S.: Apologies for an ancient Red Hat Linux image, but I haven’t done one with Fedora yet. Stay tuned though.

Homeboy Media News lets us know that the Cyprus Rally is back this year ( official web site confirms the news). The even will take place between Friday, May 16th and Sunday, May 18th.

Takis Kyriakides, Cyprus Rally Head of the Course, said “the new route will incorporate old tracks, which have been kept in fine condition through re-grading operations and regular maintenance, and the new ones designed and constructed this year”.

However, the event will not be a part of the World Rally Championship (WRC) as it used to be during the last few years. There was a chance that Cyprus would come back to WRC schedule this year, but it just didn’t happen. Next year maybe.

(Can you pack any more technology terms into that title?)

Apparently, PrimeTel is working hard on improving broadband connectivity on the island of Cyprus.  In this blog post, Vladimir Ivaschenko links to this article, which explains:

PrimeTel is building a new, independent, privately owned Submarine landing station in Yeroskipos, Cyprus as per the global specifications of Reliance Globalcom. It aims to gain access to new international cables and capacity, and has secured 5Gbps of capacity globally with an option for further upgrades in the future. The project is expected to be completed by 2009.

This sounds very cool, and I hope that the project will be completed on time and that we all, broadband users, will benefit from it. (Not that it will stop any of the local forums whining about Cyprus connectivity options or anything.)

There was an sudden boost in searches for Cyprus yesterday.  The reason for that was a bug in Twinkle - a Twitter client for iPhone.  For some reason, Twinkle was identifying current location wrong for a whole lot of users.  Instead of being somewhere in the States, they were said to be Nicosia, Cyprus.  That probably felt very surprising for them, especially considering the fact that not many of them knew what or where Nicosia, Cyprus was.  Hence, all the searching.

There is a rumor going around that it was the work of Cyprus government, desperately trying to keep tourism levels up.  You, of course, should believe whatever your tin foil hat tells you to believe…

I’ve had PrimeHome for quite some time now. So I don’t know of this feature was there before or if it is one of the recent additions, but it’s pretty cool. Apparently, you can subscribe to additional TV channel packages with just a remote control. No need to call or drive to any of those PrimeTel shops, no need to fill any forms, and, most importantly, no need for any waiting.

Here is how it works. Go to the menu and select the channel that you don’t have but would like to. You’ll see a static PrimeHome screen, with a line at the top saying something like “Press red button to subscribe”. Press the red button on your remote control now. You’ll be asked to enter your PIN and once you do, your STB will reboot and you’ll have the channel enabled. You’re done.

A few things to keep in mind:

• You can easily subscribe with remote control, but not unsubscribe. To unsubscribe you’ll need to visit their shop and fill the form. Maybe you can do it over the phone too - I’m not sure, but it’s for sure not as easy as subscribing.
• When you subscribe with remote control, you don’t subscribe to a single channel, but a package of channels to which it belongs. Check the list of channels and prices for each package at PrimeHome web site before subscribing.
• When you subscribe with remote control, you will be shown a warning that the minimum period for your subscription is two month. I don’t know if the same policy applies when you subscribe through phone or from inside of their office, but it’s worth knowing. If you get yourself an expensive package, you’ll have to pay for at least two month of using it.

That’s about it.

Today I was at my bank. I had to cash a check, as well as do a couple of other small things. While at that, I decided to open a credit card. I have some cards already, but not one in Euro. So, they send me upstairs to see this guy there. He is responsible for credit cards, overdrafts, loans, and things like that. I’ve seen him before a few times.

This guy hates me. It’s OK though, because I think he hates everybody. Probably, he is very good at his job, since he is paid to hate everyone. People who will max out their overdrafts, overdue payments, etc - he is the one who filters them out. And it surely helps to hate them all.

Every time I enter his office he looks at me like he is trying to decide who is more worthless a Cypriot woman or a foreign man. He tries to remember anything good about Cypriot women. His wife and mother-in-law come to mind. That disgusts the heck out of him. Then he looks at me, measures me from top to bottom and back to top, makes a face like he just ate a huge cockroach, and decides that his mother-in-law is a little bit better than I am. Then he says: “Good morning”. These two words express more than some people will manage to express in their whole life. These two words have the whole world inside them, the world where I am at the bottom of the food chain, and this guy is floating above the top… or something like that.

Usually, the visit to his office kind of offsets my day. He doesn’t freak me out or depress me or anything. But there is this sour feeling for the rest of the day, after I see him. But not today. Today he had no way of saying “no” to me. As much as he wanted to decline my request, send me as far as possible, and forget about me as fast as possible, he couldn’t do anything. He had to say “yes”.

That “yes” was as expressive as the “Good morning”. It made my day. Maybe even a week. Maybe even more. Any time that I will ever feel down and depressed, I will be coming back to read this post. It’s a booster.

P.S.: obviously, I am not going to mention the bank, the branch, or the guy’s name, but some of you can guess it as easily anyway.

Yesterday I observed a really weird thing - snow in Limassol.  The temperature dropped down to +2 degrees Celsius, it was very windy, and it was snowing for at least two hours.  Of course, the ground is too warm for the snow to stay, but other surfaces, like, for example, my car, were covered in snow.  That was really wicked!

In my 12 years in Limassol, I’ve seen snow like only two or three times.  Previous experiences weren’t even close to yesterday’s.  They seemed more like accidents.  But yesterday … it was snow for real.