Year: 2007

After one of the restarts of my mobile, GRPS stopped working.  I called 132 – CytaMobile-Vodafone support.  They sent me the settings.  I installed the settings, but that didn’t help.  I removed all settings from the phone and installed the new ones again.  No luck.  Another call to support – they send me the settings again.  Same ones.  I replace the existing ones with the new ones.  Still no luck.

Two days later, I can suddenly connect, but only to Cybee WAP page.  Went through all the settings again, but with no luck.  Another call to support:

-  We’ll send you the settings now.

– Please don’t.  I called a few times already and reinstalled the settings many times, but that didn’t help.

– Oh, I see.  OK, I can send you the settings via fax or email – which one do you prefer?

…

What can I do?

I am getting myself into another business venture.  The project is interesting both from the financial and creative points of view.  That’s about as much as I can say about it right now, but not to worry – first public preview is expected  before the end of the year.  Anyway, the point is not that.

My business approach is getting better with every try – exactly like it is supposed to be.  This time I was actually surprised by myself.  Not only I did some thinking and planning, but I went all the way, with business plan, budget, and even project time-line.  What’s even more surprising is that I did the initial document in about two hours, and I did in a much more concise way than usual – a single spreadsheet document instead of multiple lengthy texts.

After looking at the resulting document, I had this strong feeling that I’m getting better at it. Hopefully, it won’t be just the document.

And just to wrap it up, I have to say that I’m not the only one getting better.  I really enjoyed my experience with Google Docs.  It’s been about 6 month since I used these applications, and I have to say a lot of good changes went in since then.  The interface got cleaner and simpler, there are major things, like formulas and charts in the Spreadsheet application, and there are minor things like better HTML/GUI/WYSIWYG handling, speed, etc.

Good stuff…

I’ve already wrote about why I love Google Calendar so much.  One of the main features that makes the difference for me is that one of SMS reminders.  As unlikely as it seems, I’m not always behind the computer, but my mobile is always near by.  So reminding me of upcoming things to do via SMS is a winner.

One thing that I was missing though, is the opposite direction of SMS.  Google Calendar has this wonderful feature of adding events to the calendar via SMS, but the they use a shortcut phone number, which is available only in the states.  No way for us, poor souls in Cyprus, to send messages there.

Not to worry though.  Now there is a solution, and an easy one too – Twittercal.  Here is how it works:

1. Create a Twitter account, if you don’t have one.
2. Add “gcal” user to the list of those that you follow.
3. Grant Twittercal access to add events to your Google Calendar.
4. Now you can send direct messages to gcal with your event information like so: “d gcal Phylosophy test tomorrow at 08:00“.

Of course, these direct messages work as good via instant messenger and Twitter web interface.  I’ve tested the setup and performs beautifully.  This whole thing just made my day.

Bonus tip: if your mobile phone supports SMS templates, you might want to create one with Twitter phone number in destination and “d gcal ” text in the message, so you can edit it and send much faster.

I came across my post on Cyprus dating from last November.  Immediately, I wanted to see how things changed.  Here is an updated screenshot:

Before:  52 men and 4 women

Now:  37 men and 15 women

What does this mean?  Well, there are a few ways to look at it.  Here are my takes:

1. Dating got better.  The ration of men to women is approaching 1:1 – the ideal for both sides.
2. Dating got worse.  The total number of people decreased from 56 (52+4) to 52 (37+15).
3. These whole stats are fishy.

The first two points are rather obvious.  What’s with the third one?  I don’t know.  Somehow, I feel that a magic number – 52 – present in both takes isn’t just a coincidence.  SPAM?  Fake accounts? Inactive accounts?  There are many reasons that could have caused a drop in male profiles and growth in female ones…  I’m not going to speculate on this.  At least publicly.

Instead, I suggest we look for stats on this matter somewhere else.   Alexa traffic statistics for Cyprus suggests that AdultFriendFinder.com is #42 in the top visited web sites.  Being a married person, I’m not much of a dating person, so I don’t know of any other dating sites in that list.  Let’s look at what they have to offer on the statistical front.

Gladly, AdultFriendFinder.com offers a rather comprehensive listing of profiles per country.  Here is the one for Cyprus.  Quoting:

15,462 Listings in Cyprus

Men seeking Men    481 Listings
Men seeking Women    8,049 Listings

…

Women seeking Men    241 Listings
Women seeking Women    238 Listings

These numbers are almost scary!  The best strategy for a men seeking women here would be to sneak around through the gay-lesbian side, rather than to compete against 8000+ guys for a woman.  Whatever…

Today our whole family committed thievery.  We stole a tiny little kitten from its mother.  Olga had her eye on it for a month or so now.  The happy, but obviously underfed family lives in Limassol Municipal Garden. It consists of a young mother and three very differently looking kids.  And now they are only two.

Yes, we stole the kitten from its mother in the bright daylight.  We, all three of us, just walked into the park and took her away.  She wasn’t protesting much.  She didn’t know what was waiting for her.  She’s still young and naive.  She is not afraid of people.  She was just enjoying the sun and the company of her siblings.  And here we came…

Crime: none.  Sentence: life imprisonment.  We took her home.  She will stay with us forever now. Or until the unlikely act of amnesty. Or an even less likely event of escape.

We are still thinking on how to name her.  The best suggestion for now (by yours truly, of course) is Cappuccino (or Cappa for short).  Even though she looks more like a tiny cup of filtered coffee, it seems reasonable to commemorate the fact that we picked her up in close proximity of Starbucks.

In the next few days we’ll have to clean her up a bit and photograph properly.  She’s still adjusting to the new place and a total absense of her family.  But one thing she brought with her is that magnificent colony of fleas.  They are jumping up and crawling all over her, and you can see a few of them around at any moment.  One of them can even be seen on the photo above (click the image to go Flickr version, and move your mouse over to get a location hint.  Then you can see a larger version of the image for more details).  Too bad today is Saturday and most of pet shops are closed already.  We need an anti-flea neck strap, which I couldn’t find in the regular supermarket.

In the meantime, if you have any hints, or tips, or name suggestions, feel free to abuse the comments.