Yesterday I left home around 1.45 pm with two large suitcases and my laptop bag. Not that I brought so many things to bring to Holland, but I want to have an empty suitcase here for all the stuff I plan to bring back to the States.

I arrived in Newark some time before m5.00 pm and I had a nice dinner at the airport -- there's a pub called Galahar's that serves good food, surprisingly good for an airport. When I went in the plane I planned to get as much sleep as possible. As soon as I sat in my chair I put on my headphones, eye patches and sleeping cushion to get as many resting hours as possible. By skipping dinner I managed to get some extra rest. It's really tiring to travel eastwards, with the time that you loose.

It was very nice to see Ettie, Gerben, Jaap and Mieke waiting for me at the airport. They waived through the glass. One thing I noticed when I entered the luggage claim area was the staunch smell of cigarettes -- there was a "smoking area" inside the luggage claim that made the whole space smell.

After 10 minutes I found my luggage and went through customs -- back in the Netherlands.

My suitcases just fit in the car.

Raleigh/Durham airport.

Almost there.

First sight.

Welcome!

It was a busy evening. Packing, laundry, shopping, preparing some last paperwork, all in preparation for my trip to the Netherlands tomorrow.

My flight is at 3.15 pm from Raleigh/Durham to Newark, and from there to Amsterdam where I'll arrive on Sunday morning.

Next week I will upgrade the operating system on the server from OpenBSD 3.5 to 3.9. The 3.5 version is two years old, and no longer supported by OpenBSD.

Even thought I am using a good OS, the chain is only a strong as its weakest link and the software I have been using the last few years, PHP Nuke, has a terrible security track record.

It's not that I have a high-profile website, but still I like to keep my website secure and I've been looking for a replacement I can use, preferably written in Java. I am using PHP Nuke, but because of the small development team the amount of new features and updates is small.

I wanted to use (server-side) Java because that's what I use in my work all the time, and I believe it's a more robust solution than PHP. I spend some time on this two years ago also.

However, I have not been able to find a tool that does the job in Java. I tend to agree with this author that (at least for personal use) PHP is the way to go for website development, compared to J2EE.

Features I need in my new front-end software:

• A large community of developers
• Regular updates
• Very active security policy (hot fixes)
• Customizable, module based
• A rich feature set: comments, content, articles, user management, link management
• If at all possible, a good image management plugin
• Nice to have: Ajax support, Blog API support, WYSIWYG editor

After long searching I decided I cannot find an appropriate Java based tool. SnipSnap doesn't have a large enough user base for me, MMBase would require too much development and Roller doesn't have nice features and only supports a simple blogging site.

Next week I am going to the Netherlands! Alrik and Esther are getting married, so this is a nice opportunity to visit Holland again after nearly two years.

I'm leaving Durham on Saturday and on Sunday I'll arrive in Amsterdam at 8.15 am. I'll stay in the Netherlands for a week and of course it is loaded with activities.

The first thing to do, at Monday morning 8.30 am, is a visit to the U.S. consulate in Amsterdam to renew my visa. After that Jaap and I will go to Heerenveen to visit my grandmother, Oma Groen.

I'm really excited to see all my family and friends again! I'll give a party on Saturday October 7: starting at 7.00 pm in In Den Uiver in Haarlem. All readers are invited to join me for good times, Belgium beer and Dutch cheese.

The first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, has a website where she describes her experiences on the International Space Station.

From her Space Blog:

"It is about 11:30 GMT here on ISS. It looks like my first entry from space made it down there.. Amazing, isn’t it…?"

Last night, after we went our for dinner and a beer with Sasha's colleagues, we saw that the Starfish flower cuttings are not doing very well.

Three out of four have light spots on the stem, a symptom of the disease that affected the original plant.

The largest cutting in water clearly shows the dark spots on the roots. I still have some hope for the fourth cutting though, it seems still healthy and I'm glad I placed them in separate pots.

The four cuttings on the window-sill in the living room. Three out of four don't look too good.

The largest cutting in water clearly shows the dark spots that were affecting the original plant.

I still have hope for the fourth cutting. It's the smallest of the 4, but it still looks healthy.

A friend sent me this interesting article: Dutch are the world's tallest people.

From the article:

"With their protein-rich diet and a national health service that pampers infants, the Dutch are standing taller than ever. The average Dutchman stands just over six feet, while women average nearly 5-foot-7."

"The Dutch were not noted for their height until recently. It was only in the 1950s that they passed the Americans, who stood tallest for most of the last 200 years, said John Komlos, a leading expert on the subject who is professor of economic history at the University of Munich in Germany. He said the United States has now fallen behind Denmark."

For the record -- I am 6"2 or 6"3.

We received the license plate for our car in the mail.

The car had a temporary (card board) license plate, and I replaced it with the real one the other day.

In North Carolina a car needs only one license plate, or tag, on the back of the car.

The temporary tag.

Installing the real tag.