Sergiu Ţurcanu

Month: June 2008

  • Euro 2008: Play against your nation!

    Euro 2008: Play against your nation!

    The news of Lukas Podolski scoring against the country of his birth in the Euro 2008 championship spread like hot fire: a Pole scores against Poland! Not only that he scored once, he did it twice securing the victory for Germany in that match. Minutes later after the match the Youtube (and probably elsewhere) was filled with comments ending up with kurwa from angry Poles, accusing him of beating up his own country. On the other side Germans were affirming he’s German now and although born in Poland was raised in Germany, others saying he was born in the part of Poland that used to be Germany’s or that his parents immigrated to Germany as ethnic Germans. Anyway, he must of have some weird feelings himself about that.

    But Lukas Podolski is not the only one scoring against his own nation at the Euro 2008 cahampionship! Hakan Yakin, an ethnic turk born in Switzerland scored against Turkey too. Hakan was even offered a Turkish citizenship before being called to join Switzerland’s national team but turned it down for personal reasons. Unlike Podolski vs Poland (2:0) the Yakin vs Turkey (1:2) ended up with Turks victory, and one may say Turks were the only ones scoring at that match.

    Apart from Podolski and Yakin there is another candidate to join the list – Zlatan Ibrahimovic who plays for Sweden but is of Bosnian and Croatian parentage. Although he’s got really few chances to play against Croatia at this championship: Sweden will have to make it out of the group first and both Croatia and Sweden should get to the final. And then there is Ivica Vastic, a Croatian-born playing for Austria, but when Austria played against Croatia he didn’t score.

    So, far these are the ones I spotted, have I missed anyone?

  • I can has cheezburger

    I can has cheezburger

    I’ve also discovered recently the ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.com and wasted some of my not so precious lately time there. If you haven’t heard yet of this amazing site about cats be sure to check it out as it is one the funniest things I’ve seen in the past few days. The site is actually a blog with posts being composed of images of kitties and lolspeak captions for them. It was created in January 2007, when Eric Nakagawa (a blogger from Hawaii) posted an image of a smiling gray cat with the caption: “I can has cheezburger?” After posting a few similar images, Nakagawa converted the site to a blog and that’s how it all began.

    It has become quite a phenomenon and currently tops the most funniest blogs on the net getting over 2,5 million page views a day, it has it’s own fan clubs, developed a funni kitteh language called “Speak lolspeak” and the project is short known as ICHC. Although it is the “cats land” other animal-lol’s are presented like dogs, rabbits, horses, raccoons, etc. Another sister-site entitled “I has a Hot Dog!” was launched which features mainly dogs.

  • The new Wanshang Hotel in Beijing

    The new Wanshang Hotel in Beijing

    Everyone who’s been in Beijing with the Carnival remembers the “Wanshang Garden Hotel” we stayed in 2004 and 2005. I was just happened to pass by around Babaoshan area in Beijing and that is the hotel I discovered.

    It is no longer the Wanshang we used to know and it is even called differently now – Mercure Wanshang Hotel. It is not open yet, but it is ready to receive the guests. It will be the official hosting hotel for the cyclists during the Olympics if I’m not mistaking. They have changed the look of the hotel completely and even added a new wing to the west side, but there’s still something there that keeps remembering of us:

    Yes! After 3 years it’s still there! They completely changed the hotel, but the parking sign it’s still there. I looked through my extensive photographs archive and I found pictures of the hotel from last summer when it was still under construction and some pictures from 2005. Below you can see how the hotel looked over the years:

  • Why you should quit using Hotmail and advice others to do the same.

    Why you should quit using Hotmail and advice others to do the same.

    What is the point of having an email that people cannot reach?
    That is what’s happening to to Hotmail users. Have you asked yourself how many messages addressed to you was lost due to inadequate Hotmail’s way of filtering spam? The emails from your friends don’t even get the chance to get into the junk folder, they are deleted right away. Microsoft is trying to get rid of spam for it’s users but is blocking real people’s emails at the same time.

    I hate spam and spammers but I started to hate Hotmail and Microsoft even more. For days now I was unable to send emails to my friends on Hotmail, the usual “Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender” message from the host is always something like that:

    host mx3.hotmail.com[65.54.244.72] said: 550
    SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons
    for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or
    IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not an email/network admin please
    contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network
    admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery
    information and support (in reply to MAIL FROM command)

    I emailed my ESP of course first asking for explanations (it is in Turkey by the way) and the reply was that I should address my concerns to TurkTelekom if I’m using their ADSL connection (apparently this is a known issue already), since Hotmail have blocked TurkTelekom’s IP’s. The thing is, I’m not in Turkey, I’m in China and I use both ADSL from CNC and mobile connection through CDMA from China Unicom. And that can only mean one thing – Hotmail is blocking CNC’s and China Unicom’s IP’s as well. I guess what Hotmail is trying to suggest is – if you want to email our users get a hotmail address. And what I want to suggest by writing this article is – ignore the Hotmail!
    Don’t use their service any longer and ask your friends not to use it any more. There are plenty of other free email services like GMail or Yahoo mail which are far much better and don’t have stupid blocking settings.

    I could live with the idea that I had to spend some time deleting spam, using various spam filters I can actually dramatically reduce the time I spend, but what can I do when my emails I send to friends or business partners are simply being blocked? I understand Microsoft’s desire to control spam, but this is certainly not the right way. I found dozens of cases on the internet reporting the same problem with Hotmail servers and none of us is happy with Hotmail’s new way of handling spam. It simply blocks the true emails!

    The reason I call on you to quit using Hotmail is because even if you contact Hotmail/Live.com and ask them to include your IP address in the allowed list, specify the domain name you are sending it from, it will still be ignored. Here are the proofs, have some fun by reading these forums: my server ip is blocked by hotmail, Hotmail blocking my IP? or even Microsoft Hotmail Blocking Yahoo! Mail as Spam? Apparently Microsoft staff is unaware of what is work with customers or are under the impression that the world should adopt to their rules. I think it’s the time now to tell them bye bye or let them adopt to the people’s demands. It is much easier to simply change your free email service from Hotmail to any other decent ESP (free or paid, doesn’t matter).

    I don’t use Hotmail and I haven’t used their free services for years now (I use my own domain name and ESP I pay for), but I do have friends I cannot reach simply because they opted to use Hotmail and it is my advise to all the hotmail users now – stop using it, just change it to something better. Without getting to much into the technical details: it doesn’t matter if I use shared or dedicated IP address, it doesn’t matter if you message Hotmail and report the problem, It doesn’t matter if you use free or paid email, POP3/SMTP or web-based account – it is at Microsoft’s (Hotmail/Live.com) sole discretion to allow your messages to be received or not. Millions of people now cannot send emails to Hotmail accounts because the stupid Hotmail policy.

    My appeal is to current Hotmail users, if you still want to receive emils from real people and friends change your email! They cannot reach you!

    UPDATE: Articles for “I hate Hotmail” club:

    SAY NO to HotmailAnd here’s a group I just created on Facebook to help spread the word about Hotmail currently blocking non-spam emails from usual users – Why you should quit using Hotmail!

  • Beijing National Olympic Stadium (Bird’s Nest) Review

    Beijing National Olympic Stadium (Bird’s Nest) Review

    Almost 2 weeks ago I had a chance to visit the newly built pride and beauty of the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics – Beijing National Stadium (å??京å?½å®¶ä½?è?²å?º), also known as “Bird’s Nest” (鳥巢) during the hosting of “Good Luck Beijing 2008 SOHU.COM China Athletics Open”. It was a kind of audition before the Olympic Games and I would allow myself to make a short unprofessional review or better just call it impressions I got.

    The stadium looks amazing from both inside and outside and it is definitely one of the most spectacular architectural constructions I ever seen. It has become already an iconic image for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and souvenirs representing the stadium are already sold out in the streets. Surely the architects Pierre de Meuron and Jacques Herzog have done a great job when designing this beauty that does look like a bird’s nest actually. And I’m glad that Chinese officials have chosen this plan among other projects presented, although there was one plan (B12) with a unique suspending retractable roof which was worth a second thought. The stadium was open in March 2008, but some final constructions and surrounding area preparations are still being done. You’ll notice in the pictures below the elevator steps of the new Olympic subway line with the “Bird’s Nest” in the background, some workers completing final touches, one of the bronze sculptures displayed at the Olympic Green and improvised hand-written directions sign directing visitors to Beijing National Stadium.

    Interesting facts: The stadium construction costs rises to 4 billion RMB which is around 500 million USD and the stadium was built mostly on money which came from donations. The ground was broken on Christmas Eve in December 2003 and it took 4 years to complete the project. It was built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes. 10 workers had died during the stadium’s construction.


    The arena looks awesome from the inside and it is here where you can actually feel the grandeur of this superb construction. It is just huge and despite the fact that is can host 91.000 people it doesn’t feel crowded. The halls inside are large and there are enough entrances/exits to avoid overcrowding, also they opted for more smaller access gates to the seats rather then bigger ones. Overall I got a positive impression, but there are still some things that need to be done, like hiding these awful metallic bars with cable ties and electric/sound cables on the edge of second floor tribune (see the pictures below) or seriously review the menu for the snacks booths inside the stadium (you can also view the menu in the picture below). The only appealing thing for westerners from this menu was “hot-dogs” (which by the way are nothing like the hot-dogs you know), but it was missing from all the booths I asked while there, never minding the unclear price. Prices were actually unexpectedly low, which is a great thing, hope it stays the same during the Olympics (although I doubt that). They were also selling cold beer in cans on the stadium from “Yanjing” (the best Chinese beer if you ask me) for just 5 RMB and drinking tap water is available from many places (see the picture below). The VIP seats located in between second and third floor tribunes are wrapped in soft fabrics and they are still putting it in on all the seats (picture below).

    The staff working on the stadium, mostly volunteers I suppose, are all young and eager to help you and speak a good English, well organized as well. The girl in the picture here is standing in the lane between the raws and will direct and assist the visitors, also monitoring the things that happened around.

    The atmosphere on the stadium was great and the Chinese public presented there during “Good Luck Beijing 2008 China Athletics Open” was very welcoming and excited about the event. All the Chinese people I think are very glad about them being the hosts of such an event and want to show the best they have.

    For more quality and high-resolution pictures of the Beijing National Stadium during day and night, from inside and outside please visit my Beijing Olympics related photographs presented on Alamy. They are licensed for Editorial use only but you can also enjoy viewing them as well.

    UPDATE: Since many of you were looking for the stadium plan I also wrote another article on Olympic Stadium seats and plan.