I amsterdam

Four days is probably all you need to see Amsterdam, the capital city of The Netherland. Also, Amsterdam is a good place to start an European tour, as many European cities, Brussels, Frankfurt, are accessible via train from Amsterdam.
I arrived in Amsterdam on December 31, remember buses and trains run until 20:00 on the last day of the year; the service resumes at 2:00 on January 1.
As I had to catch a flight to my final destination, I decided to avoid dragging my luggage to the city center; so I booked a room at the Sheraton Hotel, easily accessible from the arrival halls of the Amsterdam city airport, Schiphol. As a Starwood Preferred Guest, the two bed room cost me 127 euro per night.

Not only transportation to city center was easy and cheap, 3.70 euro + .50 handling charges, but also I could get to Amsterdam Metropolitan or anywhere in Netherlands from the airport hotel. I visited Haarlem, 4.80 + .50, a serene city with a beautiful train station. Obtaining the ticket is possible from the ticket machines as well as ticket offices. Either way there is an extra charge of .50 added to the price. It's important to know the final destination of the train, for example trains traveling to Hoofdrop stop in Schiphol, so on the train Hoofdrop is displayed. Also, it is good to pay attention to the station names, as some trains don't have stop announcements! The ticket operators usually issue a second class ticket, by default if you want a first class train ticket, better seats, ask! The class written in big letters in the train box.

How to get around Amsterdam? There are many fun and exciting options to explore this city: bike-boat (you pedal your way around the canals, seats max four people), canal-buses, on foot/public transit, with a bicycle or hop-on-hop-off buses. Prices vary. I tried on-foot/public transit and the canal-buses. The Tourist Office across from the Amsterdam Central Train station is the one-stop shop to get information about transportation, obtain a map for 2.50 euro, purchase canal bus tickets, and/or iamsterdam city card.

Touring Amsterdam: Perfect starting point as a Tourist Information Center is located right across the station. I got my free map from the hotel; at the tourist center the city maps cost 2.50 euro.

To make the best out of the four-days-stay prioritizing was key. I like walking the streets of the city the first day to get a feel of the city streets and sights whereabouts. I walked along the best-known shopping streets: Leidsestraat, Hiligeweg, Klaverstraat, and Nieuwendijk. I stopped at Dam Square to take pictures, and visit the Royal Palace. I also ventured in Bijankorf (which means the beehive) and is Netherland's most famous department store. My final station and the goal of this walking tour was Van Gogh Museum.

The museum was home to many of the artist's early days work, works of his collaborators, as well as works of those artists that Ted Van Gogh, Vincent's brother purchased and added to the family collection. In the "Potato Eaters" Vincent depicts a family of five sitting at table in a very dark room eating. The artist, according to the caption made a mistake in showing both the side and back of the chair.


The Van Gogh Museum is situated in the Amsterdam's Museum District. In the vicinity you can find treasures of the Golden Age at the Rijksmuseum, the master pieces of the 19th-century artists at the , the arts of the 20th century and beyond at the Stedelijk Museum, and one of the most famous concert halls of the world, Concertgebouw. [January 2012 The Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk are under renovation - Grand re-opening is scheduled for 2013]

You can find the history of bags and purses from the three era of old, recent and contemporary on the three-levels of The Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam. The museum is on the way to Anne Frank House. There are bags from Louis Vouiton 1960 and Chanel 1980 as well as the history of why bags came to existence and how the small sachets to hold trinkets have evolved over the years and influenced our lives.

I took a one-day canal tour. Although, it was an interesting, and different experience but I prefer walking the city streets or taking the tram, as I got better view of the city and for taking pictures.

Here are some pictures I took during my trip:

Random Hacks of Kindess #3, Toronto

We live in a fast paced world. But every once in a while we get to stop and smell the roses. For me attending RHoK#3 Toronto was like "smelling the roses".
This was my first RHoK, (pronounced rock). I went to the event not knowing what to expect and came out of it expecting to attend every future RHoK organized, (next one is in October, check it out!).

It was a surreal experience and I tell you why. Firstly, the event was well crafted and get this by a group of volunteers who had taken care of everything: from finding a good location to host the event, OISE UofT, to sponsors who provided food, and snacks, (loved the Kinder Eggs, thanks!), to freebies, even to live streaming of the Stanley Cup Finals, (hacking while watching hockey, cool!). Secondly, the individuals who attended the event, I must add: from all walks of life, had one common goal/interest: to be part of a solution. Thirdly, and this impresses the most, the teams made of these individuals were able to design, develop a solution for a problem definition in a day.

Let me tell you my story attending RHok#3. I joined the Wound Classification Application team. The problem, suggested by Yaser Alyounes, was to design a prototype for an application that will be used in refugee camps or in areas troubled by war to streamline the process of classifying war wounds by taking pictures of the wounds. The benefits triaging the wounded far from qualified doctors and facilities quickly and efficiently.

We had very talented individuals on our team who quickly dissected the problem, analyzed each piece, and constructed the decision tree. By 12:20 pm we had a flowchart and owners/developers for each section. Some dived deep in the areas of their expertise and others researched, downloaded, and mocked around with software and source that were unfamiliar with.

I worked on the FrontlineSMS, an application that allows user mass communication via text
messaging. FrontlineSMS is an open source project that has been used in disaster relief situations. By connecting a mobile device, or a GSM modem with a SIM card to the computer where FrontlineSMS is installed you can send and receive messages to other devices that accept text messaging. I had some problems with the software, but I was able to test its send and receive capability, literally at the eleventh hour. By that time the team had decided to replace FrontlineSMS with a phone application that would let the volunteer to identify the four coordinates of the picture taken of wound. :) The coordinates of those four points will be sent from the app to the database. Once they are in the database, the algorithm calculates the dimensions of the wound based on those coordinates.

All in all this was great fun. Events like RHoK makes solving problems that our world is struggling with so much easier.

A big shout out to all those behind RHoK!

What's next for Canada in the next four years? 2011 - 2014

This will be the last post on politics, at least for a while. the past election was an opportunity to dive into an unfamiliar area of knowledge; I gathered information about policies and understood less, because one contradicted the other. How could we cut deficit when we want to spend billion dollars on, unfortunately, stuff that in no way and shape boost our GDP?! How could we cut deficit when we intend to reduce corporate taxes?! Where is the revenue going to come to balance the spending?

I am befuddled!

Rick Mercer, Canadian political satirist, encouraged all of us to vote; his vote rant to, specially, encourage the young demographic was quoted in newspaper, on Facebook and other places. Here is a quote from the rant:

So please, if you're between the age of 18 and 25 and you want to scare the hell out of the people that run this country, this time around do the unexpected. Take 20 minutes out of your day and do what young people all around the world are dying to do.

Quite true. There are people who are giving up their lives to earn the right to vote for the future generation of their country. Voting has been the symbol of democracy.

I voted!

Once all votes were counted and results were announced, I felt no one heard or cared about what I voted for. My one vote had very little effect on the outcome.

What now? Well, Mr. Mercer we need a follow on rant to tell us what is the next step for us "in the country with one of the greatest democracies on earth." :)

Mr. Stronach suggests “people representatives” that will work alongside the elected parliamentarians to vote on the legislation proposed. This is a start to thinking beyond the once in a four years chance of influencing the future of the country. It high lights the need to understand how democracy can lead to prosperity and security. This proposal is made by a man who has built a company of $25 billion a year in sales which started its humble beginning in Toronto forty years ago.

I hope some one is listening; especially the educators. It's important to build a knowledgeable body who understand business in the context of policy making. And it's important to encourage this body of knowledge to then proceed into policy making jobs in government. This will, hopefully, put an end to making conflicting promises just for the sake of being re-elected.

What's next for Canada in the next four years is, what we want it to be. And this is not an idealistic rhetoric. There are many grass roots movements in this country that tackle the real issues.

Democracy is definitely NOT what this cartoon says!