Untimely meditations
One man's thoughts, observations and rants
Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.
Please note that the things I write here do not represent the views of anyone else but me. I do not represent an organization or a business and I have nothing to sell. My views do not necessarily coincide with or represent those of my employer. Just throwing that in there for legal reasons.
Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.
Latest posts
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Black Friday
Black Friday is the term mostly used in the United States for the Friday following Thanksgiving. It’s the day that marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. It’s known for retailers offering massive discounts and in a way it is a perfect summary of our empty, consumption oriented society.
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Are we happier?
A friend triggered me with a question the other day. He was wondering: are we happier today in our modern society than people in the past? That’s a very complex question with many facets to consider. Who are we comparing? How are we going to make that comparison? To what period in history are we…
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A structure of sorts
A few weeks ago, I announced my intention to take this blog into a slightly different direction. To find that direction, I went back through my old posts to come up with one or more general themes or topics. A grand narrative, so to speak. I collected all of my used tags and arranged them…
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Nobody knows what they are doing
For the writing prompt of today (for which I am too late), WordPress asks: “Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.” There are many, many examples I could give here. I’ve even done an entire posts about the lessons I’ve learned. But in thinking to come up with a new lesson…
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Dutch government allowed to use public cloud
The public cloud is everywhere. Companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and dozens of others are eager to sign up new users and expand their services to existing customers. Many organisations moved their entire IT operations to Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure and more will follow. The Dutch government abstained, until very recently. Just last…
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What are your top ten favourite movies?
As I mentioned here before, I like the new writing prompts that WordPress issues. Today was another one that I decided to pick up on. So read along as WordPress asks: What are your top ten favourite movies?
Recent comments
I have a question. I believe life is valuable because you have a soul and are a unique person, precious.…
I used to believe in god until my life went downhill. Your reasons are actually good.
Joop, Hope you are well. It is amazing to me the gullibility of people. How can educated people believe in…
Those analogies don’t hold up, I’m afraid. Like marriage or choosing to have children. Or moving to someplace new because…
“What can be asserted without evidence may be dismissed without evidence.”
Christopher Hitchens
Author and journalist
You seem to have multiple questions but let’s take them one at a time, shall we? I believe life is…