Ping 80.97.255.66 15/5000/56/3; Start time 05/24/06 14:08:03
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 1 round trip time = 67 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 2 round trip time = 36 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 3 round trip time = 26 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 4 round trip time = 64 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 5 round trip time = 3448 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 6 round trip time = 16 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 7 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 8 round trip time = 917 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 9 round trip time = 26 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 10 round trip time = 4940 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 11 round trip time = 55 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 12 round trip time = 56 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 13 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 14 round trip time = 260 ms. successful
ping 80.97.255.66 packet 15 round trip time = 980 ms. successful
15 packets sent; 13 packets received; 13% lost. Round trip times (ms): Minimum: 16, Maximum: 4940, Average: 837
End time 05/24/06 14:09:08

Ping 193.231.100.2 15/5000/56/3; Start time 05/24/06 14:09:27
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 1 round trip time = 21 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 2 round trip time = 62 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 3 round trip time = 34 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 4 round trip time = 22 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 5 round trip time = 558 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 6 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 7 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 8 round trip time = 5353 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 9 round trip time = 821 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 10 round trip time = 21 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 11 round trip time = 49 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 12 round trip time = 66 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 13 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 14 round trip time = 31 ms. successful
ping 193.231.100.2 packet 15 round trip time = 55 ms. successful
15 packets sent; 12 packets received; 20% lost. Round trip times (ms): Minimum: 21, Maximum: 5353, Average: 591
End time 05/24/06 14:10:33

Ping www.google.com 15/5000/56/3; Start time 05/24/06 14:10:41
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 1 round trip time = 79 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 2 round trip time = 4403 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 3 round trip time = 1961 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 4 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 5 round trip time = 3983 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 6 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 7 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 8 round trip time = 1971 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 9 failed, retcode = 11010 (Timed Out)
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 10 round trip time = 100 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 11 round trip time = 101 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 12 round trip time = 98 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 13 round trip time = 58 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 14 round trip time = 59 ms. successful
ping 64.233.183.147 packet 15 round trip time = 104 ms. successful
15 packets sent; 11 packets received; 26% lost. Round trip times (ms): Minimum: 58, Maximum: 4403, Average: 1174
End time 05/24/06 14:11:59

Done laughing? Been like this for two weeks. Mmm yeah, like, um, I guess Romtelecom won’t be considered any kind of sponsor of Campionatul Mondial de Bere.

Domnilor si doamnisoare, care bere e mai buna in Romania? O sa vedem noi.

The time has come to dispense with the plodding pace of rare reviews and dive head first into this important issue. In order to determine the relative ranking of the best beers in Romania, it is my distinct pleasure to announce that Romer!can presents the World Cup of Beer in Romania 2006.

At this point, beer groupings have been proposed and we are publishing this Request For Comments. Your participation during the initial phases is important. Romer!can needs your input regarding the selection of beers and their groupings. Efforts have been made to avoid having two beers from the same brewery in any one category. Likewise, efforts have been made to avoid having two dark beers in any one grouping. And so forth. Comments, Questions, and Suggestions wanted!

Secondly, please note that we need to immediately recruit sponsors in order to obtain some of the beers in the proposed groupings. Many of the beers are not readily available in Braşov, so we need sponsors who are willing to send one or more beers to Romer!can. Your sponsorship will be gratefully acknowledged on all general pages of the official Mondial Bere canon of literature as well as on all events surrounding the particular beer(s) you sponsor. Recognition will include both text links and graphical presentation for your brewery, pub, company, favorite charity, or blog. Finally, you will have done a Good Thing^™ which may be rewarded in the afterlife in addition to my personal gratitude.

For more information about being a sponsor, please contact the Mondial Offcials right away. Mondial Bere will take place throughout the month of June and possibly into early July (a formal match schedule has been developed, but will not be published until all participants are verified).

Be advised: Sponsorship of beer(s) will not influence the competition in any way. Please sponsor in good faith so that your beer(s) may participate in this historic online event.

At this time, it is believed that most, if not all, matches will take place at a Braşov venue. However, this is not finalized and is therefore subject to change in the event other venues become viable. Should persons wish to personally participate as a junior referree during any of the matches at any venue, please contact the Mondial Officials directly.

Braşov, Romania. AOL, eat your heart out.

Alec Dean has released the long-awaited mp3s of the recent Legal Alien show produced on Radio Café 98.6 in Budapest. Personally, I tried to tune in live via webcast when the show first aired, but some of y’all remember the troubles with Romtelecom (which continue today in the form of mass dropped packets). I caught about half of it then, but now I got to hear the whole thing. Go on ‘n download it. Giddyap.

It was an interesting program covering the Hungarian blogosphere of expatriates, what they’re doing offline, how they approach this blogging thing, and whether it compares to journalism. The guests Alec, Desző, and Paul each offered a different style and perspective that lent an air of credibility to the coverage as expats are certainly no homogenous group. The only drawback, in my opinion, was that the show hosts appeared to work extremely hard at pretending they knew absolutely nothing whatsoever about any technology at all, thus making my grandmother appear like a rocket scientist just because she knows what a mouse is and can use email. (Maybe they’re more like another grandma who spends every free moment dulling her mind with television and vodka.)

How ’bout it, Bucureşti? Any English-language programs being broadcast on capitol radio stations? Just curious what the odds are that someone might repeat this interesting experiment for the straine aici…

Yes, we have CompUSA and MicroCenter here in Romania. Well, in a manner of speaking.

Literally, it translates to “the depository of calculators.” Bear in mind that calculate is a synonym of compute, so don’t allow yourself to unnecessarily trip up on subtleties. When localized for Americans, the phrase contextually means “computer store.” Sound familiar, stranger? Mosey on up and see the dry goods.

In Romania, we have just about everything you’d expect in the United States. DVD burners, wireless routers, CompactFlash cards, USB hubs, Canon color printers, AMD processors, Altec Lansing speaker systems, and even iPods. Some of the brands are unheard of, but others are the same names you know and trust.

You’d think that with Romania’s reputation for “cheap prices” on most anything from vegetables to outsourced Java programming (as well as the average monthly income hovering around $350 per month) that the stores would have some pretty killer bargains, eh, dude? Errrrrrr, wrong! Thanks for playing, Skippy.

I was a bit distraught when I first wandered into the meglomart down the street and noticed that digital cameras and rechargeable batteries seemed more expensive here than Stateside. I figured it must be a French thing and no one would be buying at this store. Another time, I wandered into the nearby Media Galaxy (attempted equivalent of BestBuy) and walked out after 3 minutes of currency conversions proved their prices were outrageous.

Surely, the straight out computer stores must offer better prices. I mean aside from a few rich folks who don’t shop prices as hard, there’s gotta be places were the majority of computer buyers go. I’ve seen a new chain of depozitul de calculatoare popping up in strategic places all over town called Ultra Pro. They advertise good prices and I’d thought I’d take a look at their modern desktop systems.

Company	Amazon (US)	UltraPro (RO)	eBay (US)
Processor	AMD Athlon64 X2 3400+	AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+	AMD Athlon64 X2 4800+
RAM	1GB	1GB	1GB
HDD	250GB	500GB	500GB
DVD RW	Yes	Da	Yes
Video	On-Board	On-Board	Dual nVidia SLI cards
Price	$699.99	$7,982.29	$2,599.00 (or less)

Can we say rip-off? You could buy 10 very similar computers from Amazon. Or, if you really needed the extra kick, you could actually buy two superior systems and pay to ship them all the way to Romania. But, why oh why, would you buy it from UltraPro?

I checked a number of their other prices for things like wifi access points and SD memory, but all the prices were ridiculously expensive for even the shady-looking brands. Let’s not forget that sales tax here is 19% (not the typical 8% of much of America). When you do the math, it’s a joke, y’all.

Let’s cast our net even wider and see what we catch, mmm?

	NewEgg (US)	UltraPro (RO)	Buy.com (US)	Caro (RO)
Altec Lansing MX5021	$139.00	$271.76	$134.99	$254.46
ATI Radeon X1900 XTX	$539.00	$709.11	$519.99	$715.46
1GB DDR2 CL4 RAM	$55.99	$185.77	$93.99	$125.82

I could go on and on, but I’m not here to set up a price comparison system. I just wanted to point out that prices in Romania are inordinately high. Combine that with significantly lower incomes and I start to become darn surprised as many people own computers as they do.

Given, the majority may still be the old rickety PIII boxen running pirated copies of Windows 95 in your local smoked-out internet cafe… but maybe that’s just the old stereotype still clinging to life instead. I do know more and more folks are getting online in Romania. Computer sales are up. I just can’t figure out how you’d do it here without spending a significant portion of income because the local sellers charge unbelievably high prices (when they very likely don’t have to).

So, prieteni meu, spill the beans. If you know where decent prices are, where y’all shopping? Or should someone start a discount co-op?