I wrote about a very cool story today at Versgeperst. Juella Kramers-Lopes and Winston Kalevi, two very nice people that work at the Sint Elisabeth hospital, have applied to participate in the Amazing Race Latin America. If they manage to get chosen, they will represent Curacao on the very popular game show. I sat down with them to talk about the entire process and I'll be writing a longer feature about them and their quest next week over at Versgeperst.

The first place prize at the Amazing Race Latin America is $250,000, so let's hope that they get selected to participate and that they can be in the running for that cash. If that's the case, they'll also be giving Curacao more great promotion and that is something that we all have to appreciate very much.

Oh Google Adsense, you're so awkwardly ironic at times......

* note: Amateuristic doodle added in MS Paint because I tend to be childish and petty.

I have a number of Curacao-related "job" domains that I own but I'm willing to sell them if the price is right. They are English and Dutch domains and all have to do with working in Curacao in some form or another. The domains are....

best-curacao-jobs.com
bestcuracaojobs.info
curacaofreelance.com
curacaofreelance.info
curacao-jobs.com
curacaojobs.info
newcuracaojobs.info
werkencuracao.com
werken-op-curacao.com
werken-op-curacao.info
werk-op-curacao.com
werk-op-curacao.info

If you are interested in buying any (or all) of them, just send me an This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll discuss the pricing.

My good friends at UTS have been making news again this week. According to managing director Paul de Geus, big things are going to happen in 2010, namely 20MB broadband connections. De Geus claims that the entire island should have 20 MB connections by the end of the year, which is a nice step up from the weak 2 MB connection that most of us are using right now.

Wait, did he really say 20 MB?? DON'T TOY WITH MY SENSITIVE EMOTIONS, PAUL!!!! DON'T YOU DARE MAKE PROMISES THAT YOU CAN'T KEEP!!!

* gives birth *

Either way, it makes me wonder what the price would be for a 20MB connection though. Right now, we pay Naf. 149,- for the 2 MB service. 8 MB is going to set you back Naf. 399,-, so I guess 20 MB would probably cost around Naf. 1000,-. YAY... SIGN ME UP IMMEDIATELY!!!

De Geus also mentioned that 2009 was a banner year for the company. Um, I actually think that 2009 was a very bad year for you, Paulus. Let me just remind you that in 2009 you started charging poor Telefasil customers a subscription fee, told me that I'm using my 3G too much, offered the 8MB connection for Naf. 399,- a month!!, had DNS issues that left many users without a proper Internet connection for months, set new lows with regard to customer service and left me 6 weeks without Internet when I moved ( a process that should take 2 weeks, tops).

Well, actually, 2009 was a good year because of the nice profits that were made, the fourth year in a row that they'll close with a profit. Uhhhh, HOW CAN YOU NOT MAKE PROFITS WITH THE PRICES THAT YOU CHARGE???? WITH THOSE PRICES, YOU SHOULD BE THE MOST PROFITABLE COMPANY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!

* has emotional breakdown *

* becomes homeless *

* wanders the streets at night *

He also added that the Blackberry and 3G (voice and data) services will be improved in 2010 (FINALLY!), that a new billing system will be implemented and that certain areas will be connected directly to fiber optic cables. These fiber optic cables, which are already connected in Boca Gentil (Jan Thiel), will bring the 20 MB connections to us.

Those cables really are already connected in Boca Gentil and those residents have 10 MB connections to "test" and play around with. I've seen the speed tests with my own eyes, so there may actually be some hope for the rest of us. YOU BETTER BRING THAT FIBER QUICKLY TO BOTTELIER, PAUL!!!!!

* gets Mad Cow Disease *

The fine folks over at Suares & Co. are offering Linux System Administrator courses again. It's a beginners course where you'll learn to install Linux, work with the command line, get familiar with applications and also broaden your knowledge of Open Source, Linux configurations and where to find Linux documentation.

Ace, who has more than 15 years of experience with Linux and Open Source, will be giving the course in Dutch, while the online references will be in English. The course will be given at Schottegatweg Oost 82–84 (Baroud Center, across Tony Roma's). For more info, you can check out this page, or download the offer pdf and the registration pdf.

It appears that Curacao is on a roll. In the beginning of the year, our little island was named as one of the "Top Vacation Destinations for 2010" by Bing. And now, just two months later, we have ABC News telling everyone how awesome Curacao is. That ABC video prompted the following reaction...

Dave: OH CRAP!!! The woman is telling people to go to Curacao!! ZOMGG!!!!!!!111!!! Eleventy!!1111!!!

* foams from mouth *

* takes off shirt *

* does amazing break dance performance *

* solves world hunger *

* figures out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop *

Lookie here kiddies, a new column went up yesterday at Meet Curacao. This time I offer some tips on how to deal with power outages and having no gasoline in your car. Oh, and there's a very cool midget thrown in there  as well!

My latest column went up over at Meet Curacao. But hold on kids, there's a twist this time as it's in Dutch! OOOHHH, LOOK AT ME BE ALL BILINGUAL AND STUFF! YOU CAN'T STOP ME UTS!

Read, comment, enjoy.....ask yourself where it went wrong during my childhood.

This really isn't news anymore but I just couldn't let it pass. The newspaper ran a story in the weekend about Maurice Adriaens and his opinions about UTS. Adriaens is convinced that UTS can offer faster broadband speeds at lower prices but he thinks that the company will suffer the same way TDS is suffering if they don't move quickly ("Suffer" meaning that their clients will flock to another provider at the very first chance they get).

Adriaens made these comments when he was visiting Telbo Bonaire. Telbo is planning on offering a 10MB connection within the next three months and pleasantly surprised Adriaens as they are smaller than UTS, operate within a much smaller market and are cheaper even though they deal with the same amount of competitors.

* makes plans to move to Bonaire *
* books ticket *
* sheds tears of disgust *

Adriaens finished by saying that you impede society's development and growth by denying the people a decent Internet connection. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW UTS?? YOU'RE THE REASON WHY WE DON'T AMOUNT TO ANYTHING IN LIFE!

But hey, it doesn't matter. Just keep kicking us in the groin, UTS. We'll just stand here and take it, no questions asked. We might even enjoy it because that's how we are. Just easy going people that like getting kicked repeatedly.

It looks like there's a relatively new Blackberry Bold 9000 for sale. Remember my wife's phone that I was going to wipe clean and do a re-install on? Well, it TURNED ON AND IT'S WORKING FINE!

I'm going to hook it up to the Blackberry Desktop manager, erase everything off of the phone and then it can go on sale I guess.

The phone is a Blackberry Bold 9000 and it was bought brand new back in September from UTS. It did not want to go on a few weeks ago and we bought a new one. It's about 6 months old and it only has a couple of little scratches on the top metal part.

You can get it with its case, battery, earphone, charger, software, 1GB Memory Card and instructions. Most of them have never even been used and are still in their plastic bags and in pristine condition.

The price is 650,- guilders. First come, first serve. Again, that's a relative new Blackberry Bold 9000...going for a mere 650,- guilders. If you are interested, send me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call me at 528-0735.

For some reason I forgot to link my last column for Meet Curacao. It was a piece about my current top 10 favorite restaurants/cafes/eating establishments on the island. The column was split into two pieces so check out part one first and then part two.

My next Meet Curacao piece should go up one of these days and look out for my piece in the next edition of XpEdition Magazine as well.

I've decided that I'm going to try to re-install the OS on the wife's bricked Blackberry. The people at UTS and Little Secrets both said that nothing can be done with the phone, but I'm feeling feisty and adventurous today.

This situation can play out two very different ways. First, I fail miserably and cry for a couple of minutes like a pathetic loser or I fix the phone and proceed to run around naked while proclaiming my awesomeness. I'm leaning towards the first scenario but you never know. Rest assured however that if I manage to fix the phone somehow, that I'll drop by UTS and Little Secrets and "act a fool" as the cool kids say.

That said, if you ever need to download your Blackberry OS and can NOT find it on UTS' website, just follow this link and you'll find it on that list.

UPDATE: The phone is good again and we're selling it. More details here.

Reader George drops has a Nokia related question. Maybe someone can help him??

Hi,
Anyone able to help me unlock a Nokia 5000d-2? It's locked to the Chippie network, I'd like to use it for a digicel chip as well. Thanks!

If you have an answer for George, drop it in the comments or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Update: Got an answer to this question from another reader. He says....

He can get the unlock code at a UTS Center for free, unless he is still in the contract period... if not he can get it without a problem.

I really do not want to do a fourth straight UTS post, but we just don't have any luck with these guys. Yesterday the wife's Blackberry started to act up and when she reset it, it never turned back on. She hurried on over to the UTS business center and promptly had to wait 45 minutes before being helped. The UTS people determined that the phone was not responding and told her to go to place in Salinja where Blackberries get fixed.

She asked what would happen if the phone turned out to be broken and the news was grim to say the least. The phone came with a 5 month warranty and she bought 6 months ago, meaning that she had to buy in a new Blackberry if in fact it was broken (perfect timing huh?). She asked about the price and was told that there was a special and that the phone could be bought for 800,- guilders (this is a great price considering what you usually would have to pay for a brand new Blackberry).

She went to Salinja, had the phone checked out and was told that the phone crashed. Something happened to the software and the phone was now a very expensive paper weight. She quickly headed back to UTS to get a new one for 800,- guilders but was suddenly told that such a deal does not exist. The service rep made a mistake and told her of a deal that does not exist anymore and she was told that a new one would cost about 1500,- guilders.

Well, let's just say that she was not happy. She insisted that she was told that the price was 800,- guilders and that she would not pay more. She argued that she's already paying 310,- guilders a month for the Blackberry plan, only to have the phone crash 6 months into a 5 month warranty deal and that technically they should just be giving her a new one instead of making her pay 1500,- guilders. After plenty of back and forths, she said that she would not go higher than 900,- guilders and they finally caved. She was allowed to buy the new Blackberry Bold for 840,- guilders, including tax. Yay (sarcasm).

It's ironic that we usually applaud UTS' Blackberry service, more so when the plan upgrade went so well a few months ago. I'm not blaming them for the software crash (those things just happen) and I'm happy they eventually knocked about 700,- guilders from the price...but still, the things we (I) go through with this company are just unbelievable at times. I can't even get angry anymore. I've come to the point where I just sigh and continue with what I was doing....

UPDATE: The phone seems to be fine and we're selling it for 650 guilders. Check here for more details.

Our good friend Sebastiaan from Meet Curacao dropped by the UTS office and has an update on that 4MB Adsl offer. As it turns out, the deal is only valid 'till the 16th of February and the 150,- guilder price tag is only offered at the beginning of the new deal (I suppose just the first month). After that, the price will go up to 250,- guilders for the remainder of the contract.

UTS also has to check if the 4MB connection is indeed possible at your house. If it's not possible, the new "upgrade contract" gets torn up and you'll go back to the regular contract that is tied up to your 2MB connection. So, technically, it's a 4MB Adsl connection for 250,- guilders. Does this change your mind if you were going to take the upgrade deal???

UPDATE: Well, I'm totally confused now. At first I thought that the 4MB upgrade offer would remain attached to the Naf. 149,- price tag. Then Sebastiaan went in today and was told that the 149,- is a "introductie korting" and that the price would get bumped up to 250,- guilders for the remainder of the contract. But now reader Alexander tells us that he was able to do the 4MB upgrade and keep the 149,- price, unlike what was told to Sebastiaan.

I'm basically lost right now. I was offered the upgrade with a 149,- price tag, but like I already wrote, it was in return for my 3G modem. Give the 3G back and get the upgrade in speed at the same price. As for other users who want to upgrade....your guess is as good as mine right now. Sigh.......