Only 4 days until the biggest and toughest rally in the world starts in Lisboa. After 2 weeks, on the 20th of Januari, the bikes will finish their trip in Dakar (oh yes, and there will be some cars too, and some uninteresting truckers). The number to keep an eye on (again) this year is bike 041. It’s Miriam Pol, who is planning on finishing high in the bikes classification.
Easy Image Resizing in OSX
A little heads-up for Apple OSX users who have lots of images to resize. There’s a free tool available to do this at http://www.eagle-of-liberty.com/resizeemall/. It’s donationware, if you like it you can send the author money by paypal.
I’ve used it, and it works as advertised. Drag a bunch of images on the application, and batch-resize them without touching your originals. You can save the images with a postfix, and even in a different format if you like. Very easy for mailing a bunch of photo’s.
Translators ruin good books.
On Christmas day, Santa gave me a very nice book about digital photography, by Michael Freeman. The book contains lots of interesting information and tips for the digital SLR photographer. The only problem with the book is, that the Dutch translation of it is absolutely terrible to read. The sentences do not “flow” naturaly, and almost feel as if they were litteraly translated word-by-word from the English version.
Karel de Kerstplant
“Wat wil je later worden jongen?” vroeg papa plant aan kleine Kareltje.
“Een hele grote kerstboom papa” zei Kareltje.
Kareltjes vader durfde hem de harde realiteit niet te vertellen, en hielp Kareltje bij alles wat hij probeerde om in een grote, sterke kerstboom te veranderen. Kareltje probeerde met alle macht zijn blaadjes op te rollen tot naaldjes. Jaren lang bond hij zijn stengels bijelkaar in de hoop dat ze zouden samensmelten tot een dikke, stevige stam.
Jaren later is Kareltje een verbitterde kantoorplant geworden. Maar eens in het jaar, rond de kerst, haalt hij zijn lampjes tevoorschijn en droomt hij nog één keer zijn mooie droom. Dan staat hij in zijn mooiste pot, draagt hij de mooiste ballen en is hij een paar weken Karel de Kerstplant, het stralende middelpunt van de roze kamer.
Met dank aan Sidney voor de sfeerfotografie.
If Not HTTPS Then Exit
Hello kids. Yes, if you are writing applications for consumer companies, there’s a good chance I’m talking to you. We need to have a talk, urgently. It’s about a whole new way of doing things, and it’s a new word in your dictionary. The word is “secure” (linked to Webster’s for your convenience.
Backup Guru? Give me a break
Today I listened to a podcast called “For Mac Eyes Only”, in which people were complaining about how Time Machine does not work “the way they want it to”. I think this is utter crap, and I will explain why.
Helicopter fun
A couple of friends of mine bought me a great toy for my birthday: my very own personal Helicopter! It is an amazing piece of engineering, weighing only a couple of grams, and having a very simple remote with the usual “left/right/forward/reverse” type of remote.
Hidden “Get a Mac” ads
I was browsing YouTube the other day, and noticed that there are some “Get a Mac” commercials which are not on the usual getamac website. These commercials are in the original setting with Justin Long as the Mac and John Hodgman as the PC, but ony published through YouTube or as Flash commercials.
Escape from Alcatraz
Should you be in the position that you are convicted to spending 3 or 4 hours in the Dutch Alcatraz theatre program, there are a few things you should know beforehand. The photographs on the site have absolutely nothing to do with the show itself, and should not be used to judge setting or quality. The audience is not only encouraged, but in fact required to play an active part in the “show”. The whole show is based on humiliation of people in front of their friends/collegues. The show is definetely not wheelchair friendly, and toilets are in fact unreachable by wheelchair.
Scholierenstaking (Dutch)
Tijd om auto’s in brand te steken van onschuldige mensen die daar jaren voor gespaard hebben want ojee, de scholieren krijgen 1040 lesuren. En dat terwijl ze 960 uur al genoeg les vinden met al dat huiswerk dat ze krijgen. Het is zelfs zo erg dat het komt tot Aanhoudingen bij scholierenstaking. Misschien is het tijd om het op een akkoordje te gooien.