2022-08-31 18:33:25 CET The last day of August... the last summer month. It's reflecting also a bit in the weather; the forecast shows a couple of nice days ahead. I have a feeling the days are counted. We could still enjoy our coffee this morning on the terrace, but it was on the limit with T-shirt and shorts at 08:00 o'clock.
Today was a more relaxed day at work, I could work through some of much needed administration. Let's see what tomorrow brings...
The biggest happening today was the purchase of a new laptop for J; which is needed for his studies. Both of us went to MediaMarkt (where else) to "check out what's available". I did some research (of course) and I had a clear view on what's needed - preferably an Intel i7, SSD harddisk (size not important) and at least 8 GB RAM. I want to be below 700 EUR. I found one but I wanted to go with J that he could see and feel it This Asus seems really promising. All that I was looking for was there, it's very light and it's got Windows 11 Home installed.. I even got J with me. We, mostly J of course, did the initial setup and it all looks really promising. Extremely fast, responsive and complete for not even 580 EUR!
I could also complete my latest request - a hook that hangs on internal water tubes. The design It all starts with a drawing... done and "transferred" it to FreeCad and it is being printed with my beloved Prusa printer. The simpler design was printed in 30 minutes and the result I am really proud of the result, first design, first print turned out perfectly! was great, we can now hang the towels. The soap dispenser "platform" is a 5 hours job Hopefully it's as great as the first print! for the little workhorse.
I just love the Octoprint-Raspberry Pi-Prusa setup that I did, it works perfectly. Today I had the chance to completely test it. It's just FANTASTIC!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-31 18:35:19 CET Did you know... that today in 1888 Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's Read more about him on Wikipedia. confirmed victims.
2022-08-30 19:26:07 CET It was an extremely busy day at work today! Crazy many calls! I think I only had about 1 hour free today (including lunch) until around 18:00 (first call was at 08:30 and the preparation took at least an hour)... 11 hours work day feels, more or less, like normal these days. 60 to 65 hours work week thus. Hang on, according to my contract I do 30 hours "overtime"...
We worked on our wine cellar today. We have 44 bottle of wines in our virtual wine cellar (with the Vivino A very nice app/service all about Wines. application) so far. And that is the "fine wines". One of the perks of life... We need to little things in life that makes it all worth while!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-29 20:09:48 CET Did you know... that today in 1721 the Great Northern War Read more about it on Wikipedia. between Sweden and Russia ends in the Treaty of Nystad.
2022-08-29 20:09:59 CET It was a rough start of the working week. Just one of THOSE days . We just had a too nice weekend .
J. is away on a birthday party today. He's got a very nice time, but it's running to an end. We had a talk yesterday about some practical stuff, how ever boring it may sound like, but it is needed. A lot of new stuff is appearing on the horizon...
There was something else that I planned to write about, but it seems I forgot all about it. For the life of me, I can not remember what. A senior moment, as it's called. Shortly, if/when my brain wakes up, I might have a new update here...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-29 20:09:48 CET Did you know... that today in 1898 the Goodyear Read more about it on Wikipedia. tire company is founded.
2022-08-28 21:43:50 CET Today was/is a typical Sunday - the kind I like. I could relaxed enjoy the coffee on the terrace, nice breakfast and then plan the day ahead. I had a lot of things already planned out in my head. As much Raspberry pi/3D printing as possible!
I think that all of us were doing stuff we felt like doing. Now and then we came together and had the much needed close connecting moments. Wonderful! Some of the strategical future planning talks with J. I guess it's more of "planting the seed" in his head and then we have to leave it, give it some space to grow.
Then, through out the day, I worked on getting the Prusa 3d printer - Raspberry Pi Zero 2 w - Camera module v2.1OK, I uploaded the clip to a service for the first time. The ... is off but if you turn your head you'll get the idea... You see the Raspberry Pi, the camera mounted in the 3D printed holder. It's really a nice setup. setup to work. It was a lot of work, but it works great. The OctoPrint installation is something I am used to, so I am familiar enough to resolve any issues during the installation process. The end result I did the 3D print that you see on the foreground holding the camera module v2.1 and in the background (black case with the GPIO pins sticking out) you can see the Raspberry Pi Zero 2w which is the brains behind everything - the OctoPrint server. is brilliant!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-28 19:40:52 CET Did you know... that today is the National Red Wine DaySomething new, the "national ... day". Also really interesting!. Cheers!
2022-08-27 10:34:34 CET Slept like a baby, enjoyed the breakfast on the terrace again, yesterday the weather did not allow it.
2022-08-27 12:25:53 CET We were invited at friends for a BBQ The concept of Ofyr is brilliant - it's a nice mix of open fire, smell and a garden ornament. - an evening with truly great food. It must have been 4 or 5 years we were last together and there are always an interesting dynamic in the Brasilian, Dutch, Belgium and Swedish group .
Today we have a birthday party to go to - the mother of my god child will be 50 years old.
2022-08-27 13:22:55 CET Yesterday, the order from PiHut.com PiHut always deliver! Everything was there - the Raspberry Pi 4 kit (power cable, casing, SD card etc), camera module, the fans and camera converting cable - nicely packed. was delivered. If you remember, I made an order just before the trip In the highlighted post are the details... to Sweden and I received it yesterday (it was stuck in customs since UK doesn't belong to Europe any more). Anyway, I have the stuff and now I started a new little project.
The plan is to turn my existing Raspberry Pi Zero W into an Octoprint server (with the new Camera module to monitor the 3D prints) for the Prusa 3D printer and the new Raspberry Pi 4 will be a new Docker server. Yesterday I started some 3D prints - a great camera case Brilliant case for the Raspberry Pi Camera module 2.1. that snaps onto the Prusa printer and I also started printing some part for the Raspberry Pi holder These are some part for the RPi Zero W holder that snaps onto the Prusa 3D printer. You can see the back part that snaps on and then you have to screw the Raspberry Pi board onto it. The front cover is yet to be 3D printed. that also just snaps onto the printer. I still have some parts to print still...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-27 10:38:37 CET Did you know... that today in 1859 petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania Read more about it on Wikipedia., leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.
2022-08-25 12:07:43 CET Not a lot of sleeping happened last night , the charm of being parents to a teenager and having a crazy warm summer. J had friends over, but that was certainly not the worst, the worst was that it was much too warm and it never cooled down.
The first working day started early - no point in laying awake. There were a lot of thing to prepare before all the calls begun, checking the long email backlog being the most urgent.
I think I never commented the trip back from Sweden. Just wanted to record that travelling out from- and coming back from Stockholm (Arlanda airport) to Amsterdam worked really well. Long-term parking in Schiphol is not only cheaper, but also much better service than in Zaventem. I could even drive back and forth (300+ km) on one charge (had 20% left when arriving back home) . Checking out of the hotel in Stockholm (Scandic Klara Nice and practical hotel. Perfect location in Stockholm! - nice hotel and great location) and going to Arlanda with the Arlanda Express Check it out here, it's really the best way to get to the airport. worked brilliantly - only 18 minutes and you're in the airport from central Stockholm!
2022-08-25 19:05:55 CET The workday finally came to an end (I had 8 calls today!) and we are now relaxing, eating and drinking nice. Both of us had our "first day back". It was like being in a sauna in the home office today and not much better outside on the terrace at lunch either. J and friends are are together at someone who's got a pool. I would have done the same!
I have started moving all the pictures and recorded movies clips to the NAS I took while we where in Sweden - all 223 of them. It's always nice to see them again, nice memories are coming back when browsing over them what to keep!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-25 11:33:47 CET Did you know... that today in 1609 Galileo Galilei Read more about him on Wikipedia. demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
2022-08-24 12:15:53 CET It took some time waking up and realise where I was. Hudiksvall? Stockholm? at Home? Coffee at the terrace was great enjoying the lush garden again. It the last day of our holiday - tomorrow it all starts again. Heavy feeling!
It's a lot of stuff that needs to be done when coming back from a week away. This time it was different from a traditional holiday (like the one we had in Corfu etc) since it was partly of social- and administrational type (handling of passport and ID card). Unpacking and sorting stuff out takes time - I am hoping we can have some "time off" as well to properly "land".
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-24 12:17:59 CET Did you know... that today in 2012 Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks Read more about it on Wikipedia., is sentenced to 21 years of preventive detention.
2022-08-23 14:53:24 CET Trying out to make an update "on the go" using public Wifi (I am of course using my VPN). Sitting at the Arlanda airport (at terminal 5 at "Joe and the Juice") waiting for the flight back to Amsterdam. The flight is scheduled for 16:15, landing at 18:00 and then driving back to Brasschaat will probably take almost 2 hours.
Contemplating in retrospective, the holiday was really nice, it was truly a wonderful time. More to come; my plan is to prepare a gallery out of all the pictures taken from all of us and upload it here (on the "gallery page" here). OK, I will tryt o upload this now...
2022-08-15 12:12:19 CET After a night of VERY limited sleep, it's nice to get up to a cloudy day. Sounds strange, but the intense heat has diminished and some oxygen is restored again. I say "some oxygen" as it's still a humid and thunderstorm-in-the-air feeling... It was terrible trying to sleep; drenched in sweat, tossing and turning This is a fitting song. See it at YouTube. Funny... the night through to try to find a position to fall a sleep in. The coffee tastes great today!
It could be that this is the last day that I update this page , at least for a couple of days. But I'll see if I bring the laptop with me to Sweden. We have to leave early tomorrow morning, by 06:00 we have to be gone (to be 3 hours before boarding). If it all goes fine, we should be in Sågtäkten at 17:00.
Zorin OS is very interesting... 2022-08-15 12:48:54 CET Some time ago I mentioned Zorin OS Check it out here what's it all about... - a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. Anyway, I believe I mentioned that I installed it on a Laptop to go full out and try it to see what it's all about. I have tried it out for some time, installed some stuff that I need and I have to say that it's really impressive. Awesome performance and stable environment. Any Windows user will feel comfortable using it.
NFC is very interesting... 2022-08-15 13:00:14 CET Another interesting thing that I have to explore is NFC - Near-field Communication - and NFC tag to be specific. It's very cheap small devices (you can get them for under 0,5 EUR To give you an idea of price and what it is, check out the search on Amazon.com. each) that you can program, store 500 bytes of data onto (depending of type, the nfc215 capacity is 504 bytes). Let's say that you want to store a business card worth of data - should be probably around 200 bytes of data. Then there are mobile phones that are NFC-ready to read it, the only thing you need to do is to be close (within max 5 cm or so) and the data is transferred over to the phone. How cool is that, imagine what a nice business card you can make. I am thinking of 3D print one, insert a NFC-tag and you have the coolest business card around.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-15 12:05:32 CET Did you know... that today in 1695 French forces end the bombardment of Brussels Read more about it on Wikipedia..
2022-08-14 12:49:09 CET We slept in this morning and woke up to what's probably is going to be the hottest day of the year. Here is the weather at around 10:00:
Yesterday was a relaxed day, the visit in Geel on Friday was absolutely great and we were not home before 01:30. J had some friends over and they all had just left before we arrived back home. It was a great welcome .
Today we will focus on packing - cleaning and practically sorting out the stuff needed - for the Sweden trip. It's nice to have it done as there are some planned activities this evening (a "going away" get-together with parents-in-law) and on Monday (meeting up in Antwerp with the family of my brother-in-law). Then early, very early, on Tuesday morning we are off to Schiphol airport to catch the flight to Stockholm.
New Raspberry Pi stuff is hopefully soon here... 2022-08-14 14:00:42 CET I forgot to mention, but I ordered some Raspberry Pi stuff I ordered a model 4b 2GB (the only one in stock, but it will be more than enough), two fans; one for the new one and the other for my existing one. I also ordered a camera module, with accompanying adapter, to have with my RPi Zero which I am planning to use with the Prusa printer running Octoprint. last Thursday. The only way to get hold on Raspberry Pi:s these day is ordering a kit. So that is what I did; It was done late in the evening so I do not think it will be delivered in time before we have to leave for the airport on Tuesday. Fingers crossed, there is slim (microscopic) chance that it's getting delivered tomorrow...DHL and Deutsche Post do your thing!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-14 12:05:52 CET Did you know... that today in 1901 the first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21 Read more about it on Wikipedia..
2022-08-12 16:01:19 CET Not the best of nights when it comes to sleeping. No bigger drama, just that it was one of those nights when my brain is not the best companion, someone who wants to keep the rest of me awake .
This evening we are visiting friends in Geel, it's about an hour away, east in Belgium, almost in Limburg. It's going to be nice, very nice friends and it was a long time since we met up with them.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-12 16:13:01 CET Did you know... that today in 1492 Christopher Columbus Read more about him on Wikipedia. arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World.
2022-08-11 15:43:21 CET I am well into my 2nd day of holiday and I am starting to get into the holiday mode. Just about...almost there .
After an relaxed morning, I decided to take the "bull by the horn" and do the last bit of "holiday administration" necessary for the Sweden trip. These days, due to the pandemic, I have to best get the passport and international ID card done in Sweden. The consulates are not doing it anymore in Brussels. I mentioned earlier how it's mandatory to book an appointment - I was lucky that I could change my time slot to match with the already booked visit in Sweden. Anyway, for that critical appointment I need to have some paperwork prepared, if I miss something it could result in rejecting my request...
After almost 2 hours of "paperwork" (it also led to other things that needed some attention), I tried to do some chores outside in the garden, but it's a struggle in the extreme heat. A lot of the hardware doesn't operate very good in these conditions, like an airpump we use to inflate air in the little pool. Not sure if air is escaping or if it's due to the ...yes you guessed it, the extreme heat!
2022-08-11 16:36:16 CET Yesterday was a brilliant, super cosy day. I did a lot of work for my man-cave-3D-Delux corner ...involving manually measuring and drilling 256 holes This one little details in the new installation. It also involves carpet and cork padded walls..... A lot of planning went into it as well. It's going to be great! More to come, for SURE!
We ended the day with aperitif on the terrace and then a nice movie in the veranda - we had the movie room for our selfs since J had a birthday party to go to.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-11 16:35:08 CET Did you know... that today in 1934 the first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island Read more about it on Wikipedia..
2022-08-08 12:21:38 CET Finally, the last working day before holiday is done and I have 14 days of holiday to look forward to. It was a lot of calls, add-hoc calls added in desperation. The planned hand-over documentation, out of office message and instructions that needed to be sent out etc were done in normal fashion - in panic and last second!
I managed to also clean and fill up (don't tell anyone) the little inflatable pool It's not the biggest, but it will be great to float around in it.... Since it will be crazy warm the next coming days it will be a nice source to get refreshed.
J's moped was finally fixed today, the mystery of the clutch was resolved. Actually, due to my lack of knowledge of clutches on Nox (Derbi Senda engine) mopeds I didn't know that it was normal how it felt. I was just to careful to "mess it up" more. With the new wire for the clutch (the old broke off) it was driving perfectly - J took it out for a drive for almost an hour around in Brasschaat. To celebrate that and my holiday, I enjoyed a special beer A beer that we bought in Sweden some time ago. I actually saw that the "best before date" was 17th Feb 2022... It tasted just fine! on the terrace this evening.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-08 12:27:28 CET Did you know... that today in 1936 Jesse Owens Read more about him on Wikipedia. wins his fourth gold medal at the Summer Olympics.
2022-08-08 12:21:38 CET Whapphaaa , and it's Monday and another workweek started. I am not really sure where Sunday went or what I did, but it just flew by.
The weekend was so nice, Saturday with the garden concert The garden concert by Onan (Onanza) was really nice! and then meeting up with our dear ladies M and D was wonderful! So much happened, such a lot of input that it took the Sunday to process .
2022-08-08 23:01:01 CET OK, just to mention; we had a great evening and night. I like it, no sorry, I love it so much when all of us can enjoy the time. Relaxed. When the evening turns into night and there is this relaxed feeling and all of us are just ...well, we all come together and it's chill. That is how it was this night. Wonderful! Enjoying a movie "Generation Kill" seems to be a great movie. Have a look at IMDB.com. together and the talks that it inspires. It's all just fantastic to be honest!
Tomorrow is the last day before holiday. Great, but also very stressful! So much needs to be done before logging out, shutting down the "put the laptop in holiday mode". Not to mention, putting me in holiday mode... This time is completely different; this time is going to Sweden seeing family and friends. On a different level. We'll see, it's the last stretch before the yearly start-up, but it will be completely different from all other yearly start-ups...except that it happens to be post-Covid this time. But OK, all very exiting and we will see what it brings this time.
2022-08-08 23:30:22 CET Sooo, I am installing a newly found OS on a computer. It's a "new" Linux distribution called Zorin Head over to Zorin OS, it seems to be great!. OK, for me it's not super new, it's based on Ubuntu (that is why I jumped on it) and it really seems great as far as what I have seen. I will absolutely do a lot of updates about it here...MORE to come! The thing though, something that I have to let you know; do NOT start the installation when you are about to go to bed...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-08 12:27:28 CET Did you know... that today in 1786 Mont Blanc Read more about it on Wikipedia. on the French-Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard.
2022-08-06 14:14:13 CET It's been a nice and productive day so far, we enjoyed a Saturday breakfast and lunch on the terrace. Some chores around the house, gardenwork and I could finished off the "cupboard shelf support" The final result of my construction. I am happy with the result. construction.
Now we are preparing ourselves to go and watch a garden music session in the garden of my brother in law. That will be very interesting and nice, I am sure. Then we bike back to have dinner with our dear neighbour ladies M and D. All so nice...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-06 14:14:23 CET Did you know... that today in ...will be updated soon...
2022-08-05 18:29:13 CET I was up and about early this morning ready for work - in the office in Brussels. The plan was to take the first call in the car while driving. Technology was not with me though, I could never connect. Anyway, not too much of an issue. But still annoying! The superb coffee I had with me made things better though .
Now it's Friday and I am trying to enjoy the upcoming weekend. Sometimes when tired it's difficult to look forward when there are too much planned...but in the end it turns out just fine. Can't believe that next Wednesday it's already time for my holiday number 2! First a couple of days "landing" and then we're off for Sweden for a week. I love the idea of having a couple of days before and after the trip off as well.
Now... we are enjoying a glass (or two) of bubbles. Nice to have a relaxed evening!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-05 19:15:02 CET Did you know... that today in 1860 Charles XV Read more about him on Wikipedia. of Sweden of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim.
2022-08-04 13:08:39 CET It's another nice hot day today. I started with some escalations this morning in a very warm home-office.
We had a very nice BBQ Very nice BBQ setup on the terrace, a nice and cosy evening with our friend C. yesterday, great talks with our friend C.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-04 13:20:39 CET Did you know... that today in 1944 a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank Read more about her on Wikipedia., her family, and four others.
2022-08-03 17:28:54 CET It is a HOT day today. Unbelievable! Are we still on Corfu, or what? The breakfast this morning on the terrace brought me almost back to our cosy breakfasts at Corfu...
We are all back together again, J. is back from Knokke and all was great. S happy for him that he could enjoy some time off (from the parents), relaxing/partying with friends!
Yesterday we were invited to one of the neighbours, not direct neighbours but close enough. We didn't know what to expect, but it turned out really great. We were both very positively surprised and it was a nice evening learning to know other people that you have actually seen for 19 years but never learned to know.
Any minute now we expect our friend C to arrive. We have arranged a BBQ to catch-up... Oh, I think he just parked...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-03 17:32:09 CET Did you know... that today in 1960 Niger Read more about it on Wikipedia. gains independence from France.
2022-08-02 13:41:26 CET It was an early start today with an important call scheduled early in the morning. With extra strong coffee it was manageable.
J was off to Knokke, the coast of Belgium. Just a little while ago I dropped him off at the train station. And, as usual, it was done with the "last second planning with 0 preparation" methodology. I guess I used the same methodology when I was in his age as well. I can't remember it though, but I am sure I did. Poor my parents.
2022-08-02 15:17:57 CET My own design (quickly done in Tinkercad) and 3D printed (and coated in a couple of Epoxy layers) "mini vases" Looks really nice, it brightens up the room for sure. Nice to give old flowers a second life... comes to use and it's really satisfying with such a nice result.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-02 13:41:47 CET Did you know... that today in 1870 Tower Subway Read more about it on Wikipedia., the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London, England, United Kingdom.
2022-08-01 12:46:32 CET BOOM! It's August already... and another work-week is starting. Rough start with only a couple of hours of sleep. The coffee tastes GREAT!
J's Zippo lighter (no, he doesn't smoke) stopped working, we figured out, due to the fact that the flint ran out. I ordered a little Zippo sparepart kit J's Zippo lighter and the ordered "spareparts kit".. What's interesting is what you learn about things like these when you do the research, is what you learn. Firstly, what you have to do practically to fix the issue but also, in this specific case, everything around the product, history and stuff Fascinating things you learn - how it is re-usable, that it was created in 1932, popular in the II World War and also in Vietnam war. It's still a strong brand and and it stands for quality - "it works or we fix it for free." like that. There are a lot of interesting unique things around it still today, like the specific date code on the bottom of the case - all are stamped with the date when it was made - depending on the period when it was created. So cool!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-08-01 12:46:52 CET Did you know... that today in 1498 Christopher Columbus Read more about him on Wikipedia. becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.