2023-02-01 18:10:14 CET ..And shmackabooom, we are in February all of a sudden! It's been a more relaxed day at work than yesterday when I had a whole day of remote "workshop". Following a meeting via webcam and headphone for 5 hours is not what I dream about...
J and K were also staying here yesterday while I was 95% of the time busy in the meeting. But what matters is that they had a nice time together. It was the last time they could meet before spending a week apart - she is travelling to London and J to the Ardennes with friends. At lunch J left with a friend who drives the whole way there which is, as parents, always a worry! But he texted me saying that they all arrived there fine. Waiting for pictures now...
I discovered that my little order for the Prusa mini+ 3D printer arrived. I'd ordered heat nozzle sock Something like this is how it looks like. (a heat protection made of silicone) and a Wifi-module for it. I have already fitted the heat-sock on there and it fits perfectly! I started preparing for the Wifi-module; first step is to upgrade the firmware. The firmware and the bootloader were successfully flashed to the 3D printer. Now I just need to fit the hardware into the controlboard.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-02-01 17:43:20 CET Did you know that today in 1713 the Kalabalik or Skirmish at Bender Read more about it on Wikipedia. results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
2023-01-30 13:19:58 CET I was up (not necessary awake) early this morning driving H to work. Lucky that I had my coffee with me in the car!
I had some calls scheduled in the morning, but I was only able to join one of them as there was a production issue that I had to urgently work on. At that time the docking station to my laptop decided to do difficult. It just didn't want to connect to the keyboard, mouse and the screen. I had same issues before, also in the office. Not ideal situation when working on an urgent issue... Good news is, I think I found the solution of that business critical issue. And the docking station issue was also resolved.
I can also say that I successfully finished the 3D print I could finally print this nice print - mounting tray for the Skådis pegboard. yesterday that I had problems with earlier. The issue was resolved by doing a proper calibration of the 3D print bed.
2023-01-30 19:17:41 CET OK, new plans. We have to keep up with the youngsters . So, J and K. are now planing to stay over here. Fantastic (it means they like it here). The day after tomorrow J will then travel with friends to the Ardennes Read more about it on Wikipedia. It's a nice region, I actually prefer it to the Belgium coast... and stay until Sunday. So, to keep it nice (and the youngsters fed) we ordered food for tonight from one of our favourite - Gari Wok. It just arrived...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-30 13:20:31 CET Did you know that today in 1862 was the first American ironclad warship Read more about it on Wikipedia., the USS Monitor launched.
2023-01-28 12:00:33 CET Today is the family celebration for J's 19th birthday Preparations started for the party tonight!. It started nice this morning, went for breakfast at "B-Nut" Check this out, nice little place in Brasschaat where we live. and then picked up the food for tonight.
Yesterday was a day in the office. I prepared myself for spending hours in traffic, but it was surprisingly smooth driving. I was in the office, at my desk at 08:00 already. Driving back in the evening was not as smooth, but still OK:ish.
J arrived home yesterday after two days away. It was all good and he'd enjoy the time very much. He had a lot of nice things to share...
2023-01-28 12:00:33 CET Great and exciting news, the Vivaldi themeIt's finally official and ready to install! I developed was approved and there are already 12 downloads. Cool!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-28 12:42:52 CET Did you know that today in 1932 Japanese forces attack Shanghai Read more about it on Wikipedia..
2023-01-26 12:04:27 CET I could enjoy a more relaxed morning today, no early calls and I could focus on coffee drinking and work through some pending things that needed some attention. Not the most fun thing to do, but at a certain moment they just need to be taken care of...
For the observant here, you have probably already noticed the slight formatting update here on the website. Just a cool little feature done to give a nice effect to the links to make them standout a bit more.
J. is certainly have a good time together with K. - spending a couple of days together visiting parents and family on her side. I am sure they are enjoying the time together.
2023-01-26 19:51:56 CET Do you see it? Do you? Look around... Here is a hint... logo. Coffee cup! Send me a message (as you can do from the site here...)
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-26 12:04:54 CET Did you know that today in 1926 was the first demonstration of the television by John Logie Baird Read more about him on Wikipedia..
2023-01-24 17:02:08 CET Was planning to update yesterday, but... well, it didn't happened. All of a sudden it was... No, now I remember. J was home and we started watching the fantastic new TV serie called "The Last of Us"Check it out on IMDB and read the details of this fantastic TV serie!
J did his last exam today and is understandably celebrating a little bit this evening. It's not going to be too late (according to him self) as the plans for tomorrow involves getting up early. His girlfriend (yes, it is official) has planned the whole day as a birthday surprise. They have also started to plan holidays together this summer... it all goes so fast!
I did something (so very) cool today! It was yesterday actually, but today it was finalized (almost). I created my very own Vivaldi (my internet browser of choice) theme Nice, my very own Vivaldi theme was developed. It's called Mastodon and I hope it gets approved soon. I created the background image of a mastodon myself from scratch with AI technology. and it's shared in the community making it available for everyone to install soon. It just needs to be approved by Vivaldi first...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-24 17:12:26 CET Did you know that today in 1908 the first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-PowellRead more about him on Wikipedia..
2023-01-22 19:19:57 CET It's Sunday evening and the weekend is ALREADY coming to an end. Again! It's been a nice, cold and - for the most part - sunny weekend.
We had a very nice evening yesterday, met up with friends in the restaurant called Bistro B23 This is the restaurant we visited for the second time, but now with friend T and G. Nice food and a nice atmosphere. in Antwerp.
We just heard on the news that a "firework bomb" (home made bomb) went off not far from where I live. Normally, nothing like that ever happens like that here. Apparently, it's got to do with rivalling drug gang settlement... A couple from The Netherlands was picked-up by the police. Recently there was in the news about a shooting here as well.
Buying a car is really a strange thing during the time of the motor show period. The fact that it's the first back again since two years (after the pandemic), doesn't make the hype any less.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-22 18:51:03 CET Did you know that today is the Chinese and Korean New Year.
2023-01-19 21:01:30 CET OK, so the craziness continues... Today, all happening in one day, we completed all the paperwork (3-5 instances and 100 of pages to scan and email) for the new car. Yes, we made all the decision and reasoning about and around all the if's and what's etc over the phone and phone. I have not yet seen the car!
So, that was what happening and a lot of funny things around the car; like there were 3 other customers after H who wanted to buy the car right there and then. There are are only 5 of these cars for sale with these conditions in Belgium...stuff like that. So now we have one of the favourite cars of H as the second car, the Ford EcoSport.
When all of this is going on, Balti contact us saying that they need to finalize the solar panel deal. That gets added on top of what we're dealing with. Of course. It's all great news and great progress. So now we have a date when they will come for the inspection, and when they will come for starting the installation. Then we were also contacted by the official inspection guy that need to come and declare everything. The date for that is arranged as well. By the end of Mars we have the solar panel installed and up and running!
So, isn't it funny how all of that happens during ONE day? I have scanned more than 200 pages, in 16 different documents and emailed a number of, I lost the count, instances to get everything done in time. All should be OK now. Time will tell...
Oh of course, J left this evening also to spend the night at his girlfriend in Antwerp as well to be sure that he is in time (they predicted snow and that brings traffic chaos) for his Excel exam tomorrow. But that is yet a another thing that was going on today...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-19 21:01:52 CET Did you know that today in 1520 Sten Sture the Younger Read more about him on Wikipedia., the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund and dies on February 3
2023-01-18 15:44:50 CET We already passed middle of Jan, almost February already. It's crazy how fast time goes. (I sound like a broken record). The last couple of days have been crazy much to do at work. It's typical that when I take my half days off, shit happens at work. So typical, that is what they call "Murphy's law".
Something else that is typical (Murphy's lay all over again); we have just submitted all the paperwork concerning solar panel to the bank this morning. Super exciting! Hopefully there are no problems. But anyways, guess what happens then? Of course our little car is dying which means another cost that we have to cover. The cost of fixing it is absolutely ridiculously high, it's almost the complete value of the 12 years old car . I think we have decided to buy a new one... We started the research!
The weather took a turn; it's freezing outside but sunny and nice clear days.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-18 15:45:30 CET Did you know that today in 1896 an X-ray generating machine Read more about it on Wikipedia. is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.
2023-01-15 18:18:50 CET This weekend was not a typical weekend at all. J's birthday was far from normal, having to study most of the day through. Only in the evening there was some time for leisure - he went to the gym with friends. It continued in the same fashion today too...
I spent most of the weekend fiddling around with the network (some issues after the factory reset which Proximus decided to do when we had issues), the Raspberry Pi computers (found a new backup system called RaspiBackup Read more about it on the homepage of RaspiBackup. The solution that I found when being on Mastodon...), finalizing the paperwork needed for the solar-panel installation (damn it's expensive), J's birthday as mentioned and other small chores around the house. Not much time at all for 3D printing unfortunately (except spending hours on trying to get Octoprint to work again, turned out it was also related to the previous network issues. Again).
I am still finding the decentralized social network technology that Mastodon etc is, is a very interesting solution / community. Mastodon is part of the framework / solution that goes under the name of Fediverse read more on what's it all about on Wikipedia. and it's a great technology and idea of how to create a secured network of a lot of small instances (servers of all sizes. I know of Mastodon instances that are hosted on Raspberry Pi computers).
But the highlight of the weekend was J's birthday, how we still managed to make it very cozy and could enjoy a nice celebration for him. Just unreal how fast time flies though, I can't believe he was born 19 years ago (at precisely 13:26)!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-15 16:10:25 CET Did you know that today in 1889 the Coca-Cola Company read more about it on Wikipedia., then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.
2023-01-13 18:05:35 CET Finally Friday and end of the work week. It's not a day too early, feeling exhausted. I think that I still am not completely back to my normal me. But I am on my way there. I just have to try to relax and enjoy the coffee doing it...
J had his marketing exam today and tomorrow is his birthday . It is just crazy how fast time goes. My parents - my dad in particular - always said that time goes faster and faster the older you get. I can't but agree... My "little professor" will be 19 years old.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-13 18:11:13 CET Did you know that today in 1888 the National Geographic Society Read more about it on Wikipedia. is founded in Washington, D.C.
2023-01-11 08:53:26 CET Happy birthday! Today is the birthday of my mom.
The wishes were sent by mail, SMS and on social networks hopefully it reached on time.
2023-01-11 18:59:44 CET We decided "why not, let's enjoy it", this evening! Raise a glass for my mom/J's grandma and enjoy life for what it is. We also finalized the bank loan for our solar panels installation and it's seems that neighbour lady D is in such a good condition that she can come home one week earlier (this weekend thus).
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-11 08:54:48 CET Did you know that today in 1944 my mother was born.
2023-01-10 20:36:09 CET To start off as I ended my last post; the call went fine. As it did for all the others. I have had a lot of them the last days and it's been busy at work. Luckily I have access to wonderful coffee here in the comfort of the home office.
J has shifted his focus to the subject of the next exam, namely business English. He's got A LOT of material to go through in the limited time he has - only two days to prepare. Luckily he's brilliant in English!
One thing that I have to mention is what I discovered almost by accident is Mastodon. It is actually a surprise to be. It can easiest be explained as a social network like Facebook, but maybe more like Twitter. I have NEVER had Twitter and, for what ever reason, I have never felt the urge to use Twitter. Especially now with all the commotion going on there... Anyhow and nevertheless; let's get back to Mastodon. A lot can be said, I like the decentralized "blockchain" and open source technology that is behind it. Already there got me hooked. I have tried out a lot of alternatives in the passed - Google Wave, MeeWe and others, but it was never really the thing.
I got to know it through my favourite internet browser (Vivaldi, of course and the article is hereFantastic Internet browser and a great social service called Mastodon ) and I found it interesting at once. One thing led to another and I fell for the small community called MastodonSweden.se A very nice Mastodon community called MastodonSweden.se. I am existing there as @[email protected]. Already now I have some new digital friends that are very much in my liking. Refreshing to experience in the fake online reality of today... All the communities (own servers and instances) are like islands that connects and creates the Mastodon federation... Fantastic idea!
Sadly, I have had no time for any 3D printing what so ever. Not even warming them up... I did have time to pet my 3D printers good night...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-10 19:50:51 CET Did you know that today in 1870 John D. Rockefeller Read more about it on Wikipedia. incorporates Standard Oil.
2023-01-09 08:27:54 CET It was an early start this morning, we are all getting back to normal routines after the Christmas and New Year break.
The flame of diligence burns in the early hours of the morning. J is giving his all just before the exam today...
I better get a refill of coffee before the calls start...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-09 08:28:22 CET Did you know that today in 1431 the trial of Joan of Arc Read more about it on Wikipedia. Interesting since we visited Rouen and the historical sites some time ago. begins in Rouen.
2023-01-07 14:51:17 CET Ending of the workweek was tiresome - a lot at work, not feeling 100% fit and the weather was gray, rainy and windy . This period is just not a very inspiring time.
It's a very interesting phase that our neighbour ladies are enduring as well. It's a very critical time at the moment. We are supporting them as much as we can...
Today I took the time to finally resolve a minor issue that I've had for some time with my domain URL. It was just a small thing not worth going into much details, but I found the reason (DNS conflicts between Namecheap and Netlify) and it is resolved. But, while I was in Netlify I did some looking around in the functions/services that they provide. There are a lot of interesting stuff there actually; one that I decided to implement is the automatic "Sitemap" generator. Once it's been created - while deploying - it also pushes it to Google. Really nice function!
2023-01-07 16:51:17 CET Another little update I also made to mathiaspihl.com is the contact form. Now you are able to send me messages directly from the site. It's just a matter of filling out 3 fields From here you are able to send me small messages. and click the submit button and away it goes. I also added it in the quick link menu (called Stuff) on the bottom right of this page.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-07 14:20:39 CET Did you know that today in 2015 two gunmen commit mass murder Read more about it on Wikipedia. at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, shooting twelve people execution style, and wounding eleven others.
2023-01-03 16:38:17 CET The Christmas and New Year period was absolutely brilliant. Unbelievable how fast it passes though when you enjoy it...
Even though I was sick (I learned that I got the flu on the early hours of Thursday the 29th of December), I enjoyed the time to the fully! We enjoyed the time together as family with nice gifts, food, drinks and - the most important ingredient - a lot of love!
2023-01-03 19:07:07 CET One productive thing I did during the holiday was the update of my 3D printing corner. And I love it. The IKEA Skådis tool boards Have a look at how it turned out... I love it! (yes, there are two of them) have been installed and I could do some practical 3D printing Here are some of them, the ones in red to support the tools are 3D printed. to match (I also did some Christmas inspired 3D prints - a lot of Santa Claus, gnomes, Christmas trees etc...) the tool boards.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2023-01-03 16:44:11 CET Did you know that today in 1957 the Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watchRead more about it on Wikipedia..