Last weekend, 22-23 October, has been marked by a colossal event in the Belgian Brussels, lead by the Doshu (hereditary head) Moriteru Ueshiba, a grandson of Ōsensei Morihei Ueshiba.
Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba in Brussels
Sound Switcher Indicator2.1.0
I’ve been able to pay a bit more attention to the Sound Switcher Indicator and implement some of the long asked-for features.
Sound Switcher Indicator2.0.1
It’s been more than two years since the last release of the Sound Switcher Indicator (1.2.2). During this period I’ve been bombarded with requests to allow the indicator to switch device profiles, because most sound cards cannot be otherwise switched to their digital ports, like S/PDIF and HDMI.
So today I proudly present Sound Switcher Indicator 2.0.1, which finally supports profile switching:
yktoo.com switched to HTTPS
Russian store experiences
I’ve recently been to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to help my parents to renovate the apartment they had moved into. Just for your information, Russians recognise Saint Petersburg as the “cultural capital of Russia” due to its rich cultural traditions, heritage and, arguably, population.
But I’d like to touch on another subject now. For the sake of the renovation I had to do a lot of shopping in a big builder’s store. Just because it was big, I preferred to ask staff for directions rather than waste my time looking for the thing I needed.
Now official: Shodan
And here we are, almost four months after the exam I officially possess a Shodan Aikido Aikikai:
The diploma has been solemnly granted by Marc Jongsten (who also took the exam) during a short ceremony at Aikido Centrum Leiden.
Sun Caged Farewell Show
I’ve finally nerved myself to tell you about a sad development for prog lovers.
I first learned about the Dutch prog band Sun Caged when I came to Holland back in 2008. Shortly after I’ve even seen them playing on Walhalla. I must say I was impressed. But three years later, in 2011, the band has released The Lotus Effect (which also happened to be their last album), I was totally blown away as this was absolutely a masterpiece of progressive metal. I can’t even explain why, but I deem this album one of the best rock works ever, and I seem to be able to listen to it endlessly.
Packaging overdone
Ambient backlighting for Samsung LED TV
Being quite happy with my 75 inch whopper Samsung UE75HU7500, the only thing I wanted to do about it was giving it ambient backlighting. When watching TV in complete darkness your eyes get quickly tired because of the stark contrast between the bright screen and its dark surroundings. Even though this device features an ambient light sensor, which is used to automatically adjust the screen brightness, the contrast is still all too harsh.
Ever wondered why I left Russia?
Here’s one of the reasons:
The most worrying part is that in Russia that is considered a funny minor incident.
Amersfoort Marathon 2016
I’m just back from Amersfoort where I’ve quite successfully finished a half marathon, 21.1 km.
The day’s been a scorcher with 27 °C (81 °F) in the shade. On the Dutch scale it’s a lot, and with a clear blue sky you feel like being roasted.
InfoPiInfoPi (a.k.a. DIY Google Now)
When a geek gets bored, he usually dives into home automation. And when there’s nothing more left to automate, he blogs about it.
When leaving my house I usually check the weather forecast for today and if there are any train disruptions. The thing is, it takes precious time and I’m usually in a hurry. Therefore the idea of having all the useful information on a single display was in the air for quite a while. Recently I’ve finally got to implement it. Please meet InfoPi.