The monument of Elfstedentocht
Every winter an average Dutch casts glances at the thermometer, hoping for a real cold to come.
The cause for such a strange wish is called Elfstedentocht, or the Eleven cities tour.
yktoo.com 2.0
It cost me quite an effort to make myself migrate my website to Yii 2.
And now, after about one and a half months of evening work (with breaks for workouts, birthday celebrations, recovering from insomnia and things like that) I can proudly present yktoo.com version 2.0.
The website has been built on Yii framework 2.0 and Bootstrap 3, with a handful of extensions. Thanks to Bootstrap the website is built on the principles of responsive web design. This should make the pages look reasonably well on a broad range of devices, from mobile phones to desktops.
The structure of the website has also been revisited: the blog feed is now right on the home page, and other sections have been moved around too. Due to that your RSS reader might show the last posts once again, sorry for that.
Dodgy kiwi
A year ago I posted about fruit groves in Houten. Last summer brought a sudden news on that topic.
A decade ago our neighbour has planted a kiwi tree. The plant has been growing into our two gardens, but has never given a single kiwi fruit. Until the last summer, that is, because mid-August we’ve spotted the first fruit ever! Too bad for our neighbours, it was a dodgy one, as it’s growing on our side of the fence.
SAIL Amsterdam 2015
Between the 19 and the 23 of August Amsterdam hosted a huge marine event called SAIL Amsterdam. It’s held once every five years, and is most known for its tall ships (apart from hundreds of other ships). During the event they sail in loops around the IJ lake, giving the area a totally different look and attracting millions (yes, millions) of visitors.
For these days bridges over the IJ are open or even get dismantled to let the tall ships sail in.
Getting a Russian visa
In my last post I offered you some insight into the Hell’s Kitchen, usually labelled with a sign Почта России (Russian Post).
This story is about a quest called “getting a Russian visa”. I have to warn you it won’t be as dramatic as the previous one. Partly because the main burden is usually on the shoulders of the receiving person.
As I had ho experience with a Russian visa, I decided to get a private one, which means you need an invitation from someone living in Russia. It might be a better idea to get a tourist visa instead. Because even getting an invitation is a task for a smart, swift, brave, patient and lucky.
Russian Post, or Welcome to Hell
I have to admit that the Russian Post has well earned its popular nickname “Hell’s Office”. It’s a very good example of the importance of The Rule to the life in the country, as opposed to the common sense. The Rule, one of many, established by those mentals sitting in Russian Duma.
Up in the air
Summertime is the high time for flying.
One of my colleagues has got a Private Pilot Licence (PPL) and his own share of a light aircraft Diamond Star DA40-TDI. Which he offered us to fly.
It’s been my first, but hopefully not last, experience with this type of aircraft.
Fixing Samsung SSD 840 EVO performance issues in Linux
It’s been a while since I posted about replacing an iMac’s HDD with a solid-state drive (SSD) Samsung 840 EVO, and also about tuning your Ubuntu for it. Once done, you can enjoy the awesome overall responsiveness of your system and instantaneous application startup. And all that at an affordable price.
Trimming big
I’ve always wondered how those mile-long roadside hedges get trimmed. And recently witnessed the process, which, expectedly, makes use of technology:
Upgrade of Koss PortaPro headphones
I managed to upgrade the best-selling Koss PortaPro headphones using a couple of items I’ve bought on eBay. The headphones are some ten years old now, yet sturdy and rocking, and now have become even better:
USB testers and charging speed
Out of curiosity I’ve ordered a couple of USB voltage testers from eBay (there’s plenty of them there).
For your information, a USB voltage and current tester is a device for measuring voltage and current coming from a USB output into a gadget (usually being charged).