Atheist, technopagan and vegan.

A home without a cat, and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat, may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove its title?' -- Mark Twain

// Post by Latest Tips and Tricks.

I've had this think again. I wondered how old the earth is, according to the christian bible. On "god and science" I found this: Okay, so bible-addicts should agree that the world is a bit over 6000 years old, as a result of 4004+2014. That makes 4017 years. No, not 4018 as it's not past October 23rd yet this year. Please pay attention! ;-) This means that they'll never believe something that I found in…

Tux. The Linux mascotte. I saw this a while ago: No, you don't. Why not? The short version: get a clue about Linux. Of course, this is very short. Allow me to dispel a few myths about Linux. Linux is difficult. You have to be a tech geek who can type in all those things like "ls -1 | grep *#@) | awk -F\ '{print $5}' > /dev/null" and understand what it means. Yes, absolutely true some…

I got a new laptop last year September. It contained windows 8. Not the easiest thing to get around in when you're used to Linux and already managed moderate success with windows 7. Slightly annoying. Then came windows 8.1. Same thing as above, only more annoying as I still had to look up via Google how to do certain things. Windows 8.1 is probably fabulous, but not very intuitive for me. Well, I can always…

I love gadgets. I have lots of them and they love me: I don't have to buy them, they follow me home. But... I don't like the mass of wearable things that are popping up now, especially the ones that can track every little thing you do. Your smartphone is already a walking, talking unit that betrays every move you make. (Cell phone towers that know where you are simply because your phone is on,…

Maybe a silly question. An online search says: I wonder about the second one. Oh, not in a physiological sense, but in a humane sense. It's the second one, the one that doctors have to abide by through their Hippocratic Oath. (Link to PDF.) They basically promise to sustain the human machine (body) and do what they can to keep it going for as long as possible. But... Is that what we want? I'm convinced that…

Well said.

Early February 2014, and gorgeous weather, and no work to go to. A reason to grab the camera, the bike and a good coat (sunshine but +5C / 38F). After a bike ride along this path I reached a small creek/brook called "Lage Raam" This is the Lage Raam. Translated it's nonsense: low window. The creek is a typical low land creek, that's why there is 'low' in its name. Onwards towards this little place…

Yes, I went for the real thing. I bought a Synology NAS (model DS 214). It's a brilliant thing, with a very powerful yet simple management interface called Disk Station Manager (DSM). The unit is very easy to assemble (adding the 2 disks didn't even require a screwdriver), runs flawlessly and is very quiet. Access goes through a UTP cable to the router and after setting up the volume/shares and privileges it's immediately recognised by…