Author: Maarten

The disadvantages of a dSLR

Besides the commonly understood disadvantage of size and weight of a dSLR, there’s another one: money. It seems to be an endless route: every time there’s more money to be spent on accessories, lenses and cleaning. I can hear you ask: cleaning? What? My reply will be: the sensor. Every time you change lenses, there’s the possibility of dust or

Continue reading

Public transportation in distress – part II

After the recent publication of the news that German students have successfully cracked the first layer of protection of the OV-chipcards which can be used with a subscription to travel with public transportation in the Rotterdam area, more news surrounding this system has surfaced yesterday. A couple of Dutch students from the university of Nijmegen has successfully copied the throw-away

Continue reading

Discrimination, no more

The junior-department of one of our nation’s biggest political parties (the PvdA) has spoken wise words to their senior division: there should not be any discrimination the the composing of the votinglist. Last year, the PvdA has put a man next to a woman throughout their entire list, non-autochthone residents are put next to autochthonous residents. In other words: positive

Continue reading

Public transportation in distress

Without looking like a glossy magazine, I’m hereby declaring the new found way to pay in our public transportation dead. Why? Because security is important. Multiple times delayed, and without a clear introduction date the OV-chipkaart (Public Transportation ChipCard) is becoming a small fiasco. I can safely admit to the fact it really is a good thought. By eliminating paper

Continue reading

Coding rules!

After being tipped by a colleague, I started to look into the apparent lack of skills applicants for programming jobs. With me (and many at E&I) being trained to write code, and think in code, I asked around and found out that a lot of applicants (even self-proclaimed senior programmers and Bachelors from a university) do not have the basic

Continue reading

No more vacation for Balkenende

Being a member of our "Tweede Kamer" certainly does pay off well, both literally and figuratively. The pay is nice, the holidays are fixed and ample and when you do not feel like doing something useful, hide in the back. Resigning from the Tweede Kamer also has it’s advantages: the pay between jobs also is substantiable. However, I’m not going

Continue reading

Minister on the loose!

Sometimes, or so it seems, politicians in our government not only serve the goal to manage our country through the inevitable rough times which are neigh, but also try to magically let a smile appear on all of our faces. This latter is accomplished by saying something really silly, under the disguise of a "proefballonnetje". Such a weird proposal is,

Continue reading

More new headers

This time of year, it should be Winter, although the temperatures outdoors do not exactly lead you to believe so. It’s about 8 degrees Celsius right now, and I thought it would be a nice idea to put some new wintery headers in place. So here they are, 9 new additions. See them all, including the old ones on my

Continue reading