The following lines are in my .vimrc file and make working with Vim all the better! I keep it pretty basic, so I don’t use the very popular fugitive.vim or NERDTree plugin.Put these lines in ~/.vimrc or /etc/vim/vimrc (depending on your distro, sometimes they are already there but need to be uncommented), and you’re good to go. As for a font, I like the Liberation Mono font (11pt). Explanation :command… Read More »My Vim setup
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder is one of those books that always seems to pop up when ‘computer-people’ share book recommendations. Exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C and so on — you get the picture. Also the “Winner of the Pulitzer Price” notion on the cover seemed promising, and it was about computers, and I like computers! So I had to read it. I had assumed it was… Read More »The Soul of a New Machine – Tracy Kidder
Here’s a chronological list of some of the physical things/tools/gadgets I bought in 2017. Physical as in, I’m leaving out experiences, books and cryptocoins. Here we go. The Sony MDR-ZX110 headphones are decent aka good enough for my use, but more importantly also cheap enough so I don’t have to worry when I break them, which will eventually happen sooner or later. Which is mostly sooner in my experience with… Read More »Favorite 2017 purchases
This post is for myself, two weeks ago. I needed something like this. Or, maybe it’s for you? You know a little bit of Python, kind of understand the MVC concept and have a clear understanding of RDBMS? Congratulations, you will have no trouble getting something up and running in Django in a couple of minutes. Whether you need to move a database to an editable, shareable environment for less… Read More »Django in 10 minutes
This book by Ashlee Vance sat on my wish-list since it came out two years ago. So, long overdue, last week I finally got to it and boy, what a ‘fantastic‘ read it is. There is lot to say about the man, his ideas and the ways he goes about bringing those ideas to life. Whether you like stories about next-level entrepreneurship or bold boyish imagination about where we are moving… Read More »Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Hacker News is pretty much my goto site and sometimes I submit links or take part in the discussion. However when I recently tried to get a list of the links I submitted ordered by Hacker News score, I noticed this is not implemented on the site itself (as far as I can tell?). However Hacker News wouldn’t be Hacker News if they didn’t provide an API and access to… Read More »Hacker News: sort user submissions by score
This book had been sitting on my to-read list for way too long! But I finally found a second hand copy, so here we go! You could say this is the official autobiography of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux. The Operating System that changed the world! You can wake me up in the middle of the night to talk about operating systems. So this book is right up my… Read More »Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary
This blog is powered by WordPress. That means that the content you read was edited in the WordPress administrative interface and that same content is now presented to you by the WordPress engine! WordPress powers 24% of the web. And for good reason. It is amazing. It is free, fast and easy! When I had to pick a CMS for my first blog in 2005, it was a different world.… Read More »WordPress is amazing!🔥
Last year I wrote about Snapchat and their unique approach to things. I’d like to think that my predictions at the end of that blog came true 😎. Why? Because we see Instagram betting big on streaming and disappearing video i.e. copying Snapchat features. If anything, it’s proof Snapchat is a force to be reckoned with. And they seem to be making Zuckerberg & co. nervous. So it’s not unexpected… Read More »Thoughts about the Snapchat IPO👻
RSS. It’s kind of a weird acronym and people can’t even seem to agree on the true meaning behind those three letters. It doesn’t sound too sexy, but it does sort of have a recognisable logo. If you have seen this logo before and wondered what it is, well, this post is for you! TL:DR: RSS is a specification that will allow you to keep track of all your favourite sites in… Read More »I still love RSS (you can too!)
You may notice something different on your favourite blog. Left of the URL in the address bar there is a little green lock! This means piks.nl is now served to you via SSL/TLS. You know, https:// instead of http://. This means the connection, and therefore, traffic between you and the website is more secure, because it is encrypted. This was way overdue, even more so because it’s oh so easy now with Let’s Encrypt. Let’s… Read More »Let’s encrypt all the things!
Best-of lists signify another year is coming to a close. People feel a need to sort and order things to make room for what is to come. Or something like that. So here is an assorted list of best new things I found in 2016. Things can be anything, as long as it was new to me in 2016. Feel free to share your list in the comments. Best new app Google Photos… Read More »Best of 2016