Ubuntu on Windows

Today’s big news is that Microsoft has made bash available on Windows 10. No container, no virtual machine, no recompiled sources: Here, we’re talking about bit-for-bit, checksum-for-checksum Ubuntu ELF binaries running directly in Windows. This opens up a world of possibilities. A world also previously within reach alas be it with lesser solutions. This means being able to use awk, grep, find, vim, wget, ls, git(!), package management and everything that is… Read More »Ubuntu on Windows

Trump – The Art of the Deal

In 2004 I picked up this book about Donald J. Trump. Published in 1987, it is a story about the, then just, 40 year old Trump’s insane real estate successes. And I was genuinely interested. From what I knew then, Trump was the poster child of decadent 80’s Manhattan mega fortune makers. But around the same time his TV show started, and my interest dwindled. I had better things to do than read about… Read More »Trump – The Art of the Deal

My January timeline

I’ve always loved timelines. Visually seeing where things are in time resonates pretty strongly with me. This love goes back to my earliest memories of the dentists’ office where a huge year-round calendar hung on the wall. It had 12 distinct vertical columns and every day had its own little box. Maybe it’s because of the physical pain that went with those visits, but this calendar is cemented in my mind. It’s what… Read More »My January timeline

My music discoveries of 2015

Most end-of-year lists are compiled of songs from that current year. That’s fine and all, but great music is timeless and you might discover things later, so my list will be a bit different. These are things I discovered last year, some old some new. I don’t use Spotify or other streaming services. I keep my ears open, read music blogs and watch what Youtube suggests. Works pretty fine for me! So here we… Read More »My music discoveries of 2015

My Favorite Podcasts

So you read the previous post and now you’re wondering what podcasts to listen to. Well you’re in luck, because this post will tell you. What’s to like? But first, why listen to podcasts anyway? Sure enough, it might not be for everyone. But if you don’t mind listening to people talking, you should be alright. I myself, am a pretty big (public) talk radio fan. Mostly because public radio doesn’t play my type of music anyway, but also… Read More »My Favorite Podcasts

Podcast Renaissance

ren·ais·sance (rĕn′ĭ-säns′, -zäns′, rĭ-nā′səns) 1. A rebirth or revival. 2. A situation or period of time when there is a new interest in something that has not been popular in a long time. Podcasts have been around for years. I never really had a particular interest in them. I mean, it’s literally an MP3 of people talking. How hard is that? That can’t be very interesting. So in my memory,… Read More »Podcast Renaissance

How this site got hacked

(This is a crosspost from my other blog, that actually got hacked. This is for you, a Google search user, struggling with a hacked website). Last week I noticed some strange behaviour on my site. When clicking a link on the front page I would be redirected to the same front page, effectively rendering my site useless. What was going on? I quickly noticed my .htaccess was causing the problem. It was redirecting… Read More »How this site got hacked

On Writing – Stephen King

This weekend I read On Writing – A memoir of the Craft by Stephen King – something I should have done 10 years ago. This book is not a work of fiction as you might expect from mr. King but rather it is the accumulation of his thoughts on writing (well!). I don’t plan on writing fiction, I don’t even read that much fiction (tech history and music biographies mostly) but the rules in… Read More »On Writing – Stephen King

Masters of Doom

On my last vacation I finally got around to reading Masters of Doom by David Kushner. This book from 2003 keeps popping up every now and again and people always rave about it. I put it on my Amazon wish list years ago (which holds 50 books atm). But recently I came across it again, so it was time. And boy, what an absolute pleasure to read, it was. From start to… Read More »Masters of Doom

Things about Egypt

We recently returned from a trip to Hurghada, Egypt. Hurghada is located by the Red Sea with amazing underwater life and very sunny and hot ‘above-water’ life. We had a wonderful time! We didn’t visit the pyramids or other famous Egyptian landmarks, nevertheless it was clear we were in a different country. Here are some things I personally noticed (and not read in a brochure). As a reminder to myself, and/or… Read More »Things about Egypt

The Minecraft timeline

The story of Minecraft sounds like a great movie script. Notch as the protagonist genius programmer, who, from an underdog (indie) position, single handedly changed the game industry by just doing what he loved. And, making a lot of money along the way. And even more money when he was fed up with it all and sold Minecraft. But perhaps a movie is unnecessary, it is all very well documented already. And most people are familiar… Read More »The Minecraft timeline

If I were the CEO of Twitter

I still love Twitter. I’ve been using it since 2009 and it holds a special place. For reasons that I only recently learned to put in to place. Twitter is a protocol. It’s a (unique) way of communicating. I’m also still a big RSS user. Which is a different beast. Very useful, but a much more isolated experience. On Twitter you are connected and present in a visible manner. The RSS experience is… Read More »If I were the CEO of Twitter