Boek
Gekocht — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/boek/260814204150/
Vasilis feeds
The blog and the pictures of Vasilis van Gemert
Latest posts
ENOIKIAZETAI
What would this banner say? — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/enoikiazetai/260812225843/
Osees
Saw the Osees tonight, in Vera in Groningen. Great show. — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/osees/260708002721/
A fungus
This fungus is taking over the tablecloth on our garden table. — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/a-fungus/260701133538/
No clock
There used to be a clock on this wall. — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/no-clock/260606190339/
Big Brave
I finally saw Big|Brave in OCCII tonight. Fantastic, ultra heavy show. — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/big-brave/260526001118/
Tamikrest
Tonight we saw a very nice show by Tamikrest in Amsterdam. — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/tamikrest/260513231323/
Actually reading RSS feeds
Actually reading RSS feeds I’ve been trying to follow weblogs and news via RSS for ages. And I’ve tried various ways of coping with the endless stream of updates. Different apps, different ways of stucturing my feeds, but with all of them I quit using feeds after a while. There was just too much to read, and I basically gave up. The Hans de Zwart method My colleague Hans de Zwart explained me his…
The birds in our garden
The birds in our garden Last week I installed a Birdnet-Pi in our garden. It is a device that listens to all the sounds the the birds make, and it logs them. The device has a simple web interface which lets you filter and sort the birds in all sorts of ways. I missed a more poetic way to tell what birds visited our garden. So I wrote a bot that does just that. How many birds? There are more birds…
New fonts
New fonts I switched fonts. While I liked my previous fonts I was never completely happy with them. I thought they were fine, but not really very Vasilis. So, when in the last few days the font service I always use became a bit unresponsive, I decided to find new fonts. Alphabettes Soup A while ago I received the incredible Alphabettes Soup Book . I thought it would be nice to restrict myself to…
I like The Web They Want
I like The Web They Want Last Friday we organised the first The Web You Want event, a series of events where we look at the current state of the web and wonder out loud what we should do with it. We had five speakers who presented the web that they want, and I liked their visions very much. It makes me hopeful. There is a bad web Many speakers pointed out that large parts of the web are not so…
CSS Zen Posters
CSS Zen Posters We’re organising an event at my university about the web you want. The website we created for this event has all kinds of different themes, all made by colleagues, students and other enthusiasts. I decided to use some of these themes to make the posters for the event. In one evening I created ten completely different posters. The content is the same for all posters, and it is…
Cutting things with a guillotine
I finally own a guillotine. — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/cutting-things-with-a-guillotine/260323204702/
Odyssee
We saw an excellent play yesterday at my kid’s school. It was a retelling of the Odyssey. In this version Odysseus was accurately portrayed as a reckless coward, and a ridiculously selfish brat. The ionic capital is an anachronism though. — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/odyssee/260322231947/
Under the bridge
The walk to and from the supermarket seems very dangerous. — Originally published here: http://vasilis.nl/voto/under-the-bridge/260308205532/
The Web You Want
The Web You Want On the day after Smashing Conference , and on the day before CSS Day we’re organising two The Web You Want events at CMD in Amsterdam. We have been giving courses about designing for and with the web for years now, and these courses are all based on the idea of an open web, a web that is for everyone, by everyone, based on open standards. We also encourage our students to study…
In memoriam Marijn Meijles
In memoriam Marijn Meijles Today I received the sad, sad news that Marijn Meijles has died . Marijn was a fantastic human being and I will miss him. I met Marijn years ago when I started writing for a dutch niche weblog. He was one of the other writers there. We used to chat on IRC . What used to strike me in his chats was his very precise wording, and his complete lack of haste. Which is exactly…
Getting rid of icloud
Getting rid of icloud When, years ago, apple offered the option to sync my photos to their cloud I accepted the offer. At first I didn’t really think about it, but later on I realised that all my pictures are now accessible to an american company, which is ridiculous. Here’s how I got rid of icloud for my pictures. i ☛ my DIY syncing The nice thing about syncing your photos to a service like…
More cisterian clocks
More cisterian clocks This week I found out about the midieval cisterian numerical system, which uses a single constructed glyph that can represent any number from 0 to 9999. Of course I turned this numerical system into a simple clock that divides the day into 10000 parts of 8.64 seconds each. The clock simply counts these parts. The first examples I made used a javascript library. The downside…
Cisterian clocks
Cisterian clocks Being a nerd is fantastic. Chris Heilman is a nerd, and he made a fantastic thing. He wrote a javascript library that can turn normal numbers into cisterian numbers. This numeral system was developed by the Cistercian monastic order in the early thirteenth century , around the same time that the Arabic numerals were introduced to northwestern Europe. I’ll leave it up to you to…
I read books
I read books Last year I read a few books, and quite a few of them were really good. Most books I read were in Dutch. I’ll try to be so enthusiastic about them that you will start to learn Dutch. I think everybody must read Oorlogsenthousiasme by Ewout Kieft. There are more and more people around me who think preparing for war is a good idea. This book should convince you it is not. If it doesn’t,…
Cancelling accounts
Cancelling accounts I used to be excited about services like spotify. Now I didn’t have to find that one person who happens to have that LP record and go over there and tape it, and I didn’t have to enter people’s computer via limewire to download low bitrate mp3’s. Instead I could just listen to most music right away. Which is nice. Until I read that they don’t really pay their artists. And that…
A lasting digital clock
A lasting digital clock Most of my clocks are just websites, you can look at them in your browser. I turn some of my clocks into physical objects, physical clocks for in your home. One of the things that I find most complicated is the question of how to show the correct time on these things. There are a few possible strategies. Sync time with NTP Computers use NTP to synchronise time. Raspberry pi…
Colourful news
Colourful news In the Netherlands the leader of one of the fascist parties is seeking attention again. And in the US there are a few men who get too much attention in the news as well. A while ago I made a browser plugin that looks for news items that contain the names of these men, and replaces them with brightly coloured rectangles. I’ve been using this plugin for quite a while now and I am very…
The unofficial Pre-CSS Day event
The unofficial Pre-CSS Day event One of the webby highlights of the year must be the CSS Day conference in Amsterdam. It is not just single day conference about CSS , it’s much more than that. The conference itself is two days, and there are events on the day before, and on the day after the conference as well. So if you want to, it’s a four day event, filled with brilliant speakers. I love these…