heavily modified archive tag index, added lots of tags for 2021/2022

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Wouter Groeneveld 2022-06-20 15:08:34 +02:00
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commit 75f6dd1e80
120 changed files with 258 additions and 48 deletions

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@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ aliases:
subtitle: Increasing your maximum heap size in .NET? Tough luck.
categories:
- programming
tags: [ 'memory management', 'CLR', '.NET', 'JVM' ]
tags: [ 'memory management', 'CLR', 'dotnet', 'JVM' ]
---
Memory management is something to keep in mind when deploying and running applications on top of the JVM. Parameters like `Xmx` and `Xms` are things to juggle with when it comes to finding the perfect balance between too much memory hogging (at app startup) and too little, especially if you're working with heavy duty entity mapping frameworks like Hibernate (and you're not so good at writing fast HQL).
When we bumped into an `OutOfMemoryException` in .NET, I got an Xmx flashback and started searching on how to do the same with the CLR.

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@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- journaling
- digitizing
- fountain pens
published: true
---

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@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ date: '2020-08-14'
subtitle: "One of the most social and isolating professions?"
tags:
- collaboration
- teaching
- academia
- agile
categories:
- education

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@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ subtitle: "DX-40 VS DX2-66. What's it like, pressing that Turbo button?"
bigimg: gtacrash.jpg
date: 2020-09-26
tags:
- 486
- am486
categories:
- retro
---
@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ Unsurprisingly, those games run on the same CPU-hungry engine. It is clear that
The year **1995** is indeed a turning point for PC technology: the Intel Pentium P54C with 120 MHz was finally faster than the 80486DX4-100 and Microsoft released Windows 95.
### So, what's next, a Pentium?
### So, what's next, a Pentium?
My memory is getting foggy as I do my best to recollect what computers my father and I used to build when I was just a kid. A backup of an old self-made website gave me a hint. This is an excerpt from the news entry on that site, entitled '_Merry Christmas, 24/12/2000_': (translated from Dutch)

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@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "486 Upgrade 2: The SD Card HDD"
date: '2020-09-23'
subtitle: "Getting tired of loud hard drives? Here's a flash solution."
tags:
- 486
- am486
categories:
- retro
---

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@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ date: '2020-09-18'
subtitle: "A Classic ISA sound card, including MIDI daughter board!"
tags:
- soundblaster
- 486
- am486
categories:
- retro
bigimg: sndblaster.jpg

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@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title: "Reviving an old 80486 PC"
date: '2020-09-03'
subtitle: "27 years later, does it still work?"
tags:
- 486
- am486
categories:
- retro
---

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@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ title: 'A journey through the history of webdesign'
subtitle: 'Using personal websites and the Internet Archive'
categories:
- webdesign
tags:
- lists
- blogging
date: 2020-10-04
---

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@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ The classic OS has had an extremely long lifespan, being discontinued in 2008, a
Technology evolved rapidly (as usual) during these times: from SD to DDR, from single to dual core, and from AGP interfaces to [PCI Express](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express) in 2004. Since I have a fairly powerful Win98SE build with `512MB` SD RAM, I am more interested in era two and three. Back in 2007, I completely redid my gaming rig, focused on **noise reduction**. I slowly but surely hated the noisy stock Athlon fans and had discovered [silentpcreview.com](https://silentpcreview.com) and their excellent community forums. Based on silence before power, I put together a lovely horizontal desktop PC with a sleek looking Antec case.
### So... Which specs?
### So... Which specs?
In 2007, I had just begun to work, so I was still on a budget. The Core2Duo CPUs were becoming mainstream and pushed out single cores for good, while the GeForce 8800 GTS was the top of the line if you wanted to push those frames per second to the limit - including the excess noise and heat generation. Since I wanted silence, I got a fanless passive 8600GT - a mistake, since in my microATX case I couldn't get rid of the heat. The GPU easily peaked towards `80°C`, not something I was comfortable with. I ended up adding another fan between the graphics card and my TV card, losing two more slots.

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@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ The supply and demand of administrative services has risen up to `+240%` between
The question is, is a professor a schoolteacher (social value `+1`), a researcher (social value `+9`), or a manager (`-0.8`)? Furthermore, I've read a lot of published research that can safely be called bullshit. Simply reducing a job or even entire sector to a financial number to see if it adds or subtracts from the economy overall seems to be bullshit too.
### Coping with bullshit jobs
### Coping with bullshit jobs
The book contains hilarious statements from various people who invented ways to do whatever they want, without raising suspicion. In a bullshit job, it is important to act like you're busy, when in fact, you're not. Or you might be busy, but doing meaningless stuff instead of what _should_ be be keeping you busy.

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@ -7,8 +7,9 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- journaling
- DEVONthink
- digitizing
- privacy
keywords: [devonthink, digitizing journals, digitalizing journals, from evernote to devonthink, scanning journals, tagging journals, scanning hand-written journals]
---
In 2017, I wrote a practical [guide to keeping a journal](/post/2017/07/journaling-in-practice/), which also contained a digitalizing part involving Evernote. Since then, a few things happened that ultimately made me close my Evernote account for good, and resort to other methods I'd like to explain here.

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@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Addendum, 28 May: ICSE was this week, and the organizers did their best to make
---
## Why the sudden interest in creativity?
## Why the sudden interest in creativity?
Good question. In my PhD work, I try to identify - and later on, hopefully amplify - so-called _non-technical_ skills that are needed to succeed as a software engineer. First of all, software engineering is my field of expertise: read the [about me](/about) page if you didn't know that yet. Secondly, I wondered what else besides the technical mumbo-jumbo one really has to master in order to be a _proper_ developer. This goes beyond programming languages, frameworks, typing and productivity knowledge.

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@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ After building a [Windows 98SE retro PC](/post/2020/10/building-an-athlon-win98-
What are the options? During the end of the nineties and the beginning of the 2000s, the video card market exploded. From dual-linked Voodoo cards on PCI ports to competitive ATI Radeon ones that also were quite new at that time. I had two options: either I stay true to the historical correctness of the retro computer, or I go all out and get the best my motherboard could possibly handle. I of course chose option number 3: something in-between.
## The GeForce 3 Ti 200
## The GeForce 3 Ti 200
![](../geforce3.jpg "The MSI/Medion GeForce 3 Ti200 card.")

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ tags:
- writing
- pandoc
- Markdown
- academia
- latex
categories:
- software

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- webdesign
tags:
- vps
- disaster
---
A relatively quiet Wednesday morning. I wrote a few JS files, fiddled a bit more with my attempts to get [Webmentions working](/post/2021/03/the-indieweb-mixed-bag/). Timeouts appeared. Huh? Check _brainbaking.com_. No response. Huh? Try to login into my VPS administration panel. More timeouts. Huh-wuh?

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@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ subtitle: The Web sucks. Long live the Web!
date: 2021-03-24
tags:
- gemini
- blogging
categories:
- webdesign
---

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@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ date: '2021-03-01'
subtitle: "Exit Google. Enter Life."
tags:
- privacy
- LineageOS
categories:
- learning
---

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@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
title: Lousy Wordpress Hacking Attempts detected
subtitle: Spotted in nginx error logs
date: 2021-03-29
tags:
- hacking
- wordpress
categories:
- webdesign
---
My Dutch bread baking blog, [redzuurdesem.be](https://redzuurdesem.be), was migrated from Wordpress to Hugo years ago. During the transition, I came up with a bunch of shoddy scripts that did the job adequately: copying over `/wp-content/` to the `/static/` directory in order to preserve relative image locations.
@ -10,7 +15,7 @@ Wodpress-enabled sites are _very_ easy to spot: just look for `wp-` anything in
```
2021/03/29 09:57:47 [error] 162453#162453: *179870 open() "/var/www/html/404.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 45.146.165.157, server: _, request: "POST /vendor/phpunit/phpunit/src/Util/PHP/eval-stdin.php HTTP/1.1", host: "146.59.146.120:80"
2021/03/29 09:57:47 [error] 162453#162453: *179871 open() "/var/www/html/404.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 45.146.165.157, server: _, request: "GET /solr/admin/info/system?wt=json HTTP/1.1", host: "146.59.146.120:80"
2021/03/29 09:57:47 [error] 162453#162453: *179871 open() "/var/www/html/404.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 45.146.165.157, server: _, request: "GET /solr/admin/info/system?wt=json HTTP/1.1, host: "146.59.146.120:80"
2021/03/29 09:57:47 [error] 162453#162453: *179872 open() "/var/www/html/404.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 45.146.165.157, server: _, request: "GET /console/ HTTP/1.1", host: "146.59.146.120:80"
2021/03/29 09:57:47 [error] 162453#162453: *179873 open() "/var/www/html/404.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 45.146.165.157, server: _, request: "POST /Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml HTTP/1.1", host: "146.59.146.120:80"
2021/03/29 09:57:47 [error] 162453#162453: *179874 open() "/var/www/html/404.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 45.146.165.157, server: _, request: "GET /wp-content/plugins/wp-file-manager/readme.txt HTTP/1.1", host: "146.59.146.120:80"

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ date: 2021-03-18
tags:
- programming
- trends
- software engineering
categories:
- education
---

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@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ subtitle: There goes the group chat while farming for gear...
date: 2021-04-05
tags:
- games
- Discord
categories:
- retro
---

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@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ subtitle: gemini://brainbaking.com was launched!
date: 2021-04-03
tags:
- gemini
- hugo
- accessibility
categories:
- webdesign

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@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ subtitle: A Critique and reflection of the process
date: 2021-05-09T08:40:00
tags:
- collaboration
- academia
- writing
categories:
- education
@ -49,7 +50,7 @@ Sometimes, literature addition suggestions are a bit questionable in terms of us
In agile software development, pair programming induces a form of social peer pressure, and amplifies the principle of fast feedback. I don't see why _pair reviewing_ wouldn't come with the same benefits. I'd like to propose a few suggestions in the form of ideas stolen from my background as an agile developer which could potentially help in ironing out the above shortcomings.
### 1. Shorten the feedback loop.
### 1. Shorten the feedback loop.
Easier said than done, right? Well, actually, a lot of thought has already gone towards shortening this loop - the next thing is to actually implement it. For example:

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@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ subtitle: Beyond webmention.io and static site integration
date: 2021-05-16
tags:
- indieweb
- webmentions
- hugo
categories:
- webdesign

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- adventure games
---
Have you ever been frustrated by a certain puzzle that made no sense at all during an adventure gaming session? I have. Chances are you've bumped into what is apparently called _"moon logic"_! I didn't know there even was a word for something like that, and I quite like both the sound and connotation of those two terms.

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@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ A couple of friends think I'm crazy. They love the website [eshop-prices.com](ht
You're feeding your backlog way too easily. Are you also the kind of person in need of [Backloggery.com](https://backloggery.com/) to manage the games you own? In that case you probably have way too much! Buying a physical game to me is advantageous for a couple of very important reasons.
### 1. I can actually hold it.
### 1. I can actually hold it.
This may sound ridiculous, but the psychological perspective for me is not unimportant. If I buy something, I want to be able to see and hold it. This also means that:

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@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ subtitle: 'Community Smells Explained'
date: 2021-05-27T07:45:00
categories:
- programming
tags:
- software engineering
- collaboration
---
The first thing that must have sprung to mind while reading the title of this post was probably **Technical debt**. At least that was my first thought when I read about _social debt_ in an academic article called "[The Architect's Role in Community Shepherding](https://sci-hub.st/10.1109/ms.2016.144)". We as enterprise software developers are more than aware of technical debt when working with legacy code, and the many code smells that come with it. When in luck, some of them get fleshed out in the form of technical user stories when the product owner has had a good day and approves a few stories he or she thinks is irrelevant.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- education
tags:
- writing
- academia
---
Many academics don't know how to write. That is not only my opinion. In 2014, Chronicle published an article boldly entitled "[why academics stink at writing](https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-academics-stink-at-writing/)" by Steven Pinker---a distinguished academic himself. He starts his premise with the following question:

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- football
---
Man of the match: Enzo Scifo. Hat-Trick beast: Luc Nilis. Unlucky goals conceded by Pinto. There. Now that this is settled, let's try and focus on the quarter finals against Italy, shall we?

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
tags:
- collecting
- Hasselt
- second hand markets
---
Last Sunday, I have had the pleasure to cycle to a local flea market again. I can't even remember the previous opportunity, except that it was too long ago. In 2020, there was a time in Belgium when the COVID-19 data told politicians that it was okay to let people organize bigger events again, albeit it being in open air. The result was yet another lockdown, a few months later... Data doesn't spill the beans when it comes to human behavior. Thus, all big indoor retro fairs got cancelled, and markets were put on a leash for a long time.

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@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ Guilty!
![](../retro.jpg "A stack of Retro Gaming Goodness.")
### Retro gamers only like playing on old CRTs.
### Retro gamers only like playing on old CRTs.
What? No. I already have glasses, there is no point in making things worse. There's the [MiSTer](https://www.retrorgb.com/mister.html), an FPGA-powered hardware upscaler. There exist [GameCube HDMI adapters](https://8bitmods.com/gchd-mk-ii-indigo/). There are even [GBA HDMI kits](https://www.retrorgb.com/gba-consolizer-an-hdmi-720p-gba-kit.html) that allow you to play Circle of the Moon on your TV. Not that I'd want to make a handheld device a non-handheld one.

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@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ subtitle: Rather, it's Reflection-in-action! Or is it?
date: 2021-06-12T10:14:00
categories:
- education
tags:
- software engineering
---
In my quest to better understand how software engineers in the trenches intuitively solve problems, I stumbled upon a book from an MIT sociologist published two years before I was born (1983). Donald Schön's [The Reflective Practitioner](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/134454) contains an arguably important message, somewhere deep down hidden within the dark caverns of confusing academic prose. In sum, Donald categorizes modern knowledge workers into two big categories: (1) _the professional_, and (2) _the (reflective) practitioner_.

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@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ subtitle: "Tis not the stuff but the fluff that matters"
date: 2021-06-02
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- TV shows
---
My wife likes to call it _aimless watching_ and eagerly looks forward to every single episode of Pawn Stars. For the uninitiated, Pawn Stars is a (surprisingly long running) straight-up American-style reality series about a guy called [Rick Harrison and his pawn shop](https://archive.org/details/licensetopawndea00harr_0/mode/2up), "Gold & Silver", in Las Vegas. It is one of the channel History's [most watched TV-shows](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawn_Stars) ever, and I can see why. Well, no, wait. There are multiple reasons to love (binge-)watching Rick, his father (lovingly called Grumpy or Old Man) and his son (Big Hoss? Why?).

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- webdesign
tags:
- hugo
- blogging
- writing
---

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@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- gba
- gameboy
- battery life
- datavis
---
As I was writing [my Evercade gaming device review](https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/evercade/), I noticed that the battery life of the new handheld machine wasn't quite up to par, clocking in at about four hours playtime, fairly independent of the screen brightness settings. Of course I'm heavily biased here, vividly remembering having to lug around four spare AA batteries in case my original Game Boy would die on me. It almost never happened: the 1989 machine lasted for more than 20 hours!

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- Hasselt
- datavis
---
The West-European storm of last week managed to push even COVID news out of the picture, it was that ravaging. In multiple villages and cities in Wallonia, only thirty something kilometers from where we live, solid stone facades of houses even collapsed due to the raw pressure of the water. The water level rose to more than two meters high, people climbed roofs to wait for help while watching their cars, fridges, and sofas rush past in the strong current of the ever growing water. For 31 Belgians, it was too late. Many people are still missing. In parts of the Netherlands and Germany, the havoc is even worse. While parts of Oregon are burning up, we're drowning here.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- philosophy
- seneca
---
The words of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the famous Roman Stoic philosopher that also dabbled in politics as Nero's educator and advisor, have been well-preserved. In fact, my wife is reading a Dutch translation of his _De Tranquillitate Animi_ (On Tranquillity of Mind). We both love Seneca because he wrote about how to live a life---something that heavily influenced [The School of Life](https://www.theschooloflife.com/)--- and because he and his friend advocate the usage of "a simple pen". Take that, odd German post-rationalist philosophers. I'm looking at you, Hegel and Heiddeger.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- Hasselt
- bike
---
My favorite mode of transportation is by bicycle. It has always been and probably will always be my bike. It has a greater range than going on foot, allows me to carry things with me if I have to, is silent, allows me to zig-zag through traffic jam, crowded areas and small alleys, but most of all: makes me feel the wind (and sweaty). Ever since I started working closer to home seven years ago, I started feeling much better before and after work. Before that, I used to commute by train, and sometimes car---a painful daily process of one and a half hour multiplied by two. Although I loved my colleagues and my work there, it was detrimental to to both my physical and mental health. I'm now glad I can take out my bike every single day.

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@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ title: On Selling a Self-published Book
date: 2021-08-22T09:48:00+02:00
tags:
- writing
- publishing
- book
categories:
- braindump

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@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- hasselt
- pinball
date: 2021-08-14T18:09:00+02:00
---

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Thirty-Six
date: 2021-08-26T20:16:00+02:00
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- birthday
---
I turned thirty-six today. What does that mean? It's one number higher than thirty-five, and I'm definitely [Thirty-Something And Over It](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6421169). It's four years removed from a huge midlife crisis I can clearly see coming and hitting hard. It's not old. But it's not young anymore.

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: 20 Years of Personal Cellphone History
date: 2021-09-22T07:10:00+02:00
categories:
- retro
tags:
- lists
---
It all started with the Nokia 3210. Remember that brick? No, not the _Gray Brick_, nor as heavy as Nintendo's lovable but not so little device, but just as rectangular. You could play games on it! Snake 1! I think its legacy is mostly condensed into the "_tududu-duu tududu-duuu tududu-duu duuuuuh_" tune. The battery lasted for more than a week. Good times, cellphones used to call instead of waste time on social media cesspools. I thought it would be great fun to use [Ruben's template](https://rubenerd.com/favourite-game-meme-feedback/) from the [favorite game meme](/post/2021/09/favorite-game-meme/) post to lay out all phones I once owned in a grid:

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- book
- writing
---
Let's start by saying that I like footnotes in books. I'm a big footnote advocate. I love straying from the topic to get to know random useless facts. The problem is not the footnote in itself, but the way it is used. Sometimes, footnotes contain sentences that should have been included in the paragraph itself[^like]. It certainly is difficult to determine whether or not;

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- education
tags:
- creativity
- phd
---
Have you ever taken any of those "[How Creative Are You?](https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/uzzi/ftp/page176.html)" tests? Typical questions in that test are along the lines of _I concentrate harder than others on things that interest me_, _I'm very enthusiastic about x or y_, or _I like finding out how things work_. In my own research, we developed our own "Creative Problem Solving Scale" for software engineers based on [our previous findings](/post/2021/01/what-is-creativity-in-software-engineering/) (more on that later). The problem is that I recently found out that this does not say anything about your creativity. The only thing it can gauge is your creative **potential**.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- lists
---
A running _game meme_ I first encountered in Ruben Schade's [blog post](https://rubenerd.com/favourite-game-meme/), and then a _"but different"_ version at [avoiderdragon.com](https://avoiderdragon.com/8071/favorite-game-meme-but-different/). I love reading and [writing about](https://jefklakscodex.com) (retro) games, thus these posts immediately got my attention. It's always interesting to see which games had a lasting impression on others. Instead of posting this on my dedicated retro game weblog, I thought it would be good to do a bit of cross-pollination here.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- journaling
tags:
- obsidian
- blogging
---
I've missed the latest IndieWeb popup gathering on [digital gardens and streams](https://indieweb.org/2021/Pop-ups/Gardens_and_Streams_II) (thanks [Frank](https://diggingthedigital.com/17204-2/) for bringing that up). Thankfully, they are intricate note-takers, and it always pays off to poke around in those. As avid journaler, the subject naturally appeals to me. In fact, you could say that _Brain Baking_ is my _digital garden_. Or is it?

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- creativity
- phd
- history
---

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- programming
tags:
- agile
- scrum
---
Gergely Orosz' [How Big Tech Runs Tech Projects and the Curious Absence of Scrum](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/project-management-at-big-tech/) (via [Ton Zijlstra](https://www.zylstra.org/blog/2021/10/19599/)) poses some really interesting questions. He recently ran a survey asking 100 big and small tech companies how they run things---what their development/release method was like. Consultancy companies still (desperately?) cling onto Scrum as the Holy Grail, while the majority of Big Tech companies (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc) answer with "it varies". What's up with that?

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- software
tags:
- academia
- email
---
I've lamented about worrying [levels of work email](/post/2020/02/agile-academia/) before. In academia, email is not only used as a means to get hold of someone, it's also used to share draft versions of papers, slides of lessons, zipfiles of possible solutions of lab exercises, confusing revisions of contracts and project proposals in even more confusing data formats, and so forth. In short, it's a mess.

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@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
title: Very Old and Somewhat Old Mood Boards
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- moodboard
date: 2021-10-29T14:13:00+02:00
---

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@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ title: Power Usage Effectiveness
date: 2021-10-28T19:24:00+02:00
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- data centers
- energy
---
Data centers are getting more energy efficient because their clients are looking for "green" host providers. That is, energy efficiency is being reduced to yet another economic advantage over the competition.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- publishing
---
A friend of mine is always on the lookout for great gaming deals. Recognizing the thrill of the hunt, I too sometimes like rummaging through bins of "last pieces available" when grocery shopping. Last week, I picked up Rayman Legends for the Nintendo Switch at `€16`, a lovely---and fortunately for me, 2D---platformer with a with a nod to Rayman's glorious past.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- adventure games
---
Few games are as dear to me as _Gobliins 2_ thanks to fond memories of me playing the quirky early nineties adventure game together with my father on his brand new 80486 machine. He had to drive to Brussels to get hold of the latest and greatest piece of technology, of course paying handsomely. The game is labeled as _Big Personal Impact_ in my [favorite game meme](/post/2021/09/favorite-game-meme/) list---heck, I even designed my retro game blog [Jefklak's Codex](https://jefklakscodex.com/) with its sprites!

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- baking
- waffles
---
I baked waffles. The reason for that was twofold: because it happened to be the subject at hand on a recent Dutch version of the _How do they do it?_ show, and because Peter's [waffles for supper!?](https://ruk.ca/content/waffles-supper) blog post---where Olivia threw up in Peter's shoe thanks to a Dutch _stroopwafel_---stuck with me for a long time.

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- creativity
- phd
- history
---

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- creativity
- phd
- history
---

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@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- history
- lists
- philosophy
---
We humans love our lists. The other day, I was bored made yet another one. Inspired by Retro Gamer's _Top 100 Games To Play Before You Die_ (The Nintendo Consoles Edition)---of which I played 57 and only finished 21---I shambled around the house to count the amount of games I own, played, and finished for each Nintendo Console.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- software
tags:
- obsidian
- GoodReads
---
Writing a short review after reading a book became a soothing ritual for me ever since discovering [LibraryThing](https://www.librarything.com/) in 2011. Two years later, Goodreads attracted more and more attention, causing me to jump ship. Most non-fiction books I read produce many analog notes, ending in my personal knowledge management (PKM) system---of which [Obsidian](/tags/obsidian) has become a permanent and valuable addition. The digital review posted on Goodreads is both interesting for my later self and for my friends.

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@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ date: 2021-11-22T08:36:00+01:00
tags:
- obsidian
- journaling
- digitizing
---
The third Dutch Obsidian meetup took place last Saturday. It was a lot of fun to see how others work in and manage their Obsidian Vault. I still need to process [Roy Scholten's Bildung blog](https://bildung.royscholten.nl/) where he writes about information visualization, design, and note-taking, his English translation of Johannes Schmidt's [Zettelkasten presentation](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1re3lYaALScZ49189XIGqUVjQlMPe9uOfLEyz8y7mJuE/edit#heading=h.ygj23kjvy5z), and [Harold Jarche's Personal Knowledge Management](https://jarche.com/pkm/) system---always great to get to know new things!

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- creativity
- phd
- history
---

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- Grand Theft Auto
---
At first, I was stoked: the ability to replay _Grand Theft Auto: Vice City_ on the go with the Switch was a radical thought. Then I waited patiently. And then first impressions started pouring in. Now, I'm not so stoked, merely disappointed. Again.

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Where Does It Stop?
date: 2021-11-11T15:14:00+01:00
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- capitalism
---
_Where does it stop?_ A rhetorical question my brother-in-law posed. I didn't really know what to say except where indeed.

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@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ categories:
tags:
- creativity
- history
- phd
---
"_Eureka_, _eureka_, I've found it!" cried Archimedes while running around naked in the streets of Syracuse. The ancient Sicilians didn't mind, they were used to turning a blind eye to naked lunatics. Archimedes rushed back home, grabbed something to write, and got to work. Or rather, continued working.

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
tags:
- baking
- Hasselt
- spice
---
December for us inhabitants of the low lands equals spice---and a whole lot of 'em. To celebrate St. Nicholas' coming, we toss it in small round cookies (_kruidnoten_), we put it in shallow molds with funny _Sinterklaas_ figures (_speculaas_), and even add it to brioche dough (_mikkeman_). The spice mixes are unique for each region, unleashing the the ever-lasting _speculoos_ VS _speculaas_ war. The "oo" variant of the hard thin brown sugary bisuit only contains cinnamon, while the other a mix we'll later uncover.

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: 2021 Donations
date: 2021-12-31T09:43:00+01:00
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- donations
---
As the year draws to an end, I try to recount not only my blessings but also the amount of donations I've made towards various good causes. I always believed in reserving a substantial amount of my income for that purpose but I've never given it much thought, usually ending in donating the same local animal charity projects.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- Hasselt
- tea
---
Mike Harley wrote about something odd a few months ago: in his blog [on languishing and trying to see the positives](https://obsolete29.com/posts/2021/10/19/on-languishing-and-trying-to-see-the-positives/), he describes his feeling of stagnation and emptiness that Adam Grant of NY Times calls _languishing_. I could relate and e-mailed Mike to thank him for writing it. But that's not the odd part. The odd part is the action plan to combat languishing: by joining a _coffeneuring challenge_.

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@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ categories:
tags:
- privacy
- go
- Listmonk
- Mailchimp
- self-hosted
---
In January of 2022, Mailchimp's [General Data Protection Regulation](https://mailchimp.com/intuit-completes-mailchimp-acquisition/) (GDPR) is about to change. Why? Intuit acquired Mailchimp, requiring a slew of legal-related changes, such as terms of use, data processing options, etc. I don't do mailing lists myself, but my wife uses Mailchimp for her small start-up to send out monthly "moments of revelation" or _lichtpuntjes_ (Dutch people: [take a look and subscribe!](https://kristienthoelen.be/lichtpuntjes/)).

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- lists
---
Mr_Horizon from ResetERA---and a bunch of other forums---organizes a [monthly retro screenshot guessing](https://www.resetera.com/threads/monthly-retro-gaming-quiz.1272/) charade since 2017. I haven't given these the attention they deserve, so it seemed like a good idea to put them in the spotlight. There's even a **Sound FX quiz** twice a year or so! The attention to detail is astonishing. Thanks, Mr_Horizon!

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- philosophy
- Seneca
---
In _[Lives of the Stoics](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50484473-lives-of-the-stoics)_, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman cited a part of Seneca's later work _On Leisure_:

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- creativity
- phd
- history
---

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@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- GameCube
- modding
---
It took me almost a year to finally hook up the GameCube to my work screen, as I had intended [when setting up my office space](/post/2021/02/my-retro-desktop-setup/). The Dell U2421E---the source of much work enjoyment this year---has multiple video in ports: the USB-C is used to connected the MacBook, and the HDMI was reserved for playful trinkets. The only problem is that a GameCube has an analog composite-out. I used to play it [on my 17" CRT back in 2003](https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/gaming-setup-2007-flashback/) through a PCI TV decoder card and a program called [DScaler](http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/), since Pinnacle software wasn't the greatest.

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Why Mastodon Isn't Great For Serendipity
date: 2021-12-09T16:06:00+01:00
categories:
- software
tags:
- mastodon
---
In my search to better understand the effects of serendipitous discovery, I came across an old blog post by information and media professor Ethan Zuckerman called [The architecture of serendipity](https://ethanzuckerman.com/2008/06/09/the-architecture-of-serendipity/). It's an interesting piece that discusses [a dialog between two law professors](https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/1615) that talk about "old school" (remember that, _offline_ paper?) newspapers as serendipitous sources. An excerpt:

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- retro
tags:
- games
- MMORPGs
---
This week triggered memories of yore. Memories from 2002, twenty years ago, when a much younger version of myself was holding two small cardboard boxes and struck in awe. Those boxes were decorated with a front flap, shiny screenshots, and the letters _Dark Age of Camelot_ (DAoC) and its first expansion _Shrouded Isles_. After carefully prying open the box and installing the game, I had my first difficult set of decisions to make: which "realm" to play in, and which class?

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@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ categories:
- webdesign
tags:
- hugo
- blogging
- opml
---
Blogrolls have been on my mind lately. It's a rather fancy word for a more common but far from mundane corner of your website, called a _links_ section. Ever since [my first website in 1998](/museum/1998/)---you can marvel at my old junk at the [Brain Baking Museum](/museum)---I've had a links section. But for some reason, on the latest revision of this site, it's been gone for years.

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@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ categories:
- software
tags:
- phd
- R
- factor analysis
---
Suppose you want to develop a survey, like we recently did for creativity in higher computing education. You come up with a bunch of questions (_Time seemed to fly while programming!_, _I adapted and merged ideas from others_, etc), recruit victims who are willing to answer them using a scale (_Totally agreed_, _Agreed_, _No way_, etc), and then what? Chances are you picked certain questions from certain subthemes because you suspect a pattern will emerge. How to validate that?

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Minimalism and Tidying Up
date: 2022-01-27T09:44:00+01:00
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- minimalism
---
I have a confession to make. I love cleaning up. Throwing things away. Tidying up. Getting rid of things. I have read _The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up_, _The Story of Stuff_, and _The Power of Less_. The appeal of minimalism is great, but it somehow never works. I also rebuy things in regret (see [collecting physical games](/post/2021/05/re-is-collecting-physical-games-worth-it/)). Cleaning up and recklessly throwing stuff away is also a sure way to get into a big fight with my wife.

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
tags:
- Hasselt
- datavis
- energy
---
Last December, our energy provider, the [Vlaamse Energieleverancier](https://www.vlaamseenergieleverancier.be/), got bust. The problem wasn't (only) the electricity, but the steady increase in gas prices. At the end of 2020, we were fed up with our then current provider, and switched to the Vlaamse. A bad move, apparently. Our new contract involved a fixed price of `2.25` c€/kWh, in hindsight, a ridiculously low one in 2021. Our new energy provider charged `7.14` c€/kWh in December, and it looks like for January, it's going to climb to `12.50`. No wonder the company went bust. Help! What's going on here?

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@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- book
- writing
- publishing
---
This is a reply to Ton Zijlstra's [Writing A Book Is Nonesense](https://www.zylstra.org/blog/2022/01/writing-a-book-is-nonsense/). I felt compelled to ask for a clarification from Ton's "I find that I feel writing a non-fiction subject oriented book is nonsense for non-academics.". I'm sorry Ton, but I have to agree with your spouse here: it is indeed a very arrogant stance towards authors.

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@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ categories:
- learning
tags:
- creativity
- phd
- history
---

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Winnie Lim on Rebuilding Oneself
date: 2022-01-18T14:50:00+01:00
categories:
- learning
tags:
- the quantified self
---
We spent all Sunday reading and writing about Winnie Lim's [The year I broke up with myself: a review of 2015 with yearlong data](https://medium.com/the-experimental-year/the-year-i-broke-up-with-myself-a-review-of-2015-with-year-long-data-cf284e22f1f9#1249). I've been following Winnie's blog for a while and let my wife read he latest post, [the isolating experience of my migraines](https://winnielim.org/journal/the-isolating-experience-of-my-migraines/), because it contains some truths I thought might help her as well. Her interest was piqued, and after following a few links, we ended up on Medium, reading her gigantic 2015 year in review.

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@ -2,7 +2,9 @@
title: Woke in Class
date: 2022-01-06T20:26:00+01:00
categories:
- braindump
- education
tags:
- woke
---
Yesterday in the local news: [college teacher makes racist statements during online class](https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2022/01/05/lector-hogeschool-pxl-doet-racistische-uitspraken-tijdens-online/). That sounds an awful lot like click bait, doesn't it? That's because, to a certain extend, it _is_.

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@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ categories:
- software
tags:
- music
- self-hosted
- navidrome
---
Mike Harley recently wrote about [making collecting an MP3 library popular again](https://obsolete29.com/posts/2022/01/30/lets-make-collecting-an-mp3-library-popular-again/). It seems to be a hot topic in the circles I sometimes find myself in, and I've read a couple of interesting thoughts following Mike's post on Mastodon.

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@ -4,6 +4,10 @@ subtitle: Without Breaking Your ISP's DNS Server!
date: 2022-02-23T09:25:00+01:00
categories:
- software
tags:
- pi-hole
- self-hosted
- synology NAS
---
After exploring the options on [how to enjoy your own digital nusic](/post/2022/02/how-to-enjoy-your-own-digital-music/), I decided to install my first local NAS ever. But that story is reserved for another planned blog post! In this post, I'd like to summarize the options and steps taken to deploy a Pi-Hole as a Docker container on the (Synology) NAS. I've been struggling to get the settings just right and it's still fresh enough to remember and write down the details.

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: On Trying To Sell A Laptop
date: 2022-02-20T21:26:00+01:00
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- second hand markets
---
My now ten year old 2012 MacBook Air got replaced last year [with a new M1 MacBook](/post/2020/12/developing-on-apple-m1-silicon/). As the M1 chip set was still new and didn't support a lot of dev tools yet, I had to revert to using the old laptop now and then. After a few months, most of the bumps on the road had been cleared out, and everything got backed up and moved to the new machine.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- music
- hip-hop
---
A quick---and for me, unknown---one from my favorite collective, the Wu-Tang Clan. Their seventh and latest studio album, _Once Upon a Time in Shaolin_ from 2015, is a "single album concept". Their take:

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: My Retrocomputing Projects For 2022
date: 2022-02-07T09:51:00+01:00
categories:
- retro
tags:
- lists
---
Ruben listed his [retrocomputing projects for Q1 2022](https://rubenerd.com/my-retrocomputer-projects-q1-2022/) two days ago, and it seemed like a good way to get an overview on exciting things yet to do---and show the world you're perhaps a little bit crazy. I don't mind though, I just want to have fun. In the past few months, I've barely been touching my retro computing gear (except for the Nintendo handhelds now and then, but remember: [retrocomputing can be more than games!](https://rubenerd.com/retrocomputing-is-more-than-games/)), and that's a shame. Hopefully, simply listing these here will get me in the mood to do something about it.

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@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
---
title: Thoughts On Home NAS Systems
date: 2022-02-27T09:33:00+01:00
categories:
- software
tags:
- synology nas
---
A home networked server, what's not to like? It has been decades since I've set up something similar, and as I recently wrote [in the Pi-Hole](/post/2022/02/how-to-setup-pi-hole-on-synology-nas/) and [digital music](/post/2022/02/how-to-enjoy-your-own-digital-music/) articles, it was time. It would allow me to have a (1) more than decent backup system and (2) the flexibility to install local services such as Navidrome for streaming my own music.

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@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- Hasselt
- datavis
- datavis
---
After plotting the [natural gas prices of each quarter the last five years](/post/2022/01/natural-gas-prices-and-the-energy-market), it was only logical to expect a future post of other utilities such as water. As expected, the trend line is going up, but luckily, not as badly as the gas prices. We've been steadily paying more and more for our yearly water bills, but unlike the natural gas plot (see link above), we've apparently also been using more and more water.

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@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
---
title: What a Night Cam Is Good For
date: 2022-02-04T19:55:00+01:00
tags:
categories:
- braindump
tags:
- night cam
- cat
- dog
- mice
---
Eight years ago, when our Golden Retriever, Miel, was still a puppy, we wondered what he was up to when we were out working all day. I felt bad having to leave him home alone, with all that energy and social craving. A part of puppy training included bench training, but was he all right with that? Did he try to break out a lot? Was he barking all the time? We didn't know.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- music
- hip-hop
---

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- music
- hip-hop
---
What's the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about hip-hop? Watered-down versions of R. Kelly's R&B? Puff Daddy's pop-rap-ified beats that as you grinding your teeth? Or perhaps simply the Fugees' _Ready Or Not_ or Coolio's _Gangsta's Paradise_ and then nothing. You're in luck: if you like the hard hitting beats of hardcore rap and the criminal stories infused within many gangsta rap albums, I've got just the list of recommendations for you. If you're more into alternative rap or don't know where to start, see my [gentle hip-hop intro](/post/2022/03/a-personal-intro-to-gentle-hip-hop/).

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Academic Lineage
date: 2022-03-27T11:20:00+02:00
categories:
- education
tags:
- academia
---
What if you could apply the concept of genealogy in a much broader sense, beyond the traditional context of a history of families? You can! The idea of an _academic lineage_ was first brought to my attention by [Amy J. Ko's Bio page](https://faculty.washington.edu/ajko/bio#lineage), who lists her advisors, who were advised by the previous generation advisors, who were advised by the previous-previous generation, and so forth.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- design
- QR codes
---
Time for another [design mistake](/tags/design). An upcoming trend: QR codes in physical ad leaflets delivered by mail, devoid of other contextual information. After all, one has to keep up with the latest and greatest. Consider the following partial ad of a local Mac store (in Dutch):

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@ -3,6 +3,10 @@ title: Choosing an Audio Codec
date: 2022-03-13T09:14:00+01:00
categories:
- software
tags:
- mp3
- ogg
- audio codecs
---
Music has been on my mind a lot lately. I thought I was done writing about (streaming) music, but I was wrong. A few things were still missing in my [how to stream your own music (reprise)](/post/2022/03/how-to-stream-your-own-music-reprise/) post. I wrote:

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@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ categories:
- software
tags:
- music
- audio codecs
- navidrome
- self-hosted
---
This is a follow-up to my own February blog post, [How To Enjoy Your Own Digital Music](/post/2022/02/how-to-enjoy-your-own-digital-music/). After thinking this through, buying a NAS, [and playing with it](/post/2022/02/thoughts-on-home-nas-systems/), now is the time to answer my own question: how to enjoy your own digital music collection nowadays?

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@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ tags:
- gba
- gameboy
- games
- "analogue pocket"
---
It took a _long_ time for the [Analogue Pocket](https://www.analogue.co/pocket) to finally arrive at our doorstep. I was a few minutes too late to pre-order the very first batch more than a year ago, which was of course delayed multiple times. I was determined to jump on board as soon as the announcement of the second pre-order wave went online but still had to wait about half a year (!!). The 2021 chip shortage further increased its price to `$220`. Include a Game Gear cartridge adapter---because you never now, right?---and international shipping from America (`$35`) and the grand total is `$285`. Well, not really. The European Union's bonkers-insane-maddening tax import rates demanded another `€127`.

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- webdesign
tags:
- blogging
- opml
---
Small and independent blogs are always full of surprises. The more blogs I stumble upon, the more genuinely surprised I am by the things people do with their blogs. It seemed like a good idea to summarize highlights here. I hope it might inspire non-bloggers to blog and bloggers to tinker more with their site---because obviously the tinkering never ends!

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- games
- credits
---
In the metroidvania-esque 2D brawler _[Guacamelee](https://jefklakscodex.com/games/switch/guacamelee/)_, _everyone_ is just like the protagonist Juan: a _luchador_. That is, everyone appearing in the ending credits is treated equal. There are, to my big surprise, no official titles displayed. Instead, everyone is awarded a typical Mexican wrestling-style nickname, in line with the atmosphere of the game itself:

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Fighting Webmention And Pingback Spam
date: 2022-04-24T19:38:00+02:00
tags:
- indieweb
- webmentions
- pingbacks
categories:
- webdesign
---

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@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ categories:
- braindump
tags:
- blogging
- writing
---
Kid Koala released a superb album in 2003 called [Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs](https://kidkoala.bandcamp.com/album/some-of-my-best-friends-are-djs). That title always stuck with me. I'd like to loan its concept to start this rough post in the same vein: None Of My Best Friends Are Content Creators. At first, I intended to write _Bloggers_ instead of Content Creators, but that would only make things worse.

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@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: The Death Of The Nike+ SportWatch
date: 2022-04-16T08:49:00+02:00
categories:
- hardware
tags:
- running
---
A friend finally convinced me to pick up running again. The last time I regularly went out for a jog was in 2017---since then, I switched running for cycling as my new job requires me to cycle about an hour as part of the daily commute. I thought my condition allowed me to quickly build up the running cycle. And it did, except that my muscles refused. Cycling and running clearly isn't the same!

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