Category Archives: I.T.

Qi2

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Step one was a new phone. I was happy with it, but something was missing. Step two was a new charger. Finally, I can forget the hassle with cables, because now I just need to click two magnets together and that’s it. My new charger is truly a dream come true. No more cables slowly breaking, no more fiddling to clean my phone’s charging port.

I now have two options:
Charging: I place the phone on the charger, and half an hour later it’s ready.
Charging and clock: I unfold the charger, stick the phone on it, and in half an hour it’s charged plus I have a subtle little clock next to my bed all evening.

My charger is a Ugreen Qi2. Nice and sturdy, and a bit heavy too, but that actually feels good when you snap the phone onto it. Folded up, it’s a small cube you can charge your phone on. You can also unfold it, and then you have two charging spots: one for your AirPods, and one for your phone, which then doubles as a clock. My phone charges enough in half an hour to easily last the whole day.

There’s only one small downside: for some reason, the charger has a bright white LED to show it’s working. It’s a tiny light, but just annoying enough and of course, you can’t turn it off, so I just stuck a little sticker over it.

Pro17 – Review

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My old phone started showing some issues after five years. The battery was getting worse by the day. The charging cable no longer fit properly, and I had to patiently insert it the right way or otherwise, I’d end up with a dead phone. The memory was full, and I could only install new updates after clearing out all my photos. I definitely wasn’t having an optimal user experience, so it was time for an upgrade.

After some thought I decided to go for the top of the line, and I got myself a crisp new iPhone 17 Pro! I have been using my new phone for about a week, and I am quite happy with it. Here are the key highlights.

The positive points:

  • One hand: I can still operate it with one hand. Some corners are a bit hard to reach, but I can do it. The missing button, compared to my previous phone, is not really a problem.
  • Speed and battery life: The phone is really fast, and it works a long long time with its battery
  • Design: It looks pretty good, I’m happy with the phone’s aesthetics, and inside its cover it doesn’t tip over when it is lying on my desk and I click the screen.
  • Screen: A bit bigger so that is good, although I really did not mind the smaller screen and the button that I used to have.
  • At night: Pictures really capture a nighttime image as it looks to me, with all the light sources and details. The phone knows when you are making a shot at night, and it tells you to hold the phone still a couple of seconds. My old phone simply shot a black image, where you would see nothing, which was always quite disappointing.
  • Favorite new thing: I love the dual mode video option, where you get a video with the both the front and back camera. Great for small youtube clips.

What I did not like:

  • Overly flashy: The interface might look good, but for me it did not work. I turned off most animations and turned off the always-on option, which I was looking forward to, but eventually just ended up frustrating me because it seemed like the phone would not turn off.
  • Hiccups: Sometimes things are not working right away (or I am doing it wrong). They were not intuitive enough, and that is exactly what iOS should be. I had problems turning on the flashlight and turning on the camera, both buttons available on the very first screen, and this should be simple, but frustatingly I did not get it to work every time I wanted to.
  • Redoing old stuff: I had to re-add all my bank cards to my wallet, and re-authorize all my bank apps. Probably to make sure it was still really me, but it was a bit troublesome because I needed passwords I had not used in five years. Another pain was that all my time based authenticators stopped working and had to be recreated.
  • Imperfect fit: I normally carry my phone in my pant pocket

Overall I’m happy. I feel like for the next couple of years I will have a good phone. It’s really very fast, but I doubt I really need this speed. My old phone was clearly slower, but it was enough for me. The best point is the new battery, I went for charging my phone three times a day to a phone that just keeps working for two days, and a quick charge is enough to keep it working for a day more. I did have to turn off all the fancy graphical effects, and turn on low-power mode, but that gave me exactly what I wanted. A phone I can use when I need it.

17 Pro

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17pro!I started with my brother’s old iPhone 4 (2013), then switched to my first budget version, the SE (2016). After that, a slightly newer budget version, an SE from 2020. Now, five years later, the battery drains much faster. I can barely get a few hours out of it, especially when using navigation. Time for an upgrade, and I’ve thought about it for a long time, but I’m going for it. I’m moving from the budget model to the top of the line.

During the presentation of the new iPhone 17 Pro, a few things immediately caught my attention. First of all, it’s not available in black. Strange, and a pity, because that would have been my preference. Now I’ll go for white, hoping it has the advantage of heating up less quickly in the sun. I also noticed that a square sensor is now used for photography. The benefit is that it doesn’t matter how you hold the device, vertically or horizontally, for photos. Well, it sounded like part of the image is always unavailable now. The camera lenses stick out, so I can’t lay the phone flat on my desk… also a shame. And finally, unsurprisingly, the device is terribly expensive.

Do I really need it? No, of course not. Is it a waste of money? Probably. It is nice to have something good. This phone it for now the best there is, or really close. Lets see if I adapt as well to this change, as my speedy adaptation to my first smartphone years ago.

ezDatepad: Simplicity meets boundless potential

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ezDatepad!ezDatepad is a text editor combined with a calendar — simple yet powerful. Finally there is an easy and intuitive tool to keep data related to dates or times. The data you store, whether related to the present, past, or future, aids in memory, planning, and evaluating your thoughts and actions.

Use ezDatepad as an ideal planning tool, a diary, an agenda, a journal or a way to assess your past or shape your future. It’s also perfect for small tasks like creating shopping lists, quickly jotting down phone numbers, names, notes, ideas or whatever comes to mind.

Get ezDatepad!

AI: Are we there yet?

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A mind inside a fishbowl on top of a mechanical body walking through the sky on top of a cloudArtificial intelligence is a thing we keep hearing more and more about, but what are we really talking about? Is it really something smart and intelligent. It is certainly smart, but sadly the intelligent part still needs to be created.

A few years ago we had various very good search engine. You could give it a couple of words, and it would use those words to really quickly give a list of results that were related to the words you provided. They improved this search by remembering where people clicked. More clicks meant a result was probable better, so it got a bit higher score.

Now OpenAI has added a new layer to this. It’s tool ChatGPT can understand text, and can tell you something in a natural fashion. You can ask it a question, and it will give you an answer back, just like a normal conversation. Understanding someone is a very complex task. You can ask the same thing in lots of different ways, and small details can be very important or meaningless. The ‘engine’ is trained to know what is important, and what is not. Instead of giving you a list of sites, now you can simply get a summary as an answer. The AI is not storing a huge amount of links, it is reading everything, and storing the information it finds, which is what it uses to answer your question.

We are not there yet, but it is a huge step forward. Understanding language is really difficult, and making it seem ‘natural’ is very hard, but it looks like they really achieved something here. Still, there is no intelligence. For now there is no curiosity, no initiative, no desire. The AI only responds to queries. It remembers what you asked it, but thats it. You can ask it things, and it can tell you things, but it won’t do anything else. It is really good, and clearly the current ‘AI’ is much much better then the ‘old’ search engines.

We can even ask it directly.

Q: are you really intelligent?
A: As an AI language model, I don’t possess a conscious intelligence like humans do. However, I have been trained on vast amounts of data and algorithms to respond to various queries, so I can simulate an intelligent conversation with humans. I can understand natural language and can generate responses based on the information I have been trained on. My abilities are limited to what I have been trained on and what algorithms are available to me.
Q: can you repeat the answer in dutch
A: Als een AI-taalmodel …

One week challenge: Sunday

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This is a post for my one week challenge.

[08:00] The kids once again wake up early, but thanks to YouTube we get a little bit extra time in the bed.

[09:00] Alex’ caterpillar has finished the entire plant. There is not a single leaf left. We lost the caterpiller for a while but Alex rediscovered it on the Aloe Vera plant. It was bungling on a leaf there and I suspect it will start its metamorphosis there.

[10:10] A classmate of Alex will ride in a mountainbike race today in Santa Brigida. We are going to watch and support him.

[13:30] The race is finished and Maikel did a really good job. We are heading back home.

[14:30] We all have dinner next door at grandma’s place. She make rice with rabbit and snails. After dinner I clean our windows. We went to the nearby park to play a little. Alan brought his footbal, and Alex his roller skates.

This is the last day. My one week challenge is now complete! But… as usual these kind of challenges always end in a challenge to someone else. I have my doubts, but I think I will do it anyway. I challenge the next generation! Annabel, Alex, Jack and Alan! They will probably never learn about this challenge so we will see. If you do read it, and want to participate, it is easy. For one entire week write down what you do every day. As detailed or as general as you want.

One week challenge: Saturday

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This is a post for my one week challenge.

[08:00] De kids are already waking up. Luckily for us the head to the living room to watch some YouTube videos, so we don’t have to wake up just yet.

[08:xx] Run the washing machine with all white clothes. I also cleaned the bathrooms.

[10:30] Today there is an event in El Puertillo, Arucas, on the beach. Here we have the ‘Cangrejo Fest’ a festival with a lot of activities for kids, so it might be fun.

[19:30] Back home. Shower, dinner, teeth, bathroom, and to sleep.

One week challenge: Friday

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This is a post for my one week challenge.

[07:00] Again the same ritual. Wake up, kids, car…

[07:30] This morning we made a new list for the supermarkt. Ana had complained to me that we did not have anything. I stopped buying sodas, beers, salty snacks, sweet snacks, and Ana has gotten hungry. She wanted bread, croissants, sausage, cheese and cola. No problem of course, but I do need to know. It is now on my list, so maybe I will pass by the supermarket his afternoon.

[07:50] The garage door is stuck. It won’t go up and it won’t go down. It is impossible to get the car out, and Ana has an important meeting, so we take a taxi to the hospital. From there I take the bus to my work. I was lucky that Ana had a couple of extra masks in her purse because in the taxi, and in public transport these are still a requirement.

[08:55] Work, half an hour later than normal, but I arrived, and I think the delay was not that bad.

[08:56] Punch in

[16:56] Punch out. Head home. Finally it’s Friday. I do have to head home with the bus, so I will be on my way for a while.

[18:30] It took a long time getting home with the bus. First wait half an hour for it to arrive, stand the entire trip home, and walk half an hour to my home.

[19:00] The garage door was fixes, so I could get the car and do some last minute shopping.

[20:00] Ana was in ‘el viento’ with the kids. They were playing with their friends. It is almost a tradition, every two weeks we go to the park on Friday, where the kids play with Diego’s kids. After a couple of hours of playing we usually go to Diego’s apartment where the kids eat a pizza, and the adults this evening drink a bottle of wine with some cheese and sausage. Not very good for my weight, but a very pleasant ending of the week..
A book that was anticipated book for a long time has finally arrived! Months ago I pre-ordered ‘What if 2‘ on Amazon, and it is finally here. The first ‘What if‘ was a fantastic book, so I am sure I will enjoy this new one.

[23:30] Home again. Teeth, bathroom, pyjama’s and we all went to bed.

One week challenge: Thursday

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This is a post for my one week challenge.

[07:00] Again the same ritual. Wake up, kids, car, work.

[08:15] Punch in

[16:15] Punch out. Head home.

[17:00] AliExpress packages have arrived. One package with nine lotus seeds which I will plant in the aquarium with the shrimp. Two of the nine seeds I put in water directly, to see if they sprout. The rest of the seeds I will probably give away. The other package contained a new tribal bracelet for me.

[17:30] Alan his second English class! His first class at his new higher level. It went ok. I went on a short run, 5km.

[18:30] End of class so we head back home together. On the way back we passed by the hairsalon and we made an appointment with our hairdresser, Jeremy. Next week on Friday our hair will be cut. Alex, Alan and me. I am thinking about cutting my hair radically short, just like my father Kees used to have (not like he has it now, because that would leave me with almost no hair).

[19:30] Alex English (online).

[20:30] Alex’s class finished. The kids head over to grandma’s house (next door) for their dinner. In the meanwhile I will prepare their milk. After eating they will brush their teeth, put on their pyjama’s, and head to bed.

[22:30] Shower, some exercise, and to bed

One week challenge: Wednesday

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This is a post for my one week challenge.

[07:00] The same ritual. Wake up, kids, car, work.

[08:20] Punch in

[16:20] Punch out. Head home.

[16:25] Pass by the local supermarket.

[17:30] Tennis! The kids have their weekly tennis lesson. On hour, close to our home. During their class I go and have a short run in a park nearby. I forgot to bring cash. The tennis club only accepts cash for paying for the classes. I did not expect that to still be possible, but I suspect they have their reasons.

[19:30] Cook some food! The first two days of this week I had the pig from tgtg for lunch. Today I had leftover pasta from last weekend, but now there is nothing left, so I will make my more or less standard food. Rice with turkey and some vegetables. The rice is steamed to perfection in the Thermomix. First some water, the basket with the rice and some salt and oil, and on top some frozen beans. 19.30 minute, 110 degrees, and that’s it. The rice will be steamed and be just about ready. Some hard bits, but heating it up in the microwave i the next couple of days should make it perfectly eatable. The turkey I will bake with some onion, paprika, garlic and then add a can of Tikka Masala. Divide everything over a couple of tuppers and I have my lunch for the next couple of days.

[20:xx] After weighing myself I learned that I lost another half kilo! I now weigh 75.3 kilos, so I’m heading in the right direction. The biggest advantage I have is that we have no more beer, cheese and nuts at our home. I simply stopped buying them. Now, when I arrive home and feel a bit hungry there is no more option to get some cheese or some nuts, so I will eat a banana or an apple. If I’m thirsty I just get a small bottle of water. I think this helps a lot.

[21:30] The kids are already asleep. I showered and did almost half an hour of exercise.

[22:30] Cool down, relaxing a bit and sleep. Good night!