Category Archives: Other

various posts not related to other categories.

about time for an update.

It’s been a while since there was an update here.. (time, other things to do, etc…)
Decided to move back to Dublin a few years ago, got myself a new job, London just wasn’t for me.
I prefer Dublin any day. less crowds and nicer people.

This last year ++ have been a bit irritating with all the lockdown and all that stuff, but now the country is starting to open up again. pubs are doing outdoor serving and soon indoor will open up too.
Markets are finally back open too so it’s possible to get good quality produce and the really good market food.

Also opening up a new podcast, Røde have a competition where you can wind a lot of cool equipment, so signed up for that one. got a few short episodes ready to go there. who knows, I might win myself some new microphones, etc…

Plants in the linvingroom

I’ve been trying to grow some herbs lately, but have run into some environmental issues I think. plants
planting the seeds was no problem.
(The pink pot and the small to the right are Coriander, the blue is basil, the film is to create the “green house effect” to encourage sprouting).
after they started sprouting (2-3 days for the basil and 4-5 days for the coriander) I removed the cling film.
now, that’s when the odd stuff started happening.
The basil plants grew to about 3cm in 3-4 days, then they stopped growing completely. After a week, they are still the same height.
the coriander is even more strange, it started growing straight up like there was no tomorrow.
Instead of growing more leaves as it gets slowly bigger after sprouting like it’s supposed to it kept the 2 leaves and grew to about 10-15cm in about 3 days before slowing down. 
The stem is very thin, so it’s a bit wobbly, but since the seeds are dug deep and the roots probably goes down a bit, I doubt they will tip over any time soon.
The coriander in the pink pot have just started sprouting, so the cover stays on a little longer.

IP Expo Europe 2016

And it’s started.
This morning at, IP Expo Europe 2016 opened at the ExCeL in London.

when I arrived the halls were already filling up with knowledge hungry people from all sections of the technology world, looking to see what’s new in the world of Cyber Security.

I have to say, the amount of exhibitors was crazy, there were stands everywhere, some bigger than others, and some extremely big. (some of the big ones didn’t seem to have spent too much time planning what to do with all the space though), it was often not used at all, or filled with things that had nothing to do with promoting their company or products (or getting attention)..
The small stands were in general very good at using their space (and the floor around them).
One for a small company had a free bar on most of the stand itself, and was using the floor around to talk to people and promote their company and products.
They succeeded where so many big companies failed. their stand was small, but it got a lot more attention than the huge stand for a large company 5 meters away.

Another thing about these expos is of cause the goodie bags:)
some are very good, and some are bad. and some stands don’t have any at all.  (you can only get so many pens before you have a life long supply).
got a hold of some nice looking USB sticks I’m keeping. (might see if I can get some more of those tomorrow. 16GB USB sticks are always good to have around.)

The expo is for 2 days, so tomorrow it’s back for a few hours to catch some keynotes.


what do you do in London when you are unemployed?

one thing is for sure, some companies are extremely optimistic.


Summer in London.

I’m sitting at the British museum enjoying some cool AC.
outside it’s 29 degrees today. and as London tend to be very humid, it’s quite hot being outside all day.

I’m currently trying to find something to do, but so far not much luck.
my downtime is used studying now, trying to get skilled up on web development, (full stack), I see a lot of companies looking for web developers, and offering descent salaries.
web development is also something that’s challenging  and interesting.

I did a few of those “jack the ripper walks” last week,  one was with author Russell Edwards.  His book is about how they managed to match the DNA found on a shawl found with one of the victims with her descendants and with the descendants of one of the suspects. (Aron Kosminski).
The tour was very good, he is extremely knowledgeable about the subject, and his tour is highly recommended.  the website for his tour is


Bank account.

so, getting a UK bank account isnt as easy as you might think..

step 1: get an appointment for an interview.
step 2: make sure you have all the papers they want. (they have some weird requirements..)
step 3: go to the interview and hope they one interviewing you likes you.

so. I went to the bank today with my papers to open my bank account.  I had the papers that made sense: valid ID, proof of my address. (brought my lease and a letter from my landlord proving where I live.)
when they asked what I brought, they gave me the weirdest answer ever.. aparently a housing contract and a letter from the landlord isnt enough to prove where you live..
they want one of the following:
council tax bill
utility bill from the last3 months, and a BANK STATEMENT proving your address..
doesnt take much to see that it’s a bit hard to get a bank statement when you are trying to open a bloody bank account… (a bit of a poorly thought-through catch-22 there…)

think the banks here need to review their requirements to open a bank account..