2015
01.28

Today is the International Day of Privacy. Symbolically, the best day to remove my Facebook profile. But does this mean I will stop using Facebook altogether? I will come back to that later on in the blog post.

You may ask yourself, why now? Facebook’s blatant disregard for privacy is already well known for a while now. Today does have a nice symbolic date to it; but it is also because from the 30th January 2015, you tacitly agree to the new terms. By deleting my profile today, I do not give permission for Facebook to use the data they have collected about me over the past 8 years.

What is so bad about the new conditions?

The main point of criticism is that the new conditions entitle Facebook to share the information about you with 3rd party companies that they have affiliations with.

How much information does Facebook have on an average person?

Through all the likes of your friend’s posts, Facebook pages, and posts from these pages Facebook can decipher your colleagues (with 10 likes), friends (at 70 likes), and even your relatives (with 150 likes). They also have a little trick of tracking through pages that have the ability to “like” on Facebook. (source:.http://time.com/3663775/facebook-likes-personality/ )

Facebook has become a commercial organisation. You are not a customer, but a product. The real customers of Facebook are companies and organisations that place advertisements on the site. Facebook delivers a platform that allows the companies to utilise hyper-focused target audience selections within particular age groups, genders, and locations. But also by using your favourite TV shows, food, political affiliation, etc.

Location Data

If you currently have the Facebook app (or the Messenger app) on your smartphone or tablet, then you are able to share your location with all of Facebook. In the new conditions, this feature becomes even more widespread. So, for example, you will now be able to have specific ads based on your location. Possibly in the near future, you will have gyms that will advertise on Facebook profiles that often visit fastfood websites. Or health insurance companies that avoid advertising at people that have visited hospital locations or medical centres more than (x) amount of times.

Future

Facebook, like many big corporate companies, now makes multiple statements of “goodwill”; such as Mark Zuckerberg’s interest in charity. This can include Internet.org, which sceptics say is a ploy to get even more people using Facebook.
However, the future of the booming social media platform is not known.
In 10 years time, it may be that someone else takes up the reigns from Zuckerberg, with different motives for the information collected. Nor is it known what political environment we shall live in, and what the laws on data protection shall be. With the revelations of Edward Snowden still ringing in the ears of privacy activists across the globe, it has become all too apparent that the US government has an “alternative” take on how to ensure safety.
It could be that this is one such policy.

What Do I Do Personally?

The important thing is that I am going to delete my profile; therefore none of the information will fall under the new conditions that will come into effect. In preparation of this, I have made a backup of my Facebook data, so I’ll still be able to access my posts, photos and messages. (See https://www.facebook.com/help/131112897028467/ )

However, I will create a new account. This is due to needing a Facebook page for managing the Solutions4Web page; and I don’t want to restrict some of my family and friends from sharing good experiences with me.

With this account, I will no longer log onto the apps on my smartphone or tablet. This is to ensure that things like my location, contacts, calendar, texts, photos and call history will not be linked with my Facebook profile.

I will also be using a separate (virtual) computer when using Facebook, in order to keep this distinct from all the other activities that I do on my computer.

What I Would Advise Everyone

My method may seem very drastic, and a lot of hassle to many people. You may be thinking “Nah, not for me”. But before you make a decision, here are a few points that I believe you should keep in mind:

  • Brands that are a part of Facebook: Instagram, WhatsApp & Oculus VR
    So these companies/products/apps will share information with Facebook and possibly onto your account.
  • The Facebook apps gather a lot of information through your devices.
    For example, they need the following rights on Android (iOS will be similar):

    Facebook App Facebook Messenger
    Device & App history X
    Identity & Accounts X X
    Blogs X
    Contacts X X
    Location Data X X
    SMS X X
    Photos / Media / Files X X
    Camera X X
    Microphone X X
    Device ID & Call Information X X
    Phone X
    Wi-Fi connection information X

    Perhaps you can live without these apps?

  • When Facebook is used in private/incognito screens, you limit the fanboxes and the Like/Share buttons on various websites (which give FB insights into your surfing habits)
    Chrome (open new incognito window): Shift + Ctrl + N
    Firefox (open new private screen): Shift + Ctrl + P

Conclusion

Although there are good alternative social networks with a degree of privacy (e.g https://joindiaspora.com/) the fact remains that most people make use of Facebook. With the want to keep in touch with people, and the simplicity & ease of social networking; it’s hard to fight them. This is also one of the reasons that I created a new Facebook account.

However, it is good to know the rules of the game. Having a profile does not force you to install the apps. And it states nowhere in the terms that you should only use Facebook in a browser without private mode switch on.

If you have any good tips to better protect your privacy on Facebook, then I will be happy to hear!

2012
12.18

AeroFS

Since some time I have been playing around with AeroFS(https://www.aerofs.com/) for a proper datasynchronisation between my devices.
I can’t say anything negative about it so far, it works fast, secure and is highly configurable for everyone.
To give an idea what AeroFS can do:

  • Private Syncing, allowed you to sync your devices between all your devices(Android & iOS support comming soon I hope!)
  • Unlimited Storage, the storage on your own devices is used and therefor your only limitation!
  • Sharing is caring, all your folders are private by default, but you can choose to share them with other AeroFS users
  • It’s Secure
    • Every device gets their own 2048bits key, making it very(!!) hard to be impersonated by black hat hackers!
    • These keys are used between your devices to verify their identity
    • These keys are also used to encrypt your data while syncing
  • It has a graphical interface for easy configuration, but also a shell client for advanced/scripted configuration

Best thing about this is, you dont have to rely on any public service, except for an Internet connection!
Although for me it is common sense I would like to have it noted that your devices have to be turned on at the same to have them synchronise!!

My Script

Because I like AeroFS a lot, it does what it promises to do and it shows to be stable already in the current Beta stage, I have started to reconfigure my (X)Ubuntu machines to use this as much as possible, so my data is always stored in my personal “cloud” and I dont have to worry whether I put that one file in my AeroFS folder or not. So basically all my devices work on my personal storage cloud.
Therefor I wrote a little bash script to run, that will make the important profile folders(Documents, Pictures, Music & Videos) get moved and linked to the AeroFS folders. That way if I ever save anything in these folders it’s automatically synced between my devices. I also made the script in a way it can easily be extended with more folders.
Below you will find the code, which you can just copy to a textfile and make it executable.(chmod +x [name textfile]) I will try to make this even more userfriendly or make a more extended description of how to do this as soon as possible.
You can configure some of the parameters yourself or just go with the default settings which work with a default (X)Ubuntu installation and a default AeroFS installation.

#! /bin/bash

# The location of the AeroFS shell binary
AEROFSBINSH=”/usr/bin/aerofs-sh”
AEROFSOPTIONS=”-e”
# The location of the AeroFS folder, default is set
AEROFSFOLDER=$HOME/AeroFS/
# Do you want this script to relocate your AeroFS Folder in case it isnt found at the configured path?
RELOCATEAEROFSFOLDER=0
# The folders to transfer/relocate to AeroFS, default folders with exception of Downloads
FOLDERS[1]=”Documents”
FOLDERS[2]=”Music”
FOLDERS[3]=”Pictures”
FOLDERS[4]=”Videos”
# Not transferred to AeroFS by default, uncomment to have them transferred as well
#FOLDERS[5]=”Downloads”
#FOLDERS[6]=”Desktop”
#FOLDERS[7]=”Test”

# Migrate Data, do you want this script to transfer your data?(!!IT WILL BE DELETED IF NOT TRANSFERRED!!)
# (Yes = 1, No = 0)
MIGRATEDATA=1

MigrateFolder()
{
if [ -z “$1″ ]                           # Is parameter #1 zero length?
then
echo “!!!No directory specified to migrate!!!”  # Or no parameter passed.
else
if [ ! -L $HOME/$1 ]; then
#
if [ -d $AEROFSFOLDER/$1 ]; then
echo “$AEROFSFOLDER$1 exists”
else
echo “Creating $AEROFSFOLDER$i”
$AEROFSBINSH $AEROFSOPTIONS mkdir $1
fi
if [ $MIGRATEDATA -eq 1 ];then
echo “Moving Data from $HOME/$i to $AEROFSFOLDER$1″
mv $HOME/$1/* $AEROFSFOLDER$1
fi
rm -rf $HOME/$1
ln -s $AEROFSFOLDER$i $1
else
echo “!!!$1 is Skipped since it was already a Symbolic Link in the homefolder!!!”
fi
fi
}
MigrateAeroFS()
{
for i in “${FOLDERS[@]}”; do
MigrateFolder $i
done
}

read -p “Press [Enter] key to start AeroFS Configuration…”
cd $HOME
if [ -e “$AEROFSBINSH” ]; then
echo “Pausing AeroFS”
$AEROFSBINSH $AEROFSOPTIONS pause
#    echo “AeroFS is installed”
#    echo “$AEROFSFOLDER”
if [ -d $AEROFSFOLDER ]; then
#        echo “AeroFS Folder does exist”
MigrateAeroFS
else
#        echo “AeroFS Folder does NOT exist”
if [ $RELOCATEAEROFSFOLDER -eq 1 ]; then
echo “Relocating AeroFS Folder”
mkdir -p $AEROFSFOLDER
$AEROFSBINSH $AEROFSOPTIONS relocate $AEROFSFOLDER
MigrateAeroFS
else
echo “!!!Your AeroFS Folder isnt properly configured in this script and isnt allowed to be relocated!!!”
fi
fi
echo “Resuming AeroFS”
$AEROFSBINSH $AEROFSOPTIONS resume
else
echo “!!!AeroFS is NOT installed or binarypath is not properly configured in this script!!!”
fi

Little disclaimer, using this script is entirely at your own risk. Although I have tried to built in some checks to see whether everything is alright, I take no responsibility for any damage this script could cause.

2012
05.02

My last weekend had a swedish beginning and a Swedish ending. No I haven’t been wandering around in IKEA or looking for a new Volvo. I have been spending last weekend at Groezrock in Belgium. Now here is my personal experience of this epic festival.

After a nice ride over there, putting my tent up, inflating my airbed and getting all my stuff in the tent except for 1 beer to start with, my friends and I slowly walked to the festival grounds to see the first band that we definitely did not want to miss. “Royal Republic” would be playing at the Impericon stage. This band has been my discovery of 2012 so far. After my friend introduced me to their music a few months ago, I was hooked to their uptempo and energising songs. So after checking video’s of them on youtube for the last few months, it was finally time to see them live. And it was worth it, they were everything I hoped them to be and even better.

Now you dont go to a whole festival for just one band and next one to visit was “Reel Big Fish”. This was a real party starter. I had never been able to enjoy the same song at a concert multiple times in a row, but they made me enjoy it. With the same song a little different, a amazing interpretation of “Enter Sandman” and my personal favourite “Take on Me” they made me forget everything that was going on outside the festival.

Also on the first day we went to see “de Heideroosjes”, for me personally the 4th time to see them play, but the friends I was with never saw them live. Now I can tell you, this sure is a band that I will never get tired of. The energy they unleash, their ideals, strong lyrics even from song that are 20 years old, it’s amazing. Dutch punk rock music at it’s best for sure.

Then we had to go and eat some and while listening to some acoustic set of “Face Tomorrow” we could enjoy our Belgian fries with sate. Walked around the festival market to buy me a hoodie since it was getting a little cold at that time and then after a short stop at “Lifetime” we went to the main stage. There we would get ready for “Lagwagon” at first and later “Rancid”. Those two bands really put a great ending to the first night. They made the main stage shake at all sides and made sure that the safety crew had their hands full with crowd surfers. So completely worn down after Rancid finished their set list we went back to the camping for some well deserved rest. Sadly enough it seemed my airbed had a small hole in the lowest compartment and the zipper of my sleeping bag didn’t want to close that much anymore at around half length.

After a short and cold night laying on the ground with half my body the next day started. But that couldnt stop me from going to see “Zebrahead”. Their video clip of “Playmate of the Year” has been on my mediacenter for nearly 10 years now, so I had to see them. Now this is the punk as I have been playing mostly when I was still working as a ‘DJ’ in a local alternative bar. Nothing is serious, all is fun and lets make it one big party. That is definitely the idea I got, inviting people on stage to dance at their inflatable cocktail bar and sit in the inflatable swimming pool, go crowd surfing in an inflatable boat. No matter how cranky I normally would have been after such a crappy night, these guys totally made me forget about it. Now I was in the lucky position that “MXPX All-Stars” was scheduled on the main stage after them. So without too much effort I could just enjoy another band from which I had been saving a video clip (“Party, My House, Be There”) of for nearly the same amount of time. After 2 of such great sets I had completely forgotten about how my body should have been hurting and how exhausted I should feel. That was a good thing, since we would soon arrive at the Impericon stage again to check out “Old Firm Casuals”, seeing a familiar face of the main act of the night before again. Now you can’t compare the two bands, which allows me to honestly say that I can enjoy both bands at an equal level, tho in complete different ways. It was a nice show as well and I will definitely look up more of them some day soon.

Next band I was really happy that I could finally see was “Anti-Flag”. As I mentioned before I can appreciate ideals in lyrics, which is just one of their trademarks. More clear than with other artists they would spread their messages while making sure the ground would tremble under and beyond the tent. Whether they played their songs with full surrender or you felt the passion of their short intermezzo’s, the crowd loved it and went completely crazy. So it was definitely worth being part of that.

Now it was time for some refreshments and to start heading towards the main stage again. We knew that at the end there would be a band that would make us look for new superlatives to describe them and wanted to be sure that we would have a great spot for that. Which made us arrive just before the stage was getting prepared for “Simple Plan”. Now I knew this was gonna fill the tent with loads of teenage wannabe’s and couldn’t have been more right. Soon we were surrounded by girls that found themselves too tough to listen to “One Direction” and therefor listened to “Punk”. Well, unanimous my friends and I have decided that the performance we saw was NOT punk. When you are filling the gaps between songs with oneliners like “I can feel it in my pants”, “I am so horny” and “make it bigger; that’s what she said” you are just a demonstration of the hormones that got released earlier that week since their first pubic hairs started to grow. The whole set was so damn depressing that not even all the alcohol in the world would have made a real punk happy while listening to it. And if any of the girls that were waving like Simple Plan suggested, as if we were at a damn elderly home, were able to sneak back stage some Post Natal Depression was the only logical and deserved consequence. A band like that might be able to get those girls hot, but just aint able to make a crowd achieve a climax in any way.

But it was worth the pain in our ears, since after the ugly white boxes were removed, the main stage was turned into a real rock stage again where, after some great build up of suspense, “Refused” just started a set that would blow you of your feet. Now I could say a lot about this, but I cant find any superlatives that would give a good impression of what I saw and heard other than “Epic”. The songs and the very few times they would speak would hit you right at the centre of your soul, yet you wouldn’t feel the least of pain. It was punk like punk should be and every self respecting punker should have been there.

And I know for sure, if any of those girls that came to see the band before them dared to stay a little longer and saw what punk should be like, that virgin teenage souls have been raped by some punk this weekend.

So after this I can only come to the conclusion it was just amazing, it was a great festival due to nearly every single person on there. The bands, the organisation, the safety crew, the caterers and the visitors. Some people I wanna thank in particular:

-The guy that I didn’t hit in the face after he showed some bro-mance since he respected my personal space once I told him so. I hope you didnt had a bad hangover mate, since you are really okay.

-The guys that loved my t-shirt, I hope you will never forget that Amsterdam is the capital of Holland again and I remembered later that I bought the t-shirt in Turkey.

-The German dude that gave us his remaining weed, you are awesome and I hope when my hair is grey like yours that I will also still be going to festivals like Groezrock.

-Last but not least my wonderful friends which were great company during the entire weekend, for sure I wouldnt have liked this weekend the way I did without you.

ps. to the person that found a sealed package of Davidoff cigarettes with a dutch tax stamp. You better have enjoyed them, since I sure would have if I didn’t loose them ;)

2012
04.17

Last week I had an article posted on a dutch website, ISP Today, a platform for dutch Internet Service Providers. By request is here the article in English as well. If you are interested in the dutch article you can read it here “Darknet : het nieuwe Internet?

Darknet: The new Internet?

I think we can all admit that the Internet has changed a lot since we got to know it.
We saw it grow from a limited amount of hosts to a number that hardly fits the IPv4 address scope.

User friendly

Next to the amount of websites that has increased over the years, we also see that websites have become more modern.
They are looking for more interaction with the users and therefore become more user friendly.
Of course also the increase in Internet speeds has been a big part of this, since websites could be extended with more images and videos.

Power struggle

These are all the good things of the Internet that we all hoped for when we got in touch with it.
One way or another we all contributed to it. The flip side is that also other sides have increased.
There were always the regular Internet taps, but since several years there is also the data-retention,
This requires logging of which IP address communicated with which and which email mailed to which.
And since February 1st two of the bigger ISP’s in the Netherlands have to block one of the bigger Internet sites.
Shortly, with the success of the Internet, also the struggle for power on the Internet has really begun.

Darknets

But the measures as they are being implemented now are slowly starting to get useless.
In different ways new networks are being built over the Internet, so called Darknets.
These are networks that bypass these measures.
Because of the encryption it’s not possible to check what data is sent over these networks and due to the mesh structure it’s not possible to effectively check who communicates with whom.
Many of the endpoints on these networks are often configured that it’s also impossible to see who is behind the endpoints of these networks, making them anonymous.

Important role

With the role that the Internet has now and the control that is being enforced, these sorts of networks are here to stay.
The role the Internet has played in the Arabic Revolutions would have been easier to suppress if the people that started the revolutions did not have access to such networks.

Disadvantage

The flip side of this however is that these networks are also being used to gather and spread content that is ethically undesirable.
That certain images and videos, which most people would prefer had not even be made in the first place, end up in the dark alleys of the Internet

Control mechanism

But that these networks evolved is due to our own lack of actions, by letting different control mechanisms be introduced too easily.
Was it really necessary to have those data retention laws introduced for all communication?
Was it too hard for our governments to arrange Internet taps?
Wasn’t the person-centered approach good enough?

Progress

The consequences are clear, the Internet shows it’s resilience by adjusting with this Internet over the Internet.
An Internet that makes the current control mechanism obsolete.
Internet that is not controlled, like we are used to from when we got to know it and that will be even harder to control in the future.
For me the only question that remains is; “is this really progress?”

2012
02.20

Today it would have been Kurt Cobains 45th birthday, something why most people will remember today.
Even though I am still a fan of Kurt, it’s not really why I remember this day as much.
The reason today is printed in my memory is because today is the day one of my best friends would have turned 30.
Would have been, since sadly enough he isn’t with us anymore to celebrate it.

Nevertheless I would like to take time to remember his birthday and drink a beer for him instead.
Drink a beer to celebrate life, even though he has chosen a different path.
Since life is what I started to appreciate, with all it’s flaws and bad moments.
Without that same life, there would be no moments to make up for all the bad things that happen.

So for you Dennis, Happy 30th Birthday. I hope that, wherever you are, you will have one yourself as well.

2012
01.25

You are being feared. Not because you are ugly or because you are strong, but because you are an individual that is able to generate ideas.
Now humans aren’t the only creatures that are able to do that, but I think we can agree we are kinda in a league of our own.
Now it’s something amazing, you can just come up with something that no one else ever came up with before.
Drawing, writing, designing, building and inventing are just some keywords to describe a small spectrum of what you are able to do as an individual.
Whether you do it or not, you could if you would like to or in most cases if you would just start doing it.

Everything you do comes from a personal inspiration, which can be anything. A nice landscape can be enough to inspire a painter or a photographer to make a painting or picture of it.
That same landscape can inspire a songwriter to write a song about it or an architect to design a building that would look great within that particular landscape. The design of the architect might trigger someone else to invent something to make that design actually possible.
With that invention and the design another person can be inspired to actually build this to become reality. Once that building is there the painter and photographer can gain inspiration from it and make a painting or picture out of it.
That painting or picture might inspire you to… well, I assume you get my point.

Inspiration comes from all around you; the landscapes, painting, pictures, movies &  buildings you see.  The songs and speeches you hear, the books you read and the people you have met.
All of this comes down to a unique combination that offers you an unique inspiration. With this unique inspiration you will be able to also draw, write, design, built or invent something.

Big companies know this, they know that what they make might inspire you to do something better or to find a cheaper way to do the same, since they often started this way themselves as well.
This is just plain simple to realize, since most companies start because someone had an idea, tho hardly ever this was completely new uninspired by anyone or anything else.
The second car company was inspired by the first, Microsoft created Windows after they were inspired by what they saw at Apple, which on their turn saw it at Xerox.
Still they were able to make it their own, innovating all in their own ways. Today we have 2 completely different products from that alone, and the market can choose.
But now many big companies have hired directors and managers which they have to pay millions and have stockholders which they need to keep satisfied.
This is why they have come up with something called “Intellectual Property”, a way to prevent you from doing the same as they are doing in a better or cheaper way.
A way to prevent new competitors from being started, thus killing the free market and gain monopoly, or share it with just one or two other competitors.

Big companies with such attitudes are sponsoring politicians in order to introduce new laws and regulations like SOPA, PIPA and ACTA.
These are nothing but tools to prevent inspiration by forcing people to stop sharing items that might cause inspiration and therefor innovation.
If they were introduced 2000 years ago, there would have been only one kind of bread today, since similar ideas would have been called counterfeiting.
You prolly wouldnt even know what bread was, since spreading the recipe how to make bread would have been considered piracy.
Basically the SOPA, PIPA and ACTA are just acts of despair, acts to maintain an outdated businessmodel, stopping innovation or cheaper alternatives helping mankind forward.
So you are being feared, since you might be the one innovating or coming up with cheaper alternatives,

SOPA has been stopped, but dont stop getting your inspiration,
PIPA has been stopped, but dont stop using your inspiration,
Now stop ACTA, but dont stop trying to inspire others.

2012
01.17

Like many others I have also come to like Google Calender a lot.
Not only is it a nice way to keep track of my appointments and try to keep some structure in my busy life.
It also allows me to send invitations to other people, share my calendar with them and have a public free/busy calendar. Since I use Google quite intense, it also shows me the birthdays of my contacts(when I put it in their details) and I can have the calendars of other people nicely integrated with mine.
Besides that there are some easy public/functional calendars with weather forecasts, week numbers or national/religious holidays.
Like that isn’t enough already, I can also have all this information being synchronized with my Android smartphone and access or update this info at any given time.
But this week I accidentally pressed some keys and figured out that in the Google Calendar web interface there are many shortcuts. So I decided to contribute a blog post to these shortcuts and the quick add functionality which is also really great.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts are easy ways to use Google Calender, I have divided them in the following categories, slightly different from the way Google categorized them, but I think a bit more easy to get to learn them. When there is a / between them, that means 2 seperate offer the same functionality and when “ctrl-” added it means you gotta press your CTRL in combination with the following key.

Views

1/d = Day View
2/w = Week View
3/m = Month View
4/x = Custom View(You can change this in your Calender settings)
5/a = Agenda View

Navigation

k/p = Previous(day/week/month/4days/page)
j/n = Next(day/week/month/4days/page)
r = Refresh
t = Goto Today(in current view)
arrow keys = Up/Down items(Only Worked in Agenda View for me)
/ = Search

Actions

c = Create Event
e = Edit Event(Agenda View Only)
Del/Backspace = Delete Item(Agenda View Only)
q = Quick Add(More Info Below)
ctrl-z = Undo last action(if possible)
s = settings
? = Overview of these shortcuts

Quick Add

I usually use the following formats when typing ‘q’ for a quickadd in Google Calendar

Appointment [Date|Day] [TimeStart [till TimeEnd]] [Daily|Weekly]

The items in square brackets are optional, I cant decide what the appointment is that you will have to make, when you just enter a name for the appointment you will get a create event dialog where you can enter the details.

[Date|Day]

When you want to set the proper day, which you can do easily like:
“1/20″ for January 20th, or “20 Jan” or “Jan 20″ for the exact date.
But you can also use texts as:
“Tomorrow”, “Wed” or “Next Sat” for the next day, the upcoming Wednesday or next Saturday to set a certain day for your appointment.
Example:

Birthday Client's Oldest Son Friday
Call for Test results Next Tue
Check tickets tomorrow

[TimeStart]

Now if you dont set a time, it will be an all day event, now this could be easy for some events like birthday’s, often you have a more specific time.
You can define both the “am/pm” system as the “24 hours” system,
if you use the “am/pm” system, you can write time like “8am” or “6:30pm” as a start, if you want to use the “24 hour” system you will really have to write “14:00″ or “11:30″.
Examples:

Lunch with Friend Thu 1pm
Presentation Wed 10:30

[till TimeEnd]

By default Google make appointments last 1 hour, of course not every appointments lasts 1 hour.
For those cases you can use “till 8pm” or “till 20:00″ to set the end time easily.
Examples:

Movies with Date Fri 8pm till 10:30pm
Running with Neighbor Fri 6:30 till 7:00

[Daily|Weekly]

Now in some cases you might want some recurrence. I have found that “Daily” and “Weekly” work well, “Monthly” and “Yearly” didn’t have the required effect for me. I am sure there might be a few good tricks to work with this as well, but I didn’t have a chance to figure them out.
Examples:

Drinks with Coworkers Fri 17:00 Weekly

I have tested all the examples given in this post, so I hope you see how easy it is to easily use Google calendar with just your keyboard for both navigation as updating with quick add.
If you find more useful hints, feel free to share them in the comments.
To give you an idea of how active I use Google calendar, I have added a view in mine:

If you like to include your Google calendar on a website as well, you can go to Calendar Embed helper

2012
01.15

Have you ever heard of the term mass-individualization? Yeah, I do realise it sounds like some contradictio in terminis(combination of words whose meanings are in conflict with one another) but it is used quite a lot these days by marketing specialists.
It is the concept of introducing products which are nearly similar or are able to be customised it to a certain extent, that way the same product is around in various appearances without to much effort in the field of actual development.

Especially nowadays with all the technological gadgets this is really noticable, you can customize ringtones, wallpapers, widgets and attributes to a nearly unlimited extent. That way you are making your gadget really fitting “your own identity”, expressing your own “personality” and in some cases building an “image” of yourself.

For all those people thinking that customising your gadgets are defining your personality, that the physical appearance of some device shows anything of who you really are, I want you to realise that it only shows one thing about your personality. It just shows you are so damn shallow that you think a device can replace a personality and that you have been assimilated by those big corporate marketing specialists.

Now I don’t mean to say that every person that customises their gadgets is part of the big dumb mass. I also put some nice wallpaper on my phone/laptop/computer as well, change the default theme, chosen a song I like as a ring-tone. I am just pointing out those people out there that seem to have taken this to a far extent, that don’t seem the difference between personalising and personality.

It isnt what you own, use or wear that defines you as a personality. It are your dreams and/or ideals that define you as a person. What you are making out of your life, what you wanna achieve and how you want to do this. The choices you make in life, the way you deal with situations you run into and how you feel about these at the end of the day.

So please don’t stop customising your devices if you like to do so, since I also like to do this myself. I just hope that you realise that you really loose your personality the moment that what you own or wear becomes more important that your dreams and/or ideals. That thinking about how you wanna customise your stuff becomes more important then what and how you wanna achieve your dreams and ideals. That choices for ring-tones and wallpapers are becoming more important or an escape for the choices in how to deal with important matters in life.

Just remember: “You are unique, just like everyone else.”

2011
12.24

4,5 months ago I had my long hair cut of and donated it to a charity foundation that makes wigs out of it for children that lost their hair due to cancer. It was an initiative from my sister to remember the death of our aunt one year before, who had lost her battle against this aweful disease. After giving it some thought I decided it was only the right thing to do.
Even though I wanted to shave my head straight away deep inside, i didnt since someone i love kindly requested me not to do so, for reasons not important. I respected that and decided to go for a normal haircut, searched for something I thought would fit my personality and had my hair cut that way.
Stupid if you look at it afterwards, since little over a month later it felt like that person started to slip away from my life. All I had to do in the end was to cut a very thin silk cord and the slipping had started. On the 5th of November, I shaved my head, i had the choice of going to a barbershop to have my hair cut or shave it myself. I decided to do it myself and must say ever since I have felt great. Even tonight again I have shaved it to keep it nice and short.

Some might think it was stupid of me not to do so straight away, since deep inside I knew I wanted that, so this special person to me would have had to respect it. Others might understand why I did that, might do something like that on a regular base, and might even have done the same.
Why is it that we sometimes loose ourselves, trying to be what others want us to be? Why do the people we care for most ask us to be something we are not?
Ever since I shaved my head, I started feeling more and more myself. It was me with the long hair when I looked in the mirror, it is me with the shaved hair when I look in the mirror, but I wasn’t myself for the 3 months when I had a haircut chosen because of others.
Now for me it is something simple like an haircut, but it’s amazing how we choose to do stuff for people we care for. People choose hobbies, studies and even careers to please others. They choose or don’t choose to smoke, drink or do drugs. Whether it is to make their parents proud, fit in with friends, try to impress someone or please someone they love.

It’s the end of 2011 and I am overthinking what I have gained from last year, and even tho the results of the autism test I had been waiting for for over 1,5yrs had a great impact on me. Have these results make me over think nearly every important aspect of my life so far, in an attempt to have my life make sense to me and had me redefine myself, it weren’t these results.
But most of all 2011 has become the year that it became clear to me that I should make my own choices at all costs. I might loose some friends, but more important then that is that I wont loose myself. Since at the end of the day, no matter who I spend my life with, I will only have myself to blame for the things I did or did not do.

Another thing which is important to me is that I asked my therapist, after I got the results that I am autistic, if I was ever able to love like people with normal empathic levels. I had been asked the same question a little before and I put me in doubt about my own ability to love. He told me that love comes in many forms and shapes and that every person had to find out for himself what love is. Now it might have taken some time for me to figure it out, but I have found my answer to that. To me love is the ability to take something for what it is, whether it is a person, an animal or a plant. Don’t try to change it, don’t try to influence it, just support it when you need to and enjoy watching it evolve. If you can just enjoy watching it evolve, with or without your support and without the need to get anything in return, I think you truly found love.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and truly hope 2012 will be filled with love for all of you, no matter what your definition of love is.

2011
12.18

Dear Santa,

You have been around the western world for a couple of weeks now, starting to spread the Christmas feeling.
Even though I haven’t seen you yet, I have seen the effects of that feeling.
Houses are being decorated with nice lights, inside Christmas trees are standing proud with lights balls and little angels.
People out on the street are slowly becoming kinder in bigger numbers, even towards strangers, sometimes just by saying “hello”.

Now in less then a week this Christmas feeling will get to it’s ultimate peak, where people will be celebrating Christmas together.
I know from previous years that people will wish each other a Merry Christmas, no matter if they know each other.
They will be chatting, laughing and singing together, they will be more generous towards each other and feel good to see the joy it brings.
And then on Christmas eve, they will be dining and drinking together with friends and family, knowing that feeling is really worthwhile having.

It is on that day that I can look at the world and really feel happy.
Not because I have gotten gifts or am with the people I care for, but on that day, I can see the world for what I believe it can be.
Kind and generous towards every human being.
And yes, there might be a small exception. Even on that beautiful day, but isn’t it great that we can call it an exception that very day.

Now when Christmas is over and you are on your way back to the north pole to see Mrs Santa and all of your elves again, the exceptions start to grow.
And even tho it might take a week orso, soon the exceptions have grown back to be the standard of western society.
People stop chatting together and soon wont show any understanding, the generosity they had during Christmas soon becomes greed again.
The laughing and singing soon diminishes to be something for kids and the joyfull feeling will disappear.

So dear Santa, this year I would kindly request you not to leave after Christmas.
I would like to ask you to stay here and remind the western world of that very feeling they had during Christmas.
Maybe then instead of trying to make more profit; banks and companies will try to make a better world.
They have seen the power of generosity during Christmas, yet they fail to apply it the rest of the year.

So could you stay and remind them to turn their greedy bonuses into jobs for people is a very generous act.
And that people getting jobs, being able to take care of their families, will be thankful and happy.
Could you stay and remind people of the western world to remain friendly to people out on the street, even the strangers.
So less people will feel lonely in this world and less people will detach from society.

But most of all Santa, could you stay for the charities of this world.
It is no secret that during your time in the western world, more money is being donated to charity.
We still have so many challenges like hunger and sickness.
So those charities could really use the donations.

So if you cant stay Santa, for whatever reason. Could you then give people some hope & faith this Christmas under their tree
Could you put some a dose of kindness and generosity in their food and drinks, that will last till you return.
Since I really like you, big ol’ funny dressed man, but I would like to see the western world doesn’t need you anymore.
That above all, would be my wish for this Christmas.

Thank you in advance Santa.