Peter's blog

Musings (and images) of a slightly warped mind

Author: admin

  • Photos of the 2026-08-12 eclipse

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    Here are a couple photos I took at yesterday’s partial (88% in the Netherlands) eclipse. These photos were taken with a Sony α99-II with a 70-400 G zoom lens at 1/250 or 1/125 with aperture f11. The lens was fitted at the front with a home-made Baader Astrophysics ND-5 foil filter, that filters out 99.99%…

  • Waarschuwing: Slinkse phishing-truc!

    Waarschuwing: Slinkse phishing-truc!

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    Er is een nieuwe, behoorlijk venijnige phishing-campagne aan de gang. Ik kreeg een emailtje in mijn mailbox met de vraag of een item dat ik te koop zou hebben staan nog beschikbaar was. Mijn antwoord was “Sorry, maar ik heb geen idee waarover je het hebt.” Toen ik het tweede emailtje kreeg waarin iemand vroeg…

  • We’ve moved house!

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    No… we’re still living in the same house in Waarder.But this blog entry (and the entire history) is no longer served up by a hosted WordPress site, but by a brand-new Ubuntu 24.04 virtual hosted server with a LEMP stack… installed and configured by yours truly! As a result, it’s a lot faster. And a…

  • Hoe niet gehackt te worden

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    Een jaar of wat terug, toen in korte tijd van een aantal vrienden het Facebook- en/of Instagram-account gehackt werd, schreef ik daar (in het Engels) een artikeltje over. Hoewel het Odido-debacle daar slechts zijdelings aan gerelateerd is, duiken daar toch veel vragen over op. Dus dacht ik, laat ik dat ook eens naar het Nederlands…

  • Is deze email wel okee?

    Is deze email wel okee?

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    (English version here) “Dit ziet er legitiem uit, toch? Geen spelfouten, en het lijkt precies op de e-mails die je normaal van PayPal ontvangt?”Regel één: vertrouw niemand. Het is verrassend makkelijk om te zien of je een ​​e-mail niet zomaar voor waar aan moet nemen. In dit stukje wil ik je laten zien hoe je…

  • Is this email safe?

    Is this email safe?

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    (Nederlandse versie hier) “This looks legit, right? No spelling errors, and it looks just like the emails you regularly get from PayPal?”Trust no one. It’s surprisingly easy not to take any email at face value, and I want to show you how you can do that. I know that this is a long read, but…

  • So… what’s all this about EVs and F-stops and stuff?

    So… what’s all this about EVs and F-stops and stuff?

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    Sometimes, when people see me dragging a large camera and some heavy lenses and tripods around, they assume I know a bit about photography. Or sometimes I just mutter something obtuse like “an F-number is just a ratio between lens opening and focal length” that tips them off. Fact is, I grew up in an…

  • Of cars with batteries and homes with batteries

    Of cars with batteries and homes with batteries

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    First and foremost: I hope you will have a magnificent, healthy, trouble-free, fruitful and generally happy 2026! For us, December was another month of no bucket-kicking in our circle of family and friends! Oh, how fondly I remember the time that this wasn’t even worth mentioning… December was, for us, the month that we got…

  • Getting the MyCitroën app to work on a Connect-NAV-E4-equipped car

    Getting the MyCitroën app to work on a Connect-NAV-E4-equipped car

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    (Ha, after 7 years, I get to do more fooling around with car multimedia systems!) We recently replaced our 13 year old Octavia with a Citroën C5 Aircross PHEV. To get one thing out of the way first, I know from personal experience (as a devoted owner) that the CX and the XM were years…

  • November — Emergency response cats, cars, home batteries

    November — Emergency response cats, cars, home batteries

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    First thing to get out of the way: nobody we know keeled over this month. That’s a nice change. It was close, though. A week ago, a brother in law dropped to the ground in the middle of the night with a cardiac arrest. Since everyone else was asleep, nobody would have noticed — if…