This year's Dutch Java Nerd event called J-Fall was held in Nijkerk, in a beautiful location called "Hart van Holland" . With plenty of sessions by speakers from all over the world it promised to be a great day for Java enthusiasts, at a great location for meeting friends and colleagues. I took a day off from …

Bill Gates found a very good way to get the news reporters to pay attention to the malaria problem. In his talk at the TED conference, he released a few mosquitoes, stating that malaria should not be just for poor people to experience. People who did not see the whole performance may react shocked, because when placed …

"Remote Desktop Connection.app" allows you to see the desktop of a remote Windows machine on your mac. This application will not update itself automatically, unless you have it installed as part of the Microsoft Office for Mac suite. If you've downloaded the 1.0.3 version you probably did not notice that …

For people wanting to have an interactive whiteboard but don't have the money, Johnny Chung Lee has found the solution. Using a Wiimote, he can track an infrared lightsource (like an LED) and use that to control the mousecursor. I tried some software on the Mac and the PC, and I actually got both to work without too …

For those of you who think that media and information are free and uncontroled, guess again. Lately I have been seeing more and more incidents of large corporations hiding information, and even telling other people to hide it for them. I think this is plain wrong, and the guys involved should have been fired or …

In this strange world, people can't seem to leave your stuff alone. All the electronic gadgets of today are too attractive to the lowlife of this world. So what do you do if somebody swipes your laptop? You take a few pictures of him, and trace his IP address! This kind of software has been around for a while, and a …

My wife got tired of her Windows/Compaq laptop. So 2 weeks ago, she decides to go out and buy a 15" macbook pro (an excelent choice I might add). She was a bit worried about getting used to the new machine, but decided to take the risk. After no more than 3 days, with surprisingly little help, she figured out how …

Last week, lightning struck at my parents apartment building (literaly). Other damages aside, my dad's PC also died. The guy at the PC repair shop warned my dad that "we may need to wipe the HD, do you have a backup"? Ofcourse, all data was backed up daily and "off-site" at my house so all important …

Another great example showing the differences between OSX and Windows. Bot applications synchronize your phone over bluetooth. Both applications are simple to use, but one is simpler. And contrary to expectations, this time the Windows version (left) will cost you money, and the OSX version (right) is free. Although …

... and other wisdom from Joel. Finally, after weeks of slightly boring posts about travel, speeches and FogBugz, Joel has an article on his blog he was so famous for: Martian Headsets. The article discusses the problems with the HTML spec, and numerous other problems developers are facing these days. That, and the …