Beste VRT, de volgende keer dat jullie een TV programma bedenken over, pakweg enkele mensen die een uitvinding wensen voor te stellen waar ze jaren aan gewerkt hebben, kunnen jullie dan ten minste meer aandacht aan de verschillende uitvindingen spenderen, dan aan de dolle fratsen en capriolen van de presentatoren ? U doet er niet alleen de bedenkers, maar vooral jullie kijkpubliek een grote dienst mee.


Disclaimer: ik ben in generlei wijze gerelateerd aan één van de betrokkenen bedenkers, enkel een TV kijker die zwaar op zijn honger moet blijven.


Dank u.

I reported previously about the Messier marathon, a race to find as many Messier objects in one night. The Messier Planner is a great tool one can use in order to prepare a marathon night. Or just use it as a handy planner for an sudden night of star watching.

DeepskyLive is a great java applet which behaves like an online star atlas, capable of showing stars up to magnitude 11.5 and deep-sky objects up to magnitude 16. You can easily locate different deepsky objects and print out detailled finder charts. Very handy if you don't have your own star atlas at hand.

Finally, a scientific study about Harry Potter : an attempt to classify Harry Potter's headaches as described in the biographical series by JK Rowling. Regrettably we are not privy to the Wizard system of classifying headache disorders and are therefore limited to the Muggle method, the International Classification of Headache Disorders.

I finished the Solera Reserve I bought lately, and because the surroundings of my regular liquor shop (that is, where I buy my Tullamore Dew) is still plagued with road works, I decided to shop elsewhere and acquire a quite different brand of whiskey. I heard lots of good of Bowmore, so I took the 12yo with me.


Found in the capital of Islay, Bowmore distillery is the oldest (legal) distillery on Islay and the second oldest in Scotland, and is one of the more renowned whiskeys of Islay. For over 200 years Bowmore has attracted the respect of those lucky enough to taste what it produces. In his Spirit Journal, F. Paul Pacult wrote "that Bowmore might just be Scotland's foremost malt distillery at this time"(2003), and in his book, Raw Spirit, Ian Banks writes , "If you can't find a Bowmore to fall in love with, you may have to consider very seriously the possibility that you're wasting your money drinking whisky at all." With a wide range of releases, and a whole new line to familiarize yourselves with, there is bound to be a Bowmore that you'll dig.


The nose, then : smell of pears, honey, a distinct fragrance of peat, and a slight hint of salt, seaweed. No surprises so far : this is an Islay after all. Tasting : the peat taste is much more present here, still sweet, and somehow syrupy, medical, sherry alike. Very different from the Speyside brands, but not that much also. Good and complex taste, I'm gonna like this. I guess I'm ready for a Talisker after all...

The latest iPods have a cryptographic "checksum" in their song databases that prevents third-party applications from synching with the portable music players. This means that iPods can no longer be used with operating systems where iTunes doesn't exist -- like Linux, where gtkpod and Amarok are common free tools used by iPod owners to load their players. If you buy such an iPod, you're only option to upload songs is to use Wine + iTunes or, more drastically, iPodLinux.

Here's a great introduction on MIDP programming with J2ME. If I only had some time, I would implement my own midlet for a project management and mindmap tool.

What character resembles your OS ? (slightly NSFW)

Geïnteresseerd naar de ethymologische betekenis van je achternaam ? Neem eens een kijkje op bomenlijst, een website van Marcel Vervloet, die de betekenis van de verschillende familienamen onderzoekt.

Familienamen worden onderverdeeld in 5 categoriën :

- afstammingsnamen : Peters, Janssens
- herkomstnamen : Vandeurne, Vanhove
- plaatsnamen : Vandevijver, Opdenhoek
- beroepsnamen : Declerck, De Bakker, Cuypers
- eigenschapsnamen : Degroote, Dereus

In welke categorie val jij ?

Het zal je niet verbazen, maar in België zijn er ongelofelijk veel namen die ergens iets met bier te maken hebben.
Over de betekenis van je voornaam hebben we trouwens al geschreven.

The Mineral Gallery is a must-see for every wannabee geologist. Every mineral is listed with a picture and its main characteristics.
Did you know that heliodor is the yellow variant of beryl ?