New Herbstschnitt on-line photobook released

by Francois on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 · 0 comments

 

My friend Jo Stein from Germany has released his 6th edition of Herbstschnitt, the on-line photo magazine with a theme.

This time the theme was ‘facing’ and there are a lot of very interesting ideas on how to visualize that theme. Great photos too, of course !!!

Click on the picture to the left to take you to the ‘flipbook’ presentation of the photos. Enjoy!

And oh, before I forget, Jo is still looking for more photographers who want to join and display their art. Check out his website here (German).

 

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Navigating Brains……

by Francois on Monday, January 30, 2012 · 0 comments

Have you ever thought about this? How amazingly wonderful our brains are in terms of ‘navigating’ the world. Oh well, admittedly, some people cannot discern left from right, but in general we have some awesome computing power ‘up there’ and I think our brain deserves it to give it some credit every once in awhile.

I was looking outside, at the wondrous white world out there, and more in specific to the little patches with oat crumbs we made for the birds. These ‘garden birds’ not only have great eyes to find the little bits of food underneath the bushes, they also have a good MEMORY. Because once they know you put food out there for them, they keep coming back! Even with their tiny brains!
Good thing they only fly around in the area…… not so much data to store!

Now, take us human travelers! I have been to Ketchikan and San Francisco only once, but I’d find my way back to the places I’ve been there. Same as on the myriad of roads and paths I have covered in Europe, just about everywhere.
To me, in fact, that is nothing less than miraculous, don’t you think? Imagine having to store all that data in our notebook AND have it pop up THE MOMENT you need it. I think no program has managed that yet.

Alright, so I am a lifetime Map and Navigation Freak………. but still….. And in looking for some more info on the subject, I found THIS! Amazing !

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Yo Simmers ! Come and get MOUNTAINS!

by Francois on Saturday, January 28, 2012 · 0 comments

Yup, I FINALLY came up for air after some two weeks of major problems with a variety of things technical. Since the last update in December the webshop would not accept LARGE files for download anymore. Bummer! Took me an entire week of ‘helpdesking’ between the US, Bulgaria and Russia to get that solved.

That and the increased cost of a Dedicated Server ! I was running out of space on the VPS server anyway, so needed something more powerful anyway… but this was a bit quick :-) Anyway, I now have a LARGE and FAST dedicated server that is for now only running the shop!

It also means that FINALLY I was able to release the NEW DOLOMITIX software from our friends in Italy at RealEarthX ! The latest in the serie is called Pieve di Cadore and covers an area just south of Comelico ! The entire area is getting covered more and more and allows for fantastic VFR alpine flying !

In the meantime I also had a lot of work investigating a website of a new customer, which turned out to be a major undertaking. I am a firm WordPress fan, but some things you just cannot do with it…… this was one of them.

If you are interested about such issues. ASK ME ABOUT IT !

And then there was the VAT return form that needed to be sent to our lovely tax people…… which of course was the very last thing I had patience for….. but I got it done too.

And now, believe it or not, Nina and I will go and see a movie…. in the new cinema in town. Must have been, oh, at least 20 years since Ive been in a cinema. !!

 

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Stop SOPA/PIPA

by Francois on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 · 0 comments

 

There’s a lot of talk about this all over the Internet. Basically the US wants to install laws to prevent the Internet being used by pirates and such. In reality such laws will very likely ONLY hit ‘normal netizens’ , just like many off-line laws do. Criminals of any kind will not care about it, find ways around it or just ignore them.

The chance of getting caught, and convicted even, wil not increase and so the real problem is that we’ll get a CENSORSHIP on the Internet by unseen people from some government.

We all know where that has led since 1917……… Do we want the ‘free world’ to become like Russia, China, North-Korea, India and other oppressing countries?

More info here:

http://blog.siteground.com/stop-censorship/

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My 5 seconds of fame!

by Francois on Saturday, January 14, 2012 · 0 comments

Hey ya’ll, I never thought I’d get my moustache on a tv screen…. but it happened nonetheless. Let it roll for a bit and you’ll see me, straight from the FSAddon HQ ! Now I will hide back under my rocks again….. ;-)

 

 

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Hanging out on local tv in Missouri !

January 14, 2012

Because one of the primary bits of FUN running this particular company of mine is INTERACTION with our customers, here’s a little tip of the veil of WHAT ELSE I do besides running a flight simulator add-on company. All my life I have been involved in breaking (IT) technology and so I am also involved [...]

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Digging into Social Media – Twitter

January 12, 2012

Twitter, yes, and more precisely: what’s the use of it !? I have been on Twitter for little over a year now, slowly expanding the number of people/sites I follow, and slowly building a following to a modest 220 now. Not bad considering I am anything but a celebrity. I now even have one of [...]

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I was on US TV News today

January 9, 2012

Now that sounds rather ominous, doesn’t it? Although I didn’t say much, it IS true though. So let me tell you about this Google+ Hangout On-Air thing that is starting to shape yet a new road into Social Media and News Gathering/Sharing. Google has released Google+ some time ago, which at first looked like yet [...]

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From us to you !

December 30, 2011

 

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Running for air !

December 28, 2011

One of my friends suggested that I’d actually ‘blog’ about my new Activity; running! That’s Activity with a Capital A, because it really IS physical, (e)motional activity, unlike the rest of my life spent mostly in front of a bunch of monitors. Went to see my doctor a few weeks ago, complaining about my being [...]

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Facebook Junkies

December 23, 2011

I am one, that’s for sure. Running two monitors (and sometimes 5), a notebook on the side and a smart phone on my desk, I am back to the old days when I was a ‘cellphone’ junkie. That was when this stuff was still new and I was an executive rambling through Europe 6-7 days [...]

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A bad dream – fantasy or fiction?

December 13, 2011

A few nights ago I had this bad dream. No, I didn’t wake up all sweaty, but when I did wake up it felt as if I had seen it on tv, or read it somewhere. Everything that happened was as clear as crystal, not like in normal dreaming when I can hardly remember what [...]

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Honey, I know my Christmas present already

November 23, 2011

Yup, I found what I want for Christmas. Problem is, I need some sort of hanger or hall to go with it. You see, it is a little too large for our modest home. But I am sure that minor hurdle can be taken….. have a load of this !!  

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Mercedes camera shoot !

November 21, 2011

This blog IS about automotive things, so the attached Youtube video is not THAT much out of place as you might think! I foundf it through my Twitter account and it provides an interesting view into the world of movie makers and car manufacturers… and how they come together! Enjoy !  

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Life is good in Italy

November 12, 2011

And that, my friends may sound strange from an embattled Europe where one COUNTRY after another shows similar deficits as the US and threatens to collapse altogether. Italy is in fact one of the main ‘problems’ in the world today. But, staying with Dutch friends in Umbria, helping them to harvest their olives and spending [...]

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Addicted to Internet…..

October 17, 2011

… or rather, to my sales website and the sales there. Or the lack of them, at times. I just noticed last week that for the past 6 years I’ve become really addicted. I NEED to make some money, and that is proving to be increasingly difficult in the current economic situation and in this [...]

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Whereabouts and Plans

September 9, 2011

I left the last blog post up there for a while. On purpose. I still cannot get over the fact that Steve has died. But life goes on for those remaining behind. His family, his friends, his colleagues, and everybody else. So I’ll blog again. First of all, we’re still in France, and will be [...]

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Steve Lacey deserves this place on my blog

July 25, 2011

This morning I turned on my PC here in our mountain retreat, only to find some mind shattering news posted on one of the social media sites I follow. It reported the killing of Steve Lacey. I couldn’t believe it. Since a lot of scams are going on these days, I first Googled for it, [...]

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We should NEVER let this ‘die’

July 19, 2011

  ‘This’ being our awesome mountain world. And it IS dying, melting, eroding, being polluted, being filled with ski lifts and snowboard ramps, parkings and ski run restaurants. But the again, who can stop ‘progress’ ? We’re now at 40 km’s from the mighty Mont Blanc and the ‘video’ below will give you some idea [...]

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How long will it last….

July 13, 2011

  until new laws will pop up to counter this ingenious device that is aimed at beating speed cams ?? Fortunately I don’t need it, but I can imagine that my faster brothers will have a use for it  

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