Martin bought a 2-piece grater for the kitchen today – a Duo, designed by the Joseph Joseph company. The two graters are designed to clip together for storage.
However, I realised that when clipped together, one set of blades is always exposed.
Why on earth were they not designed so that the blades were safely inside during storage? With the current design, there will always be one set of blades exposed ready to snag on anything – including fingers.
Yet another example of defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory.
Our dog Watson is well into old age – he’s more than 14 years old, which is old for a Labrador. A few weeks ago his back legs suddenly gave way and he collapsed in a heap on the floor. He looked very confused at this, but picked himself up and carried on. It occurred again a week later and now it’s become really noticeable that he’s losing control of his back legs. Last weekend out on his walk I had to stop a few times after he collapsed to let him gather himself together and struggle on.
I took him to the vets’ yesterday and had a good discussion with the vet. We agreed that Watson still has a good quality of life considering his age, but that we’re definitely on the downward slope now. She thinks that it’s a matter of months before we reach a point where we need to think seriously about having him put to sleep, but she did warn that things could change quickly, so to be prepared.
At the moment, the fact that he still wants to play, and getting exercise by wandering about the garden and our field doing his own thing several times a day is demonstrating that he’s coping with his arthritis (for which he’s already getting painkillers and food supplements). So he may just reach his 15th birthday at the end of July – which for a Lab is exceptional – but it’s highly unlikely that he will see Christmas. We will just make the best of the time that we have left.
Way back in 1975 I had read Frank Herbert’s Dune and been mightily impressed by the story. The paperback had a sticker on the front “Soon to be a major film” – but that proved to be rather optimistic, it was 1984 before the first film adaptation of Dune reached the screen. There was an earlier attempt to film the book – the Chilean-French director Alejandro Jodorowsky had purchased the film rights in 1974 – but in the end it all came to naught, no film studio was prepared to fund Jodorowsky’s vision, which reportedly would have resulted in a film lasting 14 hours.
Then in 1984, the David Lynch version reached the cinemas. It was not a commercial success, and was mostly disliked by the critics, but I liked it – it certainly had visual style. Lynch himself was not happy with the result – the studio cut his three-hour film back to two hours.
Following that, there were two TV series adaptations of Dune that were relatively successful, but I still did not think that justice had been done to the source material.
Then, in 2021, Denis Villeneuve brought his version of Dune to the silver screen. For the first time, I thought that this was the version of Dune that I had been waiting for. It turned out that this was Dune Part One – Villeneuve intended that a book as complex as Dune required two parts to tell the story.
I never got to see Dune Part One in the cinema, I’ve only viewed it at home on our TV (with surround sound). Still, it is very impressive. A spectacle, but also very well played by excellent actors.
Dune Part Two was released in March this year. This time I was determined to see it in a cinema on an IMAX screen, as Villeneuve intended it should be experienced.
I went to a morning screening (there were just 20 of us in the IMAX theatre) at the Pathé cinema in Arnhem. This was my first ever experience of IMAX, and it did not disappoint. Dune Part Two is superbly well-realised – in my opinion, a successful adaptation of the book in every way. There are sequences in it that are simply breathtaking in their spectacle, while the characters are never drowned out, their stories play out in front of us with real emotional weight.
The film does say “based on the book” and while it does follow the plot in the main and often quotes the text, there are some significant deviations (no Count Fenring at all and no Alia in the final scenes, for example). I wondered about the dropping of Count Fenring – although a minor character in much of the book, he turns out to be significant at the climax. The closure of the film is also very different from the book, but points the way forward for part 3 (based on the “Dune Messiah” book) – which will probably arrive in 5 years’ time – I think Villeneuve wants to take a break and do something else next. I hope that I will live to see it…
We live in the region of the Netherlands known as the Achterhoek. The name literally means the rear corner – because of its geographical position. It has its own flag – that was developed in 2018, and has since become very popular – you see it flying everywhere.
Since 2006, when we came to live here, we’ve been flying the Rainbow flag in the garden, but a couple of years ago, I learned that Thessa Banning from Zieuwent had developed an Achterhoekse version. Now, at last, courtesy of Marion from the local LGBTQ group we have one raised on the flagpole in the garden…
Terrible news that Alexei Navalny has died in the Artic Penal Colony where he was being held “after a fall”. Defenestration comes in many forms it would seem, but it too often befalls those whom Putin views as his enemies.
A woman is facing deportation, and being separated from her husband and 10-year-old son, despite a court ruling that the family has the right to live together in the UK. Full story here in The Guardian.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits, on the basis of the evidence provided and in accordance with the immigration rules. It is longstanding government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases.”
Because if you did comment on individual cases you would be demonstrating here that you haven’t a fucking leg to stand on you heartless bastard.
Shameful and they are deaf dumb and blind to rationality. They clearly have no empathy with the people who are in anguish because of being cast into limbo.
I’ve been running a Home Automation system here at the Witte Wand for the past 8 years. I started out using Domoticz software, but three years ago I switched to Home Assistant, which I felt was a much superior open source system. I’ve not regretted that decision, HA continues to develop and improve – it’s a very well-managed project.
One of the reasons I chose HA is that all my data is held locally, it does not depend on cloud services for its operation.
Most of my devices use the ZWave standard, but a few years ago I added some Hue devices, together with a Philips Hue Bridge that was easily integrated into HA.
Then, a few weeks ago I started getting messages in the Hue app on my smartphone that I would need to create an online account with Hue in order to continue using the system. It turns out that Signify (the company behind the Philips Hue products) have started forcing accounts on all users and upload user data to their cloud. For now, Signify says I’m still able to control my Hue devices locally as I’m currently used to, but I don’t know if this may change in the future. The fact remains that their privacy policy allows them to store my data and share it with partners.
Needless to say, this blows a hole in my desire to have all my data locally stored and not be dependent on cloud services.
It turns out that Hue devices use the Zigbee standard, and Home Assistant supports it. So I’ve purchased a Home Assistant Sky Connect to interface with my existing Hue devices and to replace the Philips Hue Bridge.
Migration of the devices was easy – simply a matter of removing them from the Philips Hue Bridge network and adding them to the Home Assistant Zigbee network. HA automates the addition process, so I just sat back and watched as the devices were discovered and added to the network. It was also an easy matter to edit my existing automations replacing the old Hue names with the new Zigbee names of the devices. Everything was done in an hour and all seems to be running smoothly.
The last step was to uninstall the Hue app from my smartphone and delete my Hue account.
Bye, bye Signify and Hue; hello to Home Assistant and Zigbee.
I feel very uneasy about developments at the moment. It’s as though Dutch society is like the frog sitting in water that is slowly being brought to boiling point.
I want to see this, even though I know it will be stressful. As Jonathan Glazer says: ” I think something in me is aware – and fearful – that these things are on the rise again with the growth of rightwing populism everywhere. The road that so many people took is a few steps away. It is always just a few steps away.”
When I first came to the Netherlands in 1983, the country had a reputation for tolerance, an openness and a “live and let live” attitude to life. Over the years, attitudes have hardened and polarisation increased to the point where I scarcely recognise the country I first encountered.
We’ve just had a general election, and to my utter dismay, the far-right populist party of Geert Wilders has gained the most seats in the Dutch parliament. This is the man who has called Moroccans “scum” and whose manifesto proposes a ban on Islamic schools, mosques and the Qur’an, a ban on the wearing of headscarves in government buildings, and tight immigration and border controls. These include restoring Dutch border controls, detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, and reintroducing work permits for intra-EU workers. He is no supporter of the EU. The icing on the cake is that he appears to also be a climate change denier who ignores climate problems.
It remains to be seen whether he can persuade other parties to join him and form a coalition government with sufficient majority to govern. If he does, then it will be a right-wing coalition. The future does not look bright for tolerance and social solidarity in the Netherlands.
I recently blogged about the fact that Google was pulling the plug on the Premium Lite membership tier in YouTube.
Today I had the following email from YouTube:
Which translates as:
Your Premium Lite membership has been canceled. Too bad you’re leaving. From November 24, 2023, you can no longer use the benefits of your Premium Lite membership.
“Too bad you’re leaving“? WTF is this? You lot pulled the plug. I’m not leaving of my own accord, you’ve whipped the rug out from under me…
I’m more of the opinion that it (AI in general) is “concerning”. A) because of its limitations leading to false impressions and conclusions, b) because of the fact that it can be so readily abused, and c) because it could pose an existential threat and destroy the concept of trust as we know it.
Sorrow be damned and all your plans. Fuck the faithful, fuck the committed, the dedicated, the true believers; fuck all the sure and certain people prepared to maim and kill whoever got in their way; fuck every cause that ended in murder and a child screaming.
Our village Heelweg is split into two halves – East Heelweg and West Heelweg – separated by 1.5 kilometers.
There are two connecting routes: the Molenweg, which loops between the two centres and is 2.2 kilometers in length and the Bosboombroekerweg, which is the most direct route being 1.6 kilometers in length. The problem being that the Bosboombroekerweg is a track for parts of the route, and unsuitable for vehicular traffic other than farm machinery for large parts of the year. This also goes for cyclists who must then use the Molenweg. The issue there is that the road is narrow, and can be dangerous for cyclists as a result.
The village School is in West Heelweg, so schoolchildren living in East Heelweg are subjected to dangerous situations on schooldays.
In 2017, our village community council (Heelwegs Belang) wrote to our local authority (Oude IJsselstreek) proposing that a cycle path be laid along the Bosboombroekerweg tracks so that schoolchildren – and other cyclists – could travel safely and more directly between the two parts of the village.
The local authority did initiate a project to make a plan for the construction of a cycle path. However, it took several years and discussions with landowners before a final design was ready:
As part of the work, an ecological study was carried out, and a camera placed along the proposed route captured a photo of a weasel going about its business.
Stock image of a weasel; CC0 public domain license
Unfortunately, the weasel has thrown a spanner into the works.
As a result of the proof of the presence of a weasel, the local authority was obliged to seek a permit from the provincial authority for the work to be carried out. We were told that a decision on the granting of the permit would take a maximum of 26 weeks.
We’ve been waiting to hear the result of the decision for almost a year now.
The upshot is that work on the last section of the cycle path has been halted by the local authority until the provincial authority pulls its finger out and deigns to give them a decision on the permit.
It is five years and counting since we first proposed the cycle path… We’re still waiting…
Half a pound of tuppenny rice, Half a pound of treacle. That’s the way the money goes, Pop! Goes the weasel
Addendum 21 February 2024: the provincial authority has finally announced its decision and allowed the construction of the last section of the cycle path to begin. That won’t be until mid 2024 now, but at least the final hurdle has been overcome.
This year’s Tory Party Conference had more than enough moments of speakers sounding unhinged, not to mention the presence of Nigel Farage looking like the cat that got the cream.
If it wasn’t Suella Braverman channelling Enoch Powell and his appalling “Rivers of Blood” speech, then it was Mark Harper embracing the conspiracy theories swirling around the excellent goal of 15 minute cities.
However, for empty rhetoric Penny Mordant takes the prize…
Back in June, I blogged about the intrusive adverts that are infesting YouTube videos these days. While YouTube Premium offers ad-free viewing, it also includes the ability to watch content offline and stream music ad-free. However, it also comes at a hefty (in my view) price: €11.99 per month. I’m not prepared to pay that price.
Back in June, YouTube introduced a Premium Lite membership tier that made viewing YouTube content Ad-free. At €6.99 per month this was a proposition that was somewhat more attractive.
I decided that I would sign up for the trial, and after a month of blissfully watching content Ad-free, the experience was so pleasant that I decided that I would carry on paying for Premium Lite.
Alas, it was too good to last.
Last week I got the following email from Google:
Your Premium Lite membership will be discontinued
Hi Geoff, Thank you for being one of our first Premium Lite members.
We’re writing to let you know that after 25 October 2023, we will no longer be offering your version of Premium Lite. While we understand that this may be disappointing news, we continue to work on different versions of Premium Lite as we incorporate feedback from our users, creators and partners.
We will cancel your membership on 25 October 2023. Your Premium Lite benefits will expire at the end of your billing cycle and you will not be billed further.
To show our appreciation, we’re offering a one-month trial of YouTube Premium (even if you’ve had a trial before). With YouTube Premium, you can watch videos ad-free, offline and in the background. Plus, stream music ad-free in the YouTube Music app. If you’d like to redeem this offer, you’ll need to cancel your Premium Lite membership or wait for it to be cancelled for you. You can find more information in the YouTube Help Centre.
Kind regards, The YouTube Premium team
Sorry, Google, but €11.99 per month is not an amount I’m prepared to pay for simply wanting to watch content without your damn adverts.
I’ll go back to cursing you and your adverts as from the 25th of October.
On the 21st September, Microsoft announced the inclusion of Microsoft Copilot (“your everyday AI companion”) into Windows 11. In the announcement Microsoft stated that “Copilot will begin to roll out in its early form as part of our free update to Windows 11, starting Sept. 26”.
Since I am running the Release Preview versions of Windows 11, I assumed that I would be getting it pretty quickly, ahead of the general release.
Well a week has passed, and no sign of it heading towards my PCs so I went back to the release notes for the version of the Release Preview that came on the 26th September – the one that includes Copilot.
It was there that I discovered the footnote:
**Copilot in Windows will start to release in preview to select global markets as part of our latest update to Windows 11. The initial markets for the Copilot in Windows preview include North America and parts of Asia and South America. It is our intention to add additional markets over time.
Ah, I see, so screw you Europe – you’re not getting it now, and we’re not going to tell you when, or indeed whether, you’re ever going to get it…
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