Category: Blog

  • Mailbox versus Inbox by Gmail

    When Google launched Inbox by Gmail last week, they released a video for it. In it, “your friends at Gmail” claim they “love” e-mail. They show happy people using their phones and laptops, presumably e-mailing. But let’s face it, hardly anyone smiles when checking their inbox. I have some friends I e-mail with, but most…

  • I know we are supposed to hate Amsterdam, but…

    I have a love/hate relationship with Amsterdam. Because to be honest, I’ve been in very few places in Amsterdam where I felt at home. I love staying there, going to museums, gigs and plays, but I’ve not fallen in love with it as I have with some other cities (as I have explained here)… You…

  • Month of Music Madness

    I’ve dubbed October as my Month of Music Madness. But it got off to a rocky start. In hindsight, starting your October Music Month on 29 September is cheating anyway, but I was so excited about First Aid Kit that I ignored my body protesting for most of the night. I had feeling less than…

  • About loving a city, finding a home

    For a long time, London has been my favourite city. I can’t really explain why. And that made me wonder whether I just like it because I’ve been there many times and thus had a chance to fall in love with it, or whether I love it for something in it. It’s true, I have never been…

  • Forecast.io is awesome

    Forecast.io is awesome

    Like many Dutch people I am a weather freak. Not of the “weather station at home installed”-kind, but the type that frantically checks whether we’re gonna drown because it’s never gonna stop raining and we’re below sea level AND EVERYTHING IS GOING WRONG!!!! I’ve got several weather apps on my iPhone, besides the standard Apple…

  • How I got broadcaster RTL5 to broadcast ‘127 Hours’ twice in 50 hours’ time

    How I got broadcaster RTL5 to broadcast ‘127 Hours’ twice in 50 hours’ time

    I say “How I got…” but this really is one of those social media stories. I am writing this down because I know I’ll forget the details in a couple of years and it’s nice to be able to look this up and remember.  There’s a certain level of nostalgia and warmth to watching a…

  • Growing pains

    January 2013. It still feels a bit like the future. So far, the month has been a lot like 2012, but with added snow and back pains. My first working week was troubled by a rib in my chest acting up. A guy straightened me out but I felt it for most of the weekend…

  • A phrase

    The grander gesture. If you watch too much series, films and read too many books in a row, you’ll start believing that most people’s lives are made up of grand gestures. Of escape plans, of making a point. Of making things happen. But I don’t know anyone who actually does that. I’ve seen people break…

  • Everything is like a chair, everything but Facebook

    Facebook is used by so many people these days, that everything it does is viewed with a certain skepticism. Is this the moment Facebook is falling down? It is not. While a vocal minority hates every new thing Facebook introduces, it needs to fail pretty big to properly fail. It’s not gonna crash and burn…

  • TNW: We Need Smarter Push Notifications

    I wrote a new blog for TheNextWeb. Click on the image to read it. Or don’t. Push notifications are one of the key features of today’s smartphones. They constantly feed you information from a variety of services. From Twitter mentions to Facebook replies to e-mails to system notifications: they’re the daily dose for information addicts.…