November 27, 2019

An introduction to coding: chat bot for MS teams

This guide creates a script that monitors the current open chat and responds with a message if a new message has been received. In our previous introduction to coding we looked at a structural approach to gradually become a programmer. But that guide required bash, which takes some initial setup on Windows (using WSL). This post only requires the Chrome browser and access to teams.microsoft.com. Step 00 preparation Open teams. Read more

September 30, 2019

An introduction to coding: converting excel (csv) to markdown table

So you know your way around your OS (operating system) a bit, you use your terminal/CLI (command line interface) more and more and want to start coding? This post explores how you can get on your way becoming a programmer during your normal desk job. CLI We encourage you to use a Unix CLI more and more, on Windows I would recommend WSL, on OSx, Linux and Chromebooks it comes pre-installed. Read more

September 28, 2019

DIY NAS Network Attached Storage from USB stick

This post shows how to use a USB stick/HDD in a Linux device as NAS or Network Attached Storage using Samba, the protocol available on Chromebooks and Windows devices. NAS servers allow the IT guy in the house/office to manage the backups for others. What we need is an USB stick/HDD and a device to insert it into. My router has the option, but I’ll show how to use a SoC (Raspberry pi) instead, since it’s a bit more complicated. Read more

August 31, 2019

How much allowance should our kid get?

When we believe and live in a society that embraces the concept meritocracy, we can look at the allowance of children in a different way. This post explains a model for determining the allowance based on performance, preparing kids for real life. Accumulation We first observe that there are two distinct ways of getting money in a welfare state that are comprehensible for children. Sponsored money for being a homo sapien: bijstandsuitkering (guaranteed allowance) Earned money through labor: salary We also note that concepts like tax systems, compounded interest, inflation etc. Read more

August 13, 2019

My guide to a new phone or laptop

This post details the hardware choices I make. For me, fungibility is an important aspect. I take pride in backing up my data and be able to wipe my phone and laptop everytime I cross a border of a country that wants to make a backup of my data. This way of working pushes me in the cloud and less on local devices, which in turn can be cheaper and more efficient (thus better battery life). Read more

August 10, 2019

TMobile thuis router in bridge mode krijgen

Deze pagina geeft een stappen plan om je TMobile thuis DrayTek 2132F modem router te updaten; om admin te worden. Dit is nodig om vervolgens de router in bridge mode te zetten. Huidige firmware is 3.7.9.1 en DrayTek bied momenteel 3.8.0.3 aan. Prerequisites Eisen aan abbonement geen telefonie Voorkennis (T)FTP VLAN Indien ook TV abbo.: ICMP snooping? NAT, waarom dit gewenst is voor cheap IoT en waarom mogelijk ongewenst voor een secure NAS of cam IPv4 vs. Read more

August 1, 2019

Development in DMZ

Corporate environments usually have more (advanced) (network) security measures in place. For developers this means that getting any random package from the internet into the environment (enclave) where the sensitive data lives is impossible, which is a good thing. Let’s agree that security is important and that efforts of it should always be admired, since we cannot get enough people to be security minded. Developers freedom compromized Development is the creation of something new, otherwise you are just building. Read more

July 20, 2019

Rethinking education

For this post we focus on higher education / college / university. Historically Current education comes from a time when: knowledge transfer/sharing was expensive (pre-internet era) knowledge changed slower (pace of innovation has increased) people lived their whole life in the same area Let’s address these topics! Ease of knowledge transfer Before the invention of books … let’s not go there. When everything was done in books, there was a lot of value in aggregated clusters of knowledge, which one could consume (learn). Read more

June 21, 2019

Catching support emails from my internet service provider

We all assume you cannot register admin, postmaster or support@yourisp.com, however, a Dutch provider let me do a similar thing. In Dutch we had an old spelling and a new one; pannekoek (old) and pannenkoek (new), which means pancake. So I tried to register klanteservice instead of klantenservice, which was still available! I didn’t look at it for years, my ISP changed its name, making me even catch more emails! Read more

June 20, 2019

Form manipulation

My regular domain registrar did not provide .nl domains, which made me look for Dutch registrars. At one of the cheapest registrars, the price was below 1EU for the first year. However, what if we could have this price for multiple years? Would the form proceed if we changed the value? Now only the checkout, do they validate? Contact registrar After I was able to proceed this checkout, I notified the company. Read more

Blog by lent.ink