De Windcentrale

Voor wie zelf zijn electriciteit wil opwekken, wordt dan mede-eigenaar bij :

En maak je zelf onafhankelijk van stijgende stroomprijzen en op winst beluste energieleveranciers.

Wist U dat als de olieprijzen stijgen, uw met wind opgewekte stroom bij Nuon ook duurder wordt? Het is verbazingwekkend dat de wind in Nederland een prijs heeft die gekoppeld is aan olie uit het midden-oosten. Je zou verwachten dat slechts aanleg, onderhoud en netaansluiting in de kostprijs van een windturbine zitten. Neen, dit is niet zo en in feite wordt U belazerd met een willekeurig schommelende prijs. Een mooie leugen van de energiesector, een sector waar veel geld wordt verdiend aan onwetendheid.

Een andere leugen van die sector is het feit, dat als zij zegt groene stroom leveren, zij eigenlijk alleen maar een eigendomscertificaat van een oude waterkrachtcentrale in Noorwegen in bezit heeft. De Noorse stroom bereikt U nooit, maar wordt ter plekke door Noren (en Zweden) gebruikt.

Uw echte stroom komt gewoon uit een bruinkoolcentrale in Duitsland, of de kerncentrale in Borssele. Ondertussen doet uw leverancier alsof U met uw keuze voor groene stroom een actieve bijdrage levert aan de omschakeling naar duurzaamheid.

Onze overheid maakt het overigens ook bont. Energie van een eigen windturbine, die je aan jezelf levert, is nog steeds aan energiebelasting onderhevig. Een levering die in commercieele zin geen transactie is, want een levering aan jezelf kun je niet als aankoop of verkoop betitelen, wordt door de overheid op wazige gronden wel als transactie gezien.

Het doel is duidelijk : De armlastige staat heeft dringend geldt nodig om graaiende bankiers te steunen en corrupte Grieken nog een lening te verstrekken. De Euro, dat wangedrocht, moet immers in leven blijven. Daartoe berooft zij haar eigen burgers, ook als die zich proberen te onttrekken aan fossiele brandstoffen.

Kalender nu ook in Windows versie

Ik heb een WIN32 installer gebouwd voor de kalender applicatie, dus de kalender draait nu ook onder Windows.

Verder een voorzichtig begin gemaakt met vertalingen, de kalender kan meer of minder worden omgeschakeld naar Duits en Engels.

Hier is een screenshot van de kalender (Apple versie) :

Alle bestanden zijn te vind op de FTP server.

Pim Fortuyn 10 jaren dood

10 jaren geleden werd Pim Fortuyn doodgeschoten door een intolerante gek, Volkert van der Graaf.

Fortuyn’s strijd tegen elitaire, ondemocratische en arrogante gezagsstructuren is nog steeds actueel. Waarom heb ik als burger nog steeds geen grip op de keuze van:

De burgemeester van mijn woonplaats? De man/vrouw, die in mijn woonplaats verantwoordelijk is voor het handhaven van de openbare orde, is aan de burgers in zijn/haar gemeente geen verantwoording verschuldigd. Hij/Zij heeft wel grote invloed op mijn persoonlijke veiligheid. Benoemd door de kroon.
De commissaris van de koningin? Een functie met een hoog Bobo gehalte, maar feitelijk wel de hoogste bestuurder in mijn provincie. Benoemd door de kroon.
Het staatshoofd? Benoemd zichzelf in Nederland en kan alleen afkomstig zijn uit een familie die zichzelf zeer bijzonder vindt, maar waar bij nadere inspectie een hoop op aan te merken is. Aan ons opgedrongen in 1815 bij het Congres van Wenen en tot de dag van vandaag een bloedzuiger van formaat voor de samenleving.

Fortuyn was een eigenwijze dandy, een relnicht die het heerlijk vond om de vinger op de zere plek te leggen. Oplossingen had hij niet voor de problemen die hij benoemde, maar het feit dat hij deze benoemde maakt hem uniek. Rust in vrede, Pim Fortuyn!

Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF must go by force

It is long overdue for Robert Mugabe and his gang of thieves and crooks. He must go. They have wrecked what was once called “a jewel in Africa” (Julius Nyerere). Zimbabwe used to be a shining example of progress. It has become a cesspool of lawlessness, violence, hate and indiscriminate abuse of power.

Many people have advocated that Mugabe and his fellows should go. Just look at all the people that fled the country, or at the protests facing Zimbabwe’s embassies around the globe. Their cause is sympathetic but hopeless. Mugabe has no shame and will resort to any measure to keep himself in place. Nothing will change, because Mugabe knows that as long as he controls the means to violence, he will get what he want.

In the 1970s, the only way Mugabe and ZANU-PF were able to penetrate into Rhodesia was by forcefully bullying the peasant population into submission. Anyone who didn’t cooperate was tortured or killed in front of others. People were stuck between a rock and a hard place – the Rhodesian security forces and Mugabe’s ‘liberation’ fighters. Only, the hard place was harder than the rock – Mugabe was much more brutal than the security forces. Even during the 1980 elections, he could never have won without massive intimidation of the voters, especially in the Shona areas. He found out for himself, that as long as he was more brutal than the others, then he would win.

He did the same thing in the 1980s, when his Matabele comrades in arms found out what he really was – a lowly jackal and a turncoat. He murdered many thousands of Matabeles to secure his position.

The only thing he really respected, because they stood in his path to tyranny and dictatorship, were the Rhodesian security forces. They nearly killed him. He hated them and he hated Ian Smith, but he also respected them because they answered his language of force with counter force. Smith’s presence in politics in the early 1980s probably kept him from going all-out like he did in the 1990s and 2000s.

He is hated by his people. Ian Smith said, in 2003, that if he and Mugabe were to walk into a black Harare township together, only one would come out alive. Smith was confident enough to do it. Mugabe isn’t. He hurries along in his huge motorcade.

So, there you have a dictator who is afraid, who is reviled by his people and everybody is desperate for a change. What can be done about it. A protest? Nothing will change. More drastic measures must be taken.

I say, let’s get rid of him and his thieves. I say, let us complete their task and stand up against Mugabe. Let him feel the power of the gun. Let him run into the bush with armed units after him. Rise and dismiss the dictator. Kill him and all his cronies in the most ferocious way possible.

Zimbabwe needs new men of steel, like Ian Smith or Ron Reid Daly, who are willing to take up arms against Mugabe. A new Chimurenga must take place, but this time, to restore the values that were buried when Rhodesia disappeared.

VVD verbaast mij al weer

Opnieuw een bericht dat mij ongelofelijk voorkomt:

“Dit betekent niks voor het Nederlandse debat”, zegt VVD-Kamerlid René Leegte. „Duitsland wil 25 procent duurzame energie opwekken. Dan zullen ze moeten importeren en laat je niks wijsmaken: dat wordt Franse kernenergie.”

Meneer Leegte (zijn naam beschrijft goed zijn denkproces) vergeet dat wij als Nederland voor een zeer groot gedeelte van onze welvaart en stabiliteit afhankelijk zijn van wat er in Duitsland gebeurt. Dat “dit niets betekent” is dan ook een lege kreet, want wat in Duitsland wordt besloten heeft altijd gevolgen voor ons. Hij sluit slechts de ogen voor het feit dat, hoe zeer hij ook een tweede Fukushima- of Tsjernobylachtige centrale in ons land wil plaatsen (waarom eigenlijk?) we links worden ingehaald door een aantal belangrijke buurlanden.

En waar is het élan gebleven? “Ze zullen wel kernenergie gaan importeren………” wat een misselijkmakende negatieve pessimistische blik op de toekomst. Vergeten wordt waar het technisch vernunft van de Duitsers toe in staat is. Je kunt beter goed proberen dan fout blijven doorgaan, maar meneer Leegte vindt fout doorgaan een echt liberaal standpunt.

Wij moeten ook het roer wenden en mee gaan doen met het Duitse initiatief. Dat levert kennis, inkomenst en en een schonere wereld op. In plaats daarvan wil de VVD (waar ik lid van ben) als een stel conservatieve oude verstilde zakken ons geld in de bouw van een kerncentrale steken, want iets anders durven ze niet. Maar met zo’n renteniersmentalieit komen we er niet.

Vrijheid van meningsuiting

Een kop uit de Telegraaf van vandaag:

VVD paait SGP

en verder in dit artikel :

“De VVD heeft haar handtekening weggehaald onder een wetsvoorstel dat zij eerder samen met D66 had ingediend om godslastering niet meer strafbaar te stellen.”

Ik ben in 2010 lid geworden va de VVD omdat ik ik vind dat iedereen in dit land mag zeggen wat hij of zij vindt, ongeacht het onderwerp. Met name de zich steeds meer roerende religieus geïnspireerde medemens moet in de openbare ruimte op afstand worden gehouden, omdat het algemeen belang (dus ook het belang van niet-gelovigen) niet gediend is met mondsnoeringen van welke aard dan ook.

De liberale beginselen onderschrijven dit volledig:

“Vrijheid
Vrijheid van de mens is onmisbaar voor ontplooiing. We bedoelen dan vrijheid op geestelijk, staatkundig en materieel gebied. Deze vrijheid komt ieder mens toe, zonder enige discriminatie. De vrijheid moet zo groot mogelijk zijn. Er zijn wel grenzen aan persoonlijke vrijheid. De vrijheid van de een mag de vrijheid van de ander niet belemmeren. En we moeten oog hebben voor de belangen van toekomstige generaties.”

Zolang ik bij godslastering niet verkondig dat anderen god niet mogen aanprijzen, belemmer ik hun niet in hun meningsuiting. Omgekeerd doen zij de religieuzen dit wel, door het strafrecht (niet niet de Sharia, maar ons onpartijdige, boven religies verheven strafrecht) in te zetten voor de vervolging van mensen met wie zij het niet eens zijn. Blijkbaar is hun vrijheid belangrijker dan mijn vrijheid. En nu schaart ook de liberale VVD zich in de rij van partijen die de vrijheid van meningsuiting van religieuzen belangrijker vinden dan die vrijheid van meningsuiting van anderen – de VVD laat deze discriminatie van een van haar eigen beginselen gewoon gebeuren.

Ik vind dat de VVD zich aan haar beginselen moet vasthouden bij de dagelijkse politieke besluitvorming. Als de partij zwicht voor de orthodoxe drammers van de SGP, dan zijn de eigen principes blijkbaar minder belangrijk dan de greep op de regeringsmacht.

Casio calculators

Recently I purchased a new calculator because someone pointed out to me the truly amazing capabilities (natural textbook display) of Casio’s new fx-115ES calculator. Costing under €30, the calculator offers an astounding 403 functions, conversions and solvers. It also displays fractions as true fractions, in addition to the standards floating point display format.. It can handle tables for linear or cubic interpolation for which the data entry is pretty easy. It performs numerical differential and integration, and solves equations with Newton-Rapson. It can even do (limited) vector and matrix calculations.

Even though I am a big fan of Texas Instruments integrated circuits (especially their MSP430 microcontrollers, their ADCs (ADS1178) and power ICs (TPS84620) ) I prefer Casio’s calculators over TI’s. They are not as bulky, you can get your results more quickly and they cost a lot less.

When I got the new calculator , I realised I had purchased the fx-115 before. The first model I got was the fx-115 in 1985, when I was in school. Later, it also served me well as a student at Delft University of Technology. Looking for a model that would help me with complex numbers, I bought the fx-115W when I worked at Oresis Communications in 2001. This was my main computational workhorse in the new millennium. And, this year I purchased the amazing fx-115ES. In a way I have been quite intimate with the fx-115 family for 26 years!

All calculators, including the 26 years old fx-115, still work flawlessly, a testimony to Casio’s build quality. Begin solar driven, I never had to replace a battery. The fx-115 now lives in a kitchen drawer and is used for domestic purposes.

My calculators are (running [math] sqrt {2} /4 [/math]:

Don’t use the provider Llama Communications!

In early June 2005 I got an email from Llama Communications saying there were closing shop because of a bankruptcy. This caused me a lot of work, because domain registrations as well as email and www traffic were coming through Llamacom.

The person running the company, Michael Grafft in West Des Moines, IA, was very emphatic but said he couldn’t do anything about it.

I switch to a local DNS registrator, Argeweb, and haven’t had any problems since switching. But Michael Grafft lied about Llamacom! They are still in business. Why they forced me out, I don’t know. He never answered my questions why or how things went wrong. So Michael, if you read this, why did you lie to me?

Our energy problem (an old article from 2002)

Introduction to THE energy problem

With 6 billion people demanding ever more energy to live their lives, everybody will sooner or later face problems with their energy supply. Our ’traditional’ energy sources have a number of problems associated with them. They are finite in size. Also, they cause serious problems with our natural environment. And last but not least, political tensions are very high since these sources are distributed unevenly over the earth, yet we all want access to them.

Oil and gas are running out

One of the closest kept secrets in the oil industry is the knowledge of when the oil wells will run out. It has not yet informed many other people about their knowledge, and when oil executives are asked, they always talk about periods of “50 years or so”.
It has been well documented that the rate at which new oil is found peaked around 1999. Dr. M King Hubbert predicted this scenario already in 1974. This means that even though we will still find new oil, the rate at which we find will decrease. Given that our consumption will increase (China’s recent increase in oil imports is a big factor), this means that at some point in time the price of oil products will go up. Over the period 2001-2005 an increase of around 40% was observed. This is not likely to abate, and a reverse is out of the question.

Serious environmental problems

We pay a huge price for our addiction to oil. Crude oil is a nasty substance that must be refined to extract the energy stored in it. From the moment the oil is pumped out of the ground to the emissions from the petrol-driven car, oil brings pollution and destruction to this world. Accidents with oil tankers kill our seas and beaches (The Exxon Valdez disaster, for example). Children are born with deficiencies because of car emissions.

A phenomenon attributed to the usage of oil and other fossil fuels is the warming up of the global atmosphere, the so-called grenhouse effect. Although the result of burning hydrocarbons over decades, it is only lately that we have begun to understand the symptoms and what they mean for our environment.

Political problems created by our oil crave

The current woes in the Middle East are a direct result of our appetite for oil. Our western societies are based on the consumption of fossil fuels that are largely won in this region. Why this is a tenuous situation can be explained by these points:

Our reliance on oil has made us dependent on a region that is our historical counter-pole. Tensions and conflict are running rife as result of this. The muslim world and the western world do not share many beliefs and principles. That is not to say that we must be enemies. However, our dependence on the Middle East is the reason that the region is a lackey of the west. The current situation is very frustrating for the people of the Middle-East and this results in a growing resentment against us.
We support corrupt regimes that do nothing for their people in return for one thing – our guaranteed and uninterrupted access to their oil. Sometimes this results in serious anger, like the overthrow of the Shah in Iran in 1979. Also, Al Quaeda and Osama Bin Laden tap into this reservoir of resentment. Unless these people think they have their dignity and self esteem back, then this problem won’t go away and it will grow worse and worse. 9/11 2001 was a direct result of this.
The instable situation sometimes calls for direct military interventions. The Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the first Gulf war to liberate Kuwait and the second Gulf war were all interventions to guarantee a stable supply of oil from the region.

Alternatives for oil

We can rid ourselves of oil if we devote our energy and intellect to a massive transition to other energy sources.

Solar Energy

Solar energy provides an great alternative to oil. The sun radiates enormous amounts of energy and on earth we receive much more than we’ll ever need. For more information, go to this site.

Wind Energy

Wind energy is a direct offspring of solar energy – the heat of the sun provides for temperature differences which cause winds. The wind is an unlimited and clean energy carrier. In certain regions, where solar energy is not a very rich source due to climatic reasons, wind is an excellent alternative.

Southwest Windpower Whisper 100

Small turbines range in size from 50 Watts to 25 kW, with rotor diameters ranging from 1 to 7 meters. They do not suffer from many of the limitations that the large ones have. For example, if you have 20 small turbines producing the same energy as one large one, the probability that all 20 stop at the same time because the wind stops blowing is much smaller than the probability that the huge turbine stops. The small turbines can run freely, not impeded by the rule that they must adapt to a grid frequency – they run as fast as is needed. Their electricity output can be converted from AC to DC, to charge a battery or simply be converted back to AC with the proper frequency to feed the grid – local needs can be met. Their site location is not limited to wide open coastal areas or farms: Roofs on inner cities houses are excellent spots for small turbines. And, very important, they do not raise resistance in the public since their placement does not pollute the horizons: Maximum tower height for a small turbine will be 25 meters, as opposed to the 150m high cathedrals of the electricity companies.

Opponents of small wind turbines always point out that they are not economical in comparison to the large turbines. One point that is always forgotten in that comparison is that small turbines do not need the huge and costly electricity grid. Not building or maintaining such a network will save a lot of money and this will benefit the users of small turbines. The large turbines cannot function without such a network and as such need the huge investments for a large electricity network.

Weapons of mass destruction

Weapons of Mass Destruction (an old article from 2003)

President Bush George Bush (here listening to a song about Billy the Goat at the moment the World Trade Center was attacked) had a case when he wanted to find,disable and destroy the infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction (WoMD). After all, nobody in this world needs these devices. Bush, seeing his presidency lack a compelling theme, seized the opportunity and became the lone ranger in search of justice and peace.

But what constitutes a WoMD ? And why was Bush looking in the Arabian Desert to find them? The whole world told him that they weren’t there. Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator, but he didn’t have them.

No, Bush should have looked in his own country. There are plenty WoMD there. And it is not hard to find them !

Many Americans actually drive a Weapon of Mass Destruction!

They call it a Sports Utility Vehicle or SUV.

If you ask me, it has nothing to do with sports unless you consider sitting in a car seat a sport..

Also, Utility vehicles fit more in the category of delivery vehicles or garbage trucks.

What remains is a vehicle of preposterous dimensions.

For those of you who have never been in the USA, I’ll try to explain the hype. A SUV is based on cars used by types like Bush rangers (mark the pun) in Africa or explorers in the South American jungle. SUVs are built on a high frame and have huge tyres to propel the car in tough conditions. They also have a cargo bay that can hold a decent sized refrigerator plus a dishwasher. This is where the similarity ends.
SUVs are much more luxurious than your standard bush vehicle. In many cases, the suspension is ‘softened’ to adapt to the not so tough driver – not something you would want when going offroad. But then, 98% of all SUVs never leave the paved roads. They are used for shoppings trips to the Mall (another megalomane American invention) or ferrying children to school!
So why do people need monsters like
to perform such basic tasks? Why on earth you need so much steel to move around is beyond me. Vehicles like

Denali Denial are unsafe, uneconomical and contribute disproportionally to global warming .

Oh, I know that there are Men out there that need a little ego booster. Formerly, they resorted to symbols like the Penis Car. But since that went out of fashion, this has become their substitute.
But if you really want to be a tough bloke, go drive a .

When riding a bicycle, chances of surviving a collision with an anomaly like this are 8 times lower than in a collision with a standard car.

This is because as a pedestrian or bicyclist, you will end up under the vehicle instead of on top of it.

These vehicles are the summit of bad engineering, bad economics and bad safety. They are desparate attempts by car manufacturers to earn higher profits in a car market plagued by overcapacity. Unfortunately we all suffer from this.

George W. Bush, stop your useless war in Iraq and go find and destroy the WoMD in the USA! When you destroy all SUVs in America, you’ll find that :

Your need for oil will have dropped so much that you do not need Iraqi oil or Alaskan wilderness drill sites anymore..
Your economy will grow because American ingenuity can dedicate itself to designing the new, hydrogen propelled electric vehicle instead of designing military equipment for you wars abroad.
You can cut back on your military since no intervention in the middle east is necessary anymore.
Bin Laden will stop his terrorism. He relies on a money stream earned in Saudi Arabia with ……oil …..! When the oil stops flowing to America, Bin Laden will go bankrupt.
And countless other benefits ranging from liveable cities (ever tried walking around in Houston, Texas ? What a nightmare !) to a drop in asthma levels and fewer people killed in traffic.