BioTecK.net

Last & Final Post… In 2012 At Least! ;)

Behrad — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 20:20:25 +0000

This post will be my final update… Ok, at least in 2012 that is!

I just looked at my last post and damn that post is more than 2 months old already! But that doesn’t feel like it to be honest… Anyway, a lot has happened since then;

Shirina:
My little princess is growing bigger and bigger every day and I’m so happy to watch her grow and evolve so quickly!

Not so long ago she was a little baby who couldn’t walk or stand on her own feet… but these days; that’s a whole different story! All she wants to do is stand up and want us to hold her hands so she can walk.
Besides that she just loves to “drive” in her Baby walking chair! It’s just a matter of days and she’ll start walking without any help. At the same time we’re cautious the whole time as she will grasp whatever she can lay her little hands on! =)

New House:
As I wrote earlier we bought a house recently. As we all know buying a house means that you need to do a lot of stuff…

For the last couple of weeks we have spend a lot of time re-painting the house, putting laminates on the floor, packing and unpacking stuff, moving the stuff etc! Luckily those things were made easy with the help of our friends and family – Thanks for that!

Off course it took a lot of time and effort to get it all done and ready but at the end: it all looks pretty darn good! =) So since the last two weeks we finally can live in our new place and call it our home base! We still need to do some minor stuff around the house but that’s not a big thing at this moment and they can be done on the long term. So for now we’ll just enjoy the house and have some time to relax!! =)

So with that in mind I’ll end this post and start relaxing a bit just before the new year starts! I want to wish everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! May the year 2013 be a happy, successful, safe, healthy and filled with peace, hope & love for each and everyone of us!

Happy New Year from the 3 of us!

Hello! I’m Back…

Behrad — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:47:51 +0000

When you take a look at my last update you’ll see that it’s from 30th of June… Which is quite while ago. So it’s time for an update again!
Therefore; Hello, I’m back again!

The last couple of months have been crazy months where a lot of things happened and luckily good things!

Shirina:
First of all; our little girl Shirina is growing so fast and I simply love being a father and spending every minute with her!
Shirina is 8 months old and this is just a very cute phase of her life. She’s starting to exploring everything, trying to talk and communicate in some gibberish language and so much fun to be with her, hold, kiss her.. I know that other parents know exactly where I’m talking about and for those who haven’t got a child now; It’s awesome. Believe me!

Jannie, me and the love of our life: Shirina!

Jannie’s new job:
Jannie got a new job right after her maternity leave as an In-house Consultant which she loves to do. So that’s great for her..

Buying a house:
Jannie and me decided to buy our own house and started a quest for the perfect house and luckily; We have found one which we fell in love with the very first time we saw it. So we decided to buy that house! After arranging the mortgage, all the necessary papers and documents everything is ready and we get the keys of our house on November 1st! Yeaah!

Our new home is still located in Eindhoven but it’s a lot bigger and we will move in our new house in December. We need one month to adjust some things to our needs such as the bathroom as the one currently build in is not in our taste.. But also to re-paint the house, move stuff etc….

Studying:
Not quite sure if you remember but I’m still studying a course on Purchase Management which I hope to wrap up before the end of 2012. At this moment I’ve attended all the necessary classes and I “only” need to take 5 (!) exams. I already have taken 4 exams and already passed for two of them. I’m still waiting for the results of the remaining two exams.. My last and final exam is next week Wednesday so fingers crossed!

Although this is perhaps too much too handle at the same time I must admit that it gets easier by thinking and looking at what lies ahead of us. Especially after the hard time we had last year..

I’ll try and update the blog more often but I’m sure you can imagine that with the busy times coming, the blog updates can wait!

Till the next update…..

My First Battery Mod For Android…

Behrad — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 10:16:05 +0000

I’m proud to present you my first modification for Android: White battery % icon for Sense 3.6 (ICS) base 3.32!

While a lot of people want to color up their notification bar icons, I pretty much love the stock white icons! The only colored icon which I used was the green stock Sense battery icon. This was never a problem for me until I saw a thread of 2ndIdentity on XDA where he had made white % battery icons for Sense 4.0. This got me thinking and I decided to re-create the battery icons myself and therefore make one for Sense 3.6. The icons are very minimalistic and match perfectly with all the other white (stock) icons of HTC.

Initially I only made one with % and posted on XDA. However as soon as I posted this mod, people started to request one without %… So you can make your choice and choose the one you like!

In order to have my white battery mod you need to have root access. If not then this will not work.. The files which can be downloaded here below are flashable zip’s. So you can flash them using ClockworkMod.

White Stock Battery Mod With %

This battery mod will give you battery icons with %’s and will count down from 100 to 0. But there’s also a charging icon with animation as well!

MD5: 999AC938761C0A2A56F81D664F8DF887
To Download Click Here

White Stock Battery Mod Without %

MD5: 423FA2BF156016AC04CC61053D89A2B6
To Download Click Here

Installation:

Press the “Thanks” button on my XDA thread!
Make a Nandroid backup!
Check the MD5 of the file
Flash it like a ROM in recovery
Wipe Cache + Dalvik just to be sure / safe
Reboot your phone and enjoy
Optional: Post your screenshot!

I’ve tested this on my custom ROM and it works. I’m not quite sure if it works on all devices but feel free to test and report back. You can report by either dropping a comment here or if you’re a XDA member by leaving a comment in my thread!

My Little Girl Is Growing: 4 Months Now!!

Behrad — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:24:05 +0000

Time flies where you’re having fun and believe me I have a fun time being a father of my little girl Shirina. It feels like yesterday when I could hold her in my arms for the first time and now… she’s 4 months old!

When Shirina was born she weight 2.520 KG and in the last 4 months she has gained a lot of weight, which is a good sign, and weights about 5 KG! Jannie and me are loving every second with Shirina and it’s so nice to hold her, cuddle her, kiss her and the most beautiful thing is to see her smile! I just love being a daddy!

Me & My little princess!!

As for Jannie: She’s loving to be a mom as well. She just find it a bit difficult to go to work on her new job, which she just loves already, and not being able to see Shirina all day. But as she’s working 4 days in the weeks, she gets to enjoy every minute with Shirina when she’s off!

Jannie and our little princess!

Meet Shirina!!

Behrad — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:00:18 +0000

My little princess: Shirina

It’s been a while since my blog post but believe me when I say that I’ve been extremely busy! I mean since 8 weeks I’ve become the father of a lovely princess named SHIRINA!! Shirina, meet the world, and the world… Meet Shirina!!

So it was 23rd of February and when the clock stroked 06:25, a very beautiful healthy baby girl entered our lives. Her birthday was / will be truly the most wonderful and beautiful day of our lives!

The last couple of weeks went past so quickly and it has been nothing more then fun holding her and seeing her grow day by day. So this explains why I haven’t posted in such a long time and explains also why I need to stop writing as she’s calling me!

SO… Take care for now and till the next, hopefully very soon, post! =)

WP Plugin: Delete Custom Fields

Behrad — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:16:31 +0000

As I wrote a couple of days ago I had updated my blog. While doing so I noticed that my database was about 4omb, which is just too big as I knew that my database ain’t that big. So I needed to investigate that.

After a quick look at the database it turned out that:

One of my plugins which I use was eating 20mb of space!
6000 spam comments weren’t deleted yet and were still in my database.
wp_postmeta table contained more then 10.000 rows which I found too much for this table…

Solving the first two points was no problem at all but how was I going to check the 10.000 rows within wp_postmeta? I knew that this table is used to store meta data of posts. What I didn’t knew is that some plugin add their own information on this table as well, thanks to the database description of WordPress.org! So I figured: what if all the data of the plugins and themes are still in my database? I mean I have tried several plugins and themes during years.

Delete Custom Fields Plugin:
After a research I saw that someone had more or less the same problem as I had and someone else advised him to check a plugin Delete Custom Fields. This got me thinking and I installed the plugin. Within seconds I saw that a lot of old information were still in my database such as my old theme’s custom fields, information of several plugins and more. I started deleting them, off course only the ones I knew that I didn’t use, and when I was done I had 4.046 rows left which were 1.5mb’s! A huge difference! The database is now about 11mb big so this is more like it!

So if you have switched to a new theme, or have been testing with new themes and/or plugin, then some data might be stored in the database. The easiest way to get rid of those information is by simply run this plugin. Assuming that the theme and/or the plugin uses custom fields to store their data, Delete Custom Fields plugins will let you delete every instance of a custom field from your site. This will not only save you some space in your database but it’ll also make sure that the old custom fields wouldn’t appear in your list of custom fields when you edit a post or page!

NOTE: as always make a backup of the database before you start with this plugin as there’s no way to restore the data once it has been deleted!

Just 4 more weeks to go!

Behrad — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:28:32 +0000

If you didn’t knew it by now: I’m going to be a daddy real soon! In just 4 more weeks my little princess will be born! Ok perhaps even earlier if she decides to do so!

In the meantime we have bought all necessary stuff for the baby. The nursery is also ready. Everything has been cleaned and washed and the only thing we’re waiting for… yeah… is the baby!

Jannie in her 35th week

The picture above was taken when she was in her 35th week. At this moment she’s in her 36th week and I we can’t wait any longer!! =)

BioTecK.net Website Update

Behrad — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:09:56 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from my hosting provider that they will upgrade to PHP 5.3. They asked me to see if all the plugins running on the BioTecK.net would be compatible with PHP 5.3. This was a good opportunity to look at my website and see if it needed any other improvements. So I planned to take my time and take a good look at all the scripts and plugins running on the site and made some improvements.

Removing some scripts:
I removed some scripts which I don’t use anymore/didn’t going to use them anymore. One of them was TimThumb, a popular resizing script, which I didn’t want to use due to a security vulnerability. The vulnerability allows third parties to upload and execute PHP codes within the /cache and /tmp folder. As I had several php files within those folders I decided to do things differently and make sure that I simply didn’t use this script any longer.

Some layout adjustments:
In order to get rid of the TimThumb I also decided to adjust the layout on the main index page. From now on you’ll see a 150x150px image with the headlines instead of a larger image.

Some CSS improvements:
I noticed that I needed to improve the CSS on several points like readabilities, headings etc.

Portfolio Template:
One of the main reasons why I started a website was to show / share my portfolio. However along the way I was forgotten all about this. So I created a template for my portfolio page and will start improving this even further. With this I also noticed that I still need to update my portfolio so expect more updates on my portfolio! =)

Cleaning the database:
The last time I had “cleaned” the database was about a year ago. With this my database is 40MB, which is still too big! So I still have to take a look into this…

Together with the point mentioned above I took a good look at the codes and removed the unnecessary parts. I have to say that this did a good job on improving the website speed which is a good thing off course!

So how do you like the “new” BioTecK.net?

Happy New Year!!

Behrad — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:20:27 +0000

Another year flown by… Yeah it goes by that quickly! So…. Today it will be the last day of 2011 and then we will face a new and fresh year again! So it’s time to say goodbye to 2011 & Welcome 2012!

Say goodbye to 2011 & Welcome 2012!

I’m going to keep this post very short by wishing everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR! May the year 2012 be a happy, successful, safe, healthy and filled with peace, hope & love for each and everyone of us!

Win Experiences You’ll Never Forget!!

Behrad — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:09:48 +0000

Do you love contest where you can win some cool trips or some other cool stuff? Well I do and in most cases I’m also able / allowed to enter the contest… However not in this case…. =(
At this moment we’re having two different contests at work and as much as I love to enter the contest… I’m simply not allowed to do so! However this doesn’t mean that you can’t enter the contest!

JOICO® Christmas Contest:

You can win an uniquely romantic with a partner, or fabulously fun with a friend, you and the person of your choice will get to spend an amazing night in Lapland’s famous igloo hotel, courtesy of JOICO®!

To win this once in a lifetime experience, simply go to the website and tell us which JOICO® product you would give to a loved one for Christmas, and briefly explain why it’s also the coolest present possible you could give.
The one with the most “likes” wins this winter wonderland trip of a lifetime including a snow scooter excursion! =)

STRUCTURE Christmas Contest:

Enjoy a two-night break in one of the UK’s most dynamic cities – Liverpool. As the home of the Beatles, it’s a destination synonymous with music, so during your stay at the hippest hotel in town you’ll experience a Magical Mystery Tour, along which you’ll discover more about Liverpool’s fab four – buzzing new restaurants, chic bars, world-class shopping and enviable heritage.
To win this fantastic city break, simply go to our website and tell us which STRUCTURE product you would give to a loved one for Christmas, and briefly explain why it’s also the coolest present possible you could give. The one with the most “likes” wins this exciting trip!

With both of the contests the ones with 1st and 2nd places will win those awesome trips. Off course you don’t need to worry about your flight, hotel, breakfast, lunch and diner costs as everything is on JOICOEurope’s costs!
3rd – 10th place will receive a goody bag of STRUCTURE products send to you by post. Ain’t that cool? So what are you waiting for? Just visit the pages and take me with you if you win those trips!

Creating A Baby Room: We’re Almost There!

Behrad — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:52:49 +0000

It’s been a while since the last update on our nursery and that’s due to the fact that I’ve been very busy working in the nursery. For the last couple of weeks we have done several things such as putting wallpapers on the wall, repainting the room, putting laminates on the floor and most importantly; putting the nursery furniture together!

Last Friday all the stuff which we had ordered (the nursery furniture) was delivered and it was time to put all of them together…. I mean I couldn’t let everything stand in our living room like the picture below!

So after spending several hours putting the furniture together, I was really existed to see a very beautiful nursery come together! Actually this is no ordinary nursery but a princess room! LoL! However, as the title says…. We’re almost there as we still need to finalize some last small details and then I can start working on a birth announcement card for our little girl!

R.I.P Grandma!

Behrad — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:05:02 +0000

Last Thursday morning I received a phone call which shocked me as I got the unfortunate news that my grandma passed away the night before. Even though I knew that she was sick for a couple of months and that she was in a lot of pain, I didn’t think that she would leave us this soon.

My grandma used to live in Iran and me living in The Netherlands didn’t make it so easy to visit her that often. So the only contact I had with her was by phone. On the day that she died I wanted to call her but since the time difference I figured it would be late as she probably would be sleeping. Therefore I decided not the call her and make the call tomorrow. Who knew that day would never come?

Even after a couple of days I still can’t believe that she is gone. I would loved to have seen her one more time. Luckily I still have enough memories of her as she used to live with us the first 12 years of my life…..

Rest in Peace maman Fakhri…

My grandma in the middle holding my sister and little me on right left to her.

Too Much To Do…

Behrad — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:13:16 +0000

It’s been a while since my last update but there are simply just too much to do and so little time!

The last couple of weeks we have been busy with buying the nursery, already buying some small stuffed animals & other cool stuff, painting the nursery etc! In the mean time my education has also started so I also need a couple of hours in the week to study. Beside all of this I also would love to go to the gym but I often find myself being too tired!

So with all of this activities and things to do I seldom have time. Being able to sit down and write for an hour has become a luxury! Also when I do find some time I don’t always find inspiration to write a post… They do say “Time flies when you’re having fun” and I guess that’s true! =)

It’s A GIRL!!!

Behrad — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:09:12 +0000

So yesterday we had our 20th weeks ultrasound.This is needed to check baby’s health condition and it’s also possible to see baby’s gender. Some parents don’t want to know that but Jannie and me…. Well, we just couldn’t wait to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl! And now we finally know; It’s a girl!! =) I’m going to be the father of a little princes! =) You can’t imagine how happy we are!!

During the ultrasound the doctor checked everything on our little girl and luckily everything was just fine! They checked her heart (as I was born with a open heart valve) , her longs and kidney’s. But also her brains and her spine and everything was just as it should be. This 20th weeks ultrasound was very important for us and we’re now really relieved as our little baby is healthy!

Now we now that it’s a baby girl we can finally shop for the nursery! I’ll keep you updated whenever we have the nursery ready so don’t forget to come back!

Contract Killer for Android

Behrad — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:22:08 +0000

Looking for a cool and addictive game to play on your Android phone?! Well, then you have to try Contract Killer. I just have this game installed on my phone for a couple of days now and I’m loving it.

After downloading the game from the Market, you need to download a data file which is about 250mb. So you should better use your WiFi connection if you have a data limit.

Anyway, in the game you’re an assassin and you kill for money. Just select your weapon, locate your target, zoom in and kill your target! Check out the video here below and let me know your thoughts!! =)

Creating a Baby Room: The First Baby Steps…

Behrad — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:14:49 +0000

The first steps to create a baby room are now complete! Yeah! As you might have read in my last post, I already started with cleaning up the room what used to be our study room because there is a lot that I have to do.

So last Saturday I started working in the room again, even though I wasn’t feeling that well. In stead of just throwing away our old desks, chair’s etc I decided to make pictures of all the stuff I wanted to get rid off and put them on Marktplaats (Dutch Ebay). And guess what; I was able to sell all the items within 1 day! =)

With this the first baby steps in creating a nursery has been set and we’re left with an empty room! At one side this is good but at the other side this means that I still have a lot to do. However I don’t mind at all and I really love to do this.

As for Jannie; Her belly is growing bigger and bigger every day which is really nice to see. I’ll post a picture soon! =) She’s feeling good as well, the baby is ok and everything goes just the way it should be. Damn, I can’t say it enough; I can’t wait till the baby is here and that I can be a dad!!! =)

Creating a Baby Room…

Behrad — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:36:35 +0000

So if you have been following my blog you should by now know that soon I’m going to be a daddy. Last week we had our 13th weeks ultrasound and everything looked just great.

In the mean time we’re already busy creating a baby room. In order to do so, we decided to get rid of our study room and convert it to the baby room. That’s why I already started to clean the room and make sure it’s all empty so I can work in it and make it a very nice nursery.

As we don’t know (yet) if Baby Alborz will be a boy or girl we’ll have to wait to choose the right colors. In about 6 weeks we get to know the gender of the baby so once we know this, I’ll start hanging wallpapers and buy the baby stuff.

We’re already buying some gifts for the baby and I really can’t wait till the baby is here!

13th Weeks Ultrasound

Behrad — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:29:37 +0000

So today we had our 13th weeks ultrasound. Luckily for us everything looks just fine. All except one thing; Jannie’s blood pressure… This was a bit too high unfortunately. However there’s a fix for that and so we will try to get her blood pressure down again.

As for the baby… Well, what can I say; he/she was very much alive and kicking around! Literally that it! This as the baby was just “bouncing” up & down in Jannie’s belly. At some moments it even looked like he was waving toward us which was very funny.
As Baby Alborz was moving around so much it took the doctor a while before he could take a picture, but after giving it a few tries we finally could get our picture!

Baby Alborz in his/her 13th week!

Believe me when I say that I’m really in love now with the baby!! =)

Good Old Memories…

Behrad — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:39:53 +0000

I believe that everyone has experience this once in a while; You hear a song which reminds you to something from your past, let’s say to your childhood. At this moments I simply can’t stop listing to a couple of songs and I’m play the songs again, again and again.

One of my all time favorite songs is from Faramarz Aslani – Age Ye Rooz. I simply love this song but this song has been re-released in a new cover. This time with no one less than Dariush and both of them made this song even better, is it actually possible?

With this two legends working together, some other old songs got re-released and again, they’re just awesome!

So you might ask me; where does these songs reminds you off? Well, I still remember these songs from when I was a little boy. My dad used to listen to these songs, among others, and with this some good old memories come back to live! It’s just a shame that he isn’t alive anymore as I’m sure that he would love the new releases as well!

10th Week Ultrasound

Behrad — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:21:17 +0000

So yesterday we were at the hospital again for our 10th weeks ultrasound. Again we had a chance to see the baby grow bigger and bigger, which was just awesome!!!

If you look at the picture, you’ll see that the baby is now shaping more and more to a human. During the ultrasound we were able to see its little heart beating which was just too cool to see and believe me.. It makes me happy!! =)

Ultrasound 10th week

At this moment everything looks just great and only 3 weeks to go before the second trimester and going into the “safe zone”. So in the mean time I’ll take good care of Jannie and make sure that she takes her rest, eats healthy and is comfortable. We take our pregnancy so seriously, unlike the pregnant women which we saw at the entrance of the hospital spoking a cigarette! How stupid can you be, right?