The BIOS on the netbook was an old version, with known problems that after fully discharging, the battery no longer holds a charge. This can be fixed easily by updating the BIOS to version 3309 or higher. The updating process is windows based, so even if you’re not a geek you’ll be able to fix the problem yourself.

Use a seperate computer or your netbook to download the latest version of the BIOS here. Select your netbook, which is mentioned as AOA150 and download the BIOS by clicking on the BIOS tab. Extract the .zip file you just downloaded (or copy it to an USB memory stick if you downloaded it on another computer, and transfer it to your netbook).

There are two ways of updating the BIOS. I only tried one -in my opinion the easiest way to do it-, running a windows program that updates the BIOS for you. If you choose to do it that way too, double click on the file ‘insydeflash.exe’.

A little program, like shown above, will pop up. Click ’start’ to initiate the update. When the update is finished your netbook will reboot and should be able to charge its battery again.

You can try the demo of version 1 here, and the demo of version 2 here.

If you’d like to use the source for your own project, feel free to download it.

• Version 1
• Version 2

Before I started studying Aviation Operations at the ROC van Amsterdam, I attended an IT college. And for me it’s a logical step to go back to my other passion: Computers and Internet. Even though I was studying Aviation I’ve been busy with webdesign activities in my free time. And I enjoy that. I will quit the education I’m doing now, and I hope I will start a new education in September this year.

At the moment I’m still searching for a good school that offers the exact classes I’d like to attend. But the problem is that I do not have the appropriate certificates and degrees to be accepted at most of these schools. Here in the Netherlands there is an option to be accepted if you are 21 years or older. I have to make an admission exam to proof that I’ll be capable to finish the classes with a good result. I already made one of these exams at the Hogeschool Windesheim in Zwolle, which I passed. Theoretically I can sign in for this education and start in September.

But, as I still have lots of time before I have to start, I will attend more of these exams at different schools, so I eventually can choose the school and education that fits best to me, and I can do something I really like.

Now I’m using Netcounter, a free Android application that does just one thing: giving an overview of the traffic you’ve used today, last 7 days, this month and in total. You can also export/import the collected data to and from the SD-card of the handset, and you can set an alarm if you exceed your limit.

If you are encountering the same problem, download Netcounter in the Market by scanning the QR-code below.

I use a lot of Google services including Gmail and Calendar. And however it is possible to synchronize these with the iPhone or Windows Mobile, I think for seamless integration, I should use a Google powered phone as well. I also love the application market, to let me download hundreds of handy applications for my phone, just like on the iPhone.

As a web developer, I’m interested in programming applications, so I decided to check out the Android SDK. The Android applications are written in Java, and I have not worked with that language before. It’s all new to me so it might take a while before I’ve build my first application, but there’s a lot of documentation available. It’s a nice challenge to get to know this environment.

One of the features on this phone is the possibility to scan QR-codes and let the phone execute an action depending on the content of the code. Visiting a website, searching for a product, starting a call, or sending an email are just a few examples of its possibilities. Here in the Netherlands its not very popular yet, but with more and more phones being able to scan bar codes and having wireless Internet I think it’s just a matter of time before everyone’s using it.

The good thing is, that everybody can make it’s own QR-codes very easily. I found a simple generator to do the job. Try it here.

Scan this QR-code with your phone, and see what happens.

When you have enough programming skills to write your own code, and you know how to make it secure, I think you should write the code yourself, as you have a lot more influence in the way the system is build and it will fit better into your application. But, when you are new to programming, it’s a good idea to start with the code of someone else. Unfortunately many of these free user management systems on the Internet are insecure and poorly written, so it’s recommended not to use just any code you can find on the Internet.

But now there is UserCake, a good example of a PHP user management system, which is easy to implement in your application and comes with support for usergroups, account activation, email templates, and SHA1 hash for security.

The only requirements for UserCake are PHP5 and MySQL.

The training was followed by a ‘training-on-the-job’ to teach me, within another period of two weeks, how to be able to work as independently as possible. I was taught how to prepare a flight (e.g. collecting the information and checking if it is correct), how to monitor the flights I was handling and how to finish the flight. In the beginning my trainer and I did everything together: I said what I thought I had to do, and if that was correct he let me do my work. As days went by my trainer let me work alone more and more. Of course I still had questions, as every flight is different and might have it’s own difficulties, but asking questions is very encouraged at the KLM. Because we work with aircraft stuffed with over a hundred passengers, we cannot afford to make any mistakes. We’ve learned never to do something if you aren’t sure if it’s the right thing to do.

Basically the work I do is planning how the baggage and cargo should be loaded in the aircraft, and send these instructions to the outstation. They will load the aircraft according to my instructions. I have to make sure the aircraft center of gravity falls within certain limits. And therefore it is important that they follow my instructions carefully.

Now I’m working alone for over three weeks, and I’m pretty satisfied on how it’s going, I even see things going better every day. In the beginning it was really hard when a couple of flights departed within 5 minutes of each other, but handling a situation like that on a daily basis taught me lot, and most of the times I don’t have any difficulties with this anymore. For so far I’m really enjoying this internship.

Image by Inter.nl

I did some exploring on this fact lately, because I was busy building my own Web OS. Actually I stepped off the idea of a Web OS, but now I’m focusing on using these kind of interfaces for my web based applications, like a CMS.

During these explorations I found some interesting projects, available to be used as the graphical user interface of your applications.

qWikiOffice
An open source project to provide an easy an user friendly web experience. It is based on Ajax and the EXT-JS library and can be extended with applications. The project is still under development, but the developer release is very promising.

jQuery Desktop
The name says it all. Another desktop alike user interface, but this one is based on jQuery.

MochaUI
This is one of my personal favorites and I’m currently using it for one of my projects. It offers a wide range of user interfaces and comes standard with lots of features like file trees, panels and windows. It is based on Mootools, and very easy to implement in one of your current projects, or to use as a basis for a new project.

Yellowbird is a great way of recording events and concerts or any other occasion, as it makes you feel like you were really there. See what’s possible with Yellowbird with this demo:

We went from Rotterdam to Hull by a vessel of P&O Ferries which departed at 9pm last Thursday. On board the vessel there were plenty of ways to enjoy myself, like restaurants, bars, music and cinemas. As the vessel departs in the evening, all passengers aboard have a small cabin with a shower and bed. I spent the evening at the restaurant and bars. The next morning when I woke up, the remaining time before arrival was just a couple of hours. Although going to England by airplane is much faster (about one hour flying), going by boat is more comfortable. After the vessel was anchored at the terminal of Hull, we got to York by coach.

It was really busy in York, which prove to me that it really is a touristic highlight. York is divided in two parts; the old historic city with the York Minster, which is car-free, and the modern part with all common shops. The city center of York is almost completely surrounded by old town walls from the middle ages. We walked around in the historic part of the city and visited lots of ‘traditional English’ shops. It seems that the English culture differs from the Dutch. Because the weather was nice, we would rather drink something outside on a terrace than inside a pub. We could find lots of pubs and bars, but the majority of them only offered seating inside their building. While walking in a random Dutch city, you’ll see terraces everywhere. Eventually we found a square with multiple terraces.

York is a wonderful city with lots of tiny streets and alleys. I believe when visiting York you’ll discover how England was hundreds of years ago, perfect for a cultural day out!

Using your IP address, the video player determines in which country you are living. This means we should get an IP address in the US and we can do that using a VPN (Virtual Private Network). When you use a VPN to browse the Internet, the websites you visit (like NBC.com) will see another IP address, so in this case we need an IP address in the US.

It is necessary to use a VPN with a fast connection, as we are going to watch video streams. There a lots of free VPN solutions, but it’s hard to find some with enough speed and a reliable connection. I recommend using Hotspot Shield. It’s easy to install and use and I didn’t have any trouble with playing video streams.

After installing and activating Hotspot Shield, just visit one of the following websites to watch the full episodes:

• NBC
• CBS video
• FOX
• ABC

There are hundreds of free patterns available on the internet to use for your projects, but if you use these, there is a slight chance that they don’t suffice your needs because you didn’t design them yourself. With BGpatterns you can easily create your own patterns by selecting an image, scaling it and selecting the colors. Besides the possibility of designing a pattern yourself, you can also choose a pattern from other users. When you are satisfied about the result, it provides you a download link for the image so you can upload it to your server and use it in your project.

It’s easy to implement such a background with CSS, like the code below:

html,body {
background-image: url(images/your_pattern.jpg) top repeat fixed;
}

Joomla automatically adds the Mootools code to the header of the template, which conflicts with the jQuery code I added myself. The Thickbox script didn’t work at all so I had to find a solution. After a quick Google search I found a lot of forum posts, where other designers had the same problem. Unfortunately none of the forums offered a quick solution. I tried to disable the Mootools code in Joomla’s behavior.php, but this is a site-wide change and also affects the Adminstration. It seems that Mootools is necessary for Joomla to run, at least for the Administration of the website.

Later I found the solution and it is quite easy. Just add the following code to the head section of your template’s index.php, and the Mootools code will be removed:

<?php
// Remove auto generated mootool from header
$headerstuff = $this->getHeadData();
reset($headerstuff['scripts']);
$moo = key($headerstuff['scripts']);
unset($headerstuff['scripts'][$moo]);
$this->setHeadData($headerstuff);
?>
<jdoc:include type="head">

Here’s an overview of my results. All grades are on a scale from 1 to 10.

Apart from studying I’ve also been busy with the internship for next school year. A couple of months ago eight students were selected for an internship at the Operations Control Center of the KLM. I was one of them, so I had to do some tests and a job interview. Only four of us will be selected and are going to work there for 5 months. The first test we got was weight and balance, which is used to determine the center of gravity of an aircraft. It’s important to know how these things work, because it will be part of the daily tasks at the OCC.

Last wednesday I had the second test and the job interview. This was an English speaking test and it wasn’t very difficult. I had to read some texts and explain to the tutor what the text was about. It was followed by a 10 minute conversation in English. After this test I had the job interview. I was interviewed by a recruiter and a manager of the OCC. They asked me questions about who I am and what I like to do, as well as more difficult questions: “Can you give an example of a situation that you was working under high pressure?”, I found it hard to remember such a situation, but after a few seconds I got one. At the end of the job interview, they told me that they would call me within two days to tell me if I was selected for the internship.

The recruiter called me today, she had good news, I’m selected. This means that after the summer holiday, I will be working at the KLM again. It’ll start with a course of two weeks to teach me how everything works. Then I will be prepared for working alone, which means I’ll be working for three weeks under supervision of a colleague, before I have to do it on my own. I’m really looking forward to all this, but first I’m going to enjoy my summer holiday.

The fire department at Schiphol is situated at three different locations on the airport. Each location is responsible for its own area. In case of an air crash or bad landing, the fire fighters within that area have to arrive at the scene within three minutes. For problems at the terminal buildings they have more time. When an aircraft crashes and catches fire on the wings and fuselage it takes about three minutes before the fire reaches the inside of the aircraft, like the cabin or cockpit. Saving lives becomes very difficult from that point, and the chance to survive the crash reduces enormously.

The day started with a presentation to introduce us to the daily tasks and responsibilities of the fire brigade. After we finished the theoretical part of the excursion, the visitors were separated into groups and we went outside. As one of the few airports in the world, Schiphol has a unique training facility for the fire fighters. It’s called the Firefly, a remake of a passenger aircraft to simulate an air crash and to practise the extinguishing of the huge fires in such a situation. The fire brigade gave us a short demonstration of the Firefly.

To be honest it wasn’t as spectacular as I expected, of course, the flames were pretty huge, but the fire was extinguished in seconds. I’ve uploaded a video of the demonstration to my YouTube account, so see for yourself here.

After a search on the Internet, I discovered Windows Live Sync, another service from Microsoft. It basically synchronizes all files in one or more folders between any number of PC’s which have the software is installed. You need to install the free software on the PC’s you want to synchronize, and to login with your Windows Live ID (if you are using hotmail or msn, you already have one) to select the concerning folders. Setting the whole thing up doesn’t take longer than 5 minutes and is very easy to do. Everytime one of your computer connects to the Internet it will upload the new and edited files, and when your other computer connects, it will update the folder with the files.

The book looks fresh and attractive and the cover shows some objects which are referring to the island. Apart from a few improvements, the layout of the inside is quite comparable to the first book. It also counts the same number of pages.

While browsing on the internet last week, I discovered that the first book is available on Google Books. If you want to get an impression of these books, visit the Google Book Preview.

The project I’m currently working on is called ‘Luna’ and is far from finished. It contains the basics, like a PHP login system and user management with user groups, which, for example, makes the system configuration only accessible for administrators. Some modules are working now but not yet fully functional. I’ve implemented a file manager to create folders and upload files which can be downloaded anywhere at anytime. When a new user is created by an administrator the script automatically creates a personal folder for the file uploads.

Using the Google Maps API, I’ve created a module where you can create personal markers on a map. The location and description of these markers are saved in a MySQL database. I’m planning to link this with the contacts module, where users can store contact details.

There’s still a lot of work to do and features to add, like a feed reader and a calendar which can’t be missing. It might also be cool to add some social networking tools in the future so you can update your twitter status from within the Web OS. I don’t really have a goal with creating this application, but I think turning it into a CMS is a good idea. Because it looks like a standard operating system, with the draggable windows, it might feel more comfortable to my customers to work with it as they are already familiar with the look and feel of the application.

If you rent a suite in the aircraft you can enjoy an infrared sauna, a luxurious jacuzzi and you can take a look in the cockpit. The cabin is equipped with a minibar, 3 flat-screen TVs, a Blu-Ray player, free wireless Internet and air conditioning, to make sure you’ll have every comfort you need.

The aircraft is also available for conferences, you can fly from any location in Europe to airport Teuge, where you can park your business jet next to the hotel. A total of 15 to 20 people can be accommodated during a conference.

For more information visit Hotel Suites. Look below for some photos of the Ilyushin 18:

I never skied before and I expected to be bungling on the skies for 10 days, but it turned out better. Immediately on the first day I got a skiing lesson, and it seemed to be not so difficult. After a couple of days I could move pretty fast and I was able to ski on the blue pistes. Sure, my technique was worthless, and it probably didn’t look so good, but I was skiing there for fun. The first time I was standing at the top of a blue piste I didn’t want to go, it was so high, but there was no way back. After skiing down, it felt so good that I had overcome my fear of heights again.

In the evenings we stayed most of the times in the apartment. There were some bars, but the drinks were so expensive that I refused to spend my money there. We cooked dinner or we ate at a restaurant, and after that we enjoyed some drinks.

Skiing was more fun than I thought it would be, and I really enjoyed this week, but I will always prefer a holiday at the beach.

Yesterday we all went to the Operations Control Center of the KLM, which controls all worldwide activities of the KLM. I’ve been watching there for a couple of hours, after which we went to the Hangar. KLM has several hangars at Schiphol-East. We went to Hangar 14, which is -according to the guide- the biggest hangar of Europe. It was amazing to see the technicians working on the aircraft. The hangar is separated in three bays, which all have a different function. The first two bays are set up to do maintenance and checks on the aircraft, for example the C-check and the D-check. During the D-check the aircraft is stripped almost completely, so every single part can be inspected for damage or malfunctioning. It’s such a lot of work to perform this check, that it takes multiple weeks. The third bay is in use for aircraft repaints.

Before going back to college I’ll be going on a skiing trip to France with college. Together with a couple of teachers and students I will travel to Risoul by bus. I’m not sure how long it’ll be driving, but it will be a long, long drive…

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, we’ve been interviewed by a journalist of the internal KLM newspaper. Here’s a translation of the article:

ROC students are attending internship at BTS

For ten weeks they’re standing between the aircraft: Uman, Arjen, Wesley, Shawn and Daniel. Thanks to a cooperation between KLM and the ROC Hoofddorp these Aviation Operations students are working within the team. Therefore they can put their theoretical skills into practice.

During work they are accompanied by sector manager Pieter and supervisor Renz. Pieter: “The main goal of the internship is that the boys can bring the theory into practice. For them it’s great to finally experience the real thing which is described in their books.” The employees of the department are enthusiastic about the trainees. Pieter: “You can see that everybody does his very best to make the boys experience as much as possible.

For instance, they aren’t allowed to drive the highloaders themselfs, but the specialists really like to give them a drive. When that happens you can see their proud faces.” Daniel, one of the five trainees confirms this: “It’s great to (as an addition to the theory) walk between the real aircraft.” Wesley adds: “We’ve had a good introduction course at the KLM, and when I was at the platform, it was even better than I expected.” Arjen: “We have to wake up pretty early, because we start at 7 am, but it’s more than worth it.” They have to go to college for another two years, so they have to stay focused on studying. But the question if they would like to work at the KLM after they finished college is answered: “YES”.

See the original article below (click to enlarge).

I arrived there at 6 am in the morning to conduct with two colleagues of that department. Our first assignment was to tow a Boeing 747 from the gate to the Juliet platform at the other side of the highway. I chose to go into the cockpit with one of my colleagues, while the other operated the push back truck. In the cockpit we followed a number of procedures concerning the power supply of the aircraft. After that, the push back truck gently lifted the enormous jet and asked permission from the air traffic control to begin moving. The push back truck needs confirmation from the ATC because it is entering the taxiway.

It was a fantastic experience to be sitting in the co-pilot’s seat while the aircraft got towed over the taxiways to the Juliet platform. When we arrived at the final location, we switched of the aircraft and got off.

Later that day we towed an Airbus A330 to the Bravo platform which we also towed back to the gate a a while later. My colleagues also had to tow an aircraft to the hangar, but because I’m not allowed to enter that area (Schiphol-East), I went with someone else for a couple of hours. I’ve been sitting in the push back truck while it pushed the aircraft on the taxiway where it started its engines and prepared for take off.

One thing that really attracted my attention was the big difference between Boeing and Airbus aircraft and their cockpits. Airbus is more electronic and based on computers than Boeing. For instance the control column to control the primary flight controls used by Boeing, is replaced by a sidestick in Airbus aircraft.

A Rampsnake is an advanced conveyor to deliver the cargo and baggage anywhere in the belly during bulk loading. It operates fully electronic and reduces handling operations to 2 people. During the training course they explained how the machine works, how we can control it, and they told us about the emergency procedures. Without a Rampsnake the loaders have to push or lift all the baggage to the end of the hold. Now, the Rampsnake does all this work for us.

The second course, concerned the arrival of the aircraft at the gate. A GPU is a Ground Power Unit, which is a vehicle capable of supplying power to aircraft parked on the ground. The aircraft can also use its build in APU (Auxilary Power Unit) but this method uses more fuel and is expensive. We learned how to start the GPU and connect it to the aircraft, while the wheel chocks are placed at the same time. The wheel chocks are used to prevent the aircraft from moving while parked at the gate.

They also taught us the procedures for smaller aircraft, like the Fokker 70, 100 and Embraer 190 which are mostly used by KLM Cityhopper. These aircraft don’t park at the gate, but at the buffer. The passengers are transferred to the terminal by buses. Because there is no VDGS (Visual Docking and Guidance System) the pilots and handling crew communicate by hand signals.

But we didn’t only work. Last week, on Friday, we got interviewed by a journalist of the internal KLM newspaper. A photographer went to the ramp with us, and took some photos of all the trainees during work. After that, the journalist asked us some questions.

If you search for any location with Google Maps, you can select the ‘Photos’ option. After doing this, you’ll see lots of tiny images appearing on your map. Those photos are user contributed via the Panoramio webite, and can be viewed in full size by clicking on them. These photos are also included in Google Earth.

At first I was impressed by this, until I found out about the street view feature. Unfortunately this isn’t available for all cities and locations on the world, but Google is very busy to include more streets every day. At the left side of the map, you’ll see an orange icon, drag this to the desired street and you’ll get a nice result looking like this:

Mainly the big cities are fully accessable by street view, because it takes a lot of time to collect all the imagery. Google has drivers with cameras on their cars, to capture the images. Recently they hit a deer and the pictures were available on Google Maps. You can find the news article of the Guardian to read the full story here.

If you haven’t used street view before, you should really check it out. It’s fantastic!