Instead of going there by aircraft, we used the train for transportation. From Hengelo (the Netherlands) to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, it takes about 6 hours. The trip to Berlin was quite relaxed, the trip back home was a nightmare (due to very noisy children). We used an intercity train instead of a high speed connection, so there were some issues about our reserved seats. After all, I wouldn’t recommend to go by train. Flying to the destination is faster and a lot more fun. We stayed in Hotel Berlin, Berlin. The hotel is located in the city centre and very close to numerous bus stops and underground stations.

We visited a lot of tourist attractions, including: Checkpoint Charlie, Topographie des Terrors, East Side Gallery, the Jewish Museum, Brandenburger Tor, the Reichstag, Hackescher Hofë and Unter den Linden. And all that in just two days. Most of them are somehow related to the war and wall. The Topographie des Terrors has been rebuild a few months ago and is really impressive. It’s the place where the the Germans prepared the war, the basement of the original building was used for creating plans and torturing prisoners. While walking to the entrance of the museum some parts of this basement is still visible. Engineers are busy with creating an audio guide system alongside the cellars.

The city centre of Berlin is very compact, take an U-bahn connection to one of the highlights and the rest is within walking distance. Only a few, like the East Side Gallery (a piece of the wall that has been painted by various artists) are only reachable by public transport (unless you’d like to walk for hours).

I’d say thumbs up for Germany! It seems that they really did their best to commemorate the enormous death toll of the war. In every street in Berlin there’s something that reminds of what happened in the 1940′s, and in the musea -like Topographie des Terrors- it doesn’t feel like they are hiding something. The whole story of the war is being told (and also commercially exploited).

When we arrived in Prague, we went to our hotel by public transport. It was better than I expected, although the buses were non-airconditioned, old and rusty, they drove exactly according schedule, and with a high frequency. During our stay in Prague, we used the public transport everyday. These days, we went to several tourist attractions, but most of the time we did some relaxing and enjoyed the sun.

Prague is full of old, -I think- middle age buildings with a lot of towers and churches, which really gives the city a historic touch. The downtown area of Prague was a lot smaller than I expected, but that allowed us to see most of it during the short time we stayed there. Our hotel (Hotel Golf) wasn’t located in the citycentre, but about half an hour traveling by bus. When I was collecting some information at home, I thought it would be quite long trip to get to downtown Prague, but it isn’t that bad. But if you are going to Prague, I suggest you to book another hotel than we did, it isn’t very good and really, you don’t want to try the breakfast there.

We didn’t do much cultural activities (we spend a lot of time with shopping), but Prague is perfect for those that like culture, history and tourist attractions.

I was accepted at both the Hogeschool Windesheim and the Hogeschool Utrecht by making an 21+ exam. I could start with one of those studies in September. At a certain point, I was convinced that I would stop my aviation study and start all over at an IT class. But more and more I realized that it wasn’t a solution. Because if I failed at one of those studies, I wouldn’t have a degree at all. And it felt like throwing away these three years of studying for Operations Officer.

So, I stay. I’ve got one year of studying to do, and then I will have my degree. After that, I can start another study -this time IT related- at the Hogeschool Utrecht or another school. Last week I made the final exams for my third year and they went pretty good. Here’s an overview of my grades:

(Photo credit: Hops_76)

KLM DVD: “Welcome to the OCC, KLM’s Operations Control Center” from Tim on Vimeo.

On pro, it’s all about statistics. QR codes a more valuable when you know how many visitors it delivers to your website. You could create a landing page where the code is linking to, and track the statistics from there, but if you don’t have the know-how, or you like things to be as effortless as possible, this might be the easy solution for you.

The QR codes can be exported as images (jpg) or as PDF files, so they can be printed or imported in your own projects.

Before going live, there’s still a lot of work to do. For instance, the complete user authentication module still has to be written. Also the way the statistics are presented to the end-user isn’t optimal now. As of now, only the daily and monthly hits are visible. Browser type and location have to be added.

Below some screenshots:

The generator is very basic at the moment, and just does what it should do. I’m planning to enhance the website in the future with some nice functions, so make sure you’ll bookmark it.

Visit the website

The last year I’ve been working on my Luna project, lately I’ve been looking at the code I wrote for this application and I think it has to be better. As I don’t feel much for cleaning up the code of the current project I decided to start all over again, and doing it the right way at once. A few weeks ago I started developing the user interface. It’s better to start with the UI rather than with the back end coding as you know what functions the application is using and you’ll otherwise keep adjusting the UI anytime an idea for a new function pops into your head. The UI has to be build in a certain way that any application added to the webtop by either myself or another developer fits right in. The webtop should be expendable with applications and services without cluttering up the interface.

At the moment there’s only the CSS and Javascript to show the draggable windows, a startmenu and the desktop. Its UI is inspired by Windows XP (so I can show it to any potential customer without having to explain the whole concept of webtops, and just because I like it). Because this XP look is obviously copyrighted by Microsoft I won’t be able to sell the product the way it is now. In the future more themes will be added to the webtop and made visible by changing the stylesheet.

I will continue creating the UI, and when that’s ready I’ll start coding the User and Access Management in PHP, as well as all the other applications.

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

Update: Visit CreateQR.com to see it in action and generate your own QR codes or download the WordPress plugin.

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.