Welcome to StephanHeijl.com, Stephan Heijl’s blog on such exhilarating topics as web development and religion, and whatever else may cross his mind. If you’re new here, just check out the About page. You can navigate through the posts with the sidebar to the right.
With the development of larger and cheaper hard drives, with prices as low as 0.03€ per GB, large amounts of storage space have stopped being a commodity for most people. Many will buy a 1TB drive and be done with it, being able to store not only their operating system and documents, but also movies, music and games en masse, while never really using the large majority of it. However, as we rely on these drives to store our secure information on as well, losing [...]
Since I recently bought an XBox I was looking for a new 1080p TV so that I could play the games it had to offer in their full glory. When I got my paycheck I went around town looking for a 32″ 1080p television, and I came back with the Samsung UE32C6000. Now, let’s see what it’s like. What I was looking for: 32″ (81cm) diagonally. Anything larger wouldn’t fit in my room and smaller would be silly regarding the distance from my couch. 1920×1080 [...]
Over the course of a few weeks of off-and-on development, I have released a version of StringMage. StringMage is text compression and transcoding solution available in both Python and PHP. Both versions produce slightly different files, which are still fully readable by one another, although the PHP implementation is less effective at proper compression, at least for the time being. This post documents the Python version. How does it work? When a string or text file is inserted into the transcoder, either in PHP or [...]
I have been a big fan of Google chrome ever since it came out. However the first edition did the lack some features which make it hard to switch from Firefox. Since Google chrome has started to support extensions however I have made a full switch to Google chrome. For those who are still on the fence, here is a list of extensions that might just make you make the switch. The Web Developer Toolbar is a great extension that was originally released for Firefox. [...]
In 1977, the first home computer entered the market. In 1983 the Internet was introduced to the common people. Everyone who had a home PC could connect their computers through the telephone line, and communicate with other computers. Another 6 years later the World Wide Web was introduced. This was the onset of the Information Age. The start of a time in which the collective information of humankind could be shared globally, all within seconds. This sudden change in communication, which before had been revolutionized [...]
A small essay on privacy in the Netherlands. Written for Dutch in March 2010.) Elke dag gooit de gemiddelde Nederlander gigabytes aan persoonlijke informatie op straat. Hij gaat met de trein, doet wat boodschappen bij de AH, pint wat geld, en haalt wat boeken bij de bibliotheek. Ondertussen worden al deze activiteiten voorzichtig door machines opgeslagen, voor veiligheid, marketing, en documentatie. Maar deze data kan ook voor meer sinistere doeleinden gebruikt worden… Steeds meer worden onze privéaangelegenheden bespied, geïndexeerd en opgeslagen. Telefoongesprekken worden getapt, alle [...]
Written for English in August 2010 Each day we are surrounded by religion. Every and every day we are likely to pass a Church, Roman Catholic School, Mosque, or any other sort of religious institution. Each and every day we are confronted with the superstitious beliefs of the people around us, be they Christian, Jewish, Islamic, or any other faith people publicly display. Each and every day, unfortunately, these features are getting more numerous, and more prominent. While the time of the Catholic Reign over [...]
Written for English in 2009 Over the course of the past decade, Iran has been building up a stockpile of low-grade uranium, and is now enriching it to use it in medical and energy production facilities, or at least, that’s what the recently re-elected Iranian president tells us. Is there more to this story then the leader of one of the countries in the most explosive regions of the earth is willing to admit? Around 2003 the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA, found some [...]
