After studying Vietnamese language for five months, I think that it is a challenging language to learn for Westerners. Especially the vocabulary with different tones is extremely hard to master: Bạn bận bán bàn bẩn không?, if you want to ask if someone is busy selling dirty tables. All joking apart, other features of this language are way simpler than you might expect.
»It has been one year since I moved to Brussels as (first time) spouse of a diplomat. The experience as a +1 has been both fascinating and disappointing at the same time. I don’t seem to be the only one having difficulties adapting to this way of life. A couple of papers mention the challenges of Brussels in particular. Let me take you through the characteristics explaining why Brussels is not like every other expatriate location.
»I am a big fan of catch-all mailboxes. They enable me to use a unique email address for every service that demands my personal information. By doing so, I know exactly who is emailing me or who leaked my email address. Let’s explore how we can elevate this concept on a technical level with programmable email routing.
»Western Europe is very cyclable. With a high density of paved roads and accommodations, it is easy to travel long distances by bike. From May 1st onwards, I gave it a shot and started cycling in the direction of Rome. This post enables me to keep track of the journey and maintain a photo album.
»Macedonia, the northern part of Greece, offers a beautiful green landscape with a crystal clear Mediterranean Sea. But that is not the only thing that I find interesting. After spending a couple of days here and visiting some local restaurants and coffee shops, the QR code printed on every receipt got my curiosity. Let’s find out how the Greek are fighting tax evasion.
»The Dutch public broadcast corporation (NPO) is quite good at offering digital solutions to watch publicly funded TV shows. It offers a wide variety of different apps for different platforms, such as smart TV’s, mobile devices and browser. For watching television, I am happily using a 2009 Samsung smart TV. And yes, you guessed it, the smart-component is completely useless in 2023. Let’s see what we can do to enhance the NPO Start Live TV experience, but without smart devices, cable TV providers and big tech.
»I am not a fan of “smart” devices; they try to bring some upper class luxury to the middle class using technology. For example, vacuum cleaners: those who cannot afford a cleaning lady, can probably afford a robot vacuum cleaner that does some vacuuming for you. However, these devices come with the cost of privacy as everything it does do is sent back to the vendor. Is it possible to have both the privacy and cheap comfort?
»The gate of the public parking garage that I am renting can be opened with an app. However, unlocking a phone, searching the app, choosing the particular parking and pressing “enter by car”. Isn’t that convenient while driving. Let’s see if we can upgrade this user experience.
»The market of stockbrokers has been shifting since a couple of years. Several newcomers are offering so-called no-fee trading: free stock trading on designated exchanges or particular stocks. What is driving these new business models?
»A couple of months ago, I accidentally stepped on my Kindle Voyage E-reader and cracked the screen on the edge. The E ink display itself was working fine, but the touchscreen stopped functioning, which made it impossible to control. What can we do with such a device before adding it to the pile of E-waste?
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