I’ve contemplated to take this site offline for some time now, I don’t have as much to say to the World Wide Web as I did when I travelled to Barcelona in 2006. This morning, I stumbled on the following chat with the Bing AI chatbot, between Marvin von Hagen and new Bing AI: Soon generative AI will dominate content production, and I don’t want to leave my blog to be scrubbed as a source any longer, this to attempt to reduce impersonation attempts. Some changes, starting Wednesday 22nd February 2023: Website: I’ll put a password on this website, asking for a fact that only people close to me ..read more

We have just completed our first road trip with our Electric Vehicle. We drove 4000km through The Netherlands, Germany and Austria. For the first 100km, I relied on the car’s build-in navigation but found it wasn’t good for road trips. Bad navigation (we almost missed an exit) and no idea where to charge. I fell back to Android Auto with ‘ABRP’ installed and this was good. This (non sponsored) post is a praise of ABRP – A Better RoutePlanner. It’s provides navigation for EV vehicles by offering some neat features. The app gives your clear instructions on where to charge and for how long by lo ..read more

Covid-19 made the world small but as travelling opened up again in 2021, me and my dad visited France in early September to cycle at the grand alps. We ascended the Col de Madelaine (2000 m) in 2003 and the Mont Ventoux (1909 m) in 2015 during holidays in the region, but this time we’d dedicate the entire trip to climbing mountains. My dad loves cycling ever since being a child, he listened to the tour the France on the radio and one a rare occasion got to visit the French mountains as a teenager as a fan of the Tour the France he was inspired to train with his friends to cycle up the French ..read more

Disclaimer: This post describes my role as GM at a game studio. I scribbled this down to reflect and decided (and after confirming with the co-founder) to publish them here. These insights are my own and it’s my intention to recap my journey there and back. Whilst I was in the lead, the achievements – of course – are the sum of the team, the work we did – and support I’ve gotten. I’ll describe how it was to work in a game studio (as General Manager, and as a game producer introducing scrum), the life in China, and our decision to leave again. I took a job as General Manager at a Chinese game s ..read more

I put Linux on an old phone. Specifically, UBPorts Linux. For those who think: What’s the big deal my phone can do everything already? Yes, you are right. But: Current phones are designed to have reduced capabilities due to their form factor and business model. A lot of common features a computer can do are not possible on a phone. But we were promised a computer, in your pocket. And that’s not what we got. At least, not a full functioning PC experience. Linux can offer more. Example: Linux Phones, once connected to your monitor present a full fledged desktop experience (picture to the right ..read more

An update during the worldwide Covid-19 crisis. The Dutch government announced the ‘intelligent lock down’ 24 days ago, we have practiced ‘self-isolation’ for about 40 days now. (Except for one office visit in the first week). Trains are empty these days. My work is now remote and I’ve set up an office, borrowing a screen from my employer. I’m traveling less, and video-call more, so far I haven’t found an impact on my productivity. Regarding the social aspect, I’m doing ‘virtual informal coffee chats’, but it’s not the same. However, I’m happy I can actually work and that so far things hav ..read more

I’d rather interview 50 people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person.” – Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Amazon is totally obsessed with hiring the best people, and has notorious hiring standards. Getting hired at Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the leading cloud platform – was a completely different experience then I have seen at any other company. As a newly joined employee I can share a bit on joining this company, it’s not just an interview, it’s a process of calls, work and an appointment, of course every on-boarding is different but perhaps this can give you an idea of what it’s like to ..read more

This week I started working at AWS (Amazon Web Services) in Amsterdam. In my new role, I’ll be helping companies in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg with their journey to the cloud, including release management, agile/lean practices and strategic delivery, with a focus on quality. These first few months are all about further introduction into AWS and Amazon’s working, our customers, and the peculiar ways of Amazon. Next week training will kick-off with a trip to AWS in Berlin. Very excited to start in my new role. I took this photo with the CTO of Amazon, Werner Vogels back in 2013, I ..read more

  It’s my last working day at Dr. Panda. I’m writing this now because we will go have a little party in Chengdu tonight! :) I joined little over three years ago, and it was quite a challenging step for me, to go from ‘IT manager’ to ‘General Manager I was an experienced IT project manager, but had only a little experience managing people, let alone a whole studio. It was tough at times, it was engaging but most of all I appreciate the team. I say this not because I work(ed) here, but Dr. Panda is able to reach a consistent high quality. I found this can only be achieved with incredible standa ..read more

We spend the weekend in Miansi Town, close to Wenchuan 汶川. it’s only about two hour drive from Chengdu. We spend our time in the Dayu Farm House （汶川大禹农庄）. The farm house received us very well, very kind and hospitable. In the afternoon we enjoyed the hot-springs. In the evening after dinner, there was a bonfire with dancing. From early May until the first week of June it’s cherry season. As we we’re late in the season, we had to go all the way up the mountain ..read more