Things I Like to Catch in My Web

The following are some of the places on the web that I like to visit. I've tried to put them in some sort of order as well as I could, the categories going alphabetically first, and the respective items in those categories alphabetized as well.

Astronomy

I wouldn't go so far as to call myself an astronomer, but a fact is I am a bit of a hobbyist. I own a telescope (Lidl Skylux) and do a bit of fooling around with a variety of astronomy software (mostly xplns in Linux). The main event of this year was the Venus Transit of June 8. I projected the transit using my telescope and a friend of mine took some pictures, two of which you can see here.

Browsers

Internet Explorer

I'd rather not spend too much time on this piece of shit. From every point of view, Internet Explorer is a worthless browser. Here's a list of 101 features that Mozilla has and IE does not. This compares the ancient Mozilla 1.2 to the relatively new IE 6.0, so expect even more from the latest Mozilla or Firefox.

Mozilla

Mozilla has been my favorite browser for a long time, but know I'm gradually giving it up for Firefox. Mozilla's evolving fast and has tons of features. It's extremely customizable and offers anything you could wish for. Themes, a great e-mail application featuring junk filtering and much more, tabbed browsing, ultimate control over Javascript and plugins, bookmark groups, and lots of other useful features that will please the demanding user. The lizard rocks!

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is also developed at mozilla.org, and is basically a branch-off from the aforementioned Mozilla. However, Firefox is meant to be a stand-alone browser, while Mozilla is a suite incorporating an e-mail application, chat client, HTML editor, optional calendar, and even more. Firefox has huge community support and there are even more extensions available for it than for Mozilla. As Firefox and Thunderbird (the mail application that integrates nicely with Firefox) are maturing, they're becoming my favorite apps for browsing and mail. I've just recently switched from Mozilla to Firefox and Thunderbird, and I must say I'm very pleased with the change! Firefox has gone through quite a lot of name changes, so you may also know it as Firebird or even Phoenix.

Netscape Navigator

Netscape and Mozilla are based on the same Gecko engine. However, Netscape is now in the hands of AOL (America Online), and they tweak it before they release it. Thus, Mozilla is purer (better) than Netscape, and what's more, it's open source.

Opera

For a while I used to think Opera was the best browser because of its looks, its speed and its compactness, but now that Firefox has improved I think that's the way to go. Also, Opera has some strikes against it because it's not open source, in fact, it's not even free (there's a free version, but it sucks because it displays advertisements all the time), and because of its weird dealing with some layout properties.

Java

Java is the only interesting programming language I know, and surprise surprise... it's my favorite one! I like it especially because it's platform-independent, which means that any program you write for Java in e.g. Windows XP, will favouritework on any other platform for which a compatible Java-interpreter exists. For Java 1.4.2 this includes but is not limited to other versions of Windows, Linux, MacOS and Solaris.

Another nice feature of Java is the fact that there are exquisite and free IDE's (Integrated Development Environments) available, such as NetBeans, Borland JBuilder and Eclipse. I've used all three of them, and now I've happily settled on Eclipse, because I found it to be the fastest and most user-friendly IDE.

Photography

Taking pictures and taking the time to do so is one of my hobbies. You'll find some of my photos in the gallery - click on the picture of the camera (EOS 30V) to go there now. And if you want to see one of my favorites, click here. There's a lot of information relating to photography on the internet, and the places listed below are just a glimpse of what's out there.

As you'll probably be able to tell I'm a Canon fan. There's a lot of discussion going on on whether Canon, Nikon, Minolta or another brand has the best cameras, but in my view they all make great products. Which one to go for is just a matter of checking your wallet, reading some good reviews, deciding what you need and picking a camera. And remember, it's not about what your camera can do, it's about what you can do with it.

When I was considering to buy an SLR (single lens reflex) camera it was a choice between a Canon or Nikon system. Those two brands have the most extensive catalog and you'll certainly find something that fits your budget. Another important issue for me was the fact that it's quite easy to rent a lens for any of those two systems abroad, while it's more of a pickle to rent a lens for, say, Minolta. Although in the Netherlands Nikon cameras are a little bit cheaper than similar Canons and their cheapest lenses are quite good, I chose Canon because their semi-professional lenses are much sturdier and have superior auto-focus compared to Nikon's lenses, while they're still affordable. Nikon has very good pro lenses (AF-S series) but these cost a multiple of Canon's semi-pro lenses, and the problem is that Nikon doesn't offer much in between. So, with Nikon it's either a body with an optically good but otherwise not-so-good lens for less money than with Canon, or a body with a superb pro lens and a frighteningly depleted bank account.

I've finally settled on a Canon EOS 30V (Elan 7NE in the States) with a Canon 28-105 3.5-4.5 USM (mark II) standard zoom lens and Sigma 70-300 4-5.6 APO tele-zoom. I also bought a Canon 420EX flash unit and some other stuff. Then, after having bought all this wonderful equipment, I stumbled upon a used Canon EOS 650, which I took off someone's hands for 50 euros. It did have a slightly oily shutter, but I took care of that with some lighter fluid and Q-tips, and it's running fine now!

But go and visit these sites, if you're interested, to read some reviews and decide for yourself.

Sports

I like many sports, most of all hockey (the ice variety), soccer and racquetball. Right now I'm playing indoor soccer in a student league at the University of Utrecht. Our team is called Men In Blue and you can find us at Paul Prinssen's website. Our sponsor is MBI (Meijden Beton Industrie), but we're called MIB (Men In Blue). This is not a stupid mistake of ours, we just thought a wrong acronym would be kind of funny (and so it is).

I used to play field hockey and tennis at a competitive level, and for a while I've been doing martial arts as well. A few years back I was involved in ashihara karate and not so long ago I was practicing aikido. I like the philosophy behind aikido, the type of martial arts that Steven Seagal is 7^th dan in, but that has nothing to do with shooting people and blowing up things the way he does in his movies. Simply put, aikido is about using your opponent's energy against him, without aiming to destroy him. Your primary intent is to render your opponent harmless, physically or mentally, so that he won't be able to attack you anymore.