XL-Network's blog

My very first TV appearance

It's about four years ago, but I want to share it with you anyway. My first appearance on national television. It was for the Christian station EO in their program LoveMatch (a variant of The Dating Game). Fun to participate, but I kind of look like a dork, am I right?

From east to south

Early this month I received the message that my velomobile, which I've sold in July, was for sale again. Fortunately it now has a new owner. It moved from Germany to Belgium and now has Serge M. as it's new happy owner. Last Saturday the bike changed owner and this week Serge could take it for a longer ride. "A euphoric feeling", he writes.

Automatically download music with Headphones

Every now and then I take a look at Google Analytics to see what's happening on my site. Yesterday evening I did the same and I was in for a big surprise. There was a enormous spike in the number of visits. Normally I have around 40 to 120 visits per day (depending if I added something new). Yesterday I had 1,166 visits, 10 to 30 times more then normal. After a little detective work it turns out that the blog 90 Percent of Everything created a blog post which links to my article about the Home server / media center. I read their post with great interest and saw they found another extension, Headphones. I immediately installed it and tried it out. Here is a short introduction.

Dutch Capitals Tour 2012

Thursday a week ago I headed for Zwolle after I finished working. I went there to help Paulus wit the DCT 2012 (Dutch Capitals Tour 2012). As I mentioned before I thought it would be fun to do longer rides. This non-stop 1425 kilometer ride didn't apply for now, but it gave me the opportunity to experience it up close. Help was wanted at the check point in Zwolle.

Knee problems

No not me, but the new owner of my velomobile. Four days ago I received a Twitter message from a fellow recumbent rider that Velox Incendia, which I sold a month ago, was again up for sale. The following days more messages and questions gathered (via Twitter, email and the recumbent mailing list). That's why I will give this short explanation.

The new owner has a lot of problems with his knees that he decided to sell the bike. Today I received a detailed message from him in which he explains why he has to stop and sell the bike. He writes: "My knees are protesting big time and I have decided to stop cycling (unfortunately)... I really hate it. But yeah, I still have to use my knees for a couple more years."

If you are still interested in the bike you can (for as long as it hasn't been sold) go to Marktplaats (the Dutch eBay).

DNSSEC

The term DNSSEC stands for Domain Name System Security Extensions and takes care of verifying domain names. In short it checks that you are connected the the website that is mentioned in your address bar. DNS is the last system on the internet which is not secured. DNSSEC is a extension on the current DNS system to make it more secure. Malicious people could use DNS spoofing to redirect you to a different website than the original. This often is a fake website which looks like the original. When you enter your credit card number on that site the malicious people have your credit card number which they can use to purchase things. DNSSEC makes it very hard to manipulate the data.

What is Feestboek?

Feestboek (litteral translation: party book) is the name of a big party I play to organize on September 15th in honor of my 35th birthday. Last year I was busy cycling 5000 kilometers in America so I wasn't able to celebrate my birthday with the people in The Netherlands. I have some things to make up. The party should be twice as big! The idea is that you bring someone I don't know. That way you double the party spirit and you meet new people at the same time. And because Facebook, where this theme finds its inspiration, is all about friends, contacts and activities I had the idea to make a real-life version of Facebook. Feestboek it is!

English Cyclists Rights

At the end of last year we (Walter Hoogerbeets and myself) launched a website to promote the Cyclists Rights. Until today there was only a Dutch version. That's why a number of people worked very hard to translate those rights into English. It turned out not to be such a easy task because the terminology for a cycle path, cycle lane et cetera is different for a foreigner compared to a Dutchmen. But we did it and today it's ready for launch, the English version is online and it's called Universal Declaration of the Cyclists Rights. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Randonneuring

Or cycling long distances, also called brevets. Think distances of 200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 1200 or even 1400+ kilometers (like the Dutch Cities Tour). All non-stop and without support. You are totally dependant on yourself. It isn't a competition where getting there first matters, it's about finishing within a certain time limit. During the ride you help your fellow rider when he's having troubles. The end results anen't listed chronologicly, but aflphabetily. There is no winner. Each distance has it's own maximum allowed time. Below you can see a short schedule of the different distances and allowed times. As you can see riding the longer distances means riding through two or even three nights, with no to little sleep.

Nazca Fuego Top-Sport Edition for sale

The bike has been sold.

Are you going to sell another bike? Yes, but there is a good reason for that. The Nazca Fuego Top-Sport Edition was the first recumbent bike I bought some four years ago. With this bike I have had many adventures. We made our first 218 kilometer long monster ride, we attended the first Easter meeting and Autumn meeting, we went on a sailboat for a week, rode to Germany in two days (and back again with a total of 694 kilometers) and we did a one day tour of 314 kilometers around the IJsselmeer. Today there is just a bit more then 7.300 kilometers on the odometer. And that is not much. The last year and a half the bike stood in the shed most of the time. Only the last couple of days, since I've sold Velox Incendia, I've been riding it a bit more. It's being used for now, but still... I'm going to sell it. Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice bike, but a velomobile is just so easy and comfortable that this bike gets to little attention. And that's a pity. That's why I want to sell it so it's new owner can take it for a ride and somebody else can enjoy the pleasure of riding a recumbent.