This site is some twenty-five years old, and it contains lots of ancient stuff, much of it utterly dated and useless.
Sorry about that.
If anything, I post very unevenly, and about whatever occupies me.
Some featured posts
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De-googling
I have tried for ages to de-google. Not just from Google itself, but all the big ones — Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon. However, de-googling is not easy.
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Koha Library Software
Setting up a library management system like Koha is not easy, but once it’s done, registering and cataloguing your books is very easy.
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Across the river, into the trees
I spent a good deal of January and February 2021 on a movie set, but it wasn’t a very positive experience
See all featured posts.
Most recent posts
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Mare Nostrum Project
A couple of French kayakers are on a journey along the northern side of the Mediterranean, a 10.000km trip from Gibraltar to Istanbul. We hope to host them when they arrive here in Venice in a few weeks time. They’re currently half way up the Italian east coast. Mare Nostrum Project.
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The Burano Colour Game
Burano is famous for its many coloured houses. One of the fun things to do there is to find houses that matches people’s clothes.
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Bits of Rusty History
The Certosa island was home to an armaments factory, the Pirotecnica della Certosa, for the first half of the 20th century. It was shut down definitively in 1958. I found this on the ground a few days ago.
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Gondoliere practise
Waiting for the Carnival procession on the Canal Grande at the traghetto San Samuele we enjoyed the view of two gondolieri practising the manoeuvres they need to do the operate the traghetto. They needed to turn the boat repeatedly and fast, to navigate the current and waves the other traffic caused and to enter the…
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La Festa dei Veneziani
The Venetian carnival has just started, and one of the first events is the Festa dei Veneziani, which more or less implies that the rest of the carnival is not for or of the Venetians, which is also entirely true. The first part of this feast is a procession of Venetian rowing boats through most…
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Venetian rowing in the 18th century
Antonio Vivaldi, the composer from the 18th century who wrote The Four Seasons, also wrote operas to be performed in Venetian theatres. They were rather modern for their time, and one of Vivaldi’s critics published a pamphlet against him, called “Il teatro alla moda“, which has an interesting incision on the cover. It shows a…
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Videos on Facebook
Post a video on Facebook with some music in it, and they’ll remove it due to “Intellectual Property” concerns. I’ve found some classical music that’s free to use in videos, actively put in the Public Domain by the artists, and Facebook will complain anyway. There’s even a not so subtle threat in there: Hello,We have…
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Martina rowing Venetian style
which is fair enough, as she’s Venetian. Video by René Seindal, music by Beethoven, Sonata no.8 performed by Daniel Veesey.