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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The Joys of Being a Foreigner – Opening a Bank Account
When I decided to stay here in Venice for good, one of the first things to do is to open a bank account. You can only have your money lying around in envelopes for about so long 🙂 I went to one of the local banks, the Banco San Marco, and they were very nice…
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The Joys of Being a Foreigner – Telecom Italia and Alice
Living in another country always causes problems of one kind or the other. Both public administration and private companies are geared towards the citizens, not foreigners, and justly so. Yet at times you run into problems so stupid its hard not to get a bit annoyed. Telecom Italia is the largest provides of telephony and…
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Lessico Veneto – Malamocco
I recently found some scanned books from Venice of times past. One of them is a kind of historical encyclopedia from the mid 19th century, and I must say it has its little oddities 🙂 The entry for Malamocco – a small hamlet on the Lido di Venezia with a glorious past – reads: Malamocco,…
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Skim Kayaks suspends production
I’ve just received a message, in Swedish, from Skim Kayaks stating that they’re suspending production and sales because they’re having problems making ends meet economically. Its sad because the boats are fantastic. I have paddled a Skim Distance around Sardinia, and will take it around Sicily in March, and I have recently bought a Skim…
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Female Gondoliere
Until recently all gondoliere in Venice were men. This summer a Venetian woman, the daughter of a gondoliere, decided to try the exam, and she passed it as the first woman ever. New gondoliere will start to work as substitutes for the older gondoliere, taking their turns when they’re unable to do so. They also…
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Acqua Alta
Yesterday we had one of the first acqua alta‘s of the winter. It wasn’t exceptionally high, reaching a level of 100cm above the historical average water level, but it was just enough to wet a few places around the city, and more than enough to ground all but a few of the gondolas of the…
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The Elagoonephant revealed
The elephant sculpture in the lagoon now has a father too – the sculpture is made by the Dutch artist Serge Van de Put. The Elagoonephant The Angry Elagoonephant
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End of Season at the Diadora
Today we had the end of season event at the Diadora rowing club, where I should have spent a lot more time this summer. Most of the morning was taken up by ‘social’ regattas for each of the types of rowing practiced in the club, both ‘English’ rowing (backwards in various types of boats), and…
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Vogando di nuovo
Last year I started rowing Venetian style, voga alla veneta, where you stand up in the boat, looking forward, pushing on the oar to move forward. I continued Venetian rowing when I returned to Venice this spring, but then work took over, and I haven’t been rowing for several months now. Yesterday I finally went…