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As a variation on a famous statement by the 17th-century French philosopher Descartes, I would like to say: "I write, therefore I am". More and more, I come to the realization that the act of writing is one of the key ways of expressing myself. I started to write a diary when I was 14. Since February 1995, I also keep an blog (online diary). Starting from March 2009, I recorded all my daily travels, the first year with Google Earth, then as notes in a year diary. Some years later, I also started to record all my daily activities in year diaries. For some time I also kept a photoblog. (In the past, I made many postings to usenet.) My mother tongue is Dutch, but because there are relatively few people speaking this langangue, I started to write my home page in English. But since 2007, I also started to write in Dutch and also made a Dutch home page.
I used to be a christian, but I have become a sceptic.
The most important thing in my life is my family. On October 6, 1993, I got married with Li-Xia. (Story of our honeymoon.) Together we got two children: Annabel and Andy. In 2006, Li-Xia was diagnosed with Early-onset Alzheimers Disease and on October 10, 2018 she died. On August 3, 2021, I married Conny. Of course, I am also interested in other people. I have collected home pages of people that I found worth remembering.
Because Andy has been diagnosed with Kabuki Syndrome, carrying a de novo mutation on the MLL2 gene, I have maintaining the Dutch home page about this syndrome for some years.
Besides writing, I also like reading, and collecting books and maps. One book that has kept me thinking, is the never written 7th book of the Dune chronicals, which according to the official Dune novels site, Frank Herbert indeed wanted to write before he rather suddenly died. I collected some statements, which includes a reference to page about how to fold a box from a square sheet of paper. I also collected some information about Tripterygium Wilfodii Hook f., and created pages on feeding requirements for boys, and girls. Finally, there are some "Useless Lists" of things that I have done or collected.
I would also characterize myself as a real hacker. Please don't mistake me for a cracker, which, by the general public, are often, wrongly, called hackers. I wrote a whole page about my life as a hacker. See also my collection of signature programs, which are small programs that people have contained in their email signatures. I wrote a number of articles on software enginering, including one dealing about The Art of Programming. I have compiled a list of program I published. Some of these can also found on GitHub. I have used JavaScript on this website. From a professional point of view, I am very much interested in agile software development methods of which eXtreme Programming is the most well known example.
I am also fascinated by seemingly trivial problems. Three examples of these kind of problems are: Counting Hamilton cycles in product graphs, the cutting sticks problem, and properties of the Califlower fractal. Some more puzzles and riddles are discused in my online diary.
This site is maintained with some simple editors and a bunch of home made tools, which help me to keep this site error free. I value accessibility above fanciness. For this reason, it does not use frames, does not require any plug-ins, and does not rely on images for essential information. Also with respect to the use of Java Script, I have tried to be browser independent and give alternative information whenever Java Script has been disabled.