It was the early 2000s and I was sitting there with a massive brick from Microsoft Press. The proud price back then: Deutsche Mark. I flipped through it and felt a déjà vu: I knew these pages! Not in terms of content, but the layout, the structure, the examples, even the icons in the side notes: These were the lost manuals of the 1990s! Read more

A few years ago, I introduced Enroute1 and was immediately excited. For the first time, there is an ‘uncluttered’ app for both (Linux) desktop and mobile devices for VFR navigation and planning. And it’s free and open source and covers all of Europe. A lot of progress has been made since then and I have been able to thoroughly test the operational capability of Enroute on various trips. Read more

I recently discovered an all-in-one magic goodie for PCs from the eighties from the USA: The PicoMem board by FreddyV. This ISA bus plug-in card2 provides RAM, hard disc, floppy disc, sound card, USB, Bluetooth and even a network for old PCs. Just the idea that I would be able to connect my Schneider Euro-PC3 to the Internet or its predecessor4 left me excited. Read more

Why is the ransomware business model so successful? How do criminals manage to steal data, encrypt it and often also destroy data backups? According to a representative survey conducted by BITKOM over the past 12 months,% of companies in Germany have been affected1. A brief excursion into this topic, my work and how I was able to help a company save EUR 17,. Read more