The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Having cancer is not a fight or a battle, it is about having luck or misfortune

Posted by jpluimers on 2021/12/10

It has been a while after my last post about me having cancer. No, I am not giving up. But I am having the regular fear of the upcoming checks: did the metastases return, or do I have the luck to outlive some 30% of my peer group.

The last metastases surgery has been slightly more than a year ago. A year from now, that percentage hopefully will be 50% and slowly increase over time until about 90% in some 9 years from now.

At year’s end, I will know for sure.

Below are some links on, mostly Dutch but with English abstract, articles about the mental side of having cancer, or having survived it for now.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in About, Cancer, LifeHacker, Personal, Power User, Rectum cancer | Leave a Comment »

Some Bitwarden Family Plan notes

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/08/05

Posted in Bitwarden, Passwords/manages, Security | Leave a Comment »

Windows XP activation algorithm cracked, keygen updated • The Register

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/08/05

20260805: edits as since scheduling, some links suffered link rot and a new tool appeared.

For my link archive because – for offline usage – sometimes Windows XP is still useful to run tools that have never been made compatible with less ancient hardware/software combinations.

The xp_activate32.exe mentioned below emulates the phone-activation response and is the important bit for me as I can re-use existing Windows XP license keys that I already have.

The WindowsXPKg generates new Windows XP license keys.

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Posted in C, C++, Development, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows Development, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

UNIX V4 tape successfully recovered

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/08/04

I forgot to schedule this post, but it was great news: a 50+ year old Unix V4 tape that was discovered in November 25 and digitally restored in December 25.

This was a big step forward in restoring the History of Unix.

There was a lot of coverage, but I think this thread was was the coolest part. It starts at [Wayback/Archive] Rob Ricci: “While cleaning a storage room,…” – discuss.systems.

An archive of the tape is now at for instance UNIX V4 tape from University of Utah (raw) : Computer History Museum : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.

Not just the tape was found back, also the 1974 letter accompanying it: Letter to Martin Newell on UNIX delivery to University of Utah : Ken Thompson : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.

If you want to play around with it yourself, then try [Wayback/Archive] UNIX v4 (1973) – Vintage Terminals (which I found through the thread I mentioned above).

Two of the many articles that covered the recovery (pun intended):

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Posted in *nix, C, Development, History, Power User, Retrocomputing, Software Development, Unix | Leave a Comment »

Wikipedia articles with special keyboard modifier keys (and their symbols): Control, Shift, Alt, Option, Command, Menu, Windows, Meta, Hyper, Super, Fn including their symbols

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/08/04

Somehow I find these hard to find back on-line, so here is a list for my easier reference

Most of the above link have examples of common key-combinations where the modifier keys are used for.

–jeroen

Posted in Hardware, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, KVM keyboard/video/mouse, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Eten en leven met kanker, Joke Boon, 9789023017431

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/08/03

English (Nederlands hieronder): The same thing happened Joke Boon as to me: she got rectumcancer with full treatments. Unlike me she already was a book author, and decided to write a book about the whole process, with the second half of the book dedicated to recipes that worked well during and after her treatments.

The rest of the post is in Dutch.

Nederlands: Joke Boon overkwam 3 jaar later hetzelfde als ik: Endeldarmkanker. In tegenstelling tot mij was ze al auteur van een reeks boeken, en schreef ze er een boek over. Het eerste deel vooral met het proces en ervaringen rond kanker en de behandelingen; het tweede deel gevuld met recepten (maar liefst 80 stuks!) die haar in de periode van en na kanker hielpen.

[Wayback/Archive] Eten en leven met kanker, Joke Boon, 9789023017431

Het is een mooi boek, een geweldig kado voor mensen die zelf kanker hebben/hadden en hun omgeving, maar eigenlijk gewoon voor iedereen: het helpt je meer inclusief te worden en je krijgt er een berg fijne recepten mee die makkelijk aan te passen zijn naar niet veganistisch.

Via: [Wayback/Archive] Joke Boon (@jokeboon.bsky.social) — Bluesky.

Gerelateerd, waaronder diverse recensies waarvan ik eentje echt heb uitgelicht en tips uit een andere geciteerd:

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Posted in About, Cancer, Cooking, LifeHacker, Personal, Power User, Rectum cancer | Leave a Comment »

Increasing your web archiving impact: Guide to Setting Up Your 2nd (and more) ArchiveTeam Warrior in VirtualBox (Windows, MacOS, Linux…) or docker

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/08/03

With both the ever increasing amount of internet data, and ever increasing number of web sites pulling the plug, archiving them into the Internet Archive is ever more important.

The thread at [Wayback/Archive] Double Your Archiving Impact: Guide to Setting Up Your 2nd ArchiveTeam Warrior in VirtualBox (Windows) : Archiveteam has great tips on running ArchiveTeam Warrior instances, even running more than one on a machine.

It covers:

  • Running in VirtualBox
  • Running in docker

A third option is to run on ESXi which I have covered the ESXi quite a few times on my blog already. You can find the main post at Running ArchiveTeam Warrior version 3.2 on ESXi, and all posts at wiert.me/category/ArchiveTeamWarrior.

–jeroen

Posted in ArchiveTeamWarrior, Cloud, Containers, Docker, Infrastructure, Internet, InternetArchive, Power User, VirtualBox, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, WayBack machine | Leave a Comment »

SKÅDIS series – IKEA

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/07/31

[Wayback/Archive] SKÅDIS Series – IKEA

SKÅDIS is an extremely versatile pegboard that you can rearrange endless times. Add containers, shelves, letter holders and elastics and keep your things organised and tidily gathered where you can always find them. In your kitchen, hallway, study or bathroom, it’s perfect for keeping things handy.

Related:

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Posted in Hardware, IKEA hacks, LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »

No, the Delphi IfThen functions do perform do lazy evaluation

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/07/30

Ever since introduction of the IfThen functions introduced in Delphi Delphi 2007 in both the Math and StrUtils units (see WayBack radstudio2007 HUpdate4 EN delphivclwin32.pdf ¹), I have been telling people that these do not perform lazy evaluation of the then and else parts which the if/then/else statement provides.

The newly introduced if/then/else ternary conditional operator in Delphi 13 ² (of which I am not a fan, not even of the generic workaround³) – despite the unlucky number – luckily also provides lazy evaluation of the then and else parts.

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Posted in Conference Topics, Conferences, Delphi, Development, Event, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

What happens this year? (2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, … France takes nuclear reactors offline amid record heatwave | Euronews)

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/07/30

Last year, again at least France had to shut down multiple nuclear power reactors.

A very to the point comment was made: [Wayback/Archive] André Vatter | @avatter: “”Grundlastkraftwerke” 🤣…” – Mastodon (German Grundlastkraftwerk is base load power plant in English):

He quoted [Wayback/Archive] Frankreich schaltet Atomreaktoren wegen Hitze ab | Euronews which has an English version too at [Wayback/Archive] France takes nuclear reactors offline amid record heatwave | Euronews:

During heatwaves, as rivers warm naturally, operators must cut or reduce output to stay within legally mandated discharge temperature limits.

An English article has a more precise description at [Wayback/Archive] Nuclear reactors taken offline in France, as extreme heat pushes river temperatures into danger zone . At the time of writing, they mention about 10% of the French nuclear power capacity – by many regarded as “base load power plants” – had been completely shut down or greatly reduced in capacity.

In 2025, the same happened but not only in France: the Swiss also had to shut down: [Wayback/Archive] Nuclear power plants shut down in France and Switzerland as heatwave impacts river cooling – The Watchers

Same in 2024: [Wayback/Archive] EDF cuts nuclear production in reaction to soaring temperatures | Euronews

And in 2023, besides high cooling water temperatures ([Wayback/Archive] France’s nuclear power stations to limit energy output due to high river temperatures | Euronews), they also had to reduce capacity, but now for maintenance reasons: [Wayback/Archive] France / EDF Cuts Nuclear Output Forecast For 2023, Citing ‘Busy Programme Of Work’ On Reactor Fleet

I wonder what happens this year.

--jeroen

Posted in LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Pack of 30 NFC Tags NFC Cards NFC 215 Day Ntag215 NFC Tag ios Rewritable NFC Card Compatible with iPhone TagMo and Amiibo, 504 Byte Memory Fully Programmable for NFC Enabled Devices (25 mm) : Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/07/30

Pack of 30 NFC Tags NFC Cards NFC 215 Day Ntag215 NFC Tag ios Rewritable NFC Card Compatible with iPhone TagMo and Amiibo, 504 Byte Memory Fully Programmable for NFC Enabled Devices (25 mm)Interesting: [Wayback/Archive] Pack of 30 NFC Tags NFC Cards NFC 215 Day Ntag215 NFC Tag ios Rewritable NFC Card Compatible with iPhone TagMo and Amiibo, 504 Byte Memory Fully Programmable for NFC Enabled Devices (25 mm) : Amazon.de: Computer & Accessories

Via: [Wayback/Archive] Jilles Groenendijk on Twitter: “@ilthea @elborro NFC Tags NTAG215 NFC Ronde Kaarten NFC 215 Kaarttag Compatibel met TagMo en Amiibo, 504 Bytes Geheugen Volledig Programmeerbaar voor NFC-apparaten (30 stuks)”

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Hardware Development, Hardware Interfacing | Leave a Comment »

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