The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

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

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Archive for October, 2025

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Turning off AI during Google Search with the “new” UDM parameter

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/17

It looks like I missed that Google has added a new URL parameter to its search engine quite a while ago.

In the past, you could turn on image search using the tbm=isch URL parameter (“to be matched” and “image search”).

That still works, but there is a new parameter on the block that is officially undocumented, and can be used to switch into various search modes including image search but also AI-less search.

This drastically lowers the carbon footprint and also gets you far less speculative information.

Edit 20251023: I forgot to save the below part before the scheduled post got published. So here we go

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Posted in AI and ML; Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Chrome, Chrome, Chromium, Development, Edge, Firefox, Google, Google AI, GoogleSearch, LLM, Mastodon, Power User, Reddit, SocialMedia, Software Development, Twitter, URL Encoding, Web Browsers | Leave a Comment »

Dutch toll free Amazon Help phone number

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/17

Toll free Dutch phone number for contacting Amazon is +318000224059.

The URLs mentioned in the below tweets redirect to:

Via

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Posted in LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »

A Tour of the .NET Functions Framework – Jon Skeet’s coding blog

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/16

From a long time ago, but forgot to queue it because I bumped into it in the midst of my cancer treatments when my memory and executive functions were hardly existent:

https://codeblog.jonskeet.uk/2020/10/23/a-tour-of-the-net-functions-framework/

Via [Wayback/Archive] Tweet:

Blogged: a tour of the .NET Functions Framework – https://t.co/5xpjNyux5q So excited to write this post – I’ve really enjoyed working on this framework, and I’m really looking forward to getting feedback.

--jeroen

Posted in .NET, Development, Jon Skeet, Software Development | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

b0rk (Julia Evans) on Twitter: “integer overflow”

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/16

Even seemingly simple data structures are worth explaining, especially when debugging. So I was glad with the explanation of [Wayback/Archive] Julia Evans on Twitter: “integer overflow”:

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

The confusing case of two Android “NFC TagInfo” apps

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/15

For a long time, I had an “NFC TagInfo” app on my phone. It worked well, and combined simplicity with straightforward easy use.

To my dismay, when upgrading to a new phone, the icon had been copied over, but the app was unavailable as per the cropped¹ image on the right.

The important message there was “Your device isn’t compatible with this version” which, as I quickly discovered, means “This app has not been updated to be compatible with the Android version you run” (without telling up until which Android version it would run on).

What I however initially missed on the screenshot was the [Wayback/Archive] Michael Roland bit (this is his Stack Overflow profile link where he, as on [Wayback/Archive] User Michael Roland – Stack Exchange, explicitly mentions [Wayback/Archive] NFC TagInfo – Apps on Google Play²).

However, when you search you get another NFC TagInfo app: NFC TagInfo by NXP.

The confusing bit

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Posted in Android, Android Devices, Development, LifeHacker, Mobile Development, Power User, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

skia4delphi/skia4delphi: Skia4Delphi is a cross-platform 2D graphics API for Delphi platforms based on Google’s Skia Graphics Library. It provides a comprehensive 2D API that can be used across mobile, server and desktop models to render images.

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/15

This is a cool library which I missed when it was introduced while recovering from my extensive cancer treatments:

[Wayback/Archive] skia4delphi/skia4delphi: Skia4Delphi is a cross-platform 2D graphics API for Delphi platforms based on Google’s Skia Graphics Library. It provides a comprehensive 2D API that can be used across mobile, server and desktop models to render images.

Skia4Delphi is a cross-platform 2D graphics API for Delphi based on Google’s Skia graphics library.

The foundation is the cross platform Google 2D Skia Graphics Engine:

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Posted in Delphi, Development, Google, Power User, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

From 2023: It’s Time For A Change: datetime.utcnow() Is Now Deprecated – miguelgrinberg.com

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/14

I forgot how I bumped into this, but a while ago I found this interesting 2023 post: [Wayback/Archive] It’s Time For A Change: datetime.utcnow() Is Now Deprecated – miguelgrinberg.com explaining naive (without time zone) and aware (with time zone) date time objects.

It reminded me of Delphi, where NowUTC – as Delphi does have neither naive or aware date time objects – returns  a floating point value (yes, it has a separate TDateTime type, but it represents the number of days that have passed since December 30, 1899 which in face stems from the Windows OLE Automation era* (OLE Automation is a subset of COM), see [Wayback/Archive] DateTime.ToOADate Method (System) | Microsoft Learn.

That method is mentioned in [Wayback/Archive] Why You Should Use NowUTC Instead of Now in Delphi: A Quick Guide – YouTube and Delphi deserves a way better infrastructure of date and time handling.

So this post is also a reminder to myself: figure out if there is an object oriented DateTime library for Delphi yet, and if not see if there is interest to create one similar to [Wayback/Archive] Noda Time | Date and time API for .NET by Jon Skeet.

Delphi references

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Posted in .NET, .NET Framework, .NET Standard, C#, Conference Topics, Conferences, Delphi, Development, Event, Jon Skeet, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Algorism and algorithm are named after Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, founder of algebra (via @annefleurdd)

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/14

I was in my 50s when I learned that both algorism and algorithm are named after the 9th-century Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi who founded algebra.

Related:

Via:

–jeroen

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

Draad van @Walrathis expert in psychotraumatologie on Thread Reader App – over crisisrespons tijdens Oktoberfest 2025

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/13

Een inzichtvolle draad: [Wayback/Archive] Thread by @Walrathis on Thread Reader App

Enkele onderwerpen:

  • tijdlijn
  • opschalen
  • compartimenteren
  • regie hebben en houden
  • communicatie
  • suicide postventie
  • briefing/debriefing
  • evenementen

Uiteraard dit: Denk je aan zelfmoord? Neem contact op met 113, dat kan altijd gratis en anoniem: bellen via 113 of 0800-0113, of via de chat of teletolk op [Wayback/Archive] Homepage | 113 Zelfmoordpreventie.

Gerelateerd

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Posted in About, Awareness, Personal, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Domotica/IoT: Smarthometweaks uit de community – Tweakers

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/10/13

Interesting ideas about home automation, domotics and IoT:

  1. [Wayback/Archive] Smarthometweaks uit de community – Tweakers
  2. [Wayback/Archive] Smarthometweaks uit de community – Verlichting – Tweakers
  3. [Wayback/Archive] Smarthometweaks uit de community – Huishoudelijke taken – Tweakers
  4. [Wayback/Archive] Smarthometweaks uit de community – Huisgenoten en -dieren – Tweakers
  5. [Wayback/Archive] Smarthometweaks uit de community – Verwarming, klimaat en energiegebruik – Tweakers
  6. [Wayback/Archive] Smarthometweaks uit de community – Multimedia – Tweakers
  7. [Wayback/Archive] Smarthometweaks uit de community – Platform en automatiseringsfilosofie – Tweakers
  8. [Wayback/Archive] Smarthometweaks uit de community – Platform en automatiseringsfilosofie – Tweakers

–jeroen

Posted in Domotics/Smarthome, Hardware, IoT Internet of Things, LifeHacker, Network-and-equipment, Power User | Leave a Comment »

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