Thomas shares makes

My old server functioned as an internet gateway and DHCP and masquerading DNS server. The last two are not necessary, but it's always easy if you just have to plug you cable into the LAN, and don't have to configure your network adapters. It also ran an Apache web server, to provide an interface to some functions.

When I started maintaining a personal website years ago, I kept all content in static HTML files which I uploaded. The server didn't support server side scripting and for a while I used a JavaScript to provide a navigation menu.

The JavaScript menu fixed just that, navigation. Devising a publishing side scripting system allowed me to separate the website look (template) from the content too.

I created a set of PHP scripts I named Pepp to process the page content along with a navigation menu to static HTML files to upload to the webspace.

DenAgenda is a webservice written in Python program I hosted on my webserver. It converted my college's online timetable from HTML (screen-scraping) to the iCalendar format, which is a standardized calendar file format.

The obsolete sourcecode is available under GPL 2 license and is available as a git repository:

I wrote this article on using a microprocessor board with GNU tools for an embedded software class back in 2006. It's written in Dutch.

When my brother was doing his last year of high-school in electromechanics, he came up with the idea of doing his final project using a homebuilt PLC instead of the usual Siemens stuff. I built the electronics and came up with a framework so he could easily implement his GRAFCET state machine for his part sorting robot for the PICMICRO in the JAL programming language.

This was long before Arduino, long before 'all the cool kids were doing it', and JAL was a free compiler for the affordable PIC microcontrollers. The Arduino of its days.

This is a list of electronics related links I collected in the early 2000's.

This is an alarm clock I built. It was very effective during the sort time I used it, because I programmed it to play a very annoying tune through a speaker. I actually started to wake up before the alarm went of, so other people in the house didn't wake up from the annoying pitches it played.

This is the first circuit I built with the PIC16F84. It can best be described as an egg timer with only the timekeeping code in place. It's got 4 pushbuttons, a character LCD and a buzzer. I started building this clock because I wanted to build my own Alarm clock. That project moved to another page, and this project will be made into a short period timer that automatically turns of a device (battery-charger, UV-case) after a preset time.

A description of my favorite free programs, written in Dutch.

I wrote this piece of advocacy in dutch. Linux used to a thing I explained frequently and this is where I pointed people to afterwards.

This is the final project I created my last year of highschool (2003-2004). It's about stepper motor control with an AVR microcontroller and BASCOM. I designed a PCB with AT90S2313 microcontroller and ULN2003 Darlington array to drive the stepper motor. It has a chapter about stepper motors that might be of interest if you want to know something more about stepper motors.

I wrote it in my native language, dutch.