Checkride preparation
A long-lived document archive rather than a polished publication portal.
PDFs, HTML essays, Dutch-language columns, and technical writing from several different periods of the site.
If you only open a few items, start with Living Without Windows, Romanian Diary, zenhowto, and OnProxyTunnel.
Aviation
PPL cheat sheets
A collection of 30 study sheets and guides I generated with ChatGPT while preparing for the private pilot checkride. The links below open the documents in Google Docs.
Browse the complete cheat sheet folder on Google Drive
Pilot and decision making
Qualifications, health, and risk
Aircraft
Systems, performance, and recovery
- Airworthiness, Inspections and Inoperative Equipment Cheat Sheet
- C172S G1000 Aircraft Systems Cheat Sheet
- C172S NAV III G1000 Electrical System Cheat Sheet
- C172 G1000 Malfunctions Cheat Sheet
- Flight Instruments and Failure Modes Cheat Sheet
- Performance, Weight and Balance, and Density Altitude Cheat Sheet
- Forward vs Aft CG Cheat Sheet
- C172S Spin Recognition and Recovery Cheat Sheet
Weather
Briefings, charts, and forecasts
- METAR, TAF, PIREP and Weather Briefing Cheat Sheet
- Weather Expectations Cheat Sheet
- Weather Go/No-Go Cheat Sheet
- Weather Charts and Go-No-Go Decision Cheat Sheet
- GFA Current Weather and Flight Categories Cheat Sheet
- GFA Ceiling and Visibility Forecast Cheat Sheet
- Surface Analysis Chart Cheat Sheet
- Fog Formation Cheat Sheet
Flight operations
Navigation, communications, and night flying
Amateur radio
FCC Technician cheat sheets
A collection of 17 cheat sheets I generated with ChatGPT for the FCC Technician amateur radio license exam. The documents are titled for the 2026–2030 exam period, and the links below open them in Google Docs.
Browse the complete FCC Technician cheat sheet folder on Google Drive
Licensing
Requirements and operating rules
Electronics
Electrical principles and station equipment
- Electrical Principles & Math — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
- Electronic Components & Circuit Diagrams — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
- Station Setup, Radio Circuits & Voice Modes — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
- Test Instruments & Soldering — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
Radio signals
Antennas, propagation, and interference
On the air
Repeaters, digital modes, and operating activities
- Repeaters & Repeater Operation — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
- Digital Protocols & Operation — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
- Amateur Satellite Operation — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
- Emergency Communications & Nets — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
- Operating Activities & Contesting — Technician Exam Cheat Sheet (2026–2030)
Safety
Electrical, antenna, and RF safety
Site writing
Essays and archive pages moved off the homepage
Series
Living Without Windows
A late-1990s chronicle of trying to run daily life, customer work, and office interoperability from Linux in a Windows-dominated world.
Travel writing
Romanian Diary
A Dutch travel diary from Bucharest, written with the same mix of observation, technical curiosity, and sharp edges found elsewhere on the site.
Witness account
Ground Zero
A personal account and photo essay from New York in November 2001.
Photo archive
Aldea Felina
A photo page about volunteering at a cat shelter near Denia, with the original gallery and captions preserved.
Featured
Articles that still stand out
Essay
How to design and implement unmanageable and insecure systems
A deliberately sharp piece on bad systems design that still reads like a signature article from this archive.
View Markdown sourceProject article
On proxytunnel
The library copy of the proxytunnel article, preserved alongside the project page.
Systems
Kernel-based random number generation in HP-UX 11.00
The library copy of the HP-UX random article, covering the Linux-compatible /dev/random work for HP-UX 11.
Columns
Java, Doctor Unix, and preserved documents
Java columns
Dutch-language software magazine writing
A run of Java columns written for Dutch Software Release Magazine, covering topics from applets and IDEs to C#, tooling, and the human side of programming.
Doctor Unix
Alternate identity, same voice
A set of columns written under the Doctor Unix persona, many of them originally published through the NLUUG e-zine orbit and preserved here as PDFs.
Archive quality
Preserved as documents, not remastered
These pieces stay in their historical formats rather than being republished into a uniform editorial shell.