Sneeuwjacht - 3 - Geen Sneeuw, Maar Toch... (Dutch)

Travel + Dutch

Een nieuw jaar, een nieuwe kans 😁

Nog een poging voor de Alpen? Verleden jaar heb ik al een stukje Timmelsjoch en Stelvio gedaan... Hoe zou het zijn om alle (nou ja, alle belangrijke) passen in 1x te rijden? Kan dat eigenlijk wel?

Countdown to 2026 - #9 - Writing & Politics - December 23 (February 11)

Countdown + Writing

This year, my countdown schedule is a periodic flashback every 5 weeks. It's now February 18, and it's time to look back on the first part of 2025.

First of all, I'm happy Trump hasn't blown up the world yet - it's fine if he sticks to the US. I'm just a little baffled by the feeding frenzy as shown by the tech billionaires (Zuckerberg, Musk, you know who). Let's start by feeling sorry for them. Or not?

MX-5 NC Bose Headunit vervangen (Dutch)

Car + MX-5 + Dutch

Er is vaak wat verwarring over wat je precies kunt doen om het geluid in je MX-5 te verbeteren.

Hierbij een overzichtje:

Countdown to 2025 - #2 - Top 3 of Failed Intentions

Countdown + Column

It's the end of the year, so here we go again... Good intentions.

I have a few... Pretty much the same as last year and I just might fail yet again. But I'm going to try again! I'll tell you next year how things ended up...

Countdown to 2025 - #8 - One year of Fahr Vergnugen / driving and modding the MX-5 / Miata (and my Top 3 in Cars)

Countdown + Car + MX-5

8 days... and today, Christmas Eve is upon us, and that means talking about presents. The New Year is almost upon us, and that means top-whatever lists. Let's talk about cars then...

(Onbegrijpelijke) Bandenmaten (Dutch)

Car + MX-5 + Dutch

Recent (nou ja) heb ik een tweede setje banden plus velgen voor m'n MX-5 gehaald, en opnieuw begreep ik helemaal niets van band- en velg-maten. Tijd om me daar eens in te verdiepen.

Past 195/55 R16 onder een MX-5? NC2 (Dutch)

Car + MX-5 + Dutch

Standaard heeft m'n MX5 205/45 R17 banden op Mazda OEM ET50 (55?) velgen.

In plaats van echte winterbanden ga ik deze winter op Four Seasons rijden, dwz. Pirelli Cinturato SF3. De bandenboer heeft 16" bandjes en bijpassende velgen geleverd, en 195/55 R16 op IT Wheels Kira S-114 ET45 velgen gemonteerd.

Fat Miata / Thic Mx-5 - Why Cupholders Make All the Difference

Column + Car + MX-5 + Wallpaper

People complain my Mazda MX-5 NC2 is fat.

Let me be clear. I'm fat. My car isn't.

Read more...

MX-5 SmartTop Roof Controller - stress relief for the lazy ones

Car + MX-5

Mods4Cars SmartTop controllers have been around for quite some time. Exemplary of that are the type of connector used (who uses a mini USB these days?!?) - and their website https://www.mods4cars.com/ isn't the most modern one on the world.

On the other hand... who cares as long as the product works? 😇

Replace Head Unit in an MX-5 NC2 (2011) - 5. Installing the Atoto and Accessories

Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit

I opted to take out the Bose head unit from my MX-5 (Miata) and replace it with an Atoto. These are my trials and tribulations getting the Atoto unit to work... (There weren't many, to be fair, except for that rotten security bolt.)

Replace Head Unit in an MX-5 NC2 (2011) - 3. Wiring Diagrams

Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit

When possible I try to understand what I'm doing, and why. That doesn't always work out 😏 but at least I try 😁

This is my first radio install in... well... thirty years? So I grabbed all the diagrams I could find, and tried to understand when I needed SWCs and LOCs, and when not.

Replace Head Unit in an MX-5 NC2 (2011) - 2. Remove Old Head Unit

Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit

There are many instructional (?) videos on the Internet that show you how to remove and install a new head unit in an MX-5 NC (aka Miata MK3.5 etc.). 

Some of those videos are pretty good, many others are terrible and awful 😏 so I decided to write this post as a kind of 'addendum', and answer the questions the videos did not. Obviously this is limited to my own setup!

Replace Head Unit in an MX-5 NC2 (2011) - 1. Parts Required

Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit

The MX-5 is a great car, but the radio Mazda put in isn't very impressive. So I decided to replace mine.

Here are some notes for those trying to do the same thing... I will add some images that identify some of the things that weren't entirely clear in the videos. Let's start with getting the right parts.

GPX Bestanden en Programma's voor de PC (Dutch)

GPX + Travel + Dutch

GPX (GPS eXport) files zijn log-bestanden / route-bestanden (in XML formaat) en worden vaak voor wandeltochten, fietstochten en auto tour-tochten gebruikt.

Deze post gaat over mijn voorlopige ervaringen met software en hardware, en dan met name onder Windows. (Al zijn de helft van de tools web based 😏)

De Meest Gevaarlijke Auto Ooit - De 2024 Volkswagen Golf MK8 (Dutch)

Column + Dutch

Nou ja, misschien niet de meest gevaarlijke auto ooit... Die 'eer' gaat waarschijnlijk naar de Ford Pinto, de Mitsubishi Spacestar (da's een raar verhaal, maar wel de auto met de meeste doden in de US), en de Reliant Robin.

Maar nu dus de Volkswagen Golf MK8. Man, wat is dat een gevaarlijk ding.

DON'T switch language on Shift+Space on Android Tablets (The Sticky Shift Key that Isn't Sticky!)

Datatalk.

Here's a nice and troublesome one. When you use an external keyboard with a tablet, such as the Logitech K380 together with the Samsung Tab S6 Lite, you may suffer from spontaneous 'language switches', which seem to eat up spaces when typing.

Don't throw away your external keyboard yet. There might be a solution. (I also found some other issues with the Samsung keyboard driver when trying to figure this out. Read on.)