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Manue & Me

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If you are reading this, you must definitly be bored.
Either that, or you're looking for information about this site and/or its author.
For the first group of people I advise YouTube. For the second group, well, read on.

This is my personal blog page. I'll be referring about all things happening to me - that might be interesting for whoever reads it. I can not garantee it will be very high level for everyone though... But it is mainly maintained for far away relatives/family to have a glimpse of what I do with my life.

So - what is a blog anyway ? For this - check out Wikipedia - they have the best description for this. If you want to contact me - you'll have to reformat my E-Mail - so - good luck.

What I am ? I call myself a hacker.
Please note - most people think about the bad guys doing bad things to other computers. Well - I would say - that those guys are the Black Hat guys - also known as crackers. What I call myself - is a White Hat hacker. See it as a system administrator using professional tools to probe the robustness of his own systems and networks, and trying to get the maximum out of the used hardware - making its use as efficient as possible. This is legitimate - as I do not break into anything - while crackers attempt gaining unauthorized access to systems for eventual unethic actions.
The difference between hackers and crackers does not lie in the tools or techniques they use (the same hammer can be used to build a wall, or break it down), but in their intentions !
For me - building a stable and secure system is a very interesting challenge, and to know it is stable and secure - I need to test it with all tools available. And this is what I like doing most.


Please note that all I say on these pages is for personal use only and under no circumstance has to be taken/used/copied without my explicit written permission !

 

Diving in Lanzarote   [ 
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Diving family

 For the first time, we went diving in Lanzarote during october school holidays.
In fact, our diving club L.A.C. (Liancourt Aqua Club) organized a quite cheap diving week for those who wanted to participate.
After flying in from Paris Orly, we landed in Lanzarote, had a small briefing in the evening on how the diving would be organized, and went for it. In short, we had 2 dives in the mornings 9h to 13h (with break), and in the afternoon we were free to do as we please.
We had mostly 2 group of divers. One group was supervised, as the divers had only their level 1 license and weren't allowed to go deeper than 20m. The rest could go at least to 40m, and some even had the license to die alone at 60m (as per our diving instructors told us while signing for our level 3 license).

The underwater landscape was amazing. As Lanzarote is composed of around 300 volcanoes, the underwater landscape was in par. We did dive in shallow waters as in deep waters (going down to 48m), did visit some old ship-wrecks, and some caves just because we could. Went to water from stairs, boat, or just jumped in. Check out the videos we did on Youtube: My video, and the Video of a diving friend.

Because, as all divers know, our nitrogen levels were too high to take a plane right after diving, the last day had to be spent on land.
2 spots that anyone on Lanzarote should visit are: the "national parc of Timanfaya", which is the the landscape saved from human intervention since the big eruption of 1730, and the site called "Jameos dela agua". Both truly awesome!

I also put some pictures on my public cloud  

Written on Tue, 02 Nov 2021 - 19:17 | 1790 views
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Time travel to Napoleon's epoch   [ 
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Versailles

 The past week-end, my wife had organized our participation to the event called: "Napoléon à Versailles".
The requirement to participate was that everyone had to be dressed in the style of the 19th century, as the people during his reign as emperor.
During the event, many actors performed according to how things were done at that time. We could see military parades and maneuvers, a medal ceremony, military base camp.
On the camp-side, we could also visit some ancient trade sites, vintage dance presentations and many other related activity for that period.

In the evening, we could visit the private chambers of Napoléon (usually not opened to the public), some vintage dance scene again, participate to the goose game, which was heavily played at the court. There were also musical presentations of what was sung and listened at the time.

I have uploaded a selection of pictures and videos on our external cloud

Written on Sun, 12 Sep 2021 - 20:33 | 1948 views
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You can call me Capt'ain now   [ 
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Captain

 as we are all divers in the family, at one point someone had to ask me the question if I do have a boating license. Until now, I did not have it. But I have successfully attained the inner waters and coastal license for boats up to 20m (60feet).

From now on, I have the possibility to rent a boat if we want to go diving, or just rent a boat if we want to "float" and chill around for a while as we did during our last holidays. Hopefully, this time, I can steer or helm a boat or yacht :cool: face-cool.svg

Achivemenet Unlocked: Cap'tain :pirate: face-pirate.svg 

Written on Wed, 08 Sep 2021 - 18:50 | 1860 views
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Roadtrip summer 2021   [ 
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Padirac

 in between Covid-19 Season III and IV, we decided to go on holidays early this year, starting with the second week of July.
While driving down south, we first met the gamer friends of the kids in Issoire and invited them for dinner. Before dinner however, the kids decided to do a lasergame.

The next day we went down to our "home" town in the Corbière were we spent 7 days visiting some of the old Cathar fortresses (Montsegur, Aguilar and Termes), and also the city of Narbonne.
Note that the Cathar fortresses are always worth seeing. The location where these are built is just unbelievable.

Once that week was over, we went down to Port-Vendres a gorgeous little city on the sea side. Because we expected our Junior to join us with Friend and kid, we had to rent something able to take in 7 people. Renting a Yacht was cheaper as it seemed all prices for flats went highwire with all french people going on holidays in France.
For 14 days, my oldest and myself were working on getting a new diving license, while my wife an our youngest did enjoy their time reading and diving.
During these 14 days however, we also went out with the Yacht and spent a night in the "Baie de Paulilles" where we celebrated my wife's birthday, and we also sailed to the Spanish "point of Creus". Needless to say that the entire family enjoyed the ride and the time on the Yacht.

On the way back home, we stopped in the "Lot" were we stayed for 3 nights discovering the region. 2 places I'd really recommend to anyone going there, is the "Padirac chasm" and the small city of Rocamadour embedded in the mountainside. Both were really breathtaking.
On the 3rd day we visited the private "Castle of Cenevières", lunched in a very cute but too touristic village called "Saint Cirq Lapopie" and lastly visited the "Saint-Pierre Abbey of Marcilhac-sur-Célé" which was fascinating thanks to a dedicated guide.

All in all, these holidays have been amazing.  

Written on Wed, 04 Aug 2021 - 17:19 | 1891 views
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Achievement unlocked: N3 diving certification   [ 
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N3 Jorg

 After 2 weeks of ordeal (hard training), my oldest and I have successfully passed the level N3 exam for autonomous diver up to 60m depths.
One part (I'd rather call it rite of passage) was to go down between 10/20 m, make sure you where balanced and trimmed correctly, then take off your diving fins, remove your jacket and finally your diving mask and regulator to go on a little swim through 10m. Come back to your equipment stock, put the mask back on and empty it from remaining water, then only take back the regulator.
Other exercise were to make an assisted ascent without diving mask from 20m, plenty of other assisted ascents from 20m and 40m depth, deploying the shutes from 30m, etc.
It was quite sports, especially since we had changed some of our equipment. But by remaining calm, it worked.
After discussing it with the instructors (we had 4), it was actually to test our mental ability to deal with difficulties in high depth and make sure that we did not panic. So - all in all - we passed and got our Diving N3 certification.
Congratulations to my Oldest who passed with flying colors! :cool: face-cool.svg  

Written on Sat, 31 Jul 2021 - 19:54 | 1727 views
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Achievement Unlocked: Dad of 2   [ 
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Filles et moi

 a long time ago, some time after I moved over to France, I had two little girls jumping around me screaming and during a silent moment (which was very rare), I was asked if I would become their new dad. A question I had not thought about yet.

Some years have passed and they asked me straight if I did not want to adopt them. And actually, thinking about it, I said: yes. Why not? They are already "my" girls. I am the "dad" they had for some time now. So I went on to face the challenge of adopting these 2 beauties
What I did not expect though, where all the road-blocks that I had to overcome. First of all, Citizenship. Luckily I had lived more than 5 years in france and married their mother in the mean-time. This eased the process of me becoming a french citizen to make sure my request for adoption of the girls would not be straight rejected by the court.
What I had not anticipated though, was this straight disapproval of my "old" family regarding this project. But who are they, not taking any part in our lives and always trying to control what I do, to interfere with our happiness?
In the end, after many month of struggles looking like the Twelve Labours of Heracles, I finally received the official court approval (papers) that I am now dad of the two most amazing girls I know. And that - is worthy of an

Achievement Unlocked: Dad of 2  

Written on Sun, 20 Jun 2021 - 17:20 | 2327 views
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War memorials in Normandy   [ 
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Obama Beach

 Our youngest has taken an interest in World War II and asked us if we could visit places related to it. Of course my wife immediately devised a little trip which led us to Normandy where various memorials dot the land.

We rented a colourful house in the middle of nowhere and literally went off the grid as no network was available. But it didn't matter as we were always visiting something. Our first museum was the Airborne museum in Sainte-Mère-Eglise where the Battle of Normandy (operation Overlord) started. On the night of the 6th of June 1944, paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines and landed, amongst other places) in this little town, one being famously caught by his parachute on the church's bell tower. The museum is awesome, with artefacts, real planes and gliders, dioramas, and the use of iPads and QR codes to watch documentaries and listen to testimonies. The afternoon was spent outdoors at the Pointe du Hoc were a path roams around German blockhaus and defences.

The next day was spent in Bayeux which was a mixture of interesting things to do and a major disappointment. The attractions and museums are still dealt with as if we were in the 1980's with no booking on line (we didn't get to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry as it would have entailed hours of queuing) and an outdated (although interesting) museum dedicated to the Battle of Normandy. But the city is cute and lunch was nice. We ended up going to the beach to take a look at the famous landing beaches. There was nothing left at Omaha but what is left of the Mulberry harbour in Arromanches on Gold Beach is quite impressive.

While driving back the following day we stopped at Caen and enjoyed a guided tour of the Abbey of Saint-Etienne, founded by William the Conqueror in 1063, and now the city's town hall. We spent the afternoon in the Memorial of Caen which encompasses the entirety of World War II. It is an extremely interesting and well devised museum with all aspects of the war being exhibited. We spent four hours there and the girls (and us) expanded their knowledge about this war. We gave up on the galleries dedicated to the Cold War. This will be another opportunity to go back to Caen and continue visiting the city and its surroundings.  

Written on Sun, 23 Aug 2020 - 16:25 | 4969 views
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Road Trip in France   [ 
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US

 Due to the pandemic, we did what most French people did : we decided to stay in France and enjoy its the natural and historical wonders. So we packed our bags (well lots of them), hopped in the car and hit the road.

Our first stop was around 400 km south where we made our first stop. We landed in Chatelguyon, a cute little spa town situated in central France. Our hotel was awesome (2 rooms linked by a terrace, a heated pool, a jacuzzi ...) and our first visit was for Vulcania, a park dedicated to volcanoes, which is in fact quite logical as the area is famous for its array of extinct volcanoes. But, as everywhere in France, it is also full of castles (we had a guided tour at the personally renovated Tournoèl castle) and historical landmarks (we visited the museum of Gergovie where, in 52 B.C., the Celts led by Vercingetorix inflicted a major defeat to the Roman troops led by Caesar).

We then continued south towards Montpellier where we have family, making a stop at the amazing Templar fortified village named the Couvertoirade. This time we rented a charming house in the centre of a medieval village north of Montpellier. We spent time with our son, relaxed on the beach and also rediscovered the area (sailing the Mediterranean sea, spending half a day in the Camargue area where wildlife can easily be spotted, canoed on the river Herault and got lost in the adorable village of Saint-Guilhem-le-desert and the medieval fortress of Aigues-Mortes).

The next week we stayed along the Mediterranean Sea and continued towards Spain, stopping at Sorède, not far from Port-Vendres. There we (the whole family) just dived (early in the morning, later in the afternoon and even one during the night) and chilled out. Some of us were able to do a wreck dive (my eldest daughter and myself). You can see a selection of pictures in the Diving Gallery.
We just made a break into our diving spree to visit the animal sanctuary of Sigean. It starts with an hour in the car driving among wild animals (bears, lions, antelopes ...) and then we continued on foot the rest of the day. It's a huge sanctuary with numerous species, some of them considered endangered species. So I guess it's not a bad idea for them to be protected.

During our last week we started heading back North, towards home. We made two stops. The first one was in our next home place. We discovered the cutest village in the middle of the Corbières Massif at the foot of the Pyrenees. Not only is the place gorgeous but he inhabitants (permanent or holiday house owners) were incredible. We got along so well that leaving was heartbreaking. So we hope something to sell, that suits us, will come up so we can establish our family home over there. From there we roamed around and climbed to some of the so-called "vertigo Citadels" of Queribus and Peyrepertuse, we enjoyed lunch in a medieval restaurant (no forks !!!) and followed an inspired guide in the impressive Fontfroide monastery.

Before arriving in the Cathar country we had made a pause at Tautavel where a lovely guide explained to us how the prehistoric cave had been discovered and what it revealed of this long gone cousin of us humans. So we had decided to continue on this prehistoric trail while driving back north and this was our last stop. We spent two days in the area of the Lascaux cave which we visited during a private tour. The entire cave was recreated identically to the first and the rendering is astonishing. We spent two hours there admiring the mural paintings and listening to another fascinating guide.

The other visits we made were also nice (castle of Villerouge-Terménés and the castle of Hautefort). We wanted to spend some time in Rocamadour, one of the prettiest places in France, but the temperature was so high it was impossible to stay under the sun. So we saw it from a high point on the restaurant's terrace and we will go back another time.

Our road trip ended on a humbling visit to the martyr town of Oradour-sur-Glane where the German Das Reich Division exterminated 642 civilians. The place has never been reoccupied since and one just walks around the ruined streets and houses where scattered burned objects (cars, sewing machines, tables ...) lie around. It was a very solemn way to end our holiday but also an accurate transition to the next little trip we made two weeks later.

 

Written on Wed, 05 Aug 2020 - 16:19 | 4855 views
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Achievement Unlocked: Weather Station up and RIP   [ 
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Weather Station small

 It took me a while to build, test and setup a weather station (roughly 6 months).
I wanted to understand how exactly it worked, what sensors were required, and tinker with the system that would collect the data. The Build-Blog shows all details of the journey.
Last Sunday June 21st, I finally hooked the Weather-Station up on the roof-top of our house where it started to provide data as planned. Everything went fine. Data was being sent to Wunderground.com and on my own site, however yesterday June 26th at precisely 20h03+, during a thunderstorm, lightning struck into the neighborhood. It was so near and strong we really felt the blast and our ears did rang a while due to the loud discharge sound it made.
Having anticipated the dangers of lightnings, we had unplugged all electronic devices that were not protected. However for the weather station, there was no protection. It was on the rooftop doing its job.
Doing some basic tests on the weather station, showed that the Raspberry PI WH seems to have suffered. Instead of 120mA it started using up 500mAh of power which is way too much for that small device. I cut off the power and will have to take the station down again to check on the damage. I'll report on that another time.
Note that the street lamps in our vicinity were taken out too.  

Written on Sat, 27 Jun 2020 - 14:37 | 5371 views
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Skying in the Alps   [ 
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Ski, Top

 After having skipped Skying season for 3 consecutive years, we had to go back onto the slopes.
The main issue being: Will there be snow?

After a little research, we (actually my wife) came up with a small location high enough in the northern Alps, called Taninge.
The ski station's name was Praz de Lys (and you don't pronounce the z on the first word!) with amazing skying grounds. Also, as this is a small location - you will mostly see locals. Very kind locals who will help you back up should you fall on the slopes.

Regarding the Weather & Snow, we were quite lucky. For 6 days on the slopes, we had 3 Sunny and 3 cloudy days, while one afternoon was rainy. But the Skiing conditions were amazing the rest of the time

As usual, everyone but myself did Ski, while I hit the snowboard.

All in all, these 6 days on the slopes were amazing! To be repeated at a future time at the same location! 

Written on Thu, 27 Feb 2020 - 17:07 | 5975 views
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