Puntos Suspensivos en papel

Casi mil páginas, muchas fotos y muchas entradas en los casi diecinueve años del blog. Me encanta el detalle de diseño con los tres puntos en la banda, con uno diferente de color rojo en cada volumen.

Half Marathon preparations

 

Only six weeks left until the S25 Half Marathon here in Berlin. Good that the weather has improved and the icy days are over. Quite some work to do though until race day. Today I was curious about the track so I plotted it in https://www.plotaroute.com/runningrouteplanner and I was pleased to see that it is mostly flat, and actually not much different from my usual training track. I also found out that I can generate gpx files and upload them to my mobile, which seems quite useful.

Maybe one weekend I will do my long run there to get familiar with the track.

Puntos Suspensivos 2007 - 2025

Ya están en camino tres volúmenes con casi mil páginas en total con las entradas de este blog del 2007 al 2025. Todo mucho más rápido de lo que me pensaba. 

more html tools

Using AI I have created a landing page for whatever html tools I create in the future, even if they are only useful to myself. If curious, have a look at https://jccabrejas.github.io/

Splitting images

Today I decided to scan an old album of photos from almost 30 years ago. To save some time and effort I started scanning the photos three at a time and then four at a time. Which of course means that photos need to be split later. For this I used this prompt with Gemini and it worked as a charm. First time I do not have to change anything in the code.

Build an artifact that lets me split a photo into several subphotos of equal size. 

There needs to be a field in which the user can select the photo (upload from computer or paste).

There needs to be a field with a template for name of resulting subphotos

Then the user has three options to split the photos:

3 photos horizontal split

3 photos vertical split

4 photos

After one of these three options is selected the user will be able to review the result before each photo is saved (some guidelines will be overimposed to the original photoo). It will be possible to adjust the guidelines horizontally and vertically as appropriate)

Once reviewed it will be possible for the user to download each single photo. The name of the files will include the template provided previously by the user plus a string with time stamp to avoid duplications and overwriting existing files.

No React.

__________________________________________________________

From this

to this

HTML tools

I came across Useful patterns for building HTML tools by Simon Willison and found it very interesting so decided to give it a try at some point, ie today.

A colleague will be running the London marathon and looking into the training plan, I thought it would have been nice for the organizers to allow you to download an ics file rather than a pdf file (or both). Something you can add to your calendar with no effort. 

https://www.londonmarathonevents.co.uk/sites/default/files/2025-10/2026_TCSLM_Beginner_Training_Plan.pdf

So, enter html tools using Gemini. Needless to say, it took several iterations, so I really need to work on my prompts.

First prompt

Build an artifact that lets me open a pdf file. The file has a training plan to run a marathon and only pages 3 and 4 are relevant as they contain a table with the training plan. Pages 1 and 2 can be dismissed.

There needs to be a field in which the user can select the date of the marathon. The artifact will then generate calendar entries (ics file) for each day in the plan back from the date of the marathon. Each day is either a "Rest day" or a day in which you have to run or walk (or both). Rest days can be dismissed.

For each day in which there is a walk or run planned there is small text with a description.

It will be possible for the user to download those ics file. No React.

As an example, if the selected date is April 26 2026, then the plan will start 16 weeks before.

Second prompt

Dismiss the parsing logic and simply include the text in each cell of the table for running days

At this point I remembered that Excel can parse pdf into columns so I gave it a try (not perfect) and changed the prompt so that it would accept a slightly edited excel table (maybe I should have tried uploading the excel file instead)

Third prompt

ok, the parsing of the pdf file is not working. Instead of loading a pdf file, the user can paste an excel table. First column has week number, columns 2 to 8 have plans for each day of the week

Fourth prompt

That did not quite work. Each cell has text delimited with inverted commas ("). All text needs to be part of the training activity. Do not dismiss Rest days, however do not include them in the ics file

Fifth prompt

all text within " characters needs to be displayed, not only the first row

Sixth prompt

This looks good, please express distance in km, not miles

Seventh prompt

MIN stands for minutes, not miles

Eight prompt

This looks good. It should be possible to edit rach row in the schedule

After these prompts, which did not really take long, I got this (note it works even with typos in the last prompt, yes, read it again). Nice and sweet.

2025: A year in review

 

Now that the holidays are almost over, it is a good time to write about 2025 before the normal routine starts. All in all, 2025 was a pretty good year. Holidays again played a big role, and similar to 2024 this was mainly because of sharing them with family. We spent a few days in Easter and in October to enjoy the sun in Spain, enjoyed a busy Summer road trip to Belgium and Netherlands with one of my nieces and, again, but not quite the same, I took on the challenge of the Camino de Santiago, this time with my brother. Difficult to say what was the highlight of the year with so many good breaks. Following on what hopefully by now is a tradition, I wrote a couple of booklets with my travel notes, both or the Camino and the business trip to India.

If I thought I did well in 2024 regarding keeping physically active, 2025 was in a league of its own. I lost more than 10 kilos in six months through a combination of running, exercise and better nutrition, focusing on creating habits rather than quick returns. I started again the C25K programe and ended up running 10 km several times through the year, not to forget the multiple times I have been to Teufelsberg on 20+ km treks training for the Camino. No surprise then that the 165 km in early September including a 50 km final day was more fun than pain.

Work wise, another very busy and successful year thanks to the great team, which keeps changing and evolving and never stops to amaze me with their skill and dedication. 2026 will be again a busy year in which I am making my best to see challenges as opportunities while still trying to have fun and enjoy what we are building.