Friday, September 09, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Cochon Bourgois
Just returned from a weekend trip to Budapest, on my way to my second flat in Hamburg, short stop in Erlangen to take a diving lesson (which unfortunately is at the same time as my riding lesson), finding in my letter box my Lufthansa bonus-miles card aside of the status of my stock depot...
"I live above my means but below my standards" -- Oscar Wilde (Not sure, but he would have said something like this...)
"I live above my means but below my standards" -- Oscar Wilde (Not sure, but he would have said something like this...)
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Science and Media
A portuguese newspaper is starting a program to get scientist making an internship in their offices to promote the communication of science to the public. Which is a nice idea. This is what they say why it does not work nicely now:
Translated (badly, but hopefully understandable...):
I am one of the first to rant about the incompetence of scientist to promote their works. There is nothing worse than physicists trying to do publicity about their own work; most of the time the result is boring people to a slow and horrible death. And most of the time there is not even a conscience of having to transmit science to the public (which is dumb and won't understand it anyway...)
But to just blame it on the scientist I think is also wrong. A lot of journalists have passed through the sacred corridors of our physics institute. They have asked questions. They filmed. They did not even try to understand the stuff people tried to explain them. They filmed people in lab coats (nobody actually ever wears them in a phyics institute, there is no need...) standing in front of complicated machinery with lots of Blinkenlights (which has been specially constructed for this filming and serves no purpose whatsoever). They have absolutely no idea how science works.
So, what I would propose is an exchange instead of an internship... Get scientists into the newspapers and get journalists into a university (a science faculty to be precise, as most of them have studied something or other). The only problem: find a university actually crazy enough to do this and find journalists crazy enough to do a thing like this.
A relativa pobreza da comunicação e divulgação da ciência realizada pela comunidade científica e pelas instituições de ciência deve-se em grande parte a um desconhecimento por parte destes profissionais das rotinas, critérios e cultura dos media. Este desconhecimento é gerador de desconfiança, fechamento ou mesmo de mal-entendidos e conflitos que poderiam desaparecer através de um maior contacto entre a comunidade científica e a comunidade dos media.
Translated (badly, but hopefully understandable...):
The relative weakness of communication and divulgation of science done by the scientific community and their institutions is caused to a huge part by a lack of knowledge on the side of these professionals about the routines, criterions and the actual culture of media. This lack of knowledge generates distrust, closedness or even misunderstandings and conflicts which could disappear if a better contact between the scientific community and the media community is established.
I am one of the first to rant about the incompetence of scientist to promote their works. There is nothing worse than physicists trying to do publicity about their own work; most of the time the result is boring people to a slow and horrible death. And most of the time there is not even a conscience of having to transmit science to the public (which is dumb and won't understand it anyway...)
But to just blame it on the scientist I think is also wrong. A lot of journalists have passed through the sacred corridors of our physics institute. They have asked questions. They filmed. They did not even try to understand the stuff people tried to explain them. They filmed people in lab coats (nobody actually ever wears them in a phyics institute, there is no need...) standing in front of complicated machinery with lots of Blinkenlights (which has been specially constructed for this filming and serves no purpose whatsoever). They have absolutely no idea how science works.
So, what I would propose is an exchange instead of an internship... Get scientists into the newspapers and get journalists into a university (a science faculty to be precise, as most of them have studied something or other). The only problem: find a university actually crazy enough to do this and find journalists crazy enough to do a thing like this.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Poetry
Reading a book of poems from Al Andalus (translated into german of course, as unfortunately I do neither speak arabian nor mozarabian nor hebrew...). A time and a place I would like to have been. The names alone sound very poetic: There is Ḥafṣa bint al-Ḥâdjj al Rukûniyya, there's Abû Bakr Yaḥyà bin Aḥmad ibn Baqî al Qurṭubî, there's Shemu'el ben Yosef ha Lewi Ibn Nagrella (who wrote the poem below...) to name but a few...
Mein Freund, nur Schlaf sind alle deine Jahre,
das Gute wie das Üble nur ein Traum.
Verschließ davor die Augen und die Ohren!
Ermanne dich! Es gebe Gott dir Kraft!
Laß ruhn, was dunkel ist in deinem Leben,
in ihm, der alle Dunkelheit versteht!
Schenk ein den edlen Wein, zu süßer Speise
aus schöner Frauenhand mir dargereicht,
ein Wein, so alt wie Adam, doch so jung
wie frisch gepresst aus Noahs erster Rebe!
Sein Duft ist wie der Duft von Zimt und Myrrhe,
sein Anblick Korall un lautres Gold,
wie Wein, den David reine Königinnen
kredenzten oder süße Konkubinen,
Als man den Wein in dunkle Krüge füllte,
erfüllte helles Seitenspiel den Raum.
Jerimoth sang: "So sei er eingelagert,
im Siegelfaß verschlossen aufbewahrt
dem, der mit weiser Hand den Kelch ergreift
und Rebensaft mit reinem Herzen trinkt;
dem, der den Spruch des Predigers befolgt
und nach dem Tod die Rechenschaft bedenkt."
--- Shemu'el ben Yosef ha Lewi Ibn Nagrella
Mein Freund, nur Schlaf sind alle deine Jahre,
das Gute wie das Üble nur ein Traum.
Verschließ davor die Augen und die Ohren!
Ermanne dich! Es gebe Gott dir Kraft!
Laß ruhn, was dunkel ist in deinem Leben,
in ihm, der alle Dunkelheit versteht!
Schenk ein den edlen Wein, zu süßer Speise
aus schöner Frauenhand mir dargereicht,
ein Wein, so alt wie Adam, doch so jung
wie frisch gepresst aus Noahs erster Rebe!
Sein Duft ist wie der Duft von Zimt und Myrrhe,
sein Anblick Korall un lautres Gold,
wie Wein, den David reine Königinnen
kredenzten oder süße Konkubinen,
Als man den Wein in dunkle Krüge füllte,
erfüllte helles Seitenspiel den Raum.
Jerimoth sang: "So sei er eingelagert,
im Siegelfaß verschlossen aufbewahrt
dem, der mit weiser Hand den Kelch ergreift
und Rebensaft mit reinem Herzen trinkt;
dem, der den Spruch des Predigers befolgt
und nach dem Tod die Rechenschaft bedenkt."
--- Shemu'el ben Yosef ha Lewi Ibn Nagrella
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Friday, August 26, 2005
Des Nouvelles du Bon Dieu
Chêre Écrivain,
why are all the characters in The Story based on such a small number of prototypes? Why do all dialogues contain so few content? Why does nobody actually communicate with each other? Why are the individual storys so badly written? Is consistency asked too much of a character?
Overall, I know much better writers than You. Try harder next time.
A disappointed character.
why are all the characters in The Story based on such a small number of prototypes? Why do all dialogues contain so few content? Why does nobody actually communicate with each other? Why are the individual storys so badly written? Is consistency asked too much of a character?
Overall, I know much better writers than You. Try harder next time.
A disappointed character.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
If it only be warmer...
Found this If they only would be situated in somewhere warmer climates... (and would have a language which actually one could have the hope to learn some day)
Monday, August 22, 2005
News
Interesting to see the news coverage about the portuguese forest fires. They appear here in germany just before the sports news, but still with pictures and videos, even interviews with people who lost everything. That's more than the hunger catastrophes in Mali and elswhere in the Sahel get...
They mention numbers (for example that in Pampilhosa da Serra 30.000 hectars out of 39.000 hectars in total burned down), they mention that it is really dry (the driest year since 1945), they mention that a lot of these fires are caused by people (either voluntarily or by carelessness). What they fail to mention is: most of portuguese forests is eucalyptus, planted there, not being a native tree of the region. Which grows really fast and is therefore the favourite tree for paper industry. But it also burns. Really fast. It's reproduction is based on burning down the forest.
If it isn't eucalyptus, then there is pines, also not really a native tree, but dominant before the eucalyptus, since all the oaks went to the bottom of the atlantic in form of ships. Which also burn quite good (the pines, not the oaks on the bottom of the sea, of course). This combined with a lack of forest care, ignorant politicians, underpaid fireman with not enough equipment, people who snip their burning cigarettes out of the car window while driving through dry woods etc. leads to the country burning down every year.
Of course this is a simplistic view. But it is already more complex than the "fires caused by extreme dryness" which they try to sell in the news...
And, as germany right now is blessed by papal visits and aproaching a new election, we have other things to care about than a country just next door burning down, not to speak of millions of people dying of hunger in the Sahel.
[Update] Interesting numbers: Numbers of planes equipped for putting out fires: France 11, Greece 10, Italy 16, Portugal 0 (yes, that's a zero). Instead of buying them from Canadair (which are kind of monopolists...), a portuguese minister wants europe to develop it's own. Yeah. So spent billions of euros and a couple of years to get an all european one instead of extinguishing fires with some foreign planes.
BTW: The fires have now reached the outskirts of Coimbra...
[Update 2] A Canadair Bombardier 415 Firefighting plane costs something like 35 Million Canadian Dollars... Development took three years from program start to first delivery. Make your own figures about developping a european version (involving a burocracy of european dimensions instead of just the Bombardier R&D Department).
They mention numbers (for example that in Pampilhosa da Serra 30.000 hectars out of 39.000 hectars in total burned down), they mention that it is really dry (the driest year since 1945), they mention that a lot of these fires are caused by people (either voluntarily or by carelessness). What they fail to mention is: most of portuguese forests is eucalyptus, planted there, not being a native tree of the region. Which grows really fast and is therefore the favourite tree for paper industry. But it also burns. Really fast. It's reproduction is based on burning down the forest.
If it isn't eucalyptus, then there is pines, also not really a native tree, but dominant before the eucalyptus, since all the oaks went to the bottom of the atlantic in form of ships. Which also burn quite good (the pines, not the oaks on the bottom of the sea, of course). This combined with a lack of forest care, ignorant politicians, underpaid fireman with not enough equipment, people who snip their burning cigarettes out of the car window while driving through dry woods etc. leads to the country burning down every year.
Of course this is a simplistic view. But it is already more complex than the "fires caused by extreme dryness" which they try to sell in the news...
And, as germany right now is blessed by papal visits and aproaching a new election, we have other things to care about than a country just next door burning down, not to speak of millions of people dying of hunger in the Sahel.
[Update] Interesting numbers: Numbers of planes equipped for putting out fires: France 11, Greece 10, Italy 16, Portugal 0 (yes, that's a zero). Instead of buying them from Canadair (which are kind of monopolists...), a portuguese minister wants europe to develop it's own. Yeah. So spent billions of euros and a couple of years to get an all european one instead of extinguishing fires with some foreign planes.
BTW: The fires have now reached the outskirts of Coimbra...
[Update 2] A Canadair Bombardier 415 Firefighting plane costs something like 35 Million Canadian Dollars... Development took three years from program start to first delivery. Make your own figures about developping a european version (involving a burocracy of european dimensions instead of just the Bombardier R&D Department).
Friday, August 19, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Viva il Papa
Catholisism has some tendency to like suffering. Not only praying to a medieval instrument of torture and worshipping images of martyrs portrayed in various ways of dying cruely... No, as the pope is in germany, as there is the catholic world youth thing in Cologne, humanity has to suffer as well. German Soul. Xavier Naidooooo and Söhne Mannheims all over. What have we done to deserve this? Is this already purgatory?
Trying to stuff things in my ears...
Trying to stuff things in my ears...
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Back again...
Back from the Azores, still in Portugal...
I put up some photos of the trip to São Miguel and Faial to Flickr.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Monday, July 18, 2005
Travelling...
I'll be off for the next four weeks. First a conference in Lisbon, then two weeks of holiday (plus a couple of days travelling back and forth). I definitely am carrying too much high tech around; I spent the whole afternoon finding chargers, charging batteries, finding SIM-cards, copying music to my iPod, peparing my laptop...
But, despite all this gadgets, I won't read mail the next four weeks. I will only be reachable by the selected few which have my portuguese mobile number. I most probably won't blog. See you in four weeks.
But, despite all this gadgets, I won't read mail the next four weeks. I will only be reachable by the selected few which have my portuguese mobile number. I most probably won't blog. See you in four weeks.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Signs of getting old
- We haven't been like that when we were in their age...
- Just not funny...
- Thanks, I think four beers is enough...
- No, I think I'll rather go home...
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Wrong expectations
I just wanted to go o a lecture and have one little beer at the good bye party for the prof. Been the last one to leave...
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Monday, July 04, 2005
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Verdad Global
Espresando lo que es, donde es, como es
Cada vez la vista se me nubla.
Camino oscuro, cada vez inseguo
Ai, camaroncito duro salame de este apuro
Dia a dia pienso quien fui, quien soy quien seré
Analizza mi prosa como juego de ajedrez.
Paso a paso todo es mas real
Trato de comunicarte mi verdad global
Sintiendo cosas que obstaculizan mis neuronas
Autoestima es el piso repito
Nada mas de pensarlo me erizo
Estoy en un hueco y le pido a dios que me ayude
a poner los piesen el piso para llegar
Aburrimiento que tengo yo, fatal, fatal sta mal ej, ej.
--- Madera Limpia
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Finding my place in the world...
Originally I started my browser to post something melancholic about the lack of visions and the search for Ideas. Then I got distracted by Google Maps... (Thanks Markus...)
So. Here I work when in Hamburg. This is my flat in Hamburg. The blueish white blurry spots in the upper right is where I work in Erlangen.
The place Pedro lives (and a lot of my friends as well).
A place which does not exaclty look like San Francisco. One of the sites Lord Byron declared to be the most romantic place on earth.
Little green dots where I want to spend my holiday on.
And I now stop, else I spend the whole night looking at satellite images...
So. Here I work when in Hamburg. This is my flat in Hamburg. The blueish white blurry spots in the upper right is where I work in Erlangen.
The place Pedro lives (and a lot of my friends as well).
A place which does not exaclty look like San Francisco. One of the sites Lord Byron declared to be the most romantic place on earth.
Little green dots where I want to spend my holiday on.
And I now stop, else I spend the whole night looking at satellite images...
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein...
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Mit Kumpanen abends vor der Sonne sitzen
Und von Dingen Reden, die wir gleich verstehn,
Harmlos und ganz einfach meinen Tag ausschwitzen
Und nach Mädchen gucken, die vorübergehn.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Und nicht immer diese hellen Schnäpse saufen,
Nicht von Dingen reden, die nur mich angehn,
Mir nicht für zwei Gläser Bier Verständnis kaufen,
Nicht mit jenen streiten, die am Tresen stehn.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Bei 'nem herben roten oder leichten weißen
Um 'ne Runde spielen, nach der keiner fragt,
Ein paar Witze über den Verlierer reißen,
Der ganz einfach nur darüber lacht.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Nicht um ein paar Zehntel Skat mit Hirschbock spielen,
Wo man gierig Geld in seine Taschen wischt,
Nicht dem Nachbarn heimlich in die Karten schielen,
Ihn nicht schlagen, wenn er sich zwei Asse mischt.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Mit Kumpanen lachend ein paar Lieder singen,
Die sich um Trinken, Mädchen und um Liebe drehn,
Nebenbei ein bisschen reden von den Dingen,
Die am Tag in einer kleinen Stadt geschehn.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Nicht ab Mitternacht Frau Wirtins Verse grölen,
Kein Soldatenlied und nicht den Tag des Herrn,
Nicht vom Mittelabschnitt irgendwas erzählen
und auch nichts von Hungerpest in Hongkong hörn.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Auf dem Nachhauseweg wie Kinder darauf achten,
Dass man beim Bürgersteig nicht auf die Ritzen tritt,
Und im Bett dran denken, wie die Mädchen lachten
Und im Schlaf noch lachen über meinen Schritt.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein.
Franz-Josef Degenhardt
Mit Kumpanen abends vor der Sonne sitzen
Und von Dingen Reden, die wir gleich verstehn,
Harmlos und ganz einfach meinen Tag ausschwitzen
Und nach Mädchen gucken, die vorübergehn.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Und nicht immer diese hellen Schnäpse saufen,
Nicht von Dingen reden, die nur mich angehn,
Mir nicht für zwei Gläser Bier Verständnis kaufen,
Nicht mit jenen streiten, die am Tresen stehn.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Bei 'nem herben roten oder leichten weißen
Um 'ne Runde spielen, nach der keiner fragt,
Ein paar Witze über den Verlierer reißen,
Der ganz einfach nur darüber lacht.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Nicht um ein paar Zehntel Skat mit Hirschbock spielen,
Wo man gierig Geld in seine Taschen wischt,
Nicht dem Nachbarn heimlich in die Karten schielen,
Ihn nicht schlagen, wenn er sich zwei Asse mischt.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Mit Kumpanen lachend ein paar Lieder singen,
Die sich um Trinken, Mädchen und um Liebe drehn,
Nebenbei ein bisschen reden von den Dingen,
Die am Tag in einer kleinen Stadt geschehn.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Nicht ab Mitternacht Frau Wirtins Verse grölen,
Kein Soldatenlied und nicht den Tag des Herrn,
Nicht vom Mittelabschnitt irgendwas erzählen
und auch nichts von Hungerpest in Hongkong hörn.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein,
Auf dem Nachhauseweg wie Kinder darauf achten,
Dass man beim Bürgersteig nicht auf die Ritzen tritt,
Und im Bett dran denken, wie die Mädchen lachten
Und im Schlaf noch lachen über meinen Schritt.
Ich möchte Weintrinker sein.
Franz-Josef Degenhardt
Hiking in the Alps
Been hiking in the Alps this weekend. Today finally my legs are not hurting anymore...
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
New Template...
Changed the template for the blog, couldn't see the old one anymore. It was a bit too dark anyway. Feel free to comment, especially if you find any bugs or can't read something...
Smashing windows
I just love windows...
I tried to work a bit again on the department's website, checking how it looks in internet explorer. Everything is validated, it looks nice on Linux, it looks nice on a Mac. In windows, it looks crap. Placings are wrong, transparency in the pictures etc does not work and so on and so on. Trying to look at some other website my computer claims that my Network Card has restricted connectivity (badly translated to "Konnektivität") and cannot access the internet. It did show the MSN page though. So, after installing a "Small home and company network", changing the default "Show all my data to everybody" to "Piss off", rebooting, etc, I was able to look at other websites. Just to figure out that the one I was looking for to copy some stuff uses some non-standard-dirty-tricks which make all validation go boink. Internet explorer just ignores any standards and forces you to do shitty pages. Unfortunately it's 95% Market share.
Went home then. Tried to boot windows at my home PC. The TFT complained signal out of range, and went dark. After some meddling around I could boot into the failsafe mode. Where you cannot change the screen settings. Nice. So I looked at the graphics-card-manufacturers website. There it said: if your TFT does not display anything go to System->Settings and click... Makes you wonder if somebody actually read that stuff after they wrote it.
Then I tried to delete the driver. Which worked. For a couple of seconds. Then the "New Hardware found" thing popped up and gone was my monitor. Fucking automatisms... Messed around with the registry, tried reinstalling the video driver while in failsafe mode, nothing. Gave up.
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!
I tried to work a bit again on the department's website, checking how it looks in internet explorer. Everything is validated, it looks nice on Linux, it looks nice on a Mac. In windows, it looks crap. Placings are wrong, transparency in the pictures etc does not work and so on and so on. Trying to look at some other website my computer claims that my Network Card has restricted connectivity (badly translated to "Konnektivität") and cannot access the internet. It did show the MSN page though. So, after installing a "Small home and company network", changing the default "Show all my data to everybody" to "Piss off", rebooting, etc, I was able to look at other websites. Just to figure out that the one I was looking for to copy some stuff uses some non-standard-dirty-tricks which make all validation go boink. Internet explorer just ignores any standards and forces you to do shitty pages. Unfortunately it's 95% Market share.
Went home then. Tried to boot windows at my home PC. The TFT complained signal out of range, and went dark. After some meddling around I could boot into the failsafe mode. Where you cannot change the screen settings. Nice. So I looked at the graphics-card-manufacturers website. There it said: if your TFT does not display anything go to System->Settings and click... Makes you wonder if somebody actually read that stuff after they wrote it.
Then I tried to delete the driver. Which worked. For a couple of seconds. Then the "New Hardware found" thing popped up and gone was my monitor. Fucking automatisms... Messed around with the registry, tried reinstalling the video driver while in failsafe mode, nothing. Gave up.
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!
Paper is some amazing material...
If you want to do it yourself, get the layout here. It took about 4 hours of cutting and about half an hour of folding the thing up.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Maybe I am not the right person to complain about it, as I am also quite convinced about my opinions, wrong as they may be. But some of my collegues annoy me by being right, no matter what's the subject and how off they are (or by completely missing my point)...
At least I do not answer the question "Why should it?" with "Because I say it does!". Usually I try to make up an explanation or at least try to confuse people with weird stories...
At least I do not answer the question "Why should it?" with "Because I say it does!". Usually I try to make up an explanation or at least try to confuse people with weird stories...
Doing my tax declaration is as fun as last year. I have some stocks, so I got from my bank lots of paperwork, including also 5 pages of "Fill in this value in this field in the tax-form". I have to copy that stuff into my tax declaration. Why don't they just send it directly (preferrably electronically) to the Tax office? You don't have more privacy the way they do it now, as the tax office can check with the bank (without noticing anybody, without needing a permission from anybody) about all your data the bank has (even shoe size...). The data for taxes already subtractad from my salary are also sent electronically to the tax office by my employer. I still have to fill all that stuff into that stupid form.
I do my tax declaration electronically, using software provided by the tax office. The data are sent electronically to the tax office. Then I have to print the stuff out and mail it to the tax office. Digital signature still years away.
The Tax program also provides helpful tips: for the field labeled
I do my tax declaration electronically, using software provided by the tax office. The data are sent electronically to the tax office. Then I have to print the stuff out and mail it to the tax office. Digital signature still years away.
The Tax program also provides helpful tips: for the field labeled
Summe der für 2004 festzusetzenden (anteiligen) Gewerbesteuer-Messbeträge i.S.d. §35 EStG der Betriebe lt. Zeilen 3 bis 8 u. 26 (ohne Gewerbesteuer-Messbeträge, die auf nach §5a ermittelte Gewinne oder Gewinne i.S.d. §18 Abs 4 UmwStG entfallen) - Berechnung auf einem Gesonderten Blatt -(Don't ask for a translation, I have not yet found out what that means, and I always thought I can speak german...), OK, so for that field it provides the help: "Fill in if you can apply for stuff from §35 EStG!" Thanks. Helped immensely.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Humanity keeps on being interesting. There is people closing in to their 30-ies being as naïve as a 14 year old, there is people in their early twenties being as old as close to their 40-ies. And sometimes the latter behave like the further and vice versa. But, in general, it's amazing how simple they are...
Most of my wrong understanding of people seems to be overestimating them...
Most of my wrong understanding of people seems to be overestimating them...
Thursday, June 02, 2005
A wonderful Photo-Essay about farmers in Kazakhstan on whose lands the debris of Russian rockets is falling down...
In other news: my blog is getting close to 5000 visits. Thanks to all :-) Send me a screenshot of the counter if you are number 5000 and win a free guest post (or a beer, whatever you prefer).
As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they've tortured and scared you for 20 odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped wit religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
Working Class Hero --- John Lennon
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
When they've tortured and scared you for 20 odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
Keep you doped wit religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
Working Class Hero --- John Lennon
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Monday, May 30, 2005
This is one of the classical situations where you can only loose...
You're walking home from the bar, having had some beer, so you are already walking more relaxed than you should. At the far end of the street you see the siluette of a really hot girl, walking towards you. She get's closer, a really hot blonde, wow, is she hot. You start to realize it feels a bit windy down there. Damn, the zipper is open. You are confused. What do I do, do I close it, showing her that it was open? Do I hope she does not realize it and just walk past her? Whoaaaa. HELP! OK, just pretend everything is fine, hope that she does not see that you are wearing the most ugly shorts beneath, smile, do not be emberassed, behave normal. Damned. She has a big grin on her face. She saw it. Even after you tried to pull your shirt over it. Sinking into the ground. AAARGHHHHH. YOU LOOSE.
You're walking home from the bar, having had some beer, so you are already walking more relaxed than you should. At the far end of the street you see the siluette of a really hot girl, walking towards you. She get's closer, a really hot blonde, wow, is she hot. You start to realize it feels a bit windy down there. Damn, the zipper is open. You are confused. What do I do, do I close it, showing her that it was open? Do I hope she does not realize it and just walk past her? Whoaaaa. HELP! OK, just pretend everything is fine, hope that she does not see that you are wearing the most ugly shorts beneath, smile, do not be emberassed, behave normal. Damned. She has a big grin on her face. She saw it. Even after you tried to pull your shirt over it. Sinking into the ground. AAARGHHHHH. YOU LOOSE.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Friday, May 27, 2005
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
I would like to say: I do not know what I did wrong the last eight years... But unfortunately I kow. Tonight I danced away with a hot hungarian engineer and with a hot sports student, tomorrow I hopefully will meet a hot biologist. Something is different this Bergkirchweih. Maybe I'm turning human...
Monday, May 16, 2005
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Friday, May 13, 2005
Found on the Website of O Publico
It's mine. Hands, lots of hands, are trying to get the first Stein of beer distributed at the opening of the Bergkirchweih in Erlangen (Germany). Inhabitants and tourists celebrate the 250th anniversary of tihs traditional festival.(Very loose translation by me...)
[Edit] Sorry for the spelling errors...
Monday, May 09, 2005
I just like bars where they play songs like Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin
(More info about the album here, more about the bar on Cogumelos Aporcalhados).
(More info about the album here, more about the bar on Cogumelos Aporcalhados).
Friday, May 06, 2005
Dear people who are not yet born,
if you read this post somewhere in the google archive after google has taken over the world organisation, or if you read this in a handritten note somebody made just shortly before the internet broke down: please ask your friendly neighbourhood mad scientist to borrow you his/her time machine and set the coordinates to here...
if you read this post somewhere in the google archive after google has taken over the world organisation, or if you read this in a handritten note somebody made just shortly before the internet broke down: please ask your friendly neighbourhood mad scientist to borrow you his/her time machine and set the coordinates to here...
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Just talked to one of our coordinators (we have a big bunch of them, actually we have more coordinators than people who actually do work...). So, the last two weeks we recabled the whole detector, changing the paths where the cables are running. We shorted some of the cables, glued front plates to some of our electronic boards, took data, analised the data, discussed how to procedd, tried to figure out how to beat the noise down, programmed a bit (This might not sound like a lot of work, but it keeps you busy for some time...). That only being the stuff relevant to the detector. I also had stuff to do for general university business, like attending faculty board, writing the minutes for that, meetings with various people, tutoring, etc.
Comment from our coordinator: "So nothing was done the last two weeks." Well, not really. We just hung around and did nothing...
There are people who work more, and yes, I could have done a bit more, as there was still a significant amount of time I spent for hanging around with friends and doing stuff I did not really need to do. But you might get my point...
Comment from our coordinator: "So nothing was done the last two weeks." Well, not really. We just hung around and did nothing...
There are people who work more, and yes, I could have done a bit more, as there was still a significant amount of time I spent for hanging around with friends and doing stuff I did not really need to do. But you might get my point...
Monday, May 02, 2005
Sunday, May 01, 2005
There are some problems if you get old...
I just chatted quite a long time with a really nice girl, she's something like nineteen or twenty. As I am getting quite old now, I also start being hard of hearing. So I turned always my ear towards her. Which looked a bit like I was staring at her breasts (they were something to stare at though...). Not quite the best impression to make...
[Edit] Well, maybe it's not because of old age. Maybe it has something to do with aclohol. Which is a shaky theory, because I only had too much beer and cocktails, not much too much beer and cocktails. And some of the beer would not really qualify as beer. I also remember most of the evening...
I just chatted quite a long time with a really nice girl, she's something like nineteen or twenty. As I am getting quite old now, I also start being hard of hearing. So I turned always my ear towards her. Which looked a bit like I was staring at her breasts (they were something to stare at though...). Not quite the best impression to make...
[Edit] Well, maybe it's not because of old age. Maybe it has something to do with aclohol. Which is a shaky theory, because I only had too much beer and cocktails, not much too much beer and cocktails. And some of the beer would not really qualify as beer. I also remember most of the evening...
Friday, April 29, 2005
Time Management for Anarchists: The Movie. If you want to do a revolution, organise yourself. Organisam-se! Organisam-se!
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Back in Erlangen after a bit more than a week of fun in the pit in Hamburg. Being in at the experiment makes me definitively more aggressive, wise-assy, annoyed and dump. Hope to recover soon, I'll be here in Erlangen for a whole month.
Today was faculty board. I not only was volunteered for writing the notes, I also volunteered voluntarily (all on my own) for making a redesigning proposal of the departments website. I always thought of it as not usable, ugly and generally bad. Then I saw this.
Physicists invented the web. And as usual the got interested by someting else and left the first attempts of making websites untouched. It seems that all physics departments in Germany have webpages which suck.
Now take a look at this.... No comments on why we are considered mediocre.
Today was faculty board. I not only was volunteered for writing the notes, I also volunteered voluntarily (all on my own) for making a redesigning proposal of the departments website. I always thought of it as not usable, ugly and generally bad. Then I saw this.
Physicists invented the web. And as usual the got interested by someting else and left the first attempts of making websites untouched. It seems that all physics departments in Germany have webpages which suck.
Now take a look at this.... No comments on why we are considered mediocre.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Friday, April 15, 2005
Yesterday 70 years ago Emmy Noether died. And nobody knows it. Too busy with the Einstein-Year. Sad...
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Just another reason to live in Italy. Although I would not have thought of italians to win by that...
Sunday, April 10, 2005
The last couple of weeks in Hamburg haven't been too bad. I did work a lot, but I also started to get along much better with my fellow collegues and sometimes got convinced, that they know what they are doing. Having returned to Erlangen and just getting digest of what they do via mail, I am back thinking that they have absolutely no clue about what they are doing.
Either I got used to that back in HH, they did not behave that stupid when I have been around, or I also got stupid while being there. I think the latter. Working in a big research center makes you dumb, you do not think really about what you are doing, everything is only taken so far, that it just nearly works, nobody really understands his stuff. Mediocrity is the goal...
Either I got used to that back in HH, they did not behave that stupid when I have been around, or I also got stupid while being there. I think the latter. Working in a big research center makes you dumb, you do not think really about what you are doing, everything is only taken so far, that it just nearly works, nobody really understands his stuff. Mediocrity is the goal...
Saturday, April 09, 2005
LA SEÑORA ORIANA.
A DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO.
Soneto
¡Oh, quien tuviera, hermosa Dulcinea,
Por más comodidad y más reposo,
A Miraflores puesto en el Toboso,
Y trocara su Londres con tu aldea!
¡Oh, quien de tus deseos y librea
Alma y cuerpo adornara, y del famoso
Caballero, que hiciste venturoso,
Mirara alguna desigual pelea!
¡Oh, quién tan castamente se escapara
Del señor Amadis, como tú hiciste
Del comedido hidalgo Don Quijote!
Que así envidiada fuera, y no envidiara,
Y fuera alegre el tiempo que fue triste,
Y gozara los gustos sin escote.
-- Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha
A DULCINEA DEL TOBOSO.
Soneto
¡Oh, quien tuviera, hermosa Dulcinea,
Por más comodidad y más reposo,
A Miraflores puesto en el Toboso,
Y trocara su Londres con tu aldea!
¡Oh, quien de tus deseos y librea
Alma y cuerpo adornara, y del famoso
Caballero, que hiciste venturoso,
Mirara alguna desigual pelea!
¡Oh, quién tan castamente se escapara
Del señor Amadis, como tú hiciste
Del comedido hidalgo Don Quijote!
Que así envidiada fuera, y no envidiara,
Y fuera alegre el tiempo que fue triste,
Y gozara los gustos sin escote.
-- Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha
Sure you can sing and whistle communist anthems about abolishing private property. But first you have to pay the copyright fee...
Friday, April 08, 2005
Been back in Erlangen since about a week. Something is missing, the thrill is gone. I started cycling again, I started riding, I've met a lot of good friends, I've met new people, life is much better than in Hamburg. But something is missing for it to be as much fun as in the good old days. When I meet new people, most of them are students and I feel like the nice and funny old granddad, but not like one of them (not mentioning the odds of meeting a potential girlfriend). When I meet some of my friends they turn out to be old as well or less interesting than I remembered.
The city is full of ignorant idiotic kids, the university is full of them as well. Erlangen has now a lot of arrogant elitist clubs, lots of self-focussed suits running around. But on the other hand, all the good pubs still exist, you still meet the same nice people there and it is nice there. There are still some islands, some retreats of the people and things I like.
Maybe it is time to move on, to leave all that behind, to just stay with the memories and not mix it with the time now. Finish my PhD and go somewhere. I start to like Kryptikmo's idea to go and shake hands with a gorilla...
The city is full of ignorant idiotic kids, the university is full of them as well. Erlangen has now a lot of arrogant elitist clubs, lots of self-focussed suits running around. But on the other hand, all the good pubs still exist, you still meet the same nice people there and it is nice there. There are still some islands, some retreats of the people and things I like.
Maybe it is time to move on, to leave all that behind, to just stay with the memories and not mix it with the time now. Finish my PhD and go somewhere. I start to like Kryptikmo's idea to go and shake hands with a gorilla...
Thursday, April 07, 2005
Smoothly slides open to reveal the cunningly hidden camera.
Unique red glow display screen exudes mystery and excitement.
Complete your look with the stylish protective carrying bags and straps.
Stand out like a flame in the darkness with the unique rotator (no number keys, only select, send, end, and 2 soft keys).
Did you guess? It's a phone.
Unique red glow display screen exudes mystery and excitement.
Complete your look with the stylish protective carrying bags and straps.
Stand out like a flame in the darkness with the unique rotator (no number keys, only select, send, end, and 2 soft keys).
Did you guess? It's a phone.
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
THE WORLD IS GOING TO END. At least if you believe the IFO Index. There is a nice view from over the ocean on the IFO index on slate.
They found it. It took them at least 4 hours to find that and correct it (a collegue of mine found it around 15:00, I checked around 19:00 it was still the wrong version...). And still this graphic is crap. You do not get any more information from the graphic than you would have got from the table. You have always to go back and forth between table and graphic to figure out which coulor is which party. Can you tell if the light green section is bigger than the pink one? If yes, by how much? You cannot think about the data from the graph alone, you need a table beside it. If you have a table, you don't need the graph, as it does not enlighten you in any way. It is just a blob of colour on the page. And if you need a blob of coulor, than just put up an ad, at least you get money for it.
A table would have presented the same information in an as easy way, you can easily tell that 49.6% is something like a bit less than half of the whole (which, by the way, you cannot tell from the graph). OK, this argument is a bit flawed, as it took Spiegel more than 4 hours to find the error...
Chartjunk.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Hey, I'm getting famous, somebody from nokia has visited my blog. Lucky me that I have not posted anything bad about my mobile :-) (Which happens to crash everytime I use bluetooth and which has basically no Linux support. But it still is the best mobile around...)
Funny to see the old posts and how some things have changed. Or have they?
Funny to see the old posts and how some things have changed. Or have they?
Monday, April 04, 2005
Although it looked like it's never going to happen and although my bosses are still not really aware of it, I am back in Erlangen... Let's see how long I can stay without the detector blowing up or the project getting at a standstill because nobody is around who has a clue (right now I have a competent substitute, but he will be in Hamburg for only a few days. The next possible substitute is not yet aware of having the responsibility about the whole detector. I have warned him that everything will be on him and he should shout NO as soon as possible, but he thought that was a joke...)
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Bloody blogger ate my post! So try again...
I just love intellectual TV. Just watching Arte, showing something about a couple of tree-hugging goths making porn movies to safe the rainforest. Who work together with a couple of plastic-fetishist pine-apple-provo-pogo activists. As a statement against conservatism.
I went for diner with a good friend of mine, a nice girl, who leads a completely boring normal life. She works in a hospital, her boyfriend in a bank, they go together on package-holidays, they are just normal. (Don't get me wrong, I really like her a lot, I think she is intelligent, good looking, all that. There was a time I would have liked to share a larger part of my life with her...) What a contrast...
To be honest: I think the eco-goths and the plastic-fetishists are nuts. I wouldn't be able to be in the same room with them for more than a couple of minutes without feeling the urge to kick somebody...
I just love intellectual TV. Just watching Arte, showing something about a couple of tree-hugging goths making porn movies to safe the rainforest. Who work together with a couple of plastic-fetishist pine-apple-provo-pogo activists. As a statement against conservatism.
I went for diner with a good friend of mine, a nice girl, who leads a completely boring normal life. She works in a hospital, her boyfriend in a bank, they go together on package-holidays, they are just normal. (Don't get me wrong, I really like her a lot, I think she is intelligent, good looking, all that. There was a time I would have liked to share a larger part of my life with her...) What a contrast...
To be honest: I think the eco-goths and the plastic-fetishists are nuts. I wouldn't be able to be in the same room with them for more than a couple of minutes without feeling the urge to kick somebody...
Friday, March 25, 2005
They're showing the airport movies again on TV! Oh, what great movies they made back then. And using innovative cutting techniques as well!
Why don't they make an airport movie now? Back then, the first was made when the Boeing 707 was new, then for each new aircraft there was a new movie showing the safety of them, until Airport 80 - The Concorde. They should make an Airport 2005 - The A380 now.
Cast: the usual airport cast, if no longer alive, take somebody else. But lot's of stewardesses in miniskirts, please.
Story: doesn't matter, as long as it involves a whole load of pregnant, deaf-mute, 9-year old girls with heart diseases, who have to visit their old sick parents in soviet russia. And stewardesses in miniskirts. And you need Lee Majors abseiling from a Jet-Helicopter. You need the old guy with the cigar ranting about his time back then in the airforce, when people got sucked out of airplane windows every five minutes. Everything needs to happen during a snow storm. Did I already mention stewardesses in miniskirts? Some of them might have random affairs with other members of the flight crew. As long as they have miniskirts...
The transparency feature of the newer x-windows is just amazing...
Just installed three nifty applications I think I will love a lot: F-Spot, an image organiser which helped me already discover that I have something like 8000 photographies on my computer; Tomboy, a note keeping program with wiki like functionality and finally, beagle, which seems to be a really powerful search tool...
The rest: I have spent the week programing hardware with commands like vme_A24D32_write(crate, address, buffer); more than 1500 lines of it. It is as fun as it sounds...
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
OK, so we have a online library. That is nice. We have actually two of them, one is the online-online library, one is the offline-online library. There is a third one from the CERNLIBS. We not only use the same name for the library but also the library calls are the same, just that they do completely different things. These libs are spread around the system, nobody knows which is where. And we are using automount, so that you only see half of the directories. And all software is written by madmen. I think I just go and shoot myself.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Today I installed Ubuntu Linux on my mother's laptop and on my brother's PC. This distribution really rocks! It is based on debian, but contrary to debian it does not suck... It comes with kernel 2.6.10, Gnome 2.10, Openoffice 1.2 and lots of other nifty software. What makes it really good is, there is no choice. Linuxes traditionally are proud of their choice. With XYZ Linux you can choose between 5 gazillion editors! So what. I need exactly one. And I need one I can use. I do not want editors where there is absolutely no sign what to do, you have to read don't know how many pages of the manual to find out, that to just leave the editor you have to type ESC : w q ENTER. I don't bother if it's KDE, Gnome, Windowmaker or whatever, I just want something I can use without reading the manual...
Ubuntu helps with that. During installation it asked only a few easy questions, like which language I want, which Timezone I live in, whicht partition to use. 25 Minutes later I had a system which just worked (TM). Graphical interface, simple easy desktop, Office Suite, Mail, Browser, everything I need. If I want more, there is an easy to use package manager, I could even install CERN-lib (which is physics-analysis-software for hardcore particle physicists) by just two mouse clicks (one to select the package, on on Apply). It has all the nifty features of Gnome 2.10, like automounting of CDs and USB Sticks etc. (now I do not have to issue cryptic commands, I just insert the CD and can read it). It detected the soundcard and just worked. It started the graphical user interface without painful configurations (even on Windows I had to manually install a driver I had to download from the internet on a very hidden place and it really sucked...) The wireless card of my mother's laptop, which was a real pain in Debian and Windows, just worked. The Nvidia Graphics card of my brothers PC, just worked. Installing the printer, two mouse clicks...
And I don't even have to bother for a root account. You never set the password for it, you cannot access the root account... Everything is done via sudo. The accounts you create can be "Administrators" and end up as sudoers. Which I like, because it's simple and understandable.
It just works, that's what software should be. Even my brother thought it was simple to install, and he is allergic to anything non-windows. Linux for humans. If you want to give it a go there is a Live CD you can test it without installing it on your hard disk.
Ubuntu helps with that. During installation it asked only a few easy questions, like which language I want, which Timezone I live in, whicht partition to use. 25 Minutes later I had a system which just worked (TM). Graphical interface, simple easy desktop, Office Suite, Mail, Browser, everything I need. If I want more, there is an easy to use package manager, I could even install CERN-lib (which is physics-analysis-software for hardcore particle physicists) by just two mouse clicks (one to select the package, on on Apply). It has all the nifty features of Gnome 2.10, like automounting of CDs and USB Sticks etc. (now I do not have to issue cryptic commands, I just insert the CD and can read it). It detected the soundcard and just worked. It started the graphical user interface without painful configurations (even on Windows I had to manually install a driver I had to download from the internet on a very hidden place and it really sucked...) The wireless card of my mother's laptop, which was a real pain in Debian and Windows, just worked. The Nvidia Graphics card of my brothers PC, just worked. Installing the printer, two mouse clicks...
And I don't even have to bother for a root account. You never set the password for it, you cannot access the root account... Everything is done via sudo. The accounts you create can be "Administrators" and end up as sudoers. Which I like, because it's simple and understandable.
It just works, that's what software should be. Even my brother thought it was simple to install, and he is allergic to anything non-windows. Linux for humans. If you want to give it a go there is a Live CD you can test it without installing it on your hard disk.
Friday, March 18, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Hurray for my bosses. I came to Hamburg in April last year, with the statement, that I will leave in August. I am still in Hamburg. I told my bosses here, that I will leave end of this month for about half a year. Today I got a phonecall from our spokesperson, if I can change these plans to stay more time, as I am the last one having any clue about the project, new people not being available... Well, I won't. End of discussion. The manpower problem is not my problem, I do not care anymore. If nobody is around, then I cannot do anything. This problem has been known since a long time, I have advised for half a year that I am no longer available after March, so if nothing is done, not my buisiness... (Do I need to mention that I am pissed off by that?)
Today, during breakfast, I watched parliament discussions again. They shouldn't show such things on TV, I always loose my faith into politicians in special and humanity in general.
The discussion today was: Germany's Plan to buld a Tsunami Early Alert System in Indonesia. What they want to do sounds a bit like TollCollect for waves, involving buoys with GPS and stuff. This thing is more than doubtful. We have a lot of experts on earthquakes here in Germany, which are within the top researchers in their field. We also have experts on tectonics, on oceanography etc. We do not have any expert on Tsunamis. Yes, a tsunami is just a wave caused by an earthquake. But it takes much more to understand a tsunami than an expert on earthquakes or an expert on oceanography. You need experts which know all of that and a lot of stuff more. Putting a buoy somewhere which sends an alarm when there is a wave a bit higher than normal or when there is a seaquake is one thing , actually having a trustful alarm system, which does not send too much false alarms and is efficient in real alarms is another thing. So, there is lots of questions to be asked....
What did they ask in parliament? A woman from the greens asked if this system can be enlargened so that all the poor africans on the african westcoast, who were also hit by last years tsunami can be warned. (Well, last year they were warned, because the Tsunami took some hours to reach the african coast...) They were asking lots of stupid things which were not at all related to the real problems. Nobody really asked, can we actually do that or will this be another great disaster in technology development... Do we have the expertise to do that? Nobody asked.
Seems none of them asks the right questions. All have their religions (conservatism, socialism, whateverism...), all have their catch phrases, all have a culprit (the others), all have lost contact to reality. Whenever they want to change something they are working on the symptoms, not the causes. We have to many people without work? Change the statistics and then blame the PEOPLE and the ECONOMY to be lamers... As long as they can rise their salaries and have double incomes, everything is fine.
Two other things, which made me sick: a german health insurer (AOK) is cutting the money for the blinds. Guide dogs are no longer paid, because blinds do not have the right to walk for longer distances. They only have a right to walk short distances and for that a stick is sufficient. And: the german health insurers made high profits last year. Instead of lowering their prices or offering more service, they keep on cutting down their services, but raising their CEOs salaries. Which has been rationalised by "their high responsibility and their high workload, sometimes they have to work up to 60 hours a week..." Well. I will work more than 60 hours this week, I have some responsibility (if I mess up either a new detector worth 1 Million € in Hardware only will be gone, or a working detector worth a couple of million euros will be gone, an accellerator costing hundreds of thousends of euros to run will be in a standstill...), so I am not that far off their responsibilities or workload, I still get twenty to fifty times less than them... And no chance of raise.
The discussion today was: Germany's Plan to buld a Tsunami Early Alert System in Indonesia. What they want to do sounds a bit like TollCollect for waves, involving buoys with GPS and stuff. This thing is more than doubtful. We have a lot of experts on earthquakes here in Germany, which are within the top researchers in their field. We also have experts on tectonics, on oceanography etc. We do not have any expert on Tsunamis. Yes, a tsunami is just a wave caused by an earthquake. But it takes much more to understand a tsunami than an expert on earthquakes or an expert on oceanography. You need experts which know all of that and a lot of stuff more. Putting a buoy somewhere which sends an alarm when there is a wave a bit higher than normal or when there is a seaquake is one thing , actually having a trustful alarm system, which does not send too much false alarms and is efficient in real alarms is another thing. So, there is lots of questions to be asked....
What did they ask in parliament? A woman from the greens asked if this system can be enlargened so that all the poor africans on the african westcoast, who were also hit by last years tsunami can be warned. (Well, last year they were warned, because the Tsunami took some hours to reach the african coast...) They were asking lots of stupid things which were not at all related to the real problems. Nobody really asked, can we actually do that or will this be another great disaster in technology development... Do we have the expertise to do that? Nobody asked.
Seems none of them asks the right questions. All have their religions (conservatism, socialism, whateverism...), all have their catch phrases, all have a culprit (the others), all have lost contact to reality. Whenever they want to change something they are working on the symptoms, not the causes. We have to many people without work? Change the statistics and then blame the PEOPLE and the ECONOMY to be lamers... As long as they can rise their salaries and have double incomes, everything is fine.
Two other things, which made me sick: a german health insurer (AOK) is cutting the money for the blinds. Guide dogs are no longer paid, because blinds do not have the right to walk for longer distances. They only have a right to walk short distances and for that a stick is sufficient. And: the german health insurers made high profits last year. Instead of lowering their prices or offering more service, they keep on cutting down their services, but raising their CEOs salaries. Which has been rationalised by "their high responsibility and their high workload, sometimes they have to work up to 60 hours a week..." Well. I will work more than 60 hours this week, I have some responsibility (if I mess up either a new detector worth 1 Million € in Hardware only will be gone, or a working detector worth a couple of million euros will be gone, an accellerator costing hundreds of thousends of euros to run will be in a standstill...), so I am not that far off their responsibilities or workload, I still get twenty to fifty times less than them... And no chance of raise.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
The Company and its representatives may from time to time make written or oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the SEC and in its reports to shareholders. One can identify these forward-looking statements by use of words such as "strategy," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "will," "continues," "estimates," "intends," "projects," "goals," "targets" and other words of similar meaning. One can also identify them by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts.
Disclaimer: We lie to you a lot. But you cannot sue us. HAHA! (found on the Kraft MasterFoods Germany website...)
Monday, March 14, 2005
We definitvely need a russian phrase book in our manuals here at the experiment. Babelfish is really helpful, but how do I pronounce "Victor не здесь, он придет в половину час"...?
We need important phrases like "XY is not here", "The detector is broken, please fix it", "It was not my fault", "No, I did not drink your Vodka"...
We need important phrases like "XY is not here", "The detector is broken, please fix it", "It was not my fault", "No, I did not drink your Vodka"...
Friday, March 11, 2005
What this nice representative of Samsung has in his hands is a mobile phone, just in case you didn't recognise it on first look. The following model will also feature a coffee maker, a swiss army knife like functionality, four wheel drive and maybe you can make a phonecall with it. But marketing is not sure if you really want to make a call at all.
Look at this guy. If he would be Stefan Raab (or insert-your-local-late-night-comedy-talk-show-host-here), he would be cool, hilarious, great. As he is just a obese kid, he is funny, strange, emberassing. Funny enough, most of us are like him. We are far from perfect, we do studid things we think are funny, most of them actually aren't. Shall we laugh about him? Yes. As we should laugh about ourselves...
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