One of the signs I have not spent sufficient time in my Erlangen Flat the last couple of months: the kitchen knives are blunt. They still are sharper than the knives found in most kitchens, but not sharp enough to be of real use. The idal sharpness is reached when a silk cloth falling on the blade gets cut in half by it's own weight. I have not yet reached this, but usually my knives are sharp enough that you only notice that you have cut yourself when you count your fingers or are standing knee deep in blood. The advantages of sharp knives are not only that cutting is much easier, it is also that wounds don't hurt and heal much faster.
So, off from the keyboard and hands on the sharpening steel. (Another word were the german is nicer: Wetzstahl)
Monday, May 29, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
At Home
So, I am more or less finally back in Erlangen. Again. And I will never ever go to work at the experiment again. Again. At least I don't have a flat anymore in HH. If you wonder why I prefer the small province town to the big rambling city full of oportunities and interesting and good stuff:
Today I started with breakfast at a friend's place, together with a couple of other friends, having white sausages and beer. Then I went with a really nice and good looking girl to a beer garden with a beautiful view, where I spent the afternoon (we went there with my DKW). The evening I spent with another friend in another beer garden. I did not get anything done today of the stuff I wanted to do (taxes are due, I should clean up my flat, I should prepare something for the tutorials tomorrow...)
In HH, I might have gone to a Cafe and sat there for some hours reading a book or so, but probably would have spent the day watching bad TV series. (Just for the files: I do have a few friends in HH, but I most probably would not be able to get my ass up and do something with them. I usually vegetated through the weekends, not being able to speak or move.)
Today I started with breakfast at a friend's place, together with a couple of other friends, having white sausages and beer. Then I went with a really nice and good looking girl to a beer garden with a beautiful view, where I spent the afternoon (we went there with my DKW). The evening I spent with another friend in another beer garden. I did not get anything done today of the stuff I wanted to do (taxes are due, I should clean up my flat, I should prepare something for the tutorials tomorrow...)
In HH, I might have gone to a Cafe and sat there for some hours reading a book or so, but probably would have spent the day watching bad TV series. (Just for the files: I do have a few friends in HH, but I most probably would not be able to get my ass up and do something with them. I usually vegetated through the weekends, not being able to speak or move.)
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Tschüss, HH
Since yesterday I don't have a flat in Hamburg anymore. So, from now on, I will have to stay in the guest house or at some friends to be in HH. It feels actually quite relieving, now that I am 100% back to Erlangen and only will go to the north in case of an emergency.
The detector seems to be quite dead now, we set up a test-stand, where we will try to heal some of the radiation damage (as if this would help...). Some modules will be repaired, it will then be installed again in about 4 weeks and then we will discover it did not change anything. So, time to start writing up and leave the sinking ship. Women and children first.
The detector seems to be quite dead now, we set up a test-stand, where we will try to heal some of the radiation damage (as if this would help...). Some modules will be repaired, it will then be installed again in about 4 weeks and then we will discover it did not change anything. So, time to start writing up and leave the sinking ship. Women and children first.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Critics
It seem's that there is intelligent movie critique sometimes:
Found in The NewYorker
There has been much debate over Dan Brown’s novel ever since it was published, in 2003, but no question has been more contentious than this: if a person of sound mind begins reading the book at ten o’clock in the morning, at what time will he or she come to the realization that it is unmitigated junk? The answer, in my case, was 10:00.03, shortly after I read the opening sentence: “Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery.” With that one word, “renowned,” Brown proves that he hails from the school of elbow-joggers—nervy, worrisome authors who can’t stop shoving us along with jabs of information and opinion that we don’t yet require.
Found in The NewYorker
Most searched tags...?
Uploaded not even an hour ago and already 33 views :-) Quite simple to get your pictures popular on Flickr.
EDIT: at 148 views 24 hours later... :-)
EDIT: at 148 views 24 hours later... :-)
Monday, May 15, 2006
The international JetSet Life of PhD Students
Just arrived back from a weekend trip to Glasgow and Edinburgh, will leave tomorrow for Hamburg, then Thursday off to Lund. After that, I might need a holiday and stay a couple of days home...
Pictures of Scotland available soon...
Thursday, May 11, 2006
The stillness, always the stillness
unless there's a dog. SHUT IT! WILL YOU SHUT IT! You must listen to this, before they put up next weeks show... (via Cosmic Variance)
I for one...
welcome our new ten-hour-working-at-most-overlords. Either it was an abduction by aliens or our spokesperson was replaced by a japanese fembot, while she was on conference. It just is weird when you receive a mail from a person working at least 14 hours a day, 7 days a week that working too much can lead to accidents and is generally not a good idea... Something must have happened while nobody was watching.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Detail
Been to an oldtimer "ralley" (the german is "Sternfahrt", no idea what the english word is...) Got the 4th place out of 12. Not bad for the first try :-) Pictures available soon...
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
32 years ago...
Maybe we should try something like that again. At least give the people the same drugs our politicians seem to use...
(For those not following german politics: our minister of the interior is hallucinating about blond and arian people, oh, sorry, german people being also attacked by foreigners, it's not only those niggers in Potsdam, it's also the good people who get bashed. Our minister for building and construction works is going to fight neonazis and giving people work by building nice little houses instead of socially wrecked ghettoes, hurra, garden dwarfs against Neonazis. And some other minister remembers the countless killed Wehrmacht-People on a meeting of Holocaust-Survivors. So much for touch and connection to reality...)
Thursday, April 20, 2006
My left ear seems to be gone... I have a cold and can't hear anything on the left side. This really sucks. On the other hand, when I was in Hamburg on Monday, traffic noises were less annoying than usual. And I think I would have even survived a meeting if I would have gone to one, the choices of meetings get multiple each days. Now it's not only the onsite meeting, the technical recoil meeting and all the other regular stuff, it seems that now a silicon noise meeting is emerging, which covers all the silicon discussions done in the onsite meeting and again at the technical recoil meeting. So stuff will be discussed in a small group with most expertise in this noise meeting, in a larger group with less expertise in the technical recoil meeting and in a huge group with no expertise in the onsite. Each time the same questions but in each iteration additional dumb questions. Actually I am happy to have left...
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Consistency
Now that I've got a classic car I need to work on the classic look. So I went out to buy two stetsons today... There's nothing like the traditional old shops which despite big mega-multi-plex- super-shopping-centres survive in their small niche, in this case Hut Brömmer in Erlangen.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Fast Reality
Found on the frontpage of Sueddeutsche.de (now sometimes with annoying audio ad). The text says: DAX rose. The graphs definitely shows it...
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Du bist Deutschland
Im vergangenen Herbst kam man sich in diesem ansonsten ja so gemütlich wie zuverlässig vor sich hin entropierenden Land so vor, als hätten sich über Nacht das nordkoreanische Propagandaministerium und ein paar amerikanische Spindoktoren zusammengetan und Deutschland in emotionale Geiselhaft genommen.
Monatelang konnte man weder den Briefkasten öffnen noch den Fernseher einschalten, ohne dass einem eingehämmert wurde, man sei Deutschland, Goethe und ein Baum in einer Person.
Gefunden auf Sueddeutsche.de
And in other news: Welcome Phil.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Style
Ah, those glorious days when girls' hats did not only looked stylish but also provided nourishment.
(Picture of Carmen Miranda, shamelessly ripped off a page I can't remember...)
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Been there, done that
Is your life empty and unfulfilling? Looking for a way to tamp down those ever-present feelings of existential despair? You might try emptying out your toolbox, and spending the afternoon cleaning and rearranging the contents. If you can follow that up with a Sunday afternoon spent fiddling with the workings of an old car, followed by shoving around heavy things in a friend's garage, why you're getting darn close to nirvana, my friend. That's exactly how I spent my weekend, and lemme tell you, it was a profoundly satisfying, dare I say, even a spiritual experience.
found here via BoingBoing
Meetings
Seems to have been the right time to have left. Now the mandatory meetings take at least 10 hours per week for students in HH. On average on these meetings there are about 20 people, all payed according to BAT2a, which gives you roughly 15.000 Euros as a sheer working cost for these meetings. I might have miscalculated, but still the monitary cost is impressive but much lower than the emotional costs...
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Local Blogs
Thanks to the feedmap thingy I found 20 blogs from Erlangen and surroundings. All of them are from dotnet-fetishists or knowledge-management-people. Seems my blog is the less geekiest of these 20... OMG, I need more techno-babble.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Just one more day...
These people here don't have a life. They have meetings instead; even if everybody goes out to get hopelessly drunk, it's called the offsite-meeting. They don't have the time to send around a mail (which would take something like 5 minutes and inform about 50 people when sent to one of our many mailing lists), they have a meeting with three people for about an hour, to which agglomerate some other five who don't have any idea what the meeting is about nor any clue about the things discussed, but are happy to utter their completely nonsensical statements nonetheless.
If you show stuff on a meeting about which you do not had the time to reflect or which you don't understand, you get shouted at for doing so. If you want to discuss it with the two other people who have any idea at all what the stuff is about, at least ten other people completely unrelated, uninformed and dumb show up and you get shouted at for having a secret meeting and not let all have a share of the enjoyment of a meeting. Not mentioning that now you can forget the result of the meeting.
And while I am ranting about: today I cleared my desk and tried to leave everything in a reasonable state. I talked to my would-like-to-be-boss about who takes care of my on-call-expert-phone, as I will leave within days. He started to whine that I can't leave, it's all against his wishes and he could call my boss and "do all kind of cheesy things". This is the second time he threatend me in a week, showing his complete inability to be in any kind of position where he has to deal with people... The only good five minutes today were when a colleague basically told him "You have no life at all, and that little you have is really miserable, ain't that funny...". Naughty bastard, hope he does that again :-)
If you show stuff on a meeting about which you do not had the time to reflect or which you don't understand, you get shouted at for doing so. If you want to discuss it with the two other people who have any idea at all what the stuff is about, at least ten other people completely unrelated, uninformed and dumb show up and you get shouted at for having a secret meeting and not let all have a share of the enjoyment of a meeting. Not mentioning that now you can forget the result of the meeting.
And while I am ranting about: today I cleared my desk and tried to leave everything in a reasonable state. I talked to my would-like-to-be-boss about who takes care of my on-call-expert-phone, as I will leave within days. He started to whine that I can't leave, it's all against his wishes and he could call my boss and "do all kind of cheesy things". This is the second time he threatend me in a week, showing his complete inability to be in any kind of position where he has to deal with people... The only good five minutes today were when a colleague basically told him "You have no life at all, and that little you have is really miserable, ain't that funny...". Naughty bastard, hope he does that again :-)
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Religious Concerts...
I am just coming home from a concert of the First Second And Third Reformed United Baptist Church of Hamburg Choir and Brass Band, listening to chorals and sprituals the honorable Reverend and Godfather of Soul would be proud of. For some reason only at the time of leaving the fun part comes to light and you meet the interesting guys and beautiful girls...
And, 1 hour and around 40 minutes too late, my part to the world day of poetry, Joachim Ringelnatz:
and another one:
And, 1 hour and around 40 minutes too late, my part to the world day of poetry, Joachim Ringelnatz:
Abschiedsworte an Pellka
Jetzt schlägt deine schlimmste Stunde,
Du Ungleichrunde
Du Ausgekochte, du Zeitgeschälte,
Du Vielgequälte,
Du Gipfel meines Entzückens.
Jetzt kommt der Moment des Zerdrückens
Mit der Gabel! -- Sei stark!
Ich will auch Butter und Salz und Quark
Oder Kümmel, auch Leberwurst in dich stampfen
Mußt nicht gleich so ängstlich dampfen.
Ich möchte dich doch noch einmal erfreun.
Soll ich Schnittlauch über dich streun?
Oder ist die nach Hering zumut?
Du bist ein so rührend junges Blut. -
Deshalb schmeckst du besonders gut.
Wenn das auch egoistisch klingt,
So tröste dich damit, du wundervolle
Pellka, daß du eine Edelknolle
Warst, und daß dich ein Kenner verschlingt.
and another one:
Logik
Die Nacht war kalt und sternenklar,
Da trieb im Meer bei Norderney
Ein Suahelischnurrbarthaar. -
Die nächste Schiffsuhr wies auf drei.
Mir scheint da mancherlei nicht klar,
Man fragt doch, wenn man Logik hat,
Was sucht ein Suahelihaar
Denn nachts um drei am Kattegatt?
Monday, March 20, 2006
Only Monday and already completely pissed off
Today I mentioned again that this will be my last week in Hamburg (yes, I did say that already quite often, but this time I'm serious). Which made my local would-like-to-be-boss say something that I can't, as the detector is not yet in a stable state. Well, it never will be... And he said something in the line of if I leave I never will get my PhD. (Yes, he said that, not for the first time! I have until now ignored it. Next time I will answer to it...) I am pissed off. Luckily he has not anything to do with my PhD.
I am not really sure how to react. I would like to tell him to go and f*ck himself (and I am quite sure, that if he wants to fight, it's him going to loose).
I was supposed to stay in Hamburg till August 2004. I am still here, one and a half year after that date. I have worked quite often up to 80 hours a week. I have my desk in a smelly dark container. I work with people I can't stand. (Some of my collegues I actually like, but unfortunately that's only a few). I get phonecalls in the middle of the night by incompetent shift crews. I have been in a state of being utterly pissed off for the last two years, I had not much of a private life. What do these fucking idiots want more?
This is my last week here. I want to keep at least a little self respect. I should have left two years ago...
I am not really sure how to react. I would like to tell him to go and f*ck himself (and I am quite sure, that if he wants to fight, it's him going to loose).
I was supposed to stay in Hamburg till August 2004. I am still here, one and a half year after that date. I have worked quite often up to 80 hours a week. I have my desk in a smelly dark container. I work with people I can't stand. (Some of my collegues I actually like, but unfortunately that's only a few). I get phonecalls in the middle of the night by incompetent shift crews. I have been in a state of being utterly pissed off for the last two years, I had not much of a private life. What do these fucking idiots want more?
This is my last week here. I want to keep at least a little self respect. I should have left two years ago...
Questions
I just had a look at the proposed questionary people have to fill out if they want to get german citizenship. Besides being completely ridiculous, western-german centric, too hard for 90% of the germans, there was one question I found really hard to answer, and most probably I would fail on that question:
Name three reasons why you want to become a german citizen.
Name three reasons why you want to become a german citizen.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Health
Although I am a non-smoker: there is an interesting article on Süddeutsche on the stupidness of outlawing smoking. Nice to read, it not only applies to smoking but to other things considered not healthy as well...
Snippet, badly translated by myself:
[1] geistig can mean spritual, mental, intellectual. Not really sure which too choose, as all apply...
Tags: Health | Smoking | Sueddeutsche
Snippet, badly translated by myself:
Einen Schritt weiter kommt man beim Nachdenken über die Formel der Gesundheit, die von der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO), vage genug, aufgestellt worden ist. Da wird dekretiert, Gesundheit sei der „Zustand vollständigen körperlichen, geistigen und sozialen Wohlbefindens“. Diese Definition umfasst mehr als die Gesundheitsvorstellung jedes Hausarztes. Wie könnte er auch, neben dem körperlichen, das geistige und soziale Wohlbefinden bestimmen? Das tut jeder für sich selbst. Und in dieser allgemeinen Bestimmung steckt ein Restchen anarchischer (und das heißt, genau übersetzt, herrschaftsfreier) Selbstbestimmung ohne soziale Kontrolle. Über den Zustand seines geistigen und sozialen Wohlbefindens entscheidet – wie lange noch? – jeder Mensch selbst.
You will get a step further when you think about the formula describing heath which has been formulated vaguely enough by the world health organisation. It decretes health as being the "state of complete well being, physical, spritual[1] and social." This definition implies much more as the definition of health your doctor has. How could your doctor aside of your physical wellbeing say something about your spritual or social well being? That everybody has to do for himself. And in this general designation of health there is a little remain of an anarchist (and that literally means without authority) self definition without social control. On the state of his spritual and social wellbeing decides - who knows for how long - every person himself.
[1] geistig can mean spritual, mental, intellectual. Not really sure which too choose, as all apply...
Tags: Health | Smoking | Sueddeutsche
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Winter Walk
Monday, March 13, 2006
Failure...
It seems that the last five years I have worked for a project which failed. It was always at the verge of failing, but managed to get along somehow, but right now my measurements suggest that the detector won't work. It might be possible to get some stuff out of it by intensive data massage, but it basically does not work.
Very motivating to have spent the last two years in a definitely not loved environment for that. I will get drunk quite soon...
Very motivating to have spent the last two years in a definitely not loved environment for that. I will get drunk quite soon...
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Mussno Ubahnfahn
Nässeltestlletona. Bidde-ll-esteign. Ausstglnks. Ltonadieserzgndethierbddelles-steign.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
New Blog
For those interested in what my new car is doing, have a look at http://frontantrieb.blogspot.com
Tags DKW | blogs
Tags DKW | blogs
Friday, March 03, 2006
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Physics seems to get sexy...
Found another blog on physics, which tries to transmit physics (and physicists) to the real world:
Cocktail Party Physics
It seems that physicist try to get rid of the image they have as being very intelligent, but strange people, who look even weirder. Trying not to be the Doc from Back to the future. Which is nice. Most of them aren't. Even within physics there are some astonishingly normal people, some even looking normal. The problem is - there is also a lot of weirdos, and there is a certain geek-culture.
Sometimes you get the impression that people try actually to look like a physicist (meaning look like Einstein), trying to behave like a Physicist (meaning erratically, complete out of this world behaviour), chosing carefully clothes which scream around "I do not care about clothes and dress whatever I find". Nothing against geeks. I think I am one myself. But can't stand the "We are geek! We are different!"-attitude some tend to develop...
And there is very hard problem: the only ones which stay in physics (at least here in Europe) are the weirdos, who will not survive outside university care. All the normal ones leave physics to get a job which is payed much better, has more or less finite working hours and no strange people...
Tags: physics
Cocktail Party Physics
It seems that physicist try to get rid of the image they have as being very intelligent, but strange people, who look even weirder. Trying not to be the Doc from Back to the future. Which is nice. Most of them aren't. Even within physics there are some astonishingly normal people, some even looking normal. The problem is - there is also a lot of weirdos, and there is a certain geek-culture.
Sometimes you get the impression that people try actually to look like a physicist (meaning look like Einstein), trying to behave like a Physicist (meaning erratically, complete out of this world behaviour), chosing carefully clothes which scream around "I do not care about clothes and dress whatever I find". Nothing against geeks. I think I am one myself. But can't stand the "We are geek! We are different!"-attitude some tend to develop...
And there is very hard problem: the only ones which stay in physics (at least here in Europe) are the weirdos, who will not survive outside university care. All the normal ones leave physics to get a job which is payed much better, has more or less finite working hours and no strange people...
Tags: physics
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Comments on Strike
First a short translation for the non portuguese readers: Nuno's and Mariana's comments basically said with said reasoning (see last post) it never works striking against "The State" and if we don't strike now against the raise of 18 minutes, we will have to cope with a lot more minutes in a couple of years. Unions, as corrupt as they may be, at least are fighting for the right side.
Which I don't really discord. My problem with this strike and with a lot of other strikes is: it simply does not work. And that we don't know about anything else is not true. The strike right now transmits no message or the wrong message. The message I get is: Unions tell people to strike about nifty things, cannot prove their point and people will not be on the side of the workers who have to work more and in the end actually fear about loosing their job. Which I thing is a signal that striking in the sense of we just won't work fails.
I can think of a couple of things which you should do better, you might as well. What you want is tor transmit your message to the work, to your employer and to get your rights. So, why don't they use the full PR machinery? The trash removers pass every house. Why not put flyers in the letterboxes. Why not talk to people. Why not get the people on your side instead of just pissing them off? Where is the big announcments in newspapers? Where is the message you want to translate seen? I have not yet seen any consistent thing what they actually strike for and why it is necessary to whine about 18 minutes per day or about working 40 hours a week (by the way, explain why this is bad to somebody who will work something like 60 hours this week, getting paid for 18.5 hours).
Unions (and the left in general) might actually be fighting for the right cause (I never really understood what the left actually wants, if you ask two of them, you get three different answers), but they just can't get the message past. Not even between themselves. Ever talked to them? Ever tried to get a consistent picture what any left wing political party wants?
Don't get me wrong. This is ment provocative. I am actually considering myself on the left side of the political spectrum and think the workers should fight for their cause. I also think if we don't do it now, it might turn much worse and then it is too late. But: having to fight with a very well organized right, fighting against people who will use all your weaknesses, you just cannot afford being dumb. Where are the big posters from the creatives? Where are the left intellectuals we used to have? Where are the consistent movements? All of them disappeared for some leftish gibberish, trying to revive the oh-so-golden days of Soviet Russia, under their great Führer Stalin...
So, to the left: the future is ahead of us. If you want to change anything, look there. Learn from the past, but think for the future. Use whatever media you want, but use all of them and use them aggressively and consistent. Printing flyers you distribute to the masses who pass the factory gate does not work anymore. Print flyers and distribute them everywhere, get the TV, get the Radio, get the Papers. Don't be the left of Marx. Be the left of the future. No longer Viva Marx, Viva Castro. Viva our children! Viva their children!
End of polemics.
Which I don't really discord. My problem with this strike and with a lot of other strikes is: it simply does not work. And that we don't know about anything else is not true. The strike right now transmits no message or the wrong message. The message I get is: Unions tell people to strike about nifty things, cannot prove their point and people will not be on the side of the workers who have to work more and in the end actually fear about loosing their job. Which I thing is a signal that striking in the sense of we just won't work fails.
I can think of a couple of things which you should do better, you might as well. What you want is tor transmit your message to the work, to your employer and to get your rights. So, why don't they use the full PR machinery? The trash removers pass every house. Why not put flyers in the letterboxes. Why not talk to people. Why not get the people on your side instead of just pissing them off? Where is the big announcments in newspapers? Where is the message you want to translate seen? I have not yet seen any consistent thing what they actually strike for and why it is necessary to whine about 18 minutes per day or about working 40 hours a week (by the way, explain why this is bad to somebody who will work something like 60 hours this week, getting paid for 18.5 hours).
Unions (and the left in general) might actually be fighting for the right cause (I never really understood what the left actually wants, if you ask two of them, you get three different answers), but they just can't get the message past. Not even between themselves. Ever talked to them? Ever tried to get a consistent picture what any left wing political party wants?
Don't get me wrong. This is ment provocative. I am actually considering myself on the left side of the political spectrum and think the workers should fight for their cause. I also think if we don't do it now, it might turn much worse and then it is too late. But: having to fight with a very well organized right, fighting against people who will use all your weaknesses, you just cannot afford being dumb. Where are the big posters from the creatives? Where are the left intellectuals we used to have? Where are the consistent movements? All of them disappeared for some leftish gibberish, trying to revive the oh-so-golden days of Soviet Russia, under their great Führer Stalin...
So, to the left: the future is ahead of us. If you want to change anything, look there. Learn from the past, but think for the future. Use whatever media you want, but use all of them and use them aggressively and consistent. Printing flyers you distribute to the masses who pass the factory gate does not work anymore. Print flyers and distribute them everywhere, get the TV, get the Radio, get the Papers. Don't be the left of Marx. Be the left of the future. No longer Viva Marx, Viva Castro. Viva our children! Viva their children!
End of polemics.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Garbage.
The following is generally oversimplified and much too short. But I don't want to bore you more than I do anyway...
In Germany, public services are on strike. They fight against a rise of the weekly working hours from 38 to 39.5 hours (or something in that order), so roughly 18 Minutes per working day. That's why garbage is lying around in the streets, why kindergartens and schools are closed.
In my, maybe naive, understanding, a strike is thought to be something you use against your employer, something to pressure your employer. Which is a valid weapon to get yourself heard and to get your rights garantueed. So, whom do they hurt in this case? Children, Parents, basically everybody. Except: the employer, who is "The State". And who does not get hurt by definition. The State does not bloody care. Next elections are in three years, by then everybody forgot about it. Government is a big coalition, opposition is ridicully to non existent, and even if they would be there, hey, they are opposition, so they are generally moaning about. Publicity you get from the strike: look, those idiots fight for a ridiculous cause, using arguments which are void (If you hear them, you wold note that they are definitvely void, as you can use them also to argue against the unions...)
Whom does that strike do good? Maybe the unions, because they had too much money... Politically, these strikes are the dumbest I have seen in a long time (OK, university politics is dumber by far, but that is a different world of students and professors trying to play real people and failing miserably). Time to move on, maybe time to get into the 20th century. The 21st seems still too far. Nowadays wars are fought on different levels, the old methods don't work if you are lucky, and fire back if you aren't.
In Germany, public services are on strike. They fight against a rise of the weekly working hours from 38 to 39.5 hours (or something in that order), so roughly 18 Minutes per working day. That's why garbage is lying around in the streets, why kindergartens and schools are closed.
In my, maybe naive, understanding, a strike is thought to be something you use against your employer, something to pressure your employer. Which is a valid weapon to get yourself heard and to get your rights garantueed. So, whom do they hurt in this case? Children, Parents, basically everybody. Except: the employer, who is "The State". And who does not get hurt by definition. The State does not bloody care. Next elections are in three years, by then everybody forgot about it. Government is a big coalition, opposition is ridicully to non existent, and even if they would be there, hey, they are opposition, so they are generally moaning about. Publicity you get from the strike: look, those idiots fight for a ridiculous cause, using arguments which are void (If you hear them, you wold note that they are definitvely void, as you can use them also to argue against the unions...)
Whom does that strike do good? Maybe the unions, because they had too much money... Politically, these strikes are the dumbest I have seen in a long time (OK, university politics is dumber by far, but that is a different world of students and professors trying to play real people and failing miserably). Time to move on, maybe time to get into the 20th century. The 21st seems still too far. Nowadays wars are fought on different levels, the old methods don't work if you are lucky, and fire back if you aren't.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Predictions
A few days ago a friend of mine said that now, as I have my classic car, all my friends are going to marry and I have to drive them around. I though that a funny remark. So, at 09.09.2006 I will be close to Bremervörde driving friends to their wedding...
Register soon, the price will go up :-)
Register soon, the price will go up :-)
Friday, February 17, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
It's all Israels fault...
I just like the reasoning of certain islamist dictators that dumb danish cartoons are all created by the zionistic international conspiracy and it's all Israels fault. Besides that, this post at cosmic variance wraps up mostly what I am thinking about the cartoon story as well.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Escape from Hell
The car dealer where Markus and I went last week burned down (Image above shamelessly stolen from spiegel.de). Around 50 vintage cars worth more than 10 Million of Euros were destroyed. Just by sheer luck the DKW I bought was already put on the delivery truck on friday, together with an old Volvo. These were the last two cars to leave the shop in a non-burned state.
My DKW arrived today, around 21:00, slightly wet by the rain but alive. So, be prepared that this blog will turn into a praise how marvelous DKW cars are and that my car is the coolest car evar!
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Friday, February 03, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Cars, Pimps, and Düsseldorf or The lifestyle of the rich, the famous and the average PhD studends
Markus and me went yesterday to Düsseldorf. Markus went to not buy a Rolls Royce (partly because it wouldn't fit into his garage, partly because his Golden Credit Card (TM) was on limit). Me to look at an old DKW and probably not buy it.
After arriving at what we thought would be an industrial area somewhere outside Düsseldorf but indeed being a side street of the Kö (Düsseldorf's most expensice shopping mile) entering the car saler. Spent some time looking at Bentleys, Rolls, Jags, Car-brands I never heard of the owner steps in. Just back from Cuba, sweetheart of Düsseldorf's high society, dumped his super-model wife for a 17 year old school girl (as we learned from the newspaper snips on the wall). While showing me the DKW he greets his friends, who just entered. Two guys from Köln, white clothing, just arrived with their Porsche Cayenne, both with bubble-perms, one of them huge golden sunglasses, looking suspiciously pimpy. Beginning four hours of interesting fun, chatting about Rolls, Jags, old cars dumped in a forest as art with them. I decided to buy the DKW. But I have to wait, as an arabian prince arrives in a Maybach he drove to try out, wanting to buy the Maybach and a couple of Mercedes. An hour later, I got the contract and hopefully the car will arrive soon...
So this is my new car:
A DKW F8 Meisterklasse, 2 cylinders (two stroke engine), 684ccm, 17kW (20HP), three gears with strange gear-stick (same technique as in a 2CV), build in 1939. Four seats, suicide doors, brilliant state. And mine :-)
After arriving at what we thought would be an industrial area somewhere outside Düsseldorf but indeed being a side street of the Kö (Düsseldorf's most expensice shopping mile) entering the car saler. Spent some time looking at Bentleys, Rolls, Jags, Car-brands I never heard of the owner steps in. Just back from Cuba, sweetheart of Düsseldorf's high society, dumped his super-model wife for a 17 year old school girl (as we learned from the newspaper snips on the wall). While showing me the DKW he greets his friends, who just entered. Two guys from Köln, white clothing, just arrived with their Porsche Cayenne, both with bubble-perms, one of them huge golden sunglasses, looking suspiciously pimpy. Beginning four hours of interesting fun, chatting about Rolls, Jags, old cars dumped in a forest as art with them. I decided to buy the DKW. But I have to wait, as an arabian prince arrives in a Maybach he drove to try out, wanting to buy the Maybach and a couple of Mercedes. An hour later, I got the contract and hopefully the car will arrive soon...
So this is my new car:
A DKW F8 Meisterklasse, 2 cylinders (two stroke engine), 684ccm, 17kW (20HP), three gears with strange gear-stick (same technique as in a 2CV), build in 1939. Four seats, suicide doors, brilliant state. And mine :-)
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Education
Ientends & veulx que tu aprenes les langues parfaictement. Premierement la Grecque comme le veult Quintilian. Secondement la latine. Et puis l'Hebraicque pour les sainctes lettres, & la Chaldeicque & Arabicque pareillement: & que tu formes ton stille, quant à la Grecque, à l'imitation de Platon, quant à la Latine, à Ciceron. Qu'il n'y ait histoire que tu ne tiengne en memoire presente, à quoy te aydera la Cosmographie de ceulx qui en ont escript. Les ars liberaulx, Geometrie, Arismetique, & Musicque, Ie t'en donnay quelque goñt quand tu estoys encores petit en l'aage de cinq à six ans: poursuys le reste, & de Astronomie saches en tous les canons, laisse moy l'Astrologie divinatrice, et art de Lucius comme abuz et vanitez. Du droit Civil ie veulx que tu saches par cueur les beaulx textes, et me les confere avecques la philosophie. Et quant à la congnoissance des faitz de nature, Ie veulx que tu t'y adonne curieusement, qu'il n'y ait mer, ryviere, ny fontaine, dont tu ne congnoisse les poissons, tous les oyseaulx de l'air, tous les arbres arbustes & fructices des forestz, toutes les herbes de la terre, tous les metaulx cachez au ventre des abysmes, les pierreries de tout orient & midy, riens ne te soit incongneu. Puis songneusement revisite les livres des medecins, Grecs, Arabes, & Latins, sans contemner les Thalmudistes & Cabalistes, & par frequentes anatomyes acquiers toy parfaicte congnoissance de l'aultre monde, qui est l'homme. Et par quelques heures du iour comme à visiter les sainctes letttres. Premierement en Grec le nouveau testament et Epistres des apostres, & puis en Hebrieu le vieulx testament. Somme que ie voye ung abysme de science: car doresnavant que tu deviens homme & te fais grand, il te fauldra issir de ceste tranquillité & repos d'estude: & apprendre la chevalerie & les armes, pour defendre ma maison, & nos amys secourir en tous leurs affaires contre les assaulx des malfaisans.
Rabelais - Pantagruel - Les horribles et espouvantables faictz & prouesses du tresrenommé Pantagruel Roy des Dipsodes, filz du grand geant Gargantua, Composez nouvellement par maistre Alcofrybas Nasier.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Nostalgy
Re-read some posts from two years ago. Kind of interesting to see what I thought at that time, what my mood was at that time and how I thought I will only spend half a year or so in Hamburg. It's now something like one and a half year I have spent between Hamburg and Erlangen and I still prefer the little province town to the big booming city full of opportunities. Fun to see where you change and where not...
2nd Anniversary
Micha kindly reminded me that today is the 2nd anniversary of this blog... So I watched a movie. Fitzcarraldo. For me, one of the best movies ever. For various reasons:
They did carry a fucking big ship over a hill in the amazonian rain forest.
They passed some rapids with said ship. The main actor and camera crew aboard, resulting only in a dislocated shoulder of the cameraman.
And Kinski at his best. During shooting of the movie one of the indian chiefs offered to kill him, as he was always fighting with the director and generally mad.
They did carry a fucking big ship over a hill in the amazonian rain forest.
They passed some rapids with said ship. The main actor and camera crew aboard, resulting only in a dislocated shoulder of the cameraman.
And Kinski at his best. During shooting of the movie one of the indian chiefs offered to kill him, as he was always fighting with the director and generally mad.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Statistics...
Around 70% of the 11-15 year olds questioned said they did not picture scientists as "normal young and attractive men and women".
Among those who said they would not like to be scientists, reasons included: "Because you would constantly be depressed and tired and not have time for family", and "because they all wear big glasses and white coats and I am female".
Found at the BBC. As it speaks for itself I will refrain from any comments...
UPDATE: Also an interesting post on the same article on cosmic variance. Especially nice are the pictures :-)
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
IKB
Been to an art museum on sunday. This is the most impressive painting I saw. (Actually it isn't. This is Monochrome 79. I saw Monochrome 43 (or something). But you get the idea).
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Women in Physics
A lot of physicists grew up as socially awkward adolescents — not exactly the captain of the football team, if you know what I mean — and have found that as scientists they can suddenly be the powerful bullies in the room, and their delight in this role helps to forge a strangely macho and exclusionary culture out of what should be a joyful pursuit of the secrets of the universe.
CosmicVariance has a post on women in physics and why there are only so few of them. Above quotation not only might indicate why, it also shows why working in physics sucks. It's not only the treatment of women, physics I think is gender-indifferent in most physicist being socially retarted idiots. Men are just used to it, as we are more prone to be one ourself. So, instead of concluding that we need more women in physics, I would conclude we need more socially apt people. Which might not necessarily be women, but, as you can also read in the post (there cited as an argument of macho-idiot-phyiscists like me), women actually do look better...
Monday, January 16, 2006
Original
Found some web-gallery which actually seems to be nice...: Original.
You need to run a local script to generate the gallery, then copy it to your webserver and then, voilá, nice gallery. Very easy to add information or protect individual galleries with a password (put into info.txt restricted_user|<username> and restricted_password|<password>)
To rotate images before use exiftran.
You need to run a local script to generate the gallery, then copy it to your webserver and then, voilá, nice gallery. Very easy to add information or protect individual galleries with a password (put into info.txt restricted_user|<username> and restricted_password|<password>)
To rotate images before use exiftran.
Weekend trip
Hamburg - Achim - Erlangen - Köln - Hannover - Hamburg. 1510 km. Two parties, one social security number, an art museum and a bit of paperwork... Busy weekend it was.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Random Philosphy
Passionate in english usually refers to love and sex. In portuguese apaixionado means in love. In german "passioniert" is usually used in conjunction with stamp collecting and other really passionate stuff. Strange people.
Lights
New toys arrived. Now I can enter the world of glamour portraits (and normal portraits as well), the only thing I need is models. Any volunteers?
Monday, January 09, 2006
Happy...?
Your Social Dysfunction: Happy You're a happy person - you have a good amount of self-esteem, and are socially healthy. While this isn't a social dysfunction per se, you're definitely not normal. Consider yourself lucky: you walk that fine line between 'normal' and being outright narcissistic. You're rare - which is something else to be happy about. | ||||
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Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results. |
Saturday, January 07, 2006
"Abuso di Credulita Popolare"
Seems you are not allowed to publically fool people in italy. Now a court has to decide if it is the church or the atheist fooling them...
Working on weekends...
The bottom line is that, in my experience, one will in general be healthier, happier, and more successful if one takes reasonable amounts of time away from work, doing whatever helps you to relax. Don’t let the culture of crazy work schedules and macho bragging about them drive you to unhealthy practices. Find out what works for you and, as long as it isn’t clearly unreasonable, stick with it, and explain that to anyone who tries to persuade you not to.
--- Found on Cosmic Variance
Seems I am not the only one thinking that having time off is better for your mental health...
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Random Stuff
Happy Newton's day. (Newtons Birthday was the 25th...). Also celebrated on the same day: the birth of the first communist jew or jewish communist roughly 2000 years ago.
On tsunami-news: the german minister of science now wants a tsunami warning system for the mediterranean. The one in the pacific and indean ocean (if working at all) will give people a 10 minute before warning. Assuming the speed of tsunamis is the same in the mediterranean as it is in the pacific and the indian ocean, this will give you a 2 minute before warning (rough and unscientific guess by me). Time enough to kiss your ass goodbye or have a last quick one with your girl-friend (or whatever at hand), not time enough to run.
And I'll be gone till the 5th, as there surprisingly is no work to be done inbetween...
On tsunami-news: the german minister of science now wants a tsunami warning system for the mediterranean. The one in the pacific and indean ocean (if working at all) will give people a 10 minute before warning. Assuming the speed of tsunamis is the same in the mediterranean as it is in the pacific and the indian ocean, this will give you a 2 minute before warning (rough and unscientific guess by me). Time enough to kiss your ass goodbye or have a last quick one with your girl-friend (or whatever at hand), not time enough to run.
And I'll be gone till the 5th, as there surprisingly is no work to be done inbetween...
Friday, December 23, 2005
Bonobos
Just came home from a nice evening with friends. Going with the S-Bahn is always interesting...
Just opposite of me sat a couple, both being at the beginning of their twenties. He sitting there showing off like "I have that big balls and a that huge member, I can't even sit straight", she sitting completely taken by something in her hands, ignoring him. Both having that "I'm so annoyed"-face. No talking. Then he grabs whatever she was holding in her hands, she shouting at him to be careful. Silence. Annoyance. Kissing. More Kissing. He starting to take out his earphones, not paying much interest in her, even while still kissing. She had to get off at the next station, saying "I love you", he mumbling something, then louder "You too". Kisses. She leaving, he completely obsessed by his walkman. Still annoyance on both of their faces.
Then I thought, well, my life sucks. But their life sucks even more, and worse: they don't even know it.
Just opposite of me sat a couple, both being at the beginning of their twenties. He sitting there showing off like "I have that big balls and a that huge member, I can't even sit straight", she sitting completely taken by something in her hands, ignoring him. Both having that "I'm so annoyed"-face. No talking. Then he grabs whatever she was holding in her hands, she shouting at him to be careful. Silence. Annoyance. Kissing. More Kissing. He starting to take out his earphones, not paying much interest in her, even while still kissing. She had to get off at the next station, saying "I love you", he mumbling something, then louder "You too". Kisses. She leaving, he completely obsessed by his walkman. Still annoyance on both of their faces.
Then I thought, well, my life sucks. But their life sucks even more, and worse: they don't even know it.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Sunday, December 18, 2005
A poem is a city
a poem is a city filled with streets and sewers
filled with saints, heroes, beggars, madmen,
filled with banality and booze,
filled with rain and thunder and periods of
drought, a poem is a city at war,
a poem is a city asking a clock why,
a poem is a city burning,
a poem is a city under guns
its barbershops filled with cynical drunks,
a poem is a city where God rides naked
through the streets like Lady Godiva,
where dogs bark at night, and chase away
the flag; a poem is a city of poets,
most of them quite similar
and envious and bitter...
a poem is this city now,
50 miles from nowhere,
9:09 in the morning,
the taste of liquor and cigarettes,
no police, no lovers, walking the streets,
this poem, this city, closing its doors,
barricaded, almost empty,
mournful without tears, aging without pity,
the hardrock mountains,
the ocean like a lavender flame,
a moon destitute of greatness,
a small music from broken windows...
a poem is a city, a poem is a nation,
a poem is the world...
and now I stick this under glass
for the mad editor's scrutiny,
the night is elsewhere
and faint gray ladies stand in line,
dog follows dog to estuary,
the trumpets bring on gallows
as small men rant at things
they cannot do.
--- Charles Bukowski
filled with saints, heroes, beggars, madmen,
filled with banality and booze,
filled with rain and thunder and periods of
drought, a poem is a city at war,
a poem is a city asking a clock why,
a poem is a city burning,
a poem is a city under guns
its barbershops filled with cynical drunks,
a poem is a city where God rides naked
through the streets like Lady Godiva,
where dogs bark at night, and chase away
the flag; a poem is a city of poets,
most of them quite similar
and envious and bitter...
a poem is this city now,
50 miles from nowhere,
9:09 in the morning,
the taste of liquor and cigarettes,
no police, no lovers, walking the streets,
this poem, this city, closing its doors,
barricaded, almost empty,
mournful without tears, aging without pity,
the hardrock mountains,
the ocean like a lavender flame,
a moon destitute of greatness,
a small music from broken windows...
a poem is a city, a poem is a nation,
a poem is the world...
and now I stick this under glass
for the mad editor's scrutiny,
the night is elsewhere
and faint gray ladies stand in line,
dog follows dog to estuary,
the trumpets bring on gallows
as small men rant at things
they cannot do.
--- Charles Bukowski
Monday, December 12, 2005
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
Common Sense
Friday I went to a lecture about research managment in chemical industry. Triggered by that I browsed my fathers bookshelf on some stuff about management in general, project management, time management, etc. Disguised as the new fancy shiny multicolored hat XYZ method (highly priced seminars available) are usually things, which I thought of as being completely obvious to anybody. Well, at least thats what I though before I started my PhD some years ago...
It all boils down to some very simple rules: define your goal, define your objectives. Then figure out how to reach these goals and define a route. Check regularly if you are getting closer. If you do, fine. If you don't, re-check the goals, if they are clear enough, re-check your path, if it leads where you want it to lead. When dealing with people, when trying to lead people do the same. Be clear about stuff, if you want person A to do B, tell person A to do B and not let person A figure it our by himself, because most probably he will do C. Treat people as people. Be nice to people. If they fail, do not treat them as idiots, everybody fails sometime.
Please send now an enormous amount of mony to my bank account for this short introduction to the deep and mystic ways of management.
Unfortunately our management did not get these insights until now...
It all boils down to some very simple rules: define your goal, define your objectives. Then figure out how to reach these goals and define a route. Check regularly if you are getting closer. If you do, fine. If you don't, re-check the goals, if they are clear enough, re-check your path, if it leads where you want it to lead. When dealing with people, when trying to lead people do the same. Be clear about stuff, if you want person A to do B, tell person A to do B and not let person A figure it our by himself, because most probably he will do C. Treat people as people. Be nice to people. If they fail, do not treat them as idiots, everybody fails sometime.
Please send now an enormous amount of mony to my bank account for this short introduction to the deep and mystic ways of management.
Unfortunately our management did not get these insights until now...
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Portugal, 1964 part two
Done with scanning slides, now the whole set of pictures of Portugal in 1964 is on Flickr. Does anybody of you know a better idea to scan slides with glass frames than opening the frames and taking the slides out? (Not a good idea, as they are glued in...) Most slide scanners only can handle the thin glassless frames.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Thursday, November 24, 2005
People
I wish I could write... There is an amazing amount of people around here worth being put into a story.
Usually I take breakfast at a portuguese cafe around the corner, where there are the habitual people, sometimes some new people. There is the group of elder portuguese man, usually discussing football or complaining about stuff. Complaining, saying what one should do, but today nobody ever, one really should, if it would be them, they for sure would. And maybe have another bagaço around eleven in the morning.
Two days ago there were two women, I didn't really get what they were, psychologist or astrologist (anyway, same species). They were discussing some computer programs to councel people, you put in some stuff, get a recommendation, edit it and people are supposed to live happily ever after if they follow these recommendations. Telling how you have to put in stuff about love and partners for younger girls, put stuff about the job for middle aged men, about younger girls for older men.
There is the alternatives, pretty common around here in Altona. They try to be really different from the mainstream, starting by dressing differently. But, differently in a very strict dress code, wearing kind of an uniform. All of them look the same, behave the same, talk the same. All of them are very individual.
And sometimes, very seldom, you may actually spot a hamburgian, mostly an elderly couple of them. They speak the local dialect, are conservative and open at the same time, are very anxious to show that they know a couple of words of portuguese, order a badly pronounced galão, talk about the holiday they once had in spain, it wasn't that bad there, people were quite well behaved, it was clean, well, the food was a bit weird, but in generally, yes, it was very clean, not like in Italy (or Yugoslavia or wherever). And the people there were nice as well. Well. Not like at home, but not that bad...
Usually I take breakfast at a portuguese cafe around the corner, where there are the habitual people, sometimes some new people. There is the group of elder portuguese man, usually discussing football or complaining about stuff. Complaining, saying what one should do, but today nobody ever, one really should, if it would be them, they for sure would. And maybe have another bagaço around eleven in the morning.
Two days ago there were two women, I didn't really get what they were, psychologist or astrologist (anyway, same species). They were discussing some computer programs to councel people, you put in some stuff, get a recommendation, edit it and people are supposed to live happily ever after if they follow these recommendations. Telling how you have to put in stuff about love and partners for younger girls, put stuff about the job for middle aged men, about younger girls for older men.
There is the alternatives, pretty common around here in Altona. They try to be really different from the mainstream, starting by dressing differently. But, differently in a very strict dress code, wearing kind of an uniform. All of them look the same, behave the same, talk the same. All of them are very individual.
And sometimes, very seldom, you may actually spot a hamburgian, mostly an elderly couple of them. They speak the local dialect, are conservative and open at the same time, are very anxious to show that they know a couple of words of portuguese, order a badly pronounced galão, talk about the holiday they once had in spain, it wasn't that bad there, people were quite well behaved, it was clean, well, the food was a bit weird, but in generally, yes, it was very clean, not like in Italy (or Yugoslavia or wherever). And the people there were nice as well. Well. Not like at home, but not that bad...
Sunday, November 20, 2005
False sense of Duty
I could have been to Lisbon. I could have been to one of the best parties ever. I even was offered that I do not have to pay the entire trip...
Instead I spent my day in the Experimental Hall, labeling exactly four cables and talking two and a half hour with six people about three cables we need. Just to clarify: the cables have plug A on one end, plug B on the other and are of a well defined length. In real life, this would be a matter of one e-mail or at most 10 minutes of conversation, of which 8 would be occupied by asking how is the family. No, we spent more than one complete person-workday on that.
The next time my would-like-to-be-boss tells me that I am urgently needed, I'll tell him to sod off and go on an extended holiday.
Instead I spent my day in the Experimental Hall, labeling exactly four cables and talking two and a half hour with six people about three cables we need. Just to clarify: the cables have plug A on one end, plug B on the other and are of a well defined length. In real life, this would be a matter of one e-mail or at most 10 minutes of conversation, of which 8 would be occupied by asking how is the family. No, we spent more than one complete person-workday on that.
The next time my would-like-to-be-boss tells me that I am urgently needed, I'll tell him to sod off and go on an extended holiday.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
National Shame...
I am not really a modern guy, sometimes I think my value system is so 1980... Having too many doctors in a hospital is a national shame. I thought too few would be a shame, too many a sign of luxury. But, as I said, sometimes I am so 1980...
Monday, November 14, 2005
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Random stuff...
First: I am drunk.
Second: I just don't want to know what the guys at the neighbouring table where talking about:" you know, there is this rock, yeah, this rock is three metres or so, yeah, this rock, on top of this rock there is a lighthouse, yeah, you know, and the locals are doing it for money."
Third: There was an amazing amount of beautiful and nice girls in the bar.
Fourth: The water was 12 degrees, the air 4, and now I am a certified diver and officially certified to spend much more money on courses and even more on equipment.
Fifth: There was an amazing amount of beautiful and nice girls in the bar.
Sixth: I forgot.
Second: I just don't want to know what the guys at the neighbouring table where talking about:" you know, there is this rock, yeah, this rock is three metres or so, yeah, this rock, on top of this rock there is a lighthouse, yeah, you know, and the locals are doing it for money."
Third: There was an amazing amount of beautiful and nice girls in the bar.
Fourth: The water was 12 degrees, the air 4, and now I am a certified diver and officially certified to spend much more money on courses and even more on equipment.
Fifth: There was an amazing amount of beautiful and nice girls in the bar.
Sixth: I forgot.
Friday, November 11, 2005
If you do not hear from me until monday...
... I am either frozen to death or drowned. Tomorrow I have my diving exam in a very very cold lake close to munich, where there is nothing around but woods. In any case: it was nice to have known you ;-)
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Theory...
I have a theory. It for sure is wrong, but I am content with it. A theory why it usually does not work out with the girls, why I usually get to hear that I am a really nice guy, but.
Of course this theory does not apply to neither the female readers of this blog nor the girl friends/wifes/whatever of the male ones. Nor to any people I know not reading this blog. Basically you are all intelligent, nice people, where this theory is completely ridiculous.
OK, so now to the theory: women want idiots. Not real idiots, but guys not capable of living on their own. As I can perfectly live on my own, can cook, do household stuff, well, I even have got a sewing machine (which amazes a lot of girls...), no chance. No way the mother instinct is getting on. I think this is why a girl once said I am not manly enough (she definetly could not have spoken about anatomical details as we never got that far nor is there reason for that, as it does not really count as a detail.) I am just too able to live on my own, I don't need help to survive.
I like this theory because it says basically it's not my fault for being too good, it's just girls being too dumb. And without the above mentioned exceptions, this applies to all girls, just to prevent comments in this direction.
And please, leave me with this small ego-pleasing theory, don't spoil it by saing it's all my fault. I'll get depressed soon enough as I have to go to Hamburg for the next three months to install a stupid detector.
Of course this theory does not apply to neither the female readers of this blog nor the girl friends/wifes/whatever of the male ones. Nor to any people I know not reading this blog. Basically you are all intelligent, nice people, where this theory is completely ridiculous.
OK, so now to the theory: women want idiots. Not real idiots, but guys not capable of living on their own. As I can perfectly live on my own, can cook, do household stuff, well, I even have got a sewing machine (which amazes a lot of girls...), no chance. No way the mother instinct is getting on. I think this is why a girl once said I am not manly enough (she definetly could not have spoken about anatomical details as we never got that far nor is there reason for that, as it does not really count as a detail.) I am just too able to live on my own, I don't need help to survive.
I like this theory because it says basically it's not my fault for being too good, it's just girls being too dumb. And without the above mentioned exceptions, this applies to all girls, just to prevent comments in this direction.
And please, leave me with this small ego-pleasing theory, don't spoil it by saing it's all my fault. I'll get depressed soon enough as I have to go to Hamburg for the next three months to install a stupid detector.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Staying home...
... sometimes turns out to be better than going out. Got phonecalls from a good friend, from my family and from two really nice girls. The alternative would have been to spend the evening with a bunch of physicists (sorry guys, you cannot compete with these two girls...)
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Friday, October 28, 2005
The youth of today
Since the beginning of mankind people keep on complining about the youth of today. If you would believe in it, we would have had the perfect society around three to four hundred years ago where everybody was intelligent, well educated and so on...
On the other hand: we have not been such naïve, stupid, narcistic idiots. I am the first to admit that I am socially inept, kind of naïve, having a political point of view far from real life, but I am always amazed how dump people can get... (Just returned from the Fresher's Party of our faculty, amazing amount of dump idiots between them, just very few people I would think of being intelligent enough to be in university)
I am getting old, elitist and intolerant. I am loosing confidence in my idea of people...
On the other hand: we have not been such naïve, stupid, narcistic idiots. I am the first to admit that I am socially inept, kind of naïve, having a political point of view far from real life, but I am always amazed how dump people can get... (Just returned from the Fresher's Party of our faculty, amazing amount of dump idiots between them, just very few people I would think of being intelligent enough to be in university)
I am getting old, elitist and intolerant. I am loosing confidence in my idea of people...
Monday, October 24, 2005
Why popular science is evil...
Saturday the Erlangen Night of Science took place. Lots of Institutes, Factories etc where open to the public, showing their research to the interested. So was the physics institute, we got something like 2500 visitors. I was there to stand in front of some posters and explain what we are doing...
Basically you could divide the visitors into two categories. The interested who knew not much about physics and just came by to see what we are doing, and the more interested who read a lot of popular science books and watched a lot of TV science shows. The latter had the worst misconceptions on physics...
Most of the popular science bits explain stuff. Better, they give you the truth about stuff. What the usually fail to mention, all of the pictures they use to explain stuff, are, well, pictures. They are not reality. They are a story to ease the understanding. Which most of the time does not work. Quite often it seems, that these pictures provide a heavy misconception or just add to the confusion. Mostly this happens with pictures which seem to be easy, but the author has missed to mention some iportant point... And what stays in mind is the stuff which did confuse you most, so mostly the wrongest picture or the least understandable misconception.
Also popular science is about spectacular stuff like light waves surpassing the speed of light and therefore seem to violate the theory of relativity. Stuff which has deep philosophical implications. The only problem is: nobody really understands that stuff, not even the proper physicist doing the experiments. They have a theory, which might prove wrong. This is work in progress, a lot might happen. Combine this with people who are bad in communicating, trying to explain that to journalist who do not even know the terminology you end up in stuff like "Einstein was wrong" even when nobody ever said that. Science is not trivial. If everybody could understand it without work, there would be no need for scientists. Of course everybody should know something about it, most people actually have the ability to understand it, but you can't explain string theory in 30 minutes. You can maybe get some ideas across. Unfortunately you have to pass that to the viewer/reader as well (maybe have something like this scrolling along the screen "WARNING: THIS IS NOT THE TRUTH, THIS IS JUST A STORY WHICH MIGHT GIVE YOU AN IDEA...")
Basically you could divide the visitors into two categories. The interested who knew not much about physics and just came by to see what we are doing, and the more interested who read a lot of popular science books and watched a lot of TV science shows. The latter had the worst misconceptions on physics...
Most of the popular science bits explain stuff. Better, they give you the truth about stuff. What the usually fail to mention, all of the pictures they use to explain stuff, are, well, pictures. They are not reality. They are a story to ease the understanding. Which most of the time does not work. Quite often it seems, that these pictures provide a heavy misconception or just add to the confusion. Mostly this happens with pictures which seem to be easy, but the author has missed to mention some iportant point... And what stays in mind is the stuff which did confuse you most, so mostly the wrongest picture or the least understandable misconception.
Also popular science is about spectacular stuff like light waves surpassing the speed of light and therefore seem to violate the theory of relativity. Stuff which has deep philosophical implications. The only problem is: nobody really understands that stuff, not even the proper physicist doing the experiments. They have a theory, which might prove wrong. This is work in progress, a lot might happen. Combine this with people who are bad in communicating, trying to explain that to journalist who do not even know the terminology you end up in stuff like "Einstein was wrong" even when nobody ever said that. Science is not trivial. If everybody could understand it without work, there would be no need for scientists. Of course everybody should know something about it, most people actually have the ability to understand it, but you can't explain string theory in 30 minutes. You can maybe get some ideas across. Unfortunately you have to pass that to the viewer/reader as well (maybe have something like this scrolling along the screen "WARNING: THIS IS NOT THE TRUTH, THIS IS JUST A STORY WHICH MIGHT GIVE YOU AN IDEA...")
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Traffic
Dear Erlangen Cyclists:
please use your fucking headlights. In a dark night in a dark road dark clothed cyclists on a dark bike are usually not looking very bright. Please signal when you turn direction, look around you before you turn. Don't jump off randomly of your bike. There might be somebody much faster than you trying to get by you. Use your gears. It really helps when you shift the gears of your shiny 37 gear bike when you go uphill. Just don't be generally idiots.
Dear Erlangen Pedestrians:
bikeways are for bikes. So don't look pissed when a cyclist rings to get you off his ways. Don't run into a bike going at 30 km/h, it hurts.
Der Erlangen Cardrivers (especially Forcheim Car Drivers):
there are cyclists. Yes, you might not know them, but they exist. And they can go pretty fast. If they are coming from a direction you don't expect them, that usually means you don't know the traffic rules of that place, sometimes it is actually allowed to go in both ways. Sometimes they appear although there is a traffic law which states they shouldn't. Don't stop and stare at them. They won't disappear, you will get a heart attack soon if you get angry evertime stuff does not happen as you would expect it and the cyclists will get angry because of you being a narrowminded idiotic Korinthenkacker. Sometimes stuff does not happen as you like it, just go on. That's life.
Return tomorrow for a shiny new post on why popular science books are evil.
please use your fucking headlights. In a dark night in a dark road dark clothed cyclists on a dark bike are usually not looking very bright. Please signal when you turn direction, look around you before you turn. Don't jump off randomly of your bike. There might be somebody much faster than you trying to get by you. Use your gears. It really helps when you shift the gears of your shiny 37 gear bike when you go uphill. Just don't be generally idiots.
Dear Erlangen Pedestrians:
bikeways are for bikes. So don't look pissed when a cyclist rings to get you off his ways. Don't run into a bike going at 30 km/h, it hurts.
Der Erlangen Cardrivers (especially Forcheim Car Drivers):
there are cyclists. Yes, you might not know them, but they exist. And they can go pretty fast. If they are coming from a direction you don't expect them, that usually means you don't know the traffic rules of that place, sometimes it is actually allowed to go in both ways. Sometimes they appear although there is a traffic law which states they shouldn't. Don't stop and stare at them. They won't disappear, you will get a heart attack soon if you get angry evertime stuff does not happen as you would expect it and the cyclists will get angry because of you being a narrowminded idiotic Korinthenkacker. Sometimes stuff does not happen as you like it, just go on. That's life.
Return tomorrow for a shiny new post on why popular science books are evil.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Friday, October 14, 2005
The advantage of being behind...
"The 20th century is a cul-de-sac," says Claudio Prado, Brazil's digital culture czar, in London with Gil. "And the engine of progress doesn't have a reverse gear, so it's hard for the first world to get out of the cul-de-sac." The fact that many Brazilians still live in 18th or 19th-century conditions, he says, means that the country has an opportunity to accelerate into the 21st century without entering the cul-de-sac in the first place.
--- found in an article of The Guardian you should read...
Friday, October 07, 2005
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Homebanking Fun
I tried to get homebanking to work. Tried first linux, then gave up as it didn't seem to find my HBCI-Card. Switched to windows. And the fun started...
First no Java installed. So install Java. Reboot. Then the java applet did not load but I did also not get any error message in Firefox. Tried IE. Got "Your Java is too new". Damn. Downgrade Java, reboot. Not working. Deinstall new Java, which did not happen automatically. Reboot.
Finally I get the Java Applet. Now I need some weird DLL, which I copy from the net (address found on the FAQ of the bank). Then got error message native DLL could not be copied. After various reboots and an hour found the DLL, copied it to system32 dir, and see, it works. That was *really* easy.
Now trying Linux on my laptop...
First no Java installed. So install Java. Reboot. Then the java applet did not load but I did also not get any error message in Firefox. Tried IE. Got "Your Java is too new". Damn. Downgrade Java, reboot. Not working. Deinstall new Java, which did not happen automatically. Reboot.
Finally I get the Java Applet. Now I need some weird DLL, which I copy from the net (address found on the FAQ of the bank). Then got error message native DLL could not be copied. After various reboots and an hour found the DLL, copied it to system32 dir, and see, it works. That was *really* easy.
Now trying Linux on my laptop...
Monday, October 03, 2005
Vedi Napoli e poi muori
Well, it seems I did not get to Bamberg again. Everytime I try to see Bamberg, something happens and I won't go. This time a cold got in the way. Well, I'll try again. Maybe I see it some time...
(In case you wonder about the title, it's an italian wordplay, which was cited by Goethe and lost it's pun in translation...)
(In case you wonder about the title, it's an italian wordplay, which was cited by Goethe and lost it's pun in translation...)
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Spam
I turned on word verification as I got fed up with spam. Sorry if making comments is getting a bit more cumbersome, but I hope you still keep on commenting.
Books...
Today I finally got my photo-books printed from photos I put up on flickr. Well. The photos have not been of very high resolution, but they look much worse printed. The colours are a bit too dark and they are not as homogenious as they should be (especially skies look weird, sometimes you see stripes). Printing them out myself and giving them to a book binder would have produced a better result and been cheaper... So, I am not really convinced, but your milage may vary.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Intelligent Design
Day No. 1:
And the Lord God said, “Let there be light,” and lo, there was light. But then the Lord God said, “Wait, what if I make it a sort of rosy, sunset-at-the-beach, filtered half-light, so that everything else I design will look younger?”
“I’m loving that,” said Buddha. “It’s new.”
“You should design a restaurant,” added Allah.
--- Found in The New Yorker
And the Lord God said, “Let there be light,” and lo, there was light. But then the Lord God said, “Wait, what if I make it a sort of rosy, sunset-at-the-beach, filtered half-light, so that everything else I design will look younger?”
“I’m loving that,” said Buddha. “It’s new.”
“You should design a restaurant,” added Allah.
--- Found in The New Yorker
Monday, September 19, 2005
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