Sunday, March 08, 2009
Style not speed. Elegance not exertion.
Something we should achieve. Curtesy of the tweed cycling club...
Thursday, January 15, 2009
A huge part...
The largest part of the web users in germany won't be affected by the child-pornography-blockers wich will be installed. So the official statement, why we should have it, even if it is a step into the direction of censorship, providing at least the possibility to block other websites.
The largest part of people will not be affected by the online searches the police is allowed to perform now on any computer without notification. So the official statement, why we should have it even if it is a step into the direction of a surveillance state.
The largest part of people will not be affected by raster-searches,...
It's only about Schadbären and Potential Evildoers. The rhetorics used for things like that is a very interesting thing, as is the logic and the numbers.
Blocking child-porn is a very good thing, people producing shit like this should be tarred and featherd, hung and quartered. But the reaction to this (and most other threads on having a civilised society) is mostly ridiculous and can be mis-used for a lot of things. I don't think it will be misused, I am just annoyed that politicians think we are dumb and throw their stupid rhethorics at us which just turns out to be hot air in the best case or completely wrong and misleading bullsh*t in the worst.
The largest part of people will not be affected by the online searches the police is allowed to perform now on any computer without notification. So the official statement, why we should have it even if it is a step into the direction of a surveillance state.
The largest part of people will not be affected by raster-searches,...
It's only about Schadbären and Potential Evildoers. The rhetorics used for things like that is a very interesting thing, as is the logic and the numbers.
Blocking child-porn is a very good thing, people producing shit like this should be tarred and featherd, hung and quartered. But the reaction to this (and most other threads on having a civilised society) is mostly ridiculous and can be mis-used for a lot of things. I don't think it will be misused, I am just annoyed that politicians think we are dumb and throw their stupid rhethorics at us which just turns out to be hot air in the best case or completely wrong and misleading bullsh*t in the worst.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Random illumination of the week
Successes are done by the team, Failures are done by the individual.
Some things are the same in University and Industry...
Some things are the same in University and Industry...
Monday, December 08, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Yay for thinking!
Over on planet.ubuntu.com and other open source blog things, there have been a couple of posts to "What is the first thing you do after installing Linux". Amazingly all of them were "install all the proprietary stuff". Everybody installs google earth, skype, w32codes etc.
So, why keep up the "We do not like proprietary stuff"-attitude and make it hard to install this? Why not just accept that even if it is an evil non-open-source licence, the programs are working much better than any of the free stuff?
I'm just one step closer to getting a Mac...
So, why keep up the "We do not like proprietary stuff"-attitude and make it hard to install this? Why not just accept that even if it is an evil non-open-source licence, the programs are working much better than any of the free stuff?
I'm just one step closer to getting a Mac...
Monday, November 10, 2008
History
Although we are busy remembering the start of systematic slayering of jews and political opponents in the Reichsprogromnacht at November 9, 1938; and remembering the fall of the Wall in November 9, 1989, there is also pretty important dates we should not forget:
November 9, 1918: Kurt Eisner declares the free state of bavaria, marking the end of monarchy. Bavaria was one of the first states in Germany to actually revolt against monarchy. Kurt Eisner was shot shortly afterwards by right wing Count Arco. Subequently the Communist took over (Eisner was socialist) to form the Soviet Republic of Bavaria.
The conservative uproar following the revolution in bavaria lead to...
November 9, 1923: Hitler tries to putsch him self into power for the first time (the infamous beer hall putsch). He gets a couple of years in prison for it, during this time he writes "Mein Kampf".
Inbetween, November 9, 1918: the armistice of Compiègne starts the end of WWI. After the marine revolted, german military finally accepted the loss of the war. Wilhelm II resigns. Inn Berlin, Philipp Scheidemann declares the german Republic and Karl Liebknecht the Soviet Republic of Germany.
Funny enough, although a lot of important events happened on November, 9, which are all somehow connected and only together lead to some understanding of german history, we only talk about two of them. The Armistice is remembered anywhere outside germany (as is May 8, 1945) - germans do not generally know this date. For the generation of my parents it seems that history only covers everything till 1871 and then starts again at 1950, for my generation it seems that history mainly consists of 1933-1945 (with some hints of middle ages and 1950-1989).
November 9, 1918: Kurt Eisner declares the free state of bavaria, marking the end of monarchy. Bavaria was one of the first states in Germany to actually revolt against monarchy. Kurt Eisner was shot shortly afterwards by right wing Count Arco. Subequently the Communist took over (Eisner was socialist) to form the Soviet Republic of Bavaria.
The conservative uproar following the revolution in bavaria lead to...
November 9, 1923: Hitler tries to putsch him self into power for the first time (the infamous beer hall putsch). He gets a couple of years in prison for it, during this time he writes "Mein Kampf".
Inbetween, November 9, 1918: the armistice of Compiègne starts the end of WWI. After the marine revolted, german military finally accepted the loss of the war. Wilhelm II resigns. Inn Berlin, Philipp Scheidemann declares the german Republic and Karl Liebknecht the Soviet Republic of Germany.
Funny enough, although a lot of important events happened on November, 9, which are all somehow connected and only together lead to some understanding of german history, we only talk about two of them. The Armistice is remembered anywhere outside germany (as is May 8, 1945) - germans do not generally know this date. For the generation of my parents it seems that history only covers everything till 1871 and then starts again at 1950, for my generation it seems that history mainly consists of 1933-1945 (with some hints of middle ages and 1950-1989).
Friday, November 07, 2008
I don't care anymore
As most of the stuff I did voluntarily is ignored, I think I just don't care anymore. Maybe I'll care about my friends, but generally I won't do anything for others anymore. Nobody cares about the stuff I did, so I won't care about anybody myself. I will try to have fun, but if the world goes down, I won't do anything about it. No more nice guy.
(This is nothing job related. This is a late effect of university.)
(This is nothing job related. This is a late effect of university.)
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Capitalism
Listening to the news these days is quite funny. It seems that everybody is completely surprised that capitalism in the end works like it is supposed to. If you take high risks, you get sometimes high gains and sometimes -surprise, surprise- high losses. If you have people trying to make a lot of money, sometimes they also will loose a lot of money.
Now some cry for the state to drop in who were hardcore laissez-faire capitalists before (with the notable exception of a very few who keep on and keep the concept, knowing that sometimes you loose).
If you want a free market (which I believe is quite a good thing if you do it right[1]), you'll have to live with a free market.
[1] I wont elaborate more on this, because this will take forever. Basically: there are monopolies which should belong to the state like water, electricity etc, and there are areas where there should be a free market, free meaning that the small farmer in africa can also sell his stuff as the farmer around the corner. On a large scale the big economic powers should not interfere... This is by far not the complete story, a complete coverage of my political and economical views would span about 50 long posts.
Now some cry for the state to drop in who were hardcore laissez-faire capitalists before (with the notable exception of a very few who keep on and keep the concept, knowing that sometimes you loose).
If you want a free market (which I believe is quite a good thing if you do it right[1]), you'll have to live with a free market.
[1] I wont elaborate more on this, because this will take forever. Basically: there are monopolies which should belong to the state like water, electricity etc, and there are areas where there should be a free market, free meaning that the small farmer in africa can also sell his stuff as the farmer around the corner. On a large scale the big economic powers should not interfere... This is by far not the complete story, a complete coverage of my political and economical views would span about 50 long posts.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
The end is nigh! (again)
On wednesday LHC is going to be turned on and we all will end up in a big black hole. It was nice knowing you/it was a pity not knowing you, we had all good fun/we would have had good fun.
Besides that: anybody for scrabble later?.
Besides that: anybody for scrabble later?.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
I hate computers
Today I fought some hours with Ubuntu to get my network working again. It started with the idea to have the NAS no longer attached by WLAN (SLOOOOOOOOOOW) but via a cable (FAST). I clicked on "Network Configuration" in the menu which made all my networking disappear and broke everything. Then I started to configure stuff by hand, which worked for the WLAN card but not for the classical LAN card. For some reason after each reboot it went from ethx to ethx+1, making it to eth181 before I found the problem.
Not necessary to mention that I went half mad during the search for the problem...
In the end it turned out that some completely brainless moron decided it would be a nice idea to have a random MAC address assigned to the LAN card at each reboot (from the BIOS). For privacy enhancement and you cannot switch it off... So the magical automatic hardware stuff of Linux thought "Oh, a new card" and gave it a new number. FUNNY. VERY FUNNY.
Instead of developing computers which go faster and faster (and can drive you mad much faster than anything before), why not just develop something which works? Call me wimpy, but I don't want to spend nights in front of my computer just to get a stupid network card working, this is supposed to be the 21st century...
Not necessary to mention that I went half mad during the search for the problem...
In the end it turned out that some completely brainless moron decided it would be a nice idea to have a random MAC address assigned to the LAN card at each reboot (from the BIOS). For privacy enhancement and you cannot switch it off... So the magical automatic hardware stuff of Linux thought "Oh, a new card" and gave it a new number. FUNNY. VERY FUNNY.
Instead of developing computers which go faster and faster (and can drive you mad much faster than anything before), why not just develop something which works? Call me wimpy, but I don't want to spend nights in front of my computer just to get a stupid network card working, this is supposed to be the 21st century...
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday at the pub
Three lesbian sports teachers discussing their relationship troubles and telling that they just can't break up, despite trying for months. A group of male goths with fingernails painted black trying to look like a depressed Antonio Banderas. A table with two Brits on the way to getting drunk. The table next to us an elder couple of rock'n'rollers.
What did I learn this night: one woman in a relationship seems to be trouble enough, some kind of self esteem is nice, never get too drunk in public and rock'n'roll never dies. Sometimes I am happy to be pretty normal.
What did I learn this night: one woman in a relationship seems to be trouble enough, some kind of self esteem is nice, never get too drunk in public and rock'n'roll never dies. Sometimes I am happy to be pretty normal.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Age of the Dilletante
Sometimes on the intarweb you find the idea that our time is the age of the amateur, like the amateur scientist of the 16th to 19th century; at that time noblemen with to much money and to much time lingered into science and did a lot of important discoveries, today people with to much time can have access to the latest discoveries, to a lot of knowledge, can work on new technologies and do a lot of armchair science. An amazing amount of technological ideas is generated by this new class of idling intellectuals, bored technicians, hobby artists and armchair scientists. Technology and science have been democratized, everybody has access to anything and can become anything they want. Without to much effort I could become an underwater archaeologist, a backyard rocketist or a closet electronicist (I made that word up...).
This is one side of the story. My feeling is that there is another side... Life, work, science, technology have become so complex that nobody can be a specialist anymore. Everybody is an amateur, even the people who are doing stuff professionally. Be it at university or in industry, it looks like nobody has a real clue about what they are doing, everybody is a dilletante. This might be a sign of a lot of change happening, this might be a sign of life growing to complex for anybody to grasp. Nobody has a plan, nobody really knows what is going on. The people who are good on their job have an idea on how stuff works, a vague feeling what happens under certain circumstances. The bad ones just don't have a clue. But nobody is able to tell exactly what will happen.
The age where you had masters of a craft who really knew their tasks, who knew what will happen, has long gone by. Work, Life, Technology and Society have grown so complex that people have yet to keep up with it. The big bosses do not really know how to run a company, the politicians do not really know how to run the country, the technicians do not really know how their stuff works,... Nobody can be certain about anything anymore, everybody is just improvising.
This is the 21st century. Everybody is equally lost...
This is one side of the story. My feeling is that there is another side... Life, work, science, technology have become so complex that nobody can be a specialist anymore. Everybody is an amateur, even the people who are doing stuff professionally. Be it at university or in industry, it looks like nobody has a real clue about what they are doing, everybody is a dilletante. This might be a sign of a lot of change happening, this might be a sign of life growing to complex for anybody to grasp. Nobody has a plan, nobody really knows what is going on. The people who are good on their job have an idea on how stuff works, a vague feeling what happens under certain circumstances. The bad ones just don't have a clue. But nobody is able to tell exactly what will happen.
The age where you had masters of a craft who really knew their tasks, who knew what will happen, has long gone by. Work, Life, Technology and Society have grown so complex that people have yet to keep up with it. The big bosses do not really know how to run a company, the politicians do not really know how to run the country, the technicians do not really know how their stuff works,... Nobody can be certain about anything anymore, everybody is just improvising.
This is the 21st century. Everybody is equally lost...
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Neighbors
You might know me as quite peaceful, but my neighbors start to seriously piss me off. Yesterday the neighbor from above started to practice tap dancing at two in the morning (today I had to get up at 4AM...). Tonight the neighbors from below started practicing drum playing at twenty past midnight. They didn't even have the guts to open the door when I rang.
This is extremely bad education. Some times I did make noise, some times a party went a bit long. But at least I apologized with my neighbors and answered their calls. I don't know if I should drop them a note in the mailbox or if I should ring there tomorrow at 6 when I have to get up just to annoy them.
This is extremely bad education. Some times I did make noise, some times a party went a bit long. But at least I apologized with my neighbors and answered their calls. I don't know if I should drop them a note in the mailbox or if I should ring there tomorrow at 6 when I have to get up just to annoy them.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Dienstreise
Tomorrow I will start my first business trip (traveling Economy class...), for a week I will go to Chicago (more precise Chicago's suburbia). Pictures will appear in the usual places, stories maybe here if something interesting happens.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Football
It was a nice game, we won. Can everybody please calm down now and go to bed?
These car corsoes are getting really annoying nowadays. I think, fuel is by far not expensive enough, nor are cars. About half of Erlangen is driving around in new and expensive cars now, honking like mad, driving like they never went to driving school and "celebrating" the great and historic victory over the dangerous portuguese, who, if they would have won, would have eaten our children. Or something like that. For a football game this is a bit too much...
Why can't we have fun just walking, jumping around and getting drunk?
(And to be honest, most of the guys and girls in the cars do not really look like they have fun, most of them are aggressively annoyed)
These car corsoes are getting really annoying nowadays. I think, fuel is by far not expensive enough, nor are cars. About half of Erlangen is driving around in new and expensive cars now, honking like mad, driving like they never went to driving school and "celebrating" the great and historic victory over the dangerous portuguese, who, if they would have won, would have eaten our children. Or something like that. For a football game this is a bit too much...
Why can't we have fun just walking, jumping around and getting drunk?
(And to be honest, most of the guys and girls in the cars do not really look like they have fun, most of them are aggressively annoyed)
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
TV
Tonight on TV: a documentation on management training with Llamas (probably including Ralf the Wonder-Llama), where a lot of managers brabble about win-win situations and other blabla while pushing around Llamas or being pushed around by Llamas.
And on Arte a documentation on Hemingway where somebody got crazy about seeing the actual toilet Hemingway used in Cuba.
For some reason getting crazy about Hemingway's toilet seemed much more normal and intelligent than the managers with the Llamas.
In other news: theres a rumor that the Erlangen Siemens people got a mail that they should't talk about the company on the local beer festival and always refer to the PR office. I think this is completely ridiculous and does exactly the opposite it was supposed to.
And on Arte a documentation on Hemingway where somebody got crazy about seeing the actual toilet Hemingway used in Cuba.
For some reason getting crazy about Hemingway's toilet seemed much more normal and intelligent than the managers with the Llamas.
In other news: theres a rumor that the Erlangen Siemens people got a mail that they should't talk about the company on the local beer festival and always refer to the PR office. I think this is completely ridiculous and does exactly the opposite it was supposed to.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
I completely forgot what I wanted to post. Bloody Alzheimer...
Besides that: 34 years ago there was the portuguese revolution. People were ready to die for their ideas. Nowadays we just grumple a bit and accept whatever our glorious leaders think of...
About a month ago our government wanted to introduce a law that fuel should contain at least 10% of bio-fuel. Then they discovered that about 10% of all cars cannot live with that type of fuel... This week they started a campaign to ban bio-fuel because it uses up crops which also could provide food. Hurray for a good foresight. Hurray for a consistent planning. Hurray for our intelligent leaders. (Just one example of many) Can somebody tell me how they actually made it to the top, please?
Besides that: 34 years ago there was the portuguese revolution. People were ready to die for their ideas. Nowadays we just grumple a bit and accept whatever our glorious leaders think of...
About a month ago our government wanted to introduce a law that fuel should contain at least 10% of bio-fuel. Then they discovered that about 10% of all cars cannot live with that type of fuel... This week they started a campaign to ban bio-fuel because it uses up crops which also could provide food. Hurray for a good foresight. Hurray for a consistent planning. Hurray for our intelligent leaders. (Just one example of many) Can somebody tell me how they actually made it to the top, please?
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