Planet LUUSA

rmb: Lueftungsloecher fuer die Dockstar

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:26:39 +0000

Ich habe die Tage der “testdockstar” ein paar Lueftungsloecher verpasst, da diese doch sehr warm wurde.
Statt einer Anleitung wie usw. habe ich einfach ein paar Bilder geschossen.
Na ehrlich gesagt habe ich das ganze in Editor vorgeschrieben und als ich eben wieder na PC bin hab ich einfach alles geschlossen, damit war auch der Beitrag weg.
Was ich benutzt habe:
Kleine Schraubenzieher,
Akkubohrer,
2mm Metallbohrer.
Hier nun also die Bilder:
Achso, was mich dazu bewegt hat das ganze ueberhaupt zu machen, da ich ja eigentlich den grossen Umbau plane, ist das dies die dritte Dockstar ist die ich betreibe und die in dem Gehaeuse verweilen soll. Die anderen beiden werden umgebaut ;). Was die “testdockstar” allerdings noch verpasst kriegt ist eine Lackierung.

rmb: Dockstar LCD-Display

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:25:13 +0000

Ich habe gestern meine beiden “digitalen Bilderrahmen” erhalten und daraus gleich LCD-Displays fuer die Dockstars gebastelt.
Genommen habe ich folgendes: Pearl Bilderrahmen. Dazu habe ich einen Gratis-Artikel genommen (erhaelt man meist per eMail) um den Mindermengenzuschalg nicht bezahlen zu muessen. Man kann fuer den Preis von ~3,00 Euro nur einen pro Bestellung mitnehmen. Deshalb habe ich 2 Bestellungen aufgegeben mit irgendnem Kram dabei.

Nach Anleitung von GeekParadise.de ging das ganze dann auch recht fix von statten.
Das Endergebnis sieht vorest so aus, allerdings ist das ganze, wie man auf dem Bild erkennt, noch auf der Test-Dockstar am laufen.

LCD an der Test-Dockstar

Das ganze noch per UDEV zu steuern, erleichtert es einem natuerlich.

BUS=="usb", ACTION=="add",SYSFS{idProduct}=="0102", SYSFS{idVendor}=="1908", RUN+="/usr/local/bin/lcd4linux"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="remove", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="0102", ENV{ID_VENDOR_ID}=="1908", RUN+="/usr/bin/killall lcd4linux"

Diese Regeln sollten fuer die o.g. “Pearl-Displays” gelten.

marcus: Programming Concurrency on the JVM

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

The fun thing about Venkat Subramaniam’s latest book is the way he jumps to and fro between a couple of JVM based languages: Java, Scala and Clojure. He shows interesting ways to do given tasks in different languages and introduces a couple of interesting frameworks I at least have not heard of before. The most interesting frameworks he shows are Akka, which is an Actor Based Concurrency Framework, written in Scala but which comes with an API that is just as well usabale from Java. Furthermore, I knew the concepts of Software Transactional Memory but did not know that there are working implementations for the JVM. One of them beeing Multiverse.

I really liked the book, because I really like the idea of using a framwork implemented in Scala through its Java API in Groovy. Sometimes it gets quite tiresome to have many of the same examples just shown in different languages, but it is always good to practice Scala or Clojure reading skills. If you feel safe in Java concurrency, i.e. you now Concurrency in Practice by heart, I warmly recommend this book.

marcus: Secrets of the JS Console

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

For some reason, up to until three weeks ago, I didn’t know that there is more to an API in the JS console than “console.log”. They API has been defined by Firebug first and is now more or less considered standard in all major browsers. Here is a short list of usefull commands:


$$('.foo') // gives you a shortcut to querySelectorAll

$0 // gives you the result of the last executed call

$1 // gives you access to the currently selected DOM Element in the Inspect view

clear() // clears the console

time('foo') // start Timing for foo

timeEnd('foo') // end Timing for foo

inspect( domElement  ) // shows the given dom element in Inspect view

The documentation can be found either in the Firebug Wiki or at Chromes Devtools Docs.

marcus: Code with style: “get” means Getter

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Properties are always accessed via method calls on their owning object. For readable properties there will be a getter method to read the property value. For writable properties there will be a setter method to allow the property value to be updated.

Java BeansSpec (08.08.1997)

These three sentences have done something weired to my brain. The somehow completely rewired my brain to believe that every method that starts with get means Getter. And this comes with a price: I usually expect a getter to be an O(1) operation. I expect it to be the same three bytecode sequence that is a simple field access and a return. Nothing more. The same goes for a method that starts with set. I don’t expect them to throw exceptions, I don’t expect them to talk to the filesystem or to the network. Just a simple field access, nothing more.

And I am not alone.

Most of the Java programmers are somehow hardwired to have this JavaBean asumption. So naming a method that does more than a simple get or a simple set to an object field should not be named get or set. If it creates something name it “create”, if it finds something name it “find”, if it stores something name it “store”. You get the idea. As I’m always on the reading side of code, I believe that the these naming conventions are quite good, but they are not only a convention on how to name something, but also a convetion on how to not name things. So if it is not a getter, do not name it get! When looking for alternatives, Stephen Colebourne did a nice collection on common prefixes in the Java world.

marcus: Google Merchant Module for ROME

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Google Merchant is the way a company can feed their products into Google Shopping and ROME is a Java Library to create and parse RSS and ATOM feeds. Google Merchant allows RSS as one of the feed formats you can use to feed them their data. In order to get additional information into ROME created feeds you have to implement 4 classes, so it is not really easy to get your data there.

I created a small Library to make RSS feeds that conform to Google Merchants requirements:

        final SyndFeed feed = new SyndFeedImpl();
        feed.getModules().add( new GoogleMerchantModuleImpl() );

        final SyndEntry entry = new SyndEntryImpl();

        entry.setTitle( "Title" );

        final GoogleMerchantModule merchantData = new GoogleMerchantModuleImpl();
        merchantData.setImageLink( "SOME IMAGE URL" );

        entry.getModules().add( merchantData );

It’s under MIT License up in Github, you can direct download the Version 0.1 here.

marcus: Code with style: Readability is everything

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

So, by now everybody got it: Code is there to be read by people, to be analyzed by people and to be understood by people. The fact that you can put it through a compiler and run it is a nice sideffect, but nothing to focus on. Besides writing readable tests of course.

But when software is growing and many different hands touch the same spots, it somehow gets dirty. So even when you have usually quite high coding standards, it still can happen that I stumble upon something like this:

User user = userService.createNewUser( email, password,
                                       false, true, null, 5 );

I like to be able to read a line of code like a line of text. Which means that I at least want to be able to get the “words” without the surrounding context.

So what would you be able to tell about the above snipplet? I would say: it apparently creates a new user, using some service and it requires an email and a password, which might be stored somewhere. And the point that makes me cry: apparently some magic flags, a nullable parameter and a magic number.

So lets see how we can clean this up with some new patterns. I usually make up my own names, if someone has a rather more common name for them feel free to comment, I will be happy to replace them.

Enum as Flag Pattern (aka do not use boolean literals)


enum FailIfExists { YES, NO };
enum NewPasswordChecks { YES, NO }

User user = userService.createNewUser( email, password,
                                       FailIfExists.NO,
                                       NewPasswordChecks.YES,
                                       null, 5 );

So, what can you tell about the method call now. The problem of methods that react to flags aside, the readability is better. You at least can deduct now that there might be no error if the user already exists and that it uses the “new” password checks. It is even easier to refactor to use the third password validation algorithm should it ever be changed again.

When setting up a new project you might try to disallow all boolean literals in certain high level classes, I don’t know if it works that well with third party libraries. This might be a cool Checkstyle rule to try.

No nullable Parameters Pattern (aka keep your implementation details internal)

So what is my next problem? Well, the given null parameter value. I believe that the ability to cope with null values is an implementation detail that belongs in the class that defines a method. So the UserService interface should provide us with an overridden version createNewUser that does not have the fifth parameter. Then the implementation could hide the fact that this parameter is really nullable. And it avoids the clutter of methods that have n optional object parameters.

If you use Findbugs in combination with the great JSR 305 annotations, which by the way can be enforced using a Checkstyle plugin, you might try to disallow using the Nullable Annotation in public methods. Maybe even for protected methods. In any case, you should never have to use a null parameter while calling a visible method of another class.

No literals outside constant definitions (aka give names to your magic numbers)

The last thing is a classic, but there are still a couple of people who do not use constants instead of literals. I think the general rule is that you should never use a numeric literal inside a method, but always a class declared constant. Furthermore this might even be extended to be valid for String literals and as told in the first point to boolean literals.

So let’s revisit my short (and bad) example taking the above mentioned points into consideration:


enum FailIfExists { YES, NO };
enum NewPasswordChecks { YES, NO }

private static final int INITIAL_NUMBER_OF_INVITES = 5;

User user = userService.createNewUser( email, password,
                                       FailIfExists.NO,
                                       NewPasswordChecks.YES,
                                       INITIAL_NUMBER_OF_INVITES );

Given that you might see this lines of code during a review, where you can’t browse the complete source of your project, one might now be able to better understand what this method does: it creates a new user with the given email and passwords, succeeds even when the user already exists, uses some mythical new password check and gives him an initial number invites of five. This can be guessed by just reading code, without a single line of JavaDoc and even without once visiting the declaring class or interface.

So in future, when writing code, try to consider if you would understand your method calls without ever having seen the implementation or even the declaration of the called method.

marcus: Quickhacks: Visualizing contributions with git

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:00:08 +0000

Contributions for Git

So I had a little fun with git history visualization. Gource is there to show the progress of a repo over time, but I always wanted to get an actual snapshot of the repo at a given point in time. I wrote a little program, that basically does a “git ls-files” and then a “git blame -e” for all files that seem to be source files. Then it resolves the Email-Addresses using gravatar and scales the image relative to the amount of lines the contributor is currently blamed for. The above image shows the visualisation for Git itself. It still needs some polishing, the algorithms for packing and sizing are all a bit off and not really correct, but mostly it creates nice imags. It is up on github if you want to play with it.

Contributions by Author for Prototype (the js library)

Contributions for pdf.js

marcus: Quickhacks: Github Event Widget for WordPress

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

A couple of days ago Github announced their new Event timeline API. As I wanted to have a nice widget for this blog but didn’t want to write any PHP I thought maybe they would do PJSON and I could implement a client side pure JavaScript solution. Apparently, they accept a “?callback=” Parameter to the request, so I using jQuerie’s excelent Ajax abstraction it’s plain simple to get your own feed:

var user = "marcus";
var url = "https://api.github.com/users/" + user  "/events?callback=?";

jQuery.ajax( {
             url : url,
             dataType : 'jsonp',
             success : handleData
            } );

Now you just have to implement the handleData method to do something nice to the data. Throw in the excelent Moment.js and you got what you see to the right. The full script is in a Gist. 150 lines is still a little long but I’m not really in a golfing mood right now.

To integrate use a plain Text Widget for WordPress which includes the two scripts, given that jQuery is already somewhere there:

<script src="https://raw.github.com/timrwood/moment/master/moment.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://raw.github.com/gist/1328963/2054490501f09765cca086127377a9add4781f2c/github-events.js"></script>

<ul id="github"><ul/>

Feel free to fork and create your own. I did not map all events because I just wanted a selection to be displayed.

scottytm: Serien-Session auf dem Barcamp Hamburg 2011

nospam@example.com (ScottyTM) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:50:28 +0000

Hier eine Übersicht der vorgestellten Serien mit den passenden Amazon-Links.

Samstag:

Terriers:Season 1

Mord mit Aussicht Staffel 1 Teil 1/Teil 2

Game of Thrones:Season 1

Sonntag:

Justified:Season 1

Person of Interest

Veronica Mars:Season 1 Season 2 Season 3

Castle:Season 1 Season 2 Season 3

Middleman Complete Series

Sinchronicity Complete Series

marcus: Code with style: Exception handling antipatterns

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

There a couple of exception handling patterns that I come across regularly that I believe to be plain wrong or harmful. In order to get rid of them I’d like to present them here and explain the reasons why they should be avoided:

Log-Log-Log and Rethrow

Imagine a typically layered application design where you have a DAO layer at the bottom, a service or business logic layer in between and a frontend layer on top. Now imagine that you decided to wrap most exceptions from the lower layer and rethrow them with an exception which is more apropriate to the level of abstraction that you are currently on:

DAO Layer:

public T getById( Id id ) {
try {
 ....
 } catch( Exception e ) {
 LOG.error( e.getMessage(), e );
 throw new WrapperException( e );
 }
}

Service Layer:

public T doSomething( Id id )
try {
 T foo = getById( id );
....
 } catch( Exception e ) {
 LOG.debug( e.getMessage(), e );
 throw new WrapperException( e );
 }
}

This happens again in the UI layer. You usually do not have per layer logfiles, as this would make it harder to see the flow of the application. But when you log the exception on every layer, it leads to a lot of log clutter. The best way is to define a layer that logs the exception, the business layer being the obvious candidate here. Thus you have a defined way to handle lower layer exceptions. This pattern does not appear that often anymore, as unchecked exceptions are generally considered the better solution today.

Fail Silently

There are two versions of the fail silently antipattern:

Version 1:

 try {
....
} catch (Exception e ) {
// empty block<
 }

Version 2:

 try {
....
 return true;
} catch (Exception e ) {
 return true;
 }

The two versions of the Fail Silently Pattern have the same problem: you will never know that an exception happened. Combined with the fact that Exception is caught all kinds of runtime problems can be hidden. Usually, you should always catch specialized exceptions that you expect and can handle. If you’re doing frameworks or using libraries that might throw all kinds of exceptions, or you write handling code that needs to handle all kinds of exceptions on some way you still must log what is happening there. Otherwise you will never be able to explain certain behavior in production. And an exception handling block should never return the same value as the usual code path. After all it is an exception handling block.

Fail with least possible information

 try {
....
} catch (Exception e ) {
LOG.error("Something went wrong");
 }

There are two simple rules when handling exceptions: always log the exception including the stacktrace and always include any data which might have lead to the stacktrace. I still see it today that people discard all information directly at their fingertips to log out what they think might have happened at that point. Or what they have expected to happen. Together with to wide catch clauses this leads to the problem that you do not really know what happened in production, you just believe you know. Even worse, you might stick to assumption someone else made about the error at the point. So when you write a try-catch-block, always see that the variables used in the try are also logged out in the catch.

Deduct from vagueness

 try {
....
} catch ( Exception e ) {
 throw new CustomerNameTakenException( "The user already exists" );
 }

This is somehow the worst case of the above mentioned pattern. Here not only the wrong information is logged but it is used to create error messages. This might lead to all kinds of wrong behavior. Just because you know that a certain layer or lower level function behaves in a certain way does not make it an interface. Maybe a different exception is thrown, maybe something else went wrong.

As usual, these points are open for discussion. But I believe that these are some general rules everyone needs to apply when writing exception handling code.

marcus: Was hilft wirklich bie Muskelkater

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Inspiriert durch die steigende Nutzung von Fitocracy und den dadurch quasi erreichten Zustand von Dauermuskelkater habe ich mich mal ein wenig zu Muskelkater umgesehen:

Fakt ist wohl das Muskelkater durch die Beschädigung der Muskelfasern durch die Belastung entsteht und nicht durch Milchsäure. Dabei liegen die Schmerzen wohl tatsächlich an entzündlichen Reaktionen auf diese Verletzungen. Dazu gibt es folgende Infos:

Metastudien:
Treatment and prevention of delayed onset muscle soreness
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness Treatment Strategies and Performance Factors
Various Treatment Techniques on Signs and Symptoms of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

Hilft:

Sauerkirschsaft
Sauerkirschsaft ist wohl entzündungshemmend, daher gibt es eine Studie die wohl belegt das man bei regelmäßiger Einnahme vor, während, nach dem Sport weniger Muskelater bekommt: http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/40/8/679.abstract

Ascorbinsäure/ASS/Aspirin/Paracetamol etc.
Widersprüchlich, im Endeffekt schwächt wohl Paracetamol sowohl die schmerzen als auch den Effekt von Training ab, daher wohl eher nicht so zu empfehlen. An die Studie für Aspirin komme ich nicht dran, die ist aber auch von 1988 und das scheint jetzt nicht das silver Bullet gewesen zu sein.

Warmes Wasser
Oh wunder, warmes Wasser, also schön in die heiße Badewanne, hilft wohl: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21681159

Hilf nicht:

Vitamin C:
Kann man ja mal ausprobieren, hilft aber nicht: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16998453

Massagen und Stretching:
Hat alles keinen großen Einfluss, ist wohl beides wegen der zusätzlichen mechanischen Belastung eher schlecht.

Am Besten ist es übrigens gar keinen Muskelkater zu verursachen, bringt nämlich auch nix: Muscle damage and muscle remodeling: no pain, no gain?

marcus: Gleichheit unter Schmerzen

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Und da findet sich auch der erste Hinweis für die Vermutung, dass es bei der Ablehnung des Feminismus nicht um inhaltliche, sondern eine emotionale handelt. Und so geht es ans Eingemachte. Die Teilnehmer berichteten von ihrem Dasein als frauenferne Nerds, von den Demütigungen in der Pubertät und der gefühlten Ohnmacht gegenüber Frauen. Es wird deutlich: Mit der Behauptung Frauen seien strukturell benachteiligt wird die eigene Erfahrung konterkariert, der Schmerz, die Demütigung scheinbar negiert.

Quelle: Telepolis

Was passiert, wenn man einen Haufen Nerds nimmt, sie in einen Raum lockt und über Equalismus spricht? Anscheinend erzählen die Dinge die einen dann zu einer interessanten These bringen: Männliche Nerds sind irrational, da emotional, antifeministisch, da sie nicht mit Frauen umgehen könne. Genauer: Wenn ich mit 16 keine abbekomme kann ich mit 26 nicht sehen, dass in dieser Gesellschaft so einiges schief läuft.

Das finde ich, um es freundlich auszudrücken, provokant. So zumindest formuliert es Julia Schramm (@laprintemps) in ihrem Artikel auf Telepolis. Da die gute im Moment wohl Emanzipation und den Feminismus für sich entdeckt hat ist das wohl im Moment ganz ihr Thema. Wobei ihre Blog Artikel auch eher etwas sind was der normale Durchschnittsleser wohl besser mit gezücktem Bleistift zum markieren und einem Glas Rotwein genießt.

Doch zurück zu dem doch eigentlich so schönen Thema Equalismus. Nehmen wir mal das Thema strukturelle Benachteiligung, weil ich denke das das auf jeden Fall etwas ist das überhaupt nicht für eine emotionale Herangehensweise taugt. Fakt ist, das z. B. Frauen immer noch weniger verdienen als Männer in gleicher Position und mit gleicher Qualifikation. Fakt ist auch das es dafür keinen Begründung gibt, die am Anfang des 21. Jahrhundert noch irgendwas bedeutet. Und aus diesen Fakten entsteht nicht nur das Gefühl der Ungerechtigkeit, sonder der Fakt das dies nicht Gerecht ist.

Daneben sehe ich es auch als Fakt an das Nerds und vor allem Leute die auf einer OpenMind rumhängen doch sehr gebildete Menschen sind. Das heißt auch das sie die beiden vorher genannten Fakten nicht einfach aus emotionalen Gründen ignorieren können. Und mal im Ernst, das ist doch kein Haufen von antifeministischen Psychos? Oder doch? Ich war ja nicht dabei, aber so sehr kann dort die Atmosphäre doch nicht gekippt sein.

Meines Erachtens hat das Eine mit dem Anderen gar nichts zu tun. Persönliche Erfahrungen mit dem anderen Geschlecht und daraus evtl. entstandene Verletzungen sollten nie einen Einfluss auf die tief sitzende Weltsicht haben. Tatsächlich würde diese Beobachtung nämlich bedeuten das es nicht wenige Menschen gibt, für die der Schluss “ich habe Schmerzen erfahren, daher sehe ich deine nicht” als Lebensmotiv funktioniert. Und wenn wir immer noch da sind, dann ist sehr viel in unserer Gesellschaft schief.

Ich hoffe irgendwie inständig das dieser Punkt falsch ist, weil ich doch hoffe das es in der Allgemeinheit dieses beschriebene Handlungsmotiv so nicht gibt. Und erst recht nicht unter Nerds. Gleichheit muss im Zweifel auch unter Schmerzen ein hohes Gut bleiben. Und ich hoffe auch das ich das nicht nur so sehe weil ich mit 16 eine Freundin hatte.

marcus: Nina Pauer: Wir haben keine Angst

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

“Luxusprobleme sind keine Pseudoprobleme”

Da ich gerade bei einer Lesung in der überaus schönen Buchhandlung cohen+dobernigg in der Schanze war bin ich immer noch ganz beseelt. Nina Pauer ist freie Autorin bei der Zeit, bloggt, ’82er Jahrgang und hat ein wunderbares Buch über unsere Generation geschrieben. Naja, eigentlich hat sie ein Buch über uns geschrieben. Uns ist in dem Falle die endzwanziger Akademikerkinder, die festgestellt haben das sie ja jetzt langsam 30 werden und somit schon seit 10 Jahren im Hamsterrad sind. Oder so ähnlich. Im großen und ganzen geht es um die Probleme die wir trotzdem haben, über die Angst und Überforderung die dieses “die Welt steht euch offen” manchmal verursacht. Das ganze ist schön verpackt in zwei extremen Charakteren, die es aber so auf jeden Fall geben kann und einem sehr angenehmen Schreibstil. Ich persönlich denke das das eines der besten Bücher ist die ich dieses Jahr gelesen habe. Lösungen hat sie nicht parat, aber wenn wir nicht alle langsam einsehen das es auch in unserer Welt grenzen gibt dann werden die meisten nicht sonderlich alt, oder nicht sonderlich glücklich, oder beides.

Auf jeden Fall sollte jeder zwischen 25 und 35 “Wir haben keine Angst” lesen, um zu sehen wo man selber steht. Und um zu reflektieren wo man sein möchte. Und vielleicht um einfach etwas glücklicher zu werden, in dem Wissen das man nicht alleine ist.

marcus: Quickhacks: Git Swap: Swapping the two topmost commits

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Maybe my workflow is broken, but I often have the problem that I need to swap the last two commits I did to my git repository. That is due to the fact that my last commit is usually what I’m really working on. I know I could use more branches, but still. When I’m cleaning up this commit, e.g. to get it past all the static (Findbugs, Checkstyle) checks bevore publishing it, I sometimes come along stuff that is broken or ugly but has nothing to do what I’m currently doing. Not beeing able to leave wrong code untouched I fix it and commit it away. But now the last commit is not what I’m “–amend“ing to anymore. What I always wanted to do is “git swap“, to just swap the commit before the last one to the top of my chain. I know that I can do a combination of git rebase -i or git reset, but I like stuff to be simple. I opted to write a script that rewrites the git-rebase-todo in order to make handling of conflicts more straight forward. So now I can do this:

$ mkdir git_swap_test
$ cd git_swap_test/
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/git_swap_test/.git/
$ echo 'foo' > file1
$ git add file1
$ git commit -m 'First Commit'
[master (root-commit) 14b55a7] First Commit
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 file1
$ echo 'bar' > file2
$ git add file2
$ git commit -m 'Second Commit'
[master c9f97e4] Second Commit
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 file2
$ echo 'baz' > file3
$ git add file3
$ git commit -m 'Third Commit'
[master 40f98d8] Third Commit
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 file3
$ git log --format=oneline
40f98d8bfbc4edaede576e18b7f4fa20dfde02bf Third Commit
c9f97e42e2ecd0821e3edf45c4dd599540972b46 Second Commit
14b55a753ea9ed291ec511d42effdf190e44ad09 First Commit
$ git swap
Reversing all commits up to HEAD~2
Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/master.
$ git log --format=oneline
569fd69259bcf7ca8a4a25fe4c3e82e860e995d8 Second Commit
7414eee241877e0f0c0d4d317c4f06384bd27715 Third Commit
14b55a753ea9ed291ec511d42effdf190e44ad09 First Commit
$ git swap
Reversing all commits up to HEAD~2
Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/master.
$ git log --format=oneline
300c358d4d6e2b26a4f06c41e438068a7d6b630e Third Commit
87ac4cf567bcab51a57c1599de8b5faee1b7cfb7 Second Commit
14b55a753ea9ed291ec511d42effdf190e44ad09 First Commit

What I did to do this is first write a small Shellscript that basically overrides GIT_EDITOR with my own Perl implementation:
This is what makes it possible to call “git swap“. Acutally, you could call it with any commitish, in order to swap up to there, but that might not be what you want. It just defaults to the two topmost commits. The real work is done in the swapper.pl file:
This reads the git-rebase-todo (which comes as the first command line parameter), reads all it’s lines and reverses the order. That is what git rebase -i uses to change the order of the commits. That’s it. Now I save at least 5 seconds per extra commit, because that is the time my Emacs needs to boot up .

marcus: Contagion

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Contagion ist ein sehr guter Film, vor allem ist er sehr unaufgeregt.
Der SPIEGEL hat schon eine sehr schöne Kritik verfasst, somit kann ich nicht viel hinzufügen. Im großen und ganzen schöne Starbesetzung und vor allem: ruhig. Der Film baut nicht auf diese Outbreak-Artige Konfrontation, wir hier, die bösen da, sondern zeigt einfach was passiert. Und das eher dokumentarisch als nach den großen Effekten zu suchen. Doch dabei macht er echt nachdenklich, wenn er einfach Menschen in der Zeit der Seuche zeigt, wie jeder einzelne reagiert und wie Menschen halt so sind.
Für Lacher sorgt dann doch wenn jemand im Kino hustet. Und vor allem an dem Tag meines eigenen Flu-Shot ist es besonders komisch das zu sehen.
Ich kann den Film also hiermit sehr empfehlen.

marcus: Mein “Kunztprojekt” im November

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Manchmal komme ich ja auf so Gedanken aus denen dann lustige Projekte entstehen. So ereignete es sich auch Mitte Oktober, als es im Pub um die allgegenwärtigen Hinz&Kunzt Verkäufer ging. Und daraus wird jetzt mein Novemberprojekt.

Im November gilt für mich folgende Regel:

Ich kaufe von jedem Verkäufer eine Hinz&Kunzt den ich an diesem Tag zum ersten mal sehe.

Das heißt: jeder Verkäufer im Supermarkt wird eine Zeitschrift an mich los. Jeder der mir eine anbietet wird auch eine an mich los. Ich bin mal echt gespannt wie viele ich am Ende des Monats habe.

Warum? Naja, zum einen ist das eine bescheuerte Idee, zum anderen geht es aber um Wahrnehmung. Es gibt so viel über das man normalerweise nicht mehr nachdenkt. Meine vegetarischen Monate führen immer dazu das ich mir Gedanken über Essen mache, was ich normalerweise auch nicht tue. Mein Hinz&Kunzt Projekt wird dazu führen das ich die Verkäufer mal wirklich “sehe”. Und vielleicht mache ich ja sogar Fotos und sammele meine Begegnungen. Auf jeden Fall freue ich mich auf das Projekt.

marcus: Erstes Mal: Fasten

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:07:34 +0000

Ich komme ja im Moment immer auf so lustige Ideen, die dafür da sind um meine Grenzen auszutesten und einfach mal mehr Maß und Bewusstsein in das zu integrieren was einem doch manchmal einfach durch die Finger rinnt: den Alltag. Daher habe ich schon Anfang Oktober mal wieder einen “Milchmonat” eingelegt, also keinen Alkohol. Da ich solche Unterbrechungen meines normalen Verhaltens gerne maximiere habe ich dann direkt auch noch einen “Gemüsemonat” daraus gemacht, sprich kein Fleisch, diesmal sogar auch keinen Fisch. Ich bin eh der Meinung das man viel weniger Fleisch essen sollte, aus ethischen Gründen den Tieren gegenüber und seinen Mitmenschen, von denen doch viel zu viele immer noch hungern. Ich finde da sollte man eher schauen das man die Lebensmittelpreise auf ein Niveau bekommt so dass es Weltweit keine Probleme gibt. Dazu gehört auch Futtermittelproduktion zu reduzieren, erst recht sollte man Ackerfläche natürlich auch nicht als Lieferant für Biokraftstoffe nutzen. Aber ich schweife ab. Wie gesagt, wenn ich 2 von 12 Monaten kein Fleisch esse ist das immerhin schon mal ein Anfang.
Naja, auf jeden Fall habe ich mir dann gedacht das man ja auch mal ein richtiges Fasten in die Zeit legen sollte, da ich ja eh im Moment eher Gesund lebe ist das wohl die richtige Zeit. Also habe ich mal eine Woche Fasten eingelegt.

Entlastungstag
Am Samstag war also Entlastungstag angesagt, also quasi mal nichts schweres essen sondern nur Obst. Das war auch nicht so besonders schwer, da ich mir mit meinem ersten 15km Lauf den Appetit doch ziemlich versaut habe. Also gab es tatsächlich nur 3 Bananen, 2 Äpfel und 3 Birnen. Das war schon mal lecker.

1. Fastentag
War jetzt auch nicht so schwierig, war halt noch Sonntag. Zum Frühstück gab es leckeren Sauerkrautsaft (ich mag wirklich Sauerkraut) und dann später noch mal einen Gemüsesaft und etwas Gemüsebrühe. Abends im Rover war dann auch kein Problem, da kann man auch Kamillentee trinken.

2. Fastentag
Ich habe unglaublich schlecht geschlafen in der Nacht auf Montag, was auch ein wenig dazu geführt hat das ich den Tag über eher auf Wolken gegangen bin. Morgens gab es lecker Karottensaft, Mittags Tee und Abends wieder Brühe und Gemüsesaft. Im großen und ganzen fühle ich mich aber wohl, obwohl mein Magen doch auch komische Geräusche macht.

3. Fastentag
War auf jeden Fall der Tag wo das Fasten am wenigsten Spass gemacht hat. Am Montag war ich in der Mittagspause noch bei der Bank und bin freudig etwas rumgelaufen, am Dienstag war das schon eher sehr langweilig und hat auch keinen Spass gemacht. Richtig gut gefühlt habe ich mich auch nicht. Morgens gab es Tomatensaft und Abends Brühe, obwohl ich Abends auch Unterwegs war und mir einen Liter Apfelschorle reingetan habe. Aber wenn ich schon keine Pizza und kein Bier bekomme…

4. Fastentag
Der Mittwoch war dann schon wieder besser, lecker Karottensaft zum Frühstück, Mittags um den Isekanal spaziert, Abends Brühe und dann… schwimmen. Man soll ja seinen normalen Sport machen, also habe ich es tatsächlich auf 40 Kraul Bahnen gebracht. Insgesamt ging es aber an dem Tag auch besser und ich habe mich auch eher normal gefühlt. So richtig Hunger habe ich auch eher selten, es ist nur das ich einfach gerne Essen. Nicht umsonst habe ich mir am Dienstag auch endlich einen Qype Account zugelegt. Ich muss aber auch immer noch sagen das das wohl fürs erste das letzte mal war, soviel Spass macht das jetzt auch nicht. Gewichtsmäßig wirkt es sich übrigens auch kaum aus. Also wenn ich mich nicht am Freitag oder Samstag so gut wie seit Jahren fühle dann würde ich es auch eher als Effektfrei beschreiben.

5. Fastentag
Morgen gibt es einen Apfel, ich glaube das wird der beste Apfel meines Lebens. Und Suppe, das wird auch groß. Der 5. Tag ging eigentlich auch sehr gut, die Nacht ging halt gar nicht, ich habe nur 4 Stunden geschlafen, was aber auch am Schwimmen und dem kleinen Mittagsschlaf davor lag. Im großen und ganzen siegt aber gerade die Erleichterung das ich das durchgezogen habe und ab morgen wird dann langsam wieder aufgebaut. Yay, Fasten bestanden!

1. Aufbautag
Endlich vorbei. Zum Frühstück gab es einen Apfel, der obwohl er hart und sauer war einfach mal die Erlösung mit sich brachte. Mittags dann Suppe und Abends auch. Im großen und ganzen bin ich damit wiede fit und auch der Hunger geht langsam weg. Mein Gewicht ist doch noch etwas gefallen, mal sehen. Das “wie neu geboren” Gefühl hat sich aber jetzt noch nicht wirklich eingestellt. Morgen werden Bäume gefällt und auch wieder normal gegessen, mal sehen was so der nachhaltige Effekt ist.

Ich werde das aber bestimmt nicht so schnell wieder tun, einmal alle 30 Jahre reicht.

marcus: Die Grünen überwachen jetzt auch

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:52:15 +0000

Für die Abrechnung könne das europäische Satellitensystem Galileo eingesetzt werden, vorausgesetzt, ein strenger Datenschutz sei gewährleistet.

Focus Online

Gut das wir Europäer nicht nur Euros retten sondern auch dieses neue Navigationssystem bauen, denn damit kann wird unter Umständen die Genauigkeit verbessert. Ich persönlich finde das wirklich gut, denn die 5 Meter von GPS machen bei meiner Nutzung von GPS, die meistens zu Fuß ist, wirklich was aus.

Auch gut finde ich das ein Grüner Ministerpräsident über eine PKW Maut nachdenkt. Mir ist das eh egal, da ich kein Auto fahre, finde aber das man Autos zumindest aus den Innenstädten verbannen sollte, die stinken, sind laut und nehmen unglaublich viel Platz weg. Und versuchen mich armen Fahrradfahrer mindestens einmal am Tag umzubringen.

Was ich nicht gut finde ist wenn ein grüner Ex-Gymnasiallehrer für Chemie, Biologie und Ethik schlecht gecoacht über technische Umsetzung von PKW Maut spricht. Das Problem ist relativ einfach erklärt: Sattelitengestützte PKW Maut bedeutet das irgendwer (in dem Fall der Staat oder ein Privatunternehmen) zu jedem Zeitpunkt weiß wo sich jedes Auto aufhält und damit auch die meisten Bürger.

Das finde ich nicht so gut. Und dafür gibt es ganz viele Gründe. Kretschmann sagt zwar das der “Datenschutz gewährleistet” werden muss, was das aber genau bedeutet steht zumindest in dem kurzen Online Abriss nicht. (Wo ist eigentlich das ganze Interview?). Jetzt kann man natürlich mit einem IT-Security Experten sprechen und die theoretische Diskussion anfangen ob es sowas wie Datenschutz überhaupt gibt, aber ich nehme an jeder hat dieses Jahr mitbekommen das viele Unternehmen und der Staat nicht besonders gut darin sind auf Daten aufzupassen. Da hilft wirklich nur die Daten gar nicht erst zu erfassen.

Ferner kann man den Rahmen für so ein Mautsystem natürlich Gesetzlich ganz eng fassen, das Problem ist das solche Daten immer die Begehrlichkeiten der Sicherheitsbehörden wecken. Und da die Sicherheitsbehörden ja immer noch der Illusion der absoluten Sicherheit hinterherjagen weiß man nicht so genau auf was für lustige Ideen die als nächstes kommen. Vor unseren Computern machen sie ja auch keinen halt mehr, vor allem aber halten sie sich nicht an die Regeln die die Gerichte ihnen auferlegen. So viel zum Thema das kann man ja gesetzlich regeln.

Gesetze ändern sich aber auch bzw. können von der herrschenden Mehrheit geändert werden, genau wie der Zeitgeist und die Gesellschaftsform. All das sollte man berücksichtigen wenn man eine umfangreiche Überwachungsinfrastruktur schafft. Die beste Lösung für diese Probleme ist also weiterhin es nicht zu tun.

Das sehe übrigens nicht nur ich so, es gibt auch noch Medien die das verstehen und sogar Parteien.

marcus: Filialfinder 2.0

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:52:09 +0000

Ein Filialfinder ist ja ein tolles Feature: man geht auf die Homepage eines Unternehmens und sucht dann den meistens gut versteckten Link zu der Suche nach den einzelnen Filialen, das hat z.B. meine Bank, Tchibo und die Post.

Das Problem das ich gestern hatte löst aber keiner, auch nicht die mobilen Varianten: ich will eine geöffnete Filiale haben, weil es Samstag 16 Uhr ist. Irgendwie ist den ganzen Entwicklern noch nicht aufgefallen das die Filialdaten mehrdimensional sind, sprich wir neben der Dimension Ort noch sowas wie Öffnungszeiten und ggf. Features der Filialen haben.

Ich bin ja der Meinung das man das mal ändern sollte.

marcus: Alle auf Drogen!

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 09:50:27 +0000

Oh mein Gott, die Linke beschließt das alle Drogen legalisiert werden sollen! Das schließt also auch harte Drogen mit ein.

So ungefähr hört sich für mich die Berichterstattung an diesem Wochenende über den Linken-Parteitag an. Nur das den etablierten Medien leider die Ironie fehlt. Und natürlich die Tiefe. Weil meine erste Frage dazu wäre natürlich wie sehen das die anderen Parteien? Und was bedeutet das für die Gesellschaft in Deutschland, gibt es hier eine Mehrheit für eine Art von Drogenpolitik? Dafür nehmen wir mal die aktuellen Umfragewerte der Parteien. Es geht natürlich auch nur um den Konsum, also die Entkriminalisierung der Suchtkranken.

Gehen wir mal von Links nach Rechts im demokratischen und relevanten Spektrum der Parteien:

Linke 7%
haben wir ja gelesen: ”Legalisierung aller Drogen” , das schließt dann auch sog. harte Drogen mit ein

Piraten 10%
Die haben natürlich mal wieder nichts fertig . Dafür aber eine AG Drogen:

Die PIRATENPARTEI-DEUTSCHLAND steht für eine repressionsfreie Drogenpolitik und will ein Ende der gescheiterten Prohibition. Wir lehnen die heutige, wissenschaftlich nicht haltbare Unterscheidung in legale und illegale Stoffe ab und fordern die objektive Bewertung und Handhabung aller psychoaktiven Substanzen alleine anhand ihres Gefahrenpotentials.

Die Piraten folgen also eher dem Ratio-Ansatz, und verbieten demnächst Tabak, dafür legalisieren sie Cannabis . Das ist natürlich nur überspitzt dargestellt, aber schon mal ein sehr differenzierter Ansatz.

Grüne 16%
Die Grünen haben einen ganzen Artikel über ihre Drogenpolitik:

Die Politik der Kriminalisierung von Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten führt in die Sackgasse. Schwerstabhängige brauchen Hilfe, keine Strafverfolgung.
…
Bei weichen Drogen wie Cannabis wollen wir unter Berücksichtigung des Jugendschutzes eine legale Abgabeform über lizenzierte Fachgeschäfte ermöglichen, weitere Erleichterungen für die medizinische Verwendung von Cannabis sowie vernünftige Regelungen und Grenzwerte im Bereich Cannabis und Straßenverkehr durchsetzen.

Die Grünen wollen also das man bekifft Auto fahren darf . Ich nehme an bzw. hoffe das diese vernünftige Regelung ein Totalverbot ist. Aber davon abgesehen stehen die Grünen also auch für eine Entkriminalisierung.

Somit haben wir also im linken Spektrum, das im Moment tatsächlich 33% der Zustimmung der Wähler erhält, eine überwiegende Mehrheit für Entkriminalisierung. Eventuell nicht so radikal wie die Linke, aber doch eher normal.

In der Mitte ist es nicht mehr so einfach, die SPD (28%) macht es mir nicht so einfach, zumindest kann ich da nicht wirklich einen Link zu anbieten:

Wir wollen neue Wege in der Drogenpolitik. Wir werden eine Drogenpolitik gestalten, bei der Hilfe für die Abhängigen und gesundheitliche Vorsorge im Vordergrund stehen.Wir setzen auf Prävention, weil wir mit Aufklärung und vorbeugender Hilfe für gefährdete Personen alles dafür tun wollen, daß Menschen nicht in die Suchtabhängigkeit geraten. Wir setzen auf Hilfe, weil wir wissen, daß Sucht eine Krankheit ist und der Behandlung bedarf. Wir sagen der Drogenmafia den Kampf an.
Wir wollen der Drogenkriminalität den Boden entziehen: Wir wollen Hilfe statt Strafe für die Abhängigen, aber eine rigorose Strafverfolgung der Drogenhändler.
(aus dem Wahlprogramm der SPD vom Parteitag in Leipzig 1998)

Somit bleibt noch die CDU (32%), die macht es einem aber auch einfach:

Eine „Legalisierung“ angeblich „weicher Drogen“ lehnen wir ab.

Im Endeffekt scheint es also so zu sein das es einen breiten gesellschaftlichen Konsens zu geben scheint der für eine Entkriminalisierung der Drogenkonsumenten ist. Das heißt aber auch das das einzige Radikale an den Linken ist das sie da ein wenig undifferenziert rangehen. Wobei wenn bei den Piraten herauskommt das Kokain und Heroin ungefährlich ist, dann wäre es nur konsequent wenn sie das auch tun würden. Die Grünen äußern sich als die “alten Hasen” einfach nicht zu. Da sind wir ja mal gespannt bis wann sich da gesetzlich was ändern wird.

marcus: More History

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:50:58 +0000

Today I found out that use.perl.org is shutting down, or at least it is not accepting any new posts anymore. As I had my first blog on use.perl.org I wanted to preserve the data. This was quite easy as I just had to enhance a little script that I found on perlmonks.org in order to export the text of the use.perl.org entries to create an RSS file which I just imported here. Thus my blog history now starts in September 2003, which is more than 8 years ago.

The code is here:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

use SOAP::Lite;
use XML::RSS;
use DateTime::Format::Flexible;
use DateTime::Format::Mail;

my $user = shift ||
    die "Usage: $0 userID [ usernick ]\n\nStopped";
my $nick = shift || "#$user";

my $host        = 'use.perl.org';
my $uri         = "http://$host/Slash/Journal/SOAP";
my $proxy       = "http://$host/journal.pl";

my $journal = SOAP::Lite->uri($uri)->proxy($proxy);

my $results = $journal->get_entries($user, 50)->result;
my $rss     = XML::RSS->new(version => '2.0');

$rss->channel(title       => "use.perl.org journal of $nick",
              'link'      => $proxy,
              description => "The use.perl.org journal of $nick");


for my $entry (@$results) {
    my $data = $journal->get_entry( $entry->{id} )->result;

    my $formattedDate = DateTime::Format::Mail->format_datetime(
           DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime( $data->{date}));
    
    $rss->add_item(title  => $entry->{subject}, 'link' => $entry->{url},
           description => $data->{body}, pubDate => $formattedDate )
}

print STDOUT $rss->as_string;

__END__


            view raw
            upo-rss-export.pl
            This Gist brought to you by GitHub.
          

nlz: How to reach me

nospam@example.com (Nils) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:05:45 +0000

I think it's quite obvious that I'm not blogging here anymore. Not unless it's really major, anyway (see my last post). And really, the only reason I post at all is because some of you might not realize there are other methods of staying in touch with me.

But actually, I'm online quite a bit, being in the tech sector and such. So if this blog (and perhaps my email address) is the only place on the internet that you know to find me at… feel free to ask about other options, either in the comments or via email.

(Though no, so far I'm not on Facebook, and I hope to keep it that way.)

marcus: HH.js Oktober

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:25:19 +0000

Heute habe ich es tatsächlich mal geschafft bei der HH.js Vorbeizuschauen, das hatte ich irgendwie das ganze Jahr schon mal vor, ist aber bis jetzt nicht wirklich passiert da ich irgendwie nie Zeit hatte. Heute fand das Ganze in den Räumlichkeiten von Bigpoint statt, die Jungs haben auch ein schönes Büro und klingen auch ganz nett. Der @scheffield war mit und den @heshist haben wir da getroffen.

Erstmal gab es einen HTML 5 Appcache Vortrag von Peter Kröner (@sir_pepe), der war sehr gut und sehr schnell und hatte eine angenehme Informationsdichte. Das einzige was ich mitgenommen habe ist aber das man wohl noch viel tun muss damit das läuft und das ich mir mal jStorage anschauen muss.

Danach ging es mit Meno Abels über lauter kranken kram den man mit JS machen kann wenn man ein Konferenz-WLAN baut, den kram hat er auf seinem Github account (https://github.com/mabels).

Haymo Meran hat kurz was über den Aloha Editor erzählt, der wohl die sane Variante von “contentEditable” ist, indem er die ganzen Dom-Operationen selber macht. Wirkt zumindest besser als alles was ich bis jetzt da draußen gesehen habe.

Dann gab es noch ein Roundup zur jsconf.eu, wo eigentlich alle Vorträge mal zusammengefasst wurde. Folgende Puntke waren für mich interessant:

Zeon.js ist wohl ein JavaScript Formatter und Analyzer, kann man wohl mal mit in die Toolbox nehmen
Es wird versucht ein JS-Logo zu etablieren, weil es irgendwie kein so cooles Logo für JS gibt wie für HTML 5 und man das ja marketingtechnisch brauchen kann.
Coderdojo ist eine Initiative aus Irland wo Leute Pro-Bono Schulkindern coden beibringen. Das klint auch cool.

Sieht so aus als wenn ich in Zukunft da häufiger aufschlage.

fret: Man wird ja nicht jünger – oder: Fitness im Alter

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:08:58 +0000

HFCS, FitBit, WiThings, Fitocracy, WearLink+, Hooverball, Bikram Yoga.

Basis, QuantifiedSelf, FDDB, 25(OH)Vitamin D3-Spiegel.

Ihr kommt nicht mehr mit?

Nun, ich habe das Gefühl, gerade auf dem Weg zu einem neuen Nerd zu werden: dem Gesundheitsnerd. Das Thema gesundes Essen, Abnehmen, gesunder leben, darauf achten, dass man sich bewußter ernährt, nicht alles blind in sich hineinstopft, was gerade so in bequemer Reichweite ist, das ist gerade, was mich recht viel und oft beschäftigt.

Ich weiß nicht genau, ob es an dem Einfluss der Firma liegt, in der man sich bei Firmenausflügen morgens zur Laufrunde trifft und in der Sport geachtet und thematisiert wird, ob es an dem Alter liegt, dass man fürchtet und spürt, wie die Warnschüsse näher kommen.

Oder daran, dass man es sich einfacher leisten kann, den Unterschied zwischen einem handgemachten Burger oder dem vom Fast Food Laden mal zu erschmecken. Daran, dass man gut genug Englisch spricht, um Reportagen über die Probleme der US Nahrungsmittelindustrie zu verstehen oder an den kritischeren Medienangeboten, die bspw. ZDFneo und das Internet so veröffentlichen.

Fest steht nur, dass ich mich ärgere, dass dieses Thema nicht vor fünf Jahren wichtiger in meinem Leben war.

Nach der Bruchpause gehts dann weiter, es juckt mir schon in den Füßen!

marcus: Was ich dieses Wochenende gelernt habe

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:26:14 +0000

So, jetzt wo ich wieder ein schönes Blog habe kann ich das ja auch benutzen. Nämlich um mal aufzuschreiben was ich dieses Wochenende alles gelernt habe, ich habe nämlich Aufgrund meiner Erkältung ein Nerd Wochenende eingelegt:

Scribe für OAuth mit Java

Wenn man mit Java OAuth machen will Benutzt man Scribe. Nicht nur weil ich da noch eine Pull-Request offen habe, sondern weil der API sehr schön ist und Spass macht und einfach zu benutzen ist.

Die Bahn will nicht mit mir spielen

Ich wollte eigentlich sowas wie einen Hafas Client schreiben, die Bahn sagt aber immer 500. Dabei habe ich gefunden das Andreas Schildbach, der Autor von Öffi, seine Client Lib auf Google Code hat. Kann man bestimmt auch mal benutzen.

Perstistent Collections für Java

Die PCollections die auch auf Google Code rumliegen sehen so aus als wenn ich sie mal gerne benutzen würde, auch wenn ich nicht verstehe warum man immer noch die 15 Jahre alten Collection Interfaces implementieren muss. Leider hatte ich nichts was ich auf Anhieb damit machen würde, habe aber mal eine Implementierung in meinen Collections ausprobiert.

Des weiteren habe ich noch gelernt das man auch von zwei Erkältungsbädern nicht wieder gesund wird. Und das WordPress viel leichter zu Updaten und zu Administrieren ist als vor 3 Jahren.

marcus: Mal aufgeräumt…

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:03:31 +0000

Habe mein Blog mal aufgeräumt, ich muss ja nächsten Monat mein Projekt irgendwo festhalten. Daher ist das jetzt hier schöner und ohne den Twitter kram und so.

skirsch: Panna Cotta

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:43:16 +0000

For 4-5 people: Boil 500ml of cream with 50g sugar and a vanilla pod. Add 2 sheets of gelatin. Let it cool down. Done. So easy.

Oh yeah, remove vanilla pod before letting it cool down.

oneiros: My latest projects: frab and frabulous

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:13:49 +0000

This year’s FrOSCon was a huge success, as always. But one thing was different from the previous years: We replaced pentabarf, our old conference management system, with a new system written by me. pentabarf served us well for five years. … Continue reading →

fret: Astaro / Sophos merger – my personal view on that

Sun, 08 May 2011 20:40:27 +0000

Prelude:

I wanted to blog more in my native language, but this blog post will be written in English. Inconsequent? Rather audience-oriented ;) Also, I almost never blog about things that have to do with my job, but since this is a rather big thing and there are a few voices out there claiming that this was a bad thing happening to Astaro employees, I wanted to give an insight perspective (+ a view from somebody who has also worked for a system integrator in the past).

So, what happened? Well, Friday was a big day for everybody involved in the Astaro microcosmos (partners, resellers and the like) and medium-important day for the whole IT Security industry. At that day, Sophos and Astaro announced publicly that Sophos is planning to acquire Astaro in the very near future. Bottomline: Astaro as a company will not officially exist anymore, but everybody working for Astaro today will turn into a Sophos employee and also every asset in the company will turn into Sophos property.

This at first might be a bit frightening, but if you have had a bit more time to think about it (we Astaronians had a small heads-up), this seems to be a good thing. So, nobody who has heard about this should be frightened or feel somewhat sorry for me / us. Rather the opposite is true.

Astaro has been the 4th largest vendor – by sellout – in our space (UTM, basically a “Firewall + many other cool things”), privately owned, has ~ 220 employees and has been profitable since a couple of years.

So, it is nice to work for this rather small and cozy company. You could feel that we didn’t realize only a 0,3% – 1% profit from the money that we earned (such as my former employer did) and the overall feeling was very relaxed. Many people have been with the company since the very beginning, many people in key positions haven’t had another job before. The company is still rather young (11 years old) and we’ve recently moved to new, shiny offices in Karlsruhe.

It feels like your word and your opinions are valued, the founders know everybody working for them by name and greet them on the floors and there is an overall open door / everybody talks to everybody mentality that I didn’t feel in larger organization.

And suddenly, the acquisition was announced.

This was rather a shock for people outside of Astaro; they fear that the product will be let down, that support will suffer and that this will have some negative consequences.

I don’t think that those people are right. There are a few good reasons why I personally do believe strongly in the merger and those I’d like to share with you (and also do calm down my friends and family and convince them that I’ll be alright):

In fact, I wished to be bought by Sophos if that had to happen one day. I personally like them technologically very much and I think that their way of doing business is very similar to ours.

No direct competitor:
Sophos is not a direct competitor to Astaro. They are not the No.1 UTM vendor out there and they don’t have similar products. So they don’t buy Astaro just to get rid of competition, letting the product and the people involved with it die afterwards. This is not only good for our customers and partners that can be sure that the product line will continue to be developed and sold, but also for us, since our jobs are pretty safe.
European company, focussed on the professional market:
Just as Astaro, Sophos is a European company. This reflects I think on their way of doing business, on their view on the world, on their ethics and ideas about how to do business. And most importantly: The network division of Sophos (which Astaro will turn into) will not be far away in another continent, having little influence on the overall company.
Great products
The Sophos guys have built clever products and are in my opinion close to McAfee when it comes to cool Endpoint security products. If you’ve followed my bio a bit, you will know that I have good reason to call myself an expert in that field, and I think that they are No. 2 worldwide when it comes to technology (unfortunately not yet sellout).
Astaro complements their portfolio:
The product range that Astaro stands for (Gateway security products) is something that Sophos lacked over the last years. Rumor has it that they also launched their own Mail- and Web Gateways, but they are not industry-widely known for these kind of products. So, similar to what McAfee did with the Secure Computing acquisition they seemed to have checked the market for a solution that fits and stumbled upon Astaro. Fortunate for everybody!
Expertise that is unique within Sophos:
Given the fact that Sophos has little to no knowledge in this particular security area, our expertise and our understanding in how to sell and run the gateway business is needed by them. They saw that the business is done a bit differently and are planning to let Astaro as a sub division act rather than integrating them directly.
No direct changes
This will also result in business not changing directly. The Astaro partner model, the margins, the criteria to classify as an Astaro partner will remain unchanged. There won’t be 100s of new partners overnight that will kill our established partners’ business.
Higher visibility
Mid-term however, the visibility and status that Sophos has will bring a completely new group of partners and customers to us. Very large system integrators who have focussed on bigger companies will be interested in looking at us and consider to include us actively in their portfolio rather than just sell us if the customer explicitly asks for it.
We’re No.1 UTM now
No need to explain who Astaro is anymore. The brand name “Sophos” will give our business a huge boost outside the German-speaking regions. Sophos is known in the IT industry, Astaro is still somewhat unknown as a brand. So, doors will open for us that wouldn’t have opened before. And immediately we are one of the big 10 players in Security. Cisco, Symantec, Juniper, Mc Afee, Check Point, Trend Micro and F5 (probably a few more) are bigger than the merged Sophos/Astaro team, but the joint company is bigger than better known players such as Fortinet (largest UTM-only vendor in regards to sell out) or Kaspersky.
Focus on Network Security
Astaro or the new Network Security division of Sophos or however you’ll call us now, can focus on Network Security again. We have presented this great Security Wall vision a couple of months ago that basically covers all security aspects out there. But, we don’t have to build everything on our own anymore. We don’t have to deliver an endpoint security product, there already exists one in the company (and a pretty good one, BTW). Whether we will continue these product lines or not however is something that I’m not aware of. And some other aspects of the product that we were lacking are now covered as well.
Cool OEM components to integrate in our product
Astaro has always either built (own technology), borrowed (open source technology to which we actively commit code to drive it further) or bought (OEM components) technology for our product. Now that Sophos e.g. offers some great Antivirus components that run under Linux and has some offerings when it comes to Threat or Spam databases, the number of OEM components that we have to license from 3rd parties will be reduced in mid-term. This means that we’ll have better control over the product and will be able to fix bugs even faster than before.
Being back in known waters
Last but not least: I’ve worked in the endpoint security part of the IT Security industry for 5 years before I joined Astaro. So, for me this merger is perfect: I’ll still continue to work in the Network branch of Sophos, but the knowledge about the other side of the company and their products will hopefully be beneficial in many ways.
Many new trips and challenges
Though nothing will change immediately the additional sales personnel within Sophos and the existing Sophos channel will probably bring some boost to the things I have to do: give trainings, give Pre-Sales presentations, teach the Sophos colleagues about our products.
Strong presence in Germany
I love working in a multinational company. But I also love communicating in German, as it speeds up things. And luckily, Sophos has a very large presence in Germany now + many product parts are developed here (the SafeGuard product line done by Ex-Utimaco and also our network security products). So I’ll be able to communicate with many new and old German colleagues.

So now that I predicted the Sophos thingy properly 2 weeks before at InfoSec, it’s time to have a look into my crystal ball once again and predict what products Sophos is going to buy next. If you compare the McAfee offering, including Vulnerability Management and Patch solutions and maybe what Symantec has (managed Mail filtering), some SaaS providers and something in the VM / patch management space sound like a good fit.

Qualys fits perfectly from its size into the company, Secunia might also be an option. For the SaaS part, Webroot would be a nice addition. And, just to mess with McAfee’s mind, Bit9 would be nice to have in the portfolio….

For all of you security geeks out there: what do you think about the acquisition? And, more importantly, which company do you think will / should be bought by Sophos next?

nlz: Married...

nospam@example.com (Nils) — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:04:09 +0000

Oh, hai! It's been a while since I blogged here... so in case you haven't heard otherwise, I got married to my girlfriend of almost 5 years back in March. Here are the official wedding pictures: http://suejohnsonphotos.com/Weddings/Crystal-and-Nils

scottytm: Serien-Session auf dem Barcamp Ruhr 4

nospam@example.com (ScottyTM) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:57:51 +0000

Da mich jetzt mehrere Leute nach einer Liste der Serien, die ich bei meiner Session vorgestellt habe, gefragt haben, hier eine Übersicht mit den passenden Amazon-Links.

Justified:Season 1
Sinchronicity Complete Series
Mord mit Aussicht Staffel 1 Teil/Teil 2
Middleman Complete Series
Veronica Mars:Season 1 Season 2 Season 3
CSI: Season 9

fret: Der Versuch, mit Web2.0 RealLife1.0 Probleme zu lösen

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:34:41 +0000

Wie einige von Euch vielleicht wissen, sind wir mit unserer aktuellen Wohnsituation seit ca. 6 Monaten unzufrieden. Durch einen unglücklichen Zufall ist das auch ungefähr die Zeit, die wir in unserer frisch gebauten, neu bezogenen, uns als supertoll verkauften Wohnung leben. Und ja, es mag den Anschein haben, als wäre das alles Jammern auf hohem Niveau. Ist es aber leider nicht.

Deswegen haben wir – auch angesichts des Hamburger Wohnungsmarkts – beschlossen, ein wenig kreativ zu werden; oder genauer: ohne Angst vor Patentanwälten andere Ideen ebenfalls zu nutzen. Ideengeber waren Eike und Daniel, die auf Facebook für Köln eine Wohnung suchen. Und, mal ehrlich, was der Ruhrpott kann, dass können wir Nordlichter doch schon lange. Also, bis auf Geographie. Und so ist dann unsere Wohnungssuchanzeige auf Facebook entstanden.

Wir hoffen, dass dieser virtuelle Flyer durch Freundesfreunde vielleicht zum erhofften, mindestens 3 Zimmer großen bebadewannten Ergebnis führt. Denn sind wir doch mal ehrlich: ne freie Wohnung in Hamburg, das ist ungefähr so häufig wie der Aufstieg eines Teenagers mit Ambitionen und Webcam zum Youtube Star. Und auch da hilft ja dieses Internet ganz gut.

Also, wir würden dann jetzt gern mal Euer virtuelles Netzwerk ohne Hemmungen ausnutzen. Dafür gibt es den twitterfreundlichen Shortlink http://fret.de/g4Xe2H, die Facebook Box rechts und für die Stadtverschönerer unter Euch sogar einen wunderbaren neuen Bemperl unter http://bit.ly/g4Xe2H.qrcode, den Ihr auch und insbesondere gern an leerstehende Bürogebäude pappen könnt. Natürlich nur, wenn Ihr vorher den Eigentümer gefragt habt. Und Ihr das schriftlich habt. Und so.

Danke dafür!

Auf Wunsch einer einzelnen Dame jetzt übrigens wieder auf Deutsch und mit Zusammenfassung. So wie früher halt.

[As some of you might know, we're not very happy with the place we're currently living in. So, we are again looking for a new place, barely 6 months after the last time we've packed our stuff in a moving truck. We've started the experiment of empowering Facebook to do so. If you want to participate, just "Like" us on facebook - see the right hand side widget for that. If you happen to know a place and don't have a Facebook account, nevermind. We also plan on accepting normal hints :) ]

fret: San Francisco: or the reason why I was so quiet on Twitter

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:00:58 +0000

Some of you – especially those following me on only Twitter and not Facebook – might have wondered why I was so quiet for the last couple of days: The reason for that is pretty simple – I haven’t been around. And, as there is an agreement between Inka and me to not publish when I’m not around and reveal that she’s home alone, I kept my mouth shut. But, since I’m back in Germany since hopefully about half an hour (this post is scheduled), I can finally talk about what I found to be one of my Top 5 destinations in the world.

I took an occasion I couldn’t let pass by to finally get my ass up and into a plane to visit a good old friend of mine and the beautiful city of San Francisco.

Probably the things that I experienced are way too much to put into a single blog post, however I’d like to at least notice the most impressive things I whitnessed. Just take it as a conversation starter next time we’ll meet.

- Many dogs
- Great weather
- 45° steep roads
- One of the best public transportation systems I know
- a very logical numbering concept for houses
- Great weather
- great people, old and maybe new friends to come
- Affordable hotels
- Not-so-affordable mobile phone fees
- Chaotic driving
- Very nice neighborhoods without too many skyscrapers
- A great amount of fresh, organic, beautiful produce just waiting for you to cook with it.
- And oh: what a view!

Do’s:
- Use Public Transport
- Just walk around
- Make sure to maybe not book a hotel, but a flat instead. At least make sure that you can cook your own meal after shopping at the Ferry Building.
- Take a guided tour
- Plan your trips using BART and CalTrain
- Visit Flight 001
- Stay at the Hotel Vertigo (not just because of the song that will be stuck in your head for the whole time you’re in SF)

Don’t:
- Rental car. It’s more of a burden than a release when being in Downtown SF
- Expect to see everything – the city is just too big for that
- Have bad sushi. Life’s too short for bad sushi.
- Visit the Apple Flagship Store. Better visit the nice and cozy Company Store (http://www.apple.com/companystore/) in on 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA.

And one thing is sure: I’ll be back. With a little more time, hopefully my significant other and an empty agenda to be filled.

fret: More Mail interactivity

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:26:11 +0000

Since I am not sure if all of you use a Feed reader or follow me on twitter – and even if you do you might be more interested in good old plain E-Mail – I’ve decided to add a little newsletter to my blog and the option to subscribe to comments for a specific posting. In case you are interested, you’ll find the according links in the sidebar on the right and beneath any posting right at the comments section.

Oh, and yes: for better readability, I’ve upgraded the theme once more – now back with a really plain one. And of course, still ad-free since ’93. Oh wait.. that’s something different :)

fret: National pride

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:18:53 +0000

Normally, I make it a personal principle to not blog about my job. However this job brings me to many different places in all different countries and one of these trips – the most recent one – nurtured my wish to share a few thoughts about national pride:

This week I had the questionable pleasure to visit France once again. I’ve only been there for a little more than 24 hours, spending a good 10 of them in business meetings of all kind (Dinners with business partners, technical meetings and the like).

And guess what? A good 95% of all communication was done in French. Of course. I do understand this to a degree – at least we are in France – but even though I made it crystal clear that I simply can’t speak let alone understand this language to a degree I’d call acceptable, nobody even tried to integrate me into a longer conversation. Of course, there were some small talk tries in English, but they faded away once we were 5 minutes into a discussion.

On the other hand, I’ve been to e.g. Russia, Belarus, Jordan, India, Italy and Slovenia on business trips; countries where I feared greater language related problems. But, to my surprise, most of those countries seem to host a great deal of language wizards; in Slovenia for example to my surprise most people working in the service industry were fluent in at least two foreign Languages, English and German. And most of them also claimed to be able to speak a good bit of Italian on the side.

But, it seems that there is not a big deal of English spoken in France and even if the people get along with the language, they feel that it’s unnecessary to switch to a language everybody in the room can understand.

This is of course not so much the case in multi-national companies, but there is also the tendency to fall back to your local language.

I myself also feel more comfortable in speaking German among Germans, especially when being in Germany – but within our company, where English is the official company language despite the fact that we are a German company, we even hold meetings with 40+ participant in English if there are only one or two non-Germans in them. So I know both sides, the one that prefers the native language, the other one that doesn’t want to exclude somebody from the discussion.

Maybe it’s arrogant to go to a foreign country and expect to come along with English and German only, maybe it’s something you should be able to expect – I can’t tell. But, it seems that countries with better language skills can take part in the Global knowledge transfer; countries with little foreign language knowledge – e.g. China – on the other hand, seem to be cut out.

I wonder how you would react if you had a guest from abroad in a meeting. Would you carry on with your native language? Would you try and switch the whole meeting to English? Is it okay to hold a meeting in English, if you have 40 participants and two of them can’t speak the local language? Is it on the other hand maybe even necessary?

How much national pride is too much pride?

I’m really interested in your thoughts about that. And thank all the French people I’ve met along the way who took the extra effort to communicate in English – especially Gwenael, whom I haven’t met for a way too long time.

fret: Blog slashdotsicher machen

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 18:44:45 +0000

Auch wenn es wahrscheinlich mehr als anmaßend wäre, davon auszugehen, dass mein Blog jemals geslashdotted werden würde (hierzulande auch eher als “bei TV Total erwähnt werden” oder “auf heise.de stehen” bekannt), ist es gerade in der heutigen, von vHosts und anderen performanceschwachen Angeboten geprägten Zeit durchaus relevant, sich mal Gedanken darüber zu machen.

Der Küchenserver ist vor Kurzem auch wieder von einem vServer (bei dem es regelmäßige Meldungen von mon.itor.us über Nichterreichbarkeit gab) auf einen eigenen “richtigen” Server zurück-umgezogen.

Parallel dazu habe ich aber auch ein paar Inhalte in die sagenumwobene Cloud (genauer zu Amazon) gelegt: So werden die Bilder, die Ihr hier auf der Website seht, nicht mehr vom Küchenserver selbst, sondern von dem gleichen Netzwerk, bei dem Ihr auch höchstwahrscheinlich schon einmal ein Buch gekauft habt, ausgeliefert.

Das sorgt zunächst einmal für weniger Last auf meinem Server, aber auch für Euch – besonders wenn Ihr nicht in Europa beheimatet seid – für eine schnellere Datenübertragung.

Diese Optimierung ist schon ein wenig älter und hat ungefähr zeitgleich mit dem Facebook-Aussehen Einzug hier gehalten.

Im Hintergrund habe ich dann dank ein paar Performance-Monitoring-Tools und weiterer Magie (Details auf Anfrage, bzw. wenn ich die Zeit dazu finde als Blogpost) den allgemeinen Seitenaufbau ein wenig beschleunigt. Der letzter Schritt war dann (ziemlich parallel mit dem aktuellen Layout und leider begleitet von 3 Stunden Downtime) der Umzug auf ein reverse proxy Netzwerk. Damit greift Ihr dann nicht mehr direkt auf den armen kleinen Küchenserver zu, sondern werdet vorher abgefangen. Und nur wenn Ihr keinen Unsinn treibt, werdet Ihr überhaupt auf meine Seite weitergeleitet. Und dann schaut das Netzwerk auch nach, ob sich überhaupt was verändert hat. Falls nicht, dann kommt die Seite auch nicht direkt vom Küchenserver.

Ziel des Ganzen ist recht einfach: Euch möglichst selten lange Ladezeiten oder einen nicht erreichbaren Küchenserver zuzumuten. Okay, und der Infrastruktur-Geek in mir durfte sich auch mal wieder austoben. Mehr dazu vielleicht bald an anderer Stelle, wenn ich vom Geek in mir berichte.

fret: Adding daily content to the blog

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:13:30 +0000

This blog has been meant to keep friends and aquaintances or other persons interested in me updated about my life. What has been quite freqently filled with content in the first years has changed to an almost-no-content space, as my daily publishing has been moved from here to Facebook, Twitter and the like.

To make these sources available to people still believing in this web site and to show some more daily, not important enough to make a blogpost out of it content here, I’ve decided to add my Twitter, Twitpic, last.fm and delicious updates to a sidebar on the right. This allows you to still get a bit information about yours truely.

Oh yes, and again a redesign. Comments about whether you like the new look or hate it are welcome.

nlz: iPhone apps I like to use

nospam@example.com (Nils) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 01:36:31 +0000

I have been meaning to list the iPhone apps I have come to use most for a while now, so here it is, in no particularly thought-out order. Note that these are not all apps I have ever (or currently) installed. Just the good ones I keep coming back to.

Feel free to comment if you think I've missed something!

COMMUNICATING

Echofon - great Twitter client

BeejiveIM - very good multi-protocol chat client (keeps connections alive and does push notifications, too)

Bump - still the best way to exchange contact info between phones

ON THE ROAD

Trapster - know where the cops are hiding (set it up on the website for push notifications on any activity along your commute route)

Gas Bag - find the cheapest gas in the area (based on user updates)

MotionX GPSLite - quite versatile little GPS tool (shows speed, distance, height, maps, waypoints…)

Flixster - Great way to find out what movies are playing, where, when etc. (has GPS integration)

RunPee - a database of current movies, giving you queues when to get up to pee. I use it because it tells me whether there's anything after the credits.

OpenTable - if you eat out a lot, being able to quickly make reservations and find available restaurants nearby is awesome!

Zillow - Ever wonder what that house you just drove by costs?

Distant Suns - Constellation viewer with compass and GPS integration

Google Earth - on a phone!

Ski Report - know what all the slopes are like

Mark the Spot - because AT&T needs to know about your dead zone

MEDIA

Pandora - endless music you like (or music like the music you like)

Shazam & Sound Hound - What's that song?! One or the other is likely to have it in their database

Apple Gallery - viewer for MobileMe galleries (I use it to show my galleries to others)

Apple iBooks - I actually prefer holding a lightweight illuminated iPhone for reading in bed late

Chromatic Glass - augmented reality tool that highlights red as blue (for the 7-10% of the male population that are red-green color blind)

ONE-OFF AWESOMENESS

eBay - it's actually awesome! I get push notifications when new items match my saved smart searches - they used to call this "smart agents" in the 90s, before it was real

360 Panorama - automatic image stitching, uses iPhone 4 gyro sensor

Photoshop Express - I mainly use it for cropping and contrast/exposure enhancement

Lose It! - weight and diet tracker

iHandy Level - yes, it turns your iPhone into a functioning level, handy for small construction projects

iDoodleIt - sometimes, you're out of napkins

Wolfram Alpha - has an answer for everything (if you can figure out how to ask the question). I use it mainly to calculate "what's that in today's dollars".

FLIGHT SIMULATORS

X-Plane anything (by Laminar Research) - the best flight simulators for the iPhone, hands down. The 4G "HD" is the best value, but also a bit hard to use because the UI isn't focussed. The other versions are focussed on specific aspects (Racing, Fighting, Extreme planes, Helicopters, …). I'd start with X-Plane Racing, for the most fun.

F-Sim Shuttle - realistic space shuttle landing simulator

GAMES

JetCarStunts - best over-the-top unrealistic racing game with realistic physics!

Real Racing 2 - whoa. simply the best high-realism track racing game I've seen for iOS

Epic Citadel - serene eye candy, free

Infinity Blade - same tech as Epic Citadel, engaging RPG game (and I normally hate that genre)

Giana Sisters - a very nice remake of the original C64 Mario ripoff (by the original developer)

Diorama - 3D marble-in-hole puzzle with nice perspective effect

AR Defender - cute little augmented reality game (inserts the game into a live image from the camera)

Stair Dismount - it's fun to hear the bones break!

iTunnel 3D - fly down a tunnel. simple game, but fun for hours

JellyCar - OMG, the world is made of jelly and physics!

LightBike - it's Tron, really

fret: 24 Stunden in Hamburg – Sehenswürdigkeiten, Programm

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:10:16 +0000

Aus latent chronischem Anlass, hier eine kleine Liste von Dingen, die man in Hamburg machen kann, wenn man 24 Stunden oder ein Vielfaches davon hat. Sicherlich für die Meisten von Euch nicht besonders relevant, aber vielleicht mal eine (nicht besonders gut versteckte) Aufforderung, mal wieder in die Freie und Hansestadt zu kommen. Und auch für mich eine kleine Liste von Dingen, die ich mal machen sollte.

Apropos, alle Dinge, die ich bereits selbst gemacht hab’, habe ich mit einem Stern gekennzeichnet:

Michel

Folgende Sachen ganz beliebt (und damit sehr stark touristisch frequentiert):

Jungfernstieg und Binnenalster *
Hauptkirche Sankt Michaelis (auch unter “Michel” bekannt), hier am Besten auf die Aussichtsplattform rauf *
Hafen und Landungsbrücken *

Je nach persönlichem Interesse würde ich dann aus folgendem Programm hinzufügen:

Reeperbahn und Große Freiheit *
Schanzenviertel *
Sankt Georg und die Lange Reihe *
Planten und Bloomen *
Hafenrundfahrt *
Speicherstadt *
Hafencity *
Miniaturwunderland (wenn man Eisenbahnen mag und so viel Zeit hat)
Rathaus und Rathausplatz (*, zumindest Rathausplatz)
Bummeln und Shoppen auf der Mönckebergstrasse (auch “Mö” genannt) *
Ein Besuch auf dem Fischmarkt (gibts nur Sonntagsmorgens) *
Blankenese und das Treppenviertel besuchen *

Meine persönlichen Geheimtips:

Besuch im Stadtmodell in der Wexstraße *
Besuch im Kesselhaus in der Speicherstadt als Info über die Hafencity *
durch den alten Elbtunnel laufen und das Hafenpanorama von der Südseite betrachten *
Hafenrundfahrt in preiswert mit einem der HVV Linienschiffe machen bis zum Museumshafen Övelgönne *
Ein Pint im Irish Rover am Großneumarkt trinken
Besuch in der Meatery, bei Butcher’s oder in der Bullerei
Die 3-Zimmer-Wohnung auf der Talstraße besuchen *
Bei einem netten Sagres (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagres_(Biermarke)) beim Portugiesen in der Schanze oder im Portugiesenviertel entspannt aus Hamburg abtauchen. Diese Portugiesenkneipen und -restaurants sind namlich auch irgendwie “typisch Hamburg”. *
Ein Glas Champagner am “Schlemmerstand für Arme” im Hanseviertel trinken: http://www.edeka-struve.de/filialen/schlemmer_markt_hummerstand.php *

Je nach Jahreszeit bieten sich noch:

Den Stadtpark und die große Wiese besuchen *
Den Friedhof Ohlsdorf besuchen
Hagenbecks Tierpark oder das Aquarium besuchen
Besuch im Planetarium

an.

Ansonsten gibt auch meine Lieblingsbuchempfehlung “Hamburg in 24 Stunden” sehr gute Empfehlungen; dieses Buch ist so geschrieben, dass man Samstag auf Sonntag 24 Stunden in Hamburg die wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten sehen kann: Mit den Alternativvorschlägen bekommt man aber locker 2-3 Tage prall gefüllt.

Auch wichtig - Don’ts:

Hafenrundfahrt. Teuer und kann man mit dem ÖPNV ebenfalls machen
zu viel Shoppen. Dafür kommt man nicht nach HH, außerdem gibts hier wenig “Besonderes”, dass Du nicht auch in jeder anderen Großstadt bekommen würdest.
alles sehen wollen: dafür is Hamburg zu groß
sich stressen. Lieber wiederkommen ;)
auf der Reeperbahn selbst Party machen – dazu sollte man in die Seitenstraßen gehen, da isses netter; beispielsweise auf dem Hamburger Berg
Holsten trinken

fret: Places to live in Hamburg

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:41:11 +0000

As most of you know I’ve been living in Hamburg for over 6 years now. And, though I moved here partly forced by a job, I fell in love with this city and don’t consider moving away to be an option anymore. So, I’m stuck with the specific Hamburgian situation to find a place. And, as most Hamburgians will also know, this is a pure nightmare.

In our example – we do live in the Wallhöfe project close to the Großneumarkt, created by Hamburg Team and rented out via Hanseliving – we made a couple of mistakes. First of all we believed in what the real estate agent told us. She is a nice person, but clueless. She promised several things she didn’t know about and that turned out to be completely wrong (like that Telekom will be able to provide phone lines from day one on or that we’ll live in a raised ground floor) and worst of all we seem to be stuck with the worst housing management company (Wentzel Dr. Nachfahren) that you can find in Hamburg: (see http://fret.de/hwas59 for details about other opinions).

An aquaintance has put this in a very drastic, but also very simple form:

“Aber besser als nichts, und man hat immerhin ein Dach überm Kopf.” (better than nothing, and at least you’ve got a roof over your head)

This was his answer to a brief description of the problems we face with our new place at the moment (and there are quite a few, especially if you take into consideration that the place has just been built and is considered to be a better-equiped place aiming for DINKYs)

It symbolizes the desperateness that people in Hamburg have, if it comes to finding a place to live. As this is a common topic in conversations, I’d like to share my view on this subject (and of course, other Hamburgians may have a different view on that or simply more patience / better luck finding the right place):

Basically, you have a couple of options when living in Hamburg:

a) you pay a s**tload of money for a place in a not so very nice part of the city and the place is somewhat decent in terms of building age and renovation

b) you pay even more money for a place in one of the “more trendy” parts of Hamburg, but the place itself has some (major) drawbacks

c) you pay a somewhat decent price for a place far out that you wouldn’t want to live in, even if they paid you to do so

d) you forget about living in Hamburg alltogether

e) you decide to sell organs to pay for a somewhat decent place in a somewhat nice part of the city (and start by selling a couple of your kids to bribe the real-estate agent on top of the mandandory fee which is 2,38 x monthly rental fee)

We decided to go with a combination of a), b) and e). But, this won’t be the last place we’re staying in, that’s for sure (and this is something that is decided on only after a couple of months staying there).

Opposite to other cities, a significant part of Hamburg’s market for housing is provided by cooperatives (called “Wohnungsbaugenossenschaften”) where the tennants own a share of the co-op. Another major infuence is the housing society “SAGA GWG” which has specialized on providing affordable, sometimes even subsidized housing for the not-so well off in Hamburg. They both together provide a large amount of rental space, if not the majority of all avaliable flats in the city. Both of them have their own drawbacks: the waiting list to get into a co-op is normally very long except of the parts of the city that are not as attractive as others. Sometimes you have to move to those places first in order to get part of the co-op in order to be able to move to another co-op owned place in a better part of the city – of course not without having to wait a decent time (read: couple of years) first. One big advantage: once you’re in, you can’t get kicked out that easily.

The same more or less applies to SAGA GWG places, but their focus on social housing also carries some significant drawbacks: the neighbors first and foremost. My significant other has lived in a SAGA place for a couple of years and has seen it all: blood-covered staircases, nightly concerts from her guitar playing and singing Greek neighbor Angelos, other neighbors screaming and shouting regularly at 3am and of course the usual drunk subjects that could be found in the local watering hole directly next to the entry of her place.

As those two options are basically either no option or too hard to get in to, this leaves the private housing market. But, this market is again split into two: first of all there is the undercover market: places that are handed over from tennant to tennant (sometimes through special housing exchange boards or private mailing lists) via word of mouth or a good social network. I’d estimate that every other flat in Hamburg and especially a large amount of those in the “trendy” parts of the city never really reach the open market, the one that happens in Newspapers and on web sites like Immobilienscout24.

The rules to this open market are quite clear:

You as a tennant are never the real estate agent’s customer – though you pay his fee.
A real estate agent won’t bother to show you a place in a single viewing (at least not normally), but you’ll view the place with roughly 3-30 other people (depending again on the “trendiness”)
You won’t find a decent listing for too long online. Especially if it’s a 1-2 bedroom place in the Schanze or Sankt Georg, it’ll be online for about half a day – during the week of course. After that the real estate agent has enough potential tennants that he can all invite them to the viewing, which of course takes place at three in the afternoon on a Wednesday (or other completely crazy times)
You’ll only have a chance if you are a couple, don’t expect any kids, both have a well paying job and are prepared to bribe the agent on top of his fee (which is 2,38 times what you pay for the place per month)
And even if you are prepared for all of this, you still won’t be successful in 19 out of 20 or so times

Finding a new place to live is a full-time job in Hamburg. And even if you’ve found one (such as we did) in a nice part of the city, there are drawbacks to each and every place. The secret in Hamburg is to find the place that has the least drawbacks, not the one that is flawless.

After my experience with Hamburg and places to rent here, I start thinking about buying my own place. Of course this is also very difficult. Good, newly built places (which I – after our experience in the Wallhöfe – wouldn’t consider to buy before end of construction anymore) are expensive (on average up to 4.000 EUR per square meter), affordable places are too far out and require a car or two to own and maintain. If you look at the total cost generated by that, I doubt that it’ll get less expensive.

After a nice experience staying on a houseboat for a couple of days, I consider this to be at least an interesting alternative to look at. They start selling at 2.000 EUR per square meter and you’ll have a house feeling in the middle of the city. Unfortunately Hamburg – despite being a maritime city with a large harbour area – hasn’t come up with good concepts about this alternative way of living yet. http://fret.de/fPKo6C provides a bit of insight into this area, but it seems that there are some basic problems: How to get a postal address, how to register the place you’re living in? What does provisioning of water, sewage, power and phone line cost? It’ll be something worth to watch over the next couple of years.

What is your experience with Hamburg and it’s places to live in? What are your thoughts on buying here, on moving to the suburbs or to live on a house boat? I’ve collected a few thoughts on Facebook already but look forward to others joining the discussion.

fret: UMTS + US – or: problems finding a right prepaid data plan when traveling to the US

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:32:29 +0000

As you might know, I have switched from using a global data plan for my mobile phone to buying local prepaid cards to use in my smartphones. This is also the reason why I don’t use the BlackBerry anymore and over time, I’ve colleced a stash of them. Not many, but the collection is growing:

(Russia, Belarus, Austria, United Kingdom, United Arabic Emirates)

I also wanted to apply this now familiar pattern and acquire a prepaid data SIM when traveling to the US, which I have planned (and already booked flights and the like) for early March. I checked some of the local carriers and the confusion on my side is massive. I’ll however try and give you a summary of my findings:

a) prepaid data plans in the US pretty much don’t exist. There are a few (especially the major) carriers who offer them, but they charge hugely in comparison to every other place in the world. Data usage in Great Britain is around 10 GBP / GB, here in Germany about 10 EUR per GB and pretty much the same all over Europe, even including Russia (and yes, this is all prepaid packs I’m talking about). The US seems to only offer very small prepaid plans (100 MB, 300MB) for a rather high price. AT&T charges 20 USD for 100 MB (http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-plans/pyg-cell-phone-plans.jsp), T-Mobile 10 USD for 100 and 30 USD for 300 MB (http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx#MobileBroadbandpasses) and Sprint doesn’t really offer one (at least I couldn’t find one).

I am willing to spend 20, maybe even 50 or 70 USD for my mobile internet during my stay. I like being able to access Google Maps while walking around foreign cities, I like using Google Navigation on my phone, I just love to google something while being in a pub discussion e.g. about which year Kurt Cobain died. But there is a second, even more significant problem:

b) Unbeknown to be up to recently (when I looked into it while preparing my trip) there are different kinds of “3G” and “4G” in the US. While here in Europe the normal definiton of 3G is UMTS + HSDPA + HSPA and our definition of 4G is either WiMax or LTE and all mobile network operators use pretty much the same frequency band, this is completely different in the US. First of all, 3G can either stand for UMTS or other techologies (probably CDMA) and 4G can be anything from LTE to HSPA+. So the underlying technologies are completely different. Even worse, if you have a UMTS phone that works in Europe (such as I have with the HTC Desire), this does not mean that it’ll work in the US. The reason for this is

c) Even if it says “UMTS”, this does not necessarily mean that your phone will work. Take the Desire as an example. It’s a quad-band phone, so it’ll operate on pretty much any GSM network around the world. However it’s UMTS frequencies are limited to 2100 Mhz and 900 Mhz, which are common in Europe. The US however uses different freqencies. So you will most likely not be able to use UMTS in the US – unless you are on the AT&T network and own an iPhone; or a Telia branded HTC Desire for that matter.

This is due to the different frequencies and bands used. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UMTS_networks and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands for a thorough explanation of this.

Even worse, you cannot even keep your phone in the US and switch carriers. The iPhone 3, 3S and 4 all work perfectly with the AT&T UMTS network, however if you try to operate them in the T-Mobile US network, they will find a signal, but only GSM / GPRS / EDGE, because not even the iPhone supports the UMTS frequencies used by T-Mobile.

This of course explains their ridiculous pricing policy and why buying your phone without being bound to a contract is not so common in the US alltogether.

So, I’ll have to choose between either having a GPRS network connection only or ditching the plan of buying a prepaid SIM alltogether. Yay. Not. And yes, you can guess for what I’m going…

fret: Oh, that’s cheap. Or: how to increase ARPU as a mobile provider

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:46:28 +0000

This topic might feel a bit “off topic”, as it is not very personal to me, but it resulted from a posting I made at gutefrage.net, a Q&A platform where you can answer random questions, hopefully in your own field of expertise. And since I love feeling superior (and miss answering questions in my holidays a bit ;) ), I started posting there.

Simyo – a German prepaid discounter – has started offering 39 EUR all calls/messages/data transfer “flatrates”. Sounds cheap, eh? But why would they do that and where’s the catch?

The German mobile telephone market is again changing. When I had my first mobile phone back in 1998, there were only three network operators on the market and prepaid offers were virtually not available. You signed up for a 24 month contract with a base charge and got a subsidized mobile phone. Over the years, things evolved and in the last couple of years, a few trends emerged on the market:

Subsidized mobile phones linked to long term contracts with a base charge are not that popular anymore. Instead mobile phones tend to be bought with a one-off payment or through installments.
Having no long-term contracts to get a mobile phone and the general avaliability of (older) mobile phones in the market empowered pre-paid contract-free SIM only deals. There are many discount providers with a “no frills” policy on the market, offering significantly cheaper rates than the well established mobile network operators with their post-paid contracts.

Of course lowering the price lead to an ever-falling average revenue per user (ARPU). While the ARPU used to be roughly 25 EUR per month in 2003 (http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/O2-steigert-Kundenzahl-und-Umsatz-pro-Nutzer-81037.html) it dropped down to around 14 EUR per month in the last couple of years. (see http://www.de.o2.com/ext/o2/wizard/index?page_id=16705;tree_id=1576;message_id=3121). Interestingly enough, while the post-paid ARPU stayed at roughly 25 EUR per month, the average pre-paid ARPU dropped to below 7 EUR per month.

To gain back revenue, providers started offering flatrates to higher the ARPU. When they started with the all net flatrate, it was about 80-100 EUR per month. Now they’re down to 35-39 EUR per month for data, text messaging and phone calls all around Germany, and this is not a fixed fee, but rather a cost cap when the 39 EUR are reached.

Of course it is interesting to analyze why and how they do that. 39 EUR is cheap. But if you take a closer look at this offer (e.g. the one from Simyo) you’ll find out that you end up paying 0.24 EUR per MB data traffic. This equals 160 MB of traffic and is easily reached if you use a smartphone. So the providers’ intention is most likely not to give you a cheap service, but to make you spend as much of the 39 EUR as possible per month and hence increasing their ARPU.

fret: What Apple to pick – or: reduce weight while traveling

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:30:32 +0000

No, this blog post is not about a diet based on apples, it’s rather about which financial diet to take after buying an Apple; the technical product that is.

As most of you are well aware of, part of my job is to travel a lot. And traveling most of the time means spending an awfull lot of time being transported from A to B or waiting for this to happen. Hence I want to use this time wisely by catching up with E-Mail, blog posts and the latest MKV files that have found their way to me.

It’s about Video MKV playback, reading eBooks, dealing with the occasional E-Mail, maybe being able to show a PowerPoint (converted) presentation every now and then), surf the web and maybe having a Skype call with Inka.

Of course I can do that with my notebook right now, but this device has some disadvantages; mainly size and weight. The 15″ display is too large to fit in every Enconomy class seat, especially when the plane is fully booked and the device is quite heavy, weighting more than 2kg. It has an okay battery lifetime with 4 or so hours and can play MKV smoothlessly + has a built in camera and a SIM card slot.

But, it lacks the sexyness other devices with an apple have plus it’s heavy and large in size.

So I am looking for a hand luggage sized device that is not too much of a drawback. Options are an iPad / tablet device or a very small but powerful notebook – maybe a Macbook Air.

As I am not very sure which way to go, I’d like to present the options as I see them and ask for advice. I’ll promise to not listen to it :)

iPad

Pro: sexy, light, long battery life time, good display, 3G support, WiFi, good media player, nice form factor, tons of digital magazines and books, touch display, Flash storage only
Con: no camera, large frame around the display (wasted space?), have to convert MKV, limited set of applications

Macbook Air:

Pro: camera, hardware keyboard, rather light, okay battery life time, WiFi, good media player, not have to convert MKV (though might be slow), “real OS”, Outlook, Powerpoint and Word available, Flash storage only
Con: no 3G, no LAN, hardware keyboard, no touch display, not as sexy, battery life not significantly longer than with my current notebook, no trackpoint

Of course there are other SSD notebooks (like the Thinkpad X100e or X200), but they are heavier (at least I haven’t found one with ~ 1kg weight) and of course there are other tablets (even with Windows 7), but sometimes they have fans built in or don’t have the extended battery lifetime an iPad can bring to the table.

So if you were in my situation, what would you do? Wait for the iPad 2? Hope for a Macbook Air with 3G? Wait for Android based alternatives?

nlz: Zu Weihnachten in Deutschland!

nospam@example.com (Nils) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:59:06 +0000

Es ist mal wieder so weit: zu Weihnachten fliegen wir nach Deutschland. Dieses mal vom 19. bis 30. Dezember.

Falls ihr euch mit uns treffen wollt, meldet euch bitte!

Ich bin leider im Moment so schwer mit der Arbeit beschäftigt, dass ich in den letzten 3 Wochen nichtmal die Zeit hatte, die meisten meiner Emails zu beantworten, daher habe ich auch bisher kaum etwas für Weihnachten organisiert.

fret: Tempting Christmas time

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:36:41 +0000

Almost two years ago, I decided to not display any advertisements on the Küchenserver (see http://www.kuechenserver.de/archiv/tag/werbefrei/#/archiv/2009/01/16/werbefrei/ for the German post about this). However everytime I’ll have a look at my stats around Christmas, I get tempted once again to break with my intentions.

I once published a post titled “funny xmas mailing” and since then Google washes a lot of visitors to this blog’s shores. I could be friendly, as I am now, and provide them with the information they desire free of charge, I could try and monetize the tree-shaped mail I’ve posted two years ago or I could try to gently monetize this by displaying Google Ads in the posts in question. Having roughly 10k visits during this time of the year, it would not make me rich, but it would pay for the domains for a year or so.

Not that it’ll change my decision significantly, but what would you do if you were in my shoes here?

danimo: S-Bahn Berlin: Random Routing am Ring

nospam@example.com (Daniel Molkentin) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:16:51 +0000

Aus unserer beliebten Reihe S-Bahn Berlin, die unendliche Geschichte lesen Sie heute Random Routing am Ring.

Gestern abend, ca. 10 Uhr am Treptower Park. Die Linien S8 und S9 endeten hier (soweit nicht weiter überraschend, einen Grund brauchte man dafür bei der S-Bahn dafür noch nie). Nach mehr als fünf Minuten des Wartens auf eine Ring-Bahn nach Ostkreuz hieß es, es sei am anderen Bahnsteig ein Pendelverkehr nach Ostkreuz eingerichtet (so war es auch angeschlagen). Also wurde hastig der Bahnsteig gewechselt (natürlich über spiegelglatte Abgänge), gerade rechtzeitig zur Ankunft des Zuges. Nach der Abfertigung die böse Überraschung: Statt nach Ostkreuz fuhr dieser Zug im normalen Ringverkehr Richtung Sonnenallee. Rechtfertigung des Fahrers: "Wat die da am Bahnsteich sagn, kann ick nich hörn. Und ick hab doch jesacht 'Zur Ringbahn S41 einsteijen bitte!'". Hat er auch -- ohne Angabe von Zielen. Und wer verlässt sich beim Pendelverkehr bitte auf Liniennummern, zumal sie mit der des Pendelverkehrs am Bahnsteig übereinstimmte?

Der Gegenzug aus Sonnenallee endete dann wieder in Treptower Park, man solle doch bitte den Bahnsteig wechseln, dort warte (Überraschung!) ein Pendelzug nach Ostkreuz. Natürlich war auch dies wieder kein Pendelzug, sondern eine normale Ringbahn. Doch kurz vor der Abfertigung, und offenbar 20 Minuten nachdem die ersten Zugführer informiert wurden, bekam auch das Personal am Bahnsteig Bescheid: Der Pendelverkehr sei "abgesagt", man solle richtung Ostkreuz (na, wer ahnt es?) den Bahnsteig wechseln.

Als die Ringbahn von Treptower Park dann am Ostkreuz ankam, war das Stationspersonal dort auch noch nicht informiert: Der Zug wurde als Pendelverkehr angeschlagen und angekündigt. Hilflose Fahrgäste irrten über bei Temperaturen deutlich unter -10 Grad über den oberen Ringbahnsteig und fragten sich bei Mitfahrenden durch.

Nicht nur die Kommunikation mit dem Kunden funktioniert bei der S-Bahn nicht, auch intern scheint die Kommunikation zusammengebrochen zu sein. Die Disponenten und Fahrdienstleiter sind ganz offenbar heillos überfordert. Ein Wunder, dass noch nichts Schlimmeres passiert ist und ein Skandal, wenn die S-Bahn diesmal wieder davon kommt. Gut gerüstet, my ass!

nlz: We're engaged!

nospam@example.com (Nils) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:39:42 +0000

Some of you might have known this for quite a while now, but the rings finally arrived last weekend, so I guess that means Crystal and I are now "fully" engaged.

nlz: A letter to my conservative uncle and his friends

nospam@example.com (Nils) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:29:12 +0000

Today, I got a chain mail from my conservative uncle. It was something about democratic kittens, who turned republican once their eyes opened (harr harr).

So I replied with some of my concerns:

Cute kittens!

Speaking of opening eyes… this is what I'm currently concerned about:

http://gonzalolira.blogspot.com/2010/11/full-body-scan-of-american-corruption.html

Feel free to ignore the parts about Michael Chertoff - corruption aside, the real scandals are in the second and third section of the article:

1) You're more likely to die from body scanners than from terrorist attacks.

Assuming the chances of getting cancer from the new body scanners are just one in a million, that would mean 769 passengers (2 jumbo jets worth of Americans) would get cancer every year!

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_survivor, I collect that 35% of cancer patients die within 5 years (I assume the rest still experience lessened average life expectancy). So that would mean the odds of dying via body scanner are roughly 1 in 2.85 million.

The odds of getting killed by a terrorist attack on an airline, which this is saving us from: 1 in 25 million. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703481004574646963713065116.html)

What's worse? The poison or the cure?

2) Body scanners suck at finding the things that terrorists might use.

Just watch the video. The German security expert smuggled thermite and all other ingredients for a bomb through the scanner, in his jacket pockets, and in band-aids on his leg! (Not on the sides of his body, which weren't visible due to the way the scanner was set up).

A full-body pat-down would have found these things. The scanners are just not as good at showing such things. But nothing short of a body-cavity search will find bombs if true terrorists try to hide them on/in their bodies. For the TSA to be effective at making us secure, they'd have to start doing that to all of us. Or to some of us, if we were ok with discriminatory profiling, as is done in Israel, though personally, I do not condone it.

From the WSJ article above, the chances of being struck by lightning are 1 in 500 thousand, which is way higher than being killed by terrorists on an airplane. Would you subject to a body-cavity search each time before taking a stroll in the woods, if it could save your life?

Happy thanksgiving travels!
-Nils

P.S. I know most of you don't like bleeding-heart liberal stuff, but if you're interested in a good writeup regarding my concerns about our civil liberties, try having an open-minded look at what "the other side" has to say: http://www.canow.org/canoworg/2010/11/civil-liberties-now-with-more-privileged-people.html

nlz: 1 million Scoville units

nospam@example.com (Nils) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:46:35 +0000

Last night, I ate the spiciest burger in the USA, at the Swinging Door in San Mateo:

The Habanero Burger (My Picture, Their Info)

While the sauce also traditionally contains Habanero chili (100k-350k Scoville), which accounts for the name, they recently added indian Ghost Chili to the mix, raising the spiciness to 1 million Scoville units.

Ouch. But I got a T-Shirt and a Bumper sticker.

fret: Qype: pentahotel Trier Europahalle in Trier

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 20:44:38 +0000

Trier – Hotels & Unterkuenfte – Hotels – Hotels & Unterkuenfte – Hotels – 4-Sterne-Hotels

Nachdem ich ausnahmsweise mal wieder innerdeutsch geschäftlich unterwegs bin (es hätte eigentlich Luxemburg werden sollen), galt es, ein nettes Hotel in Trier zu finden. Da ich privat geführte Boutique-Design-Hotels bevorzuge, fiel meine Wahl auf das pentahotel in Trier.

Und ich wurde nicht enttäuscht. Schon beim Check In wird man positiv überrascht, da die Rezeption gleichzeitig die Hotelbar ist und allein schon mal die Auswahl an Gin-Marken (Tanqueray No. 10, Hendricks und Beefeater) im Hintergrund für das Hotel sprach. Auch erstaunte mich, wie voll die Lobby / Bar bereits um 19:30 war. Hier fanden sich nicht nur ein paar vereinzelte, traurige Handelsreisende, wie sonst gern an Hotelbars üblich, sondern eine illustre Runde von Menschen.

Das gesamte Ambiente der Hotellounge ist sehr großartig, eher loungeartig. Dazu trägt bei, dass die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter in Jeans, T-Shirt und ganz ohne strenge Dienstuniform arbeiten. Nichts desto trotz ist der Service zuvorkommend, hilfsbereit – aber gefühlt “echter” als in Kettenhotels.

Das Zimmer ist interessant; man merkt hier, dass versucht wurde, aus einem 70er Jahre Hotel mit leicht veränderter Innenausstattung und neuen Möbeln sowie Flat-TV ein Designzimmer zu machen; nur funktioniert das halt nicht so ganz – spätestens am olivgrünen 70er Jahre Bad ist man dann gescheitert. Die Lobby verspricht hier also mehr, als die Zimmer halten können. Nichts desto trotz ist deren Ausstattung zweckmäßig und praktikabel. Es gibt zwar keine Minibar, jedoch hat man sich stattdessen für einen Verkaufsautomaten in den Etagenfluren entschieden. Dieser ist mit handgemachten Chips, Corona, Becks, Schokoladenriegeln sowie sogar fritz cola 0,2 befüllt. Preislich kann man hier mit 1 EUR (Schokoriegel, Wasser) bzw. 2 EUR (fritz, Bier) nicht meckern; lediglich ist es etwas unpraktisch, dass man mit Münzgeld direkt am Automaten zahlen muss.

Die grandiose Getränkeauswahl (fritz kola und Limonaden, AriZona Ice Tea, Becks, Corona und Co. sowie gute Spirituosen – das Ganze sehr bezahlbar mit bspw. 49 EUR für eine Flasche 0,7 Moet & Chandon oder 6,50 für einen Gin Tonic) wird durch eine solide Restaurantkarte (bspw. 12 EUR für einen 225g Burger incl. Salatbeilage und Baguette + Sour Cream “Vorspeise”) abgerundet.

Fazit: solides Hotel, bezahlbar, freundlicher, authentischer Service und leckeres Essen + Getränke. Hier fühle ich mich wohl und komme gern wieder.

Mein Beitrag zu pentahotel Trier Europahalle – Ich bin christianlouis – auf Qype

fret: Felt like Facebook

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:19:07 +0000

Facebook has become a significant part in my online life, one that I spend by far more time on than here on my own website. So it felt logical to change the look and feel of this site accordingly.

Might well be that I change it back in a couple of days. For the time being: Just for the record, you are NOT on Facebook. And no, I’ll not implement FarmVille here either.

scottytm: Südafrika: Tag 0 und 1

nospam@example.com (ScottyTM) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:24:50 +0000

Die beiden Flüge gestern waren zwar zeitweise recht unruhig, aber ansonsten relativ ereignislos. Auf dem längeren Flug hat mich die Flugbegleiterin netterweise umgesetzt, so das der Platz neben mir frei war. Dadurch war der Flug wirklich erträglich und ich habe sogar etwas Schlaf bekommen.

Der Flughafen von Dubai ähnelt mehr einem riesigen Einkaufszentrum. Man kann aber problemlos mehrere Stunden totschlagen, insbesondere, da es Gratis-Wlan und Public-Steckdosen gibt.

Die Einreiseformalien für Südafrika waren kurz und schmerzlos. Mein Koffer ist auch angekommen und mein Bruder kam gerade an als ich der Zoll durchquert hatte.

Nach einer Dusche und ‘ner Mütze Schlaf hat mich mein Bruder dann noch mit auf die Piste genommen. Es ging los auf einem Weingut und endete in einem Club in Stelenbosch. So sollte jeder Urlaub beginnen.

fret: Misc. recommondations from today’s flight

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:41:11 +0000

I had an interesting conversation today in which I shared some of my geek wisdom.

Most of you will already know the following tools. If not, pick whatever is useful for you. No particular order.

http://cloudberrylab.com/?page=cloudberry-explorer-amazon-s3

http://www.superflexible.com/

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/x-series-tablet

http://www.tripit.com/

http://www.de.fcm.travel/deu/travel_tools/onlinebuchung_deu.html

http://mozy.com/

https://www.jungledisk.com/

http://www.xfriend.de/

http://www.copernic.com/index.html

http://desktop.google.com/

http://www.dunkel.de/s3/

fret: Vodka collection

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 21:22:36 +0000

I have started – strangely enough – to collect Wodka. A colleague of mine collects Gin, however my collection is nowhere near as exciting, complete or passionately assembled as his.

However, if you want to make my other half cry and add to the collection, here’s a list on what I’m missing. This list is nowhere near complete, but should give a little insight:

- Alpha Noble

- Belvedere

- Danzka

- Xellent

- Idol

- Kauffman

- Pure Green Organic Vodka

- Russian Standard

- Skyy

skirsch: Crema Catalana!

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:37:16 +0000

Crema catalana is the Spanish version of creme brulée. Creme brulée is a straight custard cream (it only contains milk, sugar and egg and sets in the oven.) In difference, crema catalana is a cross between pudding and custard cream. That means that it contains two thickening agents – egg yolk and cornstarch – and it is made in a pan, not in the oven.

For 4 servings you need

500ml milk
1 vanilla pod
1 cinnamon stick
4 egg yolks
150-200g confectioner’s sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch

Heat milk in a pan. Cut open vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds, and add seeds, the empty pod and the cinnamon stick to the milk. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes.
Whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch in a bowl.
Remove cinnamon stick and the vanilla pod from the hot milk.
Slowly add the hot milk to the egg yolks while whisking continuously. (Adding it slowly and whisking prevents the egg yolks from curdling.)
Pour the mixture into a bain-marie and carefully heat it while whisking continuously. It will thicken in two steps – first the egg yolks make it slightly thicker (like a vanilla sauce), and at a higher temperature the cornstarch will thicken it further to a pudding-like consistency. Remove from the bain-marie at this stage and keep whisking for another half minute to make sure the eggs don’t curdle.
Pour into small oven-proof cups and refrigerate.
For serving, pour sugar on top and melt the sugar into a caramel crust (using a blow torch, your oven’s grill, or a salamander if you have one.)

“Bain-marie” is fancy kitchen speak for water bath. If you don’t have a bain-marie pot, just fill a saucepan with 5cm of water and bring it to a boil; then place a smaller long-handled saucepan inside it. Make sure the bottom of the inner saucepan doesn’t touch the bottom of the outer pan. The purpose of a bain-marie is to prevent the inside pot from becoming hotter than 100ºC; this is achieved by putting it in boiling water (which can never be hotter than 100ºC.) If the bottom of the inner pan touches the outer pan, it could transmit heat directly to the inner pot, and could become hotter than 100ºC in spots.

danimo: Qt Creator adopts Kate Highlight Definitions

nospam@example.com (Daniel Molkentin) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:47:46 +0000

My fellow colleague Leandro sat down and wrote about the new generic highlighter, which has entered Git master (the future Qt Creator 2.1) a few weeks ago and has been improved since then. It uses the Kate definitions to highlight file formats unknown to Qt Creator. If you want to check it out, try the master (2.0.90) binary shnapshots.

fret: Taxes HowTo – Christian style

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 14:34:09 +0000

It’s about time: our local “Finanzamt” which is the town’s legal entity to collect your income taxes in Germany, in my case Hamburg-Hansa (which will hopefully not change due to the move), has again reminded me that my income taxes were due in May and that I should consider handing them in till September, 14th, or else…. (I love those “or else” letters).

So, I’m at the moment preparing my income taxes which is a bit difficult due to “Christian Louis Veranstaltungstechnik und Medienproduktion”, my own company that I founded 11 years ago. I don’t do anything anymore that is considered to be even partly self-employed, but since the legal entity still exists, it is part of my income taxes.

The problem is however that – also due to historic reasons – this company’s legal address is still in Leverkusen, my birth town. I never bothered to change this, since – as already mentioned – I don’t actively do anything with it anyways.

So, instead of handing in all my paperwork at ONE tax office, I have to first of all file my company’s taxes in Leverkusen (which is normally done quite quickly, just write a bunch of zeroes in some forms) and after that I have to take the outcome (0 EUR income out of my company) and file my personal income taxes in Hamburg.

Quick HowTo, so that I remember how to do this next year:

0. Hand in “Umsatzsteuererklärung”

1. Grab an “Anlage G” to claim your company’s profit and hand it in together with the so-called “Mantelbogen”: Erklärung zur gesonderten Feststellung von Grundlagen für die Einkommensbesteuerung, Vordruck ESt 1 B

2. Send to Leverkusen tax office, wait for results

3. File Einkommensteuererklärung Vordruck Est 1 A + additional sheets like KAP with the Hamburg tax office

Especially writing down the names hopefully helps me remembering all of this in 2011. If you are curious how such a German tax form looks like, you’ll find plenty of them here: https://www.formulare-bfinv.de/ffw/content.do

For my other “normal” income taxes, I use t@x 2010 by the way; unfortunately this crazy “you own a company in a different town” stuff can’t be managed with this properly.

fret: Twitter OAuth – does it work?

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:03:49 +0000

I use twitter quite reguarly and of course, I also twitter when I write a new blog entry.

However, twitter has recently changed their API and this forces me to upgrade the twitter integration + test it.

So, this rather boring blog post is just a proof of concept that twitter integration works (again).

So: pass along, there is nothing to see here ;)

nlz: My thoughts on a prayer

nospam@example.com (Nils) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:47:47 +0000

Today, I received one of those "forward this" letters in my email. Some reverend had prayed in front of the Kansas Senate during their opening session. I always get upset when I read this sort of stuff, because it is usually written in a way that expects me to blindly follow their arguments.

It was from a friend of the family, so I took the time to reply.

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate.

While not surprising, this is definitely a bad thing. This is supposed to be a secular country. That means that no religion should be preferred over any other, when it comes to the way this country is governed. And that should begin with such things as prayers during the opening session of the senate.

Or as I prefer to call it "spouting propaganda, and biasing the senate".

It seems prayer still upsets some people..

You sound surprised? Prayer can upset people for a number of reasons:

Prayer happening in places where it should be banished (government)
Prayer being specific to one religion, and possibly completely contrary to the beliefs of others
Prayer that assumes a righteous stance instead of a humble one
Prayer to a god, when someone is an atheist and therefore believes it is bullshit
Prayer explicitly calling something evil when you are desperately fighting FOR it, because someone has a different way of reading the bible

The list goes on. It is not surprising prayer upsets people. It's controversial, often one-sided, and in many cases, out of place.

'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.

Sure.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

And by "our values" he speaks for...? The fact of the matter is that there was never a single set of values by which all Americans (or humans) acted. This is why there are political parties. Different people have different opinions on specific matters.

The basic assumption here is that we at one point all had the same, pure, sense of what was right, and that this has somehow gone away. That's simply not true. But "everything was better in the past" is an easy statement to make, thanks to our selective memories which tend to bring back only positive memories.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

Well, more like the "dumb and desperate". If our education system was better, less people would play the lottery, because they could calculate their chances, and bet on things that are more likely to get them somewhere.

I don't believe "the lottery" is "evil", because it's just a game. People aren't being coerced into playing it, so it can hardly be called exploitation. I like to have the choice to play the lottery, and on occasion, I do. I know it's unlikely I will win, but hey, it's fun to anticipate the numbers coming out.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

This is a totally politically biased statement. If we believe everything this prayer says, we should expect God to smite down the evil democrats any second now, for supporting the poor and helpless in their time of need.

If lazy people are getting welfare, then the system is broken. So fix it, instead of rallying against welfare itself.

Yes, I know some people who are out of jobs because they're lazy. But that's not what welfare is meant for. Welfare is meant to keep people from falling "off the grid" while they attempt to find their bearings, and work on getting new jobs. If people aren't making any progress towards becoming hirable while they're on welfare, well maybe we should do more to get them on the right track!

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

Again, a biased statement that doesn't speak for every religion, or even for every Christian. Certainly not for every voter. This kind of non-secular influencing of our government has got to stop!

Because it is a choice. A choice a woman should have, when it comes to her body. I can see where late-term abortion is a problem. But within the first trimester, I really don't have a problem with it. It doesn't look human, it hardly has any brain activity, and the woman is not permanently becoming sterilized (so we aren't taking her ability to give life).

There are many cases where an abortion is the right thing to do. When the mother's life is in danger. When she was raped. When it was an accident and she doesn't yet have the means to properly raise the child on her own (since the sleazy dad is gonna run off anyway). And there are other good reasons.

Yes, I support adoption, and I think that expecting mothers who wish to abort the child should be properly informed about their options, and made to think long and hard about the decision. But in the end, the choice is the mother's.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

Heh, finally something I can agree with. But that has nothing to do with the Christian God or "our values". Murder is pretty much universally unacceptable, across all cultures and across all times. There were some exceptions, but they were few, and usually history frowned upon such exception-making.

The only reason he's saying this here is to reign in the folks who were running to their guns given his previous statement.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem..

Umm. That sounds like a misunderstanding of modern parenting.

It should read:

some of us have stopped disciplining our children with physical abuse, after research showed that it caused more harm than good
some of us have entirely neglected to raise our children, sticking them in front of the TV in hopes of the problem just going away eventually
some of us have gone to great lengths to encourage our children and to build their self esteem

So really, he managed to combine three distinct things into a single sentence, and somehow made it sound like modern parenting simply sucks, and that the reason is that we value good self esteem in our kids. What?!

We have abused power and called it politics.

I agree with this sentiment. It happens. It is the nature of politics.

Politics mean that many give power to a few, in order to keep the government from being bogged down. True democracy doesn't scale well with the number of participants. Even with computerized voting, there would be too many issues to become knowledgeable on, and too many votes to cast. We would be doing nothing but reading about other people's problems and voting all day. No time for a day job!

When you wield a lot of power as a politician, you are playing with fire. And that means you must be careful, or someone will scream "abuse!". And in some cases, you do truly overstep your boundaries and abuse your power...

But as long as we have safeguards in place that keep our politicians from completely overthrowing the existing system of government, I think we're doing ok. Even if on occasion, we end up with an under-regulated housing market, a giant oil spill, or a couple of wars that we can't win. The next general election should teach such politicians that they were mistaken.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

Wait... we have? No examples come to mind. If I see my neighbor with a Ferrari, and I decide I'm going to work hard to be able to buy a Ferrari as well, that's not coveting my neighbor's possessions.

Maybe you have some examples?

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

And I wholeheartedly approve. Freedom of speech is a basic right in this country, and the fact that some clergyman is allowed to walk into a political assembly and tell them otherwise is shocking.

Everybody should be free to express themselves in whatever way they want. That does not mean they also have the right to be taken seriously, of course.

And this right doesn't extend beyond the boundaries of the next person.

To give you an example:

1) Putting pornography onto the internet or onto TV stations is fine with me! I like pornography, and I don't believe it corrupts people. And if someone else is upset by pornography, then they shouldn't have the right to ban it and impinge on my right to live life the way I prefer. They have the right to stop watching it, and to avoid going to such sites themselves. The boundaries must be drawn close to oneself.

2) Now, if I felt it was my job to get everyone to watch pornography, and I was running down the streets naked, with a wheelbarrow with a TV showing porn, it would be me who was overstepping my boundaries. Clearly, others would in this case not have a choice but to watch me and my pornography. In this case, it would be their right to make the police stop me, because I was overstepping their boundaries.

But the bottom line is that what he's asking for here is censorship, biased towards one view of what is acceptable. I find censorship to be the beginning of the end of any free society, and therefore much more troubling than pornography or the occasional swear word.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

What a conservative sentiment. The so-called "time-honored" values are constantly shifting. And in many cases, as science moves forward, they even become unsustainable and unacceptable. Time cannot honor values that are wrong.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!

Blahblahblah boilerplate prayer ending.

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India , Africa and Korea .

What are the sources for these statements? What about the outcry by hundreds of thousands (yeah, I'm also just guessing) of American Citizens who were shocked by this myopic view of things?

Once again I'll say: this guy is himself heavily biased, and attempting to bias policy makers. This is non-secular, and a bad thing (tm). He certainly isn't speaking for me.