Business trip to Paris. Ethernet-bound internet access in the hotel came at a “bargain” price of 23€/day (alternatively 5€/hour). Since I was in a highrise I hoped to connect to a FON hotspot 2 blocks away, but I didn’t even get its signal. However I got 34 other signals. Unfortunately, none offered open access.
I mean, who needs it? Everyone I ask does not need it, or want it, or both.
On Thursday night I should have been on the fourth concert of the new “Drive Me Mad!” tour by Fiddler’s Green in Cologne. I intended to go there by train, so I would be able to drink a beer and might even catch some sleep on the way back. Hurricane Kyrill didn’t like these plans, and even before I finished work that day, German railways have shut down all trains first in my county, and later nationwide.
This turned out the be lucky for me, since people got stranded in Cologne where no hotel room was available due to a large fair. And even today, two days later, train schedules have not yet fully recovered.
So my next chance for the concert is in March, when the Fiddlers come to Bochum.
What a hype! Congratulations to my marketing colleagues at Apple Computer Inc.
This is not Bill Gates. It’s me, ca. 1980, at the age of 13, maybe 14.
Among the Christmas presents by my mother was a CD with digitized slides (Wikipedia article on photographic slides for the younger readers) she found during a recent home improvement cleanup. The CD contained various undated images, the oldest one showing me with my baby-cousin at the age of ~7. The slides have already suffered from chemical deterioration, so the scans are pretty bad. Nevertheless they are quite valuable to me.
There were two subdirectories with images from the “Jugend forscht – Schüler experimentieren” science fair from 1982 and 1983. I participated about 5 years in a row, mostly with Biology topics, but also with IT projects.
Already at my first event I won a First Prize, and was elegible to participate at the next stage, the State competition. This competition was sponsored by IBM, and it was there that I had my first experiences with the then brand-new IBM PC. This was probably the most important milestone for my carreer path, since until then I planned to pursue an education path in biology.
The image above shows me exhausted after the award ceremony. The title of my exhibits reads “The effects of different types of water available at my hometown on germination and growth of garden cress”. We had a small creek running behind the house, plus a couple of springs and wells and of course tap water. Back in the 1980ies, the farmers were quite careless with fertilizers so the water from the creek was quite full with phosphate. Unsurprisingly, the cress watered with the creek water outgrew all the other samples, but then the plant actually got burned by the fertilizer.
I participated with two follow-up projects the next two years, and met both acclaim and criticism by locals and press. A few of the farmers did not quite like what I did, but the overall reception was good. In retrospect I have to say that fertilizer use became quite a hot topic several years later. Not that I claim credit for this though.
Since it was only present in the German Wikipedia, I created a translation for the English Wikipedia:
The Woman Acceptance Factor (WAF) is the playful estimation of the acceptance or refusal of a new acquisition by the significant other. It relies on the cliché that men are driven by a certain geekyness when it comes to acquisitions like home theater or PCs, disregarding the female aspects of aesthetics, design and practical/financial considerations.
Version 1.0.12 of the Joomla content management system eliminates about 140 errors and various security holes in the basic system.
(heise.de)
The Joomla! core is safe
(anonymous Wikipedia editor)
See also: Sick of crusading Joomla! advocates and New Joomla! version – and a fresh security start
I don’t know where Dirk found this list, but for summing up the year it seems an adequate collection. So here we go:
- Gained or lost weight?
Gained – but stable now - Longer or shorter hair?
No change - Nearsighted or farsighted?
Recent check showed increased nearsightedness – as a result I got new fancy glasses (which I intended to blog about anytime soon) - More money or less?
More. - Spent more or spent less?
About the same, or maybe a slight increase. More savings though. - Moved more or less?
More. Was able to bicycle to work more, and doing workout once a week. - The most stupid plan?
Getting rich by AdSense - The most dangerous endeavour?
International business travel within one day back and forth, resp. driving home from business trips after a 20h day. - The best sex?
What is sex? - The most expensive purchase?
Two projectors, screens and audiovisual equipment for the company, and a new dishwasher for my appartment. - The most delicious meal?
The “4 seasons buffet” during a Canon roadshow - The most impressing book?
“Seeker” by Jack McDevitt - The most impressing movie?
Haven’t been to a movie theater in a while. - The best CD?
“Love” – Beatles remastered by their original producer - The most impressive concert?
The Celebrate! tour concert by Fiddler’s Green. - Spent the most time with…
… work - Spent the most quality time with…
… my kids - Predominant feeling 2006?
Over-worked - Done for the first time in 2006?
Visited Spain. - Done again after a long pause in 2006?
Played electric guitar - Three things I could have well done without?
Common cold, the office move – the third is too personal for this blog. - The most important thing I wanted to persuade someone of?
The need for PPC campaigns. - The nicest present I gave someone?
A Rosenstolz concert ticket. - 2006 summarized in one word:
Crowded
Shortly after I moved into this new appartment, the landlord put a shared satellite dish on the roof. Given the technical infrastructure in this house all I could install was a single receiver, so the switch to satellite-TV (all I ever had before was cable-TV) brought some previously unknown inconveniences, especially the need to program TWO devices (the receiver and the VCR) in order to save a movie to tape. I followed developments of PVR’s, but the device I envisioned (combining receiver, harddisk, editing software and DVD recorder) seemed only be possible with a do-it-yourself solution based on a PC running Windows or Linux. This didn’t appeal to me due to the cost and work involved, and the “Woman Acceptance Factor” of such a solution is pretty low.
Then I found the ZapMaster PVR CI, a receiver for DVB-S (digital satellite TV) with a 160 GB harddrive and a USB-2 interface. Programming is as easy as point-and-click thanks to the internal electronic program guide (EPG), and the internal harddrive can hold approximately 40 full length movies. Recordings can be watched off the harddrive (like my weekly Stargate episodes *blush*), and every once in a while I can attach the device to my PC and download the movies I want to keep. Those movies can then be recorded to DVD-R an even be equipped with a menu and freed from ad-sections.
By far the most liberating feature however is timeshifting. At any given point during a broadcast, I can hit “Record” and from then on the current movie gets saved to the harddrive. Then I can hit “Pause” and the picture freezes, until I hit “Play” again while the recording continues in the background. The effect is stunning. I am no more the slave of the stations schedule, but it is ME who decides WHEN a movie starts. I can take bathroom breaks whenever I need them, I can take phonecalls without the need of being rude to the caller, I can grab something to eat without waiting for a commercial break. The digital VCR has freed me, and TV watching has become much more relaxed.
Well, that was quite difficult. Timeline of events:
June 2006: In an article on heise.de I heard about FON for the first time. The concept was interesting, but since I didn’t plan to use WLAN at home I dismissed it.
July 2006: A co-worker started to use FON and made me reconsider the idea. As a matter of fact I had issues connecting my Laptop to the internet with my PC as router, so the idea of using FON’s Linksys router seemed a good one.
August 1, 2006: I signed up with FON, and ordered the Linksys router.
August 6, 2006: The Linksys arrived. I spent several hours to set it up, but it never worked. The documentation was “sparse” at best, and in the end I gave up. I asked my co-worker the next day, since we share the same ISP. He told me that there was a bug in the PPPoE part of the firmware, and that I have to get in touch with FON support to get a beta version of the firmware – just as he had.
August 10, 2006: I received the beta firmware, which had exactly the same version number as the regular release. I installed the firmware, and ISP logs show that it has actually connected. Still it was not possible for me to connect either with the Laptop or the PC with the internet. I emailed support again, who began asking the very same questions as before.
August 14, 2006: Again I got the beta firmware sent. Again it had the same version number. I installed it nevertheless (not trusting serial numbers anymore), but again nothing worked.
August 16, 2006: My co-worker gave me the personal email address of a FON support employee, who was told to be very helpful in similar situations. He replied a few days later, asking for specifics. Again a few days later I got the beta firmware again (same version number).
August 29, 2006: After countless emails, I gave up.
September 6, 2006: The FON support employee emailed me that the new official firmware was available on the FON website. I went there, only to find that it was still the same version number. Needless to say it didn’t work either.
September 19, 2006: FON announces the new WLAN access point “LaFonera”. In Germany, you can order it completely free (not even shipping costs). I ordered one.
October 2006: My co-worker told me his LaFonera arrived.
November 2006: Anticipating the arrival of my LaFonera, I downloaded the OpenWRT firmware for my FON-Linksys and flashed it. Configuration took less than 5 minutes, and after that the Linksys did exactly what it was designed for without anymore hassle. Finally, after 3 months, I was able to use the unit to access the internet via WLAN.
November 20, 2006: My LaFonera arrives – obviously from the second batch of units who got delivered.
November 25, 2006: I found time to install the LaFonera. Again I ran into trouble since it used the internal network 192.168.10.x – but this was the same network the OpenWRT-Linksys used. Since LaFonera downloads its configuration from FON’s webpage upon boot, it took me a bit to set it to a different network (I needed to remove the internet connection for that), but finally I managed. But finally I could connect to the internet AND offer FON service.
Bottom line: 3 months, 17.40 EUR, countless emails, frustration and two devices instead of one – but finally it works. Given the fact that I am running a (admittedly small) part of the FON infrastructure, some more dedication in firmware development and a more responsive and skilled support would have made a whole lot of a difference.