Thu, 05 Feb 2009
Looking for free projects!
Dear all, I am currently assembling a talk that discusses if and how the principles of free software can be applied to topics beyond operating systems and software. The first things that come to mind are surely the Creative Commons, free music, free films, free books etc. but I am sure that there is more, also even beyond the digital world.
I already know a couple projects but I am looking for many many more! So, what examples do you know for applications of the free software philosophy that go beyond the usual software/OS area? I'd be happy for any hints, urls, projects, authors, bands, names etc. that come to your mind!
To contact me, simply drop me an e-mail or prod me on irc (alphascorpii on OFTC and freenode).
Posted at: 18:47 in /english/misc
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Fri, 18 Jan 2008
My current favourite debian package
... and the reason I get nothing done. Please meet cuyo. Fun, addictive, drives you nuts!
Posted at: 11:34 in /english/misc
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Mon, 21 May 2007
The barbecue season has now officially begun!
1 Pack of mixed BBQ meat: 5,90
1 Bottle of 2005 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo: 1,99
1 Throw away grill: 3,50
The fun that is an indoor BBQ party: Priceless!
With the weather being so great and everyone having nice barbecues, we wanted to have one too. Unfortunatelly we don't have a balcony or a (nice) garden. (We do have a grassy patch in front of our house but it's not exactly a place you want to sit at and have dinner.) Also do not have a proper barbecue to take somewhere nice and somehow when we travel to friends we always bring bad weather with us.
This weekend however, we decided to go for it. We got ourselfs one of those disposable grills, put it on the largest window sill, strategically placed a fan and a bucket of water and declared the indoor barbecue season officially opened.
Our experiences in short
Good:- Comfortable! Toilet, fridge, heating and electric light nearby
- Easy and low cost. You basically just light the only flammable bit on the whole thing, wait until the nasty accelerant is all burned up and the coals glow nicely
- No carrying around of stuff. Fridge, kitchen table etc near by
- That tiny thing really holds a long time. We both were absolutely stuffed, while the grill was still well hot
- BIG FUN!
Bad:
- SMOKE. The fan helps but doesn't solve the problem entirely
- Grill does not get very hot, large stuff takes a while. Bad when you are hungry, good towards the end though
- Throw away grill manual is only in Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Dutch. I wonder what "Grilliä saa käyttää ainoastaan ulkona!" means ...
- Worried looks from people walking by the house at the column of smoke rising from a window at the fourth floor. Help to stand in the window and smile in a relaxed way.
- Running down four floors just because your darling dropped the aluminium foil
- SMOKE! (You don't appreciate the full odeur until you come back into the kitchen the next morning.)
PS: How do you extinguish a throw away grill once you're done?
PPS: Shower!
PPPS: Kids, do not try this at home!
Posted at: 23:08 in /english/misc
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Sun, 06 May 2007
Guys!
Learn to bake!
Chicks dig it!
On popular demand: The (German) recipe. Special hints from the baker: don't make the milk too hot, that'll kill the yeast. Also put the yeast-milk-flour mixture in a sufficiently large dish to avoid extra cleaning work. (A regular coffee cup is too small!)
Posted at: 14:16 in /english/misc
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Sat, 14 Apr 2007
Spring
After wearing heavy shoes and army boots all winter, the first day wearing regular chucks again feels like walking barefoot.
It's spring! :)
Posted at: 17:12 in /english/misc
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Fri, 13 Apr 2007
Sugar Eggs
Tolimar: It's
okay! Some else took care of it!
:D
Thanks, aba!
Posted at: 21:11 in /english/misc
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Tue, 13 Mar 2007
More on pneumatics
Maks: You're welcome! This is not actually my current playlist or top 10 (or top 11) though. It's really just the songs that put most strain on said pneumatic thingy by having a rhythm that is on the one hand catchy enough to make me bounce along and on the other hand slow enough to be "doinged" with an office chair. (NOFX's Don't call me white is a good example for a totally undoingable song. The classic punk rhythm generally is just way too fast to be rendered on an office chair without stopping to type. Thinking about it, I guess Ska sucks by Propaghandi roughly marks the line between doingability and undoingability)
The word creations in this post are especially dedicated to Clint. A surreal salute!
Posted at: 02:23 in /english/misc
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Mon, 12 Mar 2007
What kills my office chair's pneumatic thingy
- Blues Brothers: Ghost Riders in the Sky
- Irie Revoltes: Ska
- Dan Tyminski, Harley Allen, and Pat Enright: Man of constant sorrow
- Nancy McCallion: On we go
- The Coasters: Down in Mexico
- Nancy Sinatra: These boots are made for walking
- Aretha Franklin: Think
- Golden Earring: Radar love
- War: Low Rider
- Juanes: Camisa Negra
- Steve Miller Band: Magic Carpet Ride
*doing* *doing* *doing* *doing*
Posted at: 19:25 in /english/misc
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Wed, 28 Feb 2007
Deutsche Post - when fact beats fiction
Sometimes it happens, that items that are handeled by the German Mail (Deutsche Post) get damaged by their technical installations. When this happens, the item is put into a transparent plastic bag, together with a letter excusing the accident and telling the recipient how to file a request for investigation. So far so good. Unfortunately the envelope that got ripped in that case included two pendants that fell out and got lost.
I didn't expect this to be much of a problem, but when I tried to file my request at the mail office it turned out, that there is no form for that kind of incident. The regular form used for requests for investigation assumes that the whole shipment got lost. There is no way to indicate, that it is not an envelope that is missing but merely its content. Trying to exlpain that to the lady there also wasn't successful. Except for repeatedly telling me that I had no right to claim compensation when posting things via regular mail (I know!!) she wasn't of much help. In the end I filled out the form as good as possiblei, gave comments where necessary and the lady promised me I would at least get a confirmation from the service centre.
So today, after waiting for more then two weeks I finally got a letter
from the service centre. Guess what it said: "Dear Mister(!)
Reichle.
And now,
guess how I got it. Ripped, in a transparent plastic bag.
The investigation can not be carried out at the moment, since
the information you provided is not complete. Please complete and correct
the information according the missing item ..."
Posted at: 00:47 in /english/misc
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Thu, 19 Jan 2006
Random stuff
Posted at: 15:13 in /english/misc
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On laundromats Not owning a washing machine of your own does funny things to you. When I moved here, I knew that being without one I would have to cycle to the laundromat every time, carrying a huge backpack, wash my stuff, cycle back home with the wet cloths and hang them in the drying room in the basement. Compared to the hassle that it would be to get a washing machine, and considering I am only going to live here for half a year this seemed sensible. There are however a few things I did not know/consider:
- The afore mentioned half year is from September to March. Most of the time it's f***ing cold!
- A trecking backpack full of cloths is not too heavy, but a trecking backpack full of wet cloths is another matter.
- Wet cloths get awfully cold when being transported in winter and they are able to preserve that low temperature for a surprisingly long time (usually until the last sock is hung up).
- Hanging up two loads of super-freezy laundry does painful things to the tips of my fingers.
- The ability of my fingers to preserve cold temperature is in no way inferior to that of my laundry.
- The laundromat is not heated very well (maybe not at all).
- It is a very good idea, to sort your laundry before going to the laundromat. (Use backpack's separable compartments for that!) I am not overly bashfull, but there's nothing like a big funny looking guy interestedly watching you sorting through your underware
- In order to put off the afore mentioned inconveniences as long as possible I am totally willing to disregard any sense of style, fashion or non-idiocy I may have left (cloths-wise that is).
Posted at: 15:11 in /english/misc
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Hardware shopping After finally setting up my old PC (Does PC still mean
personal computeror has it completely mutated into
politically correctyet?) I noticed that its mainboard was broken. (Well, actually I didn't. I thought that stuff on the capacitors was just some kind of dust or so. Alex kindly informed me that it was infact their content ... which somewhat impairs their functional capability.) The machine still booted up alright and worked without problems, but every now and then it suddenly went out without any sign of warning. Very annoying. This resulted in the machine serving as an occasional table for another few weeks. Until last weekend, when I finally went and got some new hardware for it. It now has a new mainboard (my first one with DDR RAM, welcome in the new millennium!) and a silent CPU cooler. The good: The computer is now finally usable and I cannot hear the CPU fan anymore. The bad: I now know that the fan of my PSU is just as loud, as are the hard discs ...
Thus another hardware shopping expedition is in order!
... as soon as my finances recovered from that last one ...
Posted at: 15:11 in /english/misc
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Wed, 07 Dec 2005
A new member in the family
After serving as my bedside table for over three months (ever since I moved here) my regular PC is now finally reassembled, equipped with a new hard drive and DVD drive and back in action! It's got a new name, too: Undine. For the illiterate among you, a Undine is a water spirit and this particular one is called after the Undine in the story of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. (Full text from the Gutenberg Project, and a summary.)
It's not all set up yet. (Is a machine ever?) Aplayer and xmms still throw errors and it won't go into any kind of standby (sleep or hibernate). But nevertheless the increase in quality of my life has since been enormous. Until then I used my beloved 12" Thinkpad (Dropkick, got it's name from them and the way I treat it) for daily work, which was okay, but somewhat unhandy at times. Now I got 21" instead of 12", a lot more power, sound, and a decent (but filthy) keyboard again. Yay!
Downside: I had totally forgotten how *INCREDIBLY LOUD* that thing is. Maybe I'll go buy a set of these insulating mats. This high-pitched noise drives me insane!
Regarding my last post: I noticed there's an extra-i-that-bears-witness-to-my-favourite-editor in it but decided to leave it as a statement ;) Maybe I'll start a new trend?
The Skatalites concert was as great as expected but unfortunately very full. People where standing shoulder to shoulder all the way to the back wall. So all you could do was stand and listen, dancing was rather difficult or even impossible. :( Also, we left a bit earlier since those $%*#§ing regular work hours have turned me into a total sissy when it comes to staying up late. This needs to be undone!!
In other news: My increasing enthusiasm for Leipzig experienced a first drop when I noticed this morning that somewhen in the last few days someone must have stolen the bungee cord from my bike. :(
I am disappointed and indignant about this!!!
(Especially since only my new springy one is gone, the old, f***ed-up one is still there. Haha!! You me too!)
Last but not least: I got my Christmas leave confirmed! I am off work from christmas until new-year. This means that I can go South over the holidays and be with my ifamily who totally rocks and I very much look forward to seeing again :) (Mom, should you read this: We are having fondue again this Christmas, arent we? Pleeaaase??)
Posted at: 12:26 in /english/misc
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Mon, 30 May 2005
Getting green with McD
I haven't been there since they started their We're not junkfood campaign. I tried a 1€ garden salad and what shall I say? It's actually good! Everything was fresh and crunchy, lot's of different kinds of salad, carrots, tomatoes, tasty dressing (I chose Basilico) ... I am surprised!! Had much worse salads in "real" restaurants! Well done McD ;-)
Posted at: 20:06 in /english/misc
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