Simon's sister's dog

You know Simon's Cat from the first two animations I published on my blog. Now it's time to introduce you to Simon's sister's dog!

Recently, I got an email that, at first, looked like spam, but was clever PR for the RSPCA’s campaign to tackle pet obesity:

I noticed that you have blogged about Simon’s Cat in the past, so I thought you would be really interested to hear that Simon Tofield, the maker of Simon’s cat, has finally released a new animation. The video, featuring Simon’s sister’s dog has been made especially for the RSPCA, and can be watched at www.giveanimalsavoice.org.uk.

I'm amazed at this social media approach to get the RSPCA's message spread and more than glad to help the cause. Here's the clip:

Nerd Test

I found this picture in c't magazine 24/2008 on page 129. Now, what's the most interesting detail?

• Answer A: A woman! (0 points)
• Answer B: A brand new aluminum MacBook! (10 points)
• Answer C: A Commodore C64c with VC1541-II floppy disk drive and Competition Pro joystick! (10.000 points)

Post your score in the comments!

Now my library is delicious, too

I've been trying the free version of Delicious Library 2 for some days now. I hadn't been sure if I'd shell out the money to buy the full license -- it's just a collection management application after all!

But when I put another book in front of my MacBook's built-in webcam to scan in its barcode and the application told me that it won't accept more than 25 items, I couldn't stop myself from ripping out my credit card.

This application is amazing. It doesn't do much more than managing your book, movie and music library. But it does it in a way that's totally appealing. Delicious Library displays your stuff neatly arranged on a virtual shelf. The tedious task of entering new items is made easy as pie by using the eyeSight camera as a barcode scanner. Every title recognized will be read out loudly by the OS X speech synthesizer. If you lend out a book, you just drag it onto the friend's contact (imported from the OS X Address Book) and enter the return date. Until checked in again, the item will be displayed as a ghostly image.

I'm still surprised how knee-jerk this one software purchase happened. Seems like I'm getting more and more spontaneous the longer I've been using a Mac. I notice the same disturbing development when visiting the iTunes Music and App Store. I'll have to keep an eye on that behaviour.

Anyway, you can see what's on my shelves at library.geewiz.de.

Dialogues I'll try to avoid

He:

Please never let me vegetate in such a situation -- dependent on machines, fed from a bottle of fluid nutriment. If you experience me in that condition, have the mercy to shut off the machines keeping me alive.

She:

Well, I'll rather throw away the telly and the computer and pour away your beer then.

(Via Thilo Baum Lounge - Patientenverfügung)

Subway-Journalismus

Wenn ich bei Stefan Niggemeier Artikel wie diesen und diesen lese, dann ist das viel besser als das dämliche Fernsehen mit seinen Galileo-Sendungen, die offenbar eine kräftige Mischung aus Wissensmagazin und Dauerwerbesendung sind.

(The two articles linked report how a PR agency successfully put Subway brand placement into several popular knowledge programmes in German TV, how they uncovered everything by bragging about it and how they now are trying to get the genie back into the bottle).

AKG 324 P -- my Stupidity Shield™ earbuds

While Andy got his AKG 324 P for the first time and is very satisfied, I already bought my second pair last month because the first one got a bit worn out over time.

As I wrote about the AKG 324 P on my old blog, they are in-ear headphones that sit snug in your ear, so you hear your music, podcast or audiobook while the volume of everything else around you is reduced to a minimum. I don't want to imagine what my two hours of train commute would do to my nerves if I had to endure all that the chatter and noise.

I'm convinced that these earbuds have a great value for money and I'm happy that others like Andy share my impression.

The sweetest of them all

I really don't want to start the next daddy blog, but since Amalia currently does -- and for the foreseeable future will -- take a central place in my life, there'll be one or the other post about her.

And, be honest, could you hold back on your pride if you had such a gorgeous litte daughter?

Don't even get me started about how fascinating it is how she's developing her own body and sound language. And how totally amazed I am watching her successfully try and grab the cord of the jumping jack at her changing table. Seriously, don't ask me. My monologue would be more intense than any Linux pep talk I ever gave. And that means something.

5 reasons IT projects fail

In 5 ways to prevent IT failure, I found five important reasons that IT projects go down the drain:

1. Lack of preparation.
2. Business misfit
3. Unilateral decision making
4. Inflexibility
5. Scope creep

Boy, do they remind me of some projects I had to endure. Especially the explanation of the last point, scope creep, hits home:

Lack of preparation typically begets the kitchen-sink syndrome, where project leaders add in every kind of feature and the kitchen sink to boot.

A project that doesn't have a clearly defined goal will most certainly be frustrating. And it will hurt the company since it'll be far from effective.

The ZDnet article also talks about what you can do to make sure the problems above don't occur. Let's ask the audience: When you're taking part in projects, what do you do to prevent those project killers?

German Postal Service answers important questions

If you enter the search keyword "Antwort" (answer) on the German Postal Service's website, you get more answers than you expected:

The third search result proves that some web designers certainly are hoopy froods that know where their towels are.

Habemus iPhone

It had to happen. And you didn't expect me to withstand the temptation, did you? Thought so. So I'm an iPhone owner now.

The only thing so far I'm not really happy about so far is the battery life. In my backpack, I always carry the charger and USB cable.

But everything else is at least interesting if not totally amazing. The touch UI is great, and with time, I also manage typing text without missing every second virtual key.

The applications I installed first were Instapaper, NetNewsWire, Evernote and, of course, Super Monkey Ball.

To distract people like my precious from the reasons "gadget mania" and "Apple fanboyism", I'm trying out Omni Outliner, both on the Mac and on the iPhone. And to keep productivity from reaching unhealthy limits, I also installed Twinkle. As an interesting fact, both applications use the GPS function to be more effective.

I'm looking forward to more interesting applications, but for me the iPhone already is a better tool than my Nokia E61 ever has been.

PS: Because of the idiots at T-Mobile, I had to get a new cell phone number. If you still have my old Vodafone number (or even the long dead O2 number), please email me!

Simon's cat does it again

It's that animal again that every cat lover recognizes as his own! This time, Simon answers the question often asked by bewildered visitors: "How come your cat has her own couch while you don't?"

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13dLaTIHSg])

(Via fudder)

Chainsaw Maid

This is especially for Kai: A claymation movie about a zombie-splattering maid!

(Warning: Not for the faint of heart.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d-tNXxTRBA&hl=en&fs=1]

(Via Nerdcore)

How to apply for a job, the non-boring way

Good gracious, how I envy those design types. With the applications I get, I'm already happy when there are no spelling or grammar errors in them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KFCfZsu5Gc&hl=en&fs=1]

And can you imagine that there actually are people that would like to get a Linux system administration job without mentioning Linux in their application?

(via Core77)

Interesting thought...

Okay, I guess, Carolin will inhibit my curiosity. But, when she's old enough to carry a screwdriver, I will teach Amalia how to get into the heart of things. She certainly already knows how to get into our hearts.

Wanna feel like playing World of Warcraft?

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

We need weapons. Lots of weapons.

Last year, I and some coworkers bought some Nerf Maverick guns. But that shall only be the beginning.

The Great Office War - Click here for another funny movie.

My Delicious tags visualized

Created with Wordle:

(Click to see in full size)

Welcome, Amalia!

(Deutscher Text unten)

When Carolin went into labour at half past two in the morning, we knew that June 12th would be the birthday of our baby. What we didn't know was what a strain it would be.

We spent the rest of the night at home, but only I could still get some rest while Carolin couldn't get to sleep any more. In the morning, the time came to go to the hospital. After arrival and examination, we went for a walk, but didn't come far because of the contractions getting stronger.

And then, a long birth process started. Eventually, the contractions came almost without pause, so Carolin got medication to slow them down to prevent complete fatigue. When the actual birth was imminent, however, Carolin couldn't come up with enough strength to press the baby out. So, they had to give her another medication with the opposite effect than the one before.

Finally, after 10 hours, at 09:08pm, a totally exhausted Carolin and an also quite weary Jochen held their baby daughter in their arms: Amalia Elin Gall. Seh's healthy and obviously inherited my serenity.

Both girls will recover in hospital over the next days. Afterwards, we'll together enjoy the time I took off work at home.

More pictures of Amalia will be posted on Flickr. If you like, you can leave some greetings below in the comments which I'll gladly give to Carolin and Amalia!

And now, I'll open this bottle of Midleton Very Rare.

Deutsch:

Als gegen halb drei morgens Carolins Wehen einsetzten, wussten wir, dass der 12. Juni der Geburtstag unseres Babys sein würde. Was wir nicht wussten, war, wie anstrengend der Weg dorthin sein würde.

Die Nacht verbrachten wir noch zuhause, allerdings bekam nur ich ein paar Stunden Schlaf, während Carolin nicht mehr einschlafen konnte. Am Vormittag wurde es dann Zeit, in die Klinik zu fahren. Nach Ankunft und Untersuchung gingen wir noch etwas spazieren, aber aufgrund der stärker werdenden Wehen kamen wir nicht allzu weit.

Und dann begann eine lange Geburt. Irgendwann ließen die Wehen Carolin kaum noch Pausen. Um ihre Erschöpfung zu lindern, erhielt sie ein Wehen hemmendes Medikament. Am Ende fehlte ihr dann jedoch die Kraft, das Kind hinaus zu pressen, sodass ein Medikament mit umgekehrter Wirkung nötig wurde.

Schließlich jedoch hielten zehn Stunden später um 21:08 Uhr eine völlig erschöpfte Carolin und ein auch recht müder Jochen ihre Tochter in den Armen: Amalia Elin Gall. Sie ist gesund und hat offenbar meine Ruhe geerbt.

Die beiden Damen werden sich in den nächsten Tagen weiter im Krankenhaus erholen. Zusammen werden wir dann zuhause die Auszeit genießen, die ich mir in der Firma genommen habe.

Weitere Bilder von Amalia sind auf Flickr zu finden. Grüße an Carolin und Amalia nehme ich gern in den Kommentaren unten entgegen -- ich werde jeden einzelnen ausrichten!

Und jetzt mache ich meine Flasche Midleton Very Rare auf.

How mobile phone operators become banks in rural Africa

The abstract of Jan Chipchase's TED talk "Our cell phones, ourselves" goes as follows:

Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase's investigation into the ways we interact with technology has led him from the villages of Uganda to the insides of our pockets. He's made some unexpected discoveries along the way.

One of these interesting discoveries is how Africans use mobile phones to transfer money to rural areas where there's no bank let alone an ATM machine:

• Person A buys a pre-paid card in a bigger city
• Person A calls phone kiosk owner B in a small village. B doesn't have to own more for his business than a simple mobile phone that he rents to other villagers.
• Over the phone, A tells B the pre-paid card's code number
• B collects the amount of pre-paid phone credit
• B pays villager C the amount, keeping a discount of 10-20%

Imagine: People that aren't creditworthy enough to get a bank account practically become human ATM terminals, using the mobile phone infrastructure as a medium of money transfer. I find it fascinating how those people use the same technology we use -- but for a totally different use case. Is that what we meant with "developing countries"?

Exorcise your mobile with a microwave

If sharing the bus with some teenagers hasn't already, this video will finally convince you that cell phones are evil.

Cell Phones Are Evil - Watch more free videos

(Via Nerdcore)

The placebo pill called CCTV

Recently, I noticed that the tram I was taking from work to the train station, had more than 10 ceiling cams installed. That's one camera every 2 meters. Oh, did my feeling of security grow instantly.

Meanwhile, the UK recognizes that installing "Closed Circuit TV" cameras is just a waste of money. As the Guardian titles, "CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police".

Meanwhile, my commuting costs will increase because german transportation companies think playing "1984" was a better use for my money than improving my traveling experience.

Sharing Bush's mind

The article "Krieg heißt jetzt Friedenserzwingung" on Telepolis facilitates a view into the minds of two of Germany's leading (and ruling) political parties CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and CSU (Christian Social Union), as explained in their paper "Security Strategy for Germany".

Citing Telepolis:

'The state's foremost reponsibility is security', said Andreas Schockenhoff, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary party, in his speech before the security congress. Nobody disagreed. That says a lot about the CDU's understanding of state and democracy. The Grundgesetz [i.e. the German constitution] obviously takes another angle: 'Human dignity is not infringeable. To respect and protect it is every state power's obligation.' Nothing to be seen about 'security', much more about 'freedom', though.

As neo-imperialistic as the CDU portrays their approach to internal and foreign affairs, as much creativity they show in their choice of words. Their strategic paper doesn't talk of war, oh no.

Instead, it talks of "enforced peace".

Core values

Recruiters are used to briefings where the head of HR hands them a carefully crafted job profile, explains the benfits and pension plans and finishes by pointing out the salary perspective.

But sometimes, the briefing gets a different angle when you exchange the head of HR with leaders that know what's really necessary to get the job done.

This obviously happens very rarely, judging from df5jt's excited blog entry (article in german).

Let's see if my teams will benefit from that very briefing.

Innovation is overrated

You'd think that an internet company and ISP has "innovation" written all over the business. But boy, do those two clips remind me of some meetings! :-)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OORnMYoWX9c&hl=en]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku4Ugw0lQ4Q&hl=en]

Life signs

Good grace, I've been really busy those past weeks. I apologize for the silence to all my friends and blog readers wondering what happened to me.

I really miss blogging on my diverse websites, so this silence really has to end. I'll try to put away some time for blogging between leading an IT department and caring for my precious.

Work's interesting at the moment, to say the least. My department, "IT Core Services", consists of three teams. The one named "Infrastructure Systems" is responsible for providing services like backup for thousands of servers, facilitate central authentication as well as OS and application software deployment. Then, there's the "Databases and Storage" team whose area of expertise is obvious. Finally, there's "Core Applications" where they run business-critical services like our billing and payment services. My staff is great, but they're much too few and recruiting is only going on slowly. What hits me hardest is that two of the teams have been formed from scratch and both still lack a team lead. Having to lead more than ten people directly is nothing you can do well over long time; and I feel how it's slowly exhausting me. Some of the recent applicants made quite a good impression, though, so I keep my hope up.

My precious is well, gaining more circumference by the day. Since she's due for the 7th of June, the baby could arrive any day now. The excitement is slowly building up, but we're as prepared as you can be for your first child: First clothes, diapers and musical clock neatly piled up in the closet, parents' magazines piled up not quite as neatly on the side table.

To sum it up: All's well, challenges waiting for me at work, at home waiting for another challenge. Boredom? Isn't that a city in Sweden? ;-)

ED’s Furry Fucking Guide To Metal

I don't count myself as even remotely an axe-wielding headbanger, but "ED’s Furry Fucking Guide To Metal" is a hoot:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfdqV_sqal0&hl=en]

I wonder what the moshpit part of my family thinks about this. Tom, are you there?

(Via Nerdcore)

How to get a personal and flexible OpenID account

I did my baby steps with OpenID some months ago, but never started using it consequently with the growing number of web services supporting this single-signon concept. There are several OpenID providers out there, but I was afraid of having to change all my accounts again if the provider I chose (MyOpenID.com) went out of business. That fear now has vanished.

With their new service "MyOpenID for Domains", MyOpenID.com now offers the opportunity to use your own domain name in your OpenID credentials. Using that feature, your OpenID will not be "yourname.myopenid.com", but a name that'll fit to your web presence.

You can choose between two formats:

• http://username.yourdomain.tld if you'd like to provide a separate subdomain for each user name, or
• http://subdomain.yourdomain.tld/username if you want to configure a subdomain (e.g. "openid.yourdomain.tld") once and just append the different user names in the URL path.

In both cases, you'll have to add a DNS entry for the subdomain(s) as an alias pointing to www.openid.com. Maybe you'll need assistance by your web hosting provider's tech support; if you have control over your domain's DNS entries yourself, like I do, you just add the necessary CNAME entry.

Now, you'll have to verify that you're actually in control over the named domain by either adding another subdomain entry, or by creating a web page under that domain. In both cases, the name you have to use will be randomly created by MyOpenID.com.

After the short verification period (DNS verification can take some hours), you'll have OpenID credentials using your own domain name.

If the worst case happens and MyOpenID.com goes down for good, I'll just have to find another OpenID provider offering the same service and point my OpenID domain(s) to them.

Time to start optimizing the number of my user accounts!

How not to do a technical presentation

We all know: Microsoft isn't useless. They can always serve as a bad example. And I'm not even cynical this time. :-)

Some folks at Microsoft made a funny video that demonstrates the Best Bad Tech Speakers Video…Ever:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZOL878CwfM])

I actually can imagine some of my coworkers do such an unbearable presentation...

Strangely familiar: Simon's Cat

A very nicely done hand-drawn animation about a typically determined cat and its owner has been online for quite some time now:

Now, there's the long awaited sequel:

I'm sure that there's not one cat owner on this world that doesn't relate to these amusing, not enormously exaggerated ;-) clips!

The road to mediocrity

If you wonder how that noob that just had your instance group wipe once again could get to 70 at all, it may be because you and others ran them through many prior instances. In their "Officers' Quarters" column, WOW Insider posted the article The road to mediocrity which I agree with very much.

I always resisted the temptation of getting a boost from a high-level, even during the time I was supposed to get my character quickly to my group's common level. Not only did I find it boring running through an instance after an level 70 clearing the way, I also knew that I'd later need that experience from all those various encounters. Why should I pay my monthly fee while missing all that gameplay on purpose?

So, I wholeheartedly second the suggestion the WoW Insider article gives to guilds: don't take away the opportunities of learning from your low levels by running them through instances.

Right from the book

cbgreenwood passed the meme on to me by asking me to cite the book I'm reading at the moment, exactly from page 123, three sentences from the fifth one on.

Let's see... Well, what a coincidence! I'm on page 123 right now! The book is "Mindset -- The new psychology of success" from Carol S. Dweck. She's a psychologist and writes about the difference between the "fixed mindset" that sees success as god-given and the "growth mindset" for which success comes from continuous effort. Here's the desired part:

Iacocca played painful games with his executives to keep them off balance. Jerry Levin of Time Warner was likened by his colleagues to the brutal roman emperor Caligula. Sklling was known for his harsh ridicule of those less intelligent than he.

I guess they'll not be in my list of executive role models. :-)

Interesting what this meme brings forward! I'll pass it on to my precious, Kai and Tom. What are you reading, folks?

Linux still isn't there yet

Or is it?

Software glitch reveals new president prematurely

Now that the Oscars are over, there'll be another show from the US waiting for us in November. But due to an unfortunate mishap, its entertainment value could just have gone down the drain.

The Onion News Network reveals why those electronic voting machines need to be banned, just like many have been requesting for years:

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Classic pwnage

It may not be totally hot news any more, but if something's giving me an asthma attack from laughing, it has to be put here.

The setting: Jimmy Kimmel is a US talk show host that's made a routine of making snide remarks on Matt Damon. He even invites him as a guest but then doesn't call him up because, unfortunately, "we're out of time". It must have been a bummer when his girlfriend, comedian Sarah Silverman, sent him this video message:

But not much time later, Kimmel took sweet revenge...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIQrBouWRiE&rel=1]

Development update

Everyone is asking me for updates. There's Thomas who wants for me to finally release perl-SIOC, there are the participants of my Perl online seminar waiting for the final version of the course manual, and there's Eva that's curious about how the baby's doing.

Well, what Eva wants of course Eva gets! The baby's great -- alive and kicking would be the correct term. Kicking like a pony, Carolin would add. Here's the latest ultrasound picture.

Now I'll have to put some work into the other two release duties. I'm sure they'll be finished first. :-)

Why Twitter is worth the risk

I've been using Twitter for many months now and it became a standard communication tool for me. Not everyone likes the service, though. Many people think of it as a continuous source of worthless distractions. And indeed, it can seriously disrupt your work flow.

Since fellow geek Tom Schimana discovered Twitter himself recently and is asking for help, I'll write a bit about why I use Twitter despite this risk.

Twitter asks its users: "What are you doing?" and puts a 140 character limit to your answers. Those "tweets" get sent to everyone who subscribed to your Twitter account, either by the Twitter website, via email or over SMS sent to their mobile phone.

You can also mark tweets that are meant for a certain person by starting them with "@username" (an at sign followed by their Twitter name). If you'd like to send them a non-public message, start it with "d username".

In a way, Twitter is the virtual equivalent to your pub at the corner. You periodically spend some time there and, over time, start conversations and learn to know the other regulars. Sometimes, you even engage in a deeper discussion, but most of the time it's just smalltalk. Nonetheless, you learn about what people are doing, what happens in the community or in the lives of your friends.

Twitter does the same for you, but you are able to choose the people whose messages you get. It's your decision who you'd like to "follow", as Twitter puts it. By posting what you're doing or thinking, you let people participate in a little bit of your life. Over time, your followers will recognize things they share with you, be it that you are a Mac user or going to be a parent. You can direct people to interesting websites, maybe your own. Pose a question and often you'll get responses from your followers in a matter of minutes.

On Twitter and its complementary services like TwitterMap, I found a blogger meetup in my home town and gained contact to the local Barcamp scene. I even found new business partners by answering quickly to their requests for support and then switching to IM or email.

Twitter isn't an Instant Messaging service, though. A publicly held dialogue will soon annoy your other followers and make them think about "unfollowing" you. It's considered as quite rude as is talking loudly to someone in a pub so that anyone can't help but overhear you.

So, just give Twitter a try and your network some time to develop. Find interesting people to follow and share interesting or entertaining bits with your followers. As long as you contribute information more valuable than "Going to the loo.", you'll build new connections that can in turn be interesting and useful to you.

And don't forget to click "Follow" on my Twitter page! ;-)

Another blog

The German Perl Workshop that I'm attending at the moment inspired me to collect all Perl content I've created so far and use it to launch a new website: Perl-Programmieren.de will from now on be the place where I publish my articles about Perl programming as well as the episodes of my audio podcast "Radio Perl".

You might wonder where I'll be taking the time to maintain yet another blog. Well, I don't expect miracles. So far, only the URL changed, not the posting frequency. But at least there's now one single place where you'll find the things I do all around Perl.

I'd pay to see this as a full length movie

Holy crap, this short 3-part CGI animation showing Spiderman, Ironman and The Hulk fighting giant killer robots is just awesome! Better than every Marvel adaptation I've seen in the recent years. If they'd make a full feature out of it, I'd run all the way to the theater. In thunder and rain.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

(via Dobschat)