Home → Archives → by month → December 2003
Ten
Preparing the digital jukebox for Ana's and Armin's wedding-eve party - the good thing about setting up the music yourself is that you for sure won't have to hang out at a party with a bad soundtrack ;-)
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:: in category Music
Change of plans
Normally, things slow down this time of the year. This year, things are different: no slowdown, but further acceleration. I decided to work with a T-Mobile team most parts of this Christmas, New Year's Day, and the time in between. So for the first time in quite a few years, you won't find me at the Christmas Jazz Matinee either, and this is something I will miss. After this quite mediocre year, things are to improve soon, so let's meet at the 2004 Matinee. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for all your help and support - have a nice and peaceful Christmas.
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Vom Exil
"Manch einer ist sein ganzes Leben lang auf der Suche nach Vertrautheit, und manch einer ist sein ganzes Leben lang auf der Flucht davor. Es kommt vor, dass einer immer über den gleichen Ort schreibt, obwohl er sich seit Jahrzehnten anderswo aufhält. Der Schriftsteller bleibt seiner Umgebung gegenüber ohnehin fremder als andere Menschen. Es ist eine vertraute Fremdheit, eine geteilte Beziehung zu allem, was er bekommen und geerbt, was ihm das Schicksal auferlegt hat. Vermutlich hat er seine Spielkameraden schon in der Kindheit ironisch distanziert betrachtet. Das Verhältnis zu seiner Geburtsstadt ist ziemlich paradox. Er träumt von ihr, auch wenn er in der Ferne weilt. Aus seiner Besinnung verbannt er sie, und plötzlich findet er sich dort im Haus seiner Kindheit wieder. Das Bewusstsein ist ein großer Spaßmacher."
György Konrád in DIE ZEIT: Vom Exil >
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Ein hanseatischer Preusse
"Helmut Schmidt ist einer, der weiß, was zu tun ist. Zum Regieren war er wie geschaffen." Richard von Weizsäcker in seinem Glückwunsch zum gestrigen
85. Geburtstag von Schmidt-Schnauze >
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More Industrial Light and Magic
Click to view gallery
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From an Associated Press report
"Hussein told capturing forces that his only regret was that due to the timing of his apprehension, he would never have the opportunity to play Halo on his 17" Powerbook. Soldiers were able to capture Hussein by following a power cord running to Hussein's laptop from a neighboring structure. Hussein told U.S. forces, 'Although I was stuck in a hole, couldn't bathe, and have pooped on myself on numerous occasions while down here, the Powerbook's backlit keys made computing easy.'"
[via email]
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Als Willi Brandt Bundeskanzler war
Als Willi Brandt Bundeskanzler war
Hatte Vati noch volles Haar
War Ute Lemper noch kein Star
Als Willi Brandt Bundeskanzler war
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:: in category Music
Stell Dir vor, jemand will 'ne Ethikdiskussion und keiner geht hin
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RSS Winter Fest 2004
Two days of web seminars (free webcasts) on RSS, enterprise blogging and Internet content syndication, including case studies, tech demos and roundtable discussions. Sponsored by Infoworld, MyST, Serene (Klipfolio), Socialtext, Feedster, Newsgator and Lockergnome, with Anil Dash, Chris Pirillo, Greg Reinacker, Scott Johnson, Jon Udell, Robert Scoble, Ross Mayfield and more speaking.
RSS Winter Fest 2004, January 21 and 22 >
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A Century of Flight
Today, 100 years ago, the Wright Brothers launched an airplane in what is considered the first powered flight (though there are voices that say it has been achieved several months before). 66 years later, men walked on the moon. 74 years later, a spacecraft called Voyager was launched that is now some 90 astronomical units or 8.4 billion miles away from the sun. The dream of supersonic travel died shortly before the centennial, but we might see interstellar travel in the future. And on this historic date, Boeing announced to build its first new jet aircraft in 13 years, the 200/250 seats, 8,300 miles 7E7 that is to replace the 757, 767 and to enter the market in 2008 - or aks Airbus and order your plane with similar specifications right today.
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Generation Bankrott
"Seltsam, denkt man nach dem Gespräch, dass die große Krise jetzt auch die Überlebenskünstler erreicht hat, die immer Geld hatten, ohne viel zu verdienen. Wir 30-Jährigen gelten seit zehn Jahren als Trendgeneration, und haben doch die ganze Zeit nie gewusst, was das sein soll, eine 'Generation', und wie sich das anfühlt: Teil davon zu sein. Jetzt, da die Wirtschaft am Boden liegt und der Sozialstaat aus dem letzten Loch pfeift, wird dieser Haufen aus atomisierten, höchst individualistischen Individuen zum ersten Mal als Verbund sichtbar. Das Band, das die 30-Jährigen verbindet, besteht aus Angst: Verarmungsangst. Es scheint, als ob es uns nun gemeinsam an den Kragen geht. Der neueste Trend heißt: Keine Kohle."
Sueddeutsche Zeitung:
Vereint im Leid: Die 30-Jährigen als Gemeinschaft wider Willen >
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English Language Styleguides - revisited
Over at Thijs van der Vossen's blog, Lars Holst points at two valuable additions to the list of How to write in plain English resources: the Economist Styleguide, and The Elements of Style, a book by William Strunk first published in 1918 and now avaible online at excellent Bartleby.com (don't go there if you don't have some time to spend). And there is more:
Related:
And for your entertainment:
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Fine Weblog Layouts
While it is quite flattering to learn that more people than my regular audience of three consider this weblog an example of good weblog design, there is obviously room for improvements, both in layout and features. Here a list of some blog layouts I like - by no means complete, unsorted, somewhat biased towards minimal styles, and just listing blogs from abroad in order not interfere with votings currently in progress:
Meanwhile, it seems that the recent liquid design hype has come to an end: both Simplebits and Stopdesign recently switched from liquid to fixed width layouts. And unrelated to weblog layouts, this fine CSS Zen Garden entry is my current favorite. It requires horizonal scrolling, but so do other solutions as well.
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Widerlich
Er ist dem Druck nicht gewachsen. Das ist eines der größten Verlustgeschäfte, die der FC Bayern je gemacht hat.
Edmund Stoiber über Sebastian Deisler
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Roma locuta, causa finita
FTD: "Die "Harald Schmidt Show" wird im nächsten Jahr nicht fortgesetzt. Das Medienunternehmen Pro Sieben Sat 1 zieht damit nach acht Jahren eine Schlussstrich unter eine Comedy-Ära. Moderator und Produzent Harald Schmidt lege nach acht Jahren eine Kreativpause ein, teilte Pro Sieben Sat 1 am Montag mit."
Pressemitteilung: "Harald Schmidt wird in Sat.1 noch in zwei Specials am 29. Dezember 2003 mit einem Jahresrückblick und 8. Januar 2004 anlässlich des 20. Geburtstags des Senders zu sehen sein."
Zuerst via FTD und Martin
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A Shared Blank Document (aftermath)
"So, what happens when you open up blank SubEthaEdit document to the world, and invite anyone from your blog to come on in? A lot of interesting stuff. [At one point it was] what I imagine a real-time Wiki would look like."
Must-read story on Steven Frank's weblog >
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Usability explained
Click to enlarge (590 kB, opens in new window)
As seen in in Brighton, UK. Feel free to use the photo in your own texts and papers on usability as long as you provide my name and a backlink.
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Electrical Steel
Off to see the Gelsenkirchen plant of ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel. The company name might sound misleading, but it is not about steel brewed in electrical arc furnaces. It is about steel with specific magnetic characteristics that is used everywhere where steel and electricity get in touch: engines (electricity into motion), turbines (motion into electricity), transformers (electricity into electricity). Apart from permeability, central material parameters are magnetic polarization and specific core loss. R&D aims at increasing the former while decreasing the latter.
ThyssenKrupp paper, PDF format: Recent Technology Developments in the Production of Grain Oriented Electrical Steel >
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Plain English, please
Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.
United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in a press briefing
The Plain English Campaign each year present awards for clear - and baffling - use of English. Above statement is this years winner in the Foot in Mouth category for a baffling quote by a public figure. There are several additional categories.
Other interesting content on the campaign's website:
Everyone should have a copy of NASA's indispensable Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors - Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization anyway.
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A New Website for Harper's Magazine
Paul Ford: "On December 1, 2003, a new website for Harper's Magazine launched at Harpers.org. [...] It's been noted that Harpers.org looks like Ftrain. It's actually the other way around: Ftrain looks like Harpers.org. I've been using you, the Ftrain reader, as a guinea pig for about 5 months, testing ideas I developed for Harper's, finding out what JavaScript worked in which browser, which interface ideas were too baffling to include, and seeing how you dealt with different sorts of links."
These dry word describe that Harper's Magazine now has a website that is designed along Paul Ford's Semantic Web ideas, based on his Narrative Content Framework and built in XML and XSLT. And this I consider an impressive move for a commercial website.
Read on at Ftrain.com >
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Bye bye, U
Click image to enlarge
In no other recent year, the face of Dortmund has changed more than in 2003. In no other recent year, it has been so profitable to run a demolition business. After the demolition of two complete large-scale steel mills that surrounded the inner city [and a large-scale gasometer in the north], excavators are now roaring right inside the city and remove the old Dortmunder Union Brauerei. By the end of this year, nothing will be left, except the central building with the illuminated U on top - one of the central landmarks of the city. Around it, Brau und Brunnen breweries will group their new headquarters.
Situation as seen yesterday evening. Click photo to enlarge.
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All night long
Web radio definitely is one of the best things since bread came sliced, and so is Radio Wazee. What is your favourite web radio station?
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