entropy will kill us all

10 things about me

2009-04-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

OK, I've been tagged by Bertrand to reveal 10 things about me. Here we go:

Following the PragProg advice I try to learn a new programming language each year, but make it only every 1.5 years or so. Last year's was Python.
I am a vegetarian.
I have a super-secret side project that I can safely reveal here (because no-one reads this blog). I was fed up with reading a lot of feeds to get to the relevant tech news and I'm therefore working on my own meme tracker: it's called minimeme and online at minimeme.org. It's a nice hobby for learning more about natural language processing. It's not really really official, yet :)
I ran 3 marathons so far.
Back in 2003 I was mentioned on CMSwatch's home page: I own the world's largest collection of cms baseball caps. Originally, the collection was online at cms-head.com, but for the sake of this post I have brought it back to life here. (sorry about the popup, it's ue to the stupid web counter)
Every man's most noble duty is to support a completely hopeless football club. Mine is Karlsruher SC.
I studied physics in Karlsruhe and at Imperial College and hold a PhD in stochastic data analysis.
I sleepwalk occasionally.
First Computer I used: Apple III (with an Apple II emulator), first computer I owned: Atari 400XL
Just like the villain in James Bond's The Man with the Golden Gun I have 3 nipples.

I am tagging tagging @davidnuescheler, @kevinc2003

meme id: 42a4263e9ae40c23da79bd43370fd814

overlay ads in videos

2009-01-16T05:31:00.000-08:00

Just watched this video. Not sure if overlay ads are such a good idea.

Here it is, your ads may vary.

Nancy Pelosi rickrolls the nation

2009-01-14T06:51:00.000-08:00

Brilliant. Check out this video of Nancy Pelosi on her YouTube page (wait till sec 37).

tweets from the past

2009-01-09T01:32:00.000-08:00

Gandhi, Hitler, Ulle

Fact of the day

2008-12-22T01:09:00.000-08:00

Just found out that the Beastie Boys had a female member in their hunble beginnings. The German wiki page on last.fm has more info that the English one.

I love the Mimpsons

2008-12-01T05:55:00.000-08:00

new era

2008-11-03T04:27:00.000-08:00

A new era in my life: found the first white hair in my nose.

Quotes

2008-10-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
- Herm Albright

The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive.
- John Sladek

Silly quote of the day

2008-10-20T02:58:00.001-07:00

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
- Peter Drucker

Onion puts up with China

2008-10-14T01:53:00.000-07:00

While the governments of the world don't have the balls to stand up to the Chinese dictators at least the Onion network has.

China Launches First Willing Manned Mission Into Space

Apple's DRM

2008-09-15T07:49:00.000-07:00

Apple must have gone nuts. They want to restrict what I can do with my worn-down smelly sneakers. See the New Scientist. This was posted on 9/11. How appropriate.

Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life

2008-09-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Hilarious video on the Onion. Finally, sports and the meaning of life meet each other.

Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life

Quote of the day

2008-09-03T02:52:00.001-07:00

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.

Woody Allen

The best Swiss beer

2008-08-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

I write this in praise of the best Swiss beer: Coop Bio Bier. Of course, each man has his very own opinion which beer is best, but Coop Bio Beer is a triple winner:

It tastes best. In a double blind study of sample size 2 (conducted by me) it beat other bio beers hands-down.
It is cheap. It's 1.45CHF a bottle. Compare this to the 1.80CHF you pay for Feldschloesschen's yellow water. Obviously, in the latter case the additional amount does not go into better quality but pays the marketing efforts and global business analyst's salaries.
It is Bio. Even good for the environment.

Nespresso shops - oh my

2008-08-28T04:06:00.000-07:00

Hey Nespresso, here's some news for you: your shops suck big time. Why? Because there's ridiculously long queues each time I walk in. And you know why that is? Because you insist that customers get handed out the coffee one-by-one by a white-gloved employee. That takes time. Thus, the queue.

So, from time to time I ask one of your employees if I could not just grab the coffee by myself just like in a supermarket. That would save time and make me happy. And you know what? I get a snappy answer each time.

Nespresso, here's an idea: in one of your numerous shops conduct an experiment. Let customers either get served like now or let them grab the coffee themselves. You will get it. (you can even make the self-service more expensive if you wish)

And, oh, when you realize that customers prefer speed over what you think is "stylish": please don't let your marketers convince you that we pay a premium price for the coffee because of your stylish shops. We pay it because the coffee is nice.

And one more thing: no, I do not want to do mail order.

Thanks for listening.