Geek, Nerd, etc.

Since it popped up in a discussion recently, I'd like to point out my personal view on the Geek vs. Nerd topic:

A Geek is a person who is fascinated by technical stuff - computers, mathematics, physics, chemistry, electronics, you-name-it. Still, a Geek is able to participate in hour-long conversations (even with the other sex) without including any of these favourite topics. You may want to see thinkgeek.com to get an impression.

A Nerd on the other hand is inept of any kind of social life, conversation, or contact with members of the other sex. While still maintaining the interest in above-mentioned topics, s/he often does not excel at them either. A collection of Nerd thoughts can be found at bash.org - you have been warned.

Computational Knowledge

Wolfram Alpha is online. I put it to a test:

It is still calculating...

Culture Beat

Nein, nicht die, die 1993 "Mr. Vain" rausgebracht haben.
Sondern unser Mosaic-Projekt "Culture Beat" - die Planung hat begonnen. Worum gehts? Verschiedene Kulturen in einer Stadt, deren Hintergründe, Reibungspunkte, Gemeinsamkeiten, und natürlich um eine gehörige Portion ASK, experiental learning, CISV, etc...

Gewikit

Heute hab ich gewikit. Nicht zum ersten Mal, eigentlich tu ich es schon seit Jahren. Nur habe ich es heute zum ersten Mal so bezeichnet. Ist das ein Wort?

wiken: Verb (transitiv, unregelmäßig im PP)
ich wike, du wikst, sie wikt
Prät: wikte
PP: gewikit

Ich warte auf eine löbliche Erwähnung im Duden!

Obama, oida!

Gut, ich gebs zu, die Überschrift ist geklaut. Jemand im Standard.at-Forum war schneller.

Jetzt ist er also da, Obama, vierundvierzigster Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, und abgesehen von den "realpolitischen" Aufgaben (Wirtschaft, Umwelt, Kriege, Konflikte) wird er auch vor der Herausforderung stehen, eben diese Staaten (und vor allem die Menschen in ihnen) wieder etwas mehr zu vereinigen.

Über all seine Pläne, die Erwartungen, die Herausforderungen, die Probleme und seine Politik ist ja schon genug geschrieben worden; drum soll da mein Senf mal aussen vor bleiben. Aber eins möchte ich schon heute anmerken: wenn er dann (hoffentlich) am 20. 1. 2017 in Präsidialpension geht, dann denke ich werden wir alle ein Stück Geschichte und (hoffentlich) eine Wende zum Besseren miterlebt haben - allen Unkenrufen zum Trotz.

2009

Welcome to the year 2009.
The world starts with a war, and since Nov. 4th, we are not allowed to categorize everything into "good" or "evil". Difficult.
There is an old wisdom in conflict management, that says if a conflict has advanced too far, it is impossible for the parties involved to solve it on their own. It needs an external party (a so-called "mediator") to help them resolve the conflict. My guess is that a.) shooting and bombing each other is definitely a stage of having "advanced too far" in a conflict and b.) it will need one hell of a brilliant mediator to help resolve that one.

Welcome to the year 2009.

Let's make money

This is an order:
Watch "Let's make money".
Change your way of thinking.

Elections

So, here we are - two days until we elect our new parliament. It was nice to see the last parlamentary discussion, and even nicer to see (and read about) TV "duels"; decided? Not really... but on Sunday in the morning, I'll walk over to my townhall, and put an X for one of the parties. A small note though...

BZÖ in reply to a question concerning suits made at the constitutional court against the new police and surveillance law: "Decisions of the Constitutional Court have to be accepted [...]." A very funny statement for a party which has Jörg Haider as their boss, who refuses to accept several Constitutional Court rulings concerning bi-lingual traffic (place-name) signs in Carinthia for several years now...

Recommendations

What does the Amazon recommendation system think of a person who read Timothy Leary and Terry Pratchett?

Wählbefehl

Dies ist ein Wählbefehl. Wer am 28. September nicht wählen geht, hat für 4 Jahre das Recht verwirkt, sich über "die Politik" im Allgemeinen oder "den/die Politiker/in" im Speziellen zu beschweren.

Zur Erinnerung:

SPÖ

ÖVP

Die Grünen

Die originalen Originalen

Das originale Original

LIF

Pick me! Pick me!

The Greens are casting people for their team running for the upcoming elections. If you read this - pick me. I promise to be good :-)
Ok, after letting users design some election posters and generally trying to sound serious about going into gouvernment (but with whom, that's the question!), there is a new idea - casting new faces to refresh the party image. Maybe Wahlkampf 2.0? As long as we don't end up with a Tschuggnall situation, but rather with some Stürmer success....

Epiphanies, European Union, Elections

The epiphanies of course are all these populist people appearing from nowhere (ok, Tyrolia, Burgenland, etc.) suddenly running for parliament. Populism has two big strenghts - simple answers to complex questions; and the promise of doing things "differently". Its weakness shows when populists suddenly are given the opportunity to actually demonstrate their "different" ways, and face a reality that doesn't deal with simple answers. O'Reilly on Letterman wanted a simple answer, and David responded "It's not simple to me, because I'm a thoughtful person". This applies to politics maybe more than to anything else in the world, and thoughtful people may question the simple answers populists give, and whether or not they would be practicable if these populists manage to achieve gouvernmental power.

The European Union is something Austrians don't seem to quite understand, or appreciate. It has given more wealth, more rights within Europe and more privileges to us than to most other European countries; still, it is blamed for everything that goes wrong - next thing we know, the infamous Salzburger Schnürlregen is the consequence of an EU directive. derStandard took up the challenge of correcting this image, and writing some new chapters into the Austrian - EU book. Still, as long as our epiphanies continue with "EU's fault" as their favourite Simple Answer, the efforts may be wasted.

So, we are allowed to elect a new gouvernment on Sept. 28th... A chance for the SPÖ to get rid of the great coalition, a chance for the ÖVP to let the voter "correct the mistake" they did in the last elections, a chance for the FPÖ to actually become a big party in Austria again, a chance for die Grünen to enter gouvernment for the first time, a chance for the BZÖ to... what? Finally disappear? Lots of chances for our little parties and epiphanies to destroy the possibilities for stable coalitons and force us back into the SPÖVP coalition we learned to suffer through the last 2 years.

For the first time since I'm allowed to vote, I am thinking of voting void.....

Tourists! Proper food for you!

Watching the "usual" habit of tourists visiting my beautiful hometown (see above), they tend to ignore the gastronomial offers Salzburg has. Japanese go to sushi restaurants, Italians to the closest Pizzeria or Ristorante Italiano, Chinese restaurants are full of Asian people, and our visitors from the US and GB tend to fall into the fast-food trap.

Now, not that I don't like a quick Bic Mac meal, or some spring rolls myself once in a while - but when I'm abroad, I try to grasp all the parts of the culture, not just some nice buildings or museums. Austrian cuisine is renowned for its richness, tradition, cultural multitude and tastefulness. The choice of restaurants is wide, from a simple Gulasch to Hirschsteak in Preiselbeerkruste - pick what you like!

Next time you are in a foreign country, look into your guide and search for a restaurant to your liking. One that offers local cuisine. Try it! (And you can grab a quick hamburger after going out at nights still...)

For Salzburg, let me give you some suggestions:

• Zipfer Bräuhaus (opposite Kollegienkirche, Universitätsplatz)
• Gasthaus Wilder Mann (Getreidegasse)
• Zum fidelen Affen (Priesterhausgasse)
• Stiegl Keller (Festungsberg)
• Müllner Bräustübl (Augustiner Bräu)
• Gasthof Alter Fuchs (Linzer Gasse)
• ...
  

you're at home, baby...

some private stuff:
how much I am like my mother... never expected, but obviously it's there. I guess it is a tribute to the education my parents gave me, but nevertheless, unexpected... that I would be the one washing the towels, buying flowers to make our balcony look nicer, shout and scream (though still in a joking way) when the kitchen is a mess... iron my shirts, even considering buying my own iron, and already having bought an ironing board.
So, much sooner than expected, I am calling this place "home", not only since Réka slept here, but already much earlier... and I expect it to stay like that, my home, and surely it looks like it!
And then, finally, what happened to simple, cheap, single-purpose webcams? All there is are some with mounted LEDs, WLAN access, who needs that?!?!?.... gotta search more thoroughly, never buying the cheapest, always looking for quality. I am going fine with this philosophy when it comes to food, why not also webcams?
And yeah, my eggs, flour, sesame, cheese, meat, vegetables, potatoes... all of them are "bio".

Home of Kalefuzum and Muzufelak

And in case you are wondering, it's an obscure zen-like far-eastern body exercise.... oh, or, that colourful deep sea fish? The meaning of life? A person from a fairy tale? What The Bride mutters before Bill hits her?....

.... whatever it is: here it is at home, baby.

People who share my birthday

Michelangelo
Gabriel García Márquez
Cyrano de Bergerac
Joseph von Fraunhofer
Alan Greenspan
Shaq O'Neal
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol

Simple Life

a:t University, yet another hour or so til I need to start working. Time for some simple life activity, like - starting a blog and figuring out how to integrate it into my own little web site. Working on Café Krisch is nothing I want to spend too much time in, but after a while, it hopefully will be something to earn a little bit of reputation.

a:lthough my books haven't arrived yet, I start working on PR a bit - hopefully will do nothing all too wrong. The first article will be about something called BOWS, dealing with digital watermarks. Well, let's see if I'll be able to read it in the newspaper.