To wikrastinate

Means: to spend hours on some wiki (tvtropes, for example), opening hundreds of new tabs in the browser while reading through articles and clicking on every link that sounds interesting.

Why we all should love France

No, you won't be Rickroll'd into anything here, but "never gonna give [you] up" seems to be the motto of French workers, even when facing the worldwide economic crisis. Not only do they lock managers in their offices, now some of them also threaten to blow up a car supplies factory if they don't get redemption payments. Apart from the fact that violence (or the threat of using violence) is "the last refuge of the incompetent" - it gives me hope to read that there are still some people out there who have the guts and will to fight for a more just world, even against overwhelming opposition. When the revolution comes - it will start in France.

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.

Wahlbefehl / Call to Vote

Wer nicht zur EU-Wahl geht, hat für 5 Jahre das Recht verspielt, sich über die "undemokratische" EU und die "mangelnde Mitbestimmung" und sonstige populistischen Unterstellungen aufzuregen.

Whoever doesn't vote in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament has lost the right to complain about a "lack of democracy" or "lack of co-determination" and similar populistic resentments for the next 5 years.

Computational Knowledge

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

It is still calculating...

Planck & Herschel

This is so smart: Planck and Herschel are orbiting L2, one of the two Lagrangian points really "close" to earth (just 5 lightseconds or 48.6 nanoparsecs away). I remember dimly that we should build space cities at the L-Points (there are 5 of them, I'd personally like to live on L4 or L5 - they seem to be really cool places!), since it's easy to stay in a stable orbit there. The physics behind L-Points is really simple, and very fascinating!
derStandard.at forum members have been questioning the meaning of Planck & Herschel missions. Let me answer them with a thought from Babylon 5: one thing is certain - at one point, our sun will go supernova, destroying Earth. If mankind wants to survive beyond that point (hehehe, if we even make it that far!), there is only one direction to go: space.

CFOUTPUT

Struggling between "oh! so cool!" and "oh! what a load of *$%&" with CF in its latest Version 8, and MySql in its pretty-old-but-still-neat Version 3.X - that's how work should be, no? Being a smart-ass piece of software, CF doesn't allow empty strings as query parameters for a non-null field, even though MySql answers according to your expectations. D'oh, I have to become smarter!

Tu, felix Austria

Only in Austria, a person like Martin Graf can become (and remain) 3rd president of the national assembly. Not only is he a member of "Olympia", a Burschenschaft dangerously close to the Neonazi scene; also his selected assistants paint a somewhat dubious picture, being customers at a Nazi paraphilia shop.

Well, if something like that happened in Germany, he would be forced to step out of office within the minute. Only in Austria, all he has to face is an "urgent talk" with 1st president of the national assembly, Barbara Prammer.

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?

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....

Symbian and Google Calendar

Finally I found it - synchronizing my E61i with Google Calendar, through a little free (for private use, and one calendar only) tool called GooSync. And I must say, good job! I love it!

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".

Do you wash your car?

You will probably answer "yes, once in a while" or something alike - and even if you just take it to the nearest gas station and put it in automatic car wash, you still spend time, money and energy in keeping your car neat, clean and ready-to-use.

Why don't you do the same with your computer?

Updating virus signatures, checking for updates, de-installing unused software, tidying up your harddisk... of course, it is time consuming, but the more time you spend in front of your PC, the more you have to put an effort in keeping it up-to-date and tidy. If you aren't lucky enough to have an IT department at your hands who do the job for you, you'll have to do it yourself - just as you spend time and energy cleaning your car (and hey, don't tell me "I can't do it, I'm not into IT" - most probably, you aren't a mechanic, either!), you have to spend time and energy maintaining an operable personal computer.

So, stop complaining, and take it into your own hands.... it's easy, and you will be delighted how good a nice, tidy PC feels at your fingertips.

Dear Spanish Church: shut up!

"Por que no te callas" asked King Juan Carlos, and the same question goes to the Spanish bishops - why don't you shut up?

If there's one thing that we all seemed to have learned not only from recent and more oriental events, but also from our own history is that church and politics don't mix well - or, more precisely, whenever they do it ends in disaster. Now, I understand that the fear of losing power drives the Spanish bishops into condemning Zapatero, but hey!, swallow it, it's not your job to intervene in the political life of the state.

Otherwise, we could just as well go back to the middle ages, couldn't we?!

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.