writings on the wall

Every time you use a car analogy…

rainer — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:10:44 +0000

…a kitten dies.
I really disrelish car analogies.
Especially in IT.
They are evil. And mostly useless.
Because people who have no grasp of the concept you are trying to explain to them will most likely not understand it with the “help” of a car analogy either but feel even more stupid and belittled!
It’s like saying “Let me break this down to kindergarten-level for you”.

So, think of the kittens!

MUM86A – unboxing

rainer — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:43:12 +0000

I don’t remember exactly the first time I read about this machine. But I do remember that from that day on, I wanted one.
Badly.
But there was a slight problem.
I already had a kitchen machine. The trusted Siemens MK 1001 with a lot of add ons that my mother had given to me. Most notable here is the flour mill, which I used to use to mill rye floor and prepare my Frischkornbrei (“water-soaked ground cereals with fruit”).
Then, some weeks ago, it stopped working at all.
So, I was ready for a new food-processor!
Ordered last week, it arrived today, in an almost cubic packaging.

mum86a packaging

When you open the lid, you get a glimpse at just how massive this thing is.

mum86a packaging slightly open

It’s gorgeous. Even Steve Jobs would agree with that

mum86a sitting on kitchen shelf

It does come with some accessories. Though, there are some more available. I like to joke that it’s the Mercedes of food processors: you can spend the price of the base unit on top of it for accessories

mum86a with the delivered accessories

One thing that is included is a giant blender. 1.75 liters.

mum86a with blender

Resting on its place in my kitchen. I will need to cover it with something or it will get very dusty very soon.

mum86a sitting on kitchen shelf

I’ve still got some bread I bought yesterday, so I will have to wait before I can switch it on for the first time.

It’s coming!

rainer — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:32:43 +0000

Finally, after a long wait:

Strange how something that originates maybe 20km from my home is first transported 50km or so away from me before being sent back again. It’s madness.

TV

rainer — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:20:11 +0000

Over the holidays, I was at my parent’s place and watched some TV.
They’ve got a relatively new one, with the content coming over DVB-T.
At the time, I thought the picture looked strange, unnaturally crisp. But I couldn’t really put it in words.
Then, I stumbled on this comment on slashdot:

A lot of hi-def production looks terrible now-a-days because it’s too real, it looks like actors standing on a set

Bingo, that’s the metaphor I was looking for!

Hype 3.0

rainer — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:45:48 +0000

Zurich has no shortage of eager startups. But WTF is the web 3.0?

Stuck in the elevator

rainer — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 22:17:03 +0000

Shit happens?
Yeah, it does. So yesterday, as I headed down to the car to go shopping, the elevator got stuck between 0 and -1.
Great. Took an hour before I had figured out a how to open that fucking outer door. And the phone number for the emergency service was on a sticky outside. Morons.

Mac OSX Mountain Lion

rainer — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 20:32:54 +0000

Updated ASAP. Currently, there’s disk-activity like mad, but overall speed seems to be OK. I’ve yet to open Mail.app, with a million emails. I’ll probably let it run through the night, hoping that the disk isn’t going to die. Seems … Continue reading →

Too much rain

rainer — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 05:25:26 +0000

Well, it’s no exactly the paradise here, but still…

Peak Oil

rainer — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:14:50 +0000

I’m a somewhat avid watcher of the state of Peak Oil.
Today, Spiegel Online article caught my attention.
It seems, the maximum rate of natural petroleum extraction has finally been reached. But there’s still oil-shale, fracking, oil-sands and other stuff.
From now on, we’re in un-charterted territory.
I’m not sure, this is the most likely outcome, but let’s keep it in mind, somewhere, together with this technology. My grandfather reportedly had one of those, BTW.
Jokes aside, people should not forget that so far, nothing can match the energy-density of oil.

Knowledge gained by using public transport, volume one

rainer — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:15:43 +0000

Es gibt tatsächlich Leute, die sich “Kikerikii” als Klingelton ihres Mobiltelefons ausgesucht haben.