Category: Allgemein

Home Computer

Back alive – after being offline for about three weeks, I’ve finally got my notebook back. I had not realized how much I depended on it until I tried living in another computer (feels like living in a Hotel, or maybe even a Backpacker’s Hostel – you don’t want to leave your stuff lying around…). If there are virtual Keychains, why not also virtual sponge bags with toothbrush etc.?

There is always some stuff that’s too personal (financially or profile-wise) to be stored on a server, then there’s stuff that has to be local so I can access it quickly, and then there’s usability, the way I’m used to work with my stuff – even if it’s the same data, it does not feel the same when used with different apps, and even if it’s the same app, it looks a bit different on a different platform and is missing my many little customizations.

Here’s my experience when temporarily switching from a Mac to a PC:

I can still access my email – it’s stored on an IMAP server, so I can theoretically access it from multiple client computers, potentially even at the same time. HOWEVER, I’m using a different mail app (Thunderbird or Outlook instead of Apple Mail), and start hitting small and inconvenient incompatibilities in their handling of deleted and marked messages. Feels just that little bit “not at home”. And of course first thing, they try to download all the mails and spill my private stuff on my company’s computer. Webmail/Googlemail is OK, but now each email account suddenly has its own UI.

I can still read my files – at least those that I copied to a FAT drive or file server in time. Accessing the HFS+ backup is more complicated and involves at least one other Mac. I’m fairly reluctant to actually work with (update) my files because I know I’ll have to sync them back some way – not necessarily trivial. Then there’s the file format – Office documents work of course, but all the personal stuff is a different bullet.

Keychain, SSH keys and Web passwords – simple truth: the more internet services you use, the more account names and passwords you have to manage. I can’t manage without an automatic helper, namely MacOSX’ Keychain application, SSH agent, and Safari’s auto-fill-in. Now unfortunately I didn’t find a port of Keychain for Windows. (To be honest, I didn’t even look) So it’s back to pen and paper, and don’t you forget to jot down one important passwort, or else you’ll need to get that other Mac and start digging in the backup again.

Browser bookmarks – I’ll definitely go get a del.ici.ous account. Tonite.

Music – the mp3 files are all there on the file server, but suddenly the infrastructure for actually listening to them is awkward (where’s my iTunes library, why is that iTunes not scrobbled?) – I default to my iPod.

iPod – is just a slave device in Apple’s view. They want me to erase it completely before attaching to a different iTunes instance. I refuse!

Photos – well I can live without my family album for a few weeks, OK. But then I want to quickly take a picture for a website, and it gets a bit peculiar again for a moment (oops, Windows does NOT understand Nikon RAW format out of the box? Seems like I need to reconfigure my camera. Now what Windows tool will let me resize that… MS Paint ?!)

Firewire Hardware – not on that Dell notebook, sorry.

USB Hardware – I wouldn’t want to mess up the dell with a load of drivers, it’s just temporary anyway, and uninstalling a hardware device driver seems to be one of the unsolved riddles of our time – so I restrict myself and wait for my Home Computer.

Any take home lessons? First: Let other people care about hardware maintenance, backups and continuous service, by moving as much data as possible out of the house. Second: Concentrate the information that makes up your private and personal environment (passwords, cryptographic keys, commercial info, customizations) and backup thoroughly and securely, preferrably so that it can easily be accessed/instantiated on a different machine. Third: Find or found a company that rents Mac laptops and pair that company up with Apple support.

Der Ki-Quirl

Gestern war Dieter Löpke in der Charlottenstraße und hatte ein paar ziemlich direkte Irimi-Nage-Varianten im Gepäck. Die üblichen Aikikai-Prüfungs-Techniken führen den Angreifer im weiten Bogen herum, und versuchen ihn dabei dynamisch immer am Rande seines Gleichgewichts zu halten – wenn er hinfällt, kann man ihn nicht mehr führen, wenn er stehenbleibt und fest wird, auch nicht. Auch in der kurzen Form ist das alles enthalten – mit Dieters Worten: “In einmal Werfen ist zehnmal Hüftdrehung drin”. Der Moment des Werferns wird nur weniger lang ausgedehnt. Die direkten Techniken erscheinen einem zunächst einfacher, aber auch darin noch die spiraligen Bewegungen und die Beziehung zum Zentrum des Partners zu finden, so dass der Knoten richtig sitzt, ist viel schwerer als bei der weiten Variante. (Der “Knoten”: man legt die “Schnüre” erst locker zurecht und zieht dann zu, so dass sich die Energie im Punkt des Wurfs konzentriert.)

Dieter präsentierte ein geradezu “quirliges” Aikido (Zitat!) – schwupp, Hüftdrehung parallel zum Partner, Arme schwingen, Schwupp, Hüftdrehung gegen den Partner (“Wie da die Hüfte so reinschnackelt”), Klatsch, Partner fällt.

Für mich unerwartet waren die Varianten für den “Ernstfall” – man müsse beim Irimi-Nage-Wurf nicht am Kopf vorbeigehen, man könne auch direkt auf die Nase schlagen – wenn der Angreifer den Kopf zu starr halte, könne man statt zu drehen auch über den Atlas-Wirbel rückwärts werfen, aber dabei bitte aufpassen, nicht das Genick zu brechen – beim Kotegaesh gäbe es zwei Gelegenheiten, dem Angreifer den Ellbogen zu brechen – den Kotegaesh könne man auch ganz toll mit einem Beinfeger kombinieren, dann kann der Angreifer nur noch hart fallen, tut’s dann aber auch gern – und unvergessen auch das “DongDongDong”, mit dem man bei einer Haltetechnik mit der freien Hand auf den Kopf des Angreifers einhämmern könne.

Wir bekam noch mit auf den Weg, diese Varianten nicht unangekündigt am Partner im heimischen Dojo auszuprobieren, weil “wir das nicht so gewohnt sind darauf zu reagieren”. In der Tat, es wird wohl ein paar Wochen dauern, bis sich mein Nacken wieder normal anfühlt…

Tick, Du bist!

The epidemic outbreak has finally reached me… Reinier got me. Fortunately, as with a vaccination, Reinier has reduced some of the symptoms (from 5 down to 3…) So now I’ll have to disclose three (3) things that hardly anyone knows about me, and tag three (3) more bloggers. Here we go.

1. I created my first language when I was six. Ok, to be fair, I had some help from a nerdby friend of my elder brother (or rather, he created it for me and gave it into my custody). Anyway, it had its own letters (syllables consisting of a noun with some consonants on top), its own grammar (featuring five cases and an weird subject-object-predicate sentence order), and some vocabulary. Aside from being completely fascinating at the time, it also gave me a head start when it came to learning real foreign languages, and an awareness of the construction of language.

2. I started programming when I was six, on a Sinclair ZX 80 (predecessor to the better-known ZX 81). It certainly looked like a dummy – when we unpacked it, we wondered: maybe the real computer is below that piece of plastic? as it turned out, the piece of plastic was the computer. It came complete with a BASIC interpreter, graphical block characters and TV output. RAM was so limited that retyping your program every time was no problem at all. Essentially, I watched every keystroke my elder brothers would make when they played with the thing, and later try to do it myself. As a child, you are not wasted yet by that strange affection called “originality” – I was completely content just imitating.

3. Up to the age of about 17, I tried to optimize my physical presence by moving and straining as little as possible. The theory was: moving or standing (instead of sitting) requires energy, and losing energy is bad for you. Fortunately, I got floppy instead of fat (thanks, genes.) Then, somehow, I started slipping into the martial arts world, taking short courses in Gatka, Taek Won Do, Iaido, Capoeira, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and finally Aikido. Beware, it might happen to you, too.

Exposed enough? So I can pass it on… Mernst, Janhoo, Christian, you’re it!

Hear hear!

“Maybe you don’t work for or with a Global 2000 company, so I’ll let you in on a little secret: They Can’t Hear You! That’s right, the CIOs, and Enterprise Architechts, and, yes, even the journeyman programmer employed by these firms have no idea that there’s even a discussion going on. […] They don’t read technology blogs, they don’t know who DHH is, and they’re excited to get their new Vista gear.”

I was quite relieved when I read Pete Lacey’s post, as it means the world of cubicles hasn’t swallowed IT entirely. There are some companies where the CEO is blogging. Some might understand this as a marketing instrument and broadcast medium at first, but the medium will get them – there is no blogging without discussion. And if the CEO sets the example, employees are likely to follow.

There’s another, rather unpleasant aspect to this, however: If some (the?) blogging community unanimously votes for or against something, then this says nothing about the validity of this result for another, decoupled community like the Global 2000 flock. Just as an example, a discussion among technicians is likely to exclude commercial and organizational aspects, either willfully or because of lack of expertise (ignorance is such a hard word). A CEO would be maladvised to just copy their results.

What is managing software development?

Raganwald: What is managing software development?
“The fundamental definition: “Management” is accountability for results, authority over resources, and making decisions based on judgement. […] and courage.”

Thinking about it, I wonder if I have ever seen anyone “managing” software to such an extent. In my reality, there are too many constraints, most of the time, and too much fog around the results. It might be nice for a manager to prove himself like that (“The project’s mine! All mine! And I did it!”), but then again his project might not be too much fun to work in.

float und width

Ich hänge ganz gern Icons oder kleine Bilderchen in den Text, die in Safari auch hübsch umflossen werden. Firefox aber weigert sich, den “float” style zu interpretieren, und zeigt einfach gar nichts an, wenn das jeweilige Element nicht auch eine explizit angegebene Breite (“width”) hat. Das korrekte HTML-Monster sieht so aus:

<a href=”bildgross.jpg” style=”float: left; padding-right: 10px; width:72px”><img id=”image5″ src=”bildklein.jpg” width=”72″ alt=”Ein Bild” /></a>

Die Nackten und die Toten

Wenn ein Soldat sein Glied von einem Totenschädel küssen lässt, “(Bild berichtete)”, dann hat das für mich eher etwas mit Ohnmacht zu tun als mit Abu Ghraib. Wer täglich mit dem Tod konfrontiert ist, versucht irgendwie die Oberhand zu behalten, und sei es auch nur symbolisch. Dass uns das vom sicheren heimischen Sofa aus irrational erscheint ist kein Wunder. Einen Zusammenbruch der Zivilisation kann ich da aber noch nicht erkennen.
Die politischen und öffentlichen Reaktionen versuchen dem Abu Ghraid-Schema zu folgen (endlich haben wir auch einen Skandal!), Politiker sind vorauseilend entsetzt, und die Bild-Zeitung hat der Bundeswehr die Präsentation ihres Weißbuch erfolgreich vermasselt.
Wer das Spiel mit einem gefundenen Totenschädel aber gleichsetzt mit Folter und mit Angriffen auf Zivilisten, der verharmlost.

Oder wie es ZEIT online schreibt: “Bilder sagen zwar mehr als tausend Worte, aber manchmal sprechen sie nicht wirklich, sondern sie plappern.”