Gerade eben kamen mir auf der Straße eine Handvoll kleiner Kinder in Kostümen entgegen, die sich schon sehr fachmännisch darüber unterhalten haben, welche Straßen sie schon abgegrast haben und welche nicht.
Eigentlich ist es schon sehr erstaunlich, wie schnell sich dieser Brauch des Halloween bei uns so durchgesetzt hat. Halloween-Parties, verkleidete Kinder, Dekorationen in den Geschäften - ich kann mich nicht wirklich daran erinnern, dass es das noch vor fünf Jahren schon gegeben hätte. Oder vielleicht gerade so.
Das Einzige, von dem ich sicher weiß, dass ich es aus meiner Kindheit, die ja noch nicht so arg lange zurückliegt, kenne, sind ausgehöhlte Kürbisse mit Kerzen drin. Die standen bei uns auch immer neben den Türen und haben des Nachts dumm in der Gegend rumgegrinst.
October 2004 Archives
Gerade eben kamen mir auf der Straße eine Handvoll kleiner Kinder in Kostümen entgegen, die sich schon sehr fachmännisch darüber unterhalten haben, welche Straßen sie schon abgegrast haben und welche nicht.
Eigentlich ist es schon sehr erstaunlich, wie schnell sich dieser Brauch des Halloween bei uns so durchgesetzt hat. Halloween-Parties, verkleidete Kinder, Dekorationen in den Geschäften - ich kann mich nicht wirklich daran erinnern, dass es das noch vor fünf Jahren schon gegeben hätte. Oder vielleicht gerade so.
Das Einzige, von dem ich sicher weiß, dass ich es aus meiner Kindheit, die ja noch nicht so arg lange zurückliegt, kenne, sind ausgehöhlte Kürbisse mit Kerzen drin. Die standen bei uns auch immer neben den Türen und haben des Nachts dumm in der Gegend rumgegrinst.
I have to admit, I'm usually not such a fan of South Park. But I just love the episode that scrat blogged about. It's about elections, the necessity to vote and eco-terrorists.
808 Douche and Turd.avi (BitTorrent.AVI-Datei, 139 MB)
[via Loic LeMeur]
Remember my article Geek Fashion? Looks like someone else had the same good idea, too bad it's a bit expensive to start with. [via /.]
To see some animated impressions of World of Warcraft, I can recommend the videos from JuniorX. I want especially point out the dance video here.
Sonic Youth - Silver Rocket (3.62MB, MP3) [via Vinyl Mine]
Datingportale - schon 1968 ein Thema: France Gall: Der Computer Nr. 3 (MP3, 3,18MB) [via IT&W]
This is sick but in a very twisted way funny: 2004's Scariest Halloween Costumes [via BoingBoing]
Soundgarden - Mind Riot (MP3, 4,44MB) [somehow via Netzkunst]
Wendy sent me those Disney-themed sand sculptures today by email, apparently they are from Australia:
Continue reading Disney-themed sand sculptures.
The November 2004 issue of WIRED magazine comes with a CD of music by major artists. All of the songs are available under a Creative Commons license, and are freely distributable.[Geek Ramblings] Using a BitTorrent-client like for example BitTornado, the CD is downloaded in a breeze and is very enjoyable to listen to - especially since it is a wide variety of musical styles and until now (I listened through around half the songs) there was none that I wouldn't listen to a second time. Direct link to the .torrent file.
What would you see, if you could see through clothes? This. Via TobensBlogg.
Happy Birthday, John Cleese.
Miss India 2004 - more
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks (MP3, 2,26MB) [via Vinyl Mine]
Balou der Bär - Probier's mal mit Gemütlichkeit (MP3, 1,6MB) [via SWR]
Don't be shy. If there is anything in my weblog posts that you don't understand or don't get what I'm talking about - I can easily be contacted by email. Really. Or ask in the comments.
Audi has a great commercial with a strong MC Escher theme going on. Download here. (*.mov, 5.12 MB) [via Jalopnik]
Podcasting seems to be the buzz right now. The next WordPress will have it, FeedBurner has it already - looks like it might be big.
But is Podcasting primarily for the iPod? No, it can work with any audio player - even my favourite, the WinAmp 5.05.
To make it work, I used the podcast software Doppler. The first thing I did was create a new folder and set Doppler to use that for the downloaded MP3s.
Then I switched the Add to..-options off, so that it doesn't always start iTunes or the MediaPlayer. That has to be done for every single feed.
Now in WinAmp I set the WatchFolder to the specified download folder and set it to rescan at every start and every 2 hours.
That itself is quite nice already, but there is one thing missing - a podcast playlist. The SmartView feature that can be found in the newer versions of Winamp comes to help.
The new SmartView has to be told to list the files from the download directory..
.. and everything is set up.
Then I switched the Add to..-options off, so that it doesn't always start iTunes or the MediaPlayer. That has to be done for every single feed.
Now in WinAmp I set the WatchFolder to the specified download folder and set it to rescan at every start and every 2 hours.
That itself is quite nice already, but there is one thing missing - a podcast playlist. The SmartView feature that can be found in the newer versions of Winamp comes to help.
The new SmartView has to be told to list the files from the download directory..
.. and everything is set up.
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child (MP3, 13,7 MB) [via SWR]
Why on earth would our marketing professor show us the 1959 movie Ask Any Girl? Well.. I am going to find out.
To wake up it might be advisable to to do some light exercises. (WMV, 6,5MB) [via jot.be]
Designing with Type: Devoted to the Art and Appreciation of Typography
I forgot where I found that link just before, sorry.
Mannequin Depressives - The Model (MP3 - 3,82MB) [via Vinyl Mine]
A Memorable Event! Surviving The Titanic Adventure Slide challenges you to survive the Iceberg climb, the dual ice slide, lifesaver obstacles & broken smoke stack challenge.
The ship is sinking! Can you survive the slide down? This dual slide captures all the excitement of the famed ocean liner on its maiden voyage.Sick, sad world. TITANIC Adventure Slide [via Megawatt]
From the totally insane OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!!! thread over at MetaFilter.
Seems like RSS is slowly getting momentum in the non-geek world as well - a high-class company like Porsche is using that technology to deliver their news to customers and interested parties.
The Porsche USA front-page has a new design built on XHTML Strict, as well as a new RSS feed.[via Google Blogoscoped]
Präventionstheater
Everybody should have a look at those really beautiful pictures from Irina:
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Currently I have to implement some small functionalities for a project/presentation about webservices. One of the requirements is to show how webservices are working, using the APIs of Google, Amazon and eBay. While Google and Amazon are really trying hard to help the developer use those tools and make them easily accesible and well documented, the eBay Developers Program just plainly sucks.
How come I can only see my keys once and then never again?
How come I need to create like at least four different accounts and roles and whatnot to even use the sandbox tools?
How come that for ages one of the account creating pages is
currently not available? And no..
check back in 15 minutesdoesn't help much. And doesn't it negate purpose of webservices, when they are not so platform independent at all? Okay, I'll try it again with the fourth account..
What we do while studying.
Sometimes I can't help but despair at what the University of Cooperative Education puts in front of us. The number one thing I learn from certain lessons is to fine tune my alarm clocks.
90 % of the part-time lecturers are professionals from cooperating companies.- I should have wondered about that before. On one hand there are some lecturers where I can tell they are good at what they do and how to teach that. On the other hand - and here comes the sad part - most are not like that. And why would that be? What kind of professional would go so far and teach here? Either they are sent by a company that trains students here or they are freelance consultants. And what kind of employee would a company send? Either the company is quite idealistic about training and they send good ones - unlikely, but it happens and those are the good lessons. Or they send those that are not at their full capacities. Those, who are not good enough to be in important projects and are even not good enough to weasel themselves out of those tasks. Those are the least motivated ones. And then there are my favourites: freelance consultants. What are the incentives for a freelance consultant to do that? The money? I know how much lecturers here get paid and no respectable and successful consultant would work for this kind of money. Yes, there are the idealistic ones - and they are usually good at transporting the enthusiasm for the whole thing and that can never be wrong. And then there are those, who are just plain incompetent. Not that this is an unusual or bad thing in a consultant - but those who are even incompetent at hiding their incompetence, are bad. The lowest caste of consulting. I don't want to make the impression that the standard of lecturing here is low. Most classes are quite alright, actually. But this morning I have to suffer through a lesson by a former restructuring specialist for used car sales companies in structurally backward regions. He makes jokes that are insulting, he has a voice that sounds like he is continually having problems with his defecations and I was told by those who have more clue about the subject matter than I do, that he teaches obviously wrong things. Well, I let off enough steam for now. The next time, I'll post something more positive. :)
Early morning flash fun: NekoKiki
Use snowballs to dash out the flame rapidly burning down a fuse towards your kitten brethren, who happens to be tied to the bundle of dynamite that belongs to the fuse.Via Screenhead. Yes, ninethirtysomething isn't so early. But don't forget I'm a student.
Thanks to my good friend Justus, I can present to you those high resolution screen shots: (Click for fullscreen ones)
For all you Rice Boys out there: this is how it's done. 700 Japanese horses run in this one. Try that with your Honda.
Via Jalopnik, my new favourite car porn weblog.
It is quite a day on World of Warcraft today - not only is the server going up and down like a cheap whore but I also decided to let Bob Hunter, the Orc Warrior rest for a while in favour of my more or less freshly created Dark Elf hunter called Donatu.
The Dark Elves are living on a huge tree north west of Azeroth, a world of lush greenery and a lot of spiders and other not so nice creatures. It is indeed possible to climb on one of the outer branches of the tree, but jumping down will result in a long fall and a fast death.
Yes, I actually did try that.
Someone Donatu seems to gain experience faster than Bob Hunter, so today I got the chance to tame a beast and have it as pet. So now I have this big owl, inappropriately called Tweety, as a pet.
Once again I want to apologize for the bad quality of the screenshots - I will try to get better ones in a while.
The Dark Elves are living on a huge tree north west of Azeroth, a world of lush greenery and a lot of spiders and other not so nice creatures. It is indeed possible to climb on one of the outer branches of the tree, but jumping down will result in a long fall and a fast death.
Yes, I actually did try that.
Someone Donatu seems to gain experience faster than Bob Hunter, so today I got the chance to tame a beast and have it as pet. So now I have this big owl, inappropriately called Tweety, as a pet.
Once again I want to apologize for the bad quality of the screenshots - I will try to get better ones in a while.
Especially for Karin...
- Bought everyone in the pub a drink
- Swam with wild dolphins
- Climbed a mountain ?
- Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
- Been inside the Great Pyramid
- Held a tarantula.
- Taken a candlelit bath with someone
- Said 'I love you' and meant it ?
- Hugged a tree
- Done a striptease
- Bungee jumped
- Visited Paris ?
- Watched a lightning storm at sea
- Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise ?
- Seen the Northern Lights
- Gone to a huge sports game
- Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
- Grown and eaten your own vegetables
- Touched an iceberg
- Slept under the stars ?
- Changed a baby's diaper
- Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
- Watched a meteor shower ?
- Gotten drunk on champagne ?
- Given more than you can afford to charity
- Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
- Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment ?
- Had a food fight ?
- Bet on a winning horse (even if it was only $1)> ?
- Taken a sick day when you're not ill ?
- Asked out a stranger
- Had a snowball fight ?
- Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
- Screamed as loudly as you possibly can ?
- Held a lamb
- Enacted a favorite fantasy ?
- Taken a midnight skinny dip
- Taken an ice cold bath
- Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar.
- Seen a total eclipse. ?
- Ridden a roller coaster ?
- Hit a home run
- Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
- Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking ?
- Adopted an accent for an entire day ?
- Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
- Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment ?
- Had two hard drives for your computer ?
- Visited all 50 states
- Loved your job for all accounts
- Taken care of someone who was shit faced
- Had enough money to be truly satisfied ?
- Had amazing friends ?
- Danced with a stranger in a foreign country ?
- Watched wild whales
- Stolen a sign
- Backpacked in Europe
- Taken a road-trip ?
- Rock climbing
- Lied to foreign government's official in that country to avoid notice
- Midnight walk on the beach ?
- Sky diving
- Visited Ireland
- Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
- In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
- Visited Japan
- Benchpressed your own weight
- Milked a cow
- Alphabetized your records (and CD's and tapes and and and...)
- Pretended to be a superhero
- Sung karaoke
- Lounged around in bed all day ?
- Posed nude in front of strangers
- Scuba diving
- Got it on to "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
- Kissed in the rain ?
- Played in the mud ?
- Played in the rain ?
- Gone to a drive-in theater
- Done something you should regret, but don't regret it. ?
- Visited the Great Wall of China
- Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
- Dropped Windows in favor of something better
- Started a business
- Fallen in love and not had your heart broken ?
- Toured ancient sites ?
- Taken a martial arts class
- Swordfought for the honor of a woman
- Played a role play game for more than 6 hours straight ?
- Gotten married
- Been in a movie
- Crashed a party
- Loved someone you shouldn't have
- Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
- Gotten divorced
- Had sex at the office
- Gone without food for 5 days
- Made cookies from scratch
- Won first prize in a costume contest
- Ridden a gondola in Venice
- Gotten a tattoo
- Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
- Rafted the Snake River
- Been on television news programs as an "expert"
- Got flowers for no reason
- Masturbated in a public place
- Got so drunk you don't remember anything
- Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
- Performed on stage ?
- Been to Las Vegas
- Recorded music
- Eaten shark
- Had a one-night stand
- Gone to Thailand
- Seen Siouxsie live
- Bought a house
- Been in a combat zone
- Buried one/both of your parents
- Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
- Been on a cruise ship
- Spoken more than one language fluently
- Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
- Bounced a check
- Performed in Rocky Horror
- Read - and understood - your credit report
- Raised children
- Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
- Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
- Created and named your own constellation of stars
- Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
- Found out something significant that your ancestors did
- Called or written your Congress person
- Picked up and moved to another city to just start over to be with the one you love
- ...more than once? - More than thrice?
- Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
- Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking ?
- Had an abortion or your female partner did
- Had plastic surgery
- Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived.
- Wrote articles for a large publication
- Lost over 100 pounds
- Held someone while they were having a flashback
- Piloted an airplane
- Petted a stingray ?
- Broken someone's heart
- Helped an animal give birth
- Been fired or laid off from a job
- Won money on a T.V. game show
- Broken a bone
- Killed a human being
- Gone on an African photo safari
- Ridden a motorcycle
- Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph ?
- Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
- Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol ?
- Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
- Ridden a horse
- Had major surgery
- Had sex on a moving train
- Had a snake as a pet
- Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
- Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
- Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours ?
- Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
- Visited all 7 continents
- Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
- Eaten kangaroo meat
- Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
- Been a sperm or egg donor
- Eaten sushi ?
- Had your picture in the newspaper
- Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime.
- Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
- Gotten someone fired for their actions
- Gone back to school
- Parasailed
- Changed your name
- Petted a cockroach
- Eaten fried green tomatoes
- Read The Iliad
- Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read.
- Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
- ...and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
- Taught yourself an art from scratch
- Killed and prepared an animal for eating
- Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
- Skipped all your school reunions ?
- Had sex with someone half your age or twice your age.
- Been elected to public office
- Written your own computer language
- Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
- Had to put someone you love into hospice care
- Built your own PC from parts
- Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
- Had a booth at a street fair
- Dyed your hair
- Been a DJ
- Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
- Written your own role playing game
- Been arrested
Yeti goes snowboard: Yeti Sports 7 [via Nico]
Nancy Sinatra: Bang Bang. (MP3, 2:42 min., 2,5 MB) [via SWR]
I just watched a couple of the short videos from the BlogTalk 2.0 conference and I was quite amused by that. I still think it would have been a lot of fun to have been there but at least now I got to see some of the presentations while just wearing boxers. I guess that wouldn't have been so appropriate in Vienna.. ;)
[via Nico]
The whole evening my phone was ringing for like once or twice before stopping again. At some point some woman dialed the wrong number. So it should be only too obvious that I was not too happy to have it ringing again and just answered it with a quite brisk
Hello?The poor girl - probably a student - who was calling to carry out some market research was slightly taken aback. I hope I didn't spoil her evening and anonymously send her the best wishes for her after-work time.
Apparently a paralysed man sends e-mail by thought.
An pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far.[via Heiko Hebig]
Ain't it true? :)
[via Jim]
A small security update for WordPress was released today. Upgrading was a breeze.
The class this afternoon was that boring that my cheeks hurt from yawning.
Flash game:popoint [via Closed Caption]
Finally today I got to Orgrimmar, the biggest Orc settlement.
The bankers are amazingly life-like.
The Goblin Zeppelins are an interesting way to get to other parts of Azeroth, the World of Warcraft.
Orc tourist pictures. Taken from the Zeppelin tower.
One more, this time with the Orgrimmar main gates in the background.
I took a short trip to the land of the undead. It's actually quite scary and terribly dull. I went back right home and finished my quests.
Update: For those who wonder how WoW looks like on good computers:
(Courtesy of Blizzard)
What happened in the World of Warcraft for me so far? I met a couple of fellow orcs and went monster slaying with them. I found parts of the world, that are obviously too dangerous for me, yet. Especially a group of islands populated by tigers and creatures that seem to be raptors. That's quite bad since I got a quest to find something on those islands.
Until now the whole game seems to be driven by a lot of newbie players hunting down smaller quests, forming loose alliances to help each other against the beasts of the wilderness. Obviously it has to be newbie players since the beta test is only in action since last week. The gameplay is a fun in a hack'n'slay roleplay kind of way, it is not too hard to move the hero around and make him kill stuff. Interaction with other players is a breeze as well. Sadly my notebook is not able to show the full details of the game in a high framerate - but with a more decent graphic card the World of Warcraft is quite beautiful - more so than in any other online RPG I have seen so far.
evhead: Next? [via Matt]
Bob Hunter, Orc Warrior
OMFG - WoW is addictive.
Today marks the first morning for this year when it was pitch black when my alarm clock rang. This is quite a sucky experience and even though I usually like the autumn and winter, I don't like to get up in the dark. I wish I could just change my sleeping pattern.
In unrelated news, the World of Warcraft downloader finally managed to finish. Now I could install the game - if I just had enough discspace. I guess my tiny 30G notebook harddrive needs some serious cleaning up. And I really do pray that the game will run on this business notebook..
While traveling through Switzerland one is often presented with beautiful views, thus making it a very popular recreation area.
Right now most of the beauty is there all by itself - but you can count on the fact that there are already scientists working on optimizing this resource of one of Switzerland's most important instustries. With the aid of autonomous agents, sim tourists, if you want to find a catchier phrase, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich works on finding a way to plan the distribution of walkways, forests and - yes - cows, to increase the walking enjoyment for tourists.
Found on Slashdot.
Welcome to the World of Warcraft, your beta account has been successfully created.Don't expect me to be around much, in the next couple of days. Another world has to be explored. :)
