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katlalog
031129 02:33 Personal
Want to know something about me? My toolbar says it all:
That's notepad, eudora, mozilla, trillian, homesite, ws_ftp. Gives away the OS too, though. I apologize for that. It's because of homesite, i swear.
I must say, hotdesking wouldn't be for me. I hate working on other people's computers. Notepad is miles away and i's called 'editor' in german. Takes me hours to find every time. Is there a windows shortcut for notepad?
031129 00:31 Radio
another thing i miss from working at an internet connected computer is that i can't listen to the radio over the internet anymore. when you work in a job where your mind isn't fully used, you need something to occupy it productively. i miss bbc radio 4. currently i'm fiddling around with a 'world receiver radio', alternating (meaning sticking to the station with the most bearable reception at the time) between NPR, AFN, recently finally also BBC World Service, before that a lot of Deutschlandfunk, and now also a spanish station to improve my spanish a bit. haha. well, i do usually catch what it's about. that's not too bad.
apart from that there's an amazing range of languages out there on long range radio. russian and eastern european, french, lots of italian, dutch (very funny), turkish, a lot of arabic languages, also found japanese today.
when that fairy with the 3 wishes ever comes my way, i'm going to wish for - yes, apart from world peace and end to inequality, of course - ...i'll wish for being able to speak all languages. i'd love to communicate with anyone anywhere - understand them better. my brain would probably pop. but wouldn't that be a cool superpower to have?
031127 21:48 SciFi
Yes, please: Quantum Leap on DVD in Fall 2004.
031127 20:05 Politics
Wow! What a publicity stunt! Gearing up to the elections, aren't we? Bush sneaks into Iraq to celebrate Thanksgiving with his troups. For 2 hours, that is.
031127 19:10 Literature
Found in What You Make It by Michael Marshall Smith:
"I remember reading a short piece in a recent Enquirer entitled 'How to stop your co-workers from giving you their colds'. After a line like that I'd expected advice on how to prevent deranged typists from injecting me with viruses, or marketing executives from coming over and breathing in my face. But no, it had been things like: 'Have a window open', and 'Eat vitamin C'. In other words, advice on how to stop yourself from acquiring the communicable colds which - through no fault of their own - other people might have.
But we don't see it like that, any more. Life's a constant battle to stop other people doing things to us, taking as hard a line as possible."
031127 19:06 Tech
You do wonder sometimes whether techies make up these funny support call stories. But it's true. At college someone once asked me whether I could help her scan in a picture. I said, sure, where is it? She said, it's on a webpage. We have to print it out first, then scan it in, so she can put it into her Powerpoint presentation for class.
031124 00:15 Geek culture
Will the end of the cubicle culture make Dilbert obsolete?
031123 23:43 Comix
MSNBC: Breathed said several months ago that "It was painful to sit through the war without a public voice." Does that mean the new strip will be more political?
Opus: Well, I don't know about him, but I'm glad I wasn't working during the war. I heard the Pentagon used 'embedded comics characters', and when I have to wear an Army helmet, I get the worst case of hat hair.
031123 23:40
031120 00:10 Web development
The winners of the ReUSEIT (Redesign Jakob Nielsen's website) contest.
031117 21:53 SciFi
031112 22:07
winter morning in marburg
031110 23:59 Environment
SciScoop: And The Plastic Bags Shall Inherit The Earth.
...plastic bags—millions and millions of them—are everywhere, clogging up everything. Rivers, storm water drainage systems, sewer lines.
In England they live in trees.
031108 23:39 Intellectual property
Another unbelievable IP story. McDonald's wants to censor the dictionary and thereby popular language. Corporate madness.
McDonald's is upset about the appearance of "McJob" in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, where it is defined as "low paying and dead-end work."
031108 22:20 Web development
53 entries have been submitted to the ReUSEIT (Redesign Jakob Nielsen's website) contest.
031108 21:47 Web development
Funny new design (This is Cereal) in the CSS Zen Garden.
Listen up designers, this is cereal - don't flake out on us!
031107 18:28 SciFi
People will eventually figure out that it all makes sense.
My favorite reniew so far is at SciScoop:
The guys ARE lucky that the women are around, that's for sure; while the guys are tough enough to get the ball to the five yard line against overwhelming odds, it repeatedly takes a woman to get the job done and take the ball the rest of the way over the goal line.
...and i totally agree with this line from the same review. i did get confused myself a couple of times as to what trilogy i was watching.
This isn't a Matrix movie; it's the movie that Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines should have been.
031107 17:43 Christmas
Check out what i found today. Those crazy Germans! These candles come as a set, they are for Adventskränze, wreaths with four candles that sit on german coffee tables during advent time, the four weeks before christmas. Each sunday another candle is lit. On the first sunday one, two on the second sunday, and so on. Now they are selling them in different sizes. I guess the idea is that by the time we come around to the fourth sunday, all four will be the same size.
031105 18:23 Personal
i know, it's been terribly slow here recently. i'm working full-time in a non-computer job and i come home tired, physically and mentally, and i just can't participate in the online world as much anymore as i'd love to. i just manage to read slashdot every day and do my round of comics. my email load is killing me and then there's also the occasional website maintenance work i do in my sparetime.
i miss the internet. before - when i was working as a web designer in paid employment - it was heaven. i didn't feel bad about it because 90% of my surfing was work related including the huge amount of web development mailing lists i'm on. and it's not as if i didn't get any work done. i even took my work home. web design is not a job, it takes over your life.
i can't believe how much fun it was to be part of the dot-com bubble, which is weird because i never thought of it like that. but it's true. i didn't have an aeron but my employers did buy me a £340 ergonomic chair and i had a 21 inch monitor! web designers were gods then and i was treated well. and - i had constant access to the internet.
i was lucky. i was happy. i loved my job.
i'm going to see matrix 3 now, opening night. had my ticket for weeks :)
there's a really enjoyable world outside of the virtual realities, you know? but i do so love the virtual world as well.
laters.
iris