Donnerstag Januar 05, 2006

Congratulations!
Congratulations to all the people who created the UltraSPARC T1 chip and the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers! I just read these news:

"Sun's Newest Server Based on CoolThreads Technology Wins InfoWorld's 2006 Technology of the Year Award as 'Most Innovative Server'"

Found here.
( Jan 05 2006, 10:42:28 AM CET ) Permalink

Dienstag Januar 03, 2006

The press apparently likes the new T1 chip
If you're also interested in Sun's new UltraSPARC T1 chip you might want to read this blog entry. I'm curious to see more reviews and benchmark results!
( Jan 03 2006, 01:19:00 AM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Montag Dezember 12, 2005

"Google warns of spiralling hardware energy costs"
People who read this article should get even more excited about our new eco-responsible servers:
"Luiz Andre Barroso, who previously designed processors for DEC, said in a September paper published in the Association for Computing Machinery's Queue: "If performance per watt is to remain constant over the next few years, power costs could easily overtake hardware costs, possibly by a large margin."
( Dez 12 2005, 10:54:38 AM CET ) Permalink

Freitag Dezember 02, 2005

"WHO introduces non-smoker recruitment policy"
I just came across this interesting article: "The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it will no longer employ people who smoke, to reinforce its position at the helm of the global campaign against smoking."

It seems to be getting tougher and tougher for people who smoke (I'm not smoking, BTW!). During our recent vacation I also noticed that an increasig number of restaurants are discouraging smoking by either prohibiting it, putting up signs asking not to smoke, or just not putting up ashtrays.

I'm personally not a "militant non-smoker" and it's o.k. for me if someone smokes. However, I nowadays ignore bars and restaurants where too many people smoke.

For example, during my vacation my wife and I entered a nice cafe, but when we realized the bad smell (smoke), we immediately turned around and went to the next place, simple because we did not want to distroy the nice feeling from the fresh ocean air with the cigarette smoke. In addition, hair and clothes pick up the bad smell immediately.

In a recent newspaper article ("Die Zeit") I read that about one third of the people in Germany smoke, but only one fifth of the Deutsche Bahn train seats are reserved for smokers. And the non-smoker seats are the ones first fully-booked. Thus, even smokers prefer to be non-smokers a lot of the time.

British Tobacco had an interesting marketing campaign during an event sponsored by them (British Days in Hamburg). They distributed match boxes which said something like this: "Smokers, please keep the interests of non-smokers in mind, because otherwise smoking will become impossible/illegal in the future."
( Dez 02 2005, 04:39:38 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

A few vacation pictures
As promised, here are a few impressions from my vacation on German's island Ruegen.

The view onto the Baltic see from the boardwalk in Binz:



The lighthouse on the Island Hiddensee:



A flint stone field near Mukran/Prora:



A nice cafe in Sellin:


( Dez 02 2005, 03:30:21 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Freitag Juli 15, 2005

I'm back ...
I'm back from my two-week trip to Norway. Thus, I will resume my blogging about StarOffice and open source.
( Jul 15 2005, 06:14:05 AM CEST ) Permalink

Mittwoch Juni 01, 2005

"Sweden bans smoking from bars"
Great news coming out of Sweden for me as a non-smoker. Italy did the same earlier this year.

Don't get me wrong! I personally don't have a problem with other people smoking! I have friends, colleagues and family members who smoke. However, I really hate that you can't have a nice dinner or just a beer here in Germany without having to smell "like a cigarette" afterwards. In addition, I don't like people throwing their cigarette stubs everywhere. Cigarette stubs really are garbage!

Since I'm back in Germany from my two years in California, I almost don't go to restaurants and bars anymore. My wife and I just hate smelling from the smoke. Typically, the smoke also makes you much faster tired. At least that is my experience from my brother's wedding.
( Jun 01 2005, 05:55:12 PM CEST ) Permalink

Dienstag Mai 17, 2005

"IBM Urges Employees to Blog With Care"
According to this article IBM is now starting to follow Sun's blogging leadership. Another "me too"!
( Mai 17 2005, 08:34:55 AM CEST ) Permalink

Donnerstag Mai 12, 2005

"AMD picks away at Intel's lead in Q1"
"AMD shipped 16.9 percent of x86 processors in the quarter, up from 15 percent market share last year. The remainder of the x86 market is fulfilled by companies such as Transmeta and Via Technologies, which combined typically account for less than 2 percent of the market."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 12 2005, 02:46:45 PM CEST ) Permalink

Montag April 25, 2005

The best zoo in the world
Last Saturday my wife and I went to Burger's Zoo (Netherlands). I don't know if it really is the best zoo in the whole world, but at least I can say that it is the best zoo I have seen so far. I really like it there a lot! I always prefer watching animals in open nature instead of seeing them in captivity, but on the other hand I see some need in zoos. Zoos can help to preserve species that are close to getting extinct. In addition, zoos can help to raise funds for nature preserve programs and educate people about the beauties of the nature.

Compared to most other zoos, Burger's Zoo tries to keep the animals in environments that are very similar to their natural habitats. According to the brochure of the zoo, some areas even have their own food chains. The hightlights of the zoo are Burger's Bush, Burger's Ocean, and Burger's Desert. My wife was totally fascinated by the flying fox/fruit bat that was first flying around the tree tops of the rainforest in Burger's Bush and then hanging from one of the large trees. I personally like all the little lizards that crawl on the trees everywhere around you. The zoo brochure says that the rainforest in the building produces 20 tons (!!) of "green material" (leaves, plants, etc.) every year!

Burger's Ocean is a lot of fun, too. It is similar to the aquarium in Monterey and Boston, but it is just one part of the whole zoo. The coolest thing is the tunnel where rays "fly" over/across your head. I'd love to hear what other zoos you can recommend!
( Apr 25 2005, 05:31:06 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Montag April 18, 2005

"Gates vs. Google"
Interesting article:
"Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer. What got him so riled? The darling of search is moving into software—and that's Microsoft's turf."
( Apr 18 2005, 04:49:59 PM CEST ) Permalink

Sonntag April 17, 2005

"Planet of the Apes" in Hamburg
Since the weather is currently beautiful here in Hamburg, yesterday my wife and I decided to do a little picknick in a close-by park. Unfortunately I did not have a camera with me. Therefore, I have to use some old pictures from other people to give you some impressions of what I'm talking about.

The park we went to is located here and scenery looks about like this, this and this.

For the first hour it was very nice and quiet. The birds were singing, and some kids were playing on the playground. Our peaceful picknick came to an noisy end when the first people arrived at the finish line of an event that is called "Bierathlon" (= beer-athlon). At a Bierathlon two people have to carry a crate of beer (24 bottles) and run some miles. There are different strategies. Either you drink all the beer right in the beginning, so that you have to carry less weigth, or you drink them later in order to avoid becoming drunk before you reach the finish line. Again, since I did not have a camera with me, I can only provide a few old pictures that I digged out by searching the web. Look here, here, here,here, and here.

In the beginning my wife and I still found the whole thing funny because the people yesterday were also dressed up in Halloween-type costumes. However, when more and more people arrived it became louder and louder. But what was much worse and disgusting was that more and more people used the bushes to do what civilized people do in restrooms. Some people even did not try to keep distance to us and even asked us to look in a different direction. You should know that small kids were around, too.

Maybe I am what they call "spiessig" here in Germany (something like narrow-minded), but yesterday I thought for the first time that the very strict laws in California (no alcohol in public parks) made total sense to me. I personally think it is ridiculous to be forced to wrap "picknick wine" in brown paper and to drink wine out of mugs, but it is definitely not nice to watch "drunken apes" during day light in a public park where most people just want to relax and where kids play on the playground.
( Apr 17 2005, 05:05:27 PM CEST ) Permalink

Montag April 11, 2005

Soccer finally becomes interesting
Read more about the RoboCup German Open 2005 here. Select your language and check out the teams! Unfortunately the "Microsoft Hellhounds" won in the "Four-Legged Robo League".
( Apr 11 2005, 12:54:10 PM CEST ) Permalink

Sonntag April 10, 2005

maps.google.com is addictive
I just spent more time with maps.google.com. When I see this, I see more than just some little houses and trees. I see the cute little houses of the Apple Tree Inn close to Yosemite National Park. My wife Stephi and I spent a night there on our first trip to Yosemite. The next day we saw Sequoia trees for the first time and swam in there cold river. This picture brings back the pictures of the Shakespeare plays that we saw at Cal Shakes. This is where our friends live who asked us to join the UCBD team. And here my wife, her mom, her sister and I had a picknic on a beautiful sunny morning shortly after we got engaged. Maybe Google should integrate maps.google.com with a picture sharing website, so that people can "attach" pictures of their nicest memories to different locations.
( Apr 10 2005, 02:14:07 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

How Google can make you feel home sick
I just came across this blog entry which made me play a bit with maps.google.com. As I have mentioned here before, my wife and I lived in the US for two years. At maps.google.com I found where we lived, where I worked, also the salt flats where we used to go bird watching, the place in Berkeley where we used to go ballroom dancing and Golden Gate Bridge. Looking at the pictures brought all the nice pictures, feelings and experiences back to our memories. It's amazing how Google can make one feel home sick! We miss California!
( Apr 10 2005, 12:14:39 AM CEST ) Permalink