Throw out that Strunk & White…

stumbled across this entry at Language Log: […] The Elements of Style offers prejudiced pronouncements on a rather small number of topics, frequently unsupported, and unsupportable, by evidence. It simply isn’t true that the constructions they instruct you not to use are not used by good writers. Take just one illustrative example, the advice not… Continue reading Throw out that Strunk & White…

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beautiful day

it’s sunny and cold. just right for jogging in the woods. did about 3km. it feels good to have the cold fresh air rushing in. Maxwell is right: Motivation comes when you get started. i’ve started cleaning up my olde laptop (4+ years old). there’s no space left on the hard disk. it doesn’t shut… Continue reading beautiful day

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sending sms via the web

At times it is useful to send a text message… Some friends keep asking how i manage to send text messages to their cell phones even though i don’t have one myself. Well, here’s the secret… (oh nooo, i can see all of my faithful geek readers yawning) I use the text services at sms.de… Continue reading sending sms via the web

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managing complexity

The Economist on software development. the problem: 30% of all software projects are cancelled, nearly half come in over budget, 60% are considered failures by the organisations that initiated them, and nine out of ten come in late the solution: better software tools and processes The three big industry trends—lifecycle management, testing and open source—come… Continue reading managing complexity

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nothing much

It’s Sunday evening and I can’t think of anything blog-worthy to write. Feel tired and restless. Weather has been unusually warm for January. Yesterday felt a bit like spring. Beautiful sunshine and about 15 degrees warm. For those of you that are waiting for snow, here’s a snow photo I took 3 weeks ago: or… Continue reading nothing much

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about hardship programming

interesting read: Joe Winchester’s JDJ article, Who Needs “Hardship Programming”? quote: Let’s take cars, for example – my attitude is that when they break I take them to the mechanic; what’s fun isn’t so much tinkering with the engine myself and gaining some kind of machismo pride in doing so, it’s the journeys I take… Continue reading about hardship programming

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Massimo Rocchi in Basel

Massimo Rocchi will be performing at the Tabourettli from 11th Jan to 12th Feb. The CD “äUä” is great… and it was at the same time my first formal introduction to Swiss German, when I was still staying far away from the Swiss German Kantons in southern Switzerland. I particularly like his observations on language… Continue reading Massimo Rocchi in Basel

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British journalist in Malawi

Read Gwyneth Rees’ report on working for The Chronicle in Lilongwe. […] when freedom of the press is supposedly guaranteed under the constitution, journalists should not have to rely on the say-so of one man to go about their business. [update Jan 11, 2005] Here’s another article: Demoted from editor to delivery girl, overnight

text snippets

UK deports Zim asylum seekers – one million Zimbabweans are estimated to be living and working, some of them illegally, in Britain. English version of Spiegel.de available at spiegel.de/international What is your favourite African song? Nominate your favorite African produced song here.

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Earthquake in southern Germany

And I didn’t notice a thing… Epicenter: near Waldkirch / Emmendingen. Measured 5.4 on the Richter scale. See also: Spiegel Report your earthmoving experience. Fill out the form at: http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/networks/macroseismic/macro_form_eneu.html They’re also interested to hear from you, if you did NOT feel the earthquake.

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dreaming of Lake Malawi

On rainy and stormy days there is little to do. Listening to music and reading have their limits. It is then that the housebound mind takes its own journeys, unfettered by time or place. One sails, once again in the Philippines’ Camotes Sea, walks on England’s moors, swims in Lake Malawi, kneels in Vienna’s Saint… Continue reading dreaming of Lake Malawi

recent cultural activities

Visited the Monet exhibition in Zurich. It focuses on his garden paintings. Monets Garden I really enjoyed the ArchiSkulptur exhibition at the Beyeler Foundation. Today’s gospel concert at the Theodorkirche was great.

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Canoo.net ist das Werkzeug…

Wer sich dennoch mit den neuen Gepflogenheiten näher befassen möchte, dem sei Canoo.net ans Herz gelegt: Einfach ein Wort wie z. B. Gämse eintippen und auf «Suche» drücken. Das Wort wird nun der entsprechenden neuen Regel zugeordnet. Im Falle der Gämse wäre dies die Schreibregel «Stammprinzip-Umlautbildung». Diese Regel wird nun leicht verständlich und mit Beispielen… Continue reading Canoo.net ist das Werkzeug…

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Basler Brunsli

Apparently the Basel German word for biscuits/cookies/Kekse is Gutzi and not Gutzli. I was fairly confident that the bakery at the supermarket across the road from my office had introduced a typo. Turns out it’s not a typo. In my part of Switzerland, people say Gutzi, while in the Zurich area they say Gutzli. Anyway…… Continue reading Basler Brunsli

lead the way

[Linguistic nit-picking on a Friday evening] Stumbled across the word bakkie in this article: To celebrate 35 years of the Toyota Hilux bakkie on the African market including Malawi, Toyota is also displaying the Toyota Hilux Legend35 double cab with chrome bull-bars and anti-roll bars. In Malawi, the term pick-up is more commonly used to… Continue reading lead the way

ticino weekend

sono tornata a Lugano per un weekend. Un espresso, per favore! dolce fare absolutamente niente su Monte Bre.

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Quote of the Day

Juergen Klopp, football coach of 1. FSV Mainz 05, said Leidenschaft und Bereitschaft sind bei uns immer da – was kann da schon passieren? Schlechtestenfalls verlieren. Aber das nimmt uns, solange wir kämpfen, in Mainz keiner übel. Source: Focus

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Tinguely Museum, Basel

Weather has been very rainy and cold here. I spent yesterday afternoon at the Tinguely Museum… some snapshots: Close-up of a Niki de Saint Phalle sculpture in the museum park… could be South African from the colours. And here’s the full view. The museum was built by Mario Botta. I particularly like the view from… Continue reading Tinguely Museum, Basel

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Hopes of malaria vaccine by 2010

The vaccine was used to protect 2,022 children in Mozambique and cut the risk of developing severe malaria by 58%.

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message from the admin

upgraded to wp 1.2.1 In addition, I’ve managed to find a solution to the escaping comment form problem in IE. I replaced 100% by 400px in the css controlling the text area field: #commentform textarea { width: 400px; } If you don’t know what I’m talking about, sorry to late… the admin has fixed it!… Continue reading message from the admin

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Mailand oder Madrid – Hauptsache Italien *

I came across a number of Italian language links this week: Italdict.de Accademia della Crusca (via Mlle. A.) It – Eng forum at Wordreference.com * The former German national football player Andreas Möller supposedly said this in an interview.

dog abandoned at supermarket

Apparently somebody abandoned (or forgot?) a puppy at the supermarket opposite of our office. There was a quite a commotion… The police came to pick up the young dog. The puppy looked really forlorn and lost. Poor guy. Cos he didn’t want to follow or wasn’t used to walking on a leash, the policeman ended… Continue reading dog abandoned at supermarket

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The Use of a Blog

Today i found out how useful old blog postings can be. Wanted to remove some Moire patterns from a newspaper scan and i knew that I had posted an entry on my old blog site. I get to minimize Moire patterns once a year at the most… and I easily forget which filter gives the… Continue reading The Use of a Blog

Online Tutorials

list of useful online tutorials for sql, html, php, css at scriptygoddess

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