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 and web.de.
Both sites are also useful to store telephone numbers and addresses.
I’m not a power user ( = 1-2 text messages per day) and I don’t know how the rates compare with T-Mobile, Swisscom and Co.
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 together in a movement known as “agile” programming. This approach to software development was codified in a meeting in February 2001 in Utah when a group of programmers declared its allegiance to doing things quickly, using common sense and simplicity.
[…]
The main principle of agile programming is that developers must talk to each other often, and that they must talk to the business people setting requirements equally often.
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 in it and what I do when I arrive. Likewise with writing software – the purpose is to create a good user experience for someone else who wants to solve a particular problem in a more efficient way. I once had to explain to a customer why we were late shipping a particular software release and he replied that we were just polishing the inside of a tin can and he didn’t care. He was right – we were upgrading operating system releases and migrating to a new language version mid-release cycle. However, there was no business value to it and we’d just taken our eye off the target and onto our navels.
Is the problem with software and tooling one of a master craftsman with his favorite chisel and simply that people are reluctant to change something that makes them most productive, or is it just that people have a built-in desire to belong to a herd and gain social acceptance from their tribal peers from where they can collectively mock progress and other languages and technology changes as being for the folks on the other team? Is the super-league of programmers occupied by folks who take apart game boxes and have wireless networks in their kitchen, or is it by those who would rather play some fun games on the box it was designed for and then enjoy a nice meal in the kitchen afterward?
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 and culture as he compares French, Germans, Swiss and Italians.
Insiders will recognize:
“auso”
“Kopfhörer”
“Der Daniel aus Bern”
I’ll update you on the show. If I get round to going that is…
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
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 Stephen’s Cathedral, strolls the Via Veneto in Rome, dines in a Paris bistro – all without moving from one’s chair.
Source: The Sun Herald, Mississippi
Added advantage of this form of travelling: you don’t need to worry about getting malaria and bilharzia. Nevertheless, I still prefer the real experience!
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 erläutert. Canoo.net nimmt dabei sogar auf
regionale Gepflogenheiten wie Schweizerisch oder à ”“sterreichisch
Rücksicht, deren Schreibweisen ja in gewissen
Fällen abweichen dürfen.
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… i’ve started to search the net for a good recipe for Basler Brunsli. I’ll try out the recipe in the next couple of days/weeks. And post a summary of my findings.
Basler Brunsli
Zutaten
200 g dunkle Schokolade gerieben
250 g Zucker
250 g Mandeln, nicht geschälte, fein gehackt
3 Eiweiss
2 EL, gestr., Kartoffelmehl
2 Msp. Zimt
1 Msp. Nelken
ZUBEREITUNG
Eiweiss zu Schnee schlagen und nach und nach mit den restlichen Zutaten vermischen, bis ein Teig entsteht. Den Teig wenn möglich 1-2 h an einem kühlen Ort ruhen lassen.
Den Teig dann auf einem mit Zucker bestreuten Brett kurz kneten und in 3-4 Stücke teilen. Die Stücke auf Zucker 1 cm hoch auswallen und beliebige Formen ausstechen. Die ausgestochenen Formen auf ein mit Backpapier ausgelegtes Backblech legen und über Nacht trocknen lassen. Dann 3-5 Min. bei 200 Grad backen. Sie sollten aussen fest und innen feucht sein.
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 refer to lightweight trucks. Bakkie is very South African. I guess, the reporter just copied the press release / marketing collateral.
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.
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! For IE and Opera, I hope, pray and believe. Still need to check it in Firefox. Going jogging now…
[update Oct 10] I’ve been changing the css settings and have started customizing some of the php files.
If something doesn’t work, please leave a comment below. Please let me know how the comment form behaves in your browser. Does the comment form still expand to infinity when you start typing?
BTW, we’ve got perfect chiperoni weather in Basel today! Constant drizzle and fog.
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 up carrying him to the police van.
I wonder why somebody would abandon their dog like that…
In the same way that some people over-exaggerate and treat their pets like children, others fail to recognize that animals are not objects that you can simply throw away at will.
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 best results. These days most scanners have an option to remove Moire patterns automatically… this scanner didn’t.
Note to myself: your blog can be useful to store tidbits of information you don’t always need. Esp. if you regularly work on more than one computer. I find that no matter how much you organize yourself, the info you’re looking for is bound to be on your other computer. Plus: somebody else might find your notes helpful.
Maybe this may seem obvious to you and not worth an entry. But I believe one of today’s challenges is managing information. Who would have thought a couple of years back, that your email archive is a reason to get a larger hard disk and more back-up space? Just cos people are afraid to trash emails which might have some useful info. Or cos they require a fallback if other systems have failed.
My blog is a sort of online scrap book, where I collect links, develop ideas, make notes, display photos and publish my views. Nothing really important. But it’s nice to see it’s useful as well… It’s also a fun way to keep up-to-date with current web technology. I can see how a RSS feed could be useful to distribute the company press releases and news I write during my day job.
BTW, I wasn’t really planning to migrate my old blog entries to my new home… 😉
Here’s an interesting production playing at the Theater Basel.
The stage is the streets of Basel…
I saw an interview with Dani Levy, and I’m planning to go see the show.
[Update Saturday Oct 30] I managed to get hold of a ticket despite the fact that the show is sold out for the season. Sometimes it helps to voice your leisure plans at work…
The play starts in the courtyard of the city prison. Headphones and rain capes are distributed. And then the entire set, audience, sound and light engineers move from building to building in the St. Johann’s Quartier of Basel. Video and live scenes mix. And there’s an excellent use of the real setting. At times I felt I was witnessing real disputes as a passer-by, in other cases I felt I was watching a movie.
Highly recommended. A great show! Different but not too experimental. Plus you get to know another part of Basel…
If you’re from Blantyre, you are familiar with this word.
What is the meaning of Chiperoni?
Chiperoni is the name of a drizzle rain in Malawi.
Here’s an official definition by the meteorological department:
Chiperoni: Malawian name for influx of cool moist air from the south east, bringing overcast conditions with drizzle on windward slopes along the Northern lakeshore and in particular to many areas in the South of Malawi. This phenomenon can persist for up to a week but the usual duration is two to three days.
There’s a mountain in Mocambique called Chiperoni or sometimes spelled Chiperone. When the winds blow the clouds over this mountain, the Shire Highlands get chiperoni weather.
Sometimes chiperoni forces a change in travel plans. The constant drizzle can turn gravel roads into a soap-like mud adventure.
It’s also used as a brand name. There used to be a blanket factory in Thyolo called Chiperoni. The factory has closed down or moved but the brand name still exists. (update 28.05.07: it seems they are still producing Chiperoni blankets).
Chiperoni is one of my favorite words. I like the sound of it. Chiperoni could also be a spicy chili snack or the name of a hot, new, hi-tech gadget. From Chip + Peperoni.
For now, it’s the new home of my Malawi blog.
I saw this sign advertising “Chiperoni blankets” in Blantyre.
