Jan 12 11
By coincidence I dug up the long lost URL to a super interesting online riddle: http://www.deathball.net/notpron/
Nov 11 13
Sad but true, it’s going on at my own work place…
Q: How do you know that a die-hard software company is off course?
A: When marketing has too much influence.
Q: How do you know that marketing has too much influence?
A: Among other things, when the pre-configured email format becomes HTML instead of plain text.
The place I work at used to be a proud Unix shop. Meeting minutes and notes were written with Emacs and other plain-text orientated text editors. Some of the founders and long-time employees use Pine and Mutt to this day to process their emails. Of course, we required that our employees send plain text email only. This sense for purism was something that set us apart from competitors. I feel we cherished this and were proud of it.
Being a long-term HTML-email hater and, therefore, supporter of the the ASCII Ribbon Campaign myself I felt really let down when it was announced recently that our new default email format would be HTML. Many of my colleagues just shook their heads in disbelieve. We feel that ungodly forces are getting a hold of the place we still feel proud working at. Let’s see for how much longer…
Oct 11 06
Here’s an idea for your one-good-deed-per-day program: tell Mozilla on every channel to reverse their idiotic and suicidal rapid release process.
Why not start by commenting the chairperson’s personal blog post: http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2011/08/25/rapid-release-process
I wish the big wings at Mozilla realized that it’s not just the enterprise folks who care about stability (releases & API).
Simple question: what do you think counts more for the average non-enterprise Firefox/Thunderbird user
a) a few new features every month thereby loosing a few add-ons because fewer and fewer add-on devs want to release that quickly (they all devote their *spare* time, get it?)
b) a batch of new features every 9 months which had given add-on devs ample time to prepare
Isn’t really a question, is it?
Firefox isn’t so great because it’s Firefox from Mozilla but because of the ecosystem around it. Go out and piss off those who built the ecosystem and it’s gonna die.
Oct 11 05
I don’t have a Twitter account and I enjoy every minute I don’t waste with it. Seriously what’s the point? Right, instead of being bored you tweet.
TEDxZurich published a Storify report(?) with a selection of tweets about the event. The sheer absence of meaning in them is seriously mind boggling. To me this once again proves how empty the whole social media shizzle is.
Oct 11 04
Attended my first TED today – TEDxZurich. It was a blast! Many speakers really did have something to say, they didn’t just talk and waste everybody’s time. Given their brilliance I felt truly insignificant.
I have yet to make a difference in life.
Oct 11 02
…not really learning DOT because it’s so simple – at least in its most basic form. I don’t understand why it took me so long to finally sit down and understand how the input for Graphviz works. What a glorious day today…
You want to learn DOT, too? Wonderful, for a quick-start try this online editor with preview: http://graphviz-dev.appspot.com/
Sep 11 01
I can listen to Tori Amos’ “’97 Bonnie And Clyde” any time day or night it gives me the creeps – always.
Nov 10 10
A couple of friends are working on something truly magnificent: spontacts, short for spontaneous contacts. Since their website http://spontacts.com/ is not yet available in English I’ll quickly outline below what Spontacts is about.
Spontacts is based on a simple idea: people want to do exciting activities in their free time. They want to play tennis, go for a hike, play card games, make music together, go dancing etc. However, only a small fraction of our leisure ideas are put into practice. Why is this?
Despite social networks, mobile phones, email etc, it is
- Hard to find people who have time: A tennis double among friends, for example, needs to be planned weeks in advance – as it is hard to find a suitable date in a spontaneous way.
- Hard to find suitable new leisure partners: there are numerous people who share the same leisure interest, e.g. windsurfing. But where to find them? Even more difficult: How to meet with them for an activity?
- Hard to find the right activities on offer: there are lots of leisure activities happening in a city. Still, it is not easy to know if anyone goes jogging or plans a poker evening in my neighborhood. Similarly, there are hundreds of concerts, courses, etc. every day. They are published in event calendars which can’t be filtered according to personal interests. So which one to choose, and where to make new friends?
My friends hinted that Santa might bring us a new Spontats version with much better social network integration. One more reason to be looking forward to Santa coming to town!
Have fun!
P.S. You may also find Spontacts on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Spontact
Mar 10 07
A list of Japanese restaurants in Zurich (“Japanische Restaurants in Zürich” for our German-speaking friends).
- Samurai
If you judge a Japanese restaurants by the number of Japanese who frequent the place this was the clear favorite a few years ago. Samurai was considered an in-sider tip back then. Located next to a striptease club in one of the red-light areas it wasn’t mainstream yet. Since then the number of Japanese guests in the restaurant has declined since the word has spread that you get reasonably price truly authentic sushi and sashimi – most guests are Europeans nowadays.
My wife and I think that the quality of the food and the care with which the components are arranged on the plates have slightly decreased over the years. However, we can still highly recommend it.
Reservation almost required for dinner, the place is always full. - Sala of Tokyo
The food is good and if you manage to get a table in the quite back room (ask for it if you make a reservation) the atmosphere is nice. It’s a little on the pricy side but it’s justified for many dishes. We wouldn’t recommend paying the extra surcharge to have wagyū meat instead of the regular beef. It’s not worth it.
We didn’t like many of the rich snobbish other guests. The Swiss owner lacked Japanese hospitality. - Fujiya
Next on our list. - Yooji’s
Certainly not the most authentic place in Zurich but the sushi is ok. If you go with a group of four we’d recommend to get the big sushi plate for all to share. Friendly staff. - ISHI
Too stylish and modern to be authentic. Since they don’t even have Japanese staff we never bothered trying. Heard some horrible stories from friends. - oKara
- isakaYa
- Ginger
- Takano
Open-air sukiyaki on the terrace apparently -> we have to try in summer. - Ooki
Ramen shop close to Stauffacher. Tiny restaurant – have dinner early or make a reservation. The place has its own charm, definitely worth a try. The menu is small but the food is really delicious. A few types of ramen and gyoza (must have), that’s all. - Blue Note
No website (domain parking)
Stockerstrasse 45
8002 Zürich
Tel: +41 44 202 17 17 - Satori Sushi House
Sep 09 08
- Leder Locher, Münsterhof 18/19
- Furla, Strehlgasse
- Valleverde, Augustinergasse 15
- Longchamp, Bahnhofstrasse 58
- Grieder, Bahnhofstrasse 30
- Globus/Jelmoli
