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…

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.

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.

I have yet to make a difference in life.

You want to learn DOT, too? Wonderful, for a quick-start try this online editor with preview: http://graphviz-dev.appspot.com/

• youtube.com video
• lyrics

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?

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!

• 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