Blue Ant

July 6, 2015

Hello internet friends!

It is warm where I am, which surprised everybody. Who would have thought it is warm in summer?
What really does surprise me is the effect is seems to have on the electronics I use for internet connectivity. More so than in the years before my router gets really hot and stops being useful. Maybe I do need a mini-fridge for my electronics.

Ever wonder what it is like to be a Blue Man in the Group of the same name? Wonder no more.

Ever wonder what are those weird noises are that you hear on an airplane? Wonder no more.

Ever wonder if insects feel fear, anger and empathy? Wonder no more.

Ever wonder when Instagram will finally have pictures bigger than 640x640px? Wonder no more.

Now that I have destroyed all wonder, I hope you forgive me.
Take care.

Abroad

June 29, 2015

Hello internet friends!

Yesterday I realized I need a man-purse.
I was about to leave for a family gathering, wanted to swing by one of the few magazine stores with an international press section to get the new Monocle and I was also worried that the ageing battery of my iPhone would not make it through the day,[1] so I wanted to bring my battery pack.
But the smallest bag I have to carry things is my computer backpack, which is pretty small these days – a MacBook doesn’t need that much space – but it is still too big for that purpose.
Anyway.

I am one of those (snobby?) people who prefer to watch movies and series in their original language – yes, even if I don’t understand it. That’s why they invented subtitles. And while I still miss out on subtleties this way, I at least get the tone of the voices the way they were meant to be.
The Verge has a great article showing how hard it is to translate and dub a TV series for a German audience, using Seinfeld as an example.

More naps!

  1. I was right about that one. Crossing country-lines, being in a rural area with spotty reception equals crazy energy consumption of the phone.  ↩

Books

June 22, 2015

Hello internet friends!

This is a very pretty photo of a Boeing 777.

Why the sudden Boeing? I just finished reading Skyfaring – the book I mentioned two weeks ago. And now I am looking at aircraft pictures, because nerd.
It’s a good book, though.

Another book that made its rounds on the internet – or at least the part of the internet where I hang around – is Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance. I am pretty sure it’s also a good book, there is just one little thing: The Problem with Aziz Ansari Writing a Book About Something He’s Never Done.

That’s all I have for today. Stay safe.

We’re in the hands of engineers.

June 15, 2015

Hello internet friends!

I am sure by now you have read Paul Ford’s “What Is Code”?
If not, you should – it is very well written and covers basically everything about code and software development in 2015 in a way that everybody understands.
Well, probably not everybody but I am sure all of you will have no problems with it.

I didn’t watch Jurassic World, yet – and I am not sure if I really want to. Especially given how much Jurassic Park means to me.
Now you might wonder – what makes Jurassic Park such a damn good movie?

While we’re being nostalgic for the 90s, here is some trivia regarding the title song of Friends.
(Have fun trying to get song unstuck from your brain now.)

I’m switching my diet to sauerkraut and kimchi now – I’ll be smelly but at least I won’t care? I’m sure that’s how it works.

Have a good week!

Ho-Ho-Ho

June 9, 2015

Hello internet friends!

What a nice, beautiful Monday it is!
Oh, wait. Never mind.

It’s very Snowfall-y, but nonetheless a very compelling read on the beauty of flying: In Flight – en route from London to Tokyo, a pilot’s-eye view of life in the sky.
It’s taken from a book that I have moved very high on my “to read” list.

(Snowfall-y? Well.)

It’s summer and that means it’s a good time for rum-based drinks. While enjoying one of those, it might be interesting to learn a bit about the geopolitics of rum.

And once you’re nicely drunk, you might be in the mood for some pretty weird and often weirdly pretty television. So why not give Sense8 a try? Many critics seemed to be on the meh side of things but I found one who pretty much agrees with me.
And as we all know, that’s the most important quality in a review, right?

Have a good week!

Reading Material

June 1, 2015

Hello internet friends!

It’s not even 11am when I write this and I could already do with a weekend.
Good god.

Imagine yourself in the back of a car. Now imagine yourself reading or playing around on your phone. Does this make you feel slightly queasy? Maybe you’re one of those people who have certain stomach issues in these situations.
Now imagine driverless cars.

Did you hear? Eating chocolate is the way to weight loss.
At least according to my watch, this must be true.

Lego puts a lot of work into hiding dongs.

If you find the time to do it, take a nap. It’s really nice.

Pentecost

May 25, 2015

Hello internet friends!

My Apple Watch (No, I am not going to be all fancy and look up the UTF–8 for the Apple icon. Honestly.) arrived last week pretty much right after I sent the last email. And as I posted to Twitter on Tuesday:

I already developed capital-O opinions.

But I realised pretty soon: this does not matter the least. Because as soon as people notice the watch on my arm, they have all the opinions.
It’s a waste of money, obviously. And a first generation product, ugh! And “Oh, it can tell the time? How innovative.”

It is actually fascinating. I am pretty sure that a Pebble or one of the Android watches would not even remotely create these sometimes pretty passionate reactions.
Oh well. I quite like the watch – it tells the time and it vibrates in a weird way when someone sends me an iMessage.

Remember when the internet went crazy because it was raining spiders somewhere in Australia? Turns out that is actually pretty common and could happen in your area, too!

Sweet dreams.

Humming Bird

May 18, 2015

Hello internet friends,

I’m usually a pretty calm person but when the first thing I see on a Monday morning is an email with the “important” flag, I do feel myself turning big and green.
What’s wrong with these people?

If you need around 12 minutes of emotional hygiene, I have good news for you: out of nowhere a new episode of You Look Nice Today appeared. (This is a good thing.)

Wait, what?
If this is true, it’s pretty bad for everybody involved.

Remember 30 Rock? Of course you do. Now someone got hold of the complaints about it and I am not too sure if these aren’t satire, too.

Given that we take more photos nowadays than ever before, interesting new applications emerge: Using millions of online photos cobbled together, we can now watch history unfold.
This is actually pretty amazing – and a good reason to make sure we have good and robust archival systems and proper licences for these photos.

Eat some fruit and take care.

Upward Mobility

May 11, 2015

Hello internet friends!

I’m back from a week in Berlin and at re:publica ’15 and now have to face reality again. What a bummer.

I did get some valuable in-person feedback to especially this email thing here, so here we go:

  • Yes, I do like it when people reply to these emails. I don’t expect it, but I appreciate it. (It does happen quite regularly, too – thanks a lot for that!)
  • I do have another newsletter, which is more or less automated – it is the links that I posted to my link blog in the last 24 hours in a nicely (I hope) formatted daily email, so you can enjoy the fact that I read a lot of stuff on the internet and maybe find something worth reading. I was told to cross-promote it here, so here you go: if you want, you can subscribe to that email here.
  • Nobody noticed that I actually spend money on a photo of Ariane, The Overexposed Model a few weeks back. You know, the one who is everywhere. I even found her in the U-Bahn in Berlin. She’s been around as well and Mike Aquino at Esquire talked to her a couple of years ago.

Light housekeeping out of the way, here is the story about how Osama bin Laden really died. Maybe. It’s now what I learned from that Homeland episode with another actress.
My gut says that this article is closer to the truth than “the official version” but that sounds pretty ton-foil-hatty and is mostly because the media (hah.) has instilled in me the knowledge, that a story is never quite as neat and clean as it seems and often a lot murkier.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Related, if you understand German, this re:publica talk by Friedemann Karig on the fluidity of truth.

As much as I enjoyed many of the stupid superhero movies lately, I do agree with Sady Doyle here: Age of Robots: How Marvel Is Killing the Popcorn Movie
Maybe scaling things down a bit would help the whole thing. In fact I do enjoy their TV outings – Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter – quite a bit more than I liked Age of Ultron. (Maybe because I was able to watch those while lounging around in my underwear.)

Now try to get that image out of your head, take care.

Tilt Your Head and See The Duck

May 4, 2015

Hello internet friends!

Dick is abundant and low value.

Glad we cleared that up.
Did this email even reach you or was this enough “strong language” to walk right into the spam filters?

Instant Rap Airhorn is something that exists and I am sure you can find useful ways to incorporate it into your life.

Maybe to lighten up the mood while your place drops out of the sky because the software just shuts down? Your fellow flyers will surely appreciate that lovely gesture.

I am weirdly proud of being a nag-hipster – I told Dominik about the weirdness of the Mercator projection on his wall way before everybody on the internet did.
The reason is obviously the same: it’s an awesome idea, a great execution and we’re all silently angry at ourselves that we don’t have the passion and patience to put that much energy and time into something that cool. The projection complaint is just a smoke bomb. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Now is ze time on Sprockets vhen ve dance!

Have some fruit, take a nap. And why not let me know how you’re doing – any news on your side?