www.grundlos.org

This is my experience setting up a new Medion-PC (Intel i5) for someone (which confirms my strong opinion never to get a windows machine again).

10:23 Connecting everything, power cord, printer, scanner, mouse, keyboard, screen, sound.
10:31 Starting up for the first time!
10:32 Why am I being asked if I’d like to do a restore? And why does it display in text-mode like my ’286 back in 1990? The Windows logo displayed after that is kind of nice though. Seems like MS finally got rid of 320×240 legobrick-sized-pixels screen mode.
10:35 restarts (why?)
10:45 After having watched the computer setting itself up for about 10 more mintes, I finally get to enter some useful information. I set up an administrator account first. I get the idea blogging about the process.
10:58 Another restart for no apparent reason. The Windows startup screen informs me it’s still setting up for first use.
11:04 watchmi/Google Chrome appears in the upper left hand of the screen. I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. Several command line windows pop up and disappear disconcertingly.
Still preparing for first use.
11:07 It says “Welcome” now and informs me it’s, preparing my desktop.
11:08 hey, here’s my desktop! What are those eBay, Kapersky and Deutsche-Post-widgetsgadgets doing here? I suppose Medion put them there to enhance my user-experience. Well I don’t appreciate that. The Medion-Wallpaper displays pixelated. Maybe they didn’t think someone would have more than 1024×768 screen resolution. Changed the Wallpaper to standards, now it seems fine. Enlarged Icons/Text to enhance readability.
11:15 Starting Chrome. Thanks to Text enlargement now the EULA-text seems pretty blurry. Chrome is now running and text displays fine. Strange. Setting up the user account.
11:23 Changing users now. Icons on the big screen are tiny. Didn’t realize until after the second time I had to hit the arrow instead of “Change user”. Stupid.
11:24 It’s now warning me of some program (“watchmi”) that’s supposedly already running. I didn’t install it and I don’t want to have it running in the first place. I ignore this measage. For some reason it enlarges the screen for me (pixelated). I quit the screen enlarger and am done for now.

Well, that’s about one hour of setup, three restarts and an overall quite bothersome experience. Try the same on a Mac and you’ll see why…

Blogged on my iPhone.

Die meisten werden es schon gehört haben, Apples neues iPhone 4S verfügt über eine künstliche Intelligenz namens Siri. Sehr lustig: im ersten Test nannte sie (es?) mich konsequent Manül. Sie war nicht dazu zu bewegen, die Aussprache zu korrigieren.

Update: Mittlerweile wird Manuel korrekt ausgesprochen. Ein Zeichen für die ständigen Updates, die im Hintergrund durchgeführt werden? Es ist auf jeden Fall sehr lustig mit Siri herumzuspielen. Demnächst mehr dazu.

Auf einer kleinen Entdeckungsreise durch Berlin kann man allerhand entdecken. Zum Beispiel Eis aus Kartoffeln. Kann das schmecken? Ja, wenn es Süßkartoffeln sind und das Eis (ohne jede künstlichen Farbstoffe) knall-lila aussieht. Erinnert an Marzipan und Popcorn mit einer nussigen Note. Sehr lecker. Zu finden in der Blücherstraße (Eismacher).
In Kreuberg kann man übrigens auch Leopard II Panzer kaufen. Lustig.

Today at 9:02 am my googlemail-account was hacked by unknown individuals in china. IP-analysis of my account activity reveals that the first attack was launched already on sunday by a bot (hence the “unknown” device). Following the IP-trace leads to Beijing, China. Small chance of ever knowing who this really was.

The message sent to all of my contacts in several emails was containing a link to a page containing advertisements of electronic products. The page linked to another page that was not functional. I don’t know what was the reason behind this attack besides to annoy my contacts and myself.

At least it seems there is no malicious code in that page (I read the source code). I hope this will never happen again. To make sure I took the following steps:

1. Changed my password (used that way to long anyway)
2. Changed security question for retrieving my password
3. Deleted my contacts in google
4. Ensured https usage while accessing googlemail through my browser
5. Allow only one active session

Well, lets see if that helps stopping you from getting unwanted spam-mails. I apologize for any inconvenience. In any case it’s nice to hear from so many after such a long time

Until recently electric cars didn’t seem really interesting: slow, heavy, small range and long recharging times just aren’t very appealing. That changed when a small company in silicon valley presented the Tesla Roadster. A fully electric sports car. With an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h (60 mph) in about 4 seconds everyone who has driven it is full of praise. Of course a price tag of well over 100.000 Euros (130.000$) is not something everybody can afford. Now for about half that price Tesla Motors presents the Tesla Model S, a 5 + 2 seat sedan which is actually compatible with everyday life. It looks like a car from a science fiction movie, from the exterior as well as on the inside. It’s console basically is a 17 inch multitouchscreen. Imagine an oversized iPad holding all the controls to your car. Want to browse a little bit while on the road? You’ve got access via 3G-Network. It’s rechargable within 45 minutes (if you have access to a special QuickCharge-Station). It takes longer than refueling a normal car at a gas station, but all in all it’s just 5 Bucks per refill. An electric motor has an efficiency of about 90%. This means 90% percent of the energy that is put into it will come out as acceleration and speed. Acceleration is incredible for a car this size: it goes from 0 to 100 km/h in just 6 seconds and has a top speed of about 200 km/h (120 mph). Range is with up to almost 500 km (300 miles) per charge quite astonishing for an electric car. Seating up to 5 adults and 2 children comfortably it’s not only environment- but family-friendly. And as it seems, this is just the beginning. Tesla Motors is planning on an affordable electric car for everyone. Anybody else feels suddenly interested in driving an all-electric car now?

Tolles Video, aber auch der Grund, warum ich die so genannten Social Networks kaum mehr nutze… Weil sich das Leben nicht dort abspielen sollte, sondern im echten Leben.

Viel Spaß damit,

euer Chicken

YouTube – A LIFE ON FACEBOOK.

Ich bin auf dieses interessante Video http://architekturclips.de/Freiraum gestoßen. Es handelt sich um ein Video über den Kleinen Tiergarten, ein Park hier direkt im Kiez und am U-Bahnhof Turmstraße, den aber niemand so richtig nutzen will. Im Video kann man auch erkennen, warum das so ist. Ich bin ehrlich gesagt ziemlich gespannt, was mit dem Park letztendlich passieren wird. Es ist schon spannend, in so einem “Schwellenbezirk” wie Moabit zu leben, da der Aufschwung spürbar ist, der Abstieg aber genauso nah sein kann. Viel Spaß mit dem Video, ist ganz gut gemacht, wie ich finde.

Bei uns um die Ecke gibts jetzt ein neues Einkaufszentrum. Lustig: mit Ampeln den Kassen.

How to Get Rid of Religion, and Why

An Inconvenient Liberal Paradox

Floris van den Berg

via Humanistische denktank: How to Get Rid of Religion, and Why.

This article presents thoughts on how a democratic, liberal society could get rid of religion… cited in the January 2011 Awake!-Magazine.

Now using Google’s reCaptcha to get rid of those Medication selling spam-bots. Recently I got like 10 new users a week, all with fake email-addresses and names like “BuyVi_a_gara”… Bah!