General

This year, I got a really cool thing: a reflector telescope. I haven't been able to adjust it correctly, yet, but that's going to happen tomorrow. Anyway, that was a present that I definitely didn't expect, but it was just perfect (besides vouchers for buying beer, a cookbook for male singles, and a sci-fi radio drama on 6 CDs -- "Otherworld").

All packages are wrapped, the christmas tree is being decorated, and I'm totally bored already. Merry christmas and a happy new year, BTW (produced with OSX's say(1) utility).

Which flock do you follow?

this quiz was made by alanna

You've probably heard about the other torture scandal in Germany, ending in a very mild conviction (1 year of probation for a EUR 10800 fine). Here's my letter to the editor that I sent to Der Standard:

Es ist beschämend, dass ein so sensibles Thema wie Folter quasi ohne Konsequenzen behandelt wird, schließlich darf man nie vergessen, dass Folter nicht der Wahrheitsfindung dient (das ist auch in unserem Rechtssystem fundamental verankert), weder früher, noch jetzt, noch in der Zukunft. Wenn die Anwendung von Folter (schon die bloße Androhung ist das!) quasi straffrei endet und die Polizei das als "Schaffung von Rechtssicherheit" proklamiert, so könnte das ein gefährlicher Präzedenzfall werden, nach dem die Exekutive eher dazu bereit sehen könnte, zu foltern, weil das Handeln nach der Art von Wolfgang Daschner von der Justiz toleriert wird. Und das, obwohl Deutschland selbst dem "Internationalen Pakt über bürgerliche und politische Rechte" beigetreten ist, der Folter strengstens verbietet. Schlussendlich möchte ich noch auf die Bemerkung der deutschen Bundesregierung zum Thema Folter hinweisen: "ein Rechtsstaat, der [zulässt], dass es innerhalb seiner Grenzen plötzlich wieder Folter und Gefolterte gibt, [verliert] jegliche Legitimation und Glaubwürdigkeit."

Update: the letter was published in today's (22 Dec 2004) Der Standard.

The following thing just happened to me: I plugged by iPod into my iBook via FireWire, and suddenly, iTunes quit. I wondered, "did it crash?", clicked on the iTunes icon in the panel, and turned around to get something else prepared. When I had another look at the screen, I will suddenly logged out! I though, "damn, what is happening to my computer?", and I tried to log in again, but it failed. Suddenly, the computer started to show the shutdown symbol below the center of the screen, but it hung after a while. So I switched the iBook off, and powered it on again, and now it runs smoothly again. Has anybody of you experienced anything like that before? Weird, just weird.

Today, I got my certificate for the final class of vocational school. Of course, I passed all subject with the grade "Sehr gut" (the best one). That means I only have to do my final exams, and then I'm finished with education (forever!). At least I don't plan to do any further things within the "official" school system (taking Spanish lessions at Wifi for example is something "outside" the normal school system, and I will do that in January). Actually, this kind of makes me feel free, and that's definitely a good feeling.

Today I bought a lava lamp as a christmas present for my brother, at Leiner. It's really interesting to see the "original lava lamp" with a price tag of EUR 69,99, and an (quote shop assistant) "affordable replica" for as much as EUR 6,99 beneath it. I took the latter one, of course.

I'm sure most of my readers already had to cut onions at least once in their life and had to cry because of that. Well, my ingenious brother found a way to reliably avoid that (and it indeed works, I tried it out today):
Get a big piece of cling film, and wrap it around your head so that it covers your eyes. Be sure that you're still able to breath through the nose! Then start cutting your onion(s), and you won't experience any more crying. The only disadvantage is that your look through the cling film is not as clear as without, but to be honest, who cares as long as there is no more crying involved?

Today I bought the book "Russendisko" by [[de:Wladimir Kaminer|Wladimir Kaminer]]. I heard about it before, and saw a very long and interesting interview with the author on 3SAT, but never had the opportunity to read anything written by him. Anyway, after I bought the book, I started reading it in the tram, and I continued reading it after I came home, and now, I'm finished, and I enjoyed it so much like I haven't enjoyed a book in at least 5 years. A wonderful, simple and straight style of writing, a nice style of telling stories, and the book is, well, a collection of short stories that the author or some of his friends experienced. Imagine a Quentin Tarantino movie, but with more episodes, more fun, and less violence and all the other weird Tarantino shit (although I do enjoy his movies, no fear). So, a wonderful book, which I can only recommend. I think I will have to buy some of his other books.

If you want to get a (relatively) good and cheap mobile phone, and you live in Austria, get a Motorola A925 with 3Reload from 3. They don't advertise this kind of mobile phone, but the (out-of-stock) Nokia 7600 instead. The advantage of the A925 to the 7600: the A925 comes with UIQ 2.0 as user interface (Symbian OS as operating system), and with 3Reload, the phone costs only EUR 99,- (without any contract, you'd pay EUR 799,- for that phone). So, if you want to do some Symbian programming, and want to start without wasting too much money, this definitely the device to start with.

Today I got a nice letter from my ministry of the interior telling me that my declaration for civil service was correct, and that I'm now officially forbidden to buy, own and bear arms that are subject to authorisation, and I have to say, I'm proud of that. But have a look at it for yourself:

But after the current scandals of soldiers torturing recruits, this is the only sane decision.

Remember last time when I posted a drawing that was only made because I was bored? Today I brought this to the next level, by actually drawing something? Today, I brought this to the next level, by actually drawing something on real paper, using a pencil only:

The drawing itself shows the X key from a keyboard, a baseball bat wrapped with tripwire (something only Martin will understand), and Hirundozilla, which you should already know from this posting. Yes, I'm extremely bored.

Via arc:

OK, please don't laugh at me, but I'm currently in the following situation: on the last two weekends, I had planned to meet a really nice girl (that I've learnt to know via the Internet) on a blind date, but in both cases, we missed each other: the first time, I was a bit late, and she wasn't there, and last time, I was there on time (we even negotiated a distinctive mark, the sign saying "going out is silly" was my idea ;-), but she didn't appear (although she said that she was there, but only a little bit late, whatever). The problem is: both of us actually want this date. So: does anybody of my readers know a reliable way to make the next "hand-shake" (to use an analogy from the IT world happen more likely? One constraint: no other communication channels (i.e. no exchange of phone numbers). Probably, simply setting the time-out to a higher value would solve the problem, but who knows...

After the torture scandal in the German Bundeswehr, Austrian Bundesheer also has its own torture scandal. And the sad thing is: I knew about that already a few months ago. :-/

The parents of one the tortured soldiers (who is so much traumatized that he's in psychiatric treatment now) talked to my father (who does a lot of organizational stuff for Stellung and Einberufung for Upper Austria), and he advised them to report this, but they didn't want to get into any troubles, and just wanted to be left alone. He told me about that case afterwards, with the two of us totally unaware that this could get a scandal a few months later. Anyway: screw those bastard instructors. I know why I decided against going to the army and chose civil service, instead.