Rethinking the world... and making it a better place

Smartphone Prices Today

2011-12-06T13:18:00.001-05:00

Just as a snapshot of history:

Samsung Galaxy 3 i5800 - Android 2.1 - 165 €
Samsung Galaxy S i9000 - Android 2.2 - 313 € (was 419 € when I bought it in Feb 2011)
Samsung Galaxy S Plus i9001 - Android 2.3 - 277 €
Samsung Galaxy SII i9100 - Android 2.3 - 419 €
Samsung Galaxy Nexus i9250 - Android 4.0 - 529 €

iPhone 3 - 390 €
iPhone 4 - 644 €
iPhone 4S - 715 €

(Prices from Amazon. Of course they might differ widely in other shops...)

creative endeavors

2011-11-17T12:31:00.001-05:00

It recently occurred to me that all of my life can be broken up in moments of consumption, moments of creation, and moments of doing just plain nothing. I think that usually people create and produce for work and consume and relax for fun.

What's special about me is that I need to create to really feel alive, that I have a small limit of how much I can consume. I shop only for necessities; I don't watch TV, rarely read novels and watch only hand-picked movies. Most of my information-consumption is studying specific subjects (favorite reading source: Wikipedia). This often inspires my own creations. Well, mostly it rather inspires ideas, most of which I'll never execute.

It's really hard to relax without consuming anything. Sometimes (especially at night) I eat although I'm not very hungry; just for relaxing. Sometimes I read stuff (especially links on Facebook) that I won't even remember a second later, that's more relaxation than consumption. Doing sports or taking a walk seem to be the least consumtive ways to relax. Cooking can be a good creative/productive way to relax, but it requires that I am not too exhausted in the first place. Talking to a close friend is also a great way to relax and to clear my mind of a lot of things going around in there.

Here are some ways in which I could be creative for my own pleasure:

programming stuff
making music
drawing (architecture and inventions)
inventing stuff
building bicycles
3D modeling stuff (again, architecture and inventions)
writing movie scripts
writing religious books
writing technical books
doing stuff with languages

Last year, I took a basic class in hand drumming (Djembe playing) and that was fun (I also met great people there), but I didn't find it creative enuf. I thought that after having a basic sense of rhythm, I could experiment with tunes. A very kind person gave me a guitar, but I soon found that the level of practice required before any creativity can take place is way more that I'm willing to invest. In any case I feel that I now have made up for the lack of "trying out music" in my childhood and can move on to other topics now.

Since the first anniversary of me being in Berlin which coincided with my first paid vacation since graduating from UofT I have been thinking what I want to do with the next year of my life. But since all my vacation was filled with busy trips, I didn't really have time to think about it. At least I took note of the past year's highlights and lowlights and then came this week: spontaneous vacation without a planned trip! In the first days I did some remaining home improvements following my move (also this summer after just a little more than a year in my first place in Berlin). But then I quickly started looking for long-term projects in which to put my precious vacation time.

The result of my deliberations is that I want to start both drawing by hand and 3D modeling with SketchUp (see previous post). I have also decided that the realm of Architecture shall stay a topic of consumption, while my first drawings and 3D models shall be related to the planetary gear adventures. I would also really like to finish a first (or rather zeroth) version of my planetary gear calculator program, but since I find programming so hard, I am shying away from any further work until I find myself with a really large block of uninterrupted-by-work time to concentrate on this.

In the language department, I have decided to learn Dutch, just because it is so easy. In the consumption and inspiration department, I am planning a trip to Asia next fall, but I am uncertain, if I will use the chance to study more of the Chinese language. Practice a bit, certainly yes, but learning new words, it's oh-so-hard...

The future of Wikipedia and the next year for myself

2011-11-17T10:43:00.001-05:00

It's been a couple of years that Wikipedia remains one of the world's most-read websites, but stagnates in growth and doesn't offer any really new and exciting features. One of things that I had expected to boost Wikipedia's evolution was a more easy-to-use (read: WYSIWYG) editor and more support for writing articles on specialized subjects. Writing an article about a movie or about a chemical compound or a person's biography are all fundamentally different things and although Wikipedia has subcultures for many specialized domains (and portals and mentors) the software and interface for all those domains remains the same. Since all the knowledge is in the community, not the software, Wikipedia is at a disadvantage compared to other places on the web.

As an aside compare how Facebook encodes their domain knowledge in software: there's only a limited number of romantic relationship types that one can choose and one can only select one single to be in a relationship with. That's a really easy user interface! (Of course, it discriminates against polyamorous people, but Wikipedia would of course offer such settings in a biography interface. ;-)

A good example for a knowledge-sharing website with goals that overlap Wikipedia's is stackexchange.com which combines Q&A with Wikis and uses many encoded-in-software practices to shepherd its users into creating an ever-better site and ever-better community. Another example would be the Google Places semi-wiki which offer's shop addresses, opening hours, and reviews directly integrated into Google Maps.

But the example that currently takes most of my attention is Google SketchUp with its 3D Warehouse of reusable models. When I started dreaming to redesign some of my favorite subway stations on the computer, I just has wished that such a thing existed. Well, in fact, it existed already, I just didn't know about it. Well, now all I need is to install Windows on my computer (so I can run SketchUp) and also buy a computer mouse.

I just hope that I will have enuf time and calm (meaning not be too exhausted from work) to take up this new hobby!

PS: What I want is to create 3D models as complete as this drawing from London, but for stations in Berlin in Paris.

For the interested: More from London. And even more.

Here's a nice picture from Paris, too:

Feature-driven, design-guided, and tests-in.

2011-09-26T18:25:00.004-04:00

I just typed an answer to a new comment on my last post. Apparently it became to long to be submitted as a comment itself, so here I am turning it into a new post. I starts out with some "loud thinking" but ends with some nice insights.

Hi James, thanks a lot for your comment. You're asking just the right questions and those questions help me see more clearly, what "my problem" with TDD is.

Now, ten days after I wrote that post and through your comment, I realize that there's actually a big gap in how TDD is summarized (especially Uncle Bob's version with the three laws) and in how TDD is actually successfully practiced. I find that when the three rules are taken literally (we tried that in some Dojos), then the development and actual design becomes cluttered with detail of each test case and it's less feature-driven as well as less pattern-guided than I would like. On the other hand, if I'm looking at successful agile development with lots of unit tests, then the three rules are just not visible in the process.
I think that maybe two social processes are at work here: on the one hand, good practices spread thru pair programming and people reading a lot of open-source code, but those practices often don't have catchy names. On the other hand, there's a very catchy concept called TDD and very simple "three rules" and people saying that just by following those rules and refactoring, everything else will follow. For example, some people say that good design automatically follows from testability because only loosely coupled systems are easily testable.

So, the reason I wrote this blog post is that the simple, catchy way, TDD is explained, just won't work. It's also just not true that TDD gives you an easy way to tell when you're done. I am currently working on a medium-complex system (roughly developed by a four-person team over two years) with high unit and integration test coverage and we repeatedly had incidents just because we forgot to add something here or there which didn't get caught by the tests. However, our code is simple enuf that those missing parts would become obvious if we just had a final code review after every iteration where we check all production and test code against (a longish) list of the specific level of done for the project. (Which includes error handling, logging, monitoring, etc.) That review is what we now regularly do. Sometimes we find missing things in tests, sometimes we find them in the source, in each case it's easily fixed before going live. So the seemingly obvious things like "TDD always gives you 100% coverage" or "with TDD you always know when you're done" are just not relevant in practice.

My conclusion after working in a "high unit-test coverage" project are that not tests should come first, but the design of very small parts (a method or a small class) should be first instead. The design is primarily guided by the user (caller) of that unit. Design is always finding a sweet spot between a desired feature on the one hand and technical considerations just as available technologies, efficiency, and -of course- testability, on the other hand. I don't think it matters whether you write the implementation (of a small unit) or its tests first as long as you get all tests to pass before you tackle the next unit. (Personally I prefer implementing it first, because the implementation often is a more holistic description of the problem. Only for complex algorithms (which I find to be rather rare), writing tests first seems to give a better start at properly understanding the problem.) By starting with the design (which most often is an interface specification), I find it much easier to think about the method or class in a holistic fashion and also figure out a set of test cases that's small yet covers everything I need. Would you say that this process is still TDD?

Fast tests with high coverage are very important to me, not least because refactoring is very important to me. But I don't like the term "test-driven" because the driver of development is always some external (non-technical) need, such as a feature or some resource-restriction ("make it faster"). Tests are just a technical tool (albeit an important one) and it's the design that creates interfaces which both fulfill customer needs and technical standards. I think of my development rather as "Feature-driven", "design-guided", and last not least "integrated-testing" (because tests are an integral part of the code). Maybe the term "tests-in" is more catchy? As long it isn't "driven...". After all, model-driven also didn't work that well... ;-)

How to write good software and why TDD is a scam

2011-09-15T03:07:00.001-04:00

First off, I am obviously not going to tell you all about writing good software in a single blog post about TDD. Writing good software takes a lot of learning and a lot of practice. There have been countless books written on the subject and since this post isn't about a book list for software engineers either, I'll just mention one to give you an idea: Object-oriented software construction by Bertrand Meyer.

The company I work at has quite a large software development department and quite a good leadership for the latter. Our managers promote autonomy (developers choose the technologies and methods they think are best suited for the work) and learning on and off the job. For example, we have regular (voluntary) coding dojos (practice sessions) where a bunch of developers sits together to solve some simple problems with some new approaches. This is certainly an important part of writing good software.

Recently, we experimented with Test-Driven-Development (TDD), which some people also read as Test-Driven-Design. TDD is based on the following three rules:

You are not allowed to write any production code unless it is to make a failing unit test pass.
You are not allowed to write any more of a unit test than is sufficient to fail; and compilation failures are failures.
You are not allowed to write any more production code than is sufficient to pass the one failing unit test.

(Something most proponents of TDD would add is a fourth step to refactor the code while the tests are green, but when TDD is introduced and defined this step is usually not mentioned.)

Our company DOJOs and some reflection upon them have taught me that this is plain bullshit and here's why. In the last two decades, the profession of software development has embraced methods like automated (unit and integration) testing, iterative development, early testing (also called "tests first"), merciless refactoring, design patterns, automated builds and many more. All of those practices are great if done right. Now TDD comes along and claims to condense many of them together into an integrated framework based on the above rules. Going back and forth between tests and code is obviously iterative. Tests obviously have to be automated. You obviously need refactoring, because otherwise TDD will produce terrible code. So TDD dresses itself up as the natural evolution of agile development. But the truth is: TDD is a perversion of agile which over-applies agile principles in a way that doesn't make any sense any more.

Somebody who claims to do TDD either doesn't follow the three rules above or they're doing helplessly bad development. TDD is a scam because it contributes nothing new to the set of agile practices. If someone using “TDD” succeeds writing good code, it is due to the other agile practices, not due to the three rules above. TDD even obscures and ignores a lot of other important methods. SCRUM, for example, tells us to define minimal features and implement them including production code, automated tests, and all that's needed to deploy and run the feature live. SCRUM offers a lot of advice on what a minimal feature is, how to split stories and what's small enuf not to need any further splitting. TDD, on the other hand, splits iterations too much, ignoring SCRUM's advice. Design by Contract tells us how to write minimal interfaces by considering both the needs of the client and the provider and describing the interface succinctly in code. TDD, on the other hand, says that interface should emerge while they instead drown into a plethora of special cases. Finally, testing methods teach us how to design good (and minimal) test cases, get good coverage, and test most where it is needed most. TDD, on the other hand, says nothing about where you start, how to continue, or when you are done. Tests are always green, but when do you have enuf tests?

Think about that: there have been countless example demos of TDD on the internet, on conferences, in practice sessions, but have you ever even seen a small program development finished with TDD? To the contrary, the only thing I see are epic failures. (Thanks, Fred, for the great link!)

So, can we please forget about TDD, stick to established best practices, and move on writing good software?

Refactoring examples: little steps and big smells

2011-09-13T20:29:00.000-04:00

My friendly coworker shared a video of Uncle Bob live refactoring some code. Since I love refactoring I was very excited to watch it, but a few minutes into the video my excitement turned into horror, disappointment and anger.Uncle Bob refactors a piece of smelly code, but instead of removing the cause of complexity (namely too many things being done at once), he just spreads the complexity out into many different methods which communicate with each other via member variables. The result looks cleaner and certainly has good naming and short methods, but it still has way too much complexity. And what's worse, with everything spread out in so many pieces, it's much harder to refactor to really simplify it to the core. And what's the worst of worst: even forty years after the invention of such useful principles as "command-query-separation", "separation-of-concerns", and functional programming, Uncle Bob happily violates all those great principles to clumsily cultivate complexity and call the result "Clean Code" and sell it for money. Skip the jump to see the code, good and bad.Here's the code in question (taken from FitNesse Git repo, slightly different from the video):

  private boolean addChildHtml(StringBuffer buffer, int depth) {
    boolean addedTag = false;
    boolean lastAddedWasNonTag = false;
    int i = 0;
    for (HtmlElement element : childTags) {
      if (element instanceof HtmlTag) {
        if ((i == 0 || lastAddedWasNonTag) && !isInline)
          buffer.append(endl);
        buffer.append(((HtmlTag) element).html(depth + 1));
        addedTag = true;
        lastAddedWasNonTag = false;
      } else {
        buffer.append(element.html());
        lastAddedWasNonTag = true;
      }
      i++;
    }

    return addedTag;
  }

Uncle Bob repeated uses the automatic refactorings "extract method" and "convert local variable to member" to dissect this function. But that's entirely the wrong way! The existing mess of nested blocks and local mutable variables is just lifted on a different level of methods and member variables. Those refactorings are so mechanic that they could be done almost entirely automatically – and they add nothing to simplify and clarify the code. (Except for the additional names which are good – but with better structure, we'll get even better names.)Looking at the above method, we first note the violation of command-query-separation. The method at once modifies the "buffer" argument and returns a boolean result. As Bob states in his own book it's bad style to modify arguments and even worse to modify one thing and compute another. So the first refactoring should pull those two concerns apart. To do this, we'll copy the method, change the signatures of the two clones and then delete lines of code in each which belong to the other. Of course, we'll have to refactor the clients, too, and that will be made easy by the fact that one method will be a simply query that clients can call as often as needed without any side-effects.Here's the result of the first refactoring:

  private void addChildHtml(StringBuffer buffer, int depth) {
    boolean lastAddedWasNonTag = false;
    int i = 0;
    for (HtmlElement element : childTags) {
      if (element instanceof HtmlTag) {
        if ((i == 0 || lastAddedWasNonTag) && !isInline)
          buffer.append(endl);
        buffer.append(((HtmlTag) element).html(depth + 1));
        lastAddedWasNonTag = false;
      } else {
        buffer.append(element.html());
        lastAddedWasNonTag = true;
      }
      i++;
    }
  }

  private boolean childrenContainTag() {
    boolean result = false;
    for (HtmlElement element : childTags) {
      if (element instanceof HtmlTag) {
        result = true;
      }
    }
    return result;
  }

Here's how to adapt the client code from old:

boolean tagWasAdded = addChildHtml(buffer, depth);
if (tagWasAdded && !isInline) addTabs(depth, buffer);

to new:

addChildHtml(buffer, depth);
if (childrenContainTag() && !isInline) addTabs(depth, buffer);

As you see, command-query-separation even saves us another local variable!Now, the new method "childrenContainTag" is already pretty minimal (never mind that it would be just one line of vastly more readable code if java had first-order functions), so let's continue refactoring "addChildHtml". In the middle of the loop, there's an "if" that does three different things:

set lastAddedWasNonTag
call slightly different variants of element.html(..)
append an endl just in a special case of a tag.

We can separate all three concerns:

set lastAddedWasNonTag to a straight-forward expression
generalize the interface of HtmlElement to just one variant of the html(..) method
then the conditional will only be there for adding the optional endl

The result:

  private void addChildHtml(StringBuffer buffer, int depth) {
    boolean lastAddedWasNonTag = false;
    int i = 0;
    for (HtmlElement element : childTags) {
      if (element instanceof HtmlTag && (i == 0 || lastAddedWasNonTag) && !isInline) {
          buffer.append(endl);
      }
      lastAddedWasNonTag = !(element instanceof HtmlTag);
      buffer.append(element.html(depth + 1));
      i++;
    }
  }

The changes to the HtmlElement class hierarchy to support this refactoring are really easy to make and I omit them here for brevity. (I did it in Eclipse and all unit tests still pass.)Our next move will be to look at local variable i. it's only used in one place and only in disjunction (logical or) with lastAddedWasNonTag. In fact, we can see that i==0 only happens in the first round of the loop where lastAddedWasNonTag has its initial value of false. If we just initialize lastAddedWasNonTag with true, we can simply drop the variable i altogether! To simplify a bit more, we'll invert the meaning of the boolean to a positive spelling (without the "non").Here's the result:

  private void addChildHtml(StringBuffer buffer, int depth) {
    boolean lastAddedWasTag = false;
    for (HtmlElement element : childTags) {
      boolean thisChildIsTag = element instanceof HtmlTag;
      if (thisChildIsTag  && !lastAddedWasTag && !isInline) {
          buffer.append(endl);
      }
      lastAddedWasTag = thisChildIsTag;
      buffer.append(element.html(depth + 1));
    }
  }

Removing all the clutter now actually makes clear what the method does: concatenate all the element's html in the buffer and optionally insert endl in between. And you see the exact condition for when the endl is inserted. Don't you think this comes much closer to clean code?! For one thing, it has a lot less indirection and a lot less relying on names. After Uncle Bob's refactoring in the video the same code is spread into several different methods and some new member variables. Imagine you have to make a little modification to that: where would you even start? How many different places would you have to edit?Finally, to not turn this into a flame war, let me say that while the example done in the video is really bad, I generally think Uncle Bob is a good teacher of best practices overall. I have read his book and found many defects, but also a lot of good explanations of good stuff. In particular, the book also explains command-query-separation (on page 45) and Uncle Bob does it really well on other examples. So please, keep watching his videos and reading his books, but don't take everything as a final world. There's always more to if you study and apply the first principles of fine programming.

Cleaner Code

2011-09-05T17:53:00.000-04:00

My team of software developers at work has decided (with some consultation by our team leader) to have a biweekly gathering to discuss a chapter of “Clean Code”. I am on vacation just now and had to miss the first meeting, but I am just reading the book on the train home and here's a little insight I want to share. I am talking about the last example of Chapter 2 in the section "Add meaningful context".

I think that the general strategy of giving a bunch of variables a context by putting them in a separate class is good, so I don't object with the point of the book.
However, I also think that this particular example can be improved in another way, which gets rid of the variables altogether by making the code simpler and shorter.

First of all, the naming of the method is wrong. Most of it is concerned with formatting the GuessStatistics, so I'd rename it "formatGuessStatistics" and refactor the call to print out to the calling method. This will also rid us of the dependency to however the statistics are printed.

Now, let's recognize that the method actually does two things: first, recognize the plural which is applied to all numbers but "1" and results in a different verb and plural "s", and second, replace the number "0" with the word "no". Instead of flattening those two choices into three cases, we should seperate the concerns.


private String formatGuessStats(char candidate, int count) {
    final String number = count==0 ? "no" : Integer.toString(count);
    if (count == 1) {
        return String.format("There is 1 %s", candidate);
    } else {
        return String.format("There are %s %ss", number, candidate);
    }
}

Maybe you'll think that I introduced bad redundancy by repeating the word "There ". I, however, think that such a little bit of redundancy is of no harm, especially since in this case it helps us remove abstraction and see more directly what the code is doing. I also think that the redundancy is only accidental a mirrors redundancy in the English language to which we convert here. If, for example, our PO decides that the singular case should read "There's" instead of "There is", our simplified (yet redundant) variant will be a bit easier to change.

Now, let's look at some further minor improvements of this code. Observing that the "number" variable is only used in the second part, we can move it down into the else block.


private String formatGuessStats(char candidate, int count) {
    if (count == 1) {
        return String.format("There is 1 %s", candidate);
    } else { 
        final String number = count==0 ? "no" : Integer.toString(count);
        return String.format("There are %s %ss", number, candidate);
    }
}

Also we could simplify some more and use the handy "%d" instead of the wordy "Integer.toString". If you are tempted to add a comment to the else-block saying something like "// handle plural case", you can as well factor it out to a second method.


private String formatGuessStats(char candidate, int count) {
    if (count == 1) {
        return String.format("There is 1 %s", candidate);
    } else { 
        return formatPluralGuessStats(candidate, count); 
    }
}

private String formatPluralGuessStats(char candidate, int count)  {
    if (count == 0) {
        return String.format("There are no %ss", candidate);
    } else {
        return String.format("There are %d %ss", count, candidate);
    }
}

Incidentally, this leaves us with code that doesn't contain any local variables any more at all. Given that it is so simple now, we could go back to using just one method and sort the cases in increasing order of "count":


private String formatGuessStats(char candidate, int count) {
    if (count == 0) {
        return String.format("There are no%ss", candidate);
    } else if (count == 1) {
        return String.format("There is 1 %s", candidate);
    } else { 
        return String.format("There are %d %ss", count, candidate);
    }
}

Admittedly we now have reintroduced the three cases from the original code. But isn't it so much more direct and clear?

Which variant do you prefer? The original, the final, or any of the intermediate ones?

PS: When continuing to read the book, I found that some of the principles I used in doing this refactoring are also introduced in the book. Apparently not all of the examples used comply with all the rules given. In particular I got very upset about the use of a parameter for output in a later example and went on to write a long rant about why this is bad and how it can be avoided. Two chapters later, Uncle Bob himself states that this is bad and gave the same alternative techniques on how to avoid the problem. I guess this means that at least Uncle Bob agrees with my own principles of coding...PPS: Bloggers new composition interface almost doesn't suck anymore. Good job, guys! Keep it up!

The chain ring I chose

2011-07-17T06:47:00.001-04:00

After loosing my old derailer in an accident (luckily it was only a cheap one), I used the occasion to mount the brand-new cranks and chain ring. Now I think I am riding Germany's only single-gear recumbent bike!
(New gears are already ready to be mounted, but the bike is not...)

The first picture shows how the bolt circle diameter for the new chain ring is slightly different, which is why I also bought new cranks.

Making new filters for our organic waste bin

2011-07-17T06:42:00.001-04:00

Just like every summer our organic waste bin has become a paradise for the flies. None of us knew where to buy those carbon-fabric air filters for the bin, so I just went to the next Baumarkt and bought some large sheets of air vent filters. From that we can cut enuf garbage filters for the next decade!

Chain ring aesthetics

2011-05-16T18:26:00.001-04:00

For Knicki, my favorite recumbent bike, I want to buy a 160 mm crank because I hope it will stop make my knees hurt. (I've heard that many recumbent riders find cranks shorter than the normal 170 mm more appropriate.) As a style guide note that I already sprayed Knicki's new rims in a beautiful white:

I just settled on these Sugino XD cranks:

Now I am looking for a matching 110 mm BCD chain ring with preferably 50 teeth (I also consider 48T ones). Generally I was looking for something as transparent as possible to make the bike look light and slim.

Here's a gallery of what I've found. The first one is from Spécialités T.A. and it was just made to fit the Sugino cranks:

This one's not as transparent as possible but the five surfaces would allow to spray or paint some nice white pattern on.

The next one is from Sugino themselves. The right photo shows it with some cranks and a chain guard as used by Dahon. (I will add a chainguard if the chain falls off as often as it does now.)

And there's another Sugino with flattened edges. The right photo shows how it looks on the cranks, although I will have it as a single ring of course (just didn't find a single photo).

What's really unfortunate is that they don't have it in white. I could get a non-colored one and spray it myself, but it seems hard to cover the edges so well, that the result will look clean. (When I sprayed the rims, some of the lacquer ran underneath the covering tape and left lasting squirts.)

Finally, a wacky design from Blackspire (made in Canada, as the shop says) which also leaves space for painting some small motives.

I made this blog entry so I could look at my options a few times a day and dream of them at night and then decide what to get. I also have to take into account that I have found a German dealer for the first and last ones, but not the two Sugino ones. So it also depends how much I want to go out of my way to make my ride beautiful.

out of sugar

2011-05-10T17:33:00.000-04:00

Today on the S-Bahn I thought of the Firefly Episode Out of Gas (which in itself is a masterpiece of science-fiction which I think you should see...). Also on the S-Bahn I used my “smart” phone to look up recipes for vegan brownies. I had made them before, but I didn't know whether I had kept the recipe and besides it was very handy to look up a recipe and go shopping on my way home, because going home and then back out for shopping would take too much time on a day that was already night.
The first hit on Google seemed like a good recipe and the supermarket had all the ingredients plus some extra walnuts and almond flour which I like in my brownies. In any case, I don't need to buy baking staples because I always have them at home. Well, almost always, actually. At home, I found that I had run out of sugar and the only left-overs were in the sugar portioner for tea.
I also thought that it was just too late to ask the neighbors to borrow me some, so I looked around for replacements and that's where the fun started. I found honey, maple syrup flakes, chocolate powder (which is 50% sugar after all), and raspberry syrup. So I used a fair bit of each plus some cheap Amaretto that I also found while scavenging for sugar. After all I think I still have less sugar in my brownies than the two cups required by the recipe, but I also think that the flavor will be much more interesting!

This experience reminds me that in past epochs of my life I regularly used molasses and sugar beet syrup for baking. Those would probably also have made a good contribution to my recipe.

strategic jamming (how I just played in the Google code jam)

2011-05-07T13:58:00.001-04:00

First, thanks to Stefan Schubert for alerting me to the contest. (Also, many thanks to all people who formed ICPC teams with me back in the good old times. What I did today was based on what I learned with and from you.)

I was surprised that the contest should only take two hours, since I know that in the past, I spent many hours working on problems like those from the code jam. But I actually like that it's so short: it encourages to be prepared for it and allows people who don't have much time to compete without much disadvantage. (Others can spend more time on preparation, but not more time during the contest.) After all, the smartest people often have a lot of different interests and are less likely to spend much time just on one thing, especially when they can produce a good-enuf solution in a rather short time.

So keeping this spirit in mind, I first found out, how many points I would need to advance to the next round and then solve the simplest problem which gets me enuf points. In this case, it was Problem C.

As usually, I solved the problem on paper first, then I wrote the code. Also as usually, I struggled with the input parsing part since Java has so many classes and methods for IO I always forget which one to use. Luckily, I remembered correctly which one to use. (I also tried googling "icpc java parse input" and "code jam java parse input", but none of each gave me any usable hints.)

Finally, I initially found two bugs in my program, the first was actually a bug in my test data, since I had produced an inconsistent input. The other bugs was forgetting two lines of code because I got distracted while writing. I found that bug by adding some debugging output, added the two lines and it the program worked on the sample input given in the problem statement. It also worked on the "small" data set of the contest and then I immediately went ahead and processed the "large" input. Let's see if I made it into the next round ^_^.

Overall it took me about 90 minutes to submit this one problem, not counting the time to log in and find the number of points needed to advance (I just didn't see it on the scoreboard initially) and find the problem that I want to solve. (Although that was pretty easy: I just took a problem that was worth enuf points and had the highest percentage of people who already solved it.)

If I do the next round, I will prepare myself a little by collecting some source code for the IO overhead that I can reuse. Also maybe let myself inspire by some contest-specific programming techniques to be found in example solutions.

Before starting I briefly thought about programming in Haskell, but since I have the some IO troubles there and less online resources to detrouble myself, I stayed with Java. Sure, Haskell is way more fun, but the real fun is solving the problem in one's head and on paper.

There are already more than 10,000 participants (still enuf time for more people to join) over 1,400 of which have solved all four problems. The fastest one used only 40 minutes for all four problems!! So I guess when the contest becomes serious and only the 1,000 best participants advance, it won't be for me any more.

Update: I did indeed make it into the next round. In fact, I am among the best 11,000 participants out of 18,000, which means I left 7,000 other very smart participants behind! In case you want to follow me in the next round, my handle is bob406.

Kommt ihr süßen Träume

2011-05-02T16:38:00.000-04:00

Zur Auflockerung hier ein kleines Gedicht:

Was macht schön und munter und lindert Allergie?
Was schlägt jede Medizin und verfehlt die Wirkung nie?
Ach, was gibt es schöneres .... als Schlaftherapie.

Relax and enjoy

2011-04-29T07:33:00.002-04:00

"For many decisions that I've taken in my life I just know and feel inside that I've done the right thing for me," she said smilingly with her eyes bright as ever. "But for those two things I really think that everybody should do them." - "You mean quitting smoking and giving up full time work?" To which she nodded back at me.
"Maybe then" I wondered "many people just smoke so that they can stan the stresses of full-time work..."

growing pains -or- purchasing utilons and warm fuzzies separately

2011-04-17T08:04:00.001-04:00

It is a principle of modern organized altruism that the things which makes an altruistic person feel good (like giving money to a beggar, or volunteering at a child care center) are often just not the best uses of one's time and resources to accomplish a given goal (like reducing poverty or fostering education). But if a person takes a totally rational mindset and does the objectively most useful thing, then this might in fact go against their instincts and not give them the good feeling that altruistic behavior normally gives. That's why charity experts advise to purchase utilons (objective usefulness, utility towards a cause) and fuzzies (good feelings) separately.

Now, what's interesting is that this concept which was developed for charity and altruism also seems to apply wonderfully for optimizing my hedonism and egoism! I find that sometimes when I do things that I know are good and important in the long term, they still “feel wrong” in the moment and drain my self-control to a very tiring level. So in fact, every time I do such a thing, I should reward myself with some other short-term pleasure thing that gives me good feelings and let's me be very lazy so self-control gets replenished. Insofar it's quite sad that things which I enjoy most (being creative) always need a minimum in self-control; I just don't know how I can relax well by being lazy!

Gosh, I thought I had found something really fundamental, but now that I am thinking about it, it's just the old known principle about rewarding oneself for doing things that drain a lot of self-control. Bah, never worked for me anyways. Much better for me is to have people around who believe in the same values and give me feedback about what I do. Then, when I feel exhausted, I can get some applause. Don't need anything more....

Friedrich Schillers politisch-poetische Analyse des Bürgerkriegs in Libyen und ähnlichen Blutvergießereien

2011-04-05T18:34:00.001-04:00

Wo rohe Kräfte sinnlos walten,
Da kann sich kein Gebild gestalten,
Wenn sich die Völker selbst befrein,
Da kann die Wohlfahrt nicht gedeihn.
Weh, wenn sich in dem Schoß der Städte
Der Feuerzunder still gehäuft,
Das Volk, zerreißend seine Kette,
Zur Eigenhülfe schrecklich greift!

Da zerret an der Glocke Strängen
Der Aufruhr, daß sie heulend schallt,
Und nur geweiht zu Friedensklängen
Die Losung anstimmt zur Gewalt.
Freiheit und Gleichheit! hört man schallen,
Der ruhge Bürger greift zur Wehr;
Die Straßen füllen sich, die Hallen,
Und Würgerbanden ziehn umher,

Da werden Weiber zu Hyänen
Und treiben mit Entsetzen Scherz,
Noch zuckend, mit des Panthers Zähnen,
Zerreißen sie des Feindes Herz.
Nichts Heiliges ist mehr, es lösen
Sich alle Bande frommer Scheu,
Der Gute räumt den Platz dem Bösen,
Und alle Laster walten frei.

Gefährlich ists den Leu zu wecken,
Verderblich ist des Tigers Zahn,
Jedoch der schrecklichste der Schrecken
Das ist der Mensch in seinem Wahn.
Weh denen, die dem Ewigblinden
Des Lichtes Himmelsfackel leihn!
Sie strahlt ihm nicht, sie kann nur zünden
Und äschert Städt und Länder ein.

(Vollständiger Text)

Meine neue Brücke

2011-03-30T16:23:00.002-04:00

Hier ist die neue Brücke, von der ich neulich berichtet habe. Die Parks auf beiden Seiten sind auch schon im Bau, so dass man bald von meiner Haustür bis nach Tempelhof durchs Grüne fahren kann.

Jack the hub stripper

2011-03-27T08:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I stripped my first hub (a Sturmey Archer 3-gear with back-pedal brake) and put the photos of the parts I found inside in a flickr set.

Let me just show you the most interesting pictures here:

On top of the first picture are all the parts I took out from the brake side of the gear (including the main shaft which comes out on this side) and on the bottom is just the drive side bearing cone with its nuts. I named all the parts using part names I found in technical descriptions of similar gear systems. I think my names make sense, but other description you might find might use different names for the parts.

Note especially the main shaft on the top left, with the planet carrier and its four planet wheels (two shown) and the sun wheel, which is hidden, but can be felt when turn the planet carrier on the main shaft, because the sun makes the planets turn. Planets, sun, and ring gear are permanently engaged with each other, no matter what drive speed is chosen.
As for the changing of speeds, you can see a little piece sitting in a slot of the main shaft. This piece is pulled by the actuating cable (thus, the speed-change lever) and pushed back by the spring shown at the bottom. The little piece then moves a larger piece which on the photo is shifted leftwards on the shaft. I call it the “clutch element” and it normally sits right on top of the little piece.

The second picture shows the remaining parts, which are the most interesting, because those parts take part in switching the gears.

The part on the left with the two big pawls is the “ring element” on its inside is the ring gear (interior toothing) of the planetary set. The pawls on the outside engage with the hub shell to drive it, but in some gears the metal ring shown above the ring element will cover the pawls, so that the wheel can be driven by another part at a different speed.
The part in the middle screws into the hub shell and has teeth with which pawls can engage (I don't yet know which pawls tho). The part on the right is the “driver” because it carries the chain sprocket and brings the drive input into the hub. It has two pairs of smaller pawls (hard to see because of the grease, here's a close-up). Depending on gear, the driver will drive the ring element, the planet carrier, or the hub shell directly. I haven't figured out the details of this yet, but I think that the “clutch element” shown in the first picture is playing an important part in it. What's making things more complicated is that the driver also needs to actuate the back-pedal brake which I think is why the pawls on the driver are bi-directional.

On the output side, the hub shell will be driven by the planet carrier, the ring element, or the driver directly. I have heard that the brake element (first picture, top middle) is part of the transmission path in some gears, which I think explains why it also has a pair of free-wheel pawls on it.

I'll post more details about all this when I have figured it out better.

a disappointment, a niche well-filled, and a dare

2011-03-22T18:18:00.000-04:00

Prima Parte – Una Delusione

If you look at the specs SRAM's i-motion 9 gear hub, they are really impressive. Unlike Shimano's proven excellent Inter-8 hub, the gears are spaced very evenly. Unlike previous SRAM hubs, the actuation doesn't sit vulnerably outside the bicycle's frame, but is inside like the Shimano's, but still much easier to take off when changing a tire. The hub got excellent reviews in magazines and blogs (like this one on hubstripping), many bicycle makers embraced it, and the first bunch of buyers were happy. It looked like the German SRAM engineers of Schweinfurt had been able to offer a real alternative to Japanese bicycle parts domination.
However, if you look at the same product right now, there's some disappointment around. The hub really delivers on good gears and easy shifting, but reliability doesn't seem to be so good. Thinks break, hubs have to go to maintenance. Maybe the quality isn't even worse than previous SRAM hubs, like the Spectro S7, but the good performance of Shimano's products which are used in applications more demanding than what gear hubs previously experienced. Looking at the market right now, there are less manufacturers using this hub in their bikes. Biking through Berlin I see hundreds of bikes running Shimano gear hubs (especially the Inter-8 premium and Alfine 8), but I rarely see an i-motion 9 around.

I had decided to get an i-motion 9 for Knicki, because I have the inter-8 on Speedy and like to try something different. But everywhere I look for answers to some buying and fitting details, I find people telling me that I shouldn't get it and get Shimano instead. Of course, I don't know if the hub is really that bad. I requires much experience to make such a statement and I don't know who I can trust. Maybe, it's just bad marketing and bad crisis management at SRAM, while the product is not that bad. But frankly, for my bike I want something desirable and the i-motion isn't desireble to me any more.

Seconda Parte – Una Nicchia ben Riempita

sdfasdf While researching gear options for Knicki I also found Sturmey Archer's new X-RF8 hub. I could write a half-novel now about SA's history and how Sunrace of Taiwan saved this company with very long tradition (or at least some of their heritage). And I could as well talk about the strong parallels in SA's and F&S' history. Fichtel & Sachs (gear hub makers now part of SRAM) and Sturmey Archer both started producing three-speed hubs at the beginning of the 20th century and I am still not quite sure who of the two did actually invent the thing. But to cut a long story short, I want to talk directly about the very interesting business strategy of Sunrace in dealing with SA. The smart thing they did is not to face their competitors directly with similar products but fill market needs that are unsatisfied by the competition. Of course, a large part of their business is selling slightly improved versions of their traditional three-speed hubs to bicycle makers who have bought them for a long time and are still fitting them on (some of) their current models. But another part is the market for fun-bikes and fixes which they provided with a fixed-wheel gear-hub (that is, there is not free-wheel in any gear) and with a gear-hub that shifts by back-pedaling, thus without any cable or switch disturbing the clean looks of one of those “pure” single-speed bikes.
Another big market for SA is folding bikes. Many of their gear hubs are narrower than those of the competition. For example, the five-gear hub fits the Brompton frame without modification. (Even the 8-gear fits the Brompton, albeit with some widening of the frame.) SA also makes a hub which specifically combines with the Brompton's two-sprocket derailler to create a system of six evenly spaced gears. The principle is similar to SRAM Dual Drive and Shimano Intego, but the market is specialized and the product is the only one that not just dispenses with overlapping gears (dual drive 27-gear is just 13 or 15 “net” gears), but it also results in evenly spaced gears. It's been a close cooperation with Brompton Bicycles and it's called “Brompton Wide Gear” (BWR).
But it's SA's 8 gear hub, with the poetic name “X-RF8” (rear freewheel, as opposed to the RD8 with integrated drum brake) that I find particularly fascinating. It is not just constructed narrowly to fit smaller bikes. It also has the gear arrangement designed for smaller wheels. I find that particularly interesting, because I had previously wished that such a hub would exist. A bike with small wheels always needs a larger chain wheel or smaller sprockets to get the same development (distance traveled per crank-turn). The Shimano Inter-8 which I have in Speedy has its neutral gear (that is the gear in which the gear hub behaves like a non-gear hub) in position 5. I thought that if it was in position 4 instead, then the entire gear range would have a larger development and thus work with a larger sprocket than the current, tiny, and rare 14 teeth I am using now. And it is just this idea which engineers at Sunrace have take to their hearts and used to design into the hub. The result is a system where the smallest gear (first gear) is the neutral one and the other seven gears all are longer than neutral. This means that even with small wheels, a bicycle can use standard sizes for chain wheels and sprockets and yield a good development. Smaller chain wheels mean prettier bikes and more possibilities to mount chain guards. Larger sprockets mean less wear and tear. Sturmey Archer being the only company that's building such a hub means they'll have a lot of happy customers. That is, in theory at least. I find it disappointing that I don't know any folding bike manufacturer who's actually offering series models with the X-RF8. A quick googling only shows some custom-tuned Bromptons. Well, Sturmey, I wish you more success in the future with this great idea.

Terza Parte – Una Scommessa

Now that I am doubting to buy the i-motion 9 hub (and not wanting to buy something exotic as the X-RF8), I am almost back to square one again. For sure, I could just get another Shimano Inter-8, which would also be a different one than Speedy's because the product has since been upgraded with the “silent” roller clutches. But I really want to try something different and I especially want to try a hub with more evenly spaced gears so I can feel the difference to the Inter-8's very oddly spaced gears (14 to 22% for the different shifts).
So now, 2011, it's also the first season that Shimano's Alfine 11 is on the market. A device that on paper looks just as good as the i-motion 9 and better. And it comes from the market leader in sporty gear hubs. But does that mean it's gonna be really good? For one thing, it has its neutral gear in position 5 of 11 which means that it is also much easier to fit onto a twenty-incher (such as Knicki), which solves a problem that I had with the i-motion 9. On the other hand, I'd really like to build a wheel that's gonna last and create a bike that also has a good resale value when our relationship ends one day. I'd really like to wait just one more year to see how the new hub does in practice. But Knicki desperatly needs a revamp!
How will things work out for us? Read it on this blog. Sooner or later.

(PS: subscribe to the RSS to get notified of new posts.)

Another Spring, another Speedy-Tuneup

2011-03-06T16:57:00.000-05:00

This year I did it earlier than usual, because my yellow darling had a flat rear tire and taking the rear wheel out is so much work that I used the occasion to also replace the chain and clean the gear actuation on the hub with much affection.

I had learned from past experience that taking the chainglider off and back on will bring dirt on the chain, so I did everything with much care this time. I spent a lot of time on everything, but I think that's perfectly ok to do once per year. For this year, I want to protect Speedy better from rain. I didn't get a basement to rent in my building, but I have a nice bicycle cover for outside or could take him up in my room with the other two bicycles.

I had felt that the chain had suffered a lot in this year's rain. Standing outside day and night is much worse than occasionally riding through rain and having a dry place to sleep. I thought that the sprocket might also need to be replaced, since last time changing the chain, the new one wouldn't fit on the old sprocket. But in fact, I measured the chain and it was just worn out, not totally over worn-out and the sprocket looked just a little worn. In any case I was thinking of getting a larger sprocket to vary my gears a little bit, but because of the flat-emergency I didn't have time to purchase one. (Special-size sprockets are rare!) I guess I'll do the sprocket-varying next year.

I am quite satisfied how the clean-up went. I am only doing it once a year or even less often, and last year at Thomas' shop in Schaffhausen, I didn't pay attention to everything he was doing, but I still remembered the steps well (or at least figured them out). For the rear wheel, the brake cable and torque arm need to come off, then the chainglider (at least the rear part), then the shifting cable, then the wheel comes out, then I can take apart the gear actuation to clean it. When putting things back together I thought of using the tuning-marking to adjust the shifting cable really well. I also thought of giving some slack in the cable housing so it doesn't un-adjust when the rear wheel is moved a bit to tension the chain (as had happened just two weeks ago). I just thought about it after doing the adjusting, so I had to do it again.

Reminder for myself: when I cleaned the gear actuation I found that the dust cover of the hub had a little crack. I need to get a new one, so I can put it on next time I change the chain. Shimano part Y-34R 98110. I also need to find out which tool is needed to take off the sprocket since I never did this myself.

my new bicycle commute to work

2011-03-06T15:42:00.000-05:00

Größere Kartenansicht

It's a wonderful 30 mins every morning and night, using mostly quite streets with little traffic and a great choice of restaurants on my way home :-)

I'll post some pictures one day when I am taking the road and not hurrying to work.

What's the next small thing?

2011-03-02T14:23:00.000-05:00

Here's one small habit I adopted recently which had a big impact on my life in the area of procrastination versus getting things done. There's a lot of tasks --like repairing things in the home or doing one's tax declaration-- which linger on my To Do list way longer than needed. The longer things sit there, th harder I imagine them to be. Whenever I think of such an item on the list, the first thing that comes to my mind is "I don't even know how to start on this, how can I ever finish?"

Now the magic trick that helps me get unstuck in this situation is to simply ask myself the question: "What's the first small step that I need to do to advance this issue?" Here are some examples for simple steps: For the tax situation I might need to research a specific question on how to declare something. The small step could be to google it, or look it up in a book, or call the tax office. Or the small step could be to make an appointment with a tax consultant. In a home repair issue, the small step might be to buy a specific replacement part or to write down the exact measures of the part needed. Usually this small step seems minuscule and I might have avoided it because it seems like a lot of effort already just to make a small step. But if I verbalize this step and make it a To Do item of its own, then it will be easier to do, I will plan a time when to do it, and after doing it, I get the feeling of checking off an entire item from my list. After checking off this first small step, I'll feel more optimistic about the entire issue at all and might even be motivated to do some more work on it without planning the individual steps.

On issues that are truly hard, there will be several points at which I get stuck and won't get moving without some investment of self-control. In each case, I just ask: "What's the next small thing to get done?" and this item will provide me guidance on the larger part. It doesn't feel well to be driven by such small-scale To Do list items --I really would rather like to work freely and intuitively, which works really well for me, even on complex tasks. But for some issues, the intuitive way just doesn't work and then the small-scale items is exactly what's needed to get things done. It's not getting things done pleasantly, or creatively, or liberally, but it gets things done without the pain of high-fee overdue notices or looking at unfinished tasks for months. In fact, it is giving up a little bit of liberty ("Today I need to get this small thing done.") to gain a much larger liberty -- namely a life without big dreading unfinished items on one's lists, in one's life, and on one's mind.

I think the reason why this works so well is that it connects the benefits of the larger goal (getting rid of taxes, kitchen tap not dripping any more) with the small effort and quick accomplishing of the small step. I won't get done the large problem with a small step, but I can feel getting closer by my own effort. That feels good and is effective.

I have used this tactic several times in the past weeks after reading about it in the book "Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard". It's a really good book, with many good lessons and I think this is only the first one with profound impact on my life.

Berlinale: Man at Sea

2011-02-16T16:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I experienced my first Berlinale screening. “Man at Sea” (directed by Constantine Gianaris), playing in Friedrichstadt-Palast. It was a nice festival atmosphere, mostly because there were quite a few pretty and well-dressed valets checking tickets and helping people find their seats. Friedrichstadt-Palast is a famous and large venue for live variete and other shows (in fact, claiming to be the world's largest theatre stage) and it was nice to experience this place. I first was surprised that there were still empty seats during the screening (during a festival where most shows are sold out to the last seat), but then I learned that the house has 1.895 seats! Hard to fill even during a festival!

The movie was announced by a host and very tersely introduced by the director himself. After the screening, the director came on stage again and introduced some of the cast. I was quite disappointed that there was no more talking with the director, in particular, no questions were taken from the audience. I remember from TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) that directors would introduce their film with some words about it came to be or why they made it and would take questions afterwards. I was a little disappointed that this didn't happen, but the reason might just as well be, that there are too many people in the venue and that they only do it in smaller cinemas.

Now the movie. Ah! The movie. A freight ship takes some shipwrecked youths on board (who survived a sinking in which the elder passengers died because they left the only life boat to the young) and then can't get rid of them because no country they pass wants to take them on – they are fugitives from the Middle East. This could have been a great movie about life on a ship, about the meeting of two cultures, and about a group of grown-ups decisively shape the life of the young. Instead, the script was overdramatizing it, wasn't very believable in many parts and using black and white where there could have been a million shades of grey. At one point, I considered fleeing from the theatre, but I stayed, and as a went home, I started to develop my own ideas how to treat this subject well. I spent two hours at night to put down my ideas and now need to find some time to turn it into a full screenplay. The basic setup of this story just has so much potential that it just needs to be realized well! In Gianaris' version, at least the acting and pictures were nice and the final scene even had a little bit of that profoundness that the story affords. Just a glimpse of what's possible!

(Found a review of the movie with which I agree.)

final report of my stay in Dahab

2011-02-06T12:04:00.001-05:00

Those are the three best things about Dahab:

sun and blue sky: even when you're not on the water, under water, or elsewhere in nature, the effect of sunlight on mood is strong and purely positive. so that alone is worth going there!
no advertising posters: this came as a surprise on my second day back in Berlin. There is some advertising in Dahab and there are of course people who want to drag you into their shops or restaurants, but it's the absence of big posters advertising for cars, beauty products or other capitalist bullshit which really make the place so much more tranquil, beautiful and soothing for the mind. Garbage in the dessert or on the beach has a melancholic, placid aesthetic compared to those ugly attention-grabbing posters that line all streets, malls, and transit stations in the big industrialized cities.
no pressure to do anything in particular: now that's a personal one. I've lived in different countries and always had some purpose to go there and pressure to actually succeed in that mission. be it academic research in Toronto or language study in Taipei. This time it was supposed to be wind surfing, but Dahab is not the place where you stick to ambitious training plans. I surfed for fun and didn't surf when I felt like not to. I saw only the sights that I really wanted to see (Mt. Sinai, basically) and spent the rest of the time very spontaneously: some biking along random roads along the sea or into the mountains. Reading, inventing, ... In the last week I build a nice program to calculate epicyclic gears and when the implementation in Java Swing turned out to be harder than thought, I pushed to overcome the difficulties in programming just for the fun of it, not because I felt that it was my mission and I have to do it to have a successful stay. Think of me what you want, but just being there under the blue sky by the Red Sea and working on something that really fascinates me was a great experience that I want to repeat. (I estimate to need three more full-time days to finish my little program and wonder how I can get that much uninterrupted and relaxed time in my busy Berlin life.)

Here are some further observations from the second half of my stay:

Just for the change and also to be around more people I moved from the rather calm Crazy Camel Camp to Sindbad Camp, which had the additional advantage of being right on the beach so that the sunrise would wake me up every morning. There was also a kitchen with a chef where I could order meals or cook myself.
I started a new eating routine with muesli-breakfast every morning and regular consumption of yogurt. This and the fact that I didn't go to the touristy restaurants any more changed my ingestion-system-body-state back to normal. Although I have to say that the two first weaks weren't problematic either: just different. (I don't want to go into the shitty details.)
rain is something very special in Sinai and you have to experience it to really appreciate it. Not even the very modern Dahab Specialized Hospital has a completely waterproof roof. In my case, the rain meant that I was upgraded to a first-floor room in the camp with an incredibly beautiful view on the beach and the sea (and the Saudi mountains on the other side). But my old room dried quickly and I moved back within a day (using the occasion for a little cleanup).
I noticed that the traditional Galabija dress very easily distinguishes rich wearers from the poor as rich people wear white ones, from a finer material and collars, while ordinary people usually wear brown ones (can get dirty without being noticed). I found it very curious how much social class is expressed in the dress, because in Germany fashion can be very obnoxious of class. (I like to joke, that a guy with a tie is either a manager or a receptionist. Of course, some rich people show it in their dress, but it's more subtle and more rare.)
Our visit of St. Katherine monastery before climbing Mt. Sinai has proven once again, that I am no fan of sight-seeing, but the mountain and drive thru the dessert was interesting with its many views. Before going up, I had joked that I expected an epiphany when staying in the place where God had talked to Moses. But when I was up there, the only thing that came to mind was “wow, hiking is actually nice, I should do it more often.” Well, that's also something I can keep for my life!
The government has granted exclusive rights of being mountain guides to one specific tribe of Beduins who live in the area. When we asked our guide about his relationship to other Beduins living on the mountains, he said “we are all one family” (Thomas was afraid that we would hold up our guide while staying for tea with some beduins, but in fact he was chez soi, at home with family.)
While the revolution was going on in Cairo, on the night before the Internet was shut down, shopkeepers in Dahab whom I talked to still expressed their support for the president. Some quotes: “the president is good for import and export”, “don't blame the state if you're unemployed; find work for yourself” (from a man who had opened a shop six weeks ago after doing many different jobs before, because he couldn't find work as an accountant for which he had originally trained). And a beduin said: “all people in the world hate their government. that's no news.”
Haggling can really be quite theatrical. For example, one shopkeeper threw a bag after me after I didn't want to buy a shirt whose price I had inquired for and haggled a bit to see what the real price would be (because he had started at about the ten-fold of a realistic price). With his angry reaction he almost successfully made me feel that I had done something wrong and that I now was obliged to buy the shirt. But of course I wasn't and I think some days later, the guy greeted me with smile and funny remark as I passed by his shop.
I made several observations about work-life balance which is very different in Egypt than in other places. For example, one morning I came to a shop whose door was half-closed (it opened by lifting up) and inside the shopkeepers were still sleeping: their bed was just some blankets on the ground. As the neighboring shop keeper noticed me, he would go inside to fetch what I need and get my money to give them later. In the same vein, when workers leave their shop to visit the washroom (often across the street) or for other errands, their neighbors will take care of business until they are back. In any case, many people stay at their shops from getting up until going back to sleep. The shop is not just their work, but the center of their life. Often they will be visited by friends (if the friends have a job that finishes in the afternoon, such as dive centers do) and all hang out together at the shop. When there's no-one there to understand my English, someone will go look for a neighbor to help translate.

Here's the flickr set of all my Dahab pictures.

midterm report of my training holiday

2011-01-16T14:04:00.001-05:00

Last night was just the half-time of my stay in Dahab, diving mekka at the Gulf of Aqaba. I am on a strict internet and phone diet with most my communication with home being one-way, by post-card. The internet diet is really good to get most out of my stay here and connect with many people as well as with myself. I am checking email only once per week and today I am using the occasion to also post some impressions here:

First of all, Dahab is great for windsurfing, so I did in fact come to the right place! Although the rental prices for sail boards are just as expensive as in Berlin, Germany, the service is also as good and includes comfy rides on the rescue boat when you've gone farther than you can make it back. Wind is consistently coming down the gulf from the Nord, although this past week had a lot of quiet days.
The Egyptians can be really fun people and it's totally worth learning a few words of Arabic to impress them and put conversations on a more relaxed and friendly level. They'll often start conversations, and when the conversation goes well, will teach me one or two more words. Some people here, unfortunately, have the job of selling absolutely useless things for astronomic prices and dealing with them is just as awful as with any slimy salesman back home. The prime example is when someone desperately tries to sell overpriced drinks at especially touristic places like an oasis or dive site. This really makes being at that place less enjoyable. On the other hand, it is nice to come back to the same shop (bakery, supermarket, restaurant) in Dahab every so often and getting to know the people there better.
There's a lot of foreigners living here, either they operate a business or they just enjoy the great climate and the cheap cost of living. Almost all dive shops have some foreign staff (and/or owner) which I guess is because diving needs a lot of experience and communication to be safe. The main nations represented here are Germans, Brits, and Russians. It seems that the Russians run most of the sail-renting businesses and also some other shops, restaurants, and –of course– diving schools. Russian signs are as common here as locals who speak a bit of Russian. Most of the local–foreigner communication is done in English, tho.
The climate in winter is excellent: day temperature just right to wear a T-Shirt outside, without sweating or feeling cold. It's a bit cold for diving, but ok for windsurfing with an optional wet suit when there's a lot of chilly wind.
In my first week here, I hung out a lot with a nice man from Berlin who I had met at the airport. He used his stay here to plot out his next career moves after completing a second course of studies and to make plans for the next year. I gave him my copy of the “4-hour work-week” to read and we discussed it a bit. He inspired me to do something similar for myself and I quite liked the results. One of the outcomes is my resolution to celebrate my birthday on the fifth of every month, or in other words, have a monthly party to which I invite everybody I like, just to hang out together and to introduce my friends to each other. I will start with a Dahab-themed party on the week-end after coming back home!
Besides being a great spot for board sailing, Dahab is the most touristy place I have ever been, which has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. The upside is that there are a lot of cheap places to stay. Right now I have a sea-view room for about 7€ a night, although there's no window, so I need to open the door to actually view the sea, but there's always the sound of waves to take me to sleep at night and wake me up in the morning. There are even camps which offer beds in little rooms for 5€ a night. There are a lot of very interesting people in those camps, among them many seasoned travelers and long-time travelers, which have interesting stories to tell. I myself am more a temporary resident than a traveler. The downside is that tourists are herded like sheep on some places and locals sometimes get bad impressions of foreigners.
I am trying to live like an expat here, that is, a non-tourist foreigner. I don't go to the restaurants for tourists, avoid souvenir shops and tourist activities, don't go to see the most famous sights. Instead I try to eat where the locals eat, spend my leisure time just hiking or biking around the landscape, and when I do trips then go to any random spot where there are not so many tourists. It as funny to arrive by foot or bicycle at places where tourists are usually brought by bus, jeep, horse, camel or quad-bike. If I pass such a tourist spot while walking or cycling, I do my best to ignore it and move on as quickly as I can.
Since the Red Sea is know so well for its underwater life, I bought a very simple snorkel so I can enjoy this at my own pace wherever and whenever I feel like it. I have no interest in diving and expect to discover a lot of beautiful things while snorkeling without all the hassle and cost involved with the diving machinery.
Haggling is said to be important in Egypt, but it doesn't need to be. If you need something, just ask a third person (fellow tourist, camp worker, ...) for a fair price and then buy the thing at approximately that price. With the right people, you'll also get automatic discount for being a regular customer or for speaking a little Arabic.

Planet of the gears, part one

2011-01-16T13:52:00.001-05:00

Fascinated by bicycle hub gears and the vision that this type of gears not only works as part of the hub, but also as part of the chainwheel (for example), I have started to study the subject more deeply. Wikipedia doesn't offer much on the subject. Amazon Germany had a book devoted to epicyclic gears (also known as planetary gears), but it covered mostly aspects that I don't need to understand bicycle gears. Finally I discovered some patents on the subject (all available for free online!) and as I am learning more and more about the subject, I will explain it here in simple terms and with close relation to cycling practice. So here's the first part of what I hope to become a comprehensive and exciting series: the planet of the gears.

In this first part I want to deal with one simple question: what is the transmission ratio of the simplest planetary gear set used in bicycles? The entire complexity of planetary gears (and we'll get to pretty complex arrangements in later posts) can be derived from two formulas which I'll show you after explaining the general setting and the terminology (which I call nomenclatura because I like that word). First of all, I follow the literature by reserving the word “gear” for the cog wheels, that is, physical parts of the gear system. The different settings for transmission ratios which in ordinary English are called first gear, second gear, and so on, will be called first speed, second speed, and so on, so we don't confuse them with the parts of our gearbox.

Now, to the Input and Output parts of a simple planetary gear system. There are three shafts which can be used to transmit a force: the sun gear s, the ring gear r, and the carrier c of the planet gears. If all three are used, the gearing adds two inputs to generate an output or vice versa. To use the gearing as a transmission to translate rotational velocities, one of the three possible shafts will be fixed. If we'd fix the planet carrier, then the planets wouldn't revolve around the sun any more and we had a pretty boring non-planetary transmission. There might be reasons to do this in a practical setting (because it could yield an additional speed), but for the calculation of planetary transmission ratios, we do not need to consider it. We'll either fix the ring gear or the sun gear.

Nomenclatura: Big letters S, P, R denote the number of teeth of the sun gear, planet gears, and ring gear respectively. (The planet carrier itself does not have any teeth.)
Small letters s, c, p, r denote the rotational velocities of those gears and the carrier.

Formula of stationary gears: For two spur gears (that is plain, ordinary cog wheels) with teeth numbers Y and Z and rotational velocities y and z which are engaged, the ratio of rotational speeds is the inverse of the ratio of number of teeth, that is, y/z = Z/Y, or y×Y = z×Z. If one of the gears is a ring gear, a minus has to be thrown into the formula like that: -r×R = z×Z.

Stationary transmission ratio: The weird thing about planetary gears is that gears are not just turning around their shafts but the shafts themselves are moving in space. In order to calculate the transmission ratios of planetary gears, we will first assume that those little planets are not actually moving. We will imagine that we –as the observer– are sitting on the planet carrier and from our relative position the planets do not move (but they still rotate). The transmission ratios observed from this viewpoint are called the stationary transmission ratios.

More Nomenclatura: Superscript x^y denotes rotational speed of shaft x when observed while sitting on shaft y. (This will be an actual superscript as soon as I have found a volunteer who'll edit my blog.)

Formula of translation: z^y = z^x - y^x
Let me explain this formula with a picture: imagine X sits on the curb of a street, y sits on the shoulder of somebody who's walking by towards North, and z sits on the shoulder of a cyclist, also going North. From y's point of view, x is moving southwards and z is moving northwards (assumed it's faster than y) with a speed just slower than seen from x.
As a corollary y^y = y^x - y^x = 0.

Let's apply the formulae: in the stationary case, we observe every velocity from the planet carrier, thus all velocity variables get superscripted with c. The sun gear engages with the planets, thus: s^c×S = p^c×P. And the ring gear engages with the planets, thus -r^c×R = p^c×P. Since we are not interested in the rotational speeds of the planets themselves, we can fuse the two equations to get s^c×S = -r^c×R. Additionally we know c^c = 0.

Now let's look at the case of a fixed sun gear. We want to translate all values x from x^c to x^s, thus we apply x^s = x^c - s^c. Since ring gear and planet carrier are our in- and output, we want to derive the ratio r^s/c^s which equals (r^c - s^c)/(c^c - s^c).
Now we fill in what we know from the stationary case, namely c^c = 0 and r^c = - s^c × S/R.
Thus r^s/c^s = (- s^c × S/R - s^c) / ( - s^c ) = S/R + 1.

I hope that even if you got lost a little in the middle, you'll appreciate the simplicity of the result gear_ratio = r^s/c^s = S/R + 1 which we derived from the simple axioms y×Y = z×Z and z^y = z^x - y= ^x.

Taking the coarse bounds 0 < S < R, we find that we can use this simple planetary layout to get a ratio 1 < δ(r, c) < 2, that is at most double or half the speed. (How close we can get to 1, that is, what the smallest possible gear step is, depends on some further mechanical parameters.) In the next post we will see, how different usages of this simple gear can be used to build a two-speed gearing (as does the Schlumpf speed-drive) and even a three-speed gearing (as do the three-speed hubs from F&S and Sturmey Archer invented a hundred years ago).

Now the case of a fixed ring gear
s^r = s^c - r^c = s^c + s^c*S/R
c^r = 0 - r^c = + s^c*S/R

δ(s, c) = s^r / c^r = (1 + S/R) / S/R = R/S + 1
rough bounds 0 < S < R
so 2 < δ(s, c) < ∞

Now it is theoretically interesting that we can make gears with ratios from 1 to 2 and from 2 to ∞ and thereby cover the entire possible range (with a small gap at 2, meaning we can't have a transmission ratio of exactly or close to 2).

A ratio of more than double is usually impractical for a single gear step, but this arrangement can be used well in combination with the other one. A simple example is Schlumpf's Mountain Drive which is designed to work in combination with a rear derailer. Since the planetary gear's ratio is so big, the arrangement will spread the available gears further out and avoid gear overlap, that is, more effective gears with less logical gears to shift. We will later see, how two planetary stages can be combined to create a staged gear arrangements whose gears can be shifted in a single sequence with a single shifter and no overlap.

Here are some interesting things to cover in the future:
- How are multiple gears actually switched?
- How do the traditional 3, 5, and 7 gear hubs work?
- How do the newer 4, 8, 11, and 14 gear hubs work?
- What other improvements can be made to a simple gear box: shifting under load, saving weight, increasing reliability, and much more!

spontaneous poetry

2010-12-28T07:57:00.000-05:00

A fellow passenger wore a light green scarf over a dark green top which bore the inscription "Fight the grey!". I could not resist to compose a poem and hand it to her. Then I got out my laptop and here's the poem for you:

Now I have to say
that in light of the day
you're fighting the grey
in a very good way!

Yes, it can be seen
as it always has been
the color of the keen
is a beautiful green.

This post is dedicated to L., queen of green, and Anja, the fashionable train passenger.

Postscript: Another passenger didn't find her suitcase, because there were a lot of like ones. All black cube-shaped things with wheels and a handle. I suggested the obvious solution: paint it green! (In defense of the passengers I have to add, that some of the suit cases already wore tiny colored ribbons on their handles.)

is there anybody else out there who doesn't like Christmas presents?

2010-12-24T10:47:00.000-05:00

I mean, I am not against the concept of Christmas as a family holiday per se. After all, there are so many things a family could do together: prepare meals together, bake cookies, play games, do handicrafts, make photo collages from the past year, or photo slide shows or photo books, go on a trip. make music together, or recite poetry. make travel plans by reading travel guides about a country or region and then synthesizing family member's “places to see” into a joint trip plan, doing puzzles, making pottery, draw or paint together, play role games, (or board games, or Wii games), go skiing (if you live in the northern hemisphere), go the beach (if you live in the southern hemisphere), ...
Psychological studies show clearly that fun activities bring much more happiness than any material things. Shared activities are best for forging social bonds.

So why all those gifts? Why don't we just have fun together? Preferably in a creative way...

(Incidentally, since I am not biking in winter and spend quite a bit of time in public transit, I have started to learn poetry again. Now I know a couple of really great poems, but I haven't found anybody yet, who'd care to listen...)

This has me add a bullet point to my last post:

make a Kindle-ebook of my favorite poems.

Google-Karte mit Bauprojekten des Schöneberger Grünzuges

2010-12-21T09:44:00.000-05:00

Die Rote Insel wird grün auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

Gelb = neue Straße
Blau = existierende Radrouten
Rot = Projekte im Bau oder geplant
Grün = Rad-/Skate-Route im Bau (Südteil) bzw. geplant (Nordteil)

random things I'd like to do

2010-12-15T17:04:00.000-05:00

Fix Ubuntu Bug No. 96705
publish the tree-balancing algorithm I invented in 2003
organize a visit at the Schweinfurt plant for bicycle hub gears (world renowned since 1902)
write a series of blog articles about how bicycle hub gears work (more detailed than other sources I know, but more general than the related patents that I've read)
make a 3D model of Paris République métro station with all the nested tunnels and then make a 3D model of a redesigned station with transparent halls.... like it would be build in modern times if there was lots of money. (I imagine that such a model put on the web would draw some attention in France, even though it's absolutely unrealistic that the station will ever be completely rebuild in such a way.)
write a cool Android app that does something useful and uses better UI concepts than the state of the art

Special parts and real geeks

2010-10-13T17:12:00.002-04:00

Since I acquired my new bike Carly from California, whom you can see in the foreground of this picture, I am thinking about fitting a dynamo to equip her with some fine electric lights. It seemed that in the 74mm fork domain, there's only the choice between the very expensive SON XS (200€) and the half-baked, still not cheap Dahon Joule, which for a price of 100€ only delivers power for a front light, not the rear. Although the difference is only 2.4W vs 3W in power, I think that having a rear light on the Joule will reduce the voltage which might yield bad results especially at lower speeds.

Because I didn't like the price / performance ratio of either hub dynamo, I decided to go with a spoke dynamo as I have it on Knicki (the black thing you see on the right wheel on the second picture). But as I went to Berlin's recumbent geek meeting this week, I was told of a third manufacturer of small hub dynamos: the big Shimano itself! I don't know since when they're offering it, but as of now, the only official information I found about it was in Dutch language! If you switch the language to English on that page, the hub dynamo disappears!

There seem to be several versions of that dynamo which is part of Shimano's Capreo series (the one that also has the famous 9 tooth sprocket). There are versions with 2.4W (boo!) and the real 3W. With 28 spoke-holes and with 24. I just read on bromptonauten.de that there is a special Brompton version of that dynamo since 2009. This dynamo now is standard on the Brompton and finally replaces the old bottle dynamo, yay! It needs to be special because the Brompton has a narrower axle and very narrow nuts, no space for a quick release. The Bromptonauts have two forum threads (in German) dedicated to the topic. Someone said that the original Capreo dynamo was made for Dahon, but since Dahon only uses their own Joule dynamo on their bikes, I suppose that Dahon Joule is actually made by Shimano and the 3W version is a spin off from that product.

I still don't know how many versions of Capreo exist by now, but incidentally one of the few Google hits on the topic was a dealer in Berlin! So I will take little Carly for a ride to that shop and see if they have a model that fits. Maybe they even have a nice rim and spokes, so I can make a nice wheel.

Fahrgastsprechtag Regionalverkehr in Berlin

2010-09-28T13:36:00.000-04:00

Hier ganz kurz Infos, die mich besonders interessiert haben:

ODEG wird auf dem RE2 ab 2012 Dosto-Triebzüge von Stadler (hergestellt in Pankow) einsetzen, so ähnlich wie sie auf der Innotrans zu sehen waren. Ich glaube das werden dann die ersten Dosto-Triebzüge in Deutschland sein, da DB Regio ja nur von Loks gezogene Dosto-Wagen hat.
Am neuen oberen Regionalbahnsteig des Ostkreuz wird nur die Linie RB24 halten (Eberswalde – Lichtenberg – Ostkreuz – Schöneweide – Flughafen BBI – Wünsdorf-Waldstadt), aber auch erst nachdem die Dresdner Bahn fertig gebaut wurde – das kann also noch sehr lange dauern! OE36 wird wahrscheinlich wieder in Königs-Wusterhausen enden.
Die Reaktivierung der Heidekrautbahn auf Berliner Gebiet mit Halt im Märkischen Viertel ist zur Zeit ein heißes Thema, dass z.B. auch im Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin diskutiert wird. Die NEB erwartet auch den baldigen Abschluss eines Planfeststellungsverfahrens für die Einbindung ihrer Strecke im Bereich Wilhelmsruh, so dass Züge bis Gesundbrunnen fahren und dort enden können.
Ich wollte eigentlich noch fragen, warum die RB12 (Templin – Oranienburg – Bln-Lichtenberg) nicht auch in Gesundbrunnen endet und warum die drei Linien (RE3, RE5, IC) auf der Stettiner Bahn so kurz hintereinander fahren und Verspätungen immer so schnell aufeinander übertragen, aber diese Fragen haben nicht so gut zur Runde gepasst und ich hebe sie mir für nächstes Jahr auf. Vermutlich liegt die Fahrplanlage an der Durchbindung über die hoch belastete Anhalter Bahn. Dann würde sich wohl auch im Norden von Berlin die Fahrplanung verbessern, wenn die Dresdner Bahn endlich wieder aufgebaut würde. (Die Frage nach diesem ewigem Leidpunkt haben sich alle Anwesenden verkniffen.)

bake to the roots

2010-09-11T16:23:00.001-04:00

Last week I chopped some potatoes, yams, and carottes; shaked them up with oil, herbs, and spices; then baked them in the pre-heated oven.

Delicious and so simple!

Next time I shall try to add some celery to this mix.

My Berlin commute

2010-06-28T19:25:00.000-04:00

My new work and my current temporary home are on the same street - only 13 km apart. The street changes names a couple times as it traverses severals boroughs of Berlin, but it's really a straight ride, mostly with good bike lanes on the street or sidewalk. Despite being totally inside the city, the density of traffic lights on this road is rather low and so I travel much faster on my bike than I would in Toronto. It's also totally flat!

Yesterday, I even found a nicer route that uses quieter streets:

View Larger Map

Moving to Berlin is a real improvement in terms of quality of life! And the route to the sailing club is even better, half of it leading right through the Grunewald forest.

literal arrays and lists in Java

2010-06-01T05:14:00.002-04:00

In Python and other modern languages, you can say things like:

for x in ['cat', 'window', 'defenestrate']:
    print x, len(x)

In Java, there is no direct syntax for array or list literals. The only thing that Java has are “Array Initializers” that can be used right where an array is declared. Thus the above Python code becomes:

String[] xs = {"cat", "window", "defenestrate"};
for (String x : xs)
    System.out.println(x);

For people who need a lot of literal arrays, this can be a bother, especially when you need small arrays on the inside of expressions. Fortunately, Java's new “variable length argument lists” can help here, because they transform any number of arguments into just.... an array. So this little helper function does the job:

static  T[] array(T... elems)
{
    return elems;
}

Now I can happily write:

for (String x : array("cat", "window", "defenestrate")) 
       System.out.println(x);

Java's standard library even provides a function to create literal lists. Ironically this function is placed in class Arrays although it neither eats nor produces an array.

public static  List asList(T... a)

The nice thing about this factory method is that it provides a list which is backed by an array, so you get a list of fixed size – that saves a little bit of memory and can be useful in some situations. Unfortunately, the documentation says nothing about what happens when you call size-changing methods (like add()) on the resulting list. It's a typical omission of the Java documentation. One has to figure out all the details by oneself. Unfortunately, many Java programmers don't even know that there are such details and then they are surprised when it hits them.

I just did a quick history research. It seems that the helpful function asList(...) exists in Java at least since 1998 (Java 1.2, with the Collections framework). Given that Java really became famous around and after this time, it is really deplorable, that most Java tutorials introduce lists like this:

List ls = new ArrayList();
ls.add(1);
ls.add(2);
for ( Integer i : ls )
    // do stuff

When they instead could write:

for ( Integer i : Arrays.asList(1, 2) )
    // do stuff

Admittedly, the “for ( i : ls )” syntax and variables length argument lists have only been deployed with Java 1.5 in 2004. Curiously, the simplified for loop has become widespread already, while varargs and list literals haven't.

Update: I was about to edit my program to make use of the simplified syntax when I discovered, that Java has anonymous array literals after all. I used Ecplise's “inline local variable” refactoring to get rid of the array dummy and what it produced was:

    return new Object[] {1, 2, 3};

Curious again: the feature is there (probably even since an early release), but people don't know about it!

pee day

2010-05-24T15:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday when I fed Dad's chicken, and pigeons, and rabbits I noticed the swallows in the barn and I thought to myself: “you swallows are nice, you sing your songs for free, I do not need to feed you guys."

Today, after having fed the chicken (including the cute little chicks) and the pigeons and as I was feeding the rabbits (which have a lot of youngsters, too, at this time of year), a swallow peed on my head. Photo proof to follow.

les mesures de temps au 18ème siècle

2010-05-01T07:54:00.001-04:00

Dans l'Histoire de sa vie Jacques Casanova nous raconte d'une conversation qu'il ait en 1749 dans la ville de Parme en Italie. À cette époque, Philip d'Espagne et devenu duc de Parme après la mort du dernier duc de la maison Farnèse.

Ma nièce Janeton n'étant pas jolie, j'ai poursuivi à faire babiller la mère. Je lui ai demandé si les Parmesans étaient contents d'être devenus sujets d'un Espagnol.
— Contents? Nous nous trouvons tous dans un vrai labyrinthe ; tout est bouleversé, nous ne savons pus où nous sommes. Heureux temps, où régnait la maison Farnèse, tu n'es plus ! [..] Nous sommes réduit à une confusion incroyable. Depuis trois mois il n'y a pus personne à Parme qui sache l'heure qu'il est.
Depuis que Dieu a fait e mode, e soleil s'est toujours couché à vingt-trois heures et demie, et à vingt-quatre on a toujours dit l'angélus ; et tous les honnêtes gens savaient qu'à cette heure-à on allumait la chandelle. Actuellement, c'est inconcevable. Le soleil est devenu fou : il se couche tous es jours à une heure différente. Nos paysans ne savent plus à quelle heure ils doivent venir au marché. On appelle cela un règlement : mais savez-vous pourquoi ? Parce qu'à présent tout le monde sait qu'on dîne à douze heures. Beau réglement ! Au temps des Farnèse on mangeait quand on avait faim et cela valait bien mieux.

Je pense à l'époque les montres et horloges n'étant pas très précis, il fallait les régler tous les jours. Pour cela faire on doit s'orienter dans la nature et le coucher du soleil était un événement bien lisible à ce but. Le régime espagnol (qui était aussi le régime français à l'époque) était le plus moderne. On s'oriente au midi – l'instant ou le soleil est le plus haut de le ciel – ce qui fait que chaque jour fait exactement 24 h. Le désavantage c'était qu'il faut des instruments pour déterminer c'était instant assez précisément. Je suppose que juste cela est devenu possible à l'époque, d'où le changement de régime.

Confession d'une femme

2010-04-26T18:13:00.000-04:00

Depuis que je me connais, je me suis trouvée toujours transportée par la volupté amoureuse. Quand je voyais un homme, j'étais enchantée de voir l'être qui étai la moitié de mon espèce né pour moi, moi étant faite pour lui, me tardant d'y être jointe pas le nœud du mariage. Je croyais que ce qu'on appelle amour venait après l'union ; et je fus surprise que mon mari me faisant devenir femme ne m'ait fait connaître la chose que par une douleur qui ne fut compensée par aucun plaisir. J'ai trouvé que mon imagination au couvent m'était d'une plus grande ressource. Il est arrivé de là que nous ne sommes devenus que bons amis, très froids, couchant rarement ensemble, et point curieux l'un de l'autre ; malgré cela, assez d'accord, puisque quand il veut de moi je suis toujours à ses ordres ; mais comme la pitance n'est pas assaisonnée par l'amour, il la trouve insipide : aussi ne la demande-t-il que lorsqu'il croit en avoir besoin. D'abord que je me suis aperçue que tu m'aimais, j'en fus bien aise, et je t'ai fourni toutes les occasions de devenir toujours plus amoureux, sûre de mon côté que je ne t'aimerais jamais ; mais quand j'ai vu que je m'étais trompée, et que je devenais amoureuse aussi, j'ai commencé à te maltraiter, comme pour te punir de m'avoir rendue sensible. Ta patience et ta résistance m'ont étonné en même temps que fait reconnaître mon tort, et après le premier baiser je ne me suis plus trouvée maîtresse de moi-même. Je ne savais pas qu'un baiser pouvait être d'une si grande conséquence. Je fus convaincue que je ne pouvais me faire heureuse qu'en te rendant heureux. Cela m'a flattée et plu, et j'ai reconnu principalement dans cette nuit que je ne le suis qu'autant que je vois que tu l'es.

extrait de: L'histoire de la vie de Jacques Casanova, écrite par lui-même à Dux en Bohème, ca. 1790, Vol. 2, chap. V–VI, p. 168

the better bike odometer, part II

2010-03-29T03:54:00.001-04:00

While my original idea in making up the bike electro-mechanic odometer described in the last past was to get rid of batteries on a bike, a friend told me that for ordinary people getting rid of the spoke sensor of the classical odometer is a much better selling point for the hub-dynamo driven odometer. Batteries in bike odometers usually last several years, so there is little pragmatic need to rid of them. I also agree with him that most people will probably prefer a digital odometer (much resembling the ones on the market now) to a mechanical one. While I still think that an electro-mechanic odometer would be a nice luxury bike component (just like Swiss mechanical watches are still a popular accessory among the rich elite), a more traditional digital odometer would be much easier (and cheaper) to make and could offer the features at the same price as state-of-the-art current odometer – just that it dispenses with the spoke-sensor and batteries.

My friend and I have come up with two ways to make a sensor-less and battery-less odometer: first is to use off-the-shelf generic components like a dot-matrix LCD and micro-controller – this allows us to build an experimental prototype at low cost as well as some practical devices for our own bike at an affordable price. We agreed to build this together just for fun!

If we ever were to commercialize it, however, we would need to drop to price to the same €20 range as current commercial models which requires custom-made components that are mass-produced with high initial investment cost. Personally I think there could be a middle way by re-using the shell and LCD of a cheap generic odometer and just replace the electronics with ours. In Europe (at least Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) hub dynamos are now common place on utilitarian and travel bicycles and even on some sport bicycles. (That's because dynamo-lights are legally mandated for bikes used in public traffic and hub dynamos have replaced all other dynamos on new bikes.) Therefore the market for a spoke-sensor-free and battery-free bike odometer is huge. There are currently ca. 5 million new bikes sold in Germany each year and the amount is probably the same in the sum of the other four countries mentioned. If half of those bikes has a hub dynamo then that's 5 million potential odometer-buyers each year just in those five countries!

a reliable and sleek bicycle odometer

2010-03-21T17:45:00.005-04:00

Knowing how far you've gone is very useful when cycling. It can help you find your way with the help of a map (for ex. to “turn right after 1.5 km”), find which of a set of alternative routes is shorter, know how much workout you had, and estimate how far you still have to go on your trip. A classical odometer offers two counters, one resettable “trip” counter and one non-resettable “lifetime” counter, both having their own scale. The odometer proposed here shows just those two counters in the form of black digits printed on a white background, the digits sliding behind a little window. This has the advantage of being very readable, high-contrast, good-looking, robust and not using any power to display the numbers. The counting up is done using impulses from the bicycles hub dynamo and uses almost no power from the wheels. Resetting the trip counter is done mechanically with the user's gesture being the power-source. This construction ensures that the counter always displays the current mileage and is resettable even when the bike is not running or has not been running for a long time.

Here are some advantages of the proposed odometer:

high readability, always-on display
ease of use with only one dial (or button) to reset the counter
no parts attached to the bike wheels; only a small cable branching of the lighting system
no battery needed, therefore no need to swap batteries
very little energy use which does not noticeably increase the loss power of a normal hub dynamo
handle-bar mounting in-between brake lever and grips for sleek design, robustness, and discouraging theft

Here's a very sketchy drawing of how the odometer integrates with the handlebars. The top line shows XXX.X km and the bottom XX XX0 km.

And here some more detailed design information: the trip counter has four digits, the smallest counting 100 m. The life-time counter also has four digits with the smallest counting each 10 km. The longest trip will therefore be 999.9 km, which has been chosen because some people ride more than 100 km in a day and other might want to count trips of more than a day. The life-time counter will relapse to 0 after showing 99'990 km which is enough for most bicycles, although not enough for people who really ride a lot and keep the bike for more than a decade. (For an example see Rohloff Wanted day.) For those people there will be a luxury version of the counter with two times five digits: the trip counter measures each 10 m and the life-time counter goes up to 999'990 km. I would think that some people would buy this extended counter just to show off how far their bike is designed to go!

The two photos above show historic counters with little disks carrying the digits. To make the counter slimmer to integrate it better with the handlebars, the disks can be replaced by a little strip that turns around two pins as shown in the pseudo model on the right. Designing the electronics for this device will not be totally trivial because it has to deal with a wide variety of currents and voltages coming from the dynamo at different speeds and with lights on or off. There will several hidden digits to account for fractions of the distance displayed. Alternatively those values could be stored in some digital solid-state memory of a couple bits. In any case, storing this information won't use any power. The only power supply will be to increase the invisible counter which at every full interval will increase the visible counter. I wish I knew somebody who could figure those electronics out for me!

A variant with speedometer would use a classical needle to show the bike's current speed on a scale and it would additionally have a counter for the time of the current trip (accumulated time with speed >0). Then a second needle would show the average speed of the trip (which is the dividend of trip length and trip time so far). This second needle would be held in place with a gearing mechanism that doesn't need any power either. So when you stop the bike, the current speed will drop to 0 and stay there while the average will just stay where it was. When you sleep during a cold night that would drain any batteries and come back the next morning, the needle will still show your trip's average speed. I think that's reliability! And that's cool!

PS: Germersheim, I come!

U-Bahn Zürich

2010-03-18T09:23:00.002-04:00

Zürich gilt unter Verkehrsexperten als leuchtendes Beispiel für guten öffentlichen Nahverkehr, nicht zuletzt weil sich die Bürger in den 70er Jahren explizit gegen eine U-Bahn entschieden und damit das sehr benutzerfreundliche Tramnetzwerk erhielten. Andrew Moglestue hat eine interessante Zusammenfassung der Züricher Projekte für Tram-Tunnel (aus den 60ern) und U-Bahn (aus den 70ern).

Moderne Straßenbahn in der Innenstadt von Zürich. Man bemerke, dass diese Straße auch eine Fußgängerzone ist.

Manche glauben auch, dass Zürich damals eine einmalige Chance verpasst hat, eine U-Bahn einzuführen. Hat Zürich seine Zukunft verspielt? Dazu findet sich ersten Teil von Andrews Zürich: A city and its trams folgendes schönes Zitat: „Zürich's tram system has acquired an iconic status; 65% of people commuting within the city do so by public transport, with only 17% using cars [1].“ Dazu kann ich nur folgende einfache Frage stellen: welche Stadt, die eine U-Bahn hat, erreicht solch traumhafte Werte? In Westeuropa und Nordamerika kenne ich keine. In Asien gibt es das vielleicht, aber mit Peking und Manila will sich Zürich lieber nicht vergleichen.

Zwei S-Bahn-Züge in Zürich Stadelhofen

Die eher kleine Stadt Zürich hätte gern eine U-Bahn, um sich mit Stuttgart, München oder Wien vergleichen zu können. In dieser Größenordnung liegt Zürich – trotz seiner internationalen Bedeutung als Bankenzentrum und Shoppingvillage für neureiche Russen – nun mal aber nicht. Ein besserer Vergleich mögen die Städte Karlsruhe und Mannheim sein. Außerdem ist zu sehen, dass im Großraum Zürich nur ein Drittel der ca. eine Mio. Einwohner in Zürich selbst leben und zwei Drittel im Umland. In deutschen Großstädten ist das Verhältnis umgekehrt. In Berlin wohnt wohnen drei Viertel der Großraumbewohner in der Stadt selbst. (Und vom Rest viele allein in der Stadt Potsdam.) In München sind es immer noch mehr als die Hälfte. Nur Stuttgart hat ein zu Zürich ähnliches Verhältnis von Stadt und Umland. Dabei ist Stuttgart aber immer noch zwei bis drei Mal so groß.

Tram-Stau in Toronto. Wenn es in Zürich so aussähe wäre wohl eine U-Bahn gerechtfertigt.

Zuguterletzt sei nicht verschwiegen, dass auch in Zürich noch Optionen für Tram-Tunnel bestehen. So gibt es am Hauptbahnhof eine U-Bahn-Station aus den 70er Jahren, die zur Zeit für zwei S-Bahn-Linien benutzt wird, von denen eine (die Uetlibergbahn) das gleiche Stromsystem wie die Züricher Straßenbahn verwendet. Es ist also durchaus möglich, dass in dieser Station irgendwann einmal die Uetlibergbahn und Straßenbahn gemeinsam verkehren. So wie das die Forchbahn bereits tut.

neuer Kettenschutz für Speedy

2010-02-25T04:31:00.000-05:00

Speedy 2006 in Berlin

Nachdem mir mein Chainglider im letzten September abgefallen ist (genauer gesagt: er kam ein paar Mal zwischen Kette und Blatt und beim letzten Mal war er dann zerstört), suche ich jetzt nach einem neuen Kettenschutz. Den Chainglider würde ich gern wieder nehmen (und zwar mit einem zusätzlichen Clip, der das in-die-Kette-kommen verhindert; diese ist bei einigen Herstellern, z.B. Fahrradmanufaktur, sowieso schon Standard), allerdings möchte ich auch eine andere Blatt-/Ritzel-Kombination.

Der Grund ist ganz einfach: mein aktuelles Ritzel ist mit 14 Zähnen für die Shimano-Nexus-Schaltung eine Sonderanfertigung und sehr schwer zu ersetzen. Außerdem ist es durch meine erste, damals sehr gelängte Kette schon total verschlissen. Ich möchte jetzt hinten ein größeres Ritzel. Erstens, weil es einfach zu beschaffen ist und zweitens, weil bei so wenigen Zähnen jeder Zahn mehr den Verschleiß ei wenig verringert. (Zugegeben, hauptsächlich muss ich besser reinigen und nicht beim Reifenwechsel einen Haufen Sand ins innere des Chainglider schaufeln. Andere Leute haben wesentlich längere Kettenlebensdauern mit ihrem Chainglider erzielt, also warum sollte ich's nicht auch schaffen!?)

Übrigens noch zum Thema Chainglider und zwischen die Zähne kommen: ein Video von Hebie zeigt wie die neueste Variante durch einfache Klick-Verschlüsse noch besser hält. (Falls der Video-Link nicht funktioniert, hier Hebie's Webseite zum Chainglider.)

Jedenfalls soll es nun ein 15er oder 16er Ritzel für mich sein und ich bräuchte dann ein 45er oder 48er Kettenblatt, um dieselbe Übersetzung zu erreichen. Ich würde mich aber auch nicht scheuen, die Übersetzung etwas länger zu machen, etwa 46/15 oder 50/16. Den Chainglider gibt es jetzt auch in einer Variante für 44er Blätter, so dass ich 44/15 fahren könnte. Da dies aber etwas kürzer wäre als mein Status Quo, suche ich jetzt also nach Alternativen zum Chainglider. Die inoffizielle Aussage von Hebie, dass man auch über Chainglider für Falträder nachdenkt, hat für mich keinen Nutzen, da es ja dieses Jahr nun nichts mehr damit wird.

Dahons “biologic freedrive” (yeah!) am 2010 Mµ Uno

Bei Dahon hat man sich zur gleichen Zeit, nämlich neu für diese Saison, eine eigene Lösung entwickelt. Witzigerweise hatte ich gerade kurz vorher über die Zeitschrift Fahrradzukunft von diesem System erfahren.

Problem des Chainrunners ist allerdings, dass er mindestens ein 17er Ritzel braucht. Das könnte ich zwar theoretisch anbauen, aber mein Kettenblatt wäre dann mit 51 oder mehr Zähnen recht groß. (Obwohl – Brompton hat ja auch 52 Zähne an einem noch viel kleineren Fahrrad.)
Dahon's Mµ Uno kombiniert das System allerdings auch mit einem 16er Ritzel!
Zugegeben: in der 52/17 Variante wäre die Übersetzung etwas länger als jetzt und damit besser als 44/15 mit Hebie. Dazu kommt noch, dass Hebie kein offizielles 15er Endstück für Shimano hat, sondern dieses durch Zurechtschneiden eines speedhub-Endstückes erzeugt werden muss.

In Toronto habe ich letzten Herbst schon ein Fahrrad gesehen, an das jemand selbst ein Wellrohr gebaut hatte. Scheinbar sprechen sich unter Fahrrad-Bastlern manche Ideen noch schneller herum, als sie im Internet zu finden sind! Leider war ich nicht schnell genug, gleich nach Herkunft der Idee und genauen Parametern des Rohrs zu fragen. :-( Mein Vater sagt nämlich, dass die normalen Baumarkt-Wellrohre (Leerrohe zum Verlegen von Kabeln unter Putz usw.) bei Außentemperaturen zu schnell spröde werden und kaputt gehen.

Es sieht also wirklich danach aus, als ob dieses „Wellrohr aus dem Roboterbau“ die beste Lösung für mich wäre. Und nachdem der Chainglider nach mehr als 5 Jahren am Markt schon Standard bei Komfort- und einigen Reiserädern wurde, hätte ich dann auch wieder etwas besonderes: dem Trend um ein paar Jahre voraus.

one-button usability

2010-02-12T02:09:00.000-05:00

My sister has a very well designed electronic kitchen scale which has only a single button to perform three functions:

switch it on and off
subtract container weight, that is, switch from gross to net weight
calibrate the scale

How does this magic work? The single button is labeled “On Off Tara”. When the scale is off, pressing the button will switch it on and calibrate it to show a weight of 0. When it is on and showing 0, pressing the button will switch it off. In all other cases, pressing the button will recalibrate the scale to show 0, such that when adding more things to weigh, only the added weight will be shown.

This design is not just ingeniously simple, it is also quite robust with regard to the order of steps. For example, one can first put an empty container on the scale, then switch it on, and it will automatically start from 0 to measure what you actually want to weigh.

TV-incited violence vs. Gross National Happiness (must-read for anybody with a social conscience!)

2010-02-10T02:32:00.002-05:00

Four years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences. Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy report from a country crash-landing in the 21st century

Here are some excerpts from a 2003 Guardian article about the effects of TV in the country of Bhutan. It is impossible to imagine how a modern Western country would be without TV. Bhutan, however, was without TV until 1999 – it's introduction to the country provides an unprecedented and unique opportunity for study.
The article "Fast forward into trouble" is much longer and here are only some of the most interesting pieces.

April 2002 was a turbulent month for the people of Bhutan. One of the remotest nations in the world, perched high in the snowlines of the Himalayas, suffered a crime wave. The 700,000 inhabitants of a kingdom that calls itself the Land of the Thunder Dragon had never experienced serious law-breaking before. Yet now there were reports from many towns and villages of fraud, violence and even murder.
The Bhutanese had always been proud of their incorruptible officials - until Parop Tshering, the 42-year-old chief accountant of the State Trading Corporation, was charged on April 5 with embezzling 4.5m ngultrums (£70,000). Every aspect of Bhutanese life is steeped in Himalayan Buddhism, and yet on April 13 the Royal Bhutan police began searching the provincial town of Mongar for thieves who had vandalised and robbed three of the country's most ancient stupas. Three days later in Thimphu, Bhutan's sedate capital, where overindulgence in rice wine had been the only social vice, Dorje, a 37-year-old truck driver, bludgeoned his wife to death after she discovered he was addicted to heroin. In Bhutan, family welfare has always come first; then, on April 28, Sonam, a 42-year-old farmer, drove his terrified in-laws off a cliff in a drunken rage, killing his niece and injuring his sister.

Before 1999, Bhutan's society and politics was much different from every other country in the world:

"We wanted a goal different from the material concept of maximizing gross national product pursued by western governments," [Bhutan's foreign minister] says with a beatific smile. "His Majesty decided that, as a spiritual society, happiness was the most important thing for us - something that had never been discussed before as a policy goal or pronounced as the responsibility of the state." And so, in 1998, the Dragon King defined his nation's guiding principle as Gross National Happiness.

The marijuana that flourishes like a weed in every Bhutanese hedgerow was only ever used to feed pigs before the advent of TV, but police have arrested hundreds for smoking it in recent years. Six employees of the Bank of Bhutan have been sentenced for siphoning off 2.4m ngultrums (£40,000). Six weeks before we arrived, 18 people were jailed after a gang of drunken boys broke into houses to steal foreign currency and a 21-inch television set. During the holy Bishwa Karma Puja celebrations, a man was stabbed in the stomach in a fight over alcohol. A middle-class Thimphu boy is serving a sentence after putting on a bandanna and shooting up the ceiling of a local bar with his dad's new gun. Police can barely control the fights at the new hip-hop night on Saturdays.

While the government delays, an independent group of Bhutanese academics has carried out its own impact study and found that cable television has caused "dramatic changes" to society, being responsible for increasing crime, corruption, an uncontrolled desire for western products, and changing attitudes to love and relationships. Dorji Penjore, one of the researchers involved in the study, says: "Even my children are changing. They are fighting in the playground, imitating techniques they see on World Wrestling Federation. Some have already been injured, as they do not understand that what they see is not real. When I was growing up, WWF meant World Wide Fund for Nature."

It is so early in the morning that the birds are still asleep. But Sangay Ngedup, minister for health and education, has been on the path for hours. His gho is bunched beneath his backpack, and a badge with the king's smiling face is pinned on to his baseball hat. In the past 15 days, he has climbed and scrambled over some of the world's most extreme terrain, from sea level to a rarefied 13,500ft in the Bhutanese Himalayas. Is there anywhere else in the world where a cabinet minister would trek 560km to warn people against becoming a nation of couch potatoes? "We used to think nothing of walking three days to see our in-laws," he says. "Now we can't even be bothered to walk to the end of Norzin Lam high street."

For the first time, he says, children are confiding in their teachers of feeling manic, envious and stressed. Boys have been caught mugging for cash. A girl was discovered prostituting herself for pocket money in a hotel in the southern town of Phuents-holing. "We have had to send teachers to Canada to be trained as professional counsellors," says Sangay Ngedup. This march is not just against a sedentary lifestyle; it is a protest against the values of the cable channels. One child's placard proclaims, "Use dope, no hope." "Breast is best," a girl shouts. "Enjoy the gift of sex with condoms," reads a toddler's T-shirt.

Bhutan's isolation has made the impact of television all the clearer, even if the government chooses to ignore it. Consider the results of the unofficial impact study. One third of girls now want to look more American (whiter skin, blond hair). A similar proportion have new approaches to relationships (boyfriends not husbands, sex not marriage). More than 35% of parents prefer to watch TV than talk to their children. Almost 50% of the children watch for up to 12 hours a day. Is this how we came to live in our Big Brother society, mesmerized by the fate of minor celebrities fighting in the jungle?
Everyone is as yet too polite to say it, but, like all of us, the Dragon King underestimated the power of TV, perceiving it as a benign and controllable force, allowing it free rein, believing that his kingdom's culture was strong enough to resist its messages. But television is a portal, and in Bhutan it is systematically replacing one culture with another, skewing the notion of Gross National Happiness, persuading a nation of novice Buddhist consumers to become preoccupied with themselves, rather than searching for their self.

In our Western culture it is only a recent trend introduced by a small elite to see happiness, not material wealth, as society's goal. Here are some of my earlier posts on happiness:

happiness and new year's resolution (quoting psychologist Martin Seligman)
on the fate of humanity (quoting economist Richard Layard)

Ein inszenierter Spatenstich ist noch kein echter Baubeginn

2010-02-05T14:40:00.000-05:00

"Der frisst vier Milliarden für vier Minuten" – Tübingens Oberbürgermeister zum Baustart von "Stuttgart 21"

BUND: Spatenstich ist eine Posse – Widerstand gegen Stuttgart 21 geht weiter
Zitat: „Das Luftschloss Stuttgart 21 wird noch vor der Landtagswahl 2011 platzen wie ein Luftballon“

Da bin ich ja erstmal beruhigt!

I have no opinion in the climate debate

2010-02-04T03:15:00.000-05:00

Having no opinion in the climate debate means that I can be friends with people from either side of the fence. And if Armageddon comes, maybe friends are something good to have!
But it since climate and energy are a hot topic today anyways, I'll read a bit about it, and when I read, then I prefer numbers to adjectives.

Stuttgart 21 – sind wir noch zu retten?

2010-01-05T08:30:00.000-05:00

Man stelle sich vor, wie die Welt – insbesondere die Eisenbahnwelt in Baden-Württemberg – im Jahr 2020 aussieht, wenn Stuttgart 21 eröffnet wurde. Ein neuer Hauptbahnhof unterirdisch mit nur acht Gleisen, bei weitem nicht für einen Integralen Taktfahrplan geeignet und auch nicht flexibel genug, um auf Verspätungen von Zügen zu reagieren. Es sollen hier also Milliarden investiert werden, um Fahrt zwischen Mannheim und Ulm um weitere 3 bis 4 Minuten zu beschleunigen, wobei aber in Kauf genommen wird, dass der zu kleine Bahnhof in vielen Relationen die Umsteigezeiten um wesentlich mehr verlängern wird. Und bei Verspätungen wird es zur Regel, dass Züge mitten im dunklen Tunnel vor dem Bahnhof stehen bleiben, um auf das frei werden eines Bahnsteiggleises zu warten. Und wenn der Zug dann endlich am Bahnsteig hält, ist der Anschlusszug auf dem anderen Gleis wahrscheinlich auch schon weggefahren – konnte nicht warten, weil auch dort schon das Gleis für den nächsten Zug freigegeben werden musste! Auf den schmalen unterirdischen Bahnsteigen stauen sich die Reisenden, weil Passagiere eines Zuges noch nicht alle weg sind, wenn der nächste schon kommt.

Und diese gesamte Verschlechterung der Verkehrsqualität in Stuttgart wird gezahlt mit mindestens vier Milliarden Euro, wahrscheinlich aber mehr als sechs Milliarden, die fast ausschließlich aus Steuergeldern kommen. Die Bahn als Unternehmen ist Hauptprofiteur, weil sich die Betriebsabläufe in einem Durchgangsbahnhof vereinfachen und dadurch die Betriebskosten sinken. Die Bahn selbst zahlt aber den geringsten Beitrag!

Neben all dem Dreck und Lärm, Zerstörung eines Kulturdenkmals in Form des Bonatz-Empfangsgebäudes und der Grundwasservereisung, welche die Stuttgarter in den nächsten zehn Jahren doch bitte aushalten sollen, werden die dafür verschwendeten Geldmittel an anderer Stelle schmerzhaft fehlen. Auf Seiten der Bundesmittel sind dies vor allem die Neubaustrecke Frankfurt–Mannheim und andere Projekte auf der gesamten Achse Amsterdam–Stuttgart–München–Salzburg, sowie Paris–Stuttgart–München–Salzburg. Für den Preis von Stuttgart 21 und der Neubaustrecke Wendlingen–Ulm könnte man die gesamte Achse Strassburg/Frankfurt–Stuttgart–Ulm–Augsburg–München auf Hochgeschwindigkeit (230 bis 300 km/h) ausbauen. All diese Projekte werden sich durch Stuttgart 21 verzögern. Noch schlimmer sieht es aber für die öffentlichen Haushalte des Landes Baden-Württemberg und der Stadt Stuttgart aus: sie werden durch die Ausgaben hoch belastet und insbesondere der öffentliche Verkehr muss wohl darunter leiden. Stuttgart 21 führt zu Stau auf den Schienen im Ländle und im ganzen Land!

Aber noch ist es nicht zu spät: die jüngsten Einsparungen, die sich die Bahn hat ausdenken müssen, um nicht schon vor dem Baubeginn die erwarteten Kosten zu überschreiten, wurden vom Eisenbahnbundesamt noch nicht genehmigt. Das Gesamtprojekt kann also durchaus noch ins Stolpern kommen und bei bleibendem Widerstand von Bürgern und Interessenverbänden vielleicht sogar noch gestoppt werden. Es sollte ein jeder dazu tun, was er kann!

Do what you love and starve?

2009-12-01T19:48:00.002-05:00

Personal Prelude

A couple of years I ago, I read Steve Job's Stanford commencement address “You've got to find what you love”.
This inspired me to not give up my dreams and try to live my passion. Despite my parent's cautioning to get a simple and steady job, I worked for an IT consulting company after graduation and the loads of prestige and money of this profession kept me happy for a while. (I also have to admit that many of my job tasks were interesting and the climate at the company was also excellent.) But then things didn't go as well, a had an assignment that I didn't like, working all on my own. I felt very unhappy, so I decided to take on my old dream of revolutionizing computer programming and applied for grad school. I already had a plan for my research work and I applied directly to the professor who's theories I was going to use.

A year later I started grad school, I took interesting courses, did some TA'ing and most importantly worked on the research that I wanted to work on since my undergrad, but had previously never found anybody to work with. It was a flying start and me and my professor refined my idea into a blueprint for a programming tool that seemed really great. But just as all complicated projects, it had lots of corners and special cases which I couldn't all get into a single clean framework. I was quite disappointed because I had aspired to create a theory that was as simple and beautiful as the very foundational theories of Computer Science which had inspired me to work in research in the first place. Furthermore, although other students in my lab were quite enthusiastic about my research and eager to see my results, I couldn't manage to get any of them closer involved and collaborate with me. Frankly, I was not very open either and tried to find the perfect technical solution for every small subproblem in the way. I slowed down big time and probably seemed very closed and distracted to my lab mates, instead of open-minded and welcoming their collaboration.

How to do what you love

So I started to think about the “do what you love” idea again. At that time, I really loved my research ideas and I still think this project is a great thing to do and would be a great contribution to the world of research in general. But somehow I couldn't deal with the research world and I just couldn't get myself to write that Master's thesis that was the next step in my academic career. I thought about it a long time: how can I get myself to write? I know that rewards don't work for me. I know that getting rid of distraction doesn't work for me (because I will just fall asleep)... so I decided to give up. If I am that bad at what I am doing, it really only makes me depressed. So what does it mean to do what you love? And should one try to do it?

Good articles on the subject are very controversial:

Paul Graham explains: How to Do What You Love
Marty Nemko asks: Do What You Love and Starve?
And Penelope Trunk argues that it's a Bad career advice [to] do what you love
She instead tells us How to figure out what you should be doing with your life

I found it especially interesting that the latter two posts are from the same author and seem to be contradictory at first.

But after I thought about all those things, I think that the contradictions can be resolved. In brief, yes, you should like your work in the sense that you should like doing most of the things that your work requires you to do. But not everybody can make their favorite pass time into a job. There are simply many more people who like to make music (or other forms of art) than people who actually can make a living of it. There are also more amateur athletes than professional athletes, more cinema lovers than professional critics, more sport fans than professional sport reporters. Many people like photography, but very few can do it for money.
I personally like writing so much that I keep a public blog and don't expect to make money from it. They only thing I wish, is to get in touch with people who have similar ideas as I do. Connect, exchange, and communicate. It didn't happen much yet, but I am truly happy about every blog comment that I receive.

A job versus a hobby

Obviously, making money from you favorite pass-time can't work for everybody just because too many people share the same pass-time. Those who can make money from it, are either really good (rock stars), get only little money and possibly need other jobs to make a living (many of the artists in the Fringe festivals, for example), or they have a really hard job which drains a lot of time and energy, probably with most of the job tasks not being the one activity that they actually like. (See Nemko's piece about this.)

If you think about “doing what you love” in the sense that many people love the same things and only few people can do them, the world seems like a zero-sum game: only a few people get the great jobs as rock stars, movie critics, video game testers, photographs, or president of the United States, for that matter. All the others would lose out. But that's obviously not the best way to view things. There is, in fact, some distinction between work and play. And most importantly, the challenge to “find what you love” applies to both! As much as one can be stuck in a stupid and unfulfilling career that sounded great when one was young, one could be stuck with some stupid and unfulfilling hobby, such as golf, just because it's the thing people do, but one never took the time to actually find something interesting!

I think that it's indeed very important to experiment with new activities to find what one really likes to do. Having a truly interesting and satisfying hobby is important for one's happiness and life balance for many reasons. Nobody would stop doing a great activity just because they couldn't make money from it! New and interesting hobbies will not pay you in cash, but they make you happy and thus make you a better person, too! And if you develop a habit of experimenting with new things, this helps your professional life as much as your private life.

In reality, many people achieve a good work live balance by making at least some money from their hobby: I know a person who loves photographing and vowed to get at least enough photo jobs to pay for his camera. I also played at a volunteer theater company where we made just enough money to pay for all our costumes and props. And I know of a sailing school where some instructors teach for free; to them this is not working for free, but getting to sail without paying for the boat! Some people also do not make money by doing what they like, but they save money doing it: this is the case for people who do repairs on their own house, their own computer, their own bike; or those who love to cook and bake or knit and tailor. Those are all just hobbies, but they have an economic impact. For one thing, they encourage people to take a job that leaves them more free-time at the expense of less pay, because those people have inexpensive (or zero-cost) pass-times and all they need to be happy is to spend their time as they please.

And finding those hobbies that make you truly happy is as important a life-task as finding the right career.

Power and prestige

I hope I have convinced my readers now that your job doesn't need to be the thing that you love to do most! Once you assume that your job is mostly there to make money and leave you lots of free time, you might think that it would be best to go for a career with the highest hourly pay. Go for the money! But unfortunately it isn't that simple either. Besides taking your time, work also drains your energy and you don't want to be all drained out by the time you leave your workplace and head to your playground. I think there is still a fundamental problem with people having too little of a clue what different jobs are about and what skills and personality they need.

A large part of the problem is that some jobs are very well-known (and although most people wouldn't do them as a hobby) they are still very much sought-after. Some people call those the “prestigious” jobs which I think is entirely befitting. The prestigious jobs are usually what kids come up with when they have to pick a career. Lawyer, doctor, pilot, all those people you see on TV! Marty Nemko's post cited above makes a good point about how to avoid those jobs and instead going for something rather unknown, which most people wouldn't even think about as a career. As it turns out, if a job is both not well-known and not very easy, it often pays actually pretty well!

When it comes to jobs, prejudices go around just as much as they do about pass-times. Only that it is much harder to actually try something and find out what it really is like. If “doing what you love” and “finding meaning in life” are needs fulfilled by your pass-times, your family, volunteering, and your social life, what are the criteria left to find a job? Obviously, it should pay appropriately, also it should not burn you out or take too much time, furthermore it should not come with any cranky office politics or other inappropriate stress, also it should be legal and ethical. Finally for many people it's also good to have a bit of challenge on the job, but it doesn't need to be super-exciting, since that's what your hobbies are for.
A word about ethical jobs: what I mean is that it not should involve any semi-legal scams such as selling unnecessary stuff to senile old people. I don't mean that every job must work to make the world a better place, e.g. by saving the environment or making sick people well. This is too much asked of a job and better left to volunteering (except for the few who actually can make money that way). All I mean by ethical is ‘fair’.

Where am I going now?

I think that my first career choice as IT consultant was both driven by a desire for money and for prestige. The second one as an academic research was driven by making my pass-time “having ideas” into a career, and obviously by dreams of becoming a famous inventor/professor. Both times I was lucky enough to get just what I wanted (or desired): I got the job, a got admitted to grad school – but neither seemed to be the right thing. Now I hope that I am smart enough to make my next choice closer to what I actually need. In career just as in other parts of life, what we need to make us happy is not always what we think it is. The “need” can be just the opposite of the “desire”. That's why we have to experiment so much. That's why we have to question our believes and find out what part is just cultural perception and external pressure and who we are really on our inside. (Did I want to go consulting just to show my parents that I can do it? Are they right and I should rather take a simple and steady job? In any case I'd rather suffer all my life in bad jobs than admitting that my parents were right; ha!)
Our current culture does just not recognize enough how different people are and there is unfortunately almost no popular knowlegde on how exactly people are different. In our age people have a lot of useless knowledge (starting from things we learn in school and never need in our lives, going to a lot of pop culture and celebrity gossip). But, unfortunately, most people know much too little about themselves. Part of why I have this blog, is to learn more about myself.

grad school memories, part X

2009-12-01T18:14:00.000-05:00

α) It's better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.

β) It's okay to fail as long as you tried as hard as possibly could. (I don't claim I did!)

γ) Procrastination is okay, but is has to be limited and most importantly: the desire to procrastinate a lot has to be taken as a sign that something is wrong with the work and this has to be fixed!

δ) Everybody has their limits in what they can achieve. The question is not how big or small your limits are, but how you can expand them – and the latter is usually done by overcoming bad habits.

ε) Everybody has to live with the talent they have – the only thing we can change are our attitudes and our habits.

ζ) If you are stuck on a small problem, you might just take a break (procrastinate, yay!) and try again later.

η) But if you are stuck on a bigger problem, procrastination doesn't help. First of all, you need to embrace the new problem as a challenge. Then you get out your toolbox to attack it systematically.

If something seems harder than it should be, that doesn't necessarily mean, you're on the wrong track. If in doubt, check back with someone to confirm your approach. Doubting which way to go is a bad thing likely to stop you, or waste a lot of time.
For me it seems the best way to get out of a circle of doubt is to talk through all the options with someone on a technical level. In other words: get help.
Before I came to Toronto, I never had anybody interested and knowledgeable in my specific field of research. And in Toronto I think I didn't get as much advice from my advisor as I should have.

While I don't want to whine about all the things I've done wrong in grad school, I would really like to draw some lessons, so I take something useful away from my experience. But how would this experience be useful for me later? I clearly do not want an academic career and not another try at a PhD either! But I seem to be attracted by small challenges and I might encounter those at work or other places and it'd be good if I could attack those without biting my teeth out again. Since I don't seem to like mixing work and challenges, I will have Wikipedia and Opensource projects as my playground to achieve great things. Even in the few Opensource programs that I am using everyday, there's quite a few long-standing bugs and missing features that need fixing – since nobody done that yet, I suppose it ain't easy – thus a possible small challenge for me.

So my hope is that despite not having achieved my research goal, I can somehow make use of he experience later. Whether my research work is carried on by others or not, is out of my control. But my experience belongs to me and I should make the very best use of it.

People see me very sad when I talk about my failure in research and thus my failure in Toronto. But this disappointment with research doesn't mean that I didn't have a great time here. I met great people, I had great sails and great bike rides. I took interesting classes (favorites: computational linguistics with Gerald Penn, and network architectures with Yashar Ganjali) and attended inspiring talks (favorites: Louis von Ahn about human computation, Alan Kay about wholesome software architecture, as I call it; and special price for best presentation paired with most appalling content: Damian Convey on some Perl stuff).
Despite this, I am still somewhat upset because life is not about fun alone. And the main reason I came here –for what it's worth– was my research project. And part of why I am leaving now is that that's what most students do after graduating. TO might be a great place to live (that is, to sail), but for me it's first of all the place of my research project which is now about to end.

ICE am Flughafen München: eher nach Prag als nach Salzburg

2009-11-26T16:44:00.001-05:00

Mein Blogeintrag von letzter Woche über die Schienen-Regional-Anbindung von MUC, dem Flughafen München, ist zwar interessant and hat ein hübsches Bild, aber mittlerweile glaube ich nicht mehr daran, dass er realistisch ist. Das liegt nicht am einen Tag später von der Bayr. Regierung veröffentlichten Gutachten, welches ganz im Gegenteil sogar ganz ähnliche Linienpläne wie ich zeichnet. Nein, das Gutachten ist sogar ebenso über-optimistisch wie ich es war. Aber wenn man sich die Hintergründe der verschiedenen Streckenprojekte anschaut, so ist es doch nicht mehr ganz stimmig. Das merkte ich, als die Informationen zum Schienenprojekt „Ausbaustrecke 38“ München–Mühldorf–Freilassing(–Salzburg) in der Wikipedia nachlas. Das Projekt dient hauptsächlich als Umgehungsstrecke für München–Rosenheim–Salzburg, welche durch den geplanten Brennerbasistunnel zukünftig überlastet sein wird. Dieser Streckenausbau ist schon seit den 80er Jahren im Bundesverkehrswegeplan enthalten und daher wird allgemein davon ausgegangen, dass er mittelfristig realisiert wird und das dadurch die Verbindung München–Salzburg ganz natürlich am Flughafen vorbeiführt. Die Realität ist aber: mit der Brenner-Strecke ist nicht vor dem Jahr 2030 zu rechnen, daher ist der Ausbau über Mühldorf auch nicht eilig. Außerdem zeigt das Preisschild 2 800 Mio. Euro. Damit befinden wir uns fast schon in den Regionen einer ICE-Neubaustrecke! Und weil sich ja die Bahn und die Bundesregierung einig sind, zunächst die neuen Strecken Frankfurt–Mannheim (neue Riedbahn) und Stuttgart–Ulm zu bauen, wird man diese 2,8 Milliarden nicht mal so schnell übrige haben. Zumal die Verbindung München–Salzburg über Rosenheim noch sehr zufriedenstellend ist – nur eben führt sie nicht am Flughafen vorbei!

Nun zum zweiten Teil: andere Projekte sind schon viel weiter fortgeschritten als unsere ABS 38. Im Bau und bald fertig (lange bevor die Durchbindung zum Flughafen möglich sein wird) ist der vier- bis sechs-gleisige Ausbau Augsburg–München. Damit wird zukünftig die Fahrplanlage der Regionalzüge aus Augsburg so entspannt, dass sie zur Durchbindung zum Flughafen erste Wahl wären!
Außerdem ab nächstem Jahr im Bau: die Elektrifizierung der Strecke München–Memmingen–Lindau(–Zürich) mit geplanter Fertigstellung 2015. Diese dient dem Zulauf zum neuen Gotthardtunnel, welcher im Bau bereits gut fortgeschritten ist. (Die Schweizer haben mit dem Tunneln früher begonnen als die Östereicher!) Damit wären Fernzüge aus Zürich und Regionalzüge aus dem Allgäu auch elektrisch und hätten die Erlaubnis durch einen Tunnel zum Flughafen zu fahren.
Und zuguterletzt: die Donau-Moldau-Bahn München–Regensburg–Pilsen–Prag wird auch ausgebaut und elektrifiziert. Der Bau hat noch nicht begonnen, soll aber angeblich auch schon 2016 fertig sein. In jedem Fall führt das Teilstück München–Regensburg über Freising und eine Einbindung in den Münchner Flughafen böte sich an! Man könnte sogar einen Eurocity Zürich–München–Prag über den Flughafen verkehren lassen! Im Gegensatz zu den Salzburger ICE stehen für alle diese Maßnahmen schon Gelder bereit und die Fertigstellung ist gesichert (wenn man auch mit Verzögerungen rechnen mag).

Der Plan der Bayr. Regierung scheint allerdings zu sein, die Strecke nach Salzburg zunächst zweigleisig auszubauen und nicht zu elektrifizieren. Damit gibt es dort wahrscheinlich keinen Fernverkehr, und es gibt auch keine Durchbindung nach München durch einen Tunnel. Außerdem schlagen die Gutachter den Ausbau der Strecke Ostbahnhof–Ismaning–Flughafen für Expresszüge zum Flughafen vor. Die beiden auf dieser Strecke vorhandenen Tunnel könnten Dieselzüge womöglich durchfahren. Wenn aber auch zwischen Zamdorf und Johanneskirchen ein 4,4 km langer Tunnel gebaut wird, müssen Dieselzüge wohl draußen bleiben. Daher kommt es wohl, dass die Regionalzüge aus Mühldorf im Plan der Gutachter nicht mehr nach München durchgebunden werden. Dies muss aber nicht zwangsläufig so bleiben!

Es bleibt für mich folgendes festzuhalten:

in jedem Fall wird am Flughafen ein viergleisiger Regionalbahnhof gebaut an dem in ferner Zukunft auch Fernzüge halten können. Preisschild: 320 Mio Euro.
höchst wahrscheinlich werden sich der Freistaat Bayern und seine Landeshauptstadt München darauf einigen, Express-Züge über die Ismaninger Strecke (jetzige S8) von der Stadt zu diesem Regionalbahnhof verkehren zu lassen, weil diese Strecke für den Güterverkehr und die S-Bahn ohnehin ausgebaut werden muss.
der Nordtunnel ist ohne Einbindung von ICE und elektrischer R-Bahn aus Mühldorf wenig sinnvoll – er bleibt aber als Option möglich, da der Ausbau der Ismaniger Strecke dazu nicht im Widerspruch steht. Also vielleicht Flughafenexpress 2016 und Nordtunnel 2035?
des Ministers Gutachter sahen auch vor, dass die Flughafenexpress-Züge über die zweite Stammstrecke der S-Bahn verkehren. Dazu ist zu sagen: der geplante zweite Tunnel über Marienhof wäre bis 2016 noch nicht fertig, der Flughafenexpress wäre also am Ostbahnhof gestrandet. Außerdem ergäbe sich das Problem, dass Regionalzüge und S-Bahnen unterschiedliche Bahnsteighöhen haben und nicht „barrierefrei“ dieselben Bahnsteige benutzen können. Die Barrierefreiheit ist Heute aber wichtig und teilweise gesetzlich vorgeschrieben. Man könnte für das Problem zwar möglicherweise eine neue Lösung erfinden, aber der Südring könnte beide Probleme lösen: dessen Regionalbahnteil könnte schon 2016 fertig sein, und er erlaubt von der S-Bahn getrennte Regionalbahnsteige am Ostbahnhof, Poccistraße (München Süd) und Hauptbahnhof.

Würde man also die beiden jeweils preisgünstigsten Lösungen „Flughafenexpress über Ismaning“ und „S-Bahn-Stammstrecke Südring“ realisieren so wäre der Bau auch am schnellsten abgeschlossen und der Nordtunnel bliebe als zusätzliche Option für 2035 bestehen. Der Nordtunnel wäre dann gleichzeitig die dritte S-Bahn-Stammstrecke und die Strecke für „München 21“ – der Durchbindung von Zügen unter dem Hauptbahnhof und der Innenstadt. Also haben wir einen realistischen Plan zur kurzfristigen Umsetzung, ohne uns die Option zum Träumen zu verbauen.

Bayerischer Flughafenexpress München

2009-11-18T23:09:00.004-05:00

Als ich vor ein paar Wochen zum ersten Mal von der Alternativplanung für einen Münchner Nordtunnel gehört habe (siehe damaliger Bericht), dachte ich viel darüber nach und fragte mich wie ein Flughafen-Express in München jemals rentabel sein kann, wenn parallel dazu noch Regionalzüge und ICEs und außerdem noch die S-Bahnen auf den existierenden Strecken fahren. Der Flughafenexpress soll Sonderservice (Einchecken in der Innenstadt) bieten und die kürzeste Fahrzeit und dafür etwas teurer sein. Sparsame Fluggäste werden also lieber den Regionalverkehr im Verbundtarif benutzen, was dem Flug-Express die Fahrgäste entzieht und ihn letztendlich noch teurer macht. Außerdem fahren ja zum Flughafen nicht nur Fluggäste, sondern auch für die 23'000 Arbeiter und Angestellten des Flughafens und naher Betriebe. Weitere 50'000 werden im Umfeld des Flughafens erwartet. (Quelle: Initiative Airport-Bahn Südostbayern) Und nicht alle Fluggäste kommen aus der Münchner Innenstadt, sondern sie kommen aus ganz München, dem Umland und allen Teilen Bayerns.

Daher dachte ich mir: wenn man schon den teuren Nordtunnel baut und damit teilweise wohl die für ein zukünftiges Projekt „München 21” reservierten Flächen verwendet, so soll man es auch gleich richtig machen und Regionalzüge im Bereich München durchbinden, so dass nicht nur durchgängige Verbindungen der Region zum Flughafen entstehen, sondern auch ein dichter Takt, der die Stadt selbst mit dem Flughafen verbindet. Diese Variante nutzt die Infrastruktur des Nordtunnels besser als ein exklusiver Flughafenexpress. Sie bietet mehr Direktverbindungen und mehr Anschlussmöglichkeiten.

Einen exklusiven Service kann der Flughafenexpress trotzdem noch bieten, zum Beispiel durch zusätzliche mehrsprachige Zugbegleiter zwischen München und dem Flughafen und Hilfe beim Transport von Gepäck. Außerdem wird der 15-Minuten-Takt zwischen Stadt und Flughafen auch in der Nebenverkehrszeit aufrecht erhalten, wenn die Regionalzüge nur stündlich fahren. Entweder durch Durchbindung anderen Linien oder Einsatz von Pendelzügen ab Hauptbahnhof. Diese zusätzlichen Züge können je nach Bedarf nicht nur am Flughafen wenden, sondern auch bis Erding, Freising (oder Moosburg) weiterfahren. Hier mal eine Skizze, wie ein Linienkonzept aussehen könnte. (Eigentlich ist dieser ganze Beitrag ja nur eine Ausrede, einmal Inkscape auszuprobieren!)

Zur Erklärung der Abbildung: Der Nordtunnel soll vom Hauptbahnhof bis zum Münchner Nordring gegraben werden. An der Münchner Freiheit entsteht ein unterirdischer Regionalbahnhof. Vom Nordring zum Flughafen ist die Trasse größtenteils oberirdisch, wobei neue Bahnhöfe an der Allianz-Area und in Garching entstehen. Der Innenstadt-Tunnel wird von Regional-, Fern- und S-Bahnen genutzt. Ab Nordring verkehren nur noch Regional- und Fernzüge, so dass eine hohe Fahrtgeschwindigkeit erreicht wird. Der ICE fährt ohne Zwischenhalt von Hauptbahnhof bis Flughafen und ist damit natürlich am schnellsten, aber auch die RE-Züge erreichen mit Halt an Münchner Freiheit und Garching noch die für einen Flughafenexpress notwendig kurze Fahrzeit.

Auf einer weiteren Grafik habe ich auch die S-Bahn und zwei weitere Regional-Linien eingezeichnet, anhand der man gut erklären warum gerade die Linien aus Garmisch und Ingolstadt zur Durchbindung ausgewählt wurden und welche die S-Bahn-Strecken entlastet werden, so dass dort ein besseres Angebot möglich wird. Letzterer Vorteil des Nordtunnels wurde schon von Vieregg und Rössler genannt. Der RE Richtung Freising benutzt zur Zeit dieselbe Strecke wie die S-Bahn, welche aber überlastet ist und aufgrund vieler Ortsdurchfahrten nur sehr schwer auszubauen ist. Wenn der RE durch den Nordtunnel fährt, hat die S-Bahn endlich freie Trassen um im 15- oder 10-Minutentakt zu fahren! Ähnliches gilt für den RE Richtung Mühldorf, der bis Markt Schwaben die S-Bahnstrecke Richtung Erding mit benutzt. Durch Umleitung des RE können hier mehr S-Bahnen fahren.

Nun zur Auswahl der durchzubindenden RE Linien. In Frage kommen nur Linien, die häufig und im Takt bedient werden und die außerdem elektrifiziert sind. Neben den beiden direkt an den Flughafen angebundenen Linien kommen hier die Verbindungen nach Augsburg, Ingolstadt (und Nürnberg), Garmisch-Partenkirchen, und Rosenheim. Der Augsburger Züge scheiden als erste aus, weil sie wegen der hohen Belegung der Strecke nicht im Takt verkehren. Diese Strecke in einen Flughafentakt einzubinden birgt die Gefahr von verschleppten Verspätungen. Außerdem ist Augsburg ja bereits durch den Fernverkehr angebunden. Alsdann betrachten wir die Züge aus Rosenheim. Diese sind im Betriebskonzept Nordtunnel die einzigen, die München noch über den Ostbahnhof erreichen. Mit dem Ostbahnhof (und einem zukünftigen Halt Poccistraße) sind diese Züge schon gut an die Stadt München und ihr Nahverkehrsetz angebunden und profitieren weniger als andere von einem zusätzlichen Halt an der Münchner Freiheit. Wenn sie also auch ausscheiden, bleiben uns noch die Verbindungen aus Ingolstadt und Garmisch, welche beide bereits in einem 30-Minutentakt zur Hauptverkehrszeit bedient werden. Und somit ergibt sich der gezeigte Plan.

Durch Führung des ICE nach Salzburg über Mühldorf, verliert Rosenheim diese Verbindung. Deswegen habe ich auf der zweiten Grafik auch den EC nach Innsbruck mit eingezeichnet, der auch weiterhin über Rosenheim fährt (allerdings nur alle zwei Stunden). Die meisten ICE (aus Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Köln, usw.) enden in München wie bisher am Hauptbahnhof, daher habe ich sie nicht eingezeichnet. Der Innsbrucker EC wird manchmal als ICE über Ingolstadt nach Berlin durchgebunden, dies geschieht aber klassisch als Wende am Hauptbahnhof und ist so selten, dass hierfür keine gesonderte Infrastruktur gebraucht wird.

Die beiden Punkte auf der S-Bahn-Strecke im Nordtunnel sind übrigens die Halte „Pinakotheken” und „Parkstadt Schwabing”. Nicht eingezeichnet ist der Sonderzughalt „Allianz-Arena“, der nur bei Großveranstaltungen bedient wird, sowie zusätzliche Halte am Nordring. Mehr Informationen dazu gibt es bei Vieregg&Rössler.

Münchens S-Bahn Stammstrecke: Milliardenneubau für was?

2009-11-18T11:19:00.001-05:00

Das Bayerische Verkehrsministerium hat diese Woche Präsentationsunterlagen zu einem Gutachten veröffentlicht, welches Kosten und Nutzen eines zweiten S-Bahn Citytunnels mit einem Ausbau des Südrings zur zweiten S-Bahn-Stammstrecke vergleicht. Das Resultat wurde von Aktivisten sofort scharf kritisiert. Für den zweiten Tunnel übernahm das Gutachten schlicht die offiziell geschätzten Baukosten, die von vielen als viel zu niedrig bezeichnet werden. Für den Südringausbau wurden die Kosten weit höher angegeben, als von dessen Proponenten bisher geschätzt. Angeblich wurden Kosten für Grundstücke mit eingerechnet, die die Deutsche Bahn von sich selbst kaufen müsste. (Wahrscheinlich hat die Bahn vor, diese Grundstücke anderweitig zu vermarkten und will sich den Kaufpreis nicht entgehen lassen! Falls das so ist, muss es aber nicht schlecht sein. Schließlich könnte man beides haben und die Bahnstrecke teilweise in Tieflage führen und einfach überbauen! Dann wäre auch das Problem des Lärmschutzes gelöst!)

Was für mich aus der Präsentation erschreckend war, ist dass beide Lösungen so einen geringen Kosten-Nutzen-Faktor (KNF) haben. Nach diesem (bundesweit einheitlich vorgeschriebenen) Berechnungsverfahren entsteht ein KNF größer als 1 überhaupt nur, wenn man das Netz in Express- und normale S-Bahnen aufteilt. Denn nur, wenn ein neues Netz auch kürzere Fahrtzeiten liefern kann, erscheint der Nutzen als hoch genug. Der Südring erscheint aber in beiden Fällen als zu teuer und erreicht nur einen KNF von 0,8 während der Tunnel auf einen KNF von 1,15 kommt. Für mich ist ganz klar, dass der Tunnel teurer ist als dargestellt und damit realistisch auch keinen KNF größer 1 erreicht. Im Klartext: beide Projekte sind zu teuer im Vergleich zum erwarteten Nutzen!

Aber worin besteht der Nutzen eigentlich? Man möchte gern mehr S-Bahn-Züge fahren lassen! Ob nun ein 10-Minutentakt in der Hauptverkehrszeit (HVZ) oder eine Mischung aus S-Bahn alle 15 und Express alle 30 Minuten – in jedem Fall wären es sechs Züge pro Stunde auf jeder Linie. Bei sieben Linien wären das 42 Züge die pro Stunde (und Richtung) durch die Müncher Innenstadt rollen müssten, wobei das Limit des Stammstreckentunnels bei 37,5 Zugfahrten pro Stunde liegt, was aber allein schon wegen der zum Aus- und Einsteigen notwendigen Zeiten kritisch ist. Zur Zeit gilt der Tunnel mit 30 Fahrten pro Stunde (F/h) schon als voll (und wenn's nach den Politikern geht: „übervoll“), obwohl manche auch 33 Züge pro Stunde für realistisch möglich halten. Entscheidend ist aber, dass der Tunnel bei weitem nicht das einzige Problem ist. Die zur Zeit 30 F/h setzen sich zusammen aus vier Linien im 20-Minuten-Takt (4×3 = 12 F/h) und drei Linien im 10-Minuten-Takt (3×6 = 18 F/h). Man würde also denken, dass für eine weitere Linie im 10er Takt die Tunnelnutzung auf 33 F/h steigen würde, aber weit gefehlt! Wenn man sich die Situation näher anschaut, so handelt es sich bei den Verstärkerfahrten (also den zusätzlichen Zugfahrten, die einen 20er Takt zum 10er Takt machen) im Westen um Fahrten der S2 ab Dachau, S3 ab Maisach, und S5 (ab 2010: S8) ab Weßling. Im Osten hingegen wird nur die Linie nach Holzkirchen ab Deisenhofen verstärt und die Linie nach Ebersberg ab Zorneding. Wie kommt es dass manche Linien 10er Takt im Westen haben, aber nur 20er Takt im Osten? Ganz einfach: die Verstärkerfahrten enden am Ostbahnhof!

Was müsste man tun, um auf mehr östlichen Linienästen einen 10er Takt anzubieten ohne den Citytunnel mehr zu belasten? Einfach die S-Bahnen ab Ostbahnhof weiter fahren lassen! Aber für wie viele Linien würde dieser Trick funktionieren? Rechnen wir mal: die S-Bahn hat im Osten fünf Äste, wenn diese alle im 10er Takt fahren, wären das 30 F/h – genauso viele wie ohnehin schon im Tunnel fahren. Aber wie ist das möglich? Ebenfalls ganz einfach: drei Linien im 10er Takt aus Westen kommend fahren auf drei östlichen Ästen im 10er Takt weiter. Von den vier anderen Linien fahren jeweils zwei gebündelt auf einem Ast, so dass auch hier ein 10er Takt entsteht. Zu kompliziert? Aber nicht doch: genau das wird ja im ab Dezember 2009 gültigen Fahrplan erreicht: der oben schon erwähnte 10er Takt bis Zorneding besteht aus S4 und S6 welche beide im 20er Takt verkehren. Durch diese Umstellung wurde sogar ein reiner 10-Minuten-Takt erreicht, während bis 2009 auf einigen Linienästen die Züge nur im 9/11 oder sogar 7/13 Takt fuhren.

Was bedeutet dies nun für die angebliche Verstopfung des Innenstadttunnels? Auf allen fünf östlichen Ästen könnte die S-Bahn bereits im 10er Takt fahren, und dazu auf drei westlichen Ästen. Das sind 8 von 12 Ästen. Dazu kommt noch, dass für die S7 wegen der geringen Auslastung kein 10er Takt gewünscht wird. Es bleiben also noch drei Äste, deren Verstärkerzüge nicht in den Tunnel passen. Wollte man diese unbedingt verstärken, könnte man natürlich die entsprechenden Züge einfach im Hauptbahnhof enden lassen (immerhin ist der Hbf mit seinen zwei U-Bahnhöfen, Bahnanschlüssen, Bus, Tram und Innenstadt-naher Lage für viele Fahrgäste ohnehin der Aus- oder Umstiegspunkt), wobei im Umstieg in die Innenstadt an der Donnersbergbrücke oder am Laim am gleichen Bahnsteig und mit nur einer Minute Wartezeit möglich ist.

Wo liegt also der eigentliche Engpaß? Warum wenden die Verstärkerzüge am Ostbahnhof anstelle nach Markt Schwaben oder Unterföhring (oder gleich bis zum Flughafen, da diese Strecke exklusiv der S-Bahn gehört) weiterzufahren? Das eigentliche Problem der Münchner S-Bahn sind die Außenäste! Wenn schon der heutige Tunnel nicht vollständig ausgelastet wird, wie will man einen zweiten Tunnel oder den ausgebauten Südring auslasten? Wozu Milliarden in der Innenstadt investieren, wenn die Züge nicht taktgerecht ins Umland fahren können? Zu den ohnehin schon hohen Kosten der vorgeschlagenen Projekte kommen also noch die Ausbaukosten für die Außenäste hinzu. Die Summe würde nach dieser Rechnung niemals einen NKV größer als 1 erreichen.

Was sollte man also tun? Einen Plan aufstellen, welche Außenäste bis wann auf den 10er Takt (oder ein Express-System) umgestellt werden sollen und deren Ausbaumaßnahmen planen und bepreisen. Im Osten kann der Ausbau unabhängig von Überlegungen zur Stammstrecke erfolgen. Im Westen kann man zunächst einen Verstärker- oder Express-Vorlaufbetrieb mit Ende am Hauptbahnhof aufnehmen. Zu gegebener Zeit kann man dann den Südring teilweise für die S-Bahn (oder nur Express-S-Bahn mit weniger Halten) ausbauen. Wie eine andere Studie aufzeigt, sind dazu nicht wie im zitierten Gutachten angenommen ein viergleisiger Ausbau nötig, sondern zwei Gleise ab dem alten Südbahnhof (Station Poccistraße) reichen vollkommen aus. Wenn man zu dem bedenkt, dass zukünftig der meiste (oder aller) Güterverkehr über den Nordring abgewickelt werden soll, und dass die Fern- und Regionalzüge Richtung Salzburg und Mühlacker zukünftig möglicherweise durch einen Tunnel zum Flughafen fahren (wie von mir schon berichtet, und hier bebildert), und nicht über den Südring. Der Südring kann damit schrittweise zu einer wirklich kostengünstigen Alternative ausgebaut werden.

Die Frage ist also überhaupt nicht, ob man nun einen zweiten Citytunnel oder einen viergleisigen Südring braucht. Die Frage ist: wann werden die Außenäste ausgebaut? Auf welchen Ästen ist ein 10er Takt oder Express-Züge am meisten gewünscht und am ehesten zu erreichen?

Eine volle Version des Gutachtens soll Ende November veröffentlicht werden. Wahrscheinlich müssen die Tunnel-Befürworter in der Politik noch weiter daran herum-manipulieren, damit das Ergebnis weniger knapp aussieht, als es eigentlich ist. Bereits in der oben genannten Präsentation illustrieren die meisten Bilder Nachteile des Südrings ohne auf den Tunnel im Detail einzugehen.

Nachtrag: Ich habe mir das Angebotskonzept des Gutachtens noch einmal angesehen und mit Schrecken festgestellt, dass das Mehrangebot zur HVZ nur in drei (3) Fahrten pro Stunde besteht! Für 33 statt Heute 30 Züge baut man also einen Milliarden-teuren Tunnel! Das ist ein Skandal von dem in der Presse bisher geschwiegen wird. Aber typisch Bahn und Politik: bei Prestigeprojekten wird geklotzt aber für ein stufenweises Mehrangebot gibt es nicht mal ein paar Millionen.

Jack loves Germany

2009-10-07T11:41:00.001-04:00

Photo der Regiobahn Kaarst–Düsseldorf–Mettmann aus der Broschüre Stadt-Land-Schiene: Erfolgreiche Regionalbahnen der Allianz pro Schiene.

Even better: Citybahn Chemnitz.

speech to students for the start of school

2009-10-01T16:34:00.000-04:00

I like speeches and great words. Maybe some of this, also applies to grad students...

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

Barack Obama's Back to School speech, 2009-09-08

Typography hits the web

2009-09-28T14:47:00.000-04:00

“Proper quote marks” I think — and also proper long dashes — make the web a more beautiful place. You don't even need any special software to use them since most programs and web services now use Unicode and just allow you to type the character and then display, store, and transmit it correctly.

More nice typography: CSS 3.0 will include some hyphenation support and for those who can't wait there is already a nice bookmarklet that does hyphenation on the fly in any modern browser! If you ever have to include a very long word (such as Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft oder Gesellschafterversammlung) in a text that might end up in a narrow column (such as next to an image) or simply on a mobile device, you can already easily save your layout by inserting a soft hyphen (HTML entity ). This will tell any modern web browser where to break the word. Here's the example used by the W3C: antiestablishmentarianism, antiestablishmentarianism, and antiestablishmentarianism. Resize your window (or zoom) to see how your web browser automatically hyphenates the word! (No Javascript required.)

Further Reading:

Appendix: Soft hyphen support in browsers and search engines

Internet Explorer before version 5.0 always displays soft hypens. That's terrible, but IE version ≤ 5 are virtually extinct now, so the problem is less. IE ≥5.0, Firefox ≥3.0, Opera ≥9.0.2, Safari ≥2, and even Lynx ≥2.8.2 all treat soft hyphens correctly, while those other browsers who don't support them will just ignore them. (Source: [2])

Google and other major search engines correctly ignore soft hyphens. (Same source)
In other words: soft hyphens are safe and beneficial to use as of now.

Ersatz für den Münchner Transrapid

2009-09-23T14:17:00.000-04:00

Im letzten Jahr wurde entschieden: München bekommt keinen Transrapid zum Flughafen. Es wäre einfach zu teuer im Vergleich zu dem limitierten Nutzen, da das gesamte Projekt nur für direkte Fahrten vom Flughafen zur Innenstadt dient.
Jetzt wird also überlegt, was man an Stelle das Transrapids bauen sollte, um den Flughafen besser an die Stadt anzubinden. Zur Einführung in das Thema bietet sich folgende schöne Übersicht an:

Zugart	Fahrzeit
existierende S-Bahn (S1 und S8 im Westen bzw. Osten.)	ca. 40 Minuten
Express S-Bahn auf existierender Strecke (Ost- oder West-Trasse)	ca. 30 Minuten
Express-Zug auf direkter Trasse	ca. 20 Minuten
Transrapid (direkte Trasse)	ca. 10 Minuten

Nach dem der Transrapid ausfällt, stellt sich die Frage: sollte man die existierenden Strecken aufwendig ausbauen, um gerade mal 10 Minuten Beschleunigung zu gewinnen? Oder sollte man doch eine direkte Trasse bauen, die wieder zu großem Teil im Tunnel verlaufen muss und damit in der Größenordnung die Kosten des Transrapids erreicht, aber nicht dessen Fahrzeit?

Die Lösung ist eine elegante Kombination, welche jüngst vom Planungsbüro Vieregg&Rössler vorgestellt wurde: Eine direkte Trasse, die nicht nur von Flughafenzügen genutzt werden kann, sondern auch von einer Vielzahl anderer Züge. Damit erhält man für den (zugegeben: sehr hohen) Preis eines Innenstadt-Tunnels nicht nur eine schnelle Flughafenanbindung in der Größenordnung 20 Minuten, sondern gleichzeitig noch eine verbesserte Einbindung in Regional- und Fernverkehr und eine bessere Verteilung des Nahverkehrs in der Innenstadt, da der Tunnel auch von S-Bahnen genutzt werden kann.

Meiner Ansicht nach, hat die Planung von V&R noch einige Schwächen, aber das Prinzip ist tragbar und vor allem flexibel genug, um alle Schwächen auszugleichen.

Eine Schwachstelle des Konzepts ist der Betriebsplan für S-Bahnen: die Linien S7 und S27 sollen zukünftig durch den Nordtunnel fahren. Eine der Linien endet Heute am Hauptbahnhof, die andere fährt durch den Innenstadt-Tunnel und endet am Ostbahnhof. Es soll also nach dem vorgeschlagenen Plan eine Linien weniger als bisher durch die Innenstadt fahren. Dies steht aber im Widerspruch zum Zweck der S-Bahn als Entlastung für die U-Bahn. Es reicht nicht, an den Pinakotheken zu halten, sondern die Fahrgäste müssen auch an anderen Stellen der Innenstadt abgeholt werden. Die zu ersetzende U9 beginnt ja an der U3/U6 Station Implerstraße wo sie Fahrgäste der U3 und U6 aufnimmt (bzw. ganze Züge). Eine sinnvolle Nordtunnel-S-Bahn sollte also am Südring Poccistraße oder am Marienplatz halten. Wenn man bedenkt, dass die U9 den Innenstadt-Teil der U3/6 entlasten sollte, dann bietet sich Poccistraße als optimale Haltestelle an.

Außerdem wird vor dem Nordtunnel die zweite S-Bahn Stammstrecke (Tieftunnel oder Südring) in Betrieb gehen und dann soll natürlich der Verkehr auf diesen Strecken erhöht werden -- deswegen erhöht man ja die Kapazität. Die Vorzugslösung für den Betrieb des Nordtunnels ist also mindestens eine S-Bahn Linie vom Nordtunnel auf den Südring, plus eine in die Innenstadtstrecke. Wahrscheinlich braucht man realistisch gesehen aber sowieso mindestens drei S-Bahnlinien, um eine sinnvolle Entlastung für U-Bahn darzustellen. Wenn die Wartezeit auf die S-Bahn zehn Minuten beträgt, wird ein Fahrgast an der Pinakothek wohl eher den Fußweg zur U-Bahn auf sich nehmen, oder die Trambahn benutzen, die zwar langsamer ist, dafür aber öfter fährt.

Eine weitere Fragwürdigkeit der Planung ist, ob München wirklich einen dedizierten Flughafenzug braucht, der nur an zwei Stellen der Stadt und am Flughafen hält. Wäre es nicht viel besser, den Flughafen ins städtische und regionale Verkehrsnetz zu integrieren? Man könnte die Regionalexpress-Züge auf zwischen München und Flughafen zu Express-Zügen machen, die genauso schnell wie der Flughafen-Express fahren, aber noch weiter. Und zwischen jeweils zwei RE-Zügen fährt eine S-Bahn zum Flughafen, die nicht nur an vielen Stellen der Innenstadt hält (vorzugsweise City-Tunnel der S-Bahn, alternativ: Südring), sondern auch an Stationen auf dem Weg zum Flughafen. Dadurch würde nicht nur die Gesamtfahrzeit von der Haustür (oder dem Hotel) zum Flughafen verbessert, sondern auch die Auslastungs dieser Verkehrsmittel steigen, da sie auch Passagiere zu anderen Orten als dem Flughafen befördern.
Passagiere mit viel Gepäck würden den Expresszug benutzen, da er am Hauptbahnhof beginnt und dort sehr viel Zeit zum Einsteigen lässt. Geschäftsreisende und andere leicht-bepackte fahren direkt von der nächsten S- oder U-Bahn-Haltestelle.

Es wird wohl ein oder zwei Jahre dauern bis offizielle Stellen die Nordtunnel-Pläne weiter untersuchen. Warten wir ab, welche Optionen dann näher betrachtet werden. Ich bin ziemlich sicher, dass eine City-Tunnel oder Südring-Verbindung dabei ist!

Stuttgart 21 -- der Widerstand steigt

2009-09-17T23:40:00.000-04:00

Der Bahnhof wurde wohl zu einem großen Thema bei den Wahlen zum Gemeinderat in Stuttgart:

Erstmals hat sich in den Kommunalwahlen vom 7. Juni mit den Grünen (25,3 Prozent) die Partei der strikten Projektgegner an die Spitze aller Rathausfraktionen gesetzt. Dagegen sackte die CDU als Partei der bekennenden Projektbefürworter von einst 38,2 (1999) auf 24,3 Prozent ab.

Voller Artikel aus der Welt

Der neue Bahnchef hingegen sieht es wohl pragmatisch und prüft auch die Alternative:

Grube wolle die Kopfbahnhof-Befürwortern treffen und deren Argumente hören, es gebe "keine Tabus mehr". Dem neuen Bahn-Chef sei es durchaus nicht egal, was Stuttgart 21 koste.

Voller Artikel aus den Stuttgarter Nachrichten

Beim geplanten Baubeginn im nächsten Jahr gibt es noch drei Monate Zeit, um das Projekt zu stoppen. Aber die Chancen dafür stehen gut. Und der Alternativplan K 21 steht bereit... er kann sogar noch schneller umgesetzt werden.

Counter-intuitive happiness

2009-09-15T13:26:00.000-04:00

If someone has one thing to do in their life on the completion of which depend many other things, one would think that progress in that one thing would always give that person a sense of accomplishment, advancement and satisfaction.

My Master's thesis is such a thing. And on some days I make progress on it. But usually I fell very down and unaccomplished on the end of such days. Why am I happier on days when I don't write anything on my thesis? Why does good progress on the thesis still leave me unsatisfied and empty?

After a normal day of work, I just need some food, chat, and rest to be good for the next day of work. After a day of thesis writing, even if it just has a couple hours of writing, I am in desperate need of some extra-ordinary reward to make me feel human again. Usually I do something creative, like writing, but I don't have enough energy to make it into some good writing like an interesting blog post or an extension to a Wikipedia-article.

I started grad studies because I wanted to have a creative career. Now, I have to consider the option of taking a less demanding job and rather be creative in my free-time. This didn't work that well, last time I tried, but I haven't tried many pass-times yet.

Now, this was my creative writing for the day. Let's go back to the grind.

Name für den Berliner Flughafen

2009-09-15T10:36:00.000-04:00

Hier ein Artikel aus der Welt

Man kann schon an den Vorschlägen sehen, welcher sich letztendlich durchsetzen wird. Ich persönlich bevorzuge ja den Namen "Otto Lilienthal", aber wenn man sich in der Welt umschaut, dann heißen andere Flughäfen John F Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, und Franz Josef Strauß. Wenn Berlin da mithalten will, dann reicht es nicht das überflüssige Wort "International" im Namen des Flughafens zu haben. Weltweit tragfähig ist allein der Name "Willy Brandt Flughafen Berlin". Und mit Flughafen meine ich natürlich "Flughafen" und nicht "Airport". Das englische Wort können wir getrost dem Flugpersonal und unseren ausländischen Gästen überlassen.

Kommentar der "Welt"

TIFF pre-choices

2009-09-01T16:16:00.001-04:00

Don't you hate those festivals, be it film or live theater, where there are hundreds of programs to see and you have no idea which might be interesting for you? And after spending so many hours to look for interesting shows you pick-list is simply too long to see all of them? Don't you worry! I am here to help you my friends! I have made a list of pre-picks of movies that interest me. I will not see all of them, but let you choose: want to see anything together? Then let's go!

I ordered my picks somewhat, but be not confused by that. They are all just great movies!

Historic

Prince of Tears (Taiwan)

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

The White Ribbon (Germany)
“Das Weisse Band”

Balibo (Indonesia)

Topical

How to Fold a Flag

Cleanflix

Good Hair

Colony

Google Baby

Once Upon a Time Proletarian (China)

Tales From The Golden Age (Romania)
Amintiri Din Epoca de Aur

German film-makers

In Comparison
Zum Vergleich

Same Same but Different

Soul Kitchen

Others

An Education

Nymph
Nang Mai

Slovenian Girl
Slovenka

Gaia

Tales From The Golden Age (Romania)
Amintiri Din Epoca de Aur

Videocracy (Italy)

What Donald Knuth thinks is worth working on.

2009-08-18T10:07:00.000-04:00

From an interview with the Free Software Magazine:

Maybe you feel that some of today’s technologies are still unsatisfactory. If you weren’t busy writing your masterpieces, what technology would you try to revolutionize and in what way?

Well certainly I would try to work for world peace and justice. I tend to think of myself as a citizen of the world; I am pleasantly excited when I see the world getting smaller and people of different cultures working together and respecting their differences. Conversely I am distressed when I learn about deep-seated hatred or when I see people exploiting others or shoving them around pre-emptively.

In what way could the desired revolution come about? Who knows… but I suspect that “Engineers Without Borders” are closer than anybody else to a working strategy by which geeks like me could help.

I totally agree with Prof. Knuth on this!

Maybe the innovations that we need today are more social than they are technological. After all, we all have food, shelter, readily available medical care, and an internet connection. The next thing we'd need is peace and happiness!

Professoren und ihre Sklaven

2009-08-17T22:44:00.001-04:00

Ich meine ja nicht unbedingt, dass all Professoren böse sind. Vielmehr unwissend oder so. Sie richten Schaden an, ohne es zu wissen. Aber was kann man ihnen denn auch vorwerfen. Sie leben und arbeiten nun mal für Ihre Forschung. Viele von Ihnen kennen gar nichts anderes, weil sie vom Studenten zum Doktoranden über Postdoc irgendwann Professor geworden sind. Und die größte Nähe zur Industrie hatten sie vielleicht mal über ein Praktikum oder eine Forschungskooperation mit einer Forschungsabteilung einer großen Firma wie IBM, die selbst ziemlich weit vom normalen Geschäftsablauf entfernt ist.
Der Professor sagt seinem Studenten immer, dass er sich nicht zu viel vornehmen soll, denn nach dem Master kommt ja noch die Promotion, da kann man die Arbeit dann besser machen. Für den Master muss es ja noch nicht wirklich gut sein. Und in der Promotion muss es zwar schon irgendwie substantiell sein, aber man muss nichts so wirklich abschließend gut behandeln, schließlich will man ja nachher als Postdoc auch noch etwas veröffentlichen.
Was diese Generalstrategie der immer währenden Imperfektion nicht behandelt ist einen Ausstiegsplan. Es ist einfach nicht vorgesehen, dass ein Student nach der Promotion nicht weiter in der Wissenschaft bleiben will. Wenn man nämlich nicht selbst in der Wissenschaft bleibt und seine eigenen Ergebnisse weiter entwickelt und immer wieder anderen Forschern vorstellt, dann werden sie ganz einfach sehr schnell vergessen! Der Kandidat erhält zwar seinen Titel, aber die Arbeit ist im Prinzip für die Katz. Für den Papierkorb.

Nun wie ist das bei mir? Ich hatte mich zwar auch ein bisschen auf einen schönen Doktortitel gefreut, aber für so eine Belohnung konnte ich noch nie gut arbeiten. Meine eigentliche Motivation war an einem schönen Thema zu arbeiten, und wenn ich in dem Thema nicht weiter komme, oder es am Ende dann doch niemanden interessiert, dann ist auch meine Motivation weg. Spaß wird zur Quälerei und ich sollte meine wertvolle Zeit und mein Talent besser woanders investieren.

Ich glaube, dass ich in den letzten Monaten nicht zustande gebracht habe, weil ich unterbewusst schon wusste, dass ich mit nur einer Masterarbeit oder einer Promotion meine schöne Idee des Programmbeweisers verwirklichen kann. Leider hat das aber weder mein Professor, noch die lieben Kommilitonen verstanden und konnte mir helfen, meinen eigenen Weg zu finden. Gestern habe ich endlich jemanden gefunden, der mich versteht. Jemand, der mir einfach zuhören kann und sich dann in meine Lage versetzen. Ich habe das Gefühl, dass dies eine Gespräch an einem Nachmittag mich in einen anderen Zustand versetzt hat. Heute konnte ich plötzlich richtig gut arbeiten! Ich kann endlich wieder an die Arbeit denken, ohne gleich Kopfschmerzen zu bekommen oder müde zu werden. Ich weiß jetzt, dass meine Idee nicht mehr zu retten ist. Sie wird vergessen werden, sobald mein Betreuer die Arbeit zu Ende gelesen hat. Aber was ich in der Zeit hier gelernt habe, werde ich nicht vergessen. Und meinen Master-Titel hole ich mir. Man weiß ja nie, wann ich den mal gebrauchen kann! Um Dozent am College oder einer Fachhochschule zu werden, ist er sicher von Nutzen!

Mein lieber Professor hat von all dem leider keine Ahnung. Ich sagte ihm, dass meine vielen Probleme an der Masterarbeit doch sicher kein gutes Zeichen für eine Promotion sind. Doch er meinte nur, ich soll mich ans Schreiben machen und dann wird alles schon werden.

Jetzt, da mir das alles egal ist, da ich keine Sorgen um die Promotion mehr haben muss, geht die Arbeit doch viel leichter von der Hand! Und wozu brauche ich einen Dr.-Titel, wenn ich immer noch (FH-)Professor werden kann!?
Haha! Die Prophezeiung aus dem Kindergarten, wo sie mich Professor Willi nannten, muss doch irgendwann zur Wahrheit werden!

Why I hate modern Computer Science

2009-08-02T15:17:00.000-04:00

First of all, the field should actually be called "Computer Magic", because it doesn't look much like a science. One of the reasons is shown below.

I came upon this blog post which prepared an essay about coping and failure. Now, I am not going to say that computer scientists fail too often, because when working on really hard problems, failure is always part of the game. The problem with much of contemporary Computer Magic, however, is that many things are hard, which actually could be --actually, should to be!-- much simpler.

The author of the above-linked piece explains how for a very simple task, he needs to deal with a lot of computer-internal issues. All he wants to do is, given an already running new mail notification applet, add a functionality that displays the sender of a newly received mail. To do this, he has to deal with five different types of incompatible "strings", only to add:

This simplifies it a bit, but I’m too frustrated to spend more time explaining it.

This should really not be that hard! Given a properly defined interface (API) for the existing libraries, this task would be easy enough for a beginning programmer, not even a CS major, to accomplish. But in reality it needs a well-educated, experienced programmer and even for them, it is still hard and frustrating.

When I started to program, all I had was a BASIC interpreter with an integrated help system and some examples. There was no Google or even Internet access at that time. There were not many functions in the programming environment, all very basic, but well-documented. It was easy and fun to build things on top of that. One of the things we build for school was a little function library for linear algebra and then a simple user interface for that. You could do anything with this environment! Only that the really interesting things would need too much programming, because everything had to be built from scratch.

Nowadays, expectations towards computers are way higher. Instead of a little linear algebra calculator, people would expect an on-line, collaborative learning tool with 3D visualization inclusive. Given how many libraries are available for all kinds of things, this is actually not too hard to do today. But the problem is, that most of the available libraries (and that's across the board, in any domain of CS) are simple too complicated to use, not well documented, and maybe even a little buggy.

Often times, the line between complexity and bugginess is blurred in a frightening way. I think this plays a big part in the field's misery and that's why I'll give you a bigger example to explain it.
Let's look at an imaginary Linear Algebra library, where I can subtract vectors "v" and "w" with the expression "v.subtract(w)". Let's say that I am writing a program that just crashes at this line, and after some debugging I find that during the crash we always have "v == w" and some more testing shows that an expression like "v.subtract(v)" actually always crashes! So, since I am a good person, I will go to the project website for the library and file a bug report. (Spending ten minutes just to sign up for the bug tracking system... I am signed up for so many of them already!)
The next day, I get a reply that my bug was closed and that I should have had a look at the mailing list archives or the web forum for beginning programmers (since there is no other "documentation" than archives from mail, forums, and IRC!) and then I would have seen, that "v.subtract(v)" is wrong code that should actually be "v.subtract(v.copy())".
Then I write back that this workaround doesn't make sense "v.subtract(v)" is the obviously right thing and it should work. With me being so critical of their project, there is actually a chance that the developers will simply ignore my message. But let's suppose that I will get a reply. In this case, the wording will probably be quite upset, saying that " 'v.subtract(v.copy())' is not a workaround, but it's the proper way to do it." And "if [I] knew anything about how the library works, it would be perfectly clear to [me] that I can't pass any object as an argument to its own methods."
Now, I am also getting upset and do my best to reply politely, but firmly, saying that this is precisely the purpose of any library: that one can use it without knowing what's going on behind the scenes.

Do you see the clash of cultures here? I think that the people who do such a bad software design are idiots that create more damage than doing good, because their library has more bugs than features and wastes many people's time. On the other hand, they are probably thinking that I am a stupid idiot who just can't understand that a vector is not the same as a "vector object" and I have to copy the object before passing it as an argument. (But I do know the difference, I am just saying that this is not the best way to do it.)

Please don't ask me what the technical reason for not passing objects to their own methods in this example is. I just made the example up based on similar experiences whose technical details I have thankfully forgotten.

I think the problem with many libraries, programming languages and other tools is that most of their users just want the functionality and are willing to accept unneeded complexity, probably even thinking that they are just not as smart as the people who made it. And they are revering the people who made it and don't realize that those people are actually way too smart: they create things that are too complex and by consequence waste other people's time.

Greg Wilson writes in an article (PDF) about Free/Libre and Open Source Software's (FLOSS) culture:

The greatest harm done by FLOSS’s cold shoulder is that it chases people away. This is the real cost of any discrimination, including the passive discrimination created by unwelcoming environments. When users (and developers) feel that they’re not welcome, they’ll invest their time elsewhere. What remains is a community that suffers from a lack of diversity and new ideas. Only those who match the definition of a hard-core geek remain, and thus the cycle perpetuates itself.

I think that this statement at least partly generalizes to all of information technology: things here are complex and the people working here love to learn and deal with the intricacies of complex things. People who think that things should be simpler are simply turning away to careers more interesting to them. There are only a very few visionaries who actually understand the complicated things and at the same time work hard to simplify them. (Currently, it seems that Apple and Google employ most of them.)

To finally go back to the initial example of different string types a simple mail notification program has to deal with. Probably some of the complexity of the string types is needed to deal with different character encodings in email. Probably most of the complexity is just historically grown and unnecessary. Only some genius expert knows exactly which is which and how it could be simplified. Maybe even nobody knows all of it, because it all has been written by different people during a long period of time. It's insanely complex and makes your program crash. That why I hate modern Computer Magic.

How to cook a meal for one-hundred people (and actually feed ninety-five).

2009-07-31T12:47:00.001-04:00

Last week I was kitchen lead for the Hot Yam! and here is my experience report.

Short version:
Take a recipe which you like and which you think more people should taste. For me this was "Stewed Taro with Green Onions" which I had discovered after falling in love with taros in Taiwan.
For all other meal components, take some recipes which you liked from previous meals (they should be on the blog). Replace as many ingredients as you can by seasonal things.
Write a shopping list and be around all day so volunteers can ask you questions. They know by themselves how to do all the things needed to make a meal, likely even better than you do.

Long version:
Here are some of the troubles I ran into, some tips, and finally a list of ingredients which I think made up the final meal. (But I am not sure about the details of it.)

My zeroth mistake (before even starting, that is) was to not ask for directions to the Farmer's Market on time. I was saved because one of the volunteers who came shopping knew the location.

My first mistake was to take a recipe off the Hot Yam! blog without checking the numbers. In June, we only cooked for about 50 to 60 people and I was planning for a hundred. Fortunately the recipe was for our dessert and I had bought enough peaches for the crisp and could run and get more of the other stuff, too. So we didn't manage to bake the dessert on the evening before, but we had it all ready to bake in the fridge and it took us almost no extra time to deal with in the morning.

My second mistake was not to check with my lovely volunteers whether they had actually bought all the things on the shopping list. In the case of lentils we had wisely foreseen that the store might not have enough on display and told the shoppers to ask the clerks for refills from the back. But apparently the back of store also ran out and I noticed the lack of lentils only in the early morning when cooking them. In the end, it turned out that having 17 cups of lentils instead of 25 was not much of a problem, but it made me feel that our success was more due to luck than due to skill.

My third mistake was to have three people peel and mince garlic for two hours. Maybe it was less than six person-hours spent on this, but I think that it was a bit of a waste of time, given that there were lots of other things to do. When some of the people had to leave and the garlic was still not done, we just chopped it up coarsely which was good enough for the meal.

My fourth mistake was to give somebody a laborious job and tell him to grab more help once more people showed up. Half an eternity later, he was still doing it by himself and not much advanced, while other people were standing around looking for work.

My fifth mistake was to do things by myself instead of helping people do things. Sometimes I was too busy to know what's going on in the kitchen at large. Also, it's not fun to work by myself when others are working together and happily chat while they do it.

My only advice is what I think is the most important function of the leader: make sure that nothing that needs to be done is forgotten and make sure that new volunteers learn enough to be productive helpers.

Now here come the recipes: For the stew, I bought 27 lbs of taro of which we had to throw one or two away because it didn't meet our high quality standards. For garlic and green onions I don't know how much we actually had. The soy sauce was added to our taste; it was less than a bottle

The salad was planned for 100, we sold about 74 and I think with the volunteer meals, the recipe yielded about 90 to 95 servings. (At one point, we made the salad servings bigger, because it seemed we had more salad than soup, so there is no fixed measure of what a serving is. Feeds any number from 60 hungry people to 120 dieting ones.)

Ingredients:
(Except for the onions, I bought all the herbs and veggies myself and the numbers are correct. For the onions, 10 is the number from the shopping list and I only saw them when they were chopped up. Also don't know if it was big or small ones. If recipes really mattered, we should go by weight for everything but liquids!)

7 cups of green lentils (cooked)
10 cups of red lentils (cooked, note: cooks faster than the green ones)
10 onions (marinated in salt overnight, which --as I once read-- makes the softer)

and all those things fresh from the Farmer's Market at Bloor and Borden streets:
5 bunches of coriander (cilantro)
5 bunches of arucula
4 or 5 bunches of basil
4 bunches of oregano
4 FMB green beans
3 FMB red tomatoes
3 FMB yellow tomatoes
4 bunches of baby carrots

dressing:
freshly squeezed lemon juice (we had about net of lemons that did not give much juice)
less than a bottle of olive oil
other things which only the dressing-making volunteer knows and which might include some apple cider vinegar which I put on her counter.

Personally I was not much involved in making the salad. Maybe that's why I liked the salad most of all meal components.

As a bonus, I conclude my reflections with a list of most memorable moments:

my first taste of the salad when I got my full plate served by one of our lovely volunteers.
the scent of oregano and basil when I bought them and later every time I passed by the herbal volunteers just to take another fresh breath.
me in tears, handing back the unknowingly thrown away onion bottoms to Kira. I felt so sorry for my unqualified messing with her job. (But the tears were due to the frying of garlic.)
stewing the taro with Keith.
finding a job assignment that did not involve Giovanna washing anything.
Guru's smiling face and bright eyes when we went to the farmer's market. (Totally justifying the twisted reasoning I had to make up to justify her coming with me and the men going to Kensington market.)
full opportunity to engage with my most-loved job at the Yam: scraping the bottoms of the dessert-pans.

On my next meal there will be German food (but no sausages) and I will make different mistakes to make sure that I keep learning things.

Behind the curtain: Me and Giovanna in a heated debate. "Everything went wrong! We did not have enough lentils, the crisp recipe was not right, this is lacking organization."

- "No, I think you are doing great."

At this point one of our patrons walked up to us: "I just want to say that I am coming here often and this was one of the best meals that I had for a while. It was really delicious."

Giovanna: "There you go."

me: "Maybe you are right."

new cycling route to the sailing club

2009-07-22T16:25:00.001-04:00

I found my favorite cycling route down Beverly Street and along Front St. and Queen's Quay to the sailing club because I once wanted to take a friend and was looking for a calm route specifically for her. It happened to be that this route was also well-paved so I stuck with it and took it every time.
Now, last week I took another friend and found a new route which I like a lot and which is now my preferred alternative to avoid cycling boredom.

View Larger Map

The good think about this route is that all the uphill happens on quite, well-paved residential streets. As a side benefit, most of the isopleth is on Wellesley Street. Not that I care much about bike lanes but at least drivers will not be surprised about bicycles there. :-D

PS: Google's blue line ends at Harthouse Circle because Google doesn't know that you can bike through there to reach Hosking Ave / Harbord St.

Why I love Quickscript. (One of several reasons.)

2009-07-20T22:07:00.001-04:00

"Give me a lever which is long enough," Archimedes exclaimed, "and I will lift the earth."

To everybody who has seen and understand the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie trilogy it is abundantly clear that even the most insurmountable goals can be accomplished, once you have enough leverage. For me, even after studying English in school for eight years, regularly reading and writing English for nine years, and now living in an English-speaking city for two years, expressing myself clearly has been an insurmountable goal. When I am relaxed and speak without thinking of the language, I will regularly be interrupted by people's "what was that?" and even a repetition won't make me understood. I have to repeat again, or spell out the word that I can't pronounce or try to use another word, which I am hopefully pronouncing better. This is a distraction that throws my stream of thoughts off-track, makes me nervous when I continue, and slowly eats away my confidence in my ability of having a normal conversation.

Quikscript shall be the leverage that is needed to teach me the English language --as it is spoken-- once and for all. For me, being a visual kind of person, Quikscript is the written face of spoken English, it is the key to see the language, and thereby memorize and master it.

Best of the Fringe

2009-07-20T11:24:00.001-04:00

Just two plays which I might see because I missed them in the main Fringe.

As You Puppet
By William Shakespeare and adapted by Hank’s Toy Box Theatre
UPSTAIRS AT BERKELEY: Thursday July 23 – 7pm · Friday July 24 – 7pm · Saturday July 25 – 7pm
Stuffed animals spring to life! When a clever bear named Rosalind is banished by her evil uncle Frederick the crocodile, she and her best kitten friend Celia run away to the forest in search of adventure. Meet a giant orangutan, a prissy hippo, a brave teddy, and a comical bunny named Touchstone in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” for kids!

A Singularity of Being
By T. Berto
BERKELEY MAINSTAGE: Thursday July 23 – 7pm · Friday July 24 – 7pm · Saturday July 25 – 7pm
*Winner 2009 New Play Contest* Roland Mathers is a brilliant physicist consumed with unraveling Einstein’s Grand Unified Theory. A Singularity of Being explores the life of a genius who’s pursuit to uncover the secrets of the universe unravels the lives of everyone around him. When he develops a life threatening and debilitating disease, Roland sacrifices his happiness on the altar of science.

Tickets are $16.50 each and are available starting July 14, 2009
416.368.3110 or www.canstage.com.
The Berkeley Street Theatre - 26 Berkeley St.
http://fringetoronto.com/fringe09/bestoffringe.html

learn to drive before you build a car, learn to read before you write

2009-07-11T08:27:00.001-04:00

Although Computer Science as an education is widely available since several decades, many software-development- and in particular programming-jobs are still done by people with a different educational background. Computer Science (CS) departments are struggling to attract as many students as there is demand for educated Computer Scientists, but it seems that the more students they attract (on top of those who would take CS anyways), the more students will fail during their studies. While recruiters say "we need more graduates with CS degrees", professors whine "we are accepting to many students that have no talent."
In programming in particular there seems to be a divide between programming nerds who just seem to understand programming to a point of completing their assignments, while some others always seem to be estrange to programming and struggle even with simple assignments as soon as some variation into problems is introduced. The question which I want to write about here is: how can we teach programming in a way that helps all students?

I have been helping out with teaching programming since I was an undergrad myself. Seeing how awful student programs looked in the first year I helped with the programming lab, I decided to publish some of the best assignment solutions so that the students would have an example to imitate and an idea of how elegant programming solutions can be. Assignment submissions got much better in the second year!

Since that time, Pascal as a beginner's language has been replaced by Java, and Java by Python, but the problems are still the same. I asked one student with a particularly awful program where she he learned the particular construct which she was abusing there. "Oh, that's from my high school teacher."

When after more than half the course was over, the instructor finally taught students about testing. At that point, I started realizing one of the things that went wrong from the beginning: in our course, students were mostly taught to program little functions, but they were never taught how to use those functions properly and how to test them. I could write an entire blog post on the "test first" paradigm of programming, especially it's important in languages like Python which have no static checking whatsoever. But here, let's concentrate on something more fundamental: the actual understanding of programs, what they do, and how they work.

Most students seem to learn by example and the only official good examples of programs that they see in a typical university course are code snippets small enough to fit on a single lecture slide! Given that material, they are supposed to write entire programs with interworking parts. If I contrast that approach with other disciplines of writing, it just seems ridiculous! In literature, students will read entire novels plus probably some secondary literature, before they write essays of their own. In science, students will read a couple of text books plus tens of journal articles before composing a paper of their own. Furthermore, the first writings of students are usually of secondary nature themselves: summarizing, interpreting, or commenting on some primary work (i.e. an essay about a novel, or a paper about some previously published scientific findings). In programming on the other hand, students will get no reading material, and they have to compose primary works starting from their first labs and assignments!

Here are some ideas how to improve this deplorable situation.

A large part of the exercises and assignments has to be devoted to reading and understanding programs that have been hand-selected by the instructor as examples of good programming.
Possible exercises which train this are: writing documentation for a given (substantial) piece of code, writing test cases for a given program, write an example use for a given program module, and finally, extend a given program by a small feature.
Writing of documentation has to be split into external (what does it do) and internal (how does it work).
Testing can first be done for a programm that works according to its documentation, and as soon as the students can do this well, let them test and debug an incorrect (but still well-designed!) program.

The important part about all this, is that students have to read and really understand a large corpus of existing code that has specifically been chosen for its good design. Students will then appreciate how easy it is to understand, extend, and debug really well-written code. They will also see how the different programming constructs they know from lectures are best fit together.

I don't know how many of our field's education problems this approach to teaching is going to solve. But I am sure this is the way to go!

Sunday is going to be my Fringe Day

2009-07-10T14:19:00.001-04:00

Here's a list of shows I might go see on Sunday. I will see at least two of them, let me know, if you want to come or have any praise or advise to drop of!

Candida (by G.B. Shaw), 1:15 PM, 90 min, Innis Town Hall -- I like Shaw!
The Sicilian (by Molière), 3:30 PM, 45 min, Factory Theatre Mainspace
And the Rabbit Runs… (one-woman drama), 4:00 PM, 60 mins, Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace -- I like the Canadian in-between-cultures aspect of this
A Singularity of Being (drama), 5:15 PM, 90 min, Tarragon Theatre Mainspace -- science vs. religion, anybody?
As You Puppet (Shakespeare with stuffed animals), 7:05 PM, 55 min, Palmerston Library Theatre (560 Palmerston Ave)
Zdenka Now! (one-woman show), 7:30 PM, 60 min, Royal St. George’s Auditorium
Blind to Happinesss… (one-man drama), 9:00 PM, 55 min, Factory Studio Theatre

Python 3000 migration

2009-07-05T11:57:00.000-04:00

I think it's a good thing that Python as a language removes some of its deprecated features and old special cases which no longer make sense.
Few programming languages make such a bold move, although more should. A language that grows ever more complex with time becomes a huge liability. Much of this complexity is unavoidable, but the avoidable one should be avoided! Making the necessary non-backward-compatible changes to a language is an expensive investment because the migration of existing libraries and applications becomes a project of its own for each of those libraries and applications. On the other hand, this investment also has an immense payoff in maintainability and extensibility in the long term.

Now, it has been more than six months since Python 3.0 has been released, but a naive search on Google doesn't turn up any migration information yet! Some people seem to have plans for migration, but there's no experience-report yet. Also, there is no list of libraries that have already moved or are planning to move. Unfortunately it seems that no application or library can be migrated until all of it's dependent libraries have done so. Of course, a project could migrate to 2.6, import feature from future and use the -3 compatibility checking option. But it seems that most are still waiting for the "upstream" projects to move.

Here are some references:

PEP 3000 - "guidelines for Python 3000 development" by Guido van Rossum
http://peadrop.com/blog/2009/04/05/porting-your-code-to-python-3/
How are you planning on handling the migration to Python 3? - Discussion on stackoverflow.com

After the 3.0 release it quickly turned out that GvR's original advice: "start all your new projects with Python 3000" is unrealistic: the libraries are just not there yet. But what's realistic (and what I will do) is to write all new code with Python 2.6 and make it as much future-compatible as possible. Then the port to 3.x will be completely automatic, once the new libraries have come out.

Wiedervereinigung jetzt! - auch auf der Schiene.

2009-06-29T09:44:00.000-04:00

Die Südthüringer Zeitung schreibt über den Eisenbahnlückenschluss (Eisenach - Meiningen -) Eisfeld - Coburg. Diesmal spielt auch der Güterverkehr eine Rolle.
Der Artikel erwähnt auch eine Streckenneigung der ICE-Trasse von über 2%. In der Tat sind es aber maximal 2% in einigen Abschnitten. (Wikipedia hat die richtige Zahl und belegt sie auch mit Quellen.)

Immerhin sind die Realisierungschancen für diesen Lückenschluss größer als für die Höllentalbahn zwischen Blankenstein und Marxgrün.

Es wird noch lange dauern bis Deutschland auch auf der Schiene wieder zusammenwächst!

GMail and SPAM from my professor

2009-06-28T09:32:00.000-04:00

I am using GMail since 2005 and for the last four years it did an awesome job of keeping me clear from SPAM. I've had months where not a single SPAM message was delivered. Now, suddenly, I am regularly finding some SPAM in my inbox, most of which has the email address from one of my professors set as the sender. At first I thought, he might have caught a virus that's abusing his computer, but that would have stopped by now, so I think that the spammers are just faking his email address. Oddly enough, the university's spam filter marks the message as SPAM, but GMail doesn't filter it out.
I think here's why: the SPF sender authentificationn declares the sender as permitted, so GMail (rightly) assumes that the professor is really the sender, therefore the mail will not go to the SPAM folder. I think this is right: email from somebody who has sent me many non-spam messages and whom I even sent some messages back should always be trusted. The problem seems to be that some spammer has managed to send SPAM from within inside the university.
I will ask our admins to look into this.

firefox vs web applications, part III

2009-06-24T21:57:00.000-04:00

So after all the trouble my idea from the last post gave me, after seeing how Firefox could not really handle different menu/nav/status bar settings for different windows, because new windows would always get it wrong, I thought why can't we just get rid of that menu bar for all windows. Internet Explorer and Google Chrome don't have a menu bar either! Now, how other browsers look is clearly not an argument for me to change my browser, but I know that a lot of other people like to copy things and so I thought: "There must be a Firefox Add-on that gives Firefox a Google-Chrome-like skin." I've used any skins myself, but I know it's a big thing and if it can help me, let's look for it! And indeed! Even on the first page of recommended Firefox Add-Ons I found one that's named "Personal Menu" and it's prime feature is "to disable the menu bar". I installed it and it's great! It offers a few extra buttons for the nav bar (like a bookmarks and a history button) plus one button that can be entirely customized to contain just those few menu items that one personally needs.
Here's how my Firefox looks like now:

I am keeping the location box and the search box, because I use both often. I like how Firefox now manages bookmarks and history from the location bar!

For comparison, on Windows my Firefox still looks as before:

As you can see, I saved some space by getting rid of the refresh/stop/home buttons which I all control by keyboard shortcuts. Actually I also control the back/forward function by keyboard but I felt that a web browser just doesn't look like a web browser without those buttons. Also, I switched to "small buttons".
Now, I saved one line of screen real estate and I like it! On many pages I still need to do F11 (full screen) to read them well, but I think the browser has become better with much effort. That's good!

Firefox vs web applications part II (notes)

2009-06-19T11:28:00.000-04:00

apparently the only way to remove the menubar from a window is to open a new window via javascript (JS) window.open(url, window_name, 'menubar=no'). This code does not work from a bookmarklet (at least not naively), so I wrote a simple "web application launcher page" which contains links to my web applications via JS.
The syntax of the above JS function also supports a parameter 'status=no' to switch of the status-bar, but this is ignored by Firefox. Actually, whatever the parameters for the new window are, Firefox will recognize the "intention" of opening a new window and will then do it using its own parameters: the location bar will always be visible, but grayed-out (read-only, which is very sensible in general, but not so much for my applications), and the status bar will be just as in the current setting (menu) "View - Status bar". Since the menu is disabled in the new window, I have to disable the status bar manually in my "web application launcher" window and then click on the link, which gives me a new window without status bar. The same is true for the location bar. I have to disable it manually before I click on the JS link. This is more complicated than it should be!
Best would really be to let me disable the menubar manually, too, and then have the browser simply remember the setting of status/menu/location bar for each website where I actively changed it. Being at it once, it should also remember the window size and position for each website where I manually change it.

There is also a terribly nasty bug: When I open Facebook in this way without a menu bar (no matter what the settings for status and location bar), it will open without scroll bars, but GMail with the same settings has scrollbars! Fortunately I could fix it by adding "scrollbars=yes" to the window.open() call. Just perplexing that GMail does not need it.

Next step for me is to try living with my javascript launcher page and see if it does the job. Stay tuned and tell me if you find alternative solutions.

the voice of sounds

2009-06-17T11:46:00.000-04:00

In English and French (and consequently IPA), the difference between the sounds of 'p' and 'b' is the the latter is voiced and the former is not. In Mandarin Chinese, the difference between the (Pinyin) 'p' and 'b' is that the former is aspirated and the latter is not. In German the difference between the two is not in voicing, because most consonants in German are unvoiced. Generally the difference seems to be in aspiration (just as in Mandarin), but this is not the entire (scientific) truth. Wikipedia writes:

The nature of the phonetic difference between the voiceless lenis consonants and the similarly voiceless fortis consonants is controversial. It is generally described as a difference in articulatory force, and occasionally as a difference in articulatory length; for the most part, it is assumed that one of these characteristics implies the other.

Lenis and fortis here refers to a whole bunch of consonant pairs, written in IPA: /p-b/, /t-d/, /k-ɡ/, /s-z/, /ʃ-ʒ/. In any case, I have to learn how to properly say the voiced English consonants. I have started this training last year, most notably with my effort to make the word "fog" sound different from a four-letter-word and "bug" sound different from a colloquial unit of currency. I still have to train this a lot, but now I am faced with another problem: the IPA sounds /s-z/ in English are both written as "s" (except in zoo and some American spellings like "digitize", "monetize", "analyze"). Although this sound does not distinguish word pairs as often, it can still lead to non-understanding when pronounced wrongly. Furthermore, with an impeccable accent as a long-term goal, I would also like to distinguish /θ-ð/ which are both written as "th" in English. It's unvoiced in "thaw, think, earth, ..." and voiced in "they, the, this, ...". I will have to look up every word to find out; and then learn it again. Fortunately, as I start writing in Quikscript, I have an easy way to remember all those pronunciations.

PS: posts on Quikscript upcoming. ;-)

web applications and Firefox

2009-06-15T11:47:00.000-04:00

I am currently using the following web applications:

GMail
Facebook
Google Docs
Google Reader

All of them come with their own navigation infrastructure and in none of them I need Firefox' menu and address bar. In fact, they take up valuable screen space that I would rather use for the web application. Especially Facebook and Google Reader take up so much space for the own navigation that there is barely enough for the content. To view photos in Facebook or read posts in Google Reader, I often have to F11 Firefox into full screen mode.

Wouldn't it be great if Firefox had a web application mode, just like Google Chrome, where the menu and location bar are not displayed? Given that the navigation bar can already be hidden and shown easily, all the is necessary would be to save the visibility state of the bar per each website! So easy to implement!

I just read about the Mozilla Prism Project which is a Browser specific to web applications, but it doesn't seem to be very popular. Their is also a Prism extension for Firefox which I just tried out, but it just doesn't work. The only way to start a webapplication is to first create a shortcut on the desktop (why not just a bookmark?!). I did that and clicked the shortcut only to be left with an ordinary and empty Firefox window. Sucks!

Currently I am experimenting a little and run my Firefox without any location bar. It's actually not too bad, because I can still use Ctrl-L to type adresses. It's the same behavior only using a little dialog window that disappears after hitting Return. Let's see if that can take away some pressure until the Firefox developers show reason.

crazy linux: so easy and so complicated

2009-06-14T23:11:00.001-04:00

Linux-Fans would probably claim it as an advantage of their OS that you can easily move an installation from one hard-disk or partition to another, only need to update boot-manager and fstab, can even keep all your directory-names.
In reality, this simple maneuver can easily lead to a big mess (as in: the system does not boot any more and gives loads of contradictory messages). Here's what happened to me.

I wanted to update my Ubuntu from 8.04 to 8.10 (and maybe 9.x later). One reason to do it is that apparently I can then install Facebook-chat in Pidgin. But this update needs 1.5 Gigs of free space on the root partition and so I had to make a larger partition and move my installation there.

First, it was really easy to create a new partition. Before formatting it, however, I had to restart the computer, just as I would have needed with Windows. Formatting it, was also easy, just call "mkfs.ext3" which I don't remember exactly because it pops up conveniently when pressing TAB at the shell. (Yes, I did partitioning and formatting by hand, because there was no graphical tool for it installed by default and finding one to install would have taken longer...)

Second, I googled on how to copy files, read something about "cp -a" and tried it out. That was a big mistake. The correct command would have been "cp -ax" where the "-x" makes sure that file systems which are mounted under / are not also copied. I was not only so unlucky to waste a lot of time by copying useless stuff (had my windows partition mounted...), it also apparently crashed my computer when it tried to copy some of the virtual file systems under /sys.
After this crash, I copied the remaining data individually (so as to not copy things twice). Since all is working now, I think I didn't miss anything.

Third, making the new partition the one being used is really as easy as changing GRUB's menu.lst and /etc/fstab, and it did it right on the third try, but I still do not know at all what when wrong on my previous tries. On the first try, I just walked into menu.lst and replaced the kernel's root= parameter with the new partition name sda7, ignoring all the fancy UUID names for other partitions which I found very confusing. (And still don't get the point... it makes the system transparent for hard-disk switches, but makes it vulnerable to hard-disk reformatting...).
This first try actually booted my system from the new partition (yay!), but when I typed 'mount' at the prompt, it would show the old partition to be mounted on /. But it actually was the new one. What a blatant lie! This is a severe error on 'mount's side.
Anyway, I decided to do the update of 'fstab', hoping this would solve the problem. I added a line mounting the new partition as /, and changed the line for the old partition to mount as /part1. All obvious things you would think, right? But this actually messed up my boot and brought me more blatant lies. After restarting, there was a weird text-mode message box signed by 'gdm' about X not being able to start. Part of the box was overwritten by a text-mode logon prompt. I logged in and had 'mount' lie to me again. It told me that no partition but the former / was mounted when in fact everything else was mounted. Sucker!
I booted back into the old system (which still worked), google for UUID and then changed the 'menu.lst' as well as 'fstab' to use the UUID instead of /dev/sda7. I also corrected a mistake in fstab where I had typed "default" instead of "defaults". Anyway, in my opinion none of those things should have made a difference, but in reality the new system booted thereafter and I couldn't find any problems any more. Case considered close. Reason for trouble unknown.

It's weird how my perception of computers has changed. It used to be that I wanted to understand how things work, usually helped by reading the manual and trying different things out, and then from that understanding knew how to achieve what I wanted. But now, understanding is totally absent from the process. I just assume that everything will somehow work and when I run into trouble (and only then), I ask Google and try out what somebody else wrote, not even caring who posted it and where.
This is really a black vision of computing; one that's totally opposed to my research approach: in verified programming and refinement, everything is meant to be transparent to people and every step understandable. I really sucks that computers in practice have become like black boxes that we can only control by trial and error, not logic or understanding.
After all, it was easy to copy the Ubuntu installation onto a new partition and I am now happily downloading my update. But the way it went is just not right.

Edit: I had the update run overnight because the download rate was so slow (that's GradHouse...) and it bothered me in the early morning with some decisions that pop up randomly during the update. Overall, Ubuntu now uses 0.9 Gigs more of hard disk space, has a new "switch computer off or change chat status" button, needed reconfiguration of my Quickstart-buttons (those extra keys on the laptop-keyboard), because their keycodes apparently got renamed... Most other things still seem to work and most importantly: I could install Facebook-chat for Pidgin from Google-Code and that works, too. Yay!

a thought to be explored

2009-06-08T15:12:00.000-04:00

Emigration to another country is an intrinsically egoistic act. Leaving family and friends behind, separating children from their classmates and grand parents just to accomplish one's own goals. Unsocial and egoistic. (I am excepting those, of course, who are emigrating to save their lives.) For people from poor countries it is often the only way to get ahead, but for those from well-developed countries it is an all the more individualistic act.

Egoism alone is not a problem. It is a natural part of human character and live. But if you have a regular instream of egoists into one country (all leaving their social networks behind), then it's no wonder that this country creates a very individualistic and less social culture.

what's wrong with North Americans?

2009-06-07T20:01:00.001-04:00

I don't know if the following is specific for North American dating or just a byproduct of a global trend of superficiality.

From another Blog: Man fells for woman who turns out to be a liar.

Here's the comment which I left on that blog:

I am here as a foreign observer to find out what’s wrong with North American culture. A culture in which people fall in love with what other people say, instead of falling for what they are. It is our greed which enables such exploits. Not a greed for money, but a greed to be awesome, be superior and to be around awesome and superior people. Attraction based on the other’s rank in society (be it their job or education) cannot be true attraction.
Usually the North American system of being confident and showing off one’s awesomeness works pretty well… (and it discriminates against foreigners who have been raised to see modesty as a virtue)… it’s only in cases like this, when we can see that something’s fundamentally wrong with this society. Not just something wrong with the liars, but also with those who go for the superficial awesomeness, instead of profound goodness.

I hope nobody is thinking that I hate Americans. While being critical of many things here, I also enjoy many other things. I've met many people here whom I like. I just point at some of the off-putting situations to find what is wrong. Things which I think do not go as wrong in other cultures as they do here. But since evidence is very anecdotal, what can I say? It is well-established that many immigrants prefer to make friends with people of their own cultural background, but the differences in the cultures are very hard to pin down. As one acquaintance put it Yesterday: "I just find that I am most comfortable in this group of people." And she was referring to a group of people with different Eastern and Western European backgrounds. Not people from one specific culture, but none of them grown-up in North America. Is that my new culture?

Favorite quotes from "factory girls"

2009-06-07T11:18:00.006-04:00

Migration

在家里没什么事做，所以我出去。 At home there was nothing to do, so I went out.

出去 -- literally "to go out"-- is the Chinese word for leaving your home to work somewhere else. To migrate.

Women make up more than one-third of China's migrants. They tend to be younger than their male counterparts and more likely to be single; they travel farther from home and they stay out longer. They are more motivated to improve themselves and more likely to value migration for its life-changing possibilities. In one survey, men cited higher income as he chief purpose of leaving home, while women aspired to "more experience in life." Unlike men, women had no home to go back to.

Women who had moved up from the assembly line disdained the men back in the village, but city men looked down on them in turn. 高不成低不就。

To die poor is a sin.

The continuing link to a family farm has stabilized China in an age of mass migration. Its cities have not spawned the shantytown slums of so much of the developing world, because the migrant who fails in the city can always return home and find someone there. (...) A married couple might go out together, leaving young children in the care of their aged parents. In the city, a migrant may look desperate, but almost every migrant has a farm to fall back on.

Studying

Both of the women were enrolled at Mr. Wu's school. They had shaved their heads to express their commitment, as Buddhist monks did when joining a monastery. To learn English, it was necessary to renounce the world.

She sometimes didn't understand what her students said; occasionally she corrected them when they were in the right. Often she answered their questions incorrectly. But she had the right instinct when it came to teaching, and somewhere along the way she had figured out the secret of learning a foreign language, which started with being unafraid.

The easiest thing in the world is to loose touch with someone.

The only person you can rely on is yourself.

Life plans

She had made up her mind, she told me. "I want to learn English so I can live a happier life."
"I would like a child to grow up to have a happy life and make contribution to society," she said.
"A contribution to society?" I asked her, startled. "What do you mean?"
"I don't mean to be a big scientist or something like that," Chunming said. "How many people can do that? I think if you live a happy life and are a good person, that is a contribution to society."

What did I get out of this book? Most readers highlighted the horrible conditions in the factories, but to me this is nothing new and I know that it is even worse in other countries. Two things shine out for me: the typically Chinese character and how Chinese people deal with things, and the general historic idea of migration which is strengthened in this book by going back to the author's own family who's history started when her ancestor moved to Mandchuria a couple hundred years ago.

Here is my book review on Amazon.com.

I am currently a foreign student in North America (just like the author's grand father), but I am facing the decision whether to return some day or stay here as a migrant. One thing is for sure: I will not go back to my ancestor's village. 家里没有什么做，所以我要出去。 At home there is nothing to do, so I have to go out.

Antwort von Hebie

2009-06-04T11:24:00.000-04:00

Vor kurzem habe ich der Firma Hebie geschrieben, ob sie nicht wohl einmal eine Version ihres wunderbaren Chaingliders für Falträder anbieten will. Hier die sehr schöne Antwort:

Sehr geehrter Herr Will,

Ihre Nachricht hat uns sehr erfreut und die Runde im Haus gemacht.

Faltrad und CHAINGLIDER passen in der Tat perfekt zusammen. Leider zieren sich die Faltradhersteller noch etwas. Ihre Mail kam jedoch zur richtigen Zeit zu uns, da wir momentan eine diesbezügliche Investitionsentscheidung treffen müssen. Sie stützt das Vorhaben, das dennoch nicht ganz einfach ist wegen hoher Investitionskosten und Unsicherheiten seitens der Hersteller.

Vielen Dank auch für die mitgesandten Daten, die sich mit den unseren großenteils decken. Allerdings falten die meisten Räder in Europa wohl über die Kette.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen!
Met vriendelijke groet!
Best wishes!
Med venlig hilsen!

Dominik Peitsch
Marketing-Mix

HEBIE GmbH & Co. KG

Sandhagen 16
33617 Bielefeld
Amtsgericht Bielefeld, HRA 8234
Geschäftsführer: Dirk Niermann

Und hier meine ursprüngliche Nachricht:

Sehr geehrter Hersteller excellenter Fahrrad-Komponenten!

Ich bin seit drei Jahren zufriedener (und zuweilen geradeheraus begeisterter) Nutzer des Hebie Chaingliders. Die Begeisterung hat auf einige Familienmitglieder umgeschlagen, die jetzt auch ihr Fahrrad umgerüstet haben, bzw. gleich ein mit Chainglider entworfenes Rad gekauft haben.

Zu gern würde ich einen Chainglider auch an meinem Faltrad einsetzen! Neben dem Schutz der Hose und Schutz der Kette bietet sich am Faltrad noch ein weiterer, entscheidender Vorteil: wenn das Rad gefaltet ist, muss man immer aufpassen, wo und wie man es anfasst, und wo und wie man es abstellt, damit man sich nicht selbst die Hände oder womöglich noch anderen Menschen die Hosen, Kofferräume, oder Gardinen mit Kettenfett verziert.

Die meisten Falträder haben ein festes Rahmendreieck hinten, welches die Kette beim Falten in Form belässt, so dass man den Chainglider genauso aufziehen kann, wie bei einem großen Fahrrad. Der vordere Teil des Chaingliders passt sogar schon auf mein Faltrad! Problem ist nur, dass ein Faltrad wegen der kleineren Räder auch ein kleineres Kettenritzel verwendet (angenommen hier, das vordere Kettenblatt ist nicht größer als normal). Persönlich habe ich ein 14er Ritzel an meinem Fahrrad. Die 3-Gang-Modelle von Dahon haben alle ein 13er Ritzel. Die mit Inter-8 Schaltung ein 16er. Daraus ergibt sich der Vorschlag, ein Chainglider Hinterteil für Ritzel von 13 bis 16 Zähnen zu entwickeln und verkaufen.
Den Faltradmarkt würde dies revolutionieren, weil die verschmutze Hand/Gardine/Kofferraum damit endlich der Vergangenheit angehören würde! Allein Dahon hat in der ersten Jahreshälfte 2007 über 180'000 Fahrräder verkauft und mindestens 20% davon sind mit Nabenschaltung ausgerüstet. Der Markt für Falträder wächst schneller als der für Fahrräder allgemein!
Überlegen Sie sich mal, in diesen Zukunftsmarkt einzusteigen -- ich wäre Ihr erster Kunde!
beste Grüße,
Robert Will

Video zu Stuttgart 21

2009-05-27T14:40:00.000-04:00

April 2009: Politiker unterzeichnen Finanzierungsvereinbarung für Tunnelbahnhof (Stuttgart 21), sowie Schnellfahrstrecke (Stuttgart--)Wendlingen--Ulm.
Mai 2009: Demonstration gegen Stuttgart 21 mit dem Aufruf, das Projekt bei der Kommunalwahl im Juli abzuwählen.

Das alles ändert nichts daran, dass Stuttgart eine massive Verschwendung ist, bei der die Eisenbahnanbindung nicht verbessert wird, sondern verschlechtert! 8 statt (aktuell) 16 Gleise -- das führt zu Überfüllung und verpassten Anschlusszügen.

Hier zwei gute Bilder, die den Unterschied verdeutlichen:

Und ein Video über Kopfbahnhof und Taktfahrplan:

Ergonomic Revolutions

2009-05-20T20:40:00.001-04:00

Six meters per pedal-turn. This is the gearing-specification which I would use to design a single gear bike. Building this today is a piece of cake that only requires basic skills of multiplication and division. Let your wheel be of the twenty inch diameter class, which yields (depending on the tire) about 1.6m in circumference. Add a chainwheel with 52 teeth and a 14 teeth sprocket and there you go: 5.96m of forward motion per one pedal turn! (If you think small is beautiful, go with a 42/11 combination at 6.13m of forward motion per pedal turn.)
And all this is made possible by John Starley's 1885 invention of the bicycle chain! Before the chain drive was invented you would need an almost two meter high wheel to mount a pair of pedals on, so that you move your six meters per revolution. But sitting on such a wheel you wouldn't reach the pedals anymore since they are over one meter away from the seat!
Most Hi-Bi's of Starley's time only had about 1.5m high wheels which was very dangerous for the riders sitting on top of them, but only delivered 4.7m per turn. Starley's "Safety Bicycle" with a chain drive was thus not only safer, but also more comfortable to ride! And, since the bike's engine is a human, being more ergonomic, also made it faster.

Fast forward 124 years. I am riding a twenty-inch bike with 8 internal gears. With a 42/14 tooth combination my neutral gear (which happens to be the fifth) takes me forward 4.85m on each turn of the pedals. If I would ever like to do a ride without shifting at all, my sixth gear gives me just about the perfect six meters of development (that's what we call the forward motion per one full pedal turn).

Interestingly, when I ride in the city, I am only using my gears number four to seven. That's seven gears who have an overall transmission ratio of 167%. The surprise here is that this is just about the same ratio introduced by the three-speed gear hubs invented almost exactly one hundred years ago. Unlike modern bicycle buyers who just want the highest number of gears and the most sporty (or sexy) looking bike they can get, the inventors of one hundred years ago apparently thought very well about what was needed for best performance and just built that: Three gears, evenly spaced, 186% from lowest to highest. And those gear hubs were so well-built that many of them are still running Today. Especially in Toronto, you can see a lot of good, old bikes with those hubs on them.

Today, there are only a few people like my friend Kate, who actually know what they need and buy a brand new bike with just those three internal gears. Simple, reliable, ergonomic.

The revolution has happened a long time ago. Anybody joining in?

bike sharing or bike scam?

2009-05-09T09:43:00.001-04:00

Montreal is launching a public bike sharing system this coming Tuesday, and of course Toronto can't do other than imitate them. Toronto's system is planned to launch in 2010.
Montreal touts itself to have an advertising-free solution, but instead they have horribly high prices. They advertise the first 30 minutes to be free, but in fact, users have to pay five dollars subscription fee before they can even check out a bike. How is this tariff supposed to encourage the use of bicycles for very short distances and as a means to bridge the gaps between other means of transport? But that's always the problem with imitations: easy to copy the appearance, but still misses the point.

I wonder why the city blasts itself with fighting for clean air and community service, when in fact, the system is meant to pay for itself, the city doesn't spend a single cent on it! That's a really tough battle for the environment that you are fighting, guys! Private companies do everything for profit, why do we need a city government at all?! ((As a matter of fact, the city still provides the space to put the stations for I don't know what compensation... but still that can hardly be seen as a fight for clean air or commitment for citizen mobility.)

As an extra: This article on Spacing.ca talks about the funny coincidences that have led to the world-famed success of Paris' bike sharing system.

life goals and self-worth ~~~ memories from Taiwan

2009-05-06T08:41:00.000-04:00

When you think about whether you are successful, whether you are a good individual, whether you are proud of yourself, what are the things you look for, what are the MEASURES that you judge yourself by?
I would guess that for most Western people what they want is the respect of their peers and most people think that financial independence (i.e., having a proper carreer) and a similar life style (i.e., consumption) are the way to be accepted. Increasingly there is also a trend of people identifying themselves with their looks, which can be seen in the rise of beauty surgery. I recently came to think about the cultural difference of life goals and self-image, when I saw a documentary about Africa that stated that for many Africans the number of children they have is the most important thing in life... (which is probably part of the reason that economic progress in African countries is so slow compared to many Asian countries).
Thinking about all this I remembered my (and fellow traveller's) experience with Taiwanese people. It seems that for the Taiwanese, learning is a central part of there self-esteem. In Taiwan you find people working sixty hours a week, but still taking time to study. One of my class-mates (Indonesion of Chinese descent) worked seven days a week to earn money and still came to take classes five days a week. Our teacher, her age not much short of retirement, is still studying for a graduate degree.
Additionally I noticed that while in the West, many things involve quite a lot of technology, in China many things involve a lot of skill. Technology can be bought, but skill has to be aquired.

When I think about my own life, I find that I am also very much attracted to learning and improving skills. I am among those who don't need an iPod or iPhone, who are still working with a five year old computer.
What I value in myself and what makes me happy is what I know and what I am able to do. In that sense, I am a little Taiwanese myself.

Motivationsschreiben einer Freundin

2009-05-05T11:32:00.002-04:00

Einfach nur, weil sie es so schön geschrieben hat:

Oktober 1999 war ein kritischer Wendepunkt in meinem Leben. Denn zu dieser Zeit begann ich meine Ausbildung zum Englischlehrer und fing an, Deutsch zu lernen. Anfangs betrachtete ich das Deutschstudium lediglich als eine persönliche Herausforderung. Jedoch mit fortschreitendem Studium wurde mir mehr und mehr bewusst, dass ich nicht einfach nur eine Sprache lerne. Vielmehr erlangte ich neue Erkenntnisse und Einblicke in ein Land gefüllt mit Kultur, Kunst und Geschichte.

Deutschlernen und Lehrkarriere erlaubten es mir, nicht nur die Welt mit einer neuen Perspektive zu betrachten, sondern auch mich selber. Ich bin der Überzeugung, dass man jede einem sich bietende Gelegenheit nutzen sollte, um sein Wissen zu erweitern. Ferner bin ich stets auf der Suche nach Möglichkeiten, die mir helfen mein Potential auszuschöpfen, meine Ängste zu überwinden, meine Grenzen auszuloten und dazu beitragen, mich als Persönlichkeit weiterzuentwickeln. Das Studium an der Sun Yat-sen Universität und im Ausland ist nach meiner Meinung bestens dazu geeignet, all dies zu erreichen.

little wolf's amiable altriusm

2009-05-03T05:57:00.000-04:00

There is a bicycle with a flat tire in front of little wolf's house. Little wolf sees the bike every time he comes and goes and he is said that the bike sits there broken. He well remembers the time when the bike was in good shape and apparently used by somebody since it used to be locked in front of the house and occasionally absent from its parking space.
Little wolf tried to inflate the bike's tire to make it happy again. But the tube didn't hold the air. So little wolf decided to change the bike's tube. He didn't know how to get the bike's hub gear control box out of the way so he asked me about it. I am already familiar with Wolf's extra-ordinary altruism, but I was still surprised. I told him, that he shouldn't start messing with other people's bikes. I don't think he would break anything, but I was concerned that the bike was already abandoned, the owner having moved away. Also, Wolf admitted himself that once the bike is repaired, since there is no lock any more, it might just be stolen! On the other hand, it often happens that bike owners are too apathetic to repair their bike after a damage or vandalism and would just continue riding it after it being magically repaired. (Incidentally, said apathy sadly also concerned my own sister and her bike...)
With all those arguments going back and forth, we had a very heated debate about it, because he insisted to repair this bike whose owner he didn't even know. It is a lady's bike and we were make jokes about the owner being either a hot blonde or a grand ma who can't ride anymore now.
Since our discussion was so entrenched, I asked around among the other friends present at our get together. After a short explanation, they voiced the opinion that Wolf should just do what makes him happy, no matter whether the bike will be stolen afterwards or be vandalized again. Was was instantly convinced, not so much by the argument, but by hearing some trusted third party's opinion. We explained little wolf how to take out the wheel with the gear box and ask him to keep us updated about the bike and its story.

a visit to the center of the world

2009-03-30T05:02:00.001-04:00

About a thousand years ago, the Chinese built the worlds longest canal from Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north. They used pound locks on their canal a couple centuries before this type of lock was invented in the West. One of the canal's main uses was to transport grain from the south to their capital in the north -- grain was how the provinces paid tax to the emperor. When China flourished, its capital, Beijing, amassed immense riches and people at the emperor's court had time and money for studying and the arts.
Beijing for many centuries was one of the richest cities of the world.

On my visit to Beijing I had the feeling that this part of the city's role is still true today. The tax is no longer delivered as grain from China's many peasants. It is now delivered in US dollars from the many foreign-owned factories along the Chinese coast. Factories where workers with little education work over ten hours a day, often six and a half days per week. And a lot of the profit from those factories goes to the capital Beijing and other big cities in the country. Beijing has excellent public infrastructure -- beautiful avenues with grade separated crossings, excellent public transport including a vast subway network built from the late nineties and gradually opening, high-speed internet, cell phone networks (even the rickshaw riders have cell phones!), large bike lanes used by bicycles and electric scooters (both the motor-bike and the pedal-bike based sort) -- one of the greatest things about the city compared to Taiwan is that there are no noisy, stinky motor-scooters around. With it's modern street-scape, modern subway and electric vehicles Beijing feels like a place from the future! (Compare the subway's contact-less smartcard tickets to Toronto's paper tickets and coins... it's like Canada is still in the iron age.)

Tourism, the government, the headquarters of foreign companies, and most recently the Olympics provide Beijing with an influx of money that lets people have a very good life compared to the rest of China. And the city itself has a high quality of life... the beauty of the streets and the efficiency of transport are enjoyed even by the lower-income citizens. Also, there are more universities in Beijing than in other parts of China and all of them have quotas for local applicants in their tough entrance exams. Therefore, a good education is also a privilege that Beijingers enjoy, even if they are not from a high-income class.

Just like in the old imperial times... 北京中国的都市 -- Beijing, capital of China, "the Central Country".

Taipei Cycle Show 2009

2009-03-20T09:24:00.001-04:00

My report from the IFMA Bicycle Show in Cologne 2005 was one of the writings that prompted me to open this blog. I am happy to continue this tradition today by reporting from the Taipei Cycle Show 2009. Note: I will add photos and links later. View this article on Blogger (not Facebook) to read them. Here's an unsorted list of the photos.

Technical part:

The most interesting thing first: A Taiwanese inventor presented a dynamo that attaches to the outside of the rear hub. It takes up just the space opposite of the sprocket or cassette which is an empty gap on most bikes. This little elegantly solves the upgrading problem for hub dynamos: you don't need to replace the entire front wheel anymore! Instead, it takes five minutes to take off the rear wheel, attach the dynamo to the wheel and put it back in again. Another advantage: the force-bearing function of the hub is decoupled from the dynamo which makes the entire set-up more robust. Serial production of this innovative bike part should start soon and I can't wait to see it on the German and Canadian market.
General assessment: most bikes on the show were sport bikes (who I find rather boring) and in typical Taiwanese style there were many small-wheeled (20 inch) bikes, folding, but also non-folding. There were also small-wheeled electrical bikes.
I asked at some booths where there product was actually made and the answer often was "China" (meaning the mainland, of course), but there's still a lot of production in Taiwan, most of it concentrated around Taizhong. Most companies at the show were Taiwanese trying to sell their products to dealers and assemblers around the world. But there were also a few import bikes. I remember the trikes from Hase, Germany, and the US-made sport-utility-bike Surly.
One company had a gear-hub on display which resembled the F&S Duomatic made in Germany a couple decades ago (more about the history on hubstripping.com). It has two gears, one 1:1, the other 1:1.3, and switching takes place by back-pedaling. However the prototype on display did turn very heavily and neither me nor the salesperson was able to actually switch it into the other gear.
Sturmey Archer's newest product is a a three-speed hub without a free-wheel. That is, it's a multi-gear, fixed-gear hub. Some people will find that very cool. I found very cool that the very old Englisch brand "Sturmey Archer" is actually now part of a US-Taiwanese company and has lots of production in Taiwan. How did I not knew before?! Wikipedia had it! Wikipedia also informs me that a similar product was also offered at sometime in the last century...
One company offered a less than $100 US upgrade kit for bicycles which allows both pedals to turn independently of each other. As applications they mentioned people in physiotherapy who can't move both feet simultaneously and kids that want to show off. One way to use it is two move both feed in parallel, both up, both down, or to use one only foot and rest the other, or two move both feed up and down on the front half of the pedal-circle, not using the back half.

Non-technical part:

There was a special bicycle parking area marked in the motorcycle part of the underground parking. In Taiwan it is normal to have a separate parkings and separate lanes and parking entry/exits for scooters because they a so many. It is also normal for cyclists to use the scooter infrastructure, because there is so much of it. Now, the sad part is that they were actually only very few bicycles. Maybe eight bicycles and over a hundred scooters! Unfortunately, the cycle show takes place at the Nangang Exhibition Center and this is quite far from the Taipei city center. Personally, it took me little over an hour to bike there from my place.
It was very interesting to talk to very different kinds of people:

A German engineer, who designed a product together with a German colleague and has it produced in a factory in Taiwan. So you two guys make a living on that business alone? Yes, he replied. And he doesn't need Chinese for the job. He even showed me a Chinese learning program for his iPhone, but said that he was too busy with work to learn Chinese.
A Taiwanese inventor whose eyes were shining when he talked about his invention. Quote (own words, from memory): "When you invent something, it's so hard to find somebody to produce it for you! In the end we had to get our machines, make all the special parts and then assemble the bike with the remaining components bought." - "Yes, I know that," I replied in Chinese and the Taiwanese inventor smiled brightly and poked me saying "Oh, you speak Chinese!" Apparently this made him happy, and guess what -- it made me happy, too! (My "I know" refers to the stories of the Brompton inventor and David Hon which I have read... and I guess it's the same for many other now famous inventions.)
A sales girl who said that I am the first East German that she ever met and how much she like the movie "Good Bye, Lenin". I said that she has probably met other East Germans before, without knowing they are from the east, and how much I am surprised she likes that movie because I thought it is something especially made for Germans. (By the way: other Taiwanese have also mentioned this movie to me; I think that this tells us something about Taiwanese mentality. I might be that Taiwanese are aware how much society has changed recently and that not all these changes were good. But maybe I am just making this up, because I feel that way myself...)
A Chinese or Taiwanese salesperson who had to let an important customer wait to answer my question and then was upset to know that I am just a private visitor without business card. I am planning for a long time to get some Bike-Pirates Business Cards... *sigh*

I met Thomas Lösch at the Dahon booth, but didn't manage to start a nice conversation. ;-)
I missed the test-ride of electrical bikes which was a lot of fun at the IFMA. It was supposed to last until three o'clock, but was already over when I went there at 2:15. Overall many booths were packing up during the last hour, so I didn't stay to the end either.
I had lunch at the German-run bistro of the exibition center. The sausages, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes really tasted like in Germany. And the price was also on a German level. About three times more than for similar Taiwanese food.

At the end I biked home, sorted through the photos (luckily not too many), wrote this report, and keep wondering if the bicycle industry would be viable career option for me...

on the future of China

2009-03-19T20:55:00.001-04:00

I have always thought that the peaceful revolution in Eastern Europe in the 1990s was a result of the good and free education systems in the countries of the communist block. Marxian theory states that a dictatorship is necessary in order to prepare a nation for a completely free communist social order. The idea is that the dictatorship provides the political stability to allow for economic and social progress. Once the people are well educated enough, a peaceful, free (and communist) state will emerge. As ironic as it sounds, Marx was right about the freedom and peace, but he was wrong about the communism. It turned out that the people of Eastern Europe were smart enough to start peaceful revolutions and take government into their own hands, but the system adopted was social capitalism, not communism.

When we apply this logic to China, what will our predictions be? Does China have an education system which will give all citizens a fair start and thereby prepare an eventual liberalization?

The Taipei Times writes what Scott Rozelle of Stanford University has to say about this:

China has the entrepreneurs and the money to make this happen, Rozelle said, but it remains critically weak in one respect — education. While in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan education from kindergarten to grade 12 was almost universal by 1978, in China today, less than 2 percent of Chinese in rural areas receive higher education and only 8 percent of junior high graduates go to senior high.

Education at a rural high school costs US$160 a year, which, in US terms, is the equivalent of sending a child to an Ivy League university. Adjusted for purchasing power, putting a child in high school represents decades of work for an ordinary worker in rural China, he said.

Look at this: even High School in China is capitalistic and therefore unaffordable for most. This looks like the country is bound for a couple more decades of evil dictatorship! (And even if they were to change the education system now, it would take at least one generation of people growing up for the changes to take effect... )

It's true that China has some very good universities and probably a lot of educated people, too. But what is this compared to hundreds of millions who lack proper education? And a government who relies un manipulating those uneducated masses in order to remain in power? Also China seems to have a general mentality of the "right of the stronger" as opposed to at least some spirit of community that was present in the communist regimes of the Eastern Block. But let's see what the future brings...

Tastaturbelegung NEO

2009-03-04T02:16:00.001-05:00

Es ist ja mehr oder weniger allgemein bekannt, dass die QWERTZ Tastaturbelegung vor langer Zeit entwickelt wurde, um das Verklemmen von Schreibmaschinen-Hebeln zu vermeiden. Gerüchte besagen, dass QWERTZ absichtlich die Geschwindigkeit des Tippens verringert, damit es nicht zu schnell für die Schreibmaschine ist.
Ob das Gerücht nun stimmt oder nicht — es bleibt die Frage, wie eine auf Ergonomie und Produktivität optimierte Tastaturbelegung aussehen würde und wie ergonomisch diese dann wäre. Könnte man schneller schreiben, leichter schreiben, mit weniger Schäden für die Gesundheit?

Ich habe mir jüngst einmal wieder die Tastaturbelegung "NEO" angesehen, die speziell für die deutsche Sprache optimiert wurde. Ein Freund von mir verwendet NEO schon länger und ist damit sehr zufrieden.

Hier einmal eine Aufstellung der Vor- und Nachteile von NEO aus meiner Sicht. Linksammlung am Ende des Berichts.

Vorteile:

NEO hat fundierte Entwurfsprinzipien, die sowohl auf Ergonomie als auch Produktivität Rücksicht nehmen. Allein der Umstand, dass die häufigsten Buchstaben der deutschen Sprache auf der Grundreihe liegen ist ein großer Vorteil. (Grundreihe = da wo man beim 10-Finger-System die Finger liegen hat.)
NEO ermöglicht die direkte Eingabe vieler Sonderzeichen über eine zweite, dritte, oder vierte Ebene (also SHIFT+Taste, ALTGR+Taste, usw.). Die Feststelltaste (CAPS lock) wird dabei als Ebenen-Umschalter verwendet, was dieser ansonsten nutzlosen Taste endlich wieder eine Funktion zu weist. Besonders wichtige Sonderzeichen sind für mich der Gedankenstrich (—) und Französische Buchstaben, insbesondere das ç. Dank Unicode kann man solche Zeichen ja heutzutage sehr leicht mit dem Computer verarbeiten, nur eingeben kann man sie überhaupt nicht leicht!
Viele Programmierer in C, Java und ähnlichen Sprachen, freuen sich dass die geschweiften Klammern {} mi NEO einfacher einzugeben sind. Ich selbst mag diese Programmiersprachen überhaupt nicht, aber es versteckt sich hier ein weiterer Vorteil! Für meine Promotion arbeite ich an einer Programmier- und Beweis-Sprache, die selbst viele Sonderzeichen benutzt (∀, ¬, ∨, ...), und NEO ist hierfür auch nützlich. Viele mathematische Zeichen sind schon in NEO vorhanden, und andere lassen sich wahrscheinlich leicht in eine individuelle Version von NEO einbauen. Das ist ein großer Vorteil für Mathematik- und Logik-Programme, weil dadurch viel Programmierarbeit für Sonderzeichen entfällt. Auf dem Bildschirm, dem (ausgedruckten) Papier und der Tastatur befindet sich das gleiche Zeichen. Außerdem kann man diese Zeichen auch zwischen verschiedenen Programmen leicht kopieren und so z.B. in elektronischer Post verwenden.
NEO hat einen erweiterten "Compose" Mechanismus mit dem man zwei Zeichen zu einem kombinieren kann, z.B. ` und a zu à oder , und c zu ç. Das gibt noch mehr leicht zu tippende Sonderzeichen und ich stelle mir vor, damit die Tonzeichen von pīnyīn zu schreiben!
Den Erfahrungsberichten zufolge, ist es leicht im Fall des Falles auch noch QWERTZ zu schreiben (z.B. auf fremden Computern).
Scheinbar ist es ganz praktisch, die eigene Tastatur zu behalten und nicht umzubeschriften, da man NEO sowieso blind schreibt und es leicht bleibt, die eigene Tastatur mal kurz von Jemand anderem benutzen zu lassen.
Mein privater Computer und auch meine Uni verwendet Ubuntu und das hat NEO schon eingebaut, man muss es nur als Tastaturschema auswählen! Das ist super und macht das Umschalten einfach: andere Leute können auf meinem Computer QWERTY tippen und ich kann auf anderen (Ubuntu-) Computern NEO tippen. (Einstellen dauert nur eine Minute!)

Nachteile:

Ich habe mir einmal verschiedene Erfahrungsberichte von NEO-Umsteigern angesehen und festgestellt, dass niemand unter diesen Nutzern mit NEO schneller tippt, als er mit QWERTZ vorher getippt hat. Viele tippen sogar etwas langsamer! Mein oben erwähnter Freund hat mal eine Zeit lang mit NEO Geschwindigkeit traniert und war dann viel schneller als mit QWERTZ vorher. Aber eine Weile später, als er NEO täglich verwendete, aber nicht mehr trainierte, war seine Geschwindigkeit wieder auf QWERTZ-Niveau, so wie auch bei den anderen Nutzern.
Das es nicht schneller ist, spricht natürlich nicht gegen NEO (es ist ja auch nicht signifikant langsamer), aber es spricht schon gegen einen Umstieg, da ich mir ja schon eine kleine Verbesserung der Geschwindigkeit erhoffe.
Es gab auch keine Daten zur Tippfehlerrate für NEO. Ich glaube ich mache bei QWERTZ nur sehr wenige Tippfehler. Kann NEO da noch besser sein?
Die Software-Unterstützung für NEO scheint noch nicht so ausgereift zu sein. Laut den Berichten gab es einige Probleme, insbesondere unter Windows.
Der schwerwiegenste Nachteil: Viele Tastenkombinationen zur Programm-Steuerung haben sich mir schon im Rückenmark eingeprägt und diese umzulernen ist besonders schwer. Das Problem dieser Kombinationen ist, dass sie von der Tastenbeschriftung unabhängig eingeprägt sind: ich drücke instinktiv STRG-C (-X, -Z, -V, -W). Ich könnte mir die neuen Positionen der Kombinationen zwar sicher leicht einprägen, aber wenn ich dann doch mal irgendwo eine andere Tastenbelegung verwenden muss, würde ich mich höchstwahrscheinlich damit selbst mit dem Hammer auf die Finger klopfen (oder schlimmeres!). Aus Erfahrung weiß ich wie frustrierend es ist, wenn man instinktiv genau das falsche macht. Zum Beispiel "Fenster schließen" an Stelle von "kopieren". Das ist schlimm!
Ich hätte auch Probleme manche Tastenkombinationen überhaupt zu finden, wenn die Tasten nicht umbeschriftet sind. (Angenommen, dass ich meinen Computer nicht umbeschrifte. Und immer, wenn ich NEO auf einem fremden Ubuntu-Computer verwende.)

Offene Fragen:

Wie leicht/schwer ist es, Sonderzeichen in der NEO-Belegung zu individualisieren? (Ich brauche das für meine Programmiertheorie, welche ein paar besonders seltene Zeichen häufig verwendet.)
Ist es möglich, bestimmte Tastenkombinationen (insbesondere STRG-C, -X, -V. -W) so umzuprogrammieren, dass sie auf der alten Taste belegt bleiben, selbst wenn diese Taste einen anderen Buchstaben erzeugt? Ich denke, diese Umbelegung ist nur für ganz wenige Steuertastenkombinationen nötig, denn die meisten anderen Kombinationen benutze ich nicht aus dem Schreibfluss heraus.
Unterstützt der Compose-Mechanismus schon die vier Tonzeichen von Pinyin (ˉ´ˇ`)? Wenn nicht, wie schwer ist es diese einzustellen? Oder ist es besser Tonzeichen mit einem anderen Mechanismus einzugeben (vierte Ebene, ...)?
Ich brauche generell noch mehr Informationen zu Steuer-Tastenkombinationen und den verschiedenen NEO-Ebenen. Es ist für mich entscheidend, dass viele Anwendungsprogramme genau dieselben Kombinationen verwenden und bei Ubuntu ist dies schon ganz gut umgesetzt. Wie kann NEO dies erhalten und ggf. noch ausweiten? Ist es zum Beispiel möglich Strg-W in Programmen zu verwenden, welche für selbigen Befehl Alt-F4 erwarten?
Wie schnell tippen andere NEO-Nutzer (vor- und nach dem Umstieg) und mit welcher Fehlerrate? Wäre interessant dazu mal eine Umfrage zu starten.
Wie schnell tippe ich selbst? (Deutsch, Englisch, mathematische Formeln, ...?)

Nun bleibt mir nur noch, Antworten auf diese Fragen zu suchen und dann eine Entscheidung bzgl. Umstieg zu treffen.

Links:

are we living in the most progressive times?

2009-02-22T05:35:00.002-05:00

Here is a letter sent by then US president Theodore Roosevelt to the government printing office.

Oyster Bay, August 27, 1906

To Charles Arthur Stillings
My dear Mr. Stillings: I enclose herewith copies of certain circulars of the Simplified Spelling Board,which can be obtained free from the Board at No. 1 Madison Avenue, New York City. Please hereafter direct that in all Government publications of the executive departments the three hundred words enumerated in Circular No. 5 shall be spelled as therein set forth. If anyone asks the reason for the action, refer him to Circulars 3, 4 and 6 as issued by the Spelling Board. Most of the criticism of the proposed step is evidently made in entire ignorance of what the step is, no less than in entire ignorance of the very moderate and common-sense views as to the purposes to be achieved, which views as so excellently set forth in the circulars to which I have referred. There is not the slightest intention to do anything revolutionary or initiate any far-reaching policy. The purpose simply is for the Government, instead of lagging behind popular sentiment, to advance abreast of it and at the same time abreast of the views of the ablest and most practical educators of our time as well as the most profound scholars—men of the stamp of Professor Lounsbury. If the slightest changes in the spelling of the three hundred words proposed wholly or partially meet popular approval, then the changes will become permanent without any reference to what officials or individual private citizens may feel; if they do not ultimately meet with popular approval they will be dropt, and that is all there is about it. They represent nothing in the world but a very slight extension of the unconscious movement which has made agricultural implement makers write “plow” instead of “plough”; which has made most Americans write “honor” without the somewhat absurd, superfluous “u”; and which is even now making people write “program” without the “me”—just as all people who speak English now write “bat,” “set,” “dim,” “sum,” and “fish” instead of the Elizabethan “batte,” “sette,” “dimme,” “summe,” and “fysshe”; which makes us write “public,” “almanac,” “era,” “fantasy,” and “wagon,” instead of the “publick,” “almanack,” “aera,” “phantasy,” and “waggon” of our great-grandfathers. It is not an attack of the language of Shakespeare and Milton, because it is in some instances a going back to the forms they used, and in others merely the extension of changes which, as regards other words, have taken place since their time. It is not an attempt to do anything far-reaching or sudden or violent; or indeed anything very great at all. It is merely an attempt to cast what sleight weight can properly be cast on the side of the popular forces which are endeavoring to make our spelling a little less foolish and fantastic.
Sincerely yours

At that time, the President's wish was ignored until Congress passed a bill revoking this attempt. Since then, progress which had been made in spelling over the last centuries far almost stopped and this in spite of the support of eminent figures such as Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw and Andrew Carnegie.
We think of our time as being a very advanced and progressive one. But is this really true?

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3
Some words in Roosevelt's 300 list are: tho, altho, thru, thruout, thoro, thorofare, program, catalog, decalog, demagog, pedagog, prolog. Some of which made it into American spelling.

science-non-fiction

2009-02-18T08:59:00.001-05:00

Driving home from work, stephen's car rolled slowly over the pavement. red lights, stop and go, rush hour downtown. the sidewalk full of people. some hurrying by from work to home, some from errand to errand, others dipping into the shop windows without slowing their pace. there, a book shop. stephen remembered the poem which was on his mind this morning... while his thoughts slipped away, the car stopped. stephen got out, put the car on the sidewalk and entered the shop.
How confused he was after a day of work! this shop only carried non-fiction. but there should be others nearby, stephen thought, pushing his car along while walking past more shop windows. he now remembered the entire first stanza. the cars on the street were so slow, they weren't even noisy. stephen crossed a little park and lifted his car up a few steps to "the downtown book shoppe". by now the entire poem had come back to him. he bought the book anyway.

Interpretation aid: this is common reality for people who commute by bike.

Dedicated to Justin Ward.

corollary from the last post

2009-02-16T08:43:00.000-05:00

Adam Smith teaches that individuals behaving egoistically also benefit everybody else. Now we have to realise that individuals being benevolent towards others (everybody except the most ungrateful) will first and foremost benefit themselves! Directly by the satisfaction that blesses the benefactors. And indirectly when some of their actions some day lead to more benevolent behaviour of others.(*)

Smith's law might still be a valid principle of economics, but it's inverse is a principle of human nature that's ever-more important in our era-of-plenty. The social matters more than the economic! (Remember, Obama's campaign was won with grass-roots participation, not with high-valued donations.)

(*) I write "some of their actions lead to an indirect pay-off sometimes" because if there was a guaranteed result, the action would not be benevolent, but just an egoistic calculation. Feedback of benevolence works only on average and in the long term (and it's rewards are positive surprises as opposed to the expected outcomes from calculated action). But the direct satisfaction of doing something good always works.

on the fate of humanity

2009-02-16T08:22:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon a set of three lectures given by economist Richard Layard in 2003 and titled "What causes Happiness?". Here are the links (PDF):

This mostly advocates (and justifies with scientific findings) a change in public policy. One of the points mentioned is an education reform which covers what I have recently thought of. Teaching values (again) and emotional intelligence (finally) to all children.

But there's much more in those lectures which shows that the current focus in politics (be it conservative or liberal) is in the wrong place: the economy does just not matter as much as everybody claims. People matter much more. I will write more on all this later, but let me just give you a start to reading Layard. In the last fifty years, the economy in the US (and many other countries) has grown by a lot, but happiness of the population stagnated, crime increased, mental illness increased, trust among people decreased. And all those changes are not just significant, but by a factor of two each at least! I don't want to describe where this leads us if trends go on like this. There is a way out and Layard describes it well.

PS: As an extra-perk I noticed in the statistics that three out of the five most happy countries in the world (according to scientific measure) are just those three developed countries that are well-known for their high use of cycling as a means of everyday, everybody transport. Namely The Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland! Remember that you don't (just) bike for the environment or your fellow citizens; you bike for your own health and happiness.

mal was anderes: Geschichte, Krieg und das Finanzwesen

2009-02-15T07:30:00.000-05:00

Jörg Friedrich meistert nicht nur die deutsche Sprache wunderbar, er kennt auch einige historische Details und erläutert Zusammenhänge just ein bisschen tief gehender, als man es gewohnt sein mag: "Von deutschen Schulden - Die unendliche Geschichte der Reparationszahlungen aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg in diesem und dem nächsten Jahrhundert" (Berliner Zeitung, 1999)

Mein Lieblingszitat:

Der Verlierer zahlt nach dem Rechtsbrauch, weil er einen Krieg verloren, nicht weil er ihn entfesselt hat.

historical movies

2009-02-15T02:40:00.000-05:00

Here's a very profound quote regarding the recent Hollywood-Rendering of the 1944 German "Valkyrie" plot:

"It seemed that [Stauffenberg] was the man who unmistakably wore the mantle of a near-mystic German past, a warrior Germany, a noble Germany, a poetic Germany, a Germany of myth and longing."

British novelist Justin Cartwright is saying this and he has probably a lot of evidence since he already wrote a book about this part of history. His take on the movie can be read in an article he wrotre for the Guardian.

The movie "Valkyrie" has generally been praised for it's historic accuracy. I saw it Yesterday and also think that the movie-makers managed to be quite true to historic facts while still keeping the tension up and making a great Hollywood movie!

Why am I citing the above lines? I think that movies are a great way to learn about historic facts and to illustrate how thrilling history actually is! When I saw the 1944 plotters shortly after the assassination attempt trying to convice other officials to join them and to give up their allegiance to the regime, I was also thinking about the Chinese Civil War between "Nationalists" and "Communists" which the Nationalists lost partly because their army was corrupted, generals would mind their own cause, instead of the common cause. A very similar pattern to that seen in the movie!

While we can easily understand this today, the philosophy and ways of thinking of those people in their time can't be illustrated in a movie. Instead, movie makers have to "translate" words and actions from history figures so they can be understood today. I think this is especially noteworthy when we consider that even Today's philosophy and way of thinking is not consciously known by people. We take many things for granted and think they have always been that way, although notions might have changed a lot even in a very short amount of time, and are still different in different places / cultures of our planet. What we mean by "justice" now is very different from what the 1944 plotters meant and it might again be different in a future society only fifty or a hundred years from now! I think it is actually a very valuable part of history to learn about the evolution of thoughts, of people's self-perception, because it allows us to me more conscious about our own situation. If we take things for granted, we wouldn't think about changing them. But once we realise that it has not always been like that, even that it's not like that in other places of the world, then we are able to imagine an even better world and push for change.

Stauffenberg wished his old, romantic Germany back. Many people probably voted for Obama because they wished their familiar, pre-Bush America back. But their is no way back! Or even if their is, it's much better to go forward, towards a more modern age. To envision that age we have to look behind the surface of change... (There's more to say, but I'll leave that to another post.)

Suffice it to say, I had the same feeling of missing historical philosophy when I watched another movie, "The Duchess". I liked both movies a lot and I hope they will inspire some people to look behind the curtain of history... to understand the world better and understand themselves better.

Understanding is the basis for change!

is there more convenient transport than a teleporter? (a note about low-maintenance bicycles)

2009-02-03T20:46:00.053-05:00

Traffic jams are plaguing all countries, rich countries and poor countries, all countries. People want to get around, faster, farther, and more often. Gone are the times when an emigrant would never be able to go back to his country of origin, since the trip took several months; gone are the times when people would walk many miles for family visits, since horses were transport for the rich only.
A teleporter seems like the paragon of transportation solution, because it takes no time, no matter the distance. But is this technology still humane? Do we not need just a little bit of time to adjust from going from one place to another? Even in modern society, many trips are short enough to walk in ten or twenty minutes and even more trips are short enough to bike in ten or twenty minutes. Walking or biking has a big advantage over teleportation in that it is also a recreational activity! (To some, biking is even a sport.)
Unfortunately, many people see biking only as sport. To them, a bike is a toy which they do not expect to be apt for daily use as a reliable means of transportation. Your bike chain fell off? Well, have to do some other sport today!

Here's how a reliable bike looks like (not my bike):

Bikes with fully-covered chains have been available in Europe forever, and now finally there is a fully-covering chain guard available that you can just add as an upgrade.

This setup needs virtually no maintenance even when riding through rain and snow-slush. (I did it last winter with Speedy.) It's simply amazing. It also keeps you nicely neat and clean, which is why you can even see people in business dresses riding bicycles. No need to roll your pants up!

To many people this might look like a single-geared bike, but the gears are actually in the rear hub. Again, a technology that Europeans have used for decades and that is now widely available from global manufacturers. (After all, the famous German gear hub factory has been bought by an American company. And the Japanese are now manufacturing gear hubs, too. More on that in a later post.)

Update: In Toronto, Urbane Cyclist has the above-pictured "Chainglider" on stock.

a quote on geography

2009-02-02T07:08:00.015-05:00

Embedded in a long post about one day's commute home a fellow cyclist writes:

Hemingway understood that "It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle." I would add that you need not have a coasting bike to appreciate this truth and via the exercise of a daily commute, done in a wide range of conditions, one's appreciation of geographic and meteorologic factors become the most ingrained of knowledge.

Beautiful!

(His remark about coasting refers to fixed-gear bicycles.)

why small-wheeled bicycles are better

2009-02-01T02:38:00.004-05:00

Why smaller bikes are better:
- Bike has bigger wheel-distance (given a fixed length of the bike) and its ride is therefore more stable.
- Accelerates faster (because the wheels have less momentum) and therefore also decelerates faster.
- The rack (and therefore the cargo) sits lower, making the bike and the ride more stable.
- Small wheels are more robust (lower leverage of destructive forces hitting the spokes).
- Hub dynamo turns faster, thereby generating power more efficiently. (A lower-weight dynamo can be used.)
- Bike needs less space.
- Most small wheelers can be folded, needing even less space.

Why small-wheeled bikes work so great:
- Gear mechanism entirely makes up for smaller wheels, resulting in exactly the same development as big wheelers (but more acceleration, as stated above).
- Wide tires make the ride smooth and even offer full suspension for rider and luggage.
- Modern frames offer the same riding positions as big-wheeled bikes: be it sporty or casual, small or tall rider; everything is available.
- Most components are standardized and are either the same as for big-wheelers or go by their own standard. So the bikes can be repaired and tuned as easily as big ones.
- For example, same standard as big bikes:
   + Bottom brackets, pedals, and chains.
   + Gearing-mechanisms (execept that the gears are a bit higher). So if you want to tune your gearing by replacing chainwheels or sprockets just take any made for big-wheelers.
- Example for a separate small-wheeled standard:
   + Wheels come in 16 or 20 inches. The selection of tires for those is virtually the same as for big-wheelers. (Equally the selection of hubs and rims, if you want to build your own wheel.)
   + Front hubs are usually narrower than on big-wheelers: 74mm instead of 100mm. But there are still hub-dynamos available (e.g. from Dahon and from SON).
- Even with the wheel-size fixed, there are still plenty of bikes types to choose from: highly portable ones like the Brompton, others which offer a better ride, but don't fold as well, and then those who don't fold at all, and thereby combine advantages of small-wheels with a one-piece frame. Many of the non-folders can also be packed up in very small packages (e.g. Bike Friday, Dahon P.A.Q.)
- Recumbents and tricycles nowadays use also 20" wheels. (And recumbents are the fastest bikes on the planet.)

If you use your bike for daily transport (as opposed to sport or leisure), you'll notice that the small size (and the ability to fold the bike) increase your mobility a lot:
- Partial folding reduces the parking space needed, e.g. fold the handlebars and pedals down when parking in a narrow in-doors hallway
- Extra points if you have a Brompton: with one simple gesture the bike sits on its rack, takes very little space, and doesn't need a kick-stand. Getting the Brompton to sit is even faster then pulling a kick-stand down!
- Keep your bike with you all the time. E.g. get a ride with friends and then still be able to bike home. Or take transit and bike the remainder of the way. Possibilities are endless and there's no need to plan ahead!
- I usually ride the bike over long distances even if there is a subway I could take. The advantage of being able to take the subway back home, just in case, is the thing which matters.

Too many people are unhappy with their bike because it's not useful enough, or they don't even have a bike, because conventional bikes don't seem useful enough. I will from now on offer free rides on my small-wheeled bicycles to advertise their advantages.