Doh!. -2096314! Am I supposed to write them NOW?

This is a service announcement:

Das Keyboard

“If you are an elite programmer who can write sophisticated code under tight deadlines, someone who makes impossible projects possible; or a Silver Web Surfer your colleagues turn to when they need IT advice: this keyboard is for you.

Shouldn’t your keyboard reflect your status as one of the elite? We think so!”

Oh…just in case you didn’t notice: BLANK KEYS. I think I’ll get one…or two…

Source: http://www.daskeyboard.com/

I forgot to post a picture of the car:

Source: A Hamburger Today

There are some more new pictures of the laser in action available:

this is a direct hit of the camera…

a little bit to the left

approx. 2km distance to the laser

view from the lasers positon

Source: Star Wars is ein Witz!

Of course I took some panoramic views at this years Student Technology Conference:

the way inside…just before the registration opens

Track 1 hall…impressive isn’t it?

It’s over. See you next year!

Finally all the cool pictures from Erics last tour in South America arrived on my machine. So expect some really great pictures of even greater scenery.

I am working on several articles – but I want to start with the tour-overview map. It’s a map that shows the whole tour:

Source: Backpacking Teaser

As you may noticed further I got a HP Netserver LH4 some months ago. And this week was the day we “installed” the machine in the server room.

With five-man-power we managed to get the machine in place. It’s an awfully unhandy and heavy machine but you can hear the power when you turn it on (actually you even can feel it… beware of getting soaked in)

It’s a quite big box…unfortunately.

Source: HP Netserver LH4

the facts:

average speed: 179,046901 km/h
top speed: 207 km/h
duration: 00:10:21
track length: 30,51 km

not Vmax but okay…

Neno Loje, Microsoft Student Partner at the University of Hamburg talked about Visual Studio Tools. Especially the Tools and little Gadget Features in the upcoming Visual Studio 2005.

(click for more info)

Diego, a friend from Pisa just gave me a link to an article about his R2D2… Looks really awesome. I guess the return of the Jedi or even the Sith is not too far away anymore… I look forward to see it in action. Or even better, maybe I can write some code for it…

May the force be with you!

Link: http://www.repubblica.it/copertine/scienza_e_tecnologia/copertina.htm

it takes just minutes to get like this.

We had a second brainstorming session yesterday where we discussed the possible plugin architecture for multeem.

Here are the whiteboard sketches:

Ralf Westphal talked about his new approach in software architecture. It’s easier to understand and more intuitive than every other software architecture technology (UML,…) – And that’s not only because you don’t have to use different notation for complex and simple problems. Take a look at Ralfs Weblog. He wrote six articles so far about his software cells.

“Each application for me thus is a software cell. The exact form does not really matter. A triangle is just the simplest 2D shape; so if you like, use squares, octagons or whatever you like to depict the outline of your application, to give it a surface other software cells can connect to. You can even go 3D: use a tetraeder or cube. Each edge or surface, though, should connect only two software cells/applications.”

Software Cell

Source: Ralf Westphals weblog

Microsoft Regional Director Ralf Westphal did the talk “Domain Specific Languages”. If you don’t know what domain specific languages are then take a look.

Source: domain specific languages

Anne Luck started the show with some organizational issues followed by Dr. Said Zahedani (Director Developer Platform and Strategy Group).

Anne Luck

Dr. Said Zahedani

Dr. Said Zahedani talked about the wave of development – the way Microsoft is going to be in the future years.

Bernd Marquardt

Bernd Marquardt talked about the history of the PC and how we got where we are when it comes to Computing.

Morgen ist soweit – und in zwei Wochen hoffentlich wieder vorbei – Episode III läuft in den Kinos. Jeder weiß, dass der Film genauso beschissen wie die anderen Beiden sein wird, aber zunächst interessiert das Niemanden. Nein, das Problem ist nicht der Film, sondern die ganzen Schwachköpfe, die sich Hardcore-Fans nennen.

Diese Menschen, die sich:

- gerne kostümieren (Nebenbei: Vieles beim Design des Imperiums hat sich Lucas vom Dritten Reich abgeguckt.)

- die Arbeit schwänzen (führt allein in den USA zu einem Verlust von 630 Mio. $; ob man da nicht Lucas verklagen könnte…)

- jeden Merchandising-Schwachsinn kaufen (Oh je: Nie hatte der Kapitalismus eine dunklere Stunde…)

Unabhängig von der Premiere des Films gibt es dieses Phänomen im täglichen Leben. Die drei meiner Meinung nach schlimmsten Anhänger sind die von Star Trek, Herr der Ringe und eben Star Wars. Sie sind fanatisiert, leben meistens unauffällig unter uns, glauben an andere Gesellschaftsformen und haben keine Angst, sich in ein Schlachtengetümmel zu stürzen. Wo ist da eigentlich noch der Unterschied zu Terroristen? Gut, sie töten keine Menschen, aber sie können einem den letzten Nerv rauben, was auch nicht zu verachten ist, denn so ist die Qual von Dauer (Erwähnt sei da nur die grauenvolle Theaterbegegnung, die Ewan McGregor kürzlich mit einem dieser Fans hatte).

Dann gibt es diese Conventions, wo abgehalfterte B-Darsteller für ein bißchen Kohle unfreiwillig demonstrieren, dass aus ihnen nichts mehr geworden ist (Harrison Ford ist wahrscheinlich jeden Tag dafür dankbar, dass er da nicht hin muss.).

Na ja, jedem das seine…

Jens Heymann

Im heutigen Off-Topic geht es um die leidige Diskussion um die Erhöhung der Tabaksteuer.

Dass die Grünen vorpreschen im Verbieten aller Dinge, die Spaß machen, ist längst bekannt und gefürchtet. Zumindest das Thema Zigaretten kann dabei vielen (nämlich den Nichtrauchern) egal sein. Und so wurde immer weiter erhöht und erhöht. Plötzlich sagt die SPD: Halt! Höhere Steuern sorgen für Mindereinnahmen im Ganzen.

Moment mal, fragt man sich da doch. Geht es etwa gar nicht um die Verringerung der rauchenden Bevölkerung, sondern nur darum, möglichst elegant an mehr Steuergelder zu kommen?

Da bin ich doch gespannt, wann die gleiche Diskussion um die Mineralölsteuer losbricht.

Jens Heymann

we arrived after a two hour ride …

I managed to get wireless LAN access for the whole area… great so far Better than last year. Oh. Mr. Seeber asked me to link to his weblog…hmkay.

more coverage soon…

I am off to Kassel. “See you on the other side.”

“15 free MP3 tracks from 7 Samurai, Computerjockey, DabBuka Projekt, Dream Catcher, Eclectic Brew, Electric Brother, Feta Kuli, Guitar feat. Ayako Akashiba, Honeymunch, Kaye Ree, Micatone, Spherical, Swoiza & Mirle, Tango Fusion Club, and Tubbs. “

Source: Mercedes Benz Mixed Tape

The 2nd Student Technology Conference starts tomorrow morning in Kassel. For two days students are invited to discuss interesting and new technologies from Microsoft. There will be several Workshops and a Fun-Part.

As a special highlight the national finals of the Imagine Cup 2005 will be held parallel to the talks.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it. So there it’s going to take place: Kongress Palais Kassel:

From Ilmenau it’s approximately a 2 hour trip. So more fun to come

Here is the final agenda (on the website it’s not up-to-date):

Wednesday, 18.05.2005:

Thursday, 19.05.2005:

Source: STC 2005 Homepage

There are several things in CS2 that are really cool. But it’s the little things that makes the whole experience… this for example:

When an action takes longer Photoshop displays the progress bar beneath the Dockicon.

Finally a font sample…gone the times when you had to remember the names

to be continued…

This evening the “Bergfestfilm”-Team is going to celebrate the Title and Trailer-Release-Party.

The party takes place in the BC-club. So don’t miss the event!

The admission price is 50ct/1eur

Source: http://www.ilmpressions.de

Only 3 days to go: From 20th to 29th May 2005 the Ilmenau Campus will be the place to be. It’s ISWI time. Under the slogan “one world one vision” participants from all-over the world come together to discus, act and get to know each other.

The ISWI team describes it better:

There’s a quite packed schedule for the participants.

Of course there will be a lot of live and ondemand coverage from the ISWI 05. The daily ISWISION-Live-Show will be the fixed-must-see event of every ISWI-evening.

I likely will have access to the ISWI media server. So expect some articles these days.

Source 1: ISWI Homepage
Source 2: ISWI participants schedule
Source 3: http://www.iswision.de
Source 4: http://www.istuff.de