Wolfgang Maehr, Wolfgang Mähr, njyo

Disregarding the general situation in Iraq, this report made me think – mainly its first two pages. I just wonder, if crusaders for democracy should not be an example in enforcing democtratic tools like trials?

A few days ago I finally managed to finish Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. It has been my main off-school reading project. And mainly because of lack of time and because mine was written in Swedish, it took me a while to read it. However, now I have read it and am happy to have done so. It is a highly recommendable book that shows interesting social and technological aspects of our daily life in a fascinating simple way. The contents that lies beyond the entertaining story is in my opinion a huge and complex topic. And a really facinating one. Since not only interaction designers have to be aware of the social changes created by their product, but every notable person has to be aware of his/her role in society, this book is a splendid mirror. Only prerequisite: Openness for science-fiction, which in this case should be fulfilled by anyone open to fairy tales. — read more ›

The first one started at 00:00 when I was riding my bike towards Marstrand in the half-dark night somewhere 10 km away from it still. Since I decided yesterday late in teh evening to go biking it was rather late but due to the good weather and the long summer days in scandinavia it was still OK warm (~10°C) and bright enough to see without light. I arrived at Marstrand a bit later and started to search for a good place to stay over night, which I found around 01:00. So I took some pictures of the sea (will be uploaded soon) and sat there for myself enjoying the ambience, the colours, the loud silence and the nature. Tried to sleep and read a bit (yes, it was bright enough) but the mosquitos were too annoying. As always you can choose between wind or mosquitos. So I waited until sunrise around 04:15 to take a couple of more pictures until my CF card was full, which made me conclude that I will bike home the next day and not continue further, unless this one way I saw when biking there should give easy access to the northern archipelago (which it did not). So I slept for 4 hours until the sun was getting too glowing so that I could not sleep because of the heat. Again one can choose sun or mosquitos. I chose the sun. Anyways, got up at 08:00 and enjoyed a nice breakfast and hung out on that spot for a bit still – since I did not feel the urge to go yet and just being for myself. Then, finally grabbed my bike and cycled down to Marstrand which was also waking up slowly. A continuous flow of people (mainly elderly ship owners and families) kept the village in movement. After sitting there for a while and enjoying this way of celebrating the national holiday, I started biking home, the other route. Onfortunately this route did not lead me to the archipelago and the burning sun also made my decision to bike home rather easy. — read more ›

Even though I consider myself a caring owner to my belonings, my all-beloved PowerBook got a couple of dents over the years. Since it soon turns 3.5 and already had been in repair for 4 times, I do not see a couple of small dents in the Aluminum case as a sign of lack of care. Actually, due to its case the dents rebuilt themselves after every harder blow, which definately wouldn’t have been with a plastic shell. Most infamous were the dent near to the power supply (which made the contact very unstable) dating from a bicycle purler in snowy January, and the bent underside which made the book rock if not underlaid with something. So finally I managed to backup all my files – for once there was a window of a longer freeze (and a worst-case-option: MacBook) – and open my darling. In an hour of sweaty open-heart surgery (sources say that the 12″ PB is tricky to disassemble) I menaged to get access to its internals and to the frame for bending. To be honest, I was glad that I did not need to open it any further than that, since it was scary enough. Anyways, now she’s like new (almost) and no rocking and the plug stays. Nice and sweet. — read more ›

So the first days of holiday already passed mostly with me sleeping long and reading. Nice. Some backing up of my data, and other administrivialities. Also been outside to play frisbee golf and planning my summer. That’s a rather difficult task of fitting everything into a rather tight schedule. Then spent now some time to look at Google maps and all the ferry lines here between UK/NO/DK/SE and feeling like I should try some of them still… Also been out dancing at a latino-bar, which was really nice and incredibly sweaty. — read more ›