Wolfgang Maehr, Wolfgang Mähr, njyo

Weather got warmer again (around zero) and it is raining. The logical consequence: ice on the street. Some roads were totally iced like a glassen surface so that walking there was more of sliding as well. Surprisingly enough biking in these circumstances went pretty well and I just fell once in a steep, totally iced curve. I would have fallen if walking as well. And again I am glad about my small bike that makes falling less of a pain.
Biking home tonight I gotta be careful tho. And as the weather forecast predicts the same will be valid in the next days.

So I finally bought an iPod. I got myself a new orange shuffle. Just ordered it some minutes after Apple presented it. I don’t know if it was a good thing to buy but I could not resist any longer since it was my colour! ;) — read more ›

So I’m back in Olso again after a long weekend in Gothenburg filled with frisbee playing, early mornings and long evenings. As every year in January the Wintertrophy took place in Gothenburg’s Lundby Strand sports centre – some sports halls in the docks at the north side of Göta Älv, not far from my uni. Even though I just was watching it once in 2005 when freshly moved to Gothenburg it felt pretty much like my home tournament, mostly because most of my ultimate playing happened there by now. So I also expected to see some familiar faces and actually hoped to be able to play against some old team mates. Funny enough my wish became true and we should meet Lords of Flopptown, a team collecting players from different places, amongst others Marcus and Alex, two more than solid players. Being there as support to Stovner, a team from Oslo, meant that we (there were two other ones from our EZ Ultimate playing group) had to adapt pretty much to their playing and tactics. This subjugation to their moves and strategy was IMHO the toughest task since it often contradicted my intuition. — read more ›

In contrast to the rumours around I have not left the country for Cuba (the most persisting ones are the ones that name my work/thesis as a reason) but instead got the chance to finally again enjoy double-digit degrees below zero. It’s been a while (like 3 years) that I could enjoy cycling on snow in these temperatures and thanks to the massive snow on the weekend (around 15 cm) I can do it again. This time with wheels that are like 30cm in diametre. ;) — read more ›

Many complaints here and there, just like one expects it from Apple product releases. Many still don’t get it that Apple never releases the perfect product (first, that would take too long to develop and second, they couldn’t sell anything thereafter…). Still, interestingly many expect them to. So at work we got to discuss about Fitt’s law and the button layout at the bottom of the screen – if other phones ever would get so far to have these problems. At another instance a developer described the usability problems of the phone as follows: a) There is the tactile problem of onscreen buttons and b) I hate iTunes. While the first point has some meat but is not as simple is the second just a great example of the danger of semi-knowlege and half-baked analyses. — read more ›

Instead of Nike+Apple I will try to use RunLog and MapMyRun for motivating myself to train more again. :) — read more ›

I just looked at all the videos of the Apple iPhone and I just gotta say that it is the interaction designer’s wet dream. Not only did Apple once again show that there is a point in controlling every part in a chain but also that compromises are bad. Concepts usually only work well if they are taken the full way and no half baked solutions. Apple just understood that the key is not to try to spread and satisfy everybody but to do something great and then just wait and see. I love the interface they showed, I love their way to interact with the device, I love the small details with sensors, I love their browser and widgets and I love their way to deal with mail (maybe not so SMS but well…), I love their Google maps. — read more ›

and I can just add another wooooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! My interaction design heart just goes berserk from overjoy! — read more ›

So the first part of my mobile internet prophecy got fullfilled and I want to have that Phone!!! Now! And again the trouble what to do… buy something for the time between or stick to my old T610… — read more ›

The MWSF will be in less than 24h. Yay. on Flickr is the evening program for that show. ;)