Banana Republic...

For those of you who don't read FeFe's blog on a daily basis: are we really the advanced society?

Computer science helps men being more competent with the opposing gender!

Are you a man and ever wondered what exactly women mean when discussing the difference between peach and apricot? Or between lavender and purple? I definitely am.

So, here's the solution. A simple, plain web site for you to play around. Enjoy.

Btw.: Found through Hacker News.

Why we cheat

TED has a great talk on why we cheat and what scientific experiments you can do about it.

Titanic gets the point

German secondary schools are getting better.

Proving the fact...

German school killer "liked shooting games on his computer."

At least it's only one of the theories in this article.

Counting down...

Killing spree in German school - 17 year old suspect.

I'm counting the hours until someone points out that the young man was playing violent video games and suspects these to be the main cause of his crimes.

Industry-driven research considered harmful!

You've got to love Bill Buxton.

(Relayed by the Bitterman, thanks.)

Keeping my scientific paper notes pretty with ASCII drawings

When reading a scientific paper, I found it handy to sum it up in a plain text file that I put right next to the PDF version of the paper. Apart from describing the paper's main statements and ideas in my own words, I sometimes also want to keep a small diagram or architectural overview.

ASCII pictures are a good thing for that, but it's a pain drawing them manually even in an editor as wonderful as vim. So I did a web search and stumbled across JavE - a Java-based ASCII-drawing tool, which works quite nicely for me.

On a side note, JavE lets you chose between a generic and an algorithmic version of shapes. I seem to prefer the algorithmic ones.

Dietmar Hopp files insult charge against football fan

After TSG Hoffenheim beating Borussia Dortmund 4-1 last Sunday, a Dortmund fan was arrested by the police for insulting Hoffenheim's "sponsor" Dietmar Hopp. Hopp filed an insult charge against the 19 year old boy. Strangely, Borussia's president apologized for this.

Perhaps, Mr Hopp should reconsider sponsoring a ballett group instead of a football team?

Henryk M. Broder on the 2008 Olympics

Great stuff, again, again. Unfortunately, Broder writes German only.

Can I have a Broder-RSS-Feed, please?

SQL Server connection issues....

Oh man, I spent nearly 10 hours installing and configuring SQL Server 2005, trying to get my application connected to my database. This blog entry proved to be helpful in the end.

Integrating Subversion into Visual Studio

AnkhSVN works great for me so far.

Inspiring tips from Bram Moolenaar

Bram's talk on effective text editing.

Any spare babies?

Take your time off...

Strange English Traditions - Pub Golf

I got drunk yesterday after the Euro finals, but luckily I was able to not take part in an event called pub golf - that would really have killed me...

Here's the rules. You play golf over a course of 9 holes (=pubs). The advanced of you might try 18 holes as well, but most probably you are either not going to have enough pubs in your village or you are going to end up in the hospital before.

There are three different types of holes:

• Pint of ale - par 4
• Bottle of beer - par 2
• Shot - par 1

Over the evening you have to drink three of each and the par number tells you how many sips you may at most use for finishing. Winner is, whoever stays below par or who can still stand straight at the end of the day.

Kids: Don't try this at home.

Will I feel pity about it...?

Bjoern T. tricked me into this 6-week-workout programme.... Uhoh...

A new pic!

I'm still alive, just busy, so I'll probably sum up my last 2 internship months after returning home. :(

German village with 3.000 residents to host Bundesliga team

Ralf Rangnick thinks Germany needed more Hoffenheims. I don't need even one of those...

And another options goes down the drain...

Sad, but true. Just another German political party managed to be dropped from the list of parties I might consider to vote for in an election.

Going up with Jimmy and Willy...

Microsoft gave away 20 tickets for the BlueSquare Premier League's Playoff Finals at Wembley next Sunday. I didn't win, but a fellow intern is so kind to take me with him. I'm really starting to get excited about seeing the stadium as well as Cambridge United playing Exeter City in the struggle for a place in the 4th League.

Cool thing: United already sold out its 21.000 tickets for the match - I wouldn't expect that in German 5th league...

The song for the game is another good example, why you should not record football anthems with 20 people, because they only sound cool if sung by thousands.