Coders at work

I have just read "Coders at work" by Peter Seibel.

This book contained a collection of interviews with people who have developed important pieces of software such as javascript. The interviewer asks questions about the process of writing code, what books they read, how their career developed. It was interesting to see how most of them didn't use UML or any other diagram formulation, other than some pictures on a white board. Some of them had to also get other people to help them with the version control systems.

I thought this book was fantastic! However, I am not sure I would ever recommend it to students. It would distract them to see the pragmatic techniques used by these coders. Although many of the interviewers used many techniques from computer science degrees.

It would be nice to have a similar book from theoretical particle physicists, that explained what people actually did. However, given the big egos of many theorists and their hopes for Nobel prizes, many of the interviews would end up as fantasy. Personally I wouldn't want some one like Hawking to contribute.

Getting ready for new years eve

I am getting a better at this living in Germany business. On last years New year's eve I went down to my local supermarket at about 4. Only to find it was shut. I didn't expect it be open until 8, but closing at 4 seemed a bit extreme. In the UK the supermarkets put up huge signs with their opening hours, weeks in advance of any holiday. This is particularly weird, because the shops hardly ever close anyway. In Germany, the supermarkets put up a little sign with the hours, if you are lucky. They also close at any execuse.

On New Year's even last year, after I found that my local supermarket was closed, so I walked into town. But I found no open supermarkets, not even the one in the railway station. I was starting to panic that I was going to have a dry New years eve. Luckily I found the off license near the railway station was still open.

This year I went for my beer supply at 12:15 -- just to be sure. There is still snow on the ground, so I am not keen to go for a drink in a bar. Anyway I have not found any fun bars in Wuppertal -- mostly just grandpa pubs. At the super-marked I also got some black fizzy wine. There will be fireworks all over the valley at 24:00, which last year looked very pretty. I have just downloaded the latest series of Dr. Who from Itunes so I am set for the evening.

This year I went for my beer supply at 12:15 -- just to be sure. There is still snow on the ground, so I am not keen to go for a drink in a bar. Anyway I have not found any fun bars in Wuppertal -- mostly just grandpa pubs. At the super-marked I also got some black fizzy wine. There will be fireworks all over the valley at 24:00, which last year looked very pretty. I have just downloaded the latest series of Dr. Who from Itunes so I am set for the evening.

My cousin told me about a German tradition of watching some video of a women and servant eating a dinner on New Years eve. When I looked it up I found that the sketch was actually in English.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest

Yesterday was another wasted morning. Thank God, trilogies only come in threes. I finished off reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson. I started reading the book when I was traveling, but I was to tired to finish it off on the plane and train.

The book was cleverly plotted and it was fun to watch all the investigations come together. Also I got some insight into the way jounalists work -- although perhaps not those who work at the Sun and other UK tabloids.

There are rumors that Larsson had started a fourth book before he died. There is still the mystery of Salander's sister. Also, perhaps there could be a little cyber warfare against Sweden. Anyway I am done after reading three.

Well, perhaps I should watch all the films (from Sweden and not the planned crappy Hollywood remakes) now..

X-mass 2010

So another trip back to the UK for Christmas. I flew into Manchester airport from the Bonn-Cologne airport with German wings. Needless to say I was worried about problems with snow and ice. Every year now we seem to have sub zero temperatures from December to March. I managed to fly in and out on days with no fresh snow.

On the bus from Manchester to Burnley I saw how cool Manchester is. As well as Christmas markets, the city also now has Ferris wheels. I like the way the Cathedral is almost hidden away and not the main area of the city -- as it should be.

On the bus, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a women sort out a cable to a MP3 player. When I looked more closely I saw that she was actually knitting, and of course she was old.

Now I don't want to complain or rant on about stuff, but there was aspect of my holiday, that was not very satisfactory. I was expecting to watch most of the last series of Dr Who on the Iplayer. However the BBC had not repeated any of the episodes recently, so the Iplayer was empty of Dr Who. I was distraught. OK, I enjoyed the Dr Who Christmas special, but it wasn't enough!

Now I don't want to complain or rant on about stuff, but there was aspect of my holiday, that was not very satisfactory. I was expecting to watch most of the last series of Dr Who on the Iplayer. However the BBC had not repeated any of the episodes recently, so the Iplayer was empty of Dr Who. I was distraught. OK, I enjoyed the Dr Who Christmas special, but it wasn't enough!

Back in Germany, there is nothing on the TV, apart from some a program about the Tudors.

X-mas reading

During my Christmas break in Burnley I read Witch & Wizard by James Patterson.

The main reason I read the book was because it was free and I like magic in a totally non-nerdy way. The book was free, because it was given away as part of some literacy drive. The target audience for the book was young adult. I liked the technical aspects of the story. He flipped the perspective of the story from the brother to the sister for every chapter. Also the chapters were very short, which is good, when a person's reading time is sneaking off during an episode of Eastenders.

The author James Patterson has written a lot of books.

snow

It seems only yesterday that there was snow on the ground, but it was March maybe. I have not been out of my flat all weekend. I start to go crazy if I don't go out for a couple of days. Of course, when I say out, what I actually mean is go to the shops or work, rather than a long hike through a forest.

The picture is the view from my window.

Cloud computing

I have spent part of the weekend reading "Cloud Computing" by Christopher Barnatt. The basic idea of cloud computing is to run many applications on giant data servers hosted by big companies, such as google, rather than on your own computers.

Gven that I already use many cloud computing servies such as google docs and indeed this blogging site, I didn't really learn that much. Many of the cloud computer ideas were around in dot-com era, but the time was not right then. Now with broadband and 3G these techniques are more practicable.

I did see people pushing cloud ideas a couple of years ago, but it wasn't clear to me that they would take off. What I did gain from the book was that, these tools are great for small businesses. There is a lot of software for doing things like payroll.

music in Wuppertal

When I lived in Kentucky I walked into a small club called "the Wrocklage" and heard some guitars, and I thought "I can live here for a while."

I have not found any good music clubs in Wuppertal, but I have not been looking too hard. Sometimes I do need to hear some wild sounds and suck down a couple of beers. Last Friday I found club pavillon that is close to the railway station. It sometimes seems to host live music. This evening I could have gone to see a metallica tribute band, but it is cold and there is some snow on the ground. This is probably part of the problem, perhaps my wild years are behind me. (I think not).

civilization

While I was holiday I finished reading "Civilization" by Kenneth Clark. This was the book for an old TV documentary that followed art and the growth of civilization.

One think I decided to note was that he didn't know where chivalry came from. In particular why the women had to be chase and worshiped.

When I was ordering some stuff ftrom Amazon.de, I needed to make up an order upto 20 Euro to get free shipping. I purchaded a copy of "A Xenophobe's guide to the Germans".

I am not going to discuss in detail evrey point, partly just in case there are any German readers and I don't want to upset anyone, but mostly because I have the feeling that I have read it before.

One interesting point was that the book claimed that many German toilets are designed for ease of studying a person's crap - for health reasons. And indead you can see that the toilet in my flat allows a careful examination of my shit. This will be important tomorrow after the two chillis I added to my stirfry. My stomach is burning, but I feel like a food hero,

Two Way split

I moved some books from a box in my office to my home. On top of a pile of books, I saw "Two Way split" by Allan Guthrie. This was a book I got from Waterstones for a pound.

The book is a thriller based on robbing an Edinburgh postoffice. There was a bit of mental illness thrown in. I enjoyed reading the book, but it was ultimately pointless. Still that is what I wanted.

The Morality of Murder

Umm, I have just had a pretty non-productive weekend. At least on Saturday, I had the excuse of having a minor hang over. Today I did some computer work, but it was mostly setting jobs off, and that is time consuming and not so interesting.

This evening I had meant to work on a project, but while reading the BBC technology papers I found a web site with videos of lectures from Universities. This is like the Utunes from the Itunes store, but I can watch them under linux.

I made the mistake of watching "The Morality of Murder" from a Harvard Professor. I only watched the first 10 minutes of the lecture. I thought the lecturer's techniques was fantastic. Now that the fees for the UK Universities are going up, we sometimes discuss what a person gets for the 25,000 dollars tution fee for a top US University. Now I know! I hope the lectures doens't degenerate into some justification for torture, such as waterboarding.

Watch it on Academic Earth

Friday night shopping

There is not much night life in Wuppertal, so I have to find my own entertainment. Last night I was shopping at my local supermarket. To amuse myself I look at the other people's shopping at the checkout and try to guess their life. The tall woman in front of me was buying a 10 inch pizza, a bottle of some sugary wine, some sweets, and some other stuff of little interest..

My guess was that she was single with an age close to 30. What did she think of me life? I was buying 3 cans of beer, a small bottle of vodka, and some fruit, but no pizza. Perhaps I should have smiled at her.

Malt Salt

One of my German colleagues was complaining about the completely normal British habit of putting vinegar on chips. My mouth started to water, as I thought how much more tasty the French fries, I was eating, would be with some vinegar on them.

I have poured something from a small jug onto my fries in Wuppertal. This turned out to be milk, so I was not best pleased. I could fill my hip flask with vinegar, but that would strike people as weird, and the flask would hold a year's supply of vinegar.

There is an article in today's Guardian about Malt Salt. Vinegar flavoured salt. Now that Amazon supply groceries, I did try to see if I could order sme from them, but no (not yet anyway).

Local Wuppertal beer

Like most towns in Germany, Wuppertal has a local brewey. When I was in the supermarket on Friday, I saw a bottle of Wupperhell bier.

Although I am not a beer expert. I don't have too high standards for beer. For example I have drunk Tennents and Carling when other beer was not available. I didn't really enjoy the Wupperhell beer as much as I wanted to.

Vindaloo

Quite often Europeans say to me "English food is shit". I am usually stunned to hear this, and I try to list all the great traditional English foods. However, my list starts and unfortunately ends with Roast Beef. In the UK I would mostly eat Indian, Chinese, or Greek food.

I spend a lof of time trying to find that strong chilli hit in Germany. A number of times I have ordered a Vindaloo curry in a restaurant in Germany. I know the correct German word "scharf", but still I always end up with a mild curry. When I order a Vindaloo in the UK, there are gasps of horror and worry. After two mouthfulls I can't feel my mouth, and I can't taste anything for a couple of days.

I keep hunting extra hot sauces in German supermarkets.

The origins of the second world war

I have been secretly reading "The origins of the second world war" by A J. P Taylor. This was a controversial books when it was published just after the second world war. Taylor discusses the origin of the second world war in terms of state craft. He doesn't just say the second world war happened because Hitler was evil.

This is not a revisionist history, because the fate of the Jews is discussed, but this had very little influence on the war. I would like to point out that I didn't read the book, because of the "German question", but because the people on the left who advocate ethical miltary intervention in conflicts, use the example of the second world war as a justification.

I now have a better idea of appeasement, and the issues with Austria, Checkoslovakia, and Poland.

sharp practice

I don't like shaving, but I don't want a beard either. It would be too itchy and probably ugly as well.

I have read the short book "sharp practice" by Anders Larsen. The book was a history of shaving and also a good manual on different techniques for shaving. Some of the sections on the history of shaving looked like they were copied of the Internet, but he told some good stories. I liked one where he fell asleep in a barber's chair, and the barber shaved all his hair off.

The book was particularly good for learning how to use a cut throat razor. The reality is that I don't have time to properly learn how to use one. Also, it would be a problem to take a cut throat razor in my hand luggage. Still I used to like looking at the cut throat razors in the shops around Manchester Piccadilly railway station.

I would look so cool shaving with a cut throat razor - much more of a man than now, when I shave with a wimpy Gillette Fusion. And I would save money, given the high cost of the fusion blades.

Wine

n the past, my understanding of wine was summed up by the phrase: "I would rather have a beer". I do know that I should have red wine with meat and white wine with fish, because this was covered in the film "From Russia with Love."

Occasionally I get invited to people's homes for a meal, so I bring a bottle of wine. I do find it stressful to chose the wine, because I have no idea, what is considered a good wine. In an attempt to educate myself, I ordered from Amazon the book "I don't much about wine, but I know what I like" by Simon Woods. The book gives a number of hints about wine. I don't want to become a wine snob. I now know that screw tops are not as bad as I thought, before reading the book.

Now I am tempted to get a case or two of wine from Amazon.

The secret ascension

I think I have read most of Philip K. Dick's novels. So how I am going to keep the paranoia going? Luckily Michael Bishop wrote "the secret ascension" that is written in the style of Philip K Dick and actually features Dick as a character from another reality. As you would expect there is an alternative reality, but also stories of normal folk, who are just trying to survive.