Marc's tumblings and mumblings

Summer sounds and a grainy shot

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 21:27:25 +0200

"From a macroeconomic perspective, both possible outcomes Not having an objective Firstly, it..."

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:11:10 +0200

“From a macroeconomic perspective, both possible outcomes
Not having an objective
Firstly, it doesn’t allow the manager to assess
This is a particularly challenging task, as evidenced by the
It therefore remains to”

- Fragments from writing down my thesis objectives

Fiesta drums at our doorstep

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:24:35 +0200

Fiesta drums at our doorstep (mp3)

Audio impression of San Juan night

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 23:22:04 +0200

Audio impression of San Juan night (mp3)

Note to self: Listing all tables and fields on Informix via SQL

Fri, 20 May 2011 18:00:46 +0200

SELECT TRIM(t.tabname) || '.' || TRIM(c.colname) AS table_dot_column FROM "informix".systables AS t, "informix".syscolumns AS c WHERE t.tabid = c.tabid AND t.tabtype = 'T' AND t.tabid >= 100 ORDER BY t.tabname, c.colno

Forgot about the source - otherwise I’d link to it, of course. Sorry!

Note to self: Firefox 4 must-have extensions

Wed, 11 May 2011 18:28:31 +0200

Adblock Plus
BetterPrivacy
Firebug
Firefox 4 UI Fixer
IE Tab Plus
NoScript
NoSquint (for hires devices)
Personal Titlebar
RSS Icon
Tab Mix Plus
Zotero

Either no. 4 or no. 8 may be unnecessary to achieve the desired “compact classical” look and feel.

Avoid Alicante Airport for arrivals with small children or the elderly

Sun, 01 May 2011 23:28:47 +0200

With the new (only) terminal, you’ll have to walk many (!) hundreds of metres to pick up baby carts, seats, walking aids for the elderly, etc. It’s actually right where you pick up all your luggage anyway. To make matters worse, arrivals architecture is vaguely reminiscent of Alcatraz, the Roman coliseum, or the arenas “The Running Man” (the latter probably being the most suitable comparison, as you’ll be doing a lot of running in a futuristically modern environment).

Last but not least, today’s special needs luggage seemed to be consistently arriving well after all the normal luggage. At least this I expect to be ironed out in a matter of days rather than weeks. And until the distances thing is solved in a suitable manner, my recommendation holds: If you can avoid Alicante Airport for arrivals with small children or the elderly, do so by all means.

P.S.: Departures seemed just fine, quite like my experience in Beijing: Ugly welcome, but pleasant departure. Same ironic design priorities, it seems. Well, forcing your way through (NOT past!) a duty free shop in Alicante is quite silly, too.

P.P.S.: Alicante “arrival shopping” was even more of an irony, at least in tonight’s roles, starring my wife and myself as the back-ached parents.

When 2011 dawned in Egypt’s land: Let my people vote, Oppress’d so hard they could not stand, Let...

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:36:03 +0100

When 2011 dawned in Egypt’s land: Let my people vote, Oppress’d so hard they could not stand, Let my People vote.

Go down, Mohamed, Way down in Egypt land, Tell old Mubarak, To let my people vote.

21st century parenting rant

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:31:24 +0100

My daughter’s had her first CD-ROM homework today - making this actually more of a late 20th century parenting rant. Anyhoo, so the first thing I get to hear after what has been a comparatively long working day was “Can you please check her computer, she cannot do her homework.” Oh right.

So I go eliminating errors: first, the Windows-only educational piece apparently needs admin rights - nice for kids to have, aren’t they? Second, the standard resolution of her netbook (1024x800) is not supported, brilliant. Third, and after switching to another (Windows) PC, the programme gets stuck every few minutes, leading to various repetitions of the (unskippable) 30 sec opening dialogue. The problem? Read errors of the CD drive, only fixed by switching devices again (thank God this is a somewhat geeky household…).

Um, this CD is also quite scratched already (and not my daughter’s to begin with), I’d better make a backup copy. Oh wait, these brilliant pieces of software engineering were copy protected, making backups either impissible or a semi-criminal act. Who would expect CDs in kid’s hands to break, after all?!? And if it happens, well, there are replacement options after all, aren’t there? Like buying the whole bloody book again…

Hey, teachers, leave our kids alone (at least with fancy, unprofessional educational software that is technically about 20 years behind)… I’d rather have them use chalk, sticks and stones than these “modern” materials.

Sincerely,

A full-time IT analyst, educated with pen and paper (and a Commodore C128 in third grade)

P.S.: Net time investment: around 0.8 parent hours between my wife and me.

Kindle 3 web browsing via 3G in Spain

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:31:20 +0100

Note for the record: 3G web browsing works fine in Alicante with Kindle 3 UK edition. Absolutely not working with International/US version, though. I.e. the one I still have. :-(

What the world badly needs

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 02:14:38 +0100

The iPhone/Android blend - iPhone usability and release availability immediacy, Android openness and versatility

A gadget DB - one of my dream projects for years

A web-based AHP (analytical hierarchy process) tool - even more years here

Web-based CmapTools

KNIME on the web :-)

A calibre/Zotero blend - c’s syncing and Z’s Bibtex. Maybe some Mendeley, too…

"Null no es igual, ni siquiera a Null, y tampoco diferente a algo."

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:02:00 +0200

“Null no es igual, ni siquiera a Null, y tampoco diferente a algo.”

- José Luis Sánchez Alcántara (source: e-mail, 04/08/2010)

"Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always..."

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:48:56 +0200

“Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.”

- Gary Lineker (source)

Friday evening in spring

Fri, 21 May 2010 21:15:15 +0200

Listen!

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either."

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:54:23 +0100

“The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.”

- Benjamin Franklin (source).

Beach El Campello

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:50:15 +0100

Listen!

Christian still hungry

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:39:37 +0100

Listen!

St. Martin Alicante

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:37:22 +0100

Listen!

A stormy day

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:15:23 +0100

Listen!

Late October Sunday morning

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:03:43 +0100

Listen!