What is cooler?

To settle the discussion I am having with my co-worker. Maybe a good compromise would be to modify the Large Hadron Collider  that it accelerates pumpkins instead of protons. LOL

Famous Last Words

“Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances.” – Dr. Lee DeForest, “Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television.”

“The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.” – Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project

“There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom.” – Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” – Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers .” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” – The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

“But what is it good for?” – Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” – Bill Gates, 1981

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” – Western Union internal memo, 1876.

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” – David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible,” – A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

“I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” – Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone With The Wind.”

“A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” – Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies.

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” – Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” – Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.” -  Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M “Post-It” Notepads .

“Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” – Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

“Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” – Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University , 1929.

“Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” — Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre , France .

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” – Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

“The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required.” – Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

“I don’t know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn’t be a feasible business by itself.” – the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

“Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” – Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse , 1872

“The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.” – Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” – Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

A Smiley Story

Storyteller and poet Rives tells an amusing little story about a guy and a girl—all using smiley’s. That’s kind of random, but it kind of makes sense when he talks with it.

Up for a German course?

I have a sore throat today, so I can’t do sport! I decided to use my new obtained free time to request a membership for the public library in Boeblingen. After I found two books, one audio CD and two movies I thought it is time to go home. I checked out and walked to the elevator to the underground parking. Shortly before I was taking the elevator a woman asked me: “Do you want to take the German class for foreigners?”

I looked very surprised.  She asked me another question, which was much easier for me to understand: “You; German course; today; here!”

Now I got the message! I answered: “No, not that I know, why?” Now she realized that I’m German and told me that she thought that I’m not from Germany.

Situations like that happen quite often to me, so I smiled and asked her: “Ok, so what do you think, from which country I am? Am I a great matador from Spain, an Italian Stallion or a shepherd from Greek?”

Now she looked very surprised, said: “I’m very sorry”, run into a room and closed the door”.

I think I have to say that the library is in the same building as the adult education center. Also, I had a three-day beard; wore my black woolen hat and my olive US army parka and looked like I don’t enjoy the cold weather in Germany.

And what is the moral of the story? Think about how you can affect somebody before you leave the house on a cold winter day? Eventually somebody will offer you a German course. ;-)

Matrix Screensaver

I found a screensaver for Mac OS X that replicates the screen effects of the motion picture movie “The Matrix“. My triple head setup looks so much better now. :)

The screeensaver is called MatrixSaver and developed by NWW Network.

MatrixSaver

As times go by …

I yearbook’d myself!  Ever wonder what you will look like in the past? With Yearbook Yourself you can upload your photo and see yourself with classic hairdos and outfits through the decades. All photos are available via Flickr.

Ok, on some pictures I look like a serial killer. ;)

1950

1956

1958

1968

1976

1980

1982

1988

1992

2000

Flying …

Two days ago I was flying with a colleague in a sporting airplane. It was a great experience and we had a lot of fun when we felt the wind how it shakes the little airplane. We were flying around the Hohenzollern castle, which is a very good turning point because is very difficult to oversee it.

The castle is about 50 km south of Stuttgart in Germany, considered home to the Hohenzollern family that came to power during the Middle Ages and ruled Prussia and Brandenburg until the end of World War I. Hohenzollern castle is located on top of Mount Hohenzollern at an elevation of 855 meters, above Hechingen on the Swabian Alb. It was originally constructed in the first part of the 11th century.

You can find my favorite photos below.

A nice video film is available via this link and more pictures can be found on Flickr.

Last Days …

Have you ever thought how your last day in your company wills look like? In the following video you can see Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft.

How clever are you?

A friend of me always gets bored during the Christmas vacation. Because of this I’ve made a simple brainteaser for him. If you can answer all questions properly you will learn something about cryptography, history and poesy.

Task 1: Encode the following message.

OMVMU LYJQG AHIAP LIXIN WXUBV
VUUNE OFIWD CZVBI HCHNJ BBHJD
MOTMK CJXHM UHTEJ EMPLL OFJOZ
XQVIR KJJYG TSMTZ SLPSD BNRXH
CKXAA ESJAC KHDJ

Note: The message uses the following abbreviations and guidelines.

1. Replaced “.” with X.
2. Replaced “ch” with Q.
3. Doubled proper nouns and enclused by X.

The message was encrypted with an Enigma mechanical device. You can you an Enigma simulator from http://www.xat.nl/enigma/ to do this. I used the following settings to encrypt the message.

Number of Rotors	: 3
Left Rotor	: Type I
Middle Rotor	: Type II
Right Rotor	: Type III
Reflector	: Type B
Wheel Order	: 123
Indicator Settings	: HJS
Ring Settings (Ringstellung)	: 1 1 1 or A A A
Plugboard (Steckerverbindungen)	: BT CE MU Q

Task 2: Find the historical background of this message.

Task 3: Find the name of the poet who wrote the poem that is included in this message.

Task 4: Translate the poem into its original language, which is French and not English.

… so do your best, it’s not an easy quiz as you normally can find on Facebook. ;-)

Vista—is it just a rip-off?

Today, I’ve chatted with a university friend about the new version of Mac OS X, which is called Leopard. He really loves Microsoft Windows and like every Windows lover, he believes that Vista is not a cheap rip-off? After a one-hour discussion, the following video convinced me that he was absolutely right. ;-)