Some impressions from a recent trip to Hamburg – my brother-in-law managed to organise a tour on the Elbe (river) for the whole family with cousins and their spouses & kids. A nice and very exclusive event that once again reminded me how beautiful and interesting the port of Hamburg actually is.

view on [...]

(other sizes)
This snapshot of digitalis purpurea was today taken in a forest next to a Roman fort near Frankfurt – with the 5mpx CMOS camera on my 2y old Nokia N95 mobile phone.
It may not be the best photo, but it clearly shows what’s already possible with a decent camera phone.

Bought this mouse for the netbook today – an A4tech X6-60MD in black – which has this retractable USB cord and comes with a somehow smarter “GLASER” diode/sensor which is said to also work on a glass table (most optical mice don’t).

X6-60MD mouse compared to the wireless desktop mouse
Attaching the mouse to the netbook actually [...]

Standards vs. ergonomy
The main entrance door to the Deutsche Post branch office at Frankfurt railway station.

There’s a fire safety regulation in German law which says that such doors have to open to the outside so that in case of emergency, the panic crowd may escape without any obstacles.
Despite of this regulation and although most doors [...]

Note to myself: never change a running system!
I really have to keep on telling myself not to verschlimmbessern any approved system. Just because a modification is possible, the “hack” often isn’t better.
Case in point: When I recently *upgraded* the original silver cover on my Nokia N95-1 to a black Made-in-China cover, I also switched to [...]

My colleague #rob is in Palestine during this week and sent me this pic today.
Robert is from Berlin and used to stupid walls.

Ok, this one is for Cgzed and Mzeecedric (CG), my DSLR-affectionados:
Some years ago, I think it was in 2000, I traded in an older Nikon F2 with a 50mm lens into a Nikon F70 – both being single-lens reflex cameras. I went for the Nikon range because a) i wanted to use some older lenses [...]