This blog is closed!
I moved my blog completely to my website. I host WordPress on my own domain now and changed the layout. You will find all the articles in the new location as well. Be sure to visit me at http://www.jana-wedekind.de.
You also find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jotwe
Ich habe meinen Blog auf meine Webseite verlagert. Ich hoste WordPress jetzt auf meiner eigenen Domain und habe das Layout verändert. Alle alten Artikel finden sich auch unter der neuen Adresse. Besucht mich auf http://www.jana-wedekind.de.
Ihr findet mich auch bei Twitter: http://twitter.com/jotwe
Is Alfred the new Quicksilver?
Having a quick launcher and the possibility to do almost everything with Quicksilver made me a fan of it for years now. Now there is a new app that came to my attention. It is called Alfred and supposedly picks up where Quicksilver left off. Still in beta it makes a good first impression, but let’s see if it can hold up with the numerous functionalities of Quicksilver.
Alternatives:
Quicksilver
Launchy (also still in beta)
Butler, 20$
Google Quick Search Box
Further Readings:
How to quickly launch apps with Alfred
Alfred picks up where Quicksilver left off
How to access everything quicker with Alfred
Face it! We like our privacy
All over the web right now are the discussions about Facebook’s privacy settings. For me it is sad to see, that more and more the privacy settings are being constrained. I don’t want to have all my details visible to everyone. But step by step Facebook is changing the settings and even overwriting existing settings, so that – surprise surprise – suddenly information are available to all Facebook users. I had to change my settings several times already in order to keep my things as private as possible. Very interesting to see in this context is the development of the standard settings, shown at The evolution of privacy on Facebook (EN). Sarcastically Gizmodo.com envisions the future settings of Facebook.
Unfortunately I did not find a fitting alternative yet. Is there really no one out there that wants to create a community without thinking of selling all available information? There is Kaioo, a network that proposes that their users can co-decide about changes made. But compared to the interface of Facebook it is no competition yet and in my circle of friends it did not became accepted anyways. Dan Yoder suggests that we should use separate applications like Twitter, Flickr, Youtube and so on. Of course, this will work, but personally I prefer to have one place to go to. And further, a social network only makes sense if there are many people you know, so that you can connect with them. But how to convince such a crowd to change network and make sure that everyone is on the same networks you are?
Many questions and no real solutions yet. Nevertheless, we could all think about making a statement by quitting Facebook and showing them that we don’t like the way they make business with our information.
Further interesting articles:
Das Netzwerk macht jetzt ernst (DE)
Facebook’s eroding Privacy Policy – A timeline (EN)
Top Ten Reasons You Should Quit Facebook (EN)
More reasons why you still should quit Facebook (EN)
How to permanently delete your account (EN)
Romancier und Gentleman Farmer: Martin Suter
Ein Portrait des Schweizer Erfolgsautors Martin Suter.
Ein Film von: Hilde Heim. Deutschland, 2009, 43 min.
Ausgestrahlt: arte am 10.01.2010
Teil 1:
Teil 2:
Teil 3:
Teil 4:
Teil 5:
Learn Polish
Often people give me a wired look if I tell them that I would like to learn Polish. Apparently not many people besides me think its worth learning it. But… I think it is a very beautiful language and for everyone else that would like to give it a try a organized some of my links I found to be helpful while learning.
The polish language
To first get a better understanding of the language and the country, you should have a look at the website polishlanguage.biz.
Wikibooks
Wikibooks to learn Polish are available in English and German. Audio examples can be downloaded in the .ogg format.
Bloggy Polish
The polish couple Ania and Łukasz is making a very nice podcast where you can listen to them speaking polish. On their blog they offer additional material. They start with beginner lessons but also offer intermediate ones. After their baby break they just recently started to blog again.
Misja Kraków
This is only for the german speaking people readers. The Deutsche Welle is offering a podcast that teaches basic vocabulary with a small adventurous story. It is about a girl called Suzanna who has to stop her enemies who want to prevent Poland from joining the EU.
Witam!
I started learning Polish at an adult education center, where we used the book Witam from the publisher Hueber. On their website they offer some additional links to their chapters, which interesting even if you don’t have the book at-hand.
Dictionairies
Pons offers polish dictionaries for german, english, spanish, french and russian. There is also a specifically german-polish dictionary available: Deutsch Polnisches Wörterbuch.
Nothing but fluorescent light
Dan Flavin was an american light artist, that was well known for his minimal light installations. Steve Morse, the conservator for the Dan Flavin Studio, is interviewed about how the exhibition „Dan Flavin: Constructed Light at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts“ was installed.
Morse quotes the artist about his work as follows: „It is what it is it ain’t nothing else.„
More about this exhibition can be found at flavin.pulitzerarts.org.
Further Readings:
Spiegel.de: Beleuchter der Moderne (DE)
Symboldschungel
Wer hat denn heutzutage noch den Durchblick im Symboldschungel beim Einkaufen? Eigentlich sollen diverse Siegel einem das Leben erleichtern und helfen die geeigneten Produkte zu finden, aber wer weiß schon so genau wofür sie stehen?
Der Siegel Spiegel von Greenpeace hilft zwischen den vielen Öko- und Bio-Siegeln zu unterscheiden. Auch auf den Webseiten www.bio-siegel.de/ und http://www.allesoeko.net/ erfährt man mehr über die unterschiedlichen Bezeichnungen. Auf letzterer wird auch erklärt wie ökologischer Landbau funktioniert und welche gesetzlichen Standards heutzutage gelten.
Wer beim Waschen und Putzen darauf achten möchte, dass bei der Herstellung der Produkte auf Nachhaltigkeit gesetzt wird, der sollte auf das Siegel Sustainable Cleaning achten. Auf deren Webseite wird das Symbol folgendermaßen erläutert:
„Die Wasch- und Reinigungsmittelindustrie hat eine europaweite Initiative gestartet, die „Charter Nachhaltiges Waschen und Reinigen“. Mit der Teilnahme an der Charter bekennen sich Unternehmen zu immer nachhaltigerem Handeln. Nachhaltiges Handeln beruht auf der Balance von ökologischen, ökonomischen und sozialen Aspekten wie z. B. Verbrauchersicherheit, Umweltschonung und Innovation.“
Um beim Einkaufen sicherzustellen, dass die Produkte fair gehandelt wurden, sollte man nach dem Fair Trade Siegel Ausschau halten. Der Verein TransFair vergibt dieses Siegel schon seit 1992 und beschreibt das Ziel des Vereins folgendermaßen:
„1992 startete der gemeinnützige Verein TransFair seine Arbeit mit dem Ziel, benachteiligte Produzentenfamilien in Afrika, Asien und Lateinamerika zu fördern und durch den Fairen Handel ihre Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen zu verbessern.“
Auf der Webseite einkaufsnetz.org von Greenpeace kann man sich in unterschiedlichen Ratgebern Tipps zum Einkaufen holen. Zum Beispiel erfährt man im Fischratgeber welchen Fisch man bedenkenlos kaufen kann, und welche Sorten schon vom Aussterben bedroht sind. Auch WWF bietet einen solchen Fischführer an. Und wer jetzt auch noch Wert darauf legt regional und saisonal einzukaufen, dem ist schon ein Stück weit geholfen.
Mighty Mouse – Mighty annoying
Together with my iMac I received a mighty mouse. Still, after more than a year I could not get used to it. Although I like the scroll ball that allows to scroll not only up and down, but also from left to right, it totally annoys me that the scroll ball gets stuck so fast. It first happened after a few weeks of usage, which made me decide to use my old Logitech mouse. Some while ago I wanted to give it another try. It worked okay for a while and after some weeks again, it was not possible to scroll down anymore. Now I was looking for some tips how to clean the scroll ball and only to find out that it is not possible to open the mouse without breaking it. Some handy people still tried it:
Video: How to fix the might mouse scroll ball (EN)
Mighty Mouse öffnen und reinigen (DE)
Apple themselves suggests to use a cleaning cloth to clean the scroll ball. If it fells like something is stuck in the inside of the mouse, preventing it from scrolling correctly, they propose to put a little pressure on the scroll ball to loosen the dirt. In my case, that didn’t help at all.
Apple Support: How to clean mac products (EN)
Some others suggested to roll the scroll ball over a paper to get rid of any dirt:
Mighty Mouse reinigen (DE)
The only thing that worked for me, was to use a cleaning cloth for glasses and move the scroll ball over it in all directions. I am curious how long this measure will last… and I am wondering if it is time for the new magic mouse.
Readability
When I just researched for my post on Corot-9b I read several articles online. And I remembered my bookmarklet called Readability. It removes all the advertisements that are annoyingly blinking when you try to read something. Just by a simple click. The website describes it as follow:
‘Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you’re reading.’
So go to the website http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/, define your personal settings on how the page should look like for reading, e.g. if you prefer the font to be smaller or bigger, and drag the bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmark toolbar. Done! Enjoy reading!
Corot-9B – The next exoplanet
A new exoplanet called Corot-9B was recently discussed in nature. It was found with the help of the COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits) satellite, being one of already 400 discovered extrasolar planets.
Why is Corot-9b so special?
‘Corot-9b stands alone because it is considered to be able to provide valuable scientific discoveries in the study of planets outside of our Solar System.’
Source: itwire.com
What is an exoplanet?
‘An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. There are billions of stars in our galaxy and a significant percentage of these stars are likely to have planets orbiting them. There are also planets orbiting brown dwarfs and free floating planets orbiting the galaxy directly. As of 19 March 2010, 443 extrasolar planets have been confirmed.[1] The vast majority have been detected through radial velocity observations and other indirect methods rather than actual imaging. [1] Most are giant planets thought to resemble Jupiter; however, substantial sampling bias exists since more massive planets are much easier to detect with current technology. A few relatively lightweight exoplanets, only a few times more massive than Earth, have now been detected and projections suggest that planets of roughly Earth-like mass will eventually be found to outnumber extrasolar gas giants.[2]‘
Source: Wikipedia: Extrasolar planets, also available in German: Wikipedia: Extrasolare Planeten
Further Readings
Zeit.de: Erdähnlicher Exoplanet (17.03.10, DE)
nature: A transiting giant planet with a temperature between 250 K and 430 K (18.03.10, EN)
Mediaquell.com: Corot-9b: Ein Exoplanet wie (noch) kein anderer (19.03.10, DE)
itwire.com: Gold mine of an exoplanet: Corot-9b (23.03.10, EN)
