Totally Awesome Stuff

Lords and Ladies!

I command you to watch or read Game of Thrones!

Seriously, Game of Thrones is one of the best TV series I have ever watched. Playing in one league with Dexter and Futurama.

It is a kind of fantasy, that seems incredibly real and as all HBO series, it’s made in an totally awesome way. It’s so capturing that I watched all 10 episodes of it on one weekend and ordered the books right after finishing the last episode.

[Update] It has an IMDB rating of fucking 9.5!

Lords and Ladies! I command you to watch or read Game of Thrones! Seriously, Game of Thrones is one of the best TV series I have ever watched. Playing in one league with Dexter and Futurama. It is a kind of fantasy, that seems incredibly real and as all HBO series, it\'s made in an totally awesome ...

Let’s talk about stereotypes: Nerds drink Club Mate, wear strange shirts, flash routers, read comics… – Hold on! “Read comics”?!

I consider myself to be a nerd and I believe that I know many other nerds. Nobody of them nor me myself is really into comics. However a lot of people in my peer group are really into movies. And nowadays a lot of film versions of comics are made. (Some are crap, but generally a good thing.) So it happened that a friend got me interested in Watchmen. I watched the movie a number of times (the 3h version) and have to say that it’s my favorite movie now. Usually my favorite movie changes quite frequently, but Watchmen has been that for quite some time. Therefore I decided to get the comic and read it .

There is a couple of reasons why I enjoy Wachtmen: The way it deals with American history in the 20th century and specially during the time of the cold war, the way it deals with superheros and “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”, the soundtrack.

Today I started reading the comic. Apart from some Mikey Mouse or Donald Duck, Watchmen is the first comic I’m reading. And I have to admit that I like it. There is not much text on a page, so I can read it quite fast, but then I look at the lovely detailed pictures and completely loose myself in them.
The comic is even more extreme than the movie (e.g. language wise). Also I have to say that the movie did a really good job in adopting the story.

I’m really looking forward to finish reading Watchmen and to read other comics after that. (Suggestions welcome!)

Let\'s talk about stereotypes: Nerds drink Club Mate, wear strange shirts, flash routers, read comics... - Hold on! \"Read comics\"?! I consider myself to be a nerd and I believe that I know many other nerds. Nobody of them nor me myself is really into comics. However a lot of people in my peer group ...

Yesterday I went to see “Cars 2″ together with some good friends of mine. For several reasons this turned out to be an awesome experience.

The first reasons is that “Cars 2″ was a surprisingly good movie. After seeing the trailer a few times I expected it to be really bad. Luckily I was proven wrong. It was no philosophical or mind blasting movie (and no bad copy of Inception, as a many movies nowadays).

It was a funny Pixar movie. And although “Pixar movie” indicates that it has an unbelievable great, but schmaltzy soundtrack. However this time it was different. Not bad. – But different.

The other reason is the cinema itself. We have been at the KIZ RoyalKino in Graz, which is a small cinema for english-language and art movies. I have to say that I love this place. From the fact that they sell drinks in glass bottles to the to the idea of selling movie posters, it is a trough and trough awesome place. Although the low number of customers makes me fear about the future of the cinema, it is a neat thing to have a whole theater room for you and your friends.

Yesterday I went to see \"Cars 2\" together with some good friends of mine. For several reasons this turned out to be an awesome experience. The first reasons is that \"Cars 2\" was a surprisingly good movie. After seeing the trailer a few times I expected it to be really bad. Luckily I was proven ...

I really love ebay. A simple idea: People sell things, that other people buy. But how complex should that simplicity be?

On friday I created a new account on ebay and bought something. By now I got 8 mails (7 from ebay and one from the vendor (a shop)) for simple “Buy It Now”-Purchase. I that money is involved and I like well-documented stuff, but this is too much.

That’s my little rant. Hopefully soon back with content posts.

I really love ebay. A simple idea: People sell things, that other people buy. But how complex should that simplicity be? On friday I created a new account on ebay and bought something. By now I got 8 mails (7 from ebay and one from the vendor (a shop)) for simple \"Buy It Now\"-Purchase. I ...

Yay. Lion is out… For more than a week now.
Lions are elegant big cats. That’s exactly how it feels: Elegant. Smooth. Magically. Awesome.

However, sometimes the Lions roars. Within one week of usage I found a number of interesting features:

• I have a 2nd hard drive in my MacBook Pro. Looking forward to the new full disk encryption, this was one of the first things I tried out. Things work good. Automatic mounting with key chain. No appreciable overhead when using the disk. But, Time Machine has it’s problems with the encrypted disk. Every few backups, it initiates a backup of the full disk. (Reproduced by Florian R.)
• I also use the full disk encryption on my first boot drive. To decrypt the hard drive when starting, the boot loader requires a password before loading the OS. So far, so good. The only downside is that my keyboard layout is German (Austrian). For some reason boot loader/efi expects it to be American.. It’s really fun to enter the password.
• Speaking of keyboard “features”: My external Microsoft keyboard (quite old, German (Austrian) layout too) is recognized as “Austrian”, but the [^]-key and the [<]-key seem to be swapped. (Worked perfectly under Snow Leopard.)

By the way, my Lion does not sleep tonight. It’s copying my whole data drive, to “decrypt” it.

Yay. Lion is out... For more than a week now. Lions are elegant big cats. That\'s exactly how it feels: Elegant. Smooth. Magically. Awesome. However, sometimes the Lions roars. Within one week of usage I found a number of interesting features: I have a 2nd hard drive in my MacBook Pro. Looking forward to the new full ...

As you might know I’m a programmer. Or on my way to become one. On this way another big step is taken: Together with three friends I founded an IT company.

Sounds nice… But there is a big problem: My internet presence is not yet worth a programmer. (Almost no posts, no own design..)

My Solution: In the next 50 days I want to blog more often. As programmers tend to give neat names to things I’m gonna call this API (A Programmers Internet presence.)

Well, that’s it.

As you might know I\'m a programmer. Or on my way to become one. On this way another big step is taken: Together with three friends I founded an IT company. Sounds nice... But there is a big problem: My internet presence is not yet worth a programmer. (Almost no posts, no own design..) My Solution: ...

Trainsearch update.
If you use the Skript on my server, you are automatically using the newer Version.
Otherwise you can finde it here.

Originally I planned to blog here in English. But since the software I am going to introduce is for the search function of the Austrian Railroad company, I am going to switch to German:

Schon länger habe ich nach einem Chrome Plugin gesucht mit dem ich einfacher nach den Zügen der ÖBB suchen kann. Da ich so etwas leider nicht gefunden habe, habe ichs selbst gemacht. David brachte mich auf die Idee, dass man eigentlich kein ganzes Plugin basteln muss sondern nur eine “Search Engie” erstellen muss. Leider kann mann dort nur einen einzelnen Suchparameter übergeben.
Die Lösung: Man gibt dort ein Skript an, dass den Suchbegriff in die notwendigen einzelnen Suchparameter für die ÖBB-Suche zerlegt und die Seite aufruft.

Installation

• In den Chrome Einstellungen “Basics” auf “Manage” neben “Default Search” klicken
• Dort auf das + klicken und eine Search Engine mit folgenden Daten erstellen:
  Beliebiger Name
  Beliebiges Keyword – ich habe öbb verwendet
  URL: http://totallyawesome.at/tools/trainsearch.php?q=%s

Um das ganze dann zu verwenden gibt man einfach in seinem Chrome das Keyword ein und drückt Tab. Dannach kann man die Suchabfrage eingeben.
So sieht das ganze dann aus:

Suchbegriffe
Beispiel: Wir wollen von Kaindorf/Sulm nach Graz fahren. Mögliche Suchbegriffe wären

Kaindorf/Sulm Graz
Von Kaindorf/Sulm nach Graz
From Kaindorf/Sulm to Graz

Ein anderes Beispiel: Die gleichen Halte. Allerdings wollen wir um 15:00 fahren.

Kaindorf/Sulm Graz 15:00
Von Kaindorf/Sulm nach Graz um 15:00
From Kaindorf/Sulm to Graz at 15:00

Da man im Deutschen als auch im Englischem Sätze mit den Worten “von”/”from”, “nach”/”to”, “um”/”at” und “am”/”on (the)” praktisch beliebig konstruieren kann, ist das auch bei der Zugsuche möglich.
Die Orte und die Uhrzeit sind dabei pflicht. Der Tag ist optional.

Von Kaindorf/Sulm nach Graz um 15:00
Von Kaindorf/Sulm nach Graz um 15:00 am 17.12.10
Von Kaindorf/Sulm nach Graz um 15:00.
Von Kaindorf/Sulm nach Graz um 15:00 am 17.12.10.
Nach Graz nach Kaindorf/Sulm um 15:00 am 17.12.10
Am 17.12.10 um 15:00 von Kaindorf/Sulm nach Graz
usw.

Manche Sätze sind zwar merkwürdig, “funktionieren” aber sprachlich dennoch.

Der ganze Rest
Theoretisch sollte das ganze in beliebigen Browsern funktionieren. Getestet habe ich es nur unter Chrome. Würde mich über Feedback freuen, wie es unter anderen Browsern funktioniert.
Allgemein fände ich Feedback über das ganze Projekt und speziell über Fehler (im Parsing) super.

Nächste Schritte sind:
Ausbau der Texterkennung
Nachbau in Javaskript, damit man es sogar direkt im Browser (ohne Server) verwenden kann

Für Bastler, Neugierige und Leute die es selbst hosten wollen, gibts hier das Serverskript: Klick mich, ich bin ein Link!

Originally I planned to blog here in English. But since the software I am going to introduce is for the search function of the Austrian Railroad company, I am going to switch to German: Schon länger habe ich nach einem Chrome Plugin gesucht mit dem ich einfacher nach den Zügen der ÖBB suchen kann. Da ...

I really love Mac OS and especially dictionary and spotlight, which make life a whole lot better. Some time ago a friend had the great idea of heaving a dictionary plugin for ports. Since I really liked the idea, I decided to create it.
Well, here it is. I called it “Portdict”. You can either search for a port number (like “80″) or for a keyword (like “http”).

Installation:

• Download the .zip-File
• Open the Archive and move the file either to /Libary/Dictionaries or ~/Libary/Dictionaries
• (Maybe you have to enable the plugin in Dictionary.app)
• Finished! Be happy!

I really love Mac OS and especially dictionary and spotlight, which make life a whole lot better. Some time ago a friend had the great idea of heaving a dictionary plugin for ports. Since I really liked the idea, I decided to create it. Well, here it is. I called it \"Portdict\". You can either ...