Google+ (or, Why Do I Want to Leave Facebook?)

Well, no sooner had I posted my update on Facebook, that I had lost all my pictures uploaded with KIPI (the KDE plugin for Facebook) that I learned that Google is trying to crush its “evil” competitor again. Google+ is the company’s latest attempt at social networking, and it’s made a big splash in the blogosphere – probably mostly because it’s a private beta, invitation only, and the blogosphere can gush all about the exclusivity of it.

The Comment Spammer

Strangely, around 6/11, traffic to this site started to skyrocket. Even more strangely, the traffic skyrocketed only in a few metrics, namely pages and bandwidth. The visits and visitors didn’t move much. How odd.

I didn’t pay much attention: after all, I had been updating the site around that same time, although I though I had started after that date. But who is to remember.

After a few weeks, though, I started to get spooked and looked at my AWStats report more closely. There I saw it: a single IP address, 31.184.238.13, was responsible for over 90% of the traffic. I checked into it on Google, where it said that IP address belongs to a Russian ISP, and that it is famous for comment spam.

Writing In the Mission (3: Gospels)

[This is part 3 of a series of blog posts about writing In the Mission.]

I will innocently admit: the first time I read the Gospels as a “novel,” I was horrified. The story had giant holes, contradicted itself here and there, and seemed to veer towards the end with no sense and rhyme. Instead of having the giant hulk of artistic accomplishment of the Torah, this seemed an amateur effort at best. The language was poor, the connection between sentences even worse, and the logic of the story was somewhat haphazard.

Writing In the Mission (4: Mystery)

Happy to have finished yet another novel, this time I felt confident enough that I sent it to a series of friends and acquaintances for feedback. I sent out about 12 copies, and waited for feedback. To my horror, 8 didn’t respond at all, even after prodding and asking – I assumed they had hated it so much, they wouldn’t even want to talk about it. 4 of my readers, though, came back with enthusiastic feedback and I was a little puzzled. In hindsight, the 8 that didn’t respond probably never read the book and felt bad about letting me down (at least I like to think so). Reminder to oneself: if you can’t follow through, say so; if you don’t say anything, the other side has nothing to go by and will assume the worst. Or, in other words, the worst form of communication is silence.

Did I Mention Surfing?

I suppose anyone that loves snowboarding and then moves to Southern California eventually has to start surfing. I mean, the snow is far, far away and only seasonal. The ocean, on the other hand, always has waves to show for (except for right now, which gives me the time to write this post).

I got into surfing obliquely. UCSD Recreation offers super-cheap courses taught by really great professionals. I decided I wanted to try at the end of last summer, so I took the mini-course (4 weeks) and I loved it. It wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, it wasn’t as hard as I feared it might, and it wasn’t as easy as I believed.

Writing In the Mission (2: Startup)

[This is part 2 of a series of blog posts about writing In the Mission.]

In 1998 I was working as an IT consultant for mid-size businesses in Germany. The business was starting to take off, what with mid-size businesses not being able to affod a full-time IT person (back in the day). I was at the point where I had to decide whether to expand the business, but before taking on responsibility for someone else’s income, I decided to try something out.

Android vs Garmin - GPS for the Masses

I finally decided to get myself an Android phone. I was sick of my N900 and its eternally unfixed bugs (including the interesting reboot in the middle of a phone call), and I took the news of T-Mobile’s selling out to AT&T as my launch pad. Within days, I had run to the various stores and found exactly what I wanted: a no-contract Samsung phone on the fantastic $25/month Virgin Mobile plan. It’s an all you can eat Internet and SMS plan, so don’t you ever call me. Even if I had an all you can eat voice plan, though, don’t call me.

Democracy? What Democracy?

We live in a free-market, democratic republic. We hold each of these descriptors very dear, and we believe that – through trial and error, not through philosophical debate – we have found this is the most stable, prosperous, fair society we can live in.

On the other hand, we live in a world with huge enterprises larger (in financial terms) than most countries. Walmart, for instance, would be a country whose GDP (revenue) sits between that of Taiwan and Norway. As a U.S. State, Walmart would have about the same size as Virginia. Can you imagine? A company the size of a whole nation? Of one of the major American states?

2011-06-11 Alc 10 Closing Ceremonies

Writing In the Mission (1: Origins)

Well, now that my novel, In the Mission, is out and available, I thought it might be a good moment to write about the writing process. You know, a little like a making of DVD bonus feature, only you have to read it instead of watching it.

How did I come up with it? Well, In the Mission has a long story. I started thinking about it in the mid-90es, when I was young and crazy. I lived in Cologne, Germany in a giant apartment with a bunch of friends. Germany was being unified, dance parties were all the rage, and most of my friends were much older than I.