03 May 2004
Heiko Hebig to Bring TypePad to Germany While I was trying to sleep off my jet lag this afternoon, Heiko announced that he will be representing Six Apart in Germany and helping to launch TypePad here. Is there room for two blogging companies in Hamburg, both seeking world domination? I think so. 21:40 (0)
02 May 2004
For Sale: iTunes Prepaid Card While in the U.S. of A., I picked up a $15 iTunes Prepaid Card from Target, thinking I could thus sample the lovely graces of the iTunes Music Store. However, I didn't read the fine print, which requires that I set up a Music Store account to redeem the card. Since I don't have a US credit card, and I'm too old to ask my mother to use hers, I was unable to use the card. Anyone want to buy it, payment via PayPal? Send me a mail, make me an offer I can't refuse (over $14). 20:36 (0)
Return We've made it safely back to cool and misty Hamburg. We'd love to spend the day sleeping off the jet lag, but that is a luxury reserved for non-parents, it seems. 12:10 (4)
26 April 2004
Beach Reading Advanced PHP Programming by George Schlossnagle is an excellent book, but it is poor reading for the beach. It's also not a good book for babies. 03:19 (0)
17 April 2004
13 April 2004
11 April 2004
Baggage Service Vacation update: 3 pm, 6 phone calls to Delta, all day waiting for courier to call, and still no missing suitcase. First day of vacation ruined. So far our story matches this complaint about Delta Baggage Service, so things may not get better. Update We have it. Mama decided it was useless to deal with the call center, and drove to the airport to talk to someone in person. One phone call, the courier brought the bag. Advice to Delta: dump the outsourced call center. 21:21 (1)
Happy Easter We made it, as did 2 of our 3 suitcases. We a full Gulf view from the balcony and even a poor to medium WiFi signal (although our neighbor Mr. 'linksys' should really change his default settings and password). 13:10 (3)
09 April 2004
HAM-FRA-ATL-TPA Tomorrow at 5am (ugh) we'll be on our way. By sunset tomorrow evening we'll be on the Gulf coast. 19:17 (4)
08 April 2004
Jodeldiplom German readers will recognize the title as a reference to Loriot, the German comic, and his classic sketch on the 'Yodel Diploma'. A reporter is interviewing a German housewife who, with the permission of her husband, has learned yodeling at night school, including the conjugation of yodel verbs ("Di dudl di?" "Nein, di dudl dö!"), so she can earn a degree and have something she can call her own. Something in the hand. A yodel diploma.
My career in Germany as a systems administrator is my yodel diploma. We came here for my wife's career. We knew she'd be successful here, and her success has exceeded our wildest expectations. My accomplishment here has been to establish my own career, independent of my wife and independent of being an American. I learned Linux and Unix by myself, without any schooling, and now I can earn a living administrating Linux and Unix machines. It's something I can call my own.
Therefore I'm a bit attached to my job, even if we don't need the money, and I'm not entirely willing to give it up for Christopher's special kindergarten group. There a surplus of IT workers, the economy is flat, I'm over 40 and don't have a relevent degree. Would I be able to find similar employment after Christopher is out of kindergarten and in school in two years? Maybe it's selfish, in fact, I know it's selfish, but I don't really want to give up the one thing I've earned on my own in Germany. I don't want to give up my Jodeldiplom. 18:54 (4)
Vacation. Starts. Now. Next. Work. Day. 3. May. 18:15 (1)
Good News for the Chancellor Via H-BLOG: For Gerhard Schröder's 60th birthday, the Bild Zeitung created a front page with only good news for the Chancellor. All lies. "Germany Debt-Free: Finance Minister had miscalculated for years!" "Oskar Lafontaine emigrates to France!" "Sorry, Gerd: Bush begs for forgiveness!" 10:55 (1)
Crossroads We've been looking into Kindergarten the past couple of weeks, which we want Christopher to start this fall. We have a full-day slot reserved in the regular group, but given his speech development it has been strongly recommended that he attend a so-called 'integration' group, where the group is smaller and there are regular speech therapy sessions. Mama and Christopher were there on Tuesday, and they both loved it. We'd also most likely be able to have a doctor certify that Christopher needs the integration group, so that the county would cover all costs.
Here's the problem. The integration group is only half-day, afternoons, 12:30-17:30, here in Jesteburg. We both work full-time in Hamburg, an hours' commute away. Do the math. Our Tagesmutter is in Buchholz, 15 minutes away, so arranging transport from there is not feasible.
In fact, right now if you were to ask whether my job is worth making all the arrangements for Christopher to attend this Kindergarten while I work 8 hours in Hamburg, I would truthfully have to say no. 06:48 (0)
07 April 2004
PapaTech: Samba 3... yes! It worked! :-) [more...] 11:20 (0)
06 April 2004
Brad Choate: Smart templating with Movable Type 21:08 (0)
05 April 2004
Betrayal of trust newsrack cites a New York Times article on companies systematically altering employee time cards, a practice I'm sure is not confined to the US. Here in Germany, for example, the union Ver.di is campaigning against labor practices at the Aldi and Lidl chains. Shaving pay is theft of the worst kind, from those who can least afford the loss. We've experienced first hand that it is possible to start from minimum wage and rise to run (a good share of) the company, and have seen people fired for the practices described in the article. These managers and supervisors are not only cheating the people resonsible for their success, they are betraying the economic system that makes their success possible, and those of us who believe in that system. The free market only works when people are rewarded for their talents and their efforts. Deny them what they are due, and the system will rot. It is extremely important for supervisors not to rely solely on their managers, but to talk to their employees, and make sure they are happy and getting what they have earned. 21:07 (1)
This evening we decided to end the suffering of the first, smallest, smartest and now last of our three American cats, Mausi. Even though we've been owned by several cats the past two decades, this is first time we've made such a decision. We probably waited too long. 18:33 (5)
04 April 2004
PapaTech: Samba 3... maybe? When you're lost, you have to ask for directions. [more...] 20:47 (1)
Wet memories Just so you know, a USB memory stick can survive 40°C in the washing machine, although I hope the condensation inside will eventually evaporate. 16:07 (0)
Googlerank Why would anyone would want to increase his Googlerank for Weber? 08:54 (1)
Marketing is everything Christopher has always refused to wear jeans or canvas pants, preferring either overalls or (now that he can go to the toilet by himself) sweat pants. The average life expectancy of sweat pants for a 4 year old is about one week.... the weakest link is in the knees.
Then yesterday Mama started calling his tan canvas pants 'Janick pants', after his best friend Janick. This morning he requested the Janick pants by name. We're hoping to expand the brand to include all colors and fabrics. 08:28 (1)
If 'blog' has 2 g's in German, why does blogosfear have only one? 08:13 (3)
03 April 2004
Better off without us? Spiegel Online: Secret government commission declares rebuilding of eastern Germany a failure "Immense unemployment, an overaged population: a secret circle of advisors to the German government has declared the rebuilding of eastern Germany in its present form for a failure. The paper accuses the goverment of lack of concept and inaction in the east." 1.2 trillion Euros down the drain (and you thought the war in Iraq was expensive). Meanwhile, former Warsaw Pact allies of the DDR will be joining the EU next month. Would the ex-DDR have been better off without the misguided help of the BRD? Would Europe as a whole have been better off? 21:03 (5)
Sofia Sideshow: The cat that rules Estonia 11:10 (0)
Living in Europe They took down the beta sign so now it must now be official. Living in Europe "is a new community blogzine produced by a cooperative of bloggers and writers with a focus on ... Living in Europe." The concept (see Eammon's 4 part interview, in 5 parts) started last year with Living in China, and and is now also in Australia, India and Latin America. In Europe they have an intriguing idea to deal with languages... the main blog is in English, but there can be sub-categories for countries and regions (for example, Catalonia) with posts various languages, so there can be some interaction between native and non-native writers.
At our last BlogMeet in Hamburg we were talking about how to better communication among bloggers in Europe. Here's one way to actually do it. New contributors are always welcome. 07:10 (1)
The end of Schengen? John Robb: "Reuters Visitors from visa-waiver countries (UK, Germany, etc.) will all be photographed and fingerprinted when they enter the US.[...] There is clearly foot dragging by visa-waiver countries on the new US requirement for vistors to have passports with biometric data (something the US doesn't have) for unimpeded entry." If this is the trend, does this mean the end of the borderless EU, at least in the long term? 06:29 (2)
01 April 2004
Help Wanted, Anyone? The layoff reaper strikes again at my employer. Despite short time and a slight profit last year, our workforce will be 10% less as of June 30. Let me ask here on behalf of 2 soon-to-be ex-coworkers that if anyone needs a Lotus Notes Admin (willing to relocate) or a Win/Citrix/Linux Workstation Admin (in Hamburg), they can drop me a line. 22:05 (0)
Subsidized Day Care Over the weekend when doing income taxes, I was surprised to learn that the German government is now paying 25% of our day care costs. As of 2003, child care costs are generally tax deductable, and since we pay our Tagesmutter 600 Euros per month, that's not a small amount added to our tax refund. Thank you, Chancellor Schröder.
Of course, we're in a high tax bracket and could afford day care even without the deduction. For a low or middle class family who actually needs the help, the subsidy is much less, which I don't think was exactly what Red/Green had in mind. Child care is subsidized for the rich, while the government kindergarten system, which is supposed to guarantee a place for all pre-school children, is underfunded and fails to provide places for 200,000 children. (The failed voucher system in Hamburg is an extreme example. The Abendblatt recently reported on a case where an unemployed mother was unable to accept employment because she would then lose her kindergarten voucher. Child care only if you don't need it!)
The government is also kind enough to subsidize my daily commute to work, which is expensive because of high gas taxes and because I choose to live outside the city. Since the deduction is a flat rate per kilometer based on a mid-sized car, I actually make money on the deduction by driving a small car or taking the train.
That's the thing with a high, progressive income tax with a lot of loopholes. The deductions are then degressive, benefitting the rich more than the poor. At high tax brackets, it becomes more lucrative to expend effort to find tax loopholes than to actually be productive and increase one's income (and expand the economy and create jobs).
All the parties have been talking about reforming the income tax by lowering rates and removing loopholes, but they aren't doing much about it. 05:36 (2)
I'm sure I've said this before, but an annoying thing about Germany is that Germans take April Fool's Day very seriously. 05:03 (1)
31 March 2004
30 March 2004
He has them from Grandpa. 20:32 (0)
He's just coloring, but he says it's homework. 20:13 (0)
PapaTech: Samba 3... not! Sometimes I'm as dumb as I think I am. [more...] 17:42 (1)
29 March 2004
Posts not intended for my mother My blog is schizophrenic, just like me. I sometimes blog about my family, sometimes about politics, sometimes about being an expat in a strange land, and sometimes about geeky computer stuff. Since the geeky computer stuff doesn't have much to do with the other stuff, and my mother doesn't really want to read the geeky stuff, I'm going to try putting it on a separate page called PapaTech. We'll see how that works. 21:02 (0)
PapaTech: Firesomething Mess with webmasters' minds. [more...] 18:52 (1)
