Kill_X's Blog

Scurrile Things

2006-01-09T21:41:00.000+01:00

Just some things that occured on work last few days:

Guy without brain (I)

A guy came into our office to move in. After handing over the keys to him he asked: "So, I'm allowed to move in, now?"
I: "No, unfortunately, you are not allowed to move in until you got the keys."
He: "Well, when will I get the keys?"
GNNNNH!!!!

Opening door needs a diploma

Because of the chilly temperatures (about 0°C and below) outside, we shut the door during consultation times, but everyone is able to open it by simply pushing the door open. We even have a sign at the door reading "Push" - AT EYE LEVEL!!!
You just don't wanna count how often the doorbell rings...
Is reading that difficult?

Caretakers have to be mindreaders

Recently, another guy came in. He stood in front of me and began to stare. I stared back with a asking glance. After about 30 seconds the guy said: "Oh, I must have forgotten to ask..."
$%&$"%§$% !!!

Guy without brain (II)

I entered a room to check the radiator, because the tenant complained that it wasn't functioning. The first thing I noticed: The window was opened. I stepped over to the radiator and found it turned off.
The tenant was actually at home, so I had the chance to ask him why the radiator wasn't functioning. He told me, that it was always cold in his room (I guess the room-temperature at the time I've been there was about 12°C). I asked him if he tried to turn on the radiator and close the window. He answered: "I don't want to close the window..." (Okay o.O) "... because I like to have fresh air in my room." (d'oh!!!)
So I asked: "And what about the radiator...?"
He: "It's up and running."
I: "No, it isn't."
He: "Yes, it is, I turned it on just before you came here."
I: "Actually, you must have turned it off - it is currently turned off."
He: "Really? But the star on the thermostat DOES mean that it is keeping my room warm..."
I: "glglglglgl...."
Fortunately I didn't have a knife with me...

considering last 4 months...

2005-12-10T23:43:00.001+01:00

Hey again!

Yeah, I know... I haven't been posting things for quite a while now. Let's say, I've been very busy with keeping my own stuff running somehow...

I've undergone some severe changes in the past four months. I get the urge to tell you the things which were really elemental.

First of all - unfortunately - I had to split up with my girlfriend. I'm still feeling bad for this reason, but I didn't have another chance. It's just too bad, if someone you love hurts you. And it's much worse, when she does it the second time... I think most of you will understand...

Let's get back to the things I've missed to blog...:

Wacken
The festival was great. Again, I missed about 50% of the bands I wanted to see at first... Who cares! Unfortunately, weather was pretty bad - we had loads of mud there because it rained very much. I even had to dispose of my shoes in the train on our return journey. Nevertheless I decided to go to the Summer Breeze Festival, which was scheduled two weeks later.

Summer Breeze
Well... Another great Festival - I didn't miss any band I initially wanted to see ;)
Okay, not completely true, I missed Therion! And I still want to decapitate myself because of that... Weather was not as bad as in Wacken but at least it didn't rain THAT much. Thanks to Guruz we had an easy ride to the festival and back again. Thanks mate! You were (are!) a great driver, even if some stooge was driving you crazy ;)

Civilian service (german: Zivildienst)
Muhaha... Very funny stuff! I'm working with the caretaker team of a dormatory. I think I'm somehow enjoying the job, just because of the various things which are occuring there. You won't believe how stupid scholars can be. I don't believe it myself. I don't get it, how someone, who has the authorisation to gain a higher education (e.g. german "Abitur", which I "own" myself) isn't able to charge up a chipcard at a charging terminal with only a slot for the chipcard, a slot to put in some coins and a slot where unrecognized or unaccepted coins are returned... Just for example.
I think I'll post most funny occurences in my job here!

New computer...
I recently bought a new computer with following configuration:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
RAM: 1024 MB
Mainboard: ASUS A8N-E
HD: Maxtor, 300GB, UATA-6
GPU: ATI Radeon X550 (to be replaced next 3-5 months)

At the moment, I'm running three "different" operating systems: MS Windows XP (32Bit), Ubuntu 5.10 i386 and Ubuntu 5.10 x86_64.
Unfortunately, Windows XP 64Bit doesn't support my wireless LAN card, and the manufacturer (LG...) doesn't support it anymore as well (LG-Network sucks, don't buy wireless products manufactured by LG!)... Therefore WinXP 64Bit isn't a considerable choice for me at the moment, even though this OS is running smoother than standard WinXP.

Free Multiplayer Online Games

2005-08-22T14:37:00.000+02:00

Just stumbled across this nice list of online playable games... Enjoy!
Free Multiplayer Online Games

W:O:A 2005

2005-07-10T20:00:00.000+02:00

Finally I got my ticket for the Wacken Open Air 2005. I'm really looking forward to it.

Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith

2005-06-08T00:00:00.000+02:00

Finally I got the time necessary and the opportunity to watch Star Wars Episode III.

Allthough the movie outguns episode I and II considered storyline, visual effects and depth of the dialogs I still have plenty to complain about.
Compared to episodes IV-VI where every character has its own, sensible personality, most of the characters in episodes I-III aren't really worked out, seem shallow and simply bland.
Interesting cross-talks between Sith and Jedi during light sabre fights are completely missing all over episodes I-III.

In my opinion, George Lucas simply focused too much on visual effects than on the storyline itself. There are plenty of battles - but mostly these are just battles, completely lacking dialogs, just showing colorful laser pulses and well-designed androids - which, naturally, are as stupid as a dead rat.

Let's take a look on R2D2 - doesn't it seem slightly illogical, that he has the ability to use his thrusters to fly around in episode III, whereas he needs to be "forced" around in episodes IV-VI?
Another look at Palpatine. Yes, he is evil. Yes, he has huge powers. But why does he grow older, when he uses the dark-side-of-the-force-flashes on himself (because reflected on himself by a light sabre), but when he uses them on others, they don't? Why is he just gaggling insanely all the time while fighting against Yoda, leaving the impression that he's just a crazy lunatic, whereas in episodes IV-VI he embodies a power-hungry, ruthless but highly intelligent Master of the dark side of the Force?

These are just some of the things I don't like at episodes I-III.

On the other hand, episode III still has some advantages compared to the other episodes.
The splitted personality of Anakin Skywalker, for example, reaches its climax in episode III (just as expected, but still on some surprising manner).
It's clear, that Yoda is the most powerful of all Jedi, but in episode III you can literally feel this matter of fact - and even feel with him, when most of the Jedi get slaughtered down.

So much about Star Wars. I still like episodes IV-VI best, but honestly they wouldn't be complete without episodes I-III. :)

Just let's hope the next George Lucas movie is not like the last three ones ;)

Debian Stable 3.1

2005-06-06T23:59:00.000+02:00

Finally they made it - Debian Stable got 3.1! The Former "Testing" distribution codenamed "Sarge" is now the official stable Debian release.

My congratulations to the Debian Team!

Apple goes Intel

2005-06-06T23:28:00.000+02:00

Funny thing, next year first Intel-CPU (that means x86) equipped Macs conquer the market.
Does that mean Mac OS will natively run on a PC, too? I'd love it :)

Machinae Supremacy!

2005-05-31T18:46:00.000+02:00

I've just obtained the Album Deus Ex Machinae by Machinae Supremacy. It's great (though I only have listened to 4 tracks so far). :D

Machinae Supremacy is a swedish alternative rock band which combines heavy metal music with game music of e.g. an old C64 - they call it SiD-Metal (SID is the sound format used by C64, Amiga, Atari...)
Got curious? Just visit their website and check out the download section - there are plenty of tracks for free download!

Re-Volt

2005-05-31T16:03:00.000+02:00

At the weekend I rediscovered my former favorite racing game: Re-Volt by Acclaim.
It's a nice arcade racing game where you have to drive rc-racers through various well-designed tracks (a museum or a supermarket, for example). I guess I'm already addicted to this game again ;)

Visit this page if you want to learn more about Re-Volt...

Summer!

2005-05-25T13:46:00.000+02:00

Weather forecasts didn't promise too much: Weather is great, we got about 25°C here.

I'm looking forward to tonight - some friends and I decided to have an open air party at "Killesberg Park" :)

Got a hurting wrist...

2005-05-23T21:54:00.000+02:00

My left wrist is hurting since Thursday, without cause in my opinion. Today I've been at the doctor's but she only told me to keep it rested. I guess I've got no other choice as to wait until it doesn't hurt anymore.

It rained very much today, and lucky as I am I got into a rainstorm twice. The first time while taking a walk with my dog, the second time on my way to the doctor. Both times I was totally wet through. Just let's hope I won't come down with a cold the next days - forecasts say it will get warm and sunny!

musical baton

2005-05-21T01:31:00.000+02:00

This blog has been infected with musical baton by Tuxtina

Total amount of music on my computer: 24,8 GB

The last CD I bought: Rhapsody - The Magic of the Wizard's Dream

Currently Playing: Teräsbetoni - Metallisydän

Five songs I listen to at most:
(According to Audioscrobbler)

Unreal Tournament 2003 - Main Title (Great piece of music, allthough it's part of a game's soundtrack)
Therion - Three Ships of Berik (Part 2: Victory!) (uhm yeah - another great "song" completely instrumental, easy to remix) ;)
Children of Bodom - Deadnight Warrior (*mosh*)
Ayreon - Day Eight: School (listen and see for yourself)
Ayreon - Day Twenty: Confrontation (I don't have to repeat myself, do I?)

Who's next: Blogcat, Guruz, sbuehl, lino

News

2005-05-18T23:25:00.000+02:00

You must have noticed: my weblog got a new style. First I wanted completely to start over again - I decided otherwise: to keep the old stuff, just to change the design, the content and - once again: the frequency of posting.

To tell the important stuff first: I finally failed my interviews which means I'm not allowed to continue my studies at university in this field. I don't want to comment this on a grand scale so just let's say "s**t!!!".
Now I'm more or less at the beginning again - having some choices, but not knowing which one to choose. Luckily I have more than a year to tend to these questions, German "Zivildienst" waits for me.

Considering the rest of my life, I have to tell a lot, of course! Due to the opulence of time off I have now, I decided to go to various festivals this summer. First the Earthshaker Fest, second Wacken and maybe third Summer Breeze.
I'm looking forward to all of these festivals, especially to the Wacken Open Air, I just need to meet some dudes again I haven't seen for a long time...

Many things are going wrong

2005-03-29T02:51:00.000+02:00

Well here I am, back again from learning for my Examinations at University. To be honest: almost.
I failed both of them, which means I'll have to pass those examinations in a sort of interview with my professors (as continuation of the written exams, which I failed).
Well, I'm still a realist and I don't think I'll pass the Exam in "Theoretical Computer Science" (which does not mean I'm not learning night and day, though). But I think I'm already giving up hope - feeling bad all day, having dreams about failing those interviews and about having only shortened contact with my "recently" gained friends - it's really bad. As a result of this (I suppose) a new song became my favorite: Apocalyptica - Hope Vol. II ...
It's some sort of expressing the way I feel right now so I felt somehow urged to blog it right away with my feelings.

And so here it is:

Hope

Hope is beauty,
personified.
At her feet,
the world, hypnotized.

A million flashes
a million smiles.
And on the catwalk
she flats in style.

But then there's all of darkness,
our hope lies lost and torn.
All flame like love is fleeting
when there's no hope anymore.

Pain and glory,
hand in hand.
A sacrifice,
the highest price.

Like the poison in her arm,
like a whisper she was gone.
Like when angels fall.

And then there's all of darkness,
all hope lies on the floor.
All love like fame is fleeting
when there's no hope anymore.

Like the poison in her arm,
like a whisper she was gone,
like an angel, angel's fall...

(Copyright © Apocalyptica, Hope Vol. 2)

CNN.com

2004-11-03T02:05:00.000+01:00

CNN.com
Latest News about the U.S. Presidential Elections!

U.S. Presidential Elections

2004-11-03T01:46:00.000+01:00

Today, U.S. citizens vote their 44th president. At the moment, Polls have closed in nine states. First projections say the following (according to FoxNews.com):
As far as I can see, yet, Bush won the states Indiana (11 electoral votes), Kentucky (8 electoral votes), West Virginia (5 electoral votes) and Georgia (15 electoral votes). That means, George W. Bush has already 39 electoral votes, needing 270 of 538 electoral votes to stay president of the U.S.
John F. Kerry has only won 1 state, so far: Vermont, which is giving him 3 electoral votes.

Nothing is decided, yet, and I strongly hope that John F. Kerry gets the new President of the United States...!

Finally!

2004-10-13T02:55:00.000+02:00

Finally I wrote my last exam in this term: Theoretical computer science (That's the reason why I stopped blogging again for a while). I really can't rate if it went well or not, the fact is: I was more or less unable to concentrate about the exam because I recently caught a cold and I felt not very well. I'm looking forward to receiving the results of this exam, though...

On the other hand, I'm considering myself the luckiest person on the planet earth - for finding a really nice girlfriend. It's a very funny story how I got to know her and how we got together, perhaps I will tell you more about that the next days.

At the moment I am in the middle of preparing the welcome week for our new freshman students at the University. Organizing the working party for freshman students there's a lot of work I have to do. That's why I very likely won't blog very much the next days - only important things, I'm sure you do understand that ;)

One browser...

2004-09-26T13:24:00.000+02:00

...many names!

Recently I discovered an extension for Mozilla Firefox which is really funny. The extension renames the Browser every time you start it. At the moment I'm using "Mozilla Firepanda" as you can see here:

Yesterday I browsed the web using...

Have people who code such silly things nothing to do? It's funny but twice as senseless as well.

Heureka

2004-09-23T19:27:00.000+02:00

Finally my Equilibrium CD arrived:

I really like the songs of that band. Unfortunately they currently do not have a drummer, that's why they cancelled all concerts for the time being. I wish them good luck in finding a new one and I hope they release another great CD soon!

Equilibrium

2004-09-16T16:16:00.000+02:00

Yesterday morning I ordered a CD from Equilibrium, a German newcomer Epic-Viking-(Death-)Metal band.

I'm already looking forward to receiving the CD :)

new Microsoft offensive against Linux

2004-09-16T15:57:00.000+02:00

I just can say "nice try, Billy boy!"
"Get The Facts" campaign

everyone who reads the "white papers" carefully should immediately realize how reliable this information is.

More information:
Advertising Standards Authority

Another one

2004-09-11T13:42:00.000+02:00

yeah, yeah! I know. But here's my new post :)

Last two weeks have been hell. Working every day from 9:00AM to 18:30PM made me so tired every day that I simply didn't have the motivation to create a new blog entry. Nevertheless, now I've finished working for the time being. And the best thing is that I've got that much overtime to be fully paid 3 months :)

Today's 9/11's 3rd anniversary, so take one moment to commemorate the victims of the attacs on WTC, the Pentagon and the truely brave passengers of the flight that crashed down in Pennsylvania.

I'm looking forward to a bbq party tonight. I'm sure it'll be fun :)

Another day of work, another night at Rockfabrik

2004-08-30T01:10:00.000+02:00

After working till 8:30 PM, I went to the Rockfabrik again. Music was great, tonight "Steelcommander's Metal Day" took place. Steelcommander (the DJ) played all songs I wanted, which was really wearisome because of the headbanging I performed almost all the time. I think I'll go to bed now, my neck hurts...

Cinema in the auditorium

2004-08-29T02:24:00.000+02:00

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to University with some friends to watch a movie (The Italian Job) in an auditorium. Because there is a very good sound system installed in our auditoriums and there are video projectors, too, it is almost the same feeling as if you go to a cinema. We had a lot of fun and after the movie we decided to play Tichu.
Today I have to go to work exceptionally at 1:00 PM. Luckily the sale is done now and I will only have to pack some parcels for sending them to the customers.

Thank god it's weekend

2004-08-29T02:12:00.000+02:00

After working 11 hours on Friday in the "Wuerttembergisches Auction House" I was pretty tired after getting home. Nevertheless I went to the Rockfabrik, again. Although I arrived there not until 11:00 PM I had to wait 10 minutes to get in. It was pretty full. On Fridays the "Thank god it's Friday" party takes place. A very fine thing about this party: You pay one drink and get two. I've met many friends and drank a lot of beer...
I stayed till 5:00 AM this morning and fell almost asleep in the public transport. The night was great, though, and even if the DJ did not really suit my music taste I had a lot of fun playing a game called Skat.

A day of work in the WA

2004-08-25T20:48:00.000+02:00

After 8.75 hours of work in the "Wuerttembergisches Auction House" I got very fed up with this day.
8.75 hours of dragging heavy boxes to customers who liked to examine stamps, coins and old stuff from the former German colonies in Africa can make you very tired. Tomorrow is the last visitation day before the sale of the stuff on Friday. That means tomorrow will be a very stressful day :/
Nevertheless I'm looking forward to go to my favorite music club tomorrow night: The Rockfabrik Ludwigsburg (page is German only). Tomorrow night is "Hellfire night", that means they're going to play loads of my favorite music. Unfortunately, I have to work on Friday as well, so that I won't be able to stay longer than 0:00 AM.

SuSE is stupid

2004-08-25T01:15:00.000+02:00

I just returned from helping my friend with his Linux installation. He had a running SuSE System, so his primary goal was to get OpenGL running. So far so good, it worked after a few changes in his X configuration.
Then he agreed to install Debian unstable on another partition, just to get an impression of a "living on the edge" distribution. We had to resize his existing root partition (formatted with ReiserFS), where the SuSE system was located. This job done we tried to reboot the System, which resulted in a Kernel panic: Unable to mount root filesystem.
The resize process scrambled the superblock and the journal of the existing partition, all data was lost. Thanks to SuSE, that actually warned about using the resizing tool, because there was a "possibility of data loss". As you can see, there was not only a possibility, it was very likely.

Now he has a running Debian System ;)
(And no, it was NOT my intent to delete SuSE, although I have to admit that I hate this distribution...)

Debian

2004-08-24T17:31:00.000+02:00

In about half an hour I am going to help a friend to install Debian. I myself am using Debian Linux for about 1.5 months now and I'm already loving it. It was the first Linux Distribution where I got my Wireless LAN card running without problems.
Rest assured that I will never refuse to help my friends installing Linux (paticularly Debian or Gentoo) - in my opinion is Open Source Software always better than the commercial crap from M$ :)

Just created my English blog

2004-08-24T17:18:00.000+02:00

Hi folks!
After returning from the Summer Breeze I decided to start a new Blog, this time in English.
I also have a German Blog, where I post more or less infrequently.
Unlike in my German Blog, I plan to post here more frequently, at least one time a day.