Uncategorised 1

Books 1

a few books I like a lot, sometimes with a little review...

Journeys 0

Life is a long journey. And that's one of my favourite passions: Travelling. No worries whether by train, bicycle or bus, nor what language to speak... Diving in to other cultures, learning about their way of thinking and living. Usually I'd check clima tables beforehand to find a reasonable season for travelling. And I avoid the big cities for they are all the same to me. I rather enjoy myself in the rural areas and country side for less pollution and traffic noise. Knowing that advertisement for the neat and less discovered places tends to spoil them, I do hope they do remain as nice and welcoming as I discovered them.

A Andalucia con VW camper van 2014 2

Kathrin and I just moved into our new home in Appenzell, Switzerland. There is still more than a month time before Kathrin starts her new job. Travel companion Urs comes up with the idea to cruise down to Andalusia, Spain with his VW camper van.

Journey to the East 2013 20

Marco Polos fabulous journey to the East left wild dreams in my mind since I was reading it as a child. Herrmann Hesses "Journey to the East" did so some years later, as well a a picture book about the Himalayan - the roof of the world. And finally after a long winter the snow melts. Now Kathrin and I are ready to venture out to a long bike journey - to hopefully meet a lot of friendly people and face incredible landscapes and colorful cities from here to the Himalayan.

Pan America 2011 - 2012 23

American writers like Kerouac and Miller influenced me a lot when I was in my Twenties. And I heard lots about the West Coast from American travellers, recommending great national parks and the Route 101 that is sort of famous thing to do for cyclists. So I decided to postpone other planned adventures and flew to Vancouver BC, equipped with my good old pushbike, a tent and a  (warm!) sleeping bag.

Asia Pacific 2010 - 2011 23

Golden and brown leaves falling back home. Migratory birds are leaving. Time to take off for me too. The initial plan was to cycle from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur, yet it went all different. And good. 6 months on the road, meeting great people, dwelling in great places, sharing great experiences.

Tanzania 2010 6

One month in Africa, in the Land of Serengeti and Kilimanjaro. One month on tour by sailing boat, bus and jeep. Great sceneries, fascinating wild life and weird contrasts! A night in a safari lodge is about same as the monthly income of a local employee.

Cycling Japan 2009 10

On my first bicycle journey I spend almost 4 months in Japan and cycled more than 2000 fantastic miles up and down in the Land of the Rising Sun.

India 2009 4

In February 2009 I was happy to escape the European winter for a trip to a country that is so much unlike anything else I have seen before - India!

Hiking in Austria 2008 1

Asia 2003 7

7 months on the road. On the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow via Mongolia to Beijing in January, being the first time in Asia. Heading south to escape the cold. Time travelling in Northern Laos, it feels like Stone age. Long rest and long party nights in Thailand. Suddenly in Japan...

Hiking in Norway 2018 2

Norway2018 HikingRouteMap These articles are about a 9-day hiking trip with tent and cocking equipment in Norway and some subsequent rest days. The articles are in German language (for I kept my travel notes in German).We've been blessed with exceptionally good weather conditions for the hiking. However, apparently this is part of an extented drought period that hit Scandinavia for the past months. So please, let it rain again!

IT Playground 1

Welcome to my technology playground.

When weather does not inspire me for outdoor activities, I enjoy diving into various IT topics to gain and maintain the knowledge I keep teaching in school. Basically, I'm fascinated and attracted by Open-Source IT softwares or standards like

1. Linux

2. Python, JS

3. MySQL/MariaDB

4. Arduino

 

example object detection app

Since my  time in university, I've been fascinated by the possibilities of artificial intelligence. Back then, we'd learned how to recognice handwritten digits. Today, I'm intrigued by the scientific achivements made available by AI frameworks like TensorFlow.

I suppose many software projects would better meet user needs if they were open source for three reasons:

1. as a user, I have the freedom to customize and improve the software as I wish. This could actually encourage more people to learn programming.

2. as a user or organization, I can check the source for malicious or unwanted parts (like trackers, spyware etc.)

3. by buying or ordering only open source products, my organisation has the freedom to adapt the software to meet actual needs.

Saying this, I am well aware that open source software does cost money (or at least a lot of time) to develop, test and distribute.

 

 

Notice: Schirmer Scientific Systems is now Green-ORCA :: Operations Research Computing and Analysis Schirmer

 

Reiki 0


Blog 1

An innocent attempt, or rather a collection of random own thoughts, lyrics as quotations I really like. Enjoy browsing!