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A new online game featuring integrated GoogleMaps all over the place is Brewster Jennings Protects America, available at: http://www.brewsterjennings.com/.
Currently two scenarios are available:
These are the most realistic ones. I guess. Thanks to GoogleMaps, all terrorists can now see directly into your yard. How bad a scenario is that????
Wilma has arrived in Florida this morning. I woke up this morning when some heavy rains and winds where bearing against the window of the hotel room. It was not bad but the sound wasn't nice. I turned on the TV and almost all channels had a special as WIlma's eye had just hit South Florida. In addition to the hurricane several tornados touched down a couple of miles South of Orlando. All stations were drawing a totally devastating picture and it seemed all very dangerous.
But when we actually sat in the car to drive downtown I quickly got the feeling that it was not bad at all. The winds were heavy but not extraordinally unusual to someone living in Europe. Wind speeds - at that time - where reported to be between 40 and 60 mph. The drive was a little bit rougher given these conditions but nothing unusual. The rainfall was certainly not dramatic. I personally believe the local Orlando media and city officials clearly over-reacted. But given the Katrina / New Orleans catastrophy they probably did not want to take any risks whatsoever. The hurricane came and went pretty quickly: the sun was already shining at 1 p.m. If the buildings in this area where constructed from stone rather than wood these hurricanes would certainly not pose that much of a threat to such a large number of people.
The evacuees are still in the area and are going to leave tomorrow morning. I have heard of shops selling I survived Wilma t-shirts. Personally, I find it very unethical to make money from a natural disaster which cost the lives of several people. But the United States is a land of unlimited opportunities...
I have returned to the hotel room just minutes ago. The hotel is currently seeing a number of evacuees arriving from Key West. That's where Wilma is going to hit the hardest. On our drive to the hotel we had a heavy rainstorm but nothing too serious. I guess (and hope) Wilma will not hit Orlando too hard...
After the last conference sessions, we took a taxi to Chicago O'Hare. Upon arrival, there was this wonderfully nice person at the United Airlines economy check-in queue who segregated electronic-ticket holders from paper ticket holders to the correct line. What a friendly and over-enthusiastic person. A useless job if you ask me. But anyway, if they want to go bankrupt, they should.
When checking in with TED we were put on stand-by for the earlier flight. The attendant pointed out that even if we were not getting a seat on the first flight, our luggage will definitely come along on the earlier flight.
We headed through the security checkpoint (less friendly personnel there) and - hooray - we save two hours of waiting time and get the sixteenhundredsomething-flight.
But...
We were a little bit surprised when our luggage did not make it. We therefore filled out the required loss-of-luggage notification and went to the hotel. The friendly lady from United was able to track down our suitcases which had boarded the plane but not arrived. Apparently, someone must have taken them off again. OK, maybe United should invest their money in decent luggage transportation personnel rather than someone telling me which line use when holding a paper-based ticket. But anyway, the lady was really nice and told us any missing pieces would be in tonight (with the last flight) and provided us with an emergency toiletry kit. Little did we know...
We checked in to the hotel and went downtown at 23:00 p.m.- still in business casual, which felt a little bit inappropriate, but what can you do? After a quick party we returned at 2:30 a.m. - all bars close at 2:00 a.m. due to state legislation.
Back in the hotel we were happy enough to find no luggage whatsoever. Yuck. That's been really really bad and if I can avoid flying TED - I will... My suitcase only turned up at 12.30 p.m.
(c) Naturelich 2005
After our day at the conference, we quickly changed and took a taxi to the Briar Street Theatre. After a 20 dollar drive we first picked up our tickets. Afterwards we enjoyed a nice meal at a diner. The diner was a very friendly place - the total opposite of what you are used to in Germany. We returned to the theatre and huge crowds had already formed at the ticket booth. Luckily, we were able to walk past the line and made it ON TIME to the show.
Since I don't want to spoil anyone's experience I will say only this much about this show: it was both funny and original,very interactive and really something new.
It's the first time for me in this city. At first I was stunned by the skyline. It's really huge. Here is a quick glimpse.
Having checked into the hotel I am going to watch an ESPN2 broadcast of a Champions League game: Manchester vs. Lille.
Here is a collection of hyperlinks to the new buzzword:
Web 2.0
This is the tip of the ice-berg. After having seen all this, the Web 2.0 - as nebulous as the term and it's definition may still be - brings some cool new innovations. Gradually, this is going to change the way we work on the web.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) invented the internet. This year, the DARPA held the Grand Challenge: 5 autonomous ground vehicles successfully completed a touigh 131 mile course in Nevada's Mojave Desert. The Stanford University's vehicle called Stanley won the robotics challenge in 6 hours and 53 minutes. The next two vehicles - Sandstorm and H1ghlander were only 10-20 minutes behind.
Grand Challenge Course Map
The bad news: this was a military research project. Here is from the challenge's description:
The DARPA Grand Challenge is an unprecedented government effort to accelerate research and development in autonomous ground vehicles to help save American lives on the battlefield. DARPA will award $2 million to the autonomous (robotic) ground vehicle that can successfully navigate a challenging desert course of approximately 150 miles the fastest (in less than 10 hours). The vehicles must find and follow a prescribed course route, avoid obstacle,s, and negotiate turns, all while traveling at military-relevant rates of speed. The ground vehicles are fully autonomous - not remote-controlled.
What can you say? Not much, I guess. Let's hope something good (i.e. non-militarywise) will come from this research project.
I enjoyed a sunny late-afternoon in Düsseldorf's trendy media harbor (together with the Robbie geeks). We had a coffee (or hot chocolate) in a café, were chit-chatting a bit and took a long walk through the area. I am still trying to cope with yesterday's "club tour". Interesting how easily your right ear can become half-deaf. The geeks are now on their way to the Robbie Cinecast in HDTV quality at the UCI theater. We are planning to get tickets for his next tour - maybe we are lucky. I presume the tickets will be difficult to get!? But anyway, while they are watching the concert, here is a nice link to a Robbie Williams blog (in German): Robstuff.de.
Today the Robbie geeks and Naturelich enjoyed dinner at Düsseldorf' s Cubar. While the ladies enjoyed just a light dinner, I was keen on trying the AYCE buffet. The buffet's concept is pretty similar to Mongos. You select the dishes you like the most: vegetables, meat, fish, spices, etc. and the chef(s?) cook it. The result is then brought to your table. It was a fun session - especially after the happy hour had started.
Afterwards, we went into the Altstadt. After a quick stroll along Rheinuferpromenade, the ladies took the old man to the Sub. It has been quite a while since I last visisted a club, but the experience was actually quite fun. Because I don't like House or Techno music all too much, I kept close to the Desperados. However, the main question of the evening could not be answered:
Wer hat meine Waschmaschine kaputt gemacht?
This cool song (Meine Waschmaschine Ist Kaputt by Markus Gardeweg) made everyone rather aggressive. If you are interested in re-living the original experience - find it at kontors.cc (note, you have to fast forward your media player to minute 55:xx.). Try to get the English version (by Sikk) at iTunes store. I just got the download and I'll make the Robbie geeks listen to it whenever I can :D
It took me a little bit of time to re-design the style of Naturelich blog. Hope you like it?
Sunday is a great day for Robbie Williams fans. On this day, the superstar will play a concert in Berlin. This concert will feature plenty of new material of his new album Intensive Care.
Now, since Berlin's Velodrom is a nice but small venue, this "once-in-a-life-time event" will also be broadcast into several cinemas across Europe. Since one of these movie theaters is located in Düsseldorf - guess who is coming. Exactly. Two Robbie Williams geeks have announced themselves for this weekend. And they shall arrive shortly. Tomorrow, the ladies want to go shopping and rejoin Naturelich in the evening for some dinner and a decent club-experience. Let's see if people my age can cope with this... :D
Badminton was called off. We had our court booked at 1900 hrs and were 10 minutes late. The lady resold our court a few minutes ago to another group. Excellent service! Yehaaaah. What can I say? As a customary gesture we decided to order a decent pizza and discuss the online poker robots, the ant algorithm and some weird stuff about the effects of a person's blood being exchanged by common salt solution. It was really funny...
This week was governed by The Lord of The Work. I had expected a decreasing workload after Monday and Tuesday, but nothing of the kind. Even more and more. It's been a few very productive days. Some trouble spots no longer exist, others have occured but good faith will make it all go-away. We were able to deliver two major projects due Friday and we expect them to be in excellent quality.
The forthcoming weekend will see me studying some industrial psychology material for (yet another) exam. In addition, there is always some additional specs requiring attention. And not to forget my empty fridge plus my full laundry basket. But no more whining: just wish me luck :D