Here’s to someone using an mac application to chase down someone who stole their laptop. Thought it’d be worthwhile holding on to this.
Madrid after XP2011
I was back in Madrid just recently, this time at least when the weather was much warmer to present at the XP2011 conference. It was a busy time for me, where I had two presentations, a tutorial and a workshop to run in the four day conference. Fortunately I had prepared them all in advance and felt really comfortable with the material that all of the sessions ran rather smoothly.
I was expecting Spain and Madrid to be much warmer than it was the last time I visited, though not quite as warm as I still had hoped. The conference hotel was yet to open their pool. In fact, they were yet to fill their pool. Apparently it’s a local legislation thing. However the weather was pretty much perfect for casual walking around. It reminded me very much of a Brisbane winter. Perfect for a conference go-er and tourist.
Spring in Berlin
Although it’s a little bit cold and rainy in Berlin at the moment, when I left it several weeks ago, Spring had definitely sprung. Everyone was out in full force, enjoying the warm weather with many table side cafes and the wonderful biergartens (no translations necessary) where the British have something to learn from the efficiency of German people serving beer. There is simply no mucking about!
Above is a picture of one of the streets I pass regularly on the way to work. Quite a distinct contrast from its leafless, sombre brown branches I barely saw in the dark back in January.
And one of the aforementioned biergartens, this one fairly well known, called Prater Garten.
New Gadget: GPS Watch Garmin Forerunner 305
In the latest of my gadgets this year, I have to admit, the Garmin Forerunner is doing quite well. Since last year, I’ve been determined to keep up my training (at least where possible) since it’s the sort of exercise you can do regardless of where you are. Essential stuff i you’re going to battle consultant-health-unfriendly-eating-out-at-restaurants like me.
I’ve been averaging approximately 2-3 times a week running distances between 10k-16k. I’m thinking about running a half marathon later this year if I can keep it up. During winter, I found a pretty standard course in Berlin, however I’ve struggled to proper measure how far I’ve run through Tiergarden as the weather warms up.
No more with this GPS, heart-monitor watch.
First looks, you’ll balk at the size of the thing. Yes. I know. However, this is where running with a G-Shock watch already acclimatised me to the bulk. It’s not much bigger, and definitely lighter than my existing running watch. The more modern Garmin watches are definitely more stylish and they’ve done well to reduce the size of them. I bought this after talking to some folks at Runner’s Need and finding this older model available on Amazon for a bargain £120 (what you’d pay for a very beginner’s model).
The box is outfitted with everyone, and despite the huge Amazon box is pretty small.
It contains all the essentials, including the watch and it’s charging stand (that uses USB). Awesome stuff Garmin as I can reuse the USB chargers I carry around for my phone, or simply plug it into my laptop for charging.
Even better is the small charger they gave, accompanied by, get this, an EU adapter – perfect for when I’m travelling to the continent (which has been a lot this year and will be for another couple of months).
They even throw in a watch strap extender and screwdriver if you want to change the strap (for those with chunkier arms). Fortunately the standard strap worked fine for me.
On to the watch… Unlike Apple products, you have to charge the watch first. It took a good hour to actually do, but by then it worked quite well. In that time, I had other stuff to do, including downing their software and hooking it up. I don’t bother with their Mac software much, however I used the latest software off their website (the included CD a little bit outdated now) so that I could use this free software (highly recommended) called TrailRunner.
I’ve tried it for a couple of runs now. The watch took a little bit of time the first time to pick up a satellite, as it did when I started off with my run in Madrid, however once that goes, it keeps up the pace very well. You can customise the watch to show different layouts – far too many options for me to care about, but the default display is perfect – distance, time and pace.
It comes with an accompanying heart rate monitor as well that the device connects to, so when you download your runs, you can monitor time, heart rate, and elevation. This is exactly what I need right now. I flipped through the manual, but everything is pretty intuitive.
Of course, the improvements are probably the size of the watch (I kind of like the massive display so I can quickly glance to see stats while running) and the included software for Mac is a bit naff, but the free one works like a charm.
Awesome video
Last weekend, there was the Picto Plasma festival focused on contemporary character design and exhibitions. I saw some pretty awesome art including paintings, sculptures and various motion-based exhibitions. Throughout the festival, there were some movie exhibitions and I went along highlighting some of the festival favourites. This is just one great video I really liked:
Onemoreproduction.com produced this awesome video, bringing back various memories and an entertaining sense of what might happen should pixels take over the world.
Tension in Berlin
Working and living in Berlin, you notice a lot of tension between the locals and the concern about the rate of gentrification the city undergoes. The fact that there is plenty of interesting things to do, plenty of interesting people to meet and the fact that it’s one of Europe’s cheapest capitals are all obvious drawing points that mean people with reasonable amounts of cash can come in and enjoy themselves much better than they could in other places. This, of course, only serves to accelerate the rate of gentrification with more money flowing and the environment working to match the needs of the more affluent people.
Here’s an interesting video worth watching to get a flavour of just the tension that exists in Berlin today.
Offending the Clientele from Retsina Film on Vimeo.
I came across it from this original post, and this original English article.
Legoland Berlin
Okay, so my sister dragged me to Legoland, and despite not being particularly excited about being surrounded by screaming kids ended up as a pretty reasonably outing. Who doesn’t want to be greeted by a taller-than-human Batman constructed out of lego.
The best bit about the whole trip, at least for me, was the impressive recreation of relevant sights around Berlin and the small details built into the whole exhibition. It made for some pretty nice photo opportunities.
For example, here is the intricate reconstruction of the Berliner Dom, not exactly an easy reconstruction of a building.
Just like in real life, they caught how busy the cathedral can be on weekends with people taking pictures, going in and out of the building.
They had a number of working, moving parts of the exhibition including a simulation of the overhead S-Bahn trains that run. Even the train station for this one near the Hackescher Mark, looks exactly like it does in real life.
Not just content with simple replicas. They even built in a mode that transitioned from day to night, where Berlin really comes alive. Here’s the famous Unter den Linden at nighttime.
They even had a little concert celebrating the downfall of the wall.
How could they miss the famous Checkpoint Charlie?
Or the famous Reichstag?
And the magnificently tall Brandenburg Tor at the end of the Unter den Linden streets.
Once again, not missing any of the little detail. Or maybe making it up. After all, I’m not so sure I’ve seen a monkey on top of a piano just yet.
Here’s the strip at night time.
A nice little visit, and we both navigated the chaotic screaming kids for the most part.
Berlin Sightseeing
It’s nice being able to spend some time in berlin. There is literally tons of things for people to do including many museums (plenty of history abounds) and many tours including some fun ones like a Segway tour. One of the ones recommended to me by a work colleague was the Berlin Underground tour, a tour that takes you to a bunker below one of the U-Bhan stops and attempts to ensure the memory and the stories of the people at the time live on. It’s a really great tour, and very popular with apparently up to 200, 000 people doing it every year.
We then headed over to the Märkisches Museum stop, where we found there was a couple of bears out in the open. Even though I’d stayed in the area, I had no idea these bears were there. There’s a bit of controversy about them because the bears don’t seem to have that much space. I’m sure it’s an okay life but not quite the same conditions as being in the open.
The bear just doing some circling around.
We then made our way down to Tempelhof Central Airport, a decommissioned airport that everyone uses for a buzzing amount of outdoor activities. We saw plenty of riding, running, kiting and many out door activities.
Even a bit of wind boarding that looked particularly hard.
Plenty of fun!