randform

Recently someone didn’t like my laughing – here another laughing.

The program in Oxford was very packed however I fastly managed to sneak into a museum. Thus before I go to Goettingen I fastly post some recommendation for a fantastic exhibition which is currently at the Ashmolean in Oxford called the “Lost world of Old Europe”.

(more…)

My classmate Brigitta Erbzenzähler (here some previous works of her in german: zischende zwischeneinlage , short story) took recently a creative writing class in Baltimore, USA. She is trying to enhance her market chances, so she is now heading for the english language. Her assignment in Baltimore was to write a story which contained some elements of sex or crime and which could be suitable for being published in a womans magazine. She didn’t finish her assignment in time in order to get a native speaker spellcheck, proofread and lectorate yet. So the below work dubbed “008” is a rather unpolished version. Her decision to prepublish this unpolished version on this blog was motivated by the possibility that some readers might be interested in publishing the final version. Since she is currently a bit broke, I accepted to publish her story again at randform, although it is again a bit out of the theme and style of the blog. It may entertain you during my absence.

(more…)

illustration: V. Levinson from the book “Fregattenkapitän Eins” (translation of Fregat Kapitana Edinytzyi by Vladimir Ljowschin), Raduga Verlag Moskau 1989 und Detskaja Literatura Moskau 1968

There are some interesting upcoming mathematical talks here in Berlin. One is by Marcus du Sautoy (if the volcano permits), who is one of the british guru’s for the public understanding of math (see also this randform post). Among others he was invited by Günther Ziegler, winner of the communicatore prize and many other prizes. The other talk will be by Wendelin Werner (see also this randfrom post) at the theatre of castle Sanssouci. Unfortunately I can’t attend Wendelin Werners lecture because (if the volcano permits) I am going to be in Oxford at a spring school and workshop. After that I’ll be in Goettingen for a workshop.
I do not intend to blog in Oxford (I doubt that the youth hostels have internet) and probably also not in Goettingen, so stay tuned.

Some more images from the book “Fregattenkapitä Eins” and its beautiful illustrations after the click.

(more…)

Soheil Nasseri (who was featured a couple of times here on randform) is again becoming an actor. This times he is going to play the role of a pianist of the 19th century (means in particular one hour of Chopin). He will perform together with an orchester and the ballet of John Neumeier, Lady of the Camellias. The show is going to be end of Mai in the Metropolitan Opera House, which fits in about 30000 people!
(small clarification added on May 3: The Metropolitan opera house fits in 3800 people at one performance, since there are 8 performances with Soheil Nasseri this gives altogether about 30000 people who may attend his performances)
Before this big event is taking place he rehearsed his performance here in Berlin in the Salon Christophori – a repairshop for fortepianos and other historical instruments in front of ca. 100 highly critical inhabitants of Berlin (…just to make sure that New York gets the right quality! ;-) ) His performance was partially together with Tuyêt Pham (mimicking the orchester).

The performance was no exception since next to the repairshop (where you can by the way adopt the repair of a fortepiano) Salon Christorphori hosts a series of high quality performances of artists who enjoy the possibility to perform in a rather casual context (and with better conditions than in a department store). Unfortunately the future of the Salon is rather unclear since the place is currently refurbished with unclear (and most likely gentrified) future tenant situation.

“Small” cultural occasions like the above described are important for the cultural life of a city. They serve not only for local communication and entertainment but are equally of educational value. Unfortunately as described before music education in Berlin is not as it could be and more unfortunately the situation is worsening. In a protest note well-known musicians protest against the cutbacks of music education in schools .

Soheil Nasseri with Tuyêt Pham saying good bye

That is how it currently looks in front of Salon Christophori

Another musical event I attended last week (just in case you wonder what I am doing):
The fantastic crossover project featuring the flying steps and the well-tempered clavier -> youtube video

foto by fotonotof

Short notice: as published in one of the current gazettes (2010-04-20) of the US Trade mark office the company Disney had filed an application for the name “snow white” (if I understood correctly ?) for:

Production, presentation, distribution, and rental of motion picture films; production, presentation, distribution, and rental of television and radio programs; production, presentation, and rental of sound and visual recordings; production of entertainment shows and interactive programs for distribution via audio and visual media, and electronic means; production and provision of entertainment in the nature of shows, current events news, and entertainment information via communication and computer networks; amusement park and theme park services; educational and entertainment services rendered in or relating to theme parks, namely, live stage shows, live amusement park shows, live performances by costumed characters, and presentation of live theatrical performances; presentation of live stage shows; presentation of live show performances; entertainment in the nature of theater productions; entertainer services, namely, live appearances by a professional entertainer

short video clip about jboard (1.4 MB) (link to 12.1 MB)

randform reader Lano Ferryman asked in a comment to a randform post:

If you are so interested in new input devices – so why don’t you report on the new iPad?

answer: First of all I think there had already been quite some media coverage about the Apple iPad thus I dont really think that testing the iPad on randform is really needed. And in order to be fair one would need also to report on other similar tablet computers or tablet PCs. Moreover I haven’t seen the iPad yet, apart from displays in in-depth video demonstrations. Tim is a bit skeptical about it, since you can’t run a programming language on the iPad, so he couldn’t e.g. install his string-rewriter jsymbol on the iPad. So he is rather waiting, like there is e.g. a Berlin company called neofonie, which produces a similar pad, called wePad (wikipedia site (sofar only in german)) which is announced to run like with an Android-like-OS that is it is some Linux, but able to run with Android applications (and rumor has it, that google is also about to release an android powered pad), furthermore Adobe Air is available on the wePad, thus Flash would run on it (i am not such a fan of flash though). However the webpage of the wePad isn’t really overly informative. On the wePad’s facebook site (in german) one can at least read (in german) that more information in particular regarding price etc. is to be released tomorrow.

It is also that I am getting more and more reluctant to promote new technologies which make people want to consume more.

On the other hand its not that randform is totally uninterested. Tim has meanwhile some new programs, which would run nicely on an iPad-like pad. The above short clip displays his program jboard (under development) for using an electronic board. I was asking him to implement something like stickers (on the right side of the board) where you can store little pieces of text and graphics, which you can freely move and copy to other pages. The stickers are automatically “tagged” with parts of what the sticker holds, but one can also tag them also with any other self-designed icon/text. So for example if you have a table you are constantly referring to throughout a lecture then you can get that table from the sidebar by clicking on your icon. We forgot to display the highlight feature in the clip.

update 13.04.10 – I forgot to mention: Tim is not sure wether jBoard will be GPL, LGPL or something similar, in any case jBoard will be open. There will also no ridiculous patents be filed (like for the stickers). Further development of jBoard will be rather slow, in particular next week the semester starts again and Tim will mutate again into a teaching machine.

A reader commented to the post dripping pains:

It is quite arrogant to say that such a design is bad – just because you have other criteria! You say your comment shouldnt be seen as an insult, but of course it is an insult! Even worse you discredit the makings of a different country than your country of origin, you should have a better respect of other cultures! Your comment may sound very disheartening!

My reply to this and some more photos from the Juno oven (see above) which works without dripping pans (the drip goes onto the outer surface and is not collected in a dripping pan) after the click.
(more…)

When we were in Japan a good year ago, we had the great chance to see mount Aso.

(more…)

just in case someone didnt notice this comment.