I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

~ Steve Jobs at Apple.com/pr/

Is this what we all needed? A official statement about the health of Steve Jobs? I think that this statement is a great thing cause we now all know what’s up with Steve’s health but in the same moment I think it’s very personal and should not be our only thought, Jobs is a famous person but even he has a private live! Even though I’m glad to know what’s up and looking forward to the keynote tomorrow. Steve Jobs did a great job and he’ll go on doing a awesome job in the future as CEO of Apple.

via @kevinrose

Time has value. Money does not.

via Michael Mistretta

I love this quote, but I think a line has to get drawn. I think not all money should be spend on having good times. But even though, not all money should be saved and people shouldn’t scarify them self’s just to get more money.

Happy new Year

The new year just flipped over and we are now calling it 2009. I wish you all a happy new year, much success and fun in what you do.

I’m looking forward to get this blog rolling this year. Since the relaunch till now just 8 days went by and there are already over 10 subscribers which makes me really proud. Thank you all for you interest, but I would like it even more if you would give me some feedback. I can write on like I do but I would love to get better and that’s where you - the reader - comes in, commenting or sending me some feedback via the contact form would help me to get better.

Let’s see, I hope the new year started awesom and will be even better than the last year.

Thoughts About the last Year

New Year’s Eve. I wish you all a great day and celebration. What I want to write at this day is for me obvious. I want to write about the past year and tomorrow about the up and coming. But my problem is everybody is writing that. So I’m not going to do that. Reason for that is that I’m going to publish a long post about my story and my path to this blog. In that article the main part will happen in 2008 and I think it’s not needed to feature all that twice.

Even though this year happened pretty much. Some cool people showed that and wrapped the year in photos or news together, some days ago I got this for me quiet heart touching series of posts.

  1. Part 1
  2. Part 2
  3. Part 3

I think this series of pictures shows one thing pretty well. The split between different worlds. Some in which war is the most common and visible thing and some in which people complain about little things. I’m pretty much caught by some relief organizations which are complaining about facts which are absolutely not acceptably but people who could care and help just don’t care about. Or they care but the bureaucracy is to complicated to help where it’s needed and it’s needed fast. I’m not saying nobody cares what happens but I think it could be done much more.

I think we should face the next year with some great plans and this plans shouldn’t be to self centered. There are many people who could help and if it’s just a little help, even a little help can change things.

Even though I wish everybody a great year with great plans. And a little tip which I think everyone knows but I think nobody should forget. If you write your goals down to a paper - even for computer addicted people like me - and pin it to a wall is a great way to remember what you wanted to achieve!

25C3 Review Day 2 and Preview Day 3

Used by gulli.com news

Used by gulli.com/news / Panel: ccc jahresrueckblick

Day two is over. Again it’s over for me but some are still listening or just hacking at the hackcenter. My personal review of the day is that the talks I though would be interesting mainly were. Just the Attacking Rich Internet Applications talk was not what I expected it to be. But the two other talks have been quiet interesting and fun. The one was the talk about the CCC year, what happened - good and bad - and what goes on. The second very interesting talk was by Tim Pritlove about the Blinkenlights Project Steroscope in Toronto. That one I found very interesting especially in the mater of how to organize a project, and that you just have to do it and not just talk - even if you have to work 16 hours a day or more. And I found his way to present some things very funny, I have to say he’s a great stage man and not just that he does great podcasting as well.

gulli-25c3-jahresruckblick-des-chaos-computer-club-teil-1

gulli.com/news used one of my pictures

That’s it for today, the review of day 2. But what’s with day 3? I’m not going to be there. Why? Well just like I wrote yesterday, I’m not the right person for this event at least running around alone is not what I thought it would be and I have some other stuff going on at home. So maybe I’ll be at the 26C3 next year or not we’ll see.
But one very interesting thing just happened short before I was writing this post. I opened my WordPress dashboard after login into my blog and had a look at the stats and saw that a in link was showing up, well at least a recognition of my name which is mainly cspiegl. The page I was mentioned is gulli.com, the reason I’m mentioned is cause one of the pictures used in the article was shot by me. That makes me proud, especially cause it’s the first time one of my pictures is used by another person than one out of my family.

I thank you gulli.com news and the writers of this article (-rbrueckner & gS-), I’m looking forward to go on taking good shots even if I can’t take some more of the 25C3.

25C3 Review Day 1 and Preview Day 2

Day 1 is over. At least for me. The schedule will go on till 1 AM tomorrow I think, but I’m reviewing my opinion on what I saw today.

Like it was written on twitter, there where too few seats for to many people. I got lucky and after 1 minutes of waiting I got a seat with table and a power plug in ‘Saal1′ ( = room 1) - just perfect to surf and listen. I have to admit, I didn’t made it to the 2 first lectures I wanted to go to because of my notebook not File Vaulting fast enough. But the once after this first two have been very interesting. About the German ‘Hackerparagraphen‘ and building hackerspaces.org. I think if you are interested in what the keynotes topics where, just go over to the video archive of the congress at the wiki.

Preview Day 2

The list of interesting lectures, which I’m trying to visit:

  1. 11:30 AM: Jahresrückblick
  2. 02:00 PM: Attacking Rich Internet Applications
  3. 04:00 PM: Blinkenlights Stereoscope

That’s a pretty short list I think but hey, I want to have a look at the other things at the congress too. For example the Hardware area close to the hackcenter. And maybe there is a great workshop.

Planing

For me all looks pretty interesting, but I have to say that if I have the choice next year to go to the congress or have some great days with friends watching movies or so. I’ll choose the friends cause the congress is not that much of information I would valuate, and the few which are valuable, can be watched via stream or recording. Maybe that opinion change over the next two days? Or not.

For this year, I planed to stay for 4 days but now I’m going to leave at the 28th of December cause the congress does not give me what I thought it would be like. That means no preview or review after tomorrow, maybe a review of the congress how I experienced it and the coverage from external.

If you are interessted in watching the live stream of the keynotes held at the 25C3. Have a look at the streaming site which has information about where and how to watch the stream.

As fare I can tell the stream is working pretty good and is well done by the FEM.

25C3 Preview Day 1 and a Reason to visit Meet ups

I made it. I’m in Berlin right now and for 4 days from now on. The reason for that is known. I’m at the 25C3 to listen to lectures, photograph, meed and see people.

But there is something I have to tell. I’m not pretty sure if the 25C3 is the right meeting for me. It’s maybe for an other kind of people. But! I learned something in the past year. And that is: If you have the chance to meat people real - person to person - that’s great and you should go out to each and every conference, meet up, congress you can get into! Just for that real in person social-networking. That’s the main reason I’m here at this congress. One other reason is that I’m interested in some lectures but in no way in this hack center kinda hacking. More on that, there is a schedule online and I walked through this schedule to see what interests me. Here is a list of my favs for today.

  1. 10:00 AM: Opening and Keynote “Nothing to hide”
  2. 11:30 AM: Datenpannen
  3. 12:45 AM: U23
  4. 02:00 PM: Der Hackerparagraph 202c StGB
  5. 04:00 PM: Building an international movement: hackerspaces.org
  6. 06:30 PM: Erich Mühsams Tagebücher in der Festungshaft
  7. 08:30 PM: Hacking the iPhone

I think if you view the articles pages you’ll get an idea of what it is about and I don’t have to explain that now. But I think that’s for me a great day of informations, but after the ‘Hacking the iPhone’ lecture I’ll leave. Let’s see how it tourns out. I’ll be posting a review and pictures of the day tomorrow.

**Update**

Sorry for the Update but the Title was not right.

25C3 Preview

I’m going to visit the 25C3 located in Berlin starting at the 27th of December and ending at the 30th.
Today the 26 of December 2008 I’m going to travel to the 25C3. For that I have to travel about 300 km. But what is the 25C3? And why I’m going to travel 300 km for it?

What is the 25C3?

The 25th Chaos Communication Congress (25C3) is the annual four-day conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). It takes place at the Berliner Congress Center (BCC) in Berlin, Germany. The Congress offers lectures and workshops on a multitude of topics and attracts a diverse audience of thousands of hackers, scientists, artists, and utopians from all around the world. The 25C3s slogan is “Nothing to hide”.

Why I go there?

Well I hear a lot about the CCC, mainly though the podcast. But all that comes through their internet direct into my computer without any social interaction. The 25c3 is a possibility to get out, in touch with other people, living a live like I do mainly. And last but not least, to get out of my room. Last year was very exiting, it was the first time I visited the congress - the name was 24C3 and the slogan was ‘Volldampf voraus!’ (literally “Full Steam Ahead”).

I think this year will be very interesting too. There are some interesting lectures and workshops I’m planing to visit and write about. Also I’m planing to post a review and some pictures of every day.

Please let me know if you are going to be at the congress too.

A not so conventional Business-Card

Business-Card

Business-Card

If you take a look at my business-card (here) your going to see that it’s pretty empty and that there is not that much information. Normally a business-card contains:

  • the Name of the person who gives the business-card out,
  • the Address,
  • the Phone-Number, Mobile-Phone and maybe Fax
  • the Email-Address
  • and if existing the Domain of the web-site.

At mine you’re searching two of this five pints without success. The fun thing is that persons who I showed the design, - nearly all - have been mentioning why I don’t have the 2 missing parts of my data included into the business-card. The two parts are:

  • the Address
  • and the Phone-Number, Mobile-Phone and Fax
Business-Cards Christoph Spiegl

Business-Cards Christoph Spiegl

The next logical question to ask is why did I do that. Just before I decided to get a own business-card printed, I’m not able to get new business-cards every time just one of the information changes. So one main part was that I don’t want to print new cards just because my mobile-phone number changed, for that reason I decided to just print consistent data which I think is the email and my two web-sites. The other ‘whys’ of my decision have been this 3:

  1. It may change
    I pointed this out before but it’s important enough to be mentioned again. The data I didn’t include could change very fast. OK, the address not but mobile-phone could. The data I decided to print is data I’m hoping to hold for a long time from now on. It’s a great way to get your own concentration focused to some few parts. In my case it’s just my email - cspiegl@cspiegl.com - and my two domains - cspiegl.com and whereischristoph.com. I want to concentrate my stuff at this two pages. And I even have the possibility to change my mind but than I can link the domains up to the new sites.
  2. It’s to personal
    Phone, mobile, fax and address is in my eyes very personal data. I think nobody needs my address in the times of email. The same is for phone, mobile and fax. I’m willing to give you this data if you send me an email and ask for phone or any of the others. But email is my main part of communication and there I can check when ever I want and answer.
  3. The most important is there
    Like I already mentioned, the most important information is included. If you are willing to contact me you find your way, if though the contact page or via the email, is your personal decision. The only problem could appear if you want to call me and don’t have internet and email. But how many people are out here without email and internet? Nearly none. And I have to tell, the people I’m interested in mostly have email and internet.

These 3 reasons are why I decided to get my business-card the way I did and I hope you get the point. If you want, you can download the front and back to print it or do just what ever you want but all in terms of the license.

Please feel free to comment or email me feedback or your own opinion, I’m really interested.