The War of the Flowers

Tad Williams is still one hell of a writer. I was a bit worn out after finishing Otherland a while ago, but now I’m back with The War of the Flowers. I’m only past page 100, but so far I’ve been entertained every second. Entertained in a very dark, depressing way, that is, but who says that’s a bad thing when the book is written so well.

Open Wheel Racing

The IRL is returning to Infineon Raceway in 2007, and Michael Schuhmacher ends his career today. Oh, and I’m watching the NASCAR race, so it’s time to update with some racing stuff! At this year’s IRL race, there was an exhibition of classic Formula 1 cars with some cool entries. Here’s the Ferrari 312 T-2, the car in which Niki Lauda raced to the chanpionship in 1976/77. There’s also an exhibit description for the car, and Wikipedia has a picture of Niki driving the car.

I don’t remember the cars above (I was born in 76), but I sure remember the Formula 1 races of the early 80s. Niki Lauda, Alain Prost in their red-white Malboro McLarens. The second image shows one of the early versions, the McLaren M-30 that Alain Prost was driving in 1980. Doesn’t look like he had much success back then, but of course that would change in 1984-87.

Horseback Rriding

“Angry much, Matthias?” Wolfi asked in the comments to the last post. The answer, of course, is “yes”. And “no, not really”. I just find it a lot easier to write about things that get me riled up than reflect on all the cool and fun stuff in my life. Let’s call it a “character trait”, okay?

So to balance everything out a bit, here’s a picture of one very happy day three weeks ago, when Victoria organized a Sonoma tour and we went for a horseback tour of the Roche vinyards.

Lair on TV

If you have Comcast On Demand and want to see some more Lair, go to the “The Cutting Edge” section, pick G4tv and the TGS section. They have a short version of the Lair trailer, and if you watch the “PS3 Report”, you get some gameplay footage and commentary. Nothing, that you haven’t seen yet on the internet – but you get to see it on your big TV and can show it to your family and everybody else that should see it!

Cruisin’ USA

It’s not that I hate American drivers. It’s just that I hate driving in America. And I’m reminded of it every morning on my way to work. I’ve never seen such an unorganized and inefficient mess. And nobody seems to notice or care.

But before we delve any further, consider the fact that in Germany:

• Passing cars on the right is a moving violation.
• Cruising in the left lane is a moving violation.
• Most highways are only two lanes wide. That might be hard to believe for American readers but yes, large parts of the fabled German Autobahn network are only two lanes.
• People often are going 130mph or more.

It should be easy to see that people are going to get very mad when they approach at 130 mph and you are blocking the left lane. Most drivers stay in the right lanes and only go to the left to pass people. Those staying on the left side pull over to the right as soon as somebody who is going faster approaches from behind. Of course there’s the occasional asshole that thinks he owns the left lane, but 99% of the time, this works out great.

Enter America, and roads like Highway 37. It’s two lanes with a (for America) generous speed limit of 65mph. People are all over the place. All. Over. The. Place. Left, right, top and bottom, seemingly going whatever speed strikes their fancy. It’s not even that I’m speeding, my cruise control is set to a carefully calculated “8 mph over”, which accounts for speedometer inaccuracies and the fact that no CHP will pull you over for less than 5 miles over the limit.
It’s impossible to maintain that speed. Inadvertantly some asshole will be blocking the left lane. Then, as much as it pains me, I will pull over to the right to pass, just to be faced with a slow driver to the right. Highway slalom, hurray! Just what I need in the morning. Don’t even get me started about 3/4-lane highway 80, where the right lane might as well not exist and everybody occupies the middle and left.

So, how can it be that a 2-lane highway in Germany works spendidly, and the typical 4-lane American highway makes you want to scrape your eyes out? The American solution might be to add another lane. Maybe we can make it a bit cheaper and educate drivers?

Dear Record Industry

Fuck you.

Today seems like a good day to give a shoutout to our dear friends at most music labels. And of course it’s related to some haywire copy protection scheme.

I don’t even buy that many CDs anymore, it’s iTunes all the way. The CDs that I do buy are purchased in Germany – somewhat obscure bands that I can’t get here. One trip to the store per year, no easy way to make a return. So I expect those CDs to work! And “work” means iPod. End of discussion. People listen to music a certain way these days, and I don’t even have a working CD player in my home office (or car!) anymore.
So of course one of the CDs that I bought over xmas last year, Deine Lakaien‘s latest offering “april skies”, is copy protected. It’s advertised on the CD, but devoid of any other purchasing options (iTunes America doesn’t carry the band), and considering the fact that I was able to rip all other “copy controlled” CDs, I decided to get the CD anyway.

I can’t rip the CD.

iTunes 6 seemingly did it once, but the songs were stuttering all over the place. After that – nada. iTunes 7, which I hoped might finally fix the problem, won’t even acknowledge the inserted CD. Might be that the first rip installed some hidden DRM files somewhere on the machine that I can’t find, but I won’t reinstall the entire computer based on that theory.

So congratulations Capitol Records, you have created a copy protection scheme that works! I can’t rip this CD of yours. You also lost a customer – for good. This isn’t some flavor-of-the-day band that I decided to give a try and hey, if it doesn’t work no big deal. This is one of the oldest groups I have listened to. Over 15 years. I have all albums in my CD rack. And this experience has spoiled my entire history with the band, because I have to assume that I won’t be able to listen to this or any of their future albums

So this might be it. I can’t even laugh at the irony of those “Don’t copy this CD, it takes away money from the artists!” statements inside the jewel case. I don’t see why I should support a record label that punishes me for purchasing their stuff, so I won’t. I got a pretty good memory when it comes to things like this. Of course it won’t be more than a drop in a bucket, but at least it will make me feel a bit better.