Most of my readers are probably firmly in the Microsoft Windows world when it comes to using a computer. What is Microsoft (MS) Windows (in any one of its many incarnations, whose most common and recent members are Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7)? It's the operating system (OS) of the computer - for most people computers aren't very usable without an operating system. The operating system sits on top of the hardware and provides the complete logic for everything you see when running a computer - it connects to and registers various hardware devices while booting, like graphics card, sound card, mouse and monitor, and provides functions like user management, a graphical user interface (GUI), process management, and much more. The operating system does not include things like web browsers, mail programs or office suite programs (yes, there are alternatives to MS Office, see OpenOffice ). There are many other operating systems, some with restricted niche usage ( RISC

Two Weeks of Kindling I've now had my Kindle for nearly two weeks, and it's time to share some of my impressions with you. After unpacking it I immediately charged it up and synched it with my Amazon account. Actually it was already synched - Amazon preconfigures them. I connected it pretty easily to my home WiFi network (I have a prodigiously long, difficult password). I downloaded some new books and some old books. In a short period of time my Kindle was playing host to: Shakespeare's collected works Trollope's collected works Gulliver's Travels Pride and Prejudice Effective Java What Technology Wants ...and a few samples of other books. Thanks to Amazon's E-Ink technology the text is wonderfully easy to read, even in fairly dim light. This presbyopic reader is happy that the text size and spacing can be quickly changed, allowing me to adapt for reading with or without glasses. The Kindle always remembers the farthest point I've read to in e

Yesterday I posted an innocent question on my Facebook Wall: " I'm starting to think seriously about getting a Kindle . Anyone want to convince me (or dissuade me)?" This post drew more feedback than any single status update I've ever made on FB. First off, to those who responded - thanks very much for the feedback, I really appreciate it!  The feedback could be grouped in three rough categories: Buy one - they're great! Buy an iPad ! Oh my god, another useless electronic toy - paper books are so nice! (I'm simplifying here, and I don't want to disparage anyone's response!) I can deal with group 2 (the iPad group) fairly easily. I'm not seriously considering getting an iPad right now for a variety of reasons: It's too expensive I already have an iPod Touch , buying an iPad would remove a large part of its justification for existence (though I couldn't imagine using an iPad as a music player while jogging). It's too expensi

No, this post is not about fundamental issues of health insurance, merely an observation on a significant inefficiency at my private German insurer. I thought I had posted some info about the German health system in the past, but I see that isn't the case - definitely something I need to do. But not now. I just want to spout briefly on some annual madness at my German insurer, the LKH (Landeskrankenhilfe). The LKH actually provides me with excellent health coverage (at a fairly hefty price). On the rare occasions I've had to talk with a representative there they've been friendly and helpful. But they have an amazing systemic flaw. They offer a good deal to policy holders - if you only submit (i.e. mail in, it doesn't work online) bills at most twice a year, they give you a 5% rebate on your tariff for the next calendar year. Given current interest rates that's a decent yield, as long as you can finance your doctor visits and prescription drugs yourself for a six

No incisive political or cultural analysis this time, no typical Webber humor - just take a look over at the left side of the page. There's a new gadget there; if you enter your email address you'll be notified any time I publish something new (a few of my trusty readers already get a mail, because I added your address to a list by hand). I promise you won't be spammed (at least not by me), unless you consider my writings to be spam - but in that case you're probably not reading this.  Go ahead, add yourself to the list, share this with your friends (and enemies).

On June 30th Germany elected a new federal president (Bundespräsident in German). The 10th federal president of Germany is now Christian Wulff, 51, until now the prime minister of Lower Saxony, a German state. Christian Wulff is a member of the CDU (Christlich Demokratische Union). The media outside Germany have scarcely been aware of this event, yet it was accompanied by a great deal of drama in Germany. What happened? What's the role of the German president? Is there any wider significance? What does the German Federal President do? The German Federal President (I'll refer to the office as Bundespräsident from here out for simplicity) has a largely ceremonial office. Like the Queen of England, the Bundespräsident is the offical head of state. Like the Queen of England, most of his activities (there has not yet been a female Bundespräsident, who according to the rules of German grammar would be the Bundespräsidentin) are ceremonial - greeting foreign heads of state, giving

Introduction Instead of a chronological account of our time in Vienna I'm going to organize this by themes, in the hope that it will be more interesting and more useful (should anyone happen to find this blog). We landed at the Vienna airport Friday morning, and flew back out Monday evening, so we had nearly four full days to enjoy. I had only been here for a one-day business trip a year ago; Anja auditioned for some artists' agencies a number of years ago, but was only here for a day or two, and mostly concerned with singing, not with sightseeing. Our previous impressions were thus very limited. Our hotel, the Hotel-Pension Shermin Apartments proved an excellent choice. The room was modern, clean and relatively spacious, and most important – extremely quiet. The personnel was friendly and helpful. It's located only a five-minute walk from the subway station Karlsplatz, and directly next to a tram stop. Before our trip we ordered a Vienna Card for each of us online.

Stunning my readers by emerging from long silence, it's time to finally make another topical post. My nose and sinuses are nicely recovering from recent surgery (as my Facebook friends know), work is a bit quieter, and there are no looming concerts. So I thought I'd take advantage of all that to comment on the current world financial crisis, which revolves around the Euro . Not that I'm particularly well qualified to comment on financial matters. I mean, I read the Economist every week, and I possess a modest number of Euros in my bank account. But I didn't study economics or political science, I'm not one of the famous German "5 Wise Men of Economics" . I know, I should probably translate the name with "5 wise persons" - but unfortunately they've never had a female member. Anyway, you should take anything I say here cum grano salis , as they say. So anyway, at issue here is the fact that the Greeks are in a bit of a pickle because as a