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 ...

I can't believe I haven't posted anything here since early October. Well, I've been very busy at work, and preparing for the song recital on December 4th (which was very successful). I posted a couple of mp3's from that over at the usual place , - for now just the Beethoven sonata I played (Op. 90 in E minor), maybe later some of the songs, if Anja agrees to let me post them. I will try to post a few things here in the near future, but no promises. I guess I do owe some sort of Christmas letter, though with my vacation reports over the past year, it will probably be shorter than the past couple of years.

Last weekend Anja and I took a four-day vacation to Belgium. "Belgium?" you might say. "Such a small country - what can there possibly be to see and do there?" "Isn't that where Hercule Poirot was from?" Yes, Virginia, Belgium is a small place, and that's where the mythical detective was from. But there's an awful lot to do and see there. I was in Ghent briefly on a business trip in April, and I liked what I saw so much that we booked a holiday weekend shortly thereafter. The flight from Munich to Ghent takes only slightly more than an hour; the plane is mostly full with business travelers. Ghent itself doesn't have an airport, it's a 50-minute train ride from the Brussels airport. We stayed at the Hotel Flandria Centrum , a small, inexpensive but cozy hotel. Americans used to large rooms and modern facilities might not care for it, but we found the owners friendly, our room was quiet and clean, the breakfast was excellent, and ther...

OK, this post is shameless advertising for Jentro's newest mobile application ( Jentro is my employer, for those who didn't know). foxNav is a mobile navigation application which has just been uploaded to the Android Market for the UK and the BlackBerry App World (also for the UK and Ireland). I know most of my legions of readers are in the USA; sorry, a US version is not immediately in the cards, but could come in the future. Other European releases are planned for the near future, as is a version for Windows Mobile smartphones. You need to have one of the supported BlackBerry models (with GPS) or an Android phone (currently HTC Dream, HTC Magic, Samsung Galaxy or HTC Hero) to use it today. So what does the application do? Here's the quote from our description in the BB App World: foxNav turns your BlackBerry phone into an advanced GPS navigation system. - Vehicle and Pedestrian navigation. - Automatic up-to-date NAVTEQ map material included at no extra char...

After breakfast we had the unpleasant surprise of no electricity. The whole B & B was dark; judging by Alessandro's reaction this must be a common occurrence. He didn't offer us any assistance at all. We were just about finished packing, and there was enough light from outside to finish. But it seems that the water pump is electric; there was enough water in the pipes to flush the toilet once. We brushed our teeth and washed our hands with mineral water. To be sure, Alessandro (our host) offered to bring us a pot of water, but after waiting many minutes for this to materialize we improvised, using the light from the open door and the white screen of my navigation device. Summary of Il Gallo felice - a pretty but small room, beautiful garden, good breakfast, but the host was rather strangely withdrawn. With loads of time to kill before our flight we stopped in Locorotondo near Martina Franca. Another hot day that soon had us wilting. After refreshing ourselves with a caff...

On our last full day here, I wanted to do something more outdoorsy, despite the threatened heat. One highlight we had missed was the archaeological excavation at Egnazia near Monopoli , a city with Bronze Age roots that ceased to exist in the Middle Ages after being sacked by a variety of enemies. The site consists of a museum, the necropolis with graves from the Bronze Age up till Roman times: and the partially excavated Roman and early Christian era city. Especially amusing was the sign in one corner of the park to the effect that snake repellent had been applied, but visitors should be careful nonetheless. We didn't see a snake, but dozens of lizards. To recover from the heat we looked for a beach along the coast, a few hundred meters away. Here we relaxed for most of the afternoon before heading back to the Gallo to get cleaned up for a 'fancy' dinner at Ciacco , a restaurant highly praised in our travel guide. On my second snorkel of the day I saw a good-sized...

I started this day with a somewhat upset stomach; Anja was feeling just fine, although we ate exactly the same thing the night before. Perhaps one of my clams or mussels was past its sell-by date, or maybe it was the water in our B & B, which had a strange, oily smell. In any case we drank only bottled water for the remainder of our stay at the Gallo Felice. After I decided I wasn't going to die, we drove to Ostuni , a town of about 32,000 quite close to Martina Franca. Like most of the towns here, it has a long an illustrious history. Today it is known as "The white city", the reason for which is apparent as one approaches from any direction (see the photo on my previous post). We found a place to park for a modest fee in the newer part of town, and headed on foot to the old town. We found the old town quickly and without difficulty, arriving at the square near the town hall with a spectacular statue of the patron saint, San Oronzo: After a cappuccino we got rea...

Writing this in Munich, where it's been raining all day and the temperature is only 55° at 3:30 PM, really brings home how great this vacation was! On Sunday, June 14th we took leave of Conca Marco; grandmother Palumbo, who runs the place with three of her sons, was very kind. We very much enjoyed the stay at the Villa Conca Marco; the only thing we'd complain about was the mattress, which was hard as granite. We slept OK, but every night had the feeling as we slept (and woke) that our backs were slowly cramping. Off to Martina Franca ! The drive took about one and a half hours; my Tom-Tom didn't find the best route. Along the way we were rewarded with a spectacular view of Ostuni, which we would visit the following day. Finding the B & B ( Il Gallo felice) was a bit hard; it was located on a local road to the southwest of the town, and there wasn't a sign or anything. But find it we did, and the room was quite nice, if rather small. But our room was actu...

Today was pretty much a lazy day, as I indicated in the previous post we were starting to get worn out with sightseeing. We went to the beach in the morning, but there was a cool, stiff northeast wind and it was so choppy that we didn't even go into the water. The kitesurfers were having a great time, though, and we enjoyed watching them. Around five we drove back to Otranto , where we were determined to have dinner in the pizzeria mentioned in a previous post (bet you thought I forgot). At 7 PM we were the first patrons, but it quickly filled up, mostly with Italians (always a good sign). We both ordered a green salad and a pizza. The pizzas were very cheap, around 5-6 €. We noticed that others were ordering a half pizza; the reason became clear when our pizzas came; they were enormous, but delicious. I stupidly insisted on finishing mine, which I paid for with a very full stomach that made it difficult to get to sleep later. By the way, searching diligently we found a bookstor...

OK, I'll keep this one relatively brief. At this point in the trip we were starting to get overwhelmed by the many delightful towns and villages in remote southeastern Italy. Today we drove to Gallipoli , a coastal town of about 20,000 to the west of Lecce . I have no idea if the name has anything to do with the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, site of an infamous campaign in World War I. I'll leave that as an exercise for the savvy reader (please report back if you learn anything). Gallipoli is yet another BST (Beautiful Seaport Town), as you can see here: The town is on a narrow peninsula, and has the typical narrow alleys of all these BSTs . So narrow in fact, that it was impossible to get a decent photo of the facade of the cathedral: We were especially impressed by the facades of many houses here, not only the typical variations on white, there were many colorful buildings: After our picnic lunch, custom made in a butcher shop, we headed back east via Lecce ....

The day began at the beach, but it was windy, the surf was up, and snorkeling wasn't possible. After a shower back at the ranch we drove a half hour down the coast to the wonderful historic town Otranto . The town has a natural harbor that was used by early Greek seafarers, around 700 B.C. they founded the town Hydrus here, which later under the Romans was called Hydruntum. I guess you can see how Hydruntum became Otranto; it helps if you pronounce both as if you had your mouth full. As usual in those parts, the town passed through many hands in the course of the centuries. In 1480 an event happened which left its mark on Otranto's history like the Chicago fire or the San Francisco earthquake. The town was attacked by a Turkish fleet with 90 galleys, 40 cargo ships and 18,000 soldiers. After a two-week siege Otranto was captured. 800 men who had fled to the cathedral and refused to convert to Islam were beheaded. That's all far in the past, but I'll show you a few thing...

Well, if I'm going to finish this travelogue before our next ski vacation I'd better get cracking. On the other hand, I know Goethe didn't publish his experiences travelling in Italy on the next day (seems like almost every little town in Northern Italy has a sign saying "Goethe slept here"). But I digress. What was going on back in Puglia? On our first morning way in the south of Puglia we drove to Lecce after a simple breakfast (the usual croissant and cappuccino). I picked a location on the edge of the old town that was supposed to have ample parking, and my TomTom took us there reliably. It was another hot day, unfortunately the parking lot didn't have any shade. Oh well, at least it was cheap and gave the impression that no one would be breaking into cars there. Of course, we didn't leave anything in the car! Lecce is worth a trip. A city of about 100,000 inhabitants, and the capital of the eponymous province. It's history goes back into pre-R...

We hit the road after a breakfast that included freshly squeezed OJ from Sicilian oranges and fresh cherries from the trees of our landlady. The traffic on the four lane highway was light. We left the highway after Brindisi to have more scenery. We stopped for a cappuccino in San Cataldo, a small seaside village, in a tiny joint that had numerous old photos which seemed to glorify Mussolini. Very bizarre! The Italians have never come to terms with their past as well as the Germans have. We arrived at the Villa Conca Marco around 11:30, the reception was very friendly. A welcome change from Il Casale dei Fornici! After unpacking we headed for the beach. Conca Marco has a semi-private beach with free use of lounge chairs and umbrellas for its guests. Also Heineken on tap (not free, alas). We spent several hours there, swimming, sunning and snorkeling , then came home to shower up. Conca Marco is located in the midst of olive groves and fruit trees; they were just putting the fin...