What a weekend!

Let’s recap what happened last weekend:

  • Brazil elected a right-wing extremist for President
  • Eleven were killed in the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue
  • After the election in Hesse, Chancellor Merkel will not seek re-election
  • IBM bought (or wants to buy) Red Hat

Things that didn’t happen:

  • Horst Seehofer announcing his resignation
  • SPD leaving the coalition government

All hopes are now on the outcome of the midterm election in the US, and on SUSE.

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Presidential Election Brazil 2018

Losing an election in Democracy is absolutely normal. It’s [a] part [of democracy]. The serious problem is to lose Democracy in an election. It would be tragic. Let’s turn [it around]!

Tweet by Carlos Minc in support of Fernando Haddad

#HaddadPresidente #ViradaComHaddad

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Rancher 2.1.1

A couple of days ago Rancher have released Rancher version 2.1.1 as latest and stable

Rancher v2.1 introduced new improvements to Kubernetes cluster operations and app management, as well as a migration path for users moving from Rancher’s Cattle orchestrator introduced in 1.x to Rancher Kubernetes.

You can also use Rancher 2.x to quickly set-up managed clusters in a hosted Kubernetes provider, such as Google GKE.

The following Kubernetes providers are supported in Rancher 2.1:

  • Google GKE (Google Container Engine)
  • Amazon EKS (Elastic Container Service)
  • Microsoft AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service)

Rancher 1.6 to 2.1 Migration documentation

Release Notes

Rancher 2.1.1

 

One-pedal driving

Today I had to go to Bonn, to Deutsche Post/DHL, and finally found a BMW i3 nearby; from Drive Now, one of my favorite car sharing companies.

I selected the appropriate hourly package, and off we went – boy, is that car fun to drive!

The i3 was set to one-pedal driving and maximum recuperation (It was the first time for me in an i3, so I have no idea whether that’s the default setting or came from the previous driver)

In one-pedal mode, the ‘gas’ pedal is no longer linked to the power you send to the engine, but to the car’s forward motion. In this mode, there is no coasting, you keep the pedal in the same position to maintain speed. And if you (abruptly) take you foot off, the car will (abruptly) brake and come to a full stop. It took me a mile, or so, to get used to it, but once I got the hang of it, it felt like the perfect way to drive smoothly.

The i3’s dashboard shows everything you need to know about power consumption and after a while if becomes really fun to drive as energy-efficient as possible. The dashboard could be a bit less stark though – why not make driving energy efficient a game and reward drivers with new cars for the navigation system?

Enough talk, here’s Madeleine:

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(Drive Now name all their cars)

 

Facebook page redesign

As part of the general overhaul of my social media presences, triggered by the untimely demise of Google+, I’ve also redesigned my Facebook page.

Rather than posting a link to the video on YouTube, as I did in the past, I’ve now decided to upload the original video to Facebook too – the page layout thus becomes much cleaner and I can place my videos in a more prominent space.

It’s double the effort, and probably not good for YouTube statistics and analytics, but  maybe it helps finding a broader audience for my creations.

Have a look and let me know what you think – Thank you!

Chris

Google+ to Pluspora

Although it’s still 10 months I’ve decided to move my Google+ activities now to Pluspora, a Diaspora* pod created for former Plussers.

Pluspora was created by Di Cleverly and her partner David, “to have a safe place where the Plus community can be preserved”

I’ve transferred the last weeks of Google+ posts, so that the profile does not look completely empty and will try to (re-)build meaningful interactions and relationships on the new platform.

YouTube and Instagram won’t change, neither will  my Facebook page.

I’ll continue to hang around in Google+, maybe even explore MeWe, as a number of communities are moving there, haven’t decided yet.

To all fellow Plussers: See you at Pluspora!

Chris

Diaspora* Pod Feeder

During my move away from Google+ I came across a nifty utility by Brian O Donnell (rev138):

pod_feeder

From the Readme:

Publishes RSS/Atom feeds to Diaspora*

This is a lightweight, customizable “bot” script to harvest RSS/Atom feeds and re-publish them to the Diaspora social network. It is posted here without warranty, for public use.

It’s quite helpful, I think, in that you don’t have to start from scratch by taking the last posts with you.

Highly recommended!

 

Chris

HP 35s Pocket Calculator

As part of my first calculus class we were told that we’d need a pocket calculator.

Wait – can’t my phone do that?

There’s something endearing nostalgic about the universities’ insistence on a calculator, and they are in good company with my kids’ school.

My last calculator was an HP 16C, I used it during the first years of my professional life to do bit shift operations, and Hex/Octal calculations; I still have it, alas, it does not have basic calculus functions, such as log(). Time for a new one!

The HP16C uses RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) which makes for super fast and efficient calculations. HP seems to not make any RPN devices anymore, most likely because it’s not taught in school anymore and the customer base is aging out.

Amazon to the rescue! A number of shops had the HP 35s (Model year 2015) in new and original condition for a very reasonable price, and one of them is now mine:

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Monday we’ll have calculus again, can’t wait!

 

Chris

Starting a diet

In addition to starting University again on Monday, I also decided to start working on loosing weight.

Together with my GP, Dr. Fevci Cebe, I’ll start a medically supervised diet of the low-carb variety. Did I mention that I love Pasta?

Not on the menu for the next couple of weeks . Smile

Wish me luck!

Chris

First day at University

Today was my first day at University, and also the end of the first part of my journey from being a salaryman to becoming a creator.

Very special day for me, I didn’t really focus on the equipment, so there’s some really shaky bits it the video and also some poor sound – but with all ‘first’ and ‘unique’ moments, there’s no way to reshoot. Well.

Tomorrow is another day, for today this has to suffice

#054 – First Day at University (E)

Enjoy!

 

Chris