Sankt Jakob

A tad bit unplanned I found myself driving down to Austria, to Sankt Jakob im Derfeggental (East-Tyrol) – one of my sons had broken his collar bone while snowboarding and I needed to pick him up.

Our new (company) car, a Fiat 500 Twin Air, was surprisingly comfortable during the long drive, for both of us, and I’m quite happy with the choice I made; fuel consumption was also quite reasonable.

Having said this, not being a mountain person, driving Felbertauernstrasse in a hurry is not fun. It’s beautiful, though.

IMG_20190417_094341

(View from Hotel Olympia, Sankt Jakob)

microXchg 2019

At the beginning of last week I was able to attend a conference on micro services in Berlin, microXchg 2019.

The conference took place in Kalkscheune, an events venue in a former industrial building near Friedrichstadtpalast.

The talks were a mix of in-depth workshop, regular sessions and lightning talks, spread over three parallel tracks.

Of the many talks I want to mention one, “Introduce kids to STEAM and reduce the gender gap” by Laura Luiz, discussing the progress being made by Hackdays4Girls.

Many thanks to the organizers at innoQ Deutschland GmbH – I learned a lot and will definitely come back!

IMG_20190401_104506 (1)

(Kalkscheune, break area)

Company Car

As of today, in addition to our Twizy, we now also have a (company) car – a Fiat 500 with the 85hp Twin Air engine.

Unfortunately it’s not electric, but it’s quite small and we’ve selected a model with really low CO2 emissions.

Hopefully next time the e.GO Life will be available for ordering (and leasing)!

EFFECTS-2

Smoking in rental cars

Smoking in a rental car or car sharing is more than just inconsiderate!

In the 21st century, smoking in public is no longer a socially accepted behavior, simply because it’s no longer ok to poison others.

I do not care what you do in your own home, or your own car – but do not leave your cigarette buds in something shared!

IMG_20190317_134639

(car2go, HH-GO 7850, 3/17/19)

GoDays 2019 in Berlin

This week we went to the GoDays in Berlin, a technical conference dedicated to Golang and the Gopher.

The conference had two tracks, full with great technical talks around developing in Go and running Go in public clouds or on Kubernetes; the keynote was delivered by Natalie Pistunovich (Fraudster) on The Importance of Beginners.

The organizer (Loovent) provided a great location with Factory Goerlitzer Park and went to great length to make sure that there was good food and ample opportunities for networking.

Highly recommended for 2020!

IMG_20190130_122027

Ford Kuga

This week’s car is a Ford Kuga ST-Line 4×4 EcoBoost (Ford Escape in the US); it’s a 4.5m by 2m behemoth and weighs almost 2 tons.

Clearly designed for suburbia, it’s not fun to drive in the inner city due to it’s long turns and poor maneuverability, and even less fun to park, as it’s wider and longer than most regular parking spaces. The interior though is very comfortable, with a high entry, very spacious seats and all assistance systems you could possibly think of.

It’s definitely a car that you can drive well into your 70s.

IMG_20190123_082135

Valencia

Over the weekend I spent time in Valencia, at the Mediterranean Sea, to attend a concert, but this will be a separate entry.

I was totally surprised at what great a city Valencia is! As a tourist and business traveler I have spent considerable time in Barcelona and Madrid, but never really in any other Spanish or Catalan city; this is definitely something that I’ll need to change in the future.

The Arts and Sciences complex in the old river bed of River Turia is an astonishing piece of architecture and the nearby opera has a first class auditorium; all waiting to be explored in more detail.

From the weekend I still have an image of the wonderful true blue sky in my heart and will definitely come back!

IMG_20190104_180218_789

St Johann im Pongau

This week we had the opportunity to be in St. Johann, a small city in the state of Salzburg in Austria and a prime skiing destination, to deliver a small workshop on Kubernetes and Rancher.

Although St. Johann is a very touristy destination, even outside of winter, prices were surprisingly low and the food was exceptionally good.

We’ll definitely try to come back!

IMG_0080_2