From the monthly archives:

November 2005

Buzz Me Not

30 November 2005

Dave points to a device that emits a sound teenagers can’t stand, but older adults don’t notice that might keep kids from hanging out in front of convenience stores. But does it work better than classical music?

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Snow Day

26 November 2005

Snow in the backyard.

Christopher didn’t want to miss it.

Neither did the cat. (5 minutes later she returned with a mouse.)

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Is is just me or is Bloglines not grabbing feeds?

25 November 2005

Or maybe nobody is posting today.

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Fire The Admins!

25 November 2005

Sometimes it pays to read those spam-bounce messages

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Performance Increase

25 November 2005

Database tuning at blogg.de/blogstats.de

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Google at the Border

24 November 2005

Be careful what you put in your weblog. US Customs and Border Security may not be reading it now, but they may check Google when you try to enter the country, and you might be refused entry.

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A Blog Named PapaTech

24 November 2005

I’ve moved all my tech-related posts to a separate weblog

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Hamsters on the Autobahn

23 November 2005

Today on the way to judo Christopher started singing the Radio Hamburg jingle… and we weren’t even listening to Radio Hamburg. He then said he wanted to be a radio announcer, and proceeded to give a traffic report. On the Autobahn 7 traffic was being held up by hamsters on the roadway, and the police [...]

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Blogstats down, will be back

23 November 2005

We don’t seem to have made an official announcement, but I can say that the ‘back soon’ sign at blogstats.de is not a message of disaster or impending doom. We reorganized the database, and it took longer than we thought. The database is done, the code just has to be adjusted, and I’m sure the [...]

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Did I mention I love Bruce Springsteen?

19 November 2005

Did I mention I love Bruce Springsteen?

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Deer and people clash in Minnesota

19 November 2005

CNN.com – Deer and people clash in Minnesota, right in St. Paul, since in urban areas there are no predators and no hunting. Too many deer is a problem around here too, although it hasn’t been as bad the past few years thanks to the unseasonably cold winters.

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Born to Run DVD

16 November 2005

Thanks, Haiko, message received.

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Flowers, anyone?

14 November 2005

I shouldn’t try to read before I’ve had my coffee. I see that FTD is to start blogging, and I wonder what blogging has to do with flowers. But wait, of course, ftd.de is something completely different, the Finanacial Times Deutschland, and has nothing to do with cheesey TV ads with Merlin Olsen.

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Reichstag in November

13 November 2005

We took a quick trip to Berlin this weekend. Mama had a fundraising gala to attend, and we brought Oma along as a babysitter. The next morning Christopher took us to the Dome atop the Reichstag.

We took some pictures (slideshow).

<div><a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/papascott/62719017/in/set-1354517/” title=”berlin1105-1″ class=”thumb_link” id=”set_thumb_link_62719017″><img src=”http://static.flickr.com/25/62719017_1f8687a921_s.jpg” alt=”berlin1105-1″ width=”75″ [...]

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Moon Mission

8 November 2005

Before going to bed, Christopher decided to take a quick trip to the moon. Here he is in his spacesuit.

Here you can see his backpack with oxygen supply. The flag was Mama’s idea.

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PapaScott on Rails

4 November 2005

PapaScott on Rails. An experiment. About time I start checking out this Ruby on Rails fad…

Actually, getting Rails and FastCGI to work at my hoster wasn’t all that tough. And as for typo, there’s a few issues to deal with after converting the WordPress database, but I could make it work if I wanted to. [...]

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Things An American Can’t Do In Germany: Get a Official ID Card

4 November 2005

When you move to Germany, one of the things you have to get over is registering your address with the authorities, the Einwohnermeldeamt. Yes, it’s evil, but probably less evil than (like in the States) having your credit information available for anyone to buy. And there once you’ve opened a checking account, obtained a [...]

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Radical Trim

3 November 2005

We just trimmed our wild roses down to the ground and had several trees removed, and we’ve discovered things in our backyard that we had forgotten we had. Like natural light. And neighbors.

Update: Here are a couple of ‘before’ pictures that show how high the roses were. They grow like weeds, so in a year [...]

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Things An American Can’t Do In Germany: Open An Account with Fidelity

3 November 2005

We’ve had an ongoing problem with our finances the past few years. Our lifestyle just hasn’t been keeping pace with our (or, more correctly, her) income. We can’t manage to spend the money that comes in during a normal month, much less keep up with the bonuses and stock options that seem to regularly turn [...]

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