LIFE

No good deed goes unpunished

Sven Krumrey

She needs help so desperately she draw a sign

I recently saw a woman get interviewed on TV about her son-in-law. What kind of a person he was, if they were getting along and whether she approved of her daughter's choice. After an agonizingly long pause she remarked:"Well, he knows his way around computers. That can come in handy." That's the good thing about knowing your way around computers. At least you can make yourself useful every once in a while, forget about character. Computer specialists are the unsung heroes even if all they do is reboot a machine, terminate a process or perform a Flash update. Savor these moments because there's a (incredibly annoying) downside to all of this!

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TECH

Print with champagne and save money

Sven Krumrey

The less expensive alternative: fountains of champagne

Some business models never cease to amaze me. In Japan, it's possible to book vacation trips for your stuffed animals, vacation photos included. And "Hangover Helpers" in the US will help you get back into shape and clean up your place after a night of partying. And you can rent a tank as taxi in St. Petersburg for maximum side-impact protection. Here's an even crazier idea, why not make cars incredibly cheap and charge premium prices for gasoline? Agreed, that's preposterous, or is it?

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TECH

S.M.A.R.T. - Outsmarted by hard disks

Sven Krumrey

Danger ahead!

I break out a sweat whenever one of those warning lights comes on in my car. How about you? Even if it was only signaling a loose ashtray it'd still drive me mad. But these lights are supposed to warn us of imminent danger. And it worked, I knew with absolute certainty that my ancient BMW was done. But that's another story, this one's about computers.

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TECH

2 minute tech: Cookies

Sven Krumrey

Still the best cookies

You too have cookies! Don't panic. Learn more about the role cookies play on your machine here.

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LIFE

The biodiversity of social networks

Sven Krumrey

Meet mr. know it all

Do you like humans? Every human? Kudos to anyone who can answer yes to both questions! A friend of mine postulated that 50% of humanity is made up of disgruntled individuals, an extreme view, admittedly. But it's feasible, especially when you take a closer look at social networks. What was originally a meeting place for nerds has become a representative cross-section of our society, pros and cons notwithstanding. Still, it's quite easy to figure out what type of person you're dealing with....

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