I've got a new job. I'm now working for Intevation, a very small but growing free software company. I'm actually their first real employee. It also means that the other Bernhard is now my boss :-).
I've already been working on my first project for the last few weeks. It's a web-based mapping application called MapIt!.
Unfortunately, this project also means that I don't have as much time for Sketch or the Vectorgraphics-Foundry as I would like at the moment.
HHLUG
The second day of the HHLUG install party on Sunday (September 10th) was very much like the first (see my previous entry), although we did more installations. One problem with the location was that we hadn't access to a phone line, neither analog nor ISDN, so we couldn't check whether the new linux users would be able to connect to the internet. Well, that's something to do better next time.
Oldenburger Linuxtag
Together with the other Bernhard I went to the Oldenburger Linuxtag this weekend. We had two and a half posters. One was about the FreeGIS Project and the other was about software patents and the petition against software patents in Europe (If you haven't signed it yet, please do so now). Both attracted quite a few people. Many signed the petition, especially after Georg Greve (of Brave GNU World fame) mentioned it in his talk.
The "half" poster was a smaller Sketch poster that managed to attract some visitors too and I got to demonstrate Sketch or answer questions few times.
The whole event was bigger than I had expected. The exhibition space was bigger than at last year's Bremer Linuxtag, and I think there were more visitors, but Alan Cox did draw quite a crowd last year with his keynote.
One of the most prominent attendents was Wichert Akkerman, who allegedly played moonbuggy the whole weekend. I can confirm that he did play moonbuggy and all the time I saw what he was doing at his computer he played moonbuggy, so that rumor must be true. :-)
Films and Books
Saw X-Men, Being John Malkovich and Titan A.E. recently. X-Men was entertaining but not really something you have to have seen. At least I saw the original version and not some localized German one.
Being John Malkovich OTOH, is hilarious. I saw it in English too, although it had German subtitles. I find subtitles irritating. Most of the time, I've got a reflex (sort of) to read them even when I understand the soundtrack quite well. If you read the subtitles you don't have time to actually watch the movie because your eyes are fixed on the text and can't take in the visuals of the scenes themselves. Luckily, this time I somehow managed to somehow block them out completely after a few minutes.
Titan A.E. was an interesting mix of hand-drawn animation and computer graphics. AFAICT, there wasn't an English version shown here in Hamburg, so I saw a German translation.
Saw Iain M. Banks' new Culture novel Look to Windward in a bookshop a couple of weeks ago. 36DM are a bit steep for a paperback, if you ask me. I think I'll wait until I find it cheaper elsewhere or on the internet. OTOH, I found his The Business for 21DM on Monday morning in Oldenburg before I took the train back to Hamburg.
Another book I've bought (and read) recently is the paperback of The Fifth Elephant which is already available here in Germany in some bookstores even though it's not available in the UK until early November. Heh.