Musings

What a Wonderful World | Playing For Change from Playing For Change on Vimeo. This song never fails to bring tears to my eyes - specially not in a version like this (via vowe who linked to “Stand by me”)

Thanks to Lutz Korte I have a ADA MP-1 MIDI controlled Tube guitar pre amp on loan (to see if I like it). Unfortunately, the power chord is a fix installed german one, and I didn’t have the necessary connectors or tools handy to change it. But I opened it up and saw this wonderful electronics board (Pic will be replaced with an own picture as soon as I have better light) Pic: https://en.audiofanzine.com/guitar-preamp/ada/MP-1/medias/pictures/a.play,m.68494.html ...

Bitcoin is currently all the rage. The last few weeks saw an incredible rise in “value” (as seen by the exchange rate), a rise in problems (DDos against MtGox and Security Breaches at Instawallet and Bitcoin-Central) and loads of good and bad articles. Currently, the most important problem though, is another one. Hyperdeflation. The constant rise of the value of BTC vs “normal” currencies like EUR or USD makes it highly improbable, that people do anything else than hoard their coins. The reasoning is totally clear: The value of the BTC will be higher tomorrow than today, so it doesn’t make sense to use the BTC to actually buy anything. A currency that is not used to actually buy stuff is kind of useless (and not healthy for the whole ecosystem) ...

Incredible to not only see, but to work with Frank Doran Shihan, who is in Zurich the 25th time. It’s enlightening seeing a man that is 80 years old have so much energy and presence on the mat, with humour and joy. I have been to his seminars for 3 or 4 years now, and they are incredibly inspiring. Hopefully we will have the chance to have him as our guest for many more years to come. ...

It was Kickstarter payback day today (yet another one) and two black Pebbles arrived (I am still waiting for a red, a white and a gray one) First impressions (after half a day of wearing it): Bigger than expected Not as polished and small as an Apple product, but not bad - not bad at all - for an independent company The display is better than expected Communication with an iPhone 4 works relatively painless (seeing phone calls, messages and music control work) ...

Chengchen started his Mobino internship this week and he has been totally overwhelmed by all the information and complexity of the system he needs to learn. I believe that throwing him into the cold water head first is a good thing, and he has been holding up really nicely those last 3 days, helping with navigating while I was driving the pair programming. We will soon put him into the drivers seat as well. ...