2024 No Internet, no computers

 Japan, 2024.

In a PTA meeting at school on the hunt for volunteers (always a struggle, 'cause everyone is busy), one parent asks: "Would I have to use a PC or the Internet [in my role as a volunteer]?" The person in charge does waves her hands and does the 🙅‍♀️sign and replies: "Oh, no. We don't do that sort of thing here. We don't use Computers." "OK, under those circumstances I sign up as a volunteer", the questioner replies.

Here is the thing. I could be sh*tting on this by pointing out that this was at a Technical High School, where our next generation of engineers is supposed to be educated.

BUT

There is actually a point to it. I can only speak for Japan, because it's the only environment I am exposed to, but everything related to Internet and PC is just plain pain. Every web service is frankly utter sh*t, that randomly does not work with whatever hard or software you have or just randomly is down for maintenance during the day, or what else not. Even if you manage to seemingly get something working, it might just randomly fail, log you out, make you start over, etc. Also the way most companies here treat anything web is just right outright ridiculous. There is always a ton of fine-print and somewhere in it, it usually says something like "Whatever is displayed on the terminal, is not what is real. The binding contract will be send by letter/fax/email and is the binding part". So why would you do that to yourself? Exactly!

So what I learned that day is, that next time I will be asked to volunteer to do anything, I will also ask if there is any involvement with PC and/or Internet and if so, I will politely decline.

google reader repacement

So now Google closes it's reader soon - great. Just the app that I use the most, but I stop whining.
Sadly, there are no decent alternatives. I tried

feedly:

• doesn't work together well with vimperator, so that's already a show stopper.

newsblur

• in the free version can only read 20 or so feeds
• much too slow

netvibes

• is just so much too much than what I need.

I don't know where to go from here - there are still a couple of months time before google reader is switched off. Maybe I just switch back to a plain old non-synced RSS-Reader.

Features I need:

• android app, that is light and has some caching, so that it works in the subway (I use reader mostly during my commute
• web page or browser plugin that plays ball with FF/vimperator 

Shooting yourself in the foot with "carriage return"

Just today somebody had a problem with a file that he "could not cat", but less worked. The reason was that the file had only a carriage return at the end of the only line.

Here's an example how to reproduce:

> echo -en "bla\r" > bla2
> cat bla2
> od -c bla2
0000000 b l a \r
0000004

Very lazy way of installing Internet Explorer on Ubuntu

For various bad reasons I need to sometimes use Internet Explorer. The easiest way to set it up on Ubuntu is via a tool called "PlayOnLinux". Just install the package and then install IE using that tool, it will take care of all the special wine settings and dependencies. Quite neat.

March 14th (Mon)

After watching the news and taking a look at the station in the morning, I figured, that it would be very hard to get to work, so I took the day off. I didn't really feel like walking long distances again, as my legs still hurt a bit.

At the same time more and more bad news from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant came in, so we where quite worried. The situation there was totally out of control and when I noticed that my neighbors where leaving I thought it might be a good idea to also leave.

So we packed our things – mostly stuff for the kids. These vacuum sealed storage bags we bought at Costco previously proved very useful. Luckily I now have quite a big car and managed to get everything in.

At this point my plan was to go to Kyushu or Osaka and send my wife and kids to Germany.

Once I left my home, I noticed that the traffic was completely stuck. I waited 4 phases at the traffic light to route 16 and figured it might be best to take another route.

So I took the small country route via route 299 to Chichibu and from there to Yamanashi. Roads where OK, but gasoline was sold out everywhere. At the few places that still had gasoline there where huge lineups (also blocking the traffic).

I drove quite fuel saving and my tank was full, but still I was worried. In Yamanashi I refueled at a tiny fuel station that was still open. I only used about 10 liters, which is not bad for such a big van, fully loaded through the mountains (~140km).

From Yamanashi it was quite a relaxing drive on the highway. The only thing I noticed was, that everyone was going really slowly and fuel conserving, which is really unusual here (Normally it's a hard race for position).

When the fuel needle reached ¾ I pulled in at the next gas station, mostly because I wanted to make sure that there is fuel. Turned out that fuel was limited to 10L per car, so I was glad I refueled early as it was still a long way.

Somewhere after Osaka we took a coffee break and I skyped with my parents. They suggested that I should stay in Osaka, because there is a German consulate in Osaka and none in Kyushu. So I googled for a hotel for the next day.

The combination of Google maps and car navigation is quite good – even though the hotel is in the middle of the city, in some small side-street, I had no trouble finding it, even at night. We had to wait until the next morning (it was already past midnight), so I drove around to find a place where I could rest. That was a tough night, because of the kids who had slept well and where now up and wanted to play.

March 13th (Sun)

Not much happening on Sunday. Just watching the news and some shopping. My kids where playing earthquake with their toy house made out of an old box. News came in about the planned power cuts from Monday and I began to wonder how I should ever make it to work. Everything was quite normal on Sunday.

March 12th (Sat)

Woke up at around 7:00 and after a bit of internet reading (first time I used an IPad for real btw.. not bad) I figured that maybe I could take a bus from Omiya to Kawagoe.
At the station I quickly checked whether the Kawagoe-sen would resume service soon, but the Eki-in said it might take a long time, so I went to search for the bus. Luckily there is a Bus to Kawagoe Green Park, which passes by Minami-Furuya, which is just one JR train stop from home, so not to far of a distance. So I took the bus and then walked from after where route 16 passes the Arakawa river to home.
I arrived home at around 10:00. Since I had to do my weekly weekend shopping I thought it's better to get done with it quickly, before it starts to get crowded, so I quickly took a bath and grabbed my car and bought the usual stuff. On my way back I refilled my car and noticed that gasoline stations are starting to get crowded, so I decided it would be best not to use the car unless emergency.  So I continued my shopping by Mamachari.
Besides that not much happened, we watched the news, called home etc. At that point I did not have any plan of leaving Kawagoe. Of course we where worried about the news from the various nuclear power plants, but it did not seem to be too bad.