Whew, am I thrilled to pay taxes in a country which won’t be “BAILING OUT” a car-manufacturer
    - because Switzerland has no car-manufacturers of its own.
I feel downright betrayed when I hear that the U.S. government will not permit any of the major three car-manufacturers to go into bankruptcy.  These enterprises should die a good [...]

For the first half of this week I was in Friedrichshafen, Germany with my boss at a seminar.  We brought our digital projector (”beamer”) in order to go through some slides with our colleagues.  However, Swiss and German power outlets are different:

Swiss Power Outlet

German (European) Power outlet.
Unfortunately we forgot to bring a power adaptor.  My boss, [...]

I am really digging Stuart Noggle’s emergency workspace:
http://www.zooomr.com/photos/snoggle/1132688
Although I don’t know why he insists on brandishing it an “emergency” workspace.  That could very well be a permanent workspace, dismantling it for extra space when guests are around.  And if you have to disappear overnight (all you fugitives out there know this) then you can get [...]

I’ve been moving apartment for the past few weeks, packing, repacking, jettisoning kit, repeat. Ikea furniture is quite terrible for non-drivers, its heavy, often one-time use, and in switzerland its difficult to get rid of.
Swiss apartments often have built in cabinetry and closets with shelves in the walls.  This makes purchasing bookshelves and clothing closets [...]

Americans (and perhaps other English-speakers) have the saying,
“There are only two certainties in life: taxes and death.”
This is quite appropriate, but for most of us, paying rent or a mortgage, and thus employment are further chapters in this long saga of necessary evils.  Unfortunately, full-time gainful employment robs us of a quarter of our life, or half of [...]

Had a great weekend in that worldly city of Berlin. Flew back, and checked out the weather greeting me on the tarmac. To the left, France and the rest of Europe. To the right, Switzerland!

Its a drag buying a laptop which is obsolete in X years and whose hardware is impossible to upgrade. 
A step in-between a laptop and a desktop is to buy a small desktop, a flat-screen and the typical external components (along with the indispensible external harddrive), and pack into a suitcase.  The only thing potentially ‘missing’ is a battery [...]

Gather around the glow of this campfire and hear yet more of uncle willnillchen’s tales on the greyhound bus.
I used to travel Greyhound to the tune of $40 and 18h roundtrip between Pittsburgh and Washington DC. Back in my first two years of college. Its a great price but takes a toll on [...]

gather round the campire kids cos uncle willchen has another harrowing tale of transportation in the u.s.of.hey. 
back in my very first college i had to travel about 250 miles between my college and washington d.c. about once every 6mos.  they shut down the dorms see, so i had to go back “home”, or at least [...]

Belgium was the plan for last weekend.  Beautiful beautiful Belgium.  My plans were shakey and almost non-existant, but who needs plans when the destination is as surprising as Belgium!?! 
I could stare at this map of Belgium forever.  It makes me dizzy, the possibilities.  Its posted on the wall of every Belgian rail station and it [...]