Der Bioinformatiker

If you dislike the “default” windows desktop like I do (and simultaneously like the OS X desktop or even own a mac and want to have the same look and feel): FlyakiteOSX – Modify . Simplify . Aquafy [The Official Site] version 3.0 was released. Version 3.1 is announced for next week, so I’ll wait for the bugfix/update. I usually would try it, but the mentioned bug (something about an error with the bootscreen) sounds like a more severe problem. And since my laptop is really important for me and my emotional and mental well being (Maybe has something to do with skyping Elke), I won’t risk that by installing that buggy version.

I had the version 2 installed but had to remove it, because it interfered with the installer/control program for the UMTS card. So if you own such a thing, you may be extra careful. But the uninstaller is very thorough, if there are problems you simply revert to an earlier stage (you all have that nice WinXP feature running, don’t ya? – well, you should, it saved me from totally reinstalling the system many times).

I also had some interesting talks at work today, concerning my diploma; we are still not fully decided, if I will work on the “safe” or the “interesting” thing. Since the “safe” one is … well … safe, I have some time (approx. until end of January) to research about the “interesting” one. I really hope that I can get this to work. More details when I get the clearance from my group.

Today Andreas (another BIN student who worked at EMBL for the time of his internship) and I drove together to the nearby town of Sinsheim to visit the rather famous museum there. They got a Concorde there, as well as the russian counterpart by Tupolev (actually the first faster-than-sound plane to actually fly).

They even have a Delorean there. It is a really nice looking car, you even notice that special look of the body (brushed stainless steel, for those who don’t know). You can have a look at the rest of the pictures in the gallery (as usual).

We also found some very interesting books in the souveniershop there! It’s really fascinating!

Finally I don’t have to work today, I only have to spend some time with my books to prepare for an exam on 23rd. So I uploaded some pictures of Heidelberg and the castle-tour Elke and I took when she was here. I miss her.

I also found a nice “scientifically sound” paper about determining the length of a cat’s tongue. Read it, you won’t believe how long they are! (And yes, it’s funny too!)

… although only 2 centimetres which fell last night. And it’s horribly icy here because it only has 0°C. I hope that I can find some spare time today to stitch together some more pictures and upload them to the gallery. And maybe I can even write a longer blog entry for once.

I tried autostitch again, here is the result of  not even 5 minutes of work: my room.

I just klicked together a panorama picture of Heidelberg using autostitch (windows). This nice little program is surprisingly easy to use, you don’t have to align anything, just specify the pictures.

Unfortunately, we have no snow here…

Yesterday was my first day at work again. As I wrote earlier, I started my work on the diploma thesis at the EMBL, in the Frangakis Group. My first task was to run around in the building to visit various people there to register myself. Later, I started to read some papers and a PhD thesis to get some insight into the field. I left work at 19:00 hours. Later on, I even got Skype working and had a nice chat with Elke. More to come when I find some time to write…

GangMan wrote a nice article about the new version of Wordpress, so I upgraded my blog too. The (few) new features worked at once (I never activated the Tiger Administration, because the new Admin interface does “it” for me). Thanks for the lazy gallery fix to nos, ff0 and GangMan!

I just recieved news that Voipbuster now offers free dial-in-numbers in Austria. I know this sounds like a paid ad, but I really like this idea:

Neu! Gratis VoipIn Nummer für alle Österreichische Voipbuster Nutzer!

Besuchen Sie http://www.voipbuster.com/en/buycredits.html. Fragen Sie eine GRATIS Österreichische VoipIn Nummer an. Achten Sie darauf, dass sie dafür über ein Guthaben verfügen müssen.
Mit einer VoipIn Nummer kann jeder – auch Leute die Voipbuster nicht nutzen – Sie auf dem Voipbuster erreichen.

Bei Skype zahlen Sie 30 Euro pro Jahr für eine VoipIn Nummer, bei Voipbuster bekommen Sie die Nummer GRATIS!

All you need is a one time 10 Euro deposit, that you can use to call later on, and you get free calls (landlines only, no mobiles, but for that you can use your 10 Euros) to Argentina, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States as well as a call in number for those who have no computer available and want to call you nonetheless.

I must admit, if I had to pay 10 Euros, I would also think about it twice, but when I subscribed, it was only 1 Euro

—— UPDATE ——
I just found another Page, which uses the same system (at least the same client, although with a more agressive color scheme, as well as the same database): VoipStunt. They seem to be based in Germany, not in Swizerland like the VoipBuster, and they offer free calls to more contries.