In the Alps with Ethan

Ethan arrived last Tuesday morning, and we’ve already had a full week. He hung out with me on Tuesday, saw Luzern on Wednesday, went to the Rhein Falls on Thursday, and took a walking tour of Zürich on Friday.

Saturday after lunch we caught the train to Lausanne, and then a connecting train back along the lake to Montreux. There, we saw Steely Dan in concert and met some of the band members backstage after the show. I had a nice chat with Jim Pugh, Steely Dan’s talented trombonist. We also met and visited with some of the guys from Dave Matthews Band and Chickenfoot. At one point, I took out my U.S. flag (that I always have on hand for just such an occasion), and draped it around my shoulders, Stephen Colbert-style. My patriotism caught Sammy Hagar’s attention, and he stopped to chat with me for a while. At his invitation, I even took part in Chickenfoot’s pre-show huddle. Cool! You rock, Sammy! It was a great Fourth of July.

Sunday we caught the train to Interlaken and then another train, bus, and cable car up to Gimmelwald, where we spent the night. We’re staying in Hotel Mittaghorn, a charming place just ten minutes’s walk uphill from the cable car station. Today we’ll take a nice long hike—either up to Schilthorn, or perhaps down into the river valley below Gimmelwald.

I left my USB cable at home in Zollikon, so I haven’t been able to upload any photos yet. But if I can, I’ll buy or borrow a cable soon. So with luck photos will be online within a couple of days.

Nordiska Spring Party

_MAL4638, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Oh yeah—did I mention that I went to the Nordiska Roddförening Spring Party a few weeks ago? It was a lot of fun.

Google Wave

At the Google I/O conference this week, Google gave a preview of Google Wave, a new communication and collaboration platform planned for release later this year. Google intends for the platform to be open-source, and is encouraging developers to contribute to the platform through a set of APIs. Those developers who are interested can sign up for access to a sandbox environment, where they can get their feet wet and where they can test their creations.

With Google Wave, Google appears to have reimagined email, instant messaging, and a host of related online communication media. Why allow email to be constrained by the limitations of SMTP or IMAP? Why should email and instant messaging even be considered separate concepts? In Google Wave, messages are called waves, and a wave can contain all kinds of content from any number of participants. A wave could be a conversation, a document on which several people collaborate, a poll, a bug report, or a photo gallery.

Google’s engineers admit that during the development of Google Wave, even they found it difficult to step beyond their preconceived notions of email and instant messaging. Each of these means of communication has its limitations, and each has applications to which it is well suited. Google Wave is envisioned to be a superset of many of the communication media that preceded it. Some potential uses of Google Wave weren’t apparent to the developers until they had been using the platform for a while.

I’d argue that most of the potential applications have not yet been envisioned. By open-sourcing the platform, Google seems to want to attract the same kind of participation from third-party developers as with the mobile Android platform.

In my eyes, Google Wave could be a potential long-term threat to Facebook. Google’s social networking platform Orkut never gained much of a following (outside of Brazil). Google Wave no only integrates with Orkut, but stands to make it mostly obsolete. With extensions, Google Wave could provide all the capability of Facebook and more. Heck, developers could even provide Facebook-originated content inside of waves. If Google Wave catches on, the next few years will be very interesting ones.

Update 2009-06-01 05:32 UCT—The Google Wave team appear to be fans of the short-lived but excellent Firefly television series. See the Google Wave Wikipedia article for details. Lisa A. brought this my attention. Thanks, Lisa!

ZRL Ambigram

ZRL Ambigram, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Next Tuesday will be the official laying of the cornerstone of the new NETL building at ZRL. To commemorate the occasion, I designed a ZRL ambigram. During the ceremony, a time capsule will be placed in the foundation. A print of my ambigram will be placed in the time capsule, along with a bunch of IBM memorabilia and examples of pop culture from circa 2009.

Update 2009-06-04 15:25 UCT—The time capsule has been encased in concrete in the foundation of the new building. Some of my photographs of the foundation-laying ceremony have been posted.

A fun coincidence

_MAL5693, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I went to Slussen bus station in Stockholm on my way to José’s party. There, I met up with two others who were going to the same party. When I took out my phone to check the time, the others laughed. They then took out their phones and I knew why: we all had the same model of Nokia phone, only in three different colors. I simply had to take a photo.

A poignantly beautiful day in Stockholm

Today is such a beautiful day that it makes me want to cry. These are the days I live for.

This morning I had coffee out in the sun with freinds at Eriksberg, in a little outdoor garden with purple lilac and chestnut trees. At noon, I walked down to Kungsholmen for lunch with Ayse at an outdoor street café. We ate seafood stew with rice, drank sparkling water, and watched the people walk by. Stockholm is great for people-watching when the sun is shining. After lunch, we walked to a café where we shared a slide of carrot cake and drank caffe lattes. I'm tired from spending a few hours outside in the sunshine. When I got back to Malin's place, I crashed on her couch and dozed for a bit.

Now I'm looking out of her sixth floor window as I rest a bit before catching my flight back to Zürich. This has been a perfect trip. I only wish I could have met more of my friends while I was here. I hope to return for a long weekend in June, and plan to spend two weeks in Sweden at the end of July.

I'm excited about returning to Zürich. The weather there has been even warmer than in Stockholm, and there will surely be opportunities for swimming in the coming days.

I'd like to give a shout-out to my friends Joanna and Malin, who kindly let me crash at their apartments for a few days. It's nice to have such thoughtful and generous friends. I look forward to my next visit!

Zürich in the sunshine

_MAL3705, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

When I first visited Zürich for the job interview at ZRL, it was a rainy and cold couple of days; I wondered if I really wanted to move from one rainy and cold city to another.

I’m pleased to report that when the sun comes out, Zürich is  positively beautiful city. On Sunday I joined some colleagues for little hike up to the summit of Üetliberg, from whose lookout tower I captured this photo of the city below.

Linea Salsa’s last social of the season

_MAL3136, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Way back when in the beginning of December, I went to Linea Salsa’s social—only my second time to go out salsa dancing after moving to Zürich. Since then, I’ve danced at the Polyball, the Zürich Salsa Festival, the Sugar Lounge, and X-tra. But for some reason I had not returned to El Social in Altstetten until last night.

Part of the reason I hadn’t gone to the Linea Salsa socials more often might have been that they are held only once per month—on the first Friday of the month. When I saw that last night’s social would be the last before the summer break, I knew that I had to take the opportunity to do some dancing!

I’m very glad I returned, because I became acquainted with some very nice people last night. Having had the benefit of a second visit, I can say that the atmosphere of Linea Salsa is very similar to that of Happy Feet and SalsaAkademien’s Thursday socials. There are lots of good dancers and most of them are very friendly. It’s possible to buy beverages including beer, wine, and champagne; but most people drink in moderation to save themselves for dancing. For the most part, people who go to Linea Salsa are there to dance. And—importantly for me—the environment is not hazardous to one’s health: the music is played at a reasonable volume, and smoking is not allowed.

I met some of the organizers of the event, including a very friendly chap named Daniel. I also met two more photographers from salsapictures.ch. I think I will learn more about this group; they seem like my kind of crowd—interested in dancing and photography too!

And of course I danced with many charming and talented women—from relative beginners to ladies who were miles beyond me in ability. Lots and lots of fun. I’m a bit sad that I missed all of the Linea Salsa socials in the intervening months since December, and even sadder to know that I must wait until the next one.

Ninety photos from last night are now online.

Glocals.com spring party

_MAL2677, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Tuesday night I went to the spring party arranged by Ehsan of glocals.com, the ex-pat group I joined a few months ago. The party was a big success, with about 400 people in attendence. There were people from everywhere: lots of folks from the U.S., one from Mexico, a few from Russia, some from France and Germany, and several from Switzerland too. I even met a girl from Norrköping, who was a bit surprised that I could speak Swedish. I had fun meeting people and snapping photos. As you can see, I managed to find a couple of attractive women with whom to pose. Check out the other photos from the evening.

Biking around Zürichsee

Image036, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Yesterday I joined Kirsten for a bike ride around the lake after work. It was a half day holiday here in Zürich due to Sechseläuten, so we took off around 14:00. We rode South along the lake and crossed the bridge to Rapperswil, where we took a little break and ate lime sorbet by the water’s edge. Then we biked back up the Eastern side of the lake, through hilly rural terrain dotted with vinyards, orchards, ranches and farms. The fruit trees and flowers were in full bloom and the sun was shining. It was simply idyllic.

At 57 kilometers, it was my first long ride of the season. I’m a bit sore today! If you’re interested, I’ve posted a few more photos from the ride.

Using technology to bring essential truths out of mountains of boring data

In this TED talk, Hans Rosling presents stale United Nations data about our world in an engaging and dynamic way—and one that brings into stark relief the underlying truths about how our world is changing. His marriage of data and design shows how important it is how data are presented.

This is a splendid use of technology. I understand that Rosling now works for Google, and that his tools will be available to all online. It is gratifying to see Google using Rosling’s expertise for the public good as well as for private gain.

Ski tour up Glatten

IMG_1815.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I went for a ski tour with Simon this afternoon. We skied up a mountain called Glatten. It took about 5 hours to make our way up to the top, and another hour to come down again. Really fun, but incredibly exhausting. After returning to Zürich, Simon treated me to some excellent fondue at his place. I’ll post photos when I have them. Now I shall sleep. Over and out.

Update 2009-03-19: Photos are online!

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Sledding in Elm

_MAL9207.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

A couple of weeks ago I went sledding for the first time in my life. It was a blast! I drove down to Elm, where I met up with a bunch of colleagues at the gondola. We each grabbed a sled and rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain, whence we hopped on our respective sleds and started back down again. The sled path followed a road down the mountain, cutting across the mountain to the right, turning, cutting across to the left, and so on. The turn at each switchback was a challenge, but not nearly as taxing as the bumps! Oh my, I was bruised for several days after that evening. It was a cold and snowy night, and I didn’t have enough in the way of cold weather clothing. I could have benefitted from another scarf or a mask to cover my face. So when I finished my four rides down the mountain, I was quite cold and ready for dinner. We retired to a nearby restaurant where most had fondue or raclette; I ate the fleischkäse. Here’s a photo German took of me in the restaurant.

Safari Tabs

Safari Tabs, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Safari 4 brought tabs-on-top to a mainstream browser, borrowing the appearance, if not the underlying architecture, of Google’s Chrome browser.

Placing the tabs above the address bar makes sense, because the address is subordinate to and dependent on which tab happens to be frontmost. However, the bookmarks bar is definitely not content specific to any tab; therefore, it belongs above the tabs.

There are other problems too. Because there is no title bar that represents the whole Safari window, it’s hard to move the window easily; one must be careful not to click on a tab’s close box or move widget. The reverse is also true: it’s difficult to click a tab without accidentally moving the window. If the mouse is moved even a tiny distance while the button is depressed, Safari assumes one is trying to move the whole window.

The above mock-up shows what Safari might look like if the window title bar and bookmarks bar were placed above the tabs.

One could argue that the toolbar buttons and the search box don’t belong below the tabs because, like the bookmarks bar, these controls do not represent content that is specific to any single tab. However, the address field needn’t take up the entire width of the window, so the spaces to the right and left of this field seem like a good place for these controls from a purely aesthetic perspective. Plus, moving them elsewhere would mean taking up even more screen real estate, and taking away from the simplicity and balance of the design.

I am glad to see Apple experimenting with new user interface paradigms, at least in beta versions of its software. Let’s hope the experts at the company figure out a way to solve the problems new design without sacrificing its elegance.

My new bed

_MAL8928, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

A couple of weeks ago I went to IKEA and bought a new bed. I got it for less than half list price, ’cause the packaging was a bit scuffed up and one corner of the mattress was a bit dirty. I don't have a before photo with which to juxtapose this one; but trust me—the after one is much nicer.

My bedroom is located just underneath the dining room, on the Northeast corner of the house. The windows face the street and garden. I’m looking forward to springtime, when the flowers start to bloom!

Fun appetizers with mozzarella and basil

_MAL1239.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Late last summer, I made a nice Caprese salad for Janaki when she came over for a visit. I took a photo but didn’t get around to posting it until yesterday. When I’m in Italy, Caprese salad is the yardstick I use to gauge the priciness of a restaurant. The ingredients of the salad are readily available and relatively inexpensive, and the preparation is straightforward and quick; so the price a restaurant charges for the dish largely represents the markup—not the cost of the food per se, but what you must pay for the privilege of dining at that particular establishment.

The distribution of prices is broad. I’ve seen Insalata Caprese listed on menus in Rome for as little as 5€, and as much as 20€.

_MAL9505.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Another great mozzarella-based appetizer substitutes dried ham for the tomato. Just take thumb tip-sized pieces of the cheese and roll them up together with couple of basil leaves in thin strips of the ham. Use air-dried or smoked ham, according to your preference. Prosciutto and Westphalia work fine. Hold the rolls together by piercing each one with a cocktail toothpick. Serve them with a small bowl of olive oil seasoned with salt, black pepper, and optionally rosemary or oregano. Enjoy!

Biking again, at last!

On Sunday, the snowfall of the previous night continued untill well after noon. After several cups of coffee, two bowls of Gordana’s excellent soup, and much deliberation, I finally got my ass in gear and made preparations for some physical exercise. I put the Nokian studded tires I first used last winter on my StumpJumper and headed out into the snow. With my new Giro G10 ski helmet on my head, I rode up Höhestrasse and into the forest above Zollikon, cutting across and up the hill toward the South. My start was initially cut short by a twisted chain, but that was quickly remedied by a bit of work with two pairs of pliers. After about twenty minutes, I had reached my goal: the bath house in Zumikon. There I spent the next hour warming up (and cooling down again) in the bath’s various saunas and its steam bath. At one point, I even indulged in a bit of snow-rolling, a tradition I first practied in Åre a few winters ago. The snow was light and fluffy, and after a stint in the sauna I barely noticed the cold. When at last I coasted downhill toward home, I felt like a pice of cooked pasta. That’s what saunas are for! All in all, I spent less than an hour on my bike this day. But at least the ride uphill through the snow was a workout; and it’s a step in the right direction. Before long the snow will have melted and it’ll be time for day-long treks further afield.

Party at Kubilay’s place

_MAL8890, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

On Saturday night I drove down to Horgen on the West side of the lake. It had begun to rain and the streets were slick and shiny. It was cold too, and as I neared Horgen the rain turned to snow. Kubilay's place is near the train station in a modern block of flats. He fixed lots of food including little kebab-like meat snacks, grilled Halloumi cheese, and Turkish candies flavored with pistachios and rosewater. It was a fun group of folks and a good time was had by all. Naturally, I brought my camera and took a bunch of photos of the fun. I gave several folks a ride back up to the city around midnight and by this time the snow was falling in thick, wet clumps. The party apparently continued somewhere in the city, but I was feeling a bit tired, so I dropped the others off and returned home early.

Shrubbery gig on Sihlquai

_MAL8841, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Wednesday night I joined some ZRL colleagues downtown to watch Shrubbery, a band whose members include a couple of Googlers and one of my colleagues, Jan. I enjoyed the performance, and had fun watching this normally staid researcher rock out! Several photos of the gig are online for your enjoyment.

A quick ferry ride across the lake

_MAL8762, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

This morning I gave Gordana a ride to an appointment in Meilen on my way to work. I continued to work by way of the car ferry that travels every 10 minutes between Meilen and Horgen on the other side of the lake. From there, it's a short drive back up the lake to Rüschlikon. I snapped a few photos from the ferry as we motored across the water. It was a beautiful morning as you can see!