blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

I had a weird problem with the update mechanism of Thunderbird. When you restart Thunderbird for an update an error message shows up and says that it cannot do the update and closes the problem. But then it starts the program again, because you said you wanted to restart it. When starting the program it tries to perform the update and fails again. This goes on and on…

After a while Mr. Google told me the answer:
When the webcam software from Logitech is running the update fails. Don’t ask me why, or what the connection is…

When you stop the “Logitech QuickCam Software” the update goes smoothly without problem.

My recommendation for all Thunderbird lovers which own a Logitech Webcam:
- Stop the Logitech software before you update Thunderbird.

If anyone has an idea why… please let me know!

A funny and short flash puzzle solver game, took me something over an hour to figure it out.

Chasm

Have fun…

My girlfriend and I opened the grilling season for this year.
We grilled three different kind of meats and a pineapple.
And we drunk Virgil’s Rootbeer, which is suposed to be the “best” Rootbeer.

Peace out!

While preparing for a midterm, I found a cheat sheet for the GOF Patterns on this blog.
Two Pages with all the 23 GOF Patterns.
This is the direct link to the pdf file.

Finally, it is getting warmer in Pittsburgh.

It is about time that I write something about the winter in Pittsburgh.
This is especially for all the Swiss friends who were complaining about the cold winter in Switzerland, and that I must have a very nice time over here!

For the most time the temperature during the Pittsburgh winter is below 0 degree Celsius. Sometimes it was below -10 degree Celsius for weeks.
The coldest day this winter was -22 degree Celsius. At this day, my girlfriend and I enjoyed a bath in the Jacuzzi which stands outside of her apartment building. The interesting part about this is that my hair got wet and not before long my hair was frozen. I can tell you that is a really awkward feeling

Normally, I do not have a problem when it is cold, but because of the bad isolation the temperature in my apartment went several times below 10 degree Celsius. With the additional heating I have the average temperature in my room was around 14 degrees Celsius, but to save money (I’m a student after all) I did not use this heating all day and night. Fortunately, I have a girlfriend who was kind enough to give my asylum several times a week.

I do not have enough time to read the Swiss news, but from time to time I receive some links what Americans write about Switzerland…
In Thin Air of the Alps, Swiss Secrecy Is Vanishing

What should I say? I was not aware that this is a serious problem in Switzerland

The only thing which bothers me:

For centuries the farmers here lived off their famed Appenzeller cheese and a bitter liqueur that most, except fervent admirers, say tastes like cough medicine gone bad.

My beloved Appenzeller…

Prost!

Yesterday, I got back from the Spring Break. Following an alphabetical ordered list with all the fun stuff we did:

- Caltech campus tour (thanks to my brother)
- Disney California Adventure Park
- Disneyland Park
- Drive through Bel-Air
- Drive through Beverly Hills
- In-N-Out Burger
=> Four-by-four with everything extra and fries animal style
- Griffith Observatory
- Hiked to the Hollywood sign
- Hooters in Hollywood
- Lecture from Stephen Hawking – “Why go into space”
- Run at the Venice Beach
- Shopping
- Surfing
- Walk of Fame

Thanks to my brother for hosting us and playing the tourist guide

btw: Some pictures might follow…

EDIT:
- Drive on an 8lane highway (8 lanes each way)
- Use the HOV (High-occupancy vehicle) lane