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Dec232018 by Chris MarquardtNo Comments
🇩🇪 Sprachen / 🇬🇧 Languages

🇩🇪 Sprachen / 🇬🇧 Languages

Personal
🇩🇪 Ich poste hier mehrsprachig. Manchmal auf deutsch, manchmal englisch. Das entscheide ich aus dem Bauch. Je nach dem, ob ich denke, dass der Artikel interessanter oder relevanter für eine deutschsprachige Leserschaft ist, oder halt doch eher international. Damit die Sprache der Artikel leichter erkennbar ist, habe ich die Titel einiger bisheriger Artikel mit Sprachflaggen gekennzeichnet und werde das auch in Zukunft hier so handhaben. 🇬🇧 My posts on this blog are multi-lingual. Sometimes in German, sometimes in English. I decide this based on my gut feeling. If I think an article might be more interesting or relevant to a German-speaking audience, I write in in German. Otherwise in English. To make it easier to see the language of an article right away, I have marked the titles o...
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Dec122017 by Chris MarquardtNo Comments
🇬🇧 Go Home Siri, Germans Don’t Boil Their Rooms

🇬🇧 Go Home Siri, Germans Don’t Boil Their Rooms

Personal, Tech
Our house is partially automated. We started with lights* and a couple of power outlets**, then recently began to adda few thermostats*** into the mix. That's the extent of it. No locks, no blinds. Our automation system of choice is Apple's HomeKit. And it's been fun so far. And a lot more useful than I thought. "Set the living room to cozy" brings up a pre-programmed scene with dimmed lights, while "set the hall lights to brightest" is perfect if you're looking for your keys. Of course you can also give the lights percentages from 1 to 100. "Set the living room to 100" sets the brightness of all living room lights to their maximum. At least it used to, until we added the thermostats. Now the same command "set the living room to 100" results in the thermostats getting cranked up all the wa...
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Aug252017 by Chris MarquardtNo Comments
🇩🇪 2,33mm – 25 Tage später: Formulor.de hat endlich nachgebessert

🇩🇪 2,33mm – 25 Tage später: Formulor.de hat endlich nachgebessert

Personal
Die leidige Geschichte mit Formulor.de kommt zu einem halbwegs guten Ende. Nach einigem hin und her hat Formulor jetzt endlich nachgebessert und neue, passende Teile sind heute bei mir angekommen, deren Maß innerhalb der Toleranz von 0,5 mm liegt. Noch mal kurz die Chronologie: 31. Juli: ich bestelle bei Formulor, wie schon mehrfach zuvor, Sperrholz-Laserzuschnitt mit 2 mm Materialstärke. 11. August: ich hake nach, weil die Teile, anders als sonst, noch nicht da sind. 15. August: die Lieferung ist da, die Teile sind aber mit 2,64 mm zu dick, ich reklamiere per E-Mail. 15. August: Herr L. von Formulor sagt, alles sei innerhalb der Toleranz von 0,5 mm. Ich widerspreche. 18. August: Herr L. von Formulor schiebt das Problem aufs Wetter und auf meinen Messschieber. ...
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Aug182017 by Chris MarquardtNo Comments
🇩🇪 2,64 mm – mein ungutes Erlebnis mit Formulor.de

🇩🇪 2,64 mm – mein ungutes Erlebnis mit Formulor.de

Personal
Update 25.8.2017: Formulor hat nachgebessert Ich muss mal kurz Dampf ablassen. Sehr konkreten Dampf. Es ist überhaupt kein Problem, wenn eine Firma, bei der ich in der Vergangenheit immer wieder tolle Dinge bestellt habe, mir aus versehen Ware schickt, die nicht dem entspricht, was ich bestellt habe. Dann reklamiere ich, die Ware geht zurück, ich bekomme eine Neulieferung und gut. Wenn diese Firma dann aber wiederholt implziert, der Fehler läge bei mir und nicht bei ihnen, dann bekomme ich einen Hals und werde bockig. Konkreter Fall: ich habe bei formulor.de (gehört zu modulor.de) Birkensperrholz zuschneiden lassen. Laserzuschnitt. In der Vergangenheit ging das immer flott und korrekt, die Sache wirkte auf mich immer sehr sympathisch. Die Ware wie erwartet, der Kunde zufrie...
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May72017 by Chris MarquardtNo Comments
To become good, you’ll have to create a lot of garbage first…

To become good, you’ll have to create a lot of garbage first…

Personal, Photography
... subtitle: quantity equals quality. Yep, I know, sounds wrong. But the way to becoming good at something is to produce lots of crap first. I look back at my photography 20 years ago and it was worse than my photography 10 years ago, which in turn was worse than my current photography, which I'm confident is worse than my photography in 10 years from now. It has to do with some of the ideas from Art & Fear (awesome book, definitely recommended). I find the "50 pounds of clay" idea from that book especially compelling in that context. In short: a teacher splits the kids in a pottery class into two groups, the first ones get rated on the quality of their work. The second group gets rated on quantity and nothing but quantity. Turns out, the second group consistently ends up als...
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Apr262017 by Chris MarquardtNo Comments
Documentation creates value

Documentation creates value

Personal
Today's tools (like Apple's Clips app) make it incredibly easy to document the things you do. And having things documented adds more perceived value. Look at the last four days in my life: there was a two day photo workshop here in the Viewfinder Villa, I did an electronics project and started a new podcast. Thanks to just a few seconds of video here and there and the easy tools to put them together, I now have two documents (video of the workshop and a video of my electronics project) - both are short to the point and they give a sense of what was going on. The new podcast (about film photography, sorry only in German) is self-documenting, but sooner or later I might shoot a short video documenting the process of how it's made. By the way, just for kicks and giggles, I'd love ...
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Apr162017 by Chris MarquardtNo Comments
Things photographers do on a Sunday afternoon

Things photographers do on a Sunday afternoon

Personal, Photography
It started with Monika and myself standing outside in the garden the other day, looking at how several plants of lemon balm were taking over the herb section. So I decided to brew up an infusion. Lemon balm, mint, glass jar, boiling water. Let seep for an hour: super yummy. I noticed how awesome the leaves looked when swirling around in the glass jar, so I decided to film that. And then I decided to film myself while filming it. Here's the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TEVyL26E0M
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Apr92017 by Chris MarquardtNo Comments
AirPods – My Verdict

AirPods – My Verdict

Personal, Tech
When the AirPods were finally out in December 2016, I got my order in for the first batch. The cabled EarPods always fit my ears well, so they've got that going for them. While they don't cover all use cases, they worked well for me and so my expectation for the AirPods was to do pretty much the same, but without the cable mess. I have two main things to say about the AirPods: they are probably the most convenient and comfortable pair of earphones that I've ever owned. Seemingly endless battery life if you're willing to give them a quick rest in their tiny charger box after several hours of listening. And I've had several occasions where I was walking around the house searching for them, just to realize that I was wearing them all along. they have one really big quirk that's...
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