Elixir: Don't autostart dependent applications

We wanted to include Wobserver in all our deployed applications but due to security considerations, it was necessary that it not run automatically (in order that the port on which it listens remain closed by default)

I spend about a day trying to get this to work without success.
Finally, this was what succeeded. In the mix.exs file, add the wobserver dependency to included applications:

included_applications: [ :wobserver]

This will prevent the application from getting autostarted.

Avoriaz - a week of skiing

We spent the first week of 2018 skiing in Avoriaz. It was a family vacation with our 2 kids (12 and 10) and we were, at the beginning of the week, ok skiers. Good on the blues, a bit apprehensive on the reds and scared on the blacks.
As a bit of background, we ski between 5 and 10 days a year, in the border region between Germany and Austria, i.e. Bregenzerwald, Montafon etc. My only other experience of a week of skiing was in Val d'Isere.

Ski Passes
I looked into getting ski passes early, i.e. before we got there, but the early bird discount was the same as the family discount that we would get if we bought tickets once we got there. It also turned out that the website only offered tickets that covered the whole ski area, i.e. Port Du Soleil. If the ski area of Avoriaz was enough for you (and it turned out to be just enough for us), then buying 2 day lift tickets every other day turned out to be the cheaper option. We also wanted the option of taking an day off in the middle.

Getting in to Avoriaz
Avoriaz lies at 1100 meters and it is a bit of a climb. We drove in on a day where there was snow and signs posted suggested chains in case of snow. There were cars with chains and without chains on the drive up.
We had reserved a parking spot in a garage in Avoriaz. I think that was the right decision as the other options were to park outside at Avoriaz or outside at Le Pordains, which required you to then take the Gondola up to Avoriaz. A lot of the cars in the parking lot looked completely snowed in. I am not sure how they got into their spots and getting out seemed to be a challenge, both dogging out of the parking spot and then digging out of the parking lot.
We noticed the roads a couple of days later, after a night of heavy snow, and they looked treacherous. I would have not attempted the drive without snow tires wthough people seemed to be making the journey without them.
We drove in, unloaded at a covered parking area and then parked in a garage for which we had reserved a spot. The parking lot was pretty full on the Saturday that we arrived. I would suggest a reservation.

Getting to and fro in Avoriaz
There are no cars allowed in Avoiraz and so getting all your stuff to your apartment involves either hiring a horse drawn carriage, hiring a huge snow transporter that looks like something from the dark side in Star Wars or getting a trolley on skis and pushing all your stuff to your destination. The cheapskate that I am, I opted for pushing. 

The apartment we were staying in was not too far from where we unloaded. Maybe a kilometer. But pushing that trolley was a royal pain in my you know what though we managed to transport everything in one go. I am not sure how we did it as it took us several trips to get everything back in the car on the way out. On our second trip to the car on the way out, we skipped the trolley the second time around as it was seriously heavy and seemed to be more of a hinderance that a help.
Getting to and from the lifts was another adventure. The bad part about being not too far from the unloading zone was that we were a bit far from the lifts. It was not too bad once we figured out the to and fro but again, the town is not made for skiing. It may have snow on the streets and no cars but the terrain is not ski friendly.

Weather
The weather while we were there was decent. There was one day where the entiriety of the ski area was closed due to terrible weather. The day after that, the rain was so bad that we had to quit after about 3 hours. We were soaked down to our skin. All in all though, we got 5 days of great skiing. The weather was sunny in parts and when overcast, the visibility was at least great. The wind was also terrible on some days, now that I think back on it, but I can't remember it affecting us too badly. 

When the weather is bad though, there is nothing else to do. There is a pool but it gets filled up quick when the weather is bad. Get in line before it opens!

Slopes
The slopes were in pretty good shape, even considering the rain. On at least half the days, I was doing my last runs as snow was coming down, sometimes coming down in torrents. The runs were icy in spots but nothing we were too worried about.
It being Christmas vacation, there were a lot of people on the slopes and there were lines at the lifts but never crowds. 
The ski map showed a lot of blue runs but they were more akin to red runs that I had been on. There are a two fun parks with jumps and stuff that the kids loved, which  I was not a fan of (the runs were narrow and crowded with people) and then was an area with big ramps, in case you were interested in serious air (one lift went directly over the area which is the only reason I am aware of it)
I think Avoriaz is a great place for someone who is an ok skier but it may not be challenging enough for someone who is good. There were lots of beginners on some of the runs, and there are a few runs set up just for beginners. So it may suit them as well. I cannot judge that anymore. Learning is just difficult. 

Eating on the slopes
It just varies a lot. We ate once at Le Brocheaux and there was table service and the food was pretty good at a reasonable price. Another time we ate at Les Lindarets, where it was cafeteria style, the prices were insane and the food mediocre. I think the more off the beaten path the place is, the better the quality (just based on those 2 experiences) We had a couple of other meals but I cannot for the life of me remember where they were. 

Avoriaz in general
The bakery next to our place (Le Fournil de Cannelle) was awesome. There are a couple of grocery stores in town where we picjed up stuff for dinner most nights and were a good value. We ate out once as a family and the meal was forgettable. We were to blame as we just picked a place with an open table as we were hungry.
My wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary at Les Enfants Terribles and that was really awesome (though pricey)
We were there on New Year's Eve and ventured out to check out the celebrations. There was a DJ spinning records on the main drag and there was a setup for a huge party but due to the weather, there was only a crowd directly around where the DJ was setup. Still though, you gotta give them props for at least the effort. I think it would've been a good time.

Conclusion
I would 100% go to Avoriaz again. I would 100% recommend it for a family ski vacation to anyone. 

German Elections 2107

Disclaimer: I cannot vote in Germany. I do not follow German media. I live in relatively affluent area of Germany (the Bodensee)
I do not know how most of my freinds will vote. Unlike the US, where who you vote for is generally pretty obvious, it is something much harder to determine (for me at least)
I know one guy at work is voting SPD and one of my bosses hates Merkel (nothing to do with immigrants BTW)
I did listen to a rant by a mom of one of the kids that my son play's soccer with about refugees who are refusing to learn German, but that still did not give me any sense of which way she would vote.
Voting for a right wing party (AfD) still feels like quite a hard step for many in this area, regardless of how they feel about the refugee situation. I do not see the AfD getting a lot of support here.
I took the Wahl-o-mat (which is survey of around 30 questions that tells you what party most aligns with your views) and it had me supporting 'Die Partei' followed rather closely by SPD or CDU (don't remember) Suprisingly, 47% of my answers matched the AfDs stances on issues.
The AfD are an out there party but I assume their stances on some issues are surprisingly main stream. Or I am a rascist.
I do find it surprising that the AfD are doing so well in such a good economic climate. The real estate market is booming. I am getting multiple unsolicited mails from real estate agents trying not just to sell me places but also trying to get me to put my place on the market. People feel cash rich and bullish about the future (There is somewhat of a supply side issue to cause prices to be increasing but prices are inordinately high. There's a bubble there). Job growth is kinda crazy as well. The company I work for is hiring and finding nobody. I hear the same story from friends are other companies.
In these conditions, the AfD vote feels like a peremptory protest vote. There's some project management approach where at the beginning of a project, you lay out how the project will fail. It says fuck you if you think things are going well. This is going to end badly.
On the one hand, the vote says too many are succeeding in Germany who are not German. Too many have absorbed the mantra of learning the language, getting an education, and playing by the German rules. The German economy rewards those people. Its a market economy regardless of how much Germans want to not accept that. But that is not what was supposed to happen. Immigrants were supposed to listen to the mantra and ignore it. Germans were supposed to be exasperated at the lack of success despite a bunch of taxpayer money spent. AfD support is about reframing immigrant success. Material success of immigrants is not a success for German. It is rather ruining this country. It is allowing them to change Germany. They're in office, they're starting businesses, they're affectng the culture of this country, which is totally inappropriate. Fuck them is the aspect of this support.
On the other hand, there is a percentage of people who are not learning the language and who are not appreciative of the largesse that the German taxpayer is sending their way. Fuck them is the aspect of this support.
AfD support comes from both the successes and failures of integration. It boils down in both cases to "Fuck them". An easy message to get out.
I am a bit apprehensive about the results. Trump's victory has me ready for anything though.

ERROR: new collation (en_US.UTF-8) is incompatible with the collation of the template database (C)

I was getting this error when installing postgresql:
ERROR: new collation (en_US.UTF-8) is incompatible with the collation of the template database (C)
HINT: Use the same collation as in the template database, or use template0 as template.

The situation was I was trying to install packages automatically (via script) after a machine boots.
The problem was the locale that is set is POSIX and the database needed en_US.UTF-8.

I need to do the following prior to package installation:
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

iPXE pxe could not find kernel image

In addition to making sure the image is in the correct location, make sure the image has the correct permissions:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root   root     6568848 Apr 21 13:36 vmlinuz-3.19.0-28-generic*

-rw-r--r-- 1 root   root    20753184 Apr 21 13:46 initrd.img-3.19.0-28-generic*

The files cannot be a link. They must be the actual files.

I review stuff: Snow @ Bödele - February 5, 2016

There is literally no snow on the ground in Dornborn. On the drive up to Bödele, there is very little snow until about 2/3rds of the way up and then all of a sudden, there is just oodles of it just before you arrive at the parking lot.
In general, it has been raining as well as snowing. Plus on February 5, it was unseasonably warm. Close to 5 C when the sun peeked through the fog. There was plenty of snow of the ground, but it was thick, not at all light and feathery. I don't want to say slushy because it didn't feel wet but it felt heavy and I had a tough time picking up speed where I would normally not.
It was good for the pull lifts though and it fell more stable,

Bike trip on the Bodensee with kids

I have 2 smallish kids (9 and 7) who I am trying to get excited about bike touring. They like to ride their bicycles but in moderation and only if their a destination. The idea of riding a bicycle just for the joy of riding is crazy talk.  Two years ago we did a 20 km ride to Mainau with tents/sleeping bags etc, camped and came home. This was kind of the limit of their endurance at that point.

Ever since then my wife and I have been trying to talk up another bike trip, this time maybe a few days more, and ho much fun it was going to be.

This past week turned out to be the second week of Pfingstferien (Pentecost vacation) in Germany and the weather at the end of the week turned out brilliant. Sunny and warm (turned out to actually be hot and humid on top of that)

The plan a 4 day trip with 20-30 km of riding every day and camping every night. On the first day, we headed from Meersburg over to Konstanz with the car ferry and then rode the bikes over to Berlingen.

The ride from Konstanz to Berlingen is really nice. Heading out of Konstanz, you ride out directly on the shore of the Rhine, where the roads are really wide and the traffic is really light. There is a diversion to cross the border into Switzerland and then at Tägerwill, there is a really nice area to hang out by the lake (We made lots of stops to break up the tediousness of riding and to keep the kids happy. My wife's motto is to stop early and frequently. If you wait to stop till the kids start complaining, you've already lost) Then there are uninteresting stretches on dusty roads through farmland, but also jaunts through small swiss towns with really great modernist houses. I was really impressed with the adventurousness of the architecture. German towns are much more dressed down.

At Berlingen we caught a ferry across to Gaelingen (which is back in Germany) and then cycled 2 km to the camping ground at Horn. Its big, the facilities are really nice and they have a lot of activities for the kids. The lake shore though is not at the camping ground though it did not make a difference for us as we just went there, spent the rest of the day there and came back when it was time to hit the sack.

On day 2, we did a ride towards Stein am Rhein but it was really up and down. The kids did not enjoy the climbing and so we cut the bike ride short. We spent the day at the lake and the night in Horn again.

On day 3, we rode from Horn to Allensbach. This was a completely awesome bike ride.

The trails are flat, far from traffic for the most part, and through gorgeous country side. I couldn't help thinking of the French expressionists going to Arles to paint its gorgeous vistas when riding through this stretch. It was just as beautiful.

We camped in Allensbach. The campground is smaller and more crowded that the one at Horn but it is directly at the lake. The lake area is, I think, nicer than at Horn. You look out at Mainau, the areas to hang out are kept up better and the restaurant at the campsite is much better that the one at Horn. Lot more food options. Horn was just the typical restuarant offerings: Pizza, currywurst, french fries (plus a couple of other things) Here they had burgers, stir fry, more contemporary cuisine.

On the last day, we rode from Allensbach back into Konstanz and then to the ferry back to Meersburg. This is not such a picturesque ride. Its mostly on bike paths directly on the side of roads, or railroad tracks and not really anything special. Konstanz on a sunny weekend day is always interesting tough and as usual it was packed with people and music and kids and life.

All in all, a great bike ride. The kids have sworn off bike riding for the next couple of weeks but they will eventually be happy to go on another trip like this.

Fixing a flat on your bicycle in 10 minutes

I tend to be a cluts when it comes to fixing things. I eventually get it done but it takes me a really long time, involving lots of time looking at how-to youtube videos, and lots of trial and error. One thing that frustrates me to no end is changing a flat tire on my bicycle. Getting the tire off the rim is painful, getting the rim back on is even more painful and pumping up the tube up with enough pressure with a small pump take forever. Its tough enough to do at home and I have never managed to get it fixed when I had a flat when I was on the road (don't ask what I have resorted to)

Due to a multi-day family ride, I had to find a solution to my problem and after a bit of internet search found the perfect tools to address them.

1. Lezyne Pressure Drive: I was able to pump my tire with a presta valve up to 30 bar with very little effort. Its a bit on the pricey side but well worth the price. I have bought cheap pumps and this one is so much better that anything I have owned. Factiorially better. Exponentially better.

2. Crank Brothers Speedier Lever: The Youtube videos do not lie (Well, the one I saw was on Vimeo but you get the idea) It really is that easy to get the tire off and on. A bit of brute strength is required but the tool really makes it super simple.

I changed a tire in ten minutes. Literally. Not metaphorically. And on the road. I am not suggesting that I cured cancer but being able to go from a struggle to change a tire at home to being able to do it easily on the road was quite a change for me. Also gave my wife more confidence in my bicycle repair skills.

pybot and Non-existing variable

In the logs, I could see this error:

Though later at the bottom, the logs indicated that the variable was being read correctly:

Eh? Turns out I forgot to install __init__.txt in the directory where the variable was being set.

For instance, for the example above, in the same directory where "Set Global Vars" is contained (in this case in a file called "Util.txt"), you need to have a __init__.txt containing the following lines:
*** Settings ***
Suite Setup     Set Global Vars
Resource        Util.txt

PyMQI and MQRC_CHANNEL_CONFIG_ERROR

I kept getting the error on a simple connect:
qmgr = pymqi.connect('wingconBdg', 'SERTBA7.WINGCONBDG', '127.0.0.1(1414)')

Spent several hours trying to debug it and it turned out I just needed to compile pyMQI in server mode.

https://pythonhosted.org/pymqi/#compiling-from-source

Boyhood

The emotion I felt most after seeing Boyhood was heartache for Texas. I missed it terribly. The film showed Texas is all the ways I remember it. The country roads cut through thinly wooded forests. The middle of Houston. The small lakes and ponds that dot Texas away from the Panhandle.
When describing the movie to friends, the thing I kept repeating was that it showed Texas the way it really is, the way it isn't protrayed in travel shows or Walker Texas Ranger.

I was never much of a fan of Texas while growing up there. I found it all a bit ordinary, much of small town Texas still stuck in the pre civil rights movement America. Everything about the countryside was colored by that view, and its stain kinda papered over whatever beauty was present.
Now when I go back, I am struck by the beauty of Texas more and more. I've driven Highway 7 between College Station and Houston hundreds of times but its not till I moved away and returned that I am really blown away by the scenery that I pass on that drive: the cattle ranches, the one room clapboard bbq joints, the sky that streches forever.

As a film, Boyhood is amazing. The storytelling, the story, the acting, the portrayal of growing up in America. It felt real to me. More so because it took place in Texas.

I've just started watching "Fresh off the boat". A cross between Boyhood and that show would be a god approximation of being an Asian immigrant in Texas.

Solar eclipse transfixes Deutschland

The eclipse yesterday was big deal around these parts. Being a software company full of nerds, of course we took a break from work to go check it out.

Kind of embarrassing that for a company full of nerds, we only could scrounge up one pair of eclipse glasses.

My first eclipse and it was an amazing thing to see. I've seen pictures but in no way captures the real thing. The only thing I can compare it to is seeing the Taj Mahal. Everyone has seen pictures but in real life....WOW! Eclipse, same thing.

The schools used the opportunity to teach a bit of science. My son, who is in first grade, was able to explain to me why an eclipse, Finsterniss in German (a word I picked up only because of this event), occurs. All the school kids also made glasses to watch the eclipse.

pvremove/pcreate fails with "Can't open exclusively - not removing. Mounted filesystem?"

 I had this problem:
root@erd:~# pvremove -ff /dev/sdb1
Really WIPE LABELS from physical volume "/dev/sdb1" of volume group "wsp" [y/n]? y
  WARNING: Wiping physical volume label from /dev/sdb1 of volume group "wsp"
  Can't open /dev/sdb1 exclusively - not removing. Mounted filesystem?

Try this:

root@my_machine:~# pvscan

  PV /dev/sdb1   VG my_volume   lvm2 [362.55 GiB / 148.36 GiB free]

  Total: 1 [362.55 GiB] / in use: 1 [362.55 GiB] / in no VG: 0 [0   ]

root@my_machine:~# lvremove my_volume

Now pvremove should work

Installing jpcap on Ubuntu 12.04

Download the package from https://sites.google.com/site/sipinspectorsite/download/jpcap
Install openjdk-6-jdk
Then
> dpkg -i --ignore-depends=sun-java6-jdk jpcap-0.7.deb

Reading Hanif Kureishi's "Reading my Father"

In the early 90s, I moved from NYC to small town Texas to attend college. It was culture shock that I was unprepared for. It was not simply the change of location but also that I was at a school (Texas A&M) renowned for its conservatism. It plunged me into an identity crisis, one that had already been there prior to the move but now, in a place where I really didn't belong, around people that I had a hard time relating to, it overtook my life. Books had always been my refuge, but nothing in the American canon that I'd read came anywhere close to my experience in America, either in NYC or in Texas. The Indian-American experience seemed barren to American culture.
During a summer of wandering around India, I came across The Rainbow Sign, Hanif Kureishi's essay about growing up in Britain. It was as transformative as reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I had come back to India with the idea that India was where I belonged (even though I'd grown up abroad) and being back in the place of my birth would clear all the confusion from my life. It is this convoluted idea that is at the heart of The Rainbow Sign and .

After The Rainbow Sign, I read/saw most of Kureishi's work. Some of it blew me away. 'My Son the Fanatic' seemed to be an exploration of the roots of 9/11 well before 9/11. 'The Buddha of Suburbia' could've been the story of my discovery of NYC. As I got older and my identity crisis receded, reading and Kureishi occupied less space in my life. Recently, I came across Kureishi's memoir about his father and bought it on impulse.

Well, maybe not fully on impulse as I'd been thinking about my father quite a lot lately, as I too am a father and am realizing all the things he has been through and done for me growing up. So Kureishi reflecting on his father was perhaps something that I could no resist.

'Reading my Father' is a mixed bag. There are long bits of reviewing the work of his father, which I found thoroughly uninteresting. However, when he talks about his life, growing up, becoming a father himself, discovering the community that would become the basis of 'My Son the Fanatic', his troubles with writing, drugs, drink, women, I found all of that wildly interesting. It really gave me a sense of where his writing was coming from, of the internal demons he's had to deal with. I also really dug the stories of his father and his brothers, how their relationships played out when he was growing up as it reminded me a lot of my mother's brothers and idolizing them growing up.

In the end, I'm not sure how to recommend this book other than to say that if you're a fan of Kureishi, its well worth your while but if you're not and have not seen 'My beautiful Landrette', rent that first ,  and read 'The Rainbow sign' before considering if you'd like to check this book out.

Christmas in Antalya with Tchibo Resien

We booked a trip to Antalya during the Christmas week in 2013 with Tchibo Reisen. The prices were decent (€1800 for 7 days/nights for 2 adults and 2 kids with airfare from Stuttgart, airport transfers in Turkey and hotel room with meals and drinks included) and my wife wanted to get away for at least one week during the German Christmas break.

We booked really early (in September) and though we had confirmation that the trip was booked, the only other info we had received until a week before the trip was that the hotel was under renovation. Not exactly welcome news but there was nothing we could do about it as the email containing the info made clear that cancelling was not an option. A week before the trip airline tickets and all vouchers arrived in the mail.

The vouchers had a couple of unwelcome surprises. One of the selling points of the trip was that train tickets to the Stuttgart airport were included as part of the trip. Technically this was true. However, the flight to Antalya was so early in the morning that it was not possible to get to the airport with the train. It was not an option to take the train the day before either as the train voucher was only good for the day of the flight. Another surprise was that the flight back was at 6 in the morning. Meaning we ended up having to wake up at 2:30 to catch the transfer to the airport. That being said, the flights on Freebird Airlines were well organised, and everything about the flights was hassle free.

The Antalya airport was also a good experience, considering I was expecting an Indian airport type experience. Its a relatively compact airport and there are no long treks. We disembarked, got our luggage, headed outside to the kiosk for H&H touristik (which was organising the transfer) which was directly outside. Our names were on a sheet with the bus number that would take us to our hotel. We jumped on the bus, waited for everyone to arrive and about 45 minutes after we got off the plane were at the hotel. It was all super easy.

We had chosen to stay at Hotel Titanic. We got to the hotel, checked in took about 10 minutes with minimal waiting. I had read reviews about Hotel Titanic on Trip Advisor and though most of the reviews were great, there were people who hated the place (I am a pessimist more than an optimist and so was not entirely sure what to expect) The hotel was great. It was very clean overall, our rooms were in great shape, the bathrooms were super, though our room was a bit on the small side for 2 adults and 2 kids (but that came down to what we were willing to pay) We also had a pretty large balcony that faced the sea side of the hotel which we unfortunately did not use too much since it was the end of December.

The food at the hotel was also really good. There was a really good salad bar to choose from for every meal, and even though I abhor salads in general, I willingly ate salads for several meals. The real plus was that there was no fighting with the kids as the what they wanted to eat. There was always something that fit their fancy. The only downside to the food situation is that it is buffet style and I had a really tough time holding back from over eating. I gained at least 2 kilos during the week we spent there. I also had not expected that alcohol would be included but we never had to pay for anything. Beer and wine was offered with dinner and the bars on the ground floor looked like they had most of the popular hard drinks (again at no extra cost) There was also a cafe on the ground floor that had sandwiches and desserts in case you were hungry outside of regular meal times.

The hotel had a good indoor pool, a few different saunas, and a turkish bath, all free for use. Since we were here during low season, none of the facilities were ever full. We felt like we always had a run of the place. There was a great fitness room with free weights and machines which I used every day. There was also an olympic style outdoor pool with lanes that looked like it would be great for doing laps. If I had known how to swim, I definitely would've given it a shot but I never saw anyone in there.

A part of the package was a free tour into Antalya, which included the requisite stops at a jewelry place as well as a leather store where there was hardly any pressure to buy anything. Those were a bit annoying but it also included a free trip into the city, a boat ride around the harbor and a tour guide who was friendly and really interesting to listen to. For subsequent trips into Antalya, it turned out that a bus (LC 07) went right past the hotel and it hit all the tourist sights: Downtown Antalya, the archeology museum (I am not into archeology by any means but this museum was downright fascinating)


TerraCity Mall, the weekly Saturday market in Lara......etc etc. Be warned though that the bus is pretty much packed during normal hours. Expect to stand in a bus packed to the brim.

We also organised a trip to Aspendos via the taxi stand that is directly in front of the hotel. We paid €70 for the 45 minute ride there and back as well as for the driver to wait there for about 2 hours. I really enjoyed wandering around Aspendos (which is far more than just the amphitheater) and the drive there and back gave me more of a sense of what Turkey is like outside of the big city.

The weather was pretty good during the week we were there. It was generally sunny and warm in the afternoons, except for one afternoon mid week where it was overcast (which made it a bit chilly) and on the last evening, there was a pretty extreme thunderstorm that started in the late evening and was still going on when we flew out on Sunday morning. Also on the last evening, there was an earthquake of magnitude 5.8. I was in the pool with the kids and did not notice a thing. My wife came by and said there was a lot of shaking in the rooms but nothing more. Everyone was a bit frazzled but nothing more happened.

I really enjoyed the trip but I am not sure I would do the trip again as an all inclusive package. This has nothing to do with any problem we faced. It seemed like 75% of everyone at the hotel was over 60 and/or was just there for the food/drink/shopping. It was a very inactive bunch of people, who also seemed like they had little interest in experiencing any of the culture that was on offer. I had conversations with a few of the guests and most were about where we were from, rather than where we were at. No one seemed interested in talking about Turkey, at least apart from the shopping on offer. That annoyed me more than anything else. And a lot. In the end though, this trip was perfect for us at the time we took it.

Linux: Installing from local deb files

In the event that you need to use aptitude to install from local deb files, try the following:

> cd

> apt-ftparchive --md5 packages ./ | gzip > ./Packages.gz

> echo "deb file:/ /" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

> aptitude update

Now you can do aptitude upgrade, aptitude install etc

rrdtool create using python in Ubuntu 10.04 raises "TypeError: argument 3 must be string"

I was trying example 2 from this page: http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/prog/rrdpython.en.html#___top

It was working perfectly for me in Ubuntu12.04 but when I tried to port my code to Ubuntu 10.04, I got the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py.orig", line 14, in
    'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:6:10' )
TypeError: argument 5 must be string

Wasted a lot of time trying to solve it before this finally worked:

rrdtool.create( 'speed.rrd',

              '--start', '920804400',

      '-s', '60',

              'DS:speed1:COUNTER:600:U:U',

              'DS:speed2:COUNTER:600:U:U',

              'DS:speed3:COUNTER:600:U:U',

              'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:1:24',

              'RRA:AVERAGE:0.5:6:10' )

Hopefully, it saves someone a bit of time

German Election campaign getting down and dirty

The German election campaign is in full swing at the moment, judging by the plethora of election posters that line the B31 at the moment. The RDP, in my opinion, have the most risque poster that I have seen this year.

If you can't tell what that is, or rather can't beleive your eyes, they are four buttocks in various colors. The caption is "Which ass are you going to elect this year?"

REP's website has an even more risque music video (link to the youtube upload):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJZmydFB6ug&feature=c4-overview&list=UUXrwVUL2IiYJtP5leWd2wjw

They are not a popular party in Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Republicans_(Germany)) but have scored some PR points in my book with their chutzpah.

Growing up in Kerala, seeing the communist parties contest general elections was nothing out of the ordinary. It was standard fare of Kerala (and Bengal) politics. However, it was an enormous shock to see the Marxist Leninist Party of Germany posters hanging from the street lamps near Freidrichshafen.

The caption states "For the liberation of women" Obviously, given what has happened with the banking crisis, the problems in Greece, Spain, Ireland etc, there needs to be some rethinking if the way capitalism works today is in the best interests of the majority of Germans.
However, it seems to me that the MLPD need to understand what happened in 1989 in Berlin and if anybody is in dire need of rebranding, it is the MLPD, which literally stands for Marxist Leninist Partei Deutschlands. People who are completely comfortable with their platform will still feel unease voting for them given the history of governments peddling Marxism and Leninism in this part of the world. Even the ex-communists have realized this fundamental fact and rebranded themselves, Die Linke (The Left), acknowledging no debt to Communism whatsoever.

The CDU, the party on power and the odds on favourite to win again, have made an odd choice for their super large poster of Angela Merkel that sits between right outside of Ittendorf.

Germans are famously creeped out by people smiling (among the reasons cited for Walmart's exit from Germany was their insistance that the cashiers smile at the customers which creeped Germans out to such a degree that they stopped shopping there) but I find the half smile even creepier. It looks much creepier super sized.

The party that seems to have their act together (only as far as election posters on the B31 are concerned let me point out) are the Green Party. One example

This one says "People before banks. How about you?" They frame their arguments on a personal level, frame it as a conversation and all the posters are people (and one animal) outside (http://www.gruene.de/wahl-2013/gruene-wahlplakate-zur-bundestagswahl-2013.html)
In contrast, there are the poster from Die Linke, which seem to be shoving their platform down zour throat. (http://www.die-linke.de/wahlen/kampagne/themenplakate/)

In the end, this election matters not a whole lot to me. I may as well be living in North Korea seeing how much effect I have in choosing the government (none) I have also been kicked off the rolls in Texas, and am having a difficult time being reinstated as a voter. However, I can walk into any gun store in the Lone Star State and purchase a firearm without any problem. It is true what Clinton said. This is not to purely rip on the Texas. I love the state. I love the back country in Brazos county. I think Big Bend is among the most beautiful places on earth. And the cities of Texas, Dallas, Houston, and Austin are among the most diverse places anywhere on earth.

Cheap great German cuisine in Friedrichshafen

This is more or less a hole in the wall that is right in the middle of the city but not very obvious.
Its called Naturkost am Buchhornplatz (http://www.bio-center-fn.de/)


https://maps.google.de/maps?q=Am+Buchhornplatz+1,+88045+Friedrichshafen&hl=de&ll=47.650945,9.482092&spn=0.002974,0.008256&hnear=Buchhornplatz+1,+88045+Friedrichshafen&t=h&z=18 

There are actually two restaurants (or counters) inside, plus its got a small selection of fresh organic food. One counter only serves vegetarian fare and their salads are fantanstic. The other counter that is at the back of the store, serves typical south German cuisine, with a different menu at least on Saturdays (I have only made it on Saturdays) The food is really tasty and surprisingly good. It is only open for lunch.