It's that time again. The old year is coming to a close while the new year hasn't fully arrived yet. 2025 is lingering, but it's not there yet. Here in the center of Europe it's also winter time. The days get shorter and the nights are long and dark. Actually things are meant to slow down, at least for a couple of weeks before Christmas time, but usually that's not the case. Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Santa Claus and all the other events in addition to a lot of administrative tasks make this time of the year more hectic and just more full than ever. read more…
It's been a couple of days now since the official launch of the new Reeder app for iOS and macOS. But actually my very first impressions were not at all different from the opinions I have about this app now. It's really hard for me to say when I loved a new app like that right from the beginning. The new Reeder app is exactly how I work and think in terms of news feeds of all sorts all across the internet. The app is glorious, capable, flawless and incredibly beautiful. It's been definitely the right move of the swiss developer Silvio Rizzi to go that route. read more…
Right in the middle of 2024 it seems AI is everywhere. Certainly every electronic device is now shipped with some form of AI, cars use AI, cameras use AI, even fridges and toasters use AI. AI has become the buzzword of 2024 and it seems to be hard to ship new products without having AI in mind. But does this all make sense? What's the purpose of AI, what are the disciplines where AI is really transformative and soon will be unthinkable without the use of AI? read more…
There's much to say about Gerhard Richter, there's a long life full of interesting and always zeitgeisty works to cover. But this is not an essay, these are just 500 words to give you a quick of the kind of works he became so famous for. Gerhard Richter is an icon, a landmark in the world of visual arts. I guess this is true not just for Germany, but for the global art industry as a whole. His pieces successfully create record prices in the art circle. Whatever he does seems to become an almost unreal success.
I guess what makes him unique in many ways is his ability to recognize trends and moods within current societies. His works always seem to be fresh and up to date. Whenever one technique seems to age, he shifts his efforts away to the next one and creates something remarkable out of it. Every single time. He seems to be able to invent himself anew whenever a new innovation seem to be necessary. It would be misleading to call him trendy, though. His analysis of the world often goes much deeper than that. read more…
The history of northern Italy is complex. It's a constant back and forth between different political and religious forces, between different cultures and ideals, between different interests. Guelphs and Ghibellins are two factions that developed in the 11th and 12th century. Their names originated from different opposing families in Germany. Guelphs ist the Italian form of the House of Welf, a family of dukes in Bavaria, a part of northern Germany. Their constant opponents were the Ghibellins originating in the family of Hohenstaufen. read more…