3 Weeks ago I had to laugh hard in the rooms of my home bank "Frankfurter Sparkasse". (click the link to laugh with me) Very new posters were setted up stating "Invest in Gold now".

Well I have never been a friend of gold as exchangecurrency, because of multiple reasons:
1. You can not use it except for electronics or beauty.
2. The price you will be given in case of an outsale is the one somebody is willing to give. Like concrete, just you can not live in gold.
3. Everybody was already talking about a gold bubble.

So, me as an semi expert in a bank full of greedy bankers, trying to rip off greedy customers, but so obviously dumb... I just had to really lough (seriously! I started laughing in the entrance hall). What an epic fail... Not the first time I do not understad how a bank, trying to be trustful is acting opposite.

And, plop, 2 weeks later the goldprice is falling to a moderate level. And I have no mercy for those trying to be smart, buying the goldshit.

The Euro is loosing trust, mostly because of the ECB and it's way to save the currency. Printing money (=lowering the interest rate to a near zero level) and the declaration to buy euro zone government bonds without boundaries if needed is a strange way to keep the fire burning.
I really do understand peoples fear of Inflation and the need to change your money into something trustful.

Why not trade your money to bitcoins? The global ammount of money cannot be modified (except by mining), The community is taking care that nothing happens to your money, it cannot be stolen for example.
The first reason not to do so is: you are not big enough. If a really big form like "GS" is buying bitcoins, the exchangerate will boost up, and if they decide to blow it away it will fall very deep within one day. Bitcoins are a virtual good traded on a market, and if you re read the reasons for not jumping in the gold pool, the same reasons exist here: you will only get what someone else is willing to pay.
And now all the scientific consensus can be called: http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/14/iterat ... ns-future/

It's hard to believe, but I still think it is a good idea to keep BC's in mind, at lest from a certain point in the future where the exrate is more stabil. First of all it is a currency the government and the banks have no influence on, which means that you can use it worldwide without a bankaccount. no transfer fees, no impolite questions about the origin and the usage.

In my twitter correspondence we were discussing the legitimation of Bitcoin, but which legitimation does the Euro have? Did we have the chance to vote about it? Would be nice if so... (thanks for that point Ingmar) The ECB must take it's primary goal serious, and also should never ever back away from the gonvernments. If they are able to prove this in the near future, the eurozone is able to get it's old strength.

One last word:
Inflation is just theft from the poor and it will never matter in the long run.

After building the TwitterMatrixTicker with my old Citizen 120D and the Raspberry Pi, I played a bit with my old POS Thermal printer. Especially to use it in my shop in Frankfurt City in the shop window as a gimmick.
Connecting the printer was easy, as easy as connecting the matrix printer 1 week before. The script has been modified slightly to understand the german "üäöß" special letters.
The basic setup is working. Next step will be a wifi stick to let it run wireless in the shopwindow.
One question still needs to be solved:
what keyword(s) should it react on?

hmmm. I'll post some pictures soon





webdoctor

hahah what a great fun:
imagine an old Matrix printer connected to your Raspberry Pi, printing out tweets for you instantly...



Sounds easy? well, not _that_ easy...
First of all I connected my RPi to the old Citizen 120D Matrix printer, finding out that the micro computer does not recognize it as printer. bummer...
A quick search told me that its a missing module named usblp.ko. And the worst thing is: you need to crosscompile your kernel in order to get this Module
I followed the instructions on elinux: http://elinux.org/Rpi_kernel_compilation. It took the whole evening to download all tools, kerneal sources and to compile the thing.

ok ... Today, very early i got to install and boot the kernel and the module and tried to run the TwitterMatrixTicker script i found ( http://blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/2012/0 ... tweet.html ) to output the twittersearch for my login direct on the printer.
guess: not working: the device /dev/usb/lp0 needs to be chmodded
so i did sudo chmod 666 /dev/usb/lp0 and .....
tadaaaa ... a first hello appeared after echo hello >/dev/usb/lp0

thats it...

now i can use it in my showcase in Frankfurt to attract people ;)


p.s. I have problems initializing the printer. the USB-Parallel port device is messing around with the old printer on startup. to use it, disconnect it, send a file to the printer, connect it and then its working...

now c'mon and twitter to @masterhit

another quiet brilliant team evening is ending.
thanks blackwolf, aequitas, rehcil
<3 trackmania <3

---------------------------------------------------
and here a teaser for next week:

think about what can be done with a raspbery pi, a funny script, and an old P.O.S. printer with an usb-centronics interface.

about 2 years ago i wrote about an independent game called knytt stories: a perfect playable, moody platformer with brilliant (retro) grafics by a guy called nifflas
as i opened up nintendos 3ds shop last week i discovered a game called night sky. by the promoted video and screendumps i thought that this nearly looked like knytt.
a further investigation brought that niffla is of course also the author of night sky...
Its not freeware as knytt stories, and its not a budget game for 1 or 3,50 €. the pricetag says 10 euro, and what shall i say, its worth every cent.

I LOVE IT

whats it all about? a mixture of marble madness and knytt stories \o/ the 3d effect is not necessary to play the 2d game (just like in new super mario bros 2)

i'll post some pics later... first i have to play a bit
..... 5 h later... the energy is low ;-)
i've found some pictures on nintendo.com with a little summary



imho this is one of the best 3ds games released so far. but it also means niffla is not the small independent programmer anymore. anyway, i am happy to have this game.

I've found a video reviewing da ting



have fun, stay young, stay curious

webdoktor