freedom bits

After the past months have barely left me enough time to breathe, I have finally found myself finding some time in my new home: Zürich, Switzerland. I'm sure many of you will have several preconceptions about Switzerland, and one of them is probably related to extremely good public services, including transportation.

Those are certainly not all wrong. Indeed, public transportation here is very good, and not expensive compared to other European countries in general and the Swiss prices, in particular. Also, the trains are generally outrageously punctual. More than once we've found ourselves sprinting to the train by now, because the train was a few seconds early. Personally I get the impression that for Swiss train conductors, being 1 minute late is a matter of grave shame that can only be addressed by committing ritual suicide.

Courtesy of VBZ Züri Line: How to lose your stress

However, the public transportation companies also have other ways to relieve stress and frustration, and encourage physical violence at the workplace for relief. Above is a picture I took in central Zürich, at the Parade-Platz where you can find many of the largest banks, and a hub for trams. And since it is not so easily readable like this, here is a close up of the most interesting part:

Courtesy of VBZ Züri Line: Paradeplatz-KungFu (close-up)

And since some of you may not be able to read German, here is a translation:

For back and arms -- 30 seconds

1: Stand with feet parallel to your shoulders, and slightly
   bend your knees.

   Bend the arms by the side of the body, and make your hands
   into fists. The back of your hands pointing downwards.

2: With the left fist, push forward like lightning, and turn the
   hand inward (back of your hand is now pointing upwards). Pull
   arm back.

   Change to other side, repeat 9 times each.

Effect: Will strengthen back and arms.

As far as the strengthening goes, I am quite sure it has that effect. I myself have done this very movement many thousands of times, for this is precisely how our Tae-Kwon Do teachers taught us to hit effectively and they had us repeat this at every training many times. Indeed, the image of the apparently asian man demonstrating the movement looks remarkably like Kung-Fu, don't you think? So far so good, but what really amused me was the text at the bottom, here is the translation:

Recommendation: Also do this exercise when your computer crashes
and when you have conflicts with colleagues at work, or customers.

Although I cannot condone violence against computers, I guess it also has that effect, especially when annoying colleagues or customers are at arms-length! Thanks, VBZ Züri Line for this really effective tip how to relax worked-up Swiss employees who need vent some stress and frustration.

So when you come to Switzerland, beware: If you plan to annoy someone, make sure they did not study this anti-stress technique at the Parade-Platz in Zürich.

Most modern cars tend to be packed with electronics, including the accelerator and steering wheel, which are often serving as slight indications of the passengers' will to the onboard computer that really controls the car.

The Register carries an interesting article about the effects of buggy software in today's world: Apparently a BMW 318 decided to "fly by wire" in the UK and was determined to accelerate fully regardless of what the driver thought about that idea:

Nicolle explained: "I was travelling down the motorway and I came to
traffic in front of me. I took my foot off the accelerator because
it's automatic - but I wasn't slowing down at all."

"I hit the brakes. They were braking ok, they were keeping me at about
70mph. So I phoned up the police after I called the AA and they said
straight away 'stick your hazard lights on and headlights on - we've
got a helicopter en route to you'."

Nicolle attempted unsuccessfully to stick the Beemer in neutral, but
found the gears jammed. "Then the brakes started burning out - I could
see smoke coming from the brakes," he said.

While the "satanic BMW" is a funny read, the idea of sitting in such a machine with both feet on the brakes, accelerating like crazy when the brakes finally died, is anything but funny.

It also serves as a nice example of the real-worldly effects of buggy software. And people really ask me why I want to be able to control this software myself by demanding Free Software?