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My posting discipline is always taking hits in summertime. This is my attempt to keep it up even if my schedule is broken. Have a great June! Inspiration Playing in unlikely places - a beautiful, inspiring gallery and collection of projects (/cc kottke.org) Stay a minute in the cursor.camp. James writes about Joyful Web Design. This is a beautiful idea. Usability A Design Research Framework - in times of AI-supported engineering the ability to do great research becomes more important than ever.…
On a Friday in May we went to Aachen to see Steve Hackett. I have been a Genesis fan since my early teens. So it was kind of a wish come true to witness the music of the golden prog-rock era come to life on a stage. And, boy, did they burn through it. The set was split by a 20-minute break and the first session consisted of Steve's later solo creations with the second session giving focus to the early Genesis years, where Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford, Banks and Collins all worked together. The…
As board game enthusiasts we have always been romancing with a board game table. However, the ones you find on the SPIEL in Essen and at the usual manufacturers like Rathskellers are impressive - but the obvious and primary purpose is boardgaming. They're huge, bulky and try to be the No. 1 furniture in the room - too much for our living room (and taste). So we have been looking for smart solutions since a few years now. Kvasir Studios Shortly after the pandemic we met Kvasir Studios from…
On Saturday I went to the beautiful Ahrtal. You may remember, there was a terrible, heart-breaking tragedy in 2021, when the Ahr flooded the valley and lots of people lost their homes, work and even loved ones. Shortly after we went there for support and since then we came back quite often - most often to take part in the Ahrtal Weinwanderung. An event where you hike through the vineyards and taste some of that extraordinary wines of the Ahrtal valley - to financially support the region, talk…
On labour day, we went to the Herner Spielewahnsinn - a small boardgame convention in Herne in the middle of the Ruhr valley. It's a cozy, quiet convention, with some cosplayers, a few known German publishers, a rent-a-boardgame booth and lots of tables to get a game going. We played Feuerland's Echoes of Time. Another game that has a kind of card movement mechanism similar to Emberleaf or Iello's Ancient Knowledge. We played with 2 players and on this first run we had the impression that it is…
If there's one conference that my heart belongs to, it's the beyond tellerand, carefully crafted and organized by Marc Thiele in Düsseldorf and Berlin. Marc obviously puts so much love into this, you should not miss it. Marc on stage at beyondtellerand 2026 - Photos by Florian Ziegler under CC BY-SA 4.0. Unfortunately I wasn't able to visit the 15th anniversary edition just a few days ago. The line-up was extraordinary and I'd wish I was there. Now Florian Ziegler has put together a gallery of…
Damn, I wanted to blog much, much more. So many things are happening, I just don't find the time. There is so much to do. Well, maybe I need to journal here on this website. Let me try that for the month of May. One post every day. Let's see what happens and if I am able to make it. It's funny, I enjoy software engineering and creating assistive systems with LLMs, but I can't credit using AI for blogposts. I find it terrible to read them and to skim for information. No surprises, no…
No advertisement! On our weekend trip to Edinburgh and the Highlands we had the sheer luck of being given a pretty new car: The latest Mercedes CLA 250+. We wanted ordered an electric car, but the one we wanted wasn't available, so a very nice clerk gave us (probably) an update. I have been scolding German carmakers for quite some time (especially for their software capabilities), so we were in for a treat. We are absolutely committed to electric mobility. There's no need for gasoline anymor...
Look it up. Watch it. It's beautiful.
I don't publish on April, 1st anymore. Actually, I completely avoid the internet on that day. There is so much fake and lies out there, that April fools' day is not necessary anymore. So here you find my inspirational links on Apr, 2nd. Enjoy! We went to Scotland for a weekend. And as expected, it was glorious. I completely dropped out of my habits (which was good) and enjoyed the food, the people and the - of course - the gorgeous landscape. Talk about a recharge here. If you ever happen t...
A tiny comment on LinkedIn got me a beautiful fanzine on business storytelling. Christian Riedel is GrowthByStory, a professional storyteller and writer - helping organisations to become better in telling their story. When I commented on one of his posts on LinkedIn, Christian sent me this tiny fanzine, obviously handmade, that tells about business storytelling and how to dive into your story. Just like that. Thank you, Christian! Strategy Peter Bihr publishes his Little Book of Strategy in...
