Author Archives: fogBlogger

ISO don’t understand

I have another confession to make. Like countless other individuals, I have been flying under a false name for literally decades now. (Probably another good reason for keeping this blog anonymous.) Airline reservation systems (if not many computer systems generally), you see, have a problem with hyphenated last names and, as I recently read, problemsContinue reading “ISO don’t understand”

Water boarding

It’s hardly an original observation on my part, but boarding an airplane does not rank among life’s most pleasant experiences: endless queues of aggressive people with elbows flying all jockeying for the best position. And all that before they’ve even announced that the gate is open for boarding. (The obvious exception here, of course, areContinue reading “Water boarding”

Degenerative admin

Working right up until the last second, the admin elves at the University of Not-Bielefeld published a set of 11 recommendations shortly before the Christmas break to advise its teaching staff in how to deal with generative AI in the classroom. And then took a well deserved seven-week break before facing the even more arduousContinue reading “Degenerative admin”

Silent theocracy

Most Germans will deny it, if only because they cannot pronounce the voiceless dental fricative (/θ/, one of the two “th” sounds), but they actually live in a theocracy, making it currently only the third western country together with the Vatican and the US to do so. There are more than a few obvious signs pointing toContinue reading “Silent theocracy”

Corporate resign

Some time ago, I wrote how admin here at the University of Not-Bielefeld (if not admin types the world over) like to send chain e-mails, where some e-mail from central admin is successively forwarded down the chain of responsibility (central admin to faculty to department to …) with no one bothering to clean up allContinue reading “Corporate resign”

Motivational writing

Apart from the universal, default strategy of continually growing its customer base, another key element of WordPress’ business model must be to keep their band of bloggers happy, motivated, and writing. Having already gotten me to sign up (= growth strategy), WordPress immediately shifted to inundating me with announcements about how I could make moneyContinue reading “Motivational writing”