A completely new approach to where we come from

We learn in modern school that apes and human being share a common ancestor. (Many people misquote this as "human beings are descendants of the apes").

It turns out that this notion  recently got competition by a revolutionary new hypothesis which at first sounds quite strange, but then is really compelling. As Eugene M. McCarthy explains comprehensively on his page, he proposes the hypothesis that humans are a so-called backcrossed hybrid. So rather than slowly evolving from a single species, according to this hypothesis, human beings might be a cross of two completely different species which then repeatedly mated with one of the ancestors. One of these ancestors he calls chimpanzees (however he states "here, I use the term chimpanzee loosely to refer to either the common chimpanzee or to the bonobo, also known as the pygmy chimpanzee; the specific roles of these two rather similar apes within the context of the present hypothesis will be explained in a subsequent section".

After having read the extremely interesting book "Sex at dawn" by Ryan and Jetha (I know the title is cheesy), I think it is prudent to believe that the bonobo is one of the ancestors. Then he addresses the question of which animal might be the second ancestor. He does this by meticulously listing (a subset) of the features found in humans but not in chimpanzees and then seeks to find an animal that has all of these features.

 Lets try it:

• Intelligent
• Naked skin
• Eyes in different colors, including blue
• Protruding nose (made of cartilage)
•  Eyebrows and Eyelashes present
• Good swimmer
• Eats a large variety of food

What animal comes to mind?

Let's say we have a bit of a difficult relationship to this animal.

But - we use its organs (for example skin or heart) to replace human organs.

Many religions forbid to eat the flesh of this animal.

And - last but not least - its the name of a song by Pink Floyd.

Pigs.

And if you look at such a cute specimen - don't you see something of us there?

This hypothesis causes some strange sensations, I have to admit it.

But it really makes a lot of sense. Here is just a selection of observations Eugene McCarthy shares:

• Humans are not very fertile, especially male sperm is often degenerate. This is common for hybrid mammals
• Pigs are indeed very intelligent
• Pigs have a cleft lip - something that never occurs in apes but may occur in humans

I will continue to think about this - to end for now this nice poem:

Thank the Pig by Gene McCarthy

Not everyone will say it's true,
But pigs are creatures much like you.
We ape an ape in many ways,
Yet pig distinctions win our praise.

How can you live without a car?

In this little interview with advocatus diaboli, I. Zlobredo, I would like to discuss the implications of a life of a family without a car.

I. Zlobredo: Hi Daniel, how did you get here?
D. Oderbolz: As usual, I came by bike (as in bicycle) - currently, I am here with my Grace E-Bike.
I. Zlobredo: Ahh, that's why you are sweating!
D. Oderbolz: I have to admit, contrary to common belief, an E-bike also makes you sweat, if you drive at top speed. That is also my major reason to do it: I want to keep fit.
I.: But you and your wife have two kids - how does this work out without a car?
D.: It is surprisingly easy. I commute almost exclusively by bike, that makes 30 km each day. To bring our younger one to daycare, I use a bike trailer. In case the older also needs a ride, the trailer is spacious enough for both kids. My wife commutes by train. She owns a GA (with this annual subscription, you can use all public transports in Switzerland).
I.: But what about winter?
D.: Well what about it? I change my tyres around october, my winter tyres have many small spikes (great to drive even without snow or ice). Riding them is certainly much less dangerous than walking on ice (laughs). Because my E-Bike does not have many parts that can corrode, I get through winter without trouble. The important bit is to wear many layers of clothing. On the coldest days I wear as many as seven layers of clothes. Also, I use a balaclava to protect my lungs from the cold (my kids like that, they saz it makes me look like a mean pirate).
I.: Did you never think it was cooler to drive a car?
D.: Of course, the ads of the car companies and especially Hollywood gives us this impression. If you don't have a car you must be a loser. I had an interesting discussion with a medical doctor about this a while ago - it this profession, the peer pressure must be quite high. He used to have a small car (a Smart), but then changed to a Jaguar. For me, the opinion of other people was never a strong driver. I think that driving a car is pretty irresponsible in most cases.
I.: Irresponsible? How so?
D.: On the one hand, it is plain dangerous. Even with the most modern equipment, a car seems like a loaded weapon to me - that's why I do not like to drive at all. I.: So you own a driver's license?
D.: Yes, I do. But I admit that I drive so little that I am really dangerous... But returning to that earlier thread. Cars stand around most of the time. That is such a waste of room! It makes me angry to see all these cars parked in the streets. Our kids have so little room - but we park our cars there! Also think about all the room that is taken away by streets. In Switzerland, the area taken by travel infrastructure per person is about 3 times the area taken for housing! Then, building a car requires more than 1000 kg of nice raw materials and plenty of energy. Why don't we share these beautiful machines? And finally, they require a crazy amount of gasoline and produce a plethora of noxious gases and particulates. I can only repeat: driving a car is irresponsible behaviour. However, I admit that I am also irresponsible sometimes - nobody is perfect.
I.: I think driving by bike is irresponsible!
D.: Well, I have to admit that I sometimes meet some pretty reckless bikers. I think especially on a bike, it is prudent to respect the rules and give the car driver the benefit of the stronger one... I rather break than breaking my body. But of course, with an E-Bike at a speed of around 40 km/h things get more interesting. One needs to make sure to be 100% concentrated.
I.: I heard that some E-Bikes even make top speeds on the order of 48 km/h!
D.: It is true, for example the Stromer reaches 48 km/h top supported speed. I think this is no longer safe. Already at 40 km/h, you really need to take care. At almost 50 km/h, things might get tight...
I.: But don't you think your kids would be safer in a car?
D.: I think in this question lies the whole tragedy of the bike today. You see less bikes on the street because people think it is more dangerous. Hence, the proportion of cars raises, which in turn means that cars are less used to share the street with bikes. Often, car drivers give this impression: "this is my street - what are you doing here?" I think this position is wrong. I also pay for this street. I do not accept to be forced to use second-rate streets. Coming back to the safety of the kids: with the trailer, we drive only on small streets within our quarter. Since I also drive carefully I think we are as safe as within a car.
I.: The kids also might get a cold!
D.: On the other hand, they are much more in touch with what is going on outside. They know exactly where we are driving. No, I think it is a healthy way to travel. If you now try to tell me about pollution - that would be pretty cynical, don't you think?
I.: I admit that this is a bit of a hen & egg problem. But many car manufacturers claim that the air coming out of their exhaust pipe is cleaner than what came in. What do your friends say? Do they think you are crazy?
D.: Quite a number of my friends also have no car. Most of them live in the city, where a car is not really needed. It has, however, never been much of a discussion. SOmetimes it is funny however, when people assume that I am completely against cars. At a stag night of one of my friends I suggested he should drive a Ferrari - much to the astonishment of the others. I am an engineer (OK, an environmental), so I can admire a nice piece of engineering...
I.: What makes you do this? Do you feel like saving the world or something?
D.: Absolutely not. For me it just feels right to live like this - plus it is fun!
I.: If I would like to try this lifestyle, what would you recommend to do?
D.: First of all: sell your car and realize how much you save! A car is really a luxury item, but many of us believe it is somehow essential... Then of course buy a nice bike. They come at a fraction of a very small car. I would recommend an E-Bike - but do not forget the helmet!
I.: So you wear one of those dreadful helmets?
D.: Yes, I think this is really essential. There are, however, many nice models out! Especially for kids, it is important I.: Thanks a lot for this interview - take care with your driving!
D.: Thank you, it was a pleasure! Take care yourself!

Goosebumps: Sherlock is back!

Finally, after a much too long waiting time, BBC has released the first episode of the third season of Sherlock.

All we had so far was this picture:

The following episodes have been produced:

• The empty hearse
• The sign of three
• His last vow

How to tar subdirs

After having finished my Phd Thesis, I needed to archive more than 1 Tb on our Tape archive. To make this manageable, I decided to split the data according to subdirectory. Here is a small snippet to automate this:

Script to create text files from Outlook appointments

We have a system that reads certain csv files to create HTML Lists of Appointments. So far this CSV was created manually. I wanted to replace this by a script that is able to read this information directly from Outlook. The script I came up with supports a mustache-like syntax to build templates which are then filled by the program. This allows to generate almost arbitrary text files. Here is an example of such a template: "{{FormatDateTime(currentday,2)}}, {{oAppt.Subject}}"

Test of the Grace Easy S-Pedelec

Thanks to the nice guys at Stromvelo.ch, I can test a Grace Easy S-Pedelec for the next few days.

(Image by electricbikemag.co.uk)
First of all, the bike looks marvelous. As you can see in the nice shot above, there is no ordinary chain on this E-Bike, rather you find a belt as a means of transmission. This means no greasing and reduced maintenance. This is further accentuated by the bionx-motor that directly encapsulates a 3-shift S-RAM hub.

First Ride (From Shop Home, Urban-Suburban)

My initial reaction to the bike was that it feels really sturdy and stable. The double kick stand folds easily and keeps the bike steady when parked. The support by the motor can be adjusted using a total of nine positions, four of them "negative" (varying degrees of recuperation), a neutral setting and four "positive" settings to control the amount of support given. The support comes smoothly and without overpowering the driver. My biggest concern was that there are only three gears available. My first ride did not include very steep inclines (although I live in Switzerland, its not very hilly terrain), but the small I had to climb was a piece of cake even in gear three. However, the alignment of the first gear seems to be somewhat off, I will let the technician have a look at this tomorrow.

Second Ride (Around the Block, Nighttime)

In this small nighttime test I wanted to check how safe I feel about the lighting system. When pressing the power button for about 2 seconds, the light starts (as well as the backlight of the LCD). One has to be careful to press no too short, because this switches off the bike (which does not matter much, tough, since the bike rides on nicely).
It is a bit surprising that the light cone is more of a light pyramid, in the sense that the shape of the headlight is rectangular. The cone is also not very large - this is no match for my regular battery light from Philips. Still, there is sufficient light to be comfortable (for night rides through the woods, it is probably a good idea to mount an additional headlight).

Third Ride (To the Office in the rain)

My primary reason to consider an E-Bike is my commute to the office, which is 15 km (one way). The total altitude to climb is roughly 160 m.
To test how much I gain from the smallest support level, I ran on this low level. To my surprise, this allowed me to ride at an average speed of around 30 km/h, so that I completed the ride in half an hour. This is 30% faster than my typical ride without support! After this ride, roughly 25% of the capacity of the battery was used. Note that during this ride, I did not use the recuperation feature at all - this would extend the range somewhat (we can assume recuperation around 1%/km).
The bike runs very stable and smooth, the support of the motor is very subtle and unobtrusive (as we will see, this is different in a stromer). Because of the 3-shift gear, the bike must be ridden in a sportive way. If you cannot sustain the cadence needed to run at high speed, you will not be able to run fast.
In my humble opinion, this is an advantage - I want a bicycle, not a motorbike. In other words: even with this Ebike, I will train my body, but I can run faster than before, which in my case saves me at least 30 Minutes a day of travelling.
The Magura brakes worked excellently in the rain and gave me a safe feeling. However, one needs to consider the inevitable prolongation of the braking way at the higher speeds.

Fourth Ride (Back home in the rain)

Getting back from work was the primary motivation to consider an Ebike. After a day of work, and often against the wind, my average speed typically drops almost 2 km/h. Now I wanted to know how full support feels like and set the power level to maximum. It was a revelation - I was even faster than in the morning. Having said that, I also needed to work more, so it is not really a relaxation program. But true to the first law of thermodynamics ("there is no free lunch") - this is only fair.

Fifth Ride (To the Office)

Now with a bit more routine, I was able to use all the modes well, including the four recuperation modes. This is amazing: you can brake on very steep hills using just the motor and you know that this pumps back a bit of energy to the battery. What was annoying is the lack of mud guards on my test-bike (they are available for 170 CHF together with a pannier rack.

Seventh Ride (Back to shop and up the hill)

Before returning the bike to the shop (buhu!), I wanted to test if I can climb a rather steep hill in Baden without motor support. Of course, it is not a very nice experience, but it is possible (albeit it's much more work than doing this with a Stromer with a 27-shift gear). Turing on the motor is really cool. Going up a steep hill with 35 km/h is simply a good feeling. I overtook a public bus on the way - hurray! Going down with full recuperation even returned enough energy to fill all battery bars again (there must be some measurement error, tough). When I again mounted my "old" bike, it constantly felt as if I ran in recuperation mode - one is so much less agile...

A small comparative ride with a stromer Power 48

For comparison, I was able to do a quick ride with a stromer Power 48, which was equipped with the 27-shift gear. First of all, the motor feels much more aggressive and pushes a lot. The 500 W feel quite different than the 350 W of the Grace. But I miss the grace - I do not like to be pushed around. For me, this did not feel like a bicycle anymore. I also went uphill with the Stromer and I was surprised that I could not match the speed of the grace. The dealer later told me that the speed range of 10-15 km/h is a bit of a weakness of the Stromer. Also, the two Recuperation Modes do not offer much, I had to brake a lot downhill with the stromer. Finally, the handling of the controls is more cumbersome with the Stromer and the Display less clear than the one from Grace. For me personally, the case is clear: Grace it is.

Conclusion

To make a long story short: I have ordered the bike now. I plan to use it almost daily, so I will do roughly 6000 km a year on it. I guess I will have to say more about it soon.

Office 2010: Headache with Alfresco 4.2c Community Edition over CIFS

If you open a Excel or Word 2010 document that is stored on Alfresco 4.2c (the problem does not occur with Powerpoint) via CIFS, you get a message that the file is already open by "another user", even if it isnt. This bug has been seen in many Alfresco versions, but also in the latest community release 4.2c (CIFS/Office 2010 - File locked after creation).
The reason for this seems that Office 2010 acquired more than one lock per open file and forgets to close at least one of them.
Since Office 2010 allows webdav Links to be used directly in File dialogs (open/save), and webdav does not seem to produce these issues, this is a viable workaround. Also, under Windows 7 and later, webdav can be mounted just like a normal CIFS drive, which also avoids these problems. (This has the nive side-effects that the server is only about half as busy as with CIFS, also if you serve the data via HTTPS, the data is encrypted which it isn't via CIFS).