geizhals on google maps

Buying stuff online is very convenient and usually also cheaper than in some real world store. But it can get disappointing when you have to pay a lot for shipping so I usually prefer to pick up my order directly from the shop. I was curious if there was an option to map all online shops from geizhals.at to google maps. Well there wasn't any satisfiyng way so I did some parsing and came up with a .kmz file for google maps. The result is online now:

Größere Kartenansicht

Der Alchimist

What a wonderful book. "You either love it or you hate it", friends told me. Well I am obviously one of the people who love it. And I actually do not understand how you could NOT love it?

Anyway, I was astonished that the spirit of this book reflects the spirit of successful people and perfectly fits into the row of books I was reading earlier, which I did not expect at all.

It for example fits to the spirit of the books I read in the last days,"Think and Grow Rich", "The Richest Man In Babylon", "Screw it, let's do it" and "Das Mentale Äquivalent". I know this sounds strange but even though the authors are from totally different backgrounds they still describe the same thing. They may have different terminologies but their spirit is very much the same: Whatever you focus on will come true.

"Wer immer du bist oder was immer du tust, wenn du aus tiefster Seele etwas willst, dann wurde dieser Wunsch aus der Weltenseele geboren. Das is dann deine Aufgabe auf Erden." more...

Screw it, let's do it

What an inspiring and motivating Quick Read. In just 100 easy to read pages Richard Branson points out in small stories what made his life a success. The stories are the opposite of exhaustive but break down the simple rules of success. And wow, this man survived so many occasions that could have killed him! ;) more...

Der reichste Mann in Babylon

Simple but practical financial tips packed into several short stories taking place in Babylon. I enjoyed reading this book and immediately applied its ideas to my financial life, rather simple and basic rules that I have not applied yet.


The most important rule I found for me in the book:

1. save 10% of your income and invest it
   
2. use 20% to cover your debts
3. take 70% for living

Sounds simple right? But are you doing it?

You for sure experienced that no matter how much money you have you will always think it is not enough and you will always be able to spend it all immediately. Usually when your income increases, your expenses increase equally. But you are also easily able to live with less without missing out on anything. If you save just 10% of your income you will probably not even miss it but after some years you will be proud you did it!

This book is not giving any detailed explanations on how to become wealthy or explaining any detailed business plan. It is really just repeating things of common sense which you should know already. I read the one star Amazon reviews where many people stated they struggled with the English version of this book. Well, I have the German version and it was really nice to read and not cheesy. more...

Das Mentale Äquivalent

A very short and quick read about the essence of life from Emmet Fox. Although I would not call myself religious I can identify with the ideas in this book very much. An inspiring hint from the esoteric or religious corner.

"Was immer in dein Leben kommt, ist nur die materielle Verwirklichung irgendeiner Annahme in deinem eigenen Geist. Die Beschaffenheit deines Körpers, die Beschaffenheit deines Heims, die Art deiner Arbeit und die Art der Menschen, die du triffst, sind alle durch deine geistigen Vorstellungen hervorgebracht und entsprechen diesen." more...

Jetzt lerne ich C++

Sounds unprofessional BUT I am an experienced C programmer and needed a fast introduction to C++ for an upcoming project. This book is simple and nice structured and gave me that very fast basic intro I was looking for. I scanned through it and picked the most important parts in about 4 hours.

If you are looking for C++ basics this book is really good. It is definitely a C++ beginners guide. In case you need something more advanced get a book from O'Reilly rather! more...

Speed Reading - How to read faster

I have always been convinced that I was a slow reader. I simply thought I was not gifted as others and I don't even tried to read faster. You can guess that this attitude is not helping to go through overwhelming amounts of informations quickly. It even makes reading a normal book a pain. One day a friend told me about speed reading and that anybody can learn it. I thought he was joking but I got curious.

I had a simple question:
How can I increase my reading speed?

I got a simple answer:
Use your finger!

I bought some books about learning and speed reading lately and I am amazed. In the beginning I was reading in snail speeds of 120 wpm ( words per minute ) and just a few weeks later I am reading with a maximum of 300 wpm (I am still getting faster).

The very first step you can take to read faster is using your finger as you most likely did already in primary school. Don't get me wrong please. Using your finger of course is just the very first and easiest step but I am pretty sure that it will make you want to learn more about speed reading. Start to enjoy reading! ;)

Garantiert Erfolgreich Lernen

I never read a book more valuable than this. It is outstanding! Every second page gives new insights on how to read faster, remember things better and manage your time more effectively. I definitely read much faster since I finished this book. And I mean MUCH faster. I also remember things better and what is even more important I love learning more than before.

The author Christian Grüning struggled during his studies with the incredible amount of knowledge he had to fill into his brain so he started to learn how to learn more effectively. And it worked. He passed his studies with distinction. This topic became so important for him that he even started a consulting company which helps people to learn more effectively. more...

Review Violet Mirror

As I stated earlier in this blog I am the Software Engineer of the Violet Mirror. Its been a while now that I finished working on it and I wondered already what Violet is going to do with that RFID gadget. I was pretty amazed when I logged onto my.violet.net which is the control platform for Nabaztag and the Mirror now.

At first I downloaded the Mirware which is an application running in the background on Windows or Mac. When I started the application I had to plug my Mirror and register it in my online web portal. Then I could start linking RFID tags with applications similar to the ones Nabaztag is using. This is what Violet calls "The Internet Of Things".

I just put a small rabbit (Nanoztag) on the Mirror which took me to a settings webpage for that specific RFID tag. A friend was watching me so I decided to use the send mail application with that Nanoztag to send an email to my friend. I was amazed how fast and easy it worked. I guess that friend of mine now has at least 15 mails in his folder. ;)

There still is some work to be done to make all things integrated fluently but the user interface and the interaction with the Mirror is really very nice. I am proud to be part of this product development team! If you would like to know more about the new Violet Mirror watch this video on 01.net! But be aware, it is in french! ;)

Wordle My Talents

I had the idea of bringing my talents into a single picture a while ago already. Something like a tag cloud was nice but not quite what I wanted. Now that I found wordle.net I could do it the way I thought it would look nice. I am also thinking about getting a shirt with my talents printed on the back of it.

Wordling my talents was so much fun so I also wordled my interests. ;)

Tesla Roadster

The car of my dreams! Elegant design, endless power, high energy, uncompetitive efficiency, sports engine, environment friendly, hitech, electric car ... a combination which is making me melt, Tesla Roadster.

The first cars for the european market will be available in 2009 for 99.000€. I will have to find a very efficient way to make that money in the next years. But Tesla Motors is already working on a variation for less money. Anyway, when I make my first million I will get this car! No doubt! :)

"We foresee a day when all cars run on electric power and when people will struggle to remember a time when a love of driving came with a side order of guilt. ", Tesla Motors 2008

Das Steuer-Sparbuch

You are an employee, a freelancer or self-employed? This book is an absolute must for you! The author decodes the Austrian tax laws and therefore makes them human readable. If you want to lower your tax expenses this book is mandatory! more...

Warren Buffet and the financial crisis

With the current financial crisis I was of course interested what Warren Buffet was doing. And what I found in google news was really amazing as it proofs what I was reading.

Right now that everyone is trying to get rid of their stocks he enters the market with big deals. He is also recommending to buy US stocks especially now during this crisis as some of them will have great results in the next 5 to 20 years.

So far Buffet's strategy is fitting my beliefs the best. I want to find the best companies whose products I can understand. In the best case it should be environment friendly hitech companies in the field of solar or alternative energies. Then I will buy as many of their stocks as I can afford and keep them for at least 5 years or in the best case for my lifetime.

So macht es Warren Buffet

James Pardoe is a fan of Warren Buffet and decided to write a book about 24 strategies of the world's most successful value investor. This book is really easy to read and keeps things simple. There are no complex descriptions about financial processes or economics. And the reason is that Warren Buffet is keeping things simple himself. If he does not understand what a company is doing, he is not willing to invest a cent.

Basically there are two types of investors, the ones using chart analysis, also called technical analysis, and the ones that try to calculate the real value of a company, the so called fundamental analysis. Buffet belongs to the second type. If he buys stocks then he wants to keep them for a lifetime, whereas investors who mainly use technical analysis tend to make money with short time trades. His decisions are based on pure fundamental calculations. He does not care about charts unless they indicate that the stocks of a company he is interested in are sold under their actual value. When others run away in fear of a crisis he is the one who is buying big.

I can really recommend this book if you want to start investing but don't have a proper strategy yet. This strategy is simple if you can control your emotions and lean back and relax while the market is going crazy. more...

QSR - Quantum Speed Reading

Japanese school kids reading books by flipping through them quickly several times. Pictures, sounds and smells coming out of the books. Reading books only by "flying" into them without even opening them. Reading books in minutes no matter what language they are written in. Talking with flowers to make them grow. Sleeping 8 hours in just 6 hours. This is just the beginning when you learn QSR. At least if you believe the author Yumiko Tobitani.

I believe in certain things other people would describe as esoteric BUT this book definitely crosses the border of my frame of esoteric believes and even goes way beyond it. The stories about QSR and the described training techniques to learn it just don't give me any other choice but to think that this is fraud. I would just love to believe that something like QSR could exist. Reading would be so much easier, it would be just great!

Unfortunately there are so many things in this book that make me believe that this book is fraud that I won't even start listing them here. But I don't want to talk completely negative about something I just don't understand. The book was originally written in Japanese, then translated to English and then to German. Maybe this translation chain in combination with strong cultural differences between Austria and Japan is making it very hard to understand the topic for Western cultures. There are also some things I would totally agree with the author. more...

www.quantumspeedreading.com