Knut and Friends

Knut, for those not in the know, is a baby polar bear, and the highlight of the Berlin Zoo - one of the top zoos in the world. There are actually two zoos in Berlin, something that is not mentioned in most information guides to Berlin. I only found out about it, thanks to Fabian, when I met up with him on Thursday evening.


The city zoo is more compact, and features all the heavy weight attractions: lions, tigers, elephants, polar bears, brown bears, hippos, and many more. Some of the animals are quite good at pulling crowds, like the Panda, whose antics with the bamboo shoots drew large crowds.


A Springbok


Interesting backgrounds ... these are bisons


No idea what the architecture of the Giraffe pen has to do with the giraffes


The gorillas are also a famous feature of the zoo


The lionesses

The Tierpark (the other zoo) is spread over a massive area, and I did not actually go through the whole place because of its size. It probably has more animals (both zoos seem to have the main highlights). However, unlike the city zoo, which has one animal exhibition after another, the tierpark is a more spread out affair, with lots of trees and gardens between the various animal pens. It is a much nicer place to visit, IMO.


Both zoos have polar bears, the Tierpark photos just came out a lot better


A tiger pacing around


The irony of camels in a lush green field, surrounded by water


The park is littered with statues and fountains and places to have picnics etc. Some sculptures are a bit more interesting.


The park has a much larger collection of reptiles. The city zoo does have an aquarium, but it requires an additional ticket.

In the end, I would much rather go see them in the wild. While zoos do offer the luxury of seeing a larger variety of animals, it is just not the same as seeing them in the wild. They somehow seem to loose their magnificence. Which one to go to: if you want to see Knut, there is no option. Otherwise, go to the Tierpark.

Soviet War Memorials

The Soviets suffered one of the highest casualties in WW2, and they were one of the major forces in defeating the Nazis. In many parts of Germany, the soviets built war memorials to commemorate the fallen soldiers. I have been two such memorials in Berlin - the first near the Brandenburg Gate is quite simple, and to the point. It is flanked by two tanks, two artillery canons and features a small museum behind it.

There is much larger soviet war memorial in the former East Berlin, which can only be described in the superlative: grand, massive, majestic. It is a much more complex memorial, and is in fact the burial grounds for about 5000 soviet soldiers killed in the Battle of Berlin. I find it complex, not only because of it size, but also because of the artwork and design. First there is the kneeling woman, probably symbolising the prayers, then the kneeling soldiers at the symbolic gate, and the main feature of a heroic soldier carrying a child. This is a commemoration of fallen heroes, and nothing less. It is highly decorative and very intricately detailed, unlike many other soviet memorials I have seen, notably from the Statue park in Budapest.







But then there are the side panels on either side of the graves, which feature quotes from Stalin and images telling, it seems the story of the war, and how everyone in the country played their part. This is more rough, more common, and in stark contrast to the hero.

A Weekend in Hamburg

I was originally going to go to Hamburg 2 weeks ago, to meet up with a friend who would also be in Hamburg. Unfortunately, I could not get any accommodation (apparently it is the peak of the backpacker season). The train ticket was valid for a full month, so I planned better, and spent the past weekend in Hamburg.

I was quite lucky to make the train I wanted ... if it was on time, I would have been late by about 2 minutes. I was getting off the local train when the train was scheduled to leave. Luckily for me, the train was running late (by about 10 minutes) and I managed to catch it. The scenery was rather bland - miles of green farm land dotted with a lot of wind power stations. But not much else to see.


I stayed at the Instant Sleep Hostel, which is in a convenient location to move around Hamburg. Paraphrasing the Lonely Planet guide, it is a colourful hostel, but with very sparse facilities. I stayed in the hall of dreams, a 25 bed dorm! Have no complaints of the actual hostel really, although there was no such thing as an atmosphere. But then, I needed a bed to sleep in, and did not intend to hang out in the hostel.

Hamburg is really known for three things: its massive harbour, the airbus factory and Reeperbahn. Reeperbahn is the red light district, even larger than Amsterdam. It is reputedly a lot tamer (I need to investigate this), full of neon lights and at times, quite amusing (the reaction of people walking through, the ads etc).


As for the harbour, you only really understand the scale and size of it if you take a river cruise (or in my case, take the public ferries). The size of the ships is simply staggering, and the harbour is quite busy.


I did not see the Airbus factory, but it does seem that not everyone is impressed with the new plane.



Hamburg was an independent state for a long time, and it was quite a rich state at that. The city hall's impressive architecture is testament to this. I was there too early in the morning, and thus could not go inside.


St. Nikolai Church was one of the largest churches before WW2, and was then bombed. The spire is more or less all that remains, and is now an anti-war memorial. Again it was too early in the morning, so everything was closed. I did go up the tower of St. Michaelis Church though (it opens earlier than the others) and it offers a fantastic view of Hamburg, but is not as interesting.


For me, there were actually only two highlights on my trip: the Olympic Rolercoaster at the Hamburger Dom (a fun fair), and the Fish Market. I haven't been on many roller coasters, but The Olympic Roller Coaster has been by far the best. The 5 rings are complete loops and it is an amazing ride. The photo is from the tower of St. Michaelis; I did not actually take photos of either the Hamburger Dom or Reeperbahn.



The fish market is an open air market, and not much fish gets sold anymore. Even though I don't understand German, it is the antics of the stall keepers that is really impressive. Many put on a real show, in order to sell their wares, and there are some real bargains to be had; such as the full basket of fruit and vegetable (including the basket) for 10 Euros, to trees and plants for the garden.

Hamburg is also well known for its live music scene, especially for being the "birthplace" of the Beatles phenomenon. Just my luck: there are two music festivals starting this coming weekend, and there was one the weekend before. But this past weekend, there were only a few acts in bars and the like, and all the ones I found tended to be solo guitar acts, so I just kept looking (without much luck).

To be honest, there is nothing special about Hamburg. But if you do go, make sure you get up early on Sunday morning to go to the Fish Market.

Music: Sister Chain & Brother John and Daniel Colletti

One of the Berlin residents from the Autosport Forums alerted me to a gig in one of the many cafes+bar+clubs in Berlin. So, together with Martin, I decided to go check it out. Intersoup can be described as an Asian cafe+bar, but with a very limited menu (comprising of soups and dumplings). However, the food was very good!

The opening act was a solo Goth guitarist, Daniel Colletti. The lyrics were in German, so can't really comment - but Martin said that it was quite depressing. Well, it was goth music ... Musically, rather unimpressive, but it was interesting to hear live music in a strange language.

The "star act" was a duo that describe their music as Victorian rock, and was described by the venue's flyer as "experimental rock". The duo, an Englishman playing bass or electric guitar, and a woman (who could speak German, not sure if she is German) who was the main vocalist. It was certainly very interesting music, and the lyrics were very cool - some were funny, some were serious ... but all very interesting. I think the closest mainstream act I can think off that they could resemble, would be Björk. Martin was so impressed, that he bought their EP!

Overall, it was a good night of food and music!

Software Liability

The recent furore about the quality of Chinese made toys has brought an interesting subject to light: product liability. In the most recent case, Mattel, the world’s largest toy maker has recalled entire product lines because of two separate issues. The biggest issue (happened twice in two weeks), was the case of the use of lead based paint. As the Wikipedia article on lead explains, long term exposure to lead could lead to damage to the nervous system and other problems; and thus the use of lead based paint has been discontinued in most industrial nations. Thus this issue of product liability has arisen out of the manufacturing process. The second issue, was the recall of certain magnetic toys, which are dangerous if swallowed, and despite certain news reports, it is not really the fault of the Chinese manufacturers. Rather, it is a design problem – the toy designers designed a faulty product, and these toys are being recalled so that they can be fixed.

This is my round about way to get to the topic – software liability. Unlike every other product in the world, software development houses (the vendors) are effectively immune from product liability. One of the biggest factors behind security issues in computer systems are because products are not designed and developed (manufactured) correctly – leading to a multitude of security problems. But unlike Mattel, vendors do not have to recall software because of bad design or development. In fact, while many vendors do provide patches, there is no obligation for them to do so (well it does make business sense for them to do so, most of the time).

There have been many, most notably Bruce Schneier, who have argued that product liability must also extend to software, and it is the only way to get more reliable, secure software. His basic argument is, at the moment, there is currently no incentive for a vendor to make secure software; and instead, it is the end user who is forced to spend extra money in an attempt to make his computer more secure through the use of firewalls, anti virus software etc. Not surprisingly, majority of vendors are opposed to software liability. They contend that software is too complex, and that there will always be bugs. Furthermore, it is not necessarily just the software that is at fault, but the combination of software applications that are used that is at fault.

In the recent report (pdf) by the Science and Technology Committee of the UK’s House of Lords (really good read), Prof. Mark Handley from University College London, sums it up very well:

“If your PC, for example, gets compromised at the moment there is no real liability for the software vendors or the person who sold them the PC or anything else. The question then is: did the person who sold you that software or the person who wrote that software or whatever actually do the best job industry knows how to do in writing that software? If they did then I really do not think they should be liable, but if they did not then I think some liability ought to be there.”

And that is exactly how product liability in other disciplines work: if a bridge falls down, it is only the fault of the construction company if they did not follow accepted standard practices like taking shortcuts or building the bridge using poor quality materials. Likewise, it is the designer's fault if they build a bridge in an area known for earthquakes without considering earthquakes in their design. And it is the same reason, Mattel is recalling some magnetic toys – because the designers did not consider what would happen if children swallowed those magnets.

Software should be the same. There needs to be some degree of accountability. During the design phase considerations such as security , reliability, stability must be taken into account. And there are tools out there to conduct rigorous testing of software design: for example (citing a tool that I know very well), Petri nets can be used to prove whether a process is bounded or not – and unbounded processes provide a good indication that the process could experience buffer overflows or similar issues during implementation.

Similarly, development also needs to have some degree of accountability. Buffer overflows caused because there are no checks on whether the input is of a correct size or not is not usually a fault of the designer. It is the fault of the programmers who did not bother to check for it, and the QA people because they forgot to test for it. Yes, programming is still a human process, and unlike robotic assembly lines, cannot be relied upon to provide perfect results, all the time. But there should be a reasonable grounding of all programmers to deliver a certain level of quality. It’s the least that should be expected.

Off course, this does not mean that patches will not be required. But, hopefully, patches will be used to fix vulnerabilities and bugs that are beyond the basic assurances. And this would still mean that users have to take care and maintain their computers and software – just like every other product. And just like every other product, the vendors should inform the users of the correct way to use and maintain software. The issue of a “computer driving license” has often been discussed … maybe it is high time, that it is actually discussed seriously.

There is off course the case of open source. In open source software, there is often no one to sue (for liability). But I think Bruce Schneier provides the perfect middle ground: open source software that is freely distributed, installed and maintained by the user (through help from online communities) should not offer any liability protection; after all the software cost nothing to begin with. However, vendors that package and support open source software (such as Red Hat), should be liable. In the end it is about assurance: from a vendor like Red Hat you are getting assurance that a specific set of open source products that is secure and stable.

I think it is inevitable that software liability will happen; it is just a matter of when. In their recommendations, the Science and Technology Committee of the UK’s House of Lords state:

“We therefore recommend that the Government explore, at European level, the introduction of the principle of vendor liability within the IT industry. In the short term we recommend that such liability should be imposed on vendors (that is, software and hardware manufacturers), notwithstanding end user licensing agreements, circumstances where negligence can be demonstrated. In the longer term, as the industry matures, a comprehensive framework of vendor liability and consumer protection should be introduced.”

Potsdam

Potsdam is a town near Berlin, the capital of the Brandenburg state, and was the summer residence of the Prussian royalty. The major tourist attractions of Potsdam, are the royal palaces and their grounds and gardens; now a UNESCO heritage site. Exploring Potsdam on your own is difficult: access into many of the palaces is available only through guided tours (which are off course, mainly, if not all, in German). For this reason, my Lonely Planet guide suggested that the palaces are best explored through tour companies, and I joined Brewer's Tours for the third time, now for their Potsdam tour.

The tour was led by Terry Brewer, the founder of the tour company. He once worked for the Allies, in Berlin, during the partition, and for the British Navy for a number of years, before "retiring" to Berlin. Tour guides make the tour, and he was a brilliant host, and his stories, his humour, and most of all, his knowledge, made the tour worth every Euro cent! The tour party was quite impressive too; apart from me, there were two Greek housewives visiting their daughters studying in Berlin, two physists working in Berlin (one from Italy, the other from Morocco) and an American movie producer, who is about to wrap up her first movie (documentary really) about tour guides in Berlin!

A point about the weather (see previous post) - it was forcasted to be sunny - even in the morning on the subway station. It drizzled for most of the day, so many of the outside shots were just not as spectacular as they should be. But no purple skies! :P


The palaces are strictly controlled, and every one has to wear these funny slippers inside most of the palaces. The slipers would make it lots of fun to slide in the marble halls ... and if it wasn't for the many minders, I think we would have had some competitions! You are also not allowed to take photos, so no views from the inside.


From Berlin, we caught a train to Potsdam (considered in the C zone in the Berlin transport system). We got off at Sancoussi Gardens station, and then started off at the New Palace, built by Frederick the Great in the 1760s. There are some spectacular rooms inside, especially the jeweled great hall, which is decorated with crystals and gems, and the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. The lavish lifestyle of royalty is so well demonstrated, and so spectacular.


I know it is Germany, and not prudish England, but the number of statues and paintings around the various palaces that have sexual overtones (some going further than overtones) is quite amazing. The swinging sixties could be considered prudish at times ... Oh yes, on this topic, one must mention about the bedrooms of the princes, which were adorned with paintings of naked women (renaissance art off course), and not forget the countless statues of naked men. Equality existed back then, I suppose.


The Orangery Palace, built in the 1850's was built to serve as a part greenhouse, part retreat. It has good views from the top, but it is the "fake" art gallery, full of Raphael copies that is really impressive. And it was open to the public back then too!


Sanssouci Palace, is the main attraction. However, the queues are massive (even on the rainy day, there was a 3 hour waiting time), and we just did not go in. It was not even part of the day pass for the palaces for that reason. But I think I am "palaced" out for now, even for Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.


Unlike the Orangery Palace, the Picture Gallery, hosts real paintings - about 100 of them. It was possibly the world's first public gallery, and was built in 1763. The paintings are amazing, and so is the decorations of the gallery roof, doors and walls ... they just don't make galleries like these anymore.

The Marble Palace, under heavy restoration was the last stop for the day. The really interesting item in the entire palace is an old "secretary" desk - complete with a huge number of hidden cabinets; which are opened by hidden buttons, turning the key twice, rotating various columns (three sides have mirrors or paintings, the last show drawers). It is just absolutely amazing.


The Cecilienhof is the newest palace, and is famous for the location of the Potsdam Conference in 1945; where Germany was carved up between the victors of WW 2. It was here that US President Truman announced the development of the Atom bomb, and is also possibly the place where Truman signed the authorisation to drop the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ... possibly because it has yet to be revealed whether Truman signed the treaty in the White House before coming over to Potsdam. For modern Germany, it is possibly the most important palace of the lot.

Potsdam is a fascinating town, and to do real justice to it, I would need at least 5 or 6 days; time I do not have :( After the tour, most of the tour party (including Terry) went out to a pizza place in Berlin; referred to as "Anarchist Pizza" by the physicists. Very impressive pizzas (I had the one with Horse ham .. couldn't resist ...) and very funky location, complete with posters, graffiti, and clocks showing time in the various communist capitals of the world such as Beijing, Havana and Ho Chi Minh City. It was a great day really.

Weather forecasting through dice rolls

How hard is it to predict the weather? I don't know, but what I do know is not to bother with looking at the weather forecast for Berlin: it's always wrong, regardless of who gives it: BBC, CNN, local forecast on the underground trains (there are TV in the trains, that give news highlights etc of Berlin) and even the Internet.

In fact, the Internet is the worst - I have had forecast for heavy rain while it is sunny outside without a cloud in the sky and sunny forecasts for days where it is pelting down with rain (Friday being the most recent example).

South African weather forecasts seems to be very accurate; so the question remains: does Berlin lie on the path of a particularly bad weather system, or are the forecasters simply not good?

A day in Frankfurt

I went to meet up with some one from the T-Systems South Africa (which is a division of Deutsche Telekom) in Frankfurt, as well as meet some people who work with the South African office, from Germany. After the meeting, I had about three hours to explore Frankfurt, before flying back to Berlin. Unfortunately, it was raining most of the time, so after a brief walk round the old centre of Frankfurt, I went back to the airport. I took my pocket camera, and the pictures came out slightly weird (outside shots have a purple tinge)- mainly due to the weather conditions, I think. Oh well ...


Frankfurt is the financial capital of mainland Europe, and it is a city of offices, and unlike Berlin, it is a lot more compact, with skyscrapers and less open parks (so it seems, anyway). Despite that, there are a number of old buildings that have survived alongside new glass and steel skyscrapers.





The old center of town, is quite beautiful, and includes the town hall (where the Holy Roman Emperor was crowned), excavated gardens from the Roman times and a massive gothic church. The church is quite impressive inside, although there weren't any brilliant stained glass windows. Historically, the election of the Holy Roman Emperor was conducted in a chapel in this church, and is one of the few buildings that was not destroyed in the bombing during WW 2.


Frankfurt's main train station (Hauptbahnhof) is very impressive, and the old architecture has its own charm. Frankfurt is, surprisingly, a very tourist friendly city. All the major signs, in public transport and around the city, are often in at least three languages - German, English and French. And finally, I have criticised Frankfurt airport in the past (as has Bruce). I am not retracting my criticism; because, after security, it is a horrible airport. But outside, it is effectively a massive shopping centre from supermarkets to high end fashion. A bit strange really ...

The Natural History Museum, Berlin

The Natural History Museum is one of the oldest museums in Berlin, and was originally run by the Humboldt University. It is reputed to have one of the largest collection of preserved biological specimens; but the museum is under a massive refurbishment, and some of the really famous part of the museum (the collection of birds, reptiles, insects etc) are all closed off.


One of the biggest draw cards of the museum, is the world's largest mounted dinosaur skeleton of a brachiosarous. It is truly massive, and although it is not the only complete dinosaur skeleton on display, it definitely makes its presence felt.


One of the new exhibitions, is titled "Evolution in Action"; and I suppose it contains a number of the specimens from their collection. Evolution is a constant theme throughout the museum, from the evolution of the universe, to the evolution of planets to the evolution of life. There are even specimens that demonstrate the differentiation in species due to various environmental factors.



The cool part about natural history museums, for me, is the mounted animals, often in recreated environments. There is a massive selection of mammals on display in the museum. I did not realise how large Elands were!


A different approach, is to blow up smaller animals such as insects to emphasise their features.

German Museum of Technology

Germany is well known for its contributions to technology through out the ages. While I found the museum very interesting, I was disappointed with the audio guide (which is a separate charge) that guides you through the museum. Understandably most of the signs and descriptions are in German, and I was expecting, like some of the other audio guides in other museums (like the Pergamon Museum), there would be substantial detail on most of the exhibits. Instead, the audio guide only discussed the highlights, and some of the exhibits that I found really interesting were inaccessible :(

The museum of technology is in the grounds of one of Berlin's early central rail stations. Although it is no longer a train station, or a transport hub, it retains a strong connection with its past through its extensive collection of locomotives and railway history. As some one who loves trains and railways, this was definitely a highlight for me.


One of the entrances to the original train stations


There is a large outside, "garden" area of the museum. The railway yard heritage of the museum is retained in the garden.


The first electric train.


Internals of a steam engine


There is a large collection of models, and a model railway set up. This was not running when I visited unfortunately.


The Nazi government exploited railway technology, and in fact other emerging technologies such as radio and television like no other regime before it. The museum does not gloss over these facts.


Off course, what is most well known about the Nazi's usage of railways is the links to the concentration camps, where prisoners were carried off in carriages like this. Visitors are allowed to enter one such carriage.


Apparently, Berlin was built on barges, that carried goods through the rivers and canals of the city. This is the only remaining example of these old barges.


Germany is the birth place of modern typesetting, and there is an extensive display of early printing works. The printing presses for graphical works is especially impressive.



Konrad Zuse is credited with creating the earliest working computers, and the museum has a recreation (by Zuse himself) of the first computer. We have come a long way since!


A later Zuse computer, using vacuum tubes instead.


The Graphomat Z64 (1961), a printer that could print large maps and plans.

Another post on Zimbabwe

I caught an interview with the other MDC faction leader, Arthur Mutambara, on BBC World's Hardtalk last night. Hardtalk is usually a brutal interview, and the interviewer was really good at exploring this split in the opposition. But I was equally impressed with the answers.

The basic argument is that the split faction of the MDC wants to fight Mugabe on a principled stand, and they accuse, without naming specifics, some of the leaders (not Morgan Tsvangirai) of resorting to Mugabe's tactics to fight Mugabe. Mutambara argues that the MDC should not be fighting Mugabe the person, but the system that backs and props up Mugabe. He did not want the possibility that MDC becomes an equally corrupt replacement of the current Zanu PF government.

Equally interesting was his assessment of the negotiations between Zanu-PF and the MDC directed by Mbeki. He was quite optimistic, and refused to reveal details, citing that negotiations are too sensitive and confidentiality needs to be retained.

Another interesting part: the MDC are willing to work with Zanu PF members in a unity government, but only with members that are brave enough to stand up to Mugabe.

But disappointingly there is still no concrete plans on what they want to do to regenerate Zimbabwe. The interviewer did not dwell too long on this issue, but Mutambara was also quite reluctant to reveal too much details.

But in the end, all this depends on a free and fair elections. And while it is in South Africa and SADC's interest to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis, the fact remains that their stated policy of non interventionism means that, there is a real chance of no physical intervention. As I discussed previously, intervention itself may not be the ideal solution. I think, in the end, the telling factor will be: are there Zanu PF members who are willing to stand up against Mugabe, and will there be enough such members?