Wittelsbacher Platz Xmas market

is also very nice - I think this is the first year they have it, medevial theme, saw falconers and singers there yesterday - very traditional and nice.

Also - the Almrausch hut at Tollwood - true after-ski feeling - great place for a pre-Christmas Gluehwein!

Christmas markets in Munich

We went to Tollwood yesterday, one of the nicer Christmas markets here in Munich. The others I like are

Muenchener Freiheit
Chinesischer Turm
Haidhausen
and of course the one at Marienplatz

New books - looking forward to read

Bought these new books at the airport yday.

Next by Michael Chrichton
World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Rome by Robert Harris

Looking forward to reading them on my Laos trip.

Kytaro greek food

This place is still good and very "in", even after so many years where they were closed. Used to be on Innere Wiener Strasse, we were there often when we were new to Munich ca 15 years ago. Now since a couple of years reborn in the Königinstrasse, under the Reitachule.

Link here.

Trust the Man

Great, funny movie. Laughed out loud several times. OK - must admit I do like these witty, script-driven movies - and with good actors like this you can´t go wrong

Listen to YOUR music anywhere in the world

Hmm - this sounds very interesting - trying it our right now. Download Streampad, have it scan your iYunes library, then play your library through a browser whereever you are. I will use for playing some tunes from home on my work PC or to play when visiting a friend and you want to show what sort of music you own.

Remotely manage someone else´s PC

Pretty cool tool really. This is a simple and easy-to-use tool for taking over someone else´s PC, mouse and screen, eg in order to help them with a technical problem or to collaborate on something, eg a powerpoint presentation.

Same functionality as most IT support people use, just for "the common man".

100+ countries visited

On popular demand - here the list of countries I have visited so far - 101 - Laos will be 102

Abu Dhabi
Ajman
Aland Islands (Mariehamn)
Alaska
Australia
Austria
Bahamas
Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Minorca)
Belgium
Belize (British Honduras)
Bosnia & Herzegovina (Sarajevo)
Cambodia
Canada
Canary Islands
China, People's Rep.
Colombia
Cook Islands (Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Penrhyn)
Corsica
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus, Republic
Czech Federated Rep.
Denmark
Dodecanese Is. (Rhodes)
Dominican Republic
Dubai
Ecuador
Egypt
England
Estonia
Fiji Islands
Finland
France
French Polynesia (Tahiti,Tuamotu, Austral, Gambier)
Fujeirah
Galapagos Islands
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Guatemala
Hawaiian Islands
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Ionian Islands (Corfu, etc.)
Ireland (Eire)
Italy
Japan
Jersey (Channel Islands)
Jordan
Kashmir
Kenya
Latvia
Leeward Islands, French (St. Martin, St. Barts)
Leeward Islands, Netherlands (Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten)
Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali,Timor, Indonesia)
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macau
Mauritius & Deps. (Agalega, St. Brandon)
Mexico
Monaco
Morocco,Spanish (Ceuta, Melilla)
Netherlands
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Ras Al Khaimah
Russia
San Marino
Sardinia
Scotland
Sharjah
Sicily
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Srpska
Sulawesi (Celebes, Indonesia)
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan. R.O.C.
Tanzania (Tanganyika)
Thailand
Turkey in Asia (Anatolia, Ankara, Izmir)
Umm Al Qaiwain
United States (continental)
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands, U.S. (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas)
Wales

all based on the Century club´s definition at http://www.travelerscenturyclub.org/

Laos planning

We are off to Ko Lanta (Thailand) and Laos soon, so startign to plan what to see and what to do. Have found some good blogs on travel, both via Google Blog search and via normal Google search "Laos travelogue".

Ko Lanta seems to be still very nice, even though I am afraid it will be very Swedish, seems like this has become the new Swedish island of Thailand. But whatever, for 5 days of scuba diving and beach/beer/food you just can´t go wrong, just some well-deserved R&R before we go into Laos which is of course the more exciting part of the trip.

We will spend a couple of days in Vientiane, go by bus up to Vang Vieng for the river tubing and then spend most of the time up in Luang Prabang, where you can hike, kayak, go on jungle tour, relax and catch the flow of the country.

Behavioural Economics

Very interesting topic - including social and emotional issues in economics theory - makes it more real and "true" IMHO.

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
The Tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell

are all great, fun and easy to read books that fit into this category.

A friend of Micke, Anders Anderson, who we met in biergarten last year, is also publishing on this.

As always, good overview on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_economics

Economics for beginners

Went to a fun Swedish party Christmas party at Micke & Jennys yesterday. I got to indulge my urge to talk economics by chatting to Hans-Werner Sinn (ifo institute) and Ray Rees, friends of Micke´s. I don´t think we solved world hunger at 1am after several snaps and beer, but fun it was.

BeInSync

Found this great idea the other day. Makes a file folder on one PC be in sync with the same folder on a completely other remote PC somewhere else. This is similar to www.gotomypc.com which I have tried before, but I think the BeInSync is what I am looking for.

I sync just one folder between work PC and home PC, some files are permanent (I always want to have them in sync), some I just drag to the folder to transfer from one PC to the other once, then remove from the sync folder.

Now all I am missing is a Web sync version of my entire Outlook and I´d be happy. Memo-to-self: Perhaps I can actually transfer the entire .pst file via beinsync - will have to try.

Web 2.0 some site reviews

Just reviewing all the cool Web 2.0 web sites listed in the German magazine Focus some weeks ago. http://www.last.fm/ took a while for me to understand, but what I see is very nice. Download the SW (what a bore, but needed), then whatever you listen to in eg iTunes, Winamp etc is also being shown in the last.fm viewer, with loads of information about the song and group currentlu playing. Actually very good for me, I like music, have loads on my hard disc and iPod, but rarely know what I am actually listening to, now I do. http://www.myspace.com/ is so famous now, both because of all the people using it (ie real users) and in the media space because Murdoch paid so much (580 M USD I think) for it. Cool to look at, I am sure you could spend the rest of your life interacting with all the people here. My take: Not for me - way too old for this - this is desktop publishing gone crazy, with colours, fonts, backgrounds made by people on some serious drugs :-) I am sure all the dating sites around (which I just don´t have time or need to be on) look very similar to this. http://www.lunarstorm.se/ in Sweden is probably the same. Very happy for the kids who use this - but I won´t use it. http://www.facebook.com/ is just way too complicated to get going on, hopefully this means that US users who go through the hoops to register then actually only find their true friends. It is so famous that there´s got to be something good behind it, but I won´t care enough to find out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPrqsBMzW6s is just a great use of YouTube and video on the Internet. This 79-year old guy is posting videos online and millions of people are watching it. He is basically just venting on life, his experience of life etc - sharing and letting as many people as he wants to listen in. All in all - a good description of Web 2.0 in this Focus Germany article - if you are new to the concept. Otherwise it lists no new things. The original article on Web 2.0 by Tim O´Reilly is still the definition of the "new" Web for me. Link here.

MusicMobs

Fun web site and software to download. Takes what you play on iTunes and suggests many other similar artists. You can also download other people´s playlists and off these play the songs you already own.

I just want to use this to get some good input on other artists I may like.

http://www.musicmobs.com/

La Bouille in Munich

Great french restaurant, the ex-owners of Werneckshof which since a couple of years run this place instead.

40 euros for 5 courses plus an amuse bouche, took 3 hours to eat and we enjoyed it tremendously - Thursday was our wedding day 5 years ago in Paris, so kinda fun to eat French - will make it a tradition.

http://www.labouille.de/
http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/la_bouille.html
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/munich/D55016.html

Kommisarie Beck - Sjöwall & Wahlöö

Some very good (and famous) detective story books which for the past years have been filmed for TV, often in a German/Swedish cooperation as the Germans love these books as much (or more) than the Swedes.

We have been watching several of the DVDs in the past year - just soooo good, a bit dark, satirical, especially Gunvald Larsson (played by Mikael Persbrandt) is just hilarious in the way he defies "traditional" law, ie plays the tough guy but all the time so that you are on his side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sj%C3%B6wall_and_Wahl%C3%B6%C3%B6

007 and parkour

I had seen parkours before, this is the running/jumping which is done in the beginning of the new Bond movie. Looked it up on the Web, invented by a French guy from the banlieus of Paris.

Parkours (or free running) looks fantastic - so smooth, like it would be impossible to do - you almost think they are faking it, but no so.

some cool links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUksaD-JJgI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jquXcwooV6A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour