just to let you know

British Red Cross Appeal

Please give what you can to support the British Red Cross Earthquake and Floods Appeal.

Thank You and a Happy New Year.

Milly, you learn

Our daughter Milly makes giant leaps in many ways. But to me the most impressive remains her progress in the langage department. She is now able to understand sentences in English as well as German, which still blows me away. I know we still have a long way to go, but so far I find this incredible.

Not a language specialist myself, I am convinced that her listening patterns are still entirely based on the "sing-song" of Sal's english and my german rather than on word patterns themselves. For example, she can detect a question by the raised voice at the end of a sentence. She also spots the initial phrase "Wo ist..." or "Where is..." within a question I think.

The next weeks and months are going to be so much fun! Can't wait!

Browsers and Marketshare

Good piece on the recently surged discussions on browser share and IE6's potential end of No.1 rule. Despite me being fairly upbeat about Firefoxes success, Eric hits the nail on the head again as usual: We design for a community or an individual target group, not for browsers.

linkable

• meet ASIMO, Honda's running robot (3mph) who needs a wee...
• Time Magazine names George W. Bush as "Man of the Year"
• Wal-Mart to enter the Linux laptop race with a Linspire-based machine for $498.
• About a German who went to some lengths to show his frustration about car registration authorities (click on story 2)
• Germany's Chaos Computer Club (CCC) gives full instructions on the Hack-a-Bike website how to crack the call-a-bike service provided by Deutsche Bahn in Berlin

Live Aid DVD

Thanks to some lovely and understanding friends I am now the proud owner of the Live Aid DVD Box set. We started watching it last night and I must say that its sounds and picture quality are excellent, especially if you take into account that this has all been recorded live and is alomst 20 years old.

However, it is strange that a large part of the live recordings and acts are missing. Some act such as Nik Kershaw and Style Council (amongst many others), who played several songs, have been cut down to a single song on the DVD. Quite annoying - I was somehow expeting to find an almost 1:1 copy of what had been broadcast that day. I don't understand why it wasn't considered to make a 6 DVD set instead of a 4 DVD box. If you are looking for more info on the concert, visit Live-Aid.info.

On the other hand, the DVD box set gives you a more than good idea what this day was about - after all, its main aim is to raise more money for Bob Geldof's LiveAid project.

Make Poverty History

MakePovertyHistory is backed by numerous charities and organisations fighting (amongst other issues) for an end to 3rd world debt and a move towards fair trading / trade justice.

If you think you've already done your charity bit for Christmas, then there is nothing wrong in signing up with them - IT IS FREE.

the dream (still) hasn't ended!

A few moments ago, final whistle was blown in Athens, where Alemannia beat AEK Athens 2:0 and made it through to the next round of the Uefa Cup - something a German first division team has *never* achieved before. Obviously, I was in Berlin when it all started!

Restyling of Gofromhere.com

When I was contemplating various topics for my first article for DMXZones during September 2004, Simon Jones suggested to me to use his GoFromHere.com Meta-Searchengine site as a work example. After finishing the article by the beginning of October, the actual site now utilises the XHTML and CSS styling that I described in my DMXZones contribution.

linkable

• The owner of the iTunes.co.uk is facing some legal threats by Apple.