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	<title>Philipp Höhn &#187; personal</title>
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	<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de</link>
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		<title>Lapland Tour January 2010</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2010/01/lapland-tour-january-2010/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2010/01/lapland-tour-january-2010/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:13:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Abisko]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dog sledging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ice Hotel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kiruna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rovaniemi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Santa Claus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[snow mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Umeå]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/?p=199</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week I went on an awesome trip through Swedish and Finish Lapland. It is easy to say that this was one of the best trips of my life. Together with two Chinese students I visited Santa Claus&#8217; home at the border of the Arctic Circle in Rovaniemi, Finland, the Ice Hotel near Kiruna, and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last week I went on an awesome trip through Swedish and Finish Lapland. It is easy to say that this was one of the best trips of my life. Together with two Chinese students I visited Santa Claus&#8217; home at the border of the Arctic Circle in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=Santa+Claus+Village,+Rovaniemi&amp;sll=32.171578,-82.331514&amp;sspn=0.034074,0.077162&amp;g=Santa+Claus+Village&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=Santa+Claus%27+Village&amp;hnear=Santa+Claus%27+Village,+96930+Rovaniemi,+Finland&amp;ll=66.546282,25.849028&amp;spn=4.104269,19.753418&amp;z=6" target="_blank">Rovaniemi</a>, Finland, the Ice Hotel near <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=Kiruna&amp;sll=66.546282,25.849028&amp;sspn=4.104269,19.753418&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=Kiruna,+Norrbotten,+Sweden&amp;ll=67.809245,20.280762&amp;spn=3.895232,19.753418&amp;z=6">Kiruna</a>, and the wonderful nature of the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=Abisko&amp;sll=68.340459,18.744736&amp;sspn=0.11886,0.617294&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=Abisko,+Kiruna,+Norrbotten,+Sweden&amp;ll=68.338939,18.797607&amp;spn=0.237736,1.234589&amp;z=10" target="_blank">Abisko</a> national park.</p>
<p>In the evening of the 1st of January 2010 we started our 500 km journey to Rovaniemi using a rented car. After we left a major snow storm behind us we had a nice and easy ride through the Scandinavian winter and arrived in Rovaniemi at about 4 am. We rested in the car for some hours and got up again quite early to buy some warm tee and warm up at a gas station. Even though it did help to rest for some hours, I can&#8217;t advise anyone to sleep in a car at -26° C unless you have perfect cloth which we obviously didn&#8217;t have. At about 10 am we arrived at the<a href="http://www.santaclausvillage.info/" target="_blank"> Santa Claus village</a> outside of Rovaniemi. Santa&#8217;s home turned out to be a bunch of houses designed to attract children and impoverish parents; what a surprise! Luckily I&#8217;m neither so I managed to visit the different attractions without spending an unreasonable amount of money. While I successfully ignored attractions like &#8220;meet Santa and pay 25€ for one photo with him&#8221; I enjoyed my time at Santa&#8217;s post office and the museum. Apparently he gets about 32000 letters per day at Christmas time. They are sorted by language and then given an automated reply. From this office, where the staff is female, mostly blond and wears a funny red elf-hat you can also send Christmas cards to your family. The postcards get a Santa postmark and can be chosen to arrive either in the next couple of days or just in time for the upcoming Christmas 2010. I liked that idea and send one to my little sister. In the museum you could find several rooms explaining the history of Santa Claus with all his different names and looks. Together with the image of Santa the decoration, habits and probably the idea of Christmas vary from country to country. For next Christmas I&#8217;m thinking about writing the big red guy a postcard suggesting to switch to GNU/Linux (picture 2).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/rovaniemi-1.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="Santa Claus village" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_rovaniemi-1.jpg" alt="Santa Claus village" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/rovaniemi-2.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="Santa uses Windows" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_rovaniemi-2.jpg" alt="Santa uses Windows" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/rovaniemi-3.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="Santa's mail" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_rovaniemi-3.jpg" alt="Santa's mail" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/rovaniemi-4.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="Rudolph" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_rovaniemi-4.jpg" alt="Rudolph" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p>After a short walk in the city centre of Rovaniemi we started our journey to Kiruna. 340 km later we arrived in the centre of a small city covered in at least 30 cm of snow. Being located on a hillside with a church on top Kiruna isn&#8217;t a place to get lost. Still, to get to our home for the next two nights we were happy to find some locals. We asked two seniors for the local vandrarhem (youth hostel) and ended up with them sitting in the back of the car discussing where to go. While we first talked to them in English they had their discussion in Swedish and were apparently very happy about me understanding them and trying to talk to them in their mother tongue. With these two women on board we found our way in no time and were once again astonished by the helpfulness of Swedish people. In the same evening we gave back the rented car and enjoyed a short walk through the city.</p>
<p>The next morning started at 9 am. A small bus picked us up and took us to a cabin next to a frozen lake. A very committed and pleasant man, who turned out to be the boss of the small company organizing this day trip, distributed proper cloth and introduced us to our means of transportation for our trip to the Ice Hotel. In groups of two (luckily we were an odd number of people and I happened to be the only one without a partner and this way got drove all the way instead of &#8220;only&#8221; half of it) we used snow mobiles to drive over frozen lakes, hills and through woods. We enjoyed an unbelievably beautiful winter scenery and arrived at the Ice Hotel at 11:30 am. The <a href="http://www.icehotel.com/" target="_blank">Ice Hotel</a> is a huge building entirely made of snow and ice. Well, snow and a mixture of snow and ice they call &#8220;snice&#8221;. For the twentieth time now a different version of this hotel has been build every year. Inside, every room is unique. People from all around the world send in sketches and the year&#8217;s best are build. Every room has its own idea, its own shape and lightening. Walking through a building entirely made of snow and ice is absolutely fascinating. Everything seems volatile and yet surprisingly stable. Next to the Ice Hotel they even built a church which appears to be one of Sweden&#8217;s most popular locations for weddings. At 2pm we started the snow mobiles again and went back. This time our guide allowed us to drive a little faster. I ended up driving 100 km/h and had a big smile on my face. I now agree with someone I met in Umeå who told me that driving a snow mobile is one of the best things you can do in your life <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Having arrived at the cabin next to the frozen lake again, we sat down around a small fire and enjoyed our lunch. We had reindeer meat, potatoes, lingonberries and tee. It was the perfect ending to an unforgettable trip. If you should ever get the chance to go to Kiruna and see the Ice Hotel, do it. If you have enough time for a day trip you will never forget, book it <a href="http://www.campalta.net/eng_index.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/kiruna-1.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="frozen lake" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_kiruna-1.jpg" alt="frozen lake" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/kiruna-2.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="me on a snow mobile" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_kiruna-2.jpg" alt="me on a snow mobile" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/kiruna-3.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="the Ice Hotel's main hall" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_kiruna-3.jpg" alt="the Ice Hotel's main hall" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/kiruna-4.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="a bed at -5° C" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_kiruna-4.jpg" alt="a bed at -5° C" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/kiruna-5.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="room made of ice" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_kiruna-5.jpg" alt="room made of ice" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/kiruna-6.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="barbecue" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_kiruna-6.jpg" alt="barbecue" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p>At 9:31 am on the 4th of January we took the train to Abisko. Abisko is a tiny village 100 km from Kiruna. We were told it had only 84 inhabitants. Considering the number of houses we saw, that could actually be true. Abisko is well-known all over Sweden. It is famous for its national park with mountains, a huge lake, small rivers and a lot of small ways to hike, do cross-country skiing, climbing and many other things. After we arrived and found the local supermarket our little group split up for the rest of our time in Abisko and everyone ended up in a new group. For me the day went on with a small hiking tour through the woods together with a Chinese guy I had met in Kiruna and now run into again. We walked past (and of course across <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> ) a frozen river and just some way through the woods that seemed convenient. Soon it got dark and we were very happy to have a flash light. A little cold but fascinated and happy we returned to the local vandrarhem at 4:30 pm. Back there I shared a room with five exchange students from <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=Malm%C3%B6&amp;sll=63.828704,20.258101&amp;sspn=2.27267,9.876709&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=Malmo,+Sk%C3%A5ne,+Sweden&amp;ll=55.572134,12.944641&amp;spn=0.728269,2.469177&amp;z=9" target="_blank">Malmö</a>. Luckily we got along pretty well and had a great time together. Actually, I can hardly remember a time I laughed that much in two days!</p>
<p>The day ended with a Swedish sauna. The landlord asked us &#8211; a group of nine people &#8211; to only bring soap and handed us towels to sit on. While we all were surprised to bring soap into the sauna, we were soon given an explanation. Our landlord told us about his philosophy of saving water and preventing the body from sweating during the day by having your shower in the evening in the sauna. Enjoying this way of warming up again after a cold day, I decided to repeat this procedure at the end of the next day.</p>
<p>The 5th of January was the unquestionable highlight of my Lapland tour. At 9 am a group of 17 people met outside the hostel and walked to the nearby dog camp. We prepared ten one-person sleighs and 40 dogs to create a time worth remembering. With &#8211; who might have guessed &#8211; four dogs per sledge we went on a two hours tour through the mountain area. Assisting the dogs when going uphill and trying not fall of the sledge when going downhill or doing turns we were quite exhausted after a couple of minutes. After every quarter of the way we exchanged our sledges for a place on a snow mobile&#8217;s trailer that has been taking the other half of the group for a fun ride. After these two hours all of us were thrilled about this trip. One of my room mates called this dog sledging tour one of the best things he has ever done in his life. I&#8217;m willing to agree with him. Driving fast on a snow mobile was a lot of fun, but actually doing some work yourself, together with the joy of working with living creatures &#8211; with 40 dogs (!) &#8211; is something I will never forget. But still, the day wasn&#8217;t over yet!</p>
<p>After a short break, a cross-country skiing tour and the obligatory two sauna hours, we went on another very special trip. At about 10 pm we walked down to the lake and kept starring at the sky. Our position so far up north, the cold and clear air offered us the opportunity of seeing one of nature&#8217;s finest spectacles: the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Borealis" target="_blank">northern lights</a>. Since I came to Sweden in August, I always hoped to see the northern lights. It was the 5th of January that I finally saw them and it was worth waiting! I was lucky enough to find people who spent hundreds of euros for a camera to get the perfect shot. Because it was them who put all that money and effort into getting these amazing pictures I am of course not going to publish them. Anyway, thanks a lot guys. I am very happy to have them in my private photo album <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/abisko-1.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="hiking in the national park" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_abisko-1.jpg" alt="hiking in the national park" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/abisko-2.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="dog sledging" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_abisko-2.jpg" alt="dog sledging" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/abisko-3.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="mountains" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_abisko-3.jpg" alt="mountains" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/abisko-4.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="mountains" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_abisko-4.jpg" alt="mountains" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p>On the 6th we went on our way back home. It took us almost 11 hours to get back to Umeå by train. For me that was a time to think about this amazing tour through Swedish and Finish Lapland. In my mind I relived the whole tour again: the Christmas post card, snow mobile driving, the Ice Hotel, dog sledging, the northern lights and a great time I had with people from all over the world. Now, there&#8217;s only one major tour left on my &#8220;to do in Sweden&#8221; list: visiting Stockholm.</p>
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		<title>Borgafjäll &#8211; Hiking In The Mountains of Lapland</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/10/borgafjall-hiking-in-the-mountains-of-lapland/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/10/borgafjall-hiking-in-the-mountains-of-lapland/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:28:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Borgafjäll]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IKSU]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Umeå]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/?p=152</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On the weekend of the 2nd to the 4th of October I went on a trip to the Laponian Mountains. Umeå University&#8217;s International Office together with IKSU frilufts had organized this trip for about 50 international students to give us the opportunity of getting to know the wonderful Swedish mountains before the winter sets in. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On the weekend of the 2nd to the 4th of October I went on a trip to the Laponian Mountains. Umeå University&#8217;s International Office together with <a href="http://www.iksu.se/sv/Tavlingochfriluftsliv/Frilufts/In-english/" target="_blank">IKSU frilufts</a> had organized this trip for about 50 international students to give us the opportunity of getting to know the wonderful Swedish mountains before the winter sets in. For 1000 SEK (about 100 €) we were offered a three days trip to Borgafjäll, a small village in Swedish Lapland. The price included the 2x 320 km bus tour, the tents, some utilities like camping stoves, a hiking tour in the mountains and the support of the IKSU frilufts guides.</p>
<p>Our trip started on Friday at about 4 pm. We met in front of the IKSU building (European&#8217;s largest sports centre), got into the bus and had a nice <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&amp;source=s_d&amp;saddr=Ume%C3%A5,+Sweden&amp;daddr=Borgafj%C3%A4ll,+Sweden&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;mra=ls&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=32.252269,79.013672&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;ll=64.263684,18.07251&amp;spn=2.209046,9.876709&amp;z=7" target="_blank">320 km trip</a> to Borgafjäll through the Swedish countryside. In the bus we had the chance to get to know our fellow international students and enjoyed the 2006 Bond movie Casino Royal (again, with subtitles). At about 9 pm the bus stopped some hundred meters up a mountain. We took our luggage, turned on our torches and started walking into the forrest. After 20 minutes we arrived at our base camp. Some of the guides had come hear by car and had already build up most of the tents. Everything we had to do was to find ourselves a tent in groups of three people and enjoy a nice evening around the camp fire. To get warm the frilufts crew encouraged us to take part in some Swedish and Norwegian folk dances which were actually quite funny. Later on, after some time of sitting &#8211; or rather walking &#8211; around the camp fire trying to warm up most of us went to &#8220;bed&#8221;.</p>
<p>At 7 am we met again around the camp fire and had our breakfast. Again, the frilufts crew and a member of the International Office had already prepared the fire so we just had to get up and enjoy the nice morning in the middle of a forest. As I found out, I wasn&#8217;t the only one who had difficulties finding sleep. Quite a few of us only managed to sleep for a few hours, if at all. Having camped before I didn&#8217;t expect any problems finding sleep. But yet, the rather cold climate of Lapland with a temperature of -5° C during the night managed to put my former camping experience into a new perspective <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';-)' class='wp-smiley' /> . Still, some cold feet were nothing that a hot tee and a breakfast couldn&#8217;t deal with.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/borgafjaell-1.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="the base camp" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_borgafjaell-1.jpg" alt="the base camp" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/borgafjaell-2.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="view from the base camp" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_borgafjaell-2.jpg" alt="view from the base camp" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p>After the breakfast we divided into groups of nine including one guide each. Warmly clothed we started our way up the nearby mountains on a wonderful sunny day. Starting inside a forest we reached wide spaces of snow and almost no vegetation after less than an hour. With the peaks of two mountains on our left hand side, wide snowy spaces in front of us as well as on our right hand side, we were all enjoying the impressive scenery of Swedish nature. Meter by meter we reached even further into the mountain scenery of Borgafjäll and enjoyed the view over the woods and the beautiful Borgasjön (the lake named after the small village &#8211; or did the lake give the name to the village?).<br />
<a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/borgafjaell-3.jpg"><img class="alignright" title="snowy plateau" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_borgafjaell-3.jpg" alt="snowy plateau" width="96" height="128" /> </a></p>
<p>As time went by we reached a wonderful plateau being framed by different mountainsides, covered with snow and crossed by small streams. On one end of this plateau our guide surprised us with a small cabin giving us the chance for a little break. Heading inside and taking of our back packs our guide whispered something that made us all come out again. Between two mountains a group of seven or eight reindeer crossed the plateau. Having noticed our presence they first stopped and starred into our direction. Being more than a hundred meters away we apparently didn&#8217;t scare them too much as they soon moved along calmly and quietly. Hardly understanding the luck we&#8217;ve had meeting these animals on our hiking trip, we all enjoyed this great moment with big smiles on our faces.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/borgafjaell-4.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="stream and cabin" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_borgafjaell-4.jpg" alt="stream and cabin" width="128" height="96" /></a> <a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/borgafjaell-5.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="reindeer" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_borgafjaell-5.jpg" alt="reindeer" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/borgafjaell-6.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="view downwards" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_borgafjaell-6.jpg" alt="view downwards" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
<p>After a break inside the cabin we decided to move on. Together with the other groups that had arrived at the cabin we decided to divide into two big groups for either the way home or the way up to the peak of one of the mountains. I was in the group trying to get up to the peak. After a few hundred meters we found out about the difference between an easygoing walk in the mountains and the attempt of actually standing on top of one of them. As we were going up the weather seemed to change. Clouds had started to conceal the peaks of the mountains. Hoping to find a clear sky above these clouds we were proven wrong as time went by. On a small plateau the guides decided to turn around and head back to our base camp. Having hoped for a nice view from the top of the mountain it was obvious that this decision was right. On this second plateau you could hardly see anything but your nearest surroundings. Still, on our way down we had a great view over the first plateau and later on over the valley.</p>
<p>Between two and three hours later we arrived at our base camp and had a happy night sitting around the fire and talking about our great hiking trip. This night many of us finally found some sleep. More or less awake we spent our Sunday morning cleaning the base camp and enjoying our last hours in Lapland with some games. Mostly, each game was about moving and getting warm as on Sunday we woke up to a snow-covered and cold base camp. At about 1 pm we got into the bus again and headed towards Umeå. As it seems to be the standard in Sweden we were asked to fill out feed back forms for IKSU frilufts to evaluate and improve their services. As far as it concerns me, there wasn&#8217;t much to improve. The guides and the International Office both did a great job and obviously enjoyed what they were doing. They were eager to help and provided us with a great weekend of hiking and camping in the mountains of Lapland.</p>
<p>For those of you who would like to see some more pictures I have taken during the trip, feel free to contact me as there is a whole gallery waiting for you. Also if you have any questions about the trip or things you would like to point out, I&#8217;m always happy to receive your responses either via one of the ways mentioned in the <a href="../index.php/about/" target="_self">about section</a> or just by leaving a comment.</p>
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		<title>A day with lots of football</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/09/a-day-with-lots-of-football/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/09/a-day-with-lots-of-football/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:14:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Umeå]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/?p=138</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Monday I will have arrived in Umeå three weeks ago. This sounds like a long time considering that courses have already started and I left my familiar surroundings for the (yet) longest time of my life. But in this case these 21 days seem like nothing to me. Here in Umeå time seems to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On Monday I will have arrived in <span>Umeå three weeks ago. This sounds like a long time considering that courses have already started and I left my familiar surroundings for the</span><span> (yet)</span><span> longest time of my life. But in this case these 21 days seem like nothing to me. Here in </span><span>Umeå time seems to fly by as you enjoy your life and do your daily studying. Well, I might think differently about that after the first exams in four weeks but for now, this statement is certainly true. I&#8217;m having a great time although I&#8217;m still working on an assignment from back home. I&#8217;m working </span>assiduously and still have lots of time to enjoy Sweden&#8217;s great nature, watch football matches in sport bars, do sports, meet people and just enjoy my life.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Part of enjoying my life was today&#8217;s day off which I spent playing the new FIFA 10 demo and watching the German Bundesliga. What a useless, wasted and yet great day <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> . After a few hours of studying I decided to use this day for nothing but sitting around and doing some nerdy stuff. I started with estimated 20 matches of FIFA 10 demo. I think I&#8217;m falling in love with this game. I then browsed tech-related forums and listened to loud music. I only left my room for some food (picture 1) and a short walk to the local supermarket. Today&#8217;s highlight was definitely the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich which ended in a glorious 5:1 victory for my <a href="http://www.fcbayern.t-com.de/en/news/matchreport/2009/20695.php?fcb_sid=d0d1011c5d69e8eee3adea220ae8f3f2" target="_blank">favourite team</a>. Just yesterday I had discovered that <a href="http://www.eurosport.se/" target="_blank">eurosport.se</a> offers an hd livestream of every Bundesliga match for a monthly fee of 5€. I decided to give it a try and signed up for one month. After this first day with two live matches, a one hour summary of Wolfsburg vs. Leverkusen (picture 2) and several five minute summaries of the other matches I&#8217;m pretty sure I will continue paying Eurosport this small sum that I would otherwise easily spend for two cokes in a local sport bar for just one match. After the last interviews and news I switched to virtual football again and beat Barca 3:1. That was a nice ending of the day! Tomorrow I will be meeting some international students for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fika" target="_blank">fika</a> and watching the Formula 1 race in Monza with them. In the evening there will be another football match. Only this time, it will take me a little more to score than pushing a button on the controller as I will be playing with some students on the university&#8217;s football field.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/meal-090912.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="nice meal" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_meal-090912.jpg" alt="nice meal" width="128" height="96" /> </a><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/eurosport-090912.jpg"><img class="alignnone" title="football on a macbook" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_eurosport-090912.jpg" alt="football on a macbook" width="128" height="96" /></a></p>
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		<title>My first week in Sweden</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/08/my-first-week-in-sweden/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/08/my-first-week-in-sweden/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:11:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Umeå]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/?p=126</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s already been five days that I left beloved Marburg for my journey to Sweden. While I still don&#8217;t realize that I am going to stay 2000 kilometres from my home city for the next ten months, I am already getting quite used to my surroundings. But let me tell you step by step about [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s already been five days that I left beloved Marburg for my journey to Sweden. While I still don&#8217;t realize that I am going to stay 2000 kilometres from my home city for the next ten months, I am already getting quite used to my surroundings. But let me tell you step by step about those first days.</p>
<p>On Monday the 24th I went to Frankfurt airport for a flight to Umeå via Stockholm. After two hours the plane landed in Stockholm and I tried to get the connecting flight to Umeå. Unfortunately that didn&#8217;t work out very well and I missed the plane. Being a little shocked at that moment this wasn&#8217;t really a major problem as I was handed out a new ticket for the next flight just two hours later without further costs. In these two hours I met three Germans who had also missed their flight. Together we took the next plane to Umeå and arrived in our rooms in Ålidhem at about eight pm. I used the rest of the day to get to know the other people on my corridor as well as to talk to a friend from back home via Skype.</p>
<p>Tuesday morning started with a 20 minute walk towards the university in hope of actually finding the campus. While the road took me through a forest and past something that looked like a factory I arrived at the <a href="http://www.umu.se/english/about-umu/campus-maps/campus-umea" target="_blank">Universum Building</a> 30 minutes early. Inside this modern looking building I found the &#8220;Aula Nordica&#8221; where the orientation week was supposed to take place. It&#8217;s a huge auditorium that would be perfect for presenting a theatre performance: There&#8217;s a big stage, different light settings, lots of curtains, remarkable acoustics and a nice atmosphere. Talking to some people already sitting there the Aula Nordica filled with international students. In the next two hours we were introduced to the University, the city of Umeå, some major facts about life in Sweden and upcoming events of the orientation week. Later that day most of the international students met in the city centre at the &#8220;Rådhustorget&#8221; (the town hall square) for a beer/water/wodka or in my case, a cold Coca Cola <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>The second day at Umeå University started just like the first one did except that I found the buildings I was looking for immediately and even five minutes earlier. We were introduced to the University Library, heard even more interesting stories about &#8220;Sweden and the Swedes&#8221; and were presented Umeå&#8217;s sport centre <a href="http://www.iksu.se/" target="_blank">IKSU</a>, Europe&#8217;s largest sport centre. In the evening we met at Mariehemsängarna (big meadows near the University) to play some Swedish games. Divided into several groups we played &#8220;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubb" target="_blank">Kubb</a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%A4nnboll" target="_blank">Brännboll</a>&#8220;. Already knowing Kubb I decided to try Brännboll. It was actually great fun until rain set in. Somehow we decided to keep on playing and had even more fun sliding from base to base. As the rain grew stronger and stronger we were all soaking wet and finally decided to head home. About 40 minutes later I arrived in my room in Ålidhem and enjoyed a nice warm shower.</p>
<p>Thursday started surprisingly healthy but a little tired as I was (and am) still waiting for the post to bring my pillow and blanket. At the Universum Building we were introduced to the Swedish system of study, the municipality of Umeå and the student unions. At two pm we started a campus race. In groups of eight to twelve people we walked around the campus looking for small boxes containing hints that could lead us the next boxes. Although we haven&#8217;t been able to find every ten boxes we had a great time and got to know each other a little better. Besides that we actually got to know the campus which was probably the main goal of this &#8220;friendly competition&#8221;, as the organisers called it.</p>
<p>Today we were offered some further insights to society and life in Sweden as well as a very interesting and entertaining presentation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people" target="_blank">Sámi</a>.<a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/Umeaelven1.jpg"><img title="Umeälven" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_Umeaelven1.jpg" alt="Umeälven" width="128" height="102" align="right" /></a> Later on we went on a bus tour around Umeå and enjoyed our first <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fika" target="_blank">fika</a>. After a guided walk tour in the city centre we finally met for a welcome reception at <a href="http://www.rexbar.com/" target="_blank">Rex</a>. I put pictures of this day in the gallery. If you&#8217;re interested in seeing them please contact me as the gallery is password protected.</p>
<p>Looking back to those first five days I am really enjoying Umeå so far. Except the excitement of living in a country you don&#8217;t know and enjoying a week like you&#8217;re on holiday there are some things I am really starting to like about this place. For example, everyone involved in the organisation of the orientation course is obviously doing a great job as they are trying to get us new students socialised as soon and as good as possible. Even the housing is great. Something special that&#8217;s come to my attention is the university&#8217;s staff apparently caring for questions of equality in an extend that can hardly be compared to German standards. There seem to be a lot more people in this university that have actually heard of and thought about questions of gender, class and race than there appear to be in German universities. Having in mind that I only got to know a few Swedes, it does already seem that the Swedish society is a lot more open-minded and influenced by the thought of equality and justice than others, including my home country&#8217;s, seem to be. It will be quite interesting to see how this point of view might be confirmed, changed or argued. I&#8217;m looking forward to this. I am also very happy about meeting all those different people from all around the world. I am not sure about the countries but I have at least seen and talked to one person from every continent. It&#8217;s great to get the opportunity of talking to all those people with different social backgrounds and different cultures. There&#8217;s so much you don&#8217;t know about other countries and cultures that you can find out by just talking to people.</p>
<p>After my first week in Umeå I am quite happy to be here. I will let you know about my first courses and trips as soon as I find the time to do so. There will also be some pictures of Ålidhem and the room I&#8217;m living in.</p>
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		<title>Desertion in NS Germany</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/08/desertion-in-ns-germany/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/08/desertion-in-ns-germany/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:40:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News and Information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[desertion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/?p=119</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the last semester in Germany I spent a lot of time reading, thinking, discussing and writing about a topic that has not been very popular in Germany in the recent decades. Together with a group of two fellow students I occupied with the act of desertion as well as its consequences in Nazi Germany. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In the last semester in Germany I spent a lot of time reading, thinking, discussing and writing about a topic that has not been very popular in Germany in the recent decades. Together with a group of two fellow students I occupied with the act of desertion as well as its consequences in Nazi Germany. Although we haven&#8217;t been able to find out much that hasn&#8217;t been written about earlier, we recognized that desertion in NS Germany and specifically what people have been thinking about it in the later years needs to be heard of and talked about.</p>
<p>Over many decades former judges of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht" target="_blank">Wehrmacht</a> who managed to get into positions of high respect in the Federal Republic of Germany spread the word of an independent and mostly guiltless military judiciary. While profiting from this widely spread and actually wrong picture of the Wehrmacht some of those judges apparently didn&#8217;t care for the victims of the NS judicial branch who have been convicted until the year 2002 when the German <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundestag">Bundestag</a> suspended the verdicts. In our study we analysed how deserts have been discussed in public, in the political institutions and in the scientific community after the Second World War in Germany. For those of you who are interested in finding out more about this outrage upon justice I am offering our study as a <a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/content-files/Projektbericht-Deserteure.pdf" target="_self">pdf file</a> (Beware: It&#8217;s German). You can download it and give it away. You are though not allowed to change anything about the text, the layout or the file itself. If you wish to link to the study, please do not link directly to the pdf file but to this blog post.</p>
<p>There is also a travelling exhibition about desertion in NS Germany that we three have been visiting in Dortmund. From the 25th of October this exhibition called &#8220;Was damals Recht war&#8230;&#8221; will be available in Marburg. You can also find information about the exhibition itself as well as a time table on their <a href="http://www.stiftung-denkmal.de/projekte/ausstellungen/wasdamalsrechtwar" target="_blank">website</a>.</p>
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		<title>Website in use again</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/08/website-in-use-again/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2009/08/website-in-use-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:47:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[philipp-hoehn.de]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Umeå]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/?p=114</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hi everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that philipp-hoehn.de is back. I haven&#8217;t been posting to the weblog for nearly two years because&#8230; well, let&#8217;s just say I didn&#8217;t have neither the time nor the motivation. But this is going to change. At least for the next ten months I will be using this [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I just wanted to let you know that philipp-hoehn.de is back. I haven&#8217;t been posting to the weblog for nearly two years because&#8230; well, let&#8217;s just say I didn&#8217;t have neither the time nor the motivation. But this is going to change. At least for the next ten months I will be using this page to blog about my time in Sweden. But first things first. Let me just tell you in a few words what changes I&#8217;ve been doing to the site in the last two years and what I plan to use it for in the upcoming days and weeks.</p>
<p>In May 2008 I migrated this website from <a href="http://www.evanzo.net" target="_blank">evanzo</a> to <a href="http://www.ispone-business.de" target="_blank">ispOne</a>. The decision was easy as ispOne offers a lot more service while being nearly have as expensive as evanzo. At evanzo I had the usual webspace supporting php, one mysql database, one ftp account and an annoying administration interface. At ispOne I&#8217;m having my own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VServer" target="_blank">vserver </a>offering me the flexibility of changing whatever I want and using it just the way I want. As I&#8217;ve only had about four hours of downtime in more than one year I&#8217;m really enjoying the reliability. I&#8217;m pretty happy with the speed too as it&#8217;s running two websites, my very own mail server with <a href="http://www.postfix.org/" target="_blank">postfix</a>, <a href="http://www.dovecot.org/" target="_blank">dovecot</a>, <a href="http://projects.puremagic.com/greylisting/" target="_blank">greylisting</a> and <a href="http://squirrelmail.org/" target="_blank">squirrelmail</a>, a picture gallery, a file server for my personal use, an ftp server and some minor apps within perfect speed. If anyone is thinking about moving to a vhost provider feel free to write me a mail and I&#8217;ll be glad to help you out. Otherwise, if you&#8217;ve made different experience with either evanzo or ispOne feel free to express yourself in the comments.</p>
<p>After the big migration in May I applied a major upgrade of <a href="http://www.wordpress.org/" target="_blank">wordpress</a> some weeks later. I was looking forward to this upgrade as it offered a whole bunch of new features and security fixes. Enjoying the new features I did a minor mistake that consequently crashed my whole wordpress database. Somehow it wasn&#8217;t even possible to recover the old site and redo the upgrade. So I had to reinstall wordpress and enter every single text including every single comment (i. e. every author name, every date and every text). As you might guess this left me a little upset <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';-)' class='wp-smiley' />  For some weeks I didn&#8217;t even visit my own website. Fortunately that&#8217;s over!</p>
<p>Beside these changes at philipp-hoehn.de there where quite some interesting things happening in my life. When writing my last post to the blog I just moved to Marburg and started studying Political Science. After two years I&#8217;ve &#8211; fortunately <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' />  &#8211; grown accustomed to studying and living on my own. In fact, I&#8217;ve found some nice new hobbies, met various great people, made new friends and gained interest in some new fields. I&#8217;m probably going to write about some of these things in the future. But that might depend on whether I&#8217;m having enough time and whether I&#8217;m in the right mood. So don&#8217;t expect too much.</p>
<p>One major theme of the upcoming posts is going to be my trip to Sweden. Since Monday the 24th of August (yeah, it&#8217;s only been two days!) I use to live in <a href="http://www.umea.se/" target="_blank">Umeå</a>, Sweden. I&#8217;m here as an <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/education/index_en.htm" target="_blank">Erasmus</a> exchange student and I will be staying for ten months. Read more about this in the upcoming posts or just contact me (see the <a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/about/" target="_self">about</a> page for contact information, use the <a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/contact/" target="_blank">contact form</a> or just leave a comment).</p>
<p>At last, there is one more thing regarding philipp-hoehn.de: There will be some small changes in the next days and weeks. The banner is going to be replaced by a set of pictures I&#8217;ve been taking. Most sections have been or will be redesigned. And, as you might have guessed, there will be new content <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':-)' class='wp-smiley' />  I&#8217;m looking forward to posting on my blog again and I hope the number of people visiting the site and commenting the blog will rise back up to where it once was.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading.</p>
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		<title>FCM #5 and something special</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2007/10/fcm-5-and-something-special/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2007/10/fcm-5-and-something-special/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:50:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ubuntu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/?p=53</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As you might have noticed Full Circle Magazine Issue #5 has been released. As I revealed before, the newest issue of FCM contains an article written by me. I reviewed a game called &#8220;Bridge Construction Set&#8221; which might be worth a read. The article also features some screenshot from inside of the game as well [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As you might have noticed <a href="http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-5">Full Circle Magazine Issue #5</a> has been released. As I revealed <a href="http://philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2007/09/03/full-circle-magazine-issue-4-released/">before</a>, the newest issue of FCM contains an article written by me. I reviewed a game called &#8220;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_Construction_Set">Bridge Construction Set</a>&#8221; which might be worth a read. The article also features some screenshot from inside of the game as well as a rating. I&#8217;d be happy to receive any responses if you&#8221;re familiar with one of the Bridge Cunstruction games and have an opinion about them or even about my review. As always, comments and pms are equally appreciated. After advertising for my very own article it&#8217;&#8217;s time to give you some details about Issue #5. These are the facts:</p>
<ul>
<li>&#8220;Fluxbuntu &#8211; Step-by-step Install</li>
<li>How-To : Report Bugs with LaunchPad, CoLoCo Edubuntu Presentation, &gt;From VMware to VirtualBox and Learning Scribus Pt.5.</li>
<li>Review of Bridge Construction Kit.</li>
<li>Preview of Gusty Gibbon</li>
<li>Letters, Q&amp;A, My Desktop, My PC, Top 5, the new My Opinion column, and more!</li>
</ul>
<p>As announced in the title of this weblog entry something special recently happened. In connection with me attending the <a href="http://www.uni-marburg.de/">Philipps-University</a> (yay, I surely won&#8221;t forget about this name!) from October on, I left Büdingen and moved to Marburg. That&#8217;s mainly the reason why I&#8217;ve not been posting here for some time. I was and still am quite busy doing what is necessary. We&#8217;ll see if that&#8217;s going to change <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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		<title>News, news, news and a new piece of hardware</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2007/07/news-news-news-and-a-new-piece-of-hardware/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2007/07/news-news-news-and-a-new-piece-of-hardware/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:01:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ubuntu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/?p=49</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hi again!
Finally I&#8217;m back here and writing something for my weblog. I know it took me quite a long time to push myself and really do something else but hanging around and enjoying my free time. But here I am, back again. There are many things I want to say, mostly just things that happened [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi again!</p>
<p>Finally I&#8217;m back here and writing something for my weblog. I know it took me quite a long time to push myself and really do something else but hanging around and enjoying my free time. But here I am, back again. There are many things I want to say, mostly just things that happened but also a new piece of hardware which I bought and which I am currently enjoying very much. Read on and see some nice pictures of the new hardware and everything around it.</p>
<p>As I mentioned <a href="http://philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2007/06/13/914-22/">before</a>, I reached my A-Levels: Three weeks ago I had my last exams and on Saturday the 23rd of June I received my final grade certificate (if anyone of the 121 others gets here, feel welcomed <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' /> ). In the next days I used my new free time to realize that I really finished school which was pretty hard to understand. Today I think I&#8217;ve gotten used to this situation and I&#8217;m looking forward to moving away from this strange place that I&#8217;m still calling my home and starting studying at university. Read more about this later.</p>
<p>A friend of mine who regularly seems to seduce me to buy new hardware (thank you for this <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> ) somehow influenced me, willingly or not, to use some money and buy myself an AV-receiver. He was the one who once recommended me the <strong>Teufel Concept E Magnum</strong>, a set of 5 speakers and a subwoofer with an incredible sound for &#8220;just&#8221; 150€ which was practically one of the best things I have ever bought! Already having this 5.1 set including a 5.1 sound card (for the linux users: Terratec Aureon 5.1 Fun &#8211; works perfectly under Alsa) I use this speaker set for my computer mainly to listen to music, watch DVDs and stuff like that. <a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/avreceiver.jpg"><img title="avreceiver" src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_avreceiver.jpg" alt="avreceiver" width="128" height="102" align="right" /></a> Unfortunately I never had the chance of using these speakers for my TV and radio. But with my new <strong>Denon AVR-1507</strong> AV-receiver this works just fine. I&#8221;ve got my speakers and my subwoofer directly connected to it and I have the impression that the sound even improved by using this new receiver. I bought it via amazon and got an allowance between 30-40€ because the package it was originally shipped in was damaged. Well, thank you Mr. and Mrs carrier <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> . I still paid a lot for it though: a bit more than 200€. Experts may say that this is quite a low price for an AV-receiver but for me it still looks like a lot of money&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/avreceiver-cables.jpg"><img src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_avreceiver-cables.jpg" alt="avreceiver cables" width="128" height="102" align="left" /></a> Being happy about my new receiver I then had to find a place for it and connect it to nearly everything electronic in this room. This was fun but believe me, I nearly went crazy with all these small cables and wires! I&#8217;ve now got my TV, my DVD player, my computer and even my laptop connected to this receiver and to the 5.1 surround sound. Let me just say: This rocks!</p>
<p><!-- br--><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/differentopticalcables.jpg"><img src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_differentopticalcables.jpg" alt="optical cables" width="128" height="102" align="left" /></a>Because of all these new connections I had to replace my three cables with which I had connected my computer to my subwoofer and the speakers with a new optical one. Have a look at the funny picture on the left showing two of them in comparison. Just guess which of them costed 3€ and which of them made me pay nearly 40€ <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Having installed all cables I finally had to set up my computer to use the optical cable. I guess it might be interesting for people willing to use these cables to know how I got this to work. I did a bit of research and somewhere in a forum I found a thread about this. I just had to use the alsamixer to activate &#8220;<span class="postbody">IEC958 Out&#8221; which practically enables this port. After this I disabled </span><span class="postbody"> &#8220;IEC958 Loop&#8221; to</span> prevent the digital output from only using signals from the digital input &#8211; at least that&#8217;&#8217;s what was written there. At last I edited my ~/.asoundrc and replaced <em>pcm &#8220;hw:0,1&#8243;</em> with <em>pcm &#8220;hw:0,0&#8243;</em>.</p>
<p>A funny experience I made was, after having moved my computer from the left side of my screen to the right to connect it to the new cable, my mother&#8217;s Ubuntu machine from one floor above recently had a much faster internet connection than before. I guess my computer standing between the router and my mother&#8217;s computer somehow blocked or at least slowed the wireless network down. This fixed she enjoys reading her emails in real time without having to do housework or read a book while loading the incoming mail. I&#8221;m sure she now agrees that my new AV-receiver was a good investment.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s now only one problem left: I didn&#8217;t manage to configure neither Alsa, mplayer nor vlc to do exactly what I want yet. When watching a DVD I can&#8217;t just use its sound options and let them control whether I hear stereo or surround sound. I have to do this through my av-receiver which is actually a loss of quality. I hope to find a solution to this soon but I&#8221;m sure that somewhere out in the <a href="http://www.ubuntuforums.org">ubuntuforums</a> (did I ever mention them before? <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif' alt=':P' class='wp-smiley' /> ) there&#8217;ll be a friendly linux user knowing what to do. By the way, if you are the one, please let me know how to do this and comment on this post.</p>
<p>As promised, some more pictures of the new AC-Receiver and my whole sound- and computer-system:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/receiver-dvd-tv-avreceiver.jpg"><img src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_receiver-dvd-tv-avreceiver.jpg" alt="tv set" width="102" height="128" align="middle" /></a> <a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/subwoofer.jpg"><img src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_subwoofer.jpg" alt="subwoofer" width="102" height="128" align="middle" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/tpv-zone.jpg"><img src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_tpv-zone.jpg" alt="tpv-zone" width="128" height="102" align="middle" /></a> <a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/tft-centerbox.jpg"><img src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_tft-centerbox.jpg" alt="speaker" width="128" height="102" align="middle" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/tpv-desktop-front.jpg"><img src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_tpv-desktop-front.jpg" alt="tpv-desktop" width="102" height="128" align="middle" /></a> <a href="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/asusw2jc-laptop.jpg"><img src="http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/news-images/small_asusw2jc-laptop.jpg" alt="laptop" width="102" height="128" align="middle" /></a>Before I&#8217;ll come to end, there a few things to mention. Remember? It was &#8220;News, news, news&#8221; <img src='http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Yesterday I talked to a guy called &#8220;OldPink&#8221; on IRC Freenode. Well, let&#8217;s not make any jokes about his name but come to the point :p. He told me he had a blog, too, so I read some of his posts and I was really impressed. I especially like the length and the style of them, it&#8217;s just how I wish them to be. So, perhaps you&#8221;d like to have a look at his website at <a href="http://www.mbhoy.com">mbhoy.com</a>.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that Issue #2 of the <a href="http://www.fullcirclemagazine.org/">full circle magazine</a> has been released. But I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve already registered for the fcm-newsletter to receive notifications on upcoming releases.</p>
<p>So, that&#8217;s it for the moment. I&#8217;ll try to post here more regularly so I don&#8221;t have to throw everything together and write about so many different themes in one post. I&#8221;d be pleased if you gave me some feedback about whether you liked this sort of mingling different themes because I&#8217;m really not sure if this is the way I want it to be.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading and see you soon!</p>
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		<title>9 + 14 = 2.2</title>
		<link>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2007/06/9-14-22/</link>
		<comments>http://www.philipp-hoehn.de/index.php/2007/06/9-14-22/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:31:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>philipp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[personal]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[WooooooohooooooooooOOOOOO! I reached my A-Levels! Today I managed to successfully complete my last exam. The result were 14 (out of 15) points in History. I also received the mark for my exam in Politics just two days ago. Sadly, this result wasn&#8221;t as good as I had imagined: I got only 9 points. Although I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>WooooooohooooooooooOOOOOO! I reached my A-Levels! Today I managed to successfully complete my last exam. The result were 14 (out of 15) points in History. I also received the mark for my exam in Politics just two days ago. Sadly, this result wasn&#8221;t as good as I had imagined: I got only 9 points. Although I am not satisfied with my mark in Politics, I&#8221;m extremely proud of my 14 points in History. At last I am quite satisfied with my A-Levels, too. I reached 2.2 which is a fair result.</p>
<p>Without anything further I finish this weblog entry and shout out the most important words in my school career: I finished!</p>
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