Thursday, October 23, 2008

Speed limit for tanks

Remember, if you drive your tank to Hamburg, please follow the speed limits! Yes, the German traffic cop won't mind if you drive a war tank right into the market street, as far as you are driving within speed limits. I wonder whether shooting at the building all around is allowed. But then, if I am really driving a tank, do I care?

PS: Some intense googling revealed that these are weight limits, not speed limits. It still doesn't make complete sense, but much better.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Car car car!!!

It was not as if I did not know about it, but still, the sheer percentage of high-end cars on the roads of Hamburg was impressive. If it was not a Mercedes, it would be an Audi or BMW or Skoda. Volkswagens were a dime a dozen, somewhat like the Alto on Indian roads. Most of the taxis were Mercedes and so were the police cars. There were very few Japanese or Korean cars to be found. The only American brand that I could easily sight was Ford. Unless you count Opel, of course.


However, not everyone in Hamburg can be rich. Hence I was bound to see some low-end cars as well. The ones that used to catch my attention were the ones sold in India. I first spotted a Suzuki Swift and then a Hyundai Getz. So the claim by these guys that these are global cars is kind of true.



Next, I found a Chevy Spark, named Matiz. Oh, so there are people who buy Chevy in this country.










But I was not ready for the next big surprise... I spotted.... a Hyundai Santro Xing. Yes, a Santro!! It was called "Atos Prime" here. Seeing the humble Santro rubbing shoulders with the likes of Alpha Romeos and Audis has increased my respect for my own Santro.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Funs of machine translation

Google may be one of the best at what they do, but even they cannot translate natural languages perfectly. This is fine most of the time, but leads to some hilarious bloopers once in a while. I saw a fine example of this a few days ago while I was researching about Germany. Take a look.

Original German text:
Wir möchten uns für Ihr Interesse an unserem Unternehmen bedanken und begrüßen SIe hier auf unseren Internetseiten.
Translation by Babelfish:
We would like to thank you and welcome for your interest in our enterprise they here on our Internet sites.
Translation by Google translate:
We apologize for your interest in our company to thank and welcome you here on our web pages.

Proof in the picture below.
P.S: After going on a trip, it is now so customary to blog about it, that it almost seems like a rule. Hence I am going to write a bit about my Germany trip in the coming days.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Linux Kongress

I will be speaking at the Linux Kongress conference next week. My talk is related to the real-time Linux kernel. This is the first time I will be visiting Germany and I am looking forward to it. Please wish me luck.