If you own a surround sound system, you are supposed to tune it such that all speakers are at equal volume from your main listening place. You must sit down on your couch, grab a decibel meter, initiate the surround receiver’s test mode and start adjusting the levels. I don’t know about you but I don’t own a decibel meter, so that was pretty much that.

Along comes Decibel (iTunes link), an application that turns your iPhone into a decibel meter. And it works. Simple as that. Listening to music on my surround system now sounds much better as the levels of the different speakers are much more balanced. Beautiful. And well worth the $.99 / €0.79 asking price.

Machu Picchu Overview

We visited Machu Picchu February 11, 2007 — more than two years ago. Time flies. It is quite unbelievable that I still have not finished post-processing the photos from our South America trip — but I am working on it and can promise more amazing photos soon.

Machu Picchu, that most hyped destination in all of South America, is a fascinating place. It is the kind of attraction that I would have normally skipped: it is costly, it is crowded, it is full of tour groups. Still, I do not regret going. You can even see it in the picture: the place has a certain magic to it. Go early in the morning, go in the rainy (that is to say, low) season and you will be rewarded by the stunning monument that is Machu Picchu, sans the crowds. Even in the low season, though, you must savor every minute of the morning before the tour groups inevitably roll in. And there is one more thing I remember: we were drenched. But happy.

Dream Beach

In Hamburg it is cold and gray — frankly, I would much rather be back at Dream Beach.

Dream Beach, Nusa Lembongan, Bali, Indonesia

The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article (must pay for access) about Deutsche Bank trader Boaz Weinstein. He just netted Deutsche Bank a $1.8bn loss, wiping out the gains of two years of trading. Guess what his hobbies are? Chess, Poker and Black Jack. He was famous for his gambling — he had even once won a Maserati in a poker tournament. What does this say about the state of the financial industry? The guy is still considered a star trader by many…

SPIEGEL ONLINE has another article about Weinstein in German.

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the [executive team] could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is.

Steve Jobs On What Drives Apple Employees via rc3.org

Indeed, life is short.