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Michael's Blog

A collection of musings over the last decade. [The old ones, imported from the shuttered Google+ blog, are yet incomplete.]

Image 2025-12-07  ·  Robots watching FrACT₁₀
Image 2025-09-14  ·  Electromobility – ½ year experience with the Silence S04 L7e
Image 2025-05-13  ·  FrACT₁₀ 3.0 – PDF output, on its way to 21 CRF Part 11 compliance
Image 2025-03-12  ·  FrACT₁₀ gained a new button “BaLM₁₀”
Image 2024-12-30  ·  Found on the wayside
Image 2024-11-27  ·  A failed experiment with predatory journals
Image 2024-09-23  ·  FrACT₁₀ – Many additions, Vs 1.4
Image 2024-05-16  ·  MmM-Auftritt 2024-05-16
Image 2024-03-29  ·  FrACT₁₀ – Dithering for contrast optotypes
Image 2023-11-21  ·  MacOS apps I use on a near-daily basis
Image 2023-05-09  ·  FrACT₁₀ offers gratings
Image 2023-05-01  ·  Das Black Forest Ballroom Orchestra spielt zum Tanz am 13. Mai
Image 2023-03-08  ·  FrACT₁₀ as a “Progressive Web App”
Image 2022-10-27  ·  Sorting mailboxes in Apples ‘Mail.app’
Image 2022-09-07  ·  Homöopathie – Verschüttelt, nicht gerührt
Image 2022-08-12  ·  FrACT₁₀ now also available as Windows executable
Image 2022-05-31  ·  Recent improvements in FrACT₁₀
Image 2022-05-12  ·  Kulturbühne Freiburg, Interview + Vortrag
Image 2022-04-13  ·  Marens “Nachtlichter” – Die Leiter und mehr
Image 2022-03-02  ·  A new size calibration procedure for FrACT₁₀
Image 2022-02-02  ·  Floorball
Image 2022-01-29  ·  There are also good news!
Image 2021-12-23  ·  A new button for FrACT₁₀
Image 2021-12-07  ·  My favorite flower still-life
Image 2021-11-27  ·  Tucholski war's nicht (Impfen)
Image 2021-11-09  ·  FrACT₁₀ – 2 major updates
Image 2021-09-15  ·  FrACT₁₀ update – buttons & color
Image 2021-08-19  ·  Kontoführung mit Chipkarte am Mac – Problem gelöst
Image 2021-08-01  ·  FrACT₁₀ – small update
Image 2021-07-21  ·  Elektroautos generieren schon jetzt viel weniger CO₂ über ihren Lebenszyklus als Verbrenner
Image 2021-07-13  ·  Genderstern – mehr Nach- als Vorteile
Image 2021-07-05  ·  FrACT₁₀ – fixed vexing buglet
Image 2021-06-28  ·  Das Impfparadoxon – Je mehr geimpft, desto mehr von den Neuerkrankten sind 2× geimpft…
Image 2021-06-20  ·  Wireframe – which way does it rotate?
Image 2021-06-01  ·  FrACT₁₀ – Open sourced as of today
Image 2021-05-15  ·  Tolles Buch – Andy Weir “Hail Mary”
Image 2021-05-10  ·  Impfen bei uns leider langsam – und schon immer gab es Verweigerer
Image 2021-05-02  ·  FrACT₁₀ – Now with measure of dispersion and a correction
Image 2021-04-14  ·  First long distance e-car experiences
Image 2021-03-31  ·  Preserving MacBook batteries
Image 2021-03-02  ·  Batterielebenszyklus von Elektroautos >100× resourcenschonender als Verbrenner
Image 2021-02-05  ·  FrACT₁₀ – Now with gamma calibration and more
Image 2021-01-25  ·  OSA Online Seminar
Image 2020-12-24  ·  Festive Illusion
Image 2020-12-20  ·  New addition to “Visual Phenomena” – Pop-out
Image 2020-12-17  ·  set Battery Charge Level Maximum (for MacBooks)
Image 2020-11-23  ·  Migrating to LibreOffice in MacOS
Image 2020-11-22  ·  Heilsteine? Schöner Zeit-Artikel
Image 2020-11-16  ·  Tolles Lied von Maren “Nicht wundern”
Image 2020-10-15  ·  FrACT₁₀ – Now with contrast threshold
Image 2020-09-27  ·  MacOS – moving to zsh
Image 2020-09-26  ·  Akkuspeicher für unsere Photovoltaik-Anlage
Image 2020-09-20  ·  Füllstandsensor für die Zisterne
Image 2020-08-31  ·  Elektroautos erheblich klimafreundlicher als Verbrenner
Image 2020-06-21  ·  FrACT₁₀ – All-platforms version with 5 types of visual acuity
Image 2020-06-06  ·  New Illusion – Chromostereopsis
Image 2020-06-03  ·  Bandprobe in Coronazeiten
Image 2020-05-22  ·  Wakeboarding opened
Image 2020-05-19  ·  FrACT₁₀ published, with a new user interface
Image 2020-05-09  ·  Hochspannungs-Blitze einer Wimshurst-Maschine
Image 2020-05-08  ·  FrACT10 – Flash be gone!
Image 2020-04-19  ·  Zwei Masken – ja, so muss man mit der Situation umgehen!
Image 2020-04-17  ·  Web Audio API
Image 2020-04-16  ·  Missing fundamental illusion
Image 2020-04-10  ·  FrACT – Freiburg Acuity (and more) Test at version 3.10.5
Image 2020-04-08  ·  Blue Bullshit
Image 2020-04-07  ·  Blauer Blödsinn
Image 2020-04-05  ·  “Unstatistik” des Monats
Image 2020-04-01  ·  Um Mitternacht – ich liege wach
Image 2020-03-31  ·  New illusion – Adjustable oblique grating
Image 2020-03-29  ·  Der Reiher – war's das wert?
Image 2020-03-22  ·  ggplot and Unicode
Image 2020-03-19  ·  Relax with jellyfish
Image 2020-03-18  ·  COVID-19 – Zeit für Wissenschaft und Fakten (GWUP)
Image 2020-03-15  ·  Soap! Against SARS-CoV-2
Image 2020-03-02  ·  Corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) – We should be “scared a bit”
Image 2020-02-22  ·  A publication on optimal battery management
Image 2020-02-14  ·  Wine glass illusion
Image 2020-02-03  ·  ResearchGate considered harmful
Image 2020-02-02  ·  “Mosaik” tritt auf
Image 2020-02-01  ·  Die “AugenBand” tritt auf
Image 2020-01-26  ·  Energiefluss beim Klimawandel. Sehr guter Beitrag von Stefan Rahmstorf im Spiegel
Image 2020-01-09  ·  Tintenfische haben Stereosehen
Image 2020-01-09  ·  5G – wohl nicht gesundheitsschädlich, aber unnötig und sicherheitsschädlich
Image 2019-12-31  ·  There's so much good news in the world…
Image 2019-12-28  ·  Leipzig
Image 2019-12-18  ·  New Illusion – Color change (due to eye movements)
Image 2019-12-16  ·  Adding an RSS / Atom feed
Image 2019-12-16  ·  Elektrofahrzeuge besser als Wasserstoff-getriebene
Image 2019-12-14  ·  Homöopathie wirkt nicht über den Placeboeffekt hinaus (Böhmermann, ZDF Neo)
Image 2019-11-14  ·  Markdown quicklook in Catalina
Image 2019-11-09  ·  FunCub's Maiden Flight
Image 2019-10-29  ·  von Graefe-Preis – Vortragsprobleme
Image 2019-10-13  ·  Compensating my flights' CO₂
Image 2019-10-12  ·  Grüne – Homöopathiekosten von den Kassen nicht ersetzen
Image 2019-10-12  ·  Checking out my Slow Flyer
Image 2019-09-10  ·  Friday for future in Freiburg
Image 2019-08-01  ·  Updating my site, Jekyll
Image 2019-05-13  ·  John Oliver on the Green New Deal – brilliant
2019-04-18  ·  HTML 5 – summary / details
Image 2019-03-20  ·  Problems registering Oyster cards for foreigners
2019-03-19  ·  MacOS hidden tricks – .nosync, .noindex, .nobackup
Image 2019-01-01  ·  Migrating my entire site to the static CMS “Jekyll”
Image 2018-06-03  ·  HTTP → HTTPS
Image 2018-03-28  ·  Loss of contour in equiluminance
Image 2018-02-04  ·  Pattern-ERG: P50 & N95 differ in LOCAL origin…
Image 2017-09-21  ·  I couldn't agree more!
Image 2017-09-05  ·  Public water supply may contain dangerously tiny levels of homeopathic medicine, say experts
Image 2017-08-09  ·  NO variant of the Café Wall Illusion – Skye's oblique grating
2017-05-19  ·  On our way to being an outcast when not facebooking
Image 2017-03-05  ·  Red Strawberrries
Image 2017-02-28  ·  Life with USB-C is good
Image 2017-02-14  ·  Opposite Rotation in Kitaoka's “Rotating Snakes Illusion”
2017-01-17  ·  President Trump: The Inauguration (new Twilight episode)
Image 2016-12-21  ·  Seasonal Illusion – “White Xmas”
Image 2016-12-11  ·  Ferien in Lanzarote
Image 2016-11-24  ·  Open Access for viewing – excellent!
2016-11-21  ·  »Quit social media« – should be ‘asocial’, I couldn't agree more…
Image 2016-10-22  ·  Wakeboarding – possibly for the last time this year
2016-09-26  ·  Bodo Wartke – Nicht in meinem Namen
Image 2016-09-13  ·  Vanishing Dots or Twelve black dots illusion
2016-09-04  ·  Epic fails of mine on the #wakeboard
2016-08-03  ·  Open Access – more than you ever wanted to know about it
Image 2016-07-18  ·  These three low res icons below refer to new additions to my “illusions & visual phenomena” site.
Image 2016-06-28  ·  Mein Elektromobil “Twizy” hat 10.000 km erreicht
Image 2016-06-23  ·  Under water
2016-06-21  ·  Typography & SciFI
Image 2016-06-12  ·  Repaired my Guitar Amplifier
2016-06-12  ·  ‘Chemophobia’ is irrational, harmful …
Image 2016-05-21  ·  Brick Wall Illusion
Image 2016-05-19  ·  ARVO in Seattle – sleepless
2016-05-18  ·  Proud father! Maren singing
2016-05-10  ·  John Oliver on science (mis-) communication
2016-05-09  ·  Two guitarists I venerate, doing their thing together
2016-05-07  ·  Lovely music: Antiquariat
Image 2016-04-02  ·  CappCon 2016
Image 2016-03-08  ·  American Statistical Association: p-values considered harmful
2016-03-07  ·  Contrast Rebellion – to hell with unreadable, low-contrast texts!
2016-03-02  ·  Deutsche Bahn: Schlafwagen beibehalten!
2016-02-16  ·  I've always preserved Quicktime Player 7 on my machines…
Image 2016-02-12  ·  Ah… snowboarding, and a restorative break
2016-02-06  ·  “GuitarNick” really has a knack for fluid fingerpicking arrangements
Image 2016-01-29  ·  Visual Acuity: Feedback keeps your participants happy w/o affecting result
Image 2016-01-11  ·  ggplot2 2.0.0 – Very nice, some plots will look different
Image 2015-12-31  ·  Review Deadlines
Image 2015-12-10  ·  An R question
2015-11-29  ·  Idiotisch: EU will Atomkraft subventionieren
2015-11-20  ·  On-line censorship growing
Image 2015-11-14  ·  Under the surface of my natural swimming pond
2015-11-14  ·  Wakeboarding at the end of the season …
Image 2015-11-06  ·  Auftragsmalerei in Leipzig
Image 2015-10-26  ·  AOO – Arbeitskreis Ophthalmische Optik
Image 2015-10-20  ·  Another Predatory Journal …
Image 2015-10-18  ·  Handbraking OS X El Capitan
Image 2015-10-11  ·  Interview “SWR1 Leute”
Image 2015-08-28  ·  Stop TTIP
Image 2015-08-26  ·  Tresorit replacing Wuala
2015-08-17  ·  As Alex so aptly states “…copyright is complicated…”
2015-08-16  ·  TeamViewer – Access your computer remotely and share your desktop with friends – it’s free!
Image 2015-07-25  ·  Pulfrich Effect
Image 2015-07-01  ·  A great ISCEV Symposium in Lubljana, Slovenia
Image 2015-07-01  ·  Lake Bohinj – Bohinjska Jezero
Image 2015-06-17  ·  What a tangled web we weave – display resolutions
2015-05-26  ·  TTIP already lowering health standards in EU!
Image 2015-05-25  ·  50 Years of the McCollough Colour Aftereffect
Image 2015-05-23  ·  Pixel artifact – Be gone
Image 2015-05-01  ·  Apple MacOS Photos: How to edit or change location metadata (EXIF data)
Image 2015-04-25  ·  Colour Sampling of “The Dress” – with full #R code
2015-04-24  ·  One way to make your voice against TTIP heard (a little)
Image 2015-02-28  ·  Colored-Dress Enigma
Image 2015-02-22  ·  Oliver Sacks
2015-02-17  ·  R examples (not just) for users of Excel (or any spreadsheet)
2014-12-31  ·  More good news for our world (from Hans Rosling)
2014-12-31  ·  An amazing and balanced statement on dealing with protesters from the Nashville Chief of Police
Image 2014-12-28  ·  Last new on-line vision experiment this year
Image 2014-12-23  ·  “Woodpacking” for the winter
Image 2014-12-22  ·  Australian court to penalize homeopaths for claiming vaccine alternative
Image 2014-11-30  ·  NHMRC¹ concludes that the assessment of the evidence from research in humans does not show that homeopathy is...
Image 2014-11-23  ·  Andy Weir's “The Martian” – wonderful!
Image 2014-11-16  ·  Watercolor Illusion
Image 2014-11-11  ·  Biermann im Bundestag, allein schon das Gitarrenspiel…
Image 2014-10-17  ·  Wuala ok with Yosemite / Java, how-to
Image 2014-10-10  ·  Nachtzüge erhalten!
Image 2014-09-14  ·  Bachblueten – für sowas möchte ich meinen Namen nicht hergeben ;)
Image 2014-09-06  ·  Homöopathen pfuschen mit bei Ebola – als wenn es nicht schon schlimm genug wäre!
2014-09-06  ·  Abnehmen…
Image 2014-08-27  ·  Enigma · https://michaelbach.de/ot/mot-enigma/
Image 2014-08-02  ·  Easter Island Mystery Moais … finally solved.
Image 2014-07-30  ·  We don't want no fracking impact factor
2014-07-19  ·  Critical parsing of corporate BS speak reveals industrial inhumanity – A surprise?
2014-07-15  ·  TTIP – Ein Freihandelsabkommen, das uns unfreier macht
Image 2014-07-06  ·  Wakeboarding in my backyard…
2014-07-06  ·  Frankfurt Airport traffic enhancements
Image 2014-06-29  ·  Colour Matching Game
Image 2014-05-25  ·  Dynamic Ebbinghaus
2014-05-17  ·  Bike Helmets – No really a Boon
2014-05-13  ·  All I wanted to know about “wall wart” chargers
Image 2014-05-11  ·  Magic Triangle
2014-05-08  ·  When you pit two laws of life against each other…
Image 2014-04-26  ·  Context affects colour
2014-04-21  ·  Selten klare Worte: Angst vor “do no evil”-Google
Image 2014-04-16  ·  Freiburg Acuity (and more) Test (FrACT) at version 3.8.2
2014-04-06  ·  All along the watchtower
Image 2014-04-04  ·  MacFixit → MacIssues
Image 2014-04-04  ·  How many balls
Image 2014-03-30  ·  Tips for #Scientific #Citation Management with Zotero
Image 2014-03-26  ·  Strolling in La Gomera
Image 2014-03-01  ·  Anamorphosis in Art
2014-02-23  ·  Great article on Carl Sagan here!
Image 2014-02-05  ·  Benham's Top unrolled
Image 2014-01-20  ·  Rosetta: Arival of Signal
Image 2014-01-15  ·  Homespun remedies that work
Image 2014-01-14  ·  Joys of Snowboarding
Image 2014-01-04  ·  Motion-induced blindness
2014-01-04  ·  Snow-diving foxes
Image 2014-01-01  ·  New version of “Flash Lag” in Visual Phenomena
2013-12-23  ·  Now 107 Visual Phenomena: “Ebbinghaus Illusion”
2013-11-24  ·  Snowboarding begins
2013-11-20  ·  Der Arbeitskreis Ophthalmische Optik …
2013-11-17  ·  Our Swimming Pond in mid-November…
2013-11-02  ·  My Motion Adaptation Demo updated to no longer need Flash.
2013-10-18  ·  Just back from China…
2013-10-05  ·  Richard Feynman…
2013-10-04  ·  Harvesting in Leipzig
Image 2013-09-29  ·  How hot will it get in your lifetime?
Image 2013-09-22  ·  A  #twizy  – want to come along? (Yes, there is a passenger seat at the back)
2013-09-17  ·  106 Visual Phenomena & Optical Illusions – Tusi Motion
2013-09-15  ·  Gravity Challenge
Image 2013-09-08  ·  Sometimes iPhoto…
Image 2013-09-01  ·  Elektro-Maxiroller VX1
Image 2013-08-30  ·  Tom Troscianko Prize for “the most outrageous presentation”
Image 2013-08-15  ·  “MacPro” – Apple, what are you thinking?
2013-08-01  ·  R + ggplot + smoothers
2013-07-12  ·  105 Visual Phenomena & Optical Illusions – Colour Fan
Image 2013-06-04  ·  Paragliding
2013-05-30  ·  British Research Assessment Framework (REF) – simple analysis reveals it can't work, is driven by interests of…
2013-05-27  ·  About time we got serious about misuse of the impact factor
2013-05-26  ·  Teaching in Venice
2013-05-26  ·  FrACT – Freiburg Vision Test
2013-05-20  ·  Wow, Dennet!
2013-05-18  ·  Auftragsmalerei in Leipzig
2013-05-13  ·  Dieses Experiment von Peter Brugger generiert bestimmt interessante Ergebnisse!
2013-05-01  ·  Hah, Wakeboarding…
2013-05-01  ·  Differentially clenching fists for learning & recall?
2013-04-26  ·  Großartiger Vortrag von Manfred Spitzer
2013-04-23  ·  104 Visual Phenomena & Optical Illusions – Blind Spot Demo
Image 2013-04-13  ·  Great article on homeopathy in arstechnica – Not because we think there's a value in talking about it…
2013-04-09  ·  Theatermacher Gundelfingen
2013-04-09  ·  Academic Spam
2013-04-04  ·  Cut by the bleeding edge of technology – twice
Image 2013-04-01  ·  No April Fool's Joke – Wakeboarding opened today
2013-03-31  ·  Easter in Leipzig
2013-03-16  ·  This is an amazing (if only beginning) piece: the boundary conditions for research ideas in real life.
2013-03-15  ·  Winter on the Vectrix Maxi-Scooter
2013-03-09  ·  “Snake Illusion” across species
2013-03-09  ·  Landolt – der mit dem Ring
2013-02-24  ·  Snow and snowboarding in my neighbourhood
2013-02-23  ·  Einerseits hinreißende Satire, andererseits schrecklich wahr …
2013-02-20  ·  103 Visual Phenomena – Ames Window
2013-02-19  ·  Apple Fusion Drive – Rolled my own
2013-02-09  ·  102 Visual Phenomena – Moiré Patterns
2013-01-20  ·  100 + 1 Visual Phenomena: Mach Band
Image 2013-01-17  ·  Tips for Scientific Citation Management with Zotero
2013-01-07  ·  Marrying TextWrangler to git
Image 2012-12-29  ·  Music, Yes, Music!
Image 2012-12-27  ·  Round numbers fascinate us
Image 2012-12-20  ·  SSDs = Simple Speed Demons = Solid State Disks
2012-12-19  ·  No correlation between video games and gun-related murders
Image 2012-12-10  ·  Zotero – Citation management done well, but one problem…
Image 2012-12-09  ·  Although the eyes have it, they do not stand alone – The Bayesian interpretation of perception
Image 2012-11-25  ·  On Casino Royale – the first James Bond novel
2012-11-25  ·  Deep Learning explained so I understood a little
Image 2012-11-21  ·  100 Visual Phenomena
2012-11-16  ·  Been there…
Image 2012-11-11  ·  Mind Lab – Graceful demos of perceptual phenomena
2012-11-09  ·  Data peeking is always wrong (except when you do it right)
Image 2012-11-02  ·  Scientific Citation Management
Image 2012-11-01  ·  Some pleasures in #science  in Gothenburg
Image 2012-10-24  ·  R & ggplot2 – “Violin plots” considered beautiful
Image 2012-10-21  ·  Warm days in autumn on the water + AppleSripted webcam dowloader
2012-10-15  ·  Statistics>R:  Re-ordering factor levels
2012-10-06  ·  Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band etc.
Image 2012-10-03  ·  Summer is gone…
Image 2012-09-28  ·  Walk-in Eye Model with a twist
2012-09-28  ·  Signing away your rights – or not
2012-09-24  ·  ggplot2 – geom_text vs. annotate(geom="text")
Image 2012-09-19  ·  A new addition to Visual Phenomena & Optical Illusions
Image 2012-09-18  ·  Where waterlilies go to die
2012-09-16  ·  Some people cannot learn to program?
Image 2012-09-13  ·  An experience with the rapid dynamics of search engines
Image 2012-09-07  ·  Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROCs) roc
2012-09-05  ·  Spicing up your papers
Image 2012-09-02  ·  I was cross …
Image 2012-08-28  ·  Quantity vs Quality in Science
Image 2012-08-26  ·  A flower in our swimming pond
2012-08-25  ·  Higher incentives → less performance…
Image 2012-08-25  ·  Adaptive Optics – Amazing image resolution from live human eyes
Image 2012-08-15  ·  MacOS Mountain Lion – Do this for a functional “New Document Model”
2012-08-14  ·  Getting your priorities right in space: Training on the robot arm vs impressing the gals with yo-yo tricks…
2012-08-14  ·  “64% of the facts on the Internet are incorrect by 48% according to 52% of commentators”
Image 2012-08-05  ·  Scientific Style Change: Boasting exploded in the last 5 years – with R code to prove it
Image 2012-07-31  ·  Xcode & Mountain Lion Update Woes
2012-07-25  ·  Inference by Eye – how to read statistical error bars
Image 2012-07-24  ·  Of Macs, sealing wax, etc. Episode 2
Image 2012-07-22  ·  R, ggplot2, and axis limits – unexpected behaviour + solution
Image 2012-07-19  ·  Of Macs, sealing wax, and very old Macs
2012-07-17  ·  Optical Art with R
Image 2012-07-12  ·  Bridget Riley's Moving SquaRes
Image 2012-07-09  ·  Guitar playing and Neuroscience
Image 2012-07-08  ·  World's most accurate pie chart
2012-06-24  ·  Color Choices for Scientific Graphing
Image 2012-06-19  ·  Musings on programming languages
2012-06-17  ·  Cappuccino?
Image 2012-06-14  ·  R – I like it, but it's so difficult… same goes for ggplot2!
2012-06-12  ·  A talk on GIT by Linus Torwalds.
Image 2012-06-10  ·  On our way to this year’s ISCEV Symposium in Valencia we discovered a pearl – “Chez Michelon”
2012-06-10  ·  Neutrino faster-than-light issue conclusively put to rest. Ha!
2012-05-25  ·  The R Project for Statistical Computing is gaining ground world wide after I adopted it for all my analyses &...
2012-05-20  ·  As some of my friends & colleagues know, I've moved nearly all of my experiment analysis and graphing to "R"...
2012-04-27  ·  Not really new, but uplifting ;-)