tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30409081340412539902024-02-19T06:24:02.808+01:00Dornbachs in SwitzerlandCheese, Code and GoogleDornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-28653763881220540732009-12-13T09:32:00.001+01:002010-01-22T22:06:18.360+01:00The adventures of MagduskaPlease visit<br />
<a href="http://kinyirtam.blogspot.com/">kinyirtam.blogspot.com</a><br />
<br />
to read her latest adventures (in Hungarian).Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-24290208056601918082009-10-21T04:51:00.003+01:002009-10-21T04:52:27.121+01:00Jeff Dean's slides about Google infrastructre<a href="http://www.cs.cornell.edu/projects/ladis2009/talks/dean-keynote-ladis2009.pdf">These slides</a> tell you more about what I work with than I have ever thought I would be allowed to tell you...Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-22466943857602700062009-06-27T21:18:00.002+01:002009-06-27T21:19:05.355+01:00AquariumThere is always a first time. I never had an aquarium in my life, now my 5 year old daugther was pushing hard enough to get one:<br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/j-NKAnPuUv0&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/j-NKAnPuUv0&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-68479376677974704882009-04-16T09:24:00.003+01:002009-04-17T20:37:32.985+01:00Zebra Paint 1.2The new release went out yesterday. The only change is that it includes 24 templates instead of 12, and the old ones were updated too.<br /><br />Facts: in 38 days Zebra Paint had 38k downloads and 47% still have it installed. It has a 4-star rating (out of 5). It is currently the 6th most popular application in the Games/Casual category. And even more, it is a <a href="http://www.android.com/market/free.html#app=zebrapaint">featured app on the market</a>!<br /><br />There are some requests for adding new features, but there will be no update in the foreseeable future.Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-50253268880889621162009-04-15T10:30:00.001+01:002009-04-15T10:32:43.352+01:00A favorite video from my favorite bandThis is just perfect...<br /><br /><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RjUTuBv1OsI&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RjUTuBv1OsI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-73582176747124092512009-04-02T20:00:00.001+01:002009-04-02T20:01:44.569+01:00Google discloses server hardware detailsSurprisingly, Google has shed light on some aspects of the hardware used in its data centers. If interested, read more <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html">here</a>.Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-44356848031754405822009-03-19T12:17:00.006+01:002009-03-19T20:50:51.704+01:00Zebra Paint updateSince I practically used all my free time to develop version 1.0, I wanted to take a rest and not do anything for a while. But almost 10000 people downloaded it during the first week and even though the app is free, my rest was shorter than planned.<br /><br />Some facts first. As of today, 10 and a half days after putting it onto the market, I had 15300 downloads and people still have it installed 10600 (69%). I got 263 reviews and 11 emails, most of them positive (and some of them very negative). Overall, it looks good, the app has a 4+ star rating and it is currently #7 in the Games/Casual category in the market. Better than what I was hoping for.<br /><br />From the reactions it was pretty clear what to do to improve it. The most demanded features:<br /><ul><li>Save (send, set as wallpaper) the image - this is here with v1.1<br /></li><li>More templates - I will add more eventually, but no promises here</li><li>Paint with black - v1.1 has dark gray now (no black because that would easily make it unusable)</li><li>More colors - I am not going to add more because it would be more complicated for small kids and lead to other usability problems</li></ul>I have also added other features that were not explicitly asked:<br /><ul><li>Starts with a random template now</li><li>Minor stability fixes, e.g. it does not reload when opening/closing the lid</li></ul>Overall, adding image saving was far more complex and demanding than my initial estimate, which was 2-3 hours. In reality it took almost 4 working days. The cause is that saving images to the SD card does not make them show in the gallery, and the API to do that is not very straightforward and easy to screw up. I even managed to render the whole gallery crash at each start so I had to erase all data from my phone. But having the code of built-in apps like the Camera app helped.<br /><br />What I learned:<br />#1: it <span style="font-style: italic;">always</span> takes more than the estimate.<br />#2: saving images in Symbian (S60) is much simpler, it magically just works.<br />#3: the Market is a great way to distribute applications. I would not have get so many downloads any other way.Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-75061802712930175942009-03-11T21:07:00.003+01:002009-03-19T13:04:37.355+01:00Life of an Android app<div id=":2v" class="ii gt">After getting an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Dev_Phone#Android_Dev_Phone_1">Android dev phone</a>, I was tempted to write my own app for it. Since I am the proud father of 3 girls now, I wanted to do something that they can play with: an app with which they can color an image with their fingers. Now, after about 2 weeks of development time everyone can download it from the Android market by the name "<a href="http://www.dornbachs.com/mobile/zebra-paint">Zebra Paint</a>". <p>The start was easy - even though I have never used Eclipse before, the <a href="http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.1_r1/installing.html">instructions for setting up the emulator</a> and the environment were crystal clear. Doing Hello was also a piece of cake, less than 30 minutes. Choosing a new Android project adds everything needed and the logic is about 2 lines of Java code. Even better, it keeps everything up to date during development, e.g. when one adds new resources, the pointers from the code are automatically updates. XML files containing resources are also checked on the fly. When a line is changed I can see immediately if it works or I have made a mistake. That adds a quite rapid feel for development.</p> <p>Not everything is easy, though. Understanding the fundamental concepts like resources and activities needed some time. Probably the worst thing is that while there is Javadoc for everything, the documentation describing resources lacks details and examples in many places. For example there are "drawables" that can be used to paint just like anything, there is no reference docs, no tutorials. The examples cover some simple cases but I have the feeling that drawables are capable of much more than what's documented. For instance, layers and combining objects.</p> <p>The other surprising thing was that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalvik_virtual_machine">Dalvik VM</a> is actually slow and nowhere near the speed that I predicted based on that the CPU is more than 2x faster than my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E61">Symbian E61</a>. For a simple algorithm like flood fill a lot of int array magic and ugly design was necessary because the VM could not get through it.</p> <p>Overall, doing it was faster than on Symbian, but there is room for improvement. Hope you enjoy <a href="http://www.dornbachs.com/mobile/zebra-paint">Zebra Paint</a>!</p> </div>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-19784123925278654902009-02-16T15:46:00.004+01:002009-03-19T13:04:19.963+01:00Formula 1 2009 rules in 2 minutesIf you have heard nothing about it so far, it's great:<br /><br /><object height="295" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zTkVKPdyWs0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zTkVKPdyWs0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="295" width="480"></embed></object>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-73796795809644123482008-12-12T17:35:00.003+01:002009-03-19T13:04:53.461+01:00FamousI always wanted to be present somewhere on Wikipedia. And today I have discovered that I am! I am especially proud of this: the 2nd cited article for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_tracing_%28graphics%29">Ray Tracing (graphics)</a> says: Péter Dornbach. "<a href="http://www.cescg.org/CESCG98/PDornbach/index.html" class="external text" title="http://www.cescg.org/CESCG98/PDornbach/index.html" rel="nofollow">Implementation of bidirectional ray tracing algorithm</a>". Yay!<br /><br />(I did not edit anything myself. Honestly.)Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-43605299269858615382008-09-21T20:18:00.003+01:002009-03-19T13:05:03.669+01:00Android = iPhone?From this side of the ocean, the way people think about mobile phone prices in the US seems very unusual.<br /><br />With the launch of the first Android phone imminent, I read tons of articles <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330829,00.asp">like this</a> quoting that the expected price tag is $199, "<span name="intelliTxt" id="intellitxt">in line with what Apple's charging". The same article does not spend a word mentioning how much an iPhone customer pays during the first 2 years, or speculating what it would take for an Android phone customer.<br /><br />Please, wake up. $199 does not matter. $60 each month for 2 years does.<br /></span>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-60436323551904072792008-09-02T10:22:00.003+01:002009-03-19T13:05:17.767+01:00Google ChromeWorking at Google means some excitement each day. Coworkers are working on projects I have never heard before, so when we make an announcement, it frequently comes as a surprise: "Oh, did we work on this?"<br /><br />With the announcement yesterday this was not the case. Everyone at Google knew that we are working on this. Hence, I was very excited, because know you know it too: the Chrome browser is public! At the moment it's only a <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html">blog post</a> and a <a href="http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/">cartoon</a>, but hopefully you will all learn more in a day.Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-75816050508427184462008-07-22T08:24:00.003+01:002009-03-19T13:05:28.674+01:00Firefox leading the way ... Haha :)While I have to admit that Firefox <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> having a great impact on the browser world, I personally think that the crowds doing them are no different than the crowd during the concurrence... For example, look at this:<br /><a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/22/0012210">http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/22/0012210<br /></a><br />Christopher Blizzard, Firefox evangelist: "... <i>they would not have done it, if we would have not built Firefox. And the same is true for Apple, they are doing a lot to keep up with us.</i>"<br /><br />A couple of random facts to keep things on the ground:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.opera.com/">Opera</a> 9.51 does 83 out of 100 on the <a href="http://acid3.acidtests.org/">Acid3</a> web compatibility test. Safari 3.1 does 75. Firefox 3.01 does 71. (All of them are the latest production versions today.)</li><li>Example: on <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/">Picasaweb</a>, Opera actually works (even though the site claims it is not actually not tested) whereas Firefox 3 does not (even though Picasaweb says it's supported).</li><li>Example: Firefox is lagging behind in mobile. There are successful mobile browser products based on <a href="http://www.nokia.com/browser">WebKit</a>, <a href="http://www.operamini.com/">Opera</a> and IE deployed on millions of devices. Where's Firefox?<br /></li></ul>Firefox 3 <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> important. It is a great step forward, uses less memory etc. But they have to admit that their goodwill advantage is much more important than their technical one. And if they do not innovate on their own, they may be hit from unexpected directions.Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-79107749014915344932008-07-21T22:15:00.003+01:002009-03-19T13:05:38.279+01:00Lego foreverWhoever knows me probably knows my relationship with Lego. This has raised to a new dimension that I even managed to surprise my spouse. Instead of words, let pictures tell the story:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/LDDScreenShot1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/LDDScreenShot1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0485.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0485.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />To cut the story short - you can download <a href="http://ldd.lego.com/">Lego Digital Designer</a> from the Lego site (free of charge), and build whatever you want on your PC. This is what I did in my free hours (like waiting 5 hours on JFK). The result on the first image above. The second shows its real world counterpart - of course you can <a href="http://factory.lego.com/gallery/?parameters=1%7C%7CBf109">order it!</a>. More images <span style="text-decoration: underline;">here</span><a href="http://picasaweb.google.hu/dornbach"></a>. I wish you good building!Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-53130217649176468662008-07-10T15:04:00.005+01:002009-03-19T13:07:24.504+01:00How many spaces is a tab?Tricky question - real programmers do not use tabs, except in Makefiles. From now on everyone can see how many spaces we use in Google-land. Plus lots of other rules. Fluent C++ is a plus:<br /><br /><a href="http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/cppguide.xml">http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/cppguide.xml</a>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-73997622662299128622008-07-09T21:42:00.004+01:002009-03-19T13:07:12.469+01:00Open Source Protocol BuffersGoogle tries to be the cool guy and from time to time donates one of its many building bricks to the community. Apache license, everyone does what they want with it.<br /><br />This time it's Protocol Buffers. What is it good for? To store any structured data - something like XML, but better:<br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Simple.</span> Minimalistic, nothing is over-complicated.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fast.</span> Parsing, writing, checking all very efficient.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Compact.</span> Takes little space.</li><li>(Of course it's available from C++, Java and Python)</li></ul>And the most important:<br /><ul><li>Peter uses it every day in his work (like everyone else around here).</li></ul>More on the Google blog:<br /><a href="http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/07/protocol-buffers-googles-data.html">http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/07/protocol-buffers-googles-data.html</a><br /><br />Download from here:<br /><a href="http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/">http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/</a><br /><br />Something else I use every day:<br /><a href="http://code.google.com/p/googletest/">http://code.google.com/p/googletest/</a>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-22818447749759788182008-07-09T21:32:00.005+01:002009-03-19T13:08:08.853+01:00Pictures from Seattle and New YorkI know, it has been a while since I posted something... To keep you up to date, here are <a href="http://picasaweb.google.hu/dornbach">some pictures</a> from the trip I have made in June. First, I visited the <a href="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced/">SMX</a> conference in Seattle. It was an experience... Before, it was not obvious that there is an entire industry based on beating PageRank... :) Then, I had some business in New York (my first ever visit). Enjoy the photos:<br /><br />The Space Needle in Seattle:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0327.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0327.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Rebooting the plane during the flight (powered by Linux):<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0084.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0084.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Shot in the NYC Google office:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0092.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0092.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />One of the many means of transportation in NYC:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0334.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://dornbach.blog.hu/media/image/IMG_0334.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />More on:<br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.hu/dornbach">http://picasaweb.google.hu/dornbach</a>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-38318169836775534982007-03-21T22:12:00.001+01:002009-03-19T13:07:35.730+01:00The first 2 monthsI think we managed to settle down.<br /><br />In retrospective, the first month was the most difficult one. We had a lot of paperwork, and the small apartment downtown was not too convenient with kids. We did not have a lot of toys, and the space was a bit too small for them. Luckily, Kriszta found that playground nearby.<br /><br />After we got the new place, everything seemed to go smoothly. It took a week until we could assemble everything that we bought in Ikea. Okay, there are some things missing still, like curtains and some more furniture. But overall, it looks like a place to live :) In contrast to the downtown apartment, I have the feeling that I go "home" after work.<br /><br />Our kids seem to love it a lot more too. They were sick a little bit, but except 1-1 day it did not influence their mood. Of course, now they have their own bed, own toys and everything. We left many of them at home, but the count of toys here started increasing at an unbelievable pace already :) Lola can express herself more and more. The cutest thing is that instead of the obligatory "no" she keeps shaking her head. "Wanna drink?" - headshaking, "Come here" - headshaking, etc. No answer usually means "yes" :) Noemi likes to go to the Hungarian daycare very much. I think she starts to find her own friends. They both like the playground in front of the new place, we cannot get Lola away from the swing :)<br /><br />And about work? Last week I already had the feeling that I am working on something. Tasks coming after each other, sometimes 2-3 at once. When I changed something, it is often only the next day when it turned out if it worked or not. Any case, it feels like a real job - and I start to see how the puzzle pieces fit together. I already wrote a small program, about 100 lines of code that is a utility for others too. So I feel useful - at the beginning it seemed that this would need more time.<br /><br />We start to find our rythm - if you happen to be in Zürich, just visit us!Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-67668478741504196322007-03-12T10:01:00.002+01:002009-03-19T13:07:45.082+01:00Moving inDuring February, we lived in a furnished small flat rented by the company in central Zurich. It was ok and we got to know the city a little bit, but it was too small for our family and not very convenient on the top floor.<br /><br />We could finally move in to our final apartment in Adliswil late February. We agreed to start at 9, they were looking after us already 8.30. They were really quick, and left right after noon. But all our stuff was there, furniture assembled - the only thing was we did not have a lot of storage space to unpack many boxes. When Lola saw her bed, she started laughing. Noemi climbed onto her bed immediately and started being sleepy.<br /><br />To celebrate that everything went so quickly, we went to the local Ikea. Amazingly, the prices are lower than in Hungary in many cases (could be the Hungarian VAT?), the only problematic spot is to get everything home. We decided to rent a van - the kids really enjoyed sitting in the front row (hope that police does not read this). I had to move more than 500kg stuff myself, but I did it. The only thing left was to assemble everything - but that was the story of the week after that. Just one thing - we now have more than 10 of those tiny bent metal tools Ikea gave to drive the screws :)<br /><br />Yet another amazing thing is that the next day after we moved in, we already got the package for the net and digital tv - 2 days after the move everything was working! I think this is amazing. We even have 1 Hungarian language channel.Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-4776962102640155792007-03-09T11:20:00.001+01:002009-03-19T13:07:00.554+01:003 weeks in Google-landBack in end of February, my first 3 weeks passed. The first week was almost completely covered with listening to presentations - I needed to learn a lot of things to catch up. I still need to. But let's go back to the beginning.<br /><br />First, the terminology. The company is Google, anyone who works here is a Googler. Clear so far. How about someone who just started like myself? Well, I am a Noogler. But regular Googlers live and work in <a href="http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=12&ll=37.393619,-122.078705&spn=0.132018,0.276031&t=h&om=1">Mountain View</a> in the middle of Silicon Valley. We cannot call ourselves the same - here in Zurich we are Zooglers. So I am a Noogler-Zoogler. I didn't dare to think about Googlers in Krakow, though :)<br /><br />Every Noogler has a starter project. This is usually quite short, but one has to know a lot to do the couple of lines needed. I had my one ready at the end of February - was about 20 lines of code in a top secret (Google-specific) language. It gave me the feeling that I accomplished something. And that I know some bits already.<br /><br />So far everything looks nice. Workmates are friendly and help each other in lots of things outside work too. This is also aided by most of them being from outside Switzerland - just like I am. For a long time I have thought that my work here will have something to do with what I did before - well, this is not the case. No mobile, no phone, no operators, no <a href="http://www.symbian.com/">Symbian</a> (with a Mac, I would be in trouble developing to Symbian). Lots of server stuff, deep into it. I would not say it is particularly interesting, but it is challenging. But I like the Google approach. Everything that can be automated is actually automated. Ranging from handling the source code through code reviews to deployment. This is the biggest strength of Google - to solve "big" problems more efficiently than anyone else. Just a minor thing - I have more than 100 times the quota for company mail than what I used to have before.<br /><br />I hope we will be good at it for a long time!Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-49266167949495278652007-03-09T07:52:00.001+01:002009-03-19T13:08:19.815+01:00Trip to the RigiOur first weekend was a real Swiss one. People here are complaining a lot about the lack of real winter. It is like in Hungary - neither cold nor snow. This causes lots of economical damage to Switzerland - but you still do have a chance to find snow at the right place.<br /><br />Our friends proposed going to the <a href="http://www.rigi.ch/en/welcome.cfm?">Rigi</a>. The original plan was that moms with kids travel up to the top while family heads do a bit of hiking. As I did not really have hiking clothes, only jeans and street shoes, this was luckily cancelled, at least for me. All the way along to the top the weather was cold and foggy. The track was surrounded by big pieces of ice leaning down the rocks. We thought about poor other Peter.<br /><br />At the top it suddenly all disappeared and we had a beautiful view with sunshine. We were above the clouds, only some mountains raising above cloud level. Luckily, we also found a bit of snow enough for Noemi and Dani to slide down - this lasted or a while, they never seemed to be tired enough to stop.<br /><br />Downwards we had also had a bit of excitement - we had to catch the train, so poor other Peter changed to running upwards the hill. He got really exhausted. But he did it! Even watching him mad me tired. But we - and especially the kids - were all happy that we have found snow in this mild winter.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTNtjU8HwfBmu8XsODr-F-KlbOlSLyiDj1m-KQGP5Zv9M3OHoeHgzL55jNtqk4PK9nifWe3bcPfZQvB3aIM9-XSg0v-RjJGK__HNpyWQtrrfMbHHEcb1a4OLYNEBngXFQY3vRAucSrw2o/s1600-h/cimg2307.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTNtjU8HwfBmu8XsODr-F-KlbOlSLyiDj1m-KQGP5Zv9M3OHoeHgzL55jNtqk4PK9nifWe3bcPfZQvB3aIM9-XSg0v-RjJGK__HNpyWQtrrfMbHHEcb1a4OLYNEBngXFQY3vRAucSrw2o/s400/cimg2307.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5039815550314933538" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-4sk8gHgYhCtgF8WKGGiRiW1UjEr_Eo5m2J-dDUlwzUM9LDEzUQzjCv5-9sOndAoseLvF1ggKqvN4jR46rB92sF4HWeZdYcAtriKe2dSjGxzfP3GEIcx53BFBxpeFgBh07Q4xcC9aU-U/s1600-h/cimg2287.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-4sk8gHgYhCtgF8WKGGiRiW1UjEr_Eo5m2J-dDUlwzUM9LDEzUQzjCv5-9sOndAoseLvF1ggKqvN4jR46rB92sF4HWeZdYcAtriKe2dSjGxzfP3GEIcx53BFBxpeFgBh07Q4xcC9aU-U/s400/cimg2287.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5039815326976634130" border="0" /></a>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-69724348989118450872007-03-07T19:30:00.001+01:002009-03-19T13:07:54.300+01:001000kmTo be more precise, it was around 1050. Could have been less, if we do not drive about 20km in the wrong direction on the Swiss motorway. As an excuse, signs were really bad. Otherwise, the journey was nice. We had lots of sunshine - at the break around Salzburg, the car's thermometer showed 16 Celsius; back in late January! The kids were really nice. We tried to stop at places where they can play a bit. In Zurich, I was quite nervous because the owner of the temporary place did not say in advance how we get the keys, but at the end everything was fine. We got a place in 2nd floor, not far from the city centre in Zurich. Parking is hell, unpacking was tiring but at the end everything was alright. We had a couple of days rest, and the work begun! But that is another story...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1H3ytzWk9OXkfGjL1esFiSW-T0lQ1icua1ZaNHkvsdVTZBYhVgLhXOkd1eLtA1c8ySHnHoWRoWCIJfvZmTkSlkhR8ClJBYOchAjhfT45sxICIsZ3d5FP_ok4Wq_3rfMafc5DkQMO44l8/s1600-h/P1310001.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1H3ytzWk9OXkfGjL1esFiSW-T0lQ1icua1ZaNHkvsdVTZBYhVgLhXOkd1eLtA1c8ySHnHoWRoWCIJfvZmTkSlkhR8ClJBYOchAjhfT45sxICIsZ3d5FP_ok4Wq_3rfMafc5DkQMO44l8/s400/P1310001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5039253385110978130" border="0" /></a>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-18169666752041909472007-03-07T19:13:00.001+01:002009-03-19T13:06:40.567+01:00Preview & MovingWe made our first serious trip to Zurich mid-January - mostly to find a place to stay, and of course see how it all looks like. We decided to stay in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Adliswil&sll=37.419032,-122.145419&sspn=0.00876,0.019205&layer=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;ie=UTF8&z=12&ll=47.312642,8.525562&spn=0.119645,0.307274&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;t=h&om=1">Adliswil</a> early on, because of our <a href="http://svajc.blogspot.com/">good friends</a> (Hungarian) living there. Only 8km from the city centre, 30min from the office with public transport, laying on the shore of river Sihl - the place seemed ideal. Everything is clean, there is plenty of playgrounds, swimming pool - ideal for the kids. We have even found a place to stay - but first we had to apply and wait.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUVctS-j-tkKtfQz7j6TCackpm0UgTy-8PGFwDkNEhu8mwgL7SIyWRPw6XKptYp2hdFP2T18HIDlqiJQQoQVM3jf_Iz6hCBpRxqfFENGsAKNHBBaDKb6tmcGwzkkUMdWEG-uvW3tyQzkU/s1600-h/cimg2212.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUVctS-j-tkKtfQz7j6TCackpm0UgTy-8PGFwDkNEhu8mwgL7SIyWRPw6XKptYp2hdFP2T18HIDlqiJQQoQVM3jf_Iz6hCBpRxqfFENGsAKNHBBaDKb6tmcGwzkkUMdWEG-uvW3tyQzkU/s400/cimg2212.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5039251211857526338" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Meanwhile, we got back to Hungary. The movers were really professional - all we had to say what moves and what stays. I felt like having nothing to do ;) It was really strange to see most of the contents of our house in boxes (66 pcs). Luckily, we did not pack all the furniture - at least the house is not totally empty :)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1NoIIJ_Dz5S7w63eAbAz4fHOdgQBc4qJB2ejvTbg8acg0PIF_v7E020GaYotnSRDwlgqbIntSArRzKAninGAlsp-7-qlubBCAA1PhIdJMBcIM7mnczeBzU7UD4LeRgl2fOJgSYEvhb0U/s1600-h/P1290180.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1NoIIJ_Dz5S7w63eAbAz4fHOdgQBc4qJB2ejvTbg8acg0PIF_v7E020GaYotnSRDwlgqbIntSArRzKAninGAlsp-7-qlubBCAA1PhIdJMBcIM7mnczeBzU7UD4LeRgl2fOJgSYEvhb0U/s400/P1290180.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5039251022878965298" border="0" /></a>Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-54075734301919000352007-03-07T18:58:00.001+01:002009-03-19T13:06:31.596+01:00How it all begun...How did we end up in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&amp;amp;amp;q=zurich&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=6&ll=46.513516,8.876953&spn=7.772952,19.665527&amp;amp;amp;t=h&om=1">Switzerland</a>? Well, before a couple of months I did not think this would happen... I enjoyed my <a href="http://research.nokia.com/">previous work</a> and enjoyed being a research engineer. Back in last September, the offer from <a href="http://www.google.ch/intl/hu/jobs/index.html">Google</a> came from the clear skies. After some steps, they invited me to Zurich. Right until the end, I thought this is not going to happen. Then, we started thinking about it: the interview went well, kids are still small and the offer was good: why not? It was no easy decision, but I quit Nokia and stayed with no work for a month, spent the time with the family and prepared for the move.<br /><br />This was back in January - I hope I can catch up to latest events soon.Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040908134041253990.post-52134913235357406132007-03-07T18:18:00.001+01:002009-03-19T13:06:11.229+01:00Starting in EnglishOur <a href="http://dornbach.blog.hu/">Hungarian language blog</a> has proved to be very popular, so I decided to start an English one, fulfilling the international need... I do not promise to update it as frequently as the other one (which is several times a week), but I hope to keep it up to date.Dornbihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04159924591524913956noreply@blogger.com0