Viennese fog is now in it's third week non stop and when I left the valley on my way up the mountain I felt like someone had fast forwarded me from the early days of film to Technicolor.

This week I opted for Herminensteig, which in my tour book is called the most rewarding and the most popular ascent from Schneebergdörfl – and I can see why. The lower part has one tricky bit that brought me to the limits of my scrambling comfort zone (grade II I believe) and the upper part offered a passage that took me a good couple of minutes before I managed to figure out a way up.

In the trinity of edges, Nandlgrat is certainly the weekest because there is too much unpleasant scree in between the nice bits. The upper Herminensteig is maybe a wee bit more interesting then November Ridge, but only in the upper half of the upper part. The lower half of the upper part shares the scree with Nandlgrat, so from Schneebergdörfl I recommend combining lower Herminensteig with either upper Herminensteig or Novembergrat.

In her article she sheds much light on the many (dim to dark) issues related to the Occupy-movement, and explains how the Department of Homeland Security, local mayors, congress, Wall Street, and businesses are linked to each other and ultimately to OWS.

I really recommend the read.

Kurt Sowinetz: »Alle Menschen san ma zwider« (»I find everybody abhorrent«)

Last Sunday A. and me went for a hike together, and this time we wanted to have a look at Schneeberg's dark side. The Novembergrat (November Edge) seemed appropriate for this time of the year and so we went for the arête with the fine name.

First, there may be places on the wide web telling you there is a bus from Puchberg to Schneebergdörfl. Both driver of the Losenheim bus and the Schneebergdörfl locals agreed that there isn't, so we had to take the bus to Hof and walk to Schneebergdörfl (which is not far and a nice stroll). 

From Schnebergdörfl we went up the Schneidergraben, and there are only two things pretty about it: you're pretty alone and it's pretty dull. Nasty scree and destroyed forests describes it best. But from the Grafensteig onwards it got nicer and nicer until the Novembergrat itslef got us a fantastic climbing experience. For the way down we opted for the lower Herminensteig via Bergstation and Baumgartner. Next time I think I will come in summer, because this side of the Schneeberg is pretty shadowy and also, I shall combine Herminensteig, Grafensteig and Novembergrat to make for a truly spectacular ascent and then find some other way down. 

Back in the valley, darkness fell quickly and we had a lovely stroll through moonlit fields in a warm November's night. Back in Schneebergdörfl I called a taxi and had a local lady jump at us immediately saying she would have driven us back to Puchberg had she only known – so next time only pretend to call that taxi!

At the start of the tour our path had brought us through a little village called Knipflitz (yes, the one next to Knöpflitz). The village name inspired A. to combine it with the other great village of Schlöglmühl and add a stanza to an old Austrian mountaineering hymn handed down to us by our dear friend and cultural attaché Michi. The original song goes like this (crude translation on the right):

A.'s extra stanza is as follows:

This, in turn, inspired me to write an apocryphal version as an hommage to a fierce lower Austrian gun slinger. Passing through Knipflitz, we saw a western rider who, I am convinced, must have been the Knipflitz Kid, fastest colts north of Schlöglmühl:

Happy singing! And if you want illustrations, you can find mine here.

Tiny Tiny RSS runs on your own server and sharing is easy. I only had a few minor issues (described here) and am absolutely happy with it.

Thanks Nic.

[/update]

Today, Google improved Google Reader integration with the rest of their services. That means sharing is no gone. Sharing meant that anywhere on the internet one could click a button and the webpage then appeared in the shared items for your contacts on Reader to read.

Now everything is channeled through Google+ and I since I already struggle making good use of Facebook, I really can't see using a second social thingy.

So now is the time for migration. Migration is tough because I only have two contacts on Google Reader (the rest of my friends is somehow not interested) and I don't want to loose them.

A quick search renders the following alternatives (that still have to be scrutinised for sharing functionality):

1. Netvibes (looks promising)
2. Newsblur
3. Hivemind (in the making)
4. Feedlooks (Article on feedlooks)
5. Bloglines (apparently closing down)
6. Goodnoows Needs to connect to Google, FB Twitter or LinkedIn 

»alternative to...«-list

 Relevant: http://zenhabits.net/google-free/

A while ago, Google updated their reader, killing one of the best features: sharing. I looked around a bit for a suitable alternative and in the end settled with tiny, tiny rss.

Advantages:

1. It runs on my server, so nothing can be done to it unless I approve
2. Sharing is easy
3. It's simple

Nic, who thankfully came up with this great alternative, has a more techno-philosophical article on the switch. 

Some minor issues I had while installing:

1. open_basedir not supported

Problem: during installation I got the fatal error 

php.ini: open_basedir is not supported

Solution: Open <tt-rss-root>/sanity_check.php and find the entry 

if (ini_get("open_basedir")) { $err_msg = "php.ini: open_basedir is not supported."; }

Comment it out (using // at the start of each line).

All credit and a major hat tip goes to demaya.

[update 2011-11-22:]
Solution 2: see here (thanks to Reperiam for his comment below pointing it out.)
[/update]

2. No folders after import

Problem: In Goolgle Reader I had organised my feeds in folders, they were gone in tt-rss

Solution: Before importing, go to preferences in tt-rss and enable feed categories

3. OPML-Import error/timeout

Problem: On importing the OPML I had a timeout in Firefox and the following error in Chrome:

Exception: TypeError: Cannot read property 'innerHTML' of null Function: opmlImportComplete() 

TypeError: Cannot read property 'innerHTML' of null 
   at opmlImportComplete (http:///prefs.js?
      1320259102:791:35) 
   at HTMLIFrameElement.<anonymous
      (http:///prefs.php:1:141)
   at HTMLIFrameElement.onload
      (http:///prefs.php:2:4)

Solution: Ignorance. Apparently it's not a tt-rss problem but one of the browser, so just ignore it.

4. Cache needs to be writable

Just make sure that on your server

<your.tt-rss-dir>/cache

is writable (including subdirectories)

5. No Cron jobs

Problem: My hosting plan does not include cron jobs nor where the other ways to update tt-rss viable.

Solution: There are four possible solutions as far as I can see.

1. Update manually.
   It's tedious and not a very good solution, but it works. Just bookmark <http://your.tt-rss.url>/backend.php?op=globalUpdateFeeds&daemon=1 Run it manually and be patient. Sometimes I had to run it two to three times in row due to timeout issues.
2. Run cron locally
   Adding the cronjob to your local crontab works great – but of course only and only if your machine is running. When on linux
   (a) open a terminal
   (b) type <crontab -e>
   (c) paste the cronjob (full example under > Long version > 1. > »full example«)
   (d) on nano »ctrl+o«, »enter«, »ctrl+x«
3. Run Cron remotely
   The smoothest solution is to find someone with a hosting plan that includes cronjobs and ask him nicely to add your cron job. 
4. Upgrade your hosting plan so you have your own cron jobs

 

6. Content directly below headline

In Google Reader the content would open directly under the headline. In tt-rss you have by default one area for the headlines and a second one for the content.

If you want one area and the content directly below the headline, go to preferences and where it says »combined display«, switch to »yes« (and maybe also »Automatically expand articles in combined mode«).

That's it. I'm lovin' Tiny, tiny RSS so far and I'm glad I can care a little less about G+ and the boring nym-war.

For quite a while now I wanted to see if I could manage crossing the Rax including the Heukuppe in one day, and yesterday all systems said »go«: on the last day before the dark ages (damn daylight saving time) the forecast had fog in the valley and sun on the mountain – perfect conditions

I went up the Brandschneide from the Höllental, which I strongly recommend doing in Autumn. In Summer the noise of the motorcycles racing through the valley stays with you almost to the very top. Anyway, I had a magic moment when I broke through the mist and gained a clear view of the Schneeberg surrounded by thick white cloud-soup. Via Preinerwand, Seehütte and Karl-Ludwig-Haus I climbed the Heukuppe (2006m) and enjoyed a beautiful warm afternoon in the sun. The way down started with some difficulties: I had planned to take the Gretchensteig, but due to conflicting signs the start was hard to find. Thus, I first climbed down into a steap promising but nonetheless dead end. When I finally found the Gretchensteig, it was a lovely experience, too. Some nice scrambling at the beginning, through an apocalyptic ex-forest in the middle and gentle slopes through a proper forest at the end. All in all a fantastic day including three nice and ultra-quick hitch-hiking encounters. Pictures are here.

Also, two misconceptions I had were corrected:

(1) I always thought that past the Seehütte one was pretty much alone on the Rax, because a route that sports two summits (Jakobskogel and Preinerwand) and is nice, easy and most importantly flat leads from the cable car via Ottohaus to Seehütte and back in aloop. This is not the case, it was still pretty busy in between Seehütte and Karl-Ludwig-Haus. So I guess I will start exploring the Schneberg more.

(2) I always thought the further away one gets from the masses, the more relaxed the staff in the huts is. Not true: the lady working in the top station of the cable car who, on a sunny day, probably sees as many people as an Oktoberfest beervendor and has to deal with all the funny folks wishing to conquer the alps in city sneakers, is the queen of laidbackness. Seehütte and Karl-Ludwig-Haus staff were as tensed as tense can be and I will see not to call upon them again. 

Been out of town and onwards and upwards, piecing together the final legs of my favourite Schneeberg-Tour so far: up the Stadelwandgraben, via Klosterwappen (2076m) to Kaiserstein (with 2061m the lower but by far the nicer of the twin summits) and then down the Wurzengraben to the Kienthaler Hütte. From there the Weichtalklamm would have made the perfect finish, but with my old boots (my new ones are in their not very impressive eighth week of repair with Hanwag) I opted for the Ferdinand-Mayr-Weg – a fantastic, easy path that gently undulates through light and thick stretches of pines down to the Weichtalboden. See the first snow here, if you please.

End of August I embarked on a trip that, by late September, should take me roughly 4000 km across Europe by train.

I fed and swam wiith ducks in Lake Starnberg, saw the Foucault Pendulum in Paris, broke some waves on Cap Ferret (and got broken by more), had Aperitif with Capitain Jacques in Arcachon, attended a baptism in St.-Léonard-de-Noblat, wrestled with hounds at La Renardiere, enjoyed tea time in Amsterdam, gave a talk on Kleist and corruption in Hamburg's Warburghaus, visited family and friends in various north German cities – and finally made it back, too. You can see a selection of pictures here.

Yesterday was a fantastic late summer day, so we put it to good use and went for a hike on the Rax.

Up the good old Törlweg (but in a new variation this time, starting at the Seminar-Park-Hotel instead of the Fabrik), through the circus around the Ottohaus, along the ridge to the Weisskogel and back.

Originally we had planned to go down to Hinternaßwald via the Wolfgang-Dirnbacher-Hütte but couldn't find the necessary shortcut at first and then it was getting too late, so it was down the Törlweg, too. You can see the pictures here.