If you haven't heard about it yet, there has been a flaw in the encryption protocols of Open SSL, and the so-called "Heartbleed bug" may have leaked personal information you had on these servers. So if you are using sites on the Internet that were affected (and who doesn't - Google is one of them) you might want to change your passwords.

Here's a list of affected sites; here is another one with a bit more explanation on how the bug was discovered (and links).

If you want the short and sweet explanation, here it is courtesy of XKCD:


On a totally different note - you can still ask me anything on yesterday's post. I'll keep checking for new questions until (and including) the Easter weekend. So go crazy!

I think it's time again for questions! I am pretty sure I did this before, but can't find the post anymore. So I'll make up new rules...

Ask me anything in the comments, and I will reply as well as I can. Exceptions are made if it's too personal, or if it will require in-depth research work, or involves a trade secret. Otherwise, I'll do my very best to answer your question.

So... anything you want to ask me?

How did the weekend pass so quickly? Is it really Monday again? Well, at least the overcast skies had the good grace to come today, not yesterday or Saturday, when we could enjoy some splendid weather, and I actually managed to get some gardening done.

Speaking of splendid - if you were thinking of moving to Stockholm, you might want to watch this ad video. Or if you like card tricks.



You can also get good coffee in Stockholm... I remember the first time I was in Scandinavia, I was totally amazed at the huge cups of really decent-to-totally-yummy coffee (with lots of milk) that you could get in any 7-11, or actually about anywere. Scandinavians run on coffee. Which seems to actually be healthy.

I didn't drink coffee until I was something in my twenties, when I slowly got fond of the taste, and now I do love a good cup of coffee, preferably with milk in it (lots of milk). A few years ago, we bought an Aeropress for our home, which is quick to use, makes lovely coffee, is easy to clean and does not take up much space. Like any German household, we have an electric water kettle to heat water anyway*, so it's one less appliance to find room and a socket for. Our coffee consumption, needless to say, has increased noticeably since introducing the Aeropress... small wonder.

Writing so much about coffee makes me want one. I think I will go have one now. Yum.

* The water kettle is about sixteen years old now, it would probably get totally jealous if we brought in another gadget that can heat water!

The day has not even stated properly, and I'm already feeling scatterbrained. That's not good, especially not since I have a stack of reading work to take care of today, and a trip to the library on my to-do list.

So in best scatterbrainy tradition, here's stuff for you to look at:

Mediävist Jaques Le Goff died on April first (not a joke). He was one of the big guys (here's his Wikipedia page).

Medieval Manuscript blog has horses fighting so their owners don't fight alone. (They also have lots of other fun stuff. That blog ought to be on your reading list if you are interested in manuscripts and quirky pictures therefrom.)

There's a tumbler about People of Colour in history (including medieval times), with interesting links.

And here's a collection of pictures for long late-medieval hose.

Finally, in case you have a vacuum cleaner that seems to have lost some of its initial amazing sucking powers over time? Try cleaning the hose that connects the vacuum to the tube and nozzle. Ours turned out to have accumulated much more clogging dirt stubbornly clinging to the inside of the tube than we would have believed possible...

We have friends (yes, really, we do) and a good number of them - almost all of them, in fact - are as fond of a nice boardgaming evening as we are. So it's a small wonder that we have a night gaming with friends quite frequently.

If you are involved in gaming and know your way around a bit, the term "euro-game" or "German-style board game" will mean something to you. If not, here's the thing in a nutshell: typical European or German games have the players aim for victory by competing for victory points or a similar progress measurement, often with a catch-up mechanism for the stragglers and a brake mechanism for those way in the front. While luck plays a role in most of these games, you also need to evaluate which approach you want to take, and there may be an end accounting that can severely shift player order (and thus have you win more or less unexpectedly). If such a game is well-made, it is very intense gameplay and a huge lot of fun - and as there's no player elimination, you can take part until the very end.

Relatively recently, there is a craze for co-operative board games, and we (as well as a good number of our friends) love those a lot. It's the "all of us together against the board" approach, where Bad Things happen after every player's turn, determined usually by roll of dice or cards drawn. I like not competing against each other, and sticking heads together to figure out how to solve a tricky situation... only to face an even trickier one after the next draw, or next die roll. Yesterday, we managed not to defend the realm... so if an orc or demon turns up on somebody's doorstep, it might be our fault. Don't come to blame us, though. We did our best.

If you are totally interested now, here's some of the co-op games that I myself really like:
"Defenders of the Realm" is a typical fantasy-themed co-op game with quite a bit of luck; you have to defend the realm and the main city against the four generals marching in, and - of course - their minions.

For those that want less fantasy and a little less luck as an element (though not much less), "Pandemic" also makes you defend the world - against viral illnesses spreading across the globe and threatening to kill us all.

Not hot enough? Then you could always go check out "Flash Point Fire Rescue" - you are a firefighter, called to a building to rescue the persons inside and keep the flames in check while you are doing this. This is quite luck-dependent, and if you have a tendency to botch dice rolls... well. It will get hot.

There's also the really hard "Ghost Stories", where you are a taoist trying to defend your village against malevolent ghosts.  I think this is one of the hardest, if not by far the hardest, of the games listed here - even in the most relaxed setting, you will need flawless cooperation, really good use of everyone's special power, and more than a touch of luck to win.

Finally a very different co-op game: "Hanabi" is a little card game where you try to put on some nice fireworks together. The twist? While all the others can see your cards, you yourself can't. Which means you will have to get hints (limited number available) to know which card to play... this is tricky, and intriguing, and should not be attempted half asleep.

So in case you are looking for a game a bit different from the usual "Hah, I won and you didn't", maybe one of these will delight you, too!

When I'm not bursting with my own ideas to blog about, I usually take a look at the blogs I follow - only that they seem to be in spring quiet (spring tiredness?), too!

There's one very interesting post about printing designs on cloth in the 14th century, though. The text is German, but you can look at the pictures (there are plenty) over here.

Otherwise, not much new hereabouts - spring is going on, work is still piled high, stuff is happening albeit not fast enough. I think I might add a second cool superpower to my wishlist - writing really good papers in an incredibly short time, and possibly several of them parallel. (The first one on my list, in case you want to know, is being able to read, understand and speak every language there is.)

Any more suggestions for really cool and useful superpowers, while I'm making that list?

It's the time of the year when the first events come closer and closer, and with them the flurry of activity for preparation. We bought a new pot last year, for instance, and spent an hour on Sunday afternoon preparing it for use.

I was taught that iron cookware, whether cast iron or sheet iron, needs seasoning or breaking in ("frying in", the Germans call it) before use. This, of course, does not apply to stainless steel... but iron? It will definitely win by this.

The seasoning is done by frying potato in fat (I used sunflower seed oil) with salt, after previously cleaning the new pan or pot with hot water and some dish soap or other suitable detergent. The goal is to coat the small irregularities in the surface - and that can be done with polymerised fat and carbon black. There are instructions on the internet to use potatoes cut into slices, but you can just as well use potato peels for the frying, and then use your freshly seasoned thing to have some nice fried potatoes.

And in case you want them right here, right now, the short instructions for doing it: Heat up the clean pan, adding the fat (should be fat suitable to high temperatures!). Heat the fat until a potato peel dropped into it starts to sizzle; then add in all the peels and a generous amount of salt (which acts as a scrubbing agent). Move the stuff around in the pan, going on until all the potato is nice and black, and ideally, the bottom of your pan or pot should be darkened, too. That's all there is to it! The internet, of course, knows of a gazillion additional ways to do it, but that's the method I use, and it works well enough for me.

Plus I always get to remember that one time I was at a medieval market, and I went past the camp where a friend was... he hollered me and asked me if I would like to have some potato stew, they had plenty left over. Now, that group is one that usually cooks medieval-ish, so potatos were really surprising me. It must have shown on my face, as I was promptly told that a whole bunch of folks from that group had bought new frying pans on the market, and had wanted to break them in right away, for which they needed... potato peels. Which did explain the unexpected potato stew, since they ended up with a lot of peeled potatoes that way. (Very tasty, by the way.)

Oh, and once your thing is fit for use, clean the pan by wiping it with a rag or rinsing it with water. If there's stuff stuck to it, you can also salt it down: Heat a handful of salt in the pan, moving it around until it is brown and your pan is clean. That are the preferred cleaning methods for seasoned iron that I know.
You can use soap or dish soap if really necessary, but use it sparingly - it will take away from the seasoning. And use? Makes your cookware better. So bring on these fried foods...