Programming
The art of coding is one of my oldest passions. I started very early, at about 12 years with Pascal. Not much later I learned C / C++ and Assembler for the i8086 architectures and its descendants. During the years, many more programming, scripting and markup languages followed.
My programming activity was first concentrated on demo programming - small and tight programs that displayed graphical effects with sound output, a kind of 100% artificial music video. Playing videos on a computer is nothing special today, but at a time when fluent animations were considered impossible, a demo attracted much attention and astonishment.
The challenge was to make the impossible possible, and the whole demo had to be coded by hand without any additional tools or libraries. To make the task even more difficult, everything had to be calculated in real-time, so assembler-optimization and hand-tuning was a big issue.
As you might have guessed from the description above, the demo scene is pretty dead today. Unfortunately it started to die when I slowly got good, so I never got the chance to actively participate.
A few of the former members of the scene have put together a DVD with the best demos ever recorded as videos. If you are interested, you should have a look on the 
Mind Candy DVD.
Open Source
Open Source is more than just a new software distribution scheme. I'm convinced that its concepts and methods will play a key role in the coming years.
Foreign Cultures
I appreciate today's open, multi-cultural world. Being part of a mixture that emerges when people from different cultures with different backgrounds come together is unmatched by anything else.
I spend much time to learn the history of other cultures, especially Asian cultures, and I spend even more time to learn their languages. Have a look on 
my resume to see a list of the languages I currently can speak.
I hope that the job I once will have will give me the opportunity to live and work in such a multi-cultural environment.
Business & Technology
Developing new technologies is an unbelievably exciting task. But seeing its impact on the society can be even more exciting. Business is the connection between both.
Finance & Stocks
The global financial markets are the contemporary battle fields where power is exercised, new coalitions are formed and enemies are beaten. Every meaningful event has its monetary counterpart that is rooted in the financial markets and can be observed by evereyone able to discover and understand its signs.
The modern information infrastructure gives you the chance to watch these processes tightly at practically no costs, and you can participate when the markets judge about the outcome of a hostile takeover or even the fate of whole societies.
You might benefit from it - if you are good enough to stand against global mega-corporations, highly paid head traders and the artificial intelligences dominating this electronic war.
Your chances even aren't too bad if you know and accept the DOs and DONTs...
Jogging
Every sunday morning in the near forests. It is healthy, it is funny, and it helps you to get rid of the side effects of your last portion of french fries.