Actually, I like Radio Ton, the nice, local radio station from Heilbronn. But since Sunday evening, they’re not in my good book anymore. I was on my way home and channel-hopping away from “Dear Mister President” (good song, but played way to often), when I got stuck on my third program. They were telling the fortune to someone. First I thought it was a joke, since they advised the caller to go into self-employment in esoterics. But no, they were serious. Radio Ton has an Astro Show (where they are actually seem to be doing tarot, not astrology, as the name implies).

In general, I wonder why this show concept is so successful, that it gets copied by every third radio station and even has its own TV channel. (At least, the latter can be easily ignored.) Do people really need that kind of advice? Advice, yes. But tarot? On the radio? What happened to personal communication with people who actually know you? What happened to common sense? Or is this way of the past, the way of the future to make decisions? Even for important, business issues? Maybe create a staff position within the administration. Shall we use this at work in the computer center as well?

So, which operating system shall we use for our new 64bit servers? - Give Madame Olga a call. She’ll know.
Oh f*ck, I screwed the filesystem. - Don’t worry, I got the tarot cards right here.
Your vita looks interesting. You know Perl, Java, C/C++/C#, PHP, Lisp and Assembler. That’s nice. But what about runecasting?

No seriously, I think whoever thinks they need esoteric advice, fine. Not all of us can rely on common sense, facts and the ability to calculate risks. Those people need to be told what to do by some schmocks. Those people really need to pay more than € 2 a minute to hear how to get out of unemployment. Everyone has the right to make mistakes. That’s how you gain experience of life. But please do it on private hotlines and stuff, so the rest of us are spared. It’s their fortune, not ours.

If this concept continues to spread, I’ll be getting a mp3 enabled radio for my car faster than planned.