This was the home of Astarte GmbH, the creators of Toast CD-ROM Pro, DVDirector and DVDelight, which all went on to bigger and better things (at Adaptec-Roxio-Sonic and Apple). It was a great old building* located on Weberstrasse in Karlsruhe, Germany.
I was fortunate enough to be able to visit several times, and work out of one of the spare offices. Since I was based in the US, most of my work for Astarte was done remotely, so it was a special treat to be able to be face-to-face with all the people I’d come to know via telephone and e-mail.
But the best thing about my visits to Karlsruhe was that I learned to appreciate good coffee, thanks to the Jura espresso machine that sat next to Freddie’s office. I had never seen or tasted anything like it before. (I’ve since gotten one of my own.)
*At least from an American perspective, where we tend to tear down anything that’s older than 30 years and build a strip mall.
“But the best thing about my visits to Karlsruhe was that I learned to appreciate good coffee”
What is with you Americans? When I lived in New York for two years in the early nineties I could not understand why the coffee tasted so bad. I always brought my own blend from the Netherlands!
Yoram – I agree completely; I just didn’t know any better until then. Mike
to me it is totally cool to read about karlsruhe here in your blog, because i’m born in karlsruhe/germany and still live there!
a good friend of mine even worked at astarte for a couple of years. his name is Axel (he lives in vienna now).
it’s a bit of a shame that one of your main memories of karlsruhe seems to be connected to coffee, but hey, at least those a good memories
the weberstrasse is located in a very nice hood of karlsruhe. i would like to have a flat there!
Tibor – wie gehts?
The coffee was a memory of the Astarte office, not the city! I have many fantastic memories of Karlsruhe. Great food, beer, and wonderful Spargel (which I had never had before).
If by any chance you will visit Karlsruhe once again, drop me an e-mail. I will show you what really good coffee is like
Yes, I think I have used that coffe machine in other offices. From what I remember it was a little bit strong.
Looks good to me.
Was it strong or just good? Or both?
Both looks good to me considering I drink stuff I like to call “motor oil”. It’s what keeps me running
If its both I’ll take two!
As for tomorrow, I cant wait. Every time Apple has announcements it’s like Christmas
the funny thing about the name “Jura” is that it translates into estonian as “Crap”
So cool to hear about Karlsruhe, I live about 20 min. from there in Iffezheim. Never thought that this blog would have any connection to this part of the world.
MFG. Dan.
Haha, I like the notion of how the U.S. likes to tear down old places and put up new ones. They did that to a really-not-that-old shopping mall, and put up a bunch of smaller stores (Starbucks, Gordman’s, Yankee Candle, etc.).
However, there are certainly times I wish they would tear down older places…or at least fix them up instead of letting some portions of cities fall into ruin and just expand when building new areas.
As for coffee, I’ve never cared for it. Or beer. But I’d love to visit Germany some day!
Blame US building code laws for this tendency to expand into new areas instead of reviving old ones. Developers will build wherever’s cheapest, and generally, the cheapest option is sprawl.