Artikel - 8.6.2005 - 21.6.2005

The State Sees Everything

A note on the culture blog about a FAZ article on the tax identification number and the central register of the entire federal population based on it. Yes, everyone gets the tax identification number - even newborns. Comment from the culture blog:

The Federal Republic of Germany as a state is well on its way to generally suspecting and criminalizing every citizen, and those who carry out these measures are making themselves complicit in this development. 1984, Brave New World, and Globalia are calling.

Found via Zenzizenzizenzic

Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress

Who wants to participate in Google's latest toy, there is a WordPress plugin for it. I myself have not yet quite decided who actually benefits more from the sitemaps - the site admins or Google. I guess it's - similar to rel="nofollow" - rather in Google's favor.

del.icio.us mal Wiki = Code Snippets

Code Snippets is a system where you can insert small code snippets and assign tags to them. So really something like a wiki for source code with tags. You can quickly group by tag combinations and then see all the snippets for this topic. And of course, you can easily add your own snippets. Could be very interesting with a bit more content - so to speak, living cookbook books.

The Basic Rights Report 2005

shows how we are maneuvered around the Basic Law via back channels to gradually undermine our fundamental rights. Technical feasibility and data greed lead to an ever-increasing undermining of the framework set by the Basic Law. The Federal Constitutional Court thereby becomes a purely theoretical finger-pointer - because as we now know, even a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court is not reason enough for the state apparatus to curb its desires.

MEP overturns software patents

After all, the EU deputies are swinging into line with the EU Council. That's what people like the concentrated incompetence of the German government - some call her the Federal Minister of Justice - imagine democracy to be. There was a clear vote of the European Parliament. There was a unanimous resolution of the Bundestag factions. There were clear protests and clear warnings from experts. And who will win in the end? The lobbyists.

If that's what democracy is supposed to be, then I'm Heinzelmann. And then the prolethicians in Berlin are surprised when the citizens reject the EU constitution - which would have given such mummery a constitutional cloak.

On the altar of monopolization, these idiots sacrifice the medium-sized software industry and open source. Just to crawl up to some slimy lobbyists - for which the companies they represent then diligently cut jobs, sell off parts of the company to non-European investors, and move production abroad.

Great strategy.

Should Fin and Humpback Whales Be Hunted Again?

Japan will now also hunt minke and humpback whales

Japanese whalers will now be allowed to hunt almost 900 minke whales annually in the IWC protected area of the Antarctic. After a two-year transition period, the catch quota for fin and humpback whales will be increased to 50 animals each. Both species are highly endangered. Japan justifies the increase in quotas with an alleged recovery of whale stocks.

How perverse does a society have to be when it subordinates nature to economic interests to such an extent that even endangered species are not spared. Our nature is irreplaceable - everything we destroy is gone. Never comes back. But who cares - if some idiots want to buy something, others want to make money from it. And they come up with the most absurd lies to justify it.

Even if there were a recovery of animal populations: the populations are so decimated that any recovery is urgently needed for the survival of the animals. Large whales have large territories and few calves - if the population becomes too low, the whales no longer find each other often enough for reproduction. Similar problems already exist today with blue whales.

Tuition Fees in NRW

Since summer 2006:

It was a rather uncontroversial meeting two weeks ago: In just three hours, the major topic of "education" was dealt with. Result of the harmonious coalition round of CDU and FDP: The "fastest possible" introduction of tuition fees, possibly as early as summer 2006.

Ripping off can be done very quickly, and freeing up studies from the bothersome working-class children for the sons and daughters of citizens again goes even faster for bourgeois parties. Although it is an absolute audacity in NRW with its extremely high proportion of workers, but what does that matter to Zerrüttgers and his ilk. They will ruin the country faster than the SPD ever could have ...

Crafts want to offset sick days with vacation

According to at least association president Otto Kentzler. And the shocking part: apparently, something this idiotic already exists:

According to the report, such a regulation already exists: in the Bavarian collective wage agreement for confectioners, it is already stipulated that for every five sick days, one vacation day will be deducted. However, the maximum "vacation loss" is limited to three days per year.

But what the illness (for which one is declared unfit for work by the doctor) has to do with recovery time (as vacation is defined) and how such a thing can go together is of course not explained.

Oh, and the fact that the rate of sickness is already at a record low does not interest this puppet from the trade association at all - why let oneself be impressed by facts and reality when one can instead unload one's populist nonsense ...

Cash Registers: Dispute Over the Use of the Special Contribution

During the health care reform, the employee is being robbed again:

The revenues from the additional contribution rate flow to the health insurance funds. There is no link to individual services.

This is an absolute audacity. First, they lie that the contribution rates are being lowered through the health care reform. Then, employees are asked to pay separately to secure benefits that are no longer secured. And the Minister of Health still claims that her idiotic reform is the best thing since sliced bread.

Above all, the reason why the link to the benefits for the special payments was removed from the law text in the first place is an audacity:

In the law text from autumn 2004, the two benefits were not mentioned for constitutional reasons. Background: Retirees, for example, could have sued for a special contribution for sick pay before the Constitutional Court because they cannot receive sick pay at all.

Ultimately, this turns a rather dubious maneuver to avoid lawsuits into a direct reach into the pockets of employees - because the benefits will probably be cut in the long run anyway, or they will reach in again. Of course, the whole thing could have been implemented in a legally compliant and correct manner. Or one could have come up with the idea that the equal burden on employees and employers makes sense. But the competence in the Ministry of Health probably does not suffice for that ...

In this way, employees whose salaries are high enough are literally driven out of the statutory health insurance - because nobody likes to be taken for a ride like that. And if all the high earners opt out, the health system will be even more strained and there will be even less money available.

The proletarians in Berlin couldn't care less. They are all privately insured ...

Software description from metaowl.de

Who cares what plugins I used to put together the Metaeule? Here is a first description. Basically, all parts are normally available, I just had to write a few small plugins and a bit of glue code and a few small patches myself. Already a pretty good sign for WordPress and the available plugins when you can get so far without having to do too much work yourself.

Of all places, NRW ...

WASG: Lafontaine wants to be number one in NRW - oh Menno, does the stun grenade have to be placed in NRW? I wouldn't have anything against the WASG, but sorry, Lafontaine is simply unacceptable. Too many have forgotten his actions against the unions in the 80s, too many his hollow populism. He doesn't offer solutions for NRW or the federal government - only empty slogans.

Just a question for the Mac experts

I have a strange problem: for some time now, all applications appear two or three times in the "Open with" menu. Is there any way to stop the computer from doing this nonsense? I suspect this is due to the backups - there are the same applications again on external drives, but somehow they should disappear, on my normal drive there is definitely only one Photoshop ...

About the Security of Credit Cards ...

... there's no need to discuss this any further. After all, 40 million credit card details were stolen - and this was from a brokerage company's computer that acts as an intermediary between retailers and credit card companies. Quite an achievement - just like that, 40 million people are potentially exposed to incorrect debits. Calling something like this a security vulnerability is quite an audacity ...

Changes in the Metaeule

Well, the Metaeule is good for more than just aggregating RSS feeds - that would be boring, anyone can do that. Okay, the links are very interesting, but still - just putting together a Planet-like aggregator would be boring.

Therefore, I have now redesigned the search and archive views a bit. From now on, new posts on the homepage will only be posted as excerpts. In the archive and search results, the posts will only appear as titles in the results list - the search is sorted by relevance (as well as MySQL can manage). The special feature: each article or title has a link in the archive. With this link, you can access the secured article page. So even if the original host is not available, the content of the post is retrievable (though only the content that was also provided to me via the RSS feed - if the blog only has excerpts in the RSS feed, only excerpts will end up in the database). Additionally, at the bottom of the archive page, there is a list of posts on the posts themselves that might be relevant to this post - of course only within the limits of what MySQL can manage.

Overall, the Metaeule is no longer just a simple aggregator, but also an archive, a topic-specific search engine, and a cross-reference list. Let's see how useful it turns out to be in real use. Once everything is running smoothly, I will write about which plugins and changes I used for this. Promised.

wp-cache-2 and PHP Accelerator

If you want to use the very useful caching plugin wp-cache-2, you need to be careful: it is not compatible with the PHPAccelerator. Unfortunately, you cannot use both together, only one of the two works. Quite annoying, because they address different elements - the plugin caches the output, the accelerator caches the precompiled PHP. Therefore, the accelerator would also help the cache system, since the cache system is written in PHP ...

Anyway, I have activated the plugin on the WordPress blogs I manage. Especially the Metaeule could benefit from this in the long run. The caching is currently set to 20 minutes, so that changes in the database do not hang around for too long before everyone can see them. Let's see what oddities occur during operation.

One thing I expected not to work properly anymore is the Plugin Popularity Contest - this counts how often a post has been called up. This happens much less frequently due to the caching and therefore the numbers are no longer meaningful. Ratings based on comments and trackbacks are of course still possible, but the page views are useless. A pity actually, but in return I get much lower server load and much higher delivery rates: with activated wp-cache I have a load of just under 4 with 20 competing massive accesses and shovel just under 50 requests per second. Without wp-cache I have a load of over 9 and only just manage 5 requests per second.

So with wp-cache-2 only half the load and ten times the performance. For that I gladly sacrifice the Popularity Contest.

A second plugin that I noticed: Search Hilight (standard plugin from WordPress) doesn't work. Logically - it colors search terms that are determined from the referrer of a search engine. And referrers do not go into the cache signature. A pity, it was a visually nice gimmick. But on the other hand not really that important.

Forum operators will soon no longer be able to take vacations

For operators are liable for the delayed removal of illegal content:

The forum operator's statement that he had no opportunity to block access within the 24-hour period due to absence was not accepted by the judge. In the age of "fast emails," the defendant is obliged to comply with the deadline set by the plaintiff. Therefore, he has to bear the court costs and the out-of-court costs of the plaintiff.

This makes the private operation of a forum de facto impossible - at least if you set it up alone. And since blogs with their comment function are essentially forums, we can look forward to the first lawsuit against a blogger. What a mess. Of course, illegal content must be removed immediately - but equating "immediately" with a deadline of one day is sheer nonsense.

And what a practical method to get rid of an unpleasant colleague: if he announces that he will be offline for a few days, quickly post something in the forum and file a complaint ...

Schily is still struggling with democracy

Schily accuses data protection officer of abuse of office - sure, we've already had that, nothing new. But somehow it becomes even creepier through constant repetition. I mean, from any halfway intelligent person I would expect to learn from stupid mistakes and think next time before leaning out of the window. But Otto Orwell is pain- and oblivious ...

So-called experts ...

... then bring such absurd suggestions in the value-added tax discussion:

Such a step was recommended by the head of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI), Thomas Straubhaar. According to his ideas, the value-added tax should be raised to 20 percent. The reduced tax rate of seven percent - which currently applies to food, among other things - should be completely abolished.

Clear, super idea. 20% value-added tax and abolishing the reduced rates (which would immediately be an increase in the value-added tax on staple foods and books by 13 points!) - these are the ideal suggestions to stimulate the ailing domestic consumption.

It is completely absurd - everyone seems to only have the goal of taking even more from those who have little. Or has anyone ever heard in the context of such proposals that in the course of a value-added tax increase - especially one as drastic as 13 points - unemployment benefits, minimum wages (where they exist in some industries), the amount of salaries still tax-free for employees, social assistance rates, and pensions must be increased by at least the same rate so that they can still afford a normal life?

Reducing payroll taxes is nice - but this only affects companies and employees (only if the payroll taxes for employers are not to be reduced again). Those who do not have payroll taxes (because they are not employees, or fall below the minimum rate) do not benefit from the reduction in payroll taxes. Quite apart from the fact that even with small salaries, the total payroll taxes are lower than an increase in the value-added tax on food by 13 points.

According to the opinion of such great economic experts, pensioners, the unemployed, social assistance recipients, and low-wage earners are probably just supposed to die socially acceptable ...

Your inhuman attitude disgusts me, you pseudo-experts.

US immigration officers are soon to be peepers

Because the US government plans to use backscatter X-ray scanners on airline passengers - and with a method of X-ray technology that completely scans through clothing and basically leaves the person standing naked on the monitor. Great idea. Especially great is the reaction of the representative of this brain fart:

Chertoff had made it clear to the legislators, according to a report in the New York Times, that he did "not want endless debates" about data protection issues.

That could easily be from Otto Orwell, that saying ...

Well, just another reason not to want to travel to the USA. They really have a screw loose.

Expanding Surveillance is the Goal

Federal Data Protection Commissioner criticizes eavesdropping compromise

"This contradicts the spirit of the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of March 3, 2004, which, emphasizing an absolutely protected core area of private life, declared significant parts of the previous provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the major eavesdropping to be unconstitutional," emphasized Schaar.

Well, the government, which is not even interested in the cross-party vote of the Bundestag against software patents, will probably not be interested in a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court either - if it runs counter to their interests. And the Union - should the change take place - is not even satisfied with the measures and wants even more surveillance, even fewer rights for citizens, and even more data collection. While no criminals will be caught, political activism certainly advances one's career in politics - no matter how nonsensical the activism is.

The fatal aspect: our rights are not just being eroded - things that were hard and painstakingly achieved are being dismantled. These are damages that will probably not be repaired quickly - because once the data is available and the access possibilities are there, the state and the investigative apparatus will not want to back down. All this in the name of a pretended and alleged security for which there is no evidence.

Call Mail.App Filter with Keyboard Codes

Mail Act-On 1.3 is a Mail.App plugin that allows you to assign mail filters to keys. Additionally, there is a Quicksilver-like selection interface when you press a general hotkey.

The tool has a bug when used with a non-English version of Mail.app: when it tries to set the stop rule, it hangs. You can either create the stop rule manually (simply create a rule that starts with the same prefix as all other Act-On rules and set the action to stop rule processing) or disable the check for the stop rule in the settings - in the latter case, you should make sure that you have deactivated all Act-on rules, because otherwise they will also run on incoming emails if Act-On is not loaded for some reason - and they will cause all kinds of mischief with the emails.

Metaowl is life!

So, now the Metablog on data protection, informational self-determination, RFID and related topics is online:

http://metaowl.de/

If you want to participate, there is a participation description in the Metablog. Just check which way is best for you and sign up. Somehow we will integrate every content provider. A list of participating blogs and sources used is also online.

Of course, it works best and easiest if you can provide an RSS feed for your category - then I can directly take over the entries. But Technorati tags, blogg.de tags, del.icio.us tags (if you just want to provide pointers to interesting sites) or trackbacks also work. We just need something from which we can somehow extract an RSS feed (Atom is also fine), then it will work. If necessary, a script will be written that generates an RSS feed.

And one more request: feel free to link to the Metablog. It could use a bit of Google juice, we don't want only the cheerleading articles to be found when searching for data protection-related topics, do we?

And for those who just want to inform themselves about the topic: the Metablog has an RSS feed through which you will receive all the collected news. Or browse the archives - the search searches the full texts of the postings (of course only if the blog's RSS feed has provided them) - http://metaowl.de/ can therefore also be used as an interesting archive in the long run.

Popularity Contest

Alex King has a nice plugin for WordPress: the Popularity Contest. This collects and calculates various values for posts and determines which are the most popular. I've integrated it into my sidebar (below the images). In addition to the tags for embedding in the template, it also provides a wealth of information on a subpage of the WordPress admin homepage. There you can view popularity by category or type of metric. Let's see how the values develop.

Probably a seat in the government will soon be available

The Federal Government's Commissioner for Human Rights criticizes Russia and China in his human rights report - and yet the Chancellor of Industry has just kissed Wladimir and wants to do business with China ...

Zabel not to Tour

Zabel must make way for Ullrich - say Kummer and Ludwig. If you ask me: stupid idea. Zabel would also be good as a lone fighter for some show. Well, let's hope for Vinokourov.

Also sometimes a good judgment to announce

Acquittal in the Hyperlink Case:

The judges and lay judges of the 38th Criminal Chamber of the Regional Court acknowledged without reservation that Freude's reporting on Nazi websites criticized by the Düsseldorf District Government had been a documentation of contemporary history.

Very good!

Another Colored Study by Microsoft

Study: Windows security updates more cost-effective than open source - nothing new, just another Microsoft-funded and therefore pre-determined study with no value. The interesting part about the studies is only the name of the respective company that conducts the study - you can then add that to the corruption list and remember it in case you need to substantiate any statements with falsified and biased studies ...

Otherwise? Well, the standard errors, of course. First of all, no real evidence, but an unspecified list of companies that were asked what they think about it (as opposed to collecting hard facts). And of course, equating Red Hat with Linux - which is sheer nonsense in itself.

From personal experience with both systems, I can say that our Debian GNU/Linux systems are much easier to keep up to date and therefore much cheaper to patch than the Windows boxes. And this despite the fact that both use their integrated update mechanisms over the network (and for our Windows systems, even fueling stations and internal update servers exist). But I wouldn't be asked for such a study - I wouldn't fit into the Microsoft-funded picture ...

The Fight Against Free Speech

In the process against Alvar Freude the regional court is about to announce its verdict. Let's hope the judges see through the nonsense the prosecution is building up and give them a clear rejection. Because if this nonsense gets through, we will soon really have reason to cry censorship - and the reason won't be petty deleted comments on blogs, but the actual ban on reporting about blocking orders (and thus active censorship measures) by the state.

RSS Language and WordPress

If you're as annoyed as I am that WordPress always claims the language in feeds is 'en' instead of 'de', and you've looked for the corresponding setting in the options: forget it, the WordPress developers have provided the option but not the GUI to set it. Rarely stupid.

Well, you can set it quite easily in a MySQL shell:

update wp_options
 set option_value = 'de'
 where option_name = 'rss_language'

Or alternatively with PHPMyAdmin or similar tools, simply find the corresponding data record and then patch the option_value field. It would be nicer if WordPress had made it possible to set this via the admin interface ...

Triple XXX

But it was just a Corvette! I want the stuff in here!

Tunnelblick - GUI for OpenVPN on the Mac

Tunnelblick is a graphical user interface for OpenVPN on the Mac. The great thing: the latest installers come with OpenVPN included. So if you have OpenVPN running as infrastructure and also need to integrate Macs – it's now easier than ever before. And considering the fact that OpenVPN is one of the nicest open source VPN solutions, it's worth taking a look even if you're still considering which VPN solution to go with.

Audio-Time-Shift-Recorder and more

Audio Hijack Pro for Mac OS X can do a lot - basically it's like a timeshift recorder for audio, combined with a small mixing console and an equalizer. Extendable through a bunch of plugins with standard interfaces (VST, AU). And all of this then integrated into iTunes - recorded and real-time filtered audio streams go directly to iTunes. Fun idea.

Today in Blogland

Big announcement hype, allegedly mysterious announcements, and a lot of talk. And countdowns. The most pathetic form of announcement. Countdowns. I should have been warned. But I still thought something interesting would come out. What comes out? An announcement of a blog publisher. With marketing speak. And sponsorships (which I don't even see thanks to Ad-Blocker). As exciting to me as Kottke's Payblog action. Disappointing.

Rice. Sack. China. Plop.

OWL Content

An idea from Uhu's Nest: OWL Content. I will therefore (and have retroactively tagged some articles) tag with the owl when it comes to data protection issues, especially the erosion of data protection and infringements on informational self-determination.

Contributions will also be listed in a separate category. You can also explicitly subscribe to the RSS feed of this category.

Trademark law now also on usernames

Forum operator sued over username - Pure extortion. If this succeeds, we can expect a wave of further extortion attempts.

Canon Optics

A nice collection can be found at Digital Outback Photo - some of the lenses I already have (the 50/2.5 Macro and the 100/2.8 Macro), a few I plan to add to my collection in the long run.

Nothing to add

Artist makes soap from Berlusconi's fat:

"I thought mainly about the fact that soap is often made from lard, and I liked the idea that you can wash your ass with a real piece of Berlusconi"

Beautiful WordPressing

WordPress Administration Design: Tiger is a very nice CSS modification for the WordPress backend. It's especially rewarding for design-spoiled Apple users.

A useful addition is the following part in the wp-admin.css:

body#wpbookmarklet {
 padding: 23px 0 50px 5px;
 background: #FFF;
}

This hides the left margin in the bookmarklet. The margin only wastes space in the bookmarklet. Additionally, I also shortened the bg_body.gif to 160px and then reduced the widths of the adminmenu to 120px and 110px for the LI in the adminmenu, and reduced the padding of the normal body from 245px to 175px. This saves some space on the left - I only have a 1024x768 pixel screen resolution, so space is precious.

Update: meanwhile, there is the Tiger Admin as a plugin - installation no longer requires modification of the core files, and the bookmarklet problem is also gone - the bookmarklet now simply uses the old style and only the normal admin is updated.

Black-Yellow breaks election promises even before the formation of the government

GEW criticizes Schwarz-Gelb's plans for elementary school policy:

The unionist's conclusion: "Anything that costs money: no sign of it." The points announced before the election - e.g. more teacher positions, smaller classes, teaching guarantee - are no longer a topic, instead "old conservative educational policy patterns are being served."

They probably even believe themselves ...

Clement and Eichel campaign for higher wages - let's wait for the protests from the Union and the economy. Pavlov sends his regards. I would naturally prefer it if they just drooled in response to external stimuli ...

The Audacity is Hard to Surpass

What the Minister of Justice is saying: only minor corrections needed to the software patent directive. Yes, great, shopping carts for web shops are already patented - and it is exactly these trivial patents that are criticized in this nonsense. But Zypries continues to lie.

BBC - Radio 3 - Beethoven Experience

The BBC is offering recordings of all Beethoven symphonies for online download. Currently, numbers 1-5 are available, with the rest to follow over the coming weeks. All performed by the BBC Philharmonic. No DRM or any such nonsense, just plain MP3.

Load your iPod

Someday in Mexico

Did you mean to my right or to your right?

Criticism of Köhler

To put it plainly: Köhler is a hack. And politically not neutral. Anyone who argues about that makes themselves look ridiculous. Very few German federal presidents were truly politically neutral - and hacks were certainly more than just Köhler and Carstens. However, it is undeniable that Köhler's election and term of office are hard to surpass in terms of embarrassment - but this is by no means due to Köhler alone.

I also still remember well the praise that came for him even from the SPD camp when he was proposed and then elected. I thought it was pitiful of the Union to ram through such an emergency candidate (after they had almost torn themselves apart in strained attempts to come up with a presentable candidate) just because they once again wanted to play out their majority - purely on principle, even though it made no sense. But pitifulness is what characterizes federal politics at the moment - both in the coalition and in the opposition.

In that sense, a hack as federal president is also fitting ...

Vinokurov in form for the tour

At least that's how it looks after the current stage of the Dauphine at Mont Ventoux. Wow. Hopefully no accident for him before the Tour - the duel between him and Armstrong could be very exciting.

Cleared for takedown

In the Zeit: Open Season, a dossier about the victims of attention-seeking ala Raab and Bild ...

The major problem I see here is not just the Bild newspaper and Raab and similar media garbage - the real problem is the acceptance with which this crap is consumed. After months, you no longer know where you read or heard something - and in doing so, you contribute as a vector to the spread of this nonsense.

When I then imagine the Springer publishing group wanting to get its hands on the Pro7/Sat.1 group and with that, presumably next, Bild newspaper and Raab pulling together on the same rope, I feel sick ...

A democratic society lives, among other things, on the diversity of opinion that must also be reflected in media diversity. But when the media landscape becomes dominated across media by a corporation with a clear political agenda (anyone who doubts that can just look at the coverage of Bild newspaper around the time of the last Hamburg citizenship election - best have a sickness bag ready or it'll hit the keyboard), an important factor for democracy is lost.

And so an ugly alliance forms between business associations and a media culture in which one no longer wants to use the word culture - and it degenerates into incitement against the sick, the unemployed, foreigners and left-wing politicians, which already uncomfortably resembles times one actually thought were over ...

Off to the police state

German cabinet approves bill to expand DNA analysis:

... DNA analyses of individuals may in future also be stored if they have committed only minor offenses such as property damage or trespassing, or if it is expected that they will commit such offenses in the future. Furthermore, investigators will be granted the right to order DNA analyses in an expedited procedure without a judge having to approve them.

You participate in a demo that someone doesn't like? No problem, your data will be recorded and filed. Trespassing at a demo can happen quickly, property damage can be quickly attributed to you, and if you don't need to ask a judge, you can also move much faster. And so, a small and fine DNA database of all those unpleasant subjects will quickly be collected that a state really doesn't need - namely people who engage publicly and speak up.

What, civil rights are left behind in the process? Forget it, it doesn't interest Otto Orwell nor the combined incompetence in the Ministry of Justice.

Oh, and who believes that I am only paranoid, here is the case example cited by the Ministry of Justice:

A has been convicted because he repeatedly scratched the paint of motor vehicles with a screwdriver. The prognosis is that corresponding criminal offenses are also to be expected from him in the future.

Yes, you are a wheelchair user and you are upset about the idiotically parked drivers and have scratched the paint of one? Hey, you are still in a wheelchair and we simply assume that you will continue to get upset about the idiotic drivers - so off to the DNA file with the murderers, terrorists, and sex offenders. After all, you are at least as threatening to society as they are.

What kind of shit is this red/green puppet theater in Berlin getting us into. It is absolutely unbelievable.

And if you think it would be better with the Union:

... on the other hand, the proposed amendment to the DNA analysis by the CDU is by no means sufficient. "The bill is a step in the right direction. It is too short," said the deputy chairman of the Union faction, Wolfgang Bosbach. The Union will further tighten the existing legal situation in the event of an election victory, explained the interior and legal politician. There is no right for offenders to remain anonymous.

Who spontaneously thinks of recording every striking worker there is probably on the right track according to their idea ...

And all this from people who, under the guise of neo-liberalism, have written a reduction of the state to its core functions on their banner - and see surveillance, exploitation, and harassment of citizens as core functions.

We are moving straight towards something that can no longer be associated with a democratic society and a rule of law.

Enclosures in the Picture Blog

I've now patched the image upload code over at hugoesk.de to generate the necessary data for Enclosures. This way, Newsreaders that support Enclosures not only get the preview image but also the original image (usually 1800x1200 pixels - suitable for enlargements up to 10x15cm). For Newsreaders that don't support Enclosures, everything remains the same. Let's see what iTunes will do with this - it should also be able to handle artwork. Although this is probably intended for covers of MP3 Enclosures - possibly the images won't automatically end up in iPhoto (where they belong) but in iTunes as covers for non-existent albums ...

Large Bridge Exhibition in Berlin

I think I really need to go to Berlin urgently: "Brücke"-Exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie.

The exhibition "Brücke and Berlin - 100 Years of Expressionism" brings together 500 paintings, prints, and sculptures, featuring key works by Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Erich Heckel from the collections of the "Brücke" Museum Berlin, the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, and the Nationalgalerie.

ICANN as an agent for VeriSign's monopoly claims

At Heise: .net Registry: And the winner is ... VeriSign!. Yes, exactly the company that made itself so popular with the wildcard A-record on .com and .net and that has repeatedly distinguished itself by not adhering to agreements and forging ahead before ICANN or other central bodies had even created a basis for it (for example, with international domains) and thereby repeatedly caused problems, exactly the company that is not interested in more democratic regulation of the Internet and is anyway only on a monopoly course, exactly that company receives the contract from ICANN. No surprise - the competitors were not American companies and how ICANN stands towards non-American initiatives (and possible greater involvement of Internet users) has been seen in the dismantling of the regionally elected representatives.