SCO vs. Linux: Novell presents further evidence
And another nail in the coffin of SCO's great lawsuit?
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Artikel - 30.10.2004 - 10.11.2004
US federal judge stops Guantanamo tribunal
Is reason finally stirring?
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
The instruction 'Careful driving' was not given
Which raises the question for me anyway why a train 400 meters long with corresponding weight and such a nasty load (which apparently wasn't even properly declared on the train) was allowed to barrel through the area at such high speed ...
At Telepolis News (09.11.2004) you can find the original article.
iListen - does anyone have experience with it?
ASH is now selling iListen in the German version - at the proud price of 250 euros including headset. The US package costs 149 dollars including headset. Ok, so of course an adaptation to German had to be made first - with speech recognition software, that's quite significant. And that costs money and needs to be recouped, of course.
But has anyone already had experience with it? Probably not with the German version - but with the English one? I'm particularly interested in transcription of recordings - with the iPod and the small Belkin microphone I have a usable dictaphone and the PDA can also be used as one, so it would make sense to take notes by voice (it's faster than typing or writing) and then have them transcribed afterwards. But it's only useful if the software is really as good as advertised.
So how is it - has anyone perhaps already used the English version? Any comments?
Another new GPG key
Since I have lots of old keys floating around (2 or 3 on the PGP keyservers, 2 as well on the GPG keyservers) that are all no longer active - among other things because I haven't had those hard drives or floppy disks for a long time. So I created a new key again to complete the confusion.
But I haven't uploaded this one to the keyservers - at least not for now - only linked it in the imprint. Anyone who wants to use a previously unknown key has to contact the owner first anyway to check if it's the right, genuine key.
Let's see how long this key survives my forgetfulness until I eventually destroy it for good. On the other hand, things have changed for me: I now have backups.
(and I've backed up the key on a memory stick and carry it with me on my PDA)
Does procurement law trip up open source in administration?
Just a bunch of funny pointed hats spouting funny nonsense.
You can't really take it seriously when authorities keep requiring Windows as an operating system and dismiss Linux from the start because it supposedly doesn't work with Microsoft systems (which of course is bullshit). To me it sounds like yet another worry-wart trying to make themselves seem important at others' expense.
Well, what do you expect from a conference of a Federal Association for Digital Economy...
The original article can be found on heise online news at this link.
All (!) EU legal documents in one internet database
Keep this in mind. You might need it someday.
At netbib weblog there's the original article.
Confidential! - Confidential?
Funny what you can find on Google. I looked to see if someone had already ported Frontier to Linux. In doing so, I stumbled across the linked page where it apparently was already discussed at some point — making Frontier open source back in 2001, probably under the Apache License. The pages have something on them that says "Confidential" — with a fake red stamp. No idea if that's an internal discussion site of Userland.
There's also a download area with old source code — it still contains an NDA for access to the sources.
Google finds everything.
The Climate of Fear
How the media actively participate in 1984.
At raben.horst you can find the original article.
Debate over longer working hours continues
And so the next pig is driven through the village. Never mind that we don't hold the supposed top spot within Europe for low weekly working hours. Regardless of the fact that we're not the leaders in public holidays or vacation days. Even the Institute of the German Economy sees Germany only in 4th place - with very small gaps to places 5-10 for vacation days. And for working hours, the Hans-Böckler Foundation sees Germany only in the good middle field. The politicians arrange their world to suit them just as they need it for their purely populist and completely fact-free ideas. And when politicians repeat the nonsense often enough, eventually even the last person believes it - because someone only contradicted it somewhere and all the politicians say the same thing, so it must be true, right?
And so eventually Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, society is aging because suddenly all people will live to be 150, crime is rising out of control, nuclear power is harmless, and the SPD is a left-wing party.
At tagesschau.de - The News from ARD you can find the original article.
First Partially Privatized Prison in Germany
Corruption now 15% cheaper? Presumably, the Hessian politicians have also privatized and outsourced their brains. Well, you can't really expect sensible actions from the Koch gang anyway...
I found the original article at tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD.
Zope.org - ZopeX3-3.0.0
Well, here it is, the new Zope with the new architecture. Everything new comes in November, or so. Looks quite amusing, but somehow it's also quite different from what Zope was before. However, I'm not yet sure whether I should like it or dislike it
Nuclear power opponent killed in accident with Castor train
Just roll right over it, garbage is more important than opponents and besides, where would we end up if we let ourselves be held back by such things
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
Factor programming language
Once again something from the corner of obscure programming languages. And this time it's a Forth descendant again, but one that borrows more heavily from Lisp and functional concepts and also orients itself more toward Lisp in its system architecture. Looks quite interesting and of course speaks directly to an old Forther and Lisper like me. The author also has a weblog where he occasionally writes about his language and its implementation - currently, for example, about type inference in Factor. Here's the original article.
Media expert: Journalists rely too often on internet research
In addition, online editorial departments could respond to user interest since user access would be evaluated according to Machill. "This is a new, unprecedented form of interactivity. Until now, time-delayed feedback was only possible through letters to the editor." - ouch. I think the media expert probably hasn't seen an interactive medium up close if log file evaluations already count as special interactivity for him.
At heise online news there is the original article.
Which holiday could you do without?
Totensonntag can easily be dropped.
At WDR.de you can find the original article.
Debate over conscription reignited
When I look at the kind of people who voluntarily join the Bundeswehr, I want mandatory military service to continue. At least that way a few people with some sense end up in the organization and throw a wrench in the works - and most importantly, they get to see what kind of silly and ridiculous circus it all is. And yes, I'm speaking from experience, I did my military service at a Bundeswehr command headquarters.
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
do you remember this?
Fits well with my previous article about Jesus never existed. Because we all know that only Brian was the true hero on the cross. At Pepilog - do you remember this? you can find the original article.
Healthy Kids Snacks?
Probably not new, but because the Kinder chocolate commercial got on my nerves again and I did some research - here are a few figures about so-called children's food products. Why there need to be children's food products in general - except maybe for baby porridge - was always a mystery to me anyway. But then again, I absolutely loved eating spinach as a child (and I still enjoy it with scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes)
Ohio isn't over yet.
Well, the 2004 election apparently was just as bungled in process and correctness as the 2000 election. Regardless of the fact that the majority relationships at least matched the outcome this time, it looks very much like the USA is simply accepting another election with serious flaws as being fine and nothing will change for the future. And such a country considers itself the pioneer of democracy ...
At Bill Bumgarner there's the original article.
Python Memory Management
A few interesting pieces of information about how Python manages memory and why Python processes sometimes don't want to give back memory.
Religion - the Tragedy of Mankind
Someone dedicated an entire website to the topic of Christianity and – with bright, screaming aesthetics – threw themselves at every contradiction they could find. Topics include the existence, or rather non-existence, of the individual person Jesus Christ, the non-existence of Nazareth, the contradictions in the accounts of places and rulers, as well as conflicts with the traditions of other (more advanced) cultures from the same period. The origins of Christianity and its roots in other religions are also described.
Pleasantly striking on the pages: each essay references sources and offers approaches to verify the statements. Verifiable sources help make pages – despite their truly terrible layout – more credible.
No, I haven't verified all the sources – I haven't even read everything, just skimmed through it. Some things I already knew from other sources appear here too, some things are missing (for example, I didn't find a reference to Zoroaster as a source of monotheism). But then again, I haven't worked through everything yet.
The often stomach-aching topic of Jewish religion and its origins (which tends to be appropriated and botched by Nazis) also appears to be fairly well presented.
What is somewhat irritating at first, however, are the somewhat sensationalist titles of the essays – they could easily be taken from tabloid newspapers. But don't worry, the essays behind them are much more sober.
Obligation to monitor emails hits the provider industry hard
Well, the chili pepper can't even get its own software working, but providers are supposed to deliver customer emails at their own expense. It's already absurd what's still going on. And the deadline is approaching.
Maybe providers should simply refuse and maintain this refusal in any corresponding lawsuits - if all the providers are sued away, perhaps politicians will eventually realize how stupid the whole thing was - because there's certainly no free surveillance of mail traffic from foreign providers for the state...
The original article is available at heise online news here.
Experiences with pycrypto
I recently posted a link to pycrypto in the blogmarks - I've now used it in the Toolserver Framework for Python to add encrypted RPCs and RSA authentication. I have to say, I'm really enthusiastic about this library - you can achieve results very simply and quickly, the interfaces of the various algorithms are very sensibly designed, and it's a good collection of algorithms - including often neglected areas like proper random number generation (including access to operating system mechanisms for this purpose, on Linux, OS X, and even Windows!). So if you're planning a project with Python and cryptography, definitely check out this library. It's so simple to use that it's even suitable as a standard library for small use cases - for example, for encrypting passwords or similar purposes. Somehow remarkable, I'm now using the second project maintained by Andrew Kuchling: in the Toolserver Framework for Python, the Medusa server is included as the web server - a fast and compact web server written in Python with many interesting extension options. The original article is here.
Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004
Andrew Tannenbaum on his experiences with the election results presentation - which didn't work out quite as well as he hoped due to excessive traffic. However, the last paragraph of his report is nice: Again, if you are a senior majoring in computer science and are seriously thinking of leaving the country due to the election results, you might be interested in my international English-language Masters program in parallel and distributed computer systems. If you are a faculty member in computer science, I would be very grateful if you would go to that Website and download and print the poster (a PDF file) and pin it to a bulletin board where potential students might see it and mention it in any classes you teach to CS seniors. Thank you.
Coming to terms with the past with the wrecking ball
Well, it seems money and corruption win again. Regardless of whether history is disregarded or existing law is trampled on. As long as some ministerial official gets their cut.
I found the original article at Der Schockwellenreiter.
No bribes were given in the awarding of contracts for the BA's online job exchange
Sorry, but if no corruption was involved, then this absurd online job board is the best evidence of boundless management stupidity. Whether that's really the better result, I don't know.
I found the original article at NETZEITUNG.DE Internet.
Bush sees himself as victor
No matter how it turns out - I hereby declare Americans to be completely insane and a collective case for the asylum. The only positive thing about this whole mess is the proof that there are even more stupid voters in the world than those in Hesse.
CRN | Breaking News | Shadows Loom Over Sun's Open Source Plans
SUN's egg dance continues. Will the managers ever realize that all this fussing around just makes them look ridiculous and that such nonsense at best makes SUN itself obsolete at some point? I mean, at some point even the most ardent SUN supporter can't take the place seriously anymore. IBM will be happy - as the last major provider of large Unix machines (yeah, yeah, SGI still exists - but they're also disappearing more and more into oblivion).
Anniversary - Two Years of Hugos House of Weblog Horror
Today it is exactly two years old (first entry was P2, back then still with Radio Userland). And it has over 3600 entries (together everything that can be called an entry in my software).
Buyers on eBay enjoy right of withdrawal
I think that's right - at least since I've thought about it a bit more. Yes, it makes sales via eBay harder for commercial sellers. But the situation where a dealer could simply shirk their obligations by offering goods on eBay as an auction would really be something strange. From P2813 the question remains of how eBay will implement all this. Actually, they should now integrate a reversal button so that a return can also be reversed with regard to eBay fees, because ultimately the sale didn't come about and eBay would then have to refund the sales-dependent fees. At NETZEITUNG.DE Internet I found the original article.
Gap in Internet Explorer enables full system access
Please, people, just throw IE off your hard drive. That thing is unacceptable. Take one of the many better alternatives, for example Firefox. But finally dump this garbage heap where it belongs.
And another note, because the Heise article doesn't make this clear: this exploit is much worse because it doesn't directly affect JavaScript, etc., but only indirectly. And with that it can come into play everywhere the IE is also used internally (e.g. with the various nice tools that constantly fetch and display HTML from the internet for you!). The capabilities of this exploit seem to be quite serious.
At heise online news there's the original article.
Schröder and Eichel want to abolish Day of German Unity
It's too early for Carnival, so they probably mean the Moppelkotze seriously
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
Update: White House declares Bush as election winner
Observers criticized that electoral procedures in many respects did not meet the best standards practiced worldwide. The USA had one of the most complicated electoral systems. Moreover, they complained that they had less access to the elections than in Kazakhstan, and observers were often not even permitted to get close, but could only position themselves dozens of meters away from polling stations. And the voting computers were less secure than recently in Venezuela. There, inputs were printed out and ballot papers were collected in urns as usual, so they could also be recounted. - United Banana-States of America indeed ...
At Telepolis News (03.11.2004) you can find the original article.
ECL v0.9d released
ECL is a pretty nice Common Lisp - relatively fast and with the C compiler you can really get solid code. And the best part: it can be embedded in other programs. Common Lisp might be a bit overkill for a scripting language, but better to go big than small.
At Rainer Joswig's Lisp News you can find the original article.
Python ipqueue
Anyone who has always wanted to tinker with the TCP/IP stack in Linux, but doesn't like C and prefers to use Python instead: the linked project offers an elegant solution for that. It allows you to hook Python scripts into Linux's Netfilter. Transparent proxies and similar things can be accomplished with just a few lines of code.
Shrek II
I like DVDs where it's even worth letting the main menu run for a while
But the talent competition after the movie is just absolutely hilarious!
taz 3.11.04 X-Files in the Elbmarsch
In the end, the whole thing became a matter of faith, one that above all had to leave the nuclear-critical public bewildered. The citizens' initiative could only be trusted by those who believed in secret German nuclear tests, a covered-up accident, and numerous manipulated studies. Many things are possible, of course, but that doesn't make them probable. The cause of the leukemia cluster in Lower Saxony's Elbmarsch will probably remain unexplained forever. Yes, yes, all improbable and unproven and all that. But that doesn't make the children who have fallen ill with leukemia healthy and the dead alive again. But it's easier to portray critics as cranks and simply bury one's head in the sand. In a few years the problem will have solved itself biologically anyway, and then no one will care about it anymore.
Data cannon - Hacking biometric systems
Fingerprint scanners outwitted with household items. So much for the security of biometric systems, as Schily wants to have them built into identity cards.
I© love" You®
More madness around trademark law. Eventually we won't be allowed to say anything because absurd jurisprudence, brazen lawyers and incompetent judges consider this whole nonsense more important than protecting citizens from such rubbish. We can probably just wait for the first websites to be cease-and-desist letters because they have some word sequences in the title tag that some manufacturer has had registered.
At Telepolis News (01.11.2004) you can find the original article.
Linux: In Kernel GUI
Very interesting for control systems and perhaps also PDAs: a GUI system that runs completely in the Linux Kernel and is integrated into it, requiring extremely few resources.
Polar ice melts faster than expected
On the one hand, the effects are certainly threatening - and whether we can really still turn things around in time (and whether we can even change the outcome at all!) is still completely unclear. On the other hand, it's actually pretty exciting to be living in exactly such a time, when the magnetic pole will probably flip and maybe one of the bigger climate catastrophes is looming. I mean, who experiences something like that? Not just boring civil wars, social upheavals and similar nonsense, but real events with geological consequences?
I found the original article at NETZEITUNG.DE Wissenschaft.
#python discussion of how to implement the Halting Problem
Ouch. Such discussions hurt. Even when you only read them and don't have to take part.
Cease and Desist Letter to Kefk Network by Waldorf Law Firm
Another documentation of how this mysterious law firm in Munich attempts to silence websites through the use of cease-and-desist letters. This is the same case as in P2908. According to kefk.net, the following companies are among the clients represented by Waldorf law firm:
- BMG Records
- Edel Records
- EMI Music
- Sony Music Entertainment
- Universal Music
- Warner Music Group
Everyone is invited to draw their own conclusions.
Unfortunately, the cease-and-desist letter system is so perverse that private individuals can barely defend themselves against it - among other reasons because many legal protection insurance policies specifically exclude this type of proceedings. Ultimately, the very possibility of cease-and-desist letters makes the Internet into the lawless space it supposedly is not - but not for Internet users, but rather for lawyers.
Winter time change
What really gets me about this whole thing: these incompetent manufacturers of electronic devices with clocks. The rules have remained unchanged for many years, but even current devices rarely have automatic adjustment. No, you don't need a radio time signal receiver for something like this, a very simple algorithm would suffice. But what do the manufacturers do? If they're being generous, they at least build in a switch for manual adjustment of winter/summer time. Most of them, however, still demand that the customer manually adjust the time themselves. Then there are these ridiculous devices where you can't even set the hours separately, but have to run the whole time forward through 23 hours instead of simply going back one hour.
The manufacturers of overpriced consumer products clearly have never heard of usability...
And mobile phone manufacturers especially get on my nerves—they already get the local time transmitted via cellular networks, but still demand manual time adjustment. Even stupid video recorder manufacturers at least have the option to fetch the time from the video text, but mobile phone manufacturers are fundamentally too incompetent for that.
Oh, and PDA manufacturers whose PDAs don't do automatic time adjustment even though the time zone has to be configured in the device anyway (and therefore the rules for automatic adjustment are unquestionably established) deserve to be pelted with their instruction manuals.
Initiative New Social Market Economy
What's supposed to be new? Sure, the dismantling. And it's supposed to be made palatable to voters. With lies, lobbying, and distortion of reality. Organized nonsense, plain and simple.
I found the original article at Der Rollberg.
Couple could hardly be separated
Yeah, those Dülmen folks have always seemed suspicious to me