Artikel - 11.6.2004 - 29.6.2004

Bergen Linux User Group

RFC 1149 - TCP over Avian Carrier - was actually implemented once. There are pictures of the event and a short description. Ping times of over 6000 seconds. Wow.

Here's the original article.

Law-free spaces are illegal

A small but important victory for reason in the USA.

At Telepolis News (29.06.2004) you can find the original article.

Save the iPod

In the USA, there's another crazy bill proposal to regulate music users. In this case, if the proposal becomes law, all devices that can play music without explicit permission from the music industry would be illegal. That includes the iPod - after all, it plays all music tracks without DRM. Or iTunes, which rips CDs and doesn't use DRM for files created this way.

Here's the original article.

Ruling: Performance-based civil service remuneration is lawful

With such things, I always find myself questioning the definition of performance... At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.

Cupertino, start your photocopiers!

Well, the Konfabulator programmers are taking the latest alleged screenshots of Tiger with humor and striking back

Here's the original article.

Limited Microdrives in Creative's MP3 Player Muvo

Oh man. What nonsense. Now I have to search around to see if I can still find a cheap old MuVo2 somewhere

At heise online news you can find the original article.

mono » Fast Company's Linking Policy

That's just crazy: Fast Company demands a signed document (which is only available in Word format) in order to give a website the right to link to a page from Fast Company ...

astonished face

Here's the original article.

More Pictures of the Handkerchief Tree

Since you don't see a flowering handkerchief tree very often, I put the remaining images online on my image server (no longer online since 2007).

Blackbox becomes Open Source

Oberon. Sweet.

At Der Schockwellenreiter there's the original article.

"Polar Bear" Belongs to Grönemeyer

Will Eisbär von Grauzone now become retroactively illegal? And what about the little polar bear and its DVDs? Somehow this trademark registration seems more than strange to me ... At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft there's the original article.

Doctors protest against public insurance

Funny. When it came to cutting copayments for therapeutic treatments for public insurance patients, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians didn't exactly jump into action. Nobody really stands up for patient rights - and ultimately for patients' healthcare provision either. In the end, it's all just about the money.

At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.

"Bernd the Bread" only has to suffer during the day now

Well, thanks to this stupid ISH thing, I haven't had the Kinderkanal from 21:00 onwards anyway, just MDR or something like that, so I haven't been able to watch Bernd for much longer. It's still a shame though ... At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.

Digital Camera with 30x Optical Zoom

That would be something for Jutta - after all, she's already thought about wanting to have a spotting scope with Digilux. There's the original article at PhotographyBLOG.

Largest flower production since euro introduction discovered

Why didn't they just counterfeit coins? They're in short supply.

At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.

idw - University of Bremen: Early building blocks of the genome discovered in meteorite

Eventually we'll discover that we're all aliens

Here's the original article.

LinuxTag: Global File System under GPL

Finally. Maybe there's finally a usable cluster filesystem solution for Linux. We've needed that for a while now ...

At heise online news there's the original article.

Mark/Space launches The Missing Sync 4.0

The feature list sounds nice. Especially the Internet connection sharing via Bluetooth. It would be quite convenient to chat on the Palm from the couch using the Mac's Internet connection, wouldn't it?

At The Macintosh News Network you can find the original article.

More Work, Less Money

What comes next? Will more companies blackmail their employees and unions? Because that's exactly what Siemens did here. And then it's celebrated as a patriotic act. The original article is at WDR.de.

Union demands more sex

Oh man, when something like these pathetic CSU politicians comes out, then I ask for more restraint ...

And again it shows that there is nothing so stupid that a politician couldn't be found to express it publicly.

At tagesschau.de - The news from ARD you can find the original article.

Berlusconi will not have lost the election

Yes. Now he's completely lost it. Of course. Italy's media mogul claims he was cheated in the election by the oh-so-professional opposition - meanwhile it was him who normally tipped the scales in his favor through massive media deployment during elections. But as always with politicians: they themselves are definitely not to blame. If necessary, it's the evil opposition, cosmic radiation, or the stupid voters. But never the politicians themselves.

At tagesschau.de - The News of ARD you can find the original article.

Image theft htaccess and online aggregators from Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent

I've already complained about those deep-link preventers based on the referrer being pretty stupid when you include your images in the RSS feed - because then aggregators can no longer display the images without further ado, since the deep-link prevention kicks in. Pretty annoying - especially when the aggregator is displayed in a web browser, because then it caches the prevention image and when accessing the original pages, it no longer loads the correct image, but first has to be forced to refresh.

Here's the original article.

Apple - RSS Information

What else Apple has in terms of RSS feeds. I have no idea if I've covered this before, but it's still useful anyway.

Here's the original article.

Canon EOS 10D - non-functional design

The prism of the EOS 10D protrudes beyond the bayonet. Completely without any useful function - merely an homage to older designs. Stupid. Because the EOS 10D cannot be connected directly to my bellows this way, as the prism collides with the camera standard. I need an extension ring as a spacer.

Classic case of design ignoring function...

Medication Nation

If you read through this - medication abuse could certainly explain one or another slightly paranoid behavior of the US administration ...

At Word Soup you can find the original article.

Ullrich wins Tour de Suisse in time trial

It's already a bit mean to win with only a one-second lead

At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.

iTunes Again - This Time Problems

Well. Bought Abraxas/III by Santana. Unfortunately, iTunes can only load part of the songs - 3 songs refuse to load. So now I also get the chance to test Apple's support.

Fearmongering for tuition fees

German to English Translation

Anyone who wants to know how the practical results of surveys come about, which are used to justify the greatest political nonsense, should simply follow the link. In this case, it's directed at our education system.

We shouldn't be too arrogant in our response to American think tanks. We've had the same problem here for a long time - and it's getting increasingly massive. In many areas, lobbying has long been more important than expert opinion or even the will of voters.

I found das Netzbuch and the original article.

This is a "stress position"

2-150-150.png

A few images showing what the US government considers valid interrogation methods. In my opinion, simply and clearly crimes against human dignity. War crimes.

I found the original article at Warblogs:CC.

Tour de Suisse: Ullrich still in yellow jersey

That does offer some hope for the tour. However, T-Mobile should hold back a bit on the dropouts, otherwise they won't be able to put together 9 riders for the tour anymore.

I found the original article at Radsport-News.com.

Giant Hogweed - A Burning Danger

Attack of the Killer Plants.

The original article is available at WDR.de.

News: Microsoft distances itself from AdTI study

Even Microsoft doesn't want to support this nonsense, and they're usually not too shy about spreading lies about Open Source

Here's the original article.

Auto Bellows PC for Contax

The bellows announced in P2367 arrived today. I'm thrilled. Simply a fantastically well-crafted precision instrument. With all sorts of adjustment options, loads of control wheels, loads of applications. Wow. Simply fantastic. Oh, and it was one of my eBay bargains again - only 1/3 of the new price, but everything in fantastic condition as far as I can see. Runs smoothly, without noticeable scratches or dents. And everything included - not even the cable adapters are missing. Now I just need to figure out if there's possibly a way to trigger the Canon EOS 10D via the cable release with an adapter - with the Contax RTS III there are of course no problems due to the system. But both cameras have purely electronic shutters, so something should be feasible. If worst comes to worst, a second cable release will do, but the direct connection is more elegant.

The nice thing about the bellows is the wide range of adjustment options. Shift only horizontally, but nicely with detent. Tilt only around the vertical axis, but also with detent. At the camera mount, the bayonet can be tilted 90 degrees and thus the camera can be changed in format - by tilting the bellows on the tripod you can also get vertical shift or tilt around the horizontal axis this way without twisting yourself into a pretzel.

The lens standard can either be simply rotated (after loosening the bellows, the tilt goes 360 degrees - so simply rotate 180 degrees backwards), alternatively you can also mount the front standard in reverse on the bellows to get even further forward with the lens. Even in reverse position, the automatic diaphragm is retained.

And then there's the slide copying attachment: the slide holder has a vertical shift. Combined with the horizontal shift of the front standard and the freely adjustable magnification factors, you can create beautiful section magnifications with it.

Oh, and in a few days I'll get the macro stand for the system, then I'll have almost all the parts. I'm only missing the adapter for 67mm front lenses (I'll definitely get that since I can then use the nice Tokina again) and the adapter for Zeiss loupe lenses.

Ah. Simply wonderful all this equipment.

Tour de France exit for Vinokourov

Crap. Ok, was to be expected after the crash, but it's pretty rough.

I found the original article at Radsport-News.com.

Severe Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel 2.4 and 2.6

And Menno ...

(Fortunately I only have trustworthy users on my servers)

At heise online news there's the original article.

iTunes Music Store

Well. So it's open now. Ok, let's see. Die Toten Hosen - just one song in a compilation. Emerson Lake & Palmer - no song, didn't even find it in the overview. Same with the Pogues. And Die Ă„rzte. And Element of Crime. Extrabreit - found under Rock, but no titles. Kraftwerk - the same thing, artist known, but no titles. The Levellers - wow, two albums. But only one with titles - I already have Levelling the Land. The other one - Hello Pig - is without titles. Kate Bush - just one album, Lionheart. Ok, I have everything from her anyway. Then finally: Clannad - apparently all albums, also all with titles. And one that I don't have yet. Wow - my first iTunes purchase. What I noticed when buying: from the overview you can only buy individual titles, not whole albums. For that you have to search for the artist's shop page. But you can't do that with one click from the overview, you have to go through the search. The buying itself is easy - just say you want to buy, confirm that you want to buy, and it starts loading away. And the credit card gets charged. You can nicely see the progress of the download process in the status window and also in the new playlist Purchased Music. Very easy overall. Quite different from the other music stores. What else I noticed: the categorizations are rubbish. Why a sampler with Uns' Udo, Die Toten Hosen and similar stuff is sorted under Pop is as much a mystery to me as the question of why Tom Waits is Rock and how the categorization of Clannad albums sometimes under Folk and sometimes under Pop comes about. Well, at least I didn't have to look for them under Electronic. With Tom Waits, by the way, only the title Rock was listed as a category, but the artist can be found under Alternative. Rather inconsistent.

Also annoying are the sometimes very incomplete compilations of an artist's titles - for example, The Cure does have some albums in there, but on the one hand the release dates are listed as 2001 and on the other hand the albums are sometimes empty and sometimes only have individual songs. Kind of a shame - missed revenue if you ask me.

Also weird was what happened with Tom Waits: Foreign Affairs is listed, but when buying I get a message that it's no longer available. Same with a couple of his other records. But you can play all the songs. Does Apple maybe have some knots in the database? Is there a bug report address?

Nice though is that albums with fewer songs are automatically cheaper than 9.99 euros - good attention to detail in the implementation of the shop!

Buying while a download is still running also works without problems - iTunes remembers all purchased and not yet downloaded songs. It will probably survive a disconnect too, but I didn't want to try that right away.

Otherwise I don't seem to have standard taste, but I think I'll still poke around there for one thing or another. Even if it looks a bit thin at the moment. Damn. Another money pit.

Secret Code: 00000000

That really gives me courage ...

At Megawatt: The Last Latent Appliance Fetishist you can find the original article.

Tony's Calculator Collection

I can't believe it. A collection of online calculators. And my first calculator (which I got when I switched to grammar school) is included. Sometimes I love the internet Here's the original article.

Just posted! Canon EOS-1D Mark II Review

Could someone give me $4500 as a gift?

This camera would probably be the ideal Contax digital option for the MM system - with the 1D Mark II you can swap out the focusing screen and insert one with a split image. With the 10D, manual focusing is usually more of a gamble - at least in most situations.

At Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) there's the original article.

Vinokourov suspected of fractures

Oh Shit!

erstauntes Gesicht

At Radsport-News.com I found the original article.

Contax RTS Macro Photography - Part I

I now have an Auto Bellows PC for my Contax, so I did a bit of googling and came across this nice site that documents all the Contax tools for macro photography. Very interesting.

Here's the original article.

EU election almost over

And of course, the Union is supposedly the big winner - even though they also lost votes. But lying to yourself is much easier than facing reality: that namely the politicians completely failed to motivate voters to actually show up at the polls.

Blue Letter for the Federal Returning Officer

Sometimes you just have to hold your head in disbelief at how much stupidity our federal politicians display.

surprised face

At Telepolis News (12.06.2004) you can find the original article.

Dark lonely Saturn moon received earthly visit

Yes, I know that the money for such missions would certainly be better spent elsewhere. Nevertheless, I find such missions incredibly exciting and I'm always thrilled to see pictures of alien worlds. Human curiosity simply wants to know what it's like in places that one will never actually be able to reach oneself.

At Telepolis News (12.06.2004) you can find the original article.

German licenses launched

That's quite nice. German versions of the Creative Commons licenses, which have also been adapted to German law.

At Creative Commons: weblog there's the original article.

A Year Ago Today

It's interesting when you compare the olds with the news.

The great acquisition of the supposedly market-leading antivirus vendor that nobody knew only caused a stir back then — otherwise it was simply irrelevant.

The immunity of US soldiers is a disgrace, especially given the torture in Iraq. It probably had good reason that immunity was enforced — after all, it seems the US administration had long planned torture as a tool in its fight against terrorism.

Sun's claim that Linux users didn't really want Linux was already a laugh back then — but it's become particularly funny given all the egg dances Sun has performed in the meantime.

IP addresses being sold on the black market — no idea what came of that. I suspect it's still being sold. After all, the actual problem hasn't really changed.

Homeland Security is still a bunch of lunatics and overreach is the order of the day. However, they're no longer hunting as many runaway Democrats.

And while the CSU may not like penguins, Munich got them anyway. And gradually the project seems to be really taking off, after apparently there was stronger resistance to Linux in administration initially.

IBM receives patent for Caps Lock status indicator on PC keyboards

IBM of course also participates in the absurd patents on trivialities.

The original article can be found at heise online news at this link.

Radford photographer to face trial in Jan.

In P960 I had already written something about Bob Shell - represented on some mailing lists on photography topics - being charged with murder. His trial is now likely to take place in January 2005. Here you can find the original article.

UserFriendly: They took the "We" out of "Weblog"

Ouch.

Here's the original article.

Back to the Future

DSL is acting up again

A Year Ago Today

Translation

I've now also built one of these, I can't think of anything anyway so I'm filling the gap with old stuff tools. No idea if I really want to do something with this long-term, but here's the first batch of reheated sauce: