Artikel - 19.2.2003 - 2.3.2003

secret document

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Every dirty trick is being used to wage a war that nobody really wants except for the Bush administration. Even the spying on UN delegations is a means to an end. When will there finally be a UN resolution against the USA?

I found the original article at owrede_log.

Development Environment

BBEdit 7.0, SSHPassKey, Python and CVS - that's what I use to build the Python Desktop Server when I'm sitting at my Mac (which I clearly prefer).

Since the CVS server isn't running locally but out on the net, ssh is set up as the transport (that's what SSHPassKey is for - it integrates SSH password prompts into Mac OS X's Keychain!).

On Linux I use VIM instead of BBEdit. Well...

Trade union dispute: Westerwelle follows up

Well. And what about the membership fees from FDP party members that Westerwelle embezzled for absurd election campaign actions?

Teufelsgrinsen

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

Is This Thing On?

Silly. Put's up a weblog without comment functionality, without email contacts and without any form of feedback. Even no managingEditor field in the RSS feed or any sort of hint how to contact him. One could contact him if there was a way to contact him and tell him about the HEAD request used by most useable news aggregators, to prevent the problem he is talking about. But since he doesn't leave a way to communicate, he might still sit there, unknowing ... Bei ongoing gibts den Originalartikel.

Leica with new old camera

Just read that Leica is coming out with a Leica MP, an M6 with better finish, better build quality and finally fixed rangefinder flare problem. Nice. Although I don't really want to know what this beast will cost.

Unfortunately, no information to be found on Leica's own site yet.

Microsoft: We Have No Plans To Remove Linux Support From Virtual PC For Mac

Yeah. If you read further, it says that "Microsoft has no current plans to remove Linux support within Virtual PC for Mac" - but what about future plans? If Microsoft integrates Virtual PC more closely in order to present their Windows software more integrated on the Mac (without having to port everything), then certainly some compatibility will be lost. Of course, at the moment they have no plans for that, after all the whole thing was just bought.

I wouldn't bet on Virtual PC as a long-term solution for Linux anyway. However, Mac-On-Linux running under Linux on the Mac (natively) is the nicer solution anyway, and Microsoft doesn't make a penny from that.

Devilish grin

Here's the original article.

New Nisus Writer OS X Version on the Way

Just read the Nisus newsletter. What they're doing there already looks pretty good. Nisus has been with me since my first Mac, so it's almost like coming home when something like that comes out for OS X. And it definitely has more (and especially more sensible) features than AppleWorks. Here's the original article.

Shit Spring

Hay fever. Sneezing. Watery eyes. Yes, spring is knocking on the door. Please bring a snowstorm, a deluge, or anything else that makes these stupid pollen go away ...

Does anyone have any idea what the heck is blooming so heavily right now? Hazel?

Ari Fleischer Laughed Out of White House Press Briefing

Ok. I admit it. > But think about the implications of what you're saying. You're saying that the leaders of other nations are buyable. And that is not an acceptable proposition. I would have burst into roaring laughter at something like that.

Devil's grin

At kuro5hin.org you can find the original article.

Bill Gates rages against open source in Japan

Billy Boy's Horror Scenario: Free Software Creates No Jobs and Brings No Tax Revenue to the State. In capitalism, it is customary to develop new software and use revenues from earlier sales to finance it. If software were freely available, programmers would perhaps have to do fieldwork during the day to earn their living - yeah, off to the fields with the blockhead, so he can finally learn what honest work is

Devil's grin

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Alphabet Soup

Really things get messy though when you throw HTML into the mix. Because in HTML 4, apos is no longer defined as an entity. In XHTML (since it's based on XML), on the other hand, it's of course mandatory. And in RSS (which is also XML) technically as well. What a bloody mess, that w3c, not even bothering to look at what other, similar languages do in HTML and aligning with them.

What happens? The Python Desktop Server originally also encoded the simple ' as an entity (namely apos). Most browsers do this too, only iCab and Omniweb don't. Actually those two are doing it right, because apos isn't defined in HTML 4 anyway.

But in the Python Desktop Server I only have a quoteXML routine, which I've been using for both so far. Actually I should now introduce a quoteHTML, and depending on the application, use the appropriate one. What a pain.

At Der Schockwellenreiter there's the original article.

OpenOffice confuses the BSA

Well. Will someone ever manage to drive this nonsense organization's arrogant and brazen conduct out of them? Confusing OpenOffice with Microsoft Office and then harassing a university (and one right on my doorstep at that) over alleged pirated copies is certainly extraordinarily stupid. And searching for pirated copies using a robot that apparently responds to file names is ridiculously stupid.

Devil grin

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Amazon No!

Well, Lehmanns Online Bookshop is also a nice bookshop. And there are certainly others ... (that's just the one that comes to mind right now)

At Der Schockwellenreiter you can find the original article.

Library That Never Closes

Note. Might be worth poking around in there.

At netbib weblog you can find the original article.

Clean Now Available under LGPL License

Yeah! One of my favorite functional languages now under a usable free license. Once the Linux version progresses further, I can finally do something with it at work.

I found the original article at Lambda the Ultimate.

Discontinuation of NPD Ban Proceedings Expected

A dismissal would be a real embarrassment for the prosecution. Bungled preparation makes an effective action against the NPD impossible. What's the result? The browns will use the whole thing as justification and see themselves strengthened and confirmed in their position. Great. Super success

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

Google Receives Patent for Ranking Technology

Great class. Another nail in the coffin of alternative search engines? Are new search engines no longer allowed to emerge in the land of the free because absurd patent grants are shackling freedom and innovation? Anyway, Americans aren't allowed to smoke pipes anymore either. They might as well enshrine Google usage in their constitution. But please without the word googlen, otherwise the lawyer will complain... At heise online news there's the original article.

Now there's a USB hot cup?

Well, if the USB toothbrush has already fascinated the Schockwellenreiter so much, what will he say about the USB teacup?

I found the original article at Gizmodo.

Pentax *ist D

Hmm. What does that bring? Well, at least it would be cool to put old, classic K lenses on the Digi :-)

At Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) you can find the original article.

Bad times for future apprentices

And then employers complain that they can't find qualified employees anymore. Where are they supposed to come from if not from training — out of thin air? Training is still the most efficient way to develop qualified employees. When will employers finally understand that?

You can find the original article on tagesschau im Internet at this link.

US Justice Seizes Domain Name

Probably the terrorists are smoking a pipe before their attacks and planning the assaults on cracked X-Boxes. So it's all just part of the fight against terror

Devil's grin

American law enforcement and the government really can't think of any measure that's too absurd at the moment. But if someone officially says something against, for example, Scientology here, we're accused of having no culture of freedom.

At heise online news there's the original article.

Space veteran "Pioneer 10" has gone silent

Too bad. Let us all give the old-timer one last wave up there.

At Spiegel Online: Wissenschaft there is the original article.

Addition to the Camera Collection

Well, soon a Kodak DC 4800 digital camera will probably be adding to my collection of unnecessary photo equipment.

Why that one in particular? Well, it has image quality that's generally considered quite good, relatively conventional operation (ok, only three selectable apertures, but still - and exposure compensation via its own dial instead of silly menus) and the zoom is a 28-84 instead of those silly 38-whatever lenses in other digis.

I mean, it's true: what's the point of a digital camera if its focal length only goes from normal focal length (ok, somewhat wider than normal, but the difference isn't really that big) to telephoto? I occasionally need wide angle, and constantly screwing on a converter is annoying.

My E-100RS will certainly still have its place, but especially for the stuff in my photo blog, the Kodak certainly isn't impractical.

Let's see what comes of it.

Ultranationalists in Israeli Government

Translation

Great, sounds like the Palestinian conflict has good chances of being resolved with such a government in Israel

(whoever finds sarcasm in this posting gets to keep it)

The original article can be found at tagesschau on the internet at this link.

Canon's new digital SLR

Hmm. Somehow that doesn't sound like what some might have been waiting for.

I found the original article at Gizmodo.

Union demands National Guard

What for? The National Guard is after all either the target of reckless mockery in the United States for its incompetence or in the spotlight of discussion because a few overzealous hardliners have made a stir again. But it's probably precisely what Mrs. Merkel has in mind following the U.S. model: dyed-in-the-wool incompetence.

Devil's grin

Otherwise, I still believe that protecting the interior is a task for the police. I already think the existing police alongside the police (Federal Border Police for example) is wrong.

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

Yahoo rewrites Lisp code in C++

They're stupid, especially when you read the reasons mentioned by Paul Graham (the author of the original Lisp code) for Yahoo's decision:

  • the programmers didn't know Lisp and were afraid to learn it
  • to implement it to any reasonable extent, they had to build something in C++ that was basically a Lisp interpreter
  • and even then they had to drop a number of features

Typical shallow-minded decision-making. Unfortunately there's more and more of this in software development. Afraid to learn a programming language? Pathetic.

At lemonodor you can find the original article.

Back to the Middle Ages

I can only agree with that. Although what grips me is not so much the astonishment as the cold horror. Especially when you look at the names that are appearing again and then watch the Panorama report from June 6, 2002: "Covering up and suppressing - right-wing extremists in the CDU".

And specifically for Koch, I recommend the Panorama report from December 19, 2002: "the stagings of Roland Koch". No, with such people I'm hardly surprised by anything anymore. They're willing to use any means and any shabby discussion and far-fetched action if it brings them votes. No matter which foundations of our society end up falling by the wayside in the process.

At MEHRZWECKBEUTEL you can find the original article.

The X-Files - The End

Ok. The X-Files is over. In 2012 the aliens take over our planet and Mulder wants to become religious and believe in ghosts.

And the truth is still out there.

Deutsche Bank is tired of credit risks

They could have come up with such an outlandish idea sooner, how long ago was Schneider now?

Teufelsgrinsen

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

First Ogg Vorbis player

Yeah! Declare war on the Fraunhofer patent!

Teufelsgrinsen

I found the original article at Gizmodo.

Bank refuses to discuss security system

No class. Once again bankers who are shameless enough to publicly advocate for "Security by Obscurity". How can one possibly go down this wrong path? Preventing public discussion does nothing to help security, since those who exploit security vulnerabilities don't participate in public discussion anyway, but instead rip people off in the dark. Public discussion, on the other hand, helps security, because through it security vulnerabilities are exposed on the one hand, but on the other hand the blind trust of people in alleged security is also reduced. We need public discussions of security vulnerabilities more urgently than ever, the more computer systems determine our everyday lives!

At heise online news you can find the original article.

The Man Who Stopped Time

Some background and a few pointers to the father of film, Eadweard Muybridge.

At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft you can find the original article.

New IO Version

Now there's an Objective-C Bridge for OS X. Hmm. Could be quite interesting to play around with.

Here's the original article.

02.22.03, 20:22 Uhr - Bet That ... (II)

Wrong. Any halfway educated sausage consumer knows that currywurst originally comes from Berlin. Tse!

At kniebes.de I found the original article.

Crafting Course for Mac Users

Mac users and hardware tinkering, even something as complex as replacing a power supply. That's asking for trouble.

Teufelsgrinsen

At heise online news there's the original article.

Lego day

Hey, I was at Legoland too not so long ago. But at the real one in Denmark

At The Doc Searls Weblog there's the original article.

Script Identifier 0.0.1

Hmm. That gives me a straight idea: apply Bayesian mail filtering to detect active content and use it to build a filter for active content in email or also websites

At freshmeat.net there is the original article.

Court clears the way for 'Body Worlds'

First signs of intelligence in Bavaria!

Teufelsgrinsen

I found the original article at tagesschau im Internet.

How many parents call their baby "it?"

Great. Hilarious, even for someone who doesn't have children.

I found the original article at The Doc Searls Weblog.

MobiliX is now called TuxMobil

Well - the judge must think we citizens are pretty stupid if he believes we could confuse an overweight, weathered Gaul with a website about mobile Linux ...

What's next? Instructions for toothpicks? Wonko the Sensible would have a field day.

I found the original article at heise online news.

Sample FinePix F700 Images at DPReview

That does indeed look like a real improvement. The dynamic range of digital technology is really a genuine limitation, especially for someone who works a lot with negative material (slide photographers are already predisposed to this).

At PhotographyBLOG I found the original article.

20.02.2003 - 20:28: TV Tip

I'm sorry, but Dragonheart is just too good, I'm not switching channels

At gedankenschnipsel I found the original article.

Banks attempt to cover up worst PIN vulnerability yet

Ouch. If there's any truth to this, that's more serious than the 8 million stolen credit card data!

At kuro5hin.org you can find the original article.

Discussion about torture threats flares up

That's also only right that Hansel gets a disciplinary complaint. It's still simply incomprehensible to me that in Germany someone actually speaks out publicly in favor of torture or even defends it.

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

History of (Personal-) Computing

Translated Markdown

Will the Schockwellenreiter start drooling now if I tell him that I have two Xerox Lisp machines (sister systems to the Xerox Star) standing in my room here?

Devilish grin

(although I would still prefer the Symbolics XL1201 to the Xerox any day - at some point I really need to finally install the web server on the little fat one ...)

At Der Schockwellenreiter you can find the original article.

Fewer receipts with electronic tax return

Great. Unfortunately, though, Elster is only Windows software. So users of the correct operating system are favored when filing their tax return. Damn stupid decision. What the heck would be so hard about realizing an online solution from the start that works on all systems? Or if client software absolutely has to be the way to go, why not at least develop it in Java so non-Windows users have a chance to participate? In the end, a clear competitive advantage is being created for users of one particular operating system. I seriously doubt that's within the scope of what tax offices should be doing...

I found the original article on heise online news.

A Windows Flashback

Ouch. That doesn't sound good at all. I'm actually quite satisfied with OS X so far, no unusual problems. But I'm still using 10.1.5 ...

I found the original article at PragDave.

Greens scratch at employment protection

Oh come on, you stupid Greens, just leave the dumb ideas to the Conservatives ...

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Hackers crack millions of credit card accounts

Uiuiui ...

At tagesschau im Internet there is the original article.