Jython 2.5 - possibly still this year? That would be fantastic. Python is still my preferred language, and the JVM world opens up large amounts of interesting libraries (the interesting ones usually don't come from Sun ...) and interoperability with Java programs, which makes it easier to place Python at work.
Linkblog - 11.1.2008 - 31.1.2008
Patent on mobile entertainment device with phone - or something like that. The employees at the US Patent Office seem to be suffering from an acute lack of brainpower at the moment. There was already proven prior art for this patent, which was taken into account in the last application but is now being ignored. Well, it doesn't affect the poor, I think the lawyers from Apple will be happy to take care of the gentleman and his patent.
Post-Konkurrenten klagen gegen den Mindestlohn - even more companies whose only business model is the exploitation and ripping off of employees. Heartless scum that just wants to cash in and then presents itself as the great job creators - unfortunately, work that does not secure survival for a full week makes no sense. And indirectly, these companies are only ripping off the state and thus the taxpayer, but they themselves complain about having to pay taxes. Disgusting.
Sigma announces DP1 to be available spring 2008 - I'll believe it when I see it in the store. Although the concept - compact camera with APS-format chip - is quite exciting.
Allegorithmic | MaPZone - algorithmic texture generation. I should check it out, Texturemaker is nice, but sometimes a bit cumbersome and hard to follow which tools to use.
Nokia: Hinweise auf VerstoĂź gegen Auflagen - can someone please explain to me in a coherent way why 60 million in subsidies were paid and a violation of the conditions is only noticed when the whole place causes such a massive stir that even the dumbest prolethician can no longer look the other way? I mean, does no one really check when only a measly 60 million is at stake, or are they just completely stupid in DĂĽsseldorf? 200 to 400 missing jobs should surely be noticed earlier (and anyway, why don't they know how many jobs are actually missing? Should I report my tax debt next time with "oh, around 100-200 euros"?)
Credit agencies in Austria must delete credit data upon request - could we please get this here in Germany as well?
tunneling over ICMP - I've only had DNS so far when I had a hotspot WLAN in front of me, but icmptunnel is also one of the nice tools to get on the network.
Election observers in Hesse - Isotopp collects links, saves me the trouble of collecting them myself. The thing with the voting computer at the party official's home is already great ...
#10919 (incorrect pluralization) - Rails Trac - over penis enhancements in Ruby on Rails
OSXCrypt.org - Truecrypt for MAC(encrypted volumes as open source solution - which can then also be used by other systems)
Federal Fiscal Court: Commuting allowance reduction unconstitutional - the federal legislators are currently collecting unconstitutional things. When will they learn from this and listen to the experts who regularly predict exactly that? And when will Easter fall on Christmas?
I love the Internet. And my genes. - time again to link to the Rebel Market. If the future is social-gen-sharing, and everyone can deduce nonsense from pseudo-scientific collections of data garbage, if future HR managers not only get the sexual preferences and the drunken remarks from the study period willingly served from the net, but also a genetic profile with absurd pseudo-interpretation, then a new boundary of complete stupidity on the net has definitely been crossed. And since it fits so well into the whole discussion, let's just ge-owled. I mean, Stasi 2.0 is nothing compared to what is voluntarily disclosed on the Internet ...
Still no ringtones in Germany - sounds dramatic, but only applies to the iTunes Music Store. You can't buy ringtones. Pretty stupid of Apple. Well, if you save sound files as AAC (e.g. with Amadeus) and then name them .m4r, iTunes sorts them as ringtones. Just wanted to mention that. (And yes, that means I have an iPhone)
OLG Frankfurt: Providers do not have to block content - it's somehow logical. Hopefully, other courts will follow suit.
an offline Wikipedia reader for the iPhone - ok, outdated with download to the iPhone, but still: that would really be a reason to have an iPhone (the direct and immediate access to Wikipedia and Google alone would almost be worth it, but also to directly access it locally in cases where nothing else works - nice!)
Breakthrough for CC music - in Denmark. The century in which GEMA will follow suit is not yet known.
Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List - it's things like these that show the alarming extent to which creationist nonsense has taken hold in the USA.
Japan wants to fly paper plane from International Space Station to earth - "the Japan folded paper plane association"
Strasheela - hmm, that would finally be a chance to take a closer look at Mozart and Oz, a software for algorithmic music composition (and no, I have no idea about composition - I just like everything that algorithmically generates something else that either looks good or sounds good ...)
Unshaking and refocusing your photos - a few interesting tools linked, worth checking out.
60,000 Dollar fine for DNS query - even in the USA there are judges who have no idea about the Internet. "used Unix systems" - very bad thing, that. However, we should not be too sure - with our current paranoia levels in Berlin, the use of direct DNS queries can quickly become a terrorist offense ...
"America's best housewife" baffles German digital lifestyle conference - maybe the whole lifestyle blowhards will realize how ridiculous their entire nonsense actually is, when it culminates in the awarding of the ultimate conformism from the USA.
CDU Hessen may have used internal school office data for election advertising - well, of course, the lists of explicit interested parties "all parents' and school parents' representatives, teachers, school staff councils, school principals, students, and student representatives" in this completeness are naturally freely available on the Internet. Of course, Mr. Boddenberg, we believe all of this. But if that is the case, then either an authority in Hesse has a massive hole, or someone else has a massive misunderstanding of data protection. Or they are simply just a liar? Wasn't an accusation, just a question ... (just "owled" because this negligence with internal databases is also how the party of the currently ruling - illegally - works, not the first time this happens. Every burglar covers their tracks better.)
The Carlos Hoax - well done. Of course, it won't change the minds of the esoteric spinners, but at least you can have a good laugh at their expense (and that of the all too willing press).
Three constitutional judges argue over jurisdiction for data retention - for some reason (probably overly optimistic) I hope they are arguing about this because they all want to beat up the prolethikers in Berlin, as attacks have come from that direction more often.
Elephants Evolve Smaller Tusks Due to Poaching - "The largest male African elephants have the largest tusks. These tusks are extremely important in elephant behavior, with the largest tusks usually resulting in more successful intimidation of smaller males or winning fights for female elephants. But when the largest animals are killed, it changes the breeding patterns of the animals. In short, without the largest males for competition, the smaller males with their smaller tusks will breed more successfully, and their offspring will have smaller tusks." (ja, die Galapagos Finken waren wohl eher, aber Elefanten sind auffälliger ... )
Kapitalspritze fĂĽr WestLB - Bankers are already more of a problem than a solution. But when you let a pack of bankers be meddled with by incompetent politicians, you get state banks. And that is more of a billion-dollar hole than a bank operation. It's funny how the federal states resemble each other in this regard.
Mac OS X and DTrace - the great dtrace (and some other debugging techniques) are explicitly prevented by Apple for e.g. iTunes. Probably to avoid getting to unencrypted DRM content. Nevertheless - how pathetic is that? Explicitly crippling system diagnostic tools?
SPD debates measures against Clement - it's nice to see again how the Social Democrats tear each other apart. And that the Union finds the best election helpers in the ranks of the SPD is nothing new. Now, do all those Social Democrats who, during Clement's departure to RWE, said "he is so honest, there is no conflict of interest" reconsider their nonsense from back then? Sorry, okay, I won't put "consider" and "politicians" into an inappropriate context again ...
The Tintypes - interesting portraits with interesting, old-fashioned technique. I like that kind of thing.
The Unburdened Mind - "The majority of these individuals are not violent criminals; indeed, those that turn to crime are generally considered “unsuccessful psychopaths” due to their failure to blend into society. Those who do succeed can do so spectacularly. For instance, while it may sound like a cynical joke, it’s a fact that psychopaths have a clear advantage in fields such as law, business, and politics." - der Psychopath als evolutionäre Entwicklungsnische in der Zivilisation.
Schäuble sharply criticizes constitutional judge Papier - Schäuble, who is planning a new aviation security law, told the newspaper Die Welt that constitutional judges are "not democratically legitimized" for "advice" on the design of such laws. Unlike the Federal Constitutional Court, the interior minister opined, without excluding human dignity: "All constitutionally protected areas end somewhere." In his opinion, where these limits lie is "a matter for the legislature." - Well, if you have such interior ministers, you don't need terrorists anymore. Can someone explain the Basic Law to Mr. Schäuble? And could the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution finally put Mr. Schäuble under observation? After all, he is the number one enemy of the constitution in Germany.
German Bundestag advocates for regional top-level domains - yes, no, of course. Because something.bayern is so much easier than something.bayern.de - which has been possible for a long time but hasn't been done because all the states basically dropped the ball and some of the idiots sold their domain to some shops. Sorry, but all the whining about "we just want our own pathetic and completely useless top-level domain" is really getting on my nerves. The people from the very last row in the Bundestag can finally act like big politicians because there's nothing more important than the fox tail for the DSL modem ...
Interior Ministry blocks release of Buback files - and of course, one immediately wonders what is in the files that they should not be given to their own federal prosecution service ... the refusal means that these files "would cause disadvantages to the well-being of the Federation or a German state". Hmm. Very interesting.
SPD: Decision for online search has been made - "I do, however, have the hope that the Constitutional Court will re-interpret the significance of the right to informational self-determination in the age of the internet. This is relevant for all security authorities." - I, on the other hand, have the hope that the Constitutional Court will verbally kick the proletharians in Berlin's ass.
EU-Abgeordneter: Provider sollen bei Urheberrechtsverstößen die Leitung kappen - even more prolethicians, who open their mouths without a spark of understanding and know-how. All this shouting for filtering solutions on the Internet, and then they arrogantly complain about the evil Chinese firewall and get upset about censorship in Islamic states - meanwhile, they themselves are busily working on the European Internet wall and the establishment of massive censorship apparatuses in Europe.
FireGPG - use GPG easily in Firefox ! - I don't know if I already had this, but still linking it here as a reminder for myself.
Macworld: Carl Zeiss presents video glasses for iPods - hmm, if someone now writes a hack for support in e.g. the Second Life client ...
Navy Wins Exemption From Bush to Continue Sonar Exercises in Calif. - "The White House has exempted the Navy from two major environmental laws in an effort to free the service from a federal court's decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises." - die US-Regierung hält von ihren obersten Gerichten und deren Entscheidungen halt genausowenig wie unsere Regierung von unseren obersten Gerichten ...
Schäuble's new plans outrage the opposition - "The plan by Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble to further expand his already heavily controversial draft for an amendment to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) law and to finally abolish the eavesdropping protection for so-called professional confidentiality holders has led to outraged reactions from the Left and the Greens." - of course, outrage is cheap in the opposition. But does anyone believe that in the event of a possible change of government, the current opposition - if it were to participate in a new government - would strongly advocate for the repeal of any laws? The Union also liked to express outrage during its time in opposition, just like the SPD. Simple outrage is indeed very cheap, politically ... (especially when you are insignificant)
DreamHost Blog "Um, Whoops." - locked and fluffy blog posts don't come across so well when the "whoops" consists of accidentally charging 7.5 million US$ via credit cards and some of the customers are probably now struggling with overdrafts and the resulting problems ... Blöd 2.0?
Railway announces job cuts after agreement with GDL - of course, Mehdorn, the (in relation to the total number of employees at the railway) small number of train drivers who now possibly have a normal working week (yes, more than 40 hours a week is not normal, Henry Ford knew that) and adequate remuneration, they of course pose a great threat to the competitiveness of the state monopoly railway (whose competitors are mostly also financed by municipalities or regions, as hardly any purely private investors can be found in this area). I'm currently trying very hard to figure out where the hell the railway in Germany (and it does run there, and thanks to the tracks it's not necessarily all that far away from it) is under such great competitive pressure that it has to pay so much attention to its competitiveness, so as not to be threatened by the evil train drivers, but certainly this master strategist Mehdorn will be able to explain this to me in a coherent manner. Or he's just talking bullshit. I believe the latter.
USA want to establish international biometric database with allies - Echelon 2.0, particularly nice the hint also on suspects of minor offenses (hey, parking offenders and the suspicious wrong waste sorting - you are meant!) and particularly nice the unidentified fingerprints.
Airfoil 3 Spreads Music Streaming Beyond AirPort Express - I guess I should finally take a look at it. Saving cables sounds pretty good ...
Dryad - build digital trees based on parameter sets and visually navigate in "forests" of tree alternatives. And it's also available for OS X!
Struck refuses to apologize to Koch - the Union's whining about the verbal beating Koch received is cute. Most of the insults from the Union camp towards other politicians are much harsher. It's always the same, those who can dish it out the most can take it the least. It's a shame that Struck, like any good Social Democrat, will surely cave in sooner or later - because the hate preacher from Hesse really doesn't deserve an apology ...
Ver.di sacks official, NPD is pleased - anyone who wants to know what's wrong in our society should read this. Because a union that wants to fire an engaged anti-fascist - how does that go together with the idea of a union? Our society has such a hatred for the left and flirts so much with the right that you can actually feel sick. And this is not just the case in the new federal states ...
Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work - also the reference to the 40-hour week and Henry Ford. But of course, our proletarians know everything better and therefore advocate the 42-hour week ...