First Trojan for Mac OS X spotted - if there aren't any, do you write your own? Just a guess - the information at Sophos about the alleged Trojan is very thin. No information about the spread and no specific information about the removal of the Trojan, no detailed information about detecting the Trojan (port or similar) and no information about the installed files. Sorry, but this all doesn't sound very credible ...
Archive 11.4.2005 - 25.4.2005
OpenRAW - Digital Image Preservation Through Open Documentation
OpenRAW - Digital Image Preservation Through Open Documentation aims to focus on open documentation (and promoting this with manufacturers). This is an important topic, especially in light of Nikon's stupid decision to encrypt parts of the RAW format (thus ultimately making its use in free software legally problematic due to the need to crack the copy protection). I've already written about this: the digital negatives belong to the photographer, not the camera manufacturer. Everything must be done to provide the photographer with all the information contained within - without any encryption nonsense and without the obligation to use any silly manufacturer programs (which, in the worst case, are not even available for the operating system used).
An interesting parallel is drawn on the website: can anyone imagine that film manufacturers would have kept the data for film development secret? That Agfa or Kodak or whoever else would not have provided development documentation with their films, allowing the photographer to develop the film themselves?
Nikon's attempt to control and regulate RAW software and dictate what a photographer can do with their image data is similar to this stupid approach. And hopefully - if necessary through the market - doomed to fail. Because if this way of thinking were to prevail, we would eventually have digital negatives where the camera manufacturers dictate how many prints we can make from our own image ...
Softwarepatents: Industry lobbying with stacked cards? - if you already think you need to play with false cards, you should be more careful not to get caught ...
AquaMacs is an Emacs build for OS X (unfortunately only from 10.3 onwards) that aligns more closely with the Mac OS X Human Interface Guidelines. Those who appreciate the high configurability of Emacs but not the rather sick interface and key binding for Mac users might want to check this out.
The .emacs File by Bill Clementson. Shows very nicely why one should actually consider using Emacs. Particularly interesting for Common Lisp users is his customizing for Slime for integrating various Common Lisps.
Those who only occasionally work with PostgreSQL, so to speak, want to use it as a desktop database: PostgreSQLX is a compilation of the PostgreSQL server that can be easily started and stopped as a Mac application. Ideal for developers. Then also the PGAccess interface and you can do without something like Microsoft Access. Of course, all of this only from 10.3 (it's about time 10.4 comes out and I'm up to date at home again).
SPE-OSX comes from the same stable as AquaMacs and is a compilation of Stanis Python Editor - a very comprehensive IDE for Python. Also only available from 10.3.
sproutliner is a fun web application with which you can edit an outline over the web. Naturally heavily based on Ajax.
This is Münster too
This is also Münster
In memory of the liberation of the concentration camps 60 years ago.
Borland open sources JBuilder - wow. I didn't see that coming - it's basically a surrender. Can Borland stay afloat without JBuilder?
Nikon responds to RAW WB concerns
Nikon responds to the discussion about the encrypted RAW WB data - and only proves that they don't understand. Sorry, but the whole thing is full of arrogance and self-congratulation, but doesn't say anything else than that customers who bought a professional camera are bullied in their choice of software by Nikon.
If everything is really so professional and great and good: why does even Adobe have problems? Maybe because Nikon doesn't keep up with their silly promises?
And what about open source software - should photographers who bought a Nikon camera be excluded from open source due to absurd ideas of professionalism at Nikon? The result instead is the confirmation of all prejudices against RAW formats (proprietary, not future-proof).
Really professional would be the complete documentation of the NEF format, so that the RAW format is not a dead end for the photographer.
Striped Calendar for WordPress
First plugin from my picture blog (now out) is the Strip Calendar. Basically a normal WordPress calendar - only not as a block for the sidebar, but as a strip to place it over the content. Since you usually have more space to waste in the length of a page than in the width and since someone might want to break with the rather worn-out format where the calendar is in a sidebar, you can now simply install the strip calendar. The code for installation is trivial:
< ?php get_strip_calendar(); ?> ```
Just put this in the header.php or wherever you want the calendar. Done (of course first unpack the plugin to wp-content/plugins/ and activate it in the administration!).
Virtual Hosts with WordPress
The Vhost Plugin is my current favorite of the entries for the WordPress Plugin Competition. With this plugin, you can bind categories to virtual hosts - when this host is accessed, the appropriate category is automatically displayed and optionally, a different template can be applied to this combination.
I can think of a whole range of ideas spontaneously - for example, I could put my Bananenrepublik under it and present my rants as more independent content. Or I could finally run my photographic entries under one of my photo domains again. I think I'll play around with the plugin soon.
Another funny feature - but rather uninteresting for me - is the possibility to restrict a user to a VHost (and thus to a category) and set up a multi-blog platform on a WordPress installation. Could be quite funny for family blogs, for example.
Unfortunately, the installation is a bit tricky - you have to patch a few functions because there are bugs in the standard installation. With WP 1.5.1, this should hopefully be better.
The WordPress Versioning Plugin allows versioning of entries - i.e. articles and pages. This way, you can revert to an old version if necessary.
Barroso multiple guest on yacht
Barroso multiple guest on yacht - and the corruption carousel continues to spin. "There is no conflict of interest," Barroso's spokesperson insists. - of course there isn't, Barroso has no interests diverging from those of the economy and his cronies.
What, it's about conflicts of interest between office and person? Why, the EU Commission President is simply the officially appointed top profiteer? At least, that's the impression one has had for many years ...
NASA Is Said to Loosen Risk Standards for Shuttle - the remaining shuttles must eventually be scrapped ...
Cunning ants build traps together and operate them jointly to catch larger insects. Nature never ceases to amaze.
Practical Common Lisp is a new book about Common Lisp with many practical examples. Finally, a Common Lisp book that doesn't just delve into rather theoretical examples but addresses practical topics such as spam filters, web servers, HTML generation, ID3 tags, and other stuff. The book content is available to read online.
Schily and Democracy
Well, Otto Orwell has messed up again: a Federal Data Protection Commissioner elected democratically (among others by his own faction) dares to take his role seriously and speak frankly about Otto's data collection mania. And already Otto attacks head-on, accusing him of having no political function and suggesting he should just keep quiet - what nonsense. The Federal Data Protection Commissioner has an important political function: he represents our (the citizens') interests in securing our data and upholding our right to informational self-determination. Among other things, against deranged and data-hungry interior ministers.
Great sign for a banana republic when the executive branch attacks parts of itself that have a controlling function. What's next - Eichel insults the Federal Audit Office as a bunch of bunglers who can't count?
But in the end, it probably just boils down to this: the dogs that are hit bark, of course ...
Contax – RIP or Resurrection - Thoughts on what could happen to Contax after Kyocera's withdrawal. Specifically, the 645 system is mentioned here, as it was allegedly developed by Zeiss and Kyocera was only the manufacturer - if this is the case, Zeiss could find another partner for production. Unfortunately, the 645 system is beyond good and evil for most financial possibilities ...
Nikon Encrypts D2X and D2Hs White Balance Data - they really have a screw loose. What's the point of encrypting the image data so that the user is forced to use the camera manufacturer's software to read it? It's not as if Nikon makes money from selling software - they earn (and not badly) from the cameras. And especially with professional cameras, such paternalism towards the user is just brainless nonsense. The image data belongs to the photographer - and all of it, not just the parts that Nikon kindly leaves unencrypted ...
Parliament in Kuwait approves women's suffrage - I would like to have something positive here for once. Even if it is only a small step in that direction - for the region, the whole thing is almost revolutionary.
Should Spam be Punishable?
DIHK against penalty for spam senders - no wonder, as many spammers in Germany are members of the Chamber of Commerce ...
But what also doesn't really sit well with me about this story:
In the future, it is to be prohibited to conceal or withhold the true identity of the sender in the header of a commercial email.
This may be a justified demand for commercial communication, but as I assess Otto Orwell, this will soon be extended to all citizens. And if he doesn't do it, lawyers will do it with cease and desist letters when, for example, the web server sends automatic notifications under the name www-data ...
Judgment against Kanther
Judgment against Kanther: Koch should provide an explanation - well, not just an explanation would be appropriate, but what would be right won't happen anyway: Koch's resignation. Because no matter how often he claims he knew nothing, no one believes him. The judgment itself is at least not as weak as the prosecution demanded:
With the penalty of one year and six months' probation and a fine of 25,000 euros for Kanther, the Wiesbaden Regional Court went significantly beyond the prosecution's demand.
Kanther wants to appeal. Let's hope the next higher instance doesn't cave. Although personally, I would have preferred it to say "without probation" ...
Preparatory Question
Can you actually have the Pope declared a hate preacher?
What to expect from the BZÖ
The future President of the Federal Chamber shows: Haider MP criticizes "brutal Nazi persecution" - must be the thin air in the Alps. Severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen.
The Carinthian Federal Councillor Siegfried Kampl and future President of the Federal Chamber criticized the "persecution" of Nazis in Austria after the Second World War. Furthermore, he referred to Wehrmacht deserters as "comrade killers".
In comparison, our local Nazis are quite cute ...
Just went through my mind ...
... Social elections. By mail. Lick and seal the envelope. Spontaneously thought of gender databases - and the planned all too easy access.
typoc(not to be confused with Typo3 the CMS) is a blog engine in Ruby and uses Rails. Could be ideal to play around with this stuff.
Bistro Intro is a Smalltalk variant that runs on the Java VM. I didn't know that before.
Seashore is an image editor that builds on GIMP things and uses the same format - but for OS X. You should keep an eye on it, could be quite nice for some simple purposes.
Westerwelle will no longer become Chancellor - this likely aligns with the will of 95% of voters
'Cool it, Linus' - Bruce Perens - a bit more information about the BitKeeper story. And I agree with Bruce - Linus should never have started this silly BitKeeper business in the first place. Andrew Tridgell is just doing what he does best - cracking proprietary protocols. It's silly to attack him for that.
Greens give up resistance against missile defense system
Greens drop resistance against missile defense system - the next person who asks me where the money for social system support is supposed to come from: not doing MEADS (along with many other ridiculous military projects) would be a first start.
The more than 800 million that are now being invested in the development of this military nonsense would be better spent elsewhere - and no, there are not many jobs to secure in the arms industry. The arms industry's excuse is simply wrong. Hardly any other industry is already as far rationalized as hardly any other industry.
It's also very nice to see how the big parties show unity in this regard - when it comes to spending citizens' money on nonsense and mindless trash, they quickly agree. Just as when it comes to cutting social benefits.
By the way, there is a fairly simple way to protect soldiers in foreign deployments from enemy rocket attacks: not to carry out foreign deployments ... (and don't tell me the nonsense about defending the Basic Law in the Hindu Kush now)
Server Names
Dirk Steins: Server Names - apparently, you can find the Simpsons quite often. In our case, the entire production DMZ is labeled with Simpsons names. The old production systems are all named after Lucky Luke characters, which unfortunately left a gap due to server death (William was hit). Our front-end computers are named after South Park characters. And the main firewall is named Kyle, with its failover system named Evil-Kyle.
It works quite well, Kyle is a huge asshole. Only Kenny, which we initially set up as a server in front of the firewall for playing around, just so we could once shout "My God, they killed Kenny, you bastards!" - he just doesn't want to be killed ...
Lafontaine is apparently about to leave the SPD - if you have nothing else to report and rather exude a lack of concept, then at least you can still celebrate your departure. One can only hope that the left-wing alternative won't have to endure this chaotic troublemaker ...
Growing resistance among cardinals against Ratzinger - it is allegedly just a rumor that rat traps are set up everywhere in the Vatican
"Auch Hondos B-Proben positiv " - well, that's that then
Opening of the House of Photography in Hamburg - then a visit to Hamburg will probably be due again ...
Homemade system as BitKeeper replacement - sometimes the arrogance of OSS programmers bothers me, who always think they can do everything better than others. How much more synergy effects would come into play if these programmers would concentrate their - undoubtedly present - programming qualities on a few projects? A good source management system with fast patch handling we could all use - but no one is served with two dozen half-baked solutions ...
Visa abuse already a topic in the Kohl cabinet? - the names are different, the faces the same. The slogans too. And we can be sure that this fact - that the Union government had exactly the same problems as the red-green government - will be deliberately ignored by the Union. Let's look forward to another election campaign of lies again.
Golden Hamster Stories
Goldhamster turns 75 years old:
On April 12, 1930, a golden hamster burrow was excavated near the city of Aleppo (Syria), containing one female and 11 young animals. Of the young, three males and one female could be raised and bred at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. All golden hamsters in human care worldwide descend from this brother-sister mating that took place 75 years ago. In the wild, the golden hamster was considered lost or extinct.
So this is a joke, right? All pet golden hamsters are the result of inbreeding? Everything stems from these two animals at the beginning? And they haven't mutated into furry broccoli yet? Wow.
There are days like this ...
... on which Microsoft announces mountains of security vulnerabilities, almost all of which are associated with the execution of arbitrary code. Or Oracle names 89 security vulnerabilities in its database. And those are the days when you're glad not to use this software ...
Just as a hint ...
... if I get the following message when accessing your weblog:
Sorry, your IP address is listed in the local realtime blackhole list. You may not enter this site.
then you have done something wrong by definition. Blogs are meant as a means of communication - and installing silly communication preventers just because you don't want links in your referrer log that come from spammers is simply ridiculous. In that case, you might as well take your blog completely off the network.
It is now official: Contax brand comes to an end. No sale to another, no continuation - the name Contax as a camera brand is gone from the market for now. Maybe Zeiss (who probably own the name Contax themselves and only licensed it) will find someone else for it - the Contax rangefinder camera (not the G series, but the new one based on the Voigtländer device) already has another partner. But the Contax we have known since the late 70s is now history.
Dvddisaster is a small program that stores error correction data for DVDs and CDs on an external medium so that a CD or DVD that has problems due to aging can still be read under certain circumstances. For this purpose, control data amounting to approximately 15% of the original data carrier is stored elsewhere.
Suitable from 6 years
Stumbled upon this at Spreeblick: what a game company considers suitable for ages 6 and up:
Your task: rule over your island, where pirates and prisoners reside. These two population groups must be treated completely differently. The pirates want to enjoy an undisturbed life of luxury to recover from their strenuous raids. You can best increase the productivity of the prisoners by spreading fear and terror.
Building brothels (and filling them with female prisoners), random executions, keelhauling - all to amuse the pirates and frighten the prisoners. Great training for the little ones for our wonderful world.
Hey, with politicians, bankers, and business bosses instead of pirates and the unemployed and foreigners instead of the prisoners, it could almost be realistic ...
PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix
Just found: PostgreSQL 8.0.2 released with patent fix. PostgreSQL has therefore received a new minor version in which a patented caching algorithm (arc) was replaced with a non-patented one (2Q). The interesting part: this is one of the patents that IBM has released for open source. And why did they switch anyway? Because IBM has released these patents for open source use, but not for commercial use - PostgreSQL, however, is under the BSD license, which explicitly allows completely free commercial use.
For PostgreSQL itself, this would not have been a problem: as long as it remains BSD, the use of the IBM patent would not have caused any problems. Only a later license change - such as when someone chooses BSD software as the basis for a commercial product - would have been excluded.
A nice example of how even liberally handled software patents cause problems. Because medium-sized companies that build commercial products on open source would have lost a previously available basis - solely due to the patented caching algorithm (efficient storage of and efficient access to data - so patentable according to Clements' idea).
In the case of PostgreSQL, it went smoothly: the patented algorithm is not faster or better than its non-patented counterpart. And for the software itself, nothing really world-shattering has changed. But this does not have to (and will not) always go so smoothly. In the field of audio processing and video processing, the patented minefields are much more extensive and therefore much more critical for free projects.
Okay, one might still argue that this would not have happened with a GPL license. But with a GPL license, certain forms of use as they already exist in PostgreSQL today (e.g., companies building special databases on PostgreSQL without making these special databases open source) are not possible. You can take a stand on this as you like - ideology aside - the PostgreSQL project has chosen the BSD license as its basis.
Even well-intentioned patent handling in the context of open source software would therefore be problematic. Exactly this is the reason why I am generally against software patents.
Ongoing Topic SORBS
I already wrote about SORBS before. Not much has improved there. Today, I had a server listed in their directory again. And I wanted to know why - but you can only query the database if you are a registered and logged-in user. To become a user, you first have to answer a bunch of questions, such as phone number and address.
Ok, sorry, but you can't put it any nicer: the operators of SORBS are filter fascists. George Orwell would have had a field day with these nutcases - administrators are hindered in their work by the incompetent operation of their block lists and are then supposed to disclose their data. And of course, a user is also required for delisting.
That their web interface is a disgrace in terms of usability, I probably don't need to emphasize. Which fields are mandatory fields are only revealed in bits and pieces, which functions require registration are only known after selecting the function (and after submitting the associated form!) and various other obstacles.
And when you've jumped through their hoops, you get nonsense like this as a reason for the listing: "Likely Trojaned Machine, host running unknown trojan" - no, my machine does not have an unknown trojan installed. Presumably, the idiots have just stumbled over a port unknown to them (ports 8080, 8081 and 9999 are in use on the machine - by the way, with quite normal servers behind them) and once again brazenly claim that the machine is corrupted - but they are simply too stupid to build a usable list.
And yes, the ridiculous demand that you can only do the delisting from the listed machine itself and for that you have to run through their silly web interface again (which is quite ugly to use with Lynx - of course, on servers you probably operate graphical interfaces and VNC according to these great security experts ...).
I'll say it again: I won't go to great lengths if anyone uses this outdated and useless list on their server and emails are bounced as a result. Anyone who uses SORBS and therefore can't receive emails from me is simply too stupid for this world and can find a playground elsewhere. I've had it up to here with incompetent block list operators and incompetent mail admins who use these lame lists ...