DarwinPorts Home

I was actually a Fink fan until recently (if only because it's based on Debian utilities). But since Fink has been behaving very strangely for me lately (for example, the Fink mirrors weren't all reachable because their nameserver apparently was misconfigured or because their SVN port simply didn't work, or because support for 10.2 is a bit strange), I decided to try DarwinPorts. And I have to say, I really like the system.

However, what I don't like so much is the fact that not every program works out-of-the-box. mtr, for example, complains about raw packets that it can't generate because it's not suid-root. True - it wasn't. I don't simply install ports as root - I use a normal user for the build. That all works fine because the user has the necessary permissions. But an mtr that is suid-gb can't generate raw packets anymore, even when used by root...

However, the normal user will probably rarely stumble over this, and normal applications should work pretty much right away.

What really puzzled me, however, was my attempt to install Subversion. Okay, I can understand that Subversion needs a web server - after all, it's essential for the server (although personally I would prefer a separation into a Subversion server and a Subversion client). But that Apache2 should be fetched just so a local installation of it runs on the machine, just because you might need the Subversion client - I think that's rather awkward. Especially since there are Port variants for exactly that purpose - but Subversion only offers a mod_dav_svn and a Python variant. In the mod_dav_svn variant, Apache is a prerequisite - but I actually just wanted normal Subversion. Strange. Okay, well, I admit - if you know what APR is, it also becomes clear where Apache2 comes in. Here's the original article.

SCO vs. Linux: Baystar Capital will Investment in SCO beenden

Ouch.

At heise online news you can find the original article.

German Phonetic Alphabet - German Phonetic Alphabet

Are warning letters no longer allowed to rake in money?

This might put a stop to cease-and-desist letter mania for some. If those sending cease-and-desist letters have to reckon with consequences that go beyond normal court costs, they might think twice about it in the future. On the other hand, there are still far too many situations where absurd cease-and-desist letters are successful.

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

Staged victory for Darwin opponents

I simply don't understand why people want to push through such nonsense and why politicians let themselves be harnessed to such an absurd cart. Ok, it's the Berlusconi government, which has barely missed a single gaffe and embarrassment so far, but even for them it's actually a pretty absurd matter.

Reality does not bend to the superstitious notions of some church bigwigs and their crazy followers. Evolution is reality, whether these nuts like it or not.

I hope the Italian Constitutional Court stops this nonsense before it spreads any further. It's bad enough that this nonsense keeps bubbling up in America, it doesn't need to get state support in Europe too.

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Shanghai: Transrapid route sinking, hardly any passengers

73 passengers a day? And run a Transrapid for that? You might as well sink it and plow it under, that would be cheaper.

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

GROKLAW - Linux as Security Risk and the Answers to It

At groklaw there is a summary of reactions to the nonsense that was spouted by the head of Green Hills Software.

Here is the original article.

Linux 2.6 and mISDN HowTo - HowTo for ISDN over CAPI with Linux 2.6

Embedded Systems Developer: "Linux is a Security Risk"

Oh man, there's someone who, in a desperate attempt to hold onto his slipping furs, shot way over the mark and made a fool of himself.

At heise online news there's the original article.

Erik Zabel wins Rund um Köln

Rode out brilliantly, absolutely sovereign. A bit of bad luck for Danilo Hondo, who was on the wrong side of Zabel. But Zabel's performance was absolutely brilliant - and with that he gets his 186th victory and ties with Cippolini.

My Digital SLR is probably dead now

As I wrote in P2139, my digital SLR (a Kodak DCS 520) was acting up. Today the digital camera part won't turn on at all - the analog part, which is an EOS 1N, works perfectly. Only the digital component supplied by Kodak refuses to respond. Shit. And I've only had the camera since January - but purchased it privately. Now I'm wondering whether I'd be satisfied with a 10D or possibly even a 300D - both are significantly slower than my DCS 520. Ok, the resolution is higher, the images larger, but I don't really need that necessarily. With the DCS 520 I was already able to print images at 20x30 cm even though it only delivered 2 megapixels. Has anyone else previously owned a fast digital SLR and switched to one of these slower Canons? Or does someone have a pro SLR for work and a consumer SLR for private use and can say something about how they subjectively compare? So it's not about the specs on paper, but about the subjective frustration that could arise from possibly slower response times. An EOS is important because only with those do I have the chance to continue using my Zeiss lenses with an adapter. Besides, I already have a quite nice lens for Canon - the 2.5/50 macro. Otherwise the Nikon D70 would be significantly more interesting from a specs standpoint, since it's considerably faster.

Somehow digital is annoying. Analog is much more reliable and the selection isn't fraught with nearly as many compromises. But unfortunately you don't get the image right away, which you sometimes would like to have...

Update: after some calculations and considerations I've added the D70 back to my selection. The speed and some missing features of the 300D make the D70 significantly more attractive - after all, you can get it together with the 60mm Micro Nikkor for the price of the 10D body, with sometimes significantly better performance. Which of course doesn't really make the choice any easier...

Stop Church Exits with Tax Advantages

What a stupid idea. Tax benefits for those who are church members. Is there really no proposal so dumb and absurd that some stupid CDU/CSU politician won't put it on the table?

The taxpayer is already financing the church anyway. Directly through tax collection executed by the state, indirectly through the many kindergartens, schools and hospitals that are allegedly run by church organizations but ultimately operated with taxpayer money.

The Catholic Church is one of the richest organizations in Germany, is tax-privileged through its church status and is now supposed to be additionally subsidized at the wish of these CDU/CSU clowns? Ridiculous!

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

Wiki Software at Webware

An interesting wiki software in Python that works with restructured Text instead of any wiki markup language. Very interesting because ReST is very powerful and also very pleasant for web-based editing - no markup, but mainly just formatted ASCII text. Unfortunately currently only available via Subversion.

Here you can find the original article.

Zope.org - Readme file for ZopeEditManager 0.9.3 - Integrate External Editor in Zope under OS X

30-meter spruce for Easter bonfire

This Easter bonfire nonsense is getting on my nerves big time. The whole area stinks like a cold ashtray. Disgusting. And every farm thinks it has to burn its own Easter fire. Nothing but pyromaniacs around here ...

At WDR.de you can find the original article.

Apple protects itself from 'Playfair'

Was to be expected that Apple would take action against it. Hosting the project on Sourceforge was really a bit too bold.

It could be interesting to observe how this develops further. For Apple, it could become a real problem if the music industry thinks their DRM implementation is too lax - and, for example, prefers Microsoft's model.

On the other hand, Apple now has such a large market share in music downloads that it's probably somewhat difficult for the music industry to take action against Apple without shooting themselves in the foot. Though they're dumb enough to try anyway.

At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft there's the original article.

For Radio Programmers

I wasn't familiar with him. Very practical! Especially since I finally got access to cable radio yesterday.

At Wortfeld you can find the original article.

Sun discontinues development of UltraSparc V

Ouch. Ok, it was foreseeable - the new chips were announced repeatedly, but never appeared. Still - that's quite a debacle. SUN simply doesn't have enough resources to abandon a chip line in the sand without it having an impact on the company ...

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Bush knew about 9/11 weeks in advance

It's quite remarkable how more and more keeps piling up, and this president can still manage to stay in office. He's easily surpassed Nixon and Clinton in terms of misconduct.

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

Notebook Fuel Cell for Ten Hours of Runtime

Eventually it will get to the point where you can pour aquavit or whisky into your notebook to run it.

At heise online news there's the original article.

MacBiff - IMAP4 mail checker for OS X 10.3

PLT Spy - News

With PLT Spy - the Python implementation for the PLT Scheme runtime - development continues. The current approach is to bring the CPython API to PLT Spy and integrate it into the PLT Scheme runtime, making it possible to use CPython extensions. The goal is to be able to use almost all extensions and also the original C code for standard types in PLT Spy, thereby making all CPython libraries available at once.

That sounds very good, but it raises the question of why one should still use PLT Spy - the linked article provides some answers, but concrete details will only be apparent once things have progressed further.

Here you can find the original article.

Dragnet search does not lead to success

And Schily of course still sees the dragnet investigation as successful. Top marks on the open-ended idiocy scale ...

At heise online news there's the original article.

Spyware manufacturer wants to go public

Audacious. Data protection violations without end, fraudulent software installation (because nowhere does this garbage warn that data is being spied on and forwarded), and the whole thing packaged in a form that's more reminiscent of viruses and worms than proper software (namely piggybacking on other programs). And something like this wants to go public.

At heise online news there's the original article.

Divmod.Org :: Home :: Projects - A bunch of very interesting Python projects

Dnsmasq - a DNS forwarder for NAT firewalls. - DNS proxy for small systems - Alternative to PDNSD

Logilab.org - Aspects - Aspect Oriented Programming with Python

Schrempp confirmed despite shareholder criticism

He's running the company into the ground economically. Makes stupid decisions and grandiose projects that fail. Approves himself a record salary despite the company declining and employees losing money and jobs. Gets criticized by shareholders. And the consequence: discharge of liability and confirmation in office, extension of the outrageous contract until 2008.

Shareholders are complete idiots.

At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD there's the original article.

Introduction of new identity documents as 'gigantic laboratory test'

And we are the rats in the maze.

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Experiences with the Krasnogorsk FT-2 Panoramic Camera

A website about the predecessors of the Horizon Panorama cameras. Worth reading alone for the factory name - Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod - Jaroslav Poncar has posted pictures taken with the camera online.

Here you can find the original article.

The Fantabulous Icon-O-Matic! - Icon Builder on the web

AIDS Medications Cheaper for Developing Countries

First Signs of Intelligence?

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

Amadeus II - Edit Sounds

Nette Software. Load sounds, edit, look at spectra and save again in the desired target format. Makes a very good impression on me. But I'm also a layman when it comes to this sort of thing ...

Here you can find the original article.

Drop Target for my Brain

The description of Near Time Flow sounds very interesting. A free-form database where you throw text snippets, regardless of source. The software records the sources along with the snippets. You can edit and expand the snippets. You can travel through time and view older states. You can access the original sources and overlay Flow data on top of them. You can send data to other users in a peer-to-peer network fashion, with Flow automatically determining which transmission method works best. You can access your data stocks via RSS and perform full-text searches. And all of this with a nice OS X interface.

Somehow it sounds like something Tinderbox could have been if it had been conceived much more openly.

And above all, it sounds like it comes much closer to the idealtypical Zettelkasten. Tinderbox with its agents and links is quite nice, but Flow sounds like the Zettelkasten nirvana could be reached.

At PragDave there's the original article.

Genetically modified wheat sown in Germany for the first time

On top of it all. And the citizen is also supposed to foot the bill for police operations - even though nobody wants the genetic garbage, except for the corporations and some bribed local politicians.

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

Fastpath and faster upstream for T-DSL without setup fee

The faster upstream would be nice...

At heise online news there's the original article.

ICANN Defends Ban on VeriSign's Sitefinder

ICANN does something useful.

At heise online news you'll find the original article.

Wave Power Plant Goes Online

Interesting concept. I'm curious about the results and whether this type of power plant has a future.

At NETZEITUNG.DE Wissenschaft you can find the original article.

Greenpeace protests against 'baby patent'

And the patent madness continues. Eventually even sexual intercourse will be patented and only permitted after paying a license fee...

I found the original article at NETZEITUNG.DE Science here.

My Digital SLR is Sick

My Kodak DCS 520 is sick. It keeps crashing - loses the time setting and locks up. The lockup resolves when I turn off the camera and then wait 1 minute until the camera timeout also shuts down the analog part (i.e., the part that is the EOS 1N). Then I can turn it back on, set the time, and continue shooting. Recently, though, I even had constant crashes during a walk with the camera - so far I haven't figured out exactly when it happens. The normal crashes only occur when I change the battery. If anyone else has such a camera and knows these symptoms, please let me know. PPS Hamburg has already threatened me with horrendous repair costs due to a mainboard defect, but maybe someone else knows something more about it.

Fortunately, I still have a purely mechanical Leica M, where the battery is only used for the exposure meter, so it works fine without power too. And it has no mainboard.

New utility strips DRM from iTunes Music Store tracks

Whether the tool will remain available for long? After all, it violates stricter laws in some countries regarding the protection of copy and usage restriction procedures (sorry, but none of them can really be called copy protection).

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

Audible.com - audio that speaks to you wherever you are

What should one think of an audiobook server that is almost completely based on Javascript for navigation? That violates all accessibility guidelines? That ultimately is not usable for the visually impaired - who are precisely the audience of such a service?

Here is the original article.

ICE Catastrophe Prevented at the Last Second

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

iPod too hard to use

Is the iPod too heavy to use? And the article didn't come out on April 1st? Humanity is doomed ... (ok, the British portion of humanity)

I found the original article at kasia in a nutshell.

When the Economy Takes the Lead

Funny. So far, public broadcasting has specifically highlighted its independence as its special feature. But where is that independence when ZDF makes deals with business to present products favorably in series and thus engage in disguised advertising? And now we're supposed to increase fees on top of that?

Cultural programs and interesting documentaries are banished to the margins around midnight, but silly trivial shows get prime time slots. And the whole thing nicely sponsored and corrupt. How does something like that align with the mission of public broadcasting?

At Telepolis News (04.04.2004) there's the original article.

Idiotic Mail Server Configurations Again

Found in the log file:

 554- (RTR:DU) The IP address you are using to connect to AOL is a dynamic 554- (residential) IP address. AOL will not accept future e-mail transactions 554- from this IP address until your ISP removes this IP address from its list 554- of dynamic (residential) IP addresses. For additional information, 554- please visit http://postmaster.info.aol.com. 554 Connecting IP: 62.226.72.29

No, I don't want to deliver any mail at all. I just want to check the validity of email addresses. But AOL is already preventing me from doing that in advance - instead of waiting until a DATA command comes, which would actually initiate a real mail. As a result, I can't use the callback because AOL won't let me verify and I end up rejecting all mail from AOL users. That's ridiculous.

With their very strange actions against spam, such providers only make it harder for other people to protect themselves against spam too. Because I get the rejection before the first command - so I can't even do a VRFY or anything like that. I can't even establish a connection to the AOL mail server.

To explain what I do: when mail comes in, I check whether the technical sender (i.e., where bounces go) is a valid mailbox. This way I reject all mail that can't be bounced. If I can't send an error report for it, I don't want the mail. To do this, my mail server attempts mail delivery. However, only the first two commands are sent - MAIL FROM and RCPT TO. No DATA and especially no mail.

This is a common procedure to ensure that only real mail arrives at a server. But since AOL now prevents every connection to the mail server, I can't use this approach anymore - I can no longer verify AOL addresses the same way I can with other addresses. Which, given the fact that AOL addresses in particular are faked for spam, is quite audacious of AOL.

Index of /~erich/bricolage - Debian packages for Bricolage

Solution for previous problem

So, I've now simply moved my email validation to an external server, which I query via XML-RPC. It then performs the email validation - and since it runs on a static IP, it's also accepted by AOL.

Anyone who wants to play around with this, the service is accessible via SOAP or XMLRPC. The address for XMLRPC: http://simon.bofh.ms:1111/RPC2 and then call the method mailcheck.validateEmail(adr) there. The address for SOAP: http://simon.bofh.ms:1111/SOAP/mailcheck and then call validateEmail(adr) there. Documentation of the method for this module can be found at http://simon.bofh.ms:1111/API/mailcheck. A WSDL for .NET people and others who need that sort of thing can be found at http://simon.bofh.ms:1111/WSDL/mailcheck. By the way, the web service was created using TooFPy. The corresponding tool is included in the source package - or can be viewed directly in CVS.

Randall D. Beer - FPC-PPC - Floating Point Compiler for OpenMCL and MCL

The Mason Book - Bricolage Guide