Novell says goodbye to United Linux

That's fine too, it was just vaporware anyway. Or rather, just another label for Suse.

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Regulatory authority releases location database for radio systems

The idea is basically good - but then there should be more than this: Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.

Doesn't look like the database is working particularly well

Update: after some searching in the source you can get this URL, where after several attempts you finally get a response now and then ...

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Reindeer Graphics, Inc. - Products

So the idea is already pretty cool: take multiple images with different sharpness and then combine them afterwards in software so that the sharp areas come together and thereby improve the overall sharpness of the image. However, 500 dollars is a bit steep, a decent tripod and a small aperture are significantly cheaper

Here's the original article.

RSS News Feed: Always know what's new - The Day - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Yeah. Great. Der Spiegel has an RSS feed. In other words: a . Wow. I'm really thrilled. And of course just one for the headlines. No topic-specific RSS feeds, just one central one for headlines. Brilliant idea. Especially that update interval of 5 minutes. Doesn't sound like they really understood what the point of RSS is. So, dear Spiegel Online editorial team, if you really want to do something innovative, then offer automatically generated RSS feeds for each article category. So people can get their selections the way they want them - not everyone wants to read everything from you.

And as another point, finally offer comment functions on articles, or at least direct reply links, so you can refer to a specific article and the author of that article is addressed directly. Other outlets can do it too...

If you really want to be smart about it, you'd also offer trackbacks. But that's probably asking too much.

Here's the original article.

Simple Python Aggregator - Minimal RSS Aggregator in Python

XML.com: Lightweight XML Search Servers [Jan. 21, 2004] - XML search servers as standalone web servers in Python

Adobe Photoshop: Plugins for Adobe Photoshop - Lists of plugins for Photoshop

Civil servant died unnoticed

Quite clearly: this year's winner of the civil service mikado

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

CIA Bot - CIA - Forward change messages from projects to various channels (RSS, IRC, HTML)

d2r: comment spam filtering - it's all about the IPs - Möglicher Ansatz für Comment Spam Filtering im PyCS

heise online: Bluetooth zum Telefonieren und Surfen - Sounds like an interesting product, worth keeping an eye on.

IBM won't indemnify, plans to win suit

Well, the blue giant is flexing its muscles

At XMLMania.com - Google News Search: SCO Linux I found the original article.

Mars rover "Spirit" is not reporting

Maybe he just met the Beagle and the two of them went for a ride through the municipality.

At Spiegel Online: Wissenschaft there is the original article.

Photoshop plugins for professional photo retouching - Photoshop filters for 8-bit and 16-bit photo editing

PyChecker: a python source code checking tool - something like lint for python

RAW vs JPG © 2004 KenRockwell.com

A brainless comparison of JPG and RAW that apparently primarily relies on the author having no eyes in their head. JPG always has artifacts, unless it's saved as uncompressed JPG. But uncompressed JPGs are significantly larger than RAW, since RAW simply stores the sensor data (one color value per pixel!) instead of three color values.

Furthermore, he conveniently overlooked the fact that JPG only offers 8 bits per color channel, whereas RAW typically offers 10 or 12 bits per color channel - which preserves significantly more detail and offers higher dynamic range. Plus, you can then make far more adjustments to this data that don't destructively affect the information in the image.

But of course he only makes perfect images on the first shot and therefore doesn't need any later post-processing. However, the fact that even simple shrinking or enlarging of a JPG means decompression of a lossy compressed image combined with equally lossy recompression, with bicubic interpolation for the shrinking in between - he conveniently ignores that too.

Anyone who uses JPG directly in the camera instead of RAW has a fundamental problem: they're essentially throwing away their negatives and keeping only the first print, from which they then make further prints. No professional photographer would be so foolish with analog media, but apparently there are always people who think the basics of value preservation (which is what a professional's business is built on) don't apply to digital technology...

To his criticisms: my DCS 520 does 3.5 images per second. And that with RAW formats - it primarily only does RAW formats. In a burst it can handle up to 12 images. Newer cameras have similar numbers with significantly higher pixel counts (the DCS 520 only has 2 megapixels). JPG and standard TIFF can be produced in the background if needed - while the camera isn't currently photographing, it converts images. This way you have ready-to-send images available and still have the digital negative available.

As for file size: the negatives are under 2 MB, which isn't a problem with today's memory cards. The same applies to other camera systems with larger sensors; RAW formats are typically in the MB range roughly equal to their megapixel count, at most twice their megapixel count.

The inconvenience of conversion is also relative: an installed Photoshop plugin and I can open the negatives directly if needed. Then I can apply Photoshop's normal batch methods to them. Or I can convert the files using Photo Desk software, which only takes a few keystrokes. If he has to wait for conversion before continuing to photograph, that says less about the RAW format than about his complete inability to build simple automation scripts. And the latter is rather embarrassing for a so-called professional - after all, workflow efficiency is supposedly the alpha and omega of a professional, so you'd expect basic engagement with your tools. And as for the image content being the same in RAW and JPG, that guy is just blind. I deal with JPG frequently enough (for example, my image albums on http://leicaesk.de/ dynamically produce JPG from the original PNG files), the artifacts are clearly visible when you look at fine structures. A good example is ((deleted image, sorry, shut down the server it was on in 2007)) - just go to the largest view and look at the horizon where the wind turbines are. The image was captured directly as JPG; my Olympus E-100RS is just too slow when I shoot TIFFs and the camera can't do RAW. The artifacts around the wind turbines are clearly visible as streaks or shadows. With multiple recompression, the effects get larger. In RAW you have clearly defined contours there without the streaks.

Sure, RAW is proprietary format that needs special software to handle. Of course you should back up standard format files alongside your RAW files - for information preservation reasons TIFF is suitable, since you can use 16 bits per color channel there and color profiles find sensible use. The file size isn't unproblematic there, but the alternative would be loss of information you can never reconstruct again (except from the original negative).

What's certainly true is the speed of some RAW solutions: but that's a software problem. If it's too poor, you should simply consider whether this camera combined with that software is simply the wrong tool.

So my conclusion would be different: shoot RAW whenever possible. Choose camera system and software based on how efficiently this workflow is implemented and how meaningfully the features can be used. Test camera and software as a unit - especially if you want to make money with the tool, the whole chain should work. Petteri Sulonen is of the same opinion; he develops this further and gives good hints.

Here's the original article.

Test des iX-Spamfilters per E-Mail - Procmail filter for spam detection - procmail requires too much memory for goggle

Due to Gerster: CDU sees a Clement case

Oh yes, an investigative committee. Today it only serves self-promotion and election campaigns...

I found the original article at RP-Online: Politik.

DGB will allow longer working lifetime

That's great, so the pension funds work again simply because nobody lives to see retirement age anymore.

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Review of the New HP Photosmart 7960

This appears to be a heading/title referencing a printer review from dp-now.com. As there is no additional Markdown body content provided beyond this link reference and title, here is what I'm returning:

Review of the New HP Photosmart 7960

LaTeX Equation Editor - Editor for mathematical formulas that outputs LaTeX and can thus generate PDF

McKinsey: Poorly Advised - manager-magazin.de

Interesting. I wonder if the consulting work for the Union was actually advertised by the Union?

Here's the original article.

News: SCO sues Novell

And on to the next round of lawsuits. Whether anyone can still keep track of who actually wants to go after whom, why, and where?

Here you can find the original article.

Nopaste - Code sharing on the web - Blog for source code?

Patent dispute over music downloads in Europe settled

Another idiotic patent - 1985 technical ideas are certainly super relevant for Internet solutions. Besides, it's such a brilliantly genius idea to download data over long distances onto removable data carriers. It's so genius that it has to be patented. And apparently this kind of nonsense goes through anyway.

At heise online news there's the original article.

Rau succession: Chancellor annoys Union

Hmm. Sometimes Schröder can be a real bastard

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

xgpatsf.gt - Prolog with interface for OS X

Federal Employment Agency: Evidence apparently manipulated

Well, it is indeed the task of the Federal Employment Agency to find work for job seekers, but this part is exaggerated: Almost all renowned consultants have received an assignment in Nuremberg. Gerster will certainly come up with great reasons again why the lies were completely fine. Probably such things, just like lavishly equipped executive floors, are part of the good practice of the business world, without which one apparently cannot discuss on equal terms with managers. That's probably even true when you look at the rip-off at Mannesmann. They're all just liars and cheaters, so they're looking for their own kind at the Federal Employment Agency too...

I wonder if Clement will finally feel properly foolish now, having just demonstratively stood up for Gerster?

I found the original article at RP-Online: Politik.

CSU wants to stop abortion at state expense

When I read through something like this, I find it exceedingly unfortunate that abortions at the time of birth of such politicians could not have been carried out at state expense...

At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.

Essentielle Killer-Tips für GarageBand - Midi Utilities that work well with GarageBand

Kodak Discontinues DCS Pro Backs

Ouch! The DCS Pro Back for medium format was an absolute killer piece, I looked at it with stars in my eyes at Photokina on a Contax 645. And now it's being discontinued. Really a shame. The flexibility of modern medium format systems like the Hasselblad H1, the Contax 645, or the Mamiya 645 AF is simply greater than with 35mm SLRs.

I found the original article at PhotographyBLOG.

Praise for grandpa gets Merz into trouble

So Merz' role model is a Nazi. Somehow fits.

I found the original article at TAZ.

Massachusetts Senator Gets Lift for the Race in New Hampshire

Oh yes, what did all those US bloggers go on about, how important the Internet would be and how important they were and how important candidates with Internet programs would be. And what happens in Iowa? In the first round of the primaries, two people make the race who couldn't care less about the Internet. Could one perhaps draw the conclusion from this that all those Internet weblog importance giants see themselves as a bit too important and gigantic?

At New York Times: NYT HomePage there's the original article.

Backing for Gerster

There is no reason to question Gerster's work, according to Clement. An internal audit report is still to be presented today. - So retroactive creation of files to fabricate evidence is no longer considered grounds for questioning the work of a government agency head? In any case, that answers my question about whether Clement now feels stupid for his support of Gerster - apparently not stupid enough yet, so he continues.

At tagesschau im Internet there is the original article.

Sun will Hardware for Windows get certified [Update]

Is there actually anyone left - including SUN's entire management - who still understands what SUN's strategy is? By strategy, I don't mean the headless running around in circles that they're currently putting on display

At heise online news there's the original article.

The Game Is Over

Rheumatologists are therefore not chronically ill. The Health Ministry has completely lost it...

At passe.par.tout you can find the original article.

Fraud made easy: Security gap at Ebay

No kidding, eBay allows JavaScript in description texts. What a stupid idea - JavaScript can do all sorts of things, including accessing other parts of the page via DOM and changing content there.

Apart from the fact that JavaScript can do many other nasty things that become particularly interesting in the context of an auction system.

And what does eBay say about it? That they would allow JavaScript so that sellers can make their offers interesting. Question: why on earth would you need JavaScript for that? You need HTML. And CSS. And maybe more intelligent formatting of the eBay pages themselves. But JavaScript? That's completely crazy ...

It seems only idiots work at eBay

I found the original article at RP-Online: Media.

BottomFeeder - Cross-platform RSS/Atom News Aggregator - RSS News Aggregator in Smalltalk

Domain Law: When two fight, neither gets anything...

Furthermore, the matter has no fundamental significance - the users of the domain will probably see it differently. After all, they have effectively been deprived of their home on the web. But as long as judges believe they don't need to deal with the matter, there will continue to be such absurd rulings. Sure, no one will take it to the constitutional court over a domain, so the Oldenburg Regional Court gets away with such a fundamentally flawed ruling.

At heise online news there is the original article.

ESA - Mars Express

That's nice indeed. A Mars journal from ESA. Of course it would be nice if they had an RSS feed too. But at least there are some colorful pictures of Mars instead of complaining about the lost waffle iron.

Here's the original article.

GTK OSX - Run Gimp without X11 on OS X

NSI removes Strato customer domains from DNS

What Strato did is - as you would expect from Strato - rarely stupid. Terminating a contract before the domains have been moved is recklessly careless. Especially since you know what kind of outfit NSI is. Nevertheless, of course the behavior of NSI - as you would expect from NSI - is outrageous and in my view unacceptable. The company should be shut down - their business practices happily operate in the triangle of spam, extortion, and fraud.

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Criminal complaint against Ulla Schmidt following death of kidney patient

The Dead Early Retiree Will Probably Be Counted as Collateral Damage

Of course, one can now argue that he was responsible himself, that he could have taken care of things, that he certainly could have found another way to get treatment. All nonsense. When situations become harder to understand and manage, it's always the weakest members of society who fall by the wayside. And all of this for a few miserable euros...

I found the RP-Online: Politik and the original article.

Tapestry - Your Favourite Comics by RSS | dwlt.net - Various web comics via RSS

VisualWorks: VisualWorks TypeLess IRC Client - IRC Client in Smalltalk

Trittin accuses energy suppliers of 'rip-off'

But apparently he doesn't really want to take action against the rip-offs ...

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Images from the Kodak DCS 520

Nothing special, just my first test images from the camera.

Here you can find the original article.

Digital Secrets: How Spirit Makes Great Photos

If you're interested in how the digital cameras in the Spirit Rover are built, how many there are, and what distinguishes these cameras and imagers, you should read the linked article. It's very interesting that NASA took the sensible approach of fewer pixels with more area per pixel.

Here's the original article.

Network Solutions and Register.com Sued for Patent Infringement

Well, and there's the idiotic lawsuit over the idiotic patent

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Speno's Pythonic Avocado 16.1.2004 - Building Python applications with buildapp on OS X