Archive 9.6.2003 - 20.6.2003

Pearl: Saddam was not an immediate threat

It's quite amusing how all these US hawks are so stupid and spilling the beans. What arguments for the war do Wolfowitz and Perle have left for Dubya and Blair after their recent statements?

Devil's grin

I found the original article at TAZ.

Swindle - CLOS and more for DrScheme

This is really great: an OO extension for DrScheme built on Tiny-CLOS (where object-oriented here means the typical object+functional mix from CLOS — not those minimal OO systems from typical class-based languages). Very nice. And a large pile of additional tools and utilities on top. Basically you could say the programmer tried to implement large parts of Common Lisp in DrScheme. Nice, since I'm an old CL fan and Scheme fan, here I get the best of both worlds.

Unfortunately the system hasn't been extended to the GUI system, which still exists in the more classical OO form from DrScheme. A CLOS wrapper around it (or perhaps something like a tiny CLIM? Yeah, yeah, I'll be quiet, but one is allowed to dream) wouldn't be bad either.

Somehow DrScheme reminds me fatally of my nice Xerox 1186-compatible Lisp machines with their mix of Interlisp-D and Common Lisp in the operating system. There too the basic stuff is implemented in Interlisp-D (in DrScheme it's Scheme) and then Common Lisp is layered on top (in DrScheme then Swindle). Very nice approach.

And one more funny thing: a small graphical tool that visualizes lambda calculus. Programming with colored blocks to make things clear.

I think I like DrScheme

Here's the original article.

XchemeRPC

Should work with DrScheme 200 and newer. Of course it doesn't work with 204, which I have running. So it's back down to the software cellar again and time to fix the problems with a pipe wrench.

Here you can find the original article.

101 three sixty five

A quite interesting photography and image technology blog. Photos, explanatory articles, technical background - everything you can imagine. Quite well done. And the link collection in the blogroll on the weblog is also quite interesting.

Here's the original article.

Dieter Bohlen - Role Model for Germany?

Waaaaaa - Blockhead Bohlen for the Federal Cross of Merit? Is Griefahn still all there? And just because he pays his taxes in Germany? And because he puts himself in the spotlight with his trashy shows by rudely telling incapable kids that he thinks he's the show god? And please, what kind of role model is he supposed to be for young people: Be arrogant and misogynistic assholes? Siegmar help and prevent this horror.

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

DrScheme

A very nice Scheme programming environment whose main goal is learning programming itself - building on Scheme language scopes of varying complexity. The whole thing is well-oriented to what is necessary at each respective level. In addition, a large collection of libraries with useful function definitions, a graphical programming environment, and a corresponding library for your own programs, many useful developer tools (and some optionally installable developer tools that you can't get elsewhere), and the best part: now also runs on OS X. Nice.

Here you can find the original article.

Looking to do web stuff with Python?

Notizgeblogged, in the Web Framework Shootout it's about comparing various web frameworks for Python. Quite interesting, and maybe I can steal one or another idea for the Python Desktop Server or the Python Community Server. At Richard's stuff : /python you can find the original article.

Microphotography

A series of tips about microscopy, microphotography and similar topics. Images, descriptions, link collection etc.

Here you can find the original article.

Plonk

Oh goodness, a link battle in Blogistan.de. Folks, get out your chips, cola, and popcorn, sit back comfortably and enjoy the spectacle.

Teufelsgrinsen

At Der Schockwellenreiter you can find the original article.

Sad day... GIF patent dead at 20

And goodbye

Teufelsgrinsen

At kuro5hin.org you can find the original article.

Text composition systems as you shouldn't do them?

I'm indeed a Lisp fan. I love Lisp-like languages and, when possible, only use languages that offer at least a certain basic set of features that Lisp implementations also provide. But this goes too far: a typesetting system with the structure of TeX, but with Lisp syntax.

Somehow this reminds me of the problems I have with Common Lisp: I like the language, I find most of its features brilliant to divine and I certainly have usable implementations to choose from. I don't use it anyway: I would simply have to write too much text. The identifiers are as long as COBOL syntax elements. Ugh. Similar with Scribe: while the identifiers are short, I have to write all the clutter around it. And I get those wonderful blah-blubb-fasel-blubber identifiers for various control purposes. Who wants to write all that crap? What good is a typesetting system where I have to write more markup than I would write in plain HTML? If I wanted to write that much non-content, I could just use DocBook instead...

Here's the original article.

Egon, You forgot the URL!

In the Schockwellenreiter forum there is a particularly sophisticated spambot on the loose. Cute. At Der Schockwellenreiter you can find the original article.

European Software Patents Move Closer

Idiotic. Dangerous. Ultimately economically damaging. What do these foolish politicians actually think? Who's going to get these patents? The small software houses? The freelance programmers? No. The big companies will have the advantage in the long run once again. Great - Microsoft, IBM and other patent hoarders can then use expensive patent lawsuits to squeeze small shops out of the market when they get in the way. And they can expand the madness they're already pulling off with software patents in the USA to the EU as well. And in the end, the customer will be the one footing the bill for this whole nonsense again.

At heise online news there's the original article.

Mark Pilgrim to a Robot Scribbler

Woof, someone's in a bad mood there

Here's the original article.

Orrin Hatch: clueless and malevolent

Yes, great. An American senator wants to prevent internet users from using file sharing, if necessary by destroying their computers (presumably he means attacks via the internet on the operating system). Is it to be expected at some point that Americans will launch attacks on file sharing systems on the internet? Are there even more absurd ideas than those of this senator Hatch? Maybe he also wants to impose the death penalty for file sharing?

At algorhythm there's the original article.

SCO vs. IBM: Sun's McNealy Praises Solaris Advantages

Well, you can rely on the SUN chief making what would seem to be the stupidest possible attempt to position himself on a current topic and present himself as completely devoid of facts these days.

Teufelsgrinsen

At heise online news you can find the original article.

Clement: Germans should work more

Clear. The slump is simply because we all don't work enough. What, we have too many unemployed people we can't place because there isn't enough work available? Never mind, just work more, that'll help. Not the 4.5 million unemployed, not the economy, but the super minister can cozy up to employer representatives and distract from his lack of ideas, so at least it helps someone...

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

When things get really wild: Parcel services

Today I finally received the package with my teleconverter for the Contax – a Mutar II, by the way (to combine with my Sonnar 2.8/180 to make it a 360mm). Very nice.

Not so nice: the package had been here for almost a week, just not with me, but delivered to a shop in the building. I didn't have a note in my mailbox, nor was one hanging on the door. If one of the shop employees hadn't spoken to me, I would have sent even more angry emails to the shipper asking where my package was.

Even more absurd: on the entire package it's impossible to tell which delivery service actually brought it to me. There's a customs declaration from the sender (it came from the USA), but no customs stamp or notification papers. A package service doesn't just hand over a package like that to somewhere random – there will most likely be a customs invoice following that the delivery service will want payment for.

Well, it's not the first delivery service that thinks they can't find me (even though the entrance is simply on the side of the building), but in this case I find it quite outrageous.

Goodbye and Thanks for the Fish ...

Of course, one could research whales without killing them, but that would take far too long - they could go extinct before then - according to the Japanese research leader for whale research (just now on the Tagesthemen). Is there any more idiotic nonsense to justify whale slaughter?

Checkpointed Object Database

Sounds quite interesting, a database with pseudo-transparent access from Python. Objects are automatically read in and automatically written when changes occur. Objects are automatically added to the database when they are referenced by an already stored object. Databases are cleaned of garbage via reference-counting (unless you produce circular references). And there's checkpointing, which allows you to ensure that a database restarts with the last consistent state. In a broad sense similar to Metakit, but somewhat more focused on objects than on tables. This certainly allows for more elegant integration into Python code. The question is, how is the performance? Because many small object databases are terribly slow when the number of objects in them grows. And large object databases are simply overkill for something like a weblog tool. Here's the original article.

The End of the WWW

Exactly. That's it. Simply use a different search engine. Despite reports to the contrary, the Internet is actually bigger than what Google indexes, and the Internet works just fine without Google too.

(albeit admittedly somewhat more inconvenient in some places - and unfortunately humans are just so lazy...)

At Der Schockwellenreiter you can find the original article.

FDP demands end of coal subsidies

Well, Mr. Pinkwart, that's how you position yourself as the ideal replacement partner for the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia. Instead of blocking traffic policy, you demand an end to coal subsidies, which certainly ensures that the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia loses the next election. Great strategy, Steinbrück will definitely jump on that.

Devilish grin

At WDR.de there's the original article.

Firebird under OS X

So Firebird is quite cute. However, it's terribly slow (especially scrolling through pages is unbearable with this awful stuttering), I'm used to faster performance from Safari. But one thing is absolutely top-notch: the extensions (see link at the title). I loaded the Webdeveloper extension and the Checky extension there, the former provides a whole set of web developer tools (such as visual representation of document structure, quick source display, various validators, tools for images, forms, enable/disable various features, etc.). Checky is simply an extension that plugs a large collection of validators for various purposes into the document's popup menu - including auto-discovery of the corresponding parts (e.g., CSS or RSS feeds are automatically found and then validated on request). Great. Now just make the whole thing faster and then I'll be happy.

Here's the original article.

Coke is so stupid, it should actually be available at Aldi.

Wiglaf Droste settles accounts bitterly with Friedmann and all the coke noise. Nothing but the truth, the whole truth.

Teufelsgrinsen

Here you can find the original article.

Once More on the Validator

I found the reason: SCRIPT is an element that can be used both as a block element and as an inline element. A is an inline element. So I can use SCRIPT within A. NOSCRIPT, on the other hand, is a block element. So it's not allowed within an A. That's garbage!

Stupid W3C. Don't they have anyone there who can think? The SCRIPT tag has its counterpart in NOSCRIPT. So it only makes sense if I can use NOSCRIPT in the same place as SCRIPT. But that doesn't work. In the Python Desktop Server Javascript is used in comment links to insert the number of existing comments. There should be an alternative display for this (just a question mark) so empty brackets don't appear. But since the whole thing is inside an A tag, I can use SCRIPT there, but not NOSCRIPT. That's garbage!

Yes, I know I'm repeating myself, but with such stupidity you can only scream. Now I have to choose whether I want valid HTML or HTML that complies with accessibility guidelines. Unfortunately, it's not easy to change the technology in the Python Desktop Server because the Python Community Server only delivers static HTML and therefore dynamic content has to be inserted via Javascript. And that's exactly what Document.write() was invented for. And it could be trivially implemented with a NOSCRIPT alternative for those who don't have or don't want Javascript. Any suggestions (other than changing careers)? Update: here someone commented on this on the W3C mailing lists. The suggestion: set the whole paragraph as an alternative block. No thanks. So NOSCRIPT gets removed - because there are a number of browsers that render the contents of NOSCRIPT even when Javascript is enabled. Here's the original article.

SCO Expands Lawsuit Against IBM

So so. IBM is no longer allowed to use its own AIX either. So if IBM wants to respond to SCO now, they should do it now. The entire industry is waiting for IBM to give SCO a piece of their mind, so come on Big Blue, take them down!

Devil's grin

Even though it's quite entertaining this time, overall the whole thing is just another proof of how idiotic all these patent and trademark proceedings are and how absurd such scenarios can become when lawyers and business managers smell money. The whole nonsense certainly no longer serves the actual purpose of patents - securing innovations and protecting inventors from exploitation by companies.

You can find the original article at heise online news with this link.

Union wants to privatize dental treatment

Great. So people will soon see poverty written on their faces.

For the money bags in parliament and party leadership, it's easy to pass something like this – it doesn't cause them any problems. But normal employees often already have problems with the co-payments for dental prosthetics that exist today. And the fact that dental prosthetic solutions and comprehensive coverage were introduced for good reason (because poor teeth and broken dentures come with various follow-up problems that the health insurance has to pay for anyway), the politicians daydreaming about this aren't thinking about that either. The main thing is to have some kind of position, no matter how absurd or silly it is.

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

Domain Trading

Nope, first city. We've been infiltrating the Montserrat domain (.ms) here in Münster for a long time.

At Der Schockwellenreiter there's the original article.

iCab also has stupid ears

iCab requires me to write an ampersand as an entity within JavaScript code, even though the JavaScript code is marked as an HTML comment, so it shouldn't be relevant to the validator and should be ignored. Somehow people don't seem to get the hang of writing validators correctly...

Sandbox for Python

Noted and blogged because I might want to play around with it - for example, to be able to run user code on the Python Community Server. Here's the original article.

Seehofer wants statutory health insurance for everyone

Funny. Somehow sounds quite different from what he demanded back when he was minister under Kohl - back then it was all about privatization to the point of excess. But why should a politician care about what he said yesterday

Teufelsgrinsen

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

W3-Validator very strange

Could someone please explain to me what the heck is wrong with my use of NOSCRIPT? If I read the spec correctly, NOSCRIPT can appear within any block area. But the validator expects APPLET, OBJECT, MAP, IFRAME or BUTTON - at least that's what it says in the linked validation report. Very strange. Bug in the validator? The NOSCRIPT is supposed to be there only because the comment count and trackback count are written into the pages via JavaScript on the Python Desktop Server (can't be done any other way since the community server only gets static HTML). Weird. Here's the original article.

Microsoft abandons Internet Explorer for Mac

Well, that's not really a loss for the Mac community. It may have been ahead of the Windows counterpart initially, but they didn't do anything with it after that. And honestly: Safari, Chimera and Omniweb are all three far better. I only use IE anymore where some weird web idiots have cobbled together sites that have problems with non-IE browsers. And even for that it's not really suitable anymore, since IE 6 has new idiotic properties that dummy designers can eagerly abuse ... Alternatively, you can indulge in similar MS megalomania fantasies like Dave Winer. But honestly - does anyone still believe in his future predictions and market assessments? I personally think his claim that the Web now belongs to Microsoft and they're driving it over a cliff into the abyss to secure their old position as a software monopolist is just a teensy bit absurd ...

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

40,000 railway jobs under scrutiny

When will the railway finally realize that Mehdorn is doing more harm than good to the company?

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Schily for more cameras at railway stations

Today, railway facilities are monitored by video. Tomorrow it will be intensified. Oh, you can also practically search for suspicious persons? Of course, terrorists have to be found, no one can object to that. Oh, doing that manually is too time-consuming? No problem, next week we'll just add automatic biometric systems that compare against a database of terrorists. Oh, the database also contains political opponents or civil rights activists? Never mind, some waste is always expected. Ouch, a bomb package in a public park? No problem, we'll just expand the video system. Oh, also include intersections and shopping zones while we're at it, for safety's sake, naturally. The secret services want access to it because they're also responsible for security? Sure, no problem. And we'll also avoid bothersome court orders right away, that has to be more efficient. Complete surveillance profiles of citizens without any possibility for them to defend themselves? Ridiculous, what these left-wing cranks keep babbling about, they're probably just terrorist sympathizers anyway, put them in the database too, Otto.

On the road to the surveillance state. All of course only in the name of security. No one can be against security.

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

Microsoft's Antivirus Acquisition Causes a Stir

Hmm. That's strange somehow: they're supposedly leading in Linux antivirus scanners, but I've never heard of them in that field? I mean, it's not like I have nothing to do with the topic—we sell firewalls with integrated antivirus scanners after all, where we simply use Amavis, and Sophos as the antivirus scanner. By the way, Amavis is really a kind of market leader—just as open source. What's interesting is that on the Amavis pages a number of antivirus scanners are listed that are supported. Gecad (RAV) doesn't appear in that list. I also can't find anything about that scanner on OpenAntivirus.org. Ok, a few times it's mentioned in passing, but somehow I can't find anything to back up this market leader hype!

Sorry, but I have a strong suspicion that a small shop is being played up here as something it's not.

At heise online news there's the original article.

The CSU Doesn't Like Penguins

How much party donation did Microsoft probably give the CSU for this? But it seems to be proof that the CSU has no interest in a free market at all - because otherwise they should actually be pleased with the decision against a monopolist and for a much more diverse platform.

At Spiegel Online: Netzwelt there's the original article.

Homeland Security Hunts Politicians

That's exactly what Homeland Security is for: suppression, surveillance, and regimentation of citizens in the homeland. Well, of course technically only of terrorist citizens, but for a respectable Republican, terrorist and democrat are the same thing anyway

Teufelsgrinsen

I found the original article at Telepolis News.

IP addresses sold on the black market

IP addresses that lie dormant in network blocks because they're being used up in internal networks, for example, are stolen (through forged letters, etc.) and then traded on the black market. Weird.

You can find the original article at Workbench here.

Sun: Linux users actually don't want Linux

SUN doesn't get it at all. No, it's not just about us Linux and BSD users wanting to use some Unix on Intel machines. Or how else would the SUN folks explain the many ports of both Linux and the various BSD kernels to all sorts of platforms? Intel is mostly used simply because it's a cheap (in both the positive and negative sense) platform. And it's not about just any Unix - both the Linux camp and the devil worshippers (sorry, BSD users

Devil grin

) have very good technical reasons why they rely on their respective systems. An important aspect is definitely the complete availability of source code and the ability to get involved everywhere, not just where the manufacturer graciously allows it. SUN is still far too arrogant to understand what's really happening in the market. And that's why sooner or later SUN will make itself obsolete - or will have to change course.

At heise online news there's the original article.

Washington pushes through immunity for US soldiers

Ridiculous. The country with the largest military machinery, which has demonstrably fabricated evidence and used outright extortionist methods to start a war just to push through its own interests, which massively violates international law and wants to continue doing so, and violates international disarmament treaties—of all things, soldiers from this country should be spared from prosecution by the International Court of Justice? That's completely farcical.

At Der Rollberg there's the original article.

Blix: "I had my defamers in Washington"

Finally he's speaking plainly. Not that I would believe anything would change as a result, but at least someone is saying out loud what many of those involved are thinking but unfortunately not saying. This whole hypocrisy and tiptoeing around the USA is just ridiculous anymore. Call liars by their name. A government that makes clear threats against the EU because of the international court is not worth sparing. You can find the original article at tagesschau on the internet.

Cook must pay

Terrible fine of 510 euros. I already find it ridiculous that he refused to pay it at all and sued against it, so that an administrative court even has to deal with such nonsense. The costs for the ridiculous proceedings surely exceeded the 510 euros that were imposed on him...

But politicians are only good at taking things away from others anyway. They themselves see themselves above the law. And why doesn't he want to swear to his statement before the investigative committee? Is perjury perhaps more expensive than 510 euros?

Teufelsgrinsen

I found the original article at tagesschau im Internet.

Investigation Committee because of Möllemann?

Investigation Committee for Möllemann Millions? I'm in favor!

At tagesschau im Internet I found the original article.

Visible Human Server

This might be something for Jutta - a catalog of the human body with graphics and descriptions.

At gnurps you can find the original article.

Another Smalltalk?

Interesting - just a few screenshots, but what they show would be really nice: a native Smalltalk for Mac OS X. I've already played around a bit with VisualWorks, but it's just not native - you still see your own system world there, and it's poorly integrated into OS X at best. A Smalltalk that looks and feels like an OS X application, and that could perhaps use all the Objective-C classes via a corresponding bridge, that would be something. I found this at Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants - the original article.

Gabriel: Exit of Modern Talking 'long overdue'

I told you so, Gabriel had to become something absurd like a pop commissioner because he has far too much expertise

Devilish grin

(and besides, I'm of the opinion that Carthage, uh, Modern Talking should have been dissolved long ago)

At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.

NASA technician succeeds in repair from 800 million...

Way cool - a story about how NASA technicians reactivated a damaged LED in a tape drive via remote maintenance so they could continue retrieving data from the probe. It's quite fascinating how these repairs work, especially when you consider the response times between command, execution, and response.

And I worry when I have to swap a kernel on simon remote.

At Astronomische Kleinigkeiten you can find the original article.

The Measure is Full - Kill IE 6!

Well, that's what Microsoft considers innovation - even more stupid bugs and even more ridiculous features that broadcast the user's private data to the world.

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

Gizmodo 1983

A look back at "High Tech" from 1983 at Gizmodo. Cute

I found the original article at Gizmodo.