Archive 25.6.2007 - 13.7.2007
AT&T Cingular iPhone contract terms examined - will the contracts in Germany contain similar stunts by the end of the year?
Genera Concepts - who is interested, why Genera is so brilliant and why many people think that it is conceptually far ahead of even today's systems.
Ampache Web Musicbox - I should take a closer look at this sometime when I have time.
EU "pulled over the table" on passenger data - "A closer reading of the documents shows that the triumphantly announced breakthrough rather resembles a capitulation to the USA, warned representatives of the ALDE and the Greens. 'The EU was pulled over the table,' judged Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (ALDE). In particular, it was criticized that the German presidency had emphasized the reduction of the categories of transferred data. The question asked twice by Green Kathalijne Buitenweg to Commissioner Frattini, which data would no longer be transferred in fact, he did not answer. It was only a summary of the data in fewer categories, the deputies complained."
Skype comes to Nokia's N800 Linux tablet - hmm. Skype. I guess I'll have to upgrade now. It's not terribly complicated, but having to reinstall my own software is rather annoying. It would be nice if the base system could also be upgraded through the normal package mechanisms.
Perlbal - a balancing proxy server focused on performance. In Perl. Tons of features that make it easy to compose a single frontend from many backend systems.
Popstars save the Earth - "We wrote a cheque, we took care of our footprint and raised awareness, blah blah blah.", Bon Jovi
Schäuble demands "detention", internet and mobile ban for "potential threats" - I demand detention, internet and speaking ban for crazy politicians. We could just build a wall around the government district ...
SQLite performance and Django - tuning tips.
Union threatens ARD and ZDF with advertising ban - because the public broadcasting internet offering is so terribly threatening. Or are the private media industry's donation funds just speaking again?
WinMTR - mtr with GUI for Windows.
BGH facilitates telephone information disclosure of data - and goes with the argumentation Web 2.0. Opt-out instead of Opt-in. When will they finally understand that only Opt-in is fair and correct. No, data is not simply there to enrich companies, just because no one objected.
Company names in blog domains are problematic - "class" decision, LG Hamburg. Right away, the dirty masses have been silenced. When will Bildblog be shut down, by order of the authorities?
The story of Mel - real programmer.
Bush on overruling judgements: "I don't believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own," - George W. Bush on why he signed death warrants for 152 inmates as governor of Texas. (außer natürlich es geht jemanden wie Libby - dann kippt man schnell mal ein Urteil, weil die 30 Monate waren ja viel zu überzogen, im Gegensatz zu Todesstrafen)
Karlsruhe: Lawmakers must disclose secondary incomes for the first time - well, that's something. Not much, but at least a small step towards transparency.
The state, it's me - "If President Bush thinks a 30-month sentence for Scooter Libby is excessive, what does he think about 55 years for selling marijuana?"
Freace - The Same Old Pattern - about the usual mindless madness from Berlin, where every failed "terror" attempt is used to justify further erosion of fundamental rights and freedoms. Even though the actual "attack" was banal and botched, and all the means demanded here did not help in prevention at all.
Perian 1.0 turns Macs into universal video players - check it out. Could be useful.
Terror suspects all linked to NHS - "Eight people arrested in connection with failed car bombings in Glasgow and London all have links with the National Health Service, the BBC has learned." Islamistisches Gesundheitssystem in UK? Wie bringt Schäuble das jetzt in seinem Islamistenbedrohungsszenario unter?
Gulf Stream threatens to die by 2100 at the latest - well then it will be fun. Please then add a proper asteroid impact, okay? I mean, I want to see something for my money!
Deutsche Telekom blocks TCP port 8085 - they're crazy, those Deutsche Telekom people. Because they sold their customers junk that can't be made secure, now a port is being blocked.
Giant hogweed is being combated - "Giant hogweed, also known as Hercules' club, is poisonous and can cause second-degree burns. That's why road maintenance workers in NRW will be clearing the slopes of this plant in the coming weeks." - one could wonderfully make a bad science fiction out of this news ...
Linux-Smartphone OpenMoko available from July 2007 - doesn't sound so bad, especially the consumer version in October. It would be the perfect addition to my Nokia Tablet. Funny, Linux might become almost more interesting for me in this area than in the desktop area.
Police defused explosive device in London - Passersby discovered the vehicle. No surveillance cameras (in which the British are pioneers) and no telephone surveillance (in which they are also at the forefront). None of that silly security hocus-pocus, but simply and plainly passersby who found the car suspicious. What do you want to bet that this bomb find will now be used to justify further - ineffective - surveillance measures?
"Code kennt keine Fairness" - Larry Lessig on democracy in virtual worlds. And perhaps worth considering for the advocates of the eternal "Code is Law" approach on the net.
EU and USA have reached agreements on the transfer of flight passenger and financial data - the data trading continues. What can all be justified with the fight against terrorism and how the politicians' brains turn off (do they really believe that no economic espionage would be added to this, or do they just not give a shit?), is frightening. What do we actually have representatives of the people for, if they then behave like traitors to the people?
'Intel Core 2' - buggy as hell, according to Theo. And well, if that guy knows one thing, it's exploitable bugs.
Millionenschaden durch manipulierte Geldautomaten - if you're affected, have fun discussing it with the bank. Because they still assume that ATMs are secure and the customer is initially suspected of fraud. Because that's the best way to deal with customers who have a problem.
old domains out
I decided to clean up some old projects that never went anywhere but still got their own domains. Quite silly, really. Here's what got the boot:
- viele-bunte-bilder.de - this was what the Schockwellenreiter is now building, a simple gallery software (built in Django) with RSS and all. It was quite good, but I never updated it and never added any pictures. Maybe the whole system will be revived under a different address, but somehow I don't feel like building picture websites.
- hugoesk.de - a photoblog I started and then neglected for years. Somehow pointless to have a separate domain just for that.
- ürl.de - don't ask. I just thought it was funny back then. Yeah, I'm a kid at heart. And no, it never had any real content.
- whisky-and-whiskey.de - I used this so little that even I constantly forgot about it. And to be honest: who needs another domain with outdated information about whiskey?
Well. I still have a few candidates on the chopping block, let's see if more gets cleaned up. Of course, you get attached to one or another address - for example, I still don't know if I'll also get rid of leicaesk.de. I haven't uploaded any changes there in ages and even though I love my Leica, I hate scanning negatives.
Somewhere, this silly domain hoarding is pointless - you can just make subdirectories under one domain and neatly link everything. Makes much more sense that way (e.g., instead of hugoesk.de, I also have pictures in rfc1437.de - so what's the point?).
For someone like me who still has his very first homepage online (oh shit, that thing is 10 years old), this is quite a revolutionary step to destroy data on the web ...
And the National Library can kiss my pixelated ass because of the domains - or just use archive.org like everyone else.
Ari Jaaksi on Nokia and Open Source and the N770 - very interesting excerpts from Ari Jaaksi's whitepaper on the opportunities in Open Source for large companies (in this case Nokia).
Kaczynski threatens the federal government over a caricature - the two Kaczynskis are the biggest caricatures themselves ...
The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype - sounds good. The flaws would probably not bother me, as a phone is only used as a mobile internet access and only in the most extreme emergency for calling.
Banned By Gaussian - a software company for a product used in the field of theoretical chemistry refuses to sell their package to scientists and institutions working on competing open source solutions. Note, only working on them, not copying anything from the commercial product or similar - it is not a violation of copyrights, but merely that these persons or institutions use or support a software alternative.
"Heavy doping allegations against BDR" - looks like Scharping has messed this job up too. Well, one thing is clear: no one will accuse Scharping of doping, as sleepy as he comes across ...
Zwangsausschluss von Aktionären verfassungsgemäß - well, there politics and the constitutional court pull together - a capitalist - string. Nice how it is suggested to major shareholders that it is a corporate participation and not a capital investment - in times when financial investors, for pure capital interests, strip mid-sized companies, such an idea is simply laughable.
Full map of Europe in year 1000 - wouldn't that be something for the rider of the shockwave?
Google Mail will shut down due to data retention - sounds dramatic, right? Google as a champion of privacy and data protection. I'm laughing now. And those who think that Google is now fighting for its rights: sorry, but what they will probably do is simply block German IP addresses on their service. If at all.
Content filter for Second Life - given the current picture of LL's technical competence, such an announcement doesn't really inspire confidence.
Schäuble considers online searches "essential" - strangely, I feel far more threatened by the rolling madness in Berlin than by any Islamists. The Berlin Prolethicians, who support this nonsense, however, seem primarily threatened by their own population. Why else would they have such broad powers to investigate and examine any citizen at will? Does what is happening there still have anything to do with democratic order?