Wasabi Systems has a quite useful analysis of what the GPL actually means for companies. Furthermore, there is also a chapter that deals with binary kernel modules - and why these represent a GPL violation.
Archive 14.2.2006 - 23.2.2006
To the Content Thieves
Once again, as described at Blogbar, there are content thieves around. Here's a preventive explanation of what a CC license with Share-Alike condition and Non-Commercial means: no ads on the pages. No commercial site - for example, paid accounts or similar. And yes, I mean Non-Commercial seriously. Share-Alike also has a simple explanation: a site that reproduces my content must be under the same license as my site.
Those who cannot meet the two conditions (we won't talk about the explanation of Attribution) will have to ask. And this does not mean that a lack of response is a silent consent - those who do not have explicit permission from me and cannot comply with the CC license must keep their hands off my content.
And those who think I can't do anything to them: those who are stupid enough to automatically pull content from RSS feeds should consider that the pulling machine is recognizable (especially for "stationary" services) - and that appropriate feeds can be provided for individual servers if you program your software like I do. And believe me, dear content thieves: the content you would then pull would definitely not please you.
Babylonian Explanation for the Nebra Sky Disk?
The Nebra Sky Disk is an astronomical clock:
A Babylonian cuneiform script from the seventh century BC and the detective work of a Hamburg astronomer have solved the mystery of the Nebra Sky Disk: Rahlf Hansen deciphered a leap month rule that can be read from the 3600-year-old bronze disk.
With the rule, the lunar year and the solar year are resynchronized - the lunar year is slightly shorter than the solar year and therefore runs out of sync over time, with the rule on the disk the owners knew when they had to reset the lunar calendar by inserting a leap month.
It's quite amazing to consider that the disk is from the Bronze Age. And Babylonia and Saxony are not really close to each other (although the records are almost a thousand years younger, making the achievements of the disk's manufacturers even more interesting).
Clim-Desktop project - first approaches for an integrated Common Lisp development environment based on the free CLIM implementation.
IBM is now gaining momentum
Does anyone remember this ongoing court case between SCO and IBM? GROKLAW brings a series of documents with IBM's demands to various companies. Microsoft, Sun, HP, Baystar - with a lot of very interesting questions. Hey, the procedure could slowly become interesting again.
The music industry is getting dumber and dumber
They now want to ban "Intelligent Recording Software" - without revealing what that is supposed to be. But they naturally want to restrict private copying, limit recording from the radio, restrict broadcasting rights for radio, and do everything to degrade themselves to insignificance - because if no one has free access to music anymore, people will eventually find free access elsewhere. Ultimately, the absurd demands of the music industry only promote the illegal distribution of music in the long run rather than curbing it.
The problem, however, is that the Prolethikers in Berlin have been letting the music industry pull the wool over their eyes for a long time and are implementing more and more of the demanded nonsense. And so we can probably look forward to even more absurd and mindless laws until perhaps the Constitutional Court finally has enough and puts a stop to the nonsense. But then the Prolethikers will probably ignore this decision just like other decisions from Karlsruhe ...
Net Neutrality at Risk
Deutsche Telekom demands money from content providers - and in doing so, they are echoing the same tune as US telecoms:
Telekom CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke announced that the Telekom plans to charge providers like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay in the future. It cannot be, he told the "Wirtschaftswoche," that the customer alone pays for the broadband network.
And who guarantees that this will only affect large content providers? And who guarantees that small customers, private sites, etc., will still receive the same service as the big players? Because that's exactly what network neutrality means: that the service is the same for everyone involved. Even if Ricke acts as if he were the customers' advocate, it's really just about the backbone operators wanting to make more money, especially those in the telecommunications sector.
Heise makes it clearer what this demand from the telecoms means: ultimately, the providers will pay multiple times for the same service. First, they pay their host or provider for connectivity. Then they pay again for the same bytes to the backbones. And then the visitor also pays for the same bytes to their provider. This is classic telecoms rip-off (and by that, I mean more than just Deutsche Telekom).
Backbones actually finance themselves through peering agreements with other backbones (where there is asymmetric load distribution) and through their own direct connections to providers and users. Now they want money from parties with whom they do not even have contracts - but only through third-party contracts do they use the services of the telecoms. And that is simply extortion.
Phollowing the Phlopping Phish
Who wants to know more about the embarrassing mishap at Geotrust: Phollow the Phlopping Phish describes the phishing attack from a user's perspective. With screenshots and documentation of how well the site was faked and how little a normal user could see through it.
The Linux Kernel Driver Interface - why the Linux Kernel has not designed its internal kernel interfaces as a "stable binary interface" (or even as a "stable interface").
virtual Bluetooth keyboard
I now have an i-Tech Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard (stupidly pulled the link from the sources - the site is otherwise not sensibly usable and without JavaScript there are no direct product links - clear case of "stupid designer syndrome"). Very nice - the keyboard is projected onto the table and then scanned using an infrared barrier above it. The virtual keys work excellently.
I bought it from Expansys, but they sent me a UK version - the power supply doesn't fit German sockets. The layout is of course always English, but I would like to have the power adapter in the appropriate version (that's why the strange links to adapters from English to Schuko).
Integration with the Nokia 770 is very simple - you just get the Bluetooth Keyboard Plugin and install it. Warning: if the bar with the icons at the top of the display is already full, the Bluetooth icon may no longer be displayed. Then you have to part with one of your status bar plugins.
After that, you just have to go to the plugin settings and, with the keyboard turned on (and reset for safety), select it from the list of available devices and pair it. After that, the plugin automatically recognizes the keyboard when it is turned on - you don't have to connect manually, just restart the tablet, turn on the keyboard and off you go. Turning off the keyboard is also properly recognized by the tablet as a disconnect.
Oh, and this laser-projected keyboard is not only extremely practical, but also absolutely cool.
Signs of Crisis
The world's largest chemical company, BASF, ended 2005 with a record result. As the company announced, sales rose by 14 percent to 42.7 billion euros. The annual surplus increased by 50 percent to 3 billion euros. And BASF also sees itself well equipped for the current year.
Oh, yes, the profit in the field of nutrition and plant protection has a declining profit - well, the politicians will certainly provide BASF with record profits with an increasing trend with the seed regulation, if the industry has finally succeeded in tying farmers to their seeds, fertilizers, and poisons.
Also cute are the high profits in the oil and gas sector. Of course, the price increases in these areas are solely due to the high costs and have nothing to do with the fact that oil and gas companies want to increase their profits. (Yes, BASF is also busy in the natural gas sector - for example, through Wintershall, a company of the BASF Group).
What do the 3,600 BASF employees in Ludwigshafen, whose positions were cut in 2004, think of this corporate development? Especially those who were not pushed out through severance packages or partial retirement, but through transfer to a temporary employment agency?
#4G European Grounded "Shuko" Adapter. Walkabout Travel Gear (tm) - Adapter for a bunch of plug formats on Schuko. Could be my savior if Expansys does not have the power supply for the i-Tech keyboard available in Schuko version ...
8-p.info - Creammonkey - something similar to Greasemonkey, but for Safari.
Bluetooth Security - Bluetooth Security - what's possible, what's being done, what's behind it.
Migrate apps from Internet Explorer to Mozilla - interesting article that covers a series of pitfalls when switching between IE and Mozilla.
PlayDeluxe Shop - Online-Shop - there's also an English-to-German adapter. Much cheaper. Search for "adapter englisch".
Browsers are not program starters
Apple Safari automatically executes shell scripts - more precisely, a whole range of techniques come into play. The trigger, however, is the stupid habit of Safari to automatically start the appropriate viewer for certain file types - and sometimes incorrectly assign file types. In general, it is simply a bad idea when a browser tries to classify downloads as safe or unsafe and then passes them on to an external program - because this external program is usually in no way prepared to receive unsafe content. As soon as the browser misjudges, the trojan is functional.
So people: turn off the "execution of safe file types" in Safari. And Apple could take this as an opportunity to finally remove this function from Safari. The few extra clicks won't kill the user ...
Update: and here's the reason why I get a bit pissed off about such bugs - sorry, but this is Microsoft-World, not Unix-World. Please pull yourself together and don't do such nonsense
Know Your Enemy: Learning with VMware - how to build a virtual honeynet with VMware and see what and how is being hacked.
Snowball - finds word stems in various languages. Algorithms in a specially developed language. Practical for classic word lists.
Stéphane Ducasse :: Free Online Books - a whole series of free books about Smalltalk. Some are only scanned, some are real text PDFs. A whole series of classics are included.
ZNC - RottenBoy - interesting IRC bouncer (proxy) for multiple users. Significantly more powerful than the Muh I have used so far.
Bush and Nuclear Power
Bush calls for increased use of nuclear power:
"Our plan is to increase the use of safer and cleaner nuclear energy," said Bush, who a few weeks ago called for a reduction in oil dependence. The development and use of new technologies for solar and wind energy are also to be intensified.
But the fact that the raw material uranium is also limited, meaning that it is not a real alternative to oil at all, and that the issue of the final disposal of nuclear waste is not solved at all in the case of nuclear power, all this does not interest him at all.
The patent solution of the complete idiots - instead of relying on oil as a slowly depleting raw material, one chooses another depleting raw material that is much more dangerous and dirtier. Great strategy.
Of course, he also doesn't care that he just had his crisis with Iran because the nuclear program there may not be used solely for power generation. And that in the USA, for good reasons (costs and dangers), nuclear power has not been actively promoted and expanded since the 70s.
The actually more obvious vision for the future - the increased use of renewable energy sources - is once again completely ignored. It would be too simple if one were to address the problem of non-renewable energy sources, namely the non-renewability ...
United States of Absurdity
According to National Public Radio, severely ill patients were killed with a lethal injection during the Katrina evacuation because they could not have been evacuated in time. Yes, Europe must urgently emulate the American social model that makes such things possible (and other absurdities like the suspension of small children in elementary school for allegedly sexually harassing other children or dismissal of a nurse for alleged incitement to hatred - because she criticized the Bush administration for its Katrina mismanagement). We are not yet stupid enough here.
And to those who will again accuse me of salon anti-Americanism: sorry, but this is no longer salon-like. For me, the USA is a collective case for the madhouse. And don't tell me that one must distinguish between the people in America and the respective government and administration - a not entirely insignificant part of this supposedly defensible population has elected the supreme moron.
And yes, I am fully aware of the irony of the whole thing in view of the current brainless Berlin occupation. We are not far from the same madness.
Cocoa for Bracket Fetishists
There is actually an Objective-C Bridge for the second best Scheme in the world. And I hadn't seen it before. It looks very interesting, the author has a nice tutorial online where he controls his iTunes with Scheme. And a lot of other source samples for Chicken-Scheme, including the obligatory currency converter. However, you need a newer Chicken-Scheme version (i.e., a current snapshot), otherwise the -objc switch is not supported.
If they keep being this productive, Chicken will soon displace the best Scheme from its place.
The installation is quite hairy, so here are some notes on how I did it:
- Chicken Scheme 2.3 is the minimum
- Install libffi from Darwinports: sudo port install libffi
- Install objc Egg:
sudo chicken-setup -c "-I/opt/local/include -L/opt/local/lib" objc
Gauche:ObjectiveCBridge - there is also an Objective-C Bridge for Gauche Scheme. However, with fewer sophisticated examples.
HOC: A Haskell to Objective-C Binding - even for Haskell there is an Objective-C Bridge that I didn't know about.
The Real Reason Behind Hartz IV?
When you see 1-Euro-Jobbers being used as strikebreakers against VERDI, you might start to have some strange thoughts:
1-Euro-Jobbers are now being used as strikebreakers against the strike in the service sector. In the Lower Saxony city of Osnabrück, Hartz IV recipients are being forced by the public employer to drive the municipal garbage trucks. At the beginning of the week, this had to be enforced by a massive police operation against the strikers.
But of course, the 1-Euro-Jobs are only about preparing people for work and motivating them. What they are supposed to be motivated to do through such actions, however ...
Dresdner was the "SS Trust Bank"
A study commissioned by Dresdner Bank itself documents the bank's involvement in the Nazi regime, which went far beyond the involvement of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. These three banks were also the ones whose dissolution was recommended in the OMGUS reports (which, however, was not implemented).
Nokia 770 and Virtual Bluetooth Keyboard - how to connect the Laser Keyboard with the 770.
OpenVPN on Maemo - Porting OpenVPN to the Nokia Pad. Could be quite interesting, as you are now a bit too visible to others over free WLAN hotspots.
Showing off testosterone-damaged proletarians
Isn't it cute how the defense minister puffs up about completely theoretical scenarios?
Since the Constitutional Court has overturned the so-called shoot-down paragraph, there is not even a legal basis for the shoot-down of unmanned or exclusively terrorist-occupied aircraft in the event of terrorist threats. This would only be possible in self-defense in the event of a state of emergency beyond the law. "In that case, I would also issue a corresponding order." As defense minister, he is obliged to protect citizens from such an attack.
The poor guy - so far there has not been a single terrorist attack with drones or exclusively terrorist-occupied aircraft, nor has there been any indication of plans in that direction, but it certainly sounds very manly when you let the big macho out.
What an inflated blowhard.
Bavarian Ministry of the Interior against the Basic Law
How was that about discrimination again? Bavaria wants to deny passports to those seeking naturalization who support the PDS:
In addition to the long-standing practice of routinely inquiring with the domestic intelligence agency, Bavaria plans to ask every person seeking naturalization in the future whether they are a member of or support any of the organizations classified as extremist by the Munich Interior Ministry. The basis for this is a list of all organizations monitored by the Bavarian domestic intelligence agency, which has included the PDS since 1990. In individual cases, as confirmed by the spokesperson of the Bavarian Interior Ministry, Thomas Ziegler, on Wednesday to junge Welt, non-German members of the Left Party may therefore be denied naturalization. Even purchasing publications from the Left Party.PDS or attending party events could be interpreted as "support."
Article 1, Paragraph 3: No one may be disadvantaged or privileged because of their gender, descent, race, language, homeland and origin, beliefs, religious or political views. No one may be disadvantaged because of their disability. - but Beckstein certainly wants to change that too.
Firewall providers, sharpen the fillers!
Since Basel II becomes law - and thus it may be that the banks will ask your customers for documentation of IT security before a loan is granted (since IT security is part of the risk assessments in credit scoring):
The operational risks of a company also include the risks arising from the use of information technology in business processes. An active IT risk management is required, which deals with all aspects of IT security for the respective company. Important IT systems must be redundantly available, availability must be ensured, attacks on IT systems from inside and outside must be effectively repelled, contingency plans should be developed, and so on.
And since customers usually do not create their own documentation (which always fascinates me, because actually they should take care of security themselves, so they should also maintain their own documentation), they then demand such documentation from the service provider. Usually one day after they have been asked about the topic (e.g. when the auditor is about to refuse them the seal of approval because the documentation is missing).
Hey, that's a whole new form of corporate extortion: be cooperative, or your next IT security audit for the new loan will go down the drain.
Beautiful, New RFID World
RFID: Password cracking made easy
"A normal cell phone contains all the components needed to compromise all RFID tags in the immediate vicinity," explained Shamir. He did not examine all types of transponders, but only those of the most widespread brand, and they are completely unprotected. However, he attributes the vulnerabilities found less to this specific, unnamed manufacturer than to the need to reduce the production costs of RFID transponders at all costs. This forced developers to throw all security requirements overboard.
And when will they found the Stasi again?
The German Bundestag supports suspicionless surveillance of telecommunications:
With almost all the votes of the grand coalition, the Bundestag decided today, Thursday, after an intense debate, to apply for the storage of telephone and internet data for six months (PDF file). The federal government is thus called upon to implement the directive, approved by the European Parliament, for recording user traces "with moderation" and in the "minimum requirements". The directive must first be confirmed by the EU Council, which the ministers of justice and the interior have planned for the beginning of next week.
You have to let that sink in: the Bundestag is demanding the implementation of the EU directive - before the EU Council has even confirmed this directive itself. With such commitment, we can be sure that the federal government will massively push to destroy the last bit of data protection on the net.
The fact that the whole story in the EU was massively discussed among the states themselves and that the current approach is nothing more than a brazen collusion to push it through - that doesn't matter. We also only creatively interpret the Basic Law when we plan to murder innocent people, so why shouldn't we also serve the rights of citizens on a silver platter to the surveillance authorities.
All of this, of course, garnished with the squealing of "data protection is protection for criminals" and other smear slogans. Where are the great investigative successes through the already existing excessive surveillance possibilities? No presentable results - because it's all just stupid lies.
Disgusting, how under the guise of fighting terrorism, citizens are betrayed and sold out. With what persistence our elected representatives shit on our rights and only have a police state in mind - red or black, both just scum. They all outraged themselves about the GDR, and now they are all so keen on building the same surveillance state themselves.
Google Maps Plugin for Address Book - Brian Toth - a plugin for the Apple Address Book that allows you to jump directly to Google Maps from an address.
Karlsruhe overturns Aviation Security Act
Karlsruhe slaps down the government:
The legislator would not have been allowed to pass this far-reaching provision in the Aviation Security Act at all, the constitutional judges further criticized. Article 35 of the Basic Law only authorizes the deployment of the Bundeswehr in the event of disasters and accidents, the court clarified.
Fortunately, this absurd law is now off the table - provided the government follows the directive. At least its harshest representative - Schily - is no longer in office, hopefully his successors have more sense (what am I telling myself - now the wheelchair user is in charge ...)
Management by Stupidity or by Corruption?
How is the ALGII software actually doing?
The subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom has, however, by now realized that the existing solution is "no longer repairable." There are simply too many fundamental errors in the software's architecture.
Ok, so far, so bad. And what is the Federal Employment Agency doing? Quite simple:
The series of mishaps with the unemployment software A2LL has, according to information from Netzeitung, prompted the Federal Employment Agency (BA) to commission T-Systems with the programming of a completely new software. "T-Systems is working on a fundamental solution," it was said in circles familiar with the situation. The creation of a new program is taking place "within the framework of the existing contract." The BA did not want to comment on request from Netzeitung.
Translated: someone has massively messed up a software, admits themselves that it is no good and gets the order for a new software within existing contracts (i.e. without tender!). This is how our tax money and unemployment insurance contributions are wasted. And the reason?
The crucial point for the BA is the compatibility with A2LL. "It must be possible to easily take over all eight million data records," it was said. For this reason, the authority has also decided to commission T-Systems again with the programming. It is important to have T-Systems "on board," even if the company is partly responsible for the A2LL fiasco. The BA has explicitly decided against the decentralized solution of the company Prosoz.
Please what? There was an alternative solution offered. But the loser from last time was used again to make the data records transferable? Who guarantees this? T-Systems has already proven its inability - why does anyone believe that they can correctly transfer the data if they cannot process it correctly?
Data transfers are really not tied to individuals or companies - instead of making the goat the gardener again, T-Systems should have been obliged to document and disclose all interfaces, data formats, and structures. And then make a tender based on this - and simply define compatibility with the old data base as a condition. This time, please with severe penalty clauses for non-fulfillment.
Either someone in the project management at the BA is completely incompetent, or completely corrupt. I can't think of any other explanation. When you consider the debacle with the online system, the whole thing becomes clear - with the money that was squandered there, one could have helped some unemployed people well over the winter.
MUlliNER.ORG : Nokia770 - a whole range of tools for the Nokia pad, such as the Wireless Tools or dsniff. Interesting for analysis in case of WLAN problems
SlimserverAndNokia770 - how to use the Nokia Pad with the SlimServer as a music player.
Show the flag against Nazis
The Netreaper reminds me that there is a counter-action to the Nazi march in Münster on February 18th. So actually even several counter-actions.
Data Protection and Security Interests
A real gem from the Niedersachsen data protection dispute, which concerns the transfer of data protection functions to the Interior Ministry:
Critics fear that moving to the Interior Ministry could compromise the independence of oversight. Minister Schünemann dismissed this concern but acknowledged that security interests and data protection interests are not always aligned.
Wow, what a novel idea, who would have thought that conflicts with data protection interests might exist in the Interior Ministry? Could this perhaps be the reason why data protection officers should be independent of ministries?
Pressure on Hardware Manufacturers
Suse Linux in the future without proprietary drivers - good thing, in my opinion. The more pressure is put on hardware manufacturers, the more likely we will actually get better OpenSource drivers or interface disclosures.
I actually enjoy the job... - "Fiction" of a monitor and his comment on data retention.
Mobile? 870 MB are Mobile?
Mobile Offline-Variante der Wikipedia massiv erweitert - it is now 870 MB in size. Somehow, this scares me, as we are already hitting the limit with the 1 GB memory card in mobile devices. Hey, for my Nokia Tablet I only have 512 MB on the memory card! (well, with that I can always search online)
Embarrassing SSL Blunder at GeoTrust
In the USA, there is a case of phishing with valid SSL certificates. There, a certificate was issued via GeoTrust - the guys who also bought Trustcenter in Hamburg after it went bankrupt - to someone who then used it to fake a banking site. And so well that it is no longer easily possible for a customer to determine its authenticity.
SSL is no guarantee - it is only proof that someone has been issued a certificate. But you have to know whether you trust the certificate issuer - and unlike Web-of-Trust approaches, there is usually exactly one single certificate issuer, not a group or even an entire network.
If the vulnerability is in the certification of the certificate issuer, it doesn't matter how many or few bits the key works with ...
pyOpenSSL - Python interface to the OpenSSL library - quite complete bindings. Looks much better than the previous libs I have looked at.
Sabrina and Twister - interesting "fictions" that unfortunately are not quite as fictional as one would like. Well-written stories about data protection, privacy, surveillance, etc.
Statistical programming with R
I had already seen the first part (environment and basic structure) of "Statistical programming with R" earlier. Meanwhile, part 2 (functional programming and data analysis) and part 3 (object-oriented programming) are also online. Exciting for number crunchers.
Yahoo! Design Pattern Library - A collection of standard patterns in web GUI applications and how to solve them with the Yahoo JS library. Very interesting as a cookbook.