Copiepresse: Google's search engine shows Belgian newspapers again. The internet experts from the large Belgian press outpourings have finally learned to understand the internet (at least the part of "you're out, you're out" that they've gotten themselves into). It's quite embarrassing what they've been up to.
medien
DSK: „Spiegel” complains about prejudgment « Stefan Niggemeier. Cute - the Spiegel has been eagerly prejudging and now, of all people, one of the "quality journalists" involved in it is complaining about the poor Strauss-Kahn being prejudged. Is this already schizophrenia, or just plain stupidity? I mean, what are the publishers complaining about how bad they have it, when they barely rise above blog level in their "quality articles"?
...and next door the reactor site is on fire - and nobody cares because it's France, nothing bad can happen there and why should one report on reactor fires in front of one's own doorstep when there is a ridiculous operetta wedding. That's what they call quality journalism.
Publishers file lawsuit against Tagesschau-App. Wow, the guys from the executive floors of the digitally failed publishers are really going off the deep end now. Now, the Tagesschau-App for iOS is allegedly partly to blame for the failure of their absurd and half-baked business models on the internet. How about, for once, publishers move their ass into the digital world and actually participate, instead of constantly complaining? But that would be work, better to whine and try to impose their pathetic remaining ideas on users through legal action. I, for one, find it politically scandalous that these incompetent pseudo-managers always manage to get their way through their lobby with politics and far too often get their way - and we fee-payers have our services cut because all that blows through the publishers' heads is empty wind over barren deserts.
You are heroes!
Thanks, Judith Holofernes!
The BILD newspaper is not to be regarded with a wink as trash cultural asset and no harmless “Guilty Pleasure” for well-groomed upstarts, no witty social reference and no lifestyle quote. And least of all is the Bild newspaper what you want to sell it as: hated but largely harmless inventory of an otherwise much smarter Germany.
The Bild newspaper is a dangerous political instrument — not only a strongly magnifying telescope into the abyss, but a malicious being that does not describe Germany, but makes it. With an agenda.
by Wir sind Helden. The advertising campaign of the Blöd with these unspeakable "celebrity quotes", for which people give themselves who should actually know much better, is an unspeakable nonsense. And at least someone says what they really think about it, instead of being instrumentalized for the Blöd. (Obligatory Guttenberg: I shamelessly copied the title from the Schockwellenreiter)
Bundestube. This is actually something really useful. Search for content and speakers from Bundestag debates and then watch the recordings.
Statement by the UN (ok, by a UN sub-organization that, among other things, deals with topics such as freedom of expression) on Wikileaks. Will this impress any of the unleashed prole-talkers with a biting reflex? Probably not.
c't on the iPad. Thanks for that, even if it's just a dressed-up PDF for now. Okay, it's embarrassing that you can't properly link to this article because it's hidden behind a paywall - wouldn't it have made sense to have an online article for this? Never mind. But what's annoying: "free for subscribers until February 2011" is not what someone wants to read who pays you for the dead tree. Because asking for money twice for already sold content is usually only done by the dregs of the media landscape. If you now introduce a digital-only subscription that costs more than the print version, there will be verbal beatings. By the way, even a dressed-up PDF can be given a memory of the last visited page. Honestly. It's not that hard.
Mediathek for Mac OS X - I should check that out. After all, archiving is now the viewers' responsibility thanks to stupid private broadcasters (and politicians who have made themselves their errand boys).
Links
rfc1437 | Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form - Strong trends towards "throw away with archive and start from scratch" with slight options for "throw away, static archive and maybe shovel a part into the new platform if I find the time". The link shows where I'm currently playing around. Wordpress with a few small plugins and an nginx caching front.
Bitrot
I've been hit by this as well. My old blog software probably won't be able to survive unchanged. Old Python version (2.3), old (very old) Django (0.91), old PsycoPG driver (1.0), old PostgreSQL (7.4) and all of this on an old Debian (a wild mix of various versions with backports and custom programs and several failed upgrade attempts). Argh.
Well, I'm still torn between "rewrite" and "throw away". The latter has the charm that I won't have to carry all that junk around anymore. And honestly, nothing particularly interesting ever happened on my blog anyway. Maybe I can set up a wget mirror beforehand and dump the whole thing somewhere statically, as an archive.
Rewriting naturally has a lot of charm as well, but converting thousands of old entries (over 4000 articles and over 4000 links, plus almost 200 images) from 8 years (first entry on 3.11.2002) of blogging doesn't sound like fun. And presumably, thousands of the links are outdated and obsolete anyway.
No idea what I'll do, maybe I'll try to bring the Metaeule to the new box first, where I only have the problem that PHP4 is no longer in the Ubuntu repository for 10.04 and I therefore have to force the owl onto PHP5 (and that with code based on Wordpress 1.5 - I must really be crazy).
Or I try to install an ancient Debian with the packages used at the time - the box doesn't run in the front anyway, but behind other machines, so the hacking risk is rather low at this point. The Metaeule naturally also has a few thousand posts in the archive (only 8291, which is almost nothing), but if I can keep the old software running (some security patches have been applied over time, so it can actually continue to tinker along), I don't necessarily have to tackle it.
Somehow, the internet was also such a really bad idea ...
Twisted Orchestration Language in Launchpad - and someone has ported the Orc combinators to Python, using Twisted. However, I personally find Twisted rather disgusting to program, but if you like ...
Kilim - stumbled upon this while browsing the Orc documentation, a microthread library for Java.
Orc Language - haven't read anything about it yet, but it looks quite interesting. The core is Cor, a functional language without side effects, and Orc, which is built on top of it, is used for orchestrating services in distributed systems. The whole thing in a quite appealing, compact syntax on the JVM. One could certainly take a look at it as an alternative to Scala and Clojure, Java is integrated as an external service, which makes it quite easy to build distributed systems in which parts are implemented in Java. It reminds me in many points strongly of the ideas of Erlang (generally assume a distributed system, but still keep parts local for performance reasons), but I find the syntax much more pleasant. And with the JVM a much more widespread VM than Erlang's BEAM.
Interactive Fabrication » Beautiful Modeler - wow, that's incredibly cool.
Tornado Web Server Documentation - I really need to take a closer look at Tornado. For a side project, I've built a web service with web.py, which was shockingly simple (and dirty). Tornado is based on a very similar concept, throws Django-like templates into the mix and offers a good asynchronous server and support for asynchronous sockets and http requests right away. Could be a good alternative for web services that need few resources.
Fat Cat Software - iPhoto Library Manager - since I was stupid enough to make a photobook on a different Mac than usual (well, the usual one was always occupied), I'll probably have to take a look at this to see if I can merge my books onto a single machine. It's quite annoying that Apple doesn't offer any merge function in iPhoto. With a notebook and a desktop, you quickly end up with separate libraries. If Lightroom supported book printing, I would have been gone from iPhoto a long time ago. Everything is somehow not quite satisfying.
The V4Z80P – A Z80 Based Laptop @ Retroleum - here someone not only builds his own computer with his own system, it's also a laptop. Or something similar anyway.
Oracle cooks up free and premium JVMs - and Oracle begins to try to cash in on Java. If it works, Java could soon be in a similar situation as .NET: the free implementations lag behind the scope of the commercial ones. What this means for alternative languages on the JVM remains to be seen - but it will certainly cause some problems. However, the JVM world is large enough and equipped with enough alternatives, and Oracle is not Microsoft. Therefore, this could all just be a storm in a teacup and only affect the typical Oracle victims.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld: Der Westfälische Expressionismus - I think I actually have a reason to drive to Bielefeld.
Mediathek fĂĽr Mac OS X - I need to check this out. After all, archiving is now the viewers' job thanks to stupid private broadcasters (and politicians who have made themselves their errand boys).
Panasonic DMC-GF2 Preview: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review - I hate you, Panasonic. Now I want the cute little GF2+14mm kit. Menno. First Apple with the MacBook Air and now Panasonic, everyone just wants my money.
Eventlet Networking Library - I need to take a closer look at this, the monkey-patching of standard libraries to make them trivial to use in an asynchronous environment looks very interesting.
Union against homeopathy at public expense - rightly so. After all, religion is not covered by public health insurance either.
Innovation looks different: Rechristianization - taz.de - Jauch instead of Will? And for this crap I pay fees? Anne Will was finally someone with a profile at ARD, who could even motivate a TV muffin like me to turn on the TV.
Federal Environment Agency demands car toll | tagesschau.de - wouldn't it be nice if the media reported correctly, or? In WDR (by the way, one of the ARD affiliated broadcasting stations) the head of the authority had to point out several times in the interview that he and his authority by no means demand anything, but only considered how such a toll - if it were to come - should be designed in a meaningful way. It was not about "toll or not", but rather about "if toll, then how?". And in doing so, an annual vignette or similar flat-rate models were deemed nonsense and only a toll variable according to actual use with recording of the use would be sensible. And the topic of data protection was also addressed and the problems that arise from it. The basic problem is that the revenues from motor vehicle-related taxes and fees only cover part of the costs for federal roads and highways, around 46 billion euros are borne by the general public. And then a facility responsible for environmental issues thinks about how a regulation with a toll could look and how this could be used to distribute road use and cost coverage more fairly and perhaps also to get a bonus for environmental pollution. But normal procedures are not causes for excitement - which is why WDR also stirred up drivers against a previously unpublished study (and by no means a demand) in the morning. That's quality journalism in Germany.
German publishers take action against Google - when I read something about "our elaborately produced quality content" from a BDZV spokesperson, I really don't know whether to laugh or cry. How many of the Wikipedia plagiarists and DPA reprint publishers still produce original content at all? Not to mention effort - slapped together and scribbled down would be more accurate. With Springer's market dominance, not much press with self-produced content remains (Blöd may have a lot of self-grown content, but that probably falls less under quality content and I believe the effort is also limited there - the lies are original in the rarest cases)
Automated News Portal: Netzeitung Loses Editorial Team - what happens now if the quality of the compilations and content by the news gathering algorithms is suddenly better than the previously editorially compiled content? Just throwing this out there. (Yes, yes, I'll be quiet now. But it would be funny.)
Klaus Staeck on the danger of "blogorrhea" - and where, pray tell, is the quality journalism in times of regional dominance of the Springer press in areas above 90%? I can't find even a whiff of quality in any product from the house. Should the few other editorial teams be expected to do it all? Seems more than doubtful when I consider that most alternatives to the Springer press are either just as terribly bad, or write from a rather conservative worldview. Either you trust the media consumers with media competence - then you must accept blogs at least as much as the Springer press - or you don't trust them with media competence. Then you must also consistently argue against the Blödzeitung and similar waste of paper. Bad journalism doesn't suddenly become better just because you print it. And good journalism remains good, even if it has never been through a rotary press.
WAZ welcomes Springer's push for paid content - well, if all the trash papers disappear behind the paywall, the internet will at least be a bit cleaner.
Murdoch will behind the paywall - well, that's okay, then his trash will be read less. But his whining, "the times of the current Internet are soon over" is really cute. Of course it is - as the term "current" already says. But does the fool really believe that the future Internet will actually develop into his backward understanding of the world?
Second Life counters Google's Lively - "That was quick. Only one day after the launch of Google's «Lively», Linden Lab surprises with a novelty from the recently struggling «Second Life»: Avatars should now be able to leave the closed world." - when you look at the quality journalism that the Netzzeitung delivers, you can only shout "yes, please!" at the news of the impending closure of the Netzzeitung. "Struggling" with the numbers that Linden Lab recently provided for their network (e.g., the millions in revenue in Second Life, the online hours, the growing virtual building area - which is also paid for by people, not just set up) is really not what comes to mind spontaneously. It's quite amusing how the press only understands either hype or anti-hype. There's a lot of room between hype and anti-hype for simply functioning. This doesn't mean that SL doesn't have problems - there are plenty. But "struggling" is certainly not one of them. Lively is now being hyped - but it's just a buggy beta from Google Labs, and not a competitor to SL, but rather, due to its structure, much more of a competitor to IMVU or Twinity or Whirled. Competitors to SL should probably be seen more in something like Multiverse or Vastpark, but they are not from Google. But to address all of this, the journalist would have had to be knowledgeable. (And that teleporting in SL was rather boring - also technically boring - I already wrote a link about that before)
iTunes now with TV content also in Germany - and the shocking thing for me about it: since Southpark is already freely downloadable, only Spongebob remains potentially interesting. Somehow a bit thin after all the fuss.
Comment: Stasi statement a super-GAU for Die Linke - why the demand of a Left Party deputy of what the Interior Minister is diligently implementing should now be a super-GAU ... (ok, ok, I understand, the Left should distinguish itself argumentatively from the CDU - and whoever believes that there are significant differences between parties, for whom I have a cheap bridge in Brooklyn). The way in which the press is now stirring up this - admittedly stupid - statement, while at the same time a federal minister sworn in on the constitution tramples this constitution underfoot, is already highly embarrassing.
Pisa losers are victims of their media consumption - no wonder. Just take a look at the current reporting in the media. A child can't learn anything decent from that. And the brutality in the business section. Or did I misunderstand something?
Absurdities of the Media
In the doping circus, there's once again a real howler that I saw today in the Tour ticker:
Dear cycling friends! For good reason (the case of Patrik Sinkewitz), coverage of the 2007 Tour de France will initially be suspended until the allegations against Sinkewitz are clarified. We thank you for your interest! À bientôt, your tour.ARD.de team
Ok. So another rider under doping suspicion. Just like it's been all the time. Nothing really new - Team T-Mobile probably has a lot more to work through. Uh - and what is the point of stopping the coverage now? I mean, it was already pathetic enough - stopping it now changes what exactly?
The media could of course, instead of the great outrage, think about how much they themselves are involved in the whole mess. Wasn't there something about direct cooperation between ARD reporters and Deutsche Telekom? Wasn't there the years-long hype of the media around Jan Ullrich and the free mega-advertising for Deutsche Telekom? Wasn't it the case that for the German media, hardly anything else existed except Telekom and their team?
And all of this is completely innocent in the pressure that was built up? The Tour commentators this time had sayings ready that one should also talk about the non-winners - and yet again, as every year, they have fueled the winner speculation and stirred up the hype. But certainly, stopping the coverage will help the non-doping riders (if there are any, I don't know if that's the case) tremendously. And ARD is setting a real sign - of their own stupidity and arrogance, because the media, the sports associations, and organizations have diligently built up all this nonsense.
Cycling is left in the lurch - but the hypocritical directors and functionaries couldn't care less about that. Doping once brought in ratings, so it was ignored. Now they're just playing the big critic - and make just as ridiculous a picture as back then.
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?
RTL won't let itself be copied - and here I am thinking: "You don't even want RTL's garbage for free" ...
NDR censors Dietz interview with Beckmann - if journalists and TV stations censor themselves, why do we need Schräuble?
Bildzeitung appears in Second Life - what is forgotten to mention: there is already a whole range of free publications in Second Life, which in most cases are written by professional journalists. Where the willingness should come from to pay even just 40 cents for such trash from the Blöd - when you can buy clothes for 150 L$ in Second Life - no one could answer me satisfactorily. Probably the Blöd hopes that their audience in Second Life is as stupid as in the real world ...
EU Parliament votes for liberalization of television advertising - well, this will make television even more uninteresting than it already is. If I want advertising, I look at the junk mail in the mailbox, which is at least local. What can you do, I hardly ever turn on the TV anyway - besides the internet, this simple ad-infested broadcast medium makes a rather pitiful impression ...
Counterfeit goods endanger Second Life - claims the Netzzeitung. But it's not true. The CopyBot talk has been over for a long time, now only the oh-so-hip (but completely outdated) Netzzeitung notices. Previously proven damage caused by CopyBot: 0 L$. Great threat, especially gigantic inflation (strangely, the L$ has remained stable during this time). But "Copy machine for pure superficialities leaves no traces in the virtual economy of Second Life" doesn't sound nearly as dramatic ...
The end of Second Life: Picture coming! - the Blöd reporters now also want to invade SL. Well, here's to that.
Edelentmant: Lies, Bribery, and Defamation Instead of Dialog - Don is doing investigative journalism again. Good stuff, that.
Fefe's Blog - about the media's "reactions" to the voting machine hack.
Microsoft wants »cooperating editorial teams« - Heise isn't what it used to be either. Even the IX is starting to look like a bulletin board for Microsoft in some places ...
Picture pinches in front of flower
And he has the appropriate answer to the editor-in-chief of this sleazy rag:
You're shitting your pants that the machinations of the BILD newspaper will be revealed in the debate I proposed. That's the reason for your cancellation. You even ran away from the Monitor editorial team when they wanted to ask you uncomfortable questions. You're a coward!
Outrage over Schäuble - oh kids, now you're suddenly outraged about him. Do you really think he only came up with his ideas today?
Gazprom threatens EU with gas cut-off - again, great surprise all around. Did you really believe it would just stay with the threats against e.g. Ukraine?
Philips will to prevent switching during ad breaks - well, just another reason not to turn on the telly anymore ...
Tibet at Wikipedia - and FAZ
Already quite cute how the FAZ, on behalf of the Tibet Initiative Germany, spins in front of their propaganda machine and accuses Wikipedia of naivety - but lacks any form of criticism itself. For example, the fact that a very large part of the refugees in India belong to the monasteries - whose feudal rule is certainly not what one would imagine under a free society ...
Update: what was also ignored/omitted is the fact of the connection of the author of the FAZ article with the TID. So much for professional journalism and the quality control by established editorial offices ...
Springer and the Ministerial Permit
Springer was apparently against ministerial approval - but that was not about them:
"There is no room for the application of ministerial approval in the press market for constitutional reasons," it says in the paper. At that time, it was about the acquisition of the Berliner Verlag by the Holtzbrinck Group.
This time, they will certainly be able to explain in detail why everything is completely different now.
Nazi and SS Man Harrer Passed Away
Amazing - amid all the praise there is just this small paragraph on the not entirely unproblematic topic of Harrer and National Socialism:
Harrer's past during the Nazi dictatorship became a topic at the end of the 1990s. According to media reports, he had to admit that he had been a member of the NSDAP and the SS. He later evaluated this as a mistake. In 2002, his autobiography "Mein Leben" was published.
Otherwise, only praise and cheering. What is the fact that he was in the SS (into which one certainly does not accidentally stumble - apart from the fact that he was also previously in the SA, which was also not really a purely passive organization of the Nazis) against the mountain ascents and the cuddling with the friendly smiling absolutist from Tibet.
The blindness of the media on certain topics is really shocking. Riefenstahl is also constantly admired for her "art" ...
Torture Hoax and Acceptance
News agency spread hoax - and the frightening thing about it: nobody really notices. Ok, sure, with Google one could have researched the name and then realized that it's not real. But what's really frightening is that in the current times, it doesn't seem unusual at all when someone screams for more torture - we're already throwing everything overboard that makes up our democracy, so a little torture doesn't stand out anymore. So I'll save myself the snide comments about the quality of journalism, but rather wonder what kind of society we live in when we almost expect such demands for torture ...
"Bild" as a Cultural Problem by Gerhard Henschel - harsh settlement with the worst sleaze sheet of Germany.
Private broadcasters via satellite only encrypted?
Private satellite channels only encrypted? - the private channels that still proudly call themselves FreeTV - want to charge fees. But - what's the point of private TV channels for the viewer then?
If the private channels want fees, I don't want their stuff - because it's so full of ads nowadays that it's barely bearable even for free.
And it's particularly amusing in light of the discussion that Saban sparked about the fee financing and advertising of public broadcasters...
Dispute over ARD election graphics settled
Democracy powered by Microsoft has come to an end:
The cooperation between Infratest dimap and Microsoft in ARD election broadcasts has ended, reported the leading North German Broadcasting on Monday.
About time. The ARD's dance around the issue had become simply ridiculous. No corporate advertising belongs in election broadcasts. Period.
what the media is committed to
When it comes to securing advertising partners, even public broadcasters are diligent and quick:
The NDR had initiated legal steps against the order on the same day and immediately achieved a temporary suspension of enforcement. Thus, the NDR was able to continue showing the Microsoft logo in its broadcasts on election night. This is now possible again for the time being after the temporary suspension has been lifted.
Oh yes, how wonderful, the NDR really put in a lot of effort so that it can continue to slap the Microsoft logo on inappropriate broadcasts - such as election coverage. Because that's important, you have to fight for that, that must be preserved. Product placement? Oh come on, it's all just talk. Probably politics is already sponsored by Microsoft and our federal chancellor will then wear a Microsoft logo on her coat.
Thatcher
Even a warmonger is being revered now, just because she turned 80. It doesn't matter that she started a war. Who cares what the media says - paying tribute is in fashion. Corrupt and perjured former chancellors are just as welcome as warmongers and other riffraff. Oh well, I'm probably just being terribly destructive right now, because breaking one's oath of office and sneaking around the law and starting wars, that's just so constructive.
Media, Statistics and their "Interpretations"
What I hate are such great blanket headlines like the one at Heise today: Computers can lead to worse grades in school. Of course, poor teaching can also lead to worse grades. Newspapers can also lead to worse grades ...
It gets particularly embarrassing when you read the reasoning:
A computer in the child's room leads in most cases to worse grades in school. This is the conclusion of a study (PDF file) published on Tuesday by the Munich ifo Institute, which specifically evaluated the international data of the PISA studies again. The reason for this: the computer is very often used for computer games instead of being used for learning.
Aha. So let's conclude: playing instead of learning can lead to worse grades. Oh. Oh really. Grandiose insight - and why does the title say something completely different? Maybe the authors played a bit too much and learned too little?
embarrassing mirror
It's really ridiculous how Der Spiegel can't hide its political tendencies time and again. Especially ridiculous because Der Spiegel was once considered a magazine with leftist tendencies. That's what quality journalism is like - completely unbiased, well-researched - and shamelessly brazen.