Archive 21.2.2005 - 27.2.2005

Municipalities are ripping off the federal government with Hartz IV

And Biedenkopf supports Clement against the municipalities - what do you want to bet that this will quickly be swept under the carpet in the discussion again? Biedenkopf will simply be brought back into line and then it's back to bashing the government. Because apart from verbal attacks, they can't do anything else.

Only one question remains: what about the people? Everyone complains about the politicians and the abuse of the municipalities and the money - but who cares about the people who are now stuck between a rock and a hard place through no fault of their own?

Neither the government nor the opposition make any statements about the people (except for Biedenkopf in a parenthesis). That's all these people are worth to them - a parenthesis and that's it. They are no longer able to work - just a line item in the cost accounting that the municipalities want to offload and the federal government doesn't want.

They are people, you penny-pinchers!

PL/I for GCC is an implementation of PL/I as a frontend for GCC. Very interesting, as it is not a precompiler with C output and, unlike earlier projects, does not aim to be only a subset implementation (although, of course, at the moment only a subset is implemented - but it is constantly growing). I admit, I still like the baroque syntax of PL/I, even though it has been many years since I programmed with it.

Söder? The very bottom of the political barrel.

Red-Green outraged over Söder statements - and rightly so. Söder repeatedly stands out because his statements have little to do with reality (e.g., when claiming that the SPD is to blame for the emerging Nazis), but in this case, he has added an extra layer of stupidity. If left to his own devices, he would probably demand the death penalty...

Every legal system unfortunately either has holes like a sieve or degenerates into a police state (those who think differently: keyword Gödel, just inform yourself). The attempt to mediate between these two extremes is the task of the legislative power of the state - which lies with the Bundestag. The Union does not have to make constructive proposals for change known through foaming-at-the-mouth hatemongers in the press, but should bring them forward there. Söder's remarks are pure populism and are definitely not intended to solve any existing problem or even define it more closely.

It is horrifying when a child is killed, and every child killed is one child too many - this is undisputed and not up for discussion. However, one cannot instrumentalize the death of a child to push through one's ideas - because reducing child abuse and sexual offenses against children to this one case ignores the much larger number of cases in which the perpetrators had absolutely not been previously convicted or noticed in any way. Where the perpetrators are not some known offenders, but someone from the child's immediate family environment.

Söder's outburst is not only far beyond the mark and absolutely devoid of understanding, it is also a dangerous simplification of the problem.

Moderate trackbacks in general

For WordPress, there is a plugin that automatically sets trackbacks to moderated. However, this plugin uses additional database accesses (sets the moderation flag after the creation of the trackback), which is rather annoying for trackback spammers - every additional database access increases the system load. Therefore, I wrote my own version of it, which does not require any additional database accesses. The source is available here.

Koch doesn't understand democracy again

Koch: CSU should not act as referee - the Union fools still haven't understood how democracy works. No, the Union did not win the election - if they had, they would have the majority and the discussion would be pointless.

In any case, the Union representatives completely disqualify themselves as democratic representatives with their disgusting ranting against the SSW. Well, at least Koch is known to write forewords to right-wing trash, so it's no surprise that he is stirring up trouble against the Danish minority.

We also have to put up with the NPD in Saxony - which Koch has not taken such loud offense to as the behavior of the SSW at the moment or the existence of the PDS on various occasions.

The LetterHead Theme for WordPress 1.5 is an extremely minimalistic theme - just two columns and text. No images. Could be ideal for people who need a "blank canvas" experience to implement their own design ideas - there's really nothing in Letterhead that could distract you much.

IMPOSSIBLE - supposedly ...

IMPOSSIBLE The LawBlog finds it remarkable that the Mainz police broke into an apartment to remove a banner reading "Not welcome, Mr. Bush". Well, the problem is, if we had the liberal state of law he speaks of, this would really be impossible. But we have a neo-liberal mess - and neo-liberal is as similar to liberal as National Socialist is to socialism ...

Computer Parts Returns Documented

On www.dau-alarm.de service cases of returned computer parts are documented photographically. Very funny - although probably not for the person who had to handle the service cases.

Disclaimer Madness ...

I'm just a legal layman, but I'm sure that such a disclaimer is legally quite ineffective:

The author of this page is not responsible for the way in which the information provided here is used. Files and everything else on this page are intended only for private use and should therefore not be downloaded or read. If you are in any way associated with the government, anti-piracy groups, or other similar groups, access to the files and reading the HTML pages is prohibited. All objects on this page are private property and are therefore not intended to be read. In principle, it is forbidden to enter this page. If you enter this page nevertheless, you are violating the "Code 431.322.12 of the Internet Privacy Act", which was enacted by Bill Clinton in 1995. This means you cannot take legal action against the persons who manage these files! If you continue, you agree to these terms!!!

This will certainly impress the courts greatly. And it will definitely help against cease and desist letters.

Holocaust denier Zündel is extradited - Wow!

Künast: The directive will pass through the Council next Monday

Künast: The directive will pass through the Council next Monday - at least according to a letter sent to the FFII. What madness - several national parliaments and the European Parliament have spoken out against the software patent directive, and yet the point is again on the agenda as a top priority - which would be confirmed only formally without substantive discussion.

I don't quite understand why, on the one hand, the EU Council keeps trying to push through such nonsense instead of finally bringing the whole thing back to the European Parliament for a new proposal - but I could still explain that with corruption (it wouldn't be new if the EU bodies were once again engaged in serious horse-trading).

But why the national governments are acting against the opinion of their own parliaments (in Germany, this was a decision of all factions in the Bundestag!) and against the opinion of their own European deputies (in the European Parliament, the rejection also had a large majority) is incomprehensible.

I can only speculate about the motivation of the other national parliaments of the EU. But I want to know the motivation of the Federal Minister of Justice responsible according to the letter from the Künast office and the federal government she represents - it is simply absolutely incomprehensible to me how action is being taken here completely against the will of one's own parliament.

Fax to the BMJ has been sent. You should do the same. 01888 580 9525

Microsoft restricts Windows XP activation via the Internet - People, get decent operating systems whose manufacturers do not have such absurd notions of ownership. Or take the opportunity to buy a real computer.

R-Archive - Discussion Forums Cease and Desist

R-Archiv - Discussion Forums Cease and Desist Notice - is this now a hoax, or what? Heise is sending a cease and desist notice to the Baron for violating forum rules? Or is there another Munich lawyer they are in a dispute with? This must simply be a hoax ...

The background to this is actually probably true - Heise has indeed blocked the Baron's forum access. So there might be something to the story. It would be quite crazy.

What you find in your comments ...

Comment spammers on the loose:

Hello dear community!

I am not a community. I may write in the pluralis majestatis, but we only do that by accident. Honestly.

I have been operating the BlahFasel auction platform BlahFasel.Blubb for a short time and am therefore addressing you, as I am interested in your opinion about my auction platform BlahFasel.Blubb. I look forward to your suggestions and hopefully constructive criticism.

Of course. You write a comment with a link and email address on an auction platform and include the name of that pile of junk X times - and all this just because you are interested in opinions. No, this is of course not supposed to be any advertising at all. How silly of us to feel that way ...

By the way, let me say this much, „BlahFasel.Blubb“ is an auction platform for BlahFasel and Blubb. However, I would like to emphasize that we do not think highly of „cheap BlahFasel“ and therefore the best Blubb does not automatically win at BlahFasel.Blubb. We are of the opinion that good BlahFasel has its price and therefore the seller (provider of the BlahFasel) determines the auction winner himself.

Huh? This is not an auction platform, this is a scam. An auction has a defined process - bids are placed and the best (depending on the orientation, the lowest or highest) bid wins. Anything else is not an auction platform - whether for BlahFasel or Blubb. At best, this could pass as a tender platform - but even there, there are formal rules that contain a bit more than "The seller determines the winner" ...

So that you can get an overview of BlahFasel.Blubb, you will find our press release in the "News" section on the right side of the page. Here, the functionality of BlahFasel.Blubb is described.

Of course, there - in press releases - everyone immediately expects the description of the functionality of the pile of junk. Completely logical. And under Imprint do you have cooking recipes?

I look forward to your opinion!!!

Opinion? Simple: lousy blog spammers (I found identical comments via search engine in other blogs), the posting that was commented on was chosen to be quite tasteless and, based on the description, I have filed the whole thing under "unsavory offers". Ergo? Plonk

The WordPress IP to Country Plugin converts an IP address to a country and provides the country code. For example, you could (no, I haven't implemented this here, so test comments won't help) display the commenter's country based on their IP address (though this would obviously be misleading for Tor users). Also interesting is the reference to the IP-To-Country Database, which appears to be freely available. Useful for your own projects, such as analyzing log file statistics.

BA is said to have favored Accenture in online job exchange

BA allegedly favored Accenture in online job portal - does this still surprise anyone? The botched work on this thing knows no bounds. And now it's botched work and favoritism - which was to be expected with such a poor result.

What always makes me angry about this: if you yourself are active in the industry, you only wonder about the exorbitant prices that are charged for such deals - and how poor the performance is that is delivered. But you yourself have to invest three hours of documentation work for every hour you work to get your money, because with smaller deals, cheap is great.

The Mouse's Elephant Turns 30

The little blue elephant from the show with the mouse is turning 30. Let's all congratulate him very warmly: Trööööööööt

Funny. No matter how old I get, I still love the mouse and the elephant. I even have a picture of the two on the wall. Just no plush elephant. And no plush mouse.

Energy drink for RWE - at our expense

Energy drink for RWE. Great, RWE makes profits despite shoddy management, and we finance their antics with higher energy prices. Fantastic. Let's all cheer for RWE.

Stock market news sometimes can't be beaten for stupidity - the fact that RWE simply exploits a monopoly and squeezes the market without creating real added value is all the same to them. As long as the stock price is right.

And the consumers? Their electricity bill has risen significantly more than the dividend they receive for their three shares, but we all dream of being the great stock market crooks ...

Artists of the Brücke in Essen and Münster. In Münster I will definitely go, but Essen is only a regional train ride away and I probably won't miss that either.

US-Ministerium hires adware manufacturer as privacy advisor - gives the saying of the goat made gardener a whole new dimension. Maybe they should also make the KKK chief an advisor for multicultural affairs? The Unabomber a security advisor? Bush president? Oh well, they've already done that ...

Virtualized Servers under Linux

rHype is an IBM project that was recently published under an Open Source license (GPL). This project is essentially a virtualization machine for Linux. Comparable to IBM's LPARs for mainframes, but naturally designed for much smaller machines.

It could be the ideal complement to Xen - another GPL project for virtualization based on Linux. Taken together, both could become an interesting open source alternative to VMWare.

Virtualized servers are very interesting for many purposes, as usually only a virtual machine is lost in case of problems and the migration of services on virtual machines is easier than moving around real hardware. Better to have a few large boxes with virtualized servers on them than many smaller boxes with dedicated systems.

Virtualized servers in real use can be done with User Mode Linux today. In this case, a Linux kernel is operated as its own process under the actual hardware kernel via special APIs in user mode instead of directly on the hardware. Each virtualized machine has its own user mode kernel, its own memory, and its own virtual disk areas.

Caution with free SSL certificates

Beware of free SSL certificates - the criticism of the unchecked certificates is indeed correct. But the experts are sitting on a misconception here: why should I trust the CAs randomly delivered with my browser more than any other CA?

Of course, if I try to get a certificate from them (e.g., at the Trustcenter), I have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get the certificate. That seems very secure. But who guarantees that all certificates from this CA were issued according to the same pattern? That someone didn't feel like checking and simply confirmed a certificate without verification? Or that something was rigged?

Exactly. There is only the guarantee of the issuer. The company that issues me the certificate essentially checks itself. Of course, in Germany there are regulations for certificate authorities and, as far as I know, these include audits - but who guarantees that everything runs smoothly there? Given the level of corruption going on ...

I don't want to accuse the Trustcenter of anything here - on the contrary, we use their services in the company. But central certification authorities have a serious problem: the security and trustworthiness depend solely on the trustworthiness of the central authority. And browsers come with various certification authorities deemed trustworthy by the browser manufacturer - I don't decide that, someone else does.

This is the classic conflict between centralized certification and decentralized certification via a Web of Trust as it exists with OpenPGP or GPG. Of course, I can't trust everyone there either - but if I trust someone, I set that locally for myself. And this trust is not dependent on whether it is a large company with great boilerplate documents.

Without a Web of Trust structure, certification is still more of a facade than substance. Alongside the pearls, there are also pigs - and that's exactly what ct has found out. Great insight - we've been saying this from the PGP camp for years.

A Call to Action in OASIS

A Call to Action in OASIS is an open letter from a whole range of Open Source big names against the latest OASIS framework conditions. OASIS deals with the standardization of data formats and web services, and in the latest framework conditions, standards should also allow those based on patented techniques - and thus ultimately give companies the means to exclude Open Source programs with these standards. In principle, a rehash of the same stupid idea from the W3C - which then withdrew this idea in response to the protests.

Cease and desist letters for Gmail invitations

Abmahnungen für Gmail-Einladungen - great. The madness continues. Now people are being warned who want to sell Gmail invitations on eBay or give them away in blogs. And of course, the brand owner does not go to Google - who operate the Gmail service - but to the end users who only use a name established on the net to describe what they are giving away.

What's particularly silly about the whole thing: the brand owner is based in the same city as Google Germany - if the brand (which is of course professionally operated by Schlund + Partner, like every big and important portal) is really so threatened, why hasn't he even made a local call to Google about it? And the fact that the domain has a Created entry from August 2004 is surely purely coincidental - of course, anyone who thinks of freeloading is a scoundrel ...

For those who are not quite clear that this is not about the brand at all. Someone is sniffing fresh air here and wants to make quick money. Because greed is cool.

Google's legal counsel Lena Tangermann recommends contacting Google Germany by phone (040/808179-0) in case of a warning on this topic.

BA will Betreuung älterer ostdeutscher Arbeitsloser abgeben - how to create new serfs and at the same time beautify the unemployment statistics ...

Bush in Mainz reports on the restrictions residents in Mainz received during the Bush visit. Welcome to the police state Germany - where even peace symbols in the window are not allowed for flimsy security reasons ...

Dialer Madness - the next phase

In Dialerwahn - the next phase Isotopp reports on an IP payment system that generates paid page requests based on logged IPs and the association of these IPs with a user. So far only in use in Austria - but highly stupid. They probably have never heard of IP spoofing, but also not of anonymous proxies and tor ...

IP-based paid services must be based on some form of authorization. Either the classic password technique or better on client certificates. Anything else is highly nonsense and doomed to fail. Anyone who bases billing to end customers on the basis of the logged IP address simply does not understand TCP/IP and the Internet.

EU-Parliament decides to end paper driver's licenses - Scoundrels!

Free multidimensional OLAP server for Linux announced - could be interesting if it changes from the status announced to the status implemented.

New iPod models at lower prices - well, I should probably plan a new purchase for March. A small iPod Photo with a camera adapter could be quite nice for on the go ...

Ole von Beust for a Northern State

Ole von Beust apparently wants to create a Northern state from S.-H., HH and McPomm - I doubt that's a good idea.

However, the three federal states together would have an even greater overrepresentation of rural regions compared to urban regions in terms of population numbers. And thus, the prospect that this Northern state would firmly be in the hands of the Union - despite a few larger red cities and despite Hamburg. Presumably, that's the simple main motivation for them to calculate something.

However, whether the people of Hamburg would give up their independence and not simply vote out this eccentric at the next election is another matter.

Optic Nerve Cameras for the Blind - it does have a bit of CyberPunk, but for the blind, it is of course a real glimmer of hope. Even if certainly not everyone will be enthusiastic about the idea of a plugin interface to their optic nerve, or about having something tinkered with in their head and brain.

The Plugin API for WordPress lists actions and filters defined by WordPress. Currently being filled with content.

Banner for February 23, 2005

Since I am suspected of salon anti-Americanism, I am of course participating and throwing a heartfelt: You're Not Welcome, Mr. Bush!

at the president. And yes, this refers to Bush and his administration - not to Americans in general. So please put me in the drawer of anti-religion fanatics and anti-war agitators and anti-world policemen when you quote me next (and then you can also leave out the salon before that) ...

I've never understood how T-Online derives the alleged market leadership of Musicload. Probably just a blunt marketing lie with absurdly beautiful calculations like "all T-Online users are Musicload customers by definition, even if they never bought anything or will buy anything..."

Apache2, php5-fcgi, php4-fcgi, mod_fastcgi HowTo

Apache2, php5-fcgi, php4-fcgi, mod_fastcgi HowTo provides everything you need to know to run PHP as an FCGI process. And even in German. The little bit of Apache2 in there can be mentally converted to Apache 1.3, the Apache is actually hardly affected.

FCGI offers, in combination with suexec, the possibility to run PHP per virtual host under a dedicated user and thus the possibility in shared hosting environments to set up files in a virtual host so that another user with his PHP cannot read them. You could even run the FCGI-PHPs in a chroot jail to isolate them even more.

In addition, FCGI is often significantly more resource-efficient for PHP, as fewer PHP processes can run than Apache processes and the Apache processes do not become so bloated. If you have many virtual hosts, this can lead to the FCGI processes catching up in number - but then you should consider whether the FCGI processes should not run better on a dedicated machine.

This would be exactly the right thing for simon, especially since I could then also allow PHP for the other users.

Ape can transparently map Python objects in Zope to filesystem objects or PostgreSQL databases. Could be very interesting for work. Can also be used standalone (without Zope).

The Schill Party in Hamburg dissolves - and goodbye. Make sure the door doesn't hit you in the ass on the way out. No need to come back.

Fairsharing Petition

Go there, sign. Anyway, anyone interested in there being a private copy. By the way, the action also has a Weblog.

Ian Bicking compares FileSystemView vs. LocalFS as alternatives to store Zope objects in the file system.

Leica in financial crisis - oh Shit. Hopefully it works out anyway, or Hermes will shoot after. It would be a shame about Leica.

Microsoft will have invented the inequality command for Basic - and that over a month before April 1st ...

mod_fastcgi and mod_rewrite

Well, I actually tried using PHP as FastCGI - among other things because I could also use a newer PHP version. And what happened? Nothing. And there was a massive problem with mod rewrite rules. In the WordPress .htaccess, everything is rewritten to the index.php. The actual path that was accessed is appended to the index.php as PATH INFO. Well, and the PHP then spits out this information again and does the right thing.

But when I had activated FastCGI, that didn't work - the PHP always claimed that no input file was passed. So as if I had called the PHP without parameters. The WordPress administration - which works with normal PHP files - worked wonderfully. And the permission stuff also worked well, everything ran under my own user.

Only the Rewrite-Rules didn't work - and thus the whole site didn't. Pretty annoying. Especially since I can't properly test it without taking down my main site. It's also annoying that suexec apparently looks for the actual FCGI starters in the document root of the primary virtual server - not in those of the actual virtual servers. This makes the whole situation a bit unclear, as the programs (the starters are small shell scripts) are not where the files are. Unless you have created your virtual servers below the primary virtual server - but I personally consider that highly nonsensical, as you can then bypass Perl modules loaded in the virtual server by direct path specifications via the default server.

Ergo: a failure. Unfortunately. Annoying. Now I have to somehow put together a test box with which I can analyze this problem ...

Update: a bit of searching and digging on the net and a short test and I'm wiser: PATH_INFO with PHP as FCGI version under Apache is broken. Apparently, PHP gets the wrong PATH_INFO entry and the wrong SCRIPT NAME. As a result, the interpreter simply does not find its script when PATH INFO is set and nothing works anymore. Now I have to search further to see if there is a solution. cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 (which is generally offered as a help for this) does not work anyway. But if I see it correctly, there is no usable solution for this - at least none that is obvious to me. Damn.

Update 2: I found a solution. This is based on simply not using Apache, but lighttpd - and putting Apache in front as a transparent proxy. This works quite well, especially if I strongly de-core the Apache and throw the PHP out of it, it also becomes much slimmer. And lighttpd can run under different user accounts, so I also save myself the wild hacking with suexec. However, a lighttpd process then runs per user (lighttpd only needs one process per server, as it works with asynchronous communication) and the PHPs run wild as FastCGI processes, not as Apache-integrated modules. Apache itself is then only responsible for purely static presences or sites with Perl modules - I still have quite a few of those. At the moment I only have a game site running there, but maybe it will be switched in the next few days. The method by which cruft-free URIs are produced is quite funny: in WordPress you can simply enter the index.php as an Error-Document: ErrorDocument 404 /index.php?error=404 would be the entry in the .htaccess, in lighttpd there is an equivalent entry. This automatically redirects non-existent files (and the cruft-free URIs do not exist as physical files) to WordPress. There it is then checked whether there really is no data for the URI and if there is something there (because it is a WordPress URI), the status is simply reset. For the latter, I had to install a small patch in WordPress. This saves you all the RewriteRules and works with almost any server. And because it's now 1:41, I'm going to bed now ...

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is ...

As you can see in the 3M Security Glass Ad (real money in a real installation), 3M seems to take the security of its security glass very seriously. Nice advertising idea - I wonder how many people have already tried to break the glass.

Sony exits the PDA business completely - and that despite having the Clie PEG TH-55, which is pretty much the ultimate Palm OS device ...

Back to Camino from Firefox ...

... and back. Odyssey of the web browsers.

After working with Firefox for a few days, I switched back to Camino. Why? Well, under OS X, Firefox is suboptimal. For one, I have the impression that fonts are generally displayed smaller than in Camino or other real Mac programs. It might be an illusion. However, it is not an illusion that Firefox under OS X does not support Services. And that is annoying - what's the point if a bunch of programs hook into the Services menu and provide useful services that build on highlighted text in other programs, if the main application in which I spend my time on the computer does not support it at all?

Just as annoying was the fact that Tab-X is not supported under OS X. This extension attaches a close icon to every tab. I don't know what the UI designer of Firefox was thinking, but I consider neither the mandatory activation of a tab and then clicking on a tiny X at the right edge of the toolbar to be ergonomic, nor closing a tab via the context menu. Okay, you can get used to that if necessary.

Furthermore, I was constantly bothered by the fact that Firefox has its own password manager and does not use the KeyChain. I find it simply practical that all kinds of programs can register at a central location and that I can delete my passwords there if I need to. In addition, this helps to avoid constantly having to re-enter passwords just because you visit a page with a different browser.

Unfortunately, I lose all the nice things that are available via Firefox extensions - for example, the Web Developer Toolbar. Only that it doesn't work on my Mac anyway, who knows why - so I've only ever had it under Linux, and there I continue to use Firefox. I will miss the plugin for the Google PageRank status and the plugin for mozcc, however - both were quite practical. It's somehow stupid that I can't have both - a Firefox with proper integration into OS X, that would be it ...

Due to the pretty broken 0.8.2 of Camino, I downloaded and installed the 0.8.1 again. At least it has functioning tabs and doesn't crash all the time. I have no idea what they did with the 0.8.2, but it was definitely not to the benefit of Camino.

And of course, right after I wrote this, Camino started acting up. I can't believe it. The 0.8.1 had worked flawlessly before. Nevertheless, there were the same problems as with the 0.8.2 - probably triggered by some sites with which I work more frequently now than before? I have no idea - I haven't installed any special tools under OS X, on the contrary, I have uninstalled one.

So, trying other browsers again. Safari 1.0 under OS X 10.2.8 is clearly behind in features - but it would still remain as an alternative, but it crashes on some pages. OmniWeb is basically a souped-up Safari, but it crashes even more frequently. And Opera doesn't get along with the CSS of the WordPress admin at all - it's wildly mixed up. In addition, it always asks multiple times for passwords and Keychain access when I access some protected pages. And it has had this quirk for months - not very confidence-inspiring.

The IE for Mac is not even a desperation option. Netscape? No, sorry, but that's not necessary. Mozilla also not - then rather Firefox, because Mozilla not only does not integrate well into the system, it also looks completely different from OS X applications ...

The only really usable alternative browser under OS X 10.2 is - despite its problems - OmniWeb. As a last resort, Safari, but OmniWeb is more advanced in rendering on some pages. However, it still does not support things like clicking on the label of a checkbox to toggle it - it is used in the WordPress admin and avoids silly target practice. Except in OmniWeb or Safari. Okay, the fact that the QuickTag bar is missing in OmniWeb and Safari is intentional in WordPress - the JavaScript is not quite compatible.

So, back to the whole thing and use Firefox again and complain about the missing services (which, by the way, can also work in Carbon applications - if the programmer has considered this in his program)? Or just play with OmniWeb and see if you can get around the problems?

And what do we learn from this? All browsers suck. Even the good ones.

Future Bathing Paradise Mars?

Giant ice lake discovered on Mars - wow. So far there have only been traces, but no one has found solid-state water just lying around on Mars before. And then right away a pond the size of the North Sea ...

750 votes ...

... about whether Red/Green with the cooperation of the SSW can govern S.-H. for another 4 years. Ouch. You can't really call that a comfortable majority. And somehow, this doesn't make politics in S.-H. any easier to manage ...

Batch Categories 0.9 can batch-process posts into new categories. It's more of a hack than a plugin, but still quite practical under certain circumstances.

Brüderle threatens with anti-Danish resentments

Brüderle criticizes the SSW and demands that they handle their special status responsibly to avoid anti-Danish resentments - hello, still all your cups in the cupboard? What Brüderle is doing here almost borders on blackmail. Do what we want, or we'll bully you could be read into it. Quite stupid. But that's how they are, our Prolethikers ...