Blue Bears?
Blue Bears?
No, but at least blueberries ...
Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form
Even More Green
Even More Green
Yes, I'm running out of image titles and associations. Are you just noticing that now?
Joseph's Church Economic Building
Economic Building of the Joseph's Church
No, I still don't like the organization church. Nevertheless, some of their buildings occasionally offer nice subjects.
Forgent sues 31 companies over JPEG
One reason why it should be mandatory for formats that become IETF or other standards to be generally released from all patent holders as a matter of principle. Unfortunately, the opposite is rather the case.
At Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) there is the original article.
Nikon Coolwalker MSV-01 Digital Photo Storage Viewer First Look
Interesting device: There are plenty of mass storage devices for images, some also with display of stored images. But this one is special because it can also display the Nikon NEF format - i.e. the RAW images from Nikons.
Wolfram's Future Math
Excerpts from A New Kind of Science - very interesting images and explanations about them - especially if you're interested in cellular automata and the complexity of their results. It reminds me of experiments I did in school with cellular automata - the results were often just as fascinating as exploring the Mandelbrot set, but much easier to perform on computers with limited resources. I found the original article at Lambda the Ultimate.
Kill Bill Vol. 1 - DVD
Hmm. Was there also a censorship beep in the cinema over Uma's performance in front of the little girl when she says her name? I can't remember that at all.
News from the Devil's Digi
My digital camera wants to annoy me. Now it's running again - first it wasn't responding anymore (P2160), now it worked right away. Apparently it worked so hard during its last use that it needed a week's vacation first. Strange. Maybe that was just a fear reaction that it's now working - where I threatened to buy a new one ...
UNIX History - Unix History Chart
CD-RW better for archiving than CD-R?
Just one paragraph in the text, but the hint sounds interesting: CD-RWs don't use color particles that get hit by the laser and can fade later — instead they use metallic elements that reflect light differently. These elements may not be as susceptible to environmental parameters as the color particles in CD-Rs. Something similar seems to be the case with DVDs. So it could make sense to archive on RW media. Here's more information. Here's the original article.
Cinema: Death in the Children''s Room
It'll take me a few more days before I get to see it. So please hold back on the spoilers!
I found the original article at DIE ZEIT: Feuilleton and the original article.
Ullrich cancels Liège and Henninger Tower
Bah.
At least Team T-Mobile still has a couple of other good riders, and maybe Vinokourov will have the right legs for the Tour again. And Gerolsteiner is also doing quite well with Hondo.
I found the original article at Radsport-News.com.
A, B, C, ... D! The Programming Language - OSNews.com
A, B, C, ... D! The Programming Language - OSNews.com - Description of the D programming language
Castor Transport: NRW sues, Saxony grumbles
Yeah, Saxony wants to save money, so NRW should spend millions on a transport that makes no sense and isn't necessary. Great idea.
You can find the original article at WDR.de.
iamphet.nm.ru - Scheme stuff (MzVim)
iamphet.nm.ru - Scheme stuff (MzVim) - Integrate MzScheme as a scripting language in VIM
Minister Schmidt sees 'educational catastrophe' coming
I see a catastrophe coming in the face of mindless politicians. Nobody's interested either.
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
Walloon Arrow: Ullrich climbs off bike after 100km
Oh man, this won't work like this ...
At Radsport-News.com I found the original article.
dkbza - pydot
dkbza - pydot - Python Interface for the GraphViz DOT language
Apple Xsan: an Overview
Yummy! Do I have a chance to motivate my employer to switch everything to XServes? Probably not. Too bad, actually.
At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft you can find the original article.
The New Power of Authors
Well, as soon as there's something somewhere that someone could benefit from committing fraud over, there will be at least one fraudster who exploits it. It's kind of like a law of nature - and it applies to authors too.
At NETZEITUNG.DE Voice of Germany you can find the original article.
MS Explorer ''Patch'': Either 14 Holes or No SSL
It's kind of funny how this software monstrosity is falling apart these days. Not really high-quality software, that sort of thing.
At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft you can find the original article.
Apple's jackboots step on PlayFair in India.
Well, let's see where PlayFair shows up next. It has a bit of that tortoise and hare quality to it.
At kuro5hin.org you can find the original article.
Calzone
I don't often do this, but I have to vent my frustration: my calzone had tuna in it. Yuck. There you are hungry, have to wait over an hour for the calzone, and then something like that – tuna in the calzone without being asked.
DarwinPorts Home
I was actually a Fink fan until recently (if only because it's based on Debian utilities). But since Fink has been behaving very strangely for me lately (for example, the Fink mirrors weren't all reachable because their nameserver apparently was misconfigured or because their SVN port simply didn't work, or because support for 10.2 is a bit strange), I decided to try DarwinPorts. And I have to say, I really like the system.
However, what I don't like so much is the fact that not every program works out-of-the-box. mtr, for example, complains about raw packets that it can't generate because it's not suid-root. True - it wasn't. I don't simply install ports as root - I use a normal user for the build. That all works fine because the user has the necessary permissions. But an mtr that is suid-gb can't generate raw packets anymore, even when used by root...
However, the normal user will probably rarely stumble over this, and normal applications should work pretty much right away.
What really puzzled me, however, was my attempt to install Subversion. Okay, I can understand that Subversion needs a web server - after all, it's essential for the server (although personally I would prefer a separation into a Subversion server and a Subversion client). But that Apache2 should be fetched just so a local installation of it runs on the machine, just because you might need the Subversion client - I think that's rather awkward. Especially since there are Port variants for exactly that purpose - but Subversion only offers a mod_dav_svn and a Python variant. In the mod_dav_svn variant, Apache is a prerequisite - but I actually just wanted normal Subversion. Strange. Okay, well, I admit - if you know what APR is, it also becomes clear where Apache2 comes in. Here's the original article.
SCO vs. Linux: Baystar Capital will Investment in SCO beenden
Ouch.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
German Spelling Alphabet
German Phonetic Alphabet - German Phonetic Alphabet
Are warning letters no longer allowed to rake in money?
This might put a stop to cease-and-desist letter mania for some. If those sending cease-and-desist letters have to reckon with consequences that go beyond normal court costs, they might think twice about it in the future. On the other hand, there are still far too many situations where absurd cease-and-desist letters are successful.
At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft you can find the original article.
Staged victory for Darwin opponents
I simply don't understand why people want to push through such nonsense and why politicians let themselves be harnessed to such an absurd cart. Ok, it's the Berlusconi government, which has barely missed a single gaffe and embarrassment so far, but even for them it's actually a pretty absurd matter.
Reality does not bend to the superstitious notions of some church bigwigs and their crazy followers. Evolution is reality, whether these nuts like it or not.
I hope the Italian Constitutional Court stops this nonsense before it spreads any further. It's bad enough that this nonsense keeps bubbling up in America, it doesn't need to get state support in Europe too.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Shanghai: Transrapid route sinking, hardly any passengers
73 passengers a day? And run a Transrapid for that? You might as well sink it and plow it under, that would be cheaper.
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
GROKLAW - Linux as Security Risk and the Answers to It
At groklaw there is a summary of reactions to the nonsense that was spouted by the head of Green Hills Software.
Linux 2.6 and mISDN HowTo
Linux 2.6 and mISDN HowTo - HowTo for ISDN over CAPI with Linux 2.6
Embedded Systems Developer: "Linux is a Security Risk"
Oh man, there's someone who, in a desperate attempt to hold onto his slipping furs, shot way over the mark and made a fool of himself.
At heise online news there's the original article.
Erik Zabel wins Rund um Köln
Rode out brilliantly, absolutely sovereign. A bit of bad luck for Danilo Hondo, who was on the wrong side of Zabel. But Zabel's performance was absolutely brilliant - and with that he gets his 186th victory and ties with Cippolini.
My Digital SLR is probably dead now
As I wrote in P2139, my digital SLR (a Kodak DCS 520) was acting up. Today the digital camera part won't turn on at all - the analog part, which is an EOS 1N, works perfectly. Only the digital component supplied by Kodak refuses to respond. Shit. And I've only had the camera since January - but purchased it privately. Now I'm wondering whether I'd be satisfied with a 10D or possibly even a 300D - both are significantly slower than my DCS 520. Ok, the resolution is higher, the images larger, but I don't really need that necessarily. With the DCS 520 I was already able to print images at 20x30 cm even though it only delivered 2 megapixels. Has anyone else previously owned a fast digital SLR and switched to one of these slower Canons? Or does someone have a pro SLR for work and a consumer SLR for private use and can say something about how they subjectively compare? So it's not about the specs on paper, but about the subjective frustration that could arise from possibly slower response times. An EOS is important because only with those do I have the chance to continue using my Zeiss lenses with an adapter. Besides, I already have a quite nice lens for Canon - the 2.5/50 macro. Otherwise the Nikon D70 would be significantly more interesting from a specs standpoint, since it's considerably faster.
Somehow digital is annoying. Analog is much more reliable and the selection isn't fraught with nearly as many compromises. But unfortunately you don't get the image right away, which you sometimes would like to have...
Update: after some calculations and considerations I've added the D70 back to my selection. The speed and some missing features of the 300D make the D70 significantly more attractive - after all, you can get it together with the 60mm Micro Nikkor for the price of the 10D body, with sometimes significantly better performance. Which of course doesn't really make the choice any easier...
Stop Church Exits with Tax Advantages
What a stupid idea. Tax benefits for those who are church members. Is there really no proposal so dumb and absurd that some stupid CDU/CSU politician won't put it on the table?
The taxpayer is already financing the church anyway. Directly through tax collection executed by the state, indirectly through the many kindergartens, schools and hospitals that are allegedly run by church organizations but ultimately operated with taxpayer money.
The Catholic Church is one of the richest organizations in Germany, is tax-privileged through its church status and is now supposed to be additionally subsidized at the wish of these CDU/CSU clowns? Ridiculous!
At tagesschau.de - The ARD News you can find the original article.
Wiki Software at Webware
An interesting wiki software in Python that works with restructured Text instead of any wiki markup language. Very interesting because ReST is very powerful and also very pleasant for web-based editing - no markup, but mainly just formatted ASCII text. Unfortunately currently only available via Subversion.
Zope.org - Readme file for ZopeEditManager 0.9.3
Zope.org - Readme file for ZopeEditManager 0.9.3 - Integrate External Editor in Zope under OS X
30-meter spruce for Easter bonfire
This Easter bonfire nonsense is getting on my nerves big time. The whole area stinks like a cold ashtray. Disgusting. And every farm thinks it has to burn its own Easter fire. Nothing but pyromaniacs around here ...
At WDR.de you can find the original article.
Apple protects itself from 'Playfair'
Was to be expected that Apple would take action against it. Hosting the project on Sourceforge was really a bit too bold.
It could be interesting to observe how this develops further. For Apple, it could become a real problem if the music industry thinks their DRM implementation is too lax - and, for example, prefers Microsoft's model.
On the other hand, Apple now has such a large market share in music downloads that it's probably somewhat difficult for the music industry to take action against Apple without shooting themselves in the foot. Though they're dumb enough to try anyway.
At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft there's the original article.
For Radio Programmers
I wasn't familiar with him. Very practical! Especially since I finally got access to cable radio yesterday.
At Wortfeld you can find the original article.
Sun discontinues development of UltraSparc V
Ouch. Ok, it was foreseeable - the new chips were announced repeatedly, but never appeared. Still - that's quite a debacle. SUN simply doesn't have enough resources to abandon a chip line in the sand without it having an impact on the company ...
At heise online news you can find the original article.