Wave Power Plant Goes Online
Interesting concept. I'm curious about the results and whether this type of power plant has a future.
At NETZEITUNG.DE Wissenschaft you can find the original article.
Archive 27.3.2004 - 6.4.2004
Greenpeace protests against 'baby patent'
And the patent madness continues. Eventually even sexual intercourse will be patented and only permitted after paying a license fee...
I found the original article at NETZEITUNG.DE Science here.
My Digital SLR is Sick
My Kodak DCS 520 is sick. It keeps crashing - loses the time setting and locks up. The lockup resolves when I turn off the camera and then wait 1 minute until the camera timeout also shuts down the analog part (i.e., the part that is the EOS 1N). Then I can turn it back on, set the time, and continue shooting. Recently, though, I even had constant crashes during a walk with the camera - so far I haven't figured out exactly when it happens. The normal crashes only occur when I change the battery. If anyone else has such a camera and knows these symptoms, please let me know. PPS Hamburg has already threatened me with horrendous repair costs due to a mainboard defect, but maybe someone else knows something more about it.
Fortunately, I still have a purely mechanical Leica M, where the battery is only used for the exposure meter, so it works fine without power too. And it has no mainboard.
New utility strips DRM from iTunes Music Store tracks
Whether the tool will remain available for long? After all, it violates stricter laws in some countries regarding the protection of copy and usage restriction procedures (sorry, but none of them can really be called copy protection).
At The Macintosh News Network you can find the original article.
Audible.com - audio that speaks to you wherever you are
What should one think of an audiobook server that is almost completely based on Javascript for navigation? That violates all accessibility guidelines? That ultimately is not usable for the visually impaired - who are precisely the audience of such a service?
ICE Catastrophe Prevented at the Last Second
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
iPod too hard to use
Is the iPod too heavy to use? And the article didn't come out on April 1st? Humanity is doomed ... (ok, the British portion of humanity)
I found the original article at kasia in a nutshell.
When the Economy Takes the Lead
Funny. So far, public broadcasting has specifically highlighted its independence as its special feature. But where is that independence when ZDF makes deals with business to present products favorably in series and thus engage in disguised advertising? And now we're supposed to increase fees on top of that?
Cultural programs and interesting documentaries are banished to the margins around midnight, but silly trivial shows get prime time slots. And the whole thing nicely sponsored and corrupt. How does something like that align with the mission of public broadcasting?
At Telepolis News (04.04.2004) there's the original article.
Idiotic Mail Server Configurations Again
Found in the log file:
554- (RTR:DU) The IP address you are using to connect to AOL is a dynamic 554- (residential) IP address. AOL will not accept future e-mail transactions 554- from this IP address until your ISP removes this IP address from its list 554- of dynamic (residential) IP addresses. For additional information, 554- please visit http://postmaster.info.aol.com. 554 Connecting IP: 62.226.72.29
No, I don't want to deliver any mail at all. I just want to check the validity of email addresses. But AOL is already preventing me from doing that in advance - instead of waiting until a DATA command comes, which would actually initiate a real mail. As a result, I can't use the callback because AOL won't let me verify and I end up rejecting all mail from AOL users. That's ridiculous.
With their very strange actions against spam, such providers only make it harder for other people to protect themselves against spam too. Because I get the rejection before the first command - so I can't even do a VRFY or anything like that. I can't even establish a connection to the AOL mail server.
To explain what I do: when mail comes in, I check whether the technical sender (i.e., where bounces go) is a valid mailbox. This way I reject all mail that can't be bounced. If I can't send an error report for it, I don't want the mail. To do this, my mail server attempts mail delivery. However, only the first two commands are sent - MAIL FROM and RCPT TO. No DATA and especially no mail.
This is a common procedure to ensure that only real mail arrives at a server. But since AOL now prevents every connection to the mail server, I can't use this approach anymore - I can no longer verify AOL addresses the same way I can with other addresses. Which, given the fact that AOL addresses in particular are faked for spam, is quite audacious of AOL.
Index of /~erich/bricolage - Debian packages for Bricolage
Solution for previous problem
So, I've now simply moved my email validation to an external server, which I query via XML-RPC. It then performs the email validation - and since it runs on a static IP, it's also accepted by AOL.
Anyone who wants to play around with this, the service is accessible via SOAP or XMLRPC. The address for XMLRPC: http://simon.bofh.ms:1111/RPC2 and then call the method mailcheck.validateEmail(adr) there. The address for SOAP: http://simon.bofh.ms:1111/SOAP/mailcheck and then call validateEmail(adr) there. Documentation of the method for this module can be found at http://simon.bofh.ms:1111/API/mailcheck. A WSDL for .NET people and others who need that sort of thing can be found at http://simon.bofh.ms:1111/WSDL/mailcheck. By the way, the web service was created using TooFPy. The corresponding tool is included in the source package - or can be viewed directly in CVS.
Randall D. Beer - FPC-PPC - Floating Point Compiler for OpenMCL and MCL
The Mason Book - Bricolage Guide
Autobahn 1 "Artificial resin-sealed"
It's just absolutely perfect timing
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
Federal Council rejects TKG bill
Remember at the next elections: the Union wants to collect your data, sell it, force you to eat genetically modified food and increase your working hours, but cut all social benefits in return.
Unfortunately, we're in Germany and so such nonsense is actually likely to be a promising election platform ...
At heise online news you can find the original article.
A Little Spring
Since posting about spring seems to be all the rage at the moment, here are some pictures from my last extended lunch break ...
Kabel Deutschland pays 2.6 billion for takeover of competitor
And what was the reason again for why cable networks were supposed to be privatized? Wasn't it supposed to be to lower prices through competition? Could someone please shove the entire collection of cable network operators up the ass of these market economy fetishists who are always banging on about the power of the private market?
What a mess. Now we have a genially gigantic selection of one cable network operator. And specifically a private one that's hardly controllable at all. Really great stuff.
At heise online news there's the original article.
Debian GNU/Linux -- apt-build
Debian's Answer to Gentoo Linux
(and if you use Xine or Ogle for example, you should definitely consider it - with those, optimized compilation makes quite a bit of difference in performance)
Lego and Customer Friendliness
After weeks of waiting, I finally got an answer to a simple question. I wanted a Lego Mindstorms infrared tower for USB connection. The answer? Parts from sets are not available from Lego. So there are no replacement parts. If something gets lost or broken from a set, buy a new set. What a load of rubbish.
Oetker is allowed to brew even more beer
Beer pudding?
At tagesschau.de - Die Nachrichten der ARD you can find the original article.
PyOXIDE - pythonmac.org wiki - Mac OS X IDE for Python - still in development
ThinkGraph: Introduction - Concept Map Editor that uses SVG directly as storage format - for Windows
Various bits of software
Those who enjoy programming with OCaml will find some very interesting and especially practical programs under the link above. I particularly like spamoracle, a very useful filter for statistical spam analysis. I'm now using it on my new server. The original article can be found here.
Since we're talking about inquiries to companies ...
Unfortunately, Apple was unable to process your order XXXXXXXXX because your file contained a transmission error. Large parts of your images were not visible, so the entire quality of your prints suffered. Therefore, we have cancelled your entire order and would like to recommend that you place a new order. Right. I'm putting together a data package for a book order with iPhoto - the foolproof software for image management. Apple makes everything idiot-proof to use, but omits a checksum during data transmission? And only realizes weeks after the order that the data is corrupted?
Right. And pigs can fly.
EU Parliament protests against flight data transfer
Bolkestein is wheeling and dealing with the US government, and then this unwashed EU Parliament comes along and complains. Of all things. Damn parliamentary democracy.
At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.
Garzweiler II: New Dispute over Fruit Meadow
Apfelix and BUNDelix against Garzweiler ...
At WDR.de you can find the original article.
MacWarriors TrailBlazer - Cool graphical browser history - unfortunately only from Panther onwards
SCO vs. Linux: IBM Sees Copyright Infringements at Work
And the IBM lawyers are having more fun: now they're turning the tables and attacking SCO.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Teen Arrested for Sexually Abusing Herself
A 15-year-old girl took naked pictures of herself and published them. That's stupid and certainly the girl didn't understand what that really meant at the time. But the fact that this girl was now convicted of sexual abuse of a minor and possession and distribution of child pornography is really absurd.
At lies.com you can find the original article.
TP: Wind energy has a future
Almost overlooked: a response to the unspeakable Spiegel article.
Translucent Inter-Process Service Migration - Migration of services from one server to another for planned downtime purposes
Worm 'Witty': Security patch only for money
But commercial firewall solutions are so much better than open source solutions. And of course a personal firewall on a Windows machine is equivalent to a dedicated firewall host based on Linux...
At NETZEITUNG.DE Internet you can find the original article.
Bill Gates: In 10 years, many important IT problems will be solved
Because in 9 years Microsoft will close its doors, after still no alpha of Longhorn is available?
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Cycling
Münster the most bicycle-friendly city? The ADFC has lost their minds. Sorry, but anyone who's ever cycled in Münster knows how mediocre the bike paths are - with a road bike you get your rims destroyed. Sure, as a cyclist you don't have to follow any traffic rules in Münster (at least most cyclists in Münster believe that - as a pedestrian you can often only choose whether you'd rather be run over by a car or a bicycle), but the city really isn't that bicycle-friendly. The entire city center is designed with large patches of cobblestones aimed at rim destruction, proper bike racks (ones that don't bend your rims) only exist in a few places, and you rarely see usable poles to chain bikes to. And if we hadn't accidentally had a red-green council once in a while, we wouldn't even have the bicycle parking garage (and probably not the park-and-ride area with bike boxes either).
At Fundsachen there's the original article.
Music Industry Sues File-Sharing Users
The only concept in the music industry: waves of lawsuits.
At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.
PyWX: Python for AOLserver - Embed Python in AOL Server as an alternative to TCL
Arbitrariness of the Justice Senator in Hamburg
How a CDU Senator shows himself unimpressed by court decisions and bends the law.
I found the original article at .::: [unsinnfälliges].
Rüttgers demands mandatory private pension for all
Let me summarize once more: the existing pension fund is designed according to the principle of cost minimization - a public administration, control apparatus and essentially legal protection (except when a chancellor dips into the pension fund for reunification, but that's a different story). The advantage of such a public institution: it is controllable (at least if politicians and federal government institutions do their job) and the government can exert direct influence (which brings us back to the chancellor with his blooming imagination, sorry, blooming landscapes).
On the other hand, we have large insurance companies whose orientation has a single goal: profit maximization. Makes the shareholders happy - customers are only of secondary interest. Besides, of course the employees of the insurance companies need to be paid. And the boss needs his million-dollar severance. And a new company car for the procurator is also due, just like the beautiful ostentatious buildings in the insurance districts of major German cities. And government influence? No influence, except through legislation. Securing pensions? No special provisions (of course, the legislator could ensure that - but that would then be an impermissible intervention in the economy, huge fuss about the business location, massive protests about competitive disadvantage...).
Rüttgers now wants to force all citizens to put money into a second pot to balance the money he wants to take from them from the first pot. Money should flow out of controllable and state-run pots into uncontrollable pots subject to economic arbitrariness. Because it's guaranteed to become cheaper for consumers when a structure oriented toward cost minimization is replaced by one oriented toward profit maximization.
In the Ruhr Valley, workers take to the streets against the state and for their business bosses - because they want to protest against emissions trading regulations. No one there seems to care about their pension...
The original article is available at tagesschau im Internet.
Bütikofer: Clement questions coalition
Clement is just doing what he already did in North Rhine-Westphalia: testing how much strain he can put on the administration, checking whether he can push through without compromise. Without regard for the consequences. He already tried this in North Rhine-Westphalia but ultimately failed against Bärbel Höhn. Though "failed" is relative—he got through much more than the Greens liked. This whole game will probably be easier against Trittin. Or even harder—Trittin seems to have genuine staying power (or he's just too dull to notice what he has to take). What's it all supposed to accomplish? No idea, they're politicians, you probably only understand them if you're a trained psychologist.
At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.
Duden-Homepage - Change in capitalization for personal address forms with the new spelling rules
Capitalist's Servant
Well, when it comes to one's own money, the radical communist shows their true colors
At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft you can find the original article.
Research Against the Warning Letter Craze
Reason Against Warning Letter Mania? Forget About It.
The original article can be found at Telepolis News (27.03.2004).
Google Search: - Prototype based programming as metaclass hack for Python
Prothon - Interesting mix of Python and Self