Archive 12.12.2003 - 19.12.2003

Ticker: Mars Express - wdr.de - Research

Do you know what's fascinating about the ticker? That it runs on a blogging platform, apparently with a userland tool, I'd guess Manila (or Radio on a Manila server). Didn't even know that WDR has blogs too. As a result, for example, there's an RSS feed and even a blogroll (though they only subscribed to themselves). Here's the original article.

welcome to macscripter.net | applescript and script resource - AppleEvent Monitor for debugging AppleScript and other program connections

Apple releases Battery Update 1.1 for portables

Weird. Software patches for a battery? Well, nothing surprises me anymore ...

At The Macintosh News Network you can find the original article.

Concurrent Versions Librarian - CVS interface for OS X

Errico Malatesta - Background on one of the most well-known Italian anarchists

Examples of Complex Rendering - Diacritic Placements - also combined characters - in fonts

HyperNext Home - HyperCard clone for Mac OS X

MacOS X Smalltalk - A new Smalltalk for Mac OS X Native

ASPN : Python Cookbook : Complex Boolean Regular Expression Class - A class for regular expressions that can be combined with boolean expressions

ASPN : Python Cookbook : Length-limited O(1) LRU Cache implementation - LRU implementation as a Python class

The Euro is Too Expensive

Of course, politicians will then find excuses again why all of this allegedly isn't true at all. But in the end, there's always more month left than money...

I found the original article at Der Schockwellenreiter.

freshmeat.net: freshmeat - freshmeat XML-RPC API available - Freshmeat has an XML-RPC interface to access project data

Self-Employment: Living on Your Own Account

Very interesting analysis of what politicians like to present as freedom for citizens.

I found the original article at DIE ZEIT: Feuilleton.

LaunchBar for Mac OS X - Simple tool for launching documents via keyboard and GUI

NdisWrapper - Use NDIS network drivers under Linux

Schill booted out of his own party

And goodbye ...

At WDR.de you can find the original article.

D-Link Deutschland GmbH - DBT-900AP - Bluetooth access point - unfortunately with security deficiencies according to Heise

Eastgate Tinderbox: the tool for notes - Zettelkasten in combination with agents for organizing data

Final expulsion of Schill?

Great. A party is considering expelling its founder. Perhaps they shouldn't have founded themselves on the basis of this founder in the first place? Well, they'll sink into insignificance anyway after all this chaos now.

Teufelsgrinsen

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Demystifying Open Source Developer Myths

What bothers me about these increasingly frequent myth-debunking exercises: they always assume that every open source programmer is out to deliver production-quality code. But that's the biggest myth that all these analysts fall for. Most OSS programmers code on programs because they solve a problem they have. Or because they simply enjoy working on the topic. Or because existing solutions don't work the way they imagine them. So the reasons are usually quite selfish at first. In the process, the end user and other developers are inevitably ignored initially - and from these projects, larger projects may later develop. In rare cases does a project really start from scratch with the premise of delivering professional software. But it's this playfulness and egoism of OSS programmers that creates diversity. And of course, also chaos. Funnily enough, these same selfish programmers are extremely generous and eager to share, which is why larger projects can only emerge from these projects at all. But usually there's a selfish motive behind that too: the need for recognition. A key driver in OSS projects is the pursuit of fame.

By the way, I see the whole thing as absolutely not negative, quite the opposite. It's precisely what makes the OSS landscape so colorful and interesting. Ignoring projects that don't interest you is definitely easier than complaining that these developers should be working on other projects - after all, there are no obligations in OSS.

The jump to a major project often only happens through a broader user base, from which collaborators gradually recruit themselves. Nevertheless, many projects remain the personal projects of individual people for a long time - even if there's already a developer community. The Linux kernel is still Linus's project, which becomes apparent whenever he rejects maintainers, rips out subsystems, and unilaterally replaces them with other implementations. The question of why he can do that answers itself: it's his project, of course he can.

In many discussions about the advantages and disadvantages, it's repeatedly assumed that OSS projects are even comparable to commercially operated projects. They are - when there's a company with commercial interests behind the OSS project. But with pure OSS projects, factors are at play that can't be compared to anything commercial or semi-commercial. And these projects make up the majority of OSS.

Therefore, investigations of myths in OSS are often themselves falling for myths.

Here's the original article.

Get the scoop on.. Scoop! :: Open Source Directory :: OSDir.com :: Open Source Software, Reviews & News - Scoop Installation guide - Scoop is the CMS behind Kuro5hin

Hugs 98 - Haskell Interpreter Implementation for many systems (even Zaurus)

Kästner out of schools?

The madness continues. A teacher is being warned because he posted teaching materials online - which in this case included text passages from Kästner. I am certain that this use of Kästner's texts is entirely in keeping with the author's intentions. How low can heirs actually sink when they no longer accomplish anything of their own, except exploiting the achievements of an ancestor - and in a manner that would surely have provoked nothing but outrage and head-shaking from the author himself?

I found the original article on Kai Surendorf's blog.

PyObjC - Home - Objective-C bridge for Python

The HarvestMan WebCrawler Robot - Web crawler in Python - for example for your own search engine

Armstrong: Hot Flirtation with Sheryl Crow

As long as he makes way for another winner at the next tour, and as long as he doesn't start singing or acting, I don't care.

At RADSPORT-NEWS.COM - Nachrichten-Gesamtübersicht there's the original article.

Photography: Willem Wernsen - Weblog

A beautiful photo blog, unfortunately without an RSS feed. Ok, and in Dutch, but the images are understandable for everyone anyway. And simply beautiful.

Here's the original article.

GROKLAW - Documentation of Another SCO Linux Hacker

And another SCO programmer has contributed large patches to the kernel. Particularly interesting: this programmer worked on SMP code, that is, multiprocessor capability, one of the areas objected to by SCO. And he has been working on it since at least 1998 - before SCO was acquired and before IBM entered the kernel.

Here's the original article.

mDNkit installation guide - Patches for various programs to prepare them for multilingual domains

Media Revolution or Diaries

Witty, informative and useful article about weblogs in Telepolis. So now I'm traveling as a blogonaut through the blogosphere, that's good too. Beam me up, Scotty, there is no intelligent life down here At Telepolis News you can find the original article.

RFC 3492 - Punicode - RFC for representing Unicode strings in domain names

SuperDrive - Region-free firmware for Powerbook Superdrives

Hooray for Hewlett-Packard!

That sounds very good - a printer that has an explicit pure B&W cartridge with black, gray, and light gray. This allows you to convert it to pure B&W operation without wild experiments with third-party cartridges, refill kits, tubes, syringes, open-heart surgery, and general anesthesia. It sounds like the right printer for me might finally be coming - something like the 7960 or 7660, but in a format for A3 prints. Until that becomes available, however, the 7660 with B&W cartridge could certainly be a good interim solution ...

Here's the original article.

[Inkjet-list] HP Inkjet Linux Driver 1.5 Release - Announcement of the HP inkjet printer driver for Linux

Lucky Strike Originals - Tivoli Model Three. - Top-class radio alarm clock

Does PowerPoint make you stupid?

When I look at typical managers and marketing guys, I'd say: Yes!

Teufelsgrinsen

At heise online news there's the original article.

Radio Days

Even better: Tivoli Model Three is the same device, but supplemented with an analog clock and an alarm function. Since my clock radio is slowly giving up the ghost after over 20 years of service, I'll probably get this one. The thing is simply and elegantly brilliant - a subtly illuminated analog clock, alarm function and the Tivoli Radio from the Model Two - so even prepared for a second speaker. It'll probably make a hole in my wallet, but I finally want to have a decent clock radio. At Ligne Claire you can find the original article.

Second p0st: Repairing MetaKit databases - Script for repairing MetaKit databases

The Museum of HP Calculators - Online museum of various HP pocket calculators

Wiki Calculators - Main.HomePage - Wiki for HP calculators - still somewhat sparse in content

Clean Disposal: Bacillus has an appetite for nuclear waste - Science - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Bacteria reduce radioactive metal and obtain their energy from it

Die Zeit 30 / 2003 - (c) DIE ZEIT : Article title from ZEIT on your website - RSS feeds for sections from Die Zeit

"Die Zeit" with RSS

Very nice.

At RSS-Info you can find the original article.

GROKLAW - the court hearing transcript

A transcript of the court hearing in which SCO was given a deadline until the end of January. What stands out to me is the chaotic argumentative structure and the frequent interruptions of the SCO lawyer (by the way, the CEO's brother - is it really a good idea to have your own family represent you?) by the court and, in contrast, the very straightforward and conclusive argumentation of the IBM lawyer. I would say there are clear weight class differences recognizable between the two.

Here's the original article.

iPodhead.com - a blog about the iPod and tips and tools for it

Leica Digilux 2 - the bigger picture: Digital Photography Review - More details and images of the Digilux 2

Minolta Digital SLR next year and more

Has Minolta finally woken up? No more stupid talk about the Dimage 7 series being a digital SLR? No more silly evasiveness when asked about digital SLRs from them? Or is this just a panic reaction? Anyway, for me the train has left the station. Contax not only built a full-frame digital camera, they've already discontinued it. Contax is simply ahead of its time.

At Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) you can find the original article.

Put the curser automatically in a forms field - set focus with JavaScript in HTML forms

Schill faction without Schill

Well, now even the Schill party (ok, only the senate faction) is celebrating the Schill-out ...

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Supybot - Possible replacement for Bobot++