Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form

Major setback for whale hunting opponents

Major setback for anti-whaling activists - in the name of commerce and idiocy, we simply kill all the whales. What madness ...

Phones are disposable products

Well, I've recently become the owner (well, from the company's perspective) of a Sony Ericsson V600i. A fairly new phone, if I understand correctly. Also, not bad in terms of features. But it has a serious bug in the built-in SSL library - some certificates (apparently all those signed with a certain Thawte root certificate) are rejected as invalid. Unfortunately, Google uses something like this for the mail server - I can only access my mail via the web interface with the phone, not via POP3S.

So, in May, I wrote to Sony-Ericsson support. I described my problem and asked for a comment - maybe I can work around the problem. The error causes me to be unable to install the Thawte root certificate, the phone rejects it outright. And the mail client does not allow an override for SSL connections with supposedly invalid certificates - unlike the web browser, which does allow it.

The first comment from support: they had no information about this problem. Great. But my email provided them with some, why can't they just pass it on to the technical department? Well, I described my problem again, in more detail - maybe the first email was too technical for the S-E supporters. And no, the suggestion to contact Google about the problem, or Thawte, is rather silly. SSL certificates are an industry standard.

Well, after my second email to support, the matter is at least being passed on to the technical department. So, a good sign. I thought.

What came, however, was rather embarrassing. Because in the following weeks, nothing happened. I was in the virtual equivalent of a waiting loop - every few days a note that there was still no information on the point from the technical department. Incidentally, a simple and primitive bug to replicate: try to upload the certificate I attached via Bluetooth and see the error message on the phone. Should take only a few minutes to at least confirm that the error was replicated. Well, I was in the waiting loop. For a month (pretty much exactly - the message went to the technical department on the 18th, today is the 19th).

Today, the answer from the technical department came. I can't help it, I have to quote it verbatim:

Our back office has informed us that further development for this mobile phone has been discontinued and that the conflict can therefore no longer be resolved here. This will only be possible with future models. Thank you for your understanding.

Exactly. A relatively new phone, for which there were still delivery delays due to its novelty when it was ordered. A phone that is still under legal warranty. A bug that makes an industry standard only partially usable. A bug that simply disables some functions of the phone. But I am supposed to understand that development has been discontinued. I can buy one of the mysterious successor phones. Or, as offered in the same email, buy more accessories from the store.

Hello? Reality check? You've already ripped me off once, do you really think I'll buy another phone from Sony-Ericsson? Why? So that it will no longer be developed right after purchase and I get the short end of the stick?

Phone manufacturers are just as arrogant and have the same loss of reality as the music industry - no idea about customers, no idea about customer needs, and no idea what a customer expects from a product - that it is at least supported during the legal warranty period, for example.

Take the phone as it is - bugs included? Doesn't matter, it's your problem, customer, not ours. And in the background, the bosses are rubbing their hands together, laughing maliciously, firing employees, and pocketing the big salaries. A pathetic picture, Sony-Ericsson. Quite pathetic ...

Jan Ullrich hangs up

Jan Ullrich calls it quits - and wins the Tour de Suisse. Maybe the Tour de France will still be a chance for him this year.

Wengophone: VoIP done right

Wengophone: VoIP done right - could this be free software that can compete with Skype? Free is only the software, the use of the network infrastructure is tied to a provider and is chargeable.

Allegro Common Lisp Express

Allegro Common Lisp Express - the current free (as in free beer) version 8.0 of it is out now.

Judgment: Pre-checking forum posts is unreasonable

Judgment: Pre-checking of forum posts is unreasonable - I don't know how many contradictory judgments it will take until there is finally a consensus on this topic ...

Automatic Pickle Serialization and Deserialization with PostgreSQL

Automatic Pickle Serialization and Deserialization with PostgreSQL - very interesting, automatic pickle/unpickle when using PsycoPG2.

Bundestag decides on state-ordered starvation

Bundestag beschließt staatlich verordnetes Verhungern - a good comment on the Bundestag's decision to reduce benefits to zero for unemployed people who "refuse" three times (I wonder how many politicians would accept one of the "offers" ...)

The World Naked at Friends' Place

The world naked at friends' places - how convenient for the police to simply define their profile so that all young women fall under it and then get backing from the court when they force women to undress for no reason ... Rule of law? Forget it.

Former BND spy implicates Hanning | tagesschau.de

Former BND spy implicates Hanning | tagesschau.de - hey, August, this is not a good picture that you are presenting of Nordwalde. I already thought that you had to play the role of the top spy was a mess, but this here ...

Microsoft's Calling Home Problem

Microsoft's Calling Home Problem - about the latest approaches with which Microsoft spies on legal users.

Speaking Frankly: From Leitz sublime to Leica splitsville

Speaking Frankly: From Leitz sublime to Leica splitsville - no, I didn't know that Leitz helped Jews during the Nazi era to emigrate from Germany and start over abroad. Respect.

McDonald's Interactive Division

McDonald's Interactive Division - real or hoax? If it's real, then hats off to the action.

Death of an Innocent Remains Without Legal Consequences

Death of an Innocent with No Legal Consequences - how convenient, when there is no way to convict them. Strangely enough, the victim is there, the weapons and the perpetrators. And yet you can't convict them. Of course ...

US House of Representatives votes against 'Net Neutrality'

US House of Representatives votes against "net neutrality" - we can probably assume that the worst possible variant will prevail ...

SkypeOut - The End

SkypeOut - The End - new business concept: simply collect customer credit after some time. Maybe send an empty e-mail as a reminder beforehand. Skype should patent this ...

Create SL Objects in Blender — If You Dare

Create SL Objects in Blender — If You Dare - very interesting, a bridge between Blender and SecondLive - Offline content creation could be possible.

Sony: 10-Megapixel Camera with Dust Brush from the Alpha Series

Sony: 10-Megapixel camera with a duster from the alpha series - not so stupid, what Sony has made from Minolta.

Caller ID Spoofing

Caller ID Spoofing - what is worse than a broken authorization system? One that millions of people and machines trust.

Rolling Stone: Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Rolling Stone : Was the 2004 Election Stolen? - Evidence that the 2004 election in the USA was anything but clean.

OLG Frankfurt: Online-Demonstration is not violence

OLG Frankfurt: Online-Demonstration ist keine Gewalt - hopefully online demonstrations will now really be treated the same way and considered according to the same criteria as real demonstrations.

Digital rangefinder camera Epson R-D1s is coming

Digital rangefinder camera Epson R-D1s is coming - and doesn't sound bad at all, the price has come down significantly. So I will probably postpone any camera purchases until after Photokina.

StepTalk

StepTalk(GNU Scripting Framework) - now available in a version for Mac OS X!

The Illustrated Nethack Monsters

The Illustrated Nethack Monsters - an image for every character monster from Nethack.

Basso outclasses the competition

Basso outclasses the competition - one could certainly say that at the Giro. Ok, the competition for the Tour was of course not completely present (Ullrich only as a teammate and Vinokourov was missing), but still a strong performance.

Offended Italian Liver Sausage

Offended Italian salami - in any case, that's the impression Simoni gives me. Somehow it seems to be missing for him that his times are probably over.

The source texts for UCSD-Pascal are free

The source code for UCSD-Pascal is free - for fans of old languages and old operating systems. Oh man, that was the first Pascal environment I hacked on at school almost 24 years ago ...

Feedjack - A Django+Python Powered Feed Aggregator (Planet)

Feedjack - A Django+Python Powered Feed Aggregator (Planet) - could perhaps be used as a replacement for the rather outdated WordPress at metaowl.de?

Microsoft wants 'cooperating editorial teams'

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 ...

PL/1 for GCC

PL/1 for GCC - for fans of old languages.

PyCells and peak.events

PyCells and peak.events - Phillip J. Eby on Cells and what they mean for event-oriented programming. Particularly interesting, as one of the projects in the Google Summer of Code is a Python implementation of the Cell concept.

Theory for Cloaking Devices

Theory for cloaking devices - Invisiprims for RL ... (SL-Insider-Joke, sorry)

US Patent Office Rejects Claims in Forgent's JPEG Patent

US Patent Office rejects claims in Forgent's JPEG patent - hopefully the rest of their silly patent will be invalidated as well.

Medallia Blog: SmackBook Pro

Medallia Blog: SmackBook Pro - use the motion sensor of the new MacBook Pro to switch between virtual desktops. Just give the MacBook Pro a slap ...

O’Reilly trademarks “Web 2.0″ and sets lawyers on IT@Cork! » at Tom Raftery’s I.T. views

O’Reilly trademarks “Web 2.0″ and sets lawyers on IT@Cork! » at Tom Raftery’s I.T. views - and demands a name change of a conference not organized by them. Well, Web 2.0 is just marketing jargon ...

Safari Tidy plugin

Safari Tidy plugin - tidy as a Safari plugin. Nice. Safari is slowly growing up.

x48 emulator

x48 emulator - and on the Nokia Pad! Genius, hopefully there will soon be an installable package.

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!

Are you generic?

Are you generic? - Wilson Miner describes how he, as a non-programmer, can create applications himself without programmer assistance using Django and its simple generic view functions.

Free42 for Zaurus X/Qt and Nokia 770

Free42 for Zaurus X/Qt and Nokia 770 - an HP42S emulator that runs on the Nokia tablet. Brilliant.

MyTunesRSS

MyTunesRSS - nice little tool, starts a web server and generates dynamic podcast feeds (as well as a simple web interface) from the iTunes library.

Rogue Amoeba - Nicecast for Mac OS X

Rogue Amoeba - Nicecast for Mac OS X - Stream iTunes to a ShoutCast server (or locally on the LAN).

Clinic Strike: Are Insured Patients Not Emergencies?

Klinikstreik: Are cash patients not emergencies? - the types of surgeries performed despite the strike, I'm not surprised. But the strong preference for private patients that comes through - something like this can already reduce the acceptance of the doctors' strike.