Protesters ride down ...
... will soon be back in NRW again. Although in 2003 all units were abolished due to the far too high costs.
Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form
LambdaMOO (with LambdaMOO Map) An Introduction
LambdaMOO (with LambdaMOO Map) An Introduction - Multiuser platforms are all the rage right now. How about one that only needs one port - and then comes completely text-oriented? So to speak, a multi-user Infocom adventure?
MudWalker - A MUD Client for Mac OS X
MudWalker - A MUD Client for Mac OS X - can be used for LambdaMOO (hey, I don't want to just sit around stupidly in the hotel tonight!)
Naked Objects in Virtual Life
Stupid title, I know. But that's exactly what the Linden Script Language (LSL) is - the programming language used to control objects in Second Life. Every virtual object is also a program object with its own methods that react to external events. Somehow, I can imagine that Second Life would be well suited for introducing event-oriented programming, as you can directly interact with the objects.
The physics simulation in the game is also exciting - because scripts also have access to it. This way, it directly offers an experimental platform for virtual robotics experiments and the visualization of simulations (or even directly experiential visual simulations - a complete virtual world).
One does wonder why a game developer has such ideas, and why many simulation environments for "serious" research come across as so boring. Perhaps scientists should make contact with game designers to liven up classrooms and labs a bit? Dealing with such topics is certainly much easier to convey in a playful way, especially because students might actually listen then ...
Roam
Roam - a Google-like search engine including Ads. Not for the web, but for the Metaverse - the Second Life content. Did I mention that ads are also placed there? For virtual products in virtual stores in a virtual world? Payable with virtual money?
Technical Revolution
Technical Revolution - but here in a cartoon world. About the upheaval of a steam robot world when they discover and use the electron ...
Gosling Didn’t Get The Memo
Gosling Didn’t Get The Memo - and gets wonderfully roasted. Comment and link collection on the latest "they're just scripting languages" comment by James Gosling.
Another Week in Munich
Internet only over GPRS or at the office. And anyway - why do they still have the snow machine on here? It's supposed to be spring, damn it!
What CEOs Learn Today ...
... contains nothing about the Works Constitution Act
The pillars of the company are "justice, openness, and common sense," not the Works Constitution Act. "With all due respect for the protection of minorities," he does not understand the "legislator when a 9% majority can dictate the conditions to the others," wrote Plattner. Around 91% of the staff at the SAP headquarters in Walldorf had voted against a works council.
First of all, to Heise: that was 91% of the employees who participated in the election. That is significantly less than 91% of the entire staff, even at the headquarters. But never mind. Because the real bombshell is that the company's co-founder and current chairman of the supervisory board actually believes that the Works Constitution Act is not the basis of his company. Dreamer. Funny enough, it's in the law book, Mr. Plattner. How stupid do you have to be as a company boss to let something so rarely stupid slip out? Well, it will probably be the new unit of measurement for company boss stupidity: one Plattner = ignoring an entire set of laws ...
According to Spiegel, the company now wants to propose its own electoral committee for the works council elections, which will most likely consist of employee representatives of the supervisory board and not those colleagues who wanted to enforce the works council with the support of IG Metall. The company would thus preempt the labor court, which could appoint an electoral committee.
Oh, and the electoral committee does not prescribe anything at all - and has nothing to do with the protection of minorities. The electoral committee simply ensures the proper conduct of works council elections, nothing more. And whether an electoral committee appointed by such a stupid company management is capable of doing so, I dare to doubt.
Perhaps it's time for the company management to finally understand what works council elections are: the election of employee representatives by all employees of a company. Regardless of how few are the reason for the election, every employee (ok, a few exceptions with AT contracts exist) may vote, and almost everyone may stand for election (a few more exceptions compared to the active right to vote - executive employees are excluded from the passive right to vote). And yes, this usually means that in companies of corresponding size, several lists are up for election - usually one from the union (or more correctly, a list of unionized employees) and often a list of loyalists. There is no limit to this - how about a list of women working in the company? That could certainly be interesting for SAP. Or a list of young employees. Or simply a list of those who don't feel like having a works council, even that would be completely legal.
But to understand this, the people at SAP would have to take the trouble to read the Works Constitution Act. You can't expect such idiots to do that, instead they prefer to embarrass themselves publicly ...
Official Google Blog: Writely so
Official Google Blog: Writely so - Writely has now also been acquired by Google. Current business model 2.0: build stupid Ajax applications and have Google or Yahoo buy them.
Apple applies for patents on feed viewer and browser
Apple applies for patents on feed viewer and browser - the next storm in the toilet walls. Winerians will gather and bash Apple. And everyone else will scratch their heads about what all the nonsense with the patents is actually about ...
Cassini Finds Signs of Liquid Water on Saturn's Moon
Cassini Finds Signs of Liquid Water on Saturn's Moon - Enceladus may have liquid water. And so much of it that it can throw it around ...
Got the hang of Lego hats
The Lego »Mindstorms NXT« firmware is becoming open source - and this is the only way it could happen. Lego earns money from selling the construction kits and the software is enhanced by fans. This was already the case with the RCX - only the developers had to disassemble a lot of bytes to figure out how the thing works. With the NXT, things could get significantly better.
The memory equipment (256 MB Flash) and the CPU (Arm 7) also sound very good. This will be a pretty interesting device, the new robot building block.
Merkel's New Buddy?
So completely crazy as Kaczynski is Merkel should be able to handle this well after her experiences with the American counterpart ...
P.K.K. - Purzel-Kollektiv Kübelreiter
P.K.K. - Purzel-Kollektiv Kübelreiter - I find purzeln cute.
Shit hits Fan with Debian?
When Joey throws in the towel - and does so publicly - then the story must really be hitting the fan. Because normally he just quietly fades away ...
Waterfall 2006 - International Conference on Sequential Development
Waterfall 2006 - International Conference on Sequential Development - the Waterfall development model is back!
Mac OS X Security Challenge
The Mac OS X Security Challenge by the University of Wisconsin is a much more realistic variant of the rather dubious "30-minute hack" that is currently haunting the press and blogs. Because on the box hacked in 30 minutes, the attackers had a user account - it was therefore a simple privilege escalation, not a remote hack. The latter is quite different to set up, as you first have to get access to the machine.
Nevertheless, Apple should of course also take privilege escalations seriously - because, for example, on publicly accessible computers there are already some attack scenarios that are quite problematic - especially with alleged security features. For example, the encrypted home directory becomes a farce if multiple users can be logged in at the same time on the computer - the home directory is opened and mounted when the first user logs in, the second user can then simply look in. Apple should already improve at such points, of course also at the points where an unprivileged user can get root rights - because these are attack vectors for viruses and Trojans.
Hey, I don't feel like having similar nonsense like under Windows in the long run, so make sure you close the holes at Apple!
Aries - Environmental Products, Specialists in Biological Pest Control
Aries - Environmental Products, The Specialists in Biological Pest Control - some information about biological warfare against moths.
MP3 Python Module
MP3 Python Module - simple lib for accessing MP3 information.
OPUS - Civil claims against unwanted co-users of private radio networks
OPUS - Zivilrechtliche Ansprüche gegen unerwünschte Mitbenutzer von privaten Funknetzen - even with unprotected networks, there are claims for the operator against unwanted users.
aspectes.tigris.org
aspectes.tigris.org - Aspect Oriented Programming for JavaScript.
CPU/MEM with swap on/off
CPU/MEM with swap on/off - the load plugin for the Nokia 770 to display memory and CPU load in a version that can enable/disable swap (provided you have set it up accordingly).
Hmm.
Would you please not shoot at the thermonuclear weapons?
Lebowski Fest West
There is a Lebowski Festival. Unbelievable. I'll have to drink a White Russian for that. And don't pee on the carpet!
MANaOS 0.1.2 is out
MANaOS 0.1.2 is out - MiniMo for Nokia 770 is slowly coming along. Ok, the installation is still a bit awkward (as root rights are required), but as a preview already quite nice.
Net Neutrality and Reality
Good points from Doc Searls in "[Net Neutrality vs. Net Neutering[0]":
The carriers' plan from the beginning has been to convert the Net into a paid content delivery system--of some kind. That's all they were ever able to imagine. That's why they've screwed Net Neutrality from the beginning, offering crippled asymmetrical service to customers whom they expected only would consume, never producing much more than clicks that brought down more to consume. Most of us have never known anything but an asymmetrical relationship with the Net, which is why so many of us barely can imagine what it means to be a producer as well as a consumer in the Net's end-to-end world. A couple of days ago, a woman I know--middle class, white collar--told me she doesn't like the Net because "I don't like mass media in general".
ADSL, modems with limited upstream, dynamic IPs for dial-up users without even attempting to reassign the same IP, forced disconnects with IP changes on DSL flat rates - net neutrality does not exist for many users. Sure, you can get a free blog somewhere - but you always remain a second-class network user. The simplest thing - running your own site on your home computer - is hardly available to any network user.
The flip side of the coin: would we (we = sysadmins) want all those people at home to run servers who are not even able to protect their Windows rudimentarily against attacks? What would a network look like in which every user is also a producer and runs the necessary software - would the attacks and break-ins be enough incentive for manufacturers to make the software user-friendly so that the security level would be higher, or would the chaos be even greater, with a few million more zombie computers?
Is it an alternative to encourage people to rent root servers or to pool with friends and rent one together - knowing full well that most of them have no idea about administration and, given the current state of server software, are more likely to catch additional holes than plug them and thus unwittingly participate in spam distribution, DOS and other network nasties? Would server hosts take better care of and secure the systems if they rented more of them to clueless users?
Or would this just be another September that never ends?
Does eBay taste good?
Are they really that enthusiastic about the decision of the OLG Cologne regarding identity verification in online auctions? After all, this is quite a heavy blow against online auctions - for sellers, a whole new problem arises:
According to the judges of the OLG, no valid purchase contract was concluded by submitting the offer using the defendant's account. In principle, the person who invokes a validly concluded purchase contract must prove that the other party to the contract has actually become a contracting party. The burden of proof thus lies with the plaintiff, who, however, did not refute the statements of the defendant during the hearing.
Given the rather sloppy security mechanisms on eBay and other auction platforms, this is, in my opinion, only right. Because as long as eBay still allows JavaScript in descriptions, the system remains manipulable and the security that someone has actually placed a bid is simply not given.
Principia Discordia the book of Chaos, Discord and Confusion Fnord! - Hail Eris, All Hail Discordia!
SharedAppVNC
SharedAppVNC - interesting VNC variant that only replicates application windows, not the entire desktop. Also with special OS X support.
Back to the Concentration Camp Chickens
Several federal states want to overturn the ban on laying hen batteries:
In several federal states, there are efforts to overturn the ban on laying hen batteries. Spokespeople for the ministries of agriculture in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed a report by the news magazine "Der Spiegel" that there is broad support for the reintroduction of small cages for laying hens. According to the report, the initiative is also supported by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Great. What a fantastic idea. Let's just turn back the clock. What, there were once reasons to move away from battery cages? Doesn't matter, who cares. Great, the cages meet the EU requirements - but your intelligence is below the minimum requirements for humanity. So that animal cruelty becomes standard again - no matter how undignified it is for a supposedly intelligent and sentient being as the perpetrator. The main thing is that the money flows. Everything else doesn't interest anyone.
Land of the Stupid and Unfree
Remember this for the next discussion with the America lovers who always tell you how free and great life is there. Because the Americans have just thrown away not entirely unimportant parts of their constitution.
Larry's Distorted Reality
I sometimes really wonder what kind of herb Larry Ellison smokes to come up with such nonsense:
"Open source becomes successful when major industrial corporations invest heavily in that open source project," Ellison said at a Tokyo news conference. "Every open source product that has become tremendously successful became successful because of huge dollar investments from commercial IT operations like IBM and Intel and Oracle and others," he said.
Yes, financial support from companies has indeed benefited one or another open source project. But to conclude that without this financing the projects would not be successful is completely crazy. On the contrary: many companies only invest in projects that have already become successful without external help. Smaller projects with less visibility have no chance of getting money from large IT companies - these are sometimes supported by companies, but then usually by companies that have directly started this project or market direct products based on it.
But of course, with the successes that a number of open source database systems have, he naturally has to rattle loudly and talk nonsense so that no one notices how pathetic Oracle really is by today's standards.
Data greed is awesome?
One can almost see the drool dripping from the corners of the mouths of the police officials and the minister when reading the article about the Federal Constitutional Court ruling on the seizure of computers and emails. Funny, how the politicians only mention in passing that the seizure itself was absolutely not in order - instead, they immediately start screaming for legal extensions so that even more can be collected.
The restriction of the Federal Constitutional Court - that seizures must be proportional and appropriate - can certainly be forgotten, because no one will take that into account. And with the constant change in communication structures towards electronic means, one can then safely consider the secrecy of telecommunications as a done deal.
Why I Don't Like PHP Software
Wordpress is indeed one of the better systems written in PHP. And what happens? There are several sloppy programming practices found within it. Yes, I know, this happens in other languages too. The point is: the Wordpress programmers are relatively well qualified and relatively careful in their work - and yet such problems occur. Among other things, because in PHP the sources lie within the server root, meaning files that are actually only used internally are accessible via HTTP. And because PHP solutions do not inherently perform input validation and proper text quoting. No, sorry, but I simply do not like such a mess.
Sacrificing Jobs on the Altar of Stock Prices
The Deutsche Telekom presents record figures - but because the stock price is poorly valued, 32,000 jobs have to be cut. How, companies also have a responsibility? Nonsense, ownership only obliges to want more ownership. Stock prices don't buy telephones, order DSL, and download music from silly second-rate online offers.
Make a gardener out of it
And then with Monopolgarantie. Extremely clever decision, will definitely give a huge show. Which ultimately proves that ICANN does not care about the interests of the user on the Internet, nor the interests of the alternative registries.
Censorship by Lawyer
The expected abuse of the - not yet final and legally specialized - judgment against Heise for use as a censorship hammer. And no, not even the judge himself meant that his judgment could be generally applied to forums, but what do lawyers care. Somehow, threatening, intimidating, and extorting money from people used to be considered a sign of the mafia ...
Blue Ball Machine
Blue Ball Machine - giant ball machine on a website. Beware, it has background music.
Branch-Based Development
BranchBasedDevelopment - interesting list of points on how to work with branches in Subversion in a meaningful way.
Divmod
Divmod - a whole series of very interesting Python projects. Of course, also its own web framework and its own ORM, but also a few smaller, interesting things like, for example, a Bayesian Classifier.
MacMini with Core-Duo
Sir Steve announces the MacMini Intel Core Duo - and I think I want one. After all, it's definitely nice to have two processors on your work computer. Especially if the chipset also steps up a bit - the one in the MacMini PPC is not exactly the fastest.
However, my dream setup (Core Duo, 2 GB Ram, 120 GB hard drive, Apple Care) would easily cost me 1500 euros. Ouch.
More Pictures from the DMC-L1
More pictures of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L1 - the one with the Leica 4/3 lens. This will definitely be one of the things I'll get my hands on at Photokina. Fortunately, it's still a long time until Photokina, so I can put all photo purchases on ice for now. Maybe I'll forget about it by then ... (yeah, and pigs can fly ...)
NASA World Wind
NASA World Wind - Software like Google Earth, but with NASA satellite images. Unfortunately only for Windows.