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Archive 10.1.2006 - 23.1.2006
Thinking Forth - now also available as a PDF download. For old Forthers like me, of course a must-download.
Unofficial documentation of iPhoto 6.0 photocasting feeds - Mark Pilgrim tears apart Apple's iPhoto RSS support. It's bad. It's really bad.
When will developers finally discover notebooks?
I mean, when will they finally realize that notebook users are different from desktop users? For example, the environment of a notebook user constantly changes? That the network configuration is not static but dynamic? And that the web proxy is a dynamic setting - it is highly nonsensical to pack these into program configuration files instead of reading them from environment settings? For my part, it can certainly be a place for this in the configs - but then there should also be a way to override this setting from the environment.
Where this has become particularly noticeable to me recently:
- subversion: the proxy configuration is only possible in ~/.subversion/server. Rarely stupid, you can't even refer to an environment variable (at least I can't find anything about it)
- x-chat: the configuration is only done via the GUI. The system-wide proxy in the environment variables should override any local settings in the GUI and be displayed there, there is a reason why the user has set a proxy outside.
This is especially annoying with Unix applications that are ported to OS X Aqua (e.g. X-Chat Aqua is such a case): with real OS X applications, the network settings are used for proxies and the like, so that these applications then use the correct proxy when the network environment is switched. With ported applications, this access to the network settings is missing - but because they are GUI applications, possible settings from the shell startup scripts are not evaluated. Because these are possibly not active at all in GUI applications. Instead, a special property file is read - which is rarely stupid, because it is static and no shell script. Yes, Apple messed that up.
With programs that are started from the shell, you can easily read the proxy settings using scutil and a few lines of Python and put them into the environment - but with GUI applications and even some CLI programs, you fail with the ignorant developers. Bah. Humbug.
On the 20th Anniversary of Joseph Beuys' Death
I am sure that the master would be horrified by this kind of homage. Tributes and commemorations would probably be more appropriate actions and provocations on his death day. After all, he preferred to provoke throughout his life rather than listen to flattery. However, I find statements like the following particularly shocking:
Beuys was just a figurehead of the art academy. The times when great artists wanted to provoke are over. Even Beuys would not stand out today with his actions, is painting student Eva-Maria Schmitt (21) convinced.
I do not believe that such "art students" really advance art - there is already enough adapted droning in elevators, we do not need artists for that ...
Unauthorized access to email is unauthorized
Yes, as an admin, one should be aware of the legal consequences in case of a breach of trust:
According to a decision of the Labor Court Aachen from August 16, 2005, the unauthorized access to other people's emails by a system administrator justifies his immediate dismissal (Az. 7 Ca 5514/04).
Power (in the sense of access to data that is not accessible to others) always means responsibility. By the way, this has been clear to many sysadmins for a long time. It would be nice if politicians (whose power is often much greater) were also aware of this ...
A list of open-source HTTP proxies written in python - many of them are still active, and potentially quite interesting for mobile use (especially those based on asyncore, due to the low resource usage)
runit - a UNIX init scheme with service supervision - alternative to sysv-init with more possibilities and integrated features like supervise (from the daemontools).
WebCleaner - a filtering HTTP proxy - absolute high-tech, that part. Asyncore, so low resources, built-in JavaScript interpreter against obfuscation and a bunch of other features. Sounds very good on paper.
Feed Icons - Help establish the new standard - free icons for feeds as an alternative to the XML icon from Userland. Inspired by the Mozilla feed icons.
HD? Not in Hollywood
HD Output must be downsampled by the player - if the studio demands this feature. The result: great HD-DVD, but the result on the monitor is far closer to standard DVD quality than to the possible HD quality.
Sorry, but why should I get HD hardware if it doesn't make much difference? Is this whole thing a kamikaze strategy for the HD hardware manufacturers?
Hurring.com: Code: Python: PHP Serialize implemented in Python - Deserialize PHP data in Python. Could be interesting if I want to migrate further sites from PHP to Django and, for example, access Wordpress settings.
Ok, Sandvox doesn't just suck up hamsters
Found at Bill Bumgarner:
As it turns out, Sandvox silently installs Smart Crash Report in ~/Library/Input Managers/ when it is launched. As an input manager, SCR is thusly loaded into every Cocoa app launched and subsequently uses various non-supported mechanisms to modify the behavior of said application.
Sandvox installs a hack in the Input Manager - these are libraries that plug into the interface to modify application behavior. They usually overload system functions with their own code. Not a rootkit - they don't hide. But they may destabilize the system. And above all: they affect not just this one program, but all programs that use this mechanism.
Sandvox is off my disk, sorry, but I don't want something like this installed without a big warning sign and without asking. We're not under Windows ...
Ross Barkman's Home Page - Modem scripts for Mac OS and Mac OS X and various mobile phones.
ScriptAculoUs - MochiKit - Trac - a port of the script.aculo.us effects to MochiKit. Finally, drag and drop and other effects with the significantly better technical MochiKit base.
Sinar m
What happens when Sinar develops a flexible camera system. Okay, they really know what flexible means at Sinar - but one could almost think that they overdid it a bit with the Sinar M.
I'd like to play with something like that, but I think I don't want to know the price for a complete system with AF mirror adapter, a lens, and digital back.
The Scanner Photography Project
The idea itself is not that new - I've already heard people in d.r.f. pondering over flatbed scanners behind GF cameras. But unlike some of them, this person not only carried out the project but also brought it almost to perfection (as far as the image result is concerned). Very interesting effects through the mixing of the scanner movement and object movement. And the digital camera also has a gigantic resolution.
US Justice Department wants Google data
The US Department of Justice wants to access user search queries from Google (and other search engines). Of course, initially only to combat child pornography (how often will this be used as an excuse to dismantle privacy?). Those who think they have to agree with this: afterwards, research on child pornography (and, for example, the search for source material for the research - I mean reports about child pornography, not images or films) will also be suspicious. Because with search engine queries, you have the same problem as with email connections and IP connection data: there are gigantic amounts of data, and the search can only take place automatically, making the probability of hits more than questionable.
Those who have ever watched their spam filter struggle to distinguish spam from ham can roughly imagine how promising any search and qualification algorithms can be that only have these mutilated data from the search queries at their disposal ...
Cover up, deny and ignore
Here's how the Bundeswehr, the BND, and the Foreign Office are handling the secret Bundeswehr report on the abduction of six people to Guantanamo:
Despite the facts and a transcript of the report, which has now been handed over to the Ministry of Defense, the official conclusion is that there is no conclusive evidence of the incident and the hints contained in the secret document in question.
The report itself is gone. Allegedly deleted because no long-term archiving was planned (yes, of course, I believe that immediately - it certainly wasn't like that during my time in the Bundeswehr, when every document was filed and archived, that's just my imagination). And of course, no one knows anything about it. And the embarrassing evidence - such as the confession of the author of the report and photos on the computer that belong to the report - are simply ignored.
What is absolutely not funny about this: six people are sitting in Guantanamo - without conclusive evidence. But no one cares, no one is advocating for them. These people were abducted with the knowledge of the Bundeswehr. No one cares about that either. All that matters is keeping one's own record clean.
Monitor: Vorwürfe gegen Ratiopharm - In case anyone is wondering where all the money for the healthcare system goes ...
Cute Advertising Guys
The ad guys behind this stupid DBD campaign are sulking - at least one of them is complaining in a round-robin email about the unwashed bloggers, the annoying journalists and the stupid colleagues. His mother taught him that one should thank people for gifts and he thinks DBD is a great gift. My mother taught me not to give people useless junk. And in the case of broad disagreement with my opinion, to consider whether maybe the rest of humanity might be right. My mother is smarter than his mother ...
And the next one leaves us
The next photo manufacturer leaves the industry: Konica Minolta gives up traditional camera and film business:
How much and which individual parts of the camera business go to Sony and at what price, the company did not announce in detail, in any case Sony is to continue the business with digital SLR cameras from Konica Minolta. According to Konica Minolta, Sony wants to develop further digital SLRs with which users of the Maxxum/Dynax lens system can continue to use the lenses.
Too bad. The digital Minoltas were actually a comeback - and the Dynax 7D was quite an interesting camera. But soon it will probably be a Sony 7D. Ok, Sony can certainly do photography, but still it's a shame about the name Minolta, somehow it belonged to photography for me (even if I myself was never a Minoltheke).
Wikipedia.de currently offline
The Wikipedia.de is currently shut down:
According to an article from Wikinews, which also belongs to Wikimedia, the reason is that the parents of the deceased computer hacker Tron from Berlin did not want the full name of their son to be published in a Wikipedia article, not just his pseudonym. However, this is still the case, even after the interim injunction.
As much as I understand that they do not want this - it is a bit late for that. Because the name is not only found on Wikipedia, it is scattered all over the net. Moreover - whether they like it or not - he is a person of contemporary history. After all, there is even a whole film about him.
The blocking of the entire German Wikipedia domain as ordered by the court is then already quite strange - because the German Wikipedia is just a redirect page.
In some way, this is once again another proof of why you cannot operate websites in Germany - here, almost fundamentally, cannons are used to shoot sparrows. However, the consequences of the whole action are not considered - because the fact that the redirect page is no longer allowed to be operated does not mean that the page is now offline. And the only result is that his civilian name becomes even more widely known.
All that is missing is that a block like Büssow is demanded for the entire Wikipedia. And enforced. Because we are in Germany.
Cosina is the new Contax, sort of
Clear statement from Zeiss - now with the ZF system. Cosina takes on the role of Kyocera - including the production of Zeiss lenses. And parallel to ZF, there will also be ZS - M42 lenses. However, the use of M42 lenses on Canon EOS cameras is quite boring, as there is no aperture function. With ZF, the full status of manual Nikon lenses should hopefully be supported.
Hmm. I think I need to take a look at the D200 with a manual lens to see if it's possible to achieve usable focusing. With the EOS, it simply doesn't work - at least not with the 10D or 20D, as these do not allow changing the focusing screens and the AF indicator does not work with lenses connected via adapter. On the tiny focusing screens of the AF-digitals, you can't focus by focusing screen at all - completely unusable for critical situations, where focusing estimation by scale is still more precise ...
Actually, this would be exactly my dream system - a solid, robust camera with decent focusing aid, something around 8 MP in the chip and in front of it the Zeiss lenses that I like very much.
Katz Eye Focusing Screen for the Canon 10D @ KatzEyeOptics.com - Replacement focusing screen for the EOS 10D with split-image indicator and microprisms and - optionally - composition lines. Fished from my comments - thanks, Wolf. The focusing screens are also available for other camera types. Unfortunately, the AF point illuminations no longer work with the EOS, so suboptimal for mixed use.
RapidWeaver - the next website tool
RapidWeaver has been around for a while, but I hadn't seen it until now. Quite a funny idea: essentially a GUI editor for websites, not just individual pages. There are pre-made templates for various purposes (blogs, photo albums, etc.) and integrated, specialized editors for these elements. With a plugin API to program your own page types. But absolutely not WYSIWYG, just an integrated preview.
The HTML source - this is now my second great homepage tonight - looks somewhat okay. At least more than just DIV tags are used. However, the strange HEAD with all the LINK tags does irritate me a bit. But the result is already usable.
The templates themselves are not as slick as those from Sandvox - they seem a bit homespun and somewhat clunky (e.g., the font selection in the body text on my example page looks a bit ugly - I can't quite pinpoint what bothers me, but the Sandvox page just looks better).
What I don't like: only FTP and .Mac for publishing. SFTP is really not entirely new; this should be supported. Otherwise, it is most comparable to my good old PyDS for me - specialized editors for each content type with automatic rendering to HTML and automatic uploading to the server.
Oh, and the program handles 39 images in a photo album without any disasters, doesn't consume the computer's memory and small children to achieve the result.
To all Oberonistas
The Wirthians and Oberonistas. Run, no, sprint and get the PDF version of Project Oberon. Hey, I know it's not exactly state-of-the-art anymore and some aspects of the Oberon system were simply silly (especially its reasoning for non-overlapping windows in the windowing system), but nevertheless the book is absolutely worth reading. And the presented system still has a lot of charm, even if it has largely disappeared into obscurity.
First Test with Sandvox
Sandvox - the new GUI editor for websites, which was just introduced as a beta by Karelia - is really nice in concept. It offers an overall view of the website - and that is on the components of the website. Nicely structured, so that you can easily make changes to pages. The whole thing is also really easy to use - with nice wizards and good integration with iLife. Publishing is not only to .Mac, like with iWeb, but for example via SFTP to a normal server.
And Sandvox sucks hamsters through straws.
Sorry, but you can't put it any nicer. The thing is a complete and total catastrophe in the present second beta. I didn't give it many tasks - I didn't get that far. I created a homepage, a page with a single image, and a photo album. None of that is particularly difficult. The photo album was given 39 images - directly taken from iPhoto. That's not complicated, one would think.
But the software just sucks up 1.5 GB of memory because of these images and reduces a Mac Mini to a crawling snail. With every click in the navigation in the software, you wait for 10 or 15 minutes until the selected page appears. The created file with the site is by the way only 280 KB in size - why it then occupies so much memory, I don't even want to know ...
Additionally, it does offer nice publishing to servers - with a comfortable wizard for setup and checking. But this stupid wizard provides no meaningful information during the check and already gets a timeout with a simple SFTP connection - and that is on a server where I am already logged in via SSH in a terminal window in parallel.
I saved myself the trouble of realizing publishing in any other way (e.g. in a local directory and then subsequent copying to the server) in view of the horrendous memory and CPU load. That's why there are also no statements about the generated HTML.
Sorry, I understand that Karelia wanted to get the beta out quickly - especially in view of the iWeb announcement. But then maybe you should write that the software is completely unusable on a Mac Mini. Not even Aperture is such a resource hog ...
FDP stands up to the music industry
Even though the FDP is in opposition - when it comes to copyrights they are just as supportive of the music industry as the current government:
Hans-Joachim Otto, media expert of the FDP parliamentary group, sees in a cultural flat rate a "disregard for copyright". "Whoever wants to effectively legalize the mass production of illegal copies on the Internet through a lump sum payment has not understood the principles of European copyright and disregards the necessity of effective protection of creative achievements," reads a statement from the FDP parliamentary group. The FDP supports all efforts that serve to further strengthen copyright in the digital context and to promote respect for intellectual property.
The position of the FDP as an alleged freedom party is also quite logical: rather criminalize all users, patronize and nag them, than force an industry that is managed to ruin to deal with realities. For the FDP, freedom is only the freedom of companies, not of citizens.
Suddenly Protestant
Isn't it great how the church beautifully helps to dispose of annoying works councils? Really fascinating method. After all, churches have nothing in common with a democratic society. And in the end, they are even democracy-hostile in their structure. I find the approach of the hospital management particularly exciting:
A week later, the manager explained to the staff that the hospital was now evangelical. The released works council members were instructed to return to their old workplaces. When Altenschmidt and Tobias Michel, who was also released, did not comply, a warning followed. Last Friday, the locks of the works council office were changed. However, the files of the employees' representatives, which contained partly confidential information, could be brought to safety beforehand, according to Altenschmidt.
Certainly, the church itself will then present the whole thing again in a great way, because after all, one has gained a bit more influence - no matter how absurd the designation as "church carrier" is. After all, most of the money still comes from public funds. You can also see this nicely in Münster, where far too many schools and kindergartens have an allegedly church carrier - but the financial main burden still lies with the city.
For me, the church with this absurd church law - according to which employees and especially also employee representatives must be in the church and disputes between employee representation and management can only be represented before the equally absurd church jurisdiction - is simply unconstitutional.
What does our Basic Law, Article 3, Paragraph 3, say?
No one may be disadvantaged or favored because of their gender, their descent, their race, their language, their homeland and origin, their beliefs, their religious or political views. No one may be disadvantaged because of their disability.
Apparently, this does not apply to churches. And for hospital managers who quickly give the hospital to the church just to get rid of the works council.
Sandvox Test Part 2
Well, of course, I couldn't leave it alone, so I struggled with the extremely slow part and replaced the 39-image album with a 6-image album. Still slow, but at least tolerable enough that I managed to publish locally and then manually transfer the files.
What stands out: the HTML code is actually quite usable. Without a stylesheet, the necessary skips over the navigation and the sidebar are included, and more tags than just DIVs are actually used. However, it also becomes apparent that there are extremely many DIVs with many classes inside - in principle, almost everything is divided. There aren't many P-tags and other logical structures (okay, I haven't written much text, but still, I would at least expect individual paragraphs). It looks better than the HTML from iWeb.
A number of bugs have also been noticed - but it is a beta after all, I don't see that as critically as the exorbitant memory usage. By the way, I deliberately only took one of the predefined stylesheets and didn't change much. I also created a movie page, but somehow the most important thing seems to be missing - the embedding of the movie. In any case, it offered my movie from iMovie but did not adopt it. Well, at least you are spared my silly babbling.
You Are Stupid
You're making stupid ads - and you don't even ask all participants if they really want to participate. And you take action against critics with the trademark law. You're just a PR disaster ...
Fiddling with iWeb
If a software generates such HTML code, then it is definitely crap. And I don't particularly care if it comes from Apple. This is an absolute low blow to everyone who deals with semantic markup and everyone who deals with accessibility. Similar to the PhotoCasting debacle, Apple once again shows that they unfortunately tend to be "outside nice, inside crap" every now and then.
And quite honestly - not only is the code a catastrophe, but also the generated URLs - has anyone at Apple ever heard of human-friendly URLs? Oh, what am I asking, they don't even know RSS Enclosures ...
More about iWeb's HTML can be read at Todd Dominey.
RFID-Zapper - 22C3 - the DIY project for the summer?
Ancient Languages: Perl - already old, but simply great. A bitter account with Larry Wall and Perl.
In Schily's Footsteps
Following Schily's footsteps is the Interior Minister of Schleswig-Holstein. And once again, he resorts to polemics because the arguments are lacking.
The way in which the Interior Minister reacts to criticism from data protection authorities is increasingly disregarding a factual assessment and is limited to granting absolute priority to the police and law enforcement or general security. Data protection is thus equated with hindering law enforcement, and there is no interest in balancing the two. The maxim "Germany should become safe and free" is followed in such a way that there is no doubt which characteristic prevails here. Even if this security can only ever represent a false sense of security.
And this does not only affect Schleswig-Holstein; it can be felt throughout the federal territory - and in the idiotic attempts at the European level. It is not about accusing individual police officers of being scoundrels who only want to spy on their fellow citizens. It is not about accusing the police of not responsibly handling their means.
It is about the state having a position of power vis-à-vis the citizen, which is controlled and limited for very conscious reasons - and the legislative initiatives within the framework of the expansion of police powers lift this control and limitation. The police are not just any service provider - they are the executive arm of the executive - one of the three powers in our system. We already have far too close a connection between the legislature and the executive - every time the government arrogates itself the legislative power, I feel sick. The Bundestag is the legislature, not just the government (not even just the government coalition).
The control of the possibilities of the powers and the limitation of their power is a very essential aspect of a healthy state. A state in which the executive gains too much power moves away from this ideal line, develops sooner or later into a police state, into a surveillance state. It is not just about banal claims like "data protection = perpetrator protection" - that is ridiculous and polemical. It is about the rights of the individual citizen, about the possibility of shaping one's own life without a big brother constantly looking over one's shoulder. But exactly that is being done more and more in recent times - the installation of the big brother.
Data protection advocates and warning voices are not just world-remote cranks who don't want to see the problem - they are simply those who can already see today what is coming our way tomorrow. And it is frightening that we are only inadequately protected by the highest constitutional court - inadequately because even their decisions are attacked and ignored by politicians.
The warning against the all-powerful state is not paranoia, it is realism. We have had the all-powerful state quite often - and we have recently incorporated an incarnation of it. None of these all-powerful states really worked, all of them collapsed. But the people in these states had to suffer under them.
Django Paste - Ian is starting to integrate Django with paste (and paste deploy). I for one will most definitely try to support that, so his list of related tickets is already down by one. Paste deploy might even be taken as the future default FCGI/SCGI solution - because it uses the same FLUP lib, it is as capable as my scripts, but due to the structure of Paste, installation should be much easier (and might even be standard in the future with Python hosters).
European Backslapping at the Expense of Citizens' Rights
EU Parliamentarians Justify Massive Telecommunications Surveillance - and they can hardly see their feet due to their pride in their own great achievement. It's just funny that critics keep saying things like this:
Patrick Breyer, a jurist from Elmshorn and one of the heads of the civil rights movement against data retention, is not satisfied with the justifications. He describes the restrictions achieved by the Parliament as "worthless". According to him, the stored information could indeed be released for other purposes such as espionage by intelligence agencies, untargeted search for crimes, or marketing, by referring to another data protection directive. There is no evidence that the crime rate has decreased by referring to partly already stored traffic data. Overall, the directive represents a "serious deterioration compared to the current legal situation".
But of course, we are certainly all wrong, because after all:
Reul, meanwhile, considers all concerns of citizens about a long and non-transparent storage of their personal data to be "dispelled" with the approved draft law.
So if they see that as dispelled, then we are not allowed to object at all. Why do we elect these people if they then stab us in the back? Also amusing are the really informed comparisons:
Gebhardt justifies his approval of blanket surveillance with two comparisons: Thus, anyone who sends a letter today also discloses the associated "traffic data" in the form of sender and recipient, for example, to the postman. Every driver must also be aware that his vehicle owner data has always been stored and, for example, determined when flashing at a red light and used for an investigation. These are "exclusively legal practices" that the authorities would also use in the case of data retention.
Well. If I were to bring that to a realistic comparison: every movement of the vehicle is registered and stored at the starting point and destination. Every conversation in the pub is noted regarding the people involved. Every letter is centrally stored in a database regarding sender and recipient. And the accesses can - provided a somewhat targeted argumentation of the authorities - be used for almost any purpose. Without a court order. And the data must be retained for two years - without any suspicion.
Strangely enough, this is not even the case with letters in reality. Yes, the postal secrecy can be lifted by court order - but nevertheless, there is no two-year history there that is only recorded on suspicion. With vehicles, the owner is indeed recorded - and noted accordingly in case of violations - but not necessarily stored for two years and accessible to almost every authority. And only the violations are stored - but not every movement.
The Internet connection data goes far beyond what is associated with normal wiretapping permissions. Filesharing clients may establish connections to any computers - with which the owner may have nothing to do. Email communications, which are based only on sender and recipient, cannot always be distinguished from spam - viruses and spam, however, falsify addresses, which is why there will be endless garbage in these data swamps.
By the way, in none of the previous data collection cases are such gigantic amounts of junk data collected as in the now decided attack on privacy.
And above all: who protects the citizen from the misinterpretation of these data swamps?
Products - Flip4Mac WMV - maybe not quite as buggy as the toy player from MS. On the other hand - I hardly ever need a WMV player.
Apples Photocast Format
Apple now supports PhotoCasting - and Dave Winer comments on the format. In this case, I absolutely agree with him: the format is complete crap. On the one hand, they've invented something new instead of simply using Enclosures (which in RSS are exactly there for such purposes), on the other hand, the feed is also completely broken from beginning to end. What is this nonsense?
Let's be honest for a moment ...
... when you install software that plays music. And this software has a function that suggests other music from the internet shop associated with the software based on the currently playing track. Are you really surprised to hear that this software transmits data of the currently playing song to the store? Regardless of what the software is called?
Sorry, but I really don't understand this somewhat strange excitement. The function in question cannot be realized without communication with the store - it is to be expected that data will be transmitted for this purpose, after all, data also comes back.
If iTunes always transmitted the data, even when this silly suggestion window is not open, there would be reason to be excited. But as it is, I find the whole thing quite silly - you are upset that a function does what it says it does. But you buy your music from a store that records your credit card, your general music taste, your movements - and grants you only limited rights for your purchased music. But that's okay - as long as it doesn't transmit your currently playing track - which you probably slap onto your websites via script anyway.
But otherwise, are you still doing well, yes?
MoinMoin Release 1.5 - wow, the new MoinMoin looks really slick.
A cold shudder seizes one ...
... when you look at how Blair wants to eradicate "antisocial behavior". Sounds more like a fascist state than a free democracy. I mean, it's not much: just label political leftists or environmentalists as antisocial and classify independent thinking as undesirable behavior. Surveillance and spying will soon be available:
That all this naturally also means more surveillance is made clear, among other things, by a pilot project in Shoreditch, a district of London. Here, a cable TV channel [extern] is set up that offers a broadband internet connection, a digital TV program, and numerous other services for a weekly fee of 5 euros. One of the main offers is access to the local 400 (!) surveillance cameras. Starting in March, the state-funded [extern] Shoreditch Digital Bridge will be opened for testing by 1,000 residents of two streets. Eventually, 20,000 households will be connected.
Feeds on this server
Here are a few notes about feeds on this box - some of you might not have noticed what my software can do:
- Every search, every collection, and every overview page - i.e., lists of tagged posts, search results, homepage, link dump, photo blog - has its own RSS feed.
- The appropriate RSS feed is always embedded in the link tags, but also accessible at the bottom of the image with the small XML icon.
- Media files include the media file as an enclosure - so to speak, integrated podcasting (if I were to do it) and photocasting (which should theoretically please iPhoto 06 users).
- Tag pages can actually activate multiple tags: simply separate the tags with a + in the URL. This way, you can also subscribe to a specific topic.
- The results of Zeitgeistgeklicke - i.e., the compilation of content types and tags - simply provide a search, hence also a separate feed for this.
- Comments are not only found on the articles but also via the forum. And of course, they also have their own feed.
By the way, I recently also linked the link dump and the photo blog directly at the top of the menu - so if you want to see the current (and older) images, just click there. Unfortunately, the calendar is not yet synchronized everywhere with the displayed content - only the lists of tagged posts and the comments already correctly show only the days in the calendar for which there is a correspondingly tagged post or a comment. For the others, the calendar is still displayed as on the main page.
Microsoft retains FAT patents
Great, the US Patent Office confirmed Microsoft's patent on the FAT file system:
As part of its review (Re-Examination), the Patent Office initially declared the patents provisionally invalid (Non-Final-Ruling) due to "Prior Art". The decision now made, however, is final and Microsoft receives a so-called "Patent Re-Examination Certificate" from the USPTO for both patents. The Patent Office finally determined that the FAT file system had been a new development and therefore patentable, Microsoft further announced.
We can therefore wait and see when Microsoft will use the patent to take action against open source software that uses or supports FAT file systems.
ProGraph for OS X
Does anyone remember the Dataflow-Language ProGraph? The one where you just wired boxes together but didn't write normal code? The one where Spaghetti-Code still consisted of real twisted bands? There was once a version for the old, classic Mac OS.
Now there is a version from Andescotia Software for Mac OS X. At 60 dollars maybe not exactly a bargain for an obscure piece of programming language history, but somehow I still like it. Let's see if I have money for it.
If you want to see ProGraph in action, there is a quite usable tutorial online. And of course, there is a bit about the history and development on Wikipedia.
Addendum: of course I have the money. Was to be expected. A bit slow, the download, but it runs.
The open-source approaches are, by the way, quite emaciated so far - and on the websites to a larger extent consist of complaining, whining, and confusion.
/sandbox/spam-filter - The Trac Project - Trac - Trac branch containing a spam filter that can detect spam in various places through different modules. Unfortunately, previous Trac versions did not have a spam filter.
What to do with the unemployed
Currently on display in Mainz: Mützen auf und durch:
In the fact that the new service staff of the MVG are also supposed to wear a yellow cap and a name tag, he sees a discrimination of the affected parties, who are already in a difficult situation and are then forced to publicly "out" themselves as Hartz IV victims.
People are first of all forced to do a job. This job consists of providing service - which is actually a normal task for the transport companies and should be handled with normal workers. It is therefore definitely competition for the normal labor market, which is actually not allowed with one-euro workers. And then these workers are also given a visual stamp so that they are visible from afar. Do some people ever think about what they are doing?
Germany has had experience with the visible labeling of people who are considered "inferior" before ...
DotMac is annoying
Why? Because I don't have one. And I don't see the point as a self-hosted user. But Apple keeps releasing things that can only be used with DotMac - and most programs only have rudimentary export features without DotMac implemented. I can understand that they also want to make money - but DotMac is just too limited for me, I can implement most of it myself much better. So give me a simple SFTP upload option and that's it ...
Efficient Editing With vim - Jonathan McPherson - nice reference for more advanced key commands in vi. I don't even use all of them - I should get used to one or the other.