RFID-Zapper - 22C3
RFID-Zapper - 22C3 - the DIY project for the summer?
Content-type: matter-transport/sentient-life-form
Ancient Languages: Perl
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
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
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
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
/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
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.
Colorful
Farbenfroh
I already had this image on hugoesk.de (the site no longer exists), but I converted it with Lightroom. The uploaded image (just click on the image itself, then it appears) is a 90% JPEG from the RAW image with simple post-processing using Lightsource.
Free Alternative to Flash?
Gnash is a GNU project to implement a Flash client under GPL. Very interesting thing - especially interesting will be how the reaction from Adobe will look like. I wouldn't mind a bit of diversity in that area, even if I'm not usually such a Flash fan.
Just got a fright...
... but it's only half as bad. The new Core Duo Mac is an iMac, not a Mac Mini. Who cares about the power-hungry display with built-in computer, I'm into energy-saving cookie tins. Phew. Dodged a bullet there, I thought my standard problem - I buy something and shortly thereafter it's better, faster or cheaper to get - has struck again.
The MacBook with Core Duo sounds really good, by the way.
Can someone please explain to me ...
... why do I always have the urgent need to try out any GUI editors for websites? I mean, that's highly stupid - I program content management systems. I build portal systems. I earn my damn money with such stuff. And yet - when something like SandVox or iWeb shows up, I want to try it out. Naturally, I then fail because I don't think in a GUI-compatible way and feel stupid.
You would think that by almost 40 years old, I should have realized by now that I have no clue about design and layout and always fail with GUI editors for content. So I could just stop downloading and trying out every piece of junk. But no, what's running in the background? The SandVox download ...
Well, at least I don't have the problem of Karelia, who apparently got run over by the Apple steamroller for the second time with their latest product.
open sword - pixen
open sword - pixen - found at kniebes.net: Pixel-pushing software. Looks quite nice.
Adobe Lightroom Beta: Digital Photography Review
Adobe Lightroom Beta: Digital Photography Review - Adobe's answer to Apple's Aperture? In any case, there's a public beta - so give it a try.
Introducing Sandvox | Karelia Software
Introducing Sandvox | Karelia Software - A web editor that, for a change, supports not only WYSIWYG editing but also standard compliance, accessibility, and even uploads via SFTP. Sounds like someone did their homework.
Lightroom - first tests
I downloaded the public beta of Lightroom from Adobe and tried it out. Wow. I must say, I'm thrilled. This post provides my first impression of this software. Although I can already say upfront: due to the freely accessible beta, every digital SLR owner with a Mac should get this and take it for a test drive.
The most important thing for me: the software is usable even on a Mac Mini - although some actions are a bit slower than one might wish, on the other hand, one must consider that RAW images are edited live.
What I like right away: you can hide window frames and menus, dim the controls, and fully concentrate on the image content. There are also a number of tools that make a very good first impression - I was particularly impressed by the grayscale mixer, with which you can easily adjust the contrast distribution to the different color ranges. Much simpler than with the channel mixer in Photoshop. It's a shame that you can't set the desired mode for the display in the settings - the program always starts with the standard layout.
Nevertheless, the whole program gives the impression in many places that someone has finally dealt with the sometimes quite unpleasant usability of Photoshop. For example, adjusting highlights and shadows is much easier without immediately risking ruining the image result. The histogram is finally worth its name and provides prompt and meaningful information about changes (and it doesn't lie as much as the histogram in Aperture).
The browser for the image collections is quite decent - the features of iView Media Pro are partly more complete, but Lightroom is already much better than using the browser from Photoshop or some other rather simple tool (e.g., the Mac version of ACDSee) to access the images. However, the keyword assignment is still quite meager - you create a new keyword without completion or similar, and then assign it to one or more images by drag-and-drop. iView Media Pro can really offer much more here. In addition, no number of assigned images is displayed next to keywords, although numbers are displayed everywhere else.
The choice is definitely nice when importing images: you can index folders that remain in their old place, or move or copy images to a central image storage (and thus immediately create a backup). And the really nice thing: when transferring to the central storage, you can immediately convert the images to DNG, so you get rid of the manufacturer-specific formats - but without loss of information. And you can mix it all well - you can leave some images on external drives or also move them to the central storage. It's a shame, however, that you can't move the images between the storages via Lightroom - an image that lies somewhere should better stay there, otherwise Lightroom looks stupid.
The speed is not only okay when editing; importing and exporting also takes place at a decent speed. However, you should consider the memory requirements - on a Mac Mini, it makes sense to close other programs to use the memory, which is quite scarce with 1 GB, completely for Lightroom. It will thank you!
Of course, some things are still missing - it is, after all, a beta. What I spontaneously missed: there is no tool with which you could extract sections from the image. But that will certainly come. It would also be very nice if Lightroom got a downsizing/upsizing function with which you could convert images to print formats in a qualitatively usable way. With that, Lightroom could potentially replace iView Media Pro, Raw Developer, and Size Fixer for me.
In any case, it is a tough competition for Aperture and iView Media Pro - therefore, it is to be expected that there will finally be a bit more movement in the image management specifically for photographers. The only question remains: what will the fun cost when it is available as a product at the end of the year. And how the betas will develop in the meantime.
Some Cease and Desist Madness Becomes Understandable ...
... if you look at the discussion in the law blog about the registration of "Law Blog" as a trademark for Udo Vetter's weblog. And especially the arguments from Robert Basic and Udo's reactions to them. Robert's argument that it seems a bit odd to register a term that has become quite common in general blogging usage is met by Udo with the argument that it's an English term and therefore not a generic term, and that trademark law doesn't even apply in the English-speaking world. Therefore, he wants to claim "law blog" as a title for legal weblogs for himself.
Sorry, but exactly this argument is constantly brought up by some trademark guys from companies - Microsoft tries to argue that Windows is a general term. The story about the Explorer trademark - same nonsense. If even lawyers who are quite familiar with the internet have such strange ideas, you shouldn't be surprised if other lawyers see a way to make money there.
By the way, I am by no means accusing Udo Vetter of wanting to make money with the trademark - especially since it would only affect his colleagues, and as is known, one crow does not peck out the other's eye - it's just about the very strange argumentation past the criticism. About the total inability of a lawyer to understand exactly where the legally untarnished blogger has a problem.
Lawyers and normal people definitely think differently. And I mean that absolutely not in a positive sense.
Mexico Bars Canadian over U.S. No-Fly List
American fighter jets block a flight from Canada to Mexico - because a passenger is on the No-Fly List. The Canadian on the list has never been accused of a crime. And the flight had not a single stopover in the USA. And it was only stopped upon reaching the Mexican border. How much more idiotic can it get?
When will other states and their politicians finally realize that America, under the current administration, is anything but a normally functioning country, certainly not one with which to cooperate?
nadamac CamiScript
CamiScript - AppleScript Menu for Camino
nadamac CamiScript - Script Repository
nadamac CamiScript - Script Repository - useful scripts for Camino, for use in CamiScript
PictureSync » Photo-sharing for Mac OS X
PictureSync » Photo-sharing for Mac OS X - Batch upload of images to various services. Could be quite interesting if you could also define new services - e.g. for my own sites.
Polaris: OpenSolaris for the PowerPC
Polaris: OpenSolaris for the PowerPC - not that I necessarily want to go there, but definitely interesting for playing around.
Billy's Band - Polish Rock-Polka
I recently came across the film Reality Shock featuring Billy's Band - they provide part of the music for the film. Wow. I'm a fan of music with polka elements and find the accordion a beautiful instrument, absolutely brilliant music for me.
And anyone who wants to complain now: just listen to it. There are really nice things in there. But how to order their CDs if you don't speak Russian is a real mystery to me ...
And yes, I know, rock-polka isn't quite right - it's all sorts of things, some remind me very much of Tom Waits, some are quite rock, others remind me of French chansons. I like it anyway.
Loading a ZX Spectrum from an iPod
Loading a ZX Spectrum from an iPod - someone actually added .tzx support to iPod Linux, so you can now use the iPod as a mass storage device for the ZX Spectrum.
Gambit Scheme - a new Beta
From the third best Scheme in the world - Gambit Scheme System - there is a new beta for version 4.0. Particularly interesting about Gambit-C is - besides the high performance of the code - the truly brilliant threading implementation. Normal Scheme continuations are used and then a dispatcher is placed on top. As a result, threads under Gambit-C hardly need any memory (on a 2G machine you can easily run over a million threads) and resources (and yes, the switching with a million threads is also quite decent). As a result, Gambit-C is the absolute number 1 for massive multithreading on single-processor systems - and web servers love many threads.
And before anyone asks: the best Scheme is of course PLT Scheme (Dr. Scheme) and the second best is Chicken Scheme - because Chicken Scheme still has the most impressive library of included code after PLT Scheme. Gambit-C could learn a lot here and include more libraries, because libraries are what really make the language usable. At the moment, it is still quite bleak for Gambit-C.
By the way, the license issue is finally resolved: you can now choose between LGPL and Apache license for Gambit-C, which should really make all license discussions obsolete.
Erectile Dysfunction Diagnosable by Radio
Soon, it will be possible to determine from a distance of 10 meters without the owner's knowledge that he has erectile dysfunction - or thinks he does. Great idea, let's make all diseases remotely diagnosable via RFID, set up a few doctors in street cafes and they will be helped.
According to US media, Pfizer's RFID application does not even allow the distribution path of the pills from the manufacturer to the pharmacies and wholesalers to be tracked correctly.
Oh, well that's good. If total surveillance has not yet occurred, then it's not so bad. With some sentences from professional journalists, one wonders if they even think about what they are reporting on ...
Nazi and SS Man Harrer Passed Away
Amazing - amid all the praise there is just this small paragraph on the not entirely unproblematic topic of Harrer and National Socialism:
Harrer's past during the Nazi dictatorship became a topic at the end of the 1990s. According to media reports, he had to admit that he had been a member of the NSDAP and the SS. He later evaluated this as a mistake. In 2002, his autobiography "Mein Leben" was published.
Otherwise, only praise and cheering. What is the fact that he was in the SS (into which one certainly does not accidentally stumble - apart from the fact that he was also previously in the SA, which was also not really a purely passive organization of the Nazis) against the mountain ascents and the cuddling with the friendly smiling absolutist from Tibet.
The blindness of the media on certain topics is really shocking. Riefenstahl is also constantly admired for her "art" ...
Only the Best Intentions ...
... the German government is tightening immigration law:
According to the plans, spouses should only receive a residence permit from the age of 21 to "protect young foreigners from forced marriages". Residence permits are explicitly prohibited in case of sham marriages. The German government wants to counter abuse "particularly for illegal purposes such as forced prostitution" in this way.
From personal experience, I can say that the interpretation of the authorities is much more concrete. A sham marriage is simply assumed - in an attempt to get rid of the annoying foreigner. Even direct biological children from the marriage are not automatically considered proof of a genuine marriage. But of course, it's not about deporting annoying foreigners, it's only about limiting sham marriages and forced marriages.
The changes in tax law are not about giving those who already have a lot even more, but only about promoting tax honesty. And the Hartz IV changes with the attached impudence towards the unemployed are not about harassing and bullying those who already have nothing, but only about motivating long-term unemployed people.
Of course. And pigs can fly.
Preservation of the Senate's Interests?
Wondering how high the interests of the Senate are that should be preserved in the gradual sale of Hochbahn and the port to the railway:
According to the report, the paper sets the goal of "pursuing the achievement of a majority in stages while safeguarding the interests of the Senate."
Well, apart from the "turbulences":
The negotiations between the Senate and the railway are still ongoing, accompanied by severe turbulences. Not only did the federal government speak out in favor of keeping the headquarters of the railway in Berlin. Also, the employees and numerous economic representatives recently positioned themselves against a change of the main seat of the railway from the Spree to the Elbe. However, this is exactly what Beust's plan envisages, in return for the participation of the railway in HHLA and Hochbahn. The HHLA employees fear the loss of around 300 jobs.
Hey, not only are the Berlin employees being sold, but also those of Hochbahn and the port. And all this for the relocation of the railway administration to HH - which is of course strategically important for the labor market. Screw the jobs in Berlin, as long as HH gets some. For that, we'll easily sell the others.
At the beginning, I still thought that with the right SPD in Hamburg, it couldn't get much worse with a Union Senate. I admit, that was an exaggerated optimism on my part. It keeps getting worse/stupider/incompetent.
Reintroduction of the Debtors' Prison
Recipients of unemployment benefits must prove their need - because the mere fact that they may have paid into the system once and are now unemployed is not sufficient.
The State Secretary in the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs, Jürgen Heike, supported Clever's initiative. "Those who want benefits from the state should prove that they are entitled to them," Heike said in "Focus". This would have the side effect that obtaining payments through false statements would constitute fraud. "These people can then be sentenced to repay the money and pay a fine," he said. Those who have no money must "expect to serve a prison sentence".
Exactly. Throw them in jail. Or put them on the pillory, as the Bild newspaper likes to suggest from time to time. What kind of perverse society are we supposed to live in?
How is a recipient of unemployment benefits supposed to pay for the lawyer they will soon need to assert their claims?
AES (Rijndael) Encryption Test in JavaScript - AES Encryption in JavaScript
FUDMachine SCO
One would think that SCO would eventually understand the signs of the times - but that is not the case.
Freedom of Information Act and its Implementation
What does a state do that gives itself an Information Freedom Act (the name is already laughable) according to which it grants citizens rights to inspect files? It hides behind fees.
Even before the consultation on the Information Freedom Act, it was already clear that authorities would be able to charge fees of up to 500 euros for satisfying the citizens' interest. However, a clause has now surprised, according to which even the inspection of files directly at an office should result in fees between 15 and 500 euros.
Because that's the easiest way, at least you can still make money from the curious and annoying citizens. A general obligation to publish and store in publicly accessible digital archives would have been much too sensible, but this is much more German.
JavaScript Encryption Library - Blowfish Encryption in JavaScript
OpenPGP Message Encryption in JavaScript
OpenPGP Message Encryption in JavaScript - AES and RSA and some support libraries in JavaScript - enables creating PGP-encrypted texts.
PuTTY for Symbian OS
PuTTY for Symbian OS - ssh client for Symbian devices - also Nokia stuff.
Rijndael in JavaScript
Rijndael in JavaScript - AES in JavaScript again, this time specifically designed for compatibility with older browsers as well.
Speculation about new nuclear power plants in NRW
News from the energy policy chicken coop - Nuclear power yes, but not in NRW. Or maybe yes. In any case, the decision of the federal government applies. But maybe not. And anyway - let's swap nuclear power plants for fuel cells. Or maybe the other way around? Doesn't matter, let's just keep talking, maybe no one will notice that we have no idea.
Concentrated incompetence. Don't worry, they will surely ruin NRW. It would be a laugh if we couldn't completely bankrupt ourselves among the federal states.
Suspicious Hat?
Again something from the land of the free and the stupid. James Moore is on the No-Fly-List. He is one of the authors of the book "Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential". And he is not allowed to fly.
From his phone call with the responsible hotline in Washington:
"I'm sorry, sir," she said. "There seems to be a problem. You've been placed on the No Fly Watch List."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm afraid there isn't much more that I can tell you," she explained. "It's just the list that's maintained by TSA to check for people who might have terrorist connections."
"You're serious?"
"I'm afraid so, sir. Here's an 800 number in Washington. You need to call them before I can clear you for the flight."
Exasperated, I dialed the number from my cell, determined to clear up what I was sure was a clerical error. The woman who answered offered me no more information than the ticket agent.
"Mam, I'd like to know how I got on the No Fly Watch List."
"I'm not really authorized to tell you that, sir," she explained after taking down my social security and Texas driver's license numbers.
"What can you tell me?"
"All I can tell you is that there is something in your background that in some way is similar to someone they are looking for."
"Well, let me get this straight then," I said. "Our government is looking for a guy who may have a mundane Anglo name, who pays tens of thousands of dollars every year in taxes, has never been arrested or even late on a credit card payment, is more uninteresting than a Tupperware party, and cries after the first two notes of the national anthem? We need to find this guy. He sounds dangerous to me."
"I'm sorry, sir, I've already told you everything I can."
"Oh, wait," I said. "One last thing: this guy they are looking for? Did he write books critical of the Bush administration, too?"
Well. Or it is like suggested in the comments - it is his hat.
Apart from his humor which he has kept, he also has a small nugget of information for us:
I have been on the No Fly Watch List for a year. I will never be told the official reason. No one ever is. You cannot sue to get the information. Nothing I have done has moved me any closer to getting off the list. There were 35,000 Americans in that database last year. According to a European government that screens hundreds of thousands of American travelers every year, the list they have been given to work from has since grown to 80,000.
80,000 people are on the American No-Fly-List - which is then given to other countries to prevent these people from flying there as well. Without control of this list, without a judge, without conviction, simply based on an arbitrary entry. And I have the suspicion that everyone is obediently cowering and participating in this madness ...
twofish/javascript - TwoFish Encryption in JavaScript