October 2004
Ute on tour
by Volker Weber
Site news: Full name or bust
by Volker Weber
English text below.
Die gestrige Spam-Attacke hat mich über die Zukunft der Kommentarfunktion nachdenken lassen.
Ich mag Kommentare. Sie sind einer der Gründe, warum ich diese Webseite betreibe. Ich mag auch die neuen Einsichten, die ich aus der Diskussion gewinne. Darum strenge ich mich an, diese Funktion offen zu halten.
Allerdings bitte ich um etwas Respekt. Wenn Ihr wollt, dass ich die Kommentare offen halte, dann bitte ich darum, meinem Beispiel zu folgen und Kommentare nur unter Angabe von Vor- und Zuname zu schreiben. Ich verstehe, dass einige Leute das nicht wollen. Wenn das auf Dich zutrifft, dann nutze bitte E-Mail statt der öffentlichen Kommentare. Meine E-Mail-Adresse ist öffentlich.
Bitte ignoriert diese Bitte nicht. Ich werde in Zukunft alle Kommentare ohne vollen Namen und funktionierende E-Mail-Adresse löschen. Sollte das zu viel Arbeit machen, werde ich die Kommentare schließen.
Interessanterweise müsste ich diesen Beitrag eigentlich nur in deutsch schreiben. Die internationalen Kommentare sind in der Regel nämlich schon so unterschrieben, wie ich das erwarte.
Yesterday's spam attack on the site made me think about the future of the comment function.
I like feedback. It is one of the reasons I run this site. I also like the insights I gain when people discuss my posts. This is why I go to great lengths to keep this feature as open as I can.
What I am asking for however is some respect. If you want to me to keep the comments open then I am asking you to follow my example and stand with your full name to the comments you post. I understand that some people do not want to do that. If you are one of them, please use email instead of the public comments. My mail address is public.
Please do not ignore this pledge. I will delete all comments without a full name and a working email address from now on. If that turns out to be too much work, the comments will be closed.
Interestingly enough I would only need to write this in german. Most of the international comments are already signed as I asked for.
Toilettenreinigung leicht gemacht
by Volker Weber
- Öffnen Sie den Toilettendeckel und füllen Sie 1/8 Tasse Tiershampoo ein.
- Nehmen Sie ihre Katze auf den Arm und kraulen Sie sie, während Sie sich vorsichtig in Richtung Badezimmer bewegen.
- In einem geeigneten Moment werfen Sie ihre Katze in die Toilettenschüssel und schließen Sie den Toilettendeckel. Möglicherweise sollten Sie auf dem Deckel stehen.
- Die Katze wird nun selbständig mit dem Reinigungsvorgang beginnen und ausreichend Schaum produzieren. Lassen Sie sich von lauten Geräuschen aus der Toilette nicht irritieren, Ihre Katze genießt es!
- Betätigen Sie nun mehrmals die Toilettenspülung, um den "Power-Wash"-Vorgang und die anschließende Nachspülung einzuleiten.
- Sofern Sie auf dem Toilettendeckel stehen, bitten Sie jemanden, die Haustüre zu öffnen. Stellen Sie sicher, dass sich keine Personen zwischen Toilette und Haustür befinden.
- Öffnen Sie dann aus gebührendem Abstand möglichst schnell den Toilettendeckel. Aufgrund der hohen Geschwindigkeit ihrer Katze wird deren Fell durch die Zugluft trockengefönt.
- Toilette und Katze sind damit beide wieder sauber.
Ist die Katze gesund, freut sich der Hund.
[geklaut bei Michael Schäfer]
Giving NetNewsWire Lite 2 another try
by Volker Weber
A few days ago I wrote that I did not particulary like the newer version of NetNewsWire (Lite) and almost nobody seemed to agree with my sentiments. Brent Simmons exchanged a few mails with me and he convinced me that NNWL2 is not that much different from NNWL1. He also told me that there is a Classic theme that renders the description of each feed item exactly like NNWL1.
Since I was seeing a beachball once in a while when Safari was busy, I suspected that there is some code in webkit shared between Safari and NNW and that this code was "busy". Well, Brent can not really tell without the code to webkit. Since both NNWL1 and 2 use webkit for the description, they should both suffer from the same problems. So, I am back now on NNWL2 to see whether I can find the cause. So far, all is nice and dandy.
Da stimmt was nicht
by Volker Weber
Ich lese jede Woche wieder gerne Technik und Motor in der FAZ. Besonders interessant ist, dass die nicht wie andere Zeitschriften mit allen Extras vollgestopfte Autos testen, um dann nur den Listenpreis in den Vordergrund zu stellen. Es ist ein wenig klein gedruckt, aber man sollte unbedingt auch immer den Testwagenpreis lesen. Eine kleine Aufstellung gefällig?
12. Oktober 2004
BWM 120i
Empfohlener Preis: 23600 Euro
Preis des Testwagens: 37230 Euro
19. Oktober 2004
Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi Titanium
Empfohlener Preis: 23400 Euro
Preis des Testwagens: 23400 Euro
BMW-Extras für 13630 Euro, die des Testers Auge erfreuen, sind doch mal der Rede wert, wenn woanders über untere Mittelklasse und Qualitãtsanmutung geschwafelt wird, nicht wahr? Oder auch 58% Aufpreis auf den empfohlenen Preis, wenn die großen Zahlen schwindelig machen. Sie rechnen noch in DM? Extras für 26657,96 DM. Oder 72815,55 DM für den Golfkonkurrenten aus Bayern. Nicht schlecht, und gar nicht kleingedruckt.
Auf Seite 4 lese ich dann vom Chrysler Pacifica, Listenpreis 22570 US-Dollar, der mit Rabatten von 5000 Dollar in den Markt gedrückt wird. Das macht dann 17570 US-Dollar, bei einem aktuellen Kurs von 1,28 Dollar/Euro sind das 13726 Euro. Gerade einmal 94 Euro mehr als die Extras in der BMW-Hasenkiste. Kein Wunder, dass DaimlerChrysler das Auto hier nicht anbietet.
Site news: Captcha controller added for spam protection
by Volker Weber
The site was flooded today with hundreds of spam messages. That is because everyday a new idiot gets up, registers a domain for his smut and then uses a distributed network of zombies to add comments linking back to his smut site all over the blogsphere. Blacklisting does not really help, so I can either start registering people for comments, moderate comments or try to distinguish real people from robots. The easiest measure is called a captcha controller.
This has two downsides: You have to enter a 6-digit number with every comment. And if your eyes are too bad to read the graphic you will not be able to comment. I am sorry about that.
While we are at it, may I please remind you to use your full name if you like to comment? Thank you. Next stop: Close the comments for good.
brandeins archiv wieder geöffnet
by Volker Weber
Liebe Besucher von brandeins-Online,
zwei Wege gibt es, die ganz sicher ins Abseits führen: nichts probieren. Und: nicht korrigieren, wenn sich ein Experiment als falsch herausgestellt hat.
Deshalb werden wir ab sofort unseren online-Auftritt wieder ohne Login für alle Besucher öffnen: Die Zugangsbeschränkung z B. für das Archiv war eine Idee, die zeitgemäß schien - letztlich aber nicht zu der Offenheit von brand eins passt.
Seien Sie also willkommen in der bunten Welt von brand eins - allein die jeweils aktuelle Ausgabe gibt es künftig in voller Länge erst einmal nur am Kiosk oder, für Abonnenten, mit der Post. Sie geht erst zum Erscheinungstermin der nächsten Ausgabe als komplette Volltextausgabe ins Archiv.
mit herzlichen Grüssen
Gabriele Fischer
Sehr gut. Das Archiv kann also wieder verlinkt werden. Und der Heftverkauf wird dennoch vor allzu sparsamem Lesern geschützt. Wenn Sie jetzt noch auf den unsäglichen einspaltigen Blocksatz verzichten würden.
Beruhigend: Frau Fischer zeigt sich von der Rechtschreibreform ähnlich überfordert wie ich. Herzliche Grüße nach Hamburg. ;-)
[via ix]
Harald Schmidt beendet Kreativpause
by Volker Weber
Schreiben Süddetusche, Stern und FAZ.. Genau ein Jahr nach seiner letzen Sendung bei Sat 1 soll es bei der ARD weitergehen. Ich bin gespannt.
Don't try this at home
by Volker Weber
Four more days
by Volker Weber
Looks like we are stepping up the elections news for a few days. I am being carpetbombed with links. Make sure you catch the last frame of this video:
Must be 18 or over. Call is free, because your grandchildren will pay for it.
Hey, it's only four more days until the fun is over and the legal battles start. But this story made me (and everyone else I sent it to) chuckle:
Vote
by Volker Weber
Neues aus der Wissenschaftsstadt Darmstadt
by Volker Weber
Ihnen wird vorgeworfen, am ... um ... in Darmstadt Poststraße auf dem Parkplatz als .... des Kraftrollers Piaggio ... folgende Ordnungswidrigkeit begangen zu haben:
Sie parkten im Bereich eines Parkscheinautomaten ohne gültigen Parkschein oder ohne den Parkschein von außen gut lesbar im oder an dem Fahrzeug angebracht zu haben.
§ 13. Abs. 1,2, §49 StVO; $24 StVG; 63.1 BKat
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
I heard it's national chastity day in the US, November 2nd: no bush, no dick!
— Martijn Mulder
Linuxworld '04
by Volker Weber
Yeah, sure. You need to find a girl whose name does not end with jpg.
Der kleine grüne Panzer
by Volker Weber
Von hinten sieht er zwar immer noch aus wie ein Wagen für Damen, die auf der Fahrt zum Supermarkt gern aus erhöhter Stellung auf das plebejische Verkehrsgewühl herabblicken, doch von vorn hat er sich vollends zu einem bulligen Gefährt für zu klein geratene Männer mit Egoproblemen ausgewachsen. Man hat die Wahl zwischen einem Sechs-Zylinder-Diesel und einem V-8-Benzinmotor, der auf 100 Kilometer im Stadtverkehr 21 Liter aus dem Tank saugt und trotzdem Schwierigkeit hat, das Monstrum einigermaßen zügig zu beschleunigen.
Thuthi lithpelt nich
by Volker Weber
Laut vorlesen. Th als Tieh-äidj.
"Bei unth in der Familie lithpeln alle. Bith auf Thuthi. Thuthi, thag mal Baum." - "Baum" - "Thietht Du? Thuthi lithpelt nich."
Fiel mir irgendwie ein, als ich Ankes Reisebericht lath, äh, las.
Eat this, Babelfish. ;-)
Third eye required
by Volker Weber
Warmongers
by Volker Weber
Two years before 9/11, candidate Bush was already talking privately about attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer.
Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."
According to Herskowitz, George W. Bush's beliefs on Iraq were based in part on a notion dating back to the Reagan White House – ascribed in part to now-vice president Dick Cheney, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan. "Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade."
Republicans, Herskowitz said, felt that Jimmy Carter's political downfall could be attributed largely to his failure to wage a war. He noted that President Reagan and President Bush’s father himself had (besides the narrowly-focused Gulf War I) successfully waged limited wars against tiny opponents – Grenada and Panama – and gained politically.
"He told me that as a leader, you can never admit to a mistake," Herskowitz said. "That was one of the keys to being a leader."
A quick question
by Volker Weber
The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
Who do you think said this?
The Steve Show, 10/26 Edition
by Volker Weber
Don't try this at home
by Volker Weber
Apple Titanium Powerbook powered by AMD Athlon 64
by Volker Weber
MAX 11/04. Danke, Marc-Oliver.
Secret member of the iPod family
by Volker Weber
There is the iPod, the iPod mini, the new iPod photo, the iPod U2. But wait, there is also a dirty little secret.
Bush Campaign Web Site Rejects Non-US Visitors
by Volker Weber
The official campaign web site for U.S. President George W. Bush appears to be rejecting web requests from outside the United States, limiting access to the site to Americans.
Vorbildlicher Kundendienst
by Volker Weber
Unlängst hatte ich ein Photo von dieser defekten Halterung veröffentlicht. Vorgestern habe ich eine freundliche Mail an den Hersteller geschickt und gestern diese noch freundlichere Antwort gekommen:
Sehr geehrter Herr Weber,
wir nehmen Bezug auf Ihre freundliche E-Mail vom 25.10.2004 und bedauern sehr, dass Sie Probleme mit dem Befestigungssystem haben.
Selbstverständlich übersenden wir Ihnen heute per GLS ein neues Befestigungssystem für Ihren Halter.
Wir hoffen, Ihnen hiermit geholfen zu haben und wünschen Ihnen einen guten Empfang der Sendung und noch viel Freude mit diesem Produkt.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
ppa. E. Hiemer
Herbert Richter
Metallwaren-Apparatebau GmbH & Co.
Birkenfelder Straße 1-7
75180 Pforzheim
Germany
Heute kam das Paket mit dem neuen Befestigungssystem, das übrigens in einigen wichtigen Details verbessert ist. Ich bin mir sicher, dass hier nichts mehr abbricht. Das war ein toller Service, Herr Hiemer, und ist mir diese Werbung wert.
Another lesson in democracy
by Volker Weber
A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.
Hint: The Bush camp is at georgewbush.com, not at georgewbush.org.
Who says elephants can't dance
by Volker Weber
Adding APM support to Ubuntu was pretty easy. Just add "apm" to /etc/modules. There you go.
Xmas shopping season now officially open
by Volker Weber
Apple releases the iPod Photo with color screen, and ... photos. I got it almost right. However, it does not sync photos with iPhoto but with iTunes 4.7.
The price looks pretty steep. Adding the color screen to the iPod 40 ($399) is another $100 and sets you back $499. If you go for the iPod Photo 60 you have to shell out $599. But I have no doubts that Apple will find enough customers for it.
Before you get too excited, read the specs: 2-inch (diagonal) transflective, 65,536-color liquid crystal display with white LED backlight, 220 x 176 pixel resolution, 0.18-mm dot pitch
Transflective is good. You can read it in bright sunlight. 220 x 176 pixel is not good. At least not for photos. Same applies to 64k colors.
No, this is not Eye Bee Emm
by Volker Weber
iTunes Music Store adds nine nations
by Volker Weber
Now available in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK, USA. Apple today also announced it will launch the iTunes Music Store in Canada in November.
Haben Sie Punkte in Flensburg?
by Volker Weber
Dann hat Udo Vetter einen wichtigen Hinweis:
Bei der Löschung von Punkten im Flensburger Verkehrsregister kann nicht mehr getrickst werden. Ab jetzt zählen neue Punkte immer ab dem Tag, an dem der Verkehrsverstoß begangen wurde. Bislang war es möglich, diese Frist durch Einsprüche und Gerichtsverfahren hinauszuschieben, da es auf den Tag ankam, an dem der Bußgeldbescheid oder das Urteil rechtskräftig wurden. Alte Punkte wurden dann vielleicht noch vorher gelöscht.
Die Löschungsfristen bleiben unverändert: zwei Jahre bei Bußgeldsachen, je nach Delikt fünf oder zehn Jahre bei Strafsachen.
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows.
— Adrianna Tan
A random thought
by Volker Weber
Without Windows there would be no innovation, right?
[Thanks, Stefan]
The Baghdad Blogger goes to Washington
by Volker Weber
And that is another thing that seemed to be incomprehensible to one of my new Washington friends: when we were talking about the popularity of the clerical militia chief Moqtada al-Sadr I was asked how anyone could be fooled by someone who so obviously used religion to boost his own popularity and went for the lowest common denominator for popular appeal? I was saved by another guest who asked if we were talking about Bush or Sadr here.
Today's Anti-Productivity Tool
by Esther Schindler
I love attending technical conferences because of all the useful information I learn. And especially because of all the non-useful stuff. For example, when I was attending the Applied XML DevCon last week in Portland, Oregon, I learned from Amazon's Web services dude, Jeff Barr, about MusicPlasma. To use it, you type in a band name. The site returns with a graph of all the "related" bands based on Amazon's "people who bought this also bought..." data mining. Even if you don't care about music overmuch, the user interface is really groovy!
iTunes Music Stores coming to Canada as well?
by Volker Weber
Users from a number of European countries can no longer access the iTMS. It looks like Apple is preparing for the much anticipated launch tomorrow. Now David tells me that he also cannot connect to the store from Canada.
Endorsements for Kerry
by Volker Weber
It looks like almost every major publication is endorsing Kerry as the next president. That does not mean however that there is nobody supporting Bush. The country seems to be equally divided. From what I read I get the impression that you have to be either extremely stupid or extremely wealthy if you support Bush. So, if you are a member of the Bush camp, I hope that you are extremely wealthy. ;-)
Ubuntu Linux
by Volker Weber
What is Ubuntu Linux?
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution that starts with the breadth of Debian and adds regular releases (every six months), a clear focus on the user and usability (it should "Just Work", TM) and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of support for every release. Ubuntu ships with the latest Gnome release as well as a selection of server and desktop software that makes for a comfortable desktop experience off a single installation CD.
Pieterjan bugged me about this particular Linux distribution a couple of weeks ago when he tried to install it on his Mac. I still do not understand why one would want to replace Mac OS X with Linux but I understand very well now why you would want to install it on a PC.
Ubuntu was by far the most pleasant Linux installation I ever tried. I put it on two machines yesterday, one desktop and one notebook, and both have been very easy. On the notebook which connects via WLAN to my network it asked me very early on for the WEP key, which I had not seen before in any installation routine.
Everything fits on one CD and still feels very complete. I only had to install Flash support for Firefox. I also replaced Evolution with Thunderbird, since Evolution does not work well with Domino. I still need to make power management work in the old notebook but other than that it is a very nice and clean setup.
Highly recommended.
Groove tries some wacky marketing
by Volker Weber
Beginning today, Groove Networks is providing a special World Series promotion that offers businesses a free trial and a significant discount for purchases of Groove Virtual Office software so their employees can stay up late, sleep late, yet still be productive by being as effective working from home as they are in the office.
Program participants who purchase the Professional Edition online by Oct. 31, 2004 will receive a 19.18 percent discount off the standard list price. To obtain the discount, simply enter the promotion code "P-ReverseTheCurse".
Void where prohibited. Batteries not included. What is next? "P-BuyTwoGetOneFree"?
Software updates
by Volker Weber
Skype updates Mac beta to 0.11.6 (lots of changes) and FlickrExport for iPhoto hits 1.0 (hardly any changes at all)
Newer is not always better
by Volker Weber
There are some applications that I like for their simplicity. NetNewsWire (Lite) 1.08 is one of them. The developer has had a new version in beta for a couple of months now and I switched to the latest beta yesterday. Today I rolled back to my backup and I am a happy camper again.
I liked none of the new features (besides Atom support), not the built-in browser with its own tabs, not the funky HTML rendering. I might miss the synchronisation feature in the future, but today I am back to the more lean and mean version 1.
Strange requirements
by Volker Weber
System requirements according to palmOne.
Treo 650 announced but not available
by Volker Weber
Good news: palmOne announced the Treo 650.
Bad news: It is not available. Rollout starts through services providers in the US. Outside of the US we are being told to wait for 2005. No pricing and availability for units through the channel.
Good news: Your existing Treo 600 does not look so bad after all. You did not sell your device on eBay last week, or did you? ;-)
An afternoon in the park
by Volker Weber
Old skool Google
by Volker Weber
Getting an RSS feed from blogger.com
by Volker Weber
When Wolfgang stepped up his blog at blogger.com without an RSS feed and could not find the setting to enable this feature, I started to investigate the matter a bit.
It looks like blogger.com chose to make RSS feeds a to-be-paid-for feature only available in Blogger Pro. The funny thing however is that they do publish an Atom feed, without putting a link in the template however. Simply add atom.xml to the end of the url and it takes you there.
Lots of feed readers cannot work with atom feeds but there is feedburner.com to the rescue. They will need the url to your original feed and then let you do interesting things with it.
Welcome, Wolfgang
by Volker Weber
Found this by watching the change log of my Wiki site: Wolfgang steps up his blogging. Added to the blog roll. No RSS feed yet though. I believe this is a one click change on blogger.com?
Windows desktop widgets
by Volker Weber
Everytime I post a screenshot of our weather outlook, somebody asks whether this software is also available for Windows. We are talking about Konfabulator, a scripting engine that lets you run small desktop widgets. It looks like they are building a version for Windows now. Information is a bit spotty, since it was supposed to be almost done in August and now really almost done in October. No public appearance so far, but one screenshot.
If you don't want to wait for Konfabulator, you can also go with an alternative called Kapsules. Runtime requirements are pretty steep:
Kapsules requires Windows 2000, XP or 2003, Microsoft Scripting 5.6, and the .NET Framework Version 1.1 in order to run.
The humongous .NET runtime for a weather widget might be asking too much. No info on the Windows version of Konfabulator. It might be equally demanding.
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
Wer etwas wirklich Großes tun will, soll doch bitte einen Elefanten waschen.
—Hal Faber
Conversations
by Volker Weber
She: "Is it true that men think about sex all the time?"
He: "No way!!"
She: "But?"
He: "Alternating: Computer, Sex, Computer, Sex,..."
[via Lydia]
palmOne Zire 72 in Silber
by Volker Weber
Wie schon öfter erwähnt, halte ich den Zire 72 für ein attraktives Angebot. Er passt mit seinem blauen Gehäuse nur nicht so recht zu Leuten, deren Kleidungsgewohnheiten zwischen steingrau und anthrazitgrau mäandern. Frank Köhntopp überraschte mich gestern mit der Information, dass es nun auch eine "silberne" Edition gibt.
Nachdem ich normalerweise immer recht gut von palmOne informiert werde, war ich ob dieser Überraschung dann doch etwas verdutzt. ;-)
Gentlemen, start your engines
by Volker Weber
Warmongers and military service
by Volker Weber
I find this list really interesting:
An engineer in hell
by Volker Weber
An engineer died and ended up in Hell. He was not pleased with the level of comfort in Hell, and began to redesign and build improvements. After a while, they had toilets that flush, air conditioning, and escalators. Everyone grew very fond of him. One day God called to Satan to mock him, "So, how's it going down there in Hell?"
Satan replied, "Hey, things are great. We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next."
God was surprised, "What? You've got an engineer? That's a mistake. He should never have gotten down there in the first place. Send him back up here."
"No way," replied Satan. "I like having an engineer, and I'm keeping him." God threatened, "Send him back up here now or I'll sue!" Satan laughed and answered, "Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"
[via whocares]
Pre-Qualified
by Volker Weber
From: "Marcia Shipman" <Marcia_1970_Shipman@zworg.com>
Subject: Re: College Info
From our records we understand that you are qualified in your profession and we are going to offer you a 1 time offer. Our Univsersity can offer you a Pre-Qualified degree.
What is a Univsersity?
Das war ja einfach
by Volker Weber
Im Rhein-Main-Gebiet wird demnächst der analoge terrestrische Fernsehrundfunk auf DVB-T umgestellt. Aktuell gibt es hier bereits 8 digitale Programme. Mit der Abschaltung der analogen Sender am Nikolaustag kommen dann noch die Radausender dazu.
Da ich im Schlafzimmer noch einen hübschen Loewe-Fernseher habe, der nicht an der Satellitenschüssel hängt, musste ich mir überlegen, was mit dem geschehen soll. Heute habe ich mir von Heinz einen DVB-T Receiver von Technisat ausgeliehen. Angeschlossen, Zimmerantenne dran, Grundeinstellungen. Geht. Das war ja einfach. Und ich sitze hier in einem Altbauviertel im ersten Stock. Freie Sicht auf den Sender ist nicht. Ich bin sehr überrascht, dass das so problemlos geht.
Ich glaube, ich stelle dann mal einen Investitionsantrag.
Not as solid as it looks
by Volker Weber
TomTom Navigator windshield mount
Treo 600 ausprobieren
by Volker Weber
Treo 600, die im Zeitraum vom 15.10. - 31.12.2004 in Deutschland gekauft werden, können innerhalb von 14 Tagen nach Kauf beim Händler zurückgegeben werden. Vor der Rückgabe ist ein Testbericht im Internet unter www.pdaservice.de auszufüllen und ausgedruckt dem Gerät beizulegen. Der Kaufpreis wird erstattet. Das Gerät muß funktionsfähig und unbeschädigt in der Originalverpackung mit dem vollständigen Lieferumfang zurückgegeben werden. Pro Kunde und Unternehmen ist nur eine Inanspruchnahme der Treo 600 Buy&Try Aktion möglich. Das Angebot zur PalmOne Buy & Try Treo 600 gilt nur für teilnehmende Fachhändler. Bitte informieren Sie sich vor dem Erwerb des Gerätes, ob Ihr Fachhändler an dieser Aktion teilnimmt. Wenn Ihr Händler diese Aktion noch nicht kennt, machen Sie Ihn auf die Aktion aufmerksam, so daß er den Treo 600 zu dieser Aktion bestellen kann.
Drill down charts for Notes and Domino
by Volker Weber
Richard Hogan of 6wSytems tells me they have a new SVG-based (Scalable Vector Graphics) application that generates drill down charts from live Domino views. It is a pure Notes application built around a LotusScript library and it works either as a standalone Notes database, that allows you to chart data in other Notes databases, or it can be integrated into one's own Notes applications.
Licensing is per server (not per application or per user) and starts at $995 for a single server to $3995 unlimited. Demo and evaluation version available at their site.
Zehn kleine Negerlein
by Volker Weber
CyDome spielt zehn kleine Negerlein. Erst Klaus Eck, jetzt Wolfgang Sommergut (andere URL, selbes Design, noch). Und dass mir keiner der letzte ist. :-)
Der Schritt ist konsequent. Mir hat die Mischung nicht so sehr zugesagt und ich war mehr an eine Gemeinschaftswohnung als an eine Wohngemeinschaft erinnert. Mit einem gemeinsamen Ziel und einem gemeinsamen Blog kann man schon recht erfolgreich sein. Poster child: boingboing. Aber sehr unterschiedliche Interessen unter eine Marke pressen klappt nicht wirklich gut.
Kiel oben
by Volker Weber
No comment
by Volker Weber
I don't like SONY
by Volker Weber
Neither does the person who sent me this photo. Look at all thoses wires. Nice looks but terrible engineering. SONY hightech. Sheesh.
Votergasm. 'nuf said.
by Volker Weber
Letters to The Guardian
by Volker Weber
As a US citizen, I want to advise you that you and anyone that participates in subverting the US presidential election can be criminally charged and perhaps even charged as spies.
TamTam - TomTom GO Unterstützung auch für Mac
by Volker Weber
München/Boston, 19.10.2004: Mit der Vorstellung des Mac OS X kompatiblen Programms „TamTam" hat das Münchner Softwareanbieter equinux eine Lösung für die USB Anbindung des populären GPS Navigationssystems TomTom GO an den Mac herausgegeben. Mit der Software lassen sich die Karten des Gerätes verwalten, man kann weitere Stimmen aufspielen und ein Backup des Gesamtgerätes herstellen.
[Danke, Schweppes]
Site news: Comment links no longer use the MT redirect
by Volker Weber
I meant to fix this for a long time. With MovableType 2.66 SixApart changed the behavior of the CommentAuthorLink tag. Instead of adding an href to the site of the comment author, it linked to a cgi-script that redirected to the site. This change was designed to discourage the use of comments to obtain Google juice. However most spammers put their links directly into the comments body. Since I weed them out anyway with MT-Blacklist, I wanted the old behavior back, that linked comments directly to their own website.
David Raynes Optional-Redirect v0.1 to the rescue:
I upgraded to MT 2.661 now, but I was not too sure about whether I wanted to use the new redirect "feature" for the MTCommentAuthorLink, so I wrote up this little plugin. Install it like any other plugin, and the MTCommentAuthorLink tag now takes a new argument, redirect. If set to 1, the redirect feature is used, otherwise, the old style behavior is used (I ripped the code directly out of MT 2.64).
I encourage others with MovableType to do the same. I actually want commentators to earn Google juice. ;-)
TV-B-Gone
by Volker Weber
Mitch Altman is an asshole. And not just any asshole, but one of those snotty holier-than-thou types who has nothing better to do with the money he made as a founder of 3ware than to develop a device with the sole purpose of imposing his viewpoint on others. Essentially a universal remote that cycles through every possible code, the TV-B-Gone has a single purpose: to power off televisions whenever the user feels like being a dick.
OK. I am sold. I want one.
Neue iBooks
by Volker Weber
Wie erwartet gibt es heute neue iBooks. Mein Lieblingsmodell (12") ist 140 Euro billiger, 1,2 GHz statt 1GHz und hat WLAN eingebaut. Prima. Aber hier bin ich verwirrt:
Jetzt erkläre mir mal einer, warum ich das rechte iBook haben wollte, wenn es das linke gibt? Update: Wir haben es gefunden, das "-R" hinter "DVD".
Do not use mobile roaming in Germany
by Volker Weber
Since my last post was in German, let me explain what an international reader can take away from it.
Next time you visit Germany, don't let yourself being eaten up by roaming charges. Instead buy a prepaid GSM chip. The only thing you need is a dual band GSM phone. If you don't have that, ask a local friend to borrow one. Most people have at least one unused phone due to stupid tariffs that make you get a new one every two years.
I suggest you go into the Tchibo coffee chain (enter german ZIP code) and buy a chip for 20 EUR. Put it into the phone and you now have a German phone number that can receive calls free of charge. The chip includes 10 EUR of talk time. You will need 35 ct per minute calling any German number. So you have 30 minutes of airtime included. Incoming SMS are free, outgoing are 19 ct a piece. Calls to your voice mail are free.
If you need more you can buy additional airtime for 10, 20 or 30 EUR at the store. You can also buy airtime over the internet. You will receive a code by email that you need to enter into the phone.
Downside: Instructions will only be in German. You may need to ask somebody for assistance.
BTW: I did the same thing when I was in Scotland and it worked very well. For twenty pounds I made all the phone calls I ever wanted in two weeks.
Warum einfach, wenn's auch kompliziert geht?
by Volker Weber
Ich sollte meinen Handyvertrag kündigen. Warum tut man sich eigentlich noch diesen Tarifwirrwarr an? Machen wir mal ein Beispiel:
Was kostet es tagsüber einen anderen Teilnehmer anzurufen? Kommt drauf an, nicht wahr? Genau. D1 an D1 (49 ct), D1 an D2, E-Plus oder O2 (69 ct), Festnetz (49 ct). Und abends? 29, 39, 49 und 19 ct. Jetzt noch Rufnummernmitnahme, so dass man nicht erkennen kann, wer was ist, und ich blick's nicht mehr. Im Augenblick ist das noch ganz nett, weil ich keine Grundgebühr auf diesen Tarif habe. Bald soll da zu meinem Vorteil (!) ein Mindestumsatz von 15 Euro gelten. Wieviel habe ich davon schon verbraten? Keine Ahnung.
Gehen wir mal zu Tchibo:
Was kostet es tagsüber einen anderen Teilnehmer anzurufen? Kommt drauf an, nicht wahr? Nein. 35 ct. Egal wen. Und abends? Ditto. Keine Grundgebühr, kein Mindestumsatz, Mobilbox kostenlos. SMS 19 ct, MMS 39 ct. Wieviel habe ich verbraten? Kostenlos mit *101# nachschauen.
Das war aber einfach.
Helden der Technik
by Volker Weber
SpOn erklärt den Crackberry.
Doch der eigentliche Clou ist die so genannte Push-Funktion. Der Nutzer kann jederzeit E-Mails abrufen, ohne sich ins Internet einwählen zu müssen.
Wie gut. Dann brauch ich das ja nicht mehr.
Twenty years after
by Volker Weber
Peter Valter, Schnippes, Uli Verthein, Volker Weber, Jürgen Reeg
That's a classic
by Volker Weber
[via Tech-Knowledge]
The paper goes in face upwards, you say?
by Volker Weber
The European Court of First Instance ruled in favour of five German banks which had been fined a total of €100m by the EC. In 2001 they had been found guilty of running a cartel to fix foreign currency exchange rates ahead of the introduction of the euro. The companies - Dresdner Bank, Commerzbank, HVB, Beursche Verkehrsbank and Vereignsund Westbank - appealed this decision, and their case was concluded yesterday.
According to the Financial Times, the European Court of First Instance overturned the fine because an EC lawyer who attempted to fax a 100-page document outlining the Commission's case had accidentally placed it face upwards in the fax machine. This error meant the court received one hundred blank pages, and the actual document was not received in time. With no other legal argument from the EC, the court had to rule in favour of the five banks.
[via WWK]
Und jetzt alle im Chor: Es ist immer das Kabel
by Volker Weber
Mein Güte, was habe ich gerade auf den armen Snoopy geschimpft. Holt der sich doch per DHCP keine Adresse mehr ab. Manuell geht, automatisch nicht. Reboot, neu anmelden, nix hilft. Also den StinkPad geschnappt. Der muckt nicht. Nur ist da nach nicht mal zwei Stunden der Akku schlapp. Also noch mal probiert. Nix. Mist!
Also doch mal auf die Suche gemacht. Rüber zu Lucy. Und die hat auch keine Adresse. Sollte vielleicht der DHCP Server? Den mal neu starten. Bingo. Alles geht.
Wie sagt mein Freund Stefan immer?
Es ist immer das Kabel.
Und jetzt frag bitte keiner, warum der StinkPad ....
Da will ich letztens einkaufen gehen ...
by Volker Weber
Besser als Nico Brünjes kann man das kaum noch aufschreiben:
Na gut, ich würde auch mit viel Geld keinen Opel fahren, aber mein Opa. Oder mein Vater. Aber die fahren auch nicht Opel. Einfach kein Image. Wer entscheidet sowas, wer stellt solche Weichen, wer beraubt einer Automarke ihres Images? Die Arbeiter am Fliessband? Vielleicht ist das ein jahrelander Bummelstreik, an Station 125 am Band, hat man sich einfach geweigert das Image einzubauen?
Und Karstadt wird auch noch gleich mit rasiert. Lesen!
This week's Alex warning
by Volker Weber
TreoCentral brings us this image, taken directly from the Handango website which runs the palmOne webstore.
My guess is: One week from now.
Not del.icio.us
by Volker Weber
It's going to be interesting to see how long this survives. Yes, you will have to type in that URL yourself. ;-)
[Thanks, Beate]
Not that it would convince any "patriot"
by Volker Weber
Maybe there's one good reason - just one - for re-electing George W Bush, and that's to force him to live with the consequences of his appalling actions, and answer for his own lies, rather than wish the job on a Democrat who will then get blamed for his predecessor's follies.
Womöglich gibt es sogar einen guten Grund – nur diesen einen –, George W. Bush wieder zu wählen: einfach, um ihn zu zwingen, mit den Folgen seiner schrecklichen Politik leben und über die eigenen Lügen Rechenschaft ablegen zu müssen.
Don't try this at home
by Volker Weber
Die gsuchde Dadei isch nedd hir. Da mussch woanders gugge.
by Volker Weber
404 error messages in quite a few languages. Want to add your own translation? Please mail it to webmaster@ibiblio.org.
[Thanks, Stefan]
Switching to an M-Audio Transit USB
by Volker Weber
I just swapped my Edirol UA-1X with Thomas' M-Audio Transit. It has very comparable features:
M-Audio Transit brings hi-resolution 24-bit/96kHz recording and playback to any USB-compatible computer. Digital I/O lets you transfer pristine audio between your computer and other devices such as MiniDisc and DAT. The digital output can deliver AC-3 and DTS from your computer to an external decoder such as a surround receiver. And the bus-powered design allows you play and record virtually anywhere your laptop can go.
M-Audio Transit brings hi-resolution 24-bit/96kHz recording and playback to any USB-compatible computer. Digital I/O lets you transfer pristine audio between your computer and other devices such as MiniDisc and DAT. The digital output can deliver AC-3 and DTS from your computer to an external decoder such as a surround receiver. And the bus-powered design allows you play and record virtually anywhere your laptop can go. I had discovered an anomaly with the Edirol device while preparing for this week's party: There was a noticeable hissing at low output volumes. It used to be crystal clear. Edirol replaced the device but the new one seemed to be broken as well, with both Lucy and Snoopy. The Transit however worked. Today I crosschecked with Thomas and his PowerBook does not show this anomaly.
The Transit was working on all of our computers. Since the Transit needs its own set of drivers while the UA-1X works with the system drivers I suspect a problem with both my OS X installations. Very strange indeed.
We both actually prefer the UA-1X since it has standard connectors and an additional headphones output, so Thomas was willing to swap. I shall be using his Transit for the time being. It had already served me very well during the party.
OSXplanet - a wonderful screen backdrop
by Volker Weber
OSXplanet is the most incredible screen backdrop I have seen in a while. You can select which planet you want to see, from which direction and in which projection. Overlay cloud maps, storm, volcano or earthquake data, and satellite positions.
The picture above is centered over Sardegna, with cloud maps active. The programs knows where it is dark, but cannot update which lights are currently turned on. ;-)
Apple stock is doing amazingly well
by Volker Weber
Two years ago we got an iMac. For the sake of argument let's assume it was 2500 EUR. If we had invested another 2500 EUR into Apple stock at the same time, we could now sell it for 7500 EUR. Which would pay for the 5000 initial investment and leave us with another 2500 EUR to get a new machine. An equivalent machine today is less than 1600 EUR, so we actually would have gained two free 17" iMacs, and 900 EUR interest for the 5000 EUR we initially invested. That is 18% over two years. Not too bad, even without the free iMacs.
Alas, we didn't. But now we do.
We want the funk
by Volker Weber
Or something that sounds rather similar. OK, OK, we had this before. But it's good enough for a rerun. ;-)
IBM alphaWorks: Sametime plugin for Trillian Pro
by Volker Weber
Sametime Plug-in for Trillian adds IBM Lotus instant messaging (Sametime) to the Trillian Pro instant messaging client. Trillian is a communications tool that manages connections to multiple instant messaging services. The Sametime plug-in allows Trillian users to connect to one or more Sametime servers, manage contacts, and conduct one-on-one or group chat sessions.
[via Wolfgang Sommergut]
Reviewing palmOne GPS Solution Zire 72 Edition (part 4)
by Volker Weber
[continued from part 3]
Today I finally installed the CD that came with the package. Big surprise: It wanted me to connect a PocketPC instead of the Zire. At first I thought I had the wrong version of the CD. But then I realized I had ActiveSync on this machine. I removed that, installed again, and started MapStore.
Big surprise again: The software looks identical to the version I was running on the Zire. It appears that ViaMichelin has a development environment that generates applications for several platforms. I was unable to export any maps though and there were some blank spaces on the icon bar, so I downloaded Palm Desktop, installed MapStore again, and this time I was asked to connect a Palm device.
Since Ute is en route today with the Zire 72 to do some further field tests and my T3 is being serviced, I connected the Treo which only has a 160x160 screen. And this leads us to surprise #3.
Messing up this world
by Volker Weber
This kind of news makes me angry:
VIENNA (Reuters) - The removal of Iraq's mothballed nuclear facilities took around one year and was carried out by experts with heavy machinery and demolition equipment, diplomats close to the U.N. said on Thursday. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, which monitored Saddam Hussein's nuclear sites before last year's Iraq war, informed the U.N. Security Council this week that equipment and materials that could be used to make atomic weapons have been vanishing from Iraq but neither Baghdad nor Washington had noticed.
Killing thousands of people, messing up a country without any mandate, suicide bombings that were unheard of before this war, proliferation of nuclear arsenal. What is next?
Wie ensteht denn eigentlich ein Kreis?
by Volker Weber
Bastian Sick bei Spiegel Online:
Kreise sind für den Journalisten ein wichtiges Hilfsmittel, fast noch wichtiger als die automatische Rechtschreibprüfung von Microsoft. Denn viele Informationen kämen nie oder nur mit erheblicher Verspätung in den Umlauf, wenn man sich nicht auf "Kreise" berufen könnte. Oftmals werden Informationen überhaupt nur unter der Bedingung preisgegeben, dass der Name des Informanten nicht genannt wird. "Das habe ich Ihnen unter zwei gesagt", bekommt der Journalist dann zu hören. Das ist für ihn das Signal, beim Zitieren auf "Kreise" auszuweichen. "Unter eins" bedeutet: "Sie dürfen mich wörtlich zitieren". Aussagen, die man "unter zwei" gesagt bekommt, darf man zitieren, aber ohne Nennung der Quelle; und alles, was man "unter drei" gesagt bekommt, das muss man ganz für sich behalten, jedenfalls fürs Erste.
Ganz wichtig ist auch, dass der Journalist mehr als einen Kreis kennt. Sonst kann man zu leicht vom Kreis auf dessen Mittelpunkt schließen. :-)
Google Desktop goes beta
by Volker Weber
You have lots of information on your computer. But do you know where it is? Google Desktop Search can help you find web pages you've previously seen, email you've sent or received, IM chats, and files on your computer.
Tiny (400k) download. Indexes Outlook (Express), AIM, IE, Word, Excel, Powerpoint and text files. Runs on Windows 2000 and XP only.
Microsoft Deutschland mit eigenem Stand auf LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in Frankfurt
by Volker Weber
Microsoft Deutschland nimmt dieses Jahr erstmals mit einem eigenen Stand an der LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in Frankfurt am Main teil. Vom 26. bis 28. Oktober 2004 steht der 60 Quadratmeter große Microsoft-Stand in Halle 4.0 mit der Nummer B20 allen Besuchern offen. Die Interoperabilität der verschiedenen IT-Plattformen steht hier im Mittelpunkt - sie ist ein zentraler Bereich bei der optimalen Erfüllung von Kundenbedürfnissen und Marktanforderungen.
Guten Morgen.
Hippopotamus
by Volker Weber
Katja Maurer tritt an die Tanzfläche und legt aufgeregt die Hand an den Mund: "Ach, es ist so geil!" Mehr als zwanzig Jahre war sie nicht mehr hier. "Das war mein Leben", sagt sie, mit feuchten Augen den Raum abtastend, der als Teenager ihr zweites Zuhause war. "Ich war immer hier, hab' hier meine erste Liebe gehabt." Jetzt ist sie 41 und auf der "Hippo"-Revival-Party. Und vollends selig: "Ich hab' mich den ganzen Tag super darauf gefreut."
Portable Firefox
by Volker Weber
Assuming you work for a company that has standardized on Internet Explorer and forces you to use the same corporate image as the secretaries administrative assistants, you may find Portable Firefox appealing if you need to check out a site in something else than IE. An additional benefit: You won't leave any traces behind.
It's hard work
by Volker Weber
Distribution might be a challenge
by Volker Weber
Found this clock on boingboing. I wonder how the manufacturer moves his inventory. Kind of hard to get this to the store. Would you dare travel with it?
Why is some content in german and some in english?
by Volker Weber
I often get asked why I publish most of my content in english, which is not my native language. Many readers would be happy to see it all in german or all in english. Here are two answers. Pick what you like.
1. I need to accomodate a substantial part of my readership that is uni-lingual. :-) The rest is at least bi-lingual and understands some english.
2. I need to practice my english, which is only my third language. You can help me by correcting my mistakes.
The site is not completely in english. Some of the content remains in german. While you can try and translate those posts with Babelfish, it isn't really helpful. Rule of thumb: If a post is in german, it is not interesting to anyone who does not speak the language. I will keep all of my posts that target german readers only in our native language. At times I may choose to post something in german, because it is too difficult for me to express it in a foreign language. Machine translation will certainly fail in this case.
If you post a comment, you can do that in any language I understand. That would include COBOL. ;-)
It was one hell of a party
by Volker Weber
Imagine you throw a party. You agree that 50 people showing up would be a disaster, 100 people would be so-so, and 200 people would be a success.
You open the door and 15 minutes later there are 200 people in the room. Another 30 minutes later, you hit 500. And then you have 200 people for the next three hours waiting in front of the door trying to get in.
We had a hell of a time. I am pretty sure we will do this again. If you were unable to attend, come earlier next year. ;-)
Einmal neue Batterie bitte
by Volker Weber
Meine Vespa wird wenig gefahren und da kann es leicht mal passieren, dass die Batterie ziemlich tief entladen ist. Das mögen Bleiakkus nicht so besonders und so wird bei mir ca alle drei Jahre eine neue fällig. Die letzte war "wartungsfrei", das heisst versiegelt. "Öffnen Sie niemals die Batterie beim Laden, füllen Sie nie Wasser auf". Naja, als sie dann vor einigen Wochen nicht mehr wollte, habe ich mal reingeschaut. Kein Wunder, die war ja auch beinahe halb leer. So etwas mögen Bleiakkus auch nicht so besonders. Auffüllen brachte da keine Heilung mehr, also musste eine neue her. (Reimen tut sich das schon mal. Am Versmaß wird noch gezimmert.)
Kleine Übungsaufgabe: Finden sie heraus, welche Batterie in eine Vespa ET4 BJ 98 passt.
Es ist eine YTX9-BS. Varta nennt sowas 508012008. Kostet die Kleinigkeit von 70 Euro. Ganz schön stolzer Preis für eine 8Ah-Batterie.
Zwei Häuserblocks weiter ist ein Polo-Händler. Dort habe ich eine Hi-Q YTX9 für 20 Euro erworben. Nehmen wir an, die hält nur zwei Jahre, dann habe ich in sieben Jahren den Preis der Varta erreicht.
palmOne Zire 72
by Volker Weber
While my Tungsten T3 is being serviced -- its digitizer is broken -- I am happy to use the Zire 72 that came with the navigation system. And I start to like it a lot. If I would not have enough PDAs already, it would receive the prestigious editor-refuses-to-give-it-back award*. Stefan, don't worry, you will get it back. :-)
I was initially turned off by its blue color which made it look more like a toy than a serious machine. I was surprised that palmOne did not go with the original white design of the Zire line. 
A white and steel machine would be closer to that iPod look. After using the device for a few days now I have changed my mind. The blue surface feels soft and gives you a good grip. Much better than a shiny surface would have been. The metallic surfaces make the machine feel expensive. The cheap plastic stylus however breaks that experience. palmOne should spend that extra buck to put in a serious metal stylus.
The Zire 72 has everything you might want, including bluetooth. With the notable exception of wireless LAN. They do sell an expansion card that will add this capability. I have 25 meg of memory available and you can add SD storage to hold more data and applications. The machine doubles as an MP3 player if you want and it has the best digital camera that I came across in a handheld device that is not a camera. The screen is bright and sharp. I also like the fact that the device uses a standard USB mini connector. No expensive options are needed if you want a second sync cable.
While the entry level Zires leave a lot to be desired in terms of screen and storage, this machine cuts it. If you are shopping for a Tungsten, you should also consider this machine. The camera actually makes all the difference.
*) Actually, I give back those editor-refuses-to-give-it-back units as well. It just may take a whole lot longer than initially planned. :-)
Tonight
by Volker Weber
Consider yourself warned
by Volker Weber
Before you sign for this package, read the fine print, turn up the bass, clean up your gear, avoid this shower, and wrap it up. You never know, who is going to hunt you down.
Screeeeam! You might be on candid camera.
Willkommen in Deutschland
by Volker Weber
Bild: Karsten W. Rohrbach, größere Version
Reviewing palmOne GPS Solution Zire 72 Edition (part 3)
by Volker Weber
[continued from part 2]
Over the weekend I played some more with the navigation software. Big surprise: I am starting to like it. :-) My final verdict will be much better than my initial impression. Before we get to the fun part however I maintain that two things are broken. The first one can easily be fixed, the second one will need a substantial rewrite of the waypoint selection subsystem.
1. Mapsonic never gives up bugging you about the missing GPS receiver. There is no "shut up now" button. What you learn however is to hit the "No GPS" status bar field and quickly deactivate the GPS receiver function. You can do that within 3 seconds before it bugs you again. I suspect that many customers never get to that point and give up. Persistence pays here.
2. Address entry is tedious. The dialogs are too many, the font is too small, and there are no favorites. It is dearly missing a default location for home. All of the other systems I tested have that and it is very convenient when you are in a foreign city and want to get back on the highway. That would be four finger taps in TomTom: Hit map, Navigate to, Home, OK. With MapSonic you need to take the unit out of the cradle, pick the stylus, Menu, Addresses, Select your card, To MapSonic, OK, OK, OK, Navigation Mode, put the stylus back, put the unit back into the cradle. Just too much hassle. Upside: You can use the addresses. TomTom still needs to learn that on the Palm while it can do that on the PocketPC already.
And now for the good stuff ...
The Multatuli Project: ISP Notice & take down
by Ragnar Schierholz
Member of the Bits of Freedom group conducted a test to seee/prove how easy it is to take an arbitrary website down.
They put up a website, published a public-domain article dating back to 1869/1871 and clearly stated the age and public availability of the document on the site. Then they notified ISPs about illegal content being published and asked for a takedown of the site. The requests were sent from an anonymous hotmail email address in the name of a non-existent society claiming to be the copyright holder. Most of the ISPs did take down the site. Check a brief presentation of the results or the full report.
So where does that leave us? I guess there is both an insufficient legal regulation (or at least it's insufficiently transparent) as well as an insufficient sense of responsibility on the ISPs side.
logFiler 0.4
by Volker Weber
Michael Preidel aktualisiert den ganz wunderbaren logFiler auf Version 0.4. Vielen Dank!
George says
by Volker Weber
"W" stands for "Wired"?
by Ken Porter
A bulge in the back of President George W Bush's suit jacket during the first TV debate with John Kerry has triggered rumours that he was wired to get help.
It does look like something is under his jacket, but it is hard to believe he had help considering his performance in the first debate.
Meeting Bill Gates
by Volker Weber
Vinod pushes open the bathroom door and there, standing slightly hunched at the urinal, was a small man dressed in a sweater. "Holy shit" I said to myself. "It's Bill Gates."
Are you in a hurry?
by Volker Weber
Julius Caesar
By William Shakespeare
Caius Cassius: Brutus, we're plotting to kill your best friend Caesar. Wanna help?
Marcus Brutus: Because I love Rome more, I will.
(They all stab Caesar.)
Julius Caesar: Et tu, Brute? In that case, I'd better die. (dies)
(The nation mourns, and everybody commits suicide.)
THE END
Repeat after me: The ROI of a migration is zero
by Volker Weber
May 31, Scott migrates from Movable Type to WordPress
Oct 06, Scott migrates from WordPress to Movable Type
Don't try this at home
by Volker Weber
[via Michael Preidel]
Frankfurt am Main
by Volker Weber
Photo: Dieter Fehrenz - larger image
Reviewing palmOne GPS Solution Zire 72 Edition (part 2)
by Volker Weber
[continued from part 1]
Once I got over the initial issues I had with connecting the Zire and the GPS receiver I started driving around. Things have improved somewhat now. ;-) This is a fairly long piece with loads of screenshots, so I put it into the extended entry and you will have to hit the "more" prompt to see it all.
Die besten Trainer sitzen vor dem Fernseher
by Volker Weber
für alle Sozialneider gibt's ein bischen Linderung - wer so aussieht wie die beiden (oder Jobs, Gates, Ballmer, der Amazon-Mann, oder Carly Fiorina) wird trotz Milliarden auf dem Konto immer noch keine Hammerfrauen abbekommen.
Schrieb der überaus gut aussehende, charmante und liebenswerte Heise-Foren-Kommentator über zwei Website-Betreiber, während ihm seine Hammerfrauen den Nacken massierten.
Google introduces wireless service
by Ragnar Schierholz
Google today launched a beta test version of Google SMS, this new service will allow US wireless users to query Google for almost any type of information.While I don't think that cell phones in general or SMS in particular is an appropriate technology for general web searches, I can certainly imagine more focused o specific search types well suitable for SMS and well needed in a situational context where I couldn't access any other media. Will watch where this is going.
If the site is slow ...
by Volker Weber
... something like this may be going on.
The robot tried for one and a half hour. Then it stopped. These are the joys of running a website like this. It would have taken a while to clear this junk out of the system. It would have been more than a thousand. No, vowe.net does not run on MySQL.
Go play somewhere else
by Volker Weber
OK, I have a solution of sorts to referrer spam - I bounce it back to them. I have almost eliminated it, except for one from h*hproftclub who refuses to go away. To be really EVIL, I’ve redirected that spammers output alone to the signup page at www.webclipping.com/signup.html. Probably not entirely ethical but then we’re dealing with two unethical orgs - why not play them off against each other? (Yeah I know, two wrongs…)
It does mean more crap in my log file (the way I have it set up) but it’s fun. Now, my log file sees an attempt to access a page on my site, which is redirected. However, because of the way it is redirected the bot still thinks it is on MY site - so I also get to see the cgi request. For example:
207.248.240.119 - - [04/Mar/2005:06:19:37 -0600] "GET /cgi-bin/signup.cgi?cname=web+poker&caddress=+%3Ch1%3EYou+can+a...
So now webclippings are being auto-spammed by a spammer! We hate them both - now they can hate each other. And I think I am effectively hidden from this loop, thanks to how these redirects work. It just looks like h**hprofit is spamming them direct!
Ha ha ha! Death to the spammer…
Reviewing palmOne GPS Solution Zire 72 Edition (part 1)
by Volker Weber
I am posting this in english to solicit feedback from you. Do not feel obliged to write in english. German is just as fine with me. I just want to make sure that I can be understood by as many people as possible
As many of you read yesterday, I have received a new navigation system in the morning, and I am stumped. I have never seen anything so bad. At least that is my first impression and I need you to show me the light. ;-) [Update: My initial verdict changed substantially later and you need to read the whole review.]
First things first. What is in the package?
Versuchsballon
by Volker Weber
Habe heute mal zwei kleine Pakete mit GLS verschickt. 4 Euro das Stück, dafür gibt's bei der Post nicht mal ein Päckchen. Bei GLS ist die Sendung versichert, soll morgen ausgeliefert werden und bietet eine Sendungsverfolgung. Ich habe die Pakete im GLS-Paketshop bei Velocity abgegeben. Konnte direkt von der Türe parken und musste keine Minute warten.
Wenn die Auslieferung genauso gut klappt, mache ich das öfter.
Update: Hat geklappt wie am Schnürchen.
Went to Frankfurt ...
by Volker Weber
... and all I got was this lousy T-shirt. And a blinkenlight. ;-)
Nur falls sich mal einer einen Wolf sucht
by Volker Weber
Der Schlüssel für ein Kirrio Bluetooth GPS ist 2003.
Wie jetzt - nur 142 Adressen?
by Volker Weber
Liebe IBM, jetzt erklären Sie dem neuen Mann im Presseteam mal, wie das geht mit dem BCC-Feld in Lotus Notes. Derweil herzlichen Dank für den einschlägigen Presseverteiler.
The Meazura RDA
by Volker Weber
Built Tough. The Meazura Rugged Digital Assistant (RDA) combines the flexibility of the Palm OS with rugged durability. Built to IP67 standards, the Meazura RDA is completely resistant to dust ingress, and is the world's first waterproof (not just resistant) Palm Powered device.
Teleportation ist möglich
by Volker Weber
Der Kurier kam um neun. Ich hätte ihn beinahe nicht gehört, weil ... egal. Und dann habe ich einen Fehler gemacht: Ich habe das Navigationssystem ausgepackt. Als ich fertig war, war die Speicherkarte weg. Sie war weg. Definitiv weg. Ich hatte noch die Plastikhülle, aber die Karte war weg.
[Enter Panic Mode]
Ich habe die Kartons zweimal vollständig aus- und eingepackt.
Ich habe die Küche durchsucht.
Ich habe drei Küchenschränke durchsucht.
Ich habe den Boden unter dem Kühlschrank durchsucht. Frag nicht, was ich da alles gefunden habe.
Ich habe den Boden unter dem Herd durchsucht. Dto.
Ich habe das Gewussel auf meinen Schreibtisch durchsucht.
Ich habe die Mülltonne durchsucht.
Ich habe die Papiertonne durchsucht.
Dann habe ich aufgegeben. Die Karte war definitiv weg. Durch die Balkendecke diffundiert.
[Exit Panic Mode]
Und dann habe ich die Karte gefunden.
T-Mobile USA secures WiFi hotspots
by Ragnar Schierholz
T-Mobile USA today released a new secure encrypted Connection Manager that will enable users to login to any of the 4700 nationwide HotSpot wireless networks. With this new software, an 802.1x client will send their encrypted username and password to the T-Mobile authentication server, if the account is valid, the server will issue a private WPA key to the client, thus granting them access to the Internet.
Well, that's a good idea, isn't it? Let's see when this will be imitated by other competitors.
DSL 1000
by Volker Weber
Die Telekom hat offensichtlich die Leitung von 768 auf 1024 MBit/s umgestellt.
Interesting meeting coming up today
by Volker Weber
Hi, my name is Larry. And I am Sergey. Together we have a website.
Don't try this at home
by Volker Weber
Chenism
by Volker Weber
During last night's vice presidential debate, Dick Cheney advised viewers interested in his version of the facts about Halliburton to visit factcheck.com. Evidently, he meant to direct them to factcheck dot ORG, but mis-spoke. Factcheck dot COM redirects you to GeorgeSoros.com which contains arguments on "why we must not re-elect President George Bush." Whups. :)[via boingboing]
Unknown Audio CD
by Volker Weber
I am currently listening through a stack of new audio CDs. And for the first time I have inserted a CD that is not yet in the CDDB. Musique & Art Nouveau, Trio Tanis.
Very early draft, indeed
by Volker Weber
GMail receives a big update
by Volker Weber
- Gmail Notifier lives in your Windows tray, checks for new messages and displays their subjects, senders and snippets, all without having to open a web browser.
- The contact list now stores notes and phone numbers, lets you search or contacts. You can directly view messages from the contact list now.
- Automatic forwarding to another email account with filters. Google says it's free during the test, the first indication that GMail might not be free forever or completely.
- You are now able to save Drafts
Single?
by Volker Weber
Looks more like double.
Lange Leitung
by Volker Weber
Jetzt ärgere ich mich seit Jahren, dass ich hier immer die gleichen Sachen auswählen muss. Und heute fällt mir ein, man könnte ja am Ende gar das Bookmark auf diese oder jene Seite setzen.
Ich habe das jetzt mal für Darmstadt/ISDN durchpermutiert. Interessante Erkenntnisse:- Handys sollte man generell über 01079 anrufen.
- Ortsgespräche immer über 01081 (am WE unwesentlich günstiger über 01070). Der Preisunterschied ist enorm: Telekom 5 ct, über 01081 nur 1,2 ct. Pro Stunde also 3,00 Euro vs. 0,72 Euro.
- Ähnlich sieht das bei Ferngesprächen unter der Woche zu normalen Betriebszeiten aus. Telekom 10,6 ct und 01019 für maximal 2 ct. Zur Erinnerung: Das Ortsgespräch kostet bei der Telekom schon 5 ct.
- Am Wochenende nimmt die Telekom dann nur noch drei mal so viel (3.6 ct) wie Arcor mit 01070. Aber Vorsicht: Arcor ist zu normalen Betriebszeiten genauso teuer wie die Telekom.
Das kann ich mir gerade so merken
- Handy 01079
- Ortsgespräche 01081
- Ferngespräche 01019
- Wochenende 01070
Ist das jetzt ...
by Volker Weber
... noch Schröder? Oder schon Spitting Image?
Heute abend im Herrngarten
by Volker Weber
Pärchen kommt spät. Schon nach acht. Scheffe ist hungrig und bestellt ein SchniPoSa und ein Bier. Madame will nur einen Salat. Und ein Wasser. Sehr wohl. SchniPoSa für dreineunzig, wo gibt's das noch?
Essen kommt. Madame guckt nun doch hungrig. Scheffe gibt SchniPoSa ab, die Madame genüsslich verspeist. Scheffe stochert im Salat. Und guckt verliebt. Darf auch mal 'ne Pommes stibitzen.
E-Mail?
by Volker Weber
ConvinceYourMom.com
by Volker Weber
All over America, mothers who raise their kids to work hard, play nice, and be honest are still supporting a candidate who embodies none of these values. Misled by manipulative ads and turned off by negative campaigning, many folks prefer to assume the best about George W. Bush – that he’s a good man trying to do a good job. Convincing them that the nice guy in the plaid shirt clearing brush on his ranch is actually a front for a political machine determined to hold on to power and privilege at the expense of the American people is not going to be easy, but we're here to help.
TomTom Palm now compatible with 3rd party POI overlays
by Volker Weber
TomTom has released an update which brings the Palm Navigator to version 4.4.
The most interesting feature is the ability to manage your own POIs and POI categories. You can plug in a POI category from other TomTom users (including from TomTom PocketPC/Palm users). Combine this with the option to get a warning when you are close to a POI. The warning will be given based on the specified POI category, distance and sound. Think speedtrap:
Aus die Maus
by Volker Weber
Anke Late Night schließt am 21.Oktober. Aus der FAZ:
"Schade, daß die Sendung nicht mehr Zuschauern soviel Spaß gemacht hat wie meinem Team und mir", sagte die 38jährige Entertainerin. "Im übrigen plane ich keine kreative Pause."
Vielleicht könnte ja der Harald dann seine wieder beenden. Oder muss dazu erst die Schawinski-Show platzen?
[via ix]
Jabber protocols are now published by IETF as RFCs
by Volker Weber
- RFC 3920: Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core - The core XML streaming technology that powers Jabber applications, including advanced security and internationalization support.
- RFC 3921: Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence - Basic IM and presence extensions, including contact lists, presence subscriptions, and whitelisting/blacklisting.
- RFC 3922: Mapping the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) to Common Presence and Instant Messaging (CPIM) - A mapping of XMPP to the IETF's abstract syntax for IM and presence.
- RFC 3923: End-to-End Signing and Object Encryption for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) - An extension for interoperable, end-to-end security.
iChatAV 3.0 is rumored to support these protocols. IBM, you are all for standards, aren't you. How about implementing those in Sametime and WP?
By tomorrow I shall be re-designed
by Volker Weber
According to Notes 6.5.3 that is. ;-)
Windows FTP Client
by Volker Weber
Please recommend a good FTP client for Windows. Freeware preferred. It has to have a GUI. I was a LeechFTP user but this program is no longer being developed.
Wunderbar
by Volker Weber
Kein großes Kino, aber ein großer Spaß: Süperseks. Allein schon die Filmmusik (im Flash als Hintergrund) ... Lyssa, das wäre doch mal ein nettes Gelage. ;-)
Noch 'n Witz
by Volker Weber
Wie heißt ein Jeep ohne Motor?
Scheep.
Dieser Witz wurde Ihnen überreicht von Haiko.
La Linea
by Volker Weber
I love this guy. Here is another one. I have seen them at the movies or on TV but I have never learned who draws them, in what language the little guy swears. Anyone care to fill us in?
[via humor.is]
Punkte kosten
by Volker Weber
Wieder was gelernt:
Wer schon Punkte in Flensburg hat, dem kann bei einem erneuten Verkehrsverstoß eine höhere Geldbuße auferlegt werden. Grund: Die im Katalog vorgesehenen Regelbußen gelten für normale, unvorbelastete Fahrer. In der Akte eines Ordnungsamtes habe ich jetzt einen Berechnungsbogen dafür gefunden. Jeder Punkt, der nicht älter ist als ein Jahr, erhöht die Buße um 10 %. Jeder Punkt, der älter ist als ein Jahr, erhöht die Geldbuße um 5 %. Erhöht sich nach der Berechnung die Buße insgsamt um mehr als 100 %, muss der Sachbearbeiter seinen Vorgesetzten fragen.
Conan vs. Onan
by Volker Weber
Let the two men America really wants to see run for president, run for president.
[Thanks, Diddi]
Tungsten T5 officially announced
by Volker Weber
We briefly mentioned it last week, and it happened today. There is a new handheld out from palmOne.
The Tungsten T5 is a T3, sans slider, with 256 MB of flash memory. That is the biggest news. Flash will hold the data even if the battery runs out. If you read the fine print you will see that this translates to 215MB of actual storage capacity, 160MB internal flash drive plus 55MB program memory for applications and data.
palmOne provides a file manager for the flash drive on the handheld and a transfer application for the PC. Have not checked yet how that works with a Mac. You can however turn the T5 into an expensive memory key and access that from the computer as a normal drive.
With its gun metal color the T5 resembles the successful Palm V. It will appeal to people who never liked the slider design. PalmOne could have done better though than just cloning the Tungsten E.
Biggest disappointment: No WLAN.
Update: File transfer is Windows-only. The machine has no built-in microphone, so it cannot double as a voice recorder. Bummer. It uses a new multiconnector, so your existing T3 accessories won't work.
So far I am not excited.
Site news: New mail link
by Volker Weber
I just added a little function that many regulars might miss: You can now mail a link to any post with your own mail client. I chose not to use a form based solution and went with a mailto link. Please comment if you have a client that does not pick up both a subject and body.
T630 finally without the stupid T-Mobile branding
by Volker Weber
It took us more than 4 months to fix this T630 branding issue. Numerous people tried to flash the phone but they all failed, including one who offered this service on eBay.
The first step towards a solution was when HJG bought a terminator dongle and successfully flashed his own brand new phone. It was a walk in the park. He then volunteered to either flash our phone if we were able to mail it. Well, we could not, so he sent us his dongle.
It then turned out to not be a walk in the park for us. First both of my Thinkpads failed to see the dongle. Once I had established I was using the correct software, I moved to my HP workstations and the first one succeeded right away and saw the dongle.
My first tasks were to update my T39m and T68i phones to a current software level. Both phones were neither locked nor branded. It turned out to be quite easy and I was looking forward to finally rid the T630 of its branding. Much to my dismay however it did not work.
It turned out that T-Mobile took the customer lock-in to a new level by encrypting the boot sequence so it could no longer be interrupted to flash the phone. The solution was to get the right software that was able to break this lock.
Finally my friend is able to use all buttons on his phone without being forced into T-Zones.
Firefox out, Camino in
by Volker Weber
Yesterday I reported that I was going to replace Safari with Firefox. That did not work very well. While I enjoy Firefox on the PC, the Mac version crashed on me three times in one day. That is not tolerable. Stefan Tilkov suggested that I should try Camino, yet another Mozilla project.
I am going to give Camino a test run for a few days. If it works better than Firefox I am going to stick with it. If it does not, then it is time to find the root cause for the Safari performance problem. I currenty suspect an issue with the favicon cache. Note the missing icon in Safari.
Update: I found the root cause for the Safari slowdown. I had an excessively large favicon cache. Deleting the folder Library/Safari/Icons solved the issue.
I am not sure how to procede from here. Firefox is not an option as my main browser because of the current instability. I just don't like Camino's appearance. The most likely course will be to stay with Safari now that the issue has been resolved and to keep Firefox as the backup browser for pages that don't work in Safari.
Don't try this at home
by Volker Weber
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
wie heisst der zahnarzt von al capone? al dente. ach egal.
— ix
Das hat uns noch gefehlt
by Volker Weber
Die Madame war noch mal in München, um nachzugucken, ob das Oktoberfest immer noch da ist. Jetzt haben wir auch einen 1 Liter Stein mit Deckel, laut Eigenwerbung des Wiesn-Shop "Der Rolls Royce unter den Krügen". Weiter heißt es da:
Der altbewährter Steinkrug mit handgezogenem Griff und zusätzlich aufwendig gearbeiteten Zinndeckel. Dieses Jahr ziert diesen das Portrait von Helene Sedelmayer.
Natürlich mit offiziellen Plakatmotiv zur Wiesn 2003 und entsprechend farblich abgestimmten Dekorstreifen.
Zum daraus Trinken viel zu wertvoll!
Achtung: Alle 1 Liter Krüge sind streng limitiert!
Und ich dachte, es wäre 2004. Und "limitiert" ist nicht so aussagekräftig, wenn man nicht weiß, auf wie viele denn. ;-)
Keeping America scared
by Volker Weber
[via Joi Ito]
I just dropped Safari in favor of Firefox
by Volker Weber
I have been kicking this idea around for a while. The main reason for change was that Safari was getting slower all the time. Very often it switches on the beach ball while it creates a new tab behind the current and loads a webpage. I used to be able to command-click ten links and it would just open them in the background without affecting my ability to work in the foreground. No longer. Very often I get the beach ball and Safari no longer listens. I am not really sure what is causing the different behaviour. And I am not willing to invest the time to find out.
So, at least for now it is Firefox. The king is dead. Long live the king.
RealPlayer 10 for Mac OS X
by Volker Weber
Real, the company that defined the term invasive annoying software for me, has just released RealPlayer 10 for the Mac. My verdict: give it another chance. It is much less annoying than RealPlayer One. And probably even less annoying than Apple "Upgrade Later" Quicktime, and Microsoft "Lock yourself in" Media Player. Yes, I know about VLC and MPlayer and I use any one those five mentioned players to get the best viewing experience.
BTW: I switched off all the "Allow ..." options.
Don Dahlmann auf der Popkomm
by Volker Weber
Frohen Mutes ließ ich mich einscannen und betrat die Messehallen. Ich schlenderte durch eine recht leere Halle, dann durch noch eine nicht ganz so leere Halle und dachte, nachdem ich fünf Rechtsanwaltstände, zwei Wirtschschaftsprüferstände, den VIVA Stand, den Kanada-, Österreich-, Schweiz, Holland-, Norwegen- und Finnlandstand, den Popakademiestand, den Deutsche Welle Stand und den "Super-T-Shirts hier Stand" gesehen hatte: "Aha, und wo sind die Hallen, wo die Musikindustrie ist?" Also bin ich zurück marsch, marsch, erstmal super o2 Tasche beim Pressestand abstaubend, dann Lageplan studierend.
Ok - ich hatte den "Labelstand" (an dem es lecker Currywurst gab) in einer Halle übersehen. Aber sonst nix. Die Popkomm, die in Köln mal fünf riesige Hallen belegt hatte, ist zu einer Veranstaltung zusammen gedampft, gegen die die "Fachmesse Sanitär, Heizung, Klima und Gebäudeautomation" ein Rock n Roll Fest ist.
