May 2005

Play it loud

by Volker Weber

imac_snap344.jpg

Was ist eigentlich eine Blindkopie?

by Volker Weber

Return-Path: <claudia.diefenbach@neckermann-reisen.de>
Received: from mail1.lhsystems.com ([193.24.33.72]) by mailin11.sul.t-online.de with esmtp id xxxxxx-xxxxxxx; Tue, 31 May 2005 09:10:42 +0200
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Subject: Ihr Condor Online Buchung!
To: 200 Kunden einzeln mit voller Adresse aufgeführt
X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 5.0.8 June 18, 2001
Message-ID: <xxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx@qlh.de.thomascook.com>
From: claudia.diefenbach@neckermann-reisen.de
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 09:09:04 +0200
X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on tcgate01/ThomasCook(Release 5.0.11 |July 24, 2002) at 05/31/2005 09:10:30



HERZLICHEN GLÜCKWUNSCH!

Sie haben bei Condor online einen Flug gebucht und nun die Möglichkeit
einen traumhaften Aufenthalt im Mövenpick Dream Castle Hotel in
Disneyland Resort Paris zu reservieren.

Wir schenken Ihnen eine Nacht !

Bei diesem Subject müsste es wohl eigentlich korrekt heißen: "Wir schenken Ihnen ein Nacht!" Ich weiß nicht, ob das bei Neckermann Reisen auch so ist, aber ich kenne ein Unternehmen, das hat das BCC-Feld im Mailtemplate abgeschaltet. Was ähnlich gut funktioniert wie die angehängten Disclaimer.

[Danke, Alex]

Inquiring minds want to know

by Volker Weber

polar bears

Caught on camera

by Volker Weber

I hope the guy in the background is just tucking in his shirt.

Tracking PDF document use by "phoning home"

by Volker Weber

Joe Brockmeyer reports on unexpected features in Acrobat 7:

By default, Adobe Reader 7 turns on JavaScript, so the "tagged" document is able to "phone home" without the user's awareness.

It appears that you can include Javascript code into PDF documents, that Adobe Reader executes. In this incident the code called a predefined hostname that tracked the usage of the document.

If you are concerned with your privcay you may want to switch off Javascript in Adobe Reader 7.

[Thanks, Detlev]

Video Conferenceing with Skype

by Ragnar Schierholz

Dialcom Networks has published a plugin called spontania video4skype. So far, Windows only though and currently Beta 0.8.3.

Installation works smooth (even though only via an IE ActiveX control and from an unnamed host :-(). It detected my Logitech Notebook Pro Cam automatically and connected to Skype and detected my online status there as well.

Now all I need is a volunteer to test it? Anyone?

[Update: Seems like the site has a little performance problem, I checked my IE cache and found the CAB file.]

Domino-Admin gesucht

by Volker Weber

vowe.net-Leser wissen mehr. Noch ist nicht mal die Stellenanzeige draussen, aber hier steht schon, um was es geht.

In Köln wird ein Domino-Administrator gesucht, der seinen Namen schreiben kann. Sprich: Er sollte wissen, was er tut. Und er sollte als Principal CLP zertifiziert sein. Am besten gleich als Admin und Developer. Klingt nach interessantem Job, nicht wahr? Bewerbungen bitte an Marco Föllmer.

Email best practice on the Treo

by Volker Weber

chatteremailscreen.png

The Treo 650 comes with a very capable mail program for IMAP4 and POP3. However, checking your mail on a regular basis means that you are polling your server. Open connection, log in, check for new mail, download if available, disconnect. That adds up quite some traffic if you are on a metered contract. It also means that you cannot receive mail faster than your polling schedule allows.

On the other hand there is the Blackberry that delivers messages as fast as they arrive through a "push" mechanism. However, this solution requires either a dedicated Blackberry Enterprise Server on site or a contract with a Blackberry service provider. There is a Blackberry client for the Treo in the works but it has not been made available yet.

When looking for a better solution I came across Chatter Email. It advertises a "true push" solution without a push server. So how is that supposed to work? Who is pushing the emails? I have learned that there is an IDLE command which keeps the connection to the IMAP server open. Chatter connects to the IMAP server, logs in and checks for new mail. It then put the connection into the idle state. The IMAP server will start sending mail as it arrives. Voila, push without a dedicated server.

Using this solution I can keep up with my email without requiring more than about 100kB a day for message headers and truncated message bodies. Which puts this solution well into the popular 10 meg/month packages available here.

Und Ihr wundert Euch, dass Ihr nichts verkauft

by Volker Weber

Lego Star Wars

by Volker Weber

legostarwars.jpg

Windows rapidly approaching desktop usability

by Volker Weber

Read the full report here.

It's "Make yor own caption" time

by Volker Weber

13

Fernsehprogramm im Dashboard

by Volker Weber

fernsehwidget

Sehr gut, Sebastian!

Wuff

by Volker Weber

Aus einem Interview: Nat Friedman, bei Novell für die Entwicklung von Desktop und Collaboration zuständig, spielt die Differenzen zwischen Gnome und KDE herunter.

Friedman: Irgendwann wird es sicher eine Form von Annäherung geben, auf der Seite der Hersteller oder der Seite der Kunden. Die einzigen Leute, die die Unterschiede betonen, sind die Entwickler, und damit meine ich nicht die ISVs (Independent Software Vendors), sondern die Leute, die nicht duschen. [Lacht]

Dazu ein Leserbrief:

From: xxxxxxxx xxxxxx <xxxxxx@kde.org>
To: Volker Weber <vowe@ctmagazin.de>
Subject: Zu "Mit Teamwork auf den Desktop"
Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 20:51:34 +0200
User-Agent: KMail/1.8.1

Hallo,

nach meiner Beobachtung haben weder Desktop- noch genereller "Freie Software"-Entwickler ein Defizit an Körperhygiene. Demnach lese ich diesen "Witz" vom Novell Vize-Präsidenten Friedman mit einiger Überraschung und Verstörtheit.

Ich hätte mir gewünscht, dass der Interviewer an dieser Stelle nachgehakt oder die Redaktion, gegebenfalls nach Rückfrage, diesen Halbsatz gestrichen hätte.

MfG,
xxxxxxx

Meine Antwort:

Wie wär's mit: xxxxxx: [Lacht auch]

Seine Antwort:

Über einen sicher nicht der Open Source-Verbreitung dienlichen, aber dafür schlechtes Klischee-bedienenden, unangebrachten Dumm-Witz? Nein danke.

Oder drastischer: Wo ist da großer Unterschied zu den heise.de-Foren Trollen,die OS Developer als Arbeitslose/Asoziale/Dreckige/Dumme/Schüler darstellen?

MfG,
xxxxxxx (der noch immer selbst entscheidet über was er lacht)

Messerschmidt ME 109

by Volker Weber

This is the only one that flies. If you want to see it, visit the Flugtag 2005 in Oppenheim this weekend.

More warbirds and pictures from the airshow.

Falls Sie mal wieder Gründe suchen ...

by Volker Weber

... Windows nicht zu benutzen, dann schauen Sie einfach hier:

More >

Auf den Spuren der Nibelungenfahrt 2005

by Volker Weber

mercedes

What a day. Can you spot Sonny Crockett's car? Yes, it is the original that was used on the set.

Here's a Personals listing worth responding to!

by Esther Schindler

Yet another reason to love Craigslist.

Found on Flickr: Glow

by Volker Weber

Netcraft Toolbar

by Ragnar Schierholz

The folks at Netcraft have released the Netcraft Toolbar, a plug-in/extension for both IE and Firefox which serves as a short cut to their services and helps to protect the user from phishing and other fraud.

More >

This may come as a surprise

by Volker Weber

streetlamp

Apple Airport Express no longer dropping off the network

by Volker Weber

It looks like Stefan had the right idea when he suggested I switch from DHCP to fixed IP addressing for the Apple Airport Express. Since I did that the AAX never lost its network connection again. Case closed.

Palm, the artist formerly known as Palm

by Volker Weber

A bit of history: Palm split into palmOne (handhelds) and PalmSource (OS). palmOne at the same time took over Handspring and inherited their Treo line of smartphones.

Back to the future: palmOne now bought all the rights for the Palm brand for 30 million from Palmsource. PalmSource needs money, since they are not doing too well. Their new OS 6.0 has not been used for a single device. palmOne is still using 5.4, Sony has dumped PDAs and there is hardly anyone left to license the OS.

Next step: palmOne will once again assume the name Palm. All devices that come out in the fall will be branded with the old name.

From my clouded crystal ball: Second next step - Palm will go full circle and take over PalmSource.

Also, I do know people who swear they have seen a Treo running Windows.

Stunt City

by Volker Weber

stuntcity

Marooned

by Volker Weber

marooned

Scharf kalkuliert

by Volker Weber

Dreier:

Listenpreis: 35900
Preis des Testwagens: 52500

Dreier:

Listenpreis: 27490
Angebotspreis: 39560

Fünfer Traktor:

Listenpreis: 44900
Angebotspreis: 70550

Alles Euro, nicht Mark.

Quote of the day

by Volker Weber

Reporter: Mr. Lucas, könnten Sie bitte noch einmal den entscheidenden Satz wiederholen?
George Lucas: May the force be with you.
Simultanübersetzer: Am 4. Mai werden wir bei dir sein.

N24 zitiert nach Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 22. Mai 2005, S.36

Apple Airport Express dropping off the network

by Volker Weber

What do you think Apple does with error reports in their forum? Admit that they have a problem? Forget it. They just delete the post. It now has happened a number of times, so I am posting my issues now here at vowe's magic flying circus to give Google an opportunity to catch it.

airportexpress

What's the deal? I think that the Apple Airport Express (AAX) is broken by design. It desperately needs a better way to communicate its current state. My AAX drops off the network while still displaying a green LED that says: "I am fine." However, it isn't. You cannot connect to it anymore. Unplug, plug back in and it works again. Rinse, repeat every dozen of hours or so.

This is the setup: AAX, Firmware 6.1.1, operating in client mode in a WEP-encrypted network, network configuration by DCHP, AirTunes enabled. This is the log file, shortly after the AAX has been running for 30 minutes.


Jan 01 01:00:00 Severity: 5 Joined BSS 00:06:25:c1:34:67
Jan 01 01:00:01 Severity: 5 Initialized (firmware 6.1.1 Dec 17 2004 12:19:18).
Jan 01 01:00:11 Severity: 3 No address for NTP server time.euro.apple.com.
Jan 01 01:00:14 Severity: 5 Internet configuration leased (host 192.168.8.4/24 gateway 192.168.8.28 dns1 192.168.8.28).
May 22 11:07:20 Severity: 5 Clock synchronized to network time server time.euro.apple.com (adjusted +1116752819 seconds)
May 22 11:28:10 Severity: 5 Deauthenticated with station 00:06:25:c1:34:67 (received invalid class-3 frame).
May 22 11:28:10 Severity: 5 Disconnected from network.
May 22 11:28:13 Severity: 5 Joined BSS 00:06:25:c1:34:67
May 22 11:28:21 Severity: 5 Internet configuration leased (host 192.168.8.4/24 gateway 192.168.8.28 dns1 192.168.58.58).
May 22 11:57:14 Severity: 5 Connection accepted from 192.168.8.101:50501.
May 22 11:57:14 Severity: 5 Connection accepted from 192.168.8.101:50502.

It looks like it does indeed disconnect from the network and then tries to reconnect. If it fails to do so, it will still display a green light. Not good.

Testdrive IBM Workplace Collaboration Services

by Volker Weber

The Workplace Channel reports on the IBM Workplace Collaboration Services Showcase, the artist also known as DoesNotWorkplace, and refers to the access code that you need to sign up:

Lotus sales team members refer to the Lotus Workplace Live Showcase announcement in the Lotus Sales Tools database or on the XL Web site for the access code. Lotus Business Partners refer to the Lotus Workplace Live Showcase announcement in the Partner Forum. GCPC members check the GCPC forum for the Lotus Workplace Live Showcase announcement. PSP customers contact your Lotus Support Manager for the access code.

If you do not have the time to wait until a Lotus sales team member has looked up the access code in the Lotus Workplace Live Showcase announcement in the Lotus Sales Tools database or on the XL Web site, or if you cannot find it in the the GCPC forum for the Lotus Workplace Live Showcase announcement, or you cannot contact the Lotus Support Manager, then you may want to check the source code of the form where you fill in your access code:

<script language="JavaScript">
function doSubmit(action)
{
if(document.UserProfileForm.code.value=="firstlook"){
document.UserProfileForm.currentAction.value = action;
document.UserProfileForm.submit();
return false;
}
else{
alert("The access code is not correct.");
return false;
}
}
</script>

IBM seems to make certain assumptions about the level of knowledge in their customer base. ;-)

IBM Marketing to go full circle?

by Volker Weber

Carl has an excellent rumo(u)r, and I have zero doubts that this will happen:

IBM Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing, the artist formerly known as Sametime, will be re-branded again and shall be named ... [drumroll] Sametime.

Do I hear Quickplace? You do know the quote about Sushi and IBM?


Apple calls back batteries

by Volker Weber

applebatteryreplacement.png

Ladies and gentlemen, check your Apple batteries. If you strike it lucky, you get a spanking new one from Apple.

More >

Great wallpaper for your notebook

by Volker Weber

Does anybody have this as a free typeface?

Syncing Treo 650 or Tungsten 5 with Lotus Notes

by Volker Weber

Ladies and Gentlemen, update your software:

EasySync Pro 4.2.3 supports synchronization with Palm Tungsten T5 and Palm Treo 650 devices.

[Thanks, Olaf]

When in Italy beware of police

by Volker Weber

polizia

Erster?

by Volker Weber

heise online berichtet:

Ab 1. Juli bietet T-Com als erster Carrier bundesweit DSL-Anschlüsse mit Übertragungsraten von bis zu 6 Megabit pro Sekunde (MBit/s) an. Dabei kostet der neue T-DSL-6000-Anschluss 24,99 Euro pro Monat -- genau so viel wie der bisherige 3-MBit-Anschluss. Die Upstream-Geschwindigkeit wird aller Voraussicht nach wie bei den 3-MBit-Anschlüssen bei 512 kBit/s liegen.

Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass das besser heissen würde: "T-Com kündigt als erster Carrier ... bis zu 6 Megabit pro Sekunde an". Bis zum 1. Juli ist ja noch ein bisschen Zeit. ;-)

Don't try this at home

by Volker Weber

Eventuell

by Volker Weber

Der Computer ist eventuell gefährdet. Antivirussoftware ist eventuell nicht installiert.

Dumme Sache nur, dass der Computer, nachdem eventuell Kaspersky oder F-Secure installiert sind, eventuell jedesmal mit einem eventuellen Bluescreen eventuell stehenbleibt und eventuell wieder neu startet.

Funnyfox - Firefox commercials

by Ragnar Schierholz

As SpiegelOnline reports, the Mozilla Foundation has published three funny commercials for Firefox at Funnyfox. Go check them out :-).

Google Desktop Search goes Enterprise

by Volker Weber

gdsenterprise.gif

.. and adds support for Lotus Notes E-Mail.

More>

palmOne finally takes the wraps off the LifeDrive

by Volker Weber

palmonelifedrive.jpg

Pictures and specs of this product have been leaked for weeks now. Today palmOne has finally taken the wraps off the LifeDrive. I have seen and touched the device at CeBIT, but was not allowed to play with it. So I don't really have any firsthand experience.

What I can say is that this is the mother of all PDAs. It's got everything short of being a phone. This may be the perfect companion for a small Bluetooth-equipped phone. If all goes well I may have one to play with shortly. Stay tuned.

Be afraid

by Volker Weber

Be very afraid.

Knapp daneben ist auch vorbei

by Volker Weber

Das fängt schon mal sehr gut an:

Die Hamburger freenet startet heute ein exklusives freenetHandy Angebot für jedermann, das einen fairen, transparenten freenet Mobilfunk-Tarif und ein attraktives Handy umfasst. Beim 'freenet-fair29 Tarif' gibt es keine versteckten Kostenfallen: Er kostet immer nur 29 Cent pro Minute - zu jeder Zeit an jedem Tag in alle Mobilfunk-Netze sowie ins deutsche Festnetz – und das ohne Grundgebühr.

Und jetzt machen sie es kaputt:

'Ein Tarif für jedermann: Denn durch den geringen Mindestumsatz von nur € 9,95, auf den auch SMS angerechnet werden können, und die Null-Euro-Grundgebühr ist der neue freenet Handy-Tarif die geeignete Wahl für Wenigtelefonierer', so Martin Ostermayer, Leiter Business Development der freenet.de AG zum Start.

Egal ob es Mindestumsatz, Relax, Time&More oder wie auch immer heißt, so geht es stets um die gleiche Sache: Der Kunde hat etwas bezahlt, was er nicht in Anspruch genommen hat. Wenn er es in Anspruch nimmt, dann lässt man ihn stets im Unklaren darüber, wie viel er tatsächlich verbraucht hat, damit er entweder Bezahltes verfallen lässt oder viel mehr ausgibt als er vorhatte.

Stopping abuse

by Volker Weber

I need to block abusive spiders. Not those run by search engines but users who download the whole site using some Mozilla plugin. I have no idea who wants thousands of old pages, but there have been two incidents now where people have not only downloaded the site once but actually twice.

I am thinking about adding a throttle, along the lines of "more than 30 requests per minute and your IP is blocked". Has anybody seen anything like this?

Update: Nils has provided a good hint (see comments). You can now request 15 pages in 60 seconds, which should be enough for everyone. If you exceed that rate, your IP is blocked for 60 seconds. That should stop robots but not humans.

Abenteuer beim 1&1 Kunden-Service

by Volker Weber

Michael Preidel telefoniert mit dem 1&1 Kunden-Service:

Guten Tag, hier ist der 1 und 1 Kunden-Service. Für allgemeine Vertragsfragen drücken Sie jetzt bitte die 1, für Fragen zur Rechnung drücken Sie bitte die 2, für …

Holt Euch einen Kaffee. Das Gespräch dauert 50 Minuten.

More >

Mercedes Mixed Tape 07 is out

by Volker Weber

mixedtape7.jpg

15 free MP3 tracks from 7 Samurai, Computerjockey, DabBuka Projekt, Dream Catcher, Eclectic Brew, Electric Brother, Feta Kuli, Guitar feat. Ayako Akashiba, Honeymunch, Kaye Ree, Micatone, Spherical, Swoiza & Mirle, Tango Fusion Club, and Tubbs.

More >

Additional thoughts on IBM blogs

by Volker Weber

A comment that Ed Brill made on Pete Lyon's site got me thinking:

This is still evolving thought -- by no means do I think that yesterday's published guidelines are going be static.

I have a few sources for this policy at IBM bloggers' sites but there is no place at IBM that I am aware of that has it for download. It will certainly be available internally but if IBM really wants to be transparent then this is a good exercise. I'd suggest:

  1. Create ibm.com/blogs
  2. Publish your policy there
  3. Document version changes by keeping old copies in an accessible archive
  4. Allow IBMers to register their sites with a directory
  5. Make this directory available from ibm.com/blogs
  6. Assign two editors to read those blogs and have them metablog on ibm.com/blogs

Object in the rear view mirror

by Volker Weber

planes

I know there is no rear view mirror on jetliners. And the crash was caused by the DC-9.

More >

Link-o-rama

by Volker Weber

ibook_snap_357.png

It looks like Ed ist being flooded with referrers from heise online. Sorry, Nico. ;-)

Before and after

by Volker Weber

utilisation050517.png

The switch from T-Com to Arcor went very well and I am a happy camper now.

Ausgenüchtert

by Volker Weber

Dienstag morgen, erster Arbeitstag nach Pfingsten. Die Windows-PCs werden wieder eingeschaltet. Und schon rollt die braune Spam-Welle. In jeder dritten ein Münte-Slogan. Guten Morgen Deutschland.

Apple releases first update for Tiger

by Volker Weber

The 10.4.1 Update delivers overall improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users. It includes improvements for:

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website.

This one is a biggie:

Resolves a potential issue that could occur when moving from one access point to another within the same wireless network—the IP address could have been lost and not restored unless the DHCP lease was renewed or the computer put to sleep and then awakened.

Dashboard widget: SysStat

by Volker Weber

sysstat

Sys Stat allows you to view memory usage, cpu usage, network stats, uptimes, load averages and the top 3 processes from one simple widget

Warning sign

by Volker Weber

ibook_snap_355.jpg

Do you understand the sign? Maybe you need a context. :-)

Nikon updates D70 firmware to 2.0

by Volker Weber

After installing this update a D70 performs like a D70s.

More >

Wenn ich mir mal was wünschen darf ...

by Volker Weber

ibook_screenshot_354.jpg

Das Wetter Widget in Tiger ist totaler Blödsinn. Viel zu wenig Orte in Deutschland, viel zu schlechte Vorhersage. Das sieht eher nach Zufallsgenerator denn nach Wettervorhersage aus. Das Widget im Konfabulator war dagegen sehr brauchbar.

Wenn es wirklich so einfach ist, Dashboard Widgets zu schreiben, kann sich dann bitte mal jemand erbarmen? ;-)

IBM publishes blogging guidelines

by Volker Weber

IBM encourages employees to start blogging and publishes a set of guidelines. I encourage everybody to read them carefully. They don't only apply to IBM bloggers but they can be useful for almost anybody who publihes on the internet, be it as a blogger or as a comment writer. What I find most important is this guideline:

Be who you are. Some bloggers work anonymously, using pseudonyms or false screen names. IBM discourages that in blogs, wikis or other forms of online participation that relate to IBM, our business or issues with which the company is engaged. We believe in transparency and honesty. If you are blogging about your work for IBM, we encourage you to use your real name, be clear who you are, and identify that you work for IBM. Nothing gains you notice in the “blogosphere” more than honesty – or dishonesty. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out. But also be smart about protecting yourself and your privacy. What you publish will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully and also be judicious in disclosing personal details.

Summary: If you can't stand behind your own words why should I listen to you? More at Bob Sutor, Ed Brill, James Snell, Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah, Sam Ruby and Microsoft's Robert Scoble.

Let's not forget that Ray Ozzie published guidelines almost three years ago and that both Microsoft and Sun encourage employee's blogs as well.

Sudoku Dashboard widget

by Volker Weber

sudoku

Sudoku has amazingly simple rules: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3×3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. This seems to be simple but it actually isn't. You will need between 10 and 30 minutes to solve one grid.

[via John]

Are you feeling stressed out?

by Volker Weber

alert

Wer freut sich schon auf Longhorn?

by Volker Weber

Ein bisschen Vorfreude gefällig auf das sichere Windows? Gerald Himmelein fasst zusammen. Die Details gibt es dann im Heft.

Not long ago in a supermarket not so far away ... Store Wars

by Volker Weber

storewars.jpg

My favorite car review

by Volker Weber

ariel

Look at this review (41.4 MB mpeg) of the Ariel Atom while it's still available.

Lots of eye candy ...

by Volker Weber

ibook_screenshot_346.jpg

... for boys, girls and pyromaniacs.

Short trip around the neigborhood

by Volker Weber

ibook_screenshot_345.png

49 access points, 15 of them open

Ready, set, go

by Volker Weber

utilization050513.gif

8:00 Uhr, ISDN? Check.
8:10 Uhr, DSL? Check.
8:15 Uhr, DSL mit Linksys Router? Check.
8:20 Uhr, DSL mit BenHur? Check.
9:00 Uhr, Speed test? 348 kB/s, check.

Freitag, der 13. Was sollte da schiefgehen? ;-)

Nachtrag: Heute mittag hat eine freundliche Dame angerufen, die sich erkundigt hat, ob bei der Anschaltung auch alles funktioniert hat. Ich habe nachgefragt, ob das mit allen Kunden gemacht wird, und sie meinte, das sei nicht der Fall. Sie habe aber den Auftrag sich insbesondere um meinen Anschluss zu bemühen und habe hier und da etwas nachgeholfen. Ich sehe hier einen gewissen Zusammenhang.

NetNewsWire 2 released

by Volker Weber

netnewswire2.png

Ranchero Software has released NetNewsWire Lite 2.0 (Freeware) and NetNewsWire 2.0 (Try before you buy). Both newsreaders are highly recommended. Find a comparison chart here.

We are coming back

by Volker Weber

scotland2005itinerary.png

Comments (75)

by Volker Weber

Vielen Dank, Euch allen, jedem Einzelnen, für die netten Geburtstagswünsche, die vielen E-Mails, Anrufe und nicht zuletzt die persönlichen Besuche. Das Treo lief mit Chatter EMail und hat den ganzen Tag vibriert. :-)

Many thanks, to each of you, for all the congratulations, your emails, phonecalls and for showing up in person. The Treo was running Chatter EMail and it never stopped vibrating. :-)

Alles noi macht der Moi

by Volker Weber

Termin? Morgen. Check.
Splitter/NTBA? Check.
DSL-Modem? Check.
Login/Password? Check.

Arcor kann kommen. Freitag, der 13. Was kann da schon schiefgehen? ;-)

No parking any time

by Volker Weber

treefalls

15 reasons not to post your baby's picture on the Internet

by Volker Weber

Parts one and two. [Thanks, Esther]

Firefox 1.0.4 released

by Volker Weber

ibook_screenshot_342.jpg

Mozilla.org releases Firefox 1.0.4, closing security holes the size of Texas. Go get it >

Still DoesNotWorkplace

by Volker Weber

Out of curiosity I checked whether IBM Lotus DoesNotWorkplace is still up and running, and indeed, it is. It has been upgraded to 2.5 and it still does not work. Which means, it takes 30+ seconds to display a page after you clicked a link. And it still has lots of quirks. Go check it out. The old user accounts are still there and you can test drive an up-to-date Workplace installation.

The other guy

by Volker Weber

As we were discussing whether the market for Domino consulting was drying up, Ed commented:

Rocky and the other guy were recruited by IBM

This led to quite a few instant messages and email from people who really wanted to know whom Ed was referring to. Breaking a very long silence on this subject I can reveal who "the other guy" is.

Now you know it. It isn't me. ;-)

Be afraid

by Volker Weber

Be very afraid.

Dancing with the elephant

by Volker Weber

TC is right when he says:

Roxio won't gain many new friends with this update: Following discussions with Apple, this version will no longer allow customers to create audio CDs, audio DVDs, or export audio to their hard drive using purchased iTunes music store content.

Discussions with Apple? Sheesh.

Forty Seven

by Volker Weber

Birthday Cake?

Richard Seibt verlässt Novell

by Volker Weber

MÜNCHEN (COMPUTERWOCHE) - Richard Seibt, früherer President von Suse Linux, hat das Softwareunternehmen Novell verlassen. Der Manager hatte seit der Übernahme von Suse im Januar vergangenen Jahres die Novell-Geschäfte in der Region EMEA (Europa, Nahost und Afrika) geleitet.

More >

Time to upgrade that DSL line

by Volker Weber

utilization050509.png

Blue screen doors

by Volker Weber

Engadget about the Wynn(dows) Casino:

... the entire architecture, from guest check-in to the rooms to the casino, runs on XP and is all interconnected. So if one system goes down, they all go down. Hmmm, any Linux fans want to take odds on what happens next? Well, it only took a few days before the slots crashed locking guests out of their rooms.

It isn't until Steve Wynn loses a few millions that the CIO is hanging by his balls outside the casino. [Snicker]

Playing QT movies fullscreen

by Volker Weber

Apple in its infinite wisdom has decided to expire your Quicktime Pro licenses when you upgraded to Tiger. If you don't want to shell out another 30 bucks to play your movies fullscreen (yes, that is a "Pro" feature — gasp) here is a small AppleScript:

tell application "QuickTime Player"
present front movie scale screen
end tell

I would not be surprised if there are more "Pro" features that can be invoked from AppleScript.

Google is hiding?

by Volker Weber

Blueprint for a widget of mass destruction

by Volker Weber

So you think, your Mac is safe? Read this.

If you are using Safari on Tiger, thanks to the magic of widget autoinstall, combined with the <meta> tag, a slightly evil widget has been installed in your dashboard. It could be a lot worse. There's a slightly more evil widget linked lower in this page, and I think it would be possible to make a much more destructive widget. I gave you something fairly tame.

Before you continue uncheck this mark in Safari preferences:

imac_screenshot_337.png

No kidding >

And I thought only Tony Blair did that for him

by Volker Weber

lewinsky.jpg

Must-have widgets

by Volker Weber

airtrafficcontrol

I am starting to add widgets to the Tiger Dashboard. Here are two that I find most useful. AirTrafficControl lists all available WLANs in the area. You can join an open WLAN by clicking its SSID. Niederschlagsradar zeigt die aktuellen Niederschläge für Deutschland und die Schweiz wahlweise als Animation.

regenwidget.png

[via Leo Becker]

Domino consulting drying up?

by Volker Weber

Carl is asking a very good question:

I keep hearing of people leaving their Domino consulting companies to go back to full time work somewhere. Is this because there is a reduction in Domino consulting? Maybe a side effect of the confusion IBM created by bringing a product to market way before it was ready and before their whole strategy was worked out?

I know I will be getting a lot of heat for this, but I would simply say "yes". At least for our domestic market.

IBM has scared customers by making too much noise about unproven technology. And though they are now trying to paint Notes as a part of Workplace, it may be too late. I know that IBM can come up with numbers of how successful they are doing but I am unfazed. BPs I talk to are not seeing interest in Workplace in the SMB space. The enterprise sources I have do not paint a different picture. Smaller ISVs are asking whether it makes sense to release a WP product as there is no customer demand.

Having trouble with Tiger?

by Volker Weber

Tiger incompatibilities and compatibility updates.

She's got brand new shoes

by Volker Weber

In 120 Tagen rund um Arcor

by Volker Weber

Heute vor vier Monaten habe ich bei Arcor ISDN/DSL bestellt. Geliefert wurde bisher ein Karton mit NTBA/Splitter/DSL-Modem. Das war's. Keine Leitung, kein Anschluss, keine Zugangsdaten.

Heute gibt es einen ersten Termin: 13. Mai, Freitag nächster Woche.

It's "Make your own caption" time

by Volker Weber

today

Onboard the ICE train

by Volker Weber

The ride from Frankfurt Airport to Köln is incredible. This photo was taken (with a Treo 650) from my seat right behind the driver looking through the front window at 300 km/h. The train takes you in one hour fromt the airport into the city of Köln, which is absolutely impossible with a a car. Even if you ignore all speed limits. Running the tracks alongside the Autobahn is a great way of showing the train's superiority. :-)

One guy sitting in front of me whips out his PowerBook and reads Slashdot. He has the EU flag dyed into his hair. The guy next to him has a PC and is still booting up into what turns out to be Kubuntu. On the way back I am sitting next to a person who had Notes R 5 running on his StinkPad. Who says the world is all Microsoft?

Traffic slowly back to normal levels

by Volker Weber

Monday clocked in at an alltime high with 134,566 hits. Now we are back into 5-digit numbers. The site has served favicon.ico 29,995 times since Monday 12am. That translates to a whole lot of people. Most of them came to learn how not to use PDF files. ;-)

Not bad either

by Volker Weber

If you like Ta-Da List you should check out Backpack as well. This service however is not entirely free:

backpackit.png

I mean, you would not actually expect that to be free. It's just interesting how this company takes a good application like Basecamp and spins off other interesting products from the same technology.

[Thanks for the reminder, Bruce]

Rumms

by Volker Weber

Hatte die undankbare Aufgabe, mittels eines 45-minütigen Vortrags einen Konzeptvergleich verschiedener Mailserver anzustellen, und die Produkte dabei kritisch zu würdigen. Da schaut man sich das Feedback besonders genau an. Auf einem stand:

Vortrag fachlich fragwürdig, Dozent kennt Domino nicht gut.

Did you let the cat out of the bag yet?

by Ken Porter

There are apparently some issues popping up with the new OS X 10.4 Tiger release.

Some enterprise networking software developers have discovered that their products are not compatible with Apple Computer Inc.'s new "Tiger" operating system and are recommending that their customers hold off on upgrading to Tiger

If you have not yet installed Tiger, perhaps you should read this eWeek article first before doing so.

Off to Düsseldorf

by Volker Weber

duesseldorf.jpg

Off to Düsseldorf. Best method of contact: 06151 3657520. See you on the other side ...

Straight from the other horse's mouth

by Volker Weber

Recently I quoted a former IBM engineer on the SNAFU that is Workplace 2.0 (and 1.1). I made it a full quote, since I expected that IBM would take action to have this story removed. (There are two ways to fix a problem: With engineers and with lawyers.) Well, I was right. Pete took the juicy part of the story down. Now Damien Katz is mad at IBM:

My friend Pete recently posted some negative comments about his former employer, IBM. They were simply his opinion of the working environment at IBM, but IBM legal told him to take it down. So he did, no doubt wanting to avoid a big hassle from IBM's legendary attack lawyers. But he has a right to have his opinion expressed, IBM doesn't have a right to whitewash from the world the negative opinions of its corporate culture, they don't have a right to squash dissent. When large corporations succeed in doing that, they erode everyones rights. Freedom of speech is perhaps our single most important right, without it, all other rights can be silently taken away.

IBM is a fantastically powerful corporation, who can sink their teeth into government and politicians and spends huge amounts on lawyers, bending the rules as much as possible in its own favor rather than compete on a level playing field. As you might imagine I hate stuff like that, and I like to do whatever small thing I can to fight such behaviors. So before I get too preachy and without any communication or permission from Pete, I've decided to repost 2 of Pete's removed articles here. Enjoy.

More >

If you close your eyes, you don't actually disappear

by Volker Weber

Unclassified report

Last Friday an official report was released by the Pentagon and the American authorities claiming basically that the murder of the Italian secret agent Calipari in Bagdad was a consequence not of the American soldiers mishandling of the situation but due to the wrong behaviour of the Italians and the car carrying the agent and the hostage on the way to the airport.

The document was produced in Acrobat PDF format and most of important information was hidden as confidential. The Italian government (the minister of foreign affairs) made a lot of noise as they disagreed with the conclusions and refused to sign the document. No names were released from the Americans and many important details wiped out from above document.

This morning Gianluca Neri, an Italian blogger from Milano, had a look at the document which was published on the net and ridiculized the whole American secret services. With a simple cut and paste from the Acrobat document into a word processor, he was able to disclose all details to the public: names, places, the name of the soldier who fired, everything...

It is actually pretty simple to recover that information. Open this PDF, select all text, copy to clipboard and paste into a regular text editor. if your version of Acrobat does not let you select the text, find the Microsoft Word document here.

I feel much safer now knowing that our security is handled by experts.

[Thanks, Pieterjan]

Qualitätsjournalismus

by Volker Weber

... bezeichnete Alonso als "ein nettes Gerücht", auf das er aber ih nichts gebe.

[Quelle]

RAZR Phone Book

by Volker Weber

There is something fundamentally broken. Can you spot it? The RAZR breaks up each and every contact into its contact details. So you get as many contacts as you have phone numbers and mail adresses (if you chose to sync them). Multiply by 360 contacts.

Adding insult to injury, you can only type the first character of a contact to locate it. Prepare for a looooong scroll though the phone book.

Update: If all else fails, read the instructions complain. Thanks to the comments to this post I have now learned that you can set the address view to display only "primary contacts" instead of "all contacts". Now it looks much better. If anyone knows how to locate a contact by entering more than the first character I am all ears.

iSync 2 in Tiger

by Volker Weber

ibook_screenshot_338.jpg

Syncing the RAZR via Blueotooth is a no-brainer in Tiger. The Treo was a bit more work. I reinstalled the Palm Desktop and told iSync to sync with Palm devices. Unfortunately iSync 2 still does not sync the birthday field between the Treo and the Address Book.

Is your phone unsupported? Check out this macosxhint.

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I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

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