November 2010

Wikileaks Switches to Amazon After Distributed Hacker Attack

by Volker Weber

Whoever is trying to take down Wikileaks with a denial of service attack is now attacking Amazon.com.

Who is going to foot the traffic bill?

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Die wunderbare Welt von Isotopp macht morgen zu

by Volker Weber

Daher bleibt mir nur die Konsequenz, die Regeln für Internet-Startups auch auf meine eigenen Inhalte anzuwenden: Nicht in Deutschland, nicht in deutscher Sprache und nicht für Deutsche. Meine bisherigen Inhalte nehme ich morgen offline, und falls ich noch einmal irgendwas mache, dann für ein Land, das Zukunft hat.

Nicht Deutschland.

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200 years, 200 countries, 4 minutes

by Volker Weber

Le calendrier 2011 d'Aubade est arrivé

by Volker Weber

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[Thanks, Boudewijn. This year you won again. :-)]

Get ready for a quantum leap

by Volker Weber

Did you feel it? No? Well, you can't. Some people think that a quantum leap is a particularly large leap. The opposite it true.

Ironically, when laymen use the term colloquially, they use it to describe large jumps in progress, when in reality a quantum leap is a very small change of state.

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Sonos S5 disassembled

by Volker Weber

Sonos S5

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Black Apple TV - first impressions

by Volker Weber

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If you owned an original Apple TV, the size of the new device is quite a shocker. It's easily pulled off your shelf by the weight of the HDMI cable. There isn't much inside, for instance no hard disk. Everything that happens on your screen is pulled from the network.

So it's lighter, much smaller, cheaper, and most importantly it does not pull a lot of power. I always took the old one completely offline by pulling the power cord. Even in standby it used to draw way too much power. Which was very counterintuitive since you needed it to sync data from your PC or Mac. In the end it wasn't used much.

The new Apple TV has more simplifications. It's HDMI only, no more component video, no analog audio. You only get four connectors: power, ethernnet, HDMI, digital audio out (optical). Since I am not connecting the Apple TV to an analog stereo, that's OK for me. Music is handled through Sonos at vowe's magic flying circus. I know, that's a surprise. ;-)

The other limitation is that Apple TV only sends out 720p video. Your Full HD screen is capable of displaying 1920x1080, so it has to scale up from 1280x720 to its full resolution. Same as the original Apple TV, btw. It's a limitation I can live with.

Another notable limitation is that Apple TV only plays content in supported iTunes formats. Forget about those videos you download from Internet sharing sites. No .mkv, no .avi. If you are looking for a player for those Xvid and DivX files, look elsewhere unless you want to transcode to iTunes formats.

So, what can you actually do with Apple TV? First, you connect it to your Mac(s) with "Home Sharing". Those are your "authorized" computers that use the same Apple ID. iTunes allows you to authorize up to five of them with one account. You then tell iTunes which photos it is allowed to share from your iPhoto library. And finally, you have to keep your Mac running while using Apple TV. It will pull data from your iTunes and iPhoto library and stream it to your TV. Without the Mac it obviously cannot access that content.

Other players, including the Sonos sound system, can just access files on a shared network drive. Or they can use a uPnP or "iTunes" server on your NAS. Not possible with Apple TV.

The second use case is to directly stream from iTunes or iPhone/iPod/iPad through AirPlay. There are very few applications who have this feature, but you redirect a video playing on your iPhone to Apple TV and thus the big screen. Same for your photos. It won't let you stream HD videos you recorded with your iPhone before first pulling them in with your Mac and syncing them out again, but I believe that limitation will be rectified.

Your third use case might be to rent movies or TV series through the iTunes store. I have no intention to do that, so please look elsewhere for advice. For German readers there is a serious limitation: you cannot buy a video or TV episode with Apple TV. You can only do that with your Mac and then stream from there to Apple TV. Finally, the really good stuff is not available here: Netflix.

As is stands, Apple TV is a lot less useful here in Germany than it is in the US. For me, it works great as a target for displaying my own content on the big screen. And once in a while I might use it to watch content from the Internet: movie trailers and the occasional YouTube video.

XPages in Notes client (XPiNC)

by Volker Weber

Sean Cull has run into some limitations with XPages apps in the Notes client.

As anyone who reads my Blog will know I am a huge fan of XPages. One of the most exciting things about it is the promise of designing only once for the Web and the Client.

XPages in the Browser is definitely fast enough to use today but I have been struggling with the speed of XPages in the client to the point where I have not been able to recommend its use. Digging deeper there are two issues.

Good analysis and technical discussion. Make sure you read all the comments.

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Print from iOS 4.2 to any Mac printer

by Volker Weber

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Apple promised you would be able to print from your iOS 4.2 device, but as it turned out, there are currently only three supported printers. Not good enough. There is a simple procedure to make it work with all printers shared by a Mac with OS X 10.6.5 (10H574).

You need to create a small file (/usr/share/cups/mime/airprint.types), remove your current printers, reboot, and add the printers. Once you enable print sharing from the sharing control panel in System Preferences, you will be able to print from your iPad etc.

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Creating the text file is a bit tricky since you need admin priviliges. This little AppleScript will do that for you. Unzip, start, enter password.

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Path.com - Sharing moments amongst friends

by Volker Weber


Photo: vowe

Apple TV vorher/nachher

by Volker Weber

Apple TV vorher/nachher
Photo: vowe

Setup and software update was a breeze. Three iOS devices added as remote. First Airplay test successful. More when I return ...

Angels pull a Milli Vanilli

by Volker Weber

The Economics of the Cloud

by Volker Weber

Computing is undergoing a seismic shift from client/server to the cloud, a shift similar in importance and impact to the transition from mainframe to client/server. Speculation abounds on how this new era will evolve in the coming years, and IT leaders have a critical need for a clear vision of where the industry is heading. We believe the best way to form this vision is to understand the underlying economics driving the long-term trend. In this paper, we will assess the economics of the cloud by using in-depth modeling. We then use this framework to better understand the long-term IT landscape.

Download PDF >

How to fail: discourage feedback

by Volker Weber

Pulling this from a chat with a business partner:

still customers wont deploy standard - unstable and a hog

This reminded me of "the rules". The problems were visible then. But you were not supposed to talk about them.

Is it a feature?

by Volker Weber

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Paul thinks it's a bug. Others disagree.

.docx on iPhone: what killed waterfall, could kill agile

by Volker Weber

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Never had to do this before, but reading a .docx on an iPhone 4 is completely painless.

Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Nokia, Windows Phone - pick only three

by Volker Weber

Quite a lot of people believe that the mobile market for smart devices has room for three dominant platforms. I currently see five contestants: Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Nokia (Symbian/Meego/Qt), Windows Phone. Each of those players see themselves as one of the three. With the exception of Microsoft (3% market share) each of them would define themselves as the leader. Keep in mind that Nokia has zero foothold in the US market, but leads most other markets.

If you had to pick three, which ones would you come up with and why?

Mobile Me "Find My iPhone" now free for iPad, iPhone 4 and iPod 4

by Volker Weber

Mobile Me "Find My iPhone" now free for iPad, iPhone 4 and iPod 4
Photo: vowe

You need to create a Mobile Me ID from a supported device, but then you can add unsupported devices like the 3G above, as Erik mentions in his comment.

iOS 4.2.1 Software Update

by Volker Weber

The free iOS 4.2 Software Update brings all-new features to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Finally. If you have an iPad or iPhone 4, do update ASAP. The update fixes the buggy Bluetooth stack in the iPhone 4, and brings the iPad to where we all hoped it would be long ago

I also find the 3G/3GS faster than before with older 4.x versions.

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Free heißt nicht kostenlos

by Volker Weber

Die erste Pressemeldung des Tages, übersetzt.

Karlsruhe. 22. November 2010. GMX und WEB.DE starten exklusiv die Vermarktung der neuen Mobilfunkmarke FreePhone. Wer über eine Mail-Adresse bei GMX oder WEB.DE verfügt, kann ab sofort eine FreePhone-SIM-Karte bestellen und mit anderen FreePhone-Teilnehmern kostenfrei mobil telefonieren. Es werden weder Grundgebühren oder Mindestumsätze verlangt, noch gibt es eine Mindestvertragslaufzeit.

So weit, so gut. Eine Flatrate für interne Telefonate.

Gespräche in andere Netze, gleich ob Mobilfunk oder Festnetz, kosten einheitliche 9,9 Cent in der Minute. Auch der Versand einer SMS ist mit 9,9 Cent deutlich im unteren Preissegment angesiedelt.

Ordentlich. Aber nicht "Free".

Beim mobilen Surfen im Internet werden pro Megabyte 19,9 Cent berechnet.

Macht für 100 Megabyte rund 20 Euro. Üblich sind 10 Euro für 200/300/500 Megabyte. Macht hier 40, 60 oder 100 Euro. Und so weiter. Finger weg!

Wer seine bisherige Mobilfunknummer zu FreePhone portiert, erhält zudem ein Startguthaben in Höhe von 25 Euro.

... die man in der Regel an seinen bisherigen Provider weiterzahlt.

FreePhone ist einer der günstigsten Mobilfunk-Tarife auf dem deutschen Markt. Technik und Kundenbetreuung werden von der Schwester-Firma, der 1&1 Internet AG erbracht. Zur FreePhone Community zählen schon jetzt 1,3 Millionen 1&1 Mobilfunk-Kunden, die ebenfalls kostenlos angerufen werden können. Die neue Mobilfunkmarke eignet sich insbesondere für Familien oder enge Freundes- und Bekanntenkreise. Bestellungen sind online unter http://www.gmx.net/freephone oder http://web.de/freephone möglich.

Stimmt. Wenn man nur seinen engen Familien- und Freundeskreis anruft, dann ist das sehr günstig.

Jeder GMX- oder WEB.DE-Mail-Kunde kann bis zu vier SIM-Karten bestellen. Je SIM-Karte werden Aktivierungs- und Versandkosten in Höhe von 9,60 Euro fällig.

Auch nicht "Free", aber günstig.

Pay-Mail-Anwender von GMX und WEB.DE erhalten zusätzlich eine kostenlose Internet-Flatrate als exklusiven Vorteil. Bis zu einem Traffic-Volumen von 100 MB surfen diese Kunden mit bis zu 7.200 kBit/s im Internet, danach ist das Surfen mit einer Geschwindigkeit von 64 kBit/s möglich.

100 Megabyte ist das kleinste mir bekannte Traffic-Budget. Kostet ab 3 Euro im Monat.


A Skate Regeneration

by Volker Weber

How to wash a cat

by Volker Weber

Citation needed

by Volker Weber

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New Chrome extension:

Jimmy Wales

Adds nice Wikipedia donation banner to every single web page.

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Heribert Prantl: Der Terrorist als Gesetzgeber

by Volker Weber

Unter dem Vorwand, sich schützen zu wollen, wirft sich der Rechtsstaat dem Monstrum Terrorismus zum Frass vor

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My first Ovi store app

by Volker Weber

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Just created a very simple app with Ovi App Wizard. Took about five minutes to create the app from two RSS feeds (posts and comments). Now submitted to the Ovi Store approval process. I will let you know how long it took to publish. ;-)

I take that as a "no"

by Volker Weber

Yesterday on Twitter:

lewisturek: Loving my new Windows Phone 7!!

edbrill: Brainwashed. RT @lewisturek: Loving my new Windows Phone 7!!

vowe: @edbrill what a stupid comment. have you even tried one?

paulrobichaux: @vowe I think you already know the answer to that.

edbrill: Has nothing to do with the phone. Do you know my friend Lewis?

vowe: @edbrill of course i do. used to work for ibm. now works for msft. so, do have you ever tried a windows phone 7 for more than an hour?

edbrill: @vowe the comment has nothing to do with the phone. It is about Lewis.

vowe: @edbrill Well, have you used a Windows Phone 7 or not?

End of conversation.

Danny MacAskill is back

by Volker Weber

Geschäftsführung ohne Auftrag

by Volker Weber

Das werden wir jetzt noch häufiger lesen:

Nein, wir Grüne haben nicht beantragt das unsere Bundesgeschäftsstelle verpixelt wird. Wir wollen die Verpixelung unserer Bundesgeschäftsstelle nicht. Leider ist es aber nicht möglich die Verpixelung zurückzunehmen, da Google die Rohdaten löschen muss.

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Don Dahlmann ganz groß: Das lassen wir uns nicht bieten!

by Volker Weber

Auf der Tagung des VDZ (Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger) hat sich die Branche gegen Angebote gewehrt, die die Inhalte der Verlage nutzen, um sich selbst einen Vorteil zu verschaffen. “Es kann nicht sein, dass wir teuren Qualitätsjournalismus betreiben, und andere einfach abkassieren”, beklagte sich Hubert Burda, Vorsitzender des VDZ. Seit Jahren liegt die Organisation mit dem Verband der Deutschen Kioskbesitzer im Streit.

Unbedingt weiterlesen >

Are airport X-ray scanners harmful?

by Volker Weber

While the risk of getting a fatal cancer from the screening is minuscule, it's about equal to the probability that an airplane will get blown up by a terrorist, he added. "So my view is there is not a case to be made for deploying them to prevent such a low probability event."

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Das war zu erwarten

by Volker Weber

Viele Nutzer bitten uns, dass ihre Häuser wieder in Street View ERKENNBAR gemacht werden sollen. Geht wg. Rohdaten-Löschung leider nicht.

Die Internetausdrucker sind jetzt markiert.

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Und alle so "yeah"

by Volker Weber

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Der leiseste BlackBerry-Launch aller Zeiten

by Volker Weber

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Man kann jetzt tatsächlich ein BlackBerry Torch in Deutschland kaufen. Wenn man dreimal soviel auf den Tisch legt wie für ein iPhone, oder sechsmal soviel wie ein Windows Phone. Null Werbung. Die Presseagentur hat keine Testgeräte. Das wird nicht gut gehen.

Update: Ich habe einen Disput mit RIM. Offensichtlich bin ich zu doof, richtig nach einem Testgerät zu fragen. Nach diesem Post hier ist eins aufgetaucht und unterwegs nach Hannover.

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Unbegrenzt. Bis 500 MB.

by Volker Weber

Essen, 18. November 2010 - Für alle, die auch unterwegs nicht auf das Internet verzichten wollen, führt ALDI TALK zum 18. November die Handy-Internet-Flat ein. So können neue und bestehende Kunden mit ihrem Mobiltelefon jederzeit und überall online sein.

Für nur 7,99 EUR können Internetbegeisterte 30 Tage lang surfen - das Datenvolumen ist dabei unbegrenzt. Damit ist die Flat ideal für die Benutzung mit einem Smartphone! Die Handy-Internet-Flat ist aus dem ALDI TALK-Netz unter der kostenlosen Kurzwahl 1155 ganz einfach zusätzlich buchbar.

Hört sich gut an. Aber:

  1. Exklusiv nutzbar mit dem Smartphone.
  2. Nach einem Verbrauch von 500 MB wird auf GPRS-Geschwindigkeit gedrosselt.
  3. Eplus-Netz

iMac mit neuem Display und Lüfter

by Volker Weber

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Das Wichtigste vorneweg: kauft zu Eurem Mac unbedingt AppleCare. Das geht bis ein Jahr nach dem Kauf.

Mein 24" iMac ist beinahe drei Jahre alt und hatte seit ein paar Monaten zwei Defekte, die wahrscheinlich ursächlich zusammenhängen: ein Lüfter "schrappte" und das Display zeigte bei voller Ausleuchtung Einbrenn-Artefakte. Ich vermute, es wurde einfach zu heiß. Nun habe ich dank AppleCare ein neues Display-Panel und einen neuen Lüfter.

Die meisten Macs, spezielle die tragbaren, haben bei mir binnen drei Jahren irgendeinen Defekt entwickelt, der teurer zu reparieren wäre als AppleCare kostet. "Geheimtipp": kauft das AppleCare einfach dort, wo es durch Währungsumrechnung am günstigsten ist. Das ist im Grunde genommen nur ein Zettel mit einer Nummer, mit der man sein Gerät für die Garantieverlängerung auf drei Jahre online registriert.

AppleCare ist vergleichsweise teuer. Für mein BlackBook hatte ich die Garantierverlängerung von Gravis. Die bietet mir aber nicht den Service, den ich von meinem Lieblingsschrauber gewohnt bin. Fritz Bickert von Graphia in Darmstadt repariert mir mein Gerät nämlich binnen eines Tages. Schnell, kompetent, perfekt.

Danke!

Path - Share moments with your closest friends

by Volker Weber

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Path lets you share photos with up to 50 friends. Not your 1000 closest friends on Facebook. I have added 4 during the last 12 hours, but I won't need more than 20. You currently need an iPhone with iOS4, iPod touch is not good enough. Path will add other phones, I expect Android and BlackBerry.

In any case, you can sign up today, even if you don't have a suitable phone, so you can view the moments that your friends share with you, on their web site.

The iPhone app is very, very simple. Shoot a photo, add people, places and things (sounds familiar, eh?) and share. It won't share stuff you already have in your library. If somebody wants to share with you, you can share back, but you don't have to. If your friends share too much, you can pause them. Very powerful and simple.

Get the app >

Sonos Controller für iPad auch in Deutsch

by Volker Weber

Hilversum, Niederlande / Heilbronn - 18. November 2010: Für den Sonos Controller for iPad steht ab sofort ein Update zum kostenlosen Download im iTunes App Store bereit. Mit der Software-Version 3.3.1 unterstützt der Software-Controller neben Englisch auch die Sprachen Deutsch, Französisch, Niederländisch, Italienisch, Japanisch, Spanisch sowie vereinfachtes Chinesisch.

Gute Sache, auch wenn sie mich nicht betrifft. Ich lasse meine Geräte alle in Englisch laufen, weil ich das besser verstehe als die Übersetzungen.

Böse Gegend

by Volker Weber

Böse Gegend
Photo © Volker Weber

Direkt gegenüber des DNUG-Tagungsortes. Nicht die schlimmste Gegend von Frankfurt, aber mein Fahrrad würde ich da nicht anbinden.

Böse Gegend
Photo © Volker Weber

Mobile editing in Google Docs

by Volker Weber

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An afternoon with Marko Ahtisaari

by Volker Weber

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Photo © Volker Weber

Today I spoke at the Heise Netze Tour in Köln, an event where I usually stay throughout the day for an extended communication with our customers. Yesterday however, I received an invitation from Nokia to meet Marko Ahtisaari, who heads Design at Nokia. This was an opportunity I did not want to pass, so I travelled to Düsseldorf right after my presentation this morning. And I wasn't disappointed.

Marko called it the start of a conversation, an insight into changes to come. We talked about Meego, the changes it will bring, and Nokia's challenges with Symbian. And there is one important change that isn't yet clear to everyone:

If you buy a Symbian^3 phone today, it will not be obsolete next year.

Nokia will carry all Symbian^3 phones forward, on the Qt platform. There is going to be a big change "in the spring", modernizing the user experience of the Symbian platform. Yes, it will receive a new browser, but the changes are going to be visible throughout the operating system. There is not going to be a Symbian^4 version, as originally planned. Instead, Nokia will be carrying forward the Symbian platform with existing ^3 devices, and of course new ones.

I find this very important, because it means you can buy a current device without being left behind next year. This has been my biggest beef with the platform. Marko agreed that this change has to be more clearly communicated.

Next year will also be the time for the bigger change in Nokia's offering. Marko is very bullish about the Meego platform and the new UX patterns it will bring. Applications built on the Qt platform will be portable from Symbian to Meego "with minimal changes". Although Meego itself is going to be open source, that does not apply to all of the UX. If you have an N900, you may be able to get a user supported version of the open source Meego platform, but not the Nokia UX which is probably what you really want.

Aus der Reihe "Unbekannte Helden": IBM Wasserflasche

by Volker Weber

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Vor zwei Jahren habe ich von einer Lotusphere eine unscheinbare Trinkflasche mit nach Hause gebracht. Nach rahlreichen SIGG-Flaschen mit und ohne Nuckelverschluss habe ich endlich eine Wasserflasche, die ich überall hinschleppe. Der Verschluss ist dicht, geht mit einer Drehung auf und die große Öffnung lässt mich wie aus einem Becher trinken. Außerdem ist die Verschlusskappe unverlierbar und an der umlaufenden Sicke lässt sich die Flasche gut greifen. Und nicht zuletzt kann man die Flasche auch noch ordentlich sauber machen, weil man durch die große Öffnung leicht mit einer Bürste reinkommt.

Smarter water bottle.

It's all about people, not about software

by Volker Weber

There are two interesting weblog posts today who talk about the Lotus community, one written by Thomas Duff, the other by Ed Brill. Go ahead and read them. They are both interesting and they both dance around a very important point without touching it. I gave it away in the heading:

It's about people. There would be no ILUG without Paul Mooney. And there would not be an accessible Lotus without Ed Brill. Period.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the product, with the brand, with the company. It's not about Notes, about Lotus, about IBM. It's all about people. Look around in your sports club, in your company, in your school, wherever. People make a difference, structure is all but an illusion. You can re-organize, elect new leadership, whatever. It will always be the same people who push things forward.

Keep yourself attached to people, not to products, brands or companies. I have been around when the OS/2 iceberg shrunk, but I am still attached to the same people. I have been around when the Fidonet iceberg shrunk, but I am still attached to the same people. If your particular iceberg is shrinking, do the same.

Why is Paul Mooney essential? He is such a humble and nice guy, that there is absolutely no way to say no to him. If he asks you to do something, you eventually will do it. Paul attracts friendship. You want to be his friend. And once you are, you get to organize conferences. As simple as that. Of course, behind every successful Paul, there is an Eileen who makes sure you deliver, but that's a whole different story.

Why is Ed essential? He divides the world in good and evil, and you want to be on the good side, right? RIGHT? Ok, ok, I fold my tent.

Ed makes an important point, btw. "we as a community did not do enough to recognize the leadership of Paul Mooney and Eileen Fitzgerald" If you went to ILUG, ask yourself what you did for them. I have organized one effort to recognize Paul and Eileen three years ago, and from that experience I know that there are tremendous differences between extremely generous folks and those who had a hard time chipping in ten bucks.

Everything eventually goes away. The graveyards are full of indispensable men. That is General Charles De Gaulle speaking. The graveyards are also full of indispensable software. Friendship and love last longer.

Lotus Greenhouse takes a day off, comes back with Connections 3.0

by Volker Weber

We are very excited to be the first to bring to you the Gold version of 3.0 Lotus Connections. We are targeting to upgrade starting at 5:00 PM ET on Thursday November 11th and estimating to be back online Friday November 12th late afternoon. During this time Lotus Connections will not be available.

I know that IBM has limited resources. Could this also be done without service interruption?

Poken not

by Volker Weber

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Two days ago I asked on Facebook and Twitter: "Did you use a Poken in 2010?" The most telling answer was: " As usual I have no idea what you're talking about." So, what's a Poken? Two Pokens exchange information when you put them together. It's designed to be the new business card. Until two days ago, I saw three problems:

  1. They look silly.
  2. They cannot achieve critical mass.
  3. You have to carry it with you.

But there is a real killer: the Poken has a CR1632 lithium battery which only lasts for six months at best. It won't charge on your USB port. By the time you finally want to use it, the battery is probably going to be dead.

There are quite a few software solutions for iPhone & Co (examples: 1, 2). They don't look silly, you don't have to carry something extra. But they also fail to achieve critical mass.

Until then I am keeping this as a photo on my phones. QR codes are not mainstream yet. But they are increasingly used so people might eventually know what to do with them.

Lotus Foundations lasted almost three years

by Volker Weber

MR-Foundations

This is Mike "Workplace was only an experiment" Rhodin announcing Lotus Foundations. A hardware/software combination built around Linux and Domino, aimed squarely at the small business market. It grew up to be a good solution for branch offices in larger companies. Looks like nobody wanted it, because IBM is now discontinuing it.

I am never surprised when IBM fails to sell to SMB. Every other year I get a briefing explaining how much growth is in the SMB market, and that IBM is now going after that. Then nothing the next year or two. And then a new, enthusiastic person starts the next cycle.

PowerMac still going strong after almost ten years

by Volker Weber

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Today I salvaged a 2001 Apple PowerMac that was no longer needed and had not been in operation for a couple of years. There was a lot of dust in the machine, and nobody had crendetials to login. So I cleaned out the hardware, replaced the CD drive with a DVD drive, and installed a new copy of OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger", iPhoto from iLife '08 and Pages from iWork '09. The machine is going to be used for web browsing, simple photo editing, and maybe some writing.

The update from 10.4.0 was swift with one combo updater. But the Java update was a PITA:

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I find it quite amazing that a machine this old can still look so good. And yet it would be outpaced by the smallest Mac Mini.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 14.0.1 Update

by Volker Weber

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This update fixes critical issues in Office 2011, including issues that might cause Office 2011 applications to stop responding or quit unexpectedly. For more information about this update, please visit the Microsoft Web site.

Applies to: Office 2011, Office 2011 Home and Business Edition, Word 2011, Excel 2011, PowerPoint 2011, Outlook 2011, Communicator 2011, Office for Mac Standard 2011 Edition, Microsoft Office for Mac Home & Student 2011, and Microsoft Office for Mac Academic 2011

That was quick. A 110 MB fixpack.

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Writing is very hard, speaking is not

by Volker Weber

This may surprise some of you, but I find writing to be incredibly hard. Often I need a deadline to even get me started to write something down. That's why I only write short pieces that can be finished in a few hours. I failed to write longer pieces many times.

Why is it so hard? I don't really know, but I believe it's because I have to put my thoughts into a series of sentences. The model I have in my brain often makes this impossible. It's too interconnected. In order to put thoughts in the right sequence I have to cut those interconnections, and I don't really want to do that.

How do I get out of this misery? I dream up a story I would like to tell and then fill that story with all the tiny interconnected pieces. Sometimes I forget some of them and then feel unable to put them in later. That's where my editors fit in. They can make the story better, they can add little pieces I missed. My writing is often very bad and can easily be improved by a good editor. In any case, I cannot start writing before the story is complete.

Speaking is completely different. I find this to be much easier. It's the same start. Collect information, put it in perspective, read sources, talk to people and then develop the story. Once I have that, I am done. No writing. No speaker notes. I would not even need slides. I use them to get my point across easier, but they are only there for the listener. The slides don't tell the story. I do. Therefore the slides are completely useless, if you did not hear the story.

I don't mind being interrupted by questions. It's quite easy to divert shortly from your story and look at other aspects of the model. If a question takes me outside my area of knowledge, I just say so. I find "I don't know" to be a good answer. It's impossible to know everything, but you should be able to realize what you don't know.

As you can imagine, I am looking forward to do some talking in the coming weeks. And I will be meeting some of you. ;-)

How to eat Sushi

by Volker Weber

Symbian Foundation R.I.P.

by Volker Weber

NOVEMBER 8, 2010 — Following a strategy review, the board of the Symbian Foundation has today decided to transition the role of the non-profit organisation. The foundation will become a legal entity responsible for licensing software and other intellectual property, such as the Symbian trademark. Nokia has committed to make the future development of the Symbian platform available to the ecosystem via an alternative direct and open model.

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Not all is lost for Lotus

by Volker Weber

Very interesting story about Lotus Connections today:

Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) entscheidet sich für Social Software von IBM. Mit Lotus Connections ermöglicht das Unternehmen seinen Mitarbeitern, noch besser zusammenzuarbeiten und Informationen miteinander zu teilen.

The interesting background is that IBM lost Bayer as a Notes customer last year. The company is busy building a new PWP (Personalized Workplace Program) with Microsoft technologies: Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010, Lync 2010, Office 2010, Windows 7. Currently Bayer is still heavily invested in Lotus Notes, which will be replaced by Outlook for messaging and c&s.

By picking Connections as the central place where people look for information, BMS is undercutting one use case for Sharepoint. Very interesting development.

That only works once

by Volker Weber

I could use one of those

by Volker Weber

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iPhoto '11 9.1 maintenance release adds calendars

by Volker Weber

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When iPhoto '11 was released, it lost the capability to create calendars from your photos. The feature wasn't done yet. Bad timing, because you want to make calendars towards the end of the year. I expected a quick fix and it showed up this week.

How Apple rumors are made

by Volker Weber

Look at this support document:

After November 7th, 2010, you can set your alarms to repeat again.

Since people assume the repeating alarm bug will be fixed with 4.2, they created a rumor that 4.2 would be published today. There is however a much simpler explanation: the date marks the end of the US daylight savings time.

Ballmer is taking a hint

by Volker Weber

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At the start of June I said how much better you would do if you sold half your Microsoft investment and put that money in Apple stock. Now Steve Ballmer is trying to do that first part, but I am not so sure he is doing the latter. He wants to sell 75 million of his shares until the end of the year, and at their current price of 26.85 that would be about 2 billion dollar (Milliarden to my german readers). Half a year ago he would have gotten anther 158 million. Had he invested 2.158 billion in Apple and took the 29% increase in stock price, he would have made a healthy 785 million profit. Just by shifting his investment from MSFT to AAPL.

I would like a 10 percent commission on that. ;-)

Aus der Reihe "Unbekannte Helden": LaCie iamaKey

by Volker Weber

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Ich habe eine kleine Kiste voll mit USB Memory Keys in allen möglichen Bauformen. Bei beinahe jeder Pressekonferenz schleppt man einen neuen ab, meistens am unteren Ende der brauchbaren Größen. So nützlich diese Bausteine auch sind, meistens hat man sie nicht dabei, wenn man sie gerade braucht. Oder man hat sie verliehen und noch nicht zurück.

Das alles hat sich mit meinem LaCie iamaKey geändert. Er "wohnt" in meinem Schlüsselbund und ist deshalb immer dabei. Da er in Form und Größe meinem Hausschlüssel entspricht, fällt er gar nicht auf. 8 GB groß ist er, und mittlerweile gibt es auch noch größere. Der beste Memory Key ist der, den man dabei hat.

Installing Office:mac 2011

by Volker Weber

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Let's hope this one is better than the 2008 versions. Good start: new and improved icons. :-)

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How To Directly Tether Your Camera To An iPad

by Volker Weber

Too bad you have to jailbreak the iPad for this to work mobile.

On Air ist ja mal eine brauchbare TV App

by Volker Weber

On Air ist ja mal ein brauchbare TV App
Photo: vowe

iPhone 4 with iOS 4.2 is working with the wonderful Nokia BH-905

by Volker Weber

iPhone 4 with iOS 4.2 is working with the wonderful Nokia BH-905
Photo: vowe

Delete All Facebook Apps You're Not Using

by Volker Weber

Here's a fun lil' project to protect your privacy in just a few minutes. Go through Facebook and delete all the apps you're no longer using. That way they'll no longer have access your data so they can't mine it or sell it. Here's how to do it.

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Homo Securitis

by Volker Weber

Man könnte analog zum Homo Oeconomicus als Fiktion der Wirtschaftswissenschaft von der Annahme des Idealtypus eines Homo Securitis sprechen." Leider lebe dieser Menschentyp nur in Gedankenspielen, aber nicht auf der Erde.

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Versunken

by Volker Weber

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Typical BlackBerry user

by Volker Weber

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For the typical iPhone and Android users, view the full comic.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express free download for Lotus Domino

by Volker Weber

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I broke the news to you in October, and now it's available: BES Express for Notes and Domino. It runs on Windows Server 2003 SP2 and above (32/64-bit), in a VMware or Microsoft virtual machine, and it requires Domino 8.0.2, 8.5.1 or 8.5.2. The Exchange product has been out since February.

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Supported vs. unsupported

by Volker Weber

Jeff comments the announcement of an OpenNTF project:

Announce your tool finally supports SVN, just as the industry is moving to distributed systems like Git and Mercurial. Feel the irrelevance.

Jeff is always very blunt, but I am less concerned about the irrelevance comment. What I find interesting is that IBM seems to lack the resources to incorporate important* features likes this into the supported product and has to publish through OpenNTF. It appears that many if not most of the submissions to OpenNTF are from IBM engineers.

*) Lesser important features would be a set of pretty database icons.

The end of Skype for Mac as we know it

by Volker Weber

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... the new Skype 5.0 is now available for Mac today in beta, introducing a revamped look and feel that simplifies navigation and provides a more Mac-like experience. For example, the Skype app has been brought together in one window for ease-of-use, and the Mac address book has been integrated, making it possible for you to call, IM and SMS your contacts when they are online or offline.

Looks like Skype is doing the same thing they already did for the Windows client, making it one monster window. This marks the beginning of the end for Skype on my machines. I don't use Skype to make phone calls. It's my instant messaging, presence, quickly move a file thing. As long as they provide the old installer, I am game. But after that, bye bye Skype. Skype video has already been replaced by FaceTime here.

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PS: Read the comments over at Skype.com. Ouch.

Advocacy doesn’t work if you tell someone they’re wrong

by Volker Weber

Generally it isn’t a good idea to offend someone you’re trying to convince. This is sounding almost too obvious, but offending someone we are trying to get to free software is a tactic we often use unconsciously. Instead of getting your point across it will likely lead the other to strengthen or adopt a contrary believe. There’s much we can learn from social psychology in advocating free software.

This is true for all advocacy.

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Desktop charger now lives on my desk

by Volker Weber

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Space on my desk is precious. Only useful stuff survives. The fuel station is holding up nicely.

In case you ever wondered about those faulty brakes

by Volker Weber

Aus der Reihe "Unbekannte Helden": Fritz!Box 7390

by Volker Weber

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Hier in vowe's magic flying circus gibt es ein paar Produkte, von denen ich nie erzähle, aber die ich wärmstens empfehlen kann. Ich sollte also mal eine Reihe "Unbekannte Helden" auflegen. Kandidat Nummer 1: die Fritz!Box.

Fritz!Box, das ist schon mal ein cooler Name. Ich nutze schon seit mehr als 20 Jahren Produkte der Berliner Firma AVM, und ich bin bisher noch nicht enttäuscht worden. Allerdings habe ich auch ein paar Produkte gemieden, wie etwa das DECT Telefon. :-)

Die 7390 ist jedenfalls hier die Schaltzentrale für alle Kommunikation um's Haus herum. ISDN und VDSL gehen rein, Ethernet und ISDN kommen wieder raus. Dahinter hängt mein ganzer Zoo an Telefonanlage, ISDN-Telefonen, und natürlich das ganze Netzwerk mit Gigabit-Switch, mehreren Access Points, Sonos und so weiter und sofort. Die Fritz!Box bucht sich außerdem in drei VoIP-Accounts ein, so dass ich auch aus dem Ausland günstig erreichbar bin.

Dabei hat die Kiste noch sehr viel Potential, das ich nicht nutze. Man kann Drucker und Speichermedien dranhängen, einen UMTS-Stick als Backup für die DSL-Leitung, DECT-Schnurlostelefone können sich direkt verbinden, das WLAN bietet einen Gastmodus, aus dem man ins Internet, aber nicht ins lokale Netz kommt.

Kurz und gut: das ist der einzige Server, den man in einer Wohnung braucht. Und dazu völlig geräuschlos. Kaufen!

Facebook 1.4 for Android on par with iPhone version

by Volker Weber

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Just installed the update on my Nexus One, and Places is finally on the Android devices (in supported countries). Now, how do I switch this to English so that the text strings fit? iPhone app gets an update as well:

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WordPress for Nokia S60 and Maemo

by Volker Weber

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The latest Beta release enables you to edit your existing blog content, add new posts and pages, and manage comments on the go, directly from your S60 or Maemo powered Nokia device. Supported: WordPress 2.7 or higher (WordPress.com or self-hosted). WordPress for Nokia is an Open Source project. Both the app and the source code are free to download and use.

Ovi Store says they are working on a Symbian^3 version and offers a download (see screen above). Since I don't use Wordpress, I cannot test.

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New toy: BlackBerry Presenter

by Volker Weber

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The BlackBerry Presenter is all you need to present PPT or PDF files from your BlackBerry. Powered by the standard BackBerry charger (with MicroUSB plug) it connects to a beamer or TV screen via VGA or S-Video. You pair it with your BlackBerry over Bluetooth, load the Presenter software and you are good to go.

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Once you are in presentation mode, you can jump around your slides, look at presentation notes etc. On the Torch I can advance slides by swiping the screen, but it also uses the same shortcuts you know from the mail app, like n for next and p for previous. Setup with Bluetooth was easy and you get to select from known devices right from the Presenter software.

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The hardware supports Version 2.0 + EDR, Class 1.5, so you can roam around the stage while presenting. It won't be able to do all transitions in your PPT file, so test before you present. But this is by far the most portable presentation solution I have seen so far. And also the quickest. If you need an updated presentation, have somebody from your office send you the new file, download it to your BlackBerry and present on the big screen.

The only thing I am missing is that you cannot mirror the device screen. This would be a neat toy to present BlackBerry applications. It's usually quite a hassle to present mobile apps, and this tool has everything you need to make this experience better.

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22 tracks

by Volker Weber

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Infuckingcredibly cool:

22tracks.com is a jukebox consisting of 22 playlists of different genres, each playlist filled with 22 tracks, selected by specialized DJs from Amsterdam. 22tracks provides a quick overview of the latest music, promotes new artists and lets you discover new genres. No registration, no hassle. New music, the easy way.

And you can buy each track directly from iTunes. If you have your headset on, follow me to Agoria f/ Carl Craig, Speechless.

Inside-IT: Der Google-Big-Bang bei Ringier

by Volker Weber

Ringier hat vor einer Woche in der Schweiz im "Big-Bang"-Verfahren Google Apps für Kommunikation eingeführt. Der Projektverantwortliche Christian Glanzmann zu ersten Erfahrungen und Hintergründen.

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Keynote für Heise Netze "Das mobile Firmennetz"

by Volker Weber

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Übermorgen muss ich meine Präsentation für die Heise Netze Tour einreichen. Das kann schon eine Woche dauern, die auf ein paar Dutzend USB-Sticks zu kopieren. :-) Nächste Woche geht es los in München, dann in Köln und schließlich in Hamburg.

Aus dem Bild ist das nicht gleich ersichtlich, aber ich hasse "Death by PowerPoint". Bisher habe ich noch kein Slide mit Bullets. :-)

FlipBlade iPad stand

by Volker Weber

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This is a new iPad stand I have been using for a week or so. It's a little bit larger than a phone, unfolds with a spring-loaded and damped mechanism, and holds your iPad upright. Even if it's in protective sleeve. The stand sits on my desk and it holds all other small devices I am using. It's pretty universal, but it does not provide power.

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Simon Phipps: DRM Is Toxic To Culture

by Volker Weber

It’s possible that you think that unauthorised use of copyrighted music, films and books is such a serious problem that it’s worth giving away a little of your convenience and freedom in exchange for stopping it. If you do, I’d like to suggest you think again — and time is running out.

Repeat after me: DRM is bad for the customer.

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Darren Adams is cool

by Volker Weber

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Darren Adams, who works for IBM in the UK, has finally done something Lotus Marketing has not been able or willing to do in 10 years: show the product. He has set up a new site NotesIsCool.com which does just that.

Yoda says: Darren a raise you must give, Alistair Rennie.

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Google Sprecher schauen geschäftig aus

by Volker Weber

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Heute Streetview?

One hour off

by Volker Weber

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I recall waiting for the bus to take us to Lotusphere Europe 2000 in front of the Esplanade Grand Hotel in Berlin. The bus was late. And when it showed up about 15 minutes later, somebody said "maybe it was scheduled with Lotus Notes" to which Gartner analyst Tom Austin said: "No, then it would have been one hour off".

Scheduling is incredibly hard, with time zones, daylight savings and so forth. Today many iPhone 4.1 users across Europe have been bitten by a bug that causes repeating alerts to be one hour later. My iPhone did not correctly adjust back from daylight savings time yesterday, maybe because I am not running a German setup.

The other big issue are all day events. If the device stores them as midnight to midnight, and you are one hour off, you are actually one day off. Birthday wishes before the date are considered bad luck here. Oops.

Old vowe.net archive pages

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

vowe

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