August 2002

Ohne Worte

by Volker Weber

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Joel Spolsky: Platforms

by Volker Weber

I just had the good fortune to read an advance copy of Rick Chapman's excellent new book on stupidity in the software industry. (Prediction: best seller). Being an analytical kind of guy, I look for common themes. One of the biggest themes in software industry failures is a platform vendor that didn't understand that they were a platform vendor, so they alienated their key consituency: the developers.

I keep picking on Groove, but only because there's something interesting in there, one of the few technologies that's interesting enough to care about. Yes, the Groove engineers are architecture astronauts. That's OK. They're building architecture. But they're positioning it like an application and I don't think Groove will be successful if they do that. Someone else will come along with a P2P architecture and sell it like a component, or make it an open source library (yes, I'm aware of JXTA), and that's what software developers will use.

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Groove usage analysis

by Volker Weber

Ray: Interesting factoids from Groove usage analysis aggregated across a very broad statistically significant anonymous sample set. I did this in order to empirically validate some intuitions related to some UI design enhancements that I'm considering.

Thought about this for a second, and then had a terrible bad feeling about this. "Very broad statistically significant anonymous sample set". I wish, Ray would elaborate a bit who's data is being analysed.

It is just me as an ever privacy conscious European? What are your thoughts? If you don't want to post a comment send me mail.

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Groove in der Computerwoche

by Volker Weber

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Sehr langer, positiver Artikel zu Groove Workspace in der aktuellen Computerwoche. Online gibt es den Anfang zu lesen.

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Blogs turn the game of high-tech PR inside out

by Volker Weber

Jon: We long ago passed the point, in this industry, where an "elevator pitch" could convey anything useful. Things are increasingly complex, interrelated, and subtle. On trade show floors, in meetings, and on phone calls, it can take an hour just to synchronize on the terminology and concepts needed to have a meaningful discussion. I hope there will soon be many more Phils, Marks, and Edwins. I claim it's win/win for those who step up to the plate. The creators of technical strategy are best qualified to explain it to both internal and external audiences. When context can be shared in this way, understanding comes easier and runs deeper.

Amen.

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I see dead people

by Volker Weber

Steve Gillmor, riffing on Python (no, not that Python) says Notes is dead. Ray Ozzie, riffing on Steve, says publishing is dead.

Well, I'm sure that both Notes and Publishing, if they could be rendered as corporeal beings, would quote Python as well: "I'm not dead yet."

Notes and its offspring, Domino, despite the best efforts of IBM to kill them, somehow live on despite the bungling. Publishing, despite the New Media's desire to cast it onto the metaphorical undertaker's cart, still appears to be the only way to make money off words reliably. Publishing has outlasted Pointcast's push and it will doubtless outlast P2P. It will coexist with the Web, weblogs, etc. just as it has with film, radio, and television.

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Neither Sophia Loren nor Jane Mansfield

by Volker Weber

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Xbox Linux 0.2 released

by Volker Weber

The Xbox is a gaming console by Microsoft. It consists of very powerful IBM-PC-based hardware, runs a stripped-down version of the Windows 2000 kernel and, for anti-piracy reasons, allows only games to run.

The Xbox Linux Project aims to provide a version of GNU/Linux for the Xbox, so that it can be used as an ordinary computer. Linux should make use of all Xbox hardware and allow to install and run software from standard i386 Linux distributions.

An Xbox running Linux may be very useful as a desktop computer, as a (web) server or as a node in a Linux cluster.

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Common Errors in English

by Volker Weber

Must read >

Apple's Newton Just Won't Drop

by Volker Weber

newton3.gifIn January, Jonathan Wise's Handspring Visor organizer died, so he decided to get a different handheld. After shopping around, he found a machine that did it all: Web, e-mail, calendar and address book, but it could also recognize ordinary, cursive handwriting that wasn't as awkward as graffiti. Wise, a Web developer from Ontario, Canada, was impressed by the handheld's hardware: a big, clear screen; two PC card slots; external memory support; and long battery life.

It can connect to Macs, PCs and Unix machines, as well as all kinds of networks, from wireless WiFi networks to the new, always-on GPRS cell-phone nets. It streams MP3s off the Net and can read headlines aloud that have been automatically fetched from online news sites.

What is this amazing machine? The latest sleek Clié from Sony, or a skunkworks Pocket PC yet to hit the market? No, it's the granddaddy of them all: Apple's Newton, which is still going strong despite being discontinued by Apple in 1998.

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Hacker-Paradies Deutschland

by Oliver Tunnat

Die Computer-Kriminalität in Deutschland steigt weiter an. Mindestens 50 Prozent der Unternehmen sind bereits Opfer von Saboteuren oder Hackern geworden. Dabei werden Sabotage und Datenspionage oft nicht als solche erkannt. Die Zahl der Delikte ist größer, als aktuelle Umfragen zeigen, meinen Experten der Mummert + Partner Unternehmensberatung.

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e-Signatur jetzt gültig

by Oliver Tunnat

Amtliche Papiere können jetzt auch elektronisch unterschrieben werden. Für die Bürger macht es keinen Unterschied mehr, ob sie im Umgang mit den Behörden eine Unterschrift mit dem Kugelschreiber oder elektronisch leisten. Dies ermöglicht eine Gesetzesänderung, die im Bundesgesetzblatt (27. August) verkündet wurde und damit in Kraft trat.

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Mainframe-Linux ist selten kostenlos

by Oliver Tunnat

Das Marktforschungsunternehmen Giga Information Group warnt Anwender vor der Annahme, der Einsatz von Linux auf dem Mainframe wäre automatisch kostenlos, weil das Open-Source-System selbst umsonst erhältlich sei.

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Mensch

by Volker Weber

momentan ist richtig,
momentan ist gut
nichts ist wirklich wichtig
nach der ebbe kommt die flut

am strand des lebens
ohne grund, ohne verstand
ist nichts vergebens
ich bau die träume auf den sand

und es ist, es ist ok
alles auf dem weg,
und es ist sonnenzeit
unbeschwert und frei

und der mensch heißt mensch
weil er vergisst,
weil er verdrängt
und weil er schwärmt und stählt
weil er wärmt, wenn er erzählt

und weil er lacht
und weil er lebt
du fehlst

Herbert Grönemeyer, 2002

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Linux, blocking a fresh vision of the future

by Volker Weber

While no one would deny that Linux is good design, delivers stable performance and is 'free'', these are also its greatest pitfalls, argues Ashok Hingorani. He spells out his design for the REAL OS of the future while cautioning users against the Talibanisation of technology.

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Is Microsoft losing its grip?

by Volker Weber

Microsoft stood at a crossroads last month as it tried to push its biggest customers on to a new licensing scheme under which they pay a maintenance fee instead of buying upgrades. There were signs of a global backlash that could promote the use and development of rival products, particularly open source.

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Groove permissions SNAFU in english

by Volker Weber

Just found out that heise online translated my story to english.

Browser market share

by Volker Weber

Netscape market share at an all time low? Not according to Heise Online, a major news site here in Germany. In their very substantial weblogs, Microsoft went from 66,9% down to 65% from March to August of this year, while Netscape rose from 21,3 % to 22,6 and Opera from 7,8% to 8,4%.

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No, this is not Sharon Stone

by Volker Weber

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Another casualty

by Volker Weber

First (?) Steve declares Notes dead. Now Ray declares publishing dead. Insert tongue in cheek and read on.

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Building XML Portals with Cocoon

by Volker Weber

Cocoon is an Apache open source project originally started by Stefano Mazzocchi in 1998 because he was frustrated by the limitations HTML poses when it comes to separating content from design. He described the current Cocoon version in detail in an article for XML.com in February.

Although Cocoon was originally designed as a framework for XML-XSL publishing, we felt that due to the extensibility of the architecture, it would be possible to add components that extended Cocoon so that it could be used in a wider variety of applications. Around the same time we decided to use Cocoon, we were also evaluating available commercial portal solutions for several customers. Portals used in a more commercial environment have varied requirements. Therefore it seemed ideal to extend Cocoon with components for authentication and portals -- and at the same time to retain the original strengths of the platform.

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Microsoft Support bei der Arbeit

by Volker Weber

Frage:
Wo finde ich Antworten auf häufig gestellte Fragen zu Microsoft Outlook Express?

Antwort:
Sehen Sie unter "Häufig gestellte Fragen" zu Outlook Express nach.

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Pole Position

by Oliver Tunnat

Nach einer Analyse aus dem Hause Gartner Dataquest gelang es IBM im vergangenen Jahr, Oracle als führenden Datenbankanbieter abzulösen. Doch die Ellison-Company (Bild) zieht die Zahlen in Zweifel und verkündet eine gegenteilige Marktentwicklung. Wer überflügelt wirklich seinen Konkurrenten –und in welchem Bereich?

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Heute vor sieben Jahren wurde die Ignoranz im Usenet in eine behördliche Formel gefasst

by Volker Weber

Was ist eine Merkbefreiung? - Solange Du keine bekommst, brauchst Du es nicht zu wissen. Danach ist es zu spät.

Am 28. August 1995 postete Kristian Koehntopp zum ersten Mal den amtlichen Vordruck zur Merkbefreiung. Das Formular breitete sich von de.talk.bizarre über das gesamte deutschsprachige Usenet aus und wurde - neben der Bielefeld-Verschwörung - Teil der Folklore.

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Daily Groove Upgrade

by Volker Weber

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Not a new installer today. But new help files for Tic-Tac-Toe and Chess. :-)

I think it is rather neat that Groove upgrades itself and politely asks me whether I want the upgrade or not. Note to self: must say no next time, and see whether it keeps bugging me.

IBM Access Connections for Windows 2000/XP

by Volker Weber

IBM updates Access Connections for Windows 2000/XP to Version 2.21. If you own a Thinkpad and don't have this software, then you should get it right away.

Access Connections is a connectivity assistant program for your ThinkPad computer. It enables you to quickly switch the network settings and Internet settings by selecting a location profile.

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You can define the network settings and Internet settings in the Location Profile for modem/wired LAN/Wireless LAN network devices, and then restore that profile whenever you need it. By switching the location profile, you can connect to the network instantly without reconfiguring your settings when you move from office to home or on the road.

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Wahlkrampf

by Volker Weber

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Mozilla 1.1 released

by Volker Weber

Many new features that I like, for instance context clicking on a selection now lets you view the HTML source for the selected area.

Go get it >

Tech support woes

by Volker Weber

Just in case you missed Jack Chawla's comment to my rant about Groove not grooving, go read his weblog: Ever wondered why service at large companies sucks more often then not. The reason is quite simple. The people who have knowledge and answer to your questions and the people who service you are two different groups and separated with barbwires!

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IT Strategy not yet implemented

by Volker Weber

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Shit happened at an undisclosed company.

Eat your own dogfood

by Volker Weber

Referring to this entry and Ed's comment Rainer Volz is asking a good question: Why doesn't Groove Networks demonstrate the usage of Groove- and IM-functionality by using it publicly, for example in customer interaction? Currently this is only done by GN partners like Andy Swarbrick.

I might want to add to this: If Notes is dead and Groove is so great then why is IBM using Notes/Domino for their LDD site while Groove needs Fuzetalk for their customer support forums? Any customer should have Groove installed and would be able to benefit very much if he were able to use it for support issues. It is an excellent example of an issue that needs to be solved at the edge, in this case Groove's edge. If you have any serious issue then you will be asked to send mail to support@groove.net - while the Groove Networks site tells me that Groove Workspace is 10 times better than email.

IBM lets you access LDD with Notes (as I do) or a web browser. Wouldn't it be neat if you could do the same with Groove? From my experience, it is impossible for a simple reason: Groove does not scale well enough to support a population of more than a hundred people in one space.

Bad interface design

by Volker Weber

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What's wrong with this picture? It is next to impossible to see the most important information in the Groove contacts: Who is currently online and available. It is a good thing that you can authenticate contacts but unfortunately the feature was overdone with chatty icons.

This has been broken with version 2.0 and I had hoped it would be fixed in 2.1 but I think we need to wait some more. Ceterum censeo: We need print and search.

Die Party ist vorbei, aber wir leben noch

by Oliver Tunnat

Kaum eine Firma hat so sehr vom Internet-Boom profitiert wie der Server-Gigant Sun Microsystems. Die Katerstimmung sei aber nun überwunden, meint Deutschland-Geschäftsführer Helmut Wilke im Gespräch mit der Netzeitung.

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Naked drive

by Volker Weber

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The SuperDriveDock is a brutally simple alternative to drive-cases. If you've got a naked drive and need to mount it in a hurry, just snap the dock on, plug in a FireWire cable and biff-bam, it's connected.

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[via boingboing]

Content-Management-Systeme in der Krise

by Oliver Tunnat

Der Markt für Redaktionssysteme, mit denen Inhalteanbieter und Unternehmen ihre Websites pflegen, konsolidiert sich momentan massiv.

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WLAN: Starbucks vernetzt auch die Konkurrenz

by Oliver Tunnat

Seit kurzem kann man im Berliner Hauptgeschäft der US-Kaffeekette am Hackeschen Markt einen drahtlosen High-Speed-Internet-Zugang nutzen. Einige Macken hat die Technik noch.

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Ist halt alles ziemlich gastfreundlich hier :-)

Nikon Coolpix 5700 review

by Volker Weber

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The new eight times zoom, five megapixel Coolpix 5700 was announced on May 29th, 2002 as part of a trio of new Coolpix digital cameras from Nikon. The 5700 marks the next logical progression from the Coolpix 5000 and adds a big eight times optical zoom lens. This instantly raises the 5700 to the top of the prosumer digital camera pile, the nearest competition coming from Minolta's DiMAGE 7i (seven times optical zoom, five megapixel) and Sony's DSC-F707 (five times optical zoom, five megapixel).

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Steve: Notes is dead

by Volker Weber

According to police reports, Notes was killed by inventor Ray Ozzie, 45. Ozzie entered the Notes space on the Ides of August -- Aug. 15, 2002 -- armed with Version 2.1 of the Groove collaboration platform and its new peer-to-peer e-mail functionality. ... Notes, 20, will be interred after a private service.

Now, this is going to stirr up some debate. :-) The "Notes is dead" story reminds me of this:

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Notes may be in the same state as Windows or Office: Lots of people use it, hate it, depend on it for their daily business. There are interesting new players in the field, but it is going to take a while until Windows can be declared dead.

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IBM nudges back release of WebSphere 5.0

by Volker Weber

IBM has pushed back the release date for Version 5.0 of its WebSphere application server, saying it "reprioritized" its schedule in order to bring related development tools to market more quickly. Analysts said the one-month to two-month delay shouldn't be seen as a big setback.

IBM now expects to deliver the new product by the end of November, said IBM spokesman Steven Eisenstadt. The new version of WebSphere Studio will be released in September, including a beta version of the new application server runtime. General availability for WebSphere Application Server Version 5.0 is now scheduled for 30 to 60 days after that, Eisenstadt said.

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Jon: Overlooked best practices

by Volker Weber

The best thing about standards, it's said, is that you can choose from so many of them. Unfortunately, the same holds true for security best practices. Strong passwords, software updates, system hardening, encryption, anti-virus software, vulnerability scanning, intrusion detection, baselining, and log analysis -- the list goes on and on. It's a complex game that IT managers try to simplify by focusing on that convenient choke point, the firewall. But every network-connected device and every user can be the proverbial weak link in the chain.

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Ray: Weblog Policy

by Volker Weber

A number of people at Groove have started blogs,... Of course, there are many questions that arise when an employer encourages employees to operate more "in the open", and so our counsel, Jeff Seul, has taken a first pass at creating a "blog policy".

IANAL, but this looks very reasonable to me. It is also interesting that many of those weblogs were created around the time that version 2.1 was released. I would not be surprised if Groove Networks tries to ride the weblog wave as a means of marketing. Almost everyone of the bloggers crosslinks to the other blogs, so it is somewhat self-referencing. No matter whether that is the secret agenda, I think it is still a very good idea. It will be interesting to see how they handle things that are not so much in favor of the company.

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The shot heard round the world?

by Volker Weber

Does Microsoft's Software Assurance program essentially impose a tax without any representation? And if it does, are people going to be angry enough to stage a modern rendition of the Boston Tea Party where boxes of Microsoft Office are dumped in the harbor?

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Linus: You just hire a hit-man to whack the stupid git

by Volker Weber

I do not look up any patents on _principle_, because (a) it's a horrible waste of time and (b) I don't want to know. The fact is, technical people are better off not looking at patents. If you don't know what they cover and where they are, you won't be knowingly infringing on them. If somebody sues you, you change the algorithm or you just hire a hit-man to whack the stupid git.

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MRTG Resource Center

by Volker Weber

Way cool: "Welcome to the MRTG/Denika/WebNM Templates Archive (last updated on 06/26/02). Currently there are 355 templates available. Somix Technologies, Inc. is constantly expanding this list with help from our customer base and other contributors. Check out our extensive MIB Archive!"

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GNOME Human Interface Guidelines v1.0 released

by Volker Weber

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The GNOME Usability Project is proud to announce the release of the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (v1.0), the product of usability engineers, designers, hackers, and Irish wine. The guidelines deliver both specific advice on making effective use of interface elements, as well as the philosophy and general principles behind the guidelines.

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Do Groove spaces ever get smaller?

by Volker Weber

Empty space. Attach one file (100 mb). Space will be 100++ mb. Delete file from space. Space does not shrink. Now fetch space from other computer. You are fetching 100++ mb. Add one more file (100 mb). You are transferring another 100++ mb. Spaces on both systems are now 200++. Delete the second file. Spaces are still 200++. Now fetch from a third. You are transferring 200++.

Does this ever get less?

Update: There is an interesting technote on this issue.

The Most Important Open-Source Project You've (Probably) Never Heard Of

by Volker Weber

Almost a year after it donated some $40 million worth of code and tools, IBM is on the warpath once again, drumming up support for the open-source Eclipse project.

Eclipse may not be as well known as some other open-source projects, such as Linux, Mozilla, or Apache. It's certainly not as sexy. At its core, Eclipse provides a common platform, user interface, and plug-in framework for integrating development tools.

Developers working with the Eclipse framework would be able to plug in different tools from different vendors -- say a Java IDE, a modeling tool, a test environment, an XML editor -- and benefit from a common look and feel and under-the-covers functionality.

That may seem ho-hum, but for enterprise developers -- struggling to boost productivity even as they wrestle with a growing number of Java and Web services development tools -- the open framework and open-source approach of Eclipse could pay big dividends.

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Ray Ozzie responds to Groove security problem

by

In my quest to build real security into both Notes and Groove, I've repeatedly run into tough issues related to nondiscretionary controls and other challenges in the ex post facto control of released information.

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Kritische Sicherheitslücken in etlichen Microsoft-Produkten

by Oliver Tunnat

Fehlerhafte Programmkomponenten sind Bestandteil verschiedener Software-Produkte.

Nichts neues :-)

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Don't trust your Groove spaces

by Volker Weber

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You can hide a tool in Groove Workspace but you can't protect the data. You are led to believe the data is protected but in fact it isn't.

If you share a Groove space with a number of people, you can assign roles to them. They can be either manager, participant or guest. You can now define which permissions those roles have, both at the space or the individual tool level.

Now let's assume you have one tool that contains data, which only managers are supposed to see, and you assign read permission only to managers. Participants and guests can see this tool tab but not the data in it. Everything is fine so far, although I would prefer to hide the tool completely.

Now, here is the problem: If a participant duplicates the space he will automatically be manager of the duplicate and see all the data in the managers only tool. How bad is that?

Summary: If you put data in a Groove space, then every member can see it. Roles do not protect the data. In Groove's diction, this is not software problem, but a perception problem.

Don't Link to Us!

by Volker Weber

Don't Link to Us! links to sites that attempt to impose substantial restrictions on other sites that link to them. The Linking Policy for Don't Link to Us! precludes us from requesting permission to link to a site, and compels us to link directly to the targeted page (i.e., a "deep link") rather than to a site's home page. Descriptions of sites' linking policies generally are accurate (though often not complete) at the time they are posted here but are likely to change over time. On occasion a web site will modify its linking policy in response to public ridicule.

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Interessanter Google Mirror

by

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How to defang Win2k SP3's auto updating

by Volker Weber

The explanation is as follows:

"If you enable this setting, all Windows Update features will be removed. This includes blocking access to the Windows Update Web site at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and from the Windows Update hyperlink on the Start menu and also on the Tools menu in Internet Explorer. Windows automatic updating is also disabled; you will neither be notified about nor will you receive critical updates from Windows Update. This policy also prevents Device Manager from automatically installing driver updates from the Windows Update Web site."

In English, this means you'll have to seek out patches and security fixes yourself, and install them by hand. But you don't mind that, do you?

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Eclipse CVS Frontend

by Volker Weber

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In case you have not noticed, the free Eclipse Framework has a very decent CVS frontend.

The IBM Lotus Software Technical Strategy and Domino Developers' Roadmap

by Volker Weber

IBM tries to clean up the mess they created at this year's Lotusphere with their announcements around J2EE and Domino:

This paper articulates IBM's vision for the future of collaboration and the extent to which current Domino applications and developer skills can be reused and leveraged in the next generation of collaborative applications. It explains IBM's plans to continue investment in Lotus Notes and Domino as a complementary and parallel architecture to IBM WebSphere, affirming Lotus' leadership in collaboration at IBM and throughout the industry. IBM has no current plans to merge Lotus Domino with WebSphere or to require WebSphere to run Domino applications in the foreseeable future.

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Having fun with Microsoft ...

by Volker Weber

... the following link will delete all files in the 'C:\windows\' directory when the launched window is closed. (normal file permissions still apply as usual). Sub-directories are not deleted.

hcp://system/DFS/uplddrvinfo.htm?file://c:\windows\*

[Will not work on non-XP systems. Link intentionally not active. :-) ]

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Netcraft Web Server Survey

by Volker Weber

Netcraft reports a sharp decline in MS web server usage from 31.87 to 25.39 percent. Apache gains 5.89 percent and now tops at 63.51 percent of the servers.

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Ray Ozzie: Clarifications on the Groove vs. Notes Debate

by Volker Weber

There are lots of Lotus Notes users out there. Notes was and is an incredibly powerful platform for developing forms-based document sharing applications, and it has provided tremendous value for those who made investments in it: typically corporate IT for email infrastructure, and the line-of-business for applications. But times have changed, and for a variety of good business reasons - some stated above - people are looking to bridge their Notes investments - training investments, application development investments, infrastructure investments - on their way into products such as SharePoint and Exchange.

I am almost sure, that Lotus people will not like this piece. It sure sounds more like Richard Eckel is beating the drum. Ray is feeling the empowerment: ... another fascinating and unique thing about this medium is that I can speak directly to this special interest group right here .... So, the question is, how far can you go?

Must control thoughts about the "dark side of the force". IBM is clearly not part of the rebel alliance, no matter whether they support Linux or not. "Nicht alles was hinkt, ist ein Vergleich." [Sorry, this cannot be translated. Don't even think about using Babelfish]

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KDE fixes SSL hole as MS dithers

by Volker Weber

New KDE binary RPMs have been released, as promised, with a fix for the SSL certificate vulnerability affecting Windows and Konqueror which we reported last week.

"KDE 3.0.3 primarily provides stability enhancements over KDE 3.0.2, which shipped in early July 2002, and also contains a security correction for SSL (Internet security) certificate handling," the organization says.

Also, a patch for KDE 2.2.2 is available for those who prefer not to upgrade their systems to KDE 3.

In the mean time, MS has decided to whitewash the affair and persuade users that the bug in their operating system is harmless, in flagrant disregard of the handy exploit code that's already been released.

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Affirmation Bullshit Generator

by Volker Weber

Today I will ...

evolve my dynamic nature
generate my cognitive oneness
embrace my spiritual self

Try it out >

Hochwasser in München

by Volker Weber

munich_surfer.jpg

TortoiseCVS

by Volker Weber

TortoiseCVS lets you work with files under CVS version control directly from Windows Explorer. It's freely available under the GPL.

With TortoiseCVS you can directly check out modules, update, commit and see differences by right clicking on files and folders within Explorer. You can see the state of a file with overlays on top of the normal icons within Explorer. It even works from within the file open dialog.

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Schnelleinstieg in CVS

by Volker Weber

Dieser Schnelleinstieg bietet eine kurze Referenz der wichtigsten und nützlichsten CVS-Befehle, kann aber keine ausfürhliche Auseinandersetzung mit den theoretischen Hintergründen der einzelnen Aktionen ersetzen. Hierzu bietet sich der Artikel CVS for Dummies an.

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CVS for Dummies

by Volker Weber

Dateien wie Programmquellen oder Dokumentationen unterliegen einer hohen Änderungshäufigkeit. Hinzu kommt, daß oftmals viele Dateien in verschiedenen Versionen parallel von mehreren Entwicklern bearbeitet werden. Das Programm CVS unterstützt diese Aufgabe. Diese kleine Ausarbeitung soll neuen oder gelegentlichen Benutzern ohne tiefere Kenntnisse (sog. Dummies) den Umgang mit CVS erleichtern.

Dieser Artikel richtet sich an Anwender von CVS, er bietet keine vollständige Dokumentation, sondern eine Einführung der wichtigsten Konzepte und Befehle.

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GNOME 2.0.1 Desktop and Developer Platform Released

by Volker Weber

The GNOME 2.0.x Desktop and Developer Platform releases are devoted to bugfixes, translations, user interface consistency, and general polish of our major 2.0 release. In GNOME 2.0.1, you'll see the results of our user interface review and continued performance and stability fixes...

# 733 total bugs marked fixed
# 310 high priority bugs marked fixed

(Note that these lists include fixes on unreleased branches, and a few things that were fixed after the 2.0.1 tarballs were released, so the numbers may be slightly inflated.)

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Interview: IBM's Linux Tech Chief

by Volker Weber

Q: Would you say that the Solaris to Linux program is a direct assault on Sun?

A: Yes. This is a space where we collaborate and cooperate in building infrastructure, and we compete fiercely at Linux business. We want to attract as many customers as possible moving from Solaris to Linux. Although we don't get all Linux customers, we expect to have a bigger piece of that pie. You bet, it's a direct competitive move, and we think it's something that's going to be successful, it's going to drive a lot of business for us. As to how successful it'll be, we'll just have to see. The intent is not only to move customers from Solaris to Linux, but to make them happier when we do that, give them a lower cost, a just-as-reliable solution that's open, standard, and portable.

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TightVNC 1.2.5 is out

by Volker Weber

VNC (an abbreviation for Virtual Network Computing) is a great client/server software package allowing remote network access to graphical desktops. With VNC, you can access your machine from everywhere provided that your machine is connected to the Internet. VNC is free (released under the GNU General Public License) and it's available on most platforms. Original VNC distribution can be obtained at this site.

Here you can find an enhanced version of VNC, called TightVNC, which includes a lot of new features, improvements, optimizations and bugfixes over the original VNC version, see the list of features below. Note that TightVNC is absolutely free, cross-platform and compatible with the standard VNC. Many users agree that TightVNC is the most advanced free remote desktop package. And it's being actively developed so you can expect TightVNC will become even better.

TightVNC can be used to perform remote administration tasks in Windows, Unix and mixed network environments. It can be very helpful in distance learning and remote customer support. Finally, you can find a number of additional VNC-compatible utilities and packages that can extend the areas where TightVNC can be helpful.

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[via hebig.org]

Meeting Checklist

by Volker Weber

Evaluate the "intelligence" of your meeting system by exploring each stage of your meeting process. There are a total of 23 measures, each of which could lead to more productive communication.

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Interesting, but as Greg Hanek points out:

Folks, just a reminder that it is entirely possible to do all 23 of the things on this list, and still remain mired in inefficiency -- this list of tasks is only about improving communication. The people involved in the meetings must also be committed to actually making decisions, not merely discussing situations. Also important is to assign action items to individuals or groups, and then giving those folks enough information, control and power to see things through (and holding them responsible for success). Seems like common sense, but how many workplaces do not always perform according to common sense?

Can only speak for myself, but I know at least two without this level of common sense.

Nikon Coolpix 4500

by Volker Weber

nikon4500.jpg

The new Coolpix 4500 was announced on May 29th, 2002 as part of a trio of new Coolpix digital cameras from Nikon. It is the step up in resolution and features for the now distinctive split-bodied Coolpix design. The 4500 carries on from the 995 (although its neat design is more like the 950 / 990). This camera has a four megapixel CCD sensor, four times optical zoom lens, an all metallic body and flush fitting pop-up flash unit. The camera is noticeably smaller and narrower than the 990 and 995 thanks to the use of a Nikon's EN-EL1 Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery.

Many people will consider this camera to be the true upgrade to the 990, in each previous succession of split bodied Coolpix digital cameras we saw in increase in resolution (1.2, 1.92, 3.14 megapixels). The 995 however offered only a few new features and a 4x optical zoom lens. It wasn't the four megapixel Coolpix most were expecting, this camera is.

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Boys need toys department: Gizmodo - The Gadgets Weblog

by Volker Weber

Gizmodo is a weblog dedicated to everything related to gadgets, gizmos, and cutting-edge consumer electronics.

It's edited by Pete Rojas, a journalist who writes about technology for Wired, Salon, Red Herring, and the Guardian, and backed by Nick Denton.

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Xbox Linux 0.1 available for download. Really.

by Volker Weber

The Xbox is a gaming console by Microsoft. It consists of very powerful IBM-PC-based hardware, runs a stripped-down version of the Windows 2000 kernel and, for anti-piracy reasons, allows only games to run.

The Xbox Linux Project aims to provide a version of GNU/Linux for the Xbox, so that it can be used as an ordinary computer. Linux should make use of all Xbox hardware and allow to install and run software from standard i386 Linux distributions.

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Let freedom ring

by Volker Weber

It is really a rare occasion that Ray Ozzie does not get it: [Update: Interestingly enough, Ray has pulled this rant from his weblog]

Maybe it's just me, but I can't understand why so many creative developers spend their precious and valuable time putting effort behind software based upon old models, e.g. OpenOffice or Linux - which seem so "tired" at this point - when there's such an incredible opportunity to "press the reset button" and take new net-centric, people-centric, groovy approaches - even if to these same old problems. So many creative minds; what a waste, or what an opportunity.

I think he talks too much to Billg. Who also does not get it. :-)

I can only speak for myself. I am using Mozilla. Why am I doing that? There are a number of reasons, and at least one of them is enough reason for someone to create a second browser:

1. Freedom to not go to MSN search, whenever I make a typo.

2. Freedom to not concede to MS EULAs.

3. Freedom to ban Popup Ads. And other neat stuff.

If you get bossed around enough times, you are no longer willing to make even small concessions. IBM has learned that in the 80s and I assume it is now time for MS to learn the same lesson. No matter how many smart people they hire or partner with.

I understand that this is hard to see from an American viewpoint. You can fail if you listen only to your customers. Ken Olsen has learned that when he thought nobody would buy that junk (the IBM PC). But IBM made a very smart move: they open sourced the BIOS. When they realized what they had done, it was too late. The PS/2 was closed and it failed.

The GPL has unleashed another animal. Let freedom ring.

Using social network analysis to improve knowledge creation and sharing

by Volker Weber

A significant yet often overlooked component of people's information environments is composed of the relationships that they use to acquire information and knowledge. Social network analysis (SNA) allows managers to visualize and understand the myriad of relationships that can either facilitate or impede knowledge creation and transfer.

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Lotus Not Worried that Groove Is Getting Comfortable with Microsoft

by Volker Weber

Proving blood isn't always thicker than water -- especially in business -- the Lotus Notes creator’s second child, Groove Networks, is firmly allied with Microsoft's Redmond camp. Microsoft announced last month it's partnering with Groove to integrate Groove Workspace features with Microsoft bCentral SharePoint Team Services.

Although the deal might make Microsoft more competitive, Lotus isn't fretting and it bears no grudge against little brother Groove, Lotus said.

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Google Singles Domino Out From the Crowd

by Volker Weber

Google, developer of the popular Google search engine, is one step closer to its goal of searching not only all the content on the Web, but inside corporations as well. Google is just starting to let its search appliance access more structured content, and it added Lotus Domino as the first such database it scans.

Google chose Domino first because it’s a popular platform — but more importantly — because its customers asked for it, said Google spokesman Nate Tyler. The Google search appliance automatically collapses Lotus Domino URL space for fast, efficient crawling of Domino servers.

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Create systems that are complacency immune

by Volker Weber

It's not the individual's fault! It's up to us - the technology industry - to create systems that are complacency immune - that are designed to be complementary to the way that users and administrators really act. And it's up to IT to realize that it's their responsibility - likely to the point of liability - to broadly deploy technology that is configured to be secure in a complacency-immune fashion.

No, it won't be perfect: this is all about risk management. You can't control how people behave - so create an environment in which they do the "right thing" naturally.

Amen

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Ein Paradox auf Rädern

by Volker Weber

mazda.jpg

Das Männermobil mit viel Chrom, Leder und Sonderdesign ist Massenware und luxuriöses Einzelstück zugleich.

Es ist schon ein Kreuz, wirklich. Da ist man endlich mal in einem richtig schönen Sondermodell unterwegs - und kein Schwein verrenkt sich den Hals! Nicht einer dreht an der Ampel die Scheibe runter, eindeutiges Signal unter Autofreunden dafür, dass jetzt die immer gleichen Fragen kommen: Was kostet der, was bringt der? Kein Daumen geht hoch, kein Kopf nickt rituell anerkennend: toller Wagen! Nicht einmal auf dem Parkplatz vor dem Supermarkt, an einem schönen, sonnigen Vormittag, wenn selbst die gestressteste aller Hausfrauen Zeit hätte für einen Blick oder auch zwei, kommt so etwas wie Interesse auf, und schon gar nicht die angemessene Leidenschaft.

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Microsoft cans UK .Net conference

by Volker Weber

Microsoft today cancelled its UK .Net developer conference amid rumours of a lack of interest and delays to .Net software, especially for web services.

Sources close to Microsoft said that one factor was the poor attendance at its European Tech Ed conference in Barcelona earlier in the year. They added that a lack of .Net web services software in particular had depressed interest.

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Win2k SP3, the 'snooper' licence, and the workaround

by Volker Weber

We've had quite a few emails from Windows 2000 Service Pack refuseniks who propose not to go anywhere near SP3 on the grounds that the installation insists you agree to the new-look Microsoft 'snooper's charter' supplementary licence in order to apply it. The critical clauses seem to be becoming standard for Microsoft products, and although they can be presented as helpful/necessary for updates, they could also be used for DRM purposes, and provide cover for more widespread snooping.

Naturally, you wouldn't expect a trustworthy company like Microsoft to abuse the rights it's unilaterally giving itself by deigning to fix the product it's already sold you under less onerous terms, would you? Have a think about it while you read through these two paragraphs:

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He who laughs last ...

by Volker Weber

May not be safe for work. :-)

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Note to self: The OHIO principle

by Volker Weber

OHIO == Only Handle Information Once

If information must be entered in two places, it won't be.

Internal Memo: This afternoons events in the restroom

by Volker Weber

I will not sit back and watch our hard work go down the drain whilst stoneheads and sluts defile the office.

[roflmao]

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Uninstall Tools from Groove

by Volker Weber

Groove Workspace does not have an uninstall feature for tools that you have injected and do not like to carry with your account any more.

Update: Now it has. But it is not enabled by default. First you need to import this registry setting:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Groove Networks, Inc.\Groove\Development]
"AllowToolDescriptorDeletion"="1"

Then go into any space, switch to the Add Tool tab, select the tool you wish to delete and hit Ctrl-Del. Bingo.

Note from Paresh Suthar: Just be careful with this setting because it is a sledgehammer and will remove the tool from the manifest and the account - regardless of how many spaces that may already have instances of the tool in it. This technique is primarily meant for Groove tool developers.

My comment to Groove Networks: We as users need a supported uninstall feature in the Groove UI. Without it I am not trying any third party tools whatsoever.

Doc Searls: Ozzie and OS as commodity

by Volker Weber

A special relationship between Groove and Office might be scary if Groove were another essential baseline gotta-have-it app. But so far it's not. By all accounts it's a great product, just not one we're all going to be using.

My wife is fond of saying "trees don't grow to the sky." Microsoft is one of those trees. that has seemed to defy gravity for a long time. But they won't forever.

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Weblogs als Medienzukunft

by Oliver Tunnat

Während in Amerika bereits verstärkt journalistisch «gebloggt» wird, halten sich die deutschen Redaktionen noch zurück. Sie verpassen damit womöglich einen wichtigen Trend.

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WLAN für alle?

by Oliver Tunnat

Wie die Netzeitung erfuhr, bleibt die Deutschland-Filiale des Mobilfunkanbieters der Telekom in Sachen schnelles drahtloses Internet skeptisch. Ihre US-Schwester sieht das anders.

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Groove 2.1 and Notes On-Ramp

by Volker Weber

Groove 2.1 is out. Will be covered on Heise Newsticker tomorrow first thing in the morning. I am just keeping an embargo on this news until 6am CET.

If you can't find the Notes On-Ramp wizard, check your notes.ini. It should contain a line like any of these, depending on your Groove install path:

AddinMenus=C:\PROGRA~1\Groove\GRD11B~1.DLL
AddinMenus=C:\PROGRA~1\Groove~1\Groove\Bin\GRD11B~1.DLL

PROGAM~1 should be your applications directory and GRD11B~1.DLL is the 8.3 name for GrooveNotesOnRamp.dll

If that line is not in your notes.ini then put it there. Restart Notes. You should then find a Send to Groove item in your Actions menu while looking at any database view. Select a bunch of documents and call this action. Bingo.

Thanks, Hugh.

Jon Udell speaking ...

by Volker Weber

For me, the most salient fact about Ray's career is that he has chosen to tilt at not just one windmill, but two: collaboration and security. We tend to preach both but practice neither. Partly that's because we care less about these things than we say we do and believe we should. Do you communicate with coworkers as often and as well as you'd like? (If not, why not?) Do you switch from your cordless phone to a landline when ordering a pizza with a debit card? (If not, why not?)

Partly, though, it's a matter of architecture. The path of least resistance rarely coincides with the path of highest value, but given the right architecture, it can. As Ray has discovered, blogging represents an architectural solution to some longstanding problems that have plagued public online discussion. Groove, likewise, aims for an architectural solution to secure collaboration. Since, "security" and "collaboration" are contradictory and almost mutually exclusive from IT's perspective, that's quite a challenge. But it's inescapable.

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Born to be wild

by Volker Weber

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

You have to see this >

Freshmeat: Cool Linux CD 1.30a

by Volker Weber

pwalker.gifCool Linux CD is a bootable CD that contains a a live Linux distribution based on RedHat 7.3. It also includes the XFS filesystem, devfs, IceWM, QVWM, ROX-filer, OpenOffice.org, Opera, Mozilla, Sylpheed, Pan, Licq, X-chat, GFTP, ppp-redialer, xmms, xine, mplayer, gqview, LinNeighborhood, IPTraffic, VMWare, and more.

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Blogs finding fans in business world

by Volker Weber

Are Weblogs a legitimate business tool, or merely the Internet's latest vehicle for personal indulgence?

Phillip Windley, CIO for the state of Utah, is among those trying to find out. In June he launched a program that encourages 2,000 IT staffers and about 18,000 other state employees to use Weblogging software for what might be called strategic noodling.

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Update: Groove-Related Weblogs

by Volker Weber

Groove Networks published a list of Groove-related weblogs. Now, we are on the list. Thanks, Richard. :-)

Ray Ozzie: The myth of cybersecurity

by Volker Weber

Internet pioneer David Reed recently pointed out that in the early years, efforts to incorporate end-to-end encryption into the base standards of the Net were reportedly discouraged for reasons of national security.

But "weak encryption" is no longer a reasonable excuse for insecure systems. It's clear by now that real security comes not just from strong crypto, but from recognizing and embracing human strengths, frailties and common behaviors in building, managing and using complex systems. People are always the weakest link.

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Immer am Puls der Zeit

by Volker Weber

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Lotus Notes 6 Release Candidate: Not Yet

by Volker Weber

The new Release Candidate beta of Lotus Notes 6 has at least one serious problem that disqualifies it. The term "release candidate" is generally defined to mean "we believe this version is good enough to be the final release, let's give it a good trial to verify."

A critical problem with LotusScript (LS) has surfaced in the Lotus Notes 6 Release Candidate internally dated August 01 2002. "There were some serious problems with event handling and LS library and module loading and freeing that are present in the RC (sorry)," said IBM's Jay Rosenthal on August 12. "The symptoms include a myriad of these seemingly erroneous LS errors." Rosenthal added, "We believe we have found and fixed the problems and are doing some heavy duty testing to ensure we have. Sorry for the inconvenience."

It is not known whether IBM will issue a second Release Candidate. Lotus Notes and Domino 6.0 are scheduled for final release in Q3, 2002.

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JSPs: A Total Waste of Time?

by Volker Weber

JavaServer Pages technology was flawed from the beginning, and has evolved into something (nearly) completely useless for serious applications.

By Bob Balaban, Guest Commentator and President, Looseleaf Software

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Groove Weblogs

by Volker Weber

Groove Networks published a list of Groove-related weblogs. Nope, we are not on the list. :-)

The death of e-mail

by Volker Weber

With Notes essentially cloned and the original Ozzie team resurfaced at Groove Networks, Microsoft shifted its attention to XML Web Services. With Microsoft's investment in Groove, collaboration R&D is now focused on the intersection of Groove's decentralized peer-to-peer model and Microsoft's centralized STS (SharePoint Team Services).

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Groove Performance Tips

by Volker Weber

From Ray Ozzie himself. :-)

Ray Ozzie: Architecture matters

by Volker Weber

In traditional discussion, topics and their responses are contained and organized within a centralized database. The relationship between topics and responses is generally maintained in a manner specific to the nature of the database - that is, in newsgroups the messages might be related by Message-ID hyperlinks or crudely by title, in Notes they are related by the $REF hyperlink, and so on. Summary-level "views" are generated through database queries. And that has been the general architectural design pattern of public discussions for quite some time.

But blogs accomplish public discussion through a far different architectural design pattern. In the Well's terminology, taken to its extreme, you own your own words. If someone on a blog "posts a topic", others can respond, but generally do so in their own blogs, hyperlinked back to the topic's permalink. This goes on and on, back and forth. In essence, it's the same hyperlinking mechanism as the traditional discussion design pattern, except that the topics and responses are spread out all over the Web. And the reason that it "solves" the signal:noise problem is that nobody bothers to link to the "flamers" or "spammers", and thus they remain out of the loop, or form their own loops away from the mainstream discussion. A pure architectural solution to a nagging social issue that crops up online.

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Die Diva wird zur Furie

by Volker Weber

Das Telefon klingelt morgens um sieben. »Ich habe ein Auto für Sie«, sagt eine Stimme. Wenig später fährt ein gelber Transporter vor. Der Fahrer lüpft die Plane, und darunter steht es: blitzblank, festgezurrt und behütet wie ein Rennpferd. Bis die Rampe auf die Straße gelassen ist, dauert es eine Weile. Lkw-Diesel und surrende Hydraulik locken die ersten Nachbarn ans Fenster. Gut, dass die Schule gegenüber Ferien hat. Aus der Eckkneipe nebenan, wo um diese Zeit die ersten Biere fließen, kommen Männer und bauen sich am Straßenrand auf, Hände in den Hüften, die Blicke fassungslos. »Wohl im Lotto gewonnen, wa?«

Leider nicht. Trotzdem: So müssen sich Lottomillionäre fühlen, wenn sie die ersten maßlosen Investitionen tätigen. Menschen, die mich sonst jeden Morgen grußlos umrennen, setzen freundliche Gesichter auf und suchen das Gespräch. Die Welt ist nett zu dir, wenn sie denkt, der Maserati sei deiner.

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Back from Bavaria

by Volker Weber

You have to see this >

IBM To Target SMBs With WebSphere Express

by Volker Weber

IBM has been working for months to craft small-footprint versions of its WebSphere application server and portal to go after Microsoft in the SMB market--a battle some industry observers said has been uphill from the start.

In May, IBM outlined to solution providers and analysts the products under the WebSphere Express brand, sources said. The project then seemed to go into silent mode, although an IBM spokeswoman said the WebSphere Express suite, which is "still being refined," is slated for release in the fourth quarter.

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The Release Candidate for Notes & Domino 6 is now available!

by

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Versprochen, versteckt, verschwiegen

by Oliver Tunnat

Was die Bürger aus den Wahlprogrammen der Parteien lernen können - und sollten.

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Esperanto für Rechner

by Oliver Tunnat

Eine Initiative in Schleswig-Holstein will einen offenen Standard für elektronische Dokumente entwickeln. Die Chancen stehen schlecht.

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Vögel sind fast so schlau wie Menschenaffen

by John Keys

Vögel können nicht nur schön singen und ausgezeichnet fliegen, sie sind dabei auch noch ziemlich clever. Vor allem Krähen und Papageien übertreffen in einigen Intelligenztests sogar Schimpansen, wie Forscher in den letzten Jahren überrascht feststellten. Der neueste Clou: Geradschnabelkrähen aus Neukaledonien können Werkzeuge richtiggehend erfinden, berichtet das Fachmagazin "Science". Bei Schimpansen habe man das in kontrollierten Experimenten noch nie beobachtet, sagt Jackie Chappell von der Universität Oxford.

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See a film clip here... (1.6 MB download)

TK-Dienste: Die Preise steigen

by Oliver Tunnat

Für Telekommunikations-Dienstleistungen mussten Bundesbürger im Juli tiefer in die Tasche greifen. Nach Erhebungen des Statistischen Bundesamtes stiegen die Preise TK-Dienste im Vergleich zum Vorjahr um 0,7 Prozent. Gegenüber dem Vormonat stiegen die Preise wegen der teureren Gebühren im Festnetz-Bereich um 0,1 Prozent.

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ITK-Arbeitsmarkt siecht dahin

by Oliver Tunnat

Dem Branchenverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien (Bitkom) zufolge ist die Zahl der Beschäftigten in der Informationstechnik- und Telekommunikationsbranche (ITK) erstmals seit Anfang der 90er Jahre rückläufig. Der Verband rechnet in diesem Jahr mit einem Rückgang von 3,4 Prozent oder 28.000 Arbeitsplätzen weniger.

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Goldene Zeiten für Enterprise Portale

by Oliver Tunnat

Unternehmens-Portale sollen bis zum Jahr 2005 die zentrale Zugangsschnittstelle zu IT-Systemen und Anwendungen innerhalb von Unternehmen werden. Nach Prognosen der Giga Information Group wird das Volumen der Lizenzeinnahmen von heute 850 Millionen auf rund zwei Milliarden US-Dollar ansteigen. Besonders IBM soll von dem Boom profitieren.

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Map24

by

Ein Internetportal für interaktive Karten mit Routenplanung und geographischer Suche.

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Wenn ich nicht hier bin, bin ich auf`m Sonnendeck

by Volker Weber

Wenn ich nich hier bin bin ich auf'm Sonnendeck
Bin ich bin ich bin ich bin ich
Oder im Solarium - oder am Radar
Und wenn ich nich hier bin bin ich auf'm Sonnendeck
Bin ich bin ich bin ich bin ich
Oder im Aquarium
Bin ich bin ich bin ich bin ich
Und alles was ist dauert 3 Sekunden
Eine Sekunde für vorher, eine für nachher
Eine für mittendrin
Für da wo der Gletscher kalbt
Wo die Sekunden ins blaue Meer flieh'n

Tschüss bis nächste Woche ... ;-)

Where Scott McNealy's wrong about the economics of open source

by Volker Weber

IBM was probably the first company to reinvent itself around a viable model for the future. Ironically, IBM took its first step in this direction when it gave up on some of its software products (such as OS/2 and SmartSuite), endorsed Java, and started promoting open standards as the only reasonable course of action. As a former user and fan of OS/2, I resented IBM's move back then, and I resented even more that it was induced in part by Microsoft's refusal to let IBM license Windows 95 for a reasonable price unless it put the brakes on OS/2.

In retrospect, however, this could have been one of the best moments in open source history. IBM's transition to Java and open standards eventually led to its support of Linux and open source, steps it probably wouldn't have taken if IBM had held onto the dream of supplanting Windows with OS/2 and Office with SmartSuite. We can also credit IBM for given Linux a great deal of credibility by endorsing it. In a twisted way, we

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Edsger W. Dijkstra died today

by Volker Weber

I can't remember how often I had to quote his most famous article Go To Statement Considered Harmful, pulished in Communications of the ACM 1968.

Acno's Energizer

by Volker Weber

energizer.gif

Win32 API utterly and irredeemably broken

by John Keys

Windows might possibly be the most insecure piece of viral code ever to infect a computer, according to Chris Paget who's found a fascinating hole in the Win32 Messaging System which he believes is irreprarable, and which he posted to the BugTraq security mailing list.

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Dancing Bush

by

Nicht nur für Bush-Gegner :-)

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Ray Ozzie: Why?

by Volker Weber

Many years ago, in the mid 70's at University of Illinois, I was fortunate enough to have been touched by something called PLATO - an acronym for Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations. At the time, PLATO was a mainframe-based time sharing system with about a thousand custom multimedia terminals - that is, 512x512 graphics, touch screen pointing device, synchronized microfiche and audio, and "always on" connectivity - quite an achievement for the time, particularly given that I was still using coding sheets and Hollerith cards to do classwork.

Although primarily intended as a computer-assisted teaching system, PLATO evolved into the first large scale "online community", with eMail, online discussions, instant messaging, chat rooms, remote screen sharing, and massive multiplayer gaming. We established long-distance relationships for work and for love; we balanced the duality of our real and virtual lives. In short, the tens or hundreds of thousands of us who had a chance to experience PLATO in those days were afforded a preview of what was to come in the Internet era - an era of global ubiquitous communications and interaction.

As many of us who had spent years immersed in the PLATO environment left and entered the "real world", we were shocked and dismayed to find a world lacking electronic connection. And as I entered the business world, it simply made no sense to me that computers were being used solely for computing and "data processing"; the collaborative online work environment that I'd taken for granted, that I'd used day in and day out, was simply missing in action. Our work lives are all about interpersonal connections, our businesses processes are structured into connections amongst people and systems that must be coordinated. What better use of technology than to help people to connect?

And so, for most of my life since that time, it has been my goal to explore what lies at the intersection between people, organizations, and technology.

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Is Free Software Inevitable?

by Volker Weber

Open Source/Free Software has the effect of removing points of economic friction by circumventing the traps and nets that allow certain types of profit to be accumulated. It does this by creating 'valuable' intellectual property and placing it into the public domain (policed by the GPL). This intellectual property (the body of all open source code) can be exploited by all at a very low cost. This low cost software represents a 'savings' as compared to proprietary, high-cost software, and a business can exploit these savings, lower their costs, increase their profits, and pass the remainder on to the consumer. These savings apply a powerful economic incentive for businesses, large and small, to adopt Linux in favor of Microsoft Windows, in order to become more competitive in their sphere of competition. Thus, in this way, open source can be, and is becoming a powerful global economic force that will not be diverted.

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Die zwei von der Sparkasse

by Volker Weber

»Also wenn Sie den Tipp mitnehmen, dann haben Sie den besten Tipp Ihres Lebens«, flüstert Bergold zum Ende des Interviews, »achten Sie nur auf die Ratio zwischen Aktienindex und Goldpreisen. Denken Sie an meine Worte. Lassen Sie Ihr Gold so lange liegen, bis dieser Faktor wieder unter eins ist. Dann kaufen Sie erst wieder Aktien.«

Weitere Fragen?

Kompetente Ansprechpartner bei den Vereinigten Sparkassen Eschenbach i. d. Opf., Neustadt a. d. Waldnaab, Vohenstrauß beraten Sie gerne in einem vertraulichen Gespräch.

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IBM hält an PricewaterhouseCoopers fest

by Volker Weber

Harsche Kritik von Investoren erntet der weltgrößte Computerkonzern IBM Corp. für die Entscheidung, seinen Wirtschaftsprüfer Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP (PwC) nicht auszuwechseln.

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The Bell Hath Tolled

by Volker Weber

"You acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may automatically check the version of the OS Product and/or its components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades or fixes to the OS Product that will be automatically downloaded to your computer,"

The preceding verbiage appears in the EULA for SP1 for WinXP and SP3 for Win2K. This is it. The bell hath tolled. The tax-man is here. It's time to pay the piper. You must now decide: Will you deed your computer over to Microsoft, or wean yourself from your Microsoft dependence?

(You can hobble along temporarily by not installing these service packs, but that carries the danger of deeding your machine over to a cracker.)

Spread the word: Microsoft operating systems are no longer a viable option for a computer owner. Anybody that agrees to this EULA provision has forfeited the freedom of the PC (Personal Computer) and entered into bondage to Microsoft.

Remember, this provision means Microsoft can force "updates" to your machine that seek out and destroy other OS's on your machine, disable software and force you to upgrade, forcibly install any DRM they see fit, forcibly uninstall any software or capabilities they see fit, or indeed, anything they so desire. The machine will be "yours" in the sense that you have to buy the hardware and pay the power bill, but all the rights of ownership will be firmly in Microsoft's possession.

I strongly recommend to everyone who cares about their computer that they examine alternatives to Microsoft at this point, and go with one.

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Play station

by Volker Weber

deepview.JPG

The Deep View System is a scalable, affordable, high-performance solution for parallel and distributed rendering. The full rack on the left contains eight linux nodes and two network switches. The half rack to the right is the Scalable Graphics Engine (SGE), connected to the cluster by eight Gigabit Ethernet links. Thanks to recent advances in liquid crystal display technology, IBM has developed its T221 display, which consists of over 9.2 million pixels (3840x2400) in a 22.2 inch viewing image area (over 200 dpi). With this resolution and clarity, rendered images of virtual objects come to life and become harder to distinguish from the real thing. The T221 display sits directly to the left of the SGE.

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Free Microsoft Product Activation Code

by Volker Weber

14MT0-05TUP1-DT0U5-30P3N-71NUX

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Lotus Domino 6 Server for Linux

by Volker Weber

This IBM Redbook tells you how to run Domino 6 Server on Linux platform. Lotus Domino is platform-independent, but some specific knowledge about the platform and configuration is required to ensure that the Domino server is running most efficiently. In addition to this information this book will show that Linux is equal, if not better, operating system to run Domino as any other supported platform and that all the services pronvided by Domino are available on Linux platform too.

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Mein kleiner Freund ...

by Volker Weber

Play it >

The bully is back

by Volker Weber

At a bleak time when other vendors are pulling in, laying off, and riding out the recession, Microsoft is partying like it's 1999. But not everybody is invited. If you're a Windows ISV (independent software vendor), you should make sure Microsoft hasn't written you out of the picture. If you're a Windows or Microsoft enterprise software competitor, it's time to shelve the strategy you've been using for the past two years to market against a humbled, rudderless Microsoft; that company no longer exists. If you're a current or potential Microsoft enterprise customer, you'd better brace for the hard sell in 2003 and a big spike in licensing costs.

By piecing together what Microsoft tells each of its constituencies, we can make some predictions about where Windows and the Windows server stack are going and how changes will affect customers and competitors.

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Neues Dinghy

by Volker Weber

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More pictures at vowe galleries :: New Dinghy >

Understanding image sharpness: part 7: Digital cameras vs. film

by Volker Weber

"How many pixels does it take for a digital sensor to outperform 35mm film?" I became interested in the question after I read a rave review by Michael Reichmann of Luminous-Landscape.com of the 3.1 megapixel Canon EOS D30, introduced in late 2000 for $3,000 US. In D30 Vs. Provia 100F, Reichmann stated, "It is inescapable that the D30 produces sharper, better looking images than the scanned film combination at sizes up to about 10 X 13," and [compared to Provia] "the D30 image shows finer detail." A pretty impressive claim for a camera that produces a small 9.3 megabyte file (for 24 bit color).

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Würstchen, Weißbier, WWW

by Markus Nolte

München macht Ernst mit "Laptop und Lederhose" und hat die Biergärten im Englischen Garten mit Funknetzen ausgestattet. Jetzt soll man dort beim Biertrinken drahtlos im Internet surfen oder mit anderen Biertrinkern chatten.

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Gates dresses as Austin Powers

by Volker Weber

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Cell biology

by Volker Weber

"It's a sign of commitment, when you turn off the phone," Boyarsky says. "When somebody turns off their cell phone for you, it's true love."
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The new adventures of Verity Stob

by John Keys

Verity Stob has developed a new tool that will help you make rapid diagnoses of sick PCs. A rolling computer gathers "cruft." When you spot a class interface that is no longer used by any client, but that nobody dare delete, that's cruft. It is also the word "seperate," added to a spellchecker's private dictionary in a moment of careless haste, and now waiting for a suitably important document...

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Lotus Notes & Domino 5.0.11

by Volker Weber

Incremental installers now available >

Check back for Notes & Domino 6 Release Candidate 1 next week ...

The Boobieblog

by Volker Weber

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Celebrating the beauty of the human form and gratutious boob gazing. (Thanks, John)

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B&B

by Markus Nolte

Betriebsystem und Bier. Das paßt nach Meinung der Linux Gemeinde prima zusammen: The 2002 Linuxbierwanderung is coming to Ireland.

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Old vowe.net archive pages

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

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