September 2003
Domino 6.5 server upgrade completed
by Volker Weber
Now playing
by Volker Weber
... on heavy rotation: Seal, Love's Divine, Seal IV
Notes and Domino 6.5 released
by Volker Weber
Moby vs. RIAA
by Volker Weber
i'm almost tempted to go onto kazaa and download some of my own music, just to see if the riaa would sue me for having mp3's of my own songs on my hard-drive.
-moby
And back home ...
by Volker Weber
I refreshed a few things that I learned before (Vienna has excellent food and some very friendly people). And I learned a few new things. For instance, I found a hotel where I don't want to stay again. It starts with my definition of a small room:
You can touch two opposing walls at the same time. While in bed, you can open and close the curtain with your foot.
Add a concierge who seems to be unable to talk or read from lists. A room where the window faces the inside of the hotel so you get no fresh air. No non-smoking rooms available. You get the drift ...
One interesting sidenote: If you are in Vienna and you are desparate for a free breakfast. Just walk into this place. Get some coffee and food. Sit down and enjoy yourself. Nobody will bother you or even talk to you. :-)
But everything else was just perfect.
Off to Vienna
by Volker Weber
My shortest visit there, ever. Be right back ...
Mozilla Firebird 0.7 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3 Release Candidates
by Volker Weber
Alma, again :-)
by Volker Weber
ThinkVantage Redbooks
by Volker Weber
I have been hearing so much about ThinkVantage from the product managers at the Think Parade roadshow that these announcement caught my eye:
Using ThinkVantage Technologies: Volume 1 Creating and Deploying Client Systems
Using ThinkVantage Technologies: Volume 2 Maintaining and Recovering Client Systems
Quickly delete unwanted comments
by Volker Weber
MovableType sends a notification if somebody enters a comment. You can quickly see some data about the poster, including the fields (s)he filled out but not limited to that. You will also see the originating IP address.
MT lets you jump quickly to the related post but you can't get from there to the CMS. I have added an "edit this post" link which is somewhat hidden, but I still need a few clicks to delete unwanted comments. With a simple modification you can however also add a link to the notification mail that will go directly to the "Confirm deletion" dialog. See the message above.
Need directions
by Volker Weber
Now, this is a classic example of too much information. What does this sign say? You may turn any direction? You must not back up?
[Source: Pieter Walsweer]
Troubleshooting (pulled) Mac OS X 10.2.8
by Volker Weber
MacFixIt has a special report about troubleshooting the (pulled) Mac OS X 10.2.8 update.
Tungsten T3 confirmed
by Volker Weber
John Head just bought one yesterday at a Chicago store. Obviously Palm is preloading the channel for an October, 1 release and the store should not have sold it prematurely. Well, John has the pictures to prove his purchase. :-)
Brave new IBM software world
by Volker Weber
I have heard this so many times now that I feel the urge to rant about it. Rob Novak has been successful after only 4 attempts to install WebSphere Portal. Another professional was able to do it on his second try. But then he needed another 72 attempts until he was sure he discovered all the flaws in the installation.
Why is this so difficult?
First of all, WebSphere Portal is an application running on top of WebSphere Application Server, which in turn needs a database and a credential source (think LDAP server). You may not have those other things, which actually makes life easier, or you do have them and then have to make all the new things work with them.
Now we look at the Lotus Workplace strategy. One of the early incarnations is the Workplace Messaging platform which actually runs (or is going to run) on top of WebSphere Portal. Are you still with me?
Now let's make an Express version of that. Sigh.
Not my car
by Volker Weber
But still a very nice afternoon. Thanks to Erich for letting me dream. :-)
... a completely unintentional side effect
by Volker Weber
Linus Torvalds:
The thing is, at least to me personally, Microsoft just isn't relevant to what I do. That might sound strange, since they are clearly the dominant player in the market that Linux is in, but the thing is: I'm not in the ''market.'' I'm interested in Linux because of the technology, and Linux wasn't started as any kind of rebellion against the ''evil Microsoft empire.'' Quite the reverse, in fact: from a technology angle, Microsoft really has been one of the least interesting companies. So I've never seen it as a ''Linus versus Bill'' thing. I just can't see myself in the position of the nemesis, since I just don't care enough. To be a nemesis, you have to actively try to destroy something, don't you? Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect.
Es geht immer noch schlimmer
by Volker Weber
Und ich dachte schon, Wixhausen sei furchtbar.
[Quelle: Pieter Walsweer]
Happy birthday
by Volker Weber
Happy second birthday, Anna Elisabeth. :-)
Insecure by default
by Volker Weber
Recently I discovered through the use of Boingo* that there is a second WLAN in my neighborhood. As you can see from the picture above it is unprotected. I connected and received the IP adress 192.168.2.2. Well, that made me curious and I http'ed to 192.168.2.1 and there was a login screen for a Telekom Sinus 130DSL wireless access router. I asked Google for the default password and that turned out to be "0000". I was in.
So this router has WLAN enabled by default, it has set its SSID to WLAN and accepts "ANY" as a second SSID. No WEP encrpytion. I wonder what the owner would do if I changed the password from "0000" to, say "6666"? Does it have a master reset?
*) Boingo is free to download. If you use a Stinkpad, I highly recommend IBM Access Connections, which also includes this WLAN discovery. See vowe's choice. The software is free to download and use, but only runs on IBM gear.
IBM Cutting 400 From Software Group
by Volker Weber
CRN reports:
IBM is cutting 400 jobs in its software division, mainly marketing and adminstrative positions, as part of a regular reassessment of operations at the technology giant, a spokesman said Thursday.
Thousands of Segway scooters are recalled
by Volker Weber
The Associated Press reports:
The maker of the Segway Human Transporter has agreed to recall the motorized scooters because riders have been injured falling off when its batteries are low.
Details about Tungsten T3 leaked
by Volker Weber
Assuming all this information is correct, I wonder why Palm ever released the T2 for just a few months. Everybody who got that one will not be pleased to find it obsoleted so quickly.
Dangerous messages
by Volker Weber
I received this spam message today which pretends to be a legitimate message from eBay:
The whole text of this message is an image and it links to the following address (abbreviated here):
http://scgi.ebay.com@%32%31%31%2e%32%31%37%2e%32%32%34%2e%31%30%32:...
Rocky helped me decode the string to ASCII and it reads like this:
http://scgi.ebay.com@211.217.224.102:4901/update/index.htm
Everything in front of the @-sign is a username and will be ignored by the website. So we are linking to 211.217.224.102 port 4901. This address belongs to an ISP in Seoul, Korea.
Why you need two keyboards and two mice ...
by Volker Weber
This is rather funny:
We've just had a meeting with an Apple rep. who has informed us that the new Bluetooth Keyboards and Mice are not a build to order option because the Mac first needs to be set up before it can use the Bluetooth devices. And so the chicken and egg scenario is born.
So you need a separate mouse and a keyboard to configure your Mac for a wireless mouse and keyboard.
What's your pirate name?
by Esther Schindler
Mine's Captain Ethel Flint.
Grrrrr, bark, woof
by Volker Weber
Joe Litton is right. 'nuf said.
Stefan fährt Moped
by Volker Weber
Das klingt sehr verlockend. Ja, ich habe den Wink mit den anderen Fahrzeugen verstanden. Wie lang ist denn diese Strecke? Vielleicht schaffen wir es ja noch vor dem Wintereinbruch.
Simply change
by Volker Weber
WorldWideKlein kommentiert den neuen Claim der SuSE AG.
Struts Applications and Multilanguage Support
by Volker Weber
Dirk publishes his first article in InformIT. Congratulations !
What a vacation
by Volker Weber
Just returned from a short vacation to München. Been away since Saturday which you may have noticed because there were no updates at all. Well, Usha and Alma were quite popular in the meantime.
What a nice weekend. The sun was out all day and I have quite a tan. We visited Starnberger See, Zugspitze (Germany's highest elevation) and of course Oktoberfest. I am uploading around 140 pictures as I am writing this, some of them quite telling. :-)
After three days out, we ran the third Think Parade show in Unterhaching near München today, the next one will be Thursday in Frankfurt. The return home by car was a lot more stressful than the journey to Hamburg by train. Frankfurt is close to home and next week I will take the plane to Wien and Zürich.
Lots of things have happened while I was away and I am still catching up. Please bear with me while I wade through my e-mail.
Friends
by Volker Weber
For hours and hours?
by Volker Weber
Yeah, sure. She must have been waiting for this.
My Stinkpad needs a re-install
by Volker Weber
Windows 2000 on Charlie is now almost two years old. Countless Microsoft patches, service packs, drivers, software installs. It no longer recognizes really simple things like USB memory sticks, my camera and so forth. It has deteriorated so badly that it is crying for a reinstall. Which of course means even more service packs to install, more fixes, and so forth. This looks like at least two days of work.
I might as well just reload the old Windows 98 image that came with it, and then off to eBay. This would be the replacement.
Recursion
by Volker Weber
re·cur·sion
noun, See Recursion
Photo galleries have moved
by Volker Weber
vowe galleries have moved to a much faster server, courtesy of Stefan. I also added a bunch of new pictures from the tour. So far we have been to Cologne and Hamburg. Next week will lead us to Munich (Oktoberfest!) and Frankfurt.
Google News Alerts (beta)
by
Google News Alerts are sent by email when news articles appear online that match the topics you specify.
Blonde pole dancer - very cute
by Volker Weber
IBM Think Parade 2003
by Volker Weber
[continued from this post]
Gestern war die erste Show in Köln und ich war mit dem Ablauf sehr zufrieden. Das Gespräch zwischen den Produktmanagern und mir kam einigermassen locker rüber und es war teilweise echt witzig. Ich hoffe, den Teilnehmern hat es auch gefallen. Ich habe ein paar gute Rückmeldungen bekommen, aber das sagt nicht so viel, weil mich natürlich nur Leute mit guter Meinung ansprechen. Wer kommt schon und sagt: "Ich wollte nur sagen, dass mir das gar nicht gefallen hat". Ich bin mal auf die schriftlichen Feedbacks gespannt.
Aber ich habe heute auch noch was neues gelernt: IBM verlost bei jedem Event ein ThinkCentre S50, mit TFT. Das ist ein ziemlich kleiner und leiser PC:
Teilnehmen können alle, die einen Feedback-Bogen ausfüllen, gewinnen kann aber nur, wer nicht bei IBM beschäftigt ist und wer bei der Verlosung am Ende des Tages auch anwesend ist. Es wird bis zu fünf mal versucht, einen anwesenden Gewinner zu ziehen. Ich kenne keine bessere Chance einen sehr preiswerten PC zu gewinnen. Ach ja: Anmeldung erforderlich.
P2P telephony that just works
by Volker Weber
jcf has bugged everybody to download and try Skype. Just did this and received a call from him within minutes. Yes, indeed, it works very well. You can find me by name in their directory. But please, don't try to call me if I don't know you yet. :-) However, reading from their EULA:
You acknowledge that certain functions in the Skype Software are only available to paid subscribers after a free trial period of the Skype Software and Services (the "Free Trial Period") ends. Namely, you acknowledge that the ability to make and receive calls to non-paying users of the Skype Software and Services is only available as a paid subscription service (the "Subscription Services"). After the Free Trial Period ends, you will be presented with the option to subscribe to the Subscription Services. If you do not wish to subscribe, you acknowledge that you can only make and receive calls with subscribers of the Subscription Services and not with non-paying users of the Skype Software and Services. To subscribe to the Subscription Services you must agree to the terms and conditions of the Subscription Services..
Since I don't need another buddylist or another "internet phone" besides iChat, i will most likely not use the software beyond the trial period.
Ute
by Volker Weber
Software patents in Europe
by Esther Schindler
Anybody 'round here gonna go? Apparently it'll have very senior economists and computer scientists, the city of Munich, and Tim Berners-Lee by video conference.
You are invited to a press conference on software patenting taking place next week on Wednesday 17 September in the European Parliament in Brussels. Following the press conference experts from the fields of software development and consumer protection will meet with economists and scientists to discuss the impact the proposed European directive on the patenting of computer implemented inventions will have on Europe's software industry, research and consumers. A debate and vote on the Parliaments' Report (McCarthy) on the proposed directive is scheduled for the next Strasbourg plenary session, 22 - 25 September.
Traurig traurig
by Volker Weber
Über die Indocs Business Solutions GmbH wurde am 8.9.2003 das Insolvenzverfahren eröffnet.
Siehe auch die Querverbindung zu Analintraglobalware.
9-11 minus 59
by Volker Weber
A day of terror. On September, 11 more than 11000 people died. In a huge firestorm that destroyed almost 78% of the houses in this city. After an attack with 220 planes. 59 years ago. Darmstadt, Germany. Where I live today.
Auch 'ne Aktion
by Volker Weber
Heute im Büro:
Anti-Terror-Tag
am Donnerstag, den 11.09.2003
Lieber Leser!
Die Staatsoberhäupter der Welt bitten um Unterstützung im Kampf gegen den Terrorismus und fordern uns dazu auf, am Donnerstag den 11.09.2003 ab 09:00 Uhr, dagegen zu demonstrieren.
Es ist eine allgemein bekannte Tatsache, daß die Al Kaida gegen jeglichen Alkoholkonsum ist und deren Anhänger das Anschauen nackter Frauen für eine Sünde halten.
Aus diesem Grund sollen am kommenden Donnerstag den 11.09.2003 ab 09:00 Uhr alle Frauen nackt durch die Büros laufen, während die Männer dabei zuschauen und Bier trinken.
Auf diese Weise wird unser Abscheu gegen den Terrorismus am Besten zum Ausdruck gebracht, und gleichzeitig werden die Terroristen unter uns entdeckt, denn jeder, der sich nicht an dieser Aktion beteiligt, entlarvt sich selbst als Terrorist.
Ihre Anstrengungen werden im Namen der gesamten freien demokratischen Welt gewürdigt.
Krass
by Volker Weber
Kam heute per Post vom dem krassen Oliver: Schneewittchen auf Türkisch. Laut vorlesen.
From the I-want-one department
by Volker Weber
The Register reports that Orange may be coming out with the new Treo 600 as early as next week.
I want one.
IBM Think Parade 2003
by Volker Weber
[continued from this post]
First rehearsals start tomorrow. We should be all set and ready to go Friday. May be a last dry run on Sunday. Monday the first show kicks off in Köln (Cologne). This is the event schedule again:
15.09. Köln
18.09. Hamburg
23.09. München
25.09. Frankfurt
30.09. Wien
02.10. Zürich
06.10. Herrenberg
10.10. Stuttgart
I hear that registrations are up significantly from last year. Still want to come? No problem, the event is actually free. As in free lunch. You can sign up here >
Jaguar R-D6
by Volker Weber
I was at the IAA 2003 today. All the various dream cars were there, the Bugatti Veyron, the Mercedes-McLaren SLR, the Porsche GT, the new Lamborghini, the Ferrari Enzo, the Aston Martin DB9 Coupe. So every two years I get to sit in all of them.
But what I always find most inspiring is the showcars. Two years ago, Jaguar had my favorite one. This year they did it again: The Jaguar R-D6. Bigger picture here.
Which picture would you put in a CV
by Volker Weber
Which of those pictures would you put in a CV? Yes, this is the same person. Please explain why.
One more thing
by Volker Weber
Next week's keynote at the Mac Expo in Paris is going to be very interesting. What is that The Steve has up his sleeve? This week the 3rd generation iPod has been pushed from 10/15/30 gig to 10/20/40 and the iMac has been upgraded to 1.25 GHz, faster memory and graphics, USB 2.0 and 802.11g WLAN (a.k.a. Airport Extreme).
Holding my breath for "one more thing".
Oldie but Goldie: Project Swing
by Volker Weber
Similarities with a other Swing projects are accidental.
vowe's Gesetz der konstanten Armleuchterquote
by Volker Weber
Ohne jeden aktuellen Anlass: Ich bin immer wieder bass erstaunt, dass auch langjährige Freunde vowe's Gesetz der konstanten Armleuchterquote nicht kennen. Also will ich das noch mal hier festhalten:
In jeder sozialen Gruppe gibt es einen stets gleichen Prozentsatz an Armleuchtern. Beruf oder Bildung spielen dabei keine Rolle.
Es ist deshalb grundsätzlich falsch anzunehmen, "die da drüben" seien alles Armleuchter. Das ist mit Sicherheit nicht der Fall. Es ist auch keineswegs so, dass bestimmte Gruppen je nach Bildung, Herkunft oder Beruf besonders viele Armleuchter hervorbringen. Man sollte sich das stets vor Augen führen, wenn man geneigt ist, auf andere zu schimpfen. Wahrscheinlich generalisiert man nur Einzelerfahrungen auf eine ganze Gruppe.
Allerdings gibt es eine wichtige Ableitung: Wenn in einer Gruppe die Alphatiere Armleuchter sind, dann ist das sehr schlecht für diese Gruppe. Als Omegatiere dagegen können sie wenig Schaden anrichten. Oder wie man in Bayern sagt: Jedes Dorf hat seinen Deppen. Man muss ihn nicht unbedingt zum Bürgermeister machen.
Maybe Volker should buy this instead of a car...
by Esther Schindler
You can buy anything on the Internet, these days.
The historic 700-year-old Scottish Castle, and the titles of Baron or Baroness, recognized by The British Crown by way of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Her representative in Scotland, The Lord Lyon King of Arms, was put on the world market last night and it is all exclusively online.
ZOË Maintenance Release 0.4.6
by Volker Weber
Lots of bug fixes, enhancements, and new features. Use the little bug report icon.
This release is not backward compatible. For instructions on how to migrate your data from an earlier version, please refer to the mailing list.
While I am currently using ZOË as a client, I am getting ready to use it as a server. I could take down a complete Domino server ... Read what Jens-Christian has done already. Currently I have to go through so many hoops already because Domino won't do authenticated SMTP outbound that life would actually be easier. See the impressive list of protocols that ZOË supports. All written in Java so it runs anywhere.
The proposed setup would be easy: Let ZOË pull mail from numerous mailboxes via POP3 and send out mail via authenticated SMTP to the ISP relay. ZOË will then autoclassify and index mail locally and make it available through standard protocols and interfaces (HTML/HTTP, POP3, IMAP) and even new ones that Domino can't do like RSS or WebDAV. Then use any client against that server. Since I am hardly using Notes anymore for mail that would really not make much of a difference.
Microsoft Office v. X 10.1.5 Update
by Volker Weber
This update addresses several stability issues with PowerPoint®, Excel, and Visual Basic for Applications for Office v. X.
Note If you have not installed Microsoft Office v. X 10.1.2 Update and Microsoft Exchange Update for Entourage® X (Office v. X 10.1.4 Update), you must do so before installing Microsoft Office v. X 10.1.5 Update.
Salling Clicker for Palm
by Volker Weber
Jonas Salling just released Clicker 2.0, now also available for Palm devices. 1.x only worked with several Bluetooth-enabled SonyEricsson phones.
Clicker is a remote control which connects via Bluettooth to a Mac and lets you control several software packages including iTunes, Keynote or PowerPoint.
Reviewing Tungsten C, part 2
by Volker Weber
[continued from part 1]
I sent the Tungsten C back to Palm the day before yesterday. The device did not receive the prestigious "editor refuses to give it back" rating. For a number of reasons.
But let me start with the good news: The new screen is really good, especially indoors. The old screen is only better in direct sunlight. Performance is excellent, even compared with a Tungsten T. Adding more memory was nice but not a necessity for me.
Off to the bad news: WLAN never really worked. I consider this a defect since I tried against three different access points with various settings. This is one of the things that is supposed to be really easy with this particular device.
Also, I do not like the keyboard. If I were a keyboard user, I would have gotten a Psion in the first place. But that is obviously a matter of taste. A good friend actually uses the onscreen keyboard with his Palm V and I am pretty sure he would have liked the keyboard a lot.
Next on the list is Graffiti 2. I have years of using the original version under my belly; I actually started using it on a Newton 100. The new version is different enough to make me stumble. Of course if that would be my permanent machine I would finally adjust. But it would take some time.
Finally form factor and finish. The C is significantly larger than a T, which is already thicker than a V or 500 series. While I can keep the T in a shirt pocket, I would not do it with a C, especially with the folding screen protector. The surface also feels like cheap plastic, that only looks like metal. What a diffence if you compare it to a gun metal T(1).
Things I have not tried: MP3 playback. I have an iPod and I never get around trying anything else.
If WLAN would have worked and I did not already have a working Bluetooth access point, my verdict would be different. When WLAN access becomes available everywhere, the whole thing might change. But today a T which can connect through Bluetooth to a mobile phone and from there over the GSM network to the Internet seems to be much more attractive. Therefore I never carried the C with me instead of the T although I had all my data sitting on it.
So what's next? Hopefully a newer T or — very high on my wish list — the new Treo that is coming out. I could finally consolidate phone and PDA.
Stille Wasser ...
by Volker Weber
Frank Sturm gewinnt mit seinem Werk Fischernetze den Galerie-Wettbewerb Juli/August 2003 "Wasser" als Bester unter 690 Einsendungen.
Chapeau !
