February 2004

Chris Langreiter compares Google and Yahoo

by Volker Weber

Interesting differences

Millionaire

by Volker Weber

For the first time ever, this website crossed the million hits per month mark today. And it isn't even the end of the month. Thanks for stopping by.

Houston, we have a problem

by Volker Weber

As some of you have noticed, postings are becoming somewhat sparse. There is a reason behind this change:

A close family member is suffering from advanced wet AMD.

All treatments have failed to stop the progress. I have no idea yet how to resolve the issues arising now. Activity on this site may increase again when I get a grip on the situation.

Another fun, silly quiz

by Esther Schindler

Try this site - Dixie or Northerner?

Definitely for entertainment use only. I scored:

52% (Dixie). Barely into the Dixie category.

And I grew up in New York City. (Okay, I've lived all over the country. But still...)

It's going to be fun to see how all the Europeans score!

New battery or bust

by Volker Weber

How to replace an iPod battery.

Scratch one Boeing 747-230B

by Volker Weber

dummesgesicht.jpeg

These people look worried. That's because they just lost one Boeing 747-230B(sf) due to a simple mistake. Jack it up front, center, and back. And then lower the center but forget front and back.

Look at these pictures: This was a very expensive mistake.

Übel, übel

by Volker Weber

kueblstation.gif

[schamlos geklaut bei Konstantin]

Little Snitch

by Volker Weber

Little Snitch is an application supervisor.

You start an application that tells you that a new version is available. You suddenly realize that with every start this application connects to the developer's server. Even statistics information about your computer may be sent this way. Little Snitch helps you avoid this situation.

Trojan horses - i.e. programs transmitting unconsciously data stored on your computer - can be detected by Little Snitch and prevented on the transmission of data.

If you have this running for a while you get really paranoid. :-)

Workplace Smart Client Platform

by Volker Weber

Declan makes an interesting observation about Workplace 2.0 beta. Personal Productivity installs four main components for the smart client platform:

1. Workplace 2.0 Smart Client Platform

2. WAS Express server (to enable offline capabilities and emulate a local WebShere Application Server (WAS) version 5.0.1

3. Cloudscape database library (contains local library files for WAS Express)

4. Personal Productivity application consisting of features and plug-ins including mail, calendar, instant messaging (IM) and configuration files for offline capabilities, which are activated on-demand by the Workplace server

I think I understand now why nobody dares to call this a fat client.

On a slightly related note: I was not in error, when I called this the smart client. Anybody confused?

Can you spot the nationality?

by Volker Weber

I had to smile when I read this document on the Netgear support site. Can you spot the nationality of the author?

Call for ballot stuffing

by Volker Weber

From: "Betsy Kosheff" <kosheffb@vgernet.net>
Date: 24. Februar 2004 15:52:33 MEZ
To: "Kosheffb" <kosheffb@vgernet.net>
Subject: FW: We'd Appreciate Your Vote for Brightline - Apex Awards at e-ProMag.com

Okay, we realize it's not civil rights or even a primary election....But you can help Brightline Technology win e-Pro Magazine's "Reader's Choice Award" for the most exciting new product in the Lotus Market. A vote for Brightline is a vote for the future of Domino! ...

Another reason not to trust the award winning enterpise class industry strength marketing blabla ...

Free your mindmaps

by Volker Weber

I am not completely sold on mindmaps. Some of my friends are, others make fun of them. But all of them use MindManager in one form or another. There are older versions out there, which you can use for free. The program once started as freeware. Newer version are commercial software, a very successful one I believe. One problem haunts them all: The file formats are not compatible. Newer versions cannot even read all older formats. While the software runs on Windows, as wells as PocketPC and Palm Tungsten, it does not run on the Mac.

Enter FreeMind: FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. Written in Java? Might run on the Mac. Indeed it does:

freemind.jpeg

It does not follow the Mac style guide but it works. And that's not all. Instead of using a proprietary file format it stores everything as well-formed XML:

<map version="0.7.1">
<node TEXT="Root node">
<node TEXT="Child 1" POSITION="right">
<node TEXT="Grandchild 1"/>
</node>
<node TEXT="Child 2" POSITION="right"/>
<node TEXT="Child 3" POSITION="right"/>
</node>
</map>

That might come in handy if you want to turn your mindmap into something else. Today I read Martin Roell endorsing the software, which reminded me that I wanted to write about it for a long time. I played with Freemind a number of times already without ever really using it. On the Mac there is also one small usability problem. Freemind uses the insert key to create a new child node. A Mac however does not have an insert key. I need to poke around a bit to find a solution for that.

Update: Solved the insert key issue (see comments) and also was able to let it behave nicely in a Mac environment (screenshot).

Introducing the Lemmings Trail

by Volker Weber

lemmingstrail.jpeg

Today I have created a new website for Ute. She is a very good photographer, not because she likes the gear as much as I do, but because she has very good eyes and sees things that I never even notice. I have introduced her to photography only three years ago and today most of the pictures on my gallery site are hers.

After a few thousand images with two different Mavicas, rather heavy and bulky devices with a good lense, she is now ready for a new challenge: Make interesting pictures with a lowly smartphone camera. It is going to take a while to learn that but I think you will see great progress over the next months. Most of the pictures will be created during her daily commute. Currently it is still too dark for the camera, so the images are very grainy. As the days get longer there will be much more light to draw from.

This is going to be one interesting journey. Ride along.

PS: And while we are at it — if anybody can help me with a working CSS layout that gets rid of the tables on this site, I will gladly accept your help. Tinkering with the style sheets and the different browser quirks drove me nuts today. Look at the site and you will see what I need. 480px wide pictures to the right, text on the left, and a floating fixed width layout.

Update: Please read the comments. With the help of Beate Paland we are getting there.

Having a bad day?

by Volker Weber

If you think you are having a bad day, then take a look at his guy. :-) I am sorry, I don't have a reference. Received it from Ingo today.

Holy sh$7

by Volker Weber

chevroletsb04.jpg

Helau

by Volker Weber

En naggische Offebäscher steicht in Frankfurt an de Hanauer Landstra in e Taxi. De Taxifahrer guggt e bissi erfrischt un fraacht: "Wo solls dann higehn?" sacht de Offebäscher: "Hier isch muss nach Heddernheim, da issn Fassenachtsumzuuch!" De Taxifahrer guggtn ah un meint: "du Simbel bist doch naggisch... Als was gehste dann?"

Da macht de Offebäscher des Maul uff un hat e Kirsche zwische de Zähn und meint: "Siehste die Kirsch hier? Des is mei Kostum. Ich geh dies Jahr als Mon Cheri... un nu fahr endlisch!"

De Taxifahrer fährt dann also los. Plötzlisch muss er e Vollbremsung mache. Den Offebäscher hauts im Audo hin un her un ZACK... hat er sei Kirsch veschluggt.

"Bist du narrisch?"... ranzt er de Taxifahrer an... "Ich hab die Kirsch verschluckt un etz hab ich kaa Kostum mehr... Was soll ich dann jetz nur mache?"

De Taxifahrer mault e bissi rum, steicht aus un geht in e Geschäft uff de anner Straa eseit. Es dauert un dauert bis er widder rauskommt. Er steicht ins Audo un schmeisst dem Offebächer e Glas Erdbeerschellee hinne auf de Rucksitz.

"Erdbeerschellee??? Was soll ich dann dademit? Ich brauch e Kirsche!!"

"Hawwe se net gehabt !" brummt de Taxifahrer

"un was soll ich jetz mit Erdbeerschellee???"

"Des schmierst de dir jetz in de Arsch un gehst als Krebbel...!!!"

There does not seem to be a big difference between a pr0n scumbag and a presidential candidate

by Volker Weber

Kai is not the first to notice that John Kerry is using the same marketing schemes as people selling drugs and p0rn:

69.7.170.104 1251 - [18/Feb/2004:07:26:54 +0100]
"HEAD / HTTP/1.1" 200 -
"http://blog.johnkerry.com"
"StarProse Referrer Advertising System 2004"

So this is the alternative to the current regime. Sigh.

Ray tracing Jell-O brand gelatin

by Volker Weber

This gave Capt. Hajo and me lots of chuckles while we were working at the TUD:

Paul S. Heckbert, Ray tracing Jell-O brand gelatin, SIGGRAPH 87
reprinted in:
Communications of the ACM
Volume 31 , Issue 2 (February 1988)
Pages: 131 - 134
ISSN:0001-0782

I am not a member of the ACM so I cannot download it. But it was great fun. Ray tracing was all the rage, so this was a scientific study on ray tracing this particular brand of dessert. :-)

Paul Heckbert has some links on his CMU page.

Which Peanuts character are you?

by Volker Weber

Pig Pen

You are Pig Pen!

LOL

by Volker Weber

Wolfgang Sommergut suggests the usage of the Windows XP Firewall. :-)

Pepsi Bottlecap Liner Labeling Information Leak Vulnerability

by Volker Weber

Capt. Hajo is going to love this.

An attacker capable of obtaining physical access to a bottle prior to purchase may create a non-uniform probability distribution leading to predictable outcome. By causing the bottle to be inclined at a specific declination, the attacker may gain partial visibility into result variable thereby bypassing the natural selection process.

More >

Whew... that was a close one

by Volker Weber

pepsihendrix.jpeg

TuneYard

by Volker Weber

... where GarageBand tunes come to play.

Zehn kleine Unixzeilen

by Volker Weber

Zehn kleine UNIX Zeilen
Reicht man ein zur Klage.
Die eine die auf griechisch war,
War leider viel zu vage.

Neun kleine UNIX Zeilen
Sollten es begründen.
Die eine war trotz größter Müh'
In LINUX nicht zu finden.

Acht kleine UNIX Zeilen...

More >

Game over

by Volker Weber

The expense of maintaining a Windows PC is out of hand. And I am not talking about tightly controlled environments in large enterprises where IT can dictate what the user can do.

I am talking about the PC that your mother uses. Or any person that does not care about the PC per se, but just wants to surf the Web, send some emails and keep in touch with friends. If you have a family of those to support, this can turn into a fulltime job. I have received a few dozen of the latest Windows worm today. You can no longer even install an XP machine and update it over the web, because the moment you go online it will be infected.

This shall be my resolution: I will no longer recommend any PC or help anyone who wants to run Windows. All PCs that I pass down to friends or relatives in need of support will run on Linux with me as root and the owner as a regular user. Anyone who wants to play games gets a console. Anyone who wants to buy a new machine will get a Mac. If your PC with Windows breaks, I am not interested.

I feel much better now. :-)

iSight better but not perfect

by Volker Weber

isightday.jpeg

I think the daylight picture is now almost perfect for a webcam. It understands that it can overexpose the window in the background and although the scenery is indoors the white balance is quite good. On the other hand the picture at night is darker than it has to be. It is much better than before where I had to direct a full beam of light at myself, but I remember that the 3com HomeConnect did better.

Admin & Developer 2004 in Munich

by Volker Weber

admin-logo3_bg.gif

There is a whole lot of people coming to the conference including some very good friends. So, in no particular order I will see Bob Balaben, Ed Brill, Karen Hobert, Rocky Oliver, Thomas Gumz (yes!), and a whole lot more that I was partying with only three weeks ago. :-) So I think I have talked to a lot more than half of the people on this impressive list of speakers. If you are sitting on the fence regarding this conference, I think it's time to enroll. :-)

So, who else is going?

CeBIT schedule build-up

by Volker Weber

cebit04palm.jpeg cebit04heise.jpeg

Scheduling CeBIT is easy: Work during the day, party each night. Sleep at the end of the month.

Party invitations come rolling in. Heise and palmOne are booked, Helmut promised me VNU. Only Symantec doesn't want me for the first time in 10 years. Sad.

Must-ignore-this

by Volker Weber

lotuselise111r.jpg

Lotus Elise 111R gets a new Toyota engine with 6-speed gearbox. 4.5 kg/PS (10 lb/HP). Must ignore this ...

Look Ma, no Windows

by Volker Weber

With a standard configuration of only 32MB of RAM, built-in 2MB S3 video, built-in sound and no hard drive, the workstations performance is comparable to a PC with 2GHz and 256MB of RAM running MS Windows. After typing in the user id and password, a beautiful KDE (or GNOME) window manager can be loaded in less than 10 seconds.

Interesting concept. You take a whole lot of PCs that are to small to run Windows. Because nobody wants them you get them for free. Then you build one Linux terminal server which costs you less than four PCs and run the whole network from this box.

A Computer Lab with No Windows, Part I and Part II.

Apple updates iSight

by Volker Weber

isightupdate102.jpeg

That was about time:

The iSight 1.0.2 update provides improved auto exposure and auto white balance functionality, enhanced IIDC compliance and better overall performance. The iSight 1.0.2 update is recommended for all iSight users.

Tonight I will know whether the low light exposure is better after the update. Currently the iSight works just nicely during daytime but not in the evening.

Tortenheber

by Volker Weber

Man lernt ja fast jeden Tag ein neues Wort. Heute: Der Tortenheber.

Es gibt bestimmt Typen die sich einen heissen Schlitten mit Ledersitzen zulegen ("Tortenheber") und ...

I believe I should add Scotland to this map this year

by Volker Weber

Male ergonomic keyboard

by Volker Weber

maleergonomickeyboard.jpg

Lotus-Chef Ambuj Goyal spricht auf der nächsten DNUG Konferenz

by Volker Weber

Konnte das bisher nicht ausplaudern, aber Ed Brill hat es jetzt bekanntgemacht:

Dr. Ambuj Goyal, General Manager, Lotus Software, will be the lead keynote speaker at the 20th Deutsche (German) Notes Users Group meeting, May 10-12, 2004, in Karlsruhe. Matt Cain from META Group will also keynote.

Das ist eine große Ehre für die DNUG, die in Karlsruhe die 20. Konferenz feiert. Ambuj Goyal ist ein überzeugender Sprecher, der nicht viel Wind macht, sondern einfache Nachrichten deutlich rüberbringt. Ich denke, diese Keynote könnte für viele Lotus-Kunden ein Grund sein, da auch mal leitende Manager hinzuschicken, die sich aus erster Hand informieren möchten.

Uuuuh

by Volker Weber

wrigleysdog.jpeg

I can relate to that. Doesn't feel much different after an overnight flight across the Atlantic in monkey class.

Will you please ...

by Volker Weber

STFU?

Sorting Out Microsoft's Collaboration Technologies

by Volker Weber

Whether or not you have been developing for the Microsoft Office System for a long time or just getting started, you may be a little overwhelmed by the number of new, re-crafted, or updated Microsoft products available for building collaborative solutions. This article lists the different programs that you can use as the main components of a collaborative solution.

Microsoft had a lot of announcements, no-shows, thrown-it-at-the-wall-and-did-not-sticks. Three different database backends in Exchange alone. Anyone remember Digital Dashboard? This article tells you where Microsoft is today and where they came from.

More >

[via Peter and Wolfgang]

Ostern naht

by Volker Weber

Sucht noch jemand ein Geschenk? Vielleicht einen potthässlichen Tischbrunnen "Dschungel"?

[Danke, tpk]

Now that would be truth in advertising

by Volker Weber

microsoftwormaheadtn.jpeg

[large image]

The next gig?

by Volker Weber

Put down that coffee pot before your click here.

[via wflamme]

We Are Morons: a quick look at the Win2k source

by Volker Weber

Selznak takes look at the leaked Windows 2000 code, kicks a few tires regarding the comments and then comes to this conclusion:

In short, there is nothing really surprising in this leak. Microsoft does not steal open-source code. Their older code is flaky, their modern code excellent. Their programmers are skilled and enthusiastic. Problems are generally due to a trade-off of current quality against vast hardware, software and backward compatibility.

Food for MS-haters, me thinks.

How to never lose Pepsi's iTunes giveaway

by Volker Weber

notanituneswinner.jpg

This is not a winner. Look for random characters.

Yo! Freelance writers!

by Esther Schindler

Hey, folks. I think some of you know that I'm an editor at InformIT.com. And I'm always hungry for people who can write about Java, SQL Server, MS Office, etc.

But now I'm also site editor of a new Ziff Davis Web site for software developers, which will launch next week. And yes, I do have a freelance budget!

I'm looking for authors who know Visual Studio, .NET, and related topics (such as Web services or software engineering techniques). I want people who can contribute technical features, how-to articles (particularly about using Visual Studio and its built-in technologies), product reviews (add-on programming components, etc.), and to some degree a "what's happening in the .NET universe." Not so much on programming breaking-news, as I can scrape those stories off eweek and other ZD sites. I'll also be running an online community, and interviewing ".NET Rock Stars" every so often.

We launch next week (so I don't want you peeking at the URL yet... it's essentially empty), and I'm busy making assignments now. The money is the now-typical "not what it used to be," but it is a non-zero number (and, oddly enough, folks in Europe tend to think it's okay -- you guys paid less or something?). I try to be the kind of editor that freelancers enjoy working with. (I think that can be summarized as "get them paid as soon as possible." And "I make your text better, without inserting errors and stupid remarks.")

So... pitches will be read cheerfully and get immediate attention. Note that you really do need to know VS.NET (or one of its languages/technologies) fairly well, since my readers will be Deep Techies involved in writing code. This site is for programmers!

No rants. No "alternatives to .NET" (this site assumes you're using it, and want to use it well). No rank-beginner "heat and light come from the sun" introductions.

Humor is good. Attitude is good. Being useful to .NET programmers is paramount.

If in doubt, pitch me. Even if I say no to the specific item, I'll listen carefully to your idea, and work with you to turn it into something I can use.

Esther Schindler
site editor, ZD DevSource

Apple gets it

by Volker Weber

Apple has put together a page that lists all of their RSS feeds.

So, what can your dog do?

by Volker Weber

budlightfergus.jpeg

Feels like Sunday

by Volker Weber

Today was a really good day with some nice surprises.

The first one was that Ute worked from home since she needed to get some contracts done, which means she has to get into the zone for six hours straight without interruption. That worked very well because everybody managed to do their job without calling her mobile. Good show. She even could do another round in the afternoon, so all of the important paper work is done.

Then I went to see the repair shop that has my Vespa for the winter and it turns out that they finally got this little part from Italy that broke off from the starter last year. Nice. She shall be ready to go next week. Whoo-hoo:

ET4-125_5z.jpg

Then the new licenses plates for the other Vespa also arrived. Will fix them before the old ones expire end of next week. We are almost ready for the spring again.

Finally Andreas volunteerd to give the Lombard another chance. The machine will be travelling towards Hannover tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

The writer's life

by Volker Weber

I could quote a few things from this page. But why don't you go ahead and read the whole thing. Delightfully appropriate, as Esther said.

WEP64 works, WEP128 does not. How's that?

by Volker Weber

I have always failed to connect Ute's Samsung Q10 with my wireless LAN when using the internal Orinoco Mini-PCI card. So instead I used an external PC-Card when there was a need to make a connection.

Tonight I played with the card again, installing and uninstalling all sorts of drivers. Now it turns out the card works just fine. If, and only if, there is no WEP128 protection. So it could connect to my neighbor just fine. His WLAN is open. It could also connect to my WLAN after I switched off WEP. I also tried WEP64 without a problem. But WEP128 does not work with this particular card in this particular machine.

If you have neighbors that leave their door completely open it does not really matter whether you have 64bit security or 128bit. Unless somebody really, really wants to get on your WLAN, which would not make a lot of sense since there are plenty of doors behind that access point.

Nevertheless I would like to know what is making the WEP128 connection break. Any suggestions?

Dumm gelaufen

by Volker Weber

Vielleicht sollte Microsoft vereinbaren, dass niemals dort eine Anzeige platziert wird, wo von Microsoft und Windows die Rede ist.

[Danke, Marc]

Look Ma, no cables!

by Volker Weber

activesyncbluetooth.jpg

After I realized I could not get the Powerbook back up I needed some kind of success. So I set out to build something that gives me a bit of satisfaction as a nerd: Make Ute's XDA2 smart phone sync over Bluetooth. :-)

After reading various newsgroup posts about the difficulties people have getting this to work, I thought it would be hard to do. It turned out to be rather easy.

I set up a BT stack on her Notebook, disabled all services but LAN access* and serial. Then I told ActiveSync to enable COM5 which is the serial port that the BT stack assigned. It turned out to be a little bit harder on the XDA2 because the process is rather convoluted. But then: Success! The second PocketPC screen in this explanation shows an informational message that looks like an error message. But you simply procede from there to pair the XDA2 and the notebook. I had already paired the devices and it turned out that it worked after I removed this relationship and paired them again.

*) I left the LAN access profile on because that lets her connect to my local BT network as well.

Reviving a Powerbook G3 - I think I give up

by Volker Weber

This is a real pity, but I don't think I am able to revive this really nice machine. It boots from CD - sometimes. It boots from HD - sometimes. I hate it when things work and then don't work, and you cannot find a pattern. The obvious problem would be a flaky harddisk. But the disk works just fine on a different computer.

After four days of tinkering with the machine I give up. Sigh.

(Nicht ?) nur in Hagen/Westfalen

by Volker Weber

So geht's ins Internet. Akustikkoppler und Kleingeld sind mitzubringen. Beobachtet von Haiko Hebig. Haiko mit "a" bitte.

Don't try this at home

by Volker Weber

rocketsled.jpeg

IBM WPC, WCT, RCP? Confused?

by Volker Weber

There seems to be some confusion about the terms used to describe the technology behind the IBM Workplace Client, short WPC. I have added to this confusion myself by using the term "Smart Client" which seems to be a term that Microsoft would use.

Heidi Votaw talked at Lotusphere about IBM Workplace Client Technology, short IBM WCT. In the Eclipse 3.0 space you will find [Eclipse Rich Client Platform], short RCP. This seems to be technology that is being contributed by IBM to Eclipse.

I added a page to my wiki so we can sort this out.

Eclipse 3.0 Milestone 7 is out

by Volker Weber

Eclipse 3.0 seems to be proceeding just nicely anlong the Project Draft 3.0 Plan. On Friday Milestone 7 has been released. Six weeks from now the next build will change the UI somewhat:

eclipse-new-look.gif

You can follow the discussion about the UI changes here.

In Memoriam Elefantino

by Volker Weber

elefantino.jpg

Marco Pantani *13.01.1970 +14.2.2004
Winner of Giro d'Italia and Tour de France 1998

Quickly upload photos from iPhoto to Gallery

by Volker Weber

iphoto2gallery05.jpeg

In case you haven't noticed, Zach Wily has recently updated his iPhotoToGallery plugin. This is by far the easiest way to upload photos from your Mac to a Gallery hosted on a web server. Zach has improved a lot of things, but the most important change for me is that the export filter now stores the credentials in the keychain, so it can automatically log you into Gallery. Select a few photos, select File/Export from the menu, select a gallery, hit Export and you are done. Highly recommended.

Remote Control for iTunes

by Volker Weber

Yellow Mug has released a new freeware application which maps hot keys to iTunes actions.

Ever wish you could pause iTunes without leaving your current application? Wish no more. SizzlingKeys4iTunes lets you control all aspects of iTunes with hot keys you define. The hot keys are fully customizable via an intuitive Preference Pane plug-in.

More >

Don't try this at home

by Volker Weber

snowmg.jpeg

Apple PowerBook G3 wiederbeleben?

by Volker Weber

lombard.jpg

Habe hier einen PowerBook G3 Lombard, Bronze Keyboard, der leider Zicken macht. Es besteht der Verdacht auf defekte Platte. Da die Daten auf dem Rechner unwichtig sind, habe ich eine Neuinstallation versucht. Mir scheint nun, dass die Maschine einen zweiten Fehler hat: Das DVD-Laufwerk funktioniert nicht einwandfrei. Wenn ich von einer Test-CD boote, dann zieht er das Apfellogo an, wandelt das dann aber in ein Verbotsschild. Ich vermute, wegen Lesefehler von CD.

Gibt es hier in meiner Nähe (Darmstadt) jemanden, der mir mit Austauschteilen helfen könnte? Ich würde gerne mal ein anderes DVD-ROM probieren.

Still looking for some Valentine cards?

by Volker Weber

train2.jpg

More >

Vorsicht, Diebstahl

by Volker Weber

An einer Steckdose im ICE-Bahnhof Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe hatte ein Trierer Student den Akku seines Laptop-Computers aufgeladen. Der Bundesgrenzschutz leitete daraufhin ein Ermittlungsverfahren ein - wegen des Diebstahls von Strom im Wert von unter einem Cent.

More >

[Danke, Uwe]

Update: Hier gibt es eine detaillierte Schilderung des Beschuldigten. Ich bin kein Jurist, aber das könnte noch eine spannende Geschichte werden.

International date and time formats in Notes

by Volker Weber

It looks like Manfred has some difficulties with the international date and time formats for madicon RSS Reader. Frankly, I am quite surprised that there is an issue at all, since I always had the impression that Notes handles this automatically.BTW, you may want to check his site since he has another update to version 1.02 with some cosmetic changes to the date/time columns, which now display without a line break.

The German date format would be 13.02.2004 and time would be 13:00. In the US the same date and time would read 02/13/04 1:00 pm. Don't get me started on which I think is better. :-)

So what would be the correct format for you, and does the RSS reader work as expected?

Play it loud

by Volker Weber

lifestylesmpeg.jpeg

Die 9 kleinen Unterschiede zwischen Mann und Frau

by Volker Weber

Markus Nolte erklärt die 9 kleinen Unterschiede zwischen Mann und Frau.

Zeit-Blogger

by Volker Weber

Wie Klaus Eck berichtet, gesellen sich jetzt noch zwei weitere Zeit-Blogs zu den Fundsachen:

- Gero von Randow mit Megawatt: The Last Latent Appliance Fetishist
- Jochen Bittner mit Beruf Terrorist: The Enemy of all the World

Klaus Eck kommentiert:

Damit beweist die Wochenzeitung einmal mehr, wie aufgeschlossen sie neuen innovativen Formaten gegenüber ist. Sie nutzt die Weblogs in Zusammenarbeit mit blogg.de für die tägliche Berichterstattung. Während amerikanische Medien immer häufiger Business Weblogs einrichten, reagieren die deutschen Medien bislang noch verhalten und warten eher ab, was daraus wird. Statt beherzt das Potenzial des neuen Formats Business Weblog zu nutzen, halten es viele deutsche Journalisten für nicht ausgereift und wollen den "Hype" an sich vorüberziehen lassen. "Die Zeit" bildet hierbei eine rühmliche Ausnahme und nutzt die Chancen, die Business Weblogs längst bieten.

What a day

by Volker Weber

From: xxxxxxxx.xxx.xxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxx.xxx
Date: 11. Februar 2004 13:25:57 MEZ
To:
Subject: what a day

Today is International Day of The Very Good Looking, Beautiful and Damn Attractive People, so send this message to someone you think fits this description. Please do not send it back to me as I have already received over fifty thousand messages and my inbox is jammed full. Have a good week!

What can I say? I got only one. :-)

Great Linux migration tactics

by Volker Weber

How do you handle concerns that the open-source software would be harder to use than Windows? Every good trainer knows that trick:

We put the chairwoman of our workers' council on stage in front of all the municipal workers, and showed her using the new system. After that, we found that no man would say that he couldn't use his PC now that everyone knew a woman could do it.

More >

[via Konstantin Klein]

Is Murphy's law applicable on Mars?

by Volker Weber

roverarmspin.jpeg

Site news

by Volker Weber

Manfred asked me today whether I could give the entries in my comments feed a unique key, like a consecutive number for each post. Once I got my monkey wrench out of the closet, I decided to rearrange the deck chairs. Here is a short list of things that have changed:

- Feeds now have 25 entries instead of 15.
- The comment feed entries point to the individual comments. No more scrolling.
- Added an Atom 0.3 feed.
- Added validator buttons for RSS and Atom.

You do know, that we have had a comments feed for a while, don't you? This is the easiest way to stay on top of the discussions going on here at vowe's magic flying circus.

Was: Without Cholesterol. Now: Low carb. Next?

by Volker Weber

Everybody seems to be on the Atkins diet. But not Dr. Atkins, says NBC. Others disagree.

Caution

by Volker Weber

nutmpeg.jpeg

Performance tuning for Domino.Doc 3.1

by Volker Weber

Anybody out there who can give me some insights on performance tuning for a Domino.Doc application on Domino 5.0.12. Dual processor DL380, 1 gig of RAM, Windows 2000 Server SP4. Queries take between 1 and 10 seconds after a reboot. 24 hours later, the same queries can take anywhere between 20 seconds and a few minutes. I am suspecting an OS problem, since recycling the Domino server does not cure the issue. You have to reboot the OS.

Any insights? Please leave an email address so I can get back to you.

Windows: Patch me if you can

by Volker Weber

CNET:

On Tuesday, the software giant released a fix for a networking flaw that affects every computer running Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. If left unpatched, the security hole could allow a worm to spread quickly throughout the Internet, causing an incident similar to the MSBlast attack last summer.

This is how you protect your PC.

Collaborative RSS Newsreader for Notes and Domino

by Volker Weber

madiconrssreader.jpeg

[Larger image]

Manfred Dillmann has written a really nice RSS reader for Notes and Domino. I had some difficulties yesterday getting it to run Java agents, but that was all Lotus' fault. Once you move the application to a Domino server or a Notes client on Windows, it runs as advertized. What you see above is the application inside a Notes client, where all the news items have been pulled by a different Notes client and replicated through the server. I could also have the server read the newsfeeds and then make the application remotely available on the clients. Whatever suits your needs.

You can download madicon* RSS reader from his site in both English and German. The product is not freeware (it starts at 25 Euro per user) but you get a fully functional free trial for 30 days.

Update: New version 1.01 fixes an issue with ProjectDX feeds.

*) madicon is not "mad icon" but "ma di con" from Manfred Dillmann Consulting. But I am pretty sure, everybody will call it the Mad Icon. :-)

Very un-American

by Volker Weber

But most likely Canadian. :-)

We Will Bury Them With Their Own Confusion

by Volker Weber

This movie shows 20 years of progress in Apple commercials. Does this make you wonder, whether Europe is Old Europe because they are not being informed by American TV channels?

Write once, run anywhere?

by Volker Weber

You are cool. You are in line with your vendor's strategy. Your partner is IBM, you write all your stuff in Java. You write once and it runs anywhere. Right?

Manfred did. And I was going to try his spanking new Notes application which looks rather cool. There was just this one little pesky error message:

macnotesls2j.png

Piece of cake, I thought. I must have missed installing something. Get out the CD and launch the installer. Watch it kill all other programs. Select the advanced install path. So I can make sure I have everything. Should be easy. Right?

Nope.

More >

Everything falls faster than an anvil

by Volker Weber

The Cartoon Laws of Physics. Caution: Do not read while drinking coffee, unless you are prepared to wipe down your machine.

Law I: Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation.

Daffy Duck steps off a cliff, expecting further pastureland. He loiters in midair, soliloquizing flippantly, until he chances to look down. At this point, the familiar principle of 32 feet per second per second takes over. However, he will not necessarily fall immediately. He may be given the chance to run (on air) back toward the precipice before he begins to accelerate downwards. He usually cannot run fast enough, and starts to fall JUST before his arms can reach the edge.

10 laws and 9 amendments >

Firefox, formerly knows as Firebird, formerly known as ...

by Volker Weber

firebirdfox.png

The open source browser Firebird renames again and becomes Firefox. New version 0.8 available here.

We kehr for you

by Volker Weber

pop_rotkaeppchen1.png pop_rotkaeppchen2.png

Eine sympathische Kampagne mit dutzenden Motiven. Kann mich gar nicht entscheiden, was ich am besten finde.

[via m-e-x]

Quote of the day

by Volker Weber

The people in companies who make money like to use Macs. The people who count the money use PCs.

This was a remark by an executive who shall remain unnamed because this quote is not in line with the strategy of his company.

Make some noise

by Volker Weber

It's amazing what you can do with this instrument. Use WireTap to record your music. But beware, this is highly addictive.

Does the Notes Mac Client have a future?

by Ken Porter

At last year's Lotusphere (January 2003), the Notes 6 Client on Mac OS X was held up by IBM/Lotus as a sign of their commitment to the platform. I haven't been to every Lotusphere over the past decade, but last year was the first time I had ever seen a Mac used during a keynote session to demo the Notes Client. The Notes 6 Mac Client was at feature parity with is Windows cousin, and at the time, it seemed that IBM/Lotus was fully committed to its continual development. In the 12 months since Lotusphere 2003, something has changed.

This past January at Lotusphere, questions were being asked about the future of the Notes Client on the Mac, and the responses given by IBM/Lotus staff that I heard, were nothing more than a unenthusiastic 'we're not sure.' I have been thinking plenty about this issue since leaving "The Sphere", and I now think the death of the Notes Mac Client is a real possibility. In fact I think an argument could be made that within IBM, it already is dead.

More >

Lots of cameras

by Volker Weber

lotsacameras.jpegI you are the only person who owns a telephone, it isn't really fun. The same holds true for webcams. I got my first webcam from Capt. Hajo who bought one for me since he could not play with one alone. CUSeeMe was the software to use and -- to tell you the truth -- it really sucked.

During my PC years I burned through a number of webcams. All kinds of Quickcams, el cheapo no name devices, and then finally the excellent 3Com HomeConnect. But there was nobody to talk to. Even if they had a camera you did not know they had, or you could not set up the sessions. So all these cameras were collecting dust after a while.

Apple finally nailed it with iChat. A software that works without going through all kinds of configuration hoops. When Apple released a camera, the iSight was the first webcam that is not continously out of focus.

This week the wall came down. You can now video chat between Macs and PCs. It is not as easy on the PC side as it is on the Mac, but you can make it work if you know about firewalls, routers and stuff. I am sure that will improve over time.

Now take a look at my buddy list*. Many many people I can instantly talk to as if they were here. You don't have a webcam yet? Now is the time. And puleeeze, avoid the el cheapo ones. They are junk and you will end up spending a lot more. Get a CCD camera. If the sales person does not show you it's a CCD camera, go somewhere else. A CMOS is not good enough, take my word for it.


*) I learned yesterday that AIM will not take more than 150 people on your buddy list. Now you have to decide which 150 of your closest friends you keep on that list. :-)

It's been a pleasure

by Volker Weber

The internet can be a comforting place. It so happened that H. read my post about video chat between PC and Mac, and she asked me about the prospect of her talking to her brother in Finland. She has a Titanium PowerBook, her brother is on a PC.

In our ongoing conversation I learned that H. works as a school teacher, is maried to a japanese husband she has known for 20 years, has three kids, a lovely voice and her brother works for a company that has contracted me in the past. Small world.

Yes, a lot of times you can meet really nice people on the net. It's not all about business ...

Anja im Fernsehen

by Volker Weber

anjahessenschau.jpeg

Wie gut, dass da eine Kamera "im Anschlag" rumlag. So konnte ich den Moment festhalten. So oft kommt das ja nun nicht vor, dass ich jemanden "im Fernsehen" kenne.

Tremendous growth

by Volker Weber

vowe.net has grown onehundredfold over the course of the last three years. This is unbelievable. Every time I thought we hit a ceiling there were more people coming in. Ten thousand page impressions a week, thirty, fifty, seventyfive. It boggles my mind to think where this path may lead us.

Thanks for coming back, thanks to my co-editors and all commentators. This is a tremendous and joyful ride.

Are you receiving WINMAIL.DAT files in your mail?

by Volker Weber

Josh Jacob explains the problem:

The file is a rich text (or MAPI) message that is sent from Outlook to Exchange. When Exchange sends the message to an outside server it writes the MAPI message as a MIME attachment. The unfortunate side effect of this plan is if the Outlook user has someone in their address book as a person who can receive "Rich Text" then the user will receive the TNEF file whether the user uses Outlook or not.

He does not only explain the problem, he also has a program to resolve it.

DoesNotWorkplace again

by Volker Weber

doesnotworkplaceagain.png

I don't get it. A demo site may once in a while go down. That does not mean that the initial setup has to be so careless. The server root isn't redirected to the application, all site messages are still generic. IBM seems to have procedures for absolutely everything but at the same time they can take a site to the web without any QA? This is an invitation to try interesting things. I wonder what happens if I call the generic sample applications of a WebSphere application server ...

Cool Apache feature

by Volker Weber

There is hardly a day where I don't learn something I did not know the day before. Today it was mod_speling which automagically repaired a broken link on my site. I was referring to http://vowe.net/images/googlead.php where I should have linked to http://vowe.net/images/googleads.php. Still you could get to this page, as you can try yourself. So, how does that work?

Requests to documents sometimes cannot be served by the core apache server because the request was misspelled or miscapitalized. This module addresses this problem by trying to find a matching document, even after all other modules gave up. It does its work by comparing each document name in the requested directory against the requested document name without regard to case, and allowing up to one misspelling (character insertion / omission / transposition or wrong character)

More >

Major Record Labels Launch Hybrid CD/DVD Format

by Ken Porter

A consortium of the big record labels (BMG, EMI, Warner Music Group, Sony Music and Universal) have officially launched the following:

DualDisc, the hybrid CD/DVD format, officially became a reality today with the release of thirteen titles into the small test markets of Boston and Seattle. DualDiscs are double-sided, on one, Compact Disc compatible digital audio at 44.1kHz 16-bit and on the other, DVD-Video, with the possibility of including high-resolution DVD-Audio content.

This announcement begs the question "Do we really need yet another audio disc format? We already have CD, SACD, DVD-A, and MP3s on CD-R or CD-RW. As for DVDs, we have DVD-ROM, DVD+ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD+RW. Am I forgetting any?

More >

Spamwave

by Volker Weber

spamstats.png

This looks like quite some wave coming ashore.

Highlight differences in NetNewsWire

by Volker Weber

newnewswirechanges.png

NetNewsWire is the most popular RSS reader in the Mac space, and to me it is the best overall. One of the more interesting feature lets you highlight slipstreamed updates in news items that had been published before.

BTW: People that I respect recommend FeedDemon for Windows. I am hardly ever in front of a Windows screen nowadays, so I can't tell you whether I would like it or not.

Lotusphere 2004 factoids

by Volker Weber

lotusphere2004factoids.jpg

Might come in handy at the next event.

Cleaned up

by Volker Weber

Really? You spot the error.

[via Haiko and mezzoblue]

Success: Video conference with a PC user

by Volker Weber

tonykelleran.jpeg

Finally, after a few trial runs I was able to connect to Tony Kelleran. It turned out that he, like everybody else, had installed AIM, but not the RTC 1.2 fix. Tony had a public IP address, so it was kind of easy to connect to him. But shortly thereafter I was also able to connect to Cornelia and Martin, who are behind a NAT router. So it is supposed to work through NAT routers on both ends. These are the things you need to make it work:

You may want to try and read the AIM FAQ on this topic before proceding, especially this part:

If either you, or the person you want to Video IM with are behind a firewall and are having problems getting Video IM to operate, work with your Internet Service Provider, your company's system administrator or modify your firewall software yourself to open ports 1024 through 5000.

Once these ports are opened, Video IM should work if no other issues exist.

Nearly 4000 port addresses. That is a hole the size of Texas in your firewall. I am pretty sure, your firewall administrator will look at you as if you had two heads when you propose that. :-)

*) If you are so ready to go out and buy a webcam, resists the urge to get one on a budget. Cheap webcams are awful and useless. Your new camera absolutely positively has to have a CCD sensor. Important update: Don't even think about asking me for assistance if you can't get it to work. Read the comments, but don't IM me. OK?

Quickies

by Volker Weber

Nose malfunction. Where is my mouse pointer? PeTA goes 70s pr0n. Orgainization? Play ball. Have some cupcakes. Einfach mal nichts tun. 0700-ABMAHNUNG.

Und noch was gelernt: Beyonce Knowles heisst Bieh-jonn-zieh und nicht Bieh-jonntz. Deshalb heisst es auch Beyoncé, was ich bislang geflissentlich übersehen habe.

A boy named Sue

by Volker Weber

Wenn man sich die aktuellen Statistiken anschaut, dann gibt es einen Trend zurück zu klassischen Vornamen. Kinder heissen nun eben nicht mehr Nofretete sondern eher Anna. Und Paul statt ... Habe zu diesem Thema gerade mit TC geschnackt. Der meint zu recht, es komme auch auf den Nachnamen an. Claire ist zum Beispiel ein schöner Name, aber eben nicht, wenn man mit Nachnamen Grube heisst.

Die Tastatur ist wieder sauber, danke der Nachfrage. :-)

Caution

by Volker Weber

sssssst.jpeg

More >

Is Google trying Microsoft servers?

by Volker Weber

googleservererror.jpeg

Fümpf magg

by Volker Weber

... in die Chauvie-Kasse, ich weiss. Aber der isses wert.

[Hint to foreign readers: Don't even try to translate.]

Favorite typefaces

by Volker Weber

favoritefonts.png ... as well as not so favorite ones. Ths image shows the same string rendered with different typefaces. The characters are chosen carefully because they are so easily confused and make for hard to spot typos.

For all of my professional manuscripts I use the Andale Mono typeface because that works best for me. c't generally uses Courier and that is what I get back for proofread - if I ask for it. Never happens with my favorite editor jk though. Both Courier and Andale Mono are excellent fonts for proofreading. You can see that Andale Mono is even better if you want to spot the odd capital O that pretends to be a zero.

Most people use Arial. I don't want to rant about why Arial is not Helevetica (and worse than Helvetica), but I list it above for comparison. Times is the default serif typeface for most people and I like it although I find it a bit dull. Both Arial and Times are very bad for screen reading.

Georgia and Verdana have been designed as scalable screen fonts. But I still have a hard time editing in these fonts. This site uses Verdana as the default display font.

Finally there is Futura, my all time favorite (besides Frutiger, which I don't have). Not easy to read but very, very beautiful.

New IBM Redbook (draft): Lotus Workplace 1.1 Products: Deployment Guide

by Volker Weber

This is one of the Redbooks that Marco co-authored. I stand in awe that anyone could write a monster as big as this:

The objective of this redbook is to provide an installation and deployment guide for the overall Lotus Workplace "platform", with a primary focus on the Workplace Messaging and the Workplace Team Collaboration products. We provide detailed installation procedures for installing the Lotus Workplace products on both a Windows server, as well as a Linux server running Suse Enterprise Server 8.1. Finally, we discuss important deployment and planning scenarios, as well as discussing tips, best practices and techniques for troubleshooting errors during installation.

This product is really, really hard to install. So you will like the checklists. Go get it.

More >

Bluetooth 1.5 for Mac OS X provides support for Bluetooth enabled headsets and printers

by Volker Weber

Headsets must support the Bluetooth headset profile and printers must support the Bluetooth HCRP profile. In order to configure and use a Bluetooth headset, the Bluetooth module must have the latest Bluetooth firmware from the Bluetooth Firmware Updater application version 1.0.2 or later.

Do not have a Bluetooth headset yet, but who knows when I will be a Borg? :-)

Yes, Video conferencing between iChat and AIM !

by Volker Weber

This post turned out to be very timely. You can now download iChat AV 2.1 beta from Apple and do video conferencing with PC users that have AOL Instant Messenger 5.5.

Update: Apple says:

iChat AV 2.1 Public Beta supports two way video conferencing with the Windows AIM 5.5 client while maintaining the ability to use the other options with iChat AV clients.

This means, you currently have to have a camera at both ends. This beta does not (yet?) support audio conferencing. Looks like a no-brainer to add that next.

Thanks for trying

by Volker Weber

You can't be number one all the time. I hope there are not too many disappointed visitors.

Exciting news from Lotusphere '04 for VSB's

by Ken Porter

Lotusphere is a massive event, and it is simply not possible for one individual to see and do everything in five short days. A few years ago, I started developing a 'short list' of topics to research while at "The Sphere!" Nothing fancy or overly complicated, just a collection of mental notes to help me decide which sessions and labs to focus on while at the show, and what topics I can research on my own when the show is over. This year was my seventh Lotusphere, and I only had one item on my short list. I wanted an answer to the following question: Is there anything new and exciting that IBM/Lotus is building into the core Notes and Domino products?

When I first heard IBM's definition of the Small & Medium Business ( SMB ) segment, I remember thinking to myself that seems kind of big! So I started to describe the segment which I work within as the Very Small Businesses (VSB's) segment. These are companies with less than 100 employees, a comparatively small computer infrastructure, and little or no interest in investing in a Workplace/Portal platform. Now before I get accused of being a "tree hugger", I want to state I like the IBM/Lotus Workplace/Portal strategy. I just fail to see what's in it for a VSB that runs the majority of their business on a Notes & Domino platform.

So at this point you are probably wondering "What on earth would excite Ken at Lotusphere this year? It was all about Workplace!" After the first couple of days I found myself wondering the exact same thing.

More >

No sense of humor

by Volker Weber

tech:knowledge:

Somebody called Andy over at Overclockers.com pulled a fast one on the Mac community, pretending that he turned a brand new G5 dual-processor into a Windows machine, even posting fake pictures to "prove" it. The stunt brought the most traffic ever to the Overclockers site and filled Andy's mailbox with 1,300 hate e-mails, some of them threatening.

It was all a gag, with Andy just taking an empty G5 case and filling it with PC components for the digital shots. But the Mac community outrage was so huge that coverage over their reaction has made them all look like fools.

Judging from out comments section on heise online, pc users are not much better though.

People really need to lighten up.

Amen.

Americans only

by Volker Weber

1. Grab a calculator (you won't be able to do this one in your head).
2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code).
3. Multiply by 80.
4. Add 1.
5. Multiply by 250.
6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number.
7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again.
8. Subtract 250.
9. Divide number by 2.

Do you recognize the answer?

[Thanks, Wolfgang]

More >

application/x-oleobject

by Volker Weber

xoleobject.png

You would think that IBM would build their next generation software without OLE objects, wouldn't you?

IBM Lotus DoesNotWorkplace

by Volker Weber

lwpshowcase.gif

IBM invites you to try a live showcase of IBM Lotus Workplace. When you chose to sign up, you have to fill out some data, including an "Access code" which is a required field. What is it? The instructions explain:

IBM employees can retrieve the access code here.

This "here" points to an internal website.

Cool. Maybe I should trademark DoesNotWorkplace™. :-) At least I can claim that I invented it. Google does not find any prior art.

Video conferencing between iChat and AIM?

by Volker Weber

ichaticons.pngThis might be interesting to users of iChat AV and AOL Instant Messenger.

Let's take a look at a part of my buddylist. In the "metal" header you see a white-on-green camera icon and a little picture, which is my buddy icon. If I click the camera, the iSight gets switched on and iChat AV displays a window with the current video stream that comes in from the camera.

The light blue and white striped part is the buddylist and it shows buddy icons for three people and default "yellow guys" for the other two. You also see green camera and phone receiver icons. If I click on any of those I will start an audio or video call with that person. All of those must be running iChat AV on a Mac. I happen to know that the first "yellow guy" is using Sametime to access the AIM network.

Please note however, that the first line has a pale green background in the camera icon. And that is the interesting part. This person is not using iChat AV and he is not on a Mac. This person is running a new beta of AOL Instant Messenger, and I take this as glimpse at a future where we may be able to do video and audio conferencing between AOL Instant Messenger and iChat AV.

The presence awareness has been here all the time. In iChat and in Mail (via the address book). Now we get an indicator for the availability of a camera at the other end. Let's hope we can put that to good use soon.

Holy Moly

by Volker Weber

Half a year ago I was all excited because there were 48855 page impressions in a week. The site was hovering at 30000 at that time. Well, now it's three days down for this week, four to go. And we already crossed that mark without any spikes. Just business as usual. If you are counting hits instead of page impressions we are looking at the 40000 to 50000 range. Daily. I bet, at the end of the year I will think these are small numbers.

If those click-trough rates on the ads improve as well, I can afford a new pair of shoes soon ... :-)

Jackson-free

by Volker Weber

jacksonfree.gif

Garret declares his weblog Jackson-free. Nice ti icon. :-)

Lotus Notes is missing

by Volker Weber

How about this?

Competitors will tell you that we will walk away from [insert any technology from this list]. Let me tell you, categorically, that nothing could be farther from the truth.

:-)

Security, Microsoft style

by Volker Weber

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 834489

The following URL syntax is no longer supported in Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer after you install this software update:

http(s)://username:password@server/resource.ext

Yeah, just break a couple of websites:

If you include user information in HTTP or HTTPS URLs, Microsoft recommends that you explore the workarounds that are described in this article before you install the 832894 security update.

You mean, everybody (server) explores those workarounds before everybody else (clients) installs the update?

Right.

VectorWorks Viewer Download

by Volker Weber

Don't you just love it when a company forces you to leave lots of information before they send you a URL for the download page? Now let's see who wins the Google pissing contest. :-)

Is this smoke coming out of my wallet?

by Volker Weber

nikond70.jpg

Phil Askey of Digital Photo Review writes:

The D70 is Nikon's answer to the new sub-$1,000 digital SLR market, its clear competition being the Canon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel) announced last August. The D70 is revealed by Nikon exactly two years since the D100, the D70 appears to share quite a lot with its sibling including the six megapixel CCD sensor and Multi-CAM900 auto focus system. The D70 also appears to have quite a bit going for it which are the primary complaints for EOS 300D owners, flash exposure compensation being one of them.

However, at 1099 Euro for the body and 1199 for the kit with lens, this looks like a sure winner for an import, if it turns out to be sub-$1,000. 1099 Euro buy $1375.

Brushing up on my DJ skills

by Volker Weber

dj1800.jpeg

[larger image]

20 years ago the standard gear was Technics SL-1200 turntables. Now it is Denon DN-1800F professional CD Players (or even better). Turns out it is actually easier to work with those. Far easier to do a pitch bend by pushing a button than to ever so gently brush the spinning records. And it is a good thing that I don't have to buy the gear but can do it in software. With the Griffin PowerMate, I even have the jog controller. :-) The only thing I would need now is a four channel output, two for the mains and one for the cue output.

Yup, something big is coming up. :-)

PS: Yes, I know Traktor DJ. Too much firepower.

Share music from your server

by Volker Weber

win2krendezvousitunes.jpeg

This looks like iTunes on Circus sharing its library. But it isn't. This is daapd and Rendezvous on a Windows 2000 Server. It might as well be a Linux box.

Rocky would say "kewl".

Ashcroft detains Janet Jackson's right boob

by Volker Weber

Half of Singer's Rack in US Custody

Just hours after singer Janet Jackson shocked the world by exposing her right boob at the conclusion of Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the offending boob detained "indefinitely," Mr. Ashcroft confirmed today.

"Janet Jackson's right boob has been taken into custody and sent to Guantanamo Bay for questioning,"? Mr. Ashcroft told reporters in a Washington briefing. "We'd very much like to know what the boob knew and when it knew it."

More >

Want More Superbowl?

by Ken Porter

The iFilm website has a complete list of all the ads that were shown on US TV Sunday during the Superbowl; including one from IBM which continues the Linux boy campaign.

IFILM's 3rd Annual Super Bowl Ads Extravaganza!

Watch This Year's Ads Now!
See Cedric's bikini wax, Willie Nelson's talking doll, Bud's funny bits--we've got it all!

So far, my favourite is the MasterCard ad featuring Homer Simpson.

More >

This is really hard to believe

by Volker Weber

libbyidle.jpeg

Caution

by Volker Weber

Frightens young children and (some) Americans.

More >

Notes 6.5.1 now runs on Linux and Wine

by Volker Weber

notes651wine.jpeg

[larger image]

The MSI installer is not supported under Wine so you have to install on Windows and copy the files over. Instructions by Peter Leugner of AS Computer:

1. Install the latest wine from www.winehq.com (or emerge wine, apt-get wine or whatever).
2. Install Notes 6.51 under Windows.
3. Copy the Lotus/Notes directory to ~/.wine/fake_windows/program files/lotus/notes.
4. Copy mfc42.dll and msvcp60.dll from Windows to ~/.wine/fake_windows/windows/system
5. type
wine "c:\program files\lotus\notes\nlnotes.exe"

This skunkworks development was done so that IBM can run Notes internally on Linux. Currently it is completely unsupported. If you break it, you own all the parts.

[Update: Wine has been fixed. Read the instructions here.]

Apple updates Safari and Java Kit

by Volker Weber

safari12java142.jpeg

Please hold on while the train leaves the station

by Volker Weber

Just got hit with a huge number of referrers with exactly this Google query. What's cooking?

Who's Who of Lotusphere

by Volker Weber

lotuspherepeople.jpeg

We are getting there. Keep those photos rolling in. And we want names to go with them. You don't need a login. Just click on Add Photo and off you go.

More >

Helmut Newton: 1920-2004

by Volker Weber

Artists - especially photographers - don't agree on many things. But you'd be hard-pressed to find one who doesn't recognize Helmut Newton as an icon. He has been called the most popular and the most copied photographer of the twentieth century.

More >

Who is Joe Canadian?

by Ken Porter

I am! But since many of you have never heard of me before, a brief introduction is probably in order; especially now that I have joined vowe's magic flying circus.

My real name is Ken Porter, and I am a developer by trade. I have worked with a variety of technologies over the years ( VMS on Digital's VAX is still my favourite! ), but for the past eight years I have been focusing on application development with Lotus Notes & Domino technologies.

More >

Finished

by Volker Weber

lotusreports.jpeg

Just finished my Lotusphere 2004 report. Writing for the mag always takes a while since you have to make sure it is neither too long, nor too short, and it should contain things the readers wants to know, not leave out important things, weigh them correctly. It would be much easier to just write ten pages or so.

I have used the lazy route the last few years: Write for the online medium. That is much easier. You have to be quick and it is not as important to get to a certain length. You just write what is interesting and then you stop. And you don't have to balance things since you only write about exactly one topic in an online piece.

This year, I will try to write more for the mag. :-)

Highly Scalable Enterprise yada yada Network Difficulties

by Volker Weber

We are sorry, but we are experiencing network difficulties.
Please go back, reload the previous page and try again.

If the problem persists please try again at a later time or use the "Contact IBM" option below to report the problem.

(error #17)

Lotusphere Online was much easier. That threw only "Error 500".

Old vowe.net archive pages

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

vowe

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