August 2004
Let's collect our Skype IDs
by Volker Weber
I have put together a Wiki page with Skype IDs. I know that Skype has a good directory, but it is nice to have a list of people for reference. Add yourself if you like.
Update: Wow. This is growing really quickly.
Apple announces new iMac G5
by Volker Weber
No big surprise. 17 and 20 inch, G5, similar to Cinema Display, white enclosure. Not as revolutionary as the G4 but nice and clean. There is one thing I would not like at all: All my cables dangling from the back of the screen.
Skype adds support for Mac OS X
by Volker Weber
Download for Linux, Mac OS X, PocketPC, Windows
Aktion zur Rettung vom dem Akkusativ
by Volker Weber
Neulich bei Apple.
Web Photos Pro
by Volker Weber
Web Photos Pro is for people who want to make it easier to get their photos into the right sizes, into the right format, and onto the web - especially photo bloggers and other photo power users.
Send us a URL showing that you’ve uploaded at least 3 albums with at least 10 photos in each album, and we’ll send you a free license key to Web Photos Pro v1.0 when it ships.
One license key per person. Offer good until September 15, 2004.
He could be more excited ...
by Volker Weber
... after winning the gold medal, couldn't he?
Removing the beachball from Safari
by Volker Weber
Safari was building up Windows-like behaviour on both Lucy and Snoopy. Whenever I clicked a few links to be opened in the background, Safari would switch on the beachball (for Windows-users: the hourglass). This was however completely resolved once I deleted the 20 meg Safari cache in the library folder:
~/Library/Caches/Safari
Everything is back to normal. Have you had similar experiences?
Interessante URL
by Volker Weber
Spot the difference
by Volker Weber
German accent
by Volker Weber
The reason why Germans mix up V and W is that the sound in English that is pronounced as W does not exist as a systemically defined entity in German (systemativcally defined entity = what we call a phoneme). The area of pronunciation where you find W is not used for making sense in German, but may occur as a possible pronunciation of the sound V (written W) in German, so Germans struggling with making a difference between spoken V and W tend to mix them up.
On the other hand this explains why very few English speaking people who know me will pronounce my name correctly. Bob, Ed, John and Vesey, I am not talking about you. :-)
The German language has the letters V and W. They are pronounced like English F and V respectively.
Here is a hint: Say "Folker Vayber" and you got it right.
[More >]
Nice to meet you, Miyuki
by Volker Weber
How am I doing? Oh, just fine. And it has not been a while and I did not forget you. Actually, we never met. And if you did not write Japanase, I might actually understand you. :-)
Nice and quiet around here, eh?
by Volker Weber
A Pentagon Spammer
by Volker Weber
Of course this entry is poor nonsense. However, I find it interesting where this post originated from:
OrgName: The Defense Information Systems Agency
OrgID: DISA
Address: DISA/DSSO/JCLCC
Address: Room BF655A, The Pentagon
City: Washington
StateProv: DC
PostalCode: 20301
Country: US
NetRange: 198.25.0.0 - 198.26.255.255
CIDR: 198.25.0.0/16, 198.26.0.0/16
NetName: NETBLK-DISA-C
NetHandle: NET-198-25-0-0-1
Parent: NET-198-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: AAA-KELLY.NIPR.MIL
NameServer: AAA-VAIHINGEN.NIPR.MIL
NameServer: AAA-WHEELER.NIPR.MIL
NameServer: AAA-VIENNA.NIPR.MIL
Comment:
RegDate: 1992-12-05
Updated: 2004-01-13
Aus der Serie "Spaß auf dem Anrufbeantworter"
by Volker Weber
It's "Make your own caption" time
by Volker Weber
Jeden Tag steht ein Dummer auf
by Volker Weber
Ich bin ja schon so einige Kommentarspammer gewöhnt. Aber dass sich jetzt schon ein Deutscher entblödet, für eine deutsche Domain zu spammen, schlägt dann doch dem Fass die Krone ins Gesicht™. Zumal man den Begünstigten ganz leicht ermitteln kann.
Update 30.8.: Der Domaininhaber hat sich gerade telefonisch bei mir gemeldet und versichert, dass er keine Ahnung habe, wer dahinter steckt. Es sei seit 10 Jahren im Internet tätig und sehe sich keineswegs als Spammer. Deshalb habe ich vorgeschlagen, die Sache einfach zu löschen, aber er bat, dass ich das richtigstelle. Das sei hiermit geschehen.
Wer auch immer am 28.8.2004 um 21:04 als Peter Fuchs unter der Adresse 149.225.238.43 diese Webseite gespammt hat, hat sich weder bei mir noch beim Domaininhaber beliebt gemacht.
Doppel-Namen
by Volker Weber
Adler-Ohnesorge, Adlers-Flügel, Albrecht-Brich, Alles-Reiter, Angst-Muth, Auch-Schwarz, Bally-Stuhlsatz, Bereiter-Hahn, Beutel-Schmauch, Bier-Weiß, Biernoth-Lüdeke-Dalinghaus, Blanke-Bohne, Blum-Heuwieser, Blum-Umhauer, Bogesits-Aufschneider, Bohnenkamp-Renken, Busch-Stockfisch, Büchsenschütz-Nothdurft, Calderon-Obermair, Creme-Prellé, Dahmen-Zimmer, Darms-Hirschi, Dausendschön-Gay, Dick-Groß, Dicke-Linke, Dienstknecht-Ochse, Dralle-Fünfstück, Drossel-Gräser, Dröge-Modelmog, Dudda-Dillbohner, Dudel-Neujahr, Dunkhase-Degott, Dünnebacke-Thurner, Dörr-Katheder, Feddersen-Petersen, Fachtierärztin, Fette-Groß, Fick-Guthmann, Freiberg-Ottovordemgentschenfeld, Freitag-Brüll, Frisch-Fetzer, Frühmesser-Faust, Fuchs-Aeugle, Fuchs-Poppen, Fuß-Küßner, Gattung-Hasenfuß, Geigenfeind-Seele, Gemein-Dick, Gnändiger-Mezger, Greiner-Petter-Memm, Grosse-Beilage, Große-Flasche, Große-Macke, Gründig-Schnauffer, Grünheit-Vögel, Hack-Hering, Hagens-Schwanz, Hammer-Stark, Hammerschmidt-Hummel, Hase-Salto, Hasenbein-Schröpfer, Henke-Matté, Hock-Wahn, Holze-Stäblein, Holzklau-Waldvogel, Hose-Füllgraf, Huber-Schlumpf, Höschel-Frauböse, Hösli-Schenk, Immervoll-Eisenkeck, Jaumann-Graumann, Jodl-Fick, Jung-Balzer, Jung-Hengst, Jüngst-Warmbier, Kalbfleisch-Kottsieper, Kaltofen-Sommerhuber, Kampf-Kiefer, Keller-Leben, Keller-Wegesser, Kleiber-Wurm, Kleim-Krack, Klein-Amen, Klein-Kind, Klein-Robbenhaar, Kleine-Döpke-Güse, Kleine-Wilde, Klemt-Knackstedt, Kloster-Köther, Knaaf-Wutz, Knapp-Schedel, Knie-Schlottner, Knoblauch-Flach, Koch-Alles, Koch-Schonvogel, Kräuter-Schächtele, Kupfer-Engel, Kühl-Kopf, König-Disko, Langer-Hammel, Langohr-Plato, Leichtfuß-Gewehr, Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Lob-Preis, Lutscher-Lang, Macht-Winter, Maenchen-Helfen, Mickey-Mouse, Muth-von Hinten, Nellenburg-Damenacker, Nix-Moos, Nospickel-Rose, Osterhammer-Taut, Perbandt-Zuschlag, Peter-Silie, Pfannenstiel-vom-Kothen, Popel-Klopfer, Prediger-Krüppel, Prüller-Jagenteufel, Quibeldey-Cirkel, Ratte-Polle, Rehbock-Zureich, Rindfleisch-Junghähnel, Roesti-Zuercher, Rossa-Hure, Roth-Hirn, Roth-Hirsch, Rösti Blaser, Salami-Rad, Schauseil-Zipf, Schiess-Forster, Schlanze-Hünerbein, Schlimm-Haarstick, Schlotheim-Reinbrecht, Schmutzler-Häßlich, Schnabel-Schaumlöffel, Schnitzel-Groß, Schreck-Toll, Schwall-Düren, Schwall-Geier, Schwarz-Wald, Schwarz-Weiß, Schwarzkopf-Ehrl-Frech, Sylvia Seelig-Huth, Senf-Blum, Sienknecht-Nierenköther, Sommer-Lilie, Speck-Weckesser, Spieß-Schwengel, Sprenger-Saal, Jutta Stender-Vorwachs, Stiller-Erdpresser,Strick-Molch, Strobl-Blumenstingl, Strohmaier-Wiederanders, Titze-Stecher, Topf-Kratzer, Tückmantel-Hörnchen, Tückmantel-Vogelfänger, Usener-Eichner, Voegele-Nußbaum, Volk-Ohnemus, Vorbau-Schiele, Vögeli-Lange, Wein-Keller, Zank-Zippel, Zickendraht-Wendelstadt, Zipfel-Hülsen, Zwanzig-Tittmann, Zwiebel-Braun
[Quelle. Danke, Alexander.]
Room 808
by Volker Weber
Wasting two hours on an Airport Express setup
by Volker Weber
I wasted a good two hours this week getting an Airport Extreme (AE) to work. The owner has a WLAN in place that I secured a few month ago with WEP. The new AE was to either hook up the network to the stereo, or the printer to the network.
The basic task seemed so simple. You hook up the AE to a power outlet, then join its WLAN, fire up the AirPort Express Assistant (AEA) on the Mac/PC and configure it to join the existing network. However, there was no existing network. WTF?
The network was not in the same configuration that I left it a few months ago. Someone had decided it would be much safer to hide the SSID, in a neighborhood that has lots of other WLANs, some of them without encryption at all. Yeah, sure. As if anybody would bother to crack your network, when there is a free one 5 channels away. Talking about channels, the WLAN was on channel 8 and the neighbor with on channel 6. That is a 2-channel separation which is not too smart. Alas, with the hidden SSID, how could the neighbor make a better choice? Time for a rant:
<rant>Hiding the SSID in a WLAN is about as useful as driving at night with your lights off. It works very well for the military, but everybody else puts themselves into more danger than it's worth.</rant>
So once that was cleared up, the AEA was able to see the existing WLAN and asked for the password. Entered that, the AE rebooted. And did not show up on the network. Huh?
First thing you try is, you switch off security on the existing network, go back to square one, and repeat the procedure. That worked. So it was something with this "password". To cut a long story short:
- never use WEP "passwords"
- use HEX keys instead
- if you enter the HEX key into a password field, then put a $ in front of the key
Nobody tells you that. At least not in the documentation. Probably because Apple assumes that you have an all-Apple setup, where all the devices share the same idea of what a password is. So, today we have an AE update to 4.01. See what they worked on? Third party access points WEP keys.
Pictures of Treo.next on the net
by Volker Weber
The genie is out of the bottle. Engagdet and Gizmodo have tons of pictures of the next Treo, presumably called 650. Looks like the 600 was only the beta and the 650 is the final version. They ironed out all the weaknesses. Looks like the new one is going to have the highres screen, Bluetooth, two extra red/green buttons for the phone, a new keyboard with much better backlighting and maybe even a better camera. Preciousssssss.
Not very good
by Volker Weber
SP2 goes Boom
by Volker Weber
Kollege ghi@ct:
Wenn die Kollegen aus dem Windows-Ressort (nicht der offizielle Name) alle Nas' lang vom Service Pack 2 schwärmen und auf dem c't-Titelblatt groß steht "Das Pflichtupdate", tendiert man schon mal dazu, gegen den Instinkt zu handeln. Der Instinkt sagt: "Lass' uns mit der Installation mindestens drei Wochen warten, dann findest du im Google-Cache alle Lösungen für deine Probleme, wenn sie nicht eh' im Heft stehen."
Stattdessen sitze ich am vergangenen Mittwoch abend da und installiere SP2, ohne Netz und doppelten Boden. Installation geglückt, Reboot, Windows-Bildschirm -- Bluescreen.
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
Sex is like a game of bridge: If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.
Man muss nur auf den Füßen denken können
by Volker Weber
"Du magst Mama nicht lieber als mich?"
"Aber nein."
"Dann wirst Du mich, wenn ich größer bin, doch auch heiraten ... ODER?"
Zeit läuft. Jetzt schnell einen Ausweg finden.
Wow :-)
by Volker Weber
Manage your Flickr album from a mobile device
by Volker Weber
Yet another thing done right. You can manage your Flickr album easily from a mobile device. It has all the interesting features, while keeping the pages really small. the Tungsten T3 has a huge screen by mobile standards. In the picture below you can see how much smaller it could be without losing usability:
If you want to try it yourself, go to the http://flickr.com/mob/ page and log in.
Flickr has RSS feeds
by Volker Weber
This is my feed, and this the feed for vowe's contacts. Nice.
E-Mail-Unsitten und ihre Folgen
by Volker Weber
Heute bekam ich eine nette E-Mail, in der ich dazu aufgefordert wurde, ein Testprodukt doch bitte möglichst bald wieder zurück zu senden. So weit keine Affäre, mache ich doch gern. Spannender als die Bitte fand ich jedoch den restlichen Inhalt der Mail. Der Absender hatte nämlich, getreu der immer weiter um sich greifenden Unsitte, den kompletten vorangehenden Mail-Verkehr ebenfalls in die Nachricht gepackt. Nur: dieser Mail-Austausch hatte nicht mit mir stattgefunden. Das eröffnet einem doch recht nette Einblicke in die Funktionsweise von Firmen.
ZAPPATA Personal Groupware
by Volker Weber
jcf writes:
It took quite a bit longer than expected, but R. and I have managed to release the first public beta of our vision of Personal Groupware: Please feel free to download the beta version of ZAPPATA and abuse it.
FlickrExport iPhoto Plugin
by Volker Weber
Fraser Speirs has developed a plugin for iPhoto that lets you directly export to your Flickr photo page.
Diversity is good
by Volker Weber
Mobile Wi-Fi Seeker
by Ragnar Schierholz
Have a laptop? Travel with it? Ever wish you could quickly and easily find a wireless hot spot? If the answer is "Yes", then whether you're in an airport, another office or even at home, the QuickLink Mobile Wi-Fi Seeker will help you zero-in on the best access point.
This sounds like a neat device to me. $30 sounds like a reasonable price as well. If only the shipping to Switzerland wouldn't be $120.
Note to self: Put this on the shopping list for the next trip to the US.
I like transparent shells
by Volker Weber
Many programs in Mac OS X support transparency. This is especially useful in the Terminal application because it allows you to read instructions that are tucked away under the shell. Never without my cheat sheet. :-)
Wie praktisch
by Volker Weber
Sehr geehrte T-Online Kundin,
sehr geehrter T-Online Kunde,
damit Sie die Web-Dienste von T-Online (z.B. WebMail) künftig noch einfacher und sicherer nutzen können, haben wir den Zugang für Sie weiter optimiert.
Automatisches Login
Ab sofort sind Sie bei Einwahl über Ihre T-Online Kennung automatisch für fast alle T-Online Web-Dienste eingeloggt. Das heißt, Sie brauchen künftig nicht mehr Ihre eMail-Adresse und Passwort separat einzugeben, um z.B. eMails abzufragen oder die Kalender-Funktion zu nutzen.
Nachdem T-Online jetzt die Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedinungen geändert hat (Zusammenfassung: Sie sind an allem schuld), kommt der nächste Schritt. Jeder Passant hat Vollzugriff, wenn das WLAN wie gewöhnlich nicht gesichert ist.
Und deshalb sollte man das hier schnellstens abschalten.
How Google Could De-Throne AIM
by Ragnar Schierholz
Here is an interesting article, bringing up the idea that Google might start an IM service based on the open Jabber protocol.
I am a happy Trillian Pro user, which allows me to be online in MSN, AIM, ICQ, YahooIM!, Jabber and Sametime (oops, IBM Lotus Instant Messaging) from one single (and IMHO neat) user interface. Admitted, the downpart is, that it is only available for Windows so far.
I know there's quite a number of IM users around here, so what do you think? Joogle?
Flickred
by Volker Weber
I have a large photo gallery and I wish it were as smart as Flikr. But it isn't. Flikr is one well designed web application. The organizer lets you work on pictures in an iPhoto-like way. You can easily upload and tag pictures. You can then share pictures with the public or just with friends and family -- image by image. It has RSS and Atom feeds, you can post via mail and it lets you post to your blog in one swift move. All from the Treo, if I feel like spending a fortune for network usage.
I invited quite a few friends and some of them have started using the service. Don't forget to set an alias in your profile -- no, that is not the screen name -- so you get a nice URL. We also moved Ute's Lemmings Trail to Flickr. At least for now. In a month we will know how well it plays.
IBM has some interesting questions for you
by Volker Weber
... when you sign up for Lotusfear.
Charlotte
by Volker Weber
Like Southpark?
by Ragnar Schierholz
If you like Southpark, then you might want to check this out: Team America. The makers of Southpark are coming up with a new movie this fall. And this time it's puppets :-)
To me (and probably to other Germans as well) it looks a lot like the Augsburger Puppenkiste.
Switchers
by Volker Weber
Double standards
by Volker Weber
(AP Photo/Dave Martin)
(AP Photo/Dave Martin)
Nettavisen reports:
Women's sand volleyball is sex-fixated and discriminating, stated former Swedish equality minister Margareta Winberg. She gets support from her Norwegian colleague.
Men are allowed to play sand volleyball in shorts and singlets, while women are not allowed to wear bikini bottoms that have side seams that are broader than seven centimetres.
I think there is some truth in that statement. The women sure are very pleasant to look at. As would be the men. If the women have a dress code that makes them "show off", why not apply the same rules to the men? I am sure that would look just as nice.
Yahoo has 200+ photos.
Scrambled Eggs
by Volker Weber
One of Hal Faber's fans supposedly compared the current state of affairs at SCO to ... careful before you jump.
vowe goes moblog
by Volker Weber
So what is this?
This is a picture taken with the Treo 600 (hence the poor picture quality) sent by mail to Flickr. I set up two mail accounts there. One just adds all received pictures to the album, the other one also posts a smaller image as a new entry on this website and links back to the album on Flickr.
Pretty cool, eh? This basic service is free. You get larger storage with the Pro account. If you invite 5 people to the service they will give you a Pro account for 3 months. It does not make a lot of sense to go beyond the boundaries of the basic account though unless you plan to cough up some money later.
Joint venture
by Volker Weber
5 days ago Joe Litton wrote:
24 years ago today Shirley and I joined our names. Her last name was "Burton" and mine was "Little" (rather appropriate, actually :-) ...We took the "LIT" from Little and the "TON" from Burton, and started the Litton family.
I had to think about this for a few days. As far as I understand, it would be completely impossible under our legislation. It always seemed odd to me that the bride (or the groom) has to give up her (his) name. (Which is not necessary here any more, btw.) But Joe and Shirley have created something new. I like this idea. I like it a lot.
Congratulations, somewhat belated to you, Shirley and Joe. Next year you can have a big $200 celebration in your new home then. I would volunteer to play the guitar, if only I could ...
PS: Why does this remind me of "Sandigraber"? :-)
Now that's REALLY Outsourcing
by Esther Schindler
Let's all go do contract IT work in Antartica.
...[T]hey may not know what a contract worker is, or why a contract worker is in Antarctica, or what an Antarctica is. The good news is that they have nothing against you personally, yet. The bad news is that your existence for them has the quality of an animated beast in a video game.
More >
Let's do the math
by Volker Weber
A person was about to die, and before dying he wrote his will which went as follows...
"I have 17 camels, and I have 3 sons. Divide my camels in such a way, that my eldest son gets half of them, the second one gets 1/3rd of the total and my youngest son gets 1/9th of the total number of camels".
After his death when the relatives read his will they got extremely perplexed and said to each other that how can we divide 17 camels like this?!!, so after a long and hard thought they decided that there was only one man in Arabia who could help them, so they all came to the door of Imam Ali and put forward their dilemma.
Ali said, "Ok, I will divide the camels as per the man's will.. I will lend one of my camels to the total which makes it 18 (17 + 1 = 18), now lets divide as per his will".
The eldest gets 1/2 of 18 = 9
The second one gets 1/3 of 18 = 6
and the youngest gets 1/9 of 18 = 2
The total number of camels (9 + 6 + 2) = 17, Ali said then, "Now I will take my camel back".
Imam Ali? Yes, Imam Ali. There is not one building like this west of the Atlantic.
HTC Blue Angel a.k.a. MDA III a.k.a. O2 xda III a.k.a. Qtek 9090
by Volker Weber
MS Mobiles has a review with loads of high resolution images.
Looking for a world clock
by Volker Weber
The Tungsten has an excellent world clock. Since it is in the ROM I cannot use it on the Treo. :-(
Can anyone suggest a nice world clock like this one a) for the Treo and b) for a Mac? For the Mac I would prefer something that lets me see a number of (digital) clocks in one window that can sit aside on my second screen.
Please note that I have added a clock under my AIM status to the right. That gives you an indicator of how late it actually is here, when you are still fully charged. :-)
Update: Thomas has recommended a nice Mac world clock:
Update: Brent has recommended CityTime. It turned out it is already included with the Treo.
No, I haven't done nothing ...
by Volker Weber
This is one of many pictures of components and computers being returned or sent in for service. The site is in german, but you don't have to understand the text. Just click the links and take a look at the pictures.
[via Cydome]
Typical male? Don't think so.
by Volker Weber
Isch 'abe gar keine Postbank Konto
by Volker Weber
Sieht auf Anhieb nicht schlecht aus. Ein Phish, der vor Phishing warnt:
Die Finanzinstitutionen der ganzen Welt und ihre Kunden haben immer dadurch gelitten, daß die Kriminellen versucht haben, das Geld auf betrügerischer Weise abzuholen. Diese Versuche können auf unterschiedliche Weise vorgenommen werden (zum Beispiel durch Fälschung der Kreditkarten, durch unerlaubte Benutzung des Telefons oder Internets).
Im Rahmen unserer Verpflichtung, allen Kunden bestmögliche Leistungen anzubieten, würden wir jeden von Ihnen bitten, einmal im Monat Ihr Konto zu überprüfen.
Um Ihr persönliches "Postbank"- Konto zu überprüfen, öffnen Sie die nachfolgend angegebene Website:
Schaut man in den Code, dann sieht man grausames Word-HTML. Und natürlich einen Link, der auf eine ganz andere Adresse zeigt. Auch mal sehen?
Beach Volleyball
by Volker Weber
Frank thinks that beach volleyball is pretty popular. I wonder why ...
Bushwhacked 2
by Volker Weber
We had this before. Now as a video.
[Thanks, Sebastian]
A view under the hood
by Volker Weber
I have an axe to grind. Before I start my rant, let me give you some numbers.
The page you are viewing is #4842 on vowe.net. This comment is #6996. This week and as of 4pm today local time the site has been referred to from 2651 distinct pages, one of them being macsurfer.com which sent 2354 referrers this way. Currently the site is being viewed by 29 people, and it has been viewed by 9778 distinct users this week, ringing up 59536 page views and 212436 hits.
At least one of those users has been abusing the site. That is business as usual. To give you an idea of how that looks from the inside, I have provided you with a typical excerpt of the log. Since the shields have not been completely up, I just had to remove a dozen spam messages.
I could close the comments altogether, and this would have an end. But I enjoy the conversation with you and so I am keeping them open. I would just like to take this opportunity to tell you that fighting the abuse is a lot more work than writing the normal content.
So please keep those comments coming in. I enjoy reading them. And I try as long as I can to keep the comments completely open, without registration, moderation or a Captcha controller.
But you also know now why I have zero tolerance against smartass people, who cannot stand by their comments with their real name and an email address that I can reply to. If you cannot trust me with your email address please take your business somewhere else. This has nothing to do with what you say. I left one comment live although all of the information provided was bogus, just because it was coming in from left field and tried to fire a cheap shot. (Don't ask, I took the conversation that developed from there down later).
You have seen that I am busy as hell fighting the abuse. While I am wielding that axe, I am cutting of any smartass comments as well. Sorry about that, but now you heard the rules again.
On a slightly related topic:
Those spammers try something that does not work, at least not with Google. They want to raise their pagerank by dumping links to their own sites all over the place. Google however does not like link farms. So you have to be careful not to overdo it. If one of those idiots dumps thousands of links into my site, then Google punishes me. That alone is reason enough to weed them out. If they would dump only one link at a time and then return days later with another one, that would work much better. (Actually some do that).
What can you take away from this? Look at your own site. Does it have hundreds of links in your "blog roll"? And do all the people you link to have the same links pointing to all of the other (same) sites? That sure looks like a link farm to me. And maybe to Google as well.
IBM Development Package for Eclipse
by Volker Weber
The IBM Development Package for Eclipse is an unsupported Eclipse-based development tool. It enables developers to build and run Java TM applications with its ready-to-run development environment out of the box. There are versions available for Windows 32-bit and Linux 32-bit on Intel (xSeries).
Columnist apologizes
by Volker Weber
How is that for a change?
You probably remember an exchange we had back in January, 2004. You had just introduced the new iPod mini at Macworld. I wrote a column opining that the mini was too pricey -- only $50 less than the iPod -- and destined to flop in much the same manner as the ill-fated G3 Cube.
You then wrote me an e-mail asking that if my assumption of a mini flop proved incorrect would I publish an apology. "Of course!" I replied. Well, the mini is not a flop. In fact, it's a hit. I can't deny it. So, here's my apology, Steve. The mini is no Cube. I was wrong, and you were right.
I haven't seen that before. And I guess there would be a lot of doomsayers in the Domino space that could follow suit.
And now for the weather ...
by Volker Weber
Potentials of ballet
by Volker Weber
[Thanks, Bob]
Beide Tore stützen Automobil-Vermittlung
by Volker Weber
Aus der Abteilung "Helden der Lyrik":
Die NC3134 ist ein Doppel-Port, 10/100 modulares NIC, das Leistung 64-bit/66MHz mit INTELS neuestem Netzwerkanschlußsilikon kennzeichnet, die 82559 ASIC. Das NC3134 versendet mit vorgerückten Bedienereigenschaften wie Netzfehlertoleranz, anpassungsfähiger schnell ausgleichender Last und Cisco EtherChannel. Die Doppel-Ports des NIC erlauben Kunden, das NC3134 zusammenzubauen, damit failover grössere Zuverlässigkeit oder für verschiedene Modi des Portabbindens für grössere Leistung erzielt. Die Modularbauweise des NC3134 ermöglicht Gebrauch, zu zwei zusätzliches 10/100 Toren, ein Tor der Faser 100Mbps oder zum Gigabit-Ethernet SX oder LX zu verbessern.
[Danke, Nils]
Finally a decent VNC client for the Mac
by Volker Weber
A decent VNC viewer was very high on my wishlist. Sure, there was Chicken of the VNC, originally developed for the Next computer. But version 1.3.6 was missing badly in many respects.
Now there is a big update to 2.0b1 with loads of new features like the added support for Keychain, auto-discovery of servers via Rendezvous as well as a new connection manager that stores commonly used servers.
Multiple choice test
by Volker Weber
One sunny day in 2005
by Volker Weber
One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U. S. Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."
The Marine looked at the man and said, "Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here."
The old man said, "Okay," and walked away.
The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."
The Marine again told the man, "Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here." The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.
The third day, the same man approached the White House and asked again to meet with President Bush."
The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, "Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?"
The old man looked at the Marine and said, "Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it."
The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you tomorrow."
I am sure this story has been recycled. :-)
[via AD++]
Lessons learned
by Volker Weber
Only one out of three is a natural blonde. [Quickly ducking for cover]
PalmOne Wifi next month
by Volker Weber
Looks like palmOne will soon be releasing the much belated WiFi card that supposedly will work with the Zire 72 and the Tungsten T3 only. Have T3, will travel. Wink, wink. :-)
IBM PartnerCamp am 5/6. Oktober 2004 in Bremen
by Volker Weber
Stuttgart, 17.8.2004: Das jährliche IBM PartnerCamp hat sich unter den IBM Business Partnern als die zentrale Veranstaltung etabliert, um sich über neueste Entwicklungen, Technologien und Marktstrategien zu informieren. Erstmalig werden in diesem Jahr auch Hands-on Workshops angeboten. Zudem hat jeder Teilnehmer die Möglichkeit, technische Zertifizierungen kostenfrei abzulegen. Das IBM PartnerCamp findet am 5. und 6. Oktober im Congress Centrum Bremen statt. Die Teilnahmegebühr beträgt 200 Euro (Frühbucherrabatt) bzw. 250 Euro, Anmeldung erfolgt über http://www.ibm.com/software/de/partnercamp
DESIGN.MATTIS goes online
by Volker Weber
Thanks to Sigrid, Stefan and Ulf for making this possible.
Look elsewhere
by Volker Weber
Like here?
[via reizbombardement.de]
Another one spinning on the turntable
by Volker Weber
I Will Survive, a hit single that made Gloria Gaynor the Queen of Disco in 1979, was covered by Diana Ross in 1995 for her album Take Me Higher. I believe that both interpretations don't do the lyrics any justice:
First I was afraid
I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never live
without you by my side
But I spent so many nights
thinking how you did me wrong
I grew strong
I learned how to carry on
But there is one artist that hits the spot: Cake, on his album Fashion Nugget, published one year after Diana Ross' cover version. I don't like the rest of this album, but I Will Survive is a track to get. And you have to play it loud. Very loud.
PS: If Germans would really understand English, there wouldn't be so many couples that call this song "their song".
On heavy rotation
by Volker Weber
This corner of the earth is like me in many ways
I can sit for hours here and watch the emerald feathers play
On the face of it I'm blessed
When the sunlight comes for free
I know this corner of the earth it smiles at me
So inspired of that there's nothing left to do or say
Think I'll dream, 'til the stars shine
Jamiroquai, Corner Of The Earth, A Funk Odyssey — Sep 11, 2001
IBM adds RSS feeds to Redbooks site
by Volker Weber
IBM Redbooks now offers its content via RSS feeds. These XML-based files, updated in real-time, help you stay up-to-date with most recent publications from the IBM Redbooks team. Our RSS feeds also let you easily add always-current Redbooks headlines to your Web site. If you use an RSS reader or aggregator -- or want to incorporate our content into your own Web site -- we invite you to use the IBM Redbooks RSS feeds below.
Sounds like good advice
by Volker Weber
The programs ... listed ... may experience issues
by Volker Weber
The programs that are listed in this article may experience issues after you upgrade to Windows XP SP2. You may not notice some of these issues. Additionally, software vendors may have resolved some of these issues. Contact the software manufacturer or vendor for more specific details.
If your program is listed here:
AE Test, AOL, AOL Toolkit, Action Request System, Activision, Ad-sheild, Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, Ahead, Al Ariss, Al Maalin, Al Mawrad (Arabic), AppManager, Application Center 2000 SP2, ArcServe, Aris Buenaventura, AutoCAD, Backup Exec, Becky, Bind View, BitDefender, BizTalk 2004, Blizzard, BootSkin, BrightStor ArcServe Backup 9.0, Britannica, Caropus, CheckSoft Home and Business, Chess Advantage III: Lego Chess, Citrix, Citrix ICA client, Claris, ColdFusion MX for J2EE 6, Comabt Flight Simulator 3, Command & Conquer Generals, Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour, Command & Conquer Red Alert 2, Command Antivirus, Command and Conquer Red Alert 2, Conflict: Desert Storm, Corel Draw 9 - PhotoPaint (German), Countertop Software, Croteam, Cute FTP 5.0, Dave's Quick Search Toolbar, Dead Man's Hand, Der Brockhaus Multimedia (German), Diet KaZaa, Diskeeper, DivxPlayer, EDM File System Agent 3.1, ERDisk for AD, ESET NOD32 for windows, Earth & Beyond, Eclipse, Encarta Enzyklopädie, Encore, Encyclopedia Britannica, End2End 4.1, Etrust EZArmor, Exceed 8, Excel, Extra Enterprise 2000 2000, Extra Personal Client 6.5, Extra! Bundle for TCP/IP 6.6, F-Secure, File and Storage Administrator 2.1 (191067), FileMaker Pro (German), Freedom Force, Freedom Scientific, Freehand 8 (German), GW Micro, Ghost Corporate Edition 7.5, GlobalScape, HP Quick Launch Buttons, HP SJ 6350, HPSetup 42NAheBLU1 SW build, Halo Combat Evolved (Arabic and Hebrew), Harvard Graphics, High School Advantage 2003, Host Explorer 8, ICQ, IMSI, ISV, InnoculateIT, Installshield, Instant CD/DVD, JAWS 5.0, KEA! 340 v5.1, KaZaa Media Desktop, Kerio Personal Firewall, Knowledge Adventure, Live Journal, M-2K, MS License, MSBN, MSN, Magellan, MapPoint Europe, MapSend Direct Route, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, McAfee Internet Security Suite 2004, McAfee Parental Controls, McAfee Remote Desktop 32, McAfee VirusScan, Medieval Total War, Merriam Webster's Reference Library 2003 - Journey to the Planets, Microsoft Operations Manager, Midnight Outlaw Illegal Street Drug, MotoRacer, MpegCraft DVD, Musicmatch Jukebox, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season v2003, NBA Live 2000, Pinnacle Studio 9, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2, Nero 6 Ultra, Nero Burning ROM, Netshield 4.5, Nod32, Norman Personal Firewall, Norton Antivirus 2003, Norton Systemworks, NovaNet Web, NovaStor, Access, Power Point, Excel, Outlook, Outlook Web Access, PC Magazine Business Winstone Benchmark, PCAnywhere, Pagemaker, Patrol for Windows 2000 3.4.0.11, PhotoClick, PhotoExplosion Deluxe, PhotoImpact 7, Photoshop Elements, Pinnacle Studio, Playzone Preschool - Kindergarten - Jump Start Spelling, Quicken, Clearcase, Real Player, Red Storm, Redmedy, Reflection, Retrospect Client, Revenge of Arcade, Roboword Pro, RockStar Games, Roller Coaster Factory, SMS, SNA Server, SQL, Scrabble, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Server Administrator Tools, Sierra, SimCity 4, Smantec Antivirus Corporate Edition, SmartSuite, Smarterm Office, SonicWALL, Star Trek StarFleet Command III, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, StarCraft, Style XP, StyleSelector, Super Collapse, Talkworks Pro, TaxSaver, Technocraft, The Lion King Animated Storybook, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Tribes 2, TurboCAD Professional, UX Theme MultiPatcher, Unreal Tournament, ViaVoice for Windows Personal Edition 10, ViewNow, VirusSecurity 2004, VirutalPC, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual Studio, VisursScan, Volume Manager 3.1, WISO Sparbuch, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Collector's Edition, WinGate, WinRoute, Window-Eyes, Windows Sharepoint Services, Winfax Pro, Word, WordPerfect Office, Works Suite, Xoreax Incredibuild, Yahoo Messenger, ZoneAlarm, authentium, bv-Admin Mobile 7, eTrust, iMesh
... then you may want to check this technote before installing XP Service Pack 2.
Rennanalyse vom Feinsten
by Volker Weber
Jörg Schallenberg hat mal wieder eine Menge Bonmots auf Lager. Der gefiel mir besonders:
Tatsächlich erinnern Haug und Co. immer mehr an die Witzfigur Holgi aus den einstmals sehr beliebten "Werner"-Comics. Sie erinnern sich? Holgi war der, dessen in Eigenarbeit getunter fahrender Untersatz angeblich die heißeste Kiste nördlich der Elbe war - es musste nur, wenn es darauf ankam, leider immer gerade noch eine Kleinigkeit geschraubt werden.
Der Unterschied: Holgi fuhr einen Porsche uralt, keinen Mercedes brandneu. Und als der in einem sehr entscheidenden Rennen auseinander flog, wurde Holgi mit Katzenscheiße beworfen. Wäre ja mal eine Alternative zum ewigen Champagnerspritzen.
Bangle does it again
by Volker Weber
The car has not been introduced yet, but BMW lost a brochure.
Dell Axim design snafu
by Volker Weber
The unit has four rubber feet. However only two of those touch the table since the scroll wheel and audio jack sit too low.
Welcome
by Volker Weber
The Operating System that won't die
by Volker Weber
The operating system formerly known as IBM OS/2:
Serenity Systems International is proud to announce the release of eComStation Version 1.2. Principal features include a new installation program jointly developed with IBM, enhancements to the desktop environment, additional Internet connection features, and improved device support.
Facelift
by Volker Weber
iPod vs. The Cassette
by Volker Weber
No Name No Slogan labs tests this years must-have device against one of the all time great audio formats...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh
by Volker Weber
This spot is very well-known in Germany, but most likely not abroad. It advertises the uninterrupted power of a DSG Direct-Shift Gearbox.
iPodVolumeBooster
by Volker Weber
Bei iPodVolumeBooster handelt es sich um eine kleines Freewareprogramm, mit dessen Hilfe man die Lautstärkebegrenzung der Europäischen iPod Modelle umgehen kann.
Das Programm verändert dabei eine im iPod geführte Datenbank und nimmt hier Änderungen vor. Die mp3-Dateien bleiben davon unangetastet!
Time tracking on the Palm
by Volker Weber
Hours is a time tracking utility for the Palm Operating System. It is quite a simple application with the purpose to help people in keeping track of time spent of various things. Hours has been kept very general purpose and this makes it very usable in different circumstances. Being able to keep track of time spent on projects or at work with the same method is the main goal of this development.
The program is free, open source. Data can be converted to CSV for subsequent processing in Excel or other programs, both on the Mac and Windows.
7 Lügen über die Rechtschreibreform
by Volker Weber
Seit Wochen wird wieder über die Rechtschreibreform diskutiert - und diese Diskussion treibt immer seltsamere Blüten. Denn nicht überall, wo das Etikett "Rechtschreibreform" drauf klebt, ist auch eine solche drin. Stattdessen werden Legenden aufgetischt und munter weiter verbreitet.
Impressions from Scotland
by Volker Weber
Impressions from Harris (Outer Hebrides) and the Highlands (Glen Garry).
These are my first QTVR files. They are both about 1.2 meg in size. You need Quicktime to view them. Both of them are not very well stitched together, but I guess they are good enough for a first effort.
Referrers from Macsurfer
by Volker Weber
Referrers from Macsurfer passed the 1500 mark today. They all point to this post of course. I think that many of those referrers also account for the 45400 hits yesterday. That is an increase of 25% over normal levels.
Welcome to vowe's magic flying circus, folks. :-)
We don't take no for an answer. At least we didn't.
by Volker Weber
Due to a major snafu last night at 20:05:40 CEST the site was blocking all comments that contained the substring "no". Which was a bit too strict. :-) Fixed.
Upgrade to 64
by Volker Weber
How to open links in Safari from Lotus Notes
by Volker Weber
Lotus Notes lets you set your preferred web browser in your location document(s). On the Mac however that only works if your preferred web browser happens to be Internet Explorer. And that is currently the worst browser on the Mac. If you select "Other" and point to Safari, Notes will store that preference but you will no longer be able to open links by clicking on them.
Eric Garneau pointed me to an Applescript that solves this problem. Download the script, place it in your Applications folder, then edit your location document and select this script as your "Other" browser. Bingo!
Wouldn't it be nice if Apple and IBM could agree on how to pass a URL as an argument to Safari? Or Mozilla for that matter?
Herding kids
by Volker Weber
Ein paar kleine Beobachtungen zum Mittag
by Volker Weber
- Auf Heise-Trolle ist Verlass. Ein (wenig kontroverser) Beitrag mit Notes und Mac im Titel zieht rasch über 120 Kommentare an. Durch die Bank unsinnig.
- Der Mac-Anwender sieht sich gerne als modern und weltoffen. Das muss nicht immer der Fall sein.
- User Agents der letzten 12 Stunden: 56% Mac, 42% Win, 2% Linux.
- Top Referrer der letzten 12 Stunden: MacSurfer (836), Bloogz (43), Ed Brill (26).
The Inside Scoop on the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference
by Volker Weber
I just love this quote:
It's like exploring Edinburgh Castle. It looks neat when you walk around inside, but only a tour guide can show you where all the bodies are buried. So let's start snooping around.
I doubt that this is what Groove Networks want
by Volker Weber
Today I learned that two early adopters of Groove have dropped it now that Groove Networks came out with version 3.0. And that has nothing to do with technology but only with execution.
Let me first state that I like what Groove Networks has done with the product. It is much more usable than it ever was. They have also just issued me a license so I can continue to evaluate it (Thanks, Richard!). So why have those two early adopters dropped it?
They both had a standard license which you can now upgrade to a new 3.0 version. You gain the wonderful capability to sync regular Windows folders transparently without having to put the files into a Groove workspace. Isn't that neat?
So why did they drop it?
Because they say they lost everything else. No discussion tool, no calendar, no nothing. At least that is what they told me. However it does not reflect in the comparison sheet. The upgrade FAQ lists limitations but those are not inline what I heard. They told me it would require a substantially bigger trade-up to the Professional version. And they are not willing to do that. Two customers lost -- and that may be just out of ignorance or bad communications.
And why am I saying "continue to evaluate"? I want to keep up with what Groove Networks is doing. But I cannot use it in my daily work, since that is now 95% on the Mac. And I am not willing to use any kludges like VirtualPC or a hosted solution. So I stopped using Groove about 18 months ago.
Finally: Notes Client for the Mac
by Volker Weber
Arthur Fontaine, Senior Offering Manager Notes and Domino, says:
We are currently planning to provide a Notes 7 client for the Macintosh platform, complete with popular integrated Instant Messaging capabilities on par with those found in Notes for the Microsoft Windows platform. We anticipate that this will occur as a maintenance release to the 7.0 code stream. In the interim time period, we expect to provide a certified and supported Notes client for 7.0 for the Macintosh platform which will be based on the 6.5.4 code base.
That sounds like a good plan.
Small scan job
by Volker Weber
Cat herding
by Volker Weber
[Thanks, Toby]
AirTunes reversed
by Volker Weber
Jon Lech Johansen has cracked the Apple Lossless encryption used by the Airport Express to communicate with iTunes, so that programmers can write tools that use any application and any operating system to send audio to an Airport Express.
I've released JustePort, a tool which lets you stream MPEG4 Apple Lossless files to your AirPort Express.
The stream is encrypted with AES and the AES key is encrypted with RSA.
AirPort Express RSA Public Key, Modulus:
59dE8qLieItsH1WgjrcFRKj6eUWqi+bGLOX1HL3U3GhC/j0Qg90u3sG/1CUtwC
5vOYvfDmFI6oSFXi5ELabWJmT2dKHzBJKa3k9ok+8t9ucRqMd6DZHJ2YCCLlDR
KSKv6kDqnw4UwPdpOMXziC/AMj3Z/lUVX1G7WSHCAWKf1zNS1eLvqr+boEjXuB
OitnZ/bDzPHrTOZz0Dew0uowxf/+sG+NCK3eQJVxqcaJ/vEHKIVd2M+5qL71yJ
Q+87X6oV3eaYvt3zWZYD6z5vYTcrtij2VZ9Zmni/UAaHqn9JdsBWLUEpVviYnh
imNVvYFZeCXg/IdTQ+x4IRdiXNv5hEew==
Exponent: AQAB/
Auch erst 17 Jahre her
by Volker Weber
Register here
by Volker Weber
Any subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, or employees of any site employing compulsory user registration mechanisms are not authorized to access the content or services of this site.
I am not sure I want to risk that
by Volker Weber
RAID 6 support is highly experimental.
[Thanks, Nico]
A few quick notes on the Axim
by Volker Weber
First of all, you must be nuts to buy a PocketPC device if you do not run Windows. For one very simple reason: Every PocketPC developer assumes you have a Windows PC. Most applications come wrapped up in EXE files that install CAB files to a directory in ActiveSync. Then they get pushed to the device over the link and installed there. Only the smarter developers wrap the application into a ZIP file. I have yet to find the first application that installs over the air, without any PC involved.
The hardware of the Axim is neat. Feels cheap compared to a Tungsten but is in line with the rest of the PocketPCs. Having WLAN and Bluetooth is definitely neat. The browser is as useless as in all the small devices. As is an MP3 player, since even without using one, the Axim burns through one charge in about 3 hours. That is what the average Centrino notebook does today.
The Skype beta hangs the system tight when I try to log on. I know, it's still in beta.
It looks like this device does not win the editor-refuses-to-give-it-back award.
Notes 7 kludge on the Mac
by Volker Weber
Ed Maloney comments on benpoole.com
From a meeting at the Apple WWDC last month ;
Lotus Notes: We met with Todd Bxxx, Apple's liaison with Lotus/IBM. Here's the Map of Notes releases for the Mac:
- Version 6.5.2 (just released?): Supports Panther
- 6.5.3 Will support Tiger (Should be released concurrently)
- 6.54/7.0: To be released in H1 2005, Lotus will have 6.5.4 on the client fully compatible with version 7.0 on the server. Lotus will make up for 7.0 client features by adding them as separate apps: A browser-based "SameTime" IM client and a "QuickPlace" app.
- Version 8.0 will have full parity (release date unknown of course). There will never be a 7.0 client on the Mac.
In absence of better IBM communication this sounds reasonably correct.
Update 2004-8-12: We now have an official statement from Lotus.
Currently testing
by Volker Weber
Dell Axim 30. Impressive specs: 624 MHz XScale, WLAN and Bluetooth. Of course riddled with Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition which makes configuration a PITA once again.
Mac OS X 10.3.5 is out
by Volker Weber
XP SP2 ready
by Volker Weber
Against popular belief there are Windows machines in vowe's magic flying circus. And there is even one physical and two virtual machines running Windows XP. :-)
Looking for picture offload
by Volker Weber
Sony introduced a device that lets you copy all photos from a memory stick or compact flash and delete the original. With one click!
However, Sony apparently does not have any plans to market the device outside of Japan. So I am looking for a different device that does the same. Should have a compact flash slot and offload all photos with a one button operation.
Fire or have fired?
by Volker Weber
Sean Gallagher in eWeek:
Radicati said she has sent e-mails to IBM executives, including Ken Bisconti, vice president of Workplace products for IBM Lotus, urging Brill's firing. She has called for Brill's dismissal in the past as well, in part for comments he made on his blog referring to her company as "infamous." Neither Brill nor Bisconti was available for comment.
Somehow I doubt that this story will make it into the "Radicati in the News" section on their front page. It made it into the Radicati Group wiki page though which now trails the official home page on Google.com.
Back from Italy
by Volker Weber
Ute took only 5 dozen photos this time. The picture above is the one I like best. We discarded a few that we did not like, and the rest went here.
We travelled light - no computer, only one mobile and that was switched off at almost all times. So there is much to catch up. After that we return to our regular program.
Potentially vs. realistically
by Ragnar Schierholz
The difference between potentially and realistically:
A young boy went up to his father and asked him, "Dad, what is the difference between potentially and realistically?"
Gone fishing
by Volker Weber
A few days in Erbusco. Pictures will go here upon return. That's right - completely offline.
Lotus Notes à Paris
by Volker Weber
Nous recherchons un formateur Lotus Notes pour tenir une session de formation de mise à jour de Notes 5.0 à 6.5 d'une durée minimum de 2 jours. Cette formation devra se tenir entre le 30 août et le 2 septembre à Paris. Pour tout renseignement contactez Wolfgang Schwerber.
Repost from last week
Do I smell a Windows version?
by Volker Weber
iPhoto 4.0.3 addresses minor issues with Smart Albums and European books, and provides notification when new versions of iPhoto are available.
The Mac does not need that notification. It is built into the system. So a Windows version and a picture album iPod to go with it?
Holy moly
by Volker Weber
"I think you have not understood a single thing I just wrote to you"
by Volker Weber
The only asset an analyst has is credibility. So this letter is worth a full quote:
From: "Sara Radicati"
Date: 08/04/2004 12:19 PM
To: eric.mack@ica.com
cc:
Fax to:
Subject: RE: Dr. Radicati, do you plan to respond to Michael Sampson's response to your Messaging Market Analysis?
Eric,
I think you have not understood a single thing I just wrote to you - again, everything I needed to say about this topic or our methodology, ethics, processes, etc. is already posted on my web site.
I really don't have any more time for these endless discussions.
Regards,
Sara
Sara Radicati, PhD
President & CEO
The Radicati Group, Inc.
595 Lytton Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
USA
Tel: 650-322-8059 x.18
www.radicati.com
Default Logins and Passwords for Networked Devices
by Volker Weber
NOTE: This listing is only provided as a resource to network administrators and security professionals. It is also meant to remind people that a serious problem exists when people configure a network or a computer system and do not change these passwords.
T-Mobile und Fraport AG bauen W-LAN am Frankfurter Flughafen
by Volker Weber
Kunden ohne einen Vertrag bei T-Mobile oder T-Com können im HotSpot-Portal via Kreditkarte einen HotSpot-Pass mit einer Nutzungsdauer von einer, drei oder 24 Stunden erwerben.
Können Sie. Müssen Sie aber nicht. :-)
Undesirable "Status"
by Ragnar Schierholz
Yesterday I tried repeatedly to send an email to an employee of a large Swiss corporation, asking about the status of a project I am supposed to be involved in and which was originally planned to start this week. The subject of my email was "Status Project XYZ"... The message was rejected with the error: "Error transferring to mail.abc.CH; SMTP Protocol Returned a Permanent Error 552 Message prohibited (4)".
So I did a WhoIs lookup and contacted the tech support. Just out of curiosity I first tried to send him an email and surprisingly suceeded...
This morning I received a friendly response from their HelpDesk saying that subject lines containing the word "status" are currntly banned, because a variant of MyDoom uses such subject lines...
My goodness, is there no better way to filter this virus than blocking anything containing such a common word? How many project related mails are being falsely rejected by this?
Conclusion: We seriously need to do something towards safe email communication...
P.S.: I tried, my first two attempts were signed emails, until I figured maybe that could irritate the SMTP Gateway. Admittedly, signed with a Thawte Freemail Certificate. Also admitted, if an automated script running inside my email client sent the email, it would probably also have created a signed message.
Goldene Regeln
by Ragnar Schierholz
- Nichts ist so einfach, daß man es nicht falsch machen kann....
- Wer lächelt, wenn etwas schiefgeht, weiß einen, den er verantwortlich machen kann!
Mehr davon: Goldene Regeln
When Analysts Astroturf
by Volker Weber
eWeek's Sean Gallagher:
There's been a bit of fun happening over at Ed Brill's blog. His personal weblog became the target of some anonymous drive-by sniping(read the comments) after he publicly questioned the fairness of a report by the Radicati Group. Then, lo and behold, it turned out that the comments had been posted from an IP address at Radicati Group.
But wait, there's more,
Volker Weber dissects Radicati's apparent dirty deeds further. And there's, well, a lot of other documentation of this little war over a white paper. Does Marc Fleury work for Radicati Group now?
Internet analysts gone bad, or on the Internet sometimes they do know you’re a dog.
A small storm, not unlike the one that blew up around the astroturfing on TSS, is blowing up in the Domino community - Volker has a summary, it's about the Radicati Group.
Mit Feuerzeug nach Leck im Benzintank gesucht
by Volker Weber
Medieninfos der Polizei des Kantons Basel-Landschaft:
Am Montag Abend, 2. August 2004, ging um 22.05 Uhr in der Alarmzentrale der Polizei Basel-Landschaft die Meldung ein, dass an der Margarethenstrasse in Sissach BL ein Motorrad in Brand geraten sei.
Der Besitzer des Motorrades war von einer Nachbarin auf das Auslaufen von Benzin aufmerksam gemacht worden. Da er in der Dunkelheit nichts sehen konnte, benutzte der Besitzer des Motorrades ein Feuerzeug, um nach dem Leck zu suchen. Daraufhin entzündeten sich die austretenden Benzindämpfe und setzten das Motorrad in Brand. Weil erste Löschversuche fehl schlugen, wurde die Stützpunkt-Feuerwehr Sissach alarmiert. Da rund zehn Liter Benzin ausgelaufen waren, musste die oberste Schicht des Kiesplatzes abgetragen und fachgerecht entsorgt werden.
[Danke, Toby]
Pretty obvious, isn't it?
by Volker Weber
Download free mp3 tracks from Mercedes-Benz
by Volker Weber
Mercedes does it again and releases Mixed Tape 02 with 15 free tracks from Acoustic World Ensemble, Audiomatix, Bazar, Bloc Business, Comfort Fit, Erik Sumo, Harmonic 33, K, Lacks, Marion, Moogul,Phoniclux, Radiolife 03,Tres:ciel and Viennese Cinnamon. You can listen to them online or download them for free. Tape 03 shall be released September 28th.
The tracks are ripped with excellent quality, are neatly tagged and already have the album art embedded for iTunes. Go get them.
No comment
by Volker Weber
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
In theory, theory and reality are the same.
In reality, they're different.
Source unknown, quoted on 3C-Interop
Hottschpott XXL
by Volker Weber
Jetzt war ich zwei Wochen in Urlaub und die Kundengewinnung beim Hottschpott ist doch etwas schlechter gelaufen. Da wurde es Zeit, das Angebot zu verbessern:
Ab jetzt gibt es statt einer Stunde gleich 10 für eine Registrierung. Auf geht's, Buam.
[Danke, Felix]
How to destroy an analyst firm from inside
by Volker Weber
- You publish a biased report.
- Your report is shred to pieces.
- You "anonymously" post comments from your company's IP address.
- You send intimidating emails from the same IP address.
- You get caught by simple triangulation of your IP address.
- You continue to post anonymous comments, this time from a second IP address.
- You get caught again.
- You apply the same trick and leave an even wider trail by sending more intimidating email "anonymously".
- You intimidate the wrong person.
- Grande finale.
If you or your boss has received intimidating email concerning this incident, I want to have it. I need the full message, including the full SMTP header. If you want to send that mail encrypted, please leave a note and I will send you a signed message, so you can reply via X.509 mail.
If you don't know what I am talking about, just ignore this message.
Linux Centre at the very end of Scotland
by Volker Weber
Ed asked me about this picture; he actually asked twice and it was time for a good explanation. First you need to know where this signs stands. Look for #14 on this map. To the left of the yellow box is "Dell". And at this very remote location you encounter this sign. The surprise was big enough for us to forgo the obvious photo of Butt of Lewis which must be the second most photographed funny place name. (This is #1).
Now, what is the Linux Centre? It turns out to be this company.
New exam question for driver's license
by Ragnar Schierholz
Rumors are that there's a new question on the theoretical exam for the dutch driver's license. The translation is as follows:
You are in your car behind this bicycle rider. In this situation, do you stay behind and do NOT pass?
a) Yes, I keep right and don't pass.
b) No, I don't care about the bike and pass.
Now that is a smart design
by Volker Weber
Sun's Jonathan Schwartz says that IBM is in a Pickle
by Volker Weber
Jonathan Schwartz writes:
IBM has a problem. The problem is called history, and in its current incarnation it's called Red Hat.
The 'history' to which I refer is the experience of a former IBM CEO, John Akers. Akers and his staff had the wisdom to enter the PC market in its early days, but the short sightedness to suggest customers source their PC operating system from a little company in the Pacific northwest. The company turned into Microsoft, and they continue to generously return the fruits of their coup to their stockholders.
A few years back, IBM and HP both hopped onto the social movement called linux. It's a wonderful movement. But the bad news for IBM is that the vast majority of enterprise datacenter deployments are now occurring on Red Hat's linux. 100 to 1, depending up on where you look.
Let me jump in here. Does this possibly reflect just the US perspective? I would argue, that at least in this country it is the other way around.
I am having this nagging feeling that Sun has more problems than IBM.
Wieder hartnäckig
by Volker Weber
Aus der Fortsetzungsreihe "Wie erkennt man einen Fehler (nicht)". Heute auf meinem Anrufbeantworter:
- Anruf 11:26
- Anruf 11:28
- Anruf 11:30
- Anruf 11:33
- Anruf 11:36
- Anruf 11:38
- Anruf 11:41
Ich weiss, wer dort anruft. Die Nummer wird angezeigt und protokolliert. Ich habe dort auch mal angerufen und versucht, ihn aufzuklären. Der Anrufer besteht darauf, alles richtig zu machen.
Was passiert? Ich habe eine (unbenutze) MSN, die mit 177 beginnt. Der Anrufer will offensichtlich ein E-Plus Handy anrufen, vergisst aber eine Null zu wählen. Das führt zu der Annahme, dass er hinter einer Vermittlung hängt, die eine zusätzliche Null zur Amtsholung benötigt. Da ich ihm bisher nicht helfen konnte, habe ich seine Nummer so lange verkürzt und eine Null angehängt, bis ich in einer Zentrale landete. Wie zu erwarten war, handelt es sich um ein Altenheim.
Hat noch jemand Angst, alt zu werden?
Open-Xchange Server goes GPL
by Volker Weber
Netline Internet Service announced today that it would contribute its OPEN-XCHANGE™ Server, the core technology underlying the industry's top-selling Linux-based groupware, collaboration, and messaging application, under the GNU General Public License (GPL) -- giving customers and partners the ability to download the code for free as well as to contribute to the project.
OPEN-XCHANGE™ Server, the engine behind Novell's SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server (NOVL), is a modular, standards-based communications tool that provides businesses with flexible groupware functions including e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks and real-time document storage.
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
You need to find a girl whose name does not end with jpg.
This came to mind when readings comments on Heise Newsticker. :-)
Extreme-Schluffing
by Volker Weber
Kinners, ihr habt ja keine Ahnung, wie gut das tut, mal nur zu Hause rum zu schluffen. Wir sind ja so was von entspannt ...
