conjuro:

HDR Panorama on Samos, Greece

2010-05-27T08:24:00.000+02:00

HDR Panorama

2009-02-28T16:58:00.004+01:00

Since I live in Lucerne, I have been taking a lot of pictures from the mountains; I'll post some of the panoramas I created here. The first was taken on Rigi, Queen of the mountains. The second one was taken on Melchsee-Frutt.

Unexpected Error

2008-08-15T08:47:00.005+02:00

This morning I wanted to quickly look up some information in a web application and was greeted with this message:

"Unexpected Error
The process did not complete. Details should follow.
An internal error doesn't allow to continue this process"

That's it. No contact information or any other way to report this issue. Calling the helpdesk does not help either because I don't even know the name of this application as the URL just contains three letters "SMT" and - frankly - I don't really care how that application is called.

But what really bothers me is the fact that the developer (and architect) of this system settled for unexpected errors to happen, instead of catching them and leading the user to a useful message where they could report the issue and get help.

Note to developers: Nobody blames you if there are bugs in your piece of software. But you haven't done your job if there are any unexpected errors not handled as professionally as we expect the rest of your system to be.

Why did Microsoft cripple Groove?

2007-07-24T09:45:00.000+02:00

I'm currently trying to use Microsoft Groove 2007 as a collaboration tool to gather requirements. What I like about tools like Groove is:

- You can open and edit an entry without having to start an additional application (like word, excel)
- You can copy and paste pictures (screenshots) directly into an entry
- You don't have to save and re-attach changed files
- You can work offline
- Groove works inside and outside of our network out-of-the-box
- We have (as a Microsoft Gold Partner) 100 licenses available

What I don't understand about the current offering is that a lot of tools available in the last version have been removed:

The following tools and toolsets are no longer available for adding to new or existing workspaces: Contact Manager, Discussion, Document Review, Outliner, Task Manager, Text, Tic-Tac-Toe, Web Links, Welcome Page, Advanced Project Toolset, and Mobile Workspace for SharePoint.

(Source: Microsoft Office Groove Help)

There is also a large set of other features that have been removed:

Co-editing of Word documents.

Presenting of PowerPoint slide shows.

File viewers in the Groove Files Tool.

Outlook Calendar integration with the Groove Calendar and Groove Meetings tools.

Launching Netmeeting.

Sending an Outlook email thread to a Groove workspace.
(Source: Microsoft Office Groove Help)

There is a button to browse online for additional tools; but the webpage you are directed to, doesn't contain any tools. Even for adding custom tools, the only option seem to be forms - but the Infopath forms integration is very limited.

Now I do understand that Microsoft wants to streamline it's offering, but this seems like crippling an existing application into oblivion. What is the problem of offering different ways to do the same thing? I see that presenting PowerPoint slide shows conflicts with Microsoft Office Live offerings - but if users already pay for a Groove license, why can't they use that feature in the application they already work in? There are also a lot of similar services available in Sharepoint; but there I need to be online (except when using Groove to sync Sharepoint files - note the irony) and I always have to start external applications to do anything. It seems to me, that Microsoft bought Groove to make it disappear.

Panorama in HDR

2007-06-05T13:04:00.000+02:00

I just came back from Kite-Surfing in Fuerteventura - and here is my favorite picture:

It is my first panorama in HDR; hope you like it. The hotel was the Melià Gorriones near Costa Calma.

My first photowalk in Basel

2007-05-13T10:07:00.000+02:00

Photowalk

CERN Datacentre

2007-04-17T07:29:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday, we visited CERN in Geneva. Additionally to the LHC, we had a quick tour of the openlab datacentre, where I have been able to take some HDR shots. The lab is quite impressive, but was most amazing was the openess of the CERN people to show and explain.

CERN in HDR

Microsoft does have an issue with geography

2006-11-21T22:35:00.000+01:00

Here is a new Microsoft KB article about Services are not detected after you perform a DVB-T channel scan for services from Moscow or from Kiev in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 or in Windows Media Center in Windows Vista; however, if Moscow or Kiev is selected and Germany as Country, then services are detected:

When you scan for services in Moscow, and you select Russia as the country, no services are detected.
When you scan for services in Moscow, and you select Germany as the country, nine services are detected from Moscow.
When you scan for services in Kiev, and you select Ukraine as the country, no services are detected.
When you scan for services in Kiev, and you select Germany as the country, five services are detected from Kiev.

(emphasis added)

After the previous problem of placing the Swiss capital in Russia, this is far bolder.

Fun: This Day in History

2006-09-20T21:39:00.000+02:00

1783: The Montgolfier brothers sent aloft a balloon with a rooster, a duck, and a sheep aboard, rapidly advancing French aeronautics.

French aeronautics: Made possible by rooster, duck and sheep!

New record?

2006-09-19T18:43:00.000+02:00

Today, I received a "Not read" message:

After more than four years sitting in somebody's mailbox! I do not mind this person nit reading the message as much as not deleting it sooner. This one is a keeper!

New York, New York - Arrival

2006-08-22T21:53:00.000+02:00

We arrived 30 minutes late at JFK, where I had the first surprise waiting:I ordered a limo service to pick us up and drive to the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan. The Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Terminal is a great place to start exploring Manhattan. The Chrysler Building is right next to it, so it's pretty easy to find your way back. We then went to Bobby Van's Steakhouse nearby and I had a Porterhouse Steak for two (not alone, of course).

Move for live

2006-05-12T18:26:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went to the opening night of Klaus Littmanns new art intervention: Move for live. Six different artists designed trucks that will travel 250'000 km around Europe - catching more than 25 million visitors each year. The topics are poverty, AIDS, racism, violence and environmental damage. I liked the idea of art being present on our streets (and not just art galleries and museums) as well as the pictures on the trucks. What you see here is a piece by Basel artist Xia Zheng. More trucks will be launched in Frankfurt, Vienna, Paris, Madrid and Milan for up to 46 different trucks.

How SSL-evading Trojans work

2006-05-02T17:34:00.000+02:00

Pretty scary article about how new SSL-evading trojans work. I'm going to use a live Linux CD to do my online banking from now on - and I'm going to tell my girlfriend how to do that too. A good start for live Linux is Knoppix and here is a list of other compilations. Simply boot from CD or DVD, start the browser and do your online banking. Since the CD or DVD is read-only you can't easily catch a virus. Another possibility would be to run the free VMware Player with the browser appliance virtual machine - but this requires installation of software.

Wise reuse of old compact discs

2006-05-01T10:46:00.000+02:00

To prevent wild game from crossing the street when cars are approaching, CDs are hung at the streetside. Maybe this is a wise reuse of old AOL-CDs? Apparently, this actually reduces the number of accidents due to game crossing the street in front of cars.

Seen here: map.search.ch map.google.com

Book for Bush

2006-03-21T12:36:00.000+01:00

The art project Book for Bush is seeking the unfiltered input of people on the current US president - an idea I like, since George Bush actions influence people all over the world. The social networking part, where the best article (by votes) is published on the first page is a great idea. However, I don't like the paying part for an article (2$ for 200 characters - without spaces and then 1 cent for every 5 additional characters). And I fear that the book could be misused. I'll be watching. Here a link to a blog with pictures of the book. (Image credit: Baslerstab)

Why does Microsoft make it so hard?

2006-03-04T21:48:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I spent a few hours reinstalling Windows XP Home Edition [1] on my fathers computer. Thanks to MSDN, I was able to download a slipstreamed XP Home with SP2 in it (otherwise I would just slipstream it myself) and I also burned a CD with all essential tools and programs (AV, etc). But what I'm missing is a way to download and burn the security patches Microsoft published since SP2. Microsoft is relying on people like myself providing tech support for friends and family - and I don't understand why they can't make it easier for all of us to provide that support (which, by the way I regard as some sort of internet-community service - one virus and malware ridden computer less on the internet sending you spam and viruses).

What I'm looking for is a website where I can specify what type of system I want to install (in my case Windows XP Home Edition German SP2) and download all the patches available for that system. If a simple script would be provided to install these patches it would just be great.

What I had to do yesterday, was establish an Internet connection first [2] (with a not-fully patched system nota bene) and go to Windows update to download 38 security updates (!) on top of Windows XP SP2 - over a slow internet connection. I can't even imagine how Microsoft could make it harder for me.

Now with security patches coming monthly, I'd expect Microsoft to provide monthly roll-up hotfixes - especially since SP3 seems to be far far away.

Don't tell me that I could have downloaded the patches one by one beforehand - this is just not feasible.

Robert Scoble: Is there anything you can do about it?

[1] No, Linux is not an option, since my father is used to Windows, and I did not want to spend hours to search for all the drivers for the gazillion gadgets he has attached to that PC.
[2] The irony here is, that to install Bluewin ADSL support, it is required by Bluewin to disable the firewall software.

Eye-catching accident prevention poster

2006-03-03T19:06:00.000+01:00

The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention bfu has an eye-catching poster. It says: "To prevent accidents becoming horror (stories): Wear a bycicle helmet." Link to .pdf (144k)

Bush administration afraid of science

2006-02-18T15:09:00.000+01:00

NOAA has consistently discounted any connection to global warming in its scientific summaries about the record number and destructiveness of hurricanes in 2005, despite ample evidence of a likely connection from other leading climate scientists. On Wednesday, NOAA announced that several of its scientists disagreed with that official position.

It is so amazing, that the current US government is afraid scientific research that it tries to silence research about global warming and health issues. Isn't the government there to protect and serve their people? I don't think global warming is directly causing natural disasters, but if there is any evidence that changing our behaviour today could make this world a safer and healthier place for our children should not suppressed.

The United States is entering into an era where faith is more important than fact and dissent is considered betrayal, he said. When it comes to research, the current administration has gone well beyond the traditional practice of politicians fudging the numbers to get the results they want, Lapham noted.

"If science doesn't prove what it's been told to prove, then they (the Bush administration) believe it has been tampered with by Satan or the Democratic Party," he said.

Two exhibitions that fit together?

2006-02-18T11:13:00.000+01:00

1. Vitra Design Museum > Aktuelle Ausstellung: Joe Colombo – Die Erfindung der Zukunft

2. Fondation Beyeler > Sonderausstellung: Wolfgang Laib - Das Vergängliche ist das Ewige

The brrreeeport report

2006-02-14T21:44:00.000+01:00

For Robert: brrreeeport. Let's test search engines vs. blog searchers.

Cool tools for windows

2006-01-30T18:43:00.000+01:00

Nir Sofer from Nirsoft has quite a bunch of very handy tools for windows. I especially like ProduKey to extract product keys of all Microsoft Programs installed. Safe the information for your next PC migration or rebuild. ShortcutsMan allows you to enumerate all shortcuts on the desktop and in the startmenu and manage them very quickly. Very handy if your (like mine does frequently) Start Menu gets cluttered with all these different program folders and links to web pages and help files that you actually never need.

The Lazy Way to Become an Olympic Athlete

2006-01-23T20:04:00.000+01:00

Great story over at the lazy way to success.

Eric Moussambani finished to a sincerely-given standing ovation and I got goose bumps. His time was one minute and 52.72 seconds.
...
After I watched his painful performance, I realized that Eric Moussambani had just given me a chance to redeem myself. Even though I couldn’t come close to competing with the women’s gold medalist in the 400, I knew I had a fighting chance to beat Eric Moussambani in the 100 free.
...
I touched the wall at the end of the seventh lap and turned off my watch. Merciful God, I beat Moussambani’s time by over fifteen seconds! I had been reprieved!
...
Epilogue: I have since stopped timing myself. It was making the idea of swimming down right unpleasant. These days, I am back to leisurely paddling back and forth, content to know that I am good enough to be an Olympic swimmer. All I have to do is move to Equatorial Guinea.

Nice pictures of Space Shuttle above Switzerland

2006-01-03T23:32:00.000+01:00

education & media and - of course - above Basel!

'I will Not buy any Coldplay record' - PledgeBank

2006-01-02T20:30:00.000+01:00

'I will Not buy any Coldplay record' - PledgeBank

Attending LIFT06

2005-12-29T13:45:00.000+01:00

Yes, I just registered to attend LIFT 06 in Geneva. I'm looking forward to hear Cory Doctorow and Robert Scoble (amongst many others). Maybe a the Group Fondue will become the first Geek Dinner in Switzerland?

Sony is evil

2005-12-28T15:40:00.000+01:00

I just so agree with Todd:

Bad Company of the Year Award!:

The company that I am putting at the top of my list is a 4 letter word so foul, that it has been banned from my home. I have asked my wife who is Japanese to refrain from buying any of their products for the next 5 years. The Bad company of the year is no other than SONY…

Sony is just a big no-buy company. My girlfriend knows why Sony is evil and we both will rather buy a more expensive or less appealing product from a competitor. "Sony is evil" has only 726 hits on Google, but this will increase.

Edit: More about the damage Sony does:
Artists revolt against DRM
Portable stereo's creator got his due, eventually

Test Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet PC

2005-12-28T14:20:00.000+01:00

I had the luck to be able to test a Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet PC for a few days. You can find summaries of features on the Toshiba and other sites, so I'll just concentrate on the two things I was concentrating on: Screen and mechanical stability of the swivel hinge.

I found the Tecra M4 to be a fast, feature complete machine. However, to use as a tablet, the 14.1-inch screen is just a little bit too big. The screen has a glare problem, especially when used on batteries. I can't imagine the tablet can be used outdoors (in sunlight). Even inside, under a direct light source, the screen mirrors the surrounding in a disturbing way.

The swivel hinge to rotate the screen from notebook to tablet mode made a solid impression to me.

To summarize: I won't buy a Tecra M4 anytime soon due to the screen issue described above.

Test Swisscom Mobile Unlimited Card

2005-12-28T13:58:00.000+01:00

During my military service, I've tested a Swisscom Mobile Unlimited (UMTS/GPRS/WLAN) Card. Installation from the included CD was easy enough; however, it seems that there is a special installer program for the device driver that circumvents unsigned drivers warnings. I would guess that Swisscom could afford cards with drivers that are signed by Microsoft. After installation, a firmware update of the card was done. However, when starting the Unlimited Data Manager, the "Connect" button did not appear. Even an upgrade to the newest Software (and again even newer firmware) did not help. I called the Helpdesk and after much fiddling around, the ENE CB-1410 Cardbus Controller in my HP Compaq nx7010 notebook was identified as the culprit. It seems to be known to Swisscom that the Mobile Unlimited Card does not work properly with these PC Card controller. I was offered a refund and the promise that a new (read: better) card (also integrating EDGE and UMTS into one offering) will be out January. A workaround included creating a dialup connection for GPRS (which switches to UMTS when available). So I could still access the internet; however, roaming between WLAN and UMTS was not possible. De-installation of the software and drivers was not so smooth, as it included manually removing devices and drivers.

To summarize: Swisscom has created an interesting package, but there are still some rough edges to it. Especially installation and de-installation could be made much smoother. The service itself (I was just using UMTS) satisfied my connection requirements (mostly browsing the web and some e-mail).

Porta Alpina

2005-12-08T10:25:00.000+01:00

In Switzerland, a new flat rail link through the alps is being built. This includes a total of 157 km (97 miles) of tunnels, where the new tunnel through the Gotthard with 57 km (35 miles) will be the longest tunnel in the world (to be finished in 2015). To build this tunnel, one subsection below Sedrun is accessed via a vertical drift. The original plan foresaw an emergency stop at the site. However, the Swiss assembly has just approved pre-investment to create a permanent mid-tunnel train station with an 900 m (2953 feet) elevator to the heart of the alps. This would create the deepest train station with the longest elevator in the longest tunnel in the world. (Movie, QuickTime, German)

Rocketboom: Do you prefer Internet Explorer or Firefox?

2005-12-05T10:27:00.000+01:00

This is something to watch for the Microsoft IE Team. Amanda Congdon of Rocketboom fame interviews people on the street if they prefer IE or Firefox. Not only a majority answers firefox, but the main reasons have been given as: More secure, tabbed browsing and faster than IE. Note: It does not matter if this is really the case, but the fact that people just presume that Firefox is safer makes the case.

RSA Conference Europe 2005 - VOIP and security

2005-10-25T14:21:00.000+02:00

Voice over IP is widely seen as one of the next killer applications, integrating data and voice networks as well as applications. However, proprietary voice networks and components also offer good degree of separation and segmentation, increasing confidentiality, integrity and availability of telephony services versus data networks. When these two services are integrated (and in many places they are already), new threats arise and additional risks have to be mitigated. There is no doubt that also the PSTN has seen its share of attacks (war dialing, phreaking, fraud). Migration to VOIP on a large scale will see similar and new types of attacks to the combined infrastructure. It is recommended to separate the two networks logically (or even physically) and conduct an in-depth review of the threats to VOIP and implement effective countermeasures to ensure availability of voice services. The cost savings achieved by using VOIP will mostly be used to implement security.

RSA Conference Europe 2005 - To regulate or not to regulate – Panel discussion

2005-10-25T13:24:00.000+02:00

The general agreement was that it will get much worse than today, before it gets any better. How it will improve is much disputed: One side argues that government should intervene and hold software vendors liable for damages that are incurred due to faulty software. The other side refers to examples like US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), where a few who misbehave draw a massive legislative backlash that has uncertain (and sometimes even unwanted) consequences. One example mentioned was the fact that parts of the widely agreed SOX-compliance implementation steps (whistleblower procedures) interfere with data protection laws in other countries (like France) or where the pressure of the public leads to laws that do not solve the problem, like the CAN-SPAM act. Industry representatives fear legislation as restrictions for innovation. Generally, the technology to make IT more secure is available, but there seems to be a market failure in allocating the costs to the entities that can actually change something. Today, security costs (costs for additional software, hardware, time to patch, control, clean up and/or re-install systems) are carried by the users of computers – be it individuals or corporations - instead of the providers of faulty software or services.

RSA Conference Europe 2005 - 2nd Day Morning

2005-10-18T14:27:00.000+02:00

Second report from RSA Conference Europe 2005 in Vienna. This morning I attended the keynote sessions which were again opened by David Taylor. He praised the speech of Arthur Coviello - to which I do not agree. Then Jayshree Ullal of Cisco introduced their Self-defending networks idea. I was rather disappointed by the lack of actual vision. She also confused in one slide the time to fix a vulnerability with the time a vulnerability is exploited in large scale (with regards to sober and nimda). The methods how Cisco wants to defend networks seem very similar to the not very successful methods we use today. They do have some vision regarding management of policies and networks, but integrating this into one common platform will yet create another new risk. Some of the stuff Jayshree talked about were mere buzzwords without further meaning: "http or https based attacks" or "XML applications" - what is that supposed to mean? Any application using XML? The best part was the picture she draw regarding pacman gobbling up bad packets inside network devices like switches and routers. I was really hoping for better and especially more in-depth information on how the current issues can be tackled, but the vendors just continued to promote their solutions as the one to solve all issues once they're ready. The very same critique applies to Nico Popp from Verisign which announced a partnership with Ebay and Paypal to promote OTP tokens for authentication to these services. The next session was a panel discussion between different CIOs on supporting the CEO agenda. The common sense was to create awareness for Information Security and then come up with compelling plans to implement effective measures.

RSA Conference Europe 2005 - 1st Day

2005-10-18T13:48:00.000+02:00

Today, I'm following up on the first day of the RSA Conference Europe 2005 in Vienna. After a good night sleep I arrived at about 9.30h at the Austria Center in Vienna (on the Donauinsel near UNO-City). The long line of attendees registering was a bit discouraging, but after 45 Minutes I got bag and badge. I then attended the "special session created especially for first-time RSA Conference attendees" - and I felt really special. The information given was quite useful, however. The best thing was the introduction with my neighbor on the next seat.

What I find confusing is the different tracks and tutorials that were held the first day: There is are "Professional Development" Class Tracks as well as a Developer and Enterprise Tutorials being held. I know, that the Tutorials cost extra money (Ã€ 295) - but it was not clear if the Class Tracks are charged in addition.

Finally at 4.30h the Keynote sessions started with David Taylor as Moderator. He did a good job of introducing the crowd to the historical theme of this years conference. However, the codes of prohibition (with Elizabeth Friedman decrypting intercepted messages between rum-runners and smugglers) has one significant downside:Cryptanalysiss was used to support a law which should not have been implemented in the first place.

Then Dame Stella Rimington gave an insightful speech about the challenges, successes and failures of UK Security Service (MI5) which she headed as a director 1992-1996. She made a point when she said that terrorism cannot be defeated and that the "war on terrorism" is thus misleading.

Arthur Coviello, CEO of RSA Security Inc. then made a rather weak call for a joint effort of the industry to provide the long needed security services to the customer. His speech was full of commonplace wisdom about interoperability and industry partnership. I was very disappointed by this uninspired call for participation.

At the end of the night, the European Information Security Awards 2005 have been handed out by people I didn't know or have ever heard of to other people I didn't know and haven't heard of. However, the achievements which were rewarded with the awards were not described, so it's hard for me to say anything about that.

I then met a colleague and after some snacks at the conference we had Sushi in downtown Vienna. It was excellent as usual.

HP Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition support policiy: beyond comprehension

2005-09-13T16:35:00.000+02:00

As you can see, HP does only support Windows 2003 Standard Edition on their DL 320 Server. I wonder why that is. As far as I know, there are not that many differences between the two editions - especially in terms of hardware support - that would justify this difference. Is this some scheme to force people to buy new hardware just because the old one is not supported anymore? I guess we'll have to evaluate different vendors and their support policy.

Audio-Update (2)

2005-09-05T17:19:00.000+02:00

As promised – here the details of my undertaking regarding my CD collection. One day I really got fed up for having to keep a huge rack of CDs in my living room. It just doesn’t look good. And I don’t really like handling the CDs. So I decided to rip them all. I already started with some CDs using Windows Media Player and an mp3 codec with 320bit/s setting. But I didn’t like the quality. After some research regarding lossless audio codecs, I decided upon FLAC (free lossless audio codec). Here’s why:

wave format does not support tagging (song title, etc) and is creates huge files
mp3 and other “lossy” formats: the quality is not good enough for me
wma format: has DRM in it and I simply do not trust Microsoft in this matter

FLAC has all benefits I was looking for:

free, open source format, no DRM
lossless compression
support for tags
available on all platforms

Then I went ahead and searched for a tool that supports ripping CDs and automatically compressing and tagging the resulting files. Exact Audio Copy (EAC) seems to be the tool of choice for this task. EAC It allows me to control all aspects of the ripping process, from naming of the files, compression options and best of all: It supports a plugin called AccurateRip which compares checksum of ripped songs to a central database in order to determine if your rip has been without errors.

Audio-Update (1)

2005-09-01T17:23:00.000+02:00

Slow blogging, as I'm still ripping all my CDs. The Squeezebox2 is one of the most amazing little devices I ever bought. Fast, solid and amazingly open. More to come...

Clever Swiss

2005-08-11T20:48:00.000+02:00

There seems to be a debate whether Google should censor images of an Australian nuclear power plant due to fear of terrorism. I grew up in the vincinity of three nuclear power plants and of course I wanted to know if there are images of those on map.google.com. Apart from the satellite picture not being very high resolution - even the Swiss flight pictures on map.search.ch are not revealing at all - because the steam cloud is covering most of the interesting bits. (However, other plants are clearly visible.) Which brings to my second point: Blurring or hiding this information from public display is plainly stupid. Security does not work through obscurity.

Stupid domain hijackers

2005-08-11T10:31:00.000+02:00

Today, I wanted to look at some new car picture and entered www.range-rover.ch in my browser's address bar. However some dimwit Swiss search portal provider decided, that it might be a clever trick to lure me to their me-too portal website. Hey, do they really think I want to go through their portal when I entered a completely different address? How can people be so stupid and think they can trap people to use their services? This is one of the most imbecile marketing tricks. I will never, never ever click a link on one of those sites. Even if it would interest me.

Young Boys Wankdorf Erection Relief

2005-08-03T21:18:00.000+02:00

Now this is simply hilarious! Via BoingBoing...

Moment of unfortunate news headline zen: "

Xeni Jardin: Young Boys Wankdorf Erection Relief is the title of a surprisingly worksafe news article on ESPN's "soccernet" site about a new stadium for a Swiss soccer team. Link. (Thanks, Ben Lee)

Using fishes to ensure quality of drinking water

2005-08-03T20:59:00.000+02:00

Inspired through BoingBoing.
In Switzerland, fishes are still used to check the quality of drinking water. When water is contaminated with something that kills the fish, an automatic alarm is triggered. Pretty neat usage - does this comply as "animal testing"? (Image Source).
Edit 20-Sep-2006: Added Trackback to a new BoingBoing.

Does IBM really know what they are talking about?

2005-08-03T14:23:00.000+02:00

Here they write "While other electronic forms vendors embrace XML standards, PureEdge remains the only electronic forms developer whose products do not tie customers to use of proprietary Windows-centric technologies."

But on the Press release itself: "PureEdge provides a business process automation framework composed of products, partnerships and services to create, manage and deploy XML forms-based processes."

What does "embrace XML standards" have to do with "Windows-centric technologies"?

Paul's Personalized Google News, ca. 2031

2005-08-02T14:04:00.000+02:00

Looks funny at first sight, but then it makes me think where we will head to...

Paul's Personalized Google News, ca. 2031

The logon keyboard is much smaller after you change the language in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005

2005-07-02T08:38:00.000+02:00

Well another one of these real funny "bugs". What is going on in the minds of these programmers?
The logon keyboard is much smaller after you change the language in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005

How's your hand-eye?

2005-07-01T22:53:00.000+02:00

Cool game, really difficult.

How's your hand-eye?: "

For someone with supposedly good hand-eye coordination, I found this game bogglingly hard! I think it's one of those spatial relationship things, like that awful/fantastic game in EyeToy where you have to touch two corners of the TV screen when...

The seduction of "good enough"

2005-06-15T09:30:00.000+02:00

Seth Godin once again speaks from my heart. I think that good enough is far away from being sufficient anymore. Think about common household goods: The current business plan for creators of measuring cups and other household items is: cheap, one size fits all and throw away in two years to buy again. I recently was at the local IKEA to buy a new measuring jug, but they only had cups with metric and imperial measurement system - and none of them were made of glass, all plastic. I don't want another measuring systems on my cup. This may sound narrow-minded, but I regard those different systems utterly confusing - especially when I'm cooking. I addition, the letters on these plastic cups vanish after a year or two. I went and ordered a glass measuring jug, made from Jena glass in Germany. It wasn't expensive. And it feels light and solid. It's made in Europe. It only has metric marks on it. It will be good for a lifetime. That's a product, that can't be made any better.

Apple switching to Intel CPUs

2005-06-06T22:18:00.000+02:00

I really don't see what the fuss is about. Macintouch claims the announcement does "represent a radical change in the Macintosh platform." Come on. The CPU of the box does not matter all. Hey, I'm a computer geek and I don't care a bit what CPU my laptop is running on. And I am very suprised to hear that all those creative and free thinking Apple users should care. Apple does a very good job in creating very nice hardware along good software. The CPU is the least bit that should matter when buying an Apple computer

Marketing for Longhorn

2005-06-05T12:52:00.000+02:00

This is a great idea. Imagine Microsofts huge partner-network being actively involved. We are a small system integrator in Switzerland and we would love to have a walk-in migration day (or week) where poeple could bring their PCs, play with their children on the new XBox 360 and wait until their PC is migrated. Additionaly, maybe other software vendors could provide free or cheap upgrades so people can expirience the latest and greatest features of their products. That would certainly healp to create passionate windows users. And maybe make the internet a little more secure.

What I would do:

In other words, when Longhorn ships, I'd have an outdated PC update program. You bring in your old, running, Internet-capable machine running Windows 95 or 98, and MS moves your files and apps over onto a new low-end white box PC. No charge..

ASP.NET and IIS Serve More Fortune 1000 Sites than Any Other Web Server Technologies...

2005-06-02T15:22:00.000+02:00

Seems that Microsoft IIS has more than 50% of market share of the Fortune 1000 companies web servers. There are customers I talk to who claim that using windows on DMZ servers requires a lot more effort for updating on security patches. I don't agree - I believe there is no such thing as an effortless infrastructure. You anyway have to maintain it and you have to look after your servers regularly. If you do a proper architecture (load-balanced, clustered) and assign the needed resource to review, test and deploy patches, then the decision of which operating system to use becomes neglible.

Direct link: Port80Software

I remember there was once a review on how many Websites that provide TLS (formerly known as SSL) are hosted on which platform. I remember IIS being a leader there, too.

Via
ASP.NET and IIS Serve More Fortune 1000 Sites than Any Other Web Server Technologies...:

First Survey of U.S. Corporate Application Server and Scripting Deployments Reveals Microsoft Ahead of Competing Web Platforms

Darth Vader spoof, funny, can't get money from movie execs

2005-05-26T20:57:00.000+02:00

Just great. Via scoble.

Orange - Gold Spot - Darth Vader. Darth Vader's heart of evil is no match for Hollywood executives.

End Of World - Interesting view on how the world will end

2005-05-26T20:40:00.000+02:00

hilarious!

Alien Loves Predator: In New York, no one can hear you scream.

2005-05-08T21:47:00.000+02:00

Now that's what I call a funny comic. Be sure to read all of them!

Geek Fun

2005-05-08T20:25:00.000+02:00

Press me

Ridiculing legal threats

2005-04-26T11:32:00.000+02:00

I'm not endorsing illegal distribution of copyrighted content, however - the owner of this site provides some funny answers to legal threats by various companies and their lawyer droids:

You have scored 10 out of 10 points on our Legal Threats Entertainment
scale. You win the grand prize: A lifetime of ridicule on our legal
threats section (http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/) !
Congratulations!

Please also note that I'm not currently out of toilet paper, so you may
wait a while before sending legal papers.

Please also note the two fun charts at the bottom of the page.

Legal threats against The Pirate Bay

Just Letters - A browser based multi-user Flash game

2005-04-23T09:27:00.000+02:00

Very cool little flash - drag a along magnetic letters and fight with others.

Just Letters - A browser based multi-user Flash game

Berkeley Professor threatens thief of his laptop

2005-04-21T23:00:00.000+02:00

Professor Jasper Rine is a professor at UC Berkely and had his laptop stolen. After a class at the university he addressed the thief to hand back the laptop. (Transcript, video) He seems to be quite angry at the thief and threatens to track him down (with the help of Microsoft, the FBI, Federal Marshals, the SEC an the FTC). Apparently there was very important data on that laptop,although the thief was most probably only looking for exam data. The first thing we should ask here is why all of this so important and secret data was stored on a laptop unencrypted, why there is no backup and why anybody would let someone even come near such important data? To me this rant sounds very much like a rather pathetic attempt to cover up for his own goof-ups and scare. Secondly, let's analyse the claims a little bit more:

"he was not smart enough to immediately remove Windows. I installed the same version of Windows on another computer - within fifteen minutes the people in Redmond Washington were very interested to know why it was that the same version of Windows was being signalled to them from two different computers." Well, apparently our professor installed the same copy of Windows on two computers - now while this might be licensed today, it is not allowed to use both machines at the same time. To me the professor is in violation of the license agreement. Additionally, Windows does not "call home" and the people in Redmond have other things to do than track the laptops of professors.

"The thief also did not inactivate either the wireless card or the transponder that's in that computer. Within about an hour, there was a signal from various places on campus that's allowed us to track exactly where that computer went every time that it was turned on." I'm wondering what types of transponders are installed in this laptop - if it were any good, the professor should be able to just walk up to the thief and take the laptop back. Now Wifi could potentially be used to track location of certain client, this is not as easy as claimed (I sure hope not, that the university does this will all computers) and not very accurate (especially in a larger, open campus).

After all, it seems to me that the professor has no clue who stole his laptop, did not protect the confidential and important data stored on it and now tries to get that data back by threatening with his older brother. Be sure to check out the comic strip and especially the hilarious comments.

Via BoingBoing.

Verizon CEO does not get the cluetrain

2005-04-17T21:18:00.000+02:00

In an interview, Verizon's CEO Ivan Seidenberg ridiculed customer complaints:

Seidenberg, for instance, said people often complain about mobile phone service because they have unrealistic expectations about a wireless service working everywhere. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, is the state's largest mobile phone provider.

"Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" he said. "The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement."

Seidenberg said it's not Verizon's responsibility to correct the misconception by giving out statistics on how often Verizon's service works inside homes or by distributing more detailed coverage maps, showing all the possible dead zones. He pointed out that there are five major wireless networks, none of which works perfectly everywhere.

Let me repeat this:

1) "The customer has come to expect so much" - am I the only one to think that this guy should better not give interviews? I always thought that phone companies number one job is to make cell phones available anywhere, thus have customers use theme everywhere (yes, even in elevators and basements) and then make money of it.
2) "it's not Verizon's responsibility to correct the misconception" well, maybe not. But when you want to manage customers expectation, you'll have to communicate with them. An be honest about your coverage maps.

Passwords Alone Don't Protect Trade Secrets

2005-04-17T19:52:00.000+02:00

Another proof that technology alone is not enough to keep important information secret; we'll have to establish policies and processes that explain people the meaning of tagging informaton confidential.

Passwords Alone Don't Protect Trade Secrets: "

A court ruled that simply password-protecting a file isn't enough to make it a trade secret.

Japanese car tuners actually take tuning to the extreme

2005-04-17T16:44:00.000+02:00

Those rides are really pimped!

Storage Technology - get perpendicular!

2005-04-17T16:42:00.000+02:00

Cool technology intro! Even my girlfiriend liked it!

Storage Technology

Microsoft at home PC security videos

2005-04-12T11:10:00.000+02:00

Just found this collection of videos, which very well explain the issues with viruses, worms, spyware and phishing to end users. Microsoft even allows:

If you would like to use our videos for educational or training purposes, you may download them from the links below. You may display the video to others or copy it to your private network to be viewable by others without Internet access, but they may not be redistributed elsewhere on the Internet.

Good move, Microsoft.

But what I found very disturbing is that the videos are downloaded as .exe files, which self-extract as again .exe files which play in Macromedia Flash Player 7. Now even if we provide these great videos internally, the end users have to click through warning messages telling them they should only open executables if they trust them. In addition, we're trying to get people to not download any executables at all. For these reasons: Please Microsoft, provide the videos in a format that doesn't require the end users downloading .exe files and still allows us to publish them in an internal network.

Should companies publish cell phone numbers of all employees internally?

2005-04-05T21:10:00.000+02:00

One of our customers is discussing publishing the phone numbers of all employees in a central directory. For the classic desk phone this is merely undisputed. But for cell phones, different view points exist. First of all, there seems to be the idea, that only managers have cell phones (the same thinking applies to laptops, smartphones and PDAs). This might be true for some business areas, but for example in IT, most of the employees have cell phones, laptops and the like, just to be able to do their jobs. Secondly, people fear that they get unsolicited phone calls when their number is published internally. For example, the IT service manager might be called in the middle of the night, instead of going through the standard problem escalation procedures.

I understand these concerns, but my view on this is: Publish all phone numbers in a central directory; where phone numbers are not up to date or unpublished, create a button, that (when pressed) generates an E-mail saying something along the line: "I tried to reach you, but I couldn't because your number is not listed. Click here to list your numbers.". For those managers who fear to get phone calls, allow them to have themselves unlisted. I'm sure, that over time, the number of unlisted cell phone numbers will decrease, as exactly these employees will not be involved in some discussions, because they couldn't be reached.

Additionally, people should stop thinking of cell phones, laptops and other devices as status symbols: These things are needed for people to do their jobs. I remember very well the time, when it was unthinkable, that the manager had an older PC than the people reporting to him. This led to a machine-swapping nightmare, each time a PC had to be replaced. This doctrine was also hindering productivity, because most of the time, employees were using PCs much more for their daily work than their managers. So next time you need to get a machine to a new developer in your team: Don't give him the old one that'll just suffice. All people like getting new things. A great way to start in a company is getting a brand new piece of equipment.

Regarding the listing of cell phones, I'd like to mention Robert Scoble (Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger):

Why put your cell phone number on your blog?

James Snape, on my comments yesterday, asked "is putting your mobile number on the internet a good idea? Do you get many unwanted calls or text spam?"

I've been doing that for years. So far I have gotten a handful of calls. It really is amazing how few I get.

But, here's why I do it. <continue here>

Legend or history?

2005-04-03T21:58:00.000+02:00

Seth Godin writes a book about daylight saving time. In a recent blog entry he writes:

[...] because in 1444, the walled city of Basel was about to be attacked. There were infidels outside, and some had infiltrated the town. The guards caught some of the bad guys and heard that the attack was to begin precisely at noon. An alert sentry changed the clock in the square an hour. Brilliant! The insiders, unaided by their allies, started their diversion an hour early. They were all arrested.[...]

As I'm living near Basel, I got curious a wanted to know more about this incident. In fact, Basel was besieged in August of 1444 by an army of 30'000 - 40'000 French mercenaries (the Armagnacs) under the guidance of Dauphin Louis (later King Louis XI. of France). They occupied and plundered a few villages and castles in the vincinity but could not get into the city of Basel. At the same time, but in an otherwise unrelated event, a Swiss (note that Basel was not associated with the Swiss by then, this happened in 1501) army of 2000 men besieged the castle of Farnsburg (approx.. 20km from Basel). In the evening of the 25th of August 1444, approx. 1200 Swiss soldiers went to attack a 2000 men strong part of the Armagnac Army in Pratteln - for once, they wanted to prevent them coming too near to the Farnsburg, but also to hit the ally of their enemy to whom Pratteln belonged. So in the early hours of the 26th of August, the Swiss army was very successfull to attack and kill the different parts of the Armagnac Army. However, due to medieval-age honour (never retreat) and military behaviour (after a victory, you have to stay three days on the battlefield), they just had to attack the main army in the plain of Basel. In short, all Swiss were killed in a bloodbath.

To come back to the main blog: The Armagnacs were no "infidels" as all parties involved were christian catholics at that time (Luther was not born then). The only note to such an incident I found is from a book about legends "Rhein-Sagen, Geschichten entlang des Stromes", Maternus Verlag Köln .

Additionally, along with the traditions in medieval time, the traitors would not have been arrested but killed. But it is a nice story anyway.

One thing, which is odd, is the fact that Basels clocks were offset from the clocks of their neighbours for centuries: According to an article here (German):

Since late medieval time , clocks in Basel were one hour advanced to the clocks around the city, so that at noon (which is normally 12 o'clock) it was 1. This time was called "Basler Uhr" or "Basler Zeit". Most presumably, this oddity came from the introduction of the first clockwork ca.1380 and the partition of the day in two times twelve hours, where midday and midnight was not the ending 12th, but the beginning 1st hour. This oddity was kept until late 18th century.

GorillaMask.net: Interactive Buddy

2005-04-02T13:07:00.000+02:00

Well... something to play with!

GorillaMask.net: Interactive Buddy

How to choose a good password

2005-04-02T12:50:00.000+02:00

Very interesting empirical study made at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory. Shows, that a combination of mnemonic based passwords (i.e. the first letter of a phrase) and password policy enforcement to create minimal length and maximum entropy passwords offers the best tradeoff between security and memorability. Also worth mentioning is, that random passwords appear not to be better that passwords based on mnemonic phrases.

Link to .pdf (97KB)

Blogmap!

2005-03-20T20:11:00.000+01:00

How Not To Sell Crap

2005-03-15T20:11:00.000+01:00

I wish the sales people I know would read this...

http://mcmanus.typepad.com/grind/2005/03/how_not_to_sell.html

So many sales droids keep making the same mistakes, I thought I’d put together a handy primer on how not to sell crap to me.

Imagine that the sales process is a game and you have to score 100 points to win. When you win, I buy your crap. Now, at least 50 of those points comes from "having a good product". Another 25 of those points come from "being easy to work with" which includes having a non-ridiculous price point for whatever it is you’re selling.

The final 25 points come from your company’s track record — have you ever done this before or are you making it up as you go along? A little thing that marketers like to call "success stories" is key here, as well as metrics (numbers, whatever) that demonstrate some kind of return on investment. (I realize that "ROI" is a hackneyed business droid cliche; if you like, we can rephrase it by saying "can my crap make more money if it starts using your crap?" If the answer is yes, then congratulations, we are more than 25% of the way there.)

Now, none of these things can be materially influenced by a conversation with a sales person. You cannot convince me that your crap product is not a crap product in a phone conversation. You cannot invent customer references or stellar features. The best a sales person can hope to do is inform me about the company’s products, track record, and services. (I should pause to mention here that I’m really not "anti-sales" — I’ve actually done many sales and sales-ish jobs over the years, starting when I had my own paper route when I was 12 — but I’m really cognizant of what happens when sales people don’t do their jobs right.)

So, some tips:

1) Do not cunningly divine my telephone number, call me, interrupt my work, and give me your sales pitch. I’m very easy to reach by email and that is the way you should be reaching me if you are not a friend or co-worker. Just because you have my business card does not mean you should call first. Email first, and call if I ask you to. Better yet, wait for me to call you. If you unexpectedly reach me by phone, you’ve already lost about 15 points before you’ve even uttered a word.

2) A kickass demo is worth a whole legion of sales droids. Give me a kickass demo and you’ve gone a long way toward racking up those 50 points for having a kickass product.

3) Do not whine when I tell you that the crap you’re selling is too expensive for us. I work for a deeply strange company whose return-on-investment calculations are of paramount importance; at the same time, the calculations themselves are radically different than the average Silicon Valley company. We are willing to pay the big bucks for the right product at the right time, but our definition of "big bucks" may be different than yours, and it may be on a very different timeline. But ultimately, my company is very cheap and very conservative about who it will do business with. Know this before you start and you will be much happier.

4) Do not attempt to go over my head to my boss or my boss’ boss when I shoot down your sales pitch. My boss and my boss’ boss are experienced professionals, but they know much less about how I do my job than I do. Hence, if you bug these guys, they will laugh at you, then forward the voice mail on to me, where I will laugh at you harder and deduct 25 more points from your score.

5) There is no such thing as a "hard sell". The concept of the "hard sell" is a manifestation of your frustration at not being able to get through to me. It says nothing to me other than "this salesperson does not have the emotional maturity necessary to work with me." I don’t have to put up with it. Get a better product, communicate about it better, or hand me off to someone on your team who can communicate your product’s benefits more effectively. (Preferably you’ll have that person contact me via email.)

6) The customer is always right. Still. Duh.

I realize that a lot of this is going to come off as arrogant. Sorry, but that’s the breaks. I’m really not that hard to do business with if you have some crap that I need. So if you want to sell me your crap, then it’s better you get this information up front than in the kind of nasty post-mortem message I just left on some hapless sales droid’s voice mail.

Related…

[Scoble's Link Blog]

Microsoft to ditch passwords?

2005-03-15T17:34:00.000+01:00

"Microsoft has revealed at a security panel at CeBIT that it is preparing to dump passwords in favor of two-factor authentication in forthcoming versions of Windows. "

Microsoft doesn't really have track record for integrating authentication properly into their products. The situation has improved over the last years, but there are way to many different passwords and authentication systems used. Every office application has a password-protect feature, databases are protected through built-in user management and smartcards or securIDs are not so easy to be deployed. Why can't I just assign ANY smartcard (certificate) with my windows account? I could reuse existing banking cards (even using only the serialnumber) instead of handing out additional ones.

So, this is good news.

[Bink.nu]

Two factor authentication outdated?

2005-03-15T12:19:00.000+01:00

According to the article below from The Register (quoting Bruce Schneier), two-factor authentication seems already be outdated. I believe, we should take a careful approach here: Two-factor authentication is certainly better than just user-id and password. Especially online banking in the US has been using just user-id/password and now they are paying the prize for this lax security measure. Stepping up to use onetime passwords (such as RSA SecurID or Aladin tokens) is a first step against sniffing out passwords. However, there is no such thing as complete security. But two-factor authentication is a first step. As every Information Security Officer nows, user awareness is key to increase security. By giving user a device, this awareness increases dramatically.

Link to original article.

New threats need new response

Banks are spending millions on two-factor authentication for their customers but the approach no longer provides adequate protection against fraud or identity theft, according to Bruce Schneier, the encryption guru.
[The Register]

Microsoft buys groove.net

2005-03-11T08:10:00.000+01:00

Very interesting. I just downloaded the groove trial and it seems to be worthwhile looking at.

And it looks like Ray Ozzie will be the new CTO reporting directly to Bill Gates. Wow, I'm not sure I ever would have thought of Ray Ozzie as a Microsoft employee. It will be really interesting to see how the Groove stuff gets integrated into the rest of the Office family. Clearly there's more to this than what's on the surface. Gives you a good sense of where Microsoft wants to take Office and how they might plan to get there.
[Michael Gartenberg]

Boing boing on Blinde Kuh

2005-03-11T08:07:00.000+01:00

There is now also a "Blinde Kuh" (blind cow) restaurant in Basel. (Site in german only). There seems to be also some cultural program, including music, theater and radio plays.

Xeni Jardin:
Boing Boing reader and radio producer Adam Burke did a nifty story for NPR's Morning Edition about a restaurant in Zurich, Switzerland called the Blind Cow. Diners eat in complete darkness and are served by blind waitresses. "It's an extraordinary experience that I really loved," says Adam. Link.

Reader Anne Kinner says,

As soon as I saw this Boing Boing post, I remembered a video that I watched about Berlin in preparation for my trip there which featured a similar restaurant. I tracked it down through Google and found an article from the Financial Times (Link). The article states that the first Unsicht ("invisible bar") opened in Cologne in 2001. There seems to be quite a bit of info Google wise and is incredibly interesting. It seems, from articles and the video I watched, that the goal is trying to make people concentrate on the flavor, the texture, and the experience of food. Perhaps hinges on the concept that if you lose one sense, another will be heightened.

Reader Bruno says,

Update to the "eating without seeing story": the "Dans le Noir" restaurant in Paris exists since 1999, and is the "father" of Zurich's Blind Cow: Link

Reader Jed says:

Here is a review of a "dark dining" restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, that also touches on the history of "dark dining" -- Link.

[Boing Boing]

RSS (protocol) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2005-02-22T20:57:00.000+01:00

RSS explained for newbies

RSS (protocol) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DRM for media will fail

2005-02-18T11:14:00.000+01:00

No universal panacea here

RSA 2005 Movie industry representatives at RSA 2005 in San Francisco today called on the IT industry for help in thwarting illegal file sharing before the problem threatened its revenues. But they were told that they must recognise the limitations of digital rights management in their fight against digital piracy.
[The Register]

Another proof that DRM systems cannot work

2005-02-14T23:42:00.000+01:00

If you can listen, you can record. A computer is a wonderful piece of equipment made to rearrange bits and bytes. Somebody selling DRM-"protected" music has to provide content and keys to the potential attacker. That's why these systems will never work and this is the reason for ridiculous laws like DMCA - a law that fixes technology that doesn't work that was invented because record companies fail to adapt their business case to new technology. Sigh.

Mark Frauenfelder:

"Marv on record" provides the how to on some "Theoretical fun" for legally getting hundreds of Napster music CDs for the price of the blank CDs. Link
[Boing Boing]

Microsoft misplacing Swiss capital Bern in Russia

2005-02-12T11:26:00.000+01:00

The Microsoft advertising campaign for Windows Server System using the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs as a headline is remarkeable in one sense:

Although, for sure, operations for this department run out of Swiss capital in Bern, the advertisements graphics point to somewhere near Moscow.

Microsoft misplacing Swiss capital Bern in Russia

Now we are aware that some people in US confuse Switzerland with Sweden - but placing Switzerland east of Germany is something completely new.

Please, Microsoft, update the flash movie - or maybe they have been using Microsoft Map to find Bern.

Pretty Funny Rocky spoof

2005-02-11T14:24:00.000+01:00

David Pescovitz:
This video spoof of a Rocky "training montage" is so stupidly funny and over the top that I love it. The best part is that it goes on and on. And to set the mood, here's Sylvester Stallone on the "Gonna Fly Now" training montage from the first Rocky film:
The training montage was something that I had been building toward for six months. I knew I would have to do what every fighter must to get himself in peak condition, but I wanted to do it in even a more exaggerated form.

Link (Thanks, Professor Cupcake)

[Boing Boing]

Mental Drippings - ten worst album covers - ever

2005-01-14T19:51:00.000+01:00

These are just hillarious! I think I remember some even worse, got to check my cellar...

Mental Drippings

it's all one thing: The People Who Owned the Bible - a story

2005-01-11T20:04:00.000+01:00

This is a great story by Will Shetterly - ROFL

it's all one thing: The People Who Owned the Bible - a story

Silly test

2005-01-10T20:47:00.000+01:00

Your Dominant Intelligence is Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

You are great at finding patterns and relationships between things.
Always curious about how things work, you love to set up experiments.
You need for the world to make sense - and are good at making sense of it.
You have a head for numbers and math ... and you can solve almost any logic puzzle.

You would make a great scientist, engineer, computer programmer, researcher, accountant, or mathematician.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Barcode Bread!

2005-01-07T16:40:00.000+01:00

Normally we wouldn’t report on a bread
maker, but the Beyond Bread Maker (retails for $150) automatically bakes any bread or cake mix by just by scanning a
UPC barcode—there’s no need to set times here with this little contraption. Cooking by UPC code—now that’s something
we like hearing.
[Engadget]

Server Performance Advisor version 1.0

2005-01-06T10:18:00.000+01:00

See How Your Server Is Performing
Server Performance Advisor version 1.0 measures the performance and use of resources by your computer to tell you which parts are stressed under workload.

2005-01-04T23:31:00.000+01:00

Ganz spannend zu lesen, wie sechs mal kleine Fehler grosse Folgen haben können.

[Die Weltwoche (Ausgabe 51/04)]

PowerPizza

2005-01-04T23:08:00.000+01:00

LOL; that is a very nice idea; wouldn't it be great if the boxes were recycled ones? I don't really like my pizzas come in boxes, because they always taste like the box...

Dark Twonky writes "Human Beans is selling the perfect gift for the geek who has everything. It's the PowerPizza, a pizza box for transporting your precious laptop in. From the web site: Desirable laptops are desirable to thieves too. Disguise your laptop with a PowerPizza and reduce the risk of getting it nicked." [Slashdot]

Microsoft Research darknet paper

2004-12-19T16:59:00.000+01:00

Anynone interested in technology and future of DRM and file sharing should read this Microsoft Research Paper.

Additionally here is Cory Doctorow's speech to Microsoft Research, referencing the darknet paper.

Some Comments:

Boing Boing: MSFT's Darknet paper: must read

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000206.html

another blog?

2004-12-19T16:44:00.000+01:00

yeah, I know - why should I start a new one - there are plenty of blogs there. However, I feel the urge to share my thoughts - even if nobody reads them. I don't know, how often I'll be able to post, but I got some interesting topics on mind: digital rights management, copyright control, patents and freedom. Stay tuned.