COW - Programming for Bovines

Moo!

Here's the original article.

Gene food on European tables?

Just saw it on the Today Journal: the Americans are increasingly pushing to be able to sell their genetically modified plants to Europe as well. Nothing new, but what does give me pause: We have repeatedly tried to reach an agreement with the EU, now our patience has run out (roughly from an interview with an American on the subject of Europeans' blocking stance against genetically modified food). Sounds pretty damn similar to what was said about Iraq, doesn't it?

By now, I'm absolutely fed up with the arrogant behavior that the loudest parts of America are displaying. And no, it doesn't help to trot out the oft-cited "I know plenty of Americans who are all really great buddies" lines. Anti-Americanism? Yes. It's becoming necessary. Because I want to continue being able to decide what I eat, what I read, where I travel, what I think and what I say, without having to worry about whether Dubya and his power-hungry friends approve of it.

Threat of Fines for Missing Website Blocks in North Rhine-Westphalia

No class. So the district government is not only unable to grasp that the blocking measures are almost ineffective, but they're also unable to oversee how they can verify their own demands. Pathetic. And downright embarrassing, this demonstration of total lack of professional expertise.

At heise online news there's the original article.

New Federal Office for Civil Protection

A German version of Homeland Security? No thanks.

At tagesschau im Internet you can find the original article.

Olympus E-1 Digital SLR

And there they are, the first data on Olympus's 4/3 system. The feature list sounds like it's straight out of the wet dreams of digiphilics. But the price, sorry, that's clearly quite hefty. Why pay 2200 US dollars for a 4/3 system (which will probably end up being 2500 - 3000 euros) when you can get digital SLRs from Canon for less? I don't think such a price is justified, because the smaller chip is simply a compromise solution (selective sharpness becomes much more difficult when focal lengths get shorter). And the factor here is 2, which means significantly shorter focal lengths than even in Canon's consumer segment.

Let's wait and see what kind of performance this system will deliver in September when it becomes available.

At Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) you can find the original article.

Syndication

I'll skip the usual talk about stop energy just because someone blogs (sorry, blocks) about an innovation and instead explain why I think this undertaking makes sense.

RSS is a format that has been developed in many different directions by various people. There are two main streams. The RDF-based formats with their peak in RSS 1.0, with design-by-company and sometimes even by-committee. And the keep-it-far-too-simple stream from Dave Winer with its peak in RSS 2.0, which attempts to marry RSS and RDF, but isn't really coherent either (for instance, lately Dave labels anything that uses namespaces as "funky RSS" - I hate funk!).

So what can a new format bring? Possibly nothing. That's fine too, then at least you know (and have it documented for reference) that RSS in its existing forms is good enough.

Or you recognize that there are weaknesses and errors in the existing pool of formats. If that's the case, there are two options again:

The weaknesses can be fixed (for example through RSS 1.0 with full RDF basis or with RSS 2.0 and a few additional namespaces). This will certainly be done - because not everyone wants to jump on a new format.

The alternative - the new format - also has its merits: it's being developed using community techniques. A wiki where everyone can contribute their two cents. So it can become quite an interesting format with many good ideas. Why shouldn't you implement it then? It would be a shame if all those ideas went to waste...

At the very least though, it's a wonderful network-psychological experiment. A bunch of pretty far-out freaks of various stripes trying to collaborate together in a wiki (remember: anyone can edit and change anything!). Hey, that's practically screaming out for chips and cola and comfortable kicking back and reading along

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At Der Schockwellenreiter you can find the original article.