debian.org hacked [Update]
Grumble At heise online news there's the original article.
Archive November 2003
Germany, the Belated Nation
Information laggard.
At Telepolis News you can find the original article.
The Legend of the Salt Dome
For those who haven't quite understood what an interim storage facility is. Although I was aware of the fact that above-ground storage for cooling purposes was used, I was not aware that the procedure for repackaging the waste from the Castor into the Pollux container does not even exist yet. I also could not have named the specific time period of over 30 years.
Propaganda works, we forget far too easily and far too willingly, and we are equally willing to believe...
New LUMIX camera DMC-LC1 scheduled for spring 2004
The candidate for the Leica Digilux 2?
Trouble with the GNUs
I don't like the GFDL either - precisely because of the problems that arise with Debian. So I'll probably never become a GNU maintainer. Well, I don't know if I'd want to anyway - GNU maintainer sounds to me more like a job where you have to shovel antelope shit than actual software development.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Computer failure and poor training led to US blackout
After all the wild speculation, a very boring explanation...
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Open Content and Related Licenses
On the linked page, an Open Content license and three restricted variants are offered with which content can be released for use in a similar way as is possible with software using the GPL. What is interesting here is that these licenses are tailored to German law. Very interesting - and the licenses are of course themselves freely usable.
The ARD on Ghost Hunt
Another broadcast that humanity doesn't need. Esoteric nonsense spread with public broadcasting funds. Just great. But then again, we still broadcast church services and papal appearances on television, which is exactly the same kind of humbug. Whether someone claims to be able to bend spoons or claims their inspirations come from God - it's all humbug. And we happily pass it on, because criticism of humbug makes you out to be a nitpicker and someone without imagination. And ever since Hohlmann, we know that we imaginationless nitpickers are the evil perpetrators ...
What I could never quite wrap my head around though: if natural science already offers such fascinating aspects as promiscuous bonobos, fart-speaking herrings (if only Walter Mörs had known about that!), and black holes - who still needs esoteric humbug?
At Telepolis News you can find the original article.
Skyscrapers are causing Shanghai to sink
That gives the term "land under" a whole new dimension ... tagesschau im Internet has the original article.
Chancellor annoyed about board election results: "Disgrace"
Well, it would certainly be asking too much if the chancellor had to think about whether perhaps his absurd policies are to blame for the poor performance
I found the original article on RP-Online: Politik.
Copy protection debacle possibly also affecting video DVDs
What a load of crap. That would mean I'd have to copy the corresponding films from file-sharing networks - after all, I only watch my DVDs on my notebook. Ok, not that I'd want to see Hulk in any form on any device - the film is so bad that it probably should never have been made in the first place. Why such garbage even needs copy protection is really beyond me - the film's poor quality alone should be enough to ensure that nobody wants to copy this trash.
At heise online news you can find the original article.
License fees for every single bean
The Wonderful World of Genetic Engineering Vultures
The original article can be found at Telepolis News.
SCO Chief: This World Needs Proprietary Systems
Nice Summary of Darl McBride's Complete Loss of Reality
I find his idea particularly amusing that Novell and Redhat could have anything to do with whether Linux is free or not (aside from the fact that it was never free - even a download has costs). Does this joker seriously believe that projects like Debian would stop their work just because he talks nonsense?
Even if the GPL were attacked in some form (which hardly anyone besides SCO's leadership believes), that would only mean a portion of software would become problematic for Linux distributions. And a large part of GPL software comes from the FSF or has been transferred to the FSF - and is thus far outside SCO's reach. But they apparently never understood that a kernel isn't the whole system anyway, what can you expect from such trolls...
But what does SCO actually have to offer for the future? The partially over 10 years old Open Server? The Unixware that hasn't been developed significantly in 5 years? Ridiculous. The only somewhat modern product they have would be their Linux distribution.
At heise online news there is the original article.
SCO claims world software market under threat
Wow. McBride is really a bombshell. So the Free Software community is equated with:
- filesharing
- dot-com bubble
- free love (particularly dreadful!)
And anyway, that the GPL would be attacked is solely IBM's fault. And the world software market is in danger! That's why WIPO has also stepped in and is beating the Intellectual Property drum again.
I'm feeling quite evil right now.
At XMLMania.com - Google News Search: SCO I found the original article.
SCO Hints at *BSD Lawsuits Next Year, And More
Oh cool, the next one wants to try their teeth on BSD again. The question remains which BSD - the market is even more fragmented than the Linux market with alone three larger kernel projects and some userland implementations on foreign kernels
At XMLMania.com - Google News Search: SCO I found the original article.
InfoWorld: SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract: November 18, 2003: By : Platforms
Is this level of loss of reality even still treatable with medication, or is lobotomy the only thing that helps?
Python and AppleScript
Not so uncool at all. Perl had that too with the Mac::OSA modules. The whole thing is quite practical, especially when you're building a Python script anyway that only needs a few functions from applications. However, with more complex things it can often be quite cumbersome, especially when media data types are used for which there are simply no usable equivalents in Python.
At Der Schockwellenreiter you can find the original article.
SCO Expands Collaboration with Its Lawyers
Something like that probably effectively prevents insight into the fact that SCO has no new product and no significant market to offer anymore
At heise online news there is the original article.
SPD worried about North Rhine-Westphalia
No wonder: with the ice-cold fish-eater cutting spending, nothing remains of social democracy.
I found the original article at RP-Online: Politik.
Heise News Ticker: PostgreSQL released in version 7.4
Hi. All the important points I needed have been improved. Replication is in the standard source, performance is better, and full-text indexing is usable. Now all that's needed is for someone to create Debian packages that I can backport (our servers are still all Woody) and I can finally tackle a few problems that have been bugging us for a while.
Serious Mac OS X file-save bug could delete files
Ouch. OK, not really critical - I lose the motivation to enter further text long before 1000 characters - but still, quite a nasty bug.
The original article can be found at The Macintosh News Network here.
Union holds government responsible for election fraud
Great. The Union sets up an election fraud committee and comes - oh great wonder - to the conclusion that the government defrauded voters. Sure, you could have had that result without setting up an expensive committee, after all it was hardly to be expected that the Union would set up a committee that would then contradict the Union, right?
Apart from that: does it accomplish anything now? No. Because there are no demands, no consequences, no recommendations. Essentially, just a few Union politicians have been patting each other on the back.
Great.
I found the original article on RP-Online: Politik.
Constitutional complaint against 0190 law
May his computer be flooded with dialers ...
I find it audacious anyway that protection against 0190 abuse should be lifted for everyone because of his unreliable customers when it comes to payments (everyone gets the customers they deserve?
). After all, he is not being prevented from practicing his profession. He just wants to enforce the right to use a billing method that has become notoriously problematic due to abuse.
Well, I find it quite telling when a lawyer with a dubious reputation wants to choose a billing method that has fallen into such disrepute ...
At heise online news you can find the original article.
20 Years c't: History with Checkmarks
Which reminds me again of my entire c't collection. Somehow I should probably dispose of it after all. On the other hand, it's sometimes quite fun to leaf through old c't issues. But among all the years, the old volumes are way down at the bottom, and you'd rather not dig through all that ...
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Former Israeli Intelligence Chiefs Criticize Sharon
Huh? Voices of reason from the intelligence service?
At tagesschau im Internet there's the original article.
GROKLAW - why IBM may subpoena analysts in the proceedings
A theory is put forward at Groklaw: Caldera apparently wasn't entirely above board with its IPO - the IPO seems to have been rated too positively by analysts and thereby manipulated. At least there was a corresponding suspicion that led to appropriate investigations.
Possibly IBM now also wants to capitalize on Caldera's IPO - and that could turn out badly for SCO (which were previously called Caldera) if IBM can actually draw real connections there. Stock market manipulation is not viewed favorably in the United States...
And ultimately, you can see from SCO's stock prices what the real objective of this whole affair is. The stock prices have risen nicely over the past few months, without SCO having a single current product to show for it.
Phonak wants to know: With nine newcomers to the Tour
Not bad: Tyler Hamilton with Oscar Sevilla in his corner as support, that could provide some excitement at the next Tour. After all, Tyler Hamilton has defended a good fourth place and certainly has ambitions for more.
At RADSPORT-NEWS.COM - Nachrichten-Gesamtübersicht you can find the original article.
BBEdit 7.1 released
Two very nice features are included:
- SFTP is now supported. I often edit files on my root server or on my servers at home, and both machines of course offer SFTP. Very practical.
- HTML files can now be displayed live in a second window using Webkit (the basis of Safari) while being edited. Very nice, since you can see the result right away. Ideal with a second monitor or a large screen where two large windows can fit side by side.
The update is definitely worth it. At least if you frequently edit HTML on an external server.
Panorama on Hohmann and the right wing of the CDU
Panorama has taken up the subject (once again). And as usual, exposed the lies and deliberate blindness of the Union leadership. If Mr. Meyer really knows so little, as he claims: why on earth is he in a position at all? Because if what he says is true, he's simply too stupid for his job.
In any case, it's quite remarkable that he stands there and claims to have known nothing of Hohmann's convictions, when Hohmann has repeatedly attracted attention even in the Bundestag with his right-wing interpretations and been booed.
Voice of the Majority?
The right-wing fringes of the CDU. An interesting enumeration of all the corners where known right-wing names keep reappearing. Also included, of course, is the connection of the currently so outraged Roland Koch to precisely these right-wing fringes ...
At Telepolis News you can find the original article.
High Performance Computing for Mac OS X
For the number crunchers among OS X fans. Compiler and tools specifically compiled and assembled for G4 and G5. Everything a number cruncher's heart desires
InfoWorld: Microsoft prepares security assault on Linux: November 11, 2003: By Kieren McCarthy, ...
The loudmouth from Redmond should probably smoke less of that stuff that gets him so riled up, then he might see reality a bit more clearly too
Steinbrück: Citizens must spend more on old age and care
Great strategy to boost the economy: let's simply tell those who ultimately spend money on consumer goods that they should put it aside instead, since they'll soon have to spend more on pensions and care. And then the politicians complain again when economic growth fails to materialize. And then of course we have to keep reforming. Until everything goes to hell.
At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.
Union and FDP want to further weaken employment protection
What a load of nonsense. Relaxing employment protection will only bring more unemployment. Instead of securing jobs, this will only destroy more of them. The few positions that get filled in the short term won't help either - anyone who was waiting for a relaxation of employment protection to hire someone has already factored in that employee's dismissal. So it's just window dressing. But the Union dimwits and the FDP fools are busily patting each other on the back for their genius.
I found the original article at RP-Online: Politik.
Destruction of Public Broadcasting?
Well, and afterwards the money is thrown into the private broadcasters' mouths again and Haim Saban is delighted because he can rake in a decent profit. Sure, then there's only drivel in tabloid style on television, but that doesn't matter, it just makes people happy and stupid.
At das Netzbuch you can find the original article.
Apple releases update for Mac OS X 10.3.1
Let's see if I might soon be able to master the panther jump after all
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Kill Bill
An absolutely fantastic film - rarely seen such well-made cinema. Everything came together perfectly. Part 2 is coming soon, fortunately.
However, a few of the people who stood up at the end and left the cinema were somewhat quiet and looked thoughtful
Quick End in New Kimble Trial
How often do they want to put this guy on probation? Wouldn't a real prison sentence be appropriate? Somehow there's at least one probation sentence too many - he hasn't even served the last one yet, and he's already getting another one imposed. The whole thing is pretty strange...
At heise online news there's the original article.
You call that a Monad? This HEREs a Monad.... And a Shell.
Functional Shell? Hmm. Interesting - the shell language is a functional language and offers typical combinators for connecting system information, files and commands. Crazy, but interesting
At Lambda the Ultimate I found the original article.
Hohmann maybe after all out the door?
Just heard on the radio that Hohmann is now facing expulsion proceedings after all. Let's see what actually comes out of this.
Koch and Merkel agree: Hohmann facing expulsion
Amazing. Still, Anne Will asks the right question on the Tagesthemen: why didn't the Union react earlier, when it was known how he thinks and what he means? The suspicion that it's only to limit public damage is very close at hand. Well, how Merkelnix squirmed in the interview was really amusing. Ms. Will knows her business.
I found the original article on RP-Online: Politik.
Mac OS X 10.3: Finder's Zip Function Not Compatible
Ugh, by now almost all the features I liked about Panther have bugs in them, plus a few features I've been using since Jaguar. But they're not going to get me to update with that...
At heise online news you can find the original article.
Rebel With A Cause
Here someone reports how they built a web application with an Apple XServe, OpenMCL (the free version of Macintosh Common Lisp) and the Portable AllegroServe, and what it encompasses. They also used a custom-written framework for web application development with Common Lisp - I'm curious whether that will be released as well. Maybe I'll get a CLDS together someday after all. Here's the original article.
Simoni challenges Armstrong to Giro-Tour duel
Will Armstrong accept the challenge? I don't think so. The next Tour would put him at the top of all Tour riders if he wins it, and I don't think he'll want to unnecessarily risk this opportunity.
At VeloNews: The Journal of Competitive Cycling there is the original article.
Security Focus has RSS Feeds
Just found at ScriptingNews: quite practical for administrators, the new feeds from Security Focus:
CSU plans basic pension for childless people
Great idea: you don't have children because your life planning makes children simply impossible (e.g., because of financial constraints, or because work doesn't allow for a normal relationship)? Or because your partner is past the age when she should have children (or you're past the age when you should father children) and the risk to the child would be too great? Or because you or your partner is infertile? Perhaps the blood type of you and your life partner is also incompatible, so that child and mother would be exposed to great danger? Perhaps one of you is HIV positive or affected by another serious illness that would be passed on to the newborn? Or perhaps you're gay and therefore can't have children and are classified as unsuitable for adoption because of your homosexuality? No problem, there's only basic pension, so you're screwed in old age. Beautiful new world of discrimination. When will it be demanded that such people should kill themselves in a socially acceptable manner upon retirement?
The CSU should urgently remove the extremely dishonest S in the middle of the party name.
At RP-Online: Politik I found the original article.
Greed Behind the Mask of the Benefactor
An interesting interview with the former British environment minister about the effects of cultivating genetically modified plants on the environment. Michael Meacher's conclusion is by the way very negative for GM plants.
The original article can be found at Spiegel Online: Science at this link.
Greens continue to reject crypto ban
Cryptography bans. Great idea. Criminals will certainly all comply with them. How stupid does a politician have to be to believe something like that? Yes, I know, as stupid as some politicians on the interior committee, but how stupid is that really? Paving-stone stupid? Bread-in-puddle stupid?
Crypto bans only criminalize the perfectly sensible legal use of the technology, nothing more. What follows from this is a presumption of guilt based solely on the use of a technique - he encrypts, so he must be hiding something evil. The fact that maybe it's simply about preventing everyone from reading along (and sorry, but I wouldn't trust the agencies that could read along with deposited keys any further than I could throw them), that no longer matters when cryptography without key escrow is banned.
The state's constant demand to believe it's allowed to read everything anyway is completely divorced from reality. This whole eavesdropping mania brings nothing except a restriction of our rights and high costs.
At heise online news there's the original article.
Harry Potter Makes You Stupid
Yep. Got back from Hamburg at 23:10, got off the train and down in the station in front of the station bookstore there's a horde of people listening intently to some guy tell stories until 0:00 because that's when the Harry Potter sale starts - they even had the food shop next door open specially. On the way home then saw a Harry Potter party at a small corner pub with witch costumes. Weird.
And I've had the 5th book lying around in the corner (the English edition) the whole time and haven't even started reading it...
At No Retreat, No Surrender there's the original article.