Apache Rivet - Integrate TCL as an alternative to PHP into Apache and design dynamic pages with it. Fighting fire with fire?
Archive 20. February 2005
The Elections in S.-H.
I can't claim that I'm bursting with joy. So far, Hesse has been the epitome of stupid election results for me. But as usual, reality has outdone itself. I can't claim that this causes me any kind of anticipation for the elections in May here ... What is really disgusting about elections: the blabbering of all the social failure politicians afterwards. So much nonsense in one place should be banned. If a Stoiber blathers on that show politics cannot replace real politics - the man who consists only of show and hollow phrases - then the whole thing takes on quite bizarre traits. One could feel like being in a staging of a play of the Theater of the Absurd:
In it, our everyday world is present in terrifyingly distorted forms. The uncanny, as Sigmund Freud, often arises from the overemphasis of psychological reality in relation to material reality. In the theater of the absurd, the characters only perceive the outside world through the prism of their fears, obsessions, and delusions.
Yep, fits. Can I get my ticket refunded and get my money back?
Google-Whack: melted möllemann
Ha, my very personal Googlewhack: gemölter möllemann. I just need to find a dictionary that includes "Gemölter" now.
And of course, all of this is just to solidify my number 1 ranking for "gemölter" ...
mod_dosevasive is an Apache module that attempts to detect DOS attacks and then can hand them off to other mechanisms to block the attacker. It can, for example, generate firewalling rules that block this attacker. However, you should not run it on an SVN host, as an SVN update may under certain circumstances look like a scripted attack ...
Red Alt - Kubrickr
Red Alt - Kubrickr generates a header image for the Kubrick layout from a selection of images on flickr that are licensed under CC. Should be usable for all Kubrick designs where the images have the same dimensions.
I've already toyed with the idea of building something like this myself - we'll see, maybe I'll integrate something like this into my photo plugin. Because I already had changing header graphics before, which I actually quite liked.
Terragen - Landscape Generator
Terragen is a landscape generator for Windows and Mac (Classic and OS X). Very interesting piece with a bunch of parameters that you can adjust. And as it seems quite fast. I have to play with it a bit.
Terragen - Landscape Generator - 1
Yes, it really works very simply. Ok, generating a sample landscape is of course rather randomly controlled - to generate exactly what you have in mind requires much more work. But the whole thing actually gives the impression that you could understand it. The colors come across a bit cool, so I did a slight white balance adjustment towards warmer colors in Photoshop. It also looks a bit harsh and the sharpness between water and land is a bit too blurry for me, but I guess one or the other can certainly still be adjusted with parameters.
Terragen - Landscape Generator - 2
What I noticed with the first experiments: you should stick closely to the physical model. So if the camera position is set to 30 meters above the ground, it also looks that way - you should first think about where the viewer is in your scene. In real situations, you rarely hang 30 meters in the air. You should also play a bit with the 3D preview, as it offers a simple way to optimize the viewing angle.
Unfortunately, there are hardly any plugins for OS X - a plugin that simulates a camera lens both in terms of the angle of view and depth of field would be great. But there is only one for Windows.
What is also not so nice - the vegetation is only simulated by colored spots. Just like snow and sand. Some of the people in the gallery images seem to use their own textures or better presets than those provided. So far I have only used the pre-made surface textures. I need to research further how to get better presets that look more realistic - the ones provided always look a bit thin.
Of course, the presets for extraterrestrial scenes are cool - e.g. the atmosphere presets and the surface textures for Mars. You just have to paint a robot in and you have your own NASA mission.