Report: Erotic entrepreneur stores T-Mobile customer database - the whole thing is getting more absurd and strange. Although admittedly, storing the 17 million Deutsche Telekom data sets with an erotic entrepreneur has a certain charm. Especially since he probably knows more about data protection and securing customer data than Deutsche Telekom apparently does ...
Archive October 2008
OLG Hamburg: RapidShare is liable as a co-contributor for copyright infringements - new from the Internet's nutty ideas. "RapidShare could, for example, exclude the use of its own service with dynamic IP addresses and require users to use static IP addresses without the intervention of a proxy server." - clear, because there are also rows of static IPs for users with dynamic dial-up. Here the donkey is kicking the camel: Rapidshare is anything but rapid if you are not already registered, and IMO really dispensable. Just like the opinion of the OLG Hamburg on various Internet topics.
Orbited – Networking for the Web - an interesting project that offers communication channels over other protocols for web applications via HTTP and JavaScript.
Schumacher under doping suspicion - Holy Cow.
Unity creates games and 3D applications for the iPhone [Update] - ouch, the price for the iPhone option is quite steep. However, Unity is quite an interesting story, so this could lead to some new games. And particularly interesting: Unity also supports network games and has basic functions in the server for persistent worlds (though you still have to do a lot of programming yourself). Could definitely cause some stir. But for my hobby budget definitely outside the realm of reason.
Apple and Windows - Fail
Well, for a few days now I have a cute Asus EEE-PC 901 at home. The thing rocks! I thought I'd stick with Windows, so I can at least use some of the familiar programs and sync my bookmarks between the Safaris, etc. And what happens? Apple is a total failure.
First of all: I don't use an admin account under Windows, I use a normal account and only the admin for installation. For this I have also set up my own admin, as I wanted to put my user profiles on drive D: due to the stupid partitioning of the SSD. It all works quite well. But Apple has dumb ears.
On the one hand, Apple still messes around on drive C:. Then I can't specify for all installers that they should install to D:, instead they install on the system partition. Or iTunes: it demands the installer on the disk in the admin's home directory (which was not readable for others before), to then locally install something (whatever) for the user. If that would work, ok. But it doesn't - iTunes runs through the entire installation sequence with searching for MP3s and all that crap every time it starts.
And setting my iTunes media library to another drive doesn't work either - my 16G Class 6 SDHC will probably remain locked for iTunes, because the library is always reset to D:. Rarely stupid.
And MobileMe? Well, it worked once and messed up my bookmarks, but since then it doesn't work anymore - the control panel takes my data and logs me in, but as soon as I reload the panel or go to the sync settings, my user data is supposedly incorrect. Rarely stupid.
All in all, Apple's offering for Windows leaves a rather pathetic impression - sure, some of it may be due to the non-admin user, or the profiles on drive D:, but hey, similar things exist on the Mac as well, and Apple handles them there. So what's lost on Windows?
Safari works well, but against Chrome it doesn't stand a chance on the small Asus box - too slow. Although Google also didn't exactly cover itself in glory with the Chrome installation, which is forced into the user profile (not changeable without hacks).
Do they want to force me to put Linux on the box? Then there's not even the temptation to look at Apple's stuff...
Update: with an admin user, iTunes works - even with the media library on the SDHC card. Do they have a total screw loose at Apple?
Update 2: After finding a tip in a web forum, I uninstalled all the iTunes stuff and QT and then started the Apple Software Updater under my normal account with "Run as..." and then with the admin user and installed iTunes and QT with it. Intuitive is something else, but at least iTunes now works with my non-privileged account. MobileMe still makes its fuss, though, despite installation via this method. Approaches to debug it? None. Oh, and of course the software ends up on C: again instead of D: ...
Oh yeah, and why the hell does every stupid installer put icons on the desktop without asking? Ok, some ask, but the ones from Apple - no. Bah.
17 million customer data stolen from T-Mobile - bad enough that so much data is circulating without the public knowing for 2 years. Embarrassing, however, is also the reaction of the press: the few celebrities stand out barely, with 17 million, but apparently they are much more important ...
Betrayed and sold - how was it again, Mr. Schäuble? Are the data safe with the state?
Tiny Nation Premiere - if anyone wants to see what you can do in SecondLife. Absolutely awesome Machinima.