Shoes

via xkcd.com http://xkcd.com/1065/

But how do you keep track of everything?

Here's an interesting paradox for you: Despite the fact that there's a slow and steady pull away from RSS and Atom news feeds, it seems that there's more people than ever who are actually reading 'feeds' in one form or another. People who, just a few years ago, you'd never expect to be scrolling through a river of news, can't wait to log in to Twitter or Facebook, scrolling and clicking on links shared by their friends or pushed by custom news 'apps' right into their stream (which they then turn around and share with all their friends). Mobile apps like Flipboard or Pulse then collect all these social links, plus custom feeds from magazines and newspapers and create a good-looking booklet full of current news. It's all so seamless and amazing. Honestly, it's the most efficient way possible to see the latest amusing cat videos ever invented.

But here's the thing, what if you actually want to keep track of important information without relying on your social network to find it for you? What happens if you want to see EVERYTHING? It seems right now there's very few options - mostly just Google Reader, really, which relies on ever-harder-to-find RSS feeds to keep it going.

I mean, imagine you're at one of the analyst firms, or at Engadget, or in the marketing department of a large multinational corporation - technical or not - and your job is to keep track of all the news, all the conversations and anything else that happens in your particular area of interest, how do you do it? Flipboard, as pretty as it is, really isn't going to help a manager of a large dentist's office keep track of the latest amazing developments in the world of oral hygiene, and a business analyst isn't going to use Google Reader to keep track of the news concerning the various Fortune 500 companies in their watch list. Well, I hope not, anyways.

How do people keep track of everything? Are there any tools that I don't know about? Do they pay the thousands of dollars a month for those custom 'news tracking' services which send market summaries of every product or brand mention? Is there such a thing as a Bloomberg Terminal for tech and industry news? Is there something else I'm missing?

You know what I think? I think the vast majority of information workers out there are simply winging it. I think they browse the web randomly, read Yahoo's home page (in secret of course) or browse Google News, maybe check out a newspaper every other day, a magazine now and then, have 5,375 unread items in their Google Reader, and otherwise hope someone emails them interesting links, or pray they happen to be online at the right time when one of their Twitter contacts posts a relevant link to what they do for a living.

Because unless I'm missing something, and I'm pretty sure I'm not (as I do, in fact, read everything) they really don't have many other options.

Over the past several years, I've been continually developing and tweaking a personal news reader web app for exactly this reason. At first it was just hosted under /feeds on this site but eventually I decided to give it it's own domain, which was flip.io first (before Flipboard launched) and has wavered between xs.io, maven.io and the latest, magnet.io since. If you've ever seen one of those three domains in your server logs and wondered WTF it was, that was me.

Now this is one of those projects that is simply about scratching an itch. Though I'm always thinking about ways to transform it into some sort of money-making commercial effort, it really is simply an app that I want for my own use. I'm continually tweaking it and have a list of things I need to polish here and there, but even in it's continual work-in-progress state it's surprisingly effective at what it's supposed to do. At first, what I wanted a web-based news-reader that was cross platform, mobile-enabled and was not Google Reader for various reasons. But as soon as I had written the basic crawler, database and river of news pages, I immediately started adding features to help me deal with a deluge of information out there.

Here's just a few features:

24 hour expiration of news items. Why was I constantly going in and marking a huge list of backlogged items as 'read'? You know that massive number of articles and posts that you'll never, ever, ever get to? Why give myself an ulcer. If I'm not able to get to it, then they're just automatically out of my main feed. They're not deleted, or marked read, they just sort of fall off the end. I've adjusted the hours back and forth from 12 hours back to a week, but decided that, for me, 24 hours is good. It's not the exact number that's important, it's just the functionality.

Duplicate detection. Oh, I'd love to tell you I found some magic way of grouping and deleting items from multiple blogs that are basically the same summary of a news item in yet another site, but I haven't done that. I tried various ways, but none seemed to work for me. I know it's possible (look at Techmeme), but I haven't been able to get it yet. Some day. What I *did* do was stupid, basic and *incredibly* noticeable - which is simply look for the same exact damn item title and wack the second or third version in a day. You know how Engadget or TechCrunch have their mobile-focused sub-blogs? But then they end up linking to the same thing half the time? Well, they always use the same title, so I just filter that crap out. Simple, yet oh-so-effective.

Thumbnails. I've had this for years, and I'm starting to see that some of the iPad news reader apps are starting to get the idea. Every tech blog out there - including the best like Ars Technica - seems to REQUIRE that they have some obnoxious, huge, usually stolen, image accompanying every single item they post. I'd say 75% of the time, the image has absolutely nothing to do with the article and is usually nothing more than some stupid clip art, web meme, or upside-down brand logo (WHY?!??). It's very annoying. So the easiest thing to do is find the first image in every blog post and make a thumbnail out of it. If it's valuable, I'll be able to click and expand it, if not I can easily ignore it.

Summaries. Here's another one that some iPad readers are starting to grasp just now. Google Reader - like pretty much every other reader ever made - has two views: Titles or Full Posts. That's it. You either have to slog through every single massive image and lengthy text, or you get the bare information and usually a favicon (which I've decided are nothing but visual noise). What I do is detect the first paragraph (or a reasonable number of words) and use that in my main view - it allows you to fly through items, still grasping the main idea of each post, without having to slog forever. I also have the option of marking some feeds as 'default full', which I do for some link feeds like from Reddit, which don't have useful summaries. This is a no-brainer feature, that I don't understand why Readers don't have.

Visual Sparseness. There's no reason to have 'chrome', buttons, favicons, outlines, shading, colors, etc. bombarding your eyes as you're trying to work through a few thousand news items every day. As time has gone by, I've continually stripped down what my main stream shows me so that I can suck in as much information as possible without having to deal with a lot of crap. The side-benefit of this is there's nothing you have to worry about when you adapt the same interface to the phone, tablet or web, without a lot of extraneous crap in the middle of your feed, it makes an incredibly useful and light interface.

Logical and prioritized grouping. This isn't much of an innovation, just a note that after playing with various ways of sorting the items, I decided that having them organized into folders, and displayed in the by their published date, but within the order of the folders, was the most efficient. I keep the 'work' stuff up top, like my feeds for mobile-specific news items, and then I have the news, and link feeds like Y-Combinator down at the bottom. If I've made it down there, I'm most likely looking for novelty by that point. :-)

Integrated bookmarks. At one point I thought, "Why re-create the wheel? Use Delicious, or Pinboard to keep track of your links...", but the speed and efficiency of keeping stuff I want to read later in the same interface is worth the loss of the extra features a full-fledged link tracking app would give me. Also, to make sure I don't ignore the links I've saved, I automatically forward the main feed to the Links page once I'm done with my daily feeds. You know how it is, sometimes you save links that you think you should read, though you never seem to be in the mood to actually read it. Getting reminded of it every time you're jonesing for another good thing to read is quite useful.

Social Network Grouping. I subscribe to Twitter and Facebook by using their APIs in a different script than the main RSS crawler (which just uses SimplePie to grab the feed into my database before I process it). I don't just dump the entries from social feeds directly into my feeds though, as they'd overwhelm the rest of the links, or be so disorganized as to be incomprehensible. I'd say 90% of the people who post links and thoughts to Twitter or Facebook, do so in bursts. So, I run the scripts every hour, collect all the tweets, and then group them together by poster. Four or five tweets together looks, and reads, pretty much like a short blog post. It makes keeping track of everyone in your social network muuuuuch easier. Note, I used to actually keep appending tweets until I got around to reading them, but that was too much. The current system I have now means I still end up missing a few tweets now and then that hit the expiration limit, but chopping everything up is a bit more manageable - and can also lets me respond within a reasonable time as well.

Filters. This is a biggie, and not really finished yet. But the general idea is that I want to be able to 'mute' certain keywords for 24 hours if I've seen way too frigin' much of that topic that day. For example, today is E3 and it also seems to be a slow news day, so I've seen the same news about the XBox 30 times. If I thought this was going to continue (as it sometimes does when Apple launches something), I'd mute it. Also, I want to be able to auto-expand items that have keywords I want to keep track of.

But here's a lesson I learned from this so far about filtering - there's no magic. The corpus just isn't big enough. What I mean is, I've yet to find a way to train the news reader to highlight things I'm interested in. The total number of news items and the signals that you give the app (both positive and negative) never seem to make enough of a difference to actually hone future results. I absolutely *suck* at this sort of thing (aka 'math'), so I could be, and probably am incredibly wrong, but I've tried and tried again to get something working. In my reader, in addition to the links that I can explicitly mark with a star, *every* link I click on is recorded. So if I click on a link in the middle of an post, I record that URL, link title, and the parent item's full text in a history table. I've then used that and my explicit favorites to try and train a Bayesian filter, but even with thousands of clicks and hundreds of thousands of example items (which is about 6 months or so of feeds), I can't seem to get the damn thing to give any sort of reliable results. My goal was sort of a reverse SPAM filter - items that matched the Bayesian training would get marked - either displayed as a full post (instead of a summary) or getting a colored title bar, or whatever. But I've yet to get it working.

I suspect though, it might not be me. I think the amount of effort you'd need to make to mark items as like/dislike, and the amount of items you'd need to have as an example to compare against aren't practical. For SPAM, for which there are already massive examples of both, and highly tuned keyword filters, etc., it works (though for anyone who's managed their own SpamAssassin server, not always particularly well), but the meager numbers a personal news reader pulls in? I don't think it's going to happen. Then again, I visit Techmeme, and see all the automatically grouped, prioritized and filtered articles and I think I must be doing something wrong - even with the human editors, there's a lot of automated categorization as well. That's basically the same problem I'm trying to solve, so it must be possible with the same sort of inputs, or at least more feasible than I think.

Okay, so that's just some of the stuff. There's more: Full-text search, a JSON-based API and Javascript front-end with infinite scrolling which works on pretty much every smartphone I've tried it on, auto-marking read-items in batches, so when the iPad's Safari crashes (as it does quite often) or I'm on my phone and reading an item and get interrupted, I never actually lose those items as they're not marked read until they've scrolled well past that spot.

Anyways, the end result to all this is a custom-focused web application which allows me to keep track of hundreds of news feeds, social items, and even 'firehose' feeds without losing my mind or dedicating 20 hours a day to reading. My 24 hour timeout rarely gets used, as I'm able to zip through the feeds very efficiently - but I also don't have to fear opening up my reader after I spend a weekend out and about with my kid either. I can happily say it's the perfect news reader for me (because of course I made it for me.).

I think the next steps will probably be more focus on the filters - I imagine a full set of "If This, Then That" style item filters like you can create using an email client. Figuring out how to enable more intelligence - not necessarily magic, but at least automation - to the filtering process is key. Also, I see a time shortly when web scraping, rather than just feed parsing, will be something I'll need to add, as well as more API integration, as it's pretty obvious RSS is going away. (Though I'd love to see it replaced with something like a JSON version, that had added bits for requesting deltas - sort of like PubsubHubbub, but easier.).

Could this ever be a business? It depends - I'm not sure it'd be a consumer-level offering, but I bet there'd be a lot of info worker professionals who'd be willing to pay a few bucks - Pinboard.in style - to leave Google Reader behind for something more customizable and efficient. We might be coming full circle on a cycle of feed aggregators. It started with the original ones like Amphetameme and Radio Userland, then Newsgator and FeedDemon and Bloglines, then Google Reader came and seemed to suck the air out of the whole area. Now maybe after a break, there's another wave coming. Honestly, it doesn't seem like anyone has ever figured out how to make any real money from a feed reader though, which is probably why they all seem to fade away over time. This makes sense in a way, as the core focus of an aggregator is someone else's content. Even if you think of a feed reader as akin to a full web browser in its functionality, again, when's the last time anyone made any money making a web browser? Still, there's value there, you can feel it. It's just a matter of figuring out what it is.

So if you made it this far, now you know what I do in my spare time. I'm either reading everything I can, or figuring out ways I can read more. (Yes, I probably need help... Is there an info-junkie's anonymous? Sign me up.)

-Russ

via Russell Beattie http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/but-how-do-you-keep-track-of-everything

Is Pluto a Planet? An Animated Explanation Sets the Record Straight

A brief history of why the word “planet” isn’t very helpful.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has sought to order the heavens, our models for the universe and the Solar System constantly evolving. The latest celestial body to ride the roller coaster of categorization is Pluto, which seems to fall in and out of planetary favor far too frequently for anyone to understand — or remember — whether or not it is indeed a planet. From the invariably edutaining C. G. P. Gray, whose fast-paced animations have previously set the record straight on everything from why the color pink doesn’t exist to the difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England to several historical misconceptions, comes this short illuminator on what to make of Pluto after all:

As we increase our knowledge of the universe, the category of “planet” will probably continue to evolve or, possibly, fall out of favor entirely.

↬ The Dish

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via Brain Pickings http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/04/is-pluto-a-planet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+brainpickings%2Frss+%28Brain+Pickings%29

Die Fassade des Bremer Rathaus wird 400 Jahre alt!

Lüder von Bentheim schuf zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts diesen üppigen Fassadenschmuck. Die Arbeiten waren 1612 beendet. Im Jubiläumsjahr würdigt die Stadt den damaligen Umbau. Bürgermeister Jens Böhrnsen: “Dieses Jubiläum ist ein wunderbarer Anlass, unser Weltkulturerbe wieder einmal gebührend zu würdigen und es in all seiner Schönheit noch einmal ganz neu wahrzunehmen.”

Zahlreiche Veranstaltungen finden rund um das Jubiläum statt. Zunächst lädt die Lange Shopping-Nacht am 2. Juni zum Bummeln und Einkaufen ein. Wer einen Blick hinter die Rathausfassede werfen möchte, kann am 3. Juni 2012, dem UNESCO Welterbetag, das Rathaus besichtigen. Am 9. September 2012 widmet dann die Stiftung Deutsche Denkmalspflege den Tag des Offenen Denkmals zu Ehren des Bremer Rathauses.

via nessiblog http://blog.nessipictures.com/?p=1750

Thomas Edison’s To-Do List, 1888

What ink for the blind has to do with marine telegraphy and electrical pianos.

The to-do list might be the secret to willpower, and it is certainly an essential tool of creativity, as anyone from Leonardo da Vinci to John Lennon can attest. After peeking at the notebooks and sketchbooks of some of history’s greatest creators, here comes a rare glimpse of 41-year-old Thomas Edison’s to-do list circa 1888, found in The Papers of Thomas E. Edison: Losses and Loyalties — the seventh volume of Rutgers University’s digitized Edison papers.

Among Edison’s “things doing and to be done,” while he wasn’t busy inventing and scandalizing cinema, were:

• Cotton picker


• New standard phonograph


• Hand turning phonograph


• Deaf apparatus


• Electrical piano


• New expansion pyromagnetic dynamo


• Artificial silk


• Phonographic clock


• Marine telegraphy


• Chalk battery


• Ink for blind

So: What are you doing today?

Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.

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via Brain Pickings http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/06/01/thomas-edison-to-do-list-1888/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+brainpickings%2Frss+%28Brain+Pickings%29

Enthüllung über Stuxnet-Virus: Obamas Cyber-Angriff auf Irans Atomanlagen

Wer zerstörte Irans Uranzentrifugen? Der Washington-Korrespondent der "New York Times" will nachgewiesen haben, dass der Stuxnet-Virus unter der Führung der USA in Kooperation mit Israel entstand. Ist Barack Obama der erste Cyber-Feldherr der Geschichte?



via SPIEGEL ONLINE - Schlagzeilen http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/usa-und-israel-sollen-stuxnet-virus-gegen-iran-entwickelt-haben-a-836401.html

Comic for June 1, 2012

via Dilbert Daily Strip http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-06-01/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dilbert%2Fdaily_strip+%28Dilbert+Daily+Strip+-+UU%29

EST

via xkcd.com http://xkcd.com/1061/

Comic for May 27, 2012

via Dilbert Daily Strip http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-05-27/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dilbert%2Fdaily_strip+%28Dilbert+Daily+Strip+-+UU%29

"Dragon": ISS-Astronauten fangen private Raumkapsel ein

Premiere im Orbit: Erstmals hat eine private Raumkapsel an der Internationalen Raumstation angedockt. Astronauten an Bord der ISS fingen die "Dragon" mit einem Roboterarm ein. Das historische Manöver dauerte etwas länger als geplant - weil sich offenbar ein Lasermessgerät im Ziel irrte.



via SPIEGEL ONLINE - Schlagzeilen http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/iss-astronauten-fangen-raumtransporter-dragon-mit-roboterarm-ein-a-835285.html

How We Measure the Universe, Animated

How to determine the distance of stars using standard candles.

Somewhere between Fibonacci’s invention of arithmetic, which changed the world of numbers as we know it, and scientists’ ambitious visualizations of the scale of the universe lies a daunting fundamental question: How do we actually use these numbers to measure the universe? That’s precisely what the Royal Observatory Greenwich answers in this wonderful short animation, a teaser for a new exhibition titled Measuring the Universe: from the transit of Venus to the edge of the cosmos .

In a nod to this morning’s affirmation of the additive nature of scientific discovery, narrator Dr. Olivia Johnson observes:

What’s most incredible to me is how all these measurements build on each other. It’s only by knowing the scale of our Solar System — the distance between the Earth and Sun — that we’re able to measure the distances to nearby stars using parallax.

The charming animation was done by Robert Milne, Ross Phillips, and Kwok Fung Lam.

↬ Laughing Squid

Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.

Brain Pickings takes 450+ hours a month to curate and edit across the different platforms, and remains banner-free. If it brings you any joy and inspiration, please consider a modest donation – it lets me know I'm doing something right.

via Brain Pickings http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/05/25/measuring-the-universe/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+brainpickings%2Frss+%28Brain+Pickings%29

Crowdsourcing

via xkcd.com http://xkcd.com/1060/

A tribute to Bob Moog, sonic doodler

In the mid-1960s, Dr. Robert Moog unleashed a new universe of sounds into musicdom with his invention of the electronic analog Moog Synthesizer. The timbre and tones of these keyboard instruments (true works of art in and of themselves) would come to define a generation of music, featuring heavily in songs by The Beatles, The Doors, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk and many others.



When people hear the word “synthesizer” they often think “synthetic”—fake, manufactured, unnatural. In contrast, Bob Moog’s synthesizers produce beautiful, organic and rich sounds that are, nearly 50 years later, regarded by many professional musicians as the epitome of an electronic instrument. “Synthesizer,” it turns out, refers to the synthesis embedded in Moog’s instruments: a network of electronic components working together to create a whole greater than the sum of the parts.



With his passion for high-tech toolmaking in the service of creativity, Bob Moog is something of a patron saint of the nerdy arts and a hero to many of us here. So for the next 24 hours on our homepage, you’ll find an interactive, playable logo inspired by the instruments with which Moog brought musical performance into the electronic age. You can use your mouse or computer keyboard to control the mini-synthesizer’s keys and knobs to make nearly limitless sounds. Keeping with the theme of 1960s music technology, we’ve patched the keyboard into a 4-track tape recorder so you can record, play back and share songs via short links or Google+.

Much like the musical machines Bob Moog created, this doodle was synthesized from a number of smaller components to form a unique instrument. When experienced with Google Chrome, sound is generated natively using the Web Audio API—a doodle first (for other browsers the Flash plugin is used). This doodle also takes advantage of JavaScript, Closure libraries, CSS3 and tools like Google Web Fonts, the Google+ API, the Google URL Shortener and App Engine.



Special thanks to engineers Reinaldo Aguiar and Rui Lopes and doodle team lead Ryan Germick for their work, as well as the Bob Moog Foundation and Moog Music for their blessing. Now give those knobs a spin and compose a tune that would make Dr. Moog smile!



Posted by Joey Hurst, Software Engineer

via The Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/tribute-to-bob-moog-sonic-doodler.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FMKuf+%28Official+Google+Blog%29

Private Raumfahrt: SpaceX erfolgreich gestartet

Der erste kommerzielle Flug zur Weltraumstation ISS ist erfolgreich gestartet. In einem Bilderbuchstart hob die Falcon-9-Rakete vom Weltraumbahnhof in Cape Canaveral ab.



via heise online News http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Private-Raumfahrt-SpaceX-erfolgreich-gestartet-1581529.html

Rattenexperiment: Chemikalie ändert Verhalten späterer Generationen

Eine Dosis eines Pflanzenschutzmittels beeinträchtigt nicht nur trächtige Ratten - sondern auch deren Urenkel. Ein Experiment mit den Nagern zeigt, was für weitreichende Folgen giftige Chemikalien haben können.



via SPIEGEL ONLINE - Schlagzeilen http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/epigenetik-bei-ratten-fungizid-veraendert-verhalten-folgender-generationen-a-834420.html

Rhododendronpark Bremen

Der Rhododendronpark in Bremen bietet auf einer Fläche von 46 Hektar eine einzigartige Sammlung an Rhododendron und Azaleen. Von den weltweit 1000 verschiedenen Rhododendronwildarten wachsen hier und in der botanika 500. Daneben werden den jährlich ca. 300.000 Besuchern 2000 gezüchtete Sorten präsentiert.

1933 begann das Gartenbauamt Bremen (heute Stadtgrün Bremen) im Bremer Stadtteil Horn-Lehe den Rhododendron-Park anzulegen unter anderem nach Plänen von Gartenbaudirektor Richard Homann. Auf dem Gelände der ehemaligen Landgüter Rickmers und Allmers standen um 1890 als Wildpark gepflanzte Bäume, vor allem Eichen, aber auch Buchen, Eschen und Fichten. Diese Bäume bieten noch heute den Rhododendron Schatten und Windschutz. Günstige klimatische Bedingungen und Standortverhältnisse für Rhododendron und immergrüne Laubgehölze und das nahegelegene Oldenburger Baumschulgebiet, das auf die Anzucht dieser Pflanzen spezialisiert ist, waren günstige Voraussetzungen, um hier einen „Prüfungs- und Sichtungsgarten für Rhododendron“ anzulegen. Im August 1940 wurde die von Ernst Gorsemann geschaffene Bronzeplastik “Wisent” im Rhododendronpark aufgestellt.

Am 7. Juni 2003 wurde im Rhododendron-Park die botanika als Deutschlands größtes Naturerlebnis-Zentrum eröffnet. Im gleichen Jahr wurde das von der Soziologin Witha Winter von Gregory initiierte Projekt Garten der Menschenrechte eingeweiht.

Nach einem Beschluss der in Bremen regierenden großen Koalition verfügte Bausenator Jens Eckhoff Ende 2005, ab dem 1. April 2006 Eintritt zu verlangen. Die Umsetzung führte zur Einzäunung eines Großteils der Parkflächen und zur Aufstellung von Kassenhäuschen. Nach massiven Bürgerprotesten und zahlreichen Spenden wurde die Verfügung am 31. März 2006 außer Kraft gesetzt.

Im Jahr 2007 wurde auf Initiative eines privaten Horner Spenders eine Stiftung gegründet, an der sich auch die Stadtgemeinde Bremen beteiligt. Mit Gründung der Stiftung ging der Rhododendronpark in das Eigentum der Stiftung über, die ab 2009 die Pflege und Fortentwicklung des Rhododendronparks übernahm.

Quelle: Wikipedia

via nessiblog http://blog.nessipictures.com/?p=1730

Evernote

Popular app gets Ice Cream Sarnie treatment

Android App of the Week As a long-time user of Catch Notes it was going to take something quite impressive to get me to jump ship to arch-rival Evernote but a recent update and integration with the latest versions of HTC's Sense have persuaded me to do so.…

via The Register http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/22/app_of_the_week_android_evernote/

SpaceX Dragon, first private ship to the ISS, launched successfully

Another giant step for Elon Musk's space programme

Pic History is just days away from being made as SpaceX' Dragon cargoship finally blasted off successfully on its Falcon 9 rocket this morning on its way to a rendezvous with the International Space Station.…

via The Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/22/spacex_launch_successful/

"Dragon": Privater Raumtransporter startet ins All

Der Start lief glatt: "Dragon", der erste private Raumtransporter, ist auf dem Weg zur Internationalen Raumstation. Das Rendezvous im All ist eine Premiere, die mehrfach verschoben worden war. Mit ihr beginnt ein neues Kapitel der Raumfahrt.



via SPIEGEL ONLINE - Schlagzeilen http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/dragon-transporter-von-spacex-zur-iss-gestartet-a-833822.html

Nokia N90 Review (MobileBurn)

Nokia N90 Review (MobileBurn)

heise online - Neue DVB-S-Karte mit BDA-Treibern und analogen A/V-Eingängen

Um den Umstieg ins digitale Zeitalter zu erleichtern (und Videomaterial zu retten), gibt es eine neue DVB-S-Karte mit BDA-Treibern und analogen A/V-Eingängen: "Mit der WinTV-NOVA-S-Plus bietet Hauppauge nun für 79 Euro eine neue DVB-S-Empfangskarte an, die analoges Videomaterial im MPEG-1-/MPEG-2-Format digitalisieren kann und mit einer IR-Fernbedienung ausgeliefert wird."

Doctorow and Stross Release Latest Novels for Free

Slashdot | Doctorow and Stross Release Latest Novels for Free: "Two prominent science fiction authors have recently released their newest novels as free downloads to coincide with their in-store releases."

Tempest for Eliza

Der Computer-Monitor als Mittelwellensender. Tempest for Eliza: "All electronic devices send out eletromagnetic waves. so does your monitor. and your monitor does it all the time. and at very high frequencies. high enough for your short wave AM radio. all you have to do is display the 'correct' image on your screen and your monitor will emit the 'right' signals. Tempest for Eliza displays pictures on your screen. one for each note in the song."

Der Manager und der Ingenieur

Gefunden in einem thematisch verwandten Slashdot -Artikel: "A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts, 'Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?'
The man below says, 'Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field. ' 'You must be an engineer', says the balloonist. 'I am', replies the man. 'How did you know?' 'Well', says the balloonist, 'everything you have told me is technically correct, but it's of no use to anyone.'

The man below says, 'You must be in management.' 'I am', replies the balloonist, 'but how did you know?' 'Well', says the man, 'you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault.'"

XBM wieder aufgeweckt...

Ja, da Grafikformat XBM hat noch Anwendungen in der richtigen Welt...

Slashdot | Nintendo DS Homebrew and Hacking

Nintendo DS Homebrew and Hacking -- und so beginnt es! ;-)
Da ja WiFi eingebaut ist, wird das eine spannende Geschichte sein...

Mit Firefox per Du

11 Kapitel einer Browser-Freundschaft: "Die Anleitung 'Mit Firefox per Du - 11 Kapitel einer Browser-Freundschaft' wendet sich an Einsteiger, die wenig Erfahrung mit Browsern und dem Internet haben. Schritt für Schritt lernen Sie wichtige Funktionen von Firefox auf Windows kennen. Danach surfen Sie sicherer, komfortabel und schnell durch das Internet und sind unabhängig vom Internet Explorer. Das Schöne: Mozilla Firefox kostet Sie keinen Cent."

Und wie würden Sie bei Pisa abschneiden?

Test bei derTagesschau: "Bevor aber jetzt wieder alle auf Bildungssystem und dumme 15-Jährige schimpfen: Wie wäre es, sich selber einmal an einzelnen Original-Aufgaben aus dem Pisa-Test zu versuchen? tagesschau.de lädt Sie dazu ein!"

Wie man mit Lithium-Batterien umgeht...

In diesem Slashdot-Artikel über den iPod, hat Spacecow in einem Kommentar erklärt, wie man mit LiIon-Batterien umgeht:
"Just thought that you might like to know that you are taking the worst possible approach to maintaining the life of your lithium batteries. Lithium battery life is shortened by all of the following:

*) High charge state in warm/hot conditions
*) Deep discharge cycles
*) Extreme discharge (not possible with most modern electronics - built in safety circuits prevent this)

Two generally recommended practices are:

1) Charge early and often. Keep the battery at close to full charge.

2) When storing the battery for long periods of time without use (more than several weeks), discharge to about 40% of capacity and store in a cold location. Avoid freezing the battery, but down to 40-50 degree F will help preserve the charge capacity.

The reason people see their laptop batteries fail quickly is because they keep high charge levels with high temperature for months on end. This will shorten the useful life dramatically.

Take it or leave it, but I work in the consumer electronics industry and deal with the technical issues related to Lithium-ion batteries frequently."

Esquire:Features:What I've Learned:Homer Simpson

Esquire:Features:What I've Learned:Homer Simpson
When someone tells you your butt is on fire, you should take them at their word.

There is no such thing as a bad doughnut.

Kids are like monkeys, only louder.

If you want results, press the red button. The rest are useless.

There are many different religions in this world, but if you look at them carefully, you'll see that they all have one thing in common: They were invented by a giant, superintelligent slug named Dennis.

You should just name your third kid Baby. Trust me—it'll save you a lot of hassle.

You can have many different jobs and still be lazy.

I enjoy the great taste of Duff. Yes, Duff is the only beer for me. Smooth, creamy Duff . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

You can get free stuff if you mention a product in a magazine interview. Like Chips Ahoy! cookies.

You may think it's easier to de-ice your windshield with a flamethrower, but there are repercussions. Serious repercussions.

There are some things that just aren't meant to be eaten.

The intelligent man wins his battles with pointed words. I'm sorry—I meant sticks. Pointed sticks.

There are way too many numbers. The world would be a better place if we lost half of them—starting with 8. I've always hated 8.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard “My God! He's covered in some sort of goo,” I'd be a rich man.

Be generous in the bedroom—share your sandwich.

I've climbed the highest mountains . . . fallen down the deepest valleys . . . I've been to Japan and Africa . . . and I've even gone into space. But I'd trade it all for a piece of candy right now.

Every creature on God's earth has a right to exist. Except for that damn ruby-throated South American warbler.

I don't need a surgeon telling me how to operate on myself.

Sometimes I think there's no reason to get out of bed . . . then I feel wet, and I realize there is.

Let me just say, Winnie the Pooh getting his head caught in a honey pot? It's not funny. It can really happen.

Even though it is awesome and powerful, I don't take no guff from the ocean.

I never ate an animal I didn't like.

A fool and his money are soon parted. I would pay anyone a lot of money to explain that to me.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll get a hook caught on his eyelid or something.

I made a deal with myself ten years ago . . . and got ripped off.

Never leave your car keys in a reactor core.

Always trust your first instinct—unless it tells you to use your life savings to develop a Destructo Ray.

When you borrow something from your neighbor, always do it under the cover of darkness.

If a spaceship landed and aliens took me back to their planet and made me their leader, and I got to spend the rest of my life eating doughnuts and watching alien dancing girls and ruling with a swift and merciless hand? That would be sweet.

I may not be the richest man on earth. Or the smartest. Or the handsomest.

Never throw a butcher knife in anger.

The office is no place for off-color remarks or offensive jokes. That's why I never go there.

My favorite color is chocolate.

Always feel with your heart, although it's better with your hands.

The hardest thing I've had to face as a father was burying my own child. He climbed back out, but it still hurts.

If doctors are so right, why am I still alive?

I'm not afraid to say the word racism, or the words doormat and bee stinger.

Always have plenty of clean white shirts and blue pants.

When that guy turned water into wine, he obviously wasn't thinking of us Duff drinkers.

I love natural disasters because we're allowed to get out of work.

When I'm dead, I'm going to sleep. Oh, man, am I going to sleep.

What kind of fool would leave a pie on a windowsill, anyway?

Us.ef.ul (beelerspace)

Us.ef.ul (beelerspace)
"There are several reasons you should probably be using del.icio.us. If you use computers in multiple locations, say one at home and one at work, delicious can synchronize your bookmarks. This becomes even more useful if you’re using Firefox 1.0 for reasons I’ll address in a minute. Secondly, it’s a great way to keep track of things on the web. Built in bookmarks in your browser are cool, but if you’re like me they pile up and become hard to find and manage. Delicious solves this problem by using flat hierarchy, which I’ve talked about before. Suffice it to say that I’ve started wishing everything on my computer used a flat hierarchy like gmail and delicious, and I wonder why it doesn’t."

Wenn zuviel Regelmäßigkeit in der Sprache nervt...

Gesellschaft zur Stärkung der Verben: "Herzlich willkommen auf der Website der Gesellschaft zur Stärkung der Verben, der Anlaufstelle für schwache und geknochtene Verben aller Sprachen, denen der Weg in die Unregelmäßigkeit erlirchten werden soll."

Writing Code for Spacecraft

Unter diesem Artikel findet sich ein fast noch interessanterer Kommentar: Writing Code for Spacecraft: "What really happened on Mars Rover Pathfinder"

How Microsoft Lost the API War

Bei Joel on Software - How Microsoft Lost the API War: "Here's a theory you hear a lot these days: 'Microsoft is finished. As soon as Linux makes some inroads on the desktop and web applications replace desktop applications, the mighty empire will topple.'"

MEPIS.org Linux Distro

MEPIS Linux Development ist eine Debian-basierte Distribution, ähnlich wie knoppix oder ubuntu...

Soll die Türkei in die EU?

Das Great Game in Aktion: Ein bisschen Geopolitik...
TP: Soll die Türkei in die EU?: "Soll die T�rkei in die EU? Diese Frage hat viele Aspekte. Ich konzentriere mich auf einen einzigen; auf den, der (mir) der wichtigste ist; es ist zugleich der, zu dem man in der ganzen Beitrittsdebatte bislang so gut wie nichts findet. Meine Frage: Welche Bedeutung hätte ein Türkei-Beitritt für das, was seit Beginn unserer europäischen Einigungsbemühungen kurz nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg als das Herzstück der europäischen Integration gilt, nämlich das Postulat: In und mit Europa: Nie wieder Krieg?"

NASA World Wind

NASA World Wind ist ein freies 3D Visualisierungstool für Landkarte (also Erde, Mars etc.)
Asuprobieren...

Solaris 10 kann auch Linux

Solaris 10 kann auch Linux: "Durch einen verbesserten IP-Stack und neue Threading-Verfahren verspricht Sun Performancesteigerungen von bis zu 30 Prozent gegenüber Vorg�ngerversionen. Um Tempo geht es auch bei DTrace (Dynamic Tracing), einem Verfahren, um die Laufzeiteigenschaften von Anwendungen und Anwendungsumgebungen zu untersuchen und Performance-Engp�sse aufzusp�ren. Mehr Stabilit�t soll der Fault Manager bringen, Teil des als Predective Self-Healing bezeichneten Konzepts, das Fehler vorausschauend analysieren und vielleicht sogar beheben soll."

Da geht so einiges -- Wo bleibt eigentlich Microsoft, was Innovationen angeht? ;)

WeirdX -- Pure Java X Window System Server under GPL

WeirdX Pure Java X Window System Server under GPL...
Falls man sowas mal braucht...

Welkin

Welkin visualizes RDF models and currently supports only the RDF/XML syntax (but we'll be supporting other syntaxes too, don't worry). If you want to test it with some data, you can start with these graph fragments taken from our of our digital library collection.

17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists

Dear Friends,

Ok, it sucks. Really sucks. But before you go and cash it all in, let's, in the words of Monty Python, “always look on the bright side of life!” There IS some good news from Tuesday's election.

Here are 17 reasons not to slit your wrists:

1. It is against the law for George W. Bush to run for president again.

2. Bush's victory was the NARROWEST win for a sitting president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

3. The only age group in which the majority voted for Kerry was young adults (Kerry: 54%, Bush: 44%), proving once again that your parents are always wrong and you should never listen to them.

4. In spite of Bush's win, the majority of Americans still think the country is headed in the wrong direction (56%), think the war wasn't worth fighting (51%), and don’t approve of the job George W. Bush is doing (52%). (Note to foreigners: Don't try to figure this one out. It's an American thing, like Pop Tarts.)

5. The Republicans will not have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate. If the Democrats do their job, Bush won't be able to pack the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues. Did I say "if the Democrats do their job?" Um, maybe better to scratch this one.

6. Michigan voted for Kerry! So did the entire Northeast, the birthplace of our democracy. So did 6 of the 8 Great Lakes States. And the whole West Coast! Plus Hawaii. Ok, that's a start. We've got most of the fresh water, all of Broadway, and Mt. St. Helens. We can dehydrate them or bury them in lava. And no more show tunes!

7. Once again we are reminded that the buckeye is a nut, and not just any old nut -- a poisonous nut. A great nation was felled by a poisonous nut. May Ohio State pay dearly this Saturday when it faces Michigan.

8. 88% of Bush's support came from white voters. In 50 years, America will no longer have a white majority. Hey, 50 years isn't such a long time! If you're ten years old and reading this, your golden years will be truly golden and you will be well cared for in your old age.

9. Gays, thanks to the ballot measures passed on Tuesday, cannot get married in 11 new states. Thank God. Just think of all those wedding gifts we won't have to buy now.

10. Five more African Americans were elected as members of Congress, including the return of Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. It's always good to have more blacks in there fighting for us and doing the job our candidates can't.

11. The CEO of Coors was defeated for Senate in Colorado. Drink up!

12. Admit it: We like the Bush twins and we don't want them to go away.

13. At the state legislative level, Democrats picked up a net of at least 3 chambers in Tuesday's elections. Of the 98 partisan-controlled state legislative chambers (house/assembly and senate), Democrats went into the 2004 elections in control of 44 chambers, Republicans controlled 53 chambers, and 1 chamber was tied. After Tuesday, Democrats now control 47 chambers, Republicans control 49 chambers, 1 chamber is tied and 1 chamber (Montana House) is still undecided.

14. Bush is now a lame duck president. He will have no greater moment than the one he's having this week. It's all downhill for him from here on out -- and, more significantly, he's just not going to want to do all the hard work that will be expected of him. It'll be like everyone's last month in 12th grade -- you've already made it, so it's party time! Perhaps he'll treat the next four years like a permanent Friday, spending even more time at the ranch or in Kennebunkport. And why shouldn't he? He's already proved his point, avenged his father and kicked our ass.

15. Should Bush decide to show up to work and take this country down a very dark road, it is also just as likely that either of the following two scenarios will happen: a) Now that he doesn't ever need to pander to the Christian conservatives again to get elected, someone may whisper in his ear that he should spend these last four years building "a legacy" so that history will render a kinder verdict on him and thus he will not push for too aggressive a right-wing agenda; or b) He will become so cocky and arrogant -- and thus, reckless -- that he will commit a blunder of such major proportions that even his own party will have to remove him from office.

16. There are nearly 300 million Americans -- 200 million of them of voting age. We only lost by three and a half million! That's not a landslide -- it means we're almost there. Imagine losing by 20 million. If you had 58 yards to go before you reached the goal line and then you barreled down 55 of those yards, would you stop on the three yard line, pick up the ball and go home crying -- especially when you get to start the next down on the three yard line? Of course not! Buck up! Have hope! More sports analogies are coming!!!

17. Finally and most importantly, over 55 million Americans voted for the candidate dubbed "The #1 Liberal in the Senate." That's more than the total number of voters who voted for either Reagan, Bush I, Clinton or Gore. Again, more people voted for Kerry than Reagan. If the media are looking for a trend it should be this -- that so many Americans were, for the first time since Kennedy, willing to vote for an out-and-out liberal. The country has always been filled with evangelicals -- that is not news. What IS news is that so many people have shifted toward a Massachusetts liberal. In fact, that's BIG news. Which means, don't expect the mainstream media, the ones who brought you the Iraq War, to ever report the real truth about November 2, 2004. In fact, it's better that they don't. We'll need the element of surprise in 2008.

Feeling better? I hope so. As my friend Mort wrote me yesterday, "My Romanian grandfather used to say to me, 'Remember, Morton, this is such a wonderful country -- it doesn't even need a president!'"

But it needs us. Rest up, I'll write you again tomorrow.

Yours,

Michael Moore

FOAF-a-matic

Das semantische Web nimmt Anlauf...
FOAF-a-matic -- Describe yourself in RDF: "FOAF-a-matic is a simple Javascript application that allows you to create a FOAF ('Friend-of-A-Friend') description of yourself."

Karneval als iPod...

iPod Costume: "I decided to be an iPod for Halloween this year. I didn't just want to be walking around in a box, so I made it a fully functional costume. I finally found a good use for a tablet PC, and used that for the display. A rewired USB mouse served as the 'Forward', 'Reverse', 'Play/Pause' buttons, and a bit of Java code played and displayed the MP3s. Some battery powered speakers provided the sound. It all worked out well, and I even won the costume contest! "

Pascal Syntax Poster

Jef Raskin - Pascal Syntax Poster: "When Brian Howard and I were writing the Pascal Manual for Apple Computer, I discovered that the syntax chart that had been published with previous Pascal books was incorrect. With some effort and attention, I created a new and correct syntax chart, and had the brainstorm to use color to aid in understanding the structure. In each place that a new syntactic unit appeared, I made it in a unique color, and then the graphic definition of that unit was in the same color. This allowed a programmer to quickly scan the chart to find an answer to whatever question they might have about Pascal syntax.

I made up a poster, and soon it was over every programmer's desk at Apple."

Orbiter

Sozusagen die Fortsetzung des Flight Simulators ist Orbiter - A free space flight simulator: "ORBITER is a free flight simulator that goes beyond the confines of Earth's atmosphere. Launch the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to deploy a satellite, rendezvous with the International Space Station or take the futuristic Delta-glider for a tour through the solar system - the choice is yours."

Apropos Math Editor

Auf Amit's home page: "Welcome! You can try Apropos here". Und (siehe oben), Apropos ist ein Editor für Formeln, der auf statistischer Analyse beruht. Dies ist der entsprechende Slashdot-Artikel .

Firefox am Stil...

Portable Firefox 0.9.3 & 1.0PR (USB Drive-Friendly): "Firefox supports running from removable drives with minimal reconfiguration. To make life even easier, I've repackaged Firefox as a complete, removable drive-friendly browser. "

Die Siedler von Catan

Java Settlers of Catan: "Play an immigrant on the newly populated island of Catan."

Bücher finden...

...bei Amazon mit Mozilla / Firefox.

Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis

Auf den BBC-Seiten zu The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy kann man sich die neuen Folgen der Radioserie anhören (allerdings nur zeitlich begrenzt)...

Voice Over IP: Telefonieren mit Hintergrundwissen

The Voice over IP Insurrection: "Here is his long missive on the VoIP insurrection, the best and most definitive essay you will ever read on this technology, where it is headed and why it is important."

UNIX on the Game Boy Advance

UNIX on the Game Boy Advance und ein paar interessante Enblicke in die Geschichte von Unix...

Der Wahnsinn um "Trackmania"

Telepolis-Artikel über "Trackmania": "Alles ist Kult. Inmitten einer total kultigen Kommerzwelt bestimmen letztlich aber immer noch die Konsumenten, was denn wirklich Kult für sie ist, da lässt sich nichts verwässern. Bestes Beispiel: 'Trackmania', ein Racer aus Frankreich." Die deutsche Homepage des Spiels ist auch nicht schlecht (Screenshots, Demos etc.)

OnEarth, server of the Landsat 7, WMS Global Mosaic

Hier gibt's eine Weltkarte zum hineinzoomen...

A Taste of Computer Security

Ein Referenzwerk über Computersicherheit... Informativ, interessant und gut geschrieben...

Unix's Founding Fathers

Geschichtliches zu Unix: "Dennis Ritchie invented C and was one of the key members of the team behind Unix"

Bossa, a Framework for Scheduler Development

Unzufrieden mit dem Linux Scheduling Algorithmus? Schreib Deinen eigenen, mit Bossa, a Framework for Scheduler Development: "The recent activity in Linux kernel development caused by the introduction of a new scheduler by Ingo Molnar has emphasized for ordinary Linux users the importance of schedulers in modern operating systems. In this article, we give you a glimpse of what scheduling development is like by letting you implement your own Linux scheduler thanks to Bossa, a framework for scheduler development."

Persönlicher Fahrplan

Nicht über: seinen persönlichen Fahrplan kann man sich bei der DB auch für regionale/städtische Verbindungen (Strassenbahn/Bus) erstellen und sogar für's Handy/Palm erzeugen lassen! Cool...

Synthetic Serendipity

"Synthetic Serendipity" von Vernor Vinge: "In this futuristic tale, Mike Villas is good at playing games. He's about to find out if he's any good at playing people"

3D Browsing mit OS X...

...von MacWarrior: 3DOSX screenshots

3D Spiele in Java?!

Jupp: Cosmic Trip

Demos gibt's noch...

nein, nicht die auf der Strasse. Sondern Grafik-Demos bei Slashdot.

Blaster Revisited

Blaster Techno-Thriller basierend auf wahren Ereignissen ;) : "The following tale is based upon actual circumstances from corporate enterprises that were faced with confronting and eradicating the Blaster worm, which hit in August 2003. The story provides views from many perspectives, illustrating the complexity and sophistication needed to combat new blended threats."

Sony Ericsson & Nokia Themes

Für die Handies von Nokia und SE gibt's Sony Ericsson & Nokia Themes...

DNS Stuff

DNS Tool-Sammlung um alles, was DNS so ausmacht, online zu haben...

Remote Central

Fernbedienungen für jeden Geschmack...

Navigationssystem

Sony debuts Linux-based in-car nav in Japan: "Sony introduced three Linux-based in-car navigation and infotainment devices in Japan today. The NV-XYZ 33, 55, and 77 feature 3D map navigation technology, media players, hard drives, GPS, and PC connectivity. And they are based on a Linux 2.4-series kernel. "
Die 3D-Ansicht ist tatsaechlich genial...

Diva Gem Bluetooth MP3 Player Review

Der Diva Gem Bluetooth MP3 Player ist ein Player, der auch Gespräche von einem Bluetoth-Handy annehmen kann: "Now I was ready to take my first call via the MP3 Player. To test I was listening to Radio on the Diva Gem, when a call comes in. The incoming call is notified to me with a ring tone in my headset. Clicking the joystick button I pick up the call. "

Beweis der Riemann-Hyothese gefunden?

Louis de Branges behauptet, er hat den Beweis der Riemann-Hypothese.

BSI-Broschüre: Sicherheit im Funk-LAN (WLAN, IEEE 802.11)

WLAN sicher machen auf offizielle Art und Weise...

PC - Selbsttest

Sicherheitscheck für Browser und PC...

Hello : Introducing BloggerBot

Dank dem BloggerBot gibt's hier vielleicht bald Photos... mal gucken ;)

Test: TwinHan Vision Plus USB-Ter

Hier wird ein Test einer USB-Box für DVB-T durchgeführt: "TwinHan, ein taiwanscher Hersteller für PC Zubehör, bietet seit einiger Zeit eine kleine USB Box an, mit der man ohne zusätzlicher Stromversorgung digitales Fernsehen per Antenne empfangen kann. Es handelt sich hierbei um eine der ersten externen USB Boxen, die ohne Strom auskommen. Doch kann man damit wirklich überall in den TV Genuss kommen?"

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy -- The Official Movie Website

Oder auf deutsch "Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis -- Der Film". Was kann man mehr sagen: Juhu!
Und das Blog zum Film zum Buch gibt's auch schon ;)

Parallel-Universen...

...zuhause aufspüren: "A parallel universe, it may surprise you to learn, is actually detectable in your own home, office, or almost anywhere indoors. All that's required is a red laser pointer, a pin, and a piece of paper."
Naja, das Experiment ist schon ziemlich cool (Welle-Teilchen-Dualismus und so), aber wie der dann auf die Parallel-Universen kommt...

Alan Turing: Thinking Up Computers

Die Business Week hat einen interessanten Artikel über Alan Turing: "The Cambridge University mathematician laid the foundation for the invention of software"

Ichpeils.net

ICHPEILS.NET für langweilige Stunden...

Sex, Sit-ups, Sex

Eine kleine Glosse aus der ZEIT: "Wenn ich so ein Männerleben führen würde, wie die Männermagazine es vorführen, wäre ich längst tot."
Beachtenswert sind die verschwiegenen Punkte am Ende des Artikels...

Hier ist dein Schild ...

Hier ist dein Schild ...: "Doofe Leute sollten Schilder tragen müssen, auf denen 'ich bin doof' steht. Auf diese Weise würde man sich nicht auf sie verlassen, oder? Du würdest sie nix fragen. Es wäre wie 'Tschuldigung, ich... äh, vergiss es. Hab das Schild nicht gesehen.'"

European Space Shuttle Prototype Lands Safely In Sweden

Slashdot berichtet über Phoenix: "'Yahoo! News reports the successful test of a German designed prototype of the European space shuttle, Phoenix , taking place in the north of Sweden, moving the first all European mission into space one step closer.'"

William Gibson

William Gibson: "This was was published as DEAD MAN SPEAKS:

Time moves in one direction, memory in another.

We are that strange species that constructs artifacts intended to counter the natural flow of forgetting.

I sometimes think that nothing really is new; that the first pixels were particles of ochre clay, the bison rendered in just the resolution required. The bison still function perfectly, all these millennia later, and what screen in the world today shall we say that of in a decade? And yet the bison will be there for us, on whatever screens we have, carried out of the primal dark on some impulse we each have felt, as children, drawing. But carried nonetheless on this thing we have always been creating, this vast unlikely mechanism that carries memory in its interstices; this global, communal, prosthetic memory that we have been building since before we learned to build.

We live in, have lived through, a strange time. I know this because when I was a child the flow of forgetting was relatively unimpeded. I know this because the dead were less of a constant presence, then. Because there was once no rewind button. Because the soldiers dying in the Somme were black and white, and did not run as the living run. Because the world’s attic was still untidy. Because there were old men in the mountain valleys of my Virginia childhood who remembered a time before recorded music.

When we turn on the radio in a New York hotel room and hear Elvis singing “Heartbreak Hotel”, we are seldom struck by the peculiarity of our situation: that a dead man sings.

In the context of the longer life of the species, it is something that only just changed a moment ago. It is something new, and I sometimes feel that, yes, everything has changed. (This perpetual toggling between nothing being new, under the sun, and everything having very recently changed, absolutely, is perhaps the central driving tension of my work.)

Our “now” has become at once more unforgivingly brief and unprecidently elastic. The half-life of media-product grows shorter still, ‘til it threatens to vanish altogether, everting into some weird quantum logic of its own, the Warholian Fifteen Minutes becoming a quark-like blink. Yet once admitted to the culture’s consensus-pantheon, certain things seem destined to be with us for a very long time indeed. This is a function, in large part, of the rewind button. And we would all of us, to some extent, wish to be in heavy rotation.

And as this capacity for recall (and recommodification) grows more universal, history itself is seen to be even more obviously a construct, subject to revision. If it has been our business, as a species, to dam the flow of time through the creation and maintenance of mechanisms of external memory, what will we become when all these mechanisms, as they now seem intended ultimately to do, merge?

The end-point of human culture may well be a single moment of effectively endless duration, an infinite digital Now. But then, again, perhaps there is nothing new, in the end of all our beginnings, and the bison will be there, waiting for us."

Flarion's Tokyo wireless adventure

The Register berichtet über eine mobile 4G Technik: "Exactly how well Flash-OFDM works in a live application is an issue that many experts have debated. In theory, in Flarion's white papers, Flash has an average downlink speed of 1.5 megabits per second - somewhere between five and six times the data rate of WCMDA 3G phones. Also in theory, it can handle far more simultaneous users, between two and three times, according to Flarion's own estimates."
Also doch kein UMTS-Handy kaufen, sondern abwarten und Tee trinken...

Programming as if Performance Mattered

Der Titel sagt schon alles. Benchmarks und die Optimierung werden hier diskutiert. "I frequently see bare queries from programmers in discussion forums, especially from new programmers, who are worried about performance. These worries often stem from popular notions about what operations are 'slow.' Division. Square roots. Mispredicted branches. Cache unfriendly data structures. Visual Basic. Inevitably someone chimes in that making out-of-context assumptions, especially without profiling, is a bad idea. And they're right. But I often wonder if those warnings are also just regurgitations of popular advice. After all, if a C programmer was truly concerned with reliability above all else, would he still be using C ?"

XP reparieren...

c't 10/2004, S. 94: Windows XP: "Ein Malheur mit den Boot-Sektoren lässt sich leicht beheben. Die Wiederherstellungskonsole, die Sie von der Original-XP-CD starten können, ist das Mittel der Wahl: Sie kann den MBR (fixmbr) und den Boot-Sektor (fixboot) reparieren. Außerdem kann sie nach vorhandenen Windows-Installationen suchen (bootcfg /rebuild) und so eine verloren gegangene oder durch Umpartitionieren wertlos gewordene boot.ini-Datei restaurieren - der Befehl fragt für jede gefundene Windows-Installation nach, ob sie in die boot.ini-Datei aufzunehmen ist.

Lediglich die Boot-Dateien (ntldr und ntdetect.com) kann die Wiederherstellungskonsole nicht direkt restaurieren. Hier müssen Sie selbst ran und die Dateien aus dem i386-Verzeichnis der CD auf die Festplatte kopieren. Das ist zum Beispiel dann nötig, wenn Sie nach Windows XP noch 2000 installieren; die Installation ersetzt die Datei ntldr durch eine Version, die XP noch nicht zu starten vermag."

GooOS - Google Operating System

GooOS - Google Operating System: "Das alles ist nur möglich, weil Google etwas ganz Neues, Großes aufgebaut hat: Einen riesigen, aus über 100.000 PCs bestehenden Rechner, der mit einem selbst entwickelten Betriebssystem betrieben wird, dem - wie Jason Kottke es nennt - Google Operating System GooOS. Ein System, das nicht nur effizient arbeitet, für jeden Zweck nutzbar ist und jeden Monat schneller wird. Es ist auch noch kostengünstiger, weil es mit Standard-Komponenten betrieben wird."

American Business Computers Katalog (1981)

In diesem American Business Computers Katalog kann man ein bisschen in der Vergangenheit schwelgen...

Alan Kay erhält den Turing Award 2003

heise online - Alan Kay erhält den Turing Award 2003: "Mit dieser Auszeichnung wird der Mathematiker und Molekularbiologe Alan Kay für sein Lebenswerk geehrt, insbesondere für die Entwicklung von Smalltalk und das System des objektorientierten Programmierens."

Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem

Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem: "The proof of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem is so simple, and so sneaky, that it is almost embarassing to relate. His basic procedure is as follows:

1. Someone introduces Gödel to a UTM, a machine that is supposed to be a Universal Truth Machine, capable of correctly answering any question at all.
2. Gödel asks for the program and the circuit design of the UTM. The program may be complicated, but it can only be finitely long. Call the program P(UTM) for Program of the Universal Truth Machine.
3. Smiling a little, Gödel writes out the following sentence: 'The machine constructed on the basis of the program P(UTM) will never say that this sentence is true.' Call this sentence G for Gödel. Note that G is equivalent to: 'UTM will never say G is true.'
4. Now Gödel laughs his high laugh and asks UTM whether G is true or not.
5. If UTM says G is true, then 'UTM will never say G is true' is false. If 'UTM will never say G is true' is false, then G is false (since G = 'UTM will never say G is true'). So if UTM says G is true, then G is in fact false, and UTM has made a false statement. So UTM will never say that G is true, since UTM makes only true statements.
6. We have established that UTM will never say G is true. So 'UTM will never say G is true' is in fact a true statement. So G is true (since G = 'UTM will never say G is true').
7. 'I know a truth that UTM can never utter,' Gödel says. 'I know that G is true. UTM is not truly universal.'

Think about it - it grows on you ..."

Pi auswendig lernen leicht gemacht...

Slashdot Poll: "For those of you who want to remember pi to about 20 decimal points...

Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
in mystic words and magic spelling;
celestial cherubs elucidate
but my own striving can't relate.

3.14159265358979323846 (count the letters)"

Google News mal anders

newsmap stellt die Google News grafisch dar: sehr übersichtlich (und schön anzusehen...)

D-Link Karte...

unter Mandrake 10: SourceForge.net: Open Discussion: "Good news..It works.

All you have to do is to put the precompiled module from /3rdparty/acx100 to ../drviers/net directory.

Then type in a console all the things described in acx100 Craig HowTo.

What is annoying is that Mandrake 10 Comunity isn't checking the dependencies between modules at boot so i had to type depmod -a everytime."

c't 7/2004, S. 102: Mobiles Internet

c't 7/2004, S. 102: Mobiles Internet: "Ohne Kabel unterwegs -- Mit Notebook und Handy per Bluetooth-Funk arbeiten"; eigentlich gar nicht so schwer...

Java Technology and the Mission to Mars

Auf der Sun Website gibt's den Artikel hier: Java Technology and the Mission to Mars: "Q:How does the public version of the Maestro application work?

A: If you go to the Maestro website (http://mars.telascience.org), You will find that they've got two sets of downloads. One is the Maestro application itself, and the other is a first teaser set of data from Mars. There are different versions for different platforms. There's one for Solaris, a version for Linux, there's a version for Windows and more. The fact that they've got all those versions just shows you how portable Java is, how cross-platform it is. It's exactly the same program in all of those, they are just packaged differently.

So when you download the first set of data. There's a script that walks you through looking at some of the data. Using the 3-D model they have there, and using your mouse, you can actually manipulate the 3-D model and you can get a view as if you're standing off to the side of the landing looking back at it. You can actually wander around the landing site. You can see the rocks. You can see one of the places where one of the air bags didn't deflate completely. All of this 3-D, walk-through visualization is using standard Java APIs like Java 3-D API, Java Advanced Imaging API, Java networking APIs and the user interface APIs.

Using the Maestro version they are distributing, not only do you see a 3-D model of the terrain, you see a 3-D model of the Rover. You can actually drive the Rover on this simulated terrain. It has this 'video game' aspect to it. Except that you're actually driving it on a terrain model that's real. It's real Mars data that's constructing this terrain. It's not like playing Dune, where you're going through this maze that's completely fictitious."

Hmmm... Das sollte man sich wohl mal angucken...

Änderungen im Linuxkernel 2.6

Änderungen im Linuxkernel 2.6: "Dieses Dokument beschreibt einige der neuen Funktionalitäten, die im neuen 2.6-Linux-Kernel zu finden sind. Weiterhin findet ihr einige typische Fallen und neue Merkmale, die noch Tests benötigen."
Alles in allem ein recht interessanter Überblick...

Mandrakelinux 10.0 Community and urpmi...

Slashdot | Mandrakelinux 10.0 Community is Available: "If you have broadband, one of the first things you should do with mandrake is remove the cd's as package sources (in the gui, just to to packaging->manage media, or something like that, and delete the cd sources) and follow the directions at http://urpmi.org/easyurpmi/index.php to add ftp mirrors. Then you can install programs on the command line (as root) by saying 'urpmi package.' For instance, urpmi gaim will install gaim. 'urpmi -y blah' searches. 'urpme package' uninstalls. 'urpmi --auto-select' updates everything. The gui tools can do all this too."
Hmmmm.... :)

Rosetta Stone for Unix

Rosetta Stone for Unix: "A Sysadmin's Unixersal Translator (ROSETTA STONE) or What do they call that in this world?"
Eine Tabelle, in der diverse Tasks und die zugehörigen Befehle/Dienstprogramme der verschiedensten Unices aufgeführt sind, frei nach dem Motto: "Das will ich machen, dieses System habe ich -- und wie geht das nun?"

Slashdot | Upgrading Your Current System To Kernel 2.6

Slashdot | Upgrading Your Current System To Kernel 2.6: "This white paper provides an overview of the process of moving an existing desktop system to the 2.6 kernel. It will highlight other software requirements imposed by the new kernel and administrative changes that you must make when migrating an existing system to the 2.6 kernel. It supplements previous whitepapers in the same series about Customizing the 2.6 kernel [Slashdot discussion here(1)] and porting drivers to the 2.6 kernel [Slashdot discussion here(2)] to the 2.6 kernel."