Planet TuxHacker

Privacy @ JollyBOX

2008-10-26T14:38:52+00:00

I would like you to know that

I do not save your IP address in access logs.

All *.jollybox.de web sites are available over an SSL-encrypted connection, including this blog. The server's SSL certificate is currently self-signed. If you tell your web browser to trust it, please tell it to permanently save it to make sure you're always connected to the same potential imposter.

Right to Life, Liberty and Property Equals Human Being

2008-10-24T23:10:44+00:00

I believe that rights are not given nor earned. They are inherent in who we are and inseparable from it. If one stomps on the right of another, his humanity is violated because to be is to exercise what makes you human.

And what is it that makes you human? You are alive, self aware, capable of thinking and acting on your thoughts and thus capable of creating and acquiring. All of this together constitutes your being human and to deny you to use your life, self awareness and ability to think, create and acquire would be to deny your humanity, to deny you to BE human. Thus life, liberty and property are one and the same. Without life you perish. Without liberty you cannot exercise abilities that make you human. Without property, the result of these exercises, you have nothing to strive for, nothing to cherish, nothing to call home, nothing to call your own - the fruit of your labor.

No two beings can occupy the same space, digest the same piece of food or breed the same molecules of air, at the same time. That’s the very basis of property ownership, simply the need to occupy and consume a particular piece of the world in order to exist AS whatever you naturally are; a fish, plant, bacterium or.. a human.

Since as a human, you’re in addition to being alive also defined by being self aware and able to think and act human property ownership is expanded to accommodate for the exercise of these traits. So in addition to the food you’re digesting, air you are breeding, space you are occupying (your body) you also own everything else that is created or acquired by the work of your mind and body.

No two persons can own the same thing. If we pretend they do there is a conflict. Which one decides what to do with it? Which one uses it when both want to use it? Which one is responsible for it? Even when two persons agree to share something these impossibilities remain. They can only “time share” the use of a thing and “time share” the responsibility, at one time one can use it and be responsible for it and at another the other can. Effectively, it is never owned by both, never becomes “collective property”, rather ownership merely shifts from one person to the other in time according to their voluntary agreements.

Let’s take a challenging claim; that a given road is a public property. This claims that everyone living in a city where the road is located is the owner of that road at the same time. This also means that everything everyone in that city wants to do on or with that road they can do, all at the same time. So one can decide to drive a car on it as fast as he likes whereas another can decide to walk at the same place where the other guy is speeding a car. It also means that at the same time as those two are doing this, a third person can come and drill a hole in the middle of the road.

This obviously doesn’t fit reality and is in fact impossible. It is thus not surprising that when one claims a particular thing as “public property” it never really means that everyone can do anything they want with it. Instead there is a government which enforces rules of how it is going to be used. This government or moreover the head of the government (its president, for instance) contractually bound to his employers to propose and create the rules, is the actual singular owner of this so called “public property”.

Thus the conception of collective ownership or “public property” is a fallacy. It cannot and does not exist. Property by definition is always private and always belonging to a single individual. It is that person’s very extension, when acquired by voluntary consent of previous owners (through trade or gift etc.) or created by him or those whom agreed to create it for him. In all cases property is the result of thoughts and actions applied without violation of another’s right to think and act by himself.

Without property there can be no liberty. To deny ownership altogether is to deny ownership of self. This implies that someone else owns you and that thus someone else can decide what to do with you or what you should be, instead of you. You therefore have no liberty whatsoever.

If self ownership is admitted, but ownership of everything else is denied then your acts are not for you, but for someone else. What use is the admission of self ownership if nothing you do with yourself results in an enrichment of yourself, if every result you produce is for someone else to take without your consent. You are still a slave.

If self ownership and ownership of only some of the rest is admitted it is still not you who decides which of the results you produce are yours to keep and which are someone elses. Someone else can change the criteria at a whim. Because of this you’re still not in control of that which you yourself produce and remain a slave.

In short, life, liberty and property are human rights indivisible from each other and the process of being human. Violation of those is the violation of someone being human because one can’t be human without exercising that which makes him or her human.

Whose Garamond is it anyway?

2008-10-24T21:41:06+00:00

Flick through various foundry catalogs for a Garamond revival or adaption and you’re bound to discover more than garalde typefaces. Interspersed amongst the many Garamonds you’ll find erroneously titled baroque faces works by another type designer, Jean Jannon. I decided to investigate the affair and while doing so swept the dust off a little history of French printing.

Prelude: the birth of French printing

The European invention of letterpress printing with movable type by Johannes Gutenberg c. 1450 systematized the Latin alphabet into individual characters that could be physically composed and reused. Because Latin letters amalgamate into an alphabet—distinct from logographies and syllabaries—they are particularly well suited to be divided, cut, and finally cast into pieces of metal type that reside in wooden cases (fig. 1.). Majuscules (capital letters) lived in the “upper case” whilst the minuscules (small letters) inhabited the “lower case”. This is where we draw the synonyms for upper- and lowercase from.This was the basis for the revolutionary adoption in place of the meticulous copying of books by hand word-for-word and saw the establishment of an integral part of the printing trade: typography.

A reprint of a page of one of the Gutenberg Bibles, from Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s typefaces epitomize the strong gothic elements that we now classify as blackletter. The face in particular is a textura blackletter.

A sort is a single piece of metal type, a letter of one specific typeface and size. In digital typography it has been replaced by the term glyph as digital type does not physically exist until printed. Thus a sort of Bembo italic at 12 points is distinct from another of Bembo italic 10 points. Conversely those that semantically share the same letter but are stylistically different—even if of the same family and point size—are also classified as different sorts.Fig. 1. Metal sorts being set on a composition stick with many more organised in a job case underneath. Photo by Willi Heidelbach.

The trade of printing quickly spread throughout Europe. It was introduced to France in 1470 by Johann Heynlin and Guillaume Fichet—two professors of the Sorbonne, the historic university of Paris—who enlisted the aid of German printers to establish the first printing house. Three printers from Mainz helped them construct the presses, equipment and began cutting type. Still in the same year they printed France’s very first book, Gasparini Epistolae (“Letters”), written by the Italian grammarian Gasparino da Barizizza.

Traditional preferences

Gasparini Epistolae was set in a humanist blackletter (fig. 2). The face was a hybrid from a merging of roman and gothic elements. The style was rebuffed in favour of the traditional gothic properties of blackletter which French readers had grown accustomed to; unlike the humanist faces that were cut during the Italian Renaissance, humanist typefaces weren’t met as candidly in France as elsewhere in Europe. French typography remained moderately conservative, utilizing heavy blackletter faces of one style or another to set most printed material until the turn of the century.

Fig. 2. A sample of the humanist blackletter hybrid from Gasparini Epistolae, Haralambous, Y., 2007, Fonts & Encodings (p. 375), English edition, O’Reilly Media Inc., California, USA.

There are two noteworthy interludes between the end of the 15^th century and the cutting of garalde faces in the early 16^th century. In 1477 came the first book printed in French, an unusual and controversial venture as French was considered too vulgar to be set in print. Typically Latin was used for the written word, even in Germany at the time. It was set in cute bastarda (or Schwabacher) by Pasquier Bonhomme. Then in 1529 Geofrey de Troy, the personal printer to King François I, took the next steps that led to the broader adoption of roman with the printing of his book, Le Champ Fleury in which he put forth his theory that letter forms and human anatomy are closely linked.

The Garalades and Garamond

By the mid 16^thcentury printing was a solid industry. Certainly printing was still expensive, however it had become more economically viable and less time-consuming than the the previous option of employing scribes. Following the classical humanist typefaces, typographically in the 16^th century came the garalde (or old-style) faces, paying homage to Claude Garamond and Aldus Manutius. These featured a heavier weight and stronger emphasis on the downwards strokes than their antecedents (fig. 3). The weight can be attributed to a more oblique axis of the pen; garalde faces in no way loose their humanist elements. Today the best known garaldes faces are Garamond and Bembo, the former of which there are many versions of. Other notable digital renditions include Adobe Garamond, Granjon, Sabon, and Stempel Garamond.

Fig. 3. Top: 72 point Centaur, cut by Bruce Rogers in 1912–1914 and based on cuts by Nicholas Jenson made in the height of the Venetian Renaissance, 1469; bottom: 72 point Stempel Garamond, a true Garamondian revival by the Stempel Foundry, 1924. It was later digitized by Linotype.

The other Garamond

A century after Claude Garamond came Jean Jannon (1580–1658). Jannon was a French Protestant printer who began cutting type in the Protestant Academy in Sedan, France. He cut his type during the French Renaissance but did so illegally under the Catholic regime and consequently had his casts seized in 1641 by agents of the French crown, under orders of Cardinal Richelieu (who ironically used Jannon’s work to later to set his own memoirs, Principaux Points de la Foi). Jannon’s work sat locked-away for two centuries before seeing the light of day again. When they were uncovered they were misidentified as cuts by Claude Garamond, and hence named thereafter Garamond. Many digital revivals still carry on this error: ATF ‘Garamond’, Lanston ‘Garamond’, numerous versions of Monotype ‘Garamond’ and Simoncini ‘Garamond’. Jannon’s work is baroque in nature; it is easily distinguished from Claude Garmond’s; sharper serifs and an almost wild variation of axis and slope (fig. 4, 5).

Fig. 4. Top: 72 pt Monotype Garamond, digital revival based on Jean Jannon’s cuts; bottom: 72 pt Adobe Garamond, digitally revived by Robert Slimbach and based on Claude Garamond’s cuts.

Fig. 5. Top: 72 pt Simonici Garamond, another digital revival based on Jean Jannon’s cuts; bottom: 72 pt Stempel Garamond again, based on Claude Garamond’s cuts.

Historically befitting

So if you’re writing a piece on the introduction of French printing and want to set it in an appropriate typeface, a Garamond revival is most apt—of course you could pick a heavy gothic with which Johann Heynlin and Guillaume Fichet began France’s printing ventures but no one would comfortably read it today (and ultimately the blackletters are more Germanic than French). Conversely if you’re writing a piece set three centuries later, covering the French Renaisance, select one of Jannon’s revivals and pay tribute to a man almost forgotten by history.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Times italic sorts

2008-10-22T23:28:26+00:00

I’m still alive, just playing with sorts, that’s all.

Der Alltag eines busfahrenden Schülers

2008-10-21T15:37:00+00:00

Dies ist eine Geschichte aus dem Alltag eines zivilisierten, vernünftigen Kollegstufenschülers am Gymnasium Geretsried in Bayern. Ähnliches spielt sich wahrscheinlich täglich überall im Land ab.

Nach der 6. Stunde, 13:05 Uhr, regulärer Unterrichtsschluss. Die „5” nach der „13” mag in der Unter- und Mittelstufe zwar meist eine reine Formsache sein, das ist aber nicht immer und überall so. Also, um fünf nach eins endet der Unterricht, dann heißt es Zeug zusammenpacken und in einem normalen Schritttempo das Schulhaus verlassen. Daran, dass die Wände seit Jahren nach Baustelle aussehen und die Kabel von der Decke hängen, hat man sich schon längst gewöhnt—egal wie viel man sich beschwert, vor 7 Jahren war die Schule intakter—den dunklen Betonklotz aus den 70ern, der sich „Schule” schimpft, möchte man aber eigentlich doch relativ flott verlassen.

Draußen, an der Luft, wechselt man noch schnell ein paar Worte mit einem Mitschüler, zugerufene Àdieux, und schon ist man in der Unterführung zur Bushaltestelle. Nicht besonders angenehm, vom Geruch bis zu den zwar frisch geweißelten, doch aber mit schlechtem Graffiti beschmierten Wänden, aber man kann ja nicht immer vor den Fünftklässlern über die Straße rennen, vor allem nicht, wenn Polizei oben steht. Da geht neben einem ein guter Freund, Ich finde das unverschämt, dass wir für den Scheiß jetzt zahlen müssen!; Recht hat er, und auch diejenigen Schüler, die genügend Geschwister haben, um die Fahrt zwischen Daheim und Schule erstattet zu kriegen, sind sich einig: Nicht einmal Einzelkinder in der Oberstufe sollten den Bus zu einer öffentlichen Schule bezahlen müssen, nicht in diesem unseren Sozialstaat.

Auch die Situation an der Bushaltestelle kann nicht begeistern: es stehen die zwei üblichen langen Busse da. Der Erste, proppenvoll, schließt gerade die Türen, um wegzufahren. Im Zweiten ist auch nicht mehr Platz. Im Gegenteil: obgleich die Insassen (was nicht heißen soll, dass viele sitzen) kaum noch Platz zum atmen haben, befindet sich an der Tür noch eine Traube von etwa 10 jüngeren Schülern, die sich mit letzter Kraft reinzuquetschen versuchen. Etwas weiter hinten stehen dann etwa 60 weitere Schüler, die rauchen und ratschen, weil sie wissen, dass in den Schulbussen kein Platz ist.

Wie lange wird das noch dauern ? Nach einigen Minuten kommt schon ein Paar Linienbusse. Die Tatsache, dass sie unterschiedlich Linien bedienen, stiftet zwar etwas Verwirrung, aber schnell haben sich auch hier Trauben an allen vier Türen gebildet, und jeder versucht mit Gewalt, noch einen Stehplatz zu bekommen. Aber, was heißt hier jeder ? Manch einer sieht ein, dass man eigentlich zuerst Leute aussteigen lassen sollte, dass die Chancen, überhaupt einen Platz zu bekommen, infinitesimal sind, und dass diese Art des Einsteigens eigendlich zutiefst barbarisch ist. Man wünscht sich eigentlich, dass alle sich ganz normal anstellen, und die Leute hinten ungehindert Aussteigen lassen, aber das scheint in Deutschland ja nicht zu gehen. Die Busse sind weg, jetzt heißt es zunächst fünf bis zehn Minuten warten—wenn man Glück hat, kennt man irgendjemanden, der auch wartet, mit dem man das Warten einigermaßen überbrücken kann.

Der nächste Bus war vermutlich schon an einer anderen Schule, von Platz kann da keine Rede sein. Langsam wünscht man sich, man hätte den Unterricht doch wie in der Unterstufe um 12:55 Uhr eigenmächtig beendet, um zum Bus zu rennen, aber wo kämen wir denn da hin ? Kaum ist es 13:26 Uhr, schon kommt der nächste kurze Linienbus. Von Platz kann da zwar auch keine Rede sein, die Bushaltestelle wird aber langsam leer. Um nicht noch eine Viertelstunde warten zu müssen, quetscht man sich dann halt als letzter in den Bus. Um zwei Uhr ist man dann vielleicht zu Hause, und die Busfahrt war keineswegs angenehm; kein Wunder, dass so viele in der Regel ehrliche Schüler sich für dafür entscheiden, schwarz zu fahren.

Copyright © 2008 Thomas Jollans. Die Verwendung dieses Textes unterliegt der Creative Commons Namensnennung-Keine Bearbeitung 3.0 Deutschland Lizenz

Lisping: IRC bots are fun

2008-10-19T18:19:00+00:00

A wee while ago, I decided to learn a lisp. Randomly, my lisp of choice was Common Lisp. (though I will probably have a look at Scheme sooner or later) As if a new programming language wasn't enough, I also started using GNU Emacs (rather than my previous absolute favourite Vim) for editing the code... Why ? SLIME. Implementation-wise, I have used GNU CLISP (love it), Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL, quite nice) and GCL (rather pointless).

Of course, you cannot really learn a programming language without programming with it. Back in the day, I used the BWInf competition to learn the adorable Python language (along with a book), and this time, I solved a part of this years' BWInf round 1 in Common Lisp for starters. But, more importantly, as it was more fun and I can publish the code, I have written a bare-bones IRC bot in lisp using the CL-IRC library (which is very lacking in documentation, but both the IRC protocol and the library source code are open, so that wasn't a great problem).

You can get the code via Mercurial.

There is really only one aspect of the implementation worth noting here: the command-creation macros. Not really spectacular, but rather lispy, I'd say.

Instead of

(defun blah-command (connection source channel text)

  ; make sure the user is logged in

  ; parse the text into useful chunks

  ; more ))) than cool

)

(setf *commands* (cons (list "blah" #'blah-command

                             "blah documentation) *commands* ))

You write

(auth-irc-command admin "blah" (connection source channel) (arg1 arg2 arg3)

  ; get stuff done

)

etc.

Macro definitions are here.

I joined the Free State Project

2008-10-18T14:30:09+00:00

I intended to do this a while ago, but a technical glitch and then some doubts I had later on prevented me from it. However, as I was discussing and thinking lately, while observing the happenings in the world, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that if there will be a last stand made for true freedom on this Earth, it will be in New Hampshire. I wont say New Hampshire, USA though, just New Hampshire.

I believe it is the Switzerland of the american continents, except so much better. It may be the only place in which the old american ideals of freedom, which have made USA a “promised land” for so many fleeing europeans, will still survive and persevere until the time comes for the world to see the true nature of governments and socialism (even if mixed with some perversion of capitalism) and the true value of having freedom. The Free State Project and the people of the free land we know as New Hampshire, are going to show the way.

I do not believe that humanity has much of a choice except these two: either learn to live and let live, learn to respect the freedom and sovereignty of another, learn to live in peace OR perish, because the ways of perpetual warfare (between gangs known as government or between government and “its” people), of perpetual theft (welfare state), of perpetual victimization, violation and fear of each other - cannot lead to long term survivability, let alone prosperity, as the number of humans grows and the Earth continues to be destroyed by the power mad coercionists and their willfully mindless minions.

So I pledged to move to New Hampshire, some time in the future. The pledge is fairly open ended. I have up to five years after 20 000 people sign the pledge to move, so I don’t feel too pressured to move very soon. There are plenty of obstacles, from getting a visa (at least while USA as a federation still exists) to psychological issues of separating myself from the rest of my family and the place I’ve known for most of my life to the purely financial issues (the costs of moving, starting over there etc.).

But being that the future is uncertain and that a lot of opportunities are something I either recognize or create myself I would not say that it is impossible to resolve these issues. If I thought that I wouldn’t sign up.

So New Hampshire is very likely a part of my future.

Let the torch of Liberty burn again

2008-10-16T18:05:08+00:00

Let the torch of liberty…

…burn again.

What would copyright designed by artists look like ?

2008-10-06T11:15:00+00:00

Copyright as we know it originated in the English printing industry of the 16^th century. Since then, British writers have monopoly copy-rights they can sell to printers, who are, as we all know, the only people capable of reproducing books. This applied to printed music, and today, it also applies to recorded music and all other expressions of creativity that can be bound to tangible media. This is a nice, working system as long as printers (record companies) are the only ones capable of reproducing a work, and pay the artist adequately for the multiplication, which they fully control.

It should be obvious to anyone with the technology to access this blog that record companies (and publishing companies...) are no longer the only people capable of copying music (or printed works). Since copyright law and copyright contracts are still stuck in the Cold War era, which is exactly where the record companies want them, this is kind of a problem.

All this is no new argument, and some people are fighting against the situation: Some independent artists are going the way of the GNU, but they are few. Some have founded Pirate Parties, but most of them aren't artists, and they are realistically almost irrelevant. Now, there might be a new player around: On Saturday, October 4, British musicians united to create the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC).

I'm not sure what to think of this. While the Süddeutsche Zeitung jokes about it being a union of super-rich non-working-class pop stars that want more money (like all unions) on the front page of today's paper, I'm sceptical mostly because I don't know what they'll actually do, and what will effectively happen.

Their charter is directed at artist-company deals: they don't want to sell their rights. I fully agree with this; I actually don't think artists should be able the legal construction that is copyright completely: IF there is copyright at all, the originator should always have it. This, along with the demands for transparency, is important, and the most prominent part of the campaign, but I think another part is a lot more important:

Copyright owners to be obliged to follow a ‘use it or lose it’ approach to the copyrights they control. Despite new technology, many copyright owners fail to release recordings to the public. As a result many artists lose out and fans can only access such material illegally. A ‘use it or lose it’ contractual provision should automatically apply so that an artists’ work is always available for legal purchase by the public, digitally and physically.

While the solution they half-propose might not change a lot (we might see some day), the train of thought is an important one (see Lessig, Free Culture, ch. 5 Piracy) Might this get the ball rolling ?

Literature Tip

In his book, Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, (Penguin, ISBN 0-14-303465-0, also online) Lawrence Lessig presents a brilliant argument about creativity, copyright, media syndicates, and how they do, don't and/or should fit into the Internet Era. While it is a philosophical-political text written by a law professor, the book remains close to reality and it worth a pleasant read for anyone blessed with common sense.

Flash of light in the sky

2008-10-06T03:29:50+00:00

Just after 5 AM today I saw a flash of light in the nightsky when I looked through the window of my room. It looked like a pretty light star suddenly appeared and disappeared in a matter of a second.

I immediately thought it to be notable because, even as someone who likes to observe meteorites, I don’t quite remember seeing this. It’s just a flash of light, but every time I see a flash of light in the night sky it is either an airplane (multiple recurring flashes and usually quite obvious), iridium flares (which last more than this flash lasted, which was practically a blink of an eye) or meteorites which leave a trail and also last longer.

And I don’t recall myself being prone to hallucination either. I saw it!

So it seems anomalous. I should scour the astronomy related sites later to see if maybe I saw something others have noticed. Perhaps I witnessed a distant supernova explosion? That’d be cool.

In any case I love seeing something unusual in the sky, for some reason, even if it is a mere anomalous flash of light. It makes the universe feel more real and exciting, as it should.

Introducing IdeaProbe.com

2008-10-03T19:52:13+00:00

A project of the last few hours, here comes IdeaProbe, based on an idea of a search site which conveniently allows you to search all other good idea sites for ideas you might need for a new creative venture.

I was searching for ideas myself, before I make a final call on the next venture of my own, and since it took so little time overall, this particular idea seemed worth executing. It could very well pay for itself by, if nothing, then adsense revenue it might generate. If it doesn’t work and nobody is interested then, oh well, it’s just 7 bucks for a tiny lesson learned.

But something tells me it might be useful to some people, especially if I decide to go with it and add some additional resources to it, like perhaps the ability to submit the ideas directly from the search results into the special voting queue and then vote them up or down, sort of like digg or reddit news stories.

Afterall, everything starts with an idea, no matter how small or big it is.

Everything happens for a reason.

2008-09-28T19:04:28+00:00

The more I understand causality the less I believe in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. A reason for every event is its cause. Where conscious choice is involved, the cause may be a purpose of the one who chooses. I pursue a goal, thus I act to produce a cause that will produce an event that is a part of the chain of events that leads to the achievement of my goal - my purpose.

The more one knows and understands the multitude of causality chains affecting ones pursuit of purpose the more powerful one is. Having a defined purpose is, however, a pre-requisite.

We may be facing a new Great Depression in this world, and a subsequent resurgence of violent fascism and war. This too happens for a reason. Some would say it’s prophecies coming true. Others would blame human inability to resist violence (which results in governments tyranizing markets of otherwise free people). Some would say both, or some other imaginative reason.

But whatever we say or believe the reason exists and it is what it is regardless of what someone thinks it is. The closer one is to the truth of what this reason is, and moreover what all to one relevant reasons are, the more powerful one is.

Great Depression and increases of threatening violence easily instill fear in us, but there is an illusive truth somewhere in my mind which seems to hold the key which opens the doors out of that prison of fear and into the endless realm of possibilities. Where even in the worst of times one can have a world of his own. Once you rise above the chains of events - the causalities of our time and sees what they are you can mold it to your will. Even if you can’t change the whole world, since it involves others who may have the same power as you, you can transform your world.

But it is an elusive truth. My guess would be that it reflects, one way or another, the exact belief that is the topic of this post: everything happens for a reason.

So perhaps, if you find and know the reason to everything that affects you and everything you want to be affected by you can act against reactions that press you down and instill fear in you, to create the consequences that do the opposite - empowering you.

Maybe the greatest of souls will be born during the hard times that are coming. Maybe the singularity, the awakening, the new enlightenment, the transition, the evolutionary leap - will happen when the times seem the darkest.

And perhaps it will be a deliberate act by the few and a react by the many inspired by those few, that will bring it about.

Freedom is a state of mind. So is serenity and power. Rewiring a mind to these states is a painful process, but it is possible.

As the banks fall and violence rises, let us be ready. A powerful mind can stop bullets before they’ve been fired and make a mountain out of a depression.

selfpicmeme

2008-09-24T22:42:16+00:00

I got this silly idea from damog...

Rules:

Take a picture of yourself right now.

Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.

Post that picture with NO editing.

Post these instructions with your picture.

Do it !

This site has an IP address !

2008-09-24T21:53:35+00:00

Until recently, this site was hosted on my home server, which is connected to the internet over an asynchronous DSL connection, without a fixed IP address, that broke off at least every 24 hours. And hosting a web site on a crappy connection is never really good.

Anyway, I now have a VPS, and I can only hope that means everything jollybox will experience a lot less downtime in future. I have already migrated this blog (which was relatively easy, since this Serendipity setup uses SQLite3 instead of some dinosaur of a server) and set up a mail hub, which basically means that all the new spam is stuck in one central location when my home mail server isn't accessible.

Seriously, I can't wait for proper IPv6 deployment, I can't wait until having a few IP addresses of your own becomes natural once more. We already have the software, now the development of a v6 internet must continue at the leaves of the network: if ISPs don't provide IPv6 addresses and routing to customers, why would anyone want to properly hook up their servers to the IPv6 network—it costs at least a little time, after all. I know the Windows Firewall isn't suited for the internet, but we can't cope with less than 2³² addresses forever, especially if we want to give Africa civilized access to the 'net, and, while I don't know if I'll have any influence there at all, I want high-speed lines all the way from Cape Town to Helsinki.

I am free.

2008-09-24T13:16:35+00:00

Good morning to me.

Last night I’ve had a little merger happen in my head. It is between the concept of “self growth” and “self liberation”. I somehow saw them as parallel but separate processes yet they are not. I now believe that self improvement, self help or self growth, however you wanna call it, are in essence self liberation. And it’s a big industry because people yearn for someone to tell them how to succeed, but this desire to “succeed”, be it a specific desire for money, health or just general happiness is in fact rooted in a single thing: liberty - self liberation.

People buy self help books, seminars etc. because they want to be free, desperately.

But most of that material rarely brings them towards this state of freedom because most of it operates with the false assumptions about the world and about the prevalent social structures.

Funny thing, just as I tuned in to a trance station to listen to, it played a track which at one point had Morpheus from Matrix so eloquently say this:

“It is a world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.”

And I laughed out loud! In a state that I am right now I am beginning to truly feel that I have escaped from this world - I am free. I no longer believe the lies, no longer see the illusion and no longer fear as much as I did, because I know it’s all not real. I know that I have the power. And now that I do I can continue to grow my liberty to the point at which I can LITERALLY bend the illusion most other people call reality. The Matrix analogy is perfect, because that’s exactly what happens. People freed from the world of lies become Neo’s and are capable of BENDING the reality in which other people live. Why can we bend reality? Because it’s actually NOT real. It’s reality to THEM, not us. We know how it works now and so we can manipulate it.

But I’ve learned, however, another incredible fact last night - that I’m actually only at the very beginning of my freedom journey. I somehow thought that I’m already pretty advanced, but then I realized - wait a second - I am barely pass the “pain” stage, and I still feel pain sometimes when I see how upside down and wrong the world is. And the pain stage is the first stage of the process of becoming free. That means I still have a way to go and it also means that the way I feel now is actually just scratching the surface of what’s coming.

You know people. Freedom rocks. You should try and discover it. The thing people will rarely tell you is that you don’t need to change the world to become free. You don’t need government to grant you freedom. The only one you need is YOU. You have freedom by nature! I wish I could describe how that feels.

If you wish to talk to me or wish me to give you some pointers join #libervis on irc.freenode.net. Ironically, “libervis” means “most freely” and today I feel most free than ever.

Be free.

The Beauty of the Free Market and.. Wall Fountains

2008-09-23T21:16:31+00:00

Lately I sometimes look around me and visualize how all that I’m seeing has been made by someone working for some sort of an incentive, a form of profit. And as I’m thinking about it this way I can’t not to see the beauty embedded in the free market - how it makes people strive do the best job, to make something look good or function good, really put themselves into it, only so that the buyer can choose their product of labor instead of someone else’s.

Take for instance this site I recently came about. I have a soft spot for cool interior arrangements (I even have a nice decorative LED lamp to make my room more colorful at night), and this site offers some really great, I could say, works of art.
Soothing Walls are fountains pouring over cool looking patterns on stone, glass, ceramic or concrete shapes which are meant to not only decorate, but add a soothing experience to the room it decorates. They have indoor fountains, wall mounted fountains and even custom made fountains where you can, for instance, have a symbol, logo or a favorite inspiring quote inscribed on it.

They really made sure that they have a full service as far as decoration fountains go and their site further indicates that they’ve put some thought into it. You can browse by various kinds of fountains, zoom in on the photos by a simple hover of the mouse (or just click for a much larger picture) and choose various additional options applicable to a specific item of interest. On top of that they even offer online live support and free shipping. I’d say that’s a good deal!

Speaking of fountains, here’s one of my favorite wall fountains; a metallic frame, smooth lighting and blue letters - pretty much my style. But for something more affordable this Water Panel Tabletop Fountain looks just awesome.

Now just imagine if government regulated what kinds of walls you were allowed to have in your house or how big an indoor wall fountain should be. I mean, people could drown in the fountain water! We gotta regulate that, right? I’m being perhaps overly sarcastic of course, but the point is that the free market actors, indeed like Soothing Walls, always offer the best service and most creative and beautiful products when left free to produce on their own accord.

Cheers

I would be a Republican

2008-09-20T02:24:25+00:00

If I were not a voluntaryist I would be a republican. This is something that I concluded after watching an excellent documentary called Overview of America. It clarifies the political spectrums by putting total government control as the true far left and no government whatsoever as the far right. It then defines capital as “means of production” therefore concluding that every economic system is fundamentally capitalist (because every uses the means of production). The only difference is that in far left systems the government owns and/or controls the capital (means of production) fully (fascism, nazism, socialism and communism) whereas the far right systems leave the government out of the ownership and control of capital and serve at the most to enforce rights to life, liberty and property.

The documentary however attacks anarchy as an unsustainable bubble between collapses of governments and unfortunately there may even be quite a bit of evidence supporting that conclusion IF you would look at how many people calling themselves “anarchists” act. Most anarchists in the world appear to be “socialists” at the same time which is a contradiction in terms from where I stand because socialism implies collective rather than individual control of capital. Clearly, such anarchists cannot form a sustainable anarchy that wouldn’t just end up creating a new socialist government.

The documentary puts a republic at the balancing point which is limited government, a view which largely corresponds to what some today call “minarchism”. Considering that the USA prospered for quite a while under this system and people have rarely objected to government so long as it was kept limited only to law enforcement (law being entirely The Constitution and Bill of Rights (also dubbed by the doc “Bill of Government Limitations”), this system seems to have worked. And from my perspective today I would love to live in such a system today, compared to where I live now. I can understand why people en masse wanted to move to USA to build their dreams.

So why am I not a republican?

In principle, it comes down to a single fundamental reason: coercion. Even a limited government which only enforces the law which is only a provision for life, liberty and property is a coercive monopoly. It does not allow anyone else but itself to act as a third party in disputes or as an enforcer of contracts or defenders against violations of life, liberty and property. And frankly, I don’t see a good reason why it should have this kind of monopoly.

If the free market could efficiently handle everything else, as it did in the USA while it was still truly republican, why can it not handle law as well?

The documentary fails to make a connection that is rather obvious to me, between a free market and anarchy, both at the farthest right you can go - indeed for me The Right Way. It is exactly the free market which provides anarchy with stability it lacks when anarchy is attempted in a socialistic way. The perfect system as I see it, thus, is free market anarchy, anarcho-capitalism.

The reason why even a republican or minarchist limited government is so problematic is simple. By being the only entity allowed to operate in the market of law enforcement it becomes a magnet to all who would otherwise be legitimate competitors. Since they cannot compete with it they try to take it over. And since it is coercive by nature it can use this coercion, slowly but surely, to grow its monopoly into markets beyond law enforcement, which is exactly what happened each time a limited government was instituted (and the documentary covers Rome and America).

In a nutshell, government is the loophole of the republican system. They had a great idea, but they screwed that one up. The free market which they credit with creating the abundance that made america great, was the answer all along - they just had to let it be free of government 100%, not 99%. There is no such thing as “properly limited government”. It always grows.

There is also a question of morals, which the documentary briefly tackled. Apparently the founding fathers of the USA believed that the republic they created can only work so long as people are moral, and this had religious (biblical christian) connotations. In a sense I agree, but unsurprisingly for christianity, morality here seems to be expanded a bit too far. The documentary, for instance, shows pictures of people watching porn in the context of immorality, whereas this may merely be a subjective view.

The core morality, in my view, comes from non-coercion. No matter what another person does, so long as (s)he doesn’t harm you in doing it (initiate force on you) (s)he should be free to do so. It seems pretty clear that if people lost this moral principle they would likely deteriorate their society into one that calls for greater government and thus more tyrany. It perfectly aligns with the concept of violence breeding violence. Even a mere loss of the non-coercion moral is enough to start the vicious circle, as it will lead to the first violent act which will lead to all the more of the violence until we live in a totalitarian system where violence and the threat of violence is constantly present.

And I think in most countries today we are nearly or already living in such a system, even in countries which have a “republic” in its name like the Republic of Croatia (which is not a republic at all).

I only wished, now, that there was a place where a true republic really still existed. At least there a chance of inducing that last moral step towards a pure free market society would be feasible while the oppression would be 99% absent. Unortunately, not even New Hampshire in USA, the designated future “Free State” fits the bill.

50,000 Active Users

2008-09-15T18:49:43+00:00

Howdy, folks! At 19:40 UTC+1 today, freenode reached 50,000 active users online, which is a record for us!

Freenode reached 40,000 users a little over a year ago, so we’re really going from strength to strength! Thanks to all of you who’ve helped us build our community over the last year, and we’d like to invite you to #defocus to help us celebrate.

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Change in #defocus policy - and what do you think?

2008-09-14T19:17:17+00:00

Since rearchitecting freenode’s network help and social channels, we’ve been considering various ways to improve them for our network users, and recently freenode’s steering committee has investigated and considered these issues.

Whilst many of you have indicated to us that you feel longer or more aggressive bans are required to prevent disruption, the steering committee feels that an alternative strategy is most appropriate for freenode, as harsher punishments go against what freenode stands for.

Therefore, as of September 15th #defocus will be a moderated channel. This means that in order to speak, users will need to be voiced in the channel. Most of the time staff will be around to voice users in the channel, and if they are not, then users will need to wait in order to be voiced.

Whilst we appreciate that this will inconvenience some of our users, we regret that the difficulty of managing the channel makes a change in policy of some sort a necessity. We request that users not ask for voice, either directly via staffers or in #freenode, as this will not result in being voiced sooner. Please wait patiently, and you will be voiced eventually.

As part of the change in policy, we’d like to solicit comments from you, the users. How do you feel about the way freenode uses its help and social channels? What improvements would you implement, and how would you plan and discuss them? We’d like to foster greater community feedback, and if you’ve got any general comments about any of these issues we’d love to hear them! Please let canvas@freenode.net know what you think!

If you’ve got any questions about the shift in #defocus policy specifically, please get in touch with the steering committee at steer@freenode.net.

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Meet us at Paris Capitale du Libre

2008-09-12T06:56:45+00:00

In two weeks, we will be holding a booth at the Paris Capitale du Libre event in the French capital. The conference attracts a crowd of 3000 —in spite or because of its assertive name— including a number of prominent players in the French and International freedomware scene.

The event will also see the announcement of the laureates of the Lutèce d’Or awards, in which we hope to qualify as the best project for promoting free software.

We won’t be giving a talk this time, but we’ll be very busy staffing the booth and looking for corporate sponsors. Our new T-shirt is already in the making, the printing shop reported, and should make its debut at the Paris event.

We’d be delighted to meet and talk to anyone who passes by (the entrance is costless, but registration is required). Particiipants and translators, if you happen to be there, please stop by and we’ll get you a drink!

A short dash on French web television

2008-09-12T06:56:35+00:00

Granted — it is all in French, it wasn’t national television, and it didn’t last long enough to cover many details. But it is all still worth boasting about: here are two minutes and fifty seconds of GNU/Linux Matters fame. During the RMLL 2008 in Mont-de-Marsan where we held a booth, a camera crew from FreeNewsTV, a French web TV channel, stopped by and interviewed the only one of us who spoke French.

(The video is a 26 MB Ogg file, viewable with VLC or any other decent video player.)

Given the hurried pace, the continuously moving camera, some disarming questions, and the speaker who consistently mis-pronounced every name he could read, it wasn’t such a bad performance after all. We’ll try hard to be interviewed in English, next time.

USeless details

2008-09-05T22:11:31+00:00

If you spend a while in the USA as a European, you will inevitably notice some differences in culture et cetera. This shall be little more than a silly list of things I, as a German and European, noticed while on vacation in the states.

Continue reading "USeless details"

We have just released four new translations

2008-09-04T21:55:50+00:00

Today we are extremely happy to release HonaLinux.org, Pereidinalinux.org, DungLinux.org, and OtrymayLinux.org, which are written in Arabic, Russian, Vietnamese and Ukrainian respectively. These four new translations of our flagship website GetGNULinux.org are a great reason to rejoice, for many reasons.

The first reason is obviously that we grow in our capacity to reach out to everyday users and provide them with prime-quality web material about GNU/Linux and freedomware.
More specifically, we are able to enter a part of the web where information about the free software world is relatively scarce. We hope to be all the more effective in fostering Linux usage in these languages.

Another great reason to rejoice is that this release marks the completion of our translation system. From the first words down to the last localized URL, these four websites have been translated, built, checked, and published with a web browser only. The ease and maturity of the process —even right-to-left languages are displayed faultessly, as honalinux.org testifies— makes us proud.

The translations are a trimmed edition of GetGNULinux.org, containing less pages and thus allowing an earlier release while the full edition is being translated. This method allows us to grow at a much faster pace and we shall be making use of it again soon. A few people deserve great credit for this release:

Most of the credit for DungLinux.org goes to Clytie Siddall, from the Vietnamese Free Software Translation Team. Clytie, a familiar figure among internationalized free software project communities, simply stunned us with the efficiency and speed at which she worked through the translation. Many thanks also go to Minh Ngoc Le for his patient help and participation.
The bulk of both OtrymayLinux.org and PereidinaLinux.org was built by V’yacheslav Stetskevych — who didn’t give up despite the fact that we (still) cannot differentiate written Russian from Ukraininan.
Hassan Ibraheem took most of HonaLinux.org upon him, while we learned to write websites to suit his beautiful language (written and read from right to left!). A friendly wave also goes to Farid Fakhreddia for his encouragement and advice.

A press release (also translated in Russian, Vietnamese, Castilian (Spanish), and French) has been issued on this opportunity.

“International Linux homepage” grows in strength as non-profit organization publishes in Vietnamese, Russian, Ukrainian and Arabic

2008-09-04T21:46:58+00:00

Press release

[pdf format]

[en] Press release

[fr] Communiqué de presse

[es] Comunicado de prensa

[ru] press release

[vi] Thông cáo báo chí

Mennecy, France (Sept 4, 2008) – The GNU/Linux Matters non-profit organization is extremely happy to release HonaLinux.org, PereidiNaLinux.org, DungLinux.org, and OtrymayLinux.org, four websites intended to become the homepage of the Linux operating system in Arabic, Russian, Vietnamese and Ukrainian.

By focusing on everyday users rather than software experts, the organization wishes to affect freedomware adoption at a wide scale. The websites feature concise, introductory information about the free operating system, favoring legibility over exhaustiveness.

The release of the four websites, which are translations of the English GetGNULinux.org, fits within the organization’s vision for a multilingual web advocacy movement. “We now have a mature, easy to use web translation system which will allow the rapid release of further translations”, said Gustavo Narea, General Secretary of the organization.

GNU/Linux Matters warmly invites community members of all languages to translate, improve, and link to its websites. “We are slowly making our way towards our objective of having one million Windows users go through our websites over one year”, expressed Olivier Cleynen, president of the non-profit. “With the coming of Animador, our web freedomware advocacy platform, participating should be even more enjoyable and exciting”, added Gustavo Narea.

The organization’s first step into the non-Western Internet was made possible thanks to the efforts of a few motivated participants from around the planet. With a small but growing community, and several additional projects about to be released, GNU/Linux Matters enthusiastically works its way to becoming the first web forefront for FLOSS communities.

———————–

About GNU/Linux Matters:

A forefront actor of Internet marketing for software freedom, GNU/Linux Matters is a non-profit organization registered in France. Consisting of a small team of passionate members, it provides free software communities with high-quality, multi-lingual websites aimed at everyday computer users. Its main project, GetGNULinux.org (http://www.getgnulinux.org/), is focused on the Linux operating system.
Read more at http://www.gnulinuxmatters.org/

Contact:

Paris: Olivier Cleynen, +33 (0)6 28 410 948 (French, English, German)
Madrid: Gustavo Narea, +34 (0)6 29 247 034 (Spanish, English)
http://www.gnulinuxmatters.org/contact

“Who I am?”

2008-09-04T19:21:27+00:00

I am working on the selection of my major new venture and in doing so I tend to browse through some inspiring or helpful material relevant to the process of selecting candidates and making the right choice, coming up with the right strategy for the achievement of my major goal.

One of the posts I’ve read is about focusing on what other people need instead of money, when you want to develop a successful business. Of course, since I know that this doesn’t mean I shouldn’t also take into account what I want as well, I’ve started thinking. And since I like to think “bottom up” or foundations first I ended up coming up with a sort of hierarchical image of what fits where. The result is the following, and I think it might be helpful to.. whoever you are.

The question “Who I am?” is the central question for anyone who wishes to attain great success, however they define it. What I find as constituting the answer to that question comes from our genes and experiences or our “hardware” and “raw sensory data” respectively. Our hardware is everything that we are from the moment we were born (or before). From that moment on our experiences shape who we are today. They are nothing but the data that we perceive with our sensors and then proceed to process with our minds.

And that in turn results in two basic things: beliefs and knowledge or data and know how and “love” how, or what we know how to do and what we love to do (are inclined to do), which is constituted of our skills and interests. Those are our “programs”, sets of instructions we know how to execute.

Of course, the two tend to intermingle. Our programs use the data and the data can influence the content of our instructions. Together they form who we are. Thus, I am a voluntaryist, atheist, web publisher, web designer, enthusiast about technology, electronic music etc.

It is from who we are then, that we extract our desires. Desire is an emotion and emotions are part of our hardware (like firmware). Specifically the program of desire is integral to the system which defines the direction that we are likely to go in life.

Desires are potential goals that we would set for ourselves. From my own learned belief, I think it is best to write down all of the desires as goals and then among them pick one which if accomplished would help accomplish most of the others - that goal is what would serve as your purpose at this time of your life and until it’s achieved. It is the question: “What do I want to get?”. I have my answer.

But to achieve this, no matter what “The Secret” tells you, it is not enough to desire it. That’s where faith (self-confidence), planning and persistence comes in. I am in the planning stage.

And in that planning stage we inevitably face the question: “How do I get this?”. The answer must come from the answer to the question: “What do I want to give?”.

As you can see, you can’t hope to answer any of these questions without knowing the answer to “Who I am”. In fact, answering these questions seems to be a part in answering the first one. It’s all interconnected. You can’t achieve anything without giving anything. If your goal is money, you wont get it without giving anything.

But pay attention to the word “want” in this last question. You can give something, but is it what you want to give? If your goal is money, you can get any sort of a job doing anything and get it, but will that job be something you want to do? Most people who want money make the mistake of “doing anything I have to do to get it”, and they will, but that’s like taking a bargain of sorts and seldom, if ever, results in the kind of success they hope for.

This is because you’ll be most effective in giving what you want to give rather than what you have to give. Doing what you don’t really want to do, which isn’t congruent with who you are, is akin to putting a router in a job of graphics processing. It doesn’t quite work out. A router is most effective in routing network traffic.

But there’s a catch, and it’s an important one. Is what you want to give in line with what a lot of other people want to get? Is there a need or desire (demand) for what you’d be giving?

Ultimately, the best question to answer then becomes: What is it that I want to give that a lot of the other people need or want?. This way you strike the gold, perhaps literally. You are aligning what you’re best at offering with what most people want. You’re capturing the formula for releasing your absolute maximum potential. Isn’t that awesome?

I’m still looking for mine. It’s, of course, possible to make mistakes. Knowing self can be a difficult job, but never mind that. I’ll keep trying and if you’re into it, keep trying as well. We’ll get it!

Cheers

Happy 25th Birthday, GNU!

2008-09-02T11:51:24+00:00

To mark the 25th “birthday” of the GNU project the FSF have teamed up with a very special man; Stephen Fry.

I personally am a great fan of Mr. Fry — he’s an accomplished actor, terrific writer and a good documentary maker. I enjoy his books, I will happily set aside entire weekends for my fry-a-thons in which I am glued to the TV re-watching the entire set of “A bit of Fry & Laurie”, “Jeeves & Wooster” or many of the other fantastic things he’s done for British TV. And I make sure to never miss an episode of QI — again, I probably re-watch all of them. I follow his blog, I listen to his podgram.. I have a lot of respect and admiration for this man, for his insight, his honesty, his no-nonsense approach, his incredible way with words and his hysterically funny ways.

So who better to mark the anniversary of a project for which I also have a great deal of respect — a project which values, visions and goals are shared by the majority of our users. A project often found at the core of so many of the projects who choose to use freenode.

So without further ado — Happy Birthday GNU!

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#freenode: Autovoice Trial

2008-08-28T11:00:51+00:00

It’s been a while since we touched the layout of #freenode - we are generally quite pleased with how things run in there! However, we believe that it needs to be easier for a user to identify a member of staff when they join the channel - our current system of using a mixture of

/stats p
voiced in #freenode (+v)
/who freenode/staff/*

is both confusing and cumbersome for users who may be unfamiliar with how IRC works. So, as of today, we are implementing a trial change to #freenode, whereby all online staff (not just those who are flagged on /stats p) will be autovoiced (+v) on #freenode.

/stats p will still give a list of on call staffers, so don’t worry about that. The change is intended to help users, new and old alike, to recognise staff and find support when they need it. To many users, especially those not familar with the freenode ethos, it is strange coming into a help channel and finding no operators.

It is important to note that those users who provide help in #freenode are more than welcome to continue doing so - we appreciate the assistance you provide us to those repetitive questions! freenode will only be able to offer support through staffers, however, and these will always be voiced (+v) in #freenode.

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Stand clear of the closing doors, please !

2008-08-24T02:30:00+00:00

Plenty of great, great cities are to be found all over the surface of the sphere of rock we call earth. In every region of this planet man has constructed large settlements, and each and every one of these is unique. Every land, every city, has its very own, very unique character. Every city is different.

Continue reading "Stand clear of the closing doors, please !"

Articles in limbo and ALA web survey

2008-08-13T13:12:35+00:00

Whose Garamond is it anyway?

If you flick through various foundry catalogs for a Garamond revival or adaption, you’re probably bound to discover more than garalde typefaces. Interspersed amongst the many Garamonds by Claude Garamond (or Garamont) you’ll find baroque faces works by another type designer, Jean Jannon…

I wanted to cover this little typographic affair but quickly found the article gaining length and arguably bloat. It’s currently in limbo—I can’t decide whether to trim or polish it. Should I go ahead with a large but more interesting article (including a brief history French printing—which is interesting in my opinion) or go for the concise shorter version? Bah.

I also found that I’m short in garalde typefaces. Accompanying the article I’d prefer to offer garalde (and baroque) samples other than Garamond Premier Pro that’s on my Mac. Anyone with Bembo or another “Garamond” revival—either one by Garamond or Jean Jannon?

A List Apart

The Survery, 2008

ALA is again running their annual survey calling all those who work in the process of creating websites. The survey closes on Tuesday the 26^th of August—have you taken part?

Putting Our Hot Heads Together

“If more of us are thinking ‘What can I contribute?’ instead of ‘Did I like this article?’ the entire conversation is transformed.”

Punctuation changes made to retain sequential quoting.

I also wanted to recommend article No. 265 Putting Our Hot Heads Together by Carolyn Wood. She offers a number of practical suggestions in nurturing collaboration in discussion and comment threads that appear obvious, but only after reading. Her writing style makes the piece a pleasure to read. Make sure to check that out.

Vivien’s review

In closing I also should pass on my thanks to Vivien from inspirationbit.com who kindly critiqued KLEPAS.ORG for me. Her thoughts and those that arose in the comments are going to help shape version 3 of this site; I’ve removed the clashing purple a:visited styling. Thanks again Vivien!

Parcellite Moved to SourceForge

2008-08-10T20:33:47+00:00

Over the weekend I moved the Parcellite project to SourceForge. The new website can be found at http://parcellite.sourceforge.net

The new checkout command is svn co https://parcellite.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/parcellite/trunk parcellite

My blog will also soon be moved :)

Der Sommerferien-Blog

2008-08-08T20:36:55+00:00

So, es sind Ferien—seit letztem Freitag bin ich aus dem gymnasialen Klassensystem befreit, für immer. Außerdem habe ich noch fünf Wochen zugeplante Ferien vor mir, aber bleiben wir erst einmal bei der Schule. Die elfte Klasse ist mit einem 2+-Schnitt herum, jetzt heißt es ab in die Kollegstufe ! Die 30 Wochenstunden in K12 (wovon in K13 3 Chemiestunden wegfallen) sind im Vergleich zu den 34 der 11. Klasse eine deutliche Erleichterung, die Leistungskurse Französisch und Physik werden aber wahrscheinlich kein Kinderspiel; in Französisch geht es jetzt schon los: Da wir uns als Kurs dazu entschlossen haben, am prix des lycéens allmands teilzunehmen, heißt es jetzt in den Ferien zwei Bücher lesen.

Ich habe noch effektiv zwei Tage, um das erste Buch zu lesen: Danach bin ich eine Woche mit den Pfadfindern unterwegs, bin danach zwei Tage zu Hause—dann werden wir wohl Bücher durchtauschen—bevor ich über drei Wochen in Amerika verbringe. (wo ich natürlich das zweite Buch lesen werde)

Merging the teen linux communities ?

2008-08-08T09:33:36+00:00

Since shortly after the emerging of the Teens On Linux internet community, there has been talk of uniting with TeenLUG. The administrator of teensonlinux.org, Tuna, has consistently been against this, and has always killed the idea in a slightly authoritan fashion, but with TeenLUG deciding to merge with Teen Linux Lounge, the subject has re-surfaced.

Tuna would have the subject swept under the table again, but there appear to be some distinct tendencies towards mutiny that are acting as a catalyst: There have been some conflicts on IRC that got me, as channel founder, more involved.

Now, I have called for a referendum on whether to maintain ToL separatism or not; If the democratic answer is "don't merge", proponents of a union can't argue "It's only Tuna who's against it, that old arse of a dictator", if the answer is "merge", the subject might be irrelevant in a few months.

TeensOnLinux users, please vote here.

Bringing synergy to the table

2008-08-06T23:06:00+00:00

Once again, my desk is rather clean (a state that doesn't tend to last for long, let's see how long it holds this time), and I have decided to reintroduce a multi-head setup at my workstation. I've done this twice, and always enjoyed the space, and now I've also seen what it's like to have only a 20in wide flat screen sitting in front of you. In addition to that, I made sure there was a place for my laptop, as the recent acquisition of a PCMCIA network card made it desktop-compatible once again.

To spice things up a bit, and, I'll be honest, to spare myself the tedious labour of stretching toward my laptop whenever I want to use it, I've started using one quite magnificent piece of ~~art~~ software called Synergy. What Synergy does is, quite simply, allow me to control my laptop with my desktop's keyboard and mouse (over the network). This feels just like having multiple X11 displays: I just move my mouse pointer off the left edge of my big screen and focus is on my laptop. This allows me, for instance, to have an IRC client running on the wee laptop screen without really being distracting

By the way, the video deliberately placed on the right-hand screen in the photograph is one of Julien Doré's extremely arty «Les Limites»-clips. Grep Youtube for it if you will.

LugRadio Live and Silverback

2008-08-02T19:08:44+00:00

Yesterday’s entry regarding the great Australian Firewall was probably less interesting for anyone outside of Australia. The post was the result of a quick letter of concern that needed writing and consequently publishing (it’ll probably do more good online than in the inbox of the Minister I sent it to). That out of the way, I’ve been meaning to write about my time in England, in particular the visit to LugRadio Live ’08 UK.

LugRadio Live

LugRadio was the premier open source/free software podcast featuring the Internet’s Jono Bacon, famous web developer Stuart ‘Aq’ Langridge, and sysadmins Adam Sweet and Chris Proctor. The second season ended with a weekend live recording and conference, ‘LugRadio Live’, in Wolverhampton, UK.

Following the initial announcement that LugRadio were to conclude their show at the end of season five (to the dismay of the many listeners including myself), this year’s LugRadio Live (LRL) in the UK was to be the last ever given the podcast had come to an end. It was therefore a must attend.

LugRadio Live was literally a rocking event—rock music blared from the speakers half the time and there was a true “Chinny Raccoon” (LugRadio’s mascot), a custom made raccoon outfit as worn by Ben Thorp. Both the exhibitions and talks were all of a high calibre of which Bruno Bord’s talk “Baguette on Snails” probably being the top highlight. The show—the final episode of LugRadio—was of course also a good laugh, and for those who were by chance bored Bytemark’s portably gaming center ensured there was something to kill time with.

Of course the news is that due to the strong persuasion of fans LRL will continue to run annually despite the conclusion of the podcast. Given it’s the premier open source/free software event in the UK, it would have been a great loss to the community if this just past LRL was indeed the final one. To get a feel for what the event is like check out Flickr photos and make sure you try to make it next year.

Recordings of the talks should make their way online within the next few weeks. I presented on the Tango Desktop Project—particularly on the re-licensing into the public domain. I was originally going to demonstrate the creation of Tango-styled icons but decided in the last minute to alter the focus of the presentation. I think I disappointed some people with the move—if I make it to next year’s LRL I’ll submit another paper.

Silverback

I suspect that the word would have traveled far across the Intertubes that Silverback is now out and available (it was even mentioned by Leisa Reichelt at GUADEC), so I won’t mention it for long here. Silverback is a USD $49.95 program by Clearleft that turns a Mac into a mini portable usability testing lab—for the price it’s a must-have for anyone working in the fields of usability and accessibility in the software & web production industry. Although it doesn’t give you the amount of data that a specialised usability testing lab might provide, Silverback doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, it’s as portable as your Mac and suits every use case I’ve ever needed.

I did run into a small issue regarding licensing after my purchase: I used a friend’s credit card and with no option to purchase the license for another, my friend whose name was the credit card holder was the subsequent recipient licensee—not myself. For taxation purposes and simply for the sake of correctness I started a discussion on Clearleft’s GetSatisfaction.com pages regarding the issue. I received an email response within thirty-six hours of the post and had the issue sorted out in no time. Thanks to Sophie over at Clearleft for the help.

There are a number of reviews of Silverback—by Jonathan Christopher, .net magazine, and graphiceyedea—check them out if you’re unconvinced and otherwise have a great weekend.