Merry christmas!

To everyone out there I wish happy holidays. Enjoy the festive season, spread some love and happiness!

And remember: there's a reason christmas has been a special time for joy and love for so many centuries.

The Top 20 movie hackers

In Top 20 Hackers in Film History, Scott Willoughby collected the "20 coolest, funniest, dare I say sexiest hackers and computer geeks" that appeared in movies.

While I'd have picked Wyatt Donnelly, John Draper, Michael Bolton & Samir Nagheenanajar, The Puppet Master, Martin Bishop and Neo myself, I'd have put them on the top ranking places. A boy creating Kelly Le Brock with his computer, a real life hacker pioneer, two prototypes of the corporate IT guy, the worthy opponent of a gorgeous cyber police girl, a hacker become smart and good-looking, and the god of cyberspace obviously have to be on the leading ranks.

But come on, David Lightman only on rank 4? He's clearly my number one! "War Games" is my most-watched DVD and it'll always remind me of the times when I started hacking myself. The movie also explains why I'm still amazed by speech synthesizers. (And additionally, the same actor, Matthew Broderick, also starred in my eternal #2 movie of all times, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".)

These are the guys that make me proud being called a geek.

Leading like Picard

With his blog entry Der Führungsstil von Jean-Luc Picard ("The leadership style of Jean-Luc Picard"), Thomas Schimana gave me some food for thought. As a fan of "Star Trek -- The Next Generation" owning the complete DVD collection, this immediately peaked my interest.

Thomas perceived the following: Most of the times when Captain Picard had to make a decision, he used to first ask his leading crew for their opinions. Everyone got their chance to suggest a course of action. Based on that, Picard reached his own decision that wasn't to be discussed any more. By all means, he was the one carrying the final responsibility. The command "make it so" was his signature finishing line under the decision process.

I've already realized years ago that Star Trek had instilled me with a deep interest in science and computers. But reading Thomas' article, it became clear to me that I've also adopted a leadership style similar to Picard's.

I'm deeply convinced that each of my directs is a specialist that can contribute to a solution and whose opinion has to be taken seriously. But at the end of the day, I'm the one responsible and also the one that's in the front line when the stuff hits the fan. Therefore, I claim the right to decide the course of action. Even if that course isn't backed enthusiasticly by my team, I expect them to pursue the plan as well as they can nonetheless. On the other hand, they can expect me to do everything in my might to support them in making it so.

So far, I've had amazing success with that approach. I've got a loyal and highly motivated team that I depend upon every day. Like Picard's crew, they're different from each other, but every one has his own features, know-how and experience to contribute. The important things don't happen in my secluded ready room -- we rock when we're moving things together, each at his place of the bridge.

And, other than Picard, I still haven't lost all of my hair over the job. :-)

my $child1 = fork()

I've got as little spare time these days as I've always had over the last years. If you know me, you know that there always are many things I'm doing and thinking about.

A few weeks ago, something new appeared that's going around in my mind and hopefully will make sure I won't run out of occupation in the years to come.

Carolin and I are very happy that our tries finally were successful and that everything is going well. We're looking forward to a time of joy and desperation! ;-)

BlogCamp Switzerland

It's now been almost a week since I attended BlogCamp Switzerland at the ETH Zürich. I just didn't have the time to write about it yet.

We -- that is Sebastian, Diana and Sven -- met early in the morning to have Sebastian drive us across the Swiss border to Zürich. We managed to arrive just in time, so we registered and immediately joined about a hundred other participants in one of the lecture halls. After a warm welcome by Peter Hogenkamp, we had a short introduction round where everyone stated their name and three personal tags. I was one of the speakers that then explained their topic, each followed by a show of hands to determine the audience's interest.

But first, I went to Adrian Heydecker's talk about "Blog Usability". He not only gave some good advice about blog layouts that help building an audience, he also coped quite well with two projector outages (one caused by me by accidentally unplugging the power cord when I returned from the restroom, the other one from a lamp failure).

Several people had supported my topic "Getting Blogs Done" and I got one of the slots at 11:15. In about half an hour, I gave a short introduction into David Allen's "Getting Things Done" concept and then explained how I used it to organize my blogging more productively. We had an interesting Q&A session afterwards, and there are comment threads in Markurs Tressl's blog and my Selbstadministration blog.

With "10 Tipps für bessere Blogtexte" ("10 tips for a better blog copy"), Jürg Vollmer shared interesting insights about what to look out for when writing blog posts.

The last talk I attended was "Große Blogprojekte" ("Big blog projects") by Jan Theofel. He demonstrated some of his successful blog projects that generated a impressive number of hits per day, and explained what he took care of to get and keep his audience.

All in all, it was a day well spent. We were amazed how well organized everything was and enjoyed the conversations with other swiss and german bloggers. Next time in 2008, BlogCamp Switzerland will be an event during the "Computer Science Days". I'll be there if my time allows.

T-Mobile throttles IPhone bandwidth for german power users

I just found the official rates T-Mobile will charge IPhone users in Germany:

• "Complete M": 100 minutes and 40 SMS for 49 €
• "Complete L": 200 minutes and 150 SMS for 69 €
• "Complete XL": 1000 minutes and 300 SMS for 89 €

As usual, unused talk minutes and SMS will expire at the end of each month.

But the main bummer is in the fine print: T-Mobile will limit the bandwidth to a maximum of 64 kbit/s (8KB/sec) downstream and 16 kbit/s (2KB/sec) upstream after 200MB for "Complete M", after 1GB for L, or after 5GB for XL.

Thanks, T-Mobile, for making not buying an IPhone this easy.

(via fscklog)

I find Dilbert spooky

In a timeframe of about a week, I'll always find a Dilbert cartoon that fits what happens around me at work.

Okay, this one from Friday is timeless and generic. :-)

Link feed deactivated

I just decided to switch off the insertion of my del.icio.us links into this blog's RSS feed. I'll rather concentrate on keeping the feed active with blog posts alone.

If you find my link collection interesting, feel free to subscribe to my del.icio.us link feed directly.

Are you satisfied now, Kai? ;-)

Linux auf Dell Inspiron 8200

Im Februar 2003 legte ich mir ein Dell Inspiron 8200 Notebook zu. Natürlich installierte ich Linux, genauer gesagt SuSE Linux 8.1.

Technische Daten

Mein Gerät hat folgende Daten:

• Intel Pentium IV Mobile 2GHz
• 15 Zoll UXGA Ultra Sharp Display
• Grafikkarte ATI Radeon 9000 Mobile
• max. Auflösung: 1600x1200 Pixel
• Festplatte: 40GB
• Arbeitsspeicher: 512 MB
• Kombi CDRW/DVD Laufwerk Samsung SN-324B
• Touchpad, Trackpoint
• Sound: AC97 i810

Kernel

Der SuSE-Kernel kann meist unverändert genutzt werden.

Um VMware betreiben zu können, muss jedoch die APIC-Unterstützung aktiviert werden. Dazu ist in /boot/grub/menu.lst die kernel-Zeile um den Parameter apic zu erweitern:

title linux
   kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6  hdb=ide-scsi vga=normal apic
     apm=on acpi=off
   initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd

Mit vga=normal wird zusätzlich der Framebuffer-Betrieb
des ersten virtuellen Terminals abgeschaltet, damit er keine Probleme
mit XFree86 verursacht.

Power Management

ACPI habe ich zu Gunsten von APM abgeschaltet. SuSE hat zwar die
ACPI-Funktionen aus den 2.5er Versionen zurückportiert, mit dem
Inspiron kommen sie aber scheinbar noch nicht richtig zu Recht. Zum
Beispiel erhalte ich keine Batterie-Informationen mehr, seit ich einen
zweiten Akku einbaute. Mit APM hingegen zeigt mir wmbattery eine Laufzeit von knapp 6 Stunden an.

BlueTooth

BlueTooth konnte ich mit dem Kernel von SuSE Linux 8.1 nicht betreiben. Hier fehlen bei 2.4.19-SuSE noch wichtige Module wie zB "rfcomm".

Um auch den USB-Dongle von Acer nutzen zu können, installierte ich einen Vanilla Kernel von http://www.kernel.org in der Version 2.4.20 mit den BlueTooth-Patches von Marcel Holtmann (http://www.holtmann.org/linux/kernel/).

Sound

Die ALSA-Treiber spielten auch nach einem Update auf die aktuelle
Version Sounds nicht fehlerfrei ab, es passieren vermehrt Knackser und
Ruckler. Der im Kernel integrierte OSS-Treiber funktioniert hingegen
problemlos. Daher habe ich ALSA deaktiviert (insserv -r alsasound).

In /etc/modules.conf sind die ALSA-Einträge zu entfernen und folgende Zeilen zu ändern:

alias char-major-14 i810_audio
alias sound i810_audio

Display

XFree86 unterstützt die Radeon-Grafikkarten von ATI angeblich erst mit Version 4.2.3. Daher habe ich die aktuellen ATI-Treiber installiert.
Heruntergeladen können sie von der ATI-Website werden. Die Installation erfolgt einfach per rpm:

rpm -ihv fglrx-glc22-x.y.rpm

Es wird anschließend automatisch ein Script (fglrxconfig) ausgeführt, das die X11-Konfiguration erzeugt. Für das UltraSharp
Display habe ich als Eckdaten für die horizontale Frequenz 30-200 und für die vertikale 50-150 eingegeben.

Die Grafik funktionierte allerdings erst dann richtig, als ich manuell noch eine ModeLine für das Display eingetragen hatte.

Update 03.08.2003: Auch nach einem Update auf XFree86 4.3 bot mir Sax2 keine passenden Treiber an. Mit dem ATI-Treiber für 4.3 läuft der Notebook jedoch bislang hervorragend.

Maus

Die beiden eingebauten Mausgeräte, Touchpad und Trackpoint, funktionierten auf Anhieb. Damit auch eine angeschlosene USB-Maus
funktioniert, muss die X11-Konfiguration um einen Abschnitt für ein
weiteres Eingabegerät ("Mouse2" in unten stehender Konfiguration)
erweitert werden.

Modem

Das Modem habe ich nie in Betrieb zu nehmen versucht.

New website on Drupal

If you can read this, I managed to get my new homepage online. Instead of the combination of Textpattern and Serendipity, all runs on Drupal now.

Drupal ist great to build bigger websites that not only have a blog part, but also things like photo galleries etc. I already built some customer websites on Drupal as well as the Freistil-Consulting website. Now, my personal page follows.

I didn't want to make the effort of importing and converting the old blog's entries, so it'll stay online on its own subdomain.

I hope you enjoy the new and improved www.jochen-lillich.de as much as I do!

Epic World of Warcraft equips

Is this a level 70 item?

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_622w_ttiU])

Toyota targets gamers?

Talk about Getting Things Done

If you're interested in personal productivity, you surely have already heard of "Getting Things Done", the task management concept by David Allen. Over on my blog "Selbstadministration.de", I put my introductory talk about GTD online. It's nearly half an hour long and in German.

Does Nokia make me more mobile than Apple?

Of course, I pondered buying an iPhone when it enters the German market in November. But I decided that it won't improve my mobile productivity in a way that justifies the money spent. I agree that the iPhone has the most advanced user interface of all smartphones. But the lack of third party software is a killer. Even if it is true that Apple will release a software development kit in 2008, I'm convinced that they will control which applications will be made available over the iTunes store. I doubt that there will be an IM application while AT&T or T-Mobile want to sell SMS.

I've been using the Nokia E61 for many months now and I like how it's equipped with 3G, WiFi, a decent browser and a QWERTZ keyboard. That Nokia doesn't prevent me from installing new software enabled me to add applications for IM and RSS feed reading. Because I can do small things online without lugging around my MacBook Pro, I'm very happy with the phone.

Based on this experience, if I wanted to spend money on a new gadget (which curiously isn't the case, seems like I'm saturated ATM), I'd rather consider the Nokia N810 than the iPhone. It's a small tablet with a touch screen like the N770 and the N800. The screen of the N810 has been improved, though, and the device now also sports a slide-out keyboard for easier text input.

For more information, take a look over at Internet Table Talk.

Summer has gone

The weather has already switched to autumn mode, and yesterday, Carolin and I did the switch in our heads, too. We visited "Eisland", our local ice cream parlor, for the last time this year. And not only was it the last day the shop opened -- we also managed to be their last customers for this year. They were just going to lock the doors when we rushed in.

Since Carolin had a part time job there, we know the owners and they gave us this year's last cups of their delicious ice cream for free. We enjoyed it with great devotion.

I'm looking forward to next spring when they'll be back from Italy to open "Eisland" again.

Wilkinson goes viral

This is how you do internet marketing: take a common saying, create a story from it, make it a cute and funny video referring people to a game on your corporate website and set it free.

People like me (who got it from Jan Theofel) do the rest.

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuSBCIV1zuQ])

Starting my first online course

A week ago, I announced my first public online course called "Perl-Meisterkurs". It's a web-based seminar that teaches all the basics you need to know to start programming in Perl.

I'm very excited that people are already enrolling in the course. I take this as a gesture of trust and I'm determined not to disappoint.

I'm so happy that I even decided to offer a rebate for bringing in other people.

Online courses provide me with the means to live my passion for teaching without having to travel or take days off my day job. On the other hand, I have to invest much time and care into putting together the course materials because they not only have to transfer knowledge but also to enable and motivate participants to learn single-handedly as well as in the group.

As a platform for web-based training, I installed a Moodle course content management system on IT-Dojo. There, participants are provided with the course materials, forums to ask and discuss questions and other helpful features.

What I find great about being a trainer and coach is that you get to learn new things yourself all the time. For example, I'm learning to improve my course materials, to use audio and video to transfer knowledge, and to use a web-based training platform. I'm learning to help people learning, so to speak. That's such a great thing.

No PC should be without it

An upgrade, a cash machine, a revolution: MS DOS 5.

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmEvPZUdAVI])

This is just plain wierd.

(via Markus)

Pascal forever

My suggestion to go back to using Pascal for our software development didn't quite catch on. The idea came to me when I read about the recent update to FreePascal.

Ah, the memories... Turbo Pascal 3 on CP/M... TP 4 on PC... Learning Object Oriented Programming with TP 6... The times when people didn't think you're a junkie when you said you used "Turbo Vision"...

It was my entry into professional software development. My first client was a nuclear power plant.

What was the best program you developed in Pascal?

No, listen, it's not a cow!

I had taken friday and monday off, so I came to work not before tuesday. And my desk looked somewhat different than when I left it thursday last week...

My sysadmin team thought that since I play a Tauren druid on World of Warcraft, I should have some mates around me during the day. That's why they covered my desk with green felt and populated it with nice little paper cows.

Well, I don't need a mouse pad any more, that's for sure. I'm uncertain if I need a new team, though.

PS 1: Additional photos: closeup 1, closeup 2

PS 2: This is just in time for "Büro, Büro", a desk photo carnival.

PS 3: I laughed my ass off when I came into the office, even more than last time. I love it.

Linux auf dem ThinkPad R52

(This is a German article from my old homepage.)

SUSE Linux 10 (OpenSUSE) ließ sich problemlos auf dem IBM/Lenovo-Notebook ThinkPad R52 installieren.

Die Hardware wird vom Betriebssystem offensichtlich gut unterstützt. Mein Gerät enthält im einzelnen:

• CPU: Intel Pentium M 1.7 GHz
• RAM: 1,5GB
• Display: 15” XGA
• Grafik: Intel Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML
• Gigabit Ethernet: Broadcom BCM5751M
• WLAN: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG
• BlueTooth
• Intel ICH6 Sound
• USB 2.0, Firewire (IEEE 1394)

Die Grafikkarte wird von SUSE Linux 10.0 einwandfrei unterstützt. Unterwegs arbeite ich im Einschirmbetrieb mit XGA-Auflösung (1024x768), am Schreibtisch schließe ich ein externes TFT mit SXGA-Auflösung (1280x1024) zusätzlich an und arbeite im Zweischirmbetrieb (siehe unten).

Beide Netzwerkanbindungen arbeiten problemlos, sowohl für Ethernet als auch für WLAN mit 802.11g wurden sofort bei der Installation Treiber gefunden und konfiguriert.

BlueTooth funktioniert ebenfalls, man muss es nur zunächst mit der Tastenkombination Fn+F5 aktivieren.

Erwartungsgemäß verursacht auch die Audiokonfiguration keinerlei Schmerzen.

X.org im Dual-Head-Modus

Mit SAX2 allein gelang mir die Konfiguration des Zweischirmbetriebs von internem Display und externem Monitor nicht. Aber durch etwas Handarbeit erhielt ich eine funktionierende Konfiguration. Ich habe sie als Textdatei an diesen Artikel angefügt.

Confixx auf Debian GNU/Linux

(This is a German article from my old homepage.)

Apache

Das suexec Kommando, durch das Apache CGI-Programme unter sicherheitstechnischen Einschränkungen laufen lässt, ist im Originalpaket auf den Pfad /var/www konfiguriert. Confixx legt seine WWW-Homes aber unter /home/htdocs an. Deshalb muss Apache neu erzeugt werden:

# cd /tmp
 # apt-get source apache2
 # cd apache2-*
 # vi debian/rules

In debian/rules muss die Zeile

–with-suexec-docroot=/var/www 

durch

–with-suexec-docroot=/home/htdocs 

ersetzt und danach ein neues Apache-Paket gebaut werden:

# dpkg-buildpackage

Die entstandenen Pakete können dann per dpkg -i installiert werden.

vsftpd

Der FTP-Server vsftpd muss, wie im folgenden beschrieben, konfiguriert werden, dass er

• anonyme Logins verbietet,
• Logins lokaler Benutzer ohne valide Shell erlaubt,
• Schreiben erlaubt und
• sinnvolle Dateirechte vergibt.

Wichtige Einstellungen in /etc/vsftpd.conf:

anonymous_enable=NO
 local_enable=YES
 write_enable=YES
 local_umask=022

Wichtige Einstellungen in /etc/pam.d/vsftpd:

#auth   required        pam_shells.so

Tests

Ob alle Scripts sauber ausgeführt werden, lässt sich mit folgendem Scriptaufruf testen:

./confixx_counterscript.pl -fa -dbg

Die Funktion des Statistikscripts kann folgendermaßen getestet werden:

./httpdtraffik.sh DEBUG

Weitere Infos

• Confixx Setup Guide for Debian Sarge

BlueTooth unter Linux

(This is a German article from my old homepage.)

Einführung

BlueTooth ist ein Standard zur Datenübertragung per Funk, speziell ausgelegt für geringe Reichweiten. Diese Technologie ermöglicht direkte drahtlose Kommunikation zwischen Handys und Headsets, aber auch zwischen PDAs bzw. Notebooks und Handys. Letztere können dann als Modem zur Internet-Anbindung im Mobilfunknetz verwendet werden.

Für den LinuxKernel gibt es für BlueTooth ein Treiberpaket namens
Bluez. Bluez ist inzwischen Bestandteil gängiger Linux-Distributionen.

Um einen PC oder Notebook BT-fähig zu machen, eignen sich USB-Dongles am besten. Dies sind kleine Stecker für den USB-Port, die die ganze nötige Hardware enthalten. Es sind aber auch PCMCIA-Karten erhältlich und viele Laptops wie der Lenovo R52 haben BT auch bereits eingebaut.

Welche BT-Geräte unter Linux unterstützt werden, können Sie bei Marcel Holtmann nachlesen.

Installation

Bei allen Distributionen ist BlueTooth-Unterstützung inzwischen bereits im mitgelieferten Standard-Kernel integriert.

Neben den Kernelmodulen sind ggf. noch die folgenden Pakete zu installieren:

• bluez-libs
• bluez-utils
• bluez-sdp
• bluez-pan

Sind in der jeweiligen Linux-Distribution die aktuellen Pakete nicht enthalten, ist der Download von der Bluez-Website sinnvoll.

Inbetriebnahme

Konfiguration und Starten des HCI-Daemons

Der "Bluetooth Host Controller Interface"-Daemon (hcid) ist der zentrale BT-Dienst.

Seine Konfiguration ist in der Datei /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf abgelegt.

Der hcid wird von root mit einem der Kommandos

$ /etc/init.d/hcid start
$ /etc/init.d/bluez-utils start

aktiviert. Nach Änderungen an der Konfiguration muss er mit dem Argument "restart" statt "start" neu initialisiert werden.

Erster Test

Mit dem Kommando hcitool scan sucht der Rechner nach erreichbaren BT-Geräten. Ein BT-fähiges Handy (zB Nokia 6310, Ericson T68i) sollte hierzu mit aktiviertem BT-Empfang bereitliegen. Andere BT-Geräte wie zB ein Headset sollten vom Handy abgekoppelt sein, um Störungen zu vermeiden. Als Ausgabe liefert hcitool scan eine Liste der gefundenen Geräte mit einer Geräteadresse und ihrem Namen:

Scanning ...
00:60:48:6D:5A:D3    Nokia 6310i

BT-Handy als Modem verwenden

Konfiguration des hcid

Für die Nutzung eines BT-Geräts als Modem (z.B. ein UMTS-Handy) ist es wichtig, im device-Block die richtige Geräteklasse zu setzen:

class 0x100100;

Kopplung

Das Kommando

$ rfcomm bind 0 00:60:48:6D:5A:D3

öffnet eine Verbindung vom Rechner zum Handy ("Pairing", s.u.) anhand dessen Geräteadresse.

Eine feste Zuordnung der Geräte erfolgt in /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf. Damit wird direkt beim Zugriff auf die Gerätedatei (i.d.R. /dev/rfcomm0) die Kopplung ausgelöst.

rfcomm0 {
  bind yes;
  # Bluetooth address of the phone
  device 00:12:D1:7D:33:A9;
  # RFCOMM channel for the connection
  channel 2;
  # Description of the connection
  comment "UMTS dial-up";
}

Pairing

Beim "Pairing" nehmen den beiden Geräte Kontakt miteinander auf. Beim Erstkontakt muss sich der Rechner mit einer mindestens vierstelligen PIN-Nummer authentifizieren.

Die PIN-Nummer muss in der Datei /etc/bluetooth/pin abgelegt werden.

In KDE eignet sich zur Abfrage der PIN am besten das Programm kbluepin, das in /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf wie folgt eingetragen werden muss:

pin_helper /usr/lib/kdebluetooth/kbluepin

Den Erstkontakt löst man einfach durch ein kurzes Modemkommando aus:

$ echo "ATZ" > /dev/rfcomm0

Nun ist auf dem Handy die PIN einzugeben. Für die Zukunft erspart man sich die Eingabe, indem man die erfolgreiche Paarung im Handy speichern lässt. Dies geschieht bei manchen Handies (Nokia 6310) automatisch, bei anderen (Ericsson T68i) muss es manuell im Menü ausgewählt werden.

Internet-Anbindung

Ist das Pairing erst einmal vollzogen, kann /dev/rfcomm0 wie eine gewöhnliche Modem-Schnittstelle genutzt werden. Mit den üblichen Mitteln kann also darüber eine PPP-Verbindung ins Internet aufgebaut werden.

In Ubuntu Linux habe ich für den UMTS-Zugang in /etc/ppp/peers/umts folgende Daten abgelegt:

hide-password
noauth
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/umts"
debug
/dev/rfcomm0
460800
defaultroute
noipdefault
user "vodafone"
remotename nokia-e61
ipparam nokia-e61
usepeerdns

Das passende Chatscript liegt in /etc/chatscripts/umts:

# ispauth PAP
 # abortstring
 ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 
 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED
 # modeminit
 '' "ATZ"
 OK "AT+CGDCONT=1,42IP42,42web.vodafone.de42"
 # ispnumber
 OK-AT-OK "ATDT*99***1#"
 # ispconnect
 CONNECT dc
 # prelogin

 # ispname
 # isppassword
 # postlogin

"web.vodafone.de" ist dabei der "Access Point Name", der von Provider zu Provider unterschiedlich ist.

Da ein Login nicht notwendig ist, habe ich in /etc/ppp/pap-secrets für Benutzername und Passwort Dummywerte eingetragen:

"vodafone" nokia-e61 "password"

Eine UMTS-Verbindung kann nun ganz einfach mit dem Kommando pon umts auf- und mit poff wieder abgebaut werden.

Vernetzung

Mittels der "Private Area Network"-Funktion (PAN) können Rechner per Funk vernetzt werden. Dazu wird mit dem Kommando

$ pand -s -r NAP -M

ein Rechner zum "Network Access Point" und "Master" ernannt, der zunächst auf den Verbindungsaufbau durch die Gegenstation wartet. Diese baut die Verbindung zum Master anhand dessen Geräteadresse wie folgt auf:

$ pand --service NAP -b aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

Man kann auch statt zu einer definierten Geräteadresse die Verbindung einfach zum erstbesten BT-Gerät aufbauen:

$ pand --service NAP -Q

Nach erfolgreichem Verbindungsaufbau existiert auf beiden Stationen ein neues Netzwerk-Interface namens bnep0, das wie üblich mit ifconfig konfiguriert werden kann:

$ ifconfig bnep0 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255 up

Spezielle BlueTooth-Geräte

AVM Blue Fritz! USB

Zur Anbindung ihrer BlueTooth-Produkte unter Linux hat AVM eine eigene FAQ-Sammlung online, bei SuSE findet sich eine zusätzliche Anleitung.

Konfigurationen verwalten mit SCPM

(This is a German article from my old homepage.)

Wer mit dem selben Rechner wechselweise in verschiedenen Netzwerken arbeitet, wird des Aufwands, immer wieder die Netzwerk-Konfiguration ändern zu müssen, schnell überdrüssig werden. Das betrifft vor allem Notebook-Anwender, die zum Beispiel sowohl in der Firma als auch zu Hause ein Netzwerk nutzen. Immer wieder müssen IP-Adresse, Netzwerkmaske, Nameserver-Adressen, Mail-Konfiguration usw. geändert werden, was manuell eine nervige Aufgabe ist. Abhilfe schafft SCPM.

SCPM ("System Configuration Profile Manager") ist ein Hilfsprogramm, das seit Version 8.1 zur SuSE Linux Distribution gehört. Es verwaltet unterschiedliche Netzwerk-Konfigurationen und ermöglicht es der Anwenderin, mit einem kurzen Kommando zwischen diesen Konfigurationen, "Profile" genannt, zu wechseln.

Verwendung von SCPM

In YaST2 findet sich SCPM unter dem Punkt "Profilmanager" im "System"-Menü. Im Terminal wird SCPM wie folgt verwendet.

Mit dem Kommando

scpm enable

muss SCPM vor der eigentlichen Nutzung einmalig aktiviert werden. An dieser Stelle wird das "Repository" angelegt, in dem SCPM die verschiedenen Konfigurations-Profile ablegt. Im Dateisystem findet sich das Repository unter /var/lib/scpm.

Ein zweites Mal lässt sich scpm enable nur mit der Zusatzoption -f ("force" = erzwingen) ausführen. Dann wird das Repository mit allen Profilen gelöscht und ein neues angelegt.

scpm add «profil»

fügt die aktuelle Netzwerk-Konfiguration dem Repository unter dem Namen «profil» hinzu. Dies muss für jede Konfiguration nur ein Mal erfolgen. Eine Aktualisierung des Profils gehört zum Funktionsumfang des switch Kommandos.

scpm switch «profil»

überschreibt die aktuelle Systemkonfiguration mit den Daten des anschließend aktiven Profils «profil». Bei Bedarf
wird dann das Netzwerk neu gestartet, damit die Konfigurationsänderung zum Tragen kommt.

Sollte beim Aufruf von scpm switch die aktuelle Systemkonfiguration nicht den für das noch aktive Profil abgelegten Daten entsprechen, fragt scpm für jede betroffene Datei ab, ob der neue Zustand im Repository abgelegt werden soll. Man kann dies nutzen, um das momentan aktive Profil auf den aktuellen Stand zu bringen, indem man mit scpm switch zum bereits aktiven Profil "wechselt".

Soll ein anderes Profil aktiviert werden, ohne die aktuelle Konfiguration zu speichern, ist die Option -f zu verwenden:

scpm -f switch «profil»

Profil beim Booten auswählen

Mit der Kerneloption PROFILE kann bereits beim Booten ein bestimmtes Profil ausgewählt werden. Diese Kerneloption kann nach Bedarf im Menü des Bootloaders eingegeben oder in seiner Konfigurationsdatei (/etc/lilo.conf bzw. /boot/grub/menu.lst) fest eingestellt werden.

Bei GRUB könnte zum Beispiel ein entsprechender Eintrag so aussehen:

title Office
  kernel (hd0,5) /boot/vmlinuz
  root=/dev/hda6 PROFILE=office
  initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd

Eigene Ressourcen definieren

Welche Ressourcen SCPM verwaltet, wird in sogenannten "resource sets" (RS) definiert. Dies sind Textdateien, in denen die Pfade der Dateien aufgelistet sind, die SCPM in seiner Datenbank ablegen soll. Abgelegt sind die RS im Verzeichnis /lib/scpm/resource_sets. Hier sind bereits in der
Grundinstallation mehrere verschiedene Dateien vorhanden, von denen gemäß dem Eintrag RESOURCE_SET="typical" in der SCPM-Konfigurationsdatei /etc/scpm.conf die Variante "typical" verwendet wird.

Ein eigenes RS kann somit einfach dadurch definiert werden, dass man eine vorhandene Datei mit neuem Namen kopiert, sie modifiziert und in /etc/scpm.conf einträgt.

Zum Beispiel enthält das RS "typical" keinen Eintrag, der den Host- und Dateinamen des Rechners im Profil speichert. Somit ist es nicht möglich, diese Namen zwischen Profilen zu variieren. Dies kann einfach behoben werden. Mit

cp typical myscpm

wird zunächst ein neues RS erzeugt, das dann auch in die Konfigurationsdatei /etc/scpm.conf einzutragen ist:

RESOURCE_SET="myscpm"

Für die Verwaltung des Host- und Domainnamens muss eine Datei-Ressource /etc/HOSTNAME hinzugefügt werden. Mit einem Texteditor ist also die folgende Zeile in myscpm einzutragen:

file /etc/HOSTNAME

Ab sofort verwaltet SCPM auch die Namensinformationen.

Yes, EDS, I know what you mean

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdwrYiNJc_E])

If they don't need me as a team lead any more, I could become a fine cat herder anytime.

LPI certification tutorials from IBM

Today, I found two series of tutorials for the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) certification programme on IBM’s DeveloperWorks website.

In my opinion, a certification is a good thing because the employer can instantly see that you’ve put some work into your qualifications. But just answering some questionnaire will not bring you far when you’ve got to do real work, so you’d better add quite some practical experience to the mix.

Those tutorials provide you with the means to get some of this practice. Therefore, if you’re interested in getting an LPI certification (and I know quite a few folks who do), check them out:

• Tutorials for LPIC-1 (LPI Certificate Level 1)
• Tutorials for LPIC-2 (LPI Certificate Level 2)

A year without a car

A year ago, when it had become clear that once we had moved to Freiburg, I wouldn't do the 150 km commute by car, I canceled my leasing contract and switched to public transportation.

I've got myself a "Bahncard 100" that enables me to take (almost) every Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) train I want to for a flat monthly fee. So, if I'd like to visit a friend in Hannover or to go to the next Barcamp Cologne, I just hop on the train. The monthly rate for the Bahncard 100 is about the same as my leasing fee was, and there are no extra costs for fuel, insurance, repair, parking etc. Even with the occasional taxi, I spend less money for the train than I used to for the car.

Although my commute now is five times longer than it was when I lived in Philippsburg, it is much more environmentally friendly. I now share the same vehicle with hundreds of other passengers.

It takes me about an hour to get to work, and over this time I don't sit behind a wheel cursing at other drivers but at my laptop, doing some work, typing blog entries like this one, reading my Twitter stream, or just relaxing, listening to a podcast or audio book. Thanks to my in-ear earbuds, I don't get disturbed by crying babies, loudly talking business buffoons or other crazy people.

Of course, not having a car has its downsides. If I want to go on an IKEA rampage or buy five crates of beer, I need to rent a car or ask a friend to help me out. In urgent cases, I have to get a taxi. And there's always the train schedule that I have to adhere to. Sometimes, the train doesn't.

But over all, it's simply comfortable to sit in a soft chair and wait until the conductor has taken me there. I don't miss the car.

OpenID = BadIDea?

When OpenID was made public, it seemed like a really good idea, solving the problem of having to maintain dozens or hundreds of user accounts all over the web.

But Stefan Brands has another point of view and he not only points out one or two flaws of the new identification and authentication protocol, but a whole list at a time:

• Security problems
• Privacy problems
• Trust problems
• Usability problems
• Adoption problems
• Availability problems
• Patent problems

After reading his article "The problem(s) with OpenID", I guess I'll go back to using Keepass.

This is the archive of my old blog

If you didn't notice already, I moved my blog to my homepage The RSS feed should have switched transparently.

This website will be preserved for archival purposes.

Palm dying the slow, painful death

Once, I was proud to belong to the first Palm PDA users -- back in the time when they were still were called "Palm Pilots". I had a Palm 1000, a Palm III and a Palm Vx. I learned digital organization and started to take my data with me whereever I went.

Then came the Zaurus that enabled me to have Linux in my pocket, and I abandoned Palm. Unfortunately, the Zaurus never gained enough market share and I missed the software I was used to on the Palm PDAs every day.

Today, I'm using a Nokia E61, because it's not as bulky as a Treo and, more importantly, it has WiFi capabilities.

Over all the years, Palm got more and more behind the market demand. With their new Foleo product, they seemed to make the steps necessary to gain relevancy again, but the price tag of almost $600 was way too close to a full-fledged laptop. And now, Palm kills their latest child before it even saw the light of day. In a A Message to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers, Palm CEO Ed Colligan announces that the Foleo will not be brought to market.

We're not going to speculate now on timing for a next Foleo, we just know we need to get our core platform and smartphones done first.

I'm sorry, but the iPhone is already in stores, you know?

To my colleagues

Dear coworkers,

I'll need to go to the restroom soon, and certainly, we all want this visit to be a pleasant one. To make sure business will go as, let's say, smoothly as possible, there are some rules that I'd like to make you aware of:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw])

So, please take those rules into consideration, so that we all can continue our work day relieved and relaxed.

Thank you.

qooxdoo, Kollege!

It’s nice to find a video featuring a coworker on a big programming website. In this case, Andreas Ecker talks about the qooxdoo Javascript framework on TheServerSide.com

qooxdoo is a robust, state-of-the-art GUI toolkit and AJAX framework. Its origins can be traced back to 2003, when it was already doing AJAX before the term was invented.

Hände weg von meinem Ich

Auf WatchBerlin nimmt Michel Friedman Stellung zu den staatlichen Überwachungsgelüsten, und ich stimme ihm aus ganzem Herzen zu:

Irish girls rock!

Today, I found Sophie Merry, the Groovy Dancing Girl, on YouTube. Not only are her dancing moves really awesome, but they're also filmed in slow motion and played back at higher speed, but still synchronous to the music. Take a look!

"Harder Better Faster Stronger" by Daft Punk:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr2JneittqQ])

"Phantom" by Justice:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbSKnU5ZwJg])

Book review: Perls of Wisdom

On the website of my side business, Freistil-Consulting, I just posted my review (in German language) of Randall Schwartz's book "Perls of Wisdom".

The book is a collection of articles that Merlyn wrote for print and online magazines during the last decade. My verdict: While those articles are easy to read piece by piece and permit focusing on one special aspect of Perl programming at a time, you can find similar writeups on the internet for free. And some of the articles are even outdated, which the author himself hints at in more than one article preface. If those articles that really are likely to close some knowledge gaps (like the ones on Object-oriented Perl) are worth the 30 Euro, the prospective reader should decide carefully.

Blognation Ireland goes online

Blognation is growing further. After hiring Nicole Simon and Marcus Spath as their German startup correspondents, the site now also covers the Irish Web 2.0 entrepreneurs In his inaugural post, Damien Mulley lists some of the most interesting Web 2.0 companies in Ireland with their products, such as

• PollDaddy
• TouristR
• Pixenate
• PutPlace
• Segala

Seems like Ireland is, in terms of startup ideas, a rich country. I'll certainly keep an eye on Blognation Ireland as a preparation for the time I may have to look for a job over there.

A cause worth fighting for

I've been in love with computer animation since my VIC-20 in 1984. "A Gentlemen's Duel" is a bit more sophisticated than the animations of that time, and a lot funnier:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIPGXc7EjF4])

Fatblogging: 93

You don't need to do the math: I've lost 7 kg so far. The secret of my recent weight loss: mountain hiking burns lots, lots, lots of calories! Just make sure you refill at least as much is needed to keep upright. :-)

Carolin and I loved the hiking so much that we decided to do some more over the summer. We're living right in Black Forest after all, so it really isn't hard to find a slopy way to use our new hiking boots for some hours. We won't climb summits, but we'll enjoy nature, spend time together and burn away unnecessary weight.

For the first time after the mountain tour, I went running this morning. I had to take a short break after 15 minutes, but I'm sure to be in shape to keep running for half an hour soon, even in the hillside. If my knees don't act up. Update: I just found RunningMap and immediately documented my route

So, everything is fine on the health front. Bye bye, belly fat!

Gave in to the temptation known as Facebook

First, there was Twitter And it became the first networking tool I really used intensively. But it also became my micro blogging platform that has a negative impact on my blogging frequency to this day.

Then, the Facebook hype started. I knew Facebook since I started having contacts in Ireland because Facebook and Bebo are the biggest social platforms for students there. But because my college times are 10 years gone, my interest soon vanished. Over the recent weeks, it was rekindled, though, with Facebook taking the world of non-students by storm. Heavily connected to the world of German early adopters via Twitter, I watched everyone proclaiming their Facebook account. Still, I resisted. Did I really need another distraction, especially if this new social time waster is a walled garden that doesn't allow peeks from the outside? Furthermore, on XING, I already am a member of a business networking platform.

Well, I couldn't stand the virtual peer pressure any more. I now have a Facebook account and started build my friends list.

Of course, I found a way to rationalize this step: Facebook will be my international networking platform where I can foster my contacts all over the world. This way, it will be a fine complement to Twitter.

As the Ninja says: I'm looking forward to friending you soon! Yee-Ya!

Sysadmin Appreciation Day

Today is Sysadmin Appreciation Day, the day where you're especially invited to tell your IT crowd where they're doing a good job. I'm embarassed that I forgot it myself, so I'm not in the position to criticize all the colleagues at my workplace that forgot it, too. Of course, I made an entry in my calendar, and dear customer department (you know who you are), you better do, too. Also, if you need some inspiration on how to show your appreciation of our hard work, find some useful hints here.

For the german users that have a catholic education: Find the melody to sing the headline of the article on Heise Online in "Gotteslob", no. 258.

Fatblogging: 95

This is great! The scale now displays 95 kg. It's in the upper area of 95 kg, but let's not be overexact. I wasn't exactly 100 kg when I started fatblogging, so I can claim to have lost 5 kg of body weight so far. I have to admit that I dreaded weighing myself this time, because I hadn't been that strong lately when it came to sweets. But seeing that I reached 95 nonetheless, I feel extra idiotic because I could have achieved even more weight loss by not caving in to my cravings.

Apart from sabotaging my fatblogging success, I managed quite well to separate the intake of carbohydrates from the one of fat. I really haven't changed my diet drastically, I just try to rule out food that combines fat and sugar/starch. This doesn't affect my breakfast, because I use to have sweet breakfast with bread, honey and jam. I don't like eating sausages or bacon this early anyway. By having my muesli with fat-reduced yogurt, I bend the rules a bit; I think I can afford that. For lunch, I have to be a bit more careful. Our company restaurant usually mixes noodles or potatoes with meat and a sauce made of oil and starch -- totally off-limits. If there's noodles with vegetables, I ask to leave the sauce. Today, at the Chinese restaurant, I chose the buffet lunch, which gave me the opportunity to take some meat with vegetables and hot sauce but no rice. So, in summary, there are two alternatives: first, carbohydrates from rice, potatoes or noodles with vegetables and, on the other hand, fat from meat, sauce etc. with vegetables. With a bit of looking around, those aren't too hard to find.

My running progress is steady. Today, I ran my route for the last time divided into three parts of 9 minutes running and 2 minutes walking. Next time, there will be only two halves with 14 minutes of running and a short walking break in between. That's actually the last phase before running 30 minutes in one go! Unfortunately, the weather has been really bad in the morning most of the days lately. If there's just slight drizzle like this morning, I don't mind. But I don't like risking my health by running in the pouring rain. I hope that the sun will fulfill its summer duty reliably again soon, as I'm slowly getting into summer shape!

Turned (it) on again

I've been a Genesis fan for at least 20 years now, unfortunately I wasn't there in the early years when Peter was still with Phil, Mike and Tony. I've never had, or at least taken, the chance to go to a concert, but I've watched the video footage of several of their tours. When my friend Jürgen made me aware that Genesis was coming to Hannover in June, I immediately got tickets.

So last Saturday, I took the train to Hannover to meet Jürgen at his sister's place. Isabel, who is also my ex-girlfriend, lives in Hannover -- a convenient coincidence. Unfortunately, Carolin wasn't able to find a lift. Paying more than 200 for the train ride would have been over the top, so she decided reluctantly to sell the ticket and stay at home. When I left on Saturday morning, I didn't mind her staying home very much, because we had had a bit of an argument at breakfast.

After meeting up with Isabel and Jürgen and having some ice cream at one of Hannover's best ice cream parlors, he and I made our way to the AWD Arena, Hannover's football stadium where the concert took place. There were people all around the place that helped you find your way, very nice. We had been sitting on our seats (yes, I seem to be in the age where one appreciates not having to stand for 4 hours in a row) for about an hour when the band finally came on stage -- and the rain started to pour down. We had a glass ceiling above us, but the people on the field who had no rain coat, no tarp and no umbrella must have got awfully wet.

Genesis started with the theme song of their tour, "Turn It On Again", and I was immediately amazed of the sound and their stage technology. Before, only the two elliptical screens on the far left and right of the stage had been used for video, but now I realized that the whole stage background wall was one huge video screen! Even before saying his first words to the crowd (or should I say "to the Krauts"?), Phil Collins made everyone smile by sporting a sweater of Hannover 96, the local soccer team. He held his introduction in German, which heightened the spirits of the soaking wet audience another bit. One could tell he wasn't happy with the weather, either.

But after their third song or so, the clouds disappeared and the sun came out again. From this point on, our mood got better and better, everyone was having fun. Oh, and talking about the people -- this was one of the rare events apart from family reunions where I didn't raise the age average. In fact, there were only a few teenagers in the audience; probably most of them accompanied their parents (and thus created the opposite situation of a Robbie Williams concert). It was funny to watch a father in the row before me getting more excited than his seventeen year old son beside him and his wife.

When they brought on "Hold On My Heart", I realized that I was missing Carolin and how stupid our morning argument had been. So I just called her number on my cell phone and let her listen to the whole song. It was too loud to talk, but there was no need for words, anyway.

Genesis played a nice mix of songs, from classics like "Home By The Sea" over "Land of Confusion" to the encore "We Can't Dance". Experiencing their older songs live for the first time made me realize that Phil Collins just isn't Peter Gabriel. Peter simply has another vibe around himself, and Phil's interpretation, while really not bad, seemed to me almost like cover versions. This feeling was especially strong over their last song "Carpet Crawlers" which they ended their gig with after more than 2 hours of nonetheless great music.

I enjoyed the concert very much and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to witness Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, completed by Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson, turning it on again.

Update: Jürgen sent me a link to this video slide show with photo impressions from the concert. Thanks!

Great earbuds that suck: AKG K 324 P

When I started using my iPod for running, I bought the Sennheiser OMX 70 headphones because they're made especially for athletes. They have adjustable clip-on earphones and are sweat- and water-resistant. But over time, I discovered two problems. First, they're not as rugged as they should be. A few weeks ago, one of the cables got twisted and tore open right at the earphone. And yesterday, the grip of the plug got loose.

I already had a replacement, because there's a second issue I had with the OMX 70: because the earbuds hang outside over the ears, not inside the ears, they don't irritate them -- but they irritate the people around me on the train if I turn the volume up too much. And I hate being an annoyance that people have to ask to please turn down my music.

That's why I bought the AKG Acoustics K 324 P in-ear headphones. They were advertised as having a great sound and effectively blocking outside noise. And that's true. When I made my first steps outside with them on, I almost walked into a car because I couldn't hear it coming. (I normally rely quite heavily on my hearing when I'm in traffic.) If you press them slightly into your ear canal (and there are three different sets of rubber buds to fit many ears), outside noise gets almost completely blocked, and on the other hand, the music only goes into your head, not into the environment. And when I apply a bit more pressure, I even get the feeling that there's a kind of suction that keeps the earbuds tight in the ear.

There could even be an effect on battery life, because while with the Sennheisers I had to fullly turn up the iPod when I was listening to a podcast in traffic, the AKG earbuds get really loud already at the half setting.

After the first day of using the K 324 P as an Environmental Stupidity Shield on the train and in the office, I can really recommend them. Let's hope they last longer than their predecessors.

Upgrading from Kubuntu "Dapper Drake" to "Edgy Eft"

When it was time to upgrade my work laptop to a newer Linux distribution some months ago, I decided to install Kubuntu 6.06. I've been using the "Dapper Drake" release on my web servers for more than half a year now and never had any problems. The combination of Debian tools and Ubuntu application repositories is awesome.

When I realized on Friday that some applications only come in packages for newer Ubuntu versions, I decided to ditch the Long Term Support release and try to upgrade to Kubuntu "Edgy Eft" 6.10. At first, I wasn't sure if I'd regret starting an upgrade on an Friday afternoon, but soon gave in to the challenge.

Having a really big pipe at work has its advantages. After issuing the apt-get dist-upgrade, it took exactly 3 minutes and 31 seconds to download the 1002MB of upgrade packages. Installing them took about an hour and went without a flaw, but when the system finally rebooted, I got a mild shock that my encrypted home volume (that I didn't take the time to backup, of course) didn't get mounted. A little web search revealed that the kernel options "quiet" and "splash" prevented the passphrase necessary to decrypt the data from being displayed. Removing both options from /boot/grub/menu.lst took away the pretty boot splash screen but the problem, too.

My desktop looks a a whole lot more shiny now. I could finally install Firefox 2 from the official repositories, and when it first encountered a Flash applet, I was surprised to be able to download and activate the plugin successfully with just one mouse click. I was used to having to do a manual download and installation. As easily, I replaced GAIM with its successor Pidgin, so my online life has an up-to-date foundation again. WiFi and Bluetooth continued working without a change.

This upgrade went even faster and more smoothly than I had expected. You just have to love Ubuntu Linux. Knowing myself, it probably won't be long until I make the next step up to "Feisty Fawn".

Fatblogging: 96

I still don't fully get that fatblogging concept yet, but at least it really seems to work: I'm now down to 96kg. And that's all I expect, so I wonder if I should waste my time trying to find out if it's fatblogging frequency, entry length or another factor that makes me lose weight. We'll see if the secret will eventually be lifted.

On the jogging front, I'm now at five 5-minute running segments, each followed by a minute of walking. I'm doing quite well -- although I have to run slightly uphill, I often miss the breaks, running 6 or more minutes. Following the advice in my running guide, if I feel like doing more, I run longer than the half hour in the plan, instead of increasing my speed. The weather is great at the moment and it feels really good to do my early morning route under the rising sun, in fresh air and the quietness of just nature and me.

Nutrition-wise, there are rare phases when I just can't resist buying my beloved fruit gums. But many times, I realize it's just my weaker self trying to take control, and I fight it successfully. Separating carbohydrates from fat sometimes is a challenge, since neither our company restaurant nor the restaurants in the neighborhood offer many dishes that don't mix noodles, dough or potatoes with oil or fat. My best bet always are salads (sometimes with turkey breast or other meat, but I always leave the bread untouched) or completely vegetarian dishes. Since those can be delicious, too, I don't mind the diet change.

So, everything is fine on the weight loss and fitness front. And hopefully, the motivation I gain from this success will result in a self-energizing circle!

Flickr censors Germany

Flickr seems to be concerned with the morality of us Germans:

Note: If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong or Korea you will only be able to view safe content based on your local Terms of Service so wont be able to turn SafeSearch off.

Well, we're glad censorship is more or less history in our country, thank you very much!

My Flickr Pro subscription ends in July. If this censorship won't be removed, my subscription is certainly not going to be continued.

Fatblogging: 97

Another kilo has vanished! Should I test if, in fatblogging, weight loss is proportional to entry length?

It's almost as if my mind is losing weight with my body: the Günter book made me realize that my weaker self has much more control over myself than is good for me. But since I learned about the dangerous interplay between carbohydrates, fat, Insulin and glycogen, I choose my diet much more carefully. I eat wholemeal bread instead of croissants, low-fat cream cheese instead of camembert, and fruits instead of sweets. It's a really liberating feeling to wrest more and more control from Günter, my weaker self. The 10 Euro for the book were one of my best investments this year.

Today, I ran a different route that has a fewer inclination and everything went according to my buildup plan (now three-minute runs with one minute of walking in between). I found a beautiful way along a little brook under trees, only three minutes from our house! It's slightly uphill, but very managable. Since there aren't many people out at 5:30, it's just me and nature. Maybe I should leave the iPod at home.

Fatblogging: 98

Hey, this fatblogging really works! I've lost 2 kilos, just by writing the first entry! This is great.

I surely don't want to compromise that success by eating the wrong stuff, so I started to collect information about nutrition. And I experienced a revelation: on my way home, I come past the supermarket we always shop at. When I saw its sign today, some well-known cravings for sweets set in. I hesitated a little, but then gave in and bent off in direction of the shop. Just when I reached its doors, though, I realized that it was my weaker self that was driving me there. And, thanks to a great little book I just read, I now know the name of my weaker self: Günter So I gave Günter the mental finger and turned around to get home for some fat-reduced yogurt with fresh strawberries.

My morning run wasn't a full success, though. I had to admit that I'm not in the shape yet to run uphill for minutes. And Freiburg just isn't quite as flat as Philippsburg. Must be tectonics or something. Or maybe just the Black Forest. I'll look for a less challenging route.

Quote of the day

A freely elected totalitarian government is something new, after all.

(Su-Shee 2.0, translated from German)

Fatblogging: 100

Many bloggers are overweight. That's no surprise, since sitting in front of the screen all day and living from pizza and coffee has never been regarded as a recipe to lose weight.

Now, a new weight loss plan is gaining ground among bloggers: Losing weight by writing about it. Yes, it may seem like a strange concept, but it seems to work with many, so I'm willing to give it a try. It's time I do something to shrink my belly, and it gets me a new topic to blog about.

My starting weight is 100kg, and I guess that's about 15kg too much. I guess I'd look at lot better with 85 kilos. Let's see how blogging my weight every few days will help me reach that goal.

On another note, I also started running again. It's embarrassing if climbing the stairs to our flat makes me breathe more heavily than a marathon winner. (I won't get into other situations where it's much more enjoyable to be in a good condition.) I'm using the starter plan of MyJogging.de again to get myself into shape: over the course of six weeks, I'll always run for half an hour. But that half hour gets broken into growing intervals, starting at two minutes of running followed by one minute of walking.

Trying to run in the evening after coming home from work won't be very successful. It's too hard for me to get going when I'm tired and digesting a lunch. So I decided to get up at 5:30 in the morning and start the day in running shoes, followed by a shower and a nice little breakfast.

I don't want to flood my blog with entries, you know, so I'll simply report about my running progress in the fatblogging entries. Mens sana in corpore sano. Let's work on that second part.

Mobile communication hub: Fring

If you've been following my blog for a while then you know that I'm very interested in using Skype on my mobile phone. But so far, they broke all their promises to release a Symbian S60 version of the Skype client.

It seems it needed a third party vendor to step in and deliver: Fring Fring is a free communication software for S60 that you install on your phone. It then connects to several services if you enter your account credentials. Apart from Skype, there are also Google Talk, SIP and as the most recent addition, Twitter For Skype, Google Talk and Twitter, Fring also offers a chat function to exchange text messages.

The Fring client connects to their servers which in turn make a connection to Skype, Google, Twitter or the SIP contact you want to talk to.

So far, Fring works quite nicely on my Nokia E61. The voice quality over Skype is acceptable and by enabling me to also send instant messages from the same application makes Fring my single mobile communication hub. The only thing I'm afraid of is how running Fring will drain the phone's battery. But I'll see about that.

[Meme] Sesame Street

HulaLena made me go on a trip back to my childhood by asking some questions about Sesame Street

h3. What Sesame Street character did you find the coolest?

Lefty the Salesman ("Schlehmil"). I found it hilarious how Ernie always thwarted his attempts to sneakily sell an O like it was something forbidden.

h3. Whom didn't you like?

The grumpy "Herr Bödefeld" from the german insertions.

h3. Can you recite a song from Sesame Street? Which one?

I know the title song by heart, and both my brother and I still love to recite Hey diddle diddle, the cat has a fiddle, the cow jumps over the moon

h3. What tought you Sesame Street?

One of the most important things a teacher needs to know I learned from Grover ("Grobi"): you have to really make an effort if you want to teach people things. "Near... (running to the back) Far! (running to the front) Near... (huff huff huff) Far again!"

h3. When did you watch Sesame Street the last time?

I'm afraid that must be two decades ago. But I still like to watch The Muppets, especially the movies, e.g. "The Muppets Treasure Island" ("Not bad for an amphibian, hm?").

I pass this Stöckchen" on to "Carolin!.html and Kai

Gentoo is for learning, Ubuntu is for using

I never used Gentoo myself, but I'm hearing every now and then that Gentoo users tend to switch to Ubuntu once their learning curve flattens and the compile cycles become increasingly annoying. "I want to do work with my system, not on my system", some switchers say.

I've been using Kubuntu on my ThinkPad R52 laptop for months now and I'm totally satisfied. There are no complicated or time-consuming procedures to install new software. I just do apt-get install, and that's it. And from the "universe", "multiverse" and "medibuntu" repositories, I can get all the applications I need.

The same goes for my web servers. With Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, I have everything I need to run web, mail, chat and other services. Thanks to "Long Time Support", I won't have to do an upgrade to a newer distribution version for years.

I've been a SuSE Linux user for many years, but now I guess I could become a Ubuntu Linux user for at least as long. And since I passed the "Learning Linux" phase long ago, I may never be inclined to try Gentoo...

My space, not MySpace

The folks over at WebWorker Daily asked for a picture of my work space. No problem, here's where I work when I'm at home:

I also put a larger, annotated picture on Flickr

Getting out of the rat race

Alex, the Chief Happiness Officer, put a great illustration of the rat race we're always tempted to join in his blog. It was a revelation to me that I've been one of these rats during the recent weeks. Steadily getting more work, watching my to-do lists grow, trying to stay organized, failing in some cases, hurrying to correct those situations, losing focus on the important things and getting frustrated from missing the feeling of accomplishment. And all the while losing more and more energy, thus worsening this vicious circle. Now I know why they called that successful racing game "Burnout".

I decided to break the circle today. I wanted to concentrate on some topics that I should have finished long ago, without getting disturbed or distracted. That's why I decided to work from home today. Here I have everything I need -- a computer, a cup of tea and tranquility. The ideal environment to focus on the tasks at hand.

I started work half an hour early because I didn't have to commute and finished many tasks over the course of the morning that I tried to do all week in vain. But instead of feeling pressure and stress like on the days before, I feel more energized with every entry I'm able to cross out on my to-do list. I'm actually looking forward to the things I get to tackle after having some light lunch.

When you don't succeed, trying harder is not always the solution. Often it's trying something different.

Quote of the day

Unvariedly, I’m all for a speaking interdiction in trains before 10, at least on work days.

Markus Kniebes, deep-resonance

Quote of the day

Kamps[1] is the IKEA of bread.

Don Dahlmann, Irgendwas ist ja immer

fn1. A big bakery chain in Germany

Another 2 tips to get Twitter on your cellphone for free

Om Malik just published his three tips over on Web Worker Daily But while I found the new Twitter Mobile website a nice compromise for small screens, I don't think RSS feeds are the best alternative. Having to subscribe to every single one of all my Twitter friends' feeds is just too much effort for me. I think you should rather look for solutions that work with your original friend list.

Here are my suggestions:

First, there's always the IM channel. So, if you own a smartphone that has some Instant Messaging Software available (AFAIK that's at least true for S60, Windows Mobile and Palm), you can receive and send tweets this way.

And if you really want to get fancy, get a specialised Twitter software for mobile phones. If your phone is J2ME capable, you could try out Twitteresce, for example.

At the moment, I use Twitteresce and the Twitter Mobile website in turns to find out which suits me better. What's your favourite way of accessing Twitter when you're out under the big, yellow, evil ball?

My leadership principles

Over the years, I've collected several principles that I find important for my management work. I consider myself a successful leader and my success is based in part on those principles. I tried to write down every recurring theme that you can find in my thinking and acting as a manager. This list is the result.

h2. I lead by example.

• Working and being happy aren't mutually exclusive.
• My decisions are transparent and based on the situation, not only on rules.
• I am loyal to my staff and to the company (in that order).
• I only commit to what I can deliver.
• I adhere to commitments. If I see a problem doing so, I'll tell in time.
• I practise and expect honesty, timeliness, diligence and creativity.

h2. I depend on my team.

• I trust that my directs have both the qualification and determination to create the best solutions.
• I need my team to help me fulfil my responsibilities, so I'll do everything to help them kick ass.
• Every team member can claim some my time immediately.
• If there's a way of improving our communication, I'll give it a try.
• Everyone makes mistakes. The team will straighten them out. (So try not to repeat them.)
• I give and accept feedback on a regular schedule.

h2. I use my resources efficiently.

• I do things consequently or not at all.
• I join meetings in time. If other people don't, I'll feel free to leave for more important things.
• I won't listen to problem descriptions that don't come with a suggested solution.

h2. I set goals for myself and my staff.

• Everyone in the team knows my goals.
• I stipulate clear goals with every team member.
• I have a development plan for myself and every team member.
• It is up to the employees to reach their development milestones, not mine.

I'm certainly not perfect in adhering to all of those principles all the time. But I take them very seriously. If I find something missing from the list, I'll update it.

And I'm interested in your thoughts -- what are the secrets of your or your bosses success?

Digg The Code

I don't give much about the whole hoopla around the cracked HD-DVD code. Kevin's reaction actually was the only right thing to do: By taking sides with the Digg mob he will either be the Knight in Shining Armor or the Martyr for the Cause -- a hero in both cases.

But what's really interesting is the many creative ways people spread The Code. Take, for example, the Wired Code Photo Gallery

I also like Geoff Smith's song (and not only because of Cali's bouncing around):

Force by sheer mass doesn't impress me much. But creativity always does.

Let's just copy the whole thing

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Noone knows that better than successful internet services. That's why there are clones of Slashdot (I developed one myself in 1999 -- my first weblog), clones of Digg, and now clones of Twitter, too.

But there's a line between imitation and outright plagiarism, and this line certainly has been crossed in my opinion when German Twitter clone Wamadu not only copied Twitter's functions and looks, but also the complete Twitter API Documentation Even if you don't know German, the headlines alone give away that Wamadu's equivalent is a blatant copy.

Where Twitter's documentation ends with

This document is authored and maintained by Alex Payne, an engineer working on Twitter at Obvious.

the Wamadu texts finishes

Dieses Dokument wurde von thorsten, einem der wamadu-Programmierer erstellt und wird auch von ihm aktualisiert.

Someone should explain to "thorsten" that there's a thing called copyright. And maybe, other things like ethics and self-respect.

Amazon S3 as storage backend for MySQL

I found on the agenda of the MySQL Conference & Expo 2007 that Mark Atwood presented in his talk A Storage Engine for Amazon S3,how to use the Simple Storage Service to store the data of a MySQL database.

That MySQL allows to exchange the storage engine with plugins is a well-known fact. That's how the transition from MyISAM to the transaction-capable InnoDB storage engine was made. But to move the storage completely on the internet by using S3 is an unusual, yet interesting idea.

Amazon offers S3 as

a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web.

S3 users don't have to deal with RAIDs, storage volumes, scaling capacity, doing backup or any other technical details. It's all taken care of at the Amazon data center.

I'd be interested how well this internet storage system can be used as the storage backend for MySQL -- what about latency, bandwidth and other issues? For example, what happens if I do a full table scan over a big table that's stored on S3?

Maybe there's some MySQL expert out there that can shed a bit more light on that topic?

Don't just apply, communicate!

I still am looking for Linux sysadmins because my responsibilities grow faster than my team. Unfortunately, good Linux admins seem to be hard to find. Of all the applicants, fewer than the half get an appointment to present themselves.

But what really surprises me is that not even 10 percent of those that get invited make contact before or at least after their interview. This happens so seldom that those who do always make a positive impression. Why is it that people applying for an IT job at a huge internet company don't seem to be able to do a Google search for the names of those they got invited to meet in person?

That's why I'd like to give all job seekers a hint: People that were rejected only had applied; those who got the job, communicated.

So, do communicate -- before, while and after your job interview.

h2. Before the interview

When you prepare for your interview, not only get to know the company you'd like to work at, but especially collect information about those people that are going to do the interview and may probably be your future boss.

Many people warn not to publish compromising material about yourself because it may be found by a future employer. But that works the other way around, too. And it's not only the employer that's entitled to look for references either.

Ask about who will conduct your interview and make use of the mighty Google. Are they technically savvy? You'd better be prepared accordingly. Do they blog about their hobbies? Maybe you share some of them; mentioning that could build some common ground to talk about.

There are other people you could contact, too: your potential future colleagues. For example, Guy Kawasaki sees a tight connection between LinkedIn and the Art of Avoiding an Asshole Boss

h2. During the interview

During the interview, always keep in mind that its purpose is to get as much valuable information as possible -- for both sides! They want to see if you have the necessary skills to do the job and the right attitude to fit in the team. So concentrate on the points that will convince them that it's you they're looking for.

But don't forget that there are also things you need to know. While your interviewers aim to confirm the positive impression they got from your papers, you should put to the test the impression of the company that made you apply. Additional to job details, work environment and perks, there are other things to ask. Alexander Kjerulf has the following suggestions for questions that may lead to interesting insights:

• Whats been your best experience working at this company?
• When do you have the most fun at work ?
• Who do you enjoy working with the most here? What do you like about them?
• Which manager do you admire the most in this company? What do you admire about that person?
• Whats the greatest thing your manager has done for his/her people?

h2. After the interview

Even if you get rejected, don't stop communicating until you've asked about the reasons of your dismissal. You may not get a useful answer everytime, but I know at least one person that will tell you honestly why you weren't chosen. Don't let that opportunity of improving your job or interview skills slip away unused.

h2. Conclusion

Apart from Dr. Frankenstein, almost all employers expect their staff to successfully communicate. So, put in the extra effort to get into the position of doing so to your best.

And, by the way, if you're an enthusiastic Linux system administrator that's looking for a new job at a workplace in southern Germany that's as much fun as it's challenging, please do apply. And don't forget to confirm that someone actually reads my blog. ;-)

Sometimes, you don't need expensive instruments

All you need is 6 drummers and an apartment to really get grooving.

And, maybe, exact timing.

Someone, please get a needle

Could anyone please deflate Comic Strip Blogger I'm listening to Adam Curry's interview of CSB on episode 586 of The Daily Sourcecode and I can't get the image of a blowfish out of my head. Remember the one in the fish tank from "Finding Nemo" that blew up everytime he got excited?

When I first noticed how people picked on him about a year ago, I thought "Come on folks, cut the guy some slack!" But over time, CSB's babble has been getting next to unbearable to me too, and now Adam is offering him an even bigger soap box.

This guy is nothing but a walking, talking image neurosis. In the interview, Adam's EU-resident "savant" is frantically babbling to just get his point across without looking right or left. In the part where they talk about Nokia, CSB calls his former employer "bastards that just have good marketing". Adam barely manages to throw in that he is really satisfied with how his E61i works and how using it is generally enjoyable. Oblivious to that short intelligent intermission, CSB continues his argument how Nokia only has good marketing. I really wonder why CSB hasn't yet started his own podcast where he can rant uninterruptedly for hours. Asked about what his problems with Nokia actually are, he staggers shortly and mutters something about "personal reasons". That's what I call a hidden agenda. And that from the guy that questions everone's intentions and doesn't hesitate to call people hypocrites.

Marc Yoshimoto Nemcoff did the right thing when he took apart CSB's overly inflated ego in Daily Source Code episode 585. Unfortunately, seeing how Adam is going to engage his regular callers even more, that beating CSB took (and reacted to with a sickening slimy "Okay, Marc, we're friends") obviously won't reduce his presence in future episodes.

But as Adam closes his pocast, "that's what the fucking fast forward is for". I'm afraid I'll have to use it more often in the future.

How MMO rules would help evolution

Sometimes, you wish a Massive Multiplayer Online Game was more like the real life.

And sometimes, you wish it was the other way around

Happiness Reality Check

In Happiness boosts productivity, I announced that I would interview my team about things that make them unhappy. Alexander reminded me in his comment not to forget to ask about sources of happiness, too.

In two meetings, we collected the following issues and discussed necessary consequences.
h3. "What makes me happy working here?"

• Challenging tasks: Having opportunities to demonstrate the know-how and creativity necessary to solve problems that don't arise every day is a great motivation booster.
• Colleagues: Working with like-minded people that not only share expertise but also a sense of humour is, well, fun. A team BBQ is highly indicated.
• Open atmosphere: The relaxed way we treat and communicate with each other creates an environment where work can be fun and where you can learn from mistakes instead of having to cover them up.
• Technical infrastructure: Working in the data center of one of Germany's biggest ISP and hosting companies is a huge opportunity to develop new skills. And learning always leads to a great sense of achievement.
• Online team chat: To have a channel for "stuff" helps communicating small chunks of information without cluttering up mailboxes. It's also nice to joke about colleagues without them noticing.
• Off-topic talk: That it's okay to have some watercooler talk helps to get the mind free for the next task and prevents burn-out.

h3. "Things that I really don't like"

• Short-term solutions: Time pressure often leads to ugly workarounds that don't actually solve the problems but just cover them up. We're going to educate our customers by making them aware of more thorough solution alternatives.
• Office noise: Loud conversations from people walking by or from adjacent areas are really bad on concentration. We'll try to get walls installed that block some of the noise.
• Repetitive tasks: routine work simply is boring. We'll use our technical abilities to automate them as much as possible.
• Interruptions: Our problem no. 1 is that we get interrupted so often by telephone calls, or worse, people coming to our desks asking "May I disturb you?" We'll define a "disturbed of the day" that we'll forward all interruptors to. Everyone that doesn't want to use our ticket system will have to talk to that person, while all others will be able to stay "in the flow".

Our two "happiness at work" meetings were wholeheartedly welcomed by my team. We agreed upon having such meetings in regular intervals.

Michael Dell runs Linux

If you've given up hope that Dell will ever ship Linux with its systems, take a look at the list of computers used by Dell's Chairman of the Board&l=en&s=corp. At the top, you'll find that at home, he's using a Dell Precision M90 with the following software on:

• Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
• VMWare Workstation 6 Beta
• OpenOffice.org 2.2
• Automatix2
• Firefox 2.0.0.3
• Evolution Groupware 2.10

I'm impressed, his software is even more up-to-date than mine!

Getting another blog done

I just wrote an introduction to Getting Things Done on the latest addition to my own little blog network: on selbstadministration.de, I'll cover the topics of self management, organization and using your time reasonably (e.g., for maintaining another blog). Since I'm an IT guy, I'll also have a look at tools and tricks for a more effective and efficient life.

Merlin Mann begged me to not make him obsolete, so I decided to write in german language. ;-)

I wouldn't mind if some of you supported me in feeding the blog -- it doesn't have to be a one-man-show. So, if you're interested in writing about productivity and life hacks, give me a nudge!

Focusing on strengths proves most effective

Via All Things Workplace, I just discovered David Zingers blog about employee engagement, where in his latest entry, he points out the different results of focusing on strengths or on weaknesses of employees.

He explains that the Gallup Management Journal had found the following conclusions in their research of employee engagement:

If your manager primarily ignores you your chances of being actively disengaged are 40%.

If your manager focuses on your weaknesses your chances of being actively disengaged are 22%.

If you manager focuses on your strengths your chances of being actively disengaged are only 1%.

Obviously, pointing out weaknesses of employees and working together in resolving them isn't the best choice. For someone that always wants to help people develop, this felt a bit weird to myself first. Shouldn't I help my directs overcome their weak sides?

But after some thinking, it occured to me that focusing on their strengths instead is actually a very reasonable approach. Employees aren't clay sculptures who I'm to shape, rounding all edges to a perfect state. I'm a leader, not a sculptor. And I don't like to be looked at and treated with the perspective of a sculptor, either. (Hm, why am I thinking of my spouse at this point?)

People want to do what they can do best and to be recognized for that. Since it is one of my core beliefs that it's my foremost duty as a leader to make sure that my directs can work their magic as effective as possible, it's actually quite natural to focus on their strengths and to arrange their work in a way that they can employ them most effectively. A good thought to start the next week with.

Live microblogging from re:publica

Since many attendees of the german blogger conference re:publica in Berlin are avid Twitter users, I'm receeiving my own little live comment stream to my desk.

I can see what talks get positive or negative notions and how the conference is going as a whole. As a presenter at re:publica, I'd use this Twitter stream as a source of feedback to improve my presentation style, attitude and choice of topic

It's also interesting to watch attendees even make appointments over Twitter.

And I already have one very clear insight: at a blogger conference, there's one thing that's even more important than WiFi and power outlets for all the MacBooks: coffee Good coffee :-)

PS: For the non-Twitterati, there's also a TumbleLog and a Onelinr backchannel live from re:publica.

Code of conduct my sweet little behind

What ever happened to

• education?
• common sense?
• existing laws?

(Hm, seems like Twitter is affecting my blogging style. But others have already written prosaic treatises why a code of conduct is utter bullshit anyway.)

Mein soziales Netzwerk

• Twitter
• "XING"
• 30boxes

What do you mean, "without DRM"?

Is it just me or has the ground temperature just dropped by 30 degrees?

Lessons learned

There are no technical solutions for mental problems.

Vitalist upgrades its features

After using Vitalist for some weeks now, I think I really found my task planning solution. It's the complete concept of David Allen's Getting Things Done book (by the way, there's finally also a german translation) implemented as an easy to use Web 2.0 application.

Over the weekend, the folks at Vitalist Solutions have released new features they had announced on their blog over the recent weeks:

• Contexts as Tags: the contexts a task can be handled in are displayed more prominently.
• Sub-Projects: you can now build a project tree by splitting a big project into several small ones.
• Quick Add/Edit: entering new tasks is now even easier.
• Priorities: you can give every task one of four priorities, symbolized by a coloured star.

Michael Ramm has a detailed review of Vitalist over at the Black Belt Productivity blog. Like Michael, I see no need to get the paid version with features like encryption, attachments and collaboration. The free version has everything I need to get the calming feeling that everything gets taken care of in time.

So, if you're looking for a GTD solution that you can access from everywhere you have net connectivity, give Vitalist a test drive. (Robert, it's time to offer an affiliate program!)

Happiness boosts productivity

Last week, I added another card to the board that displays my team's tasks for the coming weeks, saying "Having Fun". It stands out because it's green, in contrast to the white task cards.

And tomorrow, I'm going to ask them what things there are that rain on their parade. We will talk about sources of unhappiness at their job and how we can get rid of them.

Yes, I've been on a kind of happiness trip over the last weeks. But it's not because I've joined some joyful cult but because I get paid to maximize my team's productivity. And there is a direct relation between happiness and productivity, as Alexander Kjerulf points out in his blog entry Top 10 reasons why happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster

The 10 reasons he explicates on his blog are:

Happy people work better with others

Happy people are more creative

Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them

Happy people have more energy

Happy people are more optimistic

Happy people are way more motivated

Happy people get sick less often

Happy people learn faster

Happy people worry less about making mistakes - and consequently make fewer mistakes

Happy people make better decisions

That's a buttload of advantages happy people have over their unhappy colleagues, isn't it? Therefore, I find it one of my foremost duties to take care of my team's happiness. Let's see how well they do on the "I feel good" scale.

It's the employees that keep innovation alive

There's a theory named The Peter Principle that says that, provided that you get promoted because you deliver above-average performance, everyone will finally end up occupying a position they are not fully qualified for any more. Therefore, the real work is done by those who still haven't passed their performance peak.

Nitin Borwankar from the blog The Walrus and the Carpenter" now applied this principle to a company's innovation. "The Peter Principle of Innovation goes as follows:

Every company innovates until it finds a cash cow. At that point only innovation that supports the cash cow is promoted. Further, any innovation that threatens or does not support the cash cow languishes or is actively killed. Eventually, most of the true innovation ceases as the innovators leave and start new companies and the cycle repeats.

Most of the time, a company puts a lot of work into competing for a place in the market and into developing a success product. You can't blame management if it then focuses on said product and tries to protect it from detrimental influences, be it from inside the company or external. But every product has its lifespan and at some point the time to let go will come. The market moves on and companies have to keep up. If management misses that time to define and aim at new goals, it will eventually lose its competitive advantage as well as its innovative minds. The Peter Principle of Innovation will set in with full force.

But is it inevitable that this kind of focusing on the cash cow will bring innovation to a halt? I don't think so. Just like it's not a law of nature that we have to get grumpy and closed-minded as we get older, a company doesn't have to lose its innovative drive. It just has to keep the necessary flexibility to adapt successfully to changes.

The key to that kind of flexibility is the workforce, as Kathy Sierra points out in her article Knocking the exuberance out of employees If management prefers lifeless robots, there's not much innovation to expect. If, on the other hand, a company gives its employees enough room to be creative, they will in turn generate the energy to drive innovation. Take Google, for example: People there get the opportunity to spend 20% of their paid time for playing with new ideas. And look how the company has long ago left the confines of the search engine market to reinvent the application service business.

If a company sees far enough to embrace new opportunities, it's because management is standing on the shoulders of giants. Leaders that are aware of this won't have to fear the Peter Principle of Innovation.

I'm IM

(Since I don't want to translate the complete text of the test result, I kept the rest of the entry also in German.)

Ich bin ein "Individualistischer Macher", sagt der Egotest:

Der individualistische Macher ist ein selbstbewusster und sehr unabhängiger Mensch. Er ist eine ruhige und sachliche Person, sehr rational, ein ausgesprochener Verstandesmensch. Seinen Individualismus pflegt er intensiv und er genießt es, seine analytischen Fähigkeiten an neuen Aufgaben zu messen. Dabei ist er jedoch ein sehr spontaner und impulsiver Mensch, der gerne seinen plötzlichen Eingebungen folgt. Der individualistische Macher ist ein guter und genauer Beobachter, der aufmerksam alles registriert, was um ihn herum vorgeht. Für Zwischenmenschliches hat er allerdings weniger feine Antennen und wundert sich, wenn er bei anderen durch seine direkte und unverblümte Art gelegentlich aneckt. Verpflichtungen schätzt er nicht besonders; lässt man ihm aber seine Freiheit, ist er ein unkomplizierter, umgänglicher und fröhlicher Zeitgenosse.
Herausforderungen mag der individualistische Macher ganz besonders Action und ein wenig Nervenkitzel gehören bei ihm einfach dazu. Er liebt es, das Schicksal herauszufordern, und viele Menschen dieses Typus pflegen riskante Hobbys wie Fallschirmspringen oder Bungeejumping. Das gilt auch für den Arbeitsalltag. In Krisen läuft der individualistische Macher zu Höchstform auf; er kann blitzschnell Zusammenhänge erfassen, Entscheidungen treffen und das Notwendige in die Wege leiten. Hierarchien und Autoritäten beeindrucken ihn wenig; wenn ein Vorgesetzter nicht kompetent ist, wird er ihm auch keinen Respekt entgegenbringen. Der individualistische Macher übernimmt gerne Verantwortung. Er hat einen ausgeprägten Realitätssinn und findet immer die angemessenste und zweckmäßigste Lösung für ein anstehendes Problem. Konflikte trägt er offen und direkt aus; gelegentlich fehlt ihm dabei ein wenig Fingerspitzengefühl, aber immerhin kann er Kritik auch sehr gut selbst einstecken.
Als Freund ist der individualistische Macher treu und anhänglich; viele seiner (eher wenigen) Freundschaften halten das ganze Leben. Seine optimistische Lebenseinstellung und seine Fähigkeit, zuhören zu können, machen ihn zu einem beliebten Gesprächspartner. Er zieht es jedoch vor, über gemeinsame Interessen und Hobbys zu diskutieren, statt über theoretische oder philosophische Fragen - das ist ihm zu wenig handfest. In der Liebe braucht er viel Freiheit und Zeit für sich, ist aber umgekehrt auch seinem Partner gegenüber sehr tolerant. Dass ein individualistischer Macher sich Hals über Kopf verliebt, passiert eher selten; dazu ist er zu rational. Lieber wählt er seinen Partner aufgrund gemeinsamer Interessen und Vorlieben, die er gerne mit ihm teilt. Überschwängliche Gefühlsausbrüche schätzt der individualistische Macher nicht sonderlich, er zieht es vor, seine Liebe durch Taten unter Beweis zu stellen und erwartet dies auch von seinem Partner. Wer einen individualistischen Macher an sich binden will, braucht viel Geduld, denn es dauert, bis er bereit ist, sich wirklich auf einen anderen Menschen einzulassen.

Auf der verlinkten Website gibt's dann noch eine Seite zum Job (hallo Kollegen, hallo Chef!) und eine weniger interessante zum Liebesleben.

Ob's stimmt, müsst ihr mir sagen. :-) Ich bin gespannt!

New plans for Highrise

The guys at 37signals not only have an eye for details, but also an ear for their customers. Only 36 hours after launching their web-based CRM tool Highrise, they announced changing their usage plans in response to customer feedback.

For example, there's now a "Solo" plan for lone warriors that need lots of the features of the "Plus" plan, but no additional user accounts. And every plan had its storage space increased.

It's so easy to conquer your market. Just switch from "Know your enemy" to "Listen to your customer".

Rock bottom

"I ask you, where else can you catch a behind-the-scenes glance of some very awesome people?"

Awesome" might be a bit of a stretch in the case of "Rockstartup.com This website (from where I got the quote above) claims to be a reality TV show about the infamous web startup PayPerPost.com. I can only guess that the purpose of Rockstartup is to display PPP as a hip, relentlessly honest and real hands-on startup.

But watching these two episodes only conveyed to me that PPP has to be a bunch of clueless dolts:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwrkUKmVZe0])

The IT guys are in real stress. But that doesn't surprise me, seeing how they determine their project deadlines. This time, the change has to be finished for the board meeting. If they hold their board meetings periodically, this probably isn't a very realistic way of setting milestones.

I sympathize with how they crap their pants deploying live. It seems that there wasn't time for testing at all. In their place, I would get the heebeejeebees, too. But in their place, I would also refuse responsibility completely. I may handle my personal web server that way. But if you have a serious business, deploying untested versions is pure negligence. And they get what they deserve -- the site goes down.

It may be the way the video clip is cut, but it seems like the team lead is reporting immediately to his boss (which is the CEO of PPP) that "a network circuit blew." I'll have to watch it again to look if there's a BOFH excuse calendar somewhere...

And it gets worse:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELea2bbL_2g])

All right, PPP has guys running around claiming the title "Code Ninja" who test a secret new feature on their public blog because that's the only one they have. And they don't seem to mind very much. Let it put me another way: they don't seem to have much of a mind.

Another brilliant idea demonstrated is executing database queries on the production database. Whoops, forgot the WHERE clause. Database FUBAR. Well, there's always the backup. Oh, there isn't? Hooray, site down again.

This time, by the way, it's a demonstration for investors that's putting everyone under severe pressure.

I wonder if these people don't know better or if they just are denied the necessary resources, mainly time and budget, to do their jobs right. Working in the IT department of one of Germany's biggest web companies, I know how doing the job right looks like:

• When determining project deadlines, you make sure everyone has the same understanding of issues and consequences. That shouldn't be difficult when the CEO resides just a few tables away.
• You employ only people that know what secrecy means and are able to read the corresponding passages in their contract.
• You don't deploy software into the production system without having it tested on a staging system. For that purpose, we've built a huge VMware farm that resembles the production environment as closely as possible.
• You have people who are responsible for operating the production system and who are the only ones having the necessary access rights. Those are different people than the developers.
• You don't do manual queries on production databases that haven't been approved by the chief DBA. If you do, you don't do them at times when they can severely disrupt the service.
• You have standby databases in the case the main one is hosed. Since unintended content changes will get replicated, you also have a backup. One that's as fresh as possible and that has been proven to be recoverable.

And as a manager, I don't think humiliating your staff by making them wear a ridiculous hat if they make mistakes betters the situation. To err is human. To make people afraid of errors means adding just another source of mistakes. Your job as a leader isn't that simple. You have to determine the causes of the mistakes your people make.

• If it's lack of knowledge, train them.
• If it's pressure, improve their working conditions.
• If it's lack of resources, get them what they need.
• And if it's negligence, hold a private feedback talk to make them understand that diligence is crucial for your operation. If they keep on being stupid, don't fool around with hats. Fire them.

I really wonder if "Rockstartup" means that this company is going to sink like a rock. At least, that's the impression I got from those videos. I really put a lot of time into deciding what I write in my blog about my work and what I don't. And hey, of course there would be many juicy bits to report every week. But if I published such proof of incompetence as these clips, I'm afraid I would not only get fired but would disappear under dubious circumstances...

(via Nik)

A series of tubes

It's time to be afraid when your minister for economy and technology utters the following, don't you think?

Thank god I have people that operate the Internet for me.

This indeed was said by Michael Glos, german minister for economy and technology, at a visit to CeBit,6298,16863,00.html, the world's biggest IT fair.

Well, there goes the neighborhood. I guess I'll be going soon, too.

(via Indiskretion Ehrensache)

Watch the world tweeting

David Troy is a one-man Twitter mashup factory.

First, he built TwitterMap, a mashup with Google Maps. People that answer Twitter's question What are you doing?" can now also answer the question "Where are you doing it?". You just have to insert a "L:" followed by a place description that Google Maps understands into your tweet. With TwitterMap, you can now easily find twitterati in your neighborhood. For me, that makes "Plazes obsolete, because with Twitter, I'm able to not only see who's near me but also to get in contact with them immediately.

A few minutes ago now, Dave published his newest work: TwitterVision It's a mashup with Google Maps, too. But its purpose is to visualize in real-time what's tweeting. On TwitterVision, every time someone uses Twitter, a bubble pops up at his location displaying his message, together with his icon and Twitter name. And it's simply amazing to watch Twitter in realtime.

Now all I need is a 60" screen to build my own Twitter command center!

TwitterVision: Watch the world communicate. Watch your productivity go down the drain. ;-)

Groovy, baby!

I have to make a confession: I like to watch and listen when guys play with their really big organs.

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=illlK3qd_5k])

Now that you know my obsession: is there an organ jazz band you would recommend? What CD should I buy next?

Why I use Vitalist to keep track of my tasks

Andy asked about an update#c2060 with a comparison of Nozbe and Vitalist, and here it is.

I discovered Nozbe first, and I realized again what I was missing using Backpack for Getting Things Done Backpack just isn't made for building a task database that connects actions with contexts and projects. An application built for that special purpose is naturally more comfortable and easy to use. And Nozbe is such an application.

But Nozbe also has its shortcomings. The Quick review on the GTD blog lists them, and for Julie Sohn's criticism, see my initial article I especially hate that every action has to be connected to a project. I'm just not that project-driven. While in the meantime, Nozbe got a new feature for adding custom contexts, it's still second place when I compare it with Vitalist.

Vitalist is a Web 2.0 application for the Getting Things Done concept, too. I like the interface because it's mostly text and uses pastel colours. Take a look at this screenshot of the input form for an action, and you will see that there is everything you need to get things done the Allen way.

The whole interface feels much more straightforward than Nozbe's. If I realize that I haven't yet created the corresponding project while entering a new action, I can just switch the project choice list to a project input field and add the new project name right with the action. But I'm not forced to choose a project if the action is a single one.

Vitalist covers all aspects of the GTD concept. There are not only next actions, contexts and projects, but also a sometimes/maybe list, a reference section and a searchable archive. Another important feature is that actions can have a due date and Vitalist reminds me in advance by email.

What impresses me further is the quick development of Vitalist. Since I started using it, three cool new features were added: you can now view contexts as tags, projects can have sub projects and a new add/edit form makes entering actions even easier now.

Vitalist is feature-rich without bloat, it's fast and easy, it's flexible and matures quickly. That's why I'll manage my tasks from now on with Vitalist.

Using Twitter for good

Many people don't get or like Twitter Gee, even I didn't like it until recently! It seems so much like a source of steady interruptions. But there's not only a downside. Chris Brogan wrote an article on LifeHacker titled 5 ways to use Twitter for good where he lists reasonable uses for this new "web text messaging":

Quick Human Answers

Conference / News Briefings

Friendsourcing

Micro-Attention-Sharing

Direct People to Good Causes

And as a bonus, as he points out, you get to inform people about the central question that Twitter poses: "Where are you now?"

By the way, I just installed TwitterAdium&xtra_id=3484 so that my IM away message always displays my Twitter status. It's so great when you can mash up software and services!

The top 10 meeting rules

Those are my 10 most important rules for a successful meeting:

For you to legitimately attend a meeting, you have to meet the following criteria:

* You contribute to the meeting's success.
You profit from attending the meeting.
You know goal and issues of the meeting as well as the expectations hold about you.
* You come prepared.

Give all participants the opportunity to come prepared to your meeting. Inform them of the meeting's goal and agenda and distribute the necessary material at least three days in advance.

It's essential that every participant has the opportunity to talk. You can facilitate that by delegating tasks whose results have to be presented in the meeting.

Reserve enough time to prepare well for a meeting. Develop a standpoint or, even better, a solution to every issue named on the agenda.

Start and end the meeting in time. Define a meeting schedule and a time limit for every topic. If there's not enough time, delegate the topic or schedule a followup.

Avoid distractions and interruptions. Ask the participants to switch off their mobile phones and Crackberries.

The issues should be ordered by priority and be dealt with in descending order of significance.

Avoid dicussions that sidetrack the topic and don't contribute to reaching the session goal.

Before finishing the meeting, repeat and summarize your decisions. Every participant has to know what he or she has to do afterwards.

A protocol is mandatory. The shorter and simpler, the better. Many times, a handwritten sheet with the most important decisions, responsibilities and dates is sufficient.

Addendum: Many Meetings are productivity killers If a meeting isn't urgent, it can be postponed. If it's not even important, cancel it.

Don't trust blood elves

I always knew there was something fishy about those snotty folks.

Social brainstorming

Brainstorming is an old and proven method of getting thought processes running. And now, BrainR, a project by the german information service Ideentower, brings this method to the Web 2.0. Just post a question and see how people make suggestions and tell their thoughts about it.

I just gave it a try by posting a question about virtual training seminars So please, go over and post your ideas! I'm very curious how that will work.

Twitter's got me

I finally gave in.

After discovering Twitter, I immediately came to the conclusion that this was the ultimate weapon of mass productivity destruction. Now, there's not only the phone, e-mail and IM that's disturbing focus and concentration, we also get a kind of micro-blog that informs us in realtime about the thoughts and situations of people all around the world. "What a waste of attention", I thought.

But after seeing how other people cave in because there actually are ways of using Twitter quite creatively and productively, I decided to give it a try, too. There's nothing like too much Web 2.0, is there? ;-)

So, if you're curious what I think but not deem worth the effort to blog about it, see the litte paragraph on the right of my blog's main page or directly subscribe to my Twitter profile

In the meanwhile, I will think of some creative ways of Twittering.

Questions you always wanted to ask a blogger

Robert Basic seems to have been quite annoyed by the ever-recurring questions and statements people pose about his blogging habit, so he finally wrote a blog entry (in german), covering the following:

But you mustn't go blogging this!

But what about your social contacts?

Get a Real Life.

That must consume heaps of time.

That's too complicated to me.

Who is supposed to read all this?

All bloggers do is whine and argue.

That's all too commercial, bloggers just sell themselves.

All bloggers are geeks and nerds.

What do we need that for anyway? There's always email, forums and chats.

You can't earn money that way.

That just sucks.

Why do you blog?

I sympathize with his answers, but I guess that at least the last question didn't get answered fully...

Live blogging from the German Perl Workshop

Yesterday, I arrived in Munich, land of the walking moustaches, for the German Perl Workshop that I will be attending from Wednesday to Friday.

After discovering the open WLAN at FH München where the workshop takes place, I'm able to blog live from the talks. So, head over to IT-Dojo if you're interested in my findings.

Five things you didn't know about me

Finally, the meme has reached me by Helaron, and here they are:

My first and only crime was the theft of a Sinclair ZX81 magazine that was too expensive for my allowance in 1984. I didn't have a computer yet at that time.

In my first semesters of computer science, I had been thinking about taking on catholic theology and become a priest instead.

When I'm excited, my eyes start to water.

I'm afraid of heights, but I can overcome that fear by will.

There's actually a way to make me really angry. Unfortunately, there's no place left to tell it to you. :-D

The stick goes on to my lovely Carolin, to Andy and to Kai

Germany isn't a very happy place

ScienceDaily reports that a pychologist from the University of Leicester published the first world map of happiness

The meta-analysis is based on the findings of over 100 different studies around the world, which questioned 80,000 people worldwide. For this study data has also been analysed in relation to health, wealth and access to education.

Among the top 10 of the happiest countries are many scandinavian countries. Other than the fact that the end of the list consists of african countries, this suprises me because countries like Finland are said to have a lot of depressed or even suicidal people due to the lack of sunlight over great parts of the year.

With Austria coming in on third place, there's also a german-speaking country with many happy people. But Germany itself only ranks no. 35, miles behind Ireland and many of the other european countries. So, if living in Germany makes you unhappy, there are 34 choices where you could be better off...

(via How to change the world)

Elvis Runetotem

Armin sent me this email:

You're not alone! I could touch him -- Elvis lives... standing in some little Tauren bar singing..."

Helpdesk -- suffering from idiots for centuries

It's hilarious to read what helpdesk staff has to cope with on a day to day basis; the web is full of those stories.

But it's even more hilarious to imagine how this may have looked like in the dark ages. No, not when DOS 5.0 came out -- I mean in the original dark ages:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRjVeRbhtRU])

(via Basic Thinking)

I'm on the Charlie!

When Adam Curry discovered the concept of sitzend pinkeln" (peeing seated, even when you're male; a habit gaining ground at least in Germany) in one of his recent Daily Sourcecode episodes, I knew I had 2 cents to give away. And, lo and behold, he started his newly created "Are posh people pigs?" segment in "episode 452&episode_id=49221 by reading my email! :-)

I guess the woman sitting in front of me on the tram must have become really frightened by my loony grin when I reached 19:15 into the podcast and was hearing my own words:

Adam, mein Freund!
DSC 540 had me in tears, listening to you speaking German about good bathroom manners!
You're right, the concept of sitting down to pee is a pretty strange concept to some men, as you can see on this illustration:

But if it's explained well, a man can get used to it after a while. I got too, especially because it's my turn to clean the bathroom including the toilet every second week.
As you will have guessed until now, I'm a folder, as is every good German.
Cheers, Jochen

And Adam, no, although german women indeed are something special, my girl isn't forcing me to clean the bathroom. It's a matter of fairness to do it in turn -- she has to clean my shit[1] every second week, too.

fn1. Not meant literally, we actually use the toilet brush, other than the (posh?) people your callers use to tell of.

Unix baby

You know your baby child is a born Unix hacker when it starts writing termcap entries manually

Angerwhale: blog software with digital signatures

Angerwhale" is the name of a new blog software written in Perl, and its first official version "Angerwhale 0.02 was released%20Released.pod to CPAN~jrockway/Angerwhale-0.02/lib/Angerwhale.pm today.

Features include guaranteed valid XHTML 1.1 output, social tagging, categories, syntax highlighting, RSS and YAML feeds for every article, comment, tag, and category, nested comments, intelligent caching of everything, space-conserving mini-posts, search-engine (and human!) friendly archiving, a flashy default theme, and lots of other cool stuff.

The software is based on the Catalyst Web Framework and uses the file system as storage backend instead of a database like MySQL. Another interesting feature is that Angerwhale uses cryptography to map articles and comments to users:

[Angerwhale] determines authorship based on the post's PGP digital signature. These posts can be in a variety of formats (text, wiki, HTML, POD), and new formats can be added dynamically at runtime. Posting comments is also supported, and again, authorship is determined by checking the digital signature.

Finally, there's a contender for all the (great nonetheless) blog software written in PHP!

World of Whorecraft

Okay, now I'd like to play on the Alliance's side. :-)

The blood elves may be as pretty as the night elves, but their attitude is much worse. You probably wouldn't live to tell about having seen one naked.

Farewell, floppy disk!

German news service Tagesschau sings the swan song,,OID6385352_REF1,00.html about a storage medium I grew up with: the floppy disk. The article describes how the floppy gradually got replaced by ZIP disks, CD ROMs, DVDs and USB sticks. Today, computer manufacturers don't bother with installing a floppy drive any more.

But the author not only knows about the reasons of the floppy vanishing but also about its emotional consequences:

It's time to finally say good bye to the floppy disk. But whoever saw the moist eyes of PC nostalgics when talking about the 5 1/4 inch disk, the bigger, somewhat floppier predecessor of the smaller quadratic disks, knows: that won't be easy for some of the hardcore hackers.

Oh yes, it's hard. Here's a picture of my first 5,25" floppy disk:

It came empty with my Commodore C128, so it's 20 years old now. The label says "128: The First" and was written with a typewriter.

Today, it's hanging on the wall at my desk at home. Above a Mac Mini that will never know what a floppy disk is. Or was.

Really, it's not a cow!

Although I keep trying to explain the issue to them, my colleagues seem to have a really hard time to understand that a Tauren druid is in so many ways different from a cow.

And judging from the "enhancements" I got as a present last week, it's even more difficult for them to distinguish between me and my World of Warcraft character than it is for me.

Error: Too many flies

No, I didn’t mean files”. It’s flies. Tiny, pesky flies (they’re called “sciaridae). And our plant pots at home are infested with them.

When the first ones appeared in our flat a while ago, Carolin prohibited me from swatting them; she found them cute and called them her little friends”. Well, when she returned from a weekend at her parents yesterday, she had to sweep away “more than a hundred fly corpses, including the ones she had instantly swatted herself. She had been warned.

Choose your friends wisely, or as Seneca said:

Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul.

Okay, I'm not a fanboy after all

First, I don't think the iPhone is the best thing since sliced bread. Especially when it'll be closed for third party developers. That would be a really stupid move for Apple. At the moment, I'd rather add the Linux-based Nokia N800 internet tablet to my E61 if I wanted a multimedia and internet tablet with phone and internet connectivity. (And of course I do.)

And second, I'm still far from writing love songs to a computer.

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsqi2QHXaFI])

A storm rages over Germany

And not only does it damage roofs and cars, but als wblog. Evn coplte sent

What the hell is Twitter good for?

The one little thing that makes the difference

In his S60 blog, Tommi explains why Google Reader rocks

Google Reader and its mobile version rock. I find myself using it more than any other functionality on my Nokia N73. And I love the fact that I can access the same feeds via work computer, via home computer, and via mobile. In most other RSS readers, the items are stuck in that particular client.

Having access to your single source of feeds everywhere really is great. There seem to be many great newsreaders like NetNewsWire, but they can't provide me with news when I'm on the train or on the toilet.

It's obvious that Tommi doesn't subscribe to high volume feeds like Engadget or one from a web forum, though. Otherwise, he would know that it's a giant PITA to weed through dozens of product announcements or forum entry headlines on your mobile.

That's why I still stick to Bloglines I can choose whether a feed shows up in its mobile version. It's a small simple checkbox in the feed settings, but it makes all the difference why in my eyes Google Reader Mobile doesn't rock yet.

Apple's swiss army phone

Well, it seems that I was wrong. The iPhone actually is worth the hype. It's not just a smart phone. It's a genius phone. It's...

...everything you need it to be:

[youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xXNoB3t8vM])

Well, almost.

Using UMTS from Ubuntu Linux

Everytime I go on my daily commute, I see people with blinking UMTS/3G cards in their laptops. Because I enjoy using my commute time to reduce my to-do lists, but on the other hand many of my tasks require internet access, I've been rather envious on their connectivity. When I had SUSE 10.0 on my laptop, I couldn't get it to work with my Nokia E61, so I started phantasizing about how a MacBook would improve my mobile productivity.

Having installed Kubuntu 6.06 now, I thought I'd give it another try last week. Et voila: after about half an hour of configuration, the 3G arrows on my smartphone started blinking! (Now guess where I wrote today's first blog entries.)

I'm happy. (Even if there's no real reason to get a MacBook any more.) And to make others happy, too, I updated the most-visited page on my website, my BlueTooth on Linux HOWTO I kept it in german because there's not as much documentation in my native language than there is in English.

Another year of sequels

2007 will again be full of new movies. Well, sequels of new movies at least.

There's Spiderman 3, Pirates Of The Caribbean 3, Shrek 3 and many others. If you want a roundup, take a look at Andy's summary of 2007's sequels (german).

Well, I like great sequels better than crappy new flicks, but come on movie makers, there's that thing called creativity, you know?

My new Mac blog

I've already published some articles about using the Mac on this blog, and I'd like to continue that. The Mac's fun, and I'd like to spread that fun.

But reading Robert Basic's comment that there aren't any blogs for mac newbies, I decided to start one myself.

So I proudly present my new Mac blog in german language: Mein-Neuer-Mac-Blog!

Come on over and take a look!

500 Burgers, please. No Coke.

What happens when people organize themselves to make one huge order at McDonald's?

See here!

Maybe, before going to McDonald's the next time, I should google the restaurant first. I'd hate to wait in such a queue.

(Thanks, Andy!)

Why I love my Mac

As you already know, I'm really excited about the Mac and its OS X. And with great new Apple products having been revealed on MacWorld yesterday, I decided to do a series of blog entries about my first steps with the Mac. I hope that they will be interesting especially to other Mac rookies.

My Apple mania started when I read all the stories from other Mac users on the Web that were equally excited and wrote about the great tools they improved their web design, software development and overall productivity with. After an incubation time of a few weeks, I decided to shell out the money for the then newly released Mac Mini Core Duo with 1.83 MHz. I was hooked from day one on.

When you take a first look at Apple computers, you can't help but admire the appeal of their design, their look is a welcome alternative to all those white PC boxes. The Mac Mini I got myself is the understatement of a desktop computer, just a little silver box with a CD slot in the front, some peripheral ports in the back and a big Apple logo on top. But what more do you need? Well, an inside that matches the quality of the exterior, of course. With the Intel Core Duo processors, you have more than enough CPU power to do the usual things. Professionals that need even more CPU power or better graphics than the Intel on-board graphics the Mini offers should get the Mac Pro with 4 or 8 cores and high-power graphics.

When I switched my Mac on for the first time, I was immediately greeted by a chord sound that brought up happy memories of SGI workstations. The boot time is impressively short -- you won't have to go to the fridge to bridge the time until the login screen or desktop appears.

I've been a Linux fan for more than 10 years, using it on many servers as well as on my desktops and laptops. I really like the KDE desktop, it's really mature and there are many fine applications, smaller and bigger. But one thing that can still be annoyingly difficult is getting hardware to work. And that's where Apple has its strongest advantage: they know every hardware their OS runs on like the palm of their hands. So far, I never had problems with instable hardware, crashing drivers or other nuisances. It just works.

The best computer system is worthless if there's no good software for it. But that certainly doesn't concern the Mac platform. With OS X and iLife coming with the computer, you get a whole package of productive applications like the audio recording software GarageBand and iPhoto for picture management. All applications are well-integrated with each other, for example you can directly drag and drop pictures from iPhoto to GarageBand and store them in the MP3 file you're creating. And of course, there are lots of great third party extensions and applications. I'll blog about them in later entries.

Installing software in OS X doesn't demand from you to click through a multitude of dialog windows. You just open the installation package and drag the program icon into your Applications folder. That's it. And guess how you do an uninstall? No, you just move the icon from Application into Trashcan.

So, I'm a really happy Mac user and can only recommend you to have a look or two at one, too. You may be preaching the gospel of Jobs after a short while, too. ;-)

There is no bad publicity

Wouldn't it be great if getting sued for patent infringement was covered by your company's marketing budget, too? :-)

Make sure you're subscribed to the new feed

It’s been months since I changed the RSS link on my blog to a FeedBurner feed because it has a lot of advantages both for me as an author and you, the readers of this blog. For example:

• I get better transparency what topics are the most interesting to you.
• Regardless of what the source URL of my RSS will be, the FeedBurner URI will never change.
• The FeedBurner feed offers some helpful links under each entry.
• You also get additional information like my newest del.icio.us links.

But there’s still quite a number of people that get my entries via the old S9Y feed. If you’re one of them:

You must be a long-time reader. Thank you so much for sticking with me!

Please re-subscribe via the FeedBurner feed!

Seven

Well, there it is: 2007! I hope you people out there had a good start and I wish you all the best!

Carolin and I spent New Year's Eve in Dublin, with the so very nice host family she lived with over the last year while studying at Trinity College. The weather in Dublin was rainy and windy, which certainly contributed to Carolin's cold coming back, so my year started with pampering a girl that was freezing and sneezing. I hope she'll be well again soon.

For me, the past year was great, with many interesting things, some of which I'd like to point out here.

Careerwise, the last year will be called The Schlund+Partner year". I "joined S+P when the WEB.DE portal was acquired by the United Internet group which S+P is a subsidiary of. Since a few days, though, I'm now an employee of 1&1 with which S+P has been merged. Over the past year, the sysadmin team that I lead got some new interesting and demanding responsibilities additional to the user management and billing systems. For example, we now also operate a data warehouse system on a fat IBM p570. My boss and I had to fight for more staff, but finally I was granted more sysadmin positions on the team (some of them still open!). I really enjoy the mix of leadership and technology that my job is about and since I also got great colleagues, I'm really looking forward to the coming months.

After succumbing to the pressure from some of these colleagues, I started playing World of Warcraft I never played more than an occasional round of Quake 2, so seeing how much time I now spend with developing my Tauren druid makes me actually ask myself if I'm gradually getting addicted. It is so much fun to explore a virtual fantasy world and try to reach goals of increasing difficulty, often with the help of other players.

That I can play WoW at all is due to the fact that I got myself a Mac Mini Having also purchased an iPod Nano before, I've kind of mutated into an Apple fanboy. The experiences I had with their products so far tells me that Apple listens to what customers want and need. Their devices just work easy and intuitive. I feel respected as a product user which makes me a loyal customer in return. Sure, I'm still convinced that nothing beats Linux on the server side, but if I'd get the offer to exchange my Kubuntu ThinkPad with a MacBook, I wouldn't hesitate a second.

I not only started listening to podcasts but also producing one myself Podcasts are a great way of spending my commuting time with entertainment and learning.

And my daily commuting time actually tripled after we had moved to Freiburg in october. We had our doubts about living together for the first time in 8 years of our relationship, but we're really happy. 2006 actually is the year we changed from "relationship" back to "love" again. I'm really lucky to have you in my life, Carolin. And I'll do my best to keep it that way.

Well, talking about new year's resolutions, I have to say that I usually try not to get into that game. We all know that "the road to hell is paved with good intententions", as most resolutions don't ever get resolved anyway. And that's exactly what happened to me also all through the past year: there were just too many goals that I didn't reach. Sometimes, they were unrealistic from the beginning, others I just didn't follow through. That's a depressing thing to notice. So, if there is one important thing I'd like to change in 2007, it's to follow master Yoda's maxim: "Do or do not. There is no try." If you're interested in what I actually do -- keep reading this blog. :)

So, dear readers, how started 2007 for you and what are your expectations or resolutions for the coming year?