Der Haken: Monthly
on Creatives, Economics, Geekystuff, Politics, WhatEver ...

I'm Feeling Lucky

Categories

• Begebenheiten
• Creatives
• Deutsch
• Eclectic
• Economics
• English
• EveryDayLife
• GeekyStuff
• Movies
• Piratenbilder
• Politics
• Rechnerstoff

Archives

• July 2010 (2)
• June 2010 (1)
• May 2010 (4)
• April 2010 (1)
• March 2010 (3)
• February 2010 (3)
• January 2010 (14)
• December 2009 (4)
• November 2009 (5)
• October 2009 (9)
• September 2009 (18)
• August 2009 (5)
• July 2009 (7)
• June 2009 (24)
• May 2009 (36)
• April 2009 (25)
• March 2009 (12)
• February 2009 (13)
• January 2009 (9)
• December 2008 (9)
• November 2008 (6)
• October 2008 (14)
• September 2008 (12)
• August 2008 (14)
• July 2008 (9)
• June 2008 (12)
• May 2008 (28)
• April 2008 (20)
• March 2008 (20)
• February 2008 (25)
• January 2008 (31)
• December 2007 (15)
• November 2007 (24)
• October 2007 (21)
• September 2007 (27)
• August 2007 (22)
• July 2007 (19)
• June 2007 (19)
• May 2007 (34)
• April 2007 (21)
• March 2007 (36)
• February 2007 (20)
• January 2007 (21)
• December 2006 (21)
• November 2006 (23)
• October 2006 (25)
• September 2006 (24)
• August 2006 (22)

Google Here

Search Term

RSS

RSS / Atom

• 
• 
• 
• 

Money Wallet · 30.09.05

Make yourself a wallet. Material costs: exactly 20 dollars: http://www.moneywallet.org/

---

Muellers Einheit · 30.09.05

While everybody is podcasting nowadays, I am one step ahead already. I let 'deutschlandfunk' podcast and just link there. Today they have a great thing. 15 years after german reunification Matthias Baxmann calls a random set of persons from east and west germany with the very frequent german name Mueller, to ask them for their perspectives on german reunification. The outcome is presented as a collage. Great! Here is the audiofile. Language is german: Muellers Einheit (1.1Megabyte, 4:59min)

(source: dradio AudioOnDeman)

---

Du bist Betriebsrat · 27.09.05

Mein beitrag. Mehr auf spreeblicks flickr set. Warum steht hier.

---

Am I Germany? · 26.09.05

You might have realised that Germany is the homeland of depression. It's citizens suffer from a complete lack of self convidence and motivation lately. While we used to enrich the english language with words like 'Blitzkrieg' our latest contribution was 'Angst'.

Seeing their citizens and employees in such condition was unbearable for our federal government and our big corporations. What to do about this? Well, easy, you kick-off-roll-out a fancy public relations campaign. You spend 30million euro on it and .. 'sure shot!' The Germans are happy motivated (un)employees and voters again. That cannot fail! Today 'Du bist Deutschland' (You are germany) went online with a lovely page, where everybody can download great motivating press material.

Everybody? No, not everybody. If you have not installed flash, at least version 6, or if you do not allow javascript on your client or if you surf on a different system then MacOS or windows you see white emptyness.

Please consider the following code, which is to be found here. Somehow it fails miserably. The variable hasRightVersion is set correctly but the line:

document.write('<param name="movie" value="/opencms ... detect.swf?xmlpath=/opencms ... /detect.xml&system=' + client + '">'); does not work on linux/mozilla||opera environments. Obviously one is send to a dubious flash script, which sends one back /opencms/opencms/Detect.html

However, the result is an empty page. Not necessary to mention, that they did not specify a <noscript> area. Wow, the quality and accessibility of du-bist-deutschland.de is quite 'BahBah' right now. I hope there is budget left. Those who do not have flash installed or who do not use Win or Mac (Sun Solaris?) and still think they might be Germany, should consider seeing a doctor. I did not find a way to get through to the information whatsoever. All deep links, even those without flash, have this 'document.write' block. Obviously being Germany has got something to do with using mac or win in the internet.

---

Recently at the Job Center · 25.09.05

---

del.icio.us Textpattern Plugin · 25.09.05

Once again, I've written a five line text pattern plugin. Basically, it provides something, which I've seen at http://hebig.org/blog and which I needed to have as well. It implements a http://del.icio.us/ link to del.icio.us-bookmark posts quickly and easiely. One can find the result under every post, in the dubious link line.

Especially for textpattern plugin rookies, the script might be worth a look, cause one can see how to use those very handy globals, hence how to avoid loads and loads of database transactions. Script status is 'works fine for me', meaning that it is not yet tested intensely. Download: jfx_delicious.php.txt (Source: jfx_delicious.php.src.txt)

---

American Election-o-mat · 25.09.05

Good fun for those, who are not yet fed up with 'election-o-mats' and campaign interviews:http://www.okcupid.com/politics. Some questions are, well, er, somewhat off track for european readers. Yet, they have a lovely graphical representation in the end. Press the 'famous people' button. Here is my result:

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

---

German Elections and Samoan Sex Life · 24.09.05

Eversince our recent federal elections here in Germany they beat the livin' jesus out of those opinion poll institutes. Well true, this time the surveys really were off track by at least five percent, concerning the poll leading conservative party CDU. Poll results that far away from actual election outcomes haven't been around in germany for decades.

Why is that? The opinion polling methods do have one thing in common. They not only extrapolate a sample to derive information about the whole. They put a whole lot of experience into it. Experience about how voters used to behave throughout decades. This time voters had other choices then they used to have. Of course this leads to a lack of accuracy. Take the emergence of the 'Left Party' which did influence the possible options of voters in the former west remarkably. Those who would vote for the Social Demokrats, mostly disillusioned by seven years of Social Democrat government, could vote further left for the first time, without being called a 'Stasi'. Since elections are won in the west, that option darkened the perspectives of the social democrats. But by what amount? Here you can see that opinion polling really works. The polls with respect to Left Party and Social Democats were quite precise.

Why did opinion polling fail so miserably on the conservative side of voters the spectrum? Because the permanent publishing of polling results during the election campaign induced an incentive to vote strategically on conservative voters. For a voter, who'd like to have a black-yellow-coalition, it could have seemed like a good idea to vote yellow this time. The polls said that black would win by a vast majority anyway. So, why not strengthen the market-liberal-tax-cut wing of the government to come. The results of the elections might propose that this strategy was common among conservative voters.

So, in the end the failure of this elections forcasts might well be the result of doing the forecast or to find a cute allegory: "Margaret Mead could never know the sexual mores of the Samoans — her very presence on the island distorted what she was there to observe" [Source]. This principle is often refered to as Goodhart's Law.

Peter Sloterdijk, a guy whose giftedness I doubt and who is often indroduced as a philosopher here in Germany, now demands, that opinion polls shall be banned during campaign periods. Maybe this time he is right. Though I don't know how Sloterdijk wants to enforce his ban.

---

Werk fuer Fernsehelektronik · 22.09.05

The very famous 'Werk fuer Fernsehelektronik' (fabric for telly electronics) will be closed for ever. After years of subsidized tv screen production, Samsung is going to close down the famous plant. The laid off count is 700. The close down is due to the rise of plasma screens, which are not produced there. True, conventional screens are not easy to sell nowadays. However, Samsung made the 'off business' decision after years of cashing in public subventions.

Is this yet another case of economic policy failure? Why not closing down the plant when it's time has come and spend the money on educational activities for the laid-offs? No, first spend money for years and years on technologies, whose time had come already and afterwards spend more money on the educational realignment of the now laid off employees. All you have achieved is spending money and loosing time. Precious time, which could have been used to adapt.

Why am I interested? Cause the Werk fuer Fernsehelektronik was the first business I was working for, years ago.

---

Orwellian Society · 22.09.05

Those who always appreciated the society proposed in Orwell's 1984 will be amazed to hear, that America Oceania makes great progress in realising orwellian levels in organising it's society: studentsfororwell.org

---

DIY Deathmatch Hamster · 21.09.05

How to turn your hamster into a fearsome fighting machine. Good training for future pitbull owners.

(via BoingBoing)

---

Groovy Rookie · 21.09.05

Say, you were asked to parse a xml structure in order to remove childnodes from certain tag-name specified nodes. The xml structure is large, only automated approaches are feasible. Asume furthermore, the task is a one time shot. So, no need to generalize the classes written.

Asume now, that you have been parsing xml-structures in Java and SAX. You know what objects to construct and what methods to call. Clearly, this a task for Groovy the java based scripting shell. Since we do not need the exception handling fuzz, we do not want to write main methods, that only call it's parent object and one method, and we do not want to compile the mess every time we changed a tiny line, an easy to use scripting environment is what we need. As a second requirement, we want to use methods implmeneted in Java. Again, Groovy provides native access.

After all, we wanted to try out Groovy for months now, yet, we never had a matching task. Is Groovy easier to code then a equal java implementation? I'd say yes. Groovy has got some differences compared to java. For example, watch the use of the iterator 'it':


[...]
NodeList StateNodes =
      doc.getElementsByTagName("state");
 
StateNodes.each(){
      Node StateNode = (Node)it;
 
      while(StateNode.hasChildNodes()){
             StateNode.removeChild(StateNode.getFirstChild());
      };
};
[...]

So, folks, here is my groovy script to parse a xml structure from a file, find all nodes named 'state', remove all branches below each 'state' node and write the result to a new xml file: parseAndRemove.groovy.

---

Stroebele ist wieder drin · 19.09.05

Stroebele ist mitglied des bundestages geblieben. Moechte wissen, was der Hans Christian zu den schwampel ueberlegungen sagt. Am ende wird er womoeglich wieder mitmachen und sich schelte einhandeln. Jedenfalls hab ich ihm sein gedicht geschickt, als PDF-druckforlage (110 k.b.). Ein dickes danke an die autoren. Ich wette der hans christian wird geruehrt sein.

---

Jamaica Coalition · 19.09.05

Last night I coined the term 'Jamaica Coalition' to refer to a possible yet unlikely black yellow green coalition. Obviously at about the same time Mr. Schoenborn had the same idea.

---

Forecasting with Markets · 19.09.05

What does it take to forecast an election outcome? Well, a internet trading platform and a thousand guys, who like to burn money. This is pretty cheap, given the costs, other methods inflict. Here are the results of wahlstreet.de:

Party	Forecast	Share	Difference
SPD	33.1%	34.3%	-1.2%
CDU	40.0%	35.2%	+4.8%
FDP	9.7%	9.8%	-0.1%
Die Gruenen	7.8%	8.1%	-0.3%
Linkspartei.	7.7%	8.7%	-1.0%
Others	2.9%	3.8%	-0.9%

Given the costs this is quite a good forecast. To be perfectly fair, the market was open up to 5.55pm. There are people, who had access to survey figures at arround 4.30pm on sunday already. If you have a look at the charts you will see, that there was increased market activity sunday afternoon. Still, the big surprise, the result of the FDP was already forecasted saturday evening. This is very likely caused by Stefan Raabs awful saturday evening test election show, where the FDP made it well over 10%. The other big surprise, the results of the CDU on the other hand was not predicted at all. This does not support the proposed 'insider trading'. One could have made a fortune, if one only had known.

Update: I just added up the values of my shares. I put 20 bucks on the table four weeks ago and ended up with 20.47 bucks. This gives a yield return of 47cent or 2.35%

---

Erststimmenkanon · 17.09.05

Die, die im wahlkreis 84 wohnen und wollen, dass die Gruenen jeden tag der kommenden legislaturperiode an ihre lobenswerten wurzeln erinnert werden, es sich also nicht allzu bequem machen koennen, in ihrer neu gefundenen besserverdienenden angepasstheit, koennen morgen ihre erstimme Hans Christian Stroebele geben. Da Stroebele keinen listenplatz hat, bleibt er uns nur erhalten, wenn wir, der wahlkreis 84, ihn direkt durchbringen. Hier liegt die wahre bundesweite verantwortung des wahlkreises 84. Alles andere ist wurscht.

Mehr als die oben genannte erinnerungswirkung koennen wir allerdings nicht wirklich vom Stroebele erwarten. Aber wenigstens das sollten wir uns und den Gruenen goennen.

Kantel will auch, dass ihr das so macht.

---

Election Parties in Berlin · 17.09.05

Tonight will be the last time for german political parties to throw flyers at passengers. The federal election campaign is about to end tomorrow at 18:00, when polling stations close. Isn't that a reason to celebrate properly? ...But where and how and who's going to pay?

Well, easy? The political parties, hence the tax payer, hence you will pay. The political parties have arranged a whole lot of election 'get toghethers' where most of them have free beer, champaign and sausages.

Here is a little list of who celebrates where in Berlin tomorrow. Experienced election 'get together' attenders know, that one does not choose the events for one's political attitudes, but for the amount and quality of food and bewerage one can expect:

Get together of 'The Liberals', party of the higher-income earners. This latter selfchosen describtion let's us hope for best quality buffets. Neckties might be required.

18.09.2005, 17:30 Uhr
Wahlparty der FDP Berlin In der Landesgeschäftstelle der FDP Berlin
Dorotheenstraße 56
10117 Berlin
-- Markus Loening

Get together of 'The Green Party', party of the brighter higher-income earners. Bionic pastries gallore. Neckties are a 'have not'.

18.09.2005, 17:00 Uhr
Flughafen Tempelhof
Platz der Luftbruecke
-- Die gruenen

Get together of 'Die Linke', party of happy Keynsianism and preservation of industrial working opportunities. Poor quality Beer, yet a lot of it. Event takes place in a Oktoberfest tent.

18.09.2005, 17:00 Uhr
Palast der Republik
-- presseportal

The big 'Volksparteien' have several places to be. here two examples:

18.09.2005, 17:30 Uhr
Wahlparty der Südwest-SPD
Taverna "Kreta"
Potsdamer Straße 3, 14163 Berlin.
-- steglitz-zehlendorf.spd-berlin.de

18.09.2005, 17:30 Uhr
"Weihenstephaner"
Hackescher Markt
Berlin-Mitte
wk076 / öffentlich CDU KV Berlin-Mitte
-- team-zukunft.cdu.de

Last but not least the "Anarchic Pogo Party", Starts with free beer at 14:00 at Boxhagenerplatz to go 'Voting Under the Influence' at arround 16:00 and afterwards, starting at 18:00, meets at the "Fallada" (Gabelsbergerstrasse / Rigaerstrasse), where the beer won't be free anymore, which is a little disappointment. Here are some pictures of this years anarchic pogo street campaign.

My plan is to have some quality starters with the Liberals, leaving my necktie somewhere there, stroll over to the Christian Demokrats to cover the foundings with good bavarian bewerages. Afterwards over to the leftists for some more down market beer. There I will decide whether to become a brither higher-income earner or a pogo anarchist. The anarchists actually celebrate closer to my place.

---

Hebigs Out of Office Note · 16.09.05

For those who speak german and did not yet vote. Here are some points to consider, brought to you in the most honest and understandable language: hebig.org/blog. Congrats go out to Haiko Hebig.

---

Schily's Reasons · 16.09.05

Yesterday, the german minister for the interiour was interviewed at deutschlandfunk. He was asked for his views on the so called trade off beween freedom and security. Mr. Schily pointed out that the extended surveillance rights of executive authorities were no problem at all, because it showed that police and secret services would use them very very modestly.

What kind of reasoning is this? Let's say we'd lawfully allow police officers to shoot people on the streets without any justification whatsoever. After one year we body count and then say: Hey this regulation is no problem, 'cause police used it's extended powers very very modestly.'

Mr. Schily, again you forget that you very likely won't be germany's interiour minister for ever. Those who will be you successors might be much much worse than you are and you provided them with the tools to be so and do so. Thats what you did.

Now, today your ministry announced that it would not be acceptable for germans to smile on passport pictures, because it would make your automatic face scanners malfunction. You know what? My smile disapeared quite some time ago.

---

German Young Farmers Calendar 2006 · 15.09.05

Zefuenfe! Zefix! Der Jungbauernkalender 2006 is allerweil scho zu bestellen! Jetzt wo I a zwoa huehner hob, muss der her! I frei mi', 's is ja bald weihnachten, gell.

The German Young Farmers Calendar 2006 is avaliable already! Zapperlot!

(via DonDahl)

---

Die Zeit Test Election · 15.09.05

Now, watch this. The flagship of german liberal highbrowism has carried out a test election among it's online editors. Now those who wondered about the contents of Die Zeit will find the results interesting:

Party	Share
Bündnis 90/DIE GRÜNEN	45 %
SPD	30 %
CDU	15 %
FDP	5 %
DIE PARTEI	5 %

Well that does actually explain a lot about the content of Die Zeit. Please note that the Linkspartei does not reach a relevant share among Zeit employees. On the other hand 'Die Partei' which satirically proposes the re-erection of the wall and the eternal division of Germany jumps the 5% hurdle.

The result of the green party (45%) is noteworthy as well. I don't know, who, but somebody called the green party, the party of the 'brighter higher-income earners', refering to a statement made by some leaders of the FDP (Liberals) back in the days, stating they were the party of the higher-income earners. Can we state now, that 50% of Zeit editors are wealthy while only 45% are bright? However, I look forward to finding the next issue of of Die Zeit, since now I can imagine how this weirdo content mixture is possible.

I wonder who Martin Klingst voted for.

---

Die Weisse Massai · 14.09.05

Die weisse Massai? Hiess der film nicht 'Der weisse Hai'? Wenn da man nich ein irrtum vorliegt: http://www.dieweissemassai.film.de/

---

Keine Werbung Einwerfen · 14.09.05

---

'Nerd Aergere Dich Nicht' · 13.09.05

Sehr schoen. Will ich haben: Nerd Aergere Dich Nicht. Es ist ja bald weihnachten...

(via Make)

---

V-Modell XT · 13.09.05

---

Abgeordnete und Parteien · 12.09.05

Ein tolles quiz in der zeit: Alles Ansichtssache, das Parlament teilt sich in sechs Phaenotypen, signifikant gehaeuft in bestimmten politischen Lagern, entweder bei Rot-Gruen oder Schwarz-Gelb. Ratet wer nicht dazugehoert. Das jeweils naechste ratebild erhaeltet ihr, wenn ihr den roten pfeil direkt rechts oben neben den bilder klickt.

---

10th Annual Water Battle · 11.09.05

After covering men and tomatoes we cover 'punks and rotten food' today. This afternoon the 10th annual water battle between punks and youngsters from the neighbouring Berlin districts Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg took place. This noble event is characterised by very strict rules. It is the aim of either group to capture the bridge that connects both districts as a whole. To achieve this it is allowed to apply weapons made of foam rubber.

It is allowed to throw water balloons as well as any kind of vegetable, as long as it is softened by the process of decomposition. This year rotten oranges was amunition of choice, which gave the whole bridge a bitter sweet scent and a slippery surface. The evil doers from Kreuzberg even considered used pampers rule compliant amunition. At least this is what rumors on Friedrichshain side sayed.

Tourist, if you are in town when the annual water battle takes place, it is a good trick to take the U1 from Warschauerstrasse. The U-bahn crosses the bridge right above the battle field. If you still want to experience the event more ... erm ... 'hands on', make sure the showers work in your hotel.

gallery here and the flickr set tagged 'wasserschlacht'.

---

English in Vocational Education · 11.09.05

You might have noticed that I have deal with teacher's matters in germany indirectly. Especially english teachers matters. For example, an indefinite source of mischief for an english teacher in german vocational education is the availability of profession specific teaching material. It is difficult to find applicable teaching material for carpenters or plumbers. Texts, audio- or videosequences that consist of profession specific vocabulary are rarely to be found in the portfolio of traditional teaching material supplyers. So, one has to search the beef elsewhere.

I know I could have noticed earlier, but last night I saw something perfectly fitting the needs in teaching english to car mechanics. 'Pimp My Ride'. Yes, 'Pimp My Ride' has got it all. You have got all the profession specific vocabulary plus a whole lot of 'pupil credibility' and you can chop it to small sequences without loosing a 'relevant' big picture. If I had to teach english to german car mechanics I'd tape all of 'Pimp My Ride' and let Xzibit explain the relevant vocabulary, like 'sixteen inch rims'.

Thank You Xzibit! But how to teach english to german administrative assistants?

---

Girl Content · 9.09.05

Yeah! This is serious ladies content. Men and tomatoes! For the guys today we have world war II aerial photos of devastated Cologne.

(via BoingBoing)

---

Milton on the Public Sector · 8.09.05

"There are four ways in which you can spend money.

You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.

Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.

Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch!

Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. [...]"

-- Milton Friedman 2004

---

Fetching Fresh Water · 8.09.05

---

Clarke Reconsiders Torture · 7.09.05

Why is it that Home Secretaries and Ministers for the Interiour give me the creeps lately? One fine specimen of the specie is Home Secretary Clarke from the United Kingdom. He has given a speach at the european parliament, where he states that europeans have to trade civil liberties for collective security and further he goes:

Our strengthening of human rights needs to acknowledge a truth which we should all accept, that the right to be protected from torture and ill-treatment must be considered side by side with the right to be protected from the death and destruction caused by indiscriminate terrorism, sometimes caused, instigated or fomented by nationals from countries outside the EU.

Now, for those who do not quite get it, Home Secretary Clark not only wants us to trade in warm hearty security, giving away dubious civil rights. No, he wants to reconsider article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which forbids torture. So, Mr. Clarke goes to the european parliament and reconsiders the absense of torture in european law enforcement, hence he reconsiders european lawful law enforcement ... and that gives me the creeps.

Those who speak german can go to the raven, who covers the matter in depth.

(via the register)

---

Intelligent Storming · 7.09.05

It was pretty sure that this interpretation would show up: God's Mercy Evident in Katrina's Wake. Of course, it was high time to clean up this pit of sin in the southern swamp. "Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city." Yeah, praise the lord!

Reverend Shanks, how will you refer to tropical storms in your schools from now on? Intelligent Storming?

---

Bulletin · 7.09.05

What else? A nice example for the importance of website accessibility. Imagine you got away from New Orleans, where you lost everything. Furthermore, imagine you managed to find a computer connected to the internet. Now you could try to file a disaster assistance claim on Fema.gov. That would be a good idea, wouldn't it? Well, if you try to do so, make sure you are sitting at a windows machine, browsing with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Because otherwise you are in trouble. At least this is what BoingBoing says. So, it is not always being blind or being mentally challanged. Sometime the hurdle is completely technical, which is not neccessary.

Furthermore, while they speak about biometric properties on german id cards here, in the united kingdom they discuss whether they should have id cards at all. Please consider to support no2id groups somehow.

Last point for today. This morning I was angry with myself. I missed to run for a direct mandate at the german lower house,which is elected on september 18, as you know. I could have held fundraising parties and billboarding the neighbourhood. 'damnit.

---

Spocht · 7.09.05

---

Neue Parteien · 6.09.05

Hier sehen wir meinen stimmzettel fuer die bundestagswahl. Am nettesten sind 'Die Grauen' und 'Die Frauen', meine ich. Nur mal so vom namen her betrachtet. 'a-u-e' ist eine sympathische vokalkombination. Auf zwei silben verteilt, bringt sie einen ziemlich netten klang. In diesem 'a-u-e' bereich sollten mehr parteigruendungsaktivitaeten oder auch umbenennungen in betracht gezogen werden. Eine komplett reimende parteienliste muss das ziel sein. 'Die Schlauen', 'Die Blauen', 'Die Mauen', 'Die Sauen' und natuerlich 'Die Hauen!'. Das waer doch mal 'ne massnahme, oder?

---

American Patents · 6.09.05

American courts do everything to strangle whatever kind of grasroot innovation by prohibiting the merest attempts to use industrial products in ways not wanted by producers:

The Ninth Circuit has created box-wrap patent licenses. Now the label on the box that says "single use only" is given force of law, and if you refill the cartridge you are liable for patent infringement. This from Lexmark, the company that already tried and failed to control the printer cartridge after-market using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)...Will patent owners exploit this decision as an opportunity to impose over-reaching restrictions on formerly permitted post-sale uses, repairs, modifications, and resale? Will consumers soon confront “single use only, not for resale” notices on more and more products? Will innovators stumble over labels announcing “modifications prohibited”?
--MAKEzine

Good luck with that.

---

Piccoloquiz Volkszaehlung Loesung · 6.09.05

Hier die loesung von Paula. Weil es die erste richtige loesung mit begruendung und im ganzen satz war, geht das piccoloechen an Paula. Paulas original loesung:

In der Auflistung der möglichen Produkte fehlt die Variante 1*15*15. Die Summe ist 31 wie bei 3*3*25. Das muss der gesuchte Fall sein, denn sonst würde der Zähler nichts weiter fragen, weil die anderen Summen alle verschieden sind. Im ersten Fall gibt es keine älteste Person, also muss die Lösung 3,3,25 sein.

Wenn Paula mir nicht mitteilt, wohin das piccoloechen verbracht werden soll, bekommt es Paule.

---

Off Wire · 4.09.05

O.k. I'm off wire at least up to monday night. Meanwhile you could read juergen-luebeck.de. He's got some serious content on society and technology, ever since he returned from fishing vacation. Unfortunately he writes in German.

When I return the recent piccoloquiz will be solved. Again this will be done in German.

---

Even More on New Orleans · 3.09.05

Now, Mr. Bush, ain't you prepared to spend billions of dollar in no time to protect the source of your buddies wealth? Ain't you prepared to put the lifes of other mum's sons and doughters into jeopardy to protect the businesses of some lobbyists employers? On the other hand, why spending fuel and helicopters on the have nots? Why even spending your precious time on them? Well ... o.k. ... Because it gives great tv coverage. That would be the only reason to spend your time on them, wouldn't it? ... and if you spend tax payer's money (to repair military facilities down there) make sure Halliburton is hired to do the job.

Please, Mr. Bush, stop your public relations journey. Do not dare to abuse the grief of thousands of those you couldn't help, to fix your image. Do not make me puke again.

---

It Is Being Poor · 3.09.05

Isn't it disturbing? What do we learn from the south east Louisiana desaster? How could it happen, that people in the country with the largest gross domestic product, with the most productive industries in the world starve and die with no proper help, no helicopters, no law enforcement, no fresh water, not even enough busses? How could that happen? I tell you why: Those who need help are poor.

Isn't it disturbing that the pictures are so similar? It is one property that the victims in south east Louisiana have in common with those starving in Niger, those being raped in Darfour and those drowning in Bangladesh. It is the fate of being poor. The new point for me is, that it doesn't matter in what country you are poor. Isn't that disturbing?

---

Election Poster Enhancement · 2.09.05

Let's go on with my public service on election posters and it's enhancement. On 18th September not only Germany, but Afghanistan as well is holding an election. On the picture above you can probably see a election poster enhancer planning an enhancement. More on election poster enhancement..

---

Mayor Ray Nagin's interview with WWL · 2.09.05

Uncensored radio interview of the mayor of New Orleans with WWL is to be found at this download service: "Where is the beef? There is no beef anywhere in south east Louisiana ... and these goddamn ships that are commin' I don't see 'em"

Furthermore I recommend boingboing's 'Katrina: anecdote on civil defense in Cuba'. By the way, I have to say that boingboing.net became a vital and serious news source when it comes to U.S. interiour affairs.

---

Sumpffrage · 2.09.05

Darf man in diesen tagen noch 'Die suempfe der amerikanisierung' sagen?

---

Muddy Waters · 2.09.05

Today I'm running with the flock and post a picture of Muddy Waters.

It comes with the news flash that 'Fats' Domino has been rescued from muddy waters in New Orleans. This is good news from a place, where bad news became overwhelming, lately. Furthermore I declare Muddy Waters the google of the day.

---

Tag Your Information Properly · 31.08.05

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—Executives at Google, the rapidly growing online-search company that promises to "organize the world's information," announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index.
-- The Onion

... well, time to tag your documents properly, isn't it?

---

In der Sonne Glitzern · 31.08.05

Wenn die sonne tief steht, werfen nicht nur zwerge lange schatten. Nein, auch diese modischen nasenpiercings, die einen strassstein halten, glitzern wie ein frischer tropfen rotz, oder?

---