Snow Leopard's "Finder" show sizes of all small network files as 1MB

Googled for this phenomenon, and it looks quite well-discussed already.

listening to Jorge Degas's and Andreas Weiser's Heimat

listening to Franz Schubert's D 911

... "Winterreise. Ein Cyclus von Liedern von Wilhelm Müller. ..."

OpenOffice 3.2 RC1 arrives

... and it brings PowerPoint slide shows with music ...

editing files with VI and enforcing certain editor settings

You do know, that you can request VI (or VIM)  to make using the tab key equivalent to going e.g. 4 positions to the right (":set tabstop=4"). But what if your colleague opens that file and has a global setting like ":set tabstop=8"?
As long as you don't "globally" agree on this, it will at least help to add a setting with a "file-wide" scope. VI's feature supporting such options is called modeline. There are 2 related settings, that make the use of that feature possible resp. impossible: "[no]modeline", and "modelines=n". For further reading do a ":help modeline" in VIM! (I guess, there are not that many original UCB VI-s around nowadays any more) That shows you samples and the exact syntax for how to add modelines.
I saw Jürgen Gulbins using this feature like 25 years ago, found it useful then, but never applied it myself in the meantime. But now in my current project with mixed VIM and Eclipse usage it seems to make very good sense, but I wasn't able to recall the details. The article, that my Google enquiry pointed me to, was posted in December 2005 on the linux-il list: "vim inline :set". Thanks to Meir Kriheli for answering the question there!

bash version 4 and associative arrays

The new builtin array variable BASH_ALIASES is a nice example for an associative array.
If you do an ''echo ${BASH_ALIASES[@]}" you see all the values, if you do a "set | fgrep BASH_ALIASES" you see, to what the indexes map.

Update:

In December, when I got aware of the new feature, I thought, there is no way to get the list of indexes.
But there is:  ${!name[@]} and ${!name[*]} return the list of array keys. This gets explained in the section Parameter Expansion. I am sorry, if my former statements caused confusion.

my 1st steps in Java: extending a JasperReport sample program using Apache Commons CLI

iReports and JasperReports (and also JasperETL and much more) are open source software, that you can find on JasperForge.org.

I intended to extend jasperreports-3.6.2/demo/samples/text/TextApp.java, so that it would take "-Dname=value" style options. There was a need to make TextApp.java a little more flexible, and that was quite easily to achieve making use of getProperty calls.

A friend had given me the hint recently to have a look at "System.getProperty()", but it turned out to only provide the caller with properties like "os.name", according to http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/essential/environment/sysprop.html. So that wasn't quite the route to follow.


I started my day googling for "getopt java", found that nice package "Apache Commons CLI", made use of it within that JasperForge utility, and started scripting a batch run around that utility's targets named "fill..." resp. "text..." in bash, resp. their new sisters, that I derived from them today. Next step is to rewrite that shell script as Windows batch script file resp. as python script to be used in a Windows environment. This work is almost "production ready", but I am facing quite some necessary paperwork, so that the software developed can get made serious use of.

Looks like the Jasper guys had not expected their software to be used like that. The ".jrxml" gets designed using iReport on a Windows box or whatever; after that it is being made use of on any kind of server executing Java classes with access to a database. (I wonder, whether that approach would also work with JasperETL.)

I am quite satisfied with my 1st steps in Java in that JasperReport environment.

I really had no idea and also no perspective of getting thrown into Java development during a commercial project, and even in the context of JasperReport. I do like this.

Update / 2010-03-05:
The atomar production steps described within TextApp.java's build.xml are rather nice and instructive, but they make use of those routines within TextApp.java, where target file names (incl. directory path) get strictly derived from source file names. I added resp. derived productions steps, that make use of thoses methods of the API, that allow you to name the destiny's name explictily. And I also added chains of productions steps into the java source file, so that the calling shell resp. "whatever" script wouldn't have to deal with calling the chained steps one by one itself. So far there are chains starting at .jrxml and at .jasper, and chains that end at .txt and also at .pdf. The idea is to place intermediate files on local disks within temp. directories instead of close to the source resp. final target file (maybe) somewhere on a network file system.

python and class methods

Yes, they are supported, but you have to use an extra magic function call:

classmethod = classmethod(classmethod)

my new book: Tarek Ziadé: Expert Python Programming

This book is a litte like like Pragmatic Project Automation for the python community. This book isn't really, what I was searching for, but actually it is much, much better. It provides me with a serious level of considering how to make a software project using python a success.

I think, it's a big marketing mistake, to print on the cover and certainly also elsewhere, that this book is targeted towards people with a "sound background in Python programming". I actually think, people with a serious background in computer science (maybe beyond the BSc/BA level) and some knowledge of the specifics of, how python implements the usual more or less "modernistic" (i.e. starting with Simula 67) progamming language features, certainly will gain good profit of enjoying this book. Do yourself a favour and get both, the paper book and the PDF! So maybe you can print one or the other page, and put it on your fellow project managers' desks.

(To be continued ...)

A note to my mates: yes, I got the PDF, and I also got the PDF of the PragProg book.

software documentation

From the book Expert Python Programming, "Documenting Your Project", "Use a Simple Style":

You are not writing fiction, so keep the style as simple as possible.

And with a few more words:

(Another author) made an analysis [...] to try to understand, why his books sold so well. He made a list of all best sellers in the marketing area and compared the average number of words per sentence in each one of them. He realized, that his books had the lowest numbers of words per sentence (thirteen words). This simple fact [...] proved that readers prefer short and simple sentences, rather than long and stylish ones.

using associative arrays in your code

How many lines of code does it take for your new piece of code, before you introduce an associative array?


How many lines of code does it take for your new piece of code, before you introduce a class?

Yes, I know, Bourne shell doesn't come with the concept of associative arrays, of course it also doesn't know classes or object orientation. Right, a simple 20 or 30 lines shell script for copying and renaming files may not have the need for associative arrays or classes. But if your script gets longer, pls rethink, whether Bourne shell is the right choice for your task, or whether you make really good use of ruby, perl, or python!

Your next steps may be writing unit testing and using continuous integration. It's not your customer, who should request it, it should be your serious professional style, your way to deliver proper services. If you are not familiar with the terms, look them up -- I provided you with proper links to interesting and informative articles.

how to abbreviate the word Character and how German programmers pronounce it

We know, that in a few "modern" programming languages the word "character" as an IT term gets abbreaviated as "char". Do you have any idea, of how many coders pronounce it? They pronounce it like the "char-" as in "Charlie". Why would actually anybody pronounce the abbrevation so much different to the unabbreviated word?

MacRuby 0.5 Beta 2 improves compatibility

Low_Level_Virtual_Machine

REPORT: More than 25% of US bridges are "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete"

google.com/health

I would like to recommend to you the usage of google.com/health . I think it helps you to fill out your profile and not leave it to the doctors to be the only ones, that know bits and pieces of you, that they don't usually tell you.

Conditions, Medications, Allergies; Medical Contacts.

Test, package .NET apps for Linux with Visual Studio add-in

Vatican Ponders the Existence Of Alien Life

Apple IDs the next-generation iPhone -- Cupertino wakes up to NFC?

Should you choose iPhone 3G or 3GS?

GO: Google Launches Its Own Programming Language

Can You Say That in English? Explaining UX Research to Clients by David Sherwin

how to use UNIX tee to send output to more than one pipe?

I have a necessity for that usage, I googled for it, found an answer here on UNIX.com, but I thought, there might be something slicker. I got myself an account there in order to tell the initiator of that thread, what I am going to find out, but sadly enough, he got banned since. That doesn't happen too rarely.

I like UNIX man pages, and I thought, I should give "$ man 1 tee" a try. That pointed me to "$ info coreutils 'tee invocation'", and that instructed me to use "process substitution", a feature of modern shells. The notation is different, but it's still piping: ">( PROCESS_READING_FROM_A_PIPE )". And you can use it more than once on the process, that you want to read output from.

Now, that is seriously slick enough for me. Read the example there, it's really nice!

Added a note on en.wikipedia.org mentioning this insight.

It is rather tempting to think, that using process substitution you don't even need tee itself anymore at all, but just try yourself, it doesn't work!

SourceForge Inc changes its name to Geeknet

German Federal Cross of Merit for KDE founder

development of a child

I made a new and interesting experience with my 3yr old son last Sunday.
I was pretty strict and harsh and serious with him (o, how cruel can a father be?! (but self-critical as well!!!)), and he showed pretty good "taking qualities" (german: Nehmerqualitäten), but he still started to show, how much my appreciation means to him: he showed us, he is able to pronounce words with "R" properly now in German, "rot, rot, rot!" he shouted all of a sudden (that's the colour "red" in English), because until very recently he (as a Portuguese native speaker) used to pronounce it "bot", and it took me endless repetitions pronouncing it properly to him, that looked quite unsuccessful to me -- until last weekend. I am very, very touched. I am very proud of him.

P.S. Suggestions for better English always appreciated.

strangers contacting me on Live Messenger

On all of my MSN / Live Messenger accounts I disallowed, that people not on my contact list, can send me messages. Still I keep getting IMs from strangers. How come???

No, I didn't google for this phenomenon. Actually I'm not sure, how to express this with 3 to 5 words to be put in a Google search, so that I don't receive mostly irrelevant hits.

Actually I mostly don't use the Live Messenger client itself but pidgin. But of course: the client shouldn't make a difference there. (Actually it does, as I found out later during my research. See below!!)

Anybody any idea?

Update: now that I expressed this thing here, I was able to do a Google search (with the title of this story here), and found this. Didn't help me either, but maybe others will find it helpful.

Another update: looks like actually the client IM software needs to do the blocking, and I found the right settings in pidgin to do that. There is a privacy menu entry (Tools > Privacy), and you have to select "allow only the users on my buddy list" on every single account, if that's what you want -- and I certainly do.

traveling on public transport using an iPhone

In Hamburg (Germany) you can use mobil.hvv.de, in Berlin (Germany) you can use mobil.bvg.de.
For Berlin there also exists a very nice iPhone app by the name of fahrinfo, which I really make use of a lot.

how to log into your iPhone using the root resp. the mobile account with a well-known password

This article on h-online.com helped me to log into my iPhone via ssh for the very first time. Find the instructions especially here! I used it for changing those passwords immediately, and I also created a ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 for user mobile. Creating one for user root did not work, even "$ man sshd_config" did not help me, I still have to log in using a password.

sipgate's SIP client for the iPhone

sipgate.de re-announced their SIP client for the iPhone on the 2009-10-30.
Downloaded it, started it, nice.
It can of course make us of my address book on the iPhone.
I'm not sure, I would want to use SIP over UMTS (if they don't restrict that anyways as Skype does), but for telephone over WiFi, that's pretty nice.

getting familiar with a Mac keyboard

I was really afraid, it would take me a long, long time to seriously get familiar with my Mac keyboard, but finding the Keyboard Viewer and having a closer look at it wiped out all these fears.
Whatever I thought would be missing on the Mac keyboard, now I find it easily.

creating phone book and diary entries from incoming calls on my router

If you read this title, how mad do you think I am? Honest!

Alright, "as you know" (so of course this article only applies to some sort of computer nerds), my router is a FRITZ!Box 7270, it's also the base station for my (wireless) phones, and a lot more ... -- certainly one of my most important toys or gadgets. And I have 2 of them, one for at home, one for anywhere outside, where I can only connect to the Internet through UMTS.

So alright, back to the title of this article!

• It's nice to record your incoming and outgoing calls in your diary, right? (my diary is emacs style)
• It's nice to get something descriptive displayed on your phone, when somebody calls, right?
• It's nice to extend your phone book through time as easily as possible, right?

Well, my router is running Linux as its operating system kernel, and BusyBox on top of it. On each incoming phone call it runs a shell script with a few parameters, of course the caller's phone# (if available) and also the callee's phone#. (I do have more than one phone#, and why not also record the called phone#, just for the record?) It tries to associate a name with the caller's phone#, if there is a matching entry in the phone book.

Quite a while ago I started implementing such a shell script, and obviously (as it is almost an ordinary (bash) shell script), I can develop and test it on any of my computers, that can run shell scripts, like any of my openSuSE computers, any WinXP computer running cygwin, a Mac running OS X, ... . Yes, I cannot create a full blown shell script, I will not pipe a lot through one-liner perl or ruby scripts on my router, but still: it's a handy and useful, not so tiny shell script.

So far it appears to me, as if no such executable gets called on the router for outgoing calls, but I can still mimic this behaviour by calling that script on my main development box.

Having said this, my script (fritz_box_calllog.sh) fulfills all the requirements, that I listed above in that bullet list.
For incoming calls without caller id and/or without a matching entry in the phone book it creates a piece of XML text, that I can paste into my FRITZ!Box XML phone book, and where I can fill in a phone# and a name or any descriptive text, so next time, I want to dial that phone# myself, I can select it from the phone book. And maybe another time that person will call you with caller id, and then you will be able to greet that person with her/his name. Wouldn't that be nice?

The implementation of this software also got inspired by Matthias Hühne's "Dial!Fritz", that I run on my iPhone. But of course his software is far completer and nicer, and it's well integrated.

a Mac keyboard is so different from a PC keyboard

It really takes me a while to accomodate with all that. Right now I just missed arrow key "accelerators" a lot, and I thought I give a few combinations a try. Guess what! The left and the right arrow key together with the cmd key work like Pos1 and End on a PC keyboard. Try yourself, what the alt key does! Isn't that amazing?!!

the pidgin Facebook plugin

The pidgin Facebook plugin does not work properly so far. A single Facebook user actually talks to me with yet another id, every single time he sends me a message. This does not look tested well enough.
I am using pidgin 2.6.2 (libpurple 2.6.2) from fink on Mac OS X, Snow Leopard.

Update / 2010-12-28:
For quite a while Facebook chat has now been reachable through Jabber / XMPP.

the main Fink web site is down, there is an alternative though (UPDATE)

You can't reach the main Fink web site right now, but there is an alternative though.

2009-10-28: You can fink again. The main Fink web site is still not available though.

Safari AdBlocker

Do you think, I am starting a fairy tale here? No, I'm not. Look it up on Apple's list of public downloads for Mac OS X. The link there is broken (right now), but read it and bend it! It points you to sweetpproductions.com, there you want to look for the Safari AdBlocker (maybe this link will still be functional). It works with Firefox AdBlock Plus filter subscritions.

Question is, how long it will take, until the iPhone's Safari can be made to block ads as well. I mean, an iPhone is an OS X derivative using Cocoa, so I wonder how hard that will be.

Well, now don't you complain here, if you find browsing without ads a poor experience!

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

"This may well prove to be the cloud news of the week."

how to print from my Mac OS X machine through a Netgear print server

A Netgear knowledge base article named Recommended Unix printer configuration for PS110 explains, why it's good to use the LPD printing method.

Now my Mac is the UNIX-ish machine on my LAN with the richest printing capabilities:

• It can print through a 7270 AVM FRITZ!Box (my router++) on a Samsung CLP-315 colour laser printer attached via USB.
• It can also print through a Netgear PS110 (my print server) on a HP LJ1100A and a HP LJ4L, both pretty ancient but functional b&w laser printers, attached through parallel cables.

What is still missing in the team is my Canon PIXMA MX310, a combi device that I mostly use for batch scanning enterprise documents and for sending documents by fax. That device is attached via USB to a rather simple (and fanless) machine (a NEO) running WinXP, running through pretty all of the year.


Just for the completeness of the presentation: Incoming fax documents get received by that FRITZ!Box, and that lovely devices creates PDF-s from them and forwards them as e-mail attachments to one of my IMAP mail boxes out there.

CAVEAT: the Pill and antibiotics

I happened to come across and old friend last night on Yahoo Messenger resp. pidgin, who told me, that she was justing attempting to commit suicide.

What had happened? She had an abortion last week with twins in the 3rd month. No contraception? No, really not. But the Pill and antibiotics do not go together. She didn't know that, and she got pregnant.

We chatted quite long last night. I think, she felt a little better, when we said our "Good Nights".

pipe symbol at Apple keyboard

there is that nice article on where to find the "pipe symbol" / "pipe symbol" on an Apple keyboard. of course nowadays with Snow Leopard or "just" Leopard that's all different. but it still (with a little fancy and curiousity) helped me finding out, how to get to that thing.

in short: System Preferences / Language + Text / Input Sources / Show Input menu in menu bar / Show Keyboard Viewer.
there you play a little with combinations of the shift key, the function key, and just try yourself!

alright, I actually completed this article -- at the cost of letting my SO wait for my call to the gym. sorry for that!

how to copy an Audio-CD nowadays?

My task is to copy an Audio-CD with a language course on it.

I tried to achieve this on my new Mac Book Pro, just with the software, that comes with it. Disk Utility does not seem to support exactly this, it leaves out especially the creation of an image of a CD-ROM. I would though burn a CD-ROM from an image.

Looks like openSuSE's Brasero does not have a problem with this task.

the UNIX hostname--where can you change it on Mac OS X?

My Mac Book's current "hostname" looks really weird. I would rather like to change it.

Update 2013-06-15:
A: in Sharing you can change the computer name.

[[RATHER OLD ARTICLE]] how to remove an app installed through "Installous"

After I had bought my iPhone (on a German "prepaid" card, so: I did pay quite some money for it, and I don't feel like I stole it, and I don't have an expensive monthly tariff on a "postpaid" card), I got somebody to jailbreak it. He installed Cydia, Installous, and "all that".

I the meantime I also installed a few apps from those repositories, but I wasn't able to remove any of them.

Now I found a setting to get apps installed through Installous to appear under my iPhone's Applications on iTunes on my PC. Looks like that is a way to also remove them.

Yes, I read there is an issue with that "AppSync". So be sure, you know, what you do, before you also simply toggle that switch. Your "other apps" might get removed by iTunes next time you sync your iPhone.

I am now stuck in a huge sync, and I will interrupt it, as my SO keeps reminding me through the phone, that we have an appointment in the gym.
At least I do know now, how to get rid of that app, that I didn't find useful. It drives me nuts, if I can't find things like that out in a rather short time.

Oh, just a short extra note, before I leave for the gym: YES, that syncing DID remove a few apps, that I didn't want to get removed. Those were those navigation apps, that the guy thought I should get installed by him for quite some bucks. Well, not to worry, I shall poke him for that soon. Offfffffff for the gym!

Developing iPhone Apps Requires Xcode on the Mac - O'Reilly Broadcast

Developing iPhone Apps Requires Xcode on the Mac - O'Reilly Broadcast

Posted using ShareThis

Could Adobe potentially harm the iPhone AppStore - InsideRIA

Could Adobe potentially harm the iPhone AppStore - InsideRIA Shared via AddThis

my Mac now connects through my UMTS USB modem

I have been using my "XS Stick W12" from 4g-systems.com for almost a year on my EeePC running WinXP and also on my FRITZ!Box 7270.
Now I can also make use of it on my Mac Book Pro. Splendid.
Looks like 4g-systems.com now sell their current model (XS Stick W14) w/o branding and SIM-lock for EUR 100. Not bad, question is, whether the 7270 supports it.

my Mac now prints on the colour laser printer attached to the FRITZ!Box router

The Samsung CLP-315 gets accessed via "HP JetDirect". Yesterday I wasn't able to set it up as network printer and let it find the driver on Samsung's CD. Today I let Samsung's printer installation routine set up a local printer (which isn't actually installed), but at least the driver got installed somewhere on OS X, and then I could assign the right driver to the network printer configuration. Now I successfully printed my 1st page on my very own Mac.
Alright, alright, I admit it: I vaguely remember already having successfully attached my ex's (i.e. "-1") Mac Mini (which isn't officially hers ...) my FRITZ!Box ..., so I knew it would work sooner or later.
Now this is really a nice CUPS printer set up underneath!!!
I wished my openSuSE-11.1 computers would accept the CLP-315 driver as well!
Until then I only create PDF-s on them and print them via Windows or OS X.

I really love this set up: the laser printer attached via USB to my 7270, acting as a network printer.

AVM's description on how to attach a printer to the 7270 through USB was actually very helpful.

24 hours with son#2 ahead starting at 15:00

Looks like a very good time from Friday afternoon ("start of Shabbat") to Saturday evening with João Gabriel. This time w/o my "significant other", as she was playing a little wild on her computer and me this morning -- needs a little time off, I guess. This way JG gets just his father's full attention, but I think, he will like this and the pizza and watching DVD-s and ... as well.

Actually  if somebody in Berlin invites us for welcoming Princess Shabbat, we will certainly go for it! Any Friday is nice, if you don't read this today.

a completer UNIX on Mac OS X

I find Mac OS X for Unix Geeks very, very helpful. I own the the Tiger paper version, and also the Leopard PDF.
(If you hold an O'Reilly account, and if you register your Leopard paper version of this book by simply entering the right ISBN und My Account, then this month the PDF upgrade costs you only $4.99. Pragmatic Progammers also ask you a question like "what's the 1st word on page 203", which  you can obviously also answer correctly, if you sit in the coffee corner of your book store with your computer on your lap. But you are an honest book owner, aren't you?)

Download fink from sourceforge! This opens a wide realm of extra UNIX utility to you. A very nice installer and repository!!

Tell fink to install emacs22-carbon for you! Yes, there is also a carbon native version of emacs. There is also an an emacs23-app (this is a carbon version!!) in the unstable area of the repository, but you don't want to start your UNIX life on OS X with unstable utilities, as I do, do you?!?

MacPorts is another nice installer and repository, that you may want to get hold on.

an X-Windows GNU emacs on Mac OS X

Is there any such beast?
The emacs, that comes with Leopard's X11 optional package, seems to be an alphanum only one.
To be continued ...

how to press an HTML accesskey in Firefox on a Mac

Well, it took me a while to finally and simply express my web-search as short as this: "mac firefox accesskey". The results aren't really of a kind, that I want to refer you to any single particular of them. And in short: on the Mac you press the ctrl key together with the particular accesskey.

I am just one of these traditional mouse haters, I know how to type with 10 fingers, and I type quite fast, and I don't want to keep moving my right hand from the keyboard to the mouse resp. touch pad and back. That's why I appreciate accesskeys. And I love using them on Linux, Windows and on Mac OS X.

iPhone: "unlocked", "jailbreaking", Cydia, ...

What a pity, Apple attempts to make it impossible, to add whatever software the owner of an iPhone wants to add to his gadget! And they also don't allow me, to select the cheapiest carrier for phone calls and Internet traffic. I mean, I am seriously willing to pay a proper amount for that gadget, not that I am simply a thief. I do want to honour, that they provided us a very, very nice gadget.

A lot of useful information is actually descibed in the wikipedia article on the iPhone:

... "Jailbreaking" allows users to install apps not available on the App Store or modify basic functionality. SIM unlocking allows the iPhone to be used on a different carrier's network. ...

So, there are iPhones locked to the SIM-card, they were sold with, and there are ones, that are not locked to such a SIM-card. Apparently in Italy iPhones are available (October 2009), that are sold without such a SIM-lock. Obviously those pieces are also available sooner or later in Italy's neighbouring countries.
But there are also descriptions on the web, that show you, how to unlock your iPhone. Maybe those descriptions do not work for you and your current (latest) software on your iPhone.


Right now (2009-10-15) I am thinking about getting me such an Italian 3GS 36G thingie.

You do want to know about alternative installers and application repositories: read the article on Cydia, the application on wikipedia!
Afterwards you want to know, what Installous is ...

iPhone address book Group info blanked again

I love "categorising" the contacts in my address books, in iPhone "speak": keeping them in Groups. I installed a utility, that can do that, it's called Grouper. But occasionally the all the Group details, that I entered get entirely reset. Actually the Group names still get listed, but all the Groups are left empty. I think, for the time being, I will not use that again on the iPhone.

started my first Portuguese language course

The text book Falar ... Ler ... Escrever ..., we are using, is from EPU.com.br. We are just 3 students. We met through Deutsch-Brasilianische Gesellschaft. Our lovely teacher's name is Rita. If you are also interested in learning Brazilian Portuguese in Berlin with Rita, contact me and I shall make you acquainted!

must-have downloads for the iPhone

this is actually just a little note for myself after reading the above blog entry.

what I selected for myself from that list are "best apps for taking photos", as the built in camera app is a little to simple of course:

• $0.99 for "Camera Zoom"
• $2.99 Pano
• FREE Postino

there is another list of camera and imaging apps on the o'Reilly web site dedicated to the iPhone.

the best (and maybe only) app for running (yes, just "running") seems to be

• $9.99 RunKeeper Pro

I am not sure I need the latter one, maybe a Windows app would do the job just as well and with a more convenient keyboard, I mean a real keyboard.

twitter for dummies

part 1 and part 2

tweet sheet

a nice litte PDF to print on paper, cut it out, and have it close to your device.

upgrading pidgin from SF.net instead of from openSuSE repositories

... is a real pain. 2.6.2 instead of 2.5.1 look worth it, esp. because the latter keeps on crashing shortly after start-up, but I removed it now altogether and will only use it on WinXP for the time being.

yes!!! Luta Livre tonight!!! uuuuuh!!!

my iPhone twitter app: tweetie

I selected tweetie as my app, because it is quite outstanding in the comparison table on 12 Twitter Apps for the iPhone. It's quote important to me, that it is multi-account.

BTW: my twitter home page -- just in case ...

me on twitter

Jochen started tweeting ... -- yes, maybe that's not really, what the world was keeping its breath for ;-) but I thought, I give it a try.

No, I certainly don't want to have get SMSs at whatever time, I rather prefer a PC or iPhone multi-account application.

the Latin word "vindicare" and its descendants like "revanche" and "vengeance"

I was recently communicating with "somebody" on a revanche-seeking person, and "somebody" was creating the German word vingativ from the Portuguese word vingativo.

It actually took me a moment to find out, what it really means and where it derives from. Initially I had not clue at all, to be honest.

The English wiktionary entry on revanche did not help at all, but the French one on vengeance and the Portuguese on vingar did. They both refer to the Latin vindicare (which is actually a pretty empty entry), but that word in fact means going to justice (maybe somebody wants to replace this English phrase).

So that word made quite a way from going to justice to do-it-yourself justice, didn't it? What dou you think?

I trust Tagged

There has been some news today that NY's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will sue Tagged for doing bad things like identity theft.

I do care about my informational identy and privacy, but I frankly want to tell everybody, I have got not worries WRT this and Tagged.

the english hazard vs the portuguese azar

both the english word hazard and the portuguese word azar sounded so similar to me, when I first heard that word used by my Love, so that I considered them to mean the same. that's incorrect, as I had to find out very soon, when we looked up the dictionaries on Sunday evening. what a time for looking up dictionaries? but what else would adults do beyond 23:00 on Sunday evenings?

but me being a little strongheaded I finally found out, that both words go back to the same root, which is the arab word “az-zahr” resp. “al-zahr” meaning “the dice”. weird, isn't it?!? same root, opposite meanings. wow.

Asus developing Android netbook

This is the kind of news I enjoy reading: Asus developing Android netbook.

bash version 4.0 released

After all these years bash finally got associative arrays implemented: bash version 4.0 got announced.

Needless to mention, that bash is my favourite shell, has been for almost 20 years now. I once had a period, when I used buggy zsh for scripts, where I was tempted to use associative arrays, because zsh introduced them long before I came across zsh.

Kurt Cagle's article "Tech Nomads"

Perhaps you consider yourself to be a tech nomad, perhaps your friend is one, you will find this article worth reading.

a weekend away from Berlin

The customer's project (the little lightweight green car) is a little delayed, and the boss wanted a few guys including me, to spend some time on Saturday on fixing a few problems and adding a few minimal features.

The customer's site is 400km away from Berlin, the family (version 2) is actually currently traveling in Brazil, so I spend the weekend in that fabulous town in Western Germany, facebooking, office working, listening to Frank Sinatra's music, shopping, working out in the gym, chatting with Rolf, ...

Actually, that music is copyright-cleared, I think, so if anyone is interested in it, I can put the MP3-s on a disk attached to my router, and you can download it from there.

My friends know how to contact me, and I am quite willing to give away the appropriate URL.

Can you imagine, that Frank Sinatra's music is quite in conflict with pidgin, the instant messenger?
Well, both of them use harp chords, So I keep wondering, who is entering and/or leaving ...