Whahahaa… nice. The EFF (electronic frontier foundation) has filed a request at the DMCA to allow jailbreaking of Apple’s iPhone. Users must be able to install any software they wish.. not just the software apple approves of.
Just this week apple removed any voice-based application from the App Storeto protect their exclusive deal with AT&T because it “duplicates features that come with the iPhone”. This just proves the necessity of people having the right to install any software they want.
Soooo Apple had to respond to the DMCA why jailbreaking would be bad…. well.. hold on tight.. according to Apple the iPhone is not just a phone… it’s a weapon of mass-disruption. I call “FUD“
Mayday… Mayday… the vehicle that tried to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty & doubt) in the open unix community is going down… The demise of SCO is neigh… Many times investors have tried to keep the warship afloat but this time it’s going down for good.
Groklaw has a nice article on it… Chapter 7 may be the last chapter of SCO.
Oh this is very nice. I just came across this geek hack that plays the Super Mario tune using the stepper motor of a laser cutter. Now they actually use both axis. One for the tune the other for the bass parts. A truly amazing hack found through hackday.com. Even the ruby source code is available through the link.
Mijn goede collega Harry stuurde onderstaande foto van het display van zijn onboard navigatie systeem voorzien van een logisch analyse.
Dat is nog een eens Pech op de Weg !
Omtrek van de aarde is +/- 42000 KM
Dus….
Ik moet nog ongeveer 100 keer een rondje rond de aarde en dan kom ik tussen Laren en de Vechtbrug in een file van 8 KM en….
er is geen alternatieve route.
Today I talked about how cool it would be if you could have all your books on an ebook reader with my friends Karel and Bas. It’s definitely something that we would love to have. Amazon just released the Kindle 2 ebook reader. However that would require you to carry around another device. But if you are the lucky owner of an Apple iPhone you can get the Kindle reader for free on your iPhone. Matthew Miller wrote a nice article on this and has some beautiful screenshots. This seems pretty useable but unfortunately the iPhone will drain its power while on a Kindle only a page change requires power. Here’s a nice video of the Kindle 2 and the Kindle software on the iPhone…
It seems the ‘home computer’ of the old days is making a comeback. Asus is pushing its EEE line of small embedded computers. After the EEE netbook they also released an EEE desktop computer. The new product in line is an EEE media player, presented at CES 2009. A computer integrated into a keyboard (like the homecomputers of way back when) but this model also features a small display.
Har har har… you might think the IT industry at large may have learned a small lesson from the millennium bug (Y2K bug). Well most professionals probably did but Microsoft still manages to screw up bigtime. In this case the Zune 30GB version has a leap-year bug. It will not start up properly due to the bug. Fortunately there is a fix at hand… Just let it run out of battery capacity. Recharge the battery and start it after noon GMT and your Zune will be fine. You got to love those Microsoft products.
With the Zune you get the full Microsoft experience. Think of continues thrill and exitement the Zune is offering you… is it going to work or will it blow up in my face? It’s like rebooting after a blue screen of death… you’ll never know whether your system will successfully restart or not. Microsoft gives just that little more excitement…
Being an IT guy I’ve lived many years with the assumption that computer users are idiots. However I always put the blame on myself and put some extra effort in making some programs fool-proof (which is hard: no matter how smart you are… there is always a fool who does the unimaginable). Now I finally can stop the charade of improving programs beyond the level of reason. An experiment with pop-ups has clearly proven that computer users are idiots. Even a pop-up with the message “You are about to install Malware. Malware is bad. By reading this warning through the end and still clicking ‘Yes’ you’re failing the Windows Darwin Test..” did not prevent the user to click on the yes button. Mind you: the test subjects are college students… Here’s the full article.
Elvis leeft! Er zijn veel mensen die altijd al dachten dat de dood van Elvis Presley in scene was gezet en dat blijkt nu waar te zijn. Elvis leeft en heeft een Nederlands paspoort. Althans dat heeft de onderzoeker Jeroen van Beek aangetoond. De chip die gebruikt wordt in de Europese paspoorten is gekraakt (zie OV-chipkaart).
Now here’s a nice video in which some German hackers explain how they analyzed and hacked the Mifare chip that is about to be used in the chipcard for Dutch public transportation. Although each chip has a unique ID the Germans show how they can alter the key so it card behaves as another card with another unique ID. So the ID can’t be changed but using the key a card can be cloned. They will publish full details somewhere next year. As they say it: “start migrating now”. Video is about one hour.
Today I came across a small article that mentioned that the Data Loss Database is taken over and will be maintained by the Open Security Foundation. Ignorant as I am I didn’t even knew there was such a database. It holds all known cases of data loss world wide. Take a look at that and see how many cases are reported. Once again the only question that comes to mind is: when will we ever learn?
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), has been known for his controversial and sometimes radical statements. So in many cases I don’t (fully) agree with Richard but in this article I like the gest of his article regarding proprietary software and the stranglehold it keeps on its users.
In the article Stallman calls copying software for neighbours a neighbourly thing to do. I feel that if the software is targeted at home users (with acceptable pricing) you should not copy the software. License a copy for a few bucks. However when software is targeted for business-use I don’t think home users should have to pay up. If I were Microsoft, only business/professional use of MS Office would require a license. Home use of MS Office would be free. Does Microsoft really believe that an eight year old who writes a letter to grandma should pay hunderds of dollars for an office license? I don’t think this is very realistic. I would like to see a business plan that projects expected revenue from eight year olds writing letters to grandma. Get out of here!
SPAM is bad. We all get unsolicited email every now and then. I’m not really bothered by it. Most of the spam is caught automatically and every day i get around 4 or 5 spam messages. That’s acceptable. Now a new form of SPAM is winning ground: SPIT (SPAM over Internet Telephony). You only encounter SPAM when you open your mailbox. SPAM that arrives in the middle of the night will not wake you up… with SPIT this is different… so the anti-SPIT wars has started.
So prepare for some restless nights, the good thing is that you can order viagra at bargain discount rates. I hope they sell sleeping pills as well.
Zojuist op slashdot gelezen dat men in Zweden een primeurtje heeft. Men heeft een nieuwe techniek gebruikt om van 60.000 gewone foto’s een 3D model te maken van de stad Stockholm. Een beetje wat Google Earth ook doet maar die gebruiken laser-meet techniek om hoogten te bepalen. Het model van Stockholm is in acht (!) dagen gemaakt inclusief het maken van de foto’s. Hoe lang het geduurd heeft om de software te ontwikkelen is onbekend. Je kunt hier de stad betreden. Zware Java-applet waarschuwing voor diegene die daar alergisch voor zijn. Even het vinkje aanklikken en op de knop drukken en de applet toont Stockholm. Vooral bij uitvergroten zie je wel wat vervorming hier en daar. De techniek is niet zo goed als van Google Earth maar het is een enorme prestatie om uit gewone foto’s zo’n model te genereren. Petje af!
Ik heb het geluk gehad om eens een weekje in Stockholm geweest te zijn. De stad bestaat uit een aantal eilanden, door wegen verbonden. Het eiland in het midden is de oude stad (“Gamla Stan”). Dit is het startpunt van de applet. De oude stad vind je in zuidwaardse richting. Helaas krijg je geen ‘mouse over’ informatie. Je kunt ook het Vasa museum zien (een donker gebouw bij de droogdokken dat lijkt op een groot zeilschip). Hier conserveren ze de resten van een oud oorlogsschip dat slechts enkele tientallen meters gevaren heeft bij de tewater lating en kapseizde. De boot is in de kleiachtige substantie van de bodem gezonken en opmerkelijk goed geconserveerd gebleven voor een houten boot.
Ja kijkbuisvriendjes, de feniks is geland. Het gaat hier natuurlijk niet over Harry Potter maar over de nieuwe mars missie van de Nasa. De Phoenix lander is op de noordelijke ijskap van Mars geland. Het doel is om te boren in (en onder) het ijs in de hoop daar sporen van (vergaan) leven te vinden.
Uiteraard is er de officiële website waarop ook foto’s gepubliceerd worden die gemaakt zijn door de lander. De signalen doen er 15 minuten over om van Mars terug naar de Aarde te komen. Maar dan heb je ook wat:
Now here’s a nice video in which some German hackers explain how they analyzed and hacked the Mifare chip that is about to be used in the chipcard for Dutch public transportation. Although each chip has a unique ID the Germans show how they can alter the key so it card behaves as another card with another unique ID. So the ID can’t be changed but using the key a card can be cloned. They will publish full details somewhere next year. As they say it: “start migrating now”. Video is about one hour.