Need!

(They don’t call me The Don for nothing.)

For reasons unknown, there seems to be great interest in an old (2003-09-19) screenshot, at least according to my error log. Well, the original image was deleted, but if want to see it that badly… (The original image URL now directs to this site in case you’re wondering.)

I’m sorry, I can’t credit the original authors of the theme and the background, since it’s too way back to remember. But if any of this is yours, please let me know.

As for the technical details, this is Windows 98 with Litestep. Litestep.net is an alternate shell for Windows, which allows you to change the look and feel of Windows. There are a lot of other Windows shell replacements out there, that allow customization and more. My own experiences are a bit… rusted, since I mainly use Linux and KDE these days, so I can’t give any recommendations for current Windows versions. But I’m sure you’ll find something you like in case you’re interested.

Als ich gestern Morgen auf den Parkplatz gefahren bin, ist mir besonders deutlich aufgefallen, was man seit Wochen mit zunehmender Verbreitung auf den Straßen sieht und was seit der letzten WM scheinbar Tradition geworden ist: Die Autos mit Objekten in den Deutschlandfarben (vor allem, aber nicht ausschließlich: Deutschlandflaggen) zu schmücken.

Wieder einmal befindet sich das Land im Taumel von Schwarz-Rot-Gold, wieder einmal geht die Euphorie durch das Land, wieder werden es Leute toll finden, wieder werden Leute was dagegen haben und wieder einmal wird es auch die geben, die den Unterschied zwischen den (für Normalbürger verbotenen Dienst-)Flaggen mit Bundesschild und den (inoffiziellen, daher geduldeten) mit Bundeswappen nicht kennen.

Und zwischen all der Freude und den Massenbesäufnissen public viewings öffentlichen Bildschirmdarbietungen breitet er sich wieder aus, der Nationalstolz. Der Patriotismus den unser Land nötig hat und den es auch verdient hat. Denn es ist schön wenn der Sport verbindet. Aber so lange es nicht hetzerisch oder kriegerisch gegen andere geht, sollten wir das öfters haben. Nationalstolz ist nämlich nichts böses.

Ich nehme das mal zum Anlass, um einen Artikel aus meinem alten, toten Blog auszugraben (was ich noch ein paar mal machen werde), der sich mit diesem Thema anlässlich der WM 2006 beschäftigt hat.

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For a net citizen like me, who wants to keep track of many sites, but has limited time (or is just lazy), the next best thing to sliced bread are RSS feeds. You don’t have to visit every site every other day to see if there’s something new posted. A program on your computer (your browser or a specific one) or a website (Bloglines for example (try the beta)) does this for you and you just get the results.

Now, what do you do, if you are only interested in a few specific items that appear in a particular feed? Well, you could ignore the unimportant posts, mark them read unread or delete them. That’s what one usually does. But there has to be another way. Some sites, like this one, offer a variety of different feeds for every category and tag. It’s easy to pick the topics one is interested in. And for the others? Well, there’s Yahoo Pipes.

With pipes you can do a lot of things. For example you can filter a feed for different search terms. You could also combine several feeds into one. Or build both functions into a whole pipeline, that filters the feeds of many sites and combines the results into a single feed. And after you’re done with that you can just put that through a translator to get the informations in your language.

And those are just examples with feeds. You can also use it to actively filter sites like internet auctions for special items or price ranges. Or manage your whole social networking life via a single pipe. And thanks to a growing API trend on the web you’ll be able to do a lot more over time.

So anyone who is actively using the web should check Pipes out. It’s really helpful.

Wo wir es doch grade von Alice hatten. Es gibt da ja noch diesen kleinen Provider mit dem hübschen Luder (mit dem es angeblich so viele “machen”), mit dem außer Brad Pitt fast jeder Probleme hat (dem Provider, nicht dem Luder). Selbst scheint es dort auch an der Sprache zu hapern. Laut Fernsehwerbung kann man bei denen nämlich mit 16 Tausend Kilobits surfen.

Mhm, klasse. Die Dudens, welche vielen Kilogramms wiegen, müssen bei denen auch Kilometers weit weg liegen, um im Falle der mehreren Kilotonnens schweren Explosion, wenn die Routers hochgehen, sicher zu sein.

Speaking of 3D and learning. A few days ago I discoverd Alice, a 3D programming environment. Basically it’s a tool that let’s you create/program animations and simple games via an easy GUI, without having to worry about syntax and typing errors. Meaning the student/learner can concentrate on learning the basics of programing or tell a story, rather than search for a missing semicolon. According to some numbers the site casts around, it is improving the learning curve extremely. Definitely worth looking at for anyone from a hobby programmer to a CS major.

I’d love to hear if anyone already used it and can share their thoughts. I already gave the link to our CS department and am considering to let our trainees work with it.

Watched Big Buck Bunny this weekend, the recently finished Project Peach movie by the Blender Institute. Of course, made with Blender. (Not to be mixed up with the Total Blender (weak pun intended).) I really enjoyed it, very fun to watch. And of course also great from the visual aspect. Go watch it, you won’t regret it! Or even better, buy the DVD.

And in case you don’t already know it, you might also want to check out the first open movie the institute made. It’s called Elephants Dream (Project Orange) and the story is… well, not your average kind of story. More like the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, even though much more enjoyable thanks to the eye candy.

Coming up from the institute is Project Apricot. Not a movie this time, but a game based on BBB, in collaboration with the Crystal Space Game Engine.

These projects are all great. They not only show nice results, but also lead to huge improvements of the open source software and show the work process/pipeline to anyone who is interested in the topic. Anyone working with 3D, movies, games and open source should pay attention to the projects, regardless if you use the software or not. One can learn very much from there.

Hey, took me only two weeks to get used to my new SSO password at work. Have been using the old one for over two years and was typing without thinking… something that’s hard to get rid of.

We went to the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull preview a week ago. Good thing is, they didn’t fsck it up. Even better is, I really enjoyed it. Good movie. Just the end wasn’t that thrilling. Missing some tension, some action, some story, some content… or maybe it just had too much X Files in it. Probably a mixture. Aside that, a very nice sequel.

But iirc, they stated to do this movie old style, with only a minimum of CGI. So, why do I see so much that came out of a computer? Heck, the first thing they showed wasn’t real (and if it was, give PETA a call). Sure, it’s not as bad as with many other movies. But one shouldn’t brag about something they won’t do.
Just my two cents. Not that I care, as long as I enjoy the flick.

Now, a funny thing came along afterwards. Some Russian Communist Party members want to ban the movie, ’cause it’s anti-Soviet propaganda that distorts history. They are afraid that the teenagers, who are not aware of what happened in 1957, might believe the Soviets were chasing after crystal skulls. So they not only think that their kids missed a few history lessons, but also imply that the modern russian teenager is just frickin’ stupid and can’t distinguish obvious fiction from fact. Better tell them that the world did not get run over by aliens, like in various movies. Hey, we Germans should sue Hollywood as well, since our youth might believe Nazi Germany has been hunting down whip-wielding archeologists in search for a golden box filled with dust or the ancient goblet of a mere carpenter. And better call New-Delhi and give them a hint where they can find the Sankara Stones, which help them solve all problems.

And as a final related thing, I got myself a fedora. Not the wool-made official one, which isn’t more than a non-authentic gimmik, but a real fur fedora. I wonder why all the other movie-goers were eyeing me at the preview. Anyway, I’m considering to become a regular hat wearer. If it just weren’t ruining my hairdo…

I stumbled over the material for the last post after stumbling over The 9 Manliest Names in the World.

It’s been resting in my session tabs for so long, I can’t even begin to imagine how it got there. Great site, though. But why am I not on the list above? At least my middle name means young/strong warrior… and the first can be interpreted as hopebringer (”oiltree planter” and oiltree being a sign of hope), so this basically makes me a Paladin… oh right.. that’s why I’m not on the list. Have to figure out what my last name means someday, maybe it makes it up.