… as we know it… more or less. You know, it’s hard to keep track with all the world ending scenarios out there. And we get so many new one’s all the time. Anyone remember the Y2k crisis? I still wonder how we survived that. Well, for anyone who can’t get enough of the end of the world, check out The 5 Most Kick-Ass Apocalyptic Prophecies. I’d prefer a mix of lava, sun-eating wolves and sting-the-crap-out-of-everybody scorpions. Though, I’m amazed by the accuracy of the Hopi.

Of course, if that is a bit far-fetched for you, you might prefer 5 Kick-Ass Sci-Fi Apocalypses (That Could Actually Happen). How ’bout we discover a giant asteroid that could put humankind on the list of endangered non-space-traveling species, send a fleet of robots to take care of if, which happen to be/become sentinent (and hate us) and make sure the asteroid hits us good. Of course we are prepared for something like that as well, but the asteroid carries an unknown virus, which causes deathly mutations. While scientists search for a cure, they unleash a terrible monster/whatsoever.

There you have it. One or the other way, we’re doomed. Better get the old family suicide knife ready, to escape the horror.

While playing around with my subversion repository it occured to me. If “female” is a branch (codename: Eva) of the “male” trunk (codename: Adam)… but was never merged back… “male” must be the latest stable version of the project human.

This unstable version status of the female branch sure explains a lot. Oh sure, it is somewhat more advanced. The GUI for example. Looks way better than the stable male version, I’d never touch some parts of that. But this is also the first problem. For some uses, it’s more difficult to handle, hard to find all the buttons and sometimes they work better or worse than other times or even trigger a totally different event. Then there are better sensors. Being able to tell the difference between 20 different kinds of yellow is surely an advanced feature. And they are able to fork child processes. Okay, this feature is a bit buggy, since the forks don’t share a common memory with the other processes. Inheritance doesn’t work very well, too. You you still have to pass on some arguments during runtime to make it a working process. Heck, they can’t even handle buffer overflow at start. But that’s another topic. Speaking of arguments… don’t try. This feature has a messed up configuration. ‘Nuff said ’bout that. Like most developer versions, it’s output is set to verbose mode. If you don’t watch it, the data might cause your disc or memory to overflow/crash. Unfortunally this is hard to filter. Most times you try this, it gets even worse. But the females own logs are quite detailed. The branch version can recall events which are years back. Obviously these many features need a lot more resources. Especially a large set of themes to customize. The boot part alone can fill many racks. So be sure you are able to support upgrades for your female.

Overall you have to be careful with the unstable female version. While it has some great features and is really fun to handle… it might blow up in your face now and then…

Oh, this is something new. Comment spam is getting a little more creative. Now it insults people and is posted with more than just one line. If they’d just use less obvious mail addresses, website urls and use a few words from the context to make it seem like it would be actually on topic, one might almost fall for them.

Uwe Boll will stop making (crappy) (game derivated) (horror) movies (like Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, Dungeon Siege, etc) if 1.000.000 (one million) sign against it.

So, by all means, please sign the petition! I’m already scared of the AitD sequel…

While we’re at it, can we stop the movie industry from raping good old shows and movies? Magnum P.I. for a quite recent example… McConaughey? What, was Jim Carrey busy?

Let’s say your walking down the platform at the train station to the farther end of the train and you wonder if you can make it there before the train leaves.

My approach: I see a service wagon in front of train. It’s about to change tracks to make way. Adding some time for resetting the switch and the formalities, I assume I still have 1-2 minutes left.

Better approach: Turn the view about 5° from the current focus to the big clock, which is also at the end of the plattform and find out you still have 6 minutes before departure.

Why do I always instinctively choose the indirect way of doing things?

Laut einer Mail, die mir heute gestern ins Postfach geflattert ist, liegt eine Nachricht aus meiner Nachbarschaft bei einem Internetportal rum. Eine Nachricht für mich? Aus meiner Nachbarschaft? War der Weg bis zu meiner Tür oder dem Briefkasten zu weit? Oder ist das die neue Zustellmethode der Post, um einen Alternativplan für die Streikzeiten zu haben? Aber da mich die Mail mit meinem vollständigen Namen angesprochen hat, wurde ich neugierig und öffnete den Link in meinem abgesicherten Browser.

Begrüßt wurde ich auf Nachbarschaft24.net (nicht hinsurfen, nur als Hinweis) mit einem nahezu komplett ausgefüllten Anmeldeformular. Name, Adresse, alles da, bis auf das Geburtsdatum und das Häkchen für die Absegnung der AGBs. Dazu der Hinweis, das eine ganze Nachricht auf mich wartet.

Da ich glücklicherweise nicht so blöd bin wie ich aussehe und mich gelegentlich verhalte, vermied ich es das Formular abzuschicken. Mal abgesehen davon, dass es generell mehr als suspekt ist, sprechen zwei Zitate der Webseite dagegen.
“Durch die Absendung der vollständigen Registrierungsdaten gibt der Nutzer ein Angebot zu einem kostenpflichtigen Vertragsabschluss mit nachbarschaft24.net ab. Der Anbieter nimmt dieses Vertragsangebot des Nutzers an, indem er diesem eine Registrierungsbestätigung per E-Mail übermittelt, damit ist der Vertrag zustande gekommen.”
Was richtig teuer wären, denn:
“[...]melde dich jetzt an und teste unsere Community vierzehn Tage kostenlos. Danach fällt ein 9 Euro Monatsbeitrag an. Die Mitgliedsdauer ist auf zwei Jahre aus- gelegt.[...]“
Dazu noch eine Firma aus Dubai? Alles andere als vertrauenswürdig.

Ein Blick ins Internet zeigt, dass ich nicht der Einzige bin, der Nachbarn hat, die den unpersönlichen Kontakt bevorzugen. Ich bin jetzt mal gespannt ob da noch was nachkommt, denn zuzutrauen ist es derartigen Vereinen ja. Aber ich sehe die Sache gelassen. Nur dass die meine Adresse haben stört mich. Also weniger die Tatsache an sich, als die Frage woher. Wenn ich mal ausschließe, dass die einen Bot haben, der systematisch Adressen aus Impressen liest, bedeutet das wohl, dass eine der Seiten denen ich im vollsten Vertrauen meine Adresse genannt habe (sehr selten), diese einfach weitergegeben hat. Datenschutz anyone?

Wie dem auch sei. Falls ihr ähnliches erlebt habt und sich das womöglich zu einem Problem entwickelt hat, habe ich einen Link für euch. Computerbetrug.de hat dafür eine sehr gute Zusammenfassung zum Thema Kostenfalle veröffentlicht. Auf der Seite finden sich natürlich auch noch weitergehende Informationen für alle, die es genauer wissen wollen.

My “new” car is in the shop quite often these days. There is a small problem with the engine not running smoothly and they can’t figure out what it is (did already cost me quite a sum). That reminded me, that there’s a new car I want to have (not as badly as a 1969 Ford Mustang Shelby Fastback of course).

A complete electric car, the Tesla Roadster.

Now that the dollar is down, that would be a real bargain. A fully configured version would cost me € 68.188,28 ($107,775). Anyone got some spare grand? A bit more would help, so I can bribe some people to get an approval for road service.

The only thing this car is missing would be a flux capacitor.

Anti Warlock Guide

I lol’ed .

This week so far had two major down setbacks. Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, as well as Joseph Weizenbaum (hard to find a decent article n English, but if you understand German, please read about it on Heise), computerpioneer, computercritic and mostly renowned for creation of the ELIZA bot, both died this week.

Rest in peace guys. You did so much and will be greatly missed.

Now that’s a strange title you might think. In German it’s called “Feinstaubplakette”. Some time ago, particle pollution through fine particles (Feinstaub) became the new media hype to alert and thrill the masses. Fine particles where everywhere and of course everyone was suffering. And while the discussion of the subject ain’t new, some rules are.

We now have emission stickers in Germany, that classify cars based on the particle pollution they produce. Some areas (mostly metropolitan) were declared Green Zones and you may not drive in(to) a zone, if your car doesn’t wear the correct sticker. The classification depends on the engine type, filters and all that stuff. Sounds difficult, but I must say it was really hard to find cars that wear a sticker that ain’t the highest classification. Tonight in Stuttgart was the first time I saw one. Yes, the rules have been watered down to almost nothing. Even the old car of my mother, which wouldn’t get a sticker last year without modification, can get one now without breaking a sweat. And in case you still wouldn’t get one, there are exceptions for oldtimers and cars you own long enough (so you don’t have to afford a new one).

It’s kind of a bouncer thing. You’re ugly, you don’t get in. But if you’re old, it’s okay to be ugly. And if you’ve been ugly all your life, that’s cool, too. Only if you recently got ugly and can’t make enough excuses, then maybe… only maybe, you will not be let in. Ah, but what the heck, just step on it and they’ll try to make a rule to justify it.

Funny how concepts that are based on good ideas can go down. But while we’re at it, I’d like to suggest something to make life on and near the streets more enjoyable. Based on the bouncer, try a Good Looks Sticker. No more ugly cars on the street.
“Try washing your car for a change, junky.”
“Fiat Multipla? Fsck no!”
“You painted your 1967 Mustang GT500 Shelby Fastback… pink?!? Die and go to hell!!!” *bang bang bang* (Seriously, saw a photo of that… as if millions of big blocks suddenly cried out in terror…)