Home → Archives → by month → May 2002
Oh what a perfect day
Life can be so sweet.
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Heise entlässt Mitarbeiter
"Der mittelständische Heise-Verlag, der als einer der florierenden Unternehmen der Branche galt, greift zu einschneidenden Maßnahmen. Im Zeitschriftenbereich werden 13 Mitarbeiter entlassen, sieben davon kommen aus der Redaktion. Die Heise-Tochter eMedia kündigt zwei Mitarbeitern. Personaleinsparungen seien notwendig geworden, um die Handlungsfähigkeit zu erhalten, auch wenn der Verlag noch schwarze Zahlen schreibe, hieß es in einer eilig anberaumten Mitarbeiterversammlung.
Begründet wird der Schritt mit der Anzeigenflaute, die inbesondere das Flaggschiff "c't" beutelt. Es seien keine konkreten Anzeichen für eine Belebung des Anzeigengeschäfts zu sehen. Zur Zeit finden die Personalgespräche statt." Das berichtet Werben und Verkaufen (deren Meldungen leider nicht alle Permalinks zu haben scheinen, so auch diese).
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Netscape 7 PR 1 released
Netscape 7 PR 1 is released, but I could not care less and will stick to Mozilla.
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Postkartenweisheit
Aufdruck einer Geburtstagskarte: "Haiko. Althochdeutscher Name. Einfriedung und herrschen.
Er denkt fortschrittlich und genießt das Leben. Häufig wenden sich Menschen mit Problemen an ihn. Er redet nicht viel und hat eine starke Persönlichkeit. Er ist ehrlich, höflich und besitzt sehr viel Lebensweisheit."
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Google, we love you
Just have a look at their new Technology Playground. Via Heiko Hebig.
UPDATE
Thanks to Heiko, this news was delivered before both Slashdot and Heise posted it, that is, before it got slashdotted and under Heise-DoS-attack. Nice.
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0format humor
Not only U.S. media would print empty pages these days if someone stole the words "terror" and "terrorism". 0format came up with this nice CNN defacement today.
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May 13, 1822
In twelve days I shall be nineteen years old; which I count a miserable thing. Has any other educated person lived so many years and lost so many days? I do not say acquired so little for by an ease of thought & certain looseness of mind I have perhaps been the subject of as many ideas as many of mine age. But mine approaching maturity is attended with a goading sense of emptiness & wasted capacity; with the conviction that vanity has been content to admire the little circle of natural accomplishments, and has travelled again & again the narrow round, instead of adding sedulously the gems of knowledge to their number. Too tired and too indolent to travel up the mountain path which leads to good learning, to wisdom & fame, I must be satisfied with beholding with an envious eye the laborious journey & final success of my fellows, remaining stationary myself, until my inferiors & juniors have reached & outgone me. And how long is this to last? How long shall I hold the little acclivity which four or six years ago I flattered myself was enviable, but which has become contemptible now? It is a child’s place & if I hold it longer I may quite as well resume the bauble & rattle, grow old with a baby’s red jockey on my grey head & a picturebook in my hand, instead of Plato and Newton. Well, and I am he who nourished brilliant visions of future grandeur which may well appear presumptuous & foolish now. My infant imagination was idolatrous of glory, & thought itself no mean pretender to the honours of those who stood highest in the community, and dared even to contend for fame with those who are hallowed by time & the approbation of ages. It was a little merit to concieve such animating hopes, and afforded some poor prospect of the possibility of their fulfilment. This hope was fed & fanned by the occasional lofty communications which were vouchsafed to me with the Muses’ Heaven and which have at intervals made me the organ of remarkable sentiments & feelings which were far above my ordinary train. And with this lingering earnest of better hope (I refer to this fine exhilaration which now & then quickens my clay) shall I resign every aspiration to belong to that family of giant minds which live on earth many ages & rule the world when their bones are slumbering, no matter, whether under a pyramid or a primrose? No I will yet a little while entertain the Angel.
Look next from the history of my intellect to the history of my heart. A blank, my lord. I have not the kind affections of a pigeon. Ungenerous & selfish, cautious & cold, I yet wish to be romantic. Have not sufficient feeling to speak a natural hearty welcome to a friend or stranger and yet send abroad wishes & fancies of a friendship with a man I never knew. There is not in the whole wide Universe of God (my relations to Himself I do not understand) one being to whom I am attached with warm & entire devotion—not a being to whom I have joined fate or weal or wo, not one whose interests I have nearly & dearly at heart; and this I say at the most susceptible age of man.
Perhaps at the distance of a score of years, if I then inhabit this world, or still more, if I do not, these will appear frightful confessions; they may or may not; it is a true picture of a barren & desolate soul.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from ‘Emerson in His Journals’, selected and edited by Joel Porte, found at chymes.org
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:: in category Quotes
Pissing Blood: Growing Up Catholic
We added 0format to the Go Away Section located in the right pane and especially like this feature.
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One
As 37 Signals points out, the whole idea of using personas is nothing new:
"Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person - a real person you know, or an imagined person - and write to that one." -John Steinbeck
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Death was the best it could hope for
"So I can't really feel too sad for poor old dead Napster. Death was the best it could hope for now. Dead, its name can remain synonymous with revolutions; had it lived, its name would have been synonymous with crap. "
Finally: Napster appears to be dead. The CEO has stepped down and employees have been offered a choice of severance or unpaid leave. Via BoingBoing.
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5950 Milliarden Dollar Miese - W in der Schuldenfalle
In Washington findet derzeit ein unterhaltsames Spektakel statt: Der Bush-Regierung droht die Zahlungsunfähigkeit, und die Demokraten im Kongress schauen eiskalt zu. Der Präsident soll seine Wahlkampfversprechen essen - genau wie einst sein Vater.
Spätestens am Donnerstag wird die Gesamtverschuldung der öffentlichen Hand die gesetzliche Obergrenze von 5950 Milliarden Dollar überschreiten - und das nur zwei Jahre nachdem unter Demokrat Clinton Schulden tatsächlich abgebaut wurden und man einen ausgeglichenen Staatshaushalt feiern konnte.
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Nato und Russland beerdigen Kalten Krieg
Der Spiegel berichtet, daß ein Abkommen des Bündnisses mit Russland Moskau bei wichtigen Themen wie beispielsweise der Terrorbekämpfung ein volles Mitspracherecht zubilligen soll . Bundesaußenminister Joschka Fischer sagte bei dem Treffen: "Wir stehen vor einer historischen Chance." Und sein britischer Kollege Jack Straw meinte: "Das ist die Beerdigung des Kalten Krieges". Und das alles in Reykjavík, der Stadt, in der Michael Gorbatschov und Ronald Reagan 1986 ihren historischen Gipfel hielten.
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Apple introduces OS X server
This looks like a smart move, especially as it comes with an unlimited client version of OS X Server and as it employs standard Ultra ATA/100 7200rpm drives (up to 120 GB, up to 4 drives per unit, 4 independent busses). Compared to standard SCSI-based W2k-servers, both could lead to a significant improvement in cost efficiency (and peak performance, as far as the drives are concerned). Site has two very nice and comprehensive PDF data sheets and the Mac OS X Server Admin Guide for download.
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Blog update
The Add edit link to each post trick is really useful. The MT Search has an even nicer feature for this, which however would need a hack to work outside the search engine, while the trick shown here is employed within one minute.
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Ein Sonntag im Mai
Jüdische Siedler planten Anschlag auf Mädchenschule Die Bombe - ein Anhänger mit Sprengstoff, Gasflaschen und Benzinfässern - sollte morgens um 7.35 Uhr zünden, als sich 1500 Mädchen auf dem Schulhof befanden. Nur durch Zufall - und offenbar in letzter Minute - vereitelte die israelische Polizei einen Terrorangriff radikaler jüdischer Siedler auf eine palästinensische Mädchenschule.
USA entwickeln genetisch veränderte biologische Angriffswaffen
Journalisten spazieren vier Stunden mit bombentauglichen Material durch den Berliner Reichstag
Hoffnung?
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Sisyphus to fix all known security flaws
Good news for Sisyphus, the ancient King of Corinth sentenced to an eternity of pointless labor for cheating Death: He's moving to a new job. At a press conference in San Jose yesterday, it was announced that Sisyphus will soon be responsible for fixing all known security flaws in the software industry. Via vowe.
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What CSS is for
Scott Andrew illustrates a common misunderstanding about CSS: CSS is for separating structure, not content, from presentation. Saying it is for separating content from presentation is, if not downright wrong, at least an oversimplication:
"Markup is meant to give meaningful structure to content. The content can come from a database or text files; the structure from page templates, a CMS or XSL transformation. Keeping your content free of meaningless structural elements allows you to pour your content into another structure suitable for different devices. CSS allows you to apply client-appropriate and easily-varied visual style to that structured output, without having to alter your markup."
UPDATE
Also read this follow-up, where Scott tells about the display:block property.
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Intellectual prostitutes
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
John Swinton, 1880
John Swinton, the then preeminent New York journalist and Chief of Staff at the New York Times, was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying the above.
Show/hide German translation
"Bis zum heutigen Tag gibt es so etwas wie eine unabhängige Presse in der Weltgeschichte nicht. Sie wissen es und ich weiß es.
Es gibt niemanden unter Ihnen, der es wagt, seine ehrliche Meinung zu schreiben, und wenn er es tut, weiß er im Voraus, dass sie nicht im Druck erscheint. Ich werde jede Woche dafür bezahlt, meine ehrliche Meinung aus der Zeitung herauszuhalten, bei der ich angestellt bin. Andere von Ihnen werden ähnlich bezahlt für ähnliche Dinge, und jeder von Ihnen, der so dumm wäre, seine ehrliche Meinung zu schreiben, stünde sofort auf der Straße und müsste sich nach einem neuen Job umsehen. Wenn ich meine ehrliche Meinung in einer Ausgabe meiner Zeitung veröffentlichen würde, wäre ich meine Stellung innerhalb von 24 Stunden los.
Es ist das Geschäft der Journalisten, die Wahrheit zu zerstören, unumwunden zu lügen, zu pervertieren, zu verleumden, die Füße des Mammon zu lecken und das Land zu verkaufen für ihr tägliches Brot. Sie wissen es und ich weiß, was es für eine Verrücktheit ist, auf eine unabhängige Presse anzustoßen.
Wir sind die Werkzeuge und Vasallen der reichen Männer hinter der Szene. Wir sind die Hampelmänner, sie ziehen die Strippen und wir tanzen. Unsere Talente, unser Fähigkeiten und unser ganzes Leben sind Eigentum anderer Menschen. Wir sind intellektuelle Prostituierte."
John Swinton, 1880
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:: in category Quotes
Währungskrise in Sicht
Eine neue Währungs-Krise könnte schon bald die Ersparnisse von Millionen Menschen ruinieren. Misswirtschaft und verantwortungslose Manager drohen das zweitwichtigste Zahlungsmittel der Welt zu entwerten. Nein, die Rede ist nicht vom Euro - sondern von Vielfliegermeilen, berichtet der Spiegel
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Being a "Yes (Wo)Man" Is No Good
says megnut in her O'Reilly column The Sanctity of Elements, or Why You Shouldn't be Double-clicking in a Textarea. Learn what to do if your client wants a scrappy user interface.
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Paessler IE Booster
"IE Booster is a freeware collection of tools that extend the context menu of the web browser MS Internet Explorer (version 5 and up) for Windows" - and finally a useful collection, that is. Recommended for developers. Their other tools look pretty nice, too, but are payware.
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adflip.com
adflip.com is the "world's largest archrive of classic print ads"
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DHJ61 off/air
DHJ61 Marinefernmeldeschule Flensburg-Muerwik nahm nach 100 Jahren Betrieb Abschied (QRG 8443,5 kHz):
cq cq cq / naws naws naws de dhj61 dhj61 is r ii 051500 z may fm german naval signal school to all listeners = unclas mfrs 020 / mfms last msg op albert =
nach vielen jahrzehnten ausbildung in maritimen uebertragungsverfahren beendet dhj61 diese taetigkeit nun fuer immer. somit ist dies das unwiederruflich letzte telegraphiesignal von diesem historischen ort. wir wuenschen allen seeleuten in alle zukunft mast und schotbruch und immer eine handbreit wasser unterm kiel =
cq cq cq / naws naws naws de dhj61 dhj61 is r ii 051500 z may fm german naval signal school to all listeners = unclas mfrs 020 / mfms last msg op albert =
after many decades of naval communications and signal training dhj61 will close down now, ceasing all kinds of emissions from this qth. so you can hear now the defintely last telegraph signal from this historical point. as we conclude we wish the maritime community fair winds and following seas in all future =
de dhj61 op albert + + +
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Photoshop Tennis
"It's a pretty simple idea really. One player emails a photoshop document to the other containing a single layer. Each player progressively adds a layer until the match is over, either by time, withdrawal or mutual consent. A guest adds comments in real time and the people watching vote for a winner."
See the original version at coudal partners inc and the Underground version at jimformation.com.
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ieSpell
ieSpell is a spell checker for Internet Explorer. Those of you into spell checkers might like it.
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Movable Type 2.11 is out
Time to upgrade. Noteworthy: improved export mechanism, Google API hook added in MTGoogleSearch.
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1st of May - UPDATE
Yesterday: Mayday, Tag der Arbeit, Walpurgisnacht, riots in Berlin, Hamburg. Let's face it, noone stands up and sings The Internationale any more. Well, why should they?. Meanwhile, socialist art sees a revival as an IT marketing instrument. However, all you're looking at here is an aesthetic trend, CISCO says. In other news: one month of hebig.org weblog.
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