text:
More snow: 2,300 cancellations since Tuesday, Detroit flights resume
Old Man Winter isn't done creating headaches for air travelers.
Another storm has snarled flights across the Midwest, coming just days after an earlier storm caused thousands of flight cancellations from the Great Plains into the Northeast.
Airlines are waiving change fees for several airports in the path of the latest storm, dubbed "Winter Storm Indra" by The Weather Channel.
Nationwide, more than 820 flights had been canceled Wednesday and another 5,250 delayed, flight-tracking firm FlightAware counted as of 10 p.m. ET. Wednesday's problems are on top of another 1,500 cancellations reported on Tuesday.
The hardest-hit airport from the latest storm was Detroit, which halted all flights late Tuesday because of icy conditions. The airport said shortly after 10 a.m. ET that flights had resumed. Still, travelers should expect lingering delays and cancellations there.
Local report:Detroit Metro Airport closed due to winter weather
So far Wednesday, a combined 275 arrivals and departures had been canceled at Detroit. That accounted for close to 20 percent of the entire day's schedule, by FlightAware's count. A similar number of cancellations were reported there on Tuesday.
Detroit is a major hub for Delta Air Lines, which was waiving change fees for customers ticketed to fly through the airport on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Storm-related problems weren't confined to Detroit.
More than 130 combined arrivals and departures were grounded at Chicago O'Hare, representing about 5 percent of the daily schedule there. O'Hare is a hub for both American and United, and each were waiving rebooking fees.
Smaller airports seeing a spike in cancellations Wednesday included Lexington, Kentucky; Moline/Quad City, Illinois; and South Bend, Indiana.
The storm was expected to move east Wednesday into Thursday, though most of the big cities along the East Coast were forecast to get rain rather than snow.
Still, flyers traveling through the region should keep an eye open for delays and cancellations, which could still climb Wednesday as the storm continues to move eastward.
Residual problems also remained possible on Wednesday for airports that were hit hard on Tuesday.
At Chicago O'Hare, about 770 combined arrivals and departures -- or about 1 out of every 3 flights – were canceled Tuesday, according to FlightAware. About 20 percent of Tuesday's schedule was canceled at Boston and about 15 percent at Chicago Midway.
Several big airlines – including American, Delta, United, Southwest and Frontier – had fee waivers in place that covered at least some of the airports being affected by the storms.
Details varied by carrier, but – with some fine print – they allowed eligible flyers to make one change to their itineraries without paying a recalculated fare or change fees that typically cost $200 and up. Southwest does not charge change fees, but its waivers allow one change at the previously booked fare.
IN PICTURES: 33 cool aviation photos


text:
11 October 2018
The Joint Learning Program (JLP), In-country Implementation and Measuring Progress of Financial Inclusion, wraps up after a series of technical presentations by senior executives of BoT, stakeholders from development organizations, private sector and government entities, field visit, intense group breakouts and knowledge exchange sessions.
"We promised to work hard to offer you our success stories so that you can share many more success stories and welcome you to Tanzania for another JLP," said Dr. Bernard Y. Kibesse, Deputy Governor of Financial Stability and congratulated the participants on their dedication and cooperation.
Hosted by Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the JLP showcased the experience of Tanzania in the development of their second National Financial Inclusion Framework (NFIF), planned for 2018-2022, after successfully implementing the first NFIF (2014-2016).
34 participants, representing 27 AFI member institutions from 25 countries actively participated in the JLP and learnt the strategic approach undertaken by the Tanzanian authorities to establish the second phase of their financial inclusion framework.
"I congratulate Tanzania for the work done in NFIS, I truly believe that the way they have coordinated and involved stakeholders played a pretty huge role, making it an example to follow," said a participant.
Tanzania's financial inclusion has evolved from 58 percent in 2013 to 65 percent of the adult population — a feat that is highly commendable by participants. A high proportion of the increase is a result of digital financial services that reduced the use of alternative means of saving and financing.
Throughout the week , participants shared and learned from each other's country experiences including effective monitoring and evaluating during different states of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) implementation, and the relevance of structuring the leadership and coordination for a successful implementation, taking into account the institutional context of each country. Different models of coordination and leadership were discussed using the experience from Tanzania.
"I consider this JLP is successful because BoT shared not only their successes but their journey which was full of challenges. It is in the challenges that the learnings are and thanks to BoT to sharing those details. This, I think is the core of a 'joint learning' where we learn from the lessons of others and thus move faster to achieve goals of financial inclusion," said Madhurantika Moulick, Head of AFI Capacity Building.
To give participants a deeper understanding into the implementation and the way forward, BoT shared their journey in the enhancement and strong evolution of the national payment system including different aspects of regulatory implementation, technical innovation — and institutional transformation including the financial services providers across the last ten years.
"I have learnt the need to develop a concept paper. This will serve as a guide in developing a national strategy — and more importantly, the steps to be taken in drafting the national financial inclusion strategy and the key thematic areas that need to be recognized. These sessions are really relevant in both development and implementation of the national financial inclusion strategy," one of the participants commented.
Participants discussed with some of the public and private sector actors about the evolution of mobile financial services, banking agents and the financial innovation led by the FinTech, and the aim of closing the gender gap by enabling different policies fostering women financial inclusion.
"The [national] strategy is about setting a clear objective guided by a vision … and about transformation and choice, and while transforming to approach that vision we need also the participation of different views and inclusiveness," expressed Charles Assey, Advisor Strategic Management, BoT.
With the growing demand from members on in-country implementation of NFIS, the JLP was designed to focused mostly on the "how" of the NFIS. Sessions were designed to bring out the practical aspects of NFIS that participants can take forward and implement within their own institutions.
Feedback received from a participant stated that "the sessions enhanced my knowledge on the development and implementation of National Financial Inclusion Strategies, and the link between financial inclusion with SDGs and national socio-economic plans."
© Alliance for Financial Inclusion 2009-2023

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Arktel, the Planet Only Children Could Save is a modern parable for children who wonder what the future holds for them. Two children from the planet Arktel witness from their father's spacecraft the destruction of a neighbouring planet that results from the greed and short-sightedness of its rulers. They return home and mobilise the children of Arktel to make sure that this cannot happen to their beautiful globe and its plants and animals. Of course, the people making money from the death and destruction don't like that idea much.
Prince is a vegan, activist and author from the Northern Rivers area in New South Wales, Australia. Her story is set on an alien planet to illustrate the universal message that unity and determination can solve serious problems. The kids on Arktel don't just rely on adults - they go out and take action themselves to fix environmental issues, just as the kids of planet Earth will need to do. The issues include pollution, overpopulation and, of course, animal agriculture, which, as one of them says "is using up more raw materials such as land and water, than all the other industries put together." The children's first step, therefore, is getting everyone to eat plant-based foods. True on Arktel and true on Earth.
This is an entertaining story for all ages. Its large print makes it ideal for beginning readers but it's equally suitable for reading to younger children. It has engaging characters, heroes and villains and even a burgeoning romance between two of the main characters. At the end, the children of Earth make an appearance, but we'll leave their role in the story for you to discover.
Prince's story is delightfully illustrated by Linda True-Arrow and has a foreword by Indian politician and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi (daughter of Gandhi). It is a story that not only addresses the problems that kids see every day on the news but also gives them some hope and inspires them to take action. As Paul Watson (of Sea Shepherd) says on the back cover "When I read a children's book I look for one virtue .... that virtue is empowerment."
Capt. Paul Watson
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977 - )
Co-Founder - Greenpeace
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director for Greenpeace (1972-1977)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director of the Farley Mowat Institute
Working Partner with the Ecuadorian National Environmental Police and the Galapagos National Park
In Top Twenty Environmental Heroes of the 20th Century by Time Magazine 2000
UK newspaper The Independent selects Watson as one of the planet's top ten eco-warriors.


text:
In a continued effort to demonstrate transparency in the wake of calls for significant police reform in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the Culver City Police Department (CCPD) has added arrest initiation data to its monthly reports. The data is presented in graphs, and shows arrest distributions by race and crime based on whether the arrest was a police initiated incident or a community initiated incident.
Community initiated arrests are defined as ones where police officers are responding to a 911 call, while police initiated arrests are done by police on routine patrol.
According to the reports, the ratio of community to police initiated arrests has flipped over the past two years, with a 51.5% police initiated arrest rate in 2019 but a 44.1% rate in 2020. There was a notably higher rate of community initiated arrests being of black people, which came in at 42.1% (458 of 1088) of community initiated arrests in 2019, as compared to 25.3% (292 of 1153) of police initiated arrests. A similar ratio exists in 2020, but it is not nearly as pronounced, with 35.4% (195 of 551) of community initiated arrests being arrests of black people, while just 29.5% (128 of 434) of police initiated arrests were African American.
Another ratio that flipped was the percentage of Hispanic arrests that were police versus community initiated. 2019 saw 33.2% (361 of 1088) of community initiated arrests targeting Hispanics, while 38% (438 of 1153) of police initiated arrests that year were of Hispanics. That flipped in 2020, where 40.3% (222 of 551) of the community initiated arrests targeted Hispanics, while they only made up 35.5% (154 of 434) of police initiated arrests in 2020.
However, possibly the most interesting and striking difference is the arrests of white people. Only 17.9% (195 of 1088) community initiated arrests were of white people, but they made up for 31.7% (365 of 1153) of police initiated arrests. This difference held true in 2020, with 17.2% (95 of 551) community initiated arrests being of white people, and 30.2% (131 of 434) of police initiated arrests of the same.
Crime demographics based on arrest initiation were also interesting in that they were almost entirely separate. While there were some small overlaps, such as DUI arrests, ID theft, and warrant arrests, the majority of categories are different.
Police initiated arrests were dominated by narcotics cases, accounting for 46% (728 of 1597) of these arrests in 2019 and 2020, while arrests for drivers who are unlicensed or have an expired license making up 12.6% (200 of 1597) of these arrests. A category of 'other' crimes, which include grand theft auto, forgery, receiving stolen property, and vandalism, accounted for 14.3% (227 of 1597) of community initiated arrests
On the other hand, a big chunk of the community initiated arrests — 34.5% (561 of 1639) of them — are related to theft, both grand and petty. The rest of the crimes are generally evenly distributed, with seven other specific crimes falling from 5.3% (86 of 1639) to 8.7% (141 of 1639) of the arrests. Those seven crimes are: DUI, ID theft, public intoxication, arrest warrants, burglaries, robberies, and assault/battery.
'Other crimes,' which in this case includes violation of restraining orders, disturbing the peace, vehicle tampering, hit and run, and animal cruelty, make up 12.7% (207 of 1639) of the crimes.


text:
In the present article, Sebastian Euringer publishes the Ethiopic text of an anaphora attributed to Ephphanius, the Bishop of Cyprus. Euringer accompanies the text with a German translation and a textual apparatus including variant readings from the manuscripts containing the text. In his introduction to the text, Euringer discusses the manuscripts used in the production of the collated text and briefly introduces the unique features of this anaphora of Ephiphanius.
Sebastian Euringer


text:
Define an X-TrackbackVersion header to communicate the version of the Trackback spec
It should be possible for a trackback implementation to implement both the original and the new trackback spec. The X-TrackbackVersion header would allow the client to specify which spec the ping conforms to. The header must be used for all implementations of the new spec. Older implementations either won't have the header or will specify X-TrackbackVersion: 1.0, making it clear which version of the spec is being used.
Create Section 2.x: The X-TrackbackVersion HTTP Request Header
The X-TrackbackVersion HTTP Request Header tells the server which version of the Trackback specification the Ping conforms to. The version number for this Trackback protocol specification is "2.0". Client implementations of this specification MUST include the X-TrackbackVersion HTTP header with all Pings.
POST /trackback-url HTTP/1.1 Host: example.org X-TrackbackVersion: 2.0 ...
Backwards compatibility with previous TrackBack implementations.


text:
VisionGain Capital Limited was established in 2008. We position ourselves as an asset management company that serves financial institutions and high-net-worth individuals. We are licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong ("SFC") to conduct Advising on Securities (Type 4) and Asset Management (Type 9) regulated activities.The RMB venture capital fund and fund manager is also filed at Asset Management Association of China.
Our investment team has rich international experience, and high-standard work ethics. In addition, the team has deep understanding of Chinese economics and enterprises. VisionGain has efficient and reliable investment and settlement platform as well as strict risk management and internal control system.


text:
Soften snow swelters
beneath my snow shoed feet,
as sun glistens then stirs
each brisk February season.
It's a time of sharing hearts,
of throwing kisses in the wind,
as length of days chatter
my drowsy woodland awakens.
Icicles drip, drip, drip rhythmic
tapping upon snow, echoes the
woodpecker a symphony of sounds
down lazy land, pastoral paths.
I still my stride in hopes of more
a robin, a bumblebee, a violet;
but only red tailed fox sneaks
across my winter wonderland.
It is said, February thaw melts a
frozen heart which beats for spring;
perhaps, the earth itself groans
then chills for a bit longer
all waiting in "time out" thinking
about its care endowed to each;
hearts blown in by spring breezes
grateful to gather thawed crocus.
Poem inspired by: https://earthweal.com/2021/02/01/seasonal-changes-1-imbolc/
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;Genesis 1:14


text:
September 2002
Installing Notes 6
by Volker Weber
I am in the process of installing Notes and Domino 6. Playing it safely I first uninstalled the beta and did a fresh install of the release code. Don't want to run into trouble with maintenance updates later. Nice surprise: There was a last minute visual change. Notes has new icons. Gotta keep something yellow. The old ones were to blue anyway. :-)
One hour later ... Done. Servers and clients. Keeping my fingers crossed ...
Bäuerliche Satelliten, digitale Knechte
by Markus Nolte
Der Überblick über die Futterwiesen kommt aus dem All, der über die Viehbestände mit Hilfe des Bauern-PDA "FarmHand": Australiens Landwirte setzen auf Hightech, um sich das harte Leben leichter zu machen.
Google Unveils Mid-Market Search Appliance
The most significant change for corporations, however, is the addition of functionality for searching secure content. The appliance now enables users to search secure information protected by basic authentication or Microsoft NTLM, the authentication protocol used on networks that include systems running versions of Windows NT earlier than Windows 2000, and on stand-alone systems. All documents from protected web servers are kept within the physical appliance, and users performing searches only see documents to which they have access authorization in the search results.
Notes and Domino 6 available for download
by Volker Weber
The code went gold last week and is available for download now on Partnerworld. Should be out for the public real soon now. Thanks to Ingo for blowing the whistle.
And you think you had a bad day at work
by Volker Weber
Das Internet kommt zu mir
by Volker Weber
Kai Pahl: Gestern meinte jemand via AIM zu mir: "Bist du schon wieder im Internet unterwegs?"
Eine Verkennung des "Paradigmenwechsels" der stattgefunden hat, seitdem ich auch zuhause eine Flatrate habe. Ich bin nicht mehr im Internet unterwegs. Ich bin im Internet da.
Andere müssen ihren Rechner erst einschalten, hochfahren, Browser anschmeissen, eMail-Programm starten und dann Internetverbindung herstellen. Dann können sie sich im Netz bewegen. Viel Aufwand, denn man ergo nur dann betreibt, wenn man ein Ziel bzw. ein Grund hat.
Ich bin dagegen quasi permanent online. Auf dem PowerBook laufen permanent bestimmte Automatismen ab. Nein, ich bin nicht den ganzen Tag im Internet unterwegs. Das Internet kommt zu mir.
The Mollusk and Calvin Smiley Guide
by Volker Weber
You think you know what all those smiley faces mean. You still should not miss the mollusk and calvin smiley guide!
Radio not online
by Volker Weber
Alexis Smirnov: "I'm puzzled why Dave and Co still have not implemented the obvious functionality of being able to access weblog editing UI directly from http://radio.weblogs.com?" Paresh Suthar: "Amen to that!"
I am puzzled why so many people use the client-based Radio Userland, instead of a wonderful server-based content management system like Movable Type. No need to worry about where your files are, whether you have ftp access, how to backup your stuff. Post from everywhere, let other contribute to your weblog.
If you use Radio, please tell me why. I don't get it.
Light sabres galore
by Volker Weber
Deutsche Hacker lassen Paris leuchten
by Oliver Tunnat
Nach der Blinkenlights-Installation, die aus einem Hochhaus in Berlin ein riesiges Display machte, ist jetzt die französische Hauptstadt dran. Illuminiert wird die Nationalbibliothek.
by Oliver Tunnat
Wer als Unternehmen eine Website betreibt, kommt ohne Redaktionssystem nicht aus. Doch die Wahl eines Content-Management-Systems ist schwierig. Ein Experten-Interview mit Oliver Zschau, Chefredakteur von Contentmanager.de. Das Angebot katalogisiert und gewichtet derzeit über 800 Content-Management-Systeme und gilt als eine der führenden deutschen Websites zum Thema.
Lotusphere 2003
Mark your calendar and make plans to attend Lotusphere 2003 -- the 10th annual conference on Lotus software technologies and solutions!
Domino 6 to gain WebSphere muscle
by Volker Weber
Fulfilling promises made earlier this year, IBM on Wednesday will announce plans to bundle its WebSphere application server software with forthcoming versions of Lotus Domino 6, which will be formally introduced next week.
The move is designed to open the Domino platform to the world of Web services and J2EE, and to expose the Domino platform to WebSphere application developers.
"We are trying to proactively and progressively guide our installed based towards the richer set of Web services and J2EE-based applications, as well as continue to open up Domino to people who are writing J2EE-based apps today," said Ken Bisconti, vice president of messaging solutions at IBM Lotus Software, in Cambridge, Mass.
Foot photos
by Volker Weber
WebSphere Studio 5 Opens Its Doors for Developers
Version 5 of WebSphere Studio Application Developer and WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer are now available (via PassPort Advantage) for migration, development and testing of applications targeting WebSphere Application Server V4.0.3 and WebSphere Application Server V5.0 (Beta). In addition, WebSphere Studio Enterprise Developer V5.0 supports integrated development of z/OS based CICS, IMS and batch applications.
by Volker Weber
Three Corporate Lessons
by Volker Weber
So, we will be going through change. Here's three lessons from large corporations to help you survive change….
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?"
The crow answered: "Sure, why not."
All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit... and ate it.
Moral of the story is: To be sitting and doing nothing you must be sitting very, very high up.
A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."
"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients."
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree. The next day, after eating more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fortnight, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who promptly shot the turkey out of the tree.
Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realise how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.
A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him!
The morals of this story are:
1) Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy.
2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
3) And when you're in deep shit, keep your mouth shut
Zeldman: OSX Blues II
by Volker Weber
After losing another 48 hours to the perplexing misbehavior of OS X 10.2.1 Jaguar, we find that it is unusable on our dual processor G4 and we will have to content ourselves with OS 9 until we buy our next Mac.
We gave it our best shot. Dropped wads of dough on OS X compatible software upgrades. Spent hours tinkering with preferences, moving files and folders, downloading and configuring OS X browsers and other applications, and learning the ins and outs of window and file management under the new OS.
We updated DragThing, Euroda, Transmit, Fetch, Mozilla 1.1, Netscape 7, Tex-Edit Plus, Typeit4Me, PageSpinner, and Photoshop 7. We installed Chimera (lovely) and Opera 5 for OS X (needs work). Created keyboard macros and custom shortcuts. We learned to appreciate Column Views, Dock popups, and other OS X niceties. Began to think today was the day we'd start working excusively in Apple's new operating system.
We nearly made it.
Then, like outnumbered combatants, one application after another began unexpectedly quitting. Poof, poof, poof. Down went Photoshop, DragThing, Mozilla, Transmit.
Ray: Software Platform Dynamics
by Volker Weber
Many of us gray-haired people who have worked in the software industry for decades have independently developed conceptual frameworks for how the platform business operates. Patterns began to emerge in the very early IBM mainframe era, and have been further developed by most every platform vendor since.
Given the level of interest, I thought that I'd share with you a document, entitled "Software Platform Dynamics", that I've used in the past to help associates get up to speed with the nature of the software platform business. It's a fairly dense collection of thoughts gathered over many years; I hope that it serves to further the discussion...
Linux is not about free software, it is about community
by Volker Weber
Although Microsoft cannot compete against Linux on price, the company will use its community of professionals to outsmart the open-source movement, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer told an audience of Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) in London on Monday.
"Linux is a serious competitor," said Ballmer. "We have to compete with free software, on value, but in a smart way. We cannot price at zero, so we need to justify our posture and pricing. Linux isn't going to go away--our job is to provide a better product in the marketplace."
He acknowledged there was more to Linux than free software--the main benefit of the open-source movement was the community developing software and sharing ideas. "Linux is not about free software, it is about community," he said. "It's not like Novell, it isn't going to run out of money--it started off bankrupt, in a way."
Ballmer is right. It is all about community. And the community is pissed with Microsoft. That's what you need to turn around. No need to beat anybody.
Kodak Pro DCS-14n, 14 megapixel full-frame CMOS
by Volker Weber
Kodak has announced the new 14 megapixel DCS-14n. This new digital SLR is even more remarkable for its capture device, a 13.89 megapixel full-frame (36 x 24 mm) CMOS sensor. The magnesium-alloy body is built around a Nikon F100/F80, has a built-in portrait grip and is notably smaller than any previous Kodak DCS D-SLR. The camera is powered by a Lithium-Ion battery, takes Compact Flash (Type I/II) and SD/MMC storage, supports JPEG-ERI (higher dynamic range JPEG) and also features an orientation sensor. The camera should be available in December with an expected street price of US$4,000.
Training wheels for KPMG web designers
by Volker Weber
Zeldmann: As we hinted in yesterday's Report, today's MeyerWeb includes a fixed version of KPMG that works as well in Mozilla and Opera as it does in IE. Eric Meyer made the fixes on his own initiative in about 150 minutes, merely to prove that the makers of the KPMG site do not have to exclude non-IE browser users, and he is making his fixes available to the site's owners free of charge.
by Volker Weber
What should I put on the fence?
by John Keys
What do you do, if someone puts up a notice, prohibiting you from chaining your bike to the fence at work?
Set up a web site about it, of course...
The fence in question is in front of a brick wall in London (that's the UK - not Ontario). Behind the brick wall are three or four flats. We are talking London W1, right in the centre of town, so when on the market they are no doubt expensive. There are rubbish bins behind the fence.
Lotus Discovery Server 2.0: Deployment, Planning, and Integration
by Volker Weber
The Lotus Discovery Server is a knowledge server. It provides search and expertise location solutions designed to ensure that the relevant knowledge and collective experience of an organization is readily available to help individuals and teams solve everyday business problems.
In this IBM Redbook we give an in depth discussion of the architecture and capabilities of the newest release of the Discovery Server - Discovery Server 2.0. We discuss the key aspects involved in planning for the deployment of this product, from both organizational and technical viewpoints.
We also discuss: the key elements of a solid infrastructure design to ensure scalability and reliability, development and maintenance of an enterprise taxonomy, integration of Discovery Server into your existing environment and applications, usage of the Discovery Server API toolkit, and ongoing Discovery Server maintenance.
This book is appropriate for both technologists, and project managers, involved with Lotus Discovery Server related projects.
SPIGGL Online
by Volker Weber
Gut gemacht. Mal gespannt, wie lange es online bleibt.
Ray Ozzie Interview in eWeek
by Volker Weber
eWeek: Groove announced three servers last year. Does this mean that more logic will be put on the server and less on the client, and does it mean that you were wrong about the server not being necessary?
Ozzie: [...] The Relay Server has always been a piece of the architecture because otherwise you'd have no way to work offline. Relay Server, Enterprise Integration Server and Enterprise Management Server—those originated about the same time. [...] The fourth server, which we haven't talked a lot about, is an audit server. It's key to pharmaceutical and financial services users because it maintains a verifiable audit history of what people on those clients are doing, for regulatory reasons. The audit server will be in 2003: tested in the first half of the year, gold later in the year.
eWeek: What about a Web services server?
Ozzie: That's another one. We're calling it Web Services Access Point. Consistent with the Groove philosophy, there's no applications logic on it. The Groove client is where the applications live. Each application is called a tool set and exposes Web services on the client. The Web Services Access Point is told by the clients where they are. That is going into beta in the fourth quarter [of this year].
eWeek: Some critics say collaboration software ought to use a browser interface.
Ozzie: The browser interface is the best answer for universal access to transaction systems and applications. But it's not the way to work with other people. People work offline, they use their laptops, they go home, they work on planes and in hotel rooms, where there is not high bandwidth. You need to pick the right architecture for the problem you're trying to solve.
Groove Partner Briefing 2002
by Volker Weber
Jeroen Bekkers is on his way home to Rotterdam. Before he left, he put some pictures up on his website. This one from Plum Island Beach near Newburyport is my favorite. :-) Also, take a look at his desktop wallpaper.
Microsoft Application Analyzer for Lotus Notes
by Volker Weber
Microsoft: Learn about your Lotus Notes applications with this non-invasive analysis tool. The tool has two modules:
* Data Collector. Use this module to compile raw data about your Lotus Notes applications and to view an executive summary report. The Data Collector does not collect any actual data from within the databases or modify the data or databases in any way. It collects usage and structure information only.
* Data Processor. This separate module is only available as a service offering from either a a Microsoft Certified Partner or Microsoft Consulting Services.
Hmmh, let's get this straight. Microsoft gives you a tool that collects data from your Notes apps. You get an Executive (read: dumbed down) summary of that data. If you want the real stuff, you turn that data over to a Microsoft partner, who prepares a sales (read: dumbed down) pitch for your Executive.
Clever scheme.
EU approves IBM buy of PwC Consulting
by Volker Weber
International Business Machines Corp. won permission from the European Commission on Monday to buy PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting for $3.5 billion in cash and stock.
The merger gives IBM, the world's largest supplier of computers and computer services, the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers , the world's largest accounting firm. The combined IBM-PricewaterhouseCoopers will rank a close second to top consultant Accenture Ltd. , formerly Andersen Consulting.
HTTP Tunnel
by Volker Weber
Most corporate networks today are behind firewalls. The purpose of a firewall is to prevent unwanted users from having access to machines within a companies intranet. At the same time they allow people in the intranet to access the internet. Unfortunately due to the way some firewalls are setup, only allow certain applications work. The Answer ?
HTTP-Tunnel allows people behind restrictive firewalls to use previously blocked applications through their firewall.
The functionality of HTTP-Tunnel is an application that runs in your system tray acting as a SOCKS server. Your application sends data to the HTTP-Tunnel client running on your desktop which then tunnels the data over HTTP (Port 80) to one of the state of the art six servers run by HTTP-Tunnel.com This servers then sends the data to the real destination and vice versa. This forwarding mechanism allows people to use any internet application from behind a firewall.
Kindermund tut Wahrheit kund
by Volker Weber
Kinderworte ... manchmal ohne Worte
Beim Schwitzen wird die Haut undicht und das Wasser sickert raus.
Wenn Babys noch ganz klein sind, haben die Mamis sie im Bauch. Da können sie nicht geklaut werden.
Was werden eigentlich Männer im Himmel, wenn die Engel alle Frauen sind?
Ich bin am 27. Juli geboren. Komisch, genau an meinem Geburtstag (!)
Ich habe Locken, Papa hat Locken, Mama hat nur Haare.
Mein Papa ist Wassermann und meine Mutter ist Wasserwaage.
Wenn man Kinder haben will, muss man entweder Sex machen oder heiraten.
Morgens kuschele ich immer mit Mama, da mag ich keine anderen Männer in ihrem Bett.
Heiraten ist gar nicht so schlimm. Ein bisschen Sex, aber sonst geht es.
Wenn ein Mann und eine Frau sich verlieben, lügen sie sich zuerst ein bisschen an, damit sie sich auch füreinander interessieren.
Wenn ich erst mal aus dem Kindergarten raus bin, suche ich mir eine Frau und heirate.
Die Liebe findet einen immer, egal wie gut man sich versteckt.
Schwanger werden ist einfach. Dafür nimmt die Mama so einen Papierstreifen und pinkelt drauf. Das ist alles.
Wenn eine Frau ein Baby bekommt, wird sie Gebärmutter.
Mein kleiner Bruder ist schon abgestillt. Jetzt muss er noch abgeflascht werden.
Ich heirate später mal die Mama. Eine fremde Frau will ich nicht.
Wenn Frauen zuviel Männersamen abbekommen, wachsen Ihnen kleine Bärte.
Mamas und Papas brauchen keine Eltern mehr, deshalb werden die dann Grosseltern.
Bleibt das Wasser auch über Nacht im Meer oder lassen sie es abends ab?
Kühe dürfen nicht schnell laufen, damit sie ihre Milch nicht verschütten.
Regenwürmer können nicht beissen, weil sie vorne und hinten nur Schwanz haben.
Meine Mama kauft nur Eier vom freilaufenden Bauern.
Im Winter legen die Hühner keine Eier, weil ihr Eierloch zufriert.
Im Frühling legen die Hühner Eier und die Bauern Kartoffeln.
Ich brauche keinen Hustensaft, ich kann auch ohne husten.
Einmal war ich so krank da hatte ich 40 Kilo Fieber !
Ein Pfirsich ist wie ein Apfel mit Teppich drauf.
Wenn man kranke Kühe isst, kriegt man ISDN.
Pilze die fliegen, darf man nicht essen, die sind giftig.
Die Fischstäbchen sind schon lange tot. Die können nicht mehr schwimmen.
Ich bin Rosenkohl-Vegetarier.
Am liebsten esse ich Milchreis mit Apfelkompost.
Wenn ich Limo trinke, habe ich danach immer Mund-Pupse.
Für Kartoffelsalat muss man die Kartoffel erst nackt machen.
Die Chinesen essen mit Fischstäbchen.
Mineralwasser ohne Kohlensäure mag ich nicht, das ist mir zu flüssig.
Mama schimpft immer, dass der Haushalt eine Syphilisarbeit ist.
Ich bin zwar nicht getauft, dafür aber geimpft.
Immer soll ich mein Zimmer aufräumen, dabei bin ich als Kind geboren und nicht als Sklave.
Mama cremt ihren Bauch immer mit Öl ein, damit unser Baby später keine Streifen bekommt.
Müssen Mütter auch Gras essen, damit Milch aus den Brüsten kommt ?
Mein Bruder ist erst 3 Jahre alt. Das ist noch ziemlich neu.
[via Anything about]
by Volker Weber
Des sog i da:
Diese Sache möchte ich besonders betonen.
Do wensd ma ned glei obhaust:
Mit dieser Sache möchte ich mich im Moment nicht befassen.
Kon scho sei:
Es spricht einiges dafür, dass ...
So is a wieda ned:
Der Sachverhalt ist komplizierter als er sich darstellt.
Schau ma moi:
Detaillierte Aussagen sind im Moment nicht opportun.
MSWeb: An Enterprise Intranet #1
by Volker Weber
It's nearly impossible to develop a successful information architecture against a backdrop of explosive content growth, content ROT, and the political twists and turns common in any organization. And, we're sorry to say, we don't have the Holy Grail. But we've had the privilege of getting up close to a large number of corporate intranets. And the best approach we've seen so far is that taken by Microsoft's intranet portal (MSWeb) team.
Before you protest, we admit that yes, we understand that you probably don't have the same resources at your disposal as does Microsoft's team. But we think everyone can learn from their efforts; what they're doing today is what most intranets will be doing in three to five years
Eins noch ...
by Volker Weber
Konstantin Klein: Über eine Nachricht des Tages habe ich mich ehrlich gefreut: Christian Ströbele ist eine elende Nervensäge, ein Rechthaber und manchmal sogar (igitt!) ein Gutmensch; aber daß die Menschen in Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg und Prenzlauer Berg ihn direkt in den Bundestag gewählt haben (an aller Listenarithmetik der Berliner Grünen vorbei), geschieht den Glatten in der Politik (wir wissen, wer gemeint ist - und es gibt sie in allen Parteien. In allen.) doch ganz recht.
The Lifecycle of a 'Big Idea'
by Volker Weber
Sally Bean's model of the lifecycle of Big Ideas in business, from her commment on the article 'The first cardinal sin of KM.' I have nothing to add ...
Grün gewinnt, Deutschland verliert
by Volker Weber
Die Wahl ist vorbei und der Ausgang ist ein Desaster.
Der einzige Gewinner sind die Grünen, und das auf ganzer Linie. Das erste Direktmandat und eine Trendumkehr vor dem Abstieg in die Bedeutungslosigkeit. Schröder riecht die Kriegsangst der Deutschen und riskiert einen Streit mit den Amis, um die letzten Punkte zu halten. Die SPD verliert trotzdem, darf aber weiterregieren. Die CDU/CSU gewinnt, jedoch nicht genug, um Schöder abzulösen. Die FDP gewinnt, bleibt aber weit hinter den gesteckten Zielen. Immerhin beweist sie, dass die Deutschen weder völlig verblödet sind, noch sich mit rechtsradikalen Resentiments fangen lassen. Die PDS landet da, wo sie hingehört. Schills und andere Rattenfänger kriechen nicht mal unter ferner liefen.
Die Mehrheit wird für Rot-Grün noch mal schmäler, die Union behält die Mehrheit im Bundestag. Und alles bleibt, wie es ist. Der Wähler hat gesprochen.
Nächste Woche darf der deutsche Michel dann aufwachen, um zu sehen, dass es nicht gut ist. Gar nicht gut.
Microsoft Eats the Dog Food
by Volker Weber
We live in a project world, where project managers and project teams work together to deliver results on time, on budget, on spec, and on the money. Except for one project team that uses all kinds of mistakes, questions, quandaries, and what-ifs to make everyone else's projects run more smoothly: the project team that's creating the next version of Microsoft Project, the software first released in 1990 that's designed to make it easier to live in project world.
Project's general manager, Chris Capossela, says that he uses his own project's thorniest problems, and their solutions, to run better projects everywhere. "We use the old version of Project as we're building the new one," Capossela says. "At Microsoft, we call that 'eating your own dog food,' because it forces us to see what's wrong with our own projects and what's wrong with the software." In fact, in the course of upgrading Project, the project team came across a number of important lessons and improvements that can make any project more likely to succeed.
Härtetest für Softies
by Oliver Tunnat
Weniger Aufträge, weniger Jobs: Die Krise erfasst die erfolgsverwöhnte Softwarebranche. Viele junge Unternehmen leiden, die Platzhirsche profitieren.
Sie waren ein Wachstumsmotor und boten Arbeit satt: Deutschlands Softwareunternehmen. Nur der Fachkräftemangel drohte sie zu bremsen. Deshalb holten sich die starken Softies Verstärkung aus dem Ausland. Mit der Green-Card-Initiative half ihnen sogar der Bundeskanzler dabei. Mehr als 10 000 Spezialisten kamen aus aller Welt ins Land. Insgesamt stieg die Zahl der Softwerker und IT-Experten in Deutschland auf fast 400 000 im vergangenen Jahr.
Bitter für sie: Inzwischen geht es bei vielen Unternehmen nur noch bergab. Die Branche absolviert derzeit den schwersten Härtetest ihrer Geschichte. Der Glaube an grenzenloses Wachstum bröckelt. Erstmals wird in diesem Jahr die Zahl der Beschäftigten in der traditionellen Boombranche schrumpfen. Selbst hoch qualifizierte Experten müssen sich plötzlich nach einem neuen Job umsehen. Dabei waren sie lange Zeit die Stars auf dem Arbeitsmarkt im Lande.
S.P.Q.R. Egregia Dicta
by Volker Weber
Bei Anke Groener gefunden: Eine alphabetisch geordnete Auswahl römischer Spruchweisheit.
Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem!
Betrug bei eBay
by Oliver Tunnat
Etwa 150 Kunden des Internet-Auktionshauses eBay sind durch einen Betrüger um ihre Ware geprellt worden. Das berichtet die Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ). Der Online-Auktionator geht von einem Schaden in Höhe von mindestens 100.000 Euro aus. Inzwischen ermittelt auch das Berliner Landeskriminalamt in dem Fall.
IBM Lotus an der Spitze
by Oliver Tunnat
Laut dem neuen IDC Messaging Report über den Markt für integrierte Collaboration Software rangiert Lotus Notes/Domino mit 49 Prozent Marktanteil jetzt zum sechsten Mal in Folge an erster Stelle.
Genius at work
by Volker Weber
KPMG's website as viewed in Internet Explorer and Mozilla. Who hires these guys?
[via Zeldmann]
by Volker Weber
Wakka is a server-side application written in PHP that allows you to build and maintain collaborative websites. At its core, it's what people call a Wiki engine -- an application that poweres a website with features similar to the original Wiki site. Wakka can also be used as a high-level site building framework, if you're willing to learn about WakkaPlugins.
Wakka is not a content management system. While CMS-like applications can be built upon Wakka as a base, Wakka's real strength is simplicity.
WakkaWikki is written by Hendrik Mans, Wiesbaden, Germany and currently is a 23k download. It is free to use and you can host it on any ISP that supports PHP and MySQL. As I found out on Hendrik's weblog you can also spend hundreds of Euros a year to have somebody else do something very similar for you. If you don't like free stuff, that is.
[via Haiko Hebig]
Being Wireless - why Wi-Fi "lily pads and frogs" will transform the future of telecom
by John Keys
Everything you assumed about telecommunications is about to change. Large wired and wireless telephone companies will be replaced by micro-operators, millions of which can be woven into a global fabric of broadband connectivity
Una recopilación de los mejores fondos de escitoria y salvapantallas
by Volker Weber
What is KM?
by Volker Weber
Knowledge comes alive in an organization when people learn to trust one another and seek out and build upon their capabilities and aspirations -- individually, across functions and with other companies.
— Charles Savage
Knowledge management is an oxymoron and could run the course of a fad. Knowledge innovation is fundamentally sustaining a collaborative advantage for the excellence of an enterprise, the sustainability of a nation's economy and the advancement of society.
— Debra M. Amidon
People do not manage knowledge; knowledge manages people.
— Alvin Toffler
Knowledge management is about the use of computer and communication tools to help people gather and apply their collective data, information, knowledge and wisdom in order to make better, quicker, wiser and more effective decisions.
— Gene Meieran
Knowledge Management is the transformation of knowledge into business—and learning the transformation of information into knowledge.
— Matthias Bellmann
NetworkWorldFusion: Java technology brouhaha not over for Domino users
by Volker Weber
An open source project designed to replace Java technology originally expected to be in the next version of Lotus' Domino collaboration software will not be completed in time - as some users hoped - to coincide with the shipment of Version 6 in two weeks.
However, Lotus later this month plans to release details on how Domino and parent company IBM's WebSphere Application Server will be combined to provide, without additional cost to Domino users, the Java technology that was yanked.
"You will hear something major about integrating Domino with WebSphere," says Ed Brill, senior manager for messaging and collaboration at Lotus. "We will provide a deployable JSP capability in the Domino platform that will come from a bundled version of WebSphere."
He said Lotus is not resurrecting Garnet but would provide a "functionally equivalent" technology. He would not say if the bundle would include the ability to edit and store JSP in Domino, or if there will be a deployment tool to load JSP from Domino to the WebSphere engine.
But Brill said the JSP support would come without additional cost to Lotus users.
notestips.com: The rocky road to R6 and looking forward
by Volker Weber
The R6 release date was announced as the end of Q3 2002, but even at this late stage problems persist. Lotus announced just last week that two large features were being removed from the initial Gold release of 6.0 due to testing failures. It is obvious that this is a product that could do with more development time but it simply doesn't have it.
XML.com: Euro-XML
by Volker Weber
The new European currency, the euro, has a symbol in Unicode 3.2 as character U+20AC. How can we use it with XML?
There are three ways of representing the euro in XML:
- numeric character references,
- character entity references, and
- direct characters.
This article examines these and other more arcane but important ramifications.
Microsoft enters the WLAN market
by Volker Weber
New hardware from Microsoft - that is always good news because they do hardware really well, much better than software. This time it is only relabled Linksys gear. If it sticks to the wall, MS might go in big time with nextgen stuff and finally get it right with try #3.
CVS Version Control for Web Site Projects
by Volker Weber
Version control is a special kind of software used to track and manage changes. In our case, CVS version control is used to track any sort of change made to our web sites, whether it's a single edit of one file to fix a typo, or a series of adjustments to a project where several files, folders, and graphics are added to (or removed from) the site.
In an uncontrolled site where multiple authors have access to edit and contribute, the potential for conflict and problems arises--more so when these authors work from different offices at different times of day and night. You may spend the day improving the file index.html for a customer. After you've made your changes, another developer who works at home after hours, or in another office, may spend the night uploading their own newly revised version of the file index.html, completely overwriting your work with no way to get it back!
With the same site under CVS version control, the late-night author will be alerted to a conflict with the file index.html, presented with the exact parts of the index.html file that are causing a problem, and asked to adjust their work to incorporate anything you added and committed to the site while working on it earlier in the day.
If a customer needs to remove a recently added page or content area for legal reasons--or if they simply prefer an earlier version of their site--CVS can be used to restore the entire site to any previous state of their choosing, rolling back multiple variations and edits by all authors until a satisfactory site can be put back in place.
World, meet Roomba
by John Keys
I have seen the future and it sucks. It also sweeps and removes dust and pieces of dirt. Its name is Roomba. Tomorrow, at roughly 7:00 A.M. eastern time, iRobot, makers of the ill-fated My Real Baby (which was manufactured in partnership with Hasbro) will announce and release what may be the world's first useful and affordable robot. And what, you may ask, does this $199.95 wonder do? It cleans floors, of course.
If this cordless, sub-$200 floor-cleaning robot really works as advertised, Roomba could be the first consumer robot that actually does something (please, Sony, I love the AIBO, but it really doesn't do anything) and is widely adopted by consumers around the world.
Oll Korrekt!
by Volker Weber
Mit Militärstrategien kannte er sich aus - in der englischen Rechtschreibung nicht ganz so. Der deutsche General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1730-1794) kämpfte in den amerikanischen Unabhängigkeitskriegen. Der Legende nach unterzeichnete er Berichte und Meldungen aufgrund mangelnder Ortographiekenntnissen regelmäßig mit "Oll Korrekt" statt "all correct", um sein Einverständnis zu erklären.
Und so soll die heute wohl bekannteste Redewendung der Welt entstanden sein. "Oll Korrekt" wurde abgekürzt zu "O.K." und "O.K." im Laufe der Jahre zu "Okay". Kein Ausdruck wird bis heute in Amerika, Afrika und Europa häufiger verwendet, um Einverständnis zu signalisieren.
Ducks, ducks and more ducks
by Volker Weber
We have a few thousand ducks sitting in the backyard. My neighbor is organizing a Duck Race event next weekend, and we have to keep them until then. Another marketing genius at work. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck or looks like a duck, then it is a duck.
Ducks, ducks and more ducks.
Win a Dell Laptop, Sony Camcorder ...
by Volker Weber
... and lose a few friends by entering their e-mail addresses into a database (*) owned by the marketing gurus at Groove Networks and hosted by Sweepstakes Online.
I don't get it. These people build an application (and a platform) that only works for you, if you convince your friends, partners, and their grandma to also use it. Now, when they download this thing, they need to register. Then they need to activate the product by entering all that information again and finally it goes into the online directory (if you chose to publish that data). Once you installed the application, it will check for updates automatically and tell you when you should be installing new stuff.
If this product is any good, it should ignite a chain reaction, because everybody tells everybody else in order get them on. If it is bad enough, then conventional marketing kicks in. General advertisement is too expensive, weblogs reach only a fraction of the audience, Jon Udell cannot reach everybody else. And Steve Gilmor went out on a limb to declare Notes dead, only to convince the audience that Steve is dead.
Next on the list? Collect e-mail addresses through Sweepstakes and "free" downloads. Stay tuned, the saga continues.
*) Don't forget to read the fine print: Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, Canada (except the province of Quebec) and the United Kingdom age 18 and older.
developerWorks: Develop rock-solid code in PHP
by Volker Weber
The series Develop rock-solid code in PHP is about solving practical, real-life problems in medium- to large-scale applications. In this article, PHP veteran Amol Hatwar discusses how to use variables effectively. He also shows how to make script configuration easy by constructing a configuration file parser using variable variable names in PHP.
In my previous article, I looked at factors that must be considered during planning, designing, and even writing code. In this installment you will dive straight in, get your feet wet with code, and see things in action.
Straw, the GNOME 2 desktop news aggregator
by Volker Weber
Straw is a desktop news aggregator for the GNOME environment. Its aim is to be a faster, easier and more accessible way to read news and blogs than the traditional browser.
News aggregators read news, weblog or other feeds over the web and aggregate them so the news items are readable from a single place, regardless of their source. The data format aggregators utilize to do their job is called RSS, standing either for Really Simple Syndication or RDF Site Summary, depending on who you ask. At the moment, there are two different, incompatible specifications, with different objectives: RSS 0.9x/RSS 2.0 and RSS 1.0. Straw supports both of them.
E-Mail SNAFU
by Volker Weber
This is an example of how someone hitting reply on an e-mail instead of forward can cause problems:
> From: email@example.com
> Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 10:48 AM
> Reply to: firstname.lastname@example.com
> Subject: All time low
> Ok first -- here is the e-mail I received from Tripp, the new guy I met last
> week. If you want to go out, perhaps we can get him to pay for drinks at Park.
> Since we have not slept together, he will of course be trying to impress me
> and will, therefore, do anything I ask. Unlike John, who fell asleep during
> sex last night. I went over to his place last night around 11:30. We started
> having sex. When I noticed his eyes were closed for a little too long, I said
> "John wake up." At which, point he shot up saying "what'd I miss." Yes, I
> think that is a new low.
> Let me know about tonight. I think you need company.
> -----Original Message-----
> Tripp Murray
> To: Mary B firstname.lastname@example.com>;
> cc:
> Sent: 09/05/2002 10:01
> Subject:
> So are you off to the Bon Jovi show tonight in Times Square? Sounds like it is
> going to some turnout. What division of audit are you in for PWC?
> Are you heading out tonight? A friend of mine is leaving for MBA School in
> France so, he is throwing himself a going away party at Park, ever been?
> What are the plans for this weekend, recovery from the long weekend or adding
> just a little more hurt to the situation?
> Tripp Murray
> Associate
> TM Capital Corp.
> One Battery Park Plaza
> 35th Floor
> New York, NY 10004
> (Tel) 212-809-1937
> (Fax) 212-809-1450
This has been forwarded to almost anybody in the industry.
Tell you why, IBM don't like Monday
by John Keys
Pragmatismus statt Kreativität - der neue Name der Beratersparte gibt die Richtung vor. Die Mitarbeiter werden bei aller Mühe, die mit der Integration und der Platzierung der neuen Marke einhergehe, dazu aufgefordert, das operative Geschäft dabei nicht aus den Augen zu verlieren. "Unsere höchste Aufmerksamkeit müssen wir darauf richten, den IBM-Aktionären ein starkes viertes Quartal zu präsentieren", lautet die unmissverständliche Ansage.
Deutsche Version von Trillian 0.74 erhältlich
Kostenlose Trillian-Version komplett in deutsche Sprache übersetzt. Nachdem am Mittwoch die englischsprachige Version von Trillian 0.74 veröffentlicht wurde, steht nun auch eine vollständig in deutsch übersetzte Version des Instant Messenger bereit. Am Donnerstag erschien bereits eine Sprachdatei zum Download, um einer installierten Version die deutsche Sprache beizubringen.
Mein Avatar und ich
by Markus Nolte
So manche neue Technik wirft Fragen auf, die wir uns ansonsten nie gestellt hätten: Wäre man lieber Cinderella oder Lara Croft, Krümelmonster oder vielleicht Big Jim? Dreidimensionale Avatare als Nachrichtenboten über das 3G-Handy: Ein Riesenspaß, mit dem sich Geld verdienen lässt?
Avatare sind realistische Kreaturen aus dem PC und fanden sich bislang meist als "Hostessen" für Internetangebote im Netz wieder. Der bekannteste Avatar ist die hübsche Ananova, eine synthetische Nachrichtensprecherin, die im Jahr 2000 für eine Ablöse von unglaublichen 95 Millionen Pfund zum Telefonanbieter Orange wechselte. Ansätze, Avatare zu bestimmten Anlässen an Websurfer zu vermieten, gab es zwar, doch die Dotcom-Krise ließ solche Geschäftsideen wieder in der Versenkung verschwinden.
Die Firma 3dme.com aus Boston versucht einen neuen Anlauf in diese Richtung. Dabei spekuliert man vor allem darauf, dass die Fortentwicklung im Mobilfunksektor dazu führt, zahllose Handybesitzer für den eigenen Message-Avantar zu begeistern.
Im Augenblick werden die Websurfer schon einmal kostenlos angefüttert. Für eine gewisse Zeit darf man sich ein neues dreidimensionales Ich aussuchen und Mailempfänger damit erschrecken. Das Webportal erlaubt bereits heute den Versand von Multimedia-Messages (MMS) in den Mobilfunk. Wer nun glaubt, das Ganze sei kaum mehr als grober Unfug, dem sei gesagt, dass Handylogos und Klingeltöne gegen die liebenswerten 3D-Monsterchen, reichlich blass aussehen.
Und so sieht's aus (Achtung: .WMV als MIME)
On vacation
by Volker Weber
Gone for half a week. See you on the other side ...
Ray on Instant Messaging
by Volker Weber
IM will grow up in the enterprise based not on provider cost models, but instead, like software, will be based on simple economic models that directly relate to business value delivered.
Interconnection increases the value of all providers' systems, making it easier for all to demonstrate and justify those systems' underlying business value. There's ample evidence that it's short-sighted not to just do it.
vowe's choice
by Volker Weber
Lots of updates at vowe's choice >
Härtetest für Softies
by Volker Weber
Weniger Aufträge, weniger Jobs: Die Krise erfasst die erfolgsverwöhnte Softwarebranche. Viele junge Unternehmen leiden, die Platzhirsche profitieren.
Sie waren ein Wachstumsmotor und boten Arbeit satt: Deutschlands Softwareunternehmen. Nur der Fachkräftemangel drohte sie zu bremsen. Deshalb holten sich die starken Softies Verstärkung aus dem Ausland. Mit der Green-Card-Initiative half ihnen sogar der Bundeskanzler dabei. Mehr als 10 000 Spezialisten kamen aus aller Welt ins Land. Insgesamt stieg die Zahl der Softwerker und IT-Experten in Deutschland auf fast 400 000 im vergangenen Jahr.
Bitter für sie: Inzwischen geht es bei vielen Unternehmen nur noch bergab. Die Branche absolviert derzeit den schwersten Härtetest ihrer Geschichte.
P2P swamps broadband networks
by Volker Weber
Peer-to-peer file sharing applications are taxing the finances of broadband operators, who are struggling to manage the off-network traffic.
That's the main conclusion of a study, titled The effects of P2P on service provider networks, by network management firm Sandvine which warns P2P activity "threatens to swamp" broadband operators in off-network traffic - a serious problem for operators because it drives up their network access fees.
P2P activity accounts for up to 60 per cent of the total traffic on any service provider network, Sandvine found during its study. Users downloading and uploading files accounts for only a portion of this data traffic. It's the overhead generated by these applications - advertising, searching functions, and other transactions largely transparent to most users - that are the real bandwidth hogs.
"We want IM to be like e-mail."
by Volker Weber
As Wall Street begins to embrace instant messaging, some financial giants are putting a squeeze on the technology's famously fractious service providers.
Read more about instant messaging
Two weeks ago, six top financial institutions met privately with AOL Time Warner, Microsoft, IBM and other leading corporate instant messaging providers and urged them to build communications networks that interoperate. For the Wall Street firms, a lack of IM interoperability has been a source of increasing frustration and a possible pinch on profits.
The meeting, which took place at Merrill Lynch's New York offices, was among the first convened by the Instant Messaging Standards Board (IMSB), a newly created consortium led by financial services firms Lehman Brothers, J.P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, UBS and Deutsche Bank.
Formed two months ago to act as ambassador to the IM technology industry, the IMSB plans to make a public announcement about its organization and goals in coming weeks. While the board does not intend to create its own standards, it hopes to nudge IM providers to adopt standards published in the marketplace.
"The goal is to pressurize vendors to adopt interoperability standards," said Navin Rajapakse, assistant vice president at Lehman Brothers and one of the members of the 10-plus member board. "We want IM to be like e-mail."
Outlook Express becomes attack platform, of sorts
by Volker Weber
There's a pleasing symmetry about the latest security issue involving Outlook Express.
For the last couple of years Outlook (Lookout) Express failings have been exploited to infect users. So why not take advantage of its features to send viruses in such a way that they might fool detection by AV and content checking tools?
Ciao bella
by Volker Weber
Lotus Pulls Roaming User Feature from Domino 6
by Volker Weber
Lotus removed two features from Domino 6 that it has been testing in the Release Candidate because they didn't meet Lotus's standards for stable code, Lotus said. Domino 6 won't include the roaming user feature or the single copy template when it's released later this month. However, the features will be included in the first maintenance release — 6.0.1 — early next year.
ePro: No Client Licenses Needed with New Domino Utility Server
by Volker Weber
When Domino 6 hits the street at the end of this month, companies won't have to worry about forking out money for client licenses if they buy a new server called the Domino Utility Server and use Web browsers to let employees access applications running on it. Alan Lepofsky, Lotus's senior offerings manager for messaging, talked about the new server Tuesday morning at an executive conference sponsored by e-Pro Magazine in Vail, Colorado.
Lotus is expected to announce the server in conjunction with other products surrounding the release of Domino 6 this month. The server will let companies deploy Domino for applications, but it can't be used for e-mail. Domino Utility Server will be priced on a per-CPU basis.
Design Your Own O'Reilly Book Cover!
by Volker Weber
Have the staff at O'Reilly given your latest manuscript the cold shoulder? Can you never get Andy Oram to return your emails? Does Laurie Petrycki have a restraining order out against you? Has Tim -- the man himself -- told you to "bite the big one"? Believe me, I know how it feels.
But now, thanks to our superior technological know-how, the folks at InterLink BBS have enabled you to create your own O'Reilly book!
[via Schockwellenreiter]
by Volker Weber
Groove Security Brochure
by Volker Weber
"I think Groove's security work is fantastic", that's a quote from David Sturz @ Microsoft. It strikes me as odd, that someone from Microsoft ... OK, OK, that's not what I wanted to rant about.
Everybody seems to be pitching this new whitepaper about Groove Security today. You can download it for free, well not exactly for free. You need to leave some arbitrary data for First, Last Name, Company and E-Mail Address. email@example.com should be fine thank you very much: By submitting your contact information you agree to be contacted by Groove Networks.
Is Groove at the end of their cold call list? What's next? Maybe AOL style CD carpet bombing?
O'REILLYS TIERLEBEN - Die Magie der Dinge
by Markus Nolte
Wie kommt das Kamel aufs Computerbuch? Was hat das Wiesel mit Webdesign zu tun? Die Cover von O'Reillys Computerbüchern sind Kult - auch wenn kaum jemand weiß, wie es zu den eigentümlichen Titelbildern kam. Chefgrafikerin Edie Freedman kann es erklären.
Trillian 0.74 und erste kostenpflichtige Version erhältlich
Der Instant Messenger Trillian erschien jetzt in der Version 0.74, die vor allem um Fehler bereinigt wurde. Parallel veröffentlichten die Trillian-Macher eine kostenpflichtige Pro-Version mit weiteren Funktionen und Möglichkeiten. Die kostenlose Freeware-Version soll weiterentwickelt werden.
Even free, iCal isn't worth the price
by Volker Weber
Apple's newly released iCal is the most beautiful calendaring program I have ever seen. It's a shame it sucks.
I don't use those words loosely; iCal is rife with bugs, display glitches and mind-boggling interface oversights. Just hours after its release, reports are flooding in over printing issues, constant crashes, import SNAFUs and other assorted problems more usually found in early beta -- even alpha -- versions of software. The fact that Apple allowed iCal to be released in its current state is nothing short of astounding.
Kerpal calls Abtar sound board
by Volker Weber
Your daughter come to my house today. And she come on my property and then she kick my dog. And now my dog needs operation.
Excellent stuff for boring meetings.
Anti-trusting Microsoft
by Volker Weber
Imagine a Monty Python skit with John Cleese riding on a bus. Out of the blue, he hits the person standing to his left. Stunned, the person says, "You just hit me."
"No I didn't," Mr. Cleese responds. A few seconds later, Mr. Cleese hits the person standing to his right.
"Hey, you hit me," that person says.
"No I didn't," Mr. Cleese insists. A few seconds later, Mr. Cleese hits again. Again, he's accused. Again, he denies. Soon, Mr. Cleese can't move a muscle without everyone around him cowering. He stands to give someone his seat; the person jumps back. He reaches out to help an old lady, and passengers scream.
Microsoft has a John Cleese problem.
Who framed Internet Explorer
by Volker Weber
We discovered that it is possible for an attacker to execute script on any page that contains <frame> or <iframe> elements, ignoring any protocol or domain restriction set forth by Internet Explorer. This means that an attacker can steal cookies from almost any site, access and change content in sites and in most cases also read local files and execute arbitrary programs on the client's machine (script in the "My Computer" zone).
To give you a little demonstation what an iframe is, look at your files on my website. If this window is empty, you are not using Internet Explorer 5 (and "better"):
Site redesign completed
by Volker Weber
I have completed the redesign for vowe.net (as if it is ever complete). The content from vowe.de has migrated to the right hand navigation. "vowe's choice" is a blog in itself and also sits in the right hand menu under "Certificates". It has a very similar design tweaked to its purpose.
The old vowe.de has retired. This new site is available as vowe.de or vowe.net. Comments very welcome !
BTW: The picture on the front page does not go away. It lives right here.
Knowledge sharing, knowledge logs, and the unexpected
by Volker Weber
More formal and structured knowledge management systems are focused on getting more mileage out of known solutions to known problems. That has a place, particularly in large and dispersed organizations. But all organizations today are also faced with the problem of responding effectively to the unexpected. Weick and Sutcliffe make a compelling case that this is the more important problem for most organizations. And they offer a series of prescriptions for increased mindfulness to respond to that problem.
Knowledge repositories are not the driving problem in knowledge management
by Volker Weber
The first problem that needs to be solved is helping knowledge workers understand how knowledge they don't already possess from experience might be relevant to solving their problem at hand. All the well-organized repositories in the world won't be relevant until an individual knowledge worker decides they need to turn somewhere else for help.
Die Download-Datenbank
by Oliver Tunnat
Eine der größten Download-Datenbanken des deutschsprachigen Internets soll es ab sofort bei der Telekom-Tochter T-Online geben. Unter der Webadresse "Download.t-online.de" könnten Nutzer mehr als 20.000 Programme aus rund 600 Kategorien kostenlos ansteuern. Die Datenbank kann auch über die T-Online-Bereiche T-Games und Computer erreicht werden.
IBM: Stellenabbau nach Übernahme von PwC-Consulting
by Oliver Tunnat
IBM will nach der Übernahme der Consulting-Sparte von PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) am 30. September rund 4.000 Stellen streichen. Damit würden rund fünf Prozent der Beschäftigen aus den fusionierten Consultingsparten ihre Stellen verlieren, heißt es in einem Bericht des "Wall Street Journal". Die Entlassungsaktion soll im vierten Quartal erfolgen.
Homebrew TrackBack Tutorial
by Volker Weber
What is TrackBack? Basically, it's a way of recording who has linked to your posts and notifying others that you've linked to them (invented by the folks from Moveable Type).
Because I haven't seen any documentation or tutorials about how TrackBack works, I'm going to summarize what I've managed to observe about TrackBack behavior and how I added it to my homebrew PHP/MySQL CMS.
Answering machine messages
by Volker Weber
Hi. This is John: If you are the phone company, I already sent the money. If you are my parents, please send money. If you are my financial aid institution, you didn't lend me enough money. If you are my friends, you owe me money. If you are a female, don't worry, I have plenty of money.
Bluetooth kostet Milliarden
Gemäss Gartner verursacht Bluetooth Support- und Nutzungskosten in Milliardenhöhe.
Erst handeln, dann denken
by Volker Weber
Immer wieder witzig, wenn ein kurzes Hirn erst handelt und dann denkt. Lesen Sie hier die "Gedanken eines Frontschweins". Vorher Knabbereien einkaufen und Bier kalt stellen.
Und bitte nicht petzen. Die sollten schon selber drauf kommen, dass man sowas besser in einer geschlossenen Umgebung macht.
Wohnst Du noch ...
by Volker Weber
Confused by IBM's messages around content management?
by Volker Weber
People are confused by IBM's messages around content management in the portal space. Do not mix up their use of Content Manager and content publishing. Here is the short list of buzzwords directly from their site: (emphasis mine)
WebSphere Portal provides a customizable single point of access to information, applications and people for increased productivity.
WebSphere Portal content publishing provides non-technical users the ability to control the content that is published to portals & web sites.
IBM Content Manager provides an enterprise content management framework--- a centrally managed repository for all types of content produced anywhere in a company.
WebSphere Portal is offered in three versions: Enable, Extend and Experience. An IBM Content Manager license is included in Experience. Content Manager is sold separately, but already integrated with the Enable and Extend offerings.
Manage your content with PHP
by Volker Weber
In this article we'll build a simple, template-driven site that separates style, content, and structure in your website. We'll create a cross-browser stylesheet switcher that remembers the user's preferences, touching on php variables, cookies, if statements, and including pages with require_once.
The separation of style from content has become the bugbear of the HTML developer. Traditionally, we've used well-written CSS and XHTML to achieve this separation, and we've seen how much easier it is to update our sites or provide multiple styles when we write our markup this way. By adding some very basic PHP to this mix, we can take this modularity a step further, making it easier not only to update our styling, but our structure as well. In essence, we can create our own basic Content Management System.
Attracting and Keeping Good Folks
by Volker Weber
Chris Sells: Once a good person has been hired, keeping them is a matter of letting them do what they're good at, helping them get better at what they're not so good at, making sure you don't waste their time on stuff that doesn't matter, showing appreciation for a job well done and otherwise staying the hell out of their way.
Schalten - und hui!
by Volker Weber
Ein richtiges Auto - das hat ein Kindheitstrauma tief ins Bewusstsein gebrannt - muss vier Türen haben. Mindestens. Meine beiden Großmütter wohnten Hunderte Kilometer entfernt. Wenn die Familie sie zweimal im Jahr besuchen fuhr, dann saß der ketterauchende Vater auf dem Fahrersitz eines papyrusweißen Trabant 601 Kombi, daneben die Mutter mit dem Autoatlas im Schoß und auf der Rückbank die Kinder - der vier Jahre ältere Bruder, die acht Jahre jüngere Schwester und ich. Es war eng. Es war stickig. Es gab kein Fenster zum Herunterkurbeln. Das Ein- und Aussteigen war Folter: die Vordersitze nach vorn drücken und durch die viel zu schmale Tür hinaus, sich dabei am Querholm den Kopf stoßen, am gut gefetteten Türschloss die Hosen beschmieren, am Sitzgestänge die Knöchel stoßen. Vermutlich empfand der gemeine DDR-Bürger die Jämmerlichkeit seines Autos als viel demütigender als alle Bevormundung durch Staat und Partei.
Also: Ein richtiges Auto muss vier Türen haben. Der Alfa Romeo Gtv hat nur zwei. Vielleicht wird es trotzdem ein nettes Wochenende mit uns beiden, dem Auto und dem Autotester.
Fake AP
by Volker Weber
If one access point is good, 53,000 must be better.
Black Alchemy's Fake AP generates thousands of counterfeit 802.11b access points. Hide in plain sight amongst Fake AP's cacophony of beacon frames. As part of a honeypot or as an instrument of your site security plan, Fake AP confuses Wardrivers, NetStumblers, Script Kiddies, and other undesirables.
Nothing here is true
by Volker Weber
An anonymous e-mail sent three weeks ago urging single New Yorkers to designate the first car of every subway train the "singles car" has sparked a grassroots movement so large that Metropolitan Transit Authority officials say they're struggling to keep up with the changing face of the agency they're charged with running.
Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 Broom
by Volker Weber
A replica of the broom Harry uses in the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the Nimbus 2000 features a grooved stick and handle for easy riding. Enhancing the excitement are the vibrating effects... Read the reviews: :-)
When my 12 year old daughter asked for this for her birthday, I kind of wondered if she was too old for it, but she seems to LOVE it. Her friends love it too! They play for hours in her bedroom with this great toy. They really seem to like the special effects it offers (the sound effects and vibrating). My oldest daughter (17) really likes it too! I reccomend this for all children.
My 12 year old daughter is a big Harry Potter fan, and loved the part with the Nimbus 2000, so I decided to buy her this toy. I was afraid she would think it was too babyish, but she LOVES this toy. Even my daughter's friends enjoy playing with this fun toy. I was surprised at how long they can just sit in her room and play with this magic broomstick! A great buy for any Harry Potter fan!
I recently bought this for my son, Vantro. He's a HUGE Harry Potter fan. Seen the movie 32 times (in the theaters) and made the paper. This toy gives him the ability to fly around the house zapping things. My only problem I see with the toy is the batteries drain too fast and his sister fights him over it, so now I need to buy her one.
Alexis Smirnov: Changed high-tech PR game
by Volker Weber
Just about every blog I've checked this morning had a link to Ozzie's reply to Joel's article on Platforms. The fact that a lot of people expected a public reply from Groove/Ozzie tells a lot about how blogs have changed high-tech PR game. Can't wait for other software executives to catch up!
Make sure you read the rest of the page >
Heute in SPIEGEL Online: Lisa an Holger - Wo bleibt Dein Stück?
by Volker Weber
Das könnte Lisa sein. Aber wer ist Holger? Doch sicher eher dieser als jener. Und das müsste dann Alex sein. :-)
Die URL des Artikels (/politik/ausland/0,1518,212360,00.html) ist mittlerweile nicht mehr gültig.
Für die sportlich ambitionierten Leser...
by Oliver Tunnat
Sportler sollen ihre Muskeln vor und nach einer Belastung dehnen, so die gängige Lehrmeinung. Doch offenbar kann Stretching weder Verletzungen noch den Muskelkater verhindern.
Eclipse 2.0.1 available
by Volker Weber
IBM weiterhin auf Einkaufstour
by Oliver Tunnat
Jetzt hat das Unternehmen aus Armonk/New York die kalifornische Firma Access 360 gekauft – einen Anbieter von Software zum Management von Personendaten, etwa von Mitarbeitern, Kunden oder Geschäftspartnern.
Bundestagswahl 2002
by Oliver Tunnat
Für Unentschlossene geht es hier zum "Wahl-O-Mat".
Like Trillian, for Mac OS X
by Volker Weber
What is Fire? It is an Multiplatform Instant Messenger client based off of freely available libraries for each "service". Currently Fire handles ICQ communication, and Yahoo! Pager communciation. All "services" are built off of gpl'd libraries, including firetalk, icqlib, msnlib, and gtkyahoo (linux libraries).
Fire looks somewhat like AIM (on Windows at least) but is much much more. It can handle similtaneous connections to AIM, ICQ, Yahoo , IRC, MSN and Jabber IM.
Disclaimer: There are few programmers working on Fire. Those programmers have jobs and spend a precious few hours a week working on Fire.app and other projects. There are certain features that are just to big for one or two people to implement by themselves. You can ask away, but there is never any guarantee. Fire.app is free, it will always be free, I have never, nor never will charge for it. Fire.app is open source. Those things being said, we can't fix every bug immediately. We write Fire for our gratification, and it pleases us greatly that others find it interesting. We get lots of Fire e-mail, and attempt to answer every single e-mail. Don't be offended if wedon't answer you though. If you really want some feature, code it up (or find a friend to code it up) and submit it. We will gladly take source code from others. Now, onto the help.
More BBC feeds
by Volker Weber
Adrian Holovaty finds more RSS feeds from BBC:
Regional feeds: United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, World, United States, Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, South Asia
Entertainment feeds: Entertainment, Music, Film, TV and radio, Showbiz, Arts, Reviews
Education feeds: Education, Hot topics, U.K. systems, League tables, Features
Business feeds: Business, Market data, Your money, E-commerce, Economy, Companies, Business basics
Other feeds: Front page, Technology, U.K. politics, Political interviews, Health, Sci/tech, Talking Point, Programmes
The OS tables are turning...
by Volker Weber
I recently bought a Hama multi-slot card reader, primarily for reading the Smart Media cards used in our camera. Plugging in the device crashed Windows. Period.
About to package the thing up to take it back, I passed the house server running Linux. What the heck, I thought, and plugged it in the back. "Ooh, hello", said the kernel. I mounted the emulated SCSI device, and grabbed the pictures of the Smart Media card. Easy as that.
The tables have turned. In times past, it used to be that peripherals Just Worked with Windows (mostly because the vendors targeted the drivers to that platform). Not any more.
Ohne Worte
by Volker Weber
Ray to Joel, on Platforms
by Volker Weber
Very well written, carefully edited. One interesting gem:
We have an "OEM Adaptation Kit", and a product called the "Groove Platform OEM Edition". No, they're not listed on our Web site. You may have heard that Groove's platform is being integrated, bundled, and broadly distributed with an upcoming version of PTC's computer-assisted design products. Although not yet generally available, this is the mechanism by which PTC will integrate the Groove platform into their product.
XML zone : Integrating data at run time with XSLT style sheets
by Volker Weber
Many applications now take advantage of XML to format business data. This allows the use of self-describing, tagged data that can be handled on a wide range of platforms and programming languages. Integration between heterogeneous applications is made easier through the use of XML data formats. Web services technology, for example, promotes the use of XML-based message formats for backend application data. However, integrating that data into user output during run time can be a challenge. In this article, Andre Tost describes how data integration can be achieved through the use of XSLT style sheets.
BBC news feeds
by Volker Weber
The BBC is publishing four new RSS feeds that you can use in your portal or news aggregator: Front page, Technology, UK News and World News.
[via Radio UserLand]
SuSE Linux 8 running on Xbox
by Volker Weber
The Xbox Linux project is making great progress. If they continue at this speed then the Xbox will finally be wildly successful in this country, although in way that Microsoft did not plan for.
Neuer Bildschirm: Außer dem Benutzer kann niemand etwas darauf lesen
by Markus Nolte
Eine japanische Firma hat einen Computerbildschirm entwickelt, auf dem außer dem 'autorisierten' User niemand anderes etwas erkennen kann. Eine neue Technik ermöglicht es, nur mit einer Spezialbrille die Darstellungen auf dem Bildschirm zu erkennen. Für Außenstehende hat es den Anschein, als würde der User mit einer Sonnenbrille vor einem weißen Bildschirm sitzen.
Steve Gillmor postmortem
by Volker Weber
Last weeks column (See "Notes is Dead") touched a deep nerve. I expected it would; I did not undertake the piece lightly, as some have suggested. Notes at its core is highly personal, and its proponents take it that way. I know -- I'm one of them.
And he still does not get it.
Alexis on the Groove/ISV gap
by Volker Weber
Alexis Smirnov follows up to Joel's harsh critism:
So do I think Joel's article is wrong? No, it simply fails to capture the real issue with Groove - there are two different views of "Groove Platform". One is being offered by Groove Inc. and another is wanted by ISVs.
Groove Inc. defines the platform as Runtime plus Transceiver. Want to build on the Groove Platform - write a Groove Tool. Most ISVs define the platform as Runtime. Period. Most of the people thinking of integrating Groove's collaboration capabilities only want the Runtime. This is why Joel's analysis of cost/benefit of integrating Groove with CityDesk is right on the money - it illustrates the Groove/ISV gap. In Groove's defense, they do claim that the Runtime can in fact be used by ISVs in their applications (whoever there seem to be technical issues with this model in the current release). But still, the primary positioning of the platform is Runtime Tranciever.
So, its not that Groove thinks they don't have a platform (or they're clueless) - its just that their priorities are out of sync with those of their partners. This strategy flaw can be corrected. And if enough people complain, I believe it will.
Nein, das ist nicht Markus
by Volker Weber
Markus Nolte hat ein Weblog
by Volker Weber
Der Noltebär hat gequengelt, dass er kein Perl und kein MySQL hat. Und dann habe ich ihm den Ameisenhügel gezeigt. Und nun hat er ein eigenes Weblog. Ganz stilecht in grün. Schauder. :-)
Knowledge Networks and Communities of Practice
by Volker Weber
Knowledge and learning have become the new strategic imperative of organizations. Recent surveys by The Conference Board and the American Management Association show that at least one-half of U.S. companies, and up to 72% of overseas firms, have some kind of knowledge management initiative underway. Other studies put the figure closer to 80% for global corporations. Chief Knowledge Officers and Chief Learning Officers are popping up everywhere. These strategic knowledge initiatives are ushering in a rich array of opportunities for applying OD expertise. This article will first describe the new logic driving interest in knowledge management and then focus on how OD practitioners can participate in that strategic conversation, and support knowledge creation and sharing through building communities of practice.
[Hint: OD = Organizational Development]
John Patrick: Newbury Surfing
by Volker Weber
The latest addition to NewburyOpen.net is that they have made a "mobile" version of their wireless node that sits on top of one of their cars. They plan to park it next to various places every Sunday and provide free wireless Internet service in new locations every week. For their first day out it happens to be parked by a Starbucks, which is somewhat intentional since NewburyOpen.net wants to make the statement that free WiFi is the way to go, not $14 by the hour.
Create your bar codes here
by Volker Weber
Paul Graham: A Plan for Spam
by Volker Weber
I think it's possible to stop spam, and that content-based filters are the way to do it. The Achilles heel of the spammers is their message. They can circumvent any other barrier you set up. They have so far, at least. But they have to deliver their message, whatever it is. If we can write software that recognizes their messages, there is no way they can get around that.
To the recipient, spam is easily recognizable. If you hired someone to read your mail and discard the spam, they would have little trouble doing it. How much do we have to do, short of AI, to automate this process?
I think we will be able to solve the problem with fairly simple algorithms. In fact, I've found that you can filter present-day spam acceptably well using nothing more than a Bayesian combination of the spam probabilities of individual words. Using a slightly tweaked (as described below) Bayesian filter, we now miss less than 5 per 1000 spams, with 0 false positives.


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- Free shipping on all orders over €50.
- Free returns within 30 days.
- Delivery within 1-3 days.
- Model is 1.89m and wearing L
- Item Number 158190305
- Cut Regular fit
- Material 98% Cotton, 2% Elastane
These cargo short are a musthave for the summer. The shorts come in a regular fit and the wasitband is partly elasticated for optimal comfort. The material is made of cotton lycra which has a soft hand making it a comfortable and versatile fabric. The waistband has a drawstring as finishing touch. Deze cargoshort is een musthave voor de zomer.
Normal wash 30°C,Do not tumble dry,dry clean possible,Wash and iron inside out, Wash with similar colours


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- InformationThe Rio+20 community is a place for direct interaction between participants of the Rio+20 process through groups of debates, forums, chat and shared contents. Navigation within the community is free. We invite you to subscribe if you want to participate actively.
Events June 2023 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 All events
- Main Themes
- Ethical and philosophical fundamentals: subjectivity, domination, and emancipation
- Human rights, peoples, territories, and defense of Mother Earth
- Political subjects, the architecture of power, and democracy
- Production, distribution and consumption, access to wealth, common goods, and economies in transition
Eventos > Americas < Volver
May 26 2012Transformative Agenda at Rio+20 and Beyond Preparatory Latin America and Caribbean consultation on the lead up to Rio+20, including the People's Summit events. By Bolivian platform on Climate change ◾ IBON International ◾ Latindadd
April 22 2012Rights at Risk in the Green Economy Participants in this Roundtable will share their analyses of the latest draft of the outcome document for Rio+20, the state of ... By IBON International
March 31 2012Meeting Building participation of youth in the People's Summit The meeting « Building participation of youth in the People's Summit » calls on youth around the world to seize this opportunity and ... By Brazilian Civil Society Facilitating Committee for Rio+20
March 19 2012Rio+20 Corporate Sustainibility Forum The United Nations Global Compact will organize the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum: Innovation and Collaboration for the Future ... By United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20
March 16 2012Towards the People's Summit at Rio+20: Alternative civil society perspectives on ... The event will bring together leading figures from civil society to present some of the analyses and proposals that have emerged ... By United Nations
March 12 2012Roundtable for Equity and Sustainability This Roundtable gathers experts from UNDESA, UNCTAD and UNEP together with representatives from civil society and governments ... By IBON International ◾ International Trade Union Confederation
March 10 2012US and Canada Citizen's Summit for Sustainable Development The Summit seeks to generate new knowledge, policy, and action for sustainability in the United States and Canada, and to ... By US and Canada Citizen's Summit for Sustainable Development
March 07 2012Rights for Sustainability and Sustainable Development Governance At the informal negotiations on the Zero Draft of the Outcome Document (March 19-23), IBON in partnership with Both Ends will ... By IBON International
March 07 2012Global Transition Dialogue #2 on the New Economy The aim of the Initiative is to build a global a multi- stakeholder movement to promote alternative models of the economy that ... By Global Transition 2012
February 15 2012Youth Blast By Rio Plus Twenties


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Looking into the future of gaming
In recent times, we have seen a huge increase in the number of brands venturing into the metaverse, with many creating unique and truly eye-catching partnerships alongside a variety of reputable gaming titles, esports teams and tournaments.
During this report, we investigate 10 of the most exciting eyewear and gaming collaborations!
These innovative collaborations have resulted in an evolution within the industry, with the optical heath of casual gamers, as well as esports professionals, becoming a huge focus.


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Synthesis Summary 5: Community resilience and vulnerability
Author: NCCARF
Year: 2016
What are the impacts of climate change on communities and community vulnerability, and why do we need to adapt? This summary provides a synthesis of available evidence around adaptation options and discusses how this new research knowledge might help address key adaptation policy challenges. For some individuals and sectors of the community, greater exposure, lower resilience and reduced adaptive capacity can make them more vulnerable to climate change impacts. Investment in building community resilience and safety nets for the most vulnerable will help communities adapt to climate change.
|View Resource


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"The neccesary quantity [of air defense systems] can be supplied on a priority basis, it will not require additional burden for the defense insdustry," the chairman of the Russian upper house defense and security committee, Ozerov said.
According to him, "there is nothing special about such deliveries [if the deal is reached] as Syria is at war with terrorists and Russia helps it to fight terror."
The Syrian government forces currently possess Soviet-made S-200 surface-to-air missile systems, also known as SA-5. The Soviet air defense complex is aimed to defend large spaces from potential enemy's bombers and other strategic aircraft.
"It won't violate the norms of the international law or the UN Security Council as air defense systems are defensive weapons, not offensive," the Russian senator said.
Damascus' need in modern air defense systems apparently was driven by the US' launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield in Ash Sha'irat, located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the city of Homs on April 7. US President Donald Trump said the attack was a response to the alleged chemical weapon use in Syria's Idlib, which Washington blames on the Syrian government, a claim Damascus denies pointing out that it has no such weapons since mid-2014. Russia described the attack as an aggression against a sovereign state.


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Wisdom of others can be learned as our own treasure. Learn how innovative companies use rapid manufacturing to solve complex development challenges and launch successful products to market fast by cooperating with RPWORLD.
Prototyping and production support for a fast developing medical devices company in Europe
The client is a German customized company specialized in miniature instrument. Their customers are mainly instrument and apparatus companies from 20 countries all over the world. surface treatment.
The client is a mechanical equipment company with more than 20 branches all over the world. They need prototypes matching their industrial installations. The prototypes are made of aluminum alloy, and high accuracy of holes are required.
The customer company is located in Switzerland. They ordered a batch of injection molded and CNC-milled parts.
They are searching for a low-volume precision laboratory equipment provider who can meet the tight deadlines, decrease production costs and ensure the quality consistency. Then RPWORLD enters their view.
A medical company sought to develop a new biochemistry analyzer product. Development was stalled due to the complex structure of a component and the small quality required.
Our client, a high-tech company in the field of infrared detection technology research, appointed us for the production of 200 sets of optical probe components.
Prototypes for exhibitions are quite different from standard development prototypes as they have strict cosmetic appearance requirements. The project was quite complex, and considering the urgent deadline there was no room for mistakes.
As a high-mix, low-volume manufacturer, RPWORLD knows that this company is famous for its extremely strict product quality request.
RPWORLD regards customers as product development partners and takes that belief through each step of the production life circle. What we used to produce the prototypes reduced production time by 50%, and the cost was only 50% of mass production.
The client is a well-known automotive company. They developed a new headlights, and then come to RPWORLD for high quality aesthetic model.
Ross Robotics is a privately owned UK company specializing in modular robotics. The company was formed in 2015 and has successfully developed the technologies underpinning the modular robotics platform.
The Cross Car Beam (CCB) is a component located in the front of the vehicle under the instrument panel (IP). It is normally designed to support the steering column, airbags, and instrument panel.
A rapidly-growing European medical device firm was looking for a partner for their high-end eye diagnostics device. Annual demand for product is hundreds of units, with a design could require modifications in order to respond to the changing market needs.
The client, one of the world's leading manufacturer of automation machines, found RPWORLD to provide qualified prototypes and low volume solutions for monthly order of 40 units.
Timing is always important for us, RPWORLD have shipped almost all of the orders within the estimated time, that has always helped us to keep running smoothly without having to wait for something to come in.
With the high degree of technical complexity and integrated project management, the automotive industry has always been an outstanding representative of high-end manufacturing.
Driven by the guidance of national policies and market demand, China has become a huge consumer market for medical devices, and the medical device industry has developed rapidly.
A company well-known for superior analytical instruments and laboratory equipment opted for RPWORLD to produce 100 units assembly parts of a Spectrometer per order, the total demand is 400 sets per year.
Ever since the first close-up picture of Mars captured in 1965, the hazy and pink world has revealed its mysterious veil. The pace of human exploration of the unknown universe has never stopped.
EPB, short for Electric Parking Brake, is an electric parking system, which replaces the traditional handbrake lever and cables, but safer, as the braking effect will not be affected by the force of drivers.
The automotive industry has always been an outstanding representative of high-end manufacturing, with its high degree of technical complexity and integrated project management.
A company well-known for superior analytical instruments and laboratory equipment opted for RPWORLD to produce 100 units assembly parts of a Spectrometer per order, the total demand is 400 sets per year.