Category Archives: Computerworld

V for Vendetta

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Hello everyone. It has been a very long time since I posted last time. My life was very hasty in the last time. But now I have something that I must share with all the people that want to take the time to read it.

I just saw the new filmy by the makers of Matrix. It was called “V for Vendetta”. I do not want to write a critique of the film. I only want to say that it is a must see and take the message of the film as a starting point for some reflections.

The main message for me was that if we do not take care we could end up in a state where “People are afraid of their governments.” We see many changes taking place that most of us do not see. Data retention, tracking, RFID… and so on.

The problem is that taking a side in the discussion if it is OK or not is also a problem already. If I say in my blog that I am on either side the internet will never forget that. And I may get in trouble in the future. So I will not take any side. At least not here. The reader should take a side by him/her self.

The biggest problem I see is that most of the People around us do not know about this changes. Most of them are not interested if the changes are made or not. Most of them say that it does not affect them. I think (and here I take a side) that it is a problem. I know that most people are not interested in politics. I can not say that I am a person that is politically active or really interested. I am in no party and I read news only as much as it is necessary to know if there are very heavy things happening. But one thing I know is that the changes our government is making are affecting us all and we all should open our eyes and think on which side we are. Not taking a side is the same as agreeing with the side that won. I took a side and will look for ways to express them in a way that will not get me in trouble in the future. I will be happy to hear any tips to how do that.

Rushing makes it ugly?

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Slowly some more images of the new intel Mac’s are spreading over the internet. Like for example kodawarisan.com.

There is a nice comparison of the old iMac G5 and the new Intel iMac.

You really see that it was made in a rush. The inside is not so pretty like in the predecessor. I hope that when Apple finally finishes the switch to Intel they will take the time to get not only the outside, of the machines, beautiful, as always, but also the inside.

I really hope that Apple will not lower their quality because of the switch to Intel. I know that not many people care about the insides. But if a product is not only beautiful, easy to use and ergonomic on the outside but also on the inside it really shows the quality. So once more I pray that Apple gets back on with the expectations we have.

Macintel wishes

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Yesterday Steve announced new macs at Mac World Expo. And they have Intel inside. The brand new Core Duo! They are a dream!

I can’t wait to get my hands on the Powerbook successor called Macbook Pro. It is a dream! Anyone willing to give me money?

Take a look at the beauty:

You can see more here.

They also released a new iMac with Core Duo inside. Also amazing but I need a portable upgrade.

I want to win in Lotto! 😉

Gimp native on Mac OS X

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I was really waiting for someone to do it and it finally happened. I am using Gimp myself on Mac for postprocessing my photoblog images. It is pretty unconfortable because it needs an x server.

Now there is an effort to port GTK to Mac OS X cocoa framework. There is also a screenshot of Gimp running on the ported GTK.

I hope the project continues and ends in success! Thank you guys!

Pixelpost

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As you already know I have installed a photoblog on my site. I use Pixelpost for that. It is a pretty nice and simple system having nearly everything you need.

The problem is that this software is very crappy written. I installed it and tried to upload an image. Everything went ok only that the thumbnail has not been created for the image. I spent one hour debugging only to find out that it is failing because I have no jpeg support in gd2 php plugin. I do really not understand why people are not doing right error handling. At least the install script could have checked that! The calls to these functions are muted (not yelding anything on an error). I really could kill someone for that.

Spending another two hours on bugfixing the code I finally acheved that I do not get 20 error entries in my apache logs on a link click. I will try to collect all my fixes and post them to the pixelpost developers in the next days. But for that I have to spend another evening getting the code really clean because my fixes are pretty hacky for now. I really wanted that thing running.

I also added another WordPress plugin to integrate the latest and one random thumbnail image on my blog site. You find the plugin here. It worked without any hacks or tweaks. That is how I like a software to be. 😉

Security discussions

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I just had a discussion with my father and with my granny about security issues ignated by the previous post.

My father and my granny say that one should not spread the information about a vulnerability and the way it may be exploited. One only should say that there is one and that one should change something and what to change.

I think in the contrary that when I do not tell how to exploit a big security hole no one will give it trust. Everyone will say that it is only a hoax and not truth because fixing the potential security hole is very expensive (to fix the security hole from the previous post you need to spend 100Eur or more).

I ask you for comments and statements about that. Also links to pages dealing with this problematic.

Lock bumping

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Yesterday on HackADay there was a post linking to lock bumping. A very interesting technique for opening most of the current door locks.

It is a security vulnerability that is so severe because it is so terribly simple that it looks nearly like magic. A guy inserts a self made key into a lock, hits it with the head of a screwdriver and the lock pops open. Having only 10 most common bump keys you can open about 90% of the current door locks.

You can see a full video about lock bumping on the Toool home page here recorded on WTH this year. There is also a list of locks that are not vulnerable to the bumping attack.

I really encourage you to check if your door lock is vulnerable and get a new one if you can. The only real problem is that there are not many good lock under 100Eur level. But everyone knows how much security is important for him.

Catching up

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Since the morning today I am working on getting all the images I have online. I want to do it before I start reposting my blog entries that are on my laptop. It is really not so easy as it seems. The images I get from my camera are all way too big for web so I have to downsize them. Sadly iPhoto does not have (or I am blind) an easy batch option for resizing images. I got a program called Downsize for that. I really ask myself why all that useful little stuff has to cost money. 20$ here 20$ there … every little tool costs money. I am a poor student I do not have the money to pay every little tool I get and that nags suck badly and test time outs even more. I would prefer if the programs were free and there were donation buttons on their pages. I am really sure that the time I start working and have some pennies left I will donate money to every vendor of a useful program I use that is free and has a donation button. You may hit me on that later 😉

Ok I finish uploading the images and then I start to add all the blog posts that accumulated here on my disk 😉

Visit to Gdansk

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Today my parents, my grandmother, my brother and I have visited Gdansk. It is a very beautiful city lying at the northern coast of Poland. I have visited some churches and marked called after a saint: “Dominican Market” my brother and I have bought two coats with Poland written on it’s backs. Very nice stuff. (very warm 😉 )

I am currently working on deBlog all the time. Work is progressing very slowly because every several minutes someone wants me to do something or, what is more common, I fall asleep. That are that damn climatic changes. I really ask myself if I ever get that thing finished if I continue to progress with my work like that.

I am making a lot of pictures here. I will upload them some time when I have better internet connection then here. I am currently connected to the I-Net line of my uncle and aunt. For some strange reason the provider allows full bandwidth only to single mac addresses that are registered. My mac address is not registered yet so I have only 5kb down and something around this upload. I hope now you can understand why I will not upload my pictures 😉

I hope to have better network in Warsaw. I will leave in that direction on Tuesday and my Grandmother has DSL Hardline now so I may have a better connection there 😉

I think that is all for today…. cu 😉

Leaving for Poland

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Today about 15:30 I left Ingolstadt for a trip to Poland. My current final destination is Gdynia at the coast of Poland. I have about 5 hours driving behind me and my head aches a bit. I hope that is over after I cached some hours of sleep.

Thanks to Blindcoder I do not have to drive the whole way to Gdynia in one peace but can make a stop in Berlin from where I am writing this entry now. I really missed a GPS navigation program or device. I did not have a detailed map of Berlin and leaving Ingolstadt I did not have the address of Blindy.

I searched the net a bit to find some Mac OS X software that can show me maps at least but did not find anything for now. It would be really great if it would be able to use GPS data too. Blindy has a usb GPS mouse that he offered me but that will not help until I find some software that can work with that.

I will really have to think about buying a TomTom or so if I do not find anything. Please let me know if you find or know some OS X GPS “navigation” software.

Now I go sleeping my head is bursting 😉