the good old times

Whatever happens, the past will always be the good old times.

I had a Lisbon flashback recently. Monday morning at work, I checked a personal mailbox and spotted a mail from the 59:1 indie club, a concert was coming up and they were giving some tickets away.

Alright, let’s reply and hope to win tickets for the concert of a totally unknown band from Canada, Attack in Black. The next day, the day of the concert, bing… “you got mail”… and 2 tickets for the gig. Next step, find someone to go with. That sorted itself out pretty fast and I ended up having a real cool evening with Manu.

Back when I was living in Lisbon, we used to win heaps of free tickets for ballet, theatre, movies and concerts – I could have won even more if I’d really put myself into it.

I so missed this. The occasional happy oportunity to go to a concert for free with a friend. I wish there were more such opportunities for that in Munich, I’ll keep my ears and eyes open.

Oh, the concert? It was fun. The band ran out of songs and started doing some covers. They were funny and entertaining. The bass player so reminded me of Jeanne, a fab CSer I had the pleasure to meet this year, which by itself is another situation I will add to my next “good old times”.

cheers,

n.-

aware of what the internet can be used for

The latest The Economist has a great article about a concept I never really idealized before.

Usually, when entities' website is suffering from a DDOS attack, this one is being commandeered by a malicious person controlling zombie computers, meaning, the computer's owners do NOT know they are actually attacking something/someone.

Now, common people, politically and socially motivated, are enticed or invited to join on DDOS attacks, just like Russians were asked to Georgian official websites.




http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12673385




The guerilla with its flying sticks and stones, comfortably from home.

n.-

it's cold outside. the bed is comfy and my laptop is warm.

When TV shows are just not enough.

When there is no interesting movie to watch.

When no one is distracting me in bed.

When there is no patience for youtube.

There are simple games to keep a member of the cyber-mankind entertained at night.

• www.fantasticcontraption.com
• www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp
• www.casualcollective.com

n.-

beeps and blips

- .... . .-. .- -.. .. --- ... .. .-.. . -. -.-. . .--- ..- ... - -- . .- -. ... - .... .- - - .... . .-. . .... .- ... -... . . -. - --- --- -- ..- -.-. .... --- ..-. .-- .... .- - .. -.. --- -. .----. - .-- .- -. - - --- .-- .-. .. - . .- -... --- ..- - .- -. -.. - --- --- .-.. .. - - .-.. . --- ..-. .-- .... .- - .. ...- .- .-.. ..- . - --- -.. . ... . .-. ...- . .- .--. .-.. .- -.-. . .... . .-. . .-.-.-


n.-

entertainment

Ach so, they are called Calacas! I always wanted a papier-maché doll like that (one more item to pack for my next and still unplanned move, sigh...)

Today, entertainment was the word of the day. I had a blast at my first Wii session (and totally kicked ass at golf). Then, I stumbled on ScummVM just to notice that there is a MacOSX version.
How important can that be? Just enough to revive my joy at playing Gobliiins on a friend's Mac (I downloaded it later myselft once back at home), one of the many old-school PC Games available as abandonware. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, how great that game was!


n.-

I was listening to PaulDotCom.com's podcast n.127 and there was a very quotable note:

"Many say that security is a 3 legged stool: Secure, usable, cheap - pick two"

Kinda got me thinking.

n.-

software is a daily deal...

Kinda got fed-up with Picasa and I didn't dedicate any time (nor patience) to try all the new features from it's v3Beta.

Instead....
Picasa Web Publisher + Live Photo Gallery Beta = my pictures posted online at a 1024×768 res. It's, simple, easy and enough.


n.-

weird habits

Imagine what I did when I woke up at 2AM - I didn't rest until the battery was empty.


n.-

two new loves in one shot

Terry Richardson is nuuuuts but his pictures are so honest, raw, simple and sexual. Plus, the TASCHEN Book Terryworld is available for 15€.

While searching for a very good-looking Charlotte Kemp Muhl, I stumbled on a video directed by Terry... link

This kept me entertained for 3 minutes and happy for the rest of the evening. The song is OK too.


n.-

radio silence

I have been in that mode for a little while.

Could a girl be involved? Has work something to do with it too? Has nothing been happening lately?

Could it not be due to a little bit of everything?

 

I am not really sure either but I'll yell about something soon.

 

n.-

Rage against the Machine (reloaded)

I would like to express my deepest, lowest and most degraded feelings about a real ball breaker I have to put up with while dealing with computers!

Once in a while my Vista just BSOD's due to a display driver issue.

First...
Why the Fu** does my OS have to crash "just" because a device driver is crap? Is it really not possible to recover without ending in a real show-stopper? I reckon the drivers are handled at a really low level in the system, but to depend on a display device for stability is utter nonsense.

Second...
Why does ATI have to make such crap drivers? When decent ones come out, their distribution is handed over to the computer hardware company, in this case HP.

Third...
Why does HP take so f'in long to put out DECENT drivers that ATI just released?

There is no good solution, only an acceptable workaround - to install the latest ATI drivers using the Mobility Modder utility.

Here's the story:

1. ATI has new drivers that are not "made for" my display device (remember, HP should be handing them out)
2. HP is VERY SLOW at releasing them through their Support site
3. along comes Mobility Modder which modifies the ATI Installation program and allows it to detect the laptop display device
4. the new driver is installed BUT... it's not the best one, I reckon it is not performance optimized, my laptop's fan does not stop blowing ever
5. it does not CRASH anymore though

In the end, reliability outweighed battery performance and computer noise.

It's a shame and a disgrace that THIS is the situation that MANY people have to go through. No wonder Vista has so many problems and such a bad reputation - the OS is much better than how it is publicly known.

n.-

How to display facebook pictures out on the streets for EVERYONE to see (and admire?)

It's Sunday, voting day in the city. It's time to decide who can influence Bavaria and Munich.

I don't know anything about the local or national politicians. What I do know is how odd (ie. stupid) some billboards are. I picked out this example. Who in his right mind would vote for someone using a facebook-worthy picture (ie. stupid again) as an official picture?

I wonder if I'm missing some hidden message or just lacking the humor to eventually like this left-winged candidate's photo. The stuff I usually find around here is corny, but this is beyond that... it's the s-word again.

Probably (eventually?), the urge to search for more details about this guy's political program would be triggered by his grimace.
It feels to me like the urge to search on Wikipedia for stupid (here comes the word again) subjects (quite a pass-time and time-waster) - here's one of the best Wikipedia-related videos I've ever seen - link.


n.-

PS: the punch line reads "because other politics for Bavaria are possible and needed"... as if "we" need more buffoons

I just dumped some unknown songs onto my ZenStone and walked down the street

I never thought that as an adult, I would actually like this song...

They're called The Social Services, they're a 2/3 Scottish and 1/3 Swedish cocktail and before releasing their album, the label just let a couple of songs out, one of them being - The Final Countdown by Europe. It's very Nouvelle Vague-ish but they did a good job here - download.

The other pre-released single The Baltic Sea is a funny ode to Sweden - download.

source: http://coast-is-clear.blogspot.com/2008/09/social-services-baltic-sea.html

I feel I just made peace with this 1986' song. I still remember when I heard it in a club, it was in Switzerland during one of our school ski trips.


n.-

PS: I made sure these downloads are legal, the links are from the Record Label's site.

nothing much to report?

... well, not quite.

Jonny 5's sneakers... yeah, Lacoste for the insurgents, now!!!

Flobots...

The Flobots concert last Sunday (the 14th) was absolutely great. There are several reasons for this.
Munich is quite a conservative/classical city, hence any small gig turns into a family/friends event. We (me and some CSers) ended up hanging out with the band after the concert. Among the HUGE amount of pictures I took, a good bunch were taken by me as the official photographer for a group of 3 Germans and some other folks - we just walked from one member to the next to take group pics. The members were really cool, too bad for them that it was a small crowd, but as an attendant, I loved it!

The concert videos are online.


Wies'n...

Oktoberfest has started and so did all the crazyness. The city changes its face during this period, year after year after year... I'll make an effort to go there the least possible though:)


The summer...

Is coming to its end, the cold is here to convince us. I am happy about the home parties I am organizing and attending until we all close ourselves in our comfortable homes and hibernate socially.


Job...

I'll soon be starting at my new job, it's time to refresh that precious IT knowledge. Nothing like starting with networking, messaging and security. It sounds like fun, it is fun, but only if there are some breaks in between - after I get myself a decent guitar, I'll keep the one I have at home in the office. Let's see how it goes.


Upcoming...

Gotye will soon be in town.
Camille too, but the tickets are way too expensive.
Femi Kuti (Fela Kuti's son) would be a good oportunity to dance to afro-beat for the first time. I heard his son (Fela's grand-son) would play on stage too.
CSS is cheaper and promises to be a party.
Tindersticks, could be something to check out too!


Munich, as a toytown (or Little Big City), still has something going on, even with the narrow sight I have at the moment.


n.-

Guitars, guitars and some more guitars...

My 7/8 guitar is only quiet when she waits... until someone picks it up and jams (even if only strumming in a random fashion).

I try to differentiate the time I spend online (which is a LOT) and the one doing practical stuff, like playing the guitar - it's the ever ongoing plan to get a life and learn something that doesn't require the use of a computer.

But then, more and more online resources are made available to help get better at this so called "practical life"... and I just can't resist them all...

Let's see:

• A free alternative to Guitar Pro - the best music tabs software around - TuxGuitar
• An online guitar tabs stuffed with lots of cool songs (heck, even Dave Brubeck's Take Five is there) - Songsterr
• An online alternative to Guitar Hero - it's cooperative, it has lots of songs and it's FREE - JamLegend
• Guitar tuition videos (Karma Police is brilliant) - Video-Tabs

I got some invitations for JamLegend left, let me know if you want to coop or challenge me! One of the gains from this GuitarHero-alike is the left-hand finger practice - on a guitar, just try to switch from an Amin to an F chord (the latter is a barre) and let me know if it's that easy!

** UPDATE **
Well, I just stumbled on a VERY GOOD tuition site, it's free for those with no money to pay. The author loves contributions though... - www.justinguitar.com


n.-

it's sunday and it's raining

one...

Google Chrome definitely needs to mature. The latest issue is a "Save As" operation that could trigger Remote Code Execution - here's the Bugtraq link.

Quoting the description:

• The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error when handling the "SaveAs" function. On saving a malicious page with an overly long title (TITLE tag in HTML), the program causes a stack-based overflow and makes it possible for attackers to execute arbitrary code on users' systems

OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!!!
I'm dropping Chrome for a while. It is a Beta version after all and nobody can expect miracles.


two...

Other than that, I searched for my name on a couple of websites commonly used by HR Recruiting people:

• www.123people.de
  
• www.yasni.de
• www.cvgadget.com

The good news is, I am not THAT famous! Besides my profile on LinkedIn, there's a politician in Portugal and another guy on Facebook (living in Toronto) serving as a distraction for people inquiring about me.


three...

HOWTO: make company videos


n.-

I can't ride my Mac with no Chrome-bars

Isn't Chrome just THE latest little trendy (and fast, cool, fancy, functional... but still buggy) tool Apple users would give their right lung for?

** UPDATE **
And here's a port for Linux and Apple that CodeWeavers just released, a Proof of Concept of Chrome's: http://www.codeweavers.com/services/ports/chromium/
As these guys write, do NOT use it as a main browser, it's a "...proof of concept, for fun, and to showcase what Wine can do..."

n.-

it's a question of software

Rocketdock, Objectdock, Google Chrome, Digsby, Expression Web, PuTTY, KMPlayer, Opera, FileZilla, SyncToy, Internet Explorer 8 Beta2, Skype 4 Beta, Word, Firefox, Ubuntu, OpenSSL, Squid, Sidebar, Mediamonkey, OpenSSH, Live Writer, Notepad++, Picasa 3 beta, Expression Design, Live Photo Gallery, CopyHandler, PureText, CDBurnerXP, Yahoo! Widgets, VMWare Player, Process Explorer, Xobni, Outlook, Metapad, KeePass, Secunia PSI, VLC, Adobe Reader, ... all on Bitlocker'ed Vista x64

Chrome is sooooo cool and fast... even with its little quirks... and the 2 (disclosed) security bugs

I need to enable Compatibility Mode in IE8Beta2 too often :(

Rocketdock is free and lighter than Objectdock

Digsby fills my IM needs

Opera is too different for me to like it

Live Photo Gallery is my new fav Photo Album

CopyHandler, my file copy mate

PSI, tells me (almost) all about which software is not up-to-date

Xobni is a great help in finding mails and people in my mails

Yahoo! Widgets are so much better than I thought

Ubuntu is my home server

Mediamonkey, the best music manager, ever

Ubuntu, OpenSSH (updated), Squid and PuTTY are part of my home SSH server project

Firefox is crashing/hanging too often

Word with the ExportAsPDF plugin does NOT work if Firefox is running... investigation in progress

PSI just reported that VLC, VMWare and Winamp (?) need to be updated...

Looking at this list, my second worst fear, in case my Windows gets compromised and I have to install it from scratch... is to reinstall every little application I (almost) can't live online without.

** UPDATE **
I have since reinstalled Vista in x32 (drivers, drivers and drivers are pure utter crap on x64...). Give or take some exceptions, the same amount of software should be present but the whole system is running sooooo smooth now!

n.-

give me please, 10 minutes of Mikko Hyppönen...

"Mikko Hyppönen discusses the various motives of Crimeware in a follow up to Re:solution."


n.-

Today is a Bat Macumba day

Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba oh
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macum
Bat Macumba ê ê, Batman
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat
Bat Macumba ê ê, Ba
Bat Macumba ê ê
Bat Macumba ê
Bat Macumba
Bat Macum
Batman
Bat
Ba
Bat
Bat Ma
Bat Macum
Bat Macumba
Bat Macumba ê
Bat Macumba ê ê
Bat Macumba ê ê, Ba
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat
Bat Macumba ê ê, Batman
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macum
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba oh
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá
Bat Macumba ê ê, Bat Macumba obá!


n.-

Can you make it easier to understand please?

It's the question nobody really asks when I try to explain Security concepts & best practices.

Analogies are still the best way to achieve good results.
Don't worry, I don;t think you're stupid! It's just not easy to understand a new subject like IT Security. It's complex, technical, political, sensitive...

Heck, as professionals, we all had to get those concepts in our own head until we just snapped our fingers as we achieved enlightenment!

Sometimes, some people are able to put take real life situations and transpose them for easy understanding.

Here's a very good example - City buses are like desktops.


n.-

when watching videos (and pictures) stops time

one link leads to another...

It started with a visit to ComputerLove, followed by an diagonal scan through their feeds and ended with the eye and ear bashing '08 REEL from EAT MY DEAR:

There's plenty of stuff to please the eye with on cpluv's feed, like the best Beijing 2008 Olympics pictures:




n.-

stamp... stamp...

Even I noticed that I am not writing anything about Munich lately.
As I don't want to break the tendency, I will now deliberately avoid the subject and post another clip and guess what? It's ALSO from Sweden!

Back in Aus, I spent New Year at this doof, listening to Psy-Trance (whichever Techno deviation this style is...). As memories, I still got a scar on a finger knuckle to remember the night before and the voice of the people shouting at me to sit still, while blood dripped down my hand every time I wanted to help carry stuff (fresh scars are a bitch...).

While hosting Vivien, we exchanged some youtube clips and I have to admit that he knocked me down with a couple of his, one of them being this dance class gem:

I knew some general dance moves like the sprinkler, shoveling, the shopping cart... and even the ever magistral the cauldron, but the ones he shows are pretty adequate, mainly when on drugs. My favorite is Chernobyl child playing ping-pong:)

Keep on stamping, Leroy! You got the moves!

n.-

it's so bad and porno-corny that it just sticks

"oooohh... you touch my tralala...
my ding ding dong..."

Nobody like the swedes to create such a gem - Gunther, a guy everybody believes to be German, but who's in fact... swedish...

I have to shave, I'll leave the moustache on, get myself a pair of cool sunnies, a mullet and here I go, ready for Ibiza!!!

Kudos to Hagen for this... summer music revival:)


n.-

not too long ago, an Icelander told me "people are stupid"

As a general rule of thumb, this thought will protect you from disappointment and prepare you for the most stupid (re)actions from other folks.

Coming from the guys that brought us LOLCats and LOLdogs (???), here's a testimony to our ability (as humans) to surprise each other...

http://failblog.org

It's not even worth mentioning that its feed was almost immediately put into my RSS Reader.


n.-

I don't get sick of all the possible ways to play the music I have

Oooohhhh... this is so cool!
Some guy developed a little server-side media player - My NAS just yelled Gimme, gimme!!!.

I got it from here - http://musicbrowser.sourceforge.net/.
Unpacked it to my NAS' WWW home folder.
Edited index.php and had it point to the music files root folder.
Now, anyone accessing my network, just needs to browse to http://server/musicbrowser and voilà, directly play in the browser any available song.

I'm celebrating it with a dance to Vampire Weekend - A-Punk

keep on dancing and jumping

n.-

Picasa is getting a run for its money

Install, Try, Keep or Dump.
That's the summary of what trying out software looks like.

Vista has its own Photo Gallery but I took on to try Live Photo Gallery which has some more extra feats, like photo stitching.
Now, isn't the posted picture just a treat? It's at the small Feringa lake "just" 40-60 mins by bike form my place. I used the stitching aid feature from my IXUS 70 and stitched it all together with a couple of mouse clicks in LPG.

Ever since I started seeing how much greener the grass was on the other side of Picasa, I have been finding it easier to do the easy stuff (with LPG):

• import pictures from the memory cards (LivePG kicks serious ass here)
  
• rotate/improve some of them
• crop/resize for misc usage

Let's just say that I feel more and more a Mac user, getting that daily document/picture/music/video handling stuff sorted out quickly and without any (ie. much) hassle.

The only missing feature, uploading pictures to PicasaWeb.
The cool extra feature, uploading pictures to Flickr.


n.-

P.S.: been using ScribeFire to write the latest posts, still some bugs, but it's perfectly usable
P.P.S.: there's a new kid on the block, Pictomio (the name reminds me of the charming germano-italian insult "lecko mio"...)

Pure silent delight

People talk too much sometimes. I frequently talk too much.

This evening, a moment of silence, of pure delight was witnessed with no sound.
The five of us, after a delicious onions and ginger quiche, were almost done with the dessert.
The bowl of melted chocolate was arriving to its end. All the fruit had already been dipped into its chocolate dream and mouths had gladly tasted those simple duets.
Ice cream was the last victim to fall before this devilishly tasty, dark, hot, gooey and sweet liquid.
Jazz in the kind of this great "Take Five" was playing from my bulky and trustworthy music player.
At some point, nobody said anything, we all just gazed somewhere, probably nowhere at all, while the spoon slowly but surely went back up, carrying some chocolated ice to one's patiently open mouth.

I wish I had more moments like those. Being somewhere and not really anywhere. Being with other people and enjoying it with all of them, but still able to appreciate that singular moment independent and selfishly.


n.-

Bret and Germaine

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the Flight of the Conchords. I've been watching their show but Theres just gave me a refresh with this clip - illustrates their humor pretty much!

Each episode has a couple of their songs but this one is just brilliant.

...
you're so beautiful
you could be a waitress
you're so beautiful
you could be a air hostess in the sixties...

Surely one of New Zealand's most brilliant exports

Again, kudos to Theres for her tip on this live gig video.


n.-

Building myself a tunnel and doing some "hash" on the side

Deploying OpenVPN (or another home VPN Server) is my new tech project. This old laptop lying around looks like the perfect host candidate (might as well do something more useful with it than just a book holder)

First step, get myself a linux distro (or just install XP). A quick search on www.distrowatch.com to find myself a Distro and here we go... (more about this in a couple of months...)

I am downloading a couple of ISO's within FF3, it allows to pause and resume downloads even between reboots. After pausing and resuming the download so many times, I am not sure the file is integer anymore. So, let's compare hashes.

I could not find any tool integrated into Vista to check for hashes, so after another search, here is a gem I need to recommend: Hashtab

• Install it.
• Integrate it into the shell
• right click on a file
• on the checksum tab, let it compute the hash
• in the meantime go get the SHA-1 or MD5 supplied by the source and when done, paste it into the underlying field
• click compare, voilá!
  

A little article about it on MyDigitalLifeStyle - link

The links:

• Download HashTab v1.11 for x32
• Download HashTab v1.11 for x64
• Official HashTab Homepage

A brilliant tool! (for whoever's concerned about file checksum check, about 1% of the active internet population)

n.-

the dancing nerds

This tune has been in my head for a little while and it just doesn't want to leave.
I could have discovered it earlier if only I had listened to the little amount of songs obtained from (the very busy) The Hype Machine.
I could have discovered it even earlier, had I known it was Converse's 100th Birthday theme - which reminds me I need some new shoes...

The video is ab-fab, no doubt about it!


n.-

A long nose and a pony tail

Everybody knows the IKEA PS VÅLLÖ watering cans.
According to this link, the designer, "Monika Mulder got with Vållö the award for Best Swedish Design 2002".

I wonder if she ever imagined the can to be used the way it was displayed at an optician in Munich.

reinventing/-using/-cycling design...


n.-

Mediamonkey, baby! You're not THAT expensive'!

New laptop (woohoo, Dual-Core 2.2GHz), new OS (Vista 64'f-in bits), new Mediamonkey installation.

Time to go up there and download it again. Now wait, what is this Trialpay?

Oh yes, instead of having to pay 19.95USD for a full MM License, I can get a partner service/product and they will "pay" for my license. I wasn't thinking of getting any of the offers until I noticed that VistaPrint is a partner.

So, after a couple of clicks to design myself a new visit-card and accepting to pay 7EUR for shipment, 250 brand new cards will soon be at my doorstep and I get a fully functional MM license!

n.-

[ UPDATE1: It's Windows only ]

Curry is not their only export

This video soooo deserves its own post!
Its version with english lyrics is available here.


n.-

My loony bun is fine Benny Lava!

EVERYBODY knows the "crazy indian video" from youtube.
I just had my laugh of the day with its subtitled version (at least, how the hindu sounds in english):

Thinking I've seen it all, I just clicked away to finally spot this video with 10,973,951 views (yup, 10 Million), called "Indian Thriller"(get a glass of water first, my throat dried up really fast from all the laughing...).
This one ranked pretty high in my Top 5 "Psychedelic-SynthPop-JaneFonda-onCrack" category.


n.-

mais uma volta, mais uma viagem

And one more tour at the Hofbräuhaus. It's loud, there's lots of beer and the foreigner population is 10 times bigger than the German one.

We got ourselves a pair of panties from the vending machine located in the "Dame's" bathroom. I guess they come in random colors and shapes but we got unlucky and had in our hands some white ones with a big butterfly motive in the front ornamented by some shining silver decoration.

After a brief discussion, we all agreed about the big mystery: "Why in the name of all that is sacred, are there panties for sale in the toilet?"
Bridget Jones gave the answer a long time ago: If a girl hangs out there, wearing some corny/cheesy/ugly knickers and meets a (drink till they're) cute bloke, there's nothing like a visit to the bathroom to get a decent (if you're lucky) undergarment for the embelishment of the last moments of the night. (at 3EUR each, be sure to take lots of coins, you might also end up with an anti-climax butterfly-shaped G-string...)

Anyway...

Honey! Listen to me! As drunk as you'd both leave the place, he surely will NOT mind about what your underwear looks like. Oh! I get it, it's all in your head... a question of self-confidence!

I agree then, there's very little more important than self-confidence - men should then be able to buy sticker-tattoos from their WC vending machine.


n.-

another techy post

The Pwnie Awards nominees are set. My personal favorite being Windows Vista for proving that security does not sell in the the Pwnie for Most Epic FAIL category:

• The good thing about the Vista debacle is that no other vendor will care to do such a security push, which means that we'll be able to easily own any piece of software for the foreseeable future.

Other than that, the Bloglines Beta news aggregator has been on my RSS reader benchmark ever since Valerie told me about it - great interface, good for reading fast through the news.


n.-

I never thought a smartphone could be all a "connected" person would need

picture obtained from a gizmodo article

I've been living with a Smartphone ever since I joined Microsoft. On a personal and professional level, it's a fab device, small, charges quickly, great autonomy, best Contact Search I ever experienced...

As a professional, such a device should be able to hold all I need to do my work. It just stinks to use its super small keypad and screen. And this is where a laptop-looking smartphone terminal comes into play - the Redfly.
"... with a large screen and full keyboard with no OS, no CPU, and no storage that lets you use your smartphone like a laptop. REDFLY links to your smartphone via a USB cable or wireless Bluetooth connection... "

After reading a Dark Reading story about how this solution could simplify network security management with mobile devices, I reckon its value in its worst-case scenario - the now soooooo popular lost laptops:

• once a mobile device gets lost, the device data encryption will keep data safe and ultimately, wipe out features based on repeated wrong passwords or remote command from a server, will keep data definitely clear of malevolent hands. Laptops have similar features too, but how much easier are these features to implement and manage?

499$USD is a high price... (more expensive than the ASUS eee PC 900) but its features balance this negative side: 8hrs autonomy, weighing 1kg, small as it is, allows to recharge the smartphone...

I loved the concept. Wishing to lower the amount of tech hardware needed to perform what I need/want to, this would one way to accomplish it without relying on pure low-tech brain memory and paper sheets to burn after every information write-down.

By the way, how can anyone lose a laptop? I know I have a bad memory, but I never even managed to lose my umbrella ever since I bought it 5 years ago. I do love my Terra cotta Knirps umbrella! Could love be the reason for this prowess? "Love thy laptop and ye shall not lose it"


n.-

those nasty spammers

The screencap is from a really cool video from the dutch IT Security bureau - www.waarschuwingsdienst.nl.

F-Secure mixed its reporting data with Google Earth. The results? A world map with the reported SPAM (and malware) originators... and let me tell you, it looks reaaalllyyy coooollll!!!
The article - link.

The video:

Besides that, there are some online reports that look more like movie scripts than malware gang reports:

• Dark Reading: Cybercrime, Cosa Nostra-Style
• Securityfocus: Cybercrime gets busy getting organized

As always, be aware

n.-

Ordnung muss sein

This is one of the stereotypical characteristics about Germans - There must be order.
I believe it's actually one of the few ones that is really true.

I have been on a multi-flanked clean-up endeavour myself!

• It started with my music collection (ouch, ouch, ouch...)! It's all fine and dandy to rip my CDs into my MP3 collection, but the TAG consistency is not always the best. XBMC sometimes does not correctly read the data... V1 and V2 are not the same, etc... this is where MediaMonkey comes into play, my new favorite order and consistency enforcer! Thanks to Paulo for being so nagging about this software. It really made my collection easier to sift through (after some serious long and hard-working hours) ;
• Lifehacker is a website always proposing new and innovative software (or tricks) to accomplish stuff. I am FED UP with the amount of software to do all those little things, a vain attempt to organize a life behind a screen (and an increasing hassle to maintain all that softwar). I reckon that only some of the things are useful, I am thus cleaning up the computer and starting to use only the BARE necessary stuff and even then, look for the best online solutions, meaning, I avoid using software installations. Some good examples are Google Reader, MindMeister, Google Notebook... all of which with some little tweaks in Firefox (which has been updated to 3.0.1) do make online life easier;
• not to mention my whole flat, as I am putting everything in 1 room and will start deciding (once again) what to discard, give away or sell;
  

Speaking of tidyness...
... Couchsurfing just got some improvements:

• only 3 types of feedback now: Positive, Neutral or Negative - much easier to decide now;
  
• profile pages show obtained and given references side-by-side - REALLY COOL;

... here's the related news flash - link

I am done with today's tidying up. Time to go outside and get some air, come back, practice some more on my guitar, think about which simple recipe to cook for dinner and eventually go out at night for this weekend's Munich 850 birthday celebrations with some live shows.


n.-

Couchsurfers on TV

T-Mobile did it around May this year, I only caught news about this now. Ain't it just so effin'cool?

What if you don't know what a "couchsurfer" is? Google will have the right answer ranked first.

Still about CS... there's also another pretty decent video news report (in San Francisco) and from this online piece, my favorite quote is:

• As a host, George explains, “I love how the culture comes to me when I am not able to travel myself.”

n.-

PS: I'll let you know when I am famous too... this should happen around September...

Trent for free

The latest NIN album , The Skip, was released online for free.

The complete discography (with the Halo order) is on this cool site - 9inchnails.com.

A taste of Discipline:

am I still tough enough?
feels like I'm wearing down
is my visciousness
losing ground?
am I taking too much
did I cross a line
I need my role in this
very clearly defined

I need your discipline
I need your help
I need your discipline
you know once I start I cannot help myself

Trent rulez (there's really no other way to put it),

n.-

Stephen Hawking reading wikipedia out for you

Back in the not-so-old days, Dr. Sbaitso would be the digital home psychiatrist brought to you by a soundcard developer, ie. the computer would speak with you in this annoying weirdo-tone digital voice.



While searching for a mobile wikipedia, I stumbled on a website that will... take a deep breath... read wikipedia articles for you and save them in MP3 for later appreciation.



This is GREAT, I always wanted to have the most trusted source of biased information read out to me in a digital voice. It's truly, a dream come true...



Pediaphon - the link



I can see so many applications for this, hearing about my favorite musicians while jogging, learning more details about salmonella while cooking or even getting hints about contraception while at home with my girlfriend...



n.-



PS: Jokes apart, the project is an interesting e- and m-learning tool



PPS: I do use a mobile wikipedia, it's always handy to get that little piece of information EVERYONE is wondering about... but I stopped reading articles out loud to people as I had to pay them coffee to keep them awake while holding their arm so they would not leave...

Insert 3EUR and press the right button

Who can explain to me why the Hofbräuhaus' ladies toilet has a vending machine supplying G-Strings?

Want to know what the men's toilet has? A (stainless steel) puke bowl.I guess that management decided on these offers as a reaction to demands.


Was I a girl, would I understand what relationship drinking and a new pair of panties have?I wonder how well these G-strings sell... this stupid curiosity makes me want to investigate.



Servus


n.-

another free hugs day

 ... and there he goes, after getting his first free hug (ie. hug from a stranger on the street) from Nancy, that old man took on trying it by himself.



This time around, we even got ourselves a VIDEO, yeah!!!! Kudos to Paulo for that!

cheerios,



n.-

a birthday thing

Years ago, I would attempt to take the day off on my birthday, it was some kind of self reward on that special (!!??) day.

In the end, it's really only a milestone, just like driving on a long road to somewhere, while those little white stones whizz by on the side of the road, telling you how far you already drove.

Depending on how fast they follow each other, you might be driving too fast



What is today's day made of?

• Setting up and fine-tuning a Powerpoint presentation I am delivering tomorrow as the final part of a job application (important self-reminder: TALK SLOOOOOWLY);


• online tip of the day: You just found a page (a blog, an artist homepage, etc...) with a download link to an MP3 file and you want to listen to it? Install a Greasemonkey Inline Mp3 Player script that will create a little [play] link next to the mp3 file and stream the song directly from the page. note: Largeheartedboy already includes a Yahoo inline player on its page;


• in combination with the previous bullet: CoastIsClear just made my morning a little bit brighter with some great indie proposals;


• welcoming with a big smile all the birthday wishes (thank you all for that);


• watching my much admired security talk presenter, Mikko Hypponen (in the hope I get some inspiration);


• while researching a bit about presentations (and how to deliver them the best way possible), I found the latest Where the hell is Matt video (the scene in Munich is shown at 2:18) .

Who/what is also celebrating/being celebrated today? Canada day, Princess Diana, Dan Akroyd and last but not least, Pamela Anderson (who is canadian btw).



n.-



PS: just in case you're wondering WHERE I found Matt's new video: http://www.presentationzen.com/

PPS: Here's a direct link to Matt's video (FF3 + NoScript + AdBlockerPlus are f'in with the editing of this post)

mango-ginger-chili at night

Ding ding ding...
And on our left side, Mango-Ginger-Tofu!!!!!
While on our right side, Chili Soy!!!!
To balance the whole dish, some couscous and rice. Let the tasteful fight begin!

The Ginger/Mango marinade is absolutely delicious. The bell-pepper (green stuff on top) is a great detail.
Some notes of improvement for future attempts:

• use less orange and lime juice, their taste just take over too much;
• add more green veggies to the rice, broccoli for example;
• replacing the jalapeno with some dried smashed chili gave a much appreciated little kick;
  

Jakob's Chili Soy was faaaaaab! He's totally into it and getting some great results out of his efforts.

Everybody was pleased and fed healthily - surely something everyone's mom will be pleased to know.


n.-

I saw you, it was incredible...

You, Lynard Skinnard-hat and
Me, little kitty
Sat across with a velvet jacket
Wild orange hair and dark, dark eyes
I gawked like a twelve-year-old - smitten
Carla the stripper,
straight from L.A.
You seem cool for a naked chick in a booth
Let's be pals some day
In other words,
Put some clothes on and call me

I saw you
It was incredible

Slim, relax,
Fine wine at the (QFC)
On a snowy Saturday night
Black pearls and I swear you were drinkin' beer
You were the redhead behind the counter there
I'm the one who fell off his chair there
You had your dry-cleaning and I think you're dreaming

I saw you
It was incredible
Mumbled these words at you
Unintelligible

My, my, my, my
My, my, my, my, my, my, my

My, my, my, my
My, my, yea hey-hey
Hey who had what time is it?


PS: This is all for the crescendo drum part, it's going to stay in my ear all night

same old, same old... for a change

Nothing much going on on N's Munich front.

• Germany qualified itself for the Euro2008 final happening Sunday night;
• I never know what to put on before going out (the best bet is still the "shorts + t-shirt" combination, it can rain but it won't be cold);
• a friend is staying over next week;
• I have some new poi tricks to practice on (which makes me think I need to research about the lef-/rightside brain "thing"...

So tonight is veggie-dinner night, 2nd episode. My proposal is a Mango Ginger Tofu. I'll be posting about the outcome, I can already tell that the marinade cooking in the kitchen smells terrific!!!! Just imagine mango, ginger, garlic, maple syrup and wine simmering for half-an-hour... it just awakens the notion pleasure with a totally new and amazing odor.

If only the people enjoying the veggie-nights also had room, a decent kitchen and wouldn't live too far away from downtown. It sucks to be the only one...

n.-

a good day to remember filthy words

George Carlin died this sunday - news report.
Besides the 7 words you can never say on TV (wikipedia list), the 2433 filthy word list words and a poster to remember them, there are lots of stand-up shows he made for HBO to watch and loads of audio Albums available.

n.-

Feng Shui in the mountains?

FENG SHUI
"Wir bieten hier die Möglichkeit, an diesem PLATZ KRAFT zu tanken" - "We supply here at this PLACE the possibility to fill up with ENERGY"

And this is the kind of stuff one can find in austrian mountains, more precisely next to the Hoch Kössen resort - a place they call the Paragliding Paradise.
I should have sat there for a little bit because I am waaasted tonight. All this sun and polen in my lungs brought me down big time, not the hike itself though:P

A calm night sleep is waiting for me.

n.-

the sky is gray...

... but the grass is still green.

Firefox 3 is out - Portable version recommended...

Opera 9.5 (portable too) came recently out too and it's FAST!!!! Hell-blazing fast, but looks like it has some issues with Blogger Post composing...

Google Reader is the best RSS aggregator/reader I had the chance to try...

The Heavy have the great dirty rock sound I so love...

Office Live is a great way to keep and share my Office Docs, it's Sharepoint based though :S...

The Kinks are now a permanent member of my 60's-70's artists...

July the 5th is another International Free Hugs day...

I so dislike the 80's-90's TV movies' acting and hairdos, just like the ones in The Bourne Identity (1988), the miniserie is great though...

... and The Hype Machine is the hardest music blog to keep up with, I just unsubscribed from that prick.


n.-

rejuvenating my MP3 player's playlist with random stuff

Stereogum can be an interesting blog to take some musical names from, but it's a bit like those fat daily newspapers (Expresso, Süddeutsche...) where I only read 5% from and put the rest aside. How many bands/singers can I digest in so little time?

Do I need to be an intense and speedy music lover?
I guess I'd need to stop wasting that precious listening time in useless activities like: going out, taking a shower, go get some groceries, work for a living.... In some of these situations, a portable (and waterproof) MP3 player could be "a" solution.

I love the fact that some previewed songs are available to download as an MP3 file - the Try-Before-You-Buy concept.

This year I discovered another blog, Largehearted Boy. It is also indie-oriented (like 90% of all music blogs) but it's worth spending 5-10mins downloading some new songs from the two main songlists, it supplies enough material to keep anyone entertained on his way to/from work/school:

• The Daily Downloads
• Try It Before You Buy It
  

These listings have enough good material to help me build my contribution for the CD exchange club I am part of.

A new folder just spawned in my Music Collection, it's called "Suggestions" and will host all those little tracks that can keep my ears fresh with new stuff.

Just for kicks, I googled for "mp3 blog"... and bang, heaps more places to legally (direct links from the artist's sites are provided) get some songs from.

This one for example sounds very promising, coast-is-clear, as it also provides songs from german/swiss/austrian artists. Let's see... downloaded 23 songs to the designated folder on my NAS, browse XBMC's Ajax web interface, four clicks and here I go for some further music discovery. I'll just crank up the volume while I take a shower (no, I have not gotten myself a pair of wireless waterproof speakers...)

The Hype Machine makes it all even easier (or harder, judging by the amount of daily additions) "The Hype Machine follows music blog discussions" they say:)
Just open the link, find a post and click the little "PLAY" button to stream it directly. To download the samples, the original post needs to be opened.


n.-

It could be a culinary adventure...

... but it was just a simple and almost safe experiment.


This is ragout, bolognese ragout. Based on the very simple Ragout-à-la-Rossella (celeri, onion, carrot and tomato sauce), today I decided to use some thyme while cooking and added 1/3 a mozzarella ball almost at the end.
I would like to have posted a much nicer picture, like how it looked like on a plate, covered with some delicious Parmesan (24 months old) and Basil, but it was just smelling too good to hold my appetite. (Not even need to mention how f'in delicious it was) This is a very repeatable recipe.


n.-

PS: Behind me, my current guest is watching Into the wild, at the part where the main character tries to get a bed for homeless people and identifies himself as "Alex Supertramp":D The OST promises great things, it's Eddie Vedder after all.

IT-Sec updates...

There has been so much going on, on the IT Security front.

F-Secure shows in a rather simple way how an Adobe Acrobat Reader vulnerability can be used - link
... and they even show how to create such malicious PDFs (considering you got the tools) - link
(links obtained from RHensing's post - here)

Microsoft warned about an Apple Safari for Windows issue - link
... but then a researcher wrote that the issue is just the tip of the iceberg and an IE/Windows vulnerability can be used to propel the issue even further - link

Adobe, according to RHensing, is just increasing its attack surface, almost "just for the fun of adding cool features" by allowing Javascript, and in the future, Flash data to be embedded into PDFs... just great... - link

Kaspersky calls for help to beat a new RansomWare's encryption key, it's REALLY nasty when a virus just encrypts YOUR data, making it unreachable/unreadable and asks for a ransom to decrypt it back - link1 - link2

Some genral simple concepts:
- Adobe Acrobat (Secunia link) as well as Adobe Flash (Secunia link) player from a security point of view, are widely known as swiss cheese ie. have lots of security vulnerabilities, they're always in the (secuurity) news aren't they?
- F-Secure and Kaspersky are top-notch AV vendors (no wonder that several banks propose their customers a discount for products of these two vendors)


n.-

PS: This post's picture was taken from Stuart King's blog post on Computerweekly - link
PPS: I am still... working on trackbacks... my apologies to the affected people

runners on posters

Tödliche Spiele = deadly games

84GHz had an exhibit space on the Street Life festival with these suggestive prints related/dedicated to the Olympic games in Peking.

N.-

Not looking but knowing it happened

Congratulations to the Portuguese soccer team on their 2-0 victory against Turkey on their first Euro 2008 game.

I wasn't there to cheer for you, a home dinner and a fire show kept me entertained. Thanks to all those with their SMS notifications:)


cheers

n.-

PS: what's the national cheer song this year? I hope they're not recycling the ones used in past cups.