_The_Lone_Codeman_
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The Einstein-Freud Correspondence
Have you read the published correspondence between Einstein and Freud? It was Einstein who first sent a letter to Freud in 1931 or early 1932. The basic message was simple - why do we tend to use violence and what rights does political leaders/governments have.
:: Einstein:
"...Political leaders or governments owe their power either to the use of force or to their election by the masses. They cannot be regarded as representative of the superior moral or intellectual elements in a nation..."
The reply from Freud in September 1932 goes in the same attitude that indeed the importance of pacifism is and will be one of the key issues in the world. He goes one small step further and link it to why the human instinct is to use violence.
:: Freud:
"...You begin with the relations between might and right, and this is assuredly the proper starting point for our inquiry. But, for the term might, I would substitute a tougher and more telling word: violence..."
How right these great men were. This is a highly present issue in the world of today. I can not stop thinking about George W(ar) Bush - what right did he have to force people, a nation, into war and go against what most nations expressed concerns about, the use of violence.
Here you can read most of the Correspondence!
Comments, thoughts?
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Some Pics From My Easter Trip
So, here are some (13) pics I promised in this earlier post.
Monschau: River and houses.
The Code Slinger
Monschau: The river, the most famous house of this little village - the 'red house' - it's Monschau in Germany. The only thing missning is christmas time and one of their markets.
The Code Slinger
Trier: The hotel I stayed in. Really nice one with friendly people. Germans CAN be nice ;-)
The Code Slinger
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
New model - the Neonode N1m cell phone
Earlier I wrote about the amazing cell phone Neonode N1, now it seems there is a new updated model called N1m. The differences are, as I see it the first glance, some additional and upgraded software, trippel band support, updated camera resolution (1024*1024), video player (MPEG 1, MPEG 4, WMV - with the 1GB SD card you can watch a complete DIVx movie ;-)), vibrator and so much more.
Further it now supports Windows CE 5.0 operating system and the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework. This is great for me who would start developing .NET applications...AT ONCE!
Monday, March 28, 2005
My Easter Weekend in Germany
For Easter weekend I went to Germany's oldest city Trier. It has really some interesting sights and historical buildings from the roman time. When walking around in the city/town, I couldn't help thinking about the latest book I read, the Da Vinci code. Don't know why, but that's what I was thinking about seeing the OLD churches, cathedrals etc. Trier is one of the first cities along the river Mousel coming from north (Koblenz is the last in the district). This district is THE wine area of Germany which gave a great view on the hill sides driving there.
On my way back, going north, I also stopped in Monschau, a great little German town/village close to the border of Belgium. This is a tiny little place, but a really nice spot. Over-looking the village, which is situated in a valley, there is a real genuine castle and right through it runs a river.
I’ll update this post with some of my pictures of Trier and Monschau soon…
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Where did my logos go?
Just noticed that all references to my logos are broken, this is due to maintenance work on the hosting server where they are located! I don't have an eta yet...
The server is up and running again. Should work now.
The Code Slinger
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Fun links
Just got some fun links for you.
:: The Hate Sites
The first set is people who really, really, REALLY hates a company.
- www.ms-eradication.org - Microsuck. People who just hates Microsoft.
- www.paypalsucks.com - The URL says it all.
- www.allstateinsurancesucks.com - Same with this URL.
- www.amexsux.com - and here too.
- www.walmart-blows.com - and how about this one?
- www.untied.com - Target; United Airlines.
- www.unitedpackagesmashers.com - New name for UPS.
This is just an amazing set of pictures of how Tokyo looks underground. Is it sci-fi? No, this is how it looks for REAL.
::Postcard Viewer
This is a cool postcard viewer with search functionally. Really nice Flash site.
Enjoy!
Softwarepatents - Dreamers vs. the Businesses?
So, I received a new message from NoSoftwarePatents.com again with the latest news about the infected situation.
This time it's the concern that EU doesn't have the understanding that this is a commercial issue, not only for the 'little dreamers' or the open source community only!
:: Quote from the message
"...On the one hand, we have some good points to make against software patents, and decisions by various parliaments are quite helpful. On the other hand, we can't win unless our concern over software patents is fully understood to be a commercial issue as opposed to "the dreamers vs. the businesses". Many members of the European Parliament consider themselves pro-business, and some of them unfortunately are under the false impression that it's exclusively (or almost exclusively) the open-source community that is critical of software patents.
We know that countless businesses are worried about software patents but we have to prove it to the European Parliament. Generally speaking, unless business put their money where their mouth is, they will be much less likely to win..."
Read this press release from two sponsors of NoSoftwarePatents.com which is basically a call for action.
Thursday, March 17, 2005
New look, old engine - The Avant Browser
.::Add-on Browser
The browsers are popping up everywhere. After having a look on a lot of them it seems they can be divided into two main groups - add-on browsers and 'stand alone' browsers. Add-on would be browsers which are based on 'stand alone' (Firefox, Opera and MS Internet Explorer etc) engines.
I am going to highlight one called Avant Browser; an add-on to MS Internet Explorer. If you're changing browser because of, let's say, security issues of MS Internet Explorer, do NOT chose this one. This is just if you want some new features and another look and feel.
:: Features
Avant Browser has useful functions, such as a pop-up blocker, grouped favorites, an RSS reader, and tabbed browsing. It also comes with a nice skin as default and you can choose from many skins in the Tools menu.
The tabbed-browsing feature lets you quickly switch among Web sites, rather than going through several browser instances in the taskbar. When you shut down the program, Avant Browser remembers which windows were open and launches them the next time it starts up. You also can automatically refresh all windows, or only the current one, at regular intervals. A simple pop-up blocker works OK, but not against some banners other pop-up methods.
If you want to have a 100% IE compatible browser with more functions and features, I’d recommend the Avant Browser.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Have been sick...
I really, really, REALLY should write something. It's not that I don't have anything to write about, in fact I have 3 posts to finish, it's just that I've been sick for some time now. I'll soon have something more.
:: I was thinking of writing something about starting up a web site using PHP/MySQL and where to find the FREE providers.
:: Another post is going to be about the browser called Avant Browser. New interesting MS IE based "add-on", but with some nice features.
:: And the third is about some specifics about MS Access and MS SQL - things to think about when using both of them...and why it sometimes can be a good idea to use both of them.
OK, until soon...
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Disturbing news about Software patents proposal in EU
The software patent issue is really heating up in EU. What's happening there is nothing else than a crime, to be frank it sickens me!
As I've already mentioned, I am a supporter of NoSoftwarePatents.com and I just got an update from them. Since this issue is now making EU history (of stupidity in the most apalling and disturbing way) I am going to share the message with you.
:: Message starts:
"The political struggle over the EU software patent directive
is making EU history. EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, who
supports our opponents in an appalling way, told the press a
few days ago that this political process is in "chaos" without precedent in the history of the EU. That's the way it should be: A major injustice like software patents must not happen without strong resistance from responsible politicians and citizens."
:: What's happening in EU:
"...On Friday, Reuters reported that the EU Council has its proposal for the software patent directive on the agenda for Monday,
as an A item, which means "for debateless approval".
To be very precise, it's a proposal for a proposal. If it were
to be adopted, it still wouldn't become law. It would, however, become the EU Council's proposal that gets sent to the European Parliament, and that is a very important step toward a directive..."
:: Latest development on the proposal
"Now, the latest news is that Denmark will side with Poland (which is absolutely against the current proposal but said this week that it can't fight all alone), and those two countries, most probably with support from others, will stand up on Monday in the EU Council (the legislative body in which the EU member country governments cast their votes) and prevent a decision. Those countries will ask for a renegotiation so that Europe will hopefully see a much more balanced and well-thought-out directive on the patentability of software concepts and functionalities..."
Not giving to too much of this disturbing development, but there it is. The whole idea with EU and the it's setup is to have a democrasy in Europe, were the people also have a say. Well, that went out the door in this case. Call me naive; but maybe if this reaches enough people we could make a difference??? Would you please help and spread the awareness.
You can read about the latest development in detail here.
You can also read this rather amusing fake press release about the de-facto acquisition of a part of the European Commission by Microsoft here.
I finish this off with another citation from NoSoftwarePatents.com:
"Now let's see what happens on Monday in Brussels. We're in for a really big thing."Thursday, March 03, 2005
REBOL - Scripting Internet
So, years ago, 2 or something like that, I was using this script language called Rebol. What function specifically I was working on, I don't remember. It's not important. Now, 2 days ago I had to do a quick 'little something'. By chance my thought went to Rebol and how it would fit perfectly for the task.
The 'little something' was basically to do checks on a set of .ASP files in different folders on multiple web servers. Aldready when writing the little function I was thinking I have to write about it here, Rebol is such a great environment. Everything about it - from installation to the functianllities...and the cost (free) .
Rebol offers a lot too - the free stuff; Core (command line environment) and View (GUI interface). The professional and enterprise products; Command (enterprise and professionals), SDK (developers) and finally even their own OS - Rebol/IOS. I've been using the Core and View and that's what I am going to write about here.
:: INSTALLATION:
Just go to Rebol download, download the files accordingly, extract them and start. You'll be prompted for the basic settings when started up the first time. Core and View installed is taking less than 800 KB...
:: SCRIPTING:
It's really easy, if you're somewhat into programming you'll get it in no time. What is so cool is...well...i quote Rebol.com "...You're already familiar with how web browsers let you surf the Internet. With REBOL you script the Internet." You have 14 standard protocols like http, pop, smtp, ftp, nntp, whois, finger built in, just use them without files or function declarations. If you want to send a message via SMTP, simply execute send CodeSlinger@send.com "this is a message". Couldn't be easier. To view an webpage execute print read http://thelonecodeman.blogspot.com or to save it locally execute write %file.htm read http://thelonecodeman.blogspot.com. That was just a scratch on the surface. You can do rather nice stuff, even CGI and execute scripts cross servers through http protocol etc. etc.
If you need a fast, easy scripting language have a look at it. I can recommend it for specific small network/internet functions. If you have questions, just drop me a line or comment and I'll try to answer.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
The Predictable Oscar's
OK, it's done. The Oscar's have been handed out within the 26 categories. I especially like the 2 categories called Writing (adapted screen play) and Writing (original screen play). What the !@#% is that all about? I wonder if the person who wrote the original screen play will share the prize ...or at least have a part of it? I doubt it though.
For the best foreign language movies the Swedish one AS IT IS IN HEAVEN didn't win, it went to the predicted Spanish one. Anyways, cool to see that Clint Eastwood got 2 awards, even though his movie 'Million dollar baby' is, more or less, unknown to me. But now days I don't have too much time for movies, I am not in the loop any more. The movie
Another thing with Oscar's is the criticism it gets. Predictable (I wonder how the game predict the winners ended?), being too internal (I guess when selections for nominees are made etc) and the lack of interest from public; are some of what critics claim. Well, I partly have to agree to that. Let's say I would never select a certain movie over another based on number of Oscars it received.
BTW: What do you think about the site? Interesting choice of colours! Orange, green, pink and cyan...I can not stop being reminded about those cheap-under-the-belt kind of sites.
