Too Far Afield

• You will be told what you already knew: Debian Fastest Growing Linux Distribution
• You will be introduced into things you never knew: Definition Lists – Misused or Misunderstood? [via The Webstandards Project]
• You will be affirmed of things you hoped so much that you thought you knew: Mozilla Firebird 0.8 Coming Soon
• You will be asked for things you should have known: Mozilla Roadmap Tweaks

Well, snow didn’t arrive as fast as weathermen thought, but now it’s finally there. Tuesday night it was only a small mantle, but now it’s grown impressively. Of course it’s not as much snow as in other places, but for Hamburg it is quite much. And it lasts!

Coming home by car Tuesday night, I had some problems to get myself back in good shape as the roads were very slippery and we still had summer tyres mounted. On Wendsday and Thursday morning I went to the city by bicycle and especially on Thursday it was a bit problematic. However skies were blue and sun was shining and I was also able to view a wonderful port panorama, so I was indemnified for any exertions.

I have to go to the city again this morning and I think I take the bike for this trip, too. I could go by public transport, but I want to save my money. In the evening I have another appointment and I think I need the car to get myself and all the stuff I need there. Hopefully conditions get a bit better till then.

• Bill Gates makes another miserable promise: Will spam be gone by 2006?
• If they had only included a commercially obtainable lambda 4 emitter on their shopping list, it could have been a c’t idea: Double Double Dash [via Jason Kottke]
• This one was in c’t sometime ago, however it was not nearly as interactive: Search Engine Relationship Chart [via Jason Kottke]
• How war on terror influenced science in the U.S.: As one door closes… [via Die Zeit Blog]
• Being faced with former times: What They Left Behind [via The Fray Storyblog]
• Maciej Ceglowski visited Howard Dean (takes time, quite long): Howard Dean in Plymouth, New Hampshire
• Just a quick message: http://www.linuxstolescocode.com/ [via Papa Scott]
• Dave Winer put up some thoughts again: Is Dean the Internet’s Candidate?
• Dave Shea changed his mind: mezzoblue § Notes From All Over Part IV
• Guess what? It’s not in the title! Paul: I can’t even think of a title. Nick: Titleless, too.
• The conflict between 1000 and 1024 (in German): Von Kibibits und Gibibytes
• More on Apple: Apple of my eye
• Whose copyright has been infridged today? Protecting Your Interests [via Dave Shea]

In yesterdays ‘Recent Bloggings…’ I linked to Joel Spolsky’s article about getting your Resumes read. Here is a quote from a follow up on his weblog:

The number one best way to get someone to look at your resume closely: come across as a human being, not a list of jobs and programming languages. Tell me a little story. “I’ve spent the last three weeks looking for a job at a real software company, but all I can find are cheezy web design shops looking for slave labor.” Or, “We yanked our son out of high school and brought him to Virginia. I am not going to move again until he is out of high school, even if I have to go work at Radio Shack or become a Wal*Mart greeter.” (These are slightly modified quotes from two real people.)

These are both great. You know why? Because I can’t read them without thinking of these people as human beings. And now the dynamic has changed. I like you. I care about you. I like the fact that you want to work in a real software company. I wanted to work in a real software company so much I started one. I like the fact that you care more about your teenage son than your career.

Just as true as the original article. If you did not read it already, give it a try now. It’s high quality advice and therefore warmly recommended to all of you.

For those of you, who try to install PHP4 and PHP5 on the same server, here is a nice tutorial, I just found a link to in a relevant forum: Running PHP4 and PHP5 parallel.

The tutorial is quite obvious. It uses two instances of Apache seperated by ports. As discussed at the php-dev mailinglist sometime around late fall last year, it is simply not possible to run both the PHP4 module and the PHP5 module on the same Apache instance at the moment. I did not remember if they left the one who asked stuck with this information or if they said it might be possible to do it at a later time.

However please note: First I did not test the tutorial so please don’t sue me if it doesn’t work. Second PHP5 is still in beta stage. You are strongly advised not only by the people over at php-dev, but also by me, not to use PHP5 in a production environment. Even with two Apache instances badly written scripts (or well written scripts meeting bad bugs) may still crash your entire server – not only one apache instance. That’s for a disclaimer and my 2 cents.

As I told you in an earlier sidenote, winter has been back to the north of Germany for one or two days now. Listening to our local radio station NDR2 in the background most of the time, I was also an early witness of the following news: This night there is much snow coming down from the north of Europe to fall down here in Germany. Weathermen like the famous Jörg Kachelmann (he even has his own talk show!) expect this night to be one of the snowieest in the last 10 years. We’ll see what time brings. However streets should be slippery from now on due to a phenomena they call Überfrierende Nässe. This occures when the ground is still frozen due to snow that lies on it but the air is already warm enough to produce rain. The rain will freeze on the streets right from the time it meets the ground. So lot’s of accidents are to be expected, too. Unfortunately I need to leave for an urgent appointment in about 1 1/2 hours. That will be quite funny (to clarify: Just kidding!).

• Joel Spolsky tells us useful tips right from the source: Getting Your Resume Read
• Douglas Bowman knows what highway exits have in common with web design: The IE Factor
• Martin Schmitt asks if copying DVDs is morally correct: Klaut Nemo! (in German)
• Jeffrey Zeldman does not design on spec.
• Marco F.A. Corzani campaigns for an old TV program: Helft den Mainzelmännchen (in German) [via Hamburger Abendblatt]
• The Fray celebrates Mac’s 20 year anniversary: Macintosh Stories
• Mozilla Bugdays are from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. CET if you wondered [via MozillaZine]
• Someone wrote a 5-minute-style tutorial on IPv6 and Linux: Quick and Easy IPv6 for Debian [via Jörn Seemann]
• They finally made Open Source PGP with a graphical front end: GnuPG
• Papa Scott compares Dean and Mirow: DeanBlog and MirowBlog
• They made a Linux kernel running from Windows: Cooperative Linux 0.51

I just wanted to tell you that I was in a movie theater today. I rarely go there – mostly because of two things: Time and Prices. However I had the opportunity to get some very convenient tickets for a film shown in the Abaton cinema. Not only did I go there, but I also met the challange to go the long way through an icy Hamburg (yes, winter has just come back) by bike.

But back to the things really important in a human life. The Abaton shows the film in English with German subtitles and it was therefore possible to enjoy the comedy in its originality.

Go there and be thrilled: Bill Murray is Lost in Translation!

• Someone at The Morning News put up a guide on surviving IKEA: The Non-Expert: IKEA [via Papa Scott]
• Someone at Guidepost 4 Teens has published advice on sex and dating: 100 Things to Do with Your Boyfriend or Girlfriend – Instead of It. [via Jason Kottke]

The webstandards edition. Enjoy!

• Andy Budd made The Business Case For Web Accessibility [via Digital Web]
• Digital Web features an interview with Dave Shea [via Dave Shea]
• Jeffrey Zeldman advises you on which browser to choose: The Version Problem

Last year offspring filmmaker Morgan Spurlock ate at Mc Donalds restaurants for one month. Every Day. 3 meals. And the result?

His liver became toxic, his cholesterol shot up from a low 165 to 230, his libido flagged and he suffered headaches and depression.

“He was an extremely healthy person who got very sick eating this McDonald’s diet,” Dr. Isaacs told The Post. “None of us imagined he could deteriorate this badly – he looked terrible. The liver test was the most shocking thing – it became very, very abnormal.”

Read his story over at the website of The New York Post: Arch Enemy. [via Jason Kottke]

I mentioned earlier in this blog, that I am expected to elect a new government for my hometown Hamburg at the end of February. Reading myself through all the blogs I visit each day, I found an interesting entry over at Papa Scott’s:

PapaScott : Mirow Blog

As it appears, the SPD candidate in Hamburg Thomas Mirow started blogging recently. According to Scott, it is the first campaign blog in Europe. Interesting to see, if Thomas Mirow keeps blogging after he won or lost elections …

German TV under public-law “Deutsche Welle” invented a stupid so called Germanizer. What impression do foreign people get from Germany, when they have to face such a website?

I mostly like the approach of our state TV stations – of which we have quite a lot, but this one is not for me. Although they normaly are bent on being distant from and so much better than private TV, they are not any better in this case. I also ask myself: What the hell are they trying to achive with this site? If you can tell me, drop me a line. [via Heiko Hebig]

We just found some comments on other strange actions of U.S. so-called “Homeland Security” authorities. Just choose a random link from below.

• PapaScott: Caught in the Machine (English)
• Noch’n Blogg: Land of the Free? (German)

Business as usual. Here you go:

• Reuters informs us that Winston Churchill’s parrot is still alive: You’ll Never Guess Who’s Still Alive [via Jason Kottke]
• AP comes up with nice pictures of icy buildings: Top Stories Photos – AP [via Jason Kottke]
• Zend: MySQL, Zend Join Forces to Strengthen Open Source Web Development
• Over at MozillaZine: OneStat.com Reports Mozilla Usage Share at 1.8%, Heise.de Notes Sharp Increase in Gecko Visitors
• Jeffrey Zeldman got together a new ‘Daily Report’ containing (among other things) an interesting book recommendation: Network – The Victorian Internet
• They require skill, courage and heart: The 10 most underpaid jobs in the U.S. [via Zeit Redaktion]

Today I proudly present to you some insight into all the rumors about the landing on the moon. There are people saying “It did not happen!” and people saying “It did happen!”. I count myself to the latter. Although Uwe Rexin agrees in opinion, he took an unusual approach. Instead of just ignoring opponents, he tries to persuade them. His German site Mondlandungsflüge oder Mondlandungslüge is a vast collection of rumors against landing on the moon and his response. German readers give it a read. It’s really worth your time! [via Jörn Seemann]

Just for the curious: The headline of this post was adapted from the Latin translation of a (in Germany) famous expression of Asterix & Obelix: Die spinnen, die Römer!. It’s English couterpart would likely be something like (poor translation) Those Romans are mad!.

Maciej Ceglowski gives us an impression of how über-professional security can be taken. Over at his blog Idle Words he describes and comments on some of the recent security measures in the United States. For example he was flying in from Europe when the cabin crew informed the fellow pessengers that queueing for lavatories was prohibited for security reasons.

What the hell are you doing on a transatlantic flight taking serveral hours when you can’t queue for a lavatory, especially when you are served serveral drinks during the flight? Good to read that people just ignored that rule and cabin crew was tolerant. However I ask myself how far will they finally go? Todays actions are not very distant from scenes described in George Orwell’s 1984 or from those that took place in Germany just some decades ago.

U.S. authorities: You can even go over the top! I understand that you need to protect your country, but maybe you can develop better techniques than treating harmless visitors or business (wo)men as if they were someone else…

That said, I flew to Canada last year and I had to queue serveral times for access to one of the planes lavatories.

• Nice Mars rover animation video: MER Animation [via Jason Kottke]
• Slightly out of date (e.g. Poland is marked ‘Not Evil’ instead of ‘Good’) War on Terror World Map. Germany is marked ‘Possibly Evil’, which is quite interesting. [via Heiko Hebig (.com)]
• How do people who work in unpredictable situations make life-and-death decisions? And how do they do it so well? The answer: What’s Your Intuition? [via Heiko Hebig (.org)]
• An “anti-Bush” organization of Americans living abroad wants to influence U.S. presidential votes later this year: Expat Americans launch vote drive [via Papa Scott]
• How different-minded people affect working conditions in organizations: The Power of Dissent [via Martin Schmitt]
• Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories [via Fray Storyblog]
• Artificial Intelligence: This machine has no brain! [via Jörn Seemann]
• Thats just darn true: Never let an ad agency near your website [via Dave Shea]

• Nice panorama of Kamerunkai, Port of Hamburg [via Heiko Hebig]
• Paul Scrivens shares his thoghts on comment systems: Comments and Human Discussion [via Digital Web]

Anil Dash tells us about a Unix environment for Windows that directly integrates into the Windows ‘kernel’ and is shipped as an official Microsoft download.

Microsoft *nix may be a good place to start for those people that keep asking questions why you would still need a shell prompt nowadays. Not only are all general unix commands included but also more complex tools like perl, cron, bind, sendmail or ftp. Even make and gcc is possible.

What makes this free Microsoft offer so interesting is not only that it is comprehensive and free or that they offer some kind of embedded unix environment at all, but that the package does not sit on top of the standard shell promt like Cygwin and instead operates directly at kernel level – as a native Windows subsystem.