Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Everything is miscellaneous – Tagging vs. Categories

I just listened to Phil Windley's inverview with David Weinberger on Technometria (via IT conversations).
I sum up David's thoughts (expressed in this interview) in my words:

„Miscellaneous“ is a container or category, but not a tag.

Meaning: if you really need to categorize things, i.e. you have to stuff them into a physical or virtual container, you sooner or later end up with a „Miscellaneous“ category (drower, folder, ...). That's because, if things need a container (...) you have to invent one for things that don't match your other containers. Check your kitchen or basement for proof.

Tags (as used by Google, Flickr, del.icio.us, ...) are not containers as such. They don't hold anything. Things can be tag-free (maybe they shouldn't, but they can). So there is no need for a „misc.“ tag.

Do never create a „Miscellaneous“ tag. It does not make sense.

Quite interesting (at the end of the interview) are David's and Phil's thoughs on egoistic (my word) and altruistic (their word) tagging, i.e. if you tag only for yourself (the early days of del.icio.us according to David) you will and should pick other tags than when you tag for others as well („ social“ tagging).

Listen in.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Google reader down ?

... again ?
Half a day without Google Reader... I feel like cut off from the (rss) world...

Friday, June 22, 2007

StarOffice 8 Update 7

Get it from SunSolve



eNormicom: Welcome to eNormicom!


This is great fun... remember all those names that emerged in the (first) web/internet hype ?
The guys at 37signals have the name generator ("eNormicom") for it...


eNormicom: Welcome to eNormicom!:
"Welcome to eNormicom!

Look, we don't want to waste your time...or ours.

You must be determined to create massive economic results in the next 10 minutes. Ready? Then read on.

It takes a lot to differentiate your brand in today's 'me too' world of electronic business solutions. At eNormicom, we create and develop campaigns that break through the chatter clearly and consistently.

Is your company having an e-dentity crisis? Then you need the eNormicom Image Bucket Program™..."


via Doc Searls

My Blog Template

I just changed the template for this blog slightly, to make better use of the screen width.

So if you see any problems with alignment or on „legacy“ screens with less then 1024 pixels width just let me know.





Blogging with StarOffice

Finally I got hold of the Sun Weblog Publisher for StarOffice – the one that now works with the new blogger ... This entry is to test this assumption. Seems to work.


Orange to buy One


Orange just bought One, the #3 mobile operator in Austria.
This might finally end the lethargy at One, who had a mixture of stake holders, like Eon, Tele Danmark, Telenor and Orange. None of them seemed really eager to invest in the past with One really not having a bright future and being the constant subject of take-over rumors.

Now that Orange (and Mid Europe Partners, an investment firm, who will probably just act as a proxy to Orange/FT) bought 100% of One this might - and hopefully: will - change. To me, One in the past had no clear profile or positioning; they were (and currently still are) neither a (cheap) residential provider, nor a proper business provider.

This still leaves 4 operators in the small Austrian market:
Price-wars are still going on - see the Austrian 3G data rates, e.g. one 3GB for 20 EUR per montgh, or "3" who priced the 3GB at 19 EUR. Frankly, I don't see that ending with this transaction, this is not a consolidation - might be the opposite: One now finally might have the energy to fully compete, not only on price.

Microsoft Surface Parody Video

Microsoft Surface Parody Video: "Great parody video of the recently announced Microsoft Surface Computer. “One day, your computer will be a big-ass table.”"



via TechCrunch

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Java as seen by the Uncyclopedia

Hugely entertaining ;-)
Java - Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia

Interview: OpenDocument and the Move to XML Formats

A great interview on Opening Move by Scott Mace with Gary Edwards of the OpenDocument Foundation about OpenDocument and the Move to XML Formats. Good insights on Microsofts motivation and excuses for OpenXML instead of joining ODF.
(via it conversations)

My first Skype savings

Yesterday I practically forced my wife to call her friend in Bologna, Italy, using Skype(-out) and not the fixed-line (or her mobile). Since this ended in a 42min chat from Vienna to Bologna, we actually saved more then 6 EUR... and the quality was excellent.

In addition using Skype-out means you stay anonymous, since the other party does not get any meaningful caller id that they could link to you or use to call you back...

I guess I'll skype-out more in the future.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Chicken, ...

Probably the best scientific presentation (or non-scientific, for that matter) EVER.
(via wired, thank you gernot, for the pointer, made my day.)

The weirdest thing is, that there is a paper, that goes with it.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

2 great videos about the future of media

... and everything related to media.

First, check out EPIC -
In the year 2014, The New York Times has gone offline.
The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned.
What happened to the news?
And what is EPIC ?

(If the above link does lead you to a video, try this here.

Then come back here ;-)

Then have a look at the recently created work by Casaleggio Associati with a view back from April 6th, 2051
(via and Read/Write Web):



I really like the Google-Microsoft meshup logo at almost exactly 3'00:

Now, I'm not subscribing to all the views, fears and hopes (?) expressed in both videos, but they really make you think about the current developments and what might happen if the trend continues at that pace.

My own little Blackbox on Tour


See you on Monday for the real thing.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Hmmm ....Windows users download 1 million copies of Safari

Windows users download 1 million copies of Safari | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone: "Safari was an early hit with Windows users, who have downloaded 1 million copies of the browser since Monday, according to Apple."

I still don't get it...

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Enterprise SOA Book


James McGovern challenges the publisher of (co-authored) book Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture:
If I were to convince my publisher to make this available under Creative Commons would folks find this noble or throw daggers? Maybe I should put my money where my mouth is and make a strong commitment. If 50 bloggers trackback to this blog entry, I will ensure this happens by August 1st.
This is something to support - creative commons at work...
So here's the link... (count++)
Enterprise Architecture: Thought Leadership: Links for 2007-06-14

Web 2.0 - we need to rethink ...

Just found a great video (through Charles Beckham's Weblog) by Mike Wesch which - for me - illustrates the essence of Web 2.0


Wednesday, June 13, 2007

My first blackbox tour

I just had my first (private) little tour through a Sun Blackbox, an exemplar of which happens to be in Vienna these days (see also m³s coverage).



Boy that was cool...

to see how each rack is mounted on shock absorbers...
to actually see how you can save space in a data-center when you can design for it...
and just to think that you can plug a regular RJ45 jack onto that machine for network connectivity ... ;-)

Apple and ZFS - this is sooo much fun

Breaking news via Engadet: Leopard does / does not use ZFS, part III: it does! (kinda)
Hopefully this is the last time we'll be forced to post on this topic, but we're not holding our breath: now InformationWeek -- which quoted an Apple executive this morning stating the polar opposite -- is reporting that Sun's ZFS file system IS in fact included in Leopard, albeit with a number of huge caveats. According to a company spokesperson seeking to clear up Brian Croll's "misstatement," while HFS+ continues to be the primary system used in OS X, ZFS has been coded in as a latent, "read-only option available from the command line." An IW reader claims to have accessed the system through Disk Utility's Erase menu, and states that "ZFS is only available on non-boot drives on Sun systems, so this is also the case for Leopard" -- seemingly reinforcing Croll's later assertion that Apple is really only "exploring it as a file system option for high-end storage systems with really large storage." So there you have it: Sun's Jonathan Schwartz wasn't pulling our leg after all, even if ZFS fanboys won't be pleased with the (presumably) final word on this.
This is getting more fun than I previously thought...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The new TV

I frequently find myself spending more time watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on comedycentral.com than watching TV. Yes, that's ComedyCentral DOT COM... meaning "on the net".

Internet really is the new TV... only with built in VCR (or rather TiVo) ...

Apple Safari for Windows - Why ?

Safari 3 for Windows - Engadget:
"Sign one more up for the browser war, Apple is shipping the third version of its well received Safari WebKit-based browser over to foreign shores to duke it out with the likes of IE, Firefox and Opera... on Windows."
Even engadget don't seem to take it seriously...

Why would I want YABOW (yet another browser on windows) ? Theres plenty of them.

To be frank, about 4:
Firefox (rulez)
IE7
IE6
Opera

Maybe Flock will get some traction, once it will finally be released.

Here's the browsers that access my blog:



But why would I want Safari ? What benefits would it offer ? Why would I want Apple to maintain a proprietary browser code if there is a perfect open source browser ?
What could Safari possible do better, than Firefox ? (And don't you say speed). It even renders horribly.

So: Sorry, Apple; I usually love you, but this is just nonsense.

ZFS for Mac/Leopard .... NOT

Apple: no ZFS for Leopard - Engadget:
"Senior director of product marketing for the Mac OS Brian Croll told IW point blank that 'ZFS is not happening,' contradicting Schwartz's assertion that his company's 128-bit file system would be bringing goodies like built-in data integrity and virtual storage to the iMac and friends."
well, the rumors were to good to be true... even by my big boss.

This make Shrek the only fairy tale these days.

Monday, June 11, 2007

More on Apple and ZFS...

Infoworld has an article on the rumors about Apple to integrate ZFS into the Mac.

InfoWorld | News | 2007-06-08 | By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld:
"Is ZFS Apple's secret weapon?
Sun spilled the beans about ZFS and Apple's upcoming OS X update, but what is ZFS, and how integral is it to Leopard?"
Well the most comfortable (unix) filesystem on the planet would make sense on the mac, wouldn't it...

More on Sun's Blackbox

Just found this on Jonathan's blog:
Blackbox on a Shake Table: "Blackbox on a Shake Table"

Earthquake simulation for the blackbox... here's the YouTube video for it.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Sun Blackbox in Vienna

I'm so eager to get a glimpse the Sun Blackbox ever since I first learned of it.
The first datacenter in a Box, as they call it.

Now, finnaly, it comes to Vienna on June 18th. I will be there. That should even give me the chance to look and walk into it.

(for full disclosure: I'm a Sun Microsystems employee)

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Techcrunch: Xing In Talks To Acquire Plaxo

Xing May Be In Talks To Acquire Plaxo: "
We are hearing a LOT of chatter about a possible Xing-Plaxo merger in the $250 million range. The deal makes some sense - newly public Xing is headquartered in Germany and hasn’t gotten much traction in the U.S. where it competes directly with LinkedIn. Plaxo, with a very strong U.S. presence, could give them the opportunity they need to attack this market."

Thursday, June 07, 2007

User Generated Content ?

I dislike the term "User Generated Content" for various reasons... I for example, when I blog, do not consider myself as a "content creating user"... much less a generator...
To me, it is not "content" what I produce/write/publish/"generate"... just thoughts, rants, bits and pieces of information ... "Content" is too generic a term to apply to ones own ... eh ... things.

As a consequence, I usually like to mock the term as "Useless, generated content" (fully aware that it of course can be applied to my own blabber here).

But just a few minutes ago, I learned what "useless, generated content" really is: just browse the "Books starting at 2.98 EUR" section at Amazon... the number of totally useless and pointless books you can find there... wow...

Blog Microbuttons

Kosmar created and posted a set of micro-buttons ready to use in your blog (or any other site for that matter):

Great work.
The best part of it is of course that he uses flickr as a repository for them...

Friday, June 01, 2007

Amazon supports RSS web feeds

Finally amazon.com (not .de or .at, mind you) supports RSS feeds based on product tags.
RSS web feeds for tagged products (syndication)

So you can have all the newly available (or upcoming) products in your RSS reader, provided you find the right tags.
Unfortunately they do no allow combinations of tags, so you can search for e.g. "Seinfeld" but not for "Seinfeld + DVD"; neither a "+" (a.k.a. urlencoded space) nor %2B nor %26 (+ and & respectively) do work. Concatenating the tags like /seinfeld/dvd/... doesn't work either.

Well, as long as they don't have it in an amazon near me (i.e. .de or .at) it doesn't really bother me that much.