B10[mg]

Finally, I found time to finish a long-ago-started project: Support My Wedding

Finally, I found time to finish a long-ago-started project: Support My Wedding

Stuthoff was a camp at the beginning designed for extermination of Polish elites.

... can be found at Wikipedia. Unlike the camp, this post is about the Greek band Stuthoff And their latest release "And Cosmos From Ashes To Dust".

These Greek guys probably cannot be found at one of the many awesome beaches, for they play some dark, grim and cold black metal. Quite enjoyable when you look outside and it's snowing ;-)

The riffs go on and on, something I tend to like since my introduction with Hate Forest

The production is pretty lo-fi, yet not as crappy as other bands. This production actually gives you a dark feeling, where with other lo-fi black metal bands you will have to spend ages to find out what actually is played and with what instruments.

Good black metal for those dark days before (ermm... and after) christmas!

Label: Drama Company

Christmas is a special time of the year for a lot of people. It involves many traditions. I, for one, simply have to lookup ding fries are done and listen to the superb songs of the late Wesley Willis (mp3)

I can't believe I never mentioned his name on my blog before. His songs are simply brilliant! Be sure to check out "Rock and Roll McDonalds" and "Northwest Airlines", my favorites.

Rock over London, Rock on Chicago!

Christmas is a special time of the year for a lot of people. It involves many traditions. I, for one, simply have to lookup ding fries are done and listen to the superb songs of the late Wesley Willis (mp3)

I can't believe I never mentioned his name on my blog before. His songs are simply brilliant! Be sure to check out "Rock and Roll McDonalds" and "Northwest Airlines", my favorites.

Rock over London, Rock on Chicago!

CPAN Search is a search engine for the distributions, modules, docs, and ID's on CPAN.

freshmeat maintains the Web's largest index of Unix and cross-platform software, themes and related "eye-candy", and Palm OS software.

I love CPAN and I love Freshmeat. The reason I love both (and not just one) is because, to me, they fulfill different needs. When I want to know about Perl modules, I'll go on a hunt on the CPAN fields of glory. When in need of specific software, freshmeat is my haven.

Recently, I have come to find out more and more Perl module authors list their gems on both sites.

There's nothing wrong with a little extra Perl promotion, yet why do they mess up search results with all this? Any half-sane Perl scripter will visit CPAN in a heartbeat and not even care about freshmeat, while most people who do launch queries at freshmeat, don't care about Perl modules.

I seem to have more complaints on freshmeat. This is because it simply takes me too much time to wade through piles of non-interesting projects to find what I'm really looking for.

Maybe Perl authors should let freshmeat do what it is supposed to do; providing "the Web's largest index of Unix and cross-platform software, themes and related "eye-candy", and Palm OS software". In my humble opinion, that does not include Perl modules (how great they might be).

CPAN Search is a search engine for the distributions, modules, docs, and ID's on CPAN.

freshmeat maintains the Web's largest index of Unix and cross-platform software, themes and related "eye-candy", and Palm OS software.

I love CPAN and I love Freshmeat. The reason I love both (and not just one) is because, to me, they fulfill different needs. When I want to know about Perl modules, I'll go on a hunt on the CPAN fields of glory. When in need of specific software, freshmeat is my haven.

Recently, I have come to find out more and more Perl module authors list their gems on both sites.

There's nothing wrong with a little extra Perl promotion, yet why do they mess up search results with all this? Any half-sane Perl scripter will visit CPAN in a heartbeat and not even care about freshmeat, while most people who do launch queries at freshmeat, don't care about Perl modules.

I seem to have more complaints on freshmeat. This is because it simply takes me too much time to wade through piles of non-interesting projects to find what I'm really looking for.

Maybe Perl authors should let freshmeat do what it is supposed to do; providing "the Web's largest index of Unix and cross-platform software, themes and related "eye-candy", and Palm OS software". In my humble opinion, that does not include Perl modules (how great they might be).

Every now and then, you will have to prove that someone on your network is doing something that he isn't supposed to do. And so today I had to somehow gather some proof of certain behavior.

I wanted to prove that someone was visiting certain websites and was reading a certain POP3 mailbox (yes, that protocol is still in use).

An easy way would be to install a keylogger, or -even easier- just to use tcpdump. Unfortunately the network uses switches and not hubs, so -in my ignorance- I thought tcpdumping wouldn't show me their packets.

Then I ran into ettercap. Ettercap makes it possible to sniff packets even when a switch is used. (All the script-kiddies probably knew this for ages ;-)

Coming with three interfaces (text, curses, GTK), this tool is just too easy to handle. By means of ARP poisoning you can perform a so called Man in the middle attack

Within seconds, I defined my targets and withing minutes, I had more proof (and passwords) than I cared about. No need to touch my target's machine physically, or install keyloggers.

Awesome tool! Makes you feel paranoid again ;-)

Every now and then, you will have to prove that someone on your network is doing something that he isn't supposed to do. And so today I had to somehow gather some proof of certain behavior.

I wanted to prove that someone was visiting certain websites and was reading a certain POP3 mailbox (yes, that protocol is still in use).

An easy way would be to install a keylogger, or -even easier- just to use tcpdump. Unfortunately the network uses switches and not hubs, so -in my ignorance- I thought tcpdumping wouldn't show me their packets.

Then I ran into ettercap. Ettercap makes it possible to sniff packets even when a switch is used. (All the script-kiddies probably knew this for ages ;-)

Coming with three interfaces (text, curses, GTK), this tool is just too easy to handle. By means of ARP poisoning you can perform a so called Man in the middle attack

Within seconds, I defined my targets and withing minutes, I had more proof (and passwords) than I cared about. No need to touch my target's machine physically, or install keyloggers.

Awesome tool! Makes you feel paranoid again ;-)

For a while now, you can use NBCom (NanoBlogger Comments) on your blog, to handle comments on posts.

While my (slightly altered) CGIComments way of handling comments does not prevents bots from posting, NBCom gives you the impression that it does, by providing a shiny CAPTCHA image.

This, of course, is tempting to break. And yes, it's really, really easy to bypass. Let's look at some code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;             # Always use strict
use WWW::Mechanize;     # magic module ;-)

# Setup WWW::Mechanize
my $m = new WWW::Mechanize(
   agent => "B10m Anti-Bot Bot",
);

# Retrieve the first page
$m->get('http://nhw.pl/blg/cmt.php?article=/2005/11/22/T01_13_46/index.html');

# Find, download and store the image
my $img = $m->find_image(url_regex => qr/img.php/);
$m->get($img->url, ":content_file"=>'image.png');

# Go back to the form
$m->back;

# Use `gocr` to find the very secret code
my $secret = `/usr/local/bin/gocr image.png`;
chomp($secret);

# Get rid of the image
unlink 'image.png';

# Submit the form
$m->submit_form(
   form_number  => 1,
   fields       => {
      body      => 'Ugh, bots can still post :-( See '.
                   'http://menno.b10m.net/blog/archives/2005/12/15/T16_20_20/index.html',
      txt       => $secret,
   },
);

All set. The script almost contains more comments (to make it readable for everyone) than code and sure as heck, it seems to work.

I guess the author needs to rethink his CAPTCHA strategy here. It's too easy!

(NOTE: Of course, a script like jcwren's A little fun with merlyn is way nicer, but hey, I'm just lazy ;-)

For a while now, you can use NBCom (NanoBlogger Comments) on your blog, to handle comments on posts.

While my (slightly altered) CGIComments way of handling comments does not prevents bots from posting, NBCom gives you the impression that it does, by providing a shiny CAPTCHA image.

This, of course, is tempting to break. And yes, it's really, really easy to bypass. Let's look at some code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;             # Always use strict
use WWW::Mechanize;     # magic module ;-)

# Setup WWW::Mechanize
my $m = new WWW::Mechanize(
   agent => "B10m Anti-Bot Bot",
);

# Retrieve the first page
$m->get('http://nhw.pl/blg/cmt.php?article=/2005/11/22/T01_13_46/index.html');

# Find, download and store the image
my $img = $m->find_image(url_regex => qr/img.php/);
$m->get($img->url, ":content_file"=>'image.png');

# Go back to the form
$m->back;

# Use `gocr` to find the very secret code
my $secret = `/usr/local/bin/gocr image.png`;
chomp($secret);

# Get rid of the image
unlink 'image.png';

# Submit the form
$m->submit_form(
   form_number  => 1,
   fields       => {
      body      => 'Ugh, bots can still post :-( See '.
                   'http://menno.b10m.net/blog/archives/2005/12/15/T16_20_20/index.html',
      txt       => $secret,
   },
);

All set. The script almost contains more comments (to make it readable for everyone) than code and sure as heck, it seems to work.

I guess the author needs to rethink his CAPTCHA strategy here. It's too easy!

(NOTE: Of course, a script like jcwren's A little fun with merlyn is way nicer, but hey, I'm just lazy ;-)

For a few days I have been using Firefox 1.5 and one of the things that really bugged me was the lack of Diggler.

The tiny little button clearing the location bar is clearly something I got used to (the other features always came in handy too by the way). So I looked at the files and got it running on Firefox 1.5 after just a small tweak.

First I download the xpi file These xpi files are really just zipped archives, so unzipping them are a breeze.

$ unzip diggler-0.9.xpi 
Archive:  diggler-0.9.xpi
  inflating: chrome/diggler.jar      
  inflating: install.js              
  inflating: install.rdf

The install.rdf is basically the only important file here. Open it with your favorite editor and find the line:

<em:maxVersion>1.0</em:maxVersion>

Now we change that number a little (I used 2.0, so we're safe for a while) and we update the zipxpi file.

$ zip -f diggler-0.9.xpi 
freshening: install.rdf (deflated 57%)

All set, ready to install and use!

To make things easier for you, I've put up the new version for download

For a few days I have been using Firefox 1.5 and one of the things that really bugged me was the lack of Diggler.

The tiny little button clearing the location bar is clearly something I got used to (the other features always came in handy too by the way). So I looked at the files and got it running on Firefox 1.5 after just a small tweak.

First I download the xpi file These xpi files are really just zipped archives, so unzipping them are a breeze.

$ unzip diggler-0.9.xpi 
Archive:  diggler-0.9.xpi
  inflating: chrome/diggler.jar      
  inflating: install.js              
  inflating: install.rdf

The install.rdf is basically the only important file here. Open it with your favorite editor and find the line:

<em:maxVersion>1.0</em:maxVersion>

Now we change that number a little (I used 2.0, so we're safe for a while) and we update the zipxpi file.

$ zip -f diggler-0.9.xpi 
freshening: install.rdf (deflated 57%)

All set, ready to install and use!

To make things easier for you, I've put up the new version for download

Every now and then I have the need to create maps of the world, where countries will be highlighted according to some data set.

world66.com offers you something called Visited Countries

Although it's nice, it wasn't something I could really use, for I wanted to show some kind of ranking. So countries with a higher rank should have a different color than countries with a lower rank. There are -most likely- some expensive, hard to use packages available to do that, yet I only wanted a simple image of the world, without the need of a huge server farm to generate it.

Yahoo! Maps didn't seem to provide what I needed and of course I don't even bother checking out the Google maps

After many pointless searches, I finally got to DIY Maps. It provides me with more than I asked for, and still I'd rather just generate a static image rather than a Flash interface, but nevertheless, this Flash tool is just amazing.

The maps generated are just pieces of eye candy and it all is based on an easy to follow (read: generate) XML file.

I figured it'd cost a fortune, yet it's quite the opposite. It's free for personal use and a mere USD 20.00 for a license (of course, donations are very welcome, and I think it's more than worth it).

The license information is quite funny though:

DIY Map is free for personal, educational, and non-commercial use, though donations and links back to this page are always appreciated.

For-profit corporations, government agencies, and religous organizations who use DIY Map must purchase a license for $20 per domain.

Note the "religous[sic] organizations" in there ;-)

It seems like I have found a tool that I'll use often, however, if anyone knows another way of generating maps like described above, please leave a comment.

Today I messed with a script that would display a nice flag image for the chosen country (you can find images at, e.g. Flags of the World).

I was baffled by the fact that all of the images (that were in my test) were showing up fine, except for the Andorran Flag (yes, the flag of Andorra).

I checked the permissions on the images, but couldn't seem to find out why I couldn't see the flag. When I called it directly from my browser, it turned up ok! So I went debugging a little further and found out there was never a request on the server for 'flags/ad.png'.

Not long after seeing (or rather not seeing) that, it dawned on me. The top level domain for Andorra is 'ad'! So I looked in my Adblock and sure as hell, it was blocking it. (Thanks to Adblock Filterset.G Updater).

So I was on a hunt for Andorran domains and shortly after, I found out most Andorran sites are plagued by this capitalistic problem. None of the images on a .ad domain show up. Even worse, andorra.ad, existing of only Flash, doesn't show anything.

Maybe I will have to help out the Andorran people by filing a patch to the Filterset.G Updater... yeah, but now it's time to sleep (it's not like I care that much about Andorra anyway ;-)

Today I messed with a script that would display a nice flag image for the chosen country (you can find images at, e.g. Flags of the World).

I was baffled by the fact that all of the images (that were in my test) were showing up fine, except for the Andorran Flag (yes, the flag of Andorra).

I checked the permissions on the images, but couldn't seem to find out why I couldn't see the flag. When I called it directly from my browser, it turned up ok! So I went debugging a little further and found out there was never a request on the server for 'flags/ad.png'.

Not long after seeing (or rather not seeing) that, it dawned on me. The top level domain for Andorra is 'ad'! So I looked in my Adblock and sure as hell, it was blocking it. (Thanks to Adblock Filterset.G Updater).

So I was on a hunt for Andorran domains and shortly after, I found out most Andorran sites are plagued by this capitalistic problem. None of the images on a .ad domain show up. Even worse, andorra.ad, existing of only Flash, doesn't show anything.

Maybe I will have to help out the Andorran people by filing a patch to the Filterset.G Updater... yeah, but now it's time to sleep (it's not like I care that much about Andorra anyway ;-)

In the Netherlands, we still pay for each phone call made (also local calls). But times are shifting and calling actually now gets cheaper.

For a while I have been using Bel1649 for domestic calls. They don't charge you per minute, but a flat rate of €0,05 per call. Nice when my entire family needs tech support.

Recently, my fiancee moved back to Indonesia for two weeks and of course I had to find a cheap way of calling there. The regular phone company charges €0,6844 per minute, which makes roughly 40 euro per hour.

After some searching, I found De Belknaller Instead of paying 68 cents per minute, they can offer you connection for €0,01 ! That would be 60 cents per hour. So I had to try it, and fair enough, within seconds I had a crispy clear line.

Why is this so much cheaper than the "regular" way of calling? Somewhere someone must be making a fortune on this stuff...

As you have seen on many blogs, Firefox 1.5 has been released, and I decided it was time to switch (read: I had nothing better to do).

When it comes to new versions, for some reason, quite a few extensions don't seem to be working. Extensions I cannot live without include:

• Web Developer
• Adblock
• Greasemonkey
• Bloglines Toolkit
• mozex
• Diggler
• Live HTTP Headers
• Colorzilla
• Linkification

Luckily, most seem to have no flaws while upgrading. I only had to reinstall Live HTTP Headers manually, and (yay!) mozex seems to be back! No more need for Show Old Extensions.

However, it turns out Diggler isn't ready for 1.5 yet. Too bad, for I already miss the nifty little button. It'll probably be available soon (I hope).

A thing that made me upgrade to Firefox 1.5 was the ability to force a new tab rather than a new window when links ask for it (as pointed out by Bok, thanks!). This was one of my annoyances before

All in all, if Diggler will be upgraded too, I'm all happy again.

I have a tendency to ignore certain bands for total unknown reason. Examples are Naglfar, Thy Primordial, and also Mörk Gryning. All good bands, yet for some reason I never pay too much attention to them.

That's rather a shame, for the new album (didn't the guys quit already) of this Swedish band deserves credit! It blasts on with nice riffs and I can't complain about the production either. Quite a pleasant album that might even make it high in my "best of 2005"-list.

So ok, I'll listen to it some more and dump Maelstrom Chaos, Return Fire and the other albums in my car to force myself to listen to them. This way I can safely ignore them again, starting next week ;-)

Label: Black Lodge

I upgraded to Nanoblogger 3.3 RC3 today.Installation took as long as usual. But that's mainly due to my personal hacks to get stuff to work the way I want it (postblog plugins, for instance, to get my Swish-E index updated etc.)

Bugfixes are always nice though and now I have the drafting option, something I might like in the future.

The Freshmeat RSS Feed is a nice way to keep up to date with the last software releases. Unfortunately, the feed has suffered from a nasty spam'ish act by Spriteworks Development

This "company" deemed it necessary to post 27 horrible projects within a very short time frame. But fair enough, they apologized Nevertheless, let's look at (and criticize) a few of their "projects".

The first project I'd like to show you is Link-box v1.0 This gem will cost you just $7.95, but is it worth it? Of course not! Here you go, I'll give it to you (note, I have not seen the actual software, so I'm merely making something similar).

Code

<style type="text/css">
div#linkboxdiv {
   width: 175px;
   border: 2px solid #000;
   background-color: #0052AD;
   color: #FFF;
   text-align: center;
   font-weight: bold;
}

ul#linkboxul {
   list-style-image: url(/blog/images/posts/16dot5a.gif);
}

a.linkbox {
   text-decoration: none;
   color: #000;
}

a:hover.linkbox {
   border-top: 1px solid #F00;
   border-bottom: 1px solid #F00;
   color: #F00;
}

</style>

<div id="linkboxdiv">Our Products</div>
<ul id="linkboxul">
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product One</a></li>
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product Two</a></li>
   <li><a href="#" class="linkbox">Product Three</a></li>
</ul>
</code></pre>

Result

• Product One
• Product Two
• Product Three

Now that saved you $7.95! It's a shame someone actually dares to charge you for that. This is such a common technique used lately, that it cannot be hard to find something similar for free (like on this blog ;-).

But wait, we forgot to look at the "Features and benefits" of Link-Box v1.0 (please, never let there be a version 1.1, let alone 2.0). Besides the regular crap that you see everywhere (easy install, customizable, yada yada yada), we see this:

• Professional design.
• Attractive display.
• Professional-looking design.

Obviously, there aren't many benefits to this wonder of the web. Why else would you list the looks of it three times? And if that is the biggest selling point, I don't even want to see the code. To me, this looks very 90's GeoCities-ish. Definitely not professional, nor attractive.

Ok, more than enough about Link-Box, let's move on to the next marvel: Arrow-Bar v1.0

This is based on the same principal as Link-Box. Just apply some simple CSS definitions to a unordered list and you're done. Again, the author had to list that the looks were attractive and professional three times, and yet again, it looks very poor and far from professional. Why oh why pay $4.95 (yes, it's somehow cheaper than Link-Box), when you can have a way more professional looking menu created for free (or another 1000 places on the web)?

I will spare you the other projects. They are as simple and expensive as these examples.

So, remember, if you want a professional, attractive and professional-looking design, go get your CSS widgets at spriteworks.com (and pay for things that should be free (as in beer)).

After seeing some Photoshop tutorials (SPAM-torials, rather; there are more banners and other crap than useful information), I wondered if there weren't any GIMP tutorials, plugins, etc.

That quest lead me to camotruck.net, a site that offers you a GIMP plugin. I didn't really see the need for such a plugin (nor the usefulness), yet it turned out to be fun! GIMP my ride!

So here we go. I initially used an online image of my car (Toyota Avensis):

Then I applied the camouflage options (and altered the background slightly, showcasing camouflaged cars on a greenish background isn't going to work too well.)

But of course, you don't have to limit yourself to cars, so here we go, G.I. B10m!

All in all, a fun plugin!

After numerous bug reports, I released version 1.04 of HTML::BBCode (Changes)

Once again, my perpetual laziness paid off. For a long time now, I have longed for an extension (or greasemonkey script) that would disable target="_new" kind of crap in links.

Luckily I wasn't the only one who disliked this behavior and Clemens Fuchslocher wrote his TargetKiller.

Good stuff™!

As usual, I buy devices/hardware before checking the Linux compatibility. And usually that results in a lot of horror to get stuff to work good.

Unlike usually, my Mio 168 PDA, was quite easy to get up and running (with regards to syncing).

I barely use calendars, yet always find myself forgetting stuff, and always find myself thinking: I have to use a calendar. So with my new toy, I'd better get it to work.

The syncing process is done through Multisync and its SynCE plugin.

I just followed the HOWTO and within minutes, these lines were dumped in my /var/log/messages:

 Serial connection established.
 Using interface ppp0
 Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/tts/USB1
 local  IP address 192.168.131.102
 remote IP address 192.168.131.201
 Connection from 192.168.131.201 accepted
 Talking to 'Pocket_PC', a PocketPC device of type Mitac, Mio DigiWalker

Awesome! Let the syncing begin!

The problem is that I don't really use Evolution. It's overkill for my needs and I'd rather keep on using Plans.

So there we are ... now I need to create a system to sync my PDA with my Plans calendar on my webserver. Might get tricky, and it's not like I have time left, but oh well, if that would work, it'd be completely awesome.

As of yet, I have to put one task in my PDA: donate to SynCE.

As usual, I buy devices/hardware before checking the Linux compatibility. And usually that results in a lot of horror to get stuff to work good.

Unlike usually, my Mio 168 PDA, was quite easy to get up and running (with regards to syncing).

I barely use calendars, yet always find myself forgetting stuff, and always find myself thinking: I have to use a calendar. So with my new toy, I'd better get it to work.

The syncing process is done through Multisync and its SynCE plugin.

I just followed the HOWTO and within minutes, these lines were dumped in my /var/log/messages:

 Serial connection established.
 Using interface ppp0
 Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/tts/USB1
 local  IP address 192.168.131.102
 remote IP address 192.168.131.201
 Connection from 192.168.131.201 accepted
 Talking to 'Pocket_PC', a PocketPC device of type Mitac, Mio DigiWalker

Awesome! Let the syncing begin!

The problem is that I don't really use Evolution. It's overkill for my needs and I'd rather keep on using Plans.

So there we are ... now I need to create a system to sync my PDA with my Plans calendar on my webserver. Might get tricky, and it's not like I have time left, but oh well, if that would work, it'd be completely awesome.

As of yet, I have to put one task in my PDA: donate to SynCE.

"Finally" I now have car navigation via GPS too; like 90% of the cars on the Dutch roads (or so it seems).

I went for the Mio 168 because, well, it was rather cheap and it has the GPS antenna integrated (so no extra cables).

So yep, I finally have MS Windows (albeit CE) at home again! And of course I use tomtom software, which is just awesome.

This isn't really a 'metal' posting, yet this wiz drummer, 12 years of age, might as well become a metal drummer in the future.

Amazing stuff ...

As someone who occasionally messes with websites, I know the struggle of error handling. If you do exactly as the programmer intended the software to be called, there is no problem. But, there's always the l-user factor.

How far does one have to go to explain what exactly went wrong? I'm all for brief information, for I am just a lazy guy.

Today I was looking at http://forum.pocketinfo.nl, a forum on PDAs and other gadgets. When I tried to search, I got this error:

It translates to this:

System Notice

You aren't logged in, or you don't have the permissions to view this page. This could be due to one of the following reasons:

1. You aren't logged in. Enter your name and password in the fields and try again.
2. Possibly, you lack the appropriate permissions to view the page. Are you trying to alter someone else's post, use administrative tasks or to use another protected system?
3. If you're trying to post, there's a possibility that the administrator has disabled your account, or it's still waiting on activation.

Well, it's always nice that they state I'm not logged in, due to the fact that I didn't log in.

Clearly the programmers went to far with this error handling. And they weren't too clever. The difference between a lack of user permissions and not being logged in at all shouldn't be too hard to figure out... Why then not just say "You aren't logged in yet" instead of all this craziness?

Oh well, it's always fun to see useless repetitive error messages, like this.

I always notice new stuff way too late, but also know some people are even worse than me, so this is to them ;-)

Yesterday I've seen some parts of Ghostrider. (yes, you can download parts here and there too). It's about an insane guy with a death wish, or so it seems. On a bike (motorcycle, not bicycle) he's racing throughout Europe, doing the most crazy maneuvers thinkable. Going around Paris in 12 minutes? No problem ... Often the speed goes past 300km/h. And yes, it's hard for cops to cope with that speed.

Anyways, the two cameras on the bike (front and back) are fun, but after a while, it gets pretty boring.

Did you know Happy Birthday is copyrighted and the copyright is currently owned and actively enforced by Time Warner?

Did you know that if you sing any copyrighted song:
...at a place open to the public
...or among a substantial number of people who are not family or friends
You are involved in a public performance of that work?

Did you know an unauthorized public performance is a form of copyright infringement?

Note to self: inform people about this when they force me to sing along ...

Nowadays there are just too many passwords to be remembered so a password management system is quite useful.

I've been using pwsafe for a while and it always seem to suit my needs. Then I noticed MyPasswordSafe, a GUI for pwsafe and oh joy, you could categorize your passwords, making it easier to look up stuff! So, happily I started to reorganize my stored passwords. Unfortunately, MyPasswordSafe somehow messed up my entire 'database', deleting most of the 'folders' I just created... and of course, I didn't backup the files. (Note: I probably did something wrong myself, but don't know what, so I blame the software ;-)

Time for a new system and I found a good substitute in Ked Password Manager. It supplies you with both a GUI and a CLI. The CLI works really nice (it simulates a filesystem, so you can use ls, cd and mkdir). The GUI is shiny as a GUI should be. If you're looking for such a system, KedPM is something you should check out.

... and while we're spitting out semi-usefull Greasemonkey scripts, why not a Link Warning script? It appends small icons to mailto and PDF links, basically like QBullets.

Of course, you can test the script.

Greasemonkey is just cool for Firefox users. It allows you to easily add JavaScript to specific websites.

Out of boredom, I now wrote a new script called GonePhishing. It checks all links on a website and checks whether the linked text really is what the link is pointing to. If the linked text is different from the real link (the host part, not the full URL), the linked text will be replaced with the real link, a yellow background is added and three asterisks are appended, with a title attribute of the originally linked text.

For this script, I also wrote a tiny little test page

I also noticed (finally?) a new repository of scripts, on which I now have an account: my userscripts.org account.

I'm a geek, so I should like statistics, and yes, in a lot of cases I do like shiny graphics and a boatload of numbers. For example the linux counter, distributed.net, or Seti@home; all great!

Yet today, I accidentally followed some links in some mailing list archive on screen scraping, which pointed me towards: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

The site displays detailed statistics on the number of casualties in Iraq. From statistics on casualties and gender to ethnicity and coalition country. All well, yet I lose my interest when they present a table with detailed information on the poor souls. Name, rank, hometown, cause and location of death, everything seems to be there.

Numbers are fun, but don't turn numbers into people.

I am not a number I am a free man!

You know how it goes: you stumble upon a great website, forget to bookmark it (I can recommend insipid for bookmarking) and really want to find the site again later.

http://no-www.org/ is one of them (or should I say http://www.no-www.org/ ;-)

No-www.org philosophy

No-www.org strives to make the Internet and communications about it as fruitful as possible. To that end, we make the modest proposal that website makers configure their main sites to be accessible by domain.com as well as www.domain.com.

Get rid of the horrible the WWW !

Just listened to the promo and I can say just one thing about this album: wow

Yes, that's all I will say about this album. Download the promo somewhere, enjoy it, skip the jewel case release (soon to be released) and go for the digi version, in January. This album must be in your metal collection, period!

Label: Regain Records

I've seen the site (and other contests) before, but I definitely have to check in more often, for Worth1000 now had a Reality Manga contest. Take pictures of real people and make them look Manga.

It's amazing what people can do with Photoshop/the GIMP (?)...

Definitely have to check in there more often!

Before I have blogged about my bad feelings on Google and today, I feel the need to stress the point again. Google is Evil!

Of course I could just list all the complaints http://www.google-watch.org/ lists, but let's look what Google has done up till now in a bigger frame. It is however good to read about the infamous Google cookie.

The beginning

Google started nice. A website without bells and whistles and a heck of a good search engine. Wonderful. Nerds all over the world loved it and not too long after, the non-geeky people followed. Google grew to become a "verb".

USENET

So far so good. Then Google slowly started taking over tricks of yet another evil: Microsoft. The started to take over companies and care about shareholders. But, even worse, they started collecting. And what they couldn't collect anymore they bought.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET

News

Google News, yet another invention. By collecting news from various sources, you can quickly scan all the news you'd like to see. They even allow you to add alerts so you can get an email when breaking news comes in, matching your keywords.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in

Blog

In 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs and became the home for Blogger. Like other Google services, they didn't really invent some complete new concept, they just offered a lot of megabytes for doing a something a lot of people already did: blogging. Most blogs are about personal events in people's life so:

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life

In this year, Google also came up with the personalized search. A great way to know who even more about your personal preferences.

E-mail

Gmail followed not long after. The motto was (and still is) "Don't throw anything away". It fits the Google collecting spirit perfectly.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail

Pictures

Picasa, Inc was the next victim of Google's need to expand. Picasa would make it easier to share pictures (through hello.com).

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of

Telephone

What other means do people use to communicate? Phones! And before you knew it Google SMS was launched.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of
• your phone number

Proxy

To know even more about your web-surfing behavior, Google offers Google Web Accelerator. It's mainly just a proxy.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of
• your phone number
• what websites you visit

Instant Messaging

But, what about the other popular method of communication, instant messaging? Sure: Google Talk. Many IM services exist already (Jabber, MSN, AIM, ICQ, Y!M), yet we seem to need just-another-Jabber-client.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of
• your phone number
• what websites you visit
• what you chat about and with whom

Wi-Fi

The latest plans as of yet are to provide the city of San Francisco with Wi-Fi. The whole city will have to become on big Google hotspot.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of
• your phone number
• what websites you visit
• what you chat about and with whom
• everything you do over unencrypted lines

Other services

There are other dubious Google services out there. Think about the Google Toolbar, the Google Deskbar, Froogle, Google Desktop Search, Google Ride Finder, and many, many more. It's just too much to comment on all of them, and you'll get the basic idea. They most likely all collect data.

Where does this go?

Why would Google want to capture everything the can about you? This world knows very few to no people who do things just out of being nice, so what is going on exactly? Who could benefit from all this information?

I am absolutely not saying this is true, but what comes to my mind is: governments, and spammers. Yes, very conspiracy theory'ish, but until I have seen a better explanation, I'll stick with this.

Regardless of who will benefit from all the information, do you really want anyone to know all of this about you?

Time to drop Google and look for alternatives. Clusty seems as a nice search engine alternative. Email shouldn't be a problem for anyone nowadays, but if it is, have a look at hushmail.com for free webmail with PGP encryption. Instead of Google Talk, you can just use any Jabber server out there. Need a blog? Try livejournal or install some software on your own webspace (most ISPs give you some for free).

The only thing we all are stuck with is groups.google.com. If Google was really about sharing information, they'd open up the old DejaNews archives for anyone to download. Until then, we have to get used to the new, crappy interface.

---

  'Google is Evil'
   -rw-rw-rw-  1 satan demons  0 Jun 06 06:06 google

Before I have blogged about my bad feelings on Google and today, I feel the need to stress the point again. Google is Evil!

Of course I could just list all the complaints http://www.google-watch.org/ lists, but let's look what Google has done up till now in a bigger frame. It is however good to read about the infamous Google cookie.

The beginning

Google started nice. A website without bells and whistles and a heck of a good search engine. Wonderful. Nerds all over the world loved it and not too long after, the non-geeky people followed. Google grew to become a "verb".

USENET

So far so good. Then Google slowly started taking over tricks of yet another evil: Microsoft. The started to take over companies and care about shareholders. But, even worse, they started collecting. And what they couldn't collect anymore they bought.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET

News

Google News, yet another invention. By collecting news from various sources, you can quickly scan all the news you'd like to see. They even allow you to add alerts so you can get an email when breaking news comes in, matching your keywords.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in

Blog

In 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs and became the home for Blogger. Like other Google services, they didn't really invent some complete new concept, they just offered a lot of megabytes for doing a something a lot of people already did: blogging. Most blogs are about personal events in people's life so:

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life

In this year, Google also came up with the personalized search. A great way to know who even more about your personal preferences.

E-mail

Gmail followed not long after. The motto was (and still is) "Don't throw anything away". It fits the Google collecting spirit perfectly.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail

Pictures

Picasa, Inc was the next victim of Google's need to expand. Picasa would make it easier to share pictures (through hello.com).

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of

Telephone

What other means do people use to communicate? Phones! And before you knew it Google SMS was launched.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of
• your phone number

Proxy

To know even more about your web-surfing behavior, Google offers Google Web Accelerator. It's mainly just a proxy.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of
• your phone number
• what websites you visit

Instant Messaging

But, what about the other popular method of communication, instant messaging? Sure: Google Talk. Many IM services exist already (Jabber, MSN, AIM, ICQ, Y!M), yet we seem to need just-another-Jabber-client.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of
• your phone number
• what websites you visit
• what you chat about and with whom

Wi-Fi

The latest plans as of yet are to provide the city of San Francisco with Wi-Fi. The whole city will have to become on big Google hotspot.

Where are we now? Google knows:

• what you search for online
• what you post(ed) on USENET
• what news events you're interested in
• what happens in your life
• what you send and receive by e-mail
• what you take pictures of
• your phone number
• what websites you visit
• what you chat about and with whom
• everything you do over unencrypted lines

Other services

There are other dubious Google services out there. Think about the Google Toolbar, the Google Deskbar, Froogle, Google Desktop Search, Google Ride Finder, and many, many more. It's just too much to comment on all of them, and you'll get the basic idea. They most likely all collect data.

Where does this go?

Why would Google want to capture everything the can about you? This world knows very few to no people who do things just out of being nice, so what is going on exactly? Who could benefit from all this information?

I am absolutely not saying this is true, but what comes to my mind is: governments, and spammers. Yes, very conspiracy theory'ish, but until I have seen a better explanation, I'll stick with this.

Regardless of who will benefit from all the information, do you really want anyone to know all of this about you?

Time to drop Google and look for alternatives. Clusty seems as a nice search engine alternative. Email shouldn't be a problem for anyone nowadays, but if it is, have a look at hushmail.com for free webmail with PGP encryption. Instead of Google Talk, you can just use any Jabber server out there. Need a blog? Try livejournal or install some software on your own webspace (most ISPs give you some for free).

The only thing we all are stuck with is groups.google.com. If Google was really about sharing information, they'd open up the old DejaNews archives for anyone to download. Until then, we have to get used to the new, crappy interface.

---

  'Google is Evil'
   -rw-rw-rw-  1 satan demons  0 Jun 06 06:06 google

http://nu.nl/ is a great news source for us Dutch people, but for some reason, bloglines had problems parsing the URLs on the feed, preventing you from 'clicking on the link' to read the full story.

A lot of times I wanted to read the full story, but found it too time consuming to browse the entire website in search for the article in question. So, I went on a little quest to make this work.

The problem seemed to be the & in the URLs. The feed feeds us this:

http://www.nu.nl/news.jsp?n=596320&c=22&rss

yet bloglines shows us:

http://www.nu.nl/news.jsp?n=596320&=22&ss

Quite annoying, yet also rather simple to fix with Greasemonkey. And so it happened, my first greasemonkey script: bloglinesNU.user.js

http://nu.nl/ is a great news source for us Dutch people, but for some reason, bloglines had problems parsing the URLs on the feed, preventing you from 'clicking on the link' to read the full story.

A lot of times I wanted to read the full story, but found it too time consuming to browse the entire website in search for the article in question. So, I went on a little quest to make this work.

The problem seemed to be the & in the URLs. The feed feeds us this:

http://www.nu.nl/news.jsp?n=596320&c=22&rss

yet bloglines shows us:

http://www.nu.nl/news.jsp?n=596320&=22&ss

Quite annoying, yet also rather simple to fix with Greasemonkey. And so it happened, my first greasemonkey script: bloglinesNU.user.js

Although graphical user interfaces can be horrible, sometimes it's really handy. Recently Joffie brought zenity to my attention.

Zenity is an easy way of including GTK+ widgets in your shell scripts. It looks very promising and I definitely have to read more about it.

Zenity is a tool that allows you to display Gtk+ dialog boxes from the command line and through shell scripts. It is similar to gdialog, but is intended to be saner. It comes from the same family as dialog, Xdialog, and cdialog, but it surpasses those projects by having a cooler name.

A cooler name is all it takes ;-)

Although graphical user interfaces can be horrible, sometimes it's really handy. Recently Joffie brought zenity to my attention.

Zenity is an easy way of including GTK+ widgets in your shell scripts. It looks very promising and I definitely have to read more about it.

Zenity is a tool that allows you to display Gtk+ dialog boxes from the command line and through shell scripts. It is similar to gdialog, but is intended to be saner. It comes from the same family as dialog, Xdialog, and cdialog, but it surpasses those projects by having a cooler name.

A cooler name is all it takes ;-)

After many thoughts on actually going out on a wardrive, yesterday the decision was made: the wardrive must happen!

And so, Joffie and I went out on a little trip. Not knowing too much about Wi-Fi networks, we found out how shockingly easy it was to actually get online through somebody else's router/access point.

Just driving around showed us many, many, many points of interest and after parking the car somewhere, it usually took us less than a minute to completely take over a router (or more than one). We could just randomly park the car in the city, and get online in matter of seconds.

Why don't people enable WEP, disable DHCP, allow only certain MAC addresses to connect or at least change the default login/password combination of their routers? With a little help of Yahoo you can find lists containing routers' default passwords. Very handy, yet going for 'admin/admin' usually works out quite well too.

All in all, I found the journey quite interesting from a network point of view (learned a lot), yet also very scary. People really don't care about security, or so it seems. This must change... Then again, if -for some reason- my own internet connection fails, I have ample backups ;-)

After many thoughts on actually going out on a wardrive, yesterday the decision was made: the wardrive must happen!

And so, Joffie and I went out on a little trip. Not knowing too much about Wi-Fi networks, we found out how shockingly easy it was to actually get online through somebody else's router/access point.

Just driving around showed us many, many, many points of interest and after parking the car somewhere, it usually took us less than a minute to completely take over a router (or more than one). We could just randomly park the car in the city, and get online in matter of seconds.

Why don't people enable WEP, disable DHCP, allow only certain MAC addresses to connect or at least change the default login/password combination of their routers? With a little help of Yahoo you can find lists containing routers' default passwords. Very handy, yet going for 'admin/admin' usually works out quite well too.

All in all, I found the journey quite interesting from a network point of view (learned a lot), yet also very scary. People really don't care about security, or so it seems. This must change... Then again, if -for some reason- my own internet connection fails, I have ample backups ;-)

Last night I went to see the great Opeth once again. This time they performed in 013 in Tilburg.

I have mixed feelings about that venue, for sometimes the sound is great, but I've also had terrible noise there. Luckily, the Opeth sound was just awesome. Not too loud, crispy clear and full. Didn't even need earplugs (!).

The band played a mixture of new and older songs, and they even banged their heads now and then (big improvement from the previous show I saw of them ;-)

Now I have to rethink my whole 'best gig ever' list. This Opeth show ranks high, but can it beat the Duran Duran gig? Not sure yet... Nevertheless, this show was just simply awesome.

Last night I went to see the great Opeth once again. This time they performed in 013 in Tilburg.

I have mixed feelings about that venue, for sometimes the sound is great, but I've also had terrible noise there. Luckily, the Opeth sound was just awesome. Not too loud, crispy clear and full. Didn't even need earplugs (!).

The band played a mixture of new and older songs, and they even banged their heads now and then (big improvement from the previous show I saw of them ;-)

Now I have to rethink my whole 'best gig ever' list. This Opeth show ranks high, but can it beat the Duran Duran gig? Not sure yet... Nevertheless, this show was just simply awesome.

For years, my good old Nokia 3210 has served me well. I'm not a big cellphone enthusiast, but sometimes it can be handy (more often, a mobile phone is just annoying). The poor thing has been dropped so many times, yet it never failed me, until lately. The power supply fails now and then and it's just doing weird things then and now.

Time for a new one! I don't call a lot (and to be frank, hate cellphones) so I didn't want to spend too much money on one. Now I have a Sony Ericsson J200i.

It's already and "old" type, yet top notch, shiny new, and high-tech to me. I never had a phone that could do more than ... make phone calls, yet modern phones must include a camera for starters, or so it seems. Luckily I am not that far yet, for the J200i is camera-less, can't play mp3's, has no voice recording and cannot drive my car for me.

Phones that are anything like the good 3210 are hard to find. I don't care about most features my new phone has, like a calendar or profiles for home, car, office. They expect me to navigate through the phone four times a day to get different sounds and stuff on the right place? I don't care if the phone rings the same at home and at work.

Another thing is that the buttons are terribly small on every phone out there now. The J200i isn't as bad as others, yet if you're plagued with rather thick fingers, you're doomed.

There are of course also nice things to it. I like the color screen and polyphonic (yes, already old fashioned) ringtones. I couldn't even resist to get me the theme of my childhood heroes ;-) And the best thing, that my old phone lacked, the vibration alert (for the lonely nights ;-).

So to conclude: I am horribly old fashion, and have a total lack of interest in cellphones and anything that has to do with them. I like old phones where buttons are big, phones that don't have 300 pages bound into a manual, and phones that can just stay focused on what they have to do: place and receive phone calls. The J200i isn't that bad, for it doesn't have many features (still too many), isn't too hard to understand, can vibrate and can keep me amused with my ringtone (which means I never pick up the phone, for that would stop the song again, oh no!).

On July 17th 1980, the Netherlands ratified the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women". Based on that convention, a Dutch christian political party (SGP) just lost a trial in which the Clara Wichmann fund claimed the Dutch government to stop providing this party a subsidy, for they were violating the mentioned convention. The subsidy was for €800,000 a year (now the government saves money, let's make gas cheaper! ;-) The party said to be surprised and sad (I bet).

The SGP is a strict religious party which bans women from any position in the party, based on the holy bible. That discrimination, according to the judge, was in violation with the UN convention.

The interesting part about this trial was to see what was more important: freedom of assembly and association, freedom of religion or this treaty. As it turned out, the judge ruled the women's treaty to be more important. The party itself can continue whatever they want to do, yet the subsidy will be over. For the law regarding the political subsidies provides means to retract the subsidy in case of discrimination (Wet subsidiëring politieke partijen).

I must say I have to agree with the judge. Tax money is (was) going to a political party that violates treaties and, in my humble opinion, is beyond old fashioned (women were able to vote in this country since 1917 (passive) and 1922 (active)). The SGP also wants to ban "extreme" porn on European scale. Would they support http://stopclownpornnow.org/ too? ;-)

Also I'm rather surprised to see this result for usually the freedom of religion rules in favor of anything else. Finally that's starting to shift.

I am one of many non-hardware nerds who believe hardware should just function straight out of the box. I don't fancy overclocking and usually hurt myself whenever I have to replace a certain piece of hardware from the case.

This disinterest in hardware usually is no problem for Win32 enthusiasts, but is killing if you -like me- like Linux. A few years back, I had a friend of mine put together a nice system. Awesome! Too bad he didn't know about the horrible Asus P4P800 Deluxe motherboard though... and that was the one I got.

From day one I have had difficulties with it. But in the end, everything functioned well under Debian Linux (except for the oh-so annoying New CPU Found! message whenever I had to reboot (luckily not that often ;-)) The 3Com onboard NIC (3C940) was probably the hardest part, until I found out about the sk98lin patch, that made my kernel work well with the network card.

Recently I've got really fed up with Debian though. Software packages not being maintained and my system was full of exotic and obscure tarball installations. So, time for a change! And Gentoo it was going to be.

After installing Gentoo (which takes too much manual work IMHO), I compiled a fresh kernel and found out the rotten 3Com NIC was playing tricks on me again. I've lost my pride in that thing and plugged in a tulip based NIC. Same problem: downloading big files (or emerge --sync for the matter) would hang and time out. So I shoved in a 8139too based NIC to find the same problems.

Three NICs cannot all be faulty, so it had to be something else. I've messed with hdparm, memtest86, kernel params/modules, and everything one can think off, but until now I don't see a final solution (although it doesn't seem to happen that often anymore, and at least Azureus works ok again ... crossing fingers). I have no clue what it can be that causes this strange behavior anymore, so I blame the Asus P4P800 Deluxe motherboard. Not because I'm sure it's really the problem, but because I've had it with that thing and its name looks too much like PHP, another thing I can't stand anymore ;-)

Conclusion: Asus P4P800 Deluxe, avoid like the plague if you like Linux!

I am one of many non-hardware nerds who believe hardware should just function straight out of the box. I don't fancy overclocking and usually hurt myself whenever I have to replace a certain piece of hardware from the case.

This disinterest in hardware usually is no problem for Win32 enthusiasts, but is killing if you -like me- like Linux. A few years back, I had a friend of mine put together a nice system. Awesome! Too bad he didn't know about the horrible Asus P4P800 Deluxe motherboard though... and that was the one I got.

From day one I have had difficulties with it. But in the end, everything functioned well under Debian Linux (except for the oh-so annoying New CPU Found! message whenever I had to reboot (luckily not that often ;-)) The 3Com onboard NIC (3C940) was probably the hardest part, until I found out about the sk98lin patch, that made my kernel work well with the network card.

Recently I've got really fed up with Debian though. Software packages not being maintained and my system was full of exotic and obscure tarball installations. So, time for a change! And Gentoo it was going to be.

After installing Gentoo (which takes too much manual work IMHO), I compiled a fresh kernel and found out the rotten 3Com NIC was playing tricks on me again. I've lost my pride in that thing and plugged in a tulip based NIC. Same problem: downloading big files (or emerge --sync for the matter) would hang and time out. So I shoved in a 8139too based NIC to find the same problems.

Three NICs cannot all be faulty, so it had to be something else. I've messed with hdparm, memtest86, kernel params/modules, and everything one can think off, but until now I don't see a final solution (although it doesn't seem to happen that often anymore, and at least Azureus works ok again ... crossing fingers). I have no clue what it can be that causes this strange behavior anymore, so I blame the Asus P4P800 Deluxe motherboard. Not because I'm sure it's really the problem, but because I've had it with that thing and its name looks too much like PHP, another thing I can't stand anymore ;-)

Conclusion: Asus P4P800 Deluxe, avoid like the plague if you like Linux!

Recently, there were some troubles between $haron Osbourne (yes, manager and wife of Ozzy) and Iron Maiden. This all happened at Ozzfest (note: I haven't been there, I just follow the news).

A lot of things happened (or so it seems):

• Iron Maiden crossed out on T-Shirts
• The band gets pelted with eggs, PA is sabotaged and "Ozzy"-chants are heard
• Photo's of band removed from Ozzfest website
• Sharon makes crazy statement
• Ozz-organization denies Kelly Osbourne's involvement in egg throwing
• Maiden's label makes a statement
• Maiden's manager makes a statement
• Sharon writes open letter to Maiden's manager
• Bruce Dickinson speaks to The Sun Online
• Sharon admits daughter was involved to Kerrang

... and the saga continues. Listen to the audio file to hear what happened at the end of Maiden's set.

Now there's even http://www.boycottsharon.com/, dedicated to this drama. The site wants to publish a letter in Billboard Magazine in which they claim that Sharon shouldn't have battled Iron Maiden on stage, when 45,000 people paid $150 to see them (note, Wacken Open Air is only €65.00 and way more interesting).

I have but one thing to say: Up The Irons!

A few months ago, I installed the software of Project Honeypot and finally it paid off (B-O-K was faster ;-).

Regardless of how the rest of your day goes, here's something to be happy about -- today a honey pot you installed successfully identified a previously unknown email harvester (IP: 80.87.67.168).

The harvester seems to be from Ghana and has a mail server associated from South Africa (66.18.69.143). I am so honored to find out that people in Africa are "reading" my blog ;-)

Well, my day was looking good already, for I will see Marduk tonight, but extra good news is always nice.

Through Kurt's blog, I found out about Nanoblogger GUI.

The rationale behind this, according to its author is:

...sometimes [it's] annoying to use a command line programm instead of a gui because on each use:

-you need to start a terminal window :-) ...
-you have to change to the nanoblogger directory...
-you need to know the program parameters...
-you must type a lot of characters...

Although the screenshot looks nice and shiny, I truly doubt its usefulness.

Launching a terminal, the first annoyance shouldn't be a problem. Most nerds/geeks have a few opened already. Besides, the GUI has to be launched somehow too, which is probably a more time consuming process than a simple terminal.

The second annoyance just isn't correct. I've been using NanoBlogger for some time now, and as long as you configure it right (BLOG_DIR setting in $HOME/.nb.conf), there is no need to dive into the blog directory. Of course, the `nb` executable should be in your $PATH.

Like with every command line application, "you need to know the program parameters", but invoking `nb` without any, will give you the options and a few examples. People have no problem remembering `tar xzvf <file>`, so `nb -c 1 -a` shouldn't be too hard to remember either. And if it is too hard to remember, use an `alias`.

Last but not least, you "must type a lot of characters". Again, I have no clue where this comes from. `nb -c 1 -a` doesn't look like that many characters to me. Launching the GUI takes "a lot of characters" too.

I appreciate people trying to improve software, or generating new code, yet I like it even better if there's any usefulness involved. People have been suggesting web interfaces already too, but why then use NanoBlogger, the BASH blogger? If you enjoy GUIs better than CLIs, go for LiveJournal, Blogger.com, B2evolution, Movable Type, and all the GUIs that have been created for them ;-)

As suggested before, I'd really like to see a centralized database for AdBlock.

I've thought about writing a FireFox Extension for it, yet my lack of time and laziness prevented me from doing so. And being lazy pays off now and then, for now there is Adblock Filterset.G Updater. Still I'd think the name ABCD (AdBlock Centralized Database) would be nicer/funnier, but ok, it seems to work and that's what counts ;-)

Now let's see how good it really is...

I can talk on this album for a long time, but it's not that necessary. We all know Opeth and with their new album, they don't really change the style they've invented. Just another wonderful album (that takes a few listening sessions to get used to, like always).

Label: Roadrunner Records

For some time now, I run my Gmail Invitation Spooler and at this moment, 6576 people have used it to get an invitation for the evil Gmail service.

After first launching it, I got a lot of emails requesting an invitation. Sure, if you're new to the invitation stuff and you don't read anything on the page, like All you have to do is to leave your email address in the box below and hit the submit button, I can see you send an email to the author of the page.

I always thought that the explanation of what to do was sufficient, but with this script I have attracted a branch of Internet L-users that are new to me: the people who never read. I presume these are the same people as the ones who click on the OK-button -without reading the text- whenever some error message pops up on their computer and afterwards ask me what the hell happened and how to fix it.

So I've added the text DO NOT ASK ME TO SEND YOU AN INVITATION, USE THE FORM ABOVE! in big red letters. Assuming that this would be something to catch the morons attention, it still failed. On a daily base I still receive their cries for help. Of course not in a friendly, polite way, nah either a blank message, or stuff like -and I quote:

"sf"
"who is this"
"WOULD LIKE TO SEND AN INVITATION TO address protected"
"I want to have an other GMAIL Invitation !"
"SEND ME GMAIL"
"must have gmail invite"

But sometimes, they do get polite (although I don't see why he needs my Gmail account):

Respected sir,

I am a system Engineer and I intrested to test new softwares. I need your Gmail account for testing.

and:

Dear sir,

Request you to kind send me invitation to join GMAIL to my following E.Mail address address protected

Some people don't get the invitation spooler at all though:

Please join us in Gmail. It's better then others, be sure.

Yes, that could be classified as an invitation too.

So, to conclude, I've altered the page to make it even more clear that people should not mail me to request an invitation by changing Send your invitations to gmail@swal.org into Send your invitations (so NOT requests) to gmail@swal.org. Let's see if people can finally read, or if I just should send the entire script to /dev/null heaven...

For some time now, I run my Gmail Invitation Spooler and at this moment, 6576 people have used it to get an invitation for the evil Gmail service.

After first launching it, I got a lot of emails requesting an invitation. Sure, if you're new to the invitation stuff and you don't read anything on the page, like All you have to do is to leave your email address in the box below and hit the submit button, I can see you send an email to the author of the page.

I always thought that the explanation of what to do was sufficient, but with this script I have attracted a branch of Internet L-users that are new to me: the people who never read. I presume these are the same people as the ones who click on the OK-button -without reading the text- whenever some error message pops up on their computer and afterwards ask me what the hell happened and how to fix it.

So I've added the text DO NOT ASK ME TO SEND YOU AN INVITATION, USE THE FORM ABOVE! in big red letters. Assuming that this would be something to catch the morons attention, it still failed. On a daily base I still receive their cries for help. Of course not in a friendly, polite way, nah either a blank message, or stuff like -and I quote:

"sf"
"who is this"
"WOULD LIKE TO SEND AN INVITATION TO address protected"
"I want to have an other GMAIL Invitation !"
"SEND ME GMAIL"
"must have gmail invite"

But sometimes, they do get polite (although I don't see why he needs my Gmail account):

Respected sir,

I am a system Engineer and I intrested to test new softwares. I need your Gmail account for testing.

and:

Dear sir,

Request you to kind send me invitation to join GMAIL to my following E.Mail address address protected

Some people don't get the invitation spooler at all though:

Please join us in Gmail. It's better then others, be sure.

Yes, that could be classified as an invitation too.

So, to conclude, I've altered the page to make it even more clear that people should not mail me to request an invitation by changing Send your invitations to gmail@swal.org into Send your invitations (so NOT requests) to gmail@swal.org. Let's see if people can finally read, or if I just should send the entire script to /dev/null heaven...

http://talk.google.com/ opens with:

They say talk is cheap. Google thinks it should be free. Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free anytime, anywhere in the world.

Is this another noble act of phila