Thursday, May 16, 2013
a few remarks Google Reader and its competitors
Google will shut down Google Reader on 2013-07-01.
I like(d) Firefox Sage a lot, but it does not synchronise between my various devices, so I really only consider web-based feed readers.
Competing web-based feed readers:
I like(d) Firefox Sage a lot, but it does not synchronise between my various devices, so I really only consider web-based feed readers.
Competing web-based feed readers:
- feedly.com – at least one organisational level; comes for free w/o any restrictions
- NewsBlur.com – at least one organisational level; looks rather nice as well
- theoldreader – no organisational level at all
- netvibes.com – at least one organisational level; looks really great; free version has noticeable restrictions
But none of them is yet as nice as Google Reader:
- you can send articles from the "overview" to a blog, …
- …
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
really enjoyed Avishai Cohen's concert at Hamburg's Laeiszhalle last night
- the Hamburg event (2013-05-13 20:00)
- he is currently on tour with his "String Project" [link]
- so far you can't purchase/download the pieces they played
Monday, May 6, 2013
Thursday, May 2, 2013
"BeyondPod Podcast Manager" - my 1st podcast downloader on my smartphone
BeyondPod Podcast Manager - Android Apps on Google Play
After quite a couple of years with smartphones in my pockets today I downloaded the 1st podcast downloader+player to my Android phone. I am keen to listen again to a specific radio broadcast, and I got aware, that it's listed on one of the broadcaster's podcast RSS feeds; and then it was only a quick step …
After quite a couple of years with smartphones in my pockets today I downloaded the 1st podcast downloader+player to my Android phone. I am keen to listen again to a specific radio broadcast, and I got aware, that it's listed on one of the broadcaster's podcast RSS feeds; and then it was only a quick step …
rewarded my appreciated "Samsung Galaxy S II" with a new rechargeable battery
Samsung Galaxy S II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The last battery recently fainted in the middle of the day after several SMSs or after a few pictures taken on the camera.
I still very much like that phone.
Strange enough I broke the cover a while ago. Strange – because I have a protective case around its back / cover.
The last battery recently fainted in the middle of the day after several SMSs or after a few pictures taken on the camera.
I still very much like that phone.
Strange enough I broke the cover a while ago. Strange – because I have a protective case around its back / cover.
Monday, April 29, 2013
logcheck – scans your logfiles and warns you
- www.logcheck.org
- sourceforge.net/projects/logcheck/
- linuxaria.com/pills/logcheck-scan-your-logs-and-warns-you – this is the nicest overview page
Dependencies and restrictions:
- logcheck depends on logtail
- logtail runs on exactly one file …
- … and only once on that file, as it keeps a sister file called logfile.offset
- improving this should actually be "easy", e.g. keeping a sister file called logfile.offset.user
Pros:
- abstracting resp. filtering log files like /var/log/messages
- this happens "realtime" i.e. instantly
- …
Cons:
- the results get to you resp. a whole crowd via e-mail – isn't that a little excessive regarding the resources necessary to look at the output?
- if you already have a utilty in place, that filters daily chunks of log files, this is
- …
Ideas / inspirations taken from here:
- the output could actually go to another log file, that you may want to "logtail" or "tail -f" as to your needs
- …
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Log::Log4perl : appending to a logfile from several processes at the same time
- Log::Log4perl::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions on Log::Log4perl - metacpan.org
- a forum article dealing with group privileges on the semaphore files [link]
If you don't do it like this, you will end up in a corrupted logfile.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Log::Log4perl and (supposed) performance penalties
Log::Log4perl - Log4j implementation for Perl - metacpan.org
Evaluating parameters to logger methods may be expensive, but that's outside the scope and responsibility of Log::Log4perl. So if you know that you have "expensive parameters", you may "guard" your logger calls with "...->is_...()" method calls. Otherwise just don't do so! It does not make sense. Read up the above manual page section! Why should the is_trace call be cheaper than the trace call itself? Of course it's not. I guess, you got that.
Evaluating parameters to logger methods may be expensive, but that's outside the scope and responsibility of Log::Log4perl. So if you know that you have "expensive parameters", you may "guard" your logger calls with "...->is_...()" method calls. Otherwise just don't do so! It does not make sense. Read up the above manual page section! Why should the is_trace call be cheaper than the trace call itself? Of course it's not. I guess, you got that.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Test::Builder - Backend for building test libraries - metacpan.org
Test::Builder - Backend for building test libraries - metacpan.org
Test::Simple and Test::More have proven to be popular testing modules, but they're not always flexible enough. Test::Builder provides a building block upon which to write your own test libraries which can work together.
Test::Simple and Test::More have proven to be popular testing modules, but they're not always flexible enough. Test::Builder provides a building block upon which to write your own test libraries which can work together.
Log::Log4perl - Log4j implementation for Perl - metacpan.org
- log4perl.com
- Log::Log4perl - Log4j implementation for Perl - metacpan.org
- Log::Log4perl::Config - Log4perl configuration file syntax - metacpan.org – everything about the configuration file syntax, includes a "cookbook"
- the initial article on Log::Log4perl at perl.com [link], and the errata [link]
- Michael Schilli at github and esp. his Log4perl [link]
- its nice logo [link at cafepress.com, link at cafepress.de] on a mug or a t-shirt
 |
| linked from http://www.cafepress.com/log4perl |
its ancestor log4j:
- "Short introduction to log4j" by Ceki Gülcü, March 2002 [the proper link]
- log4j's wikipedia [link] with a nice and terse description
- Vipan Singla's article "Don't Use System.out.println! Use Log4j" [link]
Log::Log4perl lets you remote-control and fine-tune the logging behaviour of your system from the outside. It implements the widely popular (Java-based) Log4j logging package in pure Perl.
Log4perl is also compatible with log4j's graphical log analyser Chainsaw.
Chainsaw (log file viewer) – the log4j and also Log4perl graphical log analyser
- Chainsaw (log file viewer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Apache Logging Services Chainsaw v2 Home [link]
Yes, it is compatible with Log::Log4perl, cf. "Can I use Log::Log4perl with log4j's graphical Log Analyzer Chainsaw?" [link] in Log::Log4perl::FAQ.
Monday, April 8, 2013
article on "Google Chrome OS" - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Google Chrome OS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It also includes a reference to an article named "poking around …", which basically explains, how to get a bash session on Chrome OS.
It also includes a reference to an article named "poking around …", which basically explains, how to get a bash session on Chrome OS.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
a Perl module on CPAN for dealing with ZIP archives: IO::Compress::Zip
IO::Compress::Zip - Write zip files/buffers - metacpan.org
I found code, that makes use of this module. The 1st problem, I had to deal with: the file to be written into the ZIP archive and the ZIP archive both get named using absolute pathnames. That's alright for the ZIP archive, but you usually don't like archive members with absolute pathnames. The manual page describes, which feature deals with this ("FilterName"), and it also gives a nice and short recipe.
I found code, that makes use of this module. The 1st problem, I had to deal with: the file to be written into the ZIP archive and the ZIP archive both get named using absolute pathnames. That's alright for the ZIP archive, but you usually don't like archive members with absolute pathnames. The manual page describes, which feature deals with this ("FilterName"), and it also gives a nice and short recipe.
the "Table editor for Emacs"
Table
My minor ongoing problem with it: Whenever I copy an area from a table cell, the buffer gets flagged as "modified". That's ugly, because afterwards you wonder, what got changed and you don't see it of course.
My minor ongoing problem with it: Whenever I copy an area from a table cell, the buffer gets flagged as "modified". That's ugly, because afterwards you wonder, what got changed and you don't see it of course.
The demise of Google Reader: Stability as a service
The demise of Google Reader: Stability as a service:
Om Malik’s brief post on the demise of Google Reader raises a good point: If we can’t trust Google to keep successful applications around, why should we bother trying to use their new applications, such as Google Keep?
Given the timing, the name is ironic. I’d definitely like an application similar to Evernote, but with search that actually worked well; I trust Google on search. But why should I use Keep if the chances are that Google is going to drop it a year or two from now?
In the larger scheme of things, Keep is small potatoes. Google is injuring themselves in ways that are potentially much more serious than the success or failure of one app. Google is working on the most ambitious re-envisioning of computing since the beginning of the PC era: moving absolutely everything to the cloud. Minimal local storage; local disk drives, whether solid state or rust-based, are the problem, not the solution. Projects like Google Fiber show that they’re interested in seeing that people have enough bandwidth so that they can get at their cloud storage fast enough so that they don’t notice that it isn’t local.
It’s a breath-taking vision, on many levels: I should be able to have access to all of my work, regardless of the device I’m using or where it’s located. A mobile phone shouldn’t be any different from a desktop. I may not want to write software on a mobile phone (I can’t imagine coding on those tiny touch keyboards), but I should be able to if I want to. And I should definitely be able to take a laptop into the hills and work transparently over a 4G network.
Furthermore, why should I worry about local storage? The most common cause for throwing a computer on the bone pile is disk drive failure. Granted, I keep machines around for a long time, so by the time the disk drive fails, it’s more than time for an upgrade. But local disks require backups; backups are a pain; and it’s all too common for something to go wrong when you’re doing a restore. I’d prefer to leave backups to a professional in a data center. For that matter, there are many things I’d rather leave to a data center ops group: malware detection, authentication, software updates, you name it. Most of the things that make computing a pain disappear when you move them to the cloud.
So I’ve written two paragraphs about what’s wonderful about Google’s vision. Here’s what sucks. How can I contemplate moving everything to the cloud, especially Google’s cloud, if services are going to flicker in and out of existence at the whim of Google’s management? That’s a non-starter. Google has scrapped services in the past, and though I’ve been sympathetic with the people who complained about the cancellation, they’ve been services that haven’t reached critical mass. You can’t say that about Google Reader. And if they’re willing to scrap Google Reader, why not Google Docs? I bet more people use Reader than Docs. What if they kill the Prediction API, and you rely on that? There are alternatives to Reader, there may be alternatives to Docs (though most of the ones I knew have died on the vine), but I don’t know of anything remotely like the Prediction API. I could go on with “what ifs” forever (Authentication API? Web Optimizer?), but you get the point.
If Google is serious about providing a platform that lets us move all of our computing to the cloud, they need to provide a stable platform. So far, the tools are great, but Google gets a #fail for stability. Google understands the Internet far better than its competitors, but they’re demonstrating that they don’t understand their users’ needs.
Om Malik’s brief post on the demise of Google Reader raises a good point: If we can’t trust Google to keep successful applications around, why should we bother trying to use their new applications, such as Google Keep?
Given the timing, the name is ironic. I’d definitely like an application similar to Evernote, but with search that actually worked well; I trust Google on search. But why should I use Keep if the chances are that Google is going to drop it a year or two from now?
In the larger scheme of things, Keep is small potatoes. Google is injuring themselves in ways that are potentially much more serious than the success or failure of one app. Google is working on the most ambitious re-envisioning of computing since the beginning of the PC era: moving absolutely everything to the cloud. Minimal local storage; local disk drives, whether solid state or rust-based, are the problem, not the solution. Projects like Google Fiber show that they’re interested in seeing that people have enough bandwidth so that they can get at their cloud storage fast enough so that they don’t notice that it isn’t local.
It’s a breath-taking vision, on many levels: I should be able to have access to all of my work, regardless of the device I’m using or where it’s located. A mobile phone shouldn’t be any different from a desktop. I may not want to write software on a mobile phone (I can’t imagine coding on those tiny touch keyboards), but I should be able to if I want to. And I should definitely be able to take a laptop into the hills and work transparently over a 4G network.
Furthermore, why should I worry about local storage? The most common cause for throwing a computer on the bone pile is disk drive failure. Granted, I keep machines around for a long time, so by the time the disk drive fails, it’s more than time for an upgrade. But local disks require backups; backups are a pain; and it’s all too common for something to go wrong when you’re doing a restore. I’d prefer to leave backups to a professional in a data center. For that matter, there are many things I’d rather leave to a data center ops group: malware detection, authentication, software updates, you name it. Most of the things that make computing a pain disappear when you move them to the cloud.
So I’ve written two paragraphs about what’s wonderful about Google’s vision. Here’s what sucks. How can I contemplate moving everything to the cloud, especially Google’s cloud, if services are going to flicker in and out of existence at the whim of Google’s management? That’s a non-starter. Google has scrapped services in the past, and though I’ve been sympathetic with the people who complained about the cancellation, they’ve been services that haven’t reached critical mass. You can’t say that about Google Reader. And if they’re willing to scrap Google Reader, why not Google Docs? I bet more people use Reader than Docs. What if they kill the Prediction API, and you rely on that? There are alternatives to Reader, there may be alternatives to Docs (though most of the ones I knew have died on the vine), but I don’t know of anything remotely like the Prediction API. I could go on with “what ifs” forever (Authentication API? Web Optimizer?), but you get the point.
If Google is serious about providing a platform that lets us move all of our computing to the cloud, they need to provide a stable platform. So far, the tools are great, but Google gets a #fail for stability. Google understands the Internet far better than its competitors, but they’re demonstrating that they don’t understand their users’ needs.
my Android deviced used for tethering – where is the respective log file?
It feels like the device is experiencing quite a few (unexpected) disconnects on the 3G ("WAN") port. I suppose there is a log file, where I can find the respective event entries. Where would I find this log file? Any idea anybody?
On my new LTE router (an AVM FRITZ!Box 6842 (maybe this link still leads you to its elder sister 6840) [German link])
de-obfuscated again – "Berliner Sparkasse" web banking access reverse-engineered
A couple of weeks after "Berliner Sparkasse" renovated their online banking portal, I managed to amend my automated account statement download to work with their portal again. Actually it is not just amending, I rather had to write it again. Alright, I actually gained some experience in that area through the years, but it still is rather a hard and frustrating business.
Their portal uses obfuscated HTML, so it's not a trivial job, and you never really know in advance, whether you invest your time properly and successfully in that reverse engineering job. (At some stage I sometimes think, I will give up.) To put things right: this is not a job I am getting paid for, it just eases my task of regular and frequent downloading the statements of all bank accounts belonging to "family and company".
I would be terribly honoured to get invited to present my page scraping and de-obfuscation approach at some workshop or conference. If the circumstances of the invitation would allow me to not loose money by missing on my bread-and-butter job, that would be so welcome!! If de-obfuscation and page scraping would even become my special niche to make a little money on, maybe fund my sons' education and maybe even avoid the hardnesses of expected old-age poverty – oh, paradise!!!
No, actually I don't really want to help the "obfuscation community" to improve their obfuscation frameworks, but then … – you should understand: on my side this is a one-man-show, they get backed by the financial industry and whoever.
Their portal uses obfuscated HTML, so it's not a trivial job, and you never really know in advance, whether you invest your time properly and successfully in that reverse engineering job. (At some stage I sometimes think, I will give up.) To put things right: this is not a job I am getting paid for, it just eases my task of regular and frequent downloading the statements of all bank accounts belonging to "family and company".
I would be terribly honoured to get invited to present my page scraping and de-obfuscation approach at some workshop or conference. If the circumstances of the invitation would allow me to not loose money by missing on my bread-and-butter job, that would be so welcome!! If de-obfuscation and page scraping would even become my special niche to make a little money on, maybe fund my sons' education and maybe even avoid the hardnesses of expected old-age poverty – oh, paradise!!!
No, actually I don't really want to help the "obfuscation community" to improve their obfuscation frameworks, but then … – you should understand: on my side this is a one-man-show, they get backed by the financial industry and whoever.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
VirtualBox 4.2.10 fixes a number of crashing bugs
VirtualBox 4.2.10 fixes a number of crashing bugs: The latest version of Oracle's open source virtualisation package fixes several crashing problems and other bugs, including compilation problems with the rc0 release of version 3.9 of the Linux kernel
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Safari: .NET Bibliography
.NET Bibliography: 
Take advantage of this bibliography to learn everything about .NET programming, from C# to VB.NET and ASP.NET to WCF and WPF to XAML and Kinect.
I assume, you get this book for free.
Take advantage of this bibliography to learn everything about .NET programming, from C# to VB.NET and ASP.NET to WCF and WPF to XAML and Kinect.
I assume, you get this book for free.
munpack = MIME unpack – a utility to unpack messages in MIME or split-uuencode format
munpack(1) - Linux man page
If you need to deal with MIME attachements of an e-mail message within a shell script, this has been the tool for this purpose for ages now.
If you need to deal with MIME attachements of an e-mail message within a shell script, this has been the tool for this purpose for ages now.
O'Reilly Media book: Mac Hacks
Mac Hacks: 
OS X Mountain Lion is an incredibly powerful, but if you’re a serious Mac user who really wants to take control of this operating system, this book helps you dig below the surface. Tweak system preferences, mount drives and devices, and generally do things with your system that Apple doesn’t expect you to do.
OS X Mountain Lion is an incredibly powerful, but if you’re a serious Mac user who really wants to take control of this operating system, this book helps you dig below the surface. Tweak system preferences, mount drives and devices, and generally do things with your system that Apple doesn’t expect you to do.
http-console — a REPL loop for HTTP
cloudhead/http-console · GitHub
REPL = "read–eval–print loop":
REPL = "read–eval–print loop":
A read–eval–print loop (REPL) is a simple, interactive computer programming environment. The term is most usually used to refer to a Lisp interactive environment, but can be applied to command line shells and similar environments for programming languages such as …
O'Reilly Media book: OAuth 2.0: The Definitive Guide
OAuth 2.0: The Definitive Guide: 
There are currently no other books focusing on the OAuth 2 protocol. OAuth is mentioned in some other books about APIs and building social applications. The only other resources on the topic are the spec itself, API documentation from some service providers, and a few blog posts by core authors of the spec.
There are currently no other books focusing on the OAuth 2 protocol. OAuth is mentioned in some other books about APIs and building social applications. The only other resources on the topic are the spec itself, API documentation from some service providers, and a few blog posts by core authors of the spec.
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