Lately Microsoft started an internal dogfood test for Magneto – the next generation Operation System for Mobile Devices (aka Windows Mobile 2005). Iam thinking about taking part in this dogfood test…but:

As Iam very very excited about this new version I also have my doubts playing with it on the only MDA2 I have. There are some rumours about an earlier version of Magneto on the net (sadly one Release Candidate leaked to the net) which does not sync correctly and does not run certain applications. Even more important: There are reportings about the fact that you will have problems returning back to Windows Mobile 2003 or upgrading/downgrading to any other Windows Mobile version.

And that is the last thing I need at the moment…a non working phone.

Any suggestions?

I found this very interesting website today: Smart Elements. You can order almost every element of the periodic table and even some isotops of elements. And there are some very interesting elements to play with… for instance those Tritium Trasers. Actually this is a gadget I probably really need because I can’t count the times I searched for the keys in the darkness…

“Traser is the generic name for glass tubes with a phosphor layer in them and Tritium gas inside the tube. They are most often seen as a type of glowing novelty keychain and in self illuminated exit signs. They are also favored by the military for critical applications where there must be illumination regardless of circumstances. They were invented in the 1960s as a reliable self powered light source for NATO. A traser consists of a section of tubular borosilicate glass, coated on the inside with a colored layor of phosphor. Borosilicate is preferred because it is a type of glass noted for its strength and resistance to breakage. In theory one could use any beta emitting gas. In practice Tritium is preferred because it is the least hazardous.”

The second cool “toy” that I found (with the help of cosrahn) on the site is Gallium. A metal whos melting point is 30 degree celsius…so indeed it will melt in my hand… I really have to get this just to play with…

Christian mentioned that they also sell Neodym NdFeB-magnets. I personally did not know what they are, but the site enlightened me and created some respect for them

Source 1: http://www.smart-elements.com
Source 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traser
Source 3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium
Source 4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium
Source 5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet

this is so unbelievably bad… I really hate this flash commercial stuff… that pops up everywhere these days…makes noise and hurts the eye and brain of everyone who bears with it.

today I had a quite frustrating encounter with something called “policy”…

We (cosrahn,namenlos,me) took a night hike to the local food supplier. Beside the fact that I discovered places I never would imagine to be near the Campus we had some fun with namenlos’ always-handy-”EOS 300D”…

this is me…laughing and glowing

Actually I had a LED torch…and because it was to bright I used my thumb to dim the brightness…so it’s red because of my thumb

a train passing by…

Actually it was pitch black… only some lights from the … I call it town … and from the train.

PIO Mode… wtf?! This server has decided to access one of its hard disks using the PIO Mode. As a matter of fact this leads to high system loads. This sucks! I’m going to take a visit to the machine… and punch it

What do you think Colorization would be? – Well take a picture, a greyscale one for instance and dye it. When you do this manually it’s a pain-in-the-ass. As far as i know there’s no working automatic solution for this problem. But there is this research project:

“Colorization is a computer-assisted process of adding color to a monochrome image or movie. The process typically involves segmenting images into regions and tracking these regions across image sequences. Neither of these tasks can be performed reliably in practice; consequently, colorization requires considerable user intervention and remains a tedious, time-consuming, and expensive task.

In this paper we present a simple colorization method that requires neither precise image segmentation, nor accurate region tracking. Our method is based on a simple premise: neighboring pixels in space-time that have similar intensities should have similar colors. We formalize this premise using a quadratic cost function and obtain an optimization problem that can be solved efficiently using standard techniques. In our approach an artist only needs to annotate the image with a few color scribbles, and the indicated colors are automatically propagated in both space and time to produce a fully colorized image or sequence. We demonstrate that high quality colorizations of stills and movie clips may be obtained from a relatively modest amount of user input. “

What does that mean? – Well this algorithm automatically creates from this:

that:

Isn’t this awesome? The biggest problem is that it’s just a research project – it’s implemented in Matlab and not available as stand-alone software…too bad. Because it even works with movies.

For more information take a look at their website.

Source 1: Dinge, Zeugs und Sachen
Source 2: Paper: Colorization Using Optimization

first: I’m very bad in drawing… but I had to test it… B-)

So by the way: I noticed that the quality of the drawings I made on my PDA are not that bad (as you can see for yourself)… maybe I can copy this guy a little bit.

Deka and ThamThon started to play with the brand new EIB Installation in our Office. And they really seemed to have fun B-). Well the light was switched on and off several times – if they intended that… I don’t know – but the EIB configuration looked kinda complicated.

Oh, a few words what EIB is:

“Here’s how the “intelligent” home works: The EIB system serves as the automatic controller of devices and systems in homes and apartment houses, and functional and commercial buildings. Sensors, such as motion detectors and thermostats, send impulses over a transmission medium to so-called actuators, for example. Sensors and actuators communicate with each other via four alternate transmission media.”

This is the main controller and the serial interface of the EIB. You can see the serial cable (btw: 13 Euro for 3m serial cable is dailight robbery!) and the Battery.

The switch-modules…

This is the other side of the wall:

There are numerous actuators and switches connected to our bus. But when I left nothing worked so far The problem seems to be that the Software is not that logical – or we just don’t get it

And THIS is a switch… okay… 4 switches… but damn isn’t that a nerds dream!

A complete review and description of the offices’ EIB installation will be available shortly.

Source: EIB Wikipedia Article

After some very disappointing experiences with Mercury, Lotus Domino and Exchange I was almost ready to even use OpenSource Software B-) – Just kidding! But the experiences were very very disappointing. Mercury does not have the needed features, Domino is to complicated and not what I would expect from an IMAP Server and Exchange, wuh… I wasn’t able to test it because: In order to install Exchange you have to have an ActiveDirectory (DC). I do not have that. I tried on a testing machine and the direct effect was: After promoting the Windows 2003 to a DomainController I could not access any file-share on that particular machine with MacOS X. That’s sad because the Exchange would run on one of my fileservers: You see the problem?!

Then I looked at the website “The IMAP Connection” and I found several other commercial IMAP servers. So I took the first one whos website and feature-list looked promising and gave it a shot: MDaemon from Alt-N.

It’s a relativly small Application and MDaemon does not require any 3rd Party Software like a SQL Server or ActiveDirectory or something.

After a quick Installation you get this:

The Feature-List of MDaemon appears like a listing of everything a great Mail-Server needs – even groupware features like calendar and contacts. And as if this wasn’t enough it’s completely configurable via the Webbrowser and the WebMail Feature is well… do i have to mention it? ITS GREAT!

Because I don’t use all the features I cannot give a complete overview of MDaemon… but I’ll do my best with the features I’m useing…

First the most important feature: Encryption and Security. With MDaemon you can encrypt almost any connection. I didn’t had the time to get an official certificate so I used the CA that comes built within MDaemon.

And everything works just as easy as possible: One click and a connection is encrypted.

Of course all the IMAP Features I was looking for are available with MDaemon: Subfolders, Encryption, Server-side Filtering, Spam-Filtering, Antivirus, Archiving…. to just name a few important ones.

And as if this wasn’t perfect enough: MDaemon stores all Messages in an easy convertable and backupable format: Textfiles.

One feature I tried out because I was curious: The WebMail Server called “WorldClient”. And this is how WorldClient looks like:

That does me remember of the Outlook Web Access Feature

and this is how you compose messages:

Actually this WebMail Feature replaces a complete client: Remember that the two pictures above are screenshots of the Internet Explorer. Unfortunatly my server is short on memory – so I’m going to disable that particular feature.

The conclusion: I’ve found the “perfect IMAP” Server for Windows. But there’s always a contra. And the contra is that it’s about $330 for the smallest version (6 users). I only need 1 user… so whats the point ;-(. Until I find an alternative Iam on the trial version of MDaemon…in the worst case I have to swallow the pill and put the 330 bucks on the table.

Source: http://www.altn.com

Hands on Doom 3 for the Xbox. It’s in stores within the next weeks…

Dr. Betruger…

Oh come on! This is unfair! I was promised a new Garbage album, and all I got is this washkitchen-one-more-guitar-please CD.

It’s not that the tracks aren’t good. But this Garbage album suffers the “too-much-samples-at-the-same-time”-syndrom. Have you ever experienced a constant “bleep” in your ear when you hear music? Well do the following: Grab a David Bowie album, let’s say “Earthling” – Volume UP and hear… you will hear… NOISE… just NOISE. No possibility to differentiate between vocals, guitars, drums…it’s just constant noise. Why’s that? Because there is just to much at the same time.

Too much at the same time is the major problem this album has. I felt serious pain listening to this album. It’s a pity because the tracks could be really great… but they exaggerated it….;-(

“Bleed like me” is the technical worst album I’ve ever seen from Garbage. I really loved the “Why do you like me”-Single release because it’s simply the only track on the album that did not suffer the syndrom that bad…

I personally go for Bowie and the new Garbage Album when I want to get a headache fast.

Source 1: Why do you love me
Source 2: http://www.garbage.com

After some really great style mixture albums Moby is back to enlighten our lifes with even better music. Since some weeks Mobys new album “Hotel” is available in stores – time enough for me to grab it and take a hear.

I called this article “rediscovery of melody” – and it’s a fact: It’s been ages since Moby gave us such canorous songs. As usual each one is great and greater I personally fell instantly in love with “Raining Again”, “Lift Me Up” and “Very”. Awesome tracks!

Just one thing: PLEASE USE LESS FILTERS. The vocals and some samples on the album are constantly hissing, swooshing. This is annoying because in the first place I thought my stereo broke.

Source: http://www.moby.com

This came to my attention the very moment I needed it:

That’s so great I already ordered one. For only €19,90 you get this beautiful display stand.

Source: eBay

After evaluating what IMAP Server software is available I started with the least expensive one: Mercury Mail Transport System.

It’s free so nothing to lose on that point. The plan was the following:

• install and setup a plain Mercury
  
• use Outlook Express and Drag’n'Drop to recreate the folder structure I’ve created in years of using PMMail
  
• check if all went fine
  
• create server-side message rulesets to get the mails in the right folders

And I started: Installation and Setup was no problem. I created a user for me and configured the POP3 Client-Module that retrieves the mail from my providers’ POP3 Servers and sorts it into the Mercury-Inbox. So far so good.

Now the next step: How to get the old mail onto the new IMAP? – Easy:

I already said that PMMail stores each eMail into a single MSG File which is simply the complete mail that PMMail received from the server. So I fired up Outlook Express, created an account with my user-informations. So far so good: I created some top-level folders on the IMAP Server via Outlook Express. It worked…drag’n'dropping the MSG files from PMMails directories into the Outlook Express window worked also fine. BUT: I was unable to create subfolders. That really sucks, because my folder structure is somewhat convoluted.

Entourage came up with this weird “error”-message…
“This folder cannot contain any subfolders. According to the server this folder
can contain either Messages or only subfolders.”

The next big feature-miss that disqualified Mercury completly was the fact that it is impossible to move messages via a server-based rule into specific folders of an IMAP account. You can just copy/move a message to another account’s inbox…. DAMN!

At the moment the Mercury Server is running but only as long as I need to setup a better solution: Today I’ll give Microsoft Exchange 2003 a shot.

Source: http://www.pmail.com/

Back for more: After the successful Migration of my localhost-only Lotus Notes Setup to a more sophisticated Domino server-based Setup I am going to take on the next challenge:

Since December 1997 I am exclusively using POP3 together with my favourite eMail Application “PMMail”. I started with the OS/2 Version of PMMail and finally arrived at Windows XP with the Windows Version of PMMail – using the same eMail Data Structures and Formats as in 1997.

PMMail maintains only my private eMails – around 100.000 so far. And that’s going to change:

I want to migrate my local-only eMail Storage to a Server based Solution. As far as I can see, there are different ways to do that:

1. upgrade the Lotus Domino Server with the IMAP Option and get an IMAP Server from Domino.


2. install Microsoft Exchange and let it take the lead


3. install a free Server Software like Pegasus Mercury Mail Transport

After I decided which one I’ll take I have to figure out how I get my eMail into the newly configured IMAP Server. Ideally I will get a 1:1 copy of everything – even of the folder structure. This is not impossible. Because PMMail 2000 stores every mail in a single file which then contains 1:1 the response the POP3 Server gave PMMail 2000 when it received the mail.

So everything I have to do: Write a program that imports my mail in the right order… that should not be that difficult I hope

Stay tuned!

Source 1: http://www.pmmail2000.com
Source 2: http://www.lotus.com
Source 3: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.mspx
Source 4: http://www.pmail.com/

inspired from this picture…:

I made my own version:

hey it’s a 1 Minute Job… so don’t say anything please. I’ll make a better one, promise.

Update:

Source: http://apple.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000387037406

Iam working on some sort of campaign-draft at the moment. See it as a side product of my work…

1280×1024
1600×1200

made with CorelDraw and Adobe Photoshop

Today Nico got his brand new Samsung SyncMaster 701T…and well this one is cute…

VGA, DVI, Power and a display stand

The stand is smaller than i expected – infact the display itself is much lighter than I expected. The one Nico got was made in Slovakia which makes it probable that the display does not have any pixel-errors. It’s reported that for 701Ts that are made in China the chance is much bigger that it got pixel-errors…

We did not check it on pixel-errors yet – that will be done later (remind: we have 14 days send back guarantee in Germany)…

it’s not only lighter it’s even not as deep as expected…

Source: http://de.thespoke.net/MyBlog/GhosTa/MyBlog.aspx

this night at the cash terminal…

make the temperatures rise! fr33 teh b….

Every eight weeks Mercedes-Benz donates us great music. Go for it!

“Alle 8 Wochen präsentiert Mercedes an dieser Stelle musikalische Vielfalt im MP3-Format. Wie immer kostenlos, präsentiert auch Mixed Tape 06 eine exklusive Auswahl internationaler Newcomer:mit 15 aktuellen Stücken zwischen Boston, Tobago und Ibiza! Ein bewegendes Hörerlebnis – nicht nur in Ihrem Mercedes-Benz. Zur Darstellung der Seite müssen Sie den Pop-Up Blocker in Ihrem Browser deaktivieren.”

Source: Mercedes-Benz Mixed Tape

a great idea! Yummy.

ElGono had some spare time and he installed Plan9 on one of his machines:

After i heard a lecture about Plan9 2 weeks ago at “Chemnitzer Linuxtage” i decided to have a personal look at plan9 to make up my own mind. The lecture wasn’t that good, btk wrote about that: read article at schrankmonster.de

So i put together some remaining parts to a little test-station. found a celi300, 160MB RAM and a TNT2 graphics wich should be supported by plan9.

Booting from CD was easy as i thought:

Next: setting up the basic things like mouse & screen size

From now a GUI takes you further to install plan9. Next steps are partitioning & mounting harddisks. in lower left corner some bars display cpu, disc and network usage. nice feature for an installer.

The weird partitioning is not required by plan9 … p2 is just a partition around some bad sectors … rest of disk works fine since years

After formatting & mounting the disc there is a choice to copy the distribution to hd from network or local source. I choose local and needed to mount the cdrom:

Time for having some tea, with a 4x RW-CD… that takes time.

Finally the install progress finishes. Time for the [bootsetup]
There are 9 choices: Win9x, WinNT or plan9. Because the disk is plan9 only, i choosed plan9. that maybe was a mistake…

Now i was really tensed while rebooting to start Plan9 for the first time: But guess what what was coming up? Lilo! Somehow there is no lilo or grub [bootsetup] now. Found something like “rtfm for editing lilo/grub, but till now i didn’t found a README wich contains something about that.

Maybe booting with windows-cd and running “fixmbr” might help to get a clean bootsector and Plan9 maybe set up his winNT [bootsetup] right. But i won’t figure out this tonight! later on guyz….

Impression: the installer worked quite well, usb mouse & keyboard were detected, unfortunately i didn’t got a NIC inside. I really liked that i could skip steps or redoing steps with other configurations. That’s what i’m used to from unix systems …. so what Rob Pike said back in 1991: “Not only UNIX is dead, it’s starting to smell really bad”

btw, sorry for the bad quality of pix … needed to take hard screenshots with digicam wich looks a bit crappy.

Source 1: http://matrix.fem.tu-ilmenau.de/~elgono/skureal/?id=skureal
Source 2: http://matrix.fem.tu-ilmenau.de/~elgono/skureal/?id=Plan9install
Source 3: http://www.schrankmonster.de/PermaLink,guid,5bc7f28f-ffc4-4cb9-adce-b5e8f098e7ec.aspx