Moblog

I am dreaming about a revived FidoNet. Ridiculous?

With the help of Tor and its so-called "hidden services", you can publish content anonymously and censor-resistant. Gateways such as Tor2Web allow easy access to these contents without the need to install Tor as reader. Still, there's only a handful of (known) hidden services, more or less useful. While the technology and infrastructure is available (there's even a free anonymous webhoster), the majority of users is not tech-savvy enough to benefit: In times where the largest group of media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors (more than 120 journalists in prison today), we need an easy-to-use platform for online journalists. Continue reading "Proposal for Tor Hidden Services"

A 3D world, filled with music coming from different sources, blended together in surround sound (5.1/7.1). Similar music is closer together (for example, based on last.fm information). You can freely move around, with distant sources fading out, until you only hear the closest source (standing "inside" it). Continue reading "The Music Room"

Idea: Build an extension for Firefox that supports all popular (and upcoming) peer-to-peer video streaming engines.

Martin Fowler suggests to gather (new) requirements by analyzing user behavior within the application/web site.

Crowdsourcing seems to be the new future. The Microsoft internationalization team is currently testing "collaborative translation", where visitors aid to improve machine translated content. They're also working on CLIP, a small utility that shows a local translation within the tooltip of a caption. Continue reading "Croudsourcing for Localization"

If you've ever used Linux, you probably stumbled over the great concept of package management. When Microsoft revised MSI (now called Windows Installer), they failed to include the simple mechanism for applications to register at a central update management. The crucial point is that while Linux repositories mostly contain GPL software that can be easily packaged by third parties, a Windows package manager needs support from each individual developer - which is not going to happen any time soon without Microsoft stepping in.
I am certain that the Windows world is ready for a "Web 2.0 solution". In times where all our knowledge is being collected for free, people might actually use install scripts supplied by a community, without direct support from the vendor. Continue reading "Package Manager for Windows"

Envision the "perfect backup and synchronization tool".

• synchronize and/or backup selected file sets
• unlimited revisions (version history)
• support central servers and/or decentralized client exchange ("peer to peer")
• support to backup to external drives, including the full file history
• work offline and still have a version history
• local revision history is automatically distributed to all participating clients
• transparent
• automatically monitors/tracks changes and immediately sync in the background
• (alternatively, eg. for files that are constantly changing (email database), do scheduled or manual syncs)
• if network/other clients are available, sync with them (including file history)
• if connected to selected external drives, auto-sync to it
• safe encryption on all clients/servers (both storage and transfers)
• of course, only store and transmit incremental updates (deltas)
• "traveller mode":
• web interface to download individual files from any revision
• sync complete set of files from a specific date/revision without admin rights
• open source, FREE
• platform independent
• independently scalable to "unlimited" clients

To get the idea, compare with Dropbox and Syncplicity.

Sounds too good to be true? It does exist (well, sort of) ! See my wiki for details.

Allerorts wird von entstehenden "Raucherclubs" berichtet. Allein in Augsburg sollen bis zu 200 Kneipen so erfolgreich das Rauchverbot umgehen.

Das schreit doch geradezu danach, einen überregionalen Verein zu gründen. Modell: Der Schirmverein kümmert sich um die Administrativa, um einheitliches Erkennungsmerkmal, Mitgliedskarten, Werbung und so weiter, während Kneipen gegen einen geringen Obulus oder gar kostenfrei beitreten können. Für Raucher und Nichtraucher bleibt die Mitgliedschaft natürlich in jedem Fall kostenlos.

Ja, was für ein Paradies für Zigarettenhersteller! Ich bin fest davon überzeugt, dass man meinetwegen an Philipp Morris herantreten könnte und die finanzieren einem das. Sie sponsorn ja sogar Frischluftheizpilze und Glasabtrennungen. Stellt euch nur mal die gezielten Werbemöglichkeiten vor... Und die geringe Einstiegshürde, das kann man durchaus als Einzelperson stemmen. Verein gründen, Website aufsetzen, Mails/Briefe an Kneipen raushauen, fertig.

Da gibts einiges an Kohle zu machen! Ran an den Rauch! Jetzt!