Crooked Moon

Changes and migrations

2009-02-20T16:23:00.003+01:00

Periodically, when I pick up the use of blogging, it always tends to fade out after a while; that is, the activity if the blog itself. That is due to several large factors. First off, quality blogging takes time (and by that I'm not flattering myself in regard to the content of my blog, quite the contrary). You have to look into the sources you are referring to, get an opinion on them and then write a good post regarding the subject, both language wise and content wise. It takes time, and unfortunately that time seems to be getting scarcer as time passes. By the time I actually have the time to write, the probabilities are that someone else has already said it better (and is also referred to by a larger crowd).

So, what I've been doing for a long time now is simply using Google reader and sharing those items in my feeds I've found of particular interest. Problem is, that feed got pretty political, and even though it's displayed in the sidebar of the blog, still meant a strange workflow. Plus I sometimes wanted to comment it quickly, which brings us back to problem number one.

So, in order to solve these problems I've decided to mainly migrate over to Twitter. Dave Watanabe launched an excellent add-on to Safari called Safari140, which is also present in the upcoming version of his RSS aggregator NewsFire. And to put it short, it's bloody brilliant. Whenever I read a feed item, or look at a page I want to share, I simply press Ctrl +T, write a quick message and press enter. Twittered and done. Safari140 automatically creates a shortened URL to use in the post as well, saving me yet another task.

The blog will of course from time to time be subject of more qualitative posts, but if you want to know what is happining in my life, as well as receive bits of information on what I pick up during my daily feed escapades, twitter is the place to go.

Who am I?

2008-12-09T08:11:00.003+01:00

This post is in Swedish, or in a horrible English translation.

De närmsta av mina vänner vet hur jag är som person, och varför jag agerar på det sätt jag gör; på ytan kan det ibland te sig märkligt. Själv har jag en bild av mig själv som att jag kan vara väldigt tystlåten och avvaktande, något som inte är ett självklart bra drag inom ett karriärsinriktat yrke. Samtidigt har jag också fått komplimanger för detta under projekt; mina projektledare ansåg det mycket positivt att emedan alla andra diskuterade satt jag lugnt och analyserade både problemet och de övrigas reaktioner och beteende, för att sedan komma med ett väl genomtänkt inlägg.

Så blev jag tipsad om ett personlighetstest baserat på 41 frågor. Normalt är jag skeptisk mot dylika test på internet, men resultatet av detta kändes som en tämligen god beskrivning av mig, så jag tänkte likväl dela med mig av resultaten. Efter att ha gjort detta test blev jag också inspirerad att göra Illustrerad Vetenskaps IQ-test, för att ytterliga förtydliga bilden av vem jag är. Resultatet blev klart godkänt, även om det inte var ett övervakat test. Jag har tidigare av nyfikenhet gjort ett förberedande test som finns hos Mensa, vilket är tänkt att ge en indikation huruvida det är lönt att göra det riktiga ansökningsprovet; ett test som gav positivt utslag. Dock ska man vara realist och även om det är ett resultat som är genuint genomfört utan fusk kan jag inte fullt garantera validiteten i det. Men, det kan fortfarande vara lite roligt, och kanske ger det en bättre bild av mig. Så, här är resultaten:

Fredriks personlighetstyp:

Logiskt sinnade, kreativa tänkare. Kan bli mycket entusiastiska över teorier och idéer. Strävar ofta att bringa klarhet i teoretiska frågor. Värderar kunskap, logik och kompetens mycket högt. Tystlåtna och reserverade. Svåra att komma inpå livet. Individualister. Ointresserade av ledarskap och makt. Deras analytiska förmåga gör det lätt för dem att upptäcka samband som andra inte ser. Fungerar bäst när de uppmuntras att använda sin fantasi och förmåga till kritiskt tänkande.

IQ-Test

Fullständigt testresultat

Waiting room, part 1

2008-11-20T16:11:00.001+01:00

You know that you're at a serious dentist when the waiting room doesn't have any of the ordinary magazines. Instead, you're stuck reading reports on politics and foreign relations, energy dependance and democracy issues. Respect. ;)

Out of context

2008-11-07T20:32:00.001+01:00

Brilliant clip. Plain and simply brilliant. The ice is gonna break.

Why I love chinese creativity: Part II

2008-11-06T20:59:00.003+01:00

The chinese will do anything. I previously mentioned the KenSingTon 'I'm not at all trying to pass of as another popular gaming console' Vii. Today I actually stumbled across a collection of Trademark rip-offs from the previously mentioned country of many talents, especially in cloning.

A friend of mine once said: Nothing that you can buy in China is genuine. What you get for paying more is not an original item, it's a clone with better quality. I still admire it though, because it provides good entertainment.

This picture, along with more trademarks can be found at Fuss.

What you don't see if you don't look

2008-11-05T19:20:00.001+01:00

In celebration of the newly finished american election, and the immediate return of all normal news (that is, an awful lot of FRA and IPRED reporting), I present you with:

The Most Interesting Part Of The Presidential Debate: THE AUDIENCE!

How copyright is strangling creativity

2008-10-30T11:37:00.001+01:00

TED (short for Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an annual conference that brings together the most fascinating thinkers that exist in our time, and presents them with a great challenge. They get to give the most inspiring speech they can think of, the speech of their life; the challenge is, they only get 18 minutes to make an impact.

Many of the speeches available on the site are worth watching, but since there is discussions regarding the need for Sweden to implement a rather draconian copyright law extension (an implementation of IPRED1), the speech Lawrence Lessig gave regarding how creativity is being strangled by copyright law strikes me a suiting at the moment. Lessig, who is also the creator af Creative Commons, has some very valid arguments in this speech. Points that really should be considered when thinking of the previously mentioned law in Sweden. Also, I would recommend watching the speech before reading the rest of this post (yes, a classic spoiler warning).

For the proponents of the law argues the right to make a living as a professional creator; a professional creator being defined as 'a member of the proponents organisation and/or company'. The law entirely excludes the creativity of other people than those fitting that particular definition, along with the possibility of creating cultural works in other ways than those thought of by these organisations/companies.

Lessig also states another important thing; the situation of today mainly has two sides, two extremes. The pro copyright side and the no copyright side. There are of course variations on this, but for the most part it is a suiting description. The pro copyright side (to whom we include the previously mentioned organisations) want to regulate copyright by law. If and when the law isn't enough, or when citizens aren't abiding by the law, a stricter and more punishing law is needed. They feel that solution is the only way to get the system working again.

The problem with that argument is that the other side, the no copyright side, thinks that the pro side is so utterly wrong that part of the reason they are ignoring the existing system is due to that very belief. They refuse to accept the existing copyright system since they don't believe in it. To make it stricter and more punishing only gives motivation to go against the system, to revolt. It also pushes the technology and solutions in a direction that is directly opposite of that which the law intends.

So, in a very large sense, the only real effect this new law has is that it further divides the two sides causing a larger revolt than before. For most people, it should be obvious that this is a never ending spiral, and that the victims of this evolution is the creators in the gray areas in between the two extremes.

A grayscale world can never be built by systems with a pure black and white foundation.

In my view, there can be no winners with the new law. It is simply a faulty solution to the wrong problem, and the cost is giving up basic civil liberties and rights.

Solar System Visualizer

2008-10-29T19:51:00.001+01:00

Was stumbling casually (the usual way you stumble) when this page came up. A basic illustration of the relations between the different bodies in our solar system. Have a look at Jupiter, when you look the orbits of all the moon it seems almost miraculous that they don't collide in a disastrous way.

Solar System Visualizer

Why I love chinese creativity: Part I

2008-09-30T08:01:00.001+02:00

I've seen and heard of a lot of fun things that come out of China. The main reason for my liking is that they seem able to reproduce just about everything, even if it isn't quite as good as the original. This weekend, I came across a KenSingTon Vii and got to play with it a bit. Complete knockoff, but still fun. Even had the mysterious Porwer™ button. To keep a long story short: it didn't actually match the quality of the original Wii, but it had some innovative features (see pictures below). I especially enjoy the "feeling dummy experience".

Statistics and lies

2008-09-11T13:34:00.002+02:00

A classic expression is “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The quote comes from Benjamin Disraeli and was popularized in the United States by Mark Twain. Still, statistics and graphs can be used to illustrate just about anything efficiently; this is the very reason that Florence Nightingale used and extended the at the time existing pie chart.

More hilarious graphs available over at The Atheist Network.

5 Things I love about OS X

2008-09-10T11:59:00.017+02:00

Mac OS X has a lot of nifty features that are useful; most of them are quite apparent, like Exposé, Dashboard etc. Some of them are not as obvious, but can be real gems when you find them.

Autocompletion in nearly every text field

This little know feature of OS X is incredibly useful. If you're like me, and have trouble spelling certain words (and never seem to remember the correct spelling from time to time) this will save you a lot of time. In any text field, start typing a word and press F5. You'll be presented with a dropdown list containing all sorts of suggestions to what you are trying to write. (Video)

Dictionary lookups from within any application

You're reading through that long text, when you suddenly come upon a strange word in a sentence that you don't know the meaning of. Of course, that very word is a key word in the sentence, so nothing makes sense. So, what to do? Instead of going after a book, or opening a new tab in you browser to search for the meaning, simply hover over the word with the mouse pointer and press Ctrl + Cmd + D. The dictionary lookup is presented inline with the content. (Video)

Search Wikipedia from within Dictionary

An obvious thing, that is also well documented, is the fact that you can use Wikipedia through Dictionary.app. Still, if you aren't a every day Dictionary user, this option is easily forgot. Personally, I love this, since it features things like live search. Additionally, the presentation of the information is much cleaner than on the web page. (Picture)

Frameworks and integrations that are system wide and actually works (yes Microsoft, I'm looking at you)

OS X has a bunch of frameworks that allow applications to communicate both with the system itself, but also to other applications. This approach, instead of containing data within a certain application, allows for developers to create an environment for the user that gives a feeling of integration. For instance, if you edit a contact in Address Book, and enters an e-mail address, some Instant Messaging account information and assigns a picture to that contact, that information will be available to other applications, such as Mail and Adium. (Picture)

Add your own menu shortcuts

Menu shortcuts are useful time savers, but what to do if a shortcut doesn't exist, or the key combination used just seems wrong? Luckily, OS X provides to option of configuring personal shortcuts through its System Preferences. Just add a custom application menu shortcut and select the application which has/hasn't the menu option in question. Then simply type in the name of the menu option and choose a new keyboard shortcut. All done. (Picture)

Stephen Hawking on relativity

2008-09-07T13:56:00.000+02:00

Stephen Hawking is an incredible intelligent man. He is also able to see the problems ordinary people have with relativity, string theory and quantum physics; in this lecture he clearly shows that he is on the same level as todays young people.

Via Neatorama.

Having a personal security policy

2008-09-05T11:30:00.000+02:00

This post is based partly on a translation of an old comment I posted over at lilija.com after the security breach at bilddagboken.se, where a lot of users had their MSN and/or Facebook accounts compromised as well. The issue was actualized again, when I read of a number of people who had their account cracked.

I can't enough express the importance of having separate, individual passwords on everything that is considered important. Amongst the accounts that where cracked with the database leaked from bilddagboken.se where a vast amount of users that had the same password for their mail account. Needless to say, if your mail account is compromised and an untrusted source gains access to it, they have access to every part of your life. For with access to your mail, and by using password reminder services such as the one over at Facebook it is not even an effort to retrieve the password to that service as well. Just by filling out forms they can retrieve passwords to all services you are using, such as Myspace, eBay etcetera.

In addition to that, the quality of the passwords are incredibly vital as well. During the years I have been observing the outcome of security breaches, a list of the most used passwords have emerged; that list is not as much a fun read as a frightening insight into peoples view on security. The top passwords chosen are as follows:

1. Their name
2. Their sir name
3. Their social security number (or in applicable countries, their national identification number)
4. Their phone number
5. Their nickname (which incidentally is easy to spot right before the &at; in their e-mail address)
6. A cool sounding word, often 'secret', 'password' or something similar
7. One of the easily spotted combinations 123456, abc123, qwerty or similar.

The amount of effort to crack such passwords is next to none. When studying the breach at bilddagboken.se, those passwords took a few seconds per account to crack (at most). This was partly due to the database construction and the faulty security policy they had, but also because of the poor quality of the passwords their users had. Regardless of how bad the security policy is at the site you are using, you can never blame anyone but yourself in regard to the quality of your password. It is your responsibility to make your password hard to crack, even if the sites security is flawed. And since the technology and tools for cracking passwords evolve, it is necessary to use better passwords as well.

So, to summarize:

Use unique passwords on every site, unless you don't mind have them all breached.

Don't rely on the security of someone else; take responsibility for your own data, and guard it appropriately.

Use good passwords. Passwords with at least 8-10 characters (both upper and lower case), one or more numbers and preferably also one or more other characters, such as exclamation points etcetera.

Why, thank you..

2008-09-02T16:12:00.013+02:00

.. I always felt that part of the car was sticking out way too much. Thanks for correcting that for me over night, dear mister "I ain't looking where I'm going, but at least I'm honest and leaving you a note with my name and number, all written on the back on another notice regarding how I've damaged a bunch of trees with the same lawnmower I just used to fix you car".

ACTA: The RIAA Amendments

2008-08-27T10:22:00.000+02:00

In a more serious note, Knowledge Ecology International has published the RIAA Suggestions for content of ACTA (found via brokep). And by no means is that a pleasant read. These were sent to the USTR on March 17, 2008, and provide a horrifying insight to exactly what the ACTA treaty will mean to our society, and how it will affect ordinary Internet users. Here follows some excerpts, with my comments (I am no lawyer, nor do I have that educational background even though I have experience in reading legal texts; If you have that background and wish to correct me or any misinterpretations on my part, feel free to do so).

A.Legal Obligations

Parties shall:

1. Make deterrence against piracy and counterfeiting a priority legal matter.

4. Provide monetary fines and sentences of imprisonment for the importation, exportation, distribution, sale or other manner of making available of counterfeit or pirated goods sufficient to deter future infringements, consistent with a policy of removing the infringer's monetary incentive.

The RIAA, in short, wants every country that is a part of this treaty to make copyright infringement a prioritzed legal matter. Historically, if looking at Sweden, this has meant that the investigating units within the police should prioritize these crimes higher than other crimes they are currently investigating. Since the resources available are limited, this has had the side effect that investigations relating to crimes such as child pornography have been given a lower priority.

Point 4 contains the wording "or other manner of making available", which is a wording constantly used in online copyright infringement cases in the US. The RIAA has consistently tried to classify the sharing of a folder with files as copyright infringement, regardless of whether an actual download occurs or not. Or, to put it in the words of RIAA attorney Timothy Reynolds in the case of Virgin vs. Thomas:

"Requiring proof of actual transfers would cripple efforts to enforce copyright owners' rights online – and would solely benefit those who seek to freeload off plaintiff's investment,"

Proof in general is a burdon, and is more of an obstacle than a necessity. This will show later on in the RIAA suggestions for the ACTA treaty (Suggestion E3).

C. Border Control

Parties shall:

1.Provide that goods that have been determined to be pirated or counterfeit by competent authorities at the border shall be destroyed, except in exceptional cases.

3. Provide that competent authorities have the authority to initiate border measures ex officio, with respect to imported, exported, or in-transit merchandise suspected of being counterfeit or confusingly similar trademark goods, or pirated copyright goods, without the need for a formal complaint from a private party or right holder, and regardless of whether the relevant right that is being infringed is recorded with Customs otherwise registered.

Border authorities should have the authority to, without court orders, be able to conduct searches for pirated goods. These goods, if found, should then be destroyed. Who then decides whether the goods is pirated or not? Well, first of, let's look at what the suggestions says:

[...] have been determined to be pirated or counterfeit by competent authorities at the border[...]

[...] regardless of whether the relevant right that is being infringed is recorded with Customs[...]

Border personal, on their own initiative and without any court order or previous suspicion should seek out goods which they consider copyright infringing. These goods should then, if we consider border authorities to be competent authorities (which I presume, considering the fact that they should be seeking out pirated or counterfit goods regardless of them knowing whether the relevant right that is being infringed is recorded with Customs or not), be destroyed.

Why are we even accepting the submission of such suggestions?

D.Seizure of Materials

Parties shall:

1. Provide that judicial authorities have the authority to order the seizure of suspected counterfeit, pirated or other infringing goods, any related materials and implements including that used in the commission of the offense, any assets traceable to the infringing activity, and any documentary evidence relevant to the offense.

3. Allow for ex parte freeze orders to give the territory's authorities and rights holder an opportunity to ensure that infringer's profits are confiscated and that monetary damages are recoverable.

Judicial authorities should have the right to seize everything that infringes on a copyright, anything related to the infringement, anything that could have been used for the infringement and any assets related to the infringing activity. Also, it should be possible to freeze the assets (bank accounts) of the infringer.

This sounds reasonable if talking about a large scale infringement, for instance a factory producing copies and selling for a profit. But how does this affect a single individual, especially considering online copyright infringement? The RIAA is currently aiming for the maximum penalties for infringement in the US. In the previously mentioned case, Virgin vs. Thomas, the RIAA was awarded $220 000 for 24 downloaded files. With that background it is reasonable to consider that the RIAA will attempt to freeze the assets of everyone.

E. Destruction of Materials Determined to be Pirated or Counterfeit

Parties shall:

1. Provide that goods that have been determined to be pirated by competent authorities shall be destroyed, except in exceptional circumstances.

2. Provide that courts shall confiscate and destroy the equipment used for the manufacture of pirated goods in order to ensure that infringing parties do not repeat their illegal activities,

3. Provide that goods determined to be infringing are subject to forfeiture and destruction regardless of whether any action for infringement is initiated, whether civil, administrative or criminal and without any compensation of any kind to the defendant, and regardless of whether there has been any finding of liability on the part of any person.

Not only the pirated goods should be destroyed, but also any equipment that was used in order to produce the goods. In other words: don't go travelling with backups of your CDs or DVDs (better not have any copies on your mp3 player either, just in case), since courts will obligated to confiscate and destroy your computer that produced the copies. This is, regardless of any action for infringement is initiated (action in this case means an investigation and/or trial to determine that you have in fact been involved in any copyright infringement), and regardless of whether you can be considered having any liability in the matter.

As previously mentioned, collecting evidence and going through the legal system is turning out to be demanding. Instead, the RIAA is suggesting a following system where the courts doesn't have to be involved; there is a much larger profit to be made by not having to go through legal procedures and actually proving that the party suggested for infringement is guilty. Instead, just seize their property and destroy it.

H.Penalties

Parties shall:

1. Establish policies or guidelines that encourage judicial authorities to impose remedies at levels sufficient to deter future infringements and to adequately compensate right holders, particularly bearing in mind that many large scale infringements are properly understood as criminal conspiracies and/or organized crime.

3. Provide, whenever law enforcement authorities' investigatory powers are dependent on the level of minimum/maximum penalties available for criminal infringements, that criminal penalties are set at a level that ensures that law enforcement authorities have adequate powers to investigate copyright infringements. For example, penalties should be set at a level that ensures that law enforcement officials have the authority to initiate investigations, search prel1Jises [sic!], seize goods, and arrest suspects of criminal activity.

To summarize: Increase the minimum penalties so no obstacles exist in regard to searching the premises of anyone suspected of copyright infringement (including the seizing and destruction of that persons property). Then as a bonus from the RIAA, throw in a possible random connection to criminal conspiracies, organized crime, terrorism or drugs.

J. Online Infringing Activities

Parties shall:

1. Provide exclusive rights under copyright to unambiguously cover Internet use.

2. Establish appropriate rules regarding liability of service/content providers:
(a) Establishing primary liability where a party is involved in direct infringement; and ensure the application of principles of secondary liability, including contributory liability and vicarious civil liability, as well as criminal liability and abetting if appropriate.
(b) Establishing liability for actions which, taken as a whole, encourage infringement by third parties, in particular with respect to products, components and/or services whose predominant application is the facilitation of infringement.

3. Provide remedies and injunctive relief against any entity that:
(a) Creates or otherwise maintains directories of infringing materials;
(b) Provides "deeplinks" to infringing files;
(c) Commits any act, practice or service that has little or no purpose or effect other than to facilitate infringement, or that intentionally induces others to infringe (specifically allowing proof of "intent" by reference to objective standards--i.e. a reasonable person would surmise such an intent);

4. Require internet service providers and other intermediaries to employ readily available measures to inhibit infringement in instances where both legitimate and illegitimate uses were facilitated by their services, including filtering out infringing materials, provided that such measures are not unduly burdensome and do not materially affect the cost or efficiency of delivering legitimate services;

5. Require Internet service providers or other intermediaries to restrict or terminate access to their systems with respect to repeat infringers.

6. Establish liability against internet service providers who, upon receiving notices of infringement from content provides via e mail, or by telephone in cases of pre-release materials or in other exigent circumstances, fail to remove the infringing content, or access to such content, in an expeditious manner, and in no case more than 24 hours;

or

Provide that, in the absence of proof to the contrary, an internet service provider shall be considered as knowing that the content it stores is infringing or illegal, and thus subject to liability for copyright infringement, after receiving notification from the right holder or its representative, normally in writing, including by email or by telephone in the case of pre-release materials or in other exigent circumstances.

10. Consideration to be given to the following: possible rules on data retention, the right to information giving right holders access to data held by ISPs in the preparation and course of proceedings including in civil proceedings, and availability of complete and accurate WHOIS data.

Now, here is the really interesting part.

"Provide exclusive rights under copyright to unambiguously cover Internet use."

Any country being part of the ACTA treaty is obligated to provide rights under copyright in order for it to, without any hesitation, cover Internet use. If I am interpreting this correct, it means that everything already discussed in this post also covers Internet use.

Further more, the RIAA wants to make content or service providers legally responsible for the actions of any part involved. This means that if you provide a service such as RapidShare, you should be considered an accomplice if any of your users share files that infringe on a copyright. Making service providers responsible for their users actions is one of the big strategies of the media industry, along with with filtering (more on that in a moment). Also, as marked in bold: Unless otherwise proved by evidence the content provided should be considered as copyright infringing and the provider be able to be held liable for it, merely be a copyright holder or representative saying that is the case. The burdon of proof then lies on the the party accused for the infringement, which itself is absurd.

Further more the RIAA suggests that it should be mandatory for Internet service providers to install any available technology for filtering its contents. By doing so the RIAA is hoping on filtering out infringing contents, without having to disturb legal contents facilitating the same services. The amount of censorship on the internet is constantly increasing, and RIAA has a wish to speed that censorship up.

Also, they want to include the 3-strikes policy on Internet access. It has been said several times before, but collective punishment is not an acceptable legal method in todays society, even though politicians fail to see that it is the consequence of such a policy.

Also, what opponents to the surveillance society have been saying all along: When a government introduce laws that increase registration and surveillance of its citizens, there will be a shift in its purpose. In these suggestions, the RIAA clearly state that they are interested in the data collection through the data retention directive and that they want direct access to the subscriber information possessed by service providers. It isn't too farfetched to believe that they will be interested in data gathered by other means of surveillance as well.

Magic Moments: The 1904 Olympics

2008-08-26T11:12:00.000+02:00

With the 2008 Olympics in Beijing having come to an end, it is easy to become nostalgic. Generally, when talking about the Olympics, it is often common to talk about the amazing athletes, and the records they set when competing. Beijing 2008 have been no exception; but Phelps and Bolt aside, there have been more memorable Olympics in the past, of which is not as often talked about.

The 1904 Olympics in St. Louis was, to say the least, one of the most peculiar Olympics that have even been held. Besides competing in sports, the organizers held "Anthropology Days" where men from all over the world competed in various events in order for anthropologists to see how they compared to the white man. There was also a war exposition about the Boer War. In today's world these things sound very distant, as Olympics are all about sports. These particular Olympics where, besides the addition of certain ethnic oddities, the home of 18 disciplines, comprising 16 sports. Among these sports where Roque (with USA being the only nation competing) and tug-of-war. But the real focus was on the athletes competing in these games.

For surely, how can Phelps, Bolt or any other modern athlete compete with George Eyser? Eyser competed in the 12-event All-around competition, and did finish last in the 100 yard dash, the long jump and the shot put; in total he finished on 71st place individually, having been in the 10th place after the 9 event all-around. This may sound like bad results, but Eyser took 6 medals during the games: 3 gold medals, in rope climbing, vault and parallel bars. 2 silver medals, in combined 4 events and pommel horse. Finally he received a bronze in horizontal bar. So, what makes George Eyser so unique? Well, unlike Phelps and Bolt, George Eyser had a wooden leg, which would account for his problems of keeping up in the 100 yard dash. Yet still, he wasn't the most memorable in these games.

Marathon of the century

For the 1904 Olympics also featured a marathon. A marathon whose events probably hopefully will never be matched. The marathon spanned a distance of 40km (24.85 miles), most of which was on dusty roads. It was run under very harsh conditions, partly due to dust clouds created by the vehicles and horses clearing the way, but also due to immense heat. To top it of, in that 33° C heat, there was only a single place for the runners to refill their water.

The race began at 3 p.m., about the hottest point of the day. After the initial 5 laps on the cinder track the runners, all 31, ran off into St. Louis. In front of them, a group of horsemen and a number of automobiles transporting coaches, journalists, race officials and policemen cleared the way for the runners. The problem with the cars was, running on the dry, dusty roads caused them to kick up a constant cloud of dust; this cloud conveniently positioned itself right on the pack of runners. This, the heat and the lack of water due to the single source of water along the course, about 12 miles from the start, led to predictable results: one competitor began vomiting after 10 miles and had to quit. Another was discovered lying in the road, near death, his stomach nearly destroyed by the dust.

The initial winner of the marathon was a man called Frederick Lorz. He had crossed the finishing line after 3 hours and 13 minutes, and was greeted by a cheering audience. As the presidential daughter was about to hand him the gold medal, it was discovered that he had not run the entire distance. Lorz, having being exhausted, had stopped running and collapsed after about 9 miles. His manager had then given him a lift in his car for the next eleven miles, after which it broke down. Not having the patience to wait for a repairman to come fix the car, and also having regained his strength while riding in the car, Lorz then continued on foot the last part of the race to the stadium where he was the first to cross the finishing line. Needless to say, Lorz was disqualified.

The second winner of the marathon, and the first to complete the race on his own, was a man called Thomas Hicks. Although he did run the entire race, Hicks in no way managed it on his own. When he crossed the finishing line some 25 minutes after Lorz, several spectators reported him being exhausted and delirious. Apparently Hicks had been about to collapse some 10 miles before the finishing line, whereas his doctors had fed him a rejuvenating mixture consisting of strychnine, egg whites and brandy. This had given him new strength, and he had been able to run again. The problem with the cure was that it didn't help very long, so every time his strength would fail, the doctors would give him another doze. When he finally collapsed after finishing the race, 4 doctors had to spend several hours to save his life. Since the use of strychnine and alcohol wasn't forbidden at the time, Hicks was till considered the winner. He retired the following day.

Andarín Carvajal, the man coming in at fourth place, also earned a special place in history. Carvajal was originally a mailman in his home country Cuba, but had raised money to get to St. Louis by running around the large central square in Havana until he attracted a crowd and then begged for contributions. The money he earned this way had bought him a ticket to America; problem was, when arriving in New Orleans he fell victim to gambling, and lost all the money on crabs. By begging for food and hitchhiking the rest of the way, he finally had arrived at the games. Having lost everything, Carvajal showed up at the start of the marathon in long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and dress shoes. Martin Sheridan, the gold winner in discus, upheld the start long enough to cut the pants into a pair of shorts with a pair of scissors.

Being one of the few competitors not being bothered by the lousy conditions, Carvajal held a high pace and was leading the race a long time. This didn't stop him from showing how happy he was to be able to compete in the Olympics though. Many times he was found chatting to bystanders, running backwards and even stealing a couple of peaches from an official. This craving for something to eat would prove to be his downfall. During one point of the race, he spotted an apple orchard where he jumped over the fence and ate several apples. Some time later he fell ill since the apples had been bad, and he decided to take a nap. When feeling better, Carvajal picked up pace and finished fourth.

Two of the runners in the marathon where the first two black Africans to compete in the Olympics, Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani. What was so special about them was that they actually weren't there to be a part of the Olympics; they were actually posing as tribe warriors on the Boer War exposition. Still, they competed in the marathon and finished 9th and 12th. It is believed that Taunyane would have done much better, had he not been chased nearly a mile off course by aggressive dogs.

Olympics flashback: 1904 marathon a joke of a race
Sports reference - 1904 Marathon
History news network - The Worst of the Modern Olympics Was Held
Wikipedia - 1904 Summer Olympics

Downloads

2008-08-23T18:22:00.005+02:00

This post contains various downloadable support files, used and maintained by me. Some are scripted from ground up, others are based on the work by others. In the latter case credits is given in the file, as is proper.

Files

adBlocking.css

CSS Adblocking file, with containing enhancements to various sites
Last update: 2008-08-23, 17:56 CET

SyncMobile.scpt

Proximity synchronization script. Written in AppleScript, with Growl support.
Last update: 2008-08-23, 17:43 CET

These files are available through the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license, which means you can share and make derivative works, as long as I am given credit, that they are used in a non commercial manner, and that they are redistributed under the same license and terms. For details, please check the link.

Obama-rolling

2008-08-20T08:57:00.009+02:00

Answer

Top OSX Applications

2008-08-19T10:42:00.000+02:00

This is my old old list of must have OS X applications, revised according to the current situation on the software market. All of these programs have one thing on common: they have been carefully selected to fit on this list based on several months or years of usage. I try a lot of different applications, switch back and forth between competing products before deciding which one is best. That is also the reason why this list stays static for long periods of time; it takes a lot to convince me that another product is better than the one that has proven valuable. So, take comfort in these advices, I promise you won't be disappointed. Now, on to the list:

Instant Messaging

Adium
The most powerful instant messaging client. Ever. Customizable beyond belief, making it possible to completely integrate in your system (screenshot). Only thing missing is (and yes, it can be a big one but there are solutions) audio/video. It is currently in the works, but for now this can either be solved by using the mebeam-plugin which offers a videostreaming through their website, or by using Skype.

One client to rule them all, one client to find them, one client to bring them all, and in the Contact List bind them.

Colloquy
The best free OS X IRC client.

Traditionally, chat clients on the Mac have been anything but glamorous. Colloquy is an advanced IRC, SILC & ICB client which aims to fill this void. By adhering to Mac OS X interface conventions, Colloquy has the look and feel of a quality Mac application.

Moodblast
MoodBlast is a standalone menubar app with a user-configurable system-wide hotkey that pops up an input window where you enter short message; this message can then be put as a Instant messaging status, facebook status, twitter message etc. There is no end to the possibilities.

Skype
Platform independent Instant messaging client with excellent audio/video support.

Twitterific
Twitterrific is a fun application that lets you both read and publish posts or "tweets" to the Twitter community website. The application's user interface is clean, concise and designed to take up a minimum of real estate on your Mac's desktop.

Browsing

1Password
The best password manager I've ever seen. Integrates nicely with all major browsers, and lets you have one source for saving passwords. Also has an iPhone plugin and an upcoming online storage solution.

Camino
Firefox for the Mac. Doesn't have the extension capabilities of Firefox, but is very lightweight and faster than its bigger brother. A good alternative to Safari.

Delibar
Menubar app that gives direct access to your del.icio.us bookmarks. Activation can be done through a hotkey, which makes finding a certain bookmark incredibly easy.

Greasekit
Greasemonkey InputManager for Safari. For those unfamiliar with Greasemonkey, it allows custom injection of javascript into webpages in order to customize them for your liking. A lot of scripts can be found on UserStyles and UserScripts. My personal favourites are OS X style reader for Google Reader, Add Row Highlights for Gmail and MonoSpace non-html emails for G-mail.

Inquisitor
Search field InputManager for Safari that replaces the Google search with a highly customizable search field. Live searching, keyword suggestion and multiple search engines are key features.

Stumbi
StumbleUpon for Safari. Discover some of the pages on the net you wouldn't know where to find. Great when you're bored.

RSS

Reader Notifier
There is a lot of different RSS aggregators on the mac that are good. The problem with most of them is that they force you to read your news at one computer, since a different installation keeps a separate check on what news you've read already. There are exceptions to this, but personally I prefer to use Google Reader (with the styles mentioned previously). To make the use of Google Reader even better, Reader Notifier sits in the menubar and checks the account for unread news. If you use Google reader, this is a must.

File transfers

Fetch
Fetch is a Macintosh program for transferring files over networks, such as the Internet, using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). It is a stable and fast client, which in my experience never fails. Also, they offer free licenses for students.

Transmission
A lightweight Bittorrent client for the mac. Small footprint and a simple interface makes a good client, both of which transmission fulfills. Also, since version 1.30, the web interface Clutch is included for easy remote management.

TVShows
TVShows is a Mac OS X application that automatically downloads your favourite shows. You don't need anymore to manually download torrent files, TVShows does it for you. Manage your subscriptions and preferences from within the TVShows application, and TVShows takes care of the rest: a background process is automatically launched at a regular interval to check for new episodes.

Music and audio

Audacity
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. Still, quite powerful and fits most needs.

Autorate
From the website:

This application automatically sets the rating for all tracks in your iTunes library according to how often each track is played, and how often each track is skipped. Tracks that are frequently skipped are penalised, while often-played tracks are given a higher rating. This is particularly useful when using the 'Play higher rated songs more often' option with Party Shuffle, or using smart playlists.

iEatBrainz
iEatBrainz takes songs that you've chosen in your iTunes Library, that have incorrect or missing meta information, and then uses the sound of each song to match it with the correct information maintained in the MusicBrainz Database and thus corrects all the meta data.

MoJo
MoJo is a social interaction music software in the way that it lets you setup a contact list of people you know and browse their music libraries. Also, it allows for downloading songs directly from their libraries and having them added to a playlist in iTunes directly.

Moody
Tag and generate playlists by mood and tempo. Tracks are tagged with colors which can later be chosen in order to generate playlists. The data can either be input manually or downloaded from a database.

Soundsource
A menubar application which offers direct access to input/output configuration of all possible sound sources.

Synergy Classic
Menubar application that offers direct control of iTunes from the menubar, as well as a through a number of hotkeys. Synergy also presents a great looking infobox for the current track, completely customizable.

XLD
Lossless decoder. Incredibly powerful and easy to use, and converts between various formats such as FLAC, AAC, MP3 (yes, it's lossy, I know).

Movies and TV

Flip4Mac
Codec support for WMV files for QuickTime. Seems unnecessary, and it is most of the time. Still, some websites which offer streaming video only offer it in the latest WMV format, and that makes this plugin a must.

Handbrake
The end all other video conversion tool. Yes, it isn't a professional studio software, but it converts anything to any format (almost), and it does it beautifully. And it's free.

Mplayer OSX
Mplayer, just like Flip4Mac is often not necessary. There is one exception: certain WMV files, which have a long distance between keyframes, will have garbled picture if you at any point skip forward/backward. This is since the image displayed is calculated based on the differences since the last keyframe. Mplayer has a workaround for this, thus allowing skipping position in WMV files.

Perian
Perian is a swiss-army knife plugin for Quicktime. Through Perian Quicktime gets support for all popular video formats (such as xvid) as well as subtitle capabilities. Great for using with FrontRow.

Realplayer
An app with a deservingly bad reputation; on the Mac, it isn't all that bad. Rather good image quality during playback, and good for streaming video. Also, since it is a standalone app, when you select quit it really quits (unlike the Windows version).

ScreenFlow
Screen capturing with both elegance and speed.Incredibly easy and fast to use if you want to produce a fast screencast (or just show someone something on your screen).

VLC
The best videoplayer. Except for VMW files, VLC handles everything great.

Image processing

DoubleTake
Great stitching application for easy assembly of panorama pictures. Easy and powerful.

Pipette
There is an excellent description on the website:

Pipette is a handy utility for digital artists and web designers. It allows you to quickly and easily grab the colour of any pixel on the screen and copy it in hex format, as used in CSS files, or in paint programs, such as Adobe Photoshop.

Pixelmator
Affordable Photoshop alternative - lets face it, if you aren't pirating the license, Photoshop is way too expensive. Pixelmator is a capable alternative, with lots of good features. Development is fast at the moment, with new features being added regularly. Also, for those with a faster GPU, image rendering and manipulation takes advantage of this.

Skitch
Skitch is like an app for taking screenshots, except that it includes Flickr, blogging, image editing and every other social activity known to mankind. In other words, pure fun. Currently in Beta.

Xee
Xee is a lightweight, fast and convenient image viewer and browser. It is designed to be a serious tool for image viewing and management, with a sleek and powerful interface.

Work

Anxiety
From the applications website:

Anxiety is a super-lightweight To-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard that synchronizes with iCal and Mail. Its aim is to provide a streamlined, easily accessible interface to add and check off your tasks, while remaining poised to melt into the background at a moments notice.

Chmox
CHM Reader for OSX.

MindNode
Sleek, easy mind-mapping application.

Skim
Skim is a PDF reader and note-taker for OS X. It is designed to help you read and annotate scientific papers in PDF, but is also great for viewing any PDF file. If you think Preview works for you when viewing PDF files, you haven't used Skim.

Programming || Coding

Coda
Coda is an excellent all in one solution fro webdesign. It includes a text editor, a FTP client, terminal, preview, site management etc. All in a truly remarkable interface.

CSSEdit
CSSEdit is a extremely powerful tool for managing and building CSS files. If you do webdesign, this is a must have tool.

Enkoder
From the website:

Posting your email address on a website is a sure-fire way to get an inbox full of Spam. The Enkoder helps protect email addresses by converting them into encrypted JavaScript code, hiding them from email-harvesting robots while revealing them to real people.

svnX
Good subversion GUI client, which handles most actions with ease.

TextMate
Do not be deceived by the simple looks of this text editor; its greatest strength lies in its bundles. After you have used this editor for a while you will grow dependent of the built in subversion support, the HTML completion snippets etc. Through and through, an incredibly powerful editor.

Games

Wormux
Open source Worms clone.

System Utilities

Chicken of the VNC
Really old VNC client, which hasn't been updated in several years. Still, it is the best one available, and until I find one that is as stable and fast as this, it stays on the list as the recommended VNC application.

CleanApp
Although applications are removed simply by dragging them to the Trash, they leave configuration and support files behind. If you want to remove them, this is the application I have found works best; way better than the better known AppZapper.

Dock Library
For those of us that don't agree with the aesthetics of the standard dock in Leopard, Dock Library offers a easy way of changing the appearance.

Hazel
Hazel watches whatever folders you tell it to, automatically organizing and manipulating your files according rules you create. You can move files around based on name, date, type, what site/email address it came from amongst other things. Automatically put your music in your Music folder, movies in Movies. Color tag files, or have them automatically opened by the proper application. In short, Hazel removes a lot of stress by doing stuff for you.

iDMG
From the website:

DMG is an easy to use application to create .dmg files of a folder with a simple drag and drop.
It is a native cocoa application. Supports encryption, internet enable and much much more. Mixed style!
iDMG is freeware, universal binary and Leopard only.

iStat Menus
It's nice to have a bit more control of what your computer is doing all the time, and iStat Menus gives you that control. It monitors your entire system right from your menubar, with 8 separate and highly configurable menu extras, including a great replacement of the date & time object built into OS X.

Lingon
Not for the faint hearted, Lingon lets you alter all possible settings belonging to system daemons, applications and alike. Really powerful, so don't fiddle with it if you aren't confident that you know what you are doing.

Little Snitch
Often known as a tool used by pirates to obstruct copy protection schemes, Little Snitch in fact works as a reverse firewall. Anytime an application want to connect to the internet, it must first be approved by the rules set up for Little Snitch. This is excellent for gaining better control of application behaviour, and prevents stealing of sensitive data in case of carelessness. Even if almost all traffic leaving your computer is legit, just knowing it is so for a fact is comforting.

Nocturne
For all the night owls out there, a bright screen can be hard on the eyes. In steps Nocturne. Unlike the built in color inversion, Nocturne provides a more pleasant color scheme. Very relaxing for the eyes, and highly recommended.

Proximity
Application that detects the presence of a predefined Bluetooth device run runs custom applescripts upon leaving/returning within range. Personally I use it for automatically synchronizing my phone when returning home (script available here). Works great combined with iCal using Google Calendar Caldav.

Quicksilver
From the website:

At first glance, Quicksilver is a launcher. When opened, it will create a catalog of applications and some frequently used folders and documents. Activate it, and you can search for and open anything in its catalog instantly. The search is adaptive, so Quicksilver will recognize which items you are searching for based on previous experience. [...]

Quicksilver's greatest strength, however, is not search. Any item you are able to find, drag, or otherwise pull into its universe is endowed with many potential uses. Hitting takes you to the action field, where you can use the same adaptive search to select what you would like to do. Among other things, files can be emailed, copied, compressed. Text can be modified, transmitted between programs, or searched for on the web. Some actions even support an indirect object, so you can send an item to a person, move files to another folder, or open files with a specific application.

Or to put it short: Quicksilver is the single most useful application on the mac. It is present in so many steps in most of my workflows it is ridiculous. Just download it and spend the next 3 years discovering a new feature each day; that's what I'm doing.

rooSwitch
From the website:

rooSwitch exists to make it easy for you to create different profiles of almost any application's data. You then switch amongst the profiles to activate the data you wish to use. It's like a multi-user environment for just one application.

In short: An essential tool when experimenting with applications, and makes sure the data belonging to the old version is safe.

shadowClipboard
Multiple clipboards manager. Gives you possibility of not only having access to the latest items from the clipboard, but also separation of data on several individual clipboards.

TextExpander
Textexpander, formerly Textpander, is a background application that allows for replacing text based on snippets. This can be used for automatic spelling correction, inserting commonly used code etc. Great tool for productivity.

The Unarchiver
A great replacement tool for BOMArchinver, the builtin archiving applicaiton in OS X. The Unarchiver takes most of the formats used to day, and integrates beautifully with the rest of the system.

TimeMachineEditor
Allows you to alter the settings for Time Machine. Most people should find Time Machine to be a working backup solution, but it is incredibly annoying when the computer starts working with the backup every hour. Personally I have set mine to only backup at 3AM, every night, and I find my working environment much more usable.

TrueCrypt
For those with security in mind, or those who use USB sticks alot on the road, TrueCrypt is highly recommended. It allows for creation of encrypted and password protected images, which in turn protects the integrity of sensitive data or personal stuff. Available on most platforms as well.

UnRarX
As the name suggests, this little application handles unpacking of Rar files.

XGestures
XGestures enables the use of mouse gestures throughout the entire system. Mouse gestures can be configured to do almost anything, and makes this application a must have.

Setting up

2008-08-15T00:29:00.004+02:00

This post is in English, or in a horrible Swedish translation.

Yes, Crooked moon is back.. kind of. Been trying to configure blogger to run and look as I want, since I am able to photo-blog directly from my phone. Also, they have a way more stable server than I have, and does all the maintenance I don't have the energy to bother with anymore. Still working out some minor details, and basically rewriting a lot of stuff, but it's getting there.

Mobile test

2007-08-30T17:50:00.003+02:00

Just testing the mobile blogging capabilites.