General

Today, when I wanted to check my emails, I noticed that my iBook doesn't show anything on the screen anymore. So I switched it off, and on again, and what I heard was not quite amusing: first, I heard the usual flourish, but right after that, also three beeps, and the computer stopped booting. Well, after some searching on Google, I found out that this seems to be RAM-related problem. Well, I need to get that fixed ASAP so that I can continue my work on my project and paper for 21C3, but I don't know when since I'm in Salzburg during the week.

This also makes me think: after all, Apple hardware doesn't seem to be as robust as expected. After owning that iBook for 1 year and 8 months, I already had two big problems (the faulty logic board and this one now), and it's costing me time to get it running again. I'm already thinking about selling that iBook and moving back to a PC notebook, since I'm sure that more problems will arise after this one is sold.

According to Heise, cdrecord is currently in big trouble, with flamewars going on on LKML. This is of course a bad thing, since Linux users need some program to burn CDs on their Linux machines. My proposal (short and clear): if Joerg Schilling is unwilling to cooperate with the Linux developers, other developers should fork development and publish their own version of it, under a new name. SuSE already heavily patches cdrecord so that it can write to DVDs, so their patch would be a good start. Joerg Schilling does provide an own version of cdrecord with DVD support, but he doesn't publish it in source form, with a proprietary license, and a license key file that needs to be renewed every 6 months or so. But instead of helping create good software, he keeps on trolling on the usual mailing lists, insulting Linux distributors and insisting on his (often obscure and crude) opinions.

Look at the cute plush microbes at www.plueschmikroben.de! So likeable. Do you want yeast, ebola, black plague, athlete's food, halitosis or a simple flu as stuffed "animal"? It's all there.

By total coincidence I stumbled upon a really interesting alternative to LaTeX2html, the program that we learned to love and hate when we wanted to put our LaTeX documents online in an HTML version. The alternative is called HeVeA, is written in OCAML, and generates (IMHO) better HTML than LaTeX2html does. When you call hevea, it will generate a single HTML file. You can then split this HTML file using the tool hacha, and it will generate a TOC and several HTML files similar to LaTeX2html. And: it is extremely fast. A downside: it doesn't work with LaTeX files that use powersem (which I use to generate my slides for presentations).

As a few of my readers probably know, I own a VAXstation 4000 m90, and instead of having it stand around and catch dust, I would like to have a shelter for it, with power, net and a public IP address, where it could run uninterrupted. So I would be really happy if someone could provide me with such a place. What do you get in return? An account on one of the fastest [[VAX|VAXen]] ever built.

I just found Apout, which is described as a "user-level simulator for UNIX a.out binaries". I had to try it immediately, and while the code needed some manual patching to get it compiled on Linux, Apout works like a charm. While Unix V7's /bin/sh shows some bug, all the stuff in /usr/games seems to work. And the great advantage compared to e.g. SIMH is that Apout doesn't hog the CPU.

Don't drink Mate at 10pm unless you want to go to bed around 3:30am and wake up at 7:30am.