The teenage mutant ninja hero coders describe a way of faking already existing Orkut accounts by having them removed first by sending forged emails. I have no idea why Orkut chose to make removal moderated (via email!) at all as the security problems are obvious. Some people already described that their account hasn‘t been removed on request as well so this is getting really annoying.

Well, I think that overall trust in the system is going to change rapidly if these things eon‘t be addressed. Once some alpha geeks turn their back on the system, outrage is going to destroy a significant user base that might be important to keep the network alive.

Also, the more careful geeks still do not want to have anything to do with Orkut and Orku-like system at all (which I can understand) but it‘s still interesting testing this rather new way of communication. Once the buzz is over, only a well thought-out security and trust system will work.

I was never really aware that this is, like, a real curse, y‘know? I mean, when I heard it the first time I was like „Woot! What‘s that?“. And now grammar critics are annoyed at word‘s staying power.

And then I was like „where does it come from“? Frank Zappa!

And I always thought that fuck (aka f*ck to Americans) was the real language virus. Guess I was wrong, eh? Like, totally!

Some people seem to have fun to add well-known but Orkut-hating people to the Orkut database. And some of my friends already have been taken in by it. So I started sending PGP-encrypted messages to these ghosts to see if they are real.

And to make it easy for others to make sure I am who I claim I am, I have signed my self-description (Orkut account required to view).

The public more and more becomes aware of the fact that BitTorrent rocks like mad and is going to be the biggest troublemaker for the control freaks. The New York Times reports on File Sharing‘s New Face. Have a look at suprnova.org to get an idea what‘s going on. Upcoming addicts, find the associated feed here!

Have fun ;)

If you have grown up with computers and computer networks in the early days, replacing smiley character combinations with graphical icons is evil at best. I am still upset that Apple can‘t provide a hacker compatible option to turn that stuff off. Instead, when I type something like chown(8) in a chat, the number gets replaced with these nasty little things.

Today I reached my limit and went for a hunting session. And I found the little bastards. They are hidden in a property list file in the InstantMessage system framework. You can change the mapping in the files (SmileyTable.plist) manually or – to make a long story short – you can just kill them by typing:

sudo rm /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/InstantMessage.framework/Versions/A/Resources/*.lproj/SmileyTable.plist

And the martyrdom is over.

Don Park has some interesting thoughts on social software and dead people where „social software“ means networks like Orkut or Blogs or Wikis:

It would also be interesting to turn my blog into a wiki-ish blog after I died so that my friends can post to my blog for one reason or another.  In a sense, ‘I‘ continue to live within the mind of my friends so ‘I‘ am still blogging from the grave.

He also touches upcoming deaths that are sure to happen:

What should happen when a member of Orkut or LinkedIn dies?  It‘s bound to happen or have happened already.  Should his node disappear?  That doesn‘t make sense.  Two people having a friend in common is relevant even if the friend happens to be dead.  But if the node is left within the network, what are the downsides other than having to add a gravestone icon to the profile?

Good question.

Jeremy Zawodny writes in his blog about Why Google Needs Orkut and makes some interesting points although I find most of them quite apparent. I am sure that Google will sooner or later use the personal data to optimize their search engine and maybe for more. However, read the comments as well, the discussion is interesting.

Ever thought of clearing out your flat? Better start now before it looks like this.

The HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux document tries to list common problems bringing women into the open source community.

This document began with the verbatim recommendations of the women who attended the LinuxChix BOF, and was added to by many more women in the months following the original BOF. In other words, this HOWTO represents the feelings and opinions of real women involved in Linux. While we represent the women who „made it,“ we still have fairly important insights into why other women left or never entered the Linux community, as well as being keenly aware of the pressures which are currently pushing us out of the community.

http://www.rxweightloss.org