An accident has kept me away from everything for a while: broke my hand and had a more or less complicated operation. My recovery is now coming to an end as it seems. So everybody who had to wait for response will soon ehre from me.
I just bumped into this text by Paul Graham written in March: Return of the Mac. He describes the current impact the Mac platform has on the technological elite which he describes as „hackers“:
So what, the business world may say. Who cares if hackers like Apple again? How big is the hacker market, after all?
Quite small, but important out of proportion to its size. When it comes to computers, what hackers are doing now, everyone will be doing in ten years. Almost all technology, from Unix to bitmapped displays to the Web, became popular first within CS departments and research labs, and gradually spread to the rest of the world.
He’s so totally right. And he gets „hackers“. Later, he states that hackers „follow the most powerful OS wherever it leads“. He’s so right on this one as well.
So the war is on and Apple’s got to show they can keep up the pace. If they continue as they have been doing for the last four years, I am confident we’ll see significant change in the coming years leading to a situation which is by far more valuable than the current lame „Only Windows“ world.
Which is good.
Sven Neumann, renowned GIMP hacker and Blinkenlights software architect, has a blog now.
Adium is a hell of an instant messaging application. Version 0.8 adds Off-The-Record encryption and has a heavily revamped user interface. If you don’t need audio nor video just looking for a power user savvy communication tool, Adium is the way to go.
Funny. Got one of these enlargement spams today. You know what I mean. The subject read „wikipedia knows the shit“ and the content stated that the praised „system“ was „medically proved (source: wikipedia)“. No link to any Wikipedia article included, however. This shows that Wikipedia definitely evolves as being something people will rely on. Which is good. And that the spammers try to take a bite out of it. Which is bad.
Met somebody on in Galle a couple of days ago who told me that one of his friends became a spammer recently. I asked jokingly: „And, did you kill her?“. He replied: „No. But I probably should“.
I am in Sri Lanka now, in Galle which is around 150 km south of Colombo. I am helping a bit with computer stuff at Project Galle 2005. It’s a group of volunteers coordinating relief for people affected by the Tsunami. Too much Windows for me, but at least I can tell them about blogs ;)I am going to write more about this when I have more time.
I am blogging a bit on my Sri Lanka experiences in my german blog, in case you’re interested.
I am going to be offline for a while. Depending on network availability in Sri Lanka, I might get back online sooner or later.
As some you might know, I have been pretty involved in organizing a couple of events in the last years, most notably the annual Chaos Communication Congress and the Chaos Communication Camp. The latter is a quadrennial event with insane organizational dimensions but unlimited fun. That makes it worthwhile.
The idea of placing hackers into the landscape and have an outdoor conference accompanied by a fat pipe to the Internet was not invented here, however. The tradition stems from the dutch hackers that first went on the field in 1993 with an event called „Hacking at the End of the Universe (HEU)“. Next was „Hacking In Progress (HIP)“ in 1997. We then slipped into the middle of this schedule with our first Camp in 1999. Then the ball turned over to the Netherlands again with „Hackers At Large (HAL)“ in 2001. The fifth and – so far – last event of that kind was our second Camp in the summer of 2003.
Two years are over now so it’s time for the next episode called What The Hack. This time the Chaos Computer Club is going to be more closely involved. We’re going to set up the Chaos Village in a central location and will contribute to other areas as well.
WTH runs for four days from July 28th to July 31th, 2005 on Landgoed Velder located between Eindhoven and ’s-Hertogenbosch. It’s a gorgeous location with lots of space surrounded by trees. Really nice.
If you decide early, you can save a few bucks. Early birds are awarded a discount (you pay only EUR 120), late-comers have to pay up to 150 EUR. Since might sound a lot but I tell you it’s going to be worth it. WTH will have a top-class line-up of speakers, lots of cool hackers around and is going to be big fun. It’s an investment you won’t regret.
Among other things, the CCC will contribute the phone system which you might already know from our events. This means you can use a DECT phone everywhere on the ground and have free phone calls to every other participant. Go and register your personal phone extension now! If you don’t have a DECT phone don’t worry. DECT handsets are cheap and I am sure you will be able to buy some in the nearby cities. My phone number will be 4235.
The CCC Cologne is readying its radio project for WTH. They are looking for people to help. If you are familiar with doing radio or just motvated enough contact and offer your help. They might be especially interested in english native speakers to improve the program. So this is the opportunity for your own radio show at WTH. The radio will be available on the local network via MP3 and via FM braodcast. So bring your radio as well!
Last but not least, there is an organised train travel if you are coming from Germany. Go and check out the HackTrain web site for more information.
(UPDATE: Wrong date given. It’s correct now. Thanks, Aldert)