Google Talk is out

The big secret these days of Google is out. I just downloaded Google Talk to see which features it actually got. I think I’ve even been the first user since it window pop up to say thank you to me for being the first user.

So I far I could see it didn’t got much features until now. Maybe I have to explore it more… but I probably will need other Google/Gmail users to figure out what Google has to offer me after all. I’m just wondering how they want to make money with it since this tool is still free. It’s not like the hardly need it but come on: it’s Google which seems to get richer with each day. Or am I wrong? Maybe they try to make it like with Skype and offer something which is close to SkypeOut/In. If Google reallly wants to make the world a favor they should figure out how to offer this service for although Skype is not very expensive in offering this service after all. Let’s see where this will lead to and if somebody still should need a Gmail account: leave a note with your email here ;-)

/von

ICQ: Changing between local and global keyboard settings

ICQ LogoI just wrote to the ICQhelp Ticket Center about my most outrageous problem. I noticed the „old trick“ of using CTRL+ALT+F1 to change between global-US and local keyboard settings does not apply for ICQ… and I haven’t found any information in their knowledgebase about my problem.

Dear Sir or Madam,

while using ICQ, I am unable to use the specific characters for the german keyboard layout, i.e. „ä“,“ö“,“ü“. Instead while striking the keys, ICQ displays the original US-keys layout. How do I change this back? I installed ICQ again after de-installing the previous installation.

Thank you for your help!

Best regards,
Mike Schnoor

After a few hours waiting, I received the following from Eddie Smith:

Hello Mike,

Thank you for reporting the difficulties described in your ticket. Your feedback is important to us.

Please note that the ICQ Team is constantly working to make available new and improved versions of the ICQ software.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank You,
The ICQ Support Team

My reply was simple…

Dear Eddie,

however you have not provided me with any solution to solve the problem of restoring the „local“ keyboard setting for the ICQ software.

I hope to hear from you or the support-team again. Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Mike Schnoor

/von

Ooops…

I’m a forgettable man. I’m really sorry to even consider doing this, but it has to be done. My stationary desktop PC will receive a major bonus now… Windows XP Service Pack 2. I’m so proud of myself to do that after such a long time! After the install routine once crashed – it was probably just a few weeks after hearing about the original release back in time, I hope it will work this time without problems and without the need to reinstall XP. AHEM! ;)

20 minutes later…
Apparently, the installation was successful. Time to reboot… after deciding about automatic updates (denied), it looks quite normal so far with the XP login screen. The Grand Admiral is alive! Goodbye ZoneAlarm, welcome Windows XP SP2.

/von

BadBehavior 1.2 Release Candidate 1

,

Time to update our Bad Behavior plugin. The RC1 is out and I’ve installed it on this blog – so far it works as usual as it can be. If anybody has problems to post comments, please contact me via email.

  • Bad Behavior now has whitelisting capability. Edit the file bad-behavior-whitelist.php to add any IP address ranges or user agents you need to whitelist for your particular site. (Note that search engine bots should not be whitelisted by user agent, but by IP address range, because spammers pretend to be search engine bots. Bad Behavior already passes all major search engine bots which behave properly.)
  • The specific reason for blocking is now logged in the database. This will help in determining whether new robots should be blocked by Bad Behavior or not.
  • Several additional spammers have been identified and blocked in this release.
  • Bad Behavior now sends copies of spam received automatically for use in Bad Behavior Blackhole. If you don’t want copies of your spam sent in, edit bad-behavior-blackhole.php.

Update:
There’s been already 8 comments which found its way to the moderation queue. I deactivated BadBehavior and wrote Michael an email…

[via BasicThinking, IOError]

/von

WP Update Process

Finally I’ve had the chance to updatethe WordPress software here. I’m quite glad that we’ve got already access to the web via ISDN. The entire show took me 45 Minutes including all kinds of downloads – probably the ISDN isn’t as fast as it should be. The speed went down quite often. Nevertheless, it’s been quite the job to wait patiently for all files to be uploaded and initialized just to run properly. I just beg for a time without the need to upload files to the webserver until we’ll have the DSL!

/von

Bluetooth Me!

Mir wird ein wenig schlecht bei dem folgenden Gedanken: Klein Mikey geht an einem schönen Nachmittag ins Straßencafé und genießt einen Latte Macchiatto. Nichtsahnend sitzt er da mit seinem neuen Mobiltelefon und seinem Laptop, um vielleicht ein wenig mobil zu Bloggen oder ein wenig im Internet zu recherchieren. Im Sommer genießt man es ja, das Wetter auszunutzen um nicht in den ewig dunklen vier Wänden zu hocken.

Doch plötzlich spricht ihn die nette Dame vom Tisch gegenüber an. Sie sei ja auch Studentin und befinde sich im 1. Semester des gleichen Managementstudiengangs. Irgendwie kommt ein Gespräch zu stande, und klein Mikey fragt sich, woher die junge Dame doch so einiges über ihn weiß. Und da schießt es ihm in den Kopf: Das neue Mobiltelefon hat eine Bluetootherweiterung, mit der man speziell Informationen über sich selbst und andere austauschen kann… nur Mikey hatte diese Funktion nicht ausgeschaltet! Was soll er nun seiner Freundin sagen – er liest sich für andere wie ein offenes Buch?

Nach Auffassung von Nokia steht damit eine vollkommen neue Möglichkeit zur Verfügung, mit anderen Menschen in Kontakt zu treten und neue Leute kennen zu lernen. Da Nokia Sensor zum Datenaustausch auf Bluetooth setzt, lassen sich Nachrichten mit anderen Nutzern nur im Abstand von maximal 10 Metern austauschen.

Es ist ja ganz nett, wenn man im Zeitalter der Anonymität der digitalen Welten sich neue Wege schafft, andere Leute kennenzulernen, aber ist das nicht ein wenig platt und nur für Langzeit-Singles ohne Freundeskreis und ohne Ambitionen zur Beziehungsknüpfung sinnvoll? Und der Erfolg solcher „Bluetooth Me!“ Anmachen ist sicherlich auch nicht so hochgradig erfüllend, weil je nach Rural-Density die Zielgruppe dieser speziellen Handybesitzer auch rapide abnimmt? Ob’s auch mit Kosten verbunden ist, dass derjenige extra zahlen muss, wenn er/sie sich nicht traut, jemanden direkt anzusprechen, sondern erst eine 0190er Nummer wählen darf… oder doch nur alles eine Utopie?

[via Golem]

/von

Kleiner Fehler im Blix Theme

Als ich soeeben dem Pepino eine Antwort schrieb, wollte ich dafür nach „Bad Behavior“ auf MEX über die Suchfunktion im oberen Teil des Layouts suchen. Jedoch erhielt ich einen 404 Fehler von der Kommentarseite aus – und stellte fest, dass im themes/Blix/header.php die Action der Suchanfrage auf $_Server[‚PHP_SELF‘] zeigt
(z.B. http://www.m-e-x.de/blog/index.php/archives/2005/06/03/
wordpress-anti-spam-plugin-bad-behavior-update-auf-101/?s=behavior), was aber nicht die eigentliche Suchroutine ansteuert, die im index.php erst dann aktiviert ist, wenn keine der üblichen Blog-Funktionen aufgerufen wird.

<form action=“<?php echo $_SERVER[‚PHP_SELF‘]; ?>“ method=“get“>
manuell geändert zu
<form action=“/blog/index.php“ method=“get“>

Ob das nun ein echter Fehler vom Blix Theme ist, weiss ich nicht genau – aber vielleicht magst Du ja mal kurz rüberschaun, Robert?

/von

WLAN and ICQ

I hate this program now: ICQ. While discussing a few issues with Pascal concerning the recently mentioned Soziologie course, my ICQ started to disconnect several times. At first it reconnected again, but now it tells me that I have connected too many times. It’s either a problem of the WLAN here at university or just an annoying glitch provided by ICQ and its Info Number 0124. I will destroy ICQ in a furious rage… once I have the money, I will buy it and use it for my purposes.

Yellow ICQ Flower: If you have a yellow ICQ flower in your system tray, this can indicate a few different problems:
You have tried to login too many times. ICQ will connect to the network automatically once an interval of time has passed.

/von

CPU Hibernate

Okay, this machine is a blast. A few days ago we threatened the laptop already to be reformatted again, and surprisingly the LAN worked shortly after we made our threats to the machine. Now after Kat slammed the laptop onto the couch with a load of furious comments, she set it off all power and gave it some time to feel like RIPing. Nevertheless, I had some time to soothe her a little bit, and after all I digged up some information about a WinSock error by googling a little bit. For some reason the 169.254 IP addresses the WinSocks malfunction might have caused this type of problem. And after threatening the laptop to get a bash by WinSocksXPFix.exe, it worked fabulously again. Threats are the key to maintain your control over the machines. I’m going to get a severe brain damage… I think.

/von

Tech Support Needed

We have a problem. Currently, the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo D 8800 Notebook of my girlfriend Katharina will not recognize the LAN anymore. It’s not the cable as it works properly with my laptop, but apparently the hardware LAN port of her laptop or the software recognition to detect a LAN of Windows XP Home. Instead of detecting the 100 MBit LAN or detecting whether a cable is plugged in or out, it constantly claims a 100 MBit LAN is active (even if no cable is plugged in) with a (windows internal?) IP Address of 169.254.xx.yy! I recognize this weird IP set… so if anybody has an idea on how to solve this problem, please let us know. On another note, her I-Pod is freaking out. She told me its normal with that shit thing, but I wish there was a way how to crush it’s digital skull and bones.

/von