The Butt Ugly Weblog

So, just finished the last episode with the 2nd Doctor. Far more action than with the first one, but the second doctor, Patrick Troughton, just didn't seem to quite fit the role. The stories, however, seemed to be better overall. The last one - War Games - was actually pretty good, I thought.

Too bad so many of the episodes are missing.

Now started to watch the first episodes with the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee. I'm shocked - it's in color!

I recently complained about the Day JCR Cup and their "we'll steal your software" -competition rules. Well, the friendly folks at Day saw my post and revised the rules, and even posted a note to my blog. It was not their intention to be so exclusive, and somebody screwed up, but now all is well again.

Thanks, folks! Great work!

It just highlights even more the need to read the licenses and rules carefully and complain, if you think they are incorrect. As with the Finnish Blogilista, some companies actually do respond to user feedback, and are willing to do the right thing (whereas others will ignore you, and others will even post excuses and insults to your blog). And this goes to the company employees as well: Many times the rules are drafted by lawyers, who do not necessarily understand the technology or your intents, no matter how good they are. So you just need to be vigilant and catch them in action, and correct these things before they go out.

Does anybody else find it funny that the new addition to the International Space Station is called Kibo?

Social pressure (and curiosity) got me. I now have a Twitter account - ecyrd. Feel free to follow me around...

(What's a good S60 client for Twitter?)

In a rather surprising move, the Helsinki Court of Appeal turned the previous District Court decision that the DVD encryption algorithm called "CSS" is not efficient. Therefore programs like VLC, which contain the reverse-engineered algorithm and are able to play back DVDs, are illegal.

An appeal is already in process.

Of course, this is a strange decision since nobody is going to care about it and continue using their favourite DVD watching program anyway... Our courts tend to do these sort of strange decisions these days. Obviously, the police does not care as they have real issues to solve - but I am afraid that these kinds of decisions about unenforceable laws are going to pave way to "copyright police", private organizations funded by the media industry companies, with powers beyond the police, who won't be accountable to the public - only their shareholders.

Will corporate fascism be the flashpoint of the next World War?

You know, reading rules and EULAs is pretty important these days. Lately, there was a lot of discussion in the Finnish blogosphere about a Finnish blog aggregator claiming that they can reuse your blog content at will, if you use their service (which they changed pretty rapidly once the bloggers started complaining - nevertheless I find it rather worrying that they chose to try to smuggle it in anyway).

I got recently an invitation to the Day software JCR Cup 2008. I was considering trying to port JSPWiki to use their JCR implementation (as it would be fun and beneficial for everybody), but a quick look at the rules convinced me otherwise:

The words "exclusive" and "associated with the entry" are the key ingredients here: The way I read this is that "If you do anything with our software, and make the mistake of submitting it to our contest, WE OWN IT AND MAKE LOTS OF MONEY WITH IT AND YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, NYAH!"

It also means that there's no way I could ever submit JSPWiki+JCR combo into this competition, since I don't own the copyright of the full JSPWiki code base anymore, so I couldn't possibly even abide by the rules (as it most certainly would be "associated", but it's not my code). Besides, that kind of contest rules put a real damper on any ideas I might have. This kind of a thing is most likely targeted at a young hacker audience, who just want the Macbook Pro. But I'd save the real innovations for other competitions...

Of course companies can do any sort of competitions they want. Let this be just an example as to why it is a good thing to read and understand the competition rules before participating... Or you might end up doing something you regret.

Heh. I got a chuckle out of the Facebook Widsets Pets application: you can create your own virtual pet out of yourself and have your friends take care of it.

You get to take virtual care of a picture of someone you once knew in a service mostly concerned about non-existent things like vampires. If it were any more redundant, it would create a perfect vacuum and make the universe implode.

Needless to say, I signed up immediately.

(Yeah, it's a Nokia app, so my ravings need to be taken with a pinch of salt. But I still think it's wonderfully bonkers ;-)

Doctor Who is as much a classic as SciFi TV could ever be. It's been running on and off since 1963, which I guess is some sort of a record. I've seen the new series, but I don't think the old ones have ever been shown in Finnish TV before. Now, the MTV3 SciFi channel has been showing all episodes (well, those which still exist, anyway), and I've been recording and watching them all.

And you know, I'm starting to see why this has been running so long. Though the effects are crappy, and you can fast-forward through an episode at 6x speed and cuts are still further apart than in your average TV show today, the writing is, well, oddly fresh.

The Second Doctor is now on, and I sort of miss the grumpy First Doctor, though at first I hated him (Outi says he's got Charisma 3). Still, Mr. Ecclestone (Doctor #9) is the favourite.

My only problem is that the channel is showing the episodes in such a rapid succession, that it's really difficult to keep watching them. The hard drive of my PVR is filling up at an alarming rate... You know, one or two episodes a week would be a good speed. The current flood of two episodes per night five times a week means that if you miss a few, it's really hard to catch up.

Heh, first I complain that there's no SF in the TV - and now I'm complaining getting too much of it. Things have really changed in ten years when we got new episodes of Babylon 5 shipped via UPS to Finland as they were being aired... Could it be a sign that my generation has become "the establishment" which is getting pampered and exploited for a quick buck? Heck, they've got the money and they grew up with SciFi, so...?

Not that I'm complaining.

Just wondering.

OK, here's a weird bit: Every time when I think of the word "programmer", I think of people in white coats walking in the aisles between huge towers of very old computers, doing programming by turning knobs and dials.

I have no idea where I got this mental image from - but there it is.

I also think I'm coming down with the flu. But our kitchen project is advancing. Which is nice, since I'm already getting a bit tired of living without one.

Any Web 2.0 believer simply needs to listen to Eben Moglen chewing Tim O'Reilly's butt.

Mr. Moglen is the former lawyer and board member of the Free Software Foundation, and has some very important things to say.

If you fancy a really high-flying career, the European Space Agency is looking for new candidate astronauts.

Lainaanpa uudistuneen Blogilistan käyttöehtoja, lihavointi minun:

Rekisteröityessään Palveluun tai muuten käyttäessään Palvelua Käyttäjä vakuuttaa tutustuneensa näihin Käyttöehtoihin ja sitoutuu noudattamaan niitä kaikessa Palvelun käytössä.

Siis suomeksi: jos edes käyt blogilista.fi:ssä kurkkaamassa, miltä se näyttää, niin kaikki allaoleva pätee.

Palvelun sisältämän materiaalin tekijän-, teollis- ja muut suojatut oikeudet ovat Palveluntarjoajalla tai sen sopimuskumppaneilla. Käyttäjän toimittaman materiaalin tekijänoikeus säilyy Käyttäjällä edellyttäen, että Käyttäjälle voi voimassaolevan lainsäädännön perusteella syntyä tekijänoikeus kyseiseen materiaaliin. Palveluntarjoajalla on kuitenkin oikeus käyttää (ml. linkittää) ja julkaista uudelleen korvauksetta, muunneltuna tai alkuperäisessä muodossaan, Käyttäjän Palvelussa tai sen kautta julkistamaa aineistoa Palvelussa ja sen markkinoinnissa sekä Palveluntarjoajan ja sen kanssa kulloinkin samaan konserniin kuuluvien yritysten tiedonvälitys-, pr- tai muussa liiketoiminnassa.

Eli kun olet käynyt kerran blogilista.fi:ssä, niin Sanoma Digital saa tehdä blogisi sisällöllä mitä huvittaa parantaakseen omaa bisnestään. Vaikka blogisi olisi lisännyt listalle joku toinen.

Just.

Tähän ei voi muuta kuin todeta vain seuraavaa:

"Tätä blogia lukemalla sinä ("LUKIJA") vapautat minut, niin omasta kuin työnantajasi puolesta, kaikista mahdollisista ei-neuvotelluista lisensseistä, sopimuksista, läpiklikatuista (clickthrough) lisensseistä, käyttöehdoista, kilpailukielloista ja salassapitovelvoitteista ("HUMPUUKISOPIMUS"), joihin olen mahdollisesti sitoutunut omasta, työnantajasi, heidän sopimuskumppaniensa, lisensoijiensa, agenttiensa sekä muiden sopimusosapuolten puolesta, ilman aikarajaa tai lisäehtoja tai olemassaolevien sovittujen sopimusten muuttamista tai raukeamista. Lisäksi vakuutat, että sinulla on oikeus vapauttaa minut kaikista edellämainituista Humpuukisopimuksista omasta tai työnantajasi puolesta."

Tuota ylläolevaa saa kopioida omaan blogiin vapaasti ja rajoituksetta. Se on pöllitty ja käännetty ReasonableAgreements.orgista...

Juttuhan on niin, että tämä blogi on lisensoitu BY-SA -lisenssin alla, ja jos joku luuseripoppoo alkaa käyttää tätä materiaalia ilman, että tuota Share Alike -klausuulia noudatetaan, niin alkaa remmi heilua. Nuo Blogilistan käyttöehdot eivät tosiaan yliaja tämän lisenssin yli, etenkään noin heppoisella humpuukisopimuksella. Poistan tämän blogin blogilistalta kunnes käyttöoikeudet on muutettu jotakuinkin järkeviksi, ja poistaisin tunnuksenikin, jos osaisin. Käyttäkää vaikka Bloglinesia, tai suomalaista vaihtoehtoa, Blogispottia.

Ai niin, en suosittele lisäämään tätä blogia Blogilistalle omin nokkinenne, sillä käyttöehdot sanovat selkeästi:

Mikäli aineiston saattaa Palveluun muu kuin kyseisen aineiston laatija tai omistaja (esim. henkilö ilmoittaa Palveluun toisen henkilön blogin), aineiston Palveluun saattanut henkilö on vastuussa aineiston sisällöstä näiden Käyttöehtojen mukaisesti, kunnes aineiston laatija tai omistaja on liittänyt aineiston Käyttäjätunnukseensa.

Eli siis jos lisäät jonkun toisen ihmisen blogin listalle, niin olet vastuussa kaikesta siitä, mitä siellä kirjoitellaan.

Lisäys: jaa, enpä ole ainoa. Moni muukin lienee havainnut saman. Blogit vain pois listalta, niin jo katoaa listan arvo. Lähetin vielä erikseen poistopyynnön tunnuksesta meilitse, saas nähdä vastataanko sieltä. Muuten, käyttöehtojen muutoksesta olisi pitänyt tulla meiliä vanhoille käyttäjille, mutta minä en ainakaan sellaista saanut.

Päivitys: käyttöehdot muuttuivat, hyvä. Mutta poistin tunnukseni anyway, koska en ole käyttänyt kyseistä palvelua vuosiin. Mitä minä yhdellä turhalla rekisteröinnillä teen - erityisesti palvelussa, joka osoittaa melkomoista kädettömyyttä päivityksissä, sensuroi "vahingossa" kommentteja eikä ymmärrä blogosfääriä sen vertaa, että tekisi järkevät käyttöehdot ensimmäisellä yrittämällä. Koska kuka tahansa olisi voinut kertoa, että tuollaisista teksteistä tulee itkuparku.

Kitchen 2.0

You know, there is something very satisfying in tearing down your kitchen, ripping tiles off the walls, and blasting broken cupboards with devastating kicks. Most of the days, I create something - whether it is documentation or budgets at work, or JSPWiki back home, so for a change it feels very good to be on the destructive side of things.

Gotta break stuff before you can build new and beautiful things.

So, if you share files, the LA County Board of Supervisors says that it's okay to take away your house for up to one year, because piracy is a public health hazard.

Come on - it's just kids sharing files! It's not like they're crystal meth users or other people who are really dangerous to their neighbourhood. This is really getting insane.

(Via /.)

Makoto Nagano is the most awesome guy ever.

That is all.

If you want to see what I was doing last week, check out this video from Le Podcast. It's your average trade show stuff, but does have a couple of interesting talking heads (none of which is me, happily enough).

However, there was one demo which quite floored me, having pretty much seen everything in the NFC circles in the past few years. The Touch&Interact-demo from the University of Lancaster uses the mobile phone together with a Google Maps display to navigate, provide information, select, and do all sorts of other interesting stuff. The video is not as cool as seeing it in real life, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

It's a nice example of how the physical can interact with the virtual.

Interesting - I uttered the word "LazyWeb" in my last blog posting, and turns out there are aggregators like Hoosgot which track these requests and make them available to everyone. So you can follow any requests anyone makes anywhere in the world, right in your RSS reader. Nice...

I just know there are people out there reading this blog who can give me just the perfect answer to this... so here goes.

I have two used dual-Xeon w/ hyperthreading Dell servers (loaned kindly by BaseN, thank you very much) which I'm planning to setup to replace an aging P4 shuttle, serving, among other things, this web site. I also have my private emails running on that server, as well as a bunch of personal home directories.

The question is, what is the optimal setup? The parameters which limit the setup are like this:

• The web sites run Apache 2, which both serves static pages, some PHP/CGI-BIN stuff as well as a couple of instances of Tomcat
• I am currently running two separate instances of Tomcat, so that when one is restarted due to e.g. JSPWiki upgrades, the startup does not adversely affect the other instance. Tomcat itself is fast; older versions of JSPWiki slow down when repositories are large. These are the worst offenders when it comes to memory consumption/load.
• Private emails need to be on a relatively fast machine so IMAP access is not annoyingly slow. Also, spamassassin is the second worst CPU consumer currently (yes, I run spamd to even the load a bit).
• I don't want to be installing/maintaining all the software across different computers, so I would prefer something like NFS to share common binaries & other stuff
• The system must be optimized for easy maintenance (I use Ubuntu, and I have no intention of switching because I don't want to learn a new distro right now) and reliability. That is, as much redundancy in the system as possible - remember that these are used machines, so we could lose a CPU, a fan or a disk at any time, so we should be able to switch to a single-machine setup with as little downtime as possible.
• Also running on these computers will be DNS, CVS (to be replaced with SVN in the future), mailing lists, and other small things.

There's plenty of network (Gigabit ethernet connections all around), and the machines are identical (2GB memory, 130 GB disk, 2x HT Xeon @2.6 GHz).

Any advice, hints or tips how this should be set up? I have considered virtual servers, but there are a bunch of reasons why they are not a good option just now.