The Empire Weblog

I spent a few minutes with Apple's new iMac G5 which is an amazing machine. The first time I was really impressed by such a gadget and in particular by the Max OS X.

Well, now, to be honest, I started to inform myself quite a lot about the Apple's entire range of gadgets and software. The more I read the more I think my next portable computer will probably be a Powerbook. Maybe even in combination with an iMac G5. Who know's.

What's the lesson learnt of today? Yes, I definately have to give up my doubts and also small prejudices I had until today. I'm really convinced now and also believe that Apple will have a great future. Mac OS X is also a great operating system with an agile development. For example, in the next release there will be a feature called 'Spotlight':

This sounds to me as they are going to introduce a database backed filesystem. Will Apple be the first introducing such a filesystem of the next generation? Will they be a step ahead of the game than Microsoft with WinFS which won't be part of Longhorn, the next Windows version? I am really looking forward how 'Spotlight' will work and if my suspicions will be right about it and WinFS.

Another very nice gadget which shows very well what innovation potential Apple has is their AirPort Express. It is a wireless basestation with an integrated USB print server and, the best of all, the possibility to connect your HiFi station to it. Once it is connected your iTunes (using under Max OS X of course) will realize that there is a HiFi station available in your wireless network. Consquently, iTunes offers you the option to broadcast your music via AirPort Express to your HiFi station. Cool, fabulous and brilliant at the same time. If I ever will have a Powerbook or a iMac, then that base station will be the first additional gadget!

Ok, that's enough for a first impression of my new Apple experiences. I'm keen of what's next and looking forward to see all the other brilliant gadgets.

Since the weekend, my weblog is completely skinable using different CSS stylesheets. As a first alternative skin I've designed the «UK Empire» style. ;-) Just click on it an try it. In the right column at the bottom you find the links to both styles I have currently available. The standard style is now called «Forth Rail Bridge» style. Guess why it has this name?! ;-)

My special thanks to who helped me a lot with the new picture for the «UK Empire» style.

If you have any suggestions for other style, let me know!

Just arrived here in Vienna. Attending a meeting with one of your project partners discussing the Next Generation Music Retrieval System: eyes4ears. Let's see what we can achieve within the next few weeks and when we will release the first prototype.

Stay tuned and come back to check out the latest news about it.

To get a short overview about the project have a look on its website. Unfortunately it's in German only. I hope we're going to change it as soon as possible.

The popular German computer magazin c't has just published a news post about a special service which searches over 100.000 blogs for company names. The service is called BlogSquirrel and is offered by CyberAlert. Companies as well as public institutions and authorities can register for the service if they are afraid their names might be mentioned in several blogs causing "[...] problems and issues that may threaten corporate or brand reputation [...]".

Uiii! What consquences will this have on the entire Blogsphere when you as author have to be careful with your own opinion? What about the right for «Free speech»? Is this another and new form of restricting that right?

Ok guys, regarding your future posts: Be careful what you are writing about a company or their products. Always be fair and mention only facts you can prove and, of course, mind your language! :-)

In the short but excellent article «gnegg: Eclipse, CVS and putty» you can find a brilliant solution how to get Eclipse connecting to a CVS server via SSH using private/public key authentication. The ingenious thing of this solution is that you can use it in conjunction with Putty and its little indispensable helper tools such as Pageant and Plink.

I really was almost hacked off by trying to connect from within Eclipse to a CVS server over SSH with private/public key authentication. However, then I went to Google (the best search engine ever) and found that excellent post mentioned above.

Hey folks out there, let's concentrate on the essential things now again: coding good stuff for the next generation of software! Cheers!

Browsing the internet these days, I found a website which offers a few well-known songs for download. The special of them is that they are re-mixes with statements and crying of people, breaking news headlines of radio and TV stations when the USA was attacked by terrorists on 9/11, 2001. The song list also contains the famous one "Only Time" from Enya which has become the unofficial hymn of 9/11, 2001 as it was played by many radio stations in the US and over the world.

Quotes:

"This is not a battle between the United States and terrorism --- but between the free and democratic world - and terrorism." - Tony Blair, British Prime Minister.

"It's really the worst thing that happens since Pearl Harbour." - A woman on the street of NYC.

"Yesterday was -indeed- a dark day in our history." - The Pope, John Paul II.