circle.ch :: September

circle.ch weblog by Urs Gehrig

A weblog about libre software, law, technology, politics and the like.

2010-08-25T08:13:16

Academic, Android, Apache, Apple, Art, Best Of, Biotech, Civil Society, Content Management, Cooking, Copyright, Creative Commons, Crosspost, Culture, Database, Deutsch, DRM, Economy, Education, Event, Gadget, General, Geodata, Government, Health, Howto, Humor, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Java, Language, LaTeX, Law, Linux, Media, Moblog, Mozilla, Music, Office, Open Content, Open Source, P2P, PHP, Podcast, Politics, Privacy, Projects, Random Thought, Rant, Science, Search, Social Network, Software, Sport, Talks, Technology, Technology Transfer, Travelling, Weblog, Wiki, Wireless and Mobile, XML

30. September 2005

Google Maps on a mobile phone
Wireless and Mobile (wiki) | Geodata (wiki) - urs @ 18:08:42

From the gmaps site [1]:

Mobile GMaps is a free piece of software that displays Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth maps and satellite imagery on Java J2ME-enabled mobile phones or other devices.

Mobile GMaps is distributed under the Attribution/NonCommercial/NoDerivs Creative Commons license. You may download, use and distribute the application free of charge for non-commercial purposes. You may NOT use it for any commercial purpose.

Have a look at the documentation to see what phones are supported.

[1] http://www.mgmaps.com

Related post(s):

Sony Ericsson Z520i sync with Google Calendar (9.25)
Retrieving Geo information from a Mobile Phone (9.19)
float's mobile agent and a T610 (8.52)
p2p - tiny code on mobiles to share anywhere (8.28)
Public transport map offering realtime data (7.97)

Related tags(s):

office, howto, software, p2p, drm

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

Limewire is working on CC integration
Intellectual Property (wiki) | Creative Commons (wiki) | P2P (wiki) - urs @ 18:01:09

Limewire coders seem to implement a mechanism to check for licenses on shared files in Limewire. If there is no appropriate license, the file will not be shared [1,2].

[1] http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=927
[2] http://www.limewire.org/fisheye/viewrep/~br=cc-publish-branch/limecvs

Related post(s):

SMASH ::: Mixed-signal analog and logic simulation (6.33)
MozPHP - running PHP in Mozilla (6.18)
Get a complete working back-end! (4.27)
Microsoft view on commodity software (4.26)
PHP Development IDE for Win32 (3.60)

Related tags(s):

mozilla, linux, open_source, php

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

22. September 2005

Coral - open peer-to-peer content distribution network
- urs @ 10:49:26

Coral [1,2] allows a single

[..] computers burden to be shouldered by many volunteers. In geek-speak, it is a decentralized and self-organizing peer-to-peer Web content distribution network. Users across the Internet volunteer their computers to collectively replicate and store the contents of popular websites [3].

Michael J. Freedman et.al. [4] call it the democratizing content publication on the Internet. It is mainly used on sites providing podcasting and video services. John Udell also has some words about it usage [5].

[1] http://www.coralcdn.org
[2] http://wiki.coralcdn.org
[3] http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/issue/infotech0105.asp?p=0
[4] http://www.coralcdn.org/pubs/
[5] http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/04/19.html

Related post(s):

Jahrbuch zu Open Source und Open Content (8.12)
Open Content Alliance launched (8.01)
AGNULA - A GNU/Linux Audio distribution (7.58)
MSN search in Open Content Alliance (7.03)
Open Content Speech (6.91)

Related tags(s):

talks, education, linux, p2p, copyright

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

Tschubby's Karten der Schweiz
Wiki (wiki) | Deutsch (wiki) - urs @ 09:29:07

Tschubby [1] hat in Zusammenhang mit Wikipedia eine Vielzahl von Karten für die Schweiz erstellt. Gemeinden, Kantone, Flüsse usw. sind als PNG Bilder verfügbar. Die Qualität der Arbeit ist bestechend.

[1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Tschubby

Related post(s):

Linux Solutions Group aktiv in der Schweiz (5.27)
Mangelnde Wahrnehmung der Opensource Aktivität in der Schweiz (4.26)
CC Lizenzen für Schweiz nun online (4.02)
.NET Managed User Group of Switzerland (3.57)
DeLaRue is hiring (3.17)

Related tags(s):

linux, open_source, technology, software, economy

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

21. September 2005

OpenLaszlo Open Source development platform
Open Source (wiki) | Technology (wiki) - urs @ 19:39:26

OpenLaszlo is the leading open source platform for the development and delivery of rich Internet applications on the World Wide Web.

Although I read the first time of it today, it looks promising, at least if I have a look at the demo applications [1] and the "Laszlo-in-10-minutes" introduction [2].

[1] http://www.laszlosystems.com/demos/
[2] http://www.laszlosystems.com/lps/laszlo-in-ten-minutes/

Related post(s):

WW2D - Explore Earth the Open Source Way (8.91)
Microsoft view on commodity software (8.80)
eXist - an Open Source XML Database (8.78)
Jahrbuch zu Open Source und Open Content (8.72)
Tägliche Ration Open Source (8.60)

Related tags(s):

government, technology, software, intellectual_property, economy

Comments (1) Permalink del.icio.us

Télévision Suisse Romande öffnet seine Archive
Deutsch (wiki) | Education (wiki) - urs @ 14:05:18

[Via Bertrand, 1] Télévision Suisse Romande hat Teile seines Archivs ins online aufgeschaltet [2]. Das Archiv stellt eine hervorragende Ressource dar und ermöglicht einen Blick zurück, wie es bspw. Bertrand getan hat:

If you understand some french and want to get a piece of my local culture, make sure to watch the video about the first speed radar in 1966. This was shot very close to where I live, and these guy's accent vaudois is very typical of folks around here, this one had us ROFL. There's also Emil, Zouc and Oin-Oin for those who know them, a great way to spend your Copious Free Time.

Es ist zu hoffen, dass das Archiv in naher Zukunft noch mit weiteren Beiträgen ausgefüllt wird.

[1] http://codeconsult.ch/bertrand/archives/000570.html
[2] http://archives.tsr.ch

Related post(s):

SRG SSR idée suisse öffnet die Archive - aber nur bedingt (12.5)
Couleur 3 using Creative Commons license (11.0)
How to describe DRM? (7.17)
CSFB to be engaged in saving US Airways (4.96)
Seven-Zip archive format (4.76)

Related tags(s):

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

20. September 2005

SXG75 - ein Handy mit integriertem GPS
Wireless and Mobile (wiki) | Deutsch (wiki) | Geodata (wiki) - urs @ 10:30:06

Siemens bringt mit dem SXG75 [1] nun auch ein Mobilephone auf den Markt, das gleichzeitig als Navigationsinstrument dient. Im Vergleich zum Nokia GPS-Shell ist das GPS beim SXG75 direkt integriert. Erhältlich soll es ab Oktober 2005 sein.

[1] http://communications.siemens.com/SXG75

Related post(s):

About SQL ::: some other mini HOTWO's (3.77)
Java RE for Linux PPC (3.62)
iTrip FM Transmitter (3.62)
How to tie a tie (3.54)
Mambo CMS (3.50)

Related tags(s):

apple, gadget, civil_society, culture

Comments (3) Permalink del.icio.us

19. September 2005

VTX mit Blog Hosting
Weblog (wiki) | Deutsch (wiki) - urs @ 17:31:26

VTX Internet Solutions hat sich offenbar basierend auf der Typepad Technologie zu einem Blog Hosting Service aufgerüstet [1]. Die vier verfügbaren Angebote variieren preislich zwischen CHF 0.00 und CHF 229.50 Jahresgebühr. Dann wollen wir die Entwicklung in der Schweizer Blog-Landschaft doch mal weiter beobachten. Gut, dass Matthias von blog.ch genügend Bandbreite hat. ;)

[1] http://blog.vtxnet.ch

Related post(s):

Blogsome - Worpress based Blog Hosting (6.97)
ImageShack - dedicated content hosting service (5.42)
Netzone Hosting - MySQL database now included (4.58)
yet another b2 fork (3.71)
Blogger Meeting in Bern (3.45)

Related tags(s):

law, creative_commons, humor, java

Comments (2) Permalink del.icio.us

18. September 2005

Reenabled LiveSearch
Weblog (wiki) | Wiki (wiki) - urs @ 13:13:41

LiveSearch has not been available for a short period of time on this blog. So I reenabled and refined it a bit. It searches now not only blog posts but also wiki titles. Further there is a search term hightlight function, which should make the reading of the result set more comfortable.

Related post(s):

Searching Wikipedia content à la LiveSearch (8.32)
Livesearch - let's talk about usability (7.15)
Google search plugin based on XMLHttpRequest? (6.37)

Related tags(s):

wiki, php, weblog, random_thought, mozilla

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

13. September 2005

Bundesdance zum Wahltag
Government (wiki) | Humor (wiki) | Deutsch (wiki) - urs @ 13:17:41

Politik kann Freude machen [1] ;)

[1] http://www.herburg-weiland.de/bundesdance/

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

The GNU/Stallmans music video
Music (wiki) - urs @ 07:54:56

A really amazing video:

"The Free Software Song" is performed by the office park band, The GNU/Stallmans. The lyrics are by Richard Stallman.

Apart from the lead singer, the The GNU/Stallmans could need some coaching on their performance ;) Via Matthias [2].

[1] http://www.revolution-os.com/musicvideo.html
[2] http://blaser.cx

Related post(s):

Pearl Jam Music Video unter CC (10.5)
amaroK LiveCD - Open Music Player (6.43)
Music Library in Bern (5.71)
They will miss each other (5.58)
ascii video live streaming (5.46)

Related tags(s):

open_content, government, music, politics, technology

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

12. September 2005

Engagement bei LOTS/fossdays
Open Source (wiki) | Deutsch (wiki) | Event (wiki) - urs @ 23:43:09

Letztlich wurde ich in Zusammenhang mit LOTS bzw. fossdays [1] angesprochen. Ich musste leider mein Engagement als OK Mitglied für fossdays auf Null reduzieren (per Ende Juni), da es mir zeitlich, wegen beruflicher Weiterbildung, einfach nicht mehr möglich war, mich an der Organisation kommender Events zu beteiligen. Bei allfälligen Fragen bitte ich den geneigten Leser oder die Leserin, sich an Andreas, Michael oder Toni zu werden. Letzteren und auch Bertrand und Matthias danke ich für die guten Erfahrungen, die ich mit ihnen machen konnte. Mein Dank geht auch an die vielen Aussteller, Speaker und Besucher, die LOTS/fossdays letztlich möglich machten.

[1] http://fossdays.org/blog/

Related post(s):

Logo- und Design-Contest für fossdays (11.3)
fossdays logo - public voting (9.76)
Tagging for lots.ch (6.73)
LOTS event catalog online (6.52)
Keinen Rappen für die Software (6.22)

Related tags(s):

event, software, intellectual_property, economy, technology_transfer

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

4.1 Billion
Economy (wiki) - urs @ 16:52:47

That is a lot for a company, its technology and fame(?). eBay bought Skype [1]. It is said that there are over 50 Million registered users [2]. It looks as if the internet business is back again.

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4237338.stm
[2] http://www.skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2005/08/50_million_skyp.php

Related post(s):

IBM Millipede - Trillion-Bit Data Storage Density (4.36)

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

07. September 2005

Get mapping coordinates from an address
Weblog (wiki) | Random Thought (wiki) | Geodata (wiki) - urs @ 14:41:57

randy [1] found a way to get the longitude and latidue out of an address like "1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View CA 94043". He uses an XML-RPC call to rpc.geocoder.us and gets an array of mapping coordinates in return. Awesome.

As the current petrol prices are rising, I would like to see an SMS service, where you can send something like "Lorraine, Bern" to a certain number and in return you would get an MMS with a map with a red outlined track to the next petrol station with the lowest prices on petrol. ;)

[1] http://www.randys.org/content/?p=50

Related post(s):

Freemind mind-mapping software (6.23)
Mapping PHP and Mono (4.56)
IP to country conversion (4.08)
Googles Desktop Search privacy policy (3.67)
GIS Maps and mobile blogging (3.66)

Related tags(s):

php, content_management, privacy, wireless_and_mobile, apple

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

06. September 2005

As you can see there are in most cases "Related tags" listed with each blog post. Those tags have been automatically chosen for each post. Most of them fit to the post, some do not. If you look at the post just before this one, you can see that the content is written in German. Amazingly there is e.g. a tag called "deutsch". The code behind is no rocket science. All I do is looking for matching entries in the database and group by the categories found for those entries. That's it.

One method to refine the results could be that the content of a blog post should be tokenized, stemmed [1], and put into a FULLTEXT search query against the existing entries. That code on the other hand is not yet finished ;)

[1] http://google.ch/search?q=define:stemmer

Related post(s):

Blog backend with recommended tags per post (7.71)
Related posts on b2/cafelog (7.43)
Working out a category cloud (6.74)
Finding friends with XML and RDF (6.56)
Freetag - a tagging and folksonomy system (6.32)

Related tags(s):

law, database, talks, software, intellectual_property

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

01. September 2005

Open Office Dokument des Hanbuchs zu PHP und MySQL
PHP (wiki) | Deutsch (wiki) | Office (wiki) - urs @ 21:08:31

Zu meiner letztlich publizierten PDF Version meines Einführungsscripts zu PHP und MySQL [1] aus dem Jahr 2003 ist nun auch das Open Office Dokument hinzugekommen und steht zum Download bereit. Allfällige Rückmeldungen oder Ergänzungen nehme ich gerne entgegen. Korrekturen etc. können aber auch direkt im Wiki eingetragen werden.

[1] http://circle.ch/wiki/?page=HandbuchPHP

Related post(s):

Einführung in PHP (9.88)
Office v.X repair hints (7.20)
Silbentrennung nach Installation von Office XP SP3 fehlerhaft (6.71)
MySQL 3.23 Declared Stable (6.62)
The Center for Open Source in Government (6.34)

Related tags(s):

education, apple, government, database, moblog

Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us

A Plaze to be with a signed Java Applet?
Random Thought (wiki) | Geodata (wiki) - urs @ 09:23:08

chregu [1] recently bookmarked Codeplaze [2], a code repository for the Plazes site. Instead of using their Javascript Badge I went for the XML-RPC variant to link to the current Plaze of being. Unfortunately there is no way to run a Launcher on some (restricted) systems, and therefore one turns out to be plazeless sometimes.

You haven't used the Launcher to log on, therefore you are "plazeless". You cannot search for people or Plazes by radius.

Apart from binaries there is also a Python launcher [3]. That is ok, if Python works on your system. So I was looking around for a signed Java Applet which gets access to the machines MAC address [4]. I am not sure, if at all, a launcher is programmable as signed Java Applet [5], but it would be fun to have a platform independent Launcher anyway. Maybe there will even be a non-Java Plazes Launcher Firefox extension one day, but that is just a guess.

[1] http://blog.bitflux.ch/p2681.html
[2] http://codeplaze.com
[3] http://kybernet.org/wiki/index.php/PyPlazes
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
[5] http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=648213&start=15&tstart=0