簡単だ！CMS Made Simple lowers the bar…

July 12th, 2010

<shameless plug>

After talking about it for years and years (it seems) I finally got around to putting a commercial website:

http://www.kozel-heizungen.ch

I used CMS Made Simple and it does what the name promises: It’s easy to set up and if you have a basic understanding of databases providing dynamic content, then you should be up and running quite quickly.

That being said, the 80/20 rule still applies – the basic page is up quite quickly but fixing the details takes much longer. Even more so if the site owner just doesn’t provide any feedback T_T

Other steps that took some time were pushing the website in search engines. Whether this is the recommended method I don’t know but I simply contacted all the pages were the company was listed already and asked them to list the URL. Every little step helps methinks

</shameless plug>

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

（暴）GIMP for sysadmins

July 8th, 2010

GIMP (short for GNU Image Manipulation Program – http://www.gimp.org) is a great tool – it’s versatile, it’s free and if you know it inside out, you swear by it. If you don’t know it very well, you just swear.

Starting from zero with GIMP is tough: No arrow cursor to select elements, whenever you paste something you cannot select other elements anymore etc. And all you wanted to do is to pimp up the screenshots for your documentation…

Believe me, I’ve been there. Working as a sysadmin, including screenshots with a couple of 1) and 2) added results in a much better description of anything than stringing “Window 1″ and submenu 47b together a hundred times. Although it sounds perfectly simple, you have to figure out how to do things in GIMP which can be nerv-wracking because much of it is counterintuitive if you don’t understand the how and why. And if you don’t keep using GIMP, you quickly forget about it all and you have to start all over again.

Of course, there are tutorials about the GIMP. Lots of them. Written by friendly people with gallant intentions. You might even find what you are looking for. Oh, and recently there have been photo-editing tutorials in magazines as well. But I’ve rarely had to remove red eyes from OS screenshots.

In order to fight the forgetfulness that is mine I’ve decided to accumulate my meagre (and hard earned) knowledge on the matter that is GIMP. It’s not much but it’s proven useful to me and I hope it will be useful to you as well.

File Format

The GIMP’s native file format is .xcf but if you start with a screenshots, .png is fine and even .bmp will do. There’s no need to save the files in GIMP’s native file format or convert them.

Basics of Screenshooting

You can save yourself a lot of work by planning ahead:

  • Don’t take screenshots of your whole Desktop if you only need a dialogue window! Alt+PrtScn will save the active window only which is probably what you are going to down cut to later anyway. (These keys work on Debian/Ubuntu and Windows – I’m not sure about Macs and other flavours of Linux)
  • Resize windows before taking a screenshot! If you want to show users what options they have to pick from a menu or submenu, resize the program window as much as possible. Again, this will save you much work later.

Basic Operations

  1. Resize Screenshots (Scale)
    Resizing is straight forward. Open a screenshot, in the menu “Image” click “Scale Image…” OR press Shift+T which will bring up the same dialogue.
    HINT: Try to remember some of the basic key combinations, you’ll be much quicker!In the Scale dialouge, you can specify the new Width or Height in pixels, milimeters and other measurements. If the chain is symbol is disconnected as in the screenshot below, the screenshot will not be resized proportionally. You can use the Tab key to jump onto the chain symbol and connect by pressing Space.

    Scaling in GIMP

    Scaling in GIMP

    If you make a mistake, Ctrl+Z will take you one step back. The history in GIMP is not cut off by some memory restraint, so feel free to undo all steps if necessary.

  2. Cropping
    The description in the Crop Tool says: Remove edge areas from image or layer. In other words: Keep a part of an image, discard the rest.There are two ways to crop an image:

    1)  The manual way: Using the Rectangle Select Tool, copy a part of a screenshot, open a new empty image, paste the selection and select “Autocrop Image” from the menu “Image”. This is all reliable and swell, but it’s quite slow.

    2) The better way: Select the Crop Tool (Shift+C), select an area (which will be high-lighted) and press Enter.

    Cropping in GIMP

    Cropping in GIMP

    The high-lighted area will automatically preserved, the areas outside the selection will be discarded and the image will be auto-cropped. Fast and handy! If the auto-crop does not happen, it’s just one click away.

    3) The super-duper, perfect, perfectionist crop:

    Select the Crop Tool and check “Allow growing” in the options, as in the screenshot below:

    Cropping Options in GIMP

    Cropping Options

    This option will allow you to move and resize the crop selection. Move the mouse cursor over the crop selection. Depending on where the cursor is, the cursor changes to reflect how you can pull or move the selection. As soon as the cursor changes, you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to change the size or position of the selection. This is especially handy for me because I like using a trackball which makes it very difficult to do exact selections.
    HINT: To get an even better shot at the perfect selection, you can press “+” on the numberpad to zoom in (“-” to zoom out again) and move the selection within the range of pixels.

  3. Cutting out parts of a screenshot
    You might have seen screenshots like this:

    huge dialogue window

    huge dialogue window

    They either make you wonder what this guys was thinking when the screenshot was made or what you were thinking when you made the screenshot if that guy happens to be you. If you think the screenshot is just fine, here’ s a hint: screen estate.
    In the next screenshot, all the area in red could be cut off and the screenshot would still retain all of the relevant information:

    wasted space in a dialogue screenshot

    wasted space in a dialogue screenshot

    See? If it’s your screenshot – retake it! If you don’t have access to the workstation where the screenshot was taken, you can also cut out part of the screenshot.
    Cutting out a part of a screenshot is slightly different to cropping. You will have to cut out the part in red, move the bottom part up so that it connects seamlessly to upper part, merge the layers and save the images.
    Your best friend is the Layers dialogue which you can find in the menu “Dialogs” -> Layers. Alternatively, press Ctrl+L to bring up that dialogue.

    Layers Tool

    One of your best friends: Layers Tool

    Whenever you open a screenshot for editing, there will be one layer called “Background”.
    Use the Rectangle Select Tool to select the area to be removed. If you’re the perfectionist, pay close attention to sections like scrollbars etc. to make sure that the boundaries of the compositions are not immediately recognizable (see the circle in red)

    Selection to Cut

    Selection to be cut out

    Cut out the selection (Ctrl+X). Your screen should now look like the screenshot below:

    Cut Selection

    Cut Selection

    In the next step, you will have to move the lower part of the screenshot up to join the cuts.
    Again using the Rectangle Select Tool, select the bottom remains of the screenshot. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard if necessary to move the selection. The result should look as below:

    Selection to move

    Selection to move

    When the selection is at the right place, cut the selection (Ctrl+X) and paste it again (Ctrl+V). Then, move the pasted image to join the upper part. Notice that the Layers dialog now displays a new layer: (Floating Selection (Pasted Layer)

    Moved Selection, New Layer

    Moved Selection, New Layer

    Maybe you noticed the how the lines of outline of the pasted image are running clockwise around the selection. This shows the selected layer. This has nothing to do with the Rectangle Select Tool. Also, it’s not possible to select a different layer in the Layers dialog. That’s why you have to right-click “Floating Selection (Pasted Layer)” in the Layers dialog and click “New Layer…”. The layer’s name changes to “Pasted Layer”, the running line around the layer turns yellowish. Now it’s possible to select a different layer again.
    HINT: If you’re working on a more complicated image, you can rename “Pasted Layer” to anything you like such as Logo1 etc. This makes it easier to identify what the layer contains.

    If you’re just doing screenshots, I recommend to merge the layers now. Several layers are not supported in .png files anyway so you when you try to save the image, you will be prompted to flatten the image anyway. Right-click “Pasted Layer” and select “Merge Down”. Only the “Background” layer remains.
    After another Autocrop (menu “Image” -> “Autocrop Image”) and another resize (menu “Image” -> “Scale image…” – remember to keep the width consistent across the screenshots if possible), the screenshot is ready for uploading.

Finishing Touches

  1. (Transparent) Rectangles Or Circles Within An Image
    These tools always rely on some selection and thus have one drawback: It’s hard if not impossible to change some settings such as colors or line styles afterwards unless you use the Undo function in the menu “Edit” to get back to the point before you applied the color to the stroke selection. If you have changed several other things since then, these will also be undone.
    Let’s say you wanted to highlight the Mode dropdown list in the Layers dialog:

    • Use the Rectangle Select Tool or the Ellipse Select Tool to draw a selection around the button.
    • Doubleclick the colour selector (by default the black area overlapping the white area), select a color to your likings
    • In the menu “Edit”, select “Stroke Selection…” Change the settings as desired. Click on “Stroke”

    The result should be similar to this:

    Highlightning in Images

    Highlightning in Images

    If you want to fill the selection with a slightly opaque fill, the selection still has to be active. Use Undo if you have already selected something else or deselected everything. Click on the Bucket Fill Tool (Shift+B).
    In the options, play around with the following settings:
    -The Opacity slider defines how opaque the fill will be.
    -Use “Fill Type” to select what color or even what pattern the selection should be filled with.
    -Affected Area: Most likely you will want this to be set to “Fill whole selection”, otherwise only the neighboring pixels within the clicked area will be filled

  2. Numbers and Text
    Numbers on a screenshot can be very useful to describe a workflow. See the screenshot below for a fictitious example:

    Usage of numbering in a screenshot
    In this way, you can easily guide a user to complete a couple of configuration steps.
    HINT: If the configuration steps occur over a number of windows, try arranging on top of each other and you will get away with a single screenshot such as above. Although the option window is completely separate from the program window, by layering them you can keep everything nicely arranged.
    Occasionally, background images may interfere. Originally I wanted to keep the text for 4) on one line but the disk usage in red behind the close button made this impossible. Then it is your turn to be creative. In this case, inserting a line break or changing the font colour are both valid options.
    While preparing the above screenshot, I noticed that it’s possible to resize the Text box by dragging the corners. In older versions of the GIMP, that was not possible and the only way of changing a text box was to undo, undo, undo. This is definitely a useful improvement!

  3. Blurring Text Properly
    Blurring text can be necessary if your screenshots contain sensitive information such as login names, host names, email adresses etc.
    The quick and dirty way is to use the Smudge Tool and go over the area to smudge a couple of times. However, if you are like me you will end up with something like this: (mainly because I’m using a track ball, mind ^_^)

    Smutty smudge

    Smutty smudge

    A much cleaner alternative is to smudge using the Rectangle Select Tool:
    1) Select the Rectangle Select Tool
    2) Draw a selection around the area to smudge
    3) Smudge your heart
    4) Profit! Or at least nicely contained smudges:

    Cleaner smudges

Conclusion

Again, GIMP is a great tool – if you know how to use it. I’ve been tearing my hair out again and again over simple edits but I hope you will not have to suffer the same.
If you have some additional tips, please let me know!

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WasndasfürnePflanzeda?

July 6th, 2010

Seit es so warm ist, wächst bei mir auf dem Balkon diese Pflanze… Hat jemand eine Ahnung, um welche Pflanze es sich da handelt?

IMG_2354

Welche Pflanze?

Falls es sich um eine Art Unkraut oder gar was Ünerwünschtes handelt, werde ich sie natürlich entfernen und entsorgen…

Danke jedenfalls schon mal für ernsthafte Kommentare!

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麽杵成针(mó chú chéng zhēn)

March 16th, 2010

… ist ein chinesisches Sprichwort und bedeutet wörtlich “Schleifen und zerstampfen wird zu einer Nadel”, was man etwa mit “Mit Durchhaltewille kann man alle Hindernisse überwinden” übersetzen kann. Der Ursprung dieses Sprichwortes ist in der folgenden Geschichte festgehalten. Die Übersetzung stammt von mir. Zur Zeit benutze ich das Langenscheid Handwörterbuch Chinesisch (ein nicht so “handliches” Buch, aber gut). Bei den Feinheiten half mir Han, meine Tandempartnerin.
Zahlen in Klammern sind Bemerkungen, welche am Ende des Textes aufgeführt werden.
Sämtliche Fehler beim Abschreiben, beim Übersetzen und in den Bemerkungen gehen auf meine Kosten *Asche aufs Haupt streu*

1a.唐代著名的诗人李白，天资聪颖，到10岁时已读了很多书籍
1b. In der Tang-Dynastie lebte ein sehr berühmter Dichter namens Li Bai, der im Alter von 10 Jahren schon viele Bücher gelesen hatte.

2a.李白的父亲是个富商，家里很有钱。3a.李白从小时起便养成好玩的习惯，不能集中心思读书。4a.往往读了一会儿后，就放下书本到外面闲逛去了。
2b. Li Bais Vater war ein reicher Händler, seine Familie hatte viel Geld. 3b.Li Bai hatte von klein auf die Gewohnheit viel zu spielen, aber er konnte sich beim Lesen von Büchern nicht konzentrieren. 4a. Immer nachdem er kurze Zeit etwas gelesen hatte, legte er gleich das Buch nieder und ging draussen spazieren.

5a.一天，李白又读的心烦起来，便走了出去。途中遇见一个老婆婆，正在麽一根铁棒。
5b. Eines Tages, wieder beim Lesen kam in Li Bai wieder diese Nervosität hoch und sogleich ging er nach draussen. Auf dem Weg erblickt er eine alte Frau, die just in diesem Moment eine Eisenstange schliff.

6a.李白觉得很奇怪，问道(1)：“老婆婆，您这是在干什么啊？”
6b. Li Bai empfand diesen Anblick als sehr merkwürdig und fragte: “Ehrwürdige alte Frau, was machen sie denn da?”

7a.老婆婆抬头瞧了瞧李白回答说：”孩子，我这是在把它磨成针哪(2)！“
7b. Die alte Frau hob den Kopf, erblickte Li Bai an und antwortete: “Kind, was ich hier mache, ich schleife offensichtlich diese Eisenstange bis sie zu einer Nadel wird.”

8a.李白极为惊奇，说：“啊，要把这么粗的一根铁棒，磨成针，能行吗？9a.“老婆婆笑笑说：”我不停地麽下去，这铁棒会越来越细(3)，最后一定会(4)被磨成针，怎么不行呢？“
8b. .Li Bai empfand das als sehr seltsam und sagte: “Aha, sie wollen diese dicke Eisenstange zu einer Nadel zu schleifen, ist denn das möglich?” 9b. Die alte Frau lachte und sagte: “Wenn ich nicht aufhöre, dann kann ich mit schleifen fortfahren, und diese Eisenstange wird immer dünner, am Ende wird sie fast sicher durch Schleifen zu einer Nadel werden, wieso soll man das nicht können?”

10a.李白听了很受启发，于是下决心坚持读书。11a.后来，他终于成为一位伟大的诗人。
11b. Li Bai hörte dies und es regte ihn an, so dass er beschloss Bücher zu lesen. 1b. Schlussendlich wurde er zu einem grossartigen Dichter

Bemerkungen

==========

(1) 问道: Dieser Ausdruck wird nur schriftlich benutzt und verstärkt in diesem Falle den Frageaspekt. Andere Anwendungen sind 说道 (sagen). Im mündlichen Chinesisch wird 道 weggelassen.

(2) 哪: Am Satzende benutzt bedeutet das Zeichen nicht “wo” wie sonst üblich, sondern bezeichnet eine rhetorische Frage. In der Übersetzung versuche ich diesen besonderen Aspekt durch “offensichtlich” wiederzugeben. Es scheint, mir als sei das im schriftlichen Deutsch gar nicht anders möglich. In der gesprochenen Sprache wird das grundsätzlich durch die Betonung wiedergegeben.

(3) 越来越细: Diese “yuè … yuè …” Konstruktion gibt es in zwei Varianten: Einmal mit “lái” dazwischen wie in Bemerkung (3) welche auf Deutsch mit “wird immer +Adjektiv” (hier: 细) wiedergegeben werden kann. Die zweite Konstruktion entspricht dem bekannten “je … desto …” z.B. 越多越好 (“je mehr desto besser”).

(4) 一定会: Dies drückt eine sehr hohe Wahrscheinlichkeit (99%) aus, welches ich durch ein nicht sehr elegantes “fast sicher” wiedergegeben habe.

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5 music albums I like very much

March 15th, 2010

This article proved to be harder to write than I imagined. To choose an appropriate title was already quite difficult. Going along something similar to “favourite albums”, “of all time” and such usually doesn’t hold true for me. We all change ever so slightly and what we like now may feel old and treaded in a couple of years. Hence I decided to go for a more general title.
Also, five is so arbitrary… I could easily mention 10 or 20.
Last but not least, chances are 99.9999% that your picks are different from mine. Feel free to write a comment but don’t start a flame war! *cheers*

#1 Sieges Even – The Art of Navigation by The Stars (2005)

A progressive metal concept album of the highest order. As the name implies, most songs revolve around the sea and the sound shows. Heavy, pressing sections interchange with quieter parts likes waves in the ocean.  Technically very demanding sections precede and follow grooving sections like the tide.
I’ve been listening to this for a year or longer on my digital music gadget.

#2 Queensrÿche – Operation: Mindcrime (1988)

Another classic progressive metal album – if you don’t know this one, you are missing something. A story of manipulation, love, power and misery.

#3 Fates Warning – A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)

Definitely not the easiest album to listen to. Many songs are rather dark and yet one of the finest achievements in songwriting by Fates Warning or rather Jim Matheos who composed all songs. He must have felt very drained when he was done with the songs. Many fans of Dream Theater without doubt will also relish the piano and keyboard parts played by Kevin Moore.

#4 Extreme – III Sides to Every Story (1992)

Different to the predecessor, III Sides to Every Story is more subtle and philosophical as the title already indicates. The sound of the latter half of the album is also much more symphonic than the previous albums “Extreme” and “Extreme II”.
Although the critics were not over the moon with this album, I particularly like the courage it must have taken the band to release such an album. Given the success and hyper-funkiness of the previous album they probably acknowledged that they couldn’t possibly beat that and decided for artistic integrity rather than quick cash.
Incidentally, many of the lyrics (in particular “Stop the World” and “Am I Ever Gonna Change”) echo my perpetual doubts about the world and make listening to the album not only  a musical discovery but also an exercise in philosophy.

#5 Yngwie Johann Malmsteen – Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E Flat minor Op. 1 (1998)

An album of classical music but this time the electric guitar is in the lead. Regardless of what prejudices pundits of classical music may have against such a combination, Yngwie proves them wrong. I think this makes for an excellent mix and maybe an easy introduction to classical music if so you haven’t been open towards such music.

As mentioned above, I could easily have added another 5 or ten albums such as White Lion’s Big Game, 1984, Dream Theater’s Six Degres of Inner Turbulence, Toto’s The Seventh One, Symphony X’s The Divine Wings of Tragedy, Summoning’s Oath Bound, Annihilator’s Alice in Hell, Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Metallica’s … Justice For All and so and so on. These are all albums that make me wish I could play the guitar better than I do. I promise to practice more once I hit retirement age (if there will be such a thing in 30+ year…)

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On the uselessness of the security theater at airports…

March 3rd, 2010

We happened to travel recently. From Asia back to Europe and as usual, planes are the only way to go.
As we all know, due to terrorist attacks, security checks at airport have gotten stricter and stricter.
One of the most disputable limitation is the amount of fluids you can bring on board. Whether it’s really possible to stop would-be-terrorists with that security measure is beyond me but for sure, for passengers it’s just a hassle.

It gets even worse. We had to change planes at Helsinki. We actually got off the plane and immediately had to pass through a security check. Hello? Where the heck would we have been able to pick up something dangerous? It’s like saying: “We don’t trust the security at other airports!”
Anyway, I brought a pet bottle of water with me from the plane. Of course, I had to hand it over. My travel mate brought a small bottle of salad dressing with her in the hand luggages which was also taken away. When I told the female security guard that I feel safer now that she removed that “dangerous liquid”, she was seriously threatening me: “Do you really want to get on your next plane?” I was so tempted to talk back to her but I guess she was on her period and Finnish women can be very intimidating.
Of course, I’m being unfair now, but once we passed through security we came  to the kiosks and the duty free section where you can buy all sorts of drinks and stuff. And guess what? When we were boarding the next plane, there were no additional security checks…

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説明が必要だと思います。。。

February 25th, 2010

私が書いた「私にはもう駄目な国か」の文章を読んでくれましたか？

ありがとうございました。いかがでしたか？

実は、その記事を書いた後、厳しい質問がありました。その質問の中で、その人が持っている疑問を理解出来る部分もありましたし、反対に理解が出来ないものもありました。

そのなかで、二つの質問について答えたいと思います。

１）その記事はただ日本についての悪口ではないですか？

私の答え：最初の印象なら、そう思ってしまう人もいると思いますが、実は違います。何故かというと、悪口というのは、ただ悪い言葉集めただけの文章だと思います。ですが、私が書いた記事の中で、はっきり「良いことを期待します」、または「私に駄目な国か？」と書いてあります。それだけではなく、解決の方法も提案しました。さらに、「Go die in a fire」のようなクダラナイ提案ではなくて、ちゃんと考えを入れた解決の方法を提案しました。

２）日本語で書いてある記事ですから、対象は日本人ですか？

私の答え：それはいい質問です。ですが、日本人の読者を狙ったわけではないです。正直にいうと、この記事を読んでくれる人が一人でもいればうれしいです。国籍とはまったく関係ありません。当然、日本語が読めない人は読者になりませんけどね。ですが、読者が出来る期待は何もしません。

何故日本語で書いたかというと、来日している間、書いた記事ですので。そして、日本で起こったことなので。さらには、急にその内容を書きたかったのです。

最後に、私には日本語を書く練習が必要ですから。

最終的に、ブログについて私の信条を言わせて頂きます：マイブログ、マイ意見。わざと詭弁や間違えている情報を書く習慣は持っていませんが、自分の意見を表したいと思います。勿論、その意見は私の立場から見る印象です。少しコミュニケーション理論になってしまうのですが、私いわゆる送信者からの情報は環境や年齢や性や頭脳や仕事などから影響を受けています。それを背景にして、受けた印象を自分の言い方で読者いわゆる受信者に伝えます。

私が送る情報は本当にそのまま読者まで届くか、読者は私が伝えたい情報を本当にそのまま理解出来るか、それはすべて別の問題です。何故かというと、読者の環境や年齢や性や頭脳や仕事は私と違いますから。また、伝えたい情報と受けた情報の差を理解／納得させる為、フィードバックや交流が必要です。

一言で言うなら、それはコミュニケーション理論の問題です。

この記事で「私に駄目な国か？」の文章の伝えたい意味を少し納得させることが出来たかな？

—————————————————

下の文章は書き直した前の原典です。勉強の為、ご覧になってください。

—————————————————

私が書いた「私にはもう駄目な国か」の文章を読んでくれましたか？

ありがとうございました。いかがでしたか？

実は、その記事を書いてから、厳しい質問されました。その質問の中で、相手が持っている疑問を理解出来る質問もありましたし、全然基礎がない質問もありました。

とにかく、二つの質問の答えはここで申し上げたいと思います。

１）その記事はただ日本についての悪口ではないですか？

私の答え：最初の印象なら、そう思ってしまう人もいると思いますが、実は違うです。何故かというと、悪口というのは、ただ悪の台詞を集まって文章だと思います。ですが、私が書いた記事の中で、はっきり「良いことを期待します」、または「私に駄目な国か？」が書いてあります。それだけではなく、解決の方法も提案をしました。さらに、「Go die in a fire」のようなクダラナイ提案ではなくて、ちゃんと考えを入れた解決の方法を提案しました。

２）日本語で書いてある記事ですから、対象は日本人ですか？

私の答え：それはいい質問です。ですが、日本人の読者を狙うわけではないです。正直にいうと、そういう記事を読む人でさえいればうれしいです。国籍とはまったく関係ありません。当然のことに、日本語が読めないは読者になりませんけどね。ですが、読者が出来る期待は何もしません。

何故日本語で書きましたかというと、来日している間書いた記事ですので。さらに、日本で起こったことです。その上、急にその内容を書きたかったのです。

最後に、私には日本語を書く練習が必要ですから。

最後に、ブログについて私の信条を言わせて頂きます：マイブログ、マイ意見。わざと詭弁や間違えている情報を書く習慣は持っていませんが、自分の意見を表したいと思います。勿論、その意見は私の立場から見ろ印象です。少しコミュニケーション理論に入ってしまうのですが、私いわゆる送信者からの情報は環境や年齢や性や頭脳や仕事などから影響を受けています。それを背景にして、とった印象を自分の言い方で読者いわゆる受信者に伝えます。

私が送る情報は本当にそのまま読者まで届くか、読者は私が伝えたい情報を本当にそのまま理解出来ますか、それはすべて別の問題です。何故かというと、読者の環境や年齢や性や頭脳や仕事は私のと違うですから。また、伝えたい情報と受けた情報の差を理解／納得させる為、フィードバックや交流が必要です。

結束して言って見れば、それはコミュニケーション理論の本題です。

この記事で「私に駄目な国か？」の文章の伝えたい意味を少し納得させることが出来たかな？

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Which is more practical to keep safe – Windows or Ubuntu?

February 25th, 2010

Please note: As all my other blog entries, this is just my personal opinion. It’s based on experience at work or at home. The conclusions drawn may be wrong or biased but as I said, it’s personal.

I’ve come a long way with Windows, starting with the inevitable Windows 3.11, going through 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, a short spin with Vista and finally Windows 7. Well, who hasn’t… As soon as internet connections became more common, Window’s shortcomings in security gained immediate attention and Microsoft responded (e.g. had to respond) with Windows Updates.

IMHO, Windows Updates has also come a long way. In a certain way, it is a reflection of the increasing complexity of Windows.

In XP, Updates could be installed from the Windows Updates website. Some installed without a restart, some updates required a restart but most of the updates installed fine and the following restart didn’t take very long.

In Vista and 7 though, Updates requiring a restart execute post-installation when shutting down AND they they execute post-installation configuration when starting the OS again. The effect on the user? Bewilderment and waiting time…

Not only for a common user, also for full-time IT personnels like me it’s impossible to foretell whether an update requires a reboot or not. Often, not even the description of the update is very helpful: “This update may require a reboot” mostly means it will require a reboot. Legalese phrases were never intended for humanity, only for non-humans… The reboot requirement sometimes differ depending on the server configuration – one particular update from January 2010 required not reboot on a WSUS server but required one a DC. I’m sure there’s technical reasons for that but still….

Oh, and this is just Windows and MS Office updates! Recommended updates for 3rd software such as .pdf readers (a particular bloatware comes to mind) also cries for reboots very often.

At least there is an alternative even on Windows… Foxit Reader. And there are others: OpenOffice, Firefox, VLC, Gimp and many more. They also need to be patched but uninstallation and installation can be completed with without a reboot.

My experience with Linux and in particular Ubuntu is not that old yet but has been growing deeper ever since. I’ve toyed with Linux distros since 1996 (SuSE at that time) but often I just installed a distro, played around with it and had to revert to Windows because specific 3rd party software was not available or some devices did not work or because it was just too impractical etc. (remember, it’s my personal opinion, I’m not trying to start a flame war).

However, for two years I’ve been using Debian at work and Ubuntu at home and I’m quite happy. At work, I don’t have to worry about updates as this is take care of by somebody else. At home, I can rely on apt-get to provide the latest updates quickly. The only updates that require a reboot are kernel upgrades (and very few others but I don’t remember what type they are – SSL-related?) and even 3rd party software upgrades are included. Not all but quite some.

Based on this experience I would rather recommend installing Ubuntu if I was asked by a novice computer user. The package is more complete, the installation of updates is easier, maintenance for the average user is easier. There is still the stigma of complexity to Linux but Ubuntu has made strides in that direction – even to the level where an average user can install and use it.

My conclusion should be quite clear: Ubuntu is easier to maintain safe than any Windows version.

I would like to add the following though: Regardless of what operating system you use, if you have a internet connection it had better be a broadband connection or a lousy dial-up connection. Broadband means you can regularly install updates without waiting 3 hours for the update to download and lousy dial up means your connection is slow that you are not a target worth hacking. Nonetheless, you should install updates whenever you can to keep your PC safe.

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私にはもう駄目な国か？

February 18th, 2010

今回の来日は相変わらず短期滞在ですけど、残念ながら来日する前期待した良いことは出て来ません。逆にほとんどツライ気持ちになりました。

何故かと言うと、日本に住んでいた時の世界はもうほとんど存在していません。通っていた学校の先生はみんな違うところに移動したし、よく行った店もういっぱい潰れてしまったし、欧米人の常識で理解出来ないところはまだ多いし。。。最後のポイントは以前からあったので、ビックリはしませんよね。

前と比べれば、店の潰れが早くなってきたかもしれないが、時間の流れと言えば、世界中どこも同じと言えば、それまでです。

でも、私がとても気になるところをみんなに気づいて欲しい：それは温泉のルールがどんどん厳しくなることです。特に「入墨厳禁」、いわゆるタトゥーは許されないことです。みつのタトゥーを持っている私は困りますよ！

どうしてそいうことになりましたか、推測出来ますよね。日本人の発想によると、入墨（タトゥー）＝やくざ＝悪人。やくざ＝悪人というふうに考えます（という発想を疑う人はだれもいないようです）が、入墨＝悪人という考えはとても悲しいことではないでしょうか？日本より欧米に人気があるロックの文化から来た人は一般的に温泉には入りにくくなります。欧米には、タトゥー＝汚いまたは危ないイメージはだんだんなくなる傾向があります。さらに、数年前、タトゥーはすごく流行っていて、若者の５分の１ぐらいがタトゥーを持っていると思います。確かに、欧米では、タトゥーはもう犯罪やギャングの暗いイメージがなくなりつつあります。先進工業国の日本なのに、時代の遅れを感じます。

私が考える解決の方法を紹介したいと思います。「外国人例外」というルールを作るです。外国人はやくざに入らないので、簡単に解決出来ます。最初からそういう例外を作ればよかったのに。。。そういうふうにならないなら、私はこれからそういう温泉を避けて、自分が稼いだお金を別のところで使うことにします。

温泉が大好きな私に、何て悲しいことだ。

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下の文章は書き直した前の原典です。勉強の為、ご覧になってください。欧米人の読者なら、私が使ったイメージを理解出来ろと思いますが、日本語で変になるそうですから、変更しました。

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今回の来日は相変わらず短期滞在ですけど、残念ながら着陸する前期待したいいことはだんだん出てこない。逆にほとんどツライ思いでになりました。

何故かと言うと、日本に住まいした時世界はもうほとんど存在していない。通っていた学校の先生方々はみんな違うところに移動したし、よく行った店もういっぱい崩れたし、屁理屈をいうところまだ多いし。。。最後の箇所は既にあったことですから、ビックリはしませんよね。

前と比べれば、店の崩れが加速してきたかもしれないが、時間の流れと言えば、世界中と同じと言えば、それはそこまでだ。

でも、一つとても気になるところはみんなに気づかれて欲しい：温泉のルールがどんどん厳しくなること。特に「いれ墨激禁」、いわゆるタトゥーは許されないことです。三のタトゥーを持っている私は困りますよ！

どうしてそいうことになりましたか、推理出来ますよね。日本人の発想のしたで、いれ墨（タトゥー）＝やくざ＝悪意。やくざ＝悪意というところを疑う人はだれもいないようだが、いれ墨＝悪意という考えはとても悲しいことではないでしょうか？日本より欧米に活気しているロックの文化から来た人は総合的に温泉の入場の不可能になるということです。欧米には、タトゥー＝汚いまたは危ないイメージはだんだんなくなる傾向があります。さらに、数年前、タトゥーはすごく流行っていて、若者の３分の１ぐらいがタトゥーを持っていると思う。確かに、欧米では、タトゥーはもう犯罪や暴力団の影から出てきた。先進工業者国の日本だけはまだ時間遅れに悩んでいる。

訂正として、簡単に出来る方法を紹介したと思います。「外国人例外」ということです。外国人はやくざに入れないから、簡単に解決出来ます。最初からそうすればよかったのに。。。結局そうにならないようだから、私はそれからそいうところを避けて、自分が稼いだお金別のところで出すことにします。

温泉が大好きな私に、何って悲しいっことだ。

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Sound problem in Ubuntu 9.10

February 15th, 2010

A couple a days ago, I installed a whole bunch of games, all from within Ubuntu. Compared to installations on Windows, it’s so easy although the revised Ubuntu Software Center is not really handy compared to the older versions (uninstalling several programs at once is such a hassle with the new version). IMHO there was no need to fix it, as it was not broken…
Anyway, after shutting down the laptop and restarting, there was no sound. Nada. The Hardware tab in System → Prferences → Sound was empty as well. I was still able to hear the drum roll when the X-server started but after that, nothing.
Based on experience, I started grepping processes for anything containing oss, esd etc. but couldn’t find anything suspicious. Some googling found me a good sound troubleshooting page for Ubuntu but still nothing.

In the end, deleting the following files and folders fixed the issue:

me@laptop:~$ rm .esd_auth

me@laptop:~$ rm -rf .pulse

me@laptop:~$ rm -rf .pulse-cookie

Please don’t ask me why and how I fixed that. My guess is that some game came with something that can’t handle pulseaudio yet. I’m just glad it works again.

Printing under linux used to be a pain but it’s getting better. Even newer gear such as a Canon MP640 works. Canon even released a nice shellscript that installs the printer, USB or wireless – your choice.

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