Liferay European Symposium - a great meeting!

I've been participating in the Europen Symposium for the Liferay Portal Server software.
A very nicely developped, feature-rich Java Portlet container.

And, without any doubt, Liferay is not only - at my very first glances, after writing only one very simple hello world portlet - a fine working portal solution, it also has proven, that it has a great community of users and developers.
I have a good feeling to base my own PIM management systems on liferay, as well as, when I learned more about liferay, offer services and use it for customer projects.

Nokia N95 - always good for a joke

why does the phone to refuse doing an update of the phone software when there's no sim card in?
What if I have to be reachable and need to use the sim in another phone?

Apart from being totally broken, and not usable anymore, after only 9 months (my usual turnaround time for mobile phones gets near to the two years, if not even longer) - now I can't even delete my private data with a phone software update(I didn't find another way, there's no "delete all user's data" button) without inserting a SIM.

Argl.

Gaaa - HTML 4.01 strict hassles...

So, I made my new site and made a html validity check.

Some minor errors, easily resolved, but then: I'm also not a too great friend of opening links in new windows.
But sometimes, I believe, it can be confusing users, especially less experienced ones, if the click on a link and are thrown out of the page they were just surfing on.
So, it might sometimes be quite reasonable, to open a link in a new window.

With oldstyle HTML, this was easily possible, using the "target" attribute.

But now, we're in the great days of html 4.X, that doesn't work anymore (see explained here, and in any html validator check for a page using it)

Obviously, I have three choices now:

• Don't use this functionality, and probably confuse my users/readers
• Rebuild the functionality with some lines of JavaScript/JQuery, etc. (sounds quite ugly, doesn't it? And it is also likely to break stuff for people who like to open their windows intentionally with middle mouse button?!)
  
• Write, just for this sake, Transitional HTML

I like none of these ideas, really. And don't discuss with me, now, how bad the idea of opening a new window is, anyway. I'd like to be able to do it if I see it fits.

My second groovy script

While I'm still hacking around on the first one (besides some other small projects I started with Grails), which is about getting rid of doublettes in my ical calendars I have, I wrote a little script to generate my (haha, currently only single paged) webpage from a contents file and a general template - more or less just for fun, on the other hand, even with a single page it's nice to have the contents, the css and the general page frame differed.

My script looks like this:

import groovy.text.SimpleTemplateEngine

def engine = new SimpleTemplateEngine()

// read the content file into a string (name: first argument)
def contentFilename = args [0]
println "reading file $contentFilename"
def contentFile = new File(contentFilename)
def content = contentFile.text

// read the template file
// TODO: maybe read args[1] for template name and 2 for out name?!
//def templateFileName = args[1]
def templateText = new File("template.html").text

def binding = ["BODY":content]

// replace the $BODY variable with the content stuff
template = engine.createTemplate(templateText).make(binding)

//save as index.html

def outFile = new File("index.html")
outFile.delete()
outFile << template.toString()

It's run as "groovy ", and requires a file template.html to exist, which has a variable $BODY there, where the body should appear, and will write the file index.html(which, attention, will be deleted if existing!).

There's sure a lot to improve - but maybe in the meantime I will also decide for a real CMS - I don't want to reinvent the wheel (on the other hand, sometimes it's interesting as well as easier to make a custom solution).
I plan to have the content html generated from wiki input, as I'm too lazy to write HTML for such simple things as lists, headlines, etc. Let's see how it will go - I'll have to checkout java wiki engines to get that going - or is there some already in groovy, even?

Finally, a decent web design

After fiddling around with CSS tonight - the times when I was more active in web frontend development, this wasn't that current and nicely working - I have done a redesign of my website, for my upcoming self-employment works.
The old knowledge-base wiki just didn't fit anymore - especially for getting customers convinced they can get from me what they expect - high quality and reliable IT solutions in a range of topics like J2EE, virtualization, infrastructure-management (automatic installation, change-management, monitoring).

The contents are just simple, and minimal, but it will evolve - I just couldn't stand the idea to got to a conference (Liferay Conference next week) and have a crappy website to show off on the URL printed on my business cards.

The old knowledgebase-wiki is still available at http://www.sprang.de/wiki/ and the rest of ancient content, too.

Hint for cryptsetup and encrypted USB sticks

After a while of wondering, why I couldn't access my encrypted usb stick, I found a simple solution:

modprobe cryptoloop
modprobe dm_crypt

I thought, nowadays, all such things work nearly automatically - even gnome asks me when inserting the stick for the password - but it fails twice - for one thing, it doesn't work unless the packages cryptsetup is installed (UBuntu/Debian) - and I really wonder why it asks me for a passwword if the command it wants to use it with isn't even available - the second are these modules.

Without them, I got(now, not in gnome, on the command line):

...
Enter LUKS passphrase: 
Failed to setup dm-crypt key mapping.
Check kernel for support for the aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 cipher spec and verify that /dev/sdb2 contains at least 133 sectors.
Failed to read from key storage
Command failed: No key available with this passphrase.

Reading only the last part can make you think you forgot the pass - sometimes, Linux error messages get harder to read...

Bahn, Du bist doch nicht O.K.

Vorgestern noch gelobt, bzw. für ein technisches Detail in Schutz genommen, heute ärgere ich mich schon wieder grün und blau: Seit 36 Stunden warte ich auf Antwort auf zwei Mails, die ich der DB geschrieben habe - eine davon geht um nicht geringeres als das rechtzeitige Umtauschen einer Karte im Wert von 100 Euro, was sicher, wenn der Tag der Gültigkeit(SA) erstmal gekommen ist, nicht mehr, oder nur noch mit hohen Gebühren gehen wird... Naja, is ja auch nicht leicht, sone Mail.

Und es wird sicher noch besser, wenn sie erstmal privatisiert ist - ein Unternehmen in der freien Wirtschaft ohne Konkurrenz, auch Monopol genannt, das wird lustig.

Und wenn es Konkurrenz geben wird, wird's auch nicht schöner für den Fahrgast - schon jetzt bekommt man bei der Fahrplanauskunft ja keine Preise genannt und kann keine Karten buchen für die Strecken, die von Konkurrenz-Anbietern bedient werden - was wird das erst, wenn man von Hamburg nach München mit 3 verschiedenen Anbietern fahren muss - man wird dann 3 Stunden brauchen, um sich Fahrplan, Preise, und Ticket zusammenzuklicken...

An der Technik mangelt es nicht - am Projekt DELFI http://www.delfi.de/ wird seit mehr als 10 Jahren gearbeitet - ich habe selbst mitgemacht - theoretisch können dort alle Anbieter auch Ihre Preise hinterlegen - in der Praxis ist es eher ein Bürokratiemonster...

Film zum Grundeinkommen

Netter Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no01If2ZPGg

ID theft's become hard? Noprob, grow your own!

Bruce Schneier is, as always, at the edge of data security of the information age - in his recent cryptogram, he's coming up with the idea of data farming - a way to grow a fake identity without having to steal it from a real existing (or past-existing, but eventually died) person.

Interesting thought...

More France... and a nice german-style lunch

Yes, diving with the dive centre "Ile d'or" in Dromant near St. Raphel at France's Cote d'azur is nice.
Even though, it doesn't exactly help me to perfect my french to stay with a diving centre owned and run by mostly germans, it feels quite nice to understand everything perfectly the people are telling you - though, under water there's usually not much talk anyway :)

Apart from that, I'm practicing and optimising my french, which is, when talking still quite broken as many times I miss the right words - I have to learn quite a bit of vacabulary.

Today, I'll prepare a lunch in the style of my mother's kitchen for Rene and Mado - a simple dish, but traditional, and not the easiet one to get done. The hard thing with "Mehlknödel" is to get the dough in exactly the right consistence, make the water boiling exactly right (not too much bubbling, but hot enough for the dough to rinse immediately when entering the water), and put the dough into the water exactly the right way - all this decides if you get nice pieces, about the size of half a palm, or if the dough explodes into many small pieces. It will still be eatable and tasty, anyway, but making it right is my goal :)

I'm too lazy to translate now, so I deliberately publish the text of my mother's recipe here, for those who want to try:



Mehlknödel mit Speck-Rahm-Soße
(2 - 3 Pers. oder evtl. Rest in der Pfanne braten)

3 Eier
150 g Mehl
1 kl. Tasse Milch (oder Wasser; *mit Sprudel werden die Knödel zart)
1 Pr. Salz

zusammen verrühren, der Teig soll nicht zu dünn sein – evtl. etwas Mehl dazu –
dann etwas stehen lassen, damit das Mehl sich bindet.

Ein Topf mit Salzwasser zum Kochen bringen, mit einem Eßlöffel kleine Mengen in das heiße Wasser tun – sieden lassen, bis die Knödel oben schwimmen, dann abschöpfen –
vorher mit nur einem oder zwei Eßlöffel Teig probieren, ob die Masse hält.
wenn die Knödel auseinanderfallen, noch etwas Mehl dazu.


Dörrfleisch in kleine Würfel schneiden und in der Pfanne mit wenig Öl hell ausbraten

Brot in kleine Würfel schneiden und zu dem Dörrfleisch in die Pfanne geben und fertig
braten lassen.
Aus der Pfanne nehmen und darin etwas Sahne, saure Sahne oder Schmand erhitzen,
mit wenig Salz oder Fondor und Muskat würzen und zu den Knödeln servieren.

Dazu paßt: grüner Salat
eingewecktes Obst,
Apfelkompott

The bugroff license

I told about this funny, but maybe actually useful license some people, but somehow forgot where to find it.

It is here: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/5947/bugroff.html

Citing it's text, in case it get's lost one day:

The "No problem Bugroff" license.

Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation devised, in addition to some marvelous software, the GNU General Public License (GPL for short). Or the CopyLeft it is sometimes called.

It is quite a revolutionary document, using the "copyright" tool to to protect your right to use free software.

Unfortunately using copyright to protect free software is a lot like using a Jackal to guard the hens.

In fact, various inconveniences relating to this have resulted in modifications such as the LGPL (Library General Public License) and more recently the NPL (Netscape Public License)

I call these matters mere inconveniences, the real damage will occur when the Jackal's, (sorry, I mean lawyers), actually get to test the GPL in court for the first time.

Thus enter my version.

Its very simple.

Entirely consistent.

Completely unrestrictive.

Easy to apply.

The "No problem Bugroff" license is as follows...

The answer to any and every question relating to the copyright, patents, legal issues of Bugroff licensed software is....

Sure, No problem. Don't worry, be happy. Now bugger off.

All portions of this license are important..

• "Sure, no problem." Gives you complete freedom. I mean it. Utterly complete. A bit of a joke really. You have complete freedom anyway.
• "Don't worry, be happy." Apart from being good advice and a good song, it also says :- No matter what anyone else says or does, you still have complete freedom.
• Now bugger off. The only way to get rid of pushy Jackals is to ignore them and not feed them. The GPL is just begging somebody to take it to court. Can't you just see it. Exactly the same thing that happened when some twit (not Linus) registered Linux as his own personal trademark. People got upset, started a fund, and hired, off all ruddy things, a Jackal to try and defend the chicken! Who really benefits from this trademark / patent / copyright thing anyway? The lawyers. Who made it up in the first place? The lawyers.

OK so the last part of the license sounds a bit harsh, but seriously folks, if you are a :-

• Lawyer asking these legalese questions... You should go off and learn an honest trade that will actually contribute to life instead of draining it.
• Programmer asking these legalese questions... You have amazingly powerful tools in your hands and mind, use them to ask and answer the worthwhile questions of life, the universe and everything. Stop mucking about with such legal nonsense and get back to programming.
• User/reader asking these question... Don't worry. Go off and be happy. Have fun. Enjoy what has been created for you.

Great Holidays!

Did I already mention, how great France is?!
So, no need to mention it - it's just great :)

After some not yet successful, but rather painful attempts to get into surfing (intentionally written without the "wind" - this sort is much easier to get started) in Mimizan, I've been a week in Biarritz - a nice town, if quite expensive, where I tried to continue my efforts in surfing, still without success, but had a nice time there, meeting Thomas, the christian surfer making his living from repairing surfboars in a garage in the rue de madrid in biarritz under the name "feder flex" (obviously no website), but having not so much luck with the room first(totally moulded bathroom in the Hotel Palacito - for 60€/night, with a mini-seat-bathtub is really fucked up!), the food in general(expensive but not really great - bar jean with coal-burnt eggs is to mention here as the worst I got), and the weather(either no waves, or hard rain, or both) - but still a nice experience.

Good things to mention is the nice surfshop tulousurf, the restaurant le passage(wow, what a great composition and taste!), not bad, but still pricey the Hotel "Bellevue" (large room with full bathtub, seeing the sea from the window, o.k. breakfast buffet, for 75 plus 10 breakfast), with very nice personell.

So, on the way to St Raphael, I had to drink a lot of wine and eat Fromage, Foie Gras, Jammonneau, Chorizo, with some rugby fans (Franck has a German mother) going to the match toulon/Paris in Toulon and now I'm here, in the center of cote Provence, hoping to get some dives at Ile d'or which was just recommended to me by my friend Klawitter.

What else to say? I'm really missing Maria, whishing I could've shared that holiday with her, I'm really eager trying surfing again - maybe at Phillippe's place, and I'm quite happy and looking forward for my self-employment which starts next week!

No photos yet, as fucking N95 finally gave up it's live without a reason (first phone that lived so short I ever had)...