2011-08-30

Another Prime Minister Of Japan

After the long-awaited stepping down of Kan, a new Prime Minister is about to take over in Japan.

Yoshihiko Noda doesn't have an easy Job. A shaken country, with the biggest nuclear disaster of all times, and even before that, a job no one could take for long in the last years.

Photo from Japan Probe / All rights reserved.
He is the 6th Prime Minister in 5 years. That's what I call an unsafe job. However, many hopes lie on him. The people tortured from the horrible natural disaster and the danger of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, which will go on for many years, want to have help and a good outlook for their future.

Unfortunately, it's very likely that after that magical one year period, he will be under attack from the other parties.
Jesper Koll of JPMorgan in Tokyo said: “Unfortunately, chances are that whoever wins, we’ll be going through the same debate in 12 months”.

I hope that Japan will at least politically come to a rest in this hard times.

Related articles

2011-08-28

Rain Sunset Atmosphere

Rain in the distant at sunset. It was a strange feeling. The whole air seem to burn in a yellow tone, while the distant mountains seem to hold onto the sun.




Date
Jul 17, 2011 2:05:58 PM
Width
2560
Height
1920
File Size
966993
Camera
google
Model
Nexus S

2011-08-26

Is Sim City Social The Next Big Thing On Facebook?

While the competition is starting it's own gaming platform, Facebook clearly has some games ahead.
One is the new "The Sims Social". And it looks like it could be big.


The combination of a classic Sims game and getting social points and, of course, Sims Cash, is intriguing. It sure has the flair of CityVille but much, much more. That's the flair of "The Sims". And this makes fun, if you like such kind of games. It feels like a real Sims title, with all the elements. Having infinite expansions for the future is tempting. But it all comes to spend money at some point. That never was a problem for titles like CityVille. Can "The Sims Social" be the next big game and get the #1 spot?

2011-08-25

I'm not praising Steve Jobs. Resigns Too Late


Photo from Memebase.com.
All rights reserved
You knew that day would come, it's here now. Steve Jobs has resigned. And why I'm sure the press, companies and the devotees will now praise him, or burst into tears, I'm not.

I know Apple from the first time, Jobs where at Apple. Then he got fired, and everyone, including me, were sad and furious about it. Apple then had hard times, and nearly vanished from the market at some point. Jobs' comeback was big and he led Apple to new heights. He led. Right. Rigorous, regardless of consequences and give a crap about the ties of the company. He created, stronger then before, a cult, a church-like community that even denies obvious flaws or any error. Under his vicious command, blogger were sued, suppliers humiliated in public and the competition defamed.

It was about time, that he leaves Apple. But what is left from the old Apple, the good Apple. The one we once had as an island of colors, far away from the evil money-suckers, Apple once called their enemy? After transforming into the new "IBM", what is left that can make Apple once again be a friendly company, instead of patent-trolling and suing others, while having zero innovation beyond the court? Isn't it too late?

I fear that the resigning of Jobs doesn't change much in the next years. Too much of evil doings have already occurred. You can't jump from that scale of villain to be a good company again. This will take time. But danger lies ahead of Apple. The Stock market isn't amused of Steve Jobs leaving Apple. And why should they? Where only money counts, it's a bad thing that he left. And that's why the Jobs' centric view of devotees and some pathetic companies, are now shattered. Now without "Steve's Reality Distortion Field" and looking like an evil, suing and patent-trolling machine, it will get tough. It's most important business is under heavy fire from Android. More and more business practices of Apple are attacked by governments all over the world, and the bad PR draws more and more people away. Still, Apple makes one sales record after another, but for how long?

After all bad things I said about Steve Jobs, one good has to be said. He was a brilliant money maker. He knew how to squeezes the last cent out of customers bags and even made them feel good about it. He made people talk about freedom, while putting themselves in the Apple-Cage and felt protected. That's what I call a good business man. But I hope he remembers another time. A time when he and Apple doesn't wanted to rule the world with an iron fist, but to make some people happy, and giving them the feeling, not spending their hard earned money on an evil company.

End Of Nations Will Be Free To Play

Good news (?) for fans of "End Of Nations" from Trion. It will be a free-to-play game. That's what an email from teh company said, that I received today.

At the Gamescom 2011, Trion already said that paying players will not be advanced to those who don't pay for stuff. That's a promise, but can't it be kept? I hope it doesn't end of being a Runes Of Magic, where who have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to compete in the game.

Trion showed off End Of Nation and Rift (which is not a F2P game as of now *hopes up*) for the 2nd time on the Gamescom 2011. I'm excited about EOF from the very first moment I saw it. To have this game free to play, is tempting, and I hope it will end up doing well. It really deserves it.
Trion is one of my favorite companies at this time. The developers are eager to listen to the community, but keep their work on a high level. They doing a lot of communications with the fans. And that goes beyond free T-Shirts and hats...

Watch the free-to-play video and you get a glimpse of the quality of the game.

2011-08-24

How To Save Money By Half the Laundry Detergent

What do I write this here? Well, I'm all for saving money and go easy on the environment. You can do both by doing like an article on Lifehacker suggests.

Just use half of the recommended amount of detergent on your washing machine. This will keep your expenses low and stills cleans you laundry well. It's common for many companies to say you need more detergent than you really are. The trick is, the faster your bottle is empty, the more often you need to buy new stuff. Just try it, it works.

Besides that what the article is saying, try also to use from 1/4 to 1/2 less fabric softener. If you have a good one, you can easily half the amount of that, too. The laundry still smells great and is soft enough. And again, it not only saves you money, but protects the environment greatly.

Just try it, you might not regret it.

[via Lifehacker: Save Money by Using Just Half the Laundry Detergent Recommended]

FSF Asks To Join A Petition - "This American Life" in Ogg Vorbis

Vorbis LogoImage via WikipediaI just want to give you the note that the FSF is calling for signing a petition to make "This American Life" available in the patent-free and superior audio format Ogg Vorbis. I think that would be a good idea.

Join the petition asking for This American Life in Ogg Vorbis and help us reach 5,000 signatures!:
"Ogg supporters sent great emails to This American Life thanking them for their show detailing the problems with software patents and
asking them to be part of the solution by using Ogg Vorbis instead of patent-encumbered MP3. [...]
Make your voice heard by signing the petition today! We're
working to get 5,000 signatures by September 7, when we'll deliver the
first batch, so sign now and make sure you're part of it. It's really
easy—we're only asking your name, email address, and a couple of
questions about how much you love This American Life and local
public radio. After that, you'll get a verification email; click the
link in it, and you're done!"

Minecraft Pokémon Mod [Video]

You wont believe it. A Minecraft Pokemon mod. Nice. And it looks really good, actually. Here is the Video on YouTube. I think if you're a Manga lover, here is the final reason to start playing Minecraft :)

2011-08-23

The Guardian Points Out How Dangerous European's Unitary Patent May Be

Richard Stallman was on form this morning with...Image via WikipediaRichard Stallman writes some words about that at the Guardian UK, and sees that this might be a dangerous thread to every developer. Imagine Ideas of something you cook are patented, and no one else have to right to cook the same thing, even without "your" recipe.
That's exactly what the Eu is doing here with software. I don't know who to blame. Judges, that don't know what they are doing? Shameless lobbyists of big software companies, that simply wants to squeeze out more money? Ourselves, for just sitting around watching while our freedom goes to hell? I don't know...
Beware: Europe's 'unitary patent' could mean unlimited software patents | Technology | guardian.co.uk: "Software patents are dangerous to software developers because they impose monopolies on software ideas. It is not feasible or safe to develop non-trivial software if you must thread a maze of patents. (See Patent absurdity, Guardian, 20 June 2005.)"
Check FSF.org if you like, for more about those miseries.

Potentially Important Victories for Google Against Oracle

Civil Procedure RulesImage by septuagesima via FlickrNice. Good to see that Google gains more and more ground against Oracle. Some FOSS trolls might now squeal in agony :)

Groklaw - Oracle v. Google - Some Potentially Important Victories for Google: "In a flurry of filing activity in the Oracle v. Google case this past week, a couple of rulings by the court stand out. First, Google has won the right 325 [PDF] to file a motion for summary judgment on the Oracle affirmative defense of "assignor estoppel." Second, Google has won the right 328 [PDF] to file a motion for summary judgment on the issue of infringement outside the U.S. under 35 U.S.C. § 271(f). This last one is really important for reasons we will explain."

2011-08-22

Gamescom 2011 Impressions

Again, the biggest gaming event on earth called me, and I watched some interesting things on that gaming fair.


This time I has reinforcements with me :). Laguna.sam were with me. Luckily we decided to go on Friday, which turned out to be a good decision, because on Saturday the Gamescom was closed down for new visitors. With the reaching of 62,000 visitors at once in the boundaries, the maximum was reached.

But we had plenty of room. Well, at last in the PC and Nintendo hall. The hall with Sony was full. That was the forst thing I recognized. It wasn't Sony alone of course. Many console title publishers were inside, too. But it was clearly more populated. In the PC hall, the ESL area was the most crowded place there. The Nintendo & XBOX360-Hall lacked some magnets. Nintendo alone don't seem to be able to fill that hall alone. The other projects in there, except Sega, wasn't much appealing. So this was clearly to most deserted one. PC or console? This time it was clear. Win for the consoles, but PC remains strong. The most interesting stuff was shown there.



The stuff was somewhat disappointing. The 23412-part of game XYZ. *YAWN*
This is not what I want to see. It's boring. I want to see new stuff. Only few of that was to be seen. One spark of light was "Star Trek - Infinite Space" from Gameforge. It's a browser-game, but you wouldn't believe that, if you see it. It's not feeling like the usual stuff. And laguna.sam got abducted by Klingons after a photo shooting with them :).



All in all, it was fun. Much fun. But I missed something big and new. The new Wii was not in Cologne, no big, special announcements, everything looked like, business as usual. Cologne might be the biggest gaming fair, but as long as publishers don't come out with great new stuff, it's just a show without teeth. That's not the fault of the Gamescom, which had another new record in 2011. Congratulations. I'll be there next year, almost certainly.


2011-08-18

Celebrate The Biggest Google Deal With A Round Of Ping-Pong

Yeah, that's the spirit. What does Andy Rubin, Larry Page, Sanjay Jha do after the deal that shook the mobile world? Having a nice game of Ping-Pong :).

Photo by Andy Rubin on Google+ / All rights reserved.
The remark that the "blur" is Sanjay Jha is awesome :) You know, that kind of sympathy, I don't feel it anywhere else. If only these guys are having my data, I feel so safe! I mean it.
I would give them my money to keep it, more than any politician or any bank.
And sorry, I couldn't find the name of the 4th person on the photo.

[via Google+ Post From Andy Rubin]

2011-08-16

What The Google Motorola Deal Really Means

Larry PageImage by niallkennedy via FlickrGuess what? The first "business news" paper wrote not so good about that deal. Ah, really? Maybe they didn't get what this means.

The so-called experts are now wondering how hardware manufacturers feel about it. They all said, that they welcome Google's effort to protect Android and their businesses. But the analysts try to find something bad, and ask what they really feel. Basically they say, the other companies are lying and don't want that deal. Crap. Did the "experts" get paid from Apple to say such crap?

Here is what this deal is about. It's about the patents, you know. Now Google has enough weapons to defend themselves and every company that uses Android, from patent-trolls. That was badly needed. the patent-package is huge. The Nortel-package looks like a tiny piece of the big cake now. More than 17,000 patents are held by Motorola.
The newly acquired business will stay interdependently, according to the official post from Larry Page, CEO of Google. Of course, Google is going a new way. But it's a logical way, and the risks are limited. Even if they would have to shut down the hardware section, they still would have the patents and a lot of knowledge from it. It's a win, even if the Motorola Mobility "section" will fail in the future.

And it shows clearly that Google did not really made a serious bidding at the Nortel patent auction. They knew, they had something better, and pushed the price up, like many said from the beginning. You don't bid "PI" if you are serious. It's an defensive attack against Apple and Microsoft. And Microsoft could now been forced to buy a hardware manufacturer on their own, with much more risks than Google have.

Looks like Apple and Microsoft wanted to play games, now Google joined all-in. They wanted it, now they've got it!

2011-08-12

Google+ Can Haz Games!

Love it hate it, but Google+ started the games sections. That's good news for all who are interested in a widespread usage of Google social network service.

Picture from Official Google Blog. All rights reserved.

Vic Gundotra writes in the official Google blog:
Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life.
Good. And now get rid of this ridiculous real-name policy. It's not Google-like and it's not good Karma to be more restrictive on forcing real names on people than Facebook. And for the users, there is never a proof that the name is correct. Bring up verified account, so anyone can decide if it's important to having someone with their real name playing nice, or someone with a pseudonym saying the truth.

But now, let's play a round. Watch out, you should get an icon on G+ soon. And YES, I will sent updates from my games to my stream. My friends play together. That's social, you know.

[via Official Google Blog]

2011-08-11

Facebook's Messaging System Is Really Messed Up

People that are online, doesn't always show up, messages are lost, notifications doesn't come in for everyone and are unreliable.

This happens quite often since the new messaging system was established, followed by the new chat bar, that makes it apparently worse. I'm very frustrated. People want a response, but messages don't show up at all time. Suddenly I get a message from someone in the chat window, but Facebook indicates no one is online. Keep an eye on that. What is shown left is not true. And yes, the side chatbar is off. Inside the bar, it's the same problem. This has been going on for many weeks now. I also got no response from the Facebook-Team.

If Facebook goes on like this, it's completely unusable for important messages. And all my messages from friends are very important. Even more important than some business stuff. It's about my friends, you know...

2011-08-10

Geocaching Combines Outdoor And Indoor Activity

Today I made a lot of things related to Geocaching on the computer. Like always, log vists, dipping Trackables, and also logging my human Geokret and more.

That all is only a small part. Earlier this day I went out again, like so many times, to make a Multi-Cache and a Traditional in an area. It's certainly great if you have an Android phone. There are amazing apps for the stash hunt and it always comes handy to surf the web and find information if you choke on finding a cache. I found those today, and again saw some nicely made stages, parts of a Multi.

And then there are the very special things. I've been given a Geocoin as a present from laguna.sam yesterday. It's so nice and it's from the Wales Mega-Event 2011. Thanks a lot for this.


So you see there are a lot of nice things, you can experience with Geocaching. That's what I call adventures in the 21st Century.

2011-08-08

Banning Anonymity An Injustice

AnonymityImage via Wikipedia
Another political note from Richard M. Stallman:

Banning Anonymity An Injustice: " Why banning anonymity on the Internet would be a big injustice.
'Real name' policies endanger those who are unprivileged or vulnerable. Many of them use pseudonyms on Facebook, too, but Facebook does not know. "

2011-08-07

Patent Laws Are Killing The Economy

Patents Granted 1790-2008 (divided into utilit...Image via Wikipedia
I found a good article about the senseless patent wars. Patent laws need to be changed asap. It's ridiculous and dangerous for the invention of technologies and for technical evolution. This especially applies to software patents.
I watch these patent wars very carefully, and I refuse to support or buy anything that comes from a company which fight to aggressively with "their" patents. 

If you want to see more jobs created – change patent laws « blog maverick: "Sometimes it’s not the obvious things that create the biggest problems. In this case one of the hidden job killers in our economy today is the explosion of patent litigation."

2011-08-05

The Future Of Mac & PC

Welcome to ChromeOS...

Mac/PC: "It's fun to watch browsers fumblingly recapitulate the history of window management. Someday we'll have xmonad as a Firefox extension."

[via XKCD]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Google Responds To Microsoft Tweets In An Update

Android Experience 2010Image via Wikipedia
Like I speculated, the conditions and consequences of a joining for the bid were not acceptable. Google explains in the updated blog-post why.

Interesting is, that it might look like the 4 Billion patent buyout could not be very successful for the bidders:
Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Justice intervened, forcing Microsoft to sell the patents it bought and demanding that the winning group (Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, EMC) give a license to the open-source community, changes the DoJ said were “necessary to protect competition and innovation in the open source software community.” This only reaffirms our point: Our competitors are waging a patent war on Android and working together to keep us from getting patents that would help balance the scales.
Now you know why Google bid PI :) I said from the beginning, Google never wanted to spent this much money for patents that can't be enforced easily. And such a big group of companies may not use this power without getting problems from official side. Good. Now have Luck with your patents, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and EMC. We know you.

In the end, Google made everything right. So not spent money for things you can't get much use out of it, don't join the devil and keep on support open software and hardware standards.

[via Official Google Blog]

Is The Copyright Money Madness Coming To An End?

Administrative units of the United KingdomImage via Wikipedia
Who would have thought that? The British government said copyright has gone too far and will establish more exceptions. Ars Technica wrote an article and wondering about the tone of the speech.

Oh wouldn't that be great? Having a world again where fair-use means it? Where private people could benefit from information without fear of the big , bloodsucking companies?
We wish.... Maybe the shining knight comes from the United Kingdom. Or will the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse intervene and making all people "pirates" ?

Let's see. But it's good to see that not all politician have completely lost their mind/soul.

[via Ars Technica]

Madness: Now Companies Sue Themselves - Zynga vs. Vostu vs. Google

F-18 Heads Up Display (HUD) with gun symbology...Image via Wikipedia
What a strange scenario. Everyone sues everyone. No wonder in this Hippocratic industry called tech-business. But now it's getting grotesque. Zynga sues Vostu in Brazil for copyright infringements. They host their games on Orkut, a big player in Brazil which is run be Google. And Google is also a shareholder of Zynga.

Oh my goodness. So this is the way tech works today? Targeting their own shareholders? Looks like the only winning team are the lawyers. Nice job everyone. Now you know why China will rule us very, very soon. And Zynga, because who can resist playing CityVille. Hurry up, make an Android app, before someone other makes a game like that on Android. Opps... it already happened :)

[via Huffington Post]
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2011-08-04

Google To Fire Back... Finally.

Google speaks clear words. And that's good. They tell us, what we all know.
But Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.
Of course Microsoft's recation is also impressive. On Twitter, Brad Smith, Microsoft General Counsel, tweeted:
Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.
Well, our Anti-Googler MG Siegler on Techcrunch, made up an article about... well about the reaction of Microsoft. Saying Google is making fools out of themselves. But not that I think about any kind of neutral journalism from MG Siegler when it comes to Google, he may have ask Brad Smith what the conditions were, for a joined bid.

Handing over the rights for Android to a consortium? Paying money for patent-licenses within the group? So, let's play the Anti-Siegler here: I'm sure the conditions for a joined bis were unacceptable. I can not figure out, why a joint venture with every main competitor would make sense. Therefore I'll guess, the rules for the join of Google wasn't very tempting for them. Despite that I see no way, how it could stand against the Federal Trading Commission if all the big players are planing world domination together. Okay, it's the USA, so we might forget about that not being possible.

For me it's clear. Those typical patent-trolls made bids to put Google, and especially Android, under pressure.  Google itself bought 1030 patents from IBM that could influence the attackers desktop PC market. I think it's time for Google to step into the fight with all their power to end this charade of crying companies that lost all their innovation. You want Android to disappear? Then make something better or die. That was once wht America made big. Not the ridiculous court wars over patents. This is something kids do in their sandbox. Destroying others sandcastles if they are better than the own one. And I would give that child a clear advice.

[Via Official Google Blog: When patents attack Android]

Zuckerberg's Sister Left Facebook

MUNICH, GERMANY - JANUARY 24:  Randi Zuckerber...Image by Getty Images via @daylife . All rights reserved.
Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Mark Zuckerberg, left Facebook today.

Big deal, big deal... Well, but she was kind of the 2nd face for Facebook, and made some politic talks and represented Facebook for a part of the politician world.
It's confirmed by her verified Twitter-account, with a tweet of herself.

So, no more Randi there, but there are stil 749.999.999 million people left. And probably, if you read the end of this article, we might have a few thousands more. Or not, if they all move to Google+ now :)

2011-08-01

12 Trolls Doesn't Make A Party - Come And Lose Your Patents

Interesting. The call from the MPEG-LA to all companies holding possible patents against Google's free and open WebM video standard, have been heard. 12 mateys entering the boat and might sink with it. Of course, the names will kept from public. Well unless they step into the ring officially. The FSF already called out for a boycott of the MPEG LA supporters.

The latest patent lawsuit from Oracle shows how fast you can lose the same patents you're claiming against someone. Over 40 patents are marked as invalid. That means, all the other, smaller companies, can now use them without fear. Before that they had to pay, if they wanted to get away without a big lawsuit.
So I'll guess that's exactly what Google is saying. Bring them on, and lose them. I have no doubt that this will be a tough fight with some losses on both sites. But in the end, I hope for freedom and justice, that there must be a way left to have an open video standard, and not a big monopoly with questionable behavior.

Check the full article of the Streaming Media Magazine to learn more.

WebM Patent Fight Ahead for Google? - Streaming Media Magazine: "In February, MPEG LA announced a call for patents essential to the VP8 video codec specification as outlined in Google’s WebM release. The press release announcing the call asked for submissions by March 18, so I thought I would check in with a spokesperson at MPEG-LA to see if there was any activity.

I learned that there had been plenty. Twelve parties have stepped forward with patents that they believe are essential to the VP8 standard, on which Google's WebM is based, though no patent pool has been formed yet and MPEG LA is not releasing the patentholders' names at this time."