JollyBOX blog - english

Is the CD doomed?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:14:00 +0000

Questioning the future of something that is to be found all around us in everyday life needs some explaining. I think there's a good chance that we will, this decade, see a serious drop is CD sales and use. CDs are still common, and they're good at what they do, but they're no longer the best—they've been beaten in every way.

They call us the iPod generation, or, if they don't, they might as well. That's how we relate to music: everyone has some manner of MP3 player, everyone has an internet connection, everyone has a computer, and those tend to have large hard disks: When we listen to music, most of us listen to MP3s, not to CDs, and more and more people are discovering that it's possible to legally download them—on the one hand, there are those that have been pirating music for years, and on the other hand, there are those that used to buy CDs, and then started ripping them. With every iPod owner being an iTunes user and Amazon providing MP3 downloads alongside physical media, it'd be hard not to notice that the way music is being distributed is changing.

CD stands for “compact disc”. True, at 12 centimetres across, it really isn't a large medium, but, to put that into perspective, nowadays, you can store the MP3 equivalent of over a hundred of them on a chip smaller than a dime with normal consumer equipment. CDs aren't even that useful any more: the MP3 player and PC having become the tools of choice when it comes to listening to music, a new CD usually ends up being ripped, possibly passed around to friends, and then shelved with the other dust magnets.

True, CDs offer really high-quality sound that an MP3 can't. But, let's be honest: have you ever noticed the difference between a CD and a good rip or commercial download? I'll give you that your typical Napster file might not be that great, but most of us have no chance of telling compressed audio files from compact discs by listening. The true audiophile might prefer a CD over an MP3, but then, more often that not, we see audiophiles declaring that vinyl sounds better than CDs. I also think it's possible that, soon, some online music stores will be offering CD quality files for those that will satisfy those that once shunned MP3s in favour of shiny round 12cm plates.

Vinyl records have been having quite a renaissance in the last few years, and I think it's fair to say that this is part of essentially the same movement away from CDs—in a way, gramophone record beat CDs and don't so much as glance at the unworthy MP3. There is one thing that digitally distributed music does not have, cannot have: a physical form. We just like being able to touch things. Being able to physically and separately handle, display and admire a record appeals so much more to our collectors' instincts than simply fondling a tiny box that blasts photons at us from minute pixels. I find it adds a whole dimension of value to the music that it just doesn't have when I tell amaroK, winamp or rockbox to open a certain file. One could say a physical record honours the music and the artist a lot more.

In that area, however, it is not the CD that trumps, it is the gramophone record. Vinyl records are larger, there's more to look at, more to touch, not just that flimsy little booklet. You actually see it while the music is playing, and anyone can understand the basics of how it works: a lot more down-to-earth, appealing so much more to our senses, gramophone record are a lot more “real” than those tiny, silly CDs. I think that we are going to see, and seeing right now, a development away from them in two directions: the “mass market”, that gigantic group that runs around with iPod & Co., donning earbuds in the tube and connecting their trusty companion to their home and car stereos, will pay for more and more downloads, while that niche of audiophiles, music enthusiasts and collectors will develop their, or should I say our, preference for “the classic”, vinyl.

A great example of this development is the La Roux single Quicksand: in December of 2008, it was released as a digital download and as a 12 inch vinyl EP, not as a CD. (There has since been a re-release on CD—a year later)

What about you? How do you buy music?

The Right Thing

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:07:41 +0000

I'm a great fan of the British actor, writer, comedian and just generally tweedy person Stephen Fry. I recently came across a quite an interesting interview with Fry at Big Think, a web site I might want to have a closer look at. One part I find particularly worth underlining is the following:

The most important philosophy, I think, is that, even if it isn't true, you must absolutely assume there is no afterlife. You cannot for one second, I think, abrogate the responsibility of believing that this is it. Because if you think you're going to have an eternity in which you can talk to Mozart and Schopenhauer on a cloud and learn stuff and, you know, really get to grips with knowledge and understanding, and say you won't bother now — it's a terrible, terrible mistake. May be that there is an afterlife and that I'll look incredibly stupid, but at least I'm going to have had a crammed pre-afterlife, a crammed life. So, to me, the most important thing is, as Kipling to it, to (…) fill every unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distant run. So, that's all I'm saying, I suppose, it's that there's no point wasting time … being lazy

Thor 1 - 0 England

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:48:00 +0000

Great, great Britain is being hilariously useless at the moment. How can a country suck this bad at winter in a temperate climate? For the record, yes, there it is snowing here, right now, and has been for days. And there's quite a lot of snow. And nobody really cares. And, at 47.9°N, I'm quite a bit further South than the British Isles. More to the point, I came across this splendid e-mail by a German expat in England today. I hope this amuses you. You can find the original at Fefes Blog, below is a quick and dirty translation into English by myself.

[...]
I was at Sainsbury's shopping for a proper Sunday lunch.

It was like there was a war on. We might not be able to stop the country with bombs, but after a little ice and snow they're almost about to re-introduce the old ration stamps. Two gigantic vegetable aisles, empty save one or two cabbages and peppers.
[...]

There's more snow in Berlin than here. But this place is in a state of emergency. Normally, when it snows, everybody just goes South and waits for the snow to melt. (Okay, the North knows how to cope with snow, but nobody lives there anyway)
Thing is, it's not melting.
Snow tyres are a completely alien concept. There are barely any snow plows, side streets are still snowed in. No garbage disposal, no mail.

Trains are being cancelled one after another, and are on an emergency schedule anyway. Complete standstill. And everybody's acting like that was normal and adequate. Absolutely normal that people stop going to work at the slightest sign of snow.

[...]

PS: The best bit is that nobody clears the pavement. Apparently, you can't be sued that way if somebody slips, because that'd be an “Act of God”. If you do something, on the other hand, you're aware of the danger and just didn't do it properly. That means that nobody dares and everybody is happy to have an excuse for doing nothing. That's the kind of absurd nonsense they're happy to accept here.
I do keep my pavement free, I'm way too German not to do it.

And the people applaud me like some kind of hero. All I can say is, damn, if you think that's the way to go, do it as well!
[...]
via fefe.

To be fair, there are forms of humorous art only possible where the infrastructure is not in place to free town squares of snow.

Joyeux Noël!

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:43:00 +0000

Dear readers, people of the world,

Happy Christmas! I hope you are having a wonderful time and are enjoying the celebrations. May everyone enjoy the net few days and enter the next year in good health and splendid spirit.

Oh, and those of you with access to British television, I recommend you tune in to BBC One on Christmas Day at 18.00 UT for Doctor Who. Just saying.

Lots of coffee, no cigarettes

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:24:00 +0000

They want to take away our coffee machine! First they took our predecessors' sofa, and now this. This is outrageous. Waaaaiiiit… maybe I should start at the beginning. Maybe I should start by telling you who “we” are.

The final two years of Gymnasium in the classic, soon to have been replaced, Bavarian school system is the Kollegstufe. That's like sixth form, for all you English readers. “We” are the Kollegstufe at my school, and, some time in the previous semester, we were granted the luxury of being allowed to use a disused classroom for, on paper, studying, after having complained about not fitting into the corridors for years. Since then, we have turned it into quite a pleasant sitting room which has even managed to remain, for me at least, the best place in the building for actually studying, if only because we got hold of the most comfortable chairs far and wide.

In the region, it is traditional to have a gigantic party after the Abitur exams. An expensive party. So, as Kollegstufe, we organize legendary (for-profit) parties and whatever else we can think of that gets us money. Ergo, we have a budget. A budget that one could put to good use, one that could be used to finance a coffee machine. Best idea ever. What we bought is a Senseo-brand coffee pod machine—a system that works well and produces good coffee that costs less than 9 cents Eurocents, that is per cup, assuming you buy your pods from ALDI.

Naturally, there are quite a few students now that use the machine quite a lot, and drink quite a lot of coffee. It's great, we love it, and are probably addicted. There's always a great atmosphere in that room. Not surprisingly, there is a group of “regulars” that seem to always have a cup, or at least pod, of coffee on themselves. Interestingly, this group consists mostly of art students. And myself of course. Students of physics (sleepless geek zombies?), French (goes well with café) and, well, German, are also good candidates for coffee drinking. But—enough of that.

Continue reading "Lots of coffee, no cigarettes"

Creating the perfect keyboard layout

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:22:00 +0000

After having read this post's title, you might have though “ah, he'll be presenting [insert favourite subculture keyboard layout eg neo]! nice!”. If so, you'd be wrong. If, on the other hand, you're thinking “perfect keyboard layout? There's no such thing!”, then I couldn't agree more. Anyway, …

I have been using the standard US keyboard layout for years, almost always without actually using an American keyboard. The main reason I chose it over the German layout is that characters like []{}|/`, used in many programming languages, are placed in a civilized manner, meaning I can type them quickly and without breaking my fingers.

The standard US layout has a certain problem, though: when it comes to typing in languages that don't happen to be English, it fails spectacularly. Since I have to write quite a lot of German and, nowadays, French, on my computer(s), this is quite a drawback.

Umn, I fixed it

It's not that hard to create your own keyboard layout, which I have done. I chose to use a standard US layout as base, leaving every single key binding intact, using level-3, i.e. AltGr, bindings to represent missing characters.

The German umlauts and ligature ÄäÖöÜüßẞ (the last character is the capital ß) I decided to map to the most obvious places imaginable: on the A, O, U and S keys, so AltGr+Shift+U produces Ü.

I created support for most romance languages by adding Çç to the C key (as above), Ññ to the N key, and a number of hidden dead keys: AltGr+' e renders é, AltGr+" e renders ë; the keys for `,~ and ^ act equivalently. The characters Ææ,Œœ,Øø and Åå are on the W,I,Q and Z keys, respectively, ensuring full support for French, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and probably other languages. The Esperanto alphabet is completed by the dead circumflex ˆ and AltGr+y, rendering ŭ. Some other possibly useful characters, beside the quotes „ « » ‹ › “ ”, are ¿ ¡ € £ ‰ Δ π μ § ¦ - —. If you're really interested in the details of the layout, please, try it out!

Yes, you can have it

For X11 (Linux and other Unices): us_tj2.tgz.

For Microsoft Windows: us_tj2c.zip. (older version, missing a number of characters. German, French, and Spanish are supported equally.)

Exploring Skye

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:25:00 +0000

Scotland, or Alba, as increasingly few of its inhabitants call it, is a fascinating country, for political and cultural reasons and, most importantly, because it sports a beautiful, unique, and largely rather sparsely populated countryside. It is also a place I have wanted to visit for some years—I would have gone last year, if I hadn't ended up in the USA. This year, however, I went there. And loved it.

The organization that got me to the Highlands is called Fahrten-Ferne-Abenteuer (FFA), which roughly translates to journeys-distance-adventures, but sounds a lot more elegant. They're in the business of providing teenagers with exciting camps and adventurous trips to other countries, all in the manner of the scouting movement. I wasn't one of these teenagers, I was one of the people leading and coaching them.

After spending a number of days in London, Edinburgh, and our coach, getting to know each other and the equipment (for the most part, that means “tents”), the three groups we had created selected their routes for the hike everyone had been waiting for. Each group was to start off at a different place on the Isle of Skye Friday afternoon, and meet up in Portree Tuesday morning. My group, seven young lads, between 16 and 18 years old, chose the longest and certainly most scenic route, a beautiful trip that many of the younger participants would probably have had great difficulty with.

Continue reading "Exploring Skye"

Nelle montagne svizzere

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:00:00 +0000

A trip planned for over a year which, due to lots of cars breaking down, could only last five days, this holiday in the heart of the southern Alps was thoroughly enjoyable. We, six youngsters, stayed in a cottage, property of one of our families, above the Val Calanca in the canton of Grigioni (Graubünden), in Italian-speaking Switzerland. There were mountains. There was an abundance of blue sky. There were woods. And there were goats.

Continue reading "Nelle montagne svizzere"

What's a geek ?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:20:00 +0000

I am a geek, and this is my week.

I considered entering the Global Geek Week video contest, but, in the end, I came to the conclusion that I'm not that good at vlogging, the prize would probably be relatively useless to anyone living outside the US (like me), and that a nice lengthy blog post would do just as good a job at conveying the thoughts I would have presented in the video.

So, the obvious question is, what is a geek or nerd ? I think it is fair to consider these terms synonymous: some people see differences in the nuance of the terms, and the origins are, obviously, distinct, but nowadays, they mean essentially the same things. Originally, geek is an insult applied by non-geek teenagers to peers who are actually intelligent, know how to read, and get better grades at school. The term is most popularly applied to boys with no social life worth mentioning since these are that tiny bit more alien and scary to the kids that hang around at train stations and smoke all day. Nowadays, the term is most commonly associated with the type that spends all day in front of the computer.

Most of the kids insulted as geeks are actually, or at least potentially, geeks in the way that I'd use the word, which is, I believe, a way that most geeks, at least computer geeks, on the internet would agree to. Geeks are intelligent people that think for themselves and get excited about using their own intellect at the risk of venturing outside the social norm. Geeks are not only intelligent. They actually enjoy it.

As per this definition, quite a lot of people deserve the label “geek.” Let's start with the usual suspects:

Continue reading "What's a geek ?"

Donate blood !

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:23:00 +0000

As you almost certainly know, blood is a very important part of the human body. It transports all kinds of stuff—oxygen, nutrients, waste products, hormones, diseases. All sorts. As you can see, blood is essential. You probably also know that anyone with, say, a chainsaw and a bit of bad luck can lose more than they would like. What you may not be aware of is the fact that the majority of the population actually requires a blood transfusion at least once at some point during their lifetime. And that's a lot of blood.

So, where does all that blood come from ? With all the scientific advances of the last few millennia, we still aren't able to create synthetic blood with a load of chemicals, and I doubt we will be any time soon, since human blood contains a lot of different living cells that would need to be properly grown. It just isn't that easy. So, obviously, all the blood given to those that need it has to be donated by healthy adults. Strong, healthy adults like you and me. That is why donating blood is important. That is why you should donate blood. Your donations could save lives.

The idea of donating blood scares a lot of people. Maybe you just don't like blood. Maybe you heard of some distant relative passing out after donating blood. Maybe, the last time they collected a blood sample for examination, your doctor's assistant failed to hit your vein five times before getting the stuff. Whatever your concerns may be, there really isn't anything to worry about. Almost all blood donations run smoothly. If you're a healthy, grown-up human being, you will almost certainly be able to cope with the blood loss. he amount of blood donated is 500ml; the average adult contains more than five litres of blood, meaning you'd typically lose less than 10% of your blood. Not that big a deal. The important thing to remember is that the people doing it, taking your blood, taking care of you, know what they're doing. The person sticking the needle into your vein will have done that many times before, there will be trained medics all over. You will be taken care of.

When you plan to donate blood, there are, of course, certain thing you need to pay attention to. You need time. Afterwards, you'll have to relax as much as possible. You need water. Make sure you drink a lot beforehand, and afterwards. Depending on how much you usually drink, add a litre or maybe two of non-alcoholic beverages and you'll be fine. Obviously, you should be well healthy, and you shouldn't be hungry either. As for who is allowed to donate, you have to be at least 18 years of age (there is an upper limit as well), and there has to be a certain gap between donations. In Germany, men may donate blood six times per year, women up to a maximum of four times. In the UK, you can donate about three times a year, I believe.

When I went to donate some of my blood not two weeks ago, I went to a local primary school, where the Bavarian Red Cross Blood Donation Service (BRK Blutspendedienst) was set up for the afternoon. In larger cities, there tend to be permanently open blood donation facilities, but I don't exactly live in a large city. So, I went in, showed my ID, and got a long list of yes/no questions to answer. Are you feeling healthy ?, Have you ever contracted Malaria ?, Do you have HIV ?, Are you pregnant ?—that kind of thing. When I had all of them answered, I had a doctor look over all of that, ask me a few questions, and explain what was going to happen, after which I went to the next desk, where the formalities were finalized, and got to lie down next to all the other donors. Everything was very well organized. Quick chat with a friendly medic, got a needle in my arm, waited ten minutes, done. I didn't even have to look at my blood, or anybody's blood, in fact. Half a litre of blood less pumping through my body, I was given a drink, told to stay put for a while, and then go outside, to the barbecue, and relax some more.

That's what you really need your time for. The formalities at the beginning can take up some time, sure, but you really shouldn't skip the relaxation afterwards. You almost certainly will feel a bit weak. I was told not to stand up for long periods of time. I, like most people, coped perfectly fine, but some people don't, maybe because they're having a bad day, or maybe because their organism simply is fragile. It's always best to stay on site for a bit, because, if something were to happen, you'd be helped. Where I was, everybody got a number stuck to their arm with which it would have been possible to easily find the donated blood in case you need it yourself, all of a sudden. Even if there were some problem, that wouldn't be a problem: everybody on site is a trained medic, there are always doctors there.

As I hope you can see, there really isn't anything to worry about. And remember, your donations could save lives. Ideally, you should donate blood as often as possible, make a commitment of increasing others' chances of survival. If you would like to share your experiences, please do. Below is a list of web sites that you might want to visit. If you know of an equivalent in your country, let me know and I'll add it to the list.

Germany

United Kingdom

Death of an Easter Egg

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:46:14 +0000

As you probably know, Michael Jackson passed away recently. This has been a great shock for all of us. Well, a lot of us, anyway.

When you think about it, that is slighly peculiar. The death has slapped even my generation, grown in the 90s, living in the 00s, hard in the face. This is not because we greatly admired the man. This is not because we love the music he made. Even though my generation also knows that he created great music, his days as king are not something we remember or can relate to — he had a much greater value: he had become a kind of constant. His superhuman appearance, like a conservational shell, and constantly in the news in some dodgy way. His days as “King of Pop” long gone, he still remained as a kind of media ghost. And since Harry Potter, we all know that ghosts can't die.

To most of us, Michael Jackson was a kind of odd fact of life in the universe. An ever-resting quirk, an easter egg in the great game of life. That someone like that could die is just overwhelming.

Requiescat in pace

Bach's St. John Passion

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:47:00 +0000

The video shown below contains the beginning of J. S. Bach's St. John Passion, a very baroque piece of music. I am not asking you to watch it all, there's a lot of repetition in it.

This post isn't really about music. It is about certain ideas that can be expressed through music.

To be perfectly honest, this beginning chorus scares me. Of course, the music is meant to be somewhat creepy, what with the restless, quick dancing of the strings and the dissonant woodwind melodies. The music effectively creates a certain mood, but there's much more to it than that. Let's have a look at the text(1):

Herr, unser Herrscher, dessen Ruhm
In allen Landen herrlich ist!

Lord, our ruler, whose glory
is magnificent everywhere!

So basically(2), we are dealing with some kind of disembodied “lord” who is evidently, judging by the way the composer stresses the word „Herr”/“lord”, rather important. In fact, he is being completely and utterly glorified. Obviously, they(3) love him a lot. However, if we just glance back at the mood the music creates, that sinister, dark, mood, we must conclude that something doesn't quite fit. This disembodied “lord” person can't be all that great and lovely. If he were, the music would certainly be cheerful.

Now, I happen to know that this music, or at least the fact that is is so sinister, is all about the death of a certain Jesus (as the name is popularly transliterated from Hebrew to Latin via ancient Greek) of Nazareth (Palestine). Depending on how you interpret this, you could conclude that either they are glorifying death, glorifying and worshipping a dead guy, or glorifying some kind of “lord” that made sure aforementioned Jesus was murdered.

Anyway, what we can see is a great amount of glorification and love of some kind of “lord” that has a profound connexion to death, and I think we can agree that death is, in general, not a very nice thing. Natural, yes, but we do, as a culture, or as a species, have a certain amount of dislike for it. All of that is perfectly okay. A bit strange, maybe, but, in essence, okay. But then they start calling this “lord” a “ruler”. To recap, they love him, they might be a little afraid of him,death connexion and all, they hold him to be fabulously glorious (just listen to that melisma...), and they might do just about anything for him, this lord-ruler.

Of course, “lord” refers to a deity also known as “God”, or, more precisely, one deity that be three deities all at once, actually worshipped all around the planet. This deity is supposed to be all-powerful (no wonder they sound a bit scared), all-loving (no wonder they love him?), and glorious (umn, yeah). Also, even when this deity is around, at least two thirds of him tend to be invisible. All of this story sounds rather unlikely, and in fact, there is (you guessed it), not so much as a scrap of scientific evidence around to support any of it.

Yet, it appears that there are still people who glorify this “lord”, would do anything for him. The fact that he almost certainly doesn't exist doesn't help a whole lot here: there are plenty of people that claim to be his representatives. Or representatives of his representative. (a well-known claimant is Joseph Ratzinger, who styles himself Benedict XIV, which sounds like something a mediæval lord might be called) The thing is, they (or at least a number of them), the people glorifying this fantastic “lord” tend to believe some of the people claiming to represent that same lord-ruler. It would appear they have quite a devoted army behind them. Dangerously devoted. Dangerously devoted to somebody who (almost certainly) doesn't exist.

Does that not scare you ?

[1]	Text and translations may be found at http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV245.htm. The above English is the translation English-3.
[2]	No, I'm not being scientific here. I might be attempting some form of humour.
[3]	I won't attempt to pinpoint who they are, but there is bound to be a relevant they. After all, this piece of music is famous and played often to this day.

I'm going to FOSDEM. Are you ?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:36:34 +0000

FOSDEM, the Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting, is probably the largest and most important community-hosted, community-centric free software event in Europe. FOSDEM 09 will take place on February 7/8 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. I'm going to be there.

If you read this blog, and are attending the conference as well, I'd probably like to meet you. So please, surprise me with a comment, trackback, email, line on IRC or something like that

Meme – Reflecting on 2008

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:15:00 +0000

I got this from Pascal. One of the many personal Q&A you can find all over the internet, though this one actually looks like a nice idea.

Q: What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
A: I left the continent for a holiday in the USA, I've been driving cars (and getting my license), I left the country on my own to go to FOSDEM, had an actual (holiday) job for two weeks, and attended a punk concert.

Q: Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for the next year?
A: I don't remember any new year's resolutions.

Q: Did anyone close to you give birth?
A: No.

Q: Did anyone close to you die?
A: My granny died in 2008, less than a year after her husband.

Q: What countries/states did you visit?
A: In Germany, I travelled in Bavaria, to Rheinland-Pfalz and to NRW. I visited Belgium (Brussels), France (Paris), Austria (Tirol), England (Yorkshire), the USA (NY, PA, DC, MD, VA, MA, and maybe one or two other states)

Continue reading "Meme – Reflecting on 2008"

Why do I use Linux ?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:49:57 +0000

Years ago, I used Linux because it was new and interesting to me, and I had the time and motivation to just play around with it. The fact that I switched distributions all the time was a mark of that.

At some point or points in between, it might have been the freedom.

Now, the reason is: “Why not?”; I've used GNU/Linux for ages, I can almost always make it do what I want to do when I want it – it works. Windows or Mac OS X would probably also work just as well if I was as used to them as I am used to Linux. But I'm not.

Good morning, starshine

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:49:21 +0000

The earth says hello ! You twinkle above us, we twinkle below.

Hundreds of small bangs, firecrackers, agglomerated to a feast. Sound, light, darkness, bang, crack, thrill. Drunken neighbours trying to blow each other up, and looking for a fight. Flashes of light, twinkling up.

Retreat into a house, a long and good meal. Silly games and jokes. Fun.

Return to the night, the moon is slowly disappearing. Last planning before the spectacle.

12 o'clock, BANG ! Half an hour of lights in the sky, fireworks, rejoicing at the new year. Neighbours gathered around to watch, toasts and congratulations all over.

The crowd retreats, we begin to clear up the mess. Disappearing inside, jolly hours together, awake.

It starts to snow.

Happy new year.

Students taking to the streets

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:41:00 +0000

Today, Wednesday November 12 2008, about 100 000 German students skived off too march for better, fairer and cheaper education. And, mind you, it was the young kind of student that goes to school, not university. Yeah, the people you thought were apolitical knife-wielding mobsters.

The 16 German school systems are a mess. The way it is designed, you'll probably never go to university if your parents aren't either rich or academics. In Bavaria (where I'm from), we are required to do 2 lessons of religion (Christianity, that is) a week. There is an alternative course, ethics, which is quite obviously designed not to teach kids stuff, but to legitimize state-supported almost-mandatory theology classes. The flip side is that we only get to do politics in one year, one lesson a year. Best preconditions for the near one-party system we had for decades: keep people stupid, or, if that doesn't work, make sure few understand what the government is/does. What is worse, there is an enormous teacher deficit, and there is way too little money in public schooling. There are many more problems, some of which I put into writing in German.

There were demonstrations in many German cities with thousands of students at nearly every one. They were nearly completely peaceful, though, in Hannover, some idiots stormed the state parliament, and in Berlin, the city with the largest demonstration (predictably), the Humboldt university was temporarily invaded.

Laptop und Lederhosn

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:20:00 +0000

Last Friday, October 31 2008, I turned, on paper, into an adult. The most immediate result was, of course, that I'm apparently a lot more able to drive a car (at least I'm allowed to, alone). I also appear to be a lot more responsible with distilled beverages, and I'm suddenly able to take care of my own money. Banks like paperwork, and they like money, so, of cour"se, I had to give a few autographs to a few banks, as expected. Of course, I've also driven a car parent-less (to a LAN party with some friends), but I haven't as much as seen, let alone bought any strong liquor.

Birthdays are interesting social constructions in themselves, be it 18 or not. Usually, my birthday happens to be in the school holidays, but this year, they're the week after All Saint's Day. That was quite an experience, with most of the 20-student physics class congratulating at the same time, girls being shocked at having forgotten, etc. As usual, some people felt like giving away presents, like this one, from my lovely parents:

The EeePc 901 is a nice little machine. The keyboard may be a lot smaller than usual, but I can still type quite well on it; the size and weight are excellent, the only thing that wasn't that great was the pre-installed xandros operating system, which I have replaced with ubuntu-eee, which still works well but gives me more control.

JollyBOX, the next generation

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:19:15 +0000

The original creation of this blog in April 2008 was the beginning of a JollyBOX.de renaissance. Maybe the key change was the usage of Serendipity, giving up on AFoC. Since then, I have created a new, simple and refreshing reference design with simple, regular logos for sub-sites. Nice.

Since not too long ago, the website has been hosted on an external server, meaning it's faster and more reliable than before. Finally, even JollyBOX code now uses the new design, and is based on PmWiki instead of simple HTML, which is a great help now that it's going to host information on software I write (previously at the now-dead zombieHQ). To celebrate this new splendor, the JollyBOX sites now all carry a bar at the top referencing each other.

Philosophical idealism

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:22:00 +0000

In European philosophy, idealism is the counter-viewpoint to realism, which assumes the existence of a single “real world” that we all exist in, to an equal measure, at the same time. The way we actually perceive the world may, nonetheless, differ; nature and perception are not equal. Modern philosophy is mostly realistic; natural philosophy (a.k.a. physics, science) as we know it is based completely in realism.

Idealism, on the other hand, assumes reality to be formed by ideas, where an idea might be rock, flame, libervisco or death. We are presented with a projection of part of what one might call an “idea pool”. This would pretty much mean that every other person is also an idea, whereas it's thinkable that you yourself are an idea that can both perceive and be perceived, so to speak.

Of course, you can give ideas defining importance while believing in a single, solid universe. Take the sophist Πρωταγόρας (Protagoras), for example:

Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are not.

We have no way of knowing what he meant, but that won't bother me, I'll just make some assumptions, because, in philosophy, I can.

Picture a red beetle. Man or no man, there is really a solid molecular substance containing quite a lot of carbon that, when hit by electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength between about 400 and 700 nm, will absorb quite a lot of waves with a wavelength not between about 625 and 740 nm. Realistic science tells us that that is the case. However, we're talking of a beetle, a red beetle even. We, humans, shape the reality we perceive by giving it character, by giving it spirit. We say something is red, and it's only red because we say so, because we have the idea that it's red.

Imagine a sound. Would there be a sound if no-one was there to hear it ? Of course, the air would still move, but air moves when there's wind as well. What makes it a sound ? Simple: Man does. Without human ideas, reality is nothing.

Oh, and I don't think Πρωταγόρας would really like the various ways in which we interpret what he may or may not have said

Privacy @ JollyBOX

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:38:52 +0000

I would like you to know that

I do not save your IP address in access logs.
All *.jollybox.de web sites are available over an SSL-encrypted connection, including this blog. The server's SSL certificate is currently self-signed. If you tell your web browser to trust it, please tell it to permanently save it to make sure you're always connected to the same potential imposter.

Lisping: IRC bots are fun

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:19:00 +0000

A wee while ago, I decided to learn a lisp. Randomly, my lisp of choice was Common Lisp. (though I will probably have a look at Scheme sooner or later) As if a new programming language wasn't enough, I also started using GNU Emacs (rather than my previous absolute favourite Vim) for editing the code... Why ? SLIME. Implementation-wise, I have used GNU CLISP (love it), Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL, quite nice) and GCL (rather pointless).

Of course, you cannot really learn a programming language without programming with it. Back in the day, I used the BWInf competition to learn the adorable Python language (along with a book), and this time, I solved a part of this years' BWInf round 1 in Common Lisp for starters. But, more importantly, as it was more fun and I can publish the code, I have written a bare-bones IRC bot in lisp using the CL-IRC library (which is very lacking in documentation, but both the IRC protocol and the library source code are open, so that wasn't a great problem).

You can get the code via Mercurial.

There is really only one aspect of the implementation worth noting here: the command-creation macros. Not really spectacular, but rather lispy, I'd say.

Instead of

(defun blah-command (connection source channel text)
  ; make sure the user is logged in
  ; parse the text into useful chunks
  ; more ))) than cool
)
(setf *commands* (cons (list "blah" #'blah-command
                             "blah documentation) *commands* ))

You write

(auth-irc-command admin "blah" (connection source channel) (arg1 arg2 arg3)
  ; get stuff done
)

etc.

Macro definitions are here.

What would copyright designed by artists look like ?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:15:00 +0000

Copyright as we know it originated in the English printing industry of the 16^th century. Since then, British writers have monopoly copy-rights they can sell to printers, who are, as we all know, the only people capable of reproducing books. This applied to printed music, and today, it also applies to recorded music and all other expressions of creativity that can be bound to tangible media. This is a nice, working system as long as printers (record companies) are the only ones capable of reproducing a work, and pay the artist adequately for the multiplication, which they fully control.

It should be obvious to anyone with the technology to access this blog that record companies (and publishing companies...) are no longer the only people capable of copying music (or printed works). Since copyright law and copyright contracts are still stuck in the Cold War era, which is exactly where the record companies want them, this is kind of a problem.

All this is no new argument, and some people are fighting against the situation: Some independent artists are going the way of the GNU, but they are few. Some have founded Pirate Parties, but most of them aren't artists, and they are realistically almost irrelevant. Now, there might be a new player around: On Saturday, October 4, British musicians united to create the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC).

I'm not sure what to think of this. While the Süddeutsche Zeitung jokes about it being a union of super-rich non-working-class pop stars that want more money (like all unions) on the front page of today's paper, I'm sceptical mostly because I don't know what they'll actually do, and what will effectively happen.

Their charter is directed at artist-company deals: they don't want to sell their rights. I fully agree with this; I actually don't think artists should be able the legal construction that is copyright completely: IF there is copyright at all, the originator should always have it. This, along with the demands for transparency, is important, and the most prominent part of the campaign, but I think another part is a lot more important:

Copyright owners to be obliged to follow a ‘use it or lose it’ approach to the copyrights they control. Despite new technology, many copyright owners fail to release recordings to the public. As a result many artists lose out and fans can only access such material illegally. A ‘use it or lose it’ contractual provision should automatically apply so that an artists’ work is always available for legal purchase by the public, digitally and physically.

While the solution they half-propose might not change a lot (we might see some day), the train of thought is an important one (see Lessig, Free Culture, ch. 5 Piracy) Might this get the ball rolling ?

Literature Tip

In his book, Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity, (Penguin, ISBN 0-14-303465-0, also online) Lawrence Lessig presents a brilliant argument about creativity, copyright, media syndicates, and how they do, don't and/or should fit into the Internet Era. While it is a philosophical-political text written by a law professor, the book remains close to reality and it worth a pleasant read for anyone blessed with common sense.

This site has an IP address !

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:53:35 +0000

Until recently, this site was hosted on my home server, which is connected to the internet over an asynchronous DSL connection, without a fixed IP address, that broke off at least every 24 hours. And hosting a web site on a crappy connection is never really good.

Anyway, I now have a VPS, and I can only hope that means everything jollybox will experience a lot less downtime in future. I have already migrated this blog (which was relatively easy, since this Serendipity setup uses SQLite3 instead of some dinosaur of a server) and set up a mail hub, which basically means that all the new spam is stuck in one central location when my home mail server isn't accessible.

Seriously, I can't wait for proper IPv6 deployment, I can't wait until having a few IP addresses of your own becomes natural once more. We already have the software, now the development of a v6 internet must continue at the leaves of the network: if ISPs don't provide IPv6 addresses and routing to customers, why would anyone want to properly hook up their servers to the IPv6 network—it costs at least a little time, after all. I know the Windows Firewall isn't suited for the internet, but we can't cope with less than 2³² addresses forever, especially if we want to give Africa civilized access to the 'net, and, while I don't know if I'll have any influence there at all, I want high-speed lines all the way from Cape Town to Helsinki.

USeless details

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:11:31 +0000

If you spend a while in the USA as a European, you will inevitably notice some differences in culture et cetera. This shall be little more than a silly list of things I, as a German and European, noticed while on vacation in the states.

Continue reading "USeless details"

Stand clear of the closing doors, please !

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:30:00 +0000

Plenty of great, great cities are to be found all over the surface of the sphere of rock we call earth. In every region of this planet man has constructed large settlements, and each and every one of these is unique. Every land, every city, has its very own, very unique character. Every city is different.

Continue reading "Stand clear of the closing doors, please !"

Merging the teen linux communities ?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:33:36 +0000

Since shortly after the emerging of the Teens On Linux internet community, there has been talk of uniting with TeenLUG. The administrator of teensonlinux.org, Tuna, has consistently been against this, and has always killed the idea in a slightly authoritan fashion, but with TeenLUG deciding to merge with Teen Linux Lounge, the subject has re-surfaced.

Tuna would have the subject swept under the table again, but there appear to be some distinct tendencies towards mutiny that are acting as a catalyst: There have been some conflicts on IRC that got me, as channel founder, more involved.

Now, I have called for a referendum on whether to maintain ToL separatism or not; If the democratic answer is "don't merge", proponents of a union can't argue "It's only Tuna who's against it, that old arse of a dictator", if the answer is "merge", the subject might be irrelevant in a few months.

TeensOnLinux users, please vote here.

Bringing synergy to the table

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:06:00 +0000

Once again, my desk is rather clean (a state that doesn't tend to last for long, let's see how long it holds this time), and I have decided to reintroduce a multi-head setup at my workstation. I've done this twice, and always enjoyed the space, and now I've also seen what it's like to have only a 20in wide flat screen sitting in front of you. In addition to that, I made sure there was a place for my laptop, as the recent acquisition of a PCMCIA network card made it desktop-compatible once again.

To spice things up a bit, and, I'll be honest, to spare myself the tedious labour of stretching toward my laptop whenever I want to use it, I've started using one quite magnificent piece of software called Synergy. What Synergy does is, quite simply, allow me to control my laptop with my desktop's keyboard and mouse (over the network). This feels just like having multiple X11 displays: I just move my mouse pointer off the left edge of my big screen and focus is on my laptop. This allows me, for instance, to have an IRC client running on the wee laptop screen without really being distracting

By the way, the video deliberately placed on the right-hand screen in the photograph is one of Julien Doré's extremely arty «Les Limites»-clips. Grep Youtube for it if you will.

Learning to drive

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:30:00 +0000

After a three-and-a-half-hour long wait, I took my driving test today (Wednesday, July 9). My driving wasn't perfect, just bad enough for the examiner to have me fail if he wanted, but my driving instructor managed to negotiate a very unusual outcome: He has my license (on paper, I passed), and I am to take another driving lesson, after which I can have the Lappen if I drive well. So, de facto, I have to wait until sometime next week, and then I'll be allowed on the road.

The following was written before the test, on Sunday, July 6.

Earlier this year, I started driving education at a local driving school and am going to take my practical exam Wednesday next. In principle, you can only get a driving license in the European Union if you're at least 18 years of age (and I don't turn 18 until October 31^st), but Germany, while it isn't the only place with exceptions to that rule, provides a rather interesting option to 17-year-olds: in all states except Baden-Württemberg, you can get a driving license at 17 with the provision that you may only drive with one of a pre-defined list of people in the car to advise you in traffic. For most, me included, that means they can only drive with one of their parents until they're 18. And we're not allowed to drive outside Germany.

While I'm discussing German driver's education, I might also add that there are quite a lot of compulsory theoretical and practical lessons, and we get all the questions that could appear in the theoretical test, with answers, beforehand. There are only a few hundred questions all in all, so failing the theoretical test is quite an embarrassing matter. I did the only decent thing and passed it 100%—I make it about 4 full afternoons of non-stop studying, and I think I actually remember quite a lot.

The practical part I am doing in a black Audi A3 Sportspack 1.9 TDI (pictured to your right), which is quite a magnificent and powerful bit of Bavarian engineering. My driving instructor is the kind that likes to chat about anything that crops up (the radio is a good inspiration here) with his students and really enjoys the getting-around factor of his job, meaning that a double countryside lesson might give you a break next to two farms, an inn and a hardware store. All in all, the lessons are thoroughly enjoyable and might make halfway decent blog matter if you're good at that kind of thing. Speaking of decent blog matter, have you kept on reading this far ? Mental.

Violently hopping back in subject, well, I might be allowed to drive on Wednesday afternoon, albeit not alone. When the idea of semi-license-with-parents-in-the-car was introduced a few years ago, I first thought it to be rather silly—that restriction would surely be aweful—but I have since come to realize how valuable that advice can be, and that this law is bound to encourage teenagers and parents alike to reasonable and valuable practice. As a friend of mine, who finished driver's education about a month ago, put it, Aloa fahrn, des mechat i nóch net, wei' des is ganz guad wenn i frang kó, maam, wos hätt i da jetz anders macha kéna ? (I wouldn't want to drive alone yet, because it's good to be able to ask “Mum, what could/should I have done differently there” (German/Bavarian semi-dialect)) Who knows, maybe the driving age limit will be decreased from 17/18 to 16/17 some day in the next few decades, while I certainly wouldn't have said this a year ago, mightn't that be too young ? After all, while controlling a car, with proper switching of gears and whatnot, might be relatively easy, road traffic, especially in cities, is tricky and dangerous business, and the instincts that a cyclist can rely on are mostly useless in a car.

A video with an improbable plot

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:31:03 +0000

I told you you'd be seeing a video soon

Anyway, I got 64 studio working, though I installed via Debian 4.0 instead of with the DVD because my DVD writer is somehow not fully functional. Cinelerra works fine there and voilà, this is the masterpiece I put together:

YouTube link

Feel free to discuss, preferably over on YouTube.