JollyBOX blog

Is the CD doomed?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2010-01-20T11:14:00Z

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) — 2010-01-11T20:07:41Z

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) — 2010-01-11T15:48:00Z

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) — 2009-12-24T12:43:00Z

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.

Dänemark war doch mal ganz sympatisch

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2009-12-17T20:51:00Z

Kopenhagen ist ja im Moment der Gipfel der Weltpolitik. Ob das letztendlich was bringt, sei für den Moment dahingestellt. Wie auch immer das ausgehen mag*, wie auch immer man dazu stehen mag, gewisse Prinzipien sind und bleiben eben das: Prinzipien, unverrückbare Prinzipien. Jetzt möchte ich die öffentlich-rechtlichen deutschen Rundfunkanstalten zitieren:

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
wir möchten hiermit gegen die massive Beschränkung der freien Berichterstattung auf dem UN-Klimagipfel in Kopenhagen protestieren. Seit heute dürfen sich Journalisten im Konferenzzentrum nicht mehr frei bewegen. Drehs außerhalb des Pressezentrums sind nur noch möglich, wenn ein Delegationsmitglied das Kamerateam und den Reporter an der Sicherheitsschleuse abholt und das Team dann von einem UN-Verantwortlichen begleitet wird. Spontane Drehs sind unmöglich. Selbst die UN-Medienkoordination wurde offenbar von diesen Maßnahmen überrascht, da die Verschärfung nicht angekündigt war. Diese Maßnahmen verstoßen gegen die Presse- und Rundfunkfreiheit und behindern die Arbeit der Medien in höchstem Maße. Wir sehen das Recht der freien Berichterstattung massiv eingeschränkt. Daher fordern wir die sofortige Aufhebung dieser Einschränkung für alle Journalistinnen und Journalisten auf dem UN-Klimagipfel in Kopenhagen.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Nikolaus Brender Thomas Baumann
Chefredakteur ZDF Chefredakteur ARD
Quelle: heute.de (ZDF)

War es nicht schön, damals, als man oben in Dänemark von einer doch recht freien Presse ausgehen konnte? Erinnern Sie sich an die Muhammad-Karikaturen?

Nur die Presse einzuschränken, wäre natürlich auch langweilig. Deswegen hat man sich in København offensichtlich mal zusammengesetzt und beschlossen, harmlose, weitgehend friedliche Demonstranten zusammenzuschlagen, und sich überlegt, dass es bei hunderttausenden von Protestierenden niemandem auffällt, wenn man mal schnell 1.000 Leute in einer Seitenstraße einsperrt und foltert.

Vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit.

* PS: Fail.

Nein, nicht den Zivildienst!

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2009-11-04T17:56:00Z

Lächerlich ist das. Anders kann man es nicht sagen. Kaum wird ernsthaft darüber geredet, den Wehrdienst einzuschränken—die Oppositionsparteien wollen ihn ja schon seit Jahren los werden—schon beginnt der große Aufschrei. Der Anfang vom Ende des Zivildienstes sei gekommen, und die Gesellschaft werde zugrunde gehen. Oder so ähnlich.

Ich kann die Leute, die sich darüber aufregen, dass der Dienst auf sechs läppische Monate verkürzt wird, weil in so einem Zeitrahmen nichts vernünftiges mit den Zivildienstleistenden anzufangen sei, vollkommen verstehen. Sie haben ja recht. Ich denke auch, dass die Bundeswehr mit Sechsmonatsrekruten wenig, oder zumindest wenig vernünftiges, anfangen können wird. In dem aktuellen Zeitraum von neun Monaten kommt natürlich auch selten etwas sinnvolles bei raus, die Verkürzung macht es aber auch nicht besser. So oder so ist dieses System militaristisch, sexistisch und, Stichwort Wehrgerechtigkeit, überhaupt ziemlich ungerecht. Man sollte diesen Unfug einfach abschaffen.

Die FDP wollte das ja. Das haben die so gesagt, das stand so im Wahlprogramm. Das ist gar nicht so lange her. Unter versammelter Union haben unsere gelben Freunde dann aber, natürlich, nachgegeben, und jetzt haben wir den Salat. Das Zivildienst hat seinen Sinn offensichtlich verloren. Hätte man den Wehrdienst 1990 in seiner frisch gefundenen Sinnlosigkeit abgeschafft, hätten wir dem Zivildienst noch ordentlich nachtrauern können, jetzt wird er, wenn man dem Paritätischen Wohlfahrtsverband und Konsorten glauben kann, jämmerlich abkratzen.

Nehmen wir einmal an, dass wir, als Gesellschaft, tatsächlich einen Zivildienst brauchen, um unsere sozialen Einrichtungen unterhalten zu können. Wenn das so ist, und diese Frage sollte man sich ernsthaft zu stellen trauen, so sollte man ihn natürlich ausweiten. Mehr Zivildienst! Aber—wozu braucht man dabei den Wehrdienst? Eine Lösung des Dilemmas liegt auf den Hand: Den Wehrdienst nicht einfach abschaffen, sondern ihn ersetzen. Und zwar durch einen allgemeinen Zivil- oder Sozialdienst einer angemessenen Länge. Wenn das Militär nicht mehr mitspielt, sind auch wir Pazifisten glücklich. Wenn auch Frauen betroffen sind, ist der größte Formfehler der hiesigen Gleichberechtigung endlich fort. Wenn der Dienst 9 oder 10 Monate dauert, dann dürften die Wohlfahrtsorganisationen mit der Dauer glücklich sein, und dann können auch FSJ, FÖJ und ADiA als „höhere”, größeres Engagement verlangende Spielformen derselben Sache erhalten bleiben. Gibt es Argumente dagegen, mal abgesehen vom üblichen „Ohne Wehrdienst fällt Deutschland an die Kommunisten!”? Nein. Naja, ich kenne Eines: Im Rahmen eines solchen Pflichtdienstes fehle es an Motivation und an Engagement. Ha! Bringen Zivis das denn in einem größeren Maß mit? Ehrlich? Die können doch genauso wenig anders, die müssen das doch auch machen. Ein Zivildienst ist nun mal, egal wie man ihn dreht oder wendet, kein Freiwilligendienst.

Jürgen Rieger ist tot

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2009-10-28T23:47:00Z

Sich über den Tod eines Menschen freuen ist eine fürchterliche Sache. „Freuen” ist auch kein Verb, das meine Reaktion auf die Neuigkeit beschreibt. Man kann jedoch sagen, dass ich erleichtert bin. Eine Erleichterung, die, in Fällen die dem Riegers, weniger mit dem biologischen Tod als mit dem unausweichlichen politischen Tod zusammenhängt. Jürgen Rieger spielt keine Rolle mehr, er ist passé. [1]

Bitte wer?

Rieger war Rechtsanwalt und Nazi. Ein gekonnter Verteidiger sowie ein einflussreiches und wohlhabendes Mitglied der neonazistischen rechtsradikalen Partei NPD, der wohl zur Zeit einflussreichsten Gruppierung am äußeren rechten Rand des politischen Spektrums in Deutschland. Geld, Jura, und Faschismus—eine explosive, aber auch, und vor allem, absolut widerliche Kombination.

Fangen wir mit dem wohl Offensichtlichsten an: Jürgen Rieger war Rassist, das versteht sich in seiner Partei ja wohl von selbst. Er war natürlich nicht vollkommen blöde und wusste in seinem gutbürgerlichen Stande, das zu kaschieren. Rieger verstand, wie alle einflussreichen europäischen Faschistenführer, allen voran Nick Griffin [2], dass manche Themen im Angesicht der breiten Öffentlichkeit besser nicht so genau beleuchtet sein sollten, wenn es darum geht, Wähler zu gewinnen. Sonnenklar wird das Bild hingegen, wenn so einer vor laufender Kamera von einer schwarzen Reporterin konfrontiert wird[3].

Neben der wohl unbestreitbaren und unbestreitbar widerlichen Tatsache, dass Rieger ein Faschist erster Güte mit allem drum und dran war, muss betont werden, dass er auch ein absolut scheußlicher und genialer Betrüger war, der er auch noch schaffte, dabei Schlagzeilen zu machen.

Rieger mochte Immobilien.

Manchmal kaufte er sie. Er hatte ja das Geld. Diese Häuser überlies er dann gerne der verarmten Partei, die etwas Raum gut brauchen konnte. Das, kombiniert mit den vielen Spenden seinerseits an die NPD, dürften nach seinem Tod interessant werden—können die Nazis ohne Riegers Vermögen auskommen? (Mehr dazu in der taz[1]) Interessanter sind allerdings die Fälle, in denen er nur so tat, als wollte er ein Gebäude kaufen. Das passierte immer wieder, und lief ungefähr so ab:

Die Presse erfährt: „Jürgen Rieger will [altes Gebäude] für [überhöhter Preis] kaufen und ein NPD-Schulungszentrum daraus machen.” Die örtliche Bevölkerung hört davon, ist empört, und geht auf die Straße. Die Gemeinde ist dadurch so enorm unter Druck, dass sie die Immobilie selbst für eine Unsumme erwerben, um die NPD fernzuhalten. Resultat: Vorbesitzer ist glücklich, da Geld statt Bruchbude. NPD und Rieger sind glücklich, da Beachtung durch die Medien und Anteil am Verkaufspreis für das „Marketing”. [4]

Das alles könnte nun vorbei sein.

[1]	Quelle: taz, Süddeutsche Zeitung
[2]	Führer der britisch-nationalistischen BNP, vgl. BBC-Portrait
[3]	Interview: Mo Asumang — Jürgen Rieger
[4]	siehe Bericht auf YouTube

Lots of coffee, no cigarettes

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2009-10-22T21:24:00Z

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) — 2009-10-15T22:22:00Z

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) — 2009-09-21T19:25:00Z

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) — 2009-08-22T10:00:00Z

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"

Wie das Flugzeug ins Wohngebiet kam

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2009-08-09T10:25:00Z

Dieser Kerl ist ein sehr guter Freund von mir. Er ist es, dem ihr dieses kurze, deutschsprachige Intermezzo aus dem Real-Life auf diesem meinem Blog verdankt.

Das ist Benny. Benjamin Bachmaier ist Segelflieger in Königsdorf und ist gerade auf dem Weg nach Ansbach. Ich bin heute, für einen Feriensonntag, außergewöhnlich früh aufgestanden, um ihm beim Flugzeug packen, beim Startschuss zu helfen.

Continue reading "Wie das Flugzeug ins Wohngebiet kam"

What's a geek ?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2009-08-06T16:20:00Z

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) — 2009-08-02T14:23:00Z

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) — 2009-06-26T23:46:14Z

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

Religiöse Verfolgung

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2009-04-05T20:43:00Z

Es ist eine gute, alte, europäische und auch vor allem deutsche Tradition, Heiden und anderen „Falschgläubigen” das Leben zu erschweren. Römische Missionare legten wohl den Grundstein für dieses System, das bald in den Hintergrund rückte: alle waren römisch-katholische Christen. Außer natürlich die paar Juden, die über das Land verteilt waren — kein großes Problem, wobei natürlich die Tatsache, dass sie nicht nur Jesus umgebracht hatten, sondern auch komische Hüte und Bärte trogen, war sicherlich nicht besonders hilfreich, wenn es um soziale, interreligiöse Beziehungen ging.

Nein, das mit der Ketzerei artete erst ein paar Jahrhunderte später wieder aus, nämlich als ein kleiner unbedeutender Mönch etwas gegen die Kirche sagte. Voilà, 30 Jahre Krieg, ziemlich blutig, und gefolgt von einem „Religionsfrieden”, der im Grunde nichts anderes war als eine im ganzen Reich geltende Erlaubnis für die Herrschenden, im eigenen Land Kirchen, die einem nicht passten, auszulöschen.

Heute hat sich das in Deutschland natürlich weitgehend geregelt. Protestanten und Katholiken haben sich darauf verständigt, zueinander freundlich zu sein, und alles Nichtchristliche soweit wir möglich zu unterdrücken. Das wird durch Ansätze demokratischer Bestrebungen erschwert, aber das Projekt läuft doch, für europäische Verhältnisse, ganz ordentlich.

Stichwort Tanzverbot. An gewissen Tagen, wie dem kommenden Freitag, der von den Kirchen mithilfe eines ominösen luni-solaren Kalendersystems zum „Karfreitag” erhoben wurde, gilt ein allgemeines, gesetzliches, irrationales Verbot von öffentlichen Tanzveranstaltungen, Musik in Gaststätten, und wahrscheinlich noch einigen anderen Sünden.

Kirchen und andere Sekten meines außerdem, in U-Bahnen, Bussen und sonstwo im Lande Werbung platzieren zu müssen, auf der die 0190-Nummern der PR-Leute des Messias gezeigt wird. Um diesen Plakaten, die uns sagen, dass wir gerettet werden müssen, entgegenzuwirken, sind einige Leute auf die Idee gekommen, Werbung für einen sekulären Lebensstil auf Bussen zu platzieren. In London hat das wunderbar geklappt.

In Deutschland.... nicht so. Viele deutsche Verkehrsbetriebe, die weltanschauliche und religiöse Werbung führen, haben schon das unten dargestellte Motiv abgelehnt. Die meisten ohne Begründung, die Bremer aus Angst, die Gäste des Kirchentages so mies zu stimmen, wie ich bin, wenn ich in der U-Bahn lese, dass ich mich von Jesus Christus retten lassen soll.

Es folgt das unvermeidliche Zitat aus dem Grundgesetz:

Niemand darf wegen (...) seines Glaubens, seiner religiösen oder politischen Anschauungen benachteiligt oder bevorzugt werden. (...)

Art 3 Abs 3 GG

Mehr Kritik des Verhältnisses von Staat und Religion in diesem Blog im Mai 2008 erschienen als „Religiöses Gewand”.

Bach's St. John Passion

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2009-03-30T22:47:00Z

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) — 2009-01-06T21:36:34Z

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) — 2009-01-04T15:15:00Z

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) — 2009-01-03T22:49:57Z

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) — 2009-01-01T14:49:21Z

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.

Moderne Demokratie ?

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2008-11-21T20:44:00Z

Don Wolfgang Schäuble und die Großverschwörung unter Angie Merkel haben schon als es darum ging, Flugzeuge abzuschießen, erkannt, dass das Grundgesetz ein unnützer alter Schinken ist, der der Realpolitik von heute nur im Wege steht. Diese abscheuliche Ansicht hat jener Haufen vor kurzem noch einmal bestätigt, aber überlegen wir uns zunächst einmal, was passieren würde, wenn große Politiker die Verfassung zum eigenen Vorteil ändern sollten...

Blicken wir ins Ausland, sehen wir, dass die Amtszeit des russischen Präsidenten um zwei Jahre verlängert wurde. Und, wie reagierte die Bevölkerung ?

Wenn die Politiker meinen, dass sie das brauchen, wird das schon richtig sein.

Der Vergleich mag suboptimal sein, in Deutschland steht ja viel mehr auf dem Spiel, aber zumindest ist er aktuell.

Schäuble hasst bekanntlich kleine Parteien, und wünscht sich, dass ihre Stimme im Bundesrat effektiv wertlos sei, damit er mit seinen leicht roten Freunden von der SPD ungestört über seine Untertanen herrschen kann (nach Verabschiedung des BKA-Gesetzes natürlich). Bislang haben die kleinen Parteien sich in Koalitionsverträgen auf Landesebene Nein-Stimmen in Form von Enthaltungen im Bundesrat gesichert. Das ist besonders wichtig, wenn es eine große Koalition gibt, die somit in ihrer Macht ein klein wenig eingeschränkt ist.

Ist Demokratie denn so schwer zu verstehen ?

Students taking to the streets

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2008-11-12T21:41:00Z

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) — 2008-11-07T13:20:00Z

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) — 2008-11-05T22:19:15Z

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) — 2008-10-28T17:22:00Z

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) — 2008-10-26T14:38:52Z

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.

Der Alltag eines busfahrenden Schülers

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2008-10-21T15:37:00Z

Dies ist eine Geschichte aus dem Alltag eines zivilisierten, vernünftigen Kollegstufenschülers am Gymnasium Geretsried in Bayern. Ähnliches spielt sich wahrscheinlich täglich überall im Land ab.

Nach der 6. Stunde, 13:05 Uhr, regulärer Unterrichtsschluss. Die „5” nach der „13” mag in der Unter- und Mittelstufe zwar meist eine reine Formsache sein, das ist aber nicht immer und überall so. Also, um fünf nach eins endet der Unterricht, dann heißt es Zeug zusammenpacken und in einem normalen Schritttempo das Schulhaus verlassen. Daran, dass die Wände seit Jahren nach Baustelle aussehen und die Kabel von der Decke hängen, hat man sich schon längst gewöhnt—egal wie viel man sich beschwert, vor 7 Jahren war die Schule intakter—den dunklen Betonklotz aus den 70ern, der sich „Schule” schimpft, möchte man aber eigentlich doch relativ flott verlassen.

Draußen, an der Luft, wechselt man noch schnell ein paar Worte mit einem Mitschüler, zugerufene Àdieux, und schon ist man in der Unterführung zur Bushaltestelle. Nicht besonders angenehm, vom Geruch bis zu den zwar frisch geweißelten, doch aber mit schlechtem Graffiti beschmierten Wänden, aber man kann ja nicht immer vor den Fünftklässlern über die Straße rennen, vor allem nicht, wenn Polizei oben steht. Da geht neben einem ein guter Freund, Ich finde das unverschämt, dass wir für den Scheiß jetzt zahlen müssen!; Recht hat er, und auch diejenigen Schüler, die genügend Geschwister haben, um die Fahrt zwischen Daheim und Schule erstattet zu kriegen, sind sich einig: Nicht einmal Einzelkinder in der Oberstufe sollten den Bus zu einer öffentlichen Schule bezahlen müssen, nicht in diesem unseren Sozialstaat.

Auch die Situation an der Bushaltestelle kann nicht begeistern: es stehen die zwei üblichen langen Busse da. Der Erste, proppenvoll, schließt gerade die Türen, um wegzufahren. Im Zweiten ist auch nicht mehr Platz. Im Gegenteil: obgleich die Insassen (was nicht heißen soll, dass viele sitzen) kaum noch Platz zum atmen haben, befindet sich an der Tür noch eine Traube von etwa 10 jüngeren Schülern, die sich mit letzter Kraft reinzuquetschen versuchen. Etwas weiter hinten stehen dann etwa 60 weitere Schüler, die rauchen und ratschen, weil sie wissen, dass in den Schulbussen kein Platz ist.

Wie lange wird das noch dauern ? Nach einigen Minuten kommt schon ein Paar Linienbusse. Die Tatsache, dass sie unterschiedlich Linien bedienen, stiftet zwar etwas Verwirrung, aber schnell haben sich auch hier Trauben an allen vier Türen gebildet, und jeder versucht mit Gewalt, noch einen Stehplatz zu bekommen. Aber, was heißt hier jeder ? Manch einer sieht ein, dass man eigentlich zuerst Leute aussteigen lassen sollte, dass die Chancen, überhaupt einen Platz zu bekommen, infinitesimal sind, und dass diese Art des Einsteigens eigendlich zutiefst barbarisch ist. Man wünscht sich eigentlich, dass alle sich ganz normal anstellen, und die Leute hinten ungehindert Aussteigen lassen, aber das scheint in Deutschland ja nicht zu gehen. Die Busse sind weg, jetzt heißt es zunächst fünf bis zehn Minuten warten—wenn man Glück hat, kennt man irgendjemanden, der auch wartet, mit dem man das Warten einigermaßen überbrücken kann.

Der nächste Bus war vermutlich schon an einer anderen Schule, von Platz kann da keine Rede sein. Langsam wünscht man sich, man hätte den Unterricht doch wie in der Unterstufe um 12:55 Uhr eigenmächtig beendet, um zum Bus zu rennen, aber wo kämen wir denn da hin ? Kaum ist es 13:26 Uhr, schon kommt der nächste kurze Linienbus. Von Platz kann da zwar auch keine Rede sein, die Bushaltestelle wird aber langsam leer. Um nicht noch eine Viertelstunde warten zu müssen, quetscht man sich dann halt als letzter in den Bus. Um zwei Uhr ist man dann vielleicht zu Hause, und die Busfahrt war keineswegs angenehm; kein Wunder, dass so viele in der Regel ehrliche Schüler sich für dafür entscheiden, schwarz zu fahren.

Lisping: IRC bots are fun

nospam@example.com (Thomas Jollans) — 2008-10-19T18:19:00Z

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) — 2008-10-06T11:15:00Z

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.