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Category Archives: Thoughts
Spot on ….
Klaus Stuttmann, a German caricaturist, has gotten it right, I think. See his take on the situation and argumentation between the USA and Russia here. Translation: Putin: “If Snowden was a Russian who had published the world-wide surveillance of Russian … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Germans have no notion of sarcasm, Opinion, Thoughts
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Is this the world we created?
Bolivian minister: Evo Morales’ plane rerouted on suspicion Snowden on board
Posted in EN, Human Rights, Privacy, Thoughts
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Re: Are Americans the next Germans?
More circumstantial evidence transpired that US-Americans don’t understand the concept of irony anymore: Charles Schumer said: “He is not at all like the great human rights crusaders in the past, the Martin Luther Kings or the Gandhis who did civil … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Germans have no notion of sarcasm, Human Rights, Peace, Thoughts
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Thought experiment
If the justification for total surveillance is the fight against terrorists and prevention of terrorist acts, what does it tell us that governments spy on each other? Send me your solutions as comments to this post // Oliver
Posted in EN, Privacy, Thoughts
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Catch 22
So in the UK porn filters will be mandatory soon on public WLAN hotspots and even homes, reports Wired. Well, good for them chaps on the British Isles. Only this creates a small problem. Being slightly paranoid, I am using … Continue reading
Posted in EN, IT Security, Privacy, Thoughts
Tagged censorship, porn, UK, VPN, web filtering
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Will we learn from the NSA eavesdropping scandal?
Having used encryption for a long time and having used PGP consequently for more than five years it seems unlikely to me that people will go the extra mile to ensure the confidentiality of their electronic correspondence. Leaving aside the … Continue reading
If you think about it …
… it’s kinda funny how in the second half of the 1990s I was visiting Israel and at one of the many sites of Christianity, near the lake Gennesaret, we were handed a leaflet by some apocalyptic sect warning us … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Thoughts
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Pope Francis: “atheists can be good” – oh really?
A short “The Guardian” article “Pope Francis says atheists can be good” discusses this new attitude towards unbelievers like me. That’s a refreshing new view from a person inhabiting a position that’s not known for this sort of “liberal” statements: … Continue reading
Posted in Atheism, Thoughts
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I like Ricky Gervais …
… but the way you, Ricky, lash out against fat people, considering myself still part of that population1, is kind of a disgrace that falls back on you, mainly for the weak main point you make. You’re perfectly right that … Continue reading
Posted in Opinion, Thoughts, Weight loss
Tagged fat, fat people, obesity, Ricky Gervais, weight
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Re: “Not a convert” and “Copyleft vs. BSD …”
Almost one year ago I wrote about the GPL and in February last year about the GPL versus BSD license. Today I noticed the following inside OpenSSL code by Eric Young: The license and distribution terms for any publically available … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Software, Thoughts
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Hekla …
… dammit … bad news? (photo is unrelated to the text, text is the relevant part) Perhaps it could wait until White Sunday this year. Pretty please? Thanks!
Posted in EN, Thoughts
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Another one …
Ever since I worked in Göteborg (Sweden) and heard the word “torg”1 for the first time I wondered: is this related to the Russian root -торг- as in “торговать”2? Turns out my hunch was almost right from the beginning. It … Continue reading
Bizarre
And I don’t mean the fact that “Kindergärtner” in German describes the kindergarten teacher, not the child. Bizarre is that a five year old girl – in all seriousness – gets suspended for suggesting to another kindergarten child that they … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Opinion, Thoughts
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Imagine this a 1000 years ago …
When I look at the majestic and at the same time scary images of the meteorite fall in Russia (e.g. here), I’m wondering what impression this must have made on humans a thousand years ago. Or imagine something like that … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Thoughts
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Let us hope this pans out for the PSF
Read the article over here: Python trademark at risk in Europe: We need your help!. I really hope this backfires so hard that no one else will try similar things on well established names that have been spread by non-profit … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Python, Software, Thoughts
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Unimaginable?
The media doesn’t seem to deem it possible that just about any catholic man could rise to the position of pope. Let’s face it, they’re probably right. Only cardinals have been elected for hundreds of years now. Similar to the … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Opinion, Thoughts
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Webdesigners who don’t want me to use there website
… are the ones to use some fancy JavaScript snippet to display a black box saying “You need Flash player to see this” or something similar instead of letting me activate Flash on demand. Opera has the setting as long … Continue reading
Posted in EN, IT Security, Thoughts
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The stubborn guy in me …
Several times now I have been invited to the US by couch surfers I hosted and even by other people. Most of them are stumped at first when I tell them that I’ll probably never take them up within my … Continue reading
Russian whores want to chat with me? Really …?
Spam spam spam-a-dee-spam … Don’t get me wrong. In a sense I admire the women who decide freely to prostitute themselves. It certainly takes courage and guts. I only think that the majority of them don’t get to decide freely … Continue reading
The outrage in India …
… is understandable. More than that. One cannot possibly imagine the torture this woman went through – or, for that matter, all the other women going through similar torture at the hand of rapists every single day as the cold … Continue reading
Posted in EN, Human Rights, Thoughts
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