Posts

Well, look at what we’ve got here. Because of this this subversion checkin I saw that Skolelinux 2 is now live. And indeed, on the English download page you are now presented with the option of downloading Skolelinux 2.0r0. Great! This version brings a ton of improvements. First and foremost, this is based on the Sarge release of Debian and therefore includes a lot more recent software and an improved installer. Second it includes very good Spanish translation. And it generally just works very nicely. This new release is a major step and am I very glad for the Skolelinux/Debian-Edu project that they (or rather we, as I also helped my little bit) got it out. ...

I love The Economist. In the new Technology Quarterly they dedicate an article to hacking, the real definition: THE word “hacker” is widely misused. Among hackers themselves, it refers to someone who enjoys tinkering with technology, exploring its boundaries and getting it to do unexpected or unintended tricks, though in general use the word refers to individuals who break into computers for nefarious ends (for whom hackers prefer the terms “malicious hacker” or “cracker”). But a hacker is not necessarily bad and is not necessarily just someone who messes around with computers. Thomas Edison was arguably a hacker, back in the 19th century. I liked the example of the iRobot vacuum-cleaner. Where can I order such a fine piece of hardware? But some companies, at least, have chosen to embrace hackers. iRobot, the company behind the Roomba robot vacuum-cleaner, includes an external data connector in the device and has even documented how to use it.

Na dann helft mal mit, dass nicht wieder dem Informatiker die Schuld gegeben wird.

It appears that the Swiss job market in the tech sector is not as bad as I thought for some time. If you are a well-qualified individual you should have no problem finding a job - at least in the Web sector. Why do I say this? Well, recently Bitflux had a job opening (now filled), local.ch has also been looking, as is now search.ch. namics has a few job openings as I’m sure have other agencies. All of them have one thing in common which was not always true for our sector: they look for highly skilled workers (though namics also has internships in Baar/Zug and in St. Gallen). A few years ago, companies in our sector were adding people to their workforce like wild and thus had to sacrifice on quality. Now it’s the opposite. I for one believe that is a very welcome change and so do many of my friends. But I also know a few people who profited from the “more liberal” practices during the dot-com boom. Anyway, I’ll add a few articles in the following weeks on how to improve your chances for getting an employment in this area. It won’t be rocket science but I hope I have a few tips to share. Those articles will be available in English and in German. And I suggest you tag job openings on your weblogs with the “jobs” tag. That will allow job seekers to watch the tag (or subscribe to it). Update 1: Forgot, that KAYWA also is looking for talent. Update 2: And Google also is looking. (Via relab.ch). ...

Ich bin schon seit einiger Zeit kein Fan der SP mehr. Vor allem ihre konstante Meinung, die Schweiz müsse der EU beitreten misfällt mir. Gibt auch noch anderes. Aber was ich da heute bei Swissinfo lese, zeigt, dass die SP mittlerweile sogar eine populistische Partei ist, welche offenbar noch vor hat ihr Wahlvolk anzulügen: Die Delegierten folgten der Position der SP-Geschäftsleitung, den Euro vorläufig nicht zu übernehmen. Es sei schwieriger, eine Mehrheit zu erhalten, sagte Fehr, wenn die Schweiz gleichzeitig mit dem EU-Beitritt auch den Franken aufgeben solle. Sprich, die SP wird in der nahen Zukunft behaupten, nicht für den Euro zu sein. Sobald die Schweiz aber mal in der EU ist (wäre), soll dann da der Kurs gewechselt werden. Oder wie habe ich diese Aussage von Fehr zu verstehen?

According to SF Tagesschau Turkey is going to abolish death penalty as of June 1, 2006. Since August 2002 death penalty has only been allowed at war times and even before that no one was sentenced to death in Turkey since 1984. Great news, now if only the US of A, Japan and China would follow. Though there are many other countries who still allow death penalty those three are the ones I care most about (all are big countries and all are important in today’s industry). ...

Heise reports in it’s article Google wechselt von Intel zu AMD, that Google now purchases it’s processors from AMD instead of Intel. Great stuff.

There is a write-up on Ain’t It Cool News about a visit at Pixar. Obviously they have a lot of creative talent and it’s interesting how they give them the freedom. For example the designers all design their office themselves. Also interesting the center atrium: The mailboxes, the employee café, and the common room where all the games are all open into that atrium, and people lingered, talking, exchanging ideas and discussing the various projects they’re working on. It seemed like a fertile, creative environment, and I felt like Charlie Bucket holding a golden ticket as I examined the larger-than-life INCREDIBLES statues in the center of the atrium and the concept paintings hung on the walls. But just go and read the article.

I finally had enough of my previous Weblog design and adjusted some colours. The new colour scheme matches the Arroba colours as created by Schrägstrich (though applied very liberally…). It’s not perfect, but I think it’s good enough. Probably should find a better title image. The current one was extracted from this beautiful shot taken at Lake Titicaca.

Eso es especialmente para mis amigos de Perú que hablan español: ya ustedes pueden aprender Ruby on Rails. En su weblog Juan tiene más informaciones sobre Ruby on Rails. Juan Lupión translated two Ruby on Rails introductions to Spanish. En marcha con Ruby on Rails (original Rolling with Ruby on Rails) and En marcha con Ruby on Rails, y II (the second part). And only know have I discovered his Web site Sobre Rails, a Spanish Ruby on Rails site. (Via O'Reilly Ruby)