Focus focus focus focus …

Dejda… am realizat fara prea mari eforturi ca eu scriu in engleza cam… de aiurea. Bine… imi exersez sintaxa si notiunile de gramatica inexistente… si ce? Oricum fac asta cand scriu cele nspe mii de pagini la synopsisurile de la facultate, si atunci nu prea pot sa o dau in caterinca ca profii s-ar putea sa nu aprecieze. Asa ca azi vreau sa scriu in romaneste, desii ma apucase pe mine o idee sa incerc un post in daneza (da siiiguurrr), doar pt ca asa simt eu. Prin urmare … haidi sa vedem ce se mai intampla pe marile plaiuri internationale. Google a cam bagat-o pe maneca cuYouTube-ul lor de cand un anumit user a bagat cateva episoade din Simpsons si un alt serial (24) si s-au trezit unii sa le ceara informatii (confidentiale de altfel) despre cum ar putea da de userul binevoitor. Asta chiar e aiurea … pe YouTube sunt episoade de seriale de luni intregi, ca sa nu mai spun site-urile de sine statatoare pe care ma uit ca un maniac la Scrubs in ultimul timp. Imi place streamingul, face minuni … incercati peekvid ca fapt divers, spre a gusta din ambrozie. Astia de la Gugal cica s-au cam interesat de drepturi de autor si s-ar fi cam protejat acum… om vedea. Tot bajetii de la Google dar de data asta cu propria lor jucarie (adica google.com), incearca sa dezamorseze asa numitele bombe Google. Adica ce face asta ? Pai, un exemplu simplu este faptul ca de vreo doi ani incoace la fiecare cautare pentru termenul ” miserable failure ” , site-ul Casei Albe era primul rezultat, pagina fiind cea care il descria pe Bush. Ce legatura are asta cu bombele ? Pai, unul dintre cele mai importante principii de functionare ale motorului de cautare amintit mai sus este ca atunci cand 15 site-uri linkeaza(asa se zice?!) catre un magazin de pantofi folosind ca link textul “Magazin de pantofi”, motoarele de cautare vor considera ca acel site este cel mai probabil destinat pantofilor. Asta se numeste indice de relevanta, si in functie de numarul acelora care au link catre magazinul tau de pantofi, tu ai sanse bune sa apari printre primii la o cautare pe termenul “pantofi”. Eh, acum imaginati-va vreo cateva sute de mii de site-uri (daca nu mai mult) facand un link pe site-ul pe pagina presedintelui Bush, folosind cuvantul “miserable failure”. Impactul a fost destul de mare incat sa impinga pagina pe primul loc in topul rezultatelor chiar daca pagina nici macar nu continea cuvintele respective in ea. E un fel de puterea poporului … daca destui spun ca esti prost, pana la urma toata lumea o sa creada ca esti prost. Iar Google a considerat ca pagina presedintelui, printre altele, nu merita aceasta onoare, si au decis sa schimbe algoritmul un pic. Asa ca daca tocmai ce ati facut un search pe google si nu v-a mai aparut pagina mai sus numita ca primul rezultat, este datorita bajetilor care “dezamorseaza” bombele. Mai departe Microsoft, ne freaca la ridiche cu Vista asta a lor. Sincer sa fiu nici nu l-am incercat pe laptopul meu(desi scrie pe el Windows Vista Capable), nici nu intentionez prea curand. Ei trag tare ca sistemul este prea tare, si ca poate fi si un media center, este perfect pt gameri, pt developeri si pentru toata natiunea care se joaca cu ferestrele toata ziua. Se pare ca totusi feedbackul nu este atat de pozitiv in ciuda logourilor Windows afisate pe bulevardele din Bucuresti … ca deh doar vine dnu. Gates sa deschida sediul cel nou. Si daca se poate intre timp sa avem fiecare cate un P4 la 3,2 cu 2 G de ram si o placa video in mod sli cu 512ddram2 ca sa ne mearga noul sistem pe el ar fi super tare. Pana una alta sunt curios sa vad ce fel o sa adopte ei OS-ul asta la munca la mine, ca acolo majoritatea se joaca in powerpoint si in excel, si nu au nevoie de navigare 3d intre ferestre sau de efecte aero. Om trai si om vedea. Asa, navigand de la subiectul asta, ajungem al facultate. Am fost si eu pe acolo ieri, dupa ce m-am trezit pe la 9 jumate si am tras de mine sa ajung la speechul directoarei care ne-a spus ca semestrul 4 o sa fie un fel de “mai stati si voi pe acasa ca e cam ingramadeala pe aici”, si ca tre’ sa ne gasim o companie sa ne facem internship-ul, precum si proiectul de sfarsit de an. De tare ce m-a interesat, azi nici nu am mai ajuns pe acolo. Printre altele Michael, unul dintre profi care s-a autoproclamat “the man”, ne-a spus verde in fatza ca daca atunci cand scriem la proiect, nu scriem la referinte carti cu numele prenumele, data de nastere si de deces a autorului (sa ne dam cu parerea daca nu a murit inca), codul numeric personal, numele copiilor si semnatura personalizata ca sa demonstram ca avem voie sa citim cartea lui, nu putem sa citam autorul respectiv pentru ca .. e ilegal. In plus daca tot spunem ceva interesant pe acolo, trebuie sa mai fi spus un destept inaintea noastra chestia respectiva si sa si fi scris o carte pe subiect pentru ca … citez: “we don’t give a fuck about your opinion”. Sincer sa fiu mi-a placut omul la faza asta. A fost oarecum funny..
Si uite asa se termina postul meu … ca fapt divers, ma gandesc sa migrez la a scrie in romana tot de acum incolo. Asta nu inseamna ca se va intampla …

Now … I wanted to write about a lot of stuff today, mostly connected to Google and Microsoft .. again.. But I had lots of things to do, so I will just add something here that you might want to take into consideration …

Tidy Up!! – video powered by Metacafe

It’s snowing … beautiful. This morning I was out, at 5 AM, and it was so mind-blowing seeing all the soft snow coming down from heavens on the streets, on the cars, on everybody … on me. It looked fairy-like that I just stopped, there, in the middle of the sidewalk and watch it falling. My mind was somewhere else at that point. Made a few snow balls … I couldn’t even feel the cold going through my skin, as I had no gloves. Actually thought about staying there on the ground … in the snow. I missed winter, altough I am not a big fan, I do understand its point, and sometimes I even learn to love it. When it gets windy and extremely cold I just wish I had summer instead. But still … this was priceless. I miss the mountains, haven’t been there in two of three years now. When I woke up this morning I looked out on the window and saw something like this … (image removed due to techincal difficulties)

Whenever the IT Manager is in Copenhagen and in our office my day gets a bad start off…
Me and him … well we never really got along, mostly due to the fact that I am bound to break every single IT rule in here. Why ? Because I am doing some development … I need my space. Obviously he wants me to sit tight in a corner and don’t bother anyone (that and the fact that he has to talk to me in English all of the time making me the most annoying person around).
Things were a bit better during our stay in Paris, we actually worked together in the “competition” and I kind of liked him for a time after that … now it’s back to normal.
For example one of the rules he is trying to enforce is – don’t update your MSN Messenger to the latest version as it contains file sharing capabilities which can be used to send and receive illegal content. Hellooo ? Everybody is doing that anyway… just because messenger live has a sharing folder which can be synchronized doesn’t mean that the good old file send / receive feature doesn’t cut it. Anyway … too late Mikkelo … I have the latest version installed … oh and .. Skype ( just following orders ).

And if it’s not Wednesday, the middle of the week, everybody’s favorite day ( I personally call it the beginning of the weekend), but as weekend is nowhere to being close let’s see what happened lately out there on the net. The first thing that caught my eye this morning was some news about Google, and as I work in the industry, I’m trying to keep an eye on the big G. Now, the guys in Mountain View, California had a very nice page on their domain, where a list of URL’s, user names and passwords were open and visible to anyone that stumbled upon that address. I assume this is part of Google’s anti-phishing (anti identity theft) strategy. A screen shot is available here. Thumbs up guys, we feel so much safer right now. The mistake was reported soon enough to be fixed and the company says they have notified everyone that might have been the victim of a phishing attack. Strangely enough I am quite a fan of Google, I like the way they deal with things usually, and that they don’t overlook details or anything. But two times in two days ? Auuuch … in Europe, to be more precise in Germany, Tuesday morning, visitors of the same search engine were welcomed by … another page. The domain google.de was “kidnapped” by unidentified “hackers” due to a hole in the german legislation regarding domain transferring. Apparently, down there if anyone poses as the owner of a domain and orders a transfer, the operation is being carried out, unless the rightful owner has one or two things to say. And as the orders are automated and of course the Google domain is administered by a company which “overlooked” the notification e-mail, for a few hours many visitors of the page freaked out seeing something totally different from what we are all used to see, thinking that their computer might be hacked or something. Again, the transfer was canceled and everything is back to normal (whatever that means).
Now, everyone has been disappointed once or twice with Microsoft, either because Windows 95 was too slow, or that Win98 with its blue screens destroyed one day’s work, mostly because WinMe was a fragile attempt to make things right or that WindowsXP has been patched so many times that they could have built another operating system out of the fixes. But what about tricked by Microsoft ? Now that could be a new one … personally I’ve never experienced that because I always used illegal copies of Windows (or any other software published by Microsoft – yes I even have a Microsoft Visual Studio cracked ;o) ),sparing myself the trouble so far. That changed some time ago when I bought my laptop which came with a OEM license (hmm did I use that ?!?). Anyway, the last security update for XP came with a cherry on top. Claims are that if you overlooked the customization process in installing the update, it practically tricked you into installing Internet Explorer 7, without any notice or anything, totally removing version 6 and most chances of getting it back. Users have complained about the compatibility of this version with some websites before…and this was too much. Probably MS was a bit disappointed with the unsuccessful launch of its new web browser they cried, ate candy, went shopping, and then cried again (buhuhu), in the mean time observing Firefox’s 2.0 version being largely adopted out on the net. So they huffed and puffed and another brilliant idea came to their mind. What if we just … omitted the fact that they will be updating to the new browser … I’m sure everyone wants it but doesn’t know how to ask … WROONG!
I am a Firefox fan (been so from the start), and I’m not planning into using Internet Explorer even if version 6.0 will not exist anymore … as I believe that the biggest corporation on earth can come with a better software than that lame excuse for a browser.

So, a new fresh week just started, and it today the winter made its appearance in Copenhagen, and although the wind has been blazing in my window for the last 2 weeks or so, I didn’t see the snow coming this way at all. My mindfields hasn’t been updated with any geek-ish news lately, so why not do it now as a few things have happened during the last week. First to start off it’s of course the Apple’s new invention (Apple Computers changed name recently to Apple Inc.), the iPhone. My experience with Apple products has been quite brief as back home I didn’t really see many laptops or computers signed by this company, but when getting in Denmark, I did get familiar to the iPods the MacBooks and the ever acclaimed MacOS X. At first I didn’t really like Apple, it was one of those things PC enthusiasts don’t even talk about … the “dark side” of the computer world. Now things have changed in my vision, and after having some nice encounters with the MacBooks especially, I’ve learned to like them … although I wouldn’t buy one unless I really really really had to. The iPod is another story though …
Back to the iPhone though… and as it couldn’t be a quiet launch of the first phone ever produced by Adam’s temptation company, the name itself (iPhone) had to be discussed on legal grounds with Cisco Networking which apparently owned the name (i wonder why ) ). The phone itself looks good, stylish just as we got used to see from Apple, featuring almost no buttons, but a huge touch screen which might create usability problems among those with sausage fingers and a bad dexterity. It seems more like a huff and puff to me, as the lcd touch sensible screen is not mature enough to be used on a daily basis especially for a phone. Get this more, no stylus needed. This means that the happy buyers will have to use their own set of 10 wonderful fingers in stock to activate and interact with the iPhone. Of course it is not only a phone, but a shaver, a toaster, a spare wheel when you go flat on your car, a gps, a fan, a bottle opener, a hair-blower, a pacemaker, a fat analyzer, a remote control, an anti-rust filter, a condom dispenser and has some functionality as a dildo. Does that sound fake ? It is a bit, cause the new device can only store music (and play it back hopefully – 8GB memory), images and movies, take pictures via the 2mpix camera and operate as a all-in-one pda with the mac-os right there on the spot. The price is estimated at 599$, so if you have them, what are you waiting for ?
Aaaanyway… LG seems to have their own iPhone replica (did I just say iPhone ? damn … ), called the LG “Prada” which looks outstandingly the same as the above mentioned gadget, has the same lcd touchscreen and mostly the same functions all over, only that it costs 780$ (whaaat? It’s an LG Prada … it will stick … I mean look at the D&G Motorola V6 … it was a blast ). Going to work (Outrider I mean), Google seems to be playing around quite a bit these days, as there has been a toolbar PR upgrade and search engine results look very very strange. People all over have been complaining that pages are being de-indexed or that rankings dropped all of a sudden for some keywords. I suspect we are about to see some changes, don’t know exactly what but it seems that the ranking algorithm is being changed to consider pages with more relevance and inbound links than those with content. I’d better drop by Mat’s blog and see what he notes…
That’s it for now.

This is a bad day … bad bad bad day …

So, exams finally passed … got a proud 9, and a shameful 7, somehow deserving it, on the other hand being quite disappointed about it (after a nice exam where you feel you said lots of things and you come out with that feeling that you are somehow proud of yourself ). I thought things were going to slow down a bit today …. BEEEP … wrong of course. Now, why would you ever think of getting away so easy ? I mean it’s not like you could get a few days of quiet could you ? After almost 5 hours of meeting today with Bonnier publications (yes, again), I came home with a good feeling, like doing stuff… spending a nice evening and all that. Oh noo… family problems (big ones) had to come up, and afterwards I had a fight with someone I care about just because I’m a jackass sometimes and I need to take it off on someone. I am still getting kicks in my ass from people back home cause I didn’t manage to meet everyone I had to / would have liked to. Its coming like one each 24 hours or so… just so I don’t forget ’bout it. Its very frustrating being here and knowing someone needs you back home, as in that moment you’d wish to get wings and fly … fly there… fly home. Sometimes I just don’t feel like talking … at all, to nobody.
On the newscast part of things, the Romanian state formed a comity to discuss the buying of the Bran castle (it was about time guys) and to discuss the 60 million euro price. I mean … we’re romanians we will never take a price as it is. We can and we will talk almost anyone out of a fixed price, not because we don’t have the money, it just makes us feel that we won something more than the product itself. Negotiation is a term which makes this process sound all too good.
Politically the prime minister and the president are fighting (nothing new there), over a letter the first guy sent to the second asking him to join a “business”, in which he would ease up the legal frame on some other “business-men”. Weather this is true or not, I don’t really know, but somehow I am giving more credit to mr.Basescu this time, although he is a laing bastard as well. He has a pervert look in his eyes I can’t stand. But as my mindfields is not a politically oriented blog (although maybe it should be as I could write more bullshit more often and someone would actually read this), I am going to leave that to the people back home to discuss. I am sure there are some other blogs you guys can read regarding these issues. Tomorrow it seems I’m going to DIA (the Danish Internet Awards), where (according to Martin) I will get quite pissed. I’m thinking weather to actually start spending some time away from the Internet for the following period of time (who am I kidding I will never do that). Another 30 minutes and I will already step into tomorrow… I’m not tired at all but have to get away from Weebo.

Last night around 1 AM (GMT +2), as I was searching for some information on Wikipedia I came across this -> a larger version of the image is available here, and an alternative image here.
I am not sure when the attack occurred or how long it lasted as after refreshing the page for a few minutes the content you see on the right disappeared without trace. I am not sure weather this was an attack or just someone registered editing a page. As far as I’m concerned it looks like an attack, and that wouldn’t be much of a surprise since Wikipedias server has an open SSH port. When showing the page to Johnny (one of my classmates) he emphasized the fact that the new text on-page lacks appropriate spacing and is all written in CAPS, which creates a terrible effect. ) Anyway this screen shot is taken in Firefox as in Internet Explorer the hacker probably aimed for a buffer overflow (and partly succeeded), the page being unusable upon entering it.
I guess the Wikipedia admin should be more careful about security on his server.