Vista Update on Qemu takes reeeeealllllyyyyy looooong.

I managed to get the network card of Vista working in Qemu. Now I am up-dateting my Vista-Ultimate via Qemu and it takes ages, hours, days, just very very long.Vista-Ultimate Update on Qemu takes very very very long.

Ruby and Apple

Last week the Ruby world was upside-down and because of some security warning that Apple released about some Ruby-Security issue. It turns out that this is all wrong and not as bad as it seems. Sorry but the Ruby-Guys at Apple are _total_ Morons! And the Japanese as polite as they are, are just too kind! Thank you Matz! Apple deserves a slap across the face for this one!

This is so classical!

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-core/17427

And from the Gentoo Bug List:

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=225465

1Password does not do anything but annoy you. Just use iRemember

As a daily iPhone user I was on the search for a Software, that would store all your passwords in Safari without having to re-enter them everytime you connect to a website where a login is required. So I bought 1Password and I must say it is _total_crap_! It has not worked for one single website that I use, not a single one! I have no idea why this software exists! Today I found the following software, for free: iRemember from iSpazio. Sometimes it is worth it not trying to hard and just to wait for the best solution (which can be free a lot of the times).

Testing EC2 from Amazon by Building a Custom Image (AMI)

1. Ok, so I decided to try out EC2. The first thing – obviously – what you want to do is, build your own custom image. First Bummer: Amazon will not allow you to build and compile your own kernel! You will have to use an Amazon-Kernel found here. At the moment I am compiling Gentoo (amd64) according to this HowTo.

While my Gentoo compiles, some of the points I do not like about Amazons Communications:

  • What is the underlying hardware they are using?
  • What CPU’s do you get for your money, what is their speed? I tried to find out myself by doing “cat /proc/cpuinfo”
  • What kind of disks are the different instances running on? Are they SATA, SCSI, IDE, etc?

I really would love to see more transparency in above points by Amazon.

2. Somehow I also have the feeling that the “value for money” you get from Amazon EC2 for using their CPU’s is expensive (like buying a car vs leasing a car; leasing a car is always more expensive). The reason why I have this feeling is because I compared the prices for buying a server equivalent of the m1.xlarge instance. The price for such a server would roughly be USD 3000.-. Now traffic is cheap at EC2 but CPU’s are not. EC2 will give you comparingly “slow” CPU for your money if you compare to buying a new server. “cat /proc/cpuinfo” for the m1.xlarge instance shows me “Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 270” processor.

3. Doing a “emerge -e world” – on a “m1.large” instance – and at the same time untaring the linux-2.6.16.33-ec2.tgz makes the “untaring” take forever (more then 50 Minutes). Just for unpacking 53 MB. Is it possible that XEN still has some problems juggling the resources of an instance? I get the feeling that my instance only gets the CPU “to do one task at the same time”.

4. Ok, so now I started surfing the web about more detailed Feedback (also negative) on EC2 an I found the following to links:

and I must say that I am stopping my experiment right here. And yes, this is _totally_true_: “And I get a bit irritated when I come across sentences like Jinesh’s at RailsConf: “infinity auto-scalable on-demand computing resource”” – but just go an check it out for yourself! EC2 of Amazon is definitely still BETA.

Sarah Lacy got burned by her own “Freedom of Speech” – or the Groupie on Stage Sickness

Sarah Lacy was burned by unprofessionalism and by simply not being a journalist but by being a groupie-on-stage. She acted as if she would be a groupie of Marc Zuckerberg. Being a journalist is more difficult then that.  Sarah was more interested talking about herself then really focusing on Facebook and the concerns the Users of Facebook have with Facebook. She was too cool and not serious enough. She should read some books of Oriana Fallaci to learn how to interview seriously and how to interview successful people (good or evil). Sarah Lacey was not prepared and not organized. It is only fair that she got flamed.

It will happen to Kara Swisher as well if she will not thoroughly prepare her interview.  How can Tech-Journalist do stupid things and not take responsibility for their action?

Blaming it on the audience is never smart

Blaming it on the audience is never smart. In the end they are your clients. Obviously this one went wrong – but not for Facebook. This is a nice summary of the event. Also – I am curious what will happen with Digg, if Microsoft buys them. The Users do not seem to look forward to that.

Great Restaurants in London

1. “St.John” Restaurant, Smithfield

http://www.stjohnrestaurant.com/home/

This is a very english type of cooking- very meat and offal based. I loveit!

££££

2. “Club Gascon”, Smithfield

http://www.clubgascon.com/cc_intro.php

Very Southern French high dining. Fab.

££££

3. “Le Cercle”, Sloane Square

http://www.clubgascon.com/cc_intro.php

Same owners as Club Gascon. Again high dining. Great ambiance great food. Central location.

££££

4. “The Salt Yard”, Goodge Street

http://www.saltyard.co.uk/01_intro.htm

Founded by the sister of one of my students. Really excellent Spanish tapas.

£££

5. “Moro”, Exmouth Market

http://www.moro.co.uk/moro/restaurant/default.asp

Well established and much loved Moorish Spanish restaurant. £££

6. “The Wolseley”, Picadilly

http://www.thewolseley.com/

Very central. Very classic French brasserie food. Amazing ambience.

£££

7.”The Seven Stars”, Chancery Lane

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/33/3395/Seven_Stars/Chancery_Lane

Very old pub. Drink beer here and enjoy the very unpretentious pub food. Brilliant atmosphere and staff.

££

8. “Yauatcha”, Soho

http://www.urbanpath.com/london/chinese/yauatcha.htm

Modern Chinese. Very trendy at the moment.

£££

9. “Bara Fina”, Soho

http://www.barrafina.co.uk/

You will have to queue! But well worth it for wine and Spanish tapas type food.

££

Recommendations by Neil, a great Cook!

Cablecom: Reklamation und unfreundliches, unprofessionelles Verhalten bei Kündigungen – Referenz 12824078


Zürich, 4. März 2008

Reklamation und unfreundliches, unprofessionelles Verhalten bei Kündigungen – Referenz 12824078

Liebe Cablecom

Ich habe Ihren Angaben von Kündigungsabteilung erhalten.

1. Als ich mich heute das erste Mal erkundigt habe, wie ich eine meiner Nummern bei Cablecom kündigen kann, hiess es “per Fax” oder “per Brief”. Als ich dann mit dem Vorgesetzten sprechen wollte, hat dieser mir gesagt, dass er keine Fax-Nummer kennen würde, es ginge nur per Brief am besten eingeschrieben. Dann habe ich nochmals bei der Helpline angerufen und die haben mir gesagt, dass man auch per Fax kündigen kann. Es kommt mir vor, als ob jeder einfach genau das sagen tut was ihm gerade passt. Das ist völlig unprofessionelles Verhalten. Am Telefon wurde mir dann auch gesagt, dass die Kündigungsabteilung keine Attachments empfangen kann. Als ich dann ein zweites Mal angerufen habe, hat mir der Mitarbeiter sofort die Fax-Nummer zum kündigen mitgeteilt. Der Mitarbeiter weiss die Fax-Nummer der Vorgesetzte nicht? Ev. sollten die zwei die Stelle wechseln.

2. Weshalb kann ich per Fax kündigen und nicht per Email-Attachment? Es handelt sich dabei um genau das gleiche Dokument. Ob ich das Dokument faxe oder Ihnen per Email als Attachment zustelle macht überhaupt keinen Unterschied, ausser dass Cablecom mehr Aufwand hat wenn sie ein Email-Attachment ausdrucken muss für den Kunden das aber viel bequemer ist.

3. Juristisch gesehen ist ein Email-Attachment mit Unterschrift genau gleich bindend wie ein Fax mit Unterschrift. Das Dokument hat den gleichen Inhalt. Die Kündigung könnte sogar “nur” in den Body vom Mail geschrieben werden.

4. Meiner Meinung nach machen Sie es dem Kunden sehr einfach wenn er eine neue Dienstleistung von Cablecom abonnieren soll. Wenn man aber etwas kündigen will, dann machen Sie es dem Kunden sehr schwer. Sie legen dem Kunden absichtlich Steine in den Weg und machen es extra-komplizert, sodass er gar keine Lust mehr bekommt zu kündigen. Das ist ein verdammte Sauerei. Ich bin ein sehr guter Cablecom-Kunde und sonst zufrieden mit dem Service aber das ist eine rotzige, arrogante Haltung, welche Ihnen sehr schadet (und auch mit Ihrem “analogen Fernseh-Clou” zum Ausdruck gekommen ist).

Ich freue mich auf Ihr Feedback.

Update: Die Fax-Nummer ist irgendwie nirgends auffindbar auf der Homepage! Wenn wunderst? Kündigungen sind unerwünscht und sollen dem Kunden möglichst das Leben _schwer_ machen. Man kann sehr einfach einen Zusatzanschluss abonnieren über die Homepage der Cablecom. Einen Zusatzanschluss aber kündigen, das geht nur mit eingeschriebenen Brief. Weshalb muss man keinen eingeschriebenen Brief senden wenn man einen Zusatzanschluss abonnieren möchte? Übrigens die Cablecom-Kündigungsfaxnummer lautet: 043 497 58 81- hoffen wir mal das Google diese Nummer ganz dick indexiert und als Treffer vor der Cablecom.ch Seite auflisten tut!

Update II: Ich habe soeben mit der Dame gesprochen, an welche obiges Mail und der Brief adressiert war. Sie wird und kann mein Kündigungsschreiben welches ich als Email-Attachment gesendet habe doch ausdrucken (ausnahmsweise) und weiterleiten. Es geht also doch! Die Dame hat mir auch gesagt, dass sich bei der Cablecom etwas am tun ist, sodass die Kündigungen einfacher gemacht wird für den Kunden. Ich bin ja mal sehr gespannt! Ich identifiziere mich ja jedes Mal wenn ich eine SMS via Cablecom-Homepage senden tue. Diese Identifikation könnte auch zum Kündigen von Zusatzanschlüssen verwendet werden. Grmblll …

Content Similarity Equalizer

As a follow-up to my recent post about creating document families of any give Google-Search-Result I want to publish an additional idea:

The Content Similarity Equalizer

Now what is this? Well as mentioned in my post above it often happens that a product is released via a press release and then gets discussed in several blogs and news-sites. Most of the blogs and news-sites will basically just copy the press release and add a few words and a bit of there own spin – and that’s it. A few will take their time and do an in depth and personal analysis of the product.

Here the Content Similarity Equalizer comes to play

Having a Content-Similarity-Equalizer is like having different sieves when you dig for gold. If you scrape for gold you can always have different sieves depending on the size of the gold nuggets you are scraping for. So if you tell your Content-Similarity-Equalizer (CSE) to find all documents that are 90% or more similar you will only find documents of the same version (you will have more document families with less documents in them) . If you tell your CSE that you want to find all documents that are 40% similar then your documents families will get bigger and the documents that are really unique (nuggets) will start surfacing. In my example this would then be the document talking about the specific features of the iPhone-CPU, versus all the other documents that were basically just covering the Apple-Press-Release of the iPhone and not really adding anything special or “own” to their blog-post or news-site.