I have completely forgotten to mention our strategic workshop at Waldgarten (website in German) on July 20, 2005 ;-) What for a view!

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Have you ever seen a crane beeing unmounted??

Received today per Email from Spread Firefox.

The Spread Firefox Team became aware this week that the server hosting Spread Firefox, our community marketing site, has been accessed by unknown remote attackers who attempted to exploit a security vulnerability in TWiki software installed on the server. The TWiki software was disabled as soon as we were aware of the attempts to access SpreadFirefox.com. This exploit was limited to SpreadFirefox.com and did not affect mozilla.org web sites or Mozilla software.

We have scanned Spread Firefox servers and at this time do not believe any sensitive data was taken, but as a precautionary measure we have shutdown the site and will be rebuilding the web site from scratch. We also recommend that you change your Spread Firefox password and the password of any accounts where you use the same password as your Spread Firefox account. We will notify you again when the site is back up with instructions on how to change your password. (Note: We do use MD5 hashing on the passwords, but MD5 cannot protect all passwords against off-line dictionary style attacks.)

After Spread Firefox was compromised in July, we instituted procedures to ensure that we apply all security fixes to the software running the site (Drupal and PHP) as soon as they become available. Unfortunately, those procedures overlooked the installation of the TWiki software since it is not used by the main Spread Firefox site. When the system is rebuilt, all the software will be audited to ensure that security updates will be applied in a timely manner. We deeply regret this incident and any inconvenience this may have caused you. Sincerely,

Spread Firefox Team
Mozilla Foundation

Mercedes-Benz released its 9th version of the Mixed Tape. Still for free. Download here.

Opening the current compilation, British Soul sensation Alice Russell has already been likened to Joss Stone and Alicia Keys. Above and beyond, this month’s Mixed Tape features a range of artists from London and Berlin, Europe’s undisputed capitals of hip. While London sends Simon Hectic (soulful Hip Hop), ECT (Broken Beats) and Talc (pure Pop) into the mix, combining timeless pop moments with cutting edge production techniques, Berlin’s varied contingent (a. o. Data MC (Electro-Hip Hop), Back2Square1 (Spoken Word) and Multiple Exposure
(R&B;)) disdain all genre restrictions in favour of their very own capital sound.
Furthermore, Mixed Tape 09 features many further forays into the global music scene between World Beats (Goya-Project) and Italian Disco Dub (E-The-Hot).

[via BetaNews]

Microsoft over the weekend revealed that PDF support would be integrated into the next version of its productivity software, known as Office 12. The announcement was made on Saturday at the Global MVP Summit, Microsoft’s annual confab for its most valuable professionals.

The company says that it’s adding the new format to promote “sharing across multiple platforms.” However, the move fits in with Microsoft’s other recent efforts to take on Adobe in areas where its rival has enjoyed considerable success.

Jones reported that on the Office Online support site, Microsoft receives approximately 30,000 searches a week for PDF support. That made for a pretty easy decision as to what new feature would interest the most users.

Maybach’s last concept car called Exelero.

The standard V12 bi-turbo engine in the Maybach 57 generates 550 hp, yet it soon became clear that even this colossal power would not be enough to propel the Exelero Concept Car, weighing almost 2.7 tonnes, up to the target top speed of 350 km/h. Engineers at the DaimlerChrysler engine works enlarged displacement from 5.6 to 5.9 litres and optimised turbocharging to squeeze out around 700 hp plus at least 1000 Newton metres of torque. Following endurance trials on the engine test rig, the Exelero Concept Car waited for its big moment. On May 1, 2005 it finally arrived: on the 12.5-kilometre Nardo circuit in Italy; three-times DTM champion and Le Mans winner Klaus Ludwig took the wheel of the Exelero Concept Car. It only took two laps before the FIA-calibrated measuring unit showed the magic reading of 351.45 km/h.

[via wikipedia]

Sometimes, physics can be really beautiful :-)

The central electrode of a plasma lamp, showing a glowing blue plasma streaming upwards. The colors are a result of the radiative recombination of electrons and ions and the relaxation of electrons in excited states back to lower energy states. These processes emit light in a spectrum characteristic of the gas being excited.

Photo credit: PiccoloNamek

[via vowe & Mini-Microsoft]

Oups.

As for Mr. Ozzie: where I was sitting, the murmuring of people having low-level conversations grew louder and louder as he talked and people stopped paying attention. He wasn’t engaging the folks around me with whatever he was strutting around about (“De cloud! De cloud!”). Sorry, Ray, you need to earn our respect with results right now. Lotus Notes and the saved-from-the-brink of bankruptcy Groove isn’t endowing you with much currency.

Some beautiful landscapes of Corsica

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Lionel Charlet, a Swiss-French filmmaker, released last year a documentary called “Vols Blancs” (White Fligts) on the Mirage III and F/A-18 Hornet, both combat jets used in Switzerland. This film is *amazing*, incredible! The Swiss pilots are just crazy, some scenes are unbelievable, specially the ones in the valleys of the Alps. Very very low altitude… Have a look at what Lionel says:

The men who are lucky enough to fly carry a serious responsibility – confronted as they are every day to maximum risk and spectacular sceneries – alone in their cockpits they stay focussed on their mission.

There is seriousness in this beauty… if only because war exists. But also because the beauty and transcendence of nature that pilots discover marks them deeply. They don’t indulge in experimentation with “Fun” flying, where one seeks, above all, intense sensations.

The beauty of the three dimensional universe reveals the beauty of the earth and the landscapes, an immense glacier just below the jet, flying head down, perspective is carried away.

Thanks to the Swiss Air Force, I’ve had the occasion to log many hours in FA/18, F-5, Hawk and Mirage, long hard hours gathering the best pictures possible. Each flight is a new challenge, with its struggles and victories.

[via Marc Goldberg]

Marc is pointing to an interesting presentation of Tim O’Reilly (PDF) at the last Eclipse conference. It is about Product Design and innovation in the web2.0 world.

Design for Participation

An open source operating system consists of “small pieces loosely joined.”
Discussion: Linux, Apache, Perl and CPAN
Therefore: Architect your software in such a
way that it can be used easily as a component of a larger system. Use a license that does not hinder such a combination. Keep your software modular, and make certain that you document all of the interfaces.

User-Centered Development

The benefits of open source come from sharing your development efforts and processes with your users
Therefore: Release early and release often. Set up mechanisms for users to submit bugs and patches. Promote your most active
users into roles of greater responsibility.

Don’t Differentiate on Features

When useful components are abundant and free, adding proprietary features will only slow you down.
Therefore: Focus your development efforts on speed of testing, assembly, and integration so that your users can always have the best components that the marketplace has to offer.

Follow Industry Standards

Users want choice, but not too much of it.
Therefore: Offer your products in a number of proven, industry-standard configurations, and let your users choose between them. As new application domains emerge, develop configurations to support them.

The Perpetual Beta

When devices and programs are connected to the internet, applications are no longer software artifacts, they are ongoing services.
Therefore: Do not package up new features into monolithic releases, but instead add them on a regular basis as part of the
normal user experience. Engage your users as real-time testers, and instrument the
service so that you know how people use the new features.

Leverage Commodity Economics

Scale matters. A successful internet service may need to scale up rapidly, at low cost.
Therefore: Use Linux, Apache, and other open source components running on commodity PC hardware as the basis for any internet service. Arrange these components in fault-tolerant arrays, with management tools that minimize the number of required sysadmins.

Users Add Value

The key to competitive advantage in internet applications is the extent to which users add their own data to that which you provide.
Therefore: Don’t restrict your “architecture of participation” to software development. Involve your users both implicitly and
explicitly in adding value to your application.

Network Effects by Default

Only a small percentage of users will go to the trouble of adding value to your application.
Therefore: Set inclusive defaults for aggregating user data as a side-effect of their use of the application.

The Long Tail

Many limiting factors from the physical world are absent from the internet.
Therefore: Use the power of the computer to monetize niches that formerly were too small to be commercial.

The Mechanical Turk

Services need to be robust, but because they are typically data-driven, they also need to be updated constantly.
Therefore: Build your core services infrastructure with traditional software components written in languages like Java,
C, and C++, but build your interfaces with templating systems and with dynamic
languages like Perl, Python, and PHP. Think of your programmers, designers, and
admins as part of the application.

Software Above the Level of a Single Device

The PC is no longer the only access device for internet applications, and applications that are limited to a single device are less valuable than those that are connected.
Therefore: Design your application from the get-go to integrate services across handheld devices, PCs, and internet servers.

Platforms and Tools (The Eclipse Pattern)

Third party developers are an essential part of the success of new platforms.
Therefore: Reduce complexity for developers by building tools that specifically support new classes of application, and use those
tools to simplify access to underlying components and services.

Intel Inside

Inside every open system there are proprietary, single-source components. The open PC architecture has Intel Inside; the open internet has Cisco Inside.
Therefore: Look for opportunities to be the single source for an essential subsystem of an open system.

Dual Licensing

The GPL allows special rights to the creator of the software to distribute the software under other terms.
Therefore: Make sure to obtain copyright assignment for all contributed code.

Data is the Next “Intel Inside”

Applications are increasingly data-driven.
Therefore: Owning a unique, hard-to-recreate source of data may lead to an Intel-style single-source competitive advantage.

Own the Namespace

Some data is a commodity and impossible for any one party to own, but access to the data can be controlled through legal means.
Therefore: If you can’t own the data, use legal means to own the namespace or
registry for the data.