Winter!!!
Endlich hat's geschneit. In diesem Jahr sogar recht früh und auch in Mengen. Wir waren am Wochenende in Templin und konnten so am Sonntag sogar noch mit den Kindern rodeln gehen. Der Seeberg war gleich von Kindern mit Schlitten und sonstigen Rutschgeräten übervölkert. Die Schneedecke war vielleicht 10cm dick wurde im Laufe des Tages dann aber zu einer Schneeplatte zusammengedrückt. Gegen Abend waren dann doch schon deutliche Spuren von Rasen und Erde zu sehen. Aber wir hatten trotzdem Spaß.
my first rails project – chunky downloads
I just released my first ruby on rails project. It's called "chunky" and handles download links of chunky files. Here is a little screencast about how to use it:
As a system administrator I often get calls from colleagues who have to send a bigger file to our clients or partners. Usually these files are too big for email transfer or wont pass mail filters on servers. Of course we have an FTP-Server for such purposes but believe me... explaining the use of FTP everytime and fiddling around with FTP download problems on the client/partner side as well is pain in the ... you name it. Sometimes there are also some special requirements to the download as an expire date or max download count.
A solution to these requirements is chunky the download manager in RoR (Ruby on Rails). You can upload a file in the admin section or choose an already uploaded file. Then your create a personalized, unique download link for this files. You can specifiy an expire date and a maximum download count. You will be notified by email about the new link and you can even notify your client about the new link.
I realesed this project under GPLv3 on the Google Code Project: http://code.google.com/p/chunky/
when phones go mad
I recently saw the latest Batman movie "The Dark Knight". Somewhen in the plot it was introduced that Wayne Enterprises (the company of Batmans alter ego Bruce Wayne) is cooperating with the government in building mobile phones. And then later on Batman turns every phone in the city (obviously the ones his company equipped) into his eyes and ears by accessing them remotely. Sounds like science fiction? I don't think so.
Look at the latest news about the major bug in the Google Android mobile. A hidden console can be accidentally started and this takes every text input and interprets this a system command executed by the super user. So if you type "reboot" your Android will reboot. How nasty is this? This doesn't seem to be a simple software bug to me. Why can a hidden process receive copies of the input from everywhere in the system? This was surely not implemented by chance.
It's also well known that both, Google and Apple, are able to delete applications remotely from their smartphones. So you can be sure they can also install new applications without your knowledge. And you can be sure it's technically absolutely possible to silently turn on your mobiles microphone and camera without your knowledge. This is not science fiction this is technical reality. It's just a matter of time until this will be used. Either intended or hacked by some third party or hijacked by the goverment for sake of security.