Journal for publishing Bio/Med source code

EN: As pointed out on nodailpoint.org the BMC journal Source Code for Biology and Medicine has now published its first volume. So far there are not enough articles to judge if there is really a filtering regarding code quality (including good documentation) going on what I really would like to see.

Don't trust voting machines

DE: Der Wahlcomputer-Hack des Chaos Computer Club und der niederländischen Initiative Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet ("Wir vertrauen Wahlcomputern nicht") zeigt sehr deutlich, dass diese Geräte nicht geeignet sind um sichere und nachvollziehbare politische Wahlen durchzuführen. Diese Petition* an den deutschen Bundestag fordert eine Gesetzesänderung (§35 BWahlG), so dass Wahlcomputer nicht mehr in Wahlen eingesetzt werden dürfen.

(* Die URL fand ich zuerst seltsam. Sie gehört zum International Teledemocracy Centre.)

EN: The voting machine hack done by the Chaos Computer Club and the Dutch initiative vertrouwen stemcomputers niet ("we don't trust voting machines") shows that these machines are not suitable for safe and traceable voting. This petition to the German Bundestag demands a change of law to ban the use of voting machines.

[Via The Lunatic Fringe]

UPDATE: Der CCC hat ihren Bericht über die Oberbürgermeisterwahl in Cottbus ins Netz gestellt, bei der Wahlcomputer eingesetzt wurden.

UPDATE2: Wie der CCC berichtete wird bei den kommenden Wahlen in Amsterdam wieder Papier anstellen von Wahlcomputern zum Einsatz kommen. Hoffen wir das auch in Deutschland ähnliche Konsequenzen gezogen werden.

UPDATE3: Tim Pritlove zerschießt auf herrliche Weise ein "Wahlcomputer-sind-doch-okay"-Posting des CC2.

Time for your own search engine

EN: Google announced a new service - Co-op - Google Custom Search Engine. This make it possible for everybody to adapt the Google search engine to personal needs and share this modified version with others.


I created a quick test which searches in PubMed, Connotea, CiteULike:

The sniffing net

EN: Ubiquitous computing and "web of things" can be scary and exiting at the same time: The company Gentag develops combinations of cell phone, geolocation, sensors and RFID technologies to make a network of detecting systems possible. There are sensors for different chemicals including toxic agents and allergens but they advertise it also as system against terroristic attacks.

[Via Spiegel Online]

First signs of the 23C3

EN: New artwork and the event wiki for the upcoming 23rd Chaos Communication Congress (23C3) are online.


[Via The Lunatic Fringe]

Google and Privacy

EN: A posting at freds house expresses exactly my concerns about Google but also offers a solution. The problem is that Google just has too many superior services (the search engines, Google Maps, Google Reader, Goggle Mail etc.). Sounds great as you need only one account for using always the best service on the market but what about privacy. The accumulation of personal data is a tempting source for dada mining. The solution would be a service named "Google Data Privacy (GDP)" by the author of the posting and would do the following:

GDP would allow me to review all of the information that Google retains on me across all services, from all devices, and from all sources. GDP would allow me to determine the maximum data retention period for each of my services. GDP would allow me to selectively opt out of cross-service data mining & correlation, even if it reduced the quality of the services I receive. GDP would allow me to correct any inaccurate data in my profile. And GDP would log and alert me when my data was queried by other services.

Great idea! Let's assume Google is not evil and would stick to this setting you do. I would feel much better. The option that everybody could download the collected data about him/her would be also nice feature for the hobby data miner. So, Google-guys when will we see GDP in Google Labs?

[Via lifehacker]

Genomes - How low can you go

EN: How many genes are really needed for life? The recent publication of the 160 kbp genome sequence of the symbiontic bacterium Carsonella ruddii gives new drive for the discussion of this question. I personally think that the discussions is one of the cases where we artificially try to draw a line following the human need to categorize things. The definition of how many genes are needed depends on the definition of life. Can I call an organism able to survive when testing this in an environment where I add amino acid, nucleotides etc. as supplement? Is the replication and amino acid synthesis machinery the essential factor? Well, what's then about the Mimivirus which has parts of this. The authors of the Carsonella ruddii article suggested a "organelle-like status" for the symbiont. Maybe we should accept that life is a continuum and that the question "how many genes are really needed for life" is just too unspecific.

Google Code Search

EN: Google Labs just lauchend Goolge Code Search - I think the name is selfexplaining ;). Searches can be perfomed with fixed strings or regular expressions. Nice that even the wanted license of the code can be specified in the query.

Update: There some nice posting (e.g. on O'Reilly's ONLamp or Bugle) about using this new service for searching for security bugs in software. It is again really interesting how much influence the interfaces has. The sources are out there for quite a while but Google gives now a possibilty to search certain patterns so easily. I hope this makes people more focused on security aspects when coding.

Be Open(BSD)

EN: The waiting is over: The OpenBSD project released the new artwork and song for the upcoming 4.0 release. The song is an homage to the source of inspiration for (nearly) every OpenBSD developer (at least at the parties): Humppa mostly coming in this form*. An additional track - OpenVOX - to the 10th anniversary of OpenBSD artwork can also be found on that site.

(*) If you want to listen to the combination of Humppa and OpenBSD developers I can recommend a radio show (**) recorded at the What the Hack.

(**) Please serve with Golden Drake.

Day against DRM

EN: Today is the official Day against DRM. Also have looke at the freshly started drm.info website.

[via netzpolitik.org]

Donate your GPS data to build maps

EN: Last weekend I was on a small meeting of computer affine people. Some are involved in interesting projects. One is OpenStreetMaps which has the aim to create street maps under a free content licence. Everybody can contribute by uploading GPS data of streets etc. using one of the easy to use interfaces. Sure you should always be aware of issues regarding privacy (as the data be traced back to your account) when participating.

Jörg who is quite involved in the project kindly lent me one of his GPS receivers so I can play around with it and send the data of my tours.

Intel's unfulfilled promises regarding open source

EN: Intel claims to be a supporter of the open source community (e.g. James Ketrenos on OSDL 2006), but reality looks absolutely different. The development and usage of software for Intel products is a pain because of (promised but) lacking support/documentation. Read a call on undeadly by Theo de Raadt (a little rude but hounest ... usual).

Update: Theo now also accuses Red Hat for their practice of signing NDA of hardware vendors. By doing so Red Hat reduces pressure on vendors to pusblish open documentation of the devices (necessary for coding open source drivers) and is working against the sprit of open source. Read more at undeadly.