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April 24, 2008#

Hey Microsoft – I’m so annoyed! At least a bit!

Since quite a while Microsoft is pushing 64-bit operating system versions. In fact, talking about most of Microsoft’s current server products they’re even exclusively producing x64 versions. Now I’m a Windows Vista user since November 2006 and for half a year now I’m using the x64-version.

clip_image001[10]I’m quite satisfied with it as almost all of the hardware manufacturers of my devices provide the necessary drivers BUT I’m quite disappointed by Microsoft itself regarding their 2007 office series. I’m ok with its not being available as a 64-bit version, but I’m definitely not ok with messages like "Internet fax services are not available on 64 bit operating systems" which comes up when you click the Send as fax button in Word 2007. Same thing with Groove 2007 Filesharing Workspaces: "Filesharing workspaces are not supported on 64 bit operating systems". Neither is the Send to OneNote printer driver and as far as I remember the office problem solution assistant.

For months I’ve been waiting for a fix to this now, as none of the issues have

clip_image001[8]

been addressed with SP1. Today I found a note on this blog stating that Microsoft isn’t planning to take care of the Send to OneNote printer driver in the current 2007 version of Office at all. It’ll probably be fixed in the next version of OneNote but there’s not gonna be any patch, update or fix for the current version.

This really disappoints me! It’s not just that Microsoft is taking care of those things very slowly, seems they’re not even caring about them at all. Considering that Microsoft Office isn’t exactly the cheap or free open-source office suite this makes me really hate MS a little bit. It’s just not ok like this!

Although the blog post mentioned above doesn’t say anything about the Groove Filesharing Workspace and Internet Fax service issues with 64-bit operating systems, I’d be surprised if they were facing a brighter future than OneNote.

April 16, 2008#

Wow, Google! I’m so impressed now!

Just read the news that Google released a new beta version of it’s planetary explorer Google Earth which now includes 3D models of some of the bigger German cities, too. Among the Berlin and much to my liking Munich.

I gave it a try a few minutes ago and decided that this is definitely worth a quick (almost) real-time post. I activated 3D  buildings while having the map centered to Munich and all I could say was “Wow!”. Nothing more to say!

Have a look for your self:

munich 1

munich 2

munich 3

Get it here.

April 10, 2008#

ADS-B – Next Gen Air Navigation

This is nothing really new but something that is definitely overdue!

Given the background of my experiences at AENA and my studies, the video below (Source) which I found through Pogue’s Posts wasn’t actually much of a surprise for me but I think it gives a really good overview for non-pros! Besides, for me, it’s at least been a short update on the American state of the art and future plans as my personal knowledge tends to be a bit focused on the European on-goings.

For those among you who want to know a bit more then “ADS-B = AIRPLANE + GPS + COLOUR DISPLAY = COOL” and may be wondering how GPS with it providing a downlink only is to provide every airplane with other planes’ positions, have a look at the Wikipedia article on the topic. There you’ll find the details!

February 11, 2008#

Planes’ and Trains’ Locations! Live!

As I myself already got some experience with using Google Maps and Earth to display things such as stars (Web-based Planetarium) or Flight Simulator X aircrafts (FSXGET), I really like those two applications I’ve came over yesterday:

They’re both based on Google Maps, with the first one showing the realtime positions of Swiss trains…

train

… and the second doing the same for planes over Zurich.

flight

Absolutely awesome! The latter one comes really close to FSXGET just for the real world and looking at the technique behind reminds me of a passive radar I’ve seen in action during a visit to INDRA‘s plant in Madrid.

Besides, since my internship at AENA, I somehow just enjoy looking at realtime maps with planes moving around ;-)

January 29, 2008#

Booksthatmakeyoudumb

Anyone remember the wikiscanner, a tool cross-referencing IP ranges known to belong to a certain company with IP addresses of Wikipedia article edits, thus exposing which companies have edited their own Wikipedia entries (and what they’ve edited)?

I did really like this project unlike most politicians, governments and companies exposed by the tool I guess. Anyway, it’s time for Vol. 2! Books that make you dumb!

It’s from the same author again, this time cross-referencing colleges’ students’ average SAT scores with colleges’ most read books lists on Facebook and there you go. You’ll be able to tell what clever guys read and what dumb people read ;)

BooksthatmakeyoudumbHuge

Of course, one can argue about any causality in this and apparently not too few people were quite willing to do so as the author states on his website but there’s actually not a single word on his website blaming any of those books for dumbness or cleverness of its readers. Just consider it a fun thing and enjoy reading through the list!

January 29, 2008#

JA, JA, JAMILTON

Most people reading this probably won’t find it very funny. I do though!

I can’t say whether I like it more for its being a joke about Hamilton (I’m a Ferrari fan) or the Spanish stubbornness of pronouncing foreign words the way they fit best into their own language regardless of how they should be pronounced or how absurd they might sound, which puts another joke in the banner below. Anyway, I just couldn’t help smiling when I first saw it.

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(Source)

January 22, 2008#

Star Trek XI Trailer on the Web

Somehow this trailer has made its way to the web today. The movie itself is due December this year if I remember right. So till then, enjoy the trailer:

January 18, 2008#

Firefox vs. Internet Explorer

No, that’s not gonna be some ‘you should use Firefox because it’s better and faster and safer and…’-article. In fact, I don’t even like seeing those words on official or semi-official Firefox banners. I’ve been an IE user for years until five years ago I switched to Firefox and fell in love with it. I definitely prefer Firefox over IE but for various reasons and with ‘faster’ and ‘safer’ NOT being among them. Basically I just like it for the many extensions there are and a few details I really enjoy.

Anyway, few days ago, I came across an icon while surfing the web, which I just wanted to show.

  box_firefox

Though it might look this way, I just want to point out: I really don’t have any problem with IE. It’s a nice piece of software, too, and who ever likes it is free to do so! However, I like the idea of that icon! Close to the official one at first sight but with that but with those pearly white little details… ehh… and that blue ‘e’ ;-)  Just a creative, nice piece of art!

Oh… and by the way, that’s the usual icon you see on the web (with a little less salt and pepper):

Firefoxlogo2

March 8, 2007#

Take a close look with Google Maps!

As this article reports, some bloggers have found that Google Maps can be tweaked to show higher resolution images of at least certain regions of the world. This works only for very few regions but nevertheless, this example presents a quite astonishing view.

February 28, 2007#

Date lines vs. US Air Force jets!

Yet another software bug story that will be told by some wanna-be-cool computer science professor to his students 20 years from now. Have a look at this! Apparently, some geek managed to make the new F-22 jet’s computer crash as it crosses the date line. Wondering why this makes me think of Ariane rockets and Mars orbiters?!

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