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I won't list any provider or server here, but I just wan to share this uptime output:

[xxx]$ uptime
09:00:03 up 4:16, 7 users, load average: 524.02, 470.36, 446.18

Labels: english, rant, web

A new IM for the iPhone is out - Fring. It even allows to make calls using Skype - great! Unfortunately I used a very poor password (no, it's not test123) because I was to lazy to type and remember something long when I signed up on the phone. Can change it later anyways. Can I? At least the iPhone client does not offer any way to change the password. The Web site does not offer anything. The support wrote me:

Unfortunately, it is not possible to change the password you registered with.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you are not satisfied with the password you used, we suggest opening a new account.

Not very smart... so I stopped using the application - if I cannot change my password to protect my account, what else will not work?

Labels: english, iphone, rant, web

Yesterday Apple announced a new MacBook and a new MacBook Pro. While the overall design and the attention to detail is again amazing and sets Apple apart from its competition, the event itself and the amount of buzz was... missing? different? wrong?

I remember a while ago when Apple announced the iPhone - speculations around the Blogsphere, lots of self-drawn images, buzz everywhere. Will they? Or won't they? What will be included? And finally Apple delivered an amazing phone, that still beats all of its competitors in terms of usability and design. But since then - a mess with MobileMe, unresolved security bugs and missing features. Apple seems to loose its buzz?

Murphy Mac writes:

If you were looking for the blockbuster announcement you were at the wrong event. If there is one, we’ll know about it some time in December, when the Macworld rumors start leaking. Personally, Murphy hopes Apple has something big, and that they manage to keep it under wraps until the keynote. It’s more fun that way.

I could not agree more - let's hope Apple finds back to its roots, keeps it promises and "shocks" us positively with new, amazing gadgets!

(Image from apple.com)

Labels: apple, english, mac, rant

Everyone is writing about the new 2.1 firmware that Apple released for the iPhone - about improved battery life, increased 3G reception and so on. It is definitely a fine release with a lot of good improvements. But more important - what's still missing in the 2.1 firmware? Here is my (incomplete) list of items that Apple should add to the next iPhone firmware:

• Copy & paste across applications (see comic)
  
• Synchronize Notes and TODO items with iCal and me.com
  
• Push notification service for applications (promised for September!)
• Usage of the phone as modem ("tethering")
  
• Allow developers to talk about iPhone development in the public
• 3rd party syncing through iTunes
• Access to the iDisk through the iPhone
• Support for stereo Bluetooth headsets
• Real navigation (and a Bluetooth GPS extension for the first generation iPhone)
  

Don't get me wrong - the 2.1 release is the best iPhone software they have delivered so far, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Not only for the iPhone but also for me.com, which is insecure and lacks features like the iDisk sharing.

(Image from Geek And Poke)

Labels: apple, english, iphone, mobileme, rant

This morning I discovered that I have more than 1000 contacts in my "Personal Address book" within Thunderbird. What the he*k? Why are there so many duplicates, addresses from spammers, mailing lists etc. I definitely never added to my Personal Address Book? Seems to be mixed with the "Collected Addresses", where Thunderbird collects all this crap for me. But why?

I'm using the Sync Kolab plugin to sync my addresses between various computers using IMAP - a smart way of using the protocol to keep contacts in sync. Unfortunately I made a mistake when I setup Sync Kolab on a new computer - I mixed up "Collected Addresses" and "Personal Address book" which caused the mess. Not a big deal to fix - just change the settings, remove unwanted addresses and sync again. But wait - Sync Kolab does not really sync! It just adds addresses, but it never removes them. It also does not seem to detect obvious duplicates (same name, same address, same fields!). As soon as I start the sync process the locally removed addresses are added back to my Address Book. Not very smart. Resetting all the IMAP data does not work as well - the other computers will again add all the addresses.

So what are the alternatives to Sync Kolab? One option is to wait until Thunderbird 3 is released (end of 2008), as it supports the usage of the Mac Address Book. Which syncs itself using me.com. Which does real syncing including deletions and works flawlessy so far. There are costs involved, but that's fine as the syncronization between the Macs and the iPhone is really worth the money. Of course then switching to the Mac Mail application is an option as well, unfortunately it does not support everything Thunderbird does - Mac Mail seems to be more "basic" - but I'll leave that open for a future blog post. In the meanwhile feel free to research on your own.

Labels: english, mac, rant, sync, tech

Ja, laut Apple zumindest, ist SSL völlig unnötig. Warum und wie ich darauf komme, dies zu behaupten? Nun, ich maile schon seit einiger Zeit mit dem Apple-Support betreffend des Sicherheitsproblems von MobileMe. Und irgendwie kommt mir vor sie verstehen das Problem nicht - dass die Daten wie z.B. E-Mails, das Addressbuch oder Kalendereinträge unverschlüsselt zwischen meinem Rechner und den MobileMe-Servern übertragen werden. Was man nicht nur an der URL erkennen kann sondern sich auch sehr leicht mit z.B. Firebug, Fiddler oder Wireshark nachvollziehen lässt.
Nun schreibt mir aber der Apple-Support folgendes:

...die SSL-Verschluesselung stellt sicher, dass Sie mit dem richtigen Server verbunden werden und dass Ihr Benutzername und Passwort verschluesselt uebertragen werden.
Ein Aufzeichnen von Netzwerkverkehr ist nur moeglich, wenn das Netzwerk unsicher ist, d.h. das Passwort oder die Verschluesselungsart zu schwach ist bei WLAN-Netzen o.a..

Und genau darum geht es. Unsichere Netzwerke wie z.B. Hotspots. Oder einfach nur die Sicherheit, dass meine Kontakt-(Kunden?)-Daten nicht abgefangen werden können! Auf meine Bitte zur Klärung mit Technikern habe ich die folgende Antwort erhalten:

...es tut mir leid, dass ich nicht genauer auf die Sicherheit von MobileMe eingegangen bin. Tatsächlich basiert MobileMe auf Javascript und CSS, beides ist mit der neuesten Verschlüsselungstechnologie gesichert. Da alle Vorgänge auf unseren Servern ablaufen, ist kein SSL notwendig. SSL ist lediglich für den Loginvorgang notwendig, da dieser Clientseitig, also auf Ihrem Rechner passiert.

Aha. CSS ist also verschlüsselt. Genau. Und das Login passiert im Browser. Genau. SSL ist also wirklich völlig unnötig!

Labels: apple, deutsch, iphone, mobileme, rant, security

So ganz verstehe ich die Aufregung über die gesperrten Seiten in China ja nicht. Als ich letztes Jahr in China war konnte ich die Sperren ja am eigenen Leib spüren - so war z.B. die Wikipedia nicht erreichbar. Aber kein Problem, ein paar Klicks später funktionierte auch die Wikipedia sowie alle anderen gesperrten Seiten, alles überhaupt kein Problem.

Alles was man dafür benötigt ist

• ein Server zu dem man sich mittels SSH verbinden kann.
• ggf. MM3 Proxy Switch für Thunderbird und FoxyProxy für Firefox.
• ein klein wenig technisches Verständnis
• eine Anleitung welche sich sehr leicht finden lässt.
  

Fortan sind alle Verbindungen verschlüsselt, die "Great Firewall" kann nichts mehr ausrichten, da sie den Datenverkehr nicht sehen und die Verbindung daher nicht unterbrechen kann. Funktioniert perfekt und nicht viel langsamer - das Internet in China ist sowieso langsam, teilweise funktionierte es so sogar besser.

Liebe Journalisten - ihr solltet eure Verbindungen sowieso verschlüsseln, also wozu die Aufregung?

Labels: deutsch, rant, tech

Die EU-Kommission will im Frühherbst dieses Jahres erste Gesetzentwürfe zur Regulierung der Preise beim SMS-Roaming vorlegen. [...] "Nach Ansicht der ERG wäre eine Obergrenze zwischen 0,11 und 0,15 Euro pro SMS angemessen."

Na ich bin ja mal sehr gespannt, ob sich diese (sehr willkommene) Regulierung auch auf die Inlands-Preise auswirken wird; weil ein nicht näher genannter Mobilfunkanbieter in Österreich verlangt läppische 0,25 Euro pro SMS...

Labels: german, rant

Wow, finally Apple has launched MobileMe together with the iPhone 2.0 software. So time for a first test.

But wait - the so called "launch" itself was a fiasco. Apple had so much time to prepare everything and then users of the old .mac service have not been able to access their Mail and data for over a day! Wow.
After so much preparation and with so much media attention this must not happen. Not to Apple, no way.

Anyways, it happened. And there are other issues as well.... despite the fact that Apple integrated MobileMe with the iPhone 2.0 software (which is buggy and needs to be fixed as well) and it is super simple to use there are some issues:

• Missing encryption - only the authentication pieces are encrypted using SSL, everything else runs unencrypted. I don't want to transfer my mails, my contacts (!!!) or my calendar information unencrypted, so unless they use https for all of their tools this is a no-go.
• Announced features like file sharing are missing; Apple definitely has to deliver these promised features and has to continue improving the service.
  
• Buggy like hell - after working with the (smart and beautiful) Web interface for a while I already discovered a lot of display bugs where data is not rendered or settings are not persistent.
• I'm forced to buy iLife 08 as the gallery is not supported using iLife 06. Another 80 bucks to pay.
  

So... right now MobileMe is does a great job when syncing data between the iPhone and various Macs, as I don't need to sync manually, but the Web interface is insecure to use. A no-go. For now. Let's see how it evolves.

Labels: apple, english, iphone, rant, tech

In den USA werden Flugreisende wie Vieh behandelt. Jetzt soll ein neuartiger Sicherheitscheck die Stimmung verbessern - damit nervöse Attentäter leichter auffallen.

Na hoffentlich wird das bald flächendeckend eingeführt - weil von allen Security-Checks sind die in den USA die absolut nervigsten.

Der ganze Artikel auf Spiegel Online.

Labels: german, rant, usa