Reclaiming a zombie nick/session in IRC

Sometimes, it happens that one’s IRC session isn’t terminated properly (i.e. when the IRC client crashes). When logging in again, you may not be able to login with your real nickname (‘mynick’) and have to temporarily use another nickname (let’s say ‘fallbacknick’). The easiest solution to this problem is declaring the zombie session as a ghost with the help of nickserv. You can do this with an IRC nickserv command similar to this one:

/msg NickServ GHOST mynick mypassword

Afterwards, you can reclaim your original nickname again:

/nick mynick

The complete help page about this nickserv command:

***** NickServ Help *****
Help for GHOST:

GHOST disconnects an old user session, or somebody
attempting to use your nickname without authorization.

If you are logged in to the nick’s account, you need
not specify a password, otherwise you have to.

Syntax: GHOST <nick> [password]

Example:
/msg NickServ GHOST foo bar
***** End of Help *****

Jingproject, screencast.com and Logitech G9 Laser Mouse SetPoint 5.0

I’ve just installed the free (as in ‘free beer’) Jingproject client by that allows to capture screenshots or screen videos and store or upload and share them (e.g. on screencast.com). It’s amazing, how easy and convenient it is to use – good job! There are clients for both Windows and Mac OS X (which will likely be important for me very soon as I intend to buy a new MacBook Pro with LED backlit display and a Penryn Core 2 Duo processor). The only thing missing is a Linux client (but we’re used to that, aren’t we? ;). Jingproject is provided by TechSmith, the creators of the well-known (and also great) SnagIt screen capture application.

Here’s an example of a screencast I just recorded (no sound, though):

Logitech G9 Laser Mouse SetPoint 5.0 German

It shows the great variety of configuration options you have for customizing your Logitech G9 Laser Mouse using SetPoint 5.0. The Logitech G9 Laser Mouse is Logitech’s latest “gamer” mouse and the best and most accurate mouse I ever used. I bought it though I’m not much of a “gamer” actually, but the form factor, features and its high quality convinced me. It’s quite a small mouse compared to other mice, but that’s intentional as you move it with your fingers rather than with your wrist or arm. This makes it a very user friendly (and particularly gamer friendly) pointing device as you’re much quicker in pointing and clicking while using less energy. The small form factor however might be a problem for you if you have really big hands (check it out in the next hardware store before you buy!).

Further, it’s a mouse with a cord, so you don’t need to worry about batteries, lag or interferences. So in short, I highly recommend the Logitech G9 Laser Mouse. For me, the only minuses are its rather high price and the fact that there is no SetPoint for Mac OS X (let’s hope Logitech will port it soon).

9 out of 10 points from me.

Air traffic for ZRH/LSZH: A Google maps mashup

The Air Traffic Google maps mashup (provided by ZHAW) that displays departing and arriving planes at Zurich airport has received quite some media attention. It’s not fully real-time for technical and security reasons (fear of terror attacks, as usual) and when observing the airplane lineup during the approach to runway 28 I noticed that some planes were not displayed (I don’t know the reason however). A nice idea nonetheless.

From an inflationary to a cyclic universe?

I have to admit that due to lacking knowledge in this area (and very limited knowledge in cosmology, physics and mathematics in general), I couldn’t really follow all ideas and models proposed in the popular new cosmology book “Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang” by Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok. So don’t ask me whether I favor one over the other model – I simply can’t judge them, not even from a theoretical point of view. For me as a layman, it’s an interesting reading though already for the fact that the idea of a cyclic universe challenges the very popular, widely believed and almost taken-as-a-fact view of an inflationary universe.

For a next book about this topic though I would prefer one that puts more emphasis on mathematical formulae and derivations rather than prose as I would like to be able to better understand the proposed models and logical consequences. I’d be fine if I was presented a solution to highly complex mathematical equations I couldn’t solve myself (even with the help of Mathematica) as long as I get to know the underlying mathematical formulae and the confidence that others can verify the statements. With prose only in (popular) scientific books I always feel a bit “cheated”. And often, 200 pages of prose equal 10 pages of formulae, so I prefer the latter.

It would be great if the scientific community could find some experimental evidence for or against one or another model in the next couple of years, but that might be the even bigger challenge than the theoretical one, according to this blogpost on Not Even Wrong.

Security through obscurity

[..] bei Sportgrossveranstaltungen wie der UEFA EURO 2008™ ist es üblich, dass die Eintrittskarten erst wenige Wochen vor Turnierbeginn gedruckt und versandt werden. Dies ist im Sinne der Sicherheit und verkleinert das Risiko, dass die Tickets den Karteninhabern vor den Spielen abhanden kommen.[..]

Isn’t it nice how the “EURO 2008 SA” cares for us? ;)