Bash script of the day: New .de domains

The one-liner:

for i in `echo {{a..z},{0..9}};echo {{a..z},{0..9}}{{a..z},{0..9}}`;do dict -d all -C ${i}de>/dev/null 2>&1; if [ "$?" == "0" ];then echo $i.de; fi done

or the equivalent multi-liner:

for i in `echo {{a..z},{0..9}};echo {{a..z},{0..9}}{{a..z},{0..9}}`;
  do
    dict -d all -C ${i}de >/dev/null 2>&1;
    if [ "$?" == "0" ]; then
      echo $i.de;
    fi
  done

No comment (*cough*)

(P.S. That’s for ASCII alphanumeric domains only)

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? ;)

Windows Vista or The Holy Grail of Usability

Fine. After years (heck, even decades!) of staring into distorting, flickering, radiating and mirrorlike CRT screens we finally managed to banish those darn things from our desks and to use distortion-free, flicker-free, radiation-free, coated TFT screens instead. Time to put glares and reflections back into the GUI (just try to read the labels on the taskbar)! Hallelujah! ;)

(I bet Microsoft will get back to this once the dust has settled. Apple made a similar experience with Aqua’s transparency effect which was significantly reduced in later versions.)