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Archive for the 'General' Category
Duvet-Dayz: Web Site Problems
As you might have realized due to infrastructure issues at our ISP the Duvet-Dayz web site was not reachable during the last 24 hours. Thanks for popping by again and sorry for the issues.
Below the sad workload diagram of a database server bobbing along without being used and reduced to an expensive heating device.
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Duvet-Dayz: Some Upgrades completed
We finally have completed the first part of our complete web site overhaul last night and can now start over again to post stories and news on interesting things.
There are still many glitches and issues e.g. with white spaces and differences between IE and Firefox or other web browsers but these will be gone once our new layout will be released within the next days. So far we have implemented the underlying “plumbing” and because of issues with some of the plug-ins we used in the past we were forced to touch every post we have written in the past two years.
Anyway we hope that the new layout and features that are now possible will compensate for the wait. We are currently also evaluating if we will make some of the new features - particularly the semantic web features in the pipeline - available as plug-ins for public use.
Many thanks for your patience and sorry for the delays. From today on we will do what we hope will let you all come back frequently to Duvet-Dayz.com - put up new stories and news.
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Duvet-Dayz: Upgrade of site 2
We are still working on the site upgrade and it now seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel. The first part of the upgrades should become available during tomorrow night or latest during next Monday.
After that we will also be able to resume posting new stories to the site.
Many thanks [...]
Duvet-Dayz: Upgrade of site
We are currently upgrading this site and it is taking longer than expected.
New posts will be back during the second half of this week.
Sorry for the delay…but that upgrade was overdue for more that a year and we unfortunately have to do most of it manually - meaning we have to touch each of [...]
Joseph Weizenbaum is dead
Joseph Weizenbaum died yesterday in Berlin as a result of a stroke at the age of 85.
Throughout his life he has provided many outstanding contributions to computer science and AI. After he created the first banking computer in the world while working for General Electric he took up a position at the MIT as professor for applied and political science. In 1966 he published “ELIZA” - his best know work - and the first computer program demonstrating natural language processing. His academic contributions include the creation of the SLIP (symmetric List Processor) programming language and research on pointers, list structures and garbage collection schemes.
Over the years he also became one of the strongest critics of computer science and a society that blindly believes into technology. His influential book “Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment To Calculation” displayed his grown ambivalence towards computer technology. Many concepts from this book have by now become common understandings like, for example, how programmers are seen by society or his critics of the promises by AI.
In one of his last mails “Joseph Weizenbaum” wrote: (translated from German)
“…our death is the last service we can provide to the world: Would we not go out of the way the following generations would not need to re-create human culture. Culture would become fixed, unchangeable and die. And with the death of culture humanity would also perish…“
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Humor: (Dada) Time Waster web sites (2)
Also in the best tradition of the “dadaist nihilistic movement” from the 1920s, this site neither does anything nor provides any useful information - but in difference to the two others we have introduced in a “previous post” this one also has some kind of political aspect and if it’s just a name.
The web site with the title “B.O. Is Your New Bicycle” provides you with a new teaser line every time you click on the text.
Our favorite so far: “B.O. spent the afternoon setting up your router”…
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Quote of the day: Know your enemy
One of Sun Tzu’s maxims from his book The Art of War:
“If you are ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, then you are a fool and certain to be defeated in every battle.
If you know yourself, but not your enemy, for every battle won, you will suffer a loss (half and half).
If you know your enemy and yourself, then you will win every battle.
“Sun Tzu”, Chinese general and strategist ca. 500BC
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Happy Holidays from Duvet-Dayz.com
We would like to thank all our readers for their support and their feedback.
Best wishes and safe, happy holidays!
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A new type of spam
Everybody who runs a web site or blog knows what I’m talking about - SPAM
To us it is a continuous phenomenon that people are clogging the web with nonsense like this.
Pharmaceuticals, enhancements of your body parts, people doing things in front of cams you name it…
But luckily there is help around and I’m sure almost anybody is using spam filters today. We for example receive an average of about 1,000 smd (spam messages per day) these days - our “record day” was beyond 10,000 - but hey it takes one click and they are gone.
But now there are some new types of messages coming around of which we would like to highlight two:
The first one (pictured below) uses a cop/paste legitimate text from documents or books to look like a normal comment. Well two things: First the text normally is not related to the post - bye-bye. Second, if you have a closer look you might realize that its just cut out from a document…
The second one is potentially more dangerous…
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Data visualization: Extinction timeline
The author of this “timeline of extinction” from 1950 to 2050 - the dates for “things” after which their existence has become insignificant - says himself that it should not be taken too seriously.
It ranges from WW1 to Ugliness and includes “Getting lost” (between 2010-2020), work free weekends or Paris Hilton (both around 2025), retirement (between 2010-2020), the Maldives, Microsoft and many more
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