This is a test posting. Please ignore it.

More than 25 years ago I was struggeling with an old SHARP MZ80-K computer to teach myself assembly language and to start tiny automation projects using its parallel port.

Es ist mal wieder Freitag…

As promised at the Swyx Technology Conference 2011 (21.06.2011) Swyx is releasing one of the many breakout sessions to the internet.

I am still unhappy with all the tools I have found so far to show the video and the presenation synchronized simultaneously. There are a couple of tools arround (with very nice features I have to admit), but they all come with uncaculateable costs.

To not let you wait any longer you will find below the video and the presentation mixed together als QuickTime (mp4) movie, as also the presentation (ppt, pptx) itself.

I have to admit it: sometimes I really hate DotNetNuke, the content management system behind Swyx Forum.

Why?

Once in a while it happens that I need my call routing script to be able to play announcements in different languages, depending on the caller’s location.

With this article series I want to provide some best practice for how to handle such requirements. Part 1 will deal with own announcements (self recorded), Part 2 which will follow soon will deal with system announcements (being provided by SwyxWare, like dates, times or numbers).

In 1901 divers found an ancient sort of computer in a old ship wreck near the Greek island of Antikythera. This device is since then called the Antikythera mechanism. In 2006 the mechanism was x-rayed and it functionality was revealed.

Now Andrew Carol, a software developer working for Apple, rebuild the mechanism out of 1.500 Lego bricks, including 110 spur gears.

Today I just want to share some nice websites with you being provided by the University of Nottingham.

The successor of my current HTC Touch Pro 2, the HTC 7 Pro, looks quite promising. Only drawback: I’ll have to wait till spring next year

Do you know the website http://www.ted.com/ ?

TED is a platform to collects important speeches and ideas from important persons of our time. The page does not give advantage to any area of living, in fact it covers everything: science, religion, politics and even cooking.

I have lots of different fields of interest, as you might have already figured from my previous blog posts. There is for example polar exploration, science history, early cultures and archaeology on a really long list.

There are two fields which are especially nowadays filled with so much impressive development, breathtaking news nearly every day that keep me more or less stunned like a little boy: astronomy and space flight.

With websites like scienceblogs.com, apod, eso, nasa and astronews it is easy to keep up with all the latest developments.

While I was searching today within my numerous script folders of past projects I’d found a couple of useful functions I want to share. (I wonder why I didn’t do so before…).

I have posted them into the forum and linked them in the SwyxPEDIA Wiki here on Swyx Forum. Some of them where actually already available in some older forum posts.

So, if you are looking for ECR scripting inspiration you might want to take a look into the SwyxPEDIA Wiki (scroll down until SwyxWare Development).

Hello everbody !

I am very proud to announce the availability of the Conference Room Manager open source project on Swyx Forum.

The Conference Room Manager for SwyxWare allows users or administrators to setup Conferences based on the built-in Conference Function. An unlimited number of Conference Rooms can be booked through a customizable, Multilanguage-capable Webinterface that allows flexible setup of Conference Time, Users to invite and PINs.

I hope, this is just a bad dream …

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.

;-)

Communities live or die from the willingness of their members to actively take part. The more people actively take part, the more every single community member participates. This of course includes the passive as also the active members.

If a member becomes an active part of a community or stays passive in the background, silently listening to what’s going on, depends on his personal liking. There shouldn’t be any pressure to “promote oneself” if it is not wanted.

I for myself can say, that I gained a lot from communities (in a professional perspective). My first modem more than 20 years ago brought me into BBSs to meet people being able answering my questions and to my very surprise they were willing to do so. Over the time the (electronic) world evolved and I spent more time on CompuServe then in local BBSs. Suddenly I was able to meet people, talk to people, ask questions to people I had books in my bookshelf from. What an overwhelming experience"! And still these people, although living on...

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John introduces you to Apple's latest invention.

but this really looks fantastic

The both videos in my previous post should have given you already a rough idea of perspective. Here’s another one that clearly states: we are not the centre of the universe !

In 1977, Charles and Ray Eames made a nine-minute film called Powers of Ten that still has the capacity to expand the way we think and view our world. Millions of people have seen the film, and it continues to be shown in classrooms, business meetings, festivals and retreats around the world. Starting with a sleeping man at a picnic, the film takes the viewer on a journey out to the edge of space and then back into a carbon atom in the hand of the man at the picnic, all in a single shot. It is an unforgettable experience.

Each October 10th, the Eames Office celebrates Powers of Ten Day to promote and share this method of viewing ideas from an infinitesimal to a cosmic perspective.

Have you ever thought of constructing your own machine ?

Well, this might be a good inspiration for the beginning…

Martin posted a fascinating Lego video this week. Well, when it comes to toys, Lego is not the only thing coming to my mind: of course a model railway is on top 1 of my favourite toys ;-)

Located in Hamburg, Germany, is the by far largest model railway of the world, the Miniatur Wunderland. I have been there countless times being amazed by the creativity, the technology and the size of it.

For some time they are working now on the next huge section, not directly expected on a model railway, but it fit's perfectly: a model airport, with starting and landing planes, taxing to the terminal, getting pushed back, cars busses and tankers driving around, and of course some trains as well.

Would you buy this 37-inch flat screen TV for $100 ?

Looks somehow strange, doesn't it ?

Well, honestly, it is no flat screen. But what is it ?

This year's Swyx Forum staff meeting (SFSM) took place in Oslo last week. These are the brief meeting minutes of day 2.

This year's Swyx Forum staff meeting (SFSM) took place in Oslo last week. These are the brief meeting minutes of day 1.

Last week Swyx Forum silently celebrated it's second birthday. Even I wasn't invited to the party on the server ;-)

About a year after founding Swyx it was time to represent SwyxWare the first time to the public at CeBIT 2000. For this event Swyx Marketing produced a small video showing the advantages of CTI.

Enjoy

If this has been produced 25 years ago, the world would defiantly be a different one today !

• Commodore 64 Original Hardware Laptop

Just imagine that...

It's been 400 years since Galileo Galilei pointed for the first time in history the newly invented telescope (a set of lenses) into the skies instead of using it for military purpose (for which it was invented for). He quickly discovered that the sky is much larger than expected and things up there do not match with current believes about how the world is functioning. The "knowledge" back then was highly influenced by the church(es) i.e. religions.

He first discovered that the moon is not flat but instead found craters and mountains to be plastic (3D) objects.

When pointing his telescope to the Jupiter the first time he figured three new stars close by the planet. The next night he was quite surprised that these "stars" had moved and also a fourth "star" appeared additionally. He concluded that these were no stars but instead moons orbiting around...

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In direct response to Morten's blog Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

Here is the conclusion...

If you read yourself through all the blogs world wide these days you find that nearly everyone has to say something about Evolution or Charles Darwin. Even those who are more after Creationism.

Do you think the NHL finals or this years Super Bowl where breathtaking ?

Forget about the ICC Cricket World Cup, the Dakar Rally, the Volvo Ocean Race, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships or the Olympic Games.

The new and most exciting sport of the year 2009 is Submarine Racing !

 Don't take the following news flash too serious...

It is nearly weekend (just a few moments from now) and it is definitely time for the weekend fun ;-)

It's about weekend soon, so let's prepare our self for the night in the cinemas with a couple of movies of all genres.

According to my forum post I have updated the blog module at Swyx Forum which comes with a new Windows Live Writer interface (MetaWebLog API). This posting just tests this interface as it is written using Windows Live Writer.

Halloween is not far and it's time to prepare your little ones. My advice is to start with good stories to read as bed times stories. Maybe Steven King is not the best choice...

As a follow-up to my last Fridays post the following is an episode of Bremner, Bird and Fortune, a satirical British television program. John Bird (in the guise of investment banker, George Parr) and John Fortune (together known as the Long Johns) explain a fictitious crash of the money market.

The interesting thing on this is: it was already recorded last year !

It is Friday afternoon and the financial markets are going crazy. The following is both: Friday afternoon fun and an easy to understand explanation of what's going on.

As there is a national holiday in Germany tomorrow (German Unity Day) my "Friday fun post" is one day early.

Regardless if you like your browser to get a unique ID from Google during setup or not: Chrome's

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Richard Feynman was one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists and original thinkers of the 20th century. He rebuilt the theory of quantum electrodynamicsm, and it was for this work that he won the Nobel Prize in 1965.

I mentioned it more than once here that I am a great fan of Jim Henson's The Muppet Show. I think we all grew up with this fantastic and phenomenal show and Kermit & Co burned them self into our hearts. It is outstanding what one (or many) can do out of some puppets and great talent and inspiration.

I told you already that I love the Muppet Show. Today I have some more brilliant snippets on YouTube for you: Statler & Waldorf

I know, we Germans are known as having the worst bureaucracy in the world. And I tell you what: it's true !

Microsoft has announced that from November, 1st 2008 it will no longer be possible to license Windows 3.11 for Workgroups.

I know, it's not Friday yet. But this one can't wait !

Since the dawn of time, man has looked to the heavens and wondered: where did the stars come from? He has looked at the great diversity of plants and animals around him and wondered: where did life come from? He has looked at himself and wondered: where did I come from?

Later, he began to ask more complicated questions. He looked in his wallet and asked: where did my paycheck go? Am I on the right bus? Who do you like in the series?

To the former questions, at least, science has provided answers.

If coffee isn't working any longer for you ...

It is Friday (and even the 13th) and therefore time for some fun !