Priceless Paintings from W7

Did you ever notice that LEO, the brilliant and free online dictionary, also sports voice output? I wasn’t sure about the correct pronunciation of a word, and the tool came to my rescue. Brilliant.

This appears to be based on the Linguatec Voice Reader, an impressive piece of kit that reads text out aloud, supporting a great number of languages. Most impressive.

I have no need for the Linguatec Voice Reader, but it can still make my day. You’ve got to try this: Go to the voice reader demo site (it’s right here), then enter a text of your choice. I chose this from last Friday’s post: Talking on the mobile phone while sitting in a toilet cubicle with the trousers round the ankles is, I find, hugely borderline and a sign of disrespect for the party called.

I am sure you’d be impressed by the tool. I am also sure you’d be hugely amused having it read text of one language using the language setting for another language. For example, have an English text read in French.

Cheap, harmless yet highly effective amusement. Thanks, Linguatec!

Thoughts, Web/Tech language, online world;

I never knew a reason to join twitter, but I am seriously contemplating doing so, ever since I heard that the US Library of Congress decided to archive every tweet ever made.

I think everyone should sign up to Twitter right away, and inundate them with so much inane babble (also known as a 140 character maximum tweet) that they stop such nonsense and focus on a more selective method of preserving knowledge and history.

They must be out of their minds, but it’s kind-a difficult to explain in 140 characters.

Thoughts, Web/Tech Internet, society, United States

How does one get from A to B these days?

Like almost everything else, you’d start by going online, and seek Google’s advise.

Google’s maps are superb after all, and their driving instructions excellent. Our collective blind reliance on Google as the world’s single source of information on almost anything is increasingly worrying. Not that I have reason to believe they do anything wrong, or filter or rate or present information in a way that I disagree with, but I grow increasingly uneasy about this whole thing.

Supersized media barons such as Axel Springer or Rupert Murdoch are tiny players in the information monopoly game, when you compare it to Google.

So, when it comes to journey planning within the UK, it turns out that there is an excellent, government-funded alternative: Transport Direct.

Unlike Google, Transport Direct only covers the UK.

Unlike Google, Transport Direct considers the use of sustainable transport (i.e. bicycles) and use of public transport in addition to regular use of roads and cars. They factor live travel news into the equation, compute the CO2 cost of a trip, know locations of car parks.

And, they aren’t run by Google.

Thoughts, Travel, Web/Tech Google, Internet, society

You might know that I drive very little. Working from home, regular use of public transport, and doing most of my day-in day-out shopping on foot means that my car is pretty stationary. I think I last used it in early January.

Which explains why I wasn’t surprised to find its battery flat. The car has seen little use and the battery got little charge thus. Add an unusually long and cold season, and it makes perfect sense. Inconvenient, but not alarming.

What’s next?

Find the old battery charger, and descent down onto memory lane just once again. I made this charger myself, back in ‘86, as part of my vocational training. When I say “made it myself,” I mean it: made the transformer from scratch (a hand-packed E-I core with self-calculated and wound coils), made the case from scratch (starting with a handful of screws, a welding kit and a piece of sheet metal). Fitted the electronics, engraved the front, – just about everything that one can make by hand in this thing is made by hand.

Which means that the charger must be worth an absolute fortune. I must have been working a week or more on it. To me, it’s worth much more still, and it is something I was immensely proud of when I took it out of the cupboard and brought it to good use on my flat car battery.

Prouder still when I re-connected the battery in the following morning. One turn of the key, and off we were.

Thoughts, Web/Tech car, human

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I suppose we all have gotten used to Email spam, and with reasonably modern filters in place, few should be bothered by too many offers of adult products, pills, cheap loans or a seven-digit figure inheritance waiting in Nigeria.

There’s blog spam, too. Thankfully, tools like Akismet filter it well, but I admit being pretty upset about this whole business.

Blog spam works by commenting on a blog post. The author would make any comment on anything. The comment itself, and the author’s details, would contain links to sites selling the unwanted products or services. So, while I am happy to ignore those links, I can’t help but reading some of these comments when checking the spam queue. Every time I do so, and every time, I want to shout insult at the author:

“Splendid article. Will definitely copy it to my blog. Thanks.”   I sure hope not, you idiot.

“Gerry, a very interesting post thanks for writing it!”  Can you even read? And who’s Gerry?

“How much money will a team get if they win the Premiership?”  Yeah right. Obviously very relevant to this blog.

“Are you a professional journalist? You write very well.”  At least I don’t insult people with irrelevant comments and unwanted hyperlinks. OK, partially guilty on my own site.

“Interesting and informative. But will you write about this one more?” Not until you learn the difference between one and once.

And so it goes on. I know. I should just be happy that Akismet filters most and ignore them, but somehow, these guys really wind me up. I mean, how low can a person sink?

Thoughts, Web/Tech Spam;

I’ve been looking at this web site’s statistics for a while now. Between almost 840 posts, the site covers almost anything under the sun – little of relevance, but a diverse spread of subjects, so that I get a good number of visitors from search engines such as Google, Windows Live (Bing), or, increasingly, Exalead.

It always amazes me to see through which search terms people find my site. Google users would, for example, search for Urban Karahi Hanwell or Pommes Dauphinoise and find my post that mentions the Urban Karahi restaurant in Hanwell (or the one about Pommes Dauphinoise).

On the other hand, Windows Live users seem to be searching for simple generic terms such as summer or geese – a broad search unlikely leading to success.

Would anyone know what is going on?

Are Google users way smarter than Windows Live users? Is someone building a meta-index through Windows Live? Will Windows Live not reveal the full original search term?

I am inclined to think it must be the latter, in which case Microsoft would be one small step ahead in the game of protecting surfers’ privacy. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Web/Tech Google, search engine;

You’ll all know Google, of course. Even the Oxford Dictionary knows about “to google,” a remarkable accomplishment and clever marketing. Few other companies have impacted daily life of so many people so severely, and so quickly.

However, one should never forget that others are really, really, keen to get a slice of Google’s market share, and thus breed pretty daughters, too.

Through some strange coincidence, I discovered Exalead recently. A strange name that won’t ever enter the English language and the Oxford Dictionary, but what the heck?

Hmm, pretty much like Google, I thought. Since Wolfram caused nothing but hype and disappointment so far, and because it was lunch time, I took a closer look.

Oh. Nice! Fast returns, and a nice clickable tool on the far right to narrow down the search. (Others have also found Exalead noteworthy.) The speed will probably reduce as their index and user base builds up, but for now, it’s really nice.

Next, I looked into the free Exalead desktop search tool (EDS) – Google Desktop Search (GSD)struggled with Outlook integration for some while now, and not having shares in Google, I felt free to try Exalead.

Oh. Nice, again! Super-fast indexing, and much better local search results than any other desktop search engine that I tried before. Although slower than GDS, EDS offers a superb tool to narrow down the local search results, much better than all the others.

I was just about to become an Exalead convert when I found out that the Internet search results simply weren’t as good as Google’s (although they were the second best that I have seen so far). Desktop search was brilliant, but incompatible with an essential software tool needed in my work (the Perforce source control client), so I had to give up on Exalead all together.

They never bothered to say Thank you when I told them about the incompatibility, so I guess it serves them right. T’is French anyway.

Web/Tech Google, search engine;, Semantic Web, Web Revolution, wolfram

The talk about the Hubble and Herschel space telescopes brought one of those crazy science project ideas out of the distant back of my brain back into the conscious part: to build my own telescope.

Not quite like this guy’s home-made 737mm reflector telescope, but something smaller, cheaper, and not as good. I’d still like to see if and how it works, so here’s the idea:

Take a 180..250mm parabolic mirror – a shaving mirror comes to mind. Determine its focal length (one quick experiment with one randomly chosen mirror gave approximately 700mm). Take a black plastic tube (drainage pipe?) of 1 1/2 that length, stick the mirror on one end, and a CCD module into the focal point, done. Possible use a small square mirror in the focal point, redirecting the beam to the camera mounted on the side.

I presume those mirrors aren’t really made to astronomical precision, so the resulting image would, if anything, be fuzzy, but it’s a start, is it not?

Once the principle is confirmed, take the mirror, mount it on a low-speed eccentric drive, pour a few drops of polishing fluid into it, add a handful of steel balls, and let this thing run for a month or so, thereby improving the mirror. A 33rpm turntable comes to mind.

Meanwhile, I could wake up and find my sanity again, but until this happens, I am still inclined to give it a go. It’s tempting, don’t you think?

Thoughts, Web/Tech astronomy

There’s quite a hype around Wolfram, a web 2 search engine that could change it all. You know what?

Change is needed, but Wolfram –as it stands today- is nowhere near it. The best thing is that Wolfram is polite about its failures: Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input it says to most of my queries. Queries that I know and trust and rely to succeed on Google.

There was a time when this site here came up top for Leberwurst West London and similar important queries. Although this site appears to have dropped somewhat in Google’s esteem, they’re still better than Wolfram’s pathetic Sorry.

What is needed is semantic analysis. Everyone knows that. Oh, yes. I should better stop rambling here and finish that Zemanta-based research tool which I drafted months ago, and put to sleep over the past few months.

It’s high time to show Wolfram its Eureka! moment.

Web/Tech Google, search engine;, Semantic Web, Web Revolution, wolfram

I mentioned Pandora some while ago. Pandora is a fantastic online music service, but sadly, Pandora is no longer available outside the USA. For the same reason –conservative RIAA and record label’s protectorate, I guess-, Rhapsody also never (yet) became available outside the US.

But, Spotify is now available to everyone in the UK, so that’s progress! Compared to Pandora and Rhapsody, the name Spotify is a regrettable step back, but as far as technology and content goes, it’s great.

It’s free and unlimited if you tolerate an advert every 3 songs. Register with them, download their player, search for an artist, select the album, hit Play – done.

Advert-free options are also available for a fee.

Go, Spotify!

Thoughts, Web/Tech music, online world;

There are no rainbow colours in my study any more. I used to have an impressive display of solid on and flashing LEDs in the traditional colours yellow, red and green, with all those prototype and development electronics I like to play with during paid working hours.

This week, I got a new laptop computer, a new docking station, a new power supply, and a new LCD display.

Because somehow, geeks like the blue light, my study is now illuminated by numerous blue LEDs, even in places where they weren’t strictly necessary.

I used to like the blue light, too, but I am growing rather annoyed about it.

Nothing wrong with yellow, red or green, or just a good colour mix, is there?

Thoughts, Web/Tech cool, light

Many people in Britain are concerned because the government will ask them, eventually and in all probability, to carry an identity card. Basically, the police will be able to stop you, ask for your Id card, and thus know who you are.

While the privacy concern about Id cards goes a bit further than that, I am baffled about the almost total lack of public discussion and concern about the many privacy issues related to email. I think much of the world is in a state of blissful ignorance in this regard. Did you know the UK governments plans to make your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to keep record of all your emails for a year, starting in March this year? Probably all under the popular anti-terrorism umbrella-excuse. It won’t work, not if you do as I say anyway, but that’s almost beside the point.

A long post today, but it is in the public interest. Really. Especially if you read this thinking Oh techno babble I won’t understand this. You must try.  It’s important. Here’s what most people should know, or decide to ignore, about email privacy:

Most private individuals use a ‘free’ email service such as Hotmail, Googlemail, Live Mail, or one of many others. There is no free lunch. These providers may scan emails, at least for the purpose of targeted advertising, and they may include little pictures at the end of a message, which allow tracking down the recipient to the exact PC where the message is being read.

Most people send and receive emails using insecure connections. Meaning, anyone between you and your email server could read your emails, and potentially scan them.

Almost everyone sends email messages without a digital signature. I should know, because my signed email messages cause confusion with some recipients. Only a message with a valid digital signature it guaranteed to originate where it claims to come from. People selling junk in my name won’t have my digital signature.

Almost nobody sends anything without an envelope in good old snail mail, but almost every email message gets exchanged unencrypted. This is the equivalent of discussing personal or business matters on a postcard. The difference is that the email message can be electronically read by many more machines than just your postman checking Autie’s holiday greetings from Florida.

I don’t mean to be a scaremonger. Most email providers don’t do the evil thing, but the point is that they could, and that –apparently- the government can introduce ever bigger Big Brothers without many people even noticing.

So, for privacy’s and sanity’s sake, please:

• Check if you can use secure connections when reading and writing emails.
• Prefer a real email account, such as the one provided by your ISP or by many independent providers, over a ‘free’ service.
• Consider using a digital signature to sign your messages. Even free SSL certificates are better than nothing.
• Think about what you send by email. Financial details, personal details or business details have no place in unencrypted emails.

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Thoughts, Web/Tech big brother, Britain, email, privacy, signatures

I was looking into ways of making sense of this. The buzzword is the semantic web, or web 3.0, but actually, this doesn’t stop at the web. The goal is to throw a piece of text, such as this article or any other textual information, written in a human language, at a machine.

The machine would then think about it, and reply with information that describes what the input text is all about.

This semantic analysis leads to better categorising, and better retrieval, of information. The next generation Google, if you want.

I was looking into OpenCalais first. They provide the first tier of such an analysis, extracting keywords such as Paris or England from a text, telling me one is a city and the other a country. That’s pretty nifty for a machine.

I even wrote a Windows Live Writer plug-in that tries to make sense of OpenCalais’ output, but I wasn’t really getting where I wanted to be. Well, not within an 8 hour effort anyway.

Then I found Zemanta, and I am in love.

While I am writing this article (in Windows Live Writer), the Zemanta plug-in automatically supplies clever links to enrich my text. All the links in this text are automatically generated by Zemanta; some explain keywords through Wikipedia, others go to Google Maps, or product or company home pages.

Zemanta also suggests images (none used here), keywords (tags), and provides a list of suggested external links, leading to other articles elsewhere on the web, concerned with the same issues.

Isn’t that totally super hyper übercool?

It is.

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• Zemanta
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Web/Tech OpenCalais, Search Engines, Semantic Web, Windows Live Writer, Zemanta

Unless you are seriously visually impaired, you’ll have noticed that things changed around here. This is because this blog has moved home since you’ve last been here. It is no longer hosted by Typepad, but now resides on my own system (thanks to WordPress and Dreamhost) – saved one of two annual bills. Nothing else wrong with Typepad, it’s just an unnecessary expense. I wanted to switch for some while, but only now have I finally figured out how best to do this.

It’s nothing for the faint-hearted (let alone for the not technically aware), but once I understand the ramifications, it is actually fairly straight-forward.

So, errr…. during the transition period, you might get a few glitches if you access through http://www.gauweiler.net. The simple workaround is to go to http://blog.gauweiler.net instead, if you have difficulties.

I also went through great lengths to preserve comments and links to images or other, previously posted, articles. Some are broken (ignore or report, as you wish), but most should actually work.

People who have commented before may have to go through a one-off approval step (I think). Let me know if anything doesn’t work.

There’s a bit of work left to do, and I beg your patience. For example, the arts gallery isn’t here yet, but you You can always view my paintings at http://fotos.gauweiler.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=280, so that’s a start http://gallery.gauweiler.net/index.php?album=paintings.

Enjoy, and continue coming back!

Thoughts, Web/Tech

With a horrific squeaking noise, but without any advance notice, my Epson Stylus Photo R220 printer died only a few days ago. The sound was pretty unambiguous. Something had gone seriously wrong, mechanically. I am sure it will still print just fine, if it could only move the paper…

How come these devices only ever make it to their third anniversary, if that?

Some of the low-cost inkjet printers sell for roughly the price of a set of ink cartridges, so maybe it is true that the printer manufacturers are actually ink makers, who throw in free printers. So anyway, I had to call it a day – and had to spend a good number of hours choosing the new printer.

Device cost. Cartridge cost. Reviews. Expected lifetime. Ability to refill individual colours versus a single multi-colour cartridge. Cost per page in black and white. Cost per page in color. The desire to have a really nice printer. The desire to make a sensible purchase.

Honestly, I am overwhelmed by the task to balance all those factors. There might be more difficult decisions in life, but choosing a replacement printer must rank pretty high on that list.

In the end, I chose a Samsung CLP-315 Colour Laser Printer. The cost comparison might just work out if the device makes it through three years. I am certainly happy to confirm that the print quality is superb.

I am curious regarding the lightfastness of the prints. This was poor with ink; the ink prints change colour pretty quickly when exposed to light. We’ll find out; I have a number of reference prints for comparison.

Thoughts, Web/Tech Laser, Laser Printer, Samsung;