ArnosWiki

WRT54GL Uptime

2013-06-18T08:31:31+02:00

WRT54GL Uptime

This morning I was curious and checked the status of my WLAN AccessPoint (which works fine by the way)… more then 10 months uptime:

GoPro Hero 3 White

2013-06-06T10:01:20+02:00

GoPro Hero 3 White

Update 2013-06-06: The Video is now in the original resolution of the camera but with a lower bit rate.

I'm already planning for a while to document the situation on bicycle paths in Augsburg from the view of a bicycle driver as video. Now I have found the camera for this – a “GoPro Hero 3 White”.

The following example video is one of the first test drives and reduced in quality to keep the amount of data within reasonable limits:

(If Flash is installed, you can watch a video inside this web page.)

Alternative: Download as DivX-Video (~83 MB)

Periodical 0.13

2013-05-21T12:51:45+02:00

Periodical 0.13

A new version of Periodical is available with the following changes:

French translation updated (thanks Sébastien!)
Added a separate layout for landscape view
Increased resolution of the overlay icons for MDPI devices

The planned features for the future versions include the possibility to record additional details for each day (temperature, state of the cervical mucus etc.) and an improved calendar view with multi colored tiles.

Skype and Privacy

2013-05-16T08:02:10+02:00

Skype and Privacy

Recently Heise reported in a news that a privacy problem in Skype was found: Microsoft would read the content of transmitted messages and also access websites whose URLs where named in the message.

Really a problem?

At least at ZDNet there is a different view. In fact there are HTTP HEAD requests on servers whose URLs where named in Skype text messages and Microsoft also explained the intention for this. The discovery by Heise that also confidential data in the URL, as usernames and passwords, also appear is completely correct – but not a problem of Skype. You can of course argue if there is access to intercept conversations for the administration – but who is transmitting confidential data using a service like Skype unencrypted must not expect that those data will never be read by a third party. For e-mail there is also no guarantee that no one has access to the data on the way.

Skype may show the risks of unencrypted transmission – but those risks are independent of Skype. One possible solution would be “OTR” which is used in alternative Skype clients (e.g. IM+ for Android) to encrypt the messages. Also possible would be GnuPG – even when this is a bit more complicated in handling it would be totaly sufficient for occasional usage.

Periodical 0.12

2013-05-14T23:55:19+02:00

Periodical 0.12

It did not very take long this time…

The quite simple and also not completely clear symbolism in Periodical bothered me already for a while – but now I finally improved this as well (and also simplified the handling of the GUI internally a lot).

Periodical 0.11

2013-05-12T19:09:12+02:00

Periodical 0.11

There is a little extra in Periodical: The day of ovulation is now being calculated and displayed in the calendar.

Old Frenchman

2013-05-04T13:07:12+02:00

Old Frenchman

Yesterday I visited the Bikekitchen in Augsburg for the first time (and I already could make myself useful and help others in repairing and centering wheels ). During my visit I also noticed the old Frenchmen which was in an exceptional good condition – a Peugeot PX-10, nearly in mint condition.

Soon a discussion took place including the hint that this nice piece will be offered on saturday at the bicycle flea market. The frame size of 58cm was exactly fitting me… so I just could not resist. Following a picture, how it was offered by Bikekitchen (a click on the picture opens a larger version):

Source: Bikekitchen Augsburg

The condition is execptional when taking the age into account and I will let be mostly like this. Just a few little things will be changed:

The brake pads became hard and squeal pitiful. I will replace them soon (the guys of Bikekitchen already offered me to give me other pads)
The saddle is a bit too low. Since the existing seat post can not be extended any more I will eventually get a longer one.
The pedal straps will be removed.
I will swap the brake cables – the front on the right side and the back on the left side, since I am used to this on my other bicycles.

stoersender.tv

2013-04-05T21:20:35+02:00

stoersender.tv

(Sorry, German only)

Already noticed? Dieter Hildebrandt launched http://stoersender.tv. Here the first episode – “Finanzkasinokapitalismus”:

More about this see Website von stoersender.tv and the interview at http://gutjahr.biz/2013/04/stoersender/.

The next winter may come

2013-04-01T19:48:34+02:00

The next winter may come

I must admit… slowly I am losing the desire for cold weather, ice and snow. But I have made provisions for the next winter: The fenders on my winter bicycle are finally mounted. Unfortunately the picture is not very good – but you should get the idea anyway:

Periodical 0.10

2013-04-01T00:06:27+02:00

Periodical 0.10

This weekend I worked on Periodical to improve it a bit. The most important changes:

The color scheme was reworked once again and focused calendar entries are now displayed properly.
When you select entries in the detail list, the corresponding month in the calendar is displayed.
There are now icons for devices with low and high display density (ldpi, hdpi, xhdpi).

The wish by one user to have partial coloring of the days during the transitional periods was not forgotten – this will just need some more time since I want to rewrite the code for the calendar display before this will be implemented.

SKS Secu-Clip

2013-03-17T17:44:29+02:00

SKS Secu-Clip

For many years the stays for the fender at the front wheel of my every day bicycle were mounted directly at the fork without any clip. The problem: If any debris gets between the fender and the tire or into the spokes, this can lead to severe accidents when the fender is pulled up and the stays don't release.

Also see: article in “Tour” 12/1995 (German), a picture of a severe damaged front wheel due to the fixed stays.

Therefore I decided to change that before I will experience this kind of problem on my own (ouch!).

A solution is also known for a long time: “Secu-Clip” by SKS. This is a special fixation made of plastic which gets mounted to the fork and in which you then insert the lugs of the fender stays. Some fenders by SKS are equipped with these clips as standard. But you can purchase them separately as well, for example at BIKE-COMPONENTS.DE. The final result looks like on the following picture:

SKS Secu-Clip on my every day crosser

The stays usually have to be shortend a bit which is no big deal when using a bolt cutter. The original screws with a length of about 10 mm were too short and had to be replaced with longer ones as well.

The advantage of “Secu-Clip” to the integrated plastic clips which SKS uses for some fenders regularly (for example “Bluemels”): This kind of fixation is much more solid and the fender does not wiggle so much.

Again attacks of SSL/TLS

2013-03-15T12:23:07+02:00

Again attacks of SSL/TLS

As Matthew Green reports in his blog entry, RC4 has to be seen as broken and is therefore not secure any longer. Yet there is no practically useable exploit – but this is mostly just a question of time.

New BD recorder

2013-02-27T08:53:08+02:00

New BD recorder

Since my old DVD recorder developed problems with Video DVDs, i got a BD recorder for myself – the LG BH16NS40.

More about this in my review...

GPS for the bicycle

2013-02-20T08:33:55+02:00

GPS for the bicycle

Since i've been using a GPS navigation system on the bicycle since the sommer 2012, there are now some articles about this. Also see GPS for the bicycle und Garmin Oregon 450.

Emphasize authorship in Google

2013-02-17T18:27:53+02:00

Emphasize authorship in Google

For some time Google offers the opportunity to embed your own profile picture from Google+, as seen on the following detail:

Bicycle as solution

2013-02-11T19:01:21+02:00

Bicycle as solution

Especially in Germany the transport policy is often half-hearted when it comes to the topic “bicycle”, and in discussions people often talk about “rambo cyclists” or “combat cyclist” – see for example http://www.eltern-im-netz.net/kolumne/die-bedrohung-der-rambo-radler/, http://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/menschen_und_schlagzeilen/videos/menschenundschlagzeilen1513.html or http://www.lokalkompass.de/wattenscheid/leute/hoehere-strafen-fuer-rambo-radler-umfrage-der-woche-d158225.html.

The Netherlands generally are known as the bicycle country in Europe – and many people may think “of course – the people in the Netherlands don't have long distances… they don't need cars for their daily commute anyway”.

Wrong – even in the Netherlands there was a trend towards having your own car in 1970ies and towards a mostly car-centric transport policy. Nevertheless there was a change as well, as the following video shows very impressive:

Android as it should be...

2013-02-09T03:09:18+02:00

Android as it should be...

Recently i installed CyanogenMod 9 on my Xperia sola and i'm really enthused .

By the way... “SRT AppGuard”

2013-02-03T21:07:31+02:00

By the way... “SRT AppGuard”

Recently one of my conversational partners in a discussion about “security in Android” mentioned an article of “PC-Welt” which, amongst other things, also recommends “SRT AppGuard” as a tool to improve the security of apps (as of February 2013, also see http://www.pcwelt.de/ratgeber/Android-Sicherheit-erhoehen-App-Rechte-beschraenken-5842959.html – i already contacted the editoral staff, maybe this article was already changed or removed).

In short: You should not use SRT AppGuard and there are good reasons why this app was removed from the Google Play Store a while ago!

E-Mail for Android

2013-01-31T09:13:14+02:00

E-Mail for Android

Recently i used K-9 Mail on my Android smartphone (version 4.200). In particular the support for IMAP IDLE and the possibility to use PGP with AGP was very welcome. However, i also noticed that the battery consumption was extremely high from time to time – sometimes the battery was nearly empty after just 10 hours, even with very little usage of the device.

A look into the battery statistics of Android confirmed what i already assumed: K-9 Mail kept the device running all the time and therefore caused the major energy consumption. Now i will try Maildroid. Although Maildroid does not support AGP and the ad-free version is not quite cheap at 14 EUR, it would be worth it for me if the battery consumption would be considerably lower – because a mobile device which will not stay usable even one day does not work for me.

A bicycle made of cardboard...

2013-01-28T20:18:54+02:00

A bicycle made of cardboard...

On http://jugendstilbikes.de/fahrrad-aus-pappe/ i found a very interesting video… a bicycle made completely of cardboard… see http://vimeo.com/37584656.