Fast forward to today and the Smartphones we’re using in our everyday life – Blackberries, Pres and Pixies, iPhones and N900s. What’s the biggest part in that whole cellular phone market that changed since the mid/end 90s? Of course, it’s the phone’s technology and the features they provide nowadays. But what’s more important, the whole accessories-ecosystem around those phones actually changed. Today, you see people buying additional battery-packs for their Blackberries, since the phones are already that “Smart” that you’d actually need a constant power-source to make them last for more than a couple of hours of heavy usage. When people buy a mobile phone, they also typically throw some on-the-go charger into the bucket. And maybe also some docking-station for the desk, or even equipment for attaching it to their car’s windshields.

Now the whole accessory-ecosystem goes that far, that people even buy overpriced socks or pieces of silicon formed as protection-sleeve for their Smartphones. Especially within the iPhone user-groups you can see such protection-cases being very popular. But let us look from another perspective at especially those accessories.

When someone buys an iPhone, of course, he’s interested in the phone’s features and probably likes the way the phone integrates with the rest of his personal infrastructure, like laptops, computers/Macs, etc. But of course, only a few people really go for the features-pack only. Probably 90% of the iPhone customers look forward to have a phone that’s so exclusive and so beautiful that you’d hardly like to take it out of the showcase. And exactly at that point, all third-party manufacturers of iPhone accessories come in handy. So, people go and get their iPhones, take them out of the packing and lock them right into some ugly silicon, acrylic, plastic or whatever kind of case to protect their beauty against scratches, dirt and other natural enemies of the glossy piano paint. Sure, I mean, they paid and ass full of money for a brick that blinds you by its glint, so why should these people not try the best to protect it the best they can?

Well, sure they can do that – but where’s the point? I think I can talk for everyone that has ever searched for an iPhone case when I say that 99% of them are ugly as hell and not worth the package they’re shipped in. So, why do people then actually buy an iPhone for its cool look, when they “protect” it most of the time with such a case where the phone’s actual look does not matter anymore? For what? So they can slide it out when they’re feeling lucky and show it to everybody for one blink of an eye and then pack it back into its sleeve?

Of course, you can’t blame the people for that. I mean, why can’t accessory-manufacturers produce electro-magnetic protection shields that build an own atmosphere around the iPhone that does not allow anything else to come through than the owner’s washed hands to touch the touchscreen? I mean come on, that’s what people are waiting for! F*ck invisibleSHIELD, f*ck the pseudo translucent plastic shields that doesn’t absorb hits that could cause the iPhone’s screen to break into million small pieces. The people want cases that doesn’t even allow the iPhone to fall down the stairs or into water!

Yeah, right. Now I can definitely remember those days when I got my first Bosch 509 and protected it with one of the dozen plastic-sleeves against the cruel reality.

Think different, people.

Sicker Style Bluebird Theme

And yet again, a new theme for the Bluebird Twitter-Client. This time I didn’t just modify an existing one – I took two themes and mashed them up, heh. I took the Bubbling Citrus Bluebird Theme by Sarah Tan and Laurent Baumann and took the Adium Message-Style “Sticker Style” by “bobjr” and threw both in a mixer, heh.

This is one of my first tries to create a bubble-style Bluebird theme. The theme as you can see it on the screenshots uses the DIN Medium font, which is a commercial font. The font is not included in this theme, but it uses alternatives as a replacement, if the font can’t be found on the system.

However, I hope you like the theme. Enjoy!

Download stickerstyle.bbtheme

I...

... hate...

... you...

… @andi.
One day, I will send you such pictures.

Finger Weg!

Just seen when I started my Mac without having my Access Point turned on, heh.

OpenSuSE 11.1 Winter Boot-Screen?

Description: Some days ago, I arrived at work, booted my laptop and suddenly there was no more greenish boot-screen/-menu. Instead, there was some winter scenery with two walking penguins. I didn’t reconfigure anything the day before, the only thing I did, was installing an “autofs” patch which (as the description told me) should have fixed some serious bug. However, I still don’t understand what happened there, maybe just some easter-egg? But, it’s not eastern yet. However, after the next reboot, the boot-menu changed back to its regular appearance. Maybe just some of my colleagues was playing me a joke… hm.

Trust WB-1200p Setup

Well… sure. Of course. I know.

Crap.

Twitter database maintenance

Seen some days ago on twitter.com

I can recognize some similarities there.

(and yes, installed Ubuntu 8.10 on VMware Fusion. Now I’m just building the VMware Tools for the Guest.)

It says “WMA/MP3/CD-Receiver with Front AUX-Input”. First of all, I personally never saw such an AUX-Input on my head unit, especially not on its front. And second, some lines later at the bottom (at “Ausstattungsmerkmale Audio”) they say: “AUX-Eingang Nein” (no AUX-Input).

Hm… funny.

Windows: Your car’s brochure is promising you the sky on earth – unfortunatelly the actual car you got it more like hell. The engine starts up pretty quick, but after a while it dies for no reason. Besides, when opeining the driver’s window, the radio recpetion gets worse and the engine’s temperature indicator starts rotating. Luckily you have support for your car for at least ten years, so you can bring it in everytime you want and get a new engine management firmware. Until the one called “Service Pack 3″ everything worked out pretty good, but now your car started behaving _very_ curious.

Solaris: That is no car. It’s a truck. Made of parts produced in the late 80′s. And remember to never, ever pull the handbrake – it doesn’t do what a regular handbrake would do in a regular truck!

Mac: Your car is so shiny and glossy that you could just lick it the whole day. Everything is clean and tidy. After taking place in the driverseat you start your engine and go for a testdrive. The car runs smooth and nice. Unfortunatelly, you cannot pop the hood because your carriage is contained of one big, chubby piece. If your battery dies, you would just need to bring the car in and Apple would take care of it, in return of a small donation. Besides, when finished reading this text your car is already deprecated, since Apple just released a new one, called “3G”, which now also contains a spectacular new and fancy feature named “The Rev Counter”.

Minix: It’s the DMC DeLorean. Actually it’s pretty cool, but nobody really cares a crap about it.

QNX: This car is a full-blown real-time, high-speed power-vehicle. No regular driver would ever buy this car for daily use, but every well versed person knows what potential this car brings with it. These kind of cars are commonly used at airports and other places where lifetime and high-available is an argument.

The kernel version running is the same as the one being installed

You are attempting to install a kernel version that is the same as the version you are currently running (version 2.6.18-6-686). The modules list is quite likely to have been changed, and the modules dependency file /lib/modules/2.6.18-6-686/modules.dep needs to be re-built. It can not be built correctly right now, since the module list for the running kernel are likely to be different from the kernel installed. I am creating a new modules.dep file, but that may not be correct. It shall be regenerated correctly at next reboot.

I repeat: you have to reboot in order for the modules file to be created correctly. Until you reboot, it may be impossible to load some modules. Reboot as soon as this install is finished (Do not reboot right now, since you may not be able to boot back up until installation is over, but boot immediately after). I can not stress that too much. You need to reboot soon.

Great job, Apple! And by the way: Why does this Updater wants to install Safari, if the only software I’ve installed on that Windows is an iTunes?