Author Archives: hoover

Some justice after all..

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It was really enjoyable seeing the Italy side drop out of the world cup today, and deservedly so. After decades of acting and faking injuries, penalties and altogether unattractive and snotty football, they finally got to taste some of their own medicine, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Kudos to the Slovakians for keeping the game on a top level where they could have opted for… well, cattenacio or whatever that abysmal “style” of football is called the Italians apparently enjoy so much.

Here’s hoping for a new italian team for the next international competition that resorts less to acting and playing foul like generations of their forefathers did, and if that hope comes true, I honestly wish them all the best.

Jolicloud rocks!

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Just playing around with Jolicloud on my eee 1005p, and I really like what I’m seeing. Ok, it’s still based on Ubuntu 9.04, but seems to be a rock-solid netbook os featuring great looks for the n00bs and configurability for the hackers alike. Keep up the good work!

More on jolicloud: http://www.jolicloud.com/

Birders-HF.de: New feature

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Our birdwatcher’s ranking site over at http://www.birders-hf.de/ now allows you to check for bird’s voices right from the species detail page. Thanks to the kind cooperation of soundarchiv.com, we’re now able to search their vast sound archives for matching samples of various bird calls!

Check out the new feature and tell us what you think.

Uwe

Finally, some justice in the football world…

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Dunno while I feel compelled to rant about football at the moment, but I guess I’ve contracted a mild form of wcd (world cup desease). Today’s kiwi draw against a rightfully weak italian side restored some of my faith in the game again, even if the nz goal was supposedly scored from an offside position.

It was about time some bad luck hit the .it side again who seemingly ran out of their usual “oh god I’m hurt ref send the guy off” acting talent they normally display… ok, enough for now, off to a night of celebration for various reasons, not just soccer-related.

cheers!

What is it with these Socceroos?

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Looks like the poor old Socceroos got bitten by the italian bug again, this time by Italian ref Rosetti sending one of them off and awarding an at best highly doubtful penalty to the Ghana team.

Last wold cup: Fallen prey to some bad, but well known  italian acting in the penalty box resulting in a penalty against the Australian side, and now, another penalty possibly ending their world cup ambitions… sigh.

Birders-HF.de goes live

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After a couple of weeks of sometimes hectic hacking, our local birdwatchers site http://www.birders-hf.de/ranking/ has finally gone online.

Thanks to the Python Django web framework,  the site was mostly a joy to develop, and during the times it wasn’t, it was mostly due to myself being unable to wrap my head around some of the more esoteric Django concepts.

For now, I’ll just sit back and watch the webserver access log roll by, always a great moment when you’re going to find out (or not, for that matter ;-)) wether people actually find a site you’ve created useful.

Also, I finally ordered the Django book so I’m looking forward to reading that and having a great many “aha, I wish I’d taken the time to read that!” moments.

If you’re interested in using the site for your own local county ranking, feel free to get in touch at the email address given at the site or by commenting here. Be warned though, I’m not making use of any l18n features that Django offers yet, so adapting the site to another language may imply a bit of work.

Uwe

Füllenbruch, Herford

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Die Gier nach neuen Kreis-Herford-Ticks trieb mich heute (ohne
Bollerwagen 😉 gegen 17:00 mit dem Rad in’s Füllenbruch. Leider gabs
keine Weihen oder Geschwirle, dafür aber doch einige Highlights:

– 4(!) Braunkehlchen auf der Wiese an der unteren Wiesenstr.,
Einmündung Mittelweg, dazwischen eine etwas verloren wirkende
Rohrammer

– Gelbspötter-Gesang aus einem Busch etwas weiter Richtung Sportlerheim

– 2 Kiebitze auf der Kiebitzwiese (hoffentlich brütend)

Dazu Goldammergesang, jede Menge Rauchschwalben, ein sehr heller
Bussard mit Jagdbeute (Maus) im Schnabel, Fitis, Zilpzalp, Dorn-,
Klapper, Garten- und Mönchsgrasmücken, Singdrosseln, Rabenkrähen usw.

Django rocks!

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Finally seem to have gotten my head 1/3 of the way around the Python framework called “Django”, creating a site for birdwatchers within the county of Herford here:

http://birders-hf.gplrank.de/ranking/

I used Django 1.1.x for the site, and while some issues with mod_python seem to persist, everything is working generally well (using mysql as a db backend).

thanks Django folks, this is really cool stuff! The irc channel #django on irc.freenode.org has been of great help, too.

How to prevent package updates in Ubuntu

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I recently updated my work machine from Mint 8 to Ubuntu Lucid and noticed in the process that Lucid comes with the very latest Bacula version, namely 5.0.1. Sadly, this client is incompatible with what we run at work, so I had to figure out a way to “hold” the packages at their karmic versions which still worked fine on lucid. Thanks to the excellent Ubuntu docs, I managed to put those packages “on hold” using the following commands:

echo bacula-fd  hold | dpkg --set-selections
echo bacula-common  hold | dpkg --set-selections

Once you run apt-get update, you’ll see the newer versions being held back.

Artenliste BirdRace 2010, Testlauf II

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  1. Stockente
  2. Reiherente
  3. Teichralle
  4. Höckerschwan
  5. Mehlschwalbe
  6. Hausrotschwanz
  7. Buchfink
  8. Grünfink
  9. Dompfaff
  10. Heckenbraunelle
  11. Haussperling
  12. Feldlerche
  13. Fitis
  14. Zilpzalp
  15. Grünspecht
  16. Buntspecht
  17. Amsel
  18. Star
  19. Mönchsgrasmücke
  20. Bluthänfling
  21. Fasan
  22. Elster
  23. Rabenkrähe
  24. Mäusebussard
  25. Blaumeise
  26. Kohlmeise
  27. Zaunkönig
  28. Rotkehlchen
  29. Sumpfmeise
  30. Kleiber
  31. Ringeltaube
  32. Haustaube

Artenliste Baltrum April 2010

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Beobachtungen vom 4.4.2010-10.4.2010
  1. Rabenkrähe
  2. Dohle
  3. Mäusebussard
  4. Rohrweihe
  5. Elster
  6. Fasan
  7. Zaunkönig
  8. Blaumeise
  9. Kohlmeise
  10. Schwarzdrossel
  11. Singdrossel
  12. Buchfink
  13. Zilpzalp
  14. Fitis
  15. Haussperling
  16. Heckenbraunelle
  17. Bachstelze
  18. Hänfling?
  19. Ringelgans
  20. Brandgans
  21. Löffler
  22. Graugans
  23. Lachmöwe
  24. Heringsmöwe
  25. Silbermöwe
  26. Brandseeschwalbe
  27. Brachvogel
  28. Austernfischer
  29. Rotschenkel
  30. Sandregenpfeifer
  31. Säbelschnäbler
  32. Hausrotschwanz
  33. Star
  34. Baumpieper
  35. Feldlerche
  36. Mehlschwalbe
  37. Steinwälzer
  38. Eiderente
  39. Stockente
  40. Rotkehlchen

Nicht zu vergessen: Wunderschöne Venus / Merkur-Konjunktion abends nach Sonnenuntergang!

Venus / Mercury conjunction

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if you’ve never seen mercury naked-eye, you have another chance tomorrow when both planets will be setting next to each other separated only a couple of degrees in RA.

On Baltrum, we were treated to a lovely sunset with an even better view as the the inner planets set following the sun, glowing a calm yellow-creamish colour.

While this isn’t the first time I’ve spotted Mercury without visual aids, it’s surely never been so easy as it was here on Baltrum, a small island in the Northern Sea.

Vesta: My first minor planet

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I observed my first minor planet ever this evening: 4 Vesta is currently situated right under the “Lions Head” in Leo, and at mag 6m.55, it’s easy prey for both binoculars and backyard telescopes.

I found that limiting magnitude tonight is around 3m.5, so the situation wasn’t ideal, still it was fun thinking that this is a cold rock hurtling around the sun between Mars (shining nearby, a little west in the constellation cancer) and Jupiter.