Nerdtours hits Linuxtag 2005

I booked a 3-day-trip (from the 23rd to the 25th) to this years Linuxtag with Nerdtours, a relative new player in the traveling business. the trip included accommodation in stuttgart, where i met with Idler and Soryu on thursday evening. we spent some time at Idler's place and afterwards went to Maredo for dinner after unsuccessfully looking for a french place called "Flams" to which Soryu wanted to go. the next morning we met at the main station and drove to karlsruhe, where the linuxtag took place and we met the other holarse guys. the exhibition was rather unspectacular, but meeting people you only knew from chatrooms and making fun of comrad was really fun. mira, who is famous for his mirOS project, was even interviewed for some documentary in front of the microsoft booth. in the evening we went to a BAfH (german equivalent to BOfH) reading, which was really funny. after that we headed back to Idler's place, where his roommate made some delicous spaghetti with tuna. i had to stay over night there, because we played doa3 till late and i was too lazy to catch the last subway. i have to admit that Idler and his roommate are a lot better than me in playing videogames. Soryu and i left the following day and in the evening i was back home. you can find my photos from linuxtag here. and now everybody clap your hands SOFT-WARE..... :)

Fashion, Passion and the Pikachus

Since I have lotsa time right now, I'll give some recommendations for some kewl Hen.. Anime :) It's the Nerdcave, you know, and this is long overdue.

If you want old school Anime with lots of comedy, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu! will suit you best. Fumoffu has it all: From ABC-Defense over horse-molestation to teachers with chainsaws; even teachers with personal bitches who read Machiavelli and Thomas Mann ! I haven't laughed this much in a long time, actually.
I finally came to watch End of Evangelion. WATCH THIS MOVIE (actually, it's split into two parts)! It is another approach of GAINAX to depict the last 2 episodes of the Neon Genesis Evangelion series (a MUST for everyone), which have been more like a socio-psychologic analysis. The movie is about what happens after the last angel has been destroyed. Take every character of the series and climax their flaws, then imagine what comes out. Don't want to spoil any more, so goddamwhatchit ;) .
A series which I haven't finished yet (I wasn't in the mood and stopped in the middle of the series, gotta prolly start over) is Air, which is based on a dating-sim. Haven't gamed that yet, but the Anime is definitely worth watching. It is well-drawn, really going strong on your emotions (have I mentioned it's based on a dating sim?), but also has some disturbing images, and every character is off his trolley.
Talking about manic chars: Remembers me of Elfen Lied. Elfen Lied is the most violent Anime i've ever seen, with extremities flying around and all. But it really has such a cuuute main character! And, if I recall correctly, it got the fanservice award ;) so go for it. Elfen Lied really surprises, after the first 2 episodes, you think "I think I got the feeling and used to the gore", then one character sais just one (1) sentence and you go "REEEEEH?!". Anyway, this one is not for children. There's no sex, but the violence is to be mentioned. By the way, the intro art end the outro picture are based on some artworks from Edward Klimt, a artist from the Netherlands.
It's getting long, I'll summarize the other stuff:
Appleseed 2004: Animated Anime! It's no drawn, but ingeniously computer-made. Based on a manga by Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell), takes another approach then the Appleseed from 1989. Stunning Action and good Science Fiction.
Eiken: This is the essence of Ecchi. If you want to know what Ecchi is, watch Eiken. It's as Ecchi as it can get without being hentai.
Urda: Animated Anime! Stunning Sci-Fi, cunning Action, Nazis and Time Travel.
Twilight Q: This image ill get a hold of your reality. Disturbing moving picture about time travel, parallel dimensions and fish.
Narutaru: The adult version of Pokémon (not what you think). It's about 'Dragonets'(little dragons), which remember me of Pokémon, but if one had a Devastatomon, power-hungry assholes and tinpot dictators would use them for evil purposes. This series suddenly gets surprisingly violent at the end. The Biene-Maja-like intro is deceiving.
Fatal Fury: If you like the King of Fighters games, these 3 movies will fit you. Nice fighting, a bit too much Super Power, but neat in it's own way.
Kiddy Grade: No, this one is no freak hentai show. It's neat Sci-Fi, but you have to get past the first 8 episodes, which are mainly about panty-shots and slight humor. After these, a good story unfolds: Intrigue, War, Germanism (Planets are named Tisch and Seife) give a deadly mixture to blow up the Galactic Organisation of Trade and Tariffs (GOTT ;) I love this one). In the end, it's more about Super Power and reminds me a bit of Dragon Ball Z, but that's a minor flaw.
Kogepan: Ever wondered what bread thinks? I know now.

That was a lot. If I feel like it, I'll make some more recommendations about stuff that I've some time ago, but now I'm too lazy :)
If you want additional info, pay a visit to AnimeNfo.

dslinux now with keyboard

great news from dslinux.org. pepsiman added a touchscreen keyboard to dslinux, so now you can actually use the system instead of trying to type commands with four buttons. it's probably time for me to get some kind of writeable cartridge for my ds. :)

jedi == geek

according to neal stephenson, author of several cyberpunk novels, the star wars universe has a lot in common with the real world. he put his thoughts together in an article published at nytimes.com. free registration is required to view that article.

retroactivity

ret•ro•ac•tiv•i•ty
Pronunciation: (re'trō-ak-tiv'i-tē)
—n.,
1. Gaming an effect, similar to radiation, which leads to the rediscovery of an old love (console or vintage computer). can spread from one nerd to another.

Recently my brother made a lucky deal at ebay and got a sega megadrive for just an handfull of euros. just a week later the retroaktivity spread over to my room, which lead to my remembering of ye olde times when i owned a snes and played f-zero all the day. for some odd reason i cannot remember i had sold it short after receiving my first own computer. so i quickly (it happened over the weekend) checked the prizes at ebay and got myself a snes. this retroaktivity is a really nasty thing, because now, i am always looking for cheap snes games. i already have f-zero, street fighter 2, terranigma, super soccer, super star wars and mario kart.

on sun's "open" solaris and similar projects

i've just read this article on groklaw about m$, sun and ibm's efforts to incorporate open source achievements in their products. after finishing reading the part about sun's cddl Antitrust came to my mind. Everyone interested in computers and oss in special and who dislikes m$ should know this movie. for those who don't, i'll give a quick summary.
it's about some evil bill-gates-look-a-like played by tim robbins who has a company which resembles m$ in several ways. let's call that evil guy bill, just for simplicity. :) so bill has this great project he wants to finish on time, but his criminal energy outpowers his coding skills. then he has this weird idea of spying on open source developers, steal their code and afterwards kill them. i don't want to spoil too much, so you can still enjoy the movie. ah, btw ryan phillippe plays the cute nerdy counterpart to tim robbin's character.
Back to my original topic: sun, ibm and m$. some higher executives in this companies must have seen antitrust. they try to do just the same, except spying on and killing is replaced be law and copyright stuff (which can be even more evil). i suggest you read the full article. groklaw does a good job at summarizing the important stuff and giving explanations for the legal stuff. it would be a waste of my time to write a summary of a summary.