Today, I found two series of tutorials for the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) certification programme on IBM's DeveloperWorks website. In my opinion, a certification is a good thing because the employer can instantly see that you've put some work into your qualifications. But just answering some questionnaire will not bring you far when you've got to do real work, so you'd better add quite some practical experience to the mix. Those tutorials provide you with the means to get some of this practice. Therefore, if you're interested in getting an LPI certification (and I know quite a few folks who do), check them out: Tutorials for LPIC-1 (LPI Certificate Level 1) Tutorials for LPIC-2 (LPI Certificate Level 2)

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A year ago, when it had become clear that once we had moved to Freiburg, I wouldn't do the 150 km commute by car, I canceled my leasing contract and switched to public transportation. I've got myself a "Bahncard 100" that enables me to take (almost) every Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) train I want to for a flat monthly fee. So, if I'd like to visit a friend in Hannover or to go to the next Barcamp Cologne, I just hop on the train. The monthly rate for the Bahncard 100 is about the same as my leasing fee was, and there are no extra costs for fuel, insurance, repair, parking etc. Even with the occasional taxi, I spend less money for the train than I used to for the car. Although my commute now is five times longer than it was when I lived in Philippsburg, it is much more environmentally friendly. I now share the same vehicle with hundreds of other passengers. It takes me about an hour to get to work, and over this time I don't sit behind a wheel cursing at other drivers but at my laptop, doing some work, typing blog entries like this one, reading my Twitter stream, or just relaxing, listening to a podcast or audio book. Thanks to my in-ear earbuds, I don't get disturbed by crying babies, loudly talking business buffoons or other crazy people. Of course, not having a car has its downsides. If I want to go on an IKEA rampage or buy five crates of beer, I need to rent a car or ask a friend to help me out. In urgent cases, I have to get a taxi. And there's always the train schedule that I have to adhere to. Sometimes, the train doesn't. But over all, it's simply comfortable to sit in a soft chair and wait until the conductor has taken me there. I don't miss the car.

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When OpenID was made public, it seemed like a really good idea, solving the problem of having to maintain dozens or hundreds of user accounts all over the web. But Stefan Brands has another point of view and he not only points out one or two flaws of the new identification and authentication protocol, but a whole list at a time: Security problems Privacy problems Trust problems Usability problems Adoption problems Availability problems Patent problems After reading his article "The problem(s) with OpenID", I guess I'll go back to using Keepass.

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If you didn't notice already, I moved my blog to my homepage The RSS feed should have switched transparently. This website will be preserved for archival purposes.

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Once, I was proud to belong to the first Palm PDA users -- back in the time when they were still were called "Palm Pilots". I had a Palm 1000, a Palm III and a Palm Vx. I learned digital organization and started to take my data with me whereever I went. Then came the Zaurus that enabled me to have Linux in my pocket, and I abandoned Palm. Unfortunately, the Zaurus never gained enough market share and I missed the software I was used to on the Palm PDAs every day. Today, I'm using a Nokia E61, because it's not as bulky as a Treo and, more importantly, it has WiFi capabilities. Over all the years, Palm got more and more behind the market demand. With their new Foleo product, they seemed to make the steps necessary to gain relevancy again, but the price tag of almost $600 was way too close to a full-fledged laptop. And now, Palm kills their latest child before it even saw the light of day. In a A Message to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers, Palm CEO Ed Colligan announces that the Foleo will not be brought to market. We're not going to speculate now on timing for a next Foleo, we just know we need to get our core platform and smartphones done first. I'm sorry, but the iPhone is already in stores, you know?

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Dear coworkers, I'll need to go to the restroom soon, and certainly, we all want this visit to be a pleasant one. To make sure business will go as, let's say, smoothly as possible, there are some rules that I'd like to make you aware of: [youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw]) So, please take those rules into consideration, so that we all can continue our work day relieved and relaxed. Thank you.

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It's nice to find a video featuring a coworker on a big programming website. In this case, Andreas Ecker talks about the qooxdoo Javascript framework on TheServerSide.com qooxdoo is a robust, state-of-the-art GUI toolkit and AJAX framework. Its origins can be traced back to 2003, when it was already doing AJAX before the term was invented. Qooxdoo: TheServerSide Tech BriefHochgeladen von ciurana

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Auf WatchBerlin nimmt Michel Friedman Stellung zu den staatlichen Überwachungsgelüsten, und ich stimme ihm aus ganzem Herzen zu:

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Today, I found Sophie Merry, the Groovy Dancing Girl, on YouTube. Not only are her dancing moves really awesome, but they're also filmed in slow motion and played back at higher speed, but still synchronous to the music. Take a look! "Harder Better Faster Stronger" by Daft Punk: [youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr2JneittqQ]) "Phantom" by Justice: [youtube=[www.youtube.com/watch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbSKnU5ZwJg])

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On the website of my side business, Freistil-Consulting, I just posted my review (in German language) of Randall Schwartz's book "Perls of Wisdom". The book is a collection of articles that Merlyn wrote for print and online magazines during the last decade. My verdict: While those articles are easy to read piece by piece and permit focusing on one special aspect of Perl programming at a time, you can find similar writeups on the internet for free. And some of the articles are even outdated, which the author himself hints at in more than one article preface. If those articles that really are likely to close some knowledge gaps (like the ones on Object-oriented Perl) are worth the 30 Euro, the prospective reader should decide carefully.

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