Almost every morning, I have to endure my colleagues' talks about their latest adventures in World of Warcraft. "Yesterday, we spent hours on that quest in Shnirzelwood until we, finally, almost had Blargelfarg tanked, and then that stupid hunter just ran away!" Oh please. Spare me. Reading about how Joi Ito, a successful venture capitalist and well-known figure in the IT business, draws parallels between managing his WoW guild and organizing a company, could make me reconsider trying out WoW myself, though. Strategy+Business" explains in "The Ambassador from the Next Economy how Ito perceives managing his WoW guild of about 250 people as a good example of leadership in modern business: Long frustrated by the fairly conventional hierarchies in even the most innovative technology companies, Mr. Ito says he sees in his Warcraft guild a new way to organize, manage, and motivate people. With his guild doubling in size every month, he does a lot of learning on the fly. "Every week or so, I have to add a new rank, build a whole bunch of new rules, and throw in kind of ad hoc structures," Mr. Ito says. "Im playing with all the different kinds of management ideas Ive had for companies with a bunch of people who are actually very dedicated. They will set their alarm clocks for 3 a.m. to run a raid of 40 people. They are committed to each other like people in a normal company wouldnt be committed to each other. So as a test bed for these ideas, this is actually pretty amazing." He considers himself more a "custodian" than a "leader", putting the different abilities, backgrounds and experiences of his diverse guild members to their best use. And he doesn't really care much for hierarchies: In the World of Warcraft, much of what you learn is how to improvise or accumulate the resources you need. [...] Once he knows what he really has to do, then he becomes incredibly creative in finding resources anywhere in the organization. He never even thinks about the fact that hes just jumped over three silos. Hes found out how to find who knows what, and how to engage that person to help him. Next year, Ito is going to launch a new company of his own, its staff recruited from the ranks of his Warcraft guild. Well, that gets me thinking. WoW is about getting the job done, in time and under pressure, in a team. Maybe I should ask my next job applicants about their leadership experience in World of Warcraft.

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After my unnerving WiFi problems, Kai was so kind to get me a Netgear WG311T PCI card. I just installed it, configured WPA and it works like a charm with Ubuntu 6.06.1!

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I'm a strong proponent of online privacy. I want to feel secure living my online life, and I want the means to do so to be kept legal. (That's why Kai Raven always freaks the hell out of me.) The recent case of a guy faking a craigslist ad, posing as a woman looking for a dominant guy and publishing more than 100 responses including names, photos, phone numbers and email addresses, raises another question: what about your right of privacy if you aren't clever or savvy enough to protect it sufficiently?Sure, it's quite stupid to respond to such a classified ad by giving up your name, phone number, work email address or even marital status along with compromising pictures. And it may be immoral to some people to cheat on ones wife or pursue BDSM practices. But that, let's be clear here, doesn't at all give Jason Fortuny, the guy who made up the ad, the right to publish their private information, put them on a virtual pillory and destroy their lives. What time do we have -- the dark ages? I sincerely hope he gets his ass sued off. I'm with Ryan Singel in concluding that this prank was an act of pure arrogance and feeling of superiority. But what's even more reprehensible to me is the number of people approving his action because "those people deserved it", because they're "immoral scum" and "were dumb enough to put their information out there". That's making me sick. The purpose of laws and basic rights is to secure the lives of all people, also and especially of those who don't know how to protect themselves sufficiently -- regardless of person, religion, sexual orientation, IQ or race. That's why phishing and the infamous "Nigerian scams" aren't legal. That's why misusing personal information isn't legal either, and publishing such information without the owner's consent is misuse. We're used to the fact that in some smaller villages, you'll be quickly rejected, defamed or even mobbed into moving away if you don't fit in, or worse, get known for doing things that contradict the common norm. The "global village" doesn't seem much different now, does it?

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On yesterday's episode of the Daily Sourcecode&episode_id=25113, Adam Curry played a song that I liked immediately: "Underwear goes inside the pants" by LazyBoy. Like "Facts of Life", it's again speech -- I'd say a rant, to be exact -- combined with some backing beats and melody, and it's really resonating with me. Download the song from the LazyBoy MySpace page&friendID=74874292 and tell me if you like it!

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The death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin caused a great wave of grief and regret around the globe. The blogosphere was buzzing with articles and condolences only hours after the message of his fatal accident. But why is that? What made Steve more loved or admirable than other TV celebrities? I'd say it's about respect, passion, credibility and fun. For one, it was the enormous respect for his animals that Steve displayed. He put them in the lead role, not himself. He didn't get weary of pointing out the beauty and diligence mother nature put into her creatures. It wasn't about him, it was all about the animals. He put his health at risk (and it was quite a close call more than once) to give people the opportunity to learn about all those different species, to show his viewers the importance of preserving wildlife for usselves, the "crown of creation". That way, he in turn gained the respect of his audience. Another thing is credibility. Steve not only put his money where his mouth was, he put himself there. He chose to get out into the wilderness, to go where his beloved creatures lived, instead of transporting them into a safe TV studio where they don't belong. That meant that he was likely to get hurt, but he accepted that. And he always emphasized that such injuries were his fault, not the animals'. If you ask people why they watch "Crocodile Hunter" time after time, they will probably tell you "It's interesting, and he's funny". But I won't say that he was making fun of animals, I'd say he just had plain fun being with them. Just like I have fun teasing and joking around with friends and colleagues without the intention of making them ridiculous, Steve did with his "colleagues". Finally, everyone of us could be jealous of how much fun Steve had with his job in general. He didn't hold back in showing how much he enjoyed his work. I guess that's how he became that australian original that gained a great fan base all around the world by making people appreciate the wonders of nature and respect their fellow creatures. An original that will be missed. What I learned from Steve Irwin is that while it helps to survive if you just blend in, if you really want to move something, you have to stand out by showing knowledge, respect for others and credibility. And that you can have fun doing so, too.

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Replacing freedom with fear is not always a sure recipe for political success. At least not in America -- I guess in Germany it will still take citizens some more time to realize how they're dealt with. The United States president though has to deal with a growing amount of open criticism. Criticism like that of Keith Olbermann%e2%80%9chave-you-no-sense-of-decency-sir%e2%80%9d/ from MSNBC's Countdown show: More over, Mr. Bush, you are accomplishing in part what Osama Bin Laden and others seek -- a fearful American populace, easily manipulated, and willing to throw away any measure of restraint, any loyalty to our own ideals and freedoms, for the comforting illusion of safety. And regarding Bush's comparison between Al Quaeda and Nazi Germany, Olbermann just poses one question: "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"

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It's been foreseeable and now it's official: SGI abandons IRIX as well as their MIPS-based workstation and server business at the end of this year. First presented in 1988, IRIX-based systems like the Indigo, the Onyx, the Origin 2000 series or later day workstations like the O2 and the Octane made Silicon Graphics Inc. famous. If you talked about high-end computer graphics, especially in the movie special effects business, you talked about Silicon Graphics. When I worked at the Karlsruhe Research Centre for my industrial placement and later for my diploma thesis, I did software development on SGI workstations and always dreamed about owning one myself. I eventually bought an Octane2 off eBay, but since I won't have the space (and time) to use it in our new flat in Freiburg, I reluctantly sold it a few days ago. In the recent years, SGI had a lot of management and financial trouble. They entered the Linux market by building their Itanium-based Altix server series, unfortunately with only mild success, and stopped the development of new systems based on MIPS RISC CPUs. Although SGI will continue support for the next years, this era is now finally coming to an end.

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One of the advantages of using more and more web applications to communicate, organize and get information is that you only need a web browser to do your daily tasks. The browser is the new desktop, what have been desktop icons became bookmarks. Things get easier. But there's a flip side. What also changes with that movement to working and living online is the dependency on others. At this time of writing, I can't get to my task list because (once again...) all Zenlist displays is "500 - Internal Server Error". That may buy me some time to write this blog entry, but when I'll have finally finished all the to-dos I can remember, I'll be stuck. We're well used to depend on computers and the internet, but we tend to oversee the fact that these dependencies are growing. Think about what happened last time when your broadband connection broke down -- or worse, your computer. If you're already using VOIP services, next time something breaks you'll be cut off not only from email, but also from phone communication. Enjoy the silence. Depending on hardware and infrastructure is one thing. We try to compensate by choosing high-quality products, known brands and service providers with a good reputation. There's choice, and that's good. But let's not forget that choice comes at a price. If you want to make an informed choice, you have to look at the alternatives, weigh advantages against weaknesses, look for experience reports and reviews to finally base your decision upon. When we add the dependency on Web 2.0 application providers to the mix, we have to spend a lot more time on that decision process. Look at the overwhelming diversity of application providers: does anyone keep track of how many calendars and social bookmarking services are out there? I don't. And when you've finally found the application that does exactly what you need it to, don't forget that (like in every relationship) reliability is an important aspect. Even if it's not a marriage for lifetime, every divorce will cost you dearly.

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perl -e'%c=map{[a..z] ->[log($)/log(2)8-48], $}map 2($/8),68.. 8*8;print((((chr)x($/16)). ("x00"x(256-$)/16)) x256)for map{$c{$},0} "jklkjjj0kkk0j0g0g00jklkjjjjkkjkl" =~/./g'|aplay (from the Perl Monastery)

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Inzwischen liegt der unterschriebene Mietvertrag auf dem Schreibtisch -- ab Oktober werde ich mit Carolin in Freiburg wohnen! Neben den ganzen Umzugsmodalitäten gilt es jetzt vor allem, folgende wichtige Dinge zu klären: Wo in Freiburg gibt es einen empfehlenswerten Irish Pub? Wo in Freiburg bekommt man Frühstück/Mittagessen/Kaffee inklusive WLAN? Irgendwelche Tipps?

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