Category: Bookmarks

Assorted bookmarks from my web-travels

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Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Kim Blog (English) Macintosh Mactopia Open Source Technology

How to implement native Danish spell-checking in Mac OS X – Apple: steal it, I’ll post bail

Bad Apple

A discussion on the Danish Macintosh community, Macnyt, about the missing native Danish spell-checking in Mac OS X, let me to speculate on what it would take to implement it. Apple you’re more than welcome to steal it, and I’ll even post bail ;-).

NOTE to Danish Mac users: What follows will not give you native (Danish) spell-checking in Mac OS X, but it describes what I believe would be required, by Apple, to implement it.

What? No Danish?

Apple’s Mac OS X comes with a very nice, integrated spell-checking service. Unfortunately there’s no support for the Danish language, and this omission hits all Mac OS X applications that plug into Mac OS X for their spell checking services. This excludes Microsoft Office:mac and most open source software like Open Office and NeoOffice, that has their own spell checkers, but it hits all system applications as well as Apple’s own iLife, IWork and most other 3rd party applications.

I know from experience that this is a major issue with Danish Mac users, the question surfaces again and again.

cocoAspell to the rescue

The current solution is to install cocoAspell, a Mac OS X wrapper for the Aspell open source spell checker, and download the Danish dictionary. If you understand Danish, you can also get help from Æbletræet and this detailed guide (ZIP file) made by a Macnyt user.

Unfortunately that is not something the average person knows how to do, and it’s relatively complicated.

How to implement native Danish spell-checking in Mac OS X

So here it is: This is what I have found out, that it would take to implement native Danish spell checking in Mac OS X.

From an implementation point-of-view, it looks like it is quite straightforward.

Everything is located in the AppleSpell.service package, that is located in /System/Library/Services.

The file is organised like a .app package, first a Contents folder, that contains a Resources and a Mac OS X folder, along with a PkgInfo file and some .plist files.

Each supported language is represented by an entry in a .plist file called info.plist located in Contents, and a .lproj folder located in Contents/Resources.

The .lproj folder contains two files, one is called bindict, the other Dictionary.dat.

Problem: bindict and Dictionary.dat are binary files, and I haven’t been able to locate ANY documentation of the formats.

Step-by-step guide (for the Apple engineers):

  1. Get a copy of the “Store Danske Ordliste”
  2. Organise it “in a manner that is compatible with your indexing software” (this is the hard part, and I’m sure you could get community involvement in this).
  3. Run it through your indexing application (or lend us a copy)
  4. Create a new AppleSpell.service package
  5. Add the entry for Danish to the Contents/info.plist file
  6. Add a folder for Danish language to Contents/Resources
  7. Add the bindict and Dictionay.dat files created by the indexing application to the folder for Danish language
  8. Replace the old AppleSpell.service package with the new
  9. Ask the Danish Mac community to help test it
  10. Release it with the next, minor, update of Mac OS X

I estimate that it would take no longer than 1 man-week to implement and test this – so Apple come on…

p.s.. do you really need to reinvent the wheel?

In many ways cocoAspell, is a better and, not least, open solution, so Apple you should really consider the alternative: drop the native spell-checker and embrace cocoAspell, there’s really no need to reinvent the wheel is there?

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Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Education/Undervisning Kim Blog (English) Resources Technology Undervisning Videnskab

iTunes U: “e-Learning” done right?

iTunes U: the campus that never sleeps

I just discovered that Apple has launched a new section of the iTunes Store, called iTunes U – the U must be short for University.

Promising and FREE

My first impression is that iTunes U looks very, very promising.

iTunes U features video and audio lectures, lecture notes etc. from major US universities, like MIT; for instance an entire course on “Electromagnetism” from MIT with titles like “What holds our world together?…”, all organised in the familiar iTunes Store.

And the best is that the content is FREE – yes FREE.

Where are the Danish Us?

So when will we get content from Danish Universities on iTunes U? I’m not optimistic!

The reason I’m pessimistic, is the ongoing debate over “e-Learning” in Denmark. As usually, when it comes to anything remotely related to ICT, the debate is mostly about technology and ICT-skills.

STOP TALKING! Get producing!

I say: STOP TALKING: Get the infrastructure in place, and you can immediately begin producing and distributing lecture notes, audio and video content. It requires almost no ICT-skills to use an application like iTunes – all students has the skills to do so today.

Later on, more advanced e-Learning applications could be made, even though I doubt that they’ll ever work – I’m a firm believer in the fact that you’ll never be able to replace the teacher, and with the infrastructure in place, we can all become teachers as well as students.

Benefits of partnering with a commercial infrastructure provider

A major benefit of partnering with a commercial infrastructure provider like iTunes Store, is that it removes the hassles of making the technology work from the institutions, leaving them to worry about what they do best, producing content.

I’m sure that the content offered on iTunes U is available elsewhere, and that there are downsides to trust Apple with distributing the content, most likely in their proprietary formats, but the convenience of having it all show up in iTunes, which makes it so easy to access the content, and have it synced to the iPod, means that I can live with it – for now.

Despite concerns iTunes U is a wake-up call

I realise that Apple also is doing this to draw traffic to the iTunes Store, and to sell more iPods, Macs and Apple TVs, iTunes U is actually one of the biggest selling points for Apple TV I’ve seen so far.

Despite my concerns over iTunes U, it remains a great initiative – they’re getting so many things right – and it’s my hope that it will serve as an inspiration to the Danish Educational System: WAKE UP!

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Caféer og Restauranter

Jaiku | Wifi-café i indre by. Anyone?

Jaiku LogoJaiku | Wifi-café i indre by. Anyone?

(opdateret 21-Juni-2007 @ 8:30 am)

For første, men sikkert ikke sidste, gang skriver jeg inspireret af en “presence stream” på Jaiku.

Denne gang blev der bare spurgt om der var nogle der kendte en café i indre by med Wi-Fi (trådløst netværk tilsluttet Internettet).

Og vupti kom der nogle gode forslag.

  • Drop-Inn
    MJ Coffee
    Nadsat
    Retro
    Riccos

Men det fik mig til at stille dette spørgsmål:

Er man moralsk forpligtet til at købe noget, hvis man bruger en åben Wi-Fi stillet til rådighed af en café? Jeg mener – man kan jo ofte sidde/stå et stykke væk, specielt med de dimser jeg render rundt med. Bænken overfor Drop-Inn er f.eks. behagelig, der er plads til mere end en, dækningen er god nok, og to-go kaffen købt andet steds var glimrende.

Svaret er vel en no-brainer, som Shevy indirekte påpegede: Man skal naturligvis støtte caféernes Wi-Fi direkte ved at købe noget.

På den anden side slider man jo ikke på inventar eller optager en plads, og man signalerer jo heller ikke direkte at man bruger caféen fordi den tilbyder Internet adgang, bare fordi man er der.

Så jeg kunne godt tænke mig en mulighed for at støtte caféers Wi-Fi, uden altid at føle mig forpligtet til at købe dyr kaffe, hvis jeg bare skal checke min mail.

Løsningen kunne være at FON stod for Wi-Fi i samarbejde med en af de store Internet udbydere, således at Wi-Fi blev mere bredt tilgængeligt, og caféerne blev holdt skadesløse.

Når det er sagt så er det meget sjældent at jeg har snyltet på en cafées hotspot, men jeg kan godt forudse at det kommer til at ske oftere og oftere i fremtiden.

I denne sammenhæng kom jeg i tanke om noget der har undret mig…

Allerede for 3 år siden så jeg Wi-Fi telefonbokse i New York…Kommer det nogensinde til disse længdegrader? Personligt synes jeg det ville være genialt, ikke mindst i takt med at Wi-Fi bliver indbygget i “alt”.

Hmm…TeleFONbokse…

Categories
'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Open Source Technology

Urban: Marie Østerbye har svært ved at huske sine kodeord – lad os hjælpe hende!

Marie Østerbye fra Urbans bagside kommer med nogle spændende og relevante betragtninger i hendes klumme Indtast venligst…Øh? fra Urban den 11-Juni-2007.

Uden at vide det (tror jeg) rammer hun faktisk hele den digitale verden hårdt og præcist, og hun giver os da en klar udfordring, der kan opsummeres med dette:

“Hvorfor skal vi have alle de kodeord, et burde da være nok”.

Vigtigheden af at have et sikkert system til vores digitale infrastruktur kan ikke undervurderes, og det er uhyggeligt at folk føler sig så utrygge, og det med god ret, ved at gemme kodeord på deres computere.

Problemet skyldes egentlig web-browseren, der aldrig har været tænkt som en platform til at køre deciderede programmer, og problemet er at stort samtlige hjemmesider har udviklet deres egne systemer til login, uden at tænke over standardisering.

Til jeres og Marie Østerbyes information, kan jeg oplyse om at der foregår en hel del standardiseringsarbejde på dette felt, bla. i offentligt regi, hvor det også hører hjemme, selvom løsninger det offentlige tidligere har promoveret, som f.eks. digital signatur, ikke fået den udbredelse som forventet.

Der forgår bla. et godt arbejde i projekter som OpenID, der er et åbent, decentralt og frit system til bruger-centreret digital identitet, der får stigende støtte i f.eks. open source miljøet, og listen over software der bruger OpenID vokser.

Så der er håb forude, selv om jeg nu ikke tror det kommer fra folk som Janus Friis, William Henry Gates III og Steve Jobs – som Marie Østerbye håber på – men man kan jo håbe at de følger trop, eller tvinges til at gøre det, hvis der kommer nogle åbne standarder.

De nævnte mennesker er ganske vist meget interesseret i at folk kun bruger et enkelt kodeord, men det skal naturligvis være til de tjenester de selv tjener penge på (hhv. Skype og Joost, MSN og iTunes).

Så jeg tror virkelig på at Marie Østerbye meget snart kan nøjes med at huske et kodeord, nemlig det til hendes computer, men lad os tage os sammen og sørge for at det sker.

Der er i øvrigt intet mere kedeligt end at udvikle systemer til bruger identifikation – je’ ve’ det je’ har gjort det – så kære udviklere: spar besværet, sæt jer ind i standarderne og nyd det gode vejr, i stedet for at sidde inde og genopfinde hjulet.

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Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Hackers IT Guruer Kim Blog (English) Kunst Music NGOs Open Source Technology

John Perry Barlow: The Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace – Amen

John Perry Barlow - from the Wikipeida articleListening to an old issue of one of the best technology podcasts Go Digital from the BBC, I was reminded of John Perry Barlow ((born October 3, 1947) is an American poet, essayist, retired Wyoming cattle rancher, political activist and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead (source Wikipeida)).

In 1996 he formulated a Decaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, and after listening to the BBC, I’m focusing on this quote!

We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.

We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.

Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.

Amen!

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Open Source Technology

“Format wars”: CW – Bliver det uafgjort mellem ODF og Open XML?

(opdateret: 8-Jun-2007: 20:57)

Bølgerne går for tiden lidt højt i den danske verden for alt der er “åbent og frit”, og det skyldes en artikel i ComputerWorld.

Artiklen er baseret på et møde om dokument formater, arrangeret af DKUUG, SLUUG og KLID (danske foreninger/interessegrupper der bla. arbejder med åbne standarder, undertegnede er på DKUUGs mailinglister).

“Format wars”

Den efterhånden lange “formatkrig”, handler om hvilket format der i fremtiden skal anvendes til udveksling af dokumenter, ikke mindst når det offentlige kommunikerer med borgerene.

Krigen står primært mellem de to formater, ODF (Open Document Format) og OOXML (Office Open XML). ODF er en ratificeret ISO standard, OOXML er på vej til at blive det.

ODF-lejren (herunder DKUUG, IT-Politisk Forening, SUN – ikke mindst SUNs COSO Simon Phipps) mener der “kun kan være et format” (ODF). Det gør OOXML-lejren (mest Microsoft) sikkert også – OOXML forstås – de siger det bare ikke så højt.

Så ComputerWorlds budskab om at “fredspiben er tændt”, er overraskende, ikke mindst for undertegnede. Nicolai Devantier fra ComputerWorld starter sin artikel med disse ord:

ComputerViews: I kampen om hvilken åben standard vi skal benytte i Danmark efter årsskiftet, er både ODF og Open XML kommet nærmere målet.

Stridens parter ser nemlig ud til at have accepteret, at der skal være plads til begge.

Men er stridsøksen virkelig blevet begravet til fordel for en dobbeltløsning, hvor der er plads til, at ODF og Open XML lever side om side?

Parolerne om, at vi kun skal have ét format er i hvert fald stilnet af, og dualismen præger i højere grad debatten – og det fra begge sider.

Som ComputerWorld fremstiller det, lyder det jo som om format krigen er afblæst, og det er faldet “ODF lejren” (i form af DKUUG), voldsomt for brystet, de mener der er tale om manipulation, og artiklen har også resulteret i skarpe kommentarer fra den danske “ODF lejr” (vi skal jo nok passe på med at kalde det lobby ;-)).

Dokument filformater er “uinteressante”

Der er vist ikke den store tvivl om at undertegnede er solidt placeret i ODF-lejren, men jeg har nu lidt svært ved at se problemet med artiklen, der bare er en konstatering af at krigen ikke er så varm.

I øvrigt mener jeg at dokument filformater er ganske uinteressante, selv om åbne standarder på dette punkt er vigtige.

Vi skal ganske enkelt til at holde op med at sende kopier af filer til hinanden, men i stedet sende henvisninger til netadresser (URLer, links), så er det jo op til browseren og serveren at rendere/konvertere korrekt og dynamisk. Bemærk at Microsoft Office og Open Office jo i øvrigt også er en slags browsere, de anvendes dog ofte kun til at browse lokale kopier af indhold.

Vi glemmer også at det stadig er Microsofts “gamle” og lukkede DOC format og Adobes delvist åbne PD og da i høj grad (X)HTML, der er de virkelige de-facto standarder.

Sådan starter lavinen

Historien viser at det der sker er, at så snart bare en enkelt offentlig instution har købt MSO2007, så starter lavinen:

Først sendes der et OOXML formateret dokument fra en offentlig instution til en anden, herefter ringer telefonen:

Modtager af OOXML dokument: “Jeg kan ikke åbne dit dokument”!
Afsender af OOXML dokument: “Det er ellers skrevet i Word”
Modtager af OOXML dokument: “Det har jeg da, men jeg kan ikke åbne det”
Afsender af OOXML dokument: “Så skal du jo bare have den nyeste version”
Modtager af OOXML dokument: “Ah – udviklingen går jo så stærkt, og nyt er jo altid godt…Jeg taler med chefen, han siger jo altid at vi skal være på forkant med udviklingen…”

Hvorefter modtager bliver til afsender, og den ene offentlig instution efter den anden falder som de proverbiale domino brikker – *suk*.

Får DKUUG til at fremstå som utroværdige

Egentlig kan jeg ikke se det store problem med artiklen, udover at den naturligvis får. DKUUG til at fremstå som dybt utroværdige, da de (eller skal man sige vi) er placeret solidt i “ODF-lejren”. Det største problem lader til at være at Simon Phipps er fejlciteret:

Simon Phipps giver i et podcast til Computerworld således udtryk for, at han ikke udelukker Microsofts format og godt kan forstå, hvis politikerne vælger dobbeltløsningen.

Sagen er også kompliceret, krigen drejer sig nemlig reelt om noget helt andet, noget der ikke rigtig kan siges højt: nemlig at Microsoft Office 2007 (MSO2007) ikke skal indføres i det offentlige, og det er jeg helt enig i.

“Jeg viser dig verden som den er”

Men, husk:

“Redmond ligger på Sjælland, på Sjælland, på Sjælland…”
“Balmer ligger i udbrud…i udbrud…i udbrud…”

(undskyld til Nephew).

Se også:

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Blogs Bookmarks Computere og Internet Computerspil Design Education/Undervisning Hackers Kim Blog (English) Kunst Macintosh Mactopia Music Open Source Photography Resources Technology Undervisning Videnskab

Reboot9: BBC “caught” using the “two-dot-O-M-G” word

BBC News Logoreboot 9 logoAs you might have noticed, I attended the reboot “(un)conference” in Copenhagen last week, and it was great.

I’d like to draw your attention to the feature “Rebooting the Web 2.0 age” on reboot 9 that BBC ran during the “(un)conference”.

Here’s a quote from the article:

The future of the web is being debated at Reboot 9.0, a leading European grassroots technology and design conference in Copenhagen.

But…”oh-my-two-dot-oh-NO” they’re using the “two-dot-O-M-G” dreaded “two-dot-oh-YEAH” word…

The big question here for the start-ups and opinion formers is how to use Web 2.0’s focus on community to build the next generation of web tools and become Europe’s Web 2.0 poster child.

I guess I can forgive the BBC, since the feature is “more than decent” ;-), and they capture some of the spirit of reboot in this quote:

This year’s conference theme is Human? with many speakers grappling with such deep philosophical queries as what it means to be human. One session was called Humanism 101.

Understanding human behaviour and how to adapt those behaviours to technology and the web rather than the reverse is rare for technology devotees.

Last.fm LogoAnd Last.fm deserves all the love in the world, iTunes might never know what hit them.

However, it is no surprise as the big subject in the bars and on the grass outside was this week’s sale of London social software music service Last.fm.

Its creator Martin Stiskel, explaining why US broadcaster CBS would want to buy a music preference tool said: “They want to move from a content company to an audience company, giving the audiences control and learning from this and that’s why Last.fm was their choice.”

I’m nominating Last.fm for the price of being the “greatest service on the planet”, even though it makes it look like I have absolutely no taste in music – is it about time to get more discriminating, and start “acting my age, not my shoesize” – nah some people have actually expressed love for my personal radiostation ;-), and I get shouts like this:

Du er på alder med min far, men jeres musiksmag ligger usandsynligt langt fra hinanden. Det er meget godt klaret! Respekt herfra 🙂

(translation from Danish: You’re the age of my father, but your taste in music is unbelievably far from each others. That’s well done! Respect :)).

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Blogs Bookmarks Computerspil Design Education/Undervisning Hackers IT Guruer Kunst Mactopia Open Source Resources Technology Undervisning Videnskab

Reboot9 (un)conference “spinoff”: the conversation continues @ the “rebooters” mailing list

The great reboot 9.0 Jaiku backchannel posterI just joined the new google groups (e.g. mailinglist), called rebooters.

The purpose of the group, is to have a “permanent backchannel” for the reboot (un)conference, since backchannels, like the Jaiku backchannel from reboot9, has a tendency to “die”.

The mailing list has the following description:

Missing the brainshift experienced from talking to all the brilliant rebooters? Keep the conversation going between reboots here…

It’s a good idea – that would have been even better, if it was set up, officially, through the reboot website, but because website technologies change all the time, the use of a relatively low-tech solution, like a mailing-list, is a not as bad an idea as it sounds – e-mail still is “the lowest common denominator”.

This might help to avoid the frustrations I experienced, when I learned that the “reboot 8” site had it’s URLs changed, making it appear that a lot of information from 2006, had either been lost, or, at best, made (too) difficult to locate.

“I want my Permalinks”, and I’m looking forward to the continued discussions and next year, where I suggest that the organisers make away with the “Wired style dot-oh-NO” numbering scheme, and just calls the event “reboot”!

Some background

“Reboot” is, according to the website:

[…]a community event for the practical visionaries who are at the intersection of digital technology and change all around us[…]

Reboot usually takes place end May/start June, in Copenhagen Denmark.

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Technology

Nabaztag kan nu tale dansk | Nabz!

Nabaztag ArseneLapin and a Danish flagNabaztag kan nu tale dansk | Nabz!

Det danske Nabaztag fællesskab (som jeg er med til at drive) skriver at Nabaztag nu kan “tale” dansk.

Hvis du stadig ikke ved hvad en Nabaztag er, så er det en 25 cm høj plastikkanin, der har “slugt” et wifi-kort, en højttaler, en mikrofon, en RFID læser og nogle lamper. Bland det med et online fællesskab, og du har verdens første (Nabaztag) og verdens første anden (Nabaztag/tag) wifi kanin

Læs evt. mere her.

Følgende vejledning i hvordan du kan få din Nabaztag til at tale dansk, er sakset fra Nabz.dk (gengivet med tilladelse fra “forfatteren” ;-)).

Sådan gør du:
1. Gå til my.nabaztag.com og log på
2. Vælg “Preferences”
3. Vælg fanebladet “My profile”
4. Klik “Dansk” i “I also speak”

Når du sender beskeder gennem my.nabaztag.com får du fremover muligheden for at vælge stemmen “Poul”, der er en af de mest udbredte danske talesynteser.

Jeg kan tilføje at det fungerer fint.

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Blogs Bookmarks Kim Blog (English) Music

Colleen – Beautiful acoustic music

Colleen - Les Ondes Silencieusescolleenplays official website

Friday I discovered the beautiful music of Cécile Schott, aka. Colleen, while visiting the wonderful Kaffe & Vinyl store in Skydebanegade.

Her new album is called “Les ondes sliencieuses”, and it’s all acoustic played on viola de gamba, spinet, guitar, clarinet and crystal glasses(!).

Browsing her website, I discovered that she played at Public Service 2006 in Copenhagen. Now I’m even more sad that I decided to skip Public Service last year :-(.

You can listen to the music on her myspace page.