gegenglueck - english

Gentleman Bastards into the wild for "the worthy"

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:57:34 +0100

Some weeks ago a friend moving far away left me some books to read and pass on to "the worthy" . So here we go, another friend is visting tonight and although he didn't know yet, he'll take the first piece with him:

"The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch - an entertaining read.

Scott Lynch's "The Lies of Locke Lamora" turned out to be a quite entertaining book. The setup of the book is kind of medieval, but also includes fantasy and even science fiction elements. Think of Charles Dickens, subtract the moral instructions and add a small dash of Terry Pratchett. Well, compared to Dickens/Pratchett it's not that well written. Basically it tells the story of Locke Lamora, an orphan stealing for a living and over the years becoming the mastermind of the gentleman bastards. This group is smart, well educated and trained, but also calls for trouble by making their schemes bigger and bigger. Desaster calls. If you like it, there is more: Several sequels are planned, but only one is published so far. I'm in the middle of it right now and it's also a nice read.

So, the book is out there and when ever _YOU_ get your hands on this book, let me know (gentlemanbastards @ gegenglueck . org - remove the blanks)

PS: Yes, I know about bookcrossing, I like the idea, but first of all I don't want to print labels.

Some more technical hints for #Egypt

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:58:55 +0100

Cleaned up stuff from here

* How to circumvent the communications blackout in #Egypt http://slink.us?lr in Arabic
* TOR Bridge 189.129.67.78:443 04FD6AE46E95F1E46B5264528C48EA84DB10CAC4
* #Egypt hams are on 7.050-7.200 MHz LSB
* Egypt Gov only blocking by DNS. So try IPs:
-> Twitter try 128.242.245.148 or 128.242.240.52
-> Facebook 69.63.189.11 or 69.63.189.34
* VPN
-> VPN Server http://texnomic.com/url/2L is now stable and open for FREE to ALL
-> FREE VPN Server to bypass ANY Blockage on ANY ADSL or Cell Network. Domain: Cloud.Texnomic.com User: FreeEgypt Pass: #Jan25
* Tor: Help the Egypt Revolutionaries by overcoming the Firewall https://www.accessnow.org
* Dialup:
-> We are now providing dialup modem service at +46850009990. user/pass: telecomix/telecomix (only for #egypt, respect that PLEASE!).
-> People of Egypt ONLY! Use this dial-up provided by friends in France to go online: +33172890150 (login 'toto' password 'toto')
-> Nour DSL is still working in Egypt, Dial up with 0777 7776 or 07777 666

Take care.

Working around Egyptian Censorship

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:13:19 +0100

While the news from Egypt are both encouraging and horrifying, it's hard to get in touch with people within the country. Internetaccess, phonelines, tv - all this is target for egyptian attempts to censor and block information. So gegenglueck - worrying about friends who where online at least yesterday - spreads some ressources / hints. Maybe it helps.

A collection of good ressources for news at iRevolution.

Internet access seems to be possible via dial up! A good ressource is werebuild - if you can check for updates there! Below a copy of the dialup info:

* A more updated pad with modem pools here: http://pad.telecomix.org/modempools

* A dialup guide for cell phones and lots of numbers: http://manalaa.net/dialup Manal and Alaas

* A french ISP, offer a free dial-up internet access against egypt censorship.
Number : +33 1 72 89 01 50. Login/Password: toto
http://blog.fdn.fr/post/2011/01/28/Censure-de-l-internet-en-%C3%89gypte-:-une-humble-action-de-FDN

* We are now providing dialup modem service
Number: +46850009990. user/pass: telecomix/telecomix

* “free” PPP dial-up access on Madrid, Spain:
+34 912910230. user:internetforegypt@trovator.com / pass:internetforegypt

* Dutch non-registred dialup ISP. Non-hidden phone number required, SMTP blocked
Number: +31 20 7155593. Login: buitenland@inbellen.org, no password [http://www.inbellen.org/?p=1]

* Massive list of american ISP dialups:
Login/pass: guest/password

* Bainbridge: (206) 312-1000
* Bainbridge: (206) 312-1500
* Bainbridge: (206) 312-2500
* Bainbridge: (206) 312-3700
* Bellevue: (425) 786-1000
* Bellevue: (425) 786-1111
* Bellevue: (425) 786-7777
* Bellevue: (425) 786-5073
* Black Diamond: (360) 469-1000
* Black Diamond: (360) 469-1111
* Black Diamond: (360) 469-2000
* Black Diamond: (360) 469-2222
* Buckley: (360) 761-6000
* Buckley: (360) 761-6111
* Buckley: (360) 761-6101
* Buckley: (360) 761-6102
* Centralia: (360) 523-1000
* Centralia: (360) 523-1111
* Centralia: (360) 523-1001
* Centralia: (360) 523-1002
* Graham: (253) 780-1000
* Graham: (253) 780-1100
* Graham: (253) 780-2000
* Graham: (253) 780-2020
* Hoodsport: (360) 717-1000
* Hoodsport: (360) 717-1111
* Hoodsport: (360) 717-1122
* Hoodsport: (360) 717-1133
* Olympia: (360) 515-3000
* Olympia: (360) 515-3001
* Olympia: (360) 515-3030
* Olympia: (360) 515-3131
* Seattle: (206) 495-1000
* Seattle: (206) 424-1111
* Seattle: (206) 337-5050 *
* Seattle: (206) 337-5252

Es wird nichts mehr geloggt / No more logging

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:27:59 +0100

Ich habe die Einstellungen für die Domain so geändert, das keine Logs / Userstatistiken mehr geschreiben werden. Das häufigste Suchwort war bislang "Kacki", in Zukunft ist das nicht mehr festzustellen.

I've changed all settings for the domain in a way that no logs or usage statistics will be written. The most common searchword was "Kacki" so far. In the future I can't find out anymore.

Round corners

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:42:53 +0100

Today I've become a bit annoyed by the look of gegenglueck ... it was just looking oldfashioned somehow, but I decided the reason wasn't the colors. So I started to remove and change the borders slightly. Than I remembered the CSS-voodoo at Hospitalitywiki and added round corners. Much better now! And it wasn't very difficult as I'm using bulletproof theme, a great and flexible theme for Serendipity. I've already set up an own colorset in the past, a simple CSS that is used by Bulletproof to replace the standard settings. With a little help of Firebug I identified the related CSS-classes and added the borderstyle. Probably some of this is expected to be done in your own user.css, but that's still empty here ... Right now I like it, if you want to have a look, here is the gegenglueck_style.css

PS: This probably won't work in Internet Explorers. Well, I couldn't care less.

If you don't make noise ...

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:35:44 +0100

... noone will hear you. Here someone gives a loud shout and it seemed to work out at least for now. From my point of view BeWelcome is the best of all hospitality exchange networks in terms of organisational values and definetely right now the only one I'd contribute to. And contributions are necessary right now: money is (or thanks to a lot of people: was) running out, the chairman left frustrated, the webpage felt quite dead ... but within a short time after the letter to all members the donations bar exploded"[1], a lot of people show up online and more. Hopefully this momentum lasts and in consequence the networks becomes more usable for actually making contacts, finding hosts/guests and making a difference.

Being part of hospitality networks for nearly four years now, I can only recommend using them, I've met many people from / at different places and enjoyed it a lot. Off course: sometimes it's just a short meetup and a place to sleep, but even that is much more than sitting in a random hostel or hotel. And countless experiences went far beyond simple traveller's gossip. My warmest regards from here to Hongkong, Lahore, Kopenhagen, Helsinki, Kassel, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Viktoria, Funchal and many more places: You've made a difference.

I would really like to get rid of the bad run commercial network of couchsurfing. It's the biggest network and also the most usable one, as most of the people hangout there. But the problem aren't the people, it's the system and at couchsurfing we can't change the system. We could only beg and pray it continues working. So an alternative network is needed, that is run by the people who are the network, where everyone can have an impact on how things are done. And if we really want to, we will make a difference.

[1]We're not talking about really much money here, nevertheless it's necessary to raise it or the servers go offline / domains expire / bank account is closed.

Strange light

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:38:37 +0100

Chilehaus, Hamburg - 04.01.2010

The ugly face of global capitalism: Big Shiny banned from MyS***

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:44:00 +0100

As some of you may remember I was involved a little bit with Big Shiny, a sideproject from ACEtone, NYC, the worlds leading studio for fine dub music. In 2004 the masterpiece "Kratzen für das Ebenleben" was released. Flying beyond the radar of the musical industries Big Shiny had become the major influence of all progression in music since than. Probably this has become a serious threat now, so at a first step MyS*** (you know I never link to them anyway) decided to delete the profile of Big Shiny and ban them from their website (more info). So Big Shiny is expecting major deals - the main weapon of the companies to destroy music - any time soon.

Fuck them. You can't stop us.

Ich heul gleich ... / I'll start crying soon ...

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:18:15 +0100

(english version below, the referred article from Spiegel Online is german only)

... Ackermann wird zum Sozialfall, er verliert glatt 90% seines Einkommens in diesem Jahr. Bleiben magere 1,4 Millionen Euro, gehen wir davon aus, dass das brutto ist, arbeite ich das in 35 Jahren zusammen. Ackermann macht also in diesem Jahr ungefähr den Verdienst meines gesamten Berufslebens, wenn ich Glück habe. (Disclaimer: Wenn ich nicht müsste, würde ich nicht arbeiten, aber mit der Kohle, die ich derzeit verdiene, komme ich locker klar.) Nein, ich will hier keine Neiddebatte führen. Wenn sich jemand krummlegt, um im Jahr Millionenbeträge zu verdienen, so soll er das tun. Aber, und auch das hatten wir schon, wenn er im Folgejahr am 2. Januar wieder auf der Matte steht, um erneut für einen Millionenbetrag zu buckeln, dann ist er einfach geisteskrank. Und solche Leute darf man dann zu ihrem eigenen Schutz und zum Schutz der Allgemeinheit aus dem Verkehr ziehen. Nicht wegsperren, aber sowas wie Arbeitsverbot bei angemessener psychologischer Betreuung fände ich richtig, um die Finanzierung muss man sich ja kaum mehr Sorgen machen.

Und die Dimensionen sind ja ganz andere: Letztes Jahr hat Ackermann die Ausgaben für sein armseliges Dasein noch mit 14 Millionen bestreiten müssen. Das habe ich in 350 Jahren auch zusammen. Letztes Jahr hätten also zehn Leute auf Ackermanns Kosten die Einnahme eines kompletten Berufslebens generieren können. Im verlinkten Spiegelartikel heißt es außerdem:

Deshalb seien nun alle 1200 führenden Manager aufgefordert worden, ihre Boni zurückzugeben. Die Bonuszahlungen im vergangenen Jahr beliefen sich nach Angaben des Unternehmens auf 300 Millionen Euro.

Schlüsselt man das auf: 300 Mio = 7500 mal 40.000,- = 214 mal "35 Jahre lang 40.000,-/Jahr" (plus ein bisschen für die Portokasse). Man könnte also anstelle des letztjährlichen Obolus für die Führungskader der Wirtschaft, knapp über 200 Leute lebenslang von Lohnarbeit freistellen.

Nur mal so ein paar schnell rausgehauene Vorschläge:

gegenglueck baut das Konzept aus ...

Der Weltherrscher könnte weltherrschen (und täglich wieder Blogtalks führen) ... leider scheint mir die Seite gerade von der Bundesregierung gesperrt worden zu sein.

Volker macht, was er immer macht, aber ohne finanziellen Druck ...

JeanYves räumt die BeWelcome-Datenbank auf, ohne von Lohnarbeit unterbrochen zu werden ...

Casa Robino ist keine Person, würde mit der Kohle, aber sicher mehr als eine durchfüttern ...

Mel macht soviel Musik, wie er kann ...

Die Stadtläuferin zeigt nur noch netten Leuten die Stadt ...

Spider führt den internationalen Kampf- und Feiertag der Arbeitslosen weltweit als offiziellen Feiertag ein ....

Ihr habt sicher mehr Ideen. Ein weiterere Vorschlag: generiert die freiwillige Arbeit der Begünstigten zusätzliches Einkommen, wird das dem Gesamttopf wieder zugeführt. Könnte ich gut mit leben.

(Ach ja: bei dem Modell gehen die 1200 Führungskader ein Jahr leer aus. Pech gehabt.)

... Ackermann will rely on social welfare soon, as he is loosing 90% of his income this year. Small 1,4 million euros remain, guessing this is before tax/social insurance, i'd work for this 35 years. So Ackermann earns this year roughly my whole lifes income, if I'm lucky. (Disclaimer: If I don't have to, I wouldn't work, but with money I make right now, I'm fine.) No, I don't wanna start a debatte about envy here. But if someone's working his ass off, to make millions, he's welcome to do so. But if he shows up at 2nd of january the following year, to work like a dog for more millions, he's simply mentally ill. And it's allowed to stop these people to protect themselves and the society. Not jailing them, but something like banning from work and proper psychological care seems to be appropriate, no reason to worry about funding.

But the dimensions are for more than that: Last year Ackermann had to made his miserable living with just 14 millions. I'd make this in 350 years. So last year 10 people could have made a whole worklifes income on Ackermann's cost. The linked article also mentioned:

All leading 1200 managers has been asked to give back their bonuses. According to the company's informations the bonus payments have been 300 million euros in total.

A rough calculation: 300 mio = 7500 x 40.000,- = 214 x "35 years of 40.000/a year" (plus a bit petty cash). So instead of paying last years bonuses to leaders of the economy, some more than 200 people could be freed from hired labour their whole life.

Just some fast suggestion:

gegenglueck improves the concept

The worldominator could dominate the world (und täglich wieder Blogtalks führen) ... unfortunately his page already seems to be blocked by the governement.

Volker does, what he always does, but without financial pressure ...

JeanYves cleans up the BeWelcome-database, without being interrupted by hired work ...

Casa Robino isn't a person, but with this money, would it feed more than one ...

Mel makes as much music as he can ...

The Stadtläuferin shows the town only to nice people ...

Spiderintroduces the international Fight and Celebration day of the Workless as a worldwide public holiday ....

For sure, you've got more ideas. Another suggestion: If the voluntary work of the choosen ones generates any additional income, it will go back to the main fund. I'd be fine with it.

(Alas, with this modell the 1200 econonmic cadres don't get anything for one year. Tough luck.)

b-movie Invasion / st. pauli invasion

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:07:43 +0100

# FIRST - the movie #
Get ready for a great documentation about and with a good guy who unfortunately will leave this world soon:

Christoph Schlingensief - Die Piloten
Deutschland, 2008, 95 min, 35mm
b-movie, Brigittenstraße
The movie is german and in german!
Entrance fee usually 3,50.

# SECOND - the bar #
Afterwards we will go out to kiss the early thursday night and start the weekend in one of the bar's around:
Est. 22:00 at Zoe (the one and only)
Annenstraße (Corner Clemens-Schultz-Straße)

(original in hh-group at cs)

Hoax or not?

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:12:22 +0100

Very often I've told people: "Don't buy technical devices defective by design, like Ipods, Zuneplayer and everything else that can't be used with free software. Otherwise someday you'll wonder why your device stops working and/or you learn that you don't own any of the content. It's just spending money for a temporary service!" While the first music got useless with turning off licenceservers a while ago, there are now news that a special type of Zunes stopped working overnight. Hoax? Pure coincidence? Anyway, M$ will love it.

Via Fefe.

Eating Betty: "every spoil a DUB"

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:05:07 +0100

As anounced elsewhere, finally Eating Betty's "every spoil a DUB" appears on our shitty little planet. Thanks to someone special I was able to grab the CD from my postbox before leaving to Berlin. After the business stuff, I've had a good time with old friends and some poets* (MC Jabber really rocks!) there. Right now I'm sitting under the surveillance of at least a dozen of robocops** in the train back to Hamburg, a weak autumn sun fighting bravely through the clouds ... northeastern german wastelands.

In my ears the new piece from NYC ... starting slowly and a promising deep bass (wrong equipment here, but the neighbours have been warned). Never losing track off (the) roots. Pieces of voices from somewhere, disturbing, echoing in the back of the songs and listening mind ... And of course, again the typical Eating Betty guitar: not quite fitting to a dub setup (and if you listened to some of the other ACEtone projects you'll find out for sure, that he knows to play dirty rock'n'roll as well ...), but lurking around the edges, filling in the gaps of echos, somehow present adding something handmade and easy.

A very nice cd of dub that doesn't share the (often) sterile atmosphere of this category. Roots and influences are not just mixed up, everything went through the special Eating Betty evolution process first. This is nicely put together with original and unique selfmade parts. And: There is always something warm and human in it based on human voices and "real" instruments. And warmth and humanity is a lot in this dark age. As my (so far - may change after further hearing) favourite track is titled: Goodness Dub.

So, if you're ready for dub, eager to shake your ass or just curious gegenglueck recommends this one. I was told it's available in every good online shop, but if you go out and demand it at your favourite record shop, the dealer could benefit from widening his horizon as well.

* Sorry, but I do NOT link to MyShit.
**After recounting: alone in this part of the train there is a robocop for every four of the passengers. Probably I'm surrounded by grannies with bombs in their purses, toddlers with pumpguns in their bagpack, nerds with laptops hacking into everything, every second passenger is reading "how to build a bomb"-books hidden behind bestseller covers ... a society of terrorists. And old men with ballpens, printing the internet day by day, are the last ones standing to fight it with robocops, surveillance, fascistic laws ...

Berlin, Berlin

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:03:21 +0100

The area around Berlin Hauptbahnhof / German Parliament looks like an alien base in a wasteland near Moabit. A tumor in the city, an architectural misfunction, a concrete wound in the city surface ... aliens or humanoids: I guess it's alright to declare war on'em anyway.

Good news from NYC

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:31:15 +0100

No, it's not about a new president. This doesn't change anything and until the end of january there's enough time for the actual ~~primate~~ president to start another war, start nuclear power plants and he'll definetly waste more money.

The good news are here: ACEtone finally released a new album from "Eating Betty" my favourite dub source. Check it out yourself, when the piece is shaking my walls I'll let you know about my impressions.

New categories ...

nospam@example.com (gegenglueck) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:19:09 +0200

Sometimes I think about writing some posts in English. And why not? For all the friends out there at BeVolunteer, BeWelcome, ACEtone and whereever in the virtual wilderness you may be: RSS-feed for all English entries: http://gegenglueck.org/feeds/categories/16-english.rss - Now I only need to write the posts ...