Peterbe.com

Times Online has at the bottom of its menu three little pics that links to Travel, Cars and Jobs. In case the images have changed since I wrote this, see my screenshot here.

Notice anything special?

I could be wrong or this could be a Swedish thing but I though only Nazis and facists greet each other with a left handshake. I understand that they've just done this to fit the symmetry but for all those conspiracy crazy people out there, there might be more to this. Anywho, it's an embarrasing misstake :)

If you work in IT or a business that is related to IT, you should be aware that the European Parliament is making a pivotal decision next month on allowing or rejecting software patents. If they go for it, it will hinder all small IT companies and destroy the future of non-profit projects like my IssueTrackerProduct.

If you're not fully clued up on the topic and don't know what to think: read this article

Richard Stallman is a world-known IT "guru" who knows what he's talking about in the field of software development, unlike the decision makers in Brussels who might be very clever people just don't have enough understanding on the subject. After all, they don't work with these kind of things every day for the past 10-30 years like Stallman and others. We must remember that the decision makers in Brussels get the background-information-material from various angles and one of those angles is that of huge software coorporations who have cash to sue and step on little peoples toes such as Microsoft, Intel, SAP, amongst others.

By having read this article you will at least raise your own awareness of this critical situation and maybe next time you chitchat with someone at a party you'll be able to raise some awareness for justice for the little guy. Good luck!

I'm a big fan of Wikipedia despite being a bit slow. There is even a page on it about your's truely that I threw in for fun when I wrote a few paragraphs about the IssueTrackerProduct

Now, there's a site called Explore (which I refuse to link to) that has basically ripped "everything" from Wikipedia and wraps this into their own website with Google Adwords and unblockable pop ups. It does say that it takes the content from Wikipedia in the footer but I that's not good enough for me. In a sense, what they've done is not immoral or illegal but it's just crap. Apart from the footer they make it appear as if it's their content.

Even worse, they refuse to make external links. That means that they are not generating any PageRank for real content and robots won't be able to use the Internet they way it was meant to be used: webbed.

Cheeky fuckers! I hope Google drop their PageRank right down so that when I search for "Peter Bengtsson" I get the Wikipedia one (the original source) rather than the Explore one (legal rip off).

UPDATE: Roy from Explore explains to me that Wikipedia actually encourages mirroring of content which is something I did not know. Sorry Roy. However I still think it's cheeky of them not link to external sites and that they only have server side redirect back to Wikipedia (something Wikipedia says must be corrected)

Because I'm reconfiguring my anti-spam filter at the moment, the protection is a bit forgiving and a spam email slipped through. Here's an extract:

"DURING THE PERIOD OF MY ACTIVE SERVICES, I DISCOVERED ONE STRANGE BIG TRUNK BOX,WHICH WE SUSPECTED TO HAVE BEEN IMPORTED BY SOME BIG BUSINESS MEN.

WHEN I TOOK THE BOX FOR CROSS EXAMINATION I DISCOVERED THAT IT WAS CONTAINING CODED UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN DOLLARS VALUED TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS(USD$20,000000)."

This "Angolian" man or woman also adds: "...IS 100% RISK FREE"

Now the reason why lowlifes keep sending out spam like this is that it must still be profitable. There must be some idiot out there who actually responds to this and thinks he'll get rich. That, should be a crime. Don't you think?

Now, how do you make this a law? And how can we police it? Until that is sorted out formally, I think it should be allowed to beat these kind of people up as much as we like.

(I'm being sarcastic but there's a hint of seriousness in it)

This is a very long and interesting report on the energy crisis us humans and especially the americans will suffer. I must admit that I didn't read the whole think, but you should read the introduction and conclusion at least. Towards the end Bill mentions some of the alternatives such as Fusion, Methane Hydrates and Oil Sands. Interesting reading. The conclusion I grasped is that we're fucked if we don't try to do something about this yesterday. USA must also do more than the rest of the world to try to catch up.

"Our industrial world has become dependant on fossil fuels. In particular we, and especially the United States, have become addicted to using large amounts of oil. If an individual becomes addicted to heroin, and if the only way to satisfy this addiction is to kill and steal, then he will kill and steal for a heroin fix. If countries are addicted to oil and the only way to obtain a large but temporary supply is to wage war to steal the other guy's supply, then such countries will attack others in order to obtain one more fix. At first the winning country will obtain its fix, but in turn it will disintegrate internally as factions form to fight over the last scraps. This is the long-term prospect for humanity."

This is so funny that you can't afford to miss it: A special sense of humour. It's a washing label with a hidden political message in French.