Proprietary Preferred

The amount of butthurt one encounters on the tech-savvy parts of the Internet when you say something about Windows is astonishing. Everybody gets real mad when you dare mention Windows Server. I've been working in IT now for some years and I've worked with companies between 3 and 2500 employees. I'm not saying that this selection speaks for the majority, but It gives an insight into the market. Among these companies, there were two that are using Linux as their primary server operating system: One is a small company that didn't want to spend any money on software on the one server they had. All the clients were using Windows though. The other company uses Linux on a large scale for Webhosting. Everyone else either had no Linux servers at all or only in a very limited number, restricted to proxy servers or tiny appliances that don't do an awful lot.

Every other server I've encountered was running Windows Server, with any version from NT4 to 2012 (yes there are still lots of NT4 servers). Everyone is using Microsoft Active Directory Services, Microsoft Exchange (legacy Small Business Server), Microsoft SQL, Microsoft File Services, Microsoft Print Services, Microsoft IIS Webservices, Microsoft Remote Desktop / Terminal Services. Some are also using Dynamics, Lync or some other additional product. Microsoft dominates the internal IT of the German Mittelstand. Linux definitely has a bigger share when it comes to webservers on the internet (http, ftp, etc.) and dominates most datacenters, but people at work log onto Windows desktops, due to a Windows backend.

The same can be said about Office software, even to a much higher extent. Libre Office might be gaining popularity for economical home use, but I have yet to hear about even one successful long term migration away from Microsoft Office. The reason is simple: It has a higher functionality and great interoperability. It just works better, and I say that as somebody who has been using Open- and then Libre Office for serveral years.

Furthermore, most companies are entirely dependant on proprietary software that will never be available (and supported) for anything else than Windows Server. This is another thing I learned when working in IT: Almost every company is using some relatively obscure piece of software for something very important. The more potent the application, the higher the dependancy. I've seen multiple times that enterprises can't migrate to new OS versions because the legacy software doesn't work on 64bit systems among other issues.

From the perspective of the German Mittelstand companies, free software offers an advantage only when it's free of charge. Few firms can afford to employ somebody with the know-how to change open source software according to their needs or even maintain systems that aren't GUI based. What they are looking for is something that is cheap, reliable, extremely easy to use, has full interoperability with standard Windows software and is fully supported by the vendor for as little money as possible. Certainly some IT companies do a lot of Linux support, but the vast majority priorizes Microsoft and it's peers because that's what the market uses and demands.

Focus

It seems like one of the biggest mental problems I have is my terribly short attention span. Ten years ago, I could play a video game all day long or reads books for hours on end. I have never been patient, but I think the last six years of Internet use have really worsened it. I can't do anything for more than a few hours without needing distraction. When I read a book, I take a short break at every chapter - and I have to fill out a test, I don't even finish reading the full assignments or answers if available. I think this is mostly due to websites that encourage just quickly clicking through the images and not having to read an awful lot. I figure it's not just me though, if you look at the pacing modern movies have, this ADHD kind of style that would have freaked people out twenty years ago is no common. Me, I'm try to read more books and force myself to stay on focus as long as possible.

The Power of Graphene

Graphene is a material consisting of pure carbon whose atoms are arranged in a single layer of hexagons. The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded to experiments revolving around graphene. It is one of the strongest materials ever created and can yet remains very thin and very flexible. One of the major concerns has been production costs, where it was necessary to peel molecular layers off graphite to get graphene. In 2012, the University of California found a way to produce graphene using graphite oxide and a laser from a consumer-grade Lightscribe DVD burner (see video above). During this experiment, the scientists not only found this ridiculously cheap way of producing graphene, but also verified the extraordinary electronic properties of it:

To put it bluntly, batteries have large energy storage, capacitors are very fast at charging and discharging. A supercapacitor bridges the gap between those two, having large energy storage and charging up quickly. Graphene can be used as a supercapacitor: In the experiment, the patch of graphene was charged for 3 seconds and kept a light bulb running for 5 minutes. This means that we have a material that is very light, extremely strong, very flexible and easily producible that holds great energy capacity after being charged for a very short time. Furthermore, conventional batteries are full of toxic acids and metals while this is, just like every single organism on planet Earth, made out of carbon (which exists in abundance) so you can throw it in your compost.

Right now, the team behind this discovery is working on refining to production process to make it even easier to create graphene, how to make larger patches of it and also tries to figure out how to increase the lifespan of it as a supercapacitor. This year, they released the statement that they have achived a power density that is on par with the best supercapacitors ever made.

This might be the most important invention of the 21st century yet. The nearest application for this might be OLEDs: Samsung showed flexible display prototypes at this year's keynote, which let you bend your display like a sheet of paper. What they don't mention at the show is that the display is still attached to a chunky box that holds the battery. When the graphene supercapacitor is made available, you could put the battery directly behind the display and have it bend with the entire device. But not only flexible material, any device that uses batteries would significantly profit from using this technology instead.

Further along the road, this might be the solution to the stalemate at the electric car market - nobody uses electric cars because they have very limited range and take extremely long to recharge so you'd charge more than you'd drive with it. It will take many years until graphene supercapacitors will be massive enough to power an entire car in a way that is fit for mass production - when that is done though, the one thing that keeps cars like the ones Tesla makes from taking off will be made irrelevant and we might finally resolve our complete dependence on oil. Also, spaceflight would benefit a lot - the ISS has to adjust the solar panels permanently towards the sun, with this it would take a quick charge of sunlight and you're fine. The same principle would apply to any household : why not have a few solar panels on top of your roof that charge a small supercapacitor in your house that then powers all your devices without any dependency on energy corporations? The applications are endless and the impact is tremendous. There are already a few youtube videos of people trying out the same technology at home on a small scale because it's that easy to make.

Iron Man 3

When the first Iron Man movie came out in 2008, I was very positively surprised. Due to the success of the film, further MARVEL movies that eventually led to the great Avengers movie in 2012. We're now in the second wave of individual MARVEL superhero movies that will lead to Avengers 2, starting with Iron Man 3. Apparently, I was the only one that liked the second Iron Man movie, but I still wasn't exactly psyched for this one due to very lukewarm reviews and the uninspired trailer. I got to watch it nevertheless.

Iron Man 3 takes off shortly after Avengers, with Tony on his own again. The story revolves around the omnious Mandarin, a foreign terrorist that attacks military and civil targets in the US and the growing influence of AIM (in a very different form than in the comics, magic rings and M.O.D.O.K. might have been a bit much for general audiences). Meanwhile, Tony Stark struggles with the responsibility laid upon him as Iron Man and his serious attempt at a relationship with Pepper. His public challenge to the Mandarin soon backfires and Stark has to face one of his lowest points when it hits home. Elements from the comics other than the villains are Extremis and a bunch of suits that have appeared in the original.

Generally speaking, Iron Man 3 is, just like the predecessors, an entertaining comic book superhero action movie throughout pretty much the entire time. However, it comes short of its full potential. The marketing set the premise of the hero being broken (in a remarkable resemblance to The Dark Knight Rises), however that isn't portrayed as drastically as the trailer puts it. The biggest issue this movie has might just be the third act, in which there are a bunch of terrible elements, but I'll get to that in the spoiler part. If it wasn't for the very good performances of Robert Downey, Jr. and Guy Pearce, it would have been the dullest of the three Iron Man movies, with some rather pointless stretches that contribute little to the plot or the character's development. The plot is, again, based on the question who actually pulls the strings behind the curtains, but it becomes perfectly clear within after twenty minutes how it all will turn out.

I'd also like to point out the very obtrusive product placement. Audi and Oracle most of all are rubbed in your face in ways that just seem off, as if people wrote the story and afterward struggled very hard to find a place to mention the sponsors.

WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD, highlight the text to read:

Other than what I've just said, what really bugged me were the scenes with the kid and the final big action scene. The scene in the little town with the kid was supposed to be him at his lowest point, but really he shook it off very quickly and returned to action hero ass-kicking without any further consideration or planning. Also, there's this kid in it and kids are always annoying in movies.

What almost ruined the whole film for me though was the end when the several suits are deployed simultaneously and fighting the Extremis guys.

Every action-, fantasy- or adventure movie these days has to have a big battle scene at the end with as many people involved as possible. Not only is this formula boring and predictable, but in this it is executed in a way that reminds one of Michael Bay action scenes. It's impossible to follow because it's just a bunch of very brief sequences cut together, with no sense of coordination or direction. The highlight of Iron Man 2 was War Machine and Iron Man fighting the drone robots in that garden which was a completely brilliant scene because you get the idea what is happening and it was about firepower, close combat and the best use of weaponry. Most of it was shot up close, so you get drawn in way more, are more involved in the scene. In Iron Man 3, it's a lot that happens in the background, there are lots of explosions, the participants jumping and flying around and the camera just goes berserk. It's complete sensory overload without any clear direction, like these terrible Transformers movies. It's just not well made. When Pepper then got her Extremis superpowers and started doing kung-bullshit-fu, I just wanted that scene to end.

If it wasn't for Guy Pearce, Killian would have been a terrible role. The cliche villain who is cruel for cruelty's sake and tells his plan to the protagonist – it's very flat throughout the movie. He's like a competent version of Hammer from Iron Man 2, but just as cartoonish. All the other Extremis guys they have to fight off at the end remain faceless and without any clear motivation.

So all in all, Iron Man 3 is worth a watch if you liked the other two movies for some meaningless entertainment. It's not a great movie, but it has some quite good scenes in it, just don't hope for it to be on par with the first movie – mostly due to the idiotic finale and poor reveal.

Ripping Headaches

German collective The Ocean started pretty straight-forward with Fluxion and Aeolian as the mixture of Doom and Hardcore that makes up Sludge, but soon expanded their sound using more progressive elements like classical string instruments. With the release of two-disk Precambrian, they release an amazingly strong record that soon became one of my favorite records ever. However after that, the band underwent some changes including a new singer and a shift in sound, that kept Heliocentric and Anthropocentric – although ambitious - from meeting some fans' expectations. Especially the rather cheesy, piano- and clean vocal songs estranged me from the band to a certain degree.

However, The Ocean have got a brand new release out there, entitled Pelagial. After dealing with the history of the earth and the duality of religion and science, this record returns the guys to their nautic roots and intends to portray a journey from the water surface to the bottom of the sea.

Pelagial is not quite as good as it could have been, but nevertheless might be their second-best album yet, only surpassed by Precambrian. It still uses the string instruments and piano from the last two albums, but in a clever way that doesn't make their songs pop music. In terms of the regular instruments, this is their most technical output yet, especially Luc Hess has some really fine drum moments on this – it's a very well balanced album with enough variety in it to keep it interesting for quite a while and yet is easily accessible. The production and sound quality is amazing, considering how little a budget this band has when compared to major acts. This album all of their trademarks, expanding their sound without loosing touch with their roots.

Really the only thing bothering me about this album at all is the course of the album in regards to the topic of sinking down an ocean towards the bottom. Maybe it's because I listen to bands like Ahab that have already done ultra-heavy doom metal that works as an interpretation of the lower layers of the sea, but I had hoped for the songs to become doom metal by 75% of the duration and concluding in drone at the end, but even the second to last song has some relatively light moments to it. If you leave aside this inconsistency with the theme, it's a very strong record that returns The Ocean to the path of metal righteousness. This is a clear recommendation for what might be one of the best albums of this year. Hut ab.

Bulldozer - Neurodeliri [1988] [♫]
Italy, in terms of metal music, is almost exclusively know for symphonic power metal acts like Rhapsody of Fire (Swords, Dragons, eunuch singers). One exception is Bulldozer, who peaked in the late 80s during the pinnacle of thrash, playing a sort of blunt, rough speed metal that would spark the interest of a certain Norwegian duo. Neurodeliri may not be the most well-known record by this already obscure band, but it's pretty damn good in that it takes the straight-forward style Bulldozer had and makes it just a little more refined, turning it more effective. Riffs are more important that anything on this, except maybe for tempo. It's a fun little record that may be terribly outdated by today's standards, but it's a joy to listen to because of it's simplicity. It just works effortlessly.

Sophicide - Perdition Of The Sublime [2012] [♫]
It's not for everyone, but then again, the best stuff never is. Sophicide is one-man band Adam Laszlo from Hessen, Germany that plays a kind of technical death metal that's both modern and yet sounds very adult. While it's far from the progressiveness of, let's say Death's Human, it does extremely well at blasting and shredding your ears off without loosing focus on the song. There's not a single mediocre track on this, all the songs are great. With a lot of filigree details set on top of a grinding, thrashing foundation it's fun to listen to on the first rotation and remains interesting throughout several plays. There's lot of variety in it without abandoning the overall tone of the album, but most outstanding of all has to be Laszlo's guitar playing. Urgent recommendation for anyone who's into death metal.

Finntroll - Blodsvept [2013] [♫]
Never judge a book by it's cover, but that sometimes works with a record. I had my doubts when I saw the artwork, and it turns out the songs are as uninspired and polished as the cover. This would then be the first Finntroll record that I do not like. It's not even particularly bad, it's just terribly boring. Of course there's only so much you can do with a band that has so much defined it's niche sound, but Nifelvind was just as predictable and didn't bore me at all. It's hard to put your finger on, but that's probably the exact problem: there are no outstanding songs, it's all one blur without any inspiration to it. Nattfödd was mostly catchy, Ur jordens djup was mostly harsh and both worked fine. This however just doesn't flash me at all, it feels like filler material after the first listen. Their most insignificantly album yet.

Aspid - Extravasation [1992] [♫]
Aspid were a band of brief existence from Russia that released a single full length album one year after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At a time when death metal was starting to become a little more refined, these guys made a record that is somewhere between technical thrash metal and oldschool death metal, a vague comparison might be Sadus or Morbid Saint, but more catchy and riff-oriented at times, the vocals being pretty close to Sodom's Tom Angelripper. Extravasation or whatever the Russian title is is a really great record with lots of amazing guitar work that doesn't go off shredding and returns after the audience has lost track of what the hell is going on, but rather lets it contribute to the song. This little gem has been made available on CD in 2007 after being locked in analog media for many years.

Rings of Saturn - Dingir [2013] [♫]
Not only do I have a thing for Science Fiction but also metal music that revolves around it, like early Voivod and Vektor. Rings of Saturn, a bunch of kids from San Francisco also have a sort of outer space / aliens theme going, but come from a deathcore background. Yes, I've said it, deathcore. And while this has some annoying traits of that faker-genre, Dingir turned out to be a pretty decent record. Of course there's the maniacal screaming and high-pitched guitar fumbling throughout all the songs, and at some moments really without any point to it, but some of the tunes stand out due to some well placed riffs, melodies and song structures that contribute a lot to the album's overall quality. I remain skeptical of the deathcore genre, but this album is one of the few releases I can enjoy.

Other stuff I listened to that I recommend are Exciter - Heavy Metal Maniac, Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients, MF Doom - Mm.. Food, Tygers of Pan-Tang - Wild Cat, Yngwie Malmsteen - Odyssey and Wolvhammer - Blackmarketeers of World War III. Also some Goa. And Blitzkrieg.

A Night At The Twitter

Since right now I appear to be unable to write anything coherent longer than 140 characters, so here are some of my tweets from the last 6 months:

I call it Sk8thulu, it's Cthulu on a skateboard with 80s shades, shorts and a cap on sideways. Pretty gnarly, right, your honor?

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 20. April 2013

The best part about sex is when they let you out of prison two years later.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 18. April 2013

There will be no equality without there being a social stigma on lesbians beating their wives.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 16. April 2013

The driving distance between any Burger King restaurant and the nearest roundabout is exactly one cheeseburger.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 10. April 2013

"This guy's intense Windows desktop customization makes me really horny" - women everywhere

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 6. April 2013

I want my living room to look like a metal band moved into The Jetson's apartment.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 3. April 2013

"She was the best Lei a've ever had" - Hans Olo

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 12. März 2013

"What doesn't kill you makes you longer!" - medieval ad for torturing people with a rack

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 1. März 2013

My favourite comic set in the post-apocalyptic distant future is probably Dilbert.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 24. Februar 2013

Find out about a TV show. Watch all 7 seasons in two days. Feel depressed and empty when it's over. Such is the circle of life.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 8. Februar 2013

"it's like we're hit and dropped all our coins" - Joe Biden declares America bankrupt after his 72 hour Sonic the Hedgehog marathon

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 3. Februar 2013

This arm chair is fantastically comfy but it's a little too low for my desk and not as mobile as I'd like, so where can I buy a big turtle?

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 20. Januar 2013

Does "you should get a partner" instead of "you should get a girlfriend" mean my mom is very liberal or that my situation is that desperate?

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 19. Januar 2013

You know who else liked anime, pictures of cute animals and sending funny observational tweets from his smartphone? HITLER!

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 18. Januar 2013

Atheists call Michael Flatley The Imaginary Overpowered Irrational Bullshit Ghost of the Dance #religion

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 11. Januar 2013

Crack addicts don't wake up from overdosing. Weed addicts don't wake up from overdozing.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 5. Januar 2013

In another hilarious episode, The Simpsons visit the Mortal Kombat Universe! Homer gets frozen by Sub-Zero and Reptile eats Bart's shorts.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 30. Dezember 2012

if a vampire had blood in his stool would he be like aaah what a waste #science

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 23. Dezember 2012

Hipster Garfield ironically likes Mondays

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 16. Dezember 2012

As North Korean refugees flee to the moon in a self-made rocket, Kim Jong Un presents the glorious new space program

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 12. Dezember 2012

Went to a "heroine" party. Weirdly, it was all dressed up chicks and no drugs at all.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 9. Dezember 2012

If the Arabs and the Australians were to switch places, everybody would be happier. Just saying.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 5. Dezember 2012

As Osiris starts reaping the souls of the world, it turns out that the ancient Egyptians were the only ones to ever get religion right

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 23. November 2012

Somewhere, a group of white people is rapping about the dangers of STDs under the name of Pubic Enemy

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 21. November 2012

Wore a grey shirt instead of a black one. Living la vida loca.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 19. November 2012

Every morning, she thoroughly reads the latest obituaries and cross-checks them with the list of names in her little black book.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 11. November 2012

Friends are like balloons. If you stab them with a knife, they die.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 10. November 2012

One of my former teachers suggested starting a company with me. I didn't know he can cook meth.

— Karl Auer (@AWorldToCome) 1. November 2012

It's complicated

While it may certainly make for exciting news, I am weary of the supposedly tense situation in Korea. The stone age communists in the North have been threatening to unleash their entire arsenal for the last 50 years and this just seems like another one of these charades. While their ideology might be idiotic, I don't think that the military leadership of the North Korean nation is entirely stupid or ignorant. I suppose they are well aware that starting a full-on war against South Korea, Japan and those other imperialistic murderers is not a conflict they are going to win one way or the other. Nobody knows if Kim Jong-Un is even able to overrule his top generals, but if he were to order an actual attack, he would do this fully aware that he can't withstand this conflict.

What nobody seems to mind though is what happens after the conflict. So let's just image North Korea firing missiles towards the south and infantry being mobilized. The US and Japan would smash their infrastructure and heavy machinery within a week, smashing apart the North Korean army. China will wave it's finger but they won't interfere if the North were to attack first, same for Russia.

So then what?
With the industrialized brainwashing these people, their parents and grandparents have undergone, it would hardly be realistic to assume they'd wave the white flag and surrender peacefully. The terrible kind of guerrilla warfare that still has the US Army pinned down in Irak and Afghanistan will be taken to a whole new level, "fight to the death" self proclaimed martyr kind of people will keep throwing everything they can against the foreign invaders, including child soldiers, scorched earth policies, suicide bombers and the likes.

Furthermore, even if you leave aside the military implications of this conflict, the humanitarian ones are catastrophic as well. If the communistic centralized food production - that apparently doesn't meet the demand at all anyways - breaks down entirely, there will be an estimated 24 million people without food. While South Korea may be one of the 20 strongest economies in the world, it won't be capable of supplying the North by itself. This means lots of UN involvement (like that ever improved anything) and humanitarian organizations having to care about a whole new country. It will take an awful lot of time to create a working short-term supply chain and then in the long term self-sufficient infrastructure, even if there were such a thing as public acceptance for it when there definitely won't be.

What's supposed to happen to North Korea after that? Will they get swallowed by the South and reform a larger, single Korean state? Will the leftover representatives of the former communist country keep on running the show and remain in charge? The latter option might seem more appealing than it seems at first, because for the rest of the world it means less drastic change and as such less involvement and aid.

Whatever happens if North Korea were to finally launch a military attack, I don't think it will be that different from what happened in the middle east: Short open conflict, followed by decades of cleaning up the puddle that's left.