Requirements

This article assumes that you…

• … know your way around your operating system (Windows, Mac OS X, …)
• … know what an IP address is and what’s it used for

• … have installed a hyper visor (e.g. VMWare, Parallels, or Virtual Box) and created a virtual machine with it.

That’s basically it.

The Goal

The goal is to be able to do something like this:

$ ping ubuntu-server
PING ubuntu-server (10.211.55.2): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.211.55.2: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.479 ms
64 bytes from 10.211.55.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.348 ms
64 bytes from 10.211.55.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.452 ms

Here, we used the DNS name of our virtual server (called ubuntu-server) to do a ping. We didn’t need to know its IP address – which is the point of using DNS names. So, how does one assign such a name to a virtual server? That’s what this article is about.

The Short Version

If you really know your way around your OS, here’s the short version of what we’re going to do:

1. Assign a static IP address to the virtual machine (from within the virtual machine; see reasoning below)

2. Add an entry to the OS’ hosts file

The remainder of this article describes the points above in more detail.

Assign a static IP address

To assign a static IP address (i.e. one that stays the same every time you start your virtual machine) one can think of two ways of doing this:

1. Let the virtual machine (i.e. the simulated computer) decide what IP address to use.

2. Let the hyper visor (i.e. the simulating program) decide what IP address to use.

In my opinion that latter would be the cleaner way. Simply tell your hyper visor software what IP address to assign to the virtual machine. Unfortunately that’s no that simple. A virtual machine could itself simulate multiple network adapters where each one would acquire an IP address. Which of these adapters then would the hyper visor assign the static IP address to? That’s probably why none of the hyper visors I used provided an option for this (at least none that’s easily reachable).

So, the way to go is to let the virtual machine (i.e. the simulated computer) decide which IP address to use.

Free some IP addresses (from the DHCP server)

To use an IP address we first need to make sure that there are IP addresses free to be used. By default, at least in Parallels Desktop, the DHCP server take up all available IP addresses in the specified IP range. So let’s change that. (This probably requires all virtual machines to be shut down.)

In Parallels Desktop, go to the program’s settings (not the settings of the virtual machine), then to Advanced and click on Change Settings... (as shown in the first screenshot). This will open the network settings. There you select the network type you used for your virtual machine (either Shared or Host-Only) and change the last number group of the IPv4 DHCP start address. I’ve set it to 20 in the screenshot above. This will free the first 20 IP addresses (1 – 19) so that they can be used as static IP addresses.

Assign the static IP address in the virtual machine

Next, start the virtual machine you want to assign a name to. Here you need to assign it one of the IP addresses we’ve just freed. This procedure highly depends on the operating system your virtual machine is running. So, I’ve compile a small list of how to do this on some of the popular operating systems:

• Windows XP
• Windows 7
• Ubuntu with graphical desktop

• Ubuntu/Debian with console only

What to enter:

• IP address: The IP address you want to assign to the virtual machine. It doesn’t really matter which one you choose as long as it’s not used for any other virtual machine. (You may start with number 1 for the last number block.) In my case, I’ve assigned the address “10.211.55.2″ to the virtual machine.
• Subnet Mask: Should be “255.255.255.0″, unless you know what you’re doing.
• Gateway: The IP address of the virtual router of your hyper visor. In Parallels Desktop this is the first IP address of the IP range specified in the options. In my case, this is “10.211.55.20″ (see the screenshot above).

• DNS Server: This is usally the same address as the gateway.

Add IP address to hosts

The last step is to add the newly assign static IP address to the hosts file of the host OS (i.e. not the guest OS). Fortunately, this file has the same format on most operating systems (including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux). Only the directory where to find it is different:

• Windows: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
• Linux/Mac OS X: /etc/hosts

• Other operating systems and more details

The format of the hosts is quite simple. Each line contains of a IP address and the DNS name(s) that are assigned to it. For example:

10.211.55.2  ubuntu-server

On Mac OS X I recommend using TextWrangler. It’s a free text editor for Mac OS X that allows you to edit hidden and locked files (both applies to the hosts file). I’ve created an article for this topic here.

After you’ve changed the hosts file, you may need to run the following command (from the “Terminal”):

$ dscacheutil -flushcache

Now you should be able to ping your virtual machine by using its name rather than its IP address.

Important: Make sure that you don’t use the AppStore version as this version doesn’t allow editing locked files. (Apple’s store guidelines prohibit this.)

First, select File –> Open... from the menu. Then, since system configuration files are often hidden or in hidden folders, select Show hidden items at the bottom of the “Open” dialog.

Then open the file you want to edit. You may notice that the file is in read-only mode (represented by the icon in the upper left corner).

To switch to write mode, either click this icon or start editing the file’s content. In both cases you’ll be asked to unlock the file. After that, you can edit the file.

When you’re done, simply save the file. You’ll be asked for your password since you’re editing a system file (that doesn’t belong to you). And that’s it.

Note: The AppStore version doesn’t ask you for your password but instead asks you to save the file under a different name.

(via xkcd.com)

Nach intensiven Protesten durch verärgerte Apple-Nutzer ist der Bundestrojaner ab demnächst endlich auch für Mac-Computer verfügbar. Der Bundestrojanerbeauftragte beteuerte, die App bereits zur Prüfung an den Appstore übermittelt zu haben. Dort werde überprüft, ob ggf. Urheberrechte verletzt würden oder unzulässige Worte wie “Fuck”, “Bitch” oder “Android” im Quelltext der Anwendung vorkämen.

Sehr lustig. Hier der vollständige Text.

In my case, I had some translation files (XML files), and a custom build event that converted them into a binary representation. So when one of translation files changed, I wanted this change to trigger a build for the project the translation files were contained in, so that they could be converted into binary form (ie. so that the build event was executed).

Visual Studio (at least version 2010) provides an easy but hidden way to achieve exactly this. After you’ve added the file(s) to your project, right-click them and choose Properties (Alt+Return).

Note: You need to open the properties for the files you want to trigger the build – don’t open the project’s properties. Also, you need to open the “Properties” dialog. You can’t do this from the “Properties” panel (which usually opens up when hitting F4).

Note 2: You can have selected multiple files to make them all triggering a build when changed in one step.

In the “Properties” dialog under Configuration Properties –> General –> Item Type you select Custom Build Tool. Then you hit “OK”. And that’s it.

Changing the file(s) should now trigger a build when you build the solution (via menu Build –> Build Solution).

CodeProject

My situation: I’m using an Exchange mailbox is primary mailbox and have a POP3 account for my university email address. The latter I only use to send emails (as the actual university email address is just a forwarding). If you have a similar setup and problem, read on.

On Outlook for Windows, sending an email through this email address/account, moves the sent email to the main “Sent Items” folder – which at the same time is the “Sent Items” folder for my Exchange mailbox.

Not so on Outlook for Mac. Here we have a separate “Sent Items” folder for POP3 accounts (called “On my computer”). I had this folder disabled since (I thought) I only use my Exchange mailbox. The option hide/show this folder is in the preferences under “General”. (I only have the German version of Outlook, so screenshots are in German only; sorry for that.)

Option to show or hide the "On my computer" folder(s).

Now the “On my computer” folder showed up in my “Sent Items” folder and there my mails were.

Sent items on my computer folder

Now, the quest at hand was: How do I get my sent mails into my “Sent Items” Exchange folder. The solution: Create a rule for this.

So, I went to “Settings” –> “Rules” and created a new rule in the “Outgoing” rules section.

Creating a local rule

Here you create a rule with:

• Condition: Account is YourPop3Account

• Execute: Move message to “Sent Items (Exchange)”

Leave the rest as it is and hit “OK”. Now try to send an email from your POP3 account and, voilà, the email you just sent should appear in your Exchange’s “Sent Items” folder.

Auch auf dem Mac bietet Microsoft für seine Produkte – z.B. Office 2011 – ein Update-Programm an: “Microsoft AutoUpdate” (offizielle Schreibweise). Wer danach jedoch in seinem Anwendungen-Ordner sucht, wird nicht fündig. Statt dessen findet man das Programm im Hilfe-Menü unter “Auf Updates überprüfen”.

Direkt-Link zur Microsoft Hilfe

Click here to view the embedded video.

PathOption test = mQ1Settings->WorldDir;

Versucht man diese mit Visual C++ 2010 zu kompilieren, stürtzt der Compiler ab. WTF?

Ok, kann ja mal passieren. Also danach gegoogelt. Zu dem Problem gibt es auch schon einen Bug-Report bei Microsoft. Allerdings meint der Verantwortliche dazu:

I can confirm that this is a bug in our compiler. This crash is unfortunate, but … blablabla …, we believe that this is not critical to fix in the next release.

Ein Compiler-Fehler ist “not critical”???

Nach diesem Statement folgt dann noch:

We will keep this bug in our database and will reconsider it for future releases.

Aja. Deshalb hat der Bug-Report auch den Status “Geschlossenes als nicht lösbar”. Klingt natürlich total danach, dass man sich damit später noch mal befasst.

Na gut. Zum Glück gibt es ja die Möglichkeit, seinen eigenen Senf zu dem Bug-Report abzugeben. Dafür muss man sich zwar registrieren, aber einen Account bei Microsoft’s Bug-Tracker könnte man ja evtl. häufiger gebrauchen

Also schnell auf “Registrieren” geklickt, irgendwelchen AGBs zugestimmt, und dann das:

WTF? Das ganze noch zwei Mal probiert, mit dem gleichen Ergebnis.

Schon sichtlich genervt, gebe ich der Sache noch eine Chance. Zum Glück kann man ja Microsoft “hierüber einen Fehlerbericht” senden. Also klicke ich auf den Link, mit der Erwartung, dass Microsoft jetzt über diesen Fehler benachrichtigt wurde. Aber Pustekuchen!

Ich lande in einem MSDN-Forum (mit dem viel-sagendenden Namen “MSDN, TechNet, and Expression Profile and Recognition System Discussions”).

Jetzt reicht’s mir. Wie oft will mich Microsoft denn noch auf eine andere Seite weiterleiten?? Ich wette, ich kann mich auch im MSDN-Forum nicht registrieren (hab ich allerdings nicht probiert). Dann darf ich am Ende einen Bug-Report (Forum) über einen Bug-Report (Microsoft’s Bug-Tracker) über einen Bug-Report (C++ Compiler) schreiben? Nein Danke!

Und dabei wollte ich doch einfach nur programmieren. Danke, Microsoft!

Update (22.6.2011): Das Problem besteht immer noch. Und ich habe inzwischen das Forum ausprobiert; wie erwartet tritt der Fehler hier auch auf, d.h. ich kann nicht mal einen Fehlerbericht im Forum schreiben. Das ist echt ne schwache Leistung, Microsoft!

Click here to view the embedded video.

(via xkcd)

Last friday I stumbled over a seroius shortcomming of C++ (compared to C# or Java) I’d like to share here with you. It’s about virtual methods called from a class constructor.

The C# Example

Let me start with an example. Here’s some C# code that simply calls a virtual method (named test()) from the class’ constructor:

class TestBaseClass {
  public TestBaseClass() {
    Console.Write("From base class: ");
    test();
  }

  protected virtual void test() {
    Console.WriteLine("in base class");
  }
}

Creating an instance of this class results in nothing special:

From base class: in base class

Now lets create a sub class of TestBaseClass and override the virtual method:

class TestSubClass : TestBaseClass {
  public TestSubClass() {
    Console.Write("From sub class: ");
    test();
  }

  protected override void test() {
    Console.WriteLine("in sub class");
  }
}

Now, creating an instance of TestSubClass will print this:

From base class: in sub class
From sub class: in sub class

This means that the sub class’ implementation of test() was executed (and not TestBaseClass‘ implementation) – just as expected.

Note: In Java all methods are automatically virtual. In contrast to C# or C++ you can’t create “non-virtual” methods in Java.

The C++ Problem

And exactly here is the problem in C++. Let’s create a C++ version of the two classes above (compiled with Visual C++).

Header file (TestClass.h):

#pragma once

class TestBaseClass {
public:
  TestBaseClass();

protected:
  virtual void test();
};

class TestSubClass : public TestBaseClass {
public:
  TestSubClass();

protected:
  virtual void test();
};

Source file (TestClass.cpp):

#include "TestClass.h"
#include <stdio.h>

TestBaseClass::TestBaseClass() {
  printf("From base class: ");
  test();
}

void TestBaseClass::test() {
  printf("in base class\n");
}

TestSubClass::TestSubClass() : TestBaseClass() {
  printf("From sub class: ");
  test();
}

void TestSubClass::test() {
  printf("in sub class\n");
}

Now, creating an instance of TestSubClass results in the following output:

From base class: in base class
From sub class: in sub class

Note how the base class’ implementation of test() is used in the base class constructor while the sub class’ implementation of test() is used in the sub class constructor.

The problem here (in constrast to C# or Java) is that the sub class constructor hasn’t been executed yet and therefore the “redirection” from TestBaseClass::test() to TestSubClass::test() hasn’t been established yet.

Rule: There is no way to call a sub class’ implementation of a virtual function in the base class constructor!

The problem becomes even more severe with pure virtual (which is abstract in C# and Java) methods. These methods don’t even have an implementation in the base class and therefore can’t be executed at all.

For your interest: A C++/CLI class will behave like a C# class (and not like a C++ class).

Example Visual Studio Solution

I’ve created a solution (for Visual Studio 2010) containing the source code above. In addition to a C# and a C++ project, I’ve also added a C++/CLI project. You can download it here:

VirtualMethodTest.zip

I love internet radio. And I love iTunes. So the next logical step would be for me to manage my favorite radio stations in iTunes – preferably in a special playlist only so that the radio stations don’t clutter up my iTunes library.

Now, iTunes comes out-of-the-box with some predefined radio stations. You can simply drag your favorite radio stations to your playlist. However, iTunes’ radio station list is far from complete. So it would be nice to be able to add new radio stations to iTunes.

The first thing you need is the URL to the live stream of the new radio station. Unfortunately, there is no way to add this URL to iTunes’ “Radio” section. Although there is the menu item “Open Stream…” (in the “Advanced” menu) that let’s you open any live stream, this live stream would be added to your iTunes library. Why is this a bad thing? Well, you can’t edit the meta data (eg. genre, title, artist, …) for live streams. If you stop a live stream and then play it again, the meta data will be reset to whatever the live stream tells iTunes. So you’ll end up with a lot genres in your genre list you don’t want to have.

The alternative is to add the live stream just to a playlist without adding it to your library. This is possible. Simply drag the live stream’s playlist file (with .pls file ending) to your iTunes playlist. This will add all entries in the playlist file to your iTunes playlist without adding them to your iTunes library. That’s it.

If you don’t have a playlist file but only the live stream’s URL, you can create a playlist file quite easily. Simply open your favorite plain text editor (note that Word will not work) and copy the following text:

[playlist]
File1=http://streamexample.com:80
Title1=My Favorite Online Radio
Length1=-1

NumberOfEntries=1

Version=2

Replace the values of File1 and Title1 with your live stream’s URL and name respectively and save the file as radio.pls. Now you can drag it to your iTunes playlist and you’re done.

Hint: You may want to activate “Repeat One” (in iTunes lower left corner) for this playlist. This prevents iTunes from going to the next radio station in the list when there is a problem with the one currently playing.

http://blogtext.mayastudios.com

Give it a try. You might like it

Heute bin ich nun über einen Tipp gestoßen, dass die Titelüberblendung in iTunes tatsächlich ziemlich “intelligent” ist. Denn sie beachtet die Option Unterbrechungsfreies Album, die für jeden Titel angegeben werden kann.

Ist Titel überblenden in den Optionen von iTunes aktiviert und wird nun ein Titel abgespielt, bei dem Unterbrechungsfreies Album auf Ja gesetzt ist, dann verzichtet iTunes bei diesem Titel auf die Titelüberblendung – es sei denn, die Option Zufällige Wiedergabe ist aktiviert. In diesem Fall werden auch Titel “übergeblendet”, die Teil eines unterbrechungsfreien Albums sind.

Zusammenfassung (bei aktivierter Titelüberblendung):

• Titel wird übergeblendet:

  • Bei Titeln mit Unterbrechungsfreies Album auf Nein gesetzt
  • Wenn Zufällige Wiedergabe aktiviert ist

• Titel wird nicht übergeblendet:

  • Bei Titeln mit Unterbrechungsfreies Album auf Ja gesetzt und wenn gleichzeitig Zufällige Wiedergabe nicht aktiv ist

(via Mac OS X Hints)

• Machine: MacBook Pro 15” early 2010
• CPU: Intel Cor i5 2.4 GHz (Dual Core; 64-bit CPU)
• RAM: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
• OS: Mac OS X 10.6.5 (with all updates)
• VMWare: VMWare Fusion 3.1.2 (332101)

For the testing I shut down all applications (that could be shut down) except for:

• VMWare Fusion (of course)
• Terminal
• TextWrangler

I also disabled Spotlight indexing for the duration of the test using (in Terminal):

$ mdutil -a -i off  # use "-i on" to reenable indexing

For testing I used an Ubuntu 10.04 Server Edition Linux either in the x86 (32-bit) and in the x64 (64-bit) version. Each version got one CPU and 512 MB RAM assigned (default values). I installed all updates (as of 2010-12-17) and also installed the packages “psmisc” and “bc”. The kernel version was 2.6.32-26. The VMWare Tools were not installed.

I then started VMWare Fusion (Virtual Machine Library only for now), and then called “purge” in the Terminal to free all inactive, unused memory for more correct information on how much memory is actually free. I then ran “vm_stat” (in Terminal), started the virtual machine, and ran “vm_stat” again to get the amount of memory actually used by the virtual machine.

Inside the virtual machine (i.e. in Ubuntu) I stopped cron and rsyslog to prevent them from interrupting the test, determined the free disk space (df -h) and the free memory (free -ok), and then calculated Pi with 3000 digits:

$ time echo "scale=3000; 4*a(1)" | (bc -l >/dev/null)

The results of the comparison can be found in the table below:

Observations:

• CPU speed: A 32-bit guest system on a 64-bit host system runs slower than a 64-bit guest system.
• Memory consumption: 64-bit guest systems require significantly more memory on the host system and on the guest system. In fact on the guest system the memory consumption seem to tripple (for some unknown reasons).
• Disk usage: As expected, disk usage is higher on a 64-bit system , but only slightly.

Conclusions: If memory consumption is an issue on your system (i.e. if you have not so much memory), then select a 32-bit guest system. It’ll be slightly slower but also consume less memory. If memory consumption is not an issue, select a 64-bit guest system.

Hint

And “Still Alive”

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was a triumph
I’m making a note here
HUGE SUCCESS
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction

Aperture Science
we do what we must because we can
for the good of all of us except for the ones who are dead.

but there’s no sense crying over every mistake
you just keep on trying until you run out of cake
and the science gets done and you make a neat gun
for the people who are still alive

I’m not even angry.
I’m being so sincere right now -
even though you broke my heart and killed me.
And torn into pieces
and threw every piece into a fire.
as they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you!

Now these points of data make a wonderful line
and we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time
so I’m glad I got burned
Think of all the things we learned
for the people that are still alive

Go ahead and leave me
I think I prefer to stay inside
maybe you’ll find someone else to help you.

Maybe Black Mesa.
That was a joke, haha, fat chance
anyway this cake is great, it’s so delicious and moist.

Look at me still talking, when there’s science to do
when I look out there it makes me glad I’m not you
I’ve experiments to run, there is research to be done
on the people who are still alive.

And believe me I am still alive
I’m doing science and I’m still alive
I feel FANTASTIC and I’m still alive
And when you’re dying I’ll be still alive
and when you’re dead I’ll be still alive
STILL ALIVE, still alive.

Preparation

For this tutorial to work, you need a Subversion client and a Mercurial client. Unfortunately, the functionality required for this tutorial hasn’t been implemented in the popular graphical clients yet (such as TortoiseSVN), so we’ll need to stick with the command line.

• Subversion: Windows users can download SlikSVN. Linux users can use their packaging system.

• Mercurial: TortoiseHg comes with a command line client; otherwise go to mercurial.selenic.com and download the client there.

Note: The Subversion version doesn’t really matter here.

Creating a local copy

Although it’s possible to convert a Subversion repository directly over the internet/network, the whole process may not succeed on the first attempt. So it’s recommended to first create a local copy of the Subversion repository.

To achieve this, we’ll use one of Subversion’s command line programms: svnsync. First, we need to create an empty Subversion repository. Execute the following commands:

## Linux/Mac
$ cd /where/to/store/the/copy
$ svnadmin create .

## Windows
> cd where\to\store\the\copy
> svnadmin create .

Then you need to create a file in the directory hooks (which was created by svnadmin create) with the following contents.

On Linux/Mac (name it pre-revprop-change and make it executable via chmod +x pre-revprop-change):

#!/bin/sh
exit 0

On Windows (name it pre-revprop-change.cmd):

@echo off
exit 0

Now you can run svnsync.

## Linux/Mac
$ svnsync init file://`pwd` http://www.example.com/source/repository
Copied properties for revision 0.

$ svnsync sync file://`pwd`
Transmitting file data .
Committed revision 1.
Copied properties for revision 1.
Transmitting file data ..
Committed revision 2.
Copied properties for revision 2.
...

## Windows
# The quotes around %cd% are required for directory names containing spaces
> svnsync init file:///"%cd%" http://www.example.com/source/repository
Copied properties for revision 0.

> svnsync sync file:///"%cd%"
Transmitting file data .
Committed revision 1.
Copied properties for revision 1.
Transmitting file data ..
Committed revision 2.
Copied properties for revision 2.
...

Troubleshooting:

• “svnsync: Destination repository has not been initialized”
  This error propably is the result of specifying an invalid URL for the source repository.

• “Transmitting file data .svnsync: no such table: rep_cache”
  To solve this you need to edit the file db/fsfs.conf and add the line enable-rep-sharing = false.

Converting the repository

Mercurial come with an extension called “convert” that does just that: converting a non-Mercurial repository into a Mercurial repository.

First, the new Mercurial repository must be created (Windows commands work the same way):

$ hg init /path/to/new/repos

After that, converting the repository is as simple as that:

$ hg convert --datesort path/to/svnrepos path/to/hgrepos

And that’s it.

Notes:

• The --datesort parameter preserves the revision order of the Subversion repository. Without this hg convert would convert one branch after another resulting in a different revision order.
• You may want to create a file called authormap in the .hg directory of the new repository and a mapping from Subversion author names to real names.
• SVN externals won’t be converted. You need to convert the external repositories yourself and/or use Mercurial subrepositories for them.

• Instead of path/to/svnrepos you can also specify the URL to a remote SVN repository. This way you don’t need to sync the repository first to your local hard drive.

Converting sub project directory

Some repositories contain multiple projects with a directory structure like this:

+ proj1
+--- trunk
+--- tags
+--- branches
+ proj2
+--- trunk
+--- tags
+--- branches

The process to convert only one of those projects (=directories) differs a little bit from the process above.

First, you still need to sync the whole SVN repository. Although svnsync allows you to sync only certain subdirectories, this process will most likely introduce empty revision (i.e. when a revision only changed files in a directory that isn’t synced). If such an empty revision happens to be the head revision, the Mercurial conversion process will fail with svn: revision XXX not found (see issue 2834).

Next, in hg convert you need to use the file:// URL syntax for the SVN repository. So, the first parameter of the following command changes to this:

# On Linux
$ hg convert --datesort "file://`pwd`/path/to/svnrepos/proj2" path/to/hgrepos

Note that we’ve appended the subdirectory proj2 to the SVN path. This will only convert this subdirectory.

On Windows we need to do the same thing but we also need to convert the \ in the path to / before we can use it:

REM On Windows
> hg convert --datesort "file:///%cd:\=/%/path/to/svnrepos/proj2" path/to/hgrepos

Converting only a single directory

You can also convert it single directory from within the repository. To do this, do the same steps up to the convert command. Then use this command:

$ hg convert --datesort --config 'convert.hg.usebranchnames=False' file://`ls -d $PWD/path/to/svnrepos`/trunk/sources path/to/hgrepos

This just converts the directory trunk/sources from within the Subversion repository (which resides in the current directory under path/to/svnrepos).

Two thing are different here from the command above:

1. The path is specified by using file://.... Specifying the path without this doesn’t work in this case.
2. We specify the option convert.hg.usebranchnames. Without this option, the new Mercurial repository would contain only one branch named “sources” (in this example). With this option, the branch will be named “default” (which is the default).

Scheinbare Aussage: Wer Computer spielt, ist vor den Gefahren der Sonne geschützt

Unix is user-friendly. It’s just very selective about who its friends are.
- Anonymous

Seit ich Windows 7 habe, habe ich diese allerdings nicht zu Laufen bekommen können. Ich dachte immer, dass das am “Tastaturtreiber” (Quick Launch Buttons) liegt. Heute hab ich aber rausgefunden, dass das Problem bei WinAmp liegt und sich extrem einfach beheben lässt. Man muss unter den Einstellungen einfach nur die “Globalen Tastenkürzel” aktivieren. Und dafür reicht es nicht, das entsprechende Plugin bei der Installation von WinAmp mitzuinstallieren – sondern man muss die Tastenkürzel auch noch manuell aktivieren, da sie standardmäßig (aus welchen Gründen auch immer) deaktiviert sind.

Und schon funktionieren die Tasten.

Facebook unterstützt seit kurzem das offene Instant Messenger Protokoll XMPP (a.k.a. Jabber). Damit kann man seinen Facebook-Chat in jedem IM einbinden, der XMPP unterstützt – ohne dass man dafür ein spezielles Facebook-Plugin benötigt. Ein Beispiel für einen solchen IM ist Pidgin (Windows, Linux) bzw. Adium (MacOSX).

Im Folgenden gibt es eine kurze Erklärung, wie du Facebook-XMPP in deinem bevorzugten IM einrichtest.

Zunächst muss man seinen Facebook-Benutzernamen rausfinden. Das ist nicht die E-Mail-Adresse, mit der man sich üblicherweise bei Facebook anmeldet. Stattdessen findet man ihn in Facebook unter Konto > Kontoeinstellungen > Nutzername.

Diesen verwendet man dann beim Erstellen des XMPP-Kontos im IM:

• Benutzer: dein Facebook-Nutzername (wie eben ermittelt)
• Domain: chat.facebook.com
• Passwort: dein Facebook-Passwort

• SSL muss deaktiviert werden (bei Pidgin unter Erweitert > SSL/TLS voraussetzen)

Danach erscheinen alle Facebook-Freunde in der Kontaktliste.

Gegenüber einem “normalen” XMPP-Server gibt es jedoch einige Einschränkungen. Insbesondere können von anderen XMPP-Servern keine Nachrichten an den Facebook-Account gesendet werden und es können über den IM weder Kontakte zum Facebook-Account hinzugefügt noch entfernt werden, da die Kontakte auf den Freundschaften in Facebook basieren.