Category Archives: News

News, Software

Netvibes is broken fixed

Update:
In an answer to my mail to the Netvibes support, Lolita [sic] just wrote me that I should try accessing Netvibes using the following URL: http://www.netvibes.com/?reset_cache=1. Voila! It brought back my content. My thanks to the netvibes support team for their fast response and solution!

The problem:

It’s now two days since I noticed a strange behavior from netvibes.com; Most of my content is gone when accessing the service in a normal browser. I wondered how that could be as I’ve been accessing the m.netvibes.com version from my mobile on the same days and being able to see said missing content.

This screen shot shows how one of my pages turns up empty when accessing www.netvibes.com using (any) normal browser:

www.netvibes.com

This next screen shot shows how the same page is shown with content when accessing m.netvibes.com:

m.netvibes.com

This really takes the fun out of using netvibes. I’m growing more frustrated by the minute.

There’s no mention of any unexpected behavior in the netvibes blog, though. Is anyone else experiencing weird behavior from www.netvibes.com or is it just me?

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News, Software

Netvibes now available on your mobile

Yesterday Netvibes launched a version of their service for mobile phones available at m.netvibes.com. I’ve been playing around with it using the RIM browser and Opera Mini on a BlackBerry 8700g for a day now and the first impressions are good when using the RIM browser. The site doesn’t seem to work in Opera Mini at all, though. That surprises me. I’d like to know why.

Some widgets like Google Maps and flickr streams don’t work. I can understand that the AJAX laden Google Maps would not work on the RIM browser, but I am at a loss why RSS streams with images won’t show up.

I haven’t registered much noise on the ‘net about the launch yet. The Netvibes blog doesn’t didn’t mention it [yesterday].

Take it for a test spin on your mobile devices and let me know how you fared!

Update 1:
Samy wrote a comment to let me know that there is a separate address for the iPhone version. He also mentions that there is a list of supported widgets at m.netvibes.com/help.php. The iPhone version at iphone.netvibes.com. However the iPhone version does not work very well on the BlackBerry 8700g. Thank you, Samy!

Update 2:
When trying out the iPhone version of Netvibes I just discovered that there are some access issues. When several people behind our proxy are logged in on Netvibes at the same time, I get the start page of the other person who logged in most recently when accessing iphone.netvibes.com. That is to say I can see all the tabs of this user and all the pages they may have already accessed/loaded in that same session. Is it just me being paranoid or do you also think this is a major security issue? Perhaps we should take a look at some phone security statistics and get real. It’s good to be apprehensive, although technology is a safe way of doing things these days, it needs to be secure from hackers.

Update 3:
The Netvibes development team says in an email that they’ve fixed the proxy security issue and that they knew about it before launch. Nice that they responded that fast, but I find it a bit careless to knowingly launch new services with such issues unresolved.

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News, Weird

Fist to the face!

As I was walking home last night from the BarCampCologne2 party in Lichtstrasse I got p0wned!

I was dead tired and minding my own business, but as I was passing Live Music Hall some motherfucker apparently mentally challenged person decided to take a swing at me, flooring me with a hook to the left cheek.

I guess the guy hits like a girl – nothing broke. Retaliation was not an option as I was drunk and dead tired he had his minions at his side.

I have no idea why it happened. I did however notice that my t-shirt was getting a lot of strange attention earlier in the day:

Dead Kennedys logo

Maybe some ignorant Germans thought this had something to do with fascism or Neo-Nazism? I don’t know. And I thought Dead Kennedys were all about the polar opposite? Well, I stand per fist to the face corrected. You really showed me there. There’s nothing quite like re-education by fist!

It left me a bit shocked. Cologne is usually a peaceful city and I’m never concerned that something like this will happen. Has anything like this ever happened to you? Have you been the victim of random violence? Please share your experiences in the comments!

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News, Social

‘Wag the Long Tail’ in Cologne, Germany

I attended a seminar called “Wag the Long Tail” in the Rheinpalais today. Unfortunately it turned out to be not about The Long Tail at all, but more about what some refer to as “web2.0“. However I thought I’d share some images. Have a look at my set on flickr for more.

wtlt20070817_001.jpg

Thomas Schindler from hundertelf and cellcast.de, and Christian ‘MrTopf’ Scholz.

Heiko Hebig

Heiko Hebig (sorry for spelling your name wrong on twitter!) gave the best and by far the most honest and professional presentation, even showing off twitter. (Too bad it did not have much to do about The Long Tail, though)

Ehrensenf

And then there was Ehrensenf (sort of a German rocketboom – not that relevant or funny anymore). Not too sure what they had to contribute, though. Truth be told we left before they got to say anything profound. Sorry you guys, but I’d had about enough at that time.

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