Author Archives: J. ΞPSTΞÏN

[misc] Das Riester-Dilemma – Die Riester-Lüge? ARD Reportage vom 09.01.2012

Die Reportage “Das Riester-Dilemma” ist nun sowohl in der ARD-Mediathek auch auf Youtube (s.u.) verfügbar. Für alle, die schon lange wissen wollten, ob sich die Riester-Rente wirklich lohnt, ist dies wohl einer der wenigen Beiträge, die sich auch der Entstehung des Riester-Rentengesetzes kritisch rekonstruktiv nähern. So kommt auch die Lobbyismus-Expertin Dr. Diana Wehlau zu Wort, die die Spendenströme aus der Finanzbranche in die Bundestagsparteien in den Jahren 1998 bis 2001 genauer beleuchtet.

In der Programmankündigung auf den Internetseiten des RBB heißt es:

“Januar 2001 wurde die Riester-Rente eingeführt – und als entscheidender Schritt zur Lösung der Rentenfrage gefeiert. Die Verfechter waren sich einig: Die gesetzliche Rente alleine könne es nicht mehr schaffen. In einer älter werdenden Gesellschaft müsse jeder privat vorsorgen. Mit staatlichen Zuschüssen sollten die Bürger ermuntert werden, ein privates Zusatzpolster für ihr Alter anzusparen. Doch nun, rund zehn Jahre später, entpuppt sich die vermeintlich renditeträchtige Privatvorsorge mehr und mehr als Rohrkrepierer: Die staatlichen Zuschüsse kommen vor allem den Versicherungsgesellschaften zugute und nicht den kleinen Sparern. (..)”

[MacOS] VMWare Fusion 4.1 Allows Installation of Snow Leopard Client and Leopard Client Versions

Fusion 4.1 Allows Mac OS X Client Installations

With the release of Mac OS 10.7 Lion VMWare seem to have decided that all of Apple’s latest operating systems can be virtualized. VMWare Fusion 4.1. (released Nov 17th, 2011) thus allows the installation of all Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, and 10.6. Snow Leopard versions; vulgo: the server and client editions.

Voicemail From Infinite Loop

The tiny downside is, VMWare seem to have gotten an urgent call from a fruity garage company in Infinite Loop soon after their release of VMWare Fusion 4.1. That’s why they issued VMWare Fusion 4.1.1 (released Nov 23rd, 2011) almost immediately, thus effectively reverting the capability of virtualizing the Mac OS X client versions.

Fusion 4.1.1 Update Bars Client Installations Again

That means: if you are running VMWare Fusion 4.1, you should consider not to upgrade to 4.1.1. If you have a Mac OS X client version virtualized it would not boot anymore after the update to Fusion 4.1.1. For all the others, VMWare does not distribute version 4.1 anymore, only 4.1.1. So you would have to search the net for download possibilities of VMWare Fusion 4.1. Luckily there are still legal sources for the 4.1 download. Update: the download link distributes version 3.1.1 (sic!) at the moment. You’re on your own finding the 4.1 download on the net (filename: “VMware-Fusion-4.1.0-529802-light.dmg”). Good luck.

Continue reading

[MacOS] Backup Chameleon Boot USB-Stick

1. Abstract

You have the situation that you installed Chameleon for security and compatibility purposes on an external USB-stick. For safety reasons you should consider making a backup. But all diskimaging (either Apple’s Diskutility, Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper) tools fail to create a proper backup since the bootblock is just not copied. So you end up with having to create a second usb-stick, but this takes time. So why not copying it? In the following article we’ll show you some basic steps to create a proper backup of your precious Chameleon bootable USB-Stick.

This session is not considered for newbies. You need to understand the steps and understand that you can completely destroy your system when you apply certain steps in a wrong way. The following steps comprise a forum threat on OSX86.net.

2. Walkthru: Backing up your Chameleon USB-Stick

Continue reading

[Ableton] Emulating 808 Bass Drum with MaxForLive Device

The device is named AnalogKick 1.0 and was done by Peter McCulloch.

Description:

The author says: “AnalogKick is a bass drum synth based on the design of the TR-808’s bass drum, and is capable of producing sounds quite similar to the original.”

In contrast to the original 808 the emulation adds some nice-to-have’s:

  • FM and distortion, as
  • change the tuning curve of the oscillator envelope to adjust the snappiness of the attack.
  • key-following, to use it as a percussive synth with FM.

Download:

» http://www.maxforlive.com/library/device.php?id=1081

[Muzaq] Beyoncé – End of Time (AGIJ REMIX) — VOTE NOW

Visitors and fans from all over this lovely planet,

We really need 20 seconds of your valuable lifetime these days. Listen to our remix here:

and support us by voting here:

**** http://endoftime.beyonceonline.com/tracks/2293 ****

You either need a

  • Facebook account,
  • a Soundcloud account
  • or a valid eMail-address

to help us. It takes 20 secs and helps a lot. Don’t let the popish sounds win this competition. It’s time to act now!!!

You can vote until march 13th. Thanks in advance from Berlin :-)

[iOS] Apps Crashing iOS 5.01

Abstract

You’re running a jailbroken iOS 5.01 on an iPad 2 and you cannot use Firewall iP. Installing Firewall iP shows no indication of errors, but when you try to start it, it just splashes shortly and closes instantly. This behaviour is known to some more applications (like Safari or Mail).

Workaround

It looks like incompatible iOS Apps are responsible for that behaviour. At the moment there seems to be no known approach to find out which app causes issues, but trial and error.

Step 1. Preparations

  • connect your iDevice to iTunes (cable preferred, WiFi may take forever)
  • login and authorize iTunes on this Mac/PC

Continue reading

[iOS] Finding Information About Crashed Apps

Crashes and system freezes have become an exception nowadays. However, they still do occur. Here we show you two ways of accessing detailed log information on your iOS devices.

1. Finding Logs inside of iOS

This approach does not require a jailbreak. Inside the filesystem you may find logs here:

  • Settings
    » General
    » About
    » Diagnostics and Usage
    » Diagnostics and Usage Data
    » LatestCrash.plist

To make things easy you can just select the whole text and copy it to an email. Et voilà: developers will love you for having helped them…

Continue reading

[Muzaq] ximekon: nooz #2 & wholistic extrusion

Enjoy ximekon‘s latest aural works…

Nooz #2 (Dec 2011)
… in collaboration with NeZoomie and Ivo303

 

Wholistic Extrusion (Jan 2012)
… in collaboration with Jan Gabler)


Album scheduled for mid March, stay iTuned ;-)

[iOS] Attention: Social Media App PATH Uploads Entire Addressbook

Attention iPhone, iPad and iPod-Touch users: Singapore based Arun Thampi found out that the social media App PATH uploads the entire addressbook to the PATH servers without asking the user for permission. You can find more details on Arun’s blog.

Recommendation

1. Update to latest version

If you’re a PATCH user we strongly recommend to update to the latest PATH version, which is being currently supplied via Apple’s Appstore.

2. Tell Path to permanently remove your private data

As of now you cannot forcibly remove your addressbook data from Path’s servers, but you can nevertheless send an eMail to the Path staff (service@path.com). They will “happily” ;-) help you removing your data from their servers. The main question why Path just does not store hashes instead of whole addressbook entries remains unanswered.

More information:

» Arun Thampi’s blogentry: “Path uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers
» Path’s website: https://path.com
» Path’s customer support: service@path.com

[Ableton] Normalize Recorded Audio Samples

Situation:

You recorded a nice sample from an external source (name it a bass synthesizer or anything else). After recording you see that the sample’s gain is too low.

Solution 1:

  • copy that pattern from the pattern view to the arrangement view
  • consolidate that sample in the arrangement view (CTRL+ J on Windows or CMD + J on Apple)
  • increase the sample’s own gain to 0dB
  • the tiny downside: bass samples get often distorted. If you don’t like auto-distortion take Solution 2 ;-)

Solution 2:

  • get yourself Audacity
  • load that recorded sample from Ableton into Audacity
  • go to Effects -> Normalize
  • et voilà: gain set to 0dB and no distortion

Enjoy…