herbstblatt - autumn leaf

Here is a very simple solution to a problem I’ve recently had with my brand new iPhone 3G. I tried to use Visual Voicemail but nothing seemed to really work. Even important services like declining a call and sending it to Voicemail weren’t enabled. 

I began doing some research on the internet, called a service hotline but nothing helped. I reset the iPhone to exclude every trouble caused by a non-standard setting but even this didn’t solve the problem. Then I visited the carrier’s support page and was helped by a friendly forum user who said that it could be just the network settings, which might be corrupted. I would have to reset them. This I did and - surprise - it finally worked!

So before you restore your iPhone or ANYTHING, just try this solution, it should work:

Go to Settings (on your home screen) -> General -> Reset and push the button Reset Network Settings, then confirm. Done.

Please note: You take full responsibility for your actions on your iPhone. I can never be held responsible for any damages caused by my tutorials. Errors excepted!

0:00 p.m. This is the time when the first iPhones will be sold in a Swisscom store in Zurich. I did not want to get in queue so early as there are plenty of other opportunities to buy one of the brand-new 3G iPhones in Switzerland. But I will certainly arrive punctual at one of the many Swisscom stores at 6:30 a.m. to belong to the first ones possessing this new device. I am very excited because I think that this is going to be a great phone with so many new features compared to the first version of the iPhone that I already bought last year. 

I hope there won’t be too many people around so that I can get one before sun sets again. I guess that here in Switzerland many people are really looking forward to buying it. I have just watched a TV report about the iPhone sale and they showed a huge crowd of people waiting in front of the only Swisscom store that will sell it at midnight.

Furthermore, there is much news around on Swiss Apple sites, as on macprime.ch They have changed their normal interface to a special iPhone report page where people can send in texts and photos about their experiences. 

I think I should turn in soon in order to be fully awake next morning and to enjoy the shiny new iPhone without the wish to sleep. Wish me luck…

See this Flickr group with photos of the crowd waiting in Zurich: http://www.flickr.com/groups/iphone-day/pool/

UPDATE:

There was really a huge crowd waiting in front of the store. And the worst was that they had very few iPhones in stock. For example, there were only 8 (!) black 16 gig iPhones around. I had to wait about less than 2 hours after they opened the store for the first customers. The activation, which had be done in-store prolonged time for shoppers waiting. I was very lucky to belong to one of the first standing in queue because when I left the shop again there were about a hundred people waiting!

In the last two weeks, the Swiss capital Berne, dived into an orange sea of colors with the fanciest and funniest fans I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, for the Oranjes, it was already over after the quarter finals of the EURO.

I know this has already been done officially, but now it’s about time for us bloggers to thank you, Nederlanders, for this great party and the football fever you brought to our country! You have certainly been the friendliest fan base of all teams playing…

BEDANKT EN TOT ZIENS!

Oh, yes, before I forget: There is an official page by the city of Berne: http://www.oranjebern.ch where you can upload your photos and revive emotions!

Copyright note (image): Some rights reserved by Flickr user kaspar.loosli

This tutorial* explains a method that helped me get my PowerPC apps running again after they have started crashing immediately at launch (I am running the latest Leopard upgrade Mac OS X 10.5.2). I thought I’d share it with you to save you from all the trouble I went through lately.

Symptom:

You are on an Intel Mac. PowerPC (that means non-native) apps are always crashing immediately when you try to open one.

Before you proceed, you might want to have a look at the log file of the specific app after the crash. In the crash dialog, click on Report… and then on Problem details above to see what was put into the file. If you see a process called translated you have good chances to get it working again with my method.

If there is nothing like “translated”, please scroll down and try a simpler method from Apple’s support website first (although that didn’t solve my problem).

Solution:

The problem lies behind the Rosetta application, more precisely, a process called translated. This process is also a file in the system responsible for PowerPC apps to run properly. Somehow, this file must have gotten corrupted. But don’t ask me how, I am not an expert. 

1st step: Look for your Leopard Installation DVD (the disc that was delivered with your Mac or the one you bought in-store for upgrade).

2nd step: First finish your work and save it. Then restart your computer. Now put the DVD into the computer.

3rd step: Now, in Finder, click on Go to… and then Go to folder… In the new window type in (case sensitive!): 

/Volumes/[OS X disk image name]/usr/libexec/oah/

where OS X disk name stands for the name of the DVD you’ve just inserted (you can see its name on the desktop). Now you should see two files. One should be a folder with the name Shims and the other one our wanted file translate. Now copy ONLY the translate file.

4th step: Open again the Go to folder… dialog. Now type in:

 /usr/libexec/oah/

Again, you should be able to see the folder and the file translate. Before you paste the copied file here and replace the other file you may want to backup the existing translate file from here. Do this first if you want to play it safe! (Maybe you have to type in your user password once; this is nothing special for important system files as these)

5th step: Now close all open windows and do not touch any files in the system anymore! Afterwards, restart your computer.

Now everything should be working again as usual. Congrats!

CRASHING OFFICE APPS (PARTIAL SOLUTION): Visit the following Apple support page to see another solution for crashing PPC apps (especially Microsoft Office) but with a different cause: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303677 

Additional advice: Please see comments below!

If everything suggested didn’t work, search Google or Apple discussions.

*Please note: You take full responsibility for your actions on your computer. I can never be held responsible for any damages caused by my tutorials. Errors excepted!

Information about the blog action and how you can take part, please scroll down!!!

It’s certainly not what the Chinese government wanted, a protest in their most hated province Tibet in the year of the Beijing Olympics. Now it has happened: Tibetians went on streets to protest against their oppressing and cruel government. China, which is known for its human rights violations, has now again proved what everyone knew: They silenced a helpless crowd that wanted to show the whole world its desperate situation.
Journalists who wanted to report (what should be legal according to the olympic rules) were constrained much. Although in the times of the internet, some information found its way through to the western hemisphere. One of these pieces of evidence is a frightening YouTube video of these protests:

Another one shows a reporter, being intimidated by local policemen:

I really want to ask you: Do you want to support such a country? Everyone who wants to do something: PLEASE BOYCOTT THE 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES!!! The only way to do something against it.

If you’re not sure whether you should or not, here another video, which is not as funny as it may look like as we all know that over a million people were forced to leave their homes for stadiums and other olympic preparations:

Further information about the displacements: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009364949

This blog takes part in the Free Tibet! blog action of Rainbow-Net: http://blog.rainbownet.ch/uncategorized/blog-action-free-tibet-now Please consider a visit there as well!!!

The iPhone Software Development Kit is revolutionary for Apple. When the company put its device on the market a year ago, they forbade anyone to develop third-party software for it. Maybe they had too much all the security issues in mind or they wanted to prevent competition with their carrier partners. Many users regarded this aspect of the iPhone as a drawback and not helpful to make it a truly unique and advanced mobile device.
Now Apple has finally listened to customers’ demands and dared to bring out an intuitive, easy-as-usual, software kit for developers around the world. But what is its need?

Some arguments speak against it: Too many restrictions, monopoly situation with the App Store, etc.
Of course there are also many positive aspects: OS layers are fully usable now, clear guidelines for programming, there is no need to hack the device anymore (except for those who live in “non-iPhone countries” like me or those who don’t want a data plan)
Now if you are a developer you certainly want to code something as revolutionary as the iPhone. Nevertheless you should stay in between the defined restrictions, that means: No download of the software from your own server; some apps may not get approved for the App Store because of guideline violations, content problems may arise, e.g. VoIP (restricted for the use with the provider network) and the like.
Will developers accept the App Store as their channel of distribution? Or will they go on hacking the device by using the SDK on the one hand and hacking the device on the other hand (of course they will)?

Asking myself these questions, I am seriously anxious that the whole project could eventually get out of hand. What if developers won’t follow the guidelines and use carrier networks for huge data transfers and therefore force the breakdown of it? Also, viruses or trojan horses could find a quick way to spread out in the iPhone world and harm stability and security of a network. Apple really has to set the security aspect as their number one on the priority list. If not, they risk a loss of their image and a decrease in iPhone sales.
I am not pessimistic at all, because I see a huge chance in this SDK: There will certainly be many qualified developers who know what they’re doing and create fun apps. I wouldn’t go that far to say that it is a hit but Apple is on the right track to something powerful on the mobile market.
The future will show where the hick-ups and advantages of this SDK and the new iPhone firmware 2.0 are.
In that sense: Let’s be pirates and dive in…

As an exception on my blog, I will write this post in two languages to reach an even broader audience.

English/Englisch:

As you may have heard, voting for the new Monopoly World Game is underway. Unfortunately, the voting period for the top 20 pre-selected countries has ended yesterday (the outcome is unknown at this time). You can nevertheless still vote for the top 20 wildcard cities until March 9! As for now, the Canadian city Québéc has taken the lead in the race.

If you want to support Switzerland, you can vote for Euro 2008 city Bern, which at present holds 3.0 % on the 12th position behind Auckland, but ahead of Cancún. Below you can see some pictures of the marvellous Swiss capital. I invite you to have a look at them and go vote later on:

http://www.monopolyworldvote.com

Don’t forget: Voting period ends on March 9, 2008!!!

Wie vielleicht schon einige erfahren haben, findet derzeit die Abstimmung über die Städte statt, die auf das Spielbrett des neuen Monopoly World kommen sollen. Dabei wurde die Werbetrommel schon mächtig gerührt, wie dies z.B. aus der 20 Minuten letzthin zu erfahren war, als Ex-Miss Schweiz Jennifer Ann-Gerber in New York war, um dort für die Schweiz zu werben (Artikel auf http://www.20min.ch/tools/suchen/story/27512154)

Leider ging die Hauptabstimmung gestern zu Ende (dabei sieht es für Zürich, das anfangs als Favorit gehandelt wurde, düster aus), man kann aber immer noch bis zum 9. März für die so genannten “Wildcard-Städte” abstimmen. Bern als “Wildcard-Stadt” - also von einigen Usern vorgeschlagen - schaffte es zwar überhaupt auf die Wildcard-Rangliste, befindet sich aber im Moment weit abgeschlagen mit 3,0 % auf dem 12. Platz hinter Auckland, aber noch vor Cancún.

Es ist also an der Zeit, dass ihr User etwas tut, um diesen Missstand zu ändern, damit die Schweiz als quasi schönstes Land der Erde angemessen in diesem Spiel vertreten ist… Die Abstimmung läuft, wie oben erwähnt noch bis zum 9. März 2008. Also ab auf die Website und Stimme für die EM-Stadt abgeben!!!

Internet-Adresse: http://www.monopolyworldvote.com

More information about the city of Bern on:
http://www.berninfo.com/de/welcome.cfm

UPDATE: VOTING PERIOD ENDED!

Today is one of the most decisive days in the presidential elections of the U.S. Obama and Clinton both enjoy a big popularity throughout the country as well as the Republican candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney.
There is one candidate though who wasn’t mentioned much in the media. It is a man of clear statements and a will for the return to the Constitution as the founders interpreted it. His name is Ron Paul.
Watch this video and you will maybe change your mind about the other, more popular, candidates. It is a video about an honest man, who had to go through all adversities boosted by the media, especially Faux News:

Too bad I cannot elect for the U.S. I want to encourage YOU AMERICANS to take a step forward into a new future with a man, able to guide this country out of its misery! I just see right now that it can’t go on this way forever: People are restricted in terms of privacy and the new indebtedness of the USA is high, Iraq war costs…

Another great person to be mentioned now is Naomi Wolf, writer of the bestseller book “The End of America. Letter of warning to a young patriot.” I am reading this book at the moment and I recommend it to every American interested in politics. It shows the truth about the American system today and what happens if the executive branch gets too much power, the checks and balance system fails.
She is talking about her book in the following vid:

Further links:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ , http://switzerland4ronpaul.blogspot.com/ , Buy “The End of America” on Amazon

It was just yesterday when Last.fm first offered on demand music, beginning in some selected countries. Fans of the social music website will spend even more time on it than they’ve ever done before. It is also a wise step they’ve taken when looking at the competitive landscape because there are several more or less famous on demand music sites that have started in the last months. One of those is Deezer, a French company based in Paris.

The new offers on last.fm are actually not that revolutionary although it is the first time when the social element meets legal on demand music except imeem, which had to delete many copyrighted songs and has therefore lost its initial success.

Me being registered at both the Deezer and the last.fm site, I had the idea to do a little comparison of both to make the choice easier for people new to this.

DEEZER

Some weird things happened after updating to the new iTunes version, which was released at the Macworld keynote. I’ve never experienced this issue, but now when playing songs in my library over the AirPort Express station, which is connected to the Airport Extreme, iTunes suddenly interrupts and stops playing them. What is more, during that time, I cannot connect to the internet anymore, even with other computers connected to the network. The only reason for this problem I can see at the time is the new update of iTunes because with the earlier version it worked flawlessly. It’s getting really annoying…
Now I want to ask you, bloggers and visitors of my page: Do you also have the above described or similar problems? If yes, do you know something like a work-around? Any comments on the topic are highly appreciated.

UPDATE OF JANUARY 27:

Strange as it seems, after a reinstall of iTunes 7.6 (I tried to install 7.5 again with no luck) it now works without any problems (no interruptions while playing). This is the situation for the German version of iTunes running in Switzerland. I will keep you updated in case I encounter new problems.