This sink's design is broken in at least 2 ways.

This sink was installed only a few months ago in a high tech low spec building, yet the hot and cold water are distributed in 2 separate faucets. In the year 2011 you still have to chose between burning or freezing your hands every time you wash. Whoever designed this obviously isn't big on post-toilet hygiene.

The other issue, again if you use such a device, is the room left for you to maneuver your hands while washing.. . Actually, just trying to collect water is difficult, you find yourself constantly hitting the back of the sink with your hands.

Today I saw something interesting. An advertisement in the London Underground.

This is what is says:

You Don't Know Me

You don't know anything about me. You don't know
what I'm made of or just how much I'm capable of.
You don't know where I've come from nor where
I'm heading. You know nothing of my highs or my lows.
You don't know how fast I am, how strong I am,
how resilient I am. You haven't got a clue what
breakfast cereal I eat, what fragrance I wear or
who I'm dating. You don't even know my name.

But you will

So I read it, and then think... hmmmmm.. The message, in short is that the games will be around soon and in those games will be new competitors that you do not know of... And they will make so much noise that you will know them.

What actually strikes me is that this person who is able to run fast, jump high or be a precise badminton player has announced their purpose in life very clearly:

• Sell breakfasts
• Promote perfumes
• Feed the gossip industry

Whoever makes the most noise, will be in many adverts ... . . in 2012. I hope they're photogenic.. (of course they will be).

This image reveals something about the motivations.

Apple has revised their App Store terms, now these apps cannot contain any links, like to send users to a web page to then make a purchase outside the i-app. All sales from within the i-app mean 30% to Apple.

Companies like Kobo and the Wall Street Journal have refused to accept the new terms, they now no longer sell content via their i-app. Also, Google has removed their book selling app, they have now put it back in the app-store but without the "buy" function, same for Amazon.

Apple's marketing techniques are just like those of crack dealers... .. . Now that so many people/companies have become captive of the i-App-store it's time to see how much they can squeeze out of it.

Last night I received a "google+ link", something about a conversation etc etc.. I was assuming that even though I don't have a google account I could probably read and maybe even participate in the conversation. Not. I was obnoxiously invited to create a gaccount.

This morning I followed a friend's link to an article on google+, it says that google+ will force facebook to be more open to other platforms. Of course the previous experience showed me that I will absolutely need a gaccount before touching anything.

First reaction to the article is, IF and really IF google does anything to "open" other online social networks then we must note that they are very far from being the first to help. Just the fact that it is not by default designed from ground up on that basis is already a problem. Actually, I don't see any mention of their platform even remotely wanting to be capable of interacting with other servers (Alert: could be wrong).

For me the projects that will have had anything to do with opening anything up are:

• GNUSocial and StatusNet
• Friendika (used to be Mistpark)
• CrabGrass
• Diaspora

Recently Microsoft bought Skype and then Skype started to break down and have many little issues here and there. Of course the expected result has been confirmed in the FSF's latest mail.

Read more about these Skype replacement projects at the FSF website.

Spain has arrested 3 guys who they believe were part of the PlayStation network outage. Hackers aren't supposed to be in prison, they should be in front of a computer playing with code and publishing papers and stuff. Participating in making the collective brain smarter... . Of course most humans seem to confound "hacker" with some other negative concept. Let's not forget this all started when 2 hackers got arrested for publishing knowledge about the consoles they purchased.

Anyway, utopian ideas aside, PlayStation seems to really be doing it wrong. Sony's comeback plan consists of trying to get the millions they "lost" back by sending whoever they can find and blame to prison etc etc. Worst part is many of these "kids" are probably Sony clients... .. .

This means, bad publicity, not to mention a kick in the nest. On the upside, people living in the northern hemisphere might have a good reason to spend summer outdoors.. .

So, Mr and/or Mrs Sony, if you read this, at the least, just let it go, at best, encourage hackers to tweak/modify the console and publish whatever they find. If it were like that I might even buy one (and you would have one more Blu-ray drive infiltrated into a home).

And a few links (because these change all the time...

• Anon_central@twitter
• Spain arrests 3 hackers...
• dear-government-of-spain
• V for Spain
• #OpPolicia@twitter

Microsoft has purchased Skype. Now I'm wondering what is going to happen to this software. I know its never been Free Software, however in it's early days it was directly available for GNU/Linux at a time where most other software vendors would not consider platforms other than windows and macos. Another thing is that I have to admit that it does work and it works well.

So what will happen next ? I predict they will first drop the GNU/Linux version. Then they will of course drop the p2p system and prefer a centralised method that will make it less efficient... Good side is that maybe more work, technical and promotional, might go into XMPP + Jingle (Jabber) and that would be cool. In the meantime, brb need to delete an account.

Lately Sony's Playstation network has been totally compromised and has been down for I don't even know how long and seems wont be back up until next summer or something.

The reason for the outage has changed since it all started, first it was hacked by Anonymous, then it was down because of equipment failure or something.. Now it's been hacked by professional Internet robbers with the intent to re-sell the data, estimated at 100 000$ or more.

Since Sony has been a real bunch of assholes with some hardware hackers (Sony clients), like graf_chokolo and geohot, they have annoyed a few people and they have to expect a reaction. If we live in a world where in a couple of days (or less?) some people can get their homes raided, their R&D stolen from them and other things like fines, prison threats etc etc etc, then do expect a reaction that will not be (only) in the form of protests, boycotts, rants, etc...

At what point does one company have too much power ? And how on earth did we come to this point where taking apart an object you own and playing with it is illegal because you don't own the things you buy ? Will Ikea sue me if I transform a kitchen worktable into a bench and publish a howto ?

So, kiddie script hackers, a failed hard drive, the Internet mafia or God herself ? Doesn't matter, Sony deserves everything it just got, heck it probably deserves so much more.

Humble Bundle is back and it's cooler than ever (because it's frozen). The idea is:

• Pay what you want
• Support charity
• DRM free

The really cool part is that it will run on the operating system that reasonable people prefer, GNU/Linux. The games will also run on the gaming OS, Windows and the show off OS, MacOS.

Go get your copies at Humblebundle.com. Also note, just like last time, it seems that GNU/Linux users are far more generous than the users of other operating systems... .. .