I have been visiting my mom and one of my sisters at their new home, a nice old farmer’s house. We had a nice weekend and I accompanied them to an agility training for their dogs.

A few minutes to 4:00 in the morning, I thought I dreamt of an old fire siren signal, something which I last heard during my school days when we were training the evacuation in case of a fire. A few minutes later the siren repeated and I fully woke up. I hurried to a big window in the living room and could see a orange lit sky above the dark treeline across the garden.

I woke my sister and my mom and we ventured outside to see where the fire is. Lots of firemen (around 100 I heard the next day), police and paramedics were arriving into the village. Obviously a big warehouse (50 x 30 metres) in a central spot right beside the railroad was brightly burning. We didn’t venture too far, because of my time when I was working as a paramedic I know how annoying rubberneckers are. At least the warehouse didn’t harbour any animals nor humans, so the loss is only in material and money.

More information in German:

Brand zerstört Lagerhalle in Düngstrup [NWZ]

Picture gallery [NonStopNews]

Short report and a video of the fire operation [einsatzinfo112.de]

Last Friday, I attended a nice event organised by our local Wirtschaftsförderung called “Existenzgründung - tierisch gut!” (Setting up a business - animally good!) in the Allwetterzoo Münster (our local zoo). When you set up a business, you will certainly know not all goes according to some plan. It was intended we would go from the Aasee Terrassen (see pic above) by boat, the “MS Professor Landois”, to the zoo. Well, the boat got a problem with the motor, so we had the choice to go to the zoo by car, bike, on foot or by pedal-boat. My colleague and me chose the pedal-boat and with two other daredevils, we set off and with a big headstart arrived a while later at the intended docks. Funny introduction to the theme of the event.

At different stations (e. g. elefants, horses, wolves etc.) a speaker awaited us. They got recruited out of a pool of mostly young and fresh entrepreneurs from Münster. They presented different topics (e. g. crisis management, style and behaviour) as well talked about their experiences over the last years. It was a very informative and fun event, which has given me much to think about. I already have been self-employed for six years and have put my own business on hold for the last two years because of a new job as a multimedia designer with a monthly income. But I will never say never again to start anew.

Well, at least the boat was repaired in the evening and brought us safely back over the lake to the Aasee Terrassen. Much to think about now…

On my way to the ORC barbeque I took a few turns from the straight way and ended up cycling 40 km instead of 25. It was sunny and mildy warm, but in the shadows of the wooded lands it got cold, especially in biking clothing. Otherwise it was a nice short trip and I guess the end of my camping season.

Today I am on my way to a meeting of my online gaming guild. Still a bit hung over from yesterday’s evening and still with an achy tooth (I hope it gets better when I get the final treatment next week.), obviously the whisky wasn’t enough the kill off the pain.

The meeting takes place near the town where I live and I intend to go there by bike. A lot of members will be there, even some coming from the Netherlands and also from Denmark.

So, one day of roasting veggies among those meatdevourers and lots of alcohol ahead (of course only for medical treatment of my aching tooth).

Yesterday afternoon, after leaving the office and cycling roughly 1000 metres, my seat post broke. I was astonished to see the complete upper part of the tube was torn off. Ok, I cycled in a standing position the few kilometres to my bike shop and they exchanged the seat post with a new one. Obviously it was a material defect. I am glad this happened in Münster and not while on tour out in the wilderness.

Well, at least GOA, the European publisher, tries to bring it to Europe. They are not above trying.

Today the Open Beta of Warhammer Online - Age of Reckoning (WAR) should start. GOA confirmed yesterday their authentication centre will be online on 9:30 CEST (8:30 BST). Well, it’s not working as intended. And I have serious doubts the Open Beta servers are really opened today afternoon. Oh, and choosing a Flash-solution for account access is plain bad, very bad web usability. Form follows function!

I know GOA from my old DAoC days and since then they are infamous for their very bad costumer support and communication (if not the worst in the whole MMORPG branch worldwide), patch delays, server stability etc. I really cannot understand why EA-Mythic chose GOA for WAR’s European publishing.

I hope I can virtually travel through the lands of Warhammer Online today.

[Update]

Open Beta Servers were available a couple of minutes after 17:00 CE(S)T. Patching my Closed Beta client went nearly smooth and I was able to enter the servers. Exorbitant lags made playing not much fun. So far I guess coupled with my old (trusty) PC, WAR will not be very enjoyable for me.

And even when the graphics are not much better than World of Warcraft (at least on my lower settings), my FPS seem to drop into the cellar (a saying in Germany).

Judging the official reports from GOA that they have 5000 players currently online (obviously on 18 servers) and the system is that laggy, I fear the worst when the thousands and thousands of non-Closed Beta testers get onto the servers. The unofficial WAR forums (there aren’t any official ones in Europe) are swarmed by raging WAR customers. Yes, I wrote customers and not players.

Well, Google shouldn’t have unleashed Chrome onto the masses and open up millions of computer to cyber criminals. It’s still a beta with the version number 0.2. Go figure!

According to the Bkis Security BLog, there is a critical vulnerability which lets hackers perform a devious attack and take control of the targeted computer system.

A proof of concept of the exploits (which opens the Calculator) can be seen on the Bkis Security Blog.

Furthermore, Matthias Gärtner, the spokesman of the German Bundesamt for Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) is quoted in many German national newspaper today with

Google Chrome sollte nicht für den allgemeinen Gebrauch eingesetzt werden (Google Chrome shouldn’t be used for general [internet] usage.)

and because of the incorporation of search functions, e-mail, webbased textwriting etc.:

Aus sicherheitstechnischen Gründen ist die Anhäufung von Daten bei einem Anbieter kritisch. (Because of the security-relevant reasons, the accumulation of data at one supplier is critical.)

Despite fixing all bugs and exploits in Google Chrome, I agree with the assessment of the BSI. Well, I would say everyone accumulating data, being them corporations or even state departments or anyone else, is a risk to your personal data security and privacy. So be careful with whom you share your data.

Google has removed the questionable parts of the EULA I outlined in my post from yesterday.

The Terms of Service now state:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

12. Software updates

Good move in my opinion.

I got a new saddle and a new Shimano XTR chainring for my bike.

The price of the latter (incl. fitting) was one third of that what they wanted to have in Norway. Go figure! I am really glad I got my gear complete again. It’s more fun cycling.

So, the new saddle is a Selle Royal (SR) Lookin Athletic. Obviously it’s a successor to my trusty old and comfortable SR Lookin saddle. Only this time I decided to get the athletic version instead of the moderate one. After testdriving it, the new one seems to be as good as the old one, if not better.

So, now I like to tell Scotty to beam me back to Norway to continue my tour…

Source: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

Think about what this means for anything you do with the browser.

Bye bye Chrome!

A more in depth discussion about this can be found on TapTheHive.