ModCars Project – Finally Done
For the past month and a half I have been working on my end-of-year-project for my web development course at SAE Institute Vienna. Finally I am done.
[VIDEO] Protests in Vienna, Austria Condemn Gaza War
As part of the global wave of protests taking place around the world in condemnation of the war on Gaza, several thousand people protested on Friday 9th January 2009 in Vienna, Austria.
Around 90 organisations signed a declaration condemning the gruesome and savage Israeli attacks on Gaza and called upon world bodies such as the UN as well as the Austrian government to do more to stop the conflict.
This is the second protest to take place in Vienna, the first having taken place on the second of January 2009 with more than 5000 people taking to the streets.
Today's protest was somewhat smaller with roughly 2000-3000 people protesting outside the Ballhausplatz, seat of the prime ministers office.
Among the several speakers were Amina Baghajati, representative of the Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft, the main body officially representing Muslims in Austria, and Fritz Edlinger, general secretary of the Society for Austrian and Arab Relations,
Both decried the conditions in Gaza, as well as the lack of action from the United Nations, the European Union and Austria, referring to the recent security council resolution as mere words on a paper that would be ignored by Israel.
They called upon the global community, as well as the Austrian government, to do more than mere lip service to stop the war on Gaza, and demanded the sanctioning and boycotting of Israel.
Fritz Edlinger also asked why the government of Austria had actively participated in the inhuman embargo placed upon the people of Gaza for 18 months.
Video:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QhITIptnIc
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REWQH5Z2BjA
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9KzQKPTqls
Photos:
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
The future of Wienux?
In February of 2008, I posted about the City of Vienna, and its open source project called Wienux.
Based on Debian, this Linux distribution was developed by the municipality department 14, and intended to be deployed to several thousand workstations in the Viennese magistrate offices.
Several studies had been conducted to assess the viability of the project, and initial results looked promising. An extensive study was still pending publication.
In the meantime, 7.600.000 euros had been reserved for a possible migration to Windows Vista. At the time this move was heavily criticized since study findings had not been published, and initial reports showed Wienux to be a viable option for the City of Vienna.
Now, according to an article in Der Standard, Wienux is no longer available for download on the MA14 website, due to "upgrades and development".
MA14 has refused to comment to the Austrian Der Standard newspaper about the removal of the download link.
As it stands so far, a decision in the summer, to migrate 750 workstations to Windows Vista will most likely go ahead, according to statements by a member of the municipal council from the Green party .
At this point, in my opinion, it would appear that several key decision makers have been bought off to vote in favor of Windows Vista. With silence from MA14, and the removal of Wienux from their site, it seems this project is being killed off.
Goodbye suckers: how not to do it
After having been sentenced to twelve years in prison for shooting a youth of foreign origin and paralysing him in the process, an Austrian doctor decided to commit suicide in his prison cell. Before that, he wrote a suicide note wherein he confessed to other racism-based attacks as well as a high profile bombing of a Mosque in Vienna.
Contrary to his plans however, he did not expire in glory, and is now being grilled by investigators concerning his other crimes.
The City of Vienna & Open Source: A Fuzzy-Logic Story
What do you do, when as municipal city planning council, you have invested time and money into creating and customising a Linux based operating system as an alternative to Microsoft Windows called Wienux, and while the second phase of a study into the viability of Linux and Open Source software for your office environment is yet to be published in the summer of 2008?
No, you don't wait for the results of the study, instead you decide to spend 7.600.000 Euro prematurely in order to buy, no it's not April yet, Windows Vista licences.
This rare feat of fuzzy-logic is being justified by the city planning council through the expiry of maintenance contracts by Microsoft in 2010 and the time required to apparently migrate to a new operating system, 2 years in this case.
The Green Party has decided to vote against this hasty decision, so sanity may prevail.
Source: The Austrian Der Standard newspaper.
Update
Since posting about this issue, the story has been given some more fabric. Contrary to the manner in which it was earlier portrayed, the money has in fact not been spent, but is being reserved. The Green Party claims that this reservation has been request too early, four months before the study findings are to be published, and sees this as a sure sign of a switch to Windows Vista regardless of the study results.
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