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(Speaking of licensing, I believe only the PlayStation version and the Microsoft version will be "legit."

BUZZ! Incorrect sir!

In Germany and most of non-English speaking Europe, there have been PC versions of Catan for years. For the base set and Seafarers, there's Catan: Die Erste Insel (which was also available on the Playstation 1). If you're itching to play the cardgame online, why not try Catan - Das Kartenspiel, which features many online options, and a robust AI, not to mention an unofficial English translation.

If space is more your thing, you can always try Die Sternenfahrer von Catan, which is a bit of a departure from the cardboard-n-plastic version: It's realtime. Then again, you can always try the 2-player Sternenschiff Catan, which is chock full of scenario goodness. Rockazonga, the developer of the PC version of Sternenschiff, has been making noises of an English version, as well as a PS2 version.

Personally, I'd love for Microsoft to do all the Catan gams (which, by the terms of the agreement they signed, they are allowed to), since I love Starfarers, but have trouble talking people into playing a single game for 2 hours. They'd usually rather play several other games in that same time period.

(Speaking of licensing, I believe only the PlayStation version and the Microsoft version will be "legit."

BUZZ! Incorrect sir!

In Germany and most of non-English speaking Europe, there have been PC versions of Catan for years. For the base set and Seafarers, there's Catan: Die Erste Insel (which was also available on the Playstation 1). If you're itching to play the cardgame online, why not try Catan - Das Kartenspiel, which features many online options, and a robust AI, not to mention an unofficial English translation.

If space is more your thing, you can always try Die Sternenfahrer von Catan, which is a bit of a departure from the cardboard-n-plastic version: It's realtime. Then again, you can always try the 2-player Sternenschiff Catan, which is chock full of scenario goodness. Rockazonga, the developer of the PC version of Sternenschiff, has been making noises of an English version, as well as a PS2 version.

Personally, I'd love for Microsoft to do all the Catan gams (which, by the terms of the agreement they signed, they are allowed to), since I love Starfarers, but have trouble talking people into playing a single game for 2 hours. They'd usually rather play several other games in that same time period.

(Speaking of licensing, I believe only the PlayStation version and the Microsoft version will be "legit."

BUZZ! Incorrect sir!

In Germany and most of non-English speaking Europe, there have been PC versions of Catan for years. For the base set and Seafarers, there's Catan: Die Erste Insel (which was also available on the Playstation 1). If you're itching to play the cardgame online, why not try Catan - Das Kartenspiel, which features many online options, and a robust AI, not to mention an unofficial English translation.

If space is more your thing, you can always try Die Sternenfahrer von Catan, which is a bit of a departure from the cardboard-n-plastic version: It's realtime. Then again, you can always try the 2-player Sternenschiff Catan, which is chock full of scenario goodness. Rockazonga, the developer of the PC version of Sternenschiff, has been making noises of an English version, as well as a PS2 version.

Personally, I'd love for Microsoft to do all the Catan gams (which, by the terms of the agreement they signed, they are allowed to), since I love Starfarers, but have trouble talking people into playing a single game for 2 hours. They'd usually rather play several other games in that same time period.

(Speaking of licensing, I believe only the PlayStation version and the Microsoft version will be "legit."

BUZZ! Incorrect sir!

In Germany and most of non-English speaking Europe, there have been PC versions of Catan for years. For the base set and Seafarers, there's Catan: Die Erste Insel (which was also available on the Playstation 1). If you're itching to play the cardgame online, why not try Catan - Das Kartenspiel, which features many online options, and a robust AI, not to mention an unofficial English translation.

If space is more your thing, you can always try Die Sternenfahrer von Catan, which is a bit of a departure from the cardboard-n-plastic version: It's realtime. Then again, you can always try the 2-player Sternenschiff Catan, which is chock full of scenario goodness. Rockazonga, the developer of the PC version of Sternenschiff, has been making noises of an English version, as well as a PS2 version.

Personally, I'd love for Microsoft to do all the Catan gams (which, by the terms of the agreement they signed, they are allowed to), since I love Starfarers, but have trouble talking people into playing a single game for 2 hours. They'd usually rather play several other games in that same time period.

Marcus Hammerschmitt, a german author, wrote a science fiction book about it. A really good read, if you understand german.

So you mean that Amazon is selling these books illegaly? I admit that I don't know the details of the law. All I can say is that it is not uncommon to see swastikas and swastika flags in books and on TV in Germany. School books, history books, childrens books about that time (one of the links above) and many reports on TV, also war movies...

So you mean that Amazon is selling these books illegaly? I admit that I don't know the details of the law. All I can say is that it is not uncommon to see swastikas and swastika flags in books and on TV in Germany. School books, history books, childrens books about that time (one of the links above) and many reports on TV, also war movies...

So you mean that Amazon is selling these books illegaly? I admit that I don't know the details of the law. All I can say is that it is not uncommon to see swastikas and swastika flags in books and on TV in Germany. School books, history books, childrens books about that time (one of the links above) and many reports on TV, also war movies...

So you mean that Amazon is selling these books illegaly? I admit that I don't know the details of the law. All I can say is that it is not uncommon to see swastikas and swastika flags in books and on TV in Germany. School books, history books, childrens books about that time (one of the links above) and many reports on TV, also war movies...

So you mean that Amazon is selling these books illegaly? I admit that I don't know the details of the law. All I can say is that it is not uncommon to see swastikas and swastika flags in books and on TV in Germany. School books, history books, childrens books about that time (one of the links above) and many reports on TV, also war movies...

Yes. It is by called "Line In." I have a cd entire copied with Line In. Lead cable from CD player into the input port. Records it, and compress. This not the heavy pirates stops, just people with the iPods.

That makes every piece annoying enough that I doubt many people are going to want to record anything other than maybe entire programs.

It's actually so annoying that I turn off the TV/radio entirely. Same thing as those "copy-protected" CDs: To annoy a few ripoffs, they punish all of their willing customers. For me personally, the days that I played the disc-jockey are finally over. Either I can rip the music to HDD, or they can go and fsck themselves.

The most ridiculous outgrowth of the anti-copy hysteria I've seen is the quality of the sound samples at Amazon's music shop: 20 second-clips at a bitrate of (I'm not kidding!) 16kbps, even if you have broadband. This is a sick joke, especially if you consider that almost all of this music has been available at 128kbps or above in all major P2P networks. Someone pointed me to Ayreon - The Human Equation (sorry, it's in German) as an example of good recent music. I listened to the Amazon samples, and it all sounds like someone had invented a method of turning liquid feces into sound waves. I'm certainly not going to buy anything because of this ear torture. You can't even guess whether it actually sounds good in the original.

RIAA and the big labels: Please die ASAP and make way for someone who actually gives a flying fuck about their customers' needs. Thank you very much.

With version 2.0, UML is going to make an enormous step towards visual application design. Several ambiguities are resolved. Class diagrams and OCL are now built on precise foundations (set theory and predicate logics) [1] -- instead of having most of the semantics described in plain English; the fundations of other diagram types were also formalized.

The advantages of more precise models are that they can better form the basis for code generation [2] or even direct interpretation [3,4]. In contrast to earlier approaches to code generation, a common standard now allows interchange between different tools (at least to some extent).

Here, one of the main advantages is probably not "point and click", but a higher level of abstraction: current programming languages simply do not support high level diagram elements--such as bidirectional associations--as first class members. Things that can be expressed by simple means in class diagrams and OCL expressions become multi-line code in a regular programming languages[5]. Of course, building on UML directly also may resolve maintenance problems such as inconsistencies between diagrams and the actual code.

1. http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3897228424
2. http://www.omg.org/mda/
3. http://www.riehle.org/computer-science/research/20 01/oopsla-2001.html
4. http://www-ai.cs.uni-dortmund.de/auto?self=$dq74rv vv
5. http://i11www.ilkd.uni-karlsruhe.de/~baar/oclworks hopUml03/papers/10_combined_model_processing.pdf

• They Live because it was out-of-print in the US (it came out soon after and I have purchased a Region 1 copy)
• Flash Gordon because it is long out-of-print in the US, still with no sign of a reissue
• The War of the Worlds because I wanted to compare it to my Region 1 version, maybe even merge the language tracks into a new combined edition (the disks' capacities are underutilized), especially as the UK version has a stereo English track only available on Laserdisc in the US, and
• Doctor Who , the Fox TV movie still not available in the US in any format!

As a US dweller....what's out there that would be good to watch

Well there is plenty of stuff, though you need to be open minded about the cultral content and language. Without knowing what you like its hard to make a case, though I'll see what I can do. For example, there are many anime fans that prefer the orginal Japanese version and don't have the patience to wait for the translated version, so this is one case. Another would be films that are featured at the Cannes Film Festival. Also, there are plenty of films available in other countries, that just aren't available here. You can browse Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Japan, FNAC and many others.

As I said, you need to be ready to go beyond what you are familiar with culturaly and linguistically and experiment.

According to Amazon.de here, it costs EUR 643,99 for a UK import (the Amazon UK site is down at the moment, so can't get price from there). So that makes it 445 pounds, or about $740. However, when I saw it on the UK site earlier this week, I'm sure it was nearer 350 pounds.

This has been listed on the Amazon UK site for at least a week now. Unfortunately, their site is currently down, but Amazon.de have a link for a UK import(although in German, but has a picture) here

If you're interested in Mars-Exploration, but "NASA estimated 300 billion dollars to do it" got you thinking, you might want to read these, as they come to a quite different estimate:
- The Mars-Society...
- ...and its german branch
- Robert Zubrin & Mars Direct
- Robert Zubrin's "The Case for Mars", a book I can absolutely recommend
- The german link again (I'm a german, so please bear with me, ok? :-)
I hope these may be of help...

PS: At least I wouldn't be wondering if Europe and Russia were to cooperate on this, but I sure don't hope for another "space race"... Would be one hell of sight though... Europe/Russia vs. China vs. USA? :-)

I listen to lots of German music, and Amazon.de has worked pretty well for me. You can get Nena there no problem.

I get German DVDs from there, and I get die Ärzte, Fanta Vier, Toten Hosen, etc. It's pretty good, IMO.

If you are looking for something popular like Nena, amazon.de should work well.

I listen to lots of German music, and Amazon.de has worked pretty well for me. You can get Nena there no problem.

I get German DVDs from there, and I get die Ärzte, Fanta Vier, Toten Hosen, etc. It's pretty good, IMO.

If you are looking for something popular like Nena, amazon.de should work well.

Next thing you know, they'll be an article about how 80's pop music is just now becoming popular in europe
Actualy...
see for yourself

btw: the german (with a full english audio track) Babylon 5 Code 2 DVD is very cheap (30 ) so if your player supports PAL and Code 2 you may want to consider the Cheaper Code 2 DVD. (but Episode 8 has some errors (the 4:3 cgi is scaled to 16:9 so it doesnt look that good))

• HMV Canada - their selection of music beats Amazon.com hands down. Doing a search reveals that they sell "Funker Vogt"
• Amazon Germany - great source for music tailored to the german market. The only catch is that you need to understand German (quite normal really ;)
• Amazon UK - great source for music tailored to the german market.
• HMV UK
• HMV Germany
• FNAC - online version of the French media store

BTW If you want to know what is hot in th UK, then BBC1 Radio 1 is a good site, and IMO is info-marketing ratio is 9:1, which is nice to see.

Some years ago German SF-writer Andreas Eschbach came out with a novel entitled "Eine Billion Dollar" (which actually means a /trillion/ dollar). It features the young son of a poor italian shoe maker, who suddenly turns out as the heir of a 16th century merchant (go igure: centuries are the time by which small fortunes grow into really big ones) and is meant to "change something". The novel, however, has IIRC not yet been translated into english.

Been looking for years - I knew there used to be a Region 2 disc ages back, but I never could find one for sale. Then they went & re-released it :-)

go to the german amazon, cut-and-paste "The Anarchist Cookbook" into the the search field on the top, it even has free shipping...

btw, you should be aware that sabotage of railroad tracks is not uncommon in germany to fight transports of nuclear waste.

I think Sony is blowing some smoke.

Yes they are, follow this link for an example CD. The copy "protection" is key2audio (nice try, guys - took me all of 10 minutes to circumvent), and the text on the page says "Kopiergeschützte CD, nicht im CD-ROM-Laufwerk abspielbar!", which translates as "Copy protected CD, cannot be played in CD-ROM drives".

Doh.
Raymond

Die Stalinorgel and Vergeltung are the best war literature I'm aware of. Ledig was forgotten for 50 years, but his books bite like Private Ryan on speed.

Die Stalinorgel and Vergeltung are the best war literature I'm aware of. Ledig was forgotten for 50 years, but his books bite like Private Ryan on speed.

Er, hasn't anyone read or heard of sci-fi book 'Nemesis'? I won't spoil it (although it's not particularly good) by giving any more details than to say that it involves Ruskies and the US and dashed clever British mountain-climbing scientists (what a surprise the author's like some Brit professor), but it does cover EXACTLY the scenario envisaged here: diverting an asteroid far enough away while it's still relatively easy and then plonking it down into, IIRC, Kansas. Of course there's also the slightly better written but still relatively dire 'Footfall', which again uses the asteroid-as-weapon idea, tho' this time by alien bad guys. I still don't know why they didn't film this as the plot for Armageddon, actually. OK, that's enough books for now.

(see my out-of-print book Undocumented Windows File Formats)

Amazon have it listed here. They reckon they can ship in 2-3 days.

Amazon's UK outfit can get it in 4-6 weeks

Funnily enough, Amazon in Germany can get it in 3-5 weeks.

Read what you want into that. I blame Frankfurt airport.

I played it only once, but I liked it very much and it seems to fit. Each Player is a Hobbit, together they must destroy the One Ring. Cooperation is the key, and even then you would need some practice to win your first time.

It's homepage is in german, but you can hassle them for a translation. Or order the german game at your favorite bookshop.

Not that I read German, or anything, I'm just guessing that the "Privatsphäre und Datenschutz" is a privacy policy, and that when they have a section like "Was sind 'Cookies'?", they're not talking about receipe swapping.

The /. crew didn't have something to do with these awards, did they? Seems like the folks giving them out didn't even look at the sites...;)

It's too bad there's no way to feed the cards automatically to a flatbed scanner. Most punch cards had a printed copy of the characters the punches represented across the top of each card. If you could feed them to a scanner in some automated way, then you could use OCR software and a simple script to strip out the text and assemble it all together fairly quickly.

Alternatively, there may be some way to either a) contact the original author (Wilhelm Ott), or b) find a copy of the work in a German library, and get an inter-library loan. When I entered the following search into Google...

"Metrische Analysen zu Vergil" "wilhelm ott"

...I was auto-forwarded to the following page on Amazon.de:

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/external-sear ch/028-6615 460-4707748?tag=artvisitwww&keyword=Wilhelm+Ott&mo de=books

From the looks of things, it may well be that some, or even all, of the volumes in this series are still in print. It looks like it would be expensive to spring for the entire series (several hundred US$), but if they're still in print, then it's likely there are copies available in a German library somewhere as well. If it's that important, you could try working with your advisor on getting an inter-library loan. As with most software tasks, it's better to find an existing solution (i.e. another copy of the books in print) than to create a new one (all that scanning work) yourself. :-)

Apparently, the policies differ from country to country. Slightly. Or else they didn't update the German policy information page yet. It still says something on the lines of "No data will be given to third parties - except for anonymous analysis and improvement of the database." And statistics may be given to others - no surprise there. For those who want to have a look (and can read German): amazon.de

My Beowulf DVD (see also here).

It is very much a research book. Basically, the book is the summary of the authors' research in this subject and is at times kind of dry. I have also not found this book in English, so you'll have to get it in German or find a transation or traslator.