We know so much about our planet, that it appears hard to find the unexplored. Well, do we? We pretend to know, that is. Even with satellites overhead it took until September 2005 before geologists recognised that the 'Horn of Africa' was rather rapidly breaking apart and on the way to shape a new ocean. Earthquakes just south of Yemen, in Saudi Arabia, but also Ethiopia indicated that continents were on the move again. Little still is known about the Afar Desert of Ethiopia, the hottest place on Earth where people live. A 50 km (36 miles) long rift had opened more than 4 meters (12.5 feet) in less than 4 weeks. In June 2009 another major tectono-volcanic event took place in this vast desert. A region that -though populated- looks like an unknown alien planet. From the villages of Dallol and Artali, the hottest and lowest settlements on Earth, came messages that strange lights in the skies were seen and smoke came from the surface. A different smoke than from the "boina" wells, where condensed volcanic water-vapor delivers abundant tapwater to men and livestock. Expeditions went there to have a first glance of what actually was going on...

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Ever realized the secret of Tuesday, 19 January 2038? At 03:14:07 UTC that very day you could try your microwave oven to find things burned, or the machine not working at all. Your car electronics could fail, its doors staying locked forever. Industries working with certain embedded computer systems might come to a sudden halt. Your Ubuntu 37.10 could fail to run, as would many other computerized, large and small systems. Unless the 2038 timer 'bug' is removed on time, which means years before that hour and date! Some software will fail several years earlier when trying to apply data passed January 2038. The problem? Nobody realizes or even knows today what equipment will be carrying the 'bug' still. It is no 'bug' after all, but simply a clock limit for many non-64-bit chip-sets. They are everywhere: from elevators to coffeemachines, from cockpit displays to desktop computers and cars to wristwatches. The lifetime of chips and software learns that many 'old' codes most certainly still will be hidden in equipment and applications in 2038. Why use 64 bits when 32, 16 or even 8 bits suffice for doing their job? We'll find out in hardly 20 years because a simple cure isn't available. Ignoring these time-date quirks might perhaps throw us back in time many years. Not to act now may have peculiar consequences later...

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Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 is coming. Before you shout: 'hurray' a point to consider: women and Ubuntu. Not so much to my amazement I discovered that an old feminist' argument about this desktop work system (it is more than just a hardware controller with journaling file system) still lingers on on the Internet. LinuxChics or not, the claim from 'Mr. Ubuntu', Mark Shuttleworth, that too few women contributed to Ubuntu for trivial reasons like competence, isn't without basis. Lately calling his audience in a keynote speech "guys" apparently worked like a red cloth to a... bull and focused anew female attention on the issue. At one of the Ubuntu women's websites we find an EC-funded study about the extremely low percentage of women in the 'guys' and 'dudes' dominated FLOSS-world. In most 9.2.5 software companies this percentage is about six times higher. Raising the question if Ubuntu-Karmic could do even better with more women on top?

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Melvin "Mel" Kaminsky is one of my favorite comedians. Better known as "Mel Brooks" he was in the 1980's a super-star. He is a composer, producer, comedian and actor with a peculiar sense of humor, that wasn't always and everywhere appreciated. His "Hitler Rap", that could easily hit the charts these days, was controversial in 1983. I wondered whether Mel was still alive - he was born in 1926. He is and still living his slogan: "We have much to do and less time to do it in". He participated on an incredible number of movies and was on stage to see during many years. As my 'mid-week music' contribution a hommage to this great man! From his movie "History of World Part I" (1981, part II never appeared, the title was just a joke) the illustrous rap "It's good to be The King". French viewers will smile...

Yes, for the critical ears: it's (almost) the same music as in the above link. But as Mel Brooks would say: "“I've been accused of vulgarity. I say: that's bullshit.”

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