Consider this blog abandoned. The captain (me) will not stay aboard. All postings were savely evacuated to another free blogservice. The new vessel is found here: http://bembelbee.wordpress.com/
See you there!

Yesterday I found a quite funny but also inspiring video recording featuring Frank Zappa when surfing around the Chaos Computer Club website in the Chaosradio Podcast Network section. It's a recording of a CNN Crossfire talk show from 1986 discussing the impact of "evil" rock music with its "immoral" lyrics and music videos and which countermeasures should be taken to "save" the US American society.
I love how this Washington Times gnome tries to find arguments and is making a fool of himself, even though he has his two fellow conservative rightwingers with him and Zappa is on his own defending freedom of speech and arts.. The recording quality of that 20 years old video tape isn't that good, but it's really worth watching this 20 minutes dispute also if you might not be a fan of Zappa.

Tags: Frank Zappa, Zappa, words, CNN, CNN Crossfire, Chaos Computer Club, CCC, Chaos TV, Chaosradio, Washington Times, gnome

I recently did a clean install of Windows XP and Fedora Core 5 on my SATA HDD and it was quite an odyssey to get it working. I'll briefly describe the odds I was confronted with. The real problem was to get Windows NTLDR/boot.ini bootstrap and the GRUB bootloader installed and configured correctly. One source of trouble seems to be that I had my old (even though unpartitioned) IDE HDD still plugged in and it could not be disabled in the BIOS. I am using an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe mainboard.

Installing Windows XP

Of course one needed to have the Sil SATA driver on a floppy disk and press F6 when the Windows XP Install CD got booted. I knew this already. But downloading that 20+ MB driver package from the Asus website took over 30 minutes with about 13KB/s.. Very frustrating!
The strange thing with the Windows install was that it wouldn't let me install on the SATA HDD without having enough free space on the IDE HDD. I had to create some partition on the IDE HDD and then the first step of installation continued.
Funny enough, the Windows bootloader got installed on that IDE HDD. So I had my Windows installed on drive C: (SATA) and the bootloader on drive D: (IDE) with a boot.ini configured to load Windoze from the second (SATA) HDD.
To fix that, I had to change the boot.ini to use the first HDD. I edited the file using a Linux Live-CD and copied it to a floppy disk (as there is no text editor included in the Windows Recovery Console AFAIK). Then I booted the Windows Recovery Console and copied all files from the IDE drive and the fixed boot.ini from the floppy disk to the SATA drive. This of course only was sufficient, as I wanted to use GRUB as my bootloader. Quite interesstingly, the drive letters using the Recovery Console where different, i.e. C: was IDE and D: was SATA.. Stupid drive letters anachronism I say!

Installing Fedora Core 5

The installation process was quite straight forward. Only thing that was annoying: There was only the option to install GRUB into the boot sector of the IDE drive or into the beginning of the first Linux partition (SATA). So I had to reinstall GRUB giving the desired destination after the OS was installed.
But this wasn't enough. The problem is that I booted from CD and therefore the CD-ROM drive was seen as first boot drive and the HDD was considered the second drive. So I had to edit /boot/grub/system.map and define the HDD to be the first boot drive and do a reinstall of GRUB (grub-install /dev/sda).

Conclusion

Some part of problems I think were caused because I had that IDE HDD still installed. On the other hand the installer programs should be smart enough to automagically get around these problems. Sadly I didn't find the solution as directly as it may sound. Searching the web I didn't find anything describing my case, so this is why I wrote this..
My description of problems and how I solved them is surely very compressed for such a complex and confusing topic. So feel free to ask for clarification etc. by commenting.

ChangeLog

[2006-04-23: Add tags.]

Tags: software, hardware, hard drives, HDD, SATA, IDE, Windows, Windows XP, Linux, Fedora, Fedora Core, Fedora Core 5

Mozilla applications allow to extend their functionality by installing so called Extensions. Here you'll find a quick write-up on my choice for Firefox 1.0.6 on Linux. Most Extensions are also running under Windows and should be available for Firefox 1.5 meanwhile.
I used German localized versions when available. These are often not (yet) included in the original Extension versions and were found at erweiterungen.de. Theses non-official German locales are marked with [de] in the list below.

Bookmarks

Bookmark Duplicate Detector [de] 0.0.1
When trying to add an already existent URL to your bookmarks, a dialog box will pop up asking you whether you really want to create a duplicate bookmark.

Bookmarks Synchronizer 1.0.1
Lets you upload and synchronize your whole bookmarks or just a certain bookmarks folder via FTP or WebDAV using the XBEL XML format. A great tool! You can also use it, to sync your bookmarks with SiteBar servers (after installing an XBEL addon on the SiteBar server).

Enhanced Bookmark Search [de] 0.1.4.03
Extends the very basic bookmark search function to searching for URL, description, keywords even with logical operators like "begins with", "contains not" etc.

Flat Bookmark Editing [de] 0.7
Now you can edit bookmark's properties in the bookmark manager directly in a bottom window pane, so you won't have to open a popup window for each bookmark.

Locate in Bookmark Folders [de] 0.2.4
Circumvents the annoying fact, that in a bookmark search result listing you can't edit nor view bookmark properties nor see its hierarchical folder location. Now you can rightclick on a bookmark search result to open the full bookmarks view with the chosen bookmark focused.

OpenBook [de] 1.3.4
When creating a new bookmark you can edit its URL and also specify description and keywords and choose its folder location.

Search Engines

Advanced Search Sidebar 0.1.7.4
A Search Sidebar as found in the Mozilla Browser. You can define and group search engines. The search result listing will be displayed in the Sidebar.

Search Engine Ordering [de] 0.5.2
Lets you order and delete the search engines directly in the search bar dropdown menu.

SmartSearch [de] 2.8
Firefox keyword searches, normally only available through the address bar, can be triggered for highlighted text in a website via the context menu. Very useful!

Navigation and Usability

All-in-One Gestures [de] 0.17.4
Customizable mouse gestures support for many of Firefoxes functions plus new functions like removing any object from a website. You can also directly access the history for the current tab.

Enhanced History Manager 0.5.8.04
Similar to the Enhanced Bookmark Search this Extension adds a second History Manager with advanced search functionality, detailed listing, editing.

FlashGot 0.5.9.99
Provides integration for dozens of download managers. You can highlight multiple links and let them get downloaded in one bunch. Has many other features!

Image Zoom 0.2.3
Images and text of a website can be resized with the mousewheel.

Open Long Url [de] 0.2.2
Adds a dialog to open URLs spanning multiple lines. You can define characters to be removed from an URL like ">" used as quotation marks in e-mails.

Paste and Go [de] 0.4.3
Lets you paste an URL from the clipboard to the address bar and submit it in one single operation via Ctl+Sh+V or the context menu. This also works for the search bar (Ctl+Sh+S).

Show Image [de] 0.3
Images get a context menu item to reload only that image (and not the entire page). Useful for handling "broken" images.

Tab Mix Plus [de] 0.3
A powerful tabbed browsing Extension. Complex configuration of when and how tabs will be opened. Multiple tab header lines, x-symbol to close a specific tag, disable javascript or plugins etc. for a tab, prevent a tag from changing/reloading, mark unread tabs, mouse navigation through tabs, tab history and recovery. Many more features. Seems to be the best tabbed browsing Extension around!

Configuration Utilities

Locale Switcher 0.3
Define the locale (language) Firefox should run with.

Mimetype Editor [de] 0.2
Edit and add MIME types and their handling.

Mozex 1.07.1
A modded version of the official mozex Extension specially for use with Firefox. You can easily define external applications to be used for certain protocols (news://, irc:// etc.), an application to view site source, and also integrate your favorite text-editor for forms' textareas.

MR Tech Local Install [de] 4.0
Heavily simplifies the use of the Extension Manager. Sorting of Extensions, easy installation of saved Extensions via a file open dialog, generate a report of installed Extensions.

Tweak Network Settings [de] 1.0
You can set maximum number of simultaneous connections and HTTP pipelining support.

User Agent Switcher [de] 0.6.7
Chose the user agent string to be sent from a editable list. Newer be bored with websites telling you "You must use Internet Exploder to access this website"!

Miscellaneous

BugMeNot [de] 0.9
Integration of the BugMeNot database. Login forms are filled and optionally even submitted.

CuteMenus [de] 0.4
Additional menu icons. I use the Smoke CuteMenus icons (had to be installed manually) with the Smoke Firefox Theme. Get smoky at Aaron Spuler's website.

Get File Size [de] 1.1.3
Shows you the file size and date of a linked URL in the Link Properties when available. You can also display the raw HTTP server headers.

Greasemonkey 0.5.3
A genius Extension allowing you to change webpages' sourcecode on the fly adding javascript commands on the client-side.

Sitebar Sidebar 1.01
A Sidebar for displaying a SiteBar webinterface.

Other Extensions that might be useful for you (but not me)

As I filter advertisements and other annoyances with Squid in combination with adzapper under Linux as well as under Windows/Cygwin, I don't need an extra ad blocking Extension. But the following seems to be a good choice for browser side ad blocking.

Adblock Plus
Extended version of Adblock ad blocker with whitelist support.

Adblock Filterset.G Updater
Periodical automatic download and import of Filterset.G filterlists (including whitelists).

Caveats

Installing that many Extensions will result in a longer startup time and slightly less performance. But my Firefox (on an Athlon XP 2500+) starts in a few seconds and still many times faster than the good ole Mozilla Browser.
Incompatibilities and conflicts between Extensions is an issue. Some Extensions won't run correctly at the same time, others have to be configured not to hookup the same functions. An example is tabbed browsing configuration and mouse handling.
The worst case caused by Extensions going mad is that Firefox not starting up. In that case use the -safe-mode parameter to skip loading any Extension and Themes.

Where to get Extensions

• Firefox Add-ons
• Extension Room
• Extensions Mirror
• Erweiterungen (Offers only German localized Extensions)

ChangeLog

[2006-04-23: Add tags.]

Tags: software, Mozilla, Firefox, Firefox Extensions, Linux, Windows

Extend your musical experience, get your music files tagged correctly easier.

Last.fm

This free service is a combination of a musical and social network web-application based on the Audioscrobbler technology. You have to submit the music you listen to with your PC's mediaplayer(s) via plugins, e.g. for me Rhythmbox, XMMS, Winamp. Based on that data, charts of your most "favorite" music are calculated and compared to other charts. Thereby you will be recommended artists you haven't listened to yet and also people with comparable musical taste. You can also listen to webradio in context to your taste. Paying subscribers will get their own personalised webradio.
There are lots of other features (like fan listings and groups), so best check it out yourself.
I haven't done research on whether this service is thrustworthy, but they seem to be quite nice ppl there! :) Privacy is taken seriously (server logs are deleted every 3 days) and the content is Creative Commons licensed. I guess they are enthusiasts (musically and IT-related) and earn their money through subscriptions, Amazon affiliation, reputation.
In the future Last.fm's database will be fully coherent with MusicBrainz, in order to avoid collecting badly/differently tagged music data. So if available, use a plugin with MusicBrainz integration and/or tag your files like in the MusicBrainz database.
You can take a peek at my userpage at Last.fm.

MusicBrainz

A database collecting metadata (artist, album, title etc.) for every audio track. Tracks are identified by their acoustic fingerprints (TRM); that's some checksum magically generated by the amplitude, frequency spectrum, length of a audio track, as far as I understand. The data is user-maintained.
On the project website you can browse the database, download software and keep yourself informed about the project's development.

Tagging your music files (with Linux)

I tried 3 MusicBrainz enabled taggers for Linux. Most of my problems are probably caused by my old and broken Linux installation (Fedora Core 3), where the RPM database got wiped. With RPM and up-to-date software this shouldn't be that much of a hassle.
So unfortunately I only got QMBTagger to run. There's an (new) official MusicBrainz tagger called Picard Tagger, but I obviously failed to update from source to the required wxWindows/wxPython version. Kid3 compilation aborted with an error.
There are many tagging applications around, but my favorite so far is EasyTag! But no MusicBrainz support (at least in my version).
Guidelines for MusicBrainz compliant tagging seem to be: Use correct English upper- and lowercase spelling (e.g. "Tales from the Crypt" and not "Tales From The Crypt"), keep foreign spelling as-is (what about non latin letters?), keep "The"-prefix (i.e. "The Doors" and not "Doors"), don't add anything to the album title like "CD2" or "EP". But this is just my impression! I bet there's an official guideline somewhere on the project site. And in the end, as this is user-driven, any spelling could be "correct".. :/
And there's also libid3tag and its command line utilities, which can be handy for mass tagging and checking tags..

Other interesting music related sites

Allmusic
A vast database of artists/bands featuring professional artist and album reviews, style categories, discographies and more.

Discogs
A community-based discography database.

Liveplasma
A neat 2D map displaying artists'/bands' relations in style and involved persons(?). Formerly called Musicplasma.

rolldabeats
A database for drum & bass, jungle and related music.

Musicline
A (mainstream) music portal in German language including the commercial "rororo Rock Lexikon".

ChangeLog

[2006-04-22: Add tags.]

Tags: software, music, matchmaking, social networking, Last.fm, Audioscrobbler, accoustic fingerprinting, MusicBrainz, media file tagging, Linux, websites

Left, right, left, right, Copyleft, Copyright.. My long march towards legal use of Intellectual Property.
First of all, I ain't in no way as pedantic in normal life. Usually I feel I'm hardly a perfectionist. :) But I want to respect the authors with their generosity in "lessening" their traditional Copyright. I also see this as a learning exercise.
And finally, anything else would be illegal! I don't want to receive a death penalty for violating the DMCA, as I still have other plans with my all-so-young life.

General Copyright and license for this blog

To avoid inconsistency, you preferably can find the rules for using my own work stated on every page of this blog. Most probably on its bottom or in a side panel.
At the time of writing, all original content of whatever nature created by me, FrankZabbath, and included in this blog, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Blog themes

The design themes used on this blog are made available through Blogdrive and are free to use and modify for blogs hosted on Blogdrive.
As the themes are subject to change, you should find the author's names in the source code of every page.

Bembel-B logo

The photograph showing a bumble bee, as seen on this blog's logo, is © 2004 Gilles Gonthier and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
FrankZabbath, the author of this very blog, integrated it in this blog's logo. This derivation is thereby © 2005 FrankZabbath and © 2004 Gilles Gonthier and is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Syndication buttons

The original markup for the syndication buttons used on this blog are © Denise M. Howell and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License.
FrankZabbath, the author of this very blog, made some minor changes. This derivation is thereby © 2005 FrankZabbath and © Denise M. Howell and it is also licensed under a Creative Commons License.

ChangeLog

[2006-01-03: Fix Creative Commons licenses.]
[2006-04-23: Add tags.]

Tags: Copyright, Creative Commons, law

In order to properly display NFO files, their content has to be converted to your local codepage.
In my case that is UTF-8. The conversion will be done with iconv. To get the solid block characters I chose the input codepage IBM 437.
So the resulting command is:

iconv -f 437 -t UTF8 dafile.nfo | less

For a list of available formats type:

iconv --list

It is handy to have this command as a script. That would be something like this:

#!/bin/bash
# Display DOS ASCII Arts (e.g. NFO Files)

if [ -z "$@" ]
then
  echo "No filename given."
  echo "Usage: `basename $0` filename(s) [filename(s)]..."
else
  iconv -f 437 -t UTF8 "$@" | less
fi

exit 0

Click on the screenshot to view a larger version.

ChangeLog

[2006-04-23: Add tags.]

Tags: software, Linux, ASCII Arts, ASCII, UTF-8, codepages, NFO, DIZ, iconv

As my (just 15 months old Samsung IDE) hdd continuously had more and more bad sectors, I had to replace it with a new (Seagate SATA) one. Here's what I did to save as much data as possible, keeping my old filesystems (NTFS, FAT32, ext3, swap).

Cloning

Boot from the Linux Live-CD Knoppix 4.0.2 enabling DMA at the boot prompt with knoppix dma.

cat /proc/swaps shows me Knoppix is using the swap partition on my defective hdd.

All following commands in this entire HOWTO have to be issued as user root! Use su - to switch to root.

So I unmount the swap partition with swapoff /dev/hda6.

Now the cloning process using dd_rescue is started, filling unreadable sectors with zeroes.

dd_rescue -A /dev/hda /dev/sda

About two hours later copying of all 160GB is finished.
As I didn't set a logfile for dd_rescue to report bad sectors and Knoppix' dmesg has only a small buffer space (and the syslog file isn't used at all), I sadly ain't able to name all the bad sectors positions at this time. So you would better use that logfile option!
So for now I only know the number of bad blocks (1328!), the total amount of unreadable data (~700kB), and, from what I could read scrolling down the terminal screen, the approximate locations of the bad blocks given in MB counted from the beginning of the hdd.

Let the cloned Linux installation use the new hdd

As I wasn't able to mount the cloned partitions immediately afterwards, I did a reboot of Knoppix and it worked then. Good thing!

mount -o remount,rw /dev/sda2
mount -o remount,rw /dev/sda3

I now have to fix the partitions locations definitions for my cloned Linux installation to use the new hard drive.

I add the line (hd1) /dev/sda to my boot partition at /mnt/sda2/grub/device.map.

Also change the grub bootloader configuration at /mnt/sda2/grub/grub.conf from hd0 to hd1 and the kernel parameter root like this:

--snip---
splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core (2.6.12-1.1372_FC3)
        root (hd1,1)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.12-1.1372_FC3 ro root=/dev/sda3 rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.12-1.1372_FC3.img
--snip---

Then there's to fix the fstab at /mnt/sda3/etc/fstab. I change the device from /dev/hda to /dev/sda and also switch from using labels (/boot and /) for my Linux partitions to using the distinct device node names (/dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3).

Also mtab at /mnt/sda3/etc/mtab has to be fixed the same way.

And as I am using automount, these configuration files (/mnt/sda3/etc/auto.*) have to be fixed too.

Only thing left is the swap partition. I fixed that simply by rebooting from the new hdd (as defined in the BIOS settings) and typing this in the terminal:

swapon /dev/sda6
swapoff /dev/hda6

Let the cloned Windows XP installation use the new hdd

Heheh.. No way, dude! At least it would take hours and days from my knowledge. You would have to edit \boot.ini and also the System Registry's drive and partition definitions. And then all paths and drive letters still point to the old hdd (as far it's still plugged in).
So, once again, Microsith's ultimate answer is: Reformat and reinstall! Outch!

Find bad sectors and affected files

The SMART system will only name the first bad sector it finds. On Linux there's a tool called badblocks. I only tried its non-desctructive read-write test and it's slow but reliable.
To locate a file by block number on a Linux filesystem (ext2, ext3, minix, reiserfs etc.), one can use debugfs as described in a HOWTO at smartmontools.
How to do this on FAT or NTFS systems is still unknown to me. After googling for quite a long time I still did not come up with a solution. I guess one should be able to accomplish this with a disk editor. Still the question, which one would that be?!

Copyright notice

The photograph showing an old opened hard disk drive used in this entry is in the Public Domain and thus free of any Copyright restrictions. The content is provided by Michael Connors and Morguefile and has the ref id# 13218.

ChangeLog

[2006-04-23: Add tags.]

Tags: software, hardware, hard drives, HDD, SATA, IDE, Windows, Windows XP, Linux, Knoppix, Fedora, Fedora Core, Fedora Core 4, GRUB, fstab, dd_rescue, badblocks, data cloning, SMART

Here's just a small fraction of art I love for many years. I tried - and failed - to focus on less known artists with publicly available works.
This listing is in alphabetical order. The hyperlinks at the artists' names point to their official website where available. The works named beside are only meant as an example and not representative. And well, cartoons and humorists are completely missing.

Comics

Frank Margerin from France - Lucien
Comics. English infos here.

Walter Moers from Germany - Das Kleine Arschloch (The Little Asshole)
Comics and film scripts and novels.

Filming

Chris Cunningham from England - Rubber Johnny
Short films and music videos.

Music

Aphex Twin from England - Come to Daddy, Druksq
One of the "gods" of the electronic music scene. His style varies mainly from ambient, techno, electronic, drill-and-bass to experimental sound collages.

Bogdan Raczynski from USA plays crazy experimental electronic and drill-and-bass like tunes with pitch-shifted vocals partly in Japanese. Melodies often remind me of nursery rhymes.

Einstürzende Neubauten from Germany plays some sort of experimental industrial. They partly use unique do-it-yourself instruments and have very poetic lyrics. Their singer Blixa Bargeld holds poetry lectures at an university in Berlin for students.

Farmer's Market from Norway plays a mixture of all sorts of musical styles with focus on Bulgarian-Balkan-jazz on a very high technical level. You can find free audio and video recordings of whole concerts on their website.

Les Claypool from USA plays mostly variations of weird funky rock music. He's one of the most virtuoso bass guitar players I know of. He is best known as a member of the prime Primus. There's a nice Wikipedia article about him.
You can find free legal BitTorrent seeds of concert audio recordings at etree.org amongst many other bands and artists! Or you may purchase some live sets online at primuslive.com and c2b3live.com.

Nine Inch Nails from USA plays industrial very sophisticatedly produced and sometimes with beautiful melodies and harmonies. On their website you can find music videos, concert clips and even a multitrack version of one of their latest tracks to reuse/remix freely.

Paintings, photographs, installations

Alex Grey from USA - Sacred Mirrors
Contemplary psychedelic paintings and performances.

Gregory Crewdson from USA
Photographs.

Jonathan Meese from Germany - Képi Blank, nackt
Paintings and installations and performances.

Writers

Aldous Huxley from England
Works freely available at Project Gutenberg.

Douglas Adams from England

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from Germany
Works freely available at Project Gutenberg.

Copyright notice

The photograph showing an oil paint palette used in this entry is in the Public Domain and thus free of any Copyright restrictions. The content is provided by Michael Connors and Morguefile and has the ref id# 1082255024.

ChangeLog

[2006-04-23: Add tags.]

Tags: comics, Frank Margerin, Walter Moers, filming, Chris Cunningham, music, Aphex Twin, Bogdan Raczynski, Einstürzende Neubauten, Farmer's Market, Les Claypool, Nine Inch Nails, paintings, photographs, installations, Alex Grey, Gregory Crewdson, Jonathan Meese, writers, Aldous Huxley, Douglas Adams, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, websites

Get your free daily dosis of paranoia on further moves towards an Orwellian state and society here.
Yesterday I read an intriguing article on vast private databases profiling individuals in detail and how these databases are being merged and used by the industry and authorities. And on the same day more by accident I stumbled upon an article about possible, yet to be voted on by the Senate, new practices to collect DNA samples by US authorities.

The above mentioned articles:

• German article "Wir machen mit!" by Ralf Grötker, Telepolis dated 2005-09-25
• "Bill Would Permit DNA Collection From All Those Arrested" by Jonathan Krim, Washington Post issue 2005-09-24, page A03
  In case you don't have an account at Washington Post nor want to sign in one (for free), you can find logins at BugMeNot in order to read the article.

Here's some citation of the Washington Post article. The text is Copyright of the source named above. The citation should fall under the "fair use" clause and is thereby considered legal.

Suspects arrested or detained by federal authorities could be forced to provide samples of their DNA that would be recorded in a central database under a provision of a Senate bill to expand government collection of personal data.

The controversial measure was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week and is supported by the White House, but has not gone to the floor for a vote. It goes beyond current law, which allows federal authorities to collect and record samples of DNA only from those convicted of crimes. The data are stored in an FBI-maintained national registry that law enforcement officials use to aid investigations, by comparing DNA from criminals with evidence found at crime scenes.

[...]

The provision, co-sponsored by Kyl and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), does not require the government to automatically remove the DNA data of people who are never convicted. Instead, those arrested or detained would have to petition to have their information removed from the database after their cases were resolved.

Privacy advocates are especially concerned about possible abuses such as profiling based on genetic characteristics.

[...]

I don't want to further summarize these articles at this point, as you best read them yourself.
Especially for Non-German speaking readers: The Telepolis article mentioned above is about two English books on collection of personal data in private databases and its use.

• Robert O'Harrow, Jr. "No Place to Hide" (ISBN 0743254805) published by Free Press on 2005-01-04
• Daniel J. Solove "The Digital Person" (ISBN 0814798462) published by NYU Press on 2004-12-01

So, following are some additions and ideas about the topics.

German privacy laws limiting use and distribution of personal data only to cases being inherently necessary (Zweckbindung), like name and address for an invoice, can be "circumvented" by having a branch office in a less restrictive country.

In Germany since about 1997 it is allowed to record so called DNA fingerprints only of criminals being sentenced for heavy crimes e.g. pedastry, rape, murder, dangerous violent behavior, terrorism, burglary, criminal action as a gang member. But in January 2005 there came up the public discussion on widening this practice to all people being suspected for crimes when they have to be added (profile, photo, fingerprints) to the central police profile databases (erkennungsdienstliche Behandlung) and possibly to generally switch from DNA fingerprints to DNA samples.

Among others the German Minister of the Interior Otto Schily liked that idea of widening DNA records very much. Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries found it to conflict with the constitutional rights of individual freedom and privacy and she saw the danger of hard to prevent misuse. So far these ideas did not enter the legislative process in Germany.
The practice seems to be quite identical in Germany and the USA. But the difference is that the DNA collection of mere suspects now got into the legislative process in the US.

Difference between DNA fingerprints and DNA samples is that DNA samples will hold the whole genome in detail, whereas DNA fingerprints, in German practice, represent "only" a 16-digit derivation of 8 distinct genes' values.

I totally stand against the idea of Social Darwinism, but many diseases like drug (and alcohol) addiction or mental disorders are found to be precursored by an individual's genes. It also makes possible to track the genealogy of people otherwise not being obvious.
Just a satirical over-dramatization now, but maybe they'll soon find a communist gene and we'll be right back in the era of anti-communist witch hunts. Or one might monitor people potentionally being too intelligent and critical in their views.
And collection of DNA records is not limited to state authorities. The private industry has also high interest in collecting this sort of data, for example the insurance sector. In respect to the common practice of profiling all kind of other personal data and exchanging it with state authorities and private sector and even private individuals, these tendencies open up a whole new dimension of governmental and private totalitarism.

Some links that might be of interest:

• Students for an Orwellian Society
• Orwell Today
• Berliner Datenschutzbeauftragter - "Die Gen-Datei"
• Wörter des Tages: Belegstellen für "Fingerabdruck" am 20.01.2005
• Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig-Holstein - "21. Tätigkeitsbericht (1999) - Datenschutz in der Verwaltung: Polizeibereich: 4.2.4 Genetischer Fingerabdruck"

Copyright notice

The photograph showing a physician and a nurse examining a tuberculosis positive chest x-ray used in this entry is in the public domain and thus free of any copyright restrictions. The content is provided by Charles Farmer and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has the Public Health Image Library (PHIL) ID# 2466.

ChangeLog

[2005-09-26: Add photograph of a physician and a nurse examining a tuberculosis positive chest x-ray with Copyright notes. Beautify text and date formatting.]
[2006-04-23: Add tags.]

Tags: law, politics, freedom, civil rights, DNA, DNA samples, DNA fingerprints, data mining, Germany, USA, George Orwell