Right now, I’m rocking XBMC 11.0 Eden Beta 1, and just recognized by accident that it has AirPlay built in. I tried it, it works flawlessly.
In the current version, it offers video/audio streaming or just the audio, so the problem the article linked to above mentioned has been worked out. Just go to ‘System/Network’ and ‘allow XBMC to receive AirPlay content’.

Just like that.

By the way: If you’re wondering how the heck to install XBMC on Ubuntu 11.10, here’s how: (It’s some user’s private PPA that offers builds for current Ubuntu versions, since the official PPA is abandoned somehow)

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:nathan-renniewaldock/xbmc-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc

XBMC’s also available for Windows and Mac OS X.

Last week, I went to a Rammstein concert in Bremen. Great experience, spectacular. Yeah, it’s expensive, but someone has to pay for all the pyrotechhnics. All in all, it was more like a(n awesome) show than a gig. That’s the impression I get when I read an article about the concert in Berlin that mentions the exact same songs that were played in Bremen. That’s the tradeoff, I guess, for all the pyrotechnics, an extremely well designed stage setting for each song, a plastic penis with a pumping rate like a firehose, a rubber boat and a foam cannon (painted to imitate a giant penis, of course). That’s the effects and all.

The other thing is Rammstein itself. It’s always fun when people complain about how Rammstein would be right-wing extremist-fascist-whatever because they appear topless, with German texts and roll their R’s. That are the three main reasons. Nuff said.
Then there’s this article, for example. The author argues the inconsequence of people who party to Rammstein’s songs, but buy the shirts and go out of the concert hall too well-educated into their normal, poor and stupid lives. Well, you may think he has a point, but he doesn’t. Rammstein is entertainment. They’re just as political as they need to be in order to be recognized as rioters. Provocation is Rammstein’s marketing, but hard to come by these days.
They had to release the video for ‘Pussy’ on Redtube to push the album ‘Liebe ist für alle da’. That got them some attention, but no real scandal. Then, they releases ‘Mein Land’ to push the Best Of ‘Made in Germany’. It got exactly the responses it was made for. Who analyzes and manipulates whom at this point?

Rammstein provocated enough, it’s not getting easier. I could go on, but just point you to an interview with Till Lindemann. I can’t find the video on Youtube, but I think it’s on the Lichtspielhaus DVD. Well, I’ll try to get it together, although I watched the interview (great videos, by the way) probably over six years ago. It holds everything that is right and wrong with Rammstein. And all of that is to find in this sentence by Till Lindemann:

Wenn wir auf der Bühne stehen, dann erwarten die Leute etwas… »Aktion«.

When he says ‘Aktion’, he says the German word, doesn’t say ‘action’ like everyone else in the show biz would, and slightly leans forward.

P.S.: This interview is quite interesting and confirms that Rammstein works out a strict choreography at the beginning of each tour.

I’m gonna tell you a story. A story that didn’t take place in a constitutional democracy, obviously. No. It took place in a small country far, far away. We, here in Northern Germany, call it ‘Bavaria’.

To begin with, you should know that in Germany, the ‘LKA’ (Police authority of each federal state here in Germany) isn’t allowed to search a suspect’s computer. There’s no legal basis for that, the BVerfG (Federal Constitutional Court) says. But monitoring a suspect’s communication generally is, in context of the § 100a StPO, considered legal. Here’s what happened:

• The LKA searches permission to monitor a suspect’s communication. It is granted by a judge of the Local Court.
• The LKA installs a Trojan (the famous ‘Staatstrojaner’) on the suspect’s laptop and monitors his communication over Skype, which is allowed. The LKA also takes about 60.000 screenshots, snapping the suspect’s browser usage. That’s the part there’s no legal basis for.
• The District Court declares that it was forbidden for the LKA to take screenshots.
• The Pirate Party of Bavaria presses charges against the Bavarian Interior Minister, President of the LKA and others. They may have made themselves guilty of spying out and absorbing data, as well as setting up for it (§§ 202a, 202b, 202c StGB).
• The Public Prosecution Service doesn’t think it’s necessary to investigate. The LKA’s actions were greenlit by the judge of the Local Court, they say. This is just not the case. The District Court made that clear.
  I want to stress that the prosecution didn’t even begin. There was no investigation because the public authority that’s responsible for bringing in an accusation was under the impression that there was no breach of law. A breach of law that already was identified by a court.
  Unfortunately, only a person concerned (the guy whose laptop was searched) can take further action in this case. There’s nothing noteworthy the Bavarian Pirate Party or anyone else can do.
  Because this matter isn’t that simple it took me a while to figure out the magnitude of this unlawful behaviour. But some the government agencies seem to be really distinct about not letting this whole trojan thing lead to consequences of any kind.

It makes me sad that inability to deal with tech now is suppressed with inability to face up to a democratic process.

I really liked the Tintin Movie. The 3D was well-done: Not too present, but also adding some atmosphere from time to time. The characters are an interesting mix of the original comic characters and what you would imagine to be their ‘real’ counterparts, but with a slight accent towards their comic part. This way, the totally fantastic scene in which Tintin, Haddock and Snowy try to get the three pieces of paper from the evil guys comes across just right - like part of a fantstic adventure story.

Here’s an unofficial title sequence somebody mentioned on twitter, lovely: