The big X-bit lie
I could imagine this would be the headline in the yellow press! "r" means that file is writeable. On a directory, write access means you can add or delete files. - "x" file is executable. Execute permission on a directory means you can list the files in that directory. You can read that in most Unix file permission tutorials! But that seems to be only half of the truth. I noticed that while I was fixing bug 78486. To copy or move files into a directory you need both the "x" and "r" bits! Well anyway but 78486 is fixed and you should now be able to copy files to FAT16 based usb devices! Yipiee! :)

Gnome User Share
I became the new maintainer of g-u-s. Another Yipiee here! I have some cool ideas to extend it and make it even more rock. I totally like alex's way to have one Public folder where you can drop in files and have them shared very easily. There still is the problem with internationalization - that will be one of the first things I will take care of. I will outline some of my ideas some time soon.

Epistemology
The winter semester 04/05 will soon be over and with it the "human beings as a vehicle of their genes" phiolosophy lecture. As always Thomas Mohrs did a great job and his class was very "eyes opening". The selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is really a good book! We had some good discussion about theory of science and epistomology as well and I am looking forward to the Popper lecture next semester.