Look, someone's on that tree

Google notebook разширение за Firefox 3.5

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:41:44 GMT

Вчера си инсталирах Firefox 3.5 и много неприятно Google notebook разширението отказа да работи. Аз го ползвам доста интензивно за да си отбелязвам разни неща, докато си чета страници, предимно продукти, нови филми с резюмета и линкове към трейлъри (защото докато излезе филма вече съм забравил за какво става дума), полезна кратка информация и други. Добрата новина е, че всъщност разширението си работи, просто install.rdf файла трябва да се пооправи малко:

изтегля се архива на разширението от тук
в Nautilus цъкате на него и той ще се отвори с File roller
намирате файла с името install.rdf и цъкате на него
след като се отвори намирате реда, който изглежда ето така:
<em:maxVersion>3.0.*</em:maxVersion>
и го променяте да изглежда ето така

<em:maxVersion>3.5.*</em:maxVersion>
Запазвате промените
Изтегляте и пускате архива в Firefox.
Ако вземе да се оплаква с грешка 260 отваряте на ново архива по описания начин и изтривате файла zigbert.rsa който се намира в папката META-INF и повтаряте процедурата по изтегляне и пускане на архива в Firefox.

И после трябва да работи, поне при мен работи.

Happy summer vacation to everyone!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:12:00 GMT

Blank & Jones feat. Bernard Sumner - Miracle cure:
Enjoy!

Link to the video in Vbox7

The man in the mirror

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:00:12 GMT

Every ones has its way to tribute to Michael Jackson: Jay is doing it in its own well known:

Link in youtube

Gnome 3.0 mockup

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:18:42 GMT

You HAVE to check this out! It is so awesome I cannot start to talk about it! Gnome 3.0 desktop mockup that is so intuitive, just look at it and even more it is made in such way it is perfectly suitable for a touch screen interface also! I really hope this is the future of the Gnome project! And I love the idea of applications having coloured handles/menubars to separate them by type! This is so awesome!

Direct link to the video in Youtube

Из българските сайтове за запознанства

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:12:15 GMT

Имаше едно предаване по не знам коя си телевизия, Новите българи. Най-добре да направят и едно предаване - Неграмотните българи. Цитат от профил в български сайт за запознанства, оригиналния првопис и пунктуация са запазени:

Няма лепило за счупен кристал -така че,данему личи.Счупеното си, остава счупено!!Ако се случи ОК! Аколи НЕ-всеки ,по-патяси!!!

"всеки, по-патяси" е уникално съчетание, виртуозна изява на новия български език и плод на нашата родна мила образователна система. Как да не те изпълни този щрих с патриотизъм и лексикална гордост, как да подтиснеш хаджи-димитровия порив за полет към висините с все Караджата, как да опишеш с думи трепета и умилението, изконното желание да се преклониш пред българщината след зачитането на тези сакрални, искрени и всеобхватни слова на красивия роден език, как, питам аз. Но мълчат бездните на Интернета и моя въпрос остава да кънти в празните коридори на сайтове като Гепиме и Елмаз....

RIP

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:27:31 GMT

RIP Farrah and Michael...

While we are on the topic of scepticism

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:23:54 GMT

How to ask good sceptical questions:

Link to the video in YouTube

Random

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:42:28 GMT

First I wanna say that TED is just great and having the TED talks for free is the greatest idea. If even one person is inspired by those talks to make the life better it worth it, guess what I think I just know that one person:) So TED - thank you!

Then I have to say about "Knowing" - OMFG - we all die? How bad is that, come on!

Deo is coming to Varna next week - WOW! YEAH!

And George has been on scientific expedition in Black See, guess what - they have found an ancient ship! I still am not aware of the details but will find out soon, probably this Saturday.

What else? I dunno, probably you should check out the Varna summer fest website for the list of events if you like the classical music! One can also check the beaches - hah!

The monster from Alpha 9

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:58:44 GMT

Download link (mp4 format)

Списание 8

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:23:43 GMT

Изглежда българските "научни работници" са си намерили поле за изява с цел заливане на масите със своя "научен труд". Изглежда така, сякаш на щат са назначени няколко очилати многознайковци, които по цял ден се ровят в Интернет и до-украсяват намереното там.

Разглеждам си аз един стар брой, попаднал ми "уж случайно" (всъщност съвсем тенденциозно запитах продавачката в книжарницата "Имате ли някакви списания с научна информация" и след като обясних, че астрологията и кармичните превъплъщения не са точно науката, от която се интересувам ме насочиха към Осем.

Представянето е доста популярно и с лек привкус на жълт журнализъм, но все пак има зачатъци на научна стойност.. Щеше да има повече, ако се посочваха ползваната литература (библиография) и препратки към допълнителна информация по темата, но нейсе. Изглежда така, сякаш се обръща малко повече внимание на сензационното и не до там добре проучено или доказано, от колкото на значими открития (както е примерно на TED), но и това е нещо, предвид на това, че пазарът всъщност се задушава от списания за астрологията, кармата, картите таро, гадаенето, поклонничеството и ред други интересни и особено научни теми. Някои от статиите не са подписани, което намирам за огромен минус, в края на краищата понякога за статията може да се съди и по автора или пък обратното, не може посто така някакъв материал да се изтърсва на аудиторията, някой трябва да стои зад него, дори и да е колектив.

Иначе браво на списанието, че дава поле за изява на българските учени. Ако изобщо все още имаме наука в България. Помня онзи ентусиаст, българин, който написа нов алгоритъм за универсален компютърен преводач. За съжаление такъв не беше реализиран. Вместо това бе построен преводач, използващ ключови групи фонеми за да проверява правилността на употребата на речта. Един вид : повечето хора така употребяват тези фонеми, значи така е правилно. Алгоритъмът не е публично достъпен, но според мен едва ли е по-добър от предложения от нашия човек. И все пак заради паенти и бюрокрация не видя бял свят. Но дерзай българино!

Those were the days

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:39:39 GMT

This boy's life

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

Varna summer 2009

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:09:22 GMT

Summer has started. It is full blown already if one consider the beaches in town. Clubs and small restaurants, ice cream, pizzas, balloons, everything is colourful and live!
Black sea shores invite you, tempt you, seduce you, beg you to come and lay on the sand, enjoy the sun and immerse your body in the aeons old salty water.

Homeless and connected

Sun, 31 May 2009 09:43:55 GMT

Picture © WSJ Brian L. Frank for WSJ
Very intriguing story in Wall Street Journal: On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired
If I'd knew that I would have let my wireless to be used for free. So many homeless people in the US? Their economy must be really screwed!
I would have set my wireless access free to be used if I was living in the area. Wouldn't you? Okay, maybe with some speed limitation but still - free to be used buy such people!

Via BoingBoing

Disconnect

Sat, 30 May 2009 15:37:20 GMT

Short independent movie, very nice indeed. I personally prefer the first episode of this great show, don’t know why, maybe the idea was better, maybe the cinematography, still it is a great movie for an independent studio.
Enjoy it here

Link to the show page
Link to the mp4 video file (HQ)

Saionara Java!

Sat, 30 May 2009 10:58:48 GMT

Винаги съм го мразил този език (Джава), първо защото никога не се научих да пиша на него (когато се учех да програмиран компютърът ми не беше достатъчно мощен, за да се справи с гигантските размери на виртуалната машина, а сега защото е толкова омотан, че дори нещо минимално да искам трябва да се ровя като кокошка в различните му превъплъщения, стана като динозавър голям) и второ защото реализацията му за Linux винаги е била нелепа, бавна и грозна (едва съвсем наскоро добавиха възможност програмите ти да изглеждат като нормални GTK приложения). С пускането на IcedTea и след това OpenJDK нещата станаха малко по-приемливи (от потребителска гледна точка) - виртуалната машина се зарежда поне два пъти по-бързо и успявам да пусна Aqua data studio дори на 800 МHz /256 РАМ компютър. И това остава единственото джава приложение, което ползвам. За гном има bindings за джава (познайте обаче колко приложения има написани).

Сега вече мисля, че окончателно се свърши с таз любовна история между “преносимия” език и Линукс:

“The monetization of Java has begun. Sun released the Java 1.6.0_14 JDK and JRE today which include a cool new garbage collector called G1. There is just one catch. Even though it is included in the distribution, the release notes state ‘Although G1 is available for use in this release, note that production use of G1 is only permitted where a Java support contract has been purchased.’ So the Oracle touch is already taking effect...”

Новината в /.

Sorry I'm late

Sat, 30 May 2009 09:37:17 GMT

the video in mp4 format
link to the page of the video in Rocketboom

The license

Sat, 30 May 2009 09:34:05 GMT

Link in YouTube
It is about time some people to start thinking more and believing less.

Using 1964 analog modem to connect to the Internet

Thu, 28 May 2009 13:03:36 GMT

I post this under 'future' but it is actually back to the past.
The following video demonstrates how to use a fully analog modem (i.e. no circuit parts in it _at all_) to connect to Internet. Technically it just connects to a Linux box via a regular phone line and that Linux box is connected to the Internet. But still it is just gorgeous!
The video (in English):

I can recall the time when I was using analog line to connect to a box, that would provide access to the Internet, the connections was not a 300 boud one, but still 36kb/s. It was still geeky back then to have a personal computer and use it at home, Windows 95 has not yet overtaken the world.

What amazes me in this video is the quality of the equipment, I mean: wooden case, leather handle, the rubber insulation for the phone handle still intact, it looks almost like a new piece of equipment. They don't do stuff like that now. Which makes me sad of course, it would have been so nice if we could have a wooden and/or glass computer that would have been upgraded when needed but the case and the parts would last for decades, like this one. Instead what we have now is something that lasts up to 4 years, mainly because its design is bad, it generates too much heat, the production technology is bad and it is exploited badly. I guess this is what we get with the consumerism; buy more and buy often.

And I have to admit, I enjoy the 12Mbit connection I have at home now. And yes, I would have been more than happy to never have changed my initial PC case and parts. I intend to not do so with my new hardware, up until it is completely useless. See what happens...

Movies

Sat, 23 May 2009 10:29:08 GMT

Between love and goodbye - dealing with what happens after we do not love the one no more
3 of 5 stars

Were the world mine - not really as good as expected, the hype around a new movie is almost always an indication it would not be something that worth the money
2 of 5 stars

Bedrooms & hallways - kind of interesting, especially for new age fans
3 of 5 stars

Science and religion, can they be in peace?

Sat, 23 May 2009 09:59:51 GMT

I got as a present the CRC Press edition of Diane France’s Human and Nonhuman bone identification color atlas.

Looking at the mandible of Homo sapiens and deer (Odocoileus) or bison (Bison bison) it strikes at first glance that they look like morphed, one from the other. Looking at this tiny bit of bone i could conclude that we (humans) and the deers are somewhat related. I could not tell how exactly, but the similarity is evident even for someone who is not trained in medicine or anatomy or any other evolution related science. Yet it took humanity thousand of years to realize its relation to the other living creatures. And there are still thousands and millions of people not believing in evolution.

We own so much to the science and scientists it is hard to believe the science is blamed for all bad things happening (like poisoning the waters and soil - a perfect example that the knowledge itself it not harmful but can be utilized to screw up things). Yet the mania spreading in the US (probably elsewhere also, UK for example, especially after the economic crisis hit them, return to simple lifestyle, forget about the advancements and technical progress, is insanity! Without the science and technical progress you’d still be gathering food from the fields 12 hours a day in the summer and cooking it 3 hours a day in the winter. 2 and more hours spent caring for the livestock you’d have at your farm and even if you are a vegan you’d spent significant amount of time seeding, growing, harvesting and preparing the food just to survive. There would be no time for learning, entertaining, reading, cultural life, traveling (who would take care of your gardens and livestock?).

I was wondering how it is possible for the human kind to take more than 2000 years to regain the knowledge and scientific analysis principles utilized by the ancient Greeks. Initially most people point the finger to the Catholic church and the dark ages (per Wikipedia the therm is obsolete and should not be used, as the period after the fall of the Rome empire and the Renaissance have its positive sides - hard to find them from my point of view but still i am not a historian).

It is true the curiosity and love to knowledge was punished hard by the Catholicism, yet the reason for this was not what we might think - general repulsiveness to knowledge and science, no! The power was what they wanted and early in the development of the institution the church became they found out that knowledge equals power just as it is today. The intentional inhibition of the aim for knowledge that ruled the lands of Eastern Europe for centuries did not send us back 2000 years as many claim. It just halted us. If it was not for the institutionalization of the faith I bravely claim we’d have the advancement at least 500-600 earlier.

Religion was part of the human life since the dawn of our kind and was always an utility (okay I may sound like an heretic here but forgive my words) in the hands of the powerful of the day to rectify their deeds. The moral schizophrenia filling the pages of the Bible was used many many times as an excuse for doing whatever the powerful of the day wanted to do, including to reinforce the position of power and control.

As opposite to science, religion does not require any proofs, religion overtakes the parts of our life where science is still powerless to help or explain. Liberal consideration of the issue claims that this is useful as it help us develop as person and deal with the uncertainties and pitfalls of life. The problem arise whenever religion or faith slips in the rational world, place already discovered and explained by scientific methods. Same can be said from the opposite point of view - over the last two centuries science has invade many realms dictated by religion.

If we were aliens from other planet studying the human species and we had to be unprejudiced how can we tell which of those two is more important and which should be given the priority? Consider this as a balance between two opposites: the more we know the less faith we have and the less we know the more we rely on faith. The answer seem evident to a modern human being - the knowledge is more reliable thus we should try to learn more and rely less on faith.

This unfortunately leads to an unpredicted consequence: faith and religion representing themselves as scientifically proven. Take a moment and read a ‘mystical’ journal or newspaper; the statements seem like they have been proven to be correct thousand of times and are spoken/written in such manner to make us believe it is an undoubted truth, for example explaining the forces pf a magician or the power of the energetic stoned that can bring the good luck in your life. What is this power, how was it measured, does it fade with time? Where does it come from? Questions no one dare to ask.

Science and religion will never be in peace. But they both are part of us, humans. We should have to learn to live in peace with both of them. One thing to remember: beware of the faith presented as science and science presented as faith! They both have its role in our life but there is a significant difference between that everybody should know about and be able to tell where this border lies.

Links:
Science and religion in wikipedia
Sceince and religion tolerance
David Turell - science vs. religion (in this one the religion wins)
and lastly - there is such thing as science AND religion section:
Secular Web by Internet Infidels, Inc.,

Swine flu: patient zero

Fri, 22 May 2009 07:14:51 GMT

Hugin for panoramas

Thu, 14 May 2009 20:19:31 GMT

Hugin is an application for creating panoramas from set of photos.
To use it on fedora:
yum install autopano-shift-C
and then point to the /usr/bin/autopano-sift-c executable in Autopano preferences in hugin.

One thing to note - you should make sure the ascending number of pictures are correctly taken one after another, else the autopano application fails to stitch them correctly. Otherwise it works great.

Unfortunately (and unknown to me why) Flickr decided to resize my image to 1024, which is dumb, but hell, picasaweb tend to not display the image linked externally very often. So i am left with no viable online image service. I should look for another, but for now the image is available at up to 1024 here.

Preview:

From the crypt...

Thu, 14 May 2009 15:23:53 GMT

Once upon a time I was a little dork/geek/whatever idiot I might have been when i was 16-17.

Right then (maybe a bit earlier) I have discovered the Linux OS (probably at first it was Mandrake or Slackware in its early stage). I had an old Pentium at 100Mhz with 32MB of RAM and 1.8 GB PATA storage. Internet was accessible with a 56K analog modem, most often connected at 16K.
Web was not so interesting place, Yahoo and ask.com being the main search engines/directory services. Discovering new web sites was made by following links in the web sites you already visit.
During that era IRC was the most popular chat medium in Bulgaria, the irc servers were in 2nd and 3th place on the planet by number of visitors/connected user, often having over 15000 connected users at a time in the network.
As one can imagine the console was used by me most of the time, Netscape and later Mozilla was way to hungry for RAM (I switched to fully featured X session when I finally got 128 MB of RAM) and I started X session only when I needed to see some pictures or I needed to visit a web page that does not work with links/lynx.
Based on those facts the choice of irc client was clear - BitchX it was.
If anyone still recalls it - it has its own scripting language. In addition of this it supports calling external applications and use the output of those for further processing. I have written (in very bad style C as I see it now) some nifty little apps to be “more interesting” when chatting with strangers. For example converting all I say in hex or binary code, of course taking others saying binary and/or and automatically display the correct text. Other interesting letters substitutions was also crafted (I am not sure what they do know, but I can imagine it based on the function names. Here it is:

.........
alias pp sendline $tr(‘latzoihurcesm’|@+301xy$chr(174)$chr(169)$chr(186)$chr(167)$chr(181)‘$chr(176)$sar(g/sh/6/$sar(g/ch/4/$*))$chr(176))
alias bg sendline $tr(’minsprztudghv’MuHCnp3TyDrxB’$sar(g’c’|_|,‘$sar(g’ch’4’$sar(g’sh’|_|_|‘$sar(g’j’\}|\{‘$sar(g’l’|\\‘$sar(g’sht’|_|_|,‘$sar(g’f’o|o’$sar(g’iu’|-O’$sar(g’y’1o’$sar(g’q’9|‘$sar(g’w’`b’$chr(164)BG$chr(171) $* $chr(187)BG$chr(164)))))))))))))
alias hx exec -out ~/bitchx_binaries/hex $ascii($*)
alias bn exec -out ~/bitchx_binaries/binarche $ascii($*)
on +public “* * *01*” {
exec ~/bitchx_binaries/unbin $2-
}
.........

All those are just kids play, nothing serious or useful. But one made me think how geeky was I really; a small function to find me all users in a channel that are logged in from the same town I was in:

alias findv {
scan *vn*!*@*
scan *!*@*vn*
scan *telecoms*
scan *varna*
scan *!*@*g00net*
scan *rutil*
scan *bakara*
scan *.mnet*
scan *x1*intrabg*
scan *x2*intrabg*
scan *vega*
scan *doom*
scan *213.91.175.3*
scan *@213.130.72.*
scan *@194.141.26.*
scan *195.34.108.18*
}

Now, how sad is that!

I really have to thank my friends and family for helping me escape from the grip of geekiness and solitude I was so deep in. I know I have wasted precious years of my life staring at the 14 inches big old CRT monitor back then. I could have been different, it could have been better, but then again I would be the same as I am now. And now I am beautiful in every single way - as Cristina Aguilera says:)

Uncomfortable plot summaries

Thu, 14 May 2009 12:36:53 GMT

FRANKENSTEIN: Scientific advancement proves unpopular with general public.
MY GIRL: Boy killed by female friend’s irresponsibility.
TITANIC: Crazy old widow disregards lifelong memories of husband, children, and grandchildren in favor of that one time she fucked a bum.
WATCHMEN: Homosexual destroys New York, blames God.

Source

Just two things

Sun, 10 May 2009 16:15:24 GMT

1. The people who wear fur coats: you suck!

2. How stupid the rap music in Bulgaria actually is? Well, you know how they say: we know there are limits in our knowledge, but stupidity is infinite.