I’m going to install Arch. If I’m gone for a long time, consider me… whatever you like.

A news article popped up in my feed reader saying that “Microsoft Ukraine” is launching a site about licensing. To quote it directly:

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a portal about licensing, where visitors can learn what licensing is and what it means from a legal standpoint.

Since I deal with licensing questions at work, and the legal side of it is quite interesting (because it’s so contradictory), I decided to read more.

First of all, that pathetic news site I do the honor of reading their drivel on didn’t provide a link to the portal — I had to Google it. I found the Microsoft Ukraine website, but there’s nothing about the portal in the news section. Still, some article caught my eye, so I clicked through — and it turns out they have podcasts! I thought — great, I just finished listening to Radio-T, this will be something to entertain me on the road. I’ll listen to the latest news from the potential enemy’s camp. However, the treacherous Microsoft put me through an anal Vietnam a stern ordeal. First, the podcast page content wasn’t rendering because JavaScript was disabled via NoScript. When I allowed scripts, this wretched soul (the site, that is) reloaded — but instead of showing me what I wanted (as normal sites behave in such cases), it continued showing me the error page, while slapping a banner on top of it asking me to install some Internet Explorer. When I clicked the podcast link again, the page did open. JavaScript was required solely to display, at the top of the page, a picture of a dimwit leaning back in his chair and relaxing while Win98 installs on his computer As one might guess from this eloquent image, the topic at hand is RSS. Click on it — and voilà: we’re greeted by an article in the foreign language explaining what RSS is, and informing us that wherever on Microsoft’s wonderful site you, dear reader, see this icon — — you’ll be able to take full advantage of this technology. Mind-blowing. Yet the “podcasts” section doesn’t lead to a list of podcasts — it leads to a search! And there’s no RSS in that search. And when I gave up on downloading the podcasts the normal way and decided to try a couple manually, it turned out the damn thing also requires registration. Is it really that hard to do things properly? Microsoft being Microsoft. Everything through the back door, as always. Makes you want to swear and spit.

Each has their own fate And their own wide road: One builds, another destroys, Another with insatiable eye Peers beyond the edge of the world — Seeking some land To seize and carry with him Into the grave. One picks aces At his in-law’s table, While another in the corner quietly Sharpens a knife for his brother. And yet another, quiet and sober, God-fearing, Creeps up like a little cat, Waits for an unhappy Moment — then sinks His claws into your liver, — And do not beg: neither children Nor wife will win your freedom. And another, generous and lavish, Forever building temples; And he so loves the fatherland, So grieves over it, Drains its poor blood Like water!.. And the brethren keep silent, Eyes wide open! Like lambs: “Let it be,” they say, “Perhaps it must be so.” Must be so! Because there is no God in heaven! And you, yoked, fall down And plead for some paradise In the next world? There is none! There is none! No use praying. Wake up: All in this world — Both princes and paupers — Are children of Adam. And this one… and that one… but what of me?! Here it is, good people: I feast and make merry On weekdays and Sundays. And you are bored! You grieve! By God, I don’t hear you, And don’t shout! I drink my own, Not the blood of men!

Against the backdrop of pre-election and election garbage, I want to say something good: Ukrainian programmers from Kyiv’s Shevchenko University took 4th place at the World Programming Championship. Hooray! Well done, guys.

Uncle Yolkin captured the events on our political stage very accurately…

It has been 2 months since I started working with the latest Kubuntu, and I can now draw some conclusions.

1. Kubuntu itself, compared to Mint 7, looks less polished — in terms of fonts and drivers. 2. ATI drivers are a whole other story. I forget where I read it, but it turns out that ATI, starting from a certain kernel release, dropped support for my graphics card. So I have to use the open-source drivers. (And curse ATI.) 3. Things crash from time to time. Mostly Kvpnc and Krdc — the VPN frontend and the RDP/VNC tool. Annoying, though I take comfort in the fact that nothing like this ever happened in GNOME. Nothing else seems to have crashed. 4. The KDE 4 taskbar couldn’t be configured for vertical placement — the icons scale in a strange way. 5. X.Org starts growing and eating memory. It’s unclear whether it’s due to uptime or some software corrupting it. I don’t remember this happening in Mint, but on FreeBSD the laptop could run for weeks without any issues.

I have always been terrified of losing some interesting piece of information I found on the internet. So, like a Plyushkin, I drag everything interesting into bookmarks. Now my obsession has reached its peak: after all, a page I’ve bookmarked can be deleted, edited, or the entire resource might shut down, or a blogger might just spit and delete all their posts. So I urgently remembered a Firefox plugin — Scrapbook — which lets you save an entire page to your hard drive right from the browser. I’ll install it, and what’s more — configure it so that everything gets saved directly to DropBox - then nothing will definitely be lost!

lg F8056 LDP 3000 ardo flso 106s

samsung wf8508 nhw ylp

e-shepet *****excellent model Usage experience: several months Pros: Large loading hatch, wash cycle indicator, low water consumption — 40 litres, easy to use, washes everything very well, when washing is done it shakes out the laundry — no need to iron. Cons: We’ve been washing for 4 months — everything is great! Comment: We bought this model for 15,600 rubles, in my opinion a bit pricey, but overall an excellent machine!

Needed a piece of software today, and was too lazy to go online since I was pretty sure I had it on a disc somewhere.

Found it on a dual-layer (8 gigabyte) Arena blank, burned back in May 2008 (I picked up the useful habit of writing the burn date on discs). It’s late now so I didn’t feel like testing the whole disc, but the 150 megabytes I needed out of those 8 gigs just wouldn’t read :( Tried it in two different drives, too.

Quick and concise thoughts on movies I’ve seen more or less recently.

- Avatar: stunning film, watch it only in a theatre. Technology (for the boys) and romance (for the girls). - Armored: despite the star-studded cast, it’s total rubbish. Fell asleep halfway through, not planning to finish it. - Dorian Gray: didn’t impress me much, but I can’t call it a bad film either. - Planet 51: an animated film about aliens. Worth a single watch. - The Box: I didn’t finish it myself, but my wife and others say it’s worth watching. Though the ending is not simple and a bit bloody. - Funny People: a bit dumb and rather melodramatic. Not much comedy in it — watched it and felt sorry for the wasted time. Only if there’s absolutely nothing else to watch. - G-Force: about guinea pig spies. Good for one viewing, and even then — best suited for middle-schoolers. - 2012: haven’t watched it. My wife didn’t like it, and I don’t like disaster films in principle. - The Hangover: a standard comedy. One-time watch; if you haven’t seen it, you haven’t missed anything. - District 9: watching it now (in bits), interesting, but not for the ladies in my opinion. - 9: a decent animated film; feels like it wasn’t fully realised (you want a sequel). - Svaty: a Russian film — parts 1 and 2 are movies, after that it becomes a TV series. Recommended for couples — a good-natured laugh at the parents’ generation. Parents love it to an incredible degree; I watched it too and had a laugh. - Book of Masters: a Russian film that reminded me of “The Mistress of Copper Mountain,” only poorly made. Didn’t like it. - Up: a must-watch. If you haven’t seen it, they’ll call you a loser in heaven and refuse to talk to you about the sea.