Wednesday, October 24, 2007

In every joke... No2

I've mentioned before, that often, jokes reflect our real life in great accuracy.
This one I've received over email, a few days ago.
A "Zaporojetz" has collided with "Volga" belonging to a General from the FSB.
In short, the driver of the "Zaporojetz" has turned out to be a smuggler, a terrorist, a spy....
Actually, one poor fellow was sentenced guilty for turning on some crazy hotshot path, who driving at speed just below 200Kph. Unfortunately for the poor guy, the "pilot" that had died at the crash site, was from the leading elite, dooming the unfortunate driver before the trial has even began.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Russian way

While American legislators work to promote freedom of speech, Russian legislators do it in their special way:
"Russian parliament was introduced a bill proposing to register information on each unit transfers of video/audio compilation, software and database on any medium. In addition, manufacturers will be allowed to sell equipment designed for copying listed information (such as typewriters CD and DVD drives), only those with a license for it. Approval of the bill could result in serious problems for the equipment manufacturers as well as for ordinary users who have to register even video recording made by a mobile phone. "
In short, welcome Orwell's 1984.

In my opinion it could be one of the two, or both:
First option is ground checking, what if
Second is a public relations stunt. To make Putin and his heir to be seen as a better alternative. Putin will come as a knight in shiny armor and "save Russia" from evil plot.

Useful Eclipse key shortcuts

I've collected some useful Eclipse key shortcuts:

Key combinationEffect

Ctrl+Shift+CComment/Uncomment selection

Ctrl+Shift+/Comment selection

Ctrl+DDelete line

Ctrl+DelDelete next word

Ctrl+BkspDelete previous word

Ctrl+Shift+DelDelete till EOL

Alt+Shift+MExtract method

Ctrl+FFind and replace

Ctrl+KFind next

Ctrl+Shift+KFind previous

Ctrl+LGo to line

Ctrl+Shift+DGo to matching bracket

Ctrl+Shift+enterInsert line above

Ctrl+EnterInsert line below

Ctrl+Shift+FAuto format selected code

Enjoy :)

Bloggers are included in the new federal journalist shield

Read this piece by Nate Anderson.
We will just have to ask our legally literate friends, what does this new bill actually mean.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Hippo bites a 12 y.o. in a zoo

A 12 year old boy was attacked by hippo in Ramat Gan zoo called "Safari".
You might ask, how might such thing happen?
Well, the explanation is simple, let's just quote the boy's father:
"There was row of a few dozens of cars has stopped, and everybody went out of their cars and began photographing. My son went out to take pictures, as well. Then, suddenly, the hippo ran out to him, grabbed him by his leg and flanged him into the air..."
Right...
It is not that there are about every few dozens of meters big signs telling in 3 languages "Do not leave your vehicles!". They probably should present them with pictures, just like in comic books. Writing in the man's mother language, apparently, just wasn't enough.

But wait there is more! Read what the man has else to say:
"Me and my brother in law, "jumped" at it pulled the boy. We fought it and threw stones at it, until it ran away. Usually I carry a knife, but today it wasn't on me. If i had it with me, I would have killed the beast. I've saved the kid, and luckily it ended this way. If it would grub him at the head it dragger to the lake, it would have ended with death."
What a moron.

African hippo is one of the most dangerous animals in the zoo, and in Africa, hippos are accountable for more human casualties than any other animal. They are highly territorial and will defend their territory fiercely from any intruder.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Business first, logic later.

Our beloved OEM's keep stuffing their product's hard drives with all that annoying bundleware. It even comes to an absurd situations:
Lenovo tech support advises to remove Norton Antivirus in order to improve the appalling performance it causes, while Lenovo keeps bundling Symantec products with all of their consumer and many of the business products.
Pure genius.
This is where money dictates the logic.

Pricey future

I'm so glad that Steve Ballmer saw that the future is in advertising. That's why Microsoft is loosing $1 billion on MSN.
Lucky them, to have deep enough pockets (on our expense).

Sunday, October 07, 2007

"Hugo Chavez - a pop star"

This is the headline that I've read in one of the online editions five days ago (I've been busy).
It says that Hugo has recorded an album and it will be shipped nation wide.

When a president records an alboum of traditional music with a bunch of leading artists on a TV show for the occasion, and the CD's are shipped nation wide on the state's expense, this is as a clear sign as it gets. It must be an autocratic regime.

Raw Trerapee

Thanks to Linux Action Show podcast, I've learned about Raw Therapee - a cross platform raw image file editor.
It is free (as a free beer) and clearly based on open source projects, unfortunately it is not an open source project itself. Too bad.
On the bright side, it has a nice set of features, and a solid GUI.
Anyways it is a great piece of software.