Previously in the ‘Life’ Category…
Casca as Ebooks
- May
- 2nd
- 2010
The Casca book series will be published as ebooks. This is a fine example of how books out of circulation can find a new life – and through the wonders of the internet Tony Roberts – the writer of book 32 in the series – was kind enough to send me a personal email in regards to this.
“Daniel
There’s news about ebooks on the casca website www.casca.net
Regards
Tony Roberts”
OK, so I bullied him last winter about doing some epublishing, but I still feel honored he remembered my mail.
What is Casca? Heretic! No seriously, it is a story about the ultimate heretic – the soldier Casca Rufio Longinus, who spears a selfproclaimed prophet during a crucifixion 2000 years ago, only to be cursed to live forever until “they meet again”.
It is pulp fiction at its best. War stories spanning centuries, through the eyes of Casca, and not always on the winning side. Vietnam, the Persian war, fighting for the nazis during the second world war… it is interesting read as the mythos expands for the eternal mercenary.
The printed books are hard to find, as you will have to go to extreme lengths to find them. I am overjoyed to finally be able to read them all.
I got into the books when I borrowed them off a friend back in 1998. He only had a couple, some in Swedish, some in English, but the story stayed with me in great detail.
Well, I am happy that Tony Roberts is continuing the efforts of writing Casca too – after the demise of Barry Sadler, and for being a good sport, so for all you guys wanting hard cover books, you can buy some if not all from his website in hard cover. Here is the latest effort Anzac
The Sequel to Barry Sadler’s Casca 21: Trench Soldier, Casca is hunted by a dogged opponent from Egypt to the dizzy slopes of Gallipoli in 1915.
Merry Yuletide to everyone
- December
- 23rd
- 2009
Harry Potter Theme park
- November
- 19th
- 2009
Sneaky behind the scenes of the new theme park at io9.
Yes, I am a big child. I love theme parks. I went on the Rocking Roller-coaster at MGM 5 times in a row. I have never backed down from downright scary rides, neither have I backed out from downright silly or childish antics either.
Clearly I have more in common with my nephews than my peers, but I would love to go to this themepark.
What also interests me is how they are going to bring a magical world to life technologically without breaking the fourth wall. Moving portraits can be done using LED screens for sure, moving stair cases for sure, the candy (which I have tried) is a done deal. What about wands and magic duels – it could be a very very cool computer game that is live action.
Yes, I am looking forward to this.
Ubuntu 9.10 – a fresh new look
- November
- 1st
- 2009
OK, so I decided a long while back to stick with Ubuntu. I have now had it as my primary operating system for six months, and I decided that when it was time for an update I would do a complete re-install instead of just an upgrade.
One thing that really bugged me about my previous install was that I did not have a seperate partition for my /home folder (where all the user related content and application data is stored in Linux), so I adressed this issue during install instead of trying to do it after the installation. I set aside 50GB for the root partition and 350GB for my /home. That should be just about enough, considering that Linux is not as bloated as Windows, I probably have too much space for the applications, but who cares. Better be safe than sorry.
To create the /home partition it was as simple as choosing to set up the partitions manually during install, first creating the smaller OS-related partition, then creating a larger partition (set up as primary) and then choose it to mount under /home. There. Done. there are more in depth descriptions of this process online, so google it if you are interested.
Am I happy now then? Yes. Now I can reinstall Ubuntu without loosing any of the settings and files related to my user. That feels a lot safer, because I do experiment with new software once in a while.
So anyway, this is not the most interesting bit about Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). More cool stuff are
Ext 4
Faster boot times – even though I hardly ever need to reboot. Under XP at work it takes around 2-4 minutes before I am ready to start working. With Vista, yeah that is a coffee break right there clocking in at 15 minutes. Ubuntu reboots and is logged in around 1 minute. Brilliant
Encryption of /home
These days when privacy is such an issue I like the fact that my /home folder is encrypted by default (if you choose to). Good. So even if someone would steal my computer and log in as an admin then they cannot get to my files without the proper passphrase.
New look
Finally, something that isn’t so effing brown! OK, it is a different brown but over-all the new standard theme is a lot less shitty than previous incarnation. Switched my theme to a cool black one first thing I did, but even the logon screen looks cool and slick. Very well done.
It works!
OK, one thing many people complain about is that you have to do a lot of set up with Ubuntu. Not true this time. Everything worked out of the box, including my obscure Wireless card, my web cam and the sound card too. All of these are notoriously buggy under Linux. Well, even after I applied the propriety driver for the graphics card I got all of the Compiz goodness that makes the linux experience so much more enjoyable.
Downsides
OK, so it is not perfect, but on the other hand I still have some issues to deal with.
- Internet banking – under 9.04 it worked really well, and I followed the same instructions this time. Nexus Personal just wouldn’t do it this time. I managed to install it allright, but it won’t show in the menu, and there are issues when needing to confirm actions in the internet bank. I can still log on and view my details, but I cannot pay anyone. That sucks. I think this is more due to the user being dim, than software, so I will continue working on it. After all, I do have a virtual Windows lying around for these kind of emergencies. Hopefully they will do some proper testing for the next release of the certificate software.
- Xbox streaming. Not tried this yet, but waiting for the scene to mature a bit. At the moment I stick to using USB for both my xbox and my surround system.
- VPN connection – got it running. I think. cannot really tell.
All in all I am quite happy so far… the experience is really smooth. Next upgrade is in April 2010… if they keep this up that will be the version that kicks Windows and MacOS ass.
Nightmare on Elmstreet – rebooted
- September
- 29th
- 2009
Just saw the trailer over on io9.
What can I say, Nightmare on Elmstreet was one of my favourite movies growing up. We saw the first movie when I was 11, back in 87, while travelling on a bus. In the end 20+ kids toppled out of the bus puking… I was not one of them.Will this be another attempt of hollywood to rape my childhood or will this be something completely… new? A good remake?
- From what I can see they flesh out the backstory – good.
- I can see some remade iconic moments – bad.
- They have taken elements from both the first and second films – good.
This means that if it would be a success then a sequel would not be a direct sequel of the second movie – even better.
A Nightmare on Elm Street in HD
Engagement
- September
- 18th
- 2009
I would like to congratulate my dear friends Jens and Stina to their upcoming engagement. I am very happy for the both of them.
Personally I am not a big fan of it… I have been engaged to be married twice. I believe that it should be seen as in this use of the word
engagement – a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war; “Grant won a decisive victory in the battle of Chickamauga”; “he lost his romantic ideas about war when he got into a real engagement”
It can of course also be seen to mean
1. The act of engaging or the state of being engaged.2. Betrothal.3. Something that serves to engage; a pledge.4. A promise or agreement to be at a particular place at a particular time.5.a. Employment, especially for a specified time.b. A specific, often limited, period of employment.6. A hostile encounter; a battle.7. The condition of being in gear.
Synonyms: engagement, appointment, assignation, date1, rendezvous, tryst
Anyway, I am very happy for the both of you! You deserve the happiness I see between you two.
Disney buys Marvel
- September
- 1st
- 2009
In the words of the lead character in Planet of the Apes “You did it! You bastards, you finally did it!”.
OK, I try to stay on top of things in Comics, but seriously there has been not a peep about this online anywhere.
I do hope this means that we wont see this
Sure, as anyone who knows me can testify: I love the old-style Disney movies. Lion King and Robin Hood being my absolute faves. I also love Pixar movies, where The Incredibles and Monsters Inc are fantastic landmarks. As for Marvel, I have been a huge fan since I got my first comicbook of Spider-man back in 1980.
So is this good news? Maybe, maybe not. It could mean there will be a well made themepark (what will happen to the Universal Studios Marvel park?), there might be better movies made. Finally Disney owns Howard the Duck, so they can kill it off properly or make a real movie out of it.
It might also mean that (oh horrors) that the Marvel Universe will expand into the “Kingdom of Hearts” and we will see silly cross-over events where the Mouse-keteers battles Dr. Doom, Uncle Scrooge buys the Baxter Building, Super-Donald fights the Punisher, Super-Goofy fights the Green Goblin…, Wolverine fighting Cruella DeVille oh god, it is such a long list.
It might also mean that Marvel will not go bancrupt, and that they will finally produce a really good game, and good movies and series produced.
I have been quiet
- August
- 31st
- 2009
I have been quiet for the last couple of months. You can call it a summer break, because I have been fixing the house up, got a cat and what ever… things will improve though. Autumn is here and many interesting things have happened around the internets. I will start reading up on them and get back to you. You have probably already read up on the impending controversy regarding PirateBay, the censorship of a mere conduit to stop access to a site, and a lot of other things… it is old news though so I will keep my head down and start posting as I read along.
During the autumn I will try to clean up my act and start seperate blogs, to find a better sense of direction. It is no point to have everything on one page.
iTunes for comics?
- June
- 22nd
- 2009
io9 just wrote about the Longbox digital comics player. I can get on board with that. After all – comics are worth a lot.
I have been a comic book fan since 1978, when I got a copy of Hulk, Spider-man ,Donald Duck or Superman as a gift. My taste has changed since, and I am almost whole heartedly a Marvel fan. I still read the odd copy of D.C., Disney, and Spirou mags.
After my move to England though, I had to put the comics in big boxes in a leaky hut… I still have a full collection of every Spider-man magazine in Sweden between 1978 and 1999 though.
Later I discovered online comics, and I currently read the dailies of Penny Arcade, Ctrl-alt-del, Real Life, Least I could do, Sinfest and xkcd.
But still I missed my old super-hero comics of old – especially when I discovered Marvels Ultimate line of comics. They are my absolute favorites right now.
That is when I discovered that other people with storage issues simply scanned their old comics, and new comics as well. Finally I could read stories that were never published in Sweden, and even storylines from the 60′s without having to scour obscure book dealers, dealing with torn out pages, etc.
It took next to no time to get used to reading the comics like that. Marvel also experimented with online comics, and they do have a deal for a subscription service these days. And for a full back catalog of EVERYTHING I think that is a good deal.
That is why I am hyped about this new service… buy the comics and download a copy – I can live with that… but dammit, I would like to have access to a spotify for comics. Read it online but have access to the whole back catalog.
I think it is a great chance I will go completely legit on the comic side without having to give up more of my bookshelves.
Politiska block är förlegade – dags för 3D-politik
- June
- 10th
- 2009
Joakim Jardenberg skriver en vettig argumentationsövning angående höger och vänsterpolitiken. Jag har själv efterlyst något liknande i en del forum.
Det som jag tycker om med de partier som kallas “enfråge” partier är att de oftast tar avstånd från den traditionella skalan mellan höger och vänster, då det rent simplifierat rör sig om marknadsekonomi vs planekonomi eller kommunism vs fascism. Jag tror dock modellen är helt fel. I rent konkreta fall så rör det sig om en cirkel där de extrema ytterligheterna fascism och nationalsocialism ligger så nära varandra att de kan jobba ihop. Det behövs helt enkelt en ny skala i tre dimensioner.
Som motpol till den traditionella skalan har det uppstått vad som kallas för “politisk kompass” där andra ytterligheter har målats in på 2D skalan, vanligtvis representerat av statlig kontroll i norr och anarkism i söder. Denna modellen har funnits sedan 1950-talet, så den är väl etablerad. Jag tror ändå att det dags att utveckla detta med fler ideologiska ståndpunkter i tre dimensioner.
I slutändan tror jag att en sfär/glob/boll skulle vara det bästa sättet att presentera politik på. Det ger utrymme för att ge en mer detaljerad bild av politiken. Kanske för detaljerad. En kub kanske skulle vara ett bra första steg, då man har ett begränsat antal punkter och motpoler och kan delas in i mindre rutnät som kan underlätta förståelsen av var man befinner sig.
Utan att gå in på detaljer av vilka motpolerna ska vara, då det finns en hel sjö av olika politiska ideologier, så tror jag också detta skulle vara nyttigt för både allmänheten och de politiska partierna själva så att de faktiskt står fast vid sina ideologier. Annars finns ju risken att partiernas namn inte längre är en korrekt beskrivning av dem, vilket kommer ge helt fel signaler till medborgarna.
Tänk dig själv om du röstar på “frihetspartiet” men att de egentligen står för total statlig kontroll och noll personlig frihet enligt någon sjuk 1984-inspirerad logik. Eller varför inte ett “arbetarparti” som flörtar mer med storföretagen än med arbetarna (som brittiska labour). Om något skulle en sådan skala vara mycket mer representativ och korekt, och förhindra att politikerna går ut med vallöften som de aldrig har för avsikt att hålla, bara för att få röster från motpolen.
