I’m having a hard time deciding on whether to write about these two subjects. So, I’m going to forge ahead and actually write something about them. However, since neither really is involving enough to qualify for their own post I’ll just slap ‘em together and combine them.

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I discovered Gnome Do a few weeks ago. Or was it maybe longer? I really can’t remember. Gnome Do is a neat application that takes a lot of inspiration from Quicksilver. Mac users will most likely be familiar with Quicksilver since it’s a very popular application. I wouldn’t say it’s genius, but it’s pretty damn smart none the less.

Gnome Do is very similar. I’ve been using the Gnome Deskbar for a year, and it has a lot of similarities as well with Quicksilver. Gnome Do however is much more similar and even though it’s less powerful than the Deskbar in some ways, it’s also more powerful than the Deskbar in other ways.

Do is in very early stages of development right now, but it’s fully usable. It installs easily for us Ubuntu-users, which is nice. The only real drawback in my opinion is that it’s written in Mono, the free implementation of Microsofts proprietary .Net-language. I have some minor philosophical grievances with that, but Do runs fine and is very fast.

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I earlier today noticed that a TV-series based in the Terminator-franchise had been launched. It’s called “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and is a complete and utter turd in every department. I will never understand why everyone is so desperate to keep raping what was once a great franchise. I absolutely love the first two James Cameron-helmed movies, and consider the third one to be a turkey of galactic proportions. After that I became really disgusted by how various producers seem intent on keeping on ruining this excellent concept with cheezy crap.

This TV-series strongly underscores that disgust. I watched the pilot, and it’s absolutely awful. Wooden acting, boring scripting, silly “effects” and overall just horrible abuse of excellent subject matter. I don’t understand why people couldn’t leave it be after the second movie, when even James Cameron himself stated that he was finished with the concept.

No, the “Sarah Connor Chronicles” is a mediocre production at best, and at it’s worst it’s an insult to us fans. It’s completely trite, derisive and clichéd. Avoid at all costs.

I have a history of not liking KDE. For those of you unaware of what this is, it’s one of the several popular Desktop Environments for Linux and similar operating systems. It’s complicated, but essentially a Desktop Environment consists of a whole bunch of applications designed to present the user with a usable… well… environment.

Gnome is one of the other popular environments, and comes as standard on Ubuntu-installations. There are variants of Ubuntu that have other desktop-environments. Two of those are Kubuntu (with KDE) and Xubuntu (with XFCE). They’re still Ubuntu, but with a different look and feel in the GUI-department.

Each desktop-environment (DE) has their merits and drawbacks, as well as aims and goals in the usability department. It’s also very easy to start a flamewar with fans of various DE’s. However, the availability of several DE’s is one of the many flexible offerings of Linux.

As I stated in the beginning of this post, I never really cared much for KDE. I briefly ran it back before it was 1.0 and every time I’ve tried it since it has always rubbed me the wrong way somehow. I never cared for it’s garish and plasticky color schemes, it’s waste of screen estate, and it’s (in my opinion) confusing way of handling things.

And before some fanboy quips that I never gave it a chance let me say that - no, I never did. To get me to run KDE would involve a lot of brute-force and I’ve almost always preferred the Gnome-environment. It never had quite the same amount of extreme customization ability as KDE, but I’ve never felt constricted by it. Gnome has always done what I’ve wanted, while KDE always initially scared me away.

This, however, might change.

Today is January 11th. Today is the day that KDE 4 was released, and I’ve tried it. I wouldn’t say that I’ve USED it, since I just installed the packages and logged into it. I fiddled with it a bit, admired the stunning beauty of it and realized that my previous opinions of KDE as an unsophisticated and annoying DE might have to be re-evalued.

KDE 4.0 is plain gorgeous. The re-design of the UI is overwhelming and no longer does it have that plastic and overdone look of previous versions. In fact, I think KDE 4 would give MacOS X a run for it’s money in the beauty department. It’s just that good-looking. Everything about it says gorgeous and subtle. Even the icons and the sound-effects are gorgeous and subtle, and the KDE-team have outdone themselves in that department.

Sure, I did find quite a lot of things confusing. But nothing that was as off-putting as before. KDE 4 looks great, and works great. What I found annoying is probably easy to configure away. Some things were kinda funky, but I assume that’s because my box is primarily a Gnome-box, and everything on it is configured to work with Gnome. I got some weird error-messages regarding sound, and sometimes the sound cut out. But like I said, I think it’s due to this being a primarily Gnome-computer.

In fact, in a few days when things have settled down I’m going to pop one of my smaller drives in and install a fresh setup of Kubuntu on it and see how it works. I’m really curious, and the plain gorgeousness of KDE 4 has really got me hooked.

Who knows? Maybe in a week or so I might be a complete convert.

If you would say that I’m border-line obsessed with Blade Runner then you would be right on the money. I’ve had an ongoing love-affair with this movie for at least fourteen years.

I think it all started when I read the book by Philip K. Dick, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” in my early teens. I had no idea that Blade Runner was based on this book, even less had I even seen said film. I’d seen some screenshots in magazines and was mildly intrigued by the visual aspect of the movie, but it pretty much stopped at that. I was too young as well to be able to fully comprehend the complex themes of the book, and at the time I felt most of Dick’s writing was rather weird and bizarre.

Hindsight being 20/20 I now know that I really wasn’t the target of the book. At thirteen you’re just too young to be interested in weighty philosophical subjects about humanity wrapped in amphetamine-fueled writing.

My first contact with Blade Runner was ironically it’s soundtrack. Written, produced and performed by the greek master Vangelis it hooked me immediately with it’s deep atmosphere. Intertwined was soundbites from the movie, and at this point I just knew I had to see the movie. I was now around sixteen or so, and I greedily devoured everything I could find on Blade Runner. Finally, I managed to see the original european theatrical cut. I’m a bit fuzzy as to how I saw it, but I think one of the TV-channels ran it. Yes, while that may sound cheezy this particular channel shows a lot of good movies, without commercials and in proper widescreen. They even did this back in the early nineties as well.

After that, my obsession snowballed rapidly and since then I’ve become something of a walking encyclopedia on Blade Runner. I wouldn’t say that I’m fanatical, and I don’t know every stupid bit of fact there is. But I do know a lot, and it’s easily one of my favorite films of all time. I’ve read the behind-the-scenes book by Paul M. Sammon (called Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner) and I’ve even bought the book - twice! I lost my original copy when I moved back from USA to Sweden, and a year ago I re-purchased it. It’s a bible of information regarding the production of Blade Runner. I recommend it to any fan of the movie.

To say that I was excited when I heard about the Final Cut of Blade Runner being produced would be a mild understatement. I’ve eagerly waited for it’s release for at least a year, and today I got it. Me being crazy I of course bought the Collectors Edition, with five (!) DVD’s including every other version of Blade Runner (especially the elusive Workprint) as well as documentaries and other tidbits. I was never a fan of the Directors Cut from 1992, it didn’t have quite the punch of the theatrical cut and even though I agree that a lot of the monologue is superfluous I really did like it included. Another thing I didn’t like with the Directors Cut was it’s DVD-transfer. It was one of the first DVD’s and as such is sub-par compared to… well, pretty much anything. The visuals are muddy and the audio is a horrible 2.0-mix. In fact, most every release of Blade Runner on video, DVD or even Laserdisc has been mistreated in one way or the other.

But the Final Cut promised to remedy all this, and I look forward to popping it in the DVD-player and firing up the receiver later tonight. Not only will it be an audio-visual experience for me, but I look forward to seeing if or what is different in the Final Cut. I think Blade Runner finally has come full-circle in a format that makes it’s qualities justice. When I get HD-gear I’ll probably repurchase the Final Cut in HD-version, but so far I’m not HD-ready yet.

None the less, I’m very excited right now!

A shot of the Collectors Edition:

Do you have multiple computers on your desktop? If you’re anything like me this happens from time to time. Alongside my main computer for example, I occasionally need to have my laptop on my desk. If you’re a computer-nut in any way, shape or form then the odds are in favor that you know what I’m talking about.

Multiple computers, each with their own (or several) screens. Each requiring you to switch between confusing sets of keyboards and mice. If this is the case with you, then you need Synergy.

Synergy is a neat, free/open-source application available for a number of different platforms. It runs under various UNIXish environments (such as Linux, BSD, Solaris and so on) as well as Windows and MacOS X. What is it? Well, it’s difficult to describe but essentially it’s a kind of software-KVM.

From the Synergy homepage:

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

It runs over a networked connection, so the computers intended for use with Synergy needs to be on the same network. This mini-HOWTO is intended primarily for Linux-users since that’s what I’m running, but I assume the same principles can be applied to any OS. However, I have no experience with the clients for other OS’s and thus cannot take any responsibility for instructions for them.

Synergy under Linux is a command-line tool. This is rather daunting for most users, and thus the QuickSynergy front-end is a very useful tool for anyone who prefers a GUI tool instead. Even I as a seasoned Terminal-veteran find the GUI front-end a lot smoother to operate.

The operation of Synergy is quite simple. A server is started with the indication of the physical placement of each client. Basically it’s their network names, in most cases it’s the netbios name provided your setup has such. Mine does, I like netbios in that way.

First, you’ll need to install it.

Do the command

sudo apt-get install quicksynergy

in a terminal. This will install the QuickSynergy front-end and pull in Synergy through dependencies.

Other Linux-distributions will have to use their own package-manager, provided Synergy and QuickSynergy is included in it.

Next, fire up QuickSynergy. The first you’ll see is this window below, set to the “Share” tab.

It’s fairly self-explanatory. The icon in the middle represent the server, and each box contains the name of the computer and the physical placement of it’s monitor. Notice that the name of my laptop (named “laptop”, yeah, very original name I know) is in the right-hand box, since it’s monitor sits to the right of my main monitor. When you’re happy with it, click start and minimize the window.

On each of the connecting clients you instead of the Share-tab click the Use-tab. Then input the name (or IP-adress, or whatever) of the serving computer. Click “start” and it’ll connect to the serving machine and everything will be done.

Now, you’ll probably not notice any change whatsoever. Synergy works very subtly in this way. But try moving the mouse-cursor to the edge of the screen, and it’ll move over on the screen of that client. Just like magic! Then you can use that computer just as if it was connected to your normal mouse and keyboard.

Enjoy, and I hope this helps people with multiple computers.

Fair trade is a consumer movement that has gained some momentum the last year or so. The concept is simple and ethically sound: essentially it is that what we take from developing nations, we also give back. Currently it’s more profitable for many countries to continue abusing the developing nations, and Fair Trade aims at removing that unfairness.

A few days ago my parents visited us. This was to celebrate my birthday, but they also grabbed the opportunity to spend some time downtown shopping and having a relaxed day. We discovered a fair-trade coffee-place in one of the malls, and there I found this can of cola, which made me laugh a bit.

Ubuntu is to me a Linux-distribution, which was the cause of my sudden hilarity. But Ubuntu is also a common word in Africa, essentially meaning “Humanity towards others”. Thus, Ubuntu is also a perfect name for a Fair Trade-cola. Tasted nice as well, a lot more fruity than most other Colas.

So, if you’re interested in bettering your karma while quenching your thirst, go out and grab some of these. More information about Ubuntu Trading (which makes this Cola) is available at their website.

Yep, the topic pretty much sums it all up. Not only is it my birthday, today is the day that I leave the 20’s behind and take my first steps into the 30’s. In short, I turn 30 today. 30 years ago I got pushed out into the world.

I’ve come to the conclusion that perspective as to age is a pretty interesting thing. Ten years ago, being thirty was essentially being dead. Ask any 20-yearold and they’ll almost always say that 30 years is essentially the same as a thousand years. When you’re 30, you’re old.

Ask any 30-yearold if he/she feels old and they’ll say that they don’t feel any older than when they were 20. The only thing we usually feel is wiser. When I look back over the last ten years I realize that I’ve become quite a lot wiser and more mature. I won’t say that I’ve completely lost my inner child, but I feel a lot wiser than ten years ago.

In fact, this age-perspective thing works the other way as well; when I see a 20-yearold I see a child inside an adult body. Physically we’re just as mature, but psychologically it’s light-years difference. I doubt that my current me would have gotten along with my ten years younger me if we’d been forced to spend time together. My current me would probably have felt that the younger me was an immature brat, while my younger me would feel that the current me was an old codger trapped inside a younger body.

We had a little celebration yesterday. Due to various unforeseen circumstances my dream of a large party with all my friends was rudely shattered. Instead I invited two of my local friends and we ate scones (with jam and whipped cream!) and drank copious amounts of tea. After that we chatted and had a pretty good time. Even though it wasn’t how I had wished to spend my birthday it turned out pretty nice anyways.

Oh, and again I want to thank my parents. They visited us from Thursday until yesterday, and Friday they treated us to dinner at an Indian restaurant here in town. Expensive, but oh so delicious. My tastebuds still vibrate at the very thought of that dinner. Yum.

I’m going to state this very flatly: I don’t like religion. In my opinion organized religion is the biggest hinder to humanity turning into something great. I completely agree with what Marx supposedly said, that religion is the opiate of the people. Religion wraps your brain in stupidity, and you start believing in absurd tales designed to inhibit you.

So, it’s great reading about Markus Anhage in one of the major newspapers. Markus grew up in a christian family, brought up with christian values and the belief in god was as natural as anything else in his life. When he was 12 something happened, and he became a deep believer. He would get up an hour earlier than the rest of the family to pray, and he would speak in tongues when he took the dog for a walk. In school, he would get bullied for wearing shirts proclaiming “Jesus is lord” and such, but this only strengthened his faith - after all, the bible told him that this would be expected from people who didn’t have the true faith.

But in 1997 the first doubts started to appear. How could god be such a great god if he let all the war and suffering happen on this planet which he supposedly created? This was the seed, and during the years following he took greater and greater distance to religion. Two years ago his son Hugo was born, and he was born with a flaw in his heart. He needed a pacemaker to survive. This cemented Markus doubt in religion - why would god let a child be born with such a thing?

Markus comments this as (translated by me):

Previously I believed in the healing power of God, that he could correct all things. I don’t believe this any more. Sometimes you hear about people claiming God helped them find an apple. Alright, there’s a God who helps people find apples, but he doesn’t stop people from dying in cancer or preventing children from being born with heart-problems. It doesn’t make sense.

One year ago he completely left the church behind. He describes it as a gigantic relief, to finally be himself rather than leaving every decision in the hands of a non-existent god. He says it’s physically easier to walk, without the burden of being righteous and correct. He now runs among other things a site for former christians who have left their faith behind, and who need help and support in their new life.

Congratulations, Markus. You’ve entered a much better and larger world.