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Star Wars Asciimation

Check out this excellent website: www.asciimation.co.nz or just telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl to watch A New Hope online :-)

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The Javascript Trap by Richard M. Stallman

In the free software community, the idea that non-free programs mistreat their users is familiar. Some of us refuse entirely to install proprietary software, and many others consider non-freedom a strike against the program. Many users are aware that this issue applies to the plug-ins that browsers offer to install, since they can be free or non-free.

But browsers run other non-free programs which they don't ask you about or even tell you about—programs that web pages contain or link to. These programs are most often written in Javascript, though other languages are also used.

Continue reading the article...

Make your own book with Blurb

Blurb.com is a company which provides a print on demand publishing service for the general public. It allows you to make and sell your own books online. The selling model is very similar to CafePress.com. This isn't a new service -- even Time Magazine named Blurb one of 2006's "50 Coolest Web Sites", but I somehow didn't notice it earlier.

[image] GNU Anubis 4.1.1 is out!

Here is the official annoucement, and following is the list of user-visible changes in this release:

  • Automatic correction of MAIL and RCPT SMTP commands.
  • Fix loop-detection code.
  • New configuration keywords sasl-realm, sasl-hostname and sasl-service.
  • Minor improvements and bugfixes.
  • New Danish, Indonesian, Italian, and Swedish message translations.

Guns N' Roses released today their sixth studio album, entitled Chinese Democracy. I bought it and like it very much after listening to it several times already. And I really don't care whether this is "true" GNR or not (featuring only Axl Rose from the original line-up) as long as the music is good. Especially good as on this album. Tracklisting:

 1. Chinese Democracy
 2. Shackler's Revenge
 3. Better
 4. Street of Dreams
 5. If the World
 6. There Was a Time
 7. Catcher in the Rye
 8. Scraped
 9. Riad n' the Bedouins
10. Sorry
11. I.R.S.
12. Madagascar
13. This I Love
14. Prostitute
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Richard Wright: 1943 - 2008

Sad news today. Richard Wright, a musician and a founder member of Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 65 after battling cancer.

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Richard Wright smiling into my camera -- this is a photo I personally took two years ago in Gdańsk.

Freedom Fry - "Happy birthday to GNU"

The GNU operating system is turning 25 this year!

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"Happy Birthday to GNU" is a short film featuring the English humorist, actor and novelist Stephen Fry.

I was especially surprised with the GNU contributors list at the end of this film. Both Sergey and I are listed there :D

Doyle Bramhall II - Little Queen of Spades Guitar Solo - Gdynia, Poland (2008)

Eric Clapton - Layla - Gdynia, Poland (2008)

Eric Clapton - Cocaine - Gdynia, Poland (2008)
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Bought Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II DVDs. Tracklisting:

Disc One:                         Disc Two:
 1. Nightrain                      1. You Could Be Mine
 2. Mr. Brownstone                 2. Drum Solo & Guitar Solo
 3. Live and Let Die               3. Theme from "The Godfather"
 4. It's So Easy                   4. Sweet Child o' Mine
 5. Bad Obsession                  5. So Fine
 6. Attitude                       6. Rocket Queen
 7. Pretty Tied Up                 7. Move to the City
 8. Welcome to the Jungle          8. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
 9. Don't Cry                      9. Estranged
10. Double Talkin' Jive           10. Paradise City
11. Civil War
12. Wild Horses
13. Patience
14. November Rain

FOAF.Vix, first publicly introduced in August 2006, has been heavily improved in the last 4 months. FOAF.Vix is a robust visualizer and relation explorer for FOAF (Friend of a Friend) files. Its highlighted features are the following:

  • Standalone or customizable embedded web widget.
  • Additional JSON output support.
  • Localization (ca,de,el,en,eo,es,fr,ja,la,nb,pl,uk).
  • Autodiscovery support.
  • Microformats friendly (outputs hCard, hCalendar, adr, geo).
  • Extracts FOAF data from XHTML RDFa 1.0.
  • Nice-looking.
  • Simple and fast (uses 48h local caching).

In addition, the project's homepage has a new look:

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http://foaf-visualizer.gnu.org.ua/

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Current distraction: "Gary Moore - The Definitive Montreux Collection" DVD - the collection of five of Gary Moore's most memorable live performances, recorded in 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001, respectively.

Pretty URIs

I have made some URIs tweaks on my home page to conform more to, what is called, "pretty URIs", which follows these guidelines:

  • use names short and easy to type and remember
  • use names that visualize the site structure
  • make names persistent
  • hide language and mechanism implementation
  • choose simple domain name if possible

See also the classic Cool URIs don't change.

And by the way, wojciechpolak.org is now alive.
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And it wasn't only a rumor... Four years later, Blade Runner: Final Cut (Special Edition) DVD has been released! With restored, remastered, and extended scenes, added lines, new and cleaner special effects, new 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio, commentaries, and a feature-length authoritative documentary "Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner".