Ok, this will be nothing long - just few semi-angry lines. ;-) I was pretty surprised when I saw Iceweasel first time in the title bar of my updated Firefox. Then I recalled that I heard previously about dispute between Mozilla Foundation and Debian. You can read about it here (Mozilla's point of view) or on InternetNews.com or you can check Iceweasel on all-encompassing Wikipedia. Ok... this is not a problem, right? Fox or Weasel - who cares?
After that I noticed that most important difference for me - close button on every tab. "Why?!" I cried. I remember some browser (was it Galleon or some older Mozilla?) that used the same solution and I never liked it. However - it's not just the decision made I don't like. I especially don't like that it's change from A to B and I couldn't find "use A style close button" anywhere in the configuration. Not to mention another "feature" - and that's Backspace malfunction!
Now I remembered that great fast light weighted Galeon browser again. Because of its story. It was amazing until one special moment. When Galeon was updated for GTK 2 (Galeon 2) it somehow lost all the magic, half of the functions and I stopped to use it completely. No - Firefox (or IceWeasel when I'm in Linux ;-)) is not in this position. I need to say that I never realized how good is to write blogs. Or at least to read them and Google from time to time - but I started to Google my problems just because of this post. ;-)
Well, now it's time for unravelment. I found out that I'm not the only one with Close button problem (I was sure of it after all). And I also found the solution... and yes, it's blog again. Actually - I also found the solution for my backspace problem (and learned that it actually worked somehow but I never realized because I was still on the top of the page when I used it ;-)).
I promised semi-angry short post... and now it's kinda happy-end semi-short post.
And so I became happy Firefox user again! (I know - many people made it without need to write a blog post.) I even discovered that Firefox 2 has great Undo Close Tab feature - what gives me good argument for another time when my colegue will try to convince me to switch to the Opera. Great! :-)
Monday, December 18, 2006
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Cesta (2): The Ecstasy Of Flight (I Love the Night)
Chris De Burgh: The Ecstasy Of Flight (I Love the Night)
29/7
V svetlách veľkomesta sa stáva noc jasnejšou. Letné noci sú krásne kontrastné - tmavomodrá až čierna obloha a jasne žiariace hviezdy. Svetlá noc také čaro nemá. Noci sa nebojím... ak je tmavá. V tme totiž nik nič nevidí. Tma je bezpečná. Noc veľkomesta isto nie. Doba pokročila, napadlo ma, či už nie je "zajtra".
Zotrvačnosť mnou trhla - stojíme. Vystúpili sme na nástupisko a zistili, že okrem nás a ľudí z autobusu tu žiaden život nie je. Barboru striaslo, noc bola chladná - noc pred dažďom. Nechcel som sa v meste dlho zdržať, ale na dážď sa lepšie pozerá z okna budovy ako zo stanu kdesi v horách, ktoré sa rysovali na obzore, aj keď ten sa teraz dal len tušiť. Keď sme bývali neďaleko, chodil som práve do tohto mesta na školu. Ale nevyznal som sa tu až tak dobre, aby som vedel, kde sa nachádza objekt, ktorý sme hľadali.
"Prosím vás," oslovil som najbližšieho seriózne vyzerajúceho človeka, "neviete náhodou, kde je ***?"
"Nie som síce tunajší, ale náhodou to viem," dotyčný sa na chvíľu dôležito odmlčal a dôležito sa popritom aj tváril. To som si mal koho vybrať, napadlo ma. Ak sa čosi dozvieme do rána, budeme isto spokojní. No tváril som sa trpezlivo. Konečne sa chlapík rozhýbal a dlhými vetami nám opísal vskutku zložitú trasu (dve stovky metrov a dve zahnutia). Vo výraze jeho dôležitosti som si spomenul, že som sa stretol s podobnými pedagógmi, preto viem, ako ťažko sa s takými ľudmi vychádza.
Izba bola malá, ale na prespanie stačila. O tom, že budeme spať v jednej izbe, rozhodla Barbora. Išlo o finančné dôvody, samozrejme. Na pravú mieru uvediem fakt, že som do nej zamilovaný. Nebol som do nej v pravom slova zmysle "buchnutý", ako sa sluší na šestnásťročného chlapca, bolo to čosi iné. Nedalo sa to nazvať platonické. Stretol som ju náhodou, bola to čistota charakteru sama, aspoň sa mi tak zdalo, ale nepoznal som ju tak dobre, aby som ju mohol jednoducho "zbaliť". Iný na mojom mieste by to isto urobil, ale iný na mojom mieste by tu s ňou takto nebol. To mi nedávno sama povedala. Mal som ju rád ako dievča, ktorému som mohol zatiaľ povedať čokoľvek a vždy to bolo pochopené a neprekrúcané, ako dievča, ktoré si sebou bolo dosť isté, ale nikdy to nezneužívalo, ako dievča... skrátka ako žiadne iné.
Celá cesta bola šialeným podnikom, ale stála za to. Sú však dve veci, ktoré limitujú všetko - čas a peniaze. Blížil sa koniec júla; takže hodnotiac to podľa času, sme v polovici. Po stránke peňazí, na ktorých ale až zas tak moc zavislí nie sme, je to podobne.
Tma v izbe sa postupne zmenila na až moc svetlé šero. Rozpoznával som v okolí každý detail. Digitálky pípli celú hodinu, isto bola jedna. Vedel som, že Barbora nespí, zvykli sme si po nociach ešte chvíľu rozprávať. Pozrel som sa von oknom... tam niekde za svetelnou clonou a za všetkým tým smogom isto boli hviezdy. Aj keď schované za mrakmi, vedel som, že tam budú. Hviezdy - to je jedna z vecí, na ktoré keď pomyslím, hneď mi je lepšie. Ak mi totiž nad hlavou svietia, stále je prečo žiť. Ja mám svoj život až moc rád, ale nebojím sa oň. Myslím si, že prílišné lipnutie na ňom je skôr nebezpečné.
"Ako len ten čas letí," ozvalo sa z tmy. Nevedel som, ako to myslí, a tak som bol ticho. Keď to trvalo trochu dlho, zamumlal som čosi ako "mhmm", aby vedela, že som napätý a pripravený ju počúvať.
"Vieš, ten ani nie celý mesiac ubehol dosť rýchlo," prehodila akoby mimochodom. Ženská ti v živote nepovie, čo vlastne chce, napadlo ma. Často si žena uvedomí, že hovoriť narovinu by nebolo tak zaujímavé. Aspoň si môžme vybrať, čo robiť, aj keď je takmer isté, že to nebude "to, čo som práve chcela". Ale fakt je ten, že je to takto lepšie. Jeden môj známy prehlásil, že "ženy sú potvory, od Evy po dnešok", ale nemyslel to zle. Zaujímave však bolo, že jeho priateľka mu to smrteľne vážne odsúhlasila. Neviem si predstaviť poriadnu ženu, ktorá má viacej logiky ako emócií. Isto by nestála za toľko, čo napríklad Barbora.
"Ale bol vychutnaný," poznamenal som na jej skeptické konštatovanie.
"To hej," súhlasila, "bol to krásny mesiac. Taký som asi nezažila, a aj keby - žiadny nemal taký charakter. V tomto smere to bolo čosi... jedinečné."
"Pamätáš sa na začiatok našej cesty?" spýtal som sa, aj keď som ešte len slabo tušil, čo tým dosiahnem. Ja som si osobne všetko vybavoval veľmi podrobne, ale prišlo mi to, ako keby ma od našich prvých chvíľ delili roky. Čiastočne aj preto, lebo sme sa k sebe viac priblížili. A ten posun bol pomerne veľký.
"Na tú chvíľu, čo si ma oslovil dokonale, ale inak len tak hmlisto," odvetila váhavo.
"Takže sa ti to zdá dávno?" otázka bola skôr sugesciou, viac konštatovanie než otázka.
"Fakt je ten, že mi to pripadá pomerne dlhá doba," usmiala sa, mohla tušiť, že som to chcel počuť.
Zdalo sa mi zaujímavé, že občas hovorila o veciach relatívne. Nerobila to vždy; znamenalo to, že dôkladne vyberá slová. Isto nie nerada nechtiac priznala, že vlastne máme ešte dosť času.
"Myslíš, že aj ten druhý bude taký?" opýtala sa. Najprv som nevedel, čo myslí, až potom mi došlo, že sa pýta na druhý mesiac.
"Ten bude úplne super," odvetil som jej, lebo som si bol istý, že to bude stáť za to. My to ešte roztočíme, len počkaj. A to som sám netušil, ako.
Na vonkajší parapet zabubnoval dážď...
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Utopia (7): Their amazing history
- "So as I said, I see first War as a history split point," I'm starting next round with their history. "So tell me some outline."
Paul looks at Caren with question who would start. I noticed that Brian (or whoever is that guy next to Caren) and two people across the table are listening our conversation too.
- "Well," Caren starts. "I'm no historian but I can handle the outline. ;-) Our Western civilization is strongly influenced by Open society model which really got some twist after the War. It wasn't elaborated into its current state though, however it was great time to gain new people. And because leaders like Wilson, General Pershing or Lloyd George were Open society advocates it was quite easy. They did not educate us in OS principles on their own, but they promoted those who were behind Open society from the start - mainly Bergson and Reeves. Many contributed to OS theories - either on the political field - like Karl Popper - or on the field of math theory - like von Neumann or Nash. However Reeves is the key person I think."
- "Well," I used a pause in her talk, "I know at least Popper, von Neumann and Nash. At least if the first one wrote something about democracy and open society, the second one invented that computer architecture and the third one was that schizophrenic who worked on game theory."
- "Yes... that fits."
- "At least something. :-) However I know nothing about Bergman or Reeves."
- "Bergson... whatever... :-) Reeves was the most procreative in his times. He wrote many books from ... I'm not sure, but let's say from 1900 to 1930. It was very inspiring for many politicians - especially in the America. Reeves was English by the way, he was a Cambridge professor. But now the main history line, ok?"
- "Ok, I'm curious to death. :-)"
- "Wilson took the major role after the War was over. France and UK supported Wilson, because he helped both them a lot during those three years America was in war."
- "Three years?! America joined the War in 1917!"
- "Nope... Wilson brought America to War in 1915 and many told him he did it for nothing but I guess it was great move. He went to war only with volunteers and professional soldiers - that gave him some credit in public and the opinion was clearly with him. Not to mention the famous talk about the need to interfere with foreign affairs - even with European ones."
- "Yeah, you mean Concerns Do Matter speech," added someone across the table.
- "Yes, that one. Thanks. :-)" Caren continues: "Then there were Versailles where Wilson put through everything essential - he offered huge help to Europe to prevent victorious powers to rape the Germany after the total war. Not to mention that Germany was torn during the last two months of the war because military took the power. In the meantime Wilhelm and the government were negotiating about peace with Allies."
- "Wilhelm II, thou," corrected the man over the table.
- "What about Austria-Hungary?" asked I.
- "Hm, they finished a little bit sooner if I recall correctly... Martin?" Caren asked that man against me.
- "Yes, they signed peace in August of 1918 agreeing with the idea of successive states based on nations. However Hungary broke away and continued with Germany for the next three months. However... very important for the outcome in Versailles is the first meeting of Allied leaders - the Iceland Conference. Here Wilson introduced his 14 points, Atlantic Charter was signed and George, Clemenceau and L'vov agreed about the need of democratic changes in the area controlled by Central Powers. Wilson, Clemenceau and George had similar goals and even similar ways - because Open society ideas were quite 'in' and it was also time where some change was really needed. L'vov - as a representative of fresh Russia - wasn't so rush for the Open society, however he agreed with the points. Now Germany was not to be humiliated and US promised some financial help in order to assure this. Wilson claimed that Germany can't pay reparations and that Allies should not humiliate the country because public opinion in Germany would be against the Allied Powers to no good for everyone."
- "When was this Iceland Conference?" I was lost because either I didn't remember it from school or it was different in our world.
- "Iceland? 1917, but I'm not sure about more precise date," answered Martin.
- "You mentioned fresh Russia - what was that?" I knew really only a little about Russia/Soviet Union history during the end of World War I.
- "Well," Martin took another breath, "in 1916 Tsar Nicholas II compromised with Wilson and George and he nominated interim government. In 1917 there were few important things - Russia adopted its Constitution and there were free all-nation ballot - that was most important. Tsar advocated for Russia's share in the war and he - and the other representatives - they convinced the public opinion of this. However on November the revolution burst out and Russia split into the reforming one - leading to democracy - and the red one where Lenin was the leader. There were several important things in all of this - Mensheviks for instance supported reforming Russia which might be the key factor that Lenin couldn't take over the whole Russia.
However Tsar had to leave Sankt Peterburg and East front was seriously weakened because Russia had to solve internal affairs. Tsar achieved assurance of help from Allies on the East front - especially when it was clear that Lenin wanted to sign peace treaty with Central Powers. In the next years Russia split virtually into two countries. Reforming Imperial Russia took back Sankt Peterburg and they were holding Far east part, the Crimea and few other territories - while Soviet Russia controlled the central part of the country and Siberia with Moscow as their capital city. Russia civil war continued until 1945 when Imperial Russia definitely retook whole country during the World War II."
- "Whow," I was speechless for a while. "No eastern bloc? No Soviet Union? No communism ruling the east Europe for over forty years?"
- "Well," Martin was obviously unsure what to say. "I'm not aware of such a scenario. ;-)"
- "Amazing..."
There is a break in the conversation for a while - it looks like they let me to realize those things just being said. Although I was lost in that new history anyway. It was just overwhelming to hear about it, I know that I'm not able to remember all those things. Except those key messages.
- "And Russia is Open society now?" asked I at last.
- "Well... not so open, however it's democratic country for many years now. And they still have their Tsar." Martin grins. "The new one of course. ;-)"
- "Of course," tittered I.
So I learned few glimpses of this history and I really can't process more now. However there are still questions about Open society. The mentioned Popper - although he wrote his book about Open society more than forty years after Reeve's first one. At least in my world. And I never heard about some Reeves. So now I want to ask more about this.
Paul looks at Caren with question who would start. I noticed that Brian (or whoever is that guy next to Caren) and two people across the table are listening our conversation too.
- "Well," Caren starts. "I'm no historian but I can handle the outline. ;-) Our Western civilization is strongly influenced by Open society model which really got some twist after the War. It wasn't elaborated into its current state though, however it was great time to gain new people. And because leaders like Wilson, General Pershing or Lloyd George were Open society advocates it was quite easy. They did not educate us in OS principles on their own, but they promoted those who were behind Open society from the start - mainly Bergson and Reeves. Many contributed to OS theories - either on the political field - like Karl Popper - or on the field of math theory - like von Neumann or Nash. However Reeves is the key person I think."
- "Well," I used a pause in her talk, "I know at least Popper, von Neumann and Nash. At least if the first one wrote something about democracy and open society, the second one invented that computer architecture and the third one was that schizophrenic who worked on game theory."
- "Yes... that fits."
- "At least something. :-) However I know nothing about Bergman or Reeves."
- "Bergson... whatever... :-) Reeves was the most procreative in his times. He wrote many books from ... I'm not sure, but let's say from 1900 to 1930. It was very inspiring for many politicians - especially in the America. Reeves was English by the way, he was a Cambridge professor. But now the main history line, ok?"
- "Ok, I'm curious to death. :-)"
- "Wilson took the major role after the War was over. France and UK supported Wilson, because he helped both them a lot during those three years America was in war."
- "Three years?! America joined the War in 1917!"
- "Nope... Wilson brought America to War in 1915 and many told him he did it for nothing but I guess it was great move. He went to war only with volunteers and professional soldiers - that gave him some credit in public and the opinion was clearly with him. Not to mention the famous talk about the need to interfere with foreign affairs - even with European ones."
- "Yeah, you mean Concerns Do Matter speech," added someone across the table.
- "Yes, that one. Thanks. :-)" Caren continues: "Then there were Versailles where Wilson put through everything essential - he offered huge help to Europe to prevent victorious powers to rape the Germany after the total war. Not to mention that Germany was torn during the last two months of the war because military took the power. In the meantime Wilhelm and the government were negotiating about peace with Allies."
- "Wilhelm II, thou," corrected the man over the table.
- "What about Austria-Hungary?" asked I.
- "Hm, they finished a little bit sooner if I recall correctly... Martin?" Caren asked that man against me.
- "Yes, they signed peace in August of 1918 agreeing with the idea of successive states based on nations. However Hungary broke away and continued with Germany for the next three months. However... very important for the outcome in Versailles is the first meeting of Allied leaders - the Iceland Conference. Here Wilson introduced his 14 points, Atlantic Charter was signed and George, Clemenceau and L'vov agreed about the need of democratic changes in the area controlled by Central Powers. Wilson, Clemenceau and George had similar goals and even similar ways - because Open society ideas were quite 'in' and it was also time where some change was really needed. L'vov - as a representative of fresh Russia - wasn't so rush for the Open society, however he agreed with the points. Now Germany was not to be humiliated and US promised some financial help in order to assure this. Wilson claimed that Germany can't pay reparations and that Allies should not humiliate the country because public opinion in Germany would be against the Allied Powers to no good for everyone."
- "When was this Iceland Conference?" I was lost because either I didn't remember it from school or it was different in our world.
- "Iceland? 1917, but I'm not sure about more precise date," answered Martin.
- "You mentioned fresh Russia - what was that?" I knew really only a little about Russia/Soviet Union history during the end of World War I.
- "Well," Martin took another breath, "in 1916 Tsar Nicholas II compromised with Wilson and George and he nominated interim government. In 1917 there were few important things - Russia adopted its Constitution and there were free all-nation ballot - that was most important. Tsar advocated for Russia's share in the war and he - and the other representatives - they convinced the public opinion of this. However on November the revolution burst out and Russia split into the reforming one - leading to democracy - and the red one where Lenin was the leader. There were several important things in all of this - Mensheviks for instance supported reforming Russia which might be the key factor that Lenin couldn't take over the whole Russia.
However Tsar had to leave Sankt Peterburg and East front was seriously weakened because Russia had to solve internal affairs. Tsar achieved assurance of help from Allies on the East front - especially when it was clear that Lenin wanted to sign peace treaty with Central Powers. In the next years Russia split virtually into two countries. Reforming Imperial Russia took back Sankt Peterburg and they were holding Far east part, the Crimea and few other territories - while Soviet Russia controlled the central part of the country and Siberia with Moscow as their capital city. Russia civil war continued until 1945 when Imperial Russia definitely retook whole country during the World War II."
- "Whow," I was speechless for a while. "No eastern bloc? No Soviet Union? No communism ruling the east Europe for over forty years?"
- "Well," Martin was obviously unsure what to say. "I'm not aware of such a scenario. ;-)"
- "Amazing..."
There is a break in the conversation for a while - it looks like they let me to realize those things just being said. Although I was lost in that new history anyway. It was just overwhelming to hear about it, I know that I'm not able to remember all those things. Except those key messages.
- "And Russia is Open society now?" asked I at last.
- "Well... not so open, however it's democratic country for many years now. And they still have their Tsar." Martin grins. "The new one of course. ;-)"
- "Of course," tittered I.
So I learned few glimpses of this history and I really can't process more now. However there are still questions about Open society. The mentioned Popper - although he wrote his book about Open society more than forty years after Reeve's first one. At least in my world. And I never heard about some Reeves. So now I want to ask more about this.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Utopia (6): Our unbelievable history
It took me a while til I was prepared to write this part. Of course - they could discuss something different. History divergence is a mere background for my thougths - however I decided to specify the split point of our and their world.
Now I want to know something more about the society I'm suddenly living in. I know that I'm in England, that's clear now. I also know that most of the history is the same like in my world. Everything started to diverge some time between both World Wars. Actually - the second one in this world was completely different from ours.
- "Well," I wasn't sure if I want to ask questions right here and now, "I guess that now I start with that aforementioned merging. :-)"
- "You can," nodded Paul. "However now you're the main attraction - at least for me. But I don't wanna push you now. I guess you don't know what to do anyway."
- "Maybe that's why you might push me into something," proposed I. "Anything, actually."
- "So if you want to tell me about your previous life... anything."
- "Well... I might and I will - I promise. But now I'd rather to know more about this world. I might have a lot of time to tell you about my one later."
- "Uh, so ask something."
- "Ok. I can't decide if I wanna know something from history or something about your society. I found something in Object World, but I had more things to investigate during this day, you know..."
- "Object World?" Paul's voice is full of doubts.
- "Well... that... tool or application..."
- "I know what's Object World," Paul interrupted me. "Just no one calls it like that. Except the tool itself - that's Object World browser, that's right."
- "Ah, I thought..." then I realized that even we don't call our web by names of our web browsers.
- "We call it just Net most of the time," Caren stepped in.
- "Ok, I see," on the other hand I was technical type too, "but I noticed that some objects were considered to be local."
- "Oh, yes, some objects are on your computer - that's true," agreed Caren, "however - they are still part of the network, so we don't distinguish between local and remote objects. Of course, except in cases where it really matters. And this is not the one. ;-)"
- "Ok, so just Net. And now that history part. Because my and your world have very similar time line til the World War I."
- "And where is the difference?"
- "Well, our World War II started in 39 and actually Germany was aggressor again."
- "Germany as aggressor... you said 20 years later?" Caren was obviously surprised. "How that could be possible?"
- "Well... now I don't know why in our world it was possible when it wasn't in yours. ;-) However the allies were quite hard on Germany after the War and they were hardly touched by the Great Crisis..."
- "...Great Depression you mean... 1928?"
- "Well... yes, depression, 1929 to 1933 actually. This was one of the reason why Hitler took power in Germany that time, because his populistic talks just worked in the situation."
- "Hitler?"
- "Yes, Adolf Hitler, one of the most know person in modern history, I guess."
- "Never heard of him," Caren shook her head and Paul did the same.
- "Well," I was struck dumb for a while, "no Hitler here?"
- "No... but tell me how could Germany possibly start another war?" Paul is wondering. "Because here their army was cut to one third if I'm right."
- "Yes, one third," Caren agreed. "At least it was still applied around 1930."
- "Well," now I'm not sure how it was in our world exactly, but... "Germany was actually disarmed and humiliated somehow. It was in very bad shape when it was hit by Depression. But Hitler ran out weapon industry, hence he gave people work - and that was most important for them. Then he started with all that race purity, antisemitism and so - and people followed because they were given the work, maybe some guarantees for living and after all - they really could feel that the situation is caused mostly by allied powers who decided so badly after War."
- "In this world, Germany was revitalized - mostly thanks to Wilson who was able to convince his allies about this. Actually, Wilson was strong advocate of Open society model and he saw that after such a cataclysm event (like WWI unarguably was) there is free space to spread this thoughts."
- "Open society?"
- "Just the name for the society model, nothing extraordinary. But there were more persons believing in Open society in some way in high politics that time - and that could make a difference."
- "Well and... how big is this open society?"
- "Currently? Most of the Europe and North America. That time it was much smaller groups of people. Open society was well established here in Britain and it started to gain some twist in USA. It might count well... few tens of thousands people. Mostly intelligentsia however. Politics, philosophers, academic sphere and so. Also - shortly after War the Open society was not adopted in such a scale - either horizontal or vertical."
- "Scale?" now I'm a little bit off.
- "Well, Reeves wrote his crucial work about importance of communications in Open society later after War," said Caren.
- "Yeah, something like Why is open communication mandatory or so, it was in 1925," added Paul.
- "However - open communication was long run. But many things were fully adopted and many Open society thoughts were fully developed during the War. That to take care of your surrounding is important, that you should care of it, that you should interfere when necessary, that you should concern about things and people around you," explained Caren.
- "I still don't get that Germany thing," Paul looks contemplatively. "If allies were hard on them and they started to arm themselves so much... there was no reaction?"
- "Well," I sights, "modern history of Europe is the history of naivety. They - and I mean mainly UK and France - thought that when they do some compromises Hitler would do nothing extraterritorial."
- "Ah... I don't know how was Hitler... but it looks naive indeed. And stupid. How long took the second War?"
- "World War II? Well... September 1939 to May 1945... September actually if I should count Pacific war. 6 years."
- "Pfu," Paul nodded. "I know nothing about its scale, but it must be much worse then the first one. Longer and with more modern weapons."
- "However... that compromises thing is not everything. UK and France even signed a treaty with Hitler and Mussolini about Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovakia resigned next day for this land. With UK's and France's blessings."
- "Uff, I hardly know what's Sudetenland... was it big part of the country?"
- "One third I guess?" I'm not sure, but I know I'm not far from the truth.
- "One third of Czechoslovakia?!" Paul can't believe.
- "Oh, sorry. One third of Bohemia. And one third of Slovakia was given to Hungary. I'm not sure if that was the same treaty... however it was around the same time. Not to mention that Munich agreement (called Munich betrayal in Czechoslovakia) was signed after the Austria was annexed to the Reich - I mean Hitler's Germany."
- "That sounds impossible," Caren obviously couldn't believe.
- "Well, tell me," I grinned. "We have it in our school books. During the course of War Germany reached even Moscow. France was occupied... well, three years at least? Heavy battles were also in Africa."
A short moment of silence follows - at least between us three. Because in Baldoria the rush goes on, of course. ;-)
- "However," I started. "After this war the Germany was divided and the western part was revitalized and it was treated as a normal country. That helped I guess. The rest with Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia... that all became part of the Eastern block lead by Soviet Union with Stalin as a leader. Countries were independent officially... but..."
- "Well..." said Caren.
- "Well..." added Paul. "I guess that there are some differences in our histories after all. :-)"
Now I want to know something more about the society I'm suddenly living in. I know that I'm in England, that's clear now. I also know that most of the history is the same like in my world. Everything started to diverge some time between both World Wars. Actually - the second one in this world was completely different from ours.
- "Well," I wasn't sure if I want to ask questions right here and now, "I guess that now I start with that aforementioned merging. :-)"
- "You can," nodded Paul. "However now you're the main attraction - at least for me. But I don't wanna push you now. I guess you don't know what to do anyway."
- "Maybe that's why you might push me into something," proposed I. "Anything, actually."
- "So if you want to tell me about your previous life... anything."
- "Well... I might and I will - I promise. But now I'd rather to know more about this world. I might have a lot of time to tell you about my one later."
- "Uh, so ask something."
- "Ok. I can't decide if I wanna know something from history or something about your society. I found something in Object World, but I had more things to investigate during this day, you know..."
- "Object World?" Paul's voice is full of doubts.
- "Well... that... tool or application..."
- "I know what's Object World," Paul interrupted me. "Just no one calls it like that. Except the tool itself - that's Object World browser, that's right."
- "Ah, I thought..." then I realized that even we don't call our web by names of our web browsers.
- "We call it just Net most of the time," Caren stepped in.
- "Ok, I see," on the other hand I was technical type too, "but I noticed that some objects were considered to be local."
- "Oh, yes, some objects are on your computer - that's true," agreed Caren, "however - they are still part of the network, so we don't distinguish between local and remote objects. Of course, except in cases where it really matters. And this is not the one. ;-)"
- "Ok, so just Net. And now that history part. Because my and your world have very similar time line til the World War I."
- "And where is the difference?"
- "Well, our World War II started in 39 and actually Germany was aggressor again."
- "Germany as aggressor... you said 20 years later?" Caren was obviously surprised. "How that could be possible?"
- "Well... now I don't know why in our world it was possible when it wasn't in yours. ;-) However the allies were quite hard on Germany after the War and they were hardly touched by the Great Crisis..."
- "...Great Depression you mean... 1928?"
- "Well... yes, depression, 1929 to 1933 actually. This was one of the reason why Hitler took power in Germany that time, because his populistic talks just worked in the situation."
- "Hitler?"
- "Yes, Adolf Hitler, one of the most know person in modern history, I guess."
- "Never heard of him," Caren shook her head and Paul did the same.
- "Well," I was struck dumb for a while, "no Hitler here?"
- "No... but tell me how could Germany possibly start another war?" Paul is wondering. "Because here their army was cut to one third if I'm right."
- "Yes, one third," Caren agreed. "At least it was still applied around 1930."
- "Well," now I'm not sure how it was in our world exactly, but... "Germany was actually disarmed and humiliated somehow. It was in very bad shape when it was hit by Depression. But Hitler ran out weapon industry, hence he gave people work - and that was most important for them. Then he started with all that race purity, antisemitism and so - and people followed because they were given the work, maybe some guarantees for living and after all - they really could feel that the situation is caused mostly by allied powers who decided so badly after War."
- "In this world, Germany was revitalized - mostly thanks to Wilson who was able to convince his allies about this. Actually, Wilson was strong advocate of Open society model and he saw that after such a cataclysm event (like WWI unarguably was) there is free space to spread this thoughts."
- "Open society?"
- "Just the name for the society model, nothing extraordinary. But there were more persons believing in Open society in some way in high politics that time - and that could make a difference."
- "Well and... how big is this open society?"
- "Currently? Most of the Europe and North America. That time it was much smaller groups of people. Open society was well established here in Britain and it started to gain some twist in USA. It might count well... few tens of thousands people. Mostly intelligentsia however. Politics, philosophers, academic sphere and so. Also - shortly after War the Open society was not adopted in such a scale - either horizontal or vertical."
- "Scale?" now I'm a little bit off.
- "Well, Reeves wrote his crucial work about importance of communications in Open society later after War," said Caren.
- "Yeah, something like Why is open communication mandatory or so, it was in 1925," added Paul.
- "However - open communication was long run. But many things were fully adopted and many Open society thoughts were fully developed during the War. That to take care of your surrounding is important, that you should care of it, that you should interfere when necessary, that you should concern about things and people around you," explained Caren.
- "I still don't get that Germany thing," Paul looks contemplatively. "If allies were hard on them and they started to arm themselves so much... there was no reaction?"
- "Well," I sights, "modern history of Europe is the history of naivety. They - and I mean mainly UK and France - thought that when they do some compromises Hitler would do nothing extraterritorial."
- "Ah... I don't know how was Hitler... but it looks naive indeed. And stupid. How long took the second War?"
- "World War II? Well... September 1939 to May 1945... September actually if I should count Pacific war. 6 years."
- "Pfu," Paul nodded. "I know nothing about its scale, but it must be much worse then the first one. Longer and with more modern weapons."
- "However... that compromises thing is not everything. UK and France even signed a treaty with Hitler and Mussolini about Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovakia resigned next day for this land. With UK's and France's blessings."
- "Uff, I hardly know what's Sudetenland... was it big part of the country?"
- "One third I guess?" I'm not sure, but I know I'm not far from the truth.
- "One third of Czechoslovakia?!" Paul can't believe.
- "Oh, sorry. One third of Bohemia. And one third of Slovakia was given to Hungary. I'm not sure if that was the same treaty... however it was around the same time. Not to mention that Munich agreement (called Munich betrayal in Czechoslovakia) was signed after the Austria was annexed to the Reich - I mean Hitler's Germany."
- "That sounds impossible," Caren obviously couldn't believe.
- "Well, tell me," I grinned. "We have it in our school books. During the course of War Germany reached even Moscow. France was occupied... well, three years at least? Heavy battles were also in Africa."
A short moment of silence follows - at least between us three. Because in Baldoria the rush goes on, of course. ;-)
- "However," I started. "After this war the Germany was divided and the western part was revitalized and it was treated as a normal country. That helped I guess. The rest with Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia... that all became part of the Eastern block lead by Soviet Union with Stalin as a leader. Countries were independent officially... but..."
- "Well..." said Caren.
- "Well..." added Paul. "I guess that there are some differences in our histories after all. :-)"
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Cesta (1): There's a Road
Well... now a little of Slovak language for a change. Don't be mislead by titles, they are just names of the songs. I wrote this 21-part short story in my 17 years and it was revisited few times. It's too sweet and maybe too romantic - but still it is one part of my life. My Way of one holidays in 1996... IIRC.
28/7
Oblaky sa kopili jeden na druhom, len občas ich narušovala trhlina, ktorou práve zapadajúce slnko pohotovo posielalo život na lesy hôr niekde v strednom horizonte. Mám rád takéto oblaky, nie je to tá anonymná šeď olovenej oblohy. Tá nás však pri tvári, ktorú nám obloha ukazuje, isto onedlho prepadne. Nebo hralo všetkými možnými farbami a badateľne tmavlo.
Aj vo vnútri autobusu sa všetko ponáralo do intímneho šera, vodič nerozsvecoval ani na zastávkach, ktorých ale ako expres neabsolvoval veľa. Krajinka sa predo mnou hojdala v závislosti na kvalite cesty, po ktorej sme uháňali - a tá bola mizivá. A že sedíme vzadu, kde to húpe najviac, ani som sa nečudoval, keď Barbora za tú chvíľu zaspala. Isto ju ukolísal aj monotónny zvuk motora.
Oprel som si hlavu o Barborinu, tá si ju opierala o moje rameno, a zase mi napadla otázka, na ktorú tak trochu poznám odpoveď. Prečo som tu? A čo tu robím? Nech sa deje, čo chce, je isté, že by mi nevadilo, trvať to tak večne. Ak viem, že práve teraz som šťastný, nechýba mi vôbec nič. Je mi fantasticky...
Na ceste, ktorej pánmi sme len my dvaja - najšťastnejší jedinci ľudského pokolenia. Šťastní sme a šťastní budeme, kým sa na to cítime. Ak nič iné, tak to dievča na mojom ramene je zárukou môjho neuveriteľného šťastia. Isto by som tu nebol, nestretnúť ju - dáva tomuto bláznivému podniku šťavu, akú žiadny podobne komorný príbeh nikdy nemohol mať.
Ak si človek celý život opakuje, "toto sú najšťastnejšie roky môjho života", nemôže si žiť zle a na okolí záleží pramálo. Na druhej strane si často vravím, ako ten čas letí, a som len zvedavý, čo si budem vravieť v sedemdesiatke. Ale práve tento štýl môjho myslenia mi dáva záruku, že si život vychutnám bez ohľadu na dobre mienené rady okolia.
Cestovanie autobusom bolo pre mňa vždy niečím zaujímavé. Keď som si sadol k nejakému človeku, začal som si predstavovať, kto to je. Vymýšľal som si malý príbeh so zložitou zápletkou, ktorá mala isté osobné dobrodružstvo. Niektorí ľudia boli zlí, iní zase dobrí, podľa toho, ako sa mi ten ktorý človek rátal (väčšinou od pohľadu). Autobus mi pripadá byť trochu indiskrétny a to je to, čo sa mi na ňom páči. A je pre mňa mäkší za jazdy.
U vlaku (ktorý tiež využívam pomerne často) je tomu naopak. Aj interiéry našich vlakov mi prídu "tvrdšie" ako autobusy. V druhej triede sa výnimočne stane, že sa zveziem vozňom, ktorý má osemmiestne kupé. Vtedy je cesta vlakom ešte viac indiskrétna ako cesta autobusom.
Ale viac ako na prostriedku mi záleží na čase cestovania. Rád cestujem večer alebo v noci. Za tmy. S priateľom na blízku. Vtedy sa krásne vedú reči o všetkom možnom. Práve v takej chvíli rozhovor väčšinou najviac odhaľuje osobnosť toho druhého.
Aj keď sme sa kedysi na sídlisku bavili s dievčatami vo vchodoch (a dával som prednosť "duelom" pred skupinovými akciami), preferoval som prítmie. Vtedy totiž človek začne viac vnímať hlas toho druhého a nedbá toľko jeho výzoru. Je samozrejmé, že u priateľov to tak je bežne, ale je krásne si predstavovať, ako sa ten druhý v daný moment tvári, nechať odpočinúť zraku a rozbiehať svoju fantáziu na námet hovoreného.
Na sídlisku (aj keď to slovo ma nezaplavuje príjemnými pocitmi) bolo fajn, lebo som mal okolo seba pár správnych ľudí, ktorí mi vždy mali čo dať. So spomienkami na nedávnu dobu, keď som ešte býval na Slovensku, som sa už ale pomaly začal prepadávať do snov úplne iného charakteru...
... Všetko zrazu bolo akési hmlisté. Ktosi ma pevne chytil a kamsi vliekol. Krátko na to som sa ocitol v miestnosti, ktorej tmavosť mi nedovoľovala vidieť toho práve veľa. Mal som strach ako nikdy v živote, ale nemohol som sa voči nemu brániť. Pripadalo mi, že ak by som sa bránil, porušil by som pravidlá akejsi hry.
"Ak sa ti to podarí," ozval sa akýsi hlas, "si voľný..." Hlas nepripúšťajúci prevahu súpera. Objavil sa tu stôl s akýmisi krabicami, nič tu nebolo isté... Vedel som však hneď, čo robiť. Vedel som to naisto, stačí, aby tie krabice zmizli. Napadlo ma, že som to isto už niekde zažil.
Pustil som sa do práce. Spôsob si už ani tak dobre nepamätám, ale išlo to fajn. Strach sa stratil... Vrátil sa zase, keď som mal odbaviť predposlednú. Teraz to predsa nemôže sklamať...
Zrazu sa všade naokolo ozvalo syčanie a ja som vedel, že je koniec. Ako dobre podťatá veža z kociek sa zhrútilo celé moje sebavedomie, akokoľvek bolo malé. Nemal som sa čoho chytiť, nebolo tu nič, nič konkrétne - okrem jednej veci. Tá tu zostala vo veľmi konkrétnej podobe. Zostal tu strach...
Ak čosi naozaj neznášam, je to isto strhnutie sa zo spánku. A toto bolo veľmi intenzívne. Dvere autobusu sa medzitým so syčaním pneumatického systému dovreli. Taká prkotina! ...dvere autobusu... Zaspávajúce okolie sa pohoršovalo nad mojimi prudkými reakciami, a aj keď ma nevideli, isto si ma podozrivo premeriavali.
"Čo sa stalo?" spýtala sa prebudivšia sa Barbora.
"Prepáč," zašepkal som. Aj v tej tme som si všimol, že mala líce zamazané od čokolády... a v očiach odlesk hviezd. Tých, ktoré ešte chystajúci sa dážď nestihol zakryť svojimi oblakmi. V tej tme bola ešte krajšia ako kedykoľvek predtým, ale verím tomu, že táto myšlienka ma pri nej napadne často. Nie prvý raz je krajšia ako kedykoľvek predtým.
Barbora sa na mňa pozerala, ako keby mi chcela preniknúť do najhlbšieho kúta mojej mysle. Vyzerala famózne, vlasy všetko, len nie učesané, a práve o to bola krajšia. Zbožňujem prirodzenú krásu - čím myslím krásu neumelú.
Asi som veľký idealista, ale myslím si, že aj takéto chvíle majú svoju veľkosť - o ich nádhere ani nehovoriac. Byť na cestách s takou kočkou, akou Barbora isto je, bolo kedysi mojím snom. A čo ak aj teraz len snívam? Na to je ale potom teplo jej tela až moc skutočné.
Som úplne celý zamilovaný. Do Barbory, do tejto chvíle a vôbec teraz hoci aj do celého sveta. Na túto mikroskopickú krásu života sa zabúda, aspoň mne sa zdá, že málokto vie precítiť nádheru takéhoto momentu. A ona sa na mňa stále pozerá s tou naivnou hravosťou v očiach a za chvíľu sa ma isto spýta: "Na čo myslíš?"
Jon Anderson & Vangelis: There's a Road
28/7
Oblaky sa kopili jeden na druhom, len občas ich narušovala trhlina, ktorou práve zapadajúce slnko pohotovo posielalo život na lesy hôr niekde v strednom horizonte. Mám rád takéto oblaky, nie je to tá anonymná šeď olovenej oblohy. Tá nás však pri tvári, ktorú nám obloha ukazuje, isto onedlho prepadne. Nebo hralo všetkými možnými farbami a badateľne tmavlo.
Aj vo vnútri autobusu sa všetko ponáralo do intímneho šera, vodič nerozsvecoval ani na zastávkach, ktorých ale ako expres neabsolvoval veľa. Krajinka sa predo mnou hojdala v závislosti na kvalite cesty, po ktorej sme uháňali - a tá bola mizivá. A že sedíme vzadu, kde to húpe najviac, ani som sa nečudoval, keď Barbora za tú chvíľu zaspala. Isto ju ukolísal aj monotónny zvuk motora.
Oprel som si hlavu o Barborinu, tá si ju opierala o moje rameno, a zase mi napadla otázka, na ktorú tak trochu poznám odpoveď. Prečo som tu? A čo tu robím? Nech sa deje, čo chce, je isté, že by mi nevadilo, trvať to tak večne. Ak viem, že práve teraz som šťastný, nechýba mi vôbec nič. Je mi fantasticky...
Na ceste, ktorej pánmi sme len my dvaja - najšťastnejší jedinci ľudského pokolenia. Šťastní sme a šťastní budeme, kým sa na to cítime. Ak nič iné, tak to dievča na mojom ramene je zárukou môjho neuveriteľného šťastia. Isto by som tu nebol, nestretnúť ju - dáva tomuto bláznivému podniku šťavu, akú žiadny podobne komorný príbeh nikdy nemohol mať.
Ak si človek celý život opakuje, "toto sú najšťastnejšie roky môjho života", nemôže si žiť zle a na okolí záleží pramálo. Na druhej strane si často vravím, ako ten čas letí, a som len zvedavý, čo si budem vravieť v sedemdesiatke. Ale práve tento štýl môjho myslenia mi dáva záruku, že si život vychutnám bez ohľadu na dobre mienené rady okolia.
Cestovanie autobusom bolo pre mňa vždy niečím zaujímavé. Keď som si sadol k nejakému človeku, začal som si predstavovať, kto to je. Vymýšľal som si malý príbeh so zložitou zápletkou, ktorá mala isté osobné dobrodružstvo. Niektorí ľudia boli zlí, iní zase dobrí, podľa toho, ako sa mi ten ktorý človek rátal (väčšinou od pohľadu). Autobus mi pripadá byť trochu indiskrétny a to je to, čo sa mi na ňom páči. A je pre mňa mäkší za jazdy.
U vlaku (ktorý tiež využívam pomerne často) je tomu naopak. Aj interiéry našich vlakov mi prídu "tvrdšie" ako autobusy. V druhej triede sa výnimočne stane, že sa zveziem vozňom, ktorý má osemmiestne kupé. Vtedy je cesta vlakom ešte viac indiskrétna ako cesta autobusom.
Ale viac ako na prostriedku mi záleží na čase cestovania. Rád cestujem večer alebo v noci. Za tmy. S priateľom na blízku. Vtedy sa krásne vedú reči o všetkom možnom. Práve v takej chvíli rozhovor väčšinou najviac odhaľuje osobnosť toho druhého.
Aj keď sme sa kedysi na sídlisku bavili s dievčatami vo vchodoch (a dával som prednosť "duelom" pred skupinovými akciami), preferoval som prítmie. Vtedy totiž človek začne viac vnímať hlas toho druhého a nedbá toľko jeho výzoru. Je samozrejmé, že u priateľov to tak je bežne, ale je krásne si predstavovať, ako sa ten druhý v daný moment tvári, nechať odpočinúť zraku a rozbiehať svoju fantáziu na námet hovoreného.
Na sídlisku (aj keď to slovo ma nezaplavuje príjemnými pocitmi) bolo fajn, lebo som mal okolo seba pár správnych ľudí, ktorí mi vždy mali čo dať. So spomienkami na nedávnu dobu, keď som ešte býval na Slovensku, som sa už ale pomaly začal prepadávať do snov úplne iného charakteru...
... Všetko zrazu bolo akési hmlisté. Ktosi ma pevne chytil a kamsi vliekol. Krátko na to som sa ocitol v miestnosti, ktorej tmavosť mi nedovoľovala vidieť toho práve veľa. Mal som strach ako nikdy v živote, ale nemohol som sa voči nemu brániť. Pripadalo mi, že ak by som sa bránil, porušil by som pravidlá akejsi hry.
"Ak sa ti to podarí," ozval sa akýsi hlas, "si voľný..." Hlas nepripúšťajúci prevahu súpera. Objavil sa tu stôl s akýmisi krabicami, nič tu nebolo isté... Vedel som však hneď, čo robiť. Vedel som to naisto, stačí, aby tie krabice zmizli. Napadlo ma, že som to isto už niekde zažil.
Pustil som sa do práce. Spôsob si už ani tak dobre nepamätám, ale išlo to fajn. Strach sa stratil... Vrátil sa zase, keď som mal odbaviť predposlednú. Teraz to predsa nemôže sklamať...
Zrazu sa všade naokolo ozvalo syčanie a ja som vedel, že je koniec. Ako dobre podťatá veža z kociek sa zhrútilo celé moje sebavedomie, akokoľvek bolo malé. Nemal som sa čoho chytiť, nebolo tu nič, nič konkrétne - okrem jednej veci. Tá tu zostala vo veľmi konkrétnej podobe. Zostal tu strach...
Ak čosi naozaj neznášam, je to isto strhnutie sa zo spánku. A toto bolo veľmi intenzívne. Dvere autobusu sa medzitým so syčaním pneumatického systému dovreli. Taká prkotina! ...dvere autobusu... Zaspávajúce okolie sa pohoršovalo nad mojimi prudkými reakciami, a aj keď ma nevideli, isto si ma podozrivo premeriavali.
"Čo sa stalo?" spýtala sa prebudivšia sa Barbora.
"Prepáč," zašepkal som. Aj v tej tme som si všimol, že mala líce zamazané od čokolády... a v očiach odlesk hviezd. Tých, ktoré ešte chystajúci sa dážď nestihol zakryť svojimi oblakmi. V tej tme bola ešte krajšia ako kedykoľvek predtým, ale verím tomu, že táto myšlienka ma pri nej napadne často. Nie prvý raz je krajšia ako kedykoľvek predtým.
Barbora sa na mňa pozerala, ako keby mi chcela preniknúť do najhlbšieho kúta mojej mysle. Vyzerala famózne, vlasy všetko, len nie učesané, a práve o to bola krajšia. Zbožňujem prirodzenú krásu - čím myslím krásu neumelú.
Asi som veľký idealista, ale myslím si, že aj takéto chvíle majú svoju veľkosť - o ich nádhere ani nehovoriac. Byť na cestách s takou kočkou, akou Barbora isto je, bolo kedysi mojím snom. A čo ak aj teraz len snívam? Na to je ale potom teplo jej tela až moc skutočné.
Som úplne celý zamilovaný. Do Barbory, do tejto chvíle a vôbec teraz hoci aj do celého sveta. Na túto mikroskopickú krásu života sa zabúda, aspoň mne sa zdá, že málokto vie precítiť nádheru takéhoto momentu. A ona sa na mňa stále pozerá s tou naivnou hravosťou v očiach a za chvíľu sa ma isto spýta: "Na čo myslíš?"
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Utopia (5): Truth with Caren
We're entering the Baldoria - which is nice and large ground level pub where wood is dominating as interior material. Paul showed me our table and while we are moving closer I can recognize some people thanks to the materials found with the computer.
- "Seven out of ... well there aren't all sixteen of them," I noticed.
- "Well, that's not that bad after all... still Brian and Bob is missing," Paul replied.
- "Gosh, I'm sure I'd knew them!" I was exaggerating.
- "Yeah, I bet," confirmed Paul with irony in his voice.
- "Hello people," called Paul to outvoice ambient noise.
- "Hi all," added me.
- "Hey," Paul pointed at free place next to... well, I identified her as Caren candidate. "You hold place for us, great!"
- "Well, Paul - hard to deny such a claim!" but she smiles at us both.
Paul signed me to sit next to girl and he sat down around the table corner at my right side.
- "So..." started the girl, "what's up, Gavin? Fever?"
- "Oh yes, the Friday one. :-)"
- "Ah, you needed all day of preparation for the night, I see."
I turned to Paul: "Should I tell her?"
- "I bet you should, Gavin," Paul winked at her. "Does Gavin keep any secrets from you?"
- "Why?" girl looked a little bit confused. "I don't think so!" added she with smile.
I asked Paul: "Caren, right?"
- "Right. :-)"
- "Ok, Caren," I turned back to her. "Actually I have a problem. I remember all my life living in completely different world til this night. This morning I woke up in a house I've never seen before in a stranger's bad and so... I can say, that I'm not Gavin, but after some talk with Paul I feel like I have no other option than to be Gavin for the time being."
Caren is looking at me for a while and then she's saying to Paul: "Strange joke, isn't it?"
- "Well, it might be," tittered Paul. "But - believe it or not - I believed him. Or... he's playing it perfectly for the last couple of hours."
Caren was took aback for a little longer.
- "So you're not Gavin?"
- "Not really, but I'd like to be, believe me."
- "Hm," she was thinking about something a minute. "Well, I really don't know what I should think about this."
- "Neither do I, really," I shrugged.
- "Because if you're not Gavin, as you both claim, I should miss you somehow, but it's simply not that simple when I can see you right in front of me!"
- "I bet it's confusing."
- "And now I also don't know what to do with you... we can talk, of course. I guess you'll be working with us when you wanna merge here as Gavin..."
- "Indeed."
- "But..." she smiled and looked more relaxed suddenly. "Well, I'll see... So you simply don't remember anything from Gavin's life."
- "Nothing, really."
- "That's strange from my perspective," said she... and I started to have a feeling like I'm missing something.
- "Eh... was something between us two?" asked I. Now I can imagine how is it to experience real amnesia.
Caren and Paul looked at each other and I noticed that man next to Caren (it might be Brian Carter) was listening too and he chuckled shortly.
- "Yes, we're pretty good friends at least," said Caren. "Well, at least we were with the proper Gavin guy, you know."
- "Aha... friends at least."
- "You can say that we've had closer relationship."
- "Closer... are you Gavin's partner?"
Paul stepped in with grin: "How can you be Gavin and talk about him in third person?"
- "Well, I feel that in this case the difference between me and Gavin is kinda essential."
- "That's valid point," agreed Caren. "And no, I have stable partner next to Gavin."
- "Well, in that case it isn't so serious. :-)"
- "Well, it was for me. :-)"
I stopped for a while.
- "Now I don't know if I should ask..."
- "What you wanna know?" Caren smiled at me.
Now I'm thinking if it's appropriate to ask directly about slight possibility that we were something like lovers. But I don't know customs in this society. Although it looks pretty open - in communication at least. So I decided to risk a little and to be open too.
- "Ok, some sex involved?"
- "Yeah," Caren looked at Paul. "He's playing it really good. Too good. :-)" Then she continued to me: "I prefer 'making love', but Gavin somehow liked to mark it with that sterile word. Although it's still better to have good sex than nothing, right? :-)"
- "I guess so."
- "But since you're not Gavin, I should reconsider. Don't worry - no problem at work and we can stay friends because I believe you that from your point it's best to BE Gavin in - for you strange - Gavin's world."
- "Ok," I grins. "No sex in near future, I see. :-)"
- "I'm not so sure about this," Caren is obviously in a good mood - perhaps too good for such news. "After all you have that attractive body." She swatted me gently on my arm. "But generally yes, we should rather start at the level of good friendship."
And so I knew Caren and clarified my relationship with her just from the start. ;-)
- "Seven out of ... well there aren't all sixteen of them," I noticed.
- "Well, that's not that bad after all... still Brian and Bob is missing," Paul replied.
- "Gosh, I'm sure I'd knew them!" I was exaggerating.
- "Yeah, I bet," confirmed Paul with irony in his voice.
- "Hello people," called Paul to outvoice ambient noise.
- "Hi all," added me.
- "Hey," Paul pointed at free place next to... well, I identified her as Caren candidate. "You hold place for us, great!"
- "Well, Paul - hard to deny such a claim!" but she smiles at us both.
Paul signed me to sit next to girl and he sat down around the table corner at my right side.
- "So..." started the girl, "what's up, Gavin? Fever?"
- "Oh yes, the Friday one. :-)"
- "Ah, you needed all day of preparation for the night, I see."
I turned to Paul: "Should I tell her?"
- "I bet you should, Gavin," Paul winked at her. "Does Gavin keep any secrets from you?"
- "Why?" girl looked a little bit confused. "I don't think so!" added she with smile.
I asked Paul: "Caren, right?"
- "Right. :-)"
- "Ok, Caren," I turned back to her. "Actually I have a problem. I remember all my life living in completely different world til this night. This morning I woke up in a house I've never seen before in a stranger's bad and so... I can say, that I'm not Gavin, but after some talk with Paul I feel like I have no other option than to be Gavin for the time being."
Caren is looking at me for a while and then she's saying to Paul: "Strange joke, isn't it?"
- "Well, it might be," tittered Paul. "But - believe it or not - I believed him. Or... he's playing it perfectly for the last couple of hours."
Caren was took aback for a little longer.
- "So you're not Gavin?"
- "Not really, but I'd like to be, believe me."
- "Hm," she was thinking about something a minute. "Well, I really don't know what I should think about this."
- "Neither do I, really," I shrugged.
- "Because if you're not Gavin, as you both claim, I should miss you somehow, but it's simply not that simple when I can see you right in front of me!"
- "I bet it's confusing."
- "And now I also don't know what to do with you... we can talk, of course. I guess you'll be working with us when you wanna merge here as Gavin..."
- "Indeed."
- "But..." she smiled and looked more relaxed suddenly. "Well, I'll see... So you simply don't remember anything from Gavin's life."
- "Nothing, really."
- "That's strange from my perspective," said she... and I started to have a feeling like I'm missing something.
- "Eh... was something between us two?" asked I. Now I can imagine how is it to experience real amnesia.
Caren and Paul looked at each other and I noticed that man next to Caren (it might be Brian Carter) was listening too and he chuckled shortly.
- "Yes, we're pretty good friends at least," said Caren. "Well, at least we were with the proper Gavin guy, you know."
- "Aha... friends at least."
- "You can say that we've had closer relationship."
- "Closer... are you Gavin's partner?"
Paul stepped in with grin: "How can you be Gavin and talk about him in third person?"
- "Well, I feel that in this case the difference between me and Gavin is kinda essential."
- "That's valid point," agreed Caren. "And no, I have stable partner next to Gavin."
- "Well, in that case it isn't so serious. :-)"
- "Well, it was for me. :-)"
I stopped for a while.
- "Now I don't know if I should ask..."
- "What you wanna know?" Caren smiled at me.
Now I'm thinking if it's appropriate to ask directly about slight possibility that we were something like lovers. But I don't know customs in this society. Although it looks pretty open - in communication at least. So I decided to risk a little and to be open too.
- "Ok, some sex involved?"
- "Yeah," Caren looked at Paul. "He's playing it really good. Too good. :-)" Then she continued to me: "I prefer 'making love', but Gavin somehow liked to mark it with that sterile word. Although it's still better to have good sex than nothing, right? :-)"
- "I guess so."
- "But since you're not Gavin, I should reconsider. Don't worry - no problem at work and we can stay friends because I believe you that from your point it's best to BE Gavin in - for you strange - Gavin's world."
- "Ok," I grins. "No sex in near future, I see. :-)"
- "I'm not so sure about this," Caren is obviously in a good mood - perhaps too good for such news. "After all you have that attractive body." She swatted me gently on my arm. "But generally yes, we should rather start at the level of good friendship."
And so I knew Caren and clarified my relationship with her just from the start. ;-)
Sunday, November 05, 2006
My way to JBoss Seam
If you're not interested in Java and its Enterprise Edition you should skip this article for your own sake. ;-)
I have to admit that I'm pretty lazy when it comes down to technology evaluation. On the other hand I know that I have to do it from time to time and I need to push myself further. Because last thing I want is to remain plain Java-coder. Do you wanna be proper valuable developer? You have to move ahead constantly. Sometimes I just learn things someone else is coming up with and sometimes I propagate something toward our team on myself. To learn something new was one of the most important motivation when we went to visit TheServerSide Java Symposium in Barcelona on June 2006. And there happened that moment in my life. ;-)
Name Gavin King was familiar to me - because of Hibernate, of course. On the other hand I managed to forget it again and so my boss had to remind me who is it when we were going through the presentation description. "And what does he have common with some web framework?!" I was surprised when I read about Seam talk. My boss just shrugged. We were at the room waiting how he would be. And then Gavin came at the stage and started to talk about current situation in information systems development - namely about those delivered to user via HTTP/HTML. I couldn't agree more because many things he mentioned bothered (or still bother) me from time to time. However it's not only the content what's important here (although it's most important I guess). You have to see Gavin talking (and walking and gesturing on stage) because that's really not so ordinary experience. My boss couldn't stand it and he also didn't like that Gavin hadn't said anything about Seam during first 20 minutes of his speech - and so he left to check another talk (and so we also split our forces in order to gain more info from the first hand ;-)).
However, Gavin - armed with his Seam - made an impression to me - and the strong one indeed. This speech was also mentioned on TSS News (Advanced State Management with JBoss Seam). During the TSSJS in Barcelona we noticed the obvious - the community is kinda split between Spring (or other lightweighted container solution, whatever the technology stack around is complete ;-)) and the Java EE. Gavin King identifies himself as EJB3 lover. And now I started to understand it. Of course I saw some EJB3 examples with annotations before. At last bean implements the EJB interface really, many XML things are gone and everything looks simpler. I also looked at JSF but there was no use for it in our ongoing projects. And now I saw something that glues these two technologies together and the examples really shows that business code is what really dominates here. At last.
One day later we were kinda lucky when Gavin sat down at our table in foyer where we were relaxing during lunch break. I made bold to address him and then the words were somehow going on. It was exciting talk (at least for us ;-)) and I knew that I have to look at this technology later. And so I did after we came back home. First thing I liked on Seam is the start-up. If you follow the instructions precisely (and it's not so hard) you simply have to finish with Seam examples up and running. I was also surprised that it already has reference documentation - and it is not so brief. Of course you can think about it something similar like critic in this blog post (October 2005) but I found it useful. If you want to change something in examples it's no problem and the change mostly does what you can expect. I miss some "stupid" example where only one bean and JSF is used (useless Hello world ;-)) because it's best minimal example for creating projects from scratch.
I also "enjoyed" Seam more than I wanted during first days because when I tried to create project on my own (not just "refactor" project tree of some example) it was a real pain. It simply didn't work every time. Of course, the problem was between the chair and the keyboard. I rushed to do something and documentation wasn't read completely. Biggest problem in my case (among the others) was to pack seam.properties into EJB jar - even when it's empty. :-) Tricky, huh? Just do it. If you want to avoid similar stupid mistakes just point your browser to Seam's wiki where you can find all important information - along with configuration files glossary. There I read that seam.properties must be in that jar (although I already found it out finally). It was also first time when I tried to use JSF/EJB3 for something real, so no wonder that it wasn't walk-over. However I made it after all and now I just have to create something big with Seam to see if it's so easy in longer run.
You'd may also want to check few others articles about Seam - few (older) TSS news: Gavin seems to really dig JSF and JBoss 'Seam', app framework for JEE 5, released in beta (causing some flame with Springers ;-)). See also this article on OnJava. There is also JSR 299 named Web Beans and it tries to make standard from something like Seam. And yes, Gavin is the spec leader. ;-)
I'm really happy to see all this work (among the other) toward simplification of Java EE development because I have few J2EE 1.4 experiences and it was more pain than gain. Now I'm starting with Java EE again. :-)
I have to admit that I'm pretty lazy when it comes down to technology evaluation. On the other hand I know that I have to do it from time to time and I need to push myself further. Because last thing I want is to remain plain Java-coder. Do you wanna be proper valuable developer? You have to move ahead constantly. Sometimes I just learn things someone else is coming up with and sometimes I propagate something toward our team on myself. To learn something new was one of the most important motivation when we went to visit TheServerSide Java Symposium in Barcelona on June 2006. And there happened that moment in my life. ;-)
Name Gavin King was familiar to me - because of Hibernate, of course. On the other hand I managed to forget it again and so my boss had to remind me who is it when we were going through the presentation description. "And what does he have common with some web framework?!" I was surprised when I read about Seam talk. My boss just shrugged. We were at the room waiting how he would be. And then Gavin came at the stage and started to talk about current situation in information systems development - namely about those delivered to user via HTTP/HTML. I couldn't agree more because many things he mentioned bothered (or still bother) me from time to time. However it's not only the content what's important here (although it's most important I guess). You have to see Gavin talking (and walking and gesturing on stage) because that's really not so ordinary experience. My boss couldn't stand it and he also didn't like that Gavin hadn't said anything about Seam during first 20 minutes of his speech - and so he left to check another talk (and so we also split our forces in order to gain more info from the first hand ;-)).
However, Gavin - armed with his Seam - made an impression to me - and the strong one indeed. This speech was also mentioned on TSS News (Advanced State Management with JBoss Seam). During the TSSJS in Barcelona we noticed the obvious - the community is kinda split between Spring (or other lightweighted container solution, whatever the technology stack around is complete ;-)) and the Java EE. Gavin King identifies himself as EJB3 lover. And now I started to understand it. Of course I saw some EJB3 examples with annotations before. At last bean implements the EJB interface really, many XML things are gone and everything looks simpler. I also looked at JSF but there was no use for it in our ongoing projects. And now I saw something that glues these two technologies together and the examples really shows that business code is what really dominates here. At last.
One day later we were kinda lucky when Gavin sat down at our table in foyer where we were relaxing during lunch break. I made bold to address him and then the words were somehow going on. It was exciting talk (at least for us ;-)) and I knew that I have to look at this technology later. And so I did after we came back home. First thing I liked on Seam is the start-up. If you follow the instructions precisely (and it's not so hard) you simply have to finish with Seam examples up and running. I was also surprised that it already has reference documentation - and it is not so brief. Of course you can think about it something similar like critic in this blog post (October 2005) but I found it useful. If you want to change something in examples it's no problem and the change mostly does what you can expect. I miss some "stupid" example where only one bean and JSF is used (useless Hello world ;-)) because it's best minimal example for creating projects from scratch.
I also "enjoyed" Seam more than I wanted during first days because when I tried to create project on my own (not just "refactor" project tree of some example) it was a real pain. It simply didn't work every time. Of course, the problem was between the chair and the keyboard. I rushed to do something and documentation wasn't read completely. Biggest problem in my case (among the others) was to pack seam.properties into EJB jar - even when it's empty. :-) Tricky, huh? Just do it. If you want to avoid similar stupid mistakes just point your browser to Seam's wiki where you can find all important information - along with configuration files glossary. There I read that seam.properties must be in that jar (although I already found it out finally). It was also first time when I tried to use JSF/EJB3 for something real, so no wonder that it wasn't walk-over. However I made it after all and now I just have to create something big with Seam to see if it's so easy in longer run.
You'd may also want to check few others articles about Seam - few (older) TSS news: Gavin seems to really dig JSF and JBoss 'Seam', app framework for JEE 5, released in beta (causing some flame with Springers ;-)). See also this article on OnJava. There is also JSR 299 named Web Beans and it tries to make standard from something like Seam. And yes, Gavin is the spec leader. ;-)
I'm really happy to see all this work (among the other) toward simplification of Java EE development because I have few J2EE 1.4 experiences and it was more pain than gain. Now I'm starting with Java EE again. :-)
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