Cyberborean Chronicles

Choosing an OS

There is April – the time of “to upgrade or not to upgrade” question for every Ubuntu user. For sure, the 12.04 “Precise Pangolin” release is going to be LTS (Long-Term Support) so perhaps, the answer in another time would be simple and obvious. But for me, things are much more complex now.

This article is mostly negative but I am rather confused than angry. Yes, I know that it makes no sense of bitching at open-source software: the only adequate response would always be “come in and make it better” and I am 100% agreed with that point. But the problem is much bigger than the bugs or missed features or even than controversial design decisions: the problem is an attitude which is much more difficult, if even possible to fix.

Wikipedia blackout

Just two things:

  1. Closing the resource is probably the worst idea one might have to express his/her vote for Internet freedom.
  2. Just owning a button to on or off the resource created by millions of people does not mean that the owner is granted a moral right to use that to achieve his/her particular goals.

And yes, SOPA/PIPA has to be stopped.

Photos: Ural

Ancient rock art:

Rock Art

Deer Springs / Оленьи Ручьи nature park, Urals, Russia.

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Photos: Amsterdam

Amsterdam

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Photos: Utrecht

Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Utrecht

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Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie

I read the K&R book when I was a kid and it was likely the most influencing reading I ever had on programming. At least, there were two stunning truths which, as I think, determined my life and profession:

Zoom zoom zoom

After a thousand of shots I made with new Canon EOS 600D and its kit 18-55mm IS lens, I’ve got an itch to extend my focal length limits – specifically, at the longer end. So, I needed a telephoto zoom lens.

Until recently, good long-focus lenses (those huge telescope tubes) were the property of professional photographers and few consumer-oriented models available at the market suffered from average-to-poor image quality. Fortunately, the progress in technologies in last few years changed this situation. Now, it’s not a problem for even an amateur photographer to get an affordable, relatively compact telephoto zoom providing pretty decent performance in a focal range up to 300mm at a reasonable price.

SCAN-1.4 preview

As there is growing demand for SCAN update, I have published the preview (“beta”) of 1.4 release which is expected on SourceForge within few weeks.

Download SCAN-Desktop 1.4-beta (Windows installer)

Note that 1.4 package includes MS-Office, OpenOffice and PDF document plugins by default (no need to install them separately) to provide an out-of-the-box solution for the most of users.

Changes since 1.3 version

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Photos: More of Spain

Malgrat de Mar, a small town on the Catalan coast where we stayed in while visiting Spain.

Malgrat de Mar

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Photos: Andorra

Andorra

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