Reading Habits

Posted by bradaric on January 04, 2011
Books, Software & Hardware, Websites / No Comments

I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting, but I was certain that at least something about my reading habits would change with the Kindle on its way. I must have thought that it would be something about the way I read – adjusting to virtual page turning, virtual paper, ink, virtual everything… But no, that went seamlessly. It’s actually easier to turn pages on Kindle – especially when holding it with one hand. And I certainly don’t miss the paper cuts :) And it’s lighter than your average book (paperback, not to mention hardcovers). But again, that’s not the most important change.

Kindle 3

It’s been almost 4 months now and what has really changed for me is the way I find books to read. No, I’m not talking about browsing it from the Kindle itself – I don’t do much of that. As a programmer I’m inextricably linked to my computer and that’s where I search for everything, books included. I’m talking about using that “Send sample now” button on the site – and using it a LOT!

Yes, I have my favorite authors, but I do like to explore and find new authors as well, and the ability to actually read a chapter or so before buying a book has certainly changed the way I read. The book sounds interesting? Good reviews, probably a nice plot? An unknown author? No problem at all – send me a sample and I’ll see if I’ll buy it :)

Drawbacks? Well, I positively hate the following message:

This title is not available for customers from your location in: Europe

Who wouldn’t? Apart from that and books not available for Kindle, I have no complaints :) And I use Book Depository for such titles anyway – no shipping & handling fees and the books arrive in days (which is quite a thing around here). Brick and mortar bookstores? They’ll probably be seeing less and less of me, I’m afraid :)

Book Depository

Tags: , , , , , ,

On-Screen Keyboard

Posted by bradaric on February 24, 2010
Applications, Software & Hardware / 1 Comment

Who would have thought that I would ever use an on-screen keyboard :) Why would I want to? My off-screen keyboard serves me just fine, thank you :) But, if you ever need to e.g. hold your three week old son in one hand and type a message at the same time with the laptop keyboard just out of reach of the other hand… :) Well, never mind the reason, the Ubuntu repository includes (and installs by default) an on-screen keyboard – onboard.

onboard

There’s a full keyboard with function keys and numeric keypad (toggled by a single click) and there are even a few nice additions – a set of 9 snippet/macro keys, 4 keyboard layouts and a scanning key selection. More than I need anyway :)

Tags: , , ,

Pretty Charts

Posted by bradaric on February 20, 2010
Applications, Programming, Software & Hardware / 2 Comments

amChartsStrictly speaking, being pretty is not the most important aspect of a charting applet, but with me it ranks quite high. No matter how advanced the code behind it, if the charts look rough, unfinished and downright ugly, there’s no way I would use them in an application or on a site. It’s a relief to have both feature rich and beautiful charts to work with.

sample stock chart

Meet amCharts from Lithuania. I’ve been mostly using their Flash charts, but they also have .Net, Flex and WPF & Silverlight versions. Very easy to use, too :) There’s a settings file which allows complete customization of all the chart details and there’s the data file in XML or CSV format. That’s it – with a few lines of code your data will be displayed in a very pretty and interactive chart :)

The best thing is it’s all completely free if you don’t mind the link to their site in the upper left corner :) If you do, I’m sure they’ll welcome another paying customer. They surely deserve your support for all the work they’re putting into the product.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Truly Divine

Posted by bradaric on April 22, 2009
Music / 6 Comments

Yes, they are The Great Ones, The Magnificent Four, The Angels – the names and descriptions can convey only so much. That’s why you had to be there – Belgrade Arena, March 26th. It was an extraordinary Evening with Il Divo.

Photo Archive [more images...]

I can not find the words to express how I felt that night and how much I enjoyed the concert… So, I’ll just point you in the right direction :)

Tags: , , , ,

The Future of Social Networking

Posted by bradaric on January 16, 2009
Books / 1 Comment

The opening chapter of Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder is mind-boggling. Not that the rest of book is less so, but that first hit was so unexpected that I was really in a shock. I had to adapt, wrap my mind around the new “reality”, all the new ideas and their implications. And that kind of stuff kept coming at me, page after page, but having experienced that first wave, I’ve braced myself and started enjoying it. :)

And there’s plenty to enjoy if you’re an SF fan. Because this is hard science fiction at its best. The concept of `Societies` is an excellently extrapolated vision of the social interactions we’re having on the net today. Same goes for the `Inscape` and the `Manifolds` – the idea that your location and actions in the “real” world are almost of no significance and that it’s all about the “virtual” world, takes some time to get used to.

I don’t like too much action in any novel, and this one has just about the right amount of it (e.g. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks has a bit too much for my taste and The Player of Games by the same author is spot on), but you won’t even notice it while you’re reading as the world and the story are overwhelming. There are moments when you realize that a common word does not have the same meaning any more, as the circumstances are quite different from the real world and realizing it only pulls you deeper into this imagined world.

Having said all that, it shouldn’t be surprising that I’ve already downloaded the free Ventus novel from the author’s official site and as I haven’t read Sun of Suns either (downloaded from Tor.com last year), I expect to be having great time submerged into the distant future.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Debugging Magic

Posted by bradaric on January 16, 2009
Books / 2 Comments

Very soon into Brandon Sanderson‘s Elantris it became clear to me that the book will turn out to be a debugging story – how to fix the bugs that broke the magic. And I suppose maybe that’s why I found the novel a bit disappointing. Don’t get me wrong – there are some great ideas in there and the book is fun to read, but when it came to fixing the magic, I could spot the problem way before Raoden did and I don’t like that. I like to be surprised by the finale, not to have the final chapters of the book “reveal” what I already knew or guessed. Have I expected too much? Or should software developers not read debugging fiction? O;)

Elantris by Brandom Sanderson

I don’t like comparing books and authors, but I remember having the same feeling after closing down  The Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings. The story was too obvious, unchallenging, shallow… I’ve never picked up another Eddings book. I’m not so sure about Sanderson. I’ve downloaded Mistborn from Tor.com last year and I think I’ll give it a try. If it turns out to be as obvious as Elantris, I’m pretty sure Sanderson will follow in Eddings’ footsteps as far as I’m concerned.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Face to Face Opera

Posted by bradaric on November 28, 2008
Entertainment, Food / 2 Comments

Last night my wife and I went to the Little Bay restaurant in Belgrade. We were told that Toby Sims will perform for the guests and that we shouldn’t miss it. It’s a nice place, not too big, not too small and quite intimate actually. The first thing that struck me as strange was the fact that I couldn’t see a stage, but I dismissed it thinking that he’ll probably sing from a balcony.

I couldn’t have been farther from the truth! :) Surely enough, he did perform on the balcony, but you should have seen the way he climbed onto it! :) Running between tables, jumping from the stairs, lying on the floor… He performed at almost every single table, kneeling in front of the ladies and holding their hands singing to them. No one was spared, not even the waitress.

I haven’t seen anything like it. An unforgettable evening. Absolutely hilarious! :)

Tags: , , , ,

The Good Dog

Posted by bradaric on November 13, 2008
Pets / 3 Comments

We’ve only realized how much we’ve missed a dog around the house when we got a new one :) We’ve previously had a Rough Collie (Lesi) which was our favorite for more than 12 years and a couple of mixed breeds (Rea & Ogi), but as of last year no dogs roamed our yard and we kept postponing the day when we would get a new one. For what reason, I now really don’t know as the newcomer, an Epagneul Breton named Bobi, has absolutely captured our hearts.

Bobi

Bobi is a year and a half old and has been living in a flat in Belgrade until last Saturday. Now he’s got a big yard all to himself and I think he’s delighted with being able to go to the “park” whenever he wants. :)

I’ve uploaded a small gallery with pictures from his first few days here and the previous owners supplied a couple of photos from back when he was a puppy. :)

He’s absolutely adorable :) Constantly running, chasing balls, apples, nuts, cats or whatever happens to be available. On rare moments when he keeps still, he enjoys being patted, stroked, cuddled and scratched, but even then he’s always ready to jump up and go chasing whatever he’s spotted :)

Don’t have a dog? What are you waiting for?

Tags: , , ,

The Disconnected Button

Posted by bradaric on October 29, 2008
Software & Hardware / 4 Comments

I love Linux :) My main dev machine runs Ubuntu 8.04 and I had PCLinuxOS 2007 on my laptop (Fujtsu-Siemens Amilo A1655G) until yesterday evening, when I decided to replace it with openSUSE 11.0. Why? Well, I haven’t had a chance to check it out recently and I just wanted to see how the new version works and feels :)

The installation went smoothly and it detected all the hardware. However, when I tried to turn the wireless card on (there’s a button right beside the power button), the HDD light flickered a bit and nothing happened. I checked again and after some consultations on the openSUSE Forum, we concluded that the card was successfully detected and installed, but was “simply” turned off…

Checking the log file (/var/log/messages) revealed that the OS did not know what to do when the wireless button was pressed. My first idea was to try to find the correct key code and just link the button to it, but after some unsuccessful attempts I found something better – a kernel module (fsaa1655g) which allows turning the wireless card on and off from the command line :)

The installation of the module failed the first time i attempted it, but installing kernel sources and updating the kernel to match the source version did the trick and I managed to install the module. That’s when the wireless LED finally agreed to light up for me :)

So, why do I love Linux after all the trouble? It’s an excellent OS, that’s why :)

Tags: , , , , ,

Belgrade Book Fair

Posted by bradaric on October 21, 2008
Books / 3 Comments

The fair is my “secret” place for finding the books I can’t find anywhere else during the year. Usually, the publishers and bookstore owners bring almost everything they’ve got, including the long forgotten English titles from the murky depths of their cellars. A treasure trove, really :)

Not this year :( Looks like they’ve been very busy printing new books to fill their stands. Not necessarily a bad thing, I agree, but that’s not the point. At least not for me. I understand that the fair is their chance to show off their “latest and greatest” and that’s OK, but newly printed books are very easy to find – every bookstore has them and promotes them before, during and after the fair. I thought the whole point was to allow the visitors to see everything you’ve got…

Or maybe it’s only me not understanding what it’s all about and expecting too much.

We’ll see what happens next year. Until then, I suppose I’ll have to find some other place where the forgotten books go for their final reader hunt.

Tags: , , ,

« Previous Page