Den 11 januari dog Aaron Swartz, 26 år gammal. Han tog sitt eget liv. Jag har tidigare nämnt honom i samband med det jag kände till honom mest för: att ha laddat ned enorma mängder akademiska publikationer från JSTOR, som han hade rätt att göra i rimliga mängder, även gränsen för rimlig ej var definierad. …
I just finished reading a real sci-fi classic. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. I read an old Swedish translation, made from the German translation from the Polish original from 1961. There are newer translations, but I haven’t had access to them. Three films have been made of Solaris, of which Andrei Tarkovsky’s from 1972 is the …
I have read the book series about the Watches, by Sergei Lukianenko (Lukyanenko). He has been writing and publishing since the 1980s. The Watches I think is his most famous work so far, not least because there were films made of the first two books. Lukianenko sees himself as a humanist, following in the literary …
If this is your first visit to my blog, you may want to read about my distro-hopping. Debian is my main distro. I have used Lenny, Squeeze, and maybe for the last year or so, Wheezy, which is the current testing. Wheezy is in freeze state, getting ready to reach stable status. I used to …
Ett år är ju en inte helt godtycklig tidsenhet. Ett varv runt solen för gamla Tellus. Från vilken dag man räknar nytt år är ju däremot tämligen godtyckligt. Förra året skrev jag om hur det gamla året dör och det nya föds (också en helt godtycklig metafor) i japanska ritualer. Vi har ju också bilder, …
Första januari är Public Domain Day – Dagen för allmänningarna (min egen översättning). När copyright för arbeten går ut. Det vill säga när det gått 70 år efter att författaren/kompositören/etc har dött. Jo, det är absurt att copyright är beroende av skaparens livstid och att den varar så länge, men så är det. Dessutom kanske …
I have read Metro 2034, the follow-up to Metro 2033. One character from the first book is one of the main ones in this. The main protagonist in Metro 2033 does not appear in 2034, unless the shortly mentioned person with the same name, actually is the same character. This book is not as surprising …
The other day I made Swedish Yule bread ("vörtbröd"). I call it Yule bread since in Swedish we say "Jul" for the holiday. Even Christians call it "Jul". There is no literally corresponding Swedish term to "Christmas". The term, if not the tradition, is readily usable by all: atheists and non-atheists of all colours. Except …
Every year (at this very date) there are the Nobel Prize festivities. The ceremony, and the feast later in evening, are rather illustrious. The prize is handed over by the King of Sweden. That reminds me of the old joke: "will you please step forward and recieve the hands of His Majesty the King". The …
Har du bara råkat höra något om Bradley Manning på sistone? Gratulerar! Han var nyligen i en domstol, där han beskrev hur han blivit behandlad. Det har ju talats länge om tortyr, eller tortyrliknande förhållanden, för honom. Nu har vi fått svart på vitt. Hur mycket har det uppmärksammats i media? Inte mycket i USA, …
I always put away the garden furniture in autumn, but for some reason, or no reason, two of them were left outdoors this year. It has been snowing heavily since yesterday, and this evening, nature (together with my slacking) has created this (almost) stilleben: Could be used as a image of climate change…
I read another Russian sci-fi recommended to me by the younger generation. It’s been quite much reading of modern Russians for me lately, such as Nick Perumov. Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. Metro 2033 is his first novel, originally published on the web for free (as in beer). I have read the official Swedish translation, …