Sunday’s frustrations, debugging Amarok

Just before the Amarok developers moved to the next version of Amarok, they just made the current one almost tolerable. Only one important bug still …bugging… me: with many songs in the playlist, immediately after playing a song Amarok would start using the hard disk like crazy for at least 20 seconds (thess seconds easily become minutes if some other process wants to access the hdd ).

Report the bug, a developer tells me that they no longer maintain it.
Hooray, this is my job, let’s repare The Amarok. So here I am, 5 hours after starting this, staring at a GDB console… Of course I did absolutely nothing. Spend a lot of time trying to work with the Kdevelop project that comes with the sources, uselles, absolutely. Screwed my Amarok configuration (at least I have backed up the postresql database). Also found a “HACKING” file inside the sources, it says nothing but uselles shit, something regarding the coding styles. Why the fuck you care about coding style when it is so hard for an Amarok outsider to get something working?!. You won’t have contributors anyway .

Oh well, if there will be a next time, I will ask for some help to avoid such a waste of time.

I once read an article about software that is forever at version 0.8 because programmers rewrite it again and again, but I am not able to find at the moment. It had a very nice name, something like “software in eternal puberty, looking for care”…, whatever, I will come back if I remember.

Transcend

Today I tryed a new game named Transcend (found it when I was browsing the Debian packages with Synaptic).

Transcend is very coloured, as can bee been in the snapshot, and the images remind me of a kaleidoscope. Even more, these kaleidoscopic shapes metamorphose in very spectacular ways. Also it has a very interesting music.

The game is quite simple: grab object pressing ‘d’ and take them to the center of the plane(where that line ombilical points to) and then press ‘d’. After having an object in the center you can start shooting (with the space key) the colourfull enemies. The enemies will try to take your objects away, the more object you have the more powerfull your missiles (bullets or whatever you name them, they are abstract shapes anyway). After you have shot enough missiles in the biggest enemy, it will dissapear and you can go to the next level.

Unfortunately the game does not have enough diversity to make you play it too much, and after 3 levels I got to the first level again (or one that looked like it).

You can find the games page at http://transcend.sourceforge.net/. I will sure take a look on the sources.

Pesenka, reward for lyrics

I would love to know the lyrics from Pesenka by Ruki Vverh, a song I discovered recently, and this message is a reward announcement for it .
I will give two beers to a person who gives the Cyrillic variant of the lyrics (I am not able to search through Russian sites, but I do intend to learn Russian sometime). I double the reward or negociate the reward if together with the Cyrillic lyrics I get a Latin alphabet transcription (and maybe a translation.

Other notes:
These guys have many others songs that are really nice, the most popular is called Kroshka moya, other are 18 Mne Uzhe, Narisuy Mne Osen’, Natasha.
Kroshka moya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpCq9nr8pmY&feature=related
Pesenka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsrklSlDA7w
The translation may be in some more widely used latin or germanic language, Romanian, anything that I have a chance of understanding ten words.

One more later note, for Kroshka moya you can find the original Cyrillic lyrics, their “transliteration” and the translation at: http://www.italodanceportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=660, and I copy them all in here for the moment:

Cyrillic:
Крошка моя я по тебе скучаю
Я от тебя письма не получаю
Ты далеко и даже не скучаешь,
Но я вернусь, вернусь, и ты узнаешь…
Что я далеко я по тебе скучаю
Я от тебя письма не получаю
Ты далеко и даже не скучала,
Но я вернусь, вернусь, чтоб ты узнала…..
Что я далеко от тебя….

Ты обещала написать, обещала рассказать,
Как живешь, как тебе там плохо
Ты обещала долго ждать, и страдать
И сгорать от любви, но это невозможно!
Нет, нет ни строчки от тебя
Ни словечка от тебя, зря поверил я твоим признаньям
Да, может это было зря, может это было зря
Ты прости, ну что ж за наказанье..

Крошка моя я по тебе скучаю
Я от тебя письма не получаю
Ты далеко и даже не скучаешь,
Но я вернусь, вернусь, и ты узнаешь…
Что я далеко от тебя….

Что, что еще произошло, столько времени прошло
Ты не едешь не звонишь, не пишешь
Да, может быть твое письмо затерялось, не дошло
Напиши еще разок, ты слышишь?
Все, все отлично у меня дома ждут меня друзья
Говорят, что ты по мне скучаешь…
Вот, вот девчонки, так всегда
Ждет солдат от вас письма, а дойдет 100 раз перечитает…

Крошка моя я по тебе скучаю
Я от тебя письма не получаю
Ты далеко и даже не скучаешь,
Но я вернусь, вернусь, и ты узнаешь…
Что я далеко я по тебе скучаю
Я от тебя письма не получаю
Ты далеко и даже не скучала,
Но я вернусь, вернусь, чтоб ты узнала…..
Что я далеко от тебя….

Latin transliteration:
Kroshka moya ya po tebe skuchayu
Ya ot tebya pis’ma ne poluchayu
Ty daleko i dazhe ne skuchaesh’,
No ya vernus’, vernus’, i ty uznaesh’…
Chto ya daleko ya po tebe skuchayu
Ya ot tebya pis’ma ne poluchayu
Ty daleko i dazhe ne skuchala,
No ya vernus’, vernus’, chtob ty uznala…..
Chto ya daleko ot tebya….

Ty obeshchala napisat’, obeshchala rasskazat’,
Kak zhivesh’, kak tebe tam plokho
Ty obeshchala dolgo zhdat’, i stradat’
I sgorat’ ot lyubvi, no eto nevozmozhno!
Net, net ni strochki ot tebya
Ni slovechka ot tebya, zrya poveril ya tvoim priznan’yam
Da, mozhet eto bylo zrya, mozhet eto bylo zrya
Ty prosti, nu chto zh za nakazan’e..

Kroshka moya ya po tebe skuchayu
Ya ot tebya pis’ma ne poluchayu
Ty daleko i dazhe ne skuchaesh’,
No ya vernus’, vernus’, i ty uznaesh’…
Chto ya daleko ot tebya….

Chto, chto eshche proizoshlo, stol’ko vremeni proshlo
Ty ne edesh’ ne zvonish’, ne pishesh’
Da, mozhet byt’ tvoe pis’mo zateryalos’, ne doshlo
Napishi eshche razok, ty slyshish’?
Vse, vse otlichno u menya doma zhdut menya druz’ya
Govoryat, chto ty po mne skuchaesh’…
Vot, vot devchonki, tak vsegda
Zhdet soldat ot vas pis’ma, a doydet 100 raz perechitaet…

Kroshka moya ya po tebe skuchayu
Ya ot tebya pis’ma ne poluchayu
Ty daleko i dazhe ne skuchaesh’,
No ya vernus’, vernus’, i ty uznaesh’…
Chto ya daleko ya po tebe skuchayu
Ya ot tebya pis’ma ne poluchayu
Ty daleko i dazhe ne skuchala,
No ya vernus’, vernus’, chtob ty uznala…..
Chto ya daleko ot tebya….

Primul accident rutier

Şi s-a întîmplat, am participat la primul accident rutier din viaţa mea (şi acuma mă roade că l-am lăsat pe celălalt protagonist să fugă ). La trecerea de pietoni, verdele pe terminate. Un matiz verde făcea la stînga şi aştepta un bătrîn să treacă. Cu 2 metri înainte de matiz am realizat că e foarte probabil ca şoferul să nu se mai uite în dreapta înainte să plece şi am socotit dacă frînez risc să mă opresc fix în faţa lui, aşa că mai bine să pedalez şi poate trec înaint să plece. Socoteala n-a mers că ăla a înfipt sănătos piciorul în pedală, şi bineînţeles imediat şi-n frînă. Mi-a prins spatele bicicletei, nici măcar n-am căzut de pe ea, plasticele de la Matiz n-aveau nici o zgîrietură. Eu speriat, văd n-am păţit nimic, mă bucur. Ăla speriat, „ce faci omule, nu te uiţi?!”. Vede şi el că-s întreg şi-i dă pedală. La cîteva secunde, cînd ăla dispăruse, mă gîndesc că ar fi mai totuşi ca incidentul să fie raportat.

Încerc să mă urc pe bicicletă, văd că există ceva frecări, dau nişte pedale pînă nu mai pot pedala deloc. Roata făcuse opturi, şi eu le-am făcut rapid mai mari. Şi mai încerc o tură, fără să gîndesc, optul şi mai mare, roata blocată, şi am ajuns să tîrîi bicicleta pînă la lucru.

Acuma mi-e ciudă că n-am prevăzut mai devreme chestia, pentru că oricum în mod normal oricînd mă intersectez cu maşinile caut privirea ăluia de la volan pentru o confirmare că m-a văzut, plus că nu prea merg pe trotuar şi dacă o iau pe trecerea de pietoni nu merg călare. Tot ciudă mi-e că l-am lăsat pe ăla să plece: chit că luam amendă că am trecut călare, poate făceam din isteţul ăla un pericol pe şosea mai puţin (la mine nu prea mai am ce schimba, oricum cînd merg cu bicicleta prin Timişoara sunt iepure paranoic). Nu mi se pare tare isteţ să nu te uiţi atîtea secunde în celelalte direcţii şi apoi să te înfingi în acceleraţie. Cum ăla a fugit repede nici număr de înmatriculare n-am putut lua, cu atît mai puţin să-i spun să stea.

În final, trebuie să hotărăsc ce maşină să iau, ca să mă simt mai sigur (şi mai important) decît pe bicicletă. Stau în cumpănă între Audi Q7, BMW X6 şi unul dintre modelele Hummer.

P.S.
În fapt trebuie să văd azi dacă cumpăr doar roată spate nouă sau e ocazia să schimb bicicleta cu totul, aşa încît mîine să nu încep săptămîna pe jos.
N-am bani nici de preferata VFR 800, nicicum de aberaţiile rutiere scrise mai sus.

What if the KDE project adopted Emacs… :D

I have always looked at Emacs like it is some mysterious charmed software able to do magic on text, but not magic enough to really learn it. I gave it 3-4 hours tries a few times but I never found it convincing enough (it may be that it is not that magic?! ). The first problem with it is the interface, until lately it simulated all user interface with some ugly and hard to use widgets or whatever shit toolkit from the 1980’s. Now it has more normal widgets, provided by GTK but this is still not enough. The status thing is still text and artificial, the user interface is still too different, etc.

The biggest problem is that it doesn’t invite me to learn. I mean, the software should be able to meet my small needs no mather how stupid and untrained I am at the beginning. Like the Kate thing, it is always a text editor. You have lots of shortcuts and options, you may learn them as you use the software, but it is at any time able to function like a most basic editor.

Example using Emacs: by default it has a most annoyng setting to beep the computer integrated speaker whenever you scrolled and got to the end of the buffer, or any other error. I needed to do a search on google, and then edit some weird, LISP like, .emacs file multiple times until I placed piece of code in the correct region of that configuration file. Then there’s the brace matching that many editors signal for no mather what file type, emacs only does it when you type the character, for anything else I need to go through the multi-level menu galore (and I didn’t find it until today), good that they are breaking menus, at least.

So, what I was thinking is that someone (not me) wrote a KDE port of Emacs. Think of that: some Emacs that actually looks good and is usable by normal non-tech+Emacs PhD people. This learn step by step thing is something I like about software from the KDE suite, the software may be some unexplored teritory, but you learn it little by little, this applies for example to the whole KDEPIM suite, the first PIM suite I ever used (and the best). Probably the rule would be to make it simple enough to help anyone do their job, and featured and configurable enough to keep the advanced users happy.

I didn’t come back to edit the LyX article, I will do it next time.