Maxim Fridental – Page 34

This Week in Twitter

@ckluis Typical american… :) And I'm OK making less, if a) most other ppl also make less and b) a bunch of other ppl will be much happier in reply to ckluis #
@ckluis Sorry, wanted to say "typical american way of thinking", but this 140 chars limit… in reply to ckluis #
I favorited a YouTube video — Clint Mansell – Together We Will Live Forever http://bit.ly/3KKEpi #
I rated a YouTube video (5 out of 5 stars) — Clint Mansell – Together We Will Live Forever http://bit.ly/3KKEpi #
"Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely any bigger than himself, and who had need of a friend" #
No amount of sincere wishes would keep you warm at night better than a good old electric blanket. #
So, packed the last present. Xmas can come. #
@XaocCPS ???????? ????? ????????????, ??????? ?? ?????? ?? ??????????? ????? Windows Update, ?? ? ??????? ?????????? ??? ?????? ??? ??????? in reply to XaocCPS #
in the mood for a romantic story? http://j.mp/7gSHul #

This Week in Twitter

hehe http://j.mp/8Xx1pm, but I think it's too low-tec. Let's measure humidity of the whole T and automatically spay a deo on demand. #
News about Nexus One came just in time to reduce xmas iPhone sales. Who would buy an (overpriced) GSM-locked phone as a gift now? #
If I had to choose just one picture fully describing the town where I come from, it would be this: http://j.mp/5YndJH #
If Apple manufactured bikes… http://j.mp/5Y9HyP #
Want to say thank you to @mgorbachev for the world we're living in. C??????, ?????? ?????????. #
@weiss_heiko Ja :) Und eine Schlange in der Nacht stehen, wenn ein neues Modell in die Shops kommt. in reply to weiss_heiko #

This Week in Twitter

hehe http://j.mp/8Xx1pm, but I think it's too low-tec. Let's measure humidity of the whole T and automatically spay a deo on demand. #
News about Nexus One came just in time to reduce xmas iPhone sales. Who would buy an (overpriced) GSM-locked phone as a gift now? #
If I had to choose just one picture fully describing the town where I come from, it would be this: http://j.mp/5YndJH #
If Apple manufactured bikes… http://j.mp/5Y9HyP #
Want to say thank you to @mgorbachev for the world we're living in. C??????, ?????? ?????????. #
@weiss_heiko Ja :) Und eine Schlange in der Nacht stehen, wenn ein neues Modell in die Shops kommt. in reply to weiss_heiko #

This Week in Twitter

Adding a printer to W7. The manufacturer's "Downloads" page states: no download here, just use the system driver. #Plug-n-Play #W7 #
@HolgerSchmidt Telekom sollte sich endlich mit 100mbit Internet besch�ftigen. Will haben, bietet hier aber niemand an. in reply to HolgerSchmidt #
W7 taskbar and window gestures are addictive, can't use my Vista any more. #
@XaocCPS I think Google doesn't even have know-how and culture of how to fight a strong competitor. They didn't need it before Bing. in reply to XaocCPS #
Awesome! RT @conceptdev: Gym/shower 'air side' at int'l airport is an awesome idea for transiting. Thanks KL for making the stopover fun #
@conceptdev I also dream of gym cars instead of restaurant cars in the long-distance and intercity trains. in reply to conceptdev #
Got my first twitter SPAM 29m ago. Do we already need to worry about a twitter spam filter?.. #
http://infosthetics.com/ Statistics visualization seems to be interesting (because creative), but also labor-intensive activity. #
SmoothStreaming on microsoftpdc.com thinks my Celeron can only play the 350kpbs bitrate :( #need-hw-accelerated-decoding-in-SL-now ! #
Too bad when "Agile" is used synonymously to "chaotic". Agile was born as a step FROM Chaos to Process, and not vice verse. #
Habt ihr gewusst, dass man ein Buch aus amazon.com bei amazon.de wieder findet, indem man in der Adresse .com mit .de austauscht? #
Sudden realization: we @axinom develop both widgets and gadgets. IE8-accelerators and slices. MSN agents. Apps for MediaCenter… #
…Facebook apps. Mobile apps. Virtual Earth apps. Server-side apps. Client-side apps. Native Windows apps… What's next? #
Proud of how many words I already can recognize in http://j.mp/7ReGIP. Unfortunately not enough to grasp ?? topic. ?? ?? ?? :) #
Can I have IE8 accelerators in Windows Live Mail and everywhere in Microsoft Office please? #
Curious what this WHAM song everyone is hating is all about, looked it up on youtube. Now it sticks. #curiosity-killed-the-cat #

Presenting Luck

I don’t like to receive good wishes, and�I wish them�myself�only when no other present is possible or appropriate. It is because I feel how empty the wishes�are. Can a good�wish change the�reality?

What I need is a way to present luck in a more realistic, material way.

Money don’t buy you luck, as we all know.�And a�long-awaited present can only make you happy for some time, but not bring the other things we normally wish (health, love, good job, etc).�So it must be something different.

I was looking to amulets, but they always seeming to be a big scam. Today I’ve realized why. If they worked, they would break the conservation law. Just like in physics, energy can be neither created nor destroyed,�but only�changed from one form into another — similarly, I believe, luck cannot be created or destroyed, it just goes from one person to another.

So what I need�is a way to�give�away�little controlled�pieces of my own luck. You know,�24 hours of “looking competent and professional”, a six-smiles-pack, or a three months�subscription to “warm feet and hands”. And I’d put some�really-good-mornings,�heartthrobs, and�look-mom-I’m-on-TVs onto my wish-list :)

This Week in Twitter

Hillarious tee http://j.mp/rBPma #
After 5 years of C#, reading C++ again. Feel myself like a kid watching a horror movie for the first time. #
I rated a YouTube video (5 out of 5 stars) — Fata Morgana-Sacred Journey 1 KITARO http://bit.ly/8zD1hb #
Stunning page flip in Silverlight http://tinyurl.com/y8b25k5. Hint: drag the corner, don't click. Looks great even though it is 2D #
I was soo tired to see unscrupulous scam like http://j.mp/4nlbKc every day… It's part of the reason why I'm in Europe now. #
Don't use the base keyword in C# lambdas. #
Bing Maps StreetView is really, really cool. If only it wasn't crashing my browser (IE8 / W7)… #Silverlight #DeepZoom #PhotoSynth #
Important new feature in SL and .NET 4: http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/12/Silverlight-CLR-Interopt #
My German/English handwriting has visibly improved since I've started to learn writing Chinese characters. Nice side effect. #
I rated a YouTube video (5 out of 5 stars) — Mark Gungor – Men's Brain Women's Brain – EXTENDED http://bit.ly/79PsZ #

Sweet plans

Every time I plan,�God laughs.

Plans are problematic. When you plan,

not�all needed information is available,
the available information can be wrong or will change in future,
if there are too many influencing factors, some�consequences or dependencies�can be overlooked and will become apparent only during execution.

So, often, at some point, the plan doesn’t fit to reality any more. Then, some people prefer to change the plan, and others try to change the reality. And because the real reality is an unapproachable lady that isn’t impressed by human plans, a parallel�virtual reality will be created, where the plan�is fine and its creator is safe.

Those who do�the latter�aren’t necesserally�idiots or freshly graduated MBAs who don’t know better.

Continue reading “Sweet plans”

This Week in Twitter

Truly historical moment. With Microsoft tooling support of OData we're making the first step to the better, HTML-less Internet. #
I favorited a YouTube video — Craig Armstrong – Finding Beauty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2d3_qbhKBw&feature=autoshare_twitter #
Depression is a good painkiller. The pain is still there, but it doesn't matter, just like everything else. #
Unbelievable how just a little sun in the morning can make you sooo happy. #
Exactly 8 years ago arrived to Germany to begin the expat page of my live. How fast time is going, I'm already eligible for citizenship #

Simple Girl from USSR

Once upon a time, in a small Russian village with a Tatar name, a baby-girl Natasha was born to a family of farmers. For her parents, Maria and Pyotr, she was the fourth child, and not the last one. They were quite prosperous; they had a good house, and their land was so large and the livestock so numerous that they had to hire several other villagers on full-time.

These were the late 1920-ies, the time of NEP in then young USSR, the New Economic Policy — that strange mixture of economic freedom and communism that also the modern China exhibits.

When Natasha turned eight, communists decided to end NEP in that village. One day, armed people came to their house and declared all their property nationalized, and themselves exiled to Siberia. They weren’t given any time to prepare to the exile, and they were only allowed to take so much each person could bear.

Millions if not ten millions of other prosperous farmers everywhere in USSR were affected by this nationalization. Typically, they were gathered together (concentrated) in concentration camps, and then pushed into railroad waggons not intended to transport people, to be transported without food and water for days and weeks. Nazis repeated that communist trick with Jews twenty years later. What they couldn’t repeat is what happened, when the minority of the railroad transport survivors actually arrived to Siberia.

Continue reading “Simple Girl from USSR”

This Week in Twitter

New Flash Player 10.1 beta supports H.264 hardware decoding (Windows only) and multi-touch. #
Can't believe my eyes looking at SL4 new features http://j.mp/2AVnoJ It is like Xmas. Its Xmas now. Woo-hoo! #
SL4: Rich text and HTML rendering, less security limitations, PlayReady offline and for H.264, and access to printer/webcam/microphone. #
@2j2e ? ??? ?? ???? ?? 7000 ???????? #
How do you know Chinese culture has won? Geek teenager girls wear T-Shirts with I ? BJ on it. #