"Когда они пришли..."

Когда нацисты пришли за коммунистами,  я оставался безмолвным.
Я не был коммунистом.

Когда они сажали социал-демократов, я промолчал.
Я не был социал-демократом.

Когда они пришли за членами профсоюза,  я не стал протестовать.
Я не был членом профсоюза.

Когда они пришли за евреями, я не возмутился.
Я не был евреем.

Когда пришли за мной, 

не осталось никого, кто бы заступился за меня.

(c)  Мартин Нимёллер

the genius of a sleepy person

today I woke up, went to make myself a cup of tea, sliced the lemon, put in a spoonful of sugar, went to fetch hot water, came back, opened the kitchen cabinet again and added instant coffee on top of all that... something like that haven't happened to me in years.

...

"у наших людей с утра лица как будто им с самого волосатого места отодрали пластырь" (с) Задорнов

#4 - on ergonomics

 Ergonomics is... hmmm... well, something people forget these days.

I've been suffering from eye pain for a week or two, before  I understood what's wrong.

I - myself - remember that my stupid monitor has auto-adjust button right next to power switch (who the hell came up with that setup, really?) and if not me, someone else would accidentally push it while trying to switch monitor on/off. AND auto-adjust forces changes on top of everything you had set up.Strange thing is, auto-adjust can never quite decide which changes to make, but it knows one thing - that it must set brightness to 100%. Because it thinks everyone needs that extra-bright and colorful image, right? Like they promote in ads...

So, of course, someone pushed that damned button and it decided to switch full brightness mode on me. And I didn't recognize it at first, due to my overall tiredness - thought eyes are playing tricks on me. 

Urgh.

I went as far as setting up 20% brightness in my video card drivers, which overrides monitor's 100% (let it have it on auto, as it wants). But it seems that it won't do, after all.

Video card drivers force that setting on any application, meaning that if an app has its own brightness setting, it sets it to 20%, resulting in 20%*20%  brightness in some cases (4%). Too dark.

-.-

It all started with the one who decided having auto-adjust button right next to power button is fun. 

Damn you.

#3 - Android 4.0

As a [proud? no, not that...] well... somehow satisfied owner of Android 4.0.3 device, I can share my thoughts on the OS. 

First description I had for it was this: 

"A bastard of Frankenstein and Snow White: pretends to be good-looking, still an abomination inside". 

Most of its brand-new features won't work unless you have wi-fi connection. For a mobile device that is too much to ask for.

Also my personal opinion - Samsung has better pre-installed software. Oh to hell with software. 

OS itself didn't match my expectations in many things, like:

a) not multitasking when it comes down to working with file system, copying big file - go fetch yourself a cup of coffee; 

b) switching between apps proves to be a pain - they just lose your app state randomly, say good-bye to saving a position in the document you've been reviewing, if you fancy switching between music tracks that you listen to;

c) not intuitive enough for mobile device, many tasks require 'thinking for a while' before understading how to do it or where to click;

d) very small buttons and active zones, hard to hit even with my small fingers.

The device... 

the biggest issue is: 

screen with 'guerrilla glass 2.0' produces heavy glares under any lighting, which is a pain if you use it indoors under some lighting meant to spread, the only solution is to hold it so it won't catch light, right... like that would be comfortable enough in many circumstances.

Also speaker is very silent. I mean, very. You do need headphones to listen to it play something. 

Oh yeah don't forget that the same guerrilla glass gets dirty just from any touch and you have to clean it like crazy if you want to see something. 

#2 - SID - Rain

Have been listening to this often:

A nice song, isn't it? I kinda fancy piano version more than original, therefore won't post original here.

 If I had a lot of free time in the nearest future, I'd try to learn to play it. Not that it'd be easy with my basic skills.

「雨は、いつか止むのでしょうか

ずいぶん長い間 冷たい」

but sometimes when I listen to it I hear 「ずいぶん長い秋が冷たい」

Updates... #1

Ok, here's short update on what I've been up to recently.

[had no time / desire to try and morph my thoughts / feelings into written words]

Starting with the smallest thing, eh? 

I've got a new keyboard, and the slightest differences in form-factor, button layout, etc. is driving me crazy. Not that I wanted a new one. It's just that no one ever saw a keyboard that would work long enough for warranty to actually EXPIRE. 

You know, how it happens.... tea, coffee, spilled and voila - it's dead. 

Laast one served me almost two years. Almost reached its warranty's limit. Almost.