Alexander Mikhailian

Вчера зааплоадил окончательнию версию статьи на конференцию. Отправился домой спать, ночью как раз дедлайн для подачи статей закончился. С утра получаю получаю паническое мыло от организаторов -- мол, так и так, срочно пришлите сорцы для статьи. Ну, я посылаю сорцы, потом думаю — в чём дело? В веб-интерфейсе можно аплоадить всего 2 типа документов: Doc и PDF. Я всё сделал по инструкции. Потом понял: все остальные авторы зааплоадили Doc, вот вам и сорцы готовые. Один я послал PDF.

Кстати, на сайте конференции говорится, что стили для статей нужно брать на сайте LNCS, а там доступны только стили для LaTeX. Как другие авторы умудрились написать в Ворде — не понимаю.

Продолжаем соревнование с фотосайтом по разработке программы для установки в Gnome фото дня с фотосайта в качестве обоев рабочего стола.

#!/bin/bash
cd /var/photosight && \
FN=`wget -q http://www.photosight.ru/applications/photo1.js -O - \
  | iconv -f cp1251 -t utf-8 \
  | sed 's/.*\(http.*jpeg\).*/\1/' \
  | sed 's/top_of_day/large/'  \
  |xargs echo`
ID=`echo $FN |sed 's/.*\/\([0-9]\+\)_large.jpeg/\1/'`
wget -q -N  $FN -O $ID.jpg && \
gconftool-2 -t str --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename /var/photosight/$ID.jpg && \
gconftool-2 -t str --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_options "centered"
cd ~-

After a few months of using the HP 6910p notebook, I am ready to share my thoughts on it.

This is the first new notebook I bought for myself. For many years, I favoured custom-built desktop PCs and bought only a few second-hand notebooks for family members. One reason of my despise for new notebooks was the inevitable Microsoft tax. This time, I went against my own principles, because this Vista-equipped notebook was selling for half of its market price. So, I am now an owner of an unused Windows license, and you bet I am not proud of it.

Back to the notebook, this is a 14.1" wide-screen machine, which I believe to be the ideal notebook size. The width is just enough to fit a full-sized keyboard, but it is still quite portable and weights just 2 kg.

The case is well-build and feels very solid, although it occasionnally cracks under the right hand while typing. The notebook has four big rubber legs under the case that are supposed to stabilize it, but they elevate the case over the table so much that it resonates with each keystroke when sitting on a wooden table, so I always put a mousepad or a thin magazine under it.

I have a matte 1280x800 screen, it is ok for programming but the brightness and colours are much worse than those of a 14.1" Dell Vostro 1400 which costs one third of the price of an HP 6910p.

The maximum battery life I could get is 3 hours, which is really a shame for a traveler's notebook. Moreover, HP provides only one battery type for this notebook, so there is no way to improve the battery life by buying a bigger battery.

The best insights at the inner workings of the today's economy can be achieved through the study of how The Bureaucracy performs simple tasks.

The VAT validation is something that every company of a reasonable size would want to have. However, this feature is not a must-have, but a nice-to-have, and none will buy accounting software just for it. All in all, there is a broad but shallow demand for this feature.