Start boot camp utility, partition, crash.  Try again. Crash.

Won't start up.

Damn.

Check backup disk.  OK.

Manual partition.  Wait.

Restore MacOS.  Restore, restore, restore.

Restart, everything's OK.

Insert Ubuntu disc.  Shut down, hold C, restart.

DOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGGG!!!!!!  I love that sound.

Live CD.  Boot, boot, boot.

Installer.  US, S.L.C., Dvorak, Use largest free space, ...

Are you sure?

Yes.

Partitioning.  Partition, partition, partition.

Install, install, install.  Install.

Remove CD, reboot.  There we are.

Success! ... wait a minute, where's my AirPort card?

There has been growing report on the InterWebs that Arrington is getting to old for this tech-scene.  He is reaching DVORAK status and that guy is really old!

There are reports that loud music bothers him.  And he gets "panicked" and "Alarmed" by noise.

On a recent post (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/24/facebook-takes-the-fast-lane-to-boring/) Arrington said:

... they played music so loud that a deaf person would complain. I was alarmed and somewhat panicked by the noise...

The question comes to mind: "How relevant is TechCrunch anymore? Is Schonfeld able to handle the Arrington Mantle?  Is DVORAK really a 280 years old and drinks baby-goat-blood to stay alive? Or his somehow related to Dick Clark?  Does anyone actually take gigaom seriously?

Ok, so really the point... "Are these guys at all relevant?"  Or are they really here to just annoy a bunch of CEO's, like this guy:

SixApart guy, Chris Alden seemed to be genuinely annoyed by Arrington and is just putting up with him.  I give him credit for dealing with it.

But, seriously.  lately (past 6 to 9 months) there arent any good sources of technews or insightful editorials.  Interestingly, Bloggers are always striving to gain credibility as a credible news source and traditional journalist are striving to be hip, relevant, contemporary and get street-cred by blogging.

I wonder what it would be like if Arsenio Hall was a Tech Blogger?

Okay, I'll rephrase.

[fangirl] I WENT TO A CONCERT LAST NIGHT~~~~! [/fangirl]

It was the world premiere of Sculthorpe's new work Memento Mori, which utilises the Dies Irae plainchant from the Requiem on violins and horns etc.; but it was really good because he sets it to didgeridu - William Barton <3 He's so amazing, and he holds the record for longest sustained note without circular breathing - 46 seconds!

But yes, next the conductor played with him, a violin-didgeridu duet based on a number of Australian folk songs (including Waltzing Matilda); but it was really amazing because of the awesome contra-rhythms they were both playing, 7/8, 7/4, 15/8, you name it.

So next, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra played a Beethoven Piano Concerto, the pianist was absolutely stellar! I didn't really connect with this work as much as I did with...

Dvorãk's Concerto for Orchestra in B Major!

This piece... O.o SO AMAZING~!!$(*@#()q5ujrlgz

It just ends... and then starts... and ends... and starts again... and then modulates, ends, starts, brings in the horns with a HUGE solo...

and then it starts! It's such a rush! but then it ended.

And so encore time.

It was the Slavonic Dance, also by Dvorãk, which is even more stunning... I guess it's something you'd have to see live to really appreciate.

Anyway, that's that for today.

Keep wandering~

Simrock nahm sich des unbekannten Tschechen an. Er verlegte dessen volkstümliche Gesangsduette "Klänge aus Mähren". Diese wurden auf Anhieb ein großer Erfolg. Danach schmiedete er das folkloristische Eisen, das so heftig glühte, kräftig weiter. Dvorak bekam sofort den Auftrag, in Anlehnung an die "Ungarischen Tänze" von Brahms "Slawische Tänze" zu komponieren. Die 16 Tänze, die Dvorak vorlegte, wurden zum Grundstein für einen Komponistenruhm, der sich bis nach Amerika verbreiten sollte. Vorderhand verdiente sich Dvorak damit sein erstes nennenswertes Honorar, 300 Mark, die er stolz in seinem Stammcafé vorzeigte.

Die Kunde von dem musikantischen Böhmen erreichte Anfang der 80-er Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts auch das viktorianische England. 1884 lud die Londoner Philharmonic Society Dvorak zu einem Besuch auf die Insel ein. Dort konnte er insbesondere mit seinem anrührenden "Stabat Mater", welches unter dem Eindruck des Todes von drei seiner Kinder entstanden war, einen triumphalen Erfolg verbuchen.

Zurück in die Heimat nahm Dvorak, den man in England bald den böhmischen Brahms nannte, den Auftrag der Philharmonic Society an, eine neue Symphonie zu komponieren. So entstand im Jahre 1884 seine siebte Symphonie. Die Uraufführung fand im April 1885 in St. James Hall in London unter seiner eigenen Leitung statt und hatte, wie Dvorak - nicht zuletzt unter dem Aspekt, seine Honorarforderung zu begründen - seinem Verleger mitteilte, "einen überaus glänzenden Ausgang".

Die Frage der Honorierung der Symphonie führte in der Folge zu einer bemerkenswerten Kontroverse zwischen Verleger und Komponist. Dvorak, der sich bis dato mit dem beschieden hatte, was ihm gegeben wurde, hatte durch seine Erfolge in England erfahren, dass er so etwas wie einen Marktwert hatte. Das Angebot von Simrock, das sich auf 3000 Mark belief, lehnte er ab und verlangte unter Berufung auf seine Verpflichtungen als Familienvater das Doppelte. Simrock antwortete mit einem Klagelied darüber, wie schlecht die großen Werke Dvoraks gingen. "Schreiben sie mir zwei neue Hefte Slawische Tänze zu vier Händen", verlangte er, "das wird Ihnen viel leichter wie eine Symphonie, macht Ihnen nicht den vierten Teil der Arbeit und Mühe und ich zahle Ihnen lieber 2000 Mark dafür, wie 3000 für die Symphonie."

Dvorak blieb bei seinem Standpunkt. Gegen Simrocks Wunsch, gängige, insbesondere "bloß" folkloristische Werke zu komponieren, wandte er ein, dies führe zu dem Resultat: "keine Symphonien, keine großen Vokalwerke und keine Instrumentalmusik schreiben, nur hier und da vielleicht ein paar Lieder, Klavierstücke oder Tänze und ich weiß nicht alles was herausgeben: und das kann ich als Künstler, der etwas bedeuten will, eben nicht!" Und wieder fügte er hinzu: "Bitte bedenken Sie, dass ich ein armer Künstler und Familienvater bin und tun Sie mir nicht Unrecht".

Beide Parteien beharrten noch eine Zeitlang auf ihren Positionen bis man sich nach weiteren hin- und her gewechselten Briefen auf einen Kompromiss einigte. Danach sollte Dvorak nach Art eines Kompensationsgeschäftes noch zwei weitere Hefte "Slawische Tänze" liefern und für alles 8000 Mark erhalten.

Dieser Honorarstreit spiegelt ein Dilemma, aus dem sich Dvorak unter anderem mit der siebten Symphonie zu befreien suchte. Seine populär gewordenen Werke hatten ihm den Ruf eines Musikers eingebracht, der stark an lokaler Folklore orientiert sei. Tatsächlich hatte Dvorak nicht zuletzt unter dem Einfluss des seinerzeit aufkeimenden tschechischen Nationalbewusstseins so etwas wie eine "Slawische Periode" durchlaufen, wovon auch seine früheren Symphonien beeinflusst waren. Mit Werken wie der siebten Symphonie drängte er, ohne seine Herkunft zu verleugnen, aus dem lokalen Rahmen in die internationale Musikwelt, hin auch zu seinem Freund Brahms, dem er zeitlebens in Dankbarkeit verbunden blieb.

These glorious summer days are the perfect ambience for Seattle Chamber Music Society's summer festival at Lakeside School, the lawn dotted with picnickers beforehand, and others arriving with chairs and rugs to listen to the concerts free, sitting on the slope outside St. Nicholas Hall with the music piped out through loudspeakers.

Friday night was no exception. The 7 p.m. recitals are free and, since they were moved from the small chapel last year to the bigger hall this year, many more of the outdoor concertgoers can and do go inside for these.

Friday the hall was practically full for Richard O'Neill's and Jeremy Denk's recital of Rebecca Clarke's Sonata for viola and piano. It turned out to be the most exciting performance of the evening. Clarke, an Englishwoman and a well-known viola player in her day, was a contemporary of Amy Beach, and her viola sonata is one of her best known works. In late romantic style though not over lush, it should be even better known as it is finely wrought, with depth and imagination. Violist O'Neill brought his considerable skills and empathy to a performance warm and rich in tone and nuance, while pianist Denk matched him as an equal partner, both closely in mental tune with the other.

The concert itself, jammed full as every concert has been so far (there are a few tickets left for remaining performances at Lakeside and Overlake, the Redmond venue where five concerts are performed August 6-15), began with the Phantasie Quartet in F-sharp Minor for piano and strings by Frank Bridge. Written nine years before the Clarke, it is not one of Bridge's best works. Only the bright and amusing Scherzo section seems wholly individual, though it was all ably played by violinist Jun Iwasaki, violist David Harding, cellist Ronald Thomas and pianist Alon Goldstein.

Thomas, a long term and welcome returnee to the festival, joined Lorna McGhee for "Assobio a jato" ("The Jet Whistle") for flute and cello by Heitor Villa-Lobos. This, too was a highlight. It's not a work we are likely to hear played professionally except in a chamber music festival like this one, so it was doubly welcome, though perhaps it should have been named "The Bird Whistle."

The flute chirps, bubbles and dances its way all over its musical range through the work in feats of runs and chirrups, except for the much more somber second movement. The cello wends its own way stolidly underneath. Though seemingly unconnected with to what the flute is playing, the two parts fit together. McGhee encompassed this fast moving work with aplomb, while Thomas's beautiful tone is always a joy to hear.

It's only in recent years that artistic director Toby Saks has incorporated wind instruments into the festival except in occasional works with clarinet. Friday, however, we heard the Sextet by Francis Poulenc, with McGhee, oboist Nathan Hughes, clarinetist Sean Osborn, bassoonist Seth Krimsky, hornist Jeffrey Fair and pianist Denk. It's a great piece, written in the 1930s and redolent of the art scene that had been fermenting in Paris for the previous couple of decades. Jazzy, sometimes flip, certainly upbeat most of the time, with a flowing variation movement in the middle which showcases each instrument in turn, this is another work which we don't hear live as often as it deserves. It was given its full due by the players, who obviously enjoyed doing it.

Lastly, we heard Dvorak's Quartet in D Major for piano and strings. While I didn't hear live the memorable performance given last week of that composer's quintet, this performance probably came close. Dvorak gives prominence to the cello all through this work, and Robert deMaine's playing was frankly gorgeous. The rapport from the first measure seemed particularly good between the players, resulting in ensemble work of the first order from deMaine, violinist Stephen Rose, violist O'Neill, and pianist Adam Neiman.

Speedtest

(via)

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En français : 38 words

Speedtest

(via)

I really need to go to dvorak...

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Il faut vraiment que je passe au bépo...

Eg freista laga graps or grøntfôret ved å nytta ei kuttemaskin. Flotte greidor - eg tarv ikkje smaka brokkolien no. :P Grapset eg lagar er grønt, og er laga or:

• brokkoli
• kiwi
• banan
• appelsin

Det smakar godt! :) Og det er lett å laga til. Seinare skal eg freista med lime-frukt i (eg putta ein heil slik i kjeften i går - og angra!). Svevnen gjeng greidt, eg fær stødt somna, men er frukt og kveik nog til å halda meg vaken i lengdi? Eg fær sjå.

No skriv eg stendugt snøggare på Dvorak-tastaturet, forresten. ;)

Eldes hev eg byta til Dvorak-tastatur, som eg hev gode røynslor med frå eg nytta PCLinuxOS. Eg sakna det stundom, ogso var det berre litt søkjing som skulde til. :) Dvorak-tastaturet skal gjera det betre å skriva utan at det byrjar gjera vondt, og det er lettare å skriva med éi hand med Dvorak. Nett no skriv eg berre litt seinare enn på QWERTY-tastaturet (som er laga for å gjera skrivingi tung og vandskeleg).

Eg sov forresten siste notti på ei stund i går, hjå Odin og lyden hans. Dei var koselege, og eg fekk mat og greidor. Eg fekk au mest granska målføret hennar Unni, mor hans Odin. Eg lyt nemna nokre sermerke;

• kløyvd nemneform
• i-mål
• ø-ljod på mange stader der norrønt hev stutt å-ljod (o med kvist)
• u-ljod der me skriv u; t. d. um, upp
• i-ending i bunde inkjekyn mangtal
• ganga-gjeng, standa-stend <3

Rett og slett eit herleg målføre! <3

 The cover alone literally blares "SUPER-CRIP!" It shows a one armed Superman in a business suit and a cheesy smile, hanging in midair and apparently supporting his entire weight on his fingertips, which are resting on a keyboard. If that posture isn't asking for RSI, I don't know what is.*grin*

 See, the thing is, I know she means well. But from the tone of her book, she gave the impression of being very insecure about her disability. (90% of the time, when she mentions the word "normal," it is ALL IN CAPS. The word "overcome" appears very prominently.) Because of a flawed Internet survey and one note from one reader, she assumes that every person who tries a one-handed keyboard has it locked up in a closet or some other dungeon like place to collect dust. What I can't wrap my head around is that she admits that one hand QWERTY is harder on the hand, but she's willing to sacrifice her health to appear so NORMAL, or prove she's better or faster than two-handed people.

"Yes," she seems to be saying, "for only $50 you can learn a system that's harder on the hand, but maybe then you, too, will end up in a Chicken Soup book!" She views one-handed Dvorak as totally detrimental for a one handed person, simply because it takes 30 seconds to switch over. She says, and I quote, "Dvorak is faster, and easier on the hand, but not necessarily smarter, because you will not find it in the workplace." Hello? It's in every single computer. If it's faster and easier on the hand, I would take it any day-- even if it wasn't faster. I'll take easy on the hand. We don't have the luxury of misusing our remaining hand. QWERTY was designed for two-handed people, and even they have a problem with it. I guarantee you, it was 10 times worse for this one handed person.

If you absolutely have to use a flat keyboard, try to get a compact one, with decent switches, and by all means set it to Dvorak. An ergonomic one-handed keyboard is the ideal, but it's not always possible. Get one if you can, but if you can't, a small flat keyboard with mechanical switches and a one-handed Dvorak layout is the key.

Reviewed by Leon Muston, Arts Editor

THE Cape Philharmonic Orchestra showed its class last night at an outstanding, but surprisingly not sold-out concert at the Guy Butler Theatre.

The programme included a number of pieces which have become such a part of popular culture that even non-classical music enthusiasts would be familiar with them. These included Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers and Strauss's Fledermaus Overture.

Verdi's Tacea la Notte Placida and Massenet's Meditation were also among the highlights.

When I realised my seat was right at the front of the auditorium, right next to the double basses, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get the full orchestral experience, but the great acoustics in the venue and the ability of the musicians ensured that I could hear every instrument.

Slovakian-born conductor Peter Valentovic was a consumate professional, but not as charismatic as some of the conductors we regularly see in the Eastern Cape like Peter Louis van Dijk or Richard Cock.

Soloist soprano Zanne Stapelberg, who last week had wowed the audience at the African Celebration concert, was completely in her element, demonstrating excellent vocal range and control as she sang works ranging from Mozart's Porgi Amor to Dvorak's Slavonic Dance #10 and Puccini's Chi il Bel Sogno.

Every time she took to the stage she thrilled the audience and it was not surprising  they persuaded the orchestra and Stapelberg to return for an encore.

For those who missed it yesterday, the Cape Philharmonic and Stapelberg will also be playing today at 3.30pm, in the Festival Gala Concert, which will be conducted by Richard Cock and will feature guest soloist Shannon Mowday on saxophone.

Qui ne proponiamo una versione con sottotitoli in inglese, divisa in dieci parti per una durata complessiva di circa un'ora.
Buona visione.

2ª parte,                                          3ª parte,                                     4ª parte,

5ª parte,                                          6ª parte,                                     7ª parte,

8ª parte,                                          9ª parte,                                     10ª parte.

Vi faccio notare che il nostro redazionista d'assalto ha ripreso a pubblicare le sue notizie...e io stamattina mi sento inspiegabilmente meglio!

The biggest problem is that Leo is confusing two separate issues:

1. how much you pay for your Internet access, and
2. do you pay based on how much you use.

These are not the same thing!  Does Leo really think that unlimited Internet usage will stay the same price forever?  If the ISPs want to make more money, they just all put their prices up - they don't need to muck about with changing how they charge people (which is much more work on their end).

I agree with Dvorak's 8 reasons - but it really just comes down to #3 and #4.  I should pay more than my parents do, because I'm using more.

The comparison to water is nice, but very flawed in that there isn't a lot more that you can do with water.  If I had "all you can drink" water for a single price, would I use more?  Well, maybe a little - I guess people might have baths more than showers, and maybe pool usage would increase.  People might waste less, although I doubt people that avoid wasting water now are really doing it to save a few dollars.  Compare that to unlimited Internet access - there's really no limit in sight as software gets larger, services move to the 'cloud', and audio and especially video online takes over from offline sources.

In the modern economy, are there any resources that are provided (other than those that nature provides) that are not metered?  Over-the-air radio and TV aren't, but there's no consumption, either - no matter how many TVs I have receiving an over-the-air signal, the ability of my neighbour to receive the same signal is not effected.  In NZ, local phone calls are unlimited, but that's enforced for by the government, and from what I understand there's little effect on my neighbour if I use the phone more (and again, there just isn't room for much more use - there's a strict 1440 minute limit per day per phone).

Electricity would perhaps be a better example - there's an unlimited supply, and much closer to unlimited demand.  (The unlimited supply comes from a willingness to spend money on nuclear/solar/hydro/wind/etc generators, but unlimited Internet access supply comes from spending money on fibre/cables/satellites/etc too).  Is anyone arguing that electricity should be 'all you can eat'?

Actually, my bandwidth is metered (from TelstraClear) - I'm not sure if there are any other ISPs in New Zealand that offer this.  I pay a base rate (covering overheads) and then a fixed price per 10GB.  There's no limit to how many GB I can use, but I pay for each.  There are problems here:

1. it's not granular enough - it should be 1GB (you can meter in 1GB blocks, but the per-GB price is higher), and
2. the price is really too high compared to elsewhere in the world.

If those problems were fixed, however, I would still have no problem with metered pricing.

Leo tried to argue that there's no cost to bits.  While Dvorak argued this, I don't think it came across just how wrong Leo is.  It doesn't matter how much peering goes on, somebody eventually has to pay for creating and maintaining the 'pipes' that the bits are moved through.  Those pipes have a fixed capacity, which means that there's limited supply.  If there's limited supply and limited demand, then the only fair solution is to charge based on the amount that is used.

I'm sure that the a chunk of the motivation on the ISP's part is to be able to make more money - but they are aiming to make more money by being more fair.  My argument is that the prices are going to rise anyway, so wouldn't it be better to have things fair now?

Leo is concerned about the viability of services like TWiT Live and Revision3, since if people are paying for bandwidth they will be less likely to use it on Internet video (when over-the-air TV is still free).  I don't see that as an argument against metered bandwidth, though, but as an argument for lower pricing.  Are people reluctant to turn on the tap to get a drink because that will increase their water bill?  When do you ever hear "Sorry, honey, we can't watch Lost tonight because the TV will use up extra electricity"?  That's because the per-unit cost of water and electricity is low enough that people don't care about using a bit more.

Note that you do get people reducing waste water/electricity.  If you're not using a tap, you turn it off.  Electronic devices have power-saving features (some people even turn their microwaves off when they aren't using them, and so on).  But that would be good for the Internet!  What possible benefit is there from me leaving TWiT Live streaming on my computer when I'm not even there?  Does Leo really want to pay (or have sponsors pay) the bandwidth for that sort of wastage?  (This is Dvorak's reason #8, which seems dubious until you think it through).

What Leo (et al) are arguing is that everyone (or perhaps everyone outside of business) should pay the same price for Internet access, no matter how much they use.  I simply can't agree with that.

Well, after some searching around I discovered that for Solaris X11, need to use xmodmap₍₁₎. The xmodmap key maps for Solaris are located in /usr/share/xmodmap so you can switch between Dvorak and QWERTY thus:

• xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.dvorak
• xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.us

Making a pair of shell aliases for these verbose commands would be handy too:

alias asdf "xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.dvorak"
alias aoeu "xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.us"

with these, just type the first four keys of the home row and press enter to flip to the other layout. Xmodmap only affects X11 (global for all running and new X clients).

Por razões semelhantes ao teclado Dvorak, que propõe uma nova disposição das teclas para "facilitar" a digitação, os formatos alternativos de música digital continuam a enfrentar uma batalha árdua contra o estabelecido MP3.

O Motion Pictures Experts Group, conhecido como MPEG, se reunirá esta semana na Alemanha para considerar um novo formato digital de áudio chamado MT9, que poderia ser adotado como padrão internacional.

Desenvolvido pelo grupo sul-coreano Audizen, o formato MT9, conhecido comercialmente como Music 2.0, divide um arquivo de áudio em seis canais, como vocais, guitarras, e assim por diante. Os usuários que estiverem ouvindo a faixa poderão alterar o volume dos diferentes canais, como um produtor durante a mixagem, a ponto de poderem isolar cada item.

De acordo com o jornal Korea Times, os inventores dizem que o novo formato substituirá o MP3 como padrão geral da música digital. Mas certas realidades do setor de música continuam a representar obstáculos ao novo padrão.

Da perspectiva técnica, substituir o MP3 por um novo padrão de música digital seria bastante fácil. Os comerciantes de arquivos digitalizados poderiam, em apenas alguns meses, atualizar todos os seus bancos de dados musicais sob o novo formato, da mesma forma como o Napster e a Wal-Mart rapidamente substituíram seus arquivos protegidos contra cópias (DRM) por formatos não protegidos.

Mas para fazê-lo eles teriam de convencer as gravadoras a lhes fornecer música codificada no novo formato, o que significaria que todas as grandes gravadoras e muitas das independentes precisariam, um dia, aceitar a adoção de uma nova tecnologia para vender sua música.

Os fabricantes de players de áudio, em especial a Apple, também teriam de começar a fazer produtos que aceitassem o novo formato. Um player de MP3 hoje dura, em média, de oito a 12 meses, de modo que substituir todos os aparelhos do mercado demoraria algum tempo.

Implementar um novo formato de música digital iria exigir uma cooperação sem precedentes entre gravadoras, varejo de conteúdo digital e fabricantes.

Fonte: G1

Last week, John Dvorak, columnist for PC Magazine, wrote an article for Fox News titled The Internet is Making Us Dumber, in which he lamented the decline of major newspapers, magazines, and TV news. He believes that by turning away from the traditional mass media outlets, we have lost an important perspective, which he describes as "generalized or common knowledge." In other words, because we can select from a much wider range of outlets for information on the Internet, we're no longer on the same page when we meet at the watercooler to discuss current events.

Here's one of the more entertaining nuggets from the piece, where he describes the current state of the public as it spends more time consuming news on the web:

Meanwhile, the public continues to read about what they already know. And they hang out only with like-minded people. There are huge cadres of people who are practically duplicates of each other. They all think alike, dress alike, and go to the same group-approved places. With the slow death of newspapers, this beehive-like behavior is only going to get worse."

Let me get this straight: with the ability to choose where and how we get our news via the Internet, we're becoming clones, and only when we return the days of a handful of newspapers and TV news outlets will we recapture a "worldly" perspective? I fail to see how limiting our access to choice helps to avoid conformity and groupthink.

Of course, this isn't the first time Dvorak has been ridiculously off-base, such as the time he predicted the iphone would be passé within three months of its release. It’s just strange to hear this from a tech journalist who is obviously no luddite. Who knows, perhaps he's simply found a niche as the contrarian old codger. But then again, maybe I'm missing something here. Have we lost something special by moving away from the collective conversations we once had with only three major news anchors and the one major local paper? Were we really smarter then?

We had signed up for a group dinner and a night at the opera; there are neither Marx Brothers nor Marxists left in Prague. Back on the bus through heavy traffic for dinner at the Opera Restaurant, and then a few steps to the Prague State Opera House for a performance of Bizet’s Carmen. The sets were dramatic and ingenious, and the orchestra and company seemed, to my untrained ear, more than up to the task. There were three of us seated in a box for six, all quite upscale in an old worldly way. Unfortunately during the Habanera, I suffered a violent leg cramp and began knocking over empty chairs in my efforts to escape the pain in my calf.

The first morning in Prague, like the first mornings in each of the cities on our trip, was given over to a guided tour, which we did the first day in each city, a good way for first-time visitors to get bearings in a strange town. Prague Castle, another contribution to my sense of architectural overload, is the center of government and is protected by unsmiling, but unserious-looking Czech soldiers in baby blue, comic opera uniforms.

The Czech Republic is like a divorcee recently freed from an unsatisfactory, loveless marriage. In 1919, with the collapse of the Hapsburg empire, the Czechs and the adjacent Slovaks were cobbled together for two decades until the Nazis grabbed the Czech Sudetenland, then took Moravia and Bohemia, leaving the Slovaks to fend for themselves. Humpty-Dumpty was put back together after the Second World War. The Communists stood over it until 1989, after which the Czechs and the Slovaks, who believe themselves to be two very differing peoples, went their separate ways.

Prague is one of the few major cities in the region to have escaped damage in the wars of the twentieth-century. Much of the medieval character of the town has survived intact. The walk from the Castle area on the west side of the Vltava (Moldau) River that separates the city is steeply downhill through cobbled streets with views of the red-tiled roofs of the old town and of the Gothic towers of the Charles Bridge that connects the two sides of the city. It is a lovely walk on a sunny Spring morning.

Mentioning the Moldau River, brings up the unavoidable. In the Czech Republic, no matter when or where a tour bus stops, or a plane of Czech Airlines prepares to take off or land, the PA system breaks into Smetana’s “The Moldau.” Fortunately the selection last but a few minutes. I found the public absence of Dvorak’s music puzzling and suspected he was a Slovak, but no, he too was Czech.

Our local tour guide and I talked hockey. He grew up in the same village with New York Ranger Captain and superstar, Jaromir Jagr. The guide was quick to point out that although Czecho-Slovaks comprise over ten percent of the U.S. National Hockey League, there were no Czechs on either of the two teams that competed for the 2007 Stanley Cup. No being Czech, that nugget had escaped my notice.

We struggled our way across the Charles Bridge jammed with tourists and vendors until we got to the Old Town Square, also mobbed, and this during the off-season. Another fine lunch with more Pilsner beer was followed by a tour of the old Jewish Quarter. A guy in our group, himself Jewish, noted the presence of a Chinese restaurant, the defining sign, he said, of all Jewish neighborhoods. One of the synagogues has been turned into a sobering memorial listing the names and municipal origins of the 60,000 Czech Jews murdered by the Nazis. So much of what once made the cities we visited culturally and socially fascinating has been lost; the Vienna of Freud, the Prague of Kafka. The historian, Fritz Stern, himself an assimilated German Jew from Breslau and a third generation Lutheran, noted that the perverse genius of Nazis ideology lay in defining Jewishness in racial rather than religious terms.

We had been told by many to save our shopping for Prague. My wife, a world class shopper, demurred. Other than outrageously priced, high-end baubles, the stuff offered in Prague, as in each of the cities we visited was not unique, and most of what is directed at tourists is, as everywhere, kitsch. The global economy now assures that the vendors in Prague or Berlin offer much of the same Chinese-manufactured crap that has come to dominate retailing in the States. We stumbled upon very good small restaurants and cafes away from the main tourist areas. And compared to Vienna, and to what we were to find in Berlin, the Prague prices were reasonable.

Prague, like most European cities, and maybe more so, is a walking city. We put in some marathon walking days, and wondered how our fellow seniors, those with physical problems could stand the rigors of these kinds of tours. Changing planes in hub airports quite often required treks through seemingly endless terminals.

Our final day in Prague was given over almost entirely to shopping. We got ourselves to the famed St.Wenceslas Square, a broad commercial avenue that in too many places was shabby, dirty and shopworn. Again as in Budapest, the residual effects of four decades of forced collectivism, may have frayed the civic sense of the Czechs, though not quite as badly as what we saw in Hungary.

On a perfectly dreary, wet Sunday morning, we left Prague for Berlin with a scheduled stop in Terezin, the site of Theresienstadt, the Potemkin Village concentration camp used by the Nazis to hoodwink the Red Cross and other conscience organizations into believing that interned Jews were being humanely treated. I opted out of the tour believing that I am already over-haunted by what happened, and fearfully suspicious that something like it, in some new way with new victims, could happen all over again.

Then, as the Red Army of 1945 would have put it, on to Berlin!

This place is a castle from the 10th Century. While Prague Castle is great and all and St. Vitus' is magnificently decorated and gilded with more gold than you can imagine, Vyšehrad is one of those old castles you picture in your mind's eye when you're listening to a fairytale. It's a ruin. There's actually no castle left, or if there is... I missed it. haha. There's an old wall and a church and cemetery (the one Dvorak is burried in) and all this is surrounded by a gorgeous park. If you want to know more about this history of Vyšehrad, I suggest you visit this site.

Funny story. The first time I went to Vyšehrad was with the big group of teachers. Several of us wondered away from the group and were just enjoying the view and our walk when the ground, literally, started to shake. When we turned around we were met with a stampede of joggers in some kind of race. They were wearing numbers and in this big group. We quickly moved out of there way, lest we be trampled. About two full minutes after this crowd passed us by, a straggler ran by us sporting a number of his own. We'd only been there a couple of weeks when this happened, so we knew practically NO Czech, but that didn't stop my friend Andy from screaming out the closest thing to an encouraging remark he new: "CESTOVAT!" Most of you don't know what that means, so it's not funny to you. But it was funny to us. "Cestovat" is the infinitive of the verb "travel". Andy literally yelled out "TO TRAVEL" to this poor jogger who was trying to catch up to his group. haha.

I recommend Vyšehrad to anybody who's taking a short trip into Prague. You'll spend hours shopping and taking in the sites in Wenceslas and Old Town Squares, but definitely make time in your schedule for this place. It's a great location for a picnic lunch or just to sit on the grass and relax

Here's a video I took of the view from the hill Vyšehrad is on. I know, gorgeous, right? Oh, and the guy in the video with me Andy, who I mentioned earlier in this post. Just FYI. :)

Day One: Old Town Square

• Start your day off right with a stop at Bohemia Bagel . There's one right off of Old Town Square. For directions either ask a local or go read my blog dedicated to Bohemia Bagel here.
• After you're fed, spend some time in the square. Get to the Astronomical Clock at some point, just so you can say you've seen it. Don't bother hoping on one of those touristy horse-drawn carriages. See it all the old fashioned way. It's better, trust me.
• Turn around and look at Tyn Church. It looks kind of like Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland, right?
• If it's around a holiday like Christmas or Easter, there's probably a festival in the square. Pick up some Trdlo at one of the stands. Yum!
• Take a look inside St. Nicholas Church. You have to pay, but it's worth it if you like old churches or architecture or anything like that.
• Wonder the alleys, but DON'T stop at the KFC you'll see right off the square. Resist the temptation to eat American food!!! haha.
• Take a gander at Jan Hus for a few minutes. You know all about him after reading my post on him, I'm sure. ;)
• Once you've taken in all there is to see in Old Town Square, wonder towards Charles Bridge.
• On your way you'll see the Rudolfinum. Pretty nifty, huh? Unless you're a big classical music fan I wouldn't recommend making a stop. You've got lots to see! But if you ARE a classical music fan, there are always concerts going on in Prague. Find tickets and enjoy a night out. :)
• Once you're on the bridge, shop. This stuff is cheap and you won't find it in most other places in Prague. A lot of it is handmade.
• You're probably hungry and there are LOTS of places to eat around here. Find one with a patio if you can (and if the weather permits) and just drink it in.
• If you're in Prague during the summer and you have the time, I highly recommend paddle boating in the Vltava. SO fun.
• Don't try to fit the castle district (on the other end of the bridge) into your schedule today. Save your energy.

Day Two: Prague Castle

• If you have it in you, take a walk to the castle. If not, metro/tram it up there. There's no shame. Public transportation is amazing! :)
• There's not much play-by-play that I can give you for this. Make sure you see the castle compound and DO go into St. Vitus'.
• Climb the tower if it's a clear day. It's a hike, but it's beautiful.
• Walk down the stairs from the castle. More vendors, more shopping!
• Go into the Wallerstein Gardens while you're in the neighborhood. Pretty and so fun!
• Eat more good Czech food!!! :)

Day Three: Miscellaneous

• Wenceslas Square. Get the last of that shopping bug taken care of. This is modern Prague at its finest.
• Vysehrad. Do it. Go there. Drink it in. Bring a blanket and enjoy! (read about it in tomorrow's post)
• While you're up there, take a gander at the cemetery and see if you can find Dvorak.
• Just take it slow today, you're leaving soon and it's your last day to enjoy this wonderful city.
• Fit in the stuff you saw along the way, but didn't get a chance to stop at. Maybe it was a restaurant that got passed by or a museum you think you'd enjoy.
• Choose: National Museum (in Wencelsas Square), Jewish Quarter, Museum of Communism (kind of cool, actually). Do something you think you'd enjoy.
• Wander. If you've got the time, I fully condone getting lost in this city. You'll find your way home and you'll love every minute of your adventure until you do.

If you're not planning a trip to Prague right now, do so soon. And do it before the Euro takes over it 2010! :)

I think we did superbly on this particular evening. Everything went pretty smoothly, especially having the camera there, as well as teachers and students that we had met in the last few days. We didn't quite have our usual dinner as we left for this concert, but there was some nice things in store for us!

This is what I had been waiting for all week... a Brazilian-style pizzeria! The place was Hippo Pizza, and I don't remember what we ordered, but it was a mix of cheese, chicken, artichoke, ham,... whole mess of stuff you normally wouldn't find in the states. Dee-lish.

The important thing is, we had dessert pizza. It was between chocolate pizza and and a hot, banana-cinammon and mozarella pizza. The banana pizza is just... incomparable (see photo above)!

Following dinner, we were told by some of the locals (and Ingrid) that pizzerias in Brazil aren't just... well... pizzas like they are at home. It's definitely a gourmet setting, for occasions, a tad dressy even. Think California PIzza Kitchen but a titch nicer still. There ya go.

They also say there are three important things during any meal at a place like this. The pizza. The futebol match. The beer. Gourmet pizza and a cold Chopp definitely goes down well.

The next day was somewhat... not normal. Not bad, just unexpected. I think we were asked to go play at a corporate event. 50th anniversary of the area's first diary-product factory, or something. Company name: Calu. I think I saw a slogan like "Calu, for you!" Anyway, when your day starts out by seeing a motorcyclist with an exhaust pipe for who-knows-what and everyone in the car has to take a picture, then something's up.

The event turned out to be quite alright with some fantastic dessert afterwards. We also got door prizes, you know, mugs and pencil sets. Great swag. We played the whole Dvorak in a warehouse-turned-party-room with fans fluttering and people muttering quite a bit, but they loved it at the end! It's these little things that make performing it fun. The little mixer afterwards was fun, but awkward at times. (See photo below of bewildered Karen. I give it five stars.)

We finished the evening by going to one of the state universities to pick up an instrument. Walking into the recital hall, we heard a chamber orchestra playing Vivaldi, and couldn't help but creep in! We peeked into the hall only find a nice welcome from some of the new friends we had made and a teacher who let us borrow a violin in the days prior.

I found it rather fun listening to another group perform after quite a while. Of the players, we saw Raphael and Isaac, a couple cellists we had seen at an earlier master class and evening performance, we met a few more violinist and violists who had mentioned they'd play for us the next day. People have been wonderfully welcoming and warm to us, perhaps our playing? Where we're from? Anyway, they're great.

I've been test-driving Colemak for a month or so on my laptop, (I still have to use QWERTY on my desktop.) and it's not that bad.

Even though I have to look down on the keyboard a bit more now, it does seem more comfortable to have more commonly-used letters on the home row while, at the same time, not forcing you to relearn everything like what happened to me with trying to learn Dvorak a year or two ago.

I still use that backspace key a lot. I think it's so ingrained in me my relationship with the caps lock key being just that, that I'm not used to it.

I would like to see that delete key move closer, as well, but I suppose you would have to move the arrow keys closer, as well, which is not likely.

Joining the regulars, this time Leo (of course) and Dvorak (.org/blog…) was the able hands of Denise Howell of This Week in Law fame; and a special guest: Brewster Kahle. Who is he? He's none other than the guy behind archive.org and as such one of the first persons with foresight enough to realise that not all things are printed anymore, and what that will mean for the possibilities of future research.

Anyway, this time around the round table concerned among other things the FBI screwing up in their dealings with archive.org; dealings it's very doubtful if they should have commenced with to begin with. But the really tasty bit was the scanning and distribution of printed works over the Internet. Archive.org have in conjunction with such big shots as Microsoft and Yahoo! scanned thousands of books and published them for free on the Internet. Now, recently MS and the big Y decided to pull out, but the project will go on as a public service instead. (Nothing but kudos to MS and Y in spite, they poured millions into a project that they from a business perspective shouldn't have undertaken in the first place.)

And this is where it starts to get interesting for the rest of us. Where are the European initiatives to something of this kind? We, collectively, own some of the finest historical collections in the world in everything from books and manuscripts to records and art. Why is this not on archive.org or similar services? Why, since a lot of our stuff is owned and produced by the public, can't the public get at it in a user friendly and informative way? Mind you, the few euro efforts you sometimes find often have a very tangy googlesk feel to them, meaning ugly and not very useful. (As we all know, Google Books is nothing short of a cruel joke on humanity.) But just think of the possibilities, the combined history of Europe (this is from a Euro perspective, but obviously other parts of the world would benefit from the same thing) all tagged and searchable on the Internet. It's a wet dream for me as a historian.

Of course you already can get a lot of stuff via, for instance, archive.org and the fairly new project Open Library, but there is one snag: what's on there is predominantly in English. As a Scandinavian I might find that of little or no use depending on what I am looking for. So, to concentrate on my neck of the woods, I urge the governments of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland to digitise books in the same general fashion as archive.org. Preferably add it to archive.org for free while you're at it! It is a shame that we, as some of the most technological nations in the world, seem to have completely abandon our history just because it's not in MS Word format. This needs to stop now! Our children, nay the world, deserves it. Otherwise, we will get a truly horrible generation; and we will thoroughly deserve…

For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives. - Amy Lowell

Thobias

P.s. To show what can be done with these scans, I want to ask you to have a look at this Cinderella, or this edition of Alice in Wonderland. Both are with archive.org, but the latter found via Open Library. They are beautiful and nothing short of fantastic!