Clipboard Tool

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I created my first Open Source project – Clipboard Tool. Finally, I gave something to the world myself – hopefully it will turn out to be useful ;). The main page is in Bulgarian right now, but I hope to be able to translate it soon. Briefly, this is a tool to convert Cyrillic into Latin letters, process known as transliteration, into the clipboard itself. Additionally, it provides a function to remove formatting from the text you copied into the clipboard.

I host the project on Sourceforge, which provides useful instruments for that purpose, including both CVS and SVN, shell access (SSH, SCP, SFTP). You can use a sub-domain for the project web page – .sourceforge.net. There are also software release management system (upload is a bit strange, through an anonymous FTP), statistics, etc.

I also configured a MediaWiki page for the project which is not available in English yet – http://clipboard-tool.sourceforge.net. MediaWiki installation on Sourceforge is not a trivial task, however. Keep in mind that Sourceforge hosting provides only PHP 4 at your disposal – PHP 5 is not supported. That is why you should use MediaWiki version 1.6.10, next releases require PHP 5. There are additional restrictions for directory access, which makes the installation even more difficult. There are two very useful sites, which will help you install and configure your wiki:

That’s it – stop wandering around and get to work ;)

Increased Relative Value

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Let’s say you gave a close friend of yours a treat, and it cost you 10 $. Now let’s assume that you earn 1000 $ a month, and your friend 500 $. Here is how I interpret it – you spent 1 % of your monthly income, and your friend received a value of 2 % of his/her monthly income. I call this the Law of Increased Relative Value – you automatically get increase (two times in this particular case) of the value of the money you spent. And you don’t have to put too much effort into it.

Movies, Part I

There are a few movies, which are not very popular, but I like a lot. I hope you will enjoy them, too.

Rozencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Knowing the story of “Hamlet” is not required, but it helps to some extend. The movie tells the story of the two friends of Hamlet – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who are slightly mentioned in the original story. Young Tim Roth and Gary Oldman show an excellent performance, but one of the greater presences in the movie belongs to Richard Dreyfuss, in my opinion. Although silly and funny at first sight, the characters make you ponder long after the movie’s over. This I like the most in such stories.

Big Kahuna

The Big Kahuna

Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey are playing merchandisers from an American motor oil company in show like a Television theater. The best line belongs to Danny DeVito in this case:

… you’ve already done a plenty of things to regret, you just don’t know what they are.

Glengarry Glen Ross

Glengarry Glen Ross

A constellation of great actors – Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, in another Television theater worth remembering. The story takes place in the office of a real-estate company most of the time, where brokers try to make their living.

To me, this movie is very indicative for the way of life in the States, where (not having a direct connection with this particular script) if you kill a man, you might get away with it, but if you hide your taxes, you are not likely to.

Big Trouble

Big Trouble

I came across this film accidentally and I liked it a lot. If you want to see a relaxing and very funny movie, I warmly recommend “Big Trouble”.

Not very impressing, but successful cast – Tim Allen and Rene Russo are leading the show, Dennis Farina and Tom Sizemore shine in their supporting roles.

SURVA

I don’t know if you knew it, but my home town of Pernik is a member of the European Federation of Carnival Cities. The Festival of Masquerade Games in Pernik even has an official site. The festival is being held each year, but it has international presence only on even years – on odd years only local ensembles participate. Here are a few pictures from the festival this year, which was held on January 26 and 27:

Divide Et Impera

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

Recently, thanks to a colleague of mine, I came across an interview of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, together. You can find it in 10 parts in YouTube. What struck me most is how can such a charismatic and obviously intelligent person as Steve Jobs, to let himself be fooled around by such a dull and simple man as Bill Gates. Here’s what I have in mind: