QOTD

I live a life that’s sheltered, I’m constantly alone;
They’re pointing out my weakness, there’s an emptiness at home…
I need to find the reason to live this way –
I’m running out of patience and […]

(Linkin Park — My Reason — cover)

Quotes from “Cat’s Cradle”

All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.

For this and other gems of Bokononism, read Kurt Vonnegut’s book. It’s a pretty amazing science fiction novel with original ideas about life and religion. No damn cat, and no damn cradle!

Here are just some of the interesting quotations. I should have paid more attention

• Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either.
• There is enough love in this world for everybody, if people will just look.
• Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.
• Maturity […] is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.
• It is not possible to make a mistake.
• Science is magic that works.
• It is never a mistake to say goodbye.
• A lover’s a liar,
  To himself he lies.
  The truthful are loveless,
  Like oysters their eyes!
• Don’t be afraid of straining your brains. They won’t break.
• History! Read it and weep!
• Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.

Added later:

• Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.

See here for more quotes.

Konvert2Ogg 0.2 is here

Finally,

after a complete redesign,

and a complete code rewrite,

released under a full moon,

feature-complete and usable,

[drum roll],

[fireworks],

Konvert2Ogg 0.2 is here.

(updated) Home page
SourceForge.net project page
KDE-Apps.org page

I am especially thrilled about what I’ve learned while developing this project:

• How to implement a factory in C++, so that when I want to add a new class, I don’t need to add references to it all over the place.
• As a bonus, make that factory a singleton ;)
• Lots of things about Qt, KDE, and even svn, XHTML and CSS, that I could only learn hands-on. (too many to list)
• I even fixed some bugs / made some improvements to kdelibs while working on K2O!
• Probably a bunch of other stuff I am forgetting right now.

Although the program now works and does what I want, this is no way the end of the journey. There are many more cool things in the can :D

Cerc Închis

Vuia în jurul meu cerul de noapte
Când din octava lui m-am prăbuşit.
Pupile largi mi-au amintit că am pleoape,
Şi-n adăpostul lor n-am mai simţit nimic.

Trecut-au zile-ntregi, sau poate clipe,
Stele-au căzut, sau alte noi au răsărit;
Cu ace în plămâni, cu mâinile rănite,
Cu faţa-n glod, dar totuşi m-am trezit.

De furii negre prins, am blestemat
Toţi neuronii care mă dureau,
Şi-n roşie ruşine, aprig am jurat
Că nici în opt vieţi aripi nu mai vreau.

Să-l văd încă o dată nu puteam,
Înaltul cel din care am căzut.
Ca să îl uit, numai în jos priveam,
Dar în băltoace, cerul l-am văzut.

1283 (short story)

When I woke up that morning, I was the luckiest man alive.