And Another Thing...

... this is also one of the things that kept me busy lately.


I was a bit skeptical when bought this book. I was afraid that it would be just a cheap imitation of the previous books by Douglas Adams.
I have to admit that I was very surprised when I finished it. In a positive way! While it is clearly not a book from Douglas Adams it fits in the Hitchhiker series quiet nicely!

This book is a must-have for all the Hitchhiker fans around the world who still refuse to accept that Douglas is dead.

What's keeping me busy

Yes, I am still alive and yes, I am back from Sweden (unfortunately). I know I haven't updated this blog for some time but ... <insert lame excuse here>

I've started experimenting with Python. Here's a screenshot of my new project:


It's a remote GUI for MPRIS-compatible media players (Amarok, VLC, Songbird, Dragonplayer and some others).

It uses WebKit as rendering engine and it will be fully skinnable with HTML/JavaScript.

Offline Javadoc for SWT

SWT is currently my favorite Java GUI library. It uses GTK2 as its native backend, is pretty stable and has a (rather) nice API.

It is part of the Eclipse Project. Unfortunately that means (as with all other Eclipse parts) that the documentation is not really accessible. If you need the Javadocs you have two possibilities:

1) Use the online version. There are two problem with this: a) you need an internet connection all the time and b) the Javadoc is embedded in a useless Eclipse Help frameset that eats up most of the screen making no space left for the actual content of the Javadoc:


2) Use the Eclipse help - this is basicly same as 1) but shown in an internal Eclipse browser. Plus you must install the right Eclipse components.

Sometimes you just want the Javadocs stored on you computer and browse them offline in your favorite browser. Most libraries (e.g. all Apache Foundation projects) simply offer a ZIP archive containing the documentation for offline usage. In case of SWT you have to generate them yourself. It takes only few moments if you follow this guide:

1) Download the desired version of SWT (whatever architecture you need - the Java part is same for everyone).
2) Extract the package. Besides the swt.jar and swt-debug.jar you will find the src.zip which contains the source code of the SWT library. Exctract it somewhere.
3) In the source code directory execute:
javadoc -d <your-target-dir> -sourcepath . -subpackages org.eclipse.swt -exclude org.eclipse.swt.internal

And voila - you have your offline Javadoc for SWT.

I've made a new panorama after a long long time:

This one is from Abisko Canyon in Lapland in the north of Sweden.

Ice climbing in Abisko

We returned from our trip to north of Sweden almost a week ago but there are still a few things worth writing about.


One of the fun activities we did in Abisko was ice climbing. Our climbing instructor Klaus explained us everything and after putting on all necessary equipment we were ready to go.


We climbed on a frozen waterfall in a canyon in the Abisko national park. The scenery was really amazing. I have some photographic material for making a 360 degree panorama which I will hopefully publish soon.


Climbing on ice not very difficult. Some of us didn't have any prior climbing experience (indoor or outdoor) but that was not really a problem. According to our instructor we did quiet well for tourists/beginners.


I was huge fun although pretty exhausting. It was getting dark very soon (around 2pm) so had to climb with headlamps at the end.

You can find some more photos at nuolja.se. Thanks Benny!

Aurora borealis

One of the things that we really wanted to see in Lapland was Aurora borealis. Fortunately we were lucky and saw the beautiful green lights on our first evening after arriving in Abisko.


Whether you can see the aurora borealis or not depends on several factors. First of all you have to be pretty up north (or south) - preferably behind the polar circle. In Europe this means that you have to go to north of Sweden, Norway or Finland. You can also see the lights on southern parts of Sweden (such as Stockholm) but this is very rare.


Second you need a clear sky because the lights originate from upper atmosphere (about 80km above ground) and clouds can cover it completely thus spoil the beautiful show. This is usually not a problem in Abisko because this is the place with least clouds in Sweden.


And of course you need the right solar activity. This depends on the current state of the sun (its 12 year cycle) and also the part of the year (the angle between the earth magnetic poles and the solar winds).


We did not choose the perfect timing for our trip. September/October or March/April would be probably much better. But still it was really amazing and beautiful! For someone from central Europe this is a once in a lifetime experience.

Train from Abisko to Narvik

Today we took the train from Abisko to Narvik. This is one of the most beautiful railways in the world. Unfortunately our train was running more than an hour too late which made taking photos difficult because it was getting dark (not that we had any direct daylight here ;)).

First the railway goes along the south cost of the Tometräsk lake.


Towards the Norwegian border the mountains become higher and there was more snow.




I think this photo is already in Norway. There is no visible border and there are no passport controls (Norway signed the Schengen treaty although no EU member).


This valley is actually the beginning of a fjord.



One of many fjords in Norway:




Almost in Narvik: