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:

Dog sledge tour

When we were in Abisko we decided to make a dog sledge tour.


Each one of us got a sledge and four dogs. They really enjoy the running. The dogs know where to go and you only have steer the sledge and make sure you stay on the path.


The tour was only a few kilometers but it was very exhausting. We were riding on a small path in the forest. There were some downhill parts where you have to break the sledge and some uphill parts where you have push the sledge because four dogs are not enough to pull the sledge and one person up the hill. There were also few narrow bridges over brooks - some with railings and some without.


It was really fun. None of us had any serious crashes although there were few exiting and maybe also a bit dangerous moments. But the adrenalin is part of the fun.


Also none of us was bitten or attacked by the dogs. Although they are not kept as house pets they were very nice. In fact this is a great therapy if you are afraid of dogs.

X2000

For the part of our journey from Altvesta to Stockholm we used the swedish high speed train X2000. The distance between these two cities is 410km and the train covers it in 3 hours and 5 minutes. That means an average speed of 130kph, something which swedish car drivers can only dream of.

The swedish railway company SJ offers some nice services on board of the X2000 such as a restaurant car and electric plugs for notebooks. But one particuar service which I really like is the wireless network on board. Each car is equiped with an access point that can be used to access the train internet portal. It offers information about the timetables, current position of the train on the map and the possibility to book additional train tickets, a hotel or rent a car at the train destination.

Map showing the current position of the train

The wireless network can be also used to access the internet. This services is free in the first class and can be purchased as an additional extra when traveling with the second class. The internet connection is established through various technologies (GSM, UMTS, satellite) and the train router always chooses the fastest available connection.

Our X2000 after its arrival in Stockholm

Journey to Lapland

Sweden is part of the Skandinavian penisula. (Un)forunately Växjö lies in the very south of Sweden. Because of this the winter hasn't arrived in Växjö yet. It is raining all the time which is quiet disappointing.
It would be a shame to make Erasmus in Sweden without experiencing the real north. Therfor me and few friends decided to make a one week trip to Lapland. Our journey takes us up north behind the polar circle.

Original map by Boris Chomenko

First we traveled to Abisko - the train ride took over 23 hours (1920km). This wasn't as bad as it might sound. We spent the longest part of the journey in a night train. It was very comfortable (at least for those of us who booked a bed instead of normal seat). Abisko is a national park near the norwegian border. We hoped to see some northern lights and maybe take a ride with a dog sledge.
We did both! (to be continued...)

Ubuntu 9.10 is out

The new Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala has been released today and can be downloaded from your favorite local mirror.

And while you are waiting for the installer/update to finish you might try some of the Ubuntu Fair Trade cola!

Gotland

Last weekend I went to Gotland. It is a beautiful island with breathtaking nature and many interesting historical buildings in the old town of Visby. We had so much fun thanks to the great organisation by VIS.

Convert rectilinear panoramas to cubic with erect2cubic

When creating panoramatical images most programs will probably output a rectilinear or cylindrical projection as a result. Unfortunately some viewers only accept a cubic projection (6 different images of the sides of a cube).

There is a simple way how to convert a rectilinear panorama to a cubic one with use of free software. The following instructions were tested on (K)ubuntu 9.04, but should also work on other Linux distributions. Note that must be connected to the internet during these installations steps.

1) Install nona - in Ubuntu is is part of the hugin-tools package
2) Install the libgraphviz-perl package
3) Start CPAN as root: open a terminal (e.g. Konsole, xterm, Terminal) and start "sudo cpan". If it is the first time you start CPAN you will be asked whether you want to use the automatic configuration. In that case just say yes (press Enter).
4) Once in CPAN, execute the command "install Panotools::Script" (without the quotes). If you get any warnings about YAML, just ignore them.

Now we have the necessary software tools to do the conversion. Now you can do the conversion. Open a terminal and go to the directory where you rectilinear panorama file is. Suppose it is called rect.tiff then execute:

erect2cubic --erect=rect.tif --ptofile=cubic.pto

This will generate the file cubic.pto which we need to generate the 6 images of the cubic projection:

nona -v -o cubic cubic.pto

This might take some time (~few minutes). After that you will see cubic0000.tif, cubic0001.tif ... cubic0005.tif in your directory. These are the six sides of the cubic projection.

Bicycles in Växjö

You really need a bicycle in Växjö. Especially if you live on the campus and need to go to the city which is about 3-4km away. But it's not just the students who ride bikes. I Växjö everybody has a bicycle and there are special paths for bikes everywhere. It's almost like in the Netherlands.

I bought myself a used bike for 500kr (=50€). It's good enough to go from A to B but that's about it ;-)

The campus of the Växjö university

The campus is outside the city. I like it because all the university buildings and the housing for students are within walking distance. Another nice thing is that there is almost no traffic at the campus. Most of the people walk or ride a bike. Bicycles are an essential part of Växjö but I'll write more about that later on.


This is the building where my room is. It's not very nice but it's quiet ok on the inside.

There are some green areas between the buildings.

Some more green. In the background you can see the building of the student union (similar to ÖH in Austria)

This is the main building of the university:
Another building with class rooms:

Sivans - one of the student pubs on the campus:

The library:

First impressions at Växjö

I want to share my first impressions of Växjö university with you. I really like it here. The organisation is really great. The international office of the Växjö University made a good job. There was a pick-up service at the train station where we arrived and then they brought us to the university campus where we got some basic information and the keys to our rooms.
I live at a dorm room on the campus. I have a small room with one bed and a bathroom and I share the kitchen with other students on the corridor.
Hopefully I'll have some time to make some photos and post them here tomorrow.

Long exposure photos at Traunsee

I've been experimenting with long exposure photography at Traunsee. I found a place that was dark enough to actually see the Milky Way.

7min


17min 30s


The same picture as above but de-fished and cropped.

Google Chrome 3 Beta

Google has released a new version of their browser Chrome. The new beta version adds support for HTML5 >video< tag. This feature is also included in the somewhat unstable Linux build. If you have the Chrome repository in your software sources list then you can try it out. Just install it / run the update using your favorite software package manager.

You can try the feature at Youtube HTML5 demo page. The video rendering is working but some other features still don't:

• Full screen playback


• Seeking


• Right click -> open video in new tab - crashes the browser


• Sometimes the sound is missing

I hope that Google will target all these issues for the stable release. Maybe one day I can ditch the crappy flashplayer once for all.

Google announces Chrome OS

Google made an announcement we've been expecting for quiet some time now. They will be releasing their own operating system. It is called Chrome OS according to the official Google blog post, but I wouldn't be surprised if they release it under a more attractive market name.

The architecture is pretty simple: Google Chrome web browser running in a lightweight window manager on a Linux kernel. Both x86 and ARM architectures should be supported and the whole thing will be released as open source.

This step is consistent with Google's long term strategy of making the web the new platform and thus making current operating systems irrelevant. The Chrome version for major desktop systems such as Windows or Linux makes a smooth transition from classic operating systems to web based systems possible.

According to Google the Chrome OS is aimed primarily at netbooks but I'm sure this is just yet another step in their long term plans and many other strategic products for the desktop-to-web transition will follow.

VirtualBox 3.0 stable is here!

Last week I wrote about the new beta version of VirtualBox 3.0 with support for SMP. It wasn't really stable. And neither was the second beta.

This week the VirtualBox 3.0 was finally released. It seems to be stable, I haven't seen any bugs or crashes so far.



Unfortunately if your are using Windows XP as guest system you have to reinstall it. Existing installations of Windows XP that you have created using VirtualBox 1.x or 2.x will show only one CPU no matter how you configure your virtual machine. I guess this is rather a problem with Windows than VirtualBox. Windows always have problems if you move your installed system to a different hardware (virtual or real). The linux kernel or any other sane operating system should detect the change from one to two CPUs without any problems.