Kiss me, I’m Irish

May 12, 2009 family 6 Comments

Just got my Irish passport! It took slightly less than 9 years…

National-specific models: so long

February 26, 2009 family, xkeyboard-config 7 Comments

Today I committed into xkeyboard-config one important change: removal of national specific models: jp106, kr106, abnt2. These models consisted of 2 parts: keycodes and geometries.

Keycodes, as I found, could be safely merged into the default xfree86 and evdev keycode sets. So I just did that.

About geometries… Since they are just “visibility”, functionally useless – there is no point to keep models just for geometries sake.

So, these models are gone (of course, layouts should be working as they always did!). The geometry definitions I will keep for some while, just in case – but I guess I’ll remove them soon too.

If any Brazilian/Japanese/Korean user feels offended – please raise your voice, explain your concerns. I appreciate any reasonable feedback.

PS On a side note, me and my better half got approval for Irish citizenship. After 8.5 years in the country, I am going to get the second passport and be able to travel the world easily!

Clifford Swartz, Phenomenal Physics

November 25, 2007 family 5 Comments

That was the book I learned the physics with, back in … well, long ago:). Quality Russian translation. Good hardcover edition. Big thanks to both the author and translators. But … it seems it is not available online (I looked for any English edition). Not published/updated since 80s. So the big question for me now is what would be equally good for my kids. Well written, easy for understanding (but not too easy – without cutting too many corners)… Swartz had a good sense of style, I think…