Apparently Snack (http://www.speech.kth.se/snack/) in ports doesn't want to play with Python and I am eager to play and don't want to look into it. So if you have no patience ;) just install the Python module manually.
Get Snack using ports
# portinstall snack
Fetch the source code
# fetch http://www.speech.kth.se/snack/dist/snack2.2.10.tar.gz
Untar it
# tar xvf snack2.2.10.tar.gz
Copy the file that we are interested in to the Python module directory
# cp snack2.2.10/python/tkSnack.py /usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/
Clean up the thrash (keep in mind that there is some useful example code in the demos directory)
# rm snack2.2.10.tar.gz && rm -rf snack2.2.10/
And then start playing with Snack.
EDIT 05/01/07:
(Added it as a text-file aswell. http://www.d.kth.se/~ninjin/texts/cs/snackfreebsd.txt)
Sunday 31 December 2006
Saturday 30 December 2006
The execution of Saddam
I'll try to make this short, I do in no way claim to know the answer to "how do we please those that the bastard made to suffer?".
How do you best bring justice to a man whom has done so much "bad" that all punishments are insufficient? What is it that such a man fear the most? Death? I seriously doubt that Saddam had any real "fear" of death. It would be a quick end for him, and he'd leave a ton of conspiracies and legends for his fanatics to breed on. Killing that man serves his own ends, especially if you make the executioners wear black hoods and look like a bunch of thugs. Is that the look of a just deed?
Now, let's instead focus on what would have been a proper punishment? In my opinion he should be kept locked up, so tight that he couldn't lead any outside movement, face all charges. For who has dealt justice for the Curds? For the people of Iran? The people of Kuwait? And so on. Would you like a serial killer to skip the trials of his later victims? I say not. We should not only have sought to kill Saddam in his physical form, but also the myths surrounding him. So that we made sure that the truth of his reign and his deeds were known and available to his followers and enemies. His black print placed properly and truthfully in history. Since now, they live on. And what better way to punish a man than to face his own deeds? For if there is no god, who will make him face his own deeds but we mortals?
How do you best bring justice to a man whom has done so much "bad" that all punishments are insufficient? What is it that such a man fear the most? Death? I seriously doubt that Saddam had any real "fear" of death. It would be a quick end for him, and he'd leave a ton of conspiracies and legends for his fanatics to breed on. Killing that man serves his own ends, especially if you make the executioners wear black hoods and look like a bunch of thugs. Is that the look of a just deed?
Now, let's instead focus on what would have been a proper punishment? In my opinion he should be kept locked up, so tight that he couldn't lead any outside movement, face all charges. For who has dealt justice for the Curds? For the people of Iran? The people of Kuwait? And so on. Would you like a serial killer to skip the trials of his later victims? I say not. We should not only have sought to kill Saddam in his physical form, but also the myths surrounding him. So that we made sure that the truth of his reign and his deeds were known and available to his followers and enemies. His black print placed properly and truthfully in history. Since now, they live on. And what better way to punish a man than to face his own deeds? For if there is no god, who will make him face his own deeds but we mortals?
Friday 29 December 2006
Gateway mayhem
At approximately 3:30 AM when I decided to reboot my gateway for some testing the HDD decided to go evil on me. For unknown reasons reading from the HDD would cause the whole system to get stuck in a ide-not-ready loop >.<> /etc/fstab.new
I'll be damned ;P I saved myself from using ed. Now I just might need to get a new HDD *sigh*, but at least I have my net back up.
I'll be damned ;P I saved myself from using ed. Now I just might need to get a new HDD *sigh*, but at least I have my net back up.
Tuesday 26 December 2006
Christmas presents
And it all came to an end... visiting relatives, eating...
Christmas has it's downsides, presents. Don't get me wrong, I love that my relatives/family thinks about me and buys me presents. But I don't have room for all this stuff and my back is killing me after traveling with ten times the load I traveled to them with. What's so wrong with cash?
It's not all their fault, I should have seen to it that they got my wish list but they would still give me a ton of stuff. They don't like to give money, since they think it doesn't show that they care about me. But what I need is not a ton of gibberish that sure looks nice but I don't have room for it, I don't have a villa like them, I have 20sqm!
I would have been all jolly if I got the 1000 SEK which all this stuff would cost, then I could save room and buy things that I actually need. Like a freezer and a new chair.
For my birthday next month I will mail a simple list to them and beg them to give me either a specific book (I will supply the ISBN) from a list or cash. I do love them... I truly hope that they don't get me wrong.
Christmas has it's downsides, presents. Don't get me wrong, I love that my relatives/family thinks about me and buys me presents. But I don't have room for all this stuff and my back is killing me after traveling with ten times the load I traveled to them with. What's so wrong with cash?
It's not all their fault, I should have seen to it that they got my wish list but they would still give me a ton of stuff. They don't like to give money, since they think it doesn't show that they care about me. But what I need is not a ton of gibberish that sure looks nice but I don't have room for it, I don't have a villa like them, I have 20sqm!
I would have been all jolly if I got the 1000 SEK which all this stuff would cost, then I could save room and buy things that I actually need. Like a freezer and a new chair.
For my birthday next month I will mail a simple list to them and beg them to give me either a specific book (I will supply the ISBN) from a list or cash. I do love them... I truly hope that they don't get me wrong.
Friday 22 December 2006
Hogfather
I took the time to see Terry Pratchet's Hogfather, now that I am on holiday. I must say that it was far beyond my expectations. Having seen just about enough of the cartoon version of Soul Music, I expected Hogfather to be just as bad. Transferring Pratchet's books to the screen seemed to me an impossible task, you can't have that many jokes, puns, comic reliefs etc. etc. in a movie... not unless you change it, without ruining the whole thing. I thought it to be impossible, I was wrong.
Hogfather is a dark story. Well, just as dark as it the book I guess, the Discworld is not known to be a nice place after all. I must say that I was impressed by the screen work and the special effects that made it all the darker. But in all this darkness are the characters, Pratchet newer fails when it comes to creating peculiar characters and bizarre settings. Seeing the wizards, death and all the others on the screen was not horrible. I very much enjoyed it, nicely woven into the dark fabric and a just as cryptic plot as always when it comes to Pratchet, it kept me etched to the screen for 3 hours.
And the ending... wow... I will only mention that I didn't expect that much "good" philosophy. At least it was among the things I least expected. All in all, not the best I have seen this year, but well worth watching. But skip the end of part 1 where they spoil half the fun of part 2 by showing what to come, I wish I had.
Hogfather was aired on Sky one, if you can't see it on air, you ought to get it by other means.
Hogfather is a dark story. Well, just as dark as it the book I guess, the Discworld is not known to be a nice place after all. I must say that I was impressed by the screen work and the special effects that made it all the darker. But in all this darkness are the characters, Pratchet newer fails when it comes to creating peculiar characters and bizarre settings. Seeing the wizards, death and all the others on the screen was not horrible. I very much enjoyed it, nicely woven into the dark fabric and a just as cryptic plot as always when it comes to Pratchet, it kept me etched to the screen for 3 hours.
And the ending... wow... I will only mention that I didn't expect that much "good" philosophy. At least it was among the things I least expected. All in all, not the best I have seen this year, but well worth watching. But skip the end of part 1 where they spoil half the fun of part 2 by showing what to come, I wish I had.
Hogfather was aired on Sky one, if you can't see it on air, you ought to get it by other means.
Wednesday 20 December 2006
Holiday
I wrote my last exam for this term today, feels as if the one who wrote the exam knew all my weak spots. I hope for a degree of four and doubt that I did well enough for a five. *sigh* I had hoped for a great ending but I didn't deserve a five anyway, I don't know my laser physics that well.
Now I should try to enjoy my first holiday since last Christmas. I spent the easter holiday coding on a project for school and summer taking classes in law. I feel somewhat empty... hollow... all the stress and pressure is gone. Perhaps I am well on my way to becoming a workaholic? But I don't really care, I want something to every day, to somehow feel a purpose and have goals set. Besides, I have never had so much fun studying as here at KTH.
Now I just ponder on what I should do next, I have a few coding projects of my own, but where to start? I wonder if they offer courses over Christmas? Perhaps 5p of philosophy, that would be both fun and rewarding.
Now I should try to enjoy my first holiday since last Christmas. I spent the easter holiday coding on a project for school and summer taking classes in law. I feel somewhat empty... hollow... all the stress and pressure is gone. Perhaps I am well on my way to becoming a workaholic? But I don't really care, I want something to every day, to somehow feel a purpose and have goals set. Besides, I have never had so much fun studying as here at KTH.
Now I just ponder on what I should do next, I have a few coding projects of my own, but where to start? I wonder if they offer courses over Christmas? Perhaps 5p of philosophy, that would be both fun and rewarding.
Monday 18 December 2006
My (poor) English
*sigh* It seems that not actively using English for over a year has it's downsides. I make a lot more grammatical mistakes and misspell a lot more words than I used to. Back then I chatted away and talked English almost every day, now I just talk English when I meet an exchange student and only write in English when I really have to. I really should try to regain what I have lost, one can't have a CAE certificate and talk/write English like an average Swede.
Sunday 17 December 2006
Am I Evil?
People with faith seem to have a need to point out if something is evil or not. For example, Hitler was evil, Mother Theresa was kind hearted and so on. This of course requires the need of an absolute moral values that exists without the need of individuals to decide whether or not a given action is evil or not. Why is that?
I have a hard time understanding how such a construction would be possible, impossible if there is no god of course. Then he would simply say alakhazam and there would be some link between every action and a set of specified values. But let us assume that there are no values, no good or evil. What would be the consequences?
Some people with faith claim that in such a case all of man would fight among themselves in an endless turmoil, making nothing but carnage and that all good things in life come from the all mighty god and his values passed on to man. I don't think that this is the case, I would rather say mankind is very much capable of taking a set morals at any given time given a number of circumstances. How do people with faith explain all the evil in the world today? Are the people who do "bad" doing it conscientiously? Do they strive towards doing wrong because they are "evil"?
I'd rather explain it by simply stepping beyond good and evil, they do "bad" because we see what they do and compare it to our morals and say that it is bad because we don't share their opinions and views. Hitler was just as human as any believer or disbeliever for that matter, given the circumstances that surrounded him I am convinced that any of us would have made similar reasonings and taken similar actions.
We are no better than any of those we see as "evil", but we have the chance to understand how they became "evil" and by doing so we might even learn what it really means to be human.
I have a hard time understanding how such a construction would be possible, impossible if there is no god of course. Then he would simply say alakhazam and there would be some link between every action and a set of specified values. But let us assume that there are no values, no good or evil. What would be the consequences?
Some people with faith claim that in such a case all of man would fight among themselves in an endless turmoil, making nothing but carnage and that all good things in life come from the all mighty god and his values passed on to man. I don't think that this is the case, I would rather say mankind is very much capable of taking a set morals at any given time given a number of circumstances. How do people with faith explain all the evil in the world today? Are the people who do "bad" doing it conscientiously? Do they strive towards doing wrong because they are "evil"?
I'd rather explain it by simply stepping beyond good and evil, they do "bad" because we see what they do and compare it to our morals and say that it is bad because we don't share their opinions and views. Hitler was just as human as any believer or disbeliever for that matter, given the circumstances that surrounded him I am convinced that any of us would have made similar reasonings and taken similar actions.
We are no better than any of those we see as "evil", but we have the chance to understand how they became "evil" and by doing so we might even learn what it really means to be human.
It's alive!
For some reason everyone need to dump a load of thoughts and opinions at the web. This phenomena is generally called a blog (short for web log I reckon). Apparently I feel the same need to give Output as well as Input... thus making I/O instead of I.
I would want to host this at my own homepage but since I am lazy and doing end term exams I think Google can handle this for me and ease my burden (at least for now). You can find a lot about me and what I do at www.d.kth.se/~ninjin/ I'll spare you my introduction and hope that you will read it in case you wonder what kind of being I am.
Well, on to dumping random thoughts, rants, anger etc etc on the web.
I would want to host this at my own homepage but since I am lazy and doing end term exams I think Google can handle this for me and ease my burden (at least for now). You can find a lot about me and what I do at www.d.kth.se/~ninjin/ I'll spare you my introduction and hope that you will read it in case you wonder what kind of being I am.
Well, on to dumping random thoughts, rants, anger etc etc on the web.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
