"Waltz with Caroline"

I met Caroline exactly 2 years ago. That year was the most wonderful of those that passed. However, It won't come back because she passed away too leaving her family, friends and me in deep sorrow ...

Caroline was a very talented ballet dancer. She started dancing in early childhood, being greatly supported by her grandma. At this anniversary I'd like to share with you a piano piece I composed inspired by her memories of that era that she shared with me some day ago. It is simple piece so even a begginer will handle it, but I like it because it reminds me of her at the stage where everything was possible ...

It is called “Walczyk z Chmureczką“ which you may translate as “Waltz with Caroline“. Enjoy! : )

Webster.com + Ruby = Pronounce words from command line

Ruby is cool! Try my first ruby script. Put it e.g. in /usr/local/bin and use it like this:

$ say poignant

Put whatever english word you like as an argument. Sript extracts link to an audio pronounciation file from webster.com and plays it using mplayer. Enjoy : )

miejsce.info on widgetoko.com

Today miejsce.info was added to widgetoko.com repository. It is described byt its author Deniss Franklin as "a daily dose of widget-y goodnes". Widgetoko was quite popular on digg today (around 300 diggs). Definitely nice site!

miejsce.info: How to get to the Orchidea restaurant in Warsaw ?

A visual guide on how to get to my favourite little restaurant in Warsaw : ) Createad using miejsce.info.

Yahoo, Google, del.icio.us and Platonic Idealism

This article explains why del.icio.us is praised, nobody uses dir.yahoo.com and google.com is not my default page anymore.

.. all this basing on a piece of some ancient philosophy : )

Plato has believed that everything what surrounds us is just a mere reflection of some higher truth. E.g. an oval drawn on the piece of paper is just a reflection of ideal concept of oval-ness. We bear this concept in our minds so we can easily recognize its shape. Similarly, a bowhead whale is being described as beleen whale. However, the reference baleen whale does not exist. It lives in a world of definitions forged by founders of modern taxonomy. Thus the link between taxonomy and domain of objects it describes, resembles a link between platonic world of ideas and the material world.

Agreeing with analogy described above, it is interesting to look at the process of building taxonomies like Yahoo! directory. This process starts with defining the domain. Next, throught the observation of simmilarities between its objects, categories are defined. At the end, hierachical relationships between categories are being estabilished. So one can perceive attempt to embedd the sense of our world into taksonomy as a attempt of taking insight of platonic world of ideas.

Something which Platon believed is not possible.

Thus taxonomy is not a reflection of some ideal order but rather a mere reflection of one's subjective point of view on reality. Should user trying to find some web page about literature look into "Arts and culture" or "Entertainment" category? Without switching to directory author's way of thinking a decision will be based on guessing.

There's no world of ideas and no sense within objects themselves. Sense is what we give to objects.

In Yahoo! directory sense is given by editor. In Google search engine it is a job of some robot. Do not trust strangers. Do not trust robots! Being forced to do so will rise your frustration, dissapointment and waste your time. Rather follow the sense of those who you trust - friends, family, experts, majority or ... you yourself.

With del.icio.us you can do it!

And this is an underlying reason why del.icio.us is praised, nobody uses dir.yahoo.com and google.com is not my default page anymore :)

philosophy folksonomy delicious yahoo google

Know your origins man

In the old days, gatekeeper was supposed to be given some change in case you're coming back very late home. And if you were with a girl till late night outside, you're the one supposed to accompany her home and pay this guy : ) Here is an atmospheric sample of dialectus Varsoviensis A.D. 1930 regarding this issue:

Tak, panie Gieniu! Już trzecie kimel ta oliwa z betów mnie zrywa. A taki hurgot dyrkacz robi, że mało chodryg nie posiałem jak do twyrasów kanaiłem. Rozblindowałem, gabel nadstawiam, bo przecie szpera sie należy. No nie żeby motyla sypnął, ale zawsze i troche szmelcu nie zawadzi. A on tylko lipnął, dach uchylił i popłynął na kwadrat. Po mojemu sztemp jak cholera. Takie to tera porządki...


Check out this cool Warsaw dialect - polish dictionary : )

Habre los ojos

I've had a couple of free days recently. I've spent them on browsing, reading, getting up-to-date and becoming inspired. It is kind of a case since I'm warming up before writing my bachelor thesis which is on on-line collaborative software. Out of this activity 5 important conclusions resulted from:

1. del.icio.us has replaced google in being my default start page. It is just so damn useful!
2. Stone age portals which rely on ubiquitous press agency notes are not interesting anymore. Blogs and news aggregators are.
3. Ruby and Python became very popular nowadays along with the second oldest programming language having its comeback.
4. Web 2.0 applications are now avantgarde of innovation in Internet. Find your favorite one or browse among 2005 hits.
5. Don't say it loudly but math is cool again : )

My ankles are allright now so I'm dancing again. Be there with me Karolina : *

Heaven

Heaven was invented because of mourning after a loss of the beloved ones...

There was so much love, so much life and so much will to live in her. But disease developed very rapidly and on January 16 Karolina died.

She loved me like no one else before. She was my life. And now we won't find our peacefull haven because she's gone : ( I flew to Paris once again but it was too late! She's been buried in Cracow but she didn't wanted me to take part in the ceremony. Whole this period was very bad and depressing time for me... My friends, my family and family of Karolina gave me beautifull support. Thank you all. Finally, I'm recovering.

Karolina. Thank you for every single moment and every single word that you gave me. You taught me what love really is. Your magic will always be with me : )