The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

I just finished reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo (or Män som hatar kvinnor in Swedish). It's been a while since I read a good thriller, or any other type of fiction for that matter, and I can honestly state that the aforementioned book is a pretty good choice for a new beginning.

I enjoyed it mostly, and in spite of it being the first book I ever read fully in French, it kept me pretty much hooked. Unfortunately I had to pause my reading for about a month since my exam session had started. However, as soon as the final exam was finished I began reading again, until I finished the book.

It's the first book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. Initially it was set out to be a series of ten books, however Larsson died leaving only three finished books and a fourth unfinished one. Millennium is actually a journal, founded by the main character, Mikael Blomkvist.

The story goes like this: Mikael writes an article in Millenium for which he is accused of slander. He has to spend three months in prison and also Millenium heads towards bankruptcy. An old and very wealthy man, Henrik Vanger, makes Mikael an offer he cannot refuse. It regards the disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger in the 60s. Mikael has to solve the mystery both for money and for insights on his sworn enemy, Hans Wenerstrom. In his quest Mikael is helped by a young goth hacker, Lisbeth Salander (the actual girl with the dragon tatoo).

In his quest Mikael finds out about the dark past of the Vanger family and evils that have not yet died. He is both under pressure and under threat as he digs deeper into the family's secrets. It's definitely a page turner, I can honestly say that I wasn't bored at any point in my reading.

The characters are well shaped, and I grew pretty fond of Mikael. Of course, they're not overly dramatic, this isn't The Catcher in the Rye or Men and Mice. But they're plausible. All except Lisbeth of course. I found the character of the young goth a bit over the top. Doesn't necessarily fit into the picture, and she's also too troubled. Throw in a goth, bisexuality, Asperger's, tatoos, ability to hack anything, abuse, and a propensity to sleep with older men, mix all that and you've got Lisbeth Salander. A melange that doesn't quite work. Not to mention that many times over, Lisbeth is given the role of the Deus Ex Machina, completely saving the day.

The thing that I liked most about the book was the atmosphere. Larsson managed to stage a pretty impressive thriller, and the scenery helps a lot. The island of Hedestad is a great place for the action, while the rest of Sweden too seems to add to the suspense. It really made me want to visit Sweden, or any Scandinavian country for that matter.

It's a good book, and I am anxious to read the sequels. They cost a lot, and I insist reading them in French (for practice). Hope I'll manage to get my greedy paws on them soon. Until then I'll have to find other things to read. I should also mention that the title actually means Men who Hate Women, I don't really understand why the title was changed in the English translation. Either way, if you find this book in a bookstore near you -- buy it and read it. It's fully worth it.

I heard Quentin Tarantino was thinking of making a film after the book, starring Brad Pitt as Mikael. I'd really like to see that one. Also there's a Swedish [update: I don't really think it's a Swedish film, the title is spelled different] movie based on the book. I haven't seen it, only a trailer in Swedish on Youtube and also some other scenes. The movie looks good, and it's a shame it hasn't yet hit the theaters in Romania (and I doubt it ever will).

PS: I also noticed that both the good guys, Lisbeth and Mikael have Macbooks while Wenerstrom (the guy who accused Mikael of slander) uses Windows. Funny -- however, good guys use Linux :)

Hitchens debates

Today I watched a debate (here) between Christopher Hitchens and a certain Dinesh D'Souza I never heard of before. Hitchens' books have not yet reached Romania, so I never got to read any of his works (nor am I a reader of Vanity Fair). Still I watched a handful of interviews of his on the Internet, and I am quite fond of his stance on religion. Pretty much agree with him on many points. Of course, as a secular humanist, I don't have much to hold against the guy.

A few months ago I also watched Hitchens debate Al Sharpton ( link). The fight was ok, and I felt like Hitches was a clear winner -- even though Al Sharpton was right when he noted that Hitchens mostly debated Christianity and Islam when the fight was more about the abstract idea of God. Maybe Hitchens should have explained that the idea of God and religion are linked inextricably -- no belief in a certain specific god is possible outside the framework of religion. Anyway if you look at the questions asked by the public in this Al Sharpton vs Christopher Hitchens debate you'll notice they're in poor taste sometimes and always stupid, i.e. they're not specific, usually they're just rants rather than actual questions.

Dinesh D'souza is a better opponent for Hitchens. In the debate I mentioned above one might say that in certain topics he even outdid Hitchens. Especially with the old recurring argument that Stalin and Mao were both atheists. In my opinion this is probably the best argument Christians have.

It's complete bogus, yes, Stalin and Mao weren't evil because they were atheists, just like Hitler was not evil because he was a Christian. We'll perhaps never know the reasons for which they turned out to be the bastards they all were, but I'm certain that it was not the fact that they realized that there is no God above to chastise them post mortem. One can always find excuses for violence in the Bible, even excuses for genocide. Is it just me, one of the reasons give for antisemitism in Germany was "the Jews nailed Jesus"? Also this concerns the fact that mere atheism does not give you a set of morals. Saying that being atheist makes you necessarily good is equivalent to saying that understanding 4th grade geometry gives you a higher set of morals. Why? Because being and atheist means just realizing something really obvious about the world. Being good is a rational and logic decision itself (maybe that's why being an atheist gives you statistically less chances of ending up in prison) but by no means is it strictly linked to being an atheist. To being a secular humanist... well, i'd like to see statistics before talking, but I do presume that statistics would show that self-confessed secular humanists are way more altruistic than Christians.

Anyway, D'souza made some wrong points, but made them well. It's frustrating to see that due to the very way the debate was structured not every argument was attackable and not every attack was defendable. Basically for every argument D'souza I already knew the rebuttal, and I'm sure so did Hitchens -- yet he was not able to speak at all. This very fact made me think that the best debate is one in which two opponents are faced without a moderator in between, and they're basically allowed to tear each other apart (through words of course).

Alas, the biggest problem is that reason alone does not win a debate. In fact reason and logic itself almost never win a debate. It's charisma and catchy phrases. That's why perhaps the most convincing atheist of all times was George Carlin. Sure would like to have seen him debating.

Projects...

One rather annoying thing about college is the existence of project papers. Whether you have to calculate something out of measurements performed at laboratory experiments or just bust your brains trying to make a Java simulation of the planetary motion, projects are just a dull and time consuming task. Not to mention the fact that always something must be wrong, no matter what.

So, how to write a paper. First off you need the initial data. Provided it comes from an experiment, hurray for you. In case you have to make a simulation -- you're pretty much f-ed. The results are next interpreted in Open Office Calc or Microsoft Excel, there's no actual need for Microcal Origin yet. Afterwards you migrate the results in Open Office Writer, write a couple of equations, do a bit of formatting, say your prayers, and watch a movie/drink a beer.

Also, you shoudn't leave everything for the very last minute, but who's to blame you (but the teacher) -- it's not exactly great fun you're having.

Maybe I should write a full tutorial about making such a project. But maybe later. When I'll actually do anything to get away from working on it.

Watchmen (the movie)

I've read the Watchmen comic book when I was still in my first year of college. It was a very good comic, in my opinion Alan Moore's finest. So when I heard Zack Snyder was doing a Watchmen movie, I knew a must see would come.


Every once in a while there comes a film that I know I must see fresh and that I mustn't wait for the DVD version to come out. 300 was one of those films, and so was The Dark Knight -- and I was right in both cases, these movies ruled. And now came Watchmen, and I had to go watch it with a few classmates. Payed cash I don't usually spend for the ticket, some nachos and a Cola. I was quite excited, and even maybe a bit afraid that the movie wouldn't stand up to my high expectations. From the very first minutes of the film I realized I was going to have a great couple of hours and a half.

The movie was absolutely stunning, every few minutes a "WOW!" escaped from my mouth. It had everything I could ask from a film, great fighting scenes, great soundtrack, really cool special effects, good acting (with one notable exception), a superb story, lots of Easter eggs and to top it all, the directing of Zack Snyder. Dawn of the Dead was a damn good horror, 300 was a work of genius, and Watchmen is poetry in images. So Zack Snyder can very well shoot himself -- he did it, and it's impossible for him to outdo himself. There are no comics as great as Watchmen left unfilmed, nothing can be better than a watchmen movie. Maybe a Rorschach exclusive in which that Silk Specter chick dies in horrible agony... Sorry, I was fantasizing.

Guess I already made you figure out one of the movie's very few shortcomings. That Akerman (or wossername) chick is an actress so bad she shouldn't even had been allowed to carry the coffee for guys like Jackie Earl Haley (is it just me or does he look a lot like Clint Eastwood in this movie?) or Jeffrey Dean Morgan (again, is it just me, or is this guy a Javier Bardem look-a-like?). Well, Zack Snyder is forgiven for casting that whatever-she-may-be-'cause-she's-no-actress woman, for the movie is pure awesomeness. I wish there's a DVD 4 and a half hours Director's Cut, because I want more. Really, that was one movie I really wished never ended.

I could go on and rant about it on and on, but one things certain -- people who criticize it don't know shit about what movies should be. It's great, go watch it now. Really.

---

PS I heard Alan Moore put a curse on the film. Well, Alan is crazy

Probably the best video game in the world

I just finished World of Goo -- and it's brilliant! It's definitely one of the best computer games I've ever seen, maybe even the best (I still have to decide between it and Curse of the Monkey Island). World of Goo has everything I could ask from a game -- puzzles, humor and simplicity. And adds sugar on top of all this with a good ol' dose of physics.

The mechanics of the game is astounding, thing that sometimes causes a good deal of frustration (after seeing your goo tower or goo bridge give up and crash in spite of having spent some good minutes meticulously crafting it). The puzzles are quite smart, and never repetitive. I had to work my brains on some of them, finally giving a big A-HA! after figuring out what had to be done. Major A-HA! moments:

• Last level chapter one -- the eyes are usable


• Last level chapter four -- burning the goo-support for the undelete button. Unfortunately I have to shamefully admit didn't figure it out myself, a friend tipped me as he was watching me play


• That controlled explosion level -- in my opinion it's the hardest level in the whole game

The game is not long, yet again another plus, for it makes the World of Goo relaxing and also allowing each level to be unique in its own way -- otherwise the game would have gotten quite repetitious after the kzillionth level.

Another thing I liked a lot in World of Goo was the soundtrack. It's freely available, and you can download it from here. I am listening to it as I am writing this post -- and it's good music. It's one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard (and by that I don't mean just video game soundtracks). Really, download it! And listen to the Red Carpet Extend-o-matic song.

The graphics are 2D bliss. I think 3D is way too overrated. And that's how Lucas Arts messed up the Monkey Island series -- by making it 3D. Graphics ought to be judged by the colours and design rather than pixel shading and other such useless crap (when it comes to gaming).

Official trailer -- notice the 2D graphics!

The difficulty curve is non-linear, meaning many early levels will be tougher than ending levels. However this did not bother me at all. Also the very last level was a ludicrously easy -- and somehow made the whole thing more fun.

Saving the best for last -- it's been ported to Linux. I played it on Mint and it ran without any problems, even though I didn't deactivate compiz or did any tweaking. It's great to have cool games ported on Linux, and considering the game costs little (around 20$) and it's 100% DRM free Linux users should flock to purchase from here. You can also download a demo from the 2D Boy (the developers) webpage.

Dual bootin'

Yesterday I spent a few good hours reinstalling everything on my computer. Not that I had to, I just felt like changing something. In over 7 months of using the same installation both the Windows XP partition and the Ubuntu one were filled with junk software. Plus I was curious about trying out Linux Mint for a while now. And with shame I admit I was a bit curious about Vista as well.

Windows Vista

So I burned a DVD for Windows and a CD for the Linux Mint Felicia Main Edition. Installing Vista was surprisingly uneventful and fast. Moreover I realized that I had no need of installing drivers for my soundcard or Nvidia videocard. A few months ago when I installed XP SP 2 I had to browse for a couple of days for the right sound driver (I found out what soundcard I have by looking in the Ubuntu sound applet). Anyway, in spite of an easy install I realized Vista just looks ugly. I changed the theme and shrinked the icons but still the borders dwarf the text and there's just something about the Aero interface that seems half-baked. And no, I don't want to switch to classic view -- I think a desktop should pe pimped enough to make me enjoy using it.

After installing Windows the next things had to be installed in order to make the OS useful:

• Firefox web browser


• Pidgin IM client


• Songbird music player


• RSSowl


• Daemon Tools lite


• Skype


• VLC media player


• SMplayer


• OpenOffice.org

I'll also have to install Microsoft Office (i need it for school, otherwise I use Open Office as much as I can) and a few games. Also I noticed that Vista is way buggier than XP. And annoying when it comes to installing stuff. Keeps asking me to press continue and ok until I feel like having played 3 straight hours of Diablo II.

Linux Mint

Installing Linux Mint was more problematic than I thought. Though the installer is pretty ok, I don't understand why distros don't use Gparted for partitioning. It's one of the best tools Linux has, and it also comes with a straightforward GUI -- using it is much more OK than whatever half-baked partitioning programs major distros come with. I tried making a 256 Mb /boot partition, but in my n00bity I was utterly unable to. So I just stuck to a 10Gb / (root) partition and a 30Gb+ /home one. The first time I started the installer I chose to skip the "fetching date/time from server" stuff -- thus the installer abruptly stopped. I rebooted my machine and Windows started, meaning the Mint install was incomplete. Confused and a bit frustrated rebooted in Live CD mode once again and this time I only skipped the language pack external download. This time I was successful.

First problem was the sound. There was none coming out of the speakers. After being a bit scared I had to search the nets for Linux soundcard drivers I realized the sound was simply muted from gnome. Yeah, n00bity again -- but c'mon, it's not like it couldn't happen to anyone else. I think that by default all sounds should be turned up to maximum. Next problem was the Nvidia driver. Without it I could have no fancy desktop effects and no resolution of 1280*1024 (the optimal one for my 17" monitor). Due to external factors the internet wasn't working that well, so I just watched a movie and went to sleep.

This morning I installed the video card, set the monitor resolution from nvidia-settings (which had to be run with sudo btw, so I could save the settings to xorg.conf). Then I proceeded to install all the software I installed on windows (save for demon tools) and I also promptly started some pimping. Not too much pimping, just enough to make Mint more... cozy.

RSSowl doesn't really work on Mint so I installed liferea, an excellent gnome alternative. Also Songbird abruptly stopped working for some reason -- it keeps giving me the error "Failed to connect" and then just crashes. At the moment I'm listening to music on Rythmbox but I'll have to do something about Songbird. No way it stays off my desktop.

There was some stuff I installed and needed a little meddling in /etc/apt/sources.list (this helped a lot). Mainly I'm refering to the latest versions of Wine, Gnome-Do and SMplayer. Gome-Do version 0.8 has this great mode called docky. I never consistently used a dock on my desktop, and this docky thinie seems to be a great little tool. It's definitely staying.

So...

Vista is so... Windows. Buggy, intrusive, I only use it for running apps/games that I really can't run on Linux. Mint is ok. It's not much of a change from Ubuntu, but by having some stuff preinstalled it almost forces me to try new stuff. Yes, it has it's share of headaches -- but it's Linux. And is free, as in free beer. And it has Wanda the Fish.

Pictures

So this is how my fresh minty desktop looks like. Not only that it looks good but it's also useful and very responsive. So I forgive Linux Mint the few minor glitches it made me put up with.

Revival

I started this blog when I was still in highschool. Somehow I never managed to continue posting due to my epic-scale laziness. So I'll give it a try again. I've re-read a few old posts -- they weren't that great. Realized this blog never actually had any readers (unlike its now defunct y360 counterpart).

So, maybe this time i'll do it better.

Castigat Ridendo Mores

The following two vids are made to make you laugh. If you're offended by them it means you're simply ignorant (and fundamentalist). If you're not such a person, enjoy :)

Bucharest

This weekend I had the opportunity to see the capital city of my country, Bucharest. Being born and raised in a town with a population of some 120000 I was rather taken aback by the distances of Cluj (the city in which I study at the present time). However, Bucharest was simply BIG. I haven’t visited Bucharest since I was six, and I can state that it really changed from the way I remember it, the way I saw it, with the eyes of a small child, some 14 years ago.

I got to Bucharest and it had this great train station, the biggest I’ve seen. I kept my hands in my pockets at all times, because I heard many stories about the infamous thieves of the capital city. Rumors which do not completely lack a foundation of facts. I finally got to the subway, and for the first time in years I got to take it. There are no subways in any other city in Romania.

The subways was simply disgusting. It had a certain charm, being all covered in graffiti, and SF-like, yet it left me disgusted. And the reason for my utter disgust were the beggars. Imagine:

Subway beggar number one: a man with three gnarled fingers at one hand. I doubt that his deformity was the result of a mutation or an accident. In fact I incline to believe that he chopped his own fingers just to make more money begging.

Subway beggar number two: a woman with an infant in her arms. The infant has burn-marks all over his face, grotesque patches of burnt skin cover more than half his scalp. That will never be a normal child. Now again, a stranger might think his burn-marks might be the result of an accident. I would bet anything his drunken mother or his drunken father burnt him with a blow torch, so the child would be a better income provider. Nobody loves you like your parents, right?

Subway beggar number three: a child of six or seven sitting on his knees and begging. At first I saw nothing wrong with him, until he turned his back to me. The back of his head was burnt entirely and his right ear was chopped off. It turned me sick. How could anyone do this to a child? How will such a mutilated child grow up to be? Why did no one take him away from his abusive parents? The fact that he will grow up to be a vile and abusive man as well is almost axiomatic. Society can sometimes be awfully cruel. Either way, I don’t know if any amount of therapy could ever transform that poor boy into a decent citizen.

Also Bucharest has a very motley population. It seems to me that it is more like an oriental city like Calcutta or Beirut rather than a western metropolis such as London or Paris. You can buy just about anything legal and illegal from the ubiquitous merchants. Also the average person seems to be a bit belligerent and unfriendly. However this is far from being a rule. Bucharest has many good-willed people. I just believe that the average is somewhat lower than the average in a Transylvanian common town, for instance.

Of course, as a young man I could not miss some of the capital’s plenitude of pubs and bars. Of course, I could only visit very few, meaning Club A (nice, though I’m not really into experimental theatre), Mes Amis (absolutely love the music, but I dislike the lack of space and high prices), Philos Pub (good food, good proximity to the dorm in which I slept, bad manele), Laptaria lui Enache (good music, nice bohemian atmosphere, nice girls, yet prices a bit too high) and B52 (ok music, nice people, nice interior design too bad it was too crowded and I had to place to sit).

Also I went to a book fest (the Gaudeamus). Of course, Bucharest’s no 1 remains the Bookarest, but I had to settle with the Gaudeamus, which was not really bad. A bit to crowded by wannabe intellectuals (just can’t lose’em unfortunately). The books weren’t as cheap as they advertised, yet I was tempted to buy one or two. It’s been a while since I read fiction, unfortunately…

Last but not least – the dorms. I was rather concerned by the precarious sanitary conditions in the Cluj dorms (I happen to be an inhabitant of dorm 16, one of the worst in the campus), yet the Bucharest ones (or the one I visited) are simply…. uuuuugh! when it comes to showers and toilets. Still, they started renovating, so I suppose the students of Bucharest will soon have decent conditions.

Still, my trip to Bucharest was fairly exciting. It was an adventure and a trip to remember. Also I felt very nice meeting some of the former high-school classmates who study in the capital. It was really fun, and I hope I’ll be able to revisit Bucharest soon.

Terry Pratchett -- Guards! Guards!

Guards! Guards! is the eighth Discworld novel, and perhaps the second best of the series right after Sourcery (so far it remains my favourite). I skipped Wyrd Sisters and Pyramids (volumes six and seven of the Discworld saga) due to the fact that I had previously read the Guards! Guards! graphic novel and I was quite curious about the book I already new it’s story, so it couldn’t possibly be a spoiler for the previous two stories.

The story of Guards! Guards! is quite funny, it’s a parody of… well of many things. The story the following: a secret brotherhood wants to summon a dragon upon the city of Ankh Morpork so they can overthrow the Patrician. The young boy Carrot finally learns at sixteen (and six feet) that he is not a dwarf by nature only by adoption and that he should join the city watch. With only his law-book, vitals protector, ancient totally not-magic and not-shining sword he goes to the city of Ankh to join the city watch and fulfill his destiny. Captain Vimes falls in love with the dragon breeder Lady Ramkin yet the arrival of the LARGE dragon ruins their best laid plans o’ swamp-dragons and men.

The panoply of characters is moderately extensive and it covers quite a few figures we stumble upon in our daily lives. Here are a few:

Constable Carrot – a righteous yet naïve boy, also very strong in battle. Raised by dwarfs in the spirit of justice he just refuses to do anything outside the book of law he has been given by Varneshi. The all corrupting city of Ankh seems to be unable of corrupting this young man. His naïveté is quite a source of humour. I can’t even remember how many times I burst into laughter due to his perpetual confusion and reactions.

Captain Vimes – the Discworld’s own Clint Eastwood. With a loaded swamp dragon he’s not afraid to use, punk!

Caporal Nobby – a supposedly human being (the species he belongs to is unknown even by the author himself). Corrupt to the marrow of the bone, trying to impress the rich (aka Lady Ramkin), occasionally trying to teach young Carrot a thing or two about real life.

Lord Vetinari – the true leader in the vision of Terry Pratchett. He pulls all the strings in the city of Ankh, because there is none more cunning than him. He likes to rule, he’s meant to rule, and no force on the face of the disc can stop him. How about a dragon? Will that put his reign in peril? You’ll only find out by reading the book.

Lady Ramkin – a big lady who loves dragons. And since she’s of noble blood she’s likely to be offered as a sacrifice to the dragon (whether she’s a maiden or not is not that important in modern Disworld times).

Of course there are more characters in Guards! Guards! But I’ll let you discover them yourselves.

Also there is a Guards! Guards! graphic novel. Of course it’s not even half as funny as the book itself, but its drawings are well done and I consider it depicts the world of the Disc much better than the book-covers for instance. Try not to read it before the book like I did. It’s a spoiler.

Also I couldn’t leave you without a few quotes from the book :)

All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious, literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose only minor failing is a tendency, after one drink, to rush at enemies screaming "Arrrrrrgh!" and axing their legs off at the knee.

People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, "Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else."

Lady Ramkin's bosom rose and fell like an empire.

The three rules of the Librarians of Time and Space are: 1) Silence; 2) Books must be returned no later than the date last shown; and 3) Do not interfere with the nature of causality.

The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.

He looked up at the hooded figure beside him. 'We never intended this,' he said weakly. 'Honestly. No offence. We just wanted what was due to us.' A skeletal hand patted him on the shoulder, not unkindly. And Death said,
Congratulations.