t(omas)radej's

You can find the full photo gallery to this review in the previous post (here).

I’m sorry for the void in blogging in last three months, school and full-time work are indeed exhausting.

As a birthday present, I bought my girlfriend the Pixelar MReader EB-605, a sort-of no name e-book reader that has some indeed neat features you won’t find on most of the mainstream devices. It seems to be the rebadged Prestigio Libretto PER3362B (it even displays the original Prestigio screen when connected to a PC via USB), which in turn is rebadged Tianji iBook EB605.

There were two reasons for the purchase: One was, of course, price. At rougly £90 [1] this device is hard not to buy, especially when it includes a solid cover. The other reason was open source. The reader’s software equipment is Linux kernel running FBReader [2], which is an open source e-book reader built for virtually any platform available. Thanks to this piece of code, MReader can read virtually anything you imagine, including epub, mobi, pdb, txt, rtf. It can read PDFs too, but for that, the Adobe PDF reader is used. MReader also supports Adobe DRM-enabled (or rather crippled) epub.

Hardware-wise, there’s not much to look at. The device is a centimeter thick black/grey slab weighing juts over 200 grams. The only interesting thing about the device is 12 buttons at the side, which control the menu, one menu item per button. This navigation is very handy, but I’m somewhat worried one of the buttons will give in, and that it’ll be an important one. Other than that, it’s a standard set of equipment with somewhat outdated miniUSB connector, 3.5mm jack, a microSD card slot, and the 6” Vizplex e-ink screen. Full spec list is available at the device’s homepage [3] .

Maybe you frowned upon the somewhat outdated Vizplex screen. It is not bad. reading under direct sunlight is no problem, but if you use the Times font, it gets a bit too thin and hard to read. Using the default font, which looks a bit like Arial Narrow, is more advisable in bright conditions. Also, if you’re reading under direct sunlight, a shadow of the previous page sometimes remains on the screen. There’s a refresh option in the menu to mitigate that. The page turning takes about a second, but itself is smooth and inobtrusive.

The slow page turning is a software “feature”. One must add that the entire reader feels somewhat sluggish, but while you’re reading a book, everything’s fine. What’s terribly slow is booting up (about a minute), and copying files to the device under Windows. When using my W7 desktop, the transfer speed was about 50-100 kBps. However, when using a Fedora-powered netbook, a megabyte was transferred almost instantly. I will need to investigate further, but using Linux system as a host seems worthy.

The battery life is rated at 10,000 page turns, but I don’t know how much it can be trusted. However, after 3 days of really intensive reading the battery is at half, while the device was not off during the night. I think that two weeks uptime is entirely possible if you turn the device off when not reading.

The device is capable of playing music, but I haven’t tried it yet. You may store music in the 2GB internal memory or on the microSD card (not included), but the maximum size is said to be limited to 8 GB. It comes also with a pair of headphones, but I would advise to get a better pair yourself.

All in all, MReader is a terrific device for its price, and if it doesn’t break down, I can recommend it to anyone wants an e-reader under £100 that isn’t a part of some walled garden ecosystem. Yes, Amazon, I’m looking at you.

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/MReader-Silver-Pixelar-ereader-6/dp/B003ZHRTOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341482873&sr=8-1

[2] http://fbreader.org/

[3] http://www.mye-reader.co.uk/ereader.php

This blogpost is a response to an article, which is to be found here along with quite long a discussion that ensued: 

http://stelladuffy.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/copyright-theft-robin-hood-it-aint/

Hi, Stella,

First of all, I want to say that you can’t really tell how many people who downloaded your book would actually pay for it. Many might, but many might not. That’s the definition of a potential income. It’s like someone shouting whodunit in front of a theatre. He surely damages you, but you can’t really tell how much. Damages from theft are always exactly enumerable.

But let me get to the point: While I do believe that you could be short-term financially better off if the sharing sites didn’t have your books, I also think that they actually do you good. The fact is – people who read books tend to have quite healthy attitude towards how the world works, and if they have an option to buy quality stuff for reasonable money, they will. However, they must be sure it’s worth their money. I wasn’t able to find a decent demo of your books other than Amazon’s Look inside, and I can’t really make an image of a book based on first 10 pages. Make it half the book, and I will know if I like it.

Read More

— This essay will be available in English shortly 

Píše se začátek roku 2012 a internetová populace žije zkratkami jako SOPA, PIPA, PICP, RWA, LS (Ley Sinde) nebo ACTA. Toto jsou buď návrhy zákonů nebo mezinárodní smlouvy, jejichž společným jmenovatelem je zostření boje s porušováním duševního vlastnictví, typicky na úkor osobní svobody. Tyto zákony zvedly nebývale velkou vlnu nevole, která v konjunkci se zjitřeným vnímáním establishmentu (zapříčiněným tzv.  arabským jarem, kdy lidové demonstrace vedly k pádu zavedených autoritářských režimů) po dlouhé době vyburcovaly zejména mladé obyvatelstvo k masovým protestům, pochodům a více méně partyzánskému boji proti zákonodárcům a vlastníkům zmíněného duševního vlastnictví.

Read More

O tuzemských operátorech se toho napsalo hodně. Účtování, ceny, kličky ve smlouvách. Vodafone až na drobné výjimky vždycky platil za nejférovějšího operátora. Je to vcelku pravda, tarif na dobu neurčitou je fajn, účtování 60+1 chybí do férovosti jen 59 vteřin, a nabídka tarifu ČD Bonus je fenomenální (článek zde: http://www.radej.cz/post/12512321814/operatorovani). Tak jsem si tedy milý tarif objednal.

Vyřídili to do týdne, ale stala se jedna věc - při změně tarifu se mi starý tarif naúčtoval celý, a jen ten nový poměrnou částkou. V mém případě, kdy ke změně došlo 3 dny po začátku zúčtovacího období, to je přes 200 Kč neprovolatelných jednotek. To není málo, že. Po telefonu mi operátor sdělil, že takhle je to v pořádku, tak jsem ho jednou větou (obsahující slovo “T-Mobile”, pozn. aut.) přesvědčil, že to v pořádku není. Poněkud naštvaně odvětil něco o neoprávněné reklamaci, vstřícnosti a o tom, že mi to v příštím vyúčtování vrátí.

No jo, žádná reklamština…

For my whole lifetime I couldn’t afford to run newest games. Last summer, this fact changed and the latest fruit of that change is here. Is it bitter?

DiRT is the successor line to the late Colin McRae-named rally series, and after a good introduction and a somewhat botched sequel the third piece arrived in stores in May 2011. Knowing it was developed and published by Codemasters, I expected highest quality racing for both rookies and pros, as my experience from ToCA and GRiD indicated. I was very pleased and also bitterly disappointed. Pleased by every moment on track and disappointed by everything else.

In terms of driving experience, DiRT3 delivers pure gold. I have played the game with both keyboard and the Logitech Driving Force GT wheel (review pending) and both experiences were superb in their respective categories. Controls are responsive, customizable and welcoming, yet the cars can be very easily turned over or wrapped around a tree if you make a mistake. Setting up the wheel took a little time to find the sweet spot, but it’s nothing that can’t be done in 20 minutes.

Cars are diverse, ranging from ’60s Alpine Renault to Loeb’s WRC Citroen, and so are tracks. Point-to-point rallyes in Finland or Michigan leave little to be desired, and other gaming modes like rallycross or stadium truck racing are also enjoyable as intermezzos. ‘The thing’ of DIRT3 is Gymkhana, in which you do various shenanigans in a stunt arena supervised by the shenanigans grandmaster, Ken Block. Before every race, you get to set your car up to match the conditions on track. This setup is very straightforward and its effects are clear and predictable.

So far, you’d say everything is well, right? So read on. Everything I have said up till now is massively outsized by what happens when you’re not driving. The guys at Codemasters probably thought that DVD menus with lengthy transitions and useless glitter are an awesome thing and made DiRT’s menu look and work exactly like that. After every keypress, you are delayed by lenghty useless animations, transitions and commentaries (like ‘Also, check multiplayer for some totally awesome racing!’ - for real?). Fortunately, when you progress, the commentaries happen less often, so less often you want to shoot that guy’s head off. However, all the transitions are unskippable, adding to the frustration.

The ultimate frustration, though, is the mighty Microsoft Live gaming platform. Not only it looks extremely ugly compared to Steam, it’s also dumb as f**k. Not only it disregards the fact that you’ve got the latest version installed, it still has to download it itself. You accidentally revoke UAC before installation? Download again! Most people won’t care, but I’m on a 1Mbps connection and 70 MB update is a problem for me. Okay, so after this update you get a sledgehammer into your face - you need to download a 1 GB update for the game or you can’t play. On FUP? Too bad. Slow connection? Too bad. So, after x hours of downloading, setting up a Live account, going past the Securom check (mine fails quite often, even with an officially purchased medium), you finally get to play the game. Enjoying it? Not that much. I wonder why I didn’t dump the game after all that.

That being said, DiRT3 is a very controversial game for me. A superb driving experience being mutilated by unnecessary issues, nuisances and problems. I am enjoying the driving very much, but because of this vendor-imposed idiocy I will hesitate much before buying the sequel.

Verdict: 7/10 - Ten out of ten for gameplay, zero for the rest.

To by bylo, abych si také do mobilních operátorů nekopl. Ne, vážně - situace na českém mobilně-komunikačním trhu je dost zoufalá a probráno to bylo víc než dost. Všichni o tom vědí, všem se to nelíbí, ale nikdo nemá rozumnou alternativu, která by nebyla buď neskutečně technicky nepohodlná (zahraniční SIM, nějaký etablovaný VoIP), nebo nebyla nějak jinak brutálně nevýhodná.

Výjimky jsou. Vodafone, který nabízí účtování po vteřinách po první minutě a co tři měsíce přijde s nějakou vcelku zajímavou nabídkou pro lidi, kteří telefon trochu využívají, je schopen nabídnout i bez retenčního somrování ceny, které jsou “jen drahé”, a ne astronomicky drahé, a v kombinaci s internetem v mobilu už za tři stovky měsíčně pořídíte vcelku pěkné tarify. Je ale potřeba to sledovat, a nezřídka se ani jedna nabídka netrefí do toho, co zrovna potřebujete. V neposlední řadě také technické zabezpečení našeho nejmladšího operátora rozhodně nepatří k nejlepším a co pár týdnů je v internetové samoobsluze nějaký problém. Přístup “červených” ke mně jako k zákazníkovi je ale nejlepší.

Druhou možností je tarif ČD Bonus (http://cdbonus.vodafone.cz), který formálně vzato nabízí opět Vodafone, podmiňuje jej však vlastnictvím IN karty (na 3 roky za 300 Kč) a existující smlouvou mezi Vodafonem a ČD. Tuto nabídku bych si dovolil označit za takového virtuálního virtuálního operátora (sic), jehož kreditní tarif rozložitelný na až 70 minut nebo až 200 SMS (v libovolném poměru) za 89 korun prostě nemá obdoby. Risk toho, že jedna ze společností smlouvu vypoví (například ČD v kontextu škrtání nákladů), je ale reálný.

70 minut nebo až 200 SMS (v libovolném poměru) za 89 korun prostě nemá obdoby

Poslední věcí, kterou bych tu zmínil, jsou firemní tarify. Je možné, že někdo ve vaší rodině nebo blízkém okolí je ve firmě, která umožňuje uzavření tarifu třeba i pro vás, a v té chvíli můžete mít například neomezené tarify za pár stováků. Je to ale další podobná obezlička, jimiž je český člověk proslulý už od dob císaře pána. Mějte to ale Čechům za zlé, když ti, které to vlastně nezajímá, to zaplatí a ti, které to zajímá, nemají moc jinou možnost.

Zkrátka a dobře, kdo volat musí, ten volat bude, a nehledě na všechny Evropské komise, ČTÚ a podobné šaškárny ho operátoři stejně odrbou. Nechce-li se vám hádat o retenční nabídky nebo vám to přijde nedůstojné, těžko s tím budete něco dělat. Doufejme tedy, že aukce uvolněných frekvencí přinese 4. operátora, ačkoliv vsadit bych si na to nechtěl.

— Nerd Alert! —

Hi. When updating two packages, I encountered the phenomenon of typecasting generics in Java. As you may or may not know, you really shouldn’t do that. At all. Why, you say?

The answer is actually pretty simple. If you could typecast a collection, for example to a supertype, which would be intuitive, you could do this:

List<Subtype> oldList = new ArrayList<Subtype>();

List<Supertype> newList = oldList;

but, consider this:

newList.add(new Supertype());

Then you get a disaster as oldList (of Subtype objects), which is referenced by newList, contains an object of Supertype, therefore calling a method of Subtype.something() on every element of the list yields an error.

This is why you should never ever typecast generics in Java. Correct me if I am wrong.

Live long and prosper, TR