I took a dive into early history of Slavic people and I have learned few interesting things.
First to clarify Slavic people name comes from Slavic "slovo" which means "word" and "slavit" which means to "spread the word, worship" It indicates people of the "word" as opposed to people of germanic (Goths) origin "niemec, niemcy" people what do not speak the "word", "mute".
The Chernyakhov culture existed from the 2nd to the 5th centuries, in the territories of modern Ukraine, Moldova and Wallachia (Romania). It is characterized by polished black pottery vessels, fine metal ornaments, and impressive iron tools. It is thought to be a precursor to proto-Slavic culture.
All Slavic people spoke the same Common Slavonic in historic times, its differentiation into those daughter languages only commencing in the 9th century AD.
Polans were a Slavic tribe between the 6th and the 9th century, which inhabited region of the Dnieper river from southern Bielarus down to Kyiv, Ukraine. Around 9th century Western Polans tribe, among others (Masovians, Vistulans, Silesians and Pomeranians), became Polish (hence the name). The Eastern Polans became integrated in union of about twelve East Slavic tribes into Kievan Rus (present Ukraine).
The main god of slavs was Perun, (Thunder god), which ties up directly with Pro-Indo-European (notice name similarity) Perkwunos , from Sanskrit Parjanya, Prussian Perkuns, Lithuanian Perkūnas, Latvian Pērkons, and Norse Fjörgyn. Fjörgyn was replaced by Thor among the Germanic-speaking peoples. The Celtic hammer god Sucellus (also cf. Taranis "Thunderer") is of the same character, but with an unrelated name.
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It is the unexpected little things that make the life so great and worth living. Today, I want to write about things that uplift and motivate us when everyday things get a little boring, a little difficult and lonely. Looking at people all around one can get the idea that others are happy, busy and successful, or at least are pursuing the happiness, while we are unsure of the future, beat up by the past with a great pile of bills waiting at home to be opened. Yes, that is me, too. Most of the time I feel that the only thing I can manage in life is to struggle, so many times I have failed people around me, I have lost contact with people whom I should have kept close, I did not do, or provide, what I should have. All of it is crushing my self esteem and the will to persevere. It is even hard to keep good sleep hours and diet when you are alone. Not that I am lazy, quite opposite, I keep doing things a little more, a little longer, hoping that it will somehow make a difference, that I will have a happy break. It sometimes work. The resume keeps growing, the opportunities materialize, but as it is a human nature, soon after we forget the blessings from the past. Vicious cycle, rat race.
Today was one of these days, nothing to complain really, I worked whole day, never even making a dent in what I would like to have accomplished. I could have been proud of myself if I had a drop of objectivism in my life, but I don't. After work, I went to Barnes & Noble for coffee to study a little more and when I could not do that anymore I decided to go and see a movie.
At this point I would like to write about what I intended, the good things in life. The movie was surpassingly good, it was about great love and heroes. People do need heroes, we have been conditioned for tens of thousands of years to gather together at night around the fire and to listen stories about heroes, it is a fabric of our lives, what makes us human. Back in the days it was our tribe, our friends, that would tell and re-tell the stories of the past, that would laugh with us at our mistakes and highlight, often exaggerate, our adventures which with time became the stuff of legends. We don't have much of that today, people, even those close to us are hardly ever willing to sing songs about us, there are no more heroes in everyday lives. Too bad, really. However, we have movies. We have books that are full of heroes. They keep us going, they keep us from becoming total zombies as everyone down deep wants to be a knight on a white horse chopping heads off the bad guys and winning the great love of a fair lady. Surprisingly, today, what made me feel inspired was a totally unexpected YouTube I found on Facebook, "Spoken Word" by Hollie McNish reciting a poem, in what can be considered a heavy, rather rough Brit accent. I was absolutely captivated, I felt that I have not heard the power of the spoken word for years, an art I have totally neglected. I simply have forgotten how powerful words can be. People have oils and charcoal, paintings and sketches - I love visual arts, too, but most of all I love words. Her performance made me realize how much I have missed the art of story telling, poetry of words. All suddenly, I felt home with myself again knowing who I really am, what makes me happy. I could see with the eye of my mind the fire place, the pages of paper and a real fountain pen with golden tip gliding effortlessly, telling stories, composing poems. I could see the old, polished table, a window, the snow outside and evergreen trees of the mountains. I could see an outdoor cafe above the ocean, the typewriter and the pages of a novel coming out of it with a lovely staccato of keys pressed. I could see an old pension house in a small resort town in Polish mountains, piano, library, low coffee table and a comfortable sofa, rain outside, deep thoughts, writing.
Totally by chance, I stumbled upon books signing session in the book store tonight, the author, a lovely black lady has had interviewed countless happy couples around the world who have been together for 25 years, or longer. I've sat in and listened, I've got hope and warmth in return. I've got the book signed by the author and a cup hot chocolate. I wrote these words and I can go sleep happily. Good night dear Natalia, I love you.
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Today, I want to write about the unexpected things that uplift us when everyday life gets depressing, difficult, and lonely.
Looking at people around, one is getting the idea that others are happy, busy, and successful, or at least are pursuing happiness.
Meanwhile, you are unsure of your future, beat up by the past, and with a great pile of unpaid bills waiting at home to be opened. Yes, that is me, too.
So many times, I have failed people around me and lost contact with people I should have kept close.
I did not do or provide what I should have. Most of the time, I can only manage to struggle some more.
All of it is crushing my self-esteem and the will to persevere.
It is even hard to keep good sleep hours and diet.
It's not that I am lazy—quite the opposite. I keep doing what I am supposed to do a little earlier and longer, hoping that it will make a difference and I will have a happy break.
My job resume keeps growing, and opportunities materialize, but it is human nature to forget the blessings from the past. We live in a vicious cycle—it is a rat race.
Today was one of those days.
There is nothing to complain about, really. I worked all day, never even making a dent in what I would like to have accomplished. I could have been proud of myself if I had a drop of objectivism, but I don't.
After work, I went to Barnes & Noble for coffee to study a little more.
By chance, I stumbled upon a book signing session in the bookstore tonight.
The author, a lovely black lady, has interviewed countless happy couples worldwide who have been together for 25 years or longer. I sat in and listened. I've got hope and warmth.
I got the book signed by the author and a cup of hot chocolate.
I decided to go and see a movie.
The movie was surprisingly good. It was about great love and heroes. People do need heroes. We have been conditioned for thousands of years to gather together at night around the fire and listen to stories about heroes. It is a fabric of our lives, what makes us human.
Back in the day, it was our tribe, our friends, that would tell and re-tell the stories of the past, that would laugh with us at our mistakes and highlight, often exaggerate, our adventures, which with time became the stuff of legends.
We don't have much of that today. People, even those dear to us, are hardly ever willing to sing songs about us, and there are no more heroes in our everyday lives.
However, we have movies and books that are full of heroes. They keep us going, they keep us from becoming total zombies as everyone down deep wants to be the knight on the white horse, chopping heads off the bad guys and winning the great love of a fair lady.
Surprisingly, tonight, I was inspired by a totally unexpected YouTube video I found on Facebook of a British lady, Hollie McNish, reciting a poem in what many would consider an awful, deep-steet Brit accent.
I was absolutely captivated. I had not heard the power of the spoken word for years, an art I had totally neglected. I simply had forgotten how powerful words can be.
People have oils and charcoal, paintings and sketches—I love the visual arts, too, but most of all, I love words.
Her performance made me realize how much I have missed the art of storytelling, the poetry of words.
Suddenly, I felt at home again, knowing who I am and what makes me happy.
With my mind's eye, I could see the fireplace, a low table, pages of paper, and a fountain pen with a golden nib gliding effortlessly, telling stories and composing poems.
I could see the old wooden table at the window, the snow outside, the evergreen trees of the mountains, the typewriter, and pages of the book coming out of it with a lovely tap-tap of keys pressed.
I could see a table in the outdoor cafe above the oceanside, a notebook.
I could see an old, stylish guest house I had visited in a small resort town in the Polish mountains. There was a piano, a library, a low cafe table, a comfortable sofa, the rain outside, deep thoughts, and writing.
I want to write about good things in life.
I wrote these words, and I can go to sleep happily.
Good night, my dear Natalia. I love you.
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I started to experiment with my old Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Google IO edition) running CyanogenMod Android 4.2.2 by using it exclusively as a replacement for a laptop.
I have been creating tutorials, so I have a need to take a lot of screenshots, since it is tricky, or rather not intuitive, I thought I need to share the shortcut:
Hold Power + Volume Down (side closer to Power) for 1 second.
The screenshot on this tablet is saved under, again not very intuitive:
/storage/emulated/0/Pictures/Screenshots
I wish I kneew to to change that location to save to Google Drive, if you know please post a comment.
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This post is part of my experiment if Android tablet could become a (temporary) replacement for my MacBookPro laptop, here I will evaluate Android development on Android Tablet using AIDE IDE (free version / $9.99 premium).
The original post I developed using only (very old) Galaxy 10.1 (GT-P7510) tablet running CyanogenMod Android 4.2.2 and Apple BT keyboard. I had few complaints that are no longer valid when I switched to using Samsung Galaxy Note 12.1 with BT keyboard running Android Kitkat 4.4.2.
Initial observations:
The IDE is much better than I expected
Syntax completion works well
Syntax coloring is good
Compile-time errors are detected nicely
Home/end arrows jump to the next block {_ } of code, which make things easier
Synch of project directory with Dropbox is a great feature
The Gradle project samples are not yet supported which is a big deal as most sample projects come as Gradle builds
AIDE does not support (2/4 app) split screen which is not a big deal as that is not useful anyway
I was not able to GIT push from the tablet, but I was able to GIT Commit (locally), then Dropbox Synch and GIT Commit from my desktop, that is not perfect but it allows working with git while on the go
AIDE updated version while I was typing and I lost my changes
Testing GIT and Dropbox combination:
To demonstrate to PROCESS of DEVELOPMENT using AIDE, I will develop a simple Android app that listens to GPS changes and requests Google Map webpage. The final app should look like that:
Start creating a new project in the default AppProjects directory.
For this project I am choosing simplest "Hello World" app template that only creates Main.java and corresponding files.
Since I am developing one of my own GDG Chicago Android workshops (#120), I will call this app w120.
~
The project will use Fine Location and Internet permissions.
You can use 2 finger pinch to ZOOM text size.
Syntax completion does not seem to work in AndroidManifest.xml
Ctrl+S to save the file.
careful, it is easy to misspell android.permission and you will not get WARNING until you run the app and it crashes
~
Open res/layout/main.xml
Add WebView
I was surprised to see syntax completion: the suggestion showed for "fill_parent" but not for "android:layout_width".
~
Added WebView to main.xml layout. In this WebView we will display the Google Map with current location. The name of that view is "web_view" we will use it in Java code to set content.
I was able to select whole line with Shift+Arrow Up, then Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V which is how normally I add similar lines.
If you misspell you will get accurate warning
Also as I work on the tablet and Crtl+S, I see on the desktop that Dropbox synchs the files in real time
We create a method openWebView() that will get reference to the WebView layout and pass URL to it.
Completion works very well in Java files.
Again error messaging is excellent I mistyped "getJavaScriptEnabled(true)" and it explained me clearly what is the problem
When typing a new class that has not been imported the error messaging is pretty clear
~
import completion works OK, it does not try to figure out where class Location comes from
Because of compilation error encountered above I need to add android.location.*; package. On desktop I would specify each entity to be imported separately, but here I am being lazy, which for some of my clients would be a no-no. As soon as I import the error disappears. Notice that I am in full screen mode now.
Finished adding method that build Google Map URL
~
Cleaned up and optimized the code
AIDE does NOT like comments, I had to close project and open file again because sometimes the Java got all green from the comments above.
The members highlighted in Yellow are not being used yet
~
Method that starts Location Updates Listener.
Once again completion works very well.
For long lines pinch to zoom
We set it so it updates only every 10 meters or ever 30 seconds, more often would not be practical using Web Google Maps that have to re-load.
we will call this method in onCreate()
~
Implement Location Listener with its methods.
Error messaging is excellent
Once you start typing @Override methods the completion kicks in nicely
For now we just re-open the WebView with new address every time we get notified of location change.
~
Finally we can we can put method startLocationManager() in onCreate(..).
Hint: if you have methods that are underlined yellow that means you are not using them.
~
Open res/layout/main.xml
add TextView id
~
Add statusLine variable which we will use to display Location status changes
hide webView until we have actual map to show
~
you can refine the messages in your Location Listener
do not forget to set webView to VISIBLE
Enable GPS on your device
In the MENU in top-right corner make sure your files are SAVED.
Now try to RUN your project.
The build process takes noticeably longer on OLD TABLET that on new one.
If no errors the app will go thru installation steps, asking for permissions.
~
If you made mistakes, e.g. in permissions the app will crash and you can look at the logcat
Hint: use pinch to zoom LogCat text
~
Creating application KeyStore and signing the app for distribution
And finally we have an app that is ready for distribution. You can attach it to email and send it to friends and family to admire your genius.
This is by no means completed app and it could keep growing and getting better, but it does show a concept of changing UI based on LocationListener.
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Today, I was shopping for Windows 8 tablet/laptop. I am a Mac user, but my wife has to use Windows for work. I have to say that I was very impressed, I liked Microsoft Surface Pro 2 and Sony VAIO fit 13.
I think the tablet/laptop or fun/work market segment will be huge.
Being an Android developer I was thinking "Why I cannot use ONE tablet to do all my stuff, namely:
1) Write Android apps
2) Edit my docs and books (Apple Pages, or Word Docs)
4) Use misc tools for code management (code repo, diff tools)
Soon you will be able to have an Android tablet with QUAD processors and 128-256 GB of memory, and external USB hard drive, HDMI port and BT HID (keyboard, pointer).
I started to research what is available and a quick search came up with the following:
Today, I was working on realistic grass using "Extrusion" along the curve.
I started with a NURB Circle which I flattened and shaped to resemble cross section of a blade of grass. I extruded along a curve and resized the upper tip to 0.05 - I did not want a sharp point. Then I resized the bottom of the grass to be a little smaller that the middle.
I applied a file texture with a magnified picture of actual grass.
After I had a single blade I duplicated it adjusting the curve shape each time a little to form a clump of grass blades.
Once I had a clump I duplicated it to have a lawn, each time adjusting what I copy so I don't have a tell-tale pattern.
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