2. Mi-a placut mult nr din aprilie (23) din Dilemateca. L-am gasit azi-dimineata uitat in bucatarie si l-am luat la rasfoit; am aflat in sfarsit cum a murit Exupery : avionul pe care il pilota a fost doborat de un fost pilot german care a declarat : "Daca as fi stiut cu cine am de-a face, nu l-as fi doborat niciodata. Niciodata! Antoine de Saint-Exupery a fost unul dintre autorii mei preferati si un pilot foarte respectat printre militarii aviatiei germane. A descris ca nimeni altul cerul, gandurile si sentimentele pilotilor, si ne-a convins pe multi dintre noi sa devenim piloti". Asta da efect de bumerang.

Articolul lui Catalin Ghita de la pagina 54, "Nihilismul activ sau iluzia sinuciderii" mi-a reamintit de ce autorii japonezi mi s-au parut cam ridicoli in seriozitatea lor nepretuita, cu gesturile teatrale si chipurile incremenite. Yukio Mishima este exponential din acest punct de vedere: "homosexual, cu un profil psihologic sado-masochist, autorul Confesiunilor unei masti ajungea sa-si confectioneze el insusi un paravan indaratul caruia sa poata ascunde toate obsesiile, frustrariile si fatalitatile acumulate intr-o existenta scurta, dar extrem de intensa." Mishima se sinucide ritulaic in fata soldatilor, care au simt al realitatii si al umorului, deopotriva si nu-i urmeaza sfaturile de a purcede la o lovitura de stat.

3. Nu credeam ca o sa ajung sa prefer vreodata Libraria Noi de la Sala Dalles, Librariei Carturesti. Am facut azi un tur al librariilor si la Carturesti m-am impiedicat la fiecare colt de oale, pahare, cutii, jucarii de fite, etc. Unde e dichisul? La supermarket nu e dichis, e doar marfa multa si variata. Propun sa bage si cosuri de cumparaturi la intrare, ca sa nu mai umble lumea cu vesela in brate ca nu le mai ramane spatiu si pentru carti!

4. Citesc Omul generos de Tor Norretranders (Editura Publica, 2008 ) si-mi place: are mai mult continut decat hiturile Karaoke Capitalism si Funky Business si desi in aparenta pare destul de frivola, nu e: "asadar aceasta carte este despre sex. Dar numai pentru ca sexul implica de fapt si cu totul alte lucruri- intelect, intelepciune si estetica."

5. Si ultima obsesie de pe mp3playerul meu: aici.

Puede escuchar y descargar el libro en tres lenguas: Español, Francés e Inglés. Descarge el audilibro en Español. Free (Listen and download the book and audiobook in Spanish. Book available in three languages)

http://albalearning.com/audiolibros/exupery_elprincipito.html

TODOS los audiolibros y libros en:

http://albalearning.com/audiolibros

Kaiba was not originally on my list of shows to watch this season. I admit, I saw a couple of screenshots, dismissed it as a simple Japanese kids' show and went about my business. How wrong I was.

Kaiba is now the second star of the season in my opinion. A tale about an amnesiatic boy who awakes in a world where human bodies are harvested by the rich for spare parts, and his only clue to his past is a locket around his neck with a blurred picture of a girl. Kaiba is one of those stories which drops us in the middle of a strange, exotic world and asks us to trust and hold on. And oh, what an exotic world it is. The art style reminds me of Antoine de Saint Exupery's The Little Prince (a story dear to my heart) and French science fiction art of the 60s and 70s. This aesthetic was clearly a conscious decision as it informs every aspect of the world: a strange, eyeless ostrich creature with a bubble-encased head rescues our hero, Warp; the "guns" look like rayguns out of 1950's Buck Rodgers; Warp's friend and savior Popo dresses like a spaceman from the alien vista of a 70s disco album. It's strange and otherworldly, exotic and terribly charming.

Needless to say, this show comes with my highest recommendation. We really have something special here this season.

The Little Prince father, probably killed by a nazi pilot

Horst Rippert, an 88-year old former pilot of Germany's Luftwaffe, has said in a forthcoming book that he may have killed French writer and war pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1944

Saint-Exupery, who achieved worldwide fame with his fairy-tale-like book "The Little Prince," died in mysterious circumstances when his plane came down near Marseilles while on a reconnaissance mission. His body has never been found.

Extracts of the book "Saint-Exupery: The Final Secret" were published in Le Figaro magazine over the weekend, and Le Figaro quoted Rippert as saying: "It's me, I shot down Saint-Exupery."

However, Rippert also said in the article that he could not be certain of the identity of the French pilot whose plane he shot down. He also hoped it was not the French author as he was a big fan of Saint-Exupery's works.

"I didn't see the pilot and even so, it would have been impossible for me to know that it was Saint-Exupery. I have hoped ever since that it wasn't him," he said.

Saint-Exupery was a pioneering pilot of his era. Following the Nazi German occupation of France in 1940, he moved to New York but then came back and joined the Free French air force. He was 44 years old when he died.

(Haz click en el mapa para ver el recorrido animado de la Vuelta al Mundo) 

Esta es una lista pequeña e incompleta de libros y películas de viaje. Son historias que me han hecho reir, soñar y aprender y que quiero compartir, es algo que vale la pena. Por supuesto, puedes agregar tus favoritos.

NARRATIVA DE VIAJE 

• Mundos para Explorar, Historias Clásicas de Viajes y Aventuras del National Geographic, editorial RBA, colección National Geographic (http://www.artemisleon.com/cgi-vel/homero/WFICHA-LIBRO.pro?COD-LIBRO=237257)
• En Siberia, de Colin Thubron, editorial Península, colección Altaïr Viajes.
• El Antropólogo Inocente, de Nigel Barley, editorial Anagrama, colección Crónicas (http://www.clubdellector.com/fichaautor.php?clave=3229)
• Entre el Orinoco y el Amazonas (de nuevo en apuros), de Redmond O’Hanlon, editorial Anagrama, colección Crónicas.
• Un Día más con Vida, de Ryszard Kapuscinski, editorial Anagrama, colección Crónicas (http://www.lecturalia.com/libro/2791/un-dia-mas-con-vida)
• Atrapados en el Hielo, La Legendaria expedición a la Antártida de Shackleton, de Caroline Alexander, editorial Planeta, GeoPlaneta (http://libros.linkara.com/libro/atrapados-hielo-caroline-alexandre-91nm.html)
• Arenas de Arabia, de Wilfred Thesiger (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Thesiger)
• The Seed and the Sower, de Laurens Van der Post (en inglés: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurens_van_der_Post)
• Viven, de Piers Paul Read (http://www.lecturalia.com/libros-comentarios/14088/viven)

.

NOVELA DE VIAJE

• Tuareg, de Alberto Vázquez Figueroa (1980) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_V%C3%A1zquez-Figueroa)
• Siddharta, de Herman Hesse (1922) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_%28novela%29)
• En el Camino, de Jack Kerouac (1951) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Road)
• Bora Bora, de Alberto Vázquez Figueroa (2001) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_V%C3%A1zquez-Figueroa)
• En busca del Unicornio, de Juan Eslava Galán (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Eslava_Gal%C3%A1n)
• Cielo Verde, de Folco Quilici (1997) (http://www.thelanguageof.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_56&products_id=338)
• El Señor de los Anillos, de J.R.Tolkien (entre 1937 y 1949) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%B1or_de_los_Anillos)
• La Ruta de Orellana, de Alberto Vázquez Figueroa (1974) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_V%C3%A1zquez-Figueroa)
• El Corto Maltés, historietas de Hugo Pratt (de 1967 a 1988) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corto_Maltes)
• La Vida de Pi, de Yann Martel (http://www.ociojoven.com/article/articleview/650509/1/249/La%20vida%20de%20Pi)

. 

LIBROS INFANTILES DE VIAJES

• La Vuelta al Mundo en 80 Días, de Julio Verne (1873) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_vuelta_al_mundo_en_ochenta_d%C3%ADas)
• Viaje al Centro de la Tierra, de Julio Verne (1864) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viaje_al_centro_de_la_Tierra)
• 20.000 leguas de Viaje Submarino, de Julio Verne (1869) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veinte_mil_leguas_de_viaje_submarino)
• De la Tierra a la Luna, de Julio Verne (1865) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_la_Tierra_a_la_Luna)
• Historias de Sandokán, el tigre de la Malasia (1900) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandok%C3%A1n)
• Alicia en el País de las Maravillas, de Charles Dodgson (1865) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_aventuras_de_Alicia_en_el_pa%C3%ADs_de_las_maravillas)
• El Principito, de Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943) (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principito)

• Torsten Bergmann has packaged Joseph Perline's Toothpick logging framework as a Monticello package and made it available on both Squeak Map and Squeaksource.
• Elod Kironsky has released SmallDEVS, a Squeak-based, lightweight implementation of the DEVS (Discrete event systems specification) formalism.
• Damien Cassou is continuing working on his Squeak-dev and Squeak-web images.
• Pavel Krivanek announced the final 3.9 release of his KernelImage minimal image.
• Lex Spoon has released the stable package universe for Squeak 3.9.
• Bryce Kampjes released version 0.10 of Exupery.
• Goran Krampe released version 0.3 of the Gjallar issue tracker.
• Brian Rice provided new looks and functionalities to the SqueakMap Package Loader.
• Keith Hodges is continuing his work on Installer, with new features every release.
• Chris Muller has released a new stable version of the Magma OODB, available on Squeak Map.
• A new version of the Chronos library by Alan Lovejoy has been published on Squeaksource.
• Stéphane Rollandin has published a new development snapshot of muO, an experimental environment for music composition.
• Masashi Umezawa has announced version 0.2 of the SIXX XML object serializer.
• David T. Lewis has published SlangBrowser, an interactive Slang code browser.

The thing I'm going to write about now is not a thing that happens to me for the first time. No, in fact it is not even the second or the third time that I make this very same mistake... and I know I should stand up and close this chapter here and now. "No more consolation, no more aggravation, no more I'm making changes for everyone..."

The letter I have received today is the natural consquence of the events, I've already known that I would eventuallly receive something similar some time in the future, just didn't know when exactly. I used to study psychology for years, and this kind of behaviour is totally predictable and natural in these situations. It doesn't particularly strike me, but it definitely makes me feel bad and sad.

As you know I've been into writing letters (snail mail) ever since I can remember, that's how I got to know Sárka, Szonja, Zuzie and Hanna as well (and at least a hundred people on my friends list here on myspace, too). There was a little 15 year-old girl who once wrote to me, called Dalma. I distinctly remembered her sister from parties but never actually met her as she lived in another town and did not go out. A week after her first letter and without me ever replying her, she sent me another letter, this time with a big box of gifts (!). Her letter was warm, enthusiastic and very-very confused. I could barely make out her problems in the flow of mixed-up emotions, let alone her grammatical and spelling mistakes. She talked about hurting herself physically on purpose and her dreams to rule the world and then the possibility of killing herself... then, all of a sudden, in the middle of a sentence she changed the topic and switched to her boy-hunting experiences. Sometimes she told me she was a virgin, then a few letters later she already talked about herself as if she was a filthy whore who sleeps with anybody who offers her a piece of bread. And yes, those letters kept coming, once every week... and at a certain point, something made me think that I should send her reply once she laid my trust in me, without the two of us having any contact with each other, ever.

I naively thought that my short letters (in which I try to give her advice) and my small gifts (just cds and books) might help her feel better a bit or at least cheer her up. Soon I realized that she had a quarrel with pretty much everybody from the deco scene, mainly for various childish reasons, of course. She didn't spare any time to send out hate letters to people she didn't like for one reason or the other, but it became pretty obvious to me after a while that she was not "evil" (unlike she preferred to refer to herself), just a confused, screwed-up kid with a number of mental problems.     

Every time she wrote to me, she used up at least 50 pages and sent me bulk packages with gifts. I couldn't do much with these things because I'm not in the need for charity; when I get something the reason why it makes me happy is because I get it from a friend and not because I couldn't afford getting myself a goddamn gel pen or a Hello Kitty stationary. 

The last time she wrote to me, she sent me about twenty cds, telling me to download music for her. OK, I downloaded some stuff for her as it really isn't a big deal for me, I'd do it for anyone, really. However, three of her cds got damaged during the delivery and most of the covers broke of course (imagine she sent me the cds with the plastic cover in the envelope, have you ever heard of anything similar???). What could I do, I just used up my own cds, it's not a big deal, especially considering that I barely use cds anymore now that I have the mp3 player. The thing is that I do not buy plastic cover for the cds, so I just gave her the cds in papercovers along with a book she wanted to obtain when we eventually met in December at the Crüx-gig.

Now, the highlight is that today, 1.5 months after the events, I got a lovely hate-letter from her in which she enlightens me that I stole her wonderful quality cds and probably sold them somewhere (lol), that I didn't spend every single minute with her at the Crüx-gig (she was with me all the way through but I had many of my other friends there, obviously), moreover I did not go to pick her up in Budapest at the railway station (precisely because SHE missed her train and could only leave in the evening and by that time I was supposed to be at the venue to make the interview with the band, hah), and that I'm "so full of myself" that I sent her a book she does not like because it is "primitive" (she was the one flattering about that particular book a few months before and it took me a while to get it). Then, another important problem of hers was that I never wrote her long letters and then I usually wrote about "nothing" anyway.

Well, what can I say? I'm not a naive kid and I'm very well aware of the fact that this kind of behaviour was the exact thing I chould have expected from her, but now I really have no clue what to do. Shall I just ignore her and forget about it all or shall I write her a short letter in which I try to explain that she will never ever be able to win people's friendship with gifts and writing hundreds of pages about herself, but to make a friend you have communicate with the other person... You have to tame them. Without her ever taming me, of course her letters meant nothing to me, her gifts left me empty and her poems left me cold. We never shared anything with each other, the relationship was not symmetric, we had nothing to talk about. No common field of interest, no mutual desire to share thoughts.

If I send books or cds to a real friend or somebody I feel close to, it's not because I'm stalking them or want them to share my taste in books or music and give up their individuality. The reason why I do that is because I want to share my world with them, show them what I like or find interesting and I love it when they do the same. I feel honoured when Zuzie sends me a cd with Jamiroqui on it even though the music is not my top favourite, but I know that it means a lot to her and she wants to share that special feeling with me. Get the point? 

Without this special bond, there is no friendship, no meaningful human relationship. It takes two equal persons though. So no more charity friendships. "No more consultation, no more aggravation, no more I'm making changes for everyone."

And for those of you who still have a few extra minutes left, please re-read the passage from The Little Prince and think it over in a new light:   

"who are you?" asked the little prince, and added,

"You are very pretty to look at."

"I am a fox", the fox said.

"Come and play with me,"
proposed the little prince, "I am so unhappy."

"I cannot play with you," the fox said,
"I am not tamed."

"Ah please excuse me,"said the little prince.
But after some thought, he added:
"what does that mean---'tame'?"

"you do not live here," said the fox,
"what is it you are looking for?"

"I am looking for men," said the little prince.
"What does that mean---tame?"

"Men,"said the fox,
"they have guns, and they hunt.
It is very disturbing.
They also raise chickens.
These are their only interests.
Are you looking for chickens?"

"No," said the little prince.
"I am looking for friends.
What does that mean---tame?"

"It is an act too often neglected,"
said the fox.
"It means to establish ties."

"To establish ties?"

"Just that," said the fox.
"to me, you are still nothing more than
a little boy who is just like
a hundred thousand other little boys.
And I have no need of you.
And you, on your part, have no need of me.
To you I am nothing more
than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But if you tame me, then we shall need each other.
To me, you will be unique in all the world.
To you, I shall be unique in all the world. . ."

"I am beginning to understand,"
said the little prince.

"There is a flower. . .I think she has tamed me. . ."

"It is possible," said the fox.

"On earth one sees all sorts of things."

"Oh but this is not on the earth!"
said the little prince.

The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.
"On another planet?"

"Yes"

"Are there hunters on that planet?"

"No"

"Ah that's interesting! Are there chickens?"

"No"

"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.
But he came back to his idea.
"My life is very monotonous," he said.
"I hunt chickens; men hunt me.
All chickens are just alike,
and all the men are just alike.
And in consequence, I am a little bored.
But if you tame me,
it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life.
I shall know the sound of a step that will be
different from all the others.
Other steps send me hurrying back
underneath the ground.
Yours will call me, like music out of my burrow.
And then look:
you see the grain-fields down yonder?
I do not eat bread.
Wheat is of no use to me.
The wheat fields have nothing to say to me.
And that is sad.
But you have hair that is the color of gold.
Think how wonderful that will be
when you have tamed me!
The grain, which is also golden,
will bring me back the thought of you.
And I shall love to listen
to the wind in the wheat. . ."

The fox gazed at the little prince,
for a long time.
"Please---tame me!" he said.

"I want to, very much," the little prince replied.
"But I have not much time.
I have friends to discover,
and a great many things to understand."

"One only understands the things that one tames,"
said the fox.
" Men have no more time to understand anything.
They buy things all ready made at the shops.
But there is no shop anywhere
where one can buy friendship,
and so men have no friends any more.
If you want a friend, tame me. . ."

"What must I do, to tame you?
asked the little prince.

"You must be very patient," replied the fox.
First you will sit down
at a little distance from me
-like that-in the grass.
I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye,
and you will say nothing.
Words are the source of misunderstandings.
But you will sit a little closer to me,
every day..."

The next day the little prince came back.

"It would have been better to come back
at the same hour," said the fox.
"If for example, you came at four o'clock
in the afternoon,
then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy.
I shall feel happier and happier
as the hour advances.
At four o'clock,
I shall be worrying and jumping about.
I shall show you how happy I am!
But if you come at just any time,
I shall never know at what hour
my heart is ready to greet you. . .
One must observe the proper rites. . ."

"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.

"Those also are actions too often neglected,"
said the fox.
"they are what make one day
different from other days,
one hour different from other hours.
There is a rite, for example, among my hunters.
Every Thursday they danse with the village girls.
So Thursday is a wonderful day for me!
I can take a walk as far as the vineyards.
But if the hunters danced at just any time,
every day would be like
every other day,
and I should never have any vacation at all."

So the little prince tamed the fox.
And when the hour of his departure drew near---

"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

"It is your own fault," said the little prince.
"I never wished you any sort of harm;
but you wanted me to tame you. . ."

"Yes that is so", said the fox.

"But now you are going to cry!"
said the little prince.

"Yes that is so" said the fox.

"Then it has done you no good at all!"

"It has done me good," said the fox,
"because of the color of the wheat fields."
And then he added:
"go and look again at the roses.
You will understand now
that yours is unique in all the world.
Then come back to say goodbye to me,
and I will make you a present of a secret."

The little prince went away,
to look again at the roses.
"You are not at all like my rose," he said.
"As yet you are nothing.
No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one.
You are like my fox when I first knew him.
He was only a fox
like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But I have made a friend,
and now he is unique in all the world."
And the roses were very much embarrassed.
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on.
"One could not die for you.
To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think
that my rose looked just like you
--the rose that belongs to me.
But in herself alone she is more important
than all the hundreds of you
other roses: because it is she that I have watered;
because it is she
that I have put under the glass globe;
because it is for her
that I have killed the caterpillars
(except the two or three we saved
to become butterflies);
because it is she that I have listened to,
when she grumbled,
or boasted,
or even sometimes when she said nothing.
Because she is MY rose."

And he went back to meet the fox.
"Goodbye" he said.

"Goodbye," said the fox.
"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret:
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye,"
the little prince repeated,
so that he would be sure to remember.

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose
that makes your rose so important.

"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--
"said the little prince
so he would be sure to remember.

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox.
"But you must not forget it.
You become responsible, forever,
for what you have tamed.
You are responsible for your rose. . ."

"I am responsible for my rose,"
the little prince repeated,
so that he would be sure to remember.

From the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Handout: Exupery Design.

This is a very informative video exploring Exupery for those of you following compiler and VM developments. The video ends a few minutes before the talk is finished. Our thanks to Göran Krampe for filming it.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=6230677874355637060&hl=en]

Also, don't forget to read to our little Exupery FAQ!

Introduction
First of all, the master reference for exupery is the omnipresent wiki.

I have done a small interview to Bryce Kampjes, and we ended up building an interesting FAQ for Exupery.

Q: What is Exupery?
A: Exupery is a native code compiler for Squeak. It translates byte-code into machine code. It can compile most methods which don't include primitives and a handful of primitives. It is becoming something like a JIT but with the compiler written in Smalltalk. At the moment, it can dynamically inline a handful of primtives but not full methods.

Q: Exupery is not only a "Just in time compiler" (JIT) as we will see in the next few answers. What does "Exupery" means?
A: It's named after a French author and early aviator.

Q: I have installed if from SqueakMap. How can I use it?
A: Instructions in the wiki pages above. But you'll need a custom VM. I've had to modify the VM so it'll jump into the native code from interpreted code. For now you need to manually compile methods.
In the latest development builds the following is good:

ExuperyProfiler optimise: [ExuperyBenchmarks new compilerBenchmark].
Exupery dynamicallyInline.

The first line profiles the expression in the block then tries to compile the hot spots. The second line inlines any primitives called by compiled code.
[See this link for the VM]

Q: Can I compile my class and try it at my own risk?
Sure.

Q: Can I compile only some classes?
Exupery will only ever compile some methods. It's goal is to compile frequently called methods well producing good code, rather than all methods quickly. You tell it to compile methods rather than classes.

Q: How much stable is Exupery? Can I use it for my important Flower Collection Blog? (Ok I was just kidding, I haven't a Flower blog... ;)
Yes, but it's still an alpha compiler. Expect bugs and crashes. If you really need to speed up your blog, then compile the critical methods and script compilation. Don't let Exupery use it's profiler or any dynamic compiler in production. That should allow you to test it better.For now, if you really want to use it in production explicitly compile the methods that you think will lead to a speed gain then test it. This should reduce the risk of crashes.

Q: Can I use MessageTally to profile Exupery and compare against interpreted code?
Not at the moment. The problem is compiled code does not check for interrupts so MessageTally will never see it.To compare use

Time millisecondsToRun: [...].


Q: I want to come back! Is it easy?
You can always stop using Exupery. At any point you can tell it to remove all compiled code from the system. There are VM hooks, but it removes all compiled contexts before saving so it's always possible to go back to a vanilla VM. If you go back to a vanilla VM you are in exactly the same place you were before you started experimenting with Exupery (besides having a few extra classes in the image).

Q: I'd like to work on Exupery. Where should I start?
Q: Join the exupery mailing list and ask for things to work on. Say what you're interested in doing. If you email me, I'll reply.
There's a decent amount of stuff to do. The first thing is probably building an Exupery VM. For most things it helps to have a local build environment both for staying current and for debugging. If you're just working on in-image stuff, say the profiler or testing then you could live with pre-compiled VMs. But if you want to work on new primitives or features then you'll need to be able to debug. At a minimum that involves recompiling VMs to add logging.
I can only supply Linux VM's. If you're running another OS, then you'll need to build your own or get one from someone else.

Final words
We thank a lot Bryce Kampjes for the rapid reply. We hope this FAQ will help Squeak fan to try Exupery. That said, your comments are welcome: please ask more question so that we can enhance this document.
We feel that Exupery is a very interesting project, and can attract many developers because of the performance gain.