I've created a RSS-to-WML gateway that allows you to read RSS feeds from any cell phone that supports WAP. I have Nokia 3510i, so I could use some J2ME midlet by myself for such purpose, but only one that I found was shareware :(. Feel free to use it and post any feeback here in comments.

LAKA (Latvian Open Source Association) informs - 22 July 2004, Riga, Latvia - seminar about software patents. Special guest: Richard Stallman. :)

More info: rms-viziite-EN.pdf (102.54 Kb)

"Linux Laptop w/ 3.5" Disk, USB, and No Hard Drive?": "I have an IBM Thinkpad 390 Laptop, PII 266Mhz, 128 MB RAM, with USB 1.0 port and a 3.5 floppy drive being the most important stats I would assume for this question. So my hard drive died, and I've been using a DOS boot disk and a program called Mel to do my word processing." Yes, people are still using DOS!

While using Slackware Linux on my PIII-800 workstation at home and Mikrotik RouterOS on my P5-100 router, I'm still using FreeDOS (from scratch build system, not a distribution) on an AMD K6-233 box. What software do I have there? DOSLFN for long filename support, Volkov Commander as file manager, FreeDOS Edit as text editor, FASM for asm coding, DJGPP (GCC, bash and other GNU stuff), QuickView Pro as media player, and, of course, lot of old DOS games (can't live without old, good Sid Meier's Civilization).

What I'm still missing? Some free word processing software (I don't want to use proprietary MS Word or WordPerfect), it seems that there exists some (GalaxyWrite?), good HTML viewer (I'm using FreeDOS Help currently, but I plan to install Lynx and Arachne). Also I want some multitasking support (I liked taskman.exe that comes with DR-DOS 7).

DOS is not dead! IMHO it's still a best choice for low-end hardware.

Today found on DELFI review of AMD Athlon64 powered computer from Latvian technology magazine "NEXT". When I set eyes on price - about 700 LVL (1284 USD), I started thinking - maybe I should switch to 64-bits?

Apollo writes (in Latvian): "Lursoft presents new free service which facilitate searching for information on Internet and in Lursoft databases, by using Lursoft's Internet search engine Siets." New service allows to view other search keywords used by other people who searched for the keyword you used. Siets is one of best search engines in Latvia and is often called "Latvian Google".

Today found this arcticle on TVNET (it's in Latvian). "Integration into EU gave for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania not only advantages, but also caused them serious economical problems. Without exaggeration, most important of them is electricity production and distribution." Main problems are grid dependency from Russian power plants and closing of Ignalina nuclear plant (Lithuania) in 2010. Solution: modernization of existing coal and gas plants and building new power plants. Alternative solution is building high-powered nuclear plant for all three Baltic states.

This morning I decided to download and test MenuetOS 0.76. For those who don't know - Menuet is entirely in x86 assembler written (using FASM) 32-bit graphical operating system that fits into single 1,44 MiB floppy. Some time ago (well, long time ago :)) there was also a Slashdot arcticle about it.

Test box has the following configuration:

• Intel Pentium II 400 MHz CPU
• 256 MiB RAM
• 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 16 MiB video (VESA 3.0 compatible)

I will try to post some review later!

This is my /. journal. I will post here something in English from time to time, especially while my Latvian website/weblog is down due to hosting problems (server's HDD burned with blue smoke). Well, that's all for now ;)