I made devices to light up a little LED or move the needle of a galvanometer only using the electricity harvested from radio waves. They are resonators, like most antennas anyway, which implies that they only harvest around a given frequency, say 100 MHz FM broadcast or 900 MHz cell phone communication. The "snake", intended for FM broadcast waves, has a LED that will light up a little bit even a few kilometers away from an average powerful emitter. It can easily feed a low-power LCD calculator. http://www.4p8.com/eric.brasse...

I was told Unix systems are very complicated. This delayed my first Linux install for about two years. Then I saw a SuSE release installed by a friend who is not that smart at computers. I had ugly problems running the Microsoft C++ compiler. I remembered the neat C compiler of some university Unix workstations and got out buying a Red Hat release. I had to read to manual to install it and make some trial an error but it was overall quite easy. I installed the X server and ran the KDE 1 graphical interface. Then I rushed to the C++ compiler and... oh in heaven and grace, it accepted all my source code. No bugs, no problems. If something halted, it was always my fault and the solution was clear and immediate. One month later I started using the Qt API and planned that about six months would be necessary to get it under the knee. That same evening, everything I planned to do during those six months was finished and everything was a delight.

I read, about twenty-five years ago, that traditional people in the Andes, when planting potatoes, only planted the biggest and most beautiful ones they had from previous harvest. The religious justification is that the "Pacha Mama", which is "Mother Earth", only deserves the best.

GEGL should iron this out in some future. It seems a promising project.