Who the heck are modern desktops for?

This question has been bugging me for a while since GNOME 3. Nowadays in advanced countries, computer education is part of regular school curriculum. Children are taught what is CPU, what is graphics card, what is memory, how to turn on/off computer, how to behave on the net, how to use word processor, tabular calculator, presentation maker, sometimes even databases or easy programming. Unless in really rich school they are taught usually on something like Windows XP, they know the classical desktop. And they are confused by interfaces like Windows 7 and Gnome shell.

I am 24, my first desktop was Windows 3.11 (at school), then I grow up on Windows 95/98/2000 and Windows XP after finally switched to linux. I'm not that old to not be able to adapt, yet after years spent with linux I find the old Windows ineffective (just find something it the long non-categorized menu of theirs or try to run a few apps at once) and just recently I had to navigate Windows 7 with a touchpad. Let me tell you, it was a major pain in the ass. In my family everyone except me now uses Windows 7 on regular basis and they always complain about it. I haven't heard them ever complain about user interface when in Win XP or Gnome 2.

So why do the heck do we need the change that makes an assumption that presenting user with huge icons of every app installed instead of neat two-level categorized menu is more easy to use (it does not take a very bright person to tell that Movie Player would be categorized under Sound&Video)? Why do we need a change that makes an assumption that customization is a bad thing (I believe that different people have different needs and customizing a desktop to certain level can make it more effective to use for them)? Why do we need a change that effectively tells you that having more terminal windows open at once is a bad thing (yes, even though most common terminal emulators have tabs, I still find it more effective in certain cases to have three or four windows of terminal opened at once and nicely tilted on the desktop)? Why do we need a change that hides your favourite apps when not in "Activities" overview?

Who the heck is the modern desktop designed for? Honestly saying, not for me and not for anyone I know personally either.

Vertical Text Layout — How To?

Over the past few years I have been getting more and more interested in Japanese culture, language, aikido, etc. and as some of you might know, traditionally Japanese text is written vertically (starting at top-right corner). Here's an example of such text in LibreOffice Calc (where I discovered how to do it)


What I don't know how to do, or if it's even possible, is typesetting a book / story / poem in such layout. I am basically looking for two approaches:

1. LibreOffice Writer way. Here I know how to write Japanese, I even have some nice free, but sadly not libre fonts, but I don't know how to set vertical text layout. Anyone knows if it is possible and if so, how to do it?
2. TeX way. I've been using plain TeX for ages but I still neither know how to typeset Japanese nor how to use vertical text layout there. Any pointers for both of these are welcome.

EDIT: ad 1. Looks like I have been blind. Thanks to Vorbote for useful links. It's as easy as doing Format->Page->Page->Text Direction = Right-to-left (vertical).

Maybe It's Me Who's "Obsolete"

Lately I've been thinking that maybe the reason why I don't get along with GNOME 3 is not gnome's fault but rather my fault. Why? Here's a couple of reasons.

• I prefer real paper and pen when it comes to math/physics, which however wastes lots of time…
• Capitalistic society is kind-of maze-like for me.
• In lots of tasks I prefer CLI/TUI to GUI tools.
• I have neither facebook nor twitter account.
• I prefer acoustic musical instruments to electronic ones.
• I prefer to write (x)html/css in text editor, i.e. with all the tags written by hand.
• I use TeX.
• I prefer classical music to popular music (in a sense of rock, metal, hip-hop, pop, disco, ...)
• I find kissing in public place embarrassing if not inappropriate (isn't that personal stuff?).
• Sometimes I wish I were born in pre-industrial era in some scarcely-populated forested mountains.
• I prefer real books to e-books and still read them (currently I'm reading Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami).
• My primary means of e-communication is e-mail, but I prefer meeting and talking with people IRL.
• I use mobile phone solely for making calls, writing/reading sms and checking trains' schedules, I don't have a smartphone.
• I dislike dynamic web, the most I can fathom is youtube, e-shopping and e-banking.
• I think playing with C preprocessor, fortran, ruby etc. is fun. I don't like Java, C++ and C#.
• I prefer 2D computer games to 3D ones.
• I believe getting a girlfriend is always because in the long run I'd like to marry her. I dislike divorce and "love promiscuity" (i.e. changing girlfriends/boyfriends often), (although on the other hand I don't mind different than usual kinds of set-ups [like gay or lesbian marriage, harem, reverse harem, etc.] and consensual prostitution [i.e. offering sexual services as a paid and taxed product without either party being forced into it])
• I believe that the inside is more important than looks in case of (wo)men.
• Ok, this list is long enough, isn't it? Time to stop it with: I don't like parties and loud music.

Looking at this list, it seems pretty obvious why I'm frustrated with GNOME 3 and happily switched to XFCE since Fedora 15 (and why, despite me being 23, I still don't have a girlfriend)…

Killing Anybody Is Not a Reason to Celebrate

In Christianity you have 10 Commandments, one of which tells you not to kill. Buddhism says something along the lines of offering bread to one who throws a stone at you.

Any human being of good will should feel at least a bit sad when another living thing dies. That's part of the reason in some cultures it's considered good manners to thank for food before eating it – not the cook, but the nature (or god[s]).

Yet, people apparently celebrate when someone considered bad is killed. I honestly feel sad and disgusted when I hear of such things. Just how exactly are we better than them (TM) when we're doing exactly the same (forcing our believes onto them, killing many innocent people in the process, and then celebrating when one of them is killed)?

If you want to see better future, start with making yourself better.

That my today's memo.

Another Update to Nodoka Concept Artwork

With another time spared to working on Nodoka I've finished the GLOSSY style concept artwork. See for yourself:

To remind you, here's the MODERN style concept artwork – this will be the default style once the code will have been written…

Before moving on onto the next stage of development I plan to prepare a special style aimed for especially dark themes but I don't have yet a clear image of what it should like yet so *hint, hint* if you'd like to propose something now's the time *hint, hint* ;-)

PS: The progress indicator (the blue round snake-like thing) in GLOSSY style was real pain in the butt to design to look at least approximately how I'd like it to and the result is quite messy. If there's any inkcape guru who might know some pointers how to make it more easily and cleanly, please spare a little bit of your skills with me ;-)