The Apocalypse - fehlgeschlagen...

So it's December 22nd and nothing happened... Not even Atlantis came back.
So, 22. Dezember und nichts ist passiert... Nicht mal Atlantis ist wieder aufgetaucht.

Is there something new? Oh yes, I began to write the 7th chapter from the mid-point. It's a good part. ^^
Gibt's was neues? Oh ja, Ich begann, das 7. Kapitel von der Mitte aus zu schreiben. Ein guter Teil. ^^

So, what should the apocalypse look like for me? You'll read it soon enough.
Also, wie sollte die Apokalypse für mich aussehen? Ihr werdet es früh genug lesen.

I finally set the declension table for Mezzuromano - Nominative, Genitive/Dative and Accusative/Ablative, much like Romanian. And yet, it's different.
Ich habe endlich die Deklinationstabelle für Mezzuromano festgelegt - Nominativ, Genitiv/Dativ und Akkusativ/Ablativ, ähnlich dem Rumänischen. Und immer noch anders.

See you after the holidays! Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Wir sehen uns nach den Ferien! Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

And there's something new... Auch mal in DEUTSCH.

So, there's a new post - one for November.
So, es gibt 'nen neuen Post - einen für November.


Mezuromano (Mid-Romance/Mittelromanisch)

There's nothing really new, since I need some new material about the Romance languages.
Hier gibt's nichts wirklich neues - ich brauche neues Material über die romanischen Sprachen.

iWizard

I've got to rewrite most of the first chapter - it's so illogic and people are being depicted irresponsible. But hey, it's still in alpha phase.
Ich werde den Großteil des ersten Kapitels umschreiben - es ist so unlogisch und die Leute werden verantwortungslos dargestellt. Aber hey, das ist noch in der Alpha-Phase.

Furthermore I've already got an idea for a cover.
Desweiteren habe ich schon eine Idee für ein Cover.

And I'm coming to smartphones - as you might know, I wanted a Motorola RAZR Maxx HD, but this plan has been crossed out because Motorola isn't making any updates.
So, what am I coming up with? Be prepared for a shock: It's the Samsung Galaxy Note II!
You may complain, laugh and swear - I'm probably the only Apple follower who doesn't care about iDevices. Plus, the Note // has got an HD screen, is big (5.5" LCD) and it's got a stylus.
So, f*ck MC, I can save the money I otherwise needed for an iPad and take notes like I do every day - manually with my awesome and unreadable handwriting. And I've got a Samsung laser printer.

Und ich komme zu den Smartphones - wie ihr wissen solltet wollte ich ein Motorola RAZR Maxx HD, aber dieser Plan wurde gestrichen weil Motorola keine Updates bereitstellt!
Womit komme ich nun an? Seid für einen Schock bereit: Es ist das Samsung Galaxy Note II!
Ihr dürft euch beschweren, lachen und fluchen - Ich bin wohl der einzige Apple-Jünger dem die iDevices egal sind. Außerdem, das Note // hat einen HD-Bildschirm, ist groß (14,1 cm LCD) und es hat einen Stylus.
So, s**eiß auf MC, ich spare das Geld womit ich sonst ein iPad gekauft hätte und mache Notizen wie ich's jeden Tag tue - per Hand mit meiner großartigen, unleserlichen Handschrift. Und ich habe einen Samsung Laserdrucker.

Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!
Bleibt hungrig, tollkühn und auf Zack!

And... Let's Enter Halloween!

Ok, it's a bit early for a Halloween post, but I'd better do that now than forgetting it entirely.

Mezuromano (i.e. Lingua Romanica)

I've been very picky with overall sound changes and features of my "Mid-Romance" (that's actually what Mezuromano means - and it's neuter).
So here are a couple of the features which should reflect its split nature:

/k, p, t/ > /g, b, d/ after e, i (similarily /g, b, d/ become /ɣ, β, ð/)
/kt, fl, pl, cl/ > /xt, fʎ, pʎ, cʎ/ (a mid-point of the Western Romance /jt/>/t∫/, Eastern Romance /fj, pj, t∫/)
/-cl-/ > /ʎ/
And the special development of final u, which does not develop /ʊ/>/o/, but /u/ (so neuter -o and masculine -u can be distinguished!), beside /y/>/ɪ/, not /i/; so the 9 vowel system of Common Romance would be preserved in a thin way - maybe it would reflect the pronunciation of the 5th or 6th century.

iWizard

A sad part of iWizard is not yet completed (if you'd read it, you would probably cry), but slowly I'm going to leave it. A sneak peak won't be given this Halloween (I want to scare you, not make you cry!).

Somehow related to iWizard is a particular picture on my DeviantART account.
Meh... The first time I draw something like this (or, let's say, anthropomorphic creatures at all).
Take a look: http://imarkus.deviantart.com/#/d5ih2mh
I'll make a redraw (with better lines) for a profile pic. But read the copyright notice!

Did I forget something?

Oh, right, the iPad-Event.

Keeping it short:

-iPad mini: Nope, I'll get a new mobile phone which is only half the size, but as useful as this thing.
(Remember what Steve Jobs said last year? I'd have to sand down my fingers to use it properly!)

-iPad 4: See point 1 and add "it's too expensive". Plus, the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx HD comes with LTE and NFC and it's a phone!

-iMac mini: I don't care. My iMac is running nicely, let it stay on my desk for two more years.

-Mac Book Pro 13": Who needs that? OK, Retina is good, but there is no optical drive - not for me.

-iMac: R U DAMN SERIOUS?! No SuperDrive and the 21,5" model isn't expandable?
And it is more expensive than the last one... I miss two turns.

So, stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

Unu annu... non oblidadu - One year, not forgotten...

October 5 th, 2012

It is exactly one year after Steve Jobs had passed away from us.

This year had several sad events at its hands, but this one was one of the more striking - it affected the whole world. And it is not coincidental that my book iWizard starts at this very day. It was arranged this day because something happened I could easily remember. And there are numerous sayings with the message "when something ends, new things begin".

A short post for a person which lived an unfortunately short, but still successful life.

Deus te salvet, Steven Paul Jobs.

If you're curious what I'm doing... Read a preview of my book!

Well, here I am again.
It's been a while now, but I've got some great news: I installed the newest Macintosh operating system, and I'm enjoying out the Siri dictation feature - guess how I made this post. ^^

Before we get to the juicy part of this post, I am saying that I've made a shortcut - just a few lines - you'll get goosebumps!

In my romance language, there hasn't been much progress, I have been- again - tinkering about an authentically Vulgar Latin declension...

On the Mac side, Mountain Lion is fantastic. The dictation feature is working in Spanish (in my special pronunciation of ll), English, and German. And the Facebook integration has to be tested yet...

Now we come to the interesting part. Note that I am not naming any persons *here* from my book.

The action takes place on a class trip - the introducing sentence plays in a hostel, then the action moves outside of the building. Note: ω is a lower-case omega (the last letter of the Greek alphabet)! 


„How can you allow him to leave the room? I don‘t feel the best today. I am tired too, but I don‘t want to make a hoopla out of it!“ She yells at me. The same moment I feel the prickling of my arm, like yesterday.

I run out the hostel, run up a hill and go up another. I feel so bad that I choke and throw up, with blood. 
A stroke of pain rushes through my body, much stronger than yesterday. I grip my chest - my heart seems to explode.

I shriek. The same moment I feel my face lifting off my skull, especially the area around my nose is burning awfully.

This yields another shriek: „Oh my God, I‘m gonna die!“ The same time my throat is thickening, feels as if it's swelling.
Where I previously stood I crouch and stumble on the ground - almost suffocating. I see the full moon: A silver shining disk surrounded by foggy clouds.

Now it becomes clear to me: I sat near a window while preparing the poster, so the ω-radiation could initiate the transformation... - another rush of pain interrupts my thoughts...

Just a few lines so you get the idea - I hope you like it. I'll get you to see more on Halloween... You will be scared as hell... :-D

In the holidays I will be publishing a new Youtube video. I'll review OS X Mountain Lion, Parallels Desktop 8 and some more things.

Stay hungry, foolish, and tuned!

iPhone 5 Introduction - And Much More

Phew... I have been away from this blog for some time, but I'm still vertical.
And there's quite a bit to tell you.

Keynote Time

Phil Schiller is presenting us the iPhone 5!
LTE, bigger screen, Apple A6 CPU... well...
Only an 8 MP camera... couldn't there be an improvement? At least better low-light shots. ^^
Aaaaand we've got a panorama-mode: 28 MegaPixels. Plus three microphones.
The connector is a "Lightning" - 8 pins, small and you can stuck it into the iPhone 5 in any direction.
Also, Apple introduced a new Maps app - turn-by-turn navigation is free with iOS 6.
iOS - Siri: Facebook integration. And the iPhone 5 is available in black and white.
The iPhone 5 is available in $199 (16 GB), $299 (32GB) and $399 (64 GB), iPhone 4S $99 (16 GB) and the iPhone 4 for free (8 GB) with a contract. And we'll get a new iTunes app - Available in October.

iPods: New iPod nano - tiny, tiny phone. You can watch videos again - tiny...
iPod touch: Apple A5 CPU and 16:9 display ratio, no micro-SD slot, but a 5 MP camera.
Apple Loop: A loop for your iPod touch so you won't drop it. And Siri for the iPod touch with Bluetooth 4.0. The iPod touch is available in 5 colors.

New earbuds:  called Earpods, included with all new iPods.
iPod shuffle is $49 for 2 GB, nano is 16 GB for $149, old iPod touch is 16 GB ($199), 32 GB ($249), new iPod touch ($299 - 32 GB), ($399 - 64 GB). Nano and new touch are available in October.
Yup. That's it.

But I've got more:

I have made some more sound changes for my Romance language - most important is <ng, nj ->ñ/gn/nh> and <-cl-, lj -> ll/gli/lh> written nj and lj respectiveley (because I wanted to make it geographically/nationally independent). The declension system is itching. AGAIN.
Verbs look French in the 2nd plural (-ti-/-di- > z, -te- > zi). Not much more news.

On the iWizard side I've been writing a bit more - a sad part is coming soon.

I'm also on DeviantArt.com (http://imarkus.deviantart.com) - a new Youtube video is coming soon after I've got OS X 10.8. And I've got Parallels Desktop 8, which will be reviewed in the video as well.

That's it - Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

Last Days of Holiday...

So I came back from Poland and I've got a bunch of news for you...

iWizard

Indeed, I squashed one more chapter into the book: “Last Fight for Lost Friends” is going to be number 8 because of some recent events (mostly in Poland). It would be kind of sad, but it would throw another spotlight (not the OS X search function) on the family of the main character [spoiling: werefoxes :-D] and - as announced - another fight will be going on. So the book will span from October 6, 2011 until August 21, 2012 (the death of Steve Jobs and the end of this year's summer holidays in a specific federal state of Germany, respectively [do the research if you don't believe me!]).

As I said, I got many, many ideas during the three weeks I spent in Poland, but I also wrote a bit more into my Italian notebook (where iWizard is going to be in a beta version).

Heading over to something else...

Romanice (i.e. Lingua Romanica)

I have some good sound changes (and a kind of metaphony) for my Italo-Western-Romance, but I came to the conclusion that one strict “kind” of LR could prove problematic (both grammatically and due to different vocabulary in Spain and Italy [plus France, as a link]).
To overcome this, I decided to create dialects of my Romance (like do real languages have - compare Standard High German and Bavarian or Austrian German, Salesian and Standard Polish or northern Italian and southern Italian). And I wouldn't forget pronunciation variants (like Spanish).

To make the thing even more funny, I planned to drag the development of LR from 400 AD to this date.

Other than that, I finally got my copy of Mark Rosenfelder's Language Construction Kit.
Even if I don't understand every single word, it indeed proves helpful.
And it turned out I'm on point 2 of the Rosenfelder-Skala; inventing a Romance language.

And I got an accompanying book for my calligraphy: Michelle Brown's A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600.
It not only provides me a look on writing styles as the Visigothic Script or the many variants of Merovingian scripts, but also on previously unknown, like the Ravenna Chancery Script.
The book is good enough, except that the example of the Beneventan Script is a bit early (10th century, I prefer 11th or 12th century) and the Italian vanriant of the Carolingian Script is missing also.

But then again, the book is quite old (contents from 1993, reprinted in 2007) and it is in black and white (due to its age, which is better, sometimes, than a blurred, hard-to-read color facsimile).

That's it for this time. Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

Oh, one more thing: Since OS X Mountain Lion is out, I tell you that I'm going to upgrade to v.10.8 in September (- when Facebook integration arrived, but on my birthday anyway -) when some bugs are erased. And maybe I can install it together with Parallels Desktop 8 if it's on the market early enough (I won't wait for my local tech shop to have some copes anymore [because they did never have had the previous version when I asked for it]!).

Phew... Another Post.

It was some time since I wrote something into this blog. A bit trouble, some loss and just having "nothing to say" were the reasons. But now, I've got news for you.

iWizard

One of the saddest parts of iWizard are about to be sketched down. I won't tell you this one.
But, recently I had some ideas for the last chapter - Heading two Last Terms which is not that sad. iWizard should not become too sad, so I try to make the best of what happened.

Lingua Romanica

Some progress...

- stress rules <to be continued>
- definite articles (they look like crap -.-)
- some interrogatives
- personal pronouns <to be continued>
- relative pronouns (they look and sound worse than the definite articles and need to be finished)
- conjugation tables of regular present and simple past verbs, planned subjunctive present, past (future) and maybe a dedicated passive like Latin, present conjugation of "to be" (essere, stare)
- 22 of 256 basic words (8 in family, 6 in religion, 5 in animals, 3 in colors)

A partial description of the sound changes from Vulgar Latin to Lingua Romanica is on paper:
- collapse of quantities (a vowel trapezium has been made: seven (or eight, counting y) distinct phonemes, like Italian and Spanish), nine in an older variant (Proto-Romance in general)

- collapse of diphthongs

- r becomes a or u in certain places, cl becomes chi before a, o, u, an i is added to initial s
- open e and o become ie, uo in open and closed syllables (except former æ)
- various cases of metaphony (e.g.: vinea -> vinia)

For this reason, I try to obtain The Language Construction Kit and its addition Advanced Language Construction Kit (if it is available in fall/autumn this year).

Oh, right: I'm very impressed by the new MacBook Pro's Retina display. And price.
*$ 2600 for a thing with no hard drive and no optical drive - they must be kidding...*

That's it for now - stay hungry, foolish and tuned.

Getting off to Italy...

Italy: The Penultimate Chapter

Well... There's not much to explain the title of my newest blog-post: I'm really going to visit Italy. And if you know that I write a fantasy-themed book, it's not difficult to imagine what it will be about. Anyway, there has not been much progress (neither on paper nor on my Mac) of actual writing, but I have accumulated many ideas in my brain.

You know how quickly your plans can be ruined. I'm no different:
In iWizard, a friend of mine (I mean, a friend of the main character) should have attended the class trip to the Tuscany, but she is unable because of various reasons.
First, I was like *damn crap, the best part is ruined*, but on the second thought it turned out better for her.

What a good thing I get new ideas within a blink of a second...

For Lingua Romanica I have arranged a past tense, two connection words ("and" and "or") and a few words have found their way into the language: religious terms as well as family related words.
And more ideas of sound change are yet to be written down (my language will look like freaking Italian of the Middle Ages...).

And there is one more thing: On June 11, there will be the WWDC Apple Developer Conference. ...What the hell? I won't be up-to-date for 4 more days after the event! Damn...

Anyways, stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

News...News...News...

Today I voted for a new parliament in the politically most important state of Germany since the old coalition failed to survive two more years - Losers (actually not funny, but it's ridiculous).


Anyway, there are more news than that:


iWizard


After a damn day on a lake (this part has to be rewritten to *be* on water and in another place anyway - work is being done) the main character has to collaborate on a poster presenting the research output. It would be better if he was not so tired.
In an argument, regarding his ongoing rests from work he quickly leaves the hostel.
After a seemingly endless struggle within pain he realizes that he changed (again).
Looking up to the sky he knows what happened with him. Then, he hears someone coming near him...

In this part I tried to explain some magic scientifically. Even if it's productive nonsense, I do so because certain religious groups say that magic is a sin (or similar). I once read something like "Every technological advance unexplainable to us is magic". So I could sell this book not only as a fantasy novel, but a science-fiction novel as well. Also, the part is lighting a little bit on the "magic society" of Germany.
Another thing is that the book becomes more embarrassing to write the further it goes (don't ask me why), but this shall not hinder me. Also, I'm trying to be a bit more secretive with iWizard (not with Lingua Romanica, however). 
You would be surprised to hear what ideas are coming to me (and into this book) while I am at school - especially one teacher is literally a co-author. ^^


Well, no news for Lingua Romanica (yet), so stay hungry, foolish and tuned!


*EDIT* I found the quote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Clark's three laws (Wikipedia).

Multiplication...

OK, I've diverged from my iLog style, but I'm stepping back into it.

iLog - April 29, 2012


iWizard

I have juggled with the idea of increasing the number of chapters in my book to seven. I'll do it.
I'll do it because of the relatively short storyline (8 months) and it's better to accommodate the titles to the occurring events in the book. I have the titles, but I have to sketch down some dates.


Lingua Romanica

I have scribbled down a true latinate neuter for my "replacement Latin", seemingly switching genders whether it's singular or plural (having endings in -o in the former and in -a in the latter case). I've kept the situation that neuter singular endings are built from masculine singular accusative (or in this case, directal [combined accusative and ablative]).
And I currently reorganize my scribbling pad, as I use it to rapid prototype my whole grammar book before I transfer it into my iMac - using iBooks Author, making already the preview a perfect product - with just few corrections.

So, that's it for now - stay hungry, stay foolish, stay tuned!

Back on the Line

Phew... I was away - I spent my holidays in Poland - and had no sufficient access to the internet.
At least, I've got to tell you some things.

I   I finally brought the official biography of Steven Paul Jobs four days ago - I'm almost through it (over 620 pages).

][  My selfmade Romance has got a major overhaul - again - in grammar. I've taken a look at the "inspiring spark" - Wenedyk, a constructed alternative language: If Polish became Romance...
So I have stripped a couple letters off the "oblique" case and shuffled around in the "directal" case.
I began the work on personal pronouns and interrogatives (that is - words for asking a question).
Also, the first small batch of (general) vocabulary is coming to paper - categorized.

/// My book has gained only a couple of lines - nothing special is going on there. It is so boring I don't want to proceed, even if the best part of the first chapter is just ahead.
Also, I've been reckoning to break up the tree chapters into a total of seven... maybe.

This was four days ago.

Today Lingua Romanica might get an additional declension class - the neuter would become a sole class, inheriting classical Latin neuter endings (u or o in singular, a in plural), the "neuter class" up to now would become a general class for all genders (actually, that's what it is now anyway), a kind of "consonant" class like in Latin. But for this, I've got to get feedback from other conlangers.
Why a fourth class? Because Spanish and Italian have a class ending in -e, which is used for all genders.

And Lingua Romanica will be related very closely to Latin, Spanish and Italian, no matter how much I will work on making it different from actual Romance languages.
Furthermore, I have tinkered about incorporating some Greek and Slavic (Polish) elements.

I have been thinking about giving my language a proper place - in a different world.
It would be used as a de-facto standard language in Italy and Spain, where the emperors of 10th-century Europe have agreed on thee Romance languages to be used as a substitute for Latin and the local forms of Vulgar Latin. And where Poland was not too weak to fight against the Germans in later centuries, forming a commonwealth with Lithuania, Czech territory (then Bohemia) and a part of the Ukraine and fighting successfully against their enemies.
I got the idea while creating a map of western and central Europe for an old strategy game.
What a plan...

Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

Jumping Forward in the Book, Taking a Step back in the Language

March 13, 2012


iWizard


Now it happened: In the middle of the night, the main character transformed into a supersize chinchilla under the influence of the full moon, while one of his roommates becomes a vampire. So beware hanging out with rodents or bats for too long. ^^
There's another guy, awakened by screams - he is so feared he wants to flee out of the room, but the vampire blocks the door and wants to bite him. The main character hinders the vampire to do that, putting himself into danger - but the vampire smells something that tells him not to bite the main character. They finally go to bed.

The next morning, the previously feared guy left the room while the other two slept. The main character must get rid of the hair on the bed sheet before others notice. What will make the day a disaster is the awfully bad mood he has because of the lack of sleep. In the evening, the main character feels dizzy again - preparing the poster for his presentation for the next day...

I will probably change the beginning of the first chapter, it just doesn't fit into the storyline. But I already have a good idea for that.


Lingua Romanica


Nothing terribly new, but still a step of significance: I have changed the singular nominative/vocative ending of the male declension to -u because Corsican and Sardinian still have it instead of -o like Italian and Spanish. Again, this fits more into my plan because the definite article for male Romanian words is "ul". Furthermore, Portuguese -o is spoken "u" (e.g. "pego" is pronounced "pegu").

So the "straight case" (casus rectus) is (singular male) -u, (plural) -i; (female) -a, -ę; (neuter) -(consonant +) e, -es.

As you see, there's still a long way to go. As you noticed, I changed the name of the language because there is no "common romance" equal for all areas of the former Roman Empire, but each of todays romance languages went more or less its own way. Instead of being "common", the Lingua Romanica will emphasize on Western-Romance areas (from Portugal to Italy).
Still, much of the grammar will be reverse-engeneered (or, let's say imported) from Italian, Spanish and what I can find about Vulgar Latin and Medieval Latin grammar, words will be created by the classic comparative method - comparing words of the most significant romance languages (and newly created Latin words).
Do you remember my Anti-ACTA song? With this language, ACTA will not be able to censor my work! And that's the "new Latin" that is mentioned in the song.

So, stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

Wait, there's one more thing: I am also interested in calligraphy and design a handwriting style reminiscent of Francesco Petrarch's (actually Petrarca) handwriting that formed the base for our modern Antiqua-style typefaces (like Times New Roman). Actually, the "antique" (old) letters derive from the Carolingian Minuscule which is no older than 1,200 years, reaching back to Charlemagne. The Humanists thought the minuscule was coming straight from ancient Rome! LoL, what a mistake... Anyway, my calligraphic hand is called "Petrarquina" (and is still not looking satisfactory) in honor of the first Humanist, who paved the way for todays Italian - that's how the circle is completed.
I am planing two versions of it: a cursive, more relying on Petrarch's letters and a formal, complete with capitals, punctuation and accented letters.

Apple-Event! Let's see what they released! (Written at the time of the keynote)

7:00 p.m. MEZ - It's beginning!
7:02 - Timothy Cook is on stage: "PC is no longer the center of digital world."
7:04 - Amsterdam retail store, quarter sales numbers...
7:12 - Apple promises TV shows in 1080p and a new Apple TV! iOS 5.1 coming shortly.
7:20 - Moving from Apple TV (available March 16) to iPad - reviewing: more often chosen than gaming consoles!
7:24 - Bashing Android! *hahaha* LoL
7:25 - We're going to see the new iPad in...
             3
             2
             1
             ...

7:30 - NOW, THERE'S iPad 3! 264 ppi, new camera, 2048 x 1536 pixels on screen! And - OMiG - an Apple A5X processor! And it's a QUAD-core CPU! Of course, LTE is on board.


7:53  - No Siri for iPad, but you can still tell it texts to note down for you...
8:25 - Sorry for the delay, I'm eating pizza... WHAT?! THAT'S IT? Dios mio, the keynote is over...

So, where's other innovation?
Let's see... the iPad 2 will stay at a price of $399 WiFi-only, the new iPad is ranging from $499 to $829.
On the apps side, iMovie for iPad - new version, GarageBand for iPad - new version... iPhoto for iPad?!  $9.99 - BRAND NEW. That's it, really. No Mac, no Apple television set.

Actually I'm a bit disappointed about the non-iPad hardware and software, but Apple can't handle everything on one eve. But the "new iPad" is called really only "the new iPad"... a bit confusing.

More from my side hopefully at the weekend.

Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

The Day Before the Apple-Event...

I am totally freaking out because of tomorrow because there's full moon because of the Apple-Event. As you might know, the rumored Apple iPad 3 (or iPad HD) will be introduced there.
If it will be an iPad 3, I'll be in cloud 9, if it's only going to be an iPad HD, damn it.

Well, I've got even more news on iWizard and the Lingual Romanica Communa, but these will come the same time as the Apple-Event will proceed.

Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Jobs!

Today is a very special day for me and for all other Apple fans and Macintosh evangelists:
Today, Apple-cofounder Steven Paul Jobs, born February 24, 1955 should have become 57 years old.
Sadly, this day is celebrated without him.

Of course, I wrote a condolence letter in October and my first YouTube video was partially devoted to him. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVawp7bn0Zk&feature=g-upl&context=G263181cAUAAAAAAAAAA>

And featured there is also a kind of tribute portrait of him, shown below.

For those, who cannot read Beneventan minuscules nor learned Latin, the text under the main picture says "Rest in peace, iGod of  computers, mobile phones and iPods of the Apple company."


That's all for now, stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

You want an Anti-ACTA Song That's Rhythmic and Retro? Check This Out!

ACTA is so infamous, I've taken a very famous song of the 70s and transplanted my own anti-ACTA lyrics to it. The original song is called "Video Killed the Radio Star" (© Buggles, 1979) and was the first MTV video. My remake is called "ACTA Will Kill the Internet" and fills some instrumental chords with lyrics - to emphasize the importance of the internet users.

Passages sung in the background are marked with brackets and comments with "<" and ">".
Have fun singing along! ^^

Lyrics - ACTA Will Kill the Internet
You wonder what would ACTA really mean for you?
Censoring Twitter, weblogs, Facebook and YouTube,
or killing half of them right along when ratified. <= approved>
(Oh no-o!)

Free speech is gone - be critical and you are blocked.
And of course, if you download only one song;
your internet connection's cut off, no-one told.
(Oh no-o!)

There's more to tell ya!
(So, so-o?)
I've got to tell ya:

ACTA will kill the internet <2x>

My Mac's screen, it will stay black
(Fo-or goo-ood)

The US blocked MegaUpload already -
and closing Wikipedia is on the way!

I couldn't go on constructing my Romance!
<i.e. Lingua Communa Romanica - Common Romance Language>
(Shall not happen!)

Digital Natives!
(Oh yeah!)
Stand up and protest!

Tim Cook won't come and save us with another Macintosh! <reference to the "1984" commercial>
(Orwell's "1984" - I fear it will come)

<instrumental interplay>
<electric guitar> SCREW THAT GOD-DAMN ACTA!
ACTA will kill the internet! <2x>
Middle Ages 2.0 we are just ahead of you! New Latin is on the way, EMI, GEMA will be blamed!

<quiet> (ACTA will kill our liberal internet; ACTA will murder our Information Age!)
ACTA will kill the internet <4x>
(Jo-in a demonstration!)
(Si-gn a petition!)
(Get your government to know!)
(So that ACTA will be stopped!) <fadeout>

Any other news?

Of course: Apple has released a developer preview of their next Macintosh operating system, OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion", which is integrating iOS features further. Also, apps like iCal, iChat and Address Book will be renamed to match their iOS counterparts!

But sadly, a bunch of Macs won't be able to run it - white "polycarbonate" iMacs (Intel Core2 Duo) for example.

I'm excited what more new features it will have. Likely, it will be released in summer in the Mac App Store only.

Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

ACTA goes on... new iLog entry

Phew... Germany does not sign the ACTA-treaty yet, copying Poland. ACTA isn't effective in the EU (European Union - 28 countries in summer [adding Croatia then]), because not every country signed it yet. But I see the digital "1984" coming.
And I fear Apple won't come and rescue the freedom of the internet.

Anyway, I've got to talk about the weather here in Germany. It's damn cold. That's it. No snow (at least, not much), just -18°C and below. Can't there be just a wave of warm days in February?


iLog (12/Feb/2012)

iWizard
On the other hand, I have news in the progress of iWizard:
The class trip to the pile had a violence-high, but it dissolved just before the classmates of the main character gather around the teacher - and go back to the youth hostel.
Later, his two roommates go away - leaving him locked out of the room for two hours.
As they return, he feels tired and a bit dizzy. He wants to get a snatch of sleep, but there is a party in the room.
He falls asleep anyway, only to wake up in the night with a strange feeling expanding from the left arm...

I have a more detailed idea for the third chapter: a classmate of the main character is (secretly) possessed by a demonic ghost which wants to destruct the world as soon as a certain paragraph of a spell book is read aloud - in the Tuscany. 
The name of chapter 3: Legends can be deceiving.


Lingua Romanica Communa
I brought a scribbling pad to note down the grammar of my language.
The present tense looks virtually like Classical Latin and may sound like it in the classic, restored pronunciation.
Speaking of sounds, I worked also on the phonetic features, taking various developments of Vulgar Latin into account.
It may sound half Italian and half Old Spanish.

In orthography, it follows mainly Italian and Latin, with the inclusion of a special letter: the "e caudata" (tailed e): ę, which symbolized originally an abbreviated version of the AE-ligrature in Latin.
As far as I plan, the demonstratives and definite articles will be completely shifted to match the endings of the nouns.
But it does not have to be like this for the articles.

Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

Breaking News - Feb/12/2012
Sad news as soon as I switched on my iMac today: Whitney Houston has died at age 48.
I didn't know much about her, but I know her iconic song "I Will Always Love You".
I literally witness the 80s falling apart:
Michael Jackson (died June 25, 2009) , Steven Paul Jobs (died October 5, 2011) and now Whitney Houston died relatively young. We will miss them.

Requiescant in Pace vox angelorum  - Rest in piece voice of the Angels

ACTA is Killing the Internet like Cancer did Jobs

Horrible news - 22 countries signed ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) on Thursday, January 24.
What this could mean is ceasing the internet as we know it today - a free platform to exchange data and retrieve information - free in the sense of expression and freedom of speech and (also) data.
US government blocked Megaupload last week - on the 29th anniversary of the Apple Lisa (Jan. 19), ACTA comes next to kill digital freedom. The Polish people are protesting on the streets against the law which could block Wikipedia and other useful sites.
And remember: in the 60s, when the internet was set up first (as ARPAnet) - nobody cared about digital copyright. And today there is a movement, going out from young people which use the net daily. This movement is noticeable when you download a song - we want everything for free and we don't see any use in copyright - nobody will ever control the internet completely. And no law will be ever able to in force it. Where are we living? In a totalitarian dictatorship like in "1984"?
NO! We are living in a (mostly) peaceful and democratic world - If we will give in to a dirty sheet of paper, the internet - the last outpost of total freedom - will slowly deteriorate to a grade it will just vanish from existence. The freedom in the internet will end more or less surprisingly - like died Steven Paul Jobs: Foreseeable, but still surprisingly.


Today is also the day of Holocaust: Take a minute of silence and think about the things that happened in the concentration camps during the Nazi regime in the 1930s and 1940s.


That's my thoughts on today.


Stay hungry, foolish and tuned! 

The Computer for the Rest of us is 28

January 24, 2012 - Finally opened my blog. There's a reason why I did it exactly today:
Exactly 28 years ago, Apple Computers, Inc. introduced the original Apple Macintosh at a price of $2,495. This one was the third industry standard, of which I have got two later descendants.
Macintosh - The computer for the rest of us. That event happened on Tuesday, January 24, 1984.

The title of my blog is Latin for "Books, Languages and I", which is exactly the suppose for: Commenting about my (second) book and a constructed language of Latin origin. And maybe you will see something about me...

This post is re-issuing my "iLog" entries in Facebook, for everybody who wants to catch up.

November 16, 2011: Friday will be a torture for me, since I hate watching football games. But then again, I can go on and write some passages into my second book and develop the verb conjugation system of my constructed language. The present is already done, I need a past (maybe two or three) and a future tense (or two). And that's gonna be version 2.0 Alpha (0.0.2 final) of Lingua Latina Nova - a Vulgar Latin, mixed with Spanish (primarily), French, Italian and maybe Portuguese.

And the time scale of the iWizard is already set: October 6, 2011 [guess why] until the beginning of the summer holidays. Well, that's a plan for Friday afternoon.

November 20, 2011: Had been working in the pseudonymes and time scale of my iWizard. October 6 - 10 days after the Tuscany Trip with my class. A perfect place for a showdown. Writing that in Bastard Secretary hand. I love that script. ;-)

iLog (Dec/18/2011)
Lingua Romana (Communa) - The noun declension tables are finally fixed on paper (three declensions - one for each gender [preserving neuter BTW], three cases each [nominative/vocative (casus rectus), genitive/dative (c. obliquus)], accusative/ablative [c. directalis]) - It's not going to be much simpler.
Present time is resembling Spanish more than Italian - both descend from Vulgar Latin and that's where my LRC comes from: Rome's simple Latin.

iWizard - slowly leaving October 6. I've got so many ideas, but no way to get to them. But I'm gonna make a time leap to October 12, sure.

Stay tuned for more - and hungry and foolish! ;=)

iLog (Dec/25/2011)
iWizard: The class trip has begun and it's close to the first deciding activity. A potion is being made - it will work, but the main character will throw up in the end. ^^

No news for Lingua Romana yet, except for some words not yet written down - oh right, I will use the diphthongs IE <i.e. tierra -Spanish> and UO <i.e. schuola - Italian> for my Vulgar Latin "ancestor". Stay tuned, hungry and foolish!

iLog (01/01/2012) 

iWizard
It's going to be pretty... Thriller-like, the protagonist is alone with... a good friend, while the rest of the group is far away. Ad then, there is a werewolf facing them. - Oh my God, that's gonna be amazing --- INSANELY GREAT!

Lingua Romana Nova

Guess what was the first saying in my Neo-Latin: Happy New Year! - Felicu annu nuovu!

iLog (Jan/16/2012)
iWizard - The werewolf came (no, there were two...) and it's gonna be a bit bloody - but first aid will fix it. I've got a ton of ideas for chapter 2 - "Differences come with a price". And much more is coming :-)

Lingua Romanica Communa - Phew... I changed some u's into o's in the male section of the noun's declension table and tweaked some endings of present conjugation. The imperative looks like Polish. ^^

Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

iLog (Jan/18/2012)iWizard /only/ - Beginning in the middle of chapter 2...
The man character is really pissed by a classmate and escapes to the restroom - and must face a really "chinchillian" surprise. And then a good friend wants to know what made him scream... -.-

Stay hungry, foolish and tuned!

That's all for now. Please comment.