If you don’t know russian, you won’t be touched most probably š
Author: Girts Niedra
Microsoft LoL
Don’t have too much to say here, just a good laugh.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/get-the-facts/browser-comparison.aspx
Latvia is currently probably one of the well known countries in Europe because of the economic situation. Before a year, when I stated my country-of-origin is Latvia in the Benelux, a lot of the people thought it’s Lithuania, or didn’t know where/what it is. Now the knowledge of the public has improved, asked the same question the typical reply is “Latvia? Oh, that one. Its on the news all the time”. This is partly a good thing, because it’s said there is no bad publicity. It’s just publicity.
The bad thing is how ministries/other government structures of Latvia are doing the so-much-needed budget cuts. There should be a structural reform being made (that’s what’s being requested by the international loan-givers). What happens actually is quantitative modifications of the budget by releasing a proportional amount of people/lowering analysis without any/little analysis.
The first question a good government manager should ask facing a significant budget cut is – what functions in my responsibility are critical for the mission statement.Ā That would mean evaluating the need of the departments and getting rid of the ones which are not critical for the primary functions of the institution (vertical cuts). There is certainly a cut to make in that area for Latvia where entire departments were created without a real need, just for relatives/friends to have a good paid work. Or high-ranking staff people returning from foreign diplomatic missions and having no according rank position – ok, lets just create a department you can manage.
What most of the Latvian goverment institutions are doing is horizontal cuts. We need to lower our expenses by 30%? No problemo, lets cut all departments by 30% (well an oversimplification, but that’s happening).
I see this time of mandatory budget cuts as a good way for the ministries to get rid of the spider webs in their human resources. There are people/departments who don’t perform but stay in the ministry because of their impressive web. Now they have at least the formal reason to get rid of those elements, and its just about the will to clean. Lets see if that chance is used.
Good weekend everybody, and lets hear some more apologies from the goverment next week š
Wii homebrew got really useful
The Wii homewbrew scene got important/useful for all the owners of Wii by two additions:
1. BootMii, allowing to most importantly backup your Wii’s memory at a very low level, to be able to restoreĀ if something goes terribly wrong. http://bootmii.org/
2. USBLoader – allows saving and loading of legal and “legal” Wii game discs. Set-up guide in http://www.mikeandheth.com/games/97-connect-wii-usb-hard-drive.html Really useful if you want to do any of the following:
- backup your Wii DVDs to protect against scratches;
- load games much faster than from DVDs;
- other, “legal” purposes
One of the first things I did when bought a Wii (start of 2008) is installed homebrew with the Zelda hack (for description etc. http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Index.php), because I found it a quite fun hack. Actually, when installing that one I didn’t think the homebrew would get to such usable state (was thinking about a modchip back then).
Thank you homewbrew developers for all your hard work and time, it’s highly appreciatead!
Don’t ever try to explain to a woman how modeling in OWL is done
To explain how that works, you will typically try model her to represent the world she lives in, and then you would have to reveal:
1. the modeling would typically start with defining her an owl:Thing
2. even if you don’t use a class, she would complain being someone’s property
3. owl:Nothing won’t make her happy, either
Move to girts.niedra.org
So, I have moved to http://girts.niedra.org/ . With the moving, as usually, you have to change the wallpaper, move the stuff from the old place, etc.
I will write more than I did before.
If You Love Someone, Set it free
If It Comes Back, It is Yours
…
…
…
If It Doesnāt, Hunt it Down and Kill It š
“BijuÅ”ais mÄrs ar sarÅ«gtinÄjumu atzina, ka LatvijÄ esot pieÅemts sodÄ«t cilvÄkus, kas pieÅem lÄmumus. “Tas ir populÄri. TÄpÄc daudzi tagad labÄk nedara neko un neuzÅemas atbildÄ«bu.” *
Å is citÄts man liekas ir kaut kas vienkÄrÅ”i &**((^. No vienas puses, valdoÅ”Ä banda (C Streips) apgalvo, ka algas padomÄs tiek maksÄtas par atbildÄ«bu. No otras puses, BojÄrs paziÅo, ka cilvÄkus, kas pieÅem lÄmumus, nedrÄ«kstÄtu sodÄ«t, jo tad jau neviens atbildÄ«bu neuzÅemÅ”oties.
ManuprÄt, cilvÄkiem tur augÅ”Ä vispÄr nav skaidrs, kas ir atbildÄ«ba.
* CitÄts no www.diena.lv ziÅÄm, materiÄliem: http://www.diena.lv/lat/politics/hot/bojars-dienvidu-tilts-ir-viens-no-vislabak-realizetajiem-projektiem-latvija
Emigranta pÄrdomas
Lasot ziÅas no Latvijas, nez kÄpÄc gribas uzdungot sekojoÅ”Ä gabala piedziedÄjumu, staigÄjot pa Briseli. Jo, lai gan divu dÄlu vÄl nav un kaktusa arÄ« nÄ, bet “Ar pliku dibenu pa zaļu dÄli
tÄvu zeme iebrauc EiropÄ” gan izklausÄs kÄ naglai uz galvas.
Mūzika: A.Freidenfelds
VÄrdi: A.Freidenfelds
IzpildÄ«tÄjs: L.Tips
Mans BrÄlis ÄikÄgÄ
Es klaidu latvietis, es lÄni gÄju
Es lÄni gÄju un pie sevis pÄrdomÄju:
Kur mani raksiet, kad es nolikŔu
To karoti ar zelta maliÅÄm
Jau manÄ dzÄ«voklÄ« aug divi dÄli
Un milzÄ«gs kaktuss skaistÄ puÄ·podÄ
Ar pliku dibenu pa zaļu dÄli
TÄvu zeme iebrauc EiropÄ
Piedz. 2x
Mans brÄlis ÄikÄgÄ un pats es KanadÄ
Bet mÅ«su mÄsa ZiemeļanglijÄ
Un ļoti iespÄjams, ka esam laimÄ«gi,
Ka vairÄk nedzÄ«vojam LatvijÄ
Es klaidu latvietis, es Ätri gÄju
No savas dzimtÄs uz pavisam citu mÄju
KÄ mani sauksiet, kad es nomirÅ”u
Par klaidoni, vai par pravieti.
Es sveÅ”Ä zemÄ skumji stÄdu rozes
Un raudot plÅ«cu sÄrtas magones
Pirms gadiem piecdesmit izvilktas ir lozes:
Vai pieneÅvÄ«ns vai rÅ«gtas vÄrmeles.
Piedz. 2x
(pÄrkopÄts no LatvieÅ”u dziesmu servera http://www.dziesmas.lv/index.asp?page=lyrics&id=3995)
VelniŔķīgais rÄÄ·ins
Šodien ieeju savÄ LMT rÄÄ·ina apskatÄ. Interesanti cipari š