This desktop is mine!

February 18th, 2012 Valerie J Long

I don’t know what your “desktop” – the screen your computer shows when you’re not running any application – looks like, but I guess it’s somewhat like mine. You may have picked a nice picture for the background. I did, and it reminds me of my last big vacation. Relaxing and reassuring, sometimes just looking at it helps to shed off the everyday worries.

The desktop contains a lot of icons. Of course there are a few of the standard ones, like the recycle bin. There are a few I placed there – a shortcut to my WIP (Work In Progress), some to frequently used applications.

Then there are a lot of icons I don’t need on my desktop – browsers, dropbox, printer manual (!), antivirus program, and so on. I can clean up as many times as I like, each time I install an update, they are back. Each programmer knows that his creation is the most important ever for any user, so there must be an icon in the most prominent place – not in the programs folder, not in the quick start bar, but on the desktop. It’s a default that usually can be unchecked with a first installation, but not with updates. Well, you can delete it if you don’t like it, can’t you?

But to delete an icon from a personal desktop, you need administrator rights. I know who came up with this bullshit. Those were the same people that require us to click on “start” if we want to “stop”, that is, shut down.

I disagree. The administrator may be the one to decide, which application should be installed, updated, or uninstalled. But the desktop belongs to the user, and there’s no absolute need for any icon to be shown on the desktop. You could remove them all, and there would still be a way to access any folder, any program, any setup.

So, listen, programmers – this desktop is mine! Ask me if I want your icon there. When updating, honor that decision. When adding an icon, inherit ownership from the user desktop folder, do not credit it to the administrator running the installation. That’s no rocket science.

Start treating the user with common courtesy. You may think you know best what we need, but believe me – we users know better!

Taming the Dragon #32

February 17th, 2012 Valerie J Long

There are so many kinds of sweets, and Svangur is fascinated again and again how inventive we are when it comes to treats. He already knows and has sampled strawberries, cookies, the remnants of a cake and dessert buffet, Christmas cookies and waffles, chocolate and licorice, but this time he is really baffled.
I’ve prepared crème brûlée for him. You are familiar with it? Basically it’s a thin custard base with a crust of hard caramel, which usually is made with a small butane torch. You know, that’s the kind of kitchen equipment you use two or three times after you’ve bought it to surprise your friends with something fancy, and then put it in a dark place for the next five years.
Vanilla cream with sugar coating irresistibly attracts my Dragon. I have to do another, and another, until my hand holding the torch hurts. And now?
“I can’t do another,” I complain. “I don’t even know if I can type during the next hours.”
“No need to type,” he decides. “As long as there’s custard and sugar left. Don’t bother with the torch.”
“Why?”
“Just put the sugar on top.” He patiently waits until I’ve sprinkled another layer of sugar onto another serving of custard. “Step back.”
Whoosh! goes his fiery breath, the sugar turns brown. The heated air hugs my face on its way out, sucks up some wonderful caramel smell. Oh!
“Try some?” Svangur asks to my surprise, instead of devouring it all.
“Yes.” I do, and you know what? Forget about butane torches. There’s nothing better than Dragon breath to prepare a caramel crust. It’s divine!
I must stop reporting. I need to buy more eggs, cream and sugar now.

Do you love fairy tales?

February 12th, 2012 Mira Draken

I do (love fairy tales).

Learned to love them as a child, returned to them as an adult. Forgot about them for a long time.  Re-read them again for my own child. Analyzed them with an author’s mind now. Recognized something.

These fairy tales, they tell pretty amazing stories. Very sensual, if not erotic stories, if you read them in their original form. Not the well-tempered children’s version. All these pretty and not so pretty princesses, waiting for their prince charming. Well, not all of them are waiting. There is emancipation in fairyland. A very big group of fairy tales offers us heroines who are going to rescue the prince (or some other male member of the human species).

Want examples?

Frog Prince. The Seven Ravens. The Six Swans. Hansel and Grethel (yes, it’s little Grethel who’s saving her brother)

Examples just from Grimm fairy tales.

There are stories as well of murder and mayhem. Red Cap is a barely disguised story of rape, Bluebeard is a serial killer.

There are stories of unconditional love (Maid Maleen) as well as hate (Snowwhite’s stepmother).

And above all there are some splendid fantasy elements, including shapeshifters, ogres, dwarfs, fey, angels and devils.

If I look at these stories write I find lots of fairy tales elements in them.  The same goes for my fellow author colleagues. In fact, I think, a good story, a well told story, has something which touches the core of our heart, produces the same love which was first ignited by fairy tales, which were read to us when we were little children.

And it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to consult my fairy tales books more often, I think. Just to get in story telling mood. And perhaps to get some ideas.

 

P.S.: In case you wonder why I returned to my old books just now: 2012 is the 200th anniversary of the first publishing of the Brother Grimm’s fairy tales .

 

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