Category Archives: Ohpinjun

What defines a book?

Catchy title this time. What collection of paper leaves, containing printed text, glued together, counts as a book? Any notebook will easily fill these requirements, as does a handwritten pre-Gutenberg Bible, a brand new handwritten copy of the Tora, and any analog copy of ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance‘ (Robert M. Pirsig). The obvious point of discussion is the notebook. Yes, it does match the requirements as the other books I mentioned, but is it therefore considered a book?

What does Wikipedia have to say about what a book is: Continue reading →

The myth of true time

The clock shift

Spring is approaching.
The astronomical spring begins this year on March 20, when the sun is perpendicular to the equator.

Shortly after, the Middle European Summer Time will start: Sunday, March 29th.
As we all know, on that date we have to turn the clock one hour forward.

In the meantime, this familiar procedure is preceded by an equally well-known concert of moaning, whining, and complaining by the opponents of tinkering with the clock.
The Dutch in particular sound the loudest in this symphony. Continue reading →

Dawit Isaak – 2026

Ni har kanske läst om Dawit Isaak förut, på denna sida eller ute på internet. Om inte, läs gärna upp om honom här eller här.

Nästa år, 2026, har Dawit tillbrinad hela 25 år i Eritreansk fängelse – och detta utan rättegång! Det är den famösa svenska tysta diplomati som har pågått lika länge. Den verkar gå ut på att sakta påtrycka landet politiskt för att få det att göra som Sverige vill, i detta fall att Eritrea ska släppa Dawit Isaak. Med jämna mellanrum tas den upp i nyheterna igen och påståss att framgånger har gjorts. Trots denna insats, och 25 år senare, sitter Dawit fortfarande fast.
Notera att Sverige under den tiden har haft olika regeringar varierande från centrum-vänster till centrum-höger politisk riktning.
Continue reading →

Reading, Writing, and AI

The reading and writing skills of young people

Recently, I updated my Mac to version Tahoe 26.0 and shortly after that, I noticed that selecting text while editing made the well-known ChatGPT icon appear.

Clicking on the icon did pop-up a menu:

My mouth dropped open at this unprecedented level of ‘support’. How convenient! Continue reading →

Ukraine – A short history

Perhaps, as I did, you wonder about the modern history of neighbors Ukraine and Russia, like:

  • How did Ukraine become a sovereign country after the USSR fell?
  • What agreements for the sovereignty of Ukraine were signed over the years?
  • How did these agreements work out?
  • Why can’t Ukraine and Russia just trust each other and sign a peace treaty?

I’ve tried to summarize all agreements on peace and sovereignty that Ukraine has been involved in with Russia since the fall of the USSR…

Continue reading →

Windows 11, or rather Linux?

My computer of choice is, has been for a long time, and probably remains to be for the forseeable future, a 2008 Lenovo X220 laptop. Yes, I’m aware that it is rather oldish.  When it was new, it must have been a beast of a machine, and likely sported quite the price tag. Today, close to 20 years later, it is still a fast laptop. It boots in under a minute and shows no delays in loading files or web pages. Of course, it came with a spinning hard disk when new, but I swapped that out for a Solid State Disk (SSD) years ago. The internal memory was with 16Gb already up to spec, it came standard with a 64-bit processor, and it never was, nor is today, a slow machine. It ran Windows 7, then Windows 10, and then….Microsoft said NO!

Say what? You heard me, they said NO, you ain’t gonna run our shiny new W11 on that old thing! Continue reading →

Putin’s Christmas wishlist

Two days ago, from the time I write this, a peace plan for Ukraine was leaked, most likely from the White House or from the Pentagon. It didn’t reveal much detail, but from any of those sources, anything could be expected. Two days in and the contents all over the news, I can confirm that it must look exactly like the put’n wishlist for Christmas presents. And there’s nothing in it for Ukraine. Continue reading →

Alternatief voor een dure EV

Elektrische auto’s (EV’s) zijn de toekomst. Althans dat doet de overheid ons denken, en de autobranche speelt daarin uiteraard vlijtig mee. Maar is dat wel zo? Of is er ook een toekomst voor niet-EV auto’s?

Hier in Zweden kost de goedkoopste nieuwe EV rond de €30.000. Dat was een Citroën die er prat op ging de goedkoopste EV in de markt te hebben. Ter vergelijking ging de voordeligste EV in Nederland toen (2024) al voor ruim onder de €20.000 over de toonbank. En dan hebben we het slechts over de instapmodellen, de meest verkochte modellen hebben in Zweden prijskaartjes vanaf €45.000 tot tegen een ton! Wie kan zich dit veroorloven? En dan als tweede auto? Continue reading →

Zen and the Art of the Book Cover

I have good memories on reading M.Pirsig’s novel ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance‘. It was the Dutch version, so I now know some nuances were lost in translation. Also, it was over 45 years ago, and with that, it is long overdue for a new read.

Covers:

If I may believe the more than a handful of accomplished bestselling writers’ groups on Facebook, I have to invest in hiring a professional to design the cover of my books. In traditional publishing, with a publisher’s house, they will take care of this as it is included in their fees. But when self-publishing as I am, the consensus seems to be to hire an accomplished artist with experience in book cover design, and let this person create an attractive cover for your book. Continue reading →

Ukraine – Book sales donated

Summary:

Today, the money collected from the book sales for my book ‘Ukraine – Infrastructure victory’ was transferred to the organization Help99. Exactly 20 books exchanged hands; some were sold, others donated. For the donated books, I footed the money it would have made in sales. Two buyers chose to pay more for the book than I was asking; I thanked them and added the full donation to the account. Those who bought a copy off me: thank you!

Two copies landed in different libraries, one in a private community library in Spain, the other in the communal library in Knivsta, Sweden, where we live. Of course, for these books I also footed the assumed sales profit.

Some books have been promised as a donation but have not yet been delivered. I preemptively added the assumed profit to the list. Continue reading →