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Every five thousand years, Evil comes back to Earth in an attempt to destroy it. It is usually repelled by the ultimate weapon, stored in Egypt and made of the four basic elements (earth, water, wind and fire) plus the fifth element. In 1914, the ultimate weapon is taken away from Egypt by the Mondoshawans to be put in a safer place, and would be returned on time to face Evil. But on its way back to Earth in 2263, the spaceship is attacked by Mangalore mercenaries, the four elements are stolen and the fifth is destroyed. Thankfully, a single cell is found and the fifth element is reconstructed, taking the shape of a woman called Leeloo. She escapes from the military and meets Korben Dallas, a taxi driver who used to be an elite commando. Dallas takes her to a priest, member of a secret order who has guarded the ultimate weapon over the millenia. Leeloo reveals that the four elements were not in the destroyed ship, but are with an opera singer, on a luxury cruise ship on planet Fhloston Paradise. The army riggs a contest the grand prize of which is a trip to Fhloston Paradisein order to send Dallas there to retrieve the elements. He goes with Leeloo and the priest. They manage to recover the elements, while the ship is destroyed first by Mangalores sent by Zorg, the emissary of Evil, and then by Zorg himself. The heroes manage to get to Egypt just in time to activate the ultimate weapon and save Earth.

This is daft. An HP 6720s running Windows Vista, connected to a D-Link DES-1005D switch which itself is connected to an A-Link RR64 ADSL router is not able to get an IP address from the DHCP server running on the router. Change the cable, and then it works like a charm. Now use the old cable (it's obviously faulty, isn't it?) on another computer (Dell Latitude 610, running Debian Etch), and it works. Worse, the same HP laptop connected directly to the router with the “faulty” cable works perfectly too.

I'm not sure whom to blame, there: HP, Microsoft, D-Link? Probably all three.

“Black Cuillin, named after the world-reknowned mountains of Skye, is a unique dark ale brewed with roast barley and heather honey, which rounds the almost stout-like flavours of the roasted malt.”

Sweet and quite bitter. Tastes a bit like burnt caramel. Contains malted barley.

The Isle of Skye Brewing Company (Leann an Eilien), Uig, Scotland. 4.5% alcohol.

“Spring hop ale. Shepherd Neame uses a blend of Kentish Early Bird hops together with natural well-drawn water to produce this finely bittered seasonal ale.”

Flowery and slightly bitter, but not as much as other beers from the same brand. Contains barley malt.

Shepherd Neame, Faversham, Kent, England. 4.5% alcohol.

Le roi de Riva est assassiné avec toute sa famille par des envoyés de Salmissra sous l'influence de Zedar. Seul le jeune prince Geran a survécu, et Polgara entreprend de cacher Geran et tous ses descendants jusqu'à la naissance du Tueur de Dieu. Après quelques générations, Torak envahit le Ponant, et Polgara et son père vont arranger les événements de telle sorte que Brand, jouant le rôle de l'Enfant de Lumière affronte Torak en duel et le plonge dans le coma lors de la bataille de Vo Mimbre, conformément aux Prophéties. Polgara reprend son rôle de gardienne de la lignée de Riva, cachant les descendants principalement en Sendarie et en Arendie, les faisant passer pour des habitants normaux, ce qui ne va pas toujours facilement. Lorsque que Chamdar retrouve leur trace, ils déménagent et recommencent ailleurs. Peu de temps avant la naissance de Garion, Polgara est envoyée chez les Nadraks afin de faire se rencontrer le roi Drosta, Yarblek et le roi Rhodar. Puis elle retourne s'occuper de la lignée de Riva. Lorsque Garion nait enfin, ses parents sont tués par Chamdar, mais Garion est sauvé de justesse par Belgarath. Polgara l'emmène alors en Sendarie, à la ferme de Faldor.

Wikipedia

In 1969, Martin Brice escaped arrest by chance while hacking with his friend Cosmo various bank accounts and transferring money to various charities. In the present, Martin is hiding from the FBI, has changed his name and is running a security firm that points out the flaws in security systems. He is contacted by two NSA agents to steal a universal cryptographic decoder made by a genius young mathematician. The NSA agents happen not to be working for the NSA after all, but for the organised crime. Cosmo (who didn't die in prison after all) is one of the leaders of the organisation, and he asks Martin to join him and make the world better by causing a major financial crash and making the rich equal to the poor. Martin refuses, and Cosmo changes his former record to make it easier for the FBI to find him, and also frames him in the murder of a Russian diplomat. Martin then tries to contact the NSA and exchange his freedom for the decoder. He and his team go the Cosmo's headquarter, a heavily guarded and protected complex, to retrieve the device. They get caught but manage to escape. They finally get caught by the NSA, but Martin manages to exchange the device and his silence against his and his team's freedom, knowing that the NSA wants the device for spying (illegally) on the US internal communications. But he gives the NSA a non-working device (they don't know it doesn't work) and keeps the core component for himself, using it for transfering money to charities once again.

Wikipedia

The crew of the spaceship Palomino finds the lost ship Cygnus near a black hole. They suffer damage from the black hole and manage to dock on the Cygnus, hoping to be able to repair their ship. There is only one human on board the Cygnus, one of the head of the lost expedition, but he is helped by a bunch of robots he made himself (most of the robots are actually brainwashed/robotized crew members from the Cygnus). The crew of the Palomino senses that something is wrong and tries to escape, but the captain of the Cygnus decides to take them with him into the black hole, which he wants to explore. The crew of the Palomino manages to escape before the destruction of the Cygnus, only to fall themselves into the black hole, where they find a surrealistic evocation of Heaven and Hell.

Wikipedia

Three beautiful women are the only survivors of the collision between a space cruise liner and an asteroid. They are stranded on the nearest habitable planet, where they are taken prisoner by pirates. Jack Wolff receives a broadcast alert and goes searching for the women, because of the very high reward. On the planet, he meets Nikki, a young girl who helps him in exchange for food, guiding him to the lair of Overdog, a local villain. Soon after, they meet Washington, another bounty hunter and old accointance of Wolff's. After several encounter with mutants and such, they infiltrate Overdog's lair, during local games (where slaves have to survive through a labyrinth full of traps and dangers). Wolff and his team save the women, but Nikki get caught. He finally saves her, kills Overdog and destroys his lair.

Postineidit eivät tykkää kun tulen hakemaan postipakettiani, koska en yleensä jaksa odottaa postimiehen postilaatikkoon livauttamaa saapumisilmoitusta. Tulostan lähetysseurannan sivun netistä, ja menen suoraan postiin. Mutta seurantanumero tulostuu niin pienillä kirjaimilla että se on postineitille vaikea lukea. Miten voisin tehdä lopun postineidin kidutuksesta?

Hyvä uutinen on, että saapumisilmoituksessa on viivakoodi, joka on Code 128-muotoinen. Ja LaTeXilla on code128.sty paketti (tiedoston nimi on oikeasti code128.tex mutta se toimii samalla tavalla jos nimetään se uudelleen .sty-ksi.) Ratkaisu on itsestään selvä: kirjoitan LaTeXilla oman saapumisilmoituslapun. Tässä on viivakoodin esimerkkikoodi:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{code128}
\begin{document}
\X=.48mm
\bcorr=-.08mm
\hfill\codetext{JJFI65432101234567890}
\end{document}

Niin helppoa se on. Tein kaupan päälle dokumentin, joka on lähes samannäköinen kuin virallinen saapumisilmoituslappu (eli siinä on viivakoodi, lähettäjä, vastaanottaja ja tila allekirjoitusta varten, mutta kaikki muut tekstit puuttuvat). Toin sen hämmästyneen näköiselle postineidille; viivakoodin lukeminen onnistui, sitten hän pyysi minua kuittaamaan sen, ja antoi minulle pakettini. C'est passé comme une lettre à la poste.

Tarinan opetus: LaTeX helpottaa suhteita postineitien kanssa.

Polgara et sa soeur Beldaran naissent alors que Belgarath est parti avec Cherek Garot-d'ours et ses fils reprendre l'orbe à Torak. Poledra leur mère meurt en couches et les deux jumelles sont élevées par Beldin. Autant Beldaran est une enfant exemplaire, autant Polgara fait tout pour se faire détester de son père. Elle est guidée par l'esprit de sa mère qui lui enseigne le contrôle de son pouvoir. À seize ans, Beldaran épouse Riva, et Polgara se métamorphose en jeune fille (presque) exemplaire en l'honneur du mariage de sa soeur. Elle se réconcilie avec son père, qui lui apprend à lire et à étudier, tandis que sa mère en secret continue son enseignement et la guide. Polgara se passionne pour la médecine et devient une experte dans le domaine, mais ses connaissances sont insuffisantes pour sauver sa soeur qui meurt de maladie. Polgara est ensuite chargée par Aldur d'enquêter sur les malversations en Arendie de Murgos déguisés en ambassadeurs Tolnédrains qui tentent de mettre le royaume à feu et à sang. Polgara passe six-cents ans en Arendie à maintenir la paix, et y gagne le duché d'Erat en remerciement. Elle révolutionne la société dans son duché en abolissant le servage, et laisse son duché devenir peu à peu le royaume de Sendarie. Polgara rencontre Ontrose, un de ses « chevalier protecteurs » et en tombe amoureuse. Hélas, Ontrose se fait tuer lors de l'invasion de Wacune par les Asturiens (sous l'influence des Murgos, encore une fois), événement que Polgara ne peut empêcher car il fait partie de ces Événements qui doivent se produire.

Sorini Tanzania, 75% : doux, pain grillé/biscuit, légèremet amer

Sorini, extra noir avec éclats de fèves, 70% : agrumes (très léger), grillé, vaguement biscuit, un peu pâteux

Sorini, lait, miel et éclats de fèves, 32% : très sucré, miel

Wikipedia

Fourty-three years ago, pregnant Rosie Jones killed her husband and his lover, and was sentenced to a secure unit for the criminally insane. Today, Walter Goodfellow the vicar is very busy, and his wife Gloria, desperate for sex, is having an affair with her golf instructor. Soon arrives Grace, the new housekeeper, and things start getting better (the neighbour's dog who used to bark all night long disappears, soon to be followed by the dog's owner… all killed by Grace). In the meanwhile, the vicar is taught by his housekeeper how to be funny again and what are his wife's needs. Later, when the vicar leaves for a conference, his wife plans to leave with her lover (but changes her mind at the last minute thanks to her husband's changed behaviour), while the lover is already dead, killed by the housekeeper who surprised him peeping on the vicar's daughter the night before. The mother and the daughter finally discover the truth about the housekeeper (escaped from her jail), but since she happens to be Gloria's mother, they decide to keep it a secret from the vicar. Grace eventually leaves the house for good.

Wikipedia

Melanie Daniels meets Mitch Brenner in a pet shop in San Francisco. She decides to follow him to his home in Bodega Bay. There she and other persons get repeatedly attacked by large flocks of birds, for no apparent reason. After spending the night under attack in Mitch's house, they take advantage of a period of calm to escape and drive to San Franciso.