Fuxoft's Blog

The Shit Just Got Real

2012-05-13T00:34:00.001+02:00

The wedding is next month.

See svatba.fuxoft.cz (in Czech).

Also, Albert and Chucky are now in a Civil Union.

The end of an era, the beginning of a different era

2012-04-12T17:21:00.000+02:00

Because Hanka cannot wear ring or necklaces (because of the violin playing) I gave her these earrings as an engagement present:

After many, many years of looking for someone to spend the rest of my life with, I found someone. Hanka is not perfect (nobody is ever perfect) but much, much closer to perfection than anyone I ever found before. And, of course, she found me. I hope she did.

The biggest challenge facing both of us now is to not lose any of those great things we found so far. Whatever happens.

Also, her ears are not hairy, that's just the poor lighting and the mobile flash...

R.I.P. Lukáš Ladra

2012-03-30T13:01:00.000+02:00

He was THE father of Czech videogaming journalism, he was just a couple of years older than me and he died unexpectedly a week ago.

This is how his closest friend Jakub Červinka said goodbye to him:

The last piece is my arrangement of Chris Huelsbeck's Turrican II ending theme. Check the video description for the MP3 download link...

Tsukiji Fish Market Visitor Restrictions

2012-02-19T14:46:00.000+01:00

Beware! If you intend to visit the fascinating Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, there are now rather brutal restrictions for tourists!

The tuna auctions (photo below) from 5 am to 6 am are now only accessible to 120 "outsiders" in total (first come first serve basis) without the possibility of registering in advance.

As for the rest of the market, it's now only accessible to outsiders after 9 am, making it very impractical to see both the tuna auction and the market.

And about half of the market is now strictly off limits, all the time, to all visitors.

All the info is on the official site (in English), but it's pretty well hidden.

Chucky Being Mischievous

2012-02-13T00:52:00.002+01:00

The Wind Was Exceptionally Strong Today...

2011-11-28T02:22:00.001+01:00

Also, the dogs now have their own Google+ page with a steady stream of photos.

Yin & Yang

2011-11-01T02:31:00.003+01:00

I think this random photo (by Thereza) captures the different natures of my two dogs rather well...

At Last, Google Plussed...

2011-10-27T22:46:00.002+02:00

Great news: Google+ finally supports domain accounts. That means I can use Google+ as "fuka@fuxoft.cz" (which is my main Google account) and stop using my temporary "@gmail.com" account.

Bad news: Everyone who had me in his circles has to add me again. My Google+ profile is now at plus.fuxoft.cz.

In a short time, I will also migrate my "Recent interesting links" over there and make it my main "activity stream". Great thing is you can view it even if you don't have Google account yourself.

Word of caution for Android people: Google+ app DOES NOT yet work with the domain accounts! According to Google product manager, "it will work in a few days". Meanwhile, you can use "plus.google.com" address in your browser, it works fairly well as a temporary measure.

Also, Latitude check-ins seem to star working for my domain account, as well as +1 buttons. Great. Now back to work...

Good Night, Sweet Prince

2011-10-07T15:11:00.001+02:00

Please share. Don't let his memory die...

(I did NOT make this)

Party like it's 2011

2011-09-25T17:28:00.000+02:00

Our friend had a big birthday party where the guests were supposed to come dressed as cowboys. That led us to a movie idea which was brilliantly executed mostly by Hanka:

If you don't get it, our backs are the giveaway.

And the dogs - while not exactly thematic - played along, too.

RetroVirus255: A game where you have to read the instructions first

2011-09-12T09:55:00.002+02:00

I always liked "hack'n'slash" mini-RPGs, where you could pop in for a few minutes, play a level or two, and then forget about it.

I always disliked the RPG games where you could gain significant rewards just by semi-randomly clicking on nearby enemies, with occassional pause to auto-heal.

That's why I created RetroVirus255 game. If you just start playing blindly and clicking in enemies, you will be dead in a few seconds.

It's a cross betwen RPG and puzzle game, because the combat is deterministic - it has no random elements at all.

Unfortunately, it has some some social elements and you have to be on Facebook to play it. Go here to try it out.

Before You Die, You See... Hanka

2011-08-15T12:38:00.001+02:00

Google Love

2011-07-31T15:34:00.005+02:00

There was fairly prominent ad campaign by Google Czech Republic, called "Life is a Search". It showed how Google Search (and other Google services) help two people fall in love (UPDATE: It was based on this original U.S. ad).

Well, this happened to me for real (after a year or so of being single). It all started with this photo of her and Chucky, taken using her Android phone several months ago, when we first met:

Afterwards, we occassionally kept in touch online and we thoroughly googled each other. For example I found this:

Only after we both (independently of each other) joined Google Plus, things started to heat up:

Works in Pilsen, huh? Just in time, Google Navigation for my Android phone became available in the Czech Republic...

And then it happened, rather quickly and somehow unexpectedly...

However, the most burning question remained: How would the dogs react to the sound of violin playing?

It seems everything went better than expected. In fact, the dogs actually want to be there every time Hanka is playing.

Now it just remains to be seen how the dogs react to Muf, her pet rabbit...

P.S: Hanka can now boast to her musical colleagues that she is dating Václav Fuka's son. My father is relatively famous double bass player, composer and teacher (Ondřej Soukup studied under him).

Custom-Made Android T-Shirt, Wow!

2011-05-17T20:04:00.003+02:00

Today, I was interviewed for GUG.tv (Google Users Group TV) and got a surprising present from geekshop.cz: A custom-made T-shirt!

This is obviously based on this famous (mass-produced) T-shirt. Note the (almost succesful) attempt to get my dogs' likenesses right!

And while we are on the subject of T-shirts: On May 28, there is a big "Computer celebration day" event at Alza shop in Holesovice. As a part of this event, 8-bit Sinclair museum will get its grand opening and there will be some 8-bit T-shirts available, "designed" by me. One example:

As for the price / means of availability of these, I have no info yet.

UPDATE: You can buy them here!

Zebra

2011-04-17T11:02:00.000+02:00

It had to be done

2011-04-08T13:05:00.002+02:00

Frantisek Fuka is now in relationship. It's not complicated.

It took me more than 9 months after the break-up (and 8 months after Jitushka moved out) to do this.

My "Recent Interesting Links" not working in Google Reader

2011-04-04T22:41:00.001+02:00

In the last 3 or 4 weeks, I have weird problems with my Google Reader. I dont' see the people I should be following and people who are following me don't see my posts. I am not the only one with this problem.

If you are affected by this problem (i.e. you are "following me" in your Google Reader and yet you don't see my recent shared items), you should - at least as a temporary measure - use the RSS version of my recently shared items which seems to work OK (although it's not real-time and lags by a few minutes, which shouldn't pose a problem).

This seems to be a part of bigger problems stemming from the fact that I use "Transitioned GAFYD account", i.e. my Google username doesn't end with "@gmail.com" but with "@fuxoft.cz". Because of this, I "officially" cannot ("yet"!) use Buzz, Latitude Check-In, Google Profiles or "Google +1". "Unofficially", I have bizarre problems like the one described above. It's sad. :(

Back from Japan

2011-03-19T13:03:00.001+01:00

I'm back from my (fifth!) Japan trip which went a little bit differently than I expected. You can read more about it (in Czech) here.

This time, we (me and two other people) visited different Japanese cities, including Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Saga (where my friend's wedding took place), Osaka, Kyoto and the amazing Naoshima "art island". The photographs can be seen here.

A Walk Through Osaka

2011-03-10T18:11:00.001+01:00

These photos were taken several hours ago, while strolling through Osaka, "the anti-Tokyo".

While the other guys went to explore the seedier city life, I fired up the Gimp and mutilated my pictures:

Coincidentally, if you live in Osaka, Kyoto or Tokyo and would like to show me some interesting stuff during the following days, don't hesitate to contact me.

Testing, testing…

2011-02-07T12:14:00.001+01:00

This is a test post from the official Blogger app for Android.

Meanwhile in Japan...

2011-01-28T00:05:00.000+01:00

This is REAL, unedited, non-ironic advertisement of Japanese McDonalds...

My Dogs Need Your Love

2011-01-25T11:23:00.003+01:00

(This is for Czech readers only, sorry)

Basically, I need your votes to get my dogs' love message to the first place for this Milka love poster to be displayed in Vysocanska metro station:

To accomplish this, you should go here, register using a SMS (the cost is just 3 CZK) and then click on "Dát hlas" every single day (or as many days as humanly possible) until February 1st - you pay just for a single SMS, then you can click each day...

This is supposed to be a Valentine Day surprise for Albert, so don't tell him about it...

Today in pictures

2010-12-05T21:18:00.000+01:00

P.S: I didn't have sex with anyone / anything in these pictures. And yet, it was a good day.

What's Wrong With Today's Video Games?

2010-11-22T01:25:00.000+01:00

A few days ago, I gave an interview (in Czech) where I mentioned my disdain for most of mainstream games of today.

Here I have two perfect examples of current high-profile videogames.

First, here is one of the levels of the latest Call of Duty videogame, played on "Hardened" difficulty. The player beats the level WITHOUT SHOOTING, just semi-randomly dodging bullets.

Even funnier is the following racing game using Kinect (i.e. controlling the car using your own body). Note that the player doesn't do anything during the whole race, not even pushing the gas. He finishes third out of 8 racers...

You can argue the second game is aimed at "casual" players... You can argue anything you want but I consider this to be very sad. And I consider it amazing that no high profile review mentions the interesting fact that you don't in fact have to play these games to finish them...

Whole Lotta Light Fun

2010-11-10T18:50:00.001+01:00

For those dark moments with dogs, I got myself Philips Imageo TableLights. I like them a lot. Other photos are in this photoset.

(I only got 2 of them and photographed them between two large mirrors.)

And here is the self-explanatory video about how they work. After charging, they last for about 12 hours.

They still got them at Alza.cz...