The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe’s History by Peter H. Wilson (Penguin Books 2017, ISBN 978-0-141-04747-8) is an astonishing thousand-page tome of which about 300 pages are devoted to maps, color plates, family trees, chronology, glossary, and an enormous index. I’m not aware of anyone doubting the thoroughness or scholarly quality of … Continue reading “The Holy Roman Empire”
The Rats of Nationalism
Brandon Adamson has recently published a new book, The Rats of Nationalism, concerning the Internet (mostly really Twitter) presence of alternative right movements in America. Everyone who sees the title is bound to be confused. It’s not about calling nationalists “rats” in a derogatory sense, nor really about nationalists ratting out on each other, though … Continue reading “The Rats of Nationalism”
Microsoft Surface Laptop 2
It’s blue! It’s handsome! It’s the laptop everyone loves! Like apparently a lot of other people I got a Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 last week, as I once again needed a portable Windows device. So far my impressions are very positive with the exception of a horrendous Windows update experience, which will probably surprise no … Continue reading “Microsoft Surface Laptop 2”
Swing Hyperlink Labels
JavaFX has a convenient Hyperlink control that’s functionally a button styled as an underlined label, just like an HTML hyperlink. Java Swing has clickable hyperlinks in its JEditorPane control but does not provide them as a separate lightweight control. Fortunately it’s quite easy to roll your own, and that’s what the code below does. JHyperlink … Continue reading “Swing Hyperlink Labels”
Vertical Swing Labels
One limitation of Java AWT/Swing is the inability to rotate controls such as labels, although you can freely rotate elements in a custom-drawn graphics context. I did try invoking a label’s paint method in a paintComponent override after rotating the graphics context but couldn’t get it to work, probably because of the label’s built-in assumptions … Continue reading “Vertical Swing Labels”
Moskau, Moskau!
Dschinghis Khan is a German (but really multi-national) disco band formed in Munich by prolific producer Ralph Siegel in 1979, competing in that year’s Eurovision song contest with an eponymous song that reached fourth place. So much, so amusing and irrelevant. Except then something else happened. Still in 1979, the band released Moskau. That was … Continue reading “Moskau, Moskau!”
Translation: Die große Müdigkeit
Some weeks ago the anonymous Austrian author who had written the fascinating article Volle Fahrt ins Nichts, which I had translated as Full Speed Into the Void, had published a follow-up essay elaborating on some points from the original article. I have once again translated that new essay, entitled in the original Die große Müdigkeit, … Continue reading “Translation: Die große Müdigkeit”
Assassin’s Creed: Series & Origins
Having recently (almost) finished Assassin’s Creed: Origins I wanted to post a review, but then realized that I had never reviewed any of the previous installments I’d played. So I decided to write an overview for the entire series – most of the games are quite similar – and append my review of Origins to … Continue reading “Assassin’s Creed: Series & Origins”
Translation: Volle Fahrt ins Nichts
Nearly two weeks ago an anonymous author – apparently an Austrian identitarian – published Volle Fahrt ins Nichts, a very interesting analysis of right-wing populist parties in the West, concluding they are unlikely to achieve their goals. This essay was shared by another (not quite anonymous) Austrian identitarian on Twitter who assured me he knows … Continue reading “Translation: Volle Fahrt ins Nichts”
Samurai Helmets
Munich’s Kunsthalle is currently showing selected pieces from Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller’s Samurai Collection in Dallas, Texas. The selection includes armor and weapons as well as household items, but I was most impressed by the numerous helmets. Their design is often unique and highly elaborate, much more so than in medieval Europe. So here is … Continue reading “Samurai Helmets”