(All this is) Gentoo for me

[4]- Words and Music: Arne Babenhauserheide ( http://draketo.de [5] )

Listen to the song: ogg [6]
This recording is part of the music podcast singing in the winds of time [1].

Refrain:
  I build my kernel and I strip it down,
  my programs only do what I need
  the tree is at my very core
  it's my whole world and it is my seed.

I came to Gentoo several years ago,
it's power was my joy and woe,
replaced OSX with a mighty shell,
and learned its ways and learned them well.

(well mostly, and learning at times is a hell)

--

I rebuilt only 2 times since that day,
for at first I didn't know my way,
the second one was a lovely bird,
but a new Computer brought the third.

(someday I want a Gentoo [7] GNU/Hurd [8])

--

I learned each day and my knowledge grew,
from the wiki and forums it leaped and flew,
information in structure gave power in mind,
and the strongest is what the tutorials bind.

(but read them well, or trouble's what you find)

--

A new life came when I met the snake,
I'd been asleep, now I'm awake,
for portage might be quite complex,
but reading Python's sometimes close to sex.

(go deeper and deeper and the world seems to shift)

--

Somewhere between some seedlings appeared,
with stuff for special people geared,
sometimes dangerous, but mostly good,
and the tree had grown a little wood.

(but remember where the main trunk stood)

--

And now the tree has KDE 4,
since that appeared I like it evermore.
All that nifty stuff I missed from my Mac,
usability and beauty and the vision are back.

(and don't forget power, more than any I knew before)

--

Together all this is Gentoo for me,
but there sure is more I don't get or see,
and some parts for which I feel quite strong,
just didn't fit into this song.

(Gentoo's much too large to fit into any... )

PS: I just uploaded this into my Jamendo Account [9].

PS: I just found another (older) Gentoo song [10].

A song from the icy lands

A song about sharing and free software and changing the world. Originally written to recreate the vision of the Polar Skulk [13] in art.

Criticism and praise would be a great gift to the pup writing this song.

A song from the icy lands

Freedom for Music, for Movies and for every word,
Fighting is not quite absurd,
and we are peaceful, good and kind,
and fight for freedom of the mind.

--

Ref1:
Our world is ice,
but we're together,
calling to the moon,
the cousins of the wolf.

Our tales of freedom
light a fire
of love and family,
the song of foxes.

we teach the wolves,
and sing of beauty,
gather wisdom,
and sing the music of the world.

Our world is ice,
but we're together,
calling to the moon,
the cousins of the wolf.

Our tales of freedom
light a fire
of love and family,
the song of foxes.

we teach the wolves,
and sing of beauty,
gather wisdom,
and free the music of the world.

--

Our skulk is happy with that which is free,
we spread the free things which we see,
like Gnus, who made the firelight,
we spread the freedom in the night.

--

Ref2:
-Ref 1 but:

... learn the wisdom of the world

... free the wisdom of the world.

--

Each night we meet artists who give us their songs,
and more learn each day, where the music belongs,
and wherever we travel, a seed takes its hold,
and singing and dancing shine brighter than gold.

and wherever we travel, a seed takes its hold,
and singing and dancing grow stronger than gold.

--

Ref3:
-Ref 1 but:
... dance the rhythm of the world

... change the rhythm of the world.

If you liked the song from the icy lands, you might also like a tale of foxes and freedom [14] and Infinite Hands [15].

Dragon Cycle

The War of Dragons and Birth of the Dragonriders Sung and played at FilkCONtinental 2004 [16].

No music yet - but someday I'll get that recording...

Drowsy Pagan (and his stew) - a Filk on Dawson's Christian

To the melody of Dawson's Christian from Duane Elms.

Jason Drowsy was a hunter known to cook a burning stew,
and he turned to be a pagan in the hunt of eigthy two.
Now that pagan was the finest cook of the royal twins
and the stew of Jason Drowsy smelled like sins.

In the hunt for the kings wedding, waiting for the royal son,
he then saw a regal steed who was equal to no one,
as the royal son came by him, and he rode out for a prize,
Drowsy knew too well which monster he would slice.

No one talking saw the battle, though the guard was quick to leave,
when they reached the site they found a scene no sane man could believe.
Dead in grass there lay the princeguard, cut to ribbons all around,
but no sign of Jason Drowsy could be found.

Chorus 1:
There are stories of the nightwatch and the ents and dragonwood,
there are stories of the unicorn with a lady at his foot,
but the tale that warms my spirit more because I know it's true
is the tale of Jason Drowsy and his stew,
yes the tale of Drowsy pagan and his stew.

- break for music -

I was second scout for heras dream, the escort was all mine,
we were shipping precious metals and a carriage with wine,
It was in the second week of the most uneventful ride,
when the cold and snow froze all our breath at night.

Now to me there was no question, for there was nowhere to run,
and you just can't keep on moving when you never see the sun,
so we stopped and built a campsite for a time in freezing snow,
when in underbrush a light began to glow.

First we thought it a predator, but the color was all wrong,
then we thought it might be rescue, but no sound of horn did come,
when noone answered hailing we all felt an unknown dread,
then the fire grew and started burning red.

Now a glow came from that fire that is known by very few,
and we never knew a meal could smell just like that special stew,
never fearing our numbers then a figure left the wood,
and he carried a huge bowl which smelled too good.

Chorus 2:
And that pagans stew burned hotter than all stew I ate before,
and its taste would melt to easily the heart of any whore,
as the meal then filled our stomachs and we searched for some more shreds,
all the fear of cold was wiped from our heads,
all the fear of cold was wiped from our heads.

Just as quickly as we started all the feasting then was done,
for the cold inside had vanished and the strangers stew had won,
though we tried to call and thank him, not an answer could we draw,
then he dropped the bowl and this is what we saw.

It had markings there all over and an emblem on one side,
and we knew that every owner but that pagan had long died,
for the markings spoke of royalty, and deep inside we knew,
we all ate from Drowsy pagans fabled stew.

But instead of staying with us, he then simply walked away,
but came back each night with more stew tasting as if made by fey,
when at last the cold did lift, deep inside us each one knew,
we were saved by Jason Drowsy's burning stew, yes, we were saved by Drowsy pagans burning stew.

- Chorus 1 -

Background: I really love the sound of Dawson's Christian, but I never liked the name of the ship - and I learned from my parents not to glorify violence, at least not all the time. Violence is the ultimate escalation of a conflict, so it is well suited to stories, but there are much more important things in life than being the best soldier - for example being the legendary cook who saves caravans from freezing to death and who chose a life in the wilderness over the life for his king when he realized what's really important in our world.

Filk the gist

A parody on March of Cambreadth [20] (mp3 [21]) by Heather Alexander [22] aka Alexander James Adams, the Fairy Tale Minstrel [23], written on the filk-de list [24] to say “damn, we are filkers! We don’t quabble about politics — we sing about them!”

Filk the gist

Keyboards klick, Cellphones ring,
Shining laptop’s hackers sing,
Newsfeeds burn with polished prose,
Show us where we find our foes,
Midnight flame with congressmen,
Fight the trolls to keep us sane,
Sound the horn and call the cry,
How many of us can spot their lie?

Fuck the orders you get told,
Make their shallow hearts get cold,
Fight until you die or drop,
A force like ours is hard to stop,
Close your mind to stress and pain,
Write till you’re no longer sane,
Let not one wrong word pass by,
How many of us can spot their lie?

Guard your disk and emails well,
Send these bastards back to hell,
We’ll teach them the cyberway,
They won’t write in our clay,
Use your shield and use your head,
Fight till every line glows red,
Raise the flag up to the sky,
How many of us can spot their lie?

Dawn has broke, the time has come,
Publish to a marching drum,
We’ll win the war and pay the toll,
We’ll fight as one in heart and soul,
Midnight flame in filkers list,
Write the songs and catch the gist,
Sound the horn and call the cry,
How many of us can spot their lie?

Hackers blog while Filkers sing,
Pegasus has spread its wing,
Yesterday we were too shy,
How many of us can spot their lie?

PS: and to make crystal clear what I mean, because it wasn’t on the mailing list: Politics in song are Filk, and this song is against lying politicians! I’m sorry, Le-matya. This was meant to support your position but I forgot to doublecheck if it is clear in the context.

Happy Birthday to GNU - 25 years

Today is the 25th birthday of the GNU project [25] - the very beginning of the free software community we are today.

This is my small, humble contribution for the birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday to GNU (ogg vorbis) [26]

Happy Birthday to GNU,
Happy Birthday to GNU,
Happy Birthday not Unix,
Happy Birthday to GNU.

Naturally this recording is free licensed [27].

It is part of the music podcast singing in the winds of time [1].

In Circles / The memory of time

I feel the time pass in our circles,
each year another one changed,
a head has turned white,
a hand has gone wry,
growing older as time passes by.

In our circle the time is a slide-show,
each year adds a picture or two,
and our memories in vivid colors
show the changes within me and you.

Here we see life as it happens,
see how choices affect our self,
see who will come near
of friends we hold dear,
who blossoms and who confronts fear.

Some of you have brought your children
or were children when first you came,
the flow of time never stops running
with none of us staying the same.

So time is present in circles,
I’m feeling it turning the wheel,
and life gains in meaning,
with time always stealing
our hours while making them real.

Infinite Hands - singing a part of the history of free software (filk)

- Free Software version of "Finity's End"; original: {lyrics: CJ Cherryh, music: Leslie Fish}.
- filked by Draketo aka Arne Babenhauserheide (draketo.de) (capo 3)

- please check the dedicated site: http://infinite-hands.draketo.de [15] -

Songtext for printing and passing on: pdf [28] | odt (source) [29] | txt [30]
Audio-files: ogg [31] | mp3 [32]
This recording is part of the music podcast singing in the winds of time [1].

==== Infinite Hands ====

C        a             D           a
Infinite Hands build a world to be free, 
    E       G            a
the digital space we all know, 
   C      (a)         D            a
unlimited use has the code that we write, 
    C             G            a
and freedom's the badge we all show.

     C                           D           a
The stuff runs our servers, our desktops and grids, 
     D                    a
by uncounted hands it was made, 
     a                     D         a
set out in the wild on the day it is born, 
        C             D           a
for our free running, long coding trade. 

Ref: 
    C             a          D           a
And no law shall bind us or keep us for long, 
       E       G                    a
for infinity's ours and infinity's free, 
     C          a           D             a
and no country owns us, and no land's our own, 
    C         G        a
for Infinite Hands are we. 

The companies thought that they'd pay us for lines, 
and have all the code for their own. 
"You're company people and company teams, 
your code will now serve us alone."

R.Stallman was only a student that day, 
and he said to himself, thinking deep: 
Farewell to a job, all my code shall be free, 
for what they don't own, they can't keep. 

-Ref-

The miracle came, he did not change his mind
and gathered around him a crew, 
and people could buy his free programs from him, 
sent by mail and his money got through. 

At times others came and they said, "We're free, too, 
you can take code as if in a mall. 
It will be only yours then, just say it's from us, 
and it runs and compiles where you call."

-Ref: But... -

Now Richard M. Stallman was vexed and annoyed, 
and he sent out the word as before: 
"All code must be free, free to use and improve, 
which our license ensures evermore."

But still many coders were lured from our ranks, 
Now for Windows and Apple they strived, 
- spoken in background: And for Amiga, BeOS, IBM, 
    and many more -
their doom and their fall came from finland one day, 
as to GNU a free kernel arrived.

-Ref-

"Come all to U.S.", came a call spreading wide, 
"for there is no place else you can be."
 - spoken in background: DMCA, DRM, TCPA, 
    software patents, idea patents and a war on terror - 
But Richard M. Stallman still sent out the word, 
that all code from now on must be free. 

So code would stay free and our teams did grow strong, 
but some loopholes remained in our side, 
which traitors like TiVo exploited to steal, 
so we needed a change in the right. 

- Ref-

... no words ... 

So our license reshaped by the people and GNU, 
for code contributed to trade, 
And orders be none to withhold us or bind, 
    C                       E          a
No law on our code but the license we made. 

Ref: 
      C             a           D           a
Just that law shall bind us and keep us for long, 
       E       G                   a
for infinity's ours and infinity's free, 
    C          a            D             a
and no country owns us, and no land's our own, 
    C        G               a
for Infinite Hands/Lines are we. 
    C       E        C           (G) a
are we, for Infinite Hands/Lines are we. 

Background:
This is a part of the story of free software, although it misses some details. While "Finity's End" was a work of fiction (the book is avaible on amazon.com [33], amazon.de [34] and maybe at bookzilla.de [35]), this story really happened and happens today.
For additional information please refer to GNU [36].

Licensing:
This song is free art avaible under the following four licenses (for details, please visit draketo.de/licenses [27]). Permission to filk her work freely was granted by Leslie Fish (cite: "Anything to keep the internet free: Go for it!" - she's great! - maybe you'd like to listen in on her music [37]?) and CJ Cherryh.

- GNU FDL
- GPLv2 or later or GPLv3 or later
- Art Libre v1.3 or later
- Lizenz für freie Inhalte v1.0 webstar

You can use any of those four licenses, because I can't yet know which license will make it to the general license for free art. Please keep all four licenses when you make changes, so we avoid licensing chaos. It doesn't use creative commons licensing, because cc does not protect the free avaibility of the sources (Just think LaTeX and pdf).
Sources: infinite-hands.draketo.de

It was written by Draketo aka Arne Babenhauserheide, finished on 2007-09-28, improved by Alan Thiesen 2007-10-08.
Copyright © 2007 Arne Babenhauserheide.
It's first public performance was at FilkCONtinental2007 (A filk convention on the Freusburg in Germany)

Missing topics: DRM, SCO, Open Source – I'd be glad to get suggestions from you! ( just use the comment field )

Arne Babenhauserheide [5]

People visited Infinite Hands since 2008-04-17

Morning has broken

Morning has broken
        beyond repair

the words are spoken
        now do you dare

to absolve of the error made
or will you die in your own shade?

New Horizons for Science

Farewell to friends -- and a love.

Download: mp3 audio [55] | webm video [56]; Watch on youtube [57]

New recording [58] 2019 at Intermezzo [59] with Rika Körte and Steven Macdonald as recording engineers: mp3 audio [58]

Goodbye my love, I leave tonight,
I know you’re in new hands,
Though I would rather follow you,
That’s not the way that this is planned,
Our destiny will now be watched
by different eyes than mine,
I wish you just the best,
be sure we’ll meet again in time.

By now you’ve found somebody else,
to watch out over you,
Every new face I see wasted here,
it’s breaking me in two,
Maybe I should stay and fight
but my heart calls me away,
To that call I must be true,
you know, that is a father’s way.

I decided long ago,
about the way I feel for you,
but it has made no difference,
they are breaking you in two,
it’s true I swore me to your side,
come sunshine or come snow,
But as your faithful friend
I know, it’s time for me to go.

So goodbye to all the friends I’ve made
I’ll never be too far,
there’s much that I have learned from you,
of gluon, mind and star,
I’m grateful for the times we spent,
and all that we’ve been through,
the place I reached today,
I reached because of you.

Goodbye my love, scientia,
should I one day return,
I’ll no longer be a funds-beggar,
and then the tide will turn,
I know you love me as a friend,
but that’s not enough for me,
your paradigms I’ll shift, and then,
we’ll have a chance, you’ll see.

Copyright © 2017 Filk by Arne Babenhauserheide, License: cc by.
Music and original lyrics: Katja Buchmüller

A Filk on the Filk Song New Horizons by Katja Buchmüller. Recorded when I played it for the SAT group [62] at IMK-ASF, KIT [63], after I signed my contract to move from science to software development .

The embedded video is compressed down to 5.6 MiB (thanks to awesome vp9 compression), so it’s suitable to be sent by email: new-horizons-for-science.webm [56]

When you send it by email, your recipients might need a web browser to play it (until desktop video players catch up with the new video codecs on the web).

For more on science, see the Science-category page [64] and especially Information challenges for scientific publishing [65], and counting scientific publications as metric for scientific quality is dumb [66], as well as propagating changes [67].

And if you enjoy this song in the EU, please tell your representatives before June 20 2018 to stop the bad parts of the copyright reform [68], so I can continue to do scientific work in my free time without having to work at a university. One major part of this is Article 13, which would require establishing upload filters for social media sites — and might have stopped me from sharing this song there, if it were the law today.

Update: We lost that in general, but legal battles [69]. There’s quite a bit of research I now cannot do while those who just don’t care continue to collect whatever they want [70]. I’m sorry for that. The EU Copyright Reform [71] threatens my ability to do research in my free time, now that I left university to offer a future for my children. So please help keeping links free (stop Article 11), data mining for independent researchers legal (stop Article 3), and automatic upload filters non-mandatory (stop Article 13).

Pond-erosa Puff (OpenBSD)

I recently found the OpenBSD songs [73], and the artists say that they are part of OpenBSD, logically as well as license-wise. And OpenBSD is licensed under a three-clause BSD license which is GPL compatible - that means I can record and publish it here!

This is the OpenBSD 3.6 release song: Pond-erosa Puff [74], written about people who make something free and suddenly decide to go the unfree path.

Many thanks to all you OpenBSD guys!
Your license is a bit too weak for my taste, but damn, it's free - and your code is as good as your songs!

Audio-files: ogg [75] | mp3 [76]

This recording is part of the music podcast singing in the winds of time [1].

My recording is far from perfect, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! Also it should give everyone a good headstart who always wanted to play the song on the guitar. Oh, and please do listen to the ogg vorbis file. It sounds far better! - Draketo [77]

Pond-erosa Puff (from Ty Semaka)

Well he rode from the ocean far upstream
Nuthin' to his name but a code and a dream
Lookin' for the legendary inland sea
Where the water was deep n' clean n' free

But the town he found had suffered a blow
Fish were dying, cause the water was low
Fat cat fish name o' Diamond Dawes
Plugged the stream with copyright laws

He said my water's good n' my water's free
So Pond-erosa, you gonna thank me!
Then he bottled it up and he labeled it "Mine"
They opened n' poured, but they ran outta time!

So Puff made a brand and he tanned his hide
Said. "this is the mark of too much pride"
Tied him to a horse, set the tail on fire
Slapped er on the ass and the water went higher!

Pond-erosa Puff
wouldn't take no guff
Water oughta be clean and free
So he fought the fight
and he set things right
With his OpenBSD

Well things were good fer a spell in town
But then one day, dang water turned brown
Comin' to the rescue, Mayor Reed
He said, "This here filter's all ya'll need"

But it didn't take long 'fore the filter plugged
Full of mud, n' crud, n' bugs
Folks said "gotta be a gooder way"
Mayor said "Hell No! She's O.K."

"The water's fine on the Open range"
And he passed a law that it couldn't change.
"No freeze, no boil, no frolicking young"
Puff took him aside, said "this is wrong"

Then he found the Mayor was addin' the crud!
So he took him down in a cloud of blood
Said "The Mayor's learnd, he's done been mean"
So they did it right and the water went clean!

CHORUS

So once agin' it was right, but then
The lake went dry, she was gone again!
Fish started flippin' and floppin' about
Yellin' "Mercy Puff! It's a doggone drought!"

So he rolled up-gulch till he hit the lake
Of Apache fish, they was on the take
They'd built a dam that was made of rules
Now Puff was pissed and he lost his cool!

I'm sick and tired of these goldarn words!
n' laws n' bureaucratic nerds!
You're full o' beans n' killin' my town
and if you's all don't shut er down

I'll hang a lickin' on every one
of you sons o' bitchin' greedy scum!
So he blew the dam, an' he let 'er haul
Cause water oughta be free for all!

CHORUS

License: The text is licensed under a 3 clause BSD license, the recording can be used under the usual free licenses [27] and additionally under the 3 clause BSD license (the license doesn't enforce that, but I feel that it's just the right thing to do).

Realistically Me (the square root)

-Melodie partly from "Swing low, sweet chariot"-

He looked over squares, and what did he see?
coming just for driving him mad,
The rational numbers didn't fit for me,
coming just for driving him mad.

He looked over pentagrams, and what did he see?
coming just for driving him mad,
There was funny looking a cousin of me,
coming just for driving him mad.

He told his pupils, all the world is a number,
coming just for driving him mad,
And one of them said: "this one makes me wonder"
coming just for driving him mad,

He told him of me, and to his growing dread,
coming just for driving him mad,
He proved my being, and what did he get,
Pytagoras just wanted him dead.

I'm the square root,
The funny square root,
gave him a bad mood,
Just me, the square root,
And everything in me is good!

(being irrational can be great! :-) )

Seiken Densetsu 3 Bardstale

The introduction story of Angela from the SNES-Game Seiken Densetsu 3 (SD3) which you play when you start the game with her as main character, done in song-form. Infos about her and about that game: http://www.fantasyanime.com/mana/som2char_2.htm [78]

This is the first song I ever wrote myself, text melody and guitar, and I am still not quite satisfied with the way I can play it.

-> ogg vorbis [84] music file.

It misses a violin. (I played it once together with a fiddler, and it was exactly what I imagined. But I had no recording accessories at hand at that time, and I'm sad we weren't able to play together more often... I hope you still like it the way it is now!)

Songtext and chords:

Chord Sheet (PDF) [85]

Seiken Densetsu 3 Bardstale

Chords:

D A E G
D A C G

Ref: d a d a
d a C G

The power of the magic, the magic of the spell,
brought her out of danger, brought her out of hell.
Beauty in her eyes and beauty in her face,
magic in her heart, but no magic in the mind.

Her mother was against her, the queen of the castle,
crying out for power, for power to prevail.

Ref: Lonely girl, beautiful girl, arrogant girl with magic in her heart.

Her queen needed a life, taken away from a human,
tried to take another, another than her own,
Her kingdom was freezing, the mana was fading,
by fleeing her mother, she finally ran away.

Ref: Lonely girl, beautiful girl, arrogant girl with magic in her heart.

Carried by the magic, the magic in her heart,
safe from the grip of her mothers magic hands,
Alone in the cold, but living at least,
she awoke outside the castle and ask'd her where to go.

- New Chords: -
- d a e a -
- a C G a -

Slowly she walked south to be attacked by fierce fiends,
after the victory the cold took her in its hands.

- d C a -
- Strummed: D A E G -

She awoke in the bed of an all unknown house,
selfishly stepping out without a thank you.

Soul of Wind

To the melody of Firesoul by Aryana. Text written around 2007 by Draketo (Arne Babenhauserheide).

  e                           G
I dance with the wind, for my soul needs to fly,  
  a                e             D
I move through the storm just to look at the sky  
  e                      D           e
I stay of my own will, I need to fly free,  
    a            e           D           e
and just one can bind me and that one is me.

I crave for the gusts, the wind on my wings,
In flight there’s no border, no queens and no kings,
I go where I want and you can’t keep me in,
I need to stay moving, leave friends and leave kin.

I know where I’m going, I’ve chosen my way,
Must heed only myself, whatever you say,
Don’t mourn for my passing, we might meet again,
just savor each moment, for struggling’s in vain.

My power is freedom, my path is my own,
If no one is near, I will walk it alone,
For only that way I have power to fly
so don’t ever bind me or else I will die.

I dance with the wind, for my soul needs to fly,
I move through the storm just to look at the sky
I stay of my own will, I need to fly free,
and just one can bind me and that one is me.

PS: And bind me I did. See Storm through Rock [87].

Storm through Rock

To the melody of Firesoul by Aryana. Text written 2016 by Draketo (Arne Babenhauserheide). A filk on Soul of Wind [88], for life is change and change reflects in living songs.

  e                        G
I sigh in the wind, for my soul wants to fly,  
   a                e             D
to wing through the storm just to look at the sky  
  e                        D           e
but choices are made and I stand by my word,
    a             e       D         e
and don’t care if anyone but me has heard.

I move on my path, I’ve chosen my way,
each crossing takes possible futures away,
but never to choose just worsens my need,
and a choice fast retracted does not make a street.

I love stories of choices which people take far,
but most stories show people who will find a star,
so they don’t show which hardships can happiness bring,
or the mission you choose for yourself with a ring.

I now find little freedom in paths without aim,
I’m older, I’m stronger, I’ve chosen my game,
children ask others, that’s not my concern,
I’m walking my path and its harvest I’ll earn.

Freedom is different when some ways I block,
For wind to play music, you guide it through rock,
A storm roaming freely gains strength through the sun,
where channelled through mountains it’s yielding to none.

My power is freedom, my path is my own,
with friends walking near, I am never alone,
for humans need kinship for strength to survive,
knowing you all helps my dreaming to thrive.

For in this special weekend where freedom I live,
I gain strength from fire and healing I give,
from all of your voices, your friendship and dreams,
for something like joy means much more than it seems.

The truth is in there - Maxwell gives us the speed of light

- a Filk on "X as in Fox [89]" by Cecilia Eng -

Once we believed in the speed of the light,
and experiments show that what we thought is right,
But we search our math for another sight,

'Cause we hope that the truth is in there.

When we measure the speed of something somehow,
we can only check against the distance, but now
we'll show that we get it from Maxwell', and wow!

We will know that the truth is in there!

First we take a sheet of charge at hand,
then we move it by an unseen command,
and nabla rot B shows the field where we stand,

And we know that the truth is in there.

Now that formula says, our field's everywhere,
when about the electrics we never care,
but that can't be true, for our world's still there,

And we know that the truth is in there.

Since nabla rot E is -dB/dt,
a field can never change at once all that we see,
It takes some time, which gives us the v,

And we guess that the truth is in there.

So now we take a small square far from the sheet,
when we check the change in B, it then shows quite neat,
It is width times the speed times B, which we need,

To see that the truth is in there.

For we also know that an electric field,
round a loop is (as Stokes will quickly yield),
Just the length of the loop times the strength of the field,

That's a clue that the truth is in there.

For now we take both and make the loop small,
so the length in a field is its width, and we call,
"E is v times B", which gives us all

To believe that the truth is in there.

We then do the same for nabla rot B,
But there's a c squared so we easily see,
E is also c squared times (B divided by v),

And we see that the truth is in there.

For with these we can easily tell,
that v must be c which we like so damn well,
For now we are sure we're right when we yell,

We know that the truth is in there!

So what do we know from this funny tale?
The strength of the fields leads us through the veil,
and gives us the speed of light without fail,

So we see that the truth is in there!

Now we only need to measure the attraction of charge,
and then the attraction of flowing charge,
and the root of their quotient might be quite large,

But it gives us the truth that's in there.
The invariant truth that's in there.

Jepp, that's a way to get the speed of light from the Maxwell equations [90] and the knowledge that our world still exists :)

I hope you enjoyed reading the song as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Volkoi

There’s music in their stamping,
in their shouting to above,

There’s rhythm in their live,
in fight and death and love,

(There's rhythm in their stance,
in strike and blow and bluff,)

Where nobler people seek the truth
and never find their hearts,

A Volkoi’s always on his toes,
when the music starts.

— Eschrandar, Nayan War Engine, Mechanical Dreams [91] (sadly only the store is left of this great game…)

With Python from the Shadows

- Written by Draketo aka Arne Babenhauserheide, originally to the melody of Moonlight Shadow on 22.2.08 but switched on 2008-06-27 to be able to put a recording under free licenses -

Audio-files: ogg [92]
This recording is part of the music podcast singing in the winds of time [1].

With Python [93] from the Shadows

First time ever I saw it,
carried away by its lightweight structure,
My heart grew fuzzy and sunlit,
carried away by its lightweight structure,

All I saw was the relevant part,
deep inside every programs core,
It flowed like my thoughts but it looked like art,
So clear that at once I saw through.

-

The bridge of doom I was then crossing,
carried away by its lightweight structure,
The guardsman into darkness tossing,
carried away by its lightweight structure,

( "What is the fastest way to store a list of unicode chars?"
"A mutable or an immutable list?"
"I don't know... Aaaargh!" )

It's a month now since I passed that whitening guard,
deep inside every programs core,
To know what I want is the hardest part,
since the code I can simply see through.

-

Ref: I chime, I rime, see you with Python all the time,
I chime, I rime, see you with Python, next time.

-

Four a.m. in the morning,
carried away by its lightweight structure,
you can see my fingers are still coding,
carried away by its lightweight structure,

All it takes is an idea in me,
For stuff inside any programs core,
And the code flows freely for my mindview to see,
So clear that at once I see through.

-

- Ref -

-

mmmmmmm
carried away by its lightweight structure,
mmmmmmm
carried away by its lightweight structure,

I write too late, even typing grows hard,
mmmmmmm
The night is heavy and my lids will not part,
but my mind can still simply see through.

Broken Apple Heart - Why I'm a Mac user no more

Beware of that Fruit (Broken Apple Heart) ( http://bah.draketo.de/?p=13 [95] )

• download ogg [97]
• download mp3 [98]

(What do you think, why Macs no longer Smile?)

Chorus: I was an Apple User and loyal to the core,
But one grey day I realized what made my heartache soar,
They want to make the big bucks now and want no one to see,
That ever more surveillance takes the Users rights as fee.

–

I was a little Bugger, when I saw the first of Mac,
Discovered there then Shufflepuck and all the time came back,
It belonged to parents friends then, but my will it showed its grip,
And when they tried to take “My Mac”, their efforts meant a zip.

–

My third Mac, it was bigger, not so cute, but lovely, too,
And to my greatest pleasure, I owned the smiling goo,
I was a big fanatic, Apple was it all the time,
And when I got to talking, all my friends could do was wine.

–

Then came the time of MacOSX, it was the thing for me,
The beta was the slowest beast, but with it I felt free,
I worked and it grew faster and I never bid the time,
And every single Update pushed the speed another line.

–

But then they made the panther and it hated my old Mac,
And though I bought a new one, my belief did not come back,
Then came OSX on intel, my belief lost every race,
Apple takes “trusted computing”, hits me squarely in the face.

–

Now my Mac here owns a Linux and Apple makes no gain,
Since for my precious income I want freedom and no chain,
So I switch on to a Linux, MacOSX I use the least,
with those lovely little penguins I take midsummers feast.

–

Some days Im feeling sad and my parting brings me pain,
But without freedom for their Users, all their genius is in vain,
When I’d come back to Apple, I will tell them with delight,
To get me back they must adhere to freedom and my rights,
They must adhere to freedom and to every Users rights.

• Arne Babenhauserheide ( http://draketo.de [5] )

Dear Steve Jobs,

I once left Apple after a Life of using Macs because you included the TPM chip in the Intel Macs, and I’ve been an active opponent to Apple ever since, because DRM and Trusted Computing aka Treacherous Computing go against everything I believe right in informatics and you had just made Apple the spearhead of DRM.

I’m not likely return as user (I’ve grown too fond of KDE [99] for that), but I am likely to return as supporter, if you decide to give back the rights of your users to manage their own computers freely.

DRM takes away freedom from users, and I can’t support anybody who takes the freedom of people to turn it into profit. You have the option now, to shape Apple into a “good guy” again, and I urge you with all my heart to do it. You broke my heart in the past, but you might be on the way to mend it… and until you do so, I’m going to sing the song into which I shaped my pain back then: