this can't be true...

Yesterday i read about the saddest news for a long long time.

Terry Pratchett is a man whose brain has the overwhelming power of creating a whole new universe, which he did over the last roundabout 20 years. His books have everything I ever wanted to read : They are witty, funny and absolutely fantastic. His imagination and common sense are uncompared, in my opinion.

Now he has told the world that a rare kind of Alzheimer's disease has befallen him, a disease that will, eventually, make his brain disfunctional (loss of language, motoric skills etc.) and basically turn it into a plum pudding over the next 10-15 years.
Pratchett has also told the press that he "ain't dead yet", and i think he will never really be. The wor(l)d is printed, and - even if the man dies - it will remain. Only the good die young.

I want Terry to know that he has enriched my life in a way no one else could have, thank you, Terry. I hope you have many joyous days left. I will stick with you. Right now, I just feel like crying my eyes out...

If anyone cares to read the article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/13/terry_prachett_alzheimers/

hilarious!

Erfindungen, die die Welt nicht braucht...

Patent 962 : Der Multimedia-Kamin

just 'nother bout of music

I hardly believe it myself, but I had a few hours with my piano these days, which I used to experiment with a few instrumental tracks.
Finally I got around to make a kind of compound of 4 of my demo outtakes, which can be heard in my myspace profile as of now.

Furthermore I just made a rough mixup of a few Elton John covers I recorded from time to time, which can be downloaded here. More info on why the sound sucks so much can be found in this myspace blog entry.

I also had the chance to do some interesting new stuff : I recorded a piano segment for a quite cool track ("inquisitors") created by paul garcia, a spanish musician (www.paul-garcia.com). I'm not sure if it will ever be available for public listening, but I'll keep you updated.

So, I get to do things, but hardly have the time to improve my recording quality...well, this life's still got some days in it for me, I hope...

php5 likes transitive access levels?

When working on a singleton class in php, I noticed a funny behaviour.
The following code will lead to an error

Access level to B::__construct() must be public (as in class A)

class A
{
 public function __construct(){}
}
class B extends A
{
 private function __construct()
 {
  parent::__construct();
 }
}
$B = new B();
?>

Weird...

Yet another CD recommendation

Richie Sambora, who probably makes most of his fame by working in the Bon Jovi Band, has made some really good solo stuff in the 90s and probably before (I don't know). As far as I'm concerned, this is the best I've heard from him.

Check out my favourite track [Hard times come easy] from this album