Happy anniversary!

It is by accident that I've noticed this exactly today, because it certainly doesn't feel that way, but I've been exhibiting my obviously unsurpassed graphomaniacal phase here for a whole year exactly today. :-) I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised, because I didn't think I would post often after a month or two, nor did I think that people would still be actually reading this after such a time.

A little statistic is in order to summarise: on average I've written more than one new post each week (58), received over 28 hits each day (10500!) produced three and a half megabytes of hypertext, linked hundreds of images... and thanks to this blog (and having a fairly uncommon surname, of course :-D) I am now officially #1 Hinca on the web. ;-)

And while, naturally, creating something and having my thoughts and photos online in one place is a sort of motivation for me in itself, it wouldn't be worth it without all of you participating, and maybe appreciating it with an occasional word of praise. :-) So thank you all, and I hope that the coming year is going to be just as good!

Freedom of commenting...

My fellow Readers, our wonderful nation is under attack from those who seek to destroy our freedom. Our enemy will stop at nothing while our children breathe, and fruits of our labour don't crumble in flames. Our mission is clear.

We are hunting down the terrorists. We are helping our former adversaries to build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror. We are advancing freedom in the broader scheme! We will not bend, we will not falter, and at nothing will we stop to pursue this adversary, because we are free nation, and God is on our side.

We are removing a source of violence and instability — and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren. The terrorists know that the outcome will leave them emboldened, or defeated. So, they are waging a campaign of murder and destruction. And there is no limit to the innocent lives they are willing to take.

The lesson of this experience is clear: The terrorists can kill the innocent — but they cannot stop the advance of freedo--

"Excuse me, sir, but you have the wrong speech. This one is for increasing military funding and passing bills that will destroy people's freedom and privacy..."

Oh, right. Damn. Errr...

My fellow Readers, our wonderful blog is under attack from those who seek to get us purchase v14-gr@, and Alaska snowmobile tours, and other people sitting on our faces. Our enemy will stop at nothing while the number of comments is not skyrocketing, and our old one-eyed trouser snakes slump in shame. Our mission is clear.

We are locking out the spammers. We are helping the pink and fluffy creatures to build a free nation that is an ally in the war to preserve freedom! We are advancing freedom in the broader scheme! We will not bend, we will not falter, and at nothing will we stop to pursue this adversary, because we are a free community, and VO is on our side.

We are removing a source of credit card frauds and identity thefts — and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren, so that they can surf the Internet free. The spammers know that the outcome will leave them emboldened, or defeated, and with endless stocks of viagra, which they can't use because they can't get laid... So, they are waging a campaign of spamming and phishing. And there is no limit to the money they are willing to take.

The lesson of this experience is clear: Those bastards can spam all they want — but not here. Dear readers, as is often the case, in order to preserve your freedom, I need to take it away. :-P

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As a result, I am forced to require people logging in, before being able to post comments. Sorry for that, I hope it's not too inconvenient for you. It should only take two seconds, and cause no delay if you stay logged in.

Special account and username on Blogger are not needed, as far as I know, and I'm sure pretty much everyone has at least a secondary google account they can use to authenticate the comments, so I believe that this won't cause much difficulties for you, and won't deter anyone who doesn't offer v14gR@ from commenting. :-D

It's my fault for posting some links pointing here on frequented places, such as last.fm. It's no big deal though, and as my blog is indexed by google, it would happen eventually anyway. Still, I wanted to keep this open for as long as possible, and that time has gone, if I want to keep this place clean. In your face, terrorists!

It's been two months...

...and I feel that some recapitulation is in order. Over those two months I've written more posts than most of my friends combined, and got feedback from you on most of them. During the first month alone, this blog has received over a thousand hits, and this number will be doubled soon.

This exceeded my wildest expectations. :-) I want to express my utmost gratitude for your interest. If it wasn't for you all, I would have stopped publishing weeks ago. Even though fortunately, unlike in Italy, I don't need a license and a professional journalist supervisor. (And it doesn't stop there.)

Blogger indeed is an interesting status. Aiming right into my own ranks:
They may have a point... ;-) Still, I know only about ten to fifteen people who read regularly and even post comments sometimes, but I have no clue whatsoever who rest of you are. I think the record is 70 unique hits per day... creepy. I am pretty sure that I don't even know seventy people altogether, who would want to read this, let alone on the same day.

So come on, step out of the shadows and poke me, so that I know... And remember, comments are mana. More mana means more fireballs, more posts, and happier me. :-) You must have something to say, or at least so I hope.

Why English...?

People keep asking why I'm blogging in English, if that's not my native language. The answer is quite simple actually. I want to make it possible to read and understand for as many people, as I can. There are plenty of friends of mine abroad who might care, and writing this in a minor central-European language would amount to simply ignoring them.

So, instead of leaving them out, I chose the lesser of evils, not favouring those who can't speak English, washing my hands with a thought that it's their own fault anyway. ;-) Several years ago, I didn't make this decision while coding my homepage, and have regretted it several times since.

So please, if you would prefer reading about this stuff in Slovak, bear with me. Besides, I figure that reading some extra English can only do you good. :-) If you have serious difficulties understanding, don't worry, my ramblings aren't worth that much anyway.

Setting up this blog...

...was surprisingly simple. It may not be as good as my own potential on-site solution, but is way less time-consuming and links me to a vast existing community, so I guess I'll just give it a shot.