It was really a great pleasure for me to last month to launch this workshop and after its success on the first edition (sold out), I decided I’ll be running this workshop again in a few different cities and countries.
It was really great to introduce coding to 50 curious minds without previous experience, and find out that in one day, people with all kinds of completely unrelated jobs are really interested and can be really good at programming. Some of them I was actually convinced they used some programming language before, to find out this was their first contact with coding.
My approach is relaxed, fun (and effective): attendees will build a simple game from scratch in this one day intensive workshop, and will learn several advanced concepts and useful tricks along the way. No previous coding (or even Flash) knowledge needed at all. No scary technical jargon will be used to make things sound complex, because they are not. Actually this will run without computers during the first hour, using attendees on stage to explain in a practical way how a program works and “enact” concepts like variables, objects, functions, loops and conditions. Then, it’s hands-on and the pace will progressively get more and more interesting. The feedback from the first edition really pushed me into starting this tour.
For more details, check the workshop page (just click the image above) and don’t forget to share with anyone who might be interested or might benefit from this. Thanks for sharing! :)
Já faz bastante tempo sem deixar aqui algo, mais uma vez graças ao Twitter e Facebook, responsáveis por eu blogar cada vez menos, mas hoje irritei-me suficientemente com o raio de mais uma empresa a ter comportamentos de merda e a não perceber que os clientes são a sua mais valia, e não as marcas e serviços que representam e tentam prestar, pois estas podem ser adquiridas em inúmeras empresas da concorrência, que é o que passo a fazer de hoje em diante relativamente à Ensitel (enSHITel é mais apropriado, talvez). E quem me conhece sabe que sou um bom cliente para qualquer casa que vendam qualquer tipo de gadgets e equipamento electrónico.
Já fiz a minha contribuição para algum barulho, que é a única maneira de não deixar estas coisas passarem despercebidas e empresas como esta tratarem os clientes como algo chato que não merece atenção, que se amarrota e se atira para o caixote do lixo. Fora algum barulho no Twitter, podem repetir o que eu fiz, que descrevo abaixo.
Recomendo quem quiser ser útil e fazer algum peso nisto a:
2) Marcar “GOSTO/LIKE” para poder escrever na página.
3) Fazer barulho e/ou ao menos divulgar o link do blog (e a autêntica telenovela) desta consumidora http://jonasnuts.com/387191.html
4) Depois de deixar um post (eu abusei pois não cabia tudo num), DESMARCAR o “GOSTO/LIKE” (à esquerda, ligeiramente abaixo na página, nas últimas caixas/opções/botões. Isto é importante, pois não queremos contribuir para o número de fans da empresa, antes pelo contrário.
Aqui deixo a minha “contribuição” que lá ficou, para o caso da censura Ensitel se lembrar de a “limpar”:
[UPDATE: Já apagaram o meu e todos os “posts” inconvenientes, mas o que ganharam foi uma avalanche de utilizadores que continuam a largar mais posts mais depressa do que eles conseguem apagar…]
[UPDATES: Aconselho vivamente a espreitarem (se não o fizeram já como metade do país) a página do Facebook, em queda livre desde que eles apagaram os comentários incovenientes. Estão a ser virtualmente apedrejados. E deixo abaixo um vídeo que já alguém se deu ao trabalho de editar, que confesso que está brilhante :)]
While at the OFFF Paris conference, the highlight was yesterday on the subway, while going to the after-event (lame) party. Enjoy. Now I am trying to keep the song away from my head (including the high pitched parts) but it just gets worst and worst.
So, I just came back from this AWESOME Flash/Flex conference in Norway. The concept was simple: snow sports during the day, sessions after-ski. It worked so well that I am only looking forward for another ski-summer-break next year in Norway. gotoAndSki(); was great!
I have a few more things to retro-post since I’ve been so busy that all my blog post material is holding for a while. It was 10 days in New York, then a few days home, then off to Sweden for another 10 days for wrapping up and launching a client project, then directly to Norway for another 5 days. Just came back from there 2 days ago and will be leaving in another couple of days to another conference (OFFF in Paris). Will need to slow down soon.
Here’s a video of the AirBoard sessions in the last day of gotoAndSki(); I my board and a spare board for someone else to try and the result is that I got a lot of people asking where they could buy one :)
—– ===== [ UPDATE! ] ===== —–
I’m glad to be in charge of hosting gotoAndSki Switzerland,
the Winter edition of this conference, to be held
27 to 29th January 2011 in the Swiss Alps. http://switzerland.gotoandski.com
Mais uma pérola enviada pela minha amiga Lena Sobral (irmã da famosa radio star Guida Sobral).
E isto relembra-me que há séculos que não meto nada neste blog. Realmente tenho usado muito mais o Facebook, mas principalmente o Twitter, para regurgitar estas pequenas bacoradas, e não o blog.
I feel good :) Today, I just did another huge cross-spam operation. I don’t remember exactly when or why I started doing this but this is probably my 5th in 3 or 4 years. I hate to see direct marketing in my mailbox, despite my no-ads sign. So, instead of recycling, I started keeping it in a cabinet and once it is full (takes less than a year usually), I just shuffle all the spam letters and stuff it in the included paid-reply envelopes.
Then just take this huge amount of envelopes to the nearest mailbox. Not that I don’t have enough reasons for my neighbors to have doubts about my sanity, but I feel so good imagining the WTF faces of the guys at the cable TV company getting the latest marketig letter from some bathtub and shower company, the several insurance companies getting Tarot or Massage ads, or whomever getting whatever else. Best of all, they all pay for having that pleasure :)
I encourage everyone to do this. I always did it for “fun”, never thought of the result that these companies would stop spamming me because my ID in the reply envelopes always comes back with something weird, but the truth, related or not I get way less crap in my mailbox. Seems to work towards my address getting unlisted from a few databases at least.
Now, parallel to this I started something new. Since I am working from home during the last 3 months I get bombarded with telemarketing calls, that I missed before since I was only back home later. I started even being “not very polite” with them after the 10th call of the day, but I get repeated calls from the same company. I even get those that you pick the phone, and they put you on hold with crap music as if you will wait for the privilege of wasting your time talking about some brand new moisturizer cream or whatever. Now I started asking them what company is this (probably they think I am very interested). End of last month I sent invoices to all these companies with the time spent on the phone (hey, I charge for my time). As a side note, I always charge my highest rate and always round the minutes up to the next hour. Didn’t receive yet any call asking what the invoice is for (well, I explain in the invoice). The invoices will be due in 3 weeks so fun will begin when I start issuing recall invoices, aggravated :) Again, I don’t expect any invoice to be paid, and that would be way too funny, but I kind of guess that my phone number will vanish from a few junk telemarketing databases.
Feel free to re-use my counter-spam techniques for yourself. Please post a comment when you do it. Believe me, you will feel good and will be giggling for a while.
Just another random video of my cat, Shift. He does this all the time so this morning I just decided to pick the camera. After watching the video I really needed to add the jaws soundtrack :)
Quick post: I just presented my resignation letter this morning and will still be wrapping-up some projects for a couple of weeks. But I am back to the freelance world!
I am quite excited with this specially because of a few projects in mind. This way I can pursue projects covering a few different areas between design and development whilst tied to any company I was always confined to a small subset of those. I was a freelancer for about 12 years before moving to Switzerland, so I was kind of missing it. I also like the fact that I can put together the experience of several years in advertising and more recently in the finance field, and use this two completely different approaches as an advantage specially in RIA (Rich Internet Applications) development in Flex and using the Flash platform.
I will have some new website soon and a dedicated blog for the geeky Flex/Flash/ActionScript stuff and whatever else I want to share.
One of the things I decided is that I will dedicate more time to the Flash platform community and will contribute as much as possible. One of the new things I will be doing this time will be iPhone application development but will be back also to old things that were in standby for a while like 3D modeling and animation.
The next day after I arrived from FOTB back to Geneva I had guests arriving. Diogo “Brasuca”, an old friend (back from when I was in Portugal) and a couple of friends came to visit.
After the Nintendo Wii & wine (almost a ritual) at my place Friday night followed by chilling out at the 5Portes lounge bar, we planned the rest of their stay which evolved as usual a day trip on Saturday to the alps, hiking downhill from Gimmelwald, my Japanese Curry when back to Geneva and more Wii and Wine. Next day, Sunday, abusive raclette lunch on the boat followed by a walk around Evian and end of the day in the Lavey-les-bains thermal Spa in the mountains (soaking for over 3 hours in cooking-temperature water and jacuzzi and hoses and whirlpools and saunas and whatsoever). The next day (Monday) and the morning before they left was free for them to explore Geneva since I was at work. You are welcome anytime, guys :)
I just attended the FOTB conference in Brighton this year and I must say that was one of the best Flash/Flex/AS3 conference I’ve ever been. Felt way less heavier (corporate message) than MAX Europe which I attended last year in Milan. The atmosphere is really great and I will be back next year FOR SURE!
I won’t be writing here a lot about it since there’s already lots of stuff written in every blog concerning the Flash Platform (and sure all posts will mention Joa Ebert :) ).
One thing I want to add is that I got quite shocked with the reaction of a lot of people during Craig Swann’s session. It was one of my favorites and it was great to see something fresh in a conference like this. During this conference there’s was quite a “twitter attack” and people just started leaving the room. Most I am sure just following others only not to be seen as “He stayed there listening to that”. The only thing I found weird on that session was the fact that apparently everyone in the room (supposedly developers and creative people) is only using IFs and specially ELSEs in their code window and not in their lives. Sure, constants in daily life (routine/staus quo) are more practical and getting them defined by TV and media and politics in general is easier but there’s more around us than just conventions and rules sometimes. And even if not, I like to keep myself open minded. Anyway, just my opinion. I don’t believe in anything just because I read about it or someone supposedly important says it and I like to research and most importantly invest time and test and try it myself (messy sometimes) and research the results I get before I can say I believe it or not… If I can’t then it still stays in the “might be possible” shelf instead of the “impossible” one.
Anyway, now just about Brighton and not the conference, since there’s enough speed coding videos out there already :) The day I landed (one day before the conference), some friends from London came to see me and we ended up in the Brighton Pier, doing all the cheesy stuff you can do there (there’s nothing else to do anyway). Pictures and videos below.
To start, at the entrance a cheesy “Baywatch” picture:
Followed by Erica and Nuzhat in the carousel:
Probably the only carousel where apart
from the typical horses, you can
enjoy riding a cock:
OK, the carousel moment deserved a video:
Andrew could not resist having a Rambo moment:
And before Dinner I just spotted this store
where you can make a boob cast.
The interesting part was an ad on the door
with a job offer for a casting assistant with
tarot reading skills as a preference :)
OK this was actually 3 weeks ago, but I’ve been quite static regarding blogging, specially since I use Twitter.
So, the Yannmar engine in Don Quichotte (my sailboat) decided to die. Quite normal actually, since the engine is as old as myself (31 years OLD). After asking for experts opinion, it’s actually cheaper to install a new one than fixing and getting parts for this one, so that’s what I will do by the end of the year.
The engine had some random weird episodes since I own the boat (over 2 years by now) and this was quite expected and I was aware it could happen at the moment I bought it, so it was not a huge surprise. Since I don’t feel comfortable enough yet to get out and back to the dock on sail and without using the motor, the boat will be docked until next season, keeping its winter duty as my recurrent Raclette and Fondue party place in Evian :)
[PT] Leite Vigor? Que mariquice… Vodka Vigor é que é!!!
E obviamente tem um preço apropriado também: 69 Kunas (Repito, Kunas, que pronunciado pelos locais soa sempre a outra coisa e claro está, faz-me sempre desatar a rir quando alguém me diz o preço de algo e eu não estou preparado).
A foto está super desfocada pelo simples facto que foi tirada com o iPhone enquanto eu estava a rir feito parvo enquanto a senhora da caixa me estava a chamar nomes em croata…
Infelizmente, mesmo procurando nas prateleiras, não havia Whisky Mimosa nem Aguardente Ucal e o Gin Gresso também devia estar esgotado…
Sim, aqui posso chamar as absurdidades deste senhor pelo nome. Ontem no Twitter alguém expôs o post deste Professor do Instituto Superior Técnico, que entre outras afirmações que me deixaram a ranger os dentes, acha que o informáticos em Portugal ganham demais, na casa dos 1500 Euros brutos. Desculpe? E os que nem ganham isso?
Enfim, vou aqui deixar que leiam as afirmações-chave (barbaridades, diga-se) desta criatura no forum que podem encontrar aqui:
http://cei2009.net/forums/t/27.aspx
Como o forum já “fechou para balanço”, fica aqui o link para alguém que guardou como uma autêntica relíquia (que é) o post do senhor professor: http://tiagomatos.org/blog/?p=304
A minha resposta encontra-se no forum mas fiz questão de a repetir abaixo neste post, para o caso de ser apagada pois não me aguentei e acabei por usar talvez alguma linguagem menos apropriada):
Fernando Colaço
Confesso que estava mortinho por ser aprovado no forum para poder responder à absurdidade deste post. Ao fim de um dia e depois de alguns bugs no sistema (que ficam sempre bem tendo em conta a entidade que o suporta) aqui vai:
Ontem, depois de algum alarido no Twitter especialmente entre pessoal a trabalhar no ramo das TI no estrangeiro em relação às barbaridades escritas neste post, confesso que fiquei a ranger os dentes. Se um professor do Técnico (o autor) pensa assim, não é grande surpresa que o país esteja como está principalmente em relação aos profissionais nesta área.
Antes de mais, como não sou Engenheiro (rótulo indispensável tal como outros em Portugal para se chegar a algum lado sem necessitar de outras técnicas menos decentes que não devo referir aqui), fiz questão de procurar a gravata que levei ao último casamento e fazer uma foto para o meu avatar numa pose o mais semelhante possível à do autor (que me surpreendeu por não ter colocado o polegar e indicador a segurar o queixo).
Ao que interessa: Uma das conclusões a que cheguei que podem ajudar ao facto de que cada vez há menos “bons profissionais” e mais “maus profissionais” em Portugal, é o facto inevitável que mais cedo ou mais tarde, os primeiros descobrem uma realidade paralela fora do país, em que os salários são mais na casa de 10 vezes mais que os absurdos 1500 Euros (brutos) que o autor considera serem excessivos. Como alguns dos participantes da discussão referiram já, não estamos a falar de uma profissão propriamente linear. Tocando nesse ponto, fico estupefacto que compare a modernização possível do ramo com a da produção de vestuário ou automóveis (no seu terceiro post). Pergunto ao Senhor Professor (que sinceramente acho que tenha mais jeito para sapateiro) se não reparou que essas duas áreas de produção são completamente replicáveis. Acha que se passa o mesmo no ramo das TI? Não estamos a falar propriamente de uma actividade linear.
O aumento da produtividade dos informáticos não tem nada a ver com o salário poder ser mais baixo. Pelo contrário. Como pude verificar no seu perfil do LinkedIN também andou pelo estrangeiro. Não reparou que “cá fora” a motivação e o empenho são recompensados? E refiro-me a compensados não apenas com aumentos mas com progressão na carreira. Já agora fico curioso, pois é dos poucos casos que vejo que andam por fora e acabam por voltar para Portugal, no ramo IT. Podia ser cínico e dizer que isso me diz realmente muita coisa, pois os casos que conheço acabaram por fazer isso porque se encostaram aos canudos (e aos rótulos que por aqui ninguêm quer saber) e recusaram-se a admitir que a competência e produtividade prevalecem em relação a isso. Obviamente depois de algumas tentativas, não duram muito no mercado, acabando por mudar de actividade ou arranjar um tacho e voltar para o país dos Engenheiros e dos Canudos.
Sinceramente, tenho pena de ter andado com os olhos fechados e a trabalhar em várias empresas que acreditam que quanto menos pagam (quando se decidem a pagar) mais seria suposto eu me esforçar. Se tivesse tido contacto com a realidade “cá fora”, já tinha saltado do barco (Portugal) há 15 e não pouco mais de 5 anos.
Pelos vistos ainda há por aí quem pense que no sector das TI há pessoal que carrega em teclas e espera que o computador faça sozinho o trabalho. E que acham que as horas investidas tanto nos projectos como na constante pesquisa e reciclagem de conhecimento são desnecessárias e implicam que se trata de um profissional de “má qualidade” quando as próprias empresas ou clientes são responsáveis por se re-fazer o mesmo projecto 500 vezes a andar em círculos e multiplicar assim os custos, em muitos dos casos porque quem está responsável pela gestão dos projectos é alguém com um canudo que não investiu em si desde que acabou os estudos e está encostado a tecnologias que estão obsoletas há 10 anos ou mais. Ou que é sobrinho da prima do gerente. Ou que têm uma incrível habilidade para lamber testícbotas.
O único conselho que tenho para os bons profissionais em IT? Simples: não desperdicem mais tempo e dêm uma olhadela ao que se passa no estrangeiro. Duvido que voltem ao país se trabalharem cá fora (só para a experiéncia) mesmo apenas alguns meses (eu estava certo disso ao fim de 2). Preparem-se para algum esforço pois trabalhar não implica estar sentado ao computador no Facebook entre 80 pausas para o café ou para o cigarro. Os empregados “não bons” são naturalmente filtrados pelo sistema e em vez de progredirem têm de se dedicar a outra área ou passar a esforçar-se mais.
OK, já me sinto melhor por ter dito algo. E reparo que posso não ter sido muito simpático nalgumas expressões, mas revoltou-me mesmo ver ao ponto a que um professor pode atirar com conversa de encher chouriços e ainda referir que o seu “raciocínio” é económico em termos de oferta e procura (??) e usar termos como “produzir informáticos”… Os informáticos não se produzem, continuam em constante desenvolvimento e se estagnam alguns meses, perdem completamente a carruagem, e pelos vistos a consciência da realidade e do mercado que os rodeia.
Exmo. Sr. Professor Miguel Mira da Silva, com todo o respeito, you can keep your 2 cents.
I’m now in the middle of my 8th month since I decided to go vegetarian. Actually what they call vegan since I eat no eggs, dairy (milk) or fish. No animal protein at all. I also decided to drop gluten. And also refined sugar. All at the same time. And let me tell you that was one of the best things I’ve done in my life since I stopped smoking (that was 5 years ago). Well at least I feel good as I never did, stopped feeling tired all the time, have way more energy, and guess what, related or not, this year my usual allergies, regular colds and whatever else decided to leave me alone.
Anyway, the point is that I noticed a HUGE difference after one month and decided to stretch it to 3 months. It was quite an obvious difference so I decided after that that it would be a lifestyle. And here I am.
Some friends (and my mother obviously) keep asking THE question:
“OK, so, you don’t eat meat, you don’t eat fish, no eggs, no milk or cheese, no gluten which means no bread or pastas and no sugar… what else is there to eat?”
The answer is quite simple: a lot… I actually found stuff I never saw or tried before and now I love (like lentils or eggplant). And I am not the guy that tries to get “fake” meat substitutes. I find no need (or sense) for fake hamburgers or meatballs or whatever.
For bread I have a bread machine and often buy gluten flee (mostly rice) flour and do my own bread or pizza dough. There’s plenty of gluten free breads (all kinds), pasta (all kind) and even cookies in every health store and I found out that major supermarkets have a full shelf that I never noticed.
I confess sugar was a little harder since I only get sugar from fruit now and didn’t want to replace it with sweeteners. In the beginning it felt exactly as when I stopped smoking: cravings all the time for one or two weeks and then it disappears and you don’t even feel attracted by a chocolate bar (which I was not anymore after 5 years in Switzerland).
And no, regarding whatever is there left to eat I am not limited to carrots and spinach and beans. Since I am finding and creating a few alternative meals in a regular basis now, I decided to start publishing them. This is the 1st and will be posted here but I registered geekitchen.com where I will post more when I have time to prepare the blog which will be a kind of kitchen/lab for my quick recipes (since I don”t have that much patience or time).
OK now let’s go to what ended up being my dinner tonight, this pancakes:
My sister invited me for pancakes (crêpes) the other day and I reminded her that I don’t eat eggs or wheat flour (gluten) or milk anymore so that would be a bit complicated. But I was sure I would find a way to make pancakes compatible with myself. Next time I will take a bottle of my own batter. Yesterday night after a quick research I found that an egg can be replaced by one tablespoon of ground flax seed very well mixed with three tablespoons of water, which turns into a sticky thing. The milk I replaced with 1 cup / 2,4 dl of rice milk (not than fan of soy). The wheat flour was replaced by 1 cup / 2,4 dl of rice flour but there’s plenty of non gluten flour mixes available everywhere specially for people with Celiac disease. There’s also non gluten baking powder (2 tablespoons). For replacing sugar I used a tablespoon of Agave syrup but this could be skipped since the pancakes where too sweet for my taste. Apart from this replacements just added the “normal” other ingredients and mixed everything very well: half tablespoon of salt, a pinch of nutmeg (I abused on this one), a pinch of cinnamon or vanilla and one tablespoon of flaxseed oil (instead of regular oil and for omega 3 since I don’t eat fish and this is one of the essential fatty acids the body does not produce). After mixing everything well (no need for blender, just use a spoon or whisk), let it sit for a few minutes while you heat the pan. I waited 7 or 8 minutes. Then just do as usual pancakes.
Guess what? They tasted good. And I don’t mean OK for a replacement. They tasted the same or better.
I didn’t have a lot of stuff at home for the fillings so I ate them all (and they were a lot of pancakes) with sesame paste (tastes like peanut butter) and banana slices and coconut. And some blueberries in some too. It was really good.
Next time I will try also with an overripe banana instead of the flaxseed+water “egg” since I read that lots of vegan people use that to replace eggs in recipes. And next time I will take photos for the geekitchen.com site :)
Warning: weird moments included as usual, probably only understood by the people involved :)
This is a terrible video compilation off all the random moments in Rovinj with Erica, Andrew H, Andrew B, Colleen, Vanessa, Nuzhat, Kanwaljit and Taeko (and Martha, Agnes and Constantina occasionally).
Yes, part I, because the first thing I did on Monday morning while not even 24 hours back, was to book another 7 days in Croatia. I guess that tells how much I really liked it :)
I joined Erica & Andrew and a few of their friends from London & Canada. Taeko joined us later. I took the night train from Geneva to Venice and then the ferry to Rovinj. Arranged the same for the next trip. Counting the days already.
Here’s something worth entering in the rude food category if I had one. This engrish (from Spain) was contributed by João (thanks again) who is starting to be a dealer of odd things to this blog, as if there was not enough stuff already. Horny man’s tea is definitelly the best way to start the morning:
Nostalgia. This was done AGES AGO while I was still at Young & Rubicam as our first digital and not printed Xmas card. After lots of resistance specially from accounting people insisting (they still do) that paper is the future and interactive is nothing, I ended up doing most of it by myself within a week. At least in the end everyone collaborated with taking 2 pictures with mouth closed and opened, even if they had no idea what was it for and as usual they were afraid of me and Photoshop. I got more support when it started coming to life and after a few silly test files with some volunteers in the studio (thanks Cara & Edy). This was all done with Flash MX 2004 (Yes, ages ago as I said) and PHP in the server side.
One of the tricky parts was the sang notes. In my original idea I wanted to have each person singing its own note, possibly with the need to fine tune each file digitally, but after a few “I have no time for that, maybe tomorrow” and considering I had 2 or 3 days left, I had to go for plan B and my friend Claudia Alegre in Portugal helped singing all the notes herself from low to very high pitch. She had to bear with me asking for repetitions in some of the notes and sending me the files over by email in the middle of the night. Anyway, her work was great. At least Y&R paid for that (that was the only money that went into this project).
After we sent it to the usual clients/collaborators/friends, it ended up going viral and got the small server used for it quite busy. In the tracking page it was showing it was going around the world… until around April. From that year so far they’ve been only doing digital xmas cards. But it’s amazing how many “experts”, specially in big agencies, and specially in accounting, the ones who deal with the clients directly, who are still convinced that digital/interactive/web apps is just some fad that will wear off.
Here’s my video review for my latest gadget, which I am loving so far. Tina helped me on this review.
Apart from what is said on the video, I should add that it’s charged by USB (same way you transfer your files to it (Mac/PC/LINUX). One charge lasts for 8000 page changes so that’s A LOT. You can buy it at Firebox (link after the video). Apart from the formats it says it can read in the instructions (PDF, EPUB, TXT, JPG, HTML(text only),RTF,PRC,MP3) I found out by accident it also opens CHM files :)
Also it has included 1GB of storage but you can add an SD card reader up to 4GB and that should be more than enough. I transferred already my entire eBook collection, plus some articles (HTML saved directly from the browser), some magazine issues and a few maps.
I tried reading PDFs on screen, in my laptops, even in the netbook. It works, but after 20 pages or so I have a huge headache and get tired. It’s also impossible to do that in direct (or with a bit) of sunlight. I tried a few free and one paid eBook/PDF reader app on the iPhone… same result. Doesn’t “feel” like paper to your eyes. I end up doing printouts when I really need to read a lot of pages. Now I don’t have to do it anymore (or carry gigantic tech books around).
It’s available in different colors (should I mention the iPod nano design ripoff again?).
Another thing… it’s way lighter than the Sony readers I was tempted to buy (and way cheaper than both those or the Kindle).
I ordered it Wednesday night from Firebox UK (link just below - click the picture) and it was in my hands Friday morning. I used it the entire weekend. It’s obviously not exactly the same as printed book, it takes about a second to change betwen pages and you can’t obviously flip pages or smell the ink, but you can navigate the TOC and bookmark and change font size ant type. So far I just LOVE IT!
[PT] Em primeiro lugar, obrigado Inês por me teres enviado esta pérola que me arruinou a produtividade por mais de meia hora.
Trata-se de um momento radiofónico daqueles interessantes passatempos para pessoas reformadas, clássicos nas rádios locais. O locutor, como qualquer ser humano desfez-se a rir. Nem mesmo a lendária Guida Sobral conseguiria aguentar um momento destes. Enfim, aqui fica:
Recently I had to work on a project using AMFPHP and FLEX and (aaargh) MSSQL.
I am a MySQL guy but since I am working in the finance sector now, Microsoft SQL Server always comes to haunt me, but this was the first time with AMFPHP. Remember, Microsoft is good at selling their stuff to corporate. Anyway, that’s is OK if I consider I came to have nightmares working with worst things (like Sharepoint).
Anyway, for my surprise, AMFPHP adapter for Microsoft SQL didn’t work at all. I tried googling and apparently there was not that much info (no one using MSSQL with AMFPHP?). I ended up digging in the adapter files after trying everything possible and impossible.
In the end there was a “simple” bug that after fixed made everything work magically:
In the core/shared/mssqlAdapter.php file, line 28, just rename columnNames[] to columns[]
That will do it.
I contacted the AMFPHP dev team and they replied back telling me it is patched but since they have no idea when the next update is out, I should blog about it, so here it is my humble contribution :)
[PT] Já faz algum tempo que não deparo com coisas do género para meter na categoria Emigrantolândia.Não tenho bem a certeza se gromada tem o mesmo significado em todo o lado, mas espero que não tenha nada a ver com o estado do interior da “cáminete”:
This almost-a-week break in Sweden was really great. I must thank Sonia and Peter (and his parents and friends) for such great hosts they were, which seems to be something common in Sweden. I am looking forward for them to visit Switzerland now.
I really liked the Swedish countryside. I usually like quiet places more than cities, but there was something special with this region of Sweden. Not sure if it was the harmony between people and nature, or if I just got confused with the fact that sunset was after midnight and right after 3am it was sunrise again, but something in Hällefors (Alfores) and its surroundings really catched me.
Anyway, I leave some pictures of this few days. From the Midsommar “levantar o mastro” ceremony, the lakes (everywhere), the hiking trails, even Laura’s screams, I am kind of nostalgic already with everything. Click the picture below to open the photo set.
UPDATE: Just added Laura’s random tantrum video below. She just decided she didn’t want to walk anymore and used the following technique to convince someone to carry her:
[PT] Duas fotos (parvas) que quase me esquecia de publicar: duas coisas sem nada de especial mas que me fizeram rir na China. A primeira delas, econtrada por todo o lado… os urinóis Totó:
E algo mais, também na categoria de humor de casa de banho, encontrado em bastantes mercearias, o papel higiénico Népia:
Deixo aos caros leitores o desafio de criar slogans para ambos os produtos :)
I just finished watching Earth 2100, an ABC documentary. Yes this one is fiction. But illustrates quite well what might happen if we keep following current trends. It might even be worst considering they kind of believe humanity will go along in quite a few utopic collaborative initiatives.
This movie was aired on July 2nd and it’s available in ABC’s website to watch in sections, but considering the awareness value of this, I will do something I ususally don’t in my blog which is to give a link to torrents and rapidshare where you can download it: http://www.rlslog.net/earth2100hdtvxvid-prisonplanet/
For sure I will start taking even more action after this.
So far I walk and use public transportation in the city, drive an Hybrid when I need to leave and I am a vegetarian for more than 4 months now, consuming as much as possible from bio/organic. There’s still a lot more to do and that will start from NOW.
Please share this videos and show them to whomever you can. That might make a difference. Probably that WILL make a difference. We have to do something otherwise we might reach that tipping point sooner than expected.
Since last Monday was an holiday in Switzerland, I decided last minute to take Tuesday off and fly for a long weekend in the south of Portugal. I took my niece with me and after visiting my parents and some friends, we went to Albufeira where my other sister and niece live. Obviously we also went there to enjoy some sun.
I ended up doing some silly underwater photography and videos with my waterproof Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2. Click the photo to open the Flickr album or watch the videos below.
I mean it. Invest this one and an half hour for yourself.
Movie aside, I got badly impressed with comments both in youtube and movie related forums from (lots of) people viewing this and considering it fiction. It just shows how strong denial can be (as well as pure ignorance and stupidity). There should be some simple program in place where this people could voluntarily sign for: Yes, I can be burned and used as fuel when resources are depleted. That would solve the problem for a few more decades. (OK, apart from being extremely mean with this comment, I am just too pissed off with this people).
UPDATE: After this movie I ended up in some kind of ECO mood and watched THIS ONE which I also recommend.
So, last sunday I spent a few hours playing around in Flex (and PHP) to build this microblog site so all friends and colleagues are updated of what (the heck) we are doing in China. I am flying tomorrow to London and meet with Inês and Maria to fly to Shanghai. Everyone else (mostly work colleagues) are already there. We are going to a colleague of mine’s wedding (Tina, whom you might have find often in this blog as my main victim). I booked an extra 10 days since I actually needed a break. So we have a nice touristic plan for Shanghai and Beijing, which you can also find on the microsite: CLICK HERE or picture below to open the page:
You can leave the page opened in the background. When there’s something new, “we” will notify you with a nice and histerycal sound. Please, feel free to leave us some messages there.
After I am back I will dissect this site (the Flex and the PHP part) and how everything was done from the messages database, the picture upload, the webcam capture, effects in flex, etc.
This will be a good test case for the brand new hacked mac netbook (previous post) which we’ll use to do the updates all the time (Tina says everywhere wireless acceess is quite cheap, kind of 40 dollars 200 hours).
Fell free to leave us a comment / message anytime!
Running Leopard 10.5.6 at full speed now! My first hackintosh attempt. The Acer A150 makes a great 900g Mac. And it did cost 400 CHF (265 EUR) and a only a few hours to setup. It be will around an hour if you follow these steps, since you save the trial and error (and geek fun) part. Everything is working more than fine except Wifi for now (just needs the hardware replaced but the right wireless card is on its way, details below).
After a few failed attempts with different distros, for this specific netbook it’s quite easy to turn it into a Mac. Here we go: (Full instructions)
Yesterday, while driving back to work after the swimming pool / lunch break I just had this car stopping at my side in the traffic lights. The lady inside didn’t really like the idea of me taking a picture, but I did it anyway:
[PT] Seguindo a mesma temática, e no dia anterior eu e a Roxa desatámos a rir feitos parvos num restaurante com os pequenos letreiros nas mesas, realçando a promoção do “Br*che do dia” (por pouco mais de 20 francos).
Sinceramente, não tem assim tanta piada, mas faz-me sempre desatar a rir não sei porquê, tal como AQUI nesta foto.
For the annual Easter ritual of Lavey-les-Bains spa, boat and alps, Erica and Andrew visited me again and tried Airboard for the first time. Laura came with them too and, unfortunatelly she had a “small” accident on our second day in Mürren. OK, not really small, she broke her knee and had to be rescued from the place where she landed (after flying out of the ski slope) by helicopter. Video after the photos below:
Em primeiro lugar, um agradecimento infinito a quem me enviou o email com esta pérola (um anónimo chamado Ernesto Pereira). Além de contribuir com o registo sonoro para este post, contribuiu também com valiosíssimos LINKS nos comentários de um outro post neste blog :)
Confesso que me engasguei violentamente a ouvir isto. E é estranho, pois já devia estar habituado a ouvir diálogos em emigrantolês (língua híbrida entre Francês e Português abrutalhado) todos os dias seja no supermercado, nos transportes públicos ou basicamente em todo o lado em Geneve.
A primeira parte da conversa é um pouco indecifrável mas basicamente é um homem a ligar à mulher a (tentar) explicar que vai chegar mais tarde porque vai jantar com um amigo. Ela não acha muita piada e reage e diz-lhe que tem de estar em casa às 9 em ponto. Entre outras barbaridades pelo meio, não percam o estrondoso final. Ora aqui vai:
Acho que devia começar a documentar um dicionário de emigrantolês, pois já tinha uma lista extensa e muitos mais exemplos do que:
“Pubela”: Caixote do lixo (de FR Poubelle).
“Retrete”: Reforma (de FR Retraite).
“Maladia”: Doença (de FR maladie).
… Enfim, nunca mais acabava.
Um belo exemplo de diálogo a que eu assisti nos transportes públicos (sem registo sonoro) está descrito também NESTE POST, mas quase completamente traduzido já para português.
[PT] Como fazia já bastante tempo que não largava posts completamente inúteis, aqui está mais um momento parvo que me fez desatar a rir na rua sem mais ninguém perceber, hoje depois de almoço:
Sai um Kona Hawaï, um Tropical Ratta e um Paxaxa Waikiki, faz favor!…
As if I was not known for “celebrating” the 1st of April during the entire year, in the office (you can check that my Pranks category) and outside, today there’s an overdose of silly stuff I ended up doing. There’s a few more in my sleeve, so this post will get updated.
It’s quite common for us to always have chocolate in the kitchen (we are in Switzerland), so I contributed with this small “Bonbon” plate… and of course they are made of rubber:
After that I placed this rubber finger in the fridge, on top of the milk carton. It already produced a loud scream (as it did last year):
In the kitchen cupboard where we have the mugs, glasses and bowls, I just left this mouse (already produced screams… twice):
And so far the best one, and I am mad at myself because I forgot my video camera… That’s what I left in the girl’s bathroom. First on the floor, but I changed my mind since a huge frog always looks more impressive… inside the toilet (lid closed for the surprise effect):
After lunch there will be this email being sent to everyone (from my boss, for credibility reasons):
———-
Hi everyone.
Due to the new regulatory Swiss laws mandatory from the 14th of next month and with the (supposed) purpose of Health statistics. All employees need to log time spent on bathroom and we need to keep a database log of that. This tool will be within the next days added to the Intranet:
INTRANET LINK GOES HERE
To use it you just need to click the appropriate button before leaving your desk and then the “ STOP TIMER” button when you are back. If you chose the second button, you also will be prompt to enter a number from 1 to 7 that you can easily find using Dr. McKeith’s chart available here (we recommend you to print): http://tinyurl.com/swisscharttype (open this link please)
Your collaboration is needed so please start using the tool so that we are all used to it and have an accurate database by the 14th May.
Thank you very much.
———-
And this is the Flex app just placed on the opening page of the intranet. It will run in the top right corner (I will be actually tracking who really ends up clicking it :) ): CLICK TO OPEN THE TOILET TRACKER APP
Apart from all the gadgetry and geekness of this car (which by the way I am quite happy with after 2 and an half years), one of the interesting features is its voice recognition. You can do it anytime and it’s your only option when you are not stopped You can’t use the touch screen for security reasons while driving, and have to “talk” to the car. This system is quite impressive since it will recognize any voice and doesn’t need any kind of training. And the commands are system wide: you can use it to change temperature by saying “23 degrees” for example, use it to dial by name or number (car has bluetooth), to search an address, to go to a predefined address (like “go home”), to control the CD/MP3/Radio (”next album”), complete set of GPS commands, etc. There’s recognition for English, French, German and Spanish.
I don’t remember how I found out about this voice recognition glitch in the video, but it was probably in some roadtrip, where usually I (and Inês sometimes) keep trying random commands for fun. Most times I would get the “System does not recognize your command” prompt (yes, the car always replies) if I say something like “deploy missile launcher”.
So as you can see, the Prius is the only “girl” that takes you to French restaurants when you are verbally rude to her. I actually have a few more of these, so I might make videos and post them soon.
OK I’ve been lacking out of time to post, even the usual silly stuff I just spit in here so here’s a recap of last few weeks:
3 weeks ago I was in FITC Amsterdam conference, which was great and as usual in Adobe/Flex/Flash events included lots amazing stuff to see and learn followed by after-events always including alcohol. Second night there was even a party for us in this amazing boat/club. The other days the parties were as good too. Staying in Amsterdam for 4 days was great and I ended up seeing a friend living there now, that I didn’t see for 7 years or so (Diogo Brasuca). I really loved the city and will be back soon. Between conferences, me and Weyert also helped Pablo Parrado with some press work for ActionscriptHero. We interviewed 10 of the speakers. Next post will have links to these video interviews (in HD). It was great to keep in touch (and getting drunk again) with the usual “always there” guys and meet a few more people from the Flex/Flash/Adobe scene. The atmosphere is quite unique. After FITC there was FlexCamp, also in Amsterdam so it was kind of a very busy week. Here I also helped Tomislav with crazy ideas for his techie/geek presentation (controlling electronics from Flex). This included “Sheila” the inflatable doll and her image on sreen would inflate if someone blew in a microphone. This for the sake of the Amsterdam theme, of course. There was also “normal” stuff like controlling external LEDs from checkboxes in flex and a potentiometer controlling a slider. I was exhausted when I returned to Geneva by the end of the week direct to work. For pictures of everything, click the thumbnail above.
The weekend right after Amsterdam I did a quick visit to Portugal to go to a friend’s wedding. I arrived to Lisbon and picked my rented car to go south to visit my parents first (in Castro Verde). The car, which I hated was a Nissan Micra (how I misssed my Prius for 2 days). Also, my skills to drive normal cars are really deteriorating since I drive my automatic geek car for almost 3 years. I left the car stall lots of times, I am always finding weird the fact that the car makes engine noise (dah) and specially the fact that the fuel gauge moves quick enough towards empty for you to notice. It’s ridiculous but true. Also, I am getting worst than an old lady when parking, specially in paralell, thanks again to the Prius auto-parking bad habit! Anyway the wedding was the next day so I drove north (to Évora) after lunch. The wedding was fine and there’s some pics clicking the thumnail in this paragraph. Sunday got some more time in Castro Verde catching up with whom I could manage to see and by night, driving back to Lisbon and flying back to Geneva.
Last weekend, destination was Paris. For the 1st time I took the TGV and apart from being outrageously expensive (specially because I decided to go and buy the ticket one day before) it was quite quick and confortable. In over 3 hours I got from Geneva to gare de Lyon and then just used the subway network to get Tina in gare du Nord, arriving from London. It was a relax/tourist/shopping/cultural mini break and we managed to visit the Eiffel Tower, spend a full day in Galleries Lafyette (98% for Tina’s shopping, 2% for my shopping), kept in touch with Marion, an old colleague from Young & Rubicam Geneva working now in Paris (her hometown). She recommended us MontMartre and the streets around Moulin Rouge for us to visit after dinner, which we were glad we did. We felt quite unconfortable with the street atmosphere in some places and specially in the subway at night. Maybe because of too many years in Geneva and the fact that we are not used anymore to people making noise, fighting, throwing things, barfing everywhere and pissing everywhere. Last day was dedicated to some walking in avenue des Champs Elysées and visiting the Louvre. I also managed to try a Segway (warning, new possible incoming gadget/toy). I took the TGV back by Sunday night. Photos (including usual silly ones) in this paragraph’s thumbnail.
Taking advantage of the multi-post momentum, some things from the week before Amsterdam:
The brand new pair of “comfy shoes” I bought Tina in some random lunch break (and she uses them every day now in the office).
AnnaLise’s birthday (old work colleague). Included drinking Vodka and Raki (some kind of Macedonian firewater) and being beaten in chess by drunk guys. And playing music.
OK, end of this huge-multi-unrelated-purpose post. I start to notice I am more active in microblogging so you better follow me on Twitter (link on the sidebar) if you happen to be interested in whatever I am doing all the time (not very probable unless you have nothing more interesting to do).
Incoming posts: The video interviews at FITC Amsterdam and the summary of the 12-day trip plan for Shanghai/Beijing (with Inês again) coming soon.
Tina is away in the London Office and I had to install something on her machine. Since she’s getting married in 2 months I had to do something to her desktop picture:
Actually I can’t wait to go to her wedding. That will be in China (mid May) so I’ll be there around 10 days in Shanghai and Beijing. Inês, my permanent trip companion and another friend will be also there. Should build a minisite soon, like on last roadtrip :)
UPDATE: Just gently made some quick page this morning for Tina to set as her HOMEPAGE (< click)!
After ages of having my advertising portfolio burried on some external disk, I decided to organize the huge mess I have of project, concepts and final files and start posting some of my works. At least the ones I really liked to work on. To start, here it goes. This was a video moodsetter for ITU (International Telecommunication Union) I did in 2006 while I was still at Young & Rubicam Geneva (as Interactive Art Director). I did the 3D modelling, material and lightning design (actually the main material has lights on it, plus animated omni lights moving inside). I also did the animation and scene and camera setups. This was done in 3DStudio Max and Photoshop for titling. Video-post in Premiere.
Basically I started from a sphere and created an array of them, then duplicated that several times to create a matrix (square) of spheres and then duplicated that a few times for a cube. Added some noise to distort the spheres a bit. The most laborous part was to displace some of the spheres and draw lines between them (in 3D space) so it looked organic. Don’t remember exactly but there were 200+ spheres and some had 7 or 8 lines coming out of each. Next step was to extrude the lines and add some noise again to turn the structure more organic. I kept a copy of those lines to serve as light animation paths (these actually passed between several spheres). Last step in modelling was to turn spheres (neurons) and tubes into one and aplly the material. There were a few noise additions and manual modelling in some parts. Material itself was quite tricky to create because the idea was to have some electronic microscope look, but it ended up in something more than that as an animated material surface (with thin streaks moving slowly). Last step was to animate the camera (the lights inside were bound to paths). All text was added in Premiere.
OK, I couldn’t resist to do it. Another random after-lunch idea. We have this new Star Wars furniture chairs in the reception. I had my Airboard gear in the car so I picked the helmet and convinced Tina (and her space clothes she happened to be using like everyday) to do a quick photo shoot in the reception. Here are the results (click the pictures to zoom):
Hmmm. You can’t notice it on the pictures but the supposed-to-be comfy part of the chairs is padded with metallic mesh. Kind of very thin chicken wire.
We couldn’t figure out yet how to start and fly in any of the two chairs.
(This post will be in portuguese since the following words only have odd meanings in portuguese probably, except for the ASS BAR)
[PT] Para começar, passei o fim de semana a desatar a rir de meia em meia hora por encontrar restaurantes, localidades e lojas com nomes parvos (para mim). Acho q houve grandes dúvidas por parte de quem andou comigo relativas à minha sanidade mental. Para começar terras com nomes parvos:
Em segundo lugar, hotéis cor-de-rosa com nomes duvidosos. Não quero imaginar o que acontece a quem beber água na suposta fonte:
Em Bardolino, numa esquina qualquer, deparo-me também com o Ass Bar (cor-de-rosa também):
E para terminar, algo que vi em muitos carros por todo o lado:
A acrescentar no final deste post, muito brevemente, o que me fez literalmente quase mijar a rir num carro mas não consegui tirar uma foto porque ri tanto que nem conseguia tirar a câmara da mochila e entretanto passámos a placa. Mas um amigo vai tirar a foto e enviar-me pois fica a caminho do trabalho dele. A placa em questão dizia, em letras enormes: Cona Superstore!
Verona is like a Vera, but bigger. (OK bad jokes asside).
It was a great weekend in this picturesque city and about it, specially around lake Garda. Recommended also the SPA Terme di Sirmione. Click the photo below for the gallery:
Thanks also Roberto for being such a great host!
Post coming soon (in Portuguese) just dedicated to the “weird” pictures…
I am trying to find something that doesn’t hurt in my body today. Spent the weekend in the Swiss Alps, Jungfrau region again. This time with my niece Tiffany and a friend of hers, Lorie. My “cousin” David joined too. The girls went skiing and me and David went Airboard racing. I’ll try to find time tonight go through the video footage (most videos done with my new waterproof camera on the helmet) and edit a video to post. As usual the food at Hotel Stechelberg (where we stayed again) was outrageously good, as well as the rösti for lunch on Sunday. Here are some pictures (click below to open the Flickr slideshow):
[PT] Não pude deixar de re-publicar este excelente post do Pablo, que reflecte exactamente o tipo de coisas que não acho piada nenhuma e me deixam irritado durante alguns dias.
Infelizmente não tenho nenhum registo da reacção da comunidade portuguesa por aqui, relativa ao factor Cristiano Ronaldo, mas foi ridículo. Sou a pessoa mais suspeita para refilar sobre isso pois quem me conhece sabe que detesto futebol e patriota estou cada vez menos. Mas o que torna o alarido ridículo é o facto de que se fosse por qualquer causa humanitária, ou para fazer algo realmente útil, não se davam ao trabalho de mexer um dedo sequer. Enfim, aqui vai o post do Sonhos Milka:
Portugal, país de Reis e dos Descobrimentos, continua ainda hoje a ser um país vassalo e com as prioridades trocadas.
A RTP, canal público do Estado, abre o seu Telejornal com a notícia de uma aldeia em Amarante que estava há 3 dias isolada sem água e electricidade devido à neve que se tem feito sentir na região. Notícia que tive oportunidade de ler igualmente no jornal Le Matin aqui na Suíça com um destaque de 1/4 de página, o qual refere que a população de 5 aldeias de Amarante estiveram privadas também de cuidados médicos. Até aqui tudo normal, o que me mais me surpreende é a peça da RTP ser interrompida pelo pivot para ir em directo a Zurique, pois era prioritário entrevistar o Cristiano Ronaldo, premiado como o melhor jogador do mundo de futebol.
Além de não ser capaz de juntar 2 palavras na mesma frase, partilhou o prémio com os portugueses apenas quando o jornalista o recordou. Típico discurso de jogador de futebol, vira o disco e toca o mesmo.
O Estado, o Governo, os media e as instituições portuguesas não cuidam das suas populações. Em vez disso é prioritário aclamar jogadores de futebol e os senhores doutores com as suas palavras de imenso apreço e gratidão!
Back to work (Geneva)! I confess I was missing home (here). Portugal was as usual, I was happy to see friends and family again, but the way the country keeps going backwards and after listening to what people seem to be happy with, always leaves me down. Anyway I just uploaded the pre-Xmas, Xmas and New Year’s pictures altogether in a Flickr set. Click below to see them: Usual odd/random picture warning!
As I promised, here comes the video.
Using jeans instead of snow-pants during the 1st day was worth a cold that seems to be getting worst.
Lots of silly Airboard action in the middle of Mürren and down the red slopes from Almendhubel.
Miguel Mira da Silva
Fernando Colaço
Até aqui tudo normal, o que me mais me surpreende é a peça da RTP ser interrompida pelo pivot para ir em directo a Zurique, pois era prioritário entrevistar o Cristiano Ronaldo, premiado como o melhor jogador do mundo de futebol.
