Happy New Year
So yes, the new design isn’t ready for 2008 as I wanted… a wait is in order :D
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Christmas... again (by Jonathan)
This is a post from a fellow blogger, Jonathan (at anticanis.es). I found it so good that I’ve taken the freedom to translate it to English.
Some things may not make much sense in English (or even for foreign traditions), but I’ve done my best (and made the translation a bit free) so that the concept is there:
They say Christmas is coming. You can feel it in the air, and my mom always accuses me: I hate Christmas. I hate it… because you can not always come back home for Christmas, because those brothel lighting in trees is not happy, but depressing… because Santa doesn’t exist, and if you are not old enough to know, you shouldn’t be reading this web.
I guess prince Felipe1 must be happy… after all, he always knew the “Kings” were his parents.
I can be happy in Christmas… but not because of Christmas, but despite Christmas. They’ll show the same movies as always… those of dirty, vaunted morals, and american dreams. Those where destiny puts everyone in place, and everyone does have a place to be (where are you Lars Von Trier?).
Inconscious christmas that will bitten my nougat because my landlord has already said that in January: raise of the rent, and another hole in my pocket… so if it was three beers with friends before, now it’ll be two beers, and the third is hers. Will Prince Felipe get a rent rise? To me, not only I’m gonna get that rise, but also jam is gonna be risen up… and if I can’t eat jam, then I don’t care it’s christmas, or the apocalypse. Give me bread and call me silly?2 No way, give me jam, and go call your mom silly.
We’ll have christmas company dinners… not bad because my job will be a little tough3, but I get on with almost everyone, and I won’t be pissed at those who I don’t.
Chrismas lottery is coming, which I won’t get this year either… and if I do, don’t search for me: I’ll be at some place where there’s no Christmas.It’s coming, the time to miss those who are not here. And I’m supposed to be happy? Do I have to miss my deceased relatives, or those who are in the other side of the world, and be happy? I don’t get the concept. I already remember and miss them every night I get to bed sober: my memories are happy, but I am not when having them. Friends and relatives have died, and it’s already enough effort not to get their faces blurred, and trying to avoid my problems not to fill their places, to ask me to “smile, it’s christmas!”. Will it be Christmas at cold plaques that lay getting rusty at San Fernando? It will, I guess.
The best that can happen this christmas, is to be with my family, and that we all are healthy. Exactly the same I ask to any other year season. I think every year, I lose some of the infinithesimal spirituality that is still left on me.
1 Prince Felipe de Borbón – Spanish son of the king, and next in crown succesion.
2 “Dame pan y dime tonto” – Common spanish proverb.
3 The original author DJ’s at these kind of parties.
You can find the original post (in Spanish) here
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Working on it
Hey there… I know it’s been quite silent here these last month. My fault. I’ve been overwhelmed by work, and I’m preparing some surprises for the site, don’t really have that much time in front of the computer to do it all.
Anyway, here’s a very small glimpse at what is coming, still a lot of work to do, so I don’t know when it will be ready… but it is coming.
I’m going way into the inners of textpattern to do all of this, and everything is working very nice… textpattern just rules :-)
So there, my apologies for being silent!
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![Birthday Cake [Source: www.everydotconnects.com]](http://www.javiercampos.info/images/37.jpg "Birthday Cake [Source: www.everydotconnects.com]")
Studying again?
![Graduation Cap [source: allposters.com]](http://www.javiercampos.info/images/36.jpg "Graduation Cap [source: allposters.com]")
As most of you know, I never did any career studies, never went to the University, and after a pretty much flawed high school, I started working back when I was 16 years old and never studied again (other than programming courses and whatnot).
Since then, I’ve always had the internal feeling that I needed to do this… so I’ve made my mind up and decided it was time to try it again.
I’m gonna do this with distance courses and with no hurries at all… but I want to prove myself I can do it. It’s gonna be hard, it’s been 12 years since I last sat down to study an exam and you know, the habit gets lost, but I’m at least, going to try.
So this year I’m gonna make an access course, and if everything goes well, next year I’ll be studying CS engineering. Let’s see how it goes… I’m kind of excited, and I’m quite sure I’ll get some fun while doing it.
While I studied back when I was a kid, I always had the problem that I would not learn whatever I didn’t feel practical for my life… I was always good at solving problems, reasoning, etc. (which has led me to self-teach whatever I can know about my field), but never good at just memorizing big chunks of text.
I’m quite sure now this will be different, because of two simple facts:
- I do this because I want to, not because someone wants me to
- I’m 12 years older now than when I quit studying… my sense of what is and what is not “practical” has widened A LOT, I now find practical much of the stuff I never cared to learn while in high school because I could not find any use for it.
So, what can I say except… I’ll tell you how it went, at the end of the course :-)
Wish me luck!
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Everything you've read about Vista DRM is wrong
You know I’m not the kind of person who likes to simply link (or copy&paste) other’s articles in my blog… I’d rather shut myself up than doing what many others blogs do.
But this article by ZDNet’s blogger Ed Bott has really caught up my attention, and it comes handy for point #1 on this entry I posted a few days ago.
The article goes on some/many errors on DRM posted on a Peter Gutmann’s paper where he complains indiscriminately about Vista and content protection. I agree 100% with Ed in basically all he says.
The article is divided into three parts:
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did… and finally (if you were one of those) stop spreading nonsense and uncertain and unproved rumors about DRM, Vista and ultimately Microsoft.
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Hailstorm in Murcia
This might be a normal thing for some of you, but in my hometown, raining is a bit unusual (although normal in September), but a hailstorm is something really really hard to see.
white ice cubes on the floor
I think I’ve only seen like maybe 10 or 15 hailstorms in my life in here, and I think only 2 or 3 times I’ve seen any kind of snow (which lasts for a second after touching the floor).
The weird thing… is that this is being a very hot day. A while ago I went to do some administration paperwork to the city, and I was sweating my ass off, somewhere around 32ºC in the street… then all of a sudden, in barely 30/45 minutes, it started raining, then the hail, and then it stopped and it’s quite hot again outside right now.
The world is wicked, I tell you!
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The top 10 stupid Anti-Microsoft/Vista claims
I’m quite fed up with many blogs. I’m not gonna quote them but you can surely google for them, there are tons saying the same around.
1. Vista doesn’t read copied DVDs
This somehow evolved from some DRM complaints. Note: I am against DRM… but it’s definitely NOT Microsoft’s fault that DRM exists.
The only “bad” thing they have done is comply with DRM so content with DRM can be seen on its OS. The fact that there is DRM-enabled content depends solely on producers, and definitely Microsoft is not to blame.
Of course, Vista does read copied DVDs, and it will show HD content from copied media with no problem as long as the DRM in that content allows it.
2. Vista is slow
Slow? As in what? slower than XP on the same hardware? For sure! So far, I haven’t seen any Linux distribution that works better on the same hardware than old versions. Of course, you can always install with Linux a base distribution, but that’s not what Vista is aimed at, it is desktop and productivity oriented. If you cannot cope with upgrading your hardware, then you probably don’t have the need for it.
XP works, and 98 does too, as long as it meets your needs.
I’d also want to see any of those Mac guys trying to run OSX on a 68040 processor (hey, that’s what Mac OS 8 in 1998 worked on!).
3. Programs are not compatible
Really? Which programs? So far, I have found one program I use which is not compatible, which can easily get updated since there IS a software update from the ISV.
There are probably more, but that is to expect on an OS upgrade with new features. I definitely don’t want to keep compatibility with a 2001 OS just for the sake of it. And once again, that’s usually ISV’s fault. Good programming on Windows makes everything compatible (I must know, I’ve had incompatibility problems with some of my own software, and it’s solely my fault, and bad programming on my part).
4. It’s just a nicer desktop which degrades performance
You sure of that? Read again: Vista has tons of new features under the hood. Probably not “end-user” applications, but it does come with a whole range of new stuff internally (which helps developers, which in turn, once they begin dropping XP compatibility, will help make better programs for end-users).
5. It has more vulnerabilities than XP
Utter lie. Period. It does have vulnerabilities… but more than XP? In no way.
6. I blame Microsoft because I can’t buy a laptop without Vista
You can’t? Dell does offer them, and then again, it’s not Microsoft’s fault that OEMs do want to use a Microsoft OS. Do not buy from those OEM’s if you don’t want, but don’t blame Microsoft for it.
7. You can’t downgrade to XP
Wrong, if you have Vista Ultimate or Business, there’s a license part where it does specifically allow you to downgrade, don’t really wanna look for the link now. If you bought Home, or Home Premium… well, tough luck, DO A BETTER SHOPPING NEXT TIME. People buys things they don’t want, and then complain? Don’t buy it, for a start!
8. Downgrading to XP is hard for non-tecchies. Laptops with SATA drives are hard to get XP installed on
Yes, it might be possible. Tip #1: If you don’t know how to install an operating system, well… don’t.
There are qualified technicians that will more likely want to do it for you at an hourly rate. I should write a post about how Audi is so mean by not letting me replace my car’s engine easily… or how PVC pipe makers are mean, because they do not make it easy to install a new toilet and I have to call a plumber.
9. P2P doesn’t work in Vista
Let me wait for a second and look for a good reply on eMule.
10. You need at least 2Gb to run Vista properly. I don’t want to buy a new computer
Oh, yes. $46.35 for a 1Gb module. Sorry, if you cannot afford that, you should not upgrade to Vista. Of course, I just made sure to look at Amazon instead of a cheap site (which there are).
See, I really hate all those zealots trying to sell me how Vista isn’t good. Can’t you just people shut up and let people use whatever they want?
I don’t sell how you (or anyone else) should or not use Linux (which I hate), or MacOSX (which I like a lot). I don’t sell how the PlayStation is better than the XBox. I don’t sell how anything is better than anything… basically, Windows users do not sell anything to anyone, but you guys need to be talking about how good your OSes are and how bad Vista is, or how evil Microsoft is?
There’s a point on saying how good a product is… there is really no point in comparing other than being in a weaker position… but there’s absolutely no excuse for LYING to make you sound more right.
Just let people decide what they want, and what should they invest on their computers… repeat with me: WE ARE NOT STUPID.
I use Vista, and have used MacOS, Linux, and basically all Windows versions in the past. I know what performance problems I have, I know what problems I have, I don’t need you to tell me how good your operating system works for you (and not for me) and how bad mine is.
PS: I have read all of those claims on blogs around the so-called blogosphere, and I’m sure, if you are reading this, this is nothing new to you. I am not making up those claims.
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Second hand... WTF?
Just a quick note… I’m quite upset by looking second hand photography sites. I’m interested in a new lens for my camera, the Nikkor 18-200mm AF-S VR.
This is hard to find on second-hand stuff since it’s a pretty good as “all-purpose” lens, and most people won’t want to get rid of it (unless they are selling their whole equipment).
But what gets me really upset is the price… the lowest price I could find for this used lens was 595€… but that was the lowest one. I’ve even found some ads for over 750€ used.
People, what the fuck are you thinking? This lens costs a bit under 600€ BRAND NEW.
That said, if anyone wants to get rid of it at a reasonable price… give me a ring!
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