question

2005-09-30T23:38:52Z

This if for all the portuguese-speaking LJers that read my friends page, although i'll write this in english so people understand what i'm asking.

The current syndication account for my website (andr3_feed) is currently showing all posts and quickposts in english, but i also write some posts in portuguese, and those will never come to livejournal. My question is whether you'd be interested in having a portuguese syndication account created separately (andr3_feed_pt ?) or create one with both portuguese and english posts and english quickposts.. what do you prefer?

To sum up,

#1 - Create new feed for portuguese posts
(& portuguese quickposts - prettu much all of the qposts are translated to portuguese, so they're basically the same)

#2 - Create a new feed with both portuguese and english posts
(+ english quickposts)

#3 - Leave it as it is. you don't need the portuguese posts

I'd also like to hear what you english-speaking folks think of this. ;)

(i hope you still have me on your friends list, eventhough i don't post here that often anymore.. or noone will read this :P)

Thanks. ;)

Here it is

2005-07-31T13:35:01Z

For everyone who'd like to keep getting my posts on your friends page, there's now a syndication account for the posts and quickposts i make on the website.

andr3_feed

Add it to your friends list, since i'll probably won't be posting much here, on this account... i wont simply close it down right away. But it's probable it'll happen in a near future. I'd appreciate it if you'd leave any comments you might have in the website, instead of posting the comments in the syndication account. But it's up to you ;)

Thanks to leon for creating the account. :)

Finally...

2005-07-30T23:08:13Z

andr3.net is finally open!!

soon i'll post more details on how to follow the posts i make there through your Livejournal accounts. I need someone with a paid account to create a syndication account here in lj.

feel free to register an account there and post a comment. :) i'd appreciate some feedback. specially if it's bug reports :P lol

http://andr3.net

it's now a matter of days...

2005-07-26T22:47:36Z

...until my new website is launched. I know I have been sort of MIA, but it's all due to the ammount of work i've had cleaning up some minor bugs and getting the website ready for launch.

I've already started to fill it up with some content, and i only have to code one last feature --which came to me pretty much in my sleep (am i sad or what?)-- and it's set. Hopefully, it'll be ready by the end of the week, at most. I'm sure some of you think i'm bluffing, and there's no site whatsoever... that i just want the domain to open a porn site or something, right? Well, i won't confirm it nor deny it. :D :P

Anyways, hope you're all having a pleasant summer and having fun. :) I am. Last weekend i went to Costa da Caparica to spend a couple of days with some friends, and ended up on a reggae party, talking on the beach at night, struggling with Rubik's Cube and finishing Sonic: The Hedgehog in her Sega Mega Drive. All in one night. Fun times. :)

In early August i'll be heading down south for the Festival Sudoeste. Killer line-up. Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals (not the Blind Boys of Alabama), Donavon Frankenreiter, Athlete, The Thrills, the portuguese Boite Zuleika, Patrice, Black Uhuru, The Kills, The International Noise Conspiracy, Korn, and many more. I just found out Fisherspooner will be there too. It should be interesting as well.
Anyone coming? :)

i hate to say i told you so

2005-07-19T17:52:20Z

but, i told you so. ok, maybe not you you, but i've told some people my position about this...

Firefox Greasemonkey Extension Security Problem
"A recent thread on the Greasemonkey mailing list suggests that the popular Firefox extension is fatally insecure. It seems rogue pages can read any file from your disk and send it to any site, using an XmlHttpRequest. Time to uninstall GM?"

article on slashdot

I'm sure i wasn't the only one who saw this coming.

don't you love...

2005-07-18T00:52:58Z

...when you find something you thought you had lost years ago? i just did, totally by accident, so now i'm going on a trip down memory lane!! :D i'm totally lovin' it!

and on another note, i'm brushing up my long-overdue website, and i just skimmed through over three hundred lines of code to find a small bug. a misuse of variable. i was using $t instead of $time.
*smacks forehead with a stone*

anyways, just felt like sharing these two little facts...back to coding. ;)

quick post

2005-07-06T22:07:52Z

I don't know about you, but this website made my day. It has the works of a german teacher/illustrator named Jenny Dolfen ( goldseven ). I finally found a Tolkien illustrator that focuses her work on The Silmarillion and not on Lord of the Rings. And on top of that, I just love her style. I just want to leave the link up just in case some of you are interested in this... Plus, she does more than just Tolkien. Harry Potter, Song of Ice and Fire, Forgotten Realms and some more. Check it out.

I'm either buying a print or rasterbating this picture:

Nirnaeth Arnoediad - Unnumbered Tears

credits: Copyright © 2005 Jenny Dolfen

visit her website at goldseven.de

oh please, no...

2005-07-03T12:04:22Z

Markus Mielke posted on the IE blog something truly shocking. Not only did he announced they won't even support round corners in IE7, but he pointed webdevelopers to "an article available on MSDN that shows you how you can easily and efficiently implement rounded corners with IE today". [ article ]

That's easily and efficiently?! Oh please... That is one of the hardest solutions out there... and it's been know for how many years now? 4? 5? Using small GIFs to simulate round corners involve creating at least four different GIF files. If you want to have some smooth edges, you're going to have to create 4 GIFs for each background color you have. It's insane. That's so internet 1.0 *shivers* :P

Ok, not that i would expect them to start implement CSS3 features before supporting CSS2.1 but what the article says is shocking.

from the article:

So, you're staring at your Web site. It all looks very boxy, and you're thinking that it would be nice if you could add some rounded corners. Perhaps you're tired of waiting for the W3C to release the CSS3 Recommendations, (...) The good news is that you don't have to wait any longer. Currently, there isn't one optimal solution, (...)

Are they really putting the blame on W3C? Did i read it correctly? Then why doesn't IE6 support the box model properly? And now they are forced to support the CSS2.1 standards completely after they've made that statement.

The saddest thing is that with this mindset, i'm starting to fear a complete flop of IE7 regarding CSS support.
Please God, prove me wrong.

I'm back!

2005-07-01T03:10:44Z

Tuesday june 27th

This was my last day, and they (ivo and marisa) had the exam after lunch, so i decided to catch a bus and head to Firenze (Florence). I was extremely curious to see the landscapes of Tuscany... when i arrived i couldn't see anything because it was already dark.

I saw some wonderful landscapes, houses on top of great hills, endless vineyards and lots of green everywhere.

The city itself, was a lot different than Siena, which was to be expected, being the capital of Tuscany. It was a lot more urban, and it felt like a modern city with some spurts of history here and there. Unlike Siena, which has a tottally opposite feeling. The whole city is history, and you find patches of modern culture here and there, inbetween historical buildings and piazzas.

Check out the photos...

this is just a sample of what i saw, but being on a fast moving bus it was hard to get the camera out on time and take the photo. *sighs* i suck.

This was the first stop in Florence. It's the church of Santa Maria Novela

what i love about italian churches is that their fronts are always filled with delicious details, such as this

this was called the Batistério (Baptistry), just a few feet away from the Duomo of Florence.
I made a video, but haven't put it into my computer yet, so i can't show you the proximity.. a few things i recorded on video instead of taking photos... :-\

this was the exit/south door... wait until you see the eastern one ;)

here it is. it's all bronze.. it's also called Porta del Paradiso. It was made by Lorenzo Ghiberti and I overheard a tourist guide saying it was considered the starting point of the Renaissance.

the detail was breathtaking... i filmed the panels one by one but took photos of some details... here's two of them.
(found this and this on the web, interesting if you wanna see the surroundings)

another one

Michelangelo once said the doors could be the doors to paradise. more info

The panels symbolized many biblical events... Here's a few of them, in no particular order (sorry, can't find a complete list)

The Story of Joseph
Discovery of the Golden Cup
Isaac Sends Esau to Hunt
Drunkennes of Noah
Creation of Adam and Eve
Killing of Abel by Cain
...

Going into the Baptistry, a detail of the entrance door

the ceiling on the baptistry, with Jesus

higher angle.

a detail, probably inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. I could be totally wrong, though.

the altar

one side of the Duomo

same side

inside the Duomo, looking east

looking west

this came out blurry.. but it that painting reminded me of Minas Tirith ;) hehe i know, i'm such a LOTR nerd.

the Duomo's cupula

a detail

the altar

i found this weird... i know lots of european churches have hidden tombs and stuff beneath the floor, but a gift shop? That was a new one. ;)

The palazzo vechio. The tower is pretty similar to the one in Siena, but i think Siena copied Florence on this one.

do you recognize the dude on the left? (it's just a copy :P)

i loved this fountain.. that's Neptune over there..

here's a closer look at Michelangelo's David

i have major bad luck... i found several monuments going under severe restauration.. but that's a good thing, right? they're being taken care of. :) It's weird, i don't see this in Portugal.. ;P
(here's how the Loggia dei Lanzi, in Piazza della Signoria looked like in '98)

This was the best i could do, given the circumstances. This is the statue of Perseus holding Medusa's head, by Cellini (1544). One of the most impressive of the Loggia

I was blown away by this one. It's Hercules fighting the centaur Nessus, by Giambologna (1599).
Their expressions are impressive. Imagine watching this upclose.
(it's a tad blurry :-S)

The Rape of Polyxena, by Pio Fedi (1866)

Rape of the Sabines, by Giambologna (1583).

Piazzale degli Uffizi, this street was adorned with many statues and on both sides you could find the galleries of the Uffizi, which is a museum that contains some impressive master pieces.. to see the online catalogue, go here.

This guy was intriguing.. i didn't notice him till i was passing by.. loved the concept. specially since all around there were statues of men, on pillars. :D haha

The tower of the Palazzo Vechio as seen from the Piazzale degli Uffizi.

Here's one example of the statues of the great men from Firenze, Leonardo Da Vinci.

The Ponte Vecchio (which is italian for Old Bridge) upclose and personal. :D

Ponte Vecchio is famous for the jewelry stores and the street that links Palazzo Vechio to Palazzo Pitti. A question jumped to my mind.. hasn't anyone ever thought of robbing every store in that bridge? It's gotta be to most valuable bridge on the planet.

The Ponte S. Trinita from the Ponte Vecchio

This is a detail of the previous photo.. check the iron bars. People write their names on locks and put them there! Like, "eternal love", or "eternally binded"... They just don't know they clean them up every year, at most. Romantism is dead. :(

The Palazzo Pitti.. i heard it has the most amazing gardens, but i was running late and i had a bus to catch, so i couldn't go in, even if i wanted to pay an arm and a leg to do that. :P

Ponte Vecchio from the Ponte S. Trinita I

Back to Siena, shower, had dinner in the residence and then went up to the city centre.

Here's a photo of me and Marisa that night... the flash was too strong and too close.. we got all white and stuff... :|
(i got a pic with Ivo, but it's on Marisa's digital camera. I won't get it till august.)

Some spanish dudes were singing a few feet away.. they can go on singing for hours..

The night was pleasant, and we had plenty to drink. I made one mistake though, i mixed beer and red wine. That's always a deadly combination for me... towards the end of the night i started throwing up.. used that "vortex" of the Piazza del Campo i talked about, and my trip back to Rome was... hmmmm... peculiar. I caught the bus at 6am and was asleep most of the 3 hours, so i got to rest a bit and i was better when i arrived. I stayed at my other friends' house, Sara.. she was nice, she helped me to endure the sickness :-S Thanks Sarah.. specially for the plastic bags.. i didn't end up needing them after all ;D hehe

Oh, Guess what? The flight got delayed again. Let me tell you, Lisbon is impressive from the air. I should have disregarded the security requests to turn off all electronical equipment and should have snapped a photograph... do you guys take pictures on landings/takeoffs? Everytime i've asked, they always say no. :|

Anyways, i wish i had gone for more than 4 days, but still, i had an amazing time. Loved Italy, loved Siena and loved the Erasmus environment. I'm seriously considering going at least one semestre, eventhough they told me it's hard to leave just when things are getting (literally) hotter.. if i do, it'll be on the 2006/2007 school year.

I want to take the chance to thank both Ivo and Marisa for the wonderful company.. you guys rock.. and the selfish part of me wants you to get back, but the bigger part wants you to stay and have fun these final weeks. Clear up the exams and head south to the where the most beautiful beach in the world is in the Sardegna, and guess what... it's on the coast!! :P buahahhahahah *points at ivo*

Grazie, Ivo!!! Grazie, Marisa!!! :D

Saturday June 25th ¤ Sunday June 26th ¤ Monday June 27th ¤ Tuesday June 28th

I'm back!

2005-07-01T03:08:19Z

Monday june 27th

On monday, Ivo and Marisa had to study for an exam they had on tuesday, so i said i had no problems in staying in the city alone.. So i went to explore a bit of the city. I grabbed Ivo's stolen bike (long story) and went for a ride around Siena. I planned to go somewhere outside the city, but i since i didn't know it at all, i didn't. I could get lost or mugged. Not worth the risk. I spent some time on an Irish Pub drinking pints of Guinness. Btw, is it normal to get a four leaved clover "drawn" on the foam.. it was a nice touch, but i've never seen that done. It was the only decent birra i could find there :P
Anyway, here are some photos i took on monday...

a church, don't know the name. There's more churches in Siena than coffee shops in Lisbon. but apparently that's normal in Italy ;)

the tip of the duomo, from another street

i'm not sure what this is, but i think it's some sort of noble house.

they loved to paint the ceilings! not only in big cathedrals, in noble houses too.
(i went to a house rented by a portuguese which had the ceiling of a bedroom handpainted. very basic, but still, outstanding)

a closer look.

i found this narrow street interesting.

a statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi [wikipedia.org]

a closer look

an ever closer look at the panel on the side

A kid playing in Piazza del Campo.
He's wearing clothes with the colors of his contrada.
As we say in Portugal, "De pequenino se torce o pepino". :P

the piazza is inclined towards this place, it's like the vortex of the thing.. good place to throw up (more on that later)

a view from where i was sitting to the Fonte Gaia.
It's in the Piazza del Campo
my friends are planning on diving in there on one of their last days. and then get the hell of there running. I said they're nuts. Those guys would take that as a blasphemy.. LoL.. i guess.. :P

closer look of the Fonte Gaia

yet another church. this is were they give a mess celebrating the winning of the Palio, whoever wins.

another street i found interesting *shrugs*

i "stumbled" on this view.. looking over Siena.

another one. i was in that church, but i can't remember its name. it's overwhelming from the inside, despite being a bit "empty".

That day we were invited over for dinner by a portuguese girl who was coming back to Portugal on the 29th.. that was when i saw the hand-painted ceilings.. ;) What i noticed was that it's hard to stay at home when doing Erasmus. There always a reason to get out, and always a reason to get drunk. You just have to reason with yourself not to give in... every other day is ok, but every day? no way. :)

Saturday June 25th ¤ Sunday June 26th ¤ Monday June 27th ¤ Tuesday June 28th

I'm back!

2005-07-01T03:04:23Z

Sunday june 26th

On sunday, it was "tourist" day. We went up to the city center by bus to have luch. It's funny, over there only a few people pay the bus fare. Since the driver doesn't check the tickets, it's the revisor's responsability and you hardly ever find one, it's not a problem. I'm going to post some of the pictures i took along with some comments, but there's more on my (temporary) gallery here.

this was a building in the piazza salimbeni which freaked me out.
notice the heads...

have a closer look

there's a legend about two human twins who were raised by a wolf. They founded both the city of Rome and Siena.
This is a monument in homage to them.

They brought me to a narrow street.. and this view creeped up on me!
Totally unexpected.

A closer look on the San Domenico church.

Pretty much every city in Italy have a Duomo, which is cathedral.
This is the front of Siena's. I didn't get a photo of the entire front because they were repairing. If i had taken the shot just an inch lower, you'd see the structure. ;) hehe

This is an incompleted part of the Duomo.
I didn't get in, it was pretty expensive, but now i wish i had gone.

a typical street of Siena. Very narrow, there are scooters, a fiat Panda and people having lunch on a 5ftx5ft square - which i found peculiar but very normal there.

Siena's "skyline" ;) hehe

looking another way

Now, let me tell you something about Siena. Siena is divided into 17 contradas, which are sort of neighborhoods. Each contrada has a flag, a symbol, a mascot, a horse, a fountain and a "headquarter". They are pretty tight about this.. If they're having a party and someone from any other contrada passes by, they'll beat the shit out of him. All this is because of the Palio... twice a year, in July and August, they have an horse race. In which all 17 contradas participate. This happens in Piazza del Campo, which is a beautiful place... (See the photos below) People start gathering in the center of the piazza and on the highly priced seats around the track since early afternoon, in the hot summer sun, for looong hours just to see a long ceremony and a 3 lap horse race. Sometimes, when there's a false start, it takes like an hour to restart. The winning contrada then goes around the city celebrating their win, and those who loose.. well, basically, they fight each other.

This year, the first Palio will be on July 2nd, next saturday.

No more photos on sunday... We then went to meet a portuguese dude, João. He was going to come back to Portugal the following day so we had dinner with him and some friends of theirs, in a kebab. It smelled like barbecued chicken, which made Ivo nuts... he's despairing for a Super Bock (a portuguese beer..), a Sumol (a portuguese juice) and barbecued chicken. haha As a joke, i said my dinner on wednesday would be chicken and i'd drink both a SuperBock and a Sumol.. hahaha but i didn't ;)

After that we stayed for a while in Piazza del Campo talking and drinking, and then went home early, around 11pm.

Saturday June 25th ¤ Sunday June 26th ¤ Monday June 27th ¤ Tuesday June 28th

I'm back!!

2005-07-01T02:58:27Z

Ciao a tutti! :)

I arrived yesterday afternoon and have been taking some time to rest and spend some time with my girlfriend... Now, with some time on my hands, i finally gathered my wits and started typing this soon-to-be long post. The photos are uploading in the background as I type. ;)

Oh, please, be advised that i am, by no means, a photographer... imagine these photos were taken by a 5 year old, and even that, it's flattering to me ;) hehe

I separated this into four different posts, so that you get smaller pages and you can browse one at a time. If i sticked all of them behind lj-cuts once you opened one, everything would be loaded.. I hope you understand.

Saturday june 25th

Once again, the flight got delayed (what a surprise), so I spent some time in the arrivals area. I find it funny to see everyone coming out that door looking around eagerly, yearning for a familiar and welcoming face. It got boring pretty quickly, so i killed some time around the airport before going up to the boarding gate.

As you can see on this picture, i checked for birds stuck in the engine and.. no birds. So it should be ok. :)

Anyways, the flight wasn't that eventful, apart from one little thing that irked me. They had in-flight entertainment and mostly it was information about the flight (current speed, altitude, location, etc), documentaries, pop music videos, interviews, etc... that was until the last 20minutes of the flight. That was when a couple simple letters sprung out on screen! I recognized them immediately, yes, it was an episode of the Pink Panther cartoons...!!! The bastards!! Just after a couple seconds into the episode the stewards started going around collecting the headphones! Argh! However, I still enjoyed the rest of it. ;) Pink Panther's cool :D

We landed on Roma Fiumicino (Leonardo da Vinci) airport (here) around 4:30pm (local time, which is GMT 1). The landing was nice, too nice actually. I don't like to feel like i'm traveling on a friggin' train... i like to feel the bumps ;) Collecting the luggage was quick too, and then... then the problems started.

I found the train station easily, with my quickly improvised italian, and managed to get the ticket to Roma Tiburtina, where i was supposed to catch the bus up to Siena.

I missed a train, for like 5 minutes or something, but i shouldn't have a problem since the bus was at 8pm so i still had some time to kill. The problem was that the following train was canceled! And the one after that, was 20minutes late. The "funny" thing was that after a couple of minutes that on was already 30minutes late and the one after that, 10minutes. So it was increasing. Apparently, there was some kind of strike, but it only affected the trains from a certain company. I still waited a while, up until it was impossible to catch the 8pm bus, at that point I had to go to plan B, which was to go to Roma Termini (here) and catch the train to Siena instead.

When I arrived in Roma Termini, i was a bit lost... the thing was huge and let me tell you, italians have a lot to learn with the portuguese in terms of putting up directions around stations. Plus their timetables are very hard to read. They mix the entire set of trains and order them by departure time... IMO, separating trains according to their destination would be smarter.
Anyways, after a while i asked for help to a young man who was pretty helpful! The guy struggled with his english and he managed to get me to where i had to buy the ticket and explained what i already knew, that i had to take a train to Chiusi and then switch in order to get to Siena.
Just in case he ever gets to read this, thanks a lot Franciesco!!

So there i went, on my 8:30pm train up to Chiusi where i switched to a small bus (auto-pullman) which was how we were supposed to get to Siena... i was expecting another train. Up until then i had a pretty much boring trip, with noone to talk to i had no alternative but to read my book... When i was waiting for the bus, that was when two cheerful americans came up to me and asked me if i knew where they should catch the bus to Siena. You can't imagine the relief it was finding someone with whom i could communicate and talk easily, with no barriers. And on top of that they were very interesting. Their names were Sarah and Deborah, live in the San Francisco Bay area and they were around their 30s, even though i wouldn't have guessed so... they seemed they were in their 20s ;) Deborah asked me if i was hungry, which i was since i only had a sandwich when i arrived at the airport, and she gave me one (later she gave me another! :D) packet of peanut butter cookies.. hehe I was talking with them pretty much the whole way to Siena, which took us and hour and a half. Mostly to Sarah since Deb went to have a little nap because they had been traveling for 38 hours. Poor gals... I was extremely sad to leave them and specially since they weren't staying in Siena, but in a small town an hour or so from there. :( I have a phone number, but i don't think it's working.. i've tried twice, but it never worked. They have my email, so i hope they get in touch soon. ;)

So I arrived in Siena around 11pm but it wasn't until midnight that i got to my friends cause getting a taxi was a bitch. Precisely when they were starting to sing Happy Birthday to Ivo, since sunday was his birthday! :D I was welcomed with red wine and the usual conversation of friends who haven't seen each other for a looooong time.

It was very nice to see Ivo and Marisa again.. i wasn't aware of how much i missed them until i was there. And after just a couple of minutes i was already drinking, talking and laughing with french, brazilians, a japanese and lots of spanish guys! It was surreal, to find so many people from such different countries sharing their experiences and talking as if they knew each other all their life. Plus, they welcomed me very warmly :D they were pretty awesome. ;)

The rest of the evening was pretty much drinking and talking about the past year, and then we walked home. I was staying at their residence in San Miniato, which was a 15 minutes walk from the city center.

Saturday June 25th ¤ Sunday June 26th ¤ Monday June 27th ¤ Tuesday June 28th

I can see my house from here!!!

2005-06-24T20:45:06Z

Google Maps adds detailed portions of Portugal

check for yourself here
i highlighted just my street. don't want any ~~psychos~~ fans knocking at my door.

This is where i live during the week. And my comfortable heaven ie, parents' house, will be more around here. Not much can be seen though... If you zoom out you'll see just how close it was for Google to include my (primary) home in the "very-zoomable area".

From the copyright notice in the footer, i can guess this data came from DigitalGlobe... haha how clever of me. That was a hard one. ;)

Anyways, it's nice to see such a great service becoming worldwide... some day, in the future, i'll be telling my kids:
andr3: "hey andr3 2.0 [yes, that will be the name of my firstborn], when daddy was younger, there wasn't Google Maps, and when there was... it took a while to have pictures from Portugal"

And he'll reply:

andr3 2.0: "What daddy?! You mean you couldn't go outside, wave your arms, and with your eyetop [no longer laptops, just click a button in your glasses and a lens à lá Dragon Ball's "Super Saiyan" will pop and you'll be able to browse the web, using Firefox, mind you] go to google maps and see yourself in real time?! Geeez.. it sucked when you were younger, daddy."

At that point i will drift off and remind myself how much i treasured my dearest ZX Spectrum 128k +2. *sighs*

So, feel free to post your area. No need to single out your home. Don't want anyone getting stalked or anything... ;)

Rest In Peace, Bird #53425

2005-06-24T14:43:45Z

Ok, remember my yesterday post? About me going to Italy? No, i'm not typing this from within the plane... I'm typing this from home, in Lisbon.

A bird got into the engine of the Alitalia plane while landing which pretty much fucked up the jet. So, when i had already checked-in, passed through the god damn security - i nearly had to strip in front of the guard. i think she fancied me ;) she was trying to get me naked, the bitch - checked my boarding pass and waiting on the bus to get to the plane... guess what? "Technical Problems". Bah! Went upstairs, and waited... for a good half an hour, until the flight was canceled. They first attended the passengers who were just flying to Rome to get a connection to elsewhere, and stuffed them in other companies' flights. Then after a while they told us they would get us into a flight to Rome, and I would get there around 10pm. Impossible, since i couldn't get a connection to Siena that late.

Well basically, me and some other dude just wanted to get some other flight. Even tomorrow... so they told us to get downstairs. pick up the luggage and go to the sales stand and talk to them. They assured me i was entitled to change both my going and return ticket. And so i did.

I'll be going tomorrow, on the same flight, 12h35. But i demanded to have my return changed to the following day. After the woman giggled and said "well, now you're asking too much" and me quickly replying "no, i'm not. check for available seats", she gave me the tickets i wanted.

Long story short:
Bird, into plane's engine. Flight Canceled. Got new tickets, leaving tomorrow at 12pm and returning on the 29th.

All i gotta say is... it's sad, nobody there was thinking about the little bird who died today. :( I was. I hope he gets a good place in the heaven for birds... it's not his fault. He must have thought "wow, such a lovely female bird" (Alitalia's planes are kind of colorful. green stripe and all..) that's when he was probably sucked into the engines of death. :(

R.I.P. little guy.

*edit*
oh.. and i'm not supersticious, but the Gate number... was 13. ;)

hmmmmmm...

2005-06-24T02:51:15Z

to 56percent

Italy

2005-06-24T00:18:44Z

So, some of you probably know this already, but tomorrow around 12 o'clock i'll be leaving to Italy. I'll be back on the 28th, tuesday.

Some friends of mine are studying in Siena since last September, supported by the Erasmus Program, so i'm gonna pay them a visit. Why? Well, i'm considering going abroad myself... and given my choices (Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy), the only country which appeals me is Italy, so i'm going to check out Erasmus upclose. Of course, i'll be checking the local drinking habits and stuff. I have to try the local beer. I'm still convinced that better than portuguese Super Bock, there's only Guinness. :) Feel free to convince me otherwise. Send me your beer :D

Anyways, back to the point.

Once i get to Rome, i'll take the bus up north, to Siena. See the map. I'll have more than enough time to catch up on my reading, since i'm going alone. But i'm sure once i get there... i won't have time to read, if you know what i mean. :D

We'll probably go to Florence, since they have an acquaintance there, thus we won't have to pay for accomodation. \m/ :D hehe Plus, on sunday it's Ivo's birthday, one of the guys i know who's there. So i bet it'll be a fun night. :) I hope i get to take some good pictures of the trip.

So if anyone wants me to send postcards, leave your address in the comments. (they'll be screened) I won't promise i'll send them, but i promise i'll try. ;)

And how does the saying go? When in Rome do as the Romans do... so,

Arrivederci :)

Odeo - my first thoughts...

2005-06-23T16:54:29Z

Yesterday, I finally got my invitation to try out Odeo in the mail, so I dashed to register an account and try it out.
My very first impression was good, with an overall appealling and soft look it's a very pleasant website to browse. As a web app it left me mouth watering. As soon as I registered I was brought to a screen with an audio welcoming message — very funny btw — and a little application started downloading in the background, of which i'll speak about a couple of lines below.

click for full scale screenshot

First, let me just introduce to you the concept, which wasn't exactly invented by Odeo. Podcast. Imagine instead of reading blog entries in your computer, you get audio posts — like those here on LJ — and on top of that it's possible to syncronize your mp3 player (iPod, Creative Zen, etc) with these files and hear those articles on the move... while going to work, driving back home, in the park... pretty much wherever you want. All this with the help of RSS Feeds, to help you stay on top of things and not miss a beat. That is the concept behind podcasting.

So where was I?... Oh yes... As I was brought to the home screen, there were plenty to choose from. It proved very easy to get started, even if you don't have your favourite podcasts beforehand. Once again, tags showed their potential. In a matter of minutes I had already found Simplebits channel, eventhough it didn't have any shows — that's what they're calling each "post", a show. I also found a couple more channels i was interested in and subscribed those easily.

A very good thing is their system of subscribing and previewing a channel. You are presented with an icon, the channel's title and a short description, like you can see on the left. See the buttons? You can hit play right away and hear the latest show on that channel. It loads the mp3 into the flash movie — the buttons are inside a flash movie — and played right away. No page reload, nothing. Just a small dialog letting us know the mp3 is being loaded. Nifty. You can also browse previous shows if you want, just hitting the previous button.

What if you like what you hear? Just hit the Subscribe button. And once again, no page reload. Thank god for Ajax! ;) It immediatelly adds that channel to your subscritions. There's a sequence of the whole process below.

Preview

Subscription

Next? Ok, imagine you have subscribed your channels.. but you want to download some other shows, which you haven't subscribed, either to your computer or to your portable mp3 player... no problem. At each channel's page, next to each show you have a queue button. You make your queue with as many files as you want... Then you can use their little application, OdeoSyncr — which i mentioned above — to get both the files from your subscriptions and the files you queued!

Very smart indeed. :)

Another great feature, you can have your subscriptions in the form of a feed. For example, you have a certain set of subscriptions... if you want to keep track any new items from outside Odeo, say, your personal blog, just fetch the feed and parse it. Or simply add it to your news aggregator. ;)

Tags. What's there to say about them? They work wonderfully well... it's easy to find what you're looking for. Oh, an you can also add your own tags to a certain channel.

Profiles. You can read other people's profiles and learn what they're subscribing, hearing, and posting... it shows the comments they've made around Odeo. You can also add them as contacts, to help you keep track of them. This way you can always find new interesting stuff.

How about creating your own podcast? I wouldn't know for sure because I haven't done it yet... but here's an extract of their "Create" page, kind of preview what's to come:

Odeo Studio - A browser-based tool that makes it easy to record and publish audio. With the Studio, and a cheap microphone (or even the one built into your laptop), you have everything you need.
Phone Posting - If you can leave a voicemail, you'll be able to podcast, with Odeo's phone-posting service—a quick and easy way to put your voice on the web (and in people's ears).
Feed Creation and Hosting - If you already have audio, and you just want to get it into podcasting form, Odeo provides the turnkey way to do that. Just upload your MP3s, and you're done.

Souds like fun. ;)

Anyway, this was what i was able to put together from less than one day using it. I'm sure more issues will come up, but let me just summarize it for you.

Points For

layout very appealing layout. good job in that department. :)
tags great for organizing and discovering.
preview & subscribe method. works like a charm.
OdeoSyncr remarkable. it might get a bit annoying if you subscribe to channels who are inconsistent and don't always post good shows. that's why you need to be sure before subscribing. you can always unsubscribe, of course
your subscriptions as a feed sounds pretty interesting.. to keep yourself posted of updates and to use it on some other website
(...)

Points Against

Isn't totally open to the public yet... :P they've invited people who subscribed a couple of weeks/months ago.. once it is really open, more and more people, as well as feeds, will make the community grow.. that can't be a bad thing, right? ;)

Odeo

2005-06-22T23:34:20Z

Odeo in one word: wow.

i might make a detailed analysis of this service in the near future, but not tonight.

Microformats.org

2005-06-22T19:17:39Z

microformats.org has been launched.

I've been curious about this new buzzword for quite a while since I heard Eric Meyer talk about it in his blog, but i never quite grasped the concept. That is, until now.

This project has the objective of putting the world of microformats under one roof and spread the word about them as well. It was designed by the always awesome Simplebits, Dan Cederholm's company. For a post explaining the creative process behind the making of this outstanding website, you can check his post.

The website has a comprehensive and ever-growing list of microformats specifications available and an explanation of what these microformats really are. It also has a wiki, which is always nice for future reference and a blog, to keep everyone updated on what's going on in the microformats world.

I'll be looking a lot into this subject in the future, it all sounds pretty interesting. If you're into webstandards and meaningful markup, have a look for yourself. It's about time that the code we write becomes more human-readable. Machines can even understand tagsoup, but we need some structure in what we read.

Great project, and great execution. Congrats everyone and keep up the good work. :)

update
Check tantek's presentation at the Supernova2005: What are microformats?

CSS 2.1 Working Draft is out...

2005-06-15T22:29:02Z

CSS 2.1 Working Draft

I'm not going to explain what's different for i haven't had the time to explore it fully. But Anne van Kesteren has a nice post summing up what this revision is for... There's also a page highlighting the differences between CSS 2.0 and 2.1.

Just a heads up for any webdesigner who reads this. ;)

this is scary

2005-06-15T00:02:30Z

Context:
A dude posted on flickr some photoshopped™ pictures of bush.. with some guns or whatever... next thing he knows some feds are looking him up at his work to question him about those. Has it come to this? Geeez.. read his post and see if this wouldn't scare the shit of you too.

jlassen: When Bears Growl (Or how I become the subject of a Secret Service Investigation)

just felt like sharing.

Brad's here!

2005-06-14T11:35:35Z

Yes, Brad Fitzpatrick, the Creator of Livejournal aka God Almighty :P (in case you're wondering) is somewhere around here in Portugal (not sure where). Just thought I'd let you guys know...
What would you say to him if you bumped into him? :P He's kind of a celebrity... in a geeky way.

Read his entry in his lj - brad - about the portuguese language. :) It's funny.

o meu poema favorito dele...

2005-06-13T16:43:42Z

Adeus - Eugénio de Andrade

Já gastámos as palavras pela rua, meu amor,
e o que nos ficou não chega
para nos afastar o frio de quatro paredes.
Gastámos tudo menos o silêncio.
Gastámos os olhos com o sal das lágrimas,
gastámos as mãos à força de as apertarmos,
gastámos o relógio e as pedras das esquinas
em esperas inúteis.

Meto as mãos nas algibeiras e não encontro nada.
Antigamente tínhamos tanto para dar um ao outro;
era como se todas as coisas fossem minhas:
quanto mais te dava mais tinha para te dar.

Às vezes tu dizias: os teus olhos são peixes verdes.
E eu acreditava.
Acreditava,
porque ao teu lado
todas as coisas eram possíveis.

Mas isso era no tempo dos segredos,
era no tempo em que o teu corpo era um aquário,
era no tempo em que os meus olhos
eram realmente peixes verdes.
Hoje são apenas olhos.
É pouco, mas é verdade,
uns olhos como todos os outros.

Já gastamos as palavras.
Quando agora digo: meu amor,
já se não passa absolutamente nada.
E, no entanto, antes das palavras gastas,
tenho a certeza
que todas as coisas estremeciam
só de murmurar o teu nome
no silêncio do meu coração.

Não temos já nada para dar.
Dentro de ti
não há nada que me peça água.
O passado é inútil como um trapo.
E já disse: as palavras estão gastas.

Adeus.

Adeus, Eugénio.
1923-2005

Sin City

2005-06-11T14:19:30Z

Finally, one of the most anticipated movies of the year premiered here, in Portugal. Sometimes all this waiting could have built up such an expectation that would be impossible for the movie to live up to it... Not this case.

To start off with, let me tell you, the movie is much more than just beautiful photography. It does have a cared photography and high quality shots, with every detail thought through... even the reflection of a lighter in someone's eyes seems to be carefully planned. As far as that's concerned, it lived up to the expectation. I've always loved high contrast visuals. I wish all black and white movies received this treatment... it makes everything more dramatic and alive. Even with only some splashes of color, this movie was far from plain.. it was as colorful as the rainbow, or at least as a ninja sword.

Some people say you have to have read the novels before watching the movie to truly appreciate the movie; I agree to a certain extent. Of course people who have read it surely get the story straighter, because they already know it... but since the movie is such a great adaptation, being co-directed by Frank Miller himself, readers can almost guess what shot will be next. So people who haven't read it, like myself, do have one thing in advantage.. the element of surprise! I wasn't expecting many things when they happened.. that makes the watching of a movie much more exciting. Ok, so why do I kind of agree with them? Because people do need to have a certain notion of what the world of a comic is, violent, brutal and gory -- not exactly realistic. And this, certainly had an overload of bad-ass guys and blood.
Kind of like, Kill Bill meets Tim Burton, since it's a very very dark and bloody world.

To avoid spoilers, I won't talk specifically about the story, i'll leave that up to you to discover in a theater near you, but I can assure you it's very consistent and will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole session. Ok, not everyone, a dude next to me fell asleep and started to snore... I know it was the midnight session, but still! Who falls asleep when there's a chance Jessica Alba will be on screen any minute? ;)

The cast, what an amazing cast this was. It was hard not to recognize someone in the scene at any given time of the movie. That doesn't happen often. It's hard for an actor to make himself noticed amidst all this violence and complex story, but some of them did. Elijah Wood was great, so was Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy and Benicio del Toro. Bruce Willis was his usual self, flawless, and Jessica Alba... well, she can't do no wrong, right? But she's much more than a sexy woman, she can actually act when needed. An excellent performance still needs to be pointed out; Mickey Rourke's Marv was delicious. Brute. Raw. Loved it.

In my opinion, even though I haven't the read the novel, I just skimmed through it the other day at a book fair, it seems like a perfect adaptation as far as visuals go. I can't pronounce myself on the story, for I didn't read it. Now it left me curious about it. Maybe i'll grab the novels later and read them. I still have a pretty long queue of books to read this summer. And I know books don't work that good after watching the movie.

Obviously, I recommend it vividly to anyone who can stand a certain amount of blood on screen, but there's also humor to lighten up even a gross scene. So it's actually for everyone. :P

Let me know what you guys thought of it.

(after you see it, check these comparisons between the movie and the graphic novels. includes spoilers )

info: iMDB
rating: 9.5 out of 10

Coldplay's X&Y cover decoded

2005-06-09T17:11:46Z

I'm sure some of you have already wondered what the hell were they smoking when they decided to put together such a cover... but it actually has a meaning. It's actually a graphical representation of the Baudot code, which was an early form of communication. It probably was the very first digital format since it uses ones (1) and zeros (0) to form messages and was developed by Émile Baudot in 1874.

Unlike the binary representation of an ASCII character, it uses only 5 bits instead of 8, and even has upshifted and downshifted sections of the code. Later, it was replaced by the Morse Code which is still used today and has recently beat Text messaging live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The cover obviously is the representation of "X&Y", and the inline booklet includes in the last page the words "Make Trade Fair" in Baudot code format.
( see maketradefair.com )

Check out the album, it's worth it. Despite the plagiarism, i'm finding it very likeable. Just like their previous works. Maybe i'll write up a full post about it.

via vh1.com