United Nations Volunteering

   You know, for quite  while now, I’ve been thinking about going somewhere to do some volunteering, mainly because I thought it would be a very nice experience that will (1) make me feel useful and (2) let me see how the real world is like… also because I love travelling.

So yesterday night I decided to give it a shot and have a look at the official UN Volunteering Website. after a few minutes browsing to find what I was looking for, I finally found it and, to my disappointment, I can’t apply for it.

Professional qualifications

• A university degree or higher technical diploma;
• Several years of relevant working experience;
• At least age 25 when taking up an assignment (there is no upper age limit);
• Good working knowledge in at least one of the three UNV working languages: English, French and Spanish.

So yeah, no can do this time. Seems like I’ll have to wait for a few more years.

So, does anyone know anything I can do of that sort (volunteering or working away from Europe)? Remember I speak Spanish and English and I’m still not done with my degree (although anything related to it would be extremely great).

Notepad++

  It’s been a long time since I last wrote anything geeky on the blog (which is supposed to be the main objective) so I guess I’ll start again by my newest software addition: Notepad++

Notepad++ is a Free Software that intends to improve the original Notepad in Windows (or Linux/Mac). Personally I think its well worth switching to it.

As the “Notepad on steroids” that it is, you will have access to the possibility of editing any sort of text file, also *.nfo and, any sort of programming language you want:

Here are the features of Notepad++ (from official website):
Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding Supported languages :

C C++ Java C# XML HTML

PHP CSS makefile ASCII art (.nfo) doxygen ini file

batch file Javascript ASP VB/VBS SQL Objective-C

RC resource file Pascal Perl Python Lua TeX

TCL Assembler Ruby Lisp Scheme Properties

Diff Smalltalk Postscript VHDL Ada Caml

AutoIt KiXtart Matlab Verilog Haskell InnoSetup

CMake YAML

WYSIWYG If you have a colour printer, print your source code (or whatever you want) in colour.

User Defined Syntax Highlighting It allows user to define his own language : not only the syntax highlighting keywords, but also the syntax folding keywords, comment keywords and the operators. ( screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4 ).

Auto-completion For most supported languages, user can make his/her own API list (or download the api files from dowload section). Once the api file is ready, type Ctrl+Space to launch this action (see screenshot). For more information about Auto-completion, please see Auto-completion HOWTO.

Multi-Document You can edit several documents at the same time.

Multi-View You have two views at same time. That means you can visualize (edit) 2 different documents at the same time (screenshot). You can visualize (edit) in the 2 views one document at 2 different positions as well. The modification of document in one view will carry out in another view (i.e. you modify the SAME document when you are in clone mode, see screenshot).

Regular Expression Search/Replace supported You can search and replace one string in the document by using the regular expression.

Full Drag ‘N' Drop supported You can open a document by drag & drop. You can also move your document from a position (or even a view) to another by drag & drop.

Dynamic position of Views The user can set the position of the views dynamically (only in 2 views mode : the splitter can be set in horizontal or in vertical), see screenshot.

File Status Auto-detection If you modify or delete a file which opened in Notepad++, you will be notified to update your document (reload the file or remove the file).

Brace and Indent guideline Highlighting When the caret stay beside of one of those symbol { } [ ] ( ) , the symbol beside of caret and its symmetric opposite symbol will be highlighted, as well as the indent guideline (if any) in order to locate the block more easily. See screenshot1, screenshot2 .

A must program for everyone with computer skill, specially for programmers.

Few updates

wow, I’ve really had two tough weeks!

I know it sounds like a lousy excuse for not writing anything on the blog since the Google Wave update but it’s true, I’ve been really busy!

First, I started with Judo again and fortunately, I still fit in my suit (I really thought I had grown something in 4 and a half years of Judo inactivity). anyways, the Judo thing keeps me busy Tuesdays and Thursday every week.

Second, everything is starting to get hard at uni. Programming in Java is no issue (seems like I have some natural talent for programming I didn’t know about), and algebra I can manage single-handed. as of the other is starting to get challenging, specially physics, where my professor is…. don’t know…really funny but really hard to understand at times. Calculus is still manageable.

At any rate, I have some news:

1. I’m back on Twitter! I promise I’ll keep it updated! My profile is here and there is also a new Twitter gadget in this blog
2. I’ve had the most awesome Birthday present ever (check below), together with a gift card (that I’m not attaching, sorry)
3. I got my Google Wave account! YES! thanks to Zenitram (classmate) for inviting me. I was really not expecting to get it so soon! The system is really incredible, still with some bugs and so on, but I think its really going to be the future, beware hotmail and yahoo!

Thank you all!

Google Wave

You know what? I love Google. Really. They are one of the most awesome company in the world. Now they have showed us they are one of the key companies that will make the future of the internet something incredible, by developing Google Wave.

Google Wave is a new Web-based platform intended to be “What email would look like if it were reinvented today” and they pretty much did it again! watch the video for more detailed info (its 1 hour and 20 minutes, but is REALLY worth watching)

Google Wave Preview

If you don’t feel like it, you can always check their sneak preview site.

I can’t wait ‘till this is out!

Most beautiful video ever

I had this sent to me via Tuenti (Spanish Facebook), with the following text:

Hay padres que además de ir a ver a sus hijos a ver como toca el saxofon o la fauta o.... hacen otras cosas....

El hijo le preguntó a su padre, 'Papá, formarias parte en el maratón conmigo? El padre respondió, si'

Fueron al maratón y lo completaron juntos. Padre e hijo fueron juntos a otros maratones, el padre siempre decía 'si' a las
solicitudes de su hijo de ir juntos en las carreras. Un día, el hijo le preguntó a su padre, ' Papá, vamos a participar juntos en el 'Ironman' ' El padre le dijo si tambien.

El triatlón Ironman abarca un 2,4 millas ( 3,86 kilómetros ) nadando en los océanos, seguida por una 112 millas (180,2 kilometros) paseo en bicicleta, y terminando con un 26,2 millas (42,195 kilometros) maratón a lo largo de la costa de Big Island.

Which, in English, is pretty much the following:

There are parents that instead of going to see their kids play saxophone or the flute….they do other stuff…

The son asked his dad: “Dad, would you run the marathon with me? The father answered yes”

They went and finished it together, father and son went together to other marathons and dad would always say “yes” to his son’s requests of running together. one day the son asked his dad “Dad, lets participate together in the ‘Ironman’” to which he also agreed.

The Ironman triathlon consist of 3.86 kilometers swimming the oceans, followed by 180.2 kilometers biking and finishing with 42.195 kilometers) marathon along the coast of Big Island.

Now watch the video:

 

So, what do you think? Isn’t this post’s title the most appropriate?

Augmented reality on mobile devices

Seems like Nvidia (all hail) has released a new and very powerful mobile device that allows good graphics and a 800x600 screen resolution. not only that but has an incorporated cam! so it was only a matter of time before geeks took matters into heir own hands, and this is what came out: a augmented reality Zombie-killing game. AWESOME!

Incredible isn’t it? well, if you look in the related video section you will find the next video with a software built for a more affordable device, an Android phone:

Dutch testing of course :D

So what do you guys think? is this going to end up in some future where we all have glasses with this augmented reality thing?

Back to Madrid and Uni!

OK guys I’m back to Madrid! (weeee)

 After one week here (yeah, sorry I didn’t post anything) I finally started with my classes in my Bachelor's Degree in Communication System Engineering (Bolonia adaptation of Telecommunications engineering: communication systems) yesterday, well actually today. My opinion? this doesn’t seem all THAT hard… but it’s the first day, its supposed to be easy

yes, I had calculus I (easy stuff, just reminders of IB and absolute values (uuuuhhhh, scaaaary), but nothing really impressive. Programming was really funny because the teacher’s PC wouldn’t work, so we started with this ALICE thing, which was more like a 3D Flash than a programming language. anyways the teacher said we will be starting Java soon (yesh!)

At any rate, I’m FAR more motivated that I’ve ever been with business management and I swear I’ll pass all my subjects… ALL! (Isidoro, the bet is still on), I’m gonna prove that I can freakin’ do it, although most people seem not to believe it.

You’ll see…