Saturday, June 13, 2009
A tribute to Bucky
I decided to make a tribute to the oldest member of our residence: the mighty powerful and ever so lazy Bucky.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Would you like to buy a Mac computer?
As funny as it may seem, yeah, someone tried to convince me to buy a Mac.
It happened the other day here in Madrid. I was at “el Corte Ingles” (which is a famous mall we have here in Spain for those who don’t know) and of course, in the tech section. After 20 minutes or so, I had browsed pretty much everything that there is to be seen in that floor so I headed for the stairs when I saw the Mini Mac store they have there.
Those that know my geekness will probably know that I do not personally like Macs. Is not that they are BAD it’s just that I don’t think they are worth it. Sure they have some good stuff but it’s overpriced for something that, in my opinion, is not better than Windows.
Ok, back to the story: I got a little curious because they have some MacBooks there for everyone to use so I started moving around the desktop of one of them when the store clerk headed towards me and (kinda) tried to convince me to buy a Mac.
I wasn’t going to give up easily, so he showed me some stuff that (of course) I had no idea how to do in a Mac, like the new iMovie and some other programs in OSX 10.5 and I must admit, I really, REALLY liked the iMovie, I find it extremely easy and intuitive with great results in no time (please Microsoft, pleaseeeeee) but other than that and some other stuff, I don’t think it’s worth it. Everything is pretty much just for show off, and the apps available are not even close to the vast range of apps Windows has available.
And, again, I am SURE that there are really awesome things in Mac OS but so far, I don’t think they are worth it, I’d rather stick with my beloved Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04.
PS: Luis, if you are reading this, please forgive me.
It happened the other day here in Madrid. I was at “el Corte Ingles” (which is a famous mall we have here in Spain for those who don’t know) and of course, in the tech section. After 20 minutes or so, I had browsed pretty much everything that there is to be seen in that floor so I headed for the stairs when I saw the Mini Mac store they have there.
Those that know my geekness will probably know that I do not personally like Macs. Is not that they are BAD it’s just that I don’t think they are worth it. Sure they have some good stuff but it’s overpriced for something that, in my opinion, is not better than Windows.
Ok, back to the story: I got a little curious because they have some MacBooks there for everyone to use so I started moving around the desktop of one of them when the store clerk headed towards me and (kinda) tried to convince me to buy a Mac.
I wasn’t going to give up easily, so he showed me some stuff that (of course) I had no idea how to do in a Mac, like the new iMovie and some other programs in OSX 10.5 and I must admit, I really, REALLY liked the iMovie, I find it extremely easy and intuitive with great results in no time (please Microsoft, pleaseeeeee) but other than that and some other stuff, I don’t think it’s worth it. Everything is pretty much just for show off, and the apps available are not even close to the vast range of apps Windows has available.
And, again, I am SURE that there are really awesome things in Mac OS but so far, I don’t think they are worth it, I’d rather stick with my beloved Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04.
PS: Luis, if you are reading this, please forgive me.
Firefox Add-on collection
Today, while revising my RSS, I noticed that Firefox had released a new Add-on, one that will allow people to create collections of Add-ons and upload them so people can use them, this Add-on is Add-on Collector
You will have to install this Add-on first, and then you can access my collection HERE.
It was more of a personal backup thing, but why not share?
I hope you enjoy it!
You will have to install this Add-on first, and then you can access my collection HERE.
It was more of a personal backup thing, but why not share?
I hope you enjoy it!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
My opinion on Twilight
Saturday, 8:00 PM boredom struck as soon as I finished revising another chapter of math II. After a few minutes, I decided to go to the Fnac (kind of a mall with books, CDs, Games...) to buy a book... ANY book, I really didn't care at all, any one will do.
So I gathered my phone, headphones and wallet and headed to the Metro for a 20 minute ride in one of Madrid's slowest lines. The trip was uneventful (which is not always the case in Madrid's Underground) and I finally reached my destination.
I had to ascend the equivalent to 4 or 5 stories of a building (Since its very old, this line was built close to hell) and got to the surface, with the sun still there, I just had to cross the street and arrived at my destination.
After checking what was on every floor, I had to go to either floor 4 or 5, depending on what I wanted to read so yeah, I headed for the stairs.
The 4th floor had mostly miscellaneous books, not so much novels and the kind of books you read at night, it was more one the line of cooking, music, languages, computer, comics and foreign languages books. Given that what I wanted was a book to read, not to learn, the only area that interested me was the foreign language book section.
Browsing the books they had there, not many interested me... there were a lot of biographies and books for children.
Finally, when I was about to leave for the upper floor to see if any book in Spanish was more on the line of what I wanted, I saw it, in a small table close to a wall. The book everyone was talking about, Twilight.
I've had many discussions with my friends at university about the books (they're mostly girls, so yeah) and I promised to one of them that I would read Twilight so we could discuss it properly (I was the only one in the group that hadn't read the book). Thats what pretty much made me decide that was the book I wanted to buy.
Got down, bought it, left for my Residence (the sun was still there).
I got to my room and as soon as I left the wallet and phone, my friends here knocked the door... Dinner time!
10:30 PM, opened the book and read the first lines, 32 hours later I was done with the book.
I know the book is meant for younger teenagers, but I must admit I really liked it, its very cheesy at times, but overall it's very well written, the characters are well defined and the story drags you in until the very last moment.
Seconds after closing the book, I turned on my laptop and, in the very same chair I was reading the book, I started to watch the movie, which really, really disappointed me.
I've seen bad actors, but the guy that played Edward Cullen is by far the gold medal actor of the poo-poo actor Olympics.
So I decided to ignore the 2 hours the movie lasts and decided to just think about the book,
as I said, the overall impression is really good: easily readable, intense story, well-defined characters etc...
So I highly recommend it to anyone that has some spare time, Its really worth it.
So I gathered my phone, headphones and wallet and headed to the Metro for a 20 minute ride in one of Madrid's slowest lines. The trip was uneventful (which is not always the case in Madrid's Underground) and I finally reached my destination.
I had to ascend the equivalent to 4 or 5 stories of a building (Since its very old, this line was built close to hell) and got to the surface, with the sun still there, I just had to cross the street and arrived at my destination.
After checking what was on every floor, I had to go to either floor 4 or 5, depending on what I wanted to read so yeah, I headed for the stairs.
The 4th floor had mostly miscellaneous books, not so much novels and the kind of books you read at night, it was more one the line of cooking, music, languages, computer, comics and foreign languages books. Given that what I wanted was a book to read, not to learn, the only area that interested me was the foreign language book section.
Browsing the books they had there, not many interested me... there were a lot of biographies and books for children.
Finally, when I was about to leave for the upper floor to see if any book in Spanish was more on the line of what I wanted, I saw it, in a small table close to a wall. The book everyone was talking about, Twilight.
I've had many discussions with my friends at university about the books (they're mostly girls, so yeah) and I promised to one of them that I would read Twilight so we could discuss it properly (I was the only one in the group that hadn't read the book). Thats what pretty much made me decide that was the book I wanted to buy.
Got down, bought it, left for my Residence (the sun was still there).
I got to my room and as soon as I left the wallet and phone, my friends here knocked the door... Dinner time!
10:30 PM, opened the book and read the first lines, 32 hours later I was done with the book.
I know the book is meant for younger teenagers, but I must admit I really liked it, its very cheesy at times, but overall it's very well written, the characters are well defined and the story drags you in until the very last moment.
Seconds after closing the book, I turned on my laptop and, in the very same chair I was reading the book, I started to watch the movie, which really, really disappointed me.
I've seen bad actors, but the guy that played Edward Cullen is by far the gold medal actor of the poo-poo actor Olympics.
So I decided to ignore the 2 hours the movie lasts and decided to just think about the book,
as I said, the overall impression is really good: easily readable, intense story, well-defined characters etc...
So I highly recommend it to anyone that has some spare time, Its really worth it.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
I'm a musician now! (sort of)
OK, I've finally decided to learn how to play an instrument... and the chosen instrument is... the harmonica!
For a few months now I've been thinking about it, and given that in my residence we have 30% of musicians and my neighbor (I mean, the guy that lives next door) has played in a band for 4 years I though Hell yeah! Why not? Bought my 10 hole diatonic harmonica ( C ) and gave it a shot!
So far, so crap. My musical abilities are lower than the Caspian sea, but I think I'm improving (yeah, I've only had it for a week, but hey....)
Anyway, I hope that in time my music will sound different than “a bike with broken breaks” as someone described it.
For a few months now I've been thinking about it, and given that in my residence we have 30% of musicians and my neighbor (I mean, the guy that lives next door) has played in a band for 4 years I though Hell yeah! Why not? Bought my 10 hole diatonic harmonica ( C ) and gave it a shot!
So far, so crap. My musical abilities are lower than the Caspian sea, but I think I'm improving (yeah, I've only had it for a week, but hey....)
Anyway, I hope that in time my music will sound different than “a bike with broken breaks” as someone described it.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Conclusions on Linux
For a few years now, I've always been a bit skeptic about Linux. I always knew that they were open source, free and all that stuff, but there were always a few things that made me not wanting to install one distribution, like the eight hundred gazillion versions you have to choose from and that it will take me a hell of a lot of time to get used to it (also that I hate partitions so...)
Finally, a few months later I formated (to install windows 7) and while managing the HDD, I found this 15GB partition for recovery. Given that I have never, ever in my life used that (in any of my 2 computers) and that I am NOT gonna install vista in Spanish (hell no, the translation hurts as much as listening to a chinese saying “Me gustan los burritos”) I decided to also format that and Install the distribution I heard was most widely extended: Ubuntu 8.10
So got my laptop and prepared my body to suffer an entire 24 hours of formatting, installing (2 OS I had never installed before) and configuring. To my surprise this took like a fourth of the time I expected.
Installation was smooth, dual booting was OK. I had my brand new open source OS in my laptop. What to do now? Check the forums!
I think that thats the thing I like the most about Linux, the overwhelming amount of help you can get online. No problem I've had in Ubuntu that didn't get solved as soon as I Googled it.
Oh, another thing I'm really enjoy is the level of customization allowed, you can change every single tiny little button, image or menu to what you think is best. Windows, a little copy-pasting won't be a bad idea this time.
Overall I think Linux is great but it took me lots of hours to configure, from which I reached the conclusion that they are not made for non geeks. Really. I can't leave my home's PC with Ubuntu because I'll have to go back every 3 days to help my mum out, while any Windows version is easy to work with and installation is as simple as double-clicking a file. Linux, you have a long way to go.
UPDATE:
Ubuntu 9.04 is out, lets see the improvements!
Finally, a few months later I formated (to install windows 7) and while managing the HDD, I found this 15GB partition for recovery. Given that I have never, ever in my life used that (in any of my 2 computers) and that I am NOT gonna install vista in Spanish (hell no, the translation hurts as much as listening to a chinese saying “Me gustan los burritos”) I decided to also format that and Install the distribution I heard was most widely extended: Ubuntu 8.10
So got my laptop and prepared my body to suffer an entire 24 hours of formatting, installing (2 OS I had never installed before) and configuring. To my surprise this took like a fourth of the time I expected.
Installation was smooth, dual booting was OK. I had my brand new open source OS in my laptop. What to do now? Check the forums!
I think that thats the thing I like the most about Linux, the overwhelming amount of help you can get online. No problem I've had in Ubuntu that didn't get solved as soon as I Googled it.
Oh, another thing I'm really enjoy is the level of customization allowed, you can change every single tiny little button, image or menu to what you think is best. Windows, a little copy-pasting won't be a bad idea this time.
Overall I think Linux is great but it took me lots of hours to configure, from which I reached the conclusion that they are not made for non geeks. Really. I can't leave my home's PC with Ubuntu because I'll have to go back every 3 days to help my mum out, while any Windows version is easy to work with and installation is as simple as double-clicking a file. Linux, you have a long way to go.
UPDATE:
Ubuntu 9.04 is out, lets see the improvements!
Little update
I know I haven't posted anything in a few months but (again) I'm back!
I just came back from some meetings to become a Summer camp monitor, and yeah, had an awesome time, lots of fun, quite instructive (which I presume was the original purpose of the whole thing) and met lots of people. Awesomeness
other than that my life is still the same, same class, same people, same mornings... oh!I bought my new Eastpak Bag! And, like McDonalds, I'm lovin' it! It might have been a leetle expensive (80€!) but it was well worth it! (It kinda looks like Firas' If he hasn't changed it since IB). The thing I like the most 'bout it is the 30 year warranty... 30 years! I'll be 49 and could still have it replaced by a new one!
As soon as I finish this I'll be writing the post about my 2 month Ubuntu experience, so brb!
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