Wednesday, June 17, 2009

To KDE or not to KDE, that is the question

I’ve had Ubuntu for a few months now. I’ve had to deal with lots of issues, problems, software issues until I made it to get some decent Ubuntu installation. Now is time for change.

Now the question is: what OS now? lets look at the options:

  1. OSX86: Leopard on my Packard Bell again… it DID work, but I had some issues with the WLAN card so yeah, although the rest was smooth, it was not really worth it.
  2. Linux distribution: ok, there are a zillion distributions so lets narrow the search again:
    • GNOME: Ubuntu? I don’t really feel like it, and the other distributions are not very tempting.
    • KDE: ahhh here! here is were I am really getting interested. I’ve really liked KDE for some time now, but what should I choose?

So, any suggestions?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Ruined swimming pool

Remember in the last post I said that we were above 41º with a blazing sun above our heads? well, next day we had the biggest storm I’ve seen this year. It really was a HUGE storm, with all the wind and stuff.. actually it was a thunderstorm, so we had lightning, thunder, rain, wind and 35º of temperature: yay!

So next day, rain stopped and the sun stepped in again and after a morning in the library studying for math I headed (as usual) to the pool half hour before lunch to find it was not only closed, but also extremely dirty. not only the rain had completely taken the clarity out of the water, but the leaves and branches from nearby trees were floating around.

so yeah, not buying something to cover the pool now means the pool is closed for the rest of the year (or so it seems)

IMAGE_369IMAGE_372And here is the picture of the whole thing:

IMAGE_373  Finally this is how it should look like (or how it looked like last year):

n1152256526_30079981_3167

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Hot, hot, HOT!

As I write this, I am dying. It may seem funny, but reaching the temperatures we had today is no joke, and I bet tonight’s weather isn’t gonna help me sleep.
Walking from the metro to my residence (3 minute walk) was pretty much like walking on the desert. At 19:30 we were 41ºC. FORTY ONE DEGREES! That’s hot, really hot, especially in Madrid, where it’s even worse than dealing with it in the coast.
And now, after dinner and a cold shower, I’m already with sweaty hands and my tongue out. I hope it gets colder by tonight, or I’ll be writing another post at 03:00AM

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.

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!

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.