Capital punishment

When the guilty is from within
-Metallica – The strugle within

Rivers of ink has been written about capital punishment. This is just a drop in the ocean. In this lines I pretend to make a pause to think about one of the arguments given in favour of this kind of punishment that I have read many times. I think that I can argument this, without the need of using the statistics that gives me the reason, just by using our thinking.

They say that capital punishment deters people to commit crimes.

Imagine that we are a man that is going to rob a shop, it isn't punished with the capital, we can assume the risk, but a shooting took place and in the middle of the confusion, you kill someone, it wasn't your intention, but that's the way the things has happened. Now you're life is in a crossroads, is a homicide, they can charge you as murder, if they catch you, they probably are going to execute you. What are you going to do?

a.- You give in to the authorities because is the right thing, and you act like you believe the system works and if they execute you is because you deserve it. So, in that moment, a person how used to live in a world aside the system has changed his mind and started to believe in it.
b.- You run away, and if necessary you throw away anyone who tries to catch you.
In the end, if the catch you, you're the dead, so this way at least you have a chance to star over a new life somewhere.

I suppose that if we want to have the more opportunities to survive we will choose the second option. As a result of this choice, it's inevitable that more victims will be produced.

This is just simplifying and in the reality things aren't just like that, but it is sure that the most important thing it's that they don't catch you.

I find interesting that, in the countries with capital punishment, they highlight with surprise and reproval that criminals offer resistance to be arrested. Is logic, don't you think? It is absurd acting saying: "Please, come to kill me with all the weight of the law, thank you."

Rage Against The Machine – Killing in the Name
Metallica – Ride The Lightning

THX, truth or myth

Truth. Not to exaggerate, but things are as they are. A THX certified cinema achieves some minimums that to more than one would agree that should be essential in any cinema. From light and noise presence, to sound systems and projectors. The THX is a way to standardize the conditions in which the audience is going to watch the films, so the experience would not vary that much from one cinema to another. THX films are made thinking on these "optimum" conditions so our film experience will be more like to what the director was thinking.

Myth. A cinema without THX doesn't mean bad. THX is a certification that they have to pay to obtain it and many cinemas are not to this. So, a cinema can surpass the standards of THX and don't have certification. We shouldn't exaggerate the excellencies of THX, but the advantages are undoubted. Ask Quicksilver and his Yamaha THX 7.1


THX Ltd.

Yura and Makoto. Manual of sex

If anyone take a look at one of the Yura and Makoto's mangas, and don't stop to read nothing, he would say that those Japanese comics are hentai (pornographic).

I confess, every month I go to the comic shop and bought one of those books with hot pics. Don't take me wrong, they are very educative comics. Don't laugh at me, I'm serious.

Is a manual about sexuality, making a remark in how to be happy with our sexual relationship. It represents several kinds of relationships, although I haven't seen a gay or lesbian yet. The history is about a young just married couple that doesn't have any previous sexual experience. From this point of view, it explores many aspect of sex, from postures, orgasm and premature ejaculation, to contraceptives, jealousy or meeting parent in law. Everything that can happen in a relationship is represented with naturalness and of course with the spicy add. ;-)

Madagascar

The last Friday I watched it with Taci, it was great, in some moments I though that I will lose my mouth, I couldn't control laughing, but... for me there's enough parodies films. All of the new animation films I've watched make parodies. I love it, but it looks like this kind of films were just that, a history mix with gags from other films. Don't they think that the history wasn't good or funny enough?

I go to the cinema with fear thinking that at any moment some one will say "I'm your father" and other will shout "nooooo!" or things like that.

I thing that Madagascar has enough charismatic characters to not need making any parody. I love Alex, the lion, he is like a teddy bear, and how lovely was the little lemur that hugs his tail when scared. But to me, the best from the film were the penguins.

"Just smile and wave boys... just smile and wave."

Guns N' Roses

The year was 1993, "You could be mine" still sounded strong at "Los 40 Principales" radio station. I was only twelve years old and I bought my first CD, Use Your Illusion 2. Guns N' Roses was the most highlighted Rock band.

Axl Rose, leaded this polemic band. Slash, the guitarist, became a legend because of his incomparable way of playing, or may because of his hear style and the hat.

Alcohol, sexo, drogas, y demás historias serán las constantes de su meteórica ascensión al estrellato del rock. Los estadios llenos y la histeria colectiva de sus fans. Pero, como una estrella fugaz que cruza el cielo, rápidamente se disiparon.

Alcohol, sex, drugs, and so on were constant in their meteoric career. Stadiums crowded and the collective hysteria of fans. But those who rise fast fall faster.

So this is how the Guns was, explicit lyrics and a magnificence production, with such a force that has been imprinted in history. The rock was in the highest because of them.

"She's pretty tied up, when you can ride her." -Guns N' Roses - Pretty Tied Up

Electric consumption

From the bill I'm sure that the third is because of me.

There are so many electric things in my room that I have the fear of being overloading the electric installation of my neighbourhood. Sure that I can go on holydays just by the money I spent on electricity. I imagine it, enough money for a travel to the Caribbean.

I don't know how much the bill is, better not asking. Not that my father realizes how much cost I am, and cut the power to me. I "need" my computer always on, about 23 hours per day, I can't permit it to be shut down. Some times I give it a rest.

Transformers Vs Pokemon

"You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl"
–Madonna - Material girl.

I've heard critics to japanese animation series like Pokemon just for not being anything but a product created to give support for merchandising and videogames. This is not new. Cartoons that I watched when I was little, like GIJOE or Transformers, were too comercial products. In GIJOE's case, with a pro-military message. GIJOE and Transformers had a massive catalog of official products: TV shows, comics, toys, posters… so, there's any diference between Optimus Primer and Pikachu. There's not as a commercial phenomenon.

One is the truck leader of the Autobots, one of the to factions in the Cybertronian Wars. By a luck of disasters, the bring this war to Earth and now, as they are the good guys, they have to fight against Decepticons and protect the suspicious humans. The other is a cute pokemon pet, travel mate of Ash, his coach, and he has an electrifiying way of getting angry. They both together goes around the world of Pokemon, taking part in the pokemon leages, discovering new pokemons, to become the best coach.

They're both have distinct plots, but at the time of taking juice from the marc, the similarity is absulute. Pokemon has obteined great success and seems to continuing. Transformers don't have that much, but they have been in the market for two decades.

Same shit different color.

Do you believe in ghosts?

Who, me?, psss, no. But I'm scare of them. :-P It's true. I don't believe in spirits and the rest of things about the other side. I'm sceptic, the radio show Milenio3 (one of paranormal things), doesn't have a listener on me. Even thou I'm fascinated with all the stories they tell, and in some extension I have respect for the world of the dead.

In my house, there is a room which door closes by itself. Every time I see the door closing alone I feel a chill in my back. I know it is nothing abnormal, but I still can help feeling uneasy with that phenomenon.

The darkness, in most cases I love it, but going inside a dark room, :-S fear, yes.

Rage – Straight to Hell

Internet allows you to have an active role, so take part

¿Do you see this post? ¡Write a comment!

How many people uses Internet and how little, proportionaly, take part in it.
Probably the best thing that Internet has is its great easiness to permit the user to participate. The posibilites get multiplied if we take an active role in it.

I used to be a pasive internet user. This means, looking for pages and reading, but nothing to write the webmaster if there is a problem or to congratule for his work, not writing in forums, however reading them, not comment the news, and of course not reading the help files.

The first time I write in a forum was a great step for me, in that moment, after clicking the send button and seing it published, I understand it. I had started a new treath, unknown people will answer me and at the same time my question will be available to others that could read it and learn from it. How many people would have that question and didn't ask the question. The mayority of users are in that way, luckily things are change because of the spreading of the digital "culture" and, little by little, people take part more often.

Some times is better to be quiet when you don't have nothing to say. But, hey, who am I to tell that, if I don't stop writing this blog... ¿Could it be that I think that I have something to say? XDD

Irresponsible driving attitudes.

I thought that I have seen barbarities in my life:

People driving, a weekend night, fast and of course drunk, but only with one hand, because the other is to carry the drink, of course.

Pilots driving at more than 100Km/h in a residential zone, cats, dogs, children and anything else move away their track, you're interfering with a competition.

Rally skids on curves and roundabouts, they have to test how close they can pass close to the parked cars without hitting them.

Motorist at full speed, at night, without lights and without helmet, they have to obey the traffic rules.

But the other day I saw something more estrange. Halted at the traffic lights, going to my job, I looked at my left and I saw a man that, in his Mègane, was smoking. I realized that the cigarette had some strange shape, it looked like a joint, but I know that hand-rolled cigarettes looks like joints so I decided to check it. I open the car window and I feel the smell of what he was smoking, something like "incense". I thought: "he must have a job that requires him to be in a good mood".

Molotov – Mátate Teté

Live Music

We can reproduce a recording, but the energy is several times in a live session.
-Kacho Oji

The past Friday 17th we went to a concert in Fun Club a concert stage. The Strains and The Milkyway Express. The first band made a technically perfect performance. The music sounded perfect, they didn't make mistakes, absolutely perfect, but nothing more. Not a little piece of the energy you expect in a concert. It's not a matter of playing good, they have to offer a show and there is where most bands fail, not in the case of The Milkyway Express.

A funny performance, with and style mix of blues, rock and funky, great! A modern sound and also revival of past years. Simply as a live concert must be, pure energy on the stage to make the audience have a fantastic night. There they were the six of them, giving everything and making people forget about the hell heat that was making inside. ¿there is any air conditioner here?

I saw them before in another concert and the really surprised me. I hope that they continue doing so good in the future.

¿When the album? ¡¡I want the garage record!!

You can listen to them at the following link:
The Milkyway Express

PD: Watching a live performance has great inconvenience to mi, it makes me want to play guitar, compose, and continue learning music, and that if you don't have the time is a pain in the arse.

Batman Begins

The past Sunday I went to watch it with Taci, I was expecting a good film, but not that much.

Superheroes are in fashion, but, in this years of super heroic avalanche, only Marvel franchises had have a cinematographic version, now DC Comics has started to do so. Christopher Nolan, director of Memento, has perform the task of making the first Batman film after the terrible Batman and Robin of Joel Schumacher. The result has been impressive.

A magnificent cast in which all the performances were very good. Particularly, I love the ones of Michael Caine as Alfred and Gary Oldman as Sergeant Gordon. Every actor has his own moment of glory, the dialogs has lots of details that help to make the characters deeper. Liam Neeson, master, powerful, and wise, guides Bruce Wayne to fight his fears. Kate Holmes teaches the truth meaning of justice to Batman. Morgan Freeman, as usual, superb. The Scarecrow, incredible, inspires fear without bean exaggerated. It's curious that such a good thing came out from the writer of Blade.

The film will have things that some might like and others not. To me, everything looked fantastic. Batman is a little less cold, more human, compare to the one we used to know, and darker too, what makes him more interesting. The suit on screen seems better than in posters, and we can see lots of details in the gadgets this superhero uses. In my opinion, the new Batmovil was great, I liked it a lot, "what a piece of junk", at last we see some meaning to the fire exhaust in the back. The world of this legend has achieved a very high level, the Batcave now is more like a cave than ever, Gotham City looks like a real city, and everything has that "feeling" of being there for years.

From the beginning to the end, well done, unlike the rest of superhero films that always has some weak moments (as Renis remind me). It keeps the tension and the emotion through the film, and for the genre it forms part, is a great achievement. I recommend you this film.

-Why a bat?
-Because I'm afraid of them. Now my enemies will share this fear with me.

Sometimes I think I reach the limit

"There comes a time when you look into the mirror and realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. Then you accept it, or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking into mirrors." - Ambassador Londo Mollari

Today I have felt like I would never make progress in my job. Really, I don't know if I like programming these machines that much. Well, I'm not going to worry a lot, there will be always the chance to start again.

¿Why I like so many things? ¿Why I don't find the thing that I like?

Wolverine – His Cold Touch

Writing on paper vs computer

Today I was writing in a sheet. What a piece of junk. In that format nothing can be done, nor copy, nor paste, nor move, no fonts, and many things more. However, comparing, I find it more relaxing. Sometimes.

When I use computers I forget that this flexibility is a technical advance of just a few years. Previously, to write something, we should being much more careful in order to not waste hours transcribing things. Now those transcription hours are unnecessary. We can modify the text quickly, add paragraphs, check lines, change words. Everything without spending a single gram of paper.

Writing in a computer seems to me artificial, I miss the touch of paper, my drawing letter, or is just an emotion I feel because I have learned to write painting.

There would be a time in which people don't use paper to write and everything would be digital?
Is really more ecologic to write using a computer just because of the simple fact that you don't use paper?

Sunday

The Sun shines thru my window and wake me up little by little,
I don't know a better way to start a Sunday morning,
However I would prefer he does shine two hours later,
But hey, I can't ask anymore from him, he has a strict schedule.

Great! Taci is going to start a new job far from home, however it implies that is far from mine's too. I'm going to miss you, sugar.

I hope that, by the time you're back, I learn enough about sound tecnician and make the recordings as good as we are. ;-)

Shakira – En tus pupilas

Audigy 4, a studio at home

-Yes, now I've got a 128cc motorbike.
-Ha, ha, ha. Are you sure that is 128?
-Only these things happen to programmers. The whole day thinking in square root of 2.

Despite the terrible new saying that the new creative sound card is going to be released in a couple of weeks, ouch!, I'm a new owner of an Audigy 4. A soundcard to do more than just play.

Now is the time to learn editing, mixing, recording, piano, guitar, MIDI and I don't know what more. As you can see, nothing. Hehehe.

Freak Kitchen – Speak When Spoken To

I love to receive mail from you.

Today, my friend Anh has written to me. She is from Vietnam. I met her at the English courses in Manchester. There we become friends and now we keep contact by email. Every time I open one of those digital letters, I enjoy seeing pictures in my mind of UK. As I was there I can guess how the things looks like, and she gives me precious descriptions of her living there. It's like travelling again.

Don't you feel the same when someone writes you from distant lands?

And thus be able to enjoy my second favourite fondness in the universe.

Michael Garibaldi, one of the main cast of Babylon 5, has something in common with me, he loves Duffy Duck. He calls this his second fondness in the universe, and I'm with him, cartoons are one of the most enjoyable things in the universe.

But in Spain, yet, although the increase amount of adult and teen animation in the market, animation is still associated with kids. I have had to live with that situation all my life.

Inside people's mind there is an idea that cartoon is just for children. Some people have told me "don't you think that you are old enough to continue watching cartoon" Hell ya!, I'm watching Blood: The Last Vampire, if that is only for kids... nevertheless, and if it was animation for kids what is the problem of watching it.

Animation is just another way for artist to give shape to what they have in their heads, if you don't see what the arts has put making a judge is inaccurate. It is like giving an opinion of a painting without having watched it. It is a canvas, right? Then it will be fine in my saloon. O_O

This is the Disney's Legacy to west, that we end believing that animation is a product of sweet world of fantasy just for children.

Saturday Night

I don't know the reasons why it started, but there they were, two friends fighting, showing their most primal instincts.

Today we went to take some drinks (red wine with lemon soft drink) in our favorite bar, the Kfé. We have been regular customer there since it was open, it's like our Cheers but in the Spanish way. So, we, talking about our things, passed the night quickly.

Taci, as usual, return to her home before us, she has a time to go back home. There we were left, Quick and I, when suddenly we hear people shouting. Right next to us, two guys were fighting. O_O Punches flight from both sides. Their friends were trying to separate them, but they didn't seem to want it. Brutal.

At some point, they stopped, although nerves weren't calmed yet. Fernando, the bartender, later on tell us that it was because a competition they made. One said that the other won because he cheated. I guessed car competition.

How fast things change, from having a good time to fighting like an animal with your friend.

-One more drink and I'll go home.

Today I sat a public entrance examination.

At 15:30, fire in the street, I mean, heat, I was at the place for the tests. I was quite calm, I haven't studied so I didn't have any special chances. I liked the faculty, an old building and in another time an old tobacco factory, with a much solemn feeling than the computer Enginiering School I used to go. In the wide corridors the temperature was as hot as in the street, but, as there were shadows, it was tolerable.

More and more people came, and we waited before the main class, where my entire group has the exam. Curiously I didn't saw anyone familiar to me, neither those that you can cross in the streets. Finally, at 15:50, they started to call the people. One by one, they were saying the names from a list, and we waited our turn.

Once in the class, the conditions were better, there was air conditioner. At the main table, they gave to each one an answer sheet to write down and a kind man led us to our sit.

When we all were inside, they read us the norms, and they asked for two volunteers to go and open the exam boxes with them to certify the act. The give away the tests and, at 16:55, we started the test.

The first questions were about law, here I felt the few that I knew about it, but I was able to answer some questions thanks to the evening law course I was taking. Even though, my answer sheet started to show many questions unanswered. After some question about law, came the specific questions of computers. I knew the answer to the first one, I was excited, things seemed to got better. Not for much longer. The questions turned harder. ¿Where the hell these things came from? ¿That was really about computers? It was like the questions about the things that I knew became meaningless because of the specific terminology that I wasn't aware of.

Finally, after more than two hours, I answer about the third part of the questions. Although it was a disaster, the experience has been good, next time the history will be different. I hope so. XDD

My memory. Unable to remember anything.

People can remember many things. People who met, places they went to, dishes they eat, and even full conversations. I can’t make my head remember anything.

Sometimes I think that I had some kind of problem in the growing up that unable my mind to remind. I forget things damn fast easily. From names, I’m training to fix it up, to, literally, people. But for me, the worst thing is to forget things I've done, including travels, yes those delicious and wonderful travels that we do.

Seriously, in so many moments it happened that someone told me with illusion "do you remember when..." and I answer a vague "yes" to continue with the conversation. Then my mind starts to work. A great challenge. Some times, with some luck, I remember some images, other times I just only remember that I was there, but nothing else. So embarrassing.

One of the things I like from PDA is that you can write at anytime. Do you know how do I use it for?

I write a diary.

Since I bought my PDA I write almost every day. Because it’s digital, I can rewrite things I wrote months ago and add some information. Yesterday, I enjoyed reading something very interesting for me, my life.

Just for that, it has been worth the cost of this “high” technology device.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I get up without effort, others I am heavy lazy.
Sometimes I go sleepy, and others I go completely awake.
Sometimes I can't stand the neighbour, others he pleased me.
Sometimes I write, and others I read.
Sometimes I am shy, and others outgoing.
Sometimes I am funny, and others I am boring.
Sometimes I am in a good mood, others I bite.
Sometimes I dream.
Sometimes I like myself, others I hate myself.
Sometimes I am comprehensive, and others not.
Sometimes I want to be in a crowd, others completely alone.
Sometimes I like what I am seeing, and others I don't even look.
Sometimes I want something, others I don't fancy.
Sometimes I go smart, and others I don't even comb my hair.
Sometimes I wear glasses, others just my eyes.
Sometimes I am someone, sometimes I am nothing.

Organizing Mp3s

It's good to see how programs like Windows Media Player or WinAmp include a median library to organize the music we've got in our PC and so we can fin "easily" the song we want to listen. But if the music files are outside the computer, burned on CD or DVD, finding them become more complicated.

To make it easier, the best thing we can do is catalogue our Mp3 CDs. I use the program MPEG Audio Collection (MAC), that checks CD content and put the information in a database. With that we can have in the database 25 CDs and search for "Metallica" and it will give us the results for all 25 CDs without having to introduce each CD one by one. Faster Impossible.

Catalogue requires a little bit of work, but the benefits are huge and it saves us a lot of time. Although, to get the best results, the use of ID3 information such as song title, artist and album, is imperative.

Yesterday, Renis told me that he was listening to Héroes del Silencio but WinAmp only showed Track01, Track02, Track03… and he didn't want to write all the songs names, album, band and the rest of data. To make it so, there is a wonderful application, Tagscanner, that is free like MAC. With it we can edit in the fastest way our mp3s' tags. We can select the files of an album and it can search for the data in the CDDB. It requires some practice to get used to the program but, step by step, you will learn it. I have tried many programs to perform these tasks and no one is as good as Tagscanner.

I try to edit the ID3 of all my Mp3 and I put numbers in my CDs and DVDs. Looking for what I want to hear has never been easier. Estimated time for the whole thing, 20 seconds. Impressive.

My PDA and I. Priceless relationship.

From the electronic devices I might have bought in my life, my PDA is one of the most useful.

The past year, while I was working in Barcelona, my boss lent me a PDA. It was the first time I put my hands on one of these little machines, I knew about them, I have seen pictures, but I never have used them. I didn’t realize how practical these things could be.

I’m not exaggerating if I say that with a PDA happens the same as with the MasterCard, it’s priceless. I can carry with me in the size of a typical wallet everything I need to bring with me. In example: a street map, a road map of Spain, an excel with my expenditures, an outlook with all the information about the people I know, a calendar to write down my dates and important events, a diary, a dictionary of Spanish, another one of English, and another one English-Spanish, last trip photos, comics. Think about how much it will weight in the usual format.

Just take in consideration the outlook functionality, the improvement over the outlook made of paper is substantial. You always have space to write down one more phone or address. And you can copy all the information to keep a backup in case you lost the PDA. The only drawback is getting out of battery, something that can never happen if we use the paper outlook. But this is like a mobile phone, depending on the use you make the longer the battery will last without having to recharge.

Some examples of situations in which the PDA is useful:

• Case 1: You are having an intellectual conversation with some friends, discussing what a passage from The Lord of The Rings says. There’s no agreement. To get your PDA out of your pocket, open the book and bring light to this problem is priceless.
• Case 2: You are dating with some friends in a street you don’t know, there’s no problem to arrive, you have you PDA, your map, and no problem.
• Case 3: Someone asks you if you have a film. You look in your PDA your “films I own” archive, and you can answer without doubts.
• Case 4: Your boss tells you that the information is in an email he sent to you. Turn on the PDA and you retrieve the mail that you need.

If you see me in the street with my PDA, I might be looking like a freak and not like a normal guy with his minicomputer to make his life easier. Just a few years ago the freaks were those who own a mobile phone, today are what hasn’t got. Time will tell.


My Fujitsu/Siemens Pocket Loox 420

The mind that copies without being conscious.

Some days ago I wrote, as a result of the breaking of my fridge, an article about the technological dependency that we have. I don't know if it was because my mind made a joke to me or because I was trying to be funny, but my writing is very similar to the one that Tacirupeca wrote some months ago. (In Spanish)

The similitude is really obvious, but how could it happened if I wrote it directly from my head. If I were Data I will say that the chances for such similarity without copying are one in a million. So, copy took place. At some point my mind fooled me and started to drop things from that post, read months ago, thru my unconsciousness. Thank you very much.

Now I'm afraid of writing and seeing that my words aren't mine, that they are just an imitation of the words from another one.

Sunday as a nurse.

The last Sunday I went to visit Quicksilver_mx and I found that he was ill, it started in the evening, fever and ear pain. He was without any strength.

I told that we should go to see a doctor. But his grandmother can't be left alone, and his parent hadn't arrived yet, they were on a journey. We couldn't leave, an accident could happen. So I stayed there as a nurse.

To our poor friend fever didn't stop rising even taking some medicine. And while he was in his "delirium", we saw the film Predator. So, a little bit distracted, he managed to resist until his parents arrived.

When he left to see the doctor he was 39.40º O_O

Today he's still ill. Have a quick recovery.

The Information Highway.

There are many people that when they surf the net read news to be informed about their interests. We can see a large amount of web sites that republish news from other sites, spreading out the new, in example this blog.

But the way, in which this is done, is not always good. So often I have found things that needs a so very critic reader to not be fooled. I found a lot of mistakes in the article about spam that inspire me. I nearly reproduce the mistakes buy I read more about it.

Information is useless if truthworth is faked so easily. And this is not a matter of objectivity, is a matter of the proper analysis of the information. Internet is also the disinformation highway.

Be ready and fasten belts.

What I’m listening.

The New Messenger 7 has this pretty cool function. Now our friends can know what we’re listening to. Something I find interesting, and allows happening things like the following.

The other day, my friend CyberAnt asked me what song I was listening. It was from one of our favourites bands but he didn’t recognize the song, so I sent it to him. Yes, I send it. I’m not going to make him come from hundreds kilometres, don’t you think? And then he listen the song, and said, “I heard this song before”. If I didn’t have sent it to him, he would never have known. The chances to remember something like that by the time we met again are zero.

But this functionality doesn’t work in my favourite player, WinAmp, unless you install a special plug-in. I have tried several plug-ins available and found that the best, in my opinion, is:

MSN Messenger Status Plugin Home Page
MSN Messenger Status at WinAmp.com

Fully customizable and one of the few (only two I found) that, when it stopped playing, changes back the message to what we had written before.

I want my room to be a studio.

Sometimes, like the last Saturday, I would like to have my room divided in two larger areas. I spend a lot of time there. Just think the hours of sleeping and add the time for studying, working, chatting, surfing the net, listening music, watching films, playing the guitar, recording songs, making videos, etc.

By seeing that list, it’s easy to guess that I a have a lot of stuff in my room. So when I want to do something I have to spend sometime preparing (removing) things. It’s annoying to plug-in everything I need every time I want to record something. And also to unplug everything if I want to study.

I don’t have enough space for myself in this room. Maybe with a larger room and two or three tables. Or two rooms and four tables. I’m dreaming.

Customizing MSN Messenger.

Microsoft has added a lot of new stuff to its instant message service, MSN Messenger. Winks, handwriting, what you’re listening, improved audio and video conversation, personal images in contacts list, search bar, search button in the conversation window, more annoying tabs that I’ve never use, and many more things. Now our, one time light, messenger looks heavier than ever. The old days of friendly and light useful program has ended. Thankfully, there are a bunch of things we can do to take this program to the right path and make it more productive.

What I’m going to describe has to be done carefully. Think first what you are doing and read more about. You can get as a result a not working messenger so don’t start clicking “next” button so quickly.

We can do several things, but these are what I have done.

• Install Messenger Plus!: it improves the “Messenger Experience”, it adds new functionalities. During the installation it will ask you if you want to install advertisement software in your system in order to support this program. Read twice. I always say no to this. It’s your choice.
• Install Stuff-plug: plug-in for Messenger Plus! that allows us to manage the annoying tabs. And more things like support for large personal images.
• Apply Mess Patch: This is the one that helps us a lot to clean up our Messenger. It can remove those things that we don’t like. It’s easy, just run the patch, mark what you want to add/remove, and click next. If you’re going to do this again, be careful, don’t patch over a patched version. Restore the previous unchanged version, the program give us the option to, and after that, patch again.

The political "debate" on Internet.

Frankly, every time I read two lines in which someone gives his opinion about politic I jump to the next comment or new (it's possible that someone will do the same with this text). The 95% of the times it's the same discussion, PP vs. PSOE (the two main parties in Spain), they say if this one is too evil, if the other is a thief, if this one is a liar, if other is a lizard. The supporting arguments that they give to these statements, if are given, are vague and truth less.

Recently this kind of discussion is always about the same topic, piracy. I suppose that this is because of the sites I visit like Bandaancha, a specialized Spanish site about internet and broadband, or Barrapunto, the Spanish version of Slashdot.

When I read these discussions, I see that all become a sequence of insults that don't lead to anywhere. Many times they say that "this happens because of the government", referring to the new stronger laws for Internet. I have read this comment at the present time, with PSOE's presidency, and before, with PP's presidency. In the case of the actual government, it’s clear that this is not only its fault, because they don't govern with absolute majority. I think that it's appropriated to make an approach to how things work in Spain.

To obtain a law, it is required an elaboration and later on the agreement of the majority of the politicians in the parliament. It's not something that the government can ask for and quickly have it. First, they have to expose the need of this law, and after it, choose the people how are going to elaborate it, write it, present the result and vote the corrections to the law, and finally, approve by voting. It's not as simple as people use to think. Additionally, the laws can be proposed by other political parties different from the government, or even the citizens, and if they are accepted to course, the result will be a law that doesn't comes from the government.

It's great to see people giving their opinion with such passion, there is some "dialog", but to express an accusation, evidences must be given, always. Otherwise, don't be surprised if they go against you.

About anything there is, at least, one point of view per person, and some people has more than one.

Pinnacle Studio DC10+

A painful history of bad support.

I bought this video capturer card with the idea of passing my VHS to digital. It was highly recommended by the specialized magazines. I get it a couple of months before the release of Windows XP. Pinnacle said that the will give support to Windows XP and that this card will work on XP. False.

First you had to buy their new software Studio 7 because the drivers only worked with their program. Luckily I tried the demo before buying. Not only I couldn't use other program different from Studio 7, the quality of the captures was lower than on Windows 98. The later versions, 8 and 9, improve this thing a little, but using Windows 98 is recommended. It wasn't until this year, after nearly five years, that I can use my card in Windows XP properly.

Someone developed a bunch of drivers that works just I wanted them to work. Here I put the drivers for all of you, because I can't find the page where I took them from.

drivers dc10dc30dc30plus.zip

Remember that these drivers are given as is, without guaranties, and nothing at all. So be careful, make backup before trying them.

Evening concert.

Yesterday evening we dated, Tacirupeca and I, with Quicksilver_mx to go to a concert tribute to Mike Oldfield that our friend Juanjo will give at the Polytechnic School (Escuela Politécnica, I’m not sure about the translation) of Seville.

When we arrived at Quicksilver_mx job to pick up him, he wasn't there, he went out to buy some tapes to record the show. When he came back, a disaster occurs, there was a last time thing to do at the job so can't come with us. The problem was that we didn't know how to get to the school.

-Where is the show? –we asked.
-Look, is in Niebla Street.
:-S
-In the area of Los Remedios.
:-S
-One parallel to República Argentina Street.
-Ah!!. OK.

There we left, with our four instructions, we went all the way up Niebla Street and we didn't see any school. :-S Things are getting well. A call:

-Hey man, we didn't find it.
-It might be on a corner or something.
-¿Can you tell me at what part of Niebla Street it should be?
-Errr, no idea man.
:-S
Then I saw the light, taking a look in my PDA. I completely forget about it!! Luckily I carried it with me. I didn't tell you how useful these things can be, did I? I load the map, search the street, and the school was there, it was a POI (Point of interest)

It was in a street that went across Niebla Street, and it was in a corner, but without any sign of University. Well, there were some hidden signs. But hey, we made it, we located it, so we parked the car and, loaded with the things for the recording, we went to the theatre.

We were late and the show had already started. I prepared the camera and shoot everything since that moment. Later on, about after an hour, Quicksilver_mx arrived. As I was shooting the show he would be able to see what he missed.

The show wasn't prepared too much because everything was decided very fast and they didn't have time to make training sessions, so they didn't performed as good as they really can. They will do better next time, I'm sure. To conclude the night, after the show, we went to Sloopy Joe's for dinner. Delicious.

Digital Musician.

Several years ago, six or seven, I started to play guitar. Since then, this hobby, like many others, occupies my time. The little musical sense I have has been obtained with much effort. I’m not a wonder but, despite I don’t have a special sensibility, I dare to compound "music".

To create my so called "music", I use the very practical tool, Guitar Pro. With it, I can transcript my compositions with a musical notation, tablature, that not require knowing the musical notes and the pentagram. Furthermore it allows us to make compositions for different musical instruments but writing that partiture in the same way as it was a guitar, MIDI miracles. So the task of writing a peace for piano or violin is simplified for a guitarist like me

Once our "song" is done, we can export it to midi or wav and then listen to them in other computers, convert to Mp3 or burn on CD. Thanks to this characteristic I composed polyphonic melodies for mobile phones.

Here you can get some examples of what I do:
017.mid
020.mid
040.mid
075.mid
096.mid
154.mid
171.mid

Rwanda

Today I have seen the film "Hotel Rwanda", the history of how Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the five stars hotel Mille Collines on Kigali, made possible that more than a thousand people survived the massacre.

It has made me return to 1994, when everything happened. Even I remember images in the news. Today, perhaps by the pass of time, and by seeing it this way, I was able to understand part of what happened there. I couldn’t avoid crying in pain for that.

The same history is repeated again and again anywhere in the world. It never seems to end. To feed hatred always has serious consequences. I feel shame for the humanity.

I think that Wyclef Jean summarizes very well the feeling in its song Million Voices, here I put the lyrics.

Ni ryari izuba, Rizagaruka, Hejuru yacu,
Nduzaricyeza ricyeza.
[When will the sun rise again?
[Who will reveal it "to" us again?]

Rwanda, Rwanda,
Yeah Rwanda, Rwanda.

They said: "Many are called and few are chosen,"
But I wish some wasn’t chosen
for the blood spilling of Rwanda.

They said: "Meshach Eshach and Abednego,
Thrown in the fire but you never get burned,"
but I wish that I didn't get burned in Rwanda.

They said: "The man is judged according to his works,"
so tell me Africa, what’s your worth?

There’s no money, no diamonds, no fortunes
on this planet that can replace Rwanda…

Rwanda Rwanda

Yeah, Rwanda Rwanda

These are the cry of the children

Rwanda Rwanda

Anybody hear my cry?

If America, is the United States of America,
Then why can’t Africa, be the United States of Africa?

And if England, is the United Kingdom,
Then why can’t Africa unite all the kingdoms
and become United Kingdom of Africa?

Rwanda Rwanda, Rwanda Rwanda
Yeah, yeah.

These are the cries of the children, yeah.

Can anybody out there hear our cries?

Yeah, heavens cry ... Jesus cry.

Lord, did you hear us calling you?
Yeah, Rwanda Rwanda,

Lord, did you hear us calling?
Can you do something in Rwanda?

Rwanda Rwanda, Rwanda Rwanda

I’m talkin' 'bout Jesus; talkin' 'bout
Rwanda Rwanda Rwanda

Talkin' 'bout … talk'n 'bout ...
Talkin' 'bout … talk'n 'bout ...

I wanna play my guitar for Rwanda....