Learning JavaScript - Shelley Powers

Some time ago I realized one flaw in my engineering skills was knowing little about web-development. I decided to get a book on the subject and start somewhere... well the most useful thing I could think of was JavaScript.
The book gave me a few basic insights on what JavaScript is for and where it should be used. However, I did not find it to be a great book... too much elaboration on what should and shouldn't be done, and it lacks a better structure. I found that most of what was presented on the later chapters, I had already checked online in order to understand the previous examples.
But hey, JavaScript is a no rules land, writing a book about it isn't easy.

Os Contemporâneos - A Conversa dos Globos de Ouro

(For the Portuguese speaking)
Grande António Feio... :D Respect!

The Good, the Bad & the Queen - Herculean

Damon Albarn lives for music... he's been with Blur, he founded Gorillaz, and in 2007 started a solo project that ended up not being that solo when he brought in these great musicians.

I read that the album was meant to be called "The Good, the Bad & the Queen", and the band was supposed to remain nameless... but somehow it went the other way around! I guess that's because you can't say "have you heard the latest cd by ..." and hope the others are getting the point :P

Anyway even if the album version is better, here is a video of them playing it @ Letterman. If you haven't, give this album a chance. It has some great moments.

Angels & Demons

It's a good movie... but mieeeeeh somehow I didn't like it.
Ewan McGregor tops Tom's performance. I didn't buy the scientific part... I thought the theory was that when anti-matter was mixed with matter, it would radiate energy, not explode. But hey whatever, lets not crucify them over that :P
I did not read the book and I still felt like there were pieces missing. I think the main problem with these kind of book reductions to a 2 hour movie is that characters will simply not grow on you. Furthermore, they'll behave erratically because even if that was what they did in the book, in the movie there's little to justify those behaviors. 6/10... it's not a bad movie, I just didn't like it.

Pandora's Star - Peter F. Hamilton

This is quite a big book, especially if you consider that it has been split in two. I had read "The Nano Flower" also by P. Hamilton and found it brilliant. So, I decided to pick this book up the second I saw it at a bookstore.
The great thing about the author is that for the first 10 chapters, he'll be introducing characters and side-stories that won't connect until much later on. And, besides being a great sci-fi writer, he is also a great at writing detective stories... there's always lots to find out in his books. Here are the points I really loved:
- Re-life process: humans can be brought back to life by updating their memories to a clone.
- Re-juvenation process: humans can endure a 3 month treatment to bring them from 50 to 18.
- The Starflyer: an alien that may or may not exist that may or may not be controlling and corrupting society.
- The Dyson pair shield: a force-field around 2 entire solar systems... how does it work? who made it? why?
- The SI, Sentient Intelligence: an AI that evolved and decided to isolate itself from human society physically. When people are fed up of living, they upload their conscience to it, keeping it "human" in that process.
- The wormhole theory that allows for instant travel.
- The terrorists trying to hunt the Starflyer and preventing humans from investigating the Dyson pair.

You add all these factors (and more) and you got one of those great great stories.
An example:
I read Interview with a Vampire and it is, in my opinion, a great essay about immortality: people don't get old and therefore no longer fit in. The rejuvenation process is way more interesting: you get older, you learn a lot, and then you're young again, but with this great knowledge. This also caused families to grow into the great-great-great-great-grandfather that is actually biologically younger than you... And, since his body chemistry is the same as a young teenager, it'll actually influence him into acting a bit like if he was actually that young!

Great concepts, great book!

The Blackbox Revelation - Never Alone / Always Together

These guys really surprised me with a strong album, proving they are not just another power duo! This song has a whole sad/blues vibe to it that I really like. The guitar tone is simply amazing, and the whammy effect on the chorus is a sweet detail! :)
The singer sounds a bit like Mick Jagger, but it really works! I also liked the video concept! And the guitar solo really really has soul!
I suggest you keep an eye on these guys! :)

Tropa de Elite

Another great Brazilian movie! Not as violent as I first thought it would be, but as heavy as any movie that deals withe the Brazilian favelas.

I get the whole cops and dealers symbiosis, and I also understand the real need for those above corruption. Their methods are just as hard as the methods used by the dealers.
The favela concept is not that different from the Italian mobs: they "protect" the people around them from violence they bring upon the people.
After a while, a massive Stockholm Syndrome happens: the people sympathize with the dealers.

And here is the story of a captain trying to recruit his replacement: the only problem is that one of the two possible candidates has the heart and spirit, and the other the brains! Great movie, and I have to say, Brazilian movies are growing on me: Cidade de Deus, Tropa de Elite, Carandiru, all violent movies but with great stories supporting them. 10/10

Will Ferrell back on SNL => CELEBRITY JEOPARDY

Hahaha! Will Ferrell hosted the last season show of SNL. He is back as Alex Trebek and so is Sean Connery with his mom jokes! PLUS Tom Hanks as himself :D

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The plot is a bit idiotic and sometimes it just makes no sense! BUT it's a fun movie to watch! Why? Because Indiana Jones is just a great character, that Harrison Ford pulls off perfectly!
There are some serious negative points on this movie:
- the villain... the worst Indiana Jones villain ever... you just don't get the feeling she wants to kill him
- some plot points! What is a single guy doing guarding a temple? Who is he? Why is he there?
- there was way more investigation going on in the other movies... Jones performs a lot of mystical divination in this one :P

BUT the +
+ the jokes! I love the snake joke :D
+ some old characters are back
+ the whole jungle part
+ the movie builds up, and even if the ending is really not the best, it entertains a lot.

A 6/10, worth watching but the worst of them all

Archive - Kings of Speed

09-archive-kings_o...

The great thing about the feed generator I mentioned in the last post, is that sometimes you'll be reminded of bands you hadn't heard of for years. This is the perfect example.
A new Archive album is out, and it contains this great song: Kings of Speed. The singer sounds a bit like Tom Yorke and it's just a great Trip Hop song! Enjoy!

Soundamus - Another great use for Last.Fm

Soundamus generates an RSS feed based on your LastFm library. This feed will notify you about new album release dates from those bands. Quite useful :)

Kudos to Rui Pires. Btw, I'm still test driving it, but so far it seems to work quite well!

LINK

TrueCrypt - Easy and free encryption tool

Today I decided to get a digital copy of all my work related contracts, receipts, everything. I wanted to store everything as a backup online... but as you can imagine, this kind of sensitive information is something I don't want going around the web unprotected.

So I used the open source tool TrueCrypt. It's a very easy to use tool that you can use it in several ways. I chose the easiest one:
- create a file used to store my data, define a password and the encoding to
use (most are 256 bit encoding, and you can choose up to 3 sequential 256 bit encodings, each with its own password... that's kind of unbreakable!)
- mount the file, and you'll get a volume, like an extra hard-drive. Anything you drag here will be encrypted and stored in that first file you created.

And that's it. I now have a folder on my Dropbox used to store my data securely. I have some friends that are security freaks... I am not one of those, but I also don't like to make it easy on hackers. AND when it is work related information, it is your responsibility to keep it safe.

PS: also available for Linux systems ;)

Scrubs has ended :(

Goodbye guys! Congrats on one of the greatest shows ever!

Comics

Que Hora Es?

OCHO!

Sin City: That Yellow Bastard - Frank Miller

I bought this book at the Lisbon Book Fair. I knew the story because I'd seen the movie Sin City already. However, I love Frank Miller's writing style and thought "Well here is one cheap opportunity to get one of his graphic novels". I refer to it as "graphic novel" because reducing it to the "comic" status is too diminishing.
So, I got way more than I paid for. The black and white stylized art is incredible... who knew that you could get all these effects using just black and white (and yellow for the bastard :D). Plus, the dialogues and narrations of the movie were taken from the book with almost no change. Great book! I'll try and get my hands on other Sin City books!

1st day @ the beach

One of the cool things about living in Lisbon :)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Yesterday I was quite tired and decided to go and watch this movie. I have to say it actually sucks big time... I'd say that after this one, I hope they don't make another X-Men movie. Why does it suck so hard?
1 - The use of blue screens is excessive... most of the times you understand that the actors are completely clueless.
2 - The storyline is a complete mess... they even joke about it in the movie when Wolverine says "Do I have to fight everyone I meet?" Apparently YES. The fight with Blob is complete nonsense.
3 - The whole Weapon X program was much more violent... but hey, I guess nowadays you can't do a movie about the US army brainwashing a guy to be a killing machine.
4 - The part when Gambit fights Wolverine... it simply doesn't make any sense.
5 - Will I Am's role is a total mess.
6 - AND THIS REALLY PISSED ME OFF - They pick Deadpool to be Wolverine's boss battle. BUT they totally killed the character... he was always the insane guy with a joke, that killed because the crazy voices in his head told him to. He was the guy that always made fun of other hero's costumes. He was the perfect anti-hero... completely ruined.
I was yawning for the whole movie... I give it a 1/10 and the 1 is for the few special fx that are cool.

Gmail Compactor

I present to you the Gmail Compactor. This script transforms your folders like "Inbox" "Spam" "Trash" into icons, saving quite a lot of space. In order to use this, you'll need a Firefox with the GreaseMonkey Add-On.
As usual, my source for this kind of utils is Lifehacker -> LINK
Here is a direct link to the script installer -> LINK

Daily Show - Cliff May Unedited Interview

Jon Stewart and Cliff May discuss the whole torture thing. The discussion was a bit agressive, but very interesting! It is an extremely difficult subject to tackle, and I definitely would not want to have to be the one to draw the line! It's a great interview, and I think extremists on both sides should check it out!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Cliff May Unedited Interview Pt. 1
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis First 100 Days

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Cliff May Unedited Interview Pt. 2
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis First 100 Days

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Cliff May Unedited Interview Pt. 3
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis First 100 Days