Alcides Fonseca

Suggestion by BB.

Note: I’m not posting anymore because of a) lack of time (see my flickr for the why) and b) i’m moving to a new bliki and it’s set that I won’t be importing this posts (mainly because I was too dumb when I started it).

A frequência aqui do blog reduziu drasticamente. O principal factor é o projecto de multimédia, em que decidimos fazer alguma coisa com aplicação prática, e graças a isso estamos a ter muito mais trabalho.

Outro dos factores é a Queima das Fitas. Não que eu ligue muito à praxe e tal (este ano até cheguei a dar uma espretadela ao cortejo graças a certa pessoa. Para mim Queima é sinónimo de concertos perto e baratos (o que é muito raro mesmo!). Só lá vou ver alguns concertos mesmo.

Ao contrário do da latada, o concerto do David Fonseca não foi tão bom. Foi normal para os padrões dele. Não espectacular. Agora os Clã, que eu nunca tinha visto é que me surpreenderam bastante! Sempre adorei as músicas deles e não estiveram mesmo áquem dos albuns. E a Manuela Azevedo esteve muito bem mesmo! Tal como a decoração.

Fica também a nota que vi pela primeira vez a banda de uns amigos meus ao vivo no Palco Secundário, e para quem gosta do género (Metal), também é muito boa! Fica o link dos Tales for the Unspoken para os curiosos.

Jet – Rip it Up

GreenDay – Minority

OPM – Heaven is a Halfpipe

An excelent mixture of the Mars Volta with Fantasia’s Bald Mountain sequence.

That’s what we’re living for…

Oh, and if you’re wondering what the heck is spidey doing there, this is from the SpiderMan movie OST.

Since this one is no longer available (if anyone has it, please tell me!) I reposted the original music video to prove Tokyo Hotel is for pussies!

Ornatos Violeta – Ouvi Dizer

Ps: quem se lembra daquele logo da TVI?

I couldn’t decide between this song and The 80ies! They’re both awesome and I picked this one because of the video. If this songs were released in the US, I bet they’d be two enormous hits!

Down to Earth from Titan A.E. OST, one of my favorite movies!

I don’t care much about the end of the fiscal year (or the beginning of a new one) since nothing changes in my daily life. There is however big differences for me when I change semesters. I have a small holiday between them (this year was just a weekend…) and I start having a new schedule and different stuff to do. So my Second Term main resolution is to pay more attention to my health.

Since I have felt some pains in my wrists, I am now more aware of office ergonomics: sitting correctly and having my hands in the right position. I also borrowed a Trackball from a friend, since I’ve read it’s better than mouse, but although after one hour I was completely used to it, I actually work with two computers, so having a trackball and a mouse confuses me. I guess I’ll stick to mouses for the time being. Oh and that white wired trackball doesn’t fit my black wireless desktop.

Another big change is that I am walking everyday to school. I used to take a bus or take a friends ride, but now even if I have it, I’m walking… And I’m not even taking the shortest path (I never liked Dijkstra anyway). And my faithful TyTN with a 2GB filled with MP3s is my dearest friend every morning.

Digimon – Kick it up! – Grande música! E é um anime que me traz boas recordações :)

I’m a huge fan of both The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In and Omar, is the author of most of its music.

His most recent album, Calibration is now available at Napster and iTunes Store. It was inside Apple’s player (for Windows btw) that I knew of this news.

Now the question, where can I buy this album DRM free?

Update At mTraks! DRM free and pretty cool! Just a tip, if you want to buy something, just move to the USA or Canada ;)

Yeah, you know it’s one fine day!

Morcheeba feat Slick Rick – Woman lose weight

Maximum the Hormone – Zetsubou Billy

I said: Are you gonna be my girl?

Bush – Chemicals Between Us

Nunca pares de saltar!

Following Pedro’s post on the meme “8 things you might not know about me”. Just like him, I’m not a fan of this kind of fashions, but I was thinking of writing about some of this stuff in the last months so I guess I’ll take the shot:

1 – For a few years now, I’ve wanted to be Prime-Minister. There was even a Teacher’s meeting 3 years ago where they discussed this?! I don’t like Portugal the way it is. But unlike those people who just rant about it, I am willing to do something about it. I’m in politics now and I still want to change our country. I’m just not sure if it deserves me… (Pretty cocky of me, I know… But I might go over this later).

2 – I’m emo. NOT that emo. I don’t fucking paint my nails nor dye my hair nor dress that way. But I do not jump around when I go to shows, I do listen a lot of emocore and I do feel depressed by society a lot.

3 – I am also straight edge, meaning I don’t drink alcohol, smoke, do drugs and I even don’t drink caffeine and I do hate medication. That’s because I am a person who like to be in control and those stuff just won’t let you be sober.

4 – Since 4th grade I don’t like studying. It’s just not interesting anymore, and I could use all that time to do other stuff. yeah, I know that basics are important, but I can learn them in another ways. I believe I am a very autodidact person.

5 – (Those who follow me on twitter already know this, but) I like to watch soap operas. There’s nothing more relaxing that laying around on the couch hearing soap operas while resting your eyes from the computer.

6 – I don’t dance. (I know it’s disappoint girls, but I do have another attributes!) I just don’t feel like it. And I’m not interesting in learning.

7 – I am an avid reader. I read a 400-pages book in a matter of hours. Almost only scifi and fantasy. I could spend my days reading-only.

8 – I want to start up my own company and launch a product or service that improves everone’s lifestyle.

Ok, now I also want to learn some hidden secrets of your life. Go ahead and post about the 8 things I do not know about you!

You may be facing the end…

The Gift – 11.33

I’ve been sick the last days. I caught a cold, and my head was about to explode any second. So, no work done at all and no decent post, only this random stuff I got in my google reader:

A programmer should not be a translator and in some of my informatics engineering courses, is what we do. We just translate the solution from portuguese to some programming language. I believe we should be the architects of our program and not just builders.

Tom Morris on the idiotic UN blasphemy resolution that is in fact idiotic since it goes against my freedom of will. And I’ve been in the situation where I get offended for being atheistic. I totally agree with him.

Rob Miles who I met in TechED, released his book on XNA 2.0. I should read it someday. And those who are interested in learning how to easily do a game, should go ahead and buy that book.

TurboGears is not dead! They are just learning from other frameworks like Django.

Oh and another thing: I am feeling pain in my wrists after about half an hour on the keyboard. I am really scared since what I believe will be my future is depending on my hands to code. Any idea what this should be? I already got one of those mousepads with a rest support for my wrist and I’m also using it in the keyboard sometimes… But I feel is not enough… Yeah, and I’m doing pauses now :(

The night I saw The Corrs MTV unplugged at dois I just loved! The full gig live on my telly… I still remember… A saturday morning, I was a bit sleepy in the begging, but I just loved all their Irish folk pop. This music is to prove The Corrs are not a girly band.

Oh and I leave one more linked for the girl who is getting older today ;)

Every me and every you

Interpol live at KROQ

Mais uma boa OST de um fantástico Anime. Recomendo vivamente e para os cinéfilos mais exacerbados, há o filme Seven Samurai do mestre Akira Kurosawa (no qual este anime foi inspirado) que admito que foi demasiado forte para mim. Mas todos concordam que é um dos melhores clássicos do cinema japonês.

Video quality is shitty, I know…. But there are free mp3 at last.fm. I highly recomend Guilt!

This OST is what I hear when I’m studying. Pretty relaxing and energetic at the same time.

And here is my review of the anime.

Great Song, great anime and great soundtrack.

This is one of the musics of my childhood. It still rocks today!

This is the hiphop I like, not like that Portuguese pimp sounds. And check it out where this song came from!

Regarding TMNT, it was the movie I liked the most this year until now, It might look weird, but I’m that kiddo that likes comic stuff and sci-fi, and Ninja Turtles are a great example of those two together. Oh and the soundtrack is awesome! Not only this track.

Xmas is coming up and stores are marketing it sooner and sooner each year. I don’t like the you-have-to-buy-gifts-to-everyone thing, I’m more of a give-gifts-whenever-you-feel-like-it guy since I came out with cooler presents when I do not have to get it than in that specific date.

Well, it seems like I’m not the only one against this consumerist state of mind going on this time of the year, and it appears that BUY NOTHING DAY is a pretty cool initiative to make people think of their need for buying. I not a big fan of SOMETHING DAY, like the Car Free Day, but this time I’m going up for it, and I encourage you to do the same.

Of course I know our economy and people’s jobs depend on commerce, but I don’t thing one day will harm them so much… and if people learn how to buy only what they need instead of superfluous stuff, it will be a big lesson.

Now, a small challenge: Today (24th November) not only is the International Buy Nothing Day as is also my 19th birthday (not that I am proud of...) and I am expecting a gift from you. And remember what day is today!

Dia sim, dia não, lá chego a casa todo frustrado, aborrecido com a mediocridade das pessoas com quem convivo no dia a dia. Por um lado, talvez seja culpa minha (de ser tão smart Dense, Difficult, and Frustrating), mas concordo perfeitamente com o Inóspito em como as pessoas estão cada vez mais iguais. Noto nos meus colegas que tudo quer tirar o curso com notas não muito más, ir bebendo uns copos pelo caminho e depois arranjar um emprego jeitoso para subir na vida.

Noto isto a nível da Universidade de Coimbra, e pelo que tenho falado com malta de outros lados, acontece por todo o lado. Por exemplo no meu curso, Engenharia Informática, a maioria nunca programou uma linha de código que não fosse para um trabalho. E muitos nem sabem o que é um RSS feed! (Mas provavelmente sabem qual os requisitos mínimos de gráfica para o último FPS que saiu para o mercado).

Acho que é necessário as pessoas quererem diferenciar-se e apostarem em certas áreas e em projectos pessoais! É certo que o Ensino Superior não incentiva à Criatividade (até pelo contrário, eu tenho sentido na pele que dificulta a quem quer fazer alguma coisa de diferente!), mas uma pessoa não pode estar à espera que façam tudo por ela. Existem inúmeras oportunidades, e mesmo que não existissem, podemos sempre criá-las! É tudo uma questão de imaginação e força de vontade.

Depois é normal que esta mediocridade afecte o empreendedorismo em Portugal e não haja o número de startups que há noutros países, por exemplo. Acho sinceramente que a mentalidade portuguesa não está orientada à inovação, mas à normalização. E isto é aquilo que me entristece.

Felizmente existem aí muito bright people que tenho o prazer de conhecer e de saber que estão a fazer alguma coisa para mudar esta situação e cada vez mais os aplaudo!

We used to be friends

She is back!

Por Coimbra, como bem chamam a cidade dos estudantes, está a decorrer a Festa da Latas (Latada for short). Como sou anti-praxe, esta é das coisas com que eu não concordo mas já que existe, aproveito o que há bom nela. Conclusão: já cá canta o bilhete geral para entrar no recinto e assistir aos concertos que, para além das barracas das comidas, são a única coisa que me interessa.

Tenho também de tirar o chapéu à organização que está a organizar um concurso de bandas que abrem cada noite com um concerto de meia hora e o grupo vencedor vai dar um concerto completo na última noite! Os finalistas são: Sideways, Mindweep, A raiz, Prana, Fitacola, Antius e Daphaz. Passo já a informação que afinal os Fitacola não vão actuar porque o Chico (baterista) foi recentemente operado e não pode actuar.

Ora eu ontem cheguei a tempo apenas dos Mindweep e gostei bastante da música apesar da voz não ser do meu agrado. Fiquei também com a ideia que poderia ser algum problema de configuração da linha do microfone, mas não sou perito no assunto.

A seguir actuou o senhor David Fonseca que já nos tendo habituado a coisas assim giras da web me mostrou que também faz coisas giras no palco. O ponto extraordinário da noite foi quando cantou com uma lâmpada na mão, dando um efeito espectacular com uma coisa tão simples. Gostei também do alinhamento do concerto, tocando tanto músicas do novo álbum como sucessos como “The 80’s”(Que se fosse lançado a nível mundial acredito que teria enorme sucesso!) ou mesmo músicas do tempo dos Silence Four em que a multidão cantou toda em coro. Adorei pelo facto de ter sido o único artista que eu vi ao vivo que estava a mostrar tirar mesmo gozo de cada momento em que tocava!

Depois foi a vez dos The Gift subirem ao palco. Apesar de já os ter visto na Queima das Fitas do ano passado, gostei imenso do concerto embora não estivessem ao nível do David Fonseca. E desta vez tocaram o “OK, do you want something simple”, a primeira música deles que conheci e adorei. Incrivelmente o que mais gostei foi da fatiota com que a Sónia se apresentou. Tinha assim um ar nipónico que sempre me fascinou e estava bem de acordo com o penteado. Vinham também acompanhados do Tiago Dias dos Room 75 que tocou uma panóplia de instrumentos!

Bem, vamos ver como correm o resto dos dias, mas dificilmente serão melhores que este!

The Mars Volta – Televators

I chose this video because you can see Cedric making his really cool salsa-like weird dance. Oh boy, I just love this band!

Desta vez é uma banda minha amiga que irá tocar na Latada. Também fiquei contente ao saber que no cartaz está uma banda que já queria ver há um tempo, os Chauffeur Navarrus. Can’t wait!

God, I love this song and I LOVE this woman!

Yes, you are right, I am now posting occasionally some video clips of tracks that are important to me somehow. Consider it as public service :)

Já aqui tenho falado do PalcoPrincipal, um projecto que vou acompanhando desde que o conheci no Take Off. Hoje falo aqui de bandas e músicas que descobri neste portal e comunidade musical.

Gram Positivo – Feel so fine

Eu sempre gostei de vários tipos de música, desde opera, clássica até ao Hardcore e J-Pop, mas nunca me interessei pelo Funk. Ao navegar “ao calhas” no Palco, descobri esta música que simplesmente adorei! Suave e animada, já está na minha playlist e espero que venham a Coimbra tocar brevemente! Se gostarem, vejam as outras músicas da banda.

Gota – O que tens na alma?

Na verdade, esta música não foi uma descoberta, mas uma redescoberta. Eu tinha a sensação que já a conhecia, mas não sabia de onde até que o Diogo Laginha me disse que era dos Morangos. Um POP totalmente normal, mas não deixa de ter harmonia esta música. Se gostarem, saibam que já têm um disco à venda nas FNACs!

Blindfold – Fallling wor(l)ds

Esta bem tem uma sonoridade entre o rock e o metal que nunca tinha visto, mas me lembrou de bandas como os Korn e até Limp Bizkit que já não ouço há muito tempo. Recomendo vivamente a quem gostar de sons sóbrios e mais pesados.

Revolotion – Someone Will Shine

Se eu mandasse nos Morangos, adiciona esta à playlist da próxima série. Um PopRock simples e bom de se ouvir. Nem sei como é que ainda ninguém os descobriu e levou a uma editora.

Chauffeur Navarrus – Maldição Edit

Com o Jazz normalmente sou muito esquisito, mas esta banda com um nome bastante interessante foi aprovada. Cantado em português e com uma combinação dos vários instrumentos que nos dá um resultado fascinante, é uma das razões por que agradeço a existência do PalcoPrincipal.

Bem, esta foi a minha selecção das melhores músicas que descobri no PalcoPrincipal, que dificilmente encontraria noutros sítios. Desafio-vos a se registarem e irem descobrindo novas bandas, quer pela navegação, quer pelas bandas amigas de cada banda ou pelas sugestões dadas pelo próprio sistema e escrevam, como eu fiz, nos vossos sites/blogs. Caso não tenham um, o PalcoPrincipal fornece um a cada utilizador e a cada banda. E pelo que sei irão ter novidades para breve…

I am part of that generation that doesn’t read newspapers, we read RSS. I have currently 109 feeds subscribed (some of them aggregators) and just like a newspaper, I have the comic section. Here is the list, if you are looking for some:

Portuguese:

Hipertonia – Well, it’s not really a comic strip, but I believe it is the perfect section for it.
A Dupla Personalidade – Two wonderful sticks living inside some strip.

English:

AppleGeeks lite – Stories of Hawk, a mac and boobies addicted.
Blaugh – The (Un)Official Comic of the Blogosphere! (name says it all)
Ctrl+Alt+Del – Meet Ethan, the greatest gamer of them all. PS: He has a x-box robot :O
Dilbert – Who doesn’t know this humble citizen of cubicland?
Dueling Analogs – One more gaming comic. Includes sex fetishes with Super Mario and a dwarf.
Little Gamers – The comic with the coolest drawing. Specially the iMac :P
OK/Cancel – Comic about interface usability and designing. Too bad they have pause it.
Penny Arcade! – Yet another gaming comic.
PHD Comics – This one is about the insightful journey of becoming a PHD.
The Joy Of Tech – I believe this one also has an expressive name :)
Questionable Content – I do love soaps. I confess.
Wulff and Morgenthaler – Insane one-panel daily comic.
xkcd – I believe this one should be nominee for the Science Nobel. REALLY! and It’s useful when studying maths, physics and computing!
Zits – The typical teenager you probably know already.

Hope you like some :)

Já tinha postado sobre este assunto há uns tempos e parece que há novidades relativamente ao assunto. Desta vez soube pelo blog do Carlos Serrão, que o governo já não vai proibir o consumo de tabaco nos espaços com menos de 100 m², mas vai deixar isso ao critério dos donos dos estabelecimentos.

Quem me conhece já sabe que sou anti-tabaco, tanto que nem fumo, nem suporto estar com alguém a fumar ao meu lado ou em sítios cheios de fumo (nomeadamente bares e discotecas). Na altura quando soube desta mudança da lei fiquei muito contente, e com esperança que no futuro fosse ainda mais restricto o consumo de tabaco.

Agora essas minhas esperanças vão por água abaixa porque não estou a ver nenhum dono de um bar ou afins, em que 90% da clientela fuma e sobretudo naqueles locais, a proibir o consumo de tabaco. Mais um fiasco da autoria do Governo. É por estas e outras razões que me quero meter na política.

I took a few pictures of me opening my new gadget that will allow me to forget to study while developing cool apps for Windows Mobile.

I was happy when I found out that in the box, a screen protector, a leather pouch and a Ndrive CD with it's software were included (check flickr photos).

I found interesting that there are 4 ways of controling the device. 1st: from the touch screen. 2nd: from the arrows and buttons below the screen. 3rd: From the scroll and button in the side of the phone. 4th: throught the keyboard that's "inside" it.

The first thing I didn't quite like it, but I already knew, was the proprietary headset. I know that to work also as a microphone, it couldn't be just a mini-jack plug, but I would like to connect it directy to speaker... Too bad. Hope I don't loose the headset..

I’ll keep in touch :)

Since I’m getting a PocketPC I’m enthusiastic about it. Having a S200 at home makes even more.

In fact I am posting this from it (damn qwerty-less PDAs) from the new posting backend I’ve just made.

I am thinking about making some changes here. The backend sucks big time and a new layout would be nice. and there are the wtf-8 issues.

Note for Python lovers (should be a pizza flavour): PyTextile rocks. Just import pytextile and new=textile(old) and there you go :)

In this evening I've been updating my website adding some sections related to social networking services {links:'del.icio.us',photos:'flickr';twitter: true;music:'lastfm'}. I believe you can know me better with all this stuff.

I also changed the font to a more readable one. Hope it fits your screen and eyes.

Have fun ;)

Yesterday Me, Khan and a bunch of friends from high school went to MTAT concert in Via Latina.

I liked quite much My Cubic Emotion, who did the opening. Gotta listen it's albuns.

When it came to MTAT themselves, it was just awsome. The crowd was longly waiting for it. Titles like "You have been sleeping and yes, this is an hospital", "Hollow" "None of us will see heaven" just drive me mad.

Unfortunelly I could stay to see "Die Princess, Die", but I will for sure listen to them soon since they're from Coimbra.

Positive note: A tshirt model was sold out before the place was filled with people.

Negative note: Bad timming for the gig, since it was Serenata Day, as only a few missed it to see MTAT. The sound quality of the place wasn't very good too.


Just love it!

My legs hurt, my head burns, but I have a big smile on my face.

Take Off went just fine! Wonderful speeches (apart from MS vs Opensource war), fantastic feedback from the public, and there was no major problem.

a few lines about it in ideias3 blog

Here am I, finishing all the 1001 things I have to do before Take Off. Midnight was also the deadline for a school project and I had to buy some stuff two hours ago. It's not hard to set up an event like this, but it takes much of your time and patience.

I just hope everything works fine tomorrow.

See you there.

For those of you who care, I haven't post in a few days because I've been busy with Take Off.

I am now starting to work with moodle, a great e-Learning tool. I'm using it in the University and I will set up one for a enterprise who will give training to their team. I believe it will be a challenging and wonderful experience.


In another area: eMarketing, I am planning going to the e-mkt, the first Portuguese meeting exclusively about eMarketing. I am looking for someone in Coimbra that also is thinking about going. If you do, contact me.

Today I skipped classes (the ones I usually go :P) and I dont feel like doing anything. I hope in the afternoon I code or design something. ATM I have a few paid projects going on and I have to hurry up. Thanksfully next week will the easter holidays. I dont agree with this religion holidays, but I linda like it.


I've just made my visual profile. Its an interesting thing to do.

For portuguese people, I've seen this service I will use very soon: ChocoTelegram. Valentine's day's past but it isn't a bad to time to suprise anyone ;)

I haven't posted in a while because I've been having a lot to do. I am working on a few projects I'm telling you later when they're done.

In some of them I'm using script.aculo.us and I'm loving it. AJAX made easy. When I get some free time, I'll redesign this page to include some wicked effects.

Take off preparation is going nice and we have all the presentations needed. We jsut lack one sponsor. Also I've just ordered a surprise for all the attendants.

My partner at ideias3, Sérgio, lauched today is new site SergioSantos.info, so take a look around and subscribe it.

Take off (or TOYS - Take Off Your Shirt, as Sérgio insists to call it) is going well with lot of interesting presentations. However I am having some trouble hosting in due to the support of my University Department. Nothing I can't handle.

Another topic: Free Software. I am having a few arguments about Free Software. I believe software should be paid. They say you should only pay for servides. Well, coding a software is a servide. And you also buy another products outside informatics. I dont quite understand... I like windows more than linux. I don't see the point why I should move to linux. Of course I dont pay for windows. It's too expensive for what it costs, but I like it. OSS people: If you want everyone to have Linux, try to pay crackers to stop hacking Vista. People will automaticly change.


To finish, I'm sad today-- Society is some f*cking shit! I dont agree with almost anything is done or thought. Maybe it's me.... maybe it's everyone.

Today I started a little project of mine: A simple RSS aggregator. It is wanted to have a tray icon that twinks when new feeds arrive, and has a firefox-like menu that allows me to see the headers and click in them to go to the given link. It already loads and saves OPML and Reads the RSS itself.

Although everyone says that VB.net is a language for n00bs (and I kinda agree), I like and use it due to it's Ultra-RAD hability. I dont want to spend much time in this nor make a perfect, amazing and big application. So VS allows me to create the controls and forms that would take too much time with WX. The language is also simple and I am used to it.

Hope to give news about this soon.


Another thing I am into is making my own tagging system (as digg) and include it in my website. And maybe adding a Firefox/Flock (yes, I'm using Flock now) to easy add any site.


Yet another thing I am planning is to set up a event like BarCamp or Tecnonov more directed to the web. If you have any Idea, just comment here, or contact me.