Science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke is one of the people that has defined me as a person and who's books provided both comfort and excitement during my childhood and adolescence. He is mostly known for the movie adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey although I liked the Rama series more. He also invented the concept of a geo synchronous satellite. 
He has lived a full life and I don't believe in artificially prolonging living above a certain threshold (he was suffering for 13 years now), so I am just happy to have known about him rather than sad for his death.

More details at this BBC News article and this Wikipedia entry.

While in search for interesting and high quality podcasts I've stumbled upon escapepod.org, a site that offers free sci-fi stories in audio format. They last about 40 minutes, so just about the time it takes me to get from my home to work and they are great in both content and narration quality. It completely takes care of my needs when I get back home and I don't feel like listening to some tech podcast.

Even more, it seems that they post two or three books a week, so you won't finish the site right away. Great job, guys! A site truly after my own heart: exactly what you need, how you need it and with no annoying ads or marketing ploys.

I was browsing the HanselMinutes site for interesting podcasts to listen to while going to work and I found one entitled Windows Home Server. First I thought it was one of those Home versions, like Windows XP Home which ended up being total crap. But a home server? So I got curious and listened to it.

Apparently Windows Home Server is meant to act as a central point to your data, providing easy backup solutions and storage management well above what RAID can do. Also, there is a central console that you can use to manage and also connect to the computers in your home. I found interesting enough the way they plan to combine Microsoft Passport with a dynamic DNS for your computer, allowing you to connect to your home via browser, waking up computers that are shut down and accessing them as well.

But the most interesting technology seems to be the Windows Home Server Drive Extender, a technology that takes all drives available of any type and adds all of the storage to a single namespace that you can access. You select which part of the data will be duplicated, which means the server will choose multiple drives to store your important data, leaving downloaded movies and music alone and saving space. Even more interesting is that the server backup system itself uniquely stores clusters. So, in my understanding, if you have 10 computers with Windows XP on it, all the common files will have the same clusters and will only be stored once!

This technology seems more useful and powerful than Windows Vista and considering it is based on the Windows Server 2003 technology which itself was based on Windows Server 2000, the minimum requirements are really low, like an old 1Ghz computer.

The concept of Open Courses is not so new. You've probably stumbled across some course package that is both free and online, but that is just not doing anything for you. A good example is the Microsoft courses, which need that annoying passport registration, you need to take the html based courses in a specific amount of time and they spam you with all the email reminders. What you actually wanted was information, quickly summarized, indexed maybe, and a video/audio stream that would demonstrate what the theory is all about. You don't want to register, have restrictions or even do it online. You want to download stuff and run it locally whenever you feel like it.

I am glad to say I found exactly what I wanted in the MIT Open Course Ware site. They have a huge list of classes, most have only PDF materials, but some have video recordings of the actuall class! With PDF notes! Even MP3 materials for your mp3 player! No registration required and everything you have there you can also find on YouTube! And the videos are profesionally shot, not some web cam in the back thing.

Interested yet? Access the site and browse about. You might want to use this link to get to the audio/video only courses or use Google to find only the courses that have video. You won't get MIT to say you studied with them, but you will learn what they teach if you make the effort!

One thing you need to be able to run the .RM files is Real Alternative, a package that allows you to play Real Media without installing the annoying and not free Real Player.

And MIT is not the only one doing that. You can access the links of:
Open Courseware Consortium
OpenContentOnline
Open Courseware finder

Acquires, purchases, whatever... they paid for it and they will have it. Sun will have MySql. Does that mean that they want to go towards easily usable SQL servers or that they want to compete with Oracle? PostgreSQL would have been a more appropriate choice in that case. Will MySql for Java be like SQL server is for .NET ? Anyway, 1 billion dollars is selling short, I think. Youtube was two. Is a media distribution software more important than a database server?

Here is the official announcement.

Small quote: MySQL's open source database is the "M" in LAMP - the software platform comprised of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl often viewed as the foundation of the Internet. Sun is committed to enhancing and optimizing the LAMP stack on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows along with OpenSolaris and MAC OS X. The database from MySQL, OpenSolaris and GlassFish, together with Sun's Java platform and NetBeans communities, will create a powerful Web application platform across a wide range of customers shifting their applications to the Web.

One of my favourites blogs is The BÜKRESH Blog which boasts a number of excellent concise images, although rarely meaningful text. However, I found this particular entry having all the makings of a great article. It has it all: great pictures, ironic text and an unbelievable subject. It is written in Romanian, so I will try to translate it below. First visit the link and see the pictures. (and yes, those are real human bones)



First a bit of data that might help you understand what is going on: In the old center of Bucharest they recently found ruins from a previous time. I have no idea what time and what the ruins represent as I am not interested in archaeology, but bottom line they tore up a couple of streets and started digging underneath and expanding the site.

Gypsies are an ethnic minority in Romania, genetically linked to populations in India, and mostly shunned for their style of life, unclean living conditions and high criminality rate. They represent a maximum of 5% of the Romanian population and discriminating against them is illegal in Romania.

What the article is about is the way the archaeological site is being handled.

Translation:
Is it hard to describe the mixed feelings the medieval ruins in the Bucharest old center gave me. I passed by there for the first time (across the street from the Comedy Theater on Tonitza street) last week. In the space from the second image
there were 4 people - a 50 years old Gypsy man, sitting in a squatting position and smoking a cigarette, a Gypsy woman of the same age, with all the Gypsy clothing arsenal (I have nothing against them, quite the contrary, but I want this description as clear as possible), digging like she would be working the field, and another Gypsy girl, 15 or 16 years of age, kissing with her boyfriend who came to see her at work. In the top-left corner there was a pile of bones, a complete human skeleton, cranium included, and on the edge of the hole there were bags of food - lunch for the four workers. Yesterday I went there again and this time there was nobody there. I took the pictures you see. Today I passed through again and it was the same situation as yesterday. On the French street there were 10-15 workers digging, aged between 15 and 60 years old, multiple ethnicity and some of them were either drunk or very drunk. They wore no protection gear or uniforms. Some wore Adidas type shoes (and working in mud), no one had gloves or protective helmets. I asked them about the archaeological site and why there were hundreds of years old human bones laying around... They said they didn't know and that people had come before and taken some in big bags. I asked them if their bosses ever came to see them and they said that they do that, once or twice a day...

The firm that is handling the rehabilitation of the old center is called Sedesa and it's from Valencia. The money are sourced in a non-refundable credit (in other words free money) from the Dutch government, a credit from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and public funds (the city-hall, Sector 3 division).

I am concluding with these words taken from the Sedesa company site:

Sedesa is a solid business group with more than sixty years of experience and international activity. Its high level of specialisation has not only enabled the group to establish itself in numerous sectors, but also to carry out projects and infrastructure based on quality, respect for the environment and solid technological ability.

by Vlad Nanca on 05 December 2007

I am not the one to write essays on how "real men" behave or anything. But this article says it all: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7123460.stm. I have all the respect and admiration for Vitangelo Bini, even if he is too old to really lose anything by incarceration. He showed logic and respect for his wife. For her spirit, not her decaying body.

I always thought that if I get into the same situation, I would kill myself. But I wonder if this resolution is not stored in one of the first regions of the brain affected. Before I realise what is going on, I forget I always have this option. In situations like this I say screw the law and the hypocritical society that spawned them. Way to go, dude! This is how real men act.

An American company has developed a microwave system that decomposes hydrocarbon into something resembling the oil it came from. That means it converts plastics of almost any kind and rubber into fuel!

Just read the link: Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil or watch the video below.

Two articles in today's BBC News: Bush spares Libby from jail term and 'Scepticism' over climate claims.

The first talks about Bush, very concerned about the "excessiveness" of the jail sentence for Lewis Libby, a vice-presidential aide tried and convicted for purposefully disclosing the name of an undercover CIA agent in order to harm her husband who opposed the war in Iraq and then perjury and obstructing justice. The sentence was 2.5 years in jail (a lot less than stealing something), but the president of the United States decided it is ... excessive. Hailed as a victory of justice, the whole trial was negated by this one action of president Bush. Who knows what this Libby guy has on him?
I was incredulous at first, as I was yesterday when I was reading an article about banning superfoods in Europe, stuff like blueberries, salmon, spinach and soy. But it was the name 'superfood' that was banned, not the food itself, so I had reasons to be incredulous after all. But what about this? How can one stand and watch the whole media being grossly manipulated, the population lied to and sent to war on bogus reasons, then, when people get convicted for this, they get sprung out of jail by Bush! To tell you the truth I am still incredulous. I must have misread something.

The second article talks about the public perception of climate change in Great Britain. Apparently, 56% still think that global warming is a matter of debate. By the time they "think" global warming is a problem, they will probably be boiling in their own air conditioning juice. What does it need to make them see? Sinking of the British isles? A tornado in London? Hell freezing over?

For those of you who didn't hear about it until now, Pandora is a free online music service that tries to detect characteristics of songs and allows you to make your own "radio stations" that play the songs or artists you like and/or songs that are similar to those you like. You have a nice and simple voting system that allows you to say if you like the currently playing song or not.

But lately, some new legislation in the US, making licencing for the Internet a few times more expensive and adding more restrictions for access outside US made them restrict the site. Now you can't listen to music on Pandora unless you are American.

However, there is no way they can be restricted from showing the relations between songs, so you can search the songs for yourself. Here is a excerpt of an email I received from Pandora about allowing access to their song clustering system:

email from Pandora

You can essentially use our Backstage service (http://pandora.com/backstage) as a recommendation tool. If you search for an artist and click on their image, then you will see a list of Similar Artists. If you select an album, then you will see a list of Similar Albums. If you select a song from that album, you'll be presented with Similar Songs, along with 'Features of this Song'.

This is essentially the same information that the tuner was using to find new music for you. The big difference with Backstage is that you won't have any audio.

I was too tired to work this morning, so I got on Digg to read what people were reading.

And I've seen some interesting articles, like for instance one about Starbucks. They started this campaign in which people write stuff and the company writes it on coffee cups. One man dared to question praying in God, based on the assumption that people are rational beings with a strong will. Obviously that assumption was wrong, as some chick got 'offended' and started bitching about the text. It got me thinking, you know, of why nobody cares if I am offended by all the God crap I hear everywhere. Some guy said on TV a few days ago that in Romania 99.8% of the population are believers. Yeah, right! Like, they are not full time declarative atheists. How easy it is to spin things.

Anyway, back to interesting topics. There was one about how lawyers are behind the times. They write these 'cease and desist' letters, with a threatening language that no one can ever sympathize with, but nowadays these documents get on the Internet, for everyone to read. And hate. So they cause public relation troubles for the companies they were trying to protect. I don't really see a problem, though, as there are a lot more lawyers ready to sue these lawyers so there you go.

But even religious and legal idiocy fades compared to the total mind numbing dumbness of these two Vegan parents. Apparently, they've decided to make their 6 week old infant a Vegan from birth. They fed it soy milk and apple juice. The baby died.

How gullible are we?! How can we believe in all these stupid things and advertise them as indie revolt against 'the system' or 'healthy' lifestyle against the food corporations and so on? Is it so hard to mind your own business and let other people think and decide for themselves?

Apparently, the summer has brought all kind of nasty insects. A fly has gotten loose on my blog! It's a bfly! Until it finds something useful to do (like allowing people to search stuff or going to the interesting bits or acting as a friendly button) and until it will find friends to join it, it will just annoy us. Alas! It is an unswatabble fly.

A while ago I wrote this entry about an innovation in sound technology that will probably change the way we think of sound.

Today I am presenting a video technology I witnessed at the mall! Yes, the mall, that dreaded place of overpriced junk and overdressed bimbos. Overpriced, too! :) Anyway, I was watching this Pepsi commercial on a big TV like device, where a can of Pepsi was rotating showing its full cylindrical glory. Only that it felt out of focus. My eyes were kind of sore watching it. Immediately the image changed to a ball that came towards the screen and then... went through the screen!

It worked from almost every angle, without being a holographic thing in the middle of the air, but more of an optical illusion. Thinking of the faithful thousands of people reading this blog every day, I remembered the little link on the side of the device: www.x3d.com, with their device called MultiView.

The image is not as clear as one would want. It's like continuously vibrating or something like that, but the optical illusion is great! I saw people passing by the device and trying to put their hand through the "flying" objects.

Here are a few links from Wikipedia about the subject:
Volumetric Display
Autostereoscopic

Update: I've heard that Fado has now been closed. It was nice while it lasted. Too bad I didn't have the chance to go again a few times before it went away.

Today we went with my parents at a Portuguese restaurant called Fado. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the cuteness of the place and the service was not bad. The food was bravely innovative, too, and tasty. Actually, it was more on my own taste than most of the restaurants I've been to, including Chinese. Well, I like Chinese more, but I can't cook Chinese, that's what I meant :-P

Anyway, if you happen to search for an intimate restaurant in Bucharest, with interesting food and a waiter that knows suspiciously much about the food, up to the point where he recommends you what is better than your original idea, then Fado is the place for you.

This is a link, in Romanian, with more details: Restaurant Fado

...which is the Romanian word for "The people". Something a little archaic, like in the old days, when the people were either being oppressed, discontent or revolting. Usually, one uses the word in describing folks living in the country or a people as a whole, but then they are always specifying the country.

These days, right after the Parliament decided to suspend president Basescu, the Romanian Internet went wild. "Poporul" that, "Poporul" this. Blogs everywhere, hailing the great hero of "the people", victim to the vicious plots of traitors and communists and economic interests and so on and so on.

I am not even commenting on the decision to suspend Basescu, although I never liked the guy, but I can and will comment on the reaction of so many people, fellow bloggers, journalists and opinion leaders, all caught in the demagogic and cynical trap of the "hero".

For example, I read that Basescu (single-handedly, no doubt) brought Romania in the EU. Wrong! Most of the job was done by the PSD before, and it would have been inevitable, anyway, since the EU wanted our market. He is also responsible for the transition from the ROL (the leu, the old Romanian coin) to the RON. I might argue that the transition itself is dumb and useless since we will be switching to the Euro in 5 years, but hey... what did the president of the country in order to influence in any way the switch to the RON? Again, he is a great guy, but he did this terrible mistake of putting Tariceanu as prime minister. Did he have any other choice?! He won the elections (barely, I might add) on the back of a coalition of parties, the democrats and the liberals. Being a democrat himself, he had to put a liberal prime minister, whether he wanted or not! What else did he do, this hero of the people, except telling Bill Gates that piracy was a positive thing for Romanians? (which is true, BTW) Publicly fighting with your prime minister is NOT a good thing.

The greatest thing Basescu ever did was impersonate fantastically well a man who fights corruption. But did he? Corruption scandals are everywhere around him, involving him, suggesting political blackmail by use of the Secret Services. Are they based on anything? I don't know, but I do know that the little corruption, the one that I have to face, as a normal person, did not diminish. Quite the opposite! The current government policy seems to be take from the small and give to the big.

But returning to the people, who are these people that like Basescu? The ones that are either sympathizers of the democratic party or not having any political sympathy (as all other parties are now against him). Who are these wonderful people who will fight for the symbol of their freedom and fight against evil (no, not Bush), against the political will of all the parties and the people that support them and against all the TV attacks against the president? Who are these great minds who can think for themselves and make a decision and stick by it? They are not the "popor", that's for sure!

So for you, all these people of the press and Internet blogging bravado, I suggest you speak of yourselves, leaving "the people" alone, since you are not their representatives (as Basescu is not). Leave the illusion of greatness to the dictator-hearted people. Lead by example, not by association. Because you are not of the people, you are a little better.