Textadept is a small Scintilla GTK+ based editor. It if like a small notepad++ cross-platform and extensible via Lua (much better than C++).
What makes me smile about Textadept is the ease to extend it. It’s super simple (textmate-like) and it’s cross-platform (althout GTK has a few issues in MacOS and Windows).
Avatar – The Last Airbender is an American animated series heavily inspired by Anime.
Avatar is set in a world divided in four nations, one for each element that some of the citizens can bend. Unfortunately while Aang was hibernated for 100 years, the Fire Nation conquered most of the world, and he is the last Airbender in the world. Luckily he is also the Avatar, the one person that can master all four elements and he is destined to defeat the Fire lord and bring peace to the world.
Although this is the traditional story for every epic quest, Avatar really nails it and makes an awesome show, with the extra that you can watch with small children. There is a lot of character evolution and the story line is unpredictable and makes sense at the same time. I really enjoyed it!
Last week was the zombie holidays, so I had to come up with something to keep me busy. TV shows are all a geek like me needs. In less than two weeks I saw Life, Coupling and Avatar (review coming up next).
Fábio recommend me Life when we were discussing over lunch what was the hottest babe in TV shows. And I’ll have to admit that Sarah Shahi is pretty hot.
Some could describe Life as some sort of CSI, but they wouldn’t be fair since the show is way more than just solving crimes. In CSI the formula is 20% characters + 80% crime-solving while Life is 20% solving crimes + 30% characters (mainly Charlie) + 50% story-line.
What makes Life the best show I’ve seen since Prison Break1 is the mix of the plot and the characters bio. Charlie Crews was a cop that was convicted for life. After 12 years in prison he was proven innocent and the state of LA gave him his badge and a compensation that made him multi-millionaire. Being a cop in prison was not nice for him, but he survived following Budda’s Zen. Now he applies that same philosophy to chicks, fast cars and a large mansion that has no furniture.
Charlie lives the first and second seasons in mixed feelings about revenge. Someone killed his friends, framed him and it’s now after him again. A must for everyone into intrigues.
1 And by Prison Break, I mean only the first season
Some time ago Diogo got me the Blue Man Group – The Complex Rock Tour, the recording of a live performance of the band. I loved it! Their music got a lot of counts the following months.
For those who don’t know, The Blue Man Group is three blue-headed weirdos who play “tubes” (read percussion) and their support band, who takes that beats to another level. The lyrics are usually insights of one’s mind, and it’s place in society. The best part is that it goes beyond the music. There is an enormous difference between the album and the live show. The three blue men, sometimes by themselves, others with the rest of the band, or not seldom with the audience, criticize society with a small leaning towards the musical world (hence the ‘How to be a Rock/MegaStar name’).
When we knew they were coming to Portugal, we bought the tickets to later find out it was on the same day as Barcamp PT Spring. Well, I guess some of the guys there didn’t even notice I was missing.
After a peaceful ride from Coimbra to Lisbon1, we got to the Casino2 and the show started. How to be a Megastar differs from “The Complex” since it’s indoors and targets casinos and other show rooms. It has more sketches, and Rock Concert Movement #3 is only performed in the last song. Also, the three guys, and the band are different from the ones in the video3. I liked the original singers the most, but that’s maybe because I was already used to them.
The show rocked, and I recommend it to anyone. And if you can’t, just download and watch the DVD, will you? Or just the youtube videos.
1 The worst part was getting the car ready. No, the other car. Where are the documents? … Ok, let’s go.
2 That is indeed chic. Fancy architecture with definitely gay bathrooms, with apparently no exit.
3 They have different members for tours and for concerts, and they do 3 shows a day, so there are probably two crews in the same tour.
Last semester I have worked mainly with Ruby (a Shoes app, and a Sinatra web-based game) and Scala (XMPP server, CLI and web-based clients). Now I’m back to Python.
Man, I miss Scala and the functional programing I did, and I wouldn’t feel so bad programming in Ruby, since I used blocks almost as Scala’s lambdas. Now I’m stuck with Python1 (yeah, me, the guy who started PythonLovers) where multi-line lambdas are still in my dreams.
I know Python can be used in a functional way (just like Ruby) but it doesn’t feels the same. Learning Scala really changed something about the way I write code. And for better, I’d say.
So if you are into programming, or just computer science, take some time and learn a functional programming. And yes, Scala is a bastard since it’s half function, half OO. Here’s a few slides that might make you interested in this elegant and scalable language2.
1 I’m not really stuck, I chose it over C and C++.
2 Okay, it has static typing… Bearable with type inference.
By the time Ruby on Rails became popular, Textmate was in every screencast around. But the majority of people used Windows (and a few Linux).
E Text Editor is a clone of Textmate for Windows, compatible with Textmate’s bundles and it costs almost the same thing.
I actually use Intype when in Windows since it’s free while in development1. But E just became more interesting since they released their code in GitHub.
It is not free software, since you still have to pay (and you must not change the license/serial part of the code), but you can improve it for your own needs. This is an excellent example of OpenSource in commercial applications.
1 I plan to use GEdit in Windows (via Portable Ubuntu) since with plugins it is almost at TM level.
If governments don’t worry about small companies, this is not going to end well… They are the base of a country’s economy.
Marcus Zarra wrote an article about not trusting documentation. It is based on the point that you are a lousy programmer compared to what you are going to be in the future. Therefore your documentation right now will suck for yourself in the future (and of course other people).
I really miss Bayesian filters in Google Reader. Apart from that, Google Reader is my favorite feed reader. Despite being really great among web-based readers, it lacks the design of a native Mac application (and yes, I have tried ReadAir but it’s not native anyway).
What holds me from switching to another reader is the sharing with other google users. I share a lot of stuff, and I also read from all my contacts, and it’s interesting stuff most of the time.
And this is the magic formula for my RSS-Crowdsourcing-OneMoreBuzzword-Filter™. When I have almost no time and lot of feed items, I skim over them and the ones that I find potentially interesting I share them instead of opening them in a new window, as I would if I had the time. So how this works? If it gets shared back by any of my contacts, I will read it later (and it’s because it is interesting). If not, it is lost in the unknowns of the tubes.
“Well, aren’t you spamming your contacts?” Hrrmm, yes, I am. Social network friends are cheap nowadays anyway.
Depois de ter sido entrevistado para a Visão sobre o twitter, fui convidado para estar presente no programa Janela Aberta no Rádio Clube., juntamente com o PauloQuerido
Para os interessados fica aqui o MP3. Acabei por falar quase só do TwitterNotes (À venda), mas tirei umas notas mais gerais.
Aids, he [Pope Benedict XVI] said, “is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”.
This is one step from passive atheist to anti-catholic for me.
Está agora lançado oficialmente o cartaz para o Take Off deste ano.
Quem esteve presente nas edições anteriores pode notar que existem menos apresentações individuais que nos dois últimos anos. Depois de cada edição fazemos um balanço, reconhemos feedback. Uma hora de almoço mostrou-se insuficiente, e falta tempo para networking. Sendo assim reduzimos para cinco as apresentações individuais.
A Carlota Ferreira, o Carlos Andrade, o Leo Xavier e o Luís Sequeira vão partilhar conosco as suas experiências, nos mesmos modelos das edições anteriores. Já a primeira apresentação vai ter um cariz mais prático. Eu assisti a uma versão mais curta no Workshop de Empreendedorismo e o Jorge Figueira do GATS aceitou o meu pedido para o fazer no Take Off.
Vamos ainda aproveitar a nova distribuição horária para experimentar organizar um painel sobre um tópico actual do empreendedorismo. Este ano vamos debater o Coworking. As vantagens deste modelo, os problemas, as dificuldades em arrancar. Vamos ter em palco pessoas que estão a arrancar com espaços do género, e pretende-se também a participação do público.
Esperamos que este modelo se aplique melhor ao público e que sirva para continuar a trocar experiências de inovação e empreendedorismo. Encontramo-nos dia 25 de Abril, no Departamento de Informática da Universidade de Coimbra (iCal para os mais esquecidos).
I’ll have to agree. ISPs should embrace and cache bittorrent packets, not throttle it.. Even the Norwegian State TV launched a BitTorrent tracker!
Apesar de recomendar a leitura de A praga da Internet vitima agora os informáticos, do Paulo Querido, não concordo totalmente.
A crise realmente tem peso nestas empresas, sobretudo as que estão cotadas na bolsa em que as economias dos investidores, net profits e companhia são mais complicadas. Googles e Microsofts começaram no final do ano passado a limitar as novas contratações e agora estão a reduzir nos quadros.
Não acredito que seja o facto das aplicações online grátis, e da facilidade de construção de software por parte dos amadores que seja a causa. Mais rapidamente acreditaria que fosse o OpenSource.
Pessoalmente penso que é a consequência de tantas empresas fecharem (ou reduzirem custos), que no fundo são os clientes mais importantes das empresas de Software. Se as PMEs fecham, as grandes empresas que lhes vendem software também sofrem.
Mas se algum economista me quiser corrigir, esteja à vontade.
Helvetica is a documentary about the typeface with the same name, and typography and graphic design in overall.
What matters is not the letters are inked, but the whitespace between them.
The documentary is a bit too long, but it presents you opinions from several graphic designers about Helvetica, what is so good about it, how it is interpreted, and how you deal with the fact that’s today’s default font.
I must admit that while watching it, I got the urge to make my own typeface, and I even got a few ideas for this wiki’s redesign.
Diogo recommended me Religulous an humorous documentary about how ridiculous religion is.
Bill Maher interviews some representative people from a few churches and the outcome is funny, yes, but it can’t be taken seriously as a documentary. He never allows his interviewees to finish their ideas and his trying to be funny all the time. In some of them, he’s brilliant, but in overall the movie loses it’s power.
I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who’s certain about their religion. They will (rightfully) criticize the way he interviews people. But if you are doubtful, you might find it funny.
Microsoft send a legal notice to XDA for them to remove the upcoming WindowsMobile 6.5 ROM links.
While they are legally right, they should support XDA Developers. They are the biggest community of WinMobile Developers, and they are the ones that make the experience with Windows-powered smartphones and PDAs bearable.
Leaking wm6.5 to developers and hardcore users is the best way of doing a beta test, and improve the product launch since there will be 3rd party apps since 0day.
If I were to define the Internet, I would say it’s Information + Communication. This might change over the time, and it might not apply to everyone. Some will only see it as a mean to communicate with other people (think Skype/MSN/Hi5/Facebook), others would just use it as an information silo (Wikipedia, Google Searches). And the minority of geeks might even use it for weird things I don’t even want to talk about.
For me, Internet plays a major role in my lifestyle. I wake up and check on the email in my PDA when still in bed1. I get up and go to school where I turn my laptop on and check the news. Until the end of the day, I keep checking google reader, since I get new feed items every 5 minutes. When I go to bed, I read the rest of them. Oh and I have IM on all the time.
Internet is not only a way of communicating. It’s also my business. I have done web-developing for the last 9 years2. I haven’t bough a single book about it. All the information I learn is either by other people, or trading with Google. They get money from the ads, and I get links to the information that I want.
Business aside, there’s the other google that provides me with the entertainment I want. But that’s still information nevertheless.
So I get all of this from the internet. Some ask if this is enough. I say it’s too much.
Yeah, I got feeds every five minutes. And this is me on diet now. Sometime ago I stopped following all the big blogs. TechCrunch, LifeHacker and all of those who post every half an hour all about nothing. Now I follow individuals, who are much more interesting. The best is the small personal stuff they share that makes me smile from time to time.
So about that awesome posts in the “big blogs”? If they are so good, someone will link it in their blog (or twitter, or some mailing list). I’ve stopped worrying about that and I’m happy about it.
Still, I now follow much more blogs (each with rarely posts) but it’s still too much. And I don’t read all of it. I’d love some filtering, like Paula, or my colleagues presented on Codebits, or what Fred suggested.
The solution Fred suggests for this problem is to stop using your RSS reader. It’s impossible for me to do this. I could migrate from Google Reader to something like FriendFeed, but I would still be reading my feeds. He suggests that waiting for blog posts to come to you via twitter, or use websites like HackerNews/Techmeme for community filtering.
I already read HackerNews, but as an extra-feeds when i got the time. The really interesting stuff comes mostly from random people’s blog I followed because I liked one single post. It’s also hard to find all my tastes around the web, and even impossible to follow some personal stuff.
Feedreaders are a good experience I’ve been advocating to all my non-geek friends and I’m just waiting for someone to wake up Google for that Bayesian filter they already have coded.
It’s sad, but it is true. “Twitter doesn’t scale in a social way”:“http://dev.null.org/blog/archive/2009/01/25#1708_lesslears and” I’ve just written a whole post about it.”:/blog/twitter-fail
I must be some magical guy, but I always have an inbox 0. The problem is that emails that need a reply with more than two lines got stared. So I have this second inbox on the top of my page (Thank you Lab folks) with my to-answer list. This is the one I can’t reduce to zero.
Internet has always provided me with more and more information. For any new thing I learn, it raises two more questions that I want to know. This addictive aspect of the internet is now starting to worry me. Maybe the problem is not in the means I use to access information, but in my hunger for new knowledge3 that is the root to this problem. That urge I have to follow that new person, or add that blog to my reader is the one to blame.
With these last days without round-the-clock internet connection, I’ve missed it a lot, but also decided to change some stuff in my lifestyle, I don’t get a fat unsociable nerd.
1 I started doing this when teachers emailed us later in the morning that they wouldn’t be giving class the next day.
2 I intend to stop for a while, but that’s another post.
3 Yes, I have been seeing Heroes. I know, I know…
I know he was supposed to be dead, but I will link him anyway: Twitters Forthcoming Mother of All Whales.
I’ve been twittering for more than two years now, and I reached a point where I couldn’t follow twitter anymore. I was following almost 500 people and I stopped watching the timeline. I was checking the website from times to times, but mostly losing the interest I had in the beginning when there were so few of us around there. Now everybody is going into Twitter, just like what happened with hi5 some years ago.
I even tried to clean my following list. I reached 200 and those are the indispensable I had to follow, and I still find it hard to keep up.
Truth is, Twitter doesn’t scale. And I’m not talking about Rails here. It’s about the social scalability.
I’ve been thinking about quit twitter all together, but some folks still make it interesting. But I really have to ignore it all when it’s soccer time. That’s why I think grouping is the key to reduce noise in twitter. That or negative filters, as Carlos Duarte suggests.
For now, I’ll just keep a low profile and continue with my human experiences. I will post the results soon.
