The begining of the end (of record labels)

Nine Inch Nails made their _entire_ album available on their website!
Even the almighty RIAA can't stop them now

Art is resistance!

Perl Tech Meeting

Yesterday I went to my first Perl Tech Meeting and I can't stress enough how geeky those guys are.

Having lots of easy going, funny intelligent people talking about something they like is always fun, but this was actually very informative, since there were some tech talks that covered areas such as better debugging, replacing bash with perl, using C to improve Perl scripts benchmarks (dam, this guy was awesome!).

I specially enjoyed meeting Francisco Cabrita hearing Miguel Duarte and José Castro and some others whose names elude me right now.

Anyway, thanks to SAB(offline for _way_ too long) and Penantes for the invite.

May the Camel be with you!

Free tech support

One of the nicest things about being involved with customer support is being able to hear in first hand _real_ users fears and doubts.

Today i received an e-mail (at work) from a customer contemplating "migrating to a Ubuntu / Firefox solution" (his words) from Windows / IE and he was wondering if it would be safe to use our on-line banking service.

Yes it is. The only side effect is that the web app will work better in Firefox.

And since I am in a good mood, I will send him my personal e-mail for any tech support questions he might have in his migration.

It feels good to help a customer. :o)

Long time no see

I was forced to observe the shutdown day for over a week (not really, but i'll get back to that) because my Macbook died on me.

It's never a good experience to be away from your mac, but to deal with the Apple support around here one must be prepared for the worst.

From telling me that the customer service guy wouldn't reply my e-mails because he had personal problems (hey that's funny,i have a personal problem too! MY MAC IS BROKEN! what a coincidence) to taking some 20 phone calls to finally get some answers (I have witnesses. And they're still laughing) i've seen it all with these guys.

If we consider that a large part of Apple sales come from mac owners showing off the “superior hardware and the user experience a mac gets you” to their friends and coworkers (I myself am responsible for at least 4 switchers over the past 6 months), one should expect a better level of emphasis on customer satisfaction right?

Thankfully I still have my trusty Asus laptop that managed to deliver the daily fix of web surfing, and getting most of my work done so I really didn't had to be offline for so long. I was just too negative to write anything useful.

Anyway the XVI Jornadas de Informática an event hosted at UBI went by, and this year at least I heard something about what happened there. In Ruby in Portuguese website there are even some of the presentations given there available for download.

My humble 2 cents however would be to manage to get some more publicity before it happens.

While on the subject of great events happening in this little
fascist square of dirt by the sea, the fifth national encounter on Open Technologies will be happening in Lisbon on the 19th, and although the organization is hosted by Sybase and seems to be very professional and extremely interesting, my favorite Solaris Admin - slash -Farmer boy already managed to find a bug on the event page.

Also, today I'm going to my first Perl Mongers tech meeting and I'm hopping that I'll be able to learn something from those guys, 'cos the Perl I know wouldn't move the proverbial mountain.

North American Scum

Não. Não é o ultimo single dos LCD Soundsystem.

Sou declaradamente de esquerda, mas não sou anti-americano. No entanto não resisti a partilhar esta perola que me enviaram, mesmo quando eu achava que aquela especie de reality show da tvi mostrava que os portugueses eram do mais inculto que há...



P.S. se estão a ler este post no P* aqui fica o link para "O" video.

So many ideas and so little time (edited)

I've been having some good (i think) ideas for posts this past week, but haven't found the time to fully elaborate on any of them so I'll just leave the topics here for now and will try to get back to some of these subjects as time allows it.

Is Google evil? I mean, it can't really be a bastion of open source with so many closed source programs and patents. It's not all about free beer people...

Microsoft sponsored site profiling Linux adopters, but I guess they missed (at least) one.
The type that enough about MSFT that it avoids direct contact as much as possible.

Is there a conspiracy between apple keyboards and planeta asterisco?
I mean, have you looked at the "P" key on those things?

It's now 4 years since operation "Lasting Freedom" started. that must be the longest running act of terrorism in history (if you disregard the catholic church, that is). What? you still think a couple of Arabs planned 9/11???

A good friend pointed out a "default-is-stupid" moment on Firefox. And provides the fix. Got to love that.

Allgarve. Oldporto. Lisbonafied. Why didn't anyone think of it before?? oh yeah... it sucks.

Ian Murdock (that the "ian" in Debian) joined Sun. Is it me or is Debian slowly stepping into the void?

osx tips and tricks
compiling ports and don't have /usr/libexec/config.guess ?? (Or config.sub for that matter)
(from the command line)
cd /usr/libexec
cp /usr/share/automake-1.6/config.sub .
cp /usr/share/automake-1.6/config.guess .

Customizing OS X's behavior from the command line
defaults.write galore....

30 (+10) reasons to switch

This is a post i thought i'd never write. It's not that i don't find the discussion fascinating, but that in my experience people (read: non geeks) seldomly need (or want) to change their OS.

Better yet, most people don't use an OS, they use a set of applications. But if the same applications are either cross platform or platform agnostic, then it might make sense to discuss the possibility of switching.

I'm doing it now because i saw a post earlier this week about reasons to change to Linux, and the whole thing got me going. I really don't think my opinion will make you change your mind, but it _does_ come from a someone who is a Windows specialist, a Mac fan-boy and a Linux geek (all me, at different times).

Oh, and this is my first post from TextMate!

10 reasons to use Windows
- It comes pre-installed with ~80% of the PCs sold worldwide;
- You don't know what a driver is (except if its behind a wheel) and couldn't care less;
- Most software is written for Windows, all new technology (Blue Ray; HDVD; DRM) is made for Windows;
- You can go to chat rooms, use file sharing software, visit google and read from Windows;
- You don't know how exciting it is for a script kiddie to see what files you have on your "My Documents" folder;
- You mostly play games, but don't have a games console;
- You don't know that there _are_ other OSs that you could use;
- You use your computer as an electric typewriter with a monitor. What is an OS anyway?;
- You can't afford a Mac, and Linux doesn't offer you the trust of a big corporation behind it;
- You are a VB, XBase, .Net and\ or a MSSQL pro;


10 reasons to use Linux or other *NIX OSs
- You are curious by nature;
- You know a little bit about computers, but want to know more;
- You are a programmer, a security or systems expert, or any other sort of Hacker (or want to be one);
- You can't afford a Mac, and Windows isn't configurable enough;
- You laugh at something like "rm -rf /usr/bin/laden" or you understand the sentence "thank @Divinity I had that shell script to change my MOTD with events from calendar.* or I would have missed LISP's birthday last wednesday";
- Somebody shown you what Beryl, XGL or E17 can do. And now everything else fades in comparison;
- You saw a video on youtube of a guy playing around on a touch screen and flipping windows with his thumbs;
- You believe in Open Source ideals;
- You are a security \ privacy junkie;
- You have DVDs from more that one region or you can't stand the idea behind DRM;


10 reasons to use Mac OSX
- You are a creative professional. (And i don't mean those of you who can write a 20 line telnet replacement);
- You are easily influenced by Apple's halo effect or Steve Jobs reality distortion field;
- You want a computer that just works. And looks good enough to turn heads;
- OSX is a UNIX on visual ecstasy (in-joke, i'll explain another day);
- You don't mind using a closed source OS that is based on Open Source and whose OSI model layer 7 (again, in-joke) can be replaced with FOSS variants;
- You would never replace a CPU, motherboard or graphics card on a laptop by yourself;
- It comes pre-installed with ~10% of the PCs sold worldwide, including your own;
- You are really good at Windows (an expert of sorts) but your antivirus spouts messages about Viruses and other threats that try to creep into your PC and you wonder how it's like on the other side;
- No matter how much you tweak Linux (or how much software you put on top of XP for that matter), it still doesn't feel as snappy or look like OSX;
- Your favorite band is putting out GarageBand files of their new album (I'm still excited about that, sorry);


10 reasons not to use a Computer
- you don't work with computers;
- you own a DVD player, a good Stereo, a Cell Phone and Cable TV;
- Your prefer to listen to CDs instead of ripping them;
- No one ever picked up a girl by formatting her hard drive;
- You don't know how people spend so much time writing and reading without touching a single sheet of paper;
- You where the one behind this. You will now pursue a new career;
- You where the one behind this. You will now pursue a new career;
- You like practicing sports that are incompatible with a flat ass;
- You don't own a portable media player apart from an old Walkman;
- Your fingers are too thick for such small keys;

Can you think of a geekier thing to do pt. 2

Nine Inch Nails, confirming their status as the Greatest Band in the World (for their fans at least) has just posted the multi-track files for survivalism in garageband format.

Just download listen and remix for fun! No strings attached. Just the ~100 mb download.

Better yet, according to their site, and i quote :
"We plan to release every track on the album this way over the next few months..."

The Wow (sic) is here.

Commodore is back!

This is one of the most exciting news I've had in recent times. Probably the second most exciting thing happening apart from Nine Inch Nails new album

My first computer was a Commodore 64 with a tape recorder for loading games and a monochromatic (green tones) monitor. I can still remember playing Ghost 'n Goblins and other top notch games when i was err... along time ago. Not to mention that my first baby steps into programming where with BASIC on this machine.

I also had a friend a few years later that had a Commodore Amiga 500 that I thought was amazing, and it was on this machine that i saw (and heard) the first ever computer generated music video (Money for Nothing from Dire Straits). It was _way_ ahead of anything my 386 DX 40 Mhz could ever do at the time. Oh and there was also Golden Axe and Technotronic kept playing on the stereo. Man I love classic gaming!



While on the subject of how old i am (actually I'm 26 in case you're wondering, but I've been using computers since i was 6) here's other things i remember:
Going to Iron Maiden concerts and wearing Judas Priest, WASP and Venom t-shirts;
Wanting to look like Charles Bronson;
Buying a Sega Saturn;
Barrotes, Jerusalem and Friday the 13th viruses;
Giving up on computers when the battery on my 386 melted all over the motherboard;
Playing bass guitar for a Black Metal Band (and being acclaimed as the most promising new metal band on national radio by António Freitas (link to portuguese language page);

International Women's Day

Today was the International Women's Day, and all over the world there where men who didn't get their sandwich even if they tried to sudo it. :o)

Actually this is a very important day, since it universally marks the _one_ day where we are supposed to thank women for their efforts in making the world a better place and reflect upon the way we, the society, have been treating them.

In my humble opinion, one day isn't nearly enough. People (read: men) should remind themselves everyday that is wrong to abuse verbally, physically, by actions or by inactions all and every woman.

Hopefully, you'll be thinking that I'm beating a dead horse, since we're a civilized society and all that, and these kinds of discrimination don't happen anymore, so I'm going to share two little stories with you.

My friend Carla, was forced to leave the company she helped create because despite all her recognized (and praised) hard work, the business unit wasn't making much of a profit. And for all the long hours and even some lost nights that she poured into her former employer, all she got was a 0€ severance pay. Why? because her former boss didn't find it necessary to pay her a dime. After all, what was she going to do about it?

Another girl friend whom I cannot name as of yet, has been killing herself slowly trying to do all the graphic design for a company that represents 3 small monthly newspapers all by herself for the past months and she already has been subjected to harassment, lied to, overworked (16 hours work days...on saturdays) and they don't even pay her measly 600 € paycheck on time, but rather some 8 days overdue. Without an apology. Why? Because "nowadays everyone knows how to work with a computer" and "it's so hard to find a job" (these are actual quotes in case your wondering) and besides, what was she going to do about it?

Since this blog is mostly about geeky stuff, I'll say goodby with a lttle tech tip.
If you use Stoplight (a Pref Pane add-on that changes Carbon apps maximize and close buttons behaviour so that they do just that; Fill the screen and exit (Command-Q) an active window) on your Mac and are experiencing crashes on Safari after printing to PDF or if Finder restarts after viewing a slidshow in iPhoto, look no further. Just change Stoplight's setting so that these two apps run in "Mac OS Default". Pronto.

On the subject of goodwill

This is not good news for Microsoft. Their latest OS hasn't even begun to make its way into the corporate desktop and already the claims on unbreakable security are a thing of the past.

Or were they ever anything but marketing?

The question I most often hear regarding the transition for the new OS is "Why bother?" To answer this, I made a funny little mental exercise.

What would I do if I was in charge at Microsoft (or at least if they listened to me).

Well, to start with, I would take the number of available versions of Vista down from 7(5?) to only 3.

Vista Corporate Edition (VCE) - Drop the show off (Aero will be turned off by policies on most cases anyway);
Better security and networking. This would eliminate the need for mandatory hardware upgrades in the enterprise and would thus lead to wider embracing by CTOs and CFOs alike.

Vista Media Hub (VMH) - A version with some great visual apparatus, geared towards the home user with basic needs beyond media and internet access.

Aero would be a must, so maybe this could lead to a more reliable hardware certification \ standardization process (much needed IMHO) were Vista Ready meant "Ready to run full specs with full performance".

Vista Gamer (VG) - Recognizing that a vast majority of PC users mostly use their OSs (at home that is) to load and play games, Microsoft should make a version of their newest SO much to the liking of the one that powers their own Xbox 360.(Not necessarily compatible, though that would be a blast).

Networking and Security services striped to a minimum, very compact and hu.. lightweight. Take advantage of the relationships with Hardware Vendors and maximize performance.

Next if my list would be taking better advantage of what comes out of their own labs and projects (label it as beta, if you will) and deliver a companion DVD full of goodies like Photostory (does it still exist?) Expression (even a lite \ demo version) and Photosynth (for VMH).

Also a good option, would be throwing VirtualPC, SQL2005 and Visual Studio Express into a Companion DVD for VCE and finally XNA Game Studio for the Gamer version.

As for the Office suit, i wouldn't touch it (with a long stick).

Eliminate the fabricated need for upgrades (personally I’ll stick with Office XP for as long as I can, or must) and make it compatible with open-document standards for publicity if nothing else.

Finally on the server front. Well this is going to be a biggie... So I'll put it more as a wish list than anything else.

1- Native Support for "foreign" file systems.
2- Show us what WinFS can do. If it turns out not to be all that much adopt ZFS (ouch).
3- U-N-I-X C-O-M-P-A-T-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y L-A-Y-E-R (or SFU done right, or cygwin in a companion CD).
4- Gui-less version. With option for graphic administration from remote desktop or even trough a web browser. This would be a great selling point for Application, Web, DB and File servers. And for low-end servers too.

Ok, so most MSCEs would be left to dry without point and click. But the good ones would adapt, and the best ones won't tell the difference (if it can't be scripted, it can't be done, right?)

A week in song titles

Ramble On Led Zeppelin
BES Photo's winner this year was Daniel Blaufuks, a multimedia artist who also does some photos.

Not surprising at all. As someone way more "in the know" that I noted earlier, this was very likely the worst BES Photo ever.

If you take some time to go around a couple of blogs and Flickr pages, you'l find many talented photographers, but hey, their name isn't Blaufuks or Themlitz or Ideafix or any of the other weird names that seem to be a pre-requisite to enter the competition for Portuguese artists.

By the way, the photo on my blog's title is a self portrait by Kay whom i rank at nr. 2 on my favorite artists list, right after Dali and Trent Reznor (incidentally, if you didn't get this joke, you might be reading the wrong blog) and is here with her consent. The logo underneath it is from the "Art is Resistance" movement.

In Memoriam Rodrigo Leão & Vox Ensemble
I finally managed to give my Macbook a 1G memory upgrade, and it is worth every penny. If your stuck with the default 512 Mb, your missing out. Good does get better.

Simultaneously, a work colleague humped his (newer model) Macbook a full Ghz (to 2G) and notes that the performance improvements are even more noticeable. So todays Haiku is "Grab RAM if you can. OS X surfs graciously in deeper waters".

There There Radiohead
This week on Digg a story gained some momentum again (the original is kind of old) about how 199 out of 200 CS Majors can't program. This just proves that a degree can be a display of educational excellence, but doesn't hint at all on competence.

Dead cat on the line (Diamanda Galas cover)
I had almost forgotten about these...

Everybody loves a self explanatory error message....

...and this ain't a very good example of one, is it?

Search and Zip (revised and improved)

This is a little vbs script I wrote the other day. It's purpose is to find all log files in a given directory, create a zip archive (using 7-Zip command line interface) of each individual file (created before today, so I don't zip anything currently in use) and delete the original file.

I hope somebody else finds it useful... Although I know that someone can probably out best me with a Perl one-liner..

Here goes!

'Function: Compress and delete log files
'Description: Finds all files with the extension ".log"
'from inside the folder(s) passed as arguments, create a ".zip"
'archive with the same name and delete the original file
'Example: cscript compress.vbs d:\logs "d:\big app logs"

strComputer = "."
str7z = "C:\7-Zip\7z.exe"
i=0

If WScript.Arguments.Count = 0 then
WScript.Echo "Directory path missing. Usage: cscript zippit.vbs dir1 ""dir 2"" (etc)"
Else
'For each folder passed as an argument
For Each strArgument in WScript.Arguments
strDir = WScript.Arguments.Item(i)
Set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
'fiel collection inside strDir folder
Set colFiles = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_Directory.Name='"& strDir &"'} Where " _
& "ResultClass = CIM_DataFile")
'Process monitor; will report upon closed \ finished processes
Set colMonitoredProcesses = objWMIService. _
ExecNotificationQuery("select * from __instancedeletionevent " _
& "within 1 where TargetInstance isa 'Win32_Process'")

If colFiles.Count >0 Then

'for each file
For Each objFile In colFiles
'only logs mater.any other file is skiped

If WMIDateStringToDate(objFile.CreationDate) > now() And objFile.Extension = "txt" Then
'compression routine
oShell.Run ""& str7z &" a -tzip """& strDir &"""\"& objFile.FileName &".zip "_
& " """& strDir &"""\"& objFile.FileName &".txt"
WScript.Echo "Created the file "& strDir &"\"& objFile.FileName &".zip "

'log deletion routine
z = 0
'wainting Loop (sleep until zip is done)
Do While z = 0
Set objLatestProcess = colMonitoredProcesses.NextEvent
If objLatestProcess.TargetInstance.Name = "7z.exe" Then
'7z process ended; i can leave the waiting loop and delete the original file
objFile.Delete
WScript.Echo "Deleted the file "& strDir &"\"& objFile.FileName &"."& objFile.Extension &" "
z = 1
Exit Do
End If
Loop

End If
Next
End if

i = i+1
Next
End If

'change date format returned by wmi_script
Function WMIDateStringToDate(dtmDate)
WMIDateStringToDate = CDate(Mid(dtmDate, 5, 2) & "/" & _
Mid(dtmDate, 7, 2) & "/" & Left(dtmDate, 4) _
& " " & Mid (dtmDate, 9, 2) & ":" & _
Mid(dtmDate, 11, 2) & ":" & Mid(dtmDate, _
13, 2))
End Function

WScript.Quit

'as with everything else on this blog.... Creative Commons apply to this code.

my version of this week in tech

Like most geeks I spend much of my off (work) time trying out software solutions just for the sake of knowing how it works and evaluating my options.

So this week I got interested in streaming again. Apple as a good offer. You should check it out. Not only is Darwin Streaming Server free, it is also open source (well not _exactly_ open source, but you can get the source), and they offer you pre-compiled binaries for Linux and Windows.

ESR, one of my personal heroes seems to have fallen out of love for Red Hat and is currently trying to land a job with Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth, it has been rumored, was seen buying a one way ticket to the next space shuttle for tourists (tm). Probably no relation what so ever between these events.

Steve Balmer said that Vista's poor sales are a consequence of pirating, giving linux lovers and CTOs all around the world another reason to suspect Microsoft’s stance on security. I mean, if they can't protect their own software...

Of course that since that they're being so generous with their licensing this time, I'm sure the adoption rate will not reflect the sales figures.

Mono is now supporting native Visual Basic code in their new release.

Sarcasm mode on:
Well, Mono belongs to Novell, Novell seems to be 0wn3d by Microsoft so I'm not surprised.
Sarcasm mode off:
Really, this is great news for me and, I'm sure, to some other ex-VB addicts.

Finally, it seems that Terrasoft (Yelow Dog Linux, anyone?) is giving me another reason to buy a PS3.

carla, you still owe me for this one!

A friend of mine called me recently at 1 a.m. and asked me for some coding help. I had insomnia so, i agreed to help.

Two hours of phone coding later this was the best i could do. Not bad, if you consider that all i had was a pen, some paper and her telling me if the code compiled successfully and if the result was what she expected.

By the way, if you know what kind of code this is and are looking for a job, send me your CV. I might know of a job opening for you.

local desconta, cod_subsrefeicao, N

desconta = .f.
cod_subsrefeicao = 107
N = 0

if txnlevel() = 0
select prre
scan
if prre.cr = 399 or (prre.cr <350 or >364)
desconta = .t.
N = N + prre.rqtt
end if
end scan
if N >0
goto top
scan
if prre.cr = cod_subsrefeicao
scatter name myPRRE
select prre
gather name myPRRE
replace prre.rqtt with rqtt
replace prre.ere with prre.ere * 1-(n/30)
replace prre.re with ((prre.re * N) /30)
replace prre.ervu with ((prre.ervu * N) /30)
REPLACE PRRE.RVU WITH ((PRRE.RVU * N) /30)
replace prre.Lordem with prre.Lordem * 100

scatter name myPRRE
select prre
append blank
gather name myPRRE
replace prre.rqtt with rqtt
replace prre.ere with ((prre.ere * N) /30) * -1
replace prre.re with ((prre.re * N) /30) * -1
replace prre.ervu with ((prre.ervu * N) /30) * -1
REPLACE PRRE.RVU WITH ((PRRE.RVU * N) /30) * -1
replcace prre.rem with "reembolso subsidio refeicÁ„o"
replace prre.Lordem with prre.Lordem * 100

m.mxsujirs = 0
m.mvirs = 0
declare a_diff (L),a_mesano(L),a_dtsuj(L)
a_diff = 0
a_mesano= 0
a_dtsuj= 0
do prantirs with pr.no, pr.data, m.eur_def
do prproc
do prprocf
exit
end if
end scan
else
goto top
scan
if prre.cr = cod_subsrefeicao
scatter name myPRRE
select prre
append blank
gather name myPRRE
replace prre.rqtt with rqtt
replace prre.ere with prre.ere * -1
replace prre.re with prre.re * -1
replace prre.ervu with prre.ervu * -1
REPLACE PRRE.RVU WITH PRRE.RVU * -1
replcace prre.rem with "reembolso subsidio refeicÁ„o"
replace prre.Lordem with prre.Lordem * 100

m.mxsujirs = 0
m.mvirs = 0
declare a_diff (L),a_mesano(L),a_dtsuj(L)
a_diff = 0
a_mesano= 0
a_dtsuj= 0
do prantirs with pr.no, pr.data, m.eur_def
do prproc
do prprocf
exit
end if
end scan
end if
end if
return prbairro

Vista pitch

I'm still trying to digest a discussion I had last friday at work.

I was discussing with some friends the real cost of upgrading (if possible) to Vista, and a Microsoft employee who apparently had nothing better to do but listening in on our conversation decided to offer himself to get us a discount on a Vista purchase.

I just have to tell you is sales pitch and then you tell me if I should consider his offer.

"Well, I would never buy it myself if I didn't have such a discount..."

Ok, to be honest I already made my mind to not buy it anytime soon, so i'll just tell you my answer straight up.

"Wow, then i can save my money to get a new graphics card and buy more RAM! What a nice offer. If only I really needed a new OS to _do_ the same things i do now."

Ok, so now I'm labeled as anti-Microsoft at work, which just isn't true. I'm not _anti_ anything.

I take great pride on being a Microsoft technologies specialist, and I have been using all of Microsoft's OSs since 3.11. With some notable exceptions.

can you think of a geekier thing to do?

My favortie band is doing the geekiest promo thing to promote their upcoming album!

The plot is somewhat reminiscent of Blair Witch Project's, wich if you remeber, included TV reportings of some missing students, an audio tape found in one of the boys car and even a book with all the case documents (including interrogation transcripts and all) just before the movie was revealed. And even them some people refused to accept that it was just good publicity and some acting talent.

It started with a hidden message in the new tour t-shirts..

(can you see it?? hint: look for what seems out of place)


...that lead people to a strange web site and from there on to a series of strange web sites that can be found if if follow the recursive leads found in each one of them.

Just yesterday a story popped up all over the net (well, the right places to look for a sory like this, that is) about a lost USB thumbdrive "lost" in a bathroom after the last concert in Portugal where an mp3 file (My Violent Heart - great song!!!) was found and made it to the net. Now it gets funny... if you play the file and use a spectrographic visualization plugin (i used this one (for itunes on mac) ) you will see something like this...


(the presence!!!!)


Follow the white rabbit down this link for the full story so far.

By the way, there are some hidden images in the new album mini site. Can you find those?


Photo credits: Found all over the net, really.

open mindness

Today i saw a post on P* from Ivo Gomes aimed directly at the quality of work of a friend and co-worker of mine.

So i passed the link down to my friend (who will remain anonimous, because i didn't ask for his permission to name him) who read the whole article and then phoned me to say "You know, he's (Ivo) right".

That took me by surprise really, i knew he was a very cool person, but his attitude towards criticism pleasently surprised me. Good for him.

He also explained that, although he agreed with all of the points Ivo makes, some were actually due to regulations over Banking Web Sites in Portugal and others were really great points about usability that just might land Ivo (or the company were he works) some contacts in the future.

Now if this isn't Web 2.0, than i really didn't get this video.

18 inches of nails

This was a _GREAT_ weekend!

Nine Inch Nails were here in Lisbon for 3 nights in a row, playing at the "Coliseu", one of the best concert halls in Portugal.

I was luky enough to go to both the first and the last of the three concerts and all i can say is UAUUUUU!!!!! (and this is me being reasonably distant so i can make a serious review....)

Day 1 (February 10, 2006)
The show started with The Popo heating up the room with a competent yet somewhat boring display of atari-teenage-riotesque furios beat and rage-against-the-machine-like lyrics. They might be giants in the future, but right now they just make a good enough proof of concept.

Being the first shows of the upcoming tour, and after 7 months off stage (more one this one another post) I expected NIN to be somewhat rusty and the first (shocking) image of how fat Trent was has he entered the stage led me to believe I was going to see a decadent display of vulgarity from a former star. Images of Axel Rose at Rock in Rio were going trough my mind and they were not pleasent as you might remeber if you saw that show.

But boy, was i wrong!!

The scenario was set with over 3.000 people (ok, its just a guess) dressed in the same black that taint their souls, as lost as Ian Curtis' , screaming Trent's name.

By the end of "Terrible Lie",the lights on stage went out and this was when i realised NIN where in town for business. What might have been the only moment where something was not planned, Trent took things into his hands and shouted "We're not here to fuck around. Turn the house light on and we'll keep playing". And they did. They played "March of the Pigs" on a pit black stage. Wow.

An hour and a half of angry dark feelings and emotions, soud waves coming from a place close to the hell where the lyrics to "Hurt" were first bled, the show remarkably orchestrated by Trent and his acolytes, ended leaving a (still) full room expecting and in extasy.

There was no encore. But there were two more shows to play.

My rating : 18 out of 20
Playlist:
Mr. Self Distruct
Last
Terrible Lies
March Of The Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
The Line Begins to Blur
Closer
Burn
Wish
Help Me I'm In Hell
Eraser
La Mer
Into The Void
No You Don't
Only
You Know What You Are
Hurt
Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Day 2 (February 12, 2006)

Well this was a very special show for me for several reasons, namely:
I had my girlfrind there with me
I wasn't so hesterical to see NIN, because after all I had seen them just 48 hours earlier
It was the first concert in a more civilized Portugal

The Popo were no surprise. They played the same songs (probably the only ones they know how to...) or at least they all sounded pretty much the same. No surprises here.

As for the NIN show... Well, i never tought they would give so much for Portugal. I mean, it was the third night in a row and they played louder, more intensely that in the first day!

On a side note, I had went to the oficial site earlier that day and there was a visual reference thare to their shows in Lisbon. That felt great!



(screen capture of the nin.com front page on monday)


Back to the show now. They played the whole set with the stage lights out, using instead a light show that included strobs and other parafernalia that I can't really name.

That light game provided an even better ambiance to the show, which by itself proved even more intense, more powerfull than the first.

To my great surprise they even played a cover from Adam Ant (get down, make love) wich is a hidden track on the Burn EP.
I just love that song, and their version gives it an extra something.

Again, in under two hours of screaming, crazy feedback ridden riffs Nine Inch Nails proved to be in great shape, no matter how fat or old Trent looks right now. I bet that at this rate by the end of March he'll be back to his old fantastic shape. I just hope he can hold it together and stay clean. At least I could have sworn he was sober for the entire show.

If you missed it, do your best to see them during this tour. You will never regret it


My Rating: 20 out of 20
Playlist:
Pinion
Love Is Not Enough
Sin
Terrible Lie
March Of The Pigs
The Line Begins To Blur
Closer
Reptile
Deep
No You Don't
Even Deeper
Help Me I'm In Hell
Eraser
Fragile
All That Could Have Been
Into The Void
Wish
Make Love (Adam Ant cover!!!)
Down In It
Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole


Image credits:
All the images in this post are from the NIN official site and are here because I think I can use them. If you know diferent, please let me know.