Saturday Summer Sail (UPDATED)

Unfortunately it will be a dutch summer...

But I will update this post with some photos!

Oh happy days

Ok, so I went to Den Haag this Saturday just to leave Amsterdam for a bit. And in a good time did I do so. If you don't know already, The Hague (as it is also referred to) is the capital of Holland and one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been.

Even I could pass laws with that view..

If you ever get to go there be sure to visit the big church (Grotekerk) and the parliament house. Really very nice. Also, while in the neighborhood be sure to check the cool shopping district, specially the "Passage". At one end you will find the iFactors Apple Retail Store where you can just walk in and buy an iPhone (at this moment, the iPhone is sold out everywhere in Amsterdam, this is why I was surprised of just going into a store and getting out with one in less than one hour)

It's that one to the right!

So, cutting a short story shorter, I am now a proud owner of a black 16 GB 3G iPhone. Hurray for me!

I still haven't played enough with it to make up my mind if this was actually a good buy or just a long time fetish that I could finally obtain (god knows I've had this doubt in my mind for several other items...) but so far, with the help of some really cool free apps I've been having a blast with it. At the very least it will replace my old iPod in my pocket everyday.. not sure if I want to give up my "normal" much lighter, much smaller phone yet.. And the PSP might stay at home more often, at least for those short train trips it's not worth the bother anymore since I'm not even that much of a player...

Either his hands are bigger or his iPhone is smaller...

Ich wuenschte du waerst mit mir da gewesen

Some pics from the Amsterdam gay pride night out. Lekker dings all of us, i know.

you call _that_ dancing

andy comes out (a bit)

lekker lekker lekker

Major Matze and his woman

choose what life?

me and Connie

Thanks for the (good) photos Matze.

Now all I need is time.

So this is permanence, love's shattered pride.
What once was innocence, turned on its side.
A cloud hangs over me, marks every move,
Deep in the memory, of what once was love.

Oh how I realized how I wanted time,
Put into perspective, tried so hard to find,
Just for one moment, thought I'd found my way.
Destiny unfolded, I watched it slip away.

Excessive flashpoints, beyond all reach,
Solitary demands for all I'd like to keep.
Let's take a ride out, see what we can find,
A valueless collection of hopes and past desires.

I never realized the lengths I'd have to go,
All the darkest corners of a sense I didn't know.
Just for one moment, I heard somebody call,
Looked beyond the day in hand, there's nothing there at all.

Now that I've realized how it's all gone wrong,
Gotta find some therapy, this treatment takes too long.
Deep in the heart of where sympathy held sway,
Gotta find my destiny, before it gets too late.


Joy Division - twenty-four hours

By the way, and because I don't like anyone to feel bad for me... This past few nights I've had the very best time in a very long time. Thank you Siouxie. Getto rocks! Amsterdam rules!

Let's get the party started!!!!

help me i'm in hell

My kitchen is dirty as hell.. i swear i can hear voices that are either satan trying to tell me something, or the plumbing needs fixing.

há 12 anos

... tinha eu 16 anitos. Lembro-me que acreditava piamente que havia muito mais para lá da realidade palpavél. Do quotidiano. Do mundano. Dizia saber que a realidade não era a verdade. A verdade esconde-se sempre por trás do que conseguimos (ou queremos) acreditar, daquilo a que chamamos "a nossa realidade".

Other planes lie beyond the reach
Of normal sense and common roads
But they are no less real
Than what we see or touch or feel

Como é que eu me esqueci disso, é um misterio. Porque é que eu tive de ser recordado agora, é o destino.

The lyrics of Shortbus pt II

Is you is or is you ain't my baby
Well, the way you're acting lately, well it makes me doubt
You were still my baby, baby
But it seems like my flame in your heart, well it's just gone out

A man is a creature
That has always been strange
Just when you're sure of one
You'll find that he's gone and made a change

Is you is or is you ain't my baby
Well, maybye my baby found somebody new
Or is my baby still my baby too

Anita O'Day - Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?

The lyrics of Shortbus pt I

I walk a tight rope
and live with a high hope
that somehow we still feel the same
through this catastrophe it's quietly telling me welcome that first word again

I don't care if the worlds upside down if you're lost or you're found
I know your feet will stay far from the ground
If you just stick around

I know the shots you call gentle
cause I could fall and break
you'll hear what they say

I read between the lines
It's just like a hate crime
And tell me the dateline today

I don't care if the worlds upside down if you're lost or you're found
I know your feet will stay far from the ground
If you just stick around

Scott Matthew - Upside Down

Things white people like

I just found out this morning that I'm a cliche. To be more precise, I'm a white guy.

Reading trough the list of things white people like I had 61 hits out of the 103 items.

Among the ones that I felt mirrored my own tastes, I would point out the following based on accuracy or just how funny their importance to _me_ is described.

# Film Festivals
# Coffee
# Diversity
# Asian Girls
# The Daily Show/Colbert Report
# Indie Music
# Apple Products
# Living by the Water
# Irony
# Vintage
# Japan
# Modern Furniture

Funnily enough.. they forgot indie cartoons.



BTW, do you know these guys?

We drink and dance and smoke and die of a stroke

... living like steamers, some sirens screamed and we started singing: nous sommes derrangés toujours par des mirages, mais ça fait réver plus, ça donne du courage! Jungle life is quite absurd if you haven’t got a knife!



Mais letras de JPS aqui

Ah well... you know...

Ich hoffe dass diese Nachricht Dich erreicht, wo immer Du auch gerade bist.

SQL Server Performance, pt I

If your in Amsterdam, you have to look at windows.

Ok, so my career brought me back to Windows and Microsoft products. Bummer. One of my tasks recently required me to go over SQL Server 2005 Performance guidelines and Troubleshooting techniques and attending a lab of some sort where this performance guru shared some really nice tips.

It was actually very pleasant, and I want to share with you all some of the things I got from the training and if MS SQL Server is your thing, maybe you'll get some value out if this post.

So, first things first:
1 - tempdb: You can read more about it in this Technet article. The default size for this very important db is only 8 MB. Change it according to the few basic rules outlined in the link above.

2- Gathering generic performance statistics. MSSQL Tips gives a very nice overview on how and what kinds of statistics you can gather in MS SQL Server. I find this very useful to start a performance evaluation. Better yet, the Performance Dashboard add-on that can be downloaded here. It's too big and complex for this post, but if you need some pointers, ask me. Another really useful set of tools, jointly referred to as RML Utilities for SQL Server can be found here. Do some read-up on them and enjoy.

3 - I/O. This is one one the key elements in performance for just about any application. This might be a good time to introduce you to the SQL Server Best Practices
. The whitepaper on Predeployment I/O Best Practices is a must read if you don't know the basics on how to measure and improve this performance parameter.

4 - Isolation Levels. Be sure to read the Books Online on the 6 supported isolation levels in SQL Server 2005. Read uncommitted (or nolock), read committed, repeatable read, serializable, read committed snapshot and snapshot. Understand how these different levels affect concurrency.

5 - Stored Procedures. In most situations, SP's will provide better performance over queries any day. The reason for this is two-fold: The Data and Procedure caches, aka Memory Hogs R' us. A nice article I found on this can be read here.

There is so much more to say about this topic that I might consider transforming this in a series of posts. It would be just too much for a single post and there are several areas that I find would be really interesting to go over in depth, provided that I have the time to actually write something that is. :-)

Managing MS SQL Server is much more than pointing and clicking and therefore it is very easy to get it wrong. On the other hand, this is really valuable knowledge if you're considering a career as a performance engineer / consultant. Or even if you're just writing a Web App (RoR springs to mind) that you just can't figure out how to go about squeezing out every last bit of performance of, really knowing what you can do with the database layer is a definite plus.

Talking about the weather

Hoje foi um dia muito quente. As pessoas andavam meio loucas, a roupa pesada (e a comprida... e em alguns casos a, vá, decente) ficou em casa... E lembrei-me de coisas quentes. O verão em Portugal, por exemplo...

A proposito, a partir de hoje não se pode fumar tabaco em recintos fechados em Amsterdão. Se fôr numa coffee shop pode-se fumar erva, mas sem misturas, claro.

yesterday a fever, tomorrow St. Peter

Real friends

Beautiful bride

Yet another real friend

Best view of the city

Ou como eu digo, ontem Manique, amanhã Munique.

A proposito, sim estou em pulgas com o iPhone v2.

Lisboa

Hoje volto a ver a minha amada Lisboa. Ou como diria o Cartman, "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"

O casamento da minha melhor amiga vai-me fazer perder a Amsterdam Tattoo Convention... mas vai ser muito bom voltar a Portugal, mesmo que seja por pouco tempo. Ou se calhar por causa disso mesmo.

Ok, I got an early start

Anjo

Eu não acredito em milagres. Se acreditasse tinha pedido para Deus te colocar no meu caminho mais cedo.

a month later

Its hard to believe just how fast a month as gone by.

I arrived in Amsterdam on the 7th of april, so actually it's been a month and a week but I somehow only remember a couple of days so it's a month give or take.

It's been quite the adventure as you will know oh faithful reader. I met some rather interesting people and I was in some weird scenarios sometimes, I was given very much by some, and only the cab drivers have taken more than I was willing to give.

I started working with Blackboard on the 15th and have been helping improve customer support^TM ever since. The feedback we (myself included) have received from our customers recently is amazing. I am proud of being part of such a wonderful group! Go EMEA team!

you can find more of these here

People who know me well, know that I like to laugh about myself and all things surrounding me, this has helped me to deal with some of my adaptation issues. Also, knowing me well means that you're expecting me to bitch about everything that bugs me about my new job. I can't. NDAs and shit like that would probably get me fired.

As a personal experience, working abroad has been just super. It's all about the people you meet and the way you approach situations. I mean, I know so many souls who might be given everything but only notice they should have been making the most out of it when it's taken away from them... That is just stupid! But these guys and gals always have to learn by themselves, so please, be my guest and bang your head as much as you can if the shoe fits.

So, yes, I would definitely recommend moving abroad to just about anyone.

Also, and getting more personal here, I was given the greatest presents ever on my birthday. The one on a little bridge over the Herengracht is the one I will treasure for ever. It's my personal little schatz so I'll keep it just for me for as long as I can... Or sunday. That and the story about my friends playmate girlfriend. We're such lucky bastards aren't we?

As a final note, I'd like to promise all those who used to come here to read my techie ramblings (ok, the one guy) that I'm readying a post on SQL Server Performance, and it should be done soon... so if that's something you're into feel free to come by late next week.

I also have drafts on Netbeans 6, building a Ruby API for tarpipe (which, incidentally I've pitched to some guys here) and JVM tuning. So I haven't totally forgotten that this is a geek blog. I just need some time to get over the city where you can't help but fall in love several times a day.

Decisions

Must be made. And you only know if you were right when it's done. Yet sometimes life makes it easier on you.

For instance, I was planning on going go to Osdorp's Library event on Portugal and portuguese culture tomorrow. Maybe meet up with some countrymen (and women) and basically see what's up.

But then I got an invitation for dinner at Fifteen. If you don't know Fifteen, than the naked chef hasn't caught up with you yet. It will. It's inevitable.

Well, since it's on the company dow, I really have no choice. If I had it would still be the same, I guess.

Does it make you cry?

A day at D's

Lazy sunday again.

Since spending such a bright, sunny day at home seemed like a waste of time, I gladly took the opportunity to go over to D's house and hang around for a while. Time passes much faster when your having fun with some friends.

After helping M fixing the wireless on D's laptop (You just knew it, right?) the day started getting much more interesting. Having conversations with other expats is always amazing because you find yourself less alone when others share their experiences and it's not awkward at all to say that you miss what you left behind and that sometimes you are afraid to fail.

So, and because I'm late for a date with some ice-cream in the park, what do you get when you mix a Portuguese guy with :
- A Bosnian-German hotty hostess;
- A Turkish-Bulgarian couple (yes, the undead terrorist and his wife);
- A Bosnian sweet;
- A Swedish-Syrian techie-babe;
- A German neo-teenager;
- A very sunny day;

Don't know? Care to guess?
- Great food and an amazing day;
- Wine and Laughs;
- Sex and the City would be dialogs;
- Work done;
- All of the above, but in reverse order;

Need clues?

Cigarettes, coffee, chilled white wine. Arabic veggie food. Jazz.

Talk, talk, talk. Smiles, laughs and toasts. Stories and hopes. (edit) And no more boobs

Thank you

Obrigado a todos. Deram-me a melhor prenda de aniversario (das que eu posso falar, pelo menos) de sempre!


Então e agora quando é que vêm cá fazer-me uma visita?