Prt.Sc - Capturing the Buzz

Tiago Sousa - Tarde cinematogr�fica

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:17:00 GMT

Aproveitando o frio intenso de ontem o dia foi dedicado a ficar em casa. Uma das coisas que fiz foi ver filmes, e desta vez acertei em cheio, 2 filmes um deles bom o outro fenomenal.

Comecemos pelo bom, The Three Musketeers de 2011. Um vers�o alternativa desta hist�ria j� t�o usada e abusada pela industria cinematogr�fica. Por ser t�o usada n�o estava � espera de grandes inova��es, mas espanto meu quando vejo que o fio de hist�ria original � seguido, contudo com uma realiza��o bastante alternativa. Podem ser notadas influencias de filmes como Miss�o Imposs�vel, Matrix, Resident Evil ou os tradicionais filmes de artes marciais. Uma men��o honrosa para os actores que interpretam os vil�es, muito boas representa��es todas elas. Apesar disto tudo a hist�ria decorre flu�da sem que a tradicional hist�ria e a inovadora interpreta��o dela choquem, produzindo um filme que me entreteve durante quase duas horas.

O filme fenomenal � o Patch Adams. � um filme marcante, mais um do Robin Williams que me fez lembrar outro grande filme dele o Awakenings. Engra�ado que o realizador deste filme se notabilizou por realizar filmes c�micos, contudo este filme apesar de ter um grande cariz c�mico, a sua principal caracter�stica � a transmiss�o de emo��es e de sentimentos. Mais uma vez este filme vem provar a minha teoria que os melhores filmes s�o baseados em factos ver�dicos ou acontecimentos hist�ricos.

David Ramalho - The search for a new “Hello World” – Part #3 / Day #1

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:31:46 GMT

So, armed with a sort of checklist�from my previous post it’s time to consider some options, like I said, the goal of this exercise is to learn a new language, not to move away from PHP but to add a new dimension to my though process and widen the available tools scope. Now, the list [...]

Pedro Cust�dio - A Day Made of Glass (2)

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:54:55 GMT

I like this video and I like the touchscreen based interactions in it, do you? With iPhone 4, Apple showed us that glass (or better aluminosilicate glass)can make amazingly beautiful and resistant devices, but last year a company called Corning went one step forward and published a video with a vision beyond small devices – “A Day Made of Glass.”. A vision centered around glass, where and if combined with the right technology and high speed wireless networks, glass can be so much more and help technology be even more present and all around us. It’s an interesting video, and ...

Nuno Nunes - Assorted Cool Technology - 2012-02-04

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:40:00 GMT

I’ve been wanting to get a place where I can post simple links, accompanied by some small observations about random cool stuff and quite frankly I think this blog is the right place to do it.
There is the OneOverZero blog, where I write about singularity-related topics, but I wanted to write about (or rather, link to) more than just singularity-related stuff. I want to start collecting links to things that are just cool to look at. And that’s why I’ve decided to try and keep a kind of journal of those things right here.
Lots of good intentions, let’s see how long I can keep it up.

Flying stuff

A few weeks ago the robots dreams blog posted an article about an autonomous quad copter demonstration video, with a few links to relevant sources that really got my will to build one of these things going. Luckily (?) for me I am fully aware of just how many side projects I’ve gotten myself into lately and how much I don’t have time for something like this. For now. :-)
But anyway, do watch this video of ongoing riots, captured by a Polish quad builder.

Also regarding quad copters (aren’t they just the coolest things?), I’ve posted a link at the OneOverZero blog regarding a quad rotor swarm demonstration video. My views about it are explained on the post and, really, need not be repeated here, just watch it and you’ll get what the excitement is all about.

The robot invasion

If there’s one topic of technology I’ve always been in love with it has to be robots. And lately I’ve been paying a little more attention to it on a few fronts, from building a few tentative arduino-based experiments, to getting back to studying and playing around with AI.

So when I got word of the new NAO, the humanoid robot from Aldebaran Robotics (which you have to love, if only just for their name) I was quick to register for access to the developers kit and the community resources.
Unfortunately that’s about as far as I will go regarding this beautiful piece of tech, because the price of the robot, even for individual developers, is way out of what I can reasonably justify before myself for a hobby.

Lastly, I’ve finally gotten around to watching some of the videos from 2011’s Google IO conference and I was particularly struck by the Cloud Robotics session. First off, the quick presentation they give of ROS is very well structured and useful. I’d never delved into it before, but just from that talk I was surprised to find out that ROS is, at it’s heart, a “simple” message routing system. The way that it allows for the whole robot to be a highly-distributed system is very interesting. And then, the integration with android seems to be getting in place really well.
I am aware of a few other initiatives of taking your robots to the cloud, but this seems to be one with a real future. As long as Google keeps interested in it and doesn’t forget about it as it’s done with so many other projects.

Jos� Marques - From my Toronto 2012 set on Flickr.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:36:05 GMT

From my Toronto 2012 set on Flickr.

Miguel Almeida - SSL a menos de 7 euros?! Yup...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:21:01 GMT

No �mbito das atividades que tenho desenvolvido para a AP²SI dei de frente com isto (...)

David Ramalho - “Hello World” by any other name – Part #2

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:19:52 GMT

Part #2 of the thinking-out-loud-learn-a-new-language series (Part #1 here) Ok, so learning a �new�language is cool and exciting, but we’re doing it on the run here, full time job (and then some), 2 kids, 1,5 hour (split between 3 stretches) commute time two .. the works , so time is one problem and focus [...]

Jos� Marques - My photos from Cordoba�taken in New Years eve.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:25:00 GMT

My photos from Cordoba�taken in New Years eve.

Filipe Carvalho - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:18:52 GMT

Inspired by other people, I recently started deleting accounts from websites and services I no longer use, trying to reduce my social fingerprint on the internet. This was an extremely hard process, since over the years I’ve accumulated a lot … Continue reading →

David Ramalho - “Hello World” by any other name – Part #1

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:00:46 GMT

PHP, it wasn’t the first, oh no, �I did the regular routine, academic for the most part, most long�forgotten�: Basic (o the Q, QW and Visual types), the Pascal ( the Turbo and the Delphi types), the ASM, the C, the C++�(I could point all the fun we had,but all I have are pointers to [...]

Tiago Cogumbreiro - Rethinking my online presence

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:04:14 GMT

I have started blogging a bit more than 10 years ago (wow!). The motivation was simple. I was using Linux and to connect to the internet with the ADSL modem I was using at the time was not simple, so I wanted to help others in performing this very specific task. Although this was not my first web presence—my first trial was just an exercise of technology—, this was my first maintained effort and that is running up until now.

Ten years ago the web was different, less crowded and not so personal. The extensive use of nicknames gave us masks that protected our identity and boosted our authenticity. Now we have services like Facebook that allow tracing back all the way back to our inception. With the web culture imposing an open kimono policy, I feel the pressure to have a tight control over what I say. Or rather, the medium (service) I am using for communication has a big weight on what I say and how I say it. For example, I prefer to use email over Facebook for private communications.

While Facebook made being online simpler (forget classic blogs!), Google+ made us think about our audience. I think Google+'s approach failed because it did not aim high enough. We are different personas to different groups of people. Not only do we want to control the group of people receiving a message, but we also want to have a different profile to different groups of people. Until then, I will have multiple email accounts and multiple "social profiles."

Where I store my data became important. The Megaupload case pointed out that we should think about to what laws our data is subject to. Projects like Diaspora* are the natural reaction to this, an evolution over Facebook and Google+ as we know them. The integration among these services, however, is limited, to say the least, and that hinders the adoption of new services.

To wrap this up, this blog mutated into something less personal and more work-related, where I share about my research, technology-related musings, and my latest open source hacks. As for other more personal-level topics, they became disassociated with this presence right here, and can now be found in services like Facebook and Tumblr. Which reminds me, I need to update my homepage.

Jo�o Martins - Interven��o na reuni�o do Executivo da CMA

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:22:19 GMT

O papel da participa��o c�vica nos processos de tomada de decis�o e a import�ncia da informa��o e transpar�ncia O problema da participa��o c�vica na gest�o dos problemas da cidade de Aveiro tem passado por diversas fases. Em Aveiro, como noutras cidades, os movimentos de cidad�os surgem com car�cter cada vez mais flu�do e agregado em torno [...]

Luis Nabais - Anime Report – Outono 2011

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:47:54 GMT

Se da ultima vez que fiz isto no rescaldo da temporada de ver�o j� disse que estava a fazer a review tarde e a m�s horas n�o sei o que diga desta. A verdade � que a vida real interp�s-se e s� agora estou a conseguir algum tempo para dedicar aos meus projectos mas isso [...]

Diogo Rodrigues - FlashForward (S�ries)

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:49:40 GMT

S� recentemente me dei pela grande falha de nunca ter falado da s�rie FlashForward aqui no blog. Foi uma s�rie da ABC que esteve no ar entre Setembro de 2009 e Maio de 2010. Por c� passou quase sempre muito perto da data de emiss�o original nos EUA, o que foi muito bom. E digo [...]

Alcides Fonseca - Compromises

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:42:33 GMT

I do miss the excitement you used to get when buying a new machine; these days (post-SSD) new purchases are more often about adjusting to a new set of compromises than getting something objectively better.

— Phil Hagelberg’s The Setup

This is exactly why I downgraded to a Macbook Air. And why a lot of folks are downgrading to iPads.

Pedro Cust�dio - The Dying Art Of Letterpress

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:06:57 GMT

Found this beautifully shot documentary” by Danny Cooke on the fascinating “dying ART of letterpressing“. I probably the love for it because of my father, although not sure, if from over exposition to his drawings or as a side effect of his “forced styling” on my early calligraphy! Whatever it was, I got it in here But I decided to post the video here as a tribute to a more recent friend, Peter, who has been sharing his journey on letterpressing and by doing so, teaching me so much about it! So I can safely write here that I like ...

Ant�nio Dias - Warn Me — nova vers�o

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:16:35 GMT

E, uns dias depois da vers�o 0.2, eis que surge a vers�o 0.3 deste programa.� As novidades s�o: inclus�o de um script de remo��o (para al�m do de instala��o que j� existia); localiza��o para portugu�s europeu, para al�m do ingl�s original, e prepara��o para outras l�nguas, usando a ferramenta GNU gettext; possibilidade de usar um [...]

Filipe Carvalho - ByeDaddy

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:30:30 GMT

So, I’ve been using Go Daddy for a few years now, mainly for my domain registering. It’s been a somewhat good service, despite the fact that the website is somewhat difficult to use. When you buy a domain there the … Continue reading →

Pedro Couto Santos - Lutem pelos vossos direitos

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:45:28 GMT

Pe�o-vos que parem o que est�o a fazer e assinem a Peti��o para Impedir a Taxa��o da Sociedade da Informa��o que, essencialmente, se op�e � PL118. Poder�o ler a peti��o em detalhe, clicando no link. Se a peti��o chegar �s 4 mil assinaturas, o assunto ter� que ser ouvido na Assembleia de Rep�blica. Isto � [...]

Jos� Marques - The Young Professionals - Video Games� Yet another “Video...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:13:05 GMT

The Young Professionals - Video Games�

Yet another “Video Games” cover. Touch� to this one.

Jos� Marques - Foundation 16: Kevin Systrom

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:39:05 GMT

Foundation 16: Kevin Systrom

Jos� Marques - LCD Soundsystem - Beat Connection I miss dancing to the sound of...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:06:05 GMT

LCD Soundsystem - Beat Connection

I miss dancing to the sound of this. Good times. Also, I’m starting to feel old…

Jos� Marques - Flying People in New York City� (via Andr� Murra�as)

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:33:06 GMT

Flying People in New York City�

(via Andr� Murra�as)

Jo�o Martins - Da import�ncia de estar vivo

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:49:22 GMT

Algumas das pessoas que, como eu, vivem em Aveiro e, ocasionalmente, se preocupam com alguns assuntos da cidade, t�m-se deparado com estranhos obst�culos a que a discuss�o p�blica e esclarecida sobre muitos destes temas se realize ou, realizando-se, tenha algum tipo de impacto na condu��o dos destinos da cidade. N�o � um problema exclusivo da [...]

Jorge Cardoso - Grounded Theory

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:13:44 GMT

Grounded Theory is a methodology to produce theory based on empirical data. Instead of starting with a well defined hypotheses, GT starts with an area of study and inductively derives a theory from the data gathered around that area. So, the purpose is not to prove a theory, but to generate one.

GT was developed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss and published in [1].

Phases

GT can be roughly decomposed in 5 parts (which are not totally sequential):

Continue reading "Grounded Theory"

Ant�nio Dias - Sobre responsabilidade social e jornalistas

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:23:01 GMT

Assisti no dia 27 de Janeiro � Confer�ncia “European Left – Achievments, failures and challenges” organizada pelo ISCTE-IUL em Lisboa. Ap�s o painel em que intervieram representantes dos v�rios partidos pol�ticos da Esquerda Portuguesa, houve lugar aos coment�rios da conceituada jornalista S�o Jos� Almeida do jornal P�blico. Fiquei surpreendida com o teor das suas afirma��es. [...]

Ivo Gomes - 33

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:01:41 GMT

Mais um ano. Foto: Eva the Weaver

Filipe Carvalho - 2011 in Review

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:56:44 GMT

OK, I know 2011 is long and gone, but I’ve been busy with other stuff. So here it goes. Travelling My initial intention of travelling to a new country was scrapped due to the prices of the country I intended … Continue reading →

Jos� Marques - Carbs are killing you, embrace the bacon!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:52:17 GMT

Carbs are killing you, embrace the bacon!�

Tiago Cogumbreiro - On using Bazaar to access a Subversion repository

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:39:09 GMT

I really like Bazaar's intuitive (CLI) interface and workflow. Things tend to Just Work™. I've even been using Bazaar to operate with an SVN backend. The BibleTime developers created an amazing resource to introduce the concept, and help out avoiding the common pitfalls.

Tiago Sousa - Duatlo do Jamor 2012

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:28:00 GMT

A primeira coisa que me passa pela cabe�a depois de ter feito o Duatlo do Jamor � que foi uma mega divers�o. Come�ou logo bem, estava eu o Pedro e o Nuno na conversa pra� a 50 metros da partida e ouvimos uma buzina, olha est�o a chamar para o "aconchego" (termos que usamos quando toda a gente de amontoa junto � partida) para depois darem a partida. Bem, na verdade era mesmo a partida sendo assim conseguimos a proeza de ser os �ltimos a partir.

Estava um dia fenomenal para a pr�tica de desporto tendo em considera��o que o percurso do duatlo era 5km a correr, 14,5km de bicicleta, mais 2,6km a correr, estava soalheiro mas n�o calor em demasia. Eu tinha como objectivo pessoal acabar a prova em menos de 1h30m mas sabia que tudo dependia do tipo de percurso de bicicleta no qual sou muito mais fraco que a correr. Sabia que nos primeiros 5km a correr teria de os fazer em 22-23 minutos que � o meu normal e que � sa�da da bicicleta teria de estar com 1h15m de prova sen�o j� seria complicado.

Quando estava a chegar ao fim dos 5km de corrida estava ainda abaixo dos 22 minutos ent�o desacelerei um pouco, seguindo um conselho de um amigo meu triatleta, que me disse que para facilitar a transi��o para a bicicleta se deve desacelerar a passada para o corpo n�o sentir tanto a mudan�a.

� sa�da do parque de transi��es tinha 23 minutos de prova, e agora come�ava a doer e a desmotivar, como sou muito mais fraco de bicicleta no in�cio deste percurso estava constantemente a ser ultrapassado por todos. Estava fisicamente bem mas sabia que n�o podia ir atr�s deles porque ainda faltava muito tempo de prova e sabia que se n�o fosse ao meu ritmo iria pagar isso mais tarde. L� comecei a estabilizar num grupo apesar de ter dificuldade a acompanh�-los em algumas subidas, ainda houve duas ocasi�es que tive de desmontar e subir a p�, mas nas descidas acabava sempre por recolar com facilidade devido a ter uma capacidade de descida bastante aceit�vel.

Quando cheguei ao parque de transi��es ia com 1h12m, excelente dava-me quase garantias que iria cumprir o tempo que queria. Uma op��o que tomei antes da prova ao contr�rio da maior parte dos meus amigos, era de n�o trocar de cal�ado nas transi��es, acabei por poupar em rela��o a eles talvez 1 minuto nas transi��es e n�o quebrar o ritmo, n�o sei se tivesse sapatos de encaixe se teria recuperado esse tempo na bicicleta. Al�m disso n�o conhecia o percurso de bicicleta, e se fosse com os p�s encaixados acabaria por n�o arriscar tanto em algumas descidas e curvas mais apertadas onde acabava por tirar o p� do pedal para fazer a curva mais r�pido.

�ltimo percurso 2,6km a um bom ritmo e em ultrapassagem constante a muitos dos que me tinham ultrapassado na bicicleta, aqui entrou a parte motivacional pela positiva. Acabei a prova com o tempo de 1h25m33s, excelente dado as minhas expectativas iniciais. A �nica coisa que correu pior na prova foi o Pedro ter ca�do e ter esfolado a palma da m�o, mas foi mais o susto infelizmente comprometeu a prova dele pois acho que ele teria conseguido bem melhor se n�o fosse aquele susto logo no in�cio da bicicleta, que acabou por limit�-lo f�sica e psicologicamente para o que restava. Para acabar em beleza, depois da prova mais 19km a pedalar feitos em 50 minutos para chegar a casa.

Jos� Marques - Goodbye (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:13:42 GMT

Goodbye (Taken with instagram)

Pedro Pais - Presta��o do cr�dito habita��o quando a Euribor se altera

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:00:01 GMT

Quem tem cr�dito habita��o indexado � Euribor sabe que a cada 3 ou 6 meses existem altera��es na presta��o a pagar, uma vez que o valor da Euribor varia. Para saber o mais cedo poss�vel qual ser� a altera��o na … Continue reading → Artigos relacionados:

Pedro Couto Santos - N�o, isto n�o � aceit�vel!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:34:38 GMT

Prestem aten��o: com a PL118, com a ACTA, a SOPA, a PIPA, com a Troika, o FMI, o BCE, com a S&P, a Moody’s e a Fitch, com a UE, a CE, o G7, estamos a ser comidos. Estamos numa era de informa��o, em que muitos conseguem saber o que poucos est�o a fazer, mas [...]

Pedro Cust�dio - Time to upgrade …

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:00:34 GMT

I really believe that our current model of living is ultimately doomed, I feel we have too much and most of all we wast too much. Maybe it has been the reading of books like “End of progress” or “Hungry city” (thank you Igor!), but this post an the readings from the past week have been utterly shaped by my recent family losses and the need to find some meaning to much of what happens around me and the way I imagine my future. A few days ago, I managed to see some old footage recorded by my parents when ...