February 2006 Archives

I am the new proud (or not so proud) owner fot Text::Ngram. It was originally designed by Simon Cozens, then maintained a couple of years by José Castro (aka cog) and now it is on my hands. I am not familiar with the module design yet, but I hope to get there fast enough to solve problems already ariving by email.

8876 was my first lego set with an errata. It was a small paper I did unfold, and unfold, and unfold to see that a brick was replaced by a brick pair. The errata has the problem of missing the color (fortunately there was just one color for that brick) and the errata should have another errata, or there should be two similar erratas, as there was two bricks replaced each by two, instead of just one replaced by two. I hope you understand me...

click for full version

Finished the lego building. This set includes nice minifigs (in fact these new knights are better than the old castle one), a nice old-like horse (with helmet, interesting). The building itself, is very strange. I really hate those big specific bricks. I know the old castle had some as well, but these are bigger. Why not make that from small pieces?

In my birthday I got this Lego set. Although I like most Technic and, if comparing knights, I would preffer the old castle theme, this set seems to be interesting. It includes some nice weapons, like spears (no, not that one), a horse, and some interesting bricks.

I will be constructing it this weekend, so I might post some more comments about it, or photos if it deserves them.

Today I had to present progresses on my PhD to the Computer Science PhD students, and some teachers. Of course I get a little nervous, but I really don't have problems doing this kind of talks. It was in Portuguese which helps a lot... or not. Basically, I start talking too fast, and end up thinking people do not really understand what I am doing. I need to start practiciing for my lightning talk at YAPC::EU::2006...

Last few weeks I have been playing Need For Speed, most wanted. Started with a Fiat Punto (the last one, which I really don't like in design). So, as soon as I could I started racing with a Renault Clio. Today I got a Lamborghini Gallardo. I really love that car. It has a lovely design, it is fast, it is easy to handle and specially, has a very nice engine sound.
Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to afford a real one.

I remember a movie I saw a lot of years ago, full of comic situations, but that I can't recall anything at all, just a scene... in a theatre, people is watching the Swan Lake ballet... in some point, a ballet dancer (BALLERINA) jumps and the man should grab her... but he looks somewhere else and she falls off the stage...

I know this is kind of difficult to identify a movie just with a scene, but if you know what movie I am talking about, let me know. I really would like to see it again.

Ok, it was coincidence, I know. But an old order (old because one book from MIT was taking about 6 weeks to be delivered) was received today, in my Birthday. That is what I call a good service. :-)

Wrote two articles for a conference on Rio de Janeiro about Portuguese Computacional Processing, and both were unaccepted. They say my english is bad (it is true), but why in hell a conference on Portuguese needs articles to be written in English? Just because Springer does not publish proceedings in any language other than English, this is not a reason for this choice. Why not publish somewhere else, in Portuguese?

I was expecting more from this movie. I saw the trailer and it seemed better. It is true that Aeon is a nice girl, that the special effects are very cool, the sound surround is excellent... but it fails on the more important: tell the story. The story is the usual, but that is not the problem. A lot more could be done with this story. Also, there are very weird things that are not really explained... ok, the movie is in the future... but...

So, if you go see the movie, relax, and do not try to understand how things are possible... just imagine they are!

Or not so happy... what to do when the girl don't like you the same way you like her? Try to change? Well, might be a good option...

Famous people use vaccum as well when wearing latex. But I think this wasn't expected...

So, Hitch is the kind of guy that knows how to tell how to impress a woman, but is unable to do it himself. Well, in fact it finishes doing it sooner or later, and that's good because Eva Mendes is a nice girl.

When I saw the trailer of the movie I thought: I really need to see this movie... I might learn something. But I think I need to see it again, as I didn't learn anything... really... what I am doing wrong?

Back to the movie.. very funny. Nice girl, as I told before, great actors, and a lot of humor. You can have a good time watching it...

Yeah, I just installed iPhoto'06 and noticed that you still can't email photos using thunderbird. I think this is really stupid. Specially if there is an option to customize it, and it includes other options, but not thunderbird. Is apple trying to make us use Mail.app?

Yep. I'm needing two new comments to get to 100 non-spam comments on my blog. I know I can do it myself, but... not ethic.

Yesterday night I went to see Munich. First, I wasn't prepared for a 2:40 hour movie, but then, it was pretty good, and the time flied. Second, for a movie by Steven Spielberg it contains no dinossaurs. And yes, that is good.

The scenarios are pretty good, old fashion, old cars (a lot of them, it should have been difficult to find so many), recorded in old style, with a good and mostly veridic story. It includes a lot of blood (this can be considered bad, but my feeling is that Spielberg wanted to show the barbarity of the acts -- both sides) and some nudity (girls, be happy because this time you have a man nude as well).

I really loved Blade, the first. The second was a little worst and this one raised again the interest about the movie for three main reasons: creative dog-vampires (I really loved the cutie one), a helper (Hannibal King) with sense of humor, and another helper (Abigail Whistler) very sexy. Yes, Jessica Biel is just a beauty...

Talking about the story... welll... is the usual story. Vampires, Blade, action, silver, guns, more action, more vampires... and so on...

Oh, and by the way, now that I am in the mood of Need for Speed, blade car has a nice boost...

Yesterday went to see MatchPoint. I wasn't expecting a good film, specially because is was written (and directed) by Woody Allen. But the movie was quite interesting. A good story, imprevisible till the end, with nice cenarios and a beautiful girl: Scarllet Johansson. Emily Mortimer is not as beautifull as Scarllet, but has some sensual appearances as well.

A good film (maybe longer than needed for the story).

You might have noticed that Gates, Bill Gates, is in Portugal these days. I'm not sure if this is a good new or not. I am a linux fan, I don't like Gates, but I am ok with Microsoft. Basically, I know some stories about Gates that make me feel bad about his personality.

Meanwhile, the TV from the state is talking about Gates all day. I wonder why people talk so much about his, as if was a saint, or a great scientist. If I am not wrong, he is a great manager, but not scientist...