30
Jun 07

The Size of the Planets

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: The Size of the Planets
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 07 21:58:21 GMT

http://www.prt.sc/planet/ 68 requests, 1.88 MB
http://www.planetgeek.org/ 136 requests, 2.89MB

Come on people, get a grip on those page sizes, they
really piss of my Nokia E70 ( http://forum.nokia.com/devices/E70 )

If any of you are thinking about providing the community
with a podcast (with member interviews for example) or
with a videocast (Geek Crossfire anyone? I wonder who will
be the first…) make sure that first you’ve optimized the
entry pages. Right now they are pigs…

— MV


30
Jun 07

Funky Metal

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Funky Metal
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 07 20:33:21 GMT

A few videos from a lost age when music had variety
and genres would mix up as in “Funky Metal” (rock
music for the thinking mind), a mix of the rythms and
grooves from funky with the seriousness and power of
metal.

And then, Nirvana came only and destroyed the music
industry…

King Of The Hill – I Do You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rx-8uvDw1E

Extreme – Get the funk out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILwYfJ8hulI

Red Hot Chilli Peppers (before becoming sellouts) – Higher Ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS3hEuAbuLE

Faith No More – We Care A Lot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS3hEuAbuLE

Clawfinger – Nigger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcX9Jq_vMjs

Terrorvision – My House
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbhq6K3RXaM

Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc53eG1Gbv0

Living Colour-Glamour Boys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XRpuhc9dgU

Jesus Jones – Real, Real, Real
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8_lmYHbbm8

Living Colour – Elvis Is Dead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBiLFEI82Ww

“Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building!”
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/021227.html

PS – I had to resist putting in more Dan Reed Network links
in the list above, since there’s a lot of them in some of my
other posts. But I cant avoid referring Prince’s “U Got the
Look” which is not actually metal; but it rocks anyway…

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1h6j8_prince-cream_music


30
Jun 07

Too Young to Die…

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Too Young to Die…
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 07 01:06:21 GMT

… but not too old to rock n roll. Or a glimpse
at a time when heavy could also be mental.

“Bring me a wheel of oaken wood
A rein of polished leather
A Heavy Horse and a tumbling sky
Brewing heavy weather.” – Jethro Tull, Heavy Horses

Heavy Horses – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmMyLBJk-Qw
Moths – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lkONLEePaM
Too Old to Rock & Roll – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGWG_gCRw20
Songs from the Wood – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyTLv4amYpU
Dun Ringill – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlrxyiIVFUU

Listen to the albums when you’ve already worn out your
Marillion records. For better effect, read “The Hobbit” or
“The Lord of the Rings” at the same time.

“Lines join in faint discord
and the stormwatch brews
a concert of kings
as the white sea snaps
at the heels of a soft prayer
whispered.” – Jethro Tull, Dun Ringill

Sometimes I wonder if Ian Anderson isnt better than Fish…

— MV


17
Jun 07

Seasons in Life

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Seasons in Life
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 07 19:27:21 GMT

I’m sure you’re all aware of the fact that the
year is roughly divided into four (4) seasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season

I myself have felt the same 4-season-division
in my entrepreneurial endeavours as well as in
my life. If you picture a sinusoidal wave, there’s
a phase where (1) its going up, (2) you’re on the
top, (3) you’re coming down and (4) you’ve hit
rock bottom.

This, by the way, is one of the big-major-mega
difficulties in being an entrepreneur. When you
work for others, your life tends to be a straight
line trending upwards. When you’re an entrepreneur,
the trend and the endpoint is the same (generally
speaking; you do have a shot at a major success…),
but the progress is not a straight line; it waves
around the trendline, with inevitable and regular
highs and inevitable and regular downs. Some people
cant deal with that; I myself can tell you its not
an easy task.

So imagine my surprise when wandering about the
net I found the same principle of four (4) phases
applied to eras (bunch of years) and to generations.

http://www.lifecourse.com/method/turnings.php
http://www.lifecourse.com/method/archetypes.php

Just for the record I was born during an Awakening
(1964-1984) and we’re currently under an Unravelling.
In generation terms I’m a Generation 13/Generation X
and I should be a Prophet under the above proposed types.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X#13th_generation

(A side note to remember that one of my favorite bands,
Saga, have an amazing album called “Generation 13”)

http://www.sagaontour.ca/
http://www.dprp.net/proghistory/index.php?i=1995_02
http://www.amazon.com/Generation-13-Saga/dp/B00000D9TV

I also find that relationships and friendships, and
partnerships in particular, also seem to follow this four
season rule. First there’s a phase of Idolatry, where one
of the parts is surprised and honored by the other’s
availability and friendship; a second phase is one of
Equality, where the previously surprised part asserts
and assumes (and rightly so) that there’s no need to
be surprised, honored or obliged, since he or she is, in
fact, an equal in a symetrical relation; unfortunately
this eventually turns into a third phase, shall we call
it Arrogance, where the equality thinking becomes “I’m
actually the most important part of this relationship,
I dont owe anything to the other part and actually I’m
probably being exploited” (aka the “I can go it alone”
phase in partnerships); the fourth phase, lets call it
the Hindsight phase, usually comes after a few years or
a few knocks through reality, is one where the previously
arrogant part understands that he was indeed part of an
equality (and indeed something was owed because of that
recognition of capacity and equality) which is now broken,
never to be repeated, forgiven maybe,but not forgotten.

I’ve had the repetition of these 4 phases with several
friends, partners and even family. I guess its part of
the natural order of things. I guess that my reasoning
can even be extended to everyone’s child/parent relations,
including mine with my father, now deceased.
What’s been surprising to me is that these four phases
used to happen in a 3 or 4 year cycle. Lately they’ve
been happening to me faster, within 1 to 2 year cycles.
Either everything is moving faster or I’m getting older
and slower…

— MV


17
Jun 07

Two – Make It One – Week Holiday

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Two (Make It One) Week Holiday
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 07 17:34:21 GMT

Finally my two-week holiday period for this year
has arrived. Unfortunately my next two weeks off
holiday will have to be foreshortened to one week
because of professional duties (not only the Lisbon
elections coming up but also the portuguese EU
presidency). Oh well, I’ll have to use some of the
remaining days to go to Campus Party Portugal; damn..

http://campusparty.aeiou.pt/

So for the next 7 or 8 days there’ll be no posts
from me. I’m prohibited to go anywhere near any
piece of electronic equipment by both my wife and
the personnel (house rules) at Vila Lara.

http://www.sofitelvilalara.com/
http://www.accorthalassa.com/gb/hotel/thalasso-vilalara-portugal.shtml
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&ll=37.099243,-8.38142&spn=0.005904,0.007178&z=17

I’ll be either the small private beach, in front of the
big rock, or at the biggest of the 3 pools, top center.
Highly recommended place when you want to compress two
weeks rest into 7 days…

I am taking with me the usual load of Amazon ordered books,
which this time was:

“Crossing the Chasm”, Geoffrey Moore
“The Long Tail”, Chris Anderson
“Sceptical Essays”, Bertrand Russel
“Como Se Levanta Um Estado”, Oliveira Salazar
“Fooled by Randomness”, Nassim Taleb
“Hunters of Dune”, Brian Herbert
“Democratizing Innovation”, Von Hippel
“The Innovators Solution”, Clayton Christensen
“The Venture Capital Handbook”, Grave Hay & Peeters
“The Game Producer’s Handbook”, Dan Irish

Since the first two have already been read in this
past two weeks, its 8 books for 8 days; should be
doable…

— MV

PS – Meanwhile I had the time to get the 3rd issue of
*.pt out. Its at http://www.asterisco.pt/ as usual.
Still no post on the future of web development and
why both 3-tier and MVC should be considered harmful,
but in wont surely be this week…