mvalente.eu/mv.* Heavy Mental Stuff

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Bandas Pop Gayzolas
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 07 01:11:21 GMT

Se ha alguma duvida que os anos 80 no geral e
86 e 87 em particular foram GRANDES anos para a
musica, vide os exemplos abaixos. Irra que ate
os videos e musicas de bandas pop gayzolas tinham
um balanco do catano!

It Bites – Calling All The Heroes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi6u8ybZVjk

Cutting Crew – (I Just) Died in your Arms tonight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBwVlsa7_gs

Then Jerico – Big Area
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw4kPe1UOp0

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Weekly Links, Choose CouchDB or Trellis
Date: Fri, 07 Sep 07 23:11:21 GMT

The weekly roundup of links has only come up
with two winners: CouchDB and Trellis.

–CouchDB–

Just two weeks ago I was saying:
”
In conclusion: a future web framework would have to
have a single storage system for all its components. This
could either be a filesystem based system providing an
interface acceptable to the code level (SQL? XML?)
or an OO database with storage viewable as filesystem
objects. An important thing: the interface provided to
the code level could have SQL, SPARQL, XPath, whatever,
as options; but as time goes by its becoming clearer that
a REST interface is obligatory.
”

And two weeks later a major component for the future
web framework comes up in the form of CouchDB:

“””
A flat document storage engine calling itself a database.
…the future of database without the weight that is SQL.
There are no schemas. But you do store (and retrieve) JSON objects.
And all this happens using Real REST
“””

http://couchdb.org/
http://www.couchdbwiki.com/

–Trellis–

I dont know whether to read the paper:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=128472

Whether to read the book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mirror-Worlds-Software-Universe-Shoebox/dp/019507906X/ref=sr_1_5/202-0170791-7760642

Or whether to just have fun with the aplication of the code to games:
http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/Trellis

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: ToC and CCPM
Date: Fri, 07 Sep 07 22:32:21 GMT

Theory of Constrains and Critical Chain Project
Management seems like something fun that I should
know more about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_constraints
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_chain

Some stuff is definitively going into my wishlist:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agile-Management-Software-Engineering-Constraints/dp/0131424602/ref=sr_1_2/202-0170791-7760642

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Rock N Roll Ladies
Date: Fri, 07 Sep 07 00:32:21 GMT

There’s nothing sexier than a girl that knows how to
rock. You can take your Christinas, Jennifers and Britneys
and go and attend church…

Lita Ford – Kiss Me Deadly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sa-4A7RrP8
(I was in love with her when I was 16…)

Warlock + Doro Pesch – A Whiter Shade of Pale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y9y3vu7cuI
(Actually saw them in London in 93, together with my wife,
on the 2nd day of our honeymoon)

T’Pau – Sex Talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxbPotK9_pY
(GOD DAMN!!! This chick knows how to rock!!!…plus: a redhead)

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Kierkegaard and Hackers
Date: Thu, 06 Sep 07 22:02:21 GMT

“The concept of hacking entered the computer culture at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s.
Popular opinion at MIT posited that there are two kinds
of students, tools and hackers.
A “hacker” is the opposite: someone who never goes to class,
who in fact sleeps all day, and who spends the night pursuing
recreational activities rather than studying.”

Well, if I had any doubts about it, that does it. I am
a hacker. Or at least was…

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/hacker.html

“But Kierkegaard, who lived a century before the electronic
computer, gave us the most profound understanding of what a
hacker is. A hacker is an aesthete.”

Not only does that resonate with my idea of what a hacker
is but now I also have the full blast of philosophy, Kant
and Kierkegaard to justify any criticism of my admitedly
inadequate institutional profile: “I’m a hacker because
according to Kierkegaard I have a special sense of aesthetics
in what regards technology”. That should keep the ad hominem
attack makers busy for a while…

— MV