mvalente.eu/mv.* Heavy Mental Stuff

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Fish at Aula Magna
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 07 01:22:21 GMT

Just got back from the Fish concert at Aula Magna.

– opening act Forgotten Suns sucked; the singer either
got stagefright or stressed his voice during soundcheck;
halfway through he had to give up; I guess singing in
a real stage isnt the same as singing in bars

– the light technicians sucked; its not obligatory to
know the songs so that you can create a complimentary
ambience to them; but you should at least have some
feeling and know what each button on the board does

– Fish sucked; the band cant provide the ambience
demanded by the songs on the setlist; the setlist
sucks because it was a mish mash of Marillion’s Straws
album and Fish songs; the arrangements and orchestrations
for the songs sucked because the band sucks; and Fish
sucked by completely fucking up most of the songs by
either being out of tune or forgetting the lyrics

I do not enjoy paying 35 Euro to see bad cover bands,
so, Fish, do us a favour and get back with Marillion. They
cant write lyrics to save their lives but you sure suck
at harmonics and melodics.

The only person more pissed off than me was my
brother: yesterday Scorpions sucked even harder.

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: JavaScript in All of the Tiers
Date: Wed, 05 Dec 07 01:28:21 GMT

http://almaer.com/blog/javascript-in-all-of-the-tiers

“There have been some exciting updates which now mean that
JSON is the data representation of choice, and for views,
you can simply use JavaScript functions”

http://jan.prima.de/~jan/plok/archives/89-CouchDb-updates.html

Yes, quite nice, but that doesnt really mean “Javascript in
all of the tiers”. With CouchDB being written in Erlang, there’s
a tier which is not Javascript. Now, if someone could come up
with CouchDB but written in Javascript… that would be something.

For example, offline use would become easier…

Nonetheless “Programming CouchDB with Javascript” is starting
to get interesting…

http://jan.prima.de/~jan/plok/archives/108-Programming-CouchDB-with-Javascript.html

Probably the theme for the week, once I go to and get back
from….. yep, Brussels, for a change… you gotta love it…

http://www.eu2007.pt/UE/vEN/Reunioes_Eventos/ConselhosMinistros/CJAI9.htm

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Saude, Educacao e Direitos
Date: Tue, 04 Dec 07 21:07:21 GMT

E que nao falha: sempre que oico alguem a papaguear
“ah e tal a saude e a educacao sao direitos de todos
e portanto tem de ser publicos”, nao tarda nem cinco
minutos para ouvir a parte do “mas para os meus filhos
nao serve, como posso eu mando-os para a escola e para
o hospital particular”…

E de hipocrisia, incoerencia e imoralidade atrozes.

O problema esta na interpretacao do que e um “direito”.
E que ter um “direito” nao e ter uma *garantia*; ter um
“direito” e poder ter livre acesso (livre as in freedom,
not as in gratis) a algo, se a esse algo se puder alcancar…

Health Care Is Not A Right

“Government intervention in medicine is immoral in principle and
. . . disastrous in practice. No man . . . has a right to medical
care; if he cannot pay for what he needs, then he must depend on
voluntary charity. Government financing of medical expenses . . .
even if it is for only a fraction of the population, necessarily
means eventual enslavement of the doctors and, as a result, a
profound deterioration in the quality of medical care for everyone,
including the aged and the poor.”

[Leonard Peikoff, “Medicine: The Death of a Profession,”
http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?id=13873&page=NewsArticle

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Books Left on the Queue
Date: Tue, 04 Dec 07 20:47:21 GMT

I have finally finished up with the ITIL Library
and with the “Dreaming Void”:

http://mv.asterisco.pt/2007/Nov/cat.cgi?Book%20Reading%20Update

Not up to my usual speed, but one has to take into
account the “density” of the referred items, both in
terms of content and number of pages (the Void clocks
in at 647 pages).

The books left on the reading queue should be enough
to make it through to Xmas (when I expect the usual
batch from Amazon, courtesy of Cristina’s online shopping)

Mavericks at Work
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mavericks-Work-Original-Minds-Business/dp/0007244061/

Egonomics
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Egonomics-David-Marcum/dp/1416533230/

I started into Mavericks just last night; this and the
Amazon batch will hopefully psych me up for the upcoming year.

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Phone-Ix
Date: Mon, 03 Dec 07 10:40:21 GMT

Anda-se por ai nos blogs e e’ ver uma carrada
de posts a criticar o nome do novo MVNO dos CTT.

http://www.phone-ix.pt/

Nao sou marketoide, nao vou comentar a estrategia
de branding. Nem sou Zandinga, portanto nao sei se
vai resultar bem ou mal (depende das pessoas, o que
significa que tanto pode ser uma como outra).

No entanto dois factos incontornaveis:

– toda a genta fala ou ouviu falar do Phone-Ix

– o gajo que nos CTT decidiu correr o risco (que o e