mvalente.eu/mv.* Heavy Mental Stuff

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Open Source Elections
Date: Sat, 06 May 07 23:09:21 GMT

At 22 pm today, another portuguese election was
finished using solely open source software.

www.eleicoes.mj.pt
www.referendo.mj.pt

In case you’re wondering: Java+JBoss+PostgreSQL+Linux.

Plus assorted stuff like Rrdtool for monitoring (ninja
style, courtesy of Dr Pepper), Slony for DB replication
and Firefox to look at the bling (some generated by Dojo)

Another oportunity for some good teamwork between the
team at ITIJ and the team from Critical (who developed
the application). Thanks everyone…

An uneventful Sunday election, if it werent for the
fact that we had to wait 1 hour for the last 12 counties.
Everyone was counting on finishing by 9 a.m. and then
dinner at home, but it wasnt to be so.

It all points to us having to repeat the process in a
couple of months. It’ll be 5 elections in less than
2 years. At least the lookout on 2008 is nice. Parliament,
Government, Local and European elections are all set
to be in 2009… That’ll make for some free time in
2008 and I might just finish my master thesis.

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Portuguese OSS
Date: Sat, 07 May 07 22:59:21 GMT

www.lowagie.com/iText/

iText is a library that allows you to generate PDF files on the fly.

Just thought you should know that one the authors is
portuguese ( itextpdf.sourceforge.net ).

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: The Price of Being a Wolf
Date: Sat, 12 May 07 21:08:21 GMT

I didnt blog this week, mostly for being much too
busy but also because of some conflict resolution
management.

As for “busyness” lets just say that closing down
one successful project [1], starting up another [2]
and commemorating and receiving an award for a third
one [3] was more than enough to make me scurry back
to the datacenter on Friday and hack away with Dr Pepper
at the BECH (aka Bastard Email Cluster from Hell; will
post all about it someday)

[1] http://www.regionais.mj.pt/
[2] http://www.i-gov.org/index.php?article=2965&visual=1&subject=&id=1
[3] http://www.boaspraticas.com/
http://www.i-gov.org/index.php?article=2980&visual=1&subject=&id=1

Meanwhile I’ve finished reading yet another trilogy
(which for editorial reasons was edited in two volumes)
called “The Wolves of Time”, from William Horwood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Horwood_(novelist)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-William-Horwood-List/lm/2C7U6SOKJX2QJ/

I, of course, also have his two other trilogies based on the
Duncton world (which all happens in the world of moles), as
well as the Willows series, the “Stonor Eagles” (more!) and
“Callanish/Skallagrig”. The “Duncton Chronicles” are a must
for any Tolkien fan and one of my sagas of all time.

The “Wolves of Time” is, obviously, based in a world of
wolves and the dynamics of the wolf society (the pack). A lot
of it has to do with leadership and its hardships, with Klimt
(pack leader) actually having to leave and go it alone as a
wanderer to go through the wolfways and find the Heartland.

Which not only came in nicely with the hardships of the
previously referred “conflic resolution” but also with an
image that I had seen at GapingVoid and kept:

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/001294.html

I couldnt have said it better. Although, as usual, Fish could:

“In the silence of my shame the mute that sang the sirens’ song
Has gone solo in the game, I’ve gone solo in the game”
– Script for a Jesters Tear

“So if you want my address
it’s number one at the end of the bar
Where I sit with the broken angels
clutching at straws and nursing our scars
Blame it on me, blame it on me,
Sugar mice in the rain”
– Sugar Mice

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: I Dont Do Laundry
Date: Sat, 08 May 07 03:08:21 GMT

I’m off of this planet/agregator. This is the last
post that should be included at P* (whose name should
change shortly, I hope).

If you want to follow my blogging go to

mv.asterisco.pt

or subscribe to

mv.asterisco.pt/rss.cgi

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Red Sector A
Date: Mon, 01 May 07 22:49:21 GMT

“Are we the last ones left alive
Are we the only human beings to survive”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wKsEh5TAxI

Rush has the best bass player in the world; the best
drummer in the world (who also happens to be one of the
best lyricists, except for Fish); and one of the most
distinctive guitar players in the world.

Brasil can actually fill up the Maracana and sing
along to one of their *instrumentals*!:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXCZvRNgLnI

And yet in Portugal they’re virtually unknown. I’ll
just assume that we’re too high minded to like some of
that basic, primary, “rock stuff”. The European elite
is more in tune with king-of-the-burbs-ghetto-revival
hip-hop-gangsta-rap profoundness…

— MV

PS – Just for the record, I actually like some of the
intelligent hip hop out there:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1cmkX5mA9g
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hgOm8Fh15E