It's been some months since my football team, Real Sporting, renewed its web page. I do not like the design very much, but it is nice that to be able to enjoy the TV section. It is based on a Flash video player, and they allow you to link and embed the videos.
The most recent video is a wonderful oldie, which shows and overview of FC Barcelona-Sporting in 1987-1988, with Sporting defeating Barça 0-4.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
The death of a master
I went to bed really late last night. I was dealing with the update from Ubuntu 7.04 to 7.10. Supposedly, this post would talk about it. But I want to bed and turned the radio on as I love falling asleep on Saturday and Sunday nights listening in Onda Cero to La Rosa de los Vientos, a radio programme that has been talking about history, science and mystery for the last 9 years, driven by radio master Juan Antonio Cebrián.
They were only broadcasting music. This sounded really weird to me. I started to listen to other radio stations and I managed to listen the end of a section in the programme of Iker Jimenez in Cadena Ser, where they were saying farewell to Juan Antonio. I went back to Onda Cero and waited until the next hourly news report where they confirmed that he had died yesterday afternoon because of a heart attack, at the age of 41.
I started listening to him in Turno de Noche, maybe the best night radio programme I have ever listened to, in 1991 (I guess). I was studying in High School and he was a great company when studying for exams. I felt alone when sports programs ended and nothing but boring music or gossip ones were the only thing to listen to. He was not only company. He also taught me lots of stuff about Ancient Egypt, the Order of the Temple, both World Wars and many other stuff. Not to talk about paranormal experiences, parapsychobiophysics and other hidden sciences related things. And, in Turno de Noche (not in La Rosa de los Vientos), it was really great the final hour of humour so I usually fell asleep with a smile on my face.
I am not one of those fans who follow their myths looking for an autograph, that disturbs them when they walk peacefully by the streets and so on or that even would love to become a friend of their idols. But Cebrián was a different person: he sent such good feelings like quietness, proximity, ... even friendship. His legion of fans felt him like a friend. As it never happenned to me with any popular person, I would have really loved to have him as personal friend, I could have talked with him for hours.
I know I shall have the chance to fulfill that dream, because we'll meet one day in Hades. And I shall be "Encantado y feliz, como una lombriz", as he always said, when that happens and we'll have all the discussions we could not make before. Until then, you will not be missed, because I know that Bruno, Carlos and Jesus (the other Cs in the 4Cs) will carry on with the spirit of your manners of making radio. The show must go on!
As a final epitaph, I will include here this mourning video that I found in one of the dozens of sites dedicated to Juan Antonio. It made me even shed some tears. How not?
I still wonder why it is always the best ones who first leave soon. My condolences to Silvia and Alejandro.
¡Fuerza y Honor!
They were only broadcasting music. This sounded really weird to me. I started to listen to other radio stations and I managed to listen the end of a section in the programme of Iker Jimenez in Cadena Ser, where they were saying farewell to Juan Antonio. I went back to Onda Cero and waited until the next hourly news report where they confirmed that he had died yesterday afternoon because of a heart attack, at the age of 41.
I started listening to him in Turno de Noche, maybe the best night radio programme I have ever listened to, in 1991 (I guess). I was studying in High School and he was a great company when studying for exams. I felt alone when sports programs ended and nothing but boring music or gossip ones were the only thing to listen to. He was not only company. He also taught me lots of stuff about Ancient Egypt, the Order of the Temple, both World Wars and many other stuff. Not to talk about paranormal experiences, parapsychobiophysics and other hidden sciences related things. And, in Turno de Noche (not in La Rosa de los Vientos), it was really great the final hour of humour so I usually fell asleep with a smile on my face.
I am not one of those fans who follow their myths looking for an autograph, that disturbs them when they walk peacefully by the streets and so on or that even would love to become a friend of their idols. But Cebrián was a different person: he sent such good feelings like quietness, proximity, ... even friendship. His legion of fans felt him like a friend. As it never happenned to me with any popular person, I would have really loved to have him as personal friend, I could have talked with him for hours.
I know I shall have the chance to fulfill that dream, because we'll meet one day in Hades. And I shall be "Encantado y feliz, como una lombriz", as he always said, when that happens and we'll have all the discussions we could not make before. Until then, you will not be missed, because I know that Bruno, Carlos and Jesus (the other Cs in the 4Cs) will carry on with the spirit of your manners of making radio. The show must go on!
As a final epitaph, I will include here this mourning video that I found in one of the dozens of sites dedicated to Juan Antonio. It made me even shed some tears. How not?
I still wonder why it is always the best ones who first leave soon. My condolences to Silvia and Alejandro.
¡Fuerza y Honor!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Tricks to stop tricksters
A phone falls into water and it stops working. That is something that people say that usually happens. And it looks like many people wait for them to dry and go to the shop and say that it mysteriously stopped working so the warranty makes them get a new phone.
I had read that some phone makers had created phones with materials that changed their colours if they get wet.
It looks like the iPhone has something like that, as said in MacBidouille. They say there is a small ball in the headphones jack that changes from white to blue when wet.
So it looks like tricksters will have to stop playing tricks like that with Apple's phone.
I had read that some phone makers had created phones with materials that changed their colours if they get wet.
It looks like the iPhone has something like that, as said in MacBidouille. They say there is a small ball in the headphones jack that changes from white to blue when wet.
So it looks like tricksters will have to stop playing tricks like that with Apple's phone.
Moving from Windows to Linux...
... is not easy. And just because of one single reason: Microsoft Office.
Although I would love to, as hardware support for virtually any PC (desktop or laptop) is really good these days (I found out the other day that there is even support for Thinkpad's HDD shock protection), and I have free software to do almost everything I want to do.
Games were a reason in the past for me not to move, but not now. I got sick and tired of wishing a new computer every year so I could play all those cool games. After buying my Dreamcast, I stopped playing on a PC. Then came PS2, PSP and now PS3. And they confirmed my intention.
But I have to deal with complex Word and Excel documents taking all the power out of these tools. And, I am sorry, but OpenOffice is still far away from Office. Also in terms of usability and productivity (mmmmm, those cross-references should work easier, as Word does, even if it is a field in which Microsoft still has a lot to improve).
I am reading in Barrapunto, SlashDot's Spanish brother, that OpenOffice 3.0 will compete with Outlook: Thundebird+Lightning to handle mailing and event calendars in a coupled way, PDF import and export, import Microsoft Office XML, and lots of stuff. I am looking forward to it, but if it does not let me open Office documents, feel them the same way as Office, modify them and be able to send them to others having Office without them noticing that I did not use Office... then it does not work for me.
So please, may OpenOffice be fully interoperable with Office (really sorry that an open format is beaten by a "de facto" proprietary standard). Or, instead of that, every organization start using OpenOffice so I can move from Windows to Linux :-)
I'd really love to. In the meantime, I am enjoying Ubuntu a lot and using it except for documents and spreadsheets.
Well, I cannot bind my N80 to my PC in Linux with all the possibilities that Windows (via Nokia PC Suite) offers, or use SDKs like the ones from Nokia's phones, from RIM or a whole lot of phone emulators.
But that is not a problem of the OS, but of developers' closed mind... Linux has a huge community of developers behind willing to start programming in everything supported by Linux.
If Nokia or RIM made all their development tools available to the Linux community, I guess that lots and lots of more free programs for those platforms would be available. Same might be said about supporting MacOSX.
Errrr. This post has ended with an off-topic, sorry. As I said before, I want to go to Linux, but my job does not let me use it all the time.
Although I would love to, as hardware support for virtually any PC (desktop or laptop) is really good these days (I found out the other day that there is even support for Thinkpad's HDD shock protection), and I have free software to do almost everything I want to do.
Games were a reason in the past for me not to move, but not now. I got sick and tired of wishing a new computer every year so I could play all those cool games. After buying my Dreamcast, I stopped playing on a PC. Then came PS2, PSP and now PS3. And they confirmed my intention.
But I have to deal with complex Word and Excel documents taking all the power out of these tools. And, I am sorry, but OpenOffice is still far away from Office. Also in terms of usability and productivity (mmmmm, those cross-references should work easier, as Word does, even if it is a field in which Microsoft still has a lot to improve).
I am reading in Barrapunto, SlashDot's Spanish brother, that OpenOffice 3.0 will compete with Outlook: Thundebird+Lightning to handle mailing and event calendars in a coupled way, PDF import and export, import Microsoft Office XML, and lots of stuff. I am looking forward to it, but if it does not let me open Office documents, feel them the same way as Office, modify them and be able to send them to others having Office without them noticing that I did not use Office... then it does not work for me.
So please, may OpenOffice be fully interoperable with Office (really sorry that an open format is beaten by a "de facto" proprietary standard). Or, instead of that, every organization start using OpenOffice so I can move from Windows to Linux :-)
I'd really love to. In the meantime, I am enjoying Ubuntu a lot and using it except for documents and spreadsheets.
Well, I cannot bind my N80 to my PC in Linux with all the possibilities that Windows (via Nokia PC Suite) offers, or use SDKs like the ones from Nokia's phones, from RIM or a whole lot of phone emulators.
But that is not a problem of the OS, but of developers' closed mind... Linux has a huge community of developers behind willing to start programming in everything supported by Linux.
If Nokia or RIM made all their development tools available to the Linux community, I guess that lots and lots of more free programs for those platforms would be available. Same might be said about supporting MacOSX.
Errrr. This post has ended with an off-topic, sorry. As I said before, I want to go to Linux, but my job does not let me use it all the time.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
The worst thing is to create expectations and... not work at all
This is what is happenning to me with Truphone, VoIP software with a recent version for Nokia N80. It has a wizard for configuration that works by sending an SMS to Truphone and waits for a response one... that never comes.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Google Maps on S60 3rd Edition
Yes. S60 3rd Edition users will no longer have to use a Java client for Google Maps. A native Symbian client is available (go for it by pointing your Webkit or WAP mobile browser at http://www.google.com/gmm) and you'll be able to experience Google Maps thanks to a faster and less memory consuming software.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Yoigo should worry about support for certain applications and services
You already know that I am very happy with my mobile phone service provider, Yoigo. But as one starts trying to use his phone for more and more things, you realize that they still have a lot of work yet to do about the "small things". Sometimes, small things make the difference.
For example, Nokia PC Suite does not support Yoigo configuration to use your phone as a 3G modem when you need connection and no Ethernet or Wifi connectivity is available. You have to guess the configuration and set it yourself until you make it work. I think that the friends at Yoigo, knowing that Movistar, Orange and Vodafone are supported, should call Nokia quickly and ask them to support them (giving them the proper configuration settings).
It is not only a matter of better support to their clients, it is also a matter of good image for the company.
Another example: SMS messages relative to a Google Calendar event. Yoigo is not listed among supported companies. Yoigo should talk to Google and kindly ask them to be included (and prepare everything to support this service).
I could go on with the list, but it would take long to write. These two examples should clarify how Yoigo should make it to increase its commitment to allow their clients to access advanced data services at a low cost. Paying little is good, but being able to use these great services thanks to the agreement between your service provider and your web service/application provider is much much better.
For example, Nokia PC Suite does not support Yoigo configuration to use your phone as a 3G modem when you need connection and no Ethernet or Wifi connectivity is available. You have to guess the configuration and set it yourself until you make it work. I think that the friends at Yoigo, knowing that Movistar, Orange and Vodafone are supported, should call Nokia quickly and ask them to support them (giving them the proper configuration settings).
It is not only a matter of better support to their clients, it is also a matter of good image for the company.
Another example: SMS messages relative to a Google Calendar event. Yoigo is not listed among supported companies. Yoigo should talk to Google and kindly ask them to be included (and prepare everything to support this service).
I could go on with the list, but it would take long to write. These two examples should clarify how Yoigo should make it to increase its commitment to allow their clients to access advanced data services at a low cost. Paying little is good, but being able to use these great services thanks to the agreement between your service provider and your web service/application provider is much much better.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Trutap (II)
OK. It works :-)
I read about trutap over a week ago. Some days ago, when I found the time to try it, I registered and tried to instal it. It seemed to be easy: right after receiving your download code (it takes some days), just access http://m.trutap.com via N80's Service (WAP 2.0) browser -not the S60 (HTML/XHTML) Safari based browser- and enter the code; their web detects your phone and serves the right JAD file for your phone (yeah, it is JavaME, so it might work in a wide range of devices and if yours is not supported now, I am sure it will soon be).
I had a problem because the JAR file seemed to be corrupted, but a quick interaction with the support team via email was enough for them to fix the problem and for me to be enjoying it right now.
I have set my ICQ, MSN and Yahoo accounts (AIM is available too), and I can blog here. Unluckily, the text field is pretty limited (I tried to write this text but I quitted trying as I lost it because I forgot to add @gmail.com to my login username in the settings).
You can set your trutap profile too (besides mentioned IM networks, trutap includes its own, as some other clients like Trillian Astra do) and some preferences about alerts, privacy, data usage (interesting if you do not have a flat rate connection like Yoigo's).
It is very promising that the "stuff" tab in "My contacts" button in "Home" screen says that it will soon support MySpace, Facebook and some more social network accounts.
Give it a try because, although it is their first beta, it has already become the best communication tool in a mobile platform for me and it has replaced Yahoo Go among the 5 icons in my N80's idle screen.
I read about trutap over a week ago. Some days ago, when I found the time to try it, I registered and tried to instal it. It seemed to be easy: right after receiving your download code (it takes some days), just access http://m.trutap.com via N80's Service (WAP 2.0) browser -not the S60 (HTML/XHTML) Safari based browser- and enter the code; their web detects your phone and serves the right JAD file for your phone (yeah, it is JavaME, so it might work in a wide range of devices and if yours is not supported now, I am sure it will soon be).
I had a problem because the JAR file seemed to be corrupted, but a quick interaction with the support team via email was enough for them to fix the problem and for me to be enjoying it right now.
I have set my ICQ, MSN and Yahoo accounts (AIM is available too), and I can blog here. Unluckily, the text field is pretty limited (I tried to write this text but I quitted trying as I lost it because I forgot to add @gmail.com to my login username in the settings).
You can set your trutap profile too (besides mentioned IM networks, trutap includes its own, as some other clients like Trillian Astra do) and some preferences about alerts, privacy, data usage (interesting if you do not have a flat rate connection like Yoigo's).
It is very promising that the "stuff" tab in "My contacts" button in "Home" screen says that it will soon support MySpace, Facebook and some more social network accounts.
Give it a try because, although it is their first beta, it has already become the best communication tool in a mobile platform for me and it has replaced Yahoo Go among the 5 icons in my N80's idle screen.
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