Piero Umiliani - Mah Na Mah Na

Times are changing

Punish

God creates men.
Men create challenge.
Men destroy God.
Men give birth to me.
I conduct punishment to others that face me.
"Punishment by L" becomes rule

/L out

I saw Watchmen.

Definitely, my movie of the year.

[edit] so far...

Jericho - Five for Fighting

Hi I'm a Marvel, and I'm a DC

Almost Martyr

Help the big guys

Yesterday, Friday, I was sent on an assignment. I was sent to fix the problems with my team's work for a convergence to gather new customers.

I was sent by my team. No one else could be sent for me as I was the one that knew how to fix it.

It is an odd feeling on being the salvation element of a team.

Too bad they don't reward people for the importance they have.

ZEN

Credit Bubble Burst (for Dummies)

2000
People work and gain money.
People save money in a bank.
Banks become very wealthy.
Banks support corporations.
Corporations make advertisements.
People see advertisements.
Advertisement causes wishes.
People want to buy more than they can afford.
People ask for loans to the banks.
Loans are given to anyone.
People buy big and are happy.

2002
People work and gain money.
People save money in a bank minus the money they owe to the bank.
Banks become quite wealthy but not as much as before.
Banks support corporations.
Corporations make advertisements.
People see advertisements.
Advertisement causes wishes.
People want to buy more than they can afford.
People ask for loans to the wealthy banks.
Loans are given to anyone.
People buy big and are happy.

2004
People work and gain money.
People can't save money in a bank because all goes to paying out the loans.
Banks are not wealthy.
Banks support corporations.
Corporations make advertisements.
People see advertisements.
Advertisement causes wishes.
People want to buy more than they can afford.
People ask for loans to the banks.
Loans are given to anyone.
People buy big and are happy.

2006
People work and gain money.
People don't gain enough money to survive in the month, so they don't pay the loans.
Banks are not wealthy.
Banks support corporations.
Corporations make advertisements.
People see advertisements.
Advertisement causes wishes.
People want to buy more than they can afford.
People ask for loans to the banks.
Banks ask other banks for loans to give people credit.
Loans are given to anyone.
People buy big and are happy.

2008
People work and gain money.
People don't gain enough money to survive in the month, so they don't pay the loans.
Banks bankrupt because the loans they give are not paid back.
Banks fail to pay their own loans to other banks.
Banks bankrupt.
Banks can't support corporations.
Corporations lose their money.
Corporations bankrupt.

But still...
People see advertisements.
Advertisement causes wishes.
People want to buy more than they can afford.

Recipe for 2010?
The Government put people's tax money back in banks.
And delay the next, inevitable, burst.

Is this the right way to go? Let me pinpoint the issue.
Advertisement causes wishes. <-
People want to buy more than they can afford. <-
Loans are given to anyone. <-

Printed papers

It's been a long time since a dollar per newspaper could afford the printing, production and logistics; not to mention the digging up of stories, maintenance of sources by reporters and all the other jobs and costs related to the stories out in the newspapers.

In modern times, a dollar helps almost nothing in the process.
So how can papers keep alive ?

Simple: with advertisement. Full printed posters with fashion models, perfumes or cellphones, lowers or nulls the cost of a printed paper. Most newspapers are given if not hand-forced to you because the higher the distribution, the higher the advertisement gains.

This has been a good life for papers in the late 1990s and early 2000s.But what about digital newspapers? I know, for sure, that I do not read printed papers any longer. I watch TV and read news online. This creates a whole new market, also supported, in majority, by advertisement. Are printed papers being cast out of existence?

In the new millennium, has anything not distributed digitally any chance of surviving?

Speaking with a Lia Moreira, Journalist and specialized in newspaper reporting, she believes the main cause of this increasing "paper disease" is related to the reading habits:
"Reading papers is progressively becoming a habit of the most senior."

An example given was the picture of the "morning coffee and paper", which is not present in the daily lives of the youngsters:
"Young people want to keep informed too. However, they take the chance to do so once they are in the computer, probably at their work place, where they can do other things at the same time."

Questioned about the future of the printed "press", her words reflect some sadness when she agreed that the smaller papers will die first:
"Not the free city papers. Those are given to you and you unlikely will say 'No'. We will see those for some time still.
However, the local papers that depend on money will disappear. If the company is large enough, it may migrate to digital distribution and other sources of revenue and survive. Smaller companies will not make the cut."

About the future for journalism she shares a deep concern with her fellow journalists:
"The printed press, in general, is continuously reducing the new hires and investment in this area - which only worsens the situation."

The "new media" concept is changing information for everyone. Just a few years ago, my TV didn't come through my Internet.

Cammy's lovely buns

Actually, it's more like the next SF4 costumes available as DLC.

But still...

Onion

Cristiano Rodriguez, nicknamed "Cebola" (Portuguese word for onion) was the main character of the incredible match of (Atlético Madrid 2-2 FC Porto).



His pace yesterday reminded me of the times Quaresma was still in FC Porto. All those dribbles through the left wing, with the support of Cissoko were a terrible headache for the poor Atlético's defensive side. It also reminded me of the formation I usually use in FIFA 09 with Manchester United. I use Evra as a Left Winger and Tevez in the left corridor going through. It was a delight to watch the match. Lisando did a great job getting the ball in and Hulk was just unlucky not to score as well.

When I said incredible game, I mean that the Portuguese team has played like a charm and dominated. A tie is too much of an unfair result for Porto.

For United's match, a draw was also an unfair result. The attacking side was always ManUtd, driven by Ronaldo, and Inter didn't do squat on the 1st half. On the second half the tides were turned as Inter had the ball all the time, but with no strikes at goal, it's impossible to score.
As Inter didn't produce chances despite the possession, the chances were always coming from Ronaldo who always hit with danger, but never quite managed to get it in.

Let's see how Sporting does against Bayern tonight.

Indestructible

Champions' League: Tomorrow's biggest clashes:

Atlético Madrid VS FC PORTO

Inter Milan VS Manchester United

Needless to mention, I am rooting for the away teams.

Windows Live Messenger 2009

Today Microsoft has forced invited their dear Live users to upgrade/update (I will explain later why both these words are wrong) to the latest, arguably bugfree, version of their Live Product.
Despite my sincere nuisance of this move (that the upgrade is actually mandatory and we can't plan it to make it at a later time), I would like to point out that only home users can actually use the installer.

A bad design move made by them (the 1 man team doing messenger) of not allowing business OS (i.e. Windows 2003) to install (it actually works, because the kernel is the same as XP), so we have to use the offline installer that doesn't complain at installation time.

Why the update word is a bad word for this process:
You update data, you update your system, you update your fashion statement:
In resume, you update collections that are not described by a number. Update is more of a collective process, or a collection of upgrades, depending on the target.
The label that shows up: "You need to update to the latest version" is wrong.

Why the upgrade word is a bad word for this process:
You have to remove old version before putting in the new version. THIS IS NOT AN UPGRADE. This is a RE-INSTALL. The proof of this is that I have to go in the options and change again and again that I do not want the sounds and the "windows live today" crap.

I would sincerely like the installer to do it for me, preserving my settings, as a true UPGRADE, but it doesn't.

This brings the biggest problem to the bag that is that you can't uninstall WLM in a clean way if you went in and installed in Win2003. Choosing it in "Add/Remove Programs" doesn't do a thing. Perhaps as a pay back of forcing it to install on an unsupported system. (I can definitely imagine a MS guy saying "suckers", at this moment).


Solutions?
Yes, 4 of them.

1- You delete every trace of folders, files, registry entries and other craps that WLM puts in your system. This is NOT an easy task.

2- Find the previous (your current version's MSI) on the web (not an easy task also), download it, right click and choose uninstall. Pray that it works because it only works if it is exactly the same version that you have and not all the times.

3- Time machine and parallel universe swap (not recommended though).

4- Convince everyone to use other IM.

Good luck upgrading/installing/etc.