Thing #4. Team work

I enjoy going to school. I enjoy studying. I enjoy going to school. I enjoy studying. I enjoy going to school. I enjoy studying…

Ok, I don’t. I hate to waste time, and studying subjects that have little, to no relationship with my career makes me mad. Way mad. But I don’t have a choice, so I “try” to like it. Even though, I tend to complain too much about the way things develop. I guess it’s just that I hate lazy people with the idea “you’re the smart guy, so you do all the job”. I really, REALLY, FUCKIN’!!! hate it.

It happened (a few times but happened) during my first semester. It happened again during the second semester, a lot of times. Now, during the summer classes, it’s happening again. Thanks god, there were only a few activities that need to team up, and I worked with a friend, who gets the job done as it should be.

WordPress has no more customers

According to WordPress statics, our dearly beloved blogging service has been left without bloggers. What will happen now without them???

Proof of existence

Don’t worry, WordPress. Chuck Norris will certainly roundhouse kick each blogger’s ass in order for them to use you again. Which reminds me I should be writing a lot of posts instead of publishing senseless content. I saw it, and I immediatly felt the rush to do this. Sorry XD

A poetic, epiphany for a geek

It’s been a curios weekend. I feel extremely anxious and nervous due to the final exams. I know what will happen, but I don’t know yet what to do. It’s a pain in the ass.

Anyway, this post is about a two-stage religious experienice I had this weekend. I was kind of bored, angry, tired and some other things I won’t list here, so I decided that it would be a good choice to practice Java a bit. I launched Eclipse, and took my programming folder. To my surprise, I only had two classes left from the previous course: My actual final project, and the project of the systems engineers from Monterrey’s ITESM campus. As I didn’t know the second, I chose it as it sounded more interesting.

I started coding immediatly the class. Less than half an hour later, I had the basic scheme finished. It was kind of stupid to think that it costed me next to none effort, considering that only the basic scheme of my final project took me more than 5 hours. I felt happy, but at the same time I realized that our campus is the only one that offers a more-or-less complete plan studies, and it features some unique specializations.

Anyway, I really hate the ITESM marketing, so I’ll stop there. I wrote the code of the class, fought a little with an array of objects, and polished the interface. After testing it, I checked all the code, searching for errors. I found a very stupid one, I forgot to close a ‘case’ statement, so the next statements would be executed after finishing the one with the problem.

I opened space within the code to write the last command of the of my class. It was poetical. The last command I wrote was:

break;

Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 Overview.

I’ve just finished reading and incredibly mediocre post about Ubuntu Jaunty featured in WordPress frontpage. It contained a heavy amount of software, “helping” users to install software via command line in the way “sudo apt-get install (put your software here)”. Now that’s sad, as most people looking for information on installing something within Ubuntu will mostly be newbies, so it’s a quick way to scare them off. As I’m angry again, I decided to write this post to introduce the main new features of Ubuntu 9.04, in both the technical and the “mortal” way. May the force be with me… I hope I won’t end as that poor guy. So, here we go.

Ubuntu first impression.

The same installation since Edgy. Smart, easy and fast. As soon as you pop in the installation disk, the welcome screen guides you through. The installation (including tweaking original values) took me roughly 15 minutes, while an XP clean installation took more than 20. One of the main changes announced in the technical overview posted at Ubuntu Forums, was the increase of boot speed. Definitely, they accomplished it. It takes somewhere around a 25% less to boot, so it’s a noticeable change. Also, the graphic login screen has changed completely, it’s no longer the usual, beige + Ubuntu logo. It was replaced with a heavy coloured, dark screen.

As soon as the login is completed, GNOME 2.26 is loaded. The new stable version features major updates only. No new, shiny, bleeding edge software. Nothing noticeable here, as GNOME works very neatly and bug fixes rarely show up as it almost never fails. One thing I could see though, is that the CPU Scaling widget has been corrected. It no longer is randomly broken after each start.

The system introduces new features also, at system level, the “Computer Janitor” used to clean unorphaned packages, files and else consuming space in the disk. Another feature, is a new display panel (which I couldn’t use as my card is an nVidia, by the way) which helps with the connection of a monitor and/or TV. It was a daunting task to connect anything before, so it’s appreciated. Shame on me, as I won’t be able to use it for now.

Probably the most significant interface change in this version, is the new notification system. In previous Ubuntu version, an icon popped when an action was triggered. A rectangular icon popped up at the lower center of the screen each time the brightness or volume was adjusted, The network status was published as a cloud, Pidgin new messages were marked in Pidgin’s icons, and so on. Cannonical, decided it was way too decentralized, so they were bound to create a common place, were applications would publish their notifications. And again, it happened. They did it.

Notifications.

The new notification system is quite beautiful, yet useful. I only have a few regrets, which I’ll explain further. The new notifications idea model, as stated in Mark Shuttlworth’s blog, is to be a clean way to tell the user that something important is going on, without causing any clutter.

Notification system in action.

Ubuntu 9.04: Jaunty Jackalope

Ubuntu’s version 9.04 was released yesterday. Version 9.04 is coded “Jaunty Jackalope” and includes a series of major updates, as usual. According to the official Technical Overview, the updates included are mainly the last update of GNOME, updates in Kernel, boot performance, Ext4 inclusion and a new notification system.

I haven’t seen the system working in front of me, as the nearest thing to Jaunty I’ve been, is a couple of meters away from a CD-R with the ISO image burnt within. I planned a clean installation of Ubuntu, due to the fact that I’ve scarcely used Windows, or “Güindos Ve-esta” as JR an me named it some days ago. I thought that having a 50 GB partition for a system I don’t commonly use, is quite useless, so I’m formatting completely my disk. My thoughts end here. I’m installing Ubuntu. I’ll post a review as soon as I finish the system.

And now, the new logo of Ubuntu reflecting its philosophy: Free, gorgeous and ‘wow’ inspiring.

UPDATE: Read also the overview.

Ubuntu Logo

University

As I wrote in my about section, I’m studying Systems Engineering at ITESM. Although I commonly write in my blog about technology, Linux and many other stupid notes, after all this is my personal blog, a site dedicated completely to fulfill a simple task: To be torn apart as I want, saying whatever I want to say. Correct, incorrect, or anything else, without even taking into consideration if what I’m doing is morally or sociably acceptable.

So as that, I decided I wanted to write about some aspects of what is, and will be my career. These last days, I haven’t had much time to think in many stupid things of my life, but the feel that I should write about some general aspects of my university has passed from a vague idea to a serious wish.

I don’t know yet what will be my first post on this, but I’ll begin to plot some ideas. Right now, I’m only thinking in writing about everything related to university, but not limiting to a specific topic. I plan to write from stupid things like my irrational hate toward dominicans and other types of scum that usually wander around the CEM, to investigations I’ve done that took the shit out of me. Really, there have been a couple of projects that are plainly stupid, and are way too specific to find any useful information on the net.

I  I just hope to complete my MP3 tutorial before getting into this. I hate starting a lot of projects, and not finishing most of them, and it’s something I commonly do. Perhaps I’ll finish them both on the fly. Perhaps I should fuckin’ stop at once talking about the future and start working on everything I want to do. Time to get my hands dirty, again.

"The Red Thing", seen from far.

I couldn’t help it. I really had to post the red thing as the “artwork” for my beginning post. I mean, it’s the red thing… It’s part of the common life at the CEM.

MP3 media guide. Part 1: Overall explanation and tools

First things first. Media formats are just like condoms. They come in every colour, price, texture and flavour there is out there. Formats are very varied, but they can be easily grouped in two main categories: Lossless and lossy formats.

Lossless. The packing monsters.

Lossless formats, are just as its name says: What you hear is what you get. These formats are powerful, crunch formats that provide 1:1 to sound ratio. Basically, they work grouping together media information, so the size is considerably compressed. The best definition I’ve heard for them, is that they are “packers”.

The algorithm works, groping similar sounds in a digital formats, so the sound given by the source format (i.e. a CD) is the same in both the digital file and the sound recorded into the CD. Examples of this are WMA and ACC in their lossless versions. Of course, there are also open formats, like FLAC and Monkey’s Audio (APE). Almost all files you’ll find in the net, encoded with lossless, will be either of this formats.

FLAC Logo

The first impression may seem all-glorious because of the fact of the 1:1 sound ratio (actually, it sounds glorious), but as everything else it has its downside. First of all, it’s compression ratio is somewhere around 40% and 50%, depending on the album. Although it’s not a halfway bad ratio, the space is an important factor to check.

Crossroads

Heaven knows why I published some of my last posts. I had a nice amount of pending draftts, so I kind of… just wrote and wrote without thinking much, to catch on again. Anyway, this post is only a brainstorm that i want to be in my frontpage, so I’ll know what (in reality) I have to do.

1. On a previous post, I already said that I’ll be posting a guide on making and tagging good MP3 files. This post will be published in parts in the next days.
2. I’m planning another how-to with Ubuntu. I don’t really know when will this be posted, as the new distro is bound to pop-up somewhere in April.
3. I love photography, and I have a huge amount of photographies from my last 5 years. I have almost the same amount of photos as music. I want to publish a way to organize them they it should be.
4. My personal tribute to a heroine, Gina Trapani, from Lifehacker. I remember that I enjoyed a long time ago reading her posts about productivity, and I actually did some of the small projects published there. I’ll say what, how and when too.
5. More hate and stupid posts are coming, of course…

I don’t know what else I’ll be posting, but one thing’s for sure. I’ll start with that little how-to on music soon.

Change to Ubuntu Intrepid. Again

The previous saturday, I decided it was about time to install Ubuntu again. Since the last problem with my computer, I hadn’t installed it back because I was very lazy and because I never found time to do it. So, the last week I finished my first term exams (Which went out very screwed by the way) and I decided to do it again. As a not-so-important fact, I helped a friend to install Ubuntu in his lap, so I decided I wanted it too.

I downloaded an .iso from the server at UNAM (Mexico city) It took ages to finish because my ISP is an absolute crap. Somehow, I got it, burned it with IMGBurn, and I set off to install it. When I formated my lap, I made enough space on the disk to fit XP, my data, Ubuntu and lastly the Swap area, so the installation went on on rails. Once again, I was amazed. It took less than 30 minutes to install completely on my ext3 area, so I was kind of happy when it finished.

On my first boot, the first surprises arose, as always. 1024 x 768, no wi-fi card. So, I connected the ethernet cable, opened Synaptic and installed EnvyNG. Again. It took roughly 5 minutes to install my card, compared to 15 minutes on Hardy. Looks like the guys working with Envy are doing a huge progress.

The next (again..) was my wi-fi card. I installed NDIS Wrapper and went on flawless. After installing my wi-fi driver (using the GTK version because I was lazy) I had full signal from my router. The rest, was just software. After several tweaking, it took me something around 3 hours to have Ubuntu completely operational. Not bad at all. It took me more than 6 hours to get XP working, counting the time it took to install private software (Macromedia Studio 8, Corel, Office 2007) and getting Vista out of it.

So as that, I haven’t booted to XP unless it is completely necessary. Looks like Amarok now supports music transfer with artwork and videos, so I’m seriously thinking on stopping to use iTunes once and for all.

As soon as I get Amarok working completely with the iPod, I’ll be posting the how-to. Or a post saying that I couldn’t get it done… Also, I have some pending post (From 4 months ago XD) mainly about the XGL server, and main programs. Once again, I don’t have time for anything. I hate pretty much studying large amounts of information that I won’t fuckin’ use in my life. I’m off, I have the Organizational Computing exam. I already fear the Math and the Physics exams, so I guess this afternoon will be kind of… Helish.

Media Freak

I absolutely love music. It’s one of the things I enjoy the most in life, but indeed, it’s not just like listening whatever gets to my hands. Music is not only a type of art, it’s also a way of life. A way of expression, a way of standing out from the crowds. It’s a part of me, as I could clearly point out a huge amount of tracks that describe a specific era or scene of my life. Memories are not just chunks stored as abstract images kept somewhere within the synapses of a brain. They are also feelings, that come out of the blue, when a specific action is triggered. Just what music makes me feel.

I’ve been listening to Industrial music since I was around 14. I had always made music a part of my life, but the first time I listened to that CD which was gifted to me, I loved the sounds captured within the Joliet structure of it. I had heard for the very first time some of the great bands of the genre, Apoptygma Berzerk, VNV Nation, Icon of Coil and Front 242, among others.

I lost that CD. It became scratched as I didn’t look after it, and it was rendered useless. It took me nearly 4 years of heavy listening to Industrial music, to find those glorious tracks again. To be able to hear them once more. From that time, I’ve listened to many other genres, sometimes hearing mainstream music, sometimes listening to the most underground part of it. My range on music has developed quite a bit, and I can surely say I’d recognize a good band from the genres I listen to the most.

Almost a year ago, I opened a new blog dedicated completely to music with a friend, named Somatoxin. We’ve had a very good time posting on it, as we both love music, and it has been interesting to watch the contrast between Industrial and Metal.

Anyway, studying Systems Engineering, and having an extreme love to both computers and music, I started to look for time-efficient tools that would help me to administer my music. In the time, I found a bunch of useful tools, like Last.fm, the Musicbrainz database, MP3Tag and the LAME codec. They all have been quite good guidelines and tools with my absolute love to music.

It’s been almost six months since I first said I was going to publish a full guide on how to administer efficiently and take the maximum out of a music library. I haven’t done anything to acomplish this since then. Thinking in a huge amount of things, today, I decided it’s about time to start finishing what I want to do. I’ve lived around a 25% of my life, and I feel I haven’t done anything productive. It’s time to get my hands dirty. It’s time to fight.

So, the first thing I’m accomplishing, is publishing a full detailed guide on how to (really) take the most possible out of a multimedia library. I was planning to publish only one post with the whole explanation, but just like a project, it will be fairly simple if I chop it down to small bits of information. In that way, I’ll have enough time to explain everything perfectly, without forcing anyone to read a lot of pages at once.

Be warned though. This will be for ‘media freaks’ only. Learning the process can take time, and each album that is added to a library will be time consuming. It may seem like a lot of work, but take my word. It will be worth it.

Stay on the watch. Soon, the first post, explaining the tools that will be used, will be published. Hang in there.

P.S: By the way, happy birthday to me!! I’ve rotated around the sun about 19 times. Just a curious fact.