Nadal, Federer and the New Year's Resolution

I read a few months ago the biography of Rafael Nadal, Rafa: My Story. Maybe it is not the book of the year, but nevertheless it contains an important message: in order to achieve anything important one needs not only talent, but also a lot of hard work. His arch-rival, Roger Federer, posted recently a similar message on his Facebook page, so if there is a resolution that I should have for the new year is to work hard: on my job, at home and also on the tennis court (don't show this message to Madalin though :). Since some of my work at home is entertaining Sabina, that would mean that I will also have play hard ;)

Cand ai scoala, dar nu ai rusine

La doua zile dupa scandalul legat de modificarile codului penal Varujan Pambuccian continua sofismele pe facebook legat de definitia functionarului public din Codul Penal. Dupa exegeze privind dictatura lui Hitler si imunitatea parlamentarilor, afirma urmatoarele aici:

"Ceea ce am votat ieri se referă la faptul că parlamentarii și funcționarii publici sunt lucruri diferite. Dealtfel, legislația care se referă la cele două categorii este complet diferită și disjunctă. Singurul loc în care lucrurile s-au amestecat este cel al codurilor. Cele două coduri (penal și civil) au fost modificate repede și pe picior anul trecut. Există o grămadă de lucruri contradictorii în ele, și din ce în ce mai multe ies la lumină odată ce judecătorii le sesizează (de cele mai multe ori la cursurile pentru aplicarea lor). Unul dintre ele este și cel legat de asimilarea celor două categorii.

Hai să vedem câteva aberații care ar reieși din asimilare:
1. Funcționarii publici sunt numiți. Parlamentarii sunt aleși. Cum ar fi să ne alegem funcționarii publici sau să numim parlamentarii.
2. Funcționarii publici sunt inamovibili. Parlamentarii au mandat de 4 ani. Cum ar fi să avem parlamentari inamovibili sau să schimbăm funcționarii publici din 4 în 4 ani.
3. Funcționarii publici sunt salarizați (ceea ce presupune un anumit tip de raporturi de muncă). Parlamentarii primesc o indemnizație, tocmai pentru că (în conformitate cu Constituția), mandatul nu este imperativ.
4. Funcționarii emit acte administrative. Parlamentarii nu emit niciodată acte administrative, ci legi. Chestia cu trasul la răspundere pentru actele administrative, subiect extrem de dezbătut în presă. nu are obiect. Sau poate are, dacă de mâine cineva decide că legile sunt acte administrative. Tot printr-o asimilare de-asta. Constituția discerne clar și aici, dar atunci când statul de drept este doar o vorbă în spatele căruia se construiesc instrumentele unei dictaturi, se poate și asta. Și exemplele pot continua."

Domnul Pambuccian esta absolvent de matematica si stie prea bine ce este aceea o definitie si de asemenea stie ca orice text cat de cat organizat (articol stiintific, carte, lege) are o sectiune in care se definesc termenii cu care opereaza in continuare. Iar articolul 147 din codul penal exact asta face: defineste o categorie de cetateni care activeaza in domeniul public si pentru care apoi sunt definite diverse infractiuni. Asta nu are de-a face cu legea functionarilor publici, statutul parlamentarilor, mandate imperative sau orice alte aberatii care sunt vehiculate zilele acestea. Daca parlamentarii au o problema cu titulatura de functionar public atunci pot sa schimbele numele in ce vor ei, categoria X sau Y. Dar este inadmisibil sa vrei sa spui ca unora din cei care au functii publice nu li se aplica conflictele de interese (acest lucru este explicat foarte clar si aici). Iar afirmatia de la punctul 4 de mai sus este falsa, caci parlamentarii emit acte administrative cand semneaza contracte de munca pentru angajatii cabinetelor parlamentare. Exact pentru asta sunt cercetati unii parlamentari (nu pentru votul lor sau opinia exprimata in parlament), pentru ca si-au angajat rudele la cabinetele parlamentare. Si tocmai aceste fapte vor sa le dezincrimineze. Multe cabinete parlamentare au zero activitate, uneori nu au nici macar un sediu declarat, insa banii alocati luna de luna fiecarui parlamentar pentru acest lucru se scurg catre angajatii acestora.

De asemenea domnul Pambuccian, alaturi de ceilalti parlamentari (aproape toti de la USL, UDMR, PPDD, minoritati si 2 de la PDL) au votat urmatoarele:
- modificarea articolului 74: daca esti prins ca ai furat pana in 100.000 de euro si dai banii inapoi nu patesti nimic, daca e pana in 500.000 de euro iei o amenda; deci practic poti sa furi linistit!
- modificarea articolului 253: conflictul de interese se va aplica doar celor care au un contract de munca; adica primarii, presedintii de consilii judetene, consilierii locali sau judeteni, parlamentarii pot da contracte rudelor, firmelor personale fara a pati nimic;
- modificarea articolul 156: daca unei persoane dintr-un grup infractional i se aplica prescriptia, atunci tuturor celor care au participat la acea fapta beneficiaza de prescriptie;

Acum sa va spun cateva cuvinte despre domnul Pambuccian. Dansul este reprezentantul minoritatii armene in parlament, o minoritate mica in zilele noastre. Pentru a fi reprezentantul unei minoritati ai nevoie de un numar de voturi (vreo 2-3000 parca) care sa ateste ca acea minoritate mai exista in Ro. Cum armenii sunt din ce in ce mai putini, domnul Pambuccian si-a construit o nisa electorala: prietenul IT-istilor. Este adevarat ca de-a lungul timpului a sustinut multe initiative legate de IT, iar lumea din domeniu l-a apreciat pentru asta. Cunosc oameni care in mod constant l-au votat la Camera Deputatilor la mai multe randuri de alegeri. Chiar eu i-am indemnat uneori pe cei scarbiti de politica sa-l voteze pe el in loc sa-si anuleze votul sau sa stea acasa. Dar aici drumurile noastre se despart. Caci prietenul inamicilor mei nu poate fi prietenul meu, iar domnul Pambuccian a dovedit prin acest vot (si prin insistenta de a-l apara in plin scandal mediatic) ca este prietenul penalilor. Problema cu IT-istii este ca inteleg destul de usor ce este o definitie, ce sens are modificarea ei si ca pot comunica foarte usor intre ei in ziua de azi. Asa ca am sa fac tot posibilul ca aceste randuri sa ajunga la cat mai multi dintre ei cu urmatorul mesaj:

Nu il mai votati niciodata pe domnul Pambuccian, caci este un prieten al penalilor!

P.S. Am atasat o captura a comentariului de pe Facebook in caz ca va fi sters mai tarziu

 

Sweet Dreams

This is a cover of Eurythmics, I would call it sweet and sours dreams :), but it is still nice nevertheless:

Happy Birthday, Romania!

Today is our national day, we celebrate 95 years since all the provinces inhabited by Romanians were reunited in a single state. Since that time some parts of those provinces were lost after the second world war, the most important part being Basarabia, which was part of USSR after the war, but now it's an independent country, Republic of Moldavia. The good news is that in the last years the government of Moldavia decided to pursue the integration of the country in the European Union and just a few days ago they signed an important commercial agreement with the EU.
The weather is not very nice in this part of the year, so we just took a walk outside, but I noticed much more many flags at the windows then in other years. The politicians did their show as usual, eager to attract some sympathy from the public. In many cities they organize nowadays public gatherings for this day where often food is given away for free (most popular are beans with sausages and stuffed cabbage), so we decided to have for lunch today a similar menu: beans with sausages, pickles and a delicious apple juice from Itesti.

The proof is below:

South of the Border, West of the Sun

"South of the Border, West of the Sun" is the first novel from Murakami that I finally get to read. I tried twice before, but probably I was not in the mood for reading at that time since I didn't manage to get past the first few pages. But this one hooked me and now I'm in the world of feelings and remorses of Hajime. What strikes me most is the contrast with a book that I read many years ago: "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting" by Kundera. While Kundera writes about how our memories wear off until we don't recognize them any more, Hajime's life is full of feelings and memories from his youth. The book is full of references (including the title) to classical and jazz songs, but the most mentioned one is Star-Crossed Lovers of Duke Ellington, so here is it:

NLP for Children

Natural language processing has always been my favorite topic from artificial intelligence field. Let's remember that many anthropologists think that our elaborate language is the feature that makes us humans and distinguish us from the rest of the animals. Also, the famous Turing test for artificial intelligence says that a computer should be able to have such an elaborate conversation with a human, that the person would not be able to tell that he is talking in fact with a computer. For years the NLP field developed as computational linguistics with all kinds of grammars and tree structures, but the breakthrough is this field occurred when statistical methods were applied. On the other hand, there is a lot of research on how the children actually learn to speak. It is amazing that in about an year or so a child is able to understand what is said around her and she starts talking. In this paper are presented three cases of learning of various language features by children and the first case is how the babies of 6-7 months old learn to segment the continuous speech into distinct words. The findings suggest that they in fact apply statistical learning and segment the words on consecutive syllables the are unlikely to occur one after the other. This is just amazing, the same principle is used in many NLP algorithms. So clearly I must step up my skills in statistics to keep up with these youngsters that use them from the first months of life :)

Like a Bosch

I read this morning an editorial called Bosch's Code from a Romanian newspaper. Nothing in there about auto parts or electrical machines, nor about the factories that Bosch has in Romania at Cluj and Blaj, it was all about the painter Hieronymus Bosch. The author recently quit his career in Romanian politics and maybe the abjection of political life is what draw him into the subject of Bosch's paintings, nevertheless it is an interesting read, all about art with a twist about faith at the end. To add some background music to this reading I will post the video of Metallica's "Until It Sleeps", one of my favorite songs from them. When I first saw this video I thought that it looks like a Bosch painting, which is a bit weird in the first place, but it seems that I had a "bad" entourage in high school :) Now I just verified my feeling and there is it: Metallica actually made this video with themes from Bosch's paintings, the details are here.

Ender's Game - The Movie

I recently attended a course called Personal Leadership and Influence which I liked a lot (very good trainers, challenging setting with lots of team projects in four days). It teaches you all kind of stuff about how to interact with various kind of people in various situations, to be aware about how you feel and think and how different other people might feel and think, how to work in a team and overcome blocking points and more. When I went last night to see Ender's Game movie I realized this is what attracted me to Ender's story in the first place when I read the book. It was not the fights with the aliens or whatever technologies, but the story of how Ender becomes a leader, managing and block-busting the difficult situations he encounter at each step. The movie is good, they managed to create a nice orbiting space battle school, including the zero gravity battle room, but it is very condensed comparing to the book. I would have liked to see more school battles with the associated details about various conflicts and team spirit building that is described in the book. So even if you would go and see this movie, you should not skip the book, it is much nicer and complex. Below is one of the trailers of the movie:

Memory of a song

That happened last night, I started hearing in my head at some point the chorus of a song that I didn't know very well, probably heard on the radio some years ago. It must have been a loose Halloween soul that brought it to my mind, although I didn't see any witch flying on broom by my window. The words were something with dream about you or dream about me and after a little research on Google I found it. I listened it like 10 times since last night, I even sang it to Sabina this morning and she seems to like it, so here it is: Moby - Dream About Me. Enjoy!

Is TV good for children?

Well, we all know that TV is bad for children, but this guy actually proved it using a scientific method. He replicated such an environment for mice and studied their behavior afterwards. On the other hand, the lack of interaction with a child can affect him badly too and the sad part is that the example in this case is from a Romanian orphan house.



So you'd better turn off that TV and play with your children!

Maria Tanase

I never knew much about Maria Tanase, but her songs seemed to be with me from as long as I remember. I heard and sang them at home, then I sang them with my friends at parties and now I sing them as lullaby songs to my daughter. Below there is a collage of some rare moments when she was caught on camera:



Happy 100th birthday, Maria Tanase, wherever you are!

P.S. If you want more details about her life there is a nice blog entry here (in Romanian).

Te intreb daca vezi vreo schimbare?

la oamenii din jur...



"Victoria" e unul din cele mai triste cantece ale anilor 90. Acei ani in care iluziile revolutiei s-au spulberat sub lampasele minerilor si ceata groasa a acelor vremuri.

Insa la manifestatia de aseara am vazut alti oameni, nu veniti din budele din centrul vechi cum declara saptamana trecuta lacheul de Badea, ci oameni care merg sa stranga gunoaiele din natura cu cei de la Let's do it, Romania!, sau oameni care merg sa planteze copaci cu cei de la Plantam fapte bune, sau oameni care au oprit de doua ori schimbarile la codul silvic alaturi de WWF Romania, sau oameni care merg de Craciun sa duca daruri copiilor orfani, sau oameni care merg sa faca lectii cu copii defavorizati, sau oameni care merg sa refaca marcajele turistice de pe munte, sau oameni care aduna pisicute de pe strazi si le dau spre adoptie, sau oameni care merg sa monitorizeze delfinii din Marea Neagra cu cei de la Mare Nostrum, sau oameni care curata de bucati de parc lasate in paragina sau retrocedate, sau oameni care se lupta in justitie pentru a stopa constructiile ilegale ca cei de la Salvati Bucurestiul, sau cei care scot de un an de zile pe cheltuiala lor un ziar despre Bucuresti, sau biciclisti care fac marsuri pentru a avea piste pe care sa mearga, sau oameni care alearga la crosuri si maratoane pentru cauze caritabile. Toti acesti oameni au fost aseara in strada, au marsaluit ore intregi prin Bucuresti, Cluj si alte orase si s-au simtit solidari. Iar la sfarsit au declarat triumfatori ceea ce stiau deja: Frate, am invins! Caci da, in aceasta saptamana am invins inertia si teama de a te solidariza cu necunoscutii de langa tine si credinta ca cei de la putere sunt intangibili. Aceasta e schimbarea pe care am vazut-o aseara la oamenii din jur. Si sper ca aceasta schimbare va genera o schimbare si la nivelul societatii.

Capitularea politicienilor a venit la nici jumatate de zi diferenta.

Cercul de matematica

Recent m-a contactat cineva care face o lucrare de doctorat despre copilaria anilor 80 din Romania si despre activitatile extracuriculare care se faceau atunci. In mod particular am fost rugat sa povestesc despre cercul de matematica la care participam, iar daca tot am scris aceasta poveste o postez si aici:

Povestea cercului de mate a inceput in clasa a patra. Intr-o zi m-a intrebat mama daca ne-a zis la scoala de noul cerc care se face duminica (pe atunci sambata era zi lucratoare, deci si zi de scoala). Invatatoarea de la clasa mea nu ne zisese (se pare ca nu se intelegea cu domnul profesor Dinu), dar cum mama auzise de el de la colegii ei de serviciu care aveau copii de-o seama cu mine, duminica urmatoare m-am prezentat la cerc. Si de atunci am tot tinut-o asa pana la sfarsitul clasei a opta. In primul rand era o activitate care ma prindea de minune: probleme grele, teme de pe o saptamana pe alta la care ma gandeam in timpul meu liber. Imi amintesc si acum ce bucuros am fost cand am rezolvat una din problemele cu condamnatul la moarte care de data asta scapa formuland un paradox. In clasa a cincea s-a schimbat structura cercului si profesorii. In primul rand cei care erau mai buni la mate stateam grupati la ora de mate si primeam de lucru separat. Apoi urma cercul de mate saptamanal, tot cu Craciunescu, proful de la clasa, iar in preajma olimpiadelor am facut niste sedinte integrati cu cei de la clasele mai mari care sperau sa prinda un loc la nationala, desi la clasa a cincea nu exista o faza nationala a olimpiadelor. Sedintele acestea se faceau cu cel mai respectat profesor de matematica din Mangalia la vremea aceea, domnul Henny (in memoria lui se organizeaza si in ziua de azi un concurs de matematica la Mangalia). Din clasa a sasea m-am mutat in Constanta, iar aici am continuat pe de o parte sa lucrez separat la clasa impreuna cu alti cativa colegi si pe de alta parte sa particip la cercul care se tinea pe tot orasul Constanta. Aici i-am cunoscut si pe cei mai buni elevi din oras, dar si pe cei mai buni profesori, caci profii se roteau de la o saptamana la alta si prezentau cate o alta tema. Cu majoritatea celor pe care i-am cunoscut aici am fost mai apoi coleg de liceu si chiar si de facultate cu o parte din ei.  Revolutia am trait-o bine-nteles in tabara de mate din vacanta de iarna, la Sangeorz-Bai. Profesorul Moraru a fost cel care, usor cherchelit, ne-a tinut primul discurs despre ce oportunitati ni se deschid in fata o data cu prabusirea comunismului. Conditia era, nu-i asa, sa continuam sa invatam cu burta pe carte la mate :) In clasa a sasea am mers la olimpiada nationala, iar in clasa a saptea eram deja asa de legat de gasca de la cerc incat am refuzat sa merg la nationala la fizica (luasem locul intai cu nota 10 la faza pe judet) si am preferat sa merg la nationala la mate ca rezerva, caci iesisem abia al patrulea la faza pe judet. Daca la nationala am luat o nota rusinoasa (despre care Craciunescu, aflat si el acolo cu elevii din Mangalia, m-a sfatuit prieteneste sa nu pomenesc prea des :) ), in schimb am avut ocazia sa vad in acele zile petrecute la Ploiesti primul spectacol live cu cei de la Divertis. Atmosfera de la cerc era deseori glumeata, uneori chiar si ironica, asa ca am gustat din prima umorul "ingineresc" al celor de la Divertis. Era prima data din cate imi amintesc cand pur si simplu ma prapadeam de ras. Din fericire traditia cercului nu s-a destramat imediat dupa revolutie, iar noi am continuat sa ne tinem de problemele noastre saptamana de saptamana pana la sfarsitul clasei a opta. Chiar daca pana la urma am optat pentru o cariera in informatica (dupa ce in liceu am cochetat din nou si cu fizica, caci am avut probabil cel mai bun profesor din sud-estul Europei :), pe domnul Bararu), matematica mi-a ramas intotdeauna in suflet. Caci daca in inginerie si fizica mai poti face o aproximatie (o iei la pila ca sa se potriveasca cum se zice pe la noi :)), la matematica lucrurile sunt intotdeauna clare: ai demonstrat cerinta problemei sau nu, a treia varianta nu exista.

La final doua intamplari de peste ani:
- la prima ora de la cursul de computer vision de la University of Maryland, cu un profesor grec, Aloimonos, o somitate de nivel modial in domeniu; proful ii pune pe rand pe fiecare din studenti sa se prezinte si sa spuna din ce tara sunt; ajunge si la mine si ii spun ca sunt din Romania, la care se opreste si incepe sa ne povesteasca cum cand era el elev profii ii bateau la cap sa invete la mate si le ziceau ca in Romania elevii fac ore suplimentare in fiecare zi la matematica si o sa le-o ia inainte; se pare ca cercurile de matematica din Romania erau deja celebre de ceva vreme...

- la unul din primele mele interviuri la angajare din Bucuresti prin 2004 dau peste o echipa care incepuse sa practice stilurile de interviu ale celor de la Microsoft si Google. Probleme de tot felul, printre care si de logica. Fac o problema, iar pe urma imi dau inca una pe care o stiam. Le zic ca o stiu, iar ei ma intreaba un pic circumspecti: de unde o stii? Pai din clasa a patra, de la cercul de mate. Asta a pus capat acelei sectiuni a interviului, eram suficient de calificat :)

La nouvelle chansonette francaise

I didn't listen for a while any French music, but recently I saw on a wall this chansonette :)



And I liked it.

Royals

If elegance is an attitude (like in the Longines commercials with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf), couldn't royalty be the same? Just rule your world, but also be kind with it, and voila, you are the king of your castle :)

New Placebo Song in Town

Today I heard on Radio Guerrilla a new song by Placebo, Too Many Friends. Apparently this song is so new, that I didn't find it on YouTube! Or maybe they have a very aggressive copyright protection policy. However, I found a cover of this song which actually sounds pretty good, so here we go:



I like also the lyrics about the proliferation of virtual friends/"friends" for which you will not really be able/want to be there for. And this is really true my friend...

Update: After two more weeks the official version of this song appeared on YouTube:

Dr. Spock

I started reading a new book about 8 weeks ago and it's very instructive. Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care is a reference book for taking care of your baby and child in U.S. and I guess even worldwide. It's not only about the practical advises that one can read about like the possible causes why the baby might cry, but it also gives you an overview of how the child will develop and how the parents should learn to deal with all these new problems, learn not to panic and still enjoy the ride. It's not a book to read in a few days or weeks, but in the years to come.

Everybody's Changing

Everything changes when you have a child, so like the song says: everybody's changing and I don't feel the same :)

Se habla espagñol

"Se habla espagñol" is the poster I saw in many store windows in U.S., indicating to non-English speakers that they can be served in Spanish inside. That's what I'll try to do myself, for those who would want to talk with me in Spanish, and not in Romanian or English. I've been trying to learn Spanish for a long time, as I like very much the sound of this language (probably because I have problems pronouncing the sound "s" and I sound similar to how it is pronounced in Spanish). I also like many writers of Spanish language, like Llosa or Marquez and it would be nice to read their novels in original one day. The problem with foreign languages is that you need to make a sustained effort over a long period of time in order to become proficient and as I will do it for fun, I may become easily distracted into something else. Not to mention that I would also like to learn a million of other things, but my time resources are more and more constrained lately :) So what makes me so confident that I will manage to learn Spanish this time? Well, it's a site called Duolingo that I discovered recently (via this blog post). Their approach is very interactive, it covers all aspects of communication (reading, writing, hearing and speaking). They also have a track record, and levels that can be unlocked only if you get a certain number of points, so it's like a quest game. And they also have a mobile application, so you can do a lesson or some exercises every time you have a few spare minutes. All this content is free and even if you are not into Spanish, they also offer lessons for German, French, Italian or Portuguese.
After all the computer languages I've studied since finishing high school (Java, C, C++, Prolog, Lisp, OCaml, Python, SQL, PL/SQL, XML, HTML, BPEL and probably more) it's nice to study a human language again :)

LLA

The whole song is about going to Radio Guerrilla, right? It's like a long gingle, but it's nice though...

Off & On

If you ever asked yourself if I like obsessive songs, then yes, I do like obsessive songs. So here's a new one from Findlay, a band so new that they're still offering free mp3 downloads on their site. Kudos to Radio Guerrilla and their musical board for bringing this band to Romania's radio waves.

Robot Rock

This is one of the coolest applications of computer science I've ever seen. A group of robots performing a rock song: there is a robot playing drums with four sticks (like Bonham from Led Zeppelin) and another two playing bass and guitar, but also headbanging while playing. What's missing is the vocals, but I'm sure they're working on it.

Where Do the Ducks Go?

If you read The Catcher in The Rye by Salinger you may remember the question that one of the characters asks himself:

"I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. … I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away."

Since this is a famous book, the administration of Central Park felt compelled to offer an explanation here. I can confirm from my visits in IOR park from Titan that the ducks on the lake don't migrate in the winter, they are always there.

But other birds do migrate, so the question is legitimate in their case: where do they go when they go? Luckily, the modern technology is helping again, so by attaching a transmitter to a small eagle's leg a team managed to track the exact migration pattern of the bird for a couple of years. You can see in these maps how the eagle (called Narcis) flew each autumn over 10.000 kilometers from Sibiu county in Romania to Turkey, Egypt and all the way down to South Africa. And back in the spring. Isn't that amazing?

Moonlight Breakfast

The sound, the rhythm, the voice, all are very good in this band. I can't get enough of them, so I decided to post two songs: "No More", a sad song which reminds me on Amy Winehouse (although the voice reminds me of Duffy), but not quite depressive like Portishead:
and "Play", a happy song with an unexpected clarinet solo:

Is one hour enough?

Today it's Earth Hour, that one day when people around the world turn the lights off for an hour, showing their respect for the planet Earth. The cynics say that one hour in a year of turning off your lights makes no difference in the end, but this event is about much more than that. Not only that WWF (the NGO that had this idea in the first place) organizes many other events related to this day (like the contest for the official Earth Hour city which was organized in Romania and which resulted in collecting over 9 tonnes of plastics, or the pledges I will if you will), but more important, Earth Hour is about changing people's attitudes towards our environment. If that hour in the dark will make you think before you print the next day, or about the products you consume the next week, or about the water you waste every day, or about how to recycle all the plastics that you through away then the effects will be bigger and everlasting the few watt hours that you save in that hour. So go on and enjoy tonight's "dark" hour!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

And a traditional Irish song for today:


And if this doesn't say much to you, try this version:

Pure nostalgia

I always liked this song, but I never knew who sings it. Until yesterday when I heard it on the radio in the car and I decided to find out its name once and forever. This was not on the playlist of Radio Guerrilla, the voice didn't sound familiar and I couldn't remember the lyrics, so it was a tough task to find it. I looked first at a list of most famous alternative rock bands, I picked some that I didn't know so well, then I started looking among their songs: Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, but no luck. Then I searched some tops of all time best alternative rock songs and I tried listening the ones I didn't recognized on the list, but it was too time consuming. Then I found another type of top, a collage of best songs compiled but somebody. So I just listened the collage until I recognized the song I was looking for: 1979 from The Smashing Pumpkins.

Another plugin bytes the dust

Two years ago I went to a conference at University Politehnica of Bucharest and in one of the panel discussions there was a topic about the future of web technologies. I stated my point that plugins in browsers are annoying and the trend in the following years will be to get rid of them. Some guys from Adobe Romania were very vehement and upbeat about the future of Flash especially. Two years on the situation is clear: Flash was banned on iPhones and iPads for stability and security reasons, Adobe announced that they will no longer develop Flash and open-sourced the Flex platform, we have a version of YouTube that runs videos using HTML5 player. And a few days ago Mozilla released a new version of Firefox that has a PDF viewer, so you can see PDF files in browser without using the Adobe Reader plugin. I am on the beta update channel for Firefox, so I had this feature for a couple of months and it works just fine. Since the PDF viewer is written in JavaScript and it's open source I expect a similar feature to occur in the other browsers in the near future. Enjoy!

El Plato Supreme

The patent war goes to Super Bowl. Maybe you heard about patents, but even if you didn't, they already affect your life one way or another. The principle behind the concept of patents is correct, namely to protect one's invention for a period of time, so that he can excessively benefit from her idea. The problem is that this system leads to everybody rushing to claim a patent on any idea they have each morning and to formulate their brand new idea as vague as possible, so one can later claim that is applicable in different places than where was used originally. In IT field the result was also a series of patent wars and lots of litigation, which further made companies acquire as many patents as possible in what is effectively an arms race. The latest war of this kind is between Samsung and Apple over the design and features of smart phones and this war was brought to the most watched television event in U.S., the Super Bowl final in American football, by the commercial bellow. Enjoy the game!

More good music and good tennis

It seems the year started well for my stumble on music discovery, cause I found another cool band, this time on the monitors from Hard-Rock Cafe in Bucharest. Silversun Pickups produced 3 LPs so far, but they are still in the phase of opening concerts for other bands (like Muse or Placebo).



On the other hand, the first grand slam of the year in Australia produced an epic match between Djokovic and Wawrinka. Below is the match point after 5 hours of play, one of the most beautiful match points I ever saw:

A Short History of Nearly Everything

After his analyses of English and U.S. societies and into Shakespeare, Bill Bryson turns his eye on science in his book A Short History of Nearly Everything. Mr. Bryson was trained in humanities, but he still remembers a diagram from the fifth grade describes how the Earth looks inside if slice it to its core. What haunts him is the question: how the heck do the people know what is inside the Earth since nobody really dug a hole to its center? That led him to embark on a quest of three years of documentation about the history of natural sciences that resulted in this book. His write is entertaining as always and he shed light not only on the various scientific discoveries, but also on the many characters behind them. From well know figures (like Newton or Einstein) to less know people who were often unlucky to discover something but not be recognized for it or even worth be derided for it (like the Englishmen who had the intuition of the periodic nature of chemical elements a couple of years before Mendeleev, but was not taken seriously). It is a fascinating history that makes you fully appreciate the great distance that science evolved in the last 300 years. We are know taught in school in 12 years the gist of the work of thousands of people over hundreds of years, so no wonder it's so hard to get a grasp of it for many of us.
What amused me most was the attitude that was prevalent towards the end of the 19th century. After the discovery of gravitation, laws of mechanics and electricity, magnetism and thermodynamics and the principles of chemistry many people considered that the science discoveries were almost done, with only a few nuts and bolts remaining to be clarified to complete the picture of how nature works. As Mr. Bryson says: "In fact, of course, the world was about to enter a century of science where many people wouldn't understand anything and none would understand everything. Scientists would soon find themselves adrift in a bewildering realm of particles and antiparticles, where things pop in and out of existence in spans of time that make nanoseconds look plodding and uneventful, where everything is strange."
At least we are more humble know about science, especially that the two main theories from the 20th century, general relativity and quantum mechanics, are yet to be reconciled. The quest goes on!

511

I don't watch actively the music scene nowadays, but sometimes I stumble upon gems like the one below. Although they sing for many years and I even heard about them sometimes at Radio Guerrilla, only a few days a ago I listened some of the songs from Alternosfera. The sound is incredible and I also like the Moldavian accent of the lead vocals guy. Enjoy 511, a kind of ars poetica from Alternosfera.