1) I am going to marry the love of my life, she said yes!! /me does the dance.
2) We both got our yellow belt second degree today, next rank is green belt first degree, looking forward to it!
ps: I love you, even when you kick me so hard I can barely breathe :)
I had successfully setup ushare to stream multimedia content from my linux fileserver/p2p machine to my xbox 360 in order to reproduce the media on my tv without using xbox 360 hard drive space and without all the hassle that means burning disks or copying data to a pendrive, it works, the only problem right now is that xbox 360 doesn’t support any kind of subtitles, altough I can understand 99% of the english I hear, that’s not the case for the rest of the family. Anyways, this is what you have to do to get things working smooth.
First, of course, install ushare, I won’t give details because it changes from system to system, I recommend you to use your distribution package system to get this one installed.
After the install you need to add a multicast route so the upnp discovery protocol can work, add this to your /etc/rc.local if you want this to run on each boot, just change eth0 to your real network interface.
route add -net 239.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 eth0 ifconfig eth0 allmulti
Either run that manually now or reboot, after that you should see your route like this:
[root@tangerine ~]# route Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 192.168.0.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 239.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 default Lucius 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
Now edit ushare config, mine is at /etc/ushare.conf
# /etc/ushare.conf # Configuration file for uShare</code> # uShare UPnP Friendly Name (default is 'uShare'). USHARE_NAME=uShare # Interface to listen to (default is eth0). # Ex : USHARE_IFACE=eth1 USHARE_IFACE=eth0 # Port to listen to (default is random from IANA Dynamic Ports range) # Ex : USHARE_PORT=49200 USHARE_PORT= # Port to listen for Telnet connections # Ex : USHARE_TELNET_PORT=1337 USHARE_TELNET_PORT= # Directories to be shared (space or CSV list). # Ex: USHARE_DIR=/dir1,/dir2 USHARE_DIR=/home/shared/multimedia # Use to override what happens when iconv fails to parse a file name. # The default uShare behaviour is to not add the entry in the media list # This option overrides that behaviour and adds the non-iconv'ed string into # the media list, with the assumption that the renderer will be able to # handle it. Devices like Noxon 2 have no problem with strings being passed # as is. (Umlauts for all!) # # Options are TRUE/YES/1 for override and anything else for default behaviour USHARE_OVERRIDE_ICONV_ERR= # Enable Web interface (yes/no) ENABLE_WEB=yes # Enable Telnet control interface (yes/no) ENABLE_TELNET= # Use XboX 360 compatibility mode (yes/no) USHARE_ENABLE_XBOX=yes # Use DLNA profile (yes/no) # This is needed for PlayStation3 to work (among other devices) ENABLE_DLNA=no
Notice the USHARE_ENABLE_XBOX=yes?, turns out that in the default config file the option is named just ENABLE_XBOX which doesn’t work, the correct option name is USHARE_ENABLE_XBOX. Now after your config is OK you should start ushare, then go to your xbox, select multimedia -> videos and press X button to load videos from another source, if everything is OK there you should see your uShare source.
Thanks to this blog, I found the config flag fix. All kudos and greets to that guy.
Enjoy.
So my girlfriend is a geek too (surprise! surprise!) and she has helped clients for years to setup computers, get rid of virus, trojans, malware, etc and most of the time clients just bring their desktops or laptops to her and she fix them and they pick them up good as new, but some times some clients don’t have the time and really needs to get their PC’s working quick, this is when VNC comes in. VNC for the non-geek audience is a software that enables people to control computers over the network, it’s really the best way to fix a desktop computer remotely (servers are other story). What’s the problem with VNC? well, the setup is tricky, specially when routers are on both ends and NAT needs to be setup properly before even trying to connect to the remote computer and most of clients aren’t really even remotely geeky, they really have no idea what’s going on with their PCs and they just need help. So, if you ever tried to tell a client how to setup VNC and their router over the phone, you will absolutely LOVE Fog Creek Copilot, I mean, you’ll want to create a shrine to the developers that made this thing possible, it’s that good.
Basically Copilot takes all the hassle out, put your name in a box or create an account, they’ll bring you back a number, tell your client/friend/family to write the number down on copilot.com download and install the software. Once both have the software running Copilot will connect them and you’ll have access to the computer. That’s it!, simple, easy, fast, brilliant. No configuration, nothing. It has various pricing options but I found out that the day pass it’s free on weekends and $5 on any workday so we go ahead and tried that (I’m a cheap bastard, I know), and oh yeah, it works on OS X and Windows, which is even better.
RADIOHEAD, my all time favorite band will perform on March 27th, 2009 at San Carlos de Apoquindo Stadium in Santiago, Chile! the tickets to the best spot sold out in 3 hours. I went to buy the tickets one and a half hour earlier and got to be number 2 in the line, the presale started at 5pm, just about the same time the sale system collapsed and nobody could buy anything, the couple that was in front of me finally moved to another sale point and I got to be number one in the line.. HOURS went by and I could finally buy them at 7:40pm, 4 hours after I got there. Anyways, 4 hours are nothing compared to the 10 years I’ve been waiting for this, I’m 24 and I love radiohead since school, this is the band that got me into music, the band that triggered something special in me way back in my teen years. My bests friends from highschool will be there all in the same spot, I have the tickets for my girlfriend, a close friend and me, it’s going to be an awesome night! see you there guys!
Let me put this straight, I’m not american and I don’t vote in my country (for personal reasons) but I have to recognize I was moved by that man, he has that.. spark, that ability to motivate and inspire. I watched him a couple of times talking in front of huge audiences making his speech, point after point thriving his audience, very much like Steve Jobs at his famous keynotes, Obama is a terrific orator, that’s for sure but is he what America needs? nobody knows yet, what we do know is that America couldn’t stand another republican period, Bush was this ugly and horrifying nightmare and I’m glad that is finally over, I don’t trust any politician in general, but who knows, maybe Obama is that kind of uncorruptible man we all are hoping him to be.
Good luck with the hardest job in the world, Mr. President.
Last tuesday at about 5am the doorbell rang twice, we have a disco in the same street and it’s common that some people gather late night at our street to drink before or after going to the disco so I thought “it must be some drunk dudes playing around” but I woke up anyways, half slept I looked through the window and saw my neighbor yelling, “please call the fire department, the gym is burning!” I ran to the phone and called them and after a few rings an old lady very passive asked me what was the emergency, I said “the gym next to my house is burning, the place is right behind X place (a very known place downtown)” she said: “ok, we’ll see..”, I was so accelerated that I thought this old lady will just ignore my call thinking this was a prank, so I called the police right away and told them the same thing, fortunately a more proactive lady answered my call and told me “we are going right away”, that’s what I wanted to hear really. Then I told my girlfriend what was going on and we both dressed up and we decided that she will take our kid to her parent’s house while I stayed at home to help out and they can come back after the danger is gone.
Just when she was leaving all the police and fire trucks arrived and the firsts fireman where going inside the gym, fortunately nobody was trapped!, the fireman used our wall to get to the roof and make their way to create a escape for the smoke and control the fire, so I was helping out in anything that I could while this guys do their job.
I gotta say that in our country the fireman profession is complete volunteer, they don’t have a salary and the national budget finance only 30% of their cost operation, everything else comes from donations from the community and money out of their own pockets (yes you have to pay to be part of the fireman), I also have to say that this situation is not forced by any policy, it’s just the way fireman wanted to be, they want to be volunteer and don’t get payed, it’s something they do to help others without expecting anything in return, they really do a noble service.
In about 15 minutes they controlled the fire and after about an hour they left, that’s gotta be the longest 15 minutes ever, I thought they took a lot more time!. Nobody got seriously hurt, just superficial burns that my Sensei and Felipe got when they tried to stop the fire, they lost all the second floor of the gym, most of the weights and equipment, fortunately the tatami was intact so martial arts training can continue very soon and a lot of people is helping out to rebuild the second floor and that’s very cool.
Anyways, some pictures can be found my flickr set Fire at the dojo.
I’m sure they will get everything restored soon, a lot of people care and help and we all would love to see the gym working at full capacity again.
I don’t really remember if I learned Darwin’s theory of evolution by the means of natural selection at school, I was attending to a catholic school but as far as I know we never read the bible literally so evolution shouldn’t conflict with god and we must had been taught about it but I just don’t remember, instead I do remember the day I decided to deeply involve my life with computers, I was a kid watching a documentary on TV and they showed computer simulated creatures that evolved to accomplish a certain goal like move in different environments such as land or water, they also of course explained the theory of evolution which is the foundation of their research. I was so amazed by that show that I truly decided I will some day do the same and became a computer scientist, that show changed my life and opened my mind to the sciences, which in turn gave me a wonderful world where faith and belief are useless, I can’t thank them enough.
I found parts of the show on youtube and here they are:
Time went by and my computer skills got better, at some point I taught myself how to write software at the same time I had to learn how to read and write in english to understand the books I was “reading”, so when I say I’m autodidact I really mean it.
Many years later I started reading about religion and evolution and all that controversy around it in the US, this time I was of course completely atheist and a decent programmer, I found another video, this time on youtube that explained how evolution really works. Inside this brilliant video the author runs a software with small creatures that shows a basic feature of many creatures as they change it’s color to mimic their environment, those creatures that mix the best with their environment have less chance to get eaten by predators, some of them die randomly and the remaining ones get a chance to pass their genes to the next generation with a small probability of a small mutation, the process is repeated over and over and something wonderful happens, this small organisms start to gradually change their color and mix with the environment.
Then as a video response I found a Windows version of the same:
Then it hit me! I could try to do the same for the mac, since I wanted to learn how to program on the mac anyways, this is the perfect way to get started!.. so I got myself a couple of beers and a weekend, I learned the basics of Objective-C and Cocoa and this is the result.
WARNING: Beware I’m a complete n00b in the Mac OS X development world, my familiarity with Cocoa is 3 days old and I just got my books yestarday so don’t expect a piece of art here:
Of course the code sucks, I use pseudo-random number generators and a very rough mix and mutation algorithm, but the point is, it seems to work, I was happy and smiling :)
Bonus Track (I couldn’t resist):
So, I finally bought a domain name with my personal name and I decided to start a blog again, as very few of you may know I had a blog for about 3 years (maybe more), lost all data there and started a new one using the wordpress.com service, which I hated!. Fast forward in time, twitter gave me a new way to express myself but sometimes 160 chars are just not enough, that’s why I’m starting this little and humble blog again.
So what would you find around here?, well, mostly geeky stuff related to what I’m currently working on such as web development under symfony, mac os x application development and general unix tips, besides that, you may find an occasional post about myself, a good movie, a great craft beer or just how to deal with a lovely hyperactive 2 year old and survive!
Anyways if things start to get slow here and you want to catch up, take a look at my twitter account.
:)