Single Point of Failure

After

Ξ March 26th, 2008 | → 1 Comments |
∇ Photo | ∇ Photo |

After a two days journey, including a living room sleep-over, it’s pink!

No Spam

Ξ March 26th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Photo | ∇ Photo, Spam, White |

Looking at my mailbox anyone can read “Advertising? NOT Here!!! Please”.

And still I continue to receive spam… can’t they read?

Town Churh

Ξ March 26th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Photo | ∇ Church, Photo, Samora Correia |

I live in a quiet town (it’s also true it has seen quieter times) called Samora Correia (Yes, Samora has a wikipedia entry, for those who tend to joke whenever I speak of my home town!!!). Being founded two centuries ago, it remained to be a small provincial village with strong connections to agriculture until the last two or three decades. Nowadays, with more than 20.000 inhabitants the general population is starting to desire more recognition and, of course, funding to support basic needs (for example, there’s a great need for new/larger schools).

Using the momentous created by this feeling, the town hall is requesting the change in status of village, and further recognition as city. I’m not sure if this should really happen. I’m still to form a n informed opinion on the matter.

Overcompensation

Ξ March 26th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Family, Introspection | ∇ Childhood, Feeling, Introspection, Parent |

My childhood was not always sad or completely unlucky. In fact, there are set of memories that I wish I could completely erase, but those events will be the focus of some other post on this blog. Also, I had my share of toys and gadgets when I was little, but I tended to destroy or lose them very often. This means that none of them lasted until today and results in some kind of the feeling of not having any toys back then.

The title points to another moment of introspection. One that starts by defining the process by which a psychologic deficiency inspires exaggerated correction, called overcompensation, and one that I must admit I often do.

This is the reason or maybe just an excuse for what I find to be overcompensating for my daughter. She has a lot of toys, and very often I fall the her whims (like last weekend when her room got a new coat of paint… pink!). The overcompensation also extends to school matters, in which the expectations tend to exceed the normal course of learning.

I’ve researched around (using google, of course) and the main feeling is that it’s normal for parents to overcompensate. Nevertheless it’s important to control how must overcompensation is let loose.

I do everything hoping to be a better parent.

Before

Ξ March 22nd, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Photo | ∇ Home, Painting, Wall |

A Diva

Ξ March 21st, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Event, Music | ∇ Alicia Keys, Diva, Event, Music |

“A concert by ‘A Diva’” is the expression that best describes Alicia Keys concert in Pavilhão Atlântico [pt] last Wednesday (March 19th 2008).

With the tickets bought more than three months before the event, the concert had created very high expectation. And even so, Alicia’s show was more that one might expect, ranging from big Hollywood’like scenes to close-and-personal piano solos, the concern had it all. A marvelous concert full of genuine R&B spirit.

Her voice is without a doubt one of the best contemporaneous female voices, and in my opinion one of the best ever. She will allways bo one of my favorite musical divas, along with Diana Krall, Eve Mendes, Lisa Ekdahl, Norah Jones, …

Been there, done that…

Ξ March 17th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Event, Music | ∇ Event, Family, Music, Wallpaper |

The title sentence must be terminated with “…, and have a lousy ticket stub and a rain check to prove it!”

This weekend was dedicated to the concert of the band Tokio Hotel. Unfortunately, the lead singer of the band got sick a few days (???) before the concert and the show was canceled. The announcement was done by the producer/manager just when the show was about to start, in front of a full audience (of around 17 thousand fans).

@

The great majority of the fans were girls, of course, with an average of 14 to 16 years old and the will to ‘camp’ outside the concern arena 3 days before the doors opened. I’m not a fan, and it’s difficult for me to understand all the crying and sobbing that the cancellation generated. Fortunately, my daughter which is a fan didn’t started crying and making a scene as many did.

I must admit that feelings of being too old, to be surrounded by such a crowd and all it’s immature behaviors caused by rapid hormonal changes, were present during several times. But a father has to do, what a father has to do… The concert was rescheduled to sometime during June (or July?), and again we’ll be there to listen to the “crazy haired german teen band”.

The next concert will Alicia Keys (also in Pavilhão Atlântico) just after tomorrow… but that will be subject of another post!

Organized Chaos

Ξ March 13th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Photo | ∇ Chaos, Organization, Photo |

I’m used to it by now… Normally called Organized Chaos, describes fairly well the usual state of my desk. At home and at home.

Green Rainbow

Ξ March 13th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Photo | ∇ Photo, Plant, Rainbow |

Taken from my work place, a beautiful rainbow over the Tejo river sharing the focus with the green plant on my desk.

backtrace… up 1

Ξ March 13th, 2008 | → 0 Comments |
∇ Computer, Software, Work | ∇ Development, Software, Tools |

The themes presented in this blog are naturally evolving along with my day-by-day experiences. The last days (or should it be months) have been completely occupied with software developments tasks known as implementation, implementation, and more implementation… I must admit that C/C++ has become my second language.

Closely associated with source code production come the fine “art of debugging”. My favorite debugger is GDB (from The GNU Debugger Project).

Learning something new every day is somewhat of a life’s philosophy for me, and it is with big enthusiasm that I learn more about using GDB. The last example of a lesson learned was: how to use backtrace command to display the trace of the execution stack (which was not new to me), and navigate that same stack using the up and down commands and verifying the parameters passed to each function.

More details can be found in the Program Stack section of the GDB Quick Reference.