Is this music? Give me a break!

"Gush, terrible! Give me a beer and two shots!"

I just read the lyrics below on a friends blog, and though I know the song from somewhere...

"If you want it

You already got it

If you thought it

It better be what you want"

So I googled it out and found out it was from Madonna and Justin Timberlake (4 minutes)... At that point I had a bad feeling, but curiosity pushed me into listening into it. I remembered the few times I was clubbing on this song, where it was bearable, and remembered I always was with good friends and after a nice number of shots at that time. God bless I learned to ignore music as is in that state, and just drift away with the people around me!
While listening to that "music" I couldn't find anything at all that would make me say, yes, that was good. A monotone bass in the background, a hornlike continuous sound in the foreground using the same old notes, as every other hit (I mean I don't have that good ears, but that is already a cliche). The "singing" has also no added value, except of the fact, that Madonna and JT are doing it.
Please note the article is about the song itself, I do like some of Madonnas older songs, and I look up to her for what she accomplished, even this song is a good example of how good she can adopt to the needs of the listeners. If the folks want it, give it to them, but I can't feel any joy listening to this. And I would like to have better mainstream music... or internet radios. I like to search for new music, but it gets harder and harder to find something worth to try.

PS: sorry, for everyone who likes the song. It definitely is catchy, but I see no value in this song, that could last longer than a summer rain...

The Rocky is down

I just read in the news, that the first big news paper in the US closed down: The Rocky Mountain News, also called as the "our Rocky". 230 people lost their jobs. This year would have been the 150th birthday of the newspaper. In this occasions the coworkers made a small video (18 minutes + credits) about how it inflected their lives, their dreams. It is a well made movie, very sad with a small insight in how the news work.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3390739&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1


My opinion is based on my own deductions from Alvin Tofflers books: The Third Wave

The part of the video that struck me, as I'm interested in the topic, is where they were talking about the fact, that the crisis in the news industry was new (less than 10 years old), and they couldn't find a successful business model to tackle the problem.
While the rise of the internet as the main media and news provider/advertisement tool is really a problem that appeared just around a decade ago, the problems first hints about the struggle of the paper news providers was foretold already in the 70's.
Toffler wrote, that already in the 70's individualization was an important change in the mindset of the people. This change led to a variety of new products we are enjoying now. Individualism and localization led also to the expansion of small local newspapers/weekly/monthly papers of an area, about a hobby. These small papers made it possible that the huge newspapers lost readers and needed to localize some parts of their papers to the regions they were sold to.
I think this could have been the first warning to the media industry in general, and that they should have been more aware of possible changes. From that time on, individual projects kept appearing to appeal on the specific needs of customers, which were better to advertise for a selected group of people rather than to the major public.
The first networks like the internet were created at that time. Sci-fi like Star Trek was already produced in that era. The change in access to information could have been felt. Here the question is, what strategies where implemented to stay above the water, and what new ideas where they using to stay profitable. And for me it is even more surprising, when journalist talk about this unsuspected change... It is their work description.
Though it is always easier to have a big mounth afterwards, and it is also true, that noone likes to see, how something they based their lives on slowly fades away...

it's late, I hope I wrote down some stuff, that made sense...

Peace in the eye of the observer

Windows 7 download

The beta version of Windows 7 is available! The only thing needed is
1.) a Windows Live account
2.) patience to wait till the 3.15 GB data downloads.
3.) IE 7 - at least I couldn't start the download with my usual browser

Link here. I don't know how long it will be available. Should be free for the first 2.5 million participants.

update:
Windows 7 beta will be available till the 24th of January for everyone who wants to be a beta tester: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/01/10/here-s-where-
we-stand.aspx
Guide to make a Dual-Boot system with Vista or XP: http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista

After the huge flop of Windows Vista (the moment they abandoned the cool project name Longhorn I knew it won't get good :P) Microsoft needs to continue to support Windows XP operation system, although they announced to end supporting the personal version at 1. January 2007 (not completely abandon the product, just cease updates and patches). Now Win XP SP2 will be supported till 13 July 2010, but is not sold anymore as an OEM with PC or by retail sales.

So MS needs to get back some of the trust of the users, which they lost after the introduction of Vista. A very nice way is also this campaign with free beta testing. It is good for MS, as they get real-time feedback from enthusiasts by that getting a view from the outside, and if the new users will be satisfied, than they will get a better publicity.

Will see how it ends.

Request for a lawyers advice

Question: If I agree to these terms of use, does that mean, that I can do whatever I want with my application in Facebook (gathering user information, spaming...) without being taken to responsibility?
(This is the "Term of service" for integrating applications into Facebook using the APIs, libraries and database information of Facebook - including requests for user information. Screencapture taken at 17:05:16 05.01.2009 from http://www.facebook.com/developers/developers/tos.php where the application register screens links - http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php)



Anyway, to use these features you need to have an identifier number, which you can obtain only if you have an fb account... And on that site you can find a valid link to the developer terms of use.
And I would also add, that I haven't found quickly a link where I could report bugs.

Relaxing flash games

The motion of the ocean, the birds twittering, watching a small waterfall, having a great tea with a shisha(water pipe). All these can calm a person down through all his senses. But we are living in a jungle of cement, steal, glass and silicon mostly. So in my case I definitely need some things that can give me a bit relaxation from time to time. The next games usually calm me down and give me a new perspective of life in a few seconds. All of them have the basic idea in common. A simple game principle, an almost empty screen, with just a few objects of interest and a perfect calm music in the background:

Auditorium
Creator: cipher prime studios
This is a game I found today. The idea of the game is to change the direction/color of the light in the direction of the (?) objects, so they make sound.
http://www.playauditorium.com/
The handling of the game is easy though it takes a few seconds to figure it out.

Music Catch
Creator: reflexive.com
You need to catch as many signs as possible. The yellow ones give you a multiplicator of your points and the red ones take the multiplicators away and the purple ones work as a huge vacuum cleaner :) The blue tiles are points. Basically you don't need to play at all the music in the background is exquisite! :)
http://www.reflexive.com/index.php?PAGE=WebGamePlay&WGID=94

Update:
Music catch continues with:
Music Catch 2
Creator: reflexive.com
The principe is the same, new music pieces, and some small visual updates
http://www.reflexive.com/index.php?PAGE=WebGamePlay&WGID=182


Boomshine
Creator: k2xl.com
Just click a spot and watch the points expand. If you touched enough points you get to the next level. Very pleasing continuous music. This is the oldest game of these three, before the fancy animations could be used. In general this can be seen as an evolution of this kind of games :)
http://www.k2xl.com/games/boomshine/

X-mas dinner in Banska Bystrica

I had a wonderful Friday last week. After the AIESEC conference called Highway I decided to go to Banska Bystrica. A good cover reason was to bring back the badge of a person :P The only think left was a good timing. And I got to know that on the 12. December they are organizing a x-mas dinner. Definitely a good opportunity to meet the people.

So I arrived at the dorms at midnight after my dance classes and a few beers. Looked up on the internet, if by chance I got some information on how to get to the places at Banska Bystrica, as I had no idea were I will sleep, or meet the other people... So I got a small map, from which I tried to figure out were to go... Nice start, reminds me of the way how things are done in... AIESEC? :)

So after I woke up at 7:10 caught the bus at 9:30 arrived at 13:00, I was more then happy to get the wrong direction for 10 minutes... but after that everything went smooth. I put down my stuff at the dorms, and we went to the AIESEC BB office. I was never there before, but heard it was pretty big. Well not as big as the CUs office in 2004, but much bigger then it is now :P

I was a bit afraid how the people there will treat me. I knew 2-3 people from the LC, and most of them just left when I arrived. So I introduced myself quickly with the belief, that I will forget all the names as soon as I hear the last one... And it happened that way :P So I started a few random conversations with the people around me and it was fine, except of the fact that this is a beautiful LC, I really quickly realized how friendly the people are. They decided to make in the first hour or so just random postcards, so I was painting in my random style...
I will maybe upload some pictures. As I can't paint, I use to make easy drawings and connect them... You'll see you'll understand.
Except of that I was watching old slovak fairytales, and in this atmosphere I got the feeling of being 4-5 years old and waiting for Jesus to bring the presents (in these parts of the world it is the little Jesus who brings the x-mas presents :) ). Once my grandfather asked me if I have seen the leg of a little angel just flying out of the window, as we stepped into the room with the x-mas tree. I believed I saw a small white figure just disappearing - most propably the curtains - and I believe till now that it was the leg of an angel... Nice memories.

Anyway, we continued with some games, a small visit at the x-mas markets and then going back to the dormitories, having a tea, some more games then the x-mas dinner (with traditional kapustnica) and a small award giving ceremony. Then we left to have a party till 4 am.

What to add, there is not much I could write down, as my feelings from happiness come from the people around me, who were so friendly and open, that I felt from the first seconds like I would know them for ages. It filled me with joy :)

Except of that from the x-mas dinner I met a lot of old friends I haven't been talking to for a while. I realized again, that I need a few more topics of interest/specialization, what I could study and influences people in general. In the last days I was studying some social network services (facebook, linkedin etc.), and seems pretty interesting where these technologies are leading us.

And for the end a short story about how easy it is to get away from BB, too... I have spent a bit more money, then I anticipated, so at the end when I got to the bus station, I had a good timing - the bus just arrived, but I didn't had enough money... Thank god I had food vouchers and a friendly guy (now he's friendly, during the negociations he didn't like the idea :)), who gave me money for the food vocheurs. :)

And another party on Saturday night! Had to sleep a lot before that! :) I'm very sorry, that I didn't had my camera with me = no pictures :(

PS: the picture with the angel and the moon was taken from this site

Technical stuff

I got a new notebook one month ago. Extremely happy with it despite the huge amount of frustration it brought...

It just happened, that I got my book, one day before AIESEC Slovakias national conference. So it was a perfect timing, and I could take a lot of different stuff from the conference because of this - music, pictures, etc. This is definitely one thing on the bright side, I need to learn to complain less :)

Before all the bitching I need to say that I'm quite satisfied with my notebook after one month of usage. It looks stylish :) Is fast, quiet, doesn't overheat, I got used to the keyboard very quickly. It seems it definitely fits my needs for 15000Skk - 500Eur (+ 2000Skk for OS). What is a bit more expensive that the cheapest brands I had heard many complains about (Acer and ASUS).

So the TECHNICAL difficulties with my HP Compaq 6735s with 32bit Vista Home Basic (if someone would google this post):
1. Sound problems: during the hole first month I had problems with the sound. Approximately every minute once the speakers were making a strange noise, like if someone would touch a microphone. Even if I didn't do anything on the machine. It happened pretty sporadically. In the 4th week it was almost unbearable, and then it simply stopped, and the sound is now clear (as clear it might be from the speakers of a notebook :))
Possible solution:
Maybe the system downloaded some updates, and it solved the problem.
Update:
As I see that the problem appeared again, I discovered that it comes only when the WiFi and Bluetooth are activated. I plan to reinstall the whole system with Win XP and Win 7 (dual system). I will see if the drivers were properly installed or if the problems still occur.

2. Change of brightness of the screen without an apparent reason.
After the sound was working fine, something new had to appear... After thinking about the problem a bit and remembering, that by pulling out the power cord the brightness usually changes. By following this lead I discovered that the system without notifying me switches between the power plans (Control Panel -> Power Option). It usually changes my original option to a higher one.
So first, in this case what do you do to feel comfortable - change all power option to the same settings. During this I noticed, that in my own settings the processor works on a maximum of 70%. So I figured, that when the system had to run to many programs, it automatically switches to a different power option, so the PC didn't get clumsy. I didn't find any online reference about this, but it sounds reasonable... and is pretty annoying when your screen starts to blink back on you...
This would also explain why sometimes my PC has on the same amount of battery different amount of expected battery life.

I can't really decide if this is a good or a bad feature. When I use my notebook as a normal desk PC it is definitely a good approach, but when I'm on the road and need to have a long battery life more then speed then I don't want this option. The thing that bothers me is, that I don't have control about this feature, only if I set all the power plans on the same settings... Though maybe more expensive versions of Vista don't have such problems... Maybe

3. No OS CD came with the notebook
People told me and it is usually the mindset of the people I would say in these parts of the world, that if it didn't come packed, then the people don't miss it.
As I was working for 5 months in Dell on technical support for german speaking countries, I knew, that the CD/DVD belonged to me. So I called the technical hotline of HP, got redirected to the Czech Republic - the language is similar, anyway - after 10 minutes and 3 coworkers I got my answer: Even though I didn't buy my laptop through HP I'm entitled to have the media, they directed me to a website, were I should add some details about the product I bought, send some copies of the receipt and an address where they should send it and I will get what I want. They assured me more then once, when I asked, that this transaction won't cost me anything. Although on the site it says something about 250Czk (around 10Euros) for postal taxes... We will see what happens... I remember some similar experience in Dell, and if the media was asked for afterwards, they had to pay the postal cost, though they could choose during the reservation if they want a media or not, what I couldn't in this case...
I will know the answer next year :P

That's all now, I already look forward for the hours spent copying my data to a diffenrent hard disk, when I will reinstall my windows and create some new partitions for the new OSs and data. I like to format my harddisk and reinstall my stuff once every 3/4 year, and partitions are a blessing for that work! :)

Láska = Love (in Slovak)

This is a small video I found last week on one of biggest Slovakian newspapers webpage. I miss this poetic way of expression from my daily life, though I would prefer it in Hungarian, this little video made me dream... As I think of myself as a romantic pessimist the topic fits me well...

The video is in my eyes made in high quality, the texts and audio is very harmonic. Good job... hope they've got the rights to publish such a masterpiece :P

My grandfathers stories...

In the old days, just after the world war two, Bratislava (Pozsony, Pressburg) was a city that spoke three languages: German, Hungarian and Slovak. It was a mixed population because Austrians (who speak German) and Hungarians ruled the country before the first world war, and Slovaks after the war. He was telling a lot of short stories, about his friends who spoke all those three languages perfectly. As good, that he could even interpret jokes... It became a measurement for me to decide how good one can speak foreign languages + how quick someone's mind can improvise...

One of the stories he told us, and left on me the biggest impression was from his childhood. Once an airplane was shot down above his village. He was a teenager during the WWII. He went to the site and saw the wreck. The pilot was not able to catapult out of the plane anymore. He saw a long bloody, brainy line which leaded to a haystack, with the remains of the dead body. He never forgot the site.

In another story he told about the socialistic Slovakia. He studied as a dentist in Bratislava. He met my grandmother there, and they fell in love. After he finished the university he wanted to practice as a dentist near his hometown, where he had his friends, family and the Hungarian community. There is still a huge Hungarian community in the south of Slovakia.
A way to try to assimilate Hungarians at that time was to send the educated people as far away as possible. He was assigned a working place in the middle of Slovakia, as he went to ask for a different place he was transferred even further away. So he went there to work, and traveled back every weekend to my grandmother. He traveled half a year there and back, just to be with my grandmother.
As usually in the socialism corruption was the right way. My grandmother went to the office a thousand times, when her father finally gave her money. She put the money on the table, when a stranger came in out of the door and put some files on the money (coincidence?). She then hoped, that the bribe was successful. And it was. It took another bribe for my grandfather to get at the place he wanted, but those are only details... His strong will gave him what he needed, as in so many stories.

He had also a lot of stories about spies. One of the ways socialism held its power was, that you could never know who is a spy from your friends. The secret police could come to you any time, interrogate you on a false suspect and send you to Siberia to work (only a few people came back from there, and no one knew how long their going to be there) or make you a spy (=informer) also. As an informer you had to write down, what you were talking about with some specified people. There was no need in this system to have a lot of informers, the knowledge, that they were some made the people very suspicious to others. He told a story about losing some of his friends to the system.

In my mind he will live on as a strong man, who knew what he wanted, and acted upon that. His life was defined by his work, it managed to let him live on. He understood the people, and had a lot of friends. He loved his nationality, his hometown, his family. He was a good man.

on the 13.September 2008, in the age of 78 years, my grandfather died of lung cancer. May he rest in peace, next to the God, he believed so strong in his life.