Tuesday 22 January 2008

Game over

Today was my last day in Elms Village. Now I am writing from my home at Madrid and I think it is the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of the whole group of friends we were at Belfast. Bringing together all the people again is quite unlikely. That is the reason had been so difficult to say good-bye each other.

The title of this song is connected with this idea: "There's nobody in town"


But we should look to the pasitive side of the coin. We enjoyed and learned and taught and partied so much and each other this time! And I am sure we are going to see each other again, maybe two or three each time. For example, I am coming to Belfast in April to make a demonstration of my project and I want to travel across Europe.

Saturday 12 January 2008

The origin of the money

This week I watched a really interesting video about the origin of the money in the blog Inteligencia financiera (warning: blog in Spanish).

If you always supposed that the bankers business is not clean, this video explains how the system works.











Updated: Spanish version

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Flashbacks: Scotland

In the middle of November -from the 14th- Pasi and me made a 5-days trip to Scotland. It was a good chance to visit two of my friends, that this year are living in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Our flight was a Dublin-Edinburgh at 6:30 a.m. So we were traveling the whole night.

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When we're just landed, Tonecas guided us to his house in which he lives with a lot of people. But it doesn't matter because it's a big building and his room is really good: two beds, own bathroom, own refrigerator...

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A great luxury compared with our rooms in Elms Village and its shitty spring mattress. The difference is so big and we were so tired that we fall asleep instantly. Then we explore the city that is actually very beautiful - it is worthy to walk it for hours.

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Pasi, me and Antonio in Edimbrá

The best walk we made was designed by Antonio. We were in Calton Hill, in the Parliament and we went to the top of a hill that are in front of the Parliament known as Arthur's Seat.

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The Friday, we took a bus to Glasgow where Edu was waiting (or he should be) for us. Finally, we met and he was showing us some city places like the cathedral, the university and his accommodation. Ah! and his friend Ian, that is in one of the next photos.

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They were lots of people wearing kilt because the same day was an important rugby match against the British.

On Saturday we three were in a guided bus trip through the Highlands. Lots of places, different landscapes, frequent stops to see a beautiful valley or a monument or a lake... In one of the pauses we tried some of the famous haggis.

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We were in the Ness Lake and in fact Antonio and me cross it by ship. Finally, we found Nessy.
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We had some relaxed time at Antonio's place the rest of the time, chatting and watching a movie and that was also good. If you think in the number of hours that that week we were in a bus, you will realize how tired of bus I was.

And this is the last photo, just before saying goodbye and return to the daily study basis that we (usually) have at Belfast.

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PS: You can read different points of view about this travel in Pasi's, Antonio's and Edu's blog. And also a subsequent visit of Antonio to Edu.

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Trusted computing

I found on the net a video that try to explain the problem that suppose the trusted computing to an average person. It's not technical at all and probably it won't satisfy the technical people but the objective is to spread the message.



In the original page there are higher quality versions and elinks.

If you don't know what to think about after saw the video, I can tell to you that I agree with the message... Do you trust me?

Monday 7 January 2008

Flashbacks: Newcastle

Next flashback. After the Halloween day, the next remarkable activity was our trip to Newcastle, a really small and surrounded by nature village located in the county Down, Northern Ireland. And no, you're probably wrong. The football team is from the other Newcastle in Britain.


Bigger map

Just by chance, that day almost all the people had different plans or they weren't interested and, finally, only Ilkka and me actually visited the place.

One of the first thing we saw was this impressive building. Non surprisely, it is a luxury hotel.
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After that we looked for the tourist information office. During the walk we realised how small is Newcastle. In five minutes, we traversed most of it! By the way we realised that there are a lot of slot machine places. When I asked about it to the girl at the tourist office she gave us an inexpected explanation: Newcastle is like a beach resort in NI, but you can't swim most of the time even in the summer, and the people play slot machines.

There is a modern monument on the beach. Nothing special, but I took the most artistic photo in there. The title is "Ilkka and the end of the tunnel".
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In my opinion, the best of Newcastle is the environment, not the beach. Ilkka and me agreed that Spain is much better for beach and sun tourism. We weren't equipped to make a really long walk in the mount, so we walked a small route in the North of the village.

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Ilkka and me supporting the nature

A final detail about Newcastle: the graveyard. They are really beautiful celtic crosses as you can see.
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Sunday 6 January 2008

Flashbacks: Halloween

I decided to post about that silent months. I stopped the updates just before Halloween, so the first flashback is about that day.

Halloween is an American and English tradition that is not important at all in Spain and most of the countries of my group of friends. Despite of that, the people made the preparations in advance and the results were quite good.

Paige and Ryan were to pints of Guinnes. A really good idea if you are in Ireland. Rikka was a good witch, she looks like really innocent, as well as Sara the little fairy.
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Flying Sara

One of my favourites customes was Walter's. His homemade ghostbuster suit was simply brilliant.
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They were more interesting customes, but I don't have good photos of each one, but it was really funny to see all of them.

In fact, not all the people. Ilkka, Pasi and me were working at the university two hours before the Halloween party and we didn't have any costume or project of one. But we managed to do it!

Pasi borrowed some clothes from Sara and Caroline put some Tesco blood and other make up in Ilkka's face. In both cases, the result was frightening.

Finnish Zombies

I decided to make something more original: a crash dummy. I drew the sign that the dummies have in the articulations and then I printed docens. After painting the yellow parts, and paste it over a cereal box and cut it, that symbols were ready to stick over some dark clothes. The result was ambiguous, half of the people said: "Wow, the Nuclear Man!".

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On conclusion, it was a very funny day.

Thursday 3 January 2008

I am alive

Hi! It's been a while since the last time that I posted. Consecuently, lots of things had happened and maybe I will write about them in next posts.

Why I stopped to update the blog?
My workload grew, my photocamera was nonworking, I am lazy and I preferred to spent my spare time doing something with the guys than posting...

But I'm back in Belfast, studying before the examination period and meanwhile it is snowing! It's a shame not having a camera.

Most of the people at Oak 8 haven't came back yet. When all the people be here, we should celebrate.