default: break;

Just read that Pico Software Development won an Apple Design Showcase Award for Versions.

That's great news because it's always good to see Portuguese people up their among the best!

Best of luck, João!

PS: By the way, João is also the author of Sapo's iPhone Apps, in case you were wondering.

Just a quick note that might be helpful to MacBook owners out there.

A few days ago, my gf dropped her MacBook on the floor, "apple-logo" down, just after closing the lid, when entering sleep mode.

From that moment on, we feared the worst because the system wouldn't awake from sleep in a stable state, freezing ad eternum with our well-known spinning beachball on screen. Only a reboot would put the system in a normal state.

After running some disk utilities and doing some RAM checks, no anomalies were found.

I started a tail on /var/logs/system.log and noticed that since the "drop" there were no logs of writing to the /var/vm/sleepimage when entering the sleep state. Weird.

I deleted the /var/vm/sleepimage file and went into sleep mode. Touched a few keys and 'voila', no more spinning beachball and the system restored to a normal operating state.

The drop probably sent the HD needles into parking mode and corrupted the sleepimage file or there might actually be some bad sectors on that area, so the file deletion solved the problem for now.

Another cycle that ends.

A bit over a year ago I was waxing poetic about how good the year had been and how much I had learned and how life had changed in so many ways in so little time.

Well, life is changing again — As us geeks say, the only constant in BLANK is change.

No, no offspring yet, not that kind of a change. We got us a lady cat, that’s a handfull for now, family-wise.

Once again I am moving on professionally, sooner than I thought. I had my mind set for a three to five year project but I fell a bit short on that. I lost the joy I had and that I know I can have. Yes, there were the good days, the bad days and the so-and-so days. But taking a cold, hard look at my past year, my balance is not positive. Yes, I have learned a lot. A lot more than if I had been in my confort zone. That was good. But not good enough.

Looking back and taking a rational, presumptive look forward, I did not see much light. I could see many things but I did not see joy in my day-to-day activities, not even in most of my peers. So, once again, I’m moving on to a different challenge.

Doubts? Not many. Less than last time, atleast.

Most life-changing decisions I have made based on my instincts have been sound decisions. My previous move was largely influenced by several factors, altough I do_not regret_it_ in any imaginable way. It was the rational thing to do at the time.

This also seems like the rational thing to do now — and my instincts support me.

...for now...

Depois de ler este post do Pedro Aniceto, e identificar-me completamente com ele, decidi preparar duas frases para responder a solicitações do género:

Alguém do Sexo Feminino: Tenho um problema no meu computador, não reconhece o XPTO do ABCD, nem está a fazer o FOOBAR quando arranca. Ah e também não consigo enviar emails... será que podes dar uma vista de olhos?

Eu: Claro que sim. E já agora, tenho lá em casa umas calças de ganga com umas nódoas de gordura que teimam mesmo em sair! Será que tu.... hein? Coisa e tal?

...

Alguém do Sexo Masculino: Sabes que não consigo aceder ao site XYZ? Não percebo porque, depois a Internet dá uns erros estranhos e desaparecem as pastas... será que podes... ver o que se passa?

Eu: Claro que sim. E já agora, tenho lá em casa uma tomada eléctrica que deixou de funcionar e o ralo do lavatório também está meio entupido... Será que tu.... hein? Coisa e tal?

seems like i've been lost lately.

actually, no. i've been finding myself -- discovering my boundaries, enhancing my skills, analyzing my weaknesses.

amidst it all, i've grown an unhealthy addiction to thumping sounds.

still, i managed to ditch javaEE for ruby. too much overhead. not enough gain. at least for my (our?) reality.

'nuff about me -- gonna get her what she desires the most: a feline, hopefully baptized in honor of a known female computer scientist.

because this is a time of giving.

this is not a movie blog but vicky cristina barcelona was such a good movie. couldn't help but crawl into every single of those characters and try to understand their feelings. woody rocks. great tribute to love & life.

watch it.

merry xmas!