Otavio.org

nasa.gov domain without the www

2011-05-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

I noticed the other day that if you enter the domain NASA.GOV into your browser's URL bar, you will get a "404, page not found" error.

Shoudn't they fix that? Besides, it's not Rocket Science! <<Drum Fill>>

The Accidental Webmaster

2011-05-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

LatPro just launched career advice site that departs from the usual recycled advice, and instead, it features interviews from actual seasoned professionals of many different areas.

Last Friday I gave an interview to them titled Interview with accidental multilingual webmaster.

Blue Screen on Vaio VGN240F !!!!

2011-04-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine got the feared BSOD on a Vaio VGN NW240F and asked me to fix it.

The fault happened with iaStor.sys which has soemething to do w/ storage drivers. This issue was so bad that even safemode produced the BSOD.

I looked all over for clues, tried a few suggested procedures but the closest I got to a solution was a Sony Forum moderator suggesting a system restore from a restore disk.

Problem is, these laptops no longer ship with Windows disk. It is expected that they create their own Restore disks, which, most of the time, they don't. But they sell them for a few bucks. It really stinks, you buy a software license but they don't ship you the darn disks.

At any rate, I was able to restore w/ a Windows 7 disk and lucky for my friend, I was able to rescue the important files and pictures using an Ubuntu Live CD and a Pen drive.

I wonder if anybody out there fixed this w/out a sys restore.

More on the BSOD message:

SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTIOPN

stop: 0x0000003B (0x00000000C000001D,0xFFFFF80002E955BB,0xFFFFF88006505C70,0x0000000000000000)

STIOL 0x000000D1 (0x0000000000000000,0x0000000000000002,0x0000000000000001,0xFFFFF880010D0771)

My Senna Movie Review

2011-04-14T16:48:00.000-07:00

I just got my BluRay DVD of the new Senna documentary, directed by the british team of director Asif Kapadia and writter by Manish Pandy

I've been wanting to see this movie in quite a while and the US release has been a mistery. I understand that documentaries and Formula 1 aren't top priority in for the studios.

After managing to get a hold of the Brazilian release through my sister, I went on to watch the extended version. I found it to be a very nice compilation of mostly already available footage but nicely stitched for the audience consumption.

The documentary does a great job outlining the life of the arguably the greatest F1 driver ever. I am not sure it's Oscar worthy but it is by far the best Senna documentary to date.

My only mistake was to start with the Extended Version, which was super long and loaded with talking head testimonials. The Theater version was much better ... makes sense, I suppose.

I also don't see much point in acquiring this in BluRay format since most of the footage is very old, things from TV Globo video archive and not in very good shape. The music was superb, but you can get surround from a regular format DVD, so if you are going to buy this, save the extra dough.

I've read many other reviews touting the movie as being suitable for non-motorsports enthusiasts but I am still wondering about it.

Finally, even for an F1 afficionado who is old enough to remember the trajectory and know the 'story', I highly recommend this documentary. It did fill some gaps and rounded off the story nicely. If you don't know anything about Senna, you will come out of it knowing him for sure.

Did you watch it? What's your opinion.

Homemade Kayak Rod Holder for Hobie Oasis

2011-03-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

One advantage of Kayak fishing aboard a the Hobie Oasis is the ability to troll. Since your feet are doing the paddling, your hands are free to handle the fishing rod. However, the Oasis is not, by birth, a fishing kayak, and is not equipped with rod holders. Instead of buying Hobie's fishing rod add-ons, I went to the neighborhood hardware giant and bought 20 dollars worth of PVC fittings:

I didn't want to retrofit, cut or poke any holes onto my kayak so I decided to use the sail mast hole as the mount for my contraption:

I used 3/4" PVC which didn't quite fit the mast hole. The workaround (for noe) was to insert a paint roller to the core of the handle. As you can see below, I used small screws to secure the wood handle to the pvc.

I don't think it was a great choice but it works for now. I will be looking for a better alternative and update this post in the near future.

Here's the final product. It's untested but I already anticipate 2 "fixable" bugs. For starters, I need to make it not rotate, by either making the mast hole fit tight or by tying the sides to the kayak handle (not so elegant). Secondly, I just realized that the pedals may hit the holder or the rod. Either way, I can and will fix these issues.

Hope that this will help someone get inspired to do a similar project. If it does, please share!

Took the MetroPCS plunge

2011-03-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

After intense research, I've switched cellphone provider from Verizon to MetroPCS also known as MetroPCShit. I was dead set on Sprint but I decided to take a chance with the no-strings attached Metro.

Well, I am just loving it! In 15 minutes, I ported my Verizon number, I own my hardware and have no ball-and-chain contract. For 50 bucks, month-to-month, I have unlimited everything! No B.S.

For the phone, I got a LG Optimus-M for $150 and it's mine all mine! This Optimus is a "mid-end" Android and it's darn cool.

So far, so good. No issues w/ voice nor text. Internet can be spotty with some apps. When using the Browser, I am able to connect almost 100% of the time. At home, I just use the Wi-Fi.

If you want to save some dough and you live in an area served by MetroPCS, don't need to travel to Montana, then I think you'll be happy w/ Metro. Then again, if you are using the phone as a primary business tool, you may want to stick to the big boys since they are "supposed" to be more reliable.

Tethering the Droid on Verizon

2010-10-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

My wife purchased a Motorola Droid from Verizon prior to our trip to the Zion National Park and Grand Canyon so I wanted to see if we could use the Android phone as a modem for our laptop on the road. I do realize that much can be done in the Droid itself, but I use 4 monitors in work and a smartphone screen is a bit claustrophobic.

Turns how it was very easy. No rooting / jailbreaking required.

Here’s how to do it:

On your Droid, enable USB Debugging (Home > Settings >
Applications > Development > check the option USB Debugging.
Download PDAnet for free to your PC or Mac.
Launch the PDAnet Installer and follow all the prompts. At some point, it will prompt you to plug in the USB cable, install USB drivers, etc.
During this process, it will also install the app on your Droid.
Now, run the PDAnet app that is on your Droid, and press button to “Enable USB tether”

That’s it. There will be a tray icon (Windows users) and you can always click there to enable/disable the PDAnet modem connection.

You can also make it connect automatically so that when you stick the USB into the computer, it will connect right way (but make sure USB tether is enabled on the Droid.

Finally, the connection feels a bit like dial-upish, but hey…it’s better than nothing!

Enjoy!

PS. Fortunately, we didn't use too much during our trip.

Sprinting from Verizon?

2010-10-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

I am seriously considering moving from Verizon Wireless to Sprint. Right now, I spend a whole lot of money and have only one smart phone. For the same amount I can have the entire family (4 lines) w/ full internet, gps, data and text.

Problem is, I am under contract and I’d have to pay to leave. Not only that, all lines have staggered contracts, so if someone decides to upgrade their phone using their "free" offerings, you're on the ball & chain for another 12/24 months! Nifty business model if you ask me!

I called them today to tell them that I am thinking about leaving and a got a whopping 10% off my bill. Not much, imo, but I’ll take it!

I don’t know anybody with Sprint so I can’t vouch for their quality in my area but their plans seem so easy to understand. Verizon has a bunch of intricate tiers, where you might have a plan with insufficient minutes so you upgrade for more minutes and get “family & friends free”...then when you have the F&F, you hardly use any of the additional meetings you were made to get in order to qualify to F&F.

I like Sprint’s “Unlimited All for a Flat Fee ” approach, rather than nickel and dime on a per feature basis.

How about you?

Pat Metheny Orchestrion at the Filmore – April 10, 2010

2010-04-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

It’s not a secret I’ve been a fan of Pat Metheny for some decades now. My first live experience goes back to 1985, when during a visit to a relative in Maryland and got to see Pat Metheny Band at the Wolf Trap performing their Offramp tour (Pedro Aznar doing the brazilianesque Bah-dah-bahuêhh). What a treat! Since then, I’ve been fortunate to experience different incarnations of Pat, including a Quartet performance in Rio de Janeiro’s JazzMania in Ipanema. That quartet featured a totally wired Harvey Mason on drums and Charlie Haden on acoustic bass.

A few months ago, I received my Live Nation spam (not really–I like it) announcing a Pat Metheny’s concert at Jackie Gleason’s theater, in Miami Beach. I like Pat, I like the venue…why not? As I investigated further about the concert, its name Orchestrion caught my attention. What is that? Who will be playing with him?
As I read further into it, I realized that this would be a unique show. Pat would be playing alone…kinda. Instead, he would be accompanied by plethora of mechanized instruments programed by the man himself, controlled by computers, powered by hundreds of solenoid and hydraulic contraptions. Hmm, I am not one to enjoy one-man shows. I despise these guys that play cheesy South Florida bars with their lifeless MIDI devices.

So far, I was never disappointed by a Pat Metheny concert, so I thought, wadda heck, lez go! I got 4 tickets and brought along my wife a and another couple, close friends of ours.
Soon after arriving at the Filmore, me and my also tinkerer/techie buddy walked over to the stage to check out the devices to be used during the show. So far, nothing too impressive. A couple of acoustic guitars, some crazy looking pedals, two Vibraphones with mallets rigged for each individual note and some other hard to describe musical devices.

Lights go off at the packed Fillmore auditorium and Pat walks onto the state with his guitar. Waves to the crowd, sits down and begin a short set of mellow acoustic pieces. For my taste, beautiful as usual. Pat has such an unique sound that mixes sounds of Central Brazil and the US Midwest. I suppose there must be some common ground between those places…or common pasture, if you will.

At some point, Pat pulls this strange looking guitar (see pic). He starts this hypnotic sitar-laden Indian groove, starting mellow and building up to complete nirvana. Pat ripped and shredded the Pikasso guitar and the crowd went wild.

Well, it’s been quite a few songs into this set and where are all the Orchestrion stuff? After playing one tune with this hi-hat-beat-time-keeping-thingy, the curtain peels off, revealing a huuuge stack of automated mechanical instruments – it was totally unexpected for me as I thought most gadgets were already in plain view. The crowd goes wild. There were a ton of instruments, drums and cymbals of all sizes and types, percussion, bells, congas, electric basses and the whole kitchen sink.
With the support of that “orchestra”, Pat performs the movements from his Orchestrion album which I was not familiar with, except for some things he posted on YouTube.

Between the Orchestrion movements, Pat attempted to furnish some explanation as to why he would embark such challenging and strange endeavor. Pat was the first one to admit he hasn’t even convinced himself and that he thinks this whole thing is borderline insane.

One interesting piece consisted of him layering some loops using all the instruments controlled by his guitar. The controlling aspect was a bit laggy but once the parts where picked up by the computer, they would be heavily “quantized” (midi programmers know what i am talking about) and then played back “in time”. Still, it was very cool and he ripped an amazing solo using that pseudo-horn sound via the ‘ole Roland Synth Off Rampish guitar.

Conclusion. I was not disappointed by Pat. He is truly a master, a virtuoso. Guitar-wise, he is at the top of his game in technique and soul. Do I prefer the Pat’s band? Absolutely. At the same time, this was such an unique show and one that I will remember for sure! If Orchestrion is your first Pat Metheny show, you may end up with a skewed perception of what he is all about, but you are surely in for a good time.

Did you attend to any of the Orchestrion concerts? What did you think? Leave a comment! Cheers, O.